Sometimes I suck at writing or maybe I'm just good at procrastination

 

Snow in Tucson

    It goes without saying (but here I am saying it) that I have been very bad at posting during our time in Tucson this year. I could give you a lot of excuses, but then that’s just what they are, excuses. Let’s just say we were very busy this year with friends and family visitors and the myriad of activities at the resort.

   This was truly a season to remember for a number of reasons. The weather was not as good as it usually is in Tucson. This year we were on the receiving end of much of the winter weather that also visited California. In the 12 years we have been coming to Arizona we had snow twice. This year we had snow three times.

    One time we received about 3-inches overnight. Fortunately it was gone by noon.

Dad and Major

  Temperatures were cooler than usual (we never turned on our air conditioner during our three month stay). And we may have had two days where the temperatures got over 80 degrees. I had three organized hikes cancelled due to rain or a high percentage of rain. But we still had many sunny days and Joan really likes the temperatures in the 60s so this was a perfect year for her.

   One of the things we never complain about is rain. Arizona desperately needs rain and so when they get it we are happy for them. The pickleball players complain though, but then they complain about wind, court availability, line calls, new players, old players and a myriad of other things.

   This year I took on my usual Thursday night mixed Bible study, but added the coordination of the Thursday morning Men’s Bible study as well. Fortunately a number of the men stepped up and helped lead lessons, so that didn’t fall all on me. The Men’s Bible study did an in depth study of 2 Corinthians and our night study focused on the Book of Hebrews. Both were well attended and I always end up learning way more than the other people in the class.

Dad, Major, Me

Joan and Diane Bible study 

   As I mentioned hiking took a hit this year because of the weather but I still averaged two hikes a week, but due to heavy snow had to pass on a couple of my favorite hikes. Madera Canyon was heavy with snow as were the higher trails on Mt. Lemmon. As I get older I am less inclined to use crampons (spikes I add to my hiking boots to negotiate ice) and the risk of falling keeps me from trying those hikes when the trails are snow covered.

   But I did a couple new hikes this year, one very challenging one – Agua Caliente – and one more moderate hike – Quilters Trail. The Agua Caliente hike was difficult and involved many long sections of climbing. The views were tremendous and if I get in better shape, which I am working on I may give it another go next year.

Agua Caliente hike

    Joan continued her work with polymer clay jewelry classes and she found a new activity – Zoomba – which she seemed to really enjoy. She started out in the pool but transitioned to zoomba almost immediately.

Dad and Tim skydive

   One of the first things we decided after the struggles with getting the trailer up and going in Flagstaff that we are going to store the trailer in Tucson in the future. We had avoided that previously because of the summer heat the expense of covered storage, but we’re going to bite the bullet spend the extra cash for covered storage and save the extreme hassle of trying to dig the trailer out of the snow in Flagstaff.

   Not mentioned in my previous post is that we began to see evidence that our annual rodent visitors had not left the trailer in Flagstaff. With definitive evidence they were still on board, I began setting mouse traps and the body count got to 10 before the killing stopped. This is another reason we are not storing in the frozen north of Arizona next year.

Bridal Wreath hike

   

New storage

I began to immediately begin investigating storage lots and found a couple who offered the covered storage I was looking for. The closest one to us was on Wilmot Road and after calling and investigating I decided to drive over and just look it over from the outside. Lo and behold when Joan and I arrived the gate was open so we drove in to look around. There were plenty of empty spots so we began moving back towards the gate only to find it closed and locked.

    I didn’t have the code so I called back to the office and the lady I had talked to earlier and she found it quite amusing but did provide us with a gate code that allowed us to leave.  In a ridiculous turn of events we booked this place on March 10 only to find out they sold the place to a national storage company with a whole new price schedule (more than what we agreed to with the previous company) and so we had to make a quick pivot three days before our departure in April for another storage lot a little farther away. We are still in the process of trying to get back our deposit money from the original owner.

Dad and Cousin Becky

Tucson Auto museum

   This was the year of the visitors. Our good friends from Lapeer, Michigan, Bob and Karen are now making Voyager their winter home. They came and visited with us a number of years ago for lunch at the restaurant and have returned nearly every year since, staying longer and longer each year. This year they were there for two months and next year the plan is to stay for 2 ½ months. That’s why I call Voyager the human mouse trap.

   So Bob and Karen were there when we arrived on Dec. 31, but the string of visitors started in earnest in February. My 97-year-old father arrived on Feb. 18, followed quickly by my former boss and his wife, Roger and Jessica. While Roger and Jessica were there we did our annual Southwestern wine tasting tour in Sonoita along with our friends Mike and Suzy who live at Voyager.

   Wine tasting day is always fun and we ended it this year at the Copper Brothel Restaurant, which has become our traditional dinner spot for the wine tasting tour. A good time was had by all.

Voyager table and chair team

  On February 28, Joan’s sister and brother-in-law, Diane and Denny, arrived into Phoenix for their month stay at the resort. They ended up renting the same park model as our friends Bob and Karen, taking it over the day after they left to return to Michigan. A lot of landlords like to make sure they rent for three months so last year when we heard Bob and Karen were renting for January and February we contacted Diane and Denny and let them know that March was available for them.

    Because of a mixup, the landlord accidentally double booked the place with another person, but thanks to Bob and Karen we got that straightened out before Diane and Denny arrived.

 
 During my father’s stay we visited the Franklin Car Museum which I didn’t know about until my sister Pam and her husband, Jeff, found online before their visit which started on March 11. They also stayed for a week and we had a great time with them.

Me and Denny hiking

   Another visitor was our son Tim who came for the weekend of March 4. That was a truly special weekend as my father did his second tandem skydive (he did his first the previous year) and our son wanted to go with him. As before a tandem skydive is not on my bucket list so I didn’t go.

   In addition to Dad and Tim another couple at the resort, Bob and Jean, also decided to join in the jump which was successfully accomplished on Saturday March 4. We’re hoping to get Tim back for another time so he and I can do some hiking together.

    On Dad's way out of town on March 11 we stopped in Scottsdale, Arizona to meet his niece, my cousin Becky. It was great to see her after so many years.

    Two other friends, my former colleague Jane and her husband Chuck, came to Tucson but didn’t stay at Voyager. We did get to meet them for dinner one night. So that is 11 folks total who came to Tucson for this season. We loved having them all and are looking forward to many of them returning next year.

Quilter's Trail hike

Delivering underwear

  We were able to get resort concert tickets for our guests. Here was the lineup for this year: “Arizona Highway Men,” “Piano Men,” “William Florian (New Christy Minstrels doing a Neil Diamond tribute),” McDougal Street West (Peter, Paul and Mary),” “Britain’s Finest (Beatles),” “Whole Lotta Shakin Going On (Jerry Lee Lewis),” ‘You’ve Got a Friend (Carol King and James Taylor),” “Wayne Faust Show (comedian),” Adventures in Parrotdise (Jimmy Buffett),” “Yesterday Once More (Karen Carpenter),” Uptown (a tremendous Music of Motown tribute),” and “4 Gents (Four Seasons and Beach Boys tribute).

  In between those concerts we also saw Cowboy Brad Fitch doing a John Denver tribute in a Friday concert. We also saw the Wildcat Jazz Band which is made up of music faculty from the University of Arizona and a great band.

    All the concerts were good or great and we look forward to them each year.

Chuck, Jane, Joan and me

   Off the resort we went to The Gaslight Theater three times. Twice to see the very funny performance of Two Gun McGraw and once to see The Rave Ons, which was a Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison tribute concert with my sister Pam and her husband Jeff. I surprised them by letting the staff know that it was their anniversary and my sister’s birthday. They got free ice cream for that.

   Jeff also found another great car museum, The Tucson Car Museum, which I didn’t know about. Since we left they are doing some major renovations to the place so I look forward to going back to see the improvements.

   If you remember from last year, during my Dad’s visit in addition to his sky dive I got him a personalized tour of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the A-10 base there.  During that visit he met an Air Force Major who took a liking to my Dad.

Sonoita wine tasting group (I'm taking photo)

   So this year I contacted the major and we made plans to meet with him, his wife and son for dinner while my Dad was in town. In addition the major invited us to a special in house base air show. This is an annual training event for pilots who perform at nationwide air shows and is just for base personnel.

  The major was kind enough to get us onto the base and to visit the flight line during the air show. It was truly a wonderful memory for my father.  He was with his at the Voyager for 3 weeks.

   There was some sadness at the resort as several of our longtime friends have either died or not returned to the resort for health reasons. One of those, Frank, a 96-year-old World War II veteran I used to hike with died at his home in Nevada in October on the eve of his scheduled departure to his home at Voyager. We had a nice memorial for him. Also attended a memorial for my friend Ron, who used to attend my Bible study and for TC, another Bible study friend.

Tucson superbloom at Picacho Peak

   
One good thing the Men's Bible study did (besides studying the Bible) was to collect new men's underwear and socks for the Gospel Rescue Mission in Tucson. On the second to the last day in Tucson we delivered several containers full of the donated items to the Mission.

  One other excitement that occurred while we were there was the fatal accident just outside the resort on I-10 that involved a truck carrying Nitric Acid. The truck began leaking the toxic chemical and for more than 24 hours we were on lockdown in our trailer (we actually violated that order a couple times to go shopping and to a doctor’s appointment). Fortunately the wind was blowing in a direction favorable to us so we were never in real danger, but it did cause a day’s worth of activities to be cancelled or postponed at the resort.

Newman Mountain Petroglyphs

   One other great event was the day that my sister, Joan's sister, the two brothers-in-law and Joan and I went to Picacho Peak State Park to see the superbloom of flowers caused by all the rainfall this winter. So that was another benefit of all that foul weather. The poppies and other flowers put on a great display. Afterwards we took a windy dirt road to view some ancient petroglyphs at nearby Newman Mountain.

   It's amazing to see ancient writings that were done on rocks more than 1,200 years ago. 

   So all in all a successful and fun time in Arizona. I will be putting together another post about our trip home from Tucson in a day or two. Again sorry for the delay.

   

 

 

Here's a hint. If you want to see the photos larger, click on them.

Meeting new and old friends and having fun in the desert

 

    In our last report Joan and I had arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico which is a frequent stop for us on our journey west to Tucson.

Broken battery cable

    On Friday, we left our hotel and began the journey to Flagstaff where we would reunite with our trailer. This stretch of road holds a very bad travel memory as one year we were stuck in a major snowstorm that ended up costing us many hours. It took us nearly 8 hours to travel about 100 miles to Moriarity, New Mexico. This day would be much better.

   High winds greeted us again as we traveled across I-40 in the high country of New Mexico. We were treated to a herd of prong horn antelopes and a unique sighting of a luxury Lincoln pick up truck, maybe the first one I have ever seen. As it usually is when we pass by it, Crazy Creek was dry.

   The rest of the trip across New Mexico and Arizona into Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff was relatively uneventful, The eventful would come soon enough.

    I dropped Joan at the hotel about 2 p.m., but check in wasn’t until 4 p.m. so we stored our luggage in a closet and Joan occupied her time in the casino while I went the 30-plus miles to pick up the trailer. It was my choice that she didn’t come with me because setting up the trailer is pretty much a one-person job and I can get a little testy when things don’t go right. And they didn’t.

Back to the mountains

   Once I got to Bellemont, Arizona (just outside Flagstaff) I topped off the Tahoe’s gas tank and drove the short distance to the storage lot. Once inside the lot I discovered that the trailer was surrounded by about 6-inches of snow. The owner of the storage lot had plowed a path to the gate but because of the closeness of the stored vehicles there was no way he could have plowed between the vehicles.

  So I trudged through the snow depositing luggage and boxes of supplies into the trailer (I’ve learned to balance the load between the car and the trailer for smoother operation). Then I had to knell down in the snow to remove the tire covers which meant my hands and legs started to freeze.

   Here’s where everything went haywire. I have a decorative US Navy metal hitch filler that I paid $45 for. Not wanting someone to steal it I used a hitch lock to keep it in place. But when I went to remove the lock, it would not budge. I’m now laying down in the snow under the back bumper doing everything I can to make the lock turn and let loose. No luck.

   By this time it is after 4 p.m. and I’m starting to panic. If I can’t get the hitch receiver open my trailer is going nowhere, snow or no snow. So I got up off the snow, brushed myself off and headed out the gate as I remembered that there was an RV sales and service center just down the road. Remember now this is Friday afternoon, the day before New Year’s Eve and when I drove by the place it looked closed.

The weekly weather forecast

   I drove the half mile to the business and sure enough the sign on the door indicated they were not open, but I saw someone inside sweeping the floor. I entered the business (door was unlocked) and explained my predicament to the man sweeping the floor. He said they business was actually closed, but he and another employee were doing a year-end inventory and were just 10 minutes from leaving.

  Seeing my difficult spot they tried jiggling the lock, heating it with a flame, banging on it with a hammer with the same results I had. I asked them if they could just cut off the lock. The employee went back in the shop, grabbed a metal saw and in just about 5 minutes had the lock off. They only charged me a minimum amount of time for their labor and I was on my way. Arizona Route 66 RV Sales and Service are in my debt (I did give them a very positive review).

   Back at the storage lot I began the process of hooking up the trailer and discovered one of the hot leads to the battery had corroded to the point that it had broken off its connection. Now I’m getting mad. So I back the car up close enough to the trailer hitch that I can connect the trailer hitch electric lift to the Tahoe so I can use the Tahoe to provide power to the lift. That works. So I raise up the trailer, back the Tahoe and connect the trailer to the Tahoe. As soon as I’m done putting on safety chains, securing the anti-sway bars I realize that the tailgate is still up and it is impossible to shut with the trailer attached. Now I’m livid.

   So I have to complete unattach the trailer, pull the Tahoe up about 1-foot so I can close the tailgate and then redo the entire process of hitching the trailer to the Tahoe. I make a quick check of the hookup, put my cold wet self into the driver’s seat and then put the Tahoe in high four-wheel drive and pull the trailer out of it’s snowy spot.

Deb, Joan and a sunset Arizona style

   It’s now about 5:15 p.m. and I call Joan who is pretty worried that she hasn’t heard from me and let her know I’m on my way back to the hotel. By this time the wind has whipped up again and the drive back to the hotel was harrowing. Once back at the hotel, I park the Tahoe and trailer in the RV lot which is in a different zip code from the hotel and walk back and meet Joan in the lobby.

“Did you remember to bring in the cooler with my medicine?” No. So it’s another long walk in the snow back to the rig to bring back the medicine. By this time I’m ready to sell the vehicle and trailer to any stranger walking by.

  We have a nice dinner and I head back to my room to rest and watch football.  Oh, but there’s more.

  In the morning we get up early and happily the 6-inches of snow and ice on top of the trailer has melted over night (temperatures were in the low 40s overnight).  That probably reduced the weight of the trailer by a few hundred pounds.

   Off we go on I-40 and then connect with I-17 in downtown Flagstaff for the long drive down the hill. At this point we are at 7,000-feet and heading to Phoenix which is at 1,000-feet. Things are going well, but then it turned not-so-well. Just outside Flagstaff the fog kept getting thicker and thicker which meant I needed to slow down. In just a very short time you could not see the taillights of a car 50-feet in front of you. Fortunately most everyone had slowed way down, but trying not to out drive your headlights was impossible. And of course I was worried about vehicles coming up behind me and not seeing me in time to stop.

   It took nearly 40 miles for the fog to lift, but eventually it did and the drive was much easier after that.

  We had the usual stupid drivers who don’t understand that with a 33-foot trailer behind me I am unable to stop on a dime, but they still pull out in front of me at speeds much slower than I am going.

Phone line Trail in Sabino Canyon

   But we made it to Voyager RV resort in the early afternoon and with the help of a resort employee were backed in and parked by 2 p.m. The weather was beautiful and in the low 70s.

   In case you have forgotten ( and there is no reason you should have remembered) when we left Tucson last April we discovered at the last day that our water heater had sprung a leak. We were able to isolate it and shut it down, but there was no way to repair it before we left.

   Among our luggage and supplies was a large square box that I purchased in October that contained a new RV water heater. Problem was that the installer was not available until Tuesday, Jan 3. So we knew we would be without hot water until then. (More on that later)

  So we put away some clothes and then discovered that while the trailer was stored in Flagstaff that some local mountain mice had had a party in the trailer. We ended up spending two days throwing out the linens, blankets and pillows they had destroyed and thoroughly cleaning the trailer. Fortunately for them they had departed the trailer before we got to Tucson. My only hope is that they departed while I was traveling at 60 mph on the freeway.

   We also made a quick Walmart run to pick up some food to eat on the holiday weekend.

    Being that it was New Year’s Eve some friends of ours at the resort (Joe and Sharon) had purchased us tickets to the Albert Galli dance. Some other friends (Mike and Suzy) also joined us and we had a wonderful night catching up and dancing.

  We woke up Sunday morning and went to chapel services here and met many of our old friends. We also did a week’s worth of travel laundry.

   Once back at the trailer it began to rain and rain and rain. So we continued our cleaning efforts and watched some football and consumed some of the goodies we bought at Walmart the day before.

   On Monday, we spent our time setting up our snail mail post office box at the resort, picked up our concert tickets and did even more cleaning. I also had breakfast with my friend Les who is leaving the resort for good to live in Florida near his daughter. Then Monday night, the rain let up a little and we headed downtown with our friends Joe and Sharon to complete our first Meet Me at Maynard’s of the season

The view from our camp spot

   We went to dinner at HiFi a local sports bar and had an unusual encounter with a bartender who lost my credit card when I went to pay for dinner. He insisted to me that he had given me back my card and I knew he had not. At one point he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away from me.

   Another employee walked by and I spotted my credit card on the floor behind the bar under the cash register. When I pointed it out to him he picked it up and examined both sides of it like maybe it wasn’t mine. Finally he handed it to me without apology. HiFi is not on our list of restaurants we will visit in the future.

   Tuesday is usually hike day around here, but the wet rainy weather was still here so that hike was postponed until next week. The rest of the day was spent waiting for the water heater installer and then we went to our first Pot Luck dinner of the season in the dining room.

  On Wednesday we went to our first concert – The Arizona Highwaymen – and it was really good. Once again I am on the table and chair set-up team and have reconnected with many of my old friends.

  In case I didn’t mention it I am again leading the Thursday night Bible class and facilitating the Thursday morning Men’s Bible study. That keeps me very busy with study and research.

   Joan is active in water exercise, rumba classes and is once again making polymer clay jewelry. She is very active here and has many friends. 

  Lots of our friends are arriving from out-of-state and it is such fun getting reacquainted and catching up. Our friends Bob and Karen from Lapeer are here for two months (they first came for lunch with us a few years ago and now this is their winter getaway each year). As I have said before Voyager is a human mouse trap. Two other friends Bob and Joanne just arrived from Minnesota and we are looking forward to time together with them as well.

  This past Monday – January 9 – we again went to Meet Me at Maynard’s and took our friends Joe and Sharon along with Deb a longtime friend of ours from the resort. Deb’s husband, who was a tremendous person died a couple years ago, so we love including her in our activities whenever we can. Deb and I also hike with the Voyager hiking group on Tuesdays.

  Speaking of hiking I went on a 8.3 – mile hike on the Phone Line Trail at Sabino Canyon on Tuesday and it was great to get back into the mountains.

   On Wednesday night we went to our second concert – The Piano Men – which we have seen here at the resort before but we had a great time again. The father and son piano duo do a great job with the songs of Billy Joel and Elton John.

   So Thursday I led the men’s Bible study, but had to leave early so Joan could make her doctor’s appointment at the allergist which has been in the works for months. She is allergic to just about everything and will be getting shots to help alleviate all her symptoms.

  I’ll be back soon with more fun.