Shooting day:  On Monday afternoon after we moved back to Usery Park, Steve and his dad Ron drove up and joined Corky at the shooting range for a bit of clay pigeon target practice.  Although he claimed he had not shot for several months, both Corky and Ron agreed that Steve took the honors by actually hitting the most targets.  After the gun fun, they joined us at our campsite for burgers and brats.  Here are a few pics of the sharpshooters.

December 26:  We returned to Usery Park on Monday afternoon after a fun Christmas weekend in Chandler.

Our weekend activities included catching up on family news with Ron Applegate and George and Carmen Haley, helping Santa with his last minute wrapping tasks, and joining Kimm's good friend Cindy & Chris Yetka and their family for a delicious holiday dinner prepared by our daughter-inlaw Kimm.  We feasted on roasted prime rib and herbed crab legs, clams, scallops and warm crusty bread.  Very yummy!  Here are a few photos of the camaraderie taken at Cindy's & Chris' lovely home.

Jenna all dressed up for Christmas Eve

Kiddies get to open gifts from each other on Christmas Eve

Haley got a great hat and some crazy slippers!

Cindy's mom Bobbie and friends Coco and Mike

Merry Christmas!

Steve & Kimm already have the best gift--each other!

"And what does George want for Christmas? asks Carmen.

Bobby Robideau (Cindy's mom) with grand daughter Amara

Happy Kiddies

Cindy's folks, Dave & Bobbie and her friend Coco

We all thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  We headed back to Steve's & Kimm's about 10 p.m. when we all called it a night!  Jenna set out a plate of cookies for Santa and some special food for the reindeer before she went to bed.   Haley spent the night in the coach with us.  We were all up bright and early (of course) to see if Santa had come.  

Here are some photos of Christmas morning and some afternoon activities.  Though it was a bit chilly once the sun went down, we enjoyed our Christmas Feast on their patio.  

Santa filled ALL the stockings

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Jenna made the comment that "Santa brought me too much presents!"

So many gifts!

Steve got a pellet gun and accessories

Jenna delivered a gift to Grandpa Corky

A girl in a tutu can be handy with a drill too!

Target practice with the new pellet pistol

Bullseye!!!!!

All girls need a little play time with daddy.

The Christmas Feast (jambalaya, rice, ceasar salad, and bread)

All's well with the world!

Hope all had a wonderful Christmas weekend.  See all our photos on my picasa album site.

Dec. 18 through 23:  We took advantage of Sunday's rather rainy cool day to return to the Mesa  Market Place Swap Meet near the Superstition Mountains in the beautiful desert area of Mesa, Arizona.   The Mesa Market Place Swap Meet is a 55 acre facility filled with 1600 booths under one covered breezeway!  If you walk by every booth in the market place, you'll have walked almost one and a half miles!  We didn't check out every booth--there's just so much "as seen on TV" stuff that one needs!


Monday was our laundry day--turns out it was laundry day for most of Mesa.  The laundromat was so packed that we delayed our chore and opted to check out a few more retail shops.  Stopped at Kohl's and Best Buy.  No big purchases but by the time we finished our browsing, the crowd at the laundromat had diminished and we were able to take care of business.


Barely out of the suburbs, the Usery Mountain Regional Park where we are staying seems quite remote.  One afternoon while riding my new bicycle through the park I witnessed two coyotes crossing the road only about 50 feet in front of me!  During the wee hours of the previous night,  both Corky and I had been awakened by the incessant howling of a pack of coyotes gathering together.  It seemed as though they were right outside the coach!  The camp hosts told us that coyotes roam the Park all the time!  Oh, no more walking the dogs too far from the coach at night!


A little history on the Usery Mountain area:  It's named after King Usery (King was his name, not his title) a cattleman who was running stock in the area in the late 1800's.  Evidently, the cattle business was not his forte and he turned to thievery as a new career.  He and his buddy, Bill Blevins, robbed a stage in 1891, reaping silver bullion, jewelery and cash.  For the crime, a jury sentenced Usery  to 7 years in the Yuma Prison; they weren't sure about Blevins.  His lawyers appealed the conviction, but while he was awaiting a new trial, Usery & Blevins continued their shady dealings.  They paid their lawyers in cattle, but stole the cattle back from the lawyers later.  Needless to say, their lawyers weren't pleased.  Welcome to the Yuma Territorial Prison!  Anyway, as the story goes, Usery spent much of the rest of his life in and out of jail until one day he just simply disappeared.  


The site where I researched Usery History lists a disclaimer clause that reminds the reader that most of these colorful stories have been passed down through re-telling and have probably been embellished and exaggerated.  So take it with a grain of salt.  I thought it was rather interesting.  


I spent a couple of hours on Wednesday volunteering at Jenna's kindergarten with Kimm & Steve.  We helped prepare the special "Chocolat" that they had while watching the Polar Express film.  My goodness, teachers DO NOT get enough credit for their accomplishments, especially kindergarten teachers--bless them everyone!

We have been exploring the area, by foot and by auto.  I've posted a few photos of our hike through this park and some of the scenery on the nearby Tonto National Forest.  

Usery Mountain

Hiking in the desert

Woody's thirsty!

We are leaving Usery Park on Christmas Eve to spend 2 nights in Chandler in front of Steve & Kimm's house.  We'll try to post our holiday pics some time later this week.  Until then, Corky & I wish you all a very safe and merry Christmas.   Be sure to check out our other photos and Corky's website at  http://www.sites.google.com/site/ccrodine/

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sunday, Dec. 18:  The week at Usery Mountain Park has flown by.  Here are a few photos of some of the sights from our temporary home.

We’ve explored a bit by car finding shopping centers galore.  Last year one of our new RV acquaintances recommended we check out the Mesa Flea Market and SwapMeet.  After seeing an advertisement for it on the TV we decided to go in search of some treasures!  Oh Wow!!!  It is enormous.  But hardly a Flea Market—all the vendors were selling new wares.   As it was a rather warm day and the boys were with us, we agreed to spend only ½ hour browsing around, but will no doubt check it out again at a later date.

On the way back to the campsite, we stopped by good old WallyWorld to check out their supply of bicycles.  I had been pretty good all year and so asked Santa for a bicycle to ride around the RV parks.  We’d done some research and found that Walmart carried the combo street/mountain bicycle suitable for the mature rider (that would be ME).  This was the fourth Walmart we visited searching for this particular bike and, lo and behold, we found it!  During my inaugural ride, I experienced a true senior moment and totally forgot the proper way to change gears.  This bike has 21 speeds.  I have not been on a bicycle since about 1978 and that bike had only 3 speeds.   So after about 2 minutes  I managed to confuse the gear shifter so much that the chain jumped off the sprockets.  Sheepishly, I walked the bike back to the campsite.  Corky gave me a quick refresher course and away I pedaled for a successful ¼ mile ride around the Park.  I think I’m going to enjoy it!

Steve, Kimm, Haley and Jenna visited us on Saturday.  We explored a bit, sat around the campfire, played “pretend” with Jenna’s Toy Story characters, and laughed over the movie “Madagascar.”

It was a fun evening.