Bob - Phoenix & Wickenburg

After arriving in Phoenix and getting our rental car we negotiated the streets to the Gullen's home in Scottsdale. We had a delightful visit catching up on family news, discussing family history, and remember the summer of 1963 when Betty visited with us for a couple of months.

We somewhat reluctantly left the cool respite of the Gullen home, having enjoyed a refreshing meal and good conversation and forged into the late afternoon heat of the day to our destination for the evening, Wickenburg.

Wickenburg is on the northern edge of the Sonora desert, so we passed through lots of scrubby cactus filled landscape, thankful that we were in a car with the AC going full blast. The mountain ranges in the distance gave a nice sense of drama to the landscape.

We found our Best Western Rancho Grande Motel. It is very colorful and decorated in Southwestern motif. I think its hayday was in the 1970's, but it was reasonably clean and not too crowded. We all went to the pool. Nathan and I actually got in, but the girls were suspicious of the less than pristine looking waters. There was a pool basketball goal set up so Nathan and I had a game of "pig" and then a no holds barred, anything goes, game of basketball. He executed his "cunning plan" to perfection and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!











^ The exterior decor of our motel, the Rancho Grande!













^ Fun at the pool!