Tennis In Gilbert, Arizona

December 12, 2008 - Friday

Finished up the Gilbert, Arizona Tournament. More on that later.

First, a few notes from aro0und here at the Mesa Spirit RV Resort.

I was able to play tennis a couple of times on the tennis court here with my new friend, Shital. You met him before. He beat me in the first round singles in the Fiesta Bowl. He lives close to here, lost in the second round, and so we worked out a couple of times here at Mesa Spirit.
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Lots of fun and great for me. I feel like I can play against his chop and drop game somewhat better today than the first time I experienced it.

I also stumbled on a Bocce Ball match the other day and watched that for a while. It was "our team" against a team from another resort. They actually have 2 Bocce Ball courts down by the tennis courts. I don't know if it is really called a "court" or not - each is about 60 feet long and about 5 or 6 feet wide I'd guess with 1 foot high sides all around so they caroom the balls off the sides a lot. Everything, including the sides, is covered in artificial grass.

Some of these men and women are really masterful at it. It is a touch and feel precision sport. Others didn't seem to have a clue. Everyone, however, seemed to be having a grand old time.

Also, in the same area, there's a putting green and driving range. Well, the driving range consists of 2 artificial turf hitting areas where you can hit into a net. It's not bad. Then the tennis and Bocce Ball areas, then there are 12 horseshoe....what?....courts? Places where you can play horseshoes.

I told you they have everything here.

I had to stop by the office this morning and the pool room that I mentioned before is adjacent to it. It was quite noisy in there today so I stuck my head in. It was a match against another resort. It was serious. All 9 tables in use, 4 guys/gals (2 from "our team" and 2 from the other team) at each. They were playing traditional 8-Ball. Everyone had their own cue sticks and, I've never seen this before, their own chalk on little chains attached to their belts or pockets or something. And, a lot of them had a partial glove on so the stick would slide through their fingers easily. It was something to see.

Evening Sky

This was shot just standing outside my door on the patio, looking west. Pretty. And pretty typical here in the desert.

Val Vista Lakeside Resort & Tennis Club

Entrance to the Main Clubhouse (above).

You can't see this too well, but across the way is a sand beach they've constructed with a beach volleyball court and I don't know what else.

Val Vista is a residential community built on this lake in the middle of the desert. The 2 pictures above are from the clubhouse looking across one channel of the lake.

The Tennis Club

The whole place is really pretty and really nice. The tennis club is no exception. It's a great setting with lots of grass and vegetation. The courts are in great shape. Even if you get killed playing tennis here, it's still a nice expeience.

My first round was against George, a retired high school teacher who has published a number of mystery short stories and is working on getting his mystery novel published.

We had a long, gruelling 3 setter. Luckily for me, George made a couple of uncharacteristic errors towards the end so I lived to play another day.

Here's George

And, George has a personal, professional, Videographer on his staff, so our whole match is on a digital video program somewhere. You might look for it on YouTube. Who knows?

George & Barbara (Videographer & Wife)

Very nice folks, George is an excellent player, and I, for one, had a lot of fun meeting him and playing with him.

Second round was against the # 1 Seed, Felix.

Felix, unfortunately for me, was the # 1 men's player at BYU for 2 years (after his junior and high school career) and was also invited to play on Peru's Davis Cup Team.

So he was clearly a tiny bit more experienced than me. And a little better, too.

Very great player and as nice a guy as he is good a player.

Here's Felix.

Sorry for the quality of this pic. But even in this shot I think you can see that huge smile. That's because he had just finished shredding me. Thanks for the lesson, Felix.


So unless I find a pick up game the next couple of days, that's it for tennis in and around Mesa Arizona for this year. I enjoyed the whole experience and will see if I can arrange to come back next year. Maybe I'll improve a little and be a bit better next year. We'll see.

Superstition Mountain

Monday, December 8, 2008

Saturday I went over to the Gene Autry Sports Complex for some "drop-in" tennis. Got a decent doubles game in with 3 local guys. Good group and lots of fun.

My camera malfunctioned, but here's at least one shot of the very nice tennis complex.

Gene Autry Tennis Center

I think there are at least 16 or 20 courts, all lighted, all fairly new.

Funny thing. There was some sort of clinic going on with small nets. I thought it might be the new mini-tennis designed for teaching youngsters. It's really awesome. I saw it demonstrated a couple of years ago when I was speaking at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association conference in Miami.

So I went over to see what was going on. And who did I happen to ask as he was bent over putting some tape "lines" on the court, back to me? Tom Fey, the Director of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. And he recognized me and called me by name immediately, remembering me from 55 National Hardcourts the last time I was in the 55's a few years ago. Pretty impressive.

He was putting on a national coaches clinic - teaching the coaches how to coach.

On Sunday I headed out about 8:30 for Superstition Mountain.

I just wanted to explore around that area and get in a good hike.

Unfortunately, it was a relatively cold and dreary day. Since I arrived here in Mesa, every night has been overflowing with stars and every day has been bright blue skies and 72 or so degrees.

Yesterday when I left it was in the 40's and overcast with predictions of a chance of rain. So I bundled up in layers and headed east.

First stop was the Goldfield Ghost Town. In the late 1800's, there were 50 working gold mines in the area. Goldfield Ghost Town represents (so they say) what life was like in those boom days. You can pan for gold, get a mine tour, take a narrow gauge train tour, eat, drink, and shop 'till you drop in Goldfield. I took a quick walk around, chatted with a couple of the gift store merchants, and skipped the rest.

Goldfield Ghost Town

I had been thinking about taking the road all the way around the Superstition Mountains before hiking or, perhaps, interspresed with hiking. It looked, on the maps I had access to, like it might be a fun motorcycle ride.

Luckily I stopped at the ranger station to get some advice. The circumnavigation is 120 miles and, according to the rangers, takes SIX HOURS. That's an average of 20 MPH. A good part of it is gravel and I don't like driving my motorcycle on gravel roads in the first place. Plus, I didn't want to spend the whole day in the saddle at 20 MPH.

So I settled on a trip to Canyon Lake & Tortilla Flats, and then back to the Superstition Mountain area for a good long hike.

Cayon Lake

Canyon Lake - Steamboat Tour

I was really tempted to take the Dolly Steamboat tour, but circumstances intervened. This is at the Canyon Lake Marina. First, the tour didn't start for over an hour from the time time I arrived, and I didn't really have anything interesting to do to kill and hour. Second, it was kind of windy and not exactly hot, and I didn't feel like hanging around in the cold. Third, the tour is 1.5 hours....so with the waiting and the tour, it would have been 2.5 hours out of my day. Given that we all have limited resrouces....time being one of the most limited of all....I opeted to spend my time on other things.

So I passed, but looking at the brochures and stuff I bet it's a pretty good ride through the "Junior Grand Canyon" as they call it.

Maybe next time.

I was itching to get on a hiking trail.

Superstition Mountain

This is where I wanted to explore....and I did.

I got on the trail at just after noon and back on my motorcyle just after 4:00. It may not sound like much, but I definitely felt like I got in a good day's workout.

There are a lot of pictures below. I won't try to describe them individually. Some are looking up at the mountain from various distances and angles depending on where I was at the time and some are looking back down at the valley from whatever elevation I was when I took them. I trust you'll be able to tell the difference.

I hiked up to a spot about 2,600 feet called Green Boulder, then back down to almost the valley floor, then back up to a spot they call Basin at 3,100 feet.

Similar to my trip last year to the Redwood Forests of California, this was a rather awe inspring experience. You wonder where this mountain came from and can imagine the Pima and Apache Indians living in and around it. You can sense the prospectors searching for gold. You can imagine trying to survive the harshness of the desert.

There is something renewing and majestic about natural phenomena like this and being up and in it was worth the energy and effort required to get there.

It was a fun and arduous day roaming and climbing around Superstition Mountain.

If I come back to this part of the world, I'll make sure to do it again.