Gotta have my bone!

And this is what happens when the bone is at the BOTTOM of the toy basket. 

Miss Gabi hauled out every toy.... Looks like we had a toy explosion in the trailer!

Museum time!

Our continued meandering around Tucson took us to the Pima Air Museum today.  As you can see by this pic, it is an airplace geek's (ME) paradise.  Max said that he enjoyed it too.  :)  They have about 80 acres of airplanes.  We heard about this place from Judy O's bro-in-law the last time we were out this way.  I'm so glad we went this time --- OMG what an awesome place!

As you might imagine, I took a ton of pics -- to many to publish here, so I've narrowed it down to just a few.  

This helicopter was in one of the hanger displays.  It has to be the ugliest helo I've ever seen.  :)  It is a McCulloch HUM-1, built in the early 1950s.  Only 5 were built for the military, and they finally returned them since they couldn't really find a use for such a tiny helo.

An SR-71 Blackbird!  Basically a flying gas tank for long-distance snooping.  This particular version was built in the 1960s.  Interesting fact?  The dang thing leaks like a sieve when it is on the ground.  But it is oh so menacing looking!

And Air Force One was there too!  This one was used by both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.  Note that this version is a prop jet.  Can you imagine flying overseas in this?  Gad, what a loooong trip that would be, despite the fact that it undoubtedly had a luxe interior.  

And we found a blast from Max's past!  When he was in the service, he flew on the E-3A plane.  'Couse I had to get a pic of him in front of it.

And to give you an idea of the scale of this plane (and it isn't a huge plane), I backed up and got him and MOST of the plane in the pic.  

After all that trekking through the desert to look at planes today, we treated ourselves to dinner at the foodtruck that showed up at the resort tonite.  Guero Loco's Bubba-Que.  And no, you can see that isn't a typo.  Grin.  And you can also see there is quite a line.  This particular truck comes every Friday nite and is apparently known for some awesome food.  

Max and I both had tacos with smoked meat.  Mine were Hawaiian with chicken and Max had steak tips.  MMMMmmmmmmm!  They were a bit zippy, as in runny nose and sweat mustache zippy.  But damn, they were good!

On being an RVer and a tourist

We continued touring around today and ended up at both Walmart and Camping World.  I can't believe that it has taken us a week on the road to get around to that!  If you've read my posts from previous trips, you know that to be a "proper" RVer, you have to stop at Walmart frequently.  NOW we are doing it right! :)

We also continued our tourist meanderings today.  For those of you in the colder climes, it was a perfect day for it.... 80 degrees and light winds.

We ended up at the Mission San Xavier Del Bac.  What a beautiful place!

The mission building was started in 1783 by a Franciscan friar.  It was mostly completed by about 1797.  Note however that the east tower was never completed.

The inside is just spectacular.  This is looking towards the altar.  Of course, my photography does not do it justice.  Also, the hand painting in the alcoves and on the arched ceiling are beautiful as well.

We passed this in the parking lot and I couldn't resist snapping a pic.  While it isn't quite as small as a teardrop trailer, it is tiny!  I'm glad our trailer is MUCH bigger as this seems to be basically a rolling bed.  :)

And in a nod to my BF, Judy O, I got a rock!  It is a running joke with us on how many rocks she collects on their travels.  Except she gets the really BIG ones.  I'm pretty sure that she's even convinced Ron O to dig some out of the ground for her.  :)

I'm pretty happy with my small rocks.....  which is good, because Max is adverse to any over about 5 or 6 inches in diameter.  :/

Some golf and an air show!

We finally got out to play some golf today.  What a crappy day to play.  :)  Not really.  It was 75 degrees and sunny here today.  Light and variable breeze.  It got kinda hot when the breeze died.  Chuckle.  Poor me.  We played one of the city courses -- Dell Urich.  The course was in about the shape you would expect for winter.  The fairways, tees, and greens were very green.  The roughs were brown and crispy.  I understand that they've only had 1/1000th of an inch of rain so far this year.  So the condition wasn't surprising.  The views were, however.  This course is basically in the middle of town.  But this is the view down one of the holes.  Beautiful!

Our games were about what one would expect given that neither of us have played golf since last September/October.  We were up, down, left, right.  Let's just say that we got our money's worth by seeing the WHOLE course!  :)  I caught Max in one of his warmup swings.  

And even tho' it was in the mid-town area, there were quite a few wildlife.  We saw lots of grey ground squirrels.  Usually they skipped to their burrows when we approached.  But not this guy!

We found him on one tee box.  I happened to be eating a banana at that time, so I threw him a couple of small pieces to keep him busy while I went to get my phone for a pic.  Max says he gobbled up the first piece.  And I caught this pic as he was escaping with the second piece.  What a cutie!

Another benefit of picking this course?  We had our own personal air show.  The local Air Force Base is huge and seems to house a number of different types of aircraft.  The course happens to be located in the flight path for landing approach, fly-bys, or touch and go.  We saw F16s, C130s, Blackhawk helicopters, A10 Warthogs, and what appeared to be the F35 fighters.  They were flying singly and in formation.  It was amazing.  And since I'm surch an airplane geek, I spent a LOT of time staring at the sky.  I tried to take a few pics, but couldn't ever get them in the frame.  Drat!

Go Shox!

Yep, I'm an alumni and a fan!  Woo hoo, Shockers!  Doesn't get much better than 30 - 0!

The case of the missing keys, and jump rings!

We took the time to do some touring around Tucson today.  We are actually staying between the airport and a VERY large Air Force Base.  Our touring today took us along the west side of the base.  It is very big and impressive.  They have a wing of F-16s and A-10s here, at least.  We've been entertained by the fly-bys as we sit outside.  Since we are in the flight path of both air fields, there are some that complain about the noise.  Not me, man.  You can tell I'm a real airplane geek and retired Boeing guy, because when I here the noise of an airplane, I hear either the sound of money :) or the sound of freedom!

Anyway, we found a place to refill one of the propane tanks.  Given all the news about how propane and heating fuel prices have sky-rocketed this winter, we were expecting to pay through the nose.  Not so, here.  They were very reasonable, which is an unexpected bonus.  

Whenever we travel someplace, I always have a running list of things that I want to see/do.  And being a jewelry-maker, that always includes local bead stores.  We found one of the places on my list and I scored some beautiful (and reasonable) jump rings.  I'm already visualizing the beautiful chainmaille bracelets I'll be able to make from these.  :)

Also, when we travel, I always have 2 sets of the fifth wheel keys with us.  'Cause well, ya never know when that might be important!  As we got in the truck to leave today, I noticed that only one set was in the "normal" truck storage place for the keys.  It kinda concerned me, but I figured that they were safely in the "normal place" in the fifth wheel.  When we got home, I checked -- no keys.  Uh oh.  We looked everywhere for those darned keys.  Under the seats in the truck, all over the obvious places in the trailer, drawers, baskets, cabinets, all the coat and hoodie pockets.  Heck I even took all the dirty clothes out and checked the pockets of those.  I looked.  Max looked.  Nothing.  Argh!  

We started contemplating taking everything out of the basement, thinking that maybe they jumped in one of the decoration boxes we have in there.  For those of you that RV, you understand what an undertaking that can be.  One can get a lot of really important (and sometimes, not so important) stuff crammed in the basement of a fifth wheel.  

Max was making one more pass through the trailer and happened to reach out and check the pocket of my apron.  Voila, keys!  Seriously????  Doh, Marci!  :)

Choo choo!

Okay, so not every day is all tourist or golf.  We do have those days where nothing really exciting happens when we are out on the road.  Yesterday was on of those days.  I was going to say it was a lazy Sunday, but we managed to stay pretty busy.  We did laundry for a couple of hours.  Granted that is less time that at home to do the same amount, but still.......  This resort is so big that they have 3 laundry facilities.  I had actually planned to use the one next to the swimming pool.  You know, swim then fold....  :)  But with the storm that came through on Saturday, it was a bit cool to be swimming.  So I settled for the laundry close to our side of the park.  

It was cool enough that I put together the stuff for crock pot green chili stew.  While I was at that, Max found a car wash and shined up the truck.  It was showing the road grime quite a lot!  

I do want to show you the miniature train setup they have near the clubhouse.  These guys are SERIOUS about their trains!

They even have a train station.  :)

Notice the small circus, complete with farris wheel in the foreground.

I actually couldn't get the whole setup in the frame, but this gives you an idea of the scale of this place.  This photo encompasses about 1/3 of the whole thing.

They run multiple tracks and trains on multiple levels within.  It is something amazing!

One last post from Tucson.....

Today was our last full day in Tucson.  I should be saying that we made the most of it and did some more touring around today..... but I can't.  Instead, it turned out to be a pretty darned lazy day.  We ran a couple of errands.  Went back to the 4th Avenue shops because I decided that there were a couple more pieces of Mexican pottery that I just couldn't live without.  And no, that didn't include the "day of the dead" bride skeleton.  Couldn't sell that idea to Max.  Grin.

We basically laid around this afternoon.  It was warm enough that we had to fire up the a/c for the second day in a row.  Once again it was furnace, then attic fan, then a/c, then attic fan, and I'm sure the furnace will kick on again tonite.  Chuckle.  Certainly a wide range of temps here.

We had one more excellent Mexican meal tonite.  There is a family run place just a couple of blocks from the resort and it was good!  I'm pretty sure that the gym will be calling my name next week.

We spent some time this evening taking down and putting away stuff outside the trailer.  That made me think of these pics.  I forgot to make them into a post last week!  These ceramic lanterns were an Xmas gift from our friends, the Os.  They are ceramic solar lamps that create a lovely glow at nite.

I took one with a flash so that you could see how pretty they are even in the light.  Nice!

From heater to attic fan to air conditioner (almost)

Yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Tucson.  I'm amazed at the range of temps!  We started the day with the furnace as it is getting down into the 50s at night here.  And yes, I actually left the electric blanket on the bed when we arrived.  We are both glad as it feels kinda good at night.  

As the morning progresses, we open windows and turn on the RV equivalent of an old-fashioned attic fan.  They call it the "fantastic fan" and it actually runs off a rudimentary thermostat.  And it does keep the air circulating in the place.  It was quite comfortable for most of the day.

By late afternoon the temps outside had reached just above 80.  Nice!  Well, it did start getting a bit warm in here and we actually discussed turning on the A/C.  In the end we decided to just take a nap -- problem solved.  :)

By about 6pm the sun goes down and we start reversing the process.

Today was a bit cooler, only 75 degrees.  But it was coudy most of the day.  I know, I know..... boo hoo for us!  :/

Oh, and as I type this?  It is 24 degrees and snowy in Wichita.

Food trucks and other food-related stuff

So if you don't want to cook, just walk down to the food truck for dinner!  Apparently two or three times a week, a different food truck comes in to the rv resort for dinner.  Tonite was German food.  The brats were yummy!

On Thursday, it will be Jane's Rolling Wok and on Friday, Guerro Loco's Bubba Que.  (No, I didn't mis-type that.  grin.)  Now keep in mind that the food trucks arrive for dinner AT 4 PM!  Seriously???  I mentioned that to Mom and she reminded me that there are a bunch of senior citizens here.  Sheesh, I can't help but think that no matter how old I am, dinner will NEVER begin at 4pm.  Fortunately, they hang around til about 6 so we can get dinner at a more resonable time.

We found the local version of Dillons grocery store today.  It is actually owned by the same company (Kroger) so our fuel points work here as well.  Nice!  As I was looking at the flowers, I keep hearing thunder..... as in a thunder storm.  We are in Tucson folks -- no rain here.  So I got to looking around.  The flower shop is located right next to the produce department.  Apparently right before the sprayers that keep the veges fresh start to mist water, they run a the sound of thunder and rain.  The lights over the produce even flicker like lightening.  I suppose the intent is to warn shoppers so that they don't get wet. I thought it was very cool!

A walk in the park

We took the girls for a stroll thru the pet part of the rv park this morning. This being Arizona, I didn't expect there to be grass. And there isn't around the sites.... All gravel. But just a half block from our site we ran across a beautiful grassy area.... IN the pet section. 

Sadly, we can't let the girls play on it. Oh and if one can't read this sign, there are four more of them around this small area!  <shaking head>  Go figure. 

We did see a sight to make us smile.....

Nothing like a flock of flamingos to brighten the walk!  :)

Ahhhhh, Tucson!

If you haven't figured out where we are headed...... we arrived in Tucson yesterday.  The first thing I did after we got unhooked and the slides out?  I changed into shorts and flipflops!  It was 80 degrees and sunny when we arrived!  Ahhhhh, warmth!  I actually broke a sweat getting the inside of the fifith wheel situatued.  :)  

The park we are staying at is kinda cramped.  But that isn't surprising given how popular this area is with the snowbirds.  And we've already had a complaint about the girls barking from one of the neighbors.  Sheesh, ya would think that wouldn't be a problem in the "dog section" of the park.  Seriously, most RV resorts have dog and non-dog sections.  

Anyway, this is a view of our site from the street.  If you want to look it up, we are at Rincon Country West RV Resort.  We are all setup, but not really setup.  If you are an RVer, you know what I mean.  We have the essentials setup outside but still have to "decorate" with lights, wind chimes, and what not.  Maybe we'll accomplish that later today.

We've done a tiny bit of exploring thus far -- found the grocery store, Michaels, PetSmart, and Home Depot.  What else could we possibly need?!?  :)  Actually, the grocery store was a pretty small local one and honestly I couldn't find even half of what was on my list.  So we went into the Target next door and learned that while they carry groceries, it certainly isn't what they carry at the Super Targets.  Guess we will go searching for a bit larger grocery store in the next couple of days.  

And of course, we found the PetSmart so that we could replace the latest harness that Miss Gabi chewed up.  We found a new one last nite, but when I tried it on her, it seemd way too small.  So we went back today and exhanged it for one size up.  THAT one was too big.  I'm thinking I must have had the smaller one on backwards.  DOH!  So we'll make one more trip later (AND take the girls this time!), to hopefully find the correct size!

Tomorrow we'll start exploring Tucson and maybe even playing some golf!!!

Bored puppy

And this is what Gabi does to the hated harness when she is bored.....

Yes, she accomplished this WHILE she was wearing the darned harness!

Signs of Spring

The flowering crab apples are already in bloom here in New Mexico!  Our flowering crab apple at home won't be blooming for another month or so!

Seeking Truth (or Consequences)

We didn't waste much time getting away from Amarillo this morning.....  the cold weather didn't encourage lingering.

We drove west to Albequerque and then turned south again.  At one of our stops late this afternoon, we saw this at the rest stop.

In case you can't tell..... that is an old time cannon on that trailer.  Ya just never know exactly what you might see as you travel these United States.  It is definitely never boring!

It was another long day on the road.  Two 8 hour days have left us both pretty exhausted.  I don't know why driving (or in my case, riding) is such a tiring endeavor.  We did have one of the Lee Child audiobooks to help pass the time.  Max commented that it did seem to make the hours go by a bit faster.  His other comment, at the end of the drive, was something to the effect that he sure wished we lived closer to warm weather.  :)  Me toooooo!

At any rate, we arrived in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico early this evening.  Along the way, I learned that Google maps isn't always entirely accurate.  In this case, we got to "our final destination" and, well, nothing.  Now that isn't normally a problem, except when you are towing a 35 foot trailer.  In that case, ya can't exactly turn that baby around on a dime.  A football field, mayble.  Or in our case, the fairgrounds parking lot.

While we idled there, I called the RV park and found that Google maps had us get off on the wrong exit and then didn't have us go far enough to reach the RV park.  Argh!  It felt good to find the place and get setup.  This is the view from the back of the trailer.  Nice!

The park is definitely an older one.  You actually have to drive up a small mountain (hillside) to get to it.  And the park is setup with three levels.  We are on the top level.... hence the wonderful view.

The weather here is just gorgeous, sunny and 65 degrees.  That warranted a stroll around the park for us and the girls.  We all needed to stretch our legs after the last two days.  The weather encourages time outside.  And while we will have to run the furnace tonite (it'll get down into the mid 40s), that's a damn sight better than last nite!  :)

Even better, tomorrow will be a short (relatively) driving day.  So we'll take our time getting up and around in the morning.  That's the best way to start the day.

Brrrrrrrrr!

27 degrees in Amarillo this morning. Ugh!  Only one more day until warm days and mild nites. Yay!

The drive thru the western part of the Texas panhandle seems real similar to the drive thru western Kansas. Flat..... And right now a lot of brown. You can definitely tell that this is cattle ranching and farming country. Oh, and wind farm country too!  In some places the wind turbines stretch as far as the eye can see. It is kinda eerie to see them just lazily turning, one after another, in the breeze.

It will be another long day on the road. But at least the winds are light today. That helps, both in gas mileage and in comfort.

Our destination today?  Truth or Consequences, New Mexico!  Bet you never picked THAT as a destination!  :)

Dinner in Amarillo

The lengths we will go to for a good steak!

If  you recognize the steak house in the photo, then you will know that we are in Amarillo Texas.  One of the reasons I wanted to stop here is that it takes us about 1/3 of the way on our journey.  But the other reason to stop here for the night is to have dinner at The Big Texan.  If you watch the food or travel channel, you might have seen a show about their steak challenge.  If you eat a 72 ounce steak and all the fixins in one hour, you get it free!  Oh, and the fixins include shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato, and rolls.  They have a display of the whole thing when you walk in the place.....  Max said that the steak looks just like a roast.  And he is right!

No, we didn't take the challenge.  Hell, I couldn't even get through my small steak sliders.  But they were VERY good.  Max had a ribeye.  Must have been good 'cause he ended up with a happy plate.  :)

And they throw in a serenade from some roving cowboys too.... Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. Nice!

Time to get outta Dodge!

Time to get outta Dodge!

Well at least it is time to get out of Wichita!  After 2 heavy-ish snows this winter, I finally convinced Max that we needed to go someplace warm!  We finally left the house about 10 minutes ago. :)

As you can see from the current radar snapshot, it was none too soon!  We had hoped to get out before the rain got here, but that didn't work out. We are driving right now in rain mixed with a little snow. Hope to outrun it soon!  

We won't, however, outrun the wind. Heavy winds will likely bounce us around all the way today. Ah well!