As November began, the population of our park community continued to grow.  Suddenly there was a line up at the first hole on the golf course and we needed to sign up to use the tennis courts.  It was great to see old friends and catch up on summer activities.  There were some days that our neighborhood happy hours reached a circle of 30 friends.  The tennis club had their first "social" of the year and we enjoyed a pizza dinner and planning future activities.  Tom has been golfing at the local regulation courses with several neighbors on a regular basis and has been enjoying his game.  Mary has been sticking closer to home and playing here in the park.  She came in first on Ladies' Day one week, thanks to her handicap and an exceptionally unusual good round.  (It hasn't happened again since!)  Both of us are enjoying regular foursomes on the tennis courts as well.  Early in the month Mary was lucky at Bingo, too...a nice $120 jackpot (that doesn't quite cover the cost of playing over the last several years :-))

Over the past several years, Mary has been following on-line blogs and websites of several other RVers.  Occasionally we get to meet up with these people in real life - and that is always great fun.  One couple appeared at Palm Creek two years ago and Mary recognized them from photos on their website.  We introduced ourselves and took advantage of their services to get some computer help we needed at the time.  This year, Chris and Jim Guld have returned to Palm Creek for the entire winter and are the park's official "computer geeks."  They have combined their love of travel and their professional background and are having a great time as RVers.  One of the things they are doing here this winter is having seminars on various computer related topics.  Mary has been attending the seminars, learning some new skills and also helping out with the classes.  You can check out some of the computer info and some great links on their website
"www dot geeksontour dot com"

On November 16 Palm Creek was host to a presentation by "www dot eons dot com"  Eons was started by the founder of Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, to address the needs of "baby boomers" and help them to "love life on the flip side of 50."   Joining Mr. Taylor in the presentation was Dr. Tom Perls from Boston who specializes in treating older patients and actress and dancer, Jane Seymour.  They had a little chat on stage about how we should all have dreams and goals and not let age inhibit us from pursuing them.  It was almost like watching an episode of Oprah, without Oprah!
 
 

Neighbors Cathy and Bev offered moral support the night Mary won $120 playing Bingo.	Jim and Chris Guld like using the built-in video system when teaching their computer seminars.	One of our tennis buddies, Rex, was chosen to take a few spins on the dance floor with Jane Seymour when she visited our park.	Our friend, Judy Metzler, shared a brief moment with Jane after the presentation in our ballroom.

The brightest point in our month was November 19 when our son Reid arrived in Palm Creek.  He'd had such a good time being here at Thanksgiving last year that he decided to join us again this year. Sadly for us it was a short visit, but we packed in a lot of activity while he was here.  Reid and Tom managed to get in two rounds of golf, some poker games and Reid spent quite a bit of time emptying, sorting, organizing and repacking all his belongings in his car and utility trailer.   He took advantage of the shopping opportunities at our new mall to restock his first aid kit and a few other items.  He spent some time custom-fitting a case with all his electronic gear and packing and repacking his big bags so that they were under the weight limits for international flights.  On Friday, November 23 we delivered Reid to Sky Harbor in Phoenix for his flight to Mexico. He plans to work as a raft guide there until January and then move on to Costa Rica for the rest of the winter.  Meanwhile, we'll be keeping watch over the car and trailer here in Arizona.  One of Reid's recent projects was to start his own website...so you can check it out at
"www dot travelinreid dot com"  (Be sure to click on all the photos and logos.)

Our Thanksgiving celebration this year was a repeat of last year's great get-together.  We had a "block party" buffet dinner with a wonderful delicious dinner attended by 28 of our neighbors.  What an array of tasty choices along with the fun and fellowship of friends.  We have a lot to be thankful for!
 
 

Connie had been waiting all day for a taste of the turkey.  The drumstick was too good to pass up.	Did someone say "food."  The neighbors began to gather for the Thanksgiving feast.	Our site was filled for several days with the contents of Reid's trailer.  But its all put away now.	We look pretty perky for 4:30am after having overslept before taking Reid to Sky Harbor.

As members of the tennis club and regular users of the courts Tom did our part to help clean the tennis courts.  The wind storms and "haboobs" (monsoons) of the summer had left a great layer of dust and dirt on the courts.  Some work with fire hoses, brooms and squeegees cleaned them up nicely.

When we bought our first RV and started going to weekend rallys we met a great couple, Jeff Rubic and Judy Metzler who are members of the Tri-State Bounders and have a home in Pennsylvania.  They are part of the group that fed our enthusiasm for RVing and they definitely have not lost their love of travel.  Jeff retired a year ago and this is their second trip to the west.  They stopped in Casa Grande for a two week stay at Palm Creek and we had some great visits.

Slowly, but surely, various businesses are opening at the new mall near our park.  One Sunday noon we stopped at a new restaurant to see if all the cars in the parking lot meant that they were open for business.  They were serving meals but the hostess told us it was by invitation only that day.  Tom smiled and "sweet-talked" with her for a few moments and the next thing we knew, we were sitting inside enjoying a fantastic and delicious lunch..."on the house."  The place opened "for real" the day after Thanksgiving and we ate lunch there the other day....still delicious...and they are doing a great business.
 
 

I wonder if they wanted to be firemen when they grew up!  At least they got to play with the hoses.	Our friends Jeff and Judy helped get us started as RVers.  We just completed 7 years on the road.	A long awaited addition to Casa Grande, MiMi's Cafe is doing a brisk business serving great food.

Daily at our happy hours we all discussed how perfect the weather has been this fall.  Temperatures reached about 85* daily until Thanksgiving.  After that, some of us found ourselves wearing long pants and jackets by happy hour time.  But, it was still nice enough to be outside.  It didn't seem quite right to watch the OSU/Michigan game while cranking up the A/C.    The last day of the month brought something unusual to this part of the country....RAIN...which lasted for hours and hours.  Hopefully it did good where it was needed but, for those of us used to sunshine and blue skies, it was a downer of a day.     However, Santa's elves are hanging out in the stores....can Christmas be far behind?