Wonderful Prescott AZ!

[jd1923]

Never posted in this section of our Forum before, yet after reading the topic it seemed appropriate for this post! After what you will soon learn we enjoyed a breathless day today.

In a way it's about our story, how we found Prescott AZ some 30 years ago on weekend side trip, off my regular Motorola business trip to Phoenix, and we had a great weekend!

Fast forward 10 years later and our family did a 3-week car trip west to find a new place to live somewhere west, leaving comfortable surroundings of Northern Virginia. We left VA heading to Houston and had Christmas with Chris' daughter. The rest of the family left to San Antonio, the Alamo of course, Sante Fe and Taos NM, other stops and had a New Years HomeAway rental for a week in Flagstaff. Flagstaff was cold, sitting on I-40, a transient town for those to-n-from California and visitors to the Grand Canyon. We did day trips to Sedona of course, Cottonwood and the Verde Valley and it only took one more day in Prescott to know it is the place. Closed on our N VA home in Hamilton VA, June 2005, and moved to Prescott. I thought of living west most of my life. Attending High School in DuPage Co IL and all there was to do was drive west through miles of flat cornfields, with nothing to do, nothing to see.

Our friends here and elsewhere come back from trips to Italy or South America and say, you got to go! Others ask, why are you not out on the road more in your RV (or now the Oliver)? When we lived in Chicago, everybody had to leave the city as often as possible. "Escape to Wisconsin" and "Say Yes, Michigan" were the local sayings, meaning "get outta Dodge!"

We moved from the city to North Barrington, IL. 50 miles out! I started liking staying home on weekends. Actually LOVED doing yardwork, of all things (though I'm a weedwhacker and not a planter). I felt bad for the people who needed the escape to Wisconsin, as where we then lived, we were halfway there. Hmmm.

Why do I want to leave a place as great as Prescott AZ? It is the greatest small city in Arizona, carefully selected over time. It is the ONLY city of any size in Arizona not on an Interstate. Think about that fact!? Literally 50 miles SE to I-17 or 50 miles north to I-40 and I-10 is a whole 110 miles away. You got to want to go to Prescott to drive by here. It's not Phoenix or Tucson, thank goodness and it's not the desert valley, nor the snowy higher elevations.

We had an amazing day today. Played pickleball and won 5 out of 6 games. Adam joined the club today and he met many good people. Always do a spa after sports. For 6 years, I've been trying to figure out how to mod a camper with a hot tub. 🤣 Drinks on the deck and we cooked dinner together (I'm in charge of drinks, Adam and Chris are very good cooks).

We have GREAT weather up here. I'm going to end with pictures from our night, all from tonight. It was spectacular, most are from our deck, and a few are front of house. Monsoon season started early this year, and we will have another dozen crazy evenings over the next few months!

Many of you would pull your Olivers for days, to experience such a camp as we have right here at home. PLEASE COME VISIT as all of you that I know here are certainly always welcome. We have partial hookups too!

I promise to pry my older fingers off the weedwhacker and the other tools I love, just long enough to get 45 days away in the Oliver during our upcoming 2024-2025 season. Hope to meet many of you during the October Texas Meet. God Bless y'all on this Sunday.

Edited July 1 by jd1923
typos

[jd1923]

[SeaDawg]

Wow. I guess that's hail? Any damage?

Huge hailstorm in western New York last week. My brother in law had shredded siding, lots of damage to new roof, and son's car probably totalled.

[jd1923]

5 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

Wow. I guess that's hail? Any damage?

Huge hailstorm in western New York last week. My brother in law had shredded siding, lots of damage to new roof, and son's car probably totaled.

We get hail often when the monsoon rains first hit with a bang and high winds. There was a lot more, all over the deck. The heavy rain that followed melted all but what was under the eaves. It hailed twice this week alone. No damage recently. I got a new $16K roof from Farmers a few years back.

It sounds terrible with the high winds, but the hail is small. Last week Chris had my pretty '92 Lexus SC400 at the pickleball club. She was very worried and called me. But what can you do, you can't go out in it. I told her that old sports car has real metal, not like what they make today!

Wanna see real hail? Probably not, but twice in the Round Rock Texas area, we've witnessed golf ball sized hail. Got under the viaduct JIT both times! Car dealers had the big hail-sales, but you'd have to be really needing a deal to buy one!

BTW, the other pic shows a relatively young, beautiful Alligator Juniper! Bark like the gators you have in Florida. I water her regularly and treasure 'er in our backyard. It's the iconic tree of the Prescott NF. Check out this one, likely 300 years old with diameter as wide as Chris' full reach!

[jd1923]

Monsoon rains all week! We love it since now we are at 47% RH and a month humidity it was down in the teens. 20 years ago, it was our last spring in Northern VA and Adam's little league season got rained out 7 of 12 games! The next year he joined a Prescott AZ team. We got rain one evening and all the boys were jumping up-n-down in joy, smiling faces looking up to catch the rain. The game continued.

Last night this bad boy had all the look, but not enough energy to dump buckets of rain! Weather report says no rain this weekend, with monsoons coming back next week. 😂

[jd1923]

[Mike and Carol]

We lived in Sierra Vista, AZ for many years and this time of year is always interesting!  Hot and sunny one minute and epic downpours the next!  Mike

[jd1923]

 

Edited September 1 by jd1923