Phoenix

We've just settled in at Colorado River Oasis RV Resort on the Colorado River at Eherenberg Arizona, just off I-10 heading towards Los Angeles.

For those of you who asked I've included a picture of our new home, am still trying to find where I put things.  You'd think it would be easy in about 500 sq. ft.  Not.  I still don't recognize it when coming back from a walk, I notice my car before the MH.

Phoenix as many, many dry rivers, the great thing is most of them have paved multi-use trails running along side.  We found a string of geo caches along the New River, the minimum space between caches is .10 mile, we found 7 along the New River making it about a mile and a half walk.  Luci enjoys every minute of our geo cacheing.  We put a tracker on her when we were in Ft. Sam Houston, she walks half again as much as us.  The RV Resort has a little café, Fat Freddies, so we stopped for lunch before going back to the coach.  Signs on the wall say "never trust a skinny cook", we never saw Fat Freddie so don't know for sure if he is plump.  My baby sister Laurie came to dinner, I fixed BBQ'd lamb chops (for the first time ever) that turned out perfect.  She's been sick with the "crud" for a couple of weeks.

Lauri made an appointment for me with her hairdresser, it was in Chandler, clear across metro Phoenix, I asked her how long it would take to get there, an HOUR, changing freeways 3 times.  The salon was quite large, the stylists were all private contractors, it was fun to be in that atmosphere again, you'll find all kinds of "looks" on them, from purple hair with tattoo's all over to conservative.  Candyce was fairly conservative. The hair cut is nice, a little shorter than usual but "it'll grow".  Gary drove me, (thank goodness) while I was getting my hair cut he surprised me by getting the car washed.  Lauri had told us about a brew pub in the area that was supposedly the "best in the world" so off we went.  It was "OK" but by far not the world's best.  We called Gary's much older sister to wish her a happy birthday.  They are getting ready to drive Route 66 in their 50's something Mercury with another couple, they are planning to be gone 6-8 weeks.

As you know Phoenix is a mecca for baseball spring training.  We decided to go to Surprise Civic Center to pick up another string of geo caches, thinking Saturday would be a good day no one would be around.  Wrong, right next to the Civic Center was a huge park, including a dog park.  We did take Luci in for a while.  As we walked around we ran into the stadium where the Royals and the Rangers play their games, talk about bad timing.  We really had to be in our stealth mode so no one would "muggle" the cache.  We picked up 15 caches, atleast these were in a circle so we didn't have to retrace our steps.  When we got back to the park we rode our bikes around, bonanza, I found a park model home giving away oranges and grapefruit.  They were pretty good except for the seeds.

Sunday we went to church service in the park.  When we got back I changed our itinerary, to shorten the miles we have to take to Salem, originally we were going to be in Yuma but now we are slowly making our way north up the Colorado River then across to I-5,  We should be in town by the 14th if all goes on plan.  We had Lunch with Lauri at the Rockbottom brewery, there are several in the western states.  It was good, Lauri was starting to feel better but still not eating much.

Monday we cleaned the new coach for the first time.  I was a little "ticked" that the dealership hadn't cleaned to excess glue off the tiles.  Later we went out to the White Trunk Mountains to do a hike.  We took the waterfall trail, only about 2 miles in and out, of course there was no waterfall but the rock formations were beautiful. We had  dinner with Lauri and Alyssa, my niece, at Richardson's, a New Mexican cuisine restaurant.  Delish, double delish! The best guacamole I've ever eaten.  It had been two years since I saw the two of them in San Diego for Lauri's 50th BD with our older sister Judy who lives in east San Diego county.  After dinner we went to see the  house she is buying,  built in 1958  mostly re-done, it's really cute.  Of course it has a pool.

Tuesday we realized time was running short to see and do the things we'd wanted to do (same old story) First thing I did was call to wish our granddaughter Alyssa a happy birthday.  I can't believe 25 years ago we spent the night at the hospital awaiting our first grand child's arrival.  We enjoy playing mini-golf, on our way to dinner last night we spotted a large amusement park with a mini golf course.  After lunch we left to play golf, I won by 2 strokes but it was quite a close match.  Gary and I both had a "hole in one" and another we both stopped counting at 10 strokes.  The weather has been so beautiful everyday we've been here and this day was perfect.  After our competitive game of golf we went to the Desert Botanical garden, truly an oasis in the middle of a huge city, a must see for every visitor to Phoenix.  Like the park in Tucson, you would never know you're surrounded.   The park is exclusively for the arid plants and people of the Sonoran Desert.  I love the desert, raised on the Oregon coast that seems odd, but especially the rugged mountains and the saguaro cactus.  We were especially lucky, Dale Chihuly, a northwest glass blowing artist had sculptures all through the garden.  We walked through the trails in the afternoon then after another beautiful Arizona sunset we walked through again to see the sculptures lighted.  My question is how did they put them in the hard arid ground?  Some look like spikes or poles with no visible holder.


We left Phoenix Thursday morning for Ehrenberg Az, right on the Colorado River.  The manager must have liked us, she put us in a space that backs up to the river for the same price as the smaller spaces away from the river.  We have a grassy area that runs down to the beach.  Are we lucky or what?  We're going to be here for three nights before heading up to Lake Havasu.

Enjoy the pictures, I got a little carried away selecting them.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

                                          Gary reading  to Luci

                                          Sister Lauri and niece Alyssa

                                          Our new home

                                         Mini golf course

                                          Gary lining up for a shot

                                         Me celebrating my hole in one

                                          Gary celebrating his hole in one

                                          One of the Chihuly sculptures at Botanical Garden

                                          Moon cactus

                                         Sun dial in park, can you see what time it is?

                                         Hut of the O'odham people

                                          Another Chihuly sculpture in boat in pond

                                         Starting to see cactus in bloom

                                          Raven on top of a saguaro

                                         Old Man of the Andes cactus

                                          Sunset at the Botanical Gardens

                                          Gary and Luci, happy hour, her with a stick, Gary with a drink

Free lunch

Our month plus here in Tucson has just flown by, seems like all of a sudden we have so many things we would like to see and do before we leave for Phoenix.

First of all, let me tell you there is no free lunch.  A couple of weeks ago we went to two RV dealerships just to "look", we were surprised no salesmen chased us down.  I guess we weren't dressed well enough.  Then the following week we heard about a free BBQ lunch at LaMesa RV so we thought "why not" no one pays attention to us.  The lunch was "delish" perfectly prepared BBQ'd chicken with salads and a homemade cookie.  On our way out we made the fatal decision to go way in the back to look at the used motorhomes.  I guess we dressed well enough, two salesmen in a golf cart came along to give us a ride.  Our Rockport friends will understand, we pulled a Bob and Sharon.  At the end of the day we ended up purchasing a new 40 ft Discovery diesel, with a washer and dryer.  Now I'm going to miss the camaraderie at the Laundromat. (NOT). So remember there is no free lunch.

After our little trip down to LaMesa RV we resumed our exploration of Tucson while waiting to take delivery of the new, as yet unnamed coach.  We took Luci down to Michael Perry Park, bike and walking trail along the dry Pantano River, we've done a couple of other sections before, it is just a delightful walk.  We picked up several geo caches along the way adding to our total of finds.  On the way back to base we stopped at a small car show at a Baptist church parking.  Cool cars and my fav, a '56 T Bird, when I win the lottery that will be my first purchase.  We had happy hour with our neighbors, Sam and Sigi from Olympia, Wa.  Luci especially likes Sigi, she gives her treats.  They have two long hair orange kitties, George and Tommy, every now and then one escapes.  We will miss them, they are leaving for Bisbee tomorrow.

Several miles outside of Tucson there is a mountainside cave, Colossal Cave, discovered in the 1880's.  Gary took the tour while I took care of Luci, good excuse, caves are not my favorite.  According to the tour guide, bank robbers hid out in the cave while the posse waited at the entrance not knowing there was another exit.  The robbers made out with the loot while the posse waited outside the cave for three weeks.  In 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps enlarged the entrance and built a large rock building for tours.  After, we had a picnic in a nice grove of different kinds of trees, very picturesque.  On our way to the cave we passed an old cemetery, decided to turn around and check it out.  We also picked up a g.c.  We have new neighbors, Dana (retired AF pilot) and Candy from Colorado, a fun couple to share happy hour with.  We invited them and couple beside them for champage Friday night  to toast our new home.

Moving day has arrived, we emptied as much of the basement as we could to leave on our spot at the base to lighten the move.  We took Luci to day camp for the day to keep her out of our hair.  After a two hour "walk thru" we started moving.  Whew,  what a job, not only the work but deciding where to put everything was a challenge.  We worked on it all day, then spent the night on the lot. I had to go clear across town to pick Luci up and be back by 6.  We needed some "tweaking" in the morning.  It was a little strange being on the lot after everyone had gone home and locked the gate.  Our "celebration" was scheduled for Friday at 4, followed by a Valentine's party at the base. 
Friday, while they were futzing with the coach we went out to Catalina State Park northwest of Tucson in the Catalina mountains.  I'd like to stay here sometime, they were all booked up because of the Gem and Rock show.  There are several trails, we chose one that took us up to the Romero Ruins dating back to 500 AD, it still amazes me how they know these things.  We picked up the coach to take it back to base but didn't get back  Valentine's Day until about 5, so we missed our own party.  Dana and Candy came over but Tom and Mary had to leave.  We toasted the coach then were getting ready to go to the party.  It was the wrong day, the party was the 12th.  So we had dinner with Dana and Candy in their Airstream trailer.  I hadn't had lamb chops for years and Gary didn't remember ever eating them, they were "delish".

We had to take the coach back to the dealership for some more "tweaking", had to leave base by 8:30, thank goodness for reveille to get us up and about.  After we dropped it off we went up to Sentinel Peak park, known as the "A" mountain.  In 1915 an engineering student at the UofA decided to put the rocks in a large A, every year since students repaint the rocks white.  We climbed to the summit, what a view of the Tucson area.  We picked up a geo cache then rearranged the rocks into an "O" and painted it yellow.  We can't go back there again.

Our last day in Tucson started early, we wanted to switch the satellite system.  They changed out the "dome" style for our dish, it works better for multiple TV's. (We have 3, one is outside)  We took Luci and went out to Kitts Peak Observatory about an hour west of Tucson.  The road takes you from the desert floor to 6800 plus feet in twelve miles.    The Tohono Indians leased several thousand acres to the National Optic National Observatory.  There were two tours available, I took the tour into the 2.5 meter telescope and Gary took both including the 4 meter telescope.  I wish I could remember how many tons they weigh.  There are 24 telescopes on the mountain peak.  While Gary was on his tour, Luci and I walked down to the solar telescope.  There were two eyepieces, one showed sun spots and the other shows the flares, several times large than the earth, there was a poster on the wall that showed earth compared to the flares, again how do they know these things?  On our way home we picked up the coach and said goodbye to LaMesa RV, it seemed like that was our second home, we'd spent so much time there.

Wednesday Feb. 19th we left Tucson for Phoenix to visit my baby sister.  It's only about a two hour drive to Paradise RV Resort located in Sun (Sin) City.  We were settled in by lunchtime.  A very large park with mostly park models.  Seems a bit cramped after being on Davis-Mothen for over a month.  So far we are not impressed, there is a dog area, we assumed just for pottying, but no we walked around the park and got yelled at for having a dog out of the area.  Other than that, it has a lovely pool, tennis courts, shuffleboard, woodshop, sewing room etc.  There are many planned activities, we noticed they have Pegs and Jokers once a week.  Lauri made an appointment for me to get a hair cut with her hairdresser, it's pretty scary walking in to a salon without a referral.

TTFN
Gary and Pam




                                           Old graveyard outside Tucson

                                           Entrance to Colossal Cave

                                           Stalagmites in cave

                                         Cool saguaro

                                         View of cave entrance from picnic area                                 

                                         2.5 meter observatory

                                         Inside 2.5 observatory

                                         Several of observatories on Kitts Peak

                                         Inside 4 meter observatory

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Operator error

My technical skills are just amazing!  I'm always hitting the wrong button and things go astray.  Atleast this time I'd saved my blog.

Lastly, I wanted to tell you about David-Mothan AFB, it was established in 1925, named after two generals, Davis and Mothan, imagine that.  After WWII they started to mothball planes and aerospace vehicles from all branches of the armed forces here.  DM was chosen because of the arid climate.  There are over 4500 planes on 2650 acres.  The planes are from 747 size  down to small helicopters and everything in between. We are so blessed to be able to stay at military base rv parks, they are safe, secure, clean and well kept and very affordable. The RV park here is quite large with two areas for overflow.  They don't take reservations here so if all the spaces are full you go to overflow.  Since the Gem show is going on some nights there are 30-40 rigs in overflow but they say it just takes 3 or 4 days to get a permanent spot.  Besides storage here at MD they train pilots, it is so fun to watch the A-10's (Gary says they are fighters) fly over in formation then split apart, either diving or go straight up.  The C-130's (cargo planes) fly very low over the park, they are a 4 engine propeller plane, reminds me of WWII movies.  7am is reveille, some mornings it gets me out of bed and some days I manage to sleep through.  At 6pm there are colors followed by the National Anthem.  Everything stops, if they are driving, the airmen get out of their cars and salute.  God bless our military.

TTFN
Pam and Gary                  An A-10  flying over the base

                                          A Saguaro amongst a dead tree

                                         We saw this avid recycler downtown Tucson

                                         Barrell cactus, always lean to the south west

                                        We call this  fuzzy cactus

                                         Fountain at Tohono Chul Park

                                         Another gorgeous sunset

                                         Some of the mothball fleet

                                         After the big win, balloons on the mirror

                                           Exhibits at Mini Time Machine museum

                                        

                                          Top heavy house

                                         Dogs playing poker

Davis-Mothan AFB

First of all let me say "THE SEAHAWKS WON THE SUPER BOWL"  Who'd a thunk it?  What a fun game for Seahawk fans.  We went to Alj's Tavern the little local bar we have stopped at a few times, they are so friendly "Norm" comes to mind.  We were outnumbered by Bronco fans, at first they teased us, apologizing for beating Seattle.  Well the foot was on the other shoe!  After it was apparent we were going to win they started high-fiving us.  Lots and lots of free food.  Gary almost won the football pool for one quarter but Peyton scored a TD just as time ran out.  Bummer.  We brought the Seahawk balloons home, we tied them to our mirrors.  At any rate the win was a long time coming, poor Seahawk fans have been through thick and thin over 40 years.

Monday, Feb. 3rd, the start of our sixth month on the road.  Time has just flown, neither one of us are ready to go back to Salem. Gary and Larry took a nice long bike ride, Tucson has some amazing bike trails.  There is a pedestrian/bike overpass that looks like a rattlesnake, Gary said when you go through it the tail rattles.  I think I'll pass.  After he got back the three of us walked several miles along the Patano River trail, the river is dry as all of them seem to be.

Thursday, Feb. 6th, we took Luci to doggie day camp, we headed out for Tohono Chul Park, it is a desert preserve that educates visitor to Tucson about the arid land, native species and SW traditions.  The park must have been out in the country when it first opened but now the city has grown all around, you would never know, the trails take you down so all you can see is desert scape.  We had a nice picnic along one of the trails.

Friday, Feb. 7th we went to the Mini Time Machine Museum, named because from room to room it transports you from the 1700's to present. The miniatures, most of them in houses, are amazing, what talent and creativity.  In my case, I'd never be a miniature artist, my hands are too clumsy.  We went to lunch at Thunder Canyon Brewer, when we were there with Dan and Charlene, Dan ordered the Mt. Olympus salad, it looked so good I had to have it. Yum Yum Yum.  After lunch we met Larry over at the Rock and Gem Show to pick up a bike.  We went through several tents, there are probably over 40 venues all over Tucson, there were rocks from all over the world plus tables and tables and tables of beads.  One geode, cut lengthwise was put in a metal sculpture that looked like a butterfly about 4 feet tall, the price was over $15,000.  Who would have thought that rocks were that expensive.  We also saw a petrified log cut to be a table top. just gorgeous.  We just heard tonight that Larry and Nancy were in a nasty car wreck in Phoenix that totaled their van.  Nancy spent the night in the hospital, she is fine but is sore all over.  They were going to spend more time down in Az but now they are going to rent a car and go home.  Atleast it was at the end of their vacation not the start.

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.