29 March. Packing up

Since we are leaving tomorrow, today is the day we put things away that we will not require such as the extra chairs, Bar-B-Q and the second TV. For some reason the storage area seems to shrink after we take everything out but by packing and repacking the orginal space re-appears. Then the wind started to blow in gusts so that reminded me to roll up the awning before it ended up in some other State.

We then went to Safeway to pick up a few groceries so we wiould not have to shop on our trip north. Also, we have enough Safeway points to get 10 cents off per gal of diesel and I needed to fill up before leaving. Furthermore, Safeway fuel is the least expenive in this area. The down side is that I'm not the only one that knows that, hence the line up exceeded my patience level so i left. Since the Safeway fuel station is open 24 hrs I decided to return after the Seniors have gone to bed.
We had arranged to have supper with Bob and Karen since they too are heading back to Alberta on Saturday. After supper we returned to B and K's house for a desert and to watch the remaing period of hockey.

28 March Wedesday

Today is Farmers market day in Green Valley and of course this is a weekly event. However, farmers market is totally the wrong name for it... it is nothing more that a Flea market , albeit a dam good one. I'm sure there was at least 200 booths and we ( mostly Carroll ) checked our every item. I was surprised with some of the booths as one had danish bakery, another had special lasagne booth; there was a fruit and vegetable store on the same parking lot but that was all that was related to a Farmers market. I even talked to one guy who was selling a Catus tree called the Saguara... that is the huge one with several arms ( probably called branches but I have never herd anyone call them branches ). O K, so that took 2 hours out of our life. Then I went to the gas station to get the 30 lb ( 7 gal) propane bottle filled. I should have ask the price.. it was 4.75 a gal. In Apache Junction it was 3.00 a gal and i assume the price would have been close to that or I never would have filled the bottle.
Wed night is Potluck night and we always attend, if for know other reason to meet people. Carroll checked the list to see what was needed and determined it was potatoes so she did Scalloped potatoes.We did met some new ( to us ) folks but as usually they were friendly and informative.

27 March Copper Mine Tour

The temperature at 6 AM was 7 C. Did i mention that we are in Arizona. By 8 AM the dress is Short and Tee shirt so ir warms up quickly. Today and every Tuesday morning is "Sticky Buns " for breakfast at a cost of $2.00. Forget the diet; these are a must buy. However, as i said last week, why some people get up early to bake these Buns and have them ready by 8 AM is beyond me.
In the afternoon we decided to visit the ARSCA, which is a working Copper Mine, and took the 1 1/2 hour tour. The tour guide was a retired miner so you know we got more information then we could ever remember. But he was great. After the intro, we loaded on a Bus and went to the Open Pit Mine where they were working, loading the trucks. Then we went into the operation building to see how they separate the Copper from the Ore. I was amazed at the size of the Trucks as they carried 320 ton of material from the Pit to the crusher. The loading shovel is run by Electricity and it drags a huge cable around as it loads the Truck. this certainly amazed me. Also interesting is that they have enough Silver in the ore, which they separate out and they get enough money from the silver to pay the "huge " power bill. Copper is marketed at 3.80 a lb and this mine can produce copper for 1.75 a lb so there is good money in copper. This is a Mexican owned and operated company.
After the tour we returned home and since it was extremely hot by now we took in the pool to get some pool time and catch some rays.
I spent the evening watch 3 hockey game.

Did you hear about the little boy in Toronto who was always being beaten by his family so he took them to court. The judge said he could select someone else to raise him and he chose the Toronto Maple leafs. He said he would be safe there because the don't beat anyone.

26 MARCH Momday Titan II Missile Museum

Today we visited the Titan II missile site which is now a Museum. This is the only Titan II missile left over from the Cold War. Please bear with me while i provide a little history so hopefully the Titan II makes some sense.
After WWII the Americans and the Russians did not trust each other and each assumed, with reason , that each would try to "wipe out" the other. The USA was sure that Russia was building a hydrogen Bomb and had the rocket Engineering knowledge and ability to deliver it anywhere in North American they chose. So the USA had to built a missile that could annilate any city in Russia by traveling 6000 miles with a Warhead. Hence the game of who had the "biggest and best toy" would win. Therefore the USA built 54 Titan II missiles and installed in several location around the USA.
You probably remember the Cuba Crisis, around July in 1962 ( I join the Air Force in 1962 )when the USA determined that Kurschev had installed missiles in Cuba and Kenndy gave him 48 hours to dismantle the Missle or USA would attack.
Finally, after years of a " Cold War" between Russia and the USA , they agreed,in 1987 that this was no way to fight a war so they both agreed to destroy all Missiles including the Titan II Missile sites which they did. However, the USA was allowed to keep this one for a Museum and of course it does not have a " War Head ". These Missile sites were built in 36 Months and took 5000 men working 24 hours. They were allowed to stand down for Christmas day the 1st year but not the 2 nd year. This was an obvious race to get them built first. The Titan II warhead was 10 Megatons or put another way was 100 times more destructive then the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
All that to say, that we toured the Misslie site,including the Silo which hid the Rocket and the Command launch Centre. The missle was completely underground and would have been launched in situ ( meaning it was not raised above ground ). The Command Centre ( also underground )was only 50 feet away but it would not feel any vibrations when the rocket was fired. The construction was unbelievable. This was one of the best tours we have been on and the cost of 8.50 was cheap.

After the Titan II tour we drove to Campers World in Tucson to get a trailer Brake actuator that appiles the the electric brakes on the traler when I apply the truck brakes. The one we had was getting too hard to adjust so after 13 years we figured it probably did not owe us anything.
After supper we dropped in on Karen and Bob to see if they required us to take anything home for them as they mentioned they could be overloaded. So far, they think they can get it all in the car but will check with us on Thursday.

25 MARCH Sunday

Today we arranged to have Breakkfast with our friends ( Bob and Karen ) from Med Hat and another couple from Med Hat dropped in so the 6 of us spent about an hour and a half swapping stories while having breakfast. We are all leaving for home this week so they other two couples were talking about having enough room in their car for all their "stuff " and that it would take a few days to get organizedand packed. Then Bob ask me how long it took us to " Pack Up" and I said about 20 minutes; just a few min to close the slides and about 15 mins to hook up. He just shook his head.
After breakfast we decided to tour a small tourist town of Tubuc, about 20 miles away. This town is an Artsy/ Fartsy town with many many store selling Mexican pottery, real expensive pottery, high end Quilts ( I call $1500.00 Quilts as high end ) very expensive but hand made ladies clothes, Jewelry , Art and most anything else a tourist with money could want.
After 2 hours of looking at things we could never afford we decide to take a 2 hour Scenic drive thru the Desert and Mountains. Believe it or not the desert, althought seeming ugly, is actually very Scenic with many different specis of catus which are in various stages of flowering.
After a while we came upon a Border patrol check point which did not surprise me as we were very close to MX. With my " CANADA " licence plate on the front, they just waved me thru. Then I noticed we were actually going north and I knew we would have to find a road going west to get back home. So I told the " navagater" to plug in the GPS and get me heading towards home. She typed in " Diamond Desert Casino" which is 5 miles from home and apparently they were the only words she could spell. I guess "Green Valley Resort" was too hard to spell. Long story , short; we dropped into the casino long enough for Carroll to drop $20.00 and then we dropped another 20.00 for the Buffett supper.
We arrived home just in time to see the last end of the World Curling and we were happy that Switzerland won. It was now time to hit the Hot tub and swap stories with whoever else was soaking their old muscles. Amazing to us is that not many seniors use the Hot tub at night.

24 MARCH

Today was a beautiful, sunny day ; just the type of day to laze around the pool and catch some rays which has been sparse this year. But first we had to watch the curling, especially Team Canada , in hopes that they could at least win the Bronze. After Team Canada lost to the Koreans in the playoff, we decide to "drown " our disappointment by going to the he Pool. Obvious, the Americans in the pool don't know or care about curling so we did not have to discuss the game.

Tonight was also Kareoke Night for those "Wanna Be " singer or should I say that "time has pass them by". We invited our friends, Bob and Karen over to the Kareoke and it was not too bad. It was a two beer Performance and it did help to kill an hour and a half. One lady was an excellent singer ( An American ) who sang the first half of the song in French and the last part in English without the monitor so it was not her first time signing that song. I would suggest that Elvis keep his day job for awhile yet.ha ha
About the only thing I can say is that we killed another day.

23 MAR

This RV park has a Computer club, so to speak but it is mostly a small group who meet to help us "computer Illiterate" people to solve our problem . I went to the meeting to get help to "organize " the thousands of pictures I took while in ZA. There were 3 guys at the meeting that were very knowledgable and one other lady who had a question about her pictures. Her problem was solved quite quickly so she left and now the 3 guys all wanted to help me.
I have my pics on two programs: " My Pictures" and on "Picasa". What I ask of them was to show me how to pick out about 100 pics from the 1000 or so I had in " My Pitures " progam and put them in a folder so I could tranfer them to a disk. Then i wanted to know how to do the same with the 1000 pics i have in "Picasa". So one guy worked with me on "My Pictures ". He was very methodical and had me practice and then make some notes which I truly required. The other two guys worked on the Picasa program and in all fairness, they do not use Picasa so they had to "Hunt " for the easiest method so they could simplify it for me. These guys were great and I'm sure they love the challange. I was invited to return next Friday but we are leaving so I hope they can find another challange.
Tonight was a windup night as people are starting to head home so the had a "Talent Night" better known as "No talent" but it was a fun evening to see people had the nerve to get on the stage and perform. We were a little late and when we got there the place was full and all the chairs were taken so I had to go to the RV and get our own chairs. It just proves that Seniors will attend anything that's Free.

22 March

As i mentioned a few days ago, we heard a Growling from the brakes. I assumed that my front brakes were the probable cause since hauling a 5th wheel seems to wear out the front brakes first.About 100,000 Km ago i did have the front brakes pads replaced so i would not be surprised if they needed to be replaced again. The closes Brake company ( like Midas ) was in Tucson some 30 miles away, so off we go see what the damages would be. The first Brake company I chose said he would be 1 1/2 before he could look at them but I felt he was being generous with his timing since all 10 bays were full and he had 8 work orders complete with the Keys sitting on the counter so I opted to find another garage. Next on my list was Midas. They were busy but i laid the "tourist" story on him and that I could not wait too long. So he said he would have a man on it in less than 1/2 an hour which he did. Once they had the brakes exposed it was not a pretty picture. The rear brakes were actually the problem, as they so rusted that they would not release when the brakes were released , hence the growling. Therefore both rear systems had to be replaced. The front rotors were turned the last I replaced the pads and they were close to the safe limit. All that to say that i had to replace all 4 brakes system at a cost of 1500.00
Carroll and i went to the Olive garden for lunch and then to the Tucson Mall to kill 3 hours until the truck was repaired.So that is how we spent Thursday.

19 th MAR to 21 MAR

19th Mar.... When i got up at 6 AM the temp was 5C. Where the hell is that gobal Warming; certainly not in AZ. The up side is that as soon as the Sun comes up the temp goes up to 25 C or above. Our friend Bob was in his year end ball tournment starting at 10 AM so we drop in to watch the games and by noon it was so warm we had to remove our jackets. The afternoon was spent watch the Ladies curling and soaking up the sun between games. Otherwise a lazy day. We also heard a "growl " coming from the truck brakes so now that will have to be checked sometime this week.

20th Mar.... Today is " Sticky Bun Breakfast" day at our park. A few of our Park residence get out of bed in the early hours of the morning to bake a few hundred Sticking Buns for sale with the morning Coffee. I am amazed that Seniors are that ambistion to do this every Tuesday but be that as it may , the Buns were great. We were advised that the doors opened at 8 AM but you better be in lined up by 7:45, which I did and the line-up was building by then.
We invited Karen and Bob Charette over for Happy Hour and Supper, at which time we had a beer and swapped stories about our travels. This is the first time they had a chance to ask us about our trip to South Africa and of course they look at our pictures. The Charettes are amazed ( along with many others )that we went to and traveled for 3 months in ZA without a well layout plan.
The Charettes are renting a home in Green Valley so they only have the American TV so we turned on the curling so both of us could watch it.

21 March... Temp was 3C at 6 AM. Between the two curling games we did some grocery shopping as the park was hosting a Potluck Supper and Carroll decided on a cassrole dish for which we needed the ingredients. Since one of the other food groups was on sale, I picked up another dozen Beer to get me thru to the time we are leaving Green Valley. I knew, from experience that the peole attending the Potluck would be reserving their table before the doors opened so i went to the hall around 5 PM and i seen the most of the tables were reserved but there were some openings. As it turned out the the lady responsible for some of the night entertainment was in the hall and she invited us to sit with them as there was room for 2 more so I gladly accepted. Two of the couples were farmers , one of the couples were from Iowa and the other couple was from Illinois.
After the supper the Farm Manager from the Green Valley Pecan farm gave us a speech on the history of the family that owns the 7000 acre farm and some history of the area. It was most interesting because the Grandparents were actually Cotton Farmers but switch to Pecans shortly after WWII. I described the farming aspect in my earlier Blog so i won't go into that but it seems the Peanuts are very profitable. Apparently Pecans are most productive at an altitude between 3000 and 4000 ft and green valley is 4000 ft. So the next time you hear some say " that only cost peanuts" just think of the Multi Millionaire Green Valley Pecan family farmers.

18 th MAR

Tempature at 7 AM was 7 C and the wind and rain continued all night and for most of the day. The wind was so strong it drove the rain thru a gasket on one of our slides which I did not notice until the morning, hence a small leak occured but it did not do any damage as it dripped on a chair. By now the Satellite dish was vibrating so fast it could not hold the signal. So I had to bear the wind and rain and relocate the satellite around the trailer out of the wind. Luckily, I found the signal; actually I found enough of a signal ( 36 percent ) to watch curling and hockey, a better signal can wait until the wind and rain subsides.
After stopping the water leak we decided to go out for Breakfast so we called Bob and Karen to join us, which then did.
Since the weather was miserable, we spent the rest of the day inside watching the curling and a few hockey games. Incidentally, we have two TVs so there is never a problem about who gets the "Remote".ha ha.

17 Mar.... St. Paddy's Day

Being of Irish heritage of course we had to wear Green for the Day.
It was not a nice day , weather wise, as a cold front was moving in and the forecast was for wind driven rain. The wind did pick up and was so strong that it blew my satellite over, by pulling a 1 foot tie down stake right out of the ground. I could have; in fact I should have moved the satellite but one never likes to move the satellite once it is set up for fear that you can not find the signal again. I told myself ,if the wind did not die down by morning i would move the Satellite. Since there was no sign of rain I had hoped the storm was over.
We were invited for supper, to our friends winter home a few miles away. Bob and Karen Charette ( another Irish name ) spend the winter down in Green Valley as it is great for golfing ( a sport they both live for ) and Bob plays ball twice a week. We also met another couple at their house whom were from Med Hat . Karen served a great supper and Bob serves a mean Beer.
By the time we left the Charettes at 10 PM the wind had picked up and it was dam cold. We later found out the Tucson; some 30 miles away, actually got a little snow, hence the reason for the cool tempature. Althought it did not rain on Sat evening it sure looked like it was coming. And it Did !!!!!

16 MAR.. to Green Valley

16 MAR We left Weavers Needle around 10 AM and headed for Green Valley. This was a 3 hour drive which took us thru several small town until we reached Tucson. At this point we had to take I-10 for a few miles until we reached hwy 19 which headed south to Mexico. Thiry miles out of Tucson we reached Green Valley and our trusty GPS took us right to the RV park. the park has 300 very nice sites, which is small by most standards but the people are real friendly. While I was setting up I seen 3 guys looking at my truck which was parked in another driveway so it was out of my way. I told them I would move it shortly and they said it was OK, as we were just looking at your licence plate; so where are you from. When I said, AB , Canada, they said we love you guys coming here for the winter because these RV camps could not not survive without you. This RV park has all the facilities with more than enough activities. They even have a computer course which I will attend on Friday.
Green Valley which is an area not a city. It is not an Incorporated town or city; it has not area council, hence it does not pass By-Law; it is governed by the County.
The area is noted for growing Peacan Nuts as the Green valley Pecan Co. produces 368 million pounds of Pecan nuts every year from there 7000 acres farms. They ship 30% to Europe, and rest are sold in the USA, mostly to Costco under the Kirkland name.
For a little insight into the Peacan nut; the trees grow to about 30 feet high and they prune 25 percent of the trees each year to keep them at their maximun production. The trees, which were planted in 1965 but can live for a thousand years, are planted in precise rows 20 ft apart with 60 feet between the rows for ease of harvesting them. The harvesting is done in 3 phases: a machines shakes the Peacans from the trees: the Pecans are swepted into a windrow: and the windrow are picked up with a harvester. Pecans take alot of water and these farms have 34 deep wells , 1000 ft deep with a 20 inch casing. They have to irrigate about 12 or 13 times a year and most farms are " Flood " irrigated.
The other large employer is Freeport MacMoran Mining company, and these huge open mines are viewed for miles. We intend to take a tour of the mines so they will be more to come on this subject.

13 Mar to 15 mar

13 MAR We got an email from our friends , Trevor and Carol from Kelona, BC a few days ago to say they were in Casa Grande ( a hour from Apache Junction )visiting with friends from Calgary, on their return trip home from Mexico where they spent the winter. We have not seen Trevor and Carol for about 2 years ( boy, how time flies )so we insisted that they bring their friends ( Darlene and Eugene )to out RV site for a " Burger and Beer " on the 13 th. Low and behold when they arrived we realized that we knew Darlene and Eugene as we had met them at a Bar-B-Q in Black Diamond in July. "What a small world we live in". Anyhow we had a great visit with our friends and hope that we meet again before 2 years passes.

14 MAR I needed a haircut since my last haircut was in MX in late Jan so we decided to seek a barber shop that we had seen while driving down Apache Drive in Mesa. It was a one man shop but he was not " The Wealthy Barbar " , however he was so full of B. S. his eyes were Brown. He was actually quite funny: as soon as I sat in the chair, he said " who the cut your hair the last time", I said you did and then i started to laugh, so he knew I was joking. I must say , he did tell me alot of funny story about things that happen in his shop as he comes from a family of Barbers and seemed to be proud of the trade.

After my hair cut, we went to an Olive farm some 20 miles away. We intended to take the Tour and then to have lunch at their very excellent restaurant. Little did we know that half of the Snowbirds from Mesa and Apache Junction got there ahead of us and the tour was sold out for the next hour. Therfore we decided that the Tour wasn't all that important to us, so we settled for an excellent lunch of soup and sandwich with names i can't pronounce or spell.
After lunch we decided to tour the area as it seemed to be a brand area with about 6 different subdivisions. If there is a recession in the USA it sure did not reach this area as there must have been about 5000 new unscale homes and a brand new High School that would make ours in Alberta look like a Pig Pen. The school had a paved parking lot about the size of the one in Wal-mart, along with several base ball and soft ball diamonds, a football stadium, and Tennis courts. Recession be dam?????

15 MAR Well, we are leaving Weavers Needle tomorrow so there is always lots to do to get ready as we will want to hit the road by 10 AM. The first painful job was to fill the truck with fuel and disel is 4.09 a gallon and this F350 doesn't stop drinking until the meter gets to $100.00.
I don't know why, but there never seems to be enough room to repack everything as the storage area seems to shrink or we gain more junk while the RV sits in the camp ground. With alot of preceverance I finally got everthing packed except the satellite as it does not get packed until after the markets open the next day. The weather is real nice so tomorrow should be a got travel day.

10 mar to 12 Mar--- Apache Junction

Well, this Blog seems to be getting the "short shift" lately, with all the curling and hockey on TV; friends to visit and other things to do or places to see. On Saturday morning we decided to take in the pancake breakfast at the park, mainly to meet some people because as you know Pancakes are Pancakes. This breakfast was quite organized and it came with 2 pancakes, 2 sauage, coffee and juice. You paid your 3.00 at the door and handed in your plates and they give you a number. When your number is called, you held up your hand and someone delivers the breakfast to your table. As it turns out, we were the last ones to go for breakfast which means we were last to be served. However, there was lots of food and they where forcing us to take extra food.
After breakfast we were back to the TV to watch the Brier. To be truthful, if Alberta was not in all the games I might have found something eles to do but we were pulling for the Koe team so we endured.

On Sunday, 11 mar, we were back to the TV for both the Bronze medal game and the gold medal game. After the last game we went to see Rusty and Laura ( from St. Thomas ) to play cards and to say goodbye as their kids where coming on Tuesday so we would not see them again.... this year.

On Monday, 12 March we decide to check out the local hangout called the Old Mining restaurant where it has a cowboy/mining town motif. We were met at the door by a guy dress as Jessie James ( I think ) who had a great rapor with the crowd. He shook my hand and thanked me for coming because until I came he said he was the ugliest guy in the place. I guess he was a comedian in his other life.
This restaurant is family style as 12 to 14 people sit at each table, made for good conversations. They had the old style place setting with tin ( Probably stainless steel ) plates, cups and glasses. The menu was set but it included , all you can eat, ribs, ham,chicken, potatoes ,cole slaw,bread and beans. The beer was extra but only cost 3.00. After the meal, the entertainment was what seemed to be four beaded Hillbillies from the backwoods of Tennasee, called the McNasty Brothers. However they were excellent muscians and quite comical as they kept us laughing for an hour or so. Althought they are now retired from their "real job" they were all professionals in their field. It always amazes me how working , professionals people can find the time to learn a musical instrutment but I guess it is just a hobby to them. to bad i coudn't add some pics.

Since 24 th Feb to 9 th Mar

I have been somewhat tardy with my Blog but after 3 months in ZA it hard to compare Apache Junction with the Elephants, Tigers and the swimming in the Indian Ocean. We did watch the Ladies curling with AB winning and now we are watching the Men's curling so that chews up alot of our time. However we have done a little entertaining or gone to some entertainment so to speak.
We had ex-military friends from Comox, BC ,the Carlyles' ,over for dinner one night so we got to swap a few stories. The next day we decided to do some touring around the area as there is lots to see such as an old Gold mine Town. They did mine a few million ounces of gold from this area around the late 1800's. They eventually dug down so deep they hit an underground river which flooded all the mines so that ended the gold mining. Now they just "Mine" the tourists pockets but it was interesting.

Then we went hunting for the Weaver's Needle. We orginally thought Weavers needle had something to do with weaving or making blankets but we were informed that it was a Rock formation in Superstition Mountain ( that is another story ). We did find the monument for Weavers Needle and used all the imagination to actually see it as a needle. But we did read the plaque to find out it was named after a lady named Pauline Weaver, so I'll sleep better now that I know that.
We also took in a 50's/ 60's dance with some friends and of course we had an Elvis Band . I was actually amazed at the people who managed to find clothes from the 50's and even more so that they could clothes that actually fit.
One evening we took in the Dutton Family show which is a "Branson Show" during the summer but they have a winter home in Mesa so they built a theatre here so they could get all the Snowbirds who are too cheap to go to Branson.
On Friday we decided to drive the "Original Apache Trail" which is a 100 Mile circle trip thru the mountains. This trip takes a whole day but the scenery is gorgerous. However, this trip has 22 miles of gravel/dirt road, at 20 MPH, which winds thru the mountains and at times is one lane wide, enough for 1 vehicle only. Besides Carroll screaming " Don't get over; Don't get over" it was a very nice trip. I tried to tell her that i have never driven over a cliff since we have been married ( 48 yrs ) so there is nothing to worry about. Cose calls don't count. ha ha.
Last night we went to a Pizza Joint with friends called the Organ Pipe and it is unbelieveable. This place has seating for 500 People and i think there was 550 people in the place. Also, they have an Organist who plays continously and he will play any request that you give him. Every 20 mins the Organ drops into the stage so the organist can take a 5 min break. They ask how many Cdns where in attendance, which usually is the majourity, and then they play our National Anthem followed by the Americam anthem.
We are leaving Apache Junction on thurs and going to Green Valley, just below Tucson as we have some friends from Home who spend the winter golfing in the area. We will probably stay there for 2 weeks and then take our time heading home. cheers. T and C