ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

We pulled away from Kartchner Caverns yesterday with both glee and sadness in our hearts.  What an experience we've had these past 5 months!  I met so many neat people and learned so much.  We had evenings by the fire, sing alongs and potlucks.

On Friday  night about 17 volunteers went to a locally owned restaurant called Ray's.  It's both a bar and restaurant and every Friday and Saturday night they have a live country western band.  Our group took over the place.  We laughed and sang and enjoyed the Friday night fish fry.  Of course since we're all "elderly" we had to act like children.  Someone brought bubbles and we had a great time blowing bubbles all over the place.  What a fun way to have a farewell party!

We are currently in Phoenix, AZ.  We'll be here for the week.  It always feels WONDERFUL to be in Phoenix.  This is my home and no matter where I travel I love being here.

A Week of Bronchitis Yuk!

For the first time in my life, I've contracted bronchitis!  Wow! It's really knocked me on my but.  I came down with it last Sunday and after not getting any better decided, on Thursday, I'd better get to a clinic and find out what was going on.  I've been on antibiotics since.  I only worked one day and for only one tour all week.  I get exhausted after moving around or doing anything for more than a couple of hours and I have an awful cough. 

We'd planned to go over to Box Canyon today, after spending the morning at a bakery, but alas!  Brian called around 6:30 am, asking for help.  Sammy was running a fever and he needed someone to watch her.  So...  We are leaving on Sunday and only have a few days left to take advantage of spending time with her. 

My mom is in need of caregiving assistance.  I spoke with her doctor this morning and now need to make arrangements for her.  This will play into the time we had planned to take going across the US.  I'll keep you posted.

11 Days And Counting

We will be leaving Kartchner Caverns on April 14th, headed up to Phoenix for a week and then on to Cottonwood, AZ for a few days with friends and then "on the road again".  I can hardly wait!

Being a tour guide was an awesome experience! I learned more about geology than I thought possible and  I got to meet all kinds of people from all over the world.  Though I've loved our time here, 5 months is too long in one place.  We are more than ready to be on the road, seeing new places and meeting new people.

We plan to go across the US taking the middle route, following route 66 as much as possible until we get to Oklahoma City.  That should be fun and interesting and a little different.  Our plan is to end up in Myrtle Beach,SC sometime in May or June and then fly to England and spend some time with Thomas and his family and go on to Italy with them for a couple of weeks.  That is today's plan.  However, plans are subject to change, so who knows where and when we'll be anywhere.

For those of you who follow my blog, I hope to have more interesting things to tell you about and pictures to go with my stories.

100 year old Saguaro
Saguaro National Forest outside of Tucson, AZ

Sun is Shining. We ARE IN ARIZONA!!!!

Finally!  We are having warm weather.  Today it will reach 80 with lots of sunshine.  The reason we are in Arizona.

Our time here has been wonderful.  I've loved every minute of leading tours in the caverns and I've learned so much.  We may do this again for a month or so next year.  Time will tell.

The past weekend  and a few extra days,we spent in Phoenix.  Time for the annual doctor's appointments.  We are both in great health!  Living outdoors and walking 3 miles a day is great for one's health.

One of my dearest friends, Cleo, is retiring the end of March and I hosted a surprise retirement party for her with our Brunch Club up in Phoenix.  Cleo was really surprised!  It was great being with her and Richard.  Being in Phoenix is always great!

We have had a great time keeping our granddaughter and taking her hiking.  She's only 4 but she can hike the 2 mile hike without a problem.  She even carries her own pack.  It's been wonderful spending time with her.  Leaving her will make it hard to go.  But alas, we are wanderers and staying put isn't in our blood.

We have 4 more weeks here at Kartchner and then we move April 14.  After spending a week or so up in Phoenix we will move on to visit friends in Northern Arizona.  From there we plan to travel east, taking our time going across the mid-section of the US.  Seeing what we see. 

We have a Camp Host position at Carolina Beach State Park in North Carolina  beginning August 1st.  We plan to be there a few months and then we have a similar position at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, just outside of Myrtle Beach starting November 1st.

We've been living this lifestyle for a year now and I think we love it.  You think?!

Root Canal and trip to Mexico

Today we took a little drive to Nogales, Mexico, about 1 1/2 hours from here.  T has been having some terrible pain in his tooth and several of the volunteers we work with referred us to a dentist in Nogales.  The dentist lives in the US but has an office in Mexico.  T called this morning and the dentist said they could work him in.  We left here at 9:40 am, saw the dentist around noon and was told T needed a root canal.  The dentist's uncle is an endodontist, who we'd also heard great things about.  So...

Of course while T was being worked on, I had to get out and explore.  Basically just walked around a bit, bought a rug, some silver ear rings and a bite to eat.  I was back at the dentist waiting for T when the work was done.

We'll be going back to Mexico and the dentist in about 10 days, to finish the work on his mouth.  Poor thing.  We left the dentist's office around 4:30 pm and drove home.  The snow had melted, but the temperature and the wind had not let up.  It was 31 degrees when we got back with 20 mph winds.  Not fun.

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.

Kartchner Caverns (December...Jan

Hi there!  I bet y'all thought we'd dropped off the face of the earth.  Not the case.  I've missed not writing about our adventures.

So what have we been doing all these weeks since arriving at Kartchner Caverns?  Our first week was spent getting settled and of course visiting with our granddaughter Sammy.  Second week we spent in class being trained on how to "trail" a tour.  That's the first step in training here.  After our training we were working 4 days a week and trailing tours.  What does one do when one "trails" a  tour?  Well we are the person who tags along at the end of the tour, to make sure everyone keeps up and we take people out of the cave if they get a little anxious or just want out for any reason, or if they faint and need medical assistance, we are the person who coordinates the help.  After a  couple of weeks of that, T put his foot down and said he "signed up to drive a tram and work in maintenance" and he didn't want to be in the cave. So now he drives a tram on the days he works.

I've been to CPR training and then to a weeks training class on how to be an "Interpreter"(tour guide) and have to be mentored a few days before being signed off to lead a tour on my own.  I should be signed off next week.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving & Christmas with Brian & Family.  Went to Phoenix the weekend before Christmas to visit dear friends, Cleo & Richard.

Friends, Della & Grette, visited one weekend and we went over to Tombstone for the afternoon.  Tombstone is the town where the "gun fight at the OK corral" happened.  My friends enjoyed it.  It is something you do once and after that....

We are finally on a regular schedule, started last week.  We'll work 3 days on and 4 off.  With the holidays behind us and a regular schedule we should be able to do some sightseeing in the area.  One thing we had not counted on was "cold weather".  It is NOT suppose to be be cold in Arizona!!!  We've had 2 or 3 days over 2 or 3 weeks of snow and as of yesterday, we are to have temps in the upper teens for 4 days.  That puts a crimp on the outdoor activities.

Being back in Arizona and being "of the age" where you must see your doctor on a regular basis, we are in the process of getting all our checkups, follow ups and any thing else that needs to be taken care of done.  We were in Phoenix before Christmas for part of the scheduled exams and will be going back in February for the rest.  I had cataract surgery yesterday, so I'm a little "off balance" with my vision.  I'll have the second eye done in about a month and then things should be clearer for me.

I hope to be taking pictures and updating the blog on a regular basis again.