I guess it has been a few days since I have written anything on this blog – like a week. We wrapped up our stay in Tucson by going to the opening night of the national touring company of Wicked. We had decent seats well back in the hall and enjoyed the show a lot. It has been some time since we have attended a big Broadway type musical and I guess I had forgotten how much fun they can be. The performances were wonderful and the effects were grand. I guess I wrote about this in a brief post on Google+ but did not distribute it beyond that media. Apologies to those of you who have already read this.
We moved on first to Saguaro SKP Coop in Benson for three nights and then on to Las Cruces. In Benson we took a couple of drives. One day we made several stops along the San Pedro Riparian Reserve including a stop at Fairbanks town site, the Hereford Bridge and San Pedro House. this is excellent birding territory and we saw many birds of many species. AT San Pedro House they were all around the house and grounds and it was fun to eat our lunch while observing Gila Woodpeckers and Pyrrhuloxia among the doves and other birds. We returned by way of Bisbee. We have not been there in some time, but after a brief stop in old Bisbee and at the copper pit mines we drove on through back to Benson.
The next day I found an off road track for my new Garmin eTrek and we set out to Parker Canyon Lake to see what we could do on our own on this designated beginner level track. Once we found the entry point it was a lot of fun for the first half of the track, but somewhere way back “there” the course on the GPS did not agree with any visible jeep track we could see. We were almost a quarter mile off the track when Carol and I agreed that it was time to turn back and retrace our entry. At this point we came a cross a lady hiker on the trail along. I am not sure who was more startled. I guess did not appear threatening and she walked over and chatted with us confirming our decision to turn back. The return was as much fun as the entry climbing the steep rocky descents and ascending the steep rocky descents. Our collection of off road pin striping is growing. The rest of the track was a paved road through fort Huachuca – boring.
Las Cruces became our Pesach stop. Monday night, first Seder, we were along on the coach. Carol worked really hard to put out a beautiful table and meal and we spent a couple of hours following the “order” through to the end. It is much easier with only two and no children getting tired, bored or as they grew asking way too many questions. Second night we were invited to Leora Zeitlin and Stuart Kelter’s home along with many others and a broad age range from 10 to 8x. We sang, we told stories, we covered most of the points of the Seder in some fashion and by midnight we were wrapping up. I think Carol and I got back to the coach about 12:30. It was indeed a grand Seder and we thank Leora and Stuart for including us in their family gathering.
All this time I had been following Rick Morgan on Google+ and reading his blogs. As we arrived in Las Cruces I read that he and JoAnne, his wife, were near Alamogordo, about and hours drive. I have always said, once I’m on the road what’s a couple of hundred miles. After an exchange of messages on Google+ and emails and then phone calls, we agree to meet at the White Sands Monument Visitor Center on Wednesday. And it was so. We watched the National parks film and since our Jeep is more spacious then their car and we have driven the road many times. We all piled into the Jeep with lunches and cameras and other necessities and had a tour of the road, lunch way out in the dunes and a walk on the boardwalk and bit of a hike on the nature trail. It was really grand for us to meet fellow RVers who have a similar lifestyle to ours. I hope we will run into them on the road as we both stay healthy and have safe travels.
I have held back posting waiting to work on some pictures, but given the poor service we have here in Davis Mountain State Park, here are the words, the pics will follow.