Flat tires, a former Broadway star and some online frustration

A 1913 Model T on the road

Arizona roads and my Tahoe’s tires are apparently in a war with each other. On Sunday, Joan wanted to spend a couple hours at another Indian Reservation attraction – the Casino del Sol – and I wanted to do a little shopping so we headed out after church.

I dropped Joan off at her favorite Native American cultural center and I headed to the Target Store to take advantage of a $16 cargo short sale. After picking up a couple pairs of shorts I stopped at a nearby Starbucks to pirate the Internet there so I could post on the blog. Remember the vomiting puppets? I thought you might.

We had dinner at the casino and then we headed home. Joan started with $200 in her purse and she went home with $217 so not a bad day for her.

Water on the Patagonia Trail

On Monday I headed off for a new hike. The drive to the trailhead was nearly as long as the hike but on the way we spotted a Model T caravan and stopped at a rest area to ogle one of the cars. The owner of the car said he has never taken it to a car show, but prefers to take it on long road journeys.

The Model T one of 126,000 built in 1913 (imagine a 100-year old car?) was in very good shape. The owner had modified it so that it had a more modern electric start and halogen headlights as the old lights were tough to keep running and to replace.

An abandoned mine along the trail

After about 10 minutes of looking at the car we were back on the road headed to Patagonia – the trailhead location – and a trip down a portion of the Arizona Trail.

The easy hike group had its biggest attendance of the season and that was with three of the regulars missing. We had new folks from Idaho and the State of Washington on the hike.

This portion of the Arizona Trail ascends up from Patagonia using an old jeep and mine trail and is part of the 800-mile famous trail that starts at the Mexican border and continues all the way to Utah. It is similar to the idea of the Appalachian Trail but obviously the terrain is very different.

An Arizona Trail marker

On this section of hike you can see the remains of former mines, prospectors were looking for gold, silver and copper and also get a good look at the back side of Mt. Wrightson, the high peak that I have hiked twice.

Some of the hills are pretty steep and were a challenge for some of the hikers although we all made it up and back safely. Our lunch stop was a very nice tree-shaded spot by a small creek that had water from snow melt flowing through it.

Considering all the high temperatures of the last week we were pleasantly surprised to find so much flowing water along the trail.

Another abandoned mine

On the way down we crossed paths with two “thru” hikers. These are folks who have taken a couple months off from their normal life to hike the trail from start to finish. There are stores and supply stops along the way so you don’t have to carry everything with you at the start.

One young man (46 is young to me) was carrying a pack with 40 pounds and was very happy to find that there was flowing water in this part of the trail. If you have the proper filters you can safely drink the water.

As I mentioned it was a long drive, which includes a Border Patrol inspection station, and we didn’t arrive back at the Voyager Resort until well after 3 p.m., which meant I didn’t have time to get cleaned up and take Joan to the store. We both opted to have me clean up rather than go shopping.

Meet Me at Maynard's check in at the Congress Hotel

Monday night we headed to downtown Tucson for “Meet Me at Maynards” again and had a great time. I took a couple photos of the gathering at the Congress Hotel. This hotel boasts a stay by the infamous gangster John Dillinger.

After we learned we lost the raffle we headed to dinner at El Charro’s but it was extremely crowded and the wait was an hour so we opted for another restaurant, the name of which currently escapes me.

One of the desired t-shirts you have to earn

On the way home we stopped at the store so Joan could do her shopping.  For unknown reasons our cable is currently out at the park, a situation that apparently only affects the people living on 9^th Street. I tuned in our over-the-air antenna on the trailer and we got a very good signal from some local network stations so we got to see the news.

On my docket for later today is to call whoever runs the parking garage where we had the car parked for Meet Me at Maynards. We checked into the garage at 4:59 p.m. and out at 7:12 p.m. The first hour is free, the second hour is supposed to be $2 and the third hour another $2.

Heading up the trail to Bog Springs

The stupid machine charged me $7 to park. We called the afterhours complaint number and all they said was call the in hours complaint number, which we will do today. As I told Joan it’s not so much the money as the principle of the thing. At previous Meet Me at Maynards we paid $5 to park and now I am thinking I got ripped off then too.

OK, just call the call back from the garage. Because I punched in at 4:59 p.m. the first hour was free until 5:59 p.m. Then for that one minute I got charged $2 for the next hour. Then when the clock ticked 6 p.m. I was then charged the flat $5 fee for night time parking.

Of course I pointed out that I was actually charged $2 for one minute and actually charged for parking in the daytime and nighttime. I plan to call a local TV station to make them aware of the gouging going on in a local public garage.

Gotta have the rest stop "Thumb's Up" by Jim

I won’t even try to describe here what is going on with our new hot spot and the extremely poor customer service provided by Straight Talk. It would take three pages to describe the frustration of dealing with a foreign telephone call center and trying to explain the problem. For now we are using the park’s hot spot to do our Internet business.

OK, here’s one issue. The customer service representative told me that to repair my broken hot spot they would “e-mail” me a Fed Ex certificate so I could mail the item back. When I reminded them that I had no Internet and couldn’t read my e-mail, that concept seemed difficult for them.

I made it to the top too.

Of course I could go to the hot spot in the resort, but then I would have no way to print the FedEx document.

On Tuesday I headed out for yet another hike I had never done here in Arizona. The “hard” hike group headed to Madera Canyon (same place you find the Mt. Wrightson trailhead) and we met at the Bog Springs Trailhead. (Last week was Bug Springs, so an amazing coincidence, eh?)

One of the great views from the trail

This is a difficult hike both up and down. Up because there is an almost constant uphill climb, in some places on a very steep and narrow trail. We lost one hiker in the first mile because this was his first hike of the season and he was no prepared for the lung capacity needed at the start altitude which was 4,500 feet. The summit of the hike is nearly 6,500 feet, so a 2,000-foot elevation change in just about 2.5 miles.

The hike does afford some outstanding views of the Green Valley and Suharita area and from some of the higher points on the hike you get a wonderful view of the Pima Copper Mine Tailings ponds that we visited just last week.

We lunched it our turn around point which was Kent Springs. We had a snack stop at Bog Springs, the point the trail was named after. The trail is very wooded in spots and we were surprised to see as much running water as we did considering the warm winter we have been having.

Did I mention it was steep coming down?

After about ½-hour lunch break we started the trip back down to the parking lot on an extremely steep jeep road. And when I say steep I mean in some parts the rock and gravel trail is at a 40-45 percent grade which makes footing very difficult.

A couple folks slipped and fell, but there were no serious injuries or bleeding.

The hike took about four hours and was a very satisfying hike. I’d love to do it again, but maybe in a couple years.

Joan spent the day cooking and making a delicious apple and Baby Ruth salad for the Tuesday evening potluck and we had a pleasant time meeting with our new friends there. I was ready for the meal after the day’s hike.

We love Market Daze

After the dinner I collapsed in my chair and slept through most of NCIS and Chicago Fire.

On Wednesday morning I was up early and got in an hour workout at the fitness center.

Back at the trailer I picked up my computer and took it to the ‘hot spot’ and found a couple frustrated folks there complaining that the wifi was not working. I tried my computer and they were right, it wasn’t working.

Remembering a fix I had used at home, I boldly walked to the modem box, pulled the plug and then re-plugged it in and voila! the modem reset and we were back online. They thought I was a computer genius and I didn’t tell them anything that would change that opinion.

Rick, the general manager, led the Doo Dah Parade

After Joan returned from her aquacise class she got cleaned up and we headed to Market Daze, the second to the last one in the park. Found another couple trinkets we couldn’t live without and bought them.

On Wednesday night we went to the concert in the resort -  “The Gershwin Songbook” - which was very good. Jack Neubeck and Rebecca Carlson were the lead singers in this Lonely Street Production and both have previous impressive credentials.

One of the parade entries

Jack Neubeck has performed more than 2,500 times on Broadway including parts in the original productions of “Evita” and “La Cage aux Folles” He has CDs and has a very professional voice and a great stage presence.

On Thursday, I attended my Bible Study and then we attended the 1 p.m. lecture at the resort. An FBI agent spoke about Internet scams and Identity Theft. It was a very interesting talk and one that left you wondering if there was anything you could do to protect yourself from people who want to steal your identity.

Who let the dogs out?

Basically, the FBI agent said the best thing you can do is continually check your accounts and make sure you check for small charges that you didn’t make. Apparently identity thieves are making a fortune charging small amounts on a large quantity of credit cards hoping none of us will notice small credit charges.

After the talk, we piled into the car and headed to a nearby shopping center to get haircuts and Joan got her nails done. After which we did a quick grocery shopping excursion and then returned home for dinner.

Friday morning started with a workout for me and aquacise for Joan and then the first of two big events of the day was the “Doo Dah Parade” in the resort.

The softball team entry

Our friends and neighbors dressed up in strange costumes and rode through the park putting on funny exhibitions and generally enjoying themselves.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the trailer “basement” a storage area under the bedroom part of our trailer. This will save me some time later in our stay as we prepare to head home.

The biggest event of the day was the “Voyager Night at the Races” Friday afternoon in the ballroom. In addition to the senior citizen Pinewood Derby, little homemade wooden cars raced on a sloping wooden track, there were many food vendors from different activity groups at the resort.

A lot of good "sheets" in the parade

We had the rib dinner put on by the wood shop folks, but we also had root beer floats from the Bocce folks.

The races took about two hours and some of the cars were very creative and fun to look out.

Now there’s a few lingering notes that I have forgotten to write.

Recently we watched a show and they referred to a person as a “King pin.”  If I could do my life over I would just like to once be referred to as a “king pin.”  Hopefully an honest “king pin” if there is such a thing. Just sounds like a cool title.

The crowd waits for the racing to begin

When we heard the Tohono O’odham lecture the speaker told a funny story about the origins of the name “Pima” Indians. The Spanish coined the term when the most often verbal response they received from the Native Tohono O’odham was “pima.”

The term Pima was then applied to the Indians, but what was funny is that in the Tohono O’odham language the word “Pima” means “I don’t know.”

During a presentation at Pima Community College one of the students said to the speaker: “I guess that means I go to “I don’t know” Community College.

The track

We’ve been so immersed in Native American culture recently I think it has affected Joan’s speech patterns. In referring to a terrorist suspect she mentioned that perhaps he would be tried at: Guam a Tomo, by which I think she meant Guantanomo Bay. 

She has also invented a new word ‘boomarooni’ which she claims she has used all her life. I think it has to do with the noise made when something is dropped, but I could be wrong.

Today we are going to a huge event at the University of Arizona - The Festival of Books. We hope to pick up a couple sign novels or non-fiction for the Family Literacy Center auction.