April 15, 2015
Dear Family and Friends,
It’s been months since we last wrote, not because
we’ve been unusually busy, but we’ve been in Arizona for the past four
months and away from the computer that “publishes” the newsletters and
trip reports. Our daily routines are quite different during the Tucson
winter than they are here in the mountains; we’re programmed
differently here in Nederland where the pace is slower and less
scheduled. We like both routines: when we’re in Arizona, we enjoy being
rather busy socially (see picture from one of the almost daily happy
hours), physically active, and almost always engaged; on the other
hand, we also enjoy the quieter, less frenetic laid back pace of life
in the mountains. The change each season seems to agree with us.
Today is tax day, which means the first hummingbirds
should be here. However, in spite of a fairly dry, warm spring none has
arrived at our house yet. We’re watching. Elk have been grazing
occasionally in the back grassy area, deer have been seen throughout
our neighborhood, and while we’ve not seen them, and a pair of moose (a
mother and juvenile we’re told) is making their presence known nearby.
We watch carefully when we hike in the woods.
As you know, we use these newsletters not only to
keep in touch with family and friends scattered around the country (and
Canada), but also these pages are a record for us of where we’ve been,
what we’ve seen, how we’ve spent our time, who we’ve encountered, and
important events (to us) over the nearly two decades we’ve been
compiling these cyber diaries. They help us remember.
This was our sixth winter at Desert Trails RV Park
ten miles west of Tucson. We go the weather, activities, and a core of
very likable friends we’ve made during that time. Here’s what we’ll
remember about the winter of 2014–2015.
Gourds.
This was the year of the gourds. Decorating gourds became the latest
pastime of many of us—mostly women, though it’s safe to say a few men
were also seen cleaning, polishing, and decorating gourds of all sizes
and shapes throughout every day. Judy showed her artistic talents
through her designs and techniques using paints, wood burning tools,
stucco, special crayons, seed pods, pine needles, and other specialty
materials and tools. We attended the 12th
Annual Gourd Festival in Casa Grande (a hour north of Tucson) to
see how others have taken gourds to unimagined artistic heights, to
purchase specialty supplies, and to visit the nearby Wuertz Gourd Farm
to purchase gourds. Desert Trails hosted a well-attended and impressive
show of gourds (photo on right) created by park residents, Judy’s
included.
On the way to Casa Grande, we visited the world
famous Rooster Cogburn
Ostrich Ranch near Picacho Peak State Park. We fed the ostriches,
ducks, goats, donkeys, and other large animals, but the highlight was
visiting the lorikeets that flocked to us for food when we entered
their aviary. The ranch is right on I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson.
You can’t miss it.
[Note:
Our Nederland neighbors Rick and Pat visited us for a week and this was
one of their highlights. Nederland neighbors Jim and Sandi, who spend
the winter in nearby Marana and who first alerted us to the pleasures
and delight of this tourist attraction joined us.]
Bicycling.
Tucson is a popular destination for cyclists of all abilities,
especially in the winter months. There is an active group of mountain
bikers among Desert Trails residents. You can identify them easily by
their very fat tires, body armor, scabs (from falls) and cactus spines
(from accidents encountered riding among the cactus and cholla). There
are many miles of trails in desert adjoining the RV Park, as well as
other locations in the region. There are even some mountains to
traverse, but not many.
Road biking can be no less risky, though the results
of carelessness on the roads and bike paths can be more serious. When
completed next year, the 131-mile bike “Loop” will
create a traffic free paved path around metro Tucson that will link
Marana, Oro Valley, and South Tucson with a smooth, safe, and mostly
level surface for riders of all abilities. The road bikers from DT use
portions of the bike path for their weekly outings. Others go for
longer distances (up to 50 miles) at other times. There are excellent
routes along local roads, though Tucson and Pima County have put their
energies and money, it seems, into bike paths rather than shoulders
along county roads. Judy, who rides more often and at least twice as
far as Hughes, rides several routes north and west of Desert Trails
through Tucson
Mountain Park and Saguaro
National Park, as well as south of Tucson along Mission Road
through the Tohono
O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation toward Green Valley. Our
experience cautions us to ride defensively on the roads, though most
drivers we’ve encountered have passed us with plenty of room.
However, two accidents occurred that make us even
more cautious: Pericles Wyatt, the owner of Desert Trails and an
experienced road biker, was involved in a fluke accident while riding
in a group, one of whom made a sudden and foolish turn at a corner
along a back road that caused a crash resulting in Pericles breaking
his shoulder, an arm, and several ribs. A nearly exact accident
occurred during a group ride sponsored by GABA (Greater Arizona
Bicycling Association), which we joined: Judy a metric century ride,
Hughes a half metric century. At one of the few corners on the route, a
lead biker in a group of about six riders missed the corner and made a
sudden effort to make the turn. He was the most seriously hurt: he
suffered serious road rash on his face and could not get up (broken
bones?) An ambulance was called and we don’t know how that turned
out. But both crashes sent chills up our spines.
Hiking.
Judy had previously hiked most of the scheduled routes organized by the
park’s hiking group so this year often chose to stay with the dogs and
work on her gourds. Hughes went on several hikes and especially liked
the 7-mile to Madera
Canyon about 45 minutes south of Tucson where we
actually climbed high enough to leave the desert and walk among pines,
wildlife (though not much on the day he went), seasonal streams, and a
lovely picnic area at Josephine’s Saddle. Other few other hikes we took
were less strenuous jaunts through the desert adjoining Desert Trails.
Yoga.
Judy has, off and on, used yoga as an exercise, but until this
year she did not participate regularly. However, a few weeks into our
stay at Deserts Trail, Susan Davy and he husband, Kip arrived from
Michigan planning to stay a short time. In fact, the park was so filled
that they had no guarantee they could stay more than their scheduled
few weeks. Susan is experienced and, according to all accounts, an
excellent yoga instructor: encouraging, supportive, and very pleasant.
She offered her services for free, scheduled three sessions a week, and
her classes filled every day. She was so popular that space “opened up”
and they were able to extend their time to nearly three months. Judy
attended every Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning classes and
came back rejuvenated and felt stronger than ever. They also often
joined us on road bike trips, including the GABA group ride mentioned
earlier. Judy and many others hope they return next year.
Ghost Towns. Last year we
joined with DT friends Christine and Bill to locate and poke through
ghost towns in the area around Patagonia south of Tucson: primarily the
mining towns of Harshaw and Ruby. This year the four of us took two
separate trips.
Trip #1.
The first excursion took us to Fairbank, a
railroad town, in the process of restoring school, hotel, gas station,
and other buildings, with easy access off the road between Tombstone
and Benson. Judy and Hughes had been there several years ago and had
explored the cemetery just north of the town site and hiked another
mile or so to Contention City, site of three mills that processed ore
from
Tombstone.
After walking through Fairbank, we drove south
through Sierra Vista and a few miles west to the Ramsey Canyon Preserve,
not a ghost town but rather
a tranquil scenic area well known to birders and to folks seeking cool
relief from the desert heat. We saw just one bird of note in the
parking lot, but it soon became clear the hummingbirds that give the
canyon its fame hadn’t arrived yet from Mexico. We did enjoy the short
two-mile hike and the quiet of the canyon and clear stream. We
later drove south near the Mexico border and made a brief stop at the
small, remote Coronado
National Memorial that commemorates the Coronado Expedition
in
1539–40 and pressed on over Montezuma Pass in hopes of finding the
ghost town of Sunnyside.
With Bill driving his 4Wheel drive pickup, we made
our way slowly over a rough and not well-marked dirt track and finally
located the site with the help of our GPS. Sunnyside was
founded by followers of Samuel Donnelly a religious convert who
established a mining commune, making it the most unusual mining town in
the west: no bars, no brothels, no slackers, no outlaws; everyone
worshipped and shared equally in the proceeds from work. Sunnyside
remains way off the beaten track and still difficult to reach. Many
buildings are still standing though in rough repair.
Trip #2. We
stopped first at
Kentucky
Camp located about six miles off SR 83 west of Sonoita.
It’s sometimes knows as the Ghost Town With Accommodations (there is a
“B&noB,” a place to sleep but there’s no breakfast, run by the
Forest Service for a small fee). The forest service owns the property
and is restoring several of the buildings. There is easy access to the
Arizona Trail.
From there we drove south through Patagonia towards
Nogales and turned east on a good gravel road through Washington Camp
(not much left here except a mine dump with good cooper ore specimens),
Duquesne
(several residents, some buildings in good repair, visitors not
particularly welcome), and Lochiel, (a
former border- crossing town to Mexico. The steel fence has cut off
access either way, the few residents (reportedly seven) really do not
welcome visitors—stay out, everything’s private, we really don’t want
you here). It was a long day but we still had time for dinner at out
favorite restaurant in the area: inter photos in Patagonia.
Entertainment.
Desert Trails offers two performances each week by musicians of all
sorts, most of whom are really quite good. We missed Lisa Otey and
Diane Van Deurzen, favorites over the past years, but we enjoyed
Mariachi Aztlan
from Tucson’s Pueblo High School, gifted guitarist
Gabriel Ayala, folk singer William Florian, Ronstadt Generations
who
represent five generations of southwest music
traditions (yes, Linda is a member of the family but not of the group),
an up and
coming band Run Boys Run;
who blend traditional and modern sounds; and
a mighty fine blue grass group, The
Sonoran Dogs. These performances
are free to Desert Trails residents (though the hat is passed to help
support the performers). We paid much more dearly to hear Paula
Poundstone perform at the Fox Theater downtown, but left disappointed
with what must have been an off night for one of our favorite comics.
Hughes rehearsed Monday evenings with the Arizona
Choral Society in preparation for a March 8 concert at the Catalina
United Methodist Church. The group performed works by Beethoven
(“Hallelujah” from Christ on the Mount of Olives, Op. 85, and portions
of the Mass in C Major), Mendelssohn (“Hear My Prayer”) and two short
songs, “Where is Love?” and “You Raise Me Up.” Hughes had not performed
with a choral since his years with the Toledo Symphony Choral, but
enjoyed a chance to perform choral music once again. The greatest
challenges, however, had nothing to do with the music: he was fighting
off a cold that weakened his voice, and he shopped area thrift stores
for a complete tuxedo one piece at a time (pants here, shirt and jacket
here). The total cost was about $15 for everything including the
requisite black bow tie and cummerbund).
Nederland
Neighbors Come Visiting. As mentioned earlier, we hosted
Nederland neighbors Rick and Pat who drove down to escape Nederland’s
winter cold, at least for a week. We kept them busy and, we hope,
properly entertained. In addition to a trip to the Gourd Festival and a
side visit to Rooster Cogburn’s Ostrich Ranch (followed by dinner at
other Nederland neighbors Jim and Sandy who fixed barbeque for us all),
we toured the beautiful and historic San Xavier del Bac Mission just
south of Tucson; we spent a day at the extraordinary Arizona-Sonora
Desert Museum where we witnessed the raptor free flight, nesting
hummingbirds up close, and samples of every desert plant and animal of
the area; and we toured portions of the annual Tucson Gem and
Mineral
Show until we couldn’t walk any more. We spent a leisurely shopping
trip to the artsy-fartsy town of Tubac
where the shopping was quite
good and the lunch at Shelby’s
Bistro was as good as we remembered.
Rick and Pat returned the following day to finish their shopping
experience and returned with a beautiful wall hanging that had caught
their eye the day before. During the week they were in Tucson, we
hosted several happy hours to introduce them to our Arizona neighbors
and to experience one of the relaxing pleasures of Desert Trails.
Indian
Rodeo. We heard good reports from other DT folks about the rodeo
in Sells, a small town about an hour west of Tucson: the 77th (75th?)
Annual
Tohono O’odham
Nation Rodeo and Fair. We went on Saturday of this
three-day affair and watched an entertaining parade down Sells’ Main
Street followed by the All Indian Rodeo with the usual events (calf
roping, steer wrestling, bull riding, ladies barrel racing, etc.).
However, we thought the star event was the Wild Horse Race, a team
event where a dozen or so wild horses were turned loose in the arena
and teams had to lasso, saddle, mount, and ride one of the horses. The
winning team had the shortest time. On that day only one team was able
to lasso a horse but never got a saddle on it. The other half dozen or
so teams never got their rope around a horse’s neck. To be fair,
conditions were horrible: a rain the day before turned the arena and
the entire grounds into a muddy slippery mess. We’ll go again next year
if the weather is dry like it’s supposed to be in the desert.
Birthday Party.
It happens that both of us celebrate our birthdays in early March so we
host a party for about 40 friends at Desert Trails. This year because
of the possibility of high winds, we held the gathering in one of the
park buildings. Three years ago, Judy was honored at a surprise party
since her birthday was significant: it ended in a “0.” This year
Hughes’s birthday ended in a “5,” but that seemed less significant.
Besides he couldn’t talk or sing or give a speech due to a cold and
sore throat. So he just took pictures and Judy gave the speech thanking
everyone for coming. However, she didn’t sing.
Pack
Rat Invasion. On a less attractive note, 2014 will be the year
we’ll remember the pack
rats that moved into our rig over the past
year. Though they did not destroy anything, they built a pretty
complete nest in the bathroom vanity: we opened the door beneath the
sink where there is a switch for the bedroom slide out and faced a
storage area fully packed with seed pods and cholla buds. We found the
same in the two drawers next to the area under the sink. When we opened
the storage area in the “belly” of the fifth wheel, we discovered more
seed pods and buds of cholla along with lots of droppings. We spent the
better part of the first month ridding ourselves of any sign or smell
of the pesky rodents.
To make matters worse, while back flushing the sewer
a few weeks later, Hughes had left the water unattended long enough to
create enough pressure on the black water holding tank that it burst
and flooded the area around the tank and sewer lines, including the
insulation and the excess dripped out. While we knew we had a problem
that required the services of the RV Doctor (Robert Rudd),
when he cut the
covering beneath the insulation and tanks and removed the insulation
(in order to replace the tank, fix the connecting pipes, and install
new insulation) we discovered the carcasses of several more pack rats
in addition to the two or three we trapped with conventional mouse
traps. In the end, we are left with new insulation, a new holding tank
and pipes, and a more secure, pack-rat-resistant underbelly. We should
be safe for a while longer.
There are other small things to remember:
•Though it’s no small thing, the highlight of this
winter for Lucy was winning her first Best in Show in the 2015 annual
Desert Trails Dog Show. She was ran the obstacle course with little
hesitation, did a long wait and came when called, and performed a few
routine (for her) tricks, Most important, she acted like she knew she
was “on stage,” practically prancing as she did her runway parade in
front of the judges. As we awaited the judges’s decistion, the other 13
dogs who entered must have felt that they were competing for 2nd place.
We could not have been more proud!
•This was the year we really learned to enjoy sushi
even more than we have in the past. Sushi
Ten became our particular
favorite place to eat sushi, not only because their food is fresh and
tasty, but also because they have a variety of items on their menu,
they serve sake with a bomber of Japanese beer for $3.75, and they have
about 30 items that are half price any time before 7:00 pm. We could
eat there at least once a week if we wanted.
•For the third year Hughes attended the huge Tucson Festival of Books
held outdoors on the mall of the University of Arizona. Authors of all
genres, illustrators, booksellers, libraries, publishers give talks and
sell their services and publications. Performers, seminars,
demonstrations and good food are all a part of the attractions of this
event. In only seven years this gathering of book lovers from across
the country has grown to over 130,000 visitors in the two-day event.
•We discovered the beauty of Tohono Chul Park, a
privately owned botanical garden in the middle of town where the street
sounds are dampened by plants and fountains, where a walk becomes a
stroll through flowers and shrubs. Best of all, we unwittingly arrived
on a day when the $10 entrance fee was waived.
75becomes routine, though not boring.
The rules and play don’t require as much thought or decision-making as
bridge. Shanghai rummy becomes a pleasant change of pace.
PASSING
OF A DEAR FRIEND
Sadly,
this was the year that Bella, approaching her 15th year with us, joined
Sophie and Gordie at the Rainbow Bridge. She left us quietly when we
returned home and, as she did everything, she did so without complaint.
She was loyal, loving, and often made us smile. She was always game for
whatever adventure might come: she had put her feet in both the Pacific
and Atlantic Oceans. She has stood at 12,000' above those oceans and
282' below. She hiked in the heat of a Utah desert and across the sharp
stones of the Rocky Mountains; she tunneled through 8’ of mountain
snow, rode confidently in Hughes’s backpack on a bicycle, and slept
peacefully at his side in a campground sleeping bag. She never started
a fight, yet would warn us loudly of unseen dangers in the woods with a
loud bark. The pictures we have gathered together show she had all
these qualities as much or more than any dog who has been part of our
family. Who could ask for more? We buried her next to her best friend,
Sophie, where she is at peace. We visit her regularly. While we mourn
her passing, we are grateful for the memories, which help to fill the
hole in our hearts.
All good wishes to you and your family,
Judy
and Hughes
