WINTER STORM

Hey, it isn't just Canada and the northern US states that get winter storms.  We had a big one in Arizona yesterday that dumped 10 inches of snow in the Flagstaff area and there are snow capped mountains within sight of downtown Phoenix.  Here in Casa Grande, we had rain all yesterday afternoon and well into the evening.  Then during the night, a strong wind came up that shook the trailer, rattled the awnings and knocked some branches off the palm trees.  

The wind let up for a while in the middle of the night and then the rains came back around 3 a.m. along with thunder and lightning.  Yikes!!  We thought we left all that bad weather behind us.  We survived the night all right but the rain has taken its toll on the golf course here.  These are flooded areas from the night’s rain.

Today it is partly cloudy and a bit windy at 10:30 a.m. with a temperature of 8C.  The forecast is for an unsettled day and a drop in temperature tonight to a low of -4C.  It’s amazing how accurate the forecasts are for the state of Arizona.  They even predicted the hour that the rain would stop and then start up again and it was only off by 20 minutes.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have accurate forecasts in BC?  It is much more difficult with big mountain ranges.

Our last day at Palm Creek is tomorrow, the last day of 2010.  We are heading out on New Year’s Day and driving over to Yuma to set up a new home base for the next 3 months.  It will be different there with slightly warmer temperatures, a smaller resort, a bigger city and no pickleball at the resort.  We’ve become hooked on the game and are really enjoying the great exercise and challenges of play.  However we might find some opportunities to play in Yuma at other locations.

So another year is coming to an end and for us, it has been a year of tremendous ups and downs—radiation treatments, a three month spring RV trip in the US, purchasing a house in Grand Forks and finally being snowbirds in Arizona.  It was a year full of blessings in all ways.

We wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year.