Happy, Happy (Torrey, UT)

 

Happy Passover and Easter to all our family and friends from Roan on the Road.

 

On the Move (Glendale, UT)

 

We are now officially on the move doing the National Park tour.  So I will make each blog a different National Park.  First is the Grand Canyon. 

The first thing we do when we go to any National Park is to go to the Visitor’s  Center and get the lay of the land.  See what there is to see, what  free shuttle bus service there is, what ranger talks are being given and see the movie about the park.  We arrived at the Grand Canyon Visitor’s Canter around 10AM.  It was cold and it started to snow.  It was that wet, heavy, large flaky snow.  It snowed so hard that is was almost a white out.  We went through the visitor center and decided to call it a day and go home.  The snow was coming down so hard it blocked my satellite reception for a few hours.  I was not a “happy camper!”

The good new is the next day was a beautiful sunny, warm day.   The snow started melting early in the AM.

Now for some pictures.  And do we have pictures, only 364 between the two of us.  Here are just a few.

First a video:

Grand Canyon

Stay tuned for the next installment.. Zion National Park.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…..

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (Tucson, AZ)

 

Our stay in Tucson is coming to an end.  The weather has been great, but we must push on.

Between the two of us we have taken 565 pictures.  No, I won’t publish them all here. 

Just to show the rest of the places we have seen in Tucson.

Mission San Xavier del Bac.

The mission was founded in 1692 by Father Eusebio Kino.  It is still an active Church today.

Kitt Peak Observatory is located at 6,800ft above sea level.  It was started in 1958 by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO).  It is now run in cooperation with NOAO and a number of universities around the country.  At Kitt Peak they operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes,  No one actually looks through the telescopes any more.  It is all done by cameras and computers.

Next we visited the International Wild Life Museum.  A beautiful museum south of Tucson.  Filled with great dioramas depicting scenes of the west and Africa.

Now for a pleasant surprise.  In the last blog I told you about what a disappointment Tombstone was.  We decided to put that behind us and try another tourist town, Old Tucson.  Old Tucson was created in the 1939 as a movie set.  Many famous movies and TV shows have been filmed here through the years.  When we went there they were having “Wild West Days”.  Let me tell you, it was professionally choreographed and scripted.  The sound equipment was great.  The actors were knowledgeable about the history of the park.  There were gun fights and an excellent demonstration of guns in the old west.   This one was put on by Gary Harper, Weapons Expert.

 

 

 

 

We went to the Carousel, but the Carousel was not working because of a broken part that was back ordered, Bummer!  Ann was mortified!

So, Ann went for a ride around the town.

 

Many props are from the movies and TV shows (fyi, the dresses are from Little House on the Prairie}.

This is the”Surry With the Fringe On the Top” from the movie “Oklahoma”

There is a lot of movie history here.

See you down the Roan Road… Partner !!

Busy, Busy, Busy (Tucson, AZ)

 

Let me play catch up since I have not posted in a while.

We stayed in Casa Grande for month.  My brother Vic came to visit for a few days.

On the first day we visited the Casa Grande Ruins. The second day we drove to see the Biosphere 2. 

We took a tour of one of the pumping stations in the CAP system.  CAP stands for Central Arizona Project.  It was completed in 1973 to divert water from the Colorado River to the farms in southern Arizona.  We were allowed to take pictures but not publish them on the Web.  So there is a link above to their web site.

After a month we moved 20 miles down the road to the Escapees RV Park to visit with a number of our friends  While there we went to Eloy Airport which is the skydiving capital of the world.  No. I did not Jump.  We watched other people jump.  

While staying at the Escapees RV Park (aka Roovers Roost),  One of the fun things Ann did was play in a Golf  Tournament.  It was golf as you have never played before.

Next we moved to south 80 miles to Tucson we will stay at the Mission RV park for a week and then move to the Pima County Fairgrounds for another week.

We visited the Pima Air & Space Museum.  There are hundreds of planes of all sizes, shapes, military and civilian. 

Then on to the Titan Missile Museum.  All of the Titan missiles have been removed.  This missile silo is now a museum.

Finally, for now, we took a ride to Tombstone.  It was one of the most typical tourist attractions we have ever seen.  To see a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral you had to pay $10 a person.  We passed on that.  It is one of those things you need to go to and am sorry when you did, but will regret if you never went. 

And finally we went to the Kitt Peak Observatory .  More to come in the next blog.

Life is super on the Roan Road…

Dealing with the Winter Weather (Casa Grande, AZ)

 

Just wanted to give you guys the heads up.  I know you are dealing with cold, rainy weather.  Also, not to mention the SNOW.  We also are dealing with winter weather.  It is clear sunny 88 degrees and we will have to walk all the way over to the pool/hot tub to cool off.  

It is hot, but it is a dry heat.  I know every one will wish us well as we deal with this winter weather here in Arizona. 

Now for a happier note, here is what we have been doing.   Our good friends Jan and Jim Leigh stopped by the RV park we are staying at for a few days. 

We met Jan and Jim at a New Horizons Rally a few years ago in Florida.  Unfortunately, they went over to the dark side of RVing. they sold their New Horizons 5th and  bought a motorhome.   But we will forgive their transgressions and remain friends forever. 

We visited the Casa Grande Ruins that was built by the “ The Ancient Sonoran Desert People”  and lived there for thousands of years.  They farmed the land by building a vast  network of canals to irrigate the land.  Then around 1450 C.E.  they abandoned the land and disappeared.   No one can explain why.

The next day we took a trip to Florence, AZ.  Florence was having a “29th Annual Celebration of Historic Florence Arizona” day.  This happens the second Saturday in February each year.  The private homes and businesses that are in historic buildings open their doors so the people can see the many buildings. 

They also had a Gunfight in the street.

Life is Sweet on the Roan Road…

Busy, Busy, Busy (Casa Grande, AZ)

 

Right now we are in Casa Grande, AZ for the month of February.  Verizon Cell service is good but Internet is slow.  I am trying out the local WiFi, which we have to pay for. 

Let me recap:

We arrived back in the Las Vegas area, got our home out of storage, and returned to Bolder City for a week to restock the camper with food. Also to recover from the 11 inches of show and 8 degree NY weather.

Before we left Las Vegas, Brad, Vic’s neighbor, made me a birthday cake.

That is one Yummy cake !!!  Thanks Brad. BTW we just finished the last piece.

We took of for Quartzsite, AZ and the Quartzsite RV show.  About 150 mile away.  There we met up with old friends and made lots of new ones.  The big attraction is the free boondocking and all things RV.  The whole town is goes from about 300 in the summer to 1,000,000 in the winter.  There is one huge tent with hundreds of vendors, thousands of people and all kinds of cars, ATVs and RVs.  What a mess.  Been there, done that, once.  The only way we will go back is to see all of our friends.

From Quartzsite we traveled to Mesa, AZ  We stayed in the same RV resort as our friends Sandy and Warren.  We had a great time seeing the sights around Phoenix.

We always thought the desert was nothing but rocks.  We pleasantly surprised when we went to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. They have an exhibit “ Chihuly in the Garden”. 

We made a special trip back to see the display lighted at dusk.

While in Mesa Ann, Sandy, Warren and myself went to the Heard Museum of American Indian History and Art.

The Salt River was dammed up to form the Saguaro Lake.  We took a boat ride on the lake and up the Salt River.

Last we drove a narrow winding road through the desert to an old mining,  town, Tortilla Flats, turned tourist attraction. It was one block long with a restaurant/saloon, gift shop selling the usual stuff, burger shop and a very small museum.

With many regrets and a heavy heart we left Mesa and traveled to Casa Grande.

More to come, so stay glued to your computer for the next installment.

Life is Super on the Roan Road….

We are Outta here (Boulder City, NV)

 

After 3 weeks of cold and snow in New York City, we are outta here. 

It was first see this doctor, then that doctor, then the dentist.  ENOUGH!!  We both got clean bills of health.  We did have a great time seeing Ann’s sister Bev, our children, all of our nieces and nephews and our friends. 

Top: Heidi & Jay, Middle: Ann & Roy, Bottom: Caroline & Andrew

To

Emma and Olivia

We are now in Boulder City were there is no snow and it is now 60 degrees. 

The Cousins  Top: Jay & Mike, Next Row: Heidi & Alyssa, Next: Jenn & Jon, Bottom: Caroline & Andrew

Yes, Life is great on the Roan Road…