Tucson AZ Feb 2021

Down for three weeks.  Stayed at a swank Airbnb in NE Tucson, near the Oro Valley line.  This place was formerly a Mediterranean mansion that was split up into the main house (still very large) and three casitas. Ours was the baby of the three.  We strolled the neighborhood, it was rural’ish, lots of houses on huge lots, lots of horse properties.

The east facing view put the Catalina mountains in our face. And if we raced over to the west side, we could watch the sun set.

Madeline and Sam came down for a week.

Airbnb photos here.

We rotated religiously between hiking, biking The Loop, and playing pickleball.

Ventana Canyon hike here.

Sabino Canyon hike here.

Pickleball shot here.

Spent a fair amount of time thinking about buying a place down this way.  This morphed into spending a fair amount of time, shopping with a realtor. Our target changed along the way from a small 2BR condo all the way to a 3BR full house with garage.  Go figure. The market was smoking hot, like everywhere else in America. We put a cash offer in one one place, didn’t bid enough lost it.  We lost too many showings to count, stuff was flying off the rack in a day.  We finally bid over (cash bid) on this place, got it.  These pics were pulled straight off the realtor site

2540 Tom Watson Dr.

Tomahawk Lake

We stayed at a swank “cabin”, compliments of old friends of Bill and Jan. A gorgeous home on a beautiful lake in Oneida County.

Biking, boating, swimming, pickleball, fine dining, with Bill and Jan S. Not necessarily in that order.

Outstanding fall color, decent weather, suitable for a couple of great country bike rides on low traffic roads.

The most unusual feature was a 99% full sized pickleball court, painted on the driveway.  Court areas outside the lines were unusual, colorful, and at times in short supply.  A hinder of “garage door” was invoked on multiple occasions.

Photos and videos can be seen below.  Links should bring you to a “lightbox” view of all the photos in a gallery. Clicking on any thumbnail gets you a larger single view.  You can then arrow left and right, or use the on-screen arrows to go left and right.

Hit <esc> to go back to the lightbox view at any time.  Close the tab when you’re done viewing, and you’re back to this page.

Photos here.

Pickleball instructional videos (3) follow.                                                                           – Lead Bloviator, lead videographer, head pro, key grip, and personal assistant to Eileen – Tim                                                                                                             – Assistant pro, able ball feeder, and personal assistant to Jan – Bill                    – Jan – Student #1                                                                                                                         – Eileen – Student #2

Videos here.

Point Beach camping, following by Michigan

Point Beach State Campground, Walls, Goodes, Howards, with guest appearance by Madeline.  Nice area, we’d go back there again.  Got there in sunny conditions, but that didn’t last. Hiked the first day, clouds set in.  Rain in the forecast.  Goodes put out a feed for the crew 1st night.

Made it thru the 1st night with no rain.  Squeezed in a bike ride into Two Rivers the next morning.  Then the rain hit.  It rained for the next 30 hours, easily.  2nd night Walls put on a feed under the group shelter, which was nearby.  We took the solo stove down there, a few lights. Windy, cold, Bruno Mars on the sound system.

3rd night, cold, windy, rain. Howards were on deck for dinner, we all folded and ate inside their fortunately large camper.

Goodes departed for Michigan after that, the others went to Potawatomi State Park, where I gather it rained more on them.

Petoskey State park first. One good weather day, biking, beaching. After than, cold and rainy.  We hit town, got lucky at the food truck court with associated bar, watched the US Open Women’s final on the big screen, drank beer.

Sleeping Bear, DH Day rustic campground next.  No shower house here!  Pit toilets, showering in the camper. Weather improved. Saffels are practically living there, we hooked up with them.  They leave their camper there, go back and forth to their house.  Got a few rides in on the Heritage trail.  Got one pickleball game in at the courts in Arbor Glen.  Moved the last night to extend our stay.

Drove home thru Chicago since we were running out of time.

Photos and videos can be seen here.  Link should bring you to a “lightbox” view of all the photos in a gallery. Clicking on any thumbnail gets you a larger single view.  You can then arrow left and right, or use the on-screen arrows to go left and right.

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Brunet Island / Wissota State Parks

Mid September. Three nights at Brunet State Park, accompanied by Bill and Jan S. Nice campground on an island outside of Cornell, WI, a very small town (altho it has a good grocery store.)  There were two separate camp loops, electric, and non-electric.  We found ourselves in the non-electric loop, which actually had better sites.  Electric site very open, everyone packed in together.

Kayaked around the island. Biked the Old Abe trail, which starts there and heads south into Chippewa Falls.  Nice trail, paved.

We pedaled into Chippewa fall and kicked around town one day.  Another day, we drove to Eau Claire and rode starting at Phoenix Park, right downtown, rode the Chippewa River Trail out for about 10 miles before turning around. Pavement was great in town, but at the city limits in became very rough.

Photos and videos can be seen below.  Links should bring you to a “lightbox” view of all the photos in a gallery. Clicking on any thumbnail gets you a larger single view.  You can then arrow left and right, or use the on-screen arrows to go left and right.

Hit <esc> to go back to the lightbox view at any time.  Close the tab when you’re done viewing, and you’re back to this page.

Photos here.

Tucson, AZ and Southern CA – Feb 2020

Flew to Tucson, rented a car.  Shared an AirBnb with the Stubers for about a week. Then we moved over the Curt and Susan’s house for 3 nights.

After that, we drove to San Diego, stayed with Eileen’s cousin Cathy for two nights.  Played the tourists. Then it was up to Culver City for a week the Denise and Mike.  Lots of fun there, things to do.  Paddle tennis, several long bike rides, lots of good food.

Photos and videos can be seen below.  Links should bring you to a “lightbox” view of all the photos in a gallery. Clicking on any thumbnail gets you a larger single view.  You can then arrow left and right, or use the on-screen arrows to go left and right.

Hit <esc> to go back to the lightbox view at any time.  Close the tab when you’re done viewing, and you’re back to this page.

Photos of AZ click here.

Photos of CA click here.