Home Sweet Home to Lapeer

Philip and Laura in the kitchen

This is the final chapter of Fall Trip 2011. When I last left the blog hanging we were in Staunton, Illinois enjoying a homemade pizza.

On Friday we rose early and started the second to the last leg of our trip, this time to North Aurora (near Chicago) for a visit with my sister Laura and her husband, Philip.

The trip was easy and the last part drove us through a number of cities south of Aurora that we had never gone through before. We arrived in North Aurora about 1:10 p.m. and Laura greeted us warmly.

Walking Bailey

That evening we had pork tenderloin, a Brussels sprout dish that I actually liked, Caprese, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie for dessert. So much for my diet. We retired early as we had big plans for Saturday morning in Chicago.

On Saturday, we rose early, got ready and headed for the “Windy City” and an architectural walking tour of many of the downtown art deco buildings from the 20s-30s-40s and some of the newer buildings that continue the art deco influence. (I’ve included some photos in an entry below this one with some of the photos from that tour)

The River walk with Bailey

The tour was fun and it is always nice to be downtown in Chicago. We arrived home and watched a little college football in the afternoon and then headed to Mary’s house for a scrumptious meatball dinner that included salad, pasta and a great pumpkin cake that Laura made. Again my diet took a hit.

We arrived home in time to watch the entire MSU versus Wisconsin game on Laura and Philip’s big screen, high definition television. An exciting game with an equally exciting and successful finish for MSU. A great day all the way around.

Sunday morning we rose and waited for another house guest, a canine named Bailey. Once Bailey, a border collie, arrived to the house Laura, Philip and I took the dog for a walk along a nearby river while Joan stayed home and rested.

Joan, Philip, Laura and Bailey

After the walk I got cleaned up and Laura, Joan and I went to see a movie “Munger Road” a horror movie that was locally produced and shot near Laura and Philip’s house. In fact the night we went to Mary’s house for meatballs we drove right on “Munger Road.” After seeing the movie I probably won’t be anxious to drive on that road ever again.

For dinner Sunday night Laura made chicken picata, real mashed potatoes and green beans. We also finished up the pumpkin pie from Friday, so it was a good thing that was my last meal or I would be well off my food wagon.

With Laura and Philip both up and working from home Monday morning we slipped out about 8 a.m. and started the final leg of the trip home. We arrived home about 2:10 p.m. (Eastern time) and temperatures in the high 50s.

Jim, Philip, Laura & Bailey

We were greeted by Elin and Rizzo and prepared to have a dinner out with our friends Greg and Pam who we have not seen for some time. It is true what they say, there is no place like home.

So once again, Grandma’s Recess will go dark until January when, God willing, we will be heading out to pick up our trailer in Amarillo and then drag it from there to San Antonio.

Here’s some fun statistics from the trip:

Total miles on the Tahoe from start to finish: 7,650

Total miles on the trailer: 3,047

Total miles to date on the Tahoe: 82,635

Total miles to date on the trailer: 12,499

Photos from the Art Deco tour

Model of Chicago

Art deco building

Chicago Board of Trade

Occupy Chicago protesters

Art deco hallway

Art deco bank

Art deco elevator doors

Art deco building

Art deco at Hard Rock Hotel

Art deco Tribune building

Moving slowly, but steadily home

Closer to home are we. We stayed in Governors Suites in Oklahoma City, which was a nice place, but not very occupied. We had a very nice room and it was only $60 on Hotels.com.

Joan at Missouri rest stop

We left Oklahoma City about 8:30 a.m. and anticipating some heavy morning commute traffic, but we really never hit any traffic. I was also anticipating heavy traffic in St. Louis, but with much of the way offering a speed limit of 75 mph we arrived in St. Louis shortly before 4 p.m. which allowed us to escape both afternoon commute and evening World Series traffic.

In Missouri we stopped at a rest area that had a pretty nice Route 66 theme to it. We took each other’s picture and Joan didn’t leave me out of focus so I have posted it here to blunt her criticism of how I only post photos of her.

We arrived in Staunton, Illinois about 4:30 p.m. and checked into our hotel. Staunton is a German word that I believe means, “Nothing happens here.”

Both of us had a taste for pizza and the hotel manager suggested a downtown restaurant – Cavataio’s. We headed to town and found a downtown a lot like Lapeer, Michigan.

The restaurant was pretty empty when we came in about 5:15 p.m., but quickly filled up with a party of 25 expected in at 6:30 p.m. So a pretty happening place. The pizza took awhile, but was well worth the wait as it was a very good pizza.

There was a young child in the restaurant who screamed at the top of his lungs several times. He finally quieted down when the food arrived. But I have the urge when a screaming child is ignored more than three times by his parents to walk over and start using sign language. When they ask why I’m ‘signing’ I would say “Obviously, you must not be able to hear your child screaming and I just wanted to let you know.”

Me - in focus

Of course I don’t do that for two reasons. One, I wouldn’t want to cause a scene and two, Joan would kill me. Actually, the last reason is the real one.

For a change today we listened to “Radio Classics” on our XM radio. These are old radio serials, some that I remember and others that I’ve only heard about. Some of them are remarkably good and have stood the test of time, while others, not so much. Today there were a couple episodes of “Suspense” and one of the “Whisperer.”

I’m also a big fan of the “Life of Riley” and other comedies they frequently play on the channel.

Fibber McGee and a comedy variety show were also featured, but my favorite line of the day came from one of my favorite radio classics – Boston Blackie. At one point one of the gangsters on the show is talking about his antagonist who plays the harmonica and says: “If he keeps this up he won’t be playing a harmonica, he’ll be strumming a harp.” That is a great line.

We can tell we are no longer in Tucson as the daytime temperatures today through Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois never got above 59 degrees.

Tomorrow we are off to my sister Laura’s house near Chicago. A weekend with Laura and Philip and then we head home on Monday.

Remembering those lost in Oklahoma City

Where we left the trailer, in case I forget

First I must apologize to my car. Yes, apologize to my car. For several days I have been concerned about the Tahoe’s ability to climb out of Albuquerque pulling our trailer from 5,000-feet to 7,300-feet in a distance of about five miles.

This morning we got up early and continued our journey east. When I headed to the shower I realized I had done an RV camp “no-no.” Last night I turned on our outside ‘porch’ light and then when I came back inside I forgot to turn it off. That’s considered bad behavior in an RV park as the light may shine into someone’s bedroom, which is likely not more than 15-feet away.

Other than feeling badly about that, there wasn’t much I could do and besides I realized in about 30 minutes Joan and I would be pulling out of the park and would likely never see any of these folks again.

Each 'chair' represents a bombing victim

With the trailer already attached to the Tahoe, it took just a short time to break camp, flush the water and sewer tanks, turn off the water and disconnect the power cord from the park to the trailer.

We headed out of the park and immediately started our climb out of Albuquerque. The grades were steep and long, but the Tahoe never missed a beat, maintained a speed of about 55 mph at 3,300 rpms and we climbed out of the city with no problems. The transmission fluid temperature never got above 150 degrees, which is pretty much normal running temperature on the flat and straight.

We were no doubt aided in the temperature department by low air temperatures in the mid-30s at the time we left. Still, with each subsequent trip I gain more and more confidence in the Tahoe, trailer and my ability to control and operate them.

A longer view of the memorial chairs

Today’s trip came in two parts. Part I included the trailer. After cresting the highest point we spent most, but not all, of the remaining first part of the trip heading downhill. The travel between Albuquerque and Amarillo was just long enough that I needed to fill up the Tahoe one more time with the trailer attached.

So we headed to the same Love’s Travel Center where we had filled up on our way west in Tucumcari. When we arrived there it was like a zoo. There were semi-trucks and trailers, RVs, and plenty of private cars waiting and jockey for pump position. At one point Joan mentioned they needed either a control tower or some form of traffic control to sort everything out.

But even without my “end cap” pump available I was able to pull to an interior pump, fill up and still maneuver my way out of the gas station into the line of trucks and vehicles merging back onto I-40 west.

One of the many memorials left on the fence

The rest of the first half of the trip was uneventful and we made it to Strater’s Acres RV business in Amarillo early in the afternoon. I visited with the service manager and Joan visited with his wife, the office manager, in the Sales office.

I left him a short list of things I would like done to the trailer, not the least and most important was the immediate winterizing of the Laredo. Temperatures are already dipping into the freezing level in Amarillo and freezing in a trailer can do very expensive damage.

The trailer was dropped (softly and appropriately) at the door of the service center and Joan and I cleaned out the trailer and packed the Tahoe with the liquids, dirty laundry, trailer battery, luggage with clothes we will need at home, the computer printer, exercise weights and anything else that needed to come back to Michigan.

It took about an hour to accomplish all we needed to do, but then we bid ‘adios’ (we are in Texas after all) to the Laredo and continued on our way to Oklahoma City.

Outside the memorial

That part of the trip was fairly long, but again uneventful. With the Tahoe liberated from its 33-foot anchor we made much better time and the gas mileage improved considerably, which always messes with the vehicle information computer for the first couple days. The computer is calculating our range based on recent gas usage so when we drop the trailer it takes awhile for the computer to adjust to the extra gas mileage we get without the dragging wagon.

Joan was threatening to take a bite out of my driving arm, so instead of going straight to our hotel, we stopped at a Texas Roadhouse Restaurant about a mile from our hotel where we had dinner.

After dinner we headed to the hotel and checked in, but we had decided earlier in the day that we wanted to drive to downtown Oklahoma City and see the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

Back in 1995 when the Oklahoma City bombing occurred I was working at the Flint Journal as a reporter and within days came the news that one or more of them suspects in the horrific bombing had connections to our subscription area. Because of some personal issues in my life at the time, my editor was kind enough to keep me at arm’s length from the story as it broke in April 1995.

Not the least of those reasons was I was leaving for a two-week, much needed vacation to Maui on April 30^th. Later on I would do stories on the local connection to the bombing but I will be forever grateful to my editor Julie for realizing I was not mentally prepared to work on the story at that time.

Anyway, we arrived at the memorial after dark. There were only a few visitors there and it was a very solemn and emotional place. Both Joan and I were overwhelmed at spots at the magnitude of the tragedy, reflected in the individual chairs which each represent one of the 168 victims.

What really got to Joan was the placement of many smaller chairs, representing the children in the daycare center in the building who were killed on the second floor that day. The chairs are arranged in rows, which correspond with the floor the person was on when killed.

Joan couldn’t help but think of all the grieving parents, grandparents and children who were left behind due to the senseless bombing. A chain link fence on the outside of the memorial is covered with remembrances left hanging on it.

Jesus, weeping

At the two entrances to the Memorial there are two times “9:01” and “9:03” which represent the minute before and the minute after the bomb was detonated. The first time represents the old “innocent” Oklahoma City and the second time represents how the city was changed forever in a moment. Very powerful stuff.

Across the street, at the site of St. Josephs Catholic Church was a statue of Jesus, with his back turned to the memorial with his head in his hands weeping.

It was a very powerful monument that left us quite moved.

On our way back to the hotel we were caught in traffic due to a traffic accident on the freeway and the idiots who kept trying to sneak into the one-lane of traffic being allowed to go around the wreck were making things much slower.

When motorists realize it is time to merge into a single lane, the quicker they do that, the quicker everyone gets through. But when people keep driving down to the point of the merge and then force their way in it just slows up everyone, but them of course.

It’s as if they are telling everyone else that their time is so much more valuable and important than anyone else’s. Just a little pet peeve of mine.

A couple other non-connected observations: We have been surprised at the number of homeless (or people saying they are homeless) that occupy nearly every major intersection from Tucson to Oklahoma City. If you gave just $1 to every one of them you would be broke in a day. Of course we feel badly for them, but it is very unsafe the way they hamper traffic and panhandle in the intersections. It is very widespread here.

We have also observed that wherever we receive “free” Internet service that most of the time it is really crappy Internet service. The old adage, you get what you pay for, seems very true in this instance and should explain why I could not post this item last night using our “free” Internet service at the hotel. It never worked, not even for a minute. Obviously, it was fixed overnight or you wouldn't be reading this.

Due to my great planning our trip tomorrow should land us in St. Louis either in the middle of rush hour commute traffic or in World Series traffic, so bully for me.

Mileage out: 80961

Time out: 7:20 a.m. (Mountain time)

Mileage in: (Trailer to Amarillo) 81245

Time in: (Trailer to Amarillo) 1:10 p.m. (Central time)

While we climbed, the temperatures fell

Our campsite in Albuquerque

Today we did some major climbing. We left Tucson at elevation 2,400-feet and arrived in Albuquerque at 5,000-feet. Tomorrow we’ll arrive at 7,300-feet and then start down. The hills and grades were bad enough, but combined with a pretty stiff head and crosswind, the gas gauge got a workout.

When the road is flat and the air is calm, we average about 11-12 miles per gallon. But on days like today, we’re lucky to average 7-8 miles per gallon. As it was we averaged a little over 8 miles per gallon and made three gas stops between Tucson and here.

The scenery, as it has been most of this trip, was always changing and usually spectacular. New Mexico is a beautiful, if empty, state. We drove for miles on end without seeing a house or any sign of human life off the freeway. It’s at those moments that I pray we don’t break down.

Campground office

It was headed into the 90s when we left Tucson, but as we climbed higher and moved east the temperatures dropped into the high 60s and low 70s through New Mexico.

As we crossed the New Mexico border we lost an hour, which put us in later than I had planned to the KOA along I-40 just east of Albuquerque. We thought about contacting our friends who we visited previously, but because of the short notice and late hour decided it would not be in good taste.

Besides, we are not unhooking from the trailer so we can make an early escape tomorrow.

Tonight we are roughing it – no cable television in the park. Obviously, we do have Internet and I hooked up the small television to the exterior television antenna so we are getting a few local network stations.

The park is packed and although our trailer is pretty long, we once again look like the 5-foot-7 guard on a basketball team full of 6-footers. Some of these rigs are huge, like Greyhound bus huge.

After setting up, Joan cooked up everything left in the refrigerator and now that is pretty well cleaned out. Hot dogs, hamburgers, deli cole slaw and potato salad from Tucson made up our dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we have about a 3-4 hour run to Amarillo where we will drop the trailer and then head on to Oklahoma City for the night.

Mileage out: 80514
Time out: 8:11 a.m. (Pacific time)

Mileage in: 80961
Time in: 5:30 p.m. (Mountain time)

Packing up, ready to go home

The extended mirrors are in place. The hitch is attached to the car. The stabilizers are ready to connect. We will be off and running early tomorrow for home.

Today was quiet. We met with the park sales folks and visited a couple park models that are for sale to get an idea what they look like inside. Steve was not hard sell and we enjoyed looking at a couple different models and have a lot to think about down the road.

We are no where near ready to plant ourselves in Tucson, but when the time comes and we are ready for a big move and an end to the trailer travel, this place will be high on our list.

After the visit to the park models we headed back to the trailer to continue the process of figuring out what is going back to Michigan and what is staying aboard the trailer in Amarillo storage.

Joan watched her soap opera at 1 p.m. and then we headed out for what I believed would be a simple stop at a local RV shop to pick up a couple extra spring pins for my tool box. After bending an important spring pin for the hitch assembly I decided I would have a couple extras on hand so we would not be stranded for lack of a $1 pin.

So we plugged in the address of the nearest RV store and arrived about 2:30 p.m. Unfortunately, they had no pins. So we found a second RV store nearby and drove there and again struck out. A third RV store was unable to find the size pins we needed, but suggested a nearby tractor supply store.

Bingo! They had all but one of the pins that I needed and I already have a back up for that hardware.

So what I thought would be a short trip turned into a 90-minute adventure. On the way home we stopped at the nearest gas station to top off the Tahoe so we will be ready for the long haul tomorrow.

Not sure how the blogging will go for the next few days, but feel free to check in and see what if anything interesting happens on our way home, both with, and without, the trailer attached.

Thanks for following us on our adventure.

A workout, church, laundry and dinner out, almost time for home

After a good early morning workout in the fitness center here at Voyager, I returned to the trailer and made sure that Joan was up and around as she asked.

We’ve missed going to church for a couple weeks so we found a local Anglican church via the Internet and I talked to the priest by phone on Saturday about the services.

Just because we’re on the road doesn’t mean we don’t miss our church family or our weekly worship, so we usually try and find a nice church to visit. We have never been disappointed by the reception we get or the quality of the services or sermons.

A couple greeted us at the door of St. Jude’s Anglican Church and attesting to the small world we know that it is found out that they were just recently in Fenton, Michigan visiting their daughter who is a nurse at Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc.

They expressed a desire to come worship with us and our church the next time they come to Michigan to visit their daughter.

The service was beautiful, much like the Episcopal services I remember as a young man in the 1950s. The church continues to use the old Hymnal and the 1928 Prayer Book. It was all very familiar. Fr. Mark preached on the wonderful spirit and gifts of St. Francis.

Fr. Mark is a Marine who later became a police officer and eventually a police chief of a small city in South Carolina, I believe. So we had the service and police work in common.

After church we headed back to the RV park so Joan could do some laundry and so we could both watch the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions football game. That turned out badly for the Lions.

With wheels up day on Tuesday, I began the process of determining what is going to remain in the trailer when we store it in Amarillo, Texas and what will travel home with us in the Tahoe. We are leaving our summer clothes with the trailer, but taking home our more wintry clothes.

We’ll finish that tomorrow and be ready to hook up and get out of here early Tuesday.

It was hot again today and with food supplies dwindling in the trailer we decided to try the little bar and grill in the park tonight. Joan had the Chicken Cordon Bleu special and I went for the Classic Meat Loaf. Both were very good and reasonably priced.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we will clean out everything left in the refrigerator and freezer as we spend our last two nights in the trailer, for awhile.

 We are looking forward to a weekend with my sister Laura and brother-in-law Philip in Chicago and then the short jaunt home on Monday (the 24^th).

A big day for MSU and very large cactus

Today’s activities were scheduled around one thing – the Michigan State versus Michigan football game.

I was up early and went to the fitness center here at the RV park and because of the time difference was able to watch College Game Day while I worked out for 90 minutes. All the “experts” on the show predicted Michigan would win and I was pretty much resigned to the fact our string of victories over the Wolverines would come to an end.

The Spartans had a different idea and by early afternoon it was apparent, although not a pretty win, that we would tack on another victory over the cross state rivals. The Spartans still need to clean up their undisciplined play and certainly the future for the Wolverines looks good with their new coach and quarterback Denard Robinson.

So congratulations Spartans on a hard fought 28-14 win. It is clear that MSU needs work on discipline, but has enough talent, at least on defense, to overcome some of those mistakes.

With the game out of the way and my heart rate restored to near normal levels after the game we headed out to visit Saguaro (pronounced Sa – Wah – Ro) National Park near here. The park is named for the famous giant cactus that is so connected with the old West.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and talked to a volunteer who suggested a short walk along the Desert Ecology Trail about half way around an 8-mile driving loop in the park. We needed a short walk because temperatures rose to 100 today in the valley. But it’s a dry heat.

We stopped at all the various view stops on the driving loop and again were struck by the incredible beauty that the Southwest offers.

At the Desert Ecology Trail we spent about 30 minutes walking the level trail and enjoyed the various markers explaining the incredible adaptations that nature has required of plants and animals in the desert.

(After this entry, scroll down and see additional photos of the Saguaro National Park)

Again, we used our new federal senior park pass and were able to tour the park for free.

After our park tour we headed to Frye’s, the local grocery store, to pick up a few things for our last few days on the road. Joan does a good job of planning our meals and holding down any food waste. Because we are leaving the trailer in storage in Amarillo, Texas, we will need to clean out the refrigerator of everything before we drop the trailer.

Once back at the trailer we had hamburgers, sweet corn, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner. We are now out of mashed potatoes, sweet corn and I hope, salad.

It is clear that the snowbirds are slowly filling up the park as more and more folks have checked in during the past few days.

More photos from Sagauro National Park

Giant Saguaro with Joan

Gotta have a bonnet photo

Sitting on a cactus

The Tahoe and Saguaro

Javalina Rock

Looking toward the mountains

Desert vista

One of the many stops

Joan without the bonnet and in the sun

A little house cleaning and a trip to the Arizona wine country

We spent another quiet day here in the Southwest. It was a welcome respite from the hectic pace of the last few days during the reunion.

After a leisurely wake up, we had our breakfast (cookie and tea for me, cookie and coffee for Joan) and then I finished a project I had started yesterday, the outside washing of the trailer. I use a wash and wax mixture and with the RV park’s permission I cleaned a month’s worth of road dust off the Laredo.

It looks 100 percent better, especially with the absence of the bugs off the front of the trailer. Most parks do not allow rig and car washing on site, but the rules here specifically allow it. Not sure, I went to the office just to double check.

“We own the water,” the office receptionist said. “Use all you need.”

Dos Cabezas Winery

Anyway, with temperatures predicted to rise into the high 90s, I got about the washing and waxing early to avoid the high heat of the day. On Thursday I did the half of the trailer that was in the shade in the afternoon and today I did the other half early enough that I didn’t get roasted.

After finishing the washing, I washed all the outside windows as they were streaked from the soap and water I used to wash the trailer.

In the afternoon, we made the wine tasting trip that we try to make everywhere we stop for any length of time. Remarkably, there are several wineries in and around Tucson.

Kief-Joshua Winery

We chose four, but found that one of them was closed, literally because the owner had “gone fishing.”

Joan found a bottle of wine at Dos Cabezas Winery in Sonoita, another bottle she liked at Keif-Joshua Wineries nearby, but hit the jackpot when she found three wines she really, really liked at the Charron Winery just off I-10 near Sonoita.

Charron was off the beaten path on a rough dirt road, but its 20 acres of vines apparently produce a product that Joan really likes.

Charron Winery

I would have had more pictures, but SOMEONE forgot the camera today. That SOMEONE, would be me.

On the way home we got stopped in a random U.S. Border Patrol check point on Highway 83. This occurred about 50 miles north of the Mexican border and only took us a few extra seconds to be cleared through. Good to know the Border Patrol is on the job.

We also thought about the boyfriend of a friend's daughter who is down here somewhere training to be a Border Patrol agent.

The agents peeked in our open windows determined we were not bringing any extra garden help home with us and waved us on our way.

We arrived home from the wine adventure about 5 p.m. and sat down to the leftovers from Cousin Cynthia’s Taco Soup, which is really good. It was one of those meals that you are sorry when it’s all gone.
The heat is expected to return here tomorrow and we may hang close to home and watch a little football game, the Michigan State University versus Michigan annual rivalry contest.

As the days wind down we both find ourselves beginning to yearn for home a little, although we really love the Tucson area and have an appointment on Monday to talk to the property managers here about how their long term rentals and park model purchases work. We’re not anywhere near ready to settle in one place, but each of our trips is a kind of an audition for where we might like to land in the future.

Obviously, the audition for Tucson has gone very well.

Great tours and a great reunion come to an emotional close

Our personal tour at Sonora Desert Museum

It is always kind of a letdown when something you have anticipated for a long time comes and goes in a flash. My USS Cogswell reunion seemed to blow by, but isn’t that always the way when you are having a good time?

The reunion concluded last night with a formal banquet at the Hotel Arizona and the always emotional reading of the shipmates who have died since the last reunion. One of the names read was a chief who was on board the Cogswell in 1966 when I was aboard.

Incredible views

Met lots of new shipmates and also shared old times with some we met at the last reunion. The association has asked me to start assembling biographies of as many of our members as possible. I put out a questionnaire and more than half of the guys responded to it by the time the reunion ended last night. I really have my work cut out for me now.

The reunion always ends with the couples and attendees getting individual pictures taken for the photo book that will capture a lot of the memories.

Sagauro cactus

Some of those memories will include a full last day of touring on Wednesday. It was a very full, but rewarding day of tours and George Overman, a crewmember during the time I was on the Cogs, does a wonderful job of organizing and putting together some wonderful tour stops.

Wednesday started early for us as we had to get to the hotel by 8 a.m. to catch the tour bus, the same one we took on Tuesday as it turned out. Richie was our bus driver and during the rare times he talked on the bus microphone I thought we were being driven around by Joe Pesci. He even looked a little like him.

The first stop was at the Sonora Desert Museum which is an incredible place that replicates many of the varying climates and scenery we have been marveling at over the past couple weeks.  On the way to the museum we passed through part of the Saguaro (Saw – war-oh)  National Park. The Saguaro is the cactus that grows tall and sometimes has appendages that really symbolizes the old Southwest.

One of the desert habitats at the museum

We only had two hours at the museum, which was not nearly enough to view all the exhibits and native animals on display there. Our docent was great and he was happy to do the tour as his son was a former Navy veteran.

I love cactus and the docent did an excellent job of explaining the various adaptation of plant and wildlife and how it survives in a hot and dry climate like Southern Arizona. He explained the various food and medicinal products made from the various species of cactus.

Sanctuary San Xavier del Bac

Due to the warmth of the day we only saw a few of the animals (a mountain lion, two beavers in an underwater aquarium like display, a native wolf, a couple birds and once again rattlesnakes. Many of the other critters, including river otters and a coati, were doing the smart thing and staying out of sight and cool.

After the abbreviated tour I stopped at the ticket office and asked if there was a special for people who wanted to come back and visit again because they didn’t have enough time to enjoy all the exhibits and the woman at the ticket window gave me a 2 for 1 ticket that will save us $14 if we come back. I’m sounding more like my mother-in-law every day.

The bus picked us up at 10:45 a.m. and drove us to San Xavier del Bac Mission where we had just a very short time to tour this historic and old church. The construction began in the 1700s and continued for several  decades until its completion.

Pima Air and Space Museum

You can see from the photo that it appears not quite done, with one tower remaining incomplete. We were told that under Spanish rule there was no taxes on a building until it was completed so the missionaries deliberately left the top of the column undone so they would not have to pay taxes.

The sanctuary is beautiful and all the more so because the work was done so very long ago. It is still an active Roman Catholic Church and school and with we may just attend church there on Sunday and soak in the history and spirit of the place during Mass.

Pima Air and Space Museum

The church is largely attended by a local Native American population and they were out front making something called “fry bread,” which looked delicious, but which is not on our diet, so we passed.

Back on the bus it was off to the Pima Air and Space Museum for an afternoon of airplane viewing. This is our fourth air and space museum in about 8 months, but so far we are not tired of it.

(I have put some additional photos of both the Sonora Desert Museum and Air and Space Museum in a post below this one. Just scroll down and you will see them.)

Fighter jet in the Boneyard

Because Joan and I are on a diet that involves eating a special cookie for lunch we did not have to spend 30-45 minutes waiting in a long line for a sandwich, which gave us more time to tour the museum both during the lunch break and later when we returned for the actual museum tour.

After lunch, about 1:15 p.m., we re-boarded the bus, this time with an Air and Space Museum docent named John Chaffee, who was a retired Air Force fighter pilot and he accompanied us out to the 309^th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) outdoor facility, which is affectionately known around here as “The Boneyard.”  The facility is located adjacent to the Museum at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

A retired Air Force executive transport plane

Because the tour went onto a military base we all had to show picture ID for security reasons. The docent could not have been better. As a former military pilot he had great stories about the aircraft and included some anecdotes that involved some of the planes that he had flown, including fighter missions in Vietnam.

The facility has rows and rows of hundreds, probably thousands of surplus aircraft stored in the desert. The desert makes a great storage center because the climate does not corrode the metal and the hard ground makes it possible to park the large planes on the desert floor instead of pouring expensive concrete.

In addition to storage, the base is working on modifications to various airplanes to extend their flying life and the stored planes are also a rich source of spare parts for current aircraft that are so old that parts for them are no longer made. Call it a big military salvage yard.

We spent more than an hour touring the flight line display of the many military aircraft stored at the facility. I couldn’t help but thing of the billions of dollars just standing idle in the desert.

The Air Force "Boneyard"

John pointed out that once an aircraft crosses a highway bridge to the other side of Kolb Road it is highly unlikely that plane will ever fly or leave the facility again. Hence the name, boneyard.

A lot of the aircraft are up on blogs because the landing gear has been removed and used as replacement parts for currently flying aircraft.

“A lot of young pilots must be making some pretty hard landings judging by all the missing nose gear,” John told us.

There are also large chunks of several B-52s at various corners of the facility, which were cut up and destroyed as part of a nuclear proliferation treaty with the former Soviets. The pieces are visible from Russian spy satellites and both sides use the satellites to confirm treaty compliance, John said.

Computer before Steve Jobs

Once the flight line tour was complete, our group headed back to the main museum for the rest of our tour there.

Unfortunately, John took off before I got off the bus because I wanted to talk to him about my stepfather, Ray, who worked in the engineering department at the Lockheed Corporation in Burbank. John mentioned during his tour that he had also worked in the engineering department at Lockheed in Burbank during the same years as my stepfather.

I left a message at the office for John to call me so I could explore any connection between the two men.

Because we had toured the main hangar while others were eating lunch we had time to head out at some of the auxiliary hangars, one which had a completely restored B-29 on the floor. Outdoors I walked the various flight lines that included a wide assortment of fighters, bombers, commercial airplanes and other great displays.

There was also an actual World War II barracks that was filled with model airplanes.

A Lockheed Constellation

Joan tired of the heat and headed back inside while I walked up and down the flight line taking one of more than 100 photos of the museum.

After boarding the bus for our return to the Hotel Arizona, we all mentioned how enjoyable the day had been, especially the wonderful and entertaining presentation by John.

Back at the hotel, Joan and I had made arrangements to change from our casual tour clothes into our formal dining wear by bringing all of our dress up clothes with us in the morning. I went to the parking garage and retrieved our clothing and hair brush and brought it back to the hotel where we changed in the bathroom.

A retired NASA transport

I then walked the three city blocks back to the parking garage in my suit to throw all the casual clothes in the Tahoe so we wouldn’t have to have luggage with us at the dinner.

Back at the hotel I realized I had left my belt back at the trailer, so Joan loaned me her black belt from her casual clothes to hold up my pants.

After my second round trip to the Tahoe I realized back at the hotel that I had left my camera back in the car, which necessitated round trip number three to the parking garage.

At 5:30 p.m. we lined up to have our photo book picture taken and then joined Ron and Margaret Eberle, of Louisville, Kentucky, and John and Louise Helliwell, of Thousand Oaks, California for dinner. We were also joined by Gary Esterby, of Dennison, Montana, for dinner.

Joan

Ron and I joined the Cogswell within a day of each other in 1966 as young seaman, both assigned to First Division (Deck Division) which is basically as low as you get on a ship. Gary Esterby was in an engineering rate and we were not close during the time both of us were on the ship.

I had not met John Helliwell before this reunion, but learned that he came on the Cogswell shortly after I was transferred off to the USS Hoel. Helliwell, like me was a Quartermaster, and it was likely that he was put aboard to replace me.

It was an enjoyable dinner with a lot of laughter, broken up by some sad moments when they read the names of the deceased shipmates and the playing of “Taps.”

After dinner, they treated us to a night of Casino gambling providing us with $1,000 worth of chips for $5. Joan and I sat down at the Texas Hold ‘Em table to learn that game and to play. We had not planned to stay more than an hour, but we had a little luck and stayed until closing at 11 p.m.

Ron and Margaret Eberle

I used to play Five Card Draw poker (not well by the way) so I am familiar with what is a good hand and what is not, but I think I caught on to the Texas adaptation pretty quickly and had some early success.

When the whistle blew I had $2,100 in chips left over, which I thought was pretty good. One of the Craps players rang up $9,000 in chips and won the prize for the evening.

I was calling and raising $100 bets all night, something I would not have been comfortable doing if I was playing with real money.

Hoping to give Joan a little rest from all the walking we had done over the last two days, I offered to walk to pick up the car and drive back to pick her up, which she heartily agreed to. When I got to the parking garage I thought I had made a mistake. There were a couple very unsavory characters hanging out in the structure so I puffed up, looked tough and they left me alone. Was really glad then I had left Joan back at the hotel.

We crashed as soon as we got home, tired but happy from a wonderful day and reunion.

Gary Esterby

On Thursday morning I got up early and headed back to the reunion hospitality room to say my good byes to the few shipmates who had not already departed to the airport. We look forward to seeing everyone at the next reunion in Mobile, Alabama in May 2013.

As I mentioned in a previous post I needed some work done on the Tahoe because of what a tire store guy told me was a partially damaged left front tie rod.

So on my way back from the reunion at 9 a.m. I stopped at O’Reilly’s Chevrolet in Tucson and had a service technician look at the car. Fully expecting a $200 bill for new tie rods I prepared for an all-day wait for the car.

Gilbert, my service rep, came to me in the waiting room and said the mechanic discovered the tie rod was fine, as was my suspension and that the car only needed to have a front end alignment.

An honest car dealer, who knew? Was really glad I listened to my doubts at the tire place and deferred to Tucson the work on the front end.

John and Louise Esterby

While waiting for the alignment to be done, I got a call from Joan about 11 a.m. from a phone number I did not recognize. She asked me when I was going to be home to the trailer because she had locked herself out of the trailer and was in her shower outfit out in the open.

I asked her about the phone and she said the security guard came to her aid and let her use his phone to contact me. “When will you be home and do you have a key to the trailer?,” Joan asked.

“About 40 minutes and yes, I do have a key,” I answered.

It turned out to be about an hour before the car was done and poor Joan sat in the shadow of the trailer for an hour wearing her bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head until I arrived home.

Always one to explain the obvious, I told Joan it would probably be smart to carry the trailer key with her when she went to the shower. She was not amused.

Temperatures here today were 105 degrees, but it didn’t feel a degree over 99. Despite the temperatures I stuck with my plan to wash the trailer, but only got it half done before the heat got to me. I’ll finish tomorrow when the temperature is ONLY supposed to be 98.

Joan, who was now two hours behind her own schedule, sent me to the nail salon to see if they had a 2:30 p.m. appointment for a “fill.”

I walked into the place as told the woman: “I have no idea what this means, but do you have time to do a “Fill” about 2:30 p.m. today?”

“I know exactly what you are talking about and yes, I can get her in,” Nancy said. I do know that a “Fill” costs $25, so whatever they are filling must be really empty.

 Joan fixed steaks, baked potato, corn on the cob and salad for dinner.