September 11, 2014

September 11, 2014

Deserts are famous for having the most terrifying denizens; rattlesnakes, scorpions, Gila Monsters, tarantulas, and centipedes to name only a few. Since moving here we have really seen precious few of them. We thought their existence rare and overblown. So much so I had no qualms whatsoever running around my yard in flip-flops and sticking my hand under bushes to check irrigation lines.

Recently we have begun to realize that these creepy crawlies are really all around us. Only they spend the majority of the year living underground, patiently waiting for Tucson’s summer heat to arrive. Apparently just about the time most of us snowbirds leave for cooler climes, the local residents dig their way out of their burrows and roam the neighborhood. Thankfully most are nocturnal, waiting to come out after we have gone to bed.

If I am going to spend any significant time here during the summer, I need to be a little more diligent when doing maintenance in the yard. I got taught my lesson the other day when I was troubleshooting the irrigation system and I opened the water meter box. Before I leaned my head in to read the meter, I noticed a coiled rattlesnake (albeit very tiny) in one corner and a Giant Hairy Desert Scorpion in the other. Both too big to eat each other; but both not wanting to share this enclosure with me either.

I am making plans to schedule longer trips away next summer.

August 25, 2014

August 25, 2014

Today we sold the RV.  For the last few years, as a lark, we put the motorhome up for sale every time we returned from a trip.  This time somebody called our bluff.  It is a bittersweet event.  This motorhome has been our companion for all nine summers of Our Big Adventure.  She has gotten us up close and personal with all the wonderful National Parks of this country.  But like us she is aging and needs frequent maintenance.

As we close this chapter, we can’t help but reminisce about our journeys with her.  We bought her without a lot of forethought but ended up traveling with her 76,000 miles, equivalent to 25 coast-to-coast trips.  We slept in her 528 nights, almost a year and a half of our life.  She guzzled expensive gasoline, over $22,000.  While that is a lot of money, we bought her for less than a new car and she saved us tons of money we would have spent on hotel rooms and restaurants. 

But ultimately we didn’t travel with her to save money; it was a lifestyle choice.  Owning a motorhome meant we could travel like the wind, stopping wherever and whenever we wanted.  No searching for hotel rooms; no unpacking needed.  We slept in more than one parking lot, riverbank, cliff side, and deserted forest site.  We had countless lunches on roadside pullouts with million-dollar views.

We may be moving into a new phase but Our Big Adventure is not over.  There are still many sites to see and experiences to discover in this world.  Who knows, another newer motorhome may yet be in our future.

August 23, 2014

August 23, 2014

Some friends invited us to accompany them to a wine tasting in the Sonoita, AZ area.  It sounded like fun so we agreed.  Every locale in the country seems to have vineyards now, including our own town, so I wasn’t too surprised to hear of one in southern Arizona.  We have traveled all over Arizona, so I was shocked to discover how different the terrain is in Sonoita.  After we left the interstate and traveled south we gradually gained elevation climbing tree-studded hills emerging into flat ranch country.  Since we are in the middle of Arizona monsoon season, the grass is green with the recent rains.  And with an elevation 2000 feet higher than Tucson, it is refreshingly cool.  This just cannot be southern Arizona.  In a way it isn’t; it looks more like Oklahoma, or at least the Oklahoma of our dreams.  So much so that the movie with that name was filmed here.

We did tastings at three different wineries, enjoying flavorful wine, delightful weather, and good friends. Aimee and I need to find a summer ranch here.

Afterwards we returned to Tucson to attend the Big Ten Mixer/Charity event. All fourteen schools were represented. To my pleasant surprise I met two Illini alumni who were on the 1963 Rose Bowl squad. That famous team included Dick Butkus and Jim Grabowski. Their stories were fascinating. In those days, college players played both offense and defense. I am hoping some of their magic rubs off onto today’s Fighting Illini.