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!