Blogs from Florence, Arizona, United States, North America

My goodness where does the time go? Our level of activity has really increased. We've been making new friends becoming very engaged in the community We both volunteer at Boyce Thompson. Cindy works the hospitality desk and I've been leading tours. We meet people from all over the world and every walk of life. Quilting, sewing, knitting, gourding, walking, hiking, biking, carving, rollerblading, reading, eating meals outdoors, volunteering, and watching the sunset while sipping wine dominate our time. Drew returns soon from a year's tour in Afghanistan. We will be headed to Killeen, Texas (Fort Hood) for the homecoming. We are really looking forward to it. My Canadian hiking buddy and I just finished a great hike above the Peralta trail in the Superstition Mountains. We hiked up Cardiac Hill and then the Cave Trail reaching ... read more

We are driving on Interstate 10 from New Orleans to Tucson. That means we have to drive through Houston and San Antonio and across the entire state of Texas. We were close to Houston right at evening rush hour so we pulled into a Cracker Barrel for dinner and a place to spend the night. We left our camping spot at Cracker Barrel at 5:30 AM hoping to beat the morning rush hour in Houston. There was still a lot of traffic, but we didn’t get caught in any traffic jams. We got through San Antonio and were well on our way into Texas hill country by early afternoon. Our next stop was at the Caverns of Sonora and RV Park, about 200 miles west of San Antonio. We arrived 15 minutes before the last guided ... read more

Prisons, both private and state, exist east of Florence. Two long term inmates have just been assigned dates for execution. Now, opposite the prisons on Highway 79 sits the Blue Mist Hotel. It is painted blue. The locals will tell you the name came as a result of executions. At one time capital punishment criminals were executed by gas. The gas would have a bluish tint to it, hence the Blue Mist. In the late 1980's the one prisoner scheduled for execution was given a compassionate furlough and met his mother-in-law at the Blue Mist. He ended up killing her and dismembering the body. Journeyed to Box Canyon and the Coke Ovens today. We traversed 30 miles in the back country between Florence and Superior. Box Canyon is a walled canyon area. A narrow passage leads ... read more

Wow! What an adventure. Went with a group of off road enthusiasts to run the Charlou Gap. Twenty-six miles through the Catalina Mountains, running from Oracle to the outskirts of Tucson. The road, I really shouldn't call it a road. The trail follows old mining paths and roads used for fire suppression. While driving along the Florence-Kelvin Highway we came across a Crown Head Saguaro. This is a rare occurance in the Saguaro family. It has no additional arms extending from the main trunk. Instead, on the top grows a crown. Another nature tidbit-- Now in the midwest we're used to grubs maybe an inch in length. While digging around a Palo Verde plant we encountered a grub like creature, the Palo Verde Root Borer. The 5 inch long grub lives in the root system for ... read more

Hello again. We just spent five days in Killeen, Texas with Drew, Lynn, and the girls. Cindy took Maddy and Brooklyn to the Children's (Hands on) Museum in Austin. We had a chance to go to their school, Clarke Elementary a couple of times. First we ate lunch with the girls on Thursday and later we went back to a math and technology night. It was fun to talk to many teachers and see what technology was afforded them. My-oh-my...too bad Brighton leaders couldn't see these classrooms. Looking at the turnout of military families sure left an impression. Deployments break up continunity all to often, the chance to be a full family is precious and well understood and NOT taken for granted. As we left Killeen we encountered more wet weather. A Canadian cold air mass ... read more