Settling in at Desert Trails, Tucson AZ

Randy and Shelby

Mom and Dad at jam session.

Have spent our first week setting up camp and settling in for the winter.  Randy has been washing and waxing the camper removing all the grim from traveling 1,900 miles to get to Tucson.

I have been taking advantage of above average temperatures (90's)  with a few swims in the pool.  Also took my first hike on the desert trails just behind our park.  I feel lucky to be able to walk among the Saguaro cactus, I just love them!  They remind me of giant sentinels watching over all who pass by  their path.

Lots of activities starting up and we should be in full swing soon as more people flock in.  There's always something going on, hiking, biking,  jam sessions,  golf, bocce ball, ping pong, ladies pool, line dancing, Exercise classes, yoga, swimming, wed. is games night and Thursday is Bingo. If that's not enough to get you started you can always join up with the Photo club or Creative writing group.  Oh a new group, the RV travel club to be starting soon sounds interesting.  On Monday morning you can join everyone in the park for coffee and donuts and information at the club house.  Thats a good way to find out whats going on in the area for the coming week.  Also learrn about the twice weekly entertainment scheduled at the club house.

 If you prefer some quiet time  we have a great library with a large variety of books compiled by past and present park travelers.

Its exciting to see our friends coming in and catching up with whats been going on since we all migrated out this spring.

I guess you can see why we like it so much at Desert Trails!!!

 Just wish the grand-kids weren't so far away!

October is almost over!

I love the month of October! We spent the first week in Tennessee with Amys family.  Camping in their backyard  was really great as we got to spend alot of time together.  Had some bonfires, roasted hotdogs and smores of coarse.  Took a trip to the Nashville Zoo, just the right size for the younger kids.  Now the leaves have turned to bright reds, yellow and orange, they don't last long!  With every breeze they swirl though the air and cover the ground.  As kids we spent alot of time raking them into piles, making make believe forts and then jumping right in! Then back to Iowa to get ready to leave for our trek west.  Spent the last couple of days with Mats family before heading out with a backyard fire and star gazing. Set off some firework left over from the 4th, that was a hit with the kids!  I always find saying good bye when we leave hard to do, I miss them already.

On the Iowa farm.

Kyler, Emily, Lane and grandpa

I 10 Texas

Happy Halloween!

The last week of October has been spent traveling toward Tucson AZ for the winter months.  This trek has been a new adventure for me as I am pulling the camper by myself.  Randy following along behind with Aunt Ruthann, he is driving her motor home. I have a new appreciation for all the driving Randy usually does!!  I have to say I was very nerves the first day, the second day and on and on.  Took a few deep breaths, put the metal to the petal  and off we go!  Since I'm the only one who has Gps and internet on my smart phone I get to be the navigator and travel guide.   How did the pioneers do it!  Travel with out cell phones and the internet?  They are my life line, need to see where the nearest gas station is up ahead or find a campground for the night?  JUST GOOGLE IT!   Radio going for company, tense muscles, sometimes white knuckle moments but now I know I can do it..

Tomorrow should be the last leg of this trip,  looking forward to seeing all our winter friends and taking walks in the desert.  Sun, fun and a swim in the pool awaits us!   Happy Trails.... Happy Halloween too!

Fall in Iowa

  It looks like we will be delayed departing Iowa for another month due to canceled and rescheduled Dr appts.  Have to take care of all that good stuff before we can take off for our winter home in Tucson.

 So thought I would take the time to rediscover rural America where I was raised and lived most of my life...Iowa.  Cooler temps, crisp nite air, golden corn and bean fields.  Fall awaits and the sounds of combines harvesting are all around me.  Made a trip to one of the local orchards to get some of Randy's favorite Honey crisp apples.  I was tempted to pickup some pumpkins put where would I put them in the camper?  So got some warm just out of the oven apple turnovers instead.  Yum!!!


Cleaned out Mats garden as were supposed to get a hard freeze and that will put an end to it.  Its fun to get to do the easy part of harvesting and canning.  Now Mat does the hoeing and watering.  Squash, tomatoes, watermelon, muskmelon, beets, green beans, peppers and beautiful sweet carrots. Oh Christine and family made old fashion sauerkraut in a century old crock the way I remember my grandparents doing it.  Canned kraut and deep red pickled beets line the pantry.


Decided to take a trip to middle Tennessee to see our daughter Amy and her family before coming back for  RV repairs.  Chronic problems with electric awning and convection oven on new camper.  I think we have a dark cloud overhead when it comes to campers!

Having arrived in Tennessee we are having a great time with the granddaughters.  What do you do on rainy days with two active girls?  Go to Goodwill..... stuff a bag for $2.99!!  Rent movies from Red box for only $1.00 and play games.

Goodwill shopping

 Took a field trip to the Tennessee State History Museum in Nashville.
Very interesting and it was free.. Learned alot about the area, prehistoric, plantation life and civil war battles of which Tn was greatly affected.  The only thing the girls were in a hurry to see was the mummy on display!


The girls decided they would like to have a rope swing in the back yard.  So with the help of the internet we found a great website with very good step by step instructions for an old fashioned tree swing.  Thus the project got under way and the whole family got involved... I learned some cool knots too!

             We did find one warm night to have a bonfire, make smores  and of coarse take turns telling scary stories.

Randy decided to put in 50 amp electric for the camper so we could park right next to the house and stay in their yard. Needless to say the girls have been hanging out in the camper..playing with Barbies, helping out.

 We'll have to drag ourselves back north in a couple of days..Burrrrrr.  Then off for Arizona we hope and looking forward to catching up with our winter friends!    Take Care!!!!



   Kathy

Summer in Iowa, Crazy Crazy!!

OK, so it’s been awhile since I posted something on my blog. June, July and August, there gone!!

 How did that happen?

 I feel like we barely got camp set-up and hit the ground running so to speak.  Memorial Day included a visit to the cemetery and the placing of flowers near the headstones.  Kids full of questions about their relatives.  Then a new garden flower project at Mats house.  We moved some old heirloom plants from the grandparents’ homesteads.  Randy made bluebird boxes and we put one in the garden. Amazingly the next day we had a pair of bluebirds make a nest. We have seen two clutches so far, how exciting!!

A relative




Day trips to the Natural History Museum in Iowa City. 

 

 

 

 Took a tour of the territorial capital and first State capital building of  Iowa.  

 

 

 A visit to Burlington Heritage Museum and a walk down the crooked-est street in the country, Snake Alley.

             Labor Day, a camping trip to Old Settlers Reunion in Mt Pleasant


 At noon the steam engines blew their whistles and vintage tractors paraded in front of the grandstand.  (My dad drove his restored John Deere) with grand-kids in tow behind the wagon.

Waiting for the Electric car at the log village..

  How do I describe it? Picture yourself for five days stepping back in time to a rural American farm. Horses being used to operate threshing machinery and, steam engine run sawmill.  Sorghum being cooked down and lye soap too.
 Pioneer village was at one end, a city of campers in the middle, with old western town at the other end.  The Electric cars connected one end to the middle.





 Oh and a real train pulled by a Steam Locomotive that ran around the entire grounds.  Train holdup at old town, and saloon girls too!





Did I mention the Nightly concerts at the grandstand with homemade caramel corn, root beer, and ice cream....
 It was hot, dusty sometimes and then rain with a little mud to.  But the kids had a great time!!!
 All for the price of a $20.00 wrist band and the kids were free!!






 In between that we had a few sleep overs and took in a couple of movies.

Now summer has come to an end, and kids are back to school.

 I'm exhausted!!  It’s time to take a breather and think about heading south and then west.


 Will try to blog more often next time! 

From Tennesee to Iowa!

Mothers Day Amy, Kelsey and Kaylen

We topped off our Tennessee visit by putting on frilly things and having Mothers Day brunch at the lodge.  A real southern style meal!

Emilys Birthday Party with the grandkids

Just made it back to Iowa in time to celebrate two little girls birthdays. Ever decorated a Fairy Barbie and a jumbo cupcake in hot pink?  Its pretty exciting when you get 12 kids together and shout the words:  It's time to open presents, do you want cake and ice cream?   It definitely draws a crowd! 

exploring Tn forest

What do you do with a net, bucket and three girls?  Catch crawdads...!!  29 to be exact. We did release them back to there habitat.  I loved the  morning spent exploring a stream with the girls! We talked about what it was like when the native Americans roamed theses Tennessee hills and how they lived off the land.  Kids are so open to new adventures as I call them.  We made rafts out of twigs and blades of grass and floated them down the rapids. 

Old Oaks

On our route back to Iowa we stopped at Rend Lake in Illinois, with a great campground and 20 miles of paved biking and hiking trails.  You wind around the lake through big oak groves and patches of native prairie grasses.  There is a wonderful visitor center with educational exhibits of the area.  We poked around the local small town and found a cool cafe on the square.  It was originally a Woolworth store and still had the old tin ceiling and wood floors.  The daily specials were  made from scratch and had a warm slice of pie! Of coarse I had to bike a few miles to work it off..

Well summer is now in full swing in Iowa...  So what will we do next.  Mainly just hanging out with the kids until we head out again in the fall for our westward travels to our winter home in Tucson.

Tennessee visit

Original Manson on campus

 I took a ride into Nashville and had a great tour of Amy's school, Belmont. While she was taking finals I wandered through the beautifully landscaped grounds and took in some southern history.
       Relaxing with a good cup of coffee under an old magnolia tree I wandered what life was like here when the first class of women entered in the 1800's.

Belmont college

Hanging out with the granddaughters has been fun and keeping us on the go.
One morning we loaded all the bikes into the truck and rode around Montgomery Bell State Park. We looked thru this log cabin and a small Presbyterian Church on site.   There is a nice campground with full hook-ups and a crystal clear spring running through it.  The kids love playing in the water as it has been hot here!

 

I celebrated my birthday with surprise hand crafted cards, the best kind and ice cream cake with a blaze of candles!
  
I'm spending some time refurbishing barbie dolls and making clothes for our fashion show.  Visited Goodwill, looking for a few toys to have on hand for the kids this summer.  Helped Kelsey make cookies for 4-H meeting and now I think I'm ready for some quiet time.... Or maybe we'll have a sleep over tonight :)

I feel like my summer has had a jump start.  Time to fix some ice tea and pickup a good book to read!

  Thats it for now....

Birthday cards

Tucson to Scott Arkansas

                    What an end to our season at Desert Trails in Tucson!

Christine and her family came to visit with their camper.  It was fun having them camping next to us.  We took a trip to the Sonoran Desert Museum.  I have a family pass that gets the grandkids in free.  7 at one time, what a deal for us!  The museum has desert plants and animals on display along with educational hands on activities.  It was a full day of walking and the  kids were great troopers.




 I took the three older girls to the Reid Park Zoo.  I was surprised at what a neat little zoo they have in Tucson.  A nice elephant habitat with a new baby showing off for all to see.  Unfortunately I accidentally deleted most of them. 







 The final event of their visit was totally by luck.  We wound up camped on the Air Force base the last two days before heading out.  The Thunderbirds were preforming at the air show with a base openhouse celebrationg Arizonas 100yr Anniversary.  We got on a shuttle at our campsite that dropped us off at the flight line. 

Desert Museum

Now we have started heading east across New Mexico and Texas to Scott Arkansas.  Staying in Corp of engineers park along the banks of the Arkansas river.

It is time to catchup

Wow, where does the time go.  At my age I just wish I could slow it down a little.  Winter in Tucson is almost at its end.  Most of our neighbors in the park will be heading out in April to their summer homes  We seem to be busy but not sure with what. There is some activity most everyday here depending on your interests.  We have had great entertainers twice a week preforming at the rec hall. Very talented!  Took a few day trips, one to Agua Caliente (hot water) Preserve.  It is a natural spring located on a historical ranch just outside of Tucson. To see water in the desert is quite a treat.

One of the ponds created by damming the spring.

 

Gammon Gulch

  The photo group went to a ghost town and we tagged along, I didn't see any ghosts but went into the saloon and mom entertained us on the old piano. This area was once home to several mining communities, Indians and outlaws.















Church just north of the Mexican border in the town of Sasabee, only a handful of residents now occupy the area which was once a big ranching valley before all the droughts.  Now the steal border fence divides the territory.

                                                                                                                      

Do You know what this is?  Yes a scorpion,  we haven't seen to many yet but with warmer weather on its way they will be moving around along with the rattle snakes.  I saw this cute guy at the U of A open house for the studies of Sonoran Desert insects.


                                                                                                                                        
 Randy and fellow hiker on our trip up the canyon to the old stone house built and homesteaded by a newspaper editor in Tucson.  The story goes that they came from the east with the hopes that the climate would improve his wife's health.  All the materials had to be packed  in by mules as it was over a mile to the  nearest dirt road.

Mom and Dad, Ruthann and Fred

Family outing to Sabino Canyon, part of the Coronado National forest.  There is a trolley ride that takes  you up to the top of the canyon for some spectacular views.  The mts in this area are rugged, created from volcanic activity.  On the trip up the canyon as we climbed along the trail we crossed over running water with green vegetation and large cottonwood trees.  Mountain lions and mule deer frequent the area.  Some black bears can be found higher up on Mount Lemon which  is at a elevation high enough to have snow . The Tusonians use to pack by horse up here to get away from the heat and play in the pools of water.  

The wild flowers are in bloom! It amazes me to see the variety of spring flowers in the desert.  

 We have purchased a new camper to replace our other one.  ( I think it fell under the Lemon Law category) We  had chronic problems all winter and decides it was a wise move to trade it off.  I hope this is our last move for awhile.  5 campers in 6 yrs?  I know everyone is shaking their heads... 




Sorry I have been so long in updating by blog, will try to do a better job!  Trying to format this blogger thing has been a challenge for this old dog and will be glad when my girls can give me a few lessons. Can someone tell me how to make the print larger?

We will be heading on to new territory in about three weeks.  Going to take in a ball game as spring training has arrived to Arizona.  I have been working hard with physical therapy this winter to strengthen my hip muscles and hope to get rid of the cane and maybe the limp? 

Love to all!