FosseOdyssey

While in Arizona, we toured the State Farm Cardinal Stadium   It was completed in August 2006, the Stadium has set the standard in multi purpose NFL facilities.  Designed with a roll-out natural grass field and retractable roof, it was the first of it's kind in North America.  The exterior shape is designed to resemble the barrel cactus with a snake around the bottom exterior.  The red and grey seating depicts the Arizona sunsets.  Great tour and I think I might want to consider a broadcast carrier...very comfy seat. You can't go to Arizona without going to FALL BALL.  Its an off season league owned and operated by Major League Baseball.  The Fall League attracts many of the top prospects in minor league baseball.  There are 6 different complexes in Arizona and we were able to go to the Surprise.   Our good friends, Denis & Judy Gendron treated us an afternoon of baseball fun.  They are avid (or maybe rabid baseball fans...lol).   The weather was perfect, 3 hom

We stopped at the Boron Visitor Center on our way back to Sun City (we were home for Thanksgiving).  For those who watch Death Valley Days on TV in the 50's (yes - the 50's) will remember the 20 team mule Borax Soap Commercials.  This Kramer deposit has been mining since 1927.  It supplies 40% of the world's borax.  So you ask what is borax used for???   It is not just for soap.  Borax is used in manufacturing glass, fertilizer, wood preservative and even plasma screens.  Who knew....I just wanted to see the 20 mule team and since we're retired, we have the time to visit all these obscure visitor centers along the highways.

We spent 3 months at Paradise RV Resort in Sun City Arizona.  This is a phenomenal RV park.....friendly people and great facilities: ACTIVITIES - what to do - what to do.   Swimming pool, water aerobics, yoga, woodworking, ceramics, stained glass, shuffle board, lawn bowling, billiards.   And you can't forget Canasta, bunco, pokeno, and mah jong.     Plus add all the people you meet from Canada and the US....it's exhausting being retired. FAMILY -   Lucky for us, Tom's niece Robyn and her family (Ryan, Cameron, Peyton)  live in the area.   We had instant pot cooking lessons, card making (yes, Peyton is now a card making addict) and were able to see the fantastic Christmas Light show.   I know everyone was disappointed we didn't have the top off our jeep going thru the Christmas Light show....but it was COLD.  It has to be a little warmer and less rain for the top to pop off the Jeep. We were able to watch Cameron play football for the Liberty Lions High School tea

I retired in September and thought I would be blogging more often, unfortunately after being on a keyboard 8+ hours a day while working, blogging lost it's fascination.  But I'm BACK! Having spent 40 years in commercial insurance I retired from Crum & Forster.  I was fortunate enough to retire from an awesome company, with my dream job of training and working with the best group of underwriters (Chicago, Houston, New Jersey, Conway, Portland, DesMoines and San Francisco).   Since it is difficult to have a remote retirement party, I asked all the offices for photographs for my blog.  Several offices decided to compete.  Here are my "Academy Awards" BEST COSTUME:   Portland - matching PJ's BEST ACTORS IN SUPPORTING ROLES: DesMoines - the Iowa version of the Brady Bunch - John made a great looking wife and mom. BEST ANIMATION:  Houston - loved the map and all the great stick people - what a creative group of people. BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS: Conway - my

Pinnacles National Park is outside of Hollister, not a well visited park as it can get VERY HOT.  The best time to visit is spring or fall, so of course we went during summer.  We went with the Fosse Posse (Adam, Shantal, Ava, Sean and Shane)  and of course we had to hike.  The Bear Gulch hike is through a bat cave.  There are over 13 species of bats here - but we couldn't get in the actual bat cave as it was mating season.   Cave was a  little tight and had to get on our hands and knees to get through.   We were able to see a few California condors.   They were almost extinct in 1987 there were less than 27  (lead poison and habitat issues) They have been reintroduced here.  The condor is the largest North American land bird.  It's wing span is up to 10 feet.  GG had to buy a stuffed condor for the travel collection.  And of course, the kids got their Jr. Ranger badges. Moss Landing is where my mother grew up and my grandfather fished and farmed.  It is close to Pinnac

Mono Lake is one of the oldest lakes in North America. it’s estimated to be At least 760,000 years old. Interesting is that the lake has no outlets so the saline content is TWICE that of the ocean. This gives you more buoyancy if you swim...but be prepared to be salty dry skinned afterwareds.  Also no fishing here due to alkaline water. But it’s an awesome lake to kayak. There are tufa tower formations...I ll let you google the science behind their formations....remember I was a business major so the science is beyond me.  But tufa is found in alkaline lakes worldwide What I really found fascinating was where the name Mono Lake came from. The native Americans who lived here were known as kutzadika.  They collected alkaline fly pupae (fly actually lays eggs underwater ) as one of main food sources.  It was dried and used for food source and traded.  When dry it looked like brown rice and tasted like bacon bits.  Yeah...sure.  Anyways back to the name the kutzadika were called Monache