On Valentine’s Day, we met Scott and Donna Ites for lunch. Donna and I worked together for 20 years at CGI. She and her new husband are wintering in Mesa. They rode their bike over for the afternoon. How fun!

On Februry 18, we drove to Green Valley to visit Paul and Donna Lindberg. Paul is a cousin of my ex husband. After spending an hour visiting in their home, we went to a nearby Mexican restaurant, El Rodeo, for lunch.

Then we stopped by a Pecan Store. On the way, Paul explained a lot about the harvesting of pecans. We saw orchards that had been harvested and others that had not yet been harvested.

Then we toured Mission San Xavier. This was first founded in 1692 and the church was completed in 1797. It is beautiful.

We celebrated our second wedding anniversary with another Mexican dinner. (I’ve also been experimenting with several homemade Mexican dishes. It is a good thing we both like this kind of food!) Our choice was Mi Amigo Ricarda.

Since it was a Sunday, we started the day with our habitual Bloody Mary.

We have loved living in our travel trailer, our first shared home. However, since we are no longer carrying the motorcycle, we had decided to trade for a 5th wheel trailer and planned to do so when we returned to Minnesota later this summer. However, one day, as we headed to an outing in Tortilla Flat, we made a detour to an RV dealer in Mesa. Our plan was to browse. We already knew we liked Forest River, the manufacturer of our travel trailer. This was a “looking” expedition only. But… we ended up purchasing a new 2019 trailer. It is beautiful and we will take possession in two weeks, on February 28. We did not make it to Tortilla Flat that day.

Below are several pictures of the new trailer, showcasing Minnesota and Family.

On the day we were travelling to Mesa to trade trailers, I got a call saying my boy kitty Cosmo, AKA Coz, had passed away the night before. I acquired Coz and his sister, his litter mate, Sammie, when they were 5 weeks old. They were born on my daughter’s farm. They are now 15 years old. I sure loved these two cats and they were great companions to me, especially during the 8 years I lived alone. They currently live with my daughter Angie and her family.

On February 29, we went to a Leap Party a few blocks away in the campground. This was fun. Because we were parked on a double wide manufactured home site, we were not by the other RVers and felt we missed out on meeting a lot of people. Now that our stay here is almost over, we are meeting people!

We moved to a different RV park Fiesta Grande, on March 6. We will stay here for 6 days but have already committed to staying here next winter. It is a bit older than Sundance but we like it a lot better.

A couple of days later, we decided to try again to see Tortilla Flat. After stopping in Mesa to pick up something for our trailer, we headed out. Somehow, our GPS took us on a 35 mile dirt “road” through the mountains.

It was a beautiful drive but I was very happy to make it back to civilization. It was 3 PM and we had not eaten yet today so we stopped at Jake’s Corner where we shared pig wings and fries along with a beer.

We saw some of the Arizona wild horses an the way back home. (We never did get to Tortilla Flat again!) We weren’t supposed to stop but we and many other people ignored those signs.

Originally we were going to head west from here on March 6. We were heading for Yuma, then parts of SE California, southern Nevada and back to northern Arizona. However, I have some medical stuff going on so we moved for a week. The issues still aren’t resolved and may take a month or more, so we moved again on March 12.

We are at Leisure Valley RV Park for at least a month and sure hope the medical stuff is done by then.

The world seems to have gone crazy with the coronavirus. We are “stranded” here in Arizona until my medical issues are resolved. While it is beautiful, I’d feel better if we could purchase some things on our grocery list. We have been trying for almost two weeks to find tp, paper towels, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, Spam, hand sanitizer and hamburger. While we still have a lot of food, I’m most concerned about the tp. My one package will last about two more weeks but if it takes that long to find ANY, I’ll continue to be nervous. I wish people would stop hoarding.

Meanwhile, on March 19, Steve’s birthday, my cousin Rani sent me the picture below. Without seeing Mom’s date on the back, I think we were 3 and 4. I love it!

So, this winter, although it seems like summer, we really haven’t moved around a lot or done much sightseeing. We are enjoying the weather and the scenery as well as our Boo. Also, my medical stuff just doesn’t stop. I certainly hope it is done now!

So to begin that story, an annual appointment with my gynecologist in Mankato in December indicated that I needed a procedure and my doctor did not want me to wait until returning to Minnesota in June. I met with a doctor in Casa Grande and sort of had a procedure in February. It was unsuccessful so I met with a specialist in Mesa. He performed a hysterectomy on March 31. I bet I’m the first person to have that done as out patient. With the caronavirus, we felt it was best to get me out of the hospital ASAP. I’m recovering and we are ” sheltering at home” as necessary to keep away from Covid 19.

We will be back to this area next winter and will continue our exploration of the area.

On April 6, it was a beautiful day, about 83 degrees. We decided to pack a picnic and drive to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, down by the Mexico border. Lunch was meat and cheese sandwiches, chips and a bottle of White Zinfendel.

This day trip lasted 8 1/2 hours. We saw a family of 4 at the rest area in Why. There was a man on a motor cycle at the rest area where we had our picnic and we passed a car along the scenic drive. We saw no one else.

The rest of the pictures are the landscape with mountains in the distance, cactus and blooming desert.

We are in the midst of ” stay at home” during coronavirus pandemic. Some people are finding ways to keep their normal activities. Below is nephew Garrett and his girl Anna having “prom at home”.

In mid April, we had to move sites in our park because they are working on landscaping and upgrades.

on April 13, we finally got the results of my 3)31 surgery ( hysterectomy). It is not cancer! We decided to celebrate with the champagne we received on our cruise.

We continue to stay safe at home, enjoying the weather and each other. It is amazing how we can fill our time, doing very little. However,vi things we are both starting to miss Minnesota and our family and friends.

One day in late April, we drove to Tortilla Flat. We had been planning to go there all winter and never made it. Although it was closed, the drive was beautiful, going past Canyon Lake. We had packed a lunch and ate on a bench along the boardwalk of TF.

The cacti are starting to bloom more and they are beautiful. We won’t be here this late next year so we are lucky to see them like this.

Dave knows I like flowers, flowering trees, etc.  Coming from the grocery store one day, he saw this tree in front of a law office so he stopped to take pictures for me.  I think it is a Jacaranda.

Our time in Casa Grande is almost over.  We wanted to return to Saguaro National Park to see the blooming cacti so took a road trip on May 8.  It is a lot greener than on our January 14 visit.

I believe this is a Palo Verde.  There are two different species; I think this is the Foothills variety.

The trunk is very green.

Lunch at a picnic area. They had covered the grills but we were able to enjoy the spot.

Dave “preparing” lunch.

We saw some local residents, while eating lunch, a striped ground squirrel and desert iguana.

Dust devils are strange. They are usually harmless but occasionally wreak a lot of damage

 

I’ve been trying to get a good picture of another purple flowering tree or shrub.  The color is so delicate on this one, that it is difficult to capture it well.  I believe this is a Desert Ironwood tree.