Serene Wandering

As we meet people curious about our lifestyle, we are often asked “Where is your favorite place?”  There are too many variables for that question to have a simple answer. We have been blessed to see wonderful places reflecting geology, history, science and personal achievement. But I do have a very short list of “places that matter,” those I wish everyone could visit because of the impact they had on my soul.

The place that may always top my list of “places that matter” is Manzanar, the WWII Japanese Internment Camp Historic Site near Lone Pine, California. I wrote about it in the Highs and Lows blog post from November, 2014. It is interesting that my write up on Manzanar was really quite brief given the profound way that I remember it.

Another “place that matters” by my definition was Little Big Horn Battlefield. I wrote about our visit there in Montana Days Off – Week 2 from September, 2015. Seeing grave markers at Last Stand Hill and then scattered in pairs across the vast battlefield was sobering.

This week we visited another “place that matters.” We traveled to Bandon, to the Washed Ashore art gallery and workshop. The organization’s mission is to build and exhibit art to educate about plastic pollution in our oceans.

These volunteers are “regulars.”

Since 2010, more than 10,000 volunteers have cleaned 300 miles of Pacific coast beaches, collecting more than 38,000 pounds of petroleum based debris, generally plastic. Ninety five percent of the debris was used to make more than 60 sculptures.

The clear plastic water bottles with the blue rings are from the Beijing Olympics.

It was immensely sad that so much recognizable garbage ends up in our oceans. It was also inspiring that one woman, Angela Pozzi, concerned about the beaches near her hometown of Bandon, Oregon started this mission of awareness to change individual habits.

Jelly fish made pretty much entirely of plastic water bottles….

A few of the sculptures are on display at the exhibition hall in Bandon. Others are on display throughout the country. Right now they are in Ames Iowa, Tacoma Washington, Washington DC and Richmond Virginia. Their website at washedashore.org gives current information.  I encourage you to visit in Bandon, or see the exhibits around the country if you ever have the chance.

At the Washed Ashore exhibit hall I learned about 28,000 plastic ducks, turtles, frogs and beavers that were lost at sea in 1992. In the intervening years they have been found all over the world giving scientists valuable information about currents and the connectedness of our oceans.

The book about the toys and their movement, Moby Duck ,will be on my summer reading list!  There was also an NPR Interview with the author, Donovan Hohn, if you are interested…. but not THAT interested!

I appreciate seeing theses “places that matter.”  I just hope good will come from each sad tale.

Haceta Head Lighthouse is the iconic Oregon coast photo-op. We have visited Haceta Head before so we were content this time to see it from the viewpoint. When we did, we heard quite the commotion below us! The sea lions who chose not to venture into the commercial cave just down the road (Sea Lion Caves) were having a grand time.

We could hear them and smell them – even from this distance!

Haceta Head is one of nine historic lighthouses along the Oregon coast. All are on the National Historic Register and seven are open for public viewing. We are within a short drive of Haceta Head but are only a short walk from our state park’s namesake, Umpqua Lighthouse. We walk to the Umpqua Lighthouse almost daily because there is where we have our nearest ocean view and outgoing mail drop.

This is the ocean view across from the Umpqua Lighthouse, the Aquaculture Triangle Oyster Farm is within the jetty triangle.

The original Umpqua Lighthouse was built in 1857, the first on the Oregon coast. Located at the mouth of the Umpqua River, it succumbed to flooding in 1864. The Umpqua Lighthouse was rebuilt and recommissioned in 1894 at the current site, 165’ above sea level.

Umpqua Lighthouse uses a Fresnel lens built in Paris in 1890 and reconstructed on-site. Fresnel lenses are ordered first to seventh depending on their radius, height, and weight, with first order being the largest.  Umpqua’s first order lens has a radius of 36.2″, height of 101.97” and weight of 12787 lbs.    On our tour we were able to go to the top and view the lens and prisms from just below.

The Umpqua Lighthouse emits a ‘white, white, red’ beacon in even intervals for about 20 miles seaward. It is the only lighthouse on the Oregon coast that uses red illumination. The original oil lamp light source was changed to electricity in 1934 and was fully automated in 1960.

In the early days at Umpqua Lighthouse, a “Keeper” was a family man who made $800 per year. His first and second assistants, likely younger and single, made $600 and $550 respectively.  It was an isolated life and keepers and their families were expected to be self-sufficient with only periodic supply drops by lighthouse tender ships.  The tenders dropped food staples, fuel sources and polish for maintenance.

Keepers and assistants wore smocks so their uniform buttons would not scratch the lens and prisms during cleaning.

This weight was part of the original rotation system using gravity to turn the lens. A keeper would need to wind it back up several times a night.

We walked over to the lighthouse one night to see it in action.

We are also within walking distance of the sand dunes!

I am usually content to let Randy drive on these types of adventures while I enjoy the ride.  This time it was less expensive for us to each have our own.

And it was fun!

In a closing note, we are doing our best to enjoy our stay here knowing that when we return to Boise, Randy will begin his treatments. In his engineer way, he has done LOTS of research and is feeling good about it. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes.

Me, my mom, Natasha and Randy in front of our Boise house.

Our house in Boise was usually clean but we didn’t clean it. We kept it tidy and Randy vacuumed occasionally but, when we were working stiffs, we valued our time more than our money and happily paid our friend Theresa to clean. She did an excellent job for 20+ years.

So, how ironic is it that, as volunteer stiffs, we signed up to clean yurts and cabins at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park?

At Umpqua, we have a nice site with so many trees that sunshine is challenged and satellite TV is non-existent. There is no “over the air” TV and limited radio. This is life on stretches of the Oregon coast. At least we have decent Verizon cell and data service so I can listen to the Seattle Mariner games that I cannot watch.

Our campground has 44 campsites, two yurts and two rustic cabins. It also has six deluxe yurts that have a bathroom and small kitchen inside – the only such yurts in the entire Oregon State Park System.

Deluxe yurt $80 per night, $90 for pet-friendly

We cleaned this deluxe yurt this morning and it took 90 minutes with both of us working. There was a family in there for several days and it was likely dirtier than usual but we’ll see if it ends up as our longest clean.

There are also two small yurts that rent for $41 per night. The small yurt below took us about 30 minutes to clean.

Our favorites are the $41 per night rustic cabins – not because they are quick to clean, but because they are so darned cute and they sit above Lake Marie with a nice view.

The other part of our assignment is walking and monitoring the Lake Marie trail.  We walk  the one mile loop once a day picking up trash and generally enjoying the scenery – even though we only are asked to do it once a week.

So-far, so-good with the cabin and yurt cleaning. We have camp-hosted in the past and enjoyed camper interaction but were intrigued by the idea of doing our task and then truly being off-duty. We think we are going to like this assignment and may look to do it again in the future.

So….speaking of the future. We had plans to volunteer in two other Oregon parks this summer but instead we are heading back to Boise in early June. While in Boise last month, Randy had his annual bladder cancer re-check and the darned cancer came back in a new and more serious form.

We are waiting (and waiting) for insurance approval and expect to begin treatments in early June.   It will be a six weeks on, six weeks off, three weeks on, nine weeks off schedule for about two years. Treatment is usually successful, and we have no reason to believe the treatment won’t be approved, but waiting is stressful.

Randy feels fine and has no symptoms.   His bladder needed to heal between the biopsy and treatments so being on the Oregon coast for this month is good.  It is keeping us busy for a few hours each day.  We are thankful that he had a little cancerous spot removed in 2008 and that his doctor has been looking ever since.  Prayers and good thoughts are appreciated.

Until then, we will continue to clean away, make new friends, and explore this area of the Oregon Coast. We will read a lot, listen to podcasts and Mariner games, and go without TV.  We can do anything for a month.

After a visit with family in Vancouver, we took the opportunity to visit our friends Mark and Teri in Sequim (pronounced skwim) on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. We met them while volunteering at Farragut State Park in Idaho and have seen them in places around the west a few times since.

Teri’s hobby is crocheting colorful afghans for critically ill children through the Linus Project.

Mark and Teri are currently volunteering at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. Access to Olympic National Park is nearby, but much is still snowed in. Fortunately, we have been there before so it wasn’t a priority this time.

At the wildlife refuge, we walked along the Dungeness Spit. A spit is “a narrow coastal land formation that is tied to the coast at one end.”

The Dungeness Spit is five and a half miles long, the longest natural spit in the country.

A posing of local gulls.  The white ones are the older adults with the darker ones being juveniles.

Three birders looking at birds while I look at them.

There is a large assemblage of large driftwood for miles along the spit.

This is not a dead tree that has managed to remain upright despite the elements.   This is a piece of driftwood that was deposited upright into a hole and has remained there despite the elements.

Near the end of the spit is the Dungeness Lighthouse. Built in 1857, the lighthouse still assists navigation on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A “lighthouse keeper” program allows individuals or families to pay to spend a week maintaining the lighthouse and giving tours to visitors. To be a keeper for a week costs $350 for adults. To “keep” the entire lighthouse costs $2250 per week. More information is available about this interesting “vacation” on the lighthouse website here.

So, that was the spit…now for the slobber and slime!

We visited the Olympic Game Farm. There are a variety of animals here including waving bears who didn’t feel like waving during our visit.

Several peacocks were in full fashion mode. We even heard him rattling his feathers, called “train rattling,” which is part of the male’s courting process.

Even the backside is pretty.

The highlight is feeding the large animals that come right up to your vehicle – kind of like a reverse drive up fast food window!

Although each animal is given a specific diet appropriate to its needs, the farm sells very soft whole-wheat bread loaves for $2 to supplement the animals’ diets and visitors’ enjoyment.  We bought two large loaves and could have easily given out more.The llama knew what to expect and how to get it!

These yaks just space themselves in the road expecting a handout – which they get.

The animals get so close so quickly it is hard to take a picture!

It is far easier to take pictures of the cars in front of you!   Once you get to the elk and bison section, you are advised not to stop because the animals are pretty aggressive and can damage your car.  Unfortunately, the car in front of this one had stopped!   We didn’t get damaged but we sure got slime and slobber on both sides of the truck!

We were glad we had our big tall truck. It would have been really intimidating to have these two bison reaching their head in for food! The experience was a little bit unnerving at times, but a whole lot of fun!  I thought it would be scary to drive through all the animals but the animals are experienced and Randy said it wasn’t bad.

Lest you think Sequim is all about disgusting stuff (spit, slobber and slime), it is also one of the premier lavender producing areas in the world. There are nine lavender farms in the area which participate in a Sequim Lavender Weekend in July and Tour de Lavender in August.

We were too early in the season for any of the lavender farms to be open to the public but I did take the opportunity to visit one of the lavender gift shops downtown.

We had an nice visit with our friends in Sequim, enjoying the spit, slobber, slime and lavender!

When we arrived in Boise exactly a month ago, real life met us head on.  Randy had noticed tire wear on the trailer so our first stop was for an alignment.   The decision was eventually made that we have bad trailer axles and will go to Indiana in June for a new suspension system.

Then real life came to us in the mail! I had not one, but two federal jury summons – the second one reminding me that I hadn’t responded to the first.   We only get our mail every 3 weeks or so and had apparently just missed the first summons when we got it last.

I called in to say I wasn’t ducking them and quickly filled out my jury questionnaire. I didn’t have negative feelings about serving and was glad that my summons corresponded with our month back in Boise.

I served on a criminal trial for two days. It was an interesting and sobering experience – not bad, just one in which I felt the weight of responsibility. That was real life.

We also got to experience the real life dentist, doctor, vet, and optometrist appointments – all those things most people spread throughout the year. We schedule them in bunches when we are back in Boise.

We were able to spend lots of time with family and friends!  That was the best part of our real life adventure in Boise! Thanks to so many of our friends for taking the time to see us or inviting us over.   We enjoyed the visits very much.

We spent quite a bit of time with Natasha and Seth and Archer. We took Archer to his first two theater movies and he even got to stay with us in the trailer for a weekend. We had a blast but were very tired by Sunday afternoon.

The picture above shows Randy and Archer walking on the Greenbelt along the Boise River. This path usually extends 46 miles through and beyond Boise but is now closed in many areas because of high river flow and flooding.

The ducks and geese enjoy some quiet waters where the path and grass usually are.  This is in the campground about 100 yards from our trailer.

Water levels and flows are exceedingly high.  We can hear the water very easily.

About 1/2 mile east of our campground the decision was made to remove a bridge that had been there for years because of erosion around the footings. We did’t see the actual removal but watched them moving the 15000 pound crane ballast pads onto flat trucks.

There is so much snow in the mountains, and water in the reservoirs and rivers that flooding concerns are very real.   But all that water comes with a chance to see things that are better than normal as well.

We drove two hours east to Twin Falls to see Shoshone Falls.  These falls are one of the largest natural waterfalls in the United States and considered to be the “Niagra of the West.”

The water flow was very impressive,- approximately19,900 cubic feet per second. To see a video of Shoshone Falls, click here.

Shoshone Falls are 212 feet high and 950 feet wide. The surrounding land was given to the city of Twin Falls by Frederick and Marge Adams in 1932, with the stipulation that it be held and maintained as a public park. There is a small entrance fee to access the park and one vendor shack. It was a very different experience than our visit to Niagra Falls in New York. It wasn’t better or worse, just two very different experiences around two exceptional waterfalls.

We also took the opportunity to visit Twin Falls waterfall (the name sake for the town). This was a first for us even though we lived in southern Idaho for 33 years.

Historical society picture from informational placard.

The picture above shows two sets of falls flowing before the dam was built in 1935. Currently there is only one set of falls.

Twin Falls isn’t a twin anymore.

We had some real life repairs!  Remember the broken rocking chair? Randy and our friend Darrell were able to repair the chair and it is now stronger than it ever was.

Randy is sitting in one of the chairs, bundled up in jacket and gloves.  He did not adapt well to cool and wet weather here in Boise after our winter in Arizona.

We have had rain, snow and hail interspersed with some sunshine – typical Boise spring weather but not what we’ve been used to.

It leaves us wondering how we are going to adjust to our summer on the Oregon Coast! We leave today to work our way west. We will clean yurts at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park for the month of May.   We go to Indiana in June and then return to Oregon for the rest of the summer. We will be at William Tugman State Park for July and Jesse Honeyman State Park for August. If you are on the Oregon coast, give us a call!  We’d love to get together.

We spent a wonderful week in Mexico with friends Darrell and Cindy.  When we made our reservations last fall, Delta was our best flight option. Through the intervening months, Delta changed times, routes, airlines, and even our departure date!

Our Boise to Minneapolis to Mazatlan route stayed the same but Delta’s change meant we had to leave Boise at 5:30 a.m. on Friday instead of mid-morning Saturday. Fortunately, Cindy was able to take the extra day off work but Delta didn’t pay for our extra night at the resort.

We have time-share weeks at Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay in Mazatlan and have been there many times.  Darrell and Cindy came with us previously in 2012.  We traded for Cabo the last two years so were very glad to be going back to Emerald Bay.  From the welcoming Tequila Sunrise forward, it was our Happy Place all week long!

This was our room with the balcony overlooking the pool and the ocean.

We spent a lot of time by the pool lounging, playing cards and enjoying nachos, pina coladas, miami-vices, chi-chis and other adult beverages.

We enjoyed painting our Mexican pottery. You paint a pre stamped design and the people providing the opportunity make them look beautiful!

The resort grounds are lovely with a variety of flora and fauna.

There are iguana!

We went to Mass on Sunday, a combination of English and translated Spanish.

I went para-sailing right off the resort beach!   Here I am getting strapped in and receiving instructions.

Randy para-sailed on our honeymoon – 36 years later it was my turn!

The servers around the pool and in the restaurants are wonderful. One of the waiters had us giggling. He was so efficient that he was removing our dishes before we were finished with them. We finally had to hold on to our glasses so they didn’t disappear.

We did leave Emerald Bay and go into town a few times. We went to Randy’s favorite restaurant – Fat Fish.   It isn’t fancy AT ALL but is #7 of 300+ on Trip Advisor.

They offer  ‘2 for 1’ ribs, steak or breaded shrimp dinners for 220 pesos (currently $11.73) With drinks and a tip – it was about $15 per couple.

We ate at Panchos in the Golden Zone. We were having a fine time enjoying our meals, complimentary tequila and complimentary kailua and cream when our waiter noticed I wasn’t eating my carne asada (too rare).  So, he gave us another round of tequila and a piece of cake to share.

When we got our second round of complimentary kailua and cream- mine was HUGE and went unfinished!

Our time wasn’t totally spent eating and drinking!  We went on a City Tour one evening.

Another day we walked along the maleacon and enjoyed sites and views along the way.

The hotel behind us is where we spent our honeymoon in 1980.

There are a variety of statues along the maleacon.

This statue commemorates pulmonias – Mazatlan’s famous open air taxis.  They were called pulmonias because opponents tried to discourage their use by suggesting that those who rode in them would get pneumonia. The discouragement didn’t work. Pulmonias are everywhere and riding in them is fun!

Off to dinner in one of Mazatlan’s famous pulmonias.

We rode a city bus (also an experience) into the historic district to see the Cathedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción, begun in 1856 and completed in 1899.

This Roman Catholic cathedral has 28 stained glass windows featuring a Star of David.  This was done in gratitude to a local Jewish family who provided funds to complete the church.

We visited during Mass and there was no English translation this time. Mass is celebrated many times each day.

We visited Mazatlan’s main market.  We’ve been there before but enjoyed experiencing it with Darrell and Cindy.

Selling and buying marlin meat at the market.

The “on the hoof that morning” meat market is somewhat shocking to our American sensibilities. We visited in the early afternoon and there was still a lot of meat sitting out. I asked what happened to the meat that didn’t sell and was told that it was purchased and frozen for sale in grocery stores.

Cindy finding Mexican candy for the grandchildren.

We have our yearly supply of amaretto and coffee flavored sipping tequila!

All too soon our week (plus one day) at our Happy Place was over and it was time to re-engage with Delta. That meant a 2:30 a.m. alarm to catch our 3:30 taxi to get to the Mazatlan airport at 4:00.  (That was NOT the original plan!)

Setting both phone alarms!  

I wore this, my last clean shirt, on the way home.  It was a conversation starter over and over again!  Randy isn’t even a Seahawks fan but bought one too because it was so clever!  

Our Delta revised route home took us from Mazatlan at 6:00 a.m. (on AeroMexico) south to Mexico City (five hour delay), back on Delta to Salt Lake City and then into Boise at 9:30 pm. It was a long day.

Randy and Darrell trying to sleep in the Mexico City airport

We appreciate that the pilots and flight attendants got us there and back safely.  We are trying to remember that, ultimately, this is the most important thing.   But, we still don’t like Delta!

We traveled north through Nevada intending to visit two intriguing state parks: Valley of Fire and Cathedral Gorge. The pictures and reviews for both parks were great but, unlike most states, Nevada doesn’t take campground reservations. Everything is first come-first served and our plan was to try to make it work not once, but twice! Because of our RV size, and my discomfort with winging it, we almost always have reservations.

With no guarantee, we left at 7:30, two or three hours earlier than usual. It was mid-week and our destination was an hour east of Las Vegas. We arrived at Valley of Fire well before noon and the campground was “filling up fast.”  We had to pay the $10 entry fee to drive several miles in to see if staying was possible.

The views from the main road were beautiful and we saw RVs headed out of the park so we were hopeful.  When we arrived at the campground there were just a few open spots and the only ones we could fit into were handicapped sites. The camp hosts explained the rangers would release those sites to anyone once everything else was full but the rangers wouldn’t say when they were likely to do so.

Basically we drove 50 miles out of our way, paid $10 to drive to the campground to find out we couldn’t stay, and then couldn’t explore the park because we had the trailer attached. We are not fans of Nevada’s no reservation policy!

We decided to drive several more hours to our second park, Cathedral Gorge State Park. I spoke to a ranger from there earlier in the week who told me they are rarely full this time of year so we felt good about our prospects.

All through southern Nevada we saw solar panel arrays.

After a LONG day in the truck we found a site and I took Elko for a walk.   Randy set up, opened the slides, and discovered more disarray and damage than we’ve ever had in a prior move. He remembers a big rise and dip over a railroad track so maybe that did it. We had cupboards opened that never open, clothing off the racks in the closets and a box valance came loose. One of our rocking chairs rotated and tipped so when the slide opened, it broke one of the rocker bases.

A brief history on the rocking chairs….My parents bought two of them while living in Panama in the late 1970s for $10 – $15 each. The leather was cured with urine so in hot weather they were a bit aromatic!   My parents had them for 20 years or so and then we acquired them. We had them in our house and they “made the cut” for the trailer. We could have sold them over and over again.

Of all the things that could have been damaged, the rocking chair was not a great option! I strap them down with velcro and put rugs and blankets around them each time we move. The velcro was still holding but most of the chair was elsewhere. We are headed towards our friend Darrell who is a master wood worker. I am hopeful that Darrell can help Randy figure out a fix or rebuild.

After we regained focus, we found Cathedral Gorge State Park to be a barren and dusty place with the most interesting rock formations!  An early mining camp resident named the area Cathedral Gorge because the formations reminded her of European Cathedrals.

The campground is in the top right corner.

The park has broad expanses of eroded siltstone and we have enjoyed hiking and exploring.

Stairway to heaven….

Most fun were the nooks and crannies that hide openings into slot canyons. Some go just a few feet and some go a hundred feet or more. It was much cooler inside!

Where did my dad go?

Elko didn’t like the slot canyons we explored in Utah, but the walking surfaces in these were mostly level and he did well. Some surfaces in and around the formations were like smooth concrete.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked at the site in the 1930s and some improvements are still around.

So, Nevada parks were a mixed bag.  We are less likely to visit more parks in the future because of the no reservation policy.   Someday we’ll take a day trip to Valley of Fire from Las Vegas but we won’t try to stay there again.

Continuing north, we saw snow along the sides of the road and in the mountains.   We spent last night in Wells but it was mostly just an overnight pull-through and laundry stop.  After a week without sewer hookups (thus unable to do laundry in the trailer) we had quite the pile.  I did four loads in the trailer and four in the park facilities.   We have clean clothes, towels, bedding and rugs heading into Idaho!

We have meandered through Arizona since mid-December and, with temperatures teasing into the 90s, it was time to move on. We enjoyed ourselves in the resorts and loved the time spent in desert parks. We appreciated seeing family and making new friends. We especially enjoyed reconnecting with friends that we see here, there and everywhere. Thinking of you Beth, Mark and Teri, Gerry and Kathy, Kevin and Karen, and Kent and Pam.

Kent and Pam met us near Lake Havasu City on their way south and our way north – our final stop in Arizona for this season.

We enjoyed the scenery and commentary on a Colorado River Jet Boat Tour.

We learned paddlewheel steamers first came onto the Colorado River to transport Army supplies north from Fort Yuma.  A comedy of errors resulted in 30 percent of the 150+ steamers sinking due to sand bars or flooding. Fortunately, there was little loss of life.

The waters were the right level for travel if the eye opening was visible on this reclining rock face. If waters were too high or too low, the eye was not visible.   We were good!

There was also an area of petroglyphs.

Our tour began and ended near the London Bridge.  The city of London put the bridge up for sale in 1967 and Lake Havasu City entrepreneur Robert McCulloch bought it for $2,460,000. There were higher bids but the London folks liked McCulloch’s plan to use the bridge for foot and motor traffic over water.

Bricks were individually numbered, deconstructed and shipped. With some structural modifications,  the London Bridge was reassembled in Lake Havasu City.

The damage on this bridge support was from an air battle during the second world war. Bullet holes and missing rock are evident when viewed from water level.

There were “love locks” on two fences symbolizing the devotion of couples to each other. This tradition began in Paris.

Kent and Pam stayed in town but we stayed at Cattail Cove State Park. Arizona has some great state parks and this was another of them.

Elko enjoyed wading in at the Dog Beach several times a day.
Kent and I took our canoe out and enjoyed a paddle!  Notice the interesting erosion barrier in the background.  Our TxDot friend, Mark told us that pocketed fabric is laid, liquid concrete is pumped in and allowed to dry.  The fabric eventually decomposes.

This area is above Parker Dam and the facility on the right is where water is pumped out to go to southern California.

Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world with nearly three-fourths of its structure below ground. It also has an interesting construction story!

In 1934 the Arizona governor declared martial law and machine-gun nests were put in place to deal with one of “the gravest threats ever faced” – water-thieves from California.

Water rights along Colorado River system were divided amongst New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California but Arizona refused to sign on to the plan. They believed that California was taking more than its fair share.

Governor Moeur was unhappy when the Bureau of Reclamation started building the dam and he sent National Guard troops to take whatever steps necessary to prohibit the workers from even touching “the sacred soil of old Arizona.”

The Navy of Arizona had only two old ferryboats but the Supreme Court ruled for Arizona saying the dam had not been properly authorized.  Congress then passed the Rivers and Harbors Bill, authorizing the construction of Parker Dam.

Another of our pleasures was hiking the trails along the river in Cattail Cove State Park. The river views were very nice but best were the wild flowers and cactus blooms!

Those cold, rainy days and nights in Tucson in January were rewarded with so many wild flowers! The beauty of the desert in bloom is astounding. We may never see it this good again!

So, our stay in Arizona is done for another year. We decided we will not return to two of the resorts we visited this year.  We didn’t have bad visits but, in both cases, there was continual jet noise that we tired of. Done and done!  There are other parks!

When we drove into Yuma three months ago, my hopes for this season were to see javelina in the wild and to NOT see a snake. Because and in-spite of many miles and hours walking in the desert, both hopes were realized!  Arizona: Done and Done!

When we planned this stop at the Sunflower RV Resort in Surprise, Arizona we thought we’d see our friends Gerry and Kathy and go to a couple Mariners Spring Training Games.   We did most of that, and even had a couple surprises!

We are Mr. and Mrs. Matthews at this week’s Mariners game!

Oddly enough the opponent for both games was the Texas Rangers.  It is odd because we saw two major league games last summer both involving the Rangers.  The first was at Safeco Field in Seattle and then a few weeks later against the Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. This spring both games we went to were Mariners playing the Rangers.  I’m hoping that when we see a game in Seattle this summer it won’t be the Mariners and Rangers AGAIN!

We had a surprise meet-up this week with Boise friends who came south for Spring Training – Cubs fans Kevin and Karen!   Thanks for the visit!

We had another most wonderful surprise! Our nephew, Sean, married his Lisa last night and since we were in the valley, we were able to go. When Sean and Lisa were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, it occurred to me that there were (at least) three other couples in attendance who were also Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, we being one of them.

Two sets of Mr. and Mrs. Matthews:  Sean and Lisa with Sean’s parents (and Randy’s brother) Tim and Yvette.

This picture shows two of Sean’s siblings,  Tim (blue tie) and his wife Christal, and Michele (holding the baby) and her family.  (Tim and Christal are also a Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.)  Michele’s husband is also a Tim but they are not a Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. This part of Randy’s family is the crew we play Fantasy Football with and three of the eight owners in the league are named Tim.

It was terrific to be able to spend quite a bit of time with Tim and Yvette this winter.  We are already looking forward to next year although we’ll be in Yuma so it won’t be quite as easy.

So, some other odds and ends from our week in Surprise….

We were liking Phoenix more than we thought….and then it took us 90 minutes to go 30 miles from the west valley to Mesa!

When I took Elko out at dawn our first morning here, we saw three coyotes in this wash about 100 yards from our trailer. There is a fence between the resort and the wash but it was still pretty interesting!

Randy bought a “new to him” golf bag and push cart at the resort patio sale for $20. Such a bargain!

I mentioned to Randy a few weeks ago that I missed hearing cactus wrens this year. They have a very distinctive “start the engine” song and we’ve heard and enjoyed them on previous trips. Here is a link if you’d like to hear what they sound like.

And here at Sunflower, we have had a cactus wren hanging out in the light pole at our site! It has been a nice ending song for our Arizona winter. One more stop…and then north.