Scottsdale visit with cousins

On Saturday we went to Sam's Club and bought a memory foam topper for our mattress so that we can hopefully sleep without pain. The mattresses in campers are not that great. We then found a place that sold Tonneau covers and they took our truck topper on consignment- YEA!  We ended the day with a hike in the desert. 
Sunday morning we left early to drive to Scottsdale (near Phoenix) to visit my cousin John and Peggy.  It took 2 1/4 hours. Not much to see on the way. Pretty flat and boring although mountains on both sides.  They made a wonderful brunch for us and we enjoyed visiting with them.  After brunch we took a hike into the desert reserve just north of their subdivision.  Nice wide trails and hilly, scenic terrain.  The dogs enjoyed it too.  Lexie was able to stay out of the cacti. Temp got up to 82 on the way home.  We got back about 5:30 and made brats on the grill. Sue and Ed came over with salad and dessert. 
Monday morning Kirk left to get the 5th wheel hitch on the truck.  It turns out that Camping World sent the wrong camper from Lubbock so we will have to wait a few more days to move in.  I finally made it to water aerobics- there were about 15 people (men and women) and it was a good workout.  Afterwards went in the hot tub before returning to the camper to shower.  Cloudy day today- it may rain. May see a movie- there are several we've been waiting to see.

Nan, John and Peggy

Quail in John's back yard

Desert reserve in Scottsdale

New Camper coming, Italian food galore!

On Wednesday morning we bit the bullet and bought a new Montana High Country Fifth Wheel Trailer (305RL).  It should come in from Lubbock, TX next week.  It has several features we are missing on our current travel trailer: a double refrigerator, larger shower, theater recliner seating, and more storage in the kitchen area than we have now.  After living in ours for over 3 weeks now we have realized that those things were very important to us.  There will also be much more floor space for the dogs since there are slides on both sides of the living area. 
Wed. night we went out to eat with our friends Ed and Sue- the place recommended to us (Roma's Italian foods) was just closing so we bought a loaf of French bread and they told us to go to Rocco's Chicago pizza place. It was great- small and cozy but great pizza.  We will definitely make it back to Roma's.  They have a deli/Italian grocery in the front and seating in the back.
Did some laundry Thurs. morning before we took Lexie and Ole to get a bath at a kennel on the east side.  They said it would take up to two hours so we went to the eastern branch of the Saguaro National Park and hiked until they called us to pick up the dogs.  They smell so good and look great!!   On the way back we stopped at Roma's for a sandwich to go and bought a frozen sausage, mushroom, and spinach cannelloni for supper.  It was great with a salad and the French bread we bought last night.  We took the dogs to the Tucson Mt. county park for a hike before dinner.  Tried a different trail this time.  Pictures of the sunset the other night and the park today are below.  The high today was 60- cooler but with jeans and a sweatshirt it was perfect.  Sunny as always!

Camper shopping and beautiful sunsets

No luck at bingo this week but the ham/bean soup was wonderful.  On Friday we went to an RV show at the county fairgrounds with our new friends Ed and Sue.  We found a hardly used 2014 Montana 5th wheel for a good price but needed to think about it. More on that later. We also went to a little cantina for a fish fry with Ed and Sue- cute little place with great food. I had tortilla chip encrusted baked tilapia which was great and it came with a salad, roasted veggies and rice pilaf.  The others had the cod fish fry and they said it was good.  There aren't many places around here that have fish fries.  We also had prickly pear cactus flavored iced tea which was different.
Saturday there were five javalinas in the park during the day- one walked right past our camper. They are really ugly and apparently not afraid of humans.  Saturday evening we went to Mt. Zion Lutheran Church- nice friendly ELCA church with a huge window behind the altar facing the mountain.  Since it was sunset time it was beautiful watching the mountain change colors.  It was a typical service only with contemporary music.  It felt good to be back in a church. 
On Sunday morning we went back to the RV show and the camper we liked had been sold. We didn't find any others we liked so we stopped at Camping World on the way back to town.  The salesperson (Paula) was from Edgerton- she works at the Madison dealership in the summer.  There was another Montana there that we liked even better than the first one, however we found out once we got home that it is longer than Kirk would like so we decided against it).  After the Packer/Seahawks game (good game, bad ending) we took the dogs up to the desert to hike- temp reached 80 at 4:00.  We were able to see the sunset out there, will post pics later- connection is too slow to download them..  Stopped for groceries and then came back to camp to make hamburgers.  Nice weekend!

Kitt Peak Observatory

After spending time in the clubhouse we left about 11 to go for our daily hike in the desert.  We are still looking for variety so we kept driving west on Hwy. 86 and decided to go to Kitt Peak National Observatory west of Tucson.  It is the largest  collection of optical telescopes in the world.  Before we headed up the mountain we walked the dogs on a dirt road for a ways. The highest peak is at 6768 ft. and the temp was 44 degrees at the top and windy!  We weren't dressed for that!  We spent some time in the visitor center looking at the displays (missed the tour) and then we let the dogs out at the picnic area which is where I took the attached photos.  UW-Madison was one of the participating universities that use the observatory.

 Looks like a very interesting place- we'll have to go back!  We did stop at the Tucson Mt. park to hike with the dogs on the way back, then stopped at Tiny's (a real biker type bar) to quench our thirst before returning to the park- they have good food, we've heard so we will return.  Tonight we will have ham and bean soup at the clubhouse before bingo. Maybe I'll get lucky again! High today was 67 but we are supposed to get high 70's over the weekend.  The sun is wonderful and hiking in the low 60's is perfect.  We did see a coyote today on our hike.  Second wildlife sighting!

Javelina excitement and Mission San Xavier

Early Wed. morning we had some noise outside our camper. When I asked my brave husband to investigate we discovered a javelin (wild pig) trying to get in the dog food bin that we keep under the camper. It has latches so he was unsuccessful.  Our first wildlife!  We took a short drive to the Mission San Xavier just down the road and took the free tour.  It was beautiful- built in the late 1700's and is under constant renovation.  After the tour we visited the little café outside and had Indian tacos- made with fry bread instead of tortillas. We had prickly pear cactus juice to drink.  Everything was very good! A strange thing- on the way out of the "town" a young man was standing by the road with a hand made cardboard sign that said, "Get out well (sic) you can!" and he was shouting at us also.  Really weird.  Our RV park is on the reservation and the homes in the surrounding area are very crude with broken glass all around.  There is a school at the mission that has 135 students in grades 1-12.  Wonder what kind of education they receive.

Nan's in a winning way!

Thursday it rained lightly all day- what a surprise since the prediction was 10-20%.  We grocery shopped and then drove down to the Desert Diamond Casino to buy our tickets for the Oak Ridge Boys concert in Feb.  In order to get the 10% discount we had to sign up for their players' club.  We each got a free play card- mine was for $100 and Kirk's for $10.  We had to put money in a slot to find out how much they were worth.  We came out ahead about $65 so we quit.  Since we were in the money we decided to stay for a sandwich.  Food was good and reasonable.  Back at the camper we made some soup for supper and then went to Bingo at the clubhouse.  About 50 people were there so each game was worth about $26-27.  Each game cost us $1.00 for 4 cards each and I won one of the games so we made money again.  They also had snacks for sale- huge bowls of ice cream for $1.00! We had a good time. On Friday we went to the pot luck supper and met some nice folks who are full time RVers.  There was a good selection of food- I brought calico beans.  On Saturday we did our daily hike in the Tucson Mt. County park - it got up to 70 and was quite pleasant again.  We had planned to go to an RV show but decided to stay at the park so Kirk could watch football.  Went to the clubhouse to Facetime with the kids. Good to see them!!

Madera Canyon- real trees!

This morning we spent some time in the clubhouse using the office internet connection which is much better than at our site.  We were looking for an eye doc to remove Kirk's cataract. It's starting to bother him more.  Still working on that.  Left park about 11 and drove south on 19 towards Green Valley.  We didn't really drive around there, because we followed a sign to Madera Canyon (part of Coronado National Forest).  There was grass (brown) and trees, and we followed the road up to the end which was at 5400 feet elev.(Mt. Wrightson Wilderness)  There was snow on the ground in places and parts of the road were icy (still from the New Year's Eve snowfall). Temp at the top was 65 degrees. There were a couple of cabins to rent, and a cute B&B.  Must really be busy in the summer- there were quite a few hikers today (old folks like us)!  We stopped at a picnic spot and had lunch, then took the dogs hiking on the mostly paved trails that followed a mountain stream which they loved, esp. Lexie!  Saw Arizona Live Oak, sycamore, and Alligator Juniper trees (very scaly bark).  We found a dirt road that led to rustic campsites so we walked that road for a bit, then came back- total hike about an hour.  On the way back from there we stopped at the Desert Diamond Casino to check on tickets for the Feb. 7 Oak Ridge Boys Concert.  Back in Tucson we drove over east of the airport to check out Crazy Horse Campground. NOT nice.  Came back to park and I swam while Kirk took dogs for a short walk.  High today was 77 degrees but very windy.  Partly cloudy, there is a front coming up from Mexico but it's unlikely it will rain. Don't forget to leave a comment- I don't have to publish them but that way if you have a question I can answer it!  We are NOT missing the super cold weather back home- although feeling a bit guilty for being able to avoid it.  Stay warm friends!

Tucson Mt. Park and Saguaro Natl Park Hiking

Monday 1-5-15.  Lovely day today- got up to 72.  We took the dogs to Tucson Mt. Park for a hike- followed a horse trail.  We did see three people on horses on a different trail.  Dogs stayed close by and pretty much stayed on the trail.  Lexi did get some stickers in her paw which Kirk was able to remove easily.  This is a nice park and I'm sure we will be back as it gets tiring to just walk in the area behind the park. Just north of this county park is the Saguaro National Park.  We stopped at the visitor center and got some advice from the volunteer of where to hike.  Very pretty views and tall saguaro cacti everywhere you look!  Didn't have any lunch, too busy hiking.  There is an unpaved loop which we took and let the dogs get out and walk a little bit on the road.  It was pretty rough traveling back out the north end of the park.  Got back to the campground and relaxed outside for awhile.  We are going to the clubhouse tonight to see a musical comedy duo called Laughing Bird.  Should meet some more people there.  So far we haven't been around enough to socialize too much.  Everyone we have met is really nice, except the neighbor who was playing loud music outside this afternoon.  Guess she thought we all have the same taste in music!

Beach Boys and bumming

First a report on the Beach Boys' concert Sat. night at the convention center. It only took us about 20 minutes to get downtown and we found it with ease.  We got there so early we had to stand outside in the cold for half an hour waiting to be let in.  Our seats were in the last row on the floor- there were plenty of empty seats but when Kirk booked them online he wasn't allowed to see a seating chart so we had no idea.  It actually worked out pretty well- most of the people in front of us moved so we had a clear view.  The music was great- they played all the favorite BB tunes. New members of the band (drummer, lead guitar, etc.) were very good. I think the 3 original guys were lip-syncing, myself. 70+ year old men do not sound that good. They were usually the ones on the large screen.  We left right after the last encore and got out relatively quickly- in bed by 11 p.m.  Enjoyable night!

Sunday morning we went to the non-denominational church service in the campground. There were about 20 people there, and it was more like a bible study than church.  The pastor used the King James version of the bible, and had a good message but it took him 40 minutes to say it!  We will probably try a local Lutheran church next week.

We left the dogs behind to go shopping and decided to take a look at the Tucson Mountain Park on the west side of town.  It's a nice area, with a campground and picnic areas.  We will come back with the dogs to hike as there were many trails. High of 63 today, no jackets for the first time. We watched the Lions-Cowboys game on TV and Kirk made hamburgers on the grill for supper. We had above freezing temps overnight.  Full moon- lovely sight coming up! 

Coronado Natl Forest trip

Still freezing overnight, we have to disconnect the water supply at night. Maybe this is the last night for that. Yesterday we shopped for supplies, checked out the local casino, and did laundry.

This morning we took a drive east of Tucson on 10 to Benson, then went south on 90 to Karchner Caverns State Park which abuts a portion of the Coronado Nat. forest.  Temps were in the hi 30's but we got warm quickly hiking up hill.  Nice variety of cacti.  Kirk said all the snakes are sleeping so we let the dogs off leash.  They didn't wander too far.  We hiked about an hour, then ate our picnic lunch before looking at the displays in the visitor center.  There are two different cave tours but they each take 1 1/2 hours and you need reservations.  We will have to come back with Joe and Nancy.  We took a scenic route back along state roads 82 and 83.  lots of grazing land and very hilly country, looked like elk habitat but we didn't spot any.  There was a border crossing station, we got approved to go ahead.  They seem to have them on all north-south roads.  

Got back to our site about 4:00, and we will be going downtown tonight to see the Beach Boys in concert at the Arena. We are looking forward to 50's tomorrow! We know it's been cold at home- sorry to hear that and don't mean to be complaining here.  It's so nice to see the sun and not have to wear boots, hats, mittens! Our internet connection is poor here in the park- had trouble using Facetime last night.  We may need to rely on email more to stay in touch.  Miss you and God bless you all!

  

January 1- arrival in Arizona

We leisurely got up and had a cold breakfast- Kirk walked dogs while I showered.  It was a mostly sunny morning in Las Cruces- 27 degrees and calm. Kirk washed the trailer and truck while I walked dogs again.  Really nice morning but still needed gloves on.  We left the campsite about 11:00, the temp had risen to 44.  Sun feels good in the truck!  We missed our exit to get fuel while looking at a very long train and nearly ran the tank dry. Luckily we had one last chance in NM to fuel up and get some lunch at the adjoining DQ.  While we ate there were snow showers.  Reached the AZ line and the scenery got more interesting- mountains on both sides of Hwy. 10 with traces of snow on them.  Roads are fairly good and not much traffic going west (lots of semis going east).  We got to Tucson and Mission View RV Resort about 4:00 p.m.  Checked in and got set up in site 398. Lots of room- and a view of a mountain of sorts.  Almost missed taking my first sunset picture, which happens about 5:30 here.  We warmed up some lasagna for supper and finished the wine from last night.  It's supposed to freeze again tonight but we are cozy inside.  Met our neighbors from Duluth, Russ and Karen who seemed very nice.  We will get acclimated to our surroundings tomorrow and maybe do some laundry.  Hardly seems possible that this is our life for the next three months!  There are activities going on every day- I will try to get to the water aerobics in the morning- meets 3 days a week in the indoor pool.  (Am I this old??)

Campsite at Mission View