Are we in Arizona?

The weather tells us we are not!  Over the past 3 weeks we've had temperatures as low as 12 degrees at night with highs in the 40's and 50s. We've had snow and rain!  That's not the Arizona I remember. Kartchner sits at about 4600 foot elevation and thus gets a little cooler than Phoenix.  BUT this weather isn't the norm.  The weather forecast for the rest of this week is lows in the 20's and 30's and highs in the 50's. Warming to low 60's by end of week.  I've worn more winter clothes this year than I have in the past 5 years.  Amazing.

Our campsite when we woke up this morning.

My "lead guide" interpreter position is a blast.  I was signed off last week and can now lead tours on my own.  I"m loving it.  This past weekend I had the pleasure of leading a group of UN representatives into the cave.  Most of them spoke French and understood only a small amount of English.  I don't speak French.  Thank God they had a translator with them.  Even with the language barrier we had a great time.  They were so interesting and asked all kinds of questions.

January 10, I had cataract surgery on my left eye.  It went well and I can see really well out of that eye. However, I don't get the right eye done until Feb 19.  So in the meantime I have an optical imbalance and therefore have no depth perception.  I've spilled more coffee in the past few weeks that I have in years. LOL.  Night driving is out of the question, for now.  I'm looking forward to getting the right eye done, so I can stop making messes.

I was in Phoenix last week visiting friends.  Oh, how I love Phoenix.  I think it's the "big city" and all it's conveniences I like along with my friends.  I'm not saying I don't love our life style.  I do, very much.  It's just nice to go to the city every now and then.  We love going to a coffee shop and just spending an hour sitting, chatting and people watching.  The closest coffee shop to Kartchner is over an hour away.  It's funny how small things can be so big when you don't have them.

We've begun applying for work camper positions in Oregon.  We hope to land a position at a lighthouse along the coast.  Failing that we may look in Montana or South Dakota.  We only plan to be there a month or two and then we'll head east again with thoughts of spending a couple of months in South Carolina at a state park somewhere.  There are so many places to see!  Who knows where we'll be in 2013.