Watching the Sunrise, Bill and Ron Sightsee, Pat Makes Dessert

When I woke up on Monday, Mar. 19^th it was 7:15 and I moved at the same time Clemson wanted out. That worked out perfectly! There were clouds to the east, covering what would have been our sunrise but the outside temperature was 56F so I knew it would be a nice morning. That was confirmed with Clemson’s outdoor jaunt. I came back in, brushed my sleep-mussed hair and with just a t-shirt and hoody went for my walk.

Clemson went back to bed with his Daddy for a bit. As I approached the back of the park area, close to the lake I could see that I was in for a bit of a show. The brilliance of the sun was sharpening the edges of the clouds making for a gorgeous picture. 

as you can tell, I couldn't decide which picture to post

I slowed up my walk and kept a constant eye on the horizon at the same time trying to capture the blue heron. I’ve seen one on each of my last 3 walks.

He stood still for me

With just my phone camera on me, I fiddle with the 4.1 zoom max and back down to the 1.1 trying to get the best shot. They are all good so I’ll have to choose once I download them. So, the sky was blue when I walked but soon after returning to the Suite, clouds rolled in from the north. It was going to be that kind of a day. The winds were already close to the maximum of 10 mph so the 64F we’re expecting may not feel like it.

But then I got too close

Seems like we are on the fast track for Police cruisers and EMT’s as we’ve had at least one set go by every day for the last 3 or 4. Ron and I were discussing their frequency the other day. It still isn’t a lot to us. When Bill and I lived in London, On, population of 380,000, it was almost on the hour you heard sirens of some kind. This is peanuts, just chatter fodder really (something to talk about).

And the sunrise still captivated me along every step of my walk

So, Bill was just coming out of the shower when I returned and we then had our tea and coffee together. Catching up on our friends posts we discussed his plans. 

I loved this picture through the branches with the reflection on the water

Yesterday, he asked Ron if he’d like to go to the Darryl Starbird’s Car Museum, just down the road. Ron was very excited to go as he knew Loree wouldn’t be into it and I had no desire to go a second time. Bill loves it and I read that Darryl has a couple of new additions, created for his Car Show in Tulsa last month.

Bill caught Ron taking a picture at the museum
They had a ball today

At 10 they were off with Ron driving. I was expecting Bill to drive so it took a couple of minutes before I realized Black Beauty was still sitting here. I had it in my mind to make the dessert I talked about last night while Bill was away. With the outdoors not proving to be a sunny day, that is what I like to do.

I set about getting things out after I got cleaned up myself. Today it would be a Peanut Butter & Chocolate Glazed Pie. It’s a recipe on the p.b. jar and I’ve made it a couple of times before with success. I may share it with our friends if they like that kind of thing. 😊 Now that is cooling in the fridge, I made myself a second tea and cleaned up the dishes.

I think mine looks fancier but aside from that
It tasted GREAT!

I like the vantage point we have here in our site. It is a clear view to the front gate but far enough away that we aren’t caught in the hubbub too much. We’re seeing more and more small trailers and more travel trailers here than large coaches and large fifth wheels. Interesting. Also, other than Ron and Loree we seem to be the only Canadians here. I just saw to units pull in, check in, drive to the back forty and now they both just checked ‘out’ and left. Weird and curious.

And the field of purple flowers is expanding

About 1 o’clock Ron and Bill drove up out front and my sweetie hopped out of the truck. It seems as though they had a great time and a nice ‘self-tour’ through the museum. Bill told Donna, Darry’s wife, that we were there in Oct. 2016 and that we have a picture of me with her. She kindly sent home a ‘hello’ for me. I’m glad Bill got the chance to go again and I’m sure much more fun going with Ron than me.

Speaking of fun, these are a couple of pictures from Bill's drone yesterday
Our site is front row - you can see Black Beauty

It wasn’t too long after he come in and made a sandwich that Clem indicated he needed to go out. I checked the thermometer to see what I’d need to wear and it had dropped to 47F, 10 degrees in an hour! With my hoody up, we walked around the first block before I basically forced ‘Mr. Sniff Everything’ back to the Suite. Brrr! 

I love this one of the back of the park

With the chill out there, I was happy I had turned the electric fireplace on earlier. I settled into my chair and got sucked into David Baldacci’s The Winner.

My supper with spaghetti squash under the sauce

At 5:30 it was time to start supper. I browned ground beef, baked 1/8^th of my spaghetti squash, cooked spaghetti and baked 3 bread sticks. That was supper and it was nice to cook inside on such a cool, windy evening. It tasted great and guess what? We left room for Peanut Butter Pie too. After dishes, I plucked away at my post while we watched Murdoch Mysteries season finale and then The Voice.

This has been a fun day even though I didn’t get into much. Bill enjoyed his time this morning with Ron and after one more cool day, we know we’ll get some more outside weather. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring so does that mean these geese are heading for Ontario? I hope you’ve enjoyed your day too.

Flying northeast

Thank you for stopping by today! I love to hear from you and will respond to every post in time.

Sunny Day for Sightseeing, Fairbanks Ghost Town, Sandhill Cranes

It was a few minutes after 7 when I got up this morning, Friday, Feb. 23^rd, after laying awake for almost an hour. I was happy to wake up though because one of my dreams was about work. Both Bill and I were entangled in that web, dealing with that crap, so wakefulness was like a fresh retirement all over again! It was 32F and Black Beauty’s windshield had been visited by Jack Frost.

Nice quiet drive on Az 82 to Fairbanks

Because of the later night last night and downloading my pictures seemed to take forever, I had no patience to publish. It was 10:30 when I went to bed and that is late for me. I know I dropped right off with my warm little snuggle bum leaning up against me. The sheets felt cold so I curled up into a ball for a while, circulating the heat.

I made my tea and sat to finish my post from yesterday. Downloading was better was not as fast as it has been here. That meant no early walk, my toes say ‘thank you’. Bill was up before 7:30 and made his coffee before joining me. We read blog posts and comments before I halved our grapefruit. I’m glad we have friends here to help me eat the lemons I brought from the KOA. I gave Laurel 2 last night.

We walked back into Fairbanks along this short lane

I should take her suggestion and put them in my water for a change in taste. Bill was doing some banking online and I went up to change our sheets. We have one nice warm fuzzy fitted sheet so it went on. Now that our nights are cooler, we/I will appreciate it more. We only have a sheet and a duvet on top and that seems to do the trick for us. I may be able to snag a washer tonight around 6 to wash the sheets that I removed.

Around 10:00 I began cooking our bacon and eggs for breakfast and then we cleaned up the dishes. As we were about to head out the door, Scott came over to ask Bill if he had a hose or something (things I don’t get involved in) to help him solve a problem with his trailer. Then we hopped in the truck and drove to see the Fairbanks Ghost Town we’ve heard about.

The only building that was accessible

O-k-a-y……….it wasn’t quite what we expected and have to admit that we were disappointed. Only the Schoolhouse was accessible and as nicely set up as it was, maybe I’ve seen too many already. The things for sale in there were a ridiculous price so other than walking the grounds and dropping a donation in the post at the gate, it was a ‘been there, done that’ kind of thing for us. There was a bulldozer and lots of pylons laying around which really took away from the ‘ghost town’ it was supposed to portray.

Historic town of Fairbanks
Occupied from 1881 to 1973
This town was founded during the Tombstone silver rush
It is interesting that in 1884, 74 male residents populated Fairbanks
1910 - 40 households/242 residents
1920 - 37 households/177 residents
1930 - 72 residents

now that is one old sharpener
and yet this type really hasn't changed much

This isn't new to me
I attended one room school houses as a child
Although we weren't allowed to wear a hat

I don't know why, but this gathering of trees appealed to me

From there, Bill surprised me by asking for the directions to see the Sandhill Cranes that Ken gave me yesterday. We drove through Tombstone, which we saw last winter, without stopping today and followed the directions to the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area. Well, let me tell you………that rough dirt road was totally worth it. As we’re driving close to the turn off, we could see 100’ of cranes flying off in the distance. Hurry, hurry!

This first impression was as jaw dropping for me as Dante’s View, Death Valley and perhaps even the Grand Canyon. I couldn’t stop saying “Oh my God, OMG!” We walked as close as we could and we both began snapping photos. Bill with his telephoto lens and me with my camera phone. Darn it! I wish my camera was fit to use, I would have loved the zoom feature for this. We hung around for at least 30 minutes before heading back home.

The sandhill cranes spend the nights standing in the shallow water to evade predators
During the day, they fly out for food
They return to Whitewater Draw in the afternoon again
Each winter more than 20,000 cranes frequent this area

The winds have picked up and although it was reading 60F and total sunny skies, it seemed to go right through me. Oh, and it wasn’t a good hair day. I took my cowboy hat but no way was it going to stay on my head. Back home, Bill and I took a walk around the park and on the way back I meant to check out the laundromat here. I forgot. Now that I’m inside again, with a nice cup of hot creamy tea, I may wait until tomorrow to do a load of laundry.

Bill took many really nice pictures with his zoom
So, I'm borrowing these 3

again a picture does not do it justice
If you haven't been, GO!

We sat with our books and dozed a bit and soon enough it was time to start making supper. Again, with the winds, we changed our original plans of barbecuing. Instead we agreed on a poor man’s supper. Tube steak and pasta. I steamed some fresh spinach and cooked some corn for Bill. It was filling, fast and worked in a pinch. With the dishes cleaned up, I sat down at my laptop to sort through the many pictures I took today.

Bill reads about the area and I'm still amazed at the background of gray

Tube steak and mac and cheese

If you haven’t seen the Fairbanks Ghost Town, you won’t hear a recommendation from me to see it. If you’re driving past, yes, stop in. Otherwise, between October and February, keep on going and find Whitewater Draw instead. You won’t be disappointed. We had a great day today and saw some very cool birds! We hope yours was a good one as well.

Thank you for ‘flying’ in. I’d love to hear from you.

Plans Turning into Reality, Titan II Missile Museum, Saguaro National Park

It was a little sooner than my normal rising on Tuesday, Feb. 13^th, but when Clemson jumped off the bed at 6:40 I was ready to get up. After letting him out, he went back to bed with Daddy and I went for a walk. It is always interesting to venture out onto new untrod lanes in these parks. You never know what you’ll see. So, the first few pictures are things I found kinda’ worth a photo. Bear with me.

The orange tree on our site

Scotty is in storage until his parents come back

So is this long bus
Waiting for a transitional change perhaps

Overkill to pull this Rushmore
but if you have it.......well then!

You can rent sites that have their own dog pens
I don't even want to know the cost!

We don't quite get who and why you'd want a site under
these solar panels

Before making the last turn towards home I noticed an Alto travel trailer. These are familiar to me because they were featured at our October RV show back in Toronto, Ontario and they are one of our dealer’s best sellers. What I could see from the lane was a CanAm sticker on the back corner. Ha ha! I was excited because I could tell Bill. Perhaps this couple, with a license plate from Illinois, knows him. Maybe he did their orientation back home when they bought it.

the Alto is only made in Quebec, Canada
and the waiting list is over 14 months for a new one

Bill was still sleeping but at 8 I woke him up. We had a plan to go to the Titan II Missile Museum this morning with Ken and Nancy. We had our grapefruit first thing and Bill had cereal. Nancy had picked 5 or 6 for us before we arrived so we are home free for a few more mornings. I’ll make sure to pick some more before our time here is over.

How's this for a 'toad'? At first I thought Mother-in-Law?
Then I realize they are taking their business with them

At 9 we drove over to the site where the Alto was parked but unfortunately, their vehicle was gone. We left a note with our card in the door in case they are interested in chatting. Then we toured around the park looking at the other sites and units. There are so many motor homes in every park we stay in. A sign of the times? I don’t know, but there are always many fifth wheels and travel trailers of all sizes too.

Our site for 3 nights

Loved seeing these two water towers together

We picked Ken and Nancy up at 9:30 and found the Titan II Missile Museum in Green Valley with no trouble. 

In the parking lot, Nancy wanted to lean against the Saguaro
(not really)

So, we improvised

It was under $10 for the 3 seniors and Bill’s younger wife had to pay full adult price of $1 more. That’s okay, I don’t need to rush the ‘65’ number at all. It will come soon enough. We bought our tickets and wandered around the museum waiting for our one-hour tour at 10:30. There were 24 of us on this second tour of the day.

The 17-minute presentation was very interesting and then we went down the 55 stairs to see the missile control room. You can read what you want about this ‘silo’ here. http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/ . What I can tell you is that this preserved site is all that remains of the 54 Titan II missile sites that were on alert across United States from 1963 to 1987. 

Going down the 55 steps

These phones were stationed throughout for the employees to check in
from point to point
If they didn't make the call in 3 minutes, it would be assumed
that they were under duress and help would be sent

The tour was well done and had to be timed perfectly. Every 30 minutes, a new tour began and the guides kept close eyes on how long they had to talk so they could guide us out of the control room before the next tour of possibly 25 arrived. Derrick, one of the guides finished off the tour and directed us back onto the freight elevator or the stairs so he could prepare for the next group.

If you were over 6' you needed to wear a hard hat

Certain areas had these signs
Two staff required for security and safety
You keep an eye on me and I keep an eye on you

Inside, many things were on springs
If there was a hit a fair distance away, things would bounce

Even as we all stood in the Control Room, the 8 green springs
meant we were hanging on suspension

We were allowed to wander the grounds outside so we took our time taking pictures looking down at the missile we saw from an inside window below. Very cool. Very creepy thinking of the ‘what ifs’ here and how in a mere 58 seconds, our lives could be over. We recommend taking the tour, the price is reasonable and the staff well informed.

Bill was ducking his head but he isn't 6'

Ken and Nancy listening to the guide

Our mock commander gets the mock direction from the mock President
to prepare the missile

From a window below, the missile is huge

and from above, outside, it is frightening actually

Ken and Nancy coming up on the elevator

Wandering the grounds

From there we drove back home for lunch and to take the dogs out. Ken suggested taking a drive to the Saguaro National Park and that sounded great. It would be free and with our love of these cacti, we were anxious to see more. This time, Ken drove. He stopped in Tucson for diesel and we were on our way! I was snapping pictures before even getting to the park. We are, after all, in the Land of the Giant Saguaro.

Chain Fruit Cholla

We stopped once on the way and got out to take pictures of the chain fruit cholla. I'd never recognized these before. Such beautiful views! Carrying on to the entrance to the park, we walked into the museum store. Our minds were blown with the number of Saguaro we were seeing. Different sizes, shapes, poses, stages were visible every which way you looked and literally as far as the eye could see. The mountain ridges behind the museum were blanketed in the tall giants.

My Dad used to say "Who goes there?"
That describes this tall guy

We all bought our souvenirs and before we left, I was chatting with one of the park rangers. 

Bill and I pick up Stick lapel pins from places we visit
We are getting a nice collection

He was answering some questions about the fruit of the cactus and I asked about the Crested Saguaro. How rare are they and are there many in the area? Bill, Ken and Nancy caught a glimpse of one on the highway this morning but I missed it, other than a quick viewing on our way home. I was keen to get another look at one.

Speaks for itself

A brown Ocotillo with beautiful red flowers

I asked this Saguaro which way to the Desert Museum
Don't ask! He had no clue!

We left there and following the ranger’s directions, turned into the Desert Museum entrance. Sure enough, there she stood in all her glory, just as he said. We didn’t get out of the truck, didn’t need to. It was beautiful and Bill, Ken and I snapped photos of the crowned beauty. 

A Crested Saguaro

They don't really know why or how this happens
Some say critters, disease or mutilation

This has been a very fulfilling day. We’ve learned lots, saw tons, spent time with good friends and feel all the better for it.

Ken drove us home around 4:30 and we just rested. I had a beer margarita and Bill had a bit of a snooze in his recliner before lighting the Weber for burgers. The sun was dropping in the west giving me a beautiful performance from our site. The two palms added to my pictures and so did the cloud formations. 

My 'keto' burger and salad were very good

Supper was good and fast. I had salad left over from last night’s meal so we had that on the side.

Might try this for dessert tonight

It's an ice cream bar that the astronauts ate in space

Earlier today, or was it last night? I googled NCIS new episodes. Nothing until Feb. 27^th because of Olympics. This time we’re grateful because we don’t have to set up the satellite dish for one night again. Tonight, we read our books and relaxed. Bedtime will probably come early unless I get a second wind. I didn’t get a nap. I hope you have enjoyed your day.

Goodnight from Tucson Lazy Days KOA

Thank you for following us on our adventure. Feel free to leave a comment.