April 22, 2025

Valley Vista RV Resort Benson, AZ (March 2 - 4)

Another day, another national park.  This is the 4th National park within the past week as we headed out to Seguro National Park for some fun hikes. Awesome variety of cactus and nice hikes on a sunny but chilly day. Beautiful driving throughout the park. Definitely a cool place to visit. 

Fiesta Grande Resort Casa Grande, AZ (March 4 - 9)

This park was decent.  Lots of activities.  We played card games with a nice group one evening and pickleball most mornings. The city of Casa Grande was not all that great.  We went to a nearby RV 55+ active community that was pretty incredible, but couldn't see ourselves staying in this part of Arizona since it's pretty remote and not a lot to do in the surrounding area. 

Monte Vista Encore, Mesa, AZ (March 9 - 12)

This place is Awesome! It is an active 55+ community with more amenities than we can list. 5 pools, tennis courts, softball leagues, card and board games of every variety, yoga classes, water classes, pottery building with kiln, stain glass studio, arts and crafts room, full wood shop with all the machines.  Crazy on how much there is to do. We loved it so much that we are going to stay here for at least 3 months next winter!  Jim is looking forward to playing in competitive softball, tennis and pickleball leagues and Dana is looking forward to water aerobics, yoga and exploring her artistic endeavors.  Both of us are jazzed about games playing in the evenings and meeting new people.

It is very large (80 acres), we were glad to have our bikes to cruise around. There are 4,000 residents in either tiny homes or RV's. The nearby stores allowed us to ride bikes to get groceries when we need anything. We liked the surrounding Mesa/Gilbert/Scottsdale/Phoenix area.  Plus it will be nice to be in a warmer climate all next winter. 

Marathon training is much easier here.  Jim found a great well known area bike path in Tempe for a 14 mile run.  

Lo Lo Mai Springs, Cornville, AZ (March 12-16)

What an extreme difference going from urban environment of Mesa to living in the woods in nature. Pretty cool to change our scenery so drastically on a regular basis. We always wanted to go check out Sedona and this was a great place to stay in the area. Unfortunately, the temperature was very cold. We went to Red Rocks State Park for a few different hikes, downtown Sedona and up to the city of Jerome in the mountains.  Jerome was previously a mining town but is now a artistic colony with many stores exhibiting the local talent.  It is close to 5,000 feet above sea level and snowed the day we were there. 

Jim's nephew Brendan and his fiancé Charlotte were driving from Colorado to Los Angeles for a week vacation and we were hoping to meet up with them in Sedona. Things didn't work out like we thought as they had a car breakdown 90 minutes away from our campground. Jim drove to go help out with their luggage and two dogs. He picked them up and brought them back to our RV for the night. We played games, had dinner and all three dogs hung out. 

The following morning all 4 of us and 3 large dogs piled into the truck and towed the RV back down to Phoenix. Jim and Charlotte got a long run in and then we went to the car rental agency for them to pick up their rental car and continue their journey to Los Angeles.  It was a fun couple days with them. 

Coachella Lakes RV Park - Coachella, CA (March 17-20)

You know your back in California when diesel fuel prices go from $3.00-3.50 a gallon up to $5.25!  We arrive in the campground that Jim's sister Anne Marie and brother-in-law Cliff have stayed at for the past 4 months. Great seeing them and catch up. We played pickleball almost every morning together.  Went out for lunch to a tasty restaurant and spent a lot of time talking. A few windy times of the day, but nice weather otherwise.  The campground was very new and had all the amenities. Nice place. 

Thousand Trails Palm Springs - Palm Desert, CA (March 20 - April 3)

We ended up joining a large nationwide workout gym (Planet Fitness) to continue training for our upcoming marathon/half marathon. We are now mixing in weight lifting/strength training 3 times a week. We went out to dinner with Jim's college buddy Martin and his wife Bianka for a nice meal in Palm Springs. Learned how the Coachella Valley has very different wind issues at times.  Although our campground was gusting, going across town to downtown Palm Springs next to mountains was a reprieve as the mountains blocked the wind. If we make our way through the area next time, we'll have to research campgrounds not effected by wind.

Wilderness Lakes - Menifee, CA (April 3 - 10)

Stayed a week near Orange County. Nice campground not too close to LA traffic. Very relaxing and had a pool for Dana to enjoy. Drove down to Vista (near San Diego) one morning to have breakfast with Jim's brother Mike. Followed that up by have lunch with another college buddy Paulo Hernandez in Del Mar. That Saturday we drove out to Newport Beach to Jim's niece Nicole's condo.  Jim's sister Maureen also met us there.  The 4 of us went to the beach for the afternoon to enjoy the ocean.  We talked for hours and then went out for Mexican food before heading back to the RV for the night.

Lake Casitas Recreational Park - Ventura, CA (April 10 - 15)

Awesome campground on a man made reservoir. They held the 1984 LA summer Olympics rowing, crew events here. Very pretty place to stay for the week. Enjoyed the Ventura beach.  Plenty of walks at the campground.

Sunday morning was an early rise. We got up at 3 am for a quick light breakfast then drove downtown Ventura to grab our shuttle busses to get to the starting line  - Mountains to Beach. Jim's bus took him to downtown Ojai in the mountains (for the full marathon), while Dana took a separate bus half way up for her start of the half marathon. Gun time for both was at 6:10 am. This was the longest run/race Dana has ever done. We didn't know if she would run it in 2:10 or maybe event 2 hours flat.  She crushed those times and finished in 1:56 and came in 4th place in her age group! Jim had a poor race (it turns out being 15 pounds overweight and not training properly is not a good combination).  Additionally, a 4 minute bathroom stop was not helpful.  He finished at a slow 3:29.  While it was fastest enough to qualify for Boston (humble brag), it was as expected for the poor training. Our next race is this September in Berlin, Germany. 

Over the weekend, Jim caught up with two friends and former business colleagues.  Had breakfast with Richard Gutierrez one morning and a few days later lunch with Shelby Russell in Manhattan Beach. So good to see them both after too many years.

Yanks RV Resort - Greenfield, CA (April 15 - 18)

Arrived at a very new campground for a few days. Spent another day resting before heading off to Pinnacles National Park for the day.  Awesome park formed from volcanos millions of years ago.  The hike up 1,200 feet of elevation was painful on sore legs, but the views were worth it. Used the hot tub at the campground multiple times soaking our sore muscles. 

Coyote Valley RV Resort - Morgan Hill, CA (April 18 - 22)

Nice campground very close to San Jose. Made use of the hot tub and pools multiple times. Great long paved trails next to the campground were fantastic for long walks with the dog and a few slow runs. Went to Capitola Beach to visit Jim's high school buddy Pete Margaretich and had a nice dinner with him and his beautiful wife, Chris. 

Had lunch with two of Jim's college buddies (Brendan Bloom and Bret Firebaugh) along with Dana and Bret's wife Shelly. Great catching up and sharing some laughs. Jim also caught up with a friend and former work colleague Saurabh Gupta over a cup of coffee.  Definitely making use of our Planet Fitness membership over the last few weeks.