I see that Carol just posted her Monday Blog Message in a Minute and I guess that has inspired me to write.

We had a delightful time in Las Cruces visiting with the Ketler/Zeitlin family. Thursday night we had dinner at La Posta with Marianne and then went to a concert of quartet music at NMSU where we were joined by Stu and later by Leora. The group are faculty and all from Latin America, the program was short pieces from Brazil, mostly. Marianne characterized the program as being all encore pieces. I could not disagree. It was enjoyable, but more like brief bits of candy then a substantial meal.

After weeks of travel without the time or place to wash the coach I hired a crew we had used before to wash and wax the coach and Jeep. They took about 3 hours to get the job done, the owner and crew of three worked hard to prepare us for the rain we are now experiencing in Tucson 🙁

Friday night was a wonderful dinner with song and stories for the 6th night of Hanukah and Shabbat, at Stu and Leora’s home. We have had the pleasure of sharing Purim and Pesach with them as well as Shabbat over the years. It is so nice to have such wonderful friends to visit as we traverse the country. Leora did suggest that the High Holidays would be wonderful and I am sure it would be, Next year seems unlikely as we will just be back from an OAT trip to Africa as the holiday season approaches.

Las Cruces to Catalina State Park, just north of Tucson was a moderate day’s drive. The park is half empty as much due to the time of year as to the weather. It was clear and chilly as we arrived. The temperature dropped into the 30’s overnight and as I write it is raining, windy and has not gotten over 40. Tucson? We are snug and dry in the coach and likely to stay here unless the rain abates. Tomorrow we will have dinner with Ellie and Kelly who we met on the Thailand/Vietnam portion of our extended OAT trips in 2013.

Trivia: drop the “c” from Faculty and you have . . .