It is so nice to be "settled" - or at least a little settled - for a little while.
When you live/travel/work full time in your motorhome, you have 3 modes of living/operating. 1) When you're going to be hooked up in the same place for a while. Then you can unpack everything and really settle in. 2) When you're going to be somewhere for a relatively short time. Knowing you're going to have to pack up and stow everything away again soon, you only very minimally settle in. 3) When you're travelling. Then everything has to be stowed away so it's not flying around when you're driving and you unstow the minimum amount for your overnight stops.
I've been in semi-travelling mode since October. And when I stayed with Connie & Frank, Jim & Debbie, and Dad & Char, I only brought necessary work stuff and clothes and bath items in the house. I treated my motorhome as a giant outside suitcase.
Since I plan to be here in Mesa for a couple of weeks, I've really sort of settled in and am back to my normal living routine. It's nice and I'm grateful to be able to do it.
The Fiesta Bowl Tennis Tournament is held at the Scottsdale Athletic Club.
It is a beautiful facility. It takes me about 35 or 40 minutes to get there from my spot here in Mesa.
First round singles was Wednesday morning. A lovely morning and a good match against a local guy, Shital.
Here's Shital
Shital played a great match and has a style I've never faced before....all slice. Forehands, backhands, everything was hit with extreme slice plus plenty of pace when he wanted it and I never saw a ball higher than my knees. Plus, he's more or less a backboard and could hit drop shots from anywhere on the court - even from way behind the baseline. I had my hands full and Shital got the best of me in a pretty close and vey fun match, so my singles run is over almost before it began. There is no back draw.
Since Shital is a local and a heck of a nice guy, we exchanged numbers and may get together to hit before the next tournament. I'm looking forward to seeing more of that style and, hopefully, learning to cope with it a bit better.
If you've been following my blog, you know I was looking forward to doubles with the Russian, Yury.
As I was leaving after singles, the Tournament Director called me over.
"I have good news and bad news for you," she said. "Which do you want first?"
"Bad, of course. Let's save the best for last."
"Well," she said, "your doubles partner, Yury, didn't get his visa in time, so he had to withdraw."
"Oh, no," I said. "I was really looking forward to playing doubles and getting the whole Russian Experience."
"The good news," she went on, "is that I got you another partner. He lost his singles match, but he's tall and probably really good at the net."
So doubles, without Yury but with my new non-Russian partner, Scott, was yesterday afternoon/evenening.
Here's Scott And Our Opponents
Don - Scott (The Tall One) - Mike
Scott's from Illinois, Mike and Don both from around here.
It was a long 3-setter. Everyone played well and it was a tough, fun doubles match. Unfortunately, Don and Mike came out on top, so that's it for doubles, too.
The good news is that these first round losses free up your time for exploring the area you're in. So I'm looking forward to discovering whatever may be fun and interesting to do around these parts. I'm open to suggestions if any of you reading this are familiar with the area (use the Comments link, below).
By the way, here is an example of the "horrible" conditions we have to play under here in Southern Arizona in the middle of winter...
Life is tough...
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