Moving from Mesa, Arizona to Ivins, Utah

Well, it was time to hit the road after spending February and March in Mesa, Arizona for the Angels Spring Training.  We had so much fun but we were ready to get out of the RV parks and find some peace and quiet.

Our spot at Val Vista Villages

Our street at Val Vista Villages

But first while Al was preparing for our move, he was checking the tire pressure in our trailer tires and noticed some wires coming out of the side of one of the tires.  Uh oh, that's not good a good thing.  So he took the tire off and we went to a tire repair center. 

It was decided that we would bring the whole trailer to the tire center the next morning on our way out of town and replace all four tires.  The Westlake tires that came with the trailer do not have a good reputation and we've read from other Grand Design owners that they had tire problems too.  So we decided to replace all four tires with much better USA made tires.

After a few hours at the tire center, we were finally on our way to Wickenburg, Arizona.  It was a short drive to a Harvest Hosts location.  Harvest Hosts is an organization that has an annual  membership and then offers free places to stay in over 700+ very unique locations such as wineries, museums, farms, golf courses, etc.  Most of the time the stays are without hookups so it's necessary to be able to dry camp.  The location we stayed in Wickenburg was our first Harvest Host stay and it was a golf course.  I expected there to be others spending the night with us but we were all alone once the golfers went home for the day.  It was just so nice to have peace and quiet and no road noise or sirens.

Our spot for the night at the Wickenburg Country Club

Part of the deal with Harvest Hosts is to thank the hosts by buying something from their business.  It's not required but a gesture of good will.  Since we don't golf we went inside the club house and had a drink at their bar.

There was a nice garden outside the front door.

Ah, life is good.  We got four new tires on the trailer and
set up at our Harvest Host location in Wickenburg.
Enjoying the peace and quiet!

The next night we made the short drive to the Kingman, Arizona area where we tried out another Boondockers Welcome host location.  This organization also has a small annual fee and it provides locations where hosts have land that they offer to RVers to spend a night or two.  This is our third time staying with Boondockers Welcome hosts and we had another good experience.

We stayed in the parking lot of a Distillery.

One of the owners gave us a tour and explained the process to distill spirits.  She was very passionate about the business and answered all our questions. 

Then she took us to the barrel room.

After our tour we did a tasting of their rum and vodka.  We thought if we tried some good stuff, maybe we would like it but we were wrong.  It's just not our thing but we can appreciate the effort they put in to making their products.  We would recommend checking them out when you're in the Kingman area. 

Here is where we spent the night in their parking lot.  It works out for them too to have more people around to help protect their business and we got a free night's stay.

One of our friends from our church small group, Cathy Ryan, was heading back to California after visiting her kids in Colorado and our paths intersected in Kingman as we were coming from the south.  Cathy came over for dinner in our trailer and we caught up on each other's activities.  It was great to see Cathy again.

The next day we headed further north and saw snow in the mountains on our way towards Hoover Dam.  We've done this portion of highway many times in the summer and there is definitely no snow visible at that time as the temperatures are usually well over 100!

Our last night stop before Utah was to spend the night at the Boulder City Elks RV park in Nevada.  We've passed this Elks lodge many, many times on the way to Lake Mead for our water-skiing trips.  It was nice to stop in now that Al is a member and check it out.

We met a real nice guy while having a couple of Cokes inside and Al and him talked baseball.

We can't say it enough how we've met the nicest people on this adventure!  

Our next stop is Snow Canyon State Park just north of St. George in Utah where we'll be for two months while we are camp hosts.  

Angels Spring Training Experience - Part 2

Continuing on with our Angels Spring Training experience.....

The Angels have a new manager this year, Brad Ausmus, after Mike Scioscia was the manager for 19 seasons.  Brad looked just like one of the players and would be seen playing catch when he wasn't talking with the media or doing other manager tasks.

Here are some photos of Brad's game day media interviews.  Most of the questions were about Shohei Ohtani and how his recovery is coming after Tommy John surgery.   

Brad being interviewed by Jose Mota

While watching warm ups, we didn't try to talk to any of the players or the manager.  It was just great to see and overhear their conversations and watch their playful interactions.

Our favorite player and the best player in baseball right now is Mike Trout.  We saw a lot of Trout and he played in almost every spring training home game.  All of this while his contract extension was being talked about incessantly.  Thankfully during spring training he signed a wopping 12 year, $430 million dollar deal which will make him a career Angel.  We were very happy to hear this as there was speculation that he might sign with the Philadelphia Phillies, his hometown team and to be closer to his family living in New Jersey.  We would have been so sad if he left the Angels as he's a fun player to watch.  Phew!

Fun while warming up

From what we noticed, batting practice doesn't begin until Trout starts things off.  It must be some sort of respect thing between players to allow the top hitter to go first.  

Trout leads off batting practice.

Kole Calhoun, Trout, and Peter Bourjos.  

Mike at bat

Big swing

Trout hustling to first base.

Another exciting player to watch is Shohei Ohtani.  Last year he was Rookie of the Year.  He's a young Japanese 2-way player who pitches and hits well.  A rare combination as it's been over 100 years since Babe Ruth to find these skills in one player.  Last year he had Tommy John surgery so he is not expected to pitch this season but he will still bat as a designated hitter.  He is expected to join the team in May if all goes well.

Every game the Japanese media would have their cameras set up to catch him walking between the locker and weight rooms.  I think they would try to document his every move if given the chance.  

Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani is still learning English so he has an interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who is always with him.  I think that Ippei has the best job in baseball.  It was easy to spot Ohtani around the various training fields because his interpreter was always with him.  

Ohtani exercising his pitching arm.

Ohtani giving an interview to the Japanese media.

Albert Pujols is a player who is on the downside of his career but the Angels paid a lot of money for him when he was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013.  We're expecting Pujols to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after he retires.  

During batting practice, some fans were allowed on the field and the players would sign autographs an take photos.  Here Pujols is talking with fans.  

Albert Pujols

Besides Trout, one of my favorite players is Kole Calhoun.  He plays right field and when he makes a play out there and throws the ball to the infield or home plate, he has amazing accuracy and speed. 

Calhoun and Trout seem to be great friends and that showed during warm-ups.  

Calhoun and Trout

Pujols, Calhoun, and Trout chatting

Trout and Calhoun stretching.
Kole showing a bit too much belly button and Trout playfully throwing grass clippings at it!

For a few games, we got a special treat as Vladimir Guerrero was in the house!  He was a 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and the first player to be inducted as a player from the Angels.  

Guerrero was spotted hanging out with the current players and snagging batting practice fly balls out in right field.  

These little girls were so lucky to get Guerrero's autograph!

Vladimir Guerrero and Tim Mead catching up.

A previous Angels player, Clyde "Skeeter" Wright made an appearance at a few games.  He played for the Angels from 1966-1973.  He is the only Angel left-handed pitcher to win 20 games in a season and had a no hitter against the Oakland A's in 1970.  Funny guy!

Nancy, Clyde Wright, and Al

 Another person we met and chatted with during player warm ups was a guy hired by the Angels to get video footage.  His name is Craig and it was nice meeting him.

Al, Nancy, and Craig

When the Chicago Cubs came to the stadium to play a game, we had a special visit of the famous Clydesdale horses and a Dalmatian dog.  That was a real treat!

I had a couple of people visit us at the games.  First, I've been receiving Daily Devotional emails from John Fischer for years.  

A link to John's devotionals:  https://catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com/

I'm usually a day or so behind on reading his devotionals due to timing of his emails and our schedule so I was shocked to read a devotional he wrote about us and our RV adventure on the day we were to meet him!  Here is the entry where he mentions us.   https://catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/arizona-baseball/

and a couple more where he uses baseball in the message:

https://catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com/2019/03/11/arizona-weekend/

https://catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com/2019/03/25/i-want-to-be-part-of-everything/

He's from Laguna Beach, CA and a big Angels fan.  Sometimes his devotionals incorporate Angels baseball and he's written about attending spring training games in the past.  I emailed him and we met up at a game this year.  

Nancy, John, and Al

The second was an Experian co-worker, Teresa, and her husband Cesar.  Teresa and I share the same last name (with the same spelling) so we joke that we're sisters even though we look nothing alike!  

Teresa and Cesar go to spring training every year but this year their daughter gave them their first grand child so it was questionable if they would make it.  Luckily all worked out and they were able to make it to a game.  I was able to move them to my section and score them some awesome seats.  It was great to see my sister and share our love of baseball.   

Teresa, Cesar, and Nancy

One more fun thing we did during spring training was hook up with friends we made in Quartzsite in January of this year.  Dave and Kathy are from Wisconsin and they are Brewers fans so we attended a Brewers vs. Angels game at the Brewers spring stadium with them.  

Between an inning they had a silly Sausage Race

Al, Nancy, Kathy, and Dave

Al, Dave, Kathy, and Nancy

The game ended in a tie since they don't play extra innings in spring training.  That way we all went home happy that our team didn't lose.  It was great to catch up with Dave and Kathy again.  We learned a lot of good RV'ing tips from them and enjoy following along their adventures on their blog:  https://www.offourrockerrv.com/.  Hopefully we'll see them again next winter in Quartzsite.  

Kathy and Dave are more current on their blog than I am.  Here is there blog entry from our game meetup:  https://www.offourrockerrv.com/travels/2019-03-wk2/

One of my favorite memories of spring training was one of the player's family was in my section for several games.  It was Peter Bourjus' wife and three kids.  They have a little boy about 3 or 4 years old.  He was very aware of his Dad on the field and when he was on deck to hit.  His mom wanted to leave and the little boy said he wanted to wait until his dad batted which ended up being at the start of the next inning.  When his dad was at bat he hit a home run and the little boy was saying, "my daddy hit it over the fence for me."  He was so excited.  Then after the Angels got their three outs, his dad was getting ready to head to his place in the outfield.  He tipped his hat to his son and the little boy tipped his hat to his dad.  It was just so cute!  

While we volunteered at the spring training games, we stayed in two RV different parks.  First we stayed at Palm Gardens for a month and then we moved to Val Vista Villages for the second month.  Both were in Mesa, Arizona and both times we were parked in sites that backed up to noisy streets.  

Our site at Val Vista Villages in Mesa, AZ

I thought Val Vista was like summer camp for old people.  They had so many activities and the lady at the activities desk said, "If you're bored here, it's your own fault."  Although both parks were nice, the RV sites were just too noisy for our liking.  We're working on finding better places to stay next year for spring training. 

Overall we had an awesome time at Spring Training this year.  We met some great people and got to watch a lot of baseball!  I hope we'll be back again next year!  

Check that one off the bucket list!

Here are the places you can follow or comment on our adventures:
Blog:  ImagineOurRVDreams.blogspot.com
Instagram:  ImagineOurRVDreams
email:  ImagineOurRVDreams@hotmail.com