Sunday February 20th, 2022

Sunday morning and while we only have a shift of four hours this morning, we have volunteered to work the concert this afternoon in the arboretum, and it’s also “Super Bowl Sunday” and kickoff will be just as the concert ends … can you say one crazy busy Sunday?

So, its eight o’clock and the scurrying has began early, and I expect it to be like this all day, as this is a big event for the arboretum, so there are four tours of the Arboretum, plus the concert happening today. I’m starting solo in the admissions booth this morning and I make a mental note that I need to check that the credit card terminal in properly seated in its cradle before we quite for the end of the day, as it was totally dead this morning and takes quite a few moments to get enough charge to power up. This mornings flow of visitors has been reasonable 27 in the first half hour, not record breaking by any means, but respectable.

10:30 and the temperature is climbing but there is a light breeze out of the east, and that may be a very welcome relief this afternoon, but there’s not a cloud in the sky. That’s the best part about trying to plan an outdoor event in Arizona!

12:00 and our replacements have taken over the admissions booth, and we are headed to the coach for a quick lunch, a toasted tuna sandwich, a few moments to respond to some emails, then get dressed for our parts in todays concert, white shirt with black trousers was the days dress code, I decided to add a necktie for some colour and we prepare to report for duty.

1:30 and we have reported for duty, Miss Laurie and Kathleen will be working admissions counter for the concert which included suppling wristbands to identify the concert goers, Tom and I will be bartending this afternoon, so we pick up our cash box and head off to get set up to have the bar open by two o’clock. The bar design looks good, maybe not the most efficient layout but as we fill tubs with beverages and add ice to keep it chilled we are now ready to go.

1:55 we rang up our first alcohol sale, a few moments ahead of our two o’clock official start time, the next couple of hours were hectic but fun, as we were serving six wine choices, 3 white and 3 red, then seven different beers 6 from craft brewery’s and Michelob Ultra, then to add confusion there were two brands of hard seltzer for a total of 8 different flavors of seltzer. The band played a good variety of music, and the event as a whole seemed well received by pretty much everyone, and the age crowd was all over the map. This event can only be labeled a huge success with many people asking for more of the same in the near future. There were a few things I could suggest to improve the bar set up if asked, but we were not a real rushed at the bar so with two tenders serving around 150 people it worked well.

4:15 we completed service and packed up the left over product before taking our cash box and tip jar to the visitor center to have the funds counted, we dealt with both cash sales and drink tickets and our tip jar had over $150 dollars after just a couple of hours, of course our tips were used as a donation and to cover the water we gave away.

4:45 we had found our way back to the coach to prepare for the Super bowl street party that a few of the host volunteers had planned, but before we could join the party, we had a job interview scheduled for five o’clock with a potential campground on Vancouver Island for this summer. We have applied for a number of positions for this summer, we have turned a few of them down either because of location, or lack of facilities, or after speaking with other work campers, it was reported not to be the place to settle. A few of the campgrounds that we sent resumes to, we have just never never replied, even after follow up emails or messages, some positions had already been filled, and while this opportunity sounds promising, we still have a couple more outstanding that we are interested in.

5:45 and we are headed to the street party to watch the Super Bowl, a number of the host volunteers didn’t join us, for what ever reason, some people have no interest at all in football, and it is still gets quite cold after the sunsets. The game was a good match up to watch, too many Super Bowls are just terrible blow out games. The food table was even better with a good selection of snacks, and best of all was the company of the other campers, it is these little get togethers that make it enjoyable for us. And we were personally disappointed with the outcome of the game, as we were rooting for the underdog Bengals, and they just couldn’t pull it together in the last few moments. The half time show pretty much sucked, there is just no other way to describe it, after all the hype, it was just a waste of television, but provided a good time to enjoy the bounty of food and grab another cold beer. The bonus of being out in the southwest when watching the Super Bowl is being able to watch it outside and it was over and we were back in the coach by eight o’clock instead of ten.

8:10 and we have made it back to the coach, and recapping it was a big day for us, so we thought we would just catch up on some YouTube videos, but usually good videos content from one of our regular channels, just seemed to go on and on so by nine o’clock we shut them off and headed for bed.

Monday and it’s shortly after six o’clock, Mr. Sam is thrilled that I’m up and I’m rewarded with some valuable lap time, before he headed to the big bed for a sleep in the sunshine, its looking to be another wonderful spring day here in Arizona, and while not sure yet at this point what is on our agenda today I quite sure it will involve some time in the arboretum. Miss Laurie is preparing breakfast which this morning was a cheese omelet, while we are catching up on some of the stupidity that’s happening north of the border.

Today Miss Laurie has moved her Apache Tears from the cleaning mode to polishing mode, cleaning mode lasted four days so we will see how long polishing mode takes. I spent some time playing with my new spotting scope, it should allow me to get photos with my iPhone that will add some nice touches here are a few of todays looks.

This photo appears to be some sort of stacked rocks on the side of the ridge that I had never seen before, but I was able to see through the new spotting scope, still playing with settings, and hoping to use to get some better bird photos.

I spoke with Lennard today about moving the counter in the admissions booth, and let’s just say it didn’t go over well. All I got from him was that the counter is not moving because it will leave holes in the walls. That was it, the best the facilities manager could come up with was that it would leave holes. It took everything that I had not to suggest that they turn the booth the way it was designed to be, before they decided that they couldn’t place it where it was designed to go. So I learned a lot about Lennard today, none of which would be flattering, I have worked with many managers over the years that reject everything that was not their idea. So I will now let the managers battle it out and I will just do as I’m instructed.

We decided to take a hike through the arboretum after the park closed today at five o’clock, Miss Laurie was looking to get some photos of the returning monarch butterflies, but apparently they are not late afternoon creatures. We have never been in the arboretum at sunset and some of the views were amazing, and that’s where the evening kind of fell apart. After giving up on the monarch search I thought it would make a good photo if I could get a shot of the Picket Post house with the sun setting, so I hustled to the suspension bridge to get the shot, I was a few moments too late and by the time I got back to where I expected to find Miss Laurie, and after not finding her I assumed she must have missed me when I was on the suspension bridge. So I figured I would walk the main trail the opposite direction and meet up with her but that never happened, she had returned to the coach while I continued to look. We need to be sure to have our cell phones or our walkie-talkies with us next time, or as Miss Laurie says I need not to walk ahead without explaining where I’m off to. Here are a few of tonight’s photos.

Tonight’s dinner was leftovers of Miss Laurie’s chicken taco soup, a wonderfully flavoured concoction that is closer to a stew than a soup. I got back too late to watch the news, but watched some of the Ontario news on YouTube, then caught up on others videos before watching the most recent episode of “1883” before turning in for the night.

Tuesday and I’m having a six thirty start this morning, I’m not walking in the arboretum this morning as we have a hike scheduled this afternoon with Ray & Karen. Mr. Sam is snuggled up on my lap after his morning treats, and while I work on getting together yesterday’s photos and recapping yesterdays adventures. Today we have reached 11 hours between sunrise and sunset, our forecast weather today is 73°F (23°C) with clear sunny skies, and an UV index of 5, sorry Ontario but it is already spring here.

This morning Miss Laurie prepared a breakfast of biscuits with butter and jam, and we are watching some mindless morning television while I clean up some blog entries, and watching some of the facility staff trying to clean up a mess that they created in front of our coach over a month ago, so now we just have stray cabinets abandoned left in the middle of the parking lot along with the trailer hitch cement block that the just pulled the trailer over top of. Watching many of the things the staff does just leaves me shaking my head, as so much only partially gets done and will sit like that for weeks at a time.

And then in a couple of minuets our whole day changed, we went from a hike on the Legends of Superior Trail north of the Town of Superior with Ray & Karen, to a grocery supply run for Miss Laurie and a diagnostic day for me. The winds have came up and the dust is being blown into the air, and of course the pollen is stirred up as well, so the hike was postponed, Miss Laurie went to Walmart for groceries and I helped Ray with a voltage drop issue on his RV charging system. And because there is some boondocking in their summer plans, he wants to be able to recharge his lithium batteries with as little generator running time as possible, so we made a plan and the needed supplies or ordered, to be installed some day soon.

Because I was looking forward to having dinner at the Silver King Smokehouse & Saloon, a barbeque place in Superior just a couple of moments up highway US-60, so we asked Tom & Kathleen to join us, we arrived before five o’clock and the aroma was mouthwatering, so we were disappointed to hear that they were sold out of everything except sausage, and while I would have liked to try the sausage, I had been thinking of brisket all day, so I just couldn’t see sausages filling that desire. Since they were out of barbeque they have a burger menu, and while I have heard their burgers are good, I make a pretty good burger at home, so I went for smoked wings, John & Karen had recently raved about them. The wings were smoked then deep fried at time of serving to crisp and warm them up, the were served bare with sauces being on the table, I also ordered a side wedge salad because Kathleen had raved about the salad. Both were great choices, Miss Laurie ordered loaded fries which came topped with a good portion of pulled port and she was raving about them. So next trip will be for a late lunch or early dinner to get some of that brisket.

After dinner we returned to the coach and I caught up on the news before watching last Sundays edition of 60 minuets, then a couple of documentaries on the sea life in the Pacific Ocean before turning in for the night, the clouds are moving in as we have rain in tomorrows forecast.

Wednesday and 4:24 the first rain drops hit the coach roof, I was up for a nature thing and I gave Mr. Sam his treats to try to keep him quiet, and I tried to go back to bed, but I just tossed and turned for a few moments before giving up and just getting up. And Mr. Sam rewarded me with my allotted lap time before leaving and taking over my vacated space on the big bed, I turned on the electric space heater, as the temperature in the coach was dropping, there were a few flashes of lightning to the north as the rain started and stopped.

As we are closing in on the end of our time in Arizona (just 74 days to go), I decided to look into the ferry crossing that we will need to get onto Vancouver Island for this summers adventures, I had heard that it was less expensive to travel from Washington to Vancouver Island than it was to take the Vancouver BC to Vancouver Island, so I was going to look into comparing the cost of both possibilities. Ok I have visited British Columbia, but that was nearly 50 years ago, so I’m pretty much starting from scratch, first issue BC Ferries site was not compatible with safari, so I switched to chrome and was able to get the site to at least let me attempt to get a rate. Our rig is sixty-five feet long for the coach with the toad, well the site could not work with those numbers, to go from Horseshoe Bay near Vancouver to Departure Bay in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. So we will need to book passage as two separate vehicles so the toad one way will be $87.35 if we prepay $94.35 if we just reserve and the coach will be $256.10 prepaid or $263.10 reserved for a total of $343.45 prepaid or $357.45 if we just reserve the passage, and the voyage is 1 hour and forty minuets long.

Now to figure out the passage from Washington State to Vancouver Island, my research shows two ferries, Washington State Ferry which normally crossed form Anacortes in Washington State to Sidney on Vancouver Island but it is not running at this time because of Covid restrictions. The second Ferry is Black Ball Ferry Lines and it leaves from Port Angeles in Washington State and docks in Victoria on Vancouver Island a passage time of 1 hour and thirty minuets, and I can leave the coach and toad together for $360.50 US or if we split the vehicles it appears we can get passage for $310.50 US but with a 25% exchange rate the total would be $388.13, so it looks like it could be a Canadian ferry ride to the Island.

It is a rainy day in Arizona, hey it happens, and we certainly need the moisture, have not had rain since New Years eve, and we need it to keep the dust down, it will be a bit of a laid back day, the temperature is only 46°F (7°C) and the rain will be over by noon. I had a quick walk in the arboretum and Queen Creek was not running just before noon, and I don’t know if we got enough rain to see it flow this time, that will depend on how much rain they get upstream, but the weather forecast shows most of the storms staying well north of us with the possibility of a sprinkle again around midnight.

I was amazed at the bird activity when I went to check the creek, I heard and seen Verdin, Rock Pigeon, Gila Woodpecker, White-crowned Sparrow, Cactus Wren, Phainopepla, Northern Cardinal, Green-tailed Towhee, and an Anna’s hummingbird. And that was in a fifteen minute walk through the Wallace Garden to check on Queen Creek, I can only imagine if I had of sat and been quiet for a few moments.

Lunch was breaded jumbo shrimp prepared in the air fryer with a couple of bacon wrapped, goat cheese stuffed, dates for desert, yummy. It is near 2 pm and the cloud cover is breaking up and the sunshine is peaking through and both Laurie and I are wanting to get for a walk in the arboretum. Laurie wants to get some photos of the cloud formations as they are breaking up, and I want to try to identify some more of the increased bird activity.

I have just downloaded the Merlin app for identifying birds, it listens to their song, as well as a picture to confirm identification and it seems to be quite accurate, and with the bird activity this morning, I’m looking forward to this afternoon’s walk, Laurie snapping photos, and me confirming the species and it worked out well as we identified a lot of bird life today here are a few photos. A Vermilion Flycatcher, a Verdin, an Anna’s Hummingbird. a female Phainopepla, and a Spotted Towhee as well as seeing Northern Cardinals, Gambel’s Quail, Gila Woodpecker, Cactus Wrens, and two large hawks in a tree too far away to identify.

And of course there are still all the blossoms from all the different plant, that remind us that it is springtime in the Arizona desert.

The Vermilion Flycatcher was right here around the area of the coach and while Miss Laurie got a number of photos, none were as clear as she had hopped, and as luck would have it the Vermilion Flycatcher landed just outside the window which promoted round two of trying to get a better photo. After following the bird around the parking lot Miss Laurie gave up and returned to prepare a huge taco salad for dinner, before we settled in to stream a chick flick on Prime Video, before calling it a night.

Thursday morning and Mr. Sam was happy to see me at 6:30 this morning, or at least that was the way I interpreted it, and after his treated he is curled up on my lap, as I answered emails and started to edit this blog. I opened the blind by my chair to see clear skies on the eastern horizon and Mars in the eastern sky well above the breaking light of dawn. Eleven hours and four minutes of sunshine today, and while cool at 37°F (2.5°C) this morning and the high for today of only 57°F (13°C), it will feel much warmer in the sunshine and we will be back in the seventies (twenties) by the weekend.

Today’s agenda is still up for debate, that rain yesterday reminded me I need to get back on the roof of the coach for some more repairs, especially if we’re are heading for rainy Vancouver Island for the summer, it’s 7:30 and Mr. Sam is starting to stretch which usually means it is time to move from napping on me to a couple hours of sleep on the big bed, it’s tough being a cat and keeping track of all these sleep, nap, and resting times. I have also been asked by Linnea to move the counter in the admissions booth, I had told her I had spoken with Lennard but that had not gone well, but she didn’t seem to care, and as she is my supervisor I will do as asked.

Miss Laurie slept in till almost eight o’clock this morning, and I had the space heater on to warm the coach before the sunshine was able to warm the coach, we heard a dejected NBC crew announce that the Canadian women’s team had defeated the American ladies. It is very different Olympics coverage this side of the border than we received back in Canada, and I understand wanting to showcase your athletes, we find the American coverage to be very pinpointed as opposed to a broader coverage from Canadian broadcasters.

Breakfast this morning was a cheese and mushroom omelet, which is my favorite, toasted sourdough bread, coffee with Irish Cream, its a hard to beat start to the day. It is going to be a nice sunny day so Mr. Sam has risen early and making his demands for some outdoor time today. I have decided that we will move the admissions booth counter today but after hours to not interfere with the days operation and to avoid any conflict between departments. So it will be a relaxed day, no roof work today because I will get enough physical abuse moving the counter.

Just got into the arboretum far enough today to see the results of some tree removal and trimming, that has been happening, as heartbreaking as it is to see any trees removed especially in the desert where trees are few and far between, but I also understand that sometimes it is just necessary. So today was filled with the noise of chainsaws, and the constant warning beep of “Sky Jack” that they were using to trim and prune trees, not a great day to visit the arboretum.

A couple of “Nathans” hot dogs for lunch with a cold beer, while enjoying some sunshine, Tom & Kathleen joined us for a couple of beers on the patio, as we just had a lazy afternoon, Mr. Sam got lots of outdoor time today as temperature wise was perfect for him, we have a small table we move around to keep a shady spot for him, being black he can certainly get hot to the touch when in the sun. He is getting so much better at not bolting, that we have been letting him sit in a chair beside us unleashed for longer time, but he sees thing that we always fear he might want to chase after, we stay cautious.

The Arboretum is closed so we head to the admissions booth to move the counter, the whole task of moving all the gear out, moving the counter, and reinstalling the equipment took just a little over an hour. Now it will be so much nicer to greet and admit visitors at the booth, I just can’t understand why this has been such a long dragged out event, now we get to observe the reaction between departments.

Miss Laurie made pizza in the air fryer after our return, we have been using the Pillsbury pizza crust, then Laurie loads it up with lots of goodies and cheese, we even had mushroom on tonight’s pizza. I can’t hardly believe how good the pizza is done in the air fryer, way better that any frozen pizza we have ever had, and while maybe not quite pizzeria quality it is real damn close. After dinner we caught up on some of the covid news from Ontario, then watched a few YouTube videos, followed by some food channel shows, and an early evening.

Friday and I’m wide awake at two o’clock, I have no idea why, but after some tossing and turning I decide to just get up, and since I’m up I figure its a good time to proof read the first few days of the blog, and finish off yesterdays, as it didn’t happen for a couple of reasons, beer being one and maybe just a little laziness for the other. But I’m all caught up now and with a little luck I will be able to go back to bed and pick up a couple of hours more sleep before starting our eight hour day.

A couple of hours later and I’m up again at 6:30, so I got a little more sleep and I’m feeling pretty good for not having the best nights sleep, this is a bowl of cereal, a vitamin and a cup of coffee with a blessing of Irish Cream and off to get this workweek started. I started the day in the admissions booth, while Laurie helped in the store, and then swept up the breezeway, when she relieved me and I watered the leafy sale plants, before falling into map duty.

The new setup in the admissions booth works much better, than any previous setup we have worked with. I still need a couple of items to smooth out a couple of rough edges, but it is starting to make it nicer to work with, and with the crowds getting bigger each week we needed to streamline the operation. I have been asked to tend the bar at a donors event on March 31st, I believe Tom has been asked as well, so we must have done a pretty good job last weekend.

This afternoon we had a large Cooper’s Hawk land in a eucalyptus tree near the admissions booth, this is one of the pair of hawks that we have noticed around the arboretum for the last week or so. It was a reasonably day with just under six hundred visitors, tomorrow should be busier as it is the Saturday of a holiday weekend, and a sunny weekend by all accounts. Here are a few photos I snapped of the blossoms in the front garden of the Visitor Center.

After our shift I returned to the coach and watched the end of the second round of the PGA tournament at Riviera Club in California, it must be playing tough, as some of the top players appear to not being able to make the cut. Tonight’s dinner was leftover pork chops with sweet potato, then some time to catch up on the news both sides of the border, and finished off with a movie on Prime Video before turning in.

Saturday morning and I woke to aroma of coffee perking in the galley of the coach, Miss Laurie was up before me and was perking fresh coffee, what a great wake-up. Mr. Sam was pacing looking for his morning treats, which I got out as he complained about the wait, and as a punishment there would be no lap time for me this morning, and I have to admit that I miss that time.

7:27 and the sun just peaked over the eastern ridge as I have finished my bowl of cereal and enjoy a blessed cup of fresh perked coffee, the great thing about living where you work is the lack of a commute, being only a few hundred yards from the admissions booth. So out the coach at 7:54 walk to the visitor center, and into the admissions booth by 7:59 and ready to check in the first member by 8:00 like a finely tuned machine.

I’m solo in the booth this morning as Miss Laurie likes to help Chris open up the store and prepare for the visitors by placing merchandise. It helps keep us busy in the mornings as the flow of visitors is not real strong for the first hour or so. And today the slow start continued till almost eleven o’clock, in fact we were starting to think it was going to be a bit of a disaster for revenue then like someone turned on a tap people started to arrive. The afternoon turned into one of the better days with people still arriving at four o’clock which is the cutoff time for admission to the arboretum.

We were told that our schedule may be changing again, and we explained that we would help out where ever they needed us. The spring plant sale is only a few weeks away and the work load will get heavier as that gets closer, in the next week or so there will be a second window opening at the admission booth to allow quicker processing. Or at least a members window so they can avoid the line of visitors for a faster entry.

After our shift we returned to the coach for a needed break, I watched some of the golf tournament while Miss Laurie laid down with Mr. Sam. We barbequed burgers for dinner, caught up on the news and watched a movie before calling it a night. And I’m taking about half an hour to close out this blog and get it published on time.

Stay well, be strong & Happy Birthday Betty

Blog 405

Day 1601

Sunday February 13th, 2022

Sunday morning at six o’clock and Mr. Sam thought is was time for his morning treats, a couple of mornings of my early rising and now he thinks five o’clock is the new normal time. This morning is the last morning with a real frost risk, because as we look ahead the temperatures will be back in the seventies (twenties) this week. Because I was much more diligent this week with my daily blog updates, there was no late Saturday night of cramming to complete the blog, a nice change and one I will work diligently at duplicating.

It amazes me how quickly things can change, as we now have a couple of big events this week that look to be coming together, now we just have a few loose ends to tie up before we can make an announce, but stay tuned, looks like this year could end up being a very special year.

We have our last four hours to complete this weeks shift this morning, so 8 till noon and then we are off till Friday. I ordered a rock tumbler for Miss Laurie, everyone knows how much she loves her rocks, sea glass and sea shells. So now she is telling everyone that I’m her enabler, while I’m not sure that is a totally true statement, but if I can lessen the bowls full of newly discovered rocks soaking in water on our bathroom counter, then I think it is win win and beneficial to everyone.

A couple of the host volunteers had left for the weekend, one pulled their coach out, while the other just took their toad for an overnight event. I’m watching the Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament, always a good tournament to watch, as play is so effected by the weather off of the Pacific Ocean that it effects many scores, what makes it so interesting is that the Pebble Beach golf course is a public golf course so it can be played by any hacker for a mere $575 plus cart fee per person, or you could hire a caddie for just an extra $150, per person.

It’s going to be a big week in Arizona as the Waste Management golf tournament is being played at the TPC of Scottsdale golf course, this is the wildest event on the PGA tour with some serious party tents on many of the golf holes, certainly not your normal quiet soft clap of admiration by spectators at most tournaments, making it almost a must watch. Although the Sunday is always the quiet day at this golf tournament because there is that other little game happening on Sunday as well, you know that whole Super Bowl thing. And here at the arboretum we have a live music concert as well this Sunday afternoon in the picnic area to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Monday, so it will be a busy week.

So this afternoon was pretty much wasted watching television golf, news, YouTube, and the second episode of the Reacher series. Dinner was wings prepared in the air fryer, we had purchased the wings at Costco, precooked, frozen, even came with dipping sauce. Wings are not nearly as available here in Arizona as they were back home near Buffalo but there again there are a lot more tamales and enchiladas here to choose from. So just an early evening after a couple of long work days.

Monday morning and with coffee in hand I’m watching the sunrise over the eastern ridge, at 7:45, it is still a chilly morning with a 40°F (4°C) start, but we also still have this darn breeze making it feel cooler. So no early morning walk through the Arboretum this morning, but there will be a walk after breakfast, it’s been five days since my last adventure in the park, and I could be suffering a little bit of arboretum withdrawal.

Here are a few photos from this mornings walk through the Arboretum, Miss Laurie joined me for a stroll around the arboretum, going in latter in the day means there are lots of people doing lots of things, lots of bird watchers, many strollers, and even a power walker strutting around the main arboretum trail backwards, and when I say backwards it is because there is an easier way to walk the trail and a more difficult way, and she was doing laps the difficult way. There were a number of cardinals again this morning, and they don’t seem to be afraid of us, oh they still keep their distance but will sit nearby as if they are observing us as much as we are are admiring them.

We stopped a number of times to sit and listen to the birds, I even jumped up and down on the suspension bridge, just like a child, I know I’m an old fart but there is just something about a suspension bridge that brings the kid out in most of us. The staff are making some much needed repairs on the Benson bridge, that’s the wooden bridge over the Silver King Wash, this was a bridge donated by the Benson family, after hearing stories of their father trying to cross the wash to lubricate the pump during some storms from the past, a great story that I have detailed in my Arboretum review that is soon to be published.

On our return to the coach Miss Laurie caught up on laundry while I worked on the blog, it is still breezy so it is not possible to leave the coach awning extended, although I did try, after our lunch we headed for the antigravity chairs on the patio, to absorb some of that Arizona sunshine, I have a new book that I’m reading “Birds, Bats, & Baling Wire” and while the title would maybe not have likely caught my attention, this is a true story of a portion of the life of one of the host volunteers, so I have to admit that I was at least curious if nothing more. But five chapters in I have to admit I can’t wait to get to chapter six to see what happens next.

Our wondering host volunteers have all returned, and Tom & Kathleen stopped by first this afternoon for a beverage, we soon had to move our gathering to the common area, to allow us to spread out and also sit in the sunshine as Lincoln and John & Karen also joined us, and as the sunset, I fired up the propane fire pit to take the chill out of the cooling evening air. We heard about their weekend adventures, while enjoying a couple of adult beverages, and of course hit some of the regular RV talk topics while sitting around a campfire, like propane fills, fuel prices, and the ever popular camping sites. We also discussed the upcoming events, the concert here at Boyce Thompson Arboretum, and we discussed some plans to enjoy the Super Bowl after the concert, you know real important things for a group of work campers.

I barbecued burgers for dinner as we all retreated for the warmth of our coach’s, I’m pretty sure Laurie is just messing with me because burgers are usually Friday nights dinner, we watched some of the Olympics on the television, and then called it an early evening as we both felt tired.

Tuesday morning and I’m up at six o’clock, and already the first signs of dawn are showing on the eastern skyline, Mr. Sam has scarfed down his treats and is settling on my lap for our scheduled alone time until Miss Laurie wakes just before seven. And while still being cool this morning I headed out the door for my morning walk through the arboretum, and I decided to be a rebel and walk the main trail backwards, I know, I’m out of control on a Tuesday morning. Well maybe not that far out of control, I do this every week or so, because besides being the more difficult route, it also changes you view, and you get to notice some sights that may be missed by always walking the same direction.

Upon my return to the coach Miss Laurie baked some biscuits for breakfast, a little jam, a tasty breakfast, a quick update of the blog and I’m thinking that I should be heading outside shortly. But that was put on hold as Miss Laurie needed a white blouse to work the concert at the arboretum this weekend, so a trip to Mesa where we found an Old Navy and a Ross outlet, we were able to find more than we actually needed, I found a pair of cargo shorts for $15 which I thought was a great price, cause the original tag was $42, but then Laurie found an embroidered sweatshirt for $0.97, the original price tag was $35, not much more to say about that.

We purchased fuel, and while still expensive for down here at $3.699 per gallon, or $0.95 U.S. per liter, when converted back to Canadian dollars is $1.19 per liter, expensive but cheaper than back in Ontario. A supply stop at Fry’s Marketplace for some items to get us through till next week and we were headed back to the Arboretum and to the coach. The breeze seems to have lightened so we will try the awning again, and I’m looking forward to getting back into my book, maybe with a cold beverage to cool my lips and to quench my thirst, could be in order.

Five o’clock and I’m headed into the coach, I knocked off another dozen chapters of Kathleen’s book, but it’s time to catch up on the happenings around the world and here in sunny Arizona. It’s also taco Tuesday and as Miss Laurie works in the galley, tonight’s tacos are smelling yummy. Well I’m pleased to report that those tacos were just as tasty as they smelt, tonight we are catching up on a couple of series, an 1883 episode, and a couple of episodes of Reacher before turning in for the evening.

Wednesday morning, it’s six thirty and apparently Mr. Sam thinks it’s time that I was up, I think it’s more about his morning treats than about his time with me, I could be wrong but this is one seriously food motivated kitty. Laurie was up just a few minutes after me, so proving my point, no lap time with me this morning. It’s a very mild morning and the breeze has finally laid down so by seven fifteen I as headed to the arboretum for my morning walk-a-bout, and as I have stated numerous times ever trip is different then the previous, and I leave after each adventure in aw of the Arboretums beauty. But this mornings walk left me some what frustrated, it never fails to amaze me just how ignorant some people are.

Eucalyptus just one variety of the huge Myrtle tree family with over 700 variations under the Myrtle umbrella. We are fortunate enough to have a number of different species in the arboretum, and they range is size from almost shrub like to the tall majestic red gum variety that can stand 200 feet tall. Here at the arboretum we have some of the largest eucalyptus trees in North America, so it breaks my heart to see them defaced.

As I continued this mornings walk I was caught off guard by the unusual quiet along the Queen Creek riparian, this is an area with substantial bird life. Even the walk up to and past the Clevenger house was eerily quiet, a couple of rabbits under the salt cedars near the creek and a couple of rock squirrels scurrying along the ridge, but no quail or cardinals. I even sat for a few moments nearby thinking it was possibly my presence that was causing the quiet but after a number of moments still just quiet. The photos below are a few of this mornings shots.

Miss Laurie has decided that the first items to be tumbled will be about half of her apache tears, because they are already rounded it is more of a polishing process, so there are four levels of grit to choose from so after some pondering #3 was chosen, and some water to complete the mix. It was quickly realized that this was going to be way too noisy to tumble for six days in the coach so I cleared a spot in the basement for the tumbler to live and operate, we will check the results in a couple of days.

It is another sunny day in the Arizona desert and the sunshine feels hot when sitting out, but the temperature today is 70F (21C), I’m reading more of Kathleen’s book and Miss Laurie is painting a thank you note to the Savino’s for a very special hand made gift. She joined me on the patio for a beverage and as the afternoon rolled along Tom & Kathleen joined us for a happy hour beverage.

I barbecued a couple of chicken breasts for dinner, but they are so large that we will most likely split one, add some rice and buttery brussel sprouts and its nearly a perfect dinner, catch up on some news, a couple of YouTube videos then a couple of episodes of Reacher and it’s nine thirty and time for bed.

Thursday morning and a five thirty start for me, Mr. Sam always happy to get his treats early, and stretched out on my lap for a nap while I checked our emails, I decided to head to the arboretum early this morning, at 50C (10C) it is certainly a nice warm morning, so by seven I was off for my morning trek around the main arboretum trail. Knowing I am the only person in the arboretum, with the birds, the bunnies, and all the other creatures that I haven’t seen yet. Before the first staff members start at seven thirty, so by getting out ahead of the staff just allows a better chance a sighting wildlife. The birdlife was everywhere this morning so I decided to sit near the Picket Post House just to listen for a few moments, then instantly it was all quiet just like the day before but this time I found the reason why.

Back at the coach by eight fifteen and catch up on a little breakfast while watching the news and catching up on my postings. We are heading to Gold Canyon to-day to have lunch with Ray & Karen, its been almost two weeks since we have seen them as Ray has been under the weather and has not been up to his usual hectic pace. As we head to the valley the temperatures will be near 80F (27C) a number of degrees warmer than we would experience here at the elevation at the arboretum.

What a great day from so many outlooks, the weather could not have been finer, temperatures were perfect, we sat on Ray & Karen’s patio, enjoyed a cold beverage, we were treated to a hot lunch with a salad, we learnt a new game “Fast Track”, then had tiramisu for desert. And talked and laughed our way till eight thirty, again we are so blessed to have such good friends. Ray is feeling much better, and is on some medication for an inner ear virus that was throwing his equilibrium off, which effected his hearing, and balance, but there was no sign of any issue today.

We made it back to the arboretum and our coach just after nine o’clock, no need for any television this evening, Miss Laurie took a few minutes to appease Mr. Sam who was not pleased with his dinner being four hours late. I’m taking a few moment to reflect on the days events, as we had shared some of our upcoming travel plans with Ray & Karen. and keeping with my new plan to keep up to date with this blog to avoid the Saturday night marathon. So now its close to ten and I’m headed to bed to prepare for our Monday morning.

Friday, and we are back to work for an eight o’clock start, Mr. Sam thought that I should be up or at least he thought I should get his treats so at 5:40 I full filled his request, and he honored me with nearly an hour of lap time before heading to my spot on the big bed. It’s now 6:30 and dawn is close at hand, as my iPhone comes to life this morning and the first thing to flash up is a weather advisory, I’m still getting all the alerts from LHR, I guess I need to figure out how to stop them someday. But in the mean time it’s kind of fun to see what we are avoiding, it’s 46°F (8°C) a little cooler than yesterday, but way better than that weather advisory thing … jus’saying.

So we start the day with a bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee and a couple of vitamins, Miss. Laurie has packed our lunch, and filled our water bottles and we will be heading out the door shortly. Because it is to be in the mid 70’s (20’s) today I decided shorts were in order but that cold hit me as I exited the coach, we had the outside displays uncovered before Chris landed to open the door, Miss Laurie is helping in the store until more staff arrives, and by twenty after eight I have checked in two members and a guest, it needs to pickup or it could be a long day.

Because I don’t want to alienate myself with the maintenance staff I’m going to try and talk with Lenard who is the head of maintenance, and offer to take on this project for him, it looks like at most an hour and half to move the equipment out, move the shelf, and get the equipment reset up, but I also know it has been a subject of some friction between departments, and I’m not trying to throw gasoline on any fires.

The admissions traffic picked up and by 11:00 when Miss Laurie relieved me so that I could water plants, we were well on the way to two hundred visitors. The build up of plants for next months plant sale has started already, so the watering time is stretching out to over an hour to water just the plants at the visitor Center, as a truckload was just delivered on Thursday and there are many more on their way, the spring and fall plant sales are some of our biggest fund raisers, and while a lot of the plants are grown on site, we don’t have the space to grow them all, so they arrive by the truckload right up until sale day.

Miss Laurie and I switched off to allow us to both get some lunch, a number of things are always in play. The arboretum offers these discovery tours at no charge, and on Thursday & Friday there are two one at 10 am and another at 1 pm, people can sign up on line for the tours, but because they don’t pay for the tour they just don’t show up. So there is always extra confusion around tour times with people checking in for the tour or trying to get enough people to make the tour worthwhile.

I had more watering to do at the growing beds, which are located near the propagation greenhouse, and the number of pots increases daily as we are building stock for the big sale, so now that area involves more than an hour of watering. Because the store is getting so much new merchandise in they are short staffed to get it priced and on to display, so Miss Laurie is helping out in the store to cover lunches and staff shifts and shortages. So, today I started in the admissions booth and also finished my shift in the booth as well, today was just under 400 visitors, not a busy as we would like but not bad for a workday, it’s always busier on the weekends.

After our shift we sat on the patio for a little while with a beverage to wind down, it’s nice that the temperatures are warming, making it very comfortable , but by five thirty we moved inside, to catch up on the news before I barbecued burgers, our regular Friday night dinner. And as I checked emails the last piece of this year’s puzzle seems to be falling into place, more on that in the next week or two. This evening is catching up on some YouTubers, and a couple of episodes of a series from the food network that our streaming service saves for us to watch at our convenience, before turning just before ten.

Saturday and another early start, 5:30 and I’m up and going, again Mr. Sam is happy for his treats a little early and I’m also rewarded with some valuable lap time, a lot of my blogs are written with the kitty on my lap, I don’t know as it is inspirational but I’m sure it is calming, it’s hard to rant when receiving so much love. So, if yesterday was our Monday, then today has to be our Wednesday or hump day, it should be busier today, but there should be more store staff as well, and we have three tours today at 10, 11 and at 1 o’clock, we will hope for close to eight hundred visitors today, but the PGA (Professional Golf Association) is playing in Scottsdale so it may not be a busy as we hope today or it could be lots of ladies escaping their significant others, I guess we will know shortly. Another morning of cereal, a vitamin, and a coffee before our eight o’clock start.

This mornings temperature is 52°F (11°C) but the wind is back, so we will have to batten down today, our days has stretched out to 10 hours and fifty five minutes, and we are expecting another day in the seventies ( twenties) today so just another sunny day here in Arizona.

The first visitor checked in at 8:01, I had just opened the booth while Miss Laurie was helping in the store, another first time visitor to Arizona’s best kept secret. The pace through the morning was steady, but not a busy as we are usually hoping for, I had watering detail again this morning, all the newly transplanted items need lots of tender loving care until they get their roots established in their bigger pots.

There are lots of people hustling hither and thither completing tasks for tomorrow’s big event, cases of beverages, bags of ice, chairs, tables, decorations and probably lots of things we never seen. It’s noon now and I’m grabbing a tuna sandwich and some pretzels (Dots) for lunch, it just works out better on the eight hour days to pack a lunch, something we can grab quickly between the surges of visitors. Miss Laurie is much quicker in the booth than I am so I usually take the job of map explainer to direct people to the different areas of the arboretum.

Well when I returned from lunch, I found that Miss Emily had decorated the admissions booth with some valentines and then I see the “kissing booth” sign on the window next to Miss Laurie, and there I was without any money. Of course that took a strange twist when I took over while Miss Laurie had lunch jus’saying. The wind subsided this afternoon, wind in the desert is a normal occurrence, but how they start and stop still amazes me almost as much as they way they change direction.

The afternoon seemed to drag a bit, the days that aren’t as busy are like that, and with half an hour to go I’m thinking about a cold cocktail after work instead of what I’m supposed to be. None of what we do is complicated or difficult it’s just very repetitive and your also trying to maintain that we are thrilled to see every visitor mode, it all goes back to the first impression and we only get one chance. At 4:00 we were packing up and heading to the coach, I’m going to watch the last few moments of the third round of the Waste Management golf tournament, then make a cold beverage to enjoy before dinner.

I snapped a couple of photos as we walked down the ramp at the visitors center, everyone likes a photos of flowers on a sunny warm afternoon.

Dinner tonight was salad with sliced chicken breast, a little catch up on the news to see what is happening in the area, we watched a few YouTube videos, and then the last two episodes of Reacher the latest series from Prime Video, then finished the evening with an episode from the food channel. It has been an interesting week, and next week looks to be even more interesting as we start to put a plan together for the rest of the year, and some of the options will be exciting so stay tuned.

Only 36 days till spring – Be well, stay strong

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Day 1594