Time travels at supersonic speed here, so does the F-35

Joan outside our trailer

  Time doesn’t just fly around here, it flies at supersonic speed. Good golly Miss Molly, the season is nearly over. In fact, this will be the last post from here until we get on the road for the long trip home. More on that later.

   The past two weeks have been filled with fun, a little rain, but mostly good weather and the activities that signal the rapid close of our winter away.

   Joan is nearly finished with her volunteer service at the health clinic and I have just three more table and chair set ups in the final week before I am done with my service here. I have one more Bible study session to teach Thursday night and my Men’s Bible Study breakfast on Thursday morning. (March 28).

   We also have only one more concert – a Righteous Brothers tribute – this Wednesday. The two recent Wednesday concerts were a Neil Diamond and Glen Campbell tribute that were both quite good. The guy doing the Glen Campbell tribute didn’t look anything like him, but his voice was good and so was the music. The guitar player was fantastic.

   The guy who did Neil Diamond looked very much like him and sounded like him as well. The concerts have been very good here this year.

Upper Cliff Dwellings view

   We missed a Meet Me at Maynard’s trip and I missed my Tuesday hike because of more rainy weather here in Tucson. It has been a very unusual weather year here in Tucson.

   During this time we also had dinner with a former colleague and her husband – Jane and Chuck – who also come to Tucson every year to enjoy the weather and outdoor activities.

    We spent our last week with Roger and Jessica who by now are well on their way back to Michigan. We miss them very much, but before they left we spent a wonderful day with them on our annual wine tasting trip through the Sonoita Wine Country south of here.

Me at the lower cliff dwellings

    Joan and Jessica did some serious tastings and we each came home with more than a case of wine. We had a lovely dinner at the Copper Brothel Brewery Restaurant on the eve of their departure from Voyager.

   The Apaches invited Joan to return to San Carlos, Arizona to enjoy another free night’s lodging at the Apache Gold Casino and Resort. They also gave us an additional reduced rate for a second night so as a respite from living in the trailer we took them up on the offer.

    They also gave us discounts on food so that was good too. This time we didn’t do very well in the casino so they got some of that “free” lodging money back.

   On Sunday (March 17- St. Patrick’s Day) I decided instead of spending my day inside the casino that I would take a hike. Well, on Saturday morning just before we left Voyager (after saying good bye to our friends Roger and Jessica who left Sunday morning) I called the rangers at Tonto National Monument to see if I could get on the once a day 3-mile guided tour of the Upper Cliff Dwellings at the Monument.

Looking up at dwellings

   Usually you have to book weeks in advance to get a spot but lucky me a group of four had just cancelled for Sunday and they penciled me into the spot. It is not a tremendously difficult hike, just a 3-mile round trip and only 650-feet of elevation, but it was a beautiful day and the ruins were great.

    Before starting on the guided tour I took a quick trip up (350-feet of elevation in a half mile) to view the Lower Cliff Dwellings. Only 15 people a day, on only four days a week between November and April are permitted to make the hike to the Upper Cliff Dwellings.

   The dwellings were home to the Salado (Salt River) people more than 1,000-years ago. They built these dwellings in the side of a cliff where a naturally occurring cave was. About 40-60 people lived in these upper dwellings and life had to be tough. Water came from a natural spring that is in the canyon 650-feet below the dwellings and it had to be carried up in great volume every day, mostly by the women. Men were kept busy hunting and gathering food.

Wildflowers on trail

    There were other dwellings in the area, but the upper and lower dwellings are the only one that survived over the centuries. The engineering of the caves and dwellings was pretty advanced and you can feel the temperature fall as soon as you step out of the sun on the trail into the dwellings. It’s about 15 degrees cooler in the shade in the summer and it’s warmer in the winter.

   The ranger who led the hike was very interesting and made the trip up very informative. I took a lot of pictures, but I’ll just put a couple here.

    The view from the dwellings was outstanding and we spent about an hour at the top. We were on our own for the trip down the trail, but I stopped often to admire the wildflower explosion on the hillsides. The wet weather here has created an unbelievable super bloom of wildflowers. California is experiencing a similar “Super Bloom” unlike anything I have ever seen here or California before.

     Once down the trail and back in my car I headed back to the casino to meet up with Joan for dinner. My brother-in-law Denny kept me up-to-date on the progress of the Michigan State versus Michigan Big Ten Conference game which MSU eventually won. So a great day all around.

Frank's birthday hike

    For some reason our room didn’t get made up and the housekeepers had all gone home after I arrived back so we made do with our Saturday towels and sheets.

    Joan was able to enjoy her annual corn beef and cabbage dinner as that was the special in the casino restaurant that night. On Monday we returned to Voyager and shared Meet Me at Maynard’s with our friends Joan (Joe – Ann) and Bob. We had dinner at Elliott’s Restaurant and enjoyed some laughs.

    The hike Tuesday (March 19) was a birthday hike for out 92-year-old friend Frank. Yes, Frank the one who I had to patch up twice on hikes this year because he fell. He is a very active 92-year-old and we wanted to have at least one hike with him this year where he could rejoin our group.

"Heritage Flight"

     We hiked up Sabino Canyon on the pavement and had a small birthday party at the end of the paved road with Frank. There were 22 people on the hike – the most we’ve had on any hike this year. After the party a few folks went back on the road with Frank while 17 of us hiked up to the Phone Line Trail and came back that way.

    With all the water coming down the mountain from the snow on top, we had to wad through ankle deep water on 8 water crossings on this hike. Most of us took crocks or other water type shoes, but some stopped at each crossing removed shoes and socks and waded bare foot through the ice water.

F-35

   On Wednesday we enjoyed the annual Volunteer picnic which the park puts on to reward those of us who volunteer our time and talents for activities in the park. Wednesday night was the Neil Diamond tribute concert.

   On Thursday, we attended the special Volunteers' dinner for those of us who are involved in setting up tables and chairs, working in the kitchen or the sound booth. The Wednesday picnic services 400 volunteers in the park and the Thursday night dinner only served 80 of us.

    Thursday brought my last Men’s Bible Study (except for the breakfast) and then the second-to-last Thursday night Bible Study. On Friday Joan had her last Women’s Bible Study and then her last afternoon Friday polymer clay jewelry class. For the first time in a while we had a quiet night at home Friday night.

    Saturday morning, Joan went to her aquacise class and following that we headed to the “Thunder and Lightning Over Arizona” air show at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. We and just about the rest of Tucson headed to the base about the same time and it took us more than an hour to go the two miles to the parking area on the base.

    We missed a couple flying performances but got there in time to see the “Heritage Flight” which included Air Force jets from several eras. An F-86 from the Korean era, An A-10 Thunderbolt (also known as the Wart Hog) which has been in long time service, an F-22 and an F-35, the newest fighter jet in the Air Force arsenal.

The Thunderbirds "Star burst"

    Following that we saw an A-10 Wart Hog demonstration and a solo demonstration of the F-22 and the F-35. The F-35 literally climbed out of sight over the Air Force Base almost straight up. It is a very powerful airplane that has capabilities that make it look like it is standing still at times in the air.

    Then it was time for The Thunderbirds to perform. They delighted everyone as always and then we walked the flight line and looked at many of the airplanes that were on display on the tarmac. The show only comes to Tucson every two years, so it won’t be back until 2021.

    We came home and had a wonderful steak dinner and enjoyed another quiet night at home.

The Thunderbirds

    After church on Sunday we headed to downtown Tucson to see “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim” at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in Tucson Music Hall. We bought these tickets last month and the show was terrific.

   The three singers, Debbie Gravitte, Hugh Panaro and Anne Runolfsson, all have serious Broadway props and brought down the house with their vocals. Hugh sang a number of songs but as a former Broadway lead in the Phantom of the Opera, really killed the Phantom section of the concert. Anne Runolfsson has won a Tony award and the other woman has a long resume of Broadway hit performances.

    Technically, our 20^th anniversary is not until April 3, but we made this our celebration as we will be on the road traveling during our anniversary. We had dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grille and then came home.

   So it has been a full couple of weeks, with plenty of wrap up activities this week so we will talk again from the road.