Yes, we are still alive, but wet in Tucson

A Tucson sunrise over our trailer

A lot has happened in the ten days since we last visited here and I apologize for the long absence, but we’ve been very busy. I do appreciate the folks who have left messages for me on Facebook and in emails wondering what happened to the blog. I will try to be more consistent in the future.

When we last visited I had just given myself the shins of an 8-year-old boy by tripping on the non-moving treadmill here at the resort. The wounds are healing nicely, but still continue to be the topic of conversation whenever I wear shorts, which is all the time.

We’ve had some mail issues at this end as the forwarding paperwork we did with the USPS as they neglected to include our space number on our forwarded mail. For most folks here that’s not a problem, but when your name is Jim Smith – it’s a problem. Currently there are three Jim Smiths staying here (that’s actually down one from last year) so the three of us end up sorting each other’s mail when it comes without our space number.

The Postal Service is working on correcting the issue, but for the next week or so it’s going to be fun.

OK, going back to Friday, January 6, Joan attended her first Women’s Bible Study and met with a number of folks she knew from last year. Because of the advanced ages at the resort we are often met with sad news about old friends and new who have either passed or who are struggling with major medical issues. We pray a lot here.

Our lunch spot in the Catalina Mountains

Then on Saturday, January 7, Joan attended aquacize “boot camp” which was much more intense than what she is used to at home. But she seemed to appreciate the workout and plans to continue that and two other days of aquacize while we are here.

Last year I talked to the man who coordinates the volunteers who set up tables and chairs for the many events here. Carl welcomed me to the team and while I initially volunteered only for set up for church on Sunday, I quickly got whirled into helping out with concert set-up on Wednesday and table and chair set-up for Donuts and Coffee on Saturday morning.

One thing I am qualified to do is set up tables and folding chairs. With the size of the set up team it rarely takes more than 45 minutes to set up the ballroom, even when it involves 600 chairs for the Wednesday concerts.

I began that last Saturday and then continued during the week during a couple set ups. I’ve met a lot of new friends doing this so that is a plus as well.

The rest of Saturday was used up reading outside in the sun and watching NFL football.

More from the hike

Sunday was church and just about every day, except for days that I hike in the morning I visit the fitness center. I’m not going to bore you with each of those visits unless I decide to mutilate myself by falling, dropping a weight on my face or other stupid injury there. More NFL in the afternoon rounded out the day.

Not sure I’ve mentioned our new eating plan on the blog, but Joan and since early October have been following the Whole 30 food plan. We used to use the “Cookie Diet” but Dr. Siegel went out of business and so we switched over to this plan, which has succeeded beyond all our expectations. Our daughter-in-law has had great success with it and after seeing her results we heartily embraced it.

It does involve a lot more cooking than we are used to doing and so Joan spends a lot of time prepping meals for us to make sure we don’t violate the tenets of the plan. Basically (and it is a lot more complicated than this) involves eliminating sugar, bread and dairy from your diet. I’ve shed nearly 30 pounds since I’ve started and Joan has shrunk her waistline, but mostly we just feel much, much better than before we started.

A crane in Tucson decorated for Christmas

I had to learn that many things that I never suspected would contain sugar, does. Bacon, for gosh sakes, most bacon for sale at the grocery store has sugar in it. We have found the rare brands that don’t include sugar and so now we can have bacon, eggs and hash browns for breakfast, so that’s good.

For butter, Joan processes regular butter and filters it through cheese cloth to get rid of the dairy in the butter. Tastes the same so not a problem for me. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this. Our daughter is also on the same plan and reports good early results.

So where were we?  OK, it’s now Monday and I was off to hike with the easy hikers. I haven’t been doing as many of these in recent years because they are not very challenging and sometimes fairly simple. But I received new hiking boots for Christmas and wanted to give them a few miles before I hit the heights on the Tuesday hike.

My hiking gear - notice no water

On Monday I did a level hike – more like a leisurely walk – along part of the paved loop hike/bike trail that surrounds Tucson. We walked a three mile stretch between Irvington and Valencia roads which totaled six miles by the time we finished. The boots were comfortable and I felt ready for Tuesday.

That night we went for our first Meet at Maynard's walks around Tucson and then had dinner at Thunder Canyon Brewery and watched the College Football Championship. Glad to see Alabama get beaten.

Tuesday morning brought my first chance to head out on a real hike this time a moderately difficult hike in the Dove Mountain area of the Catalina Mountains. There were 23 people on this hike and we broke into two groups and just to push myself I went with the first group and did really well. This was an 8-mile loop hike and I got to see a lot of my friends from previous years.

I should not admit this, but for the first time ever I forgot to take water on the hike. It was such a rookie mistake that I was embarrassed to the point I didn't mention it to anyone. Fortunately, it wasn't so hot that it resulted in me getting cramps, but a mistake I will not make again.

A walk on a level bike path

Once back at the trailer, Joan and I headed to the Tuesday potluck dinner in the ballroom and again the turnout was incredible, one of the largest potlucks we have attended in all the years we’ve been here.

Because of the Whole 30 food plan we had to be a little more selective on what we took, but by avoiding the dessert table we left full, but mostly in compliance with the diet.

After working out Wednesday I headed back to the resort courtyard early on a mission to snag a bag of the most delicious oranges we have ever tasted. We first started buying them last year from a vendor at “Market Days” but as they caught on they were selling out earlier and earlier each week. So I got over to the booth as he was setting up and bought my $4 bag of oranges.

When we came back a couple hours later to actually do all of the Market Days the booth had already sold out of oranges. The vendor had at least 100 bags when I bought my oranges earlier than morning, so apparently, the secret is already out this year.

Sunset over downtown Tuesday at Meet Me at Maynard's

Spent the rest of Wednesday helping to take down Market Days tables and helping to set up 600-plus chairs for the evening concert and doing my Bible study work and reading and Joan was busy paying bills. After dinner, we headed back to the ballroom for the “Motown Magic” concert which was really good, as are most of the concerts that come here.

At my Thursday morning Men’s Bible study I had to be prepared to teach lesson 2, but we barely finished lesson one so I’m on deck next week, with all my preparation already done. So that’s good.

One of the nagging issues at this end is that we have a lot of trash (bills, statements, etc.) that come here that need to be shredded. At home, we have a pretty good sized shredder, but we don’t bring it with us to Arizona as it would take up a lot of space.

The only shredders we could find locally with pretty large ones that we didn’t want to put in the trailer. I found a $8 small shredder on sale at Best Buy online that you use over a trash can. So last week I ordered that and it was delivered to a local Best Buy and Thursday morning about my Bible study and Joan’s aquasize we went to pick it up.

Weather forecast for our first week here

While we were out we stopped at Payless Shoes so Joan could pick up a new pair of loafers to wear around the park. Trust me this took way, way longer than I could imagine. When I go to pick out a pair of shoes, it takes me longer to park the car and go into the store than it does for me to find my shoes. After Joan tried on at least 1,000 pairs of shoes (I only slightly exaggerate here) she claimed a cheap pair of shoes and we headed to Food City to pick up a dish to take to a party Friday night.

Our friends Barry and Darcel (these are the folks we go wine tasting with each year) invited us to their beautiful home in the Cove along with 10 other folks, mostly from the hiking group, for dinner and a game of “Name that Tune.”

For a bunch of old folks we had a raucous good time, that included dancing, singing and generally acting like teenagers. We barely got home in time for the 10 p.m. news, so a relatively late night for us out. If our grandchildren could see us partying like this they would likely be mortified. But it is good to kick back and enjoy life a little.

A resort sunset

Earlier on Friday I met a Flint friend of mine, Mahlon, who is in Tucson for two weeks with his wife Colleen for some more hiking. Mahlon is a former marathon runner who is in really good shape and likes to do some serious hiking while he is here. He had never been to Seven Falls in Sabino Canyon so we decided to get that hike in before some predicted rain this weekend. (That Pineapple Express that has been drowning California is making a brief but welcome visit here this weekend.) I picked Mahlon up at 8:30 a.m. at his Air BandB and we were off to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area.

The weather could not have been better, it was cool and dry and the trail was not heavily traveled on Friday so it was a great time. This trail has seven creek crossings and the water was as high as I have ever seen it, but we made all the crossings (14 in all) up and back without getting wet, always a plus.

We spent nearly a half hour at the falls which were particularly beautiful this year. Because of the hike I did have to miss the table and chair set up for the donuts and coffee event Saturday morning. I did make it over to the ballroom to help them clean up the tables and chairs after the donuts and coffee was over.

I picked up our mail, which included a beautiful Hawaiian shirt with aircraft carriers on it that was a belated birthday present from my Dad. He had put the correct address on the envelope, but the postal service somewhere along the line changed the zip code for him which delayed the package for more than a week. But the shirt looks and fits great so there’s that.

As if dancing with our friends at their house on Friday night wasn’t enough, we headed to the resort dance Saturday night to dance the night away in the ballroom. We met up with our friends from Canada, Ron and Kathy and also met another Canadian couple. During my conversation with the older gentleman he asked if I had heard of NHL player Chris Chelios.  “Heard of him,” I said. “He autographed my Chelios jersey a few years back.”

“Well, I coached him as a junior player on my traveling team many, many years ago,” he said. So you can just guess that I had a very interesting time talking to this man.

Joan and I still danced the night away, but what great fun to talk to a man who coached one of my all-time favorite hockey players. Life is soooo good sometimes.

Sunday morning means church, but now for me it means getting up really early to head to the ballroom to help with setting up 500 chairs for the chapel service. I’m enjoying getting to know the men and women who set up the church and the more friends we make here the more our experiences are enhanced here.

After church we headed to Desert Diamond Casino in Sahuarita to take advantage of a free night’s stay in the hotel that we were offered. Unfortunately, we forgot to check which Desert Diamond facility the hotel was in and we went to the wrong one. We already had dinner reservations at the Sahuarita restaurant so Joan stayed there and played until after dinner and then we drove the 15 miles to the right facility for our night’s stay.

The weather took a sudden, but hopefully brief turn for the worse yesterday as that Pineapple Express that has been drenching California has finally moved into southern Arizona. It doesn’t rain much here, but when it rains, it comes down in buckets. It was even cool enough this morning that I wore a sweater and jacket to church, which is extremely unusual.

Joan made her contribution to the Tohono O’odham Indians and we enjoyed a nice night in the fancy hotel.

This week we are expecting our friends from Michigan, Pam and Greg, to fly into Phoenix and we will no doubt be catching up with them and later some other Michigan friends, Barb and Dave who fly in a couple days after Pam and Greg. More on that later. You are now officially caught up.

The Laredo has landed (in Tucson)

Twin Arrows Resort and Casino

Notes to self: Bring lock de-icer every year to the trailer storage. Remember that Arizona does not observe daylight savings time when resetting trailer clocks. Remember that God is good all the time.

 Each year my travel planning routine is the same. I look ahead at our route and plan exactly where we will be each night on our trip west. Using an online hotel booking service I reserve our stops at places we have been before or a brand chain we have stayed in before. This may sound a little over-the-top but I know within a few miles each place I will stop for gas.

The one thing that I can’t plan for is the weather. It has its own plans and I just go with that. About a week out from our trip I begin to watch the Weather Underground site for various places along our route to see if there are any weather concerns or obstacles to my route.

San Francisco Mountains near Flagstaff

This year we seemed to hit a window of good weather through much of the route with the only lingering weather concern in Flagstaff on Tuesday, Jan. 3. For a week there were predictions of cold and snow, including as much as 5-inches on Monday, Jan. 2. We prayed that it would work itself out.

As we traveled across the country I checked the weather site every night and each day saw an improving weather picture for Flagstaff, although snow was always in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday right up until we arrived in Flagstaff Monday night and the weather broke. The one day without snow if Flagstaff for a week was Tuesday, the day we planned to pick up the trailer. Think what you want but I’m taking prayer.

Joan actually came out a little ahead of the Navajos Monday night at the casino, so that was a plus. It wasn’t enough to pay for our hotel, but in the world of casinos a break even is pretty much a win.

We were up early.  Temperatures outside the resort was 32-degrees. Unfortunately that would not be the lowest temperature of the day.

Snow in Flagstaff

One of the things that we do each year is when I store the trailer I retrieve the 12-volt battery and bring it home. Otherwise it would either be gone, or dead as a door nail when we arrived back. I keep it on a trickle charge at home and then lug it all the way back with us in the winter. With the cold nights on the road the battery is one of the pieces of luggage I bring into the hotel room with us at night.

So when we left our four-star room at the Twin Arrows Resort and Casino I lugged the battery in and out of the hotel. It received a little bit of strange look from the bellman who came to help us with our luggage.

As I already said weather was cold, but I was buoyed by the fact that we had dodged the snow. We drove the 30 miles from the resort to the storage yard, stopping first to top off the gas tank for the trip down the mountain to Tucson. We arrived at the storage lot and found that while we had dodged the snow from the sky, we were not completely dodging it on the ground. There was a few inches of snow and ice on the ground at the storage facility in Bellemont, Arizona and the temperature was 25-degrees.

Heading down the "hill"

Here's where it got interesting. We checked the inside of the trailer and found only minor evidence of a rodent visit (the storage owners have been aggressively using exterminators to lessen that problem) and I set to work the hooking up of the trailer. Both storage doors on the trailer were solidly frozen shut along with the latches and locks. Not wanting to break a key off in the lock I took some bottled water we had in the car and began using it to melt the ice around the latches and locks. It took a few minutes but that worked.

I also needed a flat head screwdriver to scrap ice out of the channels of the storage doors which were also filled with ice. The good news was that the battery had held a good charge and worked the trailer stand like a champ even in the good weather.

At this point I had to remove my gloves to do the delicate work of hooking hitches and sway bars from the trailer to the car. Very quickly my hands were frozen to the point of numbness which made it very difficult to work my fingers.  

Removing the tire covers (sun is a tire killer so I have UV covers that protect the new tires we just bought last year) required that I lay down in the snow so I could reach the cover ties behind the tires and release them so I could remove the covers.

More snow as we head down

Of course I should have taken photos during all this, but completely forgot so I have no photos of our predicament at the storage area.

Joan in her infinite wisdom brought snow boots just for this one occasion. I, on the other hand, decided to just bring tennis shoes. So I was frozen both top and bottom while I worked outside to hook up the trailer. As I was just about finished I noticed that the breakaway device on the trailer tongue had been removed. (This device locks the trailer breaks if for some reason – and God please don’t let this ever happen – the trailer should find itself separated from the Tahoe in flight).

The device was not only removed it had been damaged. I don’t know if it was a malicious or accidental thing, but whatever it present a problem because with the device not in the slot, the brakes of the trailer are locked. So I pushed the device as far into the electric receiver as I could (about halfway) and the brakes released. Not wanting to drive 300 miles in this condition I stopped about a mile down the road at a “Camping World” outlet, the same one that winterizes our trailer each year and sought help.

The folks there were very helpful and sold me a new breakaway device and I was on my way 20 minutes later and $10 lighter.

At 5,000 feet the snow is going away

Despite all the recent snow and ice, the freeway (I-40 and then I-17) were dry and clear. Normally I am a very courteous person and brush all the snow off the top of my car before proceeding, but with an 11-foot high trailer the snow piled up on top and the fact my body was frozen it had to be removed by the wind which undoubtedly ticked off a lot of motorists behind me who were bombarded by the snow shower coming off the top of the trailer. In case you were behind a 2007 Laredo travel trailer on I-40 about 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 3, I sincerely apologize.

The trip starts at the 7,300 foot level in Flagstaff and drops to 1,000 feet in Phoenix and then back up 1,000-feet to Tucson which is about 2,000-feet above sea level. As we quickly descended the temperatures rose and the snow on the ground disappeared. At about level 6,000-feet I pulled into a scenic overlook to check all the connections and discovered that while most of the ice and snow was gone, there was still a few icicles on the trailer. Those would be gone soon. By 4,000-feet the now had completely disappeared and the truck and trailer performed well as we hurtled down the steep grade.

About ½-way to Phoenix there is a 5-mile steep grade that always challenges the Tahoe and trailer. I fell in behind a large steel hauling semi-truck and trailer and followed him up the hill with my flashers on because my speed had fallen to about 45 mph. After that large grade it is pretty much downhill from there and very quickly after that we arrived at Bumble Bee Road where we started to see our beloved Saguaro (pronounced Sa-war-oo) cactus just north of Phoenix. The appearance of the Saguaros mark the entrance to the Sonoran Desert, the only place where that species of cactus naturally grow. In case you aren’t familiar the Saguaro cactus and the iconic tall and stately cactus that sometime resemble people with large arms.

The rest of the trip was relatively unremarkable although negotiating heavy Phoenix traffic even in off commute hours is always a little hair-raising.

The appearance in the distance of the various mountain ranges around Phoenix and Tucson always choke me up a little, even more so now that my brother’s ashes are located at high elevations and summits in this area.

There were some new signs around Phoenix advertising the unwelcome presence of wild donkeys, which of course prompted a new discussion of loose cattle by the road. Joan rejected my suggestion that she might like to learn how to drive and pull the trailer.

We refueled at our usual spot on Wild Horse Road in Chandler and then for the next 90-minutes I drafted a Fry’s Grocery store semi-truck most of the way to Tucson. They drive at a perfect speed for me and the trailer and they save me a lot of gas too.

We arrived at the resort earlier than we ever have both by date and time of day and we were quickly checked in and with help from the security folks got the trailer parked and then spent the next 90-minutes getting water, electric, sewer and cable hooked up. Our plans were to go grocery shopping and eat in, but by the time we finished with the trailer we scrapped that plan and ate at the restaurant here at the resort. Shopping will be tomorrow.

Everything in the trailer is working well. We did have one glitch as the slide-out must have gotten bent in storage and would open properly until a pulled out the bend. I still need to organize the “basement” under the trailer, but there is no hurry on that.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017: We are now completely settled. We have done our shopping trip to stock the shelves and we went to our first concert “Class of ‘67” which is actually Joan’s high school class. It was another Lonely Street production and this one included many of the biggest hits from 1967. We enjoyed the concert and were really ready for bed by 10:30 p.m.

For the second day I was up early. The first day I got up even earlier that I originally thought because Joan mistakenly set the microwave clock to the wrong time. So instead of getting up at 5:30 a.m. I was up and at it at 4:30 a.m. I found this out when I arrived at the fitness center, which is supposed to open at 5 a.m. and found the cleaning service still in the room vacuuming. “You guys are kind of late?,” I said. “No, you are kind of early,” the woman running the vacuum said, pointing up the clock that showed it was 4:50 a.m.

Treadmill injury

On Thursday morning I got up at the right 5:30 a.m. and headed back to the fitness center. Here’s where that gets interesting. As most of you know I hike a couple days a week in the mountains around Tucson. I often deal with difficult trails that threaten to trip me up all the time. So far I haven’t had a major fall or injury on a hike in the mountains.

After completing my weight work out I headed over to my favorite treadmill and before even turning it on I put my foot up on the edge to climb aboard and promptly fell opening abrasions on both shins as I went down in a heap on top of the treadmill. A lady a couple treadmills down asked it I was OK and of course I felt stupid and foolish but said I was OK. Later when I got off the treadmill and looked in the mirror I found both legs bleeding and bruised. Now I need to come up with a better story than this to explain my fall.

I did have to recount this story 16 times at the Men’s Bible Study session Thursday morning as the wounds are quite noticeable and heck, you can’t lie I Bible study.

Joan walked the park this morning and then enjoyed a lingering visit to the jacuzzi at the pool. I, on the other hand, am in the trailer putting this version of Grandma’s Recess together.

See you again in a few days.

Mileage out: 62560

Time out: 7:29 a.m.Time in: (At storage) 8:15 a.m.

Mileage out: (At storage) 62598

Mileage in: (Tucson) 62878

Time out: (At storage) 9:05 a.m.

Time in: (Tucson) 2:06 p.m.

A walk in the Texas-New Mexico and Texas park

Hello New Mexico!

If yesterday was a Sunday drive, today was a walk in the park. An easy peasy drive through three states ending up at the Twin Arrows Resort and Casino. As I write this Joan is making a reparations payment to the Navajo Nation at the slot machines. I am back in the room writing this and watching a really, really incredible Rose Bowl.

But today started in Amarillo at 39 degrees and ended in Flagstaff at 39 degrees. At times the temps soared into the low 40s but quickly retreated to the 30s. Also notable today is that Joan took the wheel for the third straight day and she did a really great job of driving and I did a great job of napping.

I must say though that Joan has an interesting driving manner. I rarely get to drive as a passenger with her so the last three days have been very instructive. For one thing, she talks to every car (OK, almost every car) that passes her. The conversations go something like this:

A dusting of snow and snow capped mountains behind

“Move over sweet cheeks.”  “Move it GMC.” And my favorite so far, “Little white truck you better keep your speed up, I don’t want to play games with you.”  All this while understanding that none of them can hear her.

Somewhere along the road in New Mexico I spotted a perched hawk that was dealing with an angry crow that was basically hopping up and down on the hawk’s head. I imagined that the hawk was telling the crow: “Listen crow, I’m trying to find some tasty little mouse and you are simply distracting me with the idiot harassment. Let’s do this crow. Let me find the mouse and I’ll leave you the scraps to pick up later because that’s what you do best.”  Hey, if Joan can talk to cars I can dream up imaginary conversations between birds.

The entire day today was driven on I-40 with a speed limit of 75 mph. The miles really roll by at that speed and on those occasional times when the speed limit drops to 65 mph though a city it feels like you are walking. And even at 75 mph, most drivers in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona view speed .limits more like speed suggestions. We got passed more times that a Matthew Stafford football game.

Joan driving, sometimes she even opens her eyes

We saw some snow on the ground from an overnight passing storm but the weather today could not have been more perfect for driving. The light cloud cover made my sunglasses unnecessary, which I appreciate because I’m not a fan of wearing them.

The Navajos are some of my favorite people. We have spent a lot of time touring and visiting the Navajo Reservation in past years. I recalled today a conversation I had with a Navajo guide we hired to show us through Monument Valley two years ago.

The "Do Not Enter" sign has nothing to do with the Arizona sign

After we had become comfortable with Sam (his name was much longer and harder to pronounce so that was the name he asked us to call him) I asked him what Native Americans prefer outsiders to call them. “We call ourselves Indians, so that is good with us, as long as you are respectful.”  Later I asked him about the whole Washington Redskins controversy and he said it was a non-issue to most of his people. He pointed out that a Navajo high school had adopted the “Redskins” name and many of the tribe members wore Redskins logo jackets. Joan and I witnessed this more than once. Just an observation that I recalled today while not driving.

Well tomorrow we pick up the trailer and head down the hill (7,000 feet of hill) to Tucson for our winter getaway. I probably won’t post tomorrow, but look for something this weekend. A big shout out to our friend Greg who was kind enough to stop by our house and check the front door to make sure I had locked it on the way out. I did.

Mileage out: 61973

Mileage in: 62560

Time out: 8:08 a.m. (CST)

Time in: 3:26 p.m. (MST)

A pleasant Sunday drive through three states

Trust me this is the Oklahoma State sign - Joan took the photo

Today was a leisurely Sunday drive compared to yesterday’s long distance marathon. The weather has been improving as we travel west and we are praying that it holds up for Tuesday in Flagstaff. Last year picked up the trailer and headed down the hill just two hours before a foot of snow hit the area. The forecast calls for none of that this year.

We left the Quality Inn this morning in bright sunshine and except for a couple brief overcast periods. As promised the hotel made fresh bacon and sausage as I requested the night before. Even with late arrivals it appeared there couldn’t have been more than ten people in the hotel overnight. Traffic was light and Joan spelled me for a 100-mile stretch through Oklahoma so I arrived fresh and hungry into Amarillo tonight.

We have never come through Oklahoma when the wind wasn’t blowing at gale force. Until today, there were winds but the least wind we have ever encountered crossing the plains. Likewise, in the Texas Panhandle the winds were there but nowhere near what we have struggled with before.

Where better a place for a wind farm than Oklahoma?

Temperatures got to 60 degrees – with one stretch at 64 -  for most of the afternoon and it was warm enough for us to walk to a nearby Red Lobster restaurant instead of getting back in the car and finding a restaurant in town. This is our fourth stay in Amarillo and we used to go to a wonderful Mexican restaurant, but we are on a special diet right now which prohibits the eating of cheese, bread and sugar. And what is Mexican food without cheese?

Gas prices have been steadily falling since we left Michigan and tonight I topped off the tank for $2.06 a gallon here in Amarillo at the Flying J station near the hotel.

Every year we come through the panhandle we see the remnants of the harvested cotton fields, but today we saw the huge truck-trailer sized bales lined up in the fields. It was a pretty impressive amount of cotton.

We passed the usual landmarks, the huge cross just east of Amarillo and the leaning water tank, but because I have taken those pictures every year, I gave the camera rest today.

Texas - Joan did better - note the blue skies

We listed to a variety of XM stations today, including Radio Classics (“The Shadow Knows….”), sports stations and the NHL broadcast of the Toronto versus Detroit outdoor game.

I really love the 75 mph speed limits on the Oklahoma turnpike and the panhandle section of I-40 in Texas. The miles pile up pretty quickly with that limit.

At one point, we passed a Quad Graphics truck and Joan remembered that my brother-in-law Jeff works for them in West Virginia. 

When you think of people who have to work holidays – police officers, firefighters, etc. – it is good to remember that a lot of long haul truck drivers are still on the road delivering the things we need to live on. It was surprising to see how many trucks were on the road today – New Year’s Day.

Also I always think of my Dad when I am in Amarillo as he has fond memories of his days here as a World War II Army Air Corps enlistee. "The only place where you can be up to your waist in mud and have sand blown in your face!"  "The only thing that stops the wind is the barbed wire."

Flagstaff tomorrow!

Mileage out: 61338

Mileage in: 61073

Time out: 7:59 a.m. (CST)

Time in: 5:30 p.m. (CST)

Tour de Tucson is in full swing

Indiana 

On the road again! Sounds like a good title for a country and western song, doesn’t it. 

The Tour de Tucson began with our usual checking and double checking to make sure we don’t forget anything we will need during our three-month hiatus from Michigan. A few years ago we started a checklist, which has grown almost every year and now includes 25 items. Some of the newer ones are a notation for me not to forget my hearing aids and then chores like “pull the plug on the well.”

Even with the checklist last year we managed to forget to bring Joan’s set of trailer keys so each year we add new items to cover stuff we have forgotten before.

Illinois (still cloudy, but snow is gone)

As luck would have it there was a news story on the national news last night the revived a constant discussion that Joan and I have. For long time followers of this blog you will recall Joan, in a moment of delusion, spotted a cow running on a freeway in Canada. I never saw this cow, but Joan insists it was there and so every time, and I do mean every time we are on a road trip she reminds me to look out for cows. It’s best to humor her on this in case she ever brings it up to you.

So last night there was a story out of Phoenix (a place we will drive through on Tuesday) about three bulls running loose in a residential neighborhood. Plus there was video, so I couldn’t just laugh it off. So, of course today I was reminded any time that she spotted something with four legs to be careful.

As we passed through Missouri we did pass a couple deer grazing along the side of the freeway outside any fences.

St. Louis (no clouds or snow)

Unlike previous years, the temperature when we left today was 35 degrees which is remarkably warm considering some of the miserable weather we have departed in. One year the first five hours were marked by a long string of ice freeways and spun out cars and trucks. Not today, the weather was warm (for Michigan) and traffic was very light even through metropolitan areas like Indianapolis and St. Louis.

The highest temperature today was a 55 as we passed through St. Louis.

We listened to 60s on 6 all day on our XM radio and they had a marathon presentation of the most popular instrumental hits from 1956 to 1972.  One of the songs was “Rockin Rebels” which apparently was co-written by Tommy Shannon, a former Buffalo disc jockey that Joan listened to as a teenager. Apparently Shannon wrote lyrics to this song that was used as his theme song on his Western New York radio program. Unfortunately for me, Joan still remembers all the lyrics which she sang to me.

Joan taming the "Beast"

But we did have a pretty big event today as Joan volunteered to drive for a couple hours giving me a nice rest spell, which I used to send texts to people telling them to pray for me because Joan was driving. But she handled the Beast quite well and I may get her to do that again so I can rest for a couple hours during these long drive days.

Here’s a tip for you.  There’s an expression that says “I’ve driven this route so many times I could do this with my eyes closed.” Apparently that’s just hyperbole because I tried that literally through a part of the drive through Indianapolis and it only works for a second or two at a time. If you do it any longer it seems to cause other drivers to panic and honk at you.

On our way through Missouri we passed a billboard advertising “Uranus Fudge Factory.”  Which, while very funny, seems like a really bad name for a candy business. Later we passed the business and it was in fact a candy store. Joan reminded me that when she taught 8^th grade science that the Planet Uranus always caused loud laughter, mostly among the boy students in her class, so we’re guessing the fudge business was named by an 8^th grader. If you want us to buy you some let us know and we’ll try and pick some up for you when we pass through next year.

We stayed in a Quality Inn in Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri and were one of only three scheduled guests. The clerk literally took breakfast orders from us because so few people were staying in the hotel. She did warn us that because it was New Year’s Eve we might end up getting a few late night revelers who decide to stay here rather than risk driving home.

After checking in we had dinner at Colton’s Steakhouse which is just a few blocks from the hotel. I was really craving some Uranus fudge, but Joan said no.

Amarillo tomorrow.

Time out: 6:57 a.m. (EST)

Time in: 4:42 p.m. (CST)

Mileage out: 60631

Mileage in: 61338  (That’s 707 miles, which is way more than I usually do but I have my reasons this year)

Home sweet home!

Me and Laura

Our final two homeward bound legs were short. On Sunday we drove a little over three hours to get to my sister Laura’s house in North Aurora, Illinois.

The trip was uneventful, although we ran into a long stretch of construction on I-88 inside Illinois which cost us some time. The freeway in Illinois is a toll road and named after Ronald Reagan, who has a notorious anti-tax guy, probably wouldn’t appreciate having a toll road named after him.

The temperatures reached 50 degrees only briefly during the whole day.

We enjoyed a quiet afternoon with Laura and Philip in their beautiful home and Laura made me my favorite dinner – spaghetti.

Mileage out: 42402

Mileage in: 42606

Time out: 9:02 a.m.

Joan and Laura

Time in: 12:40 p.m.

Monday dawned early and we enjoyed a wonderful day of relaxed touring with my sister Laura who was kind enough to take the day off work to spend some time with us.

Joan has wanted to visit a store called Woodman’s, which is a huge grocery store near my sister. We bought a few things we knew we would need when we got home and crammed the stuff into the few spaces left in the truck.

Later we went to one of Joan’s favorite shopping spots in North Aurora  - a Costco. We wish we had one close to us here in Lapeer, but we usually make a visit with Laura anytime we are in town.

Laura also took us by an apartment complex that my father and stepmother are considering for a new home. It was a beautiful three-bedroom apartment in an apartment complex only a few blocks from where Laura and Philip live. It would also only be about a five-hour drive from here, which would give Joan and I more opportunity to visit with them.

We then shopped at Home Goods, which is a new store for us, but it had a lot of cool stuff.

Welcome to Indiana

In the afternoon we went and saw “My Name is Doris” with Sally Field. We enjoyed the movie, but I had trouble trying to decide whether it was a comedy or drama. Just when I laughed and believed I was watching a comedy, the story suddenly turned dark and ugly. Sally was pretty good in the role, however.

After the movie we headed to Stockholm Restaurant in downtown Batavia for dinner and then back home for a quiet night before our final leg home.

We were up early on Tuesday and out the door by 8 a.m. We caught a little traffic on I-88, but took Laura’s directions and quickly found ourselves away from traffic on I-355 south. In almost no time we were in Indiana and then in Michigan and then home.

It took a couple hours to unpack the car and then unpack the luggage in the house. We headed to dinner at The Lake Inn, which has been totally remodeled while we were gone. We spent our first night home quietly watching sports.

Our trip had us out of Michigan about 100 days. We traveled 8,928 miles and visited 13 states during the process. But there is truly no place like home.

Welcome to "Pure" Michigan

So, for now, Grandma's Recess goes dark until our next adventure. Thanks for following us.

Mileage out: 42461

Mileage in: 42795

Time out: 8:06 a.m. (CDT)

Time in: 2:30 p.m. (EDT)

The long drive home with a fun stop in Moab, Utah

Our final Tucson sunset

Isn’t it great when a plan comes together?  Seriously!  Everything went according to our plans as we pulled out of Voyager a little after 7 p.m. Monday and started the long trek home.

We spent much of Monday packing the stuff to go home and storing and disposing of things related to the trailer. We did a pretty good job of consuming nearly all of our perishable goods and only had a small amount of stuff to toss out.

Joan finished up the last of the salmon steaks and she dropped the last three eggs and a piece of toast on me for dinner in the trailer just before we departed. She was nice enough to fry up the eggs for me, though.

Some of the coming home luggage

After dinner I finished the process of hooking up the trailer to the Tahoe and then we just waited until the sun went down so we could begin the first leg of the trip towards Flagstaff.

We’ve tried several different times for leaving the park, but we think we’ve hit on a winner this year. When we arrived in Phoenix about 9 p.m. we fueled at our usual spot and then made our way through the city with little traffic.

Phoenix is often a terribly congested place and it makes life tough with a trailer, so finding a time when traffic is light is a definite plus. Temperatures were a little higher than a prefer for the trailer and truck for towing, but as we climbed out of Phoenix the temperatures fell to an acceptable level.

Hooked and ready to go

The climb to Flagstaff starts at about 1,000-feet in Phoenix and ends a little over 7,000-feet in Flagstaff.

Our goal was to reach the McGuireville Rest Area about 50 miles south of Flagstaff and sleep there. Arizona permits overnight camping in RVs at the rest areas and when we arrived there was just one open spot in the truck/rv side of the rest stop. We parked, brushed out teeth by flashlight in the trailer and turned into bed (with no heat) about 11:30 p.m.

We slept well until about 2:30 a.m. when the cold settled in and so we added a blanket and cuddled a little tighter and fell back to sleep until 6 a.m.  Temperatures were in the 40s when we got up. On the way up the rest of the mountain to Flagstaff we had two very healthy coyotes run in front of our rig, headed to a large corral of cattle.

Our "camping" spot at the rest stop

We were up and back on the road by 6:30 a.m. and made the final climb up the hill to Flagstaff arriving at Camper’s World just before 7:30 a.m. and an hour before our scheduled winterization appointment for the trailer. We had enough time to move all the luggage from the trailer to the back of the Tahoe before our appointment time.

I had a moment of anxiousness when I started packing the Tahoe and found I was really short on space. But we crammed all the stuff in and the technicians winterized the trailer in short order. I hooked the trailer back up and we drove the ¼-mile to the storage lot.

Entering Utah

Once inside I discovered our space was a tight one. We had a trailer on one side and a fifth wheel RV on the other, but I was able to back the Laredo into the spot without damaging us or them. It took about 40 minutes to lock up the trailer, cover the tires, remove the battery and generally make sure the trailer was secured for the next nine months.

We left the storage lot (I forgot to take a photo of it parked) and headed to a nearby gas station to fill up for the trip to Moab, Utah.

We averaged just 8.9 miles per gallon on the trip up the mountain, but we quickly improved on that without the trailer being dragged behind. The long hill down from Flagstaff into Navajo country certainly contributed to the 31.1 miles per gallon average we got for the first part of the trip to Moab.

A few dumb "asses"

The trip through Monument Valley was beautiful and the trip was uneventful other than a very strong wind that had us dodging tumble weeds much of the afternoon.

One notable thing happened during our trip to Moab. We passed through the town of Bluff, Utah, which was a place where I spent two weeks doing a mission trip back in the early 1960s. Young people from St. Luke’s of the Mountains and several other Episcopal churches made the trip to help the Native Americans dig trenches for water and sewer lines on the reservation near Bluff.

Sign at Bluff, Utah

It was a place I never thought I would see again and yet, here at 68, I was back.

After arguing with Joan about her concerns over livestock running into the road, a couple of donkeys made a liar out of me by running into the road just north of Bluff. I’ll never hear the end of that now.

We checked into our hotel, showered, cleaned up and then met my sister Pam and brother-in-law Jeff at The Blue Pig for dinner. Moab is a beautiful town that is a mecca for folks with four-wheelers and dirt bikes. The place was packed and after dinner we called it an early night and headed back for a good night’s sleep.

At Arches National Park

Mileage out (Tucson) 40483

Mileage in (Flagstaff with trailer) 40767

Time out (Tucson) 7:15 p.m.

Time in (Flagstaff) 7:23 a.m.

Time out (Flagstaff) 9:49 a.m.

Mileage in: (Moab, Utah) 41105

Time in: (Moab, Utah) 4:40 p.m.

On Wednesday, Jeff and Pam picked us up at our hotel and we spent a beautiful day exploring Arches National Park and all the beautiful vistas it has to offer. It is hard to describe in words the magnificent views it offers, but I’ll put some pictures up to try.

Joan balancing a rock on her head

We did a little hiking and walking and enjoyed a picnic lunch among the great rocks of the park. We drove back to the hotel where Jeff and Pam were staying and enjoyed a leisurely visit on a second floor deck overlooking downtown Moab. Pam put out a nice spread of cheese and crackers and everyone but me sipped a little wine.

About 5 p.m. we headed to Pasta Jay’s next door to the hotel where Jeff and Pam were staying and enjoyed a wonderful Italian dinner. After dinner Joan and I walked back to our hotel, which was only two blocks away, for another good night’s sleep.

Jeff was kind enough to drive all day Wednesday which is a rare treat for me to be able to sightsee from the passenger seat.

On Thursday, I offered to drive so Jeff could enjoy the scenery and we headed out to visit Dead Horse State Park and then Canyonlands National Park.

My sister Pam and Joan at Dead Horse Park

It was another great day among some unbelievable views. The four of us did quite a bit of walking and hiking and Jeff and I made it to the top of Whale Rock which is a monolith of a boulder. We had a picnic lunch in Canyonlands and basically spent the day saying “Wow” every two minutes.

Instead of going back to town we headed out to Red Cliffs Winery and Restaurant. Jeff, Pam and Joan did some wine tasting until it was time for dinner and then we enjoyed a leisurely meal eating on the banks of the Colorado River as it passed by.

The area has been used for dozens of movies and commercials and we spent some time visiting the Movie Museum in the Red Cliffs hotel before heading back to town. Once back at Jeff and Pam’s hotel we hugged and said our good-byes and just recalled how quickly the two days had gone.

Jeff on Whale Rock

It is great to have relatives who are also great friends.

So, too soon Friday morning came and it was time to depart Moab for the long journey home. The parking lot at the Moab Hotel (where we stayed) was packed with off road vehicles, trailers with off road vehicles and generally every manner of truck and rv you can imagine.

We headed north and merged onto Highway 70 where I was pleased to discover the speed limit in Utah on the Interstate was 80 mph.  Those are the kinds of speeds that make getting home much quicker. We made our way quickly to a Love’s Truck Stop in Grand Junction for gas.

Me on Whale Rock

The new traffic interchange really threw me for a loop as the exit and entrance ramps and roads around the interchange are backwards from what we are used to driving here in America. (Think England).  I nervously followed the signs and eventually made my way to the gas station on the “wrong” side of the road.

As I pulled up to the gas pump I heard a wild and scary noise coming from a livestock trailer at the pump next to mine. It sounded like a sick donkey, but the only thing in the trailer were horses so I assume one of them made the strange and awful noise.

Me and the "Duke"

We crisscrossed the Colorado River several times as we traveled west through Colorado and at one point Joan made a strange noise of her own when she spotted a large eagle’s nest in a tree next to the river and then spotted a large bald eagle tending to the nest. The perch was probably perfect as it was directly over the river which is good feeding grounds for an eagle.

The freeway continued to climb into the snow covered mountains until we reached Vail where we were above 10,000 feet and surrounded by skiers and snow covered slopes. Some of the travel was slowed by construction zones, but things picked up when we began the descent from 10,000-feet to mile-high Denver.

Some of the grades were so steep that at one off ramp for a small town there was a sign that read “If you have lost your brakes, stay on I-70, do not exit here.”  In other words, we don’t want your careening, out-of-control vehicle in our town.

80 mph!

Outside Denver we switched from I-70 to I-76 and continued our journey to Ogallala, Nebraska. Our phones both changed time zones, but not the car clock, which usually automatically switches. We learned on arrival to our hotel in Ogallala that we were still in Mountain Daylight Savings time, but would cross over to Central time about 10 miles east of where we stayed.

The hotel was full of young girls in town for a volleyball tournament and other than causing Joan to break out in hives when she spotted all those middle school kids they were quiet and well behaved. Well, except for the girls on the second floor trying to spit on the girls on the first level when we first got there.

Colorado!

We had dinner at The Spur, which was adequate, but not real good.

Mileage out: 41256

Mileage in: 41822

Time out: 8 a.m.

Time in: 4:26 p.m.

Snow near Vail

Saturday morning came quickly and we headed out for what I knew would be a very boring driving day. I have done this section of Nebraska several times and it is like driving 400 miles on the top of a dining room table. Flat and very little scenery. There is the beautiful overpass in Kearney, Nebraska but other than that the only thing around to stop the wind is the barbed wire fences on both sides of the freeway.

We were pleased to learn that Kearney, Nebraska is the place where the Sand Hills we see in Michigan in summer and Tucson in the winter stop to mate during their migration.

Nebraska!

The wind blew a gale all day so I was glad that I was not pulling the trailer today. We spent much of the day listening to Radio Classics on the XM Radio along with Lou Simon’s “Countdown” on the 60s music channel. The radio helped to make the day go a little faster.

When we arrived in Williamsburg, Iowa we checked into our Ramada Hotel only to find out that it was full of boys here for a wrestling tournament. We’ll let you know how that went in our next post.

Although there was a restaurant in the hotel we opted to drive about 15 miles into Amana Village to eat at the Ox Yoke Inn, which was a German American restaurant on the line of Frankenmuth. I had the Sauerbraten and Joan had the Chicken Snitczel. We ended up buying some of the homemade strawberry jelly to take home.

Kearney, Nebraska

We returned to the hotel and crashed for the night. Tomorrow we head to my sister Laura and brother-in-law Philip’s home in North Aurora, Illinois for a short stay with them. My sister is a great cook and I look forward to a good home cooked meal there.

We’ll complete the log of the trip after we get home to Lapeer on Tuesday. I’m hoping the crummy weather in Michigan will move out before we arrive home, but it probably won’t.

Mileage out: 41822

Mileage in: 42379

Time out: 7:17 a.m. (MDT)

Iowa!

Time in: 4:40 p.m. (CDT)