Dunfey Alaska Journey

Trip from Slowlow, AZ  to Santa Fe, NM

We left Slowlow, AZ in White Mountains on the morning of 7/3 to head for Santa Fe, NM.

We were really impressed by the New Mexico mountain rock formations!

Santa Fe Visit

After we arrived in Santa Fe, we contacted our friends, Ian and Marshay Artig, to finalize plans for dinner. They used to live in our community in Vail, AZ and belonged to the Liberated Minds Group there. They moved to Santa Fe last year because they couldn’t stand the summer heat.

We eat and conversed at The Ranch. This was a wonderful restaurant! It had excellent food with great decor. Milly has a pulled meat combo plate and I has an outstanding full plate of baby back ribs. These ribs had more meat on them that I have ever experienced. Great meal and even better conversation.

We stayed at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park, high in the foothills overlooking the city. We were told to be sure to attend  the  Annual Pancakes on the Plaza, Santa Fe’s favorite July 4th event!  When Ian also mentioned they planned to go for the pancakes, we made arrangements to meet them there.

You could say the Pancake Event was a zoo. There were three lines of people winding all around waiting to get there breakfast. People were all over the place eating. The lines moved quickly. The food was surprisingly good – pancakes, ham, strawberries, juice and coffee for a $8 contribution.

When we met friends of Ian’s and Marshay, they invited us to the annual 4th party at Fred’s House. We went. It took a while to warm up to the party and meet people. We had good conversations. The people were musicians and artists most of whom were our age.

That night, we watched multiple sets of fireworks from our camper site overlooking the city. We couldn’t hear the bangs and the view from afar wasn’t the same as being at the actual fireworks display.

Show Low, AZ in White Mountains

Milly and I left Vail, AZ on the morning of June 29th heading for our 1st stop Show Low, AZ in the White Mountains.

We are staying at Fools Hollow Campground run by AZ State. Here are the pictures we took on the way to Show Low AZ:

Pickleball and Kayaking at Lakeside-Pinetop 7/1/2014

After our arrival at Fools Hollow Campground in Show Low,  Bob and Barb Merow came over after supper. They are friends from Vail. They frequently stay in Lakeside-Pinetop near Show Low. They are new to Pickleball but invited us up to Show Low to show us the local Pickleball scene.

We played Pickleball the next morning starting with a group of A-level players at 7:30 AM in a Lakeside-Pinetop Gym. There were three quality courts. We were welcomed and introduced to their open play board signup rotation system. The Pickleball Club there in Lakeside-Pinetop had renovated an abandoned gym. The Gym was now used primarily just for Pickleball.

We had a good time playing Pickleball with players of various skill levels.

We went to lunch with a bunch of Pickleball players at a Taco “Palace” up the street from the gym. After lunch, we kayaked on Rainbow Lake with Bob and Barb. Then, we visited with several of Bob’s friends on the shores of Rainbow Lake.

Kayaking at Show Low Lake 7/2/2014

On our last full day in Show Low, we went to Show Low Lake to Kayak. We met Bob and Barb there. They planned on taking their sailboat out for a spin.

Show Low Lake is a deep water lake. It is fairly large. It took us about an hour and a half to paddle around it. There are no homes on it. It is nestled in the pine forest.

When we unloaded the kayaks at the boat ramp, a fish and game truck loaded with rainbow trout  arrived. They dumped about 900 trout into the lake. These poor fish were clearly stunned by the processed of being flushed into the lake. We saw people in fishing boats scooping up some of the stunned fish with nets, We also saw a heron swoop down to snatch one of the newly arrived fish.

We stayed at the Fools Hollow Campground last year. We loved both our stays here. The camp sites are nicely set in the woods and rocky terrain with lots of privacy. There is a man made lake and “river” that almost surrounds the public beach and campsite areas affording many camp sites with excellent water views. On this trip, we spent most of our time appreciating what the local towns in the area had to offer for recreation.