Enjoying Tucson

Tuesday the 21st Gary and Dan went to the Pima Air and Space Museum with over 300 planes, it is one of the world's largest facilities of it's kind.  They spent over 4 hours digesting everything aviation. I stayed behind to do laundry, that morning  I managed to spill my coffee all over the placemats.  I also had to go to Walmart, we had a smoke detector go gunny bag. Charlene stayed at their hotel doing a little walking and R&R.  Then the four of us went to Old Tucson to check out the sights.  Our first stop was Old Town Artisans, a group of local artists who'd set up shops in a very historic building.  One of the artists told us about the building, showing us very old wallpaper and brick walls.  She also told us about the Turquoise Trail. it is literally a turquoise line around the downtown area, about 2 1/2 miles.  We decided to do that another day.  In the Tucson magazine something intrigued our brew pub minds, there was a photo of an old warehouse that is now a brew pub.  Just above the corrugated overhang in faded letter was an address.  After driving around downtown Tucson during rush hour we discovered it was wrong.  So we gps'd it, (why we didn't in the first thing??) we found the Barrio Brew pub.  It had outside seating, there was a couple from Washington state (Ellensberg) on the loading dock (patio) with their gorgeous German Shepherd.  Of course there was a lot of Seahawk talk going on!  It was a little too cool for us so we went inside for dinner. The food and beer was good.

Wednesday the 22nd we took Luci to doggie day camp so we could spend all the time we wanted at  The Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum.  We have been here before, it is one thing you don't want to miss while you are in Tucson.  It features the Sonoran Desert region in a mix of a zoo, botanical garden, art gallery and aquarium.  All exhibits feature the plants, geology and native cultures of the Desert. TOO MANY SNAKES!  There are over 2 miles of paths through 20 acres, over 230 animal species, 56.000 plant and regional mineral collections. They have several live animal presentations daily, we were able to see the Raptor Free Flight.  They fly so close you can feel the brush of air as they go overhead. Four assistants moved through the area placing tasty treats for the birds so the birds would fly from tree to tree over our heads.  The first was the barn owl once on the endangered list because of DDT, now making a comeback.  The Harris Hawks were interesting, they hunt in groups, some chasing the prey until it gets tired then others will move in for the kill. The Peregrine Falcon  hunts from above then dive down, even catching prey in mid-flight.  They can dive up to 200 mph.  I'm not to crazy about birds (thanks to Alfred Hitchcock) but they were just beautiful.  We picked up Luci (who was very tired) and went back to the coach for BBQ meatloaf.  It turned out "delish" even if I do say so myself.  Dan helped, he took care of the BBQing.

Thursday we took Luci downtown to do the Turquoise Trail, the historical walking tour of Tucson.  You follow the turquoise line over 2 miles long, each point of interest had a number so you could read about it.  There were over 23 sites you could visit.  Our first stop was the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson established in 1775.  We didn't quite finish, it was getting warm and we were thirsty and hungry, Luci too.  So we went back to the Barrio, easier this time with the correct address.  We sat outside on the loading dock with Luci, her second restaurant.  Finished the day playing Mexican Train, I think we have the Lawry's hooked.

Friday Gary and Dan were going to ride, were being the key word, we woke up to a very windy day, the guys decided they didn't want to battle the wind.  We did some shopping, lunch at the Thunder Canyon Brew Pub  then back to the coach for Mexican Train.  Charlene bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco and made a salad.  Then more Mexican Train. We said our good-byes, they are leaving Saturday morning to go back to Bend.  10 days can sure fly by. 

Saturday we got caught up on chores, we leave Cactus Country RV park for Davis-Mothen Air Force Base for 3 weeks.  In the afternoon we took our defaulty new smoke detector back to Walmart.  On our way back we spotted a sign for Purple Heart Park, we'd been up and down the road many, many times and never noticed.  At first it didn't look like much of a park, but it had an aquatics center, several baseball fields and best of all a great dog park dividing the small and large dogs.  We also picked up a geo cache.

Sunday, moving day, we first went to church service at the club house, we enjoyed Fred's sermon last week.  He amazed us by remembering

our names.  A funny thing happened, when he learned we were going to Davis-Mothen, he mentioned a friend of his was leaving the base this morning, maybe we'll get his spot, 124, sure enough we are in space 124.  We packed up after church, drove 18 miles to the base and were settling in by 12:30.  You can't make reservations at MD FamCamp, we were afraid we might have to go to overflow until there was an opening, we were pleased to get right in.  Last spring we were in 121, nice and close to the dog walking area and dog park.

Monday Gary and I rode about 4 miles along a nice bike trail, picked up several geo caches along the way, later took Luci on a long walk down to the main gate of the base.  There are several airplanes on display near the entrance, you could walk right up to them and even touch if you desired.  After a late lunch we went to pick up our mail at General Delivery in the main post office in Tucson, we were meeting Nancy and Larry Lewis at 6 for dinner.  Having some time to kill we ended up at a local tavern.  What fun!  Shannon, the bartender introduced us to all the people at the bar.  Brian had sent us some Seattle papers, of course big news, (if you didn't know) THE SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!  We showed them to her and she passed them up and down the bar.  Most everyone there was a Seahawk fan.  It was nice to see Nancy and Larry again, they own the bike shop Gary frequents.  They bought our dinner since we missed their annual after Christmas party, we did get a phone call that night, they were talking how they missed Gary so decided to call.  It was 2:30 our time, so we phoned the instigator at 8:30 our time, it went to voice mail.  Later we did get a "thank you for the wake up call" e-mail.  I don't think she was serious, thanks Julie, it was good to talk to you.

TTFN Gary and Pam
Photos from top to bottom: plane at Pima Air Museum; plaque at Presidio; view of Arizona Desert Museum; squirrel at museum; Luci and I at a statue along turquoise trail and the "Thud" an airplane on display at gate entrance.

Forgot something

I don't know how I could forget!

THE SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leaving Texas

Saturday January 11th, after 3 months  we are on our way out of Texas.  We've been gone 4 months now, that is so hard to believe.  Harlingen was our farthest destination, now we've made a U-turn on our way to Arizona having traveled over 3500 miles.  On our way north we noticed several large cemeteries, filled with flowers, looked like Memorial weekend in Salem. 
We'd planned to boondock our first night on the road at Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, Tx. over 300 miles from Harlingen.  It seemed simple enough, usually there are many signs.  No, not in Eagle  Pass, we drove clear through town without seeing it, we didn't know the name of the casino so it was hard to give "Miss Sally" (our GPS) an address.  Well we finally found the name and address only to keep running into closed roads due to construction.  We were really pushing to get to the casino in time to catch the last part of the Seahawk game.  At last we were parked, poor Luci, we rushed her outside to tinkle, took her back to the coach and ran to the casino.  I get so nervous watching the games on TV, I pace, holler, hide my eyes, etc.  At the stadium I was more relaxed even in close games.  At any rate they won the first of two playoff games.

We left early Sunday morning for Ft. Stockton, Tx., another 300 plus mile drive.  As we drove north we saw several border patrol SUV's, along both sides of the highway they have gravel roads that the border patrol drive dragging tires behind them.  We assumed it was to make it easier to see new footprints.  We also spotted an observation balloon, they are unmanned, about one eigth the size of a blimp,  (Give or take a little)  North of Del Rio, Tx we passed over the Pecos River, it actually had water.  Gary being the history buff, spotted a sign for Judge Roy Bean historic state park in the town of Longtry.  He was a law enforcement in early Texas.  The center was new and very well done with a desert garden, the best part was free admission.  Across the street was a RV park with a burned out motor home and another old trailer.  The sign said $20.00 per night, maybe on our way through next time. (Not)
We arrived in the Ft. Stockton Walmart to spend the night.  We were the first RV to pull in, we went to a restaurant for dinner and a little football, when we got back two more expensive motorhomes pulled in, they were traveling together, parked door to door, put out tables, chairs and BBQ.  By the time we went to bed three more had arrived, all expensive rigs. On the other side of the parking lot about 4 trailers and 5th wheels had pulled in for the night.  The "jerk" next to us started up his generator at 10, just as we were crawling into bed, and ran it for several hours.

Monday morning we started our last leg into Las Cruces, NM.  Along the way we switched from Central time to Mountain, only an  hour ahead of Pacific time.  We stopped for lunch at Camping World in El Paso, the city is a lot bigger than we remembered, our last visit there was a nightmare, maybe we blocked it out.  The same two RV's from Ft. Stockton that were traveling together pulled in beside us.  After three days on the road we made it out of Texas, we are going to spend 3 nights in Las Cruces NM., we stayed there last spring and enjoyed the area.

Tuesday morning we decided to take a nice hike, all three of us needed to stretch our legs.  We chose the Bar Canyon hike, it was only about 4 miles with 800 feet elevation climb, with a waterfall at the halfway point.  We didn't make it quite to the waterfall we weren't quite sure how to get there, no loss, there wasn't any water.  On the way up we looked for a geo cache off the trail a bit near a couple of large boulders.  Luci scaled one of them twice, almost straight up.  What a monkey.  Last spring we found a pizza parlor that had delicious pizza.  Of course we forgot the name, so we went searching the general area,  After an hour of cruising we found it CLOSED for business.  ARGGGH!

Wednesday we spent the day cleaning and doing laundry so we wouldn't have to while the Lawry's were visiting us in Tucson.

Thurday we left early (for us) for Tucson.  I wasn't too popular with Gary, I directed him to a gas station with cheap gas, after we were past the point of no return, he realized there wasn't room.  So we had to disconnect Jeep, fill up, then hook back up again.  Whoops.  So we didn't leave quite as early as we'd wanted.  We passed over the continental divide (going west this time) 4583 ft elevation.  We got to the exit for our RV park around 2:30.  Again I wasn't Gary's favorite person, I'd left out a digit on the address to the park on Miss Sally.  We drove about 8 miles too far through road construction.  He turned into a residential neighborhood that was pretty tight but was able to turn around without disconnecting.  Finally arrived at Outward Bound RV park.  The spaces are a little small but a very nice park.  Dan and Charlene who are staying in a nearby hotel, came over about 5:30, we had adult beverages then went downtown to a brew pub, good food good company.

Friday morning was clear and warm, we went out to Saguaro National park for a hike, supposedly 2 miles long with 60 feet elevation change.  We got off course, hiking up a steep wash with sandy bottom.  Needless to say we got quite a work out.  We found a cute little Mexican restaurant close by.  We sat outside in the mid 70's, our server was a lot of fun.  Gary found a geo cache on the way back on a bluff overlooking the valley.  There were several cell towers that looked like tall saguaro cactus.    In the afternoon we taught them how to play Mexican train then had dinner here.

Saturday the guys wanted to go to the Titan Missile Museum south of the city. 54 missiles were built during the Cold War.  In 1987 the last of the missiles were retired, only one remains.  Charlene and I went shopping in the little town of Green Valley.  We drove south to Tubac, an artsy community, for lunch.  We took Luci out to lunch for the first time, we sat outside in, of course, a Mexican restaurant.  She was a very good girl, surprised us!  We came back to the coach, I BBQ'd triple tail that we bought in Rockport.

We had a lovely day Sunday, at 9:00 the four of us went to church service here at the park.  Fred the pastor, a retired Navy chaplain had a good message with a lot of humor.  We needed to check out a few details at Davis-Mothen AFB so we took them on a tour of the base then  had lunch after at an In and Out, our first on this trip.  We needed                                                                                                 


                       

                                         

to burn off a few calories so we walked along the Santa Cruz Riverwalk.  One of the sights you can't miss in Tucson is the Mission San Xavier Del Bac which was founded in 1783.

Monday morning we took Luci to Petsmarthotel for a day of doggie day camp, we headed off for Tombstone and Boot Hill.  We walked through the shops, had a nice lunch at the historic Crystal Palace.  Gary and Dan went through the County Courthouse Museum.  We picked up Luci at 5:00 and headed home to crash.  This "touristing" is hard work.

TTFN
Pam and Gary

Photos top to bottom:  Texas visitor center, El Paso; RV park in Longtry; Judge Roy Bean Historic State Park; Gary and Luci hiking in Bar Canyon NM; Dan and Charlene at Saguaro Nat'l Park; fake cell tower cactus; Mission San Xavier; Dan swinging in Tombstone; crazy street musicians; historic bar at Crystal Palace and gravesite in Boothill.

Operator error

WHOOPS!  Last week my unedited blog went out instead of the finished draft with pictures.  "Something" went wrong, that something being me.  Here are a few pictures that should have been included.
TTFN Pam and Gary        Fancy restroom in rest area on way to Harlingen

                                                    Gary in front of Iwo Jima

                                           
                                            End of road on SPI geo cache in gate

                                         
                                          Sea turtle at rescue facility

 
                                          Picture especially for Gerry Brown

                                         South Padre Island

                                         
                                         Fishermen returning to shore

                                          Port Isabel Lighthouse

                                          Pelicans

                                          Causeway to South Padre Island

                                          Gary the pirate

Rockport and Harligen

Saturday I went with Gail, Marty and Gail to the quilt shop in Rockport, I've been here over a month and this was my first visit.  Gail, the only non-quilter in the group is quite the knitter though.  I am looking for patterns for Patti, graduating senior and Nick and Sam who will be married 3/22.  After we took in several shops then having lunch at the Apple Dumpling Diner, they make all their own bread and pastries.  Delish!
While I was gone, Gary and Luci went to the dog park with Bob and Sharon, our Pegs and Jokers friends with their 2 dogs.  When they arrived here they had a travel trailer and a 1/2 ton pick up truck.  They are "newbie" rv'ers too.  Feeling a bit hemmed in with little storage they bought a 40' fifth wheel and a 1 ton truck.  The model they wanted was in Houston (4 hr drive) so they had to go up there to sign papers.  The dealership delivered it to them at the Bayview RV Resort. Very nice.
After dinner we went out for our daily (atleast) geo cache then went to Copano Bay to watch the sunset.

Our day began very early Sunday, Gary's phone rang at 2:30.  The owner of Scott Cycle have a "I survived the holidays" party.  They were missing us at the party so they decided to call.  Sounded like everyone was having a fine time.  When we got up at 8:30, we decided to call Julie, the instigator of the late night call.  (6:30 PST)  It went to voice mail.  Later in the day Julie texted to say thank you for the wake up call.
We did prep work for our move to Harlingen on Wednesday.  At 2:00 we went to the ice cream social followed by a couple of games of Pegs and Jokers.  We play girls vs boys.  Pegs and Jokers is a lot like Aggravation, played with cards and boards with holes sort of like a cribbage board.  The object of the game is to go around the boards to get "home" sometimes landing on other peoples pegs sending them back to start.  Because of that, you never sit by your spouse, sometimes they get "cranky" being send back several times.

Brrrrr, Monday morning it was 32 degrees and windy.  Gary takes Luci out first thing in the morning to potty, I stay inside and drink coffee.  We had a mountain of laundry to do.  Our site in the park is right across the road from the laundry room, it was full so we went to town.  I had 7 loads to do, it's nice to do all the loads at once except for the "going to the Laundromat" part.

Double brrrr, Tuesday it was 31 degrees with the same nasty wind.  It did warm up pretty fast though we were able to get the outside things put away for our departure.  At 2:00 we played our last games of Pegs and Jokers, this time Steve and Marty joined us.  I forget the final score of girls vs boys but the girls rule!  After we went to Panjo's pizza for a going away party.  The pizza was really good.  We said our good-byes and hugged all around.  Will sure miss everyone.

Wednesday we finally left Rockport about 11:30, just as we finished hooking up the car it started to rain and continued most of the way.  About half way between Rockport and Harligen we stopped at a rest area for lunch.  We visited the restrooms, very fancy tile work.  We pulled into the RV park about 4:30 with a very dirty car and coach.  Palm Gardens RV park was the first built in the area about 1920.  It started as a Mobile home park, growing over the years to include RV's with over 900 spaces.  Luci has been enjoying the dog park, lots of buddies to play with.

Thursday we decided to check out Harlingen, our first stop being the Pro Bass Store.  Truly amazing, they have a large fresh water aquarium, a bowling alley, restaurant, clothing, fishing and hunting supplies and boats from kayaks to large ocean going.  We took in historic downtown, a classic car museum  and the Iwo Jima memorial.  The memorial took 3 years to cast, is 32 feet high with a 75 ft flag pole.  One of the six men in the memorial was a local Rio Grande River Valley.

Friday morning we took Luci to doggie day care (thank goodness for ddc.)  It took about 45 minutes to get to South Padre Island.  We drove to the end of the island geo cacheing along the day.  For only $495,000 you can buy a lot on the Gulf of Mexico.  In town we stopped at Sea Turtle Rescue.  It was started by a lady, who on her own cared for sea turtles that were injured.  People in the area took notice, helped out financially and now is a charitable organization.  Most of the turtles are able to be re-released except for the ones that wouldn't survive in the ocean.  One turtle, Gerry is quite a star, he's been on Johnny Carson.  He can't be released because he's too social.  Originally his name was Geraldine but at age 15 they found out she was a he.  The largest turtle they have is about 200 pounds, he lost a couple of fins due to a boat motor, many, many of the turtles there have lost fins due to tangling with fishing line.  We had lunch at Island Brewing Co. (where else?) There was a 3 panel picture, at first glance I saw ocean kelp.  Actually it was 5 right handed men sitting at a bar, Gary noticed they all were holding their steins with their right hands.  You really had to look to see them.  Fun.  On our way back we stopped at Port Isabel lighthouse on the mainland.  You won't believe this but we have that lighthouse in our collection.  We picked up Luci, they only charged $9.00 including a nail trim.  What a deal.

We leave in the morning for our 3 day journey to Tucson.

Christmas and New Years in Rockport Texas

Rockport/Fulton Texas are thriving communities, populations of 8700 and 1300 with an elevation of 6.  The economy seems strong here, driven by fishing and tourists,  you see very few empty storefronts.  They remodeled a quiet street of historic old buildings and turned them into shops and art galleries away from the "business" part of the cities.  Unlike our Oregon coastal cities that are just one tourist trap after another. The area is known for the twice yearly bird migrations and artist colonies. If you know of a traffic engineer, they could use one down here.  You usually hit every light red on your way through the town, the side traffic triggers the change.  Arggghhh!!!
  HEB is the only grocery store chain we have seen since Buffalo Gap.  There are no Safeway, Albertsons or anything else.  You can pick up a few things at the gas station convenience stores.  Of course there is a Wal-Mart everywhere but I don't usually think of them as grocery stores.

One thing that has intrigued us since we have been here is a sign "Belt Sander Races" the 1st and third Saturday of each month.  We recently found out they really do race belt sanders.  Tomorrow we will be going to our first belt sander contest.  Who Knew?

Christmas eve at the club house we had a appetizer potluck happy hour followed by the steal and grab gift exchange with a $10.00 limit unisex gift.  I took a bottle of my favorite wine, full intending to steal it back (in the true spirit of Christmas), would you believe someone took it from me? Christmas morning we drove into town to make phone calls to our kids.  We ended up in a cemetery, a little weird but good cell service.  Christmas dinner was another potluck with the RV park supplying the ham.  There are a lot of good cooks down here.  After dinner our little "group" played Pegs and Jokers again, the girls winning hands down.  The day after Christmas I spent 4 hours in Urgent Care with what turned out to be an ear infection, haven't had one of those since I was a kids.  People all around me were coughing, sneezing and spreading germs everywhere.  So far so good, I haven't come down with the nasty stuff they were spewing.

The fun thing about geo caching is you end up in places you more than likely wouldn't go.  We were out by the southern end of Copano Bay, big  fancy houses seemingly built in a wetland.  I cannot imagine during a hurricane or storm surge that they wouldn't flood.  Cheaper homes in low lying areas are built on stilts with the living area upstairs. Sounds like more money than brains.

New years eve there was another appetizer potluck with live music and dancing.  We were surprised we made it to midnight, first time in quite a while.  On New Years day we had  dinner at the clubhouse.  Followed by a couple games of Pegs and Jokers, the girls are whomping the guys.
Sunday after the Ice Cream Social we played a few more games, women again triumphant.
It's a good thing we are leaving here Wednesday, we'd have to buy a few wardrobe.

We had to go to Corpus Christi again, we desperately needed vacuum cleaner bags, Rockport isn't big enough to have a Miele dealer in town.  After we took care of business we went to the "shoreline" area.  There's about a mile of beaches with continual steps (or benches) we aren't sure what to call them.  There are 3 "T's" with marinas and high end restaurants. We got a bite to eat in a little pub right on the marina.  Corpus is really a pretty little city.

TTFN  Gary and Pam

Photos top to bottom:  Sign that caught our eye; Christmas eve gift exchange; singing Christmas Carols; Pegs and Jokers buddies, Bob and Sharon & Gail and RJ; photo Gary took on a bike ride down Fulton Beach Road; Rockport pier and beach; and a boat coming in from the gulf, note expensive homes across the way built on canals.