Romping around at Roper

Roper Lake was our last short RV trip of the year before we head out for much cooler country.  Why Roper you ask?  Well, we had never been to this state park before even though we have lived in Arizona for over half a century (yikes!).  I was going to say 50 years, but half a century sounded so much more impressive.

Our friend, Norm, decided to go along with us.  Boy, he is a glutton for punishment!  He has to put up with not only Don, but me too!  We had to bribe him with promises of good food and cold beer.  It worked!  We headed out on towards Safford on Tuesday for our third camping trip since January.

This is the front entrance to Roper Lake State Park.

Each site at our campground came with a little shelter and picnic table.  It worked out well and we ended up eating all of our meals outside under the shaded ramada.

This is what happens when you forget your trail mix overnight.  The birds/animals liked everything except the Pepita seeds.  They were even clever enough to pry the top off the container.  At least we got one snack session before the critters got the rest!

The first day at the campground there was a huge group of yellow headed blackbirds.  The following days we saw neither hide nor hair (or should I say feathers?) of them.  As I went through reviewing the pictures, I envisioned what this male and female bird were saying to each other.  I've decided to call them Fred and Ethel.  : )

Fred: "So, Ethel have you finally decided on where we are going to fly this summer?"

Ethel:  "Uh, no for the 50th time.  Would you quit bugging me about it.  I'll make it up by the time we have to leave."

Fred: "Don't get mad about it.  Quit being so "flighty" at times.  Come back here!"

Fred: "Guess I'll just have to figure this out. Those yellow headed females are hard to deal with!"

Don checked out the warm water in the hot tub at the park.  This is fed by natural springs in the area.  It is drained every night at 10 PM and refills each morning at 6 AM.  We did end up riding our bikes one evening over to the area and had a nice, relaxing soak.  It was windy that night, so I was glad the ride back to the trailer was a short one.

Got a nice shot of this Cardinal one morning.  My weird mind came up with a Southwestern Christmas tune : "On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: two morning doves and a Cardinal in a Mesquite tree! If I was ambitious enough, I probably could come up with more verses and pictures to go along with them.  However, right now when it is 100 degrees outside, it's tough to do.

On Friday, we took a drive up the side of Mt. Graham.  I was glad that Norm was driving and not me.  The road was much narrower than I remembered and the drop off was more steep.  That happens as you get older.  Your perception changes, or maybe the road really did wear off around the edges during the last 40 years and the mountain rose a few hundred feet.......  On the way back down we stopped for lunch in the Noon Campground even though it was only 11 AM.

Here is a view of Roper Lake at dusk.

All good things must come to an end.  Norm and Don are lined up at the dump on Saturday morning before we head back to Phoenix.

Time for male bonding at the dump area.  Don and Norm look like they have everything under control so why should I offer to help?  After all, someone has to take pictures to document our stay and it might as well be me!

Good grief!   Are people really so stupid that the park people have to put up signs like this?

The four days at Roper had come to an end.  The bad part was that we were heading back to Phoenix which was experiencing record high heat.  I was not looking forward to emptying out that trailer when the temperature was 103 degrees!

Karchner Kapers

 It was spring vacation for our Arizona granddaughters and we decided to head again to Karchner State Park for fun times with them, and also with Sandy and Jerry (Don's sister and brother-in-law) who volunteer there.  It was a lovely, sunny day as we set up camp.  Little did we realize how different the weather would be by Sunday, when we were supposed to leave and head home.

We had planned several things for the girls to do while we relaxed (or tried to).  Both of their bikes were carried along with us so they could keep themselves busy while we read.  We were also hoping that in the process they would tire themselves out.  I don't know if they got tired from all the riding, but it sure did kick their appetite up a notch!    

Friday morning we drove down to Bisbee to take Hailey and Kyla on the Queen Mine Tour.   Years ago (many, many years ago) we had done the same thing with our 3 children.  The only thing I remembered was that it was cold in the mine, and we all had on yellow slickers.  I don't think much has changed.  The mine temperature is a constant 47 degrees all year long, and we still got outfitted in heavy yellow coats.

Hailey and Kyla posed by and old mining engine outside the mine.

 This is how they looked after being fitted with a hard hat, slicker, battery pack around the waist and a light.

 I got this picture as we headed into places that were dark and cold.  At least it wasn't scary.  If you were claustrophobic, this is NOT the place for you!

Also on our agenda was some short hikes located in the park campground.  There are plenty of trails to choose from.  Sandy took along her favorite Scooby Doo walking stick.  I know Hailey passed me up in height a couple of months ago, and it looks like she has done the same thing to her great aunt.  Good grief, I sure wasn't that tall when I was twelve!

Kyla, Jerry, Shane (Jerry & Sandy's granddaughter) and Sandy stopped along the road so I could take a picture of the front of them.  Otherwise, I am stopping to take photos and wind up taking photos of "the north end of south bound ducks", so to speak.  

Looks like Don is asking Jerry if we were all on the right hiking trail..... 

One of the attractions at the park this weekend was a star gazing event.  A couple of amateur astronomers had brought their telescopes down for the weekend.  We had a chance to go on Friday night and also on Saturday afternoon.  All three girls (Hailey, Kyla and Shane) were really interested in seeing the stars through the telescopes and finding out more about our wonderful universe.

 Here Shane and Kyla view the sun and another planet while Hailey waits her turn.

As I said before, we planned on leaving Sunday morning because Hailey and Kyla had school on Monday.  Saturday afternoon it turned cold, and the wind kicked up several notches.  The gusty winds rocked Don to sleep that night, but it sure interfered with mine.  We decided to stay one more night because of the high wind advisory.  That meant we had to make a run to Casa Grande with only the truck to meet up with their Mom.   The turn around trip took up most of the day.  This was one of those times when we wished diesel fuel wasn't $4.39 a gallon!  I had a bright idea of putting a sail up on the roof and using the wind to push us up there, but Don wasn't too keen about holding on to the roof and sail while I drove.  We'll never know if it would have worked......  : (

What did the wind blow in?  Snow!  This was a first for us.  We have driven in snow, but have never done any camping in it until now.  Guess there is a first time for everything, even if one is a Senior citizen!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity of capturing pictures of snow in the desert.  Off I trotted, down the  the  road to get a photo of the Whetstone Mountains behind the campground.  I didn't stay out long, my fingers got way too cold to hold the camera!

There was a nice, fat roadrunner who had taken refuge under a mesquite tree behind our trailer.  I was glad I had the long range lens on the camera so I could get a close up of him.

The drive home on Monday was interesting, to say the least.  We drove home through snow, sleet, hail, rain and wind before we hit sunny patches and bright blue skies.  Below, you can see the snow swirling around the pavement.  Is this really Arizona in spring time?  Or were we transported somewhere to the Midwest?  The weather sure was completely different from when we came down on Thursday!

Back at Buckskin

It's January, and time again for our 3rd annual trip to Buckskin State Park, located on the Colorado River, just north of Parker, Arizona.  This time, one of our friends from church joined our group.  He just got into RVing last year after Don and I kept talking about how much fun we've had on our excursions.  

From left to right are the rigs for Jerry and Sandy, us, Gary and Doris, and Norm's trailer is at the far right of the picture. 

Norm took a moment to relax with his little dog, Jazzy.  She was perfectly happy snuggled in his arms.

And she was right by his side when he brought out the appetizers he made!  If her tongue had been a bit longer, I think I would have passed on the hors d' oeurves!

We all felt lucky as we headed out for a hike on Friday the 13th.  At our age, the best we can hope for is to make it all the way there and back!  Norm looks a bit worried.....maybe he's wondering why the rest of us are smiling.....

Doris is still smiling as she heads up the first hill, behind Jerry.  As usual, I am lagging behind, taking pictures along the way.

Does this pose remind you of the song, "Lean on Me"?  We were all thankful for the strategically placed benches along the 2 mile "walk".  I have to say walk, rather than hike.  Sandy will not go on hikes, so we have to be really careful on how we talk about our short jaunts.  Looks like she might be having second thoughts about our desert hike...err...walk.

There are a lot more hills to climb at this point.

The last part of the loop has a much easier path, thank goodness!

 Afterwards, Jerry is hard at work, making one of his famous peach cobblers in his Dutch oven.

 "Camping" to us means you don't have to cook all your meals over an open fire.  For this meal, we used   charcoal for the Dutch oven, a propane grill for the brats and an electric skillet to saute the mushrooms and onions.  We are truly equal opportunity users!

The purple sky and pink clouds are reflected in the calm water of the Colorado River.

Time to go sledding!

The Lord blessed us abundantly with snow before Christmas! Just a short trudge through the drifts of snow there was a perfect sledding hill almost directly behind Ken and Lisa's house. It was definitely more fun going down than climbing back up the steep incline, as you can see from the picture below. It did become easier as we made "steps" or should I say indentations into the hillside as we hiked/fumbled/trudged our way back to the top.

The pictures are more or less self-explanatory, revealing that some of us were directionally challenged, while others went headfirst into a bank of snow. In many of the pictures you'll see Jake, Bret and Kim's dog. He was constantly racing up and down the hill looking to retrieve his green tennis ball and almost got run over by sledders numerous times. It's a good thing he is quick! We had races, wipe-outs, rollovers and Nate even managed to find a cactus plant to run into at the end of one of his runs.

Time to take our sleds and head back to Ken and Lisa's house, we can come back again tomorrow!