Visitors flood into Tucson and fun ensues

Elin hiking high above Tucson

No, I’m not dead, just a horrible procrastinator. Hard to believe it has been way over a month since I last posted and now I’m going to struggle to remember all the wonderful things that have happened in the month since I last wrote.

As a reporter I was loathe to ever miss a deadline, but as a retired writer on my own, I clearly have issues with deadlines.  So mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. No excuses, but we have been busy.

But here goes. Joan continues her quest to design and perfect her polymer clay jewelry making (she is doing very good at it) and I continue with my Bible studies and table and chair work her at the resort.

Joan has also started her volunteer service at the resort health clinic.

The Wednesday show entertainment has continued to be top notch and just to shorten this all up a bit here is the lineup of what we have seen in concert since we last met here on the blog: Piano Men, a tribute to Billy Joel and Elton John (fantastic show); Corrie Sachs as Reba McIntyre (another  great show even though neither of us are big country fans); An Evening with the Music of the Carpenters (great show and even greater because daughter Elin was here to see it with us – more on that later); The Spouse Whisperer, a really, really funny comedian who we have seen here before.  If you see me in person ask me about the joke “Why can I prove women enjoy sex better than men?”

Joan, Elin and me on a hike on the Zimmerman trail

We continue to attend Meet Me at Maynards each Monday and enjoy most of the Tuesday potlucks.

Last year, we had only brief visits from friends and no family. This year our visitation cup runneth over. 

In just the past three weeks we had Elin come and stay with us for a week, Mahlon and Colleen friends from church in Flint who have been here the last 10 days and last week my former editor, Roger and his wife, Jessica, have arrived in our park with their RV and will be here through March 17.

A Kitt Peak sunset with a telescope (and Joan's bonnet)

Let me tell you how this last visit came down. Roger knows we winter in Tucson, but he was not aware of where. He wrote me in early January telling me he was coming to Tucson and was staying in the Voyager RV park. Of course, we were elated as that is where we stay.

Later in our email discussions he was asking me about mail service here and I asked him what site number he would be at. Now mind you there are more than 1,500 RV sites here in the park. When he sent me his site number we both learned he was two spaces away from us.

Inside a Kitt Peak telescope

But let’s go back to Elin’s visit starting with her arrival Feb. 6. First night we ate outside at the Voyager Grill and then on Wednesday we headed to Tubac, Arizona for the arts festival there. Joan and Elin enjoy looking through all the vendors and we spent an enjoyable day in the warm sunshine. I just endure a day of looking at sparkly stuff I care nothing about.

That night Elin joined us at the Carpenters’ tribute show, which we all enjoyed. I’m sure that Elin will have a hundred stories about her stay in a park filled with senior citizens. She was polite enough not to laugh at us too much during the week.

Jewelry by Joan

On Thursday, I dropped Joan and Elin off at one of the Gem show sites in Tucson so they could marvel over more shiny objects while I spent a quiet day back at the resort. I’ve done the Gem show several times and no longer have the desire to spend an entire day looking at shiny rocks. Actually I would rather watch stars in the daytime than spend another hour at the gem show.

My favorite part of Elin’s visit came Friday when she and I headed to Sabino Canyon for a hike. Elin has been making some very positive changes in her life and part of that involves exercise and the great outdoors. So armed with snacks, water and proper hiking equipment we headed to the Telephone Line trailhead in Sabino Canyon.

This hike has gotten me in trouble before as I have underestimated its difficulty for people not used to hiking. But Elin was a great sport, even when she twisted and hurt her hand in an awkward position.

Me being the high point in the Tucson Mtns. on Wasson Peak

We had lunch on top of a large rock along the trail and generally had a wonderful time hiking together. She is a great sport. One of my favorite moments during our stay here.

On Saturday morning Joan, Elin and I did a relatively easy hike on the Gabe Zimmerman trail just east of the resort. This is a beautiful desert trail named for the Congressional aid of the Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who was shot by a deranged man at a shopping center in Tucson. Gabe Zimmerman died in the attack along with several other people.

Roger and me at Empire Ranch

Over the weekend we gave Elin some time to relax by the pool but on Monday we headed to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum to take in the free flight raptor show and tour the museum. That night we all went to Meet Me at Maynards and them celebrated by having a nice dinner at Downtown Kitchen. Elin enjoyed her pork belly donut appetizer. I guess they were better than they sounded.

On Tuesday we went to the night program at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Unfortunately, the bad weather that was to come was making its way into Arizona and we could not use the telescopes that night because of the cloud cover. Instead we got unique tours of some of the telescopes on the mountain and had a great time talking to the astronomers working in them. They had plenty of time to talk to us because they couldn’t work while the clouds were obscuring the sky.

One of the astronomers is part of a project trying to find “PHA”s. That stands for Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. He mentioned one that had just been located, but chuckled and said privately the astronomers often refer to PHAs as “Practically Harmless Asteroids” because most, if not all of those discovered so far are well out of danger range for earth.

The next day after we visited Market Daze in the resort Wednesday morning, we dropped Elin off at the airport and waited around and picked up our friends Mahlon and Colleen who arrived at the same time Elin was leaving.

Joan and Roger wine tasting at Sonoita Winery

Since I last wrote I have climbed to the top of Wasson Peak twice, once with friends from the resort hiking group and once with my friend Mahlon from Flint. Mahlon and I also did a fairly difficult hike in the Catalina Mountains on the Bug Springs Trail. That is a tough 10-mile slog over a couple small mountain peaks with a 2,000-foot climb.

I have probably logged about 100-miles on Arizona trails so far this year, by far the best hiking year ever here in Tucson. I should admit that my left knee is slightly complaining about all the recent uphill (and of course, downhill) hikes in the past few weeks. All of this is leading to a major hike at the end of March when I will be descending into the floor of the Grand Canyon on foot for a three-day adventure with many members of the Voyager Hiking group. More on that later.

Ventana Canyon hike

Also in the past month the weather in Arizona has done a major flip flop. In January we were greeted with the warmest January on record. That means for more than 100 years this was the warmest – and driest – January since man has recorded weather here.

Starting with the day Elin left to return to Michigan we have had temperatures way below average and rainfall way above average. In the past 10 days there has been about 3-inches of rain (that’s an entire winter season here) with snow in the high altitudes.

Earlier this season I hiked to Seven Falls only when I wrote about it I referred to Seven Trickles. No more. The water is running quite high and the falls are in full faucet. Our Voyager hiking group had some difficulty crossing swollen creeks (there are seven crossings in all) to make our way to the falls.

Of course with all these wet weather we have very excited weather people on TV acting as though the apocalypse has arrived in southern Arizona. If rain is on the way they immediately declare a “Weather Action Day” which means only that you need an umbrella.

We’ve had a lot of fun with Roger and Jessica as well. Roger was my first city editor at the Flint Journal staring in 1989. He was a great editor and has been a great friend as well. I can’t tell you how much fun it has been to have them with us here in the resort.

Into every life a little rain must fall

They went to the Spouse Whisperer with us and on Friday, Feb. 23, we went to the dinner show that included the doo-wap group MC6 in the ballroom. They will be going with us next Wednesday to the “One of These Nights” concert, a tribute to the Eagles.

On Saturday, Feb. 24, the four of us went on a trip to visit Empire Ranch, which is the location of nearly a dozen famous western movies, but unfortunately the ranch is undergoing a $1 million renovation and is closed for tours. We did spend some time walking around a couple barns on the ranch and then took an afternoon drive to several wineries in the Sonoita area of Arizona.

Jim & Jim on a hike

We ate dinner on the way home at a really good Mexican restaurant near the resort. My sister-in-law Diane sent us a half a case of Andersen’s Split Pea Soup and we have been enjoying that gift now that the weather has turned chilly here.

Planning for the March 5 Michigan party is in full swing and I’ll report more on that after the fact, if I don’t get caught in a major procrastination episode again.

The Larry Nasser story (the pervert doctor who molested so many young girl athletes) came home to us in Tucson when it was announced that the creepy doctor had been sent to a federal prison that is just about ½ mile from the resort as the crow flies. We can see the lights of the prison from the resort.

Time is slowly inching its way towards our eventual return to Michigan, but I promise to write again soon to keep you up to date. I know I have forgotten something important, but that’s what happens when I let too much time elapse between posts.