Plays-Letterboxing-3 day Koman walk; Nov 2011

Legally Blonde at Broadway Palm Theater

To start the month Molly and VikkiJo, the office manager went to see Legally Blonde at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater on Molly's birthday.  They had a ball.  We have season tickets in the front row and VikkiJo had never been to the theater before.  I gave up my ticket to go to a season inaugural dinner for the World Span Tour guides, agents, and vendors.  I was considering becoming a tour quide for some of their trips, but they want someone almost full time and that's too much like a job!  It was great to see all the trips planned already for this season and pick up their brochures.

Blue Man Group

Then two days later, we got tickets to see The Blue Man Group who were coming to town and performing at the Gammage Theater at ASU.  We didn't get great tickets since it was a last minute thing, but most of it was pretty good.  We had seen them perform years ago in Las Vegas and thought it was about time to see them again.  They had much more electronic gimmickry in this show that took away from their normal humor and comical expressions.  You had to read some of the electronic material on three different screens and it was difficult reading that much, from so far away to be enjoyed.

Arizona Wing Museum, Falcon Field

Early this month I planted several more Letterboxes.  I called one series the "Lower Salt River Series" that I put in each of the recreation areas below Saguaro Lake.  The stamps I carved were all of camping related icons such as a tent, picnic table, camp fire, rafting, and RV/trailer camping.  The other letterbox was placed at the Arizona Wing Commemorative Air Force Museum over at Falcon Field next door.  I carved a stamp depicting the B-17 bomber that regularly flys out of the airport.  Needless to say, it took me awhile to carve, box, distribute, and document clues for the location of the Letterboxes.  I hope people enjoy them.

Mogollon Rim Letterboxing in Snow

Molly signed up for a quilting class just before the Payson Quilt Show with her friend and instructor from Salem, Karla Alexander.  Karla is also the instructor Molly went to Italy with last year.  Karla was really glad to see Molly in her class and let her work on whatever she wanted.  The class was on Karla's curve design templates and Molly learned a lot.  While she was in class, I had plotted out 9 Letterboxes to try to find from 20 miles east of Payson to Strawberry, 20 miles northwest of Payson.  I found all but one on top of Mogollon Rim in six inches of snow.  I'll try that one again in the spring!  The next day we both went to the quilt show and mostly just browsed, just getting a few items Molly needed.

Then it was off to San Diego to cheer Carrie and Mark in their 3-day, 60 mile Susan B. Koman walk for breast cancer.  But first we stopped in Yuma to visit Jim and Linda Newton, who I used to work with at ODFW.  They invited mutual friends over for a great ham dinner.  Of course we had to explain all about Letterboxing and even went out and found a few in their neighborhood.


Save Second Base Team

We left early the next day to get to San Diego and find a few more Letterboxes before Carrie and Mark hit the finish line.  The weather this year was much better than last year with only a small sprinkle on the second day.  Mark's family had great support for the "Save Second Base" team with lunch and dinner planned each day.  After the last leg, they opted out of the closing ceremonies, went back to their campground for a short bite and all then retired for the evening.  It was a long grueling walk and the last evening was starting to get a bit chilly with rain forecast, so the party ended early.  We headed home early the next day to get back to Apache Wells for our neighborhood's block party.  What a way to end a 5 day get-away.



Thanksgiving Dinner with friends

Letterboxing Lower Salt River

Friends Pat and Susan, and Nancy and Herman came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  Pat and Susan Caniff were on their way through to Texas to visit family in their RV and planned a 5-day stop here to see family, Letterbox, and have a great dinner.  Nancy and Herman Ford came up from Green Valley for 4 days.  We brought our RV over from storage so they could stay in it right next to us.  We had a great time Letterboxing finding all of my plants at the Air Museum, Lower Salt River, Saguaro Lake, and out in Apache Junction.  The Thanksgiving dinner was great with everybody contributing some dishes and we ate on those leftovers for several days.  It was a real nice visit, except for a concern for Herman.  He had developed some unusual feelings in his chest and throat, so we took him to the emergency room, but was tested out ok.  He will be checking in with his doctor in Green Valley for further tests.  It gave us all a scare.

Molly and I finished off the month of November with another Wine and Cheese party here at the park in the afternoon, and then a dinner buffet and play at the Broadway Palm Theater that evening.  We saw a musical rendition of A Christmas Carol.  As usual we shared our front row table with some real nice people.