April 2nd, 2009--Home Again

We arrived home in E'town about 4:30 PM.  We drove about 450 miles each day for 4 days to get home.  Our first night was spent in Roswell, NM and Betsy hid the aluminum foil so I couldn't make CPD's (Cranial Protection Device's) for Tippy and I.  Refer to the earlier post about Roswell dated Oct 28th.

The 2nd day, while going thru the panhandle of Texas I looked down and saw that the Check Engine was on.  Thats never a good thing.  We got close to Oklahoma City and found a campground for the night.  The next morning we found a dealership and had the engine light diagnosed.  Turned out we needed a crankshaft sensor.  We spent the morning in the waiting room which was part of the sales floor.  If you're looking for a nice quiet spot to nap and relax I would suggest heading for a new car showroom.  Very, very quiet.   In the eastern part of OK we started seeing redbud, dogwood, and flowering shrubs and actual green grass.  Tippy was beside himself!  

What a great winter we had.  Saw a lot of new sights, met some fellow wanderers in ye ol' trailer park, but best of all we could see family without driving half way across the country.

Now all we have to do is redo every room in the house, get the yard in shape, sell the house and 90% of the stuff we own, and head back to AZ.  Shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks!

Stay tuned.  

Photo's--Princess Elizabeth in her sun glasses,  James (Skunk Wrangler),  Swingers

Sandcreek Travelers Headed for Home

Today marked the last full fun day in Arizona for the winter of 2009.  Pat, Jack, Amy, Elizabeth and I traveled to downtown Tucson to find a special edition two day letterbox in a private garden.  As you will see from the pictures it was lovely.  We found the letterbox, stamped our books, enjoyed the art and the garden then off to the Tucson Museum of Art's Artisan Market.  We had a great day and enjoyed every bit of it.  Elizabeth enjoyed a pretty flower!

While the Tucson crowd played, Jamie stayed behind to final pack the trailer and the truck for the trip home.  We leave at first light tomorrow.  It will probably take all week as we do not travel too far or too fast with the trailer.  You never know though when slim gets behind the wheel and is headed east.  We'll let you know when we arrive home.  .....Betsy

p.s.  I forgot the most important part--------please see www.kuhnhobbies.blogspot.com for a complete update on our Snowbird Farewell party held on Saturday.  

Up, Up, And Away--Mar 24, 2009

About two miles from ye old trailer park ( Oop's, Betsy keeps reminding me that we are living in an RV Resort) there is a field where they fly radio control airplanes.  When I have a few minutes I'll run up there to watch them fly.  They've come a long way from the string control weapons that were available when I was a kid.  I received one of the old ones as a Christmas gift one year.  I remember that trying to start it was very dicey.  I'm probably very lucky that my fingers are still intact.  I did manage to fly it--once.  It went straight up and then straight down.  It was a beautiful flight until it hit the ground about 3 seconds later.  So much for my budding aviation career.  The radio control planes of today are quite something.  Some even have retractable landing gears.  I really enjoy looking at the various types of planes being flown and especially the size that they've become.   Enjoy the pictures.

New Tucson Sights

Even after all these years I found out this week there are new sights to see in Tucson.  On Tuesday my painting class went on location to Degrazia's Gallery in the Sun.  We arrived to find a delightful little garden and gallery.  It is quite clever and whimsical.  It is an awesome place to paint  as there are beautifully shaped adobe buildings with the mountains in the background and plenty of desert vegetation in the foreground.  A real painters delight.  The photo shows The Sanctuary on the property.  All buildings, structures and accessories were crafted by Degrazia.  The property is a historic landmark

Monday March 9, 2009 Sierra Vista

Monday dawned quite cloudy and overcast and we were looking for a new road to travel.  We tossed the coin and headed off to Sierra Vista via Rt. 90 as we had not gone that way before.  We found Sierra Vista pretty much the same as when we last saw it 5 or 10 years ago and decided to head further south to Coronado National Monument, again all new territory once you get south of the Ramsey Canyon Road.  They have a visitors center with the National Park Stamp (Betsy collects them) and enjoyed the very tiny museum and information about Coronado's march through the southwest into Kansas.  The views were wonderful and you can see into Mexico easily as the southern edge of the Monument land is on the border.  

After leaving Coronado Monument we wanted to take a look at the San Pedro Riparian Area know for its many birding opportunities.  I always love to see the Cottonwoods leafing out and was not disappointed as they are looked quite spectacular.  We  drove down the Hereford Road and went as far as the bridge.  Then on to the next adventure.

We traveled north back through Huachuca City on Hwy 90 then over to Sonoita on Hwy 82, a road traveled many times. On 82 we enjoyed the vast yellow grass prairies with the mountains in the background and the beautiful fluffy clouds in the bright blue sky......see for yourself.  Another beautiful day!

Saguaro National Park - East

On Sunday we took off for a short hike on one of the trails in Saguaro.  Here in Tucson you can access some of the trails from the streets.  We took Cactus Forrest Trail and Mica Trail.  Did I mention we joined  Amy and Elizabeth for the maiden voyage of the off road stroller? 

The weather was overcast and in the low 70's which was perfect for our trek through the cactus.  Miss Elizabeth had such a good time she fell asleep after her break and a bit of apple juice.  

We decide we love the saguaro skeletons as much as the multi armed big boys.  Along the way I took pictures of at least 6 varieties of wildflowers.  The desert is coming alive with color, it must be spring.

Snowbird Journal--Feb 25, 2009--Cool Trip

John and Larry took off yesterday for places unknown.  They mentioned a couple of places that they might like to visit, but if you ask for specifics things got a little bit fuzzy.  I'm learning that that may be the correct way to travel.  After their departure we cleaned up the trailer and just rested for the remainder of the day.  I'm sorry but I have to brag on our weather for the past couple of weeks.  Last week was in the 70's and this week we've hit 80+ every day. According to the local yokel weathermen our above average temp's will continue for the rest of the week.  To escape the heat today (I never thought I would say that in February) we decided to drive up the Catalina Hwy to Mt. Lemmon.  Somehow in all our years of visiting out here we'd never been up there.Mt. Lemmon is 9100 feet in elevation and is part of the Santa Catalina Mountains which tower above Tucson.  Since Mt. Lemmon receives about 180 inches of snow per year there is a ski resort and a small village called Summerhaven.  The drive from the desert floor to the summit is spectacular.  You pass through several different climactic zones from saguaro and ocotillo on the foothills to pine and spruce trees at the top.  In the brochure it mentions that it's like driving from Mexico to Canada.  At the top we did see snow on the shaded side of the hills, but luckily none on the roadway.  When we were at the summit the temp was 54 and an hour later on the desert floor the temp was 82. We stopped several times to take photo's of the views and had a picnic lunch at one of the lower campgrounds.  We also took a short hike to get a better view of the north side but left Tipper in the truck since there were signs advising there might be bear in the area. Top Photo--Jamie and Tipper on Top of the World

Middle Photo--Saguaro on the hillside with Elephant Head about 75 miles  away.

Bottom Photo--Van over the cliff