Oct 30th to Nov 1st - Mesa

Oct 30th - Fri - Mesa
We didn’t sleep well last night so when we finally did fall back to sleep we ended up sleeping late enough that I did not want to make a mad dash to the pool for exercising. Looked after some email before heading to the laundry room. Another laundry with the card system rather than quarters but at least you do not have to pay $3 for the card. However, the machine to load the cards only takes 5, 10 & 20 dollar bills so we ended up with unused credit on the card.
Next we made a trip to the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix. It runs for at least 3 weeks but I don’t see how it draws enough people for that long a time as we were not really impressed with it.
We had leftovers for a quick & easy dinner and then went to play bingo here in the park. A friend of our neighbor Judy had saved spots for us so it was fun sitting with nice people. Judy won a game but had to split with 6 others - at least she got her money back which was better than we did!

Oct 31st - Sat - Mesa
I made jelly biscuits and shared with Darrell & Judy. Darrell has a bad cold so I took the biscuits to them instead of inviting them to join us. I decided to do another load of laundry to use up the credit on our card. While waiting, I visited with Judy and then spent some time in the library working on a jigsaw puzzle. Terry went for a bike ride and visited with neighbors.
We went for a drive and ended up in downtown Mesa where we saw an event called the Festival of the Dead. Found a very handy parking spot and wandered through the vendors, bands and landscaping that is also art. Watched some young girls dancing and then continued on. In a couple of blocks we saw a Farmers’ Market sign, again found a parking spot and did some more walking. Starting today and running until April, vendors are setting up booths along the main street of downtown Mesa. We didn’t see much produce that a farmers’ market would suggest but it was after noon by then so perhaps they left earlier.
Downtown Mesa is very nice. There is some time of art - sculptures - on many street corners. The streets are wide with pavers at the intersections and lots of trees along the wide sidewalks. Even the alleys are paved with bricks.
We stopped at a grocery store on the way back and got some great buys on meat that needed to be sold by tomorrow. More visiting, bike riding, reading and watching TV to finish the day.

Nov 1st - Sun - Mesa
Good thing we did not have far to go to a new park today as our packing up kept getting interrupted by “farewell and are you sure you want to leave” visits from neighbors.
We are at the Valle del Oro RV park near the east edge of Mesa. We have stayed here previously and will be here for a week. We set up after Terry did a stellar job of parking. Back to lovely, warm sunshine.
Our friends Terry & Judy (we traveled with them in Newfoundland & eastern states last fall) arrived a couple of hours later and he did an even better job of parking - once back to end up straight & right beside the concrete pad. We figured out that both Terrys had some good directions from the parking assistant and the sites have lots of room on the side away from the patio to allow a nice turning radius.
We had planned baby back ribs for all of us for dinner so we were able to just sit & catch up on news before & after dinner.