We stay busy as the resort winds down

Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant

It’s been a busy couple of days around here as we prepare for the visit of John, Nicole and our two grandchildren (and the little one that’s on the way) this Easter.

We have taken a little time for some recreation around the park, but between laundry and shopping there hasn’t been a whole lot going on.

Well, except we went out for dinner Wednesday night to celebrate our 14^th anniversary and then went to a performance of “Wicked” at the Tucson Music Hall after.

Joan outside the theater

The restaurant – The Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant – is housed in a stucco building that dates to the 1860s and is listed as an historic territorial structure.

It was beautiful inside and the food was very good. Joan had crab cakes and a beet salad, I had a Cajun Meatloaf and a bowl of Gazpacho. We shared an antipasto appetizer. While my food was very good it was also very spicy which was not a great choice for a meal just before sitting in a pretty full theater for three hours just an hour later.

On the way to the theater I was concerned that I was under dressed for the show as I was wearing a polo shirt and slacks and dress black shoes. No worries, to be underdressed in Tucson one would have to show up not dressed at all.

As I waited to go into the theater I suddenly felt slightly over dressed as people showed up in shorts, flip-flops and t-shirts.

The weather was perfect and we sat outside until it was time to go in and get our seats.

Inside the theater at intermission

I’ll also admit I was not particularly excited to see “Wicked” as I had never heard much about it and what I did made it sound a little girly. That concern grew when I heard a father in an animated conversation with his daughter about his concern that she would sing through the entire performance.

After imploring her not to sing along with the actors, the girl fired back, “But Daddy, I know all the words.”

The play was OK and I even followed the story (which is really a prequel to the old “Wizard of Oz” story) and the music was well performed.

Market Daze at the resort

We had balcony seats, but the theater was small enough it didn’t seem to matter that much.

Earlier on Wednesday we attended the resort’s “Market Daze,” which is a large collection of artisans who bring their crafts and wares to the resort. The show also includes a large number of resort residents who sell the jewelry, wood products, art and other objects made at the various shops at the resort.

If I haven’t mentioned it earlier there are classes and shops for  lapidary, stain glass, water color, sewing, quilting, silversmith, wood working, and other hobbies right here at the resort.

We ended up finding our annual travel souvenir, which was a unique metal sculpture of a Saguaro cactus with three howling coyotes at the foot of it. Part of the sculpture was made with barbed wire and we both instantly fell in love with it when we saw it.

Our souvenir

Right now it’s stored under the trailer until our time to head home.

Now that I think of it, Wednesday was a pretty full day after all.

On Thursday I was up early as I volunteered last week to lead the discussion at the Men’s Bible Study here at the resort. We are studying Philippians and this was the concluding chapter in the winter study.

The men were very helpful in the discussion and the hour passed very quickly. Tomorrow morning we have our farewell breakfast at the resort restaurant.

After Bible study I took a walk around the park to give Joan an extra hour of sleep and then it was time to make our weekly trip to the Laundromat.

After lunch we headed to the grocery store to start stocking up for the next week’s food.

University of Arizona cakes (NCAA tourney)

Tonight we went to the 7 p.m. Maundy Thursday service here at the park and it was very inspiring.

As I mentioned previously, things are starting to wind down here at the park. Bulletin boards that were once covered with activities and coming events are clear, the only postings left are the remaining church services for the Easter observances.

The board where I get information on the next hikes is also now clear and each morning I see more and more RVs leaving the park. The season is obviously almost over.

A hike into God's art gallery



My lunch view

All I can say is “wow.” Today’s hike in the Chiricahua Mountains in Southern Arizona left me amazed and awestruck and just a little bit tired.

Since my first hike here in January I have heard members of the hiking group talk about the beautiful Chiricahua Mountains and the excitement and anticipation of this season-ending hike. Because the trailhead is 110 miles from the resort the hiking group met at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 8 a.m.

With only 12 hikers and very few cars I offered to drive and ended up with three passengers in the Tahoe. We arrived at the ranger station at the Chiricahua National Monument at 8:55 a.m. to catch the 9 a.m. shuttle to the top of the mountain.

Natural spires over our heads

Unfortunately, the 9 a.m. shuttle was actually an 8:30 a.m. shuttle so we were looking at the prospect of shuffling cars to the top of the mountain and leaving one at the bottom to take the drivers back up after the hike.

Fortunately, the nice ranger said because we had a full group he would run a second shuttle up the mountain for us at 9:15 a.m. so we didn’t have to move cars around. A park volunteer drove us to the trailhead and dropped us off to begin our hike through the mountains.

The first part of the trail was down and I started to think this is going to be an easy hike. Ah, but then the trail turned to a sharp ascent and we probably climbed about 600-800-feet in a very short time.  The trail proceeded through an area that was significantly damaged by fire just two years ago and it was sobering to see the extensive damage done by the fire, which was caused by a careless campfire.



Walking through the fire section

As much as it was sad to see the damage it was encouraging to see that in some places nature is slowly restoring itself with new plants.

At nearly 7,000-feet I struggled a little with my breathing as we scaled the large stone steps and incline, but I was far from the slowest hiker on the trail.  Once we got to the summit we took a side trail to a place called Inspiration Point where we had lunch. The view from there was simply outstanding and we lingered for a while.

Along the trail we saw magnificent rock formations including some that seemed impossible. Huge boulders perched on top of tall spires. Some formations appeared to be balanced in a way that if you could get next to them you could tip them over. (Probably couldn't though).

"Big Balanced Rock"

Early in the hike we were followed by a Mexican Blue Jay that was so tame it took raisins and peanuts out of the hand of one of the hikers. It followed us all the way up the hill to Inspiration Point where he continued to beg for scraps during lunch.

Back on the trail we followed a relatively flat section along the top of a mountain until we came to a beauty loop (1-mile) that took us through some of the most beautiful and unusual rock formations I have seen, although they reminded me a little of “Tent Rocks” in New Mexico.

The loop involved some pretty aggressive steps through the rock formations and it took us about an hour to do the loop. Part of the delay was related to the many photo stops we had to make.

In the far back center is where we ate lunch

The trail was lightly used today and we only saw a   few other hikers on the trail. Following the loop the rest of the trail was pretty much a downward march to the parking lot where we left our cars. Some of the steps were steep and some of the group struggled a little with the extreme downhill portion.


Although parts of the trail were steep, it was well maintained and the 9-miles passed quicker than I thought it would.

Every time I take one of these hikes into a place like this I am moved that we have a Creator who is magnificent in his natural artwork. No human artist could create the awesome sculpture I saw today.



Coming down the mountain

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Joan was enjoying a quiet day with her “Go Bible” an audio system that contains the entire Bible on a digital player. She puttered around the trailer and devoured all her magazines. Not to mention she slept in until 10 a.m.

When I arrived home from the hike at 5 p.m. I ran to the showers cleaned up and Joan fixed one of my favorite meals – Shrimp Louie salad.

All in all another great day in Arizona. One thing I might do differently if I had to do this all over is that I might not have taken the five-mile hike into Ventana Canyon the day before doing this 9-mile adventure. Joan says I can have tomorrow off.

To see more hike photos simply scroll down.

More Chiricahua hike photos

Gathering to start the hike on the mountain

A natural made cathedral

Can you find Camel's Head Rock?

This is called "Big Balanced Rock" for obvious reasons

A reminder of the fire

Our lunch stop and view

My resort neighbor Larry and his lunch perch

More reminders of the fire

Our Mexican Blue Jay hike companion

This is called "Mushroom Rock"

One of the many views

The upper end of the trail

The lower end of the trail (just before arriving back at the parking lot)

"Make-up" hike reveals more beautiful scenery

Me at the summit

A month or so ago I missed a Tuesday hike while we were visiting in California. It was a hike I really wanted to make as it involved a trek up the Ventana Canyon.

So with a free day today, I headed out to the hike on my own. Joan was a little concerned about me heading into the hills by myself, but I assured her that there would be plenty of hikers on the trail and there were.

Before that, however, I headed to the local post office, which is about 9 miles away to pick up a package that had some of Joan’s prescription drugs in it that she has been waiting for two weeks. They would have been delivered here, but they came with $2.40 cents postage due on Saturday.

With that chore complete I headed back out to the mountains to start my hike.

One of my favorite parts of the trail

The trailhead is located on the property of Loew’s Ventana Resort and the first mile of the trail is a little, well, blah. The problem is that to get to the canyon you have to walk a mile between private property, some of which is fenced and others that are residential homes.

For a short time the trail is only about 6-feet wide as it passes along the back fence of the homes and a barbed wire fence on the other side. According to locals the right-of-way was purchased by the county/state so people could enjoy the upper trails without trespassing on private property.

Less than a half hour into the hike I reached the tight “U” shaped gate that allows pedestrians, but which would make it difficult or darned near impossible for bicycles or motorized vehicles to use the trail, which they are prohibited from doing.

The temperatures after sunrise go from 40 to 70 in just an hour or so and by the time I was on the trail the temperatures were in the low 70s. They got warmer as the day went on. I took a little extra water today anticipating the warmer weather.

Blooming wildflowers

Once on the upper part of the trail the scenery turns beautiful and includes several stream crossings as well as a great variety of cactus and at this time of year some blooming wildflowers.

There were other hikers on the trail and I knew if I got in trouble I would only be 5-10 minutes from the next hiker (s) to offer me help. The lizards were out, but I have still not seen a snake, although one of the hikers I passed told me that he saw a pretty good sized one crossing the trail.

The trail climbs gently for the first half mile or so and then it gets hard. A series (and I mean a “MASH” length series not a “Detroit 187” series) of switchbacks start moving you quickly up the mountain. In the next .5 to .75-miles you go up about 1,000 feet and some of the trail is boulders or very high rock steps.

Part of the upper trail

Once at the top there is a stunning view of the valley below and a little further on the trail you encounter a place called “Maiden Pools” which is a series of pretty little ponds connected by a rapidly running creek (or crick as Joan calls it) this time of year.

I continued on up the trail about .5-miles past the Maiden Pools and found a very nice spot along the stream to eat my lunch and rehydrate with those extra bottles of water I bought.

I sat for about 20 minutes (any longer and I start to stiffen up) and started back down about 12:15 p.m. Going down was not easy as the large rocks and steep steps (and gravity) team up to create one trip hazard after another.

Another stream crossing

A young man I passed on the trail was kind enough to snap the photo you saw above and I continued down the trail passing a number of hikers on the way up in the heat of the day. I didn’t envy them.

One very young girl was making her way up without any water or food, but she seemed to know what she was doing and it didn’t seem prudent for an older man like me to stop or talk to such a young girl (about 12-13 years old).

Later I came across a group of folks who wanted to know how much farther it was to Maiden Pools and when I told them they seemed very discouraged. I told them I didn’t mean to do that and that the hike was well worth it, but I didn’t want to lie to them and make it seem easier than it was.

My Michigan State University t-shirt got a lot of comments today. About a mile from the end of the trail I ran into a group of 7 young girls and two women and the girls were already gassed and giving the women some gas about continuing on. I offered them my unopened water because they seemed short of water, but they declined.

A nest in a Cholla cactus

The bottom (“blah”) part went by quickly and I was back in the trailhead parking lot at 1:30 p.m. As a joke I called Joan and asked her if she could call the Pima County Sheriff’s Rescue Squad to see if they could figure out where I was, but she didn’t buy it for a second.

Once home I took a much needed shower and then waited for dinner, which was hamburgers and potato salad.

The funniest part of the day happened when Joan was trying to open her bottle of wine with a corkscrew and could seem to break through the foil. I offered twice to help, but she declined. (She’s stubborn).  Later I noticed that she gave up on the corkscrew and simply unscrewed the cap to allow her to pour the wine.

I held back a big “I told you so” for not letting me help.

My body aches tonight, but in a good way. There are more photos under this post.

More photos from Ventana Canyon

Trail head map

Heading to those mountains in the background, but first through a narrow public corridor

One of the stream crossings

Looking back in the valley

A view from higher up

The trail narrows in places

The "blah" part of the hike

A quiet day in the old Southwest

Lots of palms, but not at church (the resort's park model section)

It was a quiet day in the old Southwest. I started early with a visit to the fitness center and then we enjoyed a spirit-filled Palm Sunday service here at the resort.

Interestingly in a resort where there are hundreds of palm trees there were no palm branches in the service, but in Michigan where there are no palm trees our church had its usual complement of palms.

You can tell by the attendance and the empty seats that some folks have already left to return home. No doubt a few of the resort residents who left Thursday and Friday to head north are now dealing with a massive storm in the middle of the country.

My walk in the desert with resort in the background

There’s no problem with that here as the temperatures are in the mid-70s and expected to be there and in the low 80s all week.

After church I sat outside and finished my latest Patrick O’Brian novel “Far Side of the World,” part of the 21-book Master and Commander series.  I picked up volume 11 – “The Reverse of the Medal” - and started reading it this afternoon.

When the warm sun started putting me to sleep while reading I put on my tennis shoes and headed for a brief walk into the surrounding desert. (Joan was inside the trailer napping)

Across the street from the resort is a desert landscape with plenty of trails and I headed off to see if I could finally see a snake. The local folks tell me that it is unlikely to see snakes until the temperatures rise into the 80s and we have been there on and off for the last week or so.

Beautiful, but painful

I never wandered off far enough to lose sight of the resort flags, but did get far enough away to almost lose the trail back. When you are wearing shorts in a desert full of cactus it is never good to have to bush whack your way back home.

The more time I spend in the desert the more I realize how much pain is ready and waiting for you there. The desert is beautiful, but it holds plenty of hazards as well.

Later I walked around the park and marveled at how many of our fellow campers have already departed. Judging by the number of folks packing things away, we will lose quite a few more this week.

Tomorrow I’m planning on taking a hike – Ventana Canyon – that I missed during our trip to California. This week promises to be a busy one as we are getting prepared for another visit from family next weekend and there are several services this week because it is Holy Week.

You can see all the empty spaces near us

I’m also leading the Bible study at the Men’s Bible study on Thursday after I volunteered last week. This is the final meeting of the group and I spent some additional time this afternoon preparing for the study.

After Joan got up for her nap she whipped up breakfast for dinner – pancakes, eggs and bacon – and we spent the rest of night quietly in the trailer.

Before I go on my hike tomorrow I head to the post office to pick up a package that didn’t get delivered to the resort on Friday. We think it is Joan’s prescriptions – at least we’re hoping that’s what it is – but apparently it arrived with postage due and so the resort wouldn’t take it.

Although we are really enjoying our time here we know our time is drawing to a close. Three weeks from today we will be leaving to head back to our real life in Michigan.

A Royal Flush of a day

When you have two homes, even when one is a trailer, you multiply your household problems by two. That includes plumbing, which as some of you know is my least favorite household chore.

New trailer potty

Ever since we bought the trailer in 2008 we have had minor issues with the small commode in our little bathroom. Trailer toilets work on a gravity system by which you hold down a foot pedal that opens a small ball valve in the bottom of the bowl and water pours down flushing it.

Over the years the ball has stubbornly stuck open, then closed and often required a screw driver to either open or close it. Last week it bit the dust and I simply pried it open and began looking for a fix.

An RV repairman lives in the resort six months a year and I picked up his card at a show they were having here a month or so ago. So I called Richard and he stopped by and convinced me I would be better off replacing the toilet rather than trying yet another fix.

So while I was working out Saturday at the fitness center, Richard called and said he was in possession of our new potty and could he please come over and put it in as soon as possible as he had another major repair to do at 9:30 a.m.

I broke off my workout and headed back to the trailer where I locked Joan in the bedroom and waited just a few minutes for Richard to show up.

Some of the beautiful rocks on the road to Mt. Lemmon

In less than 20 minutes we had a new toilet and one that is two inches higher than the old one which works for us. Hopefully we now have a few problem free, flushful years ahead of us.

With the plumbing done, we got cleaned up for an adventure we have been waiting to do since we arrived here.

A motor trip to the summit of Mt. Lemmon has been on our “to do” list, but bad weather, heavy snow caused us to delay actually going there – until today.

Interestingly the mountain is named for a woman - botanist Sarah Plummer Lemmon, who trekked to the top of the mountain with Native American guides by mule and foot in 1881 – and houses a popular winter ski resort.

Several mountain ranges in the distrance

The temperature when we left the Tucson floor was 73. The 25-mile drive to the top of the mountain takes about an hour and the temperature had fallen to 42 by the time we arrived at the top.

We had hoped to visit the University of Arizona observatory at the top, but I think most of the UA folks were home watching Arizona playing Harvard today so the gate on the road to the observatory was closed and locked when we got there.

On the way up we watched in wonder as a solid line of very fit bicyclists rode up the mountain. The elevation at the bottom is about 3,000-feet and by the time you get to the top you are just a tad over 9,000-feet, so it is quite a job.

Note the summit temperature

I talked to a couple women who made it to the top (and they were shivering) and they asked me to take their photo to prove they actually made it. Of course I did with their camera. The one woman said it “was the first and last time I’ll ever do this.”

With the observatory out of the question we headed back to the little town of Summerhaven, which is the small town that exists at the top of the mountain. We had planned to eat at the restaurant there, but it was 1:30 p.m. and there simply was not three or four hours of activities to keep us busy until dinner time.

We looked through a couple gift shops, one which had been destroyed in a 2003 forest fire that burned more than 300 buildings and homes on the summit. More than 100 of the structures have been rebuilt but you can still see the evidence of the fire everywhere.

Snowy Mt. Lemmon in the background

The lady who owned a small gift shop had hundreds of thousands of decorative beads that were burned in the fire and she has kept some of the melted plastic from the fire as a sort of natural art work. Some of it was very beautiful.

I bought one of the beads that had been recovered after the fire. When the gift shop was redone the concrete employees sprinkled the beads into the curing concrete which has an interesting effect when you walk on it.

With our brief shopping done we started down the mountain. About a mile into our trip down a bicyclist was riding directly in the middle of my lane at a speed about 10 mph under the speed limit. There is a small bike lane on the right side and plenty of signs urging everyone to share the road, but this guy wasn’t sharing anything.

You can see the after effects of the 2003 fire

At about the time I was ready to give him a tap of the horn I noticed a sheriff’s car behind me with his red lights and sirens on, so I pulled into a parking turnout along the road. The sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind the bicyclist and pulled him over.

As we passed the bicyclist was getting a pretty stern lecture from the deputy so I didn’t have to do anything, but marvel that sometimes there is a cop around when you need one.

I don’t know if he got a ticket or not, but hope he learned his lesson. I was remarkably patient with the whole thing and was just glad the deputy was there to sort out rude bicyclist.

That sharing the road thing goes both ways, you know.

Cool rock formation on the windy mountain road

Once down off the mountain we stopped at a local sports bar to check on the basketball games – Michigan and Michigan State both won today and moved on to the next NCAA round – and to check on the Arizona versus Harvard game, which was all Arizona.

For dinner we stopped at Mimi’s Restaurant and I had a fish fry and Joan had a Butternut Squash filled Ravioli and Shrimp dinner.

We came home and entertained ourselves flushing our new toilet.

Sometimes a 'hike' is just exercise

Not exactly stunning scenery

During my time in Tucson I have taken some outstanding hikes. Some have been challenging from a strenuous aspect, but yielded unbelievable views. Others have been less challenging, but provided a glimpse at the desert that inspired and amazed.

Today’s hike in nearby Julian Wash was simply exercise. It was neither challenging from a strenuous point of view or from a vista point of view. It was long – six miles – so I did get some good exercise, but it’s not a hike I would likely recommend for someone looking for a challenge or views.

We did see some flowering plants along today’s flat trail and if you scroll down to the next post you can see a few of those.


Our group getting ready to head out

As the days progress you can see the resort starting a slow wind down to its inevitable summer hibernation. As we have been told there are nearly 10,000 people here in the winter, but only about 600 permanent residents in the summer.

Every morning we see more and more RVs leaving the park and the spaces between the RVs get wider and wider.

So I’m not sure how many more organized hikes there will be, but I plan on making a couple hikes alone, or with some of the folks here that I missed due to our trip to California.

We didn't see any such creatures

Another interesting phenomenon is that we are starting to see more and more young people – undoubtedly children and grandchildren of the people here – starting to arrive as spring breaks occur throughout the country.

Until this week we had seen few if any children in the park, but today at the pool there were at least a dozen pre-teens using the outdoor pool.

Tonight we attended the Hiker/Biker Pot Luck supper (Joan made a delicious peach cobbler from a recipe supplied by our niece Jessica). There were about 50 to 60 people at the supper and the volunteers who organized the hike/bike expeditions were recognized and appreciated for all the work they do.

The view from the trail

The food wasn’t bad either.

Yesterday, Thursday, March 21, was a day for some chores. Joan completed the laundry and then we went shopping to replenish the refrigerator. Last night for dinner we cleaned out the tuna surprise, chicken Casear Salad and Pasta Fogiole soup.