Camp Verde, AZ.

Yesterday we went to places on the west side of town. We started by visiting the mission of San Xavier del Bac. This was founded by Father Kino, a Jesuit, back in the 1500s. We managed a quick look inside the church before the First Communion Mass started. Then we toured the Mission grounds, and when Mass was over we went inside and really took a look.

From there we headed to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is sort of a zoo/botanical garden/museum. It is WONDERFUL!! We didn't see javelinas, but the other animals, including the mountain lion up close and personal, were out enough to see. In the aviary we saw some quail chicks! They have a hummingbird aviary which is nice, too. Of course, there were plenty of lizards.

Thence to the other half of Saguaro National Park, which seems to be the place Rich and I toured 38.5 years ago (when it was a National Monument) It's a pleasant drive, but we've seen so many cactus the last few days that we weren't proply impressed. pWe took a wrong turn leaving and wound up almost back at the mission. Then we went caching! First we finally found the way up the hill near our motel, with the "A" on it. There's a cache up there. Rich hates this kind of road, but hey, anything to find the cache. This was no 1 terrain, but down the hill aways from the viewpoint.

We went back to the motel and I did laundry and also took a quick dip in the pool and a longer soak in the hot tub. Then all I wanted to do was relax, but Rich can quit any time. Ha. So we went out again while it was still light. We also wanted to check on Mass times at the cathedral.

There's a tiny cache hidden in a sculpture down by the library, and the only reason we could find it was the description, as all the buildings drove Hal crazy. Then we went looking for a virtual a quarter mile away. This one was about the first maternity home in Tucson. $25 for a 10-12 day stay, including all doctor/nursing expenses!

Then it was dark. We drove around awhile looking for a restaurant, but finally went back to the Waffle House at the motel.

Today we went to 6:30 Mass. We were kneeling there, minding our own business, when one of the ushers came up and asked us to take up the offertory. This is a big deal, involving a special pew and we also got to go to Communion first. We had a Nigerian priest, just like home. He gave a good sermon about making an effort to be with God. I was struck that it was the second week in a row that we'd gone to Mass in a Cathedral. The Jesus rising from the cross had this really scary vulpine grin. Eeek!

Then we came back to the motel, had breakfast, and checked out. I wanted to stop at the "Softball" cache... which is a virtual all week except Sunday mornings. First we went to the Davis-Monthan AFB "Boneyard" where all the old planes go to die. Rich was in heaven. "My BABIES!" We stopped by the softball field, but the players weren't there yet. Instead of waiting, we thought we'd go check out another cache nearby. This one was inside a signpost and took some doing just to retrieve. Back at the softball where we lurked with the GPSr but none of the players (and we talked to them) seemed to know what we were doing, so we finally gave up. It was time to say goodbye to Tucson anyway.

We headed northwest toward Phoenix, but first we stopped at the Casa Grande Ruins. I thought at first they might be disappointing because they're under cover, but no, they are still darned impressive. There's a "ball court" here, and they speculate that perhaps the loser, as in Mesoamerica, was sacrificed to the gods. Uday would be proud.

Rich is still chortling over his Golden Age pass.

This is the first time we've ever been to Phoenix. The first time we were in Arizona, in 1965, we took the southern route, through Tucson and so out, and the second time, in January of 1975, we went through Flagstaff in the hopes of going to the Grand Canyon, but it was too snowy. So it's about time. Of course, the McCormick Railroad Park is way to the north, so we negotiated a whole bunch of freeways and big roads to get there. And there was the Merci Boxcar!! This is our 6th! There was a woman in town who got interested in 1985 and even went to France to get new shields. It's not only refurbished and under a ramada, but there's a whole display area with pictures of train goodies that they still have stashed somewhere. They, at least, appreciate the letters and cards, unlike the Pennsylvania museum curator.

The model railroaders were working. They get to rent their building for $1 a year as long as they open to the public on Sundays and help with the annual railfair. Well, the layout was great! We had a good time talking to the people... this is N gauge. I liked the bullet train.

Then we went looking for a nearby cache, but had no luck at all.

Next we drove 15 miles back south to see the Capitol. It was closed on Sunday, of course, but we did look around and see the statuary. I like their memorial arrangement better than ours. There was a busload of German tourists. We've run into a lot of these people in southern Arizona.

And so on, to Camp Verde, where it was good to call it a night. They gave us a "minisuite" which was HUGE. The kitchen doesn't work, but it still gave us lots of room to get around.

Highlight: Merci boxcar.

Lowpoint: No geocacher at Softball.