Casa Grande Beach Hotel Las Terrenas

We did a bird walk this morning at Veterans Oasis Park, a new reclamation project in Chandler. Reclamation meaning the end product of a waste water treatment facility.<br>We have a fish able lake here with limits and everything, a large wetland and an environmental education center on site.<br>Parks like this are an inspiration in the desert. Take a look at the pictures to see what I mean--would you guess it's genesis?<br><br>When you grow up ...

... br>The Wild Horse Pass casino has developed a really authentic western town called Rawhide -- the site this year of the Train of Terror, the Body Wagon to Ghoul Gulch, the Crypt and The Asylum. We sat on the boardwalk eating popcorn, watching the costumed walk down dusty mainstreet.<br><br>

... beautiful, and we had a nice visit.<br>On the way home Bob &amp; I sought out our favorite thrift store, the Family Attic on Greenway Rd. It's laid out like a well cared for antique store--not jumbled together in a musty mess like so many. We've gotten $120 shirts for $2 there before, but today we hit it right after a half off sale and had no luck. We like this place not only for their ...

... odds and ends he could do while here. So he's installing his second bathroom faucet now, and yesterday we hosed out the Arizona room.<br>We'd call it a sun porch and every house here has one, a screened in porch/deck/extension with afternoon shade. Imagine, with the dust storms Arizona gets--and we're on the edge of several miles of barren fields--imagine how the dust can fly! <br>Oh yes ...

This is really exciting. We're in. Everything looks great. This is a wonderful place. The 'Casita' looks great, our site looks great. We just have a few hitches to iron out. The last hours of driving from Deming were busy with the magnificent views of the ...

... they also sold souvenirs so bal bought me a sand globe and a hat to keep the sun away from my face, if it was burning hot here, how hot would it be at the canyon?! After the 10 minute stop we were once again back on the road, i noticed i was falling asleep and dammit bal did it again, he deliberately startled me into waking up! i hate it when he does that! iv yet to return the favour... After another couple of hours on the road Darryl told us we were stopping on Route 66 ...

... tons of Italian &amp; French restaurants and boutiques. And every menu is in: Spanish, French, Italian and English. Thankfully, the skies started to clear some on Saturday morning for our drive to Samaná to go whale-watching. I totally felt the favor of God over us that whole day. The taxi was way more than we expected to pay, but it was so worth it because our driver, Eddy, was really cool and ...

... for good measure. I'm truly dreading having to remount the bike in the morning. Jason was again the star of the show today and managed to do a vast majority of the pulling, although I did my fair share. Even with the work load, both Jason and I complete the entire 123 miles while Lawrence and Adam road 105 miles having taken one minor break each due to leg cramps and fatigue. Jim on the other hand, only road 70 miles, but ...

... a little further away than we had planned on being, but with diesel fuel DOWN to $2.67 a gallon we were not as worried about the extra drive as we might have been a few months ago at $5.00 a gallon! Anyhow, it's been good here, the pool is a perfect temperature, and I've been able to swim every day, something I'm going to miss when we move to Southern California in December, where we don't have a pool! We've been ...

Although this entry is somewhat out of order, (we went to Casa Grande and PIR before we went to Cottonwood and Sedona), I still wanted to share a few experiences and pictures from there (and, we did come back to Casa Grande from the 25th to the 29th, anyhow!) When we got to Casa Grande, I got to wondering where the name ("Big House") came from. Turns out, a trip to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (Picture #1)answered that question! In 1892, Casa Grande became the ...