GOLFING AT GREAT EAGLE

Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be a great time.  We gathered at one of our neighbour’s places around 2:30 in the afternoon and they had about 8 tables for 6 set up in the outside patio area.  We were able to sit together as couples so with 3 couples to a table, the mix was good and conversation was easy.  The food was plentiful, tasty and interesting.  Both turkey and ham were served with mashed potatoes and gravy (but not as good as Stuart’s gravy), stuffing, a variety of cooked vegetables and both yam and sweet potato casseroles.  The sweet potatoes were topped with pecans and it tasted like a dessert.  And then of course, the real desserts came out which included pecan, apple, cherry and pumpkin pies.  Not everyone cooked the food from scratch—the potatoes were instant mashed and many of the pies were purchased at Sam’s Club.  That’s okay; convenience can be a good thing.

Believe it or not, we are not consumed with pickleball.  We played golf a couple of times in the past two weeks.  There is a par 72, 18 hole golf course inside the Happy Trails property and it is an interesting and challenging course with sand bunkers, grass bunkers, a few ponds and some desert areas where you don’t want to be.  We played just after noon both times (cheaper rates) but nice and warm by then.  The grass is greener than it appears in the photos.

Last week, we went to a local dentist for a check-up, x-rays and cleaning.  Normally, that costs about $200 or more each but we found coupons in the newspaper and paid $40 each.  The work was thorough with no suggestions of major work to be done so we felt very good about the experience.  A far cry from the “dental spa” that we visited in Kelowna in 2010.  People around here will drive to Los Algodones, Mexico if they need major dental work and some of them even go there for prescription drugs.  It’s a 5 hour round trip from here—not worth it for the small stuff.

There was a yard sale at various places in the west half of the resort this morning so we rode our bikes around looking for bargains.  Stuart picked up a couple of free items but it was mostly a social event.  Next Saturday is the yard sale for our section and we, as well as our neighbours, plan to put out a few items.  We ended up talking to a very nice lady from South Dakota who recommended a local church to us so we’ll give that a try tomorrow.

Almost everyone is in Christmas mode already and lots of decorations went up the day after Thanksgiving.  We like to wait until at least the middle of December to decorate but we did buy some poinsettias today.  I plan to leave them outside in the patio area and hope that the rabbits don’t find them.  We have coyotes that come around at night and keep the rabbit population manageable—maybe I can make a deal with them.