Blooming saguaro

or as Dixie says, "They got their bonnets on".

Update on Mom

My sister Mary sent these pictures taken April 23, along with a note stating that Mom was able to tie her shoes and sign her name - hooray!!

AND she's going home today! 4/30/10

Me and a few (thousand) of my friends

I wasn't going to do it. Was going to avoid the crowd of Arizona Bike Week and CycleFest. I woke up this morning, had my coffee and finished my puzzles. Looked at the clock and it was only 7:30. I knew that Chester's HD was having a breakfast and bike ride to support the Special Olympics. Breakfast sounded good - and a chance to look at a bunch of bikes. So I saddled up and rode to Mesa. To park in the lot, I had to join the crowd. Once I was ensconced in the crowd, it just made sense to go along for the ride. It was an escorted ride, so every intersection was held open for us. Bikes started rolling out at 10, I didn't leave the lot until after 11. Miles and miles of motorcycles. Dave rode in Rolling Thunder in D.C. with 400,000 bikes. I can't imagine that crowd - this one was too large for me.

...and on to Tombstone

After spending a night in the Copper Queen hotel in Bisbee, AZ - we continued on to Tombstone. It is the tourist town that I expected to see. They didn't get any of my money. The power was out all over town. Didn't explore Boothill, didn't see the shootout at the OK Corral, didn't get my picture taken dressed in cowboy garb - didn't do much in Tombstone.

Did find a great road out of Tombstone towards Nogales and a nice Mexican restaurant (Mercedes) in Patagonia. Dave had planned on eating lunch at the Velvet Elvis Pizza shop there, but it was closed on Tuesday (?).

The day ended with a mind and butt numbing 75 mile ride on flat straight roads from Tucson to Apache Junction, but that is a small price to pay for a very enjoyable road trip with a couple good friends.

I'm sure Dave will post a map and more pictures on the weenerbagotales blog.

Bisbee and the Copper Queen

I know that I have mentioned before that two authors and one artist are mostly responsible for my desire to visit the southwest.

Tony Hillerman got me to the Four Corners area - although I have not explored it thoroughly enough.

Georgia O'Keefe's visions of the landscape were an inspiration.

J. A. Jance took me to Bisbee.

Her J. P. Beaumont series set in Seattle got me hooked on her murder mysteries, but it was her Joanna Brady series set in Bisbee and Cochise County that really peaked my interest. Again there is a lot left to explore, but Bisbee is a neat town. Supposedly it has the best year 'round climate in the U.S. and there is a great RV park in town .....

The view from my third floor balcony room at the Copper Queen and a couple shots of the town built in a canyon.

Demise of a dinette

The making of a new desk.

Tiring of using the passenger seat area of my motor home as my home office, I ripped out my useless dinette and built a new desk unit.

A couple base units from a custom kitchen "Going out of business" sale, a piece of counter top from IKEA and a new peel and stick floor - voila!

When I removed the forward facing bench seat, I found the large opening left under the refrigerator - and a huge mouse nest. It had not been occupied for some time.

First Annual Goodguys Spring Nationals

The weather has taken a turn for the better. Dave, Jerry, John and I rode the bikes to Westworld in Scottsdale to attend the first annual Goodguys Spring Nationals hot rod show (http://www.ggspringnats.com/).