March 19, New People

We did a “u” turn at home and went back to the airport to pickup my other sister, Rebecca and her husband, JC, who flew in from a cold Taos in northern New Mexico.

Most of time the gang of five talked about the Obama/Clinton race. We managed to go out and enjoy the amazing display of dessert wildflower bloom.

March 18, Bob back to Skagit country

This afternoon I said “goodbye” to my road buddy, Bob. He helped me get the RV in shape for the 8 month trip and then came ago as far as Tucson. He showed me San Diego. I showed him (along with help from sister Sue and Murray) the Tucson and surrounding areas that I have known over the past 20 years. Bob was a god-sent for assisting me in learning what RVing was about. Thanks, Bob!!! Thanks for the good times.

Many Days

March 15, Saturday Bisbee
The mining town of Bisbee use to be the largest city between San Francisco and St. Louis with 20, 000 people in 1900; today – 6,000 but many of the buildings remain. We went to check it out. The locals claim that the town has the same climate as central Michigan. Those locals are transplants to serve the booming tourist industry because mining is no longer happening there.
After the city, we went rural and walked the San Pedro River valley.


March 16, Sunday Snow storm and shame
The 9,000 Catalina Mountains with its summit ridge called Mount Lemon form the north side of the Tucson basin. It’s the “Mount Erie” of the area with a road to the top for skiing and communication towers. Also is the village of Summer Haven with cabins to escape from the 112 degree summer heat of the low lands. We went to check it out. The weathercast for the day was for a storm dropping down from the Pacific Northwest. As we headed out clouds were lowing covering the top of Mount Lemon. Be the time we reached 8,000 feet (Tucson is at 2,200 feet) it was snowing with limited visibility. At 8,500 we entered Summer Haven and I was shocked. The north side of the mountain had burned several years back wiping out the cabins and trees in the small valley near the summit. The shock and shame was the new mega houses that where being constructed in the middle of the nude landscape. Sick, really sick.
By the time we entered the summit parking lot the snow was coming down in sheets. The road down was being covered quickly but it wasn’t a case of just heading back down. The road goes down several hundred feet then climbs back up before descending to the distant basin floor. That going up before going down was a concern but we were in my Jetta and I wasn’t sweating it. We got without trouble. Next day’s newspaper said that the summit got five inches that afternoon.



March 17, Monday Pima Air Museum
In the dark aftermath of the storm we drove the 40 minutes to the largest collection of aircraft in limbo in the world at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (known as “DM” locally). Planes, mostly military are brought to Tucson to be stored until needed again, re-fitted, parted out or destroyed. The Air Museum is associated with the storage lot of 4,000. They just opened the place up a tour bus so we went to see what I’ve seen many times flying in and out of Tucson. A lot of metal.

March 14, Friday Zero

This was the first day of our trip (after two weeks) that we just spent the day hanging out doing nothing other than laundry. Sweet.

March 13, Thursday The Desert

Bob and I were back on the road bright and early but this time in the VW Jetta (aka: VJ or land dinghy). We didn’t do Sea World or the San Diego Zoo but the world renown Arizona Sonora Desert Museum was a must. We spent over three hours drinking all the sights and information. The highlight for me (and I’ve been to the museum dozens of times) was the free flight, which I had never seen. Before the start the docent asked a dad to take his son off his shoulders because the birds come in close and he might get hit. Oh, yeah…….. The first bird released (the 150 observers never saw the bird leave a cage. It just came soaring over a palo verde tree) was a raven. In front of the crowd was a handler that stuck food chunks in tree forks and the raven would fly to it for the snack. Between placements she soared and dove in inches above our heads. That boy on his dad’s shoulders would have had a raven beak in his head. After the raven, came a barn owl and then a great horned owl. All brushing the crowd with their low flights.
After the museum we progressed down the road to the Saguaro National Park Visitor Center to be dazzled some more.
It was a great day !!

March 12, Desert Driving

I had told my sister, Susan, that Bob and I were going to arrive in Tucson on Thursday but after looking at the map we found that we were just six hours away so after consulting Tucson, we folded up our tent, packed the camel and headed out to the desert land.
Desert driving is .. is.. is… is boring. Straight highway, slight rise, straight highway – repeat. The only thing that sparked our interest was HOMELAND SECUIRTY/BORDER PATROL - like flies buzzing here and there both on land and in the air; a watch tower on massive scissor jacks on a trailer piercing the sky, pickup trucks with bed canopies with steel mesh windows parked on the overpasses or the helo flying low over the ground; US military manning check stations on I-8. Entertaining but sad.

It was nice to the see the skyline of Tucson and the exit onto Prince. We parked on the narrow street to break up the tandem and then walked into the alley where my sister’s place was located to scout the layout. After trimming low branches, Bob guided me backing into a parking spot in the driveway. But it had a sharp slope so out came the Lego block levelers and we built a tower for the front wheels to rest on. It was nice to be off the road finally after nine days.

March 11, Looking East

We decided to turn the land ship from her southern bearing to due east to start the second of the four legged tour of the nation. Before we left San Diego we went to impressive Balboa Park with its beautiful grounds and buildings. No, we didn’t go into the world renowned zoo. Instead we sat and watched the local outside zoo animals in their natural habitat in the way of a postpartum exercise class. A dozen women with child bearing strollers doing deep knee bends in front of their children. Then the trainer calling out to follow her to the Big Fountain and off they went jogging while pushing their strollers. Us old guys tagged along because it was the only show this early in the morning. We caught up with the female human mothers stepping up on the fountain rim then back down again and again then switching lead legs while their offspring sat content in their wheeled chariots in a parking lot like row. We wanted to feed them but there were signs discouraging such behavior.
But the open road called us so we left San Diego after four days in the military focused city. We joined Interstate 8 at its conception with the sun in our eyes movin’ east. We were to follow I-8 until Interstate 10 in central Arizona drops south consumes it.
An hour outside of the big city we stopped for a couple of hours in Alpine where Bob spent his life as a firefighter. We found his old house that he and Martha lived in until
14 years ago. Unlike many of the houses down the creek bed it was not burned in the massive fire that swept through the area a few years back. I laughed as Bob and his old neighbor, Errol, relived some of the community’s adventures.
That night we slept in a small county park many miles off the roar of I-8 and for the first time in our journey had no cell / internet reception. It was nice. It was quiet EXCEPT for the tree removal crew two campsites down falling and chipping a large tree. Finally at 4:30 silence was our companion.