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 

Snowbird Journal--Feb 18 to 23--Colorado Contingent

Sorry, we've not posted anything for awhile, but we've been having a ball showing The Colorado Contingent around SE Arizona. They all arrived on the 18th and we never slowed down. We managed to see San Xavier del Bac, Texas Canyon, Tubac, Patagonia, Tombstone, Bisbee, the Desert Museum, Saguaro National Park West, Empire Ranch, and Ft. Bowie, and a great tamale dinner at Amy and Jims.  We would have liked to have showed them a few of our other favorite sites, but we just flat ran out of time. It was really great seeing old and new friends. The line of the week came when we were in the mineral exhibit at The Desert Museum.  It's a dark, cave like room with lighted mineral displays.  As we were looking at the azureite,malachite and several other "ites" John says, "Oh look there's some cellulite." He's just lucky that there wasn't a very large angry woman in the crowd. If you want a more complete chronicle of our exploits and misadventures go to www.cid69.blogspot.com This is Larry's blog and it's always first rate. 

Top Photo--John and Jamie watch carefully as Larry demonstrates his bull fighting skills.

Middle Photo--This stunning photo will probably be used by the sculptor when they make the statue.

Lower Photo--San Xavier

Snowbird Journal--Wk of 2/2/09--Gem & Mineral Show

The annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show started this week.  Betsy has been wanting to go to this show for several years.  Our neighbors and family here all told us about how big this show was, but we thought they were exaggerating.  They weren't.  The show actually run's two weeks In addition to the gems,  & minerals there are many bead vendors. Hundreds of vendors set up in tents, motel/hotel rooms, the convention center and even outside their RV's.  I've never seen so many beads, bangles, and baubles in my life.  But in addition to the beads there are dealers selling minerals, huge geodes & crystals, and even fossils.  We walked into one tent and there stood a complete mastodon skeleton.  We also saw skeletons of dinosaur's and cave bears.  Just the thing to finish off that man cave.  One thing that amazes me is the amount of weight shipped into the show by some of the rock and mineral dealers.  They ship product into the show in crates, and 55 gallon barrels on pallets.  On Monday we went to one area of the show and we went to other areas every day except Thursday.  Next week we'll continue to visit other area's.  Rumor has it that some of the gem dealers have diamonds, rubys, emeralds displayed in mounds on tray's.  I've also heard that some of the local thug's are gainfully employed as security personnel by some of the gem dealers.    

photo: Carolyn (Jamie's sister) and Betsy