Rain in the Desert

Here we are in the desert. Last year Coolidge, the town where Casa Grand Ruins National Monument is located, received only 3.97 inches of rain. A week ago, no rain had falled in 2010. That has changed this week. Here is a picture of the Great House this morning.



That really is a great big puddle of water reflecting an image of the 700-year-old ruins. In the past week we have received 1.27 inches of rain, 0.48 inches last night. From about 11 to 11:30 pm it rained hard and the wind blew. For that half hour it kept me awake. I am sure it rained for longer than that, but it wasn't loud enough to keep me from sleeping.

If you are watching the national weather you know California is expecting lots of rain in the next few days. Those storms head straight from southern California to Arizona. They expect 1-2 feet of snow in the northern mountains, several inches of rain in Phoenix. We are south of Phoenix and we probably won't get that much rain. But is will still be significant.

You really should drive only 5 mph when you go into the maintenance compound here.



I hope the workers don't want to eat lunch at this picnic table tomorrow.



We have lived most of our life in Colorado. When a big snow storm is coming, the TV newscasts cover it ad nauseum That is what we are seeing here, as they warn of flooding and possible power outages. Local fire stations and other locations in the Phoenix area have brought in piles of sand so residents can fill sand bags to protect their homes and businesses. That is different from worrying about slippery roads and heavy snow.

We lead tours here at the Ruins and talk about the years when heavy rain deepened the river channels and other years when there was drought. Southern Arizona has had several years of drought. This week, at least, there are heavy rains. We are learning what it is like to live in a new environment. "Turn around, Don't Drown" is the slogan for avoiding flooded areas on the road. We've seen the signs. Maybe this week we see what they are talking about.

Merry Christmas!

I know. I know. I have already told you about our Christmas, the one with no decorations. And I know Christmas really happened almost three weeks ago. When we were opening gifts at our son's house on Christmas day, one gift for us was a picture. Well, yesterday the item pictured in that box arrived. Here you see the package just after we wrestled it out of the 18-wheeled delivery truck onto the rails of our pickup. We were dismayed with how big it was.



We drove--very slowly--the 3/10 mile from the parking lot in front of the visitor center to our RV. As we drove into the volunteer housing compound, it was no surprise that we caught the attention of two couples sitting outside. (Did I mention that yesterday was the warmest day in several weeks?) We were grateful when the two men came to help us unload. Here are Don and Joe helping John removed the packaging.



We then removed our old dining room table from the RV. Here, John is using it to unwrap part of our gift.



What do we have? you ask? It is a combination computer desk/dining table, built for us by Focal Wood Products of Nappanee, Indiana. Click on the link to see the fine furniture them build for RVs. Here it is, set up in our RV. We still have a shelf to install in the open area and doors that close off that open area. You can see the table extended with a leaf for use at dinner time. When we remove the leaf, it only extends about 18 inches from the desk. We are so delighted with our gift. It was worth the wait.




There was one more special thing that happened yesterday. After hours and hours of research last spring and summer and more hours of writing, yesterday I gave my first guided interpretive tour at Casa Grand Ruins! John will give his first tour on Sunday.

Archaeology Today

My old idea of how archaeologists do fieldwork included digging with a trowel, cleaning away the last bits of dirt with a small paint brush and sifting the dirt through a fine mesh screen. They may very well still do that, but they also work on a much larger scale. An archaeology firm is doing some fill work within the mud-walled complex around Casa Grande. Look at the tools they are using!





They began the work days--or weeks--before we arrived on Monday. Today the theory is that keeping artifacts in their original place and covering them back up with dirt is the best way to take care of them and the site. Here they aren't actually burying the ancient community, but they are filling in between the buildings with sterile soil. This helps stabilize the building walls, as well as correcting the slope of the surface where visitors walk to enable the periodic rains to run off without doing damage to the site. Apparently the first step in the work was a detailed survey to determine how much dirt to fill in at each point in the complex. We aren't sure what everything will look like until the work is complete.

One of the archaeologists on the crew is also a flintknapper. That is the ancient process of making stone tools. I had never watched anyone flintknap before. Alan was so excited about both the various stones he has to be made into tools and the process itself. It was hard not to get excited, just listening to him.

First he showed us several different pieces of stone, from Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Australia and other places. Some of the stone he collected himself, such as while working on a pipeline project in Wyoming. Others he bought at the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

Here he is holding a hammer stone in his right hand and a fairly large piece of stone from Knife River in his left.



He worked on this stone for over 30 minutes. At his feet you can see some other stones he could work with, as well as some of his tools, which are either pieces of stone or of the antlers of deer and elk.



He chipped away at the stone, removing both large and small pieces of rock. He uses his knee as a work surface.





Finally, from a piece of stone slightly smaller than his fist, this is the spear point he made. Isn't that incredible?

Why Do We Do This?

Monday we were up early, left VDO in Mesa by 7:30 am to drive to Casa Grande Ruins in Coolidge, where we will be volunteers for the next three months. We arrived by 8:30, spent the next couple of hours getting set up--after we parked the rig with an audience of 6 to 8 men volunteers and paid staff at the monument. Here we have free laundry, so I did four loads of wash. Then, at 3 pm we met with the volunteer coordinator, chief of interpretation and head ranger, as well as another new volunteer couple, for two hours of orientation. You better believe we were exhausted when we returned to our trailer at 5 pm. Tuesday we went to work at 8:30 and were there till 5 pm. Now we are off for four days.

It is always this way when we start a new volunteer assignment. Long hours and stress when we arrive. When we haven't been working for several months, the 7- to 8-hour days are hard to adjust to. So, why do we do it?

First and foremost, I think we volunteer because we want and need the challenge, the stimulation, the chance to learn new things and use our minds. Travel is interesting, but we don't want to travel all the time. We are living on the road because we found being retired and staying in one place all the time (our stick house) was boring. So we don't want to stay in one place for a long time on the road and be bored. Volunteering helps us to not be bored. In some volunteer positions we learn new skills. Sometimes we learn about new areas of the country and we are able to stay long enough to begin to understand how the locals live. When we volunteer in interpretation for the National Park Service, we learn lots of information.

Neither of us has ever been interested in Native Americans. But studying the Hohokam culture in southern Arizona has been fascinating and we have developed so much admiration for what those people accomplished here. The study we did to prepare our interpretative tours has challenged our minds and our views of prehistoric peoples. That is wonderful!

It also is good to be able to give back to our community and our country. For so many years we have enjoyed our state and national parks and they are so short of funds that it is difficult for them to stay open without volunteers. We are glad we can help out.

It is also nice that volunteering pays for our RV site. That means a savings of $20 to $30 a day. So we are helping to keep old age at bay while we save money.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

What a wonderful way to begin the new year! Today we hiked 6 miles at San Tan Mountain Regional Park, south of Mesa. We shared the trail with folks on bikes



and others on horses.



This is the first time we have celebrated New Year’s Day with a hike. Most years in the past we would have had to ski, snowshoe or snowmobile to enjoy the outdoors. And it is one of the reasons we are glad we changed our lifestyle last year, one of the benefits of being in Arizona, not Colorado, in winter.

A year ago we were packing boxes and sorting our belongings, deciding what to put in storage, what to sell and what to give away. We look back and have no regrets about deciding to become full-time RVers. At the same time, we knew there would be trade-offs.

This was our first Christmas with no decorations, no Christmas tree. We didn’t host the Christmas dinner. That had its sad or difficult side. On the other hand, it was a quiet, unstressed Christmas. No hurry. We were able to focus on the spiritual meaning of Christmas. And we enjoyed a full day with our son Eric and his family on Christmas day without a lot of work to do.

Christmas wasn’t quite what we would like. And being on the road all the time means we lose out on a lot of family time. But when we think of winters past, with three to five months in our Colorado house, spending most of the time indoors and living in a rut, we don’t regret what we are doing a bit.

Images of Christmas 2009

We are back in Arizona, but we have so many images of our two+ weeks in Colorado for Christmas.

Kylie, her mom Liz and I went to High Tea at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. We joined a number of Kylie's friends and their mothers that day. The Brown is The place to go in Denver if you want history and tradition and elegance.


Earlier in the week, John and I spent the morning with our grandchildren while their parents went Christmas shopping.

Kylie and I made Flying Frog Pudding, using a recipe in a book we gave Kylie earlier this year. First we made the green goo (which really tasted just fine), then Kylie served it to us.





No time with the grandchildren would be complete unless they wrestled with their Papa.



Early Christmas morning (we had to leave our motel in time to arrive by 6:30 am), the tree was surrounded by numerous gifts from Santa and from family.



Kylie received a guitar.



John made a hot pad out of beans for his mother.



Eric and Liz are both fans of the Grateful Dead. This monopoly game was one of Eric's gifts.



John is trying to use his Leapster2.



Nana, Papa and Kylie helped John learn how to play the Sorry game he received.



Papa spent about an hour and a half playing Eric's Grateful Dead-Opoly with Kylie. Monopoly really helps 9- and 10-year-olds practice their math with money.



This shows you why we like to spend the winter in Arizona! It was cold in Denver.



This shows you most of the motel room where we lived for 16 days. Small, but adequate with a kitchen, bathroom, bed, and a way to confine the cats when we were away.



The exercise room at the motel helped us keep our perspective and work off the calories during our visit.



The images of our Christmas Eve worship at Bethany Lutheran Church with our son and his wife and their children are in our hearts and minds, but not in the camera. The service was beautiful and meaningful, in a setting decked with lighted trees and numerous red and white poinsettias. That thanksgiving for the birth of Jesus Christ, Our Savior, is really what it is all about, isn't it?

How Much Space Is Enough?

How much space is enough? I grew up as an only child with two parents in a 900 square foot house. I enjoyed the large basements found in my friends’ homes, but I never felt we didn’t have enough space.

After I lived four years in a college dorm, John and I were married and rented a small apartment. A couple of years later we bought a mobile home, 12’ by 60’, or 720 square feet. Then we bought a house that was 1200 square feet, with a 1200 square foot basement. The last home we lived in was 1800 square feet, plus a basement.

Now we live in an RV that is 336 square feet. There are two adults and two cats in the RV; our children are grown and gone and we don’t have company for dinner or overnight.

When we were moving into larger homes, lots of people were building homes with 3000 to 4500 square feet. In some areas of Denver, homes are 10,000 square feet and more. How much space is enough?

When I was growing up, my grandmother lived in a couple of different studio apartments. In the 1930s my parents lived in apartments that I imagine were also studios. I feel like maybe we have been transported to those times. We are spending two weeks in a Homestead Suites studio unit. We have a double bed, one chair, a kitchen with a 2-burner stovetop, a microwave, a sink and refrigerator and a counter with two bar stools, and a bathroom. Oh yes, we also have a closet. The place measures 12 x 21 ft.—252 square feet.

There is a sign advertising move-in specials of $699 per month. When I was in the office, I heard a man asking the staff is he was the longest tenant. They said, no, the longest stayed 5 years. I can’t imagine that. But it made me think about where my grandmother and my parents lived. Today (or maybe 2 years ago, before the recession) young married couples expected to buy a house with 2400 to 3000 square feet very early in life. But do we really need all that space? As our children grew up, we found the best family times were when we stayed in a small cabin with 1 or 2 bedrooms and one large room. We all really enjoyed one another when we couldn’t each go into our own private space.

When we began RVing, we had to simplify. For these two weeks, we are doing it even more. And do you know what? It isn’t that bad. We have enough to eat. Enough to keep us busy. Because we don’t have a DVR or 80 to 100 TV channels, we talk to each other more. This life isn’t what we want all the time, but it is enough, for now. I look at it and think it would be enough for students at local colleges, for people in the first year or two of working after school. Where else could a single person rent a place in the greater Denver area for $699? The simple life isn’t that bad, is it?

More of Our Grandchildren

During the last two days we have seen more of our grandchildren. Friday we drove to John's preschool, The Willows, by 8:30 am, to listen to his Christmas concert. During the last week before Christmas vacation, the boys and girls at the Willows sing Christmas and Hanukkah song for family and friends. This is the same preschool his big sister Kylie attended, so we have come here in years past.

It is really fun to come year after year and see how the children mature. John and his best friend, Patrick, are always together. Patrick lives across the street from John and they had the same nanny for 2 years or more. This is a photo from the last song they sang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." John is waving good-bye. Patrick is to his right.



All of the children in the preschool take part in the concert. The preschool allows religious expression, including singing grace before lunch. So many of the songs in the holiday concert are religious. In today's world, that is refreshing. Here is a picture of the whole group.



Today we watched Kylie in a swim meet. She is really good. This is a picture of the board showing that the swimmer in Lane 4, Kylie, took first place in the 200 meter freestyle race, in 1 minute, 23.71 seconds.



A sign of her drive and confidence is the words she had written on her back:



The swimmers all write the event number, heat number and lane on their arms. Kylie added that challenge to her back.

Kylie plays soccer, basketball, as well as swimming and tennis. She is really strong and you can see her muscles when she wears a swim suit. Look at those shoulders!



Notice how John is paying rapt attention to the words of wisdom his dad is sharing with Kylie.

We've had two more great days of grandparent time--one of the main reasons for being in Colorado.

A Visit to Santa

A big reason for our time in Colorado this month is to have time with our family. Sunday we repeated a Christmas tradition by going to the Colorado Railroad Museum with Eric, Liz, Kylie and John. We, of course, rode the Santa Train. Several times each year the museum fires up steam engine #346 to give visitors a ride around the grounds. We really enjoy taking advantage of the opportunity each December.

This is a view of the train from our open observation car.



This is taken of a later trip. We were able to watch the train as we waited in the line for Kylie and John to see Santa.



Here is a picture of the three men of the family taking the trip.



And here are the women.



The day was cold with a brisk breeze. We were thankful for our winter coats.

After buying some lunch, we waited for Santa and Mrs. Claus to return from their lunch. Kylie and John each told Santa what they want for Christmas. One of Kylie's wishes was for a loose tooth to come out. She is 10, John is 4.



Since this visit is a tradition, each year we visit the same areas of the museum. In the basement there is a large, beautiful model train layout. You can put in a quarter and the train will run. Between the four adults, we only had one quarter. After the train finished running, John asked his papa to put in money again to make the train run. Papa said, "I don't have any more money." To which John replied, "Well, go get some!"

After we watched the garden railroad and the model trains, both children had their faces painted--something new this year. Kylie had a blue whale painted on her cheek.



John chose a spider and web.


When we live on the road, we miss a lot of family time. That makes the experiences and memories of our time with them even sweeter.

Three Generations

Saturday, the third generation of our family graduated from the University of Colorado. In 1936 my mother received a bachelor’s degree in accounting. In 1965 I received a bachelor’s degree in journalism. In 1966 John received a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Saturday, 73 years after his grandmother graduated from CU, our younger son Eric received a master’s degree in online education.

Eric didn’t go straight from high school to four years of college to get his bachelor’s degree. He took several detours and earned it when he was in his 30s. But then he really made us proud by earning his master’s with straight A’s, graduating summa cum laude. We both were close to tears several times as we saw him in his gown and hood.



And when we saw him receive his diploma. The photo is terrible—taken off the jumbo-tron in low light while he was walking, but I had to show it. He had just shaken hands with Bruce Benson, president of CU.



Here Eric is with John and me and his two children, Kylie and John. His wife, Liz, is taking the picture.



The graduation was held in the Colorado Convention Center. Well over 1,000 students received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. It was quite a mob scene, but really ran well and was done in less than two hours. Here Eric and I are, trying to leave the building.



In the afternoon we attended a party to celebrate the event at their house. This is the cake they had made for the occasion.



It isn’t every day of the year any of us can look back on the job we did over the years as parents and feel such incredible pride, humility and joy as we did Saturday. It really is all worth it.

We Made It

It was a long, cold trip, but we made it to Colorado from Mesa. Because of a massive winter storm, we had to first go south to go north. We drove south to Tucson, east to Deming, NM, then north to Truth or Consequences, NM.

It isn’t easy finding a motel for two humans and two cats, but we did—the Motel 6 there. After a short night, with cats crawling on us and wandering around to check out the strange environment, I walked next door to McDonalds at 5:30 am for coffee and breakfast. Then we were headed on north.

By the time we passed through Albuquerque, we could see evidence of the previous day’s storm. We can up on this overturned semi in the median.



This shows the blowing snow on the highway.



We have lived all our lives in Colorado (with 3 years in Wisconsin) and have always enjoyed winter. Now we like the warmth of Arizona. But the next day we did get to see the beauty of winter snow, seen in this view of the Sangre de Cristos in southern Colorado.



We spent our second night at another Motel 6 in Raton, NM. Again, there was a McDonalds nearby—thankfully they open earlier than the motels put out the morning coffee at 6 am. However, it was a cold walk at about 14 degrees. We thought about calling our son and telling him we really tried to come to his graduation, but we changed our minds and were going back to Arizona. We thought better of that and drove on to Denver.

Now we are in a pet-friendly motel for 16 days. We hope both the cats and we adjust.

Packing to Go

Yikes! This week we are driving to Colorado for a two-week holiday stay. Since we live in an RV with less than 400 square feet of space, we feel we are living a very simple life—minimalist, almost. Anything we don’t use for a year, we get rid of. We have a place for everything, and everything must be in its place. Otherwise, we don’t have room to do something else.

The flip side is that, every where we go, we take along everything we own. Once before this year we flew to North Carolina for three days. We boarded the cats and lived just fine out of one suitcase.

This time we will be gone about three weeks, when you include our travel time. Some people would cover the 700 miles from Phoenix to Denver in one day. We plan on three days. And we will be traveling with our cats. Taking them with us in the truck is nothing new. Staying in motels for all that time is another matter. We have only done that on one other trip and it wasn’t very fun. And that was 4½ years ago. They are a lot older and more difficult to care for now.

Another issue is what to pack. We have some “dress-up” clothes in storage in Colorado. But what do we need, what can’t we live without and how much do we have room for? We fill the front seat of the truck, the cats take up the rear seat. Whatever we pack needs to go into the tool box in the truck bed or into a plastic tub. One tub will be full of things for the cat—food, medicine, litter, newspaper and plastic to protect the motel floors.

We need to take clothes, computers, our Bibles and prayer books, novels to read, lunch and snacks for at least the first day. We are leaving sunny Arizona, where right now the days are in the 50s and 60s, the nights 30s and 40s, and going to Colorado, with lows in the single digits, highs anywhere from 18 to 40. We need at least one heavy coat each. Normally, that would travel in the trailer. Where does it go now? Thank heavens we mailed all the Christmas gifts, to arrive before we do. We keep reminding ourselves we aren’t going to a wilderness or the North Pole—just a major large city. Anything we need that we don’t pack, we can buy, can’t we?

In past years we have traveled to Europe without our trailer—and we always packed way too much. And that was without computers or cats. This trip is mind boggling. By early tomorrow morning we have to figure it all out.

RVing Friends

The world of full-time and long-time RVers is relatively small and there aren't a lot of people to share your experiences with who really understand. There are some exceptions. If you stay in an Escapees park, you will find a lot of kindred souls. Sometimes you encounter them in work camping assignments. In any RV or state park where we stay, we meet others and it is possible to have an active engagement with those people. For some RVers, an evening campfire with anyone and everyone in the park is just their cup of tea. But it isn't ours. So this life could be lonely.

After we had been on the road for many months, several years in a row, we discovered Hitchitch.com, a web site with links to many RV blogs by RVers, sharing their lifestyle. It provided us a way to read about the trials, tribulations and multitudes of rewards of the life we were living, too. We started reading those blogs regularly and after a while some of the people seem like old friends. We see their photo at the top of the blog and read about their life, get to look at pictures of their adventures. It seems like we know them.

Well, today, for the first time, we met a couple who we have been reading about for 18 months or longer. Since September Ron and Barbara have been traveling in the same states we have and once, we learned later from reading each other's blogs, we were parked within a few miles of one another in the southern tip of Nevada. They winter in the Phoenix Valley of the Sun and that is where we will be all winter, as well. It was high time we met them.

It has taken about three to four weeks to make it happen, but today we had lunch together at a Garcia's Restaurant in Mesa. We instantly recognized each other, since we "see" each other every time we read a blog. And we talked non-stop for nearly three hours. What fun!

John took a picture of Barbara, Ron and me in front of the restaurant after lunch. We looked for someone to take a picture of all four of us, but we had talked for so long after lunch, not a single wait staff member could be found.