Snowbird Journal Nov 7, 2008 Tucson to Oracle

As mentioned previously we wanted to check out Oracle because it's sort of in between Tucson and Gilbert. To get there we could go the scenic way or the quick way. We elected to go the scenic way to Oracle and the quick way on the return trip. We knew that the road would be gravel and rough in places, but I don't think we fully understood the going over the Catalina Mountains part of the trip. In places the gravel/rock road was very narrow with several switchbacks. But the vista's and view's were great. It only took us about 3 1/2 hours to go the 50 miles to San Manual which is about 15 miles away from Oracle and the place where we hit pavement again. After arriving in Oracle we stopped in at a resale shop and had a nice conversation with the owner. After finding a local real estate office we grabbed a couple of listing books and then had lunch in the parking lot of the local Catholic mission. We roamed around the residential neighborhoods, but were somewhat disapointed by some of them. Call us picky, but I'd rather not live in a neighborhood where the folks next door keep goats in their front yard. We did however find the local Rust Is Us outlet antique shop. They certainly win the prize in the large rusted objects catagory. The return trip was much quicker and we got to see the Catalina's from the east side. We went through Oro Valley which was founded in 1974! I love finding towns that are younger than I am. We never find that in the mid west or east.
Also went through Catalina, and Marana where we hit the interstate to make the final leg home. A good day.

Snowbird Journal Nov 7, 2008

On the contest to name our make believe RV, the winner is. Well, actually we have two winners. Pat who submitted the name Exxon Valdez. And Amy who sent in the name Jabba, The Hut. Prizes will be coming their way. Thanks to Jim, Larry, Juan, Jack, and Ed for playing.

We've been busy the last few days. Jim and Amy wanted our help in cleaning up their backyard in preparation of a new patio and garden. All of us pitched in and the backyard is now stripped bare, except for two Agave plants. We have also completed work on our sunscreen. It's just a terrible thing to be in a place where the sun is just too hot to sit in during the late afternoon. I know that all of you share our pain. We'll try to be brave.

A few nights ago I was just leaving the shower room when a lady stopped me in the hall and ask me to go back in and ask her husband Scott if he needed any lotion. Now, I knew that Scott was in the 2nd shower and I could have prefaced my question to Scott that it was being relayed from his wife. But I decided that it wouldn't be any fun to do it that way. So I just yelled over his shower door, "Hey, do you need any lotion in there?" You should have heard the quaver in his voice as he answered, "n-o-o-o".
I dutifully reported to the wife that he didn't need any. I wonder what he told her when they met up again! I just hope they were passing through and not winter residents as the wife can identify me.

Betsy and I are enjoying watching Little Elizabeth grow. She's now holding her head up and looking about. Her favorite thing is to lay on her play mat and look at the baby in the mirror.

Tipper has been cactus free for three days in a row. He hasn't gotten any smarter, but his people have. We are slowly learning the layout of Tucson streets, but have relied on our Garmin heavily. We have also been overwhelmed by all the activities in a large city. There are so many things to do.

Today we're going to drive up to Oracle, AZ and see what it's like. It's about half way between Tucson and Gilbert (where Jeff, Lisa, and James live) so a possible relocation city.

Snowbird Journal Nov 2, 2008

Yesterday we went shopping for a piece of outdoor carpeting, and some sun screen. We feel that with our limited space we will need to use our "patio" area as an extra room. The only problem with that plan is that we get the PM sun and it's almost impossible to sit out there. With the awning down we'll attach the sun screen to the back end and partially along the front awning. Hopefully that will enable use to use the space. We also stopped in one of the huge RV dealers for a couple of things.
Jim and Amy gave us one of their old Yellow Pages and along with the Garmen navigation system we could actually get to the places we were going.

Today Jim, Amy, and Elizabeth picked us up early and all of us drove to Gilbert, AZ to meet Jeff, Lisa, and James for Betsy's birthday picnic. Much to our surprize and delight Carolyn and Gary dropped in for a visit. James has grown so much since we saw him last. He and Jamie took off almost immediately to purchase tickets for rides on the train, merry-go-round, and other rides. They also walked with Tipper over to the duck pond and waterfall. After eating and riding the merry-go-round for the third "last time" we all drove over to Jeff and Lisa's new house which will be ready in January. Very nice, and it even has a grandparents suite. There was some talk that since the grandparents would be using the suite perhaps they should furnish it.
It was a wonderful day.

We arrived home and did a little more work on the sun screen and talked to a man who was walking his dog. Betsy and I appear to be younger than most of our resident neighbors. Some of them can hear better than others. Here is an actual conversation.
Neighbor--"What's your dog's name?"
Jamie--"His name is Tipper."
Neighbor--"Hello Pepper."
Jamie--"No, his name is Tipper."
Neighbor--" Oh. Hello Skipper."

We have to post the obligatory photo's of the famous AZ sunsets. Here are the first one. Probably won't be more than two or three hundred more.

Top Photo--Elizabeth and James
Middle--James, Jamie, Tipper Just Walkin', Talkin' and Sniffin'
Lower Photo--Arizona Sunset

Snowbird Journal Oct 31, 2008 Tucson

The past 3 days it's been 88 or above. It is warm but I absolutely refuse to complain. The TV weatherman say that normally it isn't this warm and that it will cool off next week. Speaking of weathermen, I have made an effort to watch as many of the local guys as possible to see which one seemed to know what he was talking about. Then it dawned on me--they don't have to forecast. All they have to do is say, "It will be sunny and _________ (fill in temp) degree's." Yesterday we hooked up our second TV in the trailer--that's right we now have 2 TV's within our 25 feet of space. I can lay in my bunk and see them both actually. Talk about living high on the hog. We also took advantage of our poor son in law and dumped a bunch of stuff in his garage. We're still fighting the time difference so needless to say we're up a bit early. When the sun comes up we take our walk. We have noted that while we may be the smallest and certainly the oldest trailer in the park we will have to do some work to even approach some of these people in the area of tacky. In an effort to get on AZ time we pulled the shades, turned on the AC and purposely took a nap this afternoon. Maybe we can stay up till 9 PM tonight.

The picture is my new dream machine. Thirty eight feet of gleaming white fiberglass, with a penthouse bedroom! Are you kidding me? I figure that if the Denver Circle, Betsy & I, plus Ed and LeeAnn all chipped in we could probably come close to affording it.
If we wanted to fill it up with gas, and actually go somewhere we'd most likely have to recruit some new investors. Wouldn't that be a hoot? All of us traveling together. The first thing we would do is give our new home a name. So I'm sponsoring a contest to name our make believe new RV. This contest is open to all readers of this blog (please read conditions below). Send me your suggestion by Friday, Nov 7th. I will be the judge and will choose a winner who will receive a prize. If I were participating my choice for the name would be MOBY. This offer void in Bronx, NY; Utah; Spain; the wrong side of the tracks; Guam; and Arkansas. Please consult your physician if dizzyness, irritability, constipation, itching of the armpits, headaches, or nausea occurs. If these conditions exist please call 1-800-WHO-CARES immediately.

Snowbird Journal-Oct 29, 2008 Deming, NM to Tucson

Today was an easy day driving wise. After our antic's over the last couple of days some of my relatives have placed me on double secret mental watch. Lisa and Amy have intimated that I should only be allowed to have interaction with their children with supervision. We arrived at the RV park and were assigned a nice site. It's close to the shower room, which we will be using.
And we border a street which means we don't have neighbors on the door side. And we have a view of the Rincon Mountains. Jim, Amy, and Elizabeth came over to meet us and we FINALLY got to meet little Elizabeth. Betsy had Elizabeth in her arms in about 2 nano seconds. We had lunch at the trailer, then Jim, Amy, and Elizabeth headed home for their afternoon nap. Betsy and I remained to start getting set up on a semi
permanent basis. Later in the PM we went to Jim, Amy, & Elizabeth's house for dinner and to watch the Phillies and Rays complete their suspended game. Jim firmly believes that Elizabeth is THE reason the Phillies are in the Series. She was born on opening day of the playoff's. And I didn't know that the Phillies had only won the World Series once before in 1980. Well, the Phillies won so Jim's little Elizabeth has brought them luck. We returned to the trailer and Betsy went through the info the RV park gave to us, while I went through our mail that had been forwarded here. We are now 3 hours time difference from Indiana. We tried to stay up later than normal, but we both conked out about 8:30 local time.
Temps today were in the high 80's. Beautiful.

Snowbird Journal--Oct 28 Roswell to Deming

From Roswell we continued on Hwy 70 to Picaho, Hondo, Ruidoso which took us through beautiful mountains. Really a pretty drive. We then started going down and went through Mescalero, Tularosa, Alamogordo. After Alamogordo we did a quick stop at White Sands National Monument. Betsy ran in and got her book stamped while I walked Tippy. Tippy is having a hard time adjusting to life in the west. He was totally freaked by the Cadillac Ranch. Then later in the day I was walking him at the Clovis Tourist Info Center and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train with six engines roared by with horns blaring. He decided it was time to get back in the truck. Then after we had checked into our camp ground yesterday afternoon we all took a walk on the sand dunes and he got several sand burr's. We had to pick them out of his paw's. At White Sands he found another sand burr bush and we spent another 15 minutes getting them out again. Until we figure out where he can and can't go we will start carrying a little pair of scissors and some tweezers. We roared through Las Cruces and found I-10 and Deming where we decided to spend the night. We picked a Good Sam campground for the wifi and cable to watch the remainder of the World Series game that was suspended last night. Shortly after checking in I learned that the game tonight had been cancelled due to rotten weather. That's okay, because son-in-law Jim is a huge Phillies fan and we'll get to watch the rest of the games with him.

Snowbird Journal--Oct 28 Portales to Roswell

We had a much warmer night since the temps didn't fall as much as the night before. We are two hours behind Indiana time, and are trying to adjust our schedule so we're not up at 4 AM local time. We pretty much forced ourselves to stay in bed until 6 AM local time. After a quick breakfast we hit the road for Roswell. I expected the road to be two lanes but it stayed four lanes all the way and traffic was super light all the way. After arriving in Roswell we drove around town but never did find anything that looked even remotely alien or otherworldly. I'm pretty sure that Tippy and I were protected by our AFCPD's (Aluminum Foil Cranial Protection Devices). Betsy refused to participate in our AFCPD plan.