A Short Work Week

Monday, Jan. 19 was Martin Luther King Jr Day which gave us an extra day off to explore in the area. Twenty miles north of Tucson is the University of Arizona - Biosphere 2. The worlds largest living science center dedicated to exploring the environment, the future and our planet.

The green house side of Biosphere 2. The whole complex covers 3.14 acres. Rain forest nearest front containing over 90 different plant species and some being over 60 feet tall.

The habitat area, water and life experiments and the west "Lung" (in the dome at right) that controlled the air volume.

The man made mini "Ocean".

The steel pipe structure and some of the 6500 windows. More info see b2science.org

Jim returned to complete last weeks window replacement and  installed new metal siding.

CHRPA (Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona) has about 15 volunteers and 6 staff each day with some volunteers being from the local Tucson community who might come one or two days a week, some SOOP volunteers (mostly retired folks) who are here any where from 2 weeks to 3 months and then we have energetic MVS (Mennonite Volunteer Service) young adults who are here for a year or two.
So each day we get matched up with 1 or 2 or even 3 other people and get sent out to do some kind of repair. It could be taking out a soft & rotten plywood floor and replacing it, or fixing plumbing, or flash and seal roof repair on a mobile home or putting down new tongue and groove plywood on a deck.
Each Thursday morning we have CHRPA SCHOOL, where last week Dan showed us how to repair a damaged toilet flange and this week Daniel showed us how to do EMT conduit bending.

CHRPA has 12 trucks/vans which have been donated by the local utility company that are equipped with tools and supplies.

Each vehicle has a descriptive name like Sparkie, Frosty, Bones, Finn, Rosie, Yvonne and a few more.

Saturday gives us opportunity for more exploring. We chose the Titan Missile Museum about 30 minutes south of Tucson. For those of you who lived through the cold war era of the sixties will remember the American tension with Russia. The US had 54 Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles of which all but this one have been dismantled. This one is now a museum.

The command center 30 feet below ground was manned by 4 persons at all times and always requiring a second persons presence. These top secret and highly secured missile sites were used by the United States to deter nuclear war.

Looking down at the 103 foot Titan II missile in its silo.

For a more peaceful end to our day we went to the Saguaro National Park and enjoyed the one and a half hour eight mile scenic Cactus Forest Drive.

It takes the Saguaro Cactus 35 years to grow to 6 feet tall and at about this age develops arms. Their fine mesh of roots three inches below the surface are able to absorb enough moisture from one good rain to last a year.

One of numerous sunsets we have enjoyed from our RV at supper hour.

Travels West Part 2

After we left Galveston Island we headed to South Llano State Park and arrived mid afternoon. The weather had been getting colder and did not realize the freezing rain till we were at the campsite. There was ice on the mirrors and the front of the RV. We were glad we were off the road and safe at a campground where we stayed the second night because of more freezing rain. This campground had abundant deer and wild turkeys with a designated turkey roosting area.

In most places we have travelled it is not far between homes or farms, but that is not the case in West Texas. We needed to check our gas supply and confirm if the next community would be in our range.

The next day we drove out of this cold system and had warm temps of 20 - 22 degrees C. Our next stop at Balmorhea State Park had a natural spring fed pool with water temperatures of 20 degrees C. year round. It was a beautiful place.

The gift of a beautiful sunrise to start our day.

With yet another cold system pushing into the area we wanted to get as far west to avoid getting caught on icy roads. We made it to Deming, NM where it was cool and breezy but not freezing.

Where else but in Texas would you see a hood ornament like this.

It has been an interesting transition from near sea level on Galveston Island and travelling through the mountains of Arizona. Changes in vegetation from grasses in the wet low lands, to the rock and treed areas of the Texas hill country and then viewing the vast plateaus of west Texas and New Mexico and finally the cactus covered mountain sides around Tucson.

As we neared Tucson on Tuesday we stopped at a rest stop for a stretch and enjoyed the views of boulders which were so different from the open terrain a short time ago.

We have had our introduction to CHRPA (Community Home Repair Program of Arizona) that we will be working at. Jim replaced a window in a mobile home on Wednesday and repaired a floor and rim joist on Thursday to make it safer to step into the door of this home.
Annette worked at putting on flash and seal to repair a roof and insulation on a roof top water pipe, while another worker repaired the rooftop furnace.
Thursday evening the SOOPers met for a Bible study. Here we met other Mennonite volunteers that are working in the area. There are people here from Ontario, Yukon, New Hampshire, Indiana and of course Manitoba.

The city of Tucson is in a valley surrounded by mountains. It warms up during the day and drops considerably by night. They have palm trees, cactus and oranges trees. Very unique. Our new home base is a gravel church parking lot, not the most pleasant place we have ever been at. It is in a residential neighborhood of modest homes.

Our view to the North from our new home.

On Saturday we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It was a great introduction to the desert landscape that is all around us here in Tucson. The Saguaro cactus that grow in abundance on the mountain sides amazed us.

Our Travels West Part 1

It is time to update you, our regular blog readers of what we are up to now. First our reflections of our month at home. The weeks flew by with Christmas shopping, preparations and all our family connections for which we came for. A priority for our at home time was to make frequent visits to Annette's mom at her new home at the Rehab hospital wing. Highlights were helping our grandsons skate for the first time and stealing hugs from our shy granddaughter.

Grand Forks airport snow clearing crew cleaning up after the previous days snow.

This year we tried flying with a budget airline, which had direct flights between Sanford/Orlando and Grand Forks. With ticket prices being half of what the major airlines charge we wondered how it would play out. It turned out to take longer, cost more with all the extras of motels, meals and other transportation costs.

Our plane arrives to take us south to Sanford/Orlando.

Our winter plans changed in November when we received an invitation for a SOOP (Service Opportunities for Older People) in Tucson, AZ. Because our fall service took us to Pensacola, FL, it would be a bit of a stretch to travel all the way to Arizona. Thankfully gas prices have come down to nearly half of what we paid last year, which helped us to decide and just go for it, even though it is a long way to travel.
Our travels from home started last Saturday when Matthew & Lisa took us to Grand Forks on a day that started out very cold and blowing snow. The road conditions were possibly worse in Manitoba than in North Dakota even though the road conditions map showed otherwise. In Grand Forks Annette had the lucky number for getting a pat down security check - the first time ever.
On Sunday we had a direct flight from the frigid, cold, snowy Grand Forks to the green grass, warm temperatures, rain showers and the sound of grackles in Sanford-Orlando. What a contrast!
In Sanford we took a short taxi ride to the Self-Storage where our truck was parked. Our day was not done yet. A long interstate ride of 8 hours, but we arrived by 1:00 a.m. And once there we pulled the RV out of storage and into a campsite which we had arranged ahead of time.

Getting ready to get on the road Monday morning from Foley AL.

Since then we have overnighted at Ocean Springs, Hackberry, Galveston Island State Park just to name a few. We have memories at each of these places.
In Hackberry we stayed at the Intracoastal Waterway Park where we watched lots of barge activity. While here we went to the local library to catch up on our emails and fix up our Straight Talk hotspot, which still does not work. But here in talking to the ladies in the library we became small town celebrities after we told her we had been here to help after Hurricane Rita and Ike. She took our picture and our names and said they would be in the local library newsletter.

Barge traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway at Hackberry LA.

The campground taken from the bridge (previous picture) as we headed out. A real camping bargain at $12/night with water and electrical.

One of Galveston Island ferries making the 20 minute crossing from Bolivar Peninsula.

There must have been 15 ships anchored outside of Galveston Bay waiting on their turn to be piloted to port.

At Galveston Island State Park we had a beach front camping site but it was cold and very windy. We did not spend any extra time out on the beach.
Check back for Part 2 of Our Travels West.