FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA

FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA
Jan.1, 2011


So let us describe Fountain Hills, Arizona. It’s about 20 km east of Scottsdale/Phoenix
and linked to that major city with a four lane road which takes you past the Mayo Clinic, a highly regarded medical center in the US. A relatively new town, Fountain Hills is spread out over many hills and valleys covering a large area. The permanent population is some 25,000 but feels much smaller because of the way much of it is hidden with the hills. The main streets are all four lane with extremely wide cycling paths on both sides. The name of the town comes from the fountain in the center of a man-made lake which once an hour shoots up to be, so claimed, the fourth highest fountain in the world. The “hills” part of Fountain Hills comes from, well…all the hills in the area. The weather is normally very warm, about 18C in December, but not so this year. The mountains around us got a dusting of snow last night and a bitter wind is as biting as any in Canada. The town is at some 500 meters elevation.


And what’s the deal with this horse called “Maytag Mathilda”???

Fountain Hills has a wide street called “Avenue of the Fountains” which looks straight at the man-made lake and the big fountain. Every year the street is lighted up with Christmas decorations and what seems like the whole town shows up while the local stores offer free food and wine. We didn’t eat much. Man-made snow was brought in for
the kids. Dawn found herself a new beau though his tights could be changed! Check out the picture.

While there we ran into our neighbours in the next condo, people from Wisconsin. He offered me a candy bar. I took it. I brought it home. I ate it. I placed the empty wrapper on his door handle. The next morning there was another candy bar. “Hmmm…this could be productive.” I thought. At which point an empty bottle of wine was placed by his door. And voila…like magic, a full bottle of wine appeared by our door! Maybe next time we’ll put our empty check book by their door. Or maybe even our car! To say the
least we’ve had lots of laughs with Roger and Rose, two really nice, down-to-earth good people and more than a few bottles of wine have been consumed. Bummer!! So far it has escalated into a card from them with our rebuttal. Oh, where will this all lead!?

Part of the reason for this town being so quiet is that there are few stores though there are three large grocery chains here. Other major purchasing runs can be made in the Phoenix area with everything there if you want to wear out your credit card. We try on stay in the Scottsdale area simply because it is closer, is easy to get around and it’s a very nice area.

The city has been hit hard by the recession. Housing is incredibly low in price with a huge number of places on the market. We’re also seeing lots of vehicles with hardware store “For Sale” signs in the window. That may not be that uncommon though when you see higher end cars such as Mercedes and Jaguars being put up for sale in that manner, you just know things are not great. Want a motorhome? Take your pick…at rock-bottom prices.

The area has no forests but zillions of cacti of all shapes and sizes remind you of where you are. Many of the tall cacti, the saguaros, have arms growing upwards which makes them look to be waving as you go by. Out of friendliness, we wave back. They look friendly enough to hug but we’ve been advised against it. Not far from where we are the land goes up to 2200 meters and, with the storm that just went through, saw lots of snow, closed roads and loads of accidents on the ones that were open. It is warm enough year round that there is a large commercial orange grove only 8 km outside of town. In town itself, some have producing olive trees on their property.

Thanks to Dawn’s hard work, we are in a comfortable two bedroom condo in a quiet area, although nowhere in Fountain Hills is it noisy partly because the traffic is so light.

This is a town and area for road cyclists. Not much is flat. Dawn is getting some riding in while I’m roaring around with my road bike over all these hills. One hill on the edge of town is 18% and is guaranteed to give you a stroke, make you cry or cause you to fall over cause you just ain’t pedaling fast enough!! And coming back down? Well…just don’t fall. But cycling is one of the main reasons we came here so that is certainly working out well. And did we mention the cheap wine??


We’ve also met another couple, Bill and Anna, in their 70’s who roar around town in a 1970 built, 1937 replica BMW motorcycle complete with sidecar for her. He heard about this rig, sent his money and waited. His friends told him he would never see the motorcycle or his cash again. Why? Because he bought it sight unseen from an individual in China…over the internet! Can you say “scam”? But lo and behold…the thing appeared…spotless. Being a retired fireman from New York City, you would think he would have been a touch more sceptical. He’s glad he wasn’t.

So far we’ve been on the road since mid-June and this is the first, but not last, New Year crossed. To all out friends and family, we wish everyone a

Very Happy New Year!

And to do that…just keep smiling.

To Arizona

TO ARIZONA
December 4, 2010


On our way through Vernon, B.C. a bad thing and a good thing happened. We got a sizeable stone in the windshield from the gravel laid on the roads after the winter storm which meant we had to stop in Kelowna for repairs. Turned out to be quick and inexpensive. The other thing that happened in Vernon was that we stopped in a store to pick up a few things. While there we bumped into people we hadn’t seen in twenty years from when we had lived in Vernon in the late 80s and early 90s. We often thought of them as Dan had worked with him and both are great people. Coffee ensued with an exchange of information and off we were laughing that those two friends could only be the ones we would encounter outside a toilet!

The drive through Washington was good until just before Moses Lake where a large storm hit the western US. Heavy snows and strong winds forced us to stop there. We were stranded the next day as well. Even the snowploughs were going off the road! When we did leave the temperature was -25C (the car did not start easily) and never got above -13C all day! Temps continued cold through Idaho (-18C) with icy roads. The weather was not helping a bad cold that Dawn had caught somewhere (we decided to blame our refound friends in Vernon). The roads improved as we approached Salt Lake City, Utah though the traffic was very heavy during the Thanksgiving weekend. The traffic speed was over 120 km per hour when suddenly the entire three lane highway came to a screaming halt. Just ahead three cars had collided which forced us all to jam on the brakes while hoping not to be rear-ended!



Utah is very arid but beautiful. Utah also has some of the most incredible scenery in world famous national parks. We detoured to visit Bryce and later Zion. Both are the result of erosion but are totally different. You look down on Bryce’s cones and steeples while you look up at Zion’s wildly colourful cliffs. Of all the natural beauty we have seen around the world, Zion may just be the most amazing. We certainly plan to spend more time in both these parks in the future. One thing that surprised us was the crush or tourists in Zion. Every turnoff, every parking area, every road was jammed. And that was the end of November. The road itself needs some care to drive being narrow, very crooked with severe drop-offs.

Then it was off to the Grand Canyon. It is as majestic as you’ve ever heard with a massive depth and width and unbelievable erosion. The Colorado River looks very small in the bottom. As impressive as the Grand canyon is from above, it may be best seen and experienced from the bottom. Finally though, the temps were nice. Though windy, +7C was in the right direction! We tried to push it through to Fountain Hills but made it as far as Sedona, about 2 hours north of Phoenix. It is a full-on tourist town with scenery to match.

The next day…ah…Fountain Hills with sunny skies and temps ranging from 18C to 25C. Hotel for two days until we could get into the condo we rented for the winter. Fountain Hills is some 20 km east of Phoenix/Scottsdale. A relatively new town of about 25,000 people with probably half being snowbirds in the winter months. It’s in the desert with dryness, cactuses of all kinds, palm trees, newer homes, rattlesnakes and a type of wild pig called Javelinas (pronounced ‘Havelinas’) which showed up just below our balcony the first evening we were in the condo. We saluted them with our glass of wine already in hand!

The road biking has already started. The off-road biking has to wait until we have our mountain bike tires “slimed”, a process using a new bead on the tire rim and a liquid to seal any small hole. The reason to do this here? Cactus needles are everywhere off-road and will flatten you in…well…no time flat.


We were posed an interesting question by our real estate/insurance contact here. One of the questions on a questionnaire was whether we had ever been arrested or had a criminal record. Before we could answer she asked if that was the reason why we were travelling so much and didn’t have a permanent home. We must have given the right answer cause no one has come to the door yet. Which, by the way, is something you prefer not to happen here. The local sheriff has a reputation for making his convicts stay in tents (remember it gets screaming hot here in the summer) and…wait for it…makes them wear pink shorts!

‘Nuff said.

B.C., ALBERTA, B.C.
November 20, 2010


And so Kaledan was our place of residence from early September to late October where we rented a small place overlooking Skaha Lake. We nicknamed the house we were in the “banana house” because of its yellow colour. It was a magical place to watch the half-dozen deer show up on our lawn almost daily and to watch two playful cats roar around. One Saturday an aerobatic team of pilots took their planes through wild twists and turns while releasing coloured smoke as they performed just above the lake right in front of us! It was great! The reason we stayed in Kaledan about 10 km south of Penticton in B.C.s Okanagan Valley, was to better explore the area thinking that one day, when we settle down (still trying to find that in the dictionary) we would move here. Exploring the back roads was great. As it is all our belongings are in storage in Penticton.

The heat of the Okanagan, the natural beauty, the laid-back culture, the vineyards makes you think of southern France. Did we mention the vineyards? We lived in Vernon in the northern end of the valley from ’87 to ’94 so we do know the area. The valley itself runs about 175 km north to south and maybe 15 km wide. It is the warmest place in Canada, very arid, produces a large variety of fruit and…oh yes…has rattlesnakes. Did we mention the vineyards? Penticton, with 30,000 people, is one of three larger towns in the valley and is the southernmost. Very laidback but known for one of the biggest triathlons in the world. There is lots of amazing road riding areas as well as huge areas for mountain biking. And so we took advantage of that almost every day since the weather while we were there was dry and warm. And to prepare us for going to Europe next spring, we did drink the local wines, but only to help the economy you understand. Not to mention the month-long wine festival during which all the local wineries, some world famous, provided wine tasting, 4 tastes each…for free!! Plus we took in the Saturday farmers’ market held in the downtown area of Penticton. It was usually busy with crowds and street entertainers and was easily as big as most of the markets we’ve been to in Europe.

During this same time we went to see close childhood friends in Kamloops, about 3 hours away, partly to help them lay a new spiffy looking hardwood floor. I let him think I knew what I was doing and with proper handling managed to blame him for all the mistakes. Worked out great…they got a new floor and I learned a lot. He and I are now for hire. We don’t expect to make the same mistakes…probably… maybe.

One of the most amazing spectacles of nature is the world famous salmon run which occurs every year and ends in the Adams River near Chase in B.C. just off the TransCanada Highway. Millions of salmon return after having been born there four
years earlier and having spent their life in the Pacific Ocean. The river is red with fish which are there for the females to lay their eggs and for the males to fertilize them. They are within days or even hours of death. Four years from now the new hatchlings that manage to survive will be back to help turn the wheel of life and death, part of nature’s endless beauty.

It wasn’t all giggles and laughs during this time. Our computer crashed. We almost lost all our data not to mention three years’ worth of work on a specific project. But thanks to an amazing computer techie, the day was saved. He got himself a bottle of wine. Did we mention the vineyards in the Okanagan valley?

October 22 we left Kaledan, sad to do so but very contented, heading to Canmore which had been our home for eleven years until we sold our house in June. We had offered to take care of friends’ cats and house so they could go away. As cat lovers and especially partial to these two, it wasn’t a hardship. We also connected with friends.

Canmore has had an infestation of rabbits since someone released caged ones a few years ago. Even the CBC, Canada’s national television network has come to town to report on it…news days in Canada can be really slow. With these furry appetizers readily available for takeout, it is not uncommon to see a coyote come onto the lawn, snatch one and disappear. The cats got to witnesss this event one day…… yeowling, hissing, hair straight up…they knew danger was just outside their window.

Mid November, Dan came down with a brutal flu which included three days of fever (at least 110F, so he said!). To indicate how bad it was, his wine consumption for that time was a grand total of…zero!!! Must have been a bbbaaaaadddd flu.


November 19 it was out of Canmore with a sad goodbye to our best friends (the cats). The Rocky Mountains are now in full winter with almost 30 cm of snow in areas. The TransCanada highway on our route was closed part of yesterday. But it was safely, though slowly, over Rogers Pass, one of the most avalanche prone road sections in the world, to Kamloops for a short stay.

We will be in the US from November 22. The best way to contact us will be by email or better yet by Skype…if you want to see our pretty faces.

By the way…we’ve just booked our flights to Europe next spring so those of you who are there…get ready…here we come.

We’ll send another piece from warm, sunny Arizona.

BC, CALIFORNIA, ALBERTA, B.C.
September 3, 2010


Our first “stepping out” was to Kamloops, BC to spend time with childhood friends and help in laying a new hardwood floor. Lots of work, lots of wine and lots of laughs made the time fly by. Then it was back to Canmore for two weeks where the owner of an apartment condo was away and we were to cat sit…one of our favourite things as we love cats. One slight problem though…we couldn’t get in. Slumped against the door after a long drive, jigging the key to “make” it work and whining while the cat on the other side of the door was curious as to what was happening and also whining. We decided to call a locksmith at a ridiculous price to get us in. Some time later, actually 90 minutes later, after much complaining that the locksmith wasn’t answering his phone even though the ad says “24 Hour Service”, I realized I was using the wrong key. Yes indeedy, correct key in hand, we got in, fed Angel the cat, and crashed for the night.

Still in Canmore we helped a friend move her stuff from her storage unit which we had moved once before for her while she was away. An absolutely useless moving item, a one meter long piece of 2x4 on which we had inscribed during the last move “Do you really need this!?” was found, photographed and…ditched.

Mid-July we headed south and found a place to rent for September and October near Penticton the day before we were crossing into the US…we cut it a touch short. Driving through Idaho and Oregon, we came across a national park which at one time was the site of the largest waterfall in the world. Having not been there 10’s of thousands of years ago when the waterfall was, it comes to mind as to how that is a certainty. In any case, it was apparently 400 feet (120 meters) high and 3.5 miles (6 kilometers) wide. Now a shadow of its former self, the gorge is nonetheless impressive.

Lakeview, Oregon, a really windy sparsely inhabited area, was our camping site for three nights. It was on Juniper Ranch, a small spread of 8000 acres. Here is where we experienced the most frivolous use of a cell phone ever. A man in a toilet stall calls a relative to tell them “all is well”. Not sure if he was referring to his travels or his bowel movements and we didn’t ask. The nearby town had a 50s style diner with 50¢ coffee with endless refills and a waitress who calls everybody “honey” and who has a second job…as the county tax collector. We asked her if she claimed her tips as taxable income. She didn’t answer…just smiled.

Then on to a superb KOA campground (with fresh straw tent sites) near Lassen National Park in northern California. We had a Swiss family camp near us at one point and were given Swiss chocolate, the last they had, because we were “funny”. No explanation needed. Hot sunny days made for amazing bike riding on the road up to a pass in the park near a 1914 explosion similar to Mount St. Helens. Steam vents, hot bubbling mud and 30 cm long pine cones makes for a magical place. There in mid-July, we weren’t able to use the picnic tables as the abnormally high snow fall last winter meant there was still one and a half meters of snow!! Most of the hiking trails were still closed with lakes still having over 30 cm of ice. Temperatures at 35C and clear skies topped it all off. Having problems with our camera, we drove into town to buy another. One thing led to another and we lost all the pictures we had taken till then. Luckily we were still at Lassen and simply took them again.

On to the coast of northern California. Route 299 winds through the Trinity Valley with rugged hills and a river made for rafting. A bit isolated in Weaverville we were sent to the post office when we asked where we could buy a newspaper. The town is an old mining center with preserved buildings and attitudes. Great place. Once on the coast we were welcomed with fog and 12C weather. Shorts became long pants; t-shirts became fleece jackets. Yuck!! At the KOA campground near Manchester some were lip-syncing to “Frosty the Snowman”. How fitting. Riding bike in July on the California coast with drenching fog and 13C is like going through a cold shower. We were warmed by the sighting just offshore of four whales, two females and their calves. To stay warmed we and many of the campers met in the evening at the large communal campfire. There we met Dillon, Chris and Travis…”The 3 Goofs”. They were lots of laughs to be around. They came to our site one day with a rented pedal car intent on giving us a ride. Having no life insurance, I declined while Dawn, not clear on what was about to happen, jumped on. The combination of fear and laughter was something to see. Dillon and Chris gave us rocks on which they painted bugs to remind us how they had “bugged” us. Just the opposite, we told them…they were amazing to be around and made us laugh. We miss them.

One of the towns near us was Mendocino, a touristy though not over the top old coastal town with a simple atmosphere, sincere people, smiles and a rugged coast. Refurbished watch/water towers makes this artsy place unique. This village is a must-see.

Our drive south along the coast continued in sometimes very dense fog. Considering the drop-offs into the ocean, extremely twisty narrow roads and barely able to see to your front bumper made this exciting and very tiring. As bad as we thought the weather was, the locals complained even more. Nothing, however, that breakfast in a restaurant built over an old dock in Bodega Bay where Alfred Hitchcock filmed part of his famous movie “The Birds” couldn’t fix. It wasn’t the food, although it was good. It was the sight of large seals going after their breakfast, “fish on the run”. The poor fish, once nabbed, were flung about by the seals just for fun. Attacked again, this time eaten, provided leftovers for the seagulls.

We arrived near Santa Rosa, a bit inland, to the Buddhist center we belong to and where we would be spending the next month in a retreat. This was Dawn’s third time here and my sixth. It was great to see friends such as Mark and Mike again. The intense practice period called Ango, meaning Peaceful Dwelling, is a very special time for us. It is demanding in all ways and we look forward to it. Leaving a month later is difficult, already having thoughts of returning. Dawn celebrated her birthday here with special raspberry/blackberry pies made in her honour. This time we needed to leave a few days early to attend a wedding back in Canmore. We had mentioned to the bride that we probably would not attend before we left Canada but she wouldn’t hear of it.

Four days after that we were in Kaledan, a small hamlet near Penticton in the southern Okanagan in southern British Columbia, where we had rented a place the day before entering the US seven weeks earlier. Sunny skies, warm temperatures, lakes, vineyards and cheap wine made it like home coming.

We’ll be here for six weeks before heading back to Canmore to house and cat sit.

Stay tuned.

By the way…a great poster we saw on the coast of California read,
“Too Few Richards…….…Too Many Dicks”.

The Prelimiaries to Another Adventure

THE PRELIMINARIES TO ANOTHER ADVENTURE
June 24, 2010


What can we say except “Here We Go Again!!!”. Starting a very long time ago, the travel bug bit hard and since that time we have not been able to stay put for any length of time. We can blame a lot of things for this condition but in the end travelling for long periods of time in different places broadens the mind, allows us to see and experience incredible places and above all, gives us the most amazing privilege of all…to meet incredible people, all of whom are no different than us.

And this is where you all come in. In some way or other you have been an exceptional part of our lives. Though in different ways, you have all helped us laugh and appreciate life...the two best medicines going. Never change that.

So what are we up to now? First let us tell you that there are a number of reasons we are doing this, none of which we’ll bore you with. But there is a want to do another large trip of many components. So the first stage was to sell the house. Which we’ve done effective June 30. Our “stuff”, as George Carlin used to say, is already in storage and we are already in camping mode inside our condo for a couple of weeks. Sleeping bags, camping cookware, the lot. From here we go to Kamloops to help friends, come back to Canmore for a week, head to northern California for about six weeks, back to Canmore for a wedding, to Penticton (we think) for September to end October, back to Canmore end October to end November to take care of our two favourite feline friends in the world, to Arizona for the winter from end of November to end of March 2011, back to Canada (somewhere) for April, and then……….

to Europe…for a very extended stay. Certainly for one year. Longer if we can get our French driver’s licences and get onto the French medical system. We don’t think that should be too much trouble as we both carry French citizenship. On arrival in France, and with the help of a local friend, we’ll buy a large commercial-type van, set up the back to basically live in and head toward the sun. Our general travel plans include up to Norway to see the fjords; Poland to visit a group associated with ours in California; through the beauty of the Balkans; northern Italy for cycling, food and wine; the Alps for cycling and wine; southern Spain for part of the winter and wine; Morocco for another part of winter; Portugal for the port and wine; France, of course for food and…wine.

So there you have it. Sounds like a wine tour with a smattering of cycling and a dash of scenery. Huh…hasn’t that been the theme with us over the last few years?

The next instalment of the blog may not be for a while but we’ll always let you know by e-mail when another episode comes out. Check them out.

Please let us know what you’re up to by e-mail…it’s always a thrill to get news from friends. And above all…stay relaxed…and keep smiling.