Catalina Camping

Does it seem odd to you that ten normal people in their sound minds would opt to camp in Tucson during the month of January?  When the temps were expected to be in the low teens in the morning?  Well, I have to admit it that we were asking ourselves the same question on Monday and Tuesday when it was very cold and windy.  But, we had made our reservations months ago, and all of us were too stubborn or too cheap (maybe both) to back out. 

Here is part of our caravan pulling into the campground on Monday, Jan. 14th: Jerry & Sandy, Norm and Landi, followed by Doris and Gary in their coach.  I had to be quick to get this picture since Don had just pulled into our site and I was jumping out of the truck so I could capture the moment (without getting run over).

On Monday and Tuesday, it was way too cold to hike, bike or even sit outside by the RVs.  We hooked up to electricity and our little heater ran constantly until Wednesday afternoon.  We even managed to squeeze all ten of us into our 5th wheel trailer on Monday night for spaghetti dinner and then in Jerry and Sandy's trailer on Tuesday for chili.  We were quite cozy those two afternoons, but it worked.  None of us missed a bite, even if we didn't have a table to sit at.

By Weds. morning, a bunch of us were on our bikes, ready for more than exercising just our arm muscles so we could put food into our mouths.

 Above is a picture of Norm and Landi on their personal "Tour de Tucson".  Doris caught up with the rest of us later down the road.  The weather wasn't too bad as long as we bundled up and had gloves on.

What else did we do?  Jerry had built a corn hole game board, so there were games going on the next few days.  Jerry just stood back and let me attempt to get one of those bags into the hole.  I know why now he was so relaxed....he is an excellent player and he had no worries that I would beat him!

 Sandy stood aside while Doris showed off her form.  Never mind that she was going over the imaginary foul line.  At least there is no buzzer or light that goes off if we went beyond the line!

It's Gary vs Gary here.  Gary MacFarlane looks like he is trying to tell his partner where he wants the bag to go.  I can't remember whether Don or Jerry was his partner or who won.  At least all of us were getting some form of exercise.

I think the dinner bell just rang.....you can see Gary, Don, Jerry and Gary sauntering over from their game to greet our visitors.

Thursday:  Buck, Janice, Ray and Elaine arrive for our turkey dinner.

Elaine checks out some of the food and Jerry waits behind her.  Camping doesn't always mean hamburgers or hot dogs on the grill.  We had appetizers, turkey, gravy, dressing, 2 kinds of potatoes, green bean casserole, 2 types of cranberries, rolls and two desserts!  It looked like a restaurant buffet alongside Doris and Gary's coach. 

Ray took this picture of us after our meal.  It was lovely that afternoon: warm, sunny and no wind at all.

Janice and Doris stopped for a moment to smile for me.

Elaine had baked two cakes to help Ray, Gary and Jerry celebrate their birthdays.  Looks like Jerry was trying to figure out what type of cake he was holding.

                                                                                            

On Friday, a long time friend, Nellie Galloway, came out to visit us.  Nellie had gone to grade school at Redeemer with Doris and Sandy.  Gary's family lived next door to her family when they were young. I didn't know Nellie until high school but she ended up playing the organ for our wedding!  All six of us graduated from Flowing Wells high school.  From the left: Sandy (1966), Sherry (1965), Doris (1963), me (also 1963), Nellie (1962) and Gary (1961).  Nellie recently retired and it was wonderful seeing her again after all these years.  As it turned out, this was the last time we got to see Gary before the Lord called him home.  We're grateful for all the good times we got to spend with him.