We have a lot to talk about since December 2nd.
We visited our neighbors from Sydney Drive, Hal & Geni . Kathy met with Joanie Cavanaugh and Rachelle McCabe (co-workers from Sequoia Hospital) and we played golf twice with Glenna and Frank Vaskelis (Kathy's ex-boss from Sequoia.) Kathy also worked at Sequoia on the 18th at the employee's holiday meal - she loved visiting with all her friends from there. Glenna is a great leader at Sequoia, and a dear friend - we always enjoy getting together with her and Frank.
We spent a day in Golden Gate Park with Julie and daughters India and Meilani and India's friend Fizzie. We went to the ballet with them in San Francisco and celebrated Christmas.
We also did the tram ride up Sabino Canyon near Tucson and the tram had to cross one lane bridges which were under water from the creek following the rains. It's a very pretty area. We also visited the Pima Air & Space Museum and they have the 2nd largest collection of aircraft in the country. Here is a picture of a B36.
March 2010
The atmosphere at Quail Ridge is wonderful ! We attended a western dance at the community on the 6th of March and there were about 120 people there, all of them having a good time. Live Western music and catering by Bubb's Grubb! Yum!
On March 17th (with a little Luck 'O The Irish), we made the final payment on the house and once again became homeowners! The movers with all of our STUFF arrived from California on the 22nd. We had very little idea of what we had in storage. The movers were here at 7:00AM with 2 trucks. They were ready to leave at 11:00AM. Here is what it looked like when they left.
Here's what it looks like now.
On the 24th I fell down the back steps carrying a 60 pound desk top and fractured the fibula in my left leg. Being the macho guy I am it took me a week to decide to go to the doctor. In the meantime we went to a Diamondback Spring training game, tried to unpack boxes, etc. I found out Kathy doesn't take kindly to my directions on where to move what box.
Our home is a triple-wide and is larger than our house in Sunnyvale. 
When we moved in we found that a 50 inch TV complete with a Pioneer Home Theatre receiver had been part of the sale. I spent 2 days figuring out how to wire in all of the VHS, CD, DVD, Cassette devices along with the DirecTV recording receiver. We are enjoying major league baseball on our "new" TV almost daily!
Another thing we did after moving in was to set up a bird sanctuary and it is amazing the number of different birds we attracted. They include Quail, Gold Finches, Road Runners, White Winged Doves, Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxias, Abert's Towee, Hooded Oriole, Thrashers, House Finches, Gila Woodpeckers and more. A couple of weeks ago a Mother Quail brought 12 little babies, the size of golf balls, to feed right under our noses. So far we have identified 20 different kinds of birds. Here are a few pictures.
The bird feeders are about 3 feet from our dinette window and Tiger lays there and his jaw chatters as the birds fly against the window.
April 2010
We had a wet winter and spring and as a result the desert is in full bloom. All different kinds of cactus including the huge Saguaro's, Barrel, Prickly Pear, Chollo, Stag Horn Chollo, Teddy Bear Chollo and Agave. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful flowers when the cactus is in bloom.
While Jacqui was here she decided to buy us a house warming gift in the form of a Javelina. We have named him J(H)appy Javelina and he adorns our front yard with the cactus and bird feeders.
We are seriously thinking about changing our names from the Crazy Coots to the Jappy Javelina's.
We do hope to have more of our friends visit us here in Tucson and look forward to a fun 2010.
December
We spent almost the whole month of December in the Bay Area while Dave recovered from a very successful cataract operation. Left eye only. We spent a lot of time catching up with friends & family between many doctor's visits.
Kathy had a nice lunch with her friend from Sequoia, Lynne Murphy on the 2nd. We then had a great visit and dinner with Dick & Linda Moore on the 4th (thanks for coming over to Half Moon Bay to join us!). We went hunting for a Xmas tree with Daughter Julie's family and had an exciting trip throughout 50 miles of mountains and back, no tree. They went a few days later about 5 miles from home and got their tree.
Granddaughter India introduced Big Chief Happy Bear (Yours Truly) to her boy friend Quinn at our mobile teepee and we passed around the peace pipe to cement our relationship. He has a pet sheep on a leash and I told him not to talk to sheep, they lie.
We had dinner with John Anderson of Vadic days in San Jose's Santana Row and reminisced about the good old days. We had dinner with Dean and Janice Judd also from the Vadic days and lunch with Tom McShane, my ex-boss from Vadic. He presented me with an old Vadic Ma Bell calendar that dates back to the 70's.
We visited our neighbors from Sydney Drive, Hal & Geni . Kathy met with Joanie Cavanaugh and Rachelle McCabe (co-workers from Sequoia Hospital) and we played golf twice with Glenna and Frank Vaskelis (Kathy's ex-boss from Sequoia.) Kathy also worked at Sequoia on the 18th at the employee's holiday meal - she loved visiting with all her friends from there. Glenna is a great leader at Sequoia, and a dear friend - we always enjoy getting together with her and Frank.
We spent a day in Golden Gate Park with Julie and daughters India and Meilani and India's friend Fizzie. We went to the ballet with them in San Francisco and celebrated Christmas.
Kathy decorated the Crazy Coots Coach for Christmas and it was sparse but beautiful.
All in all, a very busy and fun time. We left the Bay Area for Laughlin, NV on the 28th with stops in San Juan Bautista and Bakersfield and arrived at the Davis Camp State Park in Bullhead City, AZ on the 30th with only 1 or 2 little mishaps. We were going to meet a number of people from Sage Hills for New Years and ended up with Ken, Lisa and Sue. The rest were somewhere around there but we weren't able to connect with them.
We did spend time with my old Air Force buddy Bill Bremerman and wife Joan in Bullhead City. They live part time there and part time in Meadview, AZ. They live in a really nice 55+ resort community and we played golf at their resort.
January 2010
After New Year's we moved down to the AVI Indian Casino near Bullhead City, where we played golf at the Mohave Golf Resort. There were some beautiful sunsets and the golf course had some great views.
We spent a fair amount of time at the Wheel of Fortune penny machines. Here is a picture of some of our winnings.
On January 11th we left for Tucson with stops in Congress, AZ where we toured Wickenburg. Kathy managed to squander some of our money at Buckshot Babes.
We also found what may be our next great investment.
We arrived in Tucson on the 14th at the Voyager RV Resort where there are over 1000 spaces.
We then spent 2 weeks with my Sister Kathy Isaac and her husband Al beginning on the 16th at the Worldmark Time Share resort in Rancho Vistoso.
It is a few miles north of Tucson with beautiful views of the Catalina Mountains.
It took us 2 days to unload the motor home and store it, and then get Tiger to the vet where we "stored" him. The time share doesn't allow pets. The picture below is what the motor home looked like as we were "packing stuff out."
The weather was cool but we had a great time and found a beautiful golf course, The Pines in Marana. Eight of the last holes are in an old rock quarry and one tee is 500 ft above the fairway. Absolutely beautiful.
We also did the tram ride up Sabino Canyon near Tucson and the tram had to cross one lane bridges which were under water from the creek following the rains. It's a very pretty area. We also visited the Pima Air & Space Museum and they have the 2nd largest collection of aircraft in the country. Here is a picture of a B36.
We did manage to watch some teary eyed movies as you can see.
We left Rancho Vistoso on the 30th, picked up Tiger and returned to the Voyager at that time.
February......now things begin to get interesting!
Besides playing golf a few more times and touring the area, Kathy & I discovered the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. What a place to learn about the desert and all of the wild life. One of the exhibitions is with 3 Harris Hawks in free flight and they swoop right down over your head. Beautiful to watch.
On the left above is a Pygmy Owl who nests in a Saguaro cactus. Those are Javelina's lounging in the desert.
Kathy & I decided we might like to have a winter home in the Tucson area. We started out looking at the Voyager and really liked a manufactured home but it turned out to be too much for our budget so we continued our search. We found manfactured homes for sale from as low as $20,000 but you could say they needed some work.
Kathy & I decided we might like to have a winter home in the Tucson area. We started out looking at the Voyager and really liked a manufactured home but it turned out to be too much for our budget so we continued our search. We found manfactured homes for sale from as low as $20,000 but you could say they needed some work.
We found our little nest in the West about 20 miles north of Tucson between Oro Valley and the town of Catalina. It's called Quail Ridge Estates and on 2/24 they accepted our offer and we put earnest money down. It's a 55+ community of 130 manufactured homes.
March 2010
The atmosphere at Quail Ridge is wonderful ! We attended a western dance at the community on the 6th of March and there were about 120 people there, all of them having a good time. Live Western music and catering by Bubb's Grubb! Yum!
On March 17th (with a little Luck 'O The Irish), we made the final payment on the house and once again became homeowners! The movers with all of our STUFF arrived from California on the 22nd. We had very little idea of what we had in storage. The movers were here at 7:00AM with 2 trucks. They were ready to leave at 11:00AM. Here is what it looked like when they left.
Here's what it looks like now.
On the 24th I fell down the back steps carrying a 60 pound desk top and fractured the fibula in my left leg. Being the macho guy I am it took me a week to decide to go to the doctor. In the meantime we went to a Diamondback Spring training game, tried to unpack boxes, etc. I found out Kathy doesn't take kindly to my directions on where to move what box.
Our home is a triple-wide and is larger than our house in Sunnyvale.
It has beautiful views of the mountains. We have this Saguaro "lamp" right outside our bay window and deck! It's so nice to see at night!
There are also all kinds of critters around. Bobcats, Coyotes, Quail, Javelinas, Road Runners, Ground Squirrels and we won't mention the creepy ones (snakes, tarantulas, etc.) as Kathy gets a little nervous. This ground squirrel has produced 3 little babies and we are trying to get them to go some where else.
When we moved in we found that a 50 inch TV complete with a Pioneer Home Theatre receiver had been part of the sale. I spent 2 days figuring out how to wire in all of the VHS, CD, DVD, Cassette devices along with the DirecTV recording receiver. We are enjoying major league baseball on our "new" TV almost daily!
Another thing we did after moving in was to set up a bird sanctuary and it is amazing the number of different birds we attracted. They include Quail, Gold Finches, Road Runners, White Winged Doves, Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxias, Abert's Towee, Hooded Oriole, Thrashers, House Finches, Gila Woodpeckers and more. A couple of weeks ago a Mother Quail brought 12 little babies, the size of golf balls, to feed right under our noses. So far we have identified 20 different kinds of birds. Here are a few pictures.
The bird feeders are about 3 feet from our dinette window and Tiger lays there and his jaw chatters as the birds fly against the window.
We plan on keeping the motor home and are storing it about 100 yards from our house. Once we get settled we will be off on trips especially to the West Coast. We are currently planning on leaving around the middle of August.
April 2010
We had a wet winter and spring and as a result the desert is in full bloom. All different kinds of cactus including the huge Saguaro's, Barrel, Prickly Pear, Chollo, Stag Horn Chollo, Teddy Bear Chollo and Agave. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful flowers when the cactus is in bloom.
We have spent the last 3 months settling in and the house is in great shape. We have had a number of visitors starting with Dee Dee Brenner from Moses Lake (we met her while working at Sage Hills last year), one of Kathy's best friends, Jacqui Gandy from Tacoma, my Sister Kathy and her husband Al, Al's Brother-in-law Jerry Isaac and Al's Sister Carol from San Antonio.
While Jacqui was here she decided to buy us a house warming gift in the form of a Javelina. We have named him J(H)appy Javelina and he adorns our front yard with the cactus and bird feeders.
We are seriously thinking about changing our names from the Crazy Coots to the Jappy Javelina's.
We do hope to have more of our friends visit us here in Tucson and look forward to a fun 2010.
We'll be leaving here in the motor home near the end of August and heading for California and then up to the Pacific Northwest.
Bye for now.
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