Happy Halloween

Yuma, Arizona        High 90 Low 63

Yesterday the wind blew very hard all day and the dust in the air was awful. Today was warm and clear.

We went to several yard sales this morning and Cindy spent $.25. Yes, a whole quarter. It seems like it is hard to get very enthused when you don't have a lot of room for more stuff.

We got back to the Park in time for one of the many Companies that wash RV's, and we waited, and waited. I finally called them and was told I must have called the wrong Company, because they had nothing written down for us. I explained that I had talked to one of their men yesterday and had made the appointment. The boss told me that they had forgotten to write it down, but he would have someone there as soon as possible.

When they finally got here, they went to work and the fiver looks a lot better. They were able to get all the bugs off that I haven't been able to.

We don't expect any trick or treaters, but wish everyone a Happy Halloween.

Thanks for visiting.

The Palms

Yuma, Arizona       High 86 Low 66

Today we left Casa Grande with overcast skies. During the night it rained quite a bit.

The further west we got, the clearer the sky got. We got to this RV Resort at about noon. It looks like a nice clean Park with a lot of the spaces for sale.

During the high season, there is a lot going on, with weekend entertainment almost every week. A lot of the entertainers are well known. We are a little early for much going on, as most of the things start next week, just before we leave.

We managed to look at one of the open houses and it looked very nice, but seemed overpriced for the size home.

The RV sites are nice and long and very wide. They are gravel with a concrete patio. The security guard led us to our site and helped direct me into the back-in space.

Friday night there is something going on for Halloween.

We are not sure where we will head once we leave here.

Thanks for visiting.

Casa Grande Ruins

Casa Grande, Arizona         High 84 Low 63

This morning we drove to the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument near Coolidge, Arizona. It was about a 25 minute drive for us. The national monument consists of the ruins of multiple structures surrounded by a compound wall constructed by the ancient people of the Hohokam period, who farmed the Gila Valley in the early 13th century. "Archeologists have discovered evidence that the ancient Sonoran Desert people who built the Casa Grande also developed wide-scale irrigation farming and extensive trade connections which lasted over a thousand years until about 1450 C.E."

"Casa Grande" is Spanish for "big house", these names refer to the largest structure on the site, which is what remains of a four story structure that may have been abandoned by 1450. The structure is made of caliche, and has managed to survive the extreme weather conditions for about seven centuries. The large house consists of outer rooms surrounding an inner structure. The outer rooms are all three stories high, while the inner structure is four stories high. The structures were constructed using traditional adobe processes. The wet adobe is thicker at the base and adds significant strength. Horizontal cracks can be noticed and this defines the breaks between courses on the thick outer walls.  The process consisted of using damp adobe to form the walls and then waiting for it to dry, and then building it up with more adobe. Case Grande contained a ball court much like that found at Pueblo Grande de Nevada. Father Eusebio Kino was the first European to view the Hohokam complex in November 1694 and named it Casa Grande. Graffiti from 19th-century passers-by is scratched into its walls; though this is now illegal. Casa Grande now has a distinctive modern roof covering built in 1932.

It's amazing how much is left after over 700 years.

The roof is almost 85 years old.

Yes, Penny had to go with us!

They had some extensive canals, all hand dug.

We watch a video narrated by the Native Americans that say they are the descendants of the people that built the ruins, but no one knows for sure what happened to the people. One theory is that they got so populace that they ran out of water and had to move. Another is that there were lots of rains, which destroyed their ditches, which necessitated them, moving, but no one can say for sure what happened. It is estimated that the move, for whatever reason, took place about 100 years after the Big House was built. From the video we learned that they had built the ditches with what looked like walking sticks and hoes. They had no large animals to help, so all of it was by man-power.

It was an interesting visit and the weather couldn’t have been better. There really isn’t a lot left to see, but we were glad to have spent a short time there.

Thanks for visiting.

Just Hanging Out

Casa Grande, Arizona    High 88 Low 57

It has been a little warmer than we like, but we can't do anything about the weather. It is supposed to be a little cooler tomorrow.

We drove to Casa Grande yesterday without any problems. The whole trip took us just under three hours with stops, so it was a short driving day.

We are at the Fiesta Grande RV Resort. It is a nice Park with lots of Park Models, but still a lot of RV sites. When the season gets going there seems to be a lot going on, but most of the sites are still empty.

They have 2 side by side dog runs that seem to be nice grass, at least Penny seems to enjoy running loose and playing with the other dogs when they are there.

We are only here for 3 nights and then we head to Yuma to spend a week in the Palms RV Resort, the Park I won a week in at the Good Sam Rally.

Cindy has been busy sewing and I have been helping her with cutting. She seems to have been having trouble with kits lately. Both of the kits we brought with us were short material. One of them we bought in Paducah when we were there last summer and I called them and they sent out the shorted material, but we won't get it until we get home, so she can't finish that quilt. But she still has plenty to work with and manages to stay busy.

Thanks for visiting.

Quilters Group

Benson, Arizona        High 79 Low 54

We went over to the Saguaro SKP Park to spend some time with the Quilters Group. They meet twice a week in the Club House. The ladies there told us that they would like to have their own building, but haven’t convinced the Board of Directors to build it, but they are still trying. There seemed to be a lot of people there and they told us that there are a lot more as they get more into the season.

The Escapee Park seems to have a lot going on every day. We were told that there were probably 100 people that stay all summer.

Last night we watched a movie in the Club House in this Park. We Watched 2nd Hand Lion, a movie which we had neither heard of nor seen before. It stars Robert Duvall and Michael Caine. It was a very entertaining movie.

Today we went to two estate sales in St. David, but couldn’t find anything we couldn’t live without.

On our way home, I took a sip of my soda and there must have been a bee also helping me drink it. All of a sudden I felt something in my mouth and it stung me one the lip. In about a half hour my lower lip and one side of my face swelled up. I ended up going to the Walmart Pharmacy and got some Benadryl and Ibuprofen and they seemed to help with the swelling, but the Benadryl sure made me groggy for the afternoon.

I’ll probably take another Benadryl before I go to bed, maybe it will help me sleep.

Thanks for visiting.

We Are in Benson

Benson, Arizona           High 72 Low 46

Last night in Deming it rained a lot and got down right cold. Today is a little warmer and it is supposed to get back to the 80s by Sunday. It’s either too hot or too cold.

We left fairly early and drove to Benson and are staying at the Valley Vista RV Park with Coast to Coast ($4.00 a night plus tax).

After we got set up we drove over to the SKP Park here in Benson and were on our way to sign in at the office when we spotted our friend Diane Jones. She told us that the quilters meet on Tuesday and Friday, so we are going to spend some time with them tomorrow. We will be leaving Monday.

Yes Jan, we seem to keep missing you. We will be in Casa Grande next Monday through Wednesday and then on to Yuma to visit a Park that I won a week at the Good Sam Rally last spring. It is supposed to be a really nice Park. Maybe we will be able to get together after our week in Yuma. We want to spend some time in Mesa, but we could stop in Casa Grande on the way there. Hopefully Jim and Sandie will be back by then. I think Rod should be there by then also.

That’s about it for the day, Thanks for visiting.

Made it to Deming

Deming, New Mexico           High 68 Low 45

We left The Ranch at Lakewood this morning early in order to beat the predicted rain. We did drive under mostly cloudy skies.

We were so close to the Guadalupe Mountain National Park Visitor Center that we decided to stop and see what was there. It is less than half a mile off the highway. All they seemed to have in the visitor center was different displays of the wildlife that live in the Park. We didn’t stay long because we still were worried about the weather. We had light tail winds most of the way, which was good.

The sign said this fox could climb trees.

Some of the scenery after we left the Visitor Center.

We finally got to El Paso and took the bi-pass highway. It is a very large city. Probably the worst climb we had was just before I 10. After we left the National Park there was some rather steep down grades. Everything went OK in both directions.

After we got on I 10 we could see some black skies, but they looked to be north of us. When we got to Las Cruces we heard on the radio that they were expecting golf ball size hail and when we went through the town, the road was flooded and parts looked like snow from all the hail they had before we got there.

It looks like they had a lot of hail.

We got rained on a little bit, but nothing to worry about. We were going to stay at Camp Walmart, but decided to stay in the SKP Park and boon dock instead. We got fairly heavy rain for a while and it sounded like a little hail with it this evening. This Park is a great big parking lot without many trees and from what I read, anyone can stay here. The staff is very helpful, however. We feel safer than if we were at Walmart.

Tomorrow we are going to Benson at a Coast to Coast Park that we have stayed at in the past.

Thanks for visiting.

Cindy’s Birthday

Lakewood, New Mexico         High 72 Low 54

Today is cooler again and cloudy, but nice.

Yesterday was Cindy’s birthday. To celebrate, we went to Carlsbad Cavern. On my 65^th birthday we went on a river cruise starting in Budapest. I’ll probably never live it down.

I had never been to Carlsbad before and Cindy hadn’t been since she was 10. She remembers having an appendicitis attack while in the cave and having to walk out. This time we got through without incident.

The Big Room is the largest cavern in the Western Hemisphere, with an estimated area of over 600,000 square feet. The trail through it took us about an hour and a half, and we took the short cut, leaving another hour and a half trail.

Twin domes and Giant Dome.

The elevator to the Big Room is 750 feet, about the height of a 75 story building. We talked to another couple from this Park that went there yesterday. They took the hike to the Natural Entrance, and told me it took them an hour and a half to get into the cave. We were glad we took the elevator.

I have been in other caves, but Carlsbad is by far the biggest. There are many Ranger led tours to other parts of the cave, so you could spend a great deal of time there.

We saw lots of different cave formations and the air is quite damp. There are many pools and some of the formations looked very damp. I got dripped on more than once while on our walk. It is also very cool inside the Cave. We had read to take jackets and were glad we had done so.

This whole formation was wet.

We could see the drips into the pools.

Lots of areas have been named. This picture is one of a few that turned out.

While not as spectacular as a Danube River cruise from Budapest to the Black Sea, it was an enjoyable day (the Cruise was 12 days, with the 3 day extension).

Thanks for visiting.