Warm at last!

Mesa welcomed us with warm sunshine, much more like we expected when we chose Arizona as our winter get-away.  The Wanderer rested in the Desert Vista RV Park while we explored the Mesa, Chandler and Scottsdale areas. The small RV park is very clean, quiet, and everyone was very friendly. Parked next to us was a lovely "young" couple (Debbie and Scott) from Michigan. Scott is a retired Air Force F-16 pilot, who served in Afghanistan at the same time ABN's son, Darin, was stationed there. 








We were so excited to finally get on the tandem!











Bicycling in this area is great; all the major roads have bike lanes and at busy intersections there are push button signals within easy reach of the cyclists.(The terrain is flat, not that that is important, mind you.)

The attitude of the motorist seems so much more relaxed, even on a busy street no one seems to be rushing.  We were able to ride four days this week.

There are a lot of citrus trees in the yards of homes. Often one will see surplus placed by the street for anyone that is interested to help themselves. We scored some lemons and grapefruits.







As suggested by some friends, we embarked on a Sip and Sample Tour in Old Town Scottsdale.

Our first stop was at Su Vino Wine Bar where we sipped their house white, bubbly and merlot served with a cheese plate. To be honest we were a bit underwhelmed.  The white was too sweet and the merlot too thin for our palate.

Next we strolled over to The Bootlegger where we were served a very nice Apple ‘n Spice moonshine and a top-notch brisket nachos plate.

Next stop was Malee’s Thai Restaurant. We both enjoyed the coconut base with chicken soup and the egg roll we were served. The soup was especially good. To accompany the food sample, we had a choice of beer or wine, we both chose the house cabernet; again it lacked the full body flavor we enjoy in a red wine.

Continuing on the food tour, we stopped at 5^th and Wine, a neat wine bar that we think would be a fun place to hang out with friends. We enjoyed a nice selection of bruschetta (ABN especially liked the fig jam, brie and apple.) Our drink was an interesting white sangria.

How does a food tour finish, with chocolate of course! What can we say, dark chocolate cocoa, a bite of a Belgium waffle and a piece of dark chocolate. What’s not too like!

Our overall impression of the Arizona Food Tour Sip and Sample, the food met our expectations. Except for the Apple ‘n Spice moonshine, the libations not so much. We expected we would be introduced to some of Arizona’s best wines and craft beers, in reality we feel we were served the least expensive.

We had a grand time catching up with ABN’s sister, Mary and husband Steve. (They threw quite a Super Bowl party.)

Now it is time to pack up and head toward Texas. We have experienced record highs in the 80's this week. We hope the trend continues in Texas! It appears we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in a Walmart parking lot (does anyone see a trend here?)

Note to email subscribers, hitting reply to the email notification of a new post will send your reply out somewhere in cyber space and we will never know of your comments.  If you wish to comment, please do so in the comment section on the blog site or send a note using the email address you have in your contact list.