Gertrude the Goose and Boof

There is a couple here at Voyager that has a large ceramic goose in their front yard. This goose has more clothing than Gary and me put together. When we first saw her, they had a white sheet draped over her with two eyeholes. That was her Halloween costume. Since then she has worn a camouflage outfit with a little wooden rifle, she dressed up in old ratty clothes and carried a sign saying she was homeless and would work for food, she celebrated someone's anniversary with a bridal gown, one day she had on a sunflower dress and carried a sunflower, she has a Thanksgiving dress, a clown suit, a sombrero and sarapi, and has been Miss Muffet and Mrs Claus. Here are some pictures we have taken when we remembered to take the camera. It really is fun to check out her latest outfit. We have had so much fun watching the changing outfits, that we bought a miniature grocery cart for her to use when she is the homeless goose. When we gave it to her humans, we explained that Gertrude would be Internet famous. They were pretty tickled.

Boof is a dog that we encountered on one of our walks when it was still pretty warm. He was laying on his side all stretched out on his porch and when we walked by all we heard was “boof” (pronounced like book only with an f on the end). It looked like he was so hot that he didn’t even have the energy to lift his head. That boof came out of the side of his mouth. It was pretty hilarious that day, so we named the dog Boof and we look forward to seeing him on all our walks. Most days we don’t see him on the porch any more, but every now and then he will be out there and actually bark at us. I think he might be a Springer Spaniel, but I’m not sure.

Polishing the Truck???!!!???

You may remember that in my thoughts after leaving Cottonwood, I talked about how one of the male half of a couple’s responsibilities is polishing. Well, we jokingly refer to that as a “geezer thing” and we tend to make fun of them. Well, I guess now Gary is officially a geezer in training because he actually volunteered to wash the truck. For no reason. For some of you, washing the truck may not be a big deal, but you have to understand that for us, a big rainy day is a truck wash. I don’t know what it means, but it’s kind of scary.

Sabino Canyon by Moonlight

December 19, 1999

We went back to Sabino Canyon for the moonlight ride. It is a very different experience from the day trips. The driver doesn’t do the narration and it is very cold. Of course, since we went on the night before the full moon, it was very bright, but there really wasn’t that much to see. We are both former police officers (Estes Park, Colorado) so we’ve spent quite a few hours out in the mountains at night. The most exciting event of the night was a herd of javelinas that crossed the road while we were waiting for the tram. We did find a good pizza place though. We had decided to eat out that night and found the pizza place on the way to the canyon. They are called The Arizona Pizza Company and their pizza was delicious. (And we consider ourselves pizza connoisseurs.) Our rating:

San Xavier Mission

December 20, 1999

The mission is about 9 miles south of Tucson on highway 19. It was built over a seventeen year period beginning in 1783. Its full name is San Xavier del Bac. The “del Bac” is Spanish for “place where the water appears”. The mission was built on the site of an Indian settlement which was near a spot where the Santa Cruz River surfaces. Not much is known about the actual architect and builders of the mission which is a blend of Moorish, Byzantine and late Mexico Renaissance. Nobody seems to know why one of the entry towers was never completed, but the mission has been acclaimed by authorities as the finest example of mission architecture in the United States. The entire structure is a series of domes and arches, and wood is used only in door and window frames. The church was built in a classic cross shape with the altar at the top of the cross. Here are the pictures we took. Our rating:

Tohono Chul Park

Tohono Chul Park is a 49-acre desert reserve located in northwest Tucson. It is kind of a botanical garden, but it is a little more. It was donated to the city years ago with the condition that it be left natural. The only changes they make to the park are to build ramadas to give visitors ideas for peaceful, water-saving patio areas in their own landscapes. There is a wonderful Tea Room restaurant, greenhouse and museum shops. We have visited the park several times in the past and each time, we learn a little more about desert landscaping. The docents are all very knowledgeable and friendly and they seem to really enjoy working there. We didn’t get to visit the park during our stay in Tucson, but we like to come in the spring when all the flowers are blooming. If you would like to learn more about the park, check out these two links: the park or tourist info. The Tea Room is open 8 AM to 5 PM daily, and admission to the Park is a requested $2 donation. Our rating:

Thoughts About Tucson

During our stay in Tucson, we haven’t done quite as much sightseeing as we did while up in Cottonwood, but that is partly because we have visited this area several times before. In addition to the places we visited while here, there are a number of other side trips that shouldn’t get overlooked. Tumacacori is a mission that is the oldest mission still in use in the country, Tubac is an artist colony which we think sounds a little like a miniature Santa Fe, there is the Old Tucson Studio where they used to shoot cowboy movies and it is now a “play-acting Western Shoot Em Up Town”. We don’t much get into the Ole West towns, so we also didn’t visit Tombstone. It is only about an hour or so from here and we drove through there last year. Both Tombstone and Old Tucson are great places if you have children who like the cowboy stuff. I have heard a lot of people talk fondly about both. If you like border town shopping, Nogales is close and Douglas/Agua Prieta is a little further, but both towns offer the lower prices and great food that Mexico has to offer. The one other place that we talked about visiting, but never did is Biosphere II. They have just recently opened the entire project to the public and we would like to walk through the place. Since we are going to the Phoenix area next, it isn’t that far away and we may drive down to Biosphere next year.

Tucson is an interesting town. It is a college town, with a lot of old Mexican, Spanish, and Pueblo architecture and it is the largest city in the southeast part of the state. I thought that it would be like a miniature version of Phoenix, but it really isn’t. It might as well be in a different state, although with the amount of desert dust and the number of vehicles, it does have one thing is common with Phoenix: the brown cloud that obscures even the mountains sometimes as you can see in this photo taken from San Xavier. And man, do they have wind. It seems like the number of really windy days here is extraordinary. We rolled up the awning over a month ago and haven’t rolled it down since. The good news is that it has been cool since then so we haven’t really needed the extra shade. The average temperature for the month of November is supposed to be in the low 70s (this year was very warm compared to that) and in December it drops to mid 60s. Those temps are about 5 degrees cooler than Phoenix because the elevation is slightly higher. I don’t really think the difference is worth it in the summer, but a number of people who have lived here for a while believe it is. Our perspective of Tucson comes from living on the outer edge and driving into town for anything we need. We haven’t experimented with restaurants much because we didn’t really see any that looked tempting. Since a very small part of the reason we are full-timing is to find someplace where we might ultimately want to build a home, we always keep livability in the back of our minds. We have decided that Tucson is not really the place for us. We would definitely come back for visits, and there are a lot of wonderful places in the southeast part of the state that are worth seeing again.

As for the Voyager RV Resort, we didn’t know if we would like it when we moved in. What we have learned is that it really isn’t what we want to do. It’s more of a social club than a camping area. We kind of knew that when we moved in, but we thought that we might like it. It turns out that we don’t use 99% of the facilities and it doesn’t make sense for us to pay for them. It is a very nice park, and the people who live here are extremely friendly, and we would give it excellent references if anyone asks, but kind of like the city of Tucson, it isn’t where we want to live.

What’s Next?

As of Thursday December 30th, we are moving to a park in Apache Junction, a far eastern suburb of Phoenix. It is a much smaller version of the park that we are leaving, with a more “homey” feeling than this one. Living there, we will be able to visit another part of Arizona that we haven’t seen much of before: the central-eastern. While we were in Cottonwood, we took a side trip to Payson, but that is as far east as we have been. There is a lot more of Arizona to be seen in the next region. See you in January!