Cancer Survior Park

This park is located on Harbor Drive close to the airport. We rode by it on our 10 mile bike ride.

Clunk

While we were sitting in the truck, which was parked under a palm tree, we heard a big CLUNK. We did jump!

Sand Storm

While I attended the Elderhostel, Dan camped at Lake Pleasant, which is located northwest of Phoenix. We ended up spending an extra day there due to the strong winds. Check out the sand dunes in the back of the pickup!

Surprise

My friend Doris lives with her husband, Jim, in Sun Village, in Surprise, AZ. While Jim drove us around their community, I took pictures of the many different kinds of cactus plants and the complex where the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers practice in the spring.

Elderhostel

The Elderhostel that I attended with Mary and Mom Heismann, took place in Phoenix. We learned how musicals come to life and enjoyed a dinner theatre performance of Man Of La Mancha: heard the Phoenix Symphony present the Joys of Music: Pops or Classic; sampled cultural cuisines of Arizona, visited a culinary school; and toured the Pueblo Grande Museum and the capitol. Dan was able to join us at the dinner theatre. During our free time we went to the Phoenix Art Museum and the Heard Museum, which contains Native American Art. The excellent instructors made learning an exciting experience.

Reunion

What fun it was to see Gus and Nancy in Phoenix. This picture was taken the day before the Elderhostel began.

Border

We had to wait in line for only 45 min before crossing the border. The 2 border patrol men came into our motor home and took our frozen chicken, eggs, bacon, oranges, and grapefruit. They grind up all the fruit that comes into the US and give the other food items to a local orphanage in Nogales, AZ.

La Manga

La Manga is a small fishing village north of San Carlos, Mexico. This is a picture of an elementary teacher and some of her students. The bags in the “maestro’s” hands contain items that we donated to the school. While I took a peek at their one room classroom, the students were having fun outside at recess.

The second picture shows what their living conditions are like in this village.

Slug-a-Bug

Through out this trip we have been watching for Volkswagen beetle/bugs. When one of us spots one we say, “Slug-a-bug” and indicate the color and point to it. It is a race to see who sees the most. This is a picture of a unique one that we found in Mexico. We learned this “game” from Uncle Gus and Aunt Nancy.

Bike Ride

An ice cream cone from Thrifty Ice Cream Store was very satisfying at the beginning of our bike ride and a Corona from Froggy's ended our ride on a cool and refreshing note.

Cactus Forest

This cactus forest is north of San Carlos.

Popeye's

Popeye’s is a roadside stand in San Carlos that serves the best hamburgers. Yum

Tony's

When buying fresh produce in San Carlos, Tony’s is the place to go. His yellow truck holds such items as bananas, pineapples, eggs, lettuce, broccoli, peppers, apples, oranges, tomatoes, and the white coolers on the tables contain fish. We especially enjoyed the fresh salsa that we bought there. Tony is taking Dan’s pesos.

Guaymas

Veronica, my friend who is living down here, and I rode the bus into Guaymas to spend the day shopping and have lunch. The open air market is similar to Pike Market in Seattle. The people we spoke with were friendly and helpful. What a colorful sight.

San Carlos - Week Two

For those of you who are geographically challenged, we included a map showing where San Carlos is located. Follow the yellow line south from the Arizona border to the city of Guaymas and then west to San Carlos. The Totonaka RV Park is our camping spot in Mexico. There are places for 140 units here and we have noticed several CO license plates. The majority, however, are from British Columbia.

San Carlos - Totonaka RV Park

We've been at the Totonaka RV Park for almost a week now and have been remiss in updating the blog. We've spent a lot of time bothering our friends the Spencers. We've ridden our bikes a little and done some exploring of the area.

Today we're doing some laundry prior to going to look at the Islander 36 sailboat for the second time. We didn't get to finish our look-see the other day. So far my biggest concern is the engine. It looks terrible on the outside. The boat sat in the water for about five years so there are a lot of things that are sun damaged. The interior, however, is in pretty good shape.

Green Valley, Arizona

Today we drove a total of about 20 miles from Tucson to Green Valley to visit with Mike & Mary Cartwright.

On the way down, we stopped to see the San Xavier Mission that was started way back in the 1700's by Father Kino. Must have been an amazing sight for the natives who saw this edifice in the middle of the desert for the first time. The left side of the mission is being restored so it looks a little funny in the picture.

The Cartwrights lived across from Karen's parents for years and became close family friends. They live most of the year in Arizona but have a 'cabin' near Livermore, Colorado. Mary was an Art Teacher and does beautiful work with whatever medium she chooses. Mike retired from the Miami Dolphins organization and keeps busy doing all sorts of things around the house and the neighborhood. I think they are kept even busier with all the 'friends' that just happen to be going through the Green Valley area.

We want to thank them for their hospitality and kindness

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

This is a zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in one place. We walked the paths traversing acres of desert and saw some beautiful scenery. They even had natural type enclosures for the animals which are endemic to the area. Mountain lions, lynx, javelina, Harris' hawks, various birds, river otter, fish, snakes (ugh!) and insects of all kinds. The varitey of life that lives in the Sonoran Desert is just amazing.

We visited this place on the day we were waiting for the motorhome to be fixed. The engine started to miss and we didn't want to go into Mexico with this problem. We were able to stay in the motorhome for the two nights it took to repair the engine problem.

Very Large Array

January 10

West of Socorro, New Mexico, we visited the VLA. The Very Large Array is a radio astronomy telescope operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. It consists of 27 dish-shaped antennas that are connected together to form a single large radio telescope. You can find out more about it by going to: http://www.nrao.edu/ The VLA is used by astronomers from around the world. There is no charge for the use of the array and the associated data analysis computers.

On the road again

On the road again
January 9, 2006

This time our travels find us going south where it is warmer. Our first stop was in Belen, NM, which is just south of Albuquerque. We are using a GPS system that is helpful in finding our way. This is the latest toy in the RV. A GPS receiver is plugged into a USB port and the mapping software keeps track of your location with a green dot. It even tells you with a soft female voice when you have taken a wrong turn. It is amazing that there is technology that does this for less than $100.