Little brother comes to visit...a short respite from the cold

After our fun time with Steve and Debbie from Down the Road, it was time for my brother and his SO, Nancy, to get out of the cold in Illinois and come visit us in AZ. The weather this winter has been a lot different than in the past 4 winters here but Kent and Nancy happened to hit it just right. Highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's and mostly sunny skies.

They flew in late to Mesa Gateway Airport on Thursday so we didn't get together until the next day. They came to the RV park and we took them on a tour of the park. I think they would love to find a place in the area to spend some time during the winter and get out of the cold and snow.

The park happened to be having an open house event that day so we checked out some of the homes that were for sale or rent. They enjoyed the tour and I think they'll probably be considering some thing next winter. Maybe not in this park but in the Phoenix area.

After our tour and some conversation and snacks we took a drive to Tortilla Flats and had some ice cream. They really enjoyed the desert landscape as we drove along the winding roads.

 After our drive we had dinner at our place and even got to eat outside under the awning at our little table. I grilled some chicken breasts and Glenda made a grape salad. We enjoyed some wine and beer with dinner and after.

Since the weather was good we planned a hike the day. We thought that since they were staying a little further to the west of our place we could hike at South Mountain Regional Park. We picked them up and drove to the trailhead. We had a great hike and saw some wonderful landscape.

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Nancy and Kent

After our hike we stopped at our son's house so they could visit a little with him and Kendra. Chris and Kendra are getting married in April but my brother won't be able to attend. Kent and Nancy had not seen his house either. They enjoyed catching up with Chris and Kendra. After our visit we took them to a restaurant in Gilbert called Joyride. It's an upscale taco joint with great atmosphere, margaritas and delicious tacos. Downtown Gilbert is a cool 4-5 block area on Gilbert Rd. A big tourist area with several different restaurants of varying cuisine. After dinner we took them back to their hotel. They had plans to visit some former neighbors of Nancy's that moved from Illinois to Goodyear, AZ. Their friends took them on a hike and they also went to a couple spring training games. First game was to see the Cubs and the second game the next day was the White Sox's. The weather was perfect for the games and hiking.

Then it was back to finish the visit with us in Gold Canyon. They got back to our area in the late afternoon on Tuesday so we picked them up and took them to The HUB Grille and Bar. They have several different craft beers and very good food. Burgers, tacos, sandwiches, salads and comfortable atmosphere.

Knowing that my brother was coming I asked Chris if he would be able to get us a tee time to play golf. Of course, he was able to get us on a nice course and had a friend join us to make a foursome. How cool to play golf with my son and brother. Lowry's rule, others drool.

The round started very well for me a birdie and a par then as usual it was down hill from there. My only take away was I was able to eek out a better score than my brother. Brotherly competition as expected.

Kent teeing off on 18

Chris was killing the ball

Even though we(Kent and I) didn't score well, we had a fantastic time. Now that Mom and Dad are no longer with us, it's important to keep up our contact and relationship. 

So good to see him and Nancy and have them see what we have been experiencing the last 4 winters. After our golf game Nancy drove to our park to meet us and we had dinner at the Grill here in the park. Just so happened the band was still playing at the end of happy hour. We got some grill food and spent some time talking about the things we've done while they visited. I know they had a fun time and no doubt they will be back this way again. 

We came back to the motorhome and said our goodbyes and made sure we got the shameless selfie.

Kent and Nancy had an early flight out the next day and unfortunately they were flying back to some not so good weather in the Midwest. Always fun to catchup with my brother and looking forward to more visits. Thanks for making the trip to the SW. 

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