January 27th – February
20th
We left Anchorage early
morning on January 27th and flew to Seattle and changed
planes and onto Tucson where our friends Lyle and Rose met us at the
airport and drove us to their home in Green Valley about 30 miles
south of Tucson. We had stored our truck and trailer in the Green
Valley area. It was nice to see our rig again and the truck started
up instantly after been stored for a couple of months which is also a
nice feeling.
We stayed with Lyle and Rose a couple
of nights and then drove into Tucson to Rincon Country West
Campground. We had stayed here last year for 5 nights and really
enjoyed the camp. It is a large campground with about 1000 sites and
has both park models and RVs here. We had made reservations to stay
here a month. The 1st week we were here we were both laid
up with a nasty cold, that really slowed us down. We did manage to
reassemble our folding bikes which fit into suitcases. The 2nd
bike assembled much faster than the 1st one we put
together as we found a few shortcuts. The campground backs up to a
dry wash which joins the Santa Cruz River, also dry. There is a
lovely paved trail on either side of the river, where we have gone
for several bike rides.
There is a lot happening in Tucson and
the Gem and Mineral show is one of the big attractions here during
February. It is held in several locations in Tucson so we enjoyed the
3 or 4 venues that we visited; there are many more venues that we
didn’t go to. The scope of rocks and gems and fossils at each of
the venues was overwhelming.
We went for a hike in Sabino Canyon
with Luci and Jim, some Anchorage friends who have a home in Tucson.
We went on a tour of Biosphere 2, a giant green house which is
managed for study and experimental purposes by the University of
Arizona. When it was 1st built it was occupied by 12
scientists for a period of 2 years, the goal was to live on the food
grown in the Biosphere.
One of our favorite places in Tucson
is The Desert Museum, a museum of the animals, birds and plants that
live in the Sonora desert. One of the many highlights is the
demonstration of the birds in free flight.
There are several activities at the
campground that we participate in, each morning at 7:15 there is an
30 minute stretch class that we go to, followed by a 45 minute
aerobics class. I try my luck playing in a pool tournament on a
Thursday. There is also a nice heated swimming pool we like to
frequent regularity. There are 3 jacuzzi pools that we spend time in.
There are many activities available here, like Saturday there was a
very large quilt show. Every Wednesday there is a farmers market.
Since we have been in Tucson the
weather has been unusually for this time of the year--we had about 3
mornings in a row of below freezing temperatures and today we had
snow here.
