what we've been up to

It's been more than a week since my last post.   I don't know where the time goes but I know it goes by much too quickly. 

We've been busy living life and visiting with friends.    I've totally forgotten which days we did what now, the problem I have when I don't do more regular blogs.

We had a nice happy hour here at our site to welcome Gay and Joe and say good bye to Steve and MonaLiza.    Lewis shared his attention with everyone equally and proved to be a bit of a pest to everyone in turn.    We sat under the blossoming orange tree in our "yard" and as dusk fell we were treated to the sight of a Hummingbird Moth buzzing the blossoms.   I'd never even heard of one before, but Gay explained that they fool many inexperienced people because of their size and hummingbird type habits.    No pictures though, sorry.

lots of good food and conversation

After the evening chill chased everyone else away, Steve and MonaLiza came inside to finish their wine and Lewis continued his antics..    What a ham he is.

On one of our rainy days Dave and I drove down to Tubac for a good lunch at Elvira's. 

my favorite dining companion

As I think I've said before, Elvira's feels like a blend of New York City swank and Mexico folk art but it's menu is all Mexican.   I had a wonderful Mole and Dave enjoyed an interesting shrimp preparation.

One late afternoon we (the Banks and the Wrights) met Jodee and Bill at a local joint named Tiny's.   It is a legend in this area, with probably the best burger I've ever had.    Polar opposite of our Elvira's experience, but every bit as delicious.
Think dirt parking lot, cracked linoleum floors, mismatched chairs, sticky oilcloth covered tables, old rawhide pull on the "cowgirls" restroom and a roll of paper towels serving as napkins.   Pleasant, competent and no nonsense waitress who got our orders correct and in a timely fashion.   A line out the door by the time we were leaving.    No pictures, I'm really really bad with people pictures!

Jodee and Bill were only here for 3 days.    Jodee made delicious tacos al Pastor (guajillo rubbed pork and pineapple) with all the fixings for dinner one night and we (the Banks, the Wrights, the Taylors and the Gravels) ate and visited until the cold wind drove us home.   This is supposed to be the desert isn't it!

hi Tessa.....

Thursday, the 22nd, was Steve Lowe's birthday and he chose to spend it with Dave and I visiting some of Arizona's wineries, south of Tucson,  between Sonoita and Elgin.

Steve and MonaLiza follow us to Sonoita Vineyards

Arizona wine?   I had pretty low expectations but looked forward to spending the day with friends doing something different.     We had never been to this area of the state so didn't know what to expect.

Such a different landscape!   Rolling fields of waving yellow grass ringed with craggy mountains.    Homes here and there, antelope grazing, hawks flying.

"What you looking at.....never seen a pronghorn before?"

It was just beautiful and so peaceful.

 We visited four wineries, bought bottles at three, and enjoyed an alfresco lunch behind one of them, beside their vineyard in it's late winter phase.

purchase at Kief Joshua Winery

we only had two "tasting" glasses, so we all shared....

one of our tasting glasses

winter maintanence

At each place we were greeted warmly and were treated to knowledgeable conversation and obvious pride in their product.    At one (Kief Joshua) we were greeted a little more warmly than the others......and our departure was lamented.

she leaned soooo hard

and then there were three

Heyduke......

 Friday, while Dave and John worked around, Pam and I went on a museum adventure of our own.   I'll tell you about it next.

the week in review

We're experiencing a rare day in the desert.   Rain!     It's not unusual to have rain here in the monsoon season (summer time) but there isn't much precipitation in the winter.   It has been very dry with some fires beginning to show up in the hills south of us so this rain is very welcome.     It began to spit yesterday while we were at lunch (sonoran hot dogs) and running errands but started in earnest late in the day.   Rain all night and all day today.    Lewis is bored (and a bit damp).

He did have a fun day on Tuesday though.    We took him with us on a re-exploration of the area along Reddington Pass Road.    Last year we followed Jodee and Bill along this beautiful dirt road, but didn't take Lewis.   Then we only went as far as Race Track Tank before heading home, so Tuesday I had grand plans to drive it's unpaved length all the way to San Miguel.   Looked doable on the map so off we went.

sweet little nest

  We found the road conditions to have deteriorated since our last trip and it was slow going for the Jeep.   It took us about 3 hours to travel about 15 miles so we realized that we were not going to be able to finish the entire drive....my bad.

So instead we concentrated on enjoying what we were seeing, getting out for a few nice long walks with Lewis and some surprising wildlife sightings.

we ignored these warnings - don't judge.....

no signs warning us of huge bulls in the area however.....

my Merlin bird app tells me this is, once again, a Red Tail 

lots of birds taking advantage of this drying tank

a troop of 15 Coatimundi!!!!!!

feet off the ground speed!

So, in the spirit of giving you a picture of what we've been doing this week, in reverse, here is a picture of a lovely Happy Hour we enjoyed at MonaLiza and Steve's site last weekend....

Steve, MonaLiza, Mr. David, moi, Pam,
Laura, John and Kevin
  http://www.chapter3travels.com/

Here's one more, we had such a pleasant time talking with old and new friends that Steve had to pull out the "fire pit" to chase away the night time chill.

Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day!

 

being watched

After spending a few days taking care of retail business and dealing with traffic we decided to take our lunch and our sweet Lewis and head off onto the back roads south of Tucson.

We traveled south on route 83 then turned off onto FR 92 aiming for the Gardner Canyon loop.    We drove through gentle hills of golden grasses, mesquite and scrub oak.    Because we move along slowly I noticed that there are many different kinds of grass that make up these yellow vistas.

We stopped for lunch under some tall trees.   Lewis enjoyed his bite of turkey and the chance to run around and stretch those long legs.

All along the way, we felt eyes on us. 

Lewis had a good time getting out, checking out all the new smells and leaving p mails for future visitors to read.

leaving a p mail for future passers by to read

sniffing cow smells on a water tank
(the stone ramp is for critters to get out if they fall in)

guys, guys, here I am, right over here, behind the tank, guys, guys!

We got to a  steep, narrow and washed out section of the road and decided to call it a day and return the way we came. 

Dave walked down to see what the road looked like up ahead -
can you see him coming back up?

For us, it's the journey not the destination so we enjoyed the rest of the ride back to the highway.

Once back on Rt. 83 we made one more stop before actually heading home.  We took a little time to check out the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area and decided that it would be a great place to return and explore, another day (and not at 4 p.m. in the afternoon).    Next week perhaps, it's Empire Gulch area looks to be a good place to do some birding without noisy Lewis.

So after a lovely day without seeing another vehicle it was back to the Tucson traffic.    We hit the mother of all traffic jams on I-19 and we didn't arrive home until 7 p.m.     Sigh.

my kind of road

Tucson

We're back in civilization.    Back in the land of trains, and sirens and lots of people.     We're happy to be here, Tucson has a lot going for it but I'm experiencing a bit of culture shock from the laid back atmosphere of Borrego Springs.

Our site is the one I picked last year when we were here.   It backs up to the electric storage area where we left Beluga when we drove the Jeep to Santa Fe for our lovely Christmas holiday.  These sites are relatively spacious and quiet (as quiet as city dwelling can be) and we've set up our sitting area toward the back of the site under a blossoming orange tree.   The fragrance is divine!

Lewis entertains us there at second cup.    He plays his favorite games, "Who Stole the Fish, or Where's my Ball, or The Rug Ate my Ball".    He makes us laugh.

He plays a variation of those games at Gramma Pamma's house, a few rows in front of us, whenever he can.   Life is good for Lewis.


So far we've been hitting the places we didn't have at Borrego Springs - CostCo, Trader Joes, World Market, Fry's, AJ's Fine Foods, etc (Retail Deprivation)   We watched the Super Bowl on the resort's provided cable tv.

Last night we had a really yummy seafood dinner at Mariscos Chihuahua with Pam, John, MonaLiza and Steve.    If you'd like to see a picture of actual people, ask MonaLiza (Lowestravels.com).    She had the waiter take multiple shots of us!

The restaurant is one of a small chain in the area and it's walls are decorated with interesting, ocean themed murals.   I took no pictures of our meals.   We all enjoyed our shrimp choices, some of us ate everything provided, some took the leftovers home.   We ended the evening by sharing a delicious cinnamon scented Flan to celebrate MonaLiza's 60th birthday.

Today we took the Jeep for its regular oil change.   Don't ask how how we feel about Larry H. Miller's service department after our appointment.....Just don't ask!

That's all for now.....