Veterans Day

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.

Jim Left Me–But Only For a Week

Apache Junction, AZ  High 87  Low 53

Jim left this morning and is in Grants, NM tonight. He is going hunting with his oldest son, Steve.

It has been probably 20 years since they have been hunting together and I’m not sure which one is more excited. Jim got a mule deer tag and Steve has a turkey and some other tags. I’m really hoping they fill their tags because that will put meat on Steve and Jen’s table for the winter. (No – not on ours because I do not care for venison.)

This is going to be hard for me because you might remember that Jim’s best friend, Bill, was out hunting with his son last year and died in his son’s arms of a heart attack. I have lectured both Jim and Steve over and over again about the fact that Jim has gotten a lot older and has had several health issues. Hard for Jim to accept and I think Steve still thinks of his Dad as being someone who can conquer mountains.

Everyone here is taking very good care of me. Toni and Doug fed me a fantastic roast chicken dinner with potatoes, carrots, stuffing, green beans, gravy and apple cobbler. It was fantastic.

I know that if I need anything, all I have to do is ask and my neighbors will take care of it for me. They’ll even taken me to the store if I should happen to run out of food (which truly is not going to happen).

The girls don’t understand why Dad hasn’t come home. Every pickup that goes by has them running to the door.

Good Friends

Apache Junction, AZ  High 84  Low 51

What would life be like without good friends? Very empty. So I am extremely grateful for the wonderful people who are a part of my life.

Two of those dear friends showed up in our park yesterday morning. We met Toni and Doug in Quartzsite in January 2010 and have been able to spend time with them every year since. They are from British Columbia so they are restricted to six months in the USA.

We let them set up (sort of) and then we picked them up and headed up to Superior, AZ. We were going to meet up with Paul and have those fabulous hamburgers at Porter’s.

This was Doug’s hamburger.

Sandie, Jim, Paul, Doug and Toni

Good food, good friends, good times!!

Busy Day-

Apache Junction, AZ  High 83  Low 51

Monday night we played cribbage. My score was in the middle of the pack and Jim won the booby prize. He got his 50 cents back.

Tuesday morning Nick Russell stopped by to say hi. He and his bride are staying in our park for a couple of weeks while they visit with Terry’s family. He had posted in his blog about going to the Escapees Chapter luncheon on Tuesday so both Jan and I reminded him that the luncheon is actually on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning Jan and Bill had to drop their rig off for some work and then they came over so Jim could help install their new bed saver.

We sure love our bed saver. We didn’t buy ours until after dropping the fifth wheel on the truck but we learned our lesson.

I really liked the warning that came with their bed saver. Watch those body parts!!!

 

Why is it you don’t have anything going on for days on end and then everything happens all on one day?

After installing the bed saver, we went to the Escapees Chapter 45 luncheon here in AJ. Jan and Bill saved us a seat because we had to walk the girls first. They also bought our lunch to pay for Jim’s labor and they definitely overpaid.The place was packed and it was good to see lots of folks we haven’t seen since last spring.

After lunch we went to see Aunt Happy. She’s doing good but she is ready to leave this earth whenever the Lord wants to take her home. I think the hard part is having outlived all her friends and her hubby. She’s lonely and I know we don’t spend as much time with her as she would like but we do the best we can.

After visiting with Aunt Happy it was time for me to see the dermatologist. I had this “thing” on my forehead and I told her I felt like a unicorn. I told her if she hurt me I would cry and she said go ahead It wouldn’t bother her. She removed the horn and sent it off for a biopsy. It’s probably that non-really serious skin cancer and they’ll want to make a bigger hole in my forehead.

We grabbed dinner at Long John Silver’s – haven’t been there in forever. We then went to the clubhouse to see the move “Now You See Me”. Strange but good.

And that’s our day.

Back in AJ

Apache Junction, AZ  High 88 Low 53

Before we left Amado we got to take a tour of Dave and Sherry’s new Columbus fifth wheel. What an absolutely gorgeous rig. I love the set up with the TV across from the recliners and a fireplace.

Friday night we had dinner with our good friend, Paul, at Los Gringos Locos. He’s at an RV park out by Fort McDowell Casino and then on Monday he’s going to move down to Florence for a couple of weeks. We’ll be seeing him again before too long.

Saturday morning 16 of us from our park went to see the move Last Vegas. I guess the critics weren’t real impressed with the movie but we figured they were probably 30 somethings who didn’t understand most of the jokes. Anyhow, we really enjoyed it. Lots of great laughs.

Saturday night Jim went to the local races with a bunch of the guys from the park. I stayed home and watched a couple of older movies – Barefoot in the Park (Robert Redford and Jane Fonda) and The Deskset (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn).

Sunday – our Redskins won in OT. Chevy’s took first and second at NASCAR. Jim was a happy man.

AJ sunset.

Rally Over and a Bucket List Item

Amado, AZ  High 80  Low 51

Received some interesting comments yesterday on mining and reclamation. You may want to go back and check those out.

Wednesday night we had a chili dinner with everybody bringing a side dish. It was Norm’s 70th birthday so we had birthday cake for dessert. Thursday morning breakfast was pancakes and sausage with orange juice.

We had a presentation given by SkyMed and then Jim helped Jan and Bill with a couple of other things. Spent a quiet afternoon and went over for the final Happy Hour. They gave away a bunch of prizes and raised $720 for CARE.

Dinner was either steak or chicken and we had ordered steak. Should have known better but the girls are really happy with their special treats. Had a wonderful time visiting with everyone.

Friday morning was fruit and pastries before we said good-bye and were on the road by 9:00. Got back to AJ and set up by 1:00.

And now for my bucket list item. I finally saw a crested saguaro cactus. It is at the entrance to the mine.

I got the following info from the Saguaro National Park website.  Even when saguaro cacti grow in their normal form, they rarely grow symmetrically. Saguaros sometimes grow in odd or misshapen forms. The growing tip occasionally produces a fan-like form which is referred to as crested or cristate. These crested saguaros are somewhat rare and biologists disagree as to why some saguaros grow in this unusual form. Some speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of a lightning strike or freeze damage. At this point we simply do not know what causes this rare, crested form.

 

We also did a quick Roadside America drive-by. The Longhorn Grill is closed but it definitely has an interesting doorway.

Sixteen Tons

Amado, AZ  High 80  Low 52

Wednesday morning we had bacon, scrambled eggs, and potatoes for breakfast with orange juice/coffee/water. Great start to the day.

After breakfast Jim and I had to go up to the hardware store and Post Office. When we got back to the campground, Jim and Jan installed Jan and Bill’s water softener permanently in one of their bays.  Jan's blog has some great pictures of this whole procedure.

At 11:30 six of us headed out to the Mission Mine Tour. The Mission Mine was started in 1959 and they have recovered 6,510,809,506 lbs of copper ore.

They are mining copper ore and we learned that Arizona provides 65% of the copper ore in the United States.

Me, Jim, Karen, John and Jan. Bill was taking this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t too sure a mine tour would be all that exciting but it all depends on your tour guide. Ed was entertaining and enthusiastic as well as knowledgeable about the mine and made this tour one you would recommend to others.

Rusty stuff for Diana

Ed rattled off facts and data much faster than I could keep up with. The one item that really stuck in my brain was the fact that their electric bill is 1.6 million dollars a month. A month!!!

To give you some perspective – I zoomed way in on this shovel. Do you see that white thing off to the left – that’s a pickup truck.

The trucks and machines are huge.

The pit.

Look at the size of this tire and this is off one of the smaller trucks. They were using 240 ton trucks but are now using 320 ton trucks. These tires are made by hand in the good old USA.

The next two pictures are a couple of rock crushers which are run totally by computers.

Their diesel fuel bill for the year is $19,362,000. Sure glad that’s not ours.

They use 4.2 Billion gallons of water a year which is pumped from 10 wells on their property. However, they are able to recycle 80% of that water and reuse it. 

I’m really glad we decided to take this tour and I love learning stuff, BUT – I have to tell you that my heart was saddened by the blight this hole leaves on our land. They figure there’s about 17 years left before the copper ore is gone and then they will just walk away and leave it. There will be no effort made to reclaim the land. That makes me very sad.