One of the objectives of our move to Mesquite, Nevada was to rejuvenate our social life. Things had gotten stale in Bear Creek. Time to meet new friends, try out some new adventures, shake things up, etc.
Last Friday we attended a small cocktail party with some new neighbors. Allen and Joyce Morgan hosted the event at their house, which is about 100 yards down the street from us. They have a gorgeous, beautifully landscaped backyard, which faces east toward the 8,000′ snow-capped mountains across the valley from Mesquite.
Besides the Morgans, we met Al and Cindy Howa, who live to the left of the Morgans. Al is a big-time golfer… says he’s a plus 1 handicap, which is practically pro-level. Cindy plays tennis. Across the street from them, still on Buggy Whip Court, are John and Linda (didn’t catch the last name!). Very nice folks, all of them.
At the party, Al Morgan and John let me know about a hiking club that they belong to in Sun City Mesquite called the “Desert Fossils”. It so happened that the club was going on an outing three days later, so they invited me to join them…which I did.
We drove about 25 miles south on I-15 to a trailhead in the desert boondocks. Our objective was Arrow Canyon, which is a slot canyon with an old 1930’s era dam at the back of the canyon. There were 12 of us on the hike, and all of them were very nice. I spent most of my time talking to a gal named “Tammy”, who is a retired veterinarian, and a big guy named “Tim”, who is the President of the Desert Fossils.
I liked the barrel cacti that grew right out of rock.
We saw some Indian pictographs.
Then we entered the slot canyon.
More tenacious cacti!
Finally, the damn dam!
The hike was 7.8 miles long, mostly over cobblestones and worse. I was pretty sore afterward, but probably a few pounds lighter.
This group hikes a couple of time per week, which will probably work out nice for me, particularly when Charlie is busy during tax season.
Speaking of the wife, Charlie has already recruited some new clients! One is one of our neighbors, and some others came to her via a sub-contractor (“Juan”) who was working on our property putting up our new wrought-iron fence. Charlie recruited Juan’s wife to help with house cleaning, recruited Juan as a bookkeeping client, and it appears that she will get some tax clients out of the deal, as well.
We plan to host a Christmas cocktail party for a dozen neighbors on December 12th.
Our property isn’t finished yet. The front yard is done, but, other than a BBQ and fencing, the backyard is just dirt at this point. We need to gravel it, put in some artificial turf, drip-irrigate it, and finish it off with big rocks, trees and plants. That will probably cost us $15K, which we don’t have right now because…the Bear Creek house hasn’t yet sold.
Maybe there’ll be good news this week?