When we planned this stop at the Sunflower RV Resort in Surprise, Arizona we thought we’d see our friends Gerry and Kathy and go to a couple Mariners Spring Training Games.   We did most of that, and even had a couple surprises!

We are Mr. and Mrs. Matthews at this week’s Mariners game!

Oddly enough the opponent for both games was the Texas Rangers.  It is odd because we saw two major league games last summer both involving the Rangers.  The first was at Safeco Field in Seattle and then a few weeks later against the Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. This spring both games we went to were Mariners playing the Rangers.  I’m hoping that when we see a game in Seattle this summer it won’t be the Mariners and Rangers AGAIN!

We had a surprise meet-up this week with Boise friends who came south for Spring Training – Cubs fans Kevin and Karen!   Thanks for the visit!

We had another most wonderful surprise! Our nephew, Sean, married his Lisa last night and since we were in the valley, we were able to go. When Sean and Lisa were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, it occurred to me that there were (at least) three other couples in attendance who were also Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, we being one of them.

Two sets of Mr. and Mrs. Matthews:  Sean and Lisa with Sean’s parents (and Randy’s brother) Tim and Yvette.

This picture shows two of Sean’s siblings,  Tim (blue tie) and his wife Christal, and Michele (holding the baby) and her family.  (Tim and Christal are also a Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.)  Michele’s husband is also a Tim but they are not a Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. This part of Randy’s family is the crew we play Fantasy Football with and three of the eight owners in the league are named Tim.

It was terrific to be able to spend quite a bit of time with Tim and Yvette this winter.  We are already looking forward to next year although we’ll be in Yuma so it won’t be quite as easy.

So, some other odds and ends from our week in Surprise….

We were liking Phoenix more than we thought….and then it took us 90 minutes to go 30 miles from the west valley to Mesa!

When I took Elko out at dawn our first morning here, we saw three coyotes in this wash about 100 yards from our trailer. There is a fence between the resort and the wash but it was still pretty interesting!

Randy bought a “new to him” golf bag and push cart at the resort patio sale for $20. Such a bargain!

I mentioned to Randy a few weeks ago that I missed hearing cactus wrens this year. They have a very distinctive “start the engine” song and we’ve heard and enjoyed them on previous trips. Here is a link if you’d like to hear what they sound like.

And here at Sunflower, we have had a cactus wren hanging out in the light pole at our site! It has been a nice ending song for our Arizona winter. One more stop…and then north.