Russ and Kappys' Adventure 2017

Sorry I missed this yesterday.  So I am gonna give you a lot of information today.  Yesterday, Monday, we picked up our roving bedroom and moved over to Tucson.  We are parked in the backyard of a couple of our oldest friends -- Craig and Jan Rowe.  They live in this beautiful area called Marana and they have a beautiful home (which the rent out) and a nice little Casita where they stay most of the time.  Here is the view from our trailer -- which makes it, I suppose, Casita #2 on this property.  And here are a couple of pictures of the "Big House" at Pasos de Ceilo.   Oh, and here is picture of a couple of old army buddies, talking about fishing and hunting. We have known Jan and Craig for at least 45 years.  Lived in the Bay Area near them and now they live in Tucson and we only get to see them once a year.  Jan is busy with her Grandson Bradley and daughter Heather.  Jan also has a habit of buying pr...

This morning I skipped the normal church and ended up at the church of the laundry.  Laundry Church Still kinda cool here but warmed up a bit.  After laundry I came back to the trailer and changed into one of my new outfits and Russ and I set out for our appointed lunch date with Mike Barna.  We arranged to meet 1/2 way between where he lives in Scottsdale and where we are located in Buckeye.  That place turned out to be at a restaurant named "Bobby Q" in Phoenix.  We arrived in the parking lot at the same time and even though I haven't seen Mike in a few years I recognized him immediately.  Mike Barna, like us, used to live in Truckee.  He was the manager at the good old family restaurant called "OB's Pub."  He was also an avid runner and when I got to know him it was during the years when I would go running at the new rec department indoor track where he worked part time.  I credit Mike with inspiring me to keep up my running a...

Jeez, who knew it would be so cold here.  Duh, I shoulda packed a few more things for freezing (or close) weather. Got out this morning for about 3 miles on perfectly level territory.   The first thing I noticed was the smell.  Yep, at the end of the paved road, just a little bit past it on the gravel, I realized that we were downwind of the local sewer plant.  Yesterday my friend said -- do you think that smells like horses?  I had said, "no, I think it smells like human pooh."  This morning my olfactory senses were confirmed.  No wonder this park is so inexpensive. Further along, on that same road, I ran into a state of the art and beautiful high school.  Man, when i think of it, how lucky we would have been to have this facility. when I was a teenager. Finished with that, I got an awesome -- all you can get -- warm shower at the clubhouse.  Can't believe how few people take advantage of this.  Guess some folk just like to s...

It is cold here in Phoenix.  That's all I have to report.  We moved from the the Lake Pleasant AZ state campground to an RV Resort with full hookups in Buckeye -- which is about 30 miles from Phoenix.  Our TV won't pick up NBC so no olympics.  They do have a great lending library here though.  $30 a night -- not bad but RV's are stacked one on top of the other which is quite a difference from the last few places we have camped.  We went to dinner at Cracker Barrel with Steve and Pat, after happy hour at one of the local gold courses.  I promise I will have more to report tomorrow.  Maybe even some pictures other than myself -- here's one Tomorrow we go shopping and maybe a movie.  All after a run. 

Nice run this morning -- a lot of uphill at the beginning so again, I thought of quitting. But I didn't! It's the music that keeps me going. I love how I get to see so much stuff first thing in the morning even before anyone else is up.  There must have been at least 10 hot air balloons out and one little cotton tail bunny.  Sorry, no pictures.  Can't stop for them.  I ran to the other areas in the campground and checked out the showers.  Kind of confused about the signage -- seemed like it was all for handicapped but I guess it just meant that it is available for handicapped people.  Shower is free and I found out later, the water is perfect!! Running (no matter how fast) always has a way of making my day so good!  How lucky am I?  I find that the easiest way to see an area and get a handle on it is to run or walk it. So after a great shower in the AZ park (nice and warm, whereas the weather here is NOT), we headed out to have lunch in Scot...

We departed our quiet, free and spacious campsite this morning after a nice breakfast and daybreak. Our objectives were to get some civilized work done so we headed for the UPS store in Buckeye, AZ.  There we were able to take care of  1) sending all of our tax information off to our accountant (which included making 44 copies); 2) signing some documents for our investment folks (yes they needed them faxed and not electronic signatures; 3) sending payment for my awesome new painting (see below); and 4) sending Mom's birthday gift and card off to her.  All of this was accomplished in a matter of 25 minutes thanks to a very efficient man named Tyler at the store.  Just amazing.  Afterwards we had lunch and motivated ourselves over to a Safeway where we stocked up on stuff.  In case you think you have one of those special discount cards at Safeway that works all across America -- guess again.  Every state has a different Safeway card (I guess they are d...

I got up for a run this morning -- beautiful and calm day!  3 miles on the irrigation road.  Ran past an old adobe building that is working its way back to sand.  Sorry no picture.  Didn't think of it at the time.  Spent most of the morning and 1/2 of the afternoon trying to figure out where to stay this weekend.  Try to get a spot in a park (hookups) in the Phoenix area at the last minute for the weekend or, in fact, for anytime from December through April 1st, everything is booked and none of it would have been cheap (at least $50 per night).  Steve finally found us a place at $30 a night in Buckeye so we booked it.  Now we can get on with life. This afternoon we went to the petroglyphs.  Again the namesake for this BLM monument.  Here are some pictures I took. Somebody was busy here This entire bunch of boulders were COVERED in pictures.  If you can, zoom in and check them out.  It is as if a bunch of teenagers...

Wind started blowing again early this morning at the Organ Pipe Cactus Park.  One story I have to tell for which I have no pictures and it is only relayed second hand:  Russ walked by one of the tent campsites where it was obvious that the campers were German -- their flag, etc.  The campers were not there, must have been out exploring one of the hikes.  The funny thing was that there, perched on their styrofoam cooler were 2 ravens just going to town on the contents.  I wonder what they had for dinner this evening.  We had decided to press onto BLM dry camping a bit north at the Petroglyph site:  Painted Rock.  Our plan had been to drive to Gila Bend, gas up, have lunch, stock up on groceries and set up camp by mid afternoon.  The gas up proved to be quite challenging as everyone in the world was doing the same thing and when you have a truck with a trailer and you have to have diesel, you are kinda at the other folks mercy -- or you j...

Pat and I got up early this morning and attended Mass at the Mission Church at La Cholla.  This place was built by one man and his wife who were from Southern California.  The guy's name is Bob and before Mass started, he gave us a brief history.  He and his wife now reside permanently in Puerto Penasco and he is a Deacon of this church.  The priest who celebrated the Mass came from downtown and he spoke only a little English but was very endearing.  The Mass took twice as long as normal because they pretty much had to do everything in both English and Spanish.  Feeling blessed and happy to have experienced this, we broke camp at 11 am and headed back to the USA.  No problem.  For those of you who are curious, US customs asked us only:  do you have any fruit or meat?  That's it for Sonoyta/Lukeville crossing.  No one ever asked us for the visas that we had purchased ahead of time and no one ever asked us for any TIP (temporary imp...

Leaving tomorrow and I really am not feeling bad about leaving.  We had a nice day today but for those of us who don't like to fish or ride ATV's, this is only an easy place to get to from the USA.  It makes me kind of embarrassed to be one of us.  Here we feel we can let go.  Relax, drink and don't give a shit at the expense of another country  On the other hand, the other country loves us because we contribute to their lives by spending muchos dollares.  Kinda like the tourists from the Bay Area coming to  the Tahoe Truckee area.  It's okay.  Just an observation. This morning I got a good 3 miles in.  Steve got a good run in too.  I am so proud of him.  He quit smoking cigars since he left Tahoe and re-discovered running.  I know he now knows what a great high this exercise gives us -- all day long.  Afterwards, we went to town and undid all of the good we did at that Pointe Bar -- really scary Magaritas.  ...

Still crappy this morning but we had to do laundry so off Pat and I go to the Laundry that we discovered yesterday.  They will wash, dry and fold our stuff for 20 pesos a pound.  Such a deal. With the help of google and Russ, we found the place again!  Enroute to the laundry, we saw a sign that pointed towards a place called "Rodeo Drive."  We had been told by the bartender at "Wrecked at the Reef" that this was the place to shop.  So we marked that in our brains and vowed to make a stop after dropping off the laundry. Transaction completed, we headed out to find Rodeo Drive.  After one wrong not turn, we managed to get squared away and surprised ourselves by finding the place.  A stretch of vendors and shops about 3 blocks long where, in fact, there were some rather interesting items.  Some of the latest are metal sculptures in the shape and form of flowers.  I was sorely tempted but decided to wait til San Felipe and assess their wares an...