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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

The great Tucson snow storm


Feb. 22 2019
A major winter storm heading for southern Arizona with predictions of several feet of snow in the higher elevations. At about 7:30 am the rain started turning into snow.







By 8:00 am it was all snow.



The hummers were having a tough day.





Youtube: Tucson Police investigate white powdery substance. 

10:00 am was the peak.  It continued to snow the rest of the day but the just above freezing temps kept it from building much more than this.


Blue is snow.

Feb. 23 2019
The next morning dawned with clear skies and some terrific views of the snow covered mountains surrounding Tucson. 



Here's some scenes from our morning walk.


Pantano wash with snow covered Mt. Lemon.


Lakeside Park looking east toward Rincon mountains.


Mt. Lemon from Lakeside Park.




What's left of a snow man from the previous day.

Feb. 24 2019
After a day of bright sun and warming temperatures the snow was retreating fast. 





The snow man all but gone.



Feb. 26 2019
All's back to normal, just the peak of Mt. Lemon has any visible snow remaining. The high for today is 74.



Coming next, Back on the road.

Monday, February 25, 2019

Tucson AZ, 2019

January, February 2019

We arrived at Tucson Meadows RV Resort Jan. 1.  The next morning we had snow on the truck, a harbinger of things to come.


We scheduled 2 months in Tucson to get all our medical and dental check-up's done. We were here last year and made some good friends.  In between appointments we did have a little fun.

The group at a local brew pub.


While enjoying your beverage of choice, you could also take a yoga class.  A seemingly odd combination but I guess don't knock it till you try it.

A friends 75th birthday party

Motown night at the clubhouse.

Friends from Portal, AZ came into town and we went to just 1 of 26 venue's for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.


Something blue?




These lights are gorgeous but according to their price tags the tall floor models cost thousands. 



You can even buy real fossils.

I don't think it'll fit in the camper!

These Yooperlite rocks have and interesting story.

"In 2017, Eric Rintamaki went out on the a beach in Lake Superior with a UV light and discovered dozens of these glowing rocks.  to the naked eye, they look like gray rocks, but under the UV light, the mineral composite makes the rocks glow."

Excerpt from WWW.YOOPERLITES.COM
The story of Yooperlites Youtube video.

I didn't know there were florescent rocks, now their everywhere.

For the girl who has everything.






Coming next, The great Tucson snow storm.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Ajo AZ, revisited

Feb., 2019
Well It's happened again, I've gotten complacent and over two months has passed since I started the below post.  Here's what happened last December. The next post will have pictures from our time here in Tucson.

Dec. 16, 2018
We spent a couple of months in Ajo last year volunteering for Cabeza Preita NWR and staying in Shadow Ridge RV Resort, on Cabeza's dime.  We enjoyed our time in Ajo and working for Cabeza but earlier this year we decided to take a break from volunteering and focus on traveling.  The desert just south of  Ajo is famous for boondocking opportunities.  With all our resources topped of in Yuma we were looking forward to sampling the desert life and a nice long stay.

With all the time we spent here last year we never got around to scouting some potential campsites so we were flying by the seat of our pants.  I'd done a lot of research, reading blogs from past visitors and studying the Google earth images. However, everything is very different when your on the ground.  Also, just because you know of a good site, there may be someone already in it.  We stayed on the main road (aka: the Ajo Scenic Loop) for fear of going down a road where we couldn't turn around.  Even on the Scenic Loop road, there's a point where we'd have to turn around because of some tight turns and deep dips.

Well to make a long story short...er... we did find a good site.  From the road it just looked like a spot to back in and park.  However, by going deeper it opened up to a nice level site not obvious from the road.  At about 100 yards in we could see vehicles going past but couldn't see the road itself.  That kept the noise down significantly and we never got any dust from passing cars. Also, anyone with a rig our size probably thought it was too tight to back into.  I on the other hand thought, yeah, we can do that!  Well, it proved to be much more difficult than I thought.   Yes, we did make it in and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there but it took quite a few try's to find just the right line in.

We stayed 10 days and decided that was about the extent of our time without going into town for a dump and refill..  In these situations you learn the value of conserving resources. We did make some trips into town, just a few miles but it took 20 min.  We had to get groceries for a few events we'd be attending and to visit friends.

Our site as seen from near the road.




Almost full moon rising in the misty eastern sky at sundown.

Another moon rise.

We woke up one morning with a bright orange light filling the windows.  By the time I got up and out the door this is what was left of the sunrise, still not bad.


Joan looking at some birds on one of our many walks in the desert.

Ocotillo fully leafed out after the recent rains... 

... they usually look like a bunch of thorny sicks.

Baby Organ Pipe Cactus nestled amongst the blooming Desert Senna with grandma Organ Pipe looking on.

When we started traveling 4 years ago, we wanted to get a personalized plate for the front of the truck.  The idea kind of lingered without us actively looking for a way to get it done.  While in Yuma we went to a flea market and found a booth that could do just what we wanted.  



Some friends we met last year, Nick and Gail, invited us to a Winter Solstice party in the desert west of Ajo.  Good friends, good food and a good time.




As the sun was setting in the west, the full moon was rising in the east.

As Christmas approached, so did a cold front.  We'd been in the desert 10 days and decided to move into Ajo and spend a week at Shadow Ridge RV Resort before heading to Tucson on Jan 1.


Our camper size Christmas tree.

Here's a few pictures from around Ajo.

Be careful what you wish for...

Ok, how'd they get them up there... and how'll they get'm down.

Coming next, Tucson AZ, 2019.