Things are starting to bloom, so it must be time to leave

This morning, 2-20-08, Sandy, Jane, Vicky and I took a hike with there 4 dogs on the Overton Trail. This is a moderate hike of 3.3 miles around a hill just north of the campgrounds.














Sandy and I have been doing enough hiking that we thought we should get some hiking boots for walking these rocky trails. So off to Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops to look for some boots. While there Sandy decided to get a walking stick although it looks like a cattle prod to me-or, is that a DAVE prod. On Sunday the 24th we took our last trip around the Overton Trail before leaving on Monday. There were a few flowers starting to bloom, but it will be 2-3 weeks before things get into full bloom.



On Sunday afternoon we went out to supper with our friends Ron and Jane. This will be the last time to see and visit with them on this trip. It was both a fun and sad dinner as we reminisced about what we had done together and trying to figure out how to convince Jane that Minnesota is west of the Mississippi. She has this thing about taking the motorhome east of the Mississippi.


This morning we packed up and headed to Tucson. One of the advantages of not making reservations ahead of time is that when we come upon a beautiful site , like we did a Piacho Peak State Park, we can just pull off and stay there for the night or week. So Tucson will have to wait until tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures of the Mexican Poppies in bloom.

This area also had the farthest west engagement of the Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War.










Once we finally got to Tucson, we went to see something called the "bone yard". This is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base where they keep all the surplus planes in storage. I had seen pictures of this and have also looked at it on google earth.com. You have to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum to get on a tour of the "bone yards". While there we found out that it is not just surplus planes there but they also rebuild and refurbish planes that are used by the armed forces. They also sell parts to our allies. This is probably the only branch of government that actually makes money. Not including the original cost of the plane, for every dollar spent, they take in $25. The Pima Air and Space Museum has planes from WWII whereas the "bone yard" is from the Vietnam War to today.













We are now on our way to Red Bay, AL to have some service work done on the motorhome at the factory. On the way we stopped in Van Horn, TX to meet up some friends of ours from Staples, Rick and Karen. They had just left Mission TX 2 days earlier and were on there way to the Phoenix area to visit family and friends. When we got up the next morning it had snowed a little as was 32.2 degrees. Rick and Karen were saying "we left Mission for this".

It took us a little longer to get to Red Bay then we figured as we lagged behind the snow storms that were going through the Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and areas north. We finally got into Red Bay on Thursday the 6th. Because we came in without an appointment it will probably take us all of next week to get worked through the different service areas. Some of the employees here at the factory service center were anxiously awaiting the first snowfall predicted for Friday night. Their wish came true as it was 28 degrees when we got up in the morning and a little over an inch of snow had fallen during the night.