What to write?

Last time we were in Tucson (January through March of 2012) everything was so new.  Our first time at a military RV park!  Airplanes parked practically next to the RVs!  Cactus everywhere! Warm winter weather! The Desert Museum, the Saguaro National Parks, the Tucson Art Museum, gravel front yards...!

This Tucson visit, I’m having a harder time coming up with post topics.  To be honest, we’ve spent a lot of time doing stuff we’d do if we were home in Salt Lake.  We go to a great gym here on base.  We eat out some.  We go on walks (well, we might not be doing that because it's to darn cold right now is SLC).  I’ve been going to second hand stores.  Jim’s been watching the football.  Tomorrow we’ll watch the inauguration.  We took Cooper to a dog park.  We went to another movie (Silver Lining Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence; we both thought it was so-so.  If you can only see one movie, see Argo.) We had another problem at home with the furnace (which was fixed Friday) so we’ve been talking with our house-sitting kids about that. 

We had a Big Love-watching marathon and viewed the last five hours of the HBO series in one sitting.  Big Love is about a Salt Lake City home improvement store owner and his polygamist family.  Polygamy gets lots of press in Salt Lake City (the Salt Lake Tribune even has a polygamy “beat”) and the show weaves some real-life Utah and polygamy-related events into its plots, which we found interesting.  But now that we’re done, we won’t have to see the crazy, demonic brother-in-law Alby and the just-as-crazy-but-evil-in-a-different-way-sister-wife Nikki.  Thank goodness.

We also celebrated our wedding anniversary and Jim’s birthday this week.  Anniversary Number Nine was celebrated with a movie (the previously mentioned Silver Linings Playbook) and dinner at El Charro, our favorite Tucson Mexican restaurant. For Jim’s birthday (which is today) we went to the kind of cleverly named pub “Sir Veza’s” for lunch and watched part of the 49ers - Falcon’s game.  Happy anniversary and birthday, my dear. And to Jim's sister, Cathy, who shares his birthday.

As for posting on our blog:  I’ll either get motivated and do something new so I can write about it, or we’ll move the rig and put ourselves in a new location.  Or both.

We may be doing same-old, same-old -- but here's a first 
(for us).  See the dark rectangle near the middle of this large 
motor home?  It's a flat screen TV built onto the outside of a 
rig.  These folks are parked pretty close to us (I took the 
photo while standing in our doorway). We could see and 
hear the 49er's-Falcons game they had on.

Cooper at the dog park with the water bottle he shares with 
Jim.  Jim can drink out of the straw or he can squeeze the 
bottle, point the straw at the blue cup and water goes into 
the cup for Cooper. (Like I said, Jim can do this -- but in 
most cases he shares my water.)

Jim and Cooper walking at Tucson's Reid Park.

Cold in Tucson

It's not as cold here in Tucson as some parts of the west right now (i.e., Salt Lake City where it’s supposed to get to -3 tonight) and there’s no snow ... but it’s plenty cold.  According to the local newspaper, early Monday morning it got as low as 21 degrees -- a record for January 14;  early this morning it got down to 17, also a record.  Everyone at Davis Monthan Air Force Base FamCamp where we are staying must be running electric heaters to combat the chill because the electricity gave out for a bit this morning.  

It’s projected to get up into the 70s this weekend, so until then we’re doing indoor activities.  Yesterday we saw “Argo,” the Ben Affleck film about a real, crazy and successful CIA scheme that got six US Embassy employees out of Iran during the 1980s hostage crisis that kept other embassy employees imprisoned for 444 days.  Very good -- tense but, in parts, funny.  Afterwards we went shopping for a new electric space heater.  Home Depot was actually all out.

Today we had lunch at a brew put Jim likes called Barrio Brewing.  Just as we got there a water pipe broke (because of the cold, the manager told us), sending a waterfall over one of the doors. Fortunately the water gushed over the exit and not the entrance, because it really did happen almost simultaneous with our arrival. Then I dragged Jim to two thrift stores because I have a plan to buy my clothes in second hand shops (which could get derailed when I go shopping in SLC with my daughter).  Then we stopped at a a place called “BevMo” that sounds like an abbreviation of my name a la JLo, but is a beer/wine store.

Kind of mundane, but fun.  And as I write, we're back in the rig staying warm.

From Organ Pipe to Tucson

We’re now at the Agave Gulch FamCamp at Tucson’s Davis Monthan Air Force Base, where we spent nearly three months last winter. We got here yesterday afternoon and it’s cold: 25 degrees last night and projected to go below freezing tonight.  Day time temps are in the forties.  Last night Jim disconnected our water before we we went to bed so the hose wouldn’t freeze.  We also left the cupboards below the bathroom and kitchen sink open so warmer air could reach the pipes.  No problems so far.  

We’d spent Monday through Friday morning at Organ Pipe National Monument north of tiny Lukeville, AZ and just five miles north of the Mexican border. It’s a stunningly beautiful place almost lush with palo verde and mesquite trees, saguaro cactus, all sorts of chollas cactus, bottle brush plants and of course, organ pipe cactus.  Every vista looked like it should be the cover of a national park brochure.  

We could get Verizon cell coverage at the park, but there was not enough oomph in our router to hook up to the internet (hence our conversation with the border guard in our last post).  So here is some info about our stay at the  lovely Organ Pipe Cactus National Park:

The campground has 200 well-maintained campsites, a great visitors’ center, and hiking and driving trails but only about 30 rigs were there.  The camping fee is only $12 a night, or just $6 a night with a senior pass if you are 62 or older (and I celebrated my 62nd birthday by buying one during our stay.)  A photo display at the visitor’s center said during the 20 years from 1970 through 1990 the campground was full with lines of campers waiting to get in.  A park volunteer told us that now, however, people have some concerns about the US-Mexican border and the most common question he’s asked by people calling for information is “Is the park safe?”  His answer is “yes” if you just use some common sense:  Lock your vehicle, be aware of surroundings, don’t hike alone, report anything suspicious.  Per the park brochure “Organ Pipe Cactus shares 33 miles of international border with Mexico, which presents challenges and concerns.  Your safety is your responsibility.”  

I felt pretty safe.  The Border Patrol seemed to be everywhere, including in  the campground.  Then, when we drove from Organ Pipe to Tucson, it seemed like every third vehicle was a Border Patrol car.  We went through two Border Patrol stops on the way to Tucson; one of the agents told us he was from Fairview, Utah; the other kiddingly asked if our dog was an American citizen.  Jim says he thinks they try to get you talking to get a feel for your actual citizenship and general demeanor.  

But back to Organ Pipe National Monument:  We did four hikes and took a car trip on the 21-mile Ajo Mountain Drive that winded and dipped through a primitive area of Cactus Pipe Cactus National Monument. The drive has 18 stops that correspond to numbers in a guidebook. If you didn’t know anything about the desert you could take this drive and come away with a basic knowledge of the Sonoran Desert. 

At one of the stops we met two women who told us they’d conducted research about crested cactus used to create a book available at the visitors center.  They were out checking the crested cactus -- also called cristates -- and told us about a couple of good ones. Near the end of the drive we also saw three Border Patrol cars pulled off to the side of the road and figured they’d gotten a tip about something or someone.  So we just kind of cruised by our last stop.  Nevertheless, the drive was supposed to take two hours; with all the stopping reading and picture taking we did, it took us about four hours.

At the campsite we met Jim and Heather of Golden, British Columbia, who invited us over for wine and beer.  Jim worked in accounting and forestry and Heather was a teacher; they also taught skiing and ran a white water rafting tour business.  They were very fun. Heather and I talked a bit about the border issues -- she said she saw someone walking through the campground in jeans and a gray hoodie with the hood pulled up around the face, and thought that someone actually could come into the campground and break into a motor home. Later she realized the gray-hoodie wearer was me.

Our campsite at Organ Cactus National Monument.

In 1937 Franklin Roosevelt set aside a representative sample of the Sonoran Desert and named it after a cactus found here:  Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  Stands of Organ Pipe Cactus can be seen going up this hill.

A view from the campground. 

Sunset our first night at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, as seen from our rig.

One hiking view...

Plus a cholla section that stuck to Bev's boot.  They are sometimes called "jumping cholla" because it does not take much contact to get them to stick.

View of the campground from a hike we took at sunset.

An organ pipe cactus with a crest, which is an anomaly that for some reason causes the cactus arm to spread out like a hand.

A close up of the crest.

Bev in front of another crested organ pipe cactus.  Organ pipe cactus can live as long as 150 years .  Average height at maturity is 15 feet.

This is the lush Alamo Canyon at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Jim taking photos at Alamo Canyon.

Organ Pipe National Monument

We're in a stunningly beautiful place:  Organ Pipe National Monument near the Arizona border town of Lukeville.  And as is often the case with stunningly beautiful locations, our internet connection ranges from weak to non existent.  So we drove toward Lukeville to see if we could connect on our router and parked by the side of the road -- only to have the  Border Patrol pull up next to us and suggest another spot because "someone crossing the border could jump in your car."  So we went to the suggested location. On the bad side, we still have a poor connection.  On the good side, no one joined us in the car.  I'll post more later.

Hiking

Before the holidays -- and our trip to spend Christmas in SLC -- Jim and I scouted out a hiking trail in Yuma's Muggins Mountains "for later."  "Later" was yesterday.  Then today we hiked a trail near the Yuma Proving Ground that followed an irrigation canal. Both hikes were flat but yesterday's trail had sections of deep sand, which made it a little tough for our dog, Cooper.  He seemed happy to stay home today.

The beginning of the trail in the Muggins Wilderness Area.

Jim taking a photo of Coronation Peak in the Muggins Wilderness Area.

Yesterday's trail was flat but covered with either deep sand 
or lots of rocks.  These are some of the rocks we saw.  Carl, 
if you are reading this, what is your geologic opinion? 

Jim walking toward the danger zone today near the Yuma Proving Ground.  He did not cross the boundary, but being Jim, had to take a look.

A view along the irrigation canal where we hiked today.

And another view along the today's hiking path.