Some Relaxing Days

We went to three ball games last week, so since Friday we’ve been hanging around the RV park and relaxing. We are staying at Leaf Verde RV Resort in Buckeye, Arizona. This is the same place we stayed last year when we came to Spring Training.

We really like this park. The monthly rate is only $350 with 9 cents per KWH for electric. Most of the sites are pull-through and somewhat close together. But, there are sites around the perimeter of the park that are back in and a little bigger and more private. Here’s our site. There is a hedge of oleander bushes behind us which gives us nice greenery to enjoy out of our back window. The area behind the bushes is undeveloped so there is nothing behind us.

The park has a pool, shuffleboard courts, a basketball area, pickle ball court, horseshoe pits, a rec hall, dog walk area, and an outdoor fire pit area with grills and picnic tables. They have a few activities, but not as many as other places we’ve stayed at. That’s fine with us. We don’t really participate in many of the planned activities. It’s a very clean and quiet park.

The pool is quite nice and a good size. There is not a hot tub, but the pool is rather warm. It was a little cool this morning, so the cover was still on it. This afternoon it warmed up to about 80 degrees. This whole week is supposed to be around 80.

We rode our bikes to the store the other day and have been walking about an hour each morning. I’ve been doing some sewing and Kevin spent the day today watching basketball and Nascar. Two of his favorite Wisconsin college teams are in the March Madness tournament so he’ll be watching those games this week. We also plan to go to a few more games at some of the away stadiums in the Phoenix area.

Last Thursday we met some friends from Wisconsin at a Brewer game. Frank and Betty (on the left) are renting a condo in Sun City West for two months this winter. They are members of the camping club we belong to in Wisconsin. Don’t you just love Frank’s hat!

Joan and Al (in the middle) are one of the couples we met up with in Tucson and cruised with. They drove up from Tucson for the game. We all had a great time even though the Brewers lost again. They’ve been winning other games we haven’t gone to, so hopefully they’ll start winning when we go!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Unexpected Excellent Service

One of the tires on our truck had been losing air for about a week. At first Kevin thought it was maybe just a fluke, so he pumped it up and kept an eye on it. However, after about three days it needed more air so he decided to take it in and have it looked at.

There is a Discount Tire near our RV park so he took the truck into them yesterday. They were able to take a look at it right away, and after waiting for about a half hour, they brought the truck back to him. The guy told Kevin there had been a nail in the tire, so they fixed it and balanced the tires. When Kevin asked how much the bill was, he was told it was FREE. What, unheard of!

The service consultant explained that Discount Tire does not charge for tire repairs and/or tire balancing regardless of where you bought your tires. It’s a service they provide. Kevin spent his entire career in the service end of the automotive business. He knew that fixing a tire would be at least $20. So, he gave the guy a $10 tip. Still a deal for us, and a little extra for him.

We’ve never purchased any tires from Discount Tire so can’t speak to the quality or price of their tires. Kevin did look at prices while he was waiting and thought they were pretty good. We’ll definitely keep them in mind when we are in the market for new tires.

So often we’ve had to fight with companies for good service. This was un unexpected bonus, and we thought we should give kudos to Discount Tire.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Baseball and Wildfires

We’ve attended two Brewers games so far. Both days the temps were in the 80s, and the weather was great for sitting outside and enjoying a ballgame. Kevin says he’s now on vacation. Apparently, the cruise to Hawaii was my vacation and Spring Training is his :)

Last Sunday the Brewers played the Giants. The final score was 1 to 1. Most of the time Spring Training games do not have extra innings, they just end in a tie. Yesterday the Brewers played the Athletics and lost 6 to 0. Our team had 2 hits and 4 errors. So far, I’m not very impressed with their performance. Hopefully, they’ll get all of the bugs worked out and perform better.

The weathermen had predicted high winds for yesterday afternoon. On our way home we saw this dirty cloud in the sky. I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to the sandstorms in the desert.

As we got closer to home, we saw what looked like smoke, but it was very orange and dirty looking, practically blocking out the sun. We weren’t sure what was going on.

When we pulled into the RV park, we saw quite a few people outside looking at the sky. I turned on the news and this is what they were reporting.

There was a brush fire several miles west of us. Luckily, the strong winds weren’t blowing it towards us. Apparently, a farmer decided to do a controlled burn, and it got out of control. No kidding, winds were predicted to be over 35 MPH. What an idiot. Here’s what it looked like from our window.

According to the news, the fire was not near any structures. The winds died down overnight, and they were able to get it under control after about 300 acres were burned.

There were 3 different wildfires reported in Arizona yesterday. Last year we were close to a fire in New Mexico, too. I guess every area has it’s weather disasters to deal with, but I don’t like these fires!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Old Tucson Studios

Yesterday we spent about five hours at Old Tucson Studios. This was another attraction that was in the Tucson coupon book we purchased. Admission was $16.95 and we got one free with the coupon book. It was an okay place to visit at half price. I don’t think it was worth full price.
Old Tucson Studios has been in existence since 1939. The original buildings were built for a movie called Arizona. Since then there have been over 500 productions filmed there including over 300 movies. Some of the more famous films include 3:10 to Yuma, Young Riders, Gunfight at OK Corral and Tombstone. John Wayne filmed four of his movies at the site. Here’s the main road.

Lots of TV shows were also filmed here including Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, and The High Chaparral.

One of the more recent movies was The Three Amigos with Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. The film ended up costing three times more than budgeted because those guys kept screwing around. Imagine that :)  Here’s the mission seen in that movie as well as many others. The mountain in the background is called Golden Gate Peak, and is the signature scenery for the studio, seen in every movie filmed here.

There was an area that was being set up for a shoot next week. It was a secret, but they did tell us it was for a well known cooking show and the studio would be closed to the public for a week to film the show. There were three very large expensive looking grills in the road.

There were some informational presentations and shows throughout the day. We watched a couple of the shows including a can-can dance show, a gunfight, and a show in honor of Arizona’s 100th anniversary as a state.

The shows were not the best, pretty low budget stuff. But, we had a good time and learned a little about the business of making westerns.
They had a train and a stagecoach you could ride on. There was also a carousel and some old fashioned cars for kids.

Today is our last day in Tucson. We went for a nice long walk in the desert this morning. I will miss the nice hiking trails right behind the park. I won’t miss the noise from the Tucson Skeet and Gun Club a couple of miles away. Every day you can hear the pop, pop, pop of guns being fired. The noise really takes away from the beauty and peacefulness of hiking in the desert.
I don’t know that we’d come back here. We enjoyed our stay, but there are so many other places to see. The RV park was adequate, but somewhat old and tired, and the sites are quite tight. Our plan for next year is to spend the winter months in Texas.
Tomorrow we’ll be on the road to Buckeye, which is west of Phoenix. We’re looking forward to enjoying some Spring Training baseball games.
I’m just watching the news, and they’re showing more damage from today’s tornadoes in the Midwest. It’s the same weather front that came through here on Monday and brought very strong winds. I’ll take the wind over the tornadoes any day. My heart goes out to all those people!
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Sabino Canyon

Yesterday we spent the day at Sabino Canyon. It is located in the Coronado National Forest. There is a nice visitor center and a tram that takes you the 3.7 miles to the end of the road into the canyon. Private vehicles are not allowed on the road.

The cost of the tram is $8 per person. The driver does some narration along the way, but nothing special. We thought the price was a bit high for the short ride. We could have taken the tram back to the visitor center, but instead we chose to hike back.

I’m so glad we did, because this canyon has breathtaking scenery and views. On the way into the canyon we saw this Cardinal.

We chose to hike a trail that goes along the edge of the canyon about half way between the road and the top of the canyon walls. Our total hike was about 5.5 miles. The trail was quite close to the edge, so we had to be very careful where we were walking. Every so often, we made a point of stopping and just enjoying the scenery. Here’s a view from the trail looking down at the road. If you look closely, you can see a tram on the road. (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

There were saguaro cactus and lots of flowers growing all along the canyon. The pictures don’t do it justice.

There is a river that flows through the canyon. As we finally got back to the bottom of the trail, there was another fantastic view. Near the water are a number of cottonwood trees with bright green leaves. A nice contrast to the desert-like slopes of the canyon.

 

The moon was out above the canyon wall. Another beautiful site. We really enjoyed our day at Sabino Canyon and would recommend it as one of the must-see sites in Tucson. If you have the stamina to hike the eight plus miles round trip into the canyon, I’d recommend skipping the tram especially if you’ve visited some of the other area sites. Most of the narration was about the plant life along the canyon.

 

 

Some sad news today. Davey Jones of The Monkees has died at the age of 66. I had a crush on him and David Cassidy in my teen years. His death makes me feel old.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

My Senses Are Confused

Yesterday we went for a 2 hour, 14 mile bike ride. Tucson has some really nice bike paths that run along the Santa Cruz River. There is no water in it, but it’s still called a river. I was talking to a local person, and she told me that there hasn’t been water in it for a long time.

The sun was out and the temperature was in the high 70s. As we rode along, the warm breeze felt so good. We passed a park where I heard the sounds of a softball game and kids playing on the playground. The smell of a charcoal grill was in the air. These beautiful flowers were growing wild along the path.

As we were almost back at the truck, I spotted a Carls Jr along the side of the path. This beautiful day had me in the mood for some ice cream. They had an Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich that tasted so good. So, I know the calendar is telling me it is February, but all of my senses were telling me it was summer!

Some of you that are in colder climates may not appreciate this post. Go ahead and send me your hate mail. I deserve it :)  But, I just have to say, we’re loving our life!!

 

After the bike ride, we took a drive up to the top of Sentinel Peak, or the A Mountain as it is more commonly referred to. The paved bike path is right along the other side of the orange fence at the bottom of the picture. There are miles and miles of paved paths along both sides of the river.

 

 

 

When we got to the top of the peak, this is what the A looks like. The peak is 2900 feet high. The large stone A was constructed by University of Arizona students in 1915 as an engineering class assignment. It measures 70 feet wide and 160 feet tall. It was originally painted white, but after September 11 the colors were changed to the school colors of red, white and blue as a sign of patriotism.

There are some very nice views of the Santa Cruz Valley from up there. The Hohokam and Pima Indians were the first settlers of this area. The Indian name for the valley was Schuk-Shon which means at the foot of the black mountain. The Spaniards pronounced it Tucson and that’s how the city got it’s name. The tall buildings on the right are the downtown area.

We saw more quail on our hikes in the desert last week. I’m thinking the warmer temperatures has caused them to be more active. Most of the time they are running along the ground. But, we happened to catch this guy sitting up in a tree.

More and more little flowers are popping up in the desert. It amazes me that these flowers grow out of the sand and rock.

Last week we had an absolutely gorgeous week. Today a front came through and winds were gusting up to 50 mph. No walk today. I spent the day working on a new sewing project. The rest of the week is supposed to be less windy with temps in the high 60s to low 70s. I think we can handle that.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Goodyear Finally Responds

It took two months, but I finally got a response from Goodyear regarding our tire problem on January 1st. We had purchased the replacement tire in Midland, Texas on our way to Tucson. I took pictures of the defective tire, and planned to deal with Goodyear once we arrived here.

I called Goodyear on January 6th and was told they would not consider reimbursement for the tire if we did not have the defective tire to send to them. I explained the situation and told them I had taken several pictures, but the guy blew me off and said I was out of luck. They would not do anything based on pictures. I thought pictures would be sufficient since it was the same problem as we had last year.

I went to Goodyear’s website to see if I could find contact information for the corporate offices. They had an area on their site where you could send them an email, so I sent off an email. I never heard from them. It really irks me when companies have a spot of their website to email them and they don’t respond!

I remembered hearing Clark Howard on the radio say that if you don’t get satisfaction from the customer service of a company, you should find the names of the President or other top officials and send them a letter. I got the name of the President and VP of Marketing from a news release on Goodyear’s site, and I sent them each a letter with a picture explaining the issue.

Yesterday I finally received a phone call from Kathy at corporate headquarters. It took almost two months to get to this point. She said that after reviewing the picture, they determined that they would reimburse us, but since there was some tread wear on the tire they offered us 50 percent of what we paid for the new tire.

Since we made the mistake of not keeping the defective tire and the tires are four years old, we took the 50 percent. Kevin will continue to keep an eagle’s eye on the remaining tires.

Today there was a craft fair in the park. I had some leftover quilted sunglass cases I made last year, so I signed up for a table. There was no fee, so what the heck. It was just an in-park event, so there wasn’t much activity, but I did sell three of them.

Tucson has been a very busy place this week. There is a world golf championship going on with Tiger Woods in attendance. Major League Soccer has had some games with David Beckham playing. The Tucson Rodeo has been taking place all week. The rodeo is such a big deal that the kids get two days off school each year and there is a Rodeo Parade. It’s the largest non-motorized parade in the country. I watched it on TV, lots of horses and carriages.

The weather this week has been perfect. It’s been in the mid 70s, sunny and low humidity. An absolutely perfect week for hiking. Tomorrow is supposed to hit 80.

Next week is our last week in Tucson. We have planned a couple of excursions, so I’ll have more interesting posts next week.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!