Mt. Lemmon

We have been very busy this last week, we seem to be trying to cram in as much as we can before we leave Tucson on 2/27.   On Wed. we enjoyed the park's burger cookout and visited with some neighbors. Then Kirk and I went to Catalina State Park in the northern part of the area to do some hiking. It's a very nice park with a great campground that had large sites and even grass!  There had been an Indian settlement and a ranch on the property in the past and we saw evidence of both. Nice to have some variety in our hiking.  On Thursday I went to the huge gem show with a friend from the park and bought a few more jewelry items at very reasonable wholesale prices.  Thursday night we drove south to Green Valley to see Kirk's friend Dave and his wife Jane. We had a nice visit and they took us out for dinner at their golf clubhouse.
On Friday we had to take our camper to the dealer to have them look at the A/C so we then drove the 29 miles up Mount Lemmon on the northeast side of town.  There are pull-outs, picnic areas and campgrounds all the way up to the top- 9000 ft.  It was great to see pine trees! We stopped to hike a bit, avoided hitting the many bikers pumping their way up the mountain, and enjoyed seeing snow at the top at the ski hill (which was not open for skiing but there were people riding the chair lift).  There is a cute little ski village (not a bit of snow there) with some beautiful cabins all the way up the hill.  We had a giant cookie for lunch to support the local economy since the ski area has not opened yet due to the lack of snow. With the weather down here it's hard to believe they can even have a ski hill! By the way, no problems were found with the camper- guess we'll have to try again as we know that there are!!

Cold enough to wear fleece- 50 degrees!

Bad selfie from the end of the road!

Not enough snow to ski to the bottom.



Trouble in paradise with campers

Joe and Nancy arrived here on Wednesday and right off the bat things went wrong- the two living area slides will not go out on their camper.  They are able to get the bedroom slide out and have been able to use the bedroom and bathroom.  A service guy just showed up today and had bad news- they will need to move it to get it serviced as there are major problems with the wiring hooked up to the slide motors.  Since they don't have access to their kitchen (just the frig) we have been cooking for them, no problem. 
We have had issues with our new fifth wheel as well:  when Kirk tried to dump the black holding tank into the sewer, there was a loose connection which resulted in a flood (fresh water, thank goodness) in our basement storage compartment so everything we had down there had to be removed and dried out.  Then we discovered that our A/C is not working up to par.  A serviceman from Camping World came out late yesterday and fixed the plumbing and said the AC was fine- it is not doing its job today (temps in the low 80's).  Everyone in the park who stops by says that it is not uncommon to have issues with the campers but they are both new!!  Therefore, we have not done any of the fun things we had wanted to do when Joe and Nancy arrived, other than play bingo on Thursday night (no winners in our group).
We do have tickets to see the Oak Ridge Boys at the local casino tonight so that will be a bright spot in our week, other than the fabulous weather.  Kirk and I did walk in the desert this morning- it was nice and cool and we saw and heard a lot more birds than we do when we go later in the day.
Hope everyone is doing well back home- miss you all!

Here we are in front of the new camper with the sign Nan got from CESA 9.

Rain, movies and moving out and in

It rained here all day Friday and Saturday- we got to see the dry creek beds running with water.  Things are greening up already.  We went to see the movie "Unbroken" with Sue and Ed- it was very moving.  Nice to go in the middle of the day when it's not crowded and we get senior discounts besides!  After the movie we had our first Mexican food at the Little Mexico steakhouse.  Cute western decor with fake brands all over the walls. The food was good too.  On Friday we went to see "American Sniper". What an eye opener and I sure appreciate what our service people have to go through in war.  
We got our new camper papers signed on Saturday. Since it was still raining we opted to move in on Sunday.  We tried to get into one of the gem show tents but we were not dealers so could not.  We did see the Native American booths at one of the hotels.  Not too impressive- only a few sellers.  We'll try again after Joe and Nancy get here- the show runs for two weeks and there are tents all over town.
Saturday night we went to Roma's Italian deli for an early dinner with Sue and Ed.  Great food- and we had enough to bring home for another meal!! Came back and started packing up our stuff.
On Sunday morning we went to Camping World and parked our trailer next to our new fifth wheeler so we could transfer our stuff.  Our salesperson Paula helped us so it didn't take that long. Ole and Lexie waited in the truck.  After we got back and parked in our spot we continued putting stuff away.  Did not make it to the Super Bowl party at the clubhouse- we were too pooped.  Had to go buy dog food so picked up a Tombstone pizza. Unfortunately we burned it in our new oven so had to settle for salami sandwiches.  Saw the last half of the game in our camper.  We were really pooped so early to bed.
Monday was spent with little moving in projects, including going to a Laundromat to wash rugs and dog bed covers (Kirk walked the dogs while I did laundry). Sue and Ed left to go to Yuma and we are waiting for Joe and Nancy to arrive on Wednesday.  We are enjoying the new camper- it should work just fine for a number of years (we hope)!

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!