Apr 16, 2013 - Our Trip so Far

We departed Mission, TX. on March 29th and drove to San Antonio for 1 night then with an over night in Fort Stockton we continued onto Las Cruces, NM here we visited White Sands NP, Reidso, and Cloud Croft. From Las Cruces we drove into Tucson, AZ. here we visited Saquaro NP and other points of interest, We were detained here due to high winds and blowing sand. After our 1 day delay we continued onto Tempe, AZ visited the Usery Mts. for a nice hike in the Mesa MTS. Met up with Ronelle and Mike friends from Lake Havasu. Our next stop was...

Apr 12, 2013 - Tempe, AZ

We are now in Tempe, AZ enjoying the warm weather and beautiful city. We stayed an extra day in Tucson because of high winds and blowing sands and it did blow. We hiked Saguaro NP and toured Tuscon (lots of Construction downtown).We arrived here on Tuesday the 9Th and are staying at an Elks Lodge with full Hook ups for $25 per night. visited old Scottsdale and Hiked the Wind Cave Trail in the Usery Mtns Park. Beautiful scenery although a little tough for us old folks elevation rise of 800 ft we did enjoy the hike although we were glad to...

Jan 31, 2013 - Desert Botanical Museum

Today's photography lesson was on close-up macro photography. To practice what we had learned we went to the Desert Botanical Museum, a magnificent outdoor space that has been cultivating and raising cactus varieties that thrive here and in northern Mexico since 1938. Generally this area has two rainy periods and the plants that flourish under these conditions have adjusted accordingly. The museum was full of outdoor art and a special glass cactus designed by Dale Chihuly graced the entrance. The combination of art and nature was...

Jan 30, 2013 - Lost Dutchman State Park

We spent the morning looking at photographic submissions from fellow Road Scholars that had been taken the last two days. It's great fun to see different people's takes on a scene you just photographed yourself. Most of the folks in the group are decent photographers already, so the instructor offered subtle tips on how to make our photos even better. Then we headed to nearby Lost Dutchman State Park to document the effect the setting sun had on the rock formations and cactus growing nearby. The sun was bright, the sky was blue and we...

Jan 28, 2013 - McDonald Ranch

This is the fourth Road Scholar (Elderhostel) program we have attended focusing on photography. We've enjoyed scenic spots in the Texas Hill Country, Maine seacoast and the fall colors around Lake Winnepausaukee. Our instructor here who makes his living as a scenic photographer for Arizona Highways magazine is the best we've had so far. He knows what he's talking about and is able to explain it in a way we all can follow. For most of his career he hauled around a huge camera that shot 4x5 inch negatives and a huge tripod. Each shot cost $5...

Jan 27, 2013 - setting records

In these days of climate change, it's hard to know what's normal when you are new to an area. Two weeks ago in Tucson record low temperatures were set - 17º as I recall. A week later record highs were set in the low '80's. We liked those records much better. Then we went to Quartzsite which averages four inches of rain a year and endured a steady drizzle for 36 hours. Now that we are in the Phoenix area they are reeling from record rainfall - over an inch in 24 hours. It actually feels humid here. We're camped in suburban Tempe, a city...

Nov 7, 2012 - Finding Friends in Tempe

We took a left turn in Parker and crossed through the desert to Phoenix and on to Tempe were we landed at Apache Palms RV Park. It's right on Apache Blvd and the light rail runs right by it. Our plan was to take the light rail over to see our friend Margaret who lives in downtown Phoenix. We first met Margaret and Ian our first winter in south Texas. Then again when they came through Boise in spring of 2010. Sadly, Ian died suddenly last year so we knew when we came through we would pay a visit to our friend Margaret. As it turns out the...

Dec 15, 2011 - "Tiny" and "Grumbles"

After finishing all our business transactions, and with titles in hand, off we went to have tires put on Tiny. (We already had the new tires on Grumbles.) Because we wouldn't fit in the tire center's parking lot we pulled into the shopping plaza across the street from the tire shop and the men at Big O came across the street to work on Tiny in the busy parking lot. For simplicity sake they had us unhook Tiny from Grumbles and put all four stabilizing jacks down and lift Tiny up off her tires so they could remove and replace all her tires at...

Dec 11, 2011 - Tempe

We made it to Tempe and bought a truck and RV! Our new RV is a 36 foot long, triple axle, three slides New Horizons Summit. The truck is a Ford F-550. I'll get some pictures taken and post them in my next entry. In the meantime I need to set up an appointment for new tires for both the truck and the RV... we have a busy couple of days ahead! Happy Travels, Rebecca

Sep 16, 2011 - The Adventure/Mis-Adventure Begins

Got no sleep. Wanted to sleep - but didn't. There was too much to get done. The crappy Management office forgot to drop off my second key - again - so I had to leave my only keys with my neighbors - Sarah & Joseph who live across from me. Lisa (my Fabulous Ballet Instructor) and Peter (Business/Computer Guru and king of the "Mac-ness") dropped by to help me with the final packing and leaving me with some great road trip music. * My air conditioning unit sprung a leak- worse than the last one, flooding my hallway with water. I was able to...

Mar 3, 2011 - Tempe, Az

I can't believe this is our last night in Tempe. We leave tomorrow morning for San Diego. As much as we are looking forward to seeing Chris & Yesenia and seeing San Diego, we are sad our time here has come to an end. We've been saying our goodbyes and trying to get in everything we didn't do because we thought we had so much time here. Friday night we went to dinner at Jan's with friend's of hers. We really enjoyed the evening and were shocked to realize it was after 10:00 when we finally got up from the table. Saturday evening we heading...

Feb 28, 2011 - The Blog Mistress has lost her Mojo

It's been a long time between blogs. I used to call it writer's block, but this time I've come to the conclusion it's more serious than that. I think I'm burned out. I think I've hit the wall. So things are going to change. I've made the decision to stop posting to the blog on a regular basis. Ok, you can stop snickering now. I know it hasn't been what you'd call regular for some time. But I mean I really won't be posting much. I will post when I feel inspired. I may just post a picture blog from time to time when we have some great...