Bill and I have always enjoyed Thanksgiving. When we lived in the Florida Keys, Thanksgiving was usually the first day when we could turn off the AC, open the windows, and enjoy the beautiful weather. We always had dinner with friends, including Bill's sister, Mary, who would come down from Naples. One year I even got out the "wedding china," and served a group of 15.
We've been on the road since 2000 (more or less), and we still enjoy Thanksgiving. But now it is just the two of us. There are always Thanksgiving pot-lucks at most of the RV parks we have been in, but we enjoy our dinner for two. In recent years, Bill has cooked the turkey in his Dutch oven. Actually, we don't get a whole turkey; we buy a 3# Butterball Boneless Turkey Roast. The roast contains dark & white meat and works perfectly for us. Plus, cooking it in the Dutch oven frees up my oven for the other goodies like sweet potatoes & stuffing.
This year I am attempting for the first time to bake a pumpkin pie. I subscribe to Cuisine at Home, a wonderful cooking magazine. In the latest edition, they feature a recipe for Gingerbread Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping. How good does that sound? Of course, it will be served with real whipped cream.
Anyway, I made out my shopping list and headed to the grocery store on Monday. After stopping at Walmart and Safeway, I had gotten everything on my list...mission accomplished. Yesterday it dawned on me that I didn't buy gravy. (I know, I know, homemade gravy is better, but I have never acquired the ability to make a gravy that did not end up the consistency of paste.) So, back to the grocery store for gravy. Now I'm ready.
Do you ever have one of those moments where you wake up in the middle of night and remember something that you meant to do? Well, this morning at 2:00, I awoke and was thinking, "I don't even have a pie pan." I have cake pans, but no pie pan. How can I make a pumpkin pie with no pie pan? So, guess what...another trip to the store. But I promise you, before we head out, I'm going to look over all of my recipes really well to make sure I haven't forgotten anything else.
So, to all of our friends, family, and blog buddies, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving! And take my advice, check over your menu one more time...just to make sure.
Life on the road is not always exciting. There are times when we must sit still and take care of many of the same things found in a sticks & bricks home. Today was one of those days.
After doing the laundry and cleaning out our closet, I worked on our finances which including posting our investment balances from our October statement. Ouch!! I understand that the market goes up, and the market goes down. But man, the past couple of months has had an impact...and not a positive one. Thank goodness for CDs! Knowing we have a cushion of cash is very reassuring in times like these. But I also know how important it is to keep things in perspective, to remember the things that really matter...love, family, faith.
So, after a day of taking care of necessities, Bill grilled burgers for supper, and we enjoyed a nice, quiet evening at home.
Today we visited Saguaro National Park. There are two sections to this park, east and west, that is separated by the city of Tucson. We visited the eastern section, which was just a 45 minute drive from Benson. Saguaro National Park was set aside to protect, as you might guess, the saguaro cactus, the well-known symbol of the Arizona desert.
While sagauro cactus grow in very few areas, this national park is home to over 1.5 million.
You might be surprised at the diversity of wildlife that calls the desert its home. While you would expect rattlesnakes and tarantulas, mountain lions and a variety of birds are found here as well. The above picture is a Cactus Wren, Arizona's state bird.
Saguaro National Park contains trails that will lead you out into the wilderness. It is hard to believe that this park is located in the outskirts of Tucson, the second largest city in Arizona. On today's visit, we took the easy way out...we drove the loop road, took pictures at the pullouts and had lunch in one of the picnic areas. We saw a few folks riding their bikes around the loop. We may have to try that on our next visit.
In addition to the Great Saguaro, you will find many different cacti in the park. Here is a close-up of a Jumping Cholla. This cactus gets its name because it seems if you walk too close to the plant, the sharp barbs simply jump right on you. They don't, of course, but getting stuck by one of these barbs would be painful. That's one thing I've learned out here...don't touch any of the plants!
Today's visit just wet our whistle. We will definitely return to Saguaro National Park. We want to hike a trail, ride our bikes, and if we are lucky, see the desert in bloom.
I collect patches. Most national parks, national monuments, national historic sites, etc. have a patch for sale in the visitor center/gift shop. When we first hit the road, I wanted to collect something to commemorate our travels. Bill came up with the patch idea...inexpensive, light weight, and small. We have a blank wall in our living area where I put them. So far, I have collected about 150 patches. Bill would say it has become a bit of an obsession, but I just think I'm focused.
Anyway, when we visited Chiricahua National Monument on Wednesday, I bought a patch for that park, as well as Fort Bowie National Historic Site which is located about 20 miles from Chiricahua. Well, since I bought the patch, we HAD to visit the Fort. I mean it wouldn't be honest to display a patch from a park that we didn't actually visit.
So, after our 8.5 mile hike we left Chiricahua and headed to Fort Bowie.
Fort Bowie is located 8 miles down a washboard dirt road. Upon arrival, we learned that to reach the ruins, we had to hike out 1.5 miles. Uh-oh! After just hiking 8.5 miles, we really weren't in the mood to hike another 3 miles round trip. But, I had the patch! So off we go....
The 1.5 mile hike was full of history. We saw the remains of the Butterfield Stage Station and the old wagon road itself. We also went by an old cemetery where many of the grave markers simply said, "Killed by Apaches."We reached the fort without any trouble. What remains of the fort are just a few ruins. If you look closely at the below picture, you can see some of them. The best part of this historic site is the museum in the ranger station/visitor center. Fort Bowie is located at Apache Pass and was built there to deal with the conflicts between the Apache Indians and the white settlers. The museum displays many artifacts that have been found in the area.
During our hike to the fort and back, we came across a lot of different desert-type plants. Pictured below is a Cane Cholla.
I enjoyed our visit to Fort Bowie National Historic Site, even if my legs & feet were screaming after hiking 11+ miles during the day. The Ranger said they get about 10,000 visitors per year. If I had not already bought the Fort Bowie patch, I don't know if we would have taken the time to visit this park. But I'm glad we did. Sometimes it pays to be focused, or as Bill says, "obsessed."
The last time I posted to the blog we were half-way through our month-long housekeeping commitment at Bryce Canyon. I'm happy to say we survived! We had our doubts at times. While housekeeping isn't a BAD job, per se, it is much more suited to folks younger than I. It is a very physical job, but I think I have about recovered!
Time to move on......
We left Bryce on October 31, and have meandered our way down Arizona. We visited Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Camp Verde before landing in Florence, AZ to hang out with friends for a while. (We will soon be posting pictures to our web page...I'll let you know when they are ready to view.)
We are now in Benson, AZ and having a great time! The weather has been very cooperative: lows around 38 & highs in mid-70s with lots of sunshine.
Yesterday we visited Chiricahua National Monument, named for the Chiricahua Apaches who once lived here. This park is well worth a visit, especially if you enjoy hiking. We took the free NPS shuttle to the top of the park and then hiked 8.5 miles back to the Visitor Center. There are many trails that criss-cross, so you have many options on your hike. Since this was our first visit, we talked to the Ranger and took her advice which worked out very well for us. 
Our hike took us through beautiful forests and massive hoo-doos. 
The above picture shows just how massive the hoo-doos are..that's Bill doing some video work.
During our hike, we took a 1-mile loop detour so we could see the "Heart of the Rocks" area of the park. We saw many interesting rock formations. The "Duck on the Rock" is one of the more famous ones.
When looking at all the rock formations, you start seeing formations of your own. I saw one that to me looked just like a toilet (sorry no picture). Bill laughed and said the Bryce housekeeping job must have had a long-lasting effect on me. At least I didn't feel the urge to put on rubber gloves and start cleaning!
And here are the happy hikers. In this picture you can see the green trees behind us, the hoo-doos, and beyond that the Arizona desert.
This park is an amazing place, a "sky island." In other words, Chiricahua National Monument is an island of sorts in the middle of the desert. At the lower elevations you will find the plants you expect to see in a desert, including yucca, cactus, and mesquite. At higher elevations you find forests containing oak trees, ponderosa pines & douglas fir. These forests are home to deer, owls, javelinas, squirrels, and even black bear and mountain lions. Some of the wildlife here, such as the coatimundi , have migrated from Mexico and are rarely seen outside of the park.
You can probably tell we thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and I haven't even mentioned any of the Apache history....I'll save that for another time.
