Take me out to the "Beisbol" game

These homeless "coffins" will no longer be downtown

The arc of winter is slowly, but inevitably moving towards the time we return to Michigan. It is with mixed feelings that we come to the end of another Tucson winter. We have made so many good friends down here that is hard to say good bye, but on the other hand we look forward to seeing our very good friends back home again.

I’ve already made reservations to have the trailer winterized in Flagstaff and our storage space is waiting for us there as well.

There is news from the downtown Tucson homeless battle. A local judge ruled that the "homeless pods," I call them "coffins" can be removed by the city and the homeless must move elsewhere so they are not blocking the sidewalk and creating a health nuisance. Did I mention the park has become a open air potty for the homeless? So as of last Friday the pods have been removed and they are seeking some open land for the homeless to live in.

Play ball!

But there is still plenty of time and fun on tap for us here in Tucson before we make the trip home. On Wednesday we attended our latest concert – The Luck of The Irish – which is a Lonely Street Production and they kept up the record of very good musical offerings.

There was “Danny Boy,” of course, but a lot of traditional Irish music and a young woman who did a fine job of Irish dancing along with many of the tunes. A good time was had by all.

Earlier in the day we attended “Market Days,” which is the second to the last of that event before we leave. The last one is March 25 and usually there are some pretty good prices as the vendors know we won’t be back for nine months.

We also got our allergy shots at the Voyager health clinic and we rebooked for next year at our same spot, so it looks like Tucson Winter Escape 2016 is a done deal.

"Booo" is the same in Spanish as English

On Thursday we attended the last 2015 lecture which was on the Mirror Lab. The Mirror Lab is one of our favorite tourist destinations and the speaker gave us some information that we missed on our previous two tours.

Following the lecture we packed up and headed for a “free” night at the Casino Del Sol where Joan had earned us another free night’s stay. We also had a coupon for a buy-one, get-one-free buffet at the casino. Since it was seafood night it was fun just watching people stack up piles of crab legs and shrimp.

I’ll have to admit that I took advantage of the shrimp table, putting a pretty good dent in the fresh cooked shrimp.

On Friday we returned home to the resort and then headed to the Hiker-Biker potluck party on the patio about 5 p.m. This is the season ending event for both the hikers and bikers here at the park and the food was good and plentiful. No “all-you-can-eat crab legs” but good nonetheless.

"Jose" can you see the dawn's....

Saturday brought more good weather and we made a mid-course correction late in the morning and decided to go catch the first game of a day-night doubleheader at the Kino Memorial Sports Stadium. In town are several Mexican professional baseball teams from a league south of the border who are holding spring training here in Tucson.

These are minor league teams with some connections to the American baseball teams. The day was beautiful and the “beisbol” wasn’t bad either. All the announcing was done in Spanish so the only word I could consistently identify was “Budweiser.”

If I  was a drinking person I could have taken advantage of the Tequila bar, but instead I bought a bag of peanuts in the shell and made a big mess in Section 117 just behind the third base dugout.

They spelled "Tigers" wrong

Although most of the players were of Hispanic origin there was the occasional Edwin Wilson and C.J. Retherford on the roster which indicates that perhaps an American player found his way onto the team.

Just to be complete the Toros de Tijuana (Tijuana Bulls) defeated the Piratas de Campeche (Campeche Pirates) by a 7-1 score. We cheered for both teams so the fans around us probably wondered what was wrong with us.

We looked at some uniforms shirts, but instead of Mexican prices they were pretty much priced like sports shirts at any American stadium, so we left empty-handed.

Once home we finished up some leftovers and settled in for an evening of TV.

Church started us out on Sunday (after I returned from my fitness center workout) and then we came home and watched the Red Wings plaster the stinkin’ Pittsburgh Penguins and then watched the Michigan State Spartans throw away a pretty good effort in the Big Ten Championship game.

The Red Wings game almost made up for the pathetic effort of a week prior.

Joan also did our laundry as we have guests coming on Tuesday. My sister Pam and my brother-in-law Jeff arrive here Tuesday afternoon for an 8-day stay so there probably won’t be much posting here until they leave for home.

On Monday, a former work colleague and photographer – Jane – and her husband are meeting us at the Voyager for dinner and a tour. They are here on family business, but when I saw her post on Facebook indicating she was in town we hooked up by phone and made arrangements for tonight’s dinner.

I’ll post a photo here later as I am posting this before they arrive for dinner.