Saturday 8 March 2008

Climbing the Trail

There was apparently a lovely sunrise this morning. However, I missed it and by the time I was up and out it was mostly cloudy.

Around 10 a.m. I went over to see if Ellie wanted to go geocaching but she and Jim had decided to go to the Beaudry RV Show so Gordon and I went out and got our empty propane tank full and while we were there filled up with diesel at 3.599. That's the highest we've ever paid for diesel!

After lunch and a brief nap Gordon and I went out to King Canyon Trail. Ellie had told me about it this morning. She read in the paper that it was 9/10 of a mile and down into the wash to see petroglyphs. What the paper didn't say was that the 9/10 of a mile was uphill on a rock path much like our sites here at Diamond J. By then the sun had come out and I had forgotten to put on sunscreen so I walked with my baseball cap on backwards so I wouldn't burn my neck. Then when we got down in the wash I wore my hoodie over my hat turned the right way around as we were walking into the sun. There are indeed petroglyphs there but they are quite faded. There were lots of wild flowers out though. We elected to walk back through the wash. There was a fair amount of climbing down walking through the wash but it was better than the trail.

Baboquivari Peak from the trail

Walking up the trail

Looking down the trail

Petroglyphs


Orange globemallow

On our way back through the wash

Gordon getting ready to climb down into the wash


On our way home, we were just waiting for traffic to turn from Donald onto Bopp when Doug and JoAnn drove by, back from Mexico. We talked to them briefly when they stopped at the office to check in.

We were so tired when we got back that we had a shower and again had leftovers for dinner.

It's another night in the rv-dreams chatroom.

Friday 7 March 2008

Going Places

Today turned out to be a busy day even though we didn't do much.

I took this photo this morning showing the front nose of our rig and our truck and Jim and Ellie's motorhome and car across the golf course from us.

I walked this morning and after breakfast we went back to Camping World and took back our vent kit. We tried to get a new motor for our vent across the road at La Mesa but they didn't have anything different than Camping World. On the way back Gordon washed the truck (photo below). It sure needed it. Then we stopped at Food City for a couple of things and to get water.

This is a really big wash in Tucson.

Then it was back to the RV. I sat outside and read for a short time then went inside and had a long nap. I was very lethargic today. While I was asleep Gordon wiped the truck down and this is how it looked.

When I woke up we went out again, first driving over near the Casino del Sol on Valencia as there were supposed to be roadrunners over there. We didn't see any. Then we stopped to pick up pop for Gordon as he had forgotten to tell me we needed some this morning. From there we went up Sentinel Peak and walked a trail. Here are a couple of photos from the trail.


We saw this hawk when we were driving near the Casino this afternoon. It was one of about three that we saw.

Interesting video store on our way to Sentinel Peak.

My niece would love this house. It's orange!


Then we drove back into Saguaro National Park via Gates Pass Road (photo below of the road). Even though the truck had just been washed we drove into Saguaro National Park and drove the Bajada Loop which is an unpaved, washboard type of road. It was very pretty with the golden light just before sunset.




We arrived home just before 7:00 p.m. and had a quick dinner - leftovers!

Thursday 6 March 2008

Desert Museum and Potluck

I had another lovely long walk this morning into a different part of Tucson Mountain Park. I was gone about 50 minutes.

The gate to Tucson Mountain Park

Pretty desert scene


When I came back we decided to go to the Desert Museum this morning so we got there in lots of time for the Raptor Free Flight but it wasn't very good today as it was too windy and raptors don't like to fly in the wind. The Chihuahan Raven didn't mind though and he put on his little performance. There still wasn't much in their new exhibit 'Life on the Rocks' and not many birds in the Aviary. The hummingbirds are still nesting and flying around like crazy. On our way out a docent had a Western Screech Owl that he was holding. It's a tiny little owl and even though it's called a screech owl, it doesn't screech. Go figure!

Pink and red fairy dusters. Pink ones are native to the Sonoran desert. Red ones come from California.


Barn owl flying toward me.


Chihuahan Raven
Javelina

Western Screech Owl

Both our backs were killing us from standing waiting for the Raptor Free Flight and then through it a total of about 50 minutes so we lay down for a bit when we got home.

Then I had to get busy and make scalloped potatoes to take to Jim and Ellie's potluck tonight. Fellow fulltimers Joyce and Jim were there as well. We had an excellent meal and sat around after and chatted for a bit afterwards.

Ellie with Mr. Bo Jangles and Jim with Jasmine

Jim & Gordon
Jim & Joyce
My scalloped potatoes


Today was a bit cooler at 65F (18C) but I was listening to a Toronto radio station today and I hear they will be getting 8" (20cm) of snow over the next couple of days so we don't have it so bad! I got an email from my sister in Ottawa tonight. They got 10.6 in. (27 cm) of snow yesterday and another 19.7 in (50 cm) expected over the weekend. It's close to setting a record!

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Meeting Someone New and A Walk

Today I was up an hour earlier as we had an appointment in the city. Gordon's long time friend, Bill who we went to see when we were in Florida last year has a niece here in Tucson so he sent her an email and she got in touch with us and we made arrangements to meet at one of the Starbucks in town. Barbi is a lovely lady, bubbly and chatty which is good for us as we're both quiet. We spent an hour and a half chatting with her. A photo of Barbi and Gordon is below.

Pretty flowers in Tucson.


After we left Starbucks we went to Wild Oats to pick up a few things then on to Camping World to replace the motor on our bathroom fan. No luck. They didn't have the right motor, nor did Beaudry RV so we decided to buy a new kit to replace everything that's in the vent. We got that home and it won't fit either without modifications so Gordon has put it all back together and unless we find a Titanium dealer, I guess we'll have to wait till we get home. So now we have to return the vent kit.

I had chicken that I bought yesterday on sale at Safeway that had to be cooked so Gordon lighted the barbecue. With the wind it wouldn't stay lit though so I wound up cooking it in the oven. We tend to cook early in case there's a pretty sunset at dinnertime.

I was laying on the couch reading my book when Gordon asked me if I wanted to go for a walk in the desert. I only had a few pages left and I wanted to finish it so I declined but as soon as I finished it, I heard the desert calling me so off I went and went for another long walk in Tucson Mountain Park, this time in a different direction from yesterday morning. There are lots more desert flowers in Tucson Mountain Park than behind us in Pima County park. I only saw one other person out there other than my husband who I met up with on one of the trails.

Interesting clouds in the sky this afternoon.

There's a spider web over this little hole. I wonder who lives there?

Flowers in Tucson Mountain Park

When I got back to the RV, I sat down at my computer to write today's blog when up popped my friend and former co-worker, Najat on Yahoo Messenger. Sure was good chatting with her! I love Yahoo Messenger!

Tuesday 4 March 2008

A Beautiful Spot

I had a beautiful long walk this morning. I was gone longer than usual but I wanted to get from the Pima County Park which is behind our campground and where I usually walk over to the Tucson Mountain Park which is adjacent to Pima County Park. I met a few people on my way over but once I was in Tucson Mountain Park I was all by myself. Just me and the birds. I didn't see anything else, just desert. I came upon this ridge overlooking a wash (photos below). It was so pretty just standing there. I'm sure going to miss this place when we're gone. There's nowhere we've been where there have been so many hiking trails readily accessible just outside our door. Even Usery Mountain you had to drive to get to most of the trails.


The trail to Golden Gate Mountain


The trail I followed in Tucson Mountain Park

After breakfast I went in to Tucson. I wanted to do some lookin' around. I went to the Health Food Store first as there were some things I needed to pick up, then stopped at a couple of other malls before going to Walmart for most of the stuff I needed. I did manage to get out of Walmart for about 1/2 of what I usually spend. That's got to be a first! Walmart didn't have any potato starch or potato flour so I stopped at Safeway on my way home. They didn't have it either. Oh well, we have to go back into Tucson tomorrow so we'll have to stop at Wild Oats. I'm sure they'll have it!

I also wanted to go home the back way as there is construction in Ajo Way in the westbound lanes over the next 3 days or so. It was nearly 3:00 p.m. when I got home. I sat outside for a short while to read but came inside as I had some things I needed to get done and wound up reading inside instead.

We had a lovely high of 74F (23C) today with a light breeze.

Another not so exciting day in the life of a fulltimer!

Monday 3 March 2008

Getting Things Done and Not Getting Things Done

This morning we got ready and went into Camping World. Our bathroom fan has quit and one of the burners on my stove only works if you light it manually. When we got there we found out there are different fans and we didn't have the stove model number so we didn't buy anything. We had a few stops to make other than that, one of which was for Gordon to get a haircut which he badly needed!

We were home by noon. We both took a nap. I got the dishes cleaned up for the past couple of days and the laundry done.

Gordon couldn't get the top of the stove up to get the model number so I guess I have to live with the stove at least until we get back to our dealer in Ontario. Gordon got the fan out of the bathroom ceiling so now we have to go back to Camping World to get the new motor for it.

I didn't take any pictures today that are worth posting so here's one that I took a few days ago of a pretty bush of yellow flowers which I think is forsythia.

That's about it for my day!

Sunday 2 March 2008

Geocaching

Today was a little cooler than it has been and quite windy. I had a nice walk this morning and after breakfast sat outside and read for a while.

Last night on chat, Ellie had mentioned going geocaching today and asked me if I would like to go but their car was gone. I was just about to go on a hike by myself when I saw that Ellie and Jim had returned so over I went and Ellie and I set out on our quest but we couldn't get where we wantd to go. Pima County park which is behind us borders Tucson Mountain Park which has a barbed wire fence along it. I know there are spots where there are openings but we couldn't find any in the direction we were walking. We walked on some pretty rough trails, one of which was all rocky. I didn't like that one at all. We got very close to where the geocache was - if only we could have gotten through the fence.

On our way back I showed Ellie where one of the openings in the fence was and she marked it on her GPS. Maybe another day we'll be able to find it!

It was very sunny and windy for our walk so I'm sure that I'll have some sun and wind burn and my foot isn't overly happy but it's much better than I thought it would be after walking over all those rocks. Luckily I had it wrapped.

Flowers along the trail.I had a brief nap when I got back and read some more. Another exciting day in the life of a fulltime RVer!