Call it a rain delay, but Grandma's Recess is back

A Tucson sunset

(Editor’s note: I have heard from three of you that you miss the more frequent Grandmas Recess. It’s nice to know that people care and I’m sorry that I have been a little lax in the posting department.)

There’s a lot of complaining in the Old Pueblo this week. And for once it is about the weather. As I mentioned in the previous post, weather guessers predicted that temperatures would “plunge” into the low 60s. They were right.

With winds blowing at 30 mph the wind chill was somewhere around 49 degrees which puts people around here in a really bad mood. Coming from Michigan we are not among those complaining. In southern Arizona temporary put the “temp” in temperatures. We may even have rain tomorrow, but it is sorely needed here so you won’t hear us complaining about that either.

Pickleball, a cross between tennis and ping pong, is huge here and the Pickleballers rule. When the wind is blowing they have trouble playing and that makes for unhappy campers.

A one-cent check

Joan and I have been wearing light jackets, but we should be out of them by Tuesday afternoon.

First I promised a photo in my last post of a 1-cent check and then failed to deliver, so it is in this post. Sorry.

The Irving Berlin concert was great and included a female singer – Rebecca Carlson – who we saw in another concert here last year. With 1,500 songs to his credit, the duo could only hit just the tip of the Berlin musical iceberg but it was a very enjoyable 90 minutes of music.

Thursday morning began with me leading the 8 a.m. Men’s Bible Study and after that there was a request that we go and visit one of our members who is laid up in his house in The Cove – a residential development that is part of the resort – with a bone infection.

Joan relaxing in the trailer on a rainy afternoon

We spent a couple hours with him and hopefully cheered him up a little.

In the afternoon we went to the 1 p.m. lecture, which turned out to be a presentation of the efforts to make this area of Arizona a federally recognized historical region.

After the lecture we headed to the barber shop for me and the nail salon for Joan to do a little personal maintenance, we also picked up some supplies for the car and trailer. We also found a 99-cent store that had a little bit of everything and we left the store with a little bit of everything. We also picked up a Red Box Movie – Noah. There is another Bible study that is on Thursday night at 7 p.m. so I went to check it out and then we watched the movie when I got home.

Joan's "Addisen" page in her scrapbook

Friday sent me to the fitness center, Joan to the computer center and later me to my wood carving class. At some point this week, the exact date and time we can’t remember now, Joan got her nails done and I got a haircut. I also returned the Red Box Movie Friday morning while Joan was waiting for her shot.

At some point this week Joan went to the clinic to get her shot. When I arrived back at the trailer she wasn’t there so I headed to the clinic to tell her I was going to be missing in action for a while. I walked into the clinic and there were a number of folks in the waiting room (remember this is a 55+ resort) and started my search for her.

I scanned the room carefully and then walked around the corner to see if she was hiding in the row of seats that I couldn’t see from the front door. She was not around the corner and I turned to leave the room and I hear this very annoyed voice calling to my back “I’m right here!”

Homeless boxes in a downtown Tucson park

And there she was, sitting in the very center of the room with a magazine in her lap. I think the rest of the folks got a chuckle out of my error, but Joan wasn’t particularly amused.

In my defense, she wasn’t wearing her bonnet and she had her head buried in her magazine while I was scanning the room. Trust me, I’m still digging myself out of that hole.

On Friday night we headed to the ballroom for a really cool concert called “Beachfront Property” which is the name of the Southern California group that performed. The two couples performed popular songs from the 40s – 50s and 60s. Some of the songs they sang without music and they all had beautiful voices.

The new Battle of Bulge Memorial in Tucson

Saturday dawned with the brisk winds I already talked about. I went to the fitness center, Joan washed the sheets and I reinstalled them on the bed (which is not as easy as it sounds because to make our bed in the trailer you have to be on the bed to do it). It finally warmed up enough in the afternoon to sit outside in the sunshine which we did for two hours until it was dinner time.

Spaghetti (my favorite) was on the menu for our rolling chateau Saturday night and then we headed to the ballroom again for the Albert Galli dance. Albert Galli lives in the park, but performs a variety of music, which he plays along to with his saxophone and clarinet as well as sings. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Sunday brought cloudy skies, warmer temperatures and church.  Sunday afternoon we went shopping  to Michael’s for some more scrapbooking supplies for Joan and then went to Walmart to do a little grocery shopping. The real reason we did all the afternoon shopping was to miss the NFL Pro Bowl which I believe is the most pointless of all sporting contests. Unfortunately, due to the time change the Pro Bowl was just starting when we arrived home. We found something else to watch.

Dillinger poster left over from the weekend festivities

 Monday brought another visit to the fitness center for me and Joan went to her aquacize class. In the afternoon we headed to the cheap movie theater and saw “Fury” with Brad Pitt. A really gory World War II movie that we both liked.

Monday night we headed to Meet Me at Maynard’s and we are just one MMM away from our free t-shirt. That will have to wait until we return from a quick trip to California to visit the boys and our two oldest granddaughters next week.

During the hike we noticed new "homeless" containers located in the main downtown park and square. One of them looked like a postal box, but some resembled coffins. I guess it is better than sleeping outside, but homeless advocates pull them to the sidewalks every night so the homeless can sleep in them. I guess that's compassion.

Also the signs were still up for the last weekend "Dillinger Days." Infamous gangster John Dillinger was arrested for bank robbery in Tucson and it has become a wild annual jazz celebration with reenactments and other events. We haven't gone yet.

No mountain photos so you're stuck with this

The hard hike on Tuesday was to Wasson Peak. I missed this hike last year, but really enjoyed it the year before. Wasson Peak is the highest mountain in the Tucson range of mountains and presents a pretty good climb. In just about 4 miles you climb up about 1,900 feet. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no new photos. Erosion hasn’t done too much damage so feel free to search “Wasson Peak” in the search bar above and go back and review the photos from 2013.

It always takes me a few weeks to get acclimated to the altitude and this hike came along a little quicker than my lungs would have liked. By the time I was up to about 4,200-feet (we started at about 2,800-feet) I was feeling really poor. I was gasping for air and feeling pretty nauseous. A couple people turned around about halfway up the mountain and a small group of about 10 people stopped at the last saddle before the final ascent to the mountain top, but even as badly as I felt, I was just too close to the top to give up on making the summit.

On the summit I was wishing I had stayed behind as I was very lightheaded (I spent my time on the summit with my head between my knees). My appetite was gone and I had to force myself to eat something so that I would have some energy for the 4.5-mile descent back to the trailhead.

A field full of Sand Hill cranes

I thought I had taken enough fluid with me, but I was about two bottles of water short and when I arrived home to the trailer I quickly downed a bottle of water and a can of diet 7-UP.

A shower perked me up a little and Joan and I headed to Casino Del Sol to cash in on a free night’s stay she “earned” at the beautiful hotel there. Of course, we played a little in the casino so that night wasn’t all that free. I did go back to the room for two hours to watch the finale episode of the History Channel series “Sons of Liberty,” so that saved us a few bucks.

On Wednesday we left the casino and returned to our campsite at the resort and went to Market Days to see if the “grapefruit” lady was back, but sadly she and her grapefruit stayed home. We went home empty-handed and grapefruit-less.

I went to the clinic and got my allergy shot. Joan had been there the week before and apparently made sure that the nurse on duty would know me when I arrived. Part of the deal with the allergy shots is that you are supposed to wait a full 30 minutes in the doctor’s office after the shot to make sure you don’t have a reaction.

At home, I will admit to having short cutted that time at my doctor’s office, which on one occasion prompted a stern letter from the doctor warning me that if I continued to leave the office before the prescribed 30-minute wait time my shots would be curtailed. When I called the doctor on it the next time I saw him he referred to it as a “nasty gram.”

Whitewater Draw sign

So when I got to the clinic for my shot the nurse informed me that Joan, the sweet wife that she is, tattled on me and told the nurse to make sure I stayed for the full 30 minutes. I had two pair of eyes on me the whole time until the clock slowly ticked off 1,800 seconds until I could leave.

Later went to the wood carving shop and spent a little time on my project. On Wednesday night we went to the Abba Fab concert which was really, really good. If you go to You Tube you can search for Abba Fab and see some of their work. They are on a pretty extensive tour right now and have played a number of cruise dates as well.

The news is going crazy here with an approaching rainstorm, but you would think a major disaster was approaching from the south. They are expecting rain from Thursday night through Saturday evening. They are in a moderate drought so they are glad it is coming.

Self-explanatory

Because of the weather we moved up by a day our annual visit to Whitewater Draw – a natural bird refuge – that is home to about 30,000 Sand Hill cranes for the winter. The cranes are usually like clockwork, but today they were on a little different schedule. We left right after I returned from leading the Bible study class in the morning.

We arrived about noon expecting to see the birds returning from their morning flights north to feed from area agricultural fields. But when we arrived only a few of the birds were on hand, mostly in a dry field some distance from the ponds where they usually reside.

About 1 p.m. the Sand Hills began returning to the area in waves, but for a reason known only to the bird brains, they landed in a dry field where the first birds we spotted were resting. With some invisible communication the waves and waves of birds returned not to the usual ponds, but to that open field east of the ponds.

Joan checking her bird book

It was still fun to watch them coast in from high up and gracefully land in the field until a huge area of the field was filled with the birds. There was a group of school children from Bisbee on hand for a field trip but they left quickly after all the birds had landed in the field. Maybe the birds have some sixth sense about the approaching weather and decided it was not necessary to stand in a pond when by tomorrow they dry land they were standing on would probably be a pond as well.

One of the wild attractions at the Whitewater Draw bird refuge is a very large Great Horned Owl who lives in the picnic shelter at the site.

The Whitewater Draw is in a remote area of southern Arizona that is near no place. I mean as far as you can see there are only occasional signs of human habitation. So imagine my surprise when I followed for nearly 30 miles down a two lane country road a large Walmart truck. I simply couldn’t imagine the marketing study that showed the need for a Walmart store in the middle of nowhere.

Great-Horned owl

After seeing the one large Walmart semi, I told Joan that I would eat my hat if I saw another truck heading in the area, and yes, you guessed it, on the way out we were passed in the opposite direction by another Walmart truck. And not too long after that we spotted a taxicab making its way down the same road.

So either I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone or somewhere out in the middle of the desert there is a metropolis so busy it needs a delivery from not one, but two, Walmart semi-trucks and trailers and a very expensive cab ride for someone else.

On our way home we stopped at a Safeway store to pick up a few supplies and then headed to the Dollar Store to look for postcards. Inside the dollar store Joan and I were quickly drawn to a woman walking the aisles of the Dollar General store with her blue Walmart work jacket.

So I guess even with an employee discount at Walmart, it was still cheaper to shop at the Dollar General Store in Benson, Arizona.

Walmart Truck in the middle of nowhere

We returned home to Joan’s homemade crockpot beef and peppercini peppers which was terrific. It was a menu she got from our daughter Elin. It is very high on my list of favorite meals.

After dinner I headed to another Bible study taught by a man I have met through the Men’s Bible study and enjoyed it very much.  As I write this Friday morning (Jan . 30) it is raining steadily outside and I think Joan and I will head to the opening day of the Gem Show here in Tucson for something to do this afternoon.

And here’s a fact of really no consequence: Our indoor/outdoor thermometer was reading a strange combination of numbers (and no, I have not yet found the “outdoor” sending part yet) when I got up recently.  I was looking at the device and it read 25 and 19 degrees for the temperatures. Well, I knew that wasn’t right so I turned the device around and it read 61 and 52. More news you can’t use.

Temperatures are "plunging" but no worries still in the 60s

So when we last visited Joan and I had just finished an evening of dancing. On Sunday we got up and headed to church which is an interesting collection of denominations and people.

The Mayor of Tucson is somewhere in the crowd

Not too many Roman Catholics go to the service, opting rather for attending one of the 3,000 Catholic churches in Tucson. But many other denominations come together in a non-denominational service in the ballroom. A group of volunteers turn the ballroom into a pretty respectable church facility and as I have mentioned before the music is very good.

Service unofficially starts at 9:40 a.m. with a participation hymn sing in which a leader calls on members of the congregation to shout out the number of a favorite hymn and then the whole body sings one or two verses. The only exception to that rule is that you can’t suggest a song that is already scheduled to be sung during the service.

I had one of my favorites all ready to call out “No. 2 ‘Holy, Holy, Holy,’” but the hymn leader started with that hymn leaving me high and dry on my shout.

Our Monday hike ended at this abandoned home site

The pastor is a nice man who I have gotten to know through the Men’s Bible Study here and gives a pretty good sermon often hitting on current issues in the park. I like him because he is gentle, but doesn’t pull any punches and reminds us a great deal of our own Pastor Dave back home in Michigan.

After church we came back and changed out of our Sunday best into our Thursday worst and sat outside reading the Sunday paper and my Civil War book until it was time for the two NFL Conference Championship games.

A lot of people in the park were very disappointed in the outcome of the Seattle versus Green Bay game, but we have enough Washington folks in the park that there are also happy campers here as well.

A dead Saguaro cactus along Monday's trail

After a full day of football we turned in for bed and then on Monday started a whole new round of fun for the week. I went on a nice easy hike near Dove Mountain and plan to take Joan and our friend Pam and Gloria there, if they want, when they are here next month for a hike.

Joan spent her morning in the pool at aquacise and then waited for me to come home from my hike. We spent the afternoon shopping for scrapbooking supplies for Joan at a couple specialty stores before heading downtown to the next installment of Meet Me at Maynard’s, the 2-mile walk we do each Monday in Tucson.

We are only two MMM’s away from our free t-shirt.

The Monday’s MMM was special because it was the fifth anniversary of the weekly event and the Mayor of Tucson showed up to thank the folks for their efforts in bringing people downtown and for helping to keep the city clean.

Part of the Meet Me at Maynard's crowd

One Monday a month a number of walkers take trash bags with them and fill them on the walk with garbage.

I had hoped to stop and have my photo taken with the Mayor but he had an “entourage” and bopped in gave his thanks and then surrounded by his entourage left  before I could corner him for a photo. I also wanted to tell him that my father had been named an honorary citizen of Tucson for his work here in the Pueblo in the early 1950s as part of a horseless carriage caravan.

I was sure that he would be impressed by my Tucson legacy, but alas I couldn’t get close enough to him to explain.

Usually we eat downtown after MMM but this week I had a Jones for some Kentucky Fried Chicken so we headed out to find a KFC franchise. Because we have OnStar I decided to ask them for help in finding the nearest KFC. The advisor found one between downtown and our resort and so we headed there.

Trailhead for Romero Canyon and Pool's Trail

We followed the directions and when we arrived at the location we discovered that while the building had all the classic styling of a KFC, the sign outside said “Nuevo Pollo,” which I believe means “New Chicken” in Spanish.

With my heart set on KFC we got back on the OnStar and they located another franchise just about 4 miles from “Nuevo Pollo”  and we fulfilled our desire for some KFC.

There is also a local chain called “Feliz Pollo” which means “Happy Chicken” which seems ironic considering that the only “happy chickens” are the ones who didn’t make the cut for the restaurant.

On Tuesday I headed off for my “hard” hike and this hike was in the Catalina Mountains and the Romero Pools as a destination. The hike was 2.8 miles uphill to the pools and then, of course, 2.8 miles downhill from the pools.Because of the wetter winter this year there was plenty of water in the pools this year over last.

Lunch at Romero Pools

We had 31 hikers today, so we split the group into two parts so we didn’t hog the trail too much as it is a popular hike and trail etiquette suggests that you keep your groups to a manageable size.

Unlike a previous hike to this spot we found the pools full and overflowing from recent high mountain snowfalls and our lunch destination was well worth the trek to get there.

While I was scaling the mountain, Joan was home working on her scrapbook class and did a really nice job on the first page of her proud grandparent book.

I arrived home from my hike to an empty trailer because she was still scrapbooking, but I did find a note asking me to stir the meatballs for the evening’s potluck in the ballroom. I stirred, showered and we headed to the dinner, which was particularly good.

Me at Romero Pools at lunch

We sat next to a man who spent his career in the Navy flying as an observer on a radar plan that flew between Midway and Adak, Alaska keeping track of the Russians during the Cold War. We had a nice Navy talk, no doubt boring everyone around us.

One of the interesting pieces of mail we received today was a 1-cent check (see photo) that our drug prescription plan sent to us. Can’t imagine how much it cost them to produce and send a 1-cent check. 

Stupid.

Wednesday dawned with the awful local TV news that our temperatures were set to “plunge” in to the low 60s for the next two or three days. Hey, we’re happy to take the plunge. As long as there is no cold white stuff blowing around the park, we’re happy.

A view along the Romero Canyon Trail

The morning saw me at the fitness center and Joan at her aquacise class. Later I went to my wood carving class. I’d like to describe the thing I am making but I am pretty sure that someone who may be the recipient of the item might be reading this and that would spoil the surprise.

The afternoon was spent doing laundry and my own preparation for leading tomorrow morning’s Bible study. Tonight we have tickets to a concert at the resort, “Putting on the Ritz.” This Lonely Street Production is part of the American Song Book series, this one obviously focus on Irving Berlin.

I’ll let you know how good it was in my next post.

Scroll down for a few extra photos from the Monday and Tuesday hikes.

A few extra photos

Our lunch spot at Romero Pools on Tuesday

A view from the Romero Pools Trail

From Tuesday's hike into the Catalina Mountains

This was at the end of our hike on Monday

Monday's hike

Heading out on the Wild Burro Trail

One life in two places means we are truly blessed

A foggy morning in Tucson

Someone here said it often feels like they living two lives, the one here and then the one at home where they live most of the time. I disagree, I’m living only one life, I’m just living it in two places. Both uniquely beautiful, both with nice people and friends and both blessed.

The trailer is pretty much set up now, the outdoor chairs and large mat are down and just a few days in we are settled into the Arizona portion of our life. The weather is OK, not quite as idyllic as last year, temperatures for the next couple days won’t get out of the 60s, the lows overnight are in the 40s and this morning for the first time ever while we’ve been in Tucson we had a heavy layer of fog – or “marine layer” as they call it in California now. It used to be fog, but somewhere along the way it became the “marine layer.” But since Arizona really doesn’t have “marine” we’ll go with fog.

I was up early for my visit to the fitness center where two men on adjoining treadmills were having a loud, ugly and unnecessary political discussion. One was a liberal the other a conservative and they just couldn’t stop needling each other to the annoyance of just about everyone else in the center. Eventually one of them departed and left the rest of us to our exercise in peace.

Back at the trailer I caught up on mail, headed to the showers to wash the stink off of me and then headed over to the “Easy Bleeders” workshop to start working on a wood carving project that I have been trying to finish. A number of the same guys were there from last year and we had a good time catching up. Two of them guys in the carving shop are also members of the Bible study I attend on Thursday.

Another foggy view

About every other Wednesday around here is “Market Days” which brings dozens of craft and other vendors to the resort. It is a pretty eclectic vendor event and we bought some homemade greeting cards and four beautiful grapefruit today.

A guy who builds birdhouses thought he had a sale when he heard someone mention I was from Michigan. The vendor jumped up and said “I’ve got something you’ll really like and held up one of his finely crafted birdhouses.”

The problem was that the birdhouse was painted a bright yellow and blue and had big Block M’s all over it.

“Wrong school,” I told him. And then he sheepishly had to admit he had no green and white Spartan birdhouses to sell. Too bad, I thought.

This afternoon the RV repairman came and gave us an estimate (for the insurance company) for the hail damage to the top of the trailer. A little more than $1,000 to fix everything.  The insurance company gave us permission to have the skylights fixed right away to keep any water out of the trailer and that was completed today. So at least we are sealed up tight now.

Market Days at Voyager

“Hot August Night,” a Neil Diamond tribute band was at the Voyager tonight and played to a sold out crowd in the ballroom. It was a high energy show that was very, very good. The guy who sang Neil Diamond classics was great and looked pretty much like Neil Diamond.

We have always enjoyed the entertainment here, but it looks like we’ll have to book well in advance from now on as the shows are selling out.

Joan cooked me one of my favorite comfort food dinners – weenies and beans. She had leftover mac and cheese from the potluck and some cheese and crackers to a comfort food dinner.

Joan and I both receive allergy shots at home and in the past have not brought our serum with us. Last year we found out that the 3-day a week clinic here at Voyager will give shots so this year we had our Flint doctor package up our serum and we plan to continue our treatments here.

More Market Days

Of course it’s a quasi-doctor’s office and like any other doctor’s office there is paperwork to be done. So yesterday we filled out the paperwork and today I returned mine to the clinic. Earlier in this post I talked about a guy who was in a heated political argument on Wednesday morning with another man at the fitness center.

After returning to the trailer the insurance adjustor arrived and he inspected our home and agreed it need awning repairs. He approved our claim for the total amount and because we haven’t made a claim for the six years we have owned and been insured by Progressive they approved the entire amount without a deductible. I had heard concerning things about Progressive, but so far everything has gone like clockwork and all the phone service and local in person service people have been just super.

“Super” and “insurance company” are not words I usually use in the same sentence either.

One of the broken skylights

Friday brought another day at the wood carving shop and Joan went to her aquacise class in the morning. In the afternoon we went to the grocery store and put some more food into trailer and then we went to the “Two’s Company” dance in the ballroom.

The couple who make up “Two’s Company” are one of the more popular entertainers here and there was a good crowd on hand. Joan and I sat with friends from last year – Bob and Judy – and some new folks we met last night – Kathy and Ron from Kitchener, Ontario. Lots of laughs, lots of dancing and just a great night all the way around.

When we arrived home about 10 p.m. we watched the news and learned that a man wanted for murder from Flint was arrested in Phoenix on Friday. Just can’t get away from the violence in Flint.

We have a little mystery going on in the trailer. A couple years ago we bought one of those digital weather stations that tells you both the temperature on the inside and the outside. The outside temperature is determined by a satellite device that you put outside the trailer and it registers on the main display inside the trailer.

Finally replaced

The mystery is that the outside temperature is showing on the weather station, but we have no idea where the satellite device is. On Saturday morning, after returning from the gym, I completely emptied the trailer storage basement and was unable to locate the device.

We usually keep the device on top of the trailer tire, but obviously we took it off before driving it away last year. Joan has searched all the inside cabinets and I have searched all the outside spaces and the device is nowhere to be found, and yet it seems to be working.

There is enough difference in the two temperatures to believe it is outside somewhere (I even checked the area around and under the trailer on the off chance it was still on the ground from last year) but we simply can’t find it. If you have any ideas, we’d like to solve this one because it is driving us nuts.

Into every life rain must fall, but why mine on Monday

Hiking group gathers on Tuesday at trailhead

If there is anything more frustrating than dealing with technical support for a computer issue I’d like to know what it is. Saturday afternoon I spent the first half of the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens game dealing with a wireless hotspot issue.

We purchased the Straight Talk wireless hot spot last year when we were here, but obviously haven’t used it for nine months which necessitated purchasing new gigabytes and restarting the hot spot. Sounds easy, right? Wrong.

The foreign computer expert barely spoke English and the English he spoke sounded like Greek. Between my exasperation at not knowing what the heck he was talking about and then not understanding his broken English explanation I was in a near rage.

Starting up into the mountains

I try not to take out my total complete frustration with folks just trying to make a living but after 90 minutes of shutting down, restarting, rebooting, resetting, I told the man, “this really shouldn’t be this hard.”

Eventually we got the hot spot up and running, but without any security key so that I can’t leave the hot spot up when I’m not using it because it means anyone within range can steal my signal and byte into my gigas.

The only downsize to the Voyager Park is that the commercial wifi offered here is next to Neanderthal in tech terms. We had nothing but trouble with it on our first visit, so determined to find an alternate on our second because the cost of the park wife is $60 a month. The Straight Talk worked well last year, but after Saturday’s adventure I’m ready to give up on the Internet altogether.

Climbing, climbing

So the rest of Saturday was spent watching football and then dancing the night away, if coming home at 10 p.m. can be considered “dancing the night away.”

They have a very good band made up of residents here and they are quite good. We try to dance like no one is watching, but I wish I had paid better attention to those dance lessons my mother paid for in the early 1960s.

My routine, because I wake up so early here (5:30 a.m.) is to go to the fitness center get in a weight and cardio workout before the place starts hopping about 7 a.m.  That is pretty much 5 days a week with the other two days covered by hiking.

Looking at hikers through the cholla

Joan and I walked to church about 9:30 a.m. and were home in time to watch the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys game. We were rooting for the Dallas Cowboys and my exact quote at the start of the game was, “I just hope the game comes down to a controversial referee’s call that goes against the Cowboys and they lose.” Talk about karma. Couldn’t happen to a better guy than Jerry Jones.

The NFL doubleheader continued with the Denver Broncos and Indy Colts which we enjoyed very much as well. Not really rooting for either team in that game, but it turned out to be a pretty good game.

Joan made one of my favorite dinners – Shrimp Louie – with her own dressing and we spent a quiet evening at home.

My hiking buddy Jim is back (right)

The RV repair guy came by on Monday morning to look over the damage, but it was raining so it wasn’t safe for him to climb on the roof but he is in the process of ordering some of the broken parts and I talked to our insurance company and they are processing a claim for us. Hopefully, all with be right with the Laredo trailer soon.

Joan was planning to go to here aquacise class this morning but the rain seemed to discourage her. I mean you’re up to your neck in water anyway, but the idea of being in a pool in the rain didn’t excite her at all. Instead we stayed home and completed the process of unpacking and storing things inside.

Heard a new attorney ad: “Been in a wreck? Need a check? Call Joe Whatever”

The rain clouds moved out of here by noon and the afternoon warmed up nicely on Monday. We pulled out the folding chairs and we sat outside reading for a couple hours in the warm sun. It was really nice.

I'm back too

Our enhanced cable was not connected by 4 p.m. and without it there was no ESPN, which meant no National Championship College Football game so we headed downtown to walk in “Meet Me at Maynards” a weekly event in downtown Tucson where hundreds of people walk 2, 3 or 4-mile courses and then eat out at one of the many downtown restaurants all of which provide nice discounts to Meet Me at Maynards participants.

Joan really likes this event and a number of folks from Voyager RV park participate. Once you’ve walked in the weekly event 8 times you get a free “Meet Me at Maynards” t-shirt and after 15 you get a hat. They also have t-shirts for those who have walked 100 of the events as well as 200 of the events.  The event has been in existence for nearly 6 years so presumably there will be additional t-shirts for 300 and so on as the event continues.

My favorite cactus

Although such an event probably wouldn’t work in the winter months in Michigan it is a great idea to bring people downtown at least once a week. Once you register each week a raffle ticket with your name on it is tossed into a basket and they give away some nice prizes. We’re still two weeks from our first t-shirt (our four weeks last year carried over to this year) but we’ll make at least that this trip.

After we failed to win any of the dozen raffle prizes we headed to “World of Beer” a local restaurant with a 10 percent MMM discount and had dinner and watched the game on the several big screen tvs.

By 9:30 p.m. the score was 35-20 and we felt it was safe to head back to our trailer. We later learned that OSU scored another touchdown with just seconds left. That was a controversy down here, but I remember how Oregon scored a meaningless touchdown when they were playing MSU early in the season so I didn’t care a bit.

A pretty part of the hike

Tuesday morning came and Joan headed off to her first aquacise class and I headed off for my first “hard” hike. This one was a 6-mile trek into the Rincon Mountains in the Saguaro National Park. It was a perfect first hike for me as the distance and elevation is relatively moderate for one of these hikes and it takes me a couple weeks to get acclimated to the altitude. “It’s all about attitude and a little about altitude” one of the hikers said today.

One of the hikers passed out at the 3-mile point of the hike so one group of us headed back down via a shortcut to make sure she got back OK. The rest of the hikers took the full trail. So actually today I only hiked five miles although I did the hardest uphill parts before heading back down.

Tuesday potluck. Joan setting up her mac and cheese

After her aquacise class Joan took a bunch of family photographs to a scrapbooking class here and came home pretty enthused about what she had learned and ready to spend a king’s ransom on scrapbook supplies, but she is looking forward to attractively displaying family photographs. She met some nice folks and had a good time.

After my hike I got cleaned up and we headed to our first potluck supper in the main ballroom. Several of the folks welcomed us like long lost friends and the food was, as always, diverse and good.

With my first hike under my belt and Joan’s active day we both expect to sleep well tonight. The weather has cooled off into the low 60s tonight and we are looking at a short stretch of days where the highs will only be in the low 60s. We’ll keep that in perspective considering how cool it has been at home.

Hail yes! The Laredo has landed in Tucson

Welcome to frigid northern Arizona

It took just 2 ½ hours to drive from Gallup, New Mexico to pick up our trailer in Flagstaff. The owners of the storage lot had warned its customers that a pretty significant hailstorm had hit the area back in the fall and that some units had suffered damage. So we have been waiting with some anticipation to see what, if any damage had been done to the Laredo from the storm.

As we pulled into the lot I immediately noticed that two of the skylights on top of the trailer appeared damaged. One of them was actually smash to pieces, but fortunately no big windows or other damage appeared from the ground. We’re waiting for an RV repairman in the park to show up so I can get on the roof and inspect a little closer.

San Francisco peaks near Flagstaff come into view

It does not appear than any significant water came into the trailer and even better, the mouse prevention efforts I took last spring seem to have worked as there was no evidence of small visitors this time when we got into the trailer.

As we were hooking up the trailer a flight of 15-20 military helicopters flew over which was kind of cool to watch.

It took about 40 minutes to look over the trailer, transfer some weight from the back end of the car to the back end of the trailer (luggage and other supplies) to balance the load. It takes a few minutes to remove the tire skirts and then put together the towing apparatus but we were soon back on the road.

Only briefly though as one of my mirror extensions broke loose and I had to pull to the side of the freeway to remove it and we continued on our journey without, being extra cautious in making lane changes because of the slightly reduced visibility.

Fueling up for the final push to Tucson

Except for some unexpected heavy traffic through Phoenix about 2 p.m. the trip down the mountain was uneventful. There is one major grade south of Sedona that always poses a challenge with the big trailer but we made it up and over the hill in good order.

Before I get too far from the beginning of the day let me just advise on what I think should be the etiquette for using a hotel luggage cart. The very nice Gallup hotel we stayed in has three large luggage carts in its stable. Unfortunately in the morning three impolite guests decided they would take the carts to their rooms and hoard them while the rest of us were left without. I know this because I waited an extremely long time for just one of them to return and they never did until after I pretty much loaded the car, making two extra trips to haul down our luggage, the dirty laundry, the computer satchels and finally one heavy duty and weighty 12-volt trailer battery. I take the battery up to the room to keep it from freezing overnight. I need it to work when we arrive at the trailer so I can lift and lower the tongue of the trailer with the electric tongue stand.

Welcome to our Arizona home!

So here’s the advice: If you need a luggage cart the rule should be that you are packed up and ready to leave before you take the cart. Then, and only then, should you head to the lobby to retrieve the cart, take it to your room, load it and head down to your car. This should take no more than 5 minutes thereby keeping the carts available for other guests to use.

On the way down the mountain from Flagstaff we listened to the last two installment CDs of the “Wild” book that we listened to across the country. I have mixed feelings on the book, but generally enjoyed the hiking narrative.

When we started out from Flagstaff the temperature was 42 and had risen to 75 by the time we arrived in the parking lot commonly known as Phoenix.

Our spot, same as last year

The Tahoe – or “Shadow Beast” – as the granddaughter refers to it groaned a little when we started out, but performed really, really well. In breaking the truck in for towing you are supposed to keep the speeds to around a maximum of 50 mph. that is a little difficult to do when you are plummeting down a 6 percent grade for 1,000 feet.

In fact on the straight and level it was hard to keep the truck under 60 mph. The winds started to pick up toward the end of the journey but not nearly as badly as some of the adventures across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.

We arrived at the Voyager gate to be warmly greeted by “Bob” who welcomed us “Home” and arranged for our site escort to help us into our gravel strip of land that will serve as “home” for the next three months.

These are resort "limos"

Our escort was “Lee” and he was as nice as he could be and within 10 minutes the trailer was parked and high and dry on 9-197 at the Voyager RV Park, the same spot we had last year. If you reserve early you can designate your return spot for the following winter.

Since last year the trash and recycle yard which was just about 100-feet away has been moved nearly ½-mile away to the maintenance yard and we will no longer get the early morning trash truck wakeup call that we used to get. The park now offers curbside trash pickup and recycling so a major improvement over last year.

After setting up the trailer (hooking up water, cable, sewer lines, turning on the propane, etc.) we headed to the office to register. There Von again warmly welcomed us back and gave us our temporary badges until we get our pictures taken and get our more permanent plastic name tags. Joan is not a big fan of the name tags because it reminds her of having to wear her identification at work.

The new courtyard at Voyager

For most park activities you must be wearing the badges, although they don’t enforce it for trips to the bathroom, the fitness center or the restaurant, which is open to the public anyway.

After registering we headed to the Voyager Bar and Grill where we had to wait for a table. It was fish fry night and there was a school of old folks who turned out for the fish special. In previous visits the restaurant has been sparsely used, but since last year with a new cook and some renovations has become very popular here and beyond.

We only had to wait about 20 minutes for a booth and we really enjoyed the fried fish. Not as good as Blackthorn’s in Buffalo, but not many places are.

We returned to the trailer after dinner, did some more unpacking and settled in for a little TV. It’s a good think that the temperatures here are mild because we currently have the two holes in our skylights which let a lot of air into the trailer. Both skylights have screens, which were not damaged so there is not risk of anything else coming into the trailer unless it can fit through a small mesh screen.

Looking up at one of the broken skylights

I woke up early and headed to the fitness center to start my routine. I’ve gained a little more than 10 pounds since I was here in April according to the fitness center scale so the effort has begun to shed that and more during the next three months. My first hike will be Tuesday.

After working out I headed to the showers and then to the mailroom to set up our mail account and get our mailbox key. It is extremely convenient that we can receive our mail right here in the park.

While walking back from the mailroom two F-somethings took off from the local Air Force base and gave me my first “sound of freedom” moment here in the desert. My father will not be happy I don't know which F-somethings I saw, but unless it is a Lockheed Constellation my aircraft identification is severely lacking. I also ran into a couple friends from our previous visits who greeted me like a long lost favorite uncle.

Late this morning we went to Walmart to stock up on supplies. Joan, as is her custom, sent me searching for a 12 ounce can of condensed milk. Before she sent me on the mission she looked straight in my eyes, made sure she had my attention and then sent me to the “bakery” to find the can of condensed milk.

Search as I might among the packages of buns and loaves of bread I could not locate anything resembling a can of condensed milk. Sheepishly I returned to where she was in the store and said although I couldn’t remotely understand why she would send me to the bakery section to find a can of milk I at least tried without questioning.

“Not the bakery,” she said. “The baking aisle.”  Except there is no such aisle. I looked up at the array of signs announcing whatever is down an aisle and not one spoke of “baking.” 

“The baking aisle,” Joan said again. “You know where you will find flour, frosting, that kind of stuff.” Eventually she found it on her own.

Today we will shop for supplies and tonight we dance. The first of several “Reminiscence Dances” will be held in the ballroom.

Life is good.

Mileage out: (Gallup) 11059

Time out: 7:54 a.m.

Mileage in: (Flagstaff storage yard) 11257

Time in: (Flagstaff storage yard) 10:50 a.m.

Mileage out: (Flagstaff storage yard) 11257

Time out: (Flagstaff storage yard) 11:34 a.m.

Mileage in: (Voyager) 11357

Time in: 4:30 p.m. 11537