San Xavier Mission

Sight Seeing With Family

January continued at a staggering pace what with classes being taken by both of us and attending our respective club activities and company.

Our friends John and Marilyn arrived for a couple day visit before moving onto a hotel. They spend their winters in Mexico tending to their boat and life. This time they were nice enough to tout some of our boat gear north to our place. When Pat had gone down to Mazatlan last November (2015) to remove certain pieces of boat gear not included in the boat sale contract, the gear was stored at their condo in Mazatlan.

No sooner had John and Marilyn moved on up to Tucson for his VA appointments then my brother, Jamie and his wife, Tina arrived from Minnesota, for a 12 day visit.

This was their first time to Tucson and the area so we had to take them to some of the local attractions. This included a visit to the town of Tombstone, the San Xavier Mission, the town of Tubac, The Presidio State Park in Tubac and the Pima Air Museum. We also went shopping at local markets and visited a couple of local RV parks and RV sales lots. My brother wants to buy a 5th wheel RV trailer and travel during the winter months. So that’s why we were checking out RV’s and campgrounds. We ended up buying a large Sun/Moon Art work at one of the markets, to hang over the Garage door. Jamie actually hung it up for us. We had a great time visiting and being with my brother and his wife and were sad to see them leave.

Susan had a scare near the end of the month when she started having pains in her chest during dinner that continued into the night. We took her into the ER, at the local hospital, in the wee hours, as the pain had not gone away. The local ER thought it was heart related but didn’t have proper care for her so she got to ride up to a Tucson hospital, in an ambulance, that had proper heart care facilities. After many tests and hours they could not determine the source of her pain. Finally in the end they released her and told her to see a local ENT for an endoscopy exam to see what he could see. This happened at the end of February, and turned out to be OK as well. So in the end much to do about a painful nothing. (we hoped!)

February started off with our good friends Brent and Molly came down from Mesa for a weekend of Letterboxing. There was an event scheduled for the weekend and so we might as well hunt for other letterboxes in the area at the same time. The evening before the event we all meet up for dinner and then the following day the event was held at Fort Lowell Park, Tucson. Next to the park was an arroyo so the planters had the finders running all over this area looking for letterboxes. By the end of the day we all were tired.

We decided to attend a class on playing “Pickle Ball”. This is a sport that has come into being in the last few years and is popular with senior citizens. We enjoyed ourselves and learned the ropes of the game. Unfortunately that’s is a far as it went this season, as you’ll see.

Our good friends and neighbors Tom and Kathy from Ocean Park beach base arrived for a visit. They were only going to stay for a few days. We took them to a performance at the Gas Light Theater in Tucson. We were finishing up our various classes and attending to doctor appointments all in preparation to go to Mazatlan. During this time Mike and Cheryl showed up in town for a quick visit. This called for a dinner party/BBQ. So besides Tom & Kathy, Mike & Cheryl, we invited Herman & Nancy, since we all knew each other from boating. We had a typical “cruiser” pot luck and waddled away stuffed.

It was now the end of February and time for us to head to Mazatlan. Tom & Kathy had asked if they could house sit while we were gone and that was a no brainer, Sure! The purpose of our trip was to retrieve the remainder of the boat gear left behind at our friends condo and at Rick’s Marine Service business warehouse, attend appointments with our dentist Dr. Paty one last time, visit the few remaining people we knew there and lastly eat at our favorite places one last time.

While in Mazatlan we stayed at our friend’s John and Marilyn’s condo where the boat gear had been stored. During this same time some other friends Ed and Marianne from Portland were down for their annual Mexico vacation. So we had a group of people to pal around with during our visit. There was plenty of card playing and sunset watching. We manged to meet up with the new owner of Perpetua and go aboard her during her metamorphosis into a day trip tourist island party boat. It was interesting to see all the changes being made to handle paying customers. Our visit was only scheduled for the first two weeks in March and all too soon it was time to return to Green Valley.

Within a day or so of our arrival in Green Valley, Tom and Kathy decided to move on with their journey. Next Molly came down from Mesa for a weekend. We also resumed our club activities/classes and doctors appointments. About this time of year the cactus’s start blooming. This is a great time to begin seeing the variety of flowers that pop out of the prickly bushes. It’s also the time of year when our Green Valley neighbors start heading home so this of course calls for a farewell pot luck dinner get together. At the end of the month our good friends Dave and Gloria (ex-boaters/ex-Portlandians) from Victoria Texas came for a long weekend visit. We took them on a tour of the Green Valley recreation facilities, a local public garden, called the “Arid” garden and shopping in Tubac. Then poof they were gone.

There was no reason to slow down, so on the first weekend of April, off we went on a planned weekend in Mesa for a Letterboxing event being held near there. We stayed at our good friends Brent and Molly’s. We had some time Friday evening so we all visited the Phoenix Botanical Garden’s night lights display. This was a lot fun walking through the all the various gardens that had been rigged up with a vast variety of lighting displays. Way Kuel! Lots of pictures too!

The Letterboxing event was interesting starting off with a gathering for a pizza dinner the night before the event. However on the day of the event it started out ok, but as the LB hunting went on a rain storm moved in, slowly at first and then finally it let loose. A Ramada (covered area with tables) had been rented, but unfortunately the roof was not solid and the rain got through its crakes and soaked every thing and everybody. We did mange to serve up the burgers, hot dogs and other goodies and find a few letterboxes before we were rained out and abandoned the event. Of course a few boxers continued on in the rain. More power to them!

Brent and Molly had invited us to join them at a resort they were going to after the letterboxing event. So off we went to the Rancho Vistoso Resort for a few days of “relaxing” and letterboxing. On the way down from Phoenix we stopped at the Casa Grande Ruins National Park. This the site of a very old adobe dwelling ruins and a letterbox. Next we stopped the Tom Mix Memorial Site. He was a famous cowboy, movie star who crashed his car at this location in October 1940. We also collected a letterbox there that was an off road 4x4 experience. While at the resort we went up to a near by town by the name of Orcale, a cool old mining town, hunting Letterboxes and lunch. We also took a scenic drive up to Mt. Lemon, outside Tucson at 9131 ft. and the town of Summerhaven. There were great views and letterboxes along the way with a rewarding lunch in town. After our relaxing and fun time at the resort we returned to Green Valley.

Shortly there after we received news of Susan’s aunt passing away. This was not unexpected but was a shame it happened so close to Susan’s Mom’s 100th birthday.

Our friends John and Marilyn came up from Mazatlan for a quick visit. John has to see his VA doctors and pickup his prescriptions. We spent the rest of April attending club activities and having dinner at a friends home (Carlos and Betty). Towards the end of the month it was time to wake up the RV and get her ready for the summer. This involves cleaning and repacking. The house had to be readied for the summer along with care taker arrangements made (with Carlos). We decided to set up an automated water system for our plants along the back patio wall. It all came together on schedule so we locked up the house and headed north for our first stop in Phoenix. We spent a day visiting Pat’s daughter Lydia and her lovely family before heading on West & North through California.

Pat’s niece, Keely, was getting married in early May so we planned our trip to be able to attend that affair. We stayed in a nice camp ground, Gold Country Camp Ground, about 25 minutes away from Pat’s brother and sister in-law, Mike and Mary’s home. The wedding for Keely and Sean was help at Mike’s home. The reception was help in a near by town hall. Pat’s sister, Diane and her husband, Jerry had flown in from Minnesota for the event. It was great to have a mini family reunion as a side event.

Next we moved a few miles westward to a campground, near Concord. We were there to visit an old Portland boating friend, Dale and his wife, Patti. They had just moved back to Concord from American Samoa where they had sailed to and then lived for a number of years. It was nice to visit with them and another old salt, Wilbur, whom we hadn’t seen in many a year.

Our schedule was calling so we shoved off for Portland/Vancouver. We had little league games to see and grand children and great grand child and other family to visit before we had to board the train for Lancaster PA. The RV had started making odd noises on our trip north so we took it in to have it checked out. Turned out to be some bad spark plug covers, shorting out at high RPM’s.

Now it was time to go celebrate Susan’s mother’s 100th birthday. We had decided to take the train one more time, only this time we had a sleeper roomette. It was still three and half days on the train, but we were much more comfortable and had beds into which we shoe horned ourselves into for sleeping. We saw some awesome country on this train ride, however some of the best mountain scenery was shrouded in clouds and rain.

Susan had been planning and making arrangements for the 100th birthday event from afar now she had to make sure everything came off without a hitch. Early in our visit Anne, Susan’s mother, was notified that a state Senator (Ryan Aument) was coming to present her with congratulatory certificate from the State Senate. A small ceremony was held in a visiting area, where the senator presented her with the certificate after which was a photo opportunity. The final preparations were made to the room where the party was being held. The day of the party everyone of the staff were congratulating her mother. When it was time we got her mom seated in her honorary spot just as guests were beginning to arrive. The party was a success with about 40 attendees, Susan gave a nice speech and talked about her mother and the things that were happening in 1916. A couple of others gave speeches and then Anne got up and gave one about how she meet Ken here husband. Susan’s brother, Vern said a prayer and then the visiting and celebrating and eating commenced. It was a very nice party celebrating an unassuming, well meaning nice lady on her 100th birthday.

It was now time to board our train back to Portland. Somehow we had lucked out and had been upgraded to a sleeping bed room. This was a far bigger space and much more comfortable. It even had a rest room/shower and sink in the room. The scenery was just as good the only hitch was as longer then expected delay in Chicago due to some repairs being attempted on our sleeper cars. They were eventually replaced. Again the mountains were a disappointment due to fog and it being night when we passed through. We arrived on the last day of May safe and sound ready for the rest of the summer.

Once back our lives were full activities. We had to attend to doctor appointments. We also wanted our refrigerator ice maker repair/replaced. Our car need new tires. One of our grand children had a kindegarten graduation to go to and little league ball games to attend. Our little league player ended up on an all star team. This meant more games all around the cities and near by towns. This meant for us our last games to attend, were being held in Longview Wa.. We decided to move the RV to Camp Kalama an RV Campground Park
near by there in Kalama. This is also where the team was camping. In June we have two grand children birthdays to celebrate. This happened at the campground for the ball player and we drove back to Tigard for the other one. After the games and birthday celebrating was done we broke camp and headed out to our spot in Ocean Park. We spent the remainder of the June cleaning up our lot and relaxing.

Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!