The Thing and Stage Coach Stop, Dec 27, 2009

We ventured out today to see some local sights.  The first once is called “The Thing”, located at exit 322 on I-10 east of Benson. We paid our $1 each and in we went.

Well, they had all sorts of “Things” beyond this door.   A mummy, old cars, covered wagon, wooden cigar indians, old guns, and all sorts of creatures made from roots and drift wood plus more.

 Below, this 1937 Rolls Royce was believed to have been used by Hitler, the THING is, it can’t be proved.

I found just the shirt for Bob in their gift shop.  You can see from Bob’s face, he was very excited to get his new T-shirt.

“If a man speaks in the desert where no woman can hear.  Is he still wrong?   

We then took some back roads to Dragoon and then some more back roads, even had to open and close a gate to keep cattle in, to an old stage coach stop-Butterfield Stage Coach Stop.

   Here I am in the stockade inside one of the two rooms.

In 1862 four Confederate solders were killed here by the Apaches.  Here are their graves. Check out this link, 3rd paragraph under History to read more about the soldiers’ death.

Here was our sunset last night.

Merry Christmas, Dec 25, 2009

Merry Christmas to all of our loved ones!!  Wishing all of you a blessed day!

As you can see from the photo, Santa found us also.  We must have been good last year!!

Merry Christmas to You! Dec. 24-25, 2009

It warmed up today in Benson so much, we had our door and windows open for a short while.  Could hardly believe that it was 30 degrees this morning.  I baked some Orange Cranberry bread today to take to Bob’s cousin’s home for Christmas dinner in Tucson, about a 50 mile drive.

 

Tonight we attended a Candlelight Christmas Eve service here at the San Pedro RV Park.  The room was full and the spirit of Christmas was enormous!  A narrator read the Christmas story scripture while his assistant lit candles to represent Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus, the wisemen, shepherds, and the angels.  At the end the only candle remaining shining was the baby Jesus candle.  From that single candle we all lit our own candles.  Very symbolic.

Even thought we are many many miles from all our loved ones, our hearts are with each and every one of you. 

In this special moment in life…Spread Joy

From NM to AZ, Dec 10-22, 2009

I am going to make part of this blog entry easy, check out our friends (John and Judy) blog.  We are the RV they followed from Alamogordo NM to Columbus NM to Bisbee AZ, and then onto Benson AZ.  After being in Benson a few days they headed on up to Phoenix to fly to Portland for the holidays while we headed to Tucson.

We had planned on seeing Bob’s cousin, Steve and his wife Anna, but they had to fly back to Minnesota for a death in the family.  Steve sings in a all men’s choir called Sons of Orpheus, last year we had heard them sing – they were great, so we were planning on going to another concert this year.  Steve got us tickets and we went even though he was in Minnesota.  We enjoyed the concert again this year, but wish we would have seen Steve and Anna.  Maybe we will see them  later in our travels.  [We just got a phone call from Steve and we have been invited for Christmas Dinner-great!] 

We moved back to Benson and plan on staying here until the 29th. 

While we were in the Tucson area we did some sightseeing.  First was the San Xavier Mission, this year the scaffolding was down and the exterior was pristine.

Then on to the Titan Missile Museum.  We took the hour tour, boy I can’t wait just a few more days, then I too can get a discount for being 62!!  We went down to level 3 on our tour, but if want a more extensive tour of all 8 levels, that tour takes 5 hours and $70.

Here is the Titan missile looking down from the glassed in cover.

Here is the command room where four personnel (could be male or female) manned this unit.  This was a great tour.

Then onto the Asarco Mineral Discovery Center.  Outside were some examples of the huge mining trucks-this one was made by Tirex in 1975.  Do you see Bob?

 

Here I am lounging in a tire.

On Monday we had plans to go shopping, Sam’s Club, Trader Joes, and Home Depot (for some coax cables for our new DVD/VCR player), but before we went I saw on a map at Fort Lowell Park, so off we went.  It was a great historical park – all free with very informative display boards.

Tuesday we drove to Benson in the wind, Bob said it was one of the most windy driving days he has had.  The wind was blowing directly towards our big broad side.  We heard later that further north on I10 near Casa Grande there was a 20 car pile up with fatalities due to the wind and blowing dust.  Condolences to the families involved. At one point we even were ran over by a train!!

Here is one of our Christmas Decorations.

This snowman is hard to see, but he is attached to our outside mirror, hanging on for dear life.  We have a reindeer on the other mirror.

New Glasses from Mexico, Dec 9, 2009

Since we are in Columbus New Mexico, that means we are three miles from Mexico and the small village of Palomas.  Today we drove down to the border, parked, and walked across and were on time for our 10:30 appointment to have our eyes examined and purchase new glasses.

Here are my NEW glasses, progressive transitions with magnetic sunglasses-each pair were $185 and that included the exam.  Also had them in two hours and they accepted one of our personal checks for payment.

While the glasses were being made we had lunch again at the Pink Store with John and Judy, again great food with great friends and fun Spanish music sung by request -- Feliz Navidad.

Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Prospero Ano y Felicidad.
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Prospero Ano y Felicidad.
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart.

White Sands and Pink Store, Dec 6-8, 2009

We took John and Judy to White Sands National Monument, this time though we rented some saucer sleds at the gift shop which work well on the sand dunes.  They had snow a couple of days ago, so with the snow on top of the dunes, hopefully will make for some slippery slopes.

After leaving Alamogordo, NM  we drove to Columbus, NM which is 3 miles from Mexico.  We drove down to south of the border today (Mon) to Palomas, Mexico and had lunch at the Pink Store, great food… great company!!!

We not telling how many margaritas we each had, but this is a hint!!

 

Adios Amigos!!

Blog catch up, Dec 1-4, 2009

We woke up to snow on Tue.  morning in Roswell,  looked out the window and saw a bird taking a bath in the snow melt, man what a constitution.

We were not getting any internet due to the fact the satellite dish  and receiver were covered in snow.  So Bob got up on top of the RV and cleaned off the snow.  He also pushed the snow off of our slide out toppers so when we left later in the day the snow would not prevent the slide from going in.

Before heading out towards Carlsbad, we stopped at Andersons Contemporary Art Gallery.  Here are a couple of displays we found.  The first is titled “Lucky the Immortal”.

Here are two sharks, one is made from  a golf bag and the small one from a vacuum cleaner.  Very inventive.

 

 

About 1 pm we left Roswell and headed towards Carlsbad NM to meet up with John and Judy.  Most of the snow had melted thus causing a problem in Carlsbad-flooded intersections.  We had no problem, but was strange to see all the water.  They did not have any storm water drains—don’t know why?

It was great to see our friends when we pulled into the RV Park, they had fixed a great dinner for us, great meal, great friends and lots of visiting.

The next morning we were off the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

We walked down the natural entrance, here is John Judy and Bob heading down.  Boy was the wind blowing and was it cold.  We were anxious to get down into the cave, where it was warmer than outside.

Here are a couple of photos from inside the caverns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, the 3rd, we were heading out from Carlsbad back towards Alamogordo.  We wanted to take John and Judy to White Sands and this time we want to rent sleds and try to really sled down the dunes.

When we pulled out of the RV Park in Carlsbad we had left a giant footprint.  We also had a problem with the jacks, they were retracted but some sensor did not think they were, so  it was beeping on and off on our trip to Alamogordo anywhere from 3- 23 beeps.   It was cold so perhaps that was the issue.

There was a storm coming in so we were trying to get over the 7,000’ pass before the weather got too bad.   We had snow blowing over the road but no ice even though the temps got down to 21 degrees.

We arrived at the RV park between Tularosa and Alamogordo around 3 pm safe and sound.

The photo above is what we saw outside this morning.  It was 25 degrees but the snow had stopped.  We pretty much stayed inside in the morning.  In the afternoon, we had fun with John and Judy playing a game called Carcassonne.  We had both been in Carcassonne France last April, it was a stop on our canal boat trip.

Aliens, where? Roswell, NM, Nov 28, 2009

Yesterday (Friday) we were due to leave the Tularosa / Alamogordo area after being here almost two weeks, but the Explorer had developed a left front end ‘thunk’.  We first noticed it while in the Moab, UT area, but it was getting worse by the day.  Bob felt today was the day to check it out as he had looked under the Explorer and could see the bushing was cracked near the radius arm.  Once he knew what the problem was he was more driven in getting it fixed.  We checked out the internet and the phone book from the RV park’s laundry room and picked out a couple of potential places to go for the repair, the first place was not open…so that left plan B and as it turned out, it was the best place-Alamo Auto Center Inc.  Within two hours of entering their front door, they had diagnosed the problem, ordered and received the replacement bushings and completed the work,  we were out of there by noon. 

So back to the coach, packed it up and headed about 90 miles east to Roswell, NM.  Our first choice of RV park was full, so on to our 2nd choice [second choices seem to be good luck for us], they had a place for us.  We will be here for the next four days, then heading out on Tuesday for Carlsbad, NM to meet John and Judy.

Today (Sat) we explored Roswell and here is what we found. 

Lots and lots of these alien creatures.

 

                                 Here is Bob conversing with an Elf-alien at the International UFO Museum & Research Center.  His name was RALF “Roswell Alien Life Form”, the museum’s mascot.

Here are two of my new friends.  They were very friendly.

Thanksgiving evening, Nov 26, 2009

We had a great dinner, grilled pork roast, stuffing, sweet potatoes,  cranberry sauce and dessert was pumpkin fluff. 

 

 

 

 

This was our sunset tonight in New Mexico.

I was reading on Yahoo that tonight was a good night to view the International Space Station and Atlantis.  Check out this site for the timings for your area.  So between 6:13:19 until 6:16:05 pm we could see both of them zooming across the sky.

Bob was able to get this shot.  Pretty amazing!

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Nov 26, 2009

We wish everyone, especially our family and friends,  a Peaceful Thankful Thanksgiving!

Check out this link to find out more than you ever needed to know about why Thanksgiving is now the last Thursday of November.

When Bob saw on a NM map that we were only about 60 miles from Smokey the Bear’s grave in Capitan NM…guess where he wanted to go?

  Inside the Visitor Center they have all sorts of Smokey memorabilia, then just follow the trail and you come to this spot.  Here is where he rests. RIP Smokey

In the spring of 1950 a  little bear cub was caught in the Capitan Gap fire and was found by a local rancher up a tree with no mama and some burns on his paws.   To read the full story, check out this link.  Did you know the Smokey the Bear fire prevention campaign was before they found  little Smokey?  See how small he was.

Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires!

Now in honor of today, here is Smokey in the 1966 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  (I am watching the parade right now)

You know we love our Peanut Time, so when we found this bag at a grocery in Capitan, we knew it was meant for us.  Since we will be meeting our friends, John and Judy next Tuesday, do you think we have enough peanuts for Happy Hour(s)?

May you have a blessed day!!

White Sands or Snow?? Nov 20, 2009

What do you think?   Sand or Snow?

It is sand…we went to White Sands National Monument today, it is such an amazing area.  It is the world's largest gypsum dune field.  Here I am walking down a dune, the area with tracks are much easier to walk on than the harder packed smooth areas.

These are picnic shade/wind structures, today there was no wind, but I can only imagine what it would be like when the winds do come.

Bob said the Park volunteer told him on Easter Sunday they have over 10,000 visitors.  Wow, today we were alone at this picnic area.

Bob attempted to sled and ended up sliding (or I call it scooching) down a sand dune.  Here is a video, perhaps when you are in your 60’s you have forgotten just how to use a sled??

You can see here the sand holding properties roots have – amazing.

Just love the artwork nature creates.  The stems blowing in the wind causes the circular designs in the sand—do you also see the small tracks?