A quiet day in Tucson

The main office and sales center at the resort

We’ve had a very quiet day today. Laundry, shopping and general house cleaning and trailer maintenance. It was very nice to do very little.

We had one of those interesting marriage moments today. We forgot the map the resort gave us of grocery stores and other businesses near here so we went by memory from our short journey to dinner last night.

On Kolb Street, Joan insisted that she saw the Frye’s store at one intersection and I insisted I saw it at the very next intersection. Being the good wife that she is, she deferred to me and when we arrived at 22^nd and Kolb streets there was the Frye’s store just as I predicted.

The view from my couch.

On the way home we drove past the intersection, which is only about 1/3-mile away from the Frye’s store where we shopped and lo and behold another complete Frye’s store. So we were BOTH right. How often does that happen? And what brainiac thought it was a good business plan to put two identical grocery stores within easy walking distance of each other.

The Voyager Resort is beautiful and I’ve included some photos of some of the amenities available here. Although we are not yet ready for a permanent move or even a selection of a permanent second home in a warm state we are intrigued by this place. Don't quite understand the need for a tanning salon in Arizona but the resort has one.

Later this week we are going to visit the sales folks and just see what it would cost to reserve a spot for an entire winter season or perhaps own one of the smaller park model trailers here.

Joan checks out part of the huge fitness center

Except for filling up your car this place has everything. You would never have to leave here to get anything but gasoline. They even have a small chapel and Sunday morning services are very well attended.

There is a bar and grill and from what our neighbors told us the food is very good and reasonably priced.

To fill out this entry let’s just share a few reflections on the creator’s beauty. On the way to Tucson, Joan remarked that all the different scenery, including some startling changes within just a few miles is a wonderful reflection of the art work of our creator.

When we left Williams, Arizona about 11 a.m. we were surrounded by a healthy pine forest and crisp temperatures in the 40s. An hour later we were in the high desert north of Phoenix and temperatures were in the high 60s. The pine trees were gone, but the red cliffs and rock formations were a beauty all its own.

View of the manufactured homes at the resort (moon above)

As we headed through and south of Phoenix we began to see the massive and instantly recognizable Saguaro cactus that just screams “Southwest.” At some places there were forests of them. Temperatures climbed in the low 80s as the altitude fell from 7,300-feet near Flagstaff to about 1,200-feet in Phoenix.

As we got closer to Tucson the temperatures began to drop again as we climbed to 2,400-feet. By the middle of the night the temperatures had dropped to the low 40s, but quickly climbed back into the low 80s by the afternoon.

Back to the reflections on the Creator’s artwork: No painter uses colors more vivid or eye-popping; no sculpture artist has created more beautiful statues or monuments than the ones created naturally by God. There is no texture artist who can come close to what we have seen and touched on this trip alone.

Some of the amenities including of all things a tanning salon

Human artists do their best to recreate the artwork on canvas or in bronze or concrete, but they don’t hold a candle to the creator.  Again we remain extremely thankful for our many blessings and the opportunity to really see our own country and all that it has to offer.

By using our trailer and cooking in rather than eating out it makes the visits affordable on our budget. It also is more homey than stopping and unpacking at a hotel. We always wondered whether our dream of traveling in an RV would live up to the actuality. It has in a big way.

Joan keeps the inside of the trailer clean and I keep working on the outside. A few months ago I purchased some back up pins and fasteners for the trailer hitch and boy did that come in handy yesterday.

I forgot to mention that when I hooked up the trailer I accidentally bent the main fastener pin for the hitch pin to the car. In trying to straighten it out I bent the pin so much I was not confident that its strength had been compromised. I remembered the backup pins and quickly replaced the bent pin which got us on the way and didn’t leave me worried that I would be a road hazard.

The park folks let me know that they own the water for the place and that we are free to wash both the car and trailer on site, which I will likely do later this week.

Tomorrow (Monday, October 10) starts my Navy reunion. Not sure how much blogging I will do each day, but I will try to put up something each night when we return from the day’s activities.