Lots of books, a great MSU victory and a memorial service for a friend

Festival of Books

During our stay here last year we missed attending the Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona campus. The event is a major weekend of hundreds of authors and book peddlers and other vendors.

 I can’t remember why we didn’t attend last year, but we were determined to make the festival at least for one day.

As it turned out Saturday was the day. It is a daunting thing to do as it turns out. With literally hundreds of authors on hand, some well known – former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Scott Turow – and many lesser known authors.

Lily Koppel - Author of "The Astronaut Wives Club"

Finding a parking place was the first order of business and it wasn’t too easy either. All of the major parking garages at the University were already full when we arrived at 11 a.m. We found a satellite lot about three city blocks from the event with a few empty spots and we walked.

We later learned that the festival draws about 60,000 visitors each of its two days. The key speakers – like O-Connor and Turow – are scheduled for the ballroom and you have to stand in long lines just to get a chance at getting in to hear them.

Joan with the Arizona "Wildcat"

About 11:30 a.m. we stumbled on a large tent, which belonged to the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, and they were advertising author Lily Koppel (pronounced Cop – pell) who has written a non-fiction book on the astronaut’s wives – titled appropriately enough “The Astronaut Wives Club.”

We were fascinated with her speech and purchased a book for the coming Family Literacy Center auction and then waited in a line to have the author autograph it. She has also written another non-fiction work – “The Red Leather Diary” – which we also purchased and had autographed for the auction.

We spent another couple hours roaming the grounds and visiting vendors, including the local charity – “Literacy Connects” – which is a much larger, but similar organization to The Family Literacy Center of Lapeer, an organization near and dear to my heart.

Literacy Connects booth

Next year, we will plan out our visiting strategy even more carefully to make sure we see a couple of the main stage acts but this is clearly Nirvana for folks who love to read books. We also picked up a couple children’s books for our younger grandchildren.

Saturday night we attended yet another dance in the ballroom at the resort and had a fun time with new friends Jerry and Marcia who are also Michigan residents. There are plans for us to get together for an evening of fun outside one of our RVs.

The books we purchased

Sunday was church and then we spent the afternoon watching Michigan State dismantle the Michigan Wolverines in basketball. Now I have to admit basketball is probably fourth out of four of my favorite sports, but I do pay attention when State plays Michigan or during the tournament. I don’t watch all the games, but I do pay attention.

It probably should be noted that this is the third time we have met Michigan this year and only the first time we have beaten them. I suppose there is a chance we will run into them again along the way in the tournament.

The game did provided an interesting and funny moment between Joan and I. With just a couple minutes left in the game and Michigan State up by more than a dozen points Joan mentioned that “it looks like the fat lady may not be singing, but she is picking her nose.”

The Julian Wash hike/bike path

Joan insisted that she said “but she is picking her notes.” Could be even with my new hearing aids that I am not hearing as well as I used to. We had a good laugh anyway.

After the game we picked up Walt, a man I know from my Bible Study, who lost his wife last June. We had been praying for Walt and Norma last year after it was discovered she had cancer. Walt is a former chemist with 3M and is just a very humble and nice man.

Earlier this year he loaned me the ladder that I used to get on top of my trailer to clean and maintain it.

He and Norma were married 51 years and her death has been hard on him. We decided a couple weeks ago to take him to dinner and tonight was that night. We went to the local Texas Roadhouse and had a wonderful time.

Wildflowers in bloom

Now I need to clear up something from my last post. A couple of folks have pointed out that I teased a story about my flat tires and then went on to not write about the problem in the post. I suppose I could say that I did that on purpose to see if your were paying attention, but that’s just not the case.

A couple weeks ago, I think it was on the Empire Ranch hike, we took an unimproved road back to the trailhead. The road was paved with rocks and some of them had sharp edges and I believe I put a small slice in my driver’s side rear tire during that drive.

The tire developed a slow leak and when I took it to the local Goodyear dealer they showed me that the horizontal nature of the puncture defied repair. With 76,000 miles on the tire it was time to replace it. About $180 later (these are very large SUV tires) I was back on the road.

University of Arizona solar array

Less than a week later, while Joan was enjoying a day at the casino I went off to buy some new cargo shorts and use the Internet at Starbucks.  One the way back to pick up Joan I heard a clicking sound from the right rear driver’s side tire.

Of course, I stopped and found that I had picked up a small steel rod that was firmly embedded in my brand new tire between the treads. So I quickly called Joan to see if she was OK staying at the casino longer (stupid question, I know) while I drove across town to the Goodyear dealer for repairs. The tire was holding air and I knew better than to pull out the steel rod.

The Goodyear dealer was able to repair the tire quickly and because I purchased the Road Hazard protection the repair was free. I was just annoyed that the puncture had to happen to my brand new tire.

That’s the story of the two flats that I forgot to spell out in my last post.

Some of the hike scenery

I should also mention that the music at the Voyager Chapel was excellent on Sunday. We had a wonderful string quartet – The Palladio String Quartet – and they really provided some inspiring music.

Monday brought another hike, which was a flat and easy section of the Julian Wash that I had not done previously. This section is actually much better than the previous section of the JW hike that I did earlier.

Only the hike leader – Brad – and I showed up for the hike so it went quickly and the weather was beautiful. Part of the hike passes an array of large solar panels owned and operated by the University of Arizona as part of a solar power test project.

Addisen's Flat Stanley buckled up

The power from the panels take care of the power needs of the nearby UA Technical Park. The desert wildflowers were in extreme bloom.

After cleaning up from the hike I decided to throw a Hail Mary on the Internet Hot Spot device that we purchased for the trailer back in January. My efforts to get this resolved through the company via telephone having failed I took the device back to the Walmart where we originally purchased it Monday afternoon.

Not expecting much, we were nearly three weeks late on the promised 15-day return period, the manager was very responsive and made the exchange for a new hot spot with no quarrel or hesitation.

After arriving home I set it up again and we are back online in the trailer with many thanks to Walmart for making an exception for us on the return period. I showed them my documentation with the company and they promised to send that back with the device for me.

A better photo of Grandma's outfit for Flat Stanley

In the mail Monday was our first “visitor” of the year. Our granddaughter Addisen sent us a little person – Flat Stanley – who came to us in the form of a thin white cardboard cutout of a young boy. He will be coming with us for a week and then we will send him home with photos of all his adventures here in Arizona.

This apparently is part of a school project for students in Addisen’s class to learn about other places.

We took Flat Stanley for a little ride and of course for his safety he was buckled into the Tahoe.

Usually on Tuesday I go on a more challenging hike, but a friend from Bible Study – Neil – died in the park on March 3 and his memorial service was scheduled for 11 a.m. that made the hike impossible.

Someone told us Hispanic was a slur - someone needs to tell them

Neil, who was born in 1931, lost his right arm after a compound fracture and infection set in during 1942. The Brooklyn, NY native credited his mother with giving him a strong will to overcome what some would see as a handicap.

There were many (and I do mean many) times that his arm came up during discussions at Bible Study. He always said his mother told him that he could not use the loss of his arm as an excuse and he accomplished a great deal in his life. He was a college economics professor and at age 67 learned to fly.

Every year he flew his airplane back and forth to Tucson from Brooklyn, NY and he made many friends in the park. He did have a bad heart and apparently had a problem during a February cruise through the Panama Canal. When he arrived back at the resort he struggled, but died shortly after returning.

We met Mr. Schoonover at the resort

The service was very nice and we got to know many of his friends.

Joan and I went shopping on Tuesday afternoon and then went to Tuesday potluck in the ballroom. Joan made a delicious strawberry, cool whip and angel food cake dessert. It was very popular.

Flat tires, a former Broadway star and some online frustration

A 1913 Model T on the road

Arizona roads and my Tahoe’s tires are apparently in a war with each other. On Sunday, Joan wanted to spend a couple hours at another Indian Reservation attraction – the Casino del Sol – and I wanted to do a little shopping so we headed out after church.

I dropped Joan off at her favorite Native American cultural center and I headed to the Target Store to take advantage of a $16 cargo short sale. After picking up a couple pairs of shorts I stopped at a nearby Starbucks to pirate the Internet there so I could post on the blog. Remember the vomiting puppets? I thought you might.

We had dinner at the casino and then we headed home. Joan started with $200 in her purse and she went home with $217 so not a bad day for her.

Water on the Patagonia Trail

On Monday I headed off for a new hike. The drive to the trailhead was nearly as long as the hike but on the way we spotted a Model T caravan and stopped at a rest area to ogle one of the cars. The owner of the car said he has never taken it to a car show, but prefers to take it on long road journeys.

The Model T one of 126,000 built in 1913 (imagine a 100-year old car?) was in very good shape. The owner had modified it so that it had a more modern electric start and halogen headlights as the old lights were tough to keep running and to replace.

An abandoned mine along the trail

After about 10 minutes of looking at the car we were back on the road headed to Patagonia – the trailhead location – and a trip down a portion of the Arizona Trail.

The easy hike group had its biggest attendance of the season and that was with three of the regulars missing. We had new folks from Idaho and the State of Washington on the hike.

This portion of the Arizona Trail ascends up from Patagonia using an old jeep and mine trail and is part of the 800-mile famous trail that starts at the Mexican border and continues all the way to Utah. It is similar to the idea of the Appalachian Trail but obviously the terrain is very different.

An Arizona Trail marker

On this section of hike you can see the remains of former mines, prospectors were looking for gold, silver and copper and also get a good look at the back side of Mt. Wrightson, the high peak that I have hiked twice.

Some of the hills are pretty steep and were a challenge for some of the hikers although we all made it up and back safely. Our lunch stop was a very nice tree-shaded spot by a small creek that had water from snow melt flowing through it.

Considering all the high temperatures of the last week we were pleasantly surprised to find so much flowing water along the trail.

Another abandoned mine

On the way down we crossed paths with two “thru” hikers. These are folks who have taken a couple months off from their normal life to hike the trail from start to finish. There are stores and supply stops along the way so you don’t have to carry everything with you at the start.

One young man (46 is young to me) was carrying a pack with 40 pounds and was very happy to find that there was flowing water in this part of the trail. If you have the proper filters you can safely drink the water.

As I mentioned it was a long drive, which includes a Border Patrol inspection station, and we didn’t arrive back at the Voyager Resort until well after 3 p.m., which meant I didn’t have time to get cleaned up and take Joan to the store. We both opted to have me clean up rather than go shopping.

Meet Me at Maynard's check in at the Congress Hotel

Monday night we headed to downtown Tucson for “Meet Me at Maynards” again and had a great time. I took a couple photos of the gathering at the Congress Hotel. This hotel boasts a stay by the infamous gangster John Dillinger.

After we learned we lost the raffle we headed to dinner at El Charro’s but it was extremely crowded and the wait was an hour so we opted for another restaurant, the name of which currently escapes me.

One of the desired t-shirts you have to earn

On the way home we stopped at the store so Joan could do her shopping.  For unknown reasons our cable is currently out at the park, a situation that apparently only affects the people living on 9^th Street. I tuned in our over-the-air antenna on the trailer and we got a very good signal from some local network stations so we got to see the news.

On my docket for later today is to call whoever runs the parking garage where we had the car parked for Meet Me at Maynards. We checked into the garage at 4:59 p.m. and out at 7:12 p.m. The first hour is free, the second hour is supposed to be $2 and the third hour another $2.

Heading up the trail to Bog Springs

The stupid machine charged me $7 to park. We called the afterhours complaint number and all they said was call the in hours complaint number, which we will do today. As I told Joan it’s not so much the money as the principle of the thing. At previous Meet Me at Maynards we paid $5 to park and now I am thinking I got ripped off then too.

OK, just call the call back from the garage. Because I punched in at 4:59 p.m. the first hour was free until 5:59 p.m. Then for that one minute I got charged $2 for the next hour. Then when the clock ticked 6 p.m. I was then charged the flat $5 fee for night time parking.

Of course I pointed out that I was actually charged $2 for one minute and actually charged for parking in the daytime and nighttime. I plan to call a local TV station to make them aware of the gouging going on in a local public garage.

Gotta have the rest stop "Thumb's Up" by Jim

I won’t even try to describe here what is going on with our new hot spot and the extremely poor customer service provided by Straight Talk. It would take three pages to describe the frustration of dealing with a foreign telephone call center and trying to explain the problem. For now we are using the park’s hot spot to do our Internet business.

OK, here’s one issue. The customer service representative told me that to repair my broken hot spot they would “e-mail” me a Fed Ex certificate so I could mail the item back. When I reminded them that I had no Internet and couldn’t read my e-mail, that concept seemed difficult for them.

I made it to the top too.

Of course I could go to the hot spot in the resort, but then I would have no way to print the FedEx document.

On Tuesday I headed out for yet another hike I had never done here in Arizona. The “hard” hike group headed to Madera Canyon (same place you find the Mt. Wrightson trailhead) and we met at the Bog Springs Trailhead. (Last week was Bug Springs, so an amazing coincidence, eh?)

One of the great views from the trail

This is a difficult hike both up and down. Up because there is an almost constant uphill climb, in some places on a very steep and narrow trail. We lost one hiker in the first mile because this was his first hike of the season and he was no prepared for the lung capacity needed at the start altitude which was 4,500 feet. The summit of the hike is nearly 6,500 feet, so a 2,000-foot elevation change in just about 2.5 miles.

The hike does afford some outstanding views of the Green Valley and Suharita area and from some of the higher points on the hike you get a wonderful view of the Pima Copper Mine Tailings ponds that we visited just last week.

We lunched it our turn around point which was Kent Springs. We had a snack stop at Bog Springs, the point the trail was named after. The trail is very wooded in spots and we were surprised to see as much running water as we did considering the warm winter we have been having.

Did I mention it was steep coming down?

After about ½-hour lunch break we started the trip back down to the parking lot on an extremely steep jeep road. And when I say steep I mean in some parts the rock and gravel trail is at a 40-45 percent grade which makes footing very difficult.

A couple folks slipped and fell, but there were no serious injuries or bleeding.

The hike took about four hours and was a very satisfying hike. I’d love to do it again, but maybe in a couple years.

Joan spent the day cooking and making a delicious apple and Baby Ruth salad for the Tuesday evening potluck and we had a pleasant time meeting with our new friends there. I was ready for the meal after the day’s hike.

We love Market Daze

After the dinner I collapsed in my chair and slept through most of NCIS and Chicago Fire.

On Wednesday morning I was up early and got in an hour workout at the fitness center.

Back at the trailer I picked up my computer and took it to the ‘hot spot’ and found a couple frustrated folks there complaining that the wifi was not working. I tried my computer and they were right, it wasn’t working.

Remembering a fix I had used at home, I boldly walked to the modem box, pulled the plug and then re-plugged it in and voila! the modem reset and we were back online. They thought I was a computer genius and I didn’t tell them anything that would change that opinion.

Rick, the general manager, led the Doo Dah Parade

After Joan returned from her aquacise class she got cleaned up and we headed to Market Daze, the second to the last one in the park. Found another couple trinkets we couldn’t live without and bought them.

On Wednesday night we went to the concert in the resort -  “The Gershwin Songbook” - which was very good. Jack Neubeck and Rebecca Carlson were the lead singers in this Lonely Street Production and both have previous impressive credentials.

One of the parade entries

Jack Neubeck has performed more than 2,500 times on Broadway including parts in the original productions of “Evita” and “La Cage aux Folles” He has CDs and has a very professional voice and a great stage presence.

On Thursday, I attended my Bible Study and then we attended the 1 p.m. lecture at the resort. An FBI agent spoke about Internet scams and Identity Theft. It was a very interesting talk and one that left you wondering if there was anything you could do to protect yourself from people who want to steal your identity.

Who let the dogs out?

Basically, the FBI agent said the best thing you can do is continually check your accounts and make sure you check for small charges that you didn’t make. Apparently identity thieves are making a fortune charging small amounts on a large quantity of credit cards hoping none of us will notice small credit charges.

After the talk, we piled into the car and headed to a nearby shopping center to get haircuts and Joan got her nails done. After which we did a quick grocery shopping excursion and then returned home for dinner.

Friday morning started with a workout for me and aquacise for Joan and then the first of two big events of the day was the “Doo Dah Parade” in the resort.

The softball team entry

Our friends and neighbors dressed up in strange costumes and rode through the park putting on funny exhibitions and generally enjoying themselves.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the trailer “basement” a storage area under the bedroom part of our trailer. This will save me some time later in our stay as we prepare to head home.

The biggest event of the day was the “Voyager Night at the Races” Friday afternoon in the ballroom. In addition to the senior citizen Pinewood Derby, little homemade wooden cars raced on a sloping wooden track, there were many food vendors from different activity groups at the resort.

A lot of good "sheets" in the parade

We had the rib dinner put on by the wood shop folks, but we also had root beer floats from the Bocce folks.

The races took about two hours and some of the cars were very creative and fun to look out.

Now there’s a few lingering notes that I have forgotten to write.

Recently we watched a show and they referred to a person as a “King pin.”  If I could do my life over I would just like to once be referred to as a “king pin.”  Hopefully an honest “king pin” if there is such a thing. Just sounds like a cool title.

The crowd waits for the racing to begin

When we heard the Tohono O’odham lecture the speaker told a funny story about the origins of the name “Pima” Indians. The Spanish coined the term when the most often verbal response they received from the Native Tohono O’odham was “pima.”

The term Pima was then applied to the Indians, but what was funny is that in the Tohono O’odham language the word “Pima” means “I don’t know.”

During a presentation at Pima Community College one of the students said to the speaker: “I guess that means I go to “I don’t know” Community College.

The track

We’ve been so immersed in Native American culture recently I think it has affected Joan’s speech patterns. In referring to a terrorist suspect she mentioned that perhaps he would be tried at: Guam a Tomo, by which I think she meant Guantanomo Bay. 

She has also invented a new word ‘boomarooni’ which she claims she has used all her life. I think it has to do with the noise made when something is dropped, but I could be wrong.

Today we are going to a huge event at the University of Arizona - The Festival of Books. We hope to pick up a couple sign novels or non-fiction for the Family Literacy Center auction.

Vomiting puppets and a mouse meal

A pretty door along the Meet Me at Maynard's route

Before we get into our activities I need to get a couple dreams off my chest. One of the things my father and I have in common is weird and vivid dreams. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be) I rarely remember the dreams but this week was an exception.

Two dreams I woke up from I immediately shared with Joan (which does no good because she is such a sound sleeper that even when I wake her in the middle of the night, she really isn’t awake) but in explaining them to Joan it helped me to remember them later.

I repeat them here in the hopes that someone can help me interpret these dreams.

Joan in front of "Griffen"

Dream No. 1: I was wandering around a familiar place – not sure specifically where – with two puppets under my control. They appeared to be Muppet-like creatures with me holding the strings. Each time I pulled on the strings they both vomited. Gross, I know, but that’s what they did. Large volumes of vomit came out of their furry mouths each time I pulled the strings.

Joan’s interpretation was that I was recently telling her about a time that me and a couple buddies were in the Alex Theater balcony in Glendale, California and quietly opened a can of vegetable soup (I think we got this idea from one of my relatives) made vomiting sounds and then poured the soup down on some unsuspecting folks on the main floor. We got into serious trouble and were asked to leave the theater after that prank.

And just to be clear I was there when it happened, but I neither opened the can nor poured it over the balcony. I was asked to leave along with about six of my closest friends.

Scenery along the Maynard's walk

Dream No. 2: Joan and I were visiting an acquaintances’ home (I know the acquaintance and it may or may not be a family member so I’m not mentioning them here) and for dinner we were offered “fresh mouse meat” or “spoiled shrimp.” Even in the dream it seemed an odd and difficult choice and fortunately I woke up before I learned our final decision.

Joan has no interpretation for the second dream as we have not been talking about eating mouse meat or spoiled shrimp.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.

“Meet Me at Maynard’s” was our Monday activity, but we later learned out we missed out on a great “Fun Band” night in the ballroom here at the resort. Sometimes there is just too much going on at the same time here.

Starting up a steep mountain along Bug Springs Trail

Joan was ecstatic that she was able to walk the two-mile course at the MMM night in downtown Tucson. Wearing her new hiking shoes she kept up a good pace and was really happy to complete the course in just about one hour flat. It is great to see her doing so well with her knee recovery.

Maybe next year I can get her to hike up Mt. Wrightson with me. After the downtown hike we had dinner at Diablo Burger and each had a burger. The hamburger meat was out-of-this-world (of course it cost $11 for a hamburger) and instead of a traditional bun used an oversized English Muffin. It was a very tasty burger.

On Tuesday I headed out for one of my favorite hikes, a trek on the Bug Springs Trail, which last year was snow and ice covered and extremely treacherous. This hike has a very steep opening act, a rise of about 1,000 feet in a little less than a mile. No snow or ice this year.

A more tranquil part of the trail

After the lung busting first part of the hike, the rest of the trek settles into a more gentle up-and-down that presents tremendous views. The first part (the steep part) is in the shade, but the second part of the hike is in the open with the sun beating down on you. The views are great no matter what part of the hike you are on.

After getting home and cleaning up, Joan had cooked up a meatball dish to take to the “Hiker-Biker” potluck which is the season-ending party for all of us who hike and bike at the resort. Some of the hikers are also bikers, but there are a large number of folks who only take part in one of the activities so it was a chance to meet even more new people.

The view from our snack stop

The park has three separate bike groups, a long distance road group, a short distance road group and a medium distance desert biking group. None of them appeal too much to me as yet, although I might give it a try next year. Falling off a bike into a cactus is not something that I would look forward to doing. And it does happen. Plenty of flat tires too.

Wednesday started with my workout at the fitness center and Joan at her aquacise class and then I made a run to the post office to mail a check to our well guy who finished repairs at home at a cost much less than we had anticipated, so that was good news. It’s always good to be on the right side of your well guy, trust me. He refers to us a “good, loyal customers” and he gives us a nice break for being quick to pay.

My snack perch over the ledge

Anyone who is willing to work outside in the current weather should get paid on time, in my humble opinion.

After getting home from the post office, Joan and I headed to the ballroom where all the local activity groups were displaying their wares. I could have displayed my “Eagle” with the “Easy Bleeders Wood Carving” group, but I decided my meager creation was not up to the standards of some of the other offerings. I’ll put up a couple photos here so you can see what I’m talking about.

The quilters, silversmiths, ceramic, photography, sewing, genealogy, stain glass, wood working shop, scrapbooking, glass fusion and many more activity groups were on hand to show the many beautiful things they made this winter. There are truly some very talented folks who stay here.

It wouldn't be a hike without a 'thumb's up" from Jim

There is also a couple writers’ groups in the park, but I get all the writing fun I want just doing this blog, so there is not so much of an appeal to me in that. But who knows, maybe next year I’ll stop in.

Joan is interested in bringing our family photos down next year and taking the scrapbooking class so she can put them into some kind of order.

I spent the rest of Wednesday working on my Bible study and also making phone calls for my next blood drive in Michigan. An American Legion brother is handling the drive in person, but I am still responsible for setting everything up and making the calls to potential donors.

Me at the high point of the Bug Springs Trail

Thanks to my sister-in-law Patty, who sent me an article about Buffalo wings, I talked Joan into making Buffalo style chicken wings for dinner and then at 7 p.m. we went to Ash Wednesday services here at the resort.

Not sure what is in the wind, but there has been a virtual air show from the National Air Guard base at the Tucson International Airport and from the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the last few days. Plenty of A-10 Warthogs and F-15s buzzing around the airspace this week. In addition we have seen lots of Blackhawk helicopters and C-130s flying over the resort as well.

Last year when one of my hiking mates complained about the noise from the jets, I just replied that I enjoyed the daily air show. “Consider it the sound of freedom,” I said.

Heading down

Since my last report on the Big Horn Sheep, two more have been turned into lunch by local mountain lions. Of the 31 Big Horn Sheep released into the mountains, only 16 remain. The other 15 have become Purina Mountain Lion food.

In one of the great euphemisms, the Game and Fish Department spokesman said the mountain lion responsible for the most recent deaths was “removed.”  The media explained that the lion was shot and killed.

There is growing angry sentiment among the animal rights folks that it is time to round up the remaining sheep and remove them from the mountain lion buffet table. I’ll keep you posted.

My wood carving group - great name eh?

On Thursday we went to a great lecture given by a former F-15 pilot who was a career Air Force Officer who commanded a squadron at the nearby Air Force Base. After his retirement from a 25-year career as a fighter pilot and commander he went to work for Raytheon, the local missile maker here in Tucson.

His lecture was a detailed look at all the air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles produced by Raytheon. It was especially interesting because the speaker had fired a number of the missiles during combat missions in Iraq and had also fired a number of them in training missions.

Some more of the carvings

This guy stepped right out of central casting for a fighter pilot and just close your eyes and imagine your image of the perfect fighter pilot and you have this guy. His wife came with him and he gave a moving tribute to her and all the families and the sacrifices they make in being connected with a career service member.

For one thing, he and his wife had lived all over the world and moved 18 times in 25 years. Most of the work for those moves were done and supervised by his wife.

After the lecture Joan did laundry and I did my usual mule duties in hauling the dirty and clean clothes back and forth between the trailer. While Joan did the laundry I worked on making my blood drive calls (I have 300 people to call every two months to remind them of the North Branch American Legion blood drive). Made a good dent in the list and finished it on Friday. We had a quiet night with grilled cheese and ham sandwiches and a side of tomato soup for dinner. Yum.

Some of my friend Hap's work

Friday was also a quiet day with most of the day spent around the trailer and we went to a very funny show at the resort Friday night. Dan Bennett, a comedian and juggler, was the featured entertainer and he was very funny and skilled at what he did. His running commentary was hilarious, but his juggling was even better.

One of his better jokes: “Men, why do we always ask for sex, but never ask for directions?”

My other favorite was “Did you know that 5 million people tuned in to television to watch President Obama’s inauguration and only 7 of them had to miss work to see him?”  There were equal jabs at Republicans, but I can’t remember them right now.

The pottery group

Living in a senior complex like we do in the winter presents one with a variety of ways to get injured or killed. I’ve already mentioned the many warnings I received about being on the roof of my trailer and how a man died last year after he fell off his roof onto his head.

I’ve almost been run over by golf carts and bicycles and hiking up and down mountain trails presents several options for injury or worse. There are poisonous snakes, steep cliffs and the simple strenuous act of climbing up a mountain are just a few other ways to face a little danger.

This Saturday morning, on the way back from the shower, there was almost a collision between a golf cart and a bicycle at an intersection in the park.

The stain glass group

There are also subtle signs that things are starting to wind down in the park. For one thing, there are many more empty RV spaces. The trash and recycle bins are not filling up as fast as they were last month and the concerts are having more and more empty seats.

By next month at this time there will be a lot fewer folks, including us.

So Saturday afternoon we drove to the Tohono O’odham Cultural Center and Museum in Topawa, Arizona on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. This is the follow up to the lecture we heard here at the resort a couple weeks ago.

Jewelry making

The drive is about 90 minutes from Tucson and goes past Kitt Peak which is on the Tohono O’odham Reservation.  By the way, the name of the tribe is pronounced Ta-hone-ooh Audumn (like the word autumn with a “d” instead of a “t”).

As it happened we were there on the day of the cultural center’s open house and were one of maybe only five non-tribal folks at the open house. There were a couple cultural presentations that we attended and they invited us to join them for a free lunch.

The Tohono O’odham reservation is the second largest in the country. Only the Navajo Reservation is larger. The reservation has 11 districts and the people have three distinct tribes (the mountain people, the river people and the desert people – which was the area we visited.)

Horses running loose on the reservation

The cultural center is the result of gaming money and is truly a beautiful building. From what we heard there is a bit of a tug-of-war among elders whether they want to encourage outside visitors. So far the elders who are discouraging a market campaign to attract “outsiders” is winning, we heard.

On the way to the museum (and on the way home for that matter) we noticed that horses wander loose through the streets of Sells, which is the main town north of Topawa where the cultural center is located.

Of course Joan was ecstatic that she saw horses in the road to prove her theory and constant warnings to me about loose livestock. She made me stop and take a picture of the horses in the road.

Part of the Tohono O'odham museum grounds

One of the presentations we heard was about the efforts to recover Indian graves and artifacts which were looted over that past 150 years.

I believe I have a fascination with Indians – Native Americans – because I grew up with a grandmother who had a house decorated with portraits of all the great Indian chiefs. By the way, many of the Indians here call themselves “Indians” we passed several schools on the reservation which had names like “Indian Oasis” and the mascot for the high school was the “warriors.” So I don’t believe it is disrespectful to refer to them as “Indians.”

Unfortunately due to tribal customs we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but I grabbed a couple shots outside.

The mountain in the background is sacred to the O'odham

As we left the resort to head to the reservation we called OnStar for directions, but I didn’t know the exact address. When I unsuccessfully tried to say “Tohono O’odham Cultural Center” the nice caller finally asked me to stop pronouncing it and said:

“You don’t need to try and pronounce it again, I am a Native American and I know what you are trying to say.” 

Even then she couldn’t locate an address to the place so she sent us to the city center of Topawa, Arizona, which is quite a feat because there really isn’t a “city center” there.

Onstar also introduced us today to a new road designation. In Texas we had the FM roads (Farm to Market). The roads on the Indian reservation are designated BIA roads. It took us a minute but we figured out that meant Bureau of Indian Affairs Road.

A beautiful Saguaro

It was small enough that we were easily able to find the building standing out among all the little houses there. One thing we have learned and been told is that you must strictly observe speed limits on the reservation. They have their own police and they don’t take kindly to outsiders speeding through town.

Because we had the nice lunch provided by the museum, gratis by the way, we skipped stopping for dinner and headed home to watch the news. Once again the big news today was about those poor Big Horn Sheep in the mountains.

Protestors demanding the end to the Big Horn Sheep experiment were protesting at a hearing Saturday of the Game and Fish Department. Some were wearing Big Horn Sheep masks and others were chanting “stop killing lions,” while others had signs saying “We (Heart) Predators.”

Just remembered another of Dan Bennett's jokes: "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why are they made of meat?"