Biking in AZ

 Now that the weather seems to be staying in the mid-70s everyone is getting out and about.  In Tucson The Loop is 124 miles of paved path that circles Tucson.  We did 20 miles of it today.  My goal is to do the whole loop, little by little.

This was our starting point.

Along the way we came across interesting sculptures.  This is two bats riding bicycles, with their wings opened.  I was thinking that there were bats nearby but I couldn't see any typical bat hangouts. But I really liked the playfulness of this art.

This is another cell tower, this one artfully designed to look like a palm tree.  You have to stretch your imagination a bit.  But it's interesting.

On this part of the ride we go by some abandoned, open mine pits.

The ground squirrels were everywhere.  They were mainly standing outside of their hole, sunning themselves.  We saw over 25.  The one is the photo above just has his head peaking out of the hole.  I scared him when I stopped my bike.

This squirrel posed nicely for me.

Winter Wonderland

Again with the snow!  But this time much worse.

This is our backyard around 8 a.m.  The snow fell all day.

I think we got 4".

So, nothing to do but go to Pottery.  There I ran into a friend who is also a Wood Turner.  He gave me this seem ripper that he turned.  It is so beautiful and the wood is a type I've never even heard of, or can remember.  I can't wait to start making sewing mistakes so I can use this!

Arizona Rennaisance Fair

Using the tickets I won we headed to the Renaissance Festival in Mesa.  This event is every weekend through February and March each year.  The event is huge and really impressive.  Unfortunately, we were still dealing with iffy weather and could only stay two hours due to chilly rain.  But we enjoyed it.  Especially the tomato throwing/insulting booth.

Lots of guests came in costume.  Elaborate costumes.

I don't know what this was called, but this man played some time of piano/bells.  The music was actually very nice.

And a giant rocking horse.

Tombstone

The next day we headed back to Tucson but stopped in Tombstone for some more Wild West history.

Gillian is in the Boothill Cemetery with the graves of some of the men involved in the OK Corral shoot out.

A little town outside of Bisbee, called Lowell, was very interesting and again, retro.  As if time stood still.  This street of auto related businesses seemed deserted, yet it wasn't exactly a ghost town.  It seemed that there was some alien activity that I'll have to check into later.

Visitors

Our kids all arrived on Tuesday and we were keeping them busy.  After the first day of recovering from long flights we explored Saddlebrooke and spent the evening in a trivia competition.

The next day we headed to Bisbee and explored the town and the Copper Mine.

Then we checked into our retro "hotel",  the Shady Glen RV park.  Here there are about a dozen restored trailers, each one set up as a hotel room.

                                       

Gillian stayed with us in the Tiki bus.

The other kids stayed in these two trailers.  Everything on the interior was from the 1940s or 1950s, even the TV sets (which we couldn't get to work).  This was a very fun place to stay and would have been so much better if there hadn't been a huge rainstorm.

Nature Walk

Tonight was the first night that we were able to take a before dinner, dusk walk around the neighborhood.  It was nice enough to wear shorts!  It's been fun exploring our new "neck of the woods".  We walked along the Mt. View golf course and were happy to discover a small pond, and several dense natural areas full of birds.  Here are a few shots of what we saw.  I didn't have my zoom lens, so these aren't the greatest.

Mule deer

Hawk on a wall

Rabbit

Vermillion Flycatcher

Winning in Tucson

I entered a TV station contest, as usual, and this time they chose my entry to win tickets to the Arizona Renaissance Festival.  This festival is in Mesa and they have it every year for about six weeks.  We had never gone, but now we will go soon.  Of course I had to drive all the way down to Tucson to pick up the tickets at the station.  Whenever we go anywhere we have to combine all errands since it feels like such a chore to get out of SB.  First stop was Home Depot (which is our home away from home).

I discovered that the Oro Valley Home Depot has a working pond in the nursery area, and it has turtles and koi fish!  The koi were too shy, by the turtles were enjoying the sun.

Getting to the TV station was interesting.  It's in a real beat up part of town and the entire facility is surrounded by tall fencing.  In fact, I had to call in to the receptionist in order for her to open the gate so I could go in and park.  I've never seen such security at Portland TV stations.

Winter won't leave

I have borrowed a very old Mah Jongg set from my aunt.  There are 144 tiles with Chinese characters and symbols.  It's taking me a little bit of time to muddle through the rules but apparently it's like Runny, Chinese style.  Soon I will have a team of four to try this out.

See if you can find our favorite bird in Arizona, the Cardinal.  The mated pair usually hang out together and this male was being very shy.  When I tried to get closer he just hid.

A fleeting view of the snow dust that we received this morning.

Rain, again!

This is me, driving the golf cart in a rainstorm.  Since we inherited this very old and very basic cart there are no frills.  By that I mean no windshield wipers, which I needed, nor blinkers, nor cover.  So driving this around was a wet experience, but faster than walking.  Dave took the car up to Phoenix to go to the Phoenix Open Golf Tourney and I think he got rained on too.  I know sun is on the horizon one of these days.

Square Dancing

Square Dancing is in full swing!! This is about the friendliest group (some may call them stalkers)  of old folks that I've encountered.  They are really welcoming and want new members.  So far I'd say we have learned about 15 of the "calls".  These photos are the experienced dancers, hence the fancier outfits.  In our classes we just wear regular clothes.  Apparently the Square Dance calls are in english no matter where you dance.  Lots of these dancers have gone all over the world just to dance.  Sounds like a good goal!