Adios Arizona

Today is our last day in Arizona.  Bright and early Sunday morning we hitch up and head out.  You know the old saying "Go West young man"?  Well we're not so young and we're heading east.

The last few days have been warm and relaxing.  We have been doing a fair bit of lounging around the pool.  Other than that just chores and packing up for our trip.

Yesterday, we walked down the road to Eva's.  A local Mexican restaurant.  Our meals were very tasty.  Wayne had a huge burrito and I had chicken fajitas.  We shared a bowl of nachos and dip as well as a huge and delicious dessert.  Ha ha - dessert in the desert.

I know, the sun is turning my brain to mush.  Checking ahead on the weather site, we should have warm and sunny days for at least the first part of our journey.  No rushing on this trip.  We'll drive for a couple of days and then stop for a couple of nights to rest and sight see.  We scheduled a couple of stopovers  in some of the same locales as last year.

We are staying two nights in Amarillo.  We have never stayed overnight in Texas before.  I'll get to put a new state sticker on my travel map. Two nights in Springfield, Missouri - the flagship store for Bass Pro Sports is here.  This is an amazing store.  We will definitely be stopping and shopping.  We are also spending two nights in Indianapolis.  Never been there before.  Our last two night stopover will be in Middlebury, Indiana - heart of Amish country.  Wayne's lips are smacking already.  He loves that Mennonite/Amish food.

We should be arriving in Waterloo on the 14th of April.  Hope to see many of you soon.  Keep watching the blog - I'll try to update daily dependent on Internet availability.

It's a Money Pit Day!

Three weeks ago, appointments were made and parts were ordered. Today was the big day. Pack everything up and head to the repair shop.  We weren't sure it was going to happen as the parts only arrived at the shop yesterday.

While getting ready for the big move, Wayne noticed that two of our trailer tires were badly worn.  He checks them regularly, so this has developed recently.  Apparently our plies are separating.  Okay we teed up with the tire place to install new tires while the rig was at the repair shop.

Bald Spot on Tires

New Tires

Now the main event. Loyal blog followers may remember all the problems we had on our trip west last fall.

Can you tell what's different?

We have never trusted the many and varied repairs to our landing gear.  Every travel day is extra stressful, not knowing if the legs will do their job.  So we bit the bullet and ordered new ones.

New Landing Gear - outside shot

Inside Shot

These legs each have their own drive motor and operating switch.  Each of the new legs will lift as much as the original pair of legs.  Also no cross bar is needed to transfer the movement as each leg is independent.
The change out wasn't without drama.  Within five minutes of starting the project, the technician says he can't do the job as the leg assemblies aren't the same size and the brackets don't line up.  He didn't want to do the cutting and welding required.  After some discussion with the front office,  the owner got involved and arranged for a welder and personally supervised the job.

Old Yucky Landing Gear

Six hours later we have success and headed back home to Las Colinas Rv Park.  But not to our original back in site.  We are now in a pull through site in a different part of the park.  Wayne had a splitting headache and didn't want to muck about.  The back in site was kind of difficult to get in.  It was actually designed for a park model.

An all day project

Sunset in the desert

Gaslight Theater - Tucson

Today's adventure included attending a play in Tucson at the Gaslight Theater. We also made a stop at Camping World and had lunch at Little Anthony's Diner next door to the theater.

Waitresses

Hostess

This couch is the backseat of an old car.

Gaslight Theater

Props outside theater

This was a melodrama.  Lots of booing and clapping.  Tons of fun and very funny.  The theater is set up in a cabaret fashion with chairs around small tables.  The storyline roughly follows a Zorro type tale.  Evil governor, trampled upon townspeople, damsels in distress and an unlikely pair of heroes.

This is a bump cap. Terry & Janet got it for me after I cut my head on a sideout last year. Its a hard plastic insert under a ball cap

This is Kim in a bump cap...... wait for it.

Kim striking a sexy pose, noooo, she hit her head on the post behind her. Oh, did I mention she hit the same spot as when she hit the airplane.  I love her dearly, but I see a hockey helmet in her future. And for the record I asked if she was alright first, then I took the picture & laughed.

A Day at the Farm

Olive tree and tour guide

Olive press

Things we learned about olives -  No olives are naturally black.  The so called ripe black olives have been soaked in a lye bath.  Ick!  No more black olives for me.
The best olive oil is Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Also labelled as cold pressed, first pressed or fresh pressed.  All these terms mean that the olives were pressed mechanically with no added heat or chemicals.  This process produces the best olive oil.  Good for all your cooking needs except frying.  Olive oil should only be heated to 375 degrees F.  If it starts smoking the oil is too hot and it is ruined.  Start again.

The lower grade olive oils  are a mixture of virgin oil and oil extracted with heat and chemicals from the discarded pulp from the press.  This company calls the pulp "caca" and only uses it as compost.

Do you watch "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe"?  An episode was filmed at this farm.  Mike Rowe called the discarded pulp "caca" and it stuck.

After our tour and olive education, we had homework.  Go sample the olives and oils.  They even have chocolate infused oil.  I bought some Tuscany style oil, almond mesquite olives and onion tapenade.  Yummy!  The farm has a store and restaurant with a lovely patio.  Great experience.

Our next stop was Schnepf Farms.  This is a going concern.  It is a family owned pick your own farm.  They have special events, festivals, school groups and even weddings on the property.  Crops include peaches, nectarines, plums, sunflowers and assorted vegetables.  A big fall event is the Pumpkin and Chile Fest. 

We had lunch here.  Salad with roasted chicken and rolls, hot from the oven.  The salad greens were so fresh as the vegetables were only picked this morning.  Man was it good.  For dessert there was homemade fruit pie.

The property includes a petting zoo, carnival rides, small RV park, concert area and a small museum in the original farm house.  We rode a hay wagon and a small train for our tour around the farm. 

We got lost going home and ended up taking a road through some small mountains.  Don't know how we ended up there.  We were heading in the right direction just a different route.  Note to self:  Turn on Lola (GPS) before leaving parking lot.

Pick Your Own Vegetable Garden

Peach Orchard

The peach trees are irrigated by flooding from the high end of the orchard.  The farm's well is over 2000 feet deep.  Flooding is contained by the dirt berms between the rows of trees.

The Whole Gang on the Hay Wagon

As I post these pictures it dawned on me that I'm doing the same kinds of trips as I did with the daycare kids.  Guess I'm never going to grow up.  lol

Pima Air and Space Museum

Okay, so Kim says you like airplanes so you do the blog. Not a problem I say.....what do I do???
Have you ever noticed how when one person just doesn't get something, and the other person is explaining it & they think they are explaining it simply, they keep getting redder & redder and their voice gets louder & louder. Well that didn't happen, its easier than I thought (mostly).

We visited the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tuscon. It started out in 1976 with 35 planes in the dessert. Today it has 5 hangers close to 300 aircraft, a space museum, and lots more. We, ( I ) took over 200 pics of planes, but Kim says we can't put them all on, so it was narrowed down to 25, too many she says.  So below are just a few of the many excellent aircraft.

They have military, commercial, commuter, personal, construction, cargo, helicopters, cruise missile launchers & well you get the idea. We spent 4 and a half hours wandering & talking to the many volunteers. All in all a great day, if you are in Tuscon a must see. Bring a bump cap.


NASA Super Guppy, cargo plane,



CH-54 SkyCrane



NASA trainer. Goes to high altitude & then dives to induce weightlessness. Named the "Vomit Comet"



B-29 Superfortress Oh did I mention that Kim smacked her head not once but twice on the small plane behind the bomber. Obviously a "bump cap" area



Kim wandering down one of the many streets lined with aircraft, or she could be concussed from hitting her head so many times.

Wacky, Wild Weather

It's the desert.  Hot, dry and sunny.  Right?  Wrong!  Not this past weekend.

We had wind!

We had rain!

Ominous clouds

Saturday night was very windy.  We had little to no sleep.  Kind of funny, really -  first night we didn't hear road noise from the interstate.  No one was travelling it was so windy.  Late in the night rain arrived.  Lots of rain.  I did mention the desert right?  So much rain that some of the campground roads were flooded.

Oh and temperatures dropped from 80s to 50s.  Colder at night.  Sunday seemed a bit calmer until just before supper.  Then the winds picked up again with rain, lightning and thunder.  Today is much better, but we had a band of hail pass through.  I think the bad weather is pretty much over except for near freezing temperatures tonight.

At higher mountain elevations it snowed.  A lot.  Up to 3 feet of snow in some places.  About 140 miles of Interstates 40 and 17 were closed for awhile.  School was cancelled for today in some areas.

This part of the world has been in a drought condition for over 10 years.  Any and all rain is welcome.

Pinal County 4-H Fair

First ever official +55 discount!! Yeah, we went to the fair today and admission was half price. Whoo hoo! The fair showcased the accomplishments of area 4 - H clubs.  Man there are many talented kids around.

Of course, no country fair is complete without amusement rides.  I don't do rides but like to watch.  Lots of classic rides like the Ferris Wheel, bumper cars, haunted house, super slide etc.

Yo Yo swing

The ever popular Zipper

We toured the livestock barns. There were goats, sheep, cows, pigs and rabbits. No horses though. Don't know why. We've seen some horses as we wander the back roads. Today the competitions seemed to focus on shearing sheep and showing goats.

4-H kids waiting to compete with their goats

Sheep Grooming

No, no I won't go!

No fair is complete without junk food. We had delicious Italian sausages with sauteed onions, peppers, tomato and basil.  Fantastic.  There were lots of stands selling corn dogs, fries, funnel cakes and all manner of fried food.  We passed those up.

Giovanni's New York Italian Sausage on  a Bun - Yummy!

Not sure what adventures tomorrow will bring.  Maybe just laundry.  Not every day is a holiday, but every day life is good.

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

We saw many amazing cacti and desert plants at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.  The garden complex covers several acres.  We walked over 10 kms in the blazing sun.  Towards the end, I could tell that I had too much sun and Wayne found me a shady spot to sit for a bit.  We did wear hats and sunscreen and drank lots of water.  It was just very hot.  Normally we would do an activity like this in the morning, but the park was free to the public this afternoon.  So afternoon it was.  Lots and lots of people and kids as it is March break.

A few of the many wildflowers that bloom in the desert

Just about every river in this part of Arizona looks like this - bone dry

Another great day in the desert draws to a close. Life is good!

Casa Grande Mountain Park - Our Monday Hike

Our game plan was to be up and out before it was too hot.   We didn't make it.  Big surprise.  But we did get out hiking.  Casa Grande Mountain is less than a mile from the campground. On the other side of the interstate highway, we followed a bumpy gravel road to the parking lot.  This is a new park.  The trails are just being developed and old roads and trails are reverting back to nature.

A lady in a truck camper was boondocking in the parking lot.  Little too dry and hot for my taste.  It was very quiet and peaceful though.  Each to their own.

Never having hiked in the desert before, we thought we would stick to the easy trails.  At the first junction we switched to the moderate trail.  Then somehow we ended up on the difficult ridge trail.  The trail wasn't too hard but we couldn't figure out how to get back down the mountain ridge without backtracking.  Eventually Wayne set off cross country to the lower trail.  As he was disappearing out of sight, I had to follow despite my fears of rattlesnakes and falling into cacti.    All in all we hiked about 3 miles up and down, round and round.  Very interesting and eerily beautiful.

As far as wildlife goes, we were dive bombed by a hummingbird.  (There are many hummers in this area.)  We saw several small lizards but no snakes.  Also saw a dove and two quails.  Oh yeah there were a couple of horses in a paddock on the way to the park.

We finished hiking just before noon.  So technically I guess we don't fall into the category of mad dogs or Englishmen.

Good hike and great exercise.  We are in the best shape we have ever been.  Life is good.

Cacti blossoms

One of several lizards we encountered

Heading into the hills

I'd better hurray - Wayne's disappearing around the bend

Up high

Looking towards our campground - line of trees upper left