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Published: January 21st 2011
THE BASICS
We left snowy Durham in the early morning hours of January 13. Mike drove us to the Manchester airport, and by sometime late that afternoon we arrived in Phoenix. We spent several days at my brother's, sleeping first inside the house, and then reunited with our dear RV in the driveway. Our biggest Phoenix-area adventure involved my brother driving us out into the desert to see a regional model airplane meet.
On to Tucson, parked at a 55-plus resort, we have already renewed once for two more days. We spent a pleasant morning at the Tucson Museum of Art, and yesterday we traveled to the Titan Missile Museum, Tubac, and a favorite little town, Patagonia.
Mostly, we are relishing the warm sun. It can get down into the 30's at night here in the desert, but by noon it's in the high 60's or above. John especially enjoys reading about the weather back in Durham, where it has been especially snowy, with school closings and late openings. Sigh...
THE FLUFF
The time zone can get confusing. Our plane stopped at Las Vegas, where the difference from home is three hours, then traveled on to Phoenix, which does not change its time, so is only two hours different from us in the winter. The sun therefore rises very late, comparatively for us. I'm writing now at 6 AM, and the full moon is still high in the sky with no sign yet of sunrise.
We are delighted to be back in our RV. She (or he?) developed no problems during our three months back east, and we are as cozy as ever.
The model airplane meet was neat. Most of the planes we saw were launched with engines, which had to shut off within 14 seconds and allow the plane to glide. To stay in contention, they had to remain aloft for three minutes. As the field grew smaller, the engines had to shut off within ten seconds. The folks who build and fly these planes are passionate about them, and many travel long distances for the meets. They are very proud to show off their craftsmanship, and they will point out the most successful builders with great awe.
My brother's wife Katy is fun to pal around with. We did our thrift shop visit, had our nails done, and she even dyed my hair. Besides that, she prepares meals with skill and seeming ease, which is way more than I can say for myself.
On Sunday, John and I walked up to Camelback to watch runners in the PF Chang Rock and Roll Marathon. It is always fun to see so many fit people, and I especially admire the wheelchair combatants. Later, we watched with dismay as the Jets beat the Patriots.
Monday found us all on a Phoenix rapid transit train, a recent development in the area. $1.75 for an all-day pass; you could "ride forever on the streets of Phoenix." We went to the eastern terminus, Mesa, and then on the way back got off in downtown Tempe, home of Arizona State University. It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and maybe that's why it was so busy. Or maybe it was the perfect weather. We had ice cream, and then a beer, sitting at sidewalk tables and watching the people. There seemed to be a lot of piercings and tattoos, etc., and we even saw someone rolling a joint, right there on a major street. Somewhat different from our little college town of Durham.
On Tuesday morning, we met for coffee and bagels with a high school classmate of Linda's and his wife. I missed our reunion in October, back in Morristown NJ, but it spurred interest in contacting and learning about the whereabouts of our classmates. (This was actually our 51st reunion, because people did not get it organized until this year. Silly, huh? We're now aiming for a 55th.) We gabbed for hours, and it was great fun. Now if I could only figure out how to download my photo of Cris, who now calls himself Frank, so I could post it for all to see...
We drove to Tucson. That still seems like a very, very long drive, even though shopping centers and retirement communities have sprung up along the route. This park has mostly double-wide trailers for people who escape here for the winter, and there are also plenty of "slabs" for RV's as well. The people here are nice and friendly, but they do seem old to us - what business do we have to think that?!
The Titan Missile Museum was fascinating. It is the only remaining Titan missile in the world, since disarmament, and of course it is disarmed. Huge!!! The motto is "Peace through Deterrence," and indeed none of our 54 Titans ever had to be launched with nuclear missiles aboard. But manning them took a lot of personnel and expense. Brings up the everlasting worry about why mankind seems to find war more natural than peace.
Tubac is a busy small artsy community, with many shops containing locally produced goods, imports from nearby Mexico, secondhand things, etc. I was happy to find a magnolia print for our dining room at home, and it was very inexpensive. We have been warned many times not to cross the border, so we heeded the warnings, though it is hard to understand how conditions could have changed so much since our Nogales visit some years back. Later, we passed a border patrol headquarters in Sonoita and we had to go back and take a photo of the parking lot - there seemed to be hundreds of border patrol vehicles.
Before we got to Patagonia, we detoured to Patagonia Lake State Park, which we had not seen before. Wow! A wonderful up and down drive for four miles to the lake, passing adobe mansions on 26-acre lots. There were quite a few RV's camped by the lake, and it has moved onto our "to do" list. We had been enchanted by the little town of Patagonia years ago, and it doesn't seem to have changed much. A wide center strip on the main road must echo New England for us. There are a few shops, a hotel, a coffee shop where we shared a delicious slice of warm pecan pie. I went into a shop, then couldn't spot John; finally found him chatting (i.e. flirting) with a recent Bowdoin grad in a health food shop. The town seems to be extremely low-key, but at the same time it exudes liveliness. And the Patagonia area is a bonanza for bird watchers.
Later today I will meet my high school lockermate for lunch. (Then I'll have another photo to try to figure out how to download...) We are meeting at an inn across the street from the University Medical Center which has dominated recent news. I think Carolyn is still rattled because that Safeway is where she shops, just three blocks from her home.
I think we will be as interested as anyone to find out where we are by next Friday, when I write the next entry. At least we know we will be heading eastward.
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Thora
non-member comment
sounds like fun
You see more in a few days than we do in a lifetime. Have a wonderful time. Thora