More From McDowell and Some Exciting News

We are still hanging out at McDowell Mountain Park in Fountain Hills, AZ. It’s been a really fun, busy and social winter here so far. My arm is finally back to normal but I don’t intend to let anyone draw blood from me anytime soon.

Jim is still loving his new mountain bike. We guess it’s because it actually fits him well and is lighter than any bike he’s had in the past, but he is flying up the hills and riding more than ever. I am biking a lot, too, but also doing the Friday Fitness hikes. Last week I joined a dozen others for a very nice hike of almost 12 miles on multiple trails, through a wash and around some interesting rock formations.

The wash was hidden behind these rocks, so we had a bit of scrambling to get there.

That is Kevin in the front who leads these hikes.

This was my birthday week, and I feel like we celebrated for days. Had dinner with camp hosts John and Sandy one evening at La Mai, an excellent Thai restaurant in Fountain Hills, happy hour at the visitor center with the volunteers and other campers the next night, and movie day (The Post) followed by dinner at La Botana, a new restaurant just across from Fountain Park.

Leslie, Doug, Alex, Ellen, Jim, and Susan.

What a great view from their patio.

And we really liked the food and giant margaritas.

On my actual birthday we did a bike ride, followed by Black Forest cake made by Sunaree. I should have taken a photo because it was a beautiful cake but it got cut and eaten very quickly. It was vegan and had chia seeds in it, which made it healthy, right?

Randy, Ellen, Jim, and new friends Gary and Patty.

And now for our big news. As some of you know we put our name on the wait list at Jojoba Hills Escapees Park back in September 2016. We moved to number one on the list last month but turned down a lot since we knew it would be a few months before we would even get there, and we were hoping for a more desirable site. Last week we got another call, this time for site 821, which is on the Rim Road and has no neighbors in the back or on one side. We decided to become members, so when we leave here next month we will head to southern California.

Terry and LuAnn were kind enough to take some pictures for us.

What a treat to have a shed to store bikes and other stuff.

It will be strange but nice to have a place to call home after over 9 years on the road. During the past couple of years we’ve grown tired of moving around so much but don’t feel ready to commit to buying a house or condo, or even renting, so we decided this would be a way to have a place we can go whenever we want for as long as we want, and still travel. Having a secure place to leave the Lazy Daze, we are even hoping to do some non-RV travel for a change of pace.

Bring a co-op park, members are expected to volunteer in some capacity, something we are actually looking forward to. Especially Jim, since he is getting tired of cleaning up after cats at Fearless Kitty.

And speaking of cats, sweet Pauly with the head tilt got adopted this week, and Cheeto had a meet-and-greet yesterday so we’re hoping he also found a home. We took care of a room with four crazy kittens this week but it was hard to get photos since they move so fast.

Cute and very vocal Pinta would not leave Jim alone.

We are in the planning stages of a trip to the Canadian Rockies, arriving there in mid to late August hoping to avoid some of the crowds, although I understand it’s still very crowded in September. I’ve gotten some ideas from a couple blogs so far and definitely want to spend time in Banff, Jasper, and Yoho National Parks, but if anyone has campground recommendations or ideas for some less popular places we should visit please let us know.