Friday - March 28, 2008

Today was another hot sunny day, the weather sure has been nice but for me these temperatures are just a bit too hot.

We decided to tour the Desert Museum today, what a wonderful place and so interesting. It was a hot day to do the tour, but we don’t have a lot of time to wait for a cooler day, so off we went – it was so hot (at one time I saw a temperature of 94F) my back was soaked under my purse/backpack and we were so glad we had water and that we could fill up the water bottle at water fountains. But, even with the heat we enjoyed the day and found it a fascinating place – definitely a place we would visit again.


Cave Demo at Park


Prairie Dog


Agave


Cacti


Javeline (Pronounced Havelina)


Saguaro with Interesting Arms (Pronounced Swaro)


Lots of Saguaros


Totem Cacti


First Sprout


Organ Pipe Cacti


Another Agave


Flicker In Agave

We were wiped when we got back so we both had a nice nap then I did laundry – another job done for a bit. We have now finished dinner and John did the dishes so that was nice. Janet and Dave arrived home this week so we called to see how their trip home was, Janet said it was good except for the fact they had a blowout on a trailer tire in Sacremento – not fun. I hope to get this posted and call it a night as I am still drained from all the heat and sun today.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Thursday - March 27, 2008

Wow, one day behind on my diary and I feel like I am a week behind! John managed to get all the upgrades on Ginny’s computer but when it came to doing the Apple Care there were some personal questions so he took it back this morning and told her where it was at and felt she could go from there with it. He said goodbye to them as they were leaving today and wished them a good trip. I wasn’t presentable when they left but had said goodbye last night and we hope to meet up in the spring at home.

Today was another beautiful day so we decided to drive up Mt. Lemon, what a scenic drive and it was so interesting to see the change in vegetation the higher we climbed. We went to Summerville where they are building a lot of new, beautiful, chalets then continued to the top of the mountain and the ski run. We took the T-Bar lift to the top of the ski hill - what a beautiful view. This morning I was kind of mumbling about how hot it was, well, this afternoon we were freezing on the ski lift!! Fortunately we had jackets in the truck so our upper bodies were warm but with both of us having worn shorts today we found our legs quite cool – okay we warmed up quickly when coming back down the mountain and by the time we got back to the bottom we had to turn the a/c on in the truck. Today was our day for getting our snow fix for the year – we saw it and said “thank goodness we didn’t have to deal with this stuff this winter!”.


Looking Out Over Tucson


Saguaros


Ocotillo In Bloom


A Sad Looking Saguaro


Pretty Flowers


The Thimble


A Pretty View


Another Pretty View


Neat Rock Formation


Arizona Snow


Another Neat Rock Formation

We couldn’t believe the number of bikers going up the mountain, sure do give them a lot of credit as it would be a real hard climb. Coming back down there was a fellow on a bike flying down, we couldn’t catch up to him until we reached the bottom! I would be petrified about falling off my bike at that speed as I don’t think it would be a pretty picture if that should happen – they sure have more nerve than I do.

By the time we got home it was time to think about dinner – where does the time go! And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Wednesday - March 26, 2008

Our Trailer at Desert Trails RV Park

Today was another beautiful day so we decided to tour the Old Tucson Studios; www.oldtucson.com, this is a movie studio that was built in 1939 for the movie Arizona and then after WW11 it became a very popular movie set and many movies have been filmed there, mainly westerns. Movie stars from John Wayne to Leonardo DiCaprio have used this studio for their movie setting so there is a lot of history. This studio was also used for filming Gunsmoke and Little House on the Prairie and the mountain you see in the background of my picture of High Chapparal is a familiar sight in many movies.

When we got there we took a guided tour and learned about the history of the studio and the many actors and actresses who had been on set there. During the day they have a number of live shows so we saw the Miracle Elixir Show (a comedy), The Great Tucson Bank Robbery (terrific acting), Cowgirl Up (a Musical) and a couple of short films – Remembering John Wayne and Where Legends Walked. We also took the train ride around the studio so saw it from the back and toured all the buildings. They had a haunted mine tour which was quite good, all in all an interesting day.

The morning we were leaving Yuma our neighbour told John that when we got here we should buy a Tucson Passport for all the attractions so I went on the internet to check it out and it costs $15 and there are a lot of attractions that are pay one admission and get the second free with the passport. There were also numerous places listed where the passport could be purchased and the studio was one of the places so we bought one yesterday and we saved $3 just on the Old Tucson Studio yesterday so it has already paid for itself.


This Mountain Will Be Seen In Every Movie Filmed Here


One of the Studio Buildings


Another View


Miracle Elixir Show


Scene from Bank Robbery

When we got back Gil came over and asked us over for a drink. He was feeling much better and they are leaving in the morning so one last visit. Ginny has a Mac laptop so asked John if he would mind helping her signing up for the Apple Care so I came back to start dinner while he did that, John turned up shortly with her computer and said there were a lot of upgrades that needed to be done and they would take a couple of hours, at least, to do so he brought it back here.

We had just finished eating when Ginny came to the door with a couple of pieces of pecan fudge pie for us – yummy. At that point her computer was still saying 2 hours left for the upgrades.

It is now 11 p.m., I am dead tired and cannot get on the internet so am going to bed. Last night was one of my no sleep nights, I was still awake at 4 a.m. so am fading fast tonight. Ginny’s computer is still doing the downloads so John will stay up until it’s done (hopefully not a lot longer!). I will have to wait until tomorrow to post this as I can’t get on the internet and I am too tired to spend time trying to get on.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Tuesday -March 25, 2008

This morning we walked over and introduced ourselves to Ginny and Gil and had a nice visit with them for a while.

After that we decided to drive Gate’s Mountain Pass that they had said was really nice and it was a beautiful drive and the scenery is stunning. We can’t believe how green everything is here and there are so many blooms, absolutely gorgeous and our park has all kinds of beautiful gardens with cacti, it is certainly different from Yuma. We are fascinated with the Saguaros and there are so many of them here in the Tuscon area, there is a huge one next door to us and the birds are constantly flying in and out of the holes they have made for nests.


Looking West From Gates Pass


Lots of Saguaros


Another View


These are Pretty to Look At But DO NOT TOUCH!

After driving over the pass we tried to find a Wal Mart and couldn’t find one but did find a Wal Mart Neighbourhood Market which seems to be a new thing, it is groceries, beer, wine and a pharmacy but as I was just looking for groceries it did the trick.

When we got back John started to put up the ExpressVu but it is a job to be finished tomorrow. This evening Gil and Ginny came over for a visit and we really enjoyed their company, unfortunately Gil wasn’t feeling well so he went home early but we enjoyed our visit with Ginny and found all kinds of things to talk about. It is always nice to meet new people and among other things discuss where we have been and where we are going, usually we all pick up some new tips.

It is late so I will wait and post this in the morning, my bed is calling me.

Monday -March 24, 2008

Today was another beautiful, sunny day and quite warm for traveling – thank goodness for A/C in the truck! We got away from Del Pueblo shortly after 10, on the way out we had to stop and pay the final electric bill - $11.52 for 23 day, guess we can handle that, and John wanted a bag of ice to put down the toilet, we have read this is a good way of cleaning it when you are traveling so thought we would try it. We had a good uneventful drive to Tucson, about 415 km and arrived at the park shortly after 3:30.

We had planned on staying at Justin’s Diamond J RV Park but in the last week I have been in e-mail contact with a co-worker of my sister-in-law and they happened to be staying at a park next door and she had e-mailed that they had checked out Justin’s and the sites are bigger but the park they are in has a pool and Wi-Fi, that was enough to change our minds so we are now at Desert Trails RV Park in Tucson. I was having withdrawl symptoms thinking about a week or so without wi-fi and a pool!! John picked a spot with a little park and pond behind us and there is water running into the pond so it is nice to hear the sound of water once again; once we got set up here we went for a refreshing swim and we have wi-fi so I am a happy camper!! Hopefully tomorrow we will meet Gil and Ginny and thank them for telling us about this park.

It is amazing the difference between here and Yuma, Yuma is all desert whereas here there is so much greenery and flowers – like night and day difference. When we were at the pool a couple of people pointed out a Great Horned Owl who had made a nest in a palm tree at the side of the pool and had her babies there. It was quite something to see her just sitting there guarding her young, apparently the male has a nest not far from hers. We couldn’t get a glimpse of the babies – darn, but sure had a good view of mom.

I am tired tonight, don’t know why but I find a day on the road tiring. Today I indexed all the states and provinces with tabs in our new Trailer Life Directory – another job done and a good one to do while traveling but it certainly wasn’t taxing!!

There is no cable TV here so tonight we are using the atenna and tomorrow John will see if he can get ExpressVu set up; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Sunday -March 23, 2008

Happy Easter everyone, hope you all had wonderful Easter dinners and enjoyed your day.

Today was a scorcher, the high I saw was 97F (33C), just a tad too hot for my liking, but there was a nice breeze so it wasn’t uncomfortable and we still haven’t had to resort to turning on the A/C. Today John got the truck packed up and ready to roll in the morning and I got things put away and organized inside, hopefully we are ready to roll but after sitting for so long it is hard to remember what all has to be done. John checked the tire pressure etc. on Friday and amazingly they were still good after sitting in the heat for 4+ months.

We talked to Kel, Mike, my mom and my sister today, as well as our friends Mike and Marg so got caught up on all the news.

I went for my last swim here around 3:30 and the pool was quite busy for a while but I did end up being the only one in for a while so managed to do some lengths. Sure have enjoyed the pool once it warmed up enough to want to go in.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner tonight, we thought we would use the last Christmas GC from Nan & Carl and it would be a nice way to spend our last evening in Yuma. We were surprised that it wasn’t real busy, we only had to wait a couple of minutes for a table, but once we were seated it was a different story. After almost 15 minutes I got a gal’s eye and she asked if we had been looked after so I said no, we had been there about 15 minutes so figured maybe we were invisible. She apologized, said she would look after us and also talk to the manager, then she proceeded to take our order. Within a couple of minutes the manager came and apologized and said we would be looked after; from there the service was wonderful, the food was excellent and when the bill came the amount owing was $0.00!! We thanked the young lady for her wonderful service (also left her a very nice tip) and thanked the manager on the way out and said we would certainly return next year when we come back to Yuma. Needless to say John and I were very impressed and surprised, I don’t think you find this kind of service very often. I know the night we went to Logan’s and the food and service were so terrible all we heard was sighs from the waitress, it goes without saying that we will never go to Logan’s again. We now will be able to look forward to another dinner at an Olive Garden on the way home.

With the satellite dish put away we are watching cable TV tonight, the movie Geronimo is on so I have one eye on that as well as doing this. Now that we are going to be back on the road we will have to get used to not always having wi-fi and probably not cable TV too often and we will only set up the satellite if we are staying more than 2 nights someplace. On the other hand, we are looking forward to seeing and exploring new places on our way home and being “On The Road Again”.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.