Karchner Kategories

After looking at all the pictures I took while we were camping at Karchner Caverns State Park, I realized there were several categories of groups:

First is the "Retirees", part of the RV group that were also down at Catalina State Park in January.  No longer middle-aged, we seem to have drifted into the "older generation" category without much fanfare.  I sometimes look back and wonder, "How in the world did I get this old?!"

  

The Day Trippers

 Doris, Traci and 3 of Doris' granddaughters who drove down just for the day.

 

The "Pushy" Group....especially when it come to making one of the people from group 1 catch up to the rest of us.

The Hikers                                                                                                                                (including a person whom I shall not name, but HAD to apply Chapstick when I was taking the picture.

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The Rock Stars

One of the Tree Climbers.

The Thinkers

 (i.e."Do you think it will work out if I do this with my new smart phone??")

The Lunch Group

The Encouragers

These people can be spotted when they do a thumbs up signal.

The Advisor

The Karchner Tram Driver 

(Yes, that is Jerry who volunteers at Karchner)

                                                                                   The Cavern Tourists

The Grill Master/Drink Toaster

 

And finally, the Birthday Guy!

Tombstone Trip

What is there to see in Tombstone?  Not much, unless you have a fat wallet and are willing to part with a substantial part of your money.  The main street is filled with characters in western garb and period costumes, all hawking their wares.  Not a single blank is fired in your proximity unless you have paid admission to one of their staged and over-priced gunfights that take place in a walled in arena.   Still, we went there because our granddaughter, Kyla, wanted to go there.  If you're a grandparent, you understand why we drove there.  At least it was a short distance from the campground.

First on the agenda: a chance to have a picture taken as a "real" cowboy and cowgirl".  The outfits were a "one size fits all" and no changing room was needed.  Simple and quick.

Kyla stopped under the guy who was just "hanging around".  When it is windy, I hear he is a real swinger.......

The weather was warm and sunny as Gary, Sherry and Kyla walked up and down the main street.

Best buy of the day was at the ice cream shop.  They were selling huge cones for only $2.00.  We all bought a cone.  As you can see, Kyla had chocolate.  She gets more bang for her buck because she wears her ice cream, as well as eats it.  It took numerous napkins to get her face completely cleaned up.

 Of course, no trip to Tombstone is complete without a stop at Boot Hill.  Admission is still free there.  Amazing in this day and age.

Kyla checked out many different graves, but was especially interested in the women that were buried there.  It's an interesting place, and it even has a section for the Chinese immigrants that settled in the area.

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.

Goodtimes with Gary

My dear brother-in-law, Gary Sherwood, was called home on Saturday, January 26th, one day before his 70th birthday.  He will be sorely missed by Doris, his sons, grandchildren, extended family members and what you could call as "oodles" of friends.  Don and I were glad that we got to camp at Catalina State Park again last week with Doris, Gary and their all time favorite dog, Molly.

As you can see from some of the pictures below, Gary loved his beer.  He even proved that beer and chocolate cake DO go together!  He sometimes surprised us with his antics, other times amazed us with his history knowledge and all things that related to Arizona.  For years, Gary and Doris led tours in Tucson, and if you were one of the lucky ones, you got to go on their van.  He would amuse the tourists with Tucson trivia and anecdotes of people he knew and worked with.

 Jerry and Gary toast each other at Buckskin State Park in January, 2011.  I can't remember if Gary had any of the cake, but I do know for certain that he finished his beer!

Doris was the one who captured his heart, and she knew also how to keep a rein on him!  Here she demonstrates her famous technique of "What were you thinking of, Gary?"

 Obviously, he was a quick learner and it was all smiles after the demonstration.

 One of those demos was all that it took.  His "time out" included sitting outside their coach, sipping on a Margarita; one of the few times it was something other than a Bud.

Back in 2010, six of us traveled back to Illinois to meet up with other Bollmeier cousins.  Here we are with June, Dale and Mary at the restaurant in New Baden, Illinois.

 Can you see that all the rest of us are tasting wine.  Guess who is the only one with a beer mug?  Ten guesses and the first nine don't count!  I don't know what Gary said, but it sure put a surprised look on Doris' face.

For those of us who knew him well, Gary and Doris were the perfect match for each other.  She did the work and he supervised.  When they camped, it was Doris who set up and took down most of the stuff. She did the dumping of the RV tanks, much to the chagrin of Don and Jerry, who always wondered why they weren't as lucky as Gary when it came to that task.

Looks like Gary was in his supervisor stance as Doris did the hula hoops at New Belgium Brewery.

 Hmm....I wonder what Gary MacFarlane was telling Gary S?  Doris looked a bit concerned...

 Looks like it was all fine in the end.  After all, this was taken at a brewery in Ft. Collins.  That had to be one of Gary's favorite places to visit.  After all, the beer samples were free!

I just wonder if St. Peter was waiting for you at the pearly gates with a bucket of Bud in his hand.  Maybe  that brand is Bud Heavenly Light, especially made just for you.  Miss you and may you rest peacefully in the room that the Lord prepared just for you.

Lessons Learned

This post is dedicated today to Jerry White, my brother-in-law who turned "59" today for the umpteenth time!  He is quiet, soft spoken and has a slight southern drawl, but don't let that mislead you.  He can also be very sneaky at times!

If he ever asks you if he can borrow your camera, think TWICE about saying yes.  Let's just say he is very creative, focusing on items I would never think of in a million years.  I discover these little gems after I've downloaded the pictures off my camera.   It had me laughing when I saw some of the last bunch that he took while we were at Catalina State Park.  Don and I went for a bike ride and he said he wanted to take a picture of both of us on our bikes.  Somehow, that picture never showed up.  Hmm......wonder how that happened?

Here are a few that did:

 Trash.  I think he was fascinated by the colored clamps that held the line on the trash container.

                                                The back of Don's head, up nice and close.

Nice picture of the campsite, if you're a monkey hanging upside down from a tree limb!

I think this could be labeled as "pop art".  So much better than the bird poop picture that he took while we were traveling in Oregon a couple of years ago.   Maybe I've learned my lesson this time and will carefully guard the camera whenever he comes near.  On the other hand, I would miss out on some of his amazing pictures that give me a chuckle when I look at them!  At least I don't have to pay to have these developed.  Thank goodness for digital cameras!  And happy birthday to you, Jer.