Off to Florida to visit the Schusters!

Enough of this late winter! We left the morning after Chad and Robyn tied the knot, and headed for our winter friends at Horseshoe Cove, in Bradenton, FL. Headed south on 55/57, angled over to 75, and kept on goin'. We'd called ahead to reserve our previous spot, N-10, but arrived to find it occupied. Moved catty-corner across the street to P-6, which was shady and spacious. 

The kids got a charge out of collecting acorns to feed the squirrels (like they couldn't find their own, LOL)
We BBQ'd on the drive, made margaritas, and generally enjoyed ourselves with Alex & Nikki Schuster and our three grandkids, William, Emma, and Benjamin.

Alex has started a new internet business, putting together health and fitness seminars, and seems to be doing quite well. His website is Natural Health Summit 
Nikki just successfully completed her third session of four in her RN training, and is looking forward to the final one in the fall. She intends to work as a midwife. William won an award for all "E"s this grading period in kindergarten, and will start first grade this fall.

Emma will be starting kindergarten, and Benjamin, 3, will be in pre-school. Whew, they grow up fast!

Chad and Robyn's Wedding

The other main event to our Missouri visit was the wedding of Chad Fitzgerald to Robyn Crews. Chad is our son-in-law Ryan's brother, and we have enjoyed getting to know Robyn on camping trips last summer. Bill volunteered to take some pictures at the wedding.

And, since we don't have many opportunities to catch all our fam cleaned up and spiffy, I took some pix of Ryan and Jennifer and our grandsons, Rieley, Brandon, and Jack, also.

Ain't family great! We love all our daughters and sons and grandkids. And, welcome Chad and Robyn to that group!

Taking care of Business

So, one of the reasons we needed to rush thru the snow to return to Missouri, was that Bill and partner Ralph Britton had a date with the North American Pairs competition in St Louis, where the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) was being held.

  

There were 4 sessions, beginning with 72 pairs of bridge players who were chosen at the district level by competition with their peers. The first day, we played two sessions, afternoon and evening, about 3 hours each. Ralph and I made the cut on day one, and were one of the top 28 pairs who played the next day for the President's Cup awarded to champions in Flight C (0-500 masterpoints, non-Life Master). We finished the last session of the day placing 11th. Hey, it ain't a gold medal, but we're like Jamaica in the bobsled race, and we're happy we did this well. If you're interested in more detail, here's the process below.

North American Pairs (NAP)

Date: June 1-August 31

Masterpoints:

• Club qualifying games 50/50 red and black at sectional rating
• One-session unit qualifying games sectional rated red
• Two-session unit qualifying games include percentage of gold for overalls.
• District finals award gold for section firsts and overalls. Flight C is 25% gold for overalls. Other masterpoints in all flights are red.

Flights: A (Open), B (-2000), C (0-500 Non-Life Masters)
District winners in each flight recognized on web site
Final: Spring 2014 NABC
A highly prestigious "grass roots" event, the North American Pairs starts at the club level in June, July and August. Club-level qualifications may be earned at any club in any unit in any district. A player may qualify as often as desired and with as many different partners as desired. Unit-level qualifiers are optional and held after Sept. 1 and before the district final, which may be held after the unit final until the third week in January. At the district final, both players must have qualified at the club level and must be members of the parent district. A fixed amount prize will be awarded in all flights as follows:

1. In districts with three qualifiers, the 1st place qualifiers will receive $700 per person and the 2nd place qualifiers will receive $300 per person. The 3rd place qualifiers will be invited to participate in the national level finals, but will not receive any prize.
2. In districts with four qualifiers, the 1st and 2nd place qualifiers will receive $700 per person and the 3rd place qualifiers will receive $300 per person. The 4th place qualifiers will be invited to participate in the national level finals, but will not receive any prize.
3. In the event of a tie at the district finals, the qualifiers will receive the total of the awards for the tied places, divided by the number of players involved with the tie.
4. Invited defenders will receive $700 per person.
5. No individual may collect two concurrent prizes.

Return to Winter

So, we thought the "taste" of snow that dusted Sedona was winter's last hurrah. NOT.

But at least it's all DOWNHILL from here to St Louis, our home base. It'll all be melted by then, right?
Well, here's what our house looked like!

13 1/2 inches, total, the record for this date back to 1912. At least it is pretty!

Makes a nice top for our Japanese lantern, don't u think? Eyes of Oreos (what a waste!) carrot nose, and crouton smile, courtesy of our grandson Jack. 

Not to be outdone, I had to do the mailbox!

Yes, fans, we are in the mountains, after all!

So, does this type color convey a change in the weather? Oh, yeah!

This would be the view from the parking lot by our unit, the morning after the cold front went through. Overcast, temps in the low 40's. Good day for us to do some laundry! I had the furnace on in the RV last nite, even tho we were in the timeshare. Don't need any frozen pipes. 

Now, we are in a winter wonderland! Fortunately, the ground is above freezing, so it's melting off the roads as it falls. However, Flagstaff got more than a foot of snow, and that's where we are headed on Sunday! Hope they have it cleared before we get there...

Just before the end of the day, we got a peek of the sun. Ya can't get any better than this!

into the Vortex at Sedona

Sedona is one of the most beautiful natural cathedrals in the world. The whole area is one grand vista after another. Takes my breath away every time I come.

The combination of natural erosion and the red sandstone creates grandeur matched only by the trees and cacti who make this their home.

Forgive me if I overwhelm you with pictures, I just can't help myself!

Really, I am only posting one tenth of the ones I took!

 Nancy takes a minute to check out the local flora.

The Indians, and their cousins in Mexico, harvest this prickly pear, scrape off the spines, and cook it. Here in Sedona, you can order "prickly pear fries" instead of french fries! We had the pleasure of visiting with one of our guests from the Baja 36 day Fantasy RV Tour we just finished, they had reserved a week at the same timeshare where we were staying.

Not too shabby, eh? Just below the BBQ area, there is a pool and hot tub. FYI, this is Sedona Summit. Nice. So, after 4 days of this beautiful weather, 70's, mostly sunny, great hiking weather, along comes a cold front. Check my next post!

Back in the saddle again...

Back in one of our favorite places in the whole world... San Clemente! We lived here for 15 years or so, and always enjoy a return visit. Nancy has a dear friend here, and we have LOTS of favorite restaurants to go to... one of those is on the pier. This time, we got to double our fun because Travelin' Fran of Canadian Maritimes fame came over from Jojoba Hills to join us!

The restaurant is on the far right, at the beginning of the pier. It was warm enough to sit outside, and we had a leisurely late lunch. Bliss.

After a great week, we packed it up, and were ready to head for a timeshare we'd reserved in Sedona, AZ. Oops! Started to pull in the livingroom slide, and guess what? The cable broke. We tried to push it in, but now it's jammed, and sticks out about 6". Fortunately, I can still see around the edge in the mirror. Called our trusty service dep't at Byerly's RV in Eureka, MO, and had them order a cable. Guess we'll be driving 1850 miles with a slide out!!!!