Bisbee and Douglas, AZ

January, 28, 2012

We visited Bisbee 2 years ago, but forgot my camera. We set off Saturday morning. It is an old copper mining town, built on the side of a steep hill, about 20 miles from the Mexican Border.  Now, it is a funky little  tourist  town with lots of  artists, shops and restaurants. A  fun place to spend a beautiful Saturday. It reminds  us of Jermone, located in Northern AZ. It is also an old mining town built on  a hill.  Same kind of funky little town with lots of local artists.

A " small world" experience happened to us. We stopped at a local brewery, The Old Bisbee Brewery Company. They make 7 micro brews.  I don't like beer so I asked for some wine. They only sell Washington wines, not Arizona.  I asked why and she said the owners are from Washington.   Small World.

If anyone of you are mystery readers, you might have heard of Bisbee.  J.A. Jance, a local Seattle writer, has a series of novels with the main character, Joanna Brady, a county sheriff of  Cochise County. She lives and has her office in Bisbee. Even tho I haven't read her books for several years, I still wanted to see Bisbee.  Felt like I knew the place. Her other main character is a Seattle detective.

After we left Bisbee, we went over to Douglas. It is about 20 miles away, right on the Mexican border. Even tho it was built about the same time, it has a completely different look.   Because it wasn't built on a hill,  the  streets are very wide compared to Bisbee, which has very narrow streets.  Doesn't have the same feel as Bisbee. Reminds me of an old town in Midwest.

Couldn't resist taking pictures of this car. Never seen eyelashes on  headlights. Very cute

One of many stairways. Once a year they have a stair climbing contest with proceeds going for charity.

Can't imagine climbing these stairs. WHEW!

Pictures of houses on the steep slopes

Hotel in Douglas, built in 1907

Main staircase going to the 2nd floor.. The panel on the wall looks like windows, but it is  Tiffany glass.  Also the top panel.

 View of 2nd floor from lobby.  Such quality workmanship

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Isn't this the cutest couple, of course I'm prejudice

My folks have 2 big celebrations going on this week.

Their 69th wedding anniversary was January 23rd.  Amazing, that doesn't happen very often. The wonderful thing about it is that they still hold hands, hug and kiss. They have had a wonderful, exciting life together. Plus, they raised 2 GREAT kids. Mom and Dad were the best parents that anyone would wish for.  No matter what happened, they were very supportive of me. They showed us by example on how to live, love and be the best we could be.

On February 1st, my Mom is 90 years old.  She doesn't look or act like it. She is an amazing woman. When I grow up, if I am half the woman she is, I'd be happy.  She was always there for me, thru bad and good.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY and HAPPY BIRTHDAY  to  two of our most favorite people in the world.

We love and miss you both

Back to Bryce National Park

Sept 20, 2011

Since I'm on a roll with uploading pictures, thought I go back to Bryce Canyon. This was our favorite of all the National Parks we went to. The red rock formations are amazing. Of course, my camera doesn't do them justice. It is a place you need to see for yourself. Be sure and put it on your list of must see places.

I keep seeing this guy. Must be following me. As you can see, there are few guardrails. Can go as close as you want. I never got as close as Denny did. I'm too clumsy.

Our campground. Had lots of trees, felt like we were back in Washington. The round hole in the middle of the concrete was the fire pit. We had to buy firewood, because most places we go to you can't build a fire.

See the people on the bottom left. You can hike down from most spots. Denny's hips were hurting so we didn't. Would have been beautiful.

Notice the people at the bottom

I took almost 100 pictures. I thought every view I saw was better than the one before. It was very hard to choose which ones to show.  Tried to give you an overview, without showing you 100.

Back to East Zion, 2011

Oct. 4, 2011

My connection is so good here that I'm trying to go back and upload pictures that I was never able to do before. Sometimes it would take hours get get any picture or sometimes none. Very frustrating.

East Zion is part of Zion National Park, but it looks entirely different. You go thru a tunnel and the rocks are so different. This part you can drive thru yourself. Again, the camera doesn't do it justice.

This isn't the main tunnel that takes you from Zion to East Zion, but one of many small ones. The main tunnel is a mile long and has no inside lights. It is narrow, so they only let one lane of traffic thru at a time. Kind of spooky to go thru.

Alot of the rock formations looked like soft butter sliding down and then stopping midway

Back to Zion

Going to try and download some pictures from Zion. Couldn't do any before when we were there.  It is so   beautiful, words can't really describe it. My camera doesn't do it justice. It's one of those places you have to see to really appreciate it.  You have to take the bus thru most of the park. Cars not allowed.

Sept 27th and 29th, 2011

Notice the rain on the right. It wasn't raining that day. The moisture, in the form of rain, drips down from the outside wall.

I picked him up along the trail. Think I'll keep him.

Back to the Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Oct. 4, 2011

If you have been following my blog, you all know I have been having alot of trouble downloading pictures to my blog. The connection is strong here, so I thought I would back track a little to show you some places we saw a few months ago  that we thought were interesting.

When we were at Hurricane, Utah there were many places to see besides Zion. We were there from Sept. 25th to Oct 8th.  One of the unique places we saw was the Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Northern AZ. It is only 40 miles into AZ. from Utah. Never expected to see Pink Sand Dunes in AZ.

This is a close up of footprints in the sand. We tried to take a walk among the dunes, but it was too hard

The Dunes go forever, as far as the eye could see

The  grasses  made me think we were on the beach

Still see flowers blooming

 It was quite a pretty  contrast between sand dunes and the flowers

Snow, Ice Storm, Snow, Wind--WHAT A MESS

I read the Seattle Times on the computer. I get to see all the pictures that people have sent about the storm. YIKES!  Unbelieveable.  I will have to say that I'm glad we are here, 60 to 70 degrees, no wind, ckear skies.

Kevin, our housesitter, called and said there was no power. Denny talked him thu on how to connect the generator. Sucess!  He was without power for about 12 hours. Last time that happened, in 2008, we lost it for 8 days.

Darin has his trailer and boat stored at our place.  The canopy over the boat was destroyed, but no damage to the boat itself.  The canopy over the trailer fell onto the top of the trailer. No damage to the trailer, but the canopy is toast.  Our next door neighbor, Nichole and her daughter, were out during  the snowfall trying to get alot of the snow on top of the trailer off. It was snowing so fast and heavy that it was a loosing battle. Thanks Nicole for the effort. You went beyond the call of  neighbor duty.

I heard it is raining now, so the worst is over.  Hopefully it doesn't happen again this winter.

Hello Tucson

We came to Tucson yesterday. It was only 90 miles, so I even went to my exercise class in Casa Grande first.

This park is beautiful. The best park we have been it so far. It is pretty expensive, but luckily we have Coast to Coast, which gets us in for $10 per night.  The only drawback is that the sites are VERY, VERY tight. Denny did a really good job of backing in. Already went to aerobics and yoga class. If we had known it was so nice, we might have stayed longer, maybe next year.

The park is 98% filled with park models that people have bought  and they  just drive or fly here. A small percentage is for people like us passing thru. We have both noticed that it isn't quite as friendly as other places, especially Big River.  Maybe because most people have bought their space.  People say hi as you walk by, but no waving from cars going by. That happens in most other parks.

Notice how tight our space is. In the back, Denny is relaxing. A Park Model is in the back

View from the back. You can see how small our outside space is.  Quite the table, it is concrete, the top is made up of tiles. Most places have only rickety wooden ones

Courtyard

View of our lane. You can see the back of our truck on the left. It is in the first space after the park models.

Pool area

Hot Tub

Hiking and Hot Tubs

We have been hearing all about the snow you all are having. I won't complain about how cold it is here again. It has been an average of mid 60's here.  I'll tell you what we have been doing if you promise not to throw something at the screen and say nasty things about us.

Yesterday I went on an organized hike to the Casa Grande Mountains. I went alone since  Denny can't walk much distance because of his hips. We hiked about 3 plus miles, but it certainly seemed longer because of the rough terrain. It took us 2 hours. It was a BEAUTIFUL day.

After I got back, Denny and I went into the hot tub for a soak. It felt SO NICE. Not a cloud in the sky.

When we first got here it was cooler than Parker, but now it is beautiful. I am in a short sleeve T shirt, Capri's and flip flops.   Tomorrow we move to Tucson. It is suppose to be 71 degrees.

This is an overview on our hike

THE MIGHTY HIKER. Hard to tell, but that is me.  Notice that I have a walking stick. One of the hikers had made this and gave it to me to use. It was a bit too long, so along the trail he cut it down to my size.

Our group. The man on the right is the one who made the walking stick. Some more people started with us, but veered off onto an easier trail.

Pretty desolate area

I have been taking an exercising class in the mornings. To make sure I do it, I get in my exercise clothes as soon as I get up. Otherwise, if I sit around in my sweats, I would be very tempted not to go. We exercise to an equivalent of 3 miles.

On to Tucson

Bye, Bye Big River--Hello Casa Grande

Yesterday we left Big River to travel to Casa Grande, AZ. I had alot of misgivings about it. We have never stayed in one place so long, but I see the advantages to it. We  got involved in  new adventures and met  alot of  new people that became our  friends. I was getting into yoga, photography and geocaching.  We exchanged email addresses with 3 couples. All of these people winter there year after year, so we will probably see them next year. Our cousins plan to go back (it's their 3rd year), so I think we will to spend the holidays with them.

I had a new friend ask me where we were going. I told her Casa Grande. She asked who we were going to see and I told her no one. She said " why are you going there, all your friends are here'".  I certainly felt that as we were leaving. People came out to say good bye as we were driving away.

Almost stayed another week because they were going on a big geocaching search today.  I would have liked to do it  more with other people  before we start out on our own. We went once with the pros and learned the basics.  Now we are on our own. WISH US LUCK!

Eventho I thoroughly enjoyed our stay and left with a lot of misgivings, it was also fun and interesting  to be traveling to another destination. We usually only stay 2-3 weeks in one place. On to new adventures and places.

Even tho we have been gone over 4 months, we have been going to new areas that we hadn't been to before. So far, there are only 2 campgrounds that we have been to. On our traverls in the next few months, we will be going to some of the same areas that we did in 2009,  but different campgrounds. Can't go to the same places and same campgrounds all the time, have to shake it up!

New Year-New Challenges

I have been trying to exercise more. In Utah, I took a class, but that only lasted 2 weeks.  I have been doing some type now for 10 weeks straight. In Cottonwood, I attended a class 3 x's a week. In Camp Verde, 6 x's per week. Here, I have been walking with Larry 6 days a week. They also have a yoga class. I have never done yoga, but thought I'd give it a try. When I first started, we did it to a DVD.  I wasn't too enthused. About a week after I started, we got an instructor. What a difference. Lulu moved into the space next to us. She has been doing yoga for almost 50 years and has been an instructor for 30. I have discovered I'm not nearly as limber and agile as I thought I was. Not even close. I do enjoy it. I'm getting better, but have along way to go.  Older people get less agile as we get older.  I know alot of you are nodding your heads and saying "oh, yeah".  I hope to continue it when I leave.  Lulu is looking around for a beginner DVD for me. The ones we were watching before she came were  more advanced moves. No wonder I wasn't enjoying it.

I have also been taking a digital photography class. I have been enjoying that also. We have an assignment of certain types  of  pictures every week. Paul, the instructor says my pictures are very good for a simple point and shoot,  but I want to improve.

We are going to leave this coming Thursday and I will really miss my new classes. Always want to learn new things, keeps us young.

Speaking of new things, in the last blog, I talked about Geo-caching. I made the plunge and commitment and bought a hand held GPS for Geo-caching.  I wanted to buy it now so that Paul could help me get set up. I am not very teckie minded when it comes to anything electrical. When I have trouble with the computer, I send Darin or Heather  an SOS-HELP.  He's not here and has never done this. Paul has been Geo caching for years.  Paul came over yesterday and helped me. Planning on going on some Geo caching tomorrow with Bob and Lou.  They only started a few weeks ago, but are pros now.

This is Larry, Denny's first cousin, and his wife Joyce. We took a walk to the park next door. They showed us a super secret way.

Took this on my walk in the morning with Larry. It was very foggy several mornings in a row. Liked it because it showed the foreground sharp against the fog in the background. It was one of my assignments

Another fog picture taken in the morning at the end of our walk.

Taken for the class. Beautiful, loved the colors of the water against the sunset