A week in Mesa

Like all good things our week in the Phoenix area is winding down.  We now understand why so many snow birds spend their time here instead of further South in the Rio Grande Valley.  Like them, we have really enjoyed it here.

After leaving the Tucson area we headed North and found a great place to overnight in Casa Grande at the Buena Tierra. http://www.campgroundbuenatierra.com/  Set well out in the country this RV Resort may not be for everyone but we enjoyed our night there.  It sits on 1200 acres of land with lots of open space.  For anyone with a HD truck or extra length this place can handle us with ease.  It's only a couple of miles down the road to all kinds of shopping and services.

The next day we headed into the Phoenix area to find a place to hang out for a week to explore a little and rest a lot.  Unfortunately we didn't realize this was a Nascar weekend and spring break all rolled into one.  There were still openings, but not as many as normally available.  We found a place and have enjoyed  our week here.

The sightseeing highlight of the week was a day trip to Canyon Lake and lunch at Tortilla Flats.  The lake was created when they built a dam back in the late 1920's and it's beautiful.  Driving up and back is through country and scenery one can't capture with an ordinary camera and a photographer with a questionable skill set. The following few feeble attempts will hopefully give you the idea.

That sort of a green tinge you see is from a sort of moss that grows all over these stones at this time of year.  It gives everything that green look when in reality it's just plain old, cold, hard, stone

This is a big lake

I climbed way up to get this one.  Up was easy.  Down, well, it was pretty scary.

One of several single lane bridges you have to cross (carefully).

You just don't expect to find a good size marina in the mountains above Mesa, but there it was.

Lunch At Tortilla Flats

Then of course we had to have lunch in Tortilla Flats.  Everyone here asks if you've been to Canyon Lake and did you have lunch at Tortilla Flats?  Now we can say, "yes we did."  It was fun, the food was good, and the service was excellent.

Check out those seats.

Taliesin West

Then we were of to spend an afternoon in awe at Frank Lloyd Wright's summer home, Taliesin West.  This place is unbelievable.  By today's standards it seems just very nice, with some very forward thinking involved, but when you consider he figured this out 70 or more years ago it blows you away.  We took a tour of everything.  It gets you into their private quarters, the outside, the inside, the theatre, everything except the architectural school.  The tour guide we had knew just about everything there is to know about Mr Wright, Taliesin West, his other architectural designs, and his personal life.  It was just huge for me.  Having been a fan of his for my whole life this was a dream come true.

I did take pictures but this link will do a far better job than I every could.

https://www.google.com/search?q=frank+lloyd+wright+taliesin+west&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-ca:IE-SearchBox&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ySRWT9n7MPPoiAKOlLHcBw&ved=0CJcBELAE&biw=1366&bih=563

I sure hope our travels take us close to another one of his projects so we can tour it and learn more.  If I could every get to his "Falling Water", it would be another dream come true.

Saturday we had a chance to connect with a good friend that we haven't seen in about 30 years. They invited us to their home and then took us to an impressive spot in Scottsdale for dinner. It was fun to share the "good old days" for a few hours. It was a treat to see them, their home, and enjoy their company for an evening. Funny thing about good friends, three hours or thirty years, they don't seem to change, they just are.  J and D, if you read this, thanks again, it was really nice.

So this ends our time in Arizona for this year.  We had planned to leave today but have decided, because of wind warnings, to stay an extra day.  Tomorrow we'll go straight West to L.A. and then North toward Vancouver.  Plans are to spend a week or so on the trip seeing what we can.

As usual thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Sonora Desert Museum

Just outside of Tucson in a beautiful valley sits the Sonora Desert Museum. If you decide to visit plan to spend a day, its well worth the price of admission. Bernie and I truly enjoyed it, the reptile display, the desert walks, the prairie dogs, the aviary, and especially the Hummingbird walk. Where else can you walk through an aviary and have dozens of Hummingbirds buzzing past your ears.

This is a disaplay they have that shows the extent of the Sonoran Dessert.  You can see from this that it covers a huge area including the Baja Peninsula, a large part of Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico and more.  The size really is quite amazing.

We started the day in the reptile display. Since snakes of any kind drive me crazy, we decided to get it out of the way first. The display was great; I can handle it when they’re on the other side of a piece of glass. Here are a few pictures, Jan (sister) you may want to skip this part. These two bad boys and a bunch of others, some extremely venomous, can all be found in this part of the USA.  They also had tarantulas and scorpions in case the snakes didn't make your skin crawl.

From here we apply a bunch of sun screen and headed out to walk around. This is a picture I took early in the day trying to show the views from up there. Of course my favourite subject is featured here.  In case you didn't know I like taking her picture.

Now it was a “walk about” to see all they had to show us. There wasn’t enough time to do the longest part but these pictures will show you a bit of what we saw.

This little fellow was checking us out, fortunately it was from the other side of a thick glass.

The prairie dogs have it too good.  There was a whole bunch of them and they were having a great time.  Interesting note here.  They had a display of one of their dens that shows how they share it with scorpions, snakes, etc and they live together in peace down there. Beats me, but that's what they said.  Maybe we could learn something from them?

Then we had a nice walk around a part of the museum they call the Agave garden.  There were lots of special pl;ants and things to see there but we really enjoyed the flowering plants.  The pictures will show the giant shoots these plants end up as they flower.  These flowers can reach to 8 or 10 feet and are very impressive.  The problem is that poor plant which could be 50, 60 or more years old only gets to flower once.  Over a course of two to three weeks they grow these giant flowers, the flowers open and then the plant dies. 

Bernie was standing at least 10 feet in front of this one but it gives you an idea of how tall they grow.

Then we went to the aviary to walk among a whole bunch of exotic and non exotic birds.  We finally ended the day in the aviary dedicated to Hummingbirds.  That was a once in a lifetime kind of thing.  There were dozens of then flying around in there and they were quite accustomed to people.  I was with about 6 inched of one but no amount of quiet chatter could convince him/her to land on my hand.  There were a few nests with babies and we were watching the moms feed them.  The babies were no more than the size of a thimble with no feathers, fuzz, or anything else.  They go from that state to flying in three weeks.

This fellow greeted us with a friendly "hello."

Hummingbirds are hard to get pictures of but I did get this one having a drink.

I caught these two watching us watching them.

So the day ended with us wishing as usual we had "more time."  This is an all day place and we had only budgeted for an afternoon.

Tomorrow move on to the Phoenix area where I hope to have some really nice things to get on here.

Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you.

Neal and Bernie



Tombstone, The Town Too Tough To Die

Wow, what a day it was. This is a really fun place to visit.

To actually walk where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday walked a hundred years ago is neat. To actually be on the same piece of dirt they fought that famous “OK Corral” gun battle on is weird. To stand on the very street and block where men stood face to face for a gunfight blew me away. We’ve all seen it on TV a hundred times but people actually fought those gun fights and died right there. Died, on the very spots where we now walk in peace, from air conditioned store to air conditioned store.

We visited the Bird Cage Theatre, the most famous Honky Tonk in America in 1881 and the site of 16 gun battles. This saloon is preserved in its original state. This is the actual bar where the men drank and played cards downstairs while the ladies of the night worked upstairs. It’s where Wyatt Earp met the love of his life, married her, and stayed with her until he died. They drank, smoked, played cards, fought and died in there. The floor is still original as is the bar. The bar was made of wood brought in from Africa, which would still be a big deal today. This wood shipped from Africa around the tip of S. America and up to San Francisco. Then it had to be shipped from San Francisco down to Arizona. It’s a priceless piece of America’s history.

As we were driving up there we chatted about how tough the people had to be back then. This country is brutal; I can’t imagine what it was like to be here without air conditioning, paved roads, or even a regular water supply. All they had was their horse and/or a wagon, a gun or two, and an amazing will to survive. I can understand why Wyatt Earp retired to Oregon and chose to be buried there. Who wants to be buried under a big old cactus?

This is a special place with tons of history, nice shops, things to see and do, lots of people in period costumes, and a couple of eating establishments. It was interesting to note that there was no McDonalds, no Wendy’s, and no fast food of any kind. We found a couple of nice art galleries and a Native American Jewellery store that was fabulous. They stocked only Native American Creations and the sales person was a young Native American guy that did a great job. His product knowledge was outstanding. It was far and away the best shop we found.

On the way back down to Benson, where we’re parked we toured a few RV parks in case we ever get back this way. At this point it appears we just might do that. So far Arizona is pretty nice.

Down in the Rio Grande Valley whenever Arizona comes up it’s always followed with some comment about how cold the nights are. It’s true. The daytime temperatures have been in the 70’s but the evenings have been down to the mid 50’s. So – that’s Arizona, I can handle it.

Yes - this is where it happened

This sign made my day.

So tomorrow we’re off to Tucson to see what we can find.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, thanks for stopping by and please so leave a comment when you.

Neal and Bernie

San Antonio to Tucson

People told us this was going to seem like a long, long trip and they certainly weren’t exaggerating. It is a long trip but it sure is an interesting one.

Bernie and I always think of Texas as flat, REALLY big and flat. It was quite a surprise when we got into West Texas. There are some extremely interesting spots out there. I think San Antonio to Tucson is around 550 miles. 550 miles of desolation. Last night we stayed in Van Horn Texas. The RV park manager was telling me about his cable TV. I explained that we were tired and I would just use our antenna and whatever was on the air. He laughed as he told me “there was no over the air out there” and in fact they could only get one radio station, intermittently. Ahh – the lights went on, we understood, until then we had been thinking our truck radio was fried.

That’s Texas. Despite being the second most populous state in the union (behind California) it’s so big there are places that radio and TV signals still don’t reach. It sounds unbelievable, we were just off of I-10, this is the US, we’re traveling an interstate highway, there has to be TV and radio. But he was right - nothing, 0, nada. It really served to point out the size of Texas.

It's no wonder nothing grows out here, there's no soil, it's all rock

We used to think the |Canadian Prairies were long and straight

We had an interesting drive through El Paso. It’s quite a sight to see. From I-10 you see it spread out in a shallow valley to the South. I’d love to see it at night. We didn’t even stop for coffee so we really didn’t see much, except Juarez Mexico. As we drove through Bernie commented “that must be a poor part of town.” Then we saw the border fence and we knew we were looking at Juarez. Yes Juarez, where drug lord’s and smugglers rule and everyone else has moved out. I had read that Juarez was practically deserted and in our brief encounter it sure did look like a ghost town. I wouldn’t cross the border there for anything.

I can’t believe we covered 500 miles since our last posting and I only having a couple of paragraphs to post. As you may know I can be much more verbose than this but there just wasn’t anything out there to write about.

This really is a long and desolate stretch of road but it's one we're really glad we had an opportunity to travel.  Would we do it again?  You bet.

So here we are in Arizona, just East of Tucson in Benson. It seems like a nice little place to hang out for the weekend. Tomorrow we’ll unload the Smart car and head for Tombstone.

More from Tombstone's "OK Corral" later.

Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Pharr to Boerne

It was a late start today.  We wanted to say goodbye to all of our friends so we were an extra hour getting away from Tropic Star.  Our planned 9:30 to 10:00 start ended up being 11:00.  Oh well, stuff happens.

So tonight we're at the "Top of the Hill RV Resort" just West of San Antonio in Boerne Texas.
http://www.topofthehillrvresort.com/

The park is very nice, the people are very nice and I would recommend it.  They have some great pull through lots that can handle our 68' and more.  I paced a "back in lot" and it was 65'.  Nice park just off of I10, easy access.  The views are unbelievable.  This is Texas "Hill Country."  Bernie and I love it here.

A couple of pictures I took this evening.

Tomorrow ???????????  Somewhere between here and Tucson.  If everything goes according to plan we'll be dancing in Arizona on the weekend.

As usual. thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

A great weekend with Amber

Bernie and I are blessed to have three girls. Amber, our youngest, came for a visit last weekend.  It was great.  Thank you Amber.

Yours truly, Bernie, Amber

FIRST STOP - THE OUTLET MALL OF COURSE

Amber and Bernie on their return, looks like they did some damage and had some fun.

They were kind to "the old guy" and left me at home, I was SOOOO disappointed, NOT.

After the trip to the mall was out of the way we got down to some serious family time and enjoyed every minute of it. Amber got a tour of our resort, some good shopping, a couple of good sleeps, and times to meet many of our friends.

On Sunday friends Ken and Doreen hosted “a meet the daughters” evening. What does that mean?  Well, Amber was in town - along with friends Ron and Karen’s daughter Lori. So Ken and Doreen hosted a “meet the daughters” BBQ where we all had a great time.  Everyone there was from Alberta, except Bernie and I, but they let us stay anyway.

Bernie, Amber, Lori

Hosts Ken and Doreen at the top

Since Bernie and I and others are leaving in the next few days we had a “farewell” block party last week.  These pictures will show you that winter Texans definitely have too much fun.  We bowled with oranges, golfed with marshmallows, played a wienie game, (no details will be released, this is a family friendly blog) and capped it with a “Mexican Pile On” dinner. Needless to say a good time was had by all and everyone ate way too much.

Bernie about to drive a giant marshmallow.

She did way better than me.

So now it’s time to say goodbye to our friends, Tropic Star and S. Texas as we head for Arizona tomorrow morning.

Adios, see you next fall.

More from the road later in the week.  We’ll be spending a couple of weeks in Arizona before moving on through California, Oregon, and Washington to B.C.  We really miss our friends here, all of them, even the four legged ones.

This fellow comes by to visit and chatter at us all the time.  We thought he was going to crawl in our car yesterday.  He came to our block party, sitting on a Palm tree for awhile but then he came right down to visit with us all.

As always, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie