Sunday afternoon, Kay and I drove to near Eloy, Arizona, to hike a 3+ mile trail featuring a large number of petroglyphs. It was not an easy drive. The dirt road had many washouts and deep ruts, and deep desert sand filled many of the tire tracks. Bumpy would be too kind of a word to describe the ride. The 3+ mile circuitous trail followed the base of the “mountain” where the petroglyphs could be observed. The petroglyphs are attributed to three distinct time periods. Archaic peoples left their mark between 8,000 B.C. and 400 A.D. The vast majority of petroglyphs belong to the Hohokam people, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. Pima Native Americans retraced many of these prehistoric rock art symbols prior to the arrival of the first Europeans.There are more than 4,000 individual petroglyphs at 19 different sites that are known to exist in the Picacho Mountains.

We were back to pickleball on Monday, as each of us played in our respective round robins. And then in the evening, I played with the neighborhood group. Going for a low shot, I fell and pulled a muscle in the lower left part of my back, and bloodied up the right knee, again, and right elbow—I made the point. My right knee is nothing but scar tissue after its taking the brunt of falls the last couple of years. 

I played pickleball again on Tuesday, but had difficult twisting and turning because of the pulled back muscle. It looks like a week’s rest will be required. On Tuesday night, we traveled to Gilbert, Arizona, with Steve and Mary for dinner and then a show at the Hale Theater, a theater in the round. Both were good. The musical, Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream,invites the audience to take a trip to Springfield High School and meet Denny and the Dreamers, a fledgling doo-wop group preparing to enter the Big Whopper Radio contest to realize their dreams of making it to the big time. Songs included “Fools Fall in Love,” “Tears on My Pillow,” “Runaround Sue,” “Earth Angel,” and many more.

Kay continued volunteering at the check-in desk and playing in her round robins Wednesday and Thursday; with a sore and achy back, I was out of commission for several days, though I did participate in the resort’s ebike ride Thursday afternoon. The ride took us over Interstate 10, around the mall shopping area, around Mission Royale golf course, a stop at Culver’s for ice cream, halfway back around Mission Royale golf course, and back to Palm Creek. It was a distance of 15.39 miles, taking about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Our average speed was a slow 8.4 mph.

We both played pickleball with the HSV group on Friday afternoon followed by dinner at McMaster’s Sports Bar.

Saturday was a “rest” day, allowing more baking with sourdough.