Snowbird Christmas Decorations

The Snowbirds in Arizona during the holidays decorate their RV's and mobile homes just like back home.

A fifth wheel RV . . .

A mobile home with light icicles across the front . . .

And our next door neighbor here in the park . . 

A Merry Christmas was had by all . . . even the Snowbirds in Arizona!





The Beggar

Our adopted "junk yard dog, Millie, has certainly adjusted to life in "The Bus". She is very well behaved and minds quite well . . . except she occasionally "goes deaf" when we are out somewhere and she is not on her leash. It seems that she just can't hear me when I holler "come". However, she suddenly regains her hearing when I come after her!

She has taken up a post near the dining table when we're eating . . . and,of course, Carole encourages her eventhough she is not allower to be "The Beggar" and be fed anything at the dining table. But, here she is at her post in the dining room near the table.

Once in a while, Carole even slips "The Beggar" a small morsel. I'm having more trouble training Carole than Millie.

Christmas Dinner

We have always been with family on Christmas and enjoyed the traditional big Christmas dinner, usually ham, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and all of the trimmings including a variety of desserts. However, since Carole and I are in Tucson, Arizona, and our family is spread around the country in Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Washington, California, and Texas, there were just the two of us in Tucson for "Christmas Dinner" this year.

We certainly didn't want to be without a memorable Christmas Dinner, but it only made sense to keep it small. So we prepared a rolled pork loin roast, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and steamed broccoli. Of course, we served dinner with a glass of white wine.

Notice the bright desert sunshine coming in the dining room window of "The Bus".

We may have "kept it small", but we did enjoy a very nice Christmas Dinner . . . although it would have been so much nicer to have had our family share it with us.

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas in the Desert

Being a Midwesterner, I have always expected a white Christmas. But, of course, here we are in Tucson, Arizona, where it rarely snows and this is our first "Christmas in the Desert".

We woke up Christmas morning, looked out the window, and all we saw was bright sunshine and cactus.

Oh yes, if you look closely, you can see a little snow on the top of that mountain in the distance.

However, the temperature reached 65 degrees today, Christmas Day, and is to be near 70 degrees tomorrow. So I guess I can tollerate going without a white Christmas, as that's what "Christmas in the Desert" is all about.

Golf anyone?

How Can That Be?

The House of Representatives passed a bill and sent it to the Senate extending the Payroll Tax Cut for one year, with House members staying in town to finish "the peoples business". The Senate chose to modify the bill extending the Payroll Tax Cut for only two months, then promptly adjourned for the year and all Senators left town.

Although the Senate had refused to accept the House version of the bill, when the House refused to accept the Senate version and called for a conference, the President and the media blamed the in-town Republicans in the House for playing politics and causing political gridlock, while the absentee Senate remained blameless.

How can that be?

Obama had asked for a one year extension of the Payroll Tax Cut. Congress passed a two month extension of the Payroll Tax Cut.

Yet the media tells us that in this gridlock fiasco, Obama came out the big winner.

How can that be?

Hot Tomato

I prepared a nice dinner last night; scallops sauteed in butter with garlic and lemon, spaghetti with Alfredo sauce, steamed broccoli florets, and a fresh spinach & lettuce salad with grape tomatoes. After a couple of before-dinner cocktails, Carole was getting hungry and sat down at the table while I finished preparation.

The salads were already on the table and Carole began munching on her's. Suddenly she screamed, "These tomatoes are too spicy!", then spit it out and coughed and gagged for several minutes. When I realized what she had done, I couldn't contain myself.

Carole doesn't care for hot foods, so in addition to the grape tomatoes I included some red hot peppers in my salad, but not her's. She had eaten all of her salad, then snitched what she thought were more grape tomatoes from my salad . . . but unknowingly had picked up a red hot pepper.

Hopefully, that "Hot Tomato" will cure her from snitching my salad.

An Early Christmas

For some reason I'm not aware of, the RV Park here in Tucson decided to hold their Christmas Dinner well before Christmas, on Thursday, December 15th. It was a potluck dinner with ham and scalloped potatoes prepared by the Park and then all of the residents who attended brought a side dish, salad, or dessert. The dinner was held in the clubhouse with about 60 residents in attendance.

Carole prepared a fresh spinach salad with mandarin oranges, blueberries, and walnuts all drenched in cranberry vinaigrette salad dressing. I prepared a fluffy cherry cheesecake. As is usually the case at such events, there was way too much food, but it was all very good.

Following dinner, a drawing was conducted . . . with a twist . . .  for Christmas presents which had been wrapped and brought by each of the residents. When a resident's number was drawn, they could pick a wrapped gift from under the tree, or they could claim a gift from another resident which had been opened previously . . .  causing the resident who had his gift taken by someone else to have to pick another gift . . . or he could in turn claim a gift opened by someone else. This got very interesting, and humorous, a number of times.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening . . . and it gave Carole and I an opportunity to meet many of our new neighbors.

Arrival in Tuscon

After several days being confined to "The Bus" in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the sun came out, the ice and snow melted off the Interstate, and we were able to resume our trek to Tucson.

We checked in at the Noblesse Oblige Home Estates and were assigned lot #26, where we set up for the Winter.

This is our site with full concrete patio . . . our home base for the next several weeks.

Millie had claimed the storage cabinet behind the couch as her lookout post.

She has adapted to RV life quite well and is a very well behaved pet and a good companion, especially for Carole.

On the Road Again

 After a very long hiatus, we fired up "The Bus" to head South for warmer weather this winter. We have spent the last several years in South Texas along the Rio Grande and felt we would like to explore a different area. So we selected Tucson, Arizona, and the Southwest.

The weather was pleasant when we left Kansas and we enjoyed nice weather for the first couple of days. But then in the Midland, Texas, area, we ran into a few snow flurries and decided to stop for the night. However, the weather was clear the next day, so we continued our journey. When we approached El Paso, Texas, along the Mexican border, snow flurries appeared again . . .

. . .  and by the time we reached Las Cruces, New Mexico, the snow was beginning to stick to the roadway. We stopped for the night at an RV Park in Las Cruces, but the temperature was in the low 20's so we could not connect to water, only power and cable.

During the night, we had more snow and we learned Interstate 10 had been closed all across the state of New Mexico. Although the temperature remained in the 20's the next day, the sun came out and provided us with some beautiful scenery.

But since the Interstate was closed, we enjoyed a relaxing day reading and sipping Bloody Marys.

Tomorrow the Interstate should be clear and we can get back "On the Road Again".