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Back to New Mexico

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  Flowers at Santa Rosa RV Park. Here we are, driving west on interstate 40, as we have done many times before. In. years past, we favored taking state highway 54, as it angled over to Las Cruces, and thus was a shorter route.  The first time we did that was when we "discovered" White Sands National Monument and couldn't resist stopping in to see it ourselves. We stopped there one other time along our way, marveling at the enormity of the lake that had once been th ere. Now, we avoid that route due to the roughness of the road. Instead, we take I-40 towards Albuquerque, then south on I-25 to Hatch. We then depart the Interstate for a shortcut to Deming on I-10, which then leads directly to Tucson. We stayed at Santa Rosa Campground and RV Park last night, and we give it a 5-star rating. We enjoyed beef brisket and a couple of side dishes, delivered to our site, then a nice walk around the park for exercise. We were lucky enough to have space #9, which has a screen of bamb...

2019 Comes to an End

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 We enjoyed Christmas dinner with friends and neighbors at Desert Trails RV Park last week; now the year winds to a close. We have visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum twice so far, and have come away with nice photos, and nice memories. King snake and its handler One of the things we enjoy at the desert museum is the Raptor free Flight show. They usually have it twice each day, and the birds only participate if they want to. In order not to over-tax them, the birds are only asked to participate once in a day. Crested Caracara Horned owl Ferruginous hawk  The hummingbird aviary has males and females of several species of hummingbirds. Females may be observed building nests at the right time of year. Costa's Hummingbird Male Broad-billed Hummingbird  This male cactus wren was seen building a nest - which is not their usual season for this activity. Usually they do that in the spring. We were told that the male builds 3 nests and sh...

Two Weeks - Really?

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It is hard to believe we have only been in Tucson for two weeks, considering all that we have done. Last weekend I (Mari) attended a workshop to learn about micro-mosaic jewelry. Here is a photo of the rectangular pendant that I made: Precision Mosaic Jewelry with Margo Anton I took the workshop in Tucson at DiMosaico, which is a wonderful little shop that sells all things mosaic.  On our second day here, Ron and I signed up for the Desert Trails Clay Club. So, the following day, we got an introduction to hand-building with clay from Gwen, the organizer of the group. Ron started a little house and I started a turtle. I was able to complete my turtle during that week. It is on its way to the kiln now. Before I finished the turtle, I began working on an owl, which, like the turtle, is made using the pinch pot method. It is slightly more advanced, though, because you put two pinch pots together to form an "egg", then you proceed with adding eyes and wings, etc.  ...

A New Start, A New Page

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Somehow last week I was able to add a new post to our old blog, Dora's Way. I am not sure how it happened, or why it is that now I cannot add another post. I simply could not find a way to add a new post to the old blog site. So, I created a new site, and here goes another try at re-starting our travelogue. Week 1 saw us leaving St. Louis onNovember 24 and traveling as far as Rusty's RV Park near Rodeo, New Mexico. One week later, on Sunday, December 1, we arrived at our winter destination: Desert Trails RV Park outside of Tucson, Arizona. Kansas Tree Conestoga wagon seen at the Chiricahua Desert Museum near Rodeo, New Mexico It turns out that the rain, wind and cool weather we experienced in Kansas and New Mexico, were very similar to weather conditions here in Tucson. Some people had already arrived at the park in late October through November. There were a record number of people at the park's Thanksgiving meal, so much so that they overflowed into a second b...