Superbowl Giants vs Patriots

Well, as everyone who likes football knows, today was Superbowl Sunday with the Giants playing the Patriots.  Everyone asked me who I wanted to win and my reply was that I wanted both of them to lose.  Since that was impossible, I was rooting for the Giants since they are in the same division as my beloved Washington Redskins. Incidentally, the Redskins beat the Giants twice this year and lost to the Patriots in the last few minutes.  Well, that is another story.

I prepared a football pool for the park and also joined one run by my children.  I wound up winning the pool from the children and was shut out in the park pool.  Go figure.

There were about 45 people who gathered at the clubhouse today to watch the game.  The park provided the liquid refreshments and some of the people brought the snacks.  There was plenty of both to go around and there wasn't any excuse to go hungry or thirsty.  The park has a large screen projection system and also a large regular tv.  The color and sharpness on the regular tv was great, but the projection tv didn't have such a clear picture.  It was nice to see the game on the large screen and hearing all the people cheering and making comments during the game was great.   Gerry and I both had a great time.

BTW:  The Giants won the game 21-17 in the last few seconds.

We delivered the winnings for Ron C after the game and got a chance to see their new trailer.  It sure is nice and they have a lot of space to roam around in.  I know they will enjoy the trailer in the future.

All in all it was a great day out here in the desert.

Ranch Sitting

The other day I was reading a blog and they mentioned that a cousin needed someone to ranch sit while they were gone.  Laurie & Odell
I immediately thought of my cousin Sharon and her husband Al and thought they would be a good fit for the volunteer position.  Al agreed and fired off an email to the ranch owner and they set up a meeting today to discuss the position.  I went along for the ride and to check out the ranch.

When I say ranch, it is a little stretch to call the place a ranch.  It consists of 8 acres and most ranches out here are in the thousands of acres.  In any case Al, Sharon and I made the drive out there this morning.  Gerry had some craft work she wanted to finish and skipped the trip.  Al & Sharon talked to the lady and got all the particulars and decided they wanted to take on the job.  They have set it up to stay there beginning March 1 or thereabouts.  

The drive down there went by more quickly than I expected.  There is a shortcut by taking Dragoon Rd and saved us about 15 miles of driving.  Along the way we went through the small town of Dragoon that only had a few buildings and one of them was quite old.  I managed to get a decent picture on the fly to give you an idea how old the building was.  It looks like it is vacant now and was used as a tourist trap in the past.  There is a wooden Indian woman in front of the place.

It was a scenic drive and we passed many cotton fields that are now picked and bales stored by the edge of the road.  There were three of them in this area just waiting to be picked up.  The fields in this area must be irrigated in order to produce any crops.

A few miles down the road was an area called Texas Canyon and there are many large boulders stacked on each other.  It is a favorite site for photography, however we were running short on time and I only got a few photos as we went by.  The area is also where a Titan Missile silo was located during the cold war.  It has since been demolished and there isn't much to see there now.

 

Goldshop, Geocaching and Guadalajara Restaurant

Gerry left a piece of jewelry at a goldsmith's shop a week or so ago and today was the day to go back and see what they could do to repair it.  At first they didn't think it was repairable, but now they think it is possible.  She left it with them until next week and hopefully they can fix it as good as new.

We decided to geocache a little while we were in that area of town and set out to find some caches.  We began our search and found 7 caches in short order, even though they were a few miles apart.  One cache was a five gallon bucket buried in the ground in an alley behind some houses.  They had disguised the lid to look like rocks, but since we knew what to look for, it stood out very clearly to us.  

Another cache was found in an Art statue in front of the racetrack.  We had to look for this cache for a while before we found it.  Then as usual, we were surprised to see how obvious the cache was.  Some are like that and others are very difficult to find and we have to register them as a did not find.  DNF.  I hate those.  There are a number of these art exhibits throughout Tucson in various places and I think they add a lot to the town and area.


The last three times we have eaten in a restaurant we have run into people from the park eating there also.  Tonight was no exception.  We like the Guadalajara restaurant and like to get there early for the Happy Hour specials and stay long enough to listen to the Mariarchi musicians play their tunes.  Just before they started to play Ron C dropped by our table after waiting 45 minutes to get a table of their own.  Friends from Tennessese joined them and were enjoying the restaurant also.  We got our fill of beer and food and barely were able to waddle out of there.  Great time as usual.


Cousin Sharon and Al are thinking about taking their 5th wheel to a ranch south of Willcox and watching the ranch for a month.  They are going to go there on Saturday to check it out and asked us to go along.  It is about 100 miles one way and I am not sure we are up to that long of a drive.  We will have to wait and see how it goes in the morning.  


Time to hit the hay after watching the Gold Rush show. 

Cashbox Pawn Shop

Pawn Stars presents an interesting look at the pawn shop business and we heard about a good pawn shop in Tucson that has a lot of nice jewelry.  Mention jewelry and Gerry's eyes pop open and she is ready to hit the road.  Today was the day to check out the Cashbox Pawn shop on Craycroft Rd.  

Gerry went for the jewels and I headed for the gun section of the shop.  They had a very large selection of shotguns and rifles, including a nice Coach double barrel shotgun.  If I had a use for it, I would have bought it on the spot.  It was super clean and looked great.  They had a nice selection of pistols but it would be almost impossible to buy a pistol in Arizona since we have a Maryland address.  It is much easier to just wait until we get back to Maryland.

Gerry found a nice ring that she is interested in, but didn't buy it today.  She wants to think about it for a while.  I think she enjoys shopping more than she likes buying.  That is fine with me.  I do believe there is a trip back to the shop in the future.

We topped the day off with dinner at the Village Inn and took advantage of their free pie on Wednesday.  Last Friday night we ran into Dan from the park, at Cattletown restaurant and tonight he found us at the Village Inn.  Great minds must get hungry for the same food at the same time.  Kim and Dan's parents, Nola & Ed were with him along with a well mannered 2 year old.  Don't ask!

The meals were so large that Gerry only finished half of hers and I struggled to finish mine.  Both meals were very tasty and something we would order again.  Now I will have to finish this entry and enjoy the Cherry pie that I brought home.  No, I will not share it.

Our friends Ron & Dee C moved into their new mobile home here in the park.  It isn't actually new, but it is new to them.  Ron spent most of the day moving their belongings from their 5th wheel trailer and into the new home.  Dee was a little smarter than him and spent most of the morning knitting a sock.  What?  In any case, congratulations on your new home.  At least you don't have to cut grass in this one. 

Superbowl Pool, Shooting & The Sheriff

Somehow or the other I got roped into running the Superbowl Pool here at the park.  I asked if there was going to be one and the next thing I know it was my job.  Gerry drew up the squares on a large sheet of paper and I took it around yesterday evening to get it started.  In a couple hours there were 60 slots filled and this morning I took the pool to the coffee and donuts gathering at the clubhouse.  The remaining 40 slots were filled in 10 minutes and there were more people interested in joining.  Wow!  Now all we have to do is wait for the big game on Sunday and see who wins.  I hope my number or Gerry's comes up early and often.  Fat chance!

Gerry went to her usual sewing club group this morning and I had some free time on my hands.  Al & Sharon were going shooting out in the desert and asked me if I wanted to go along.  Sure, why not.  I followed them in our car since they had errands to run and I didn't want to be out there shooting that long.  We arrived at an ADOT pond that was dry and full of cans, bottles, pumpkins,  targets and more junk than you can imagine.  It sure looked like it was in constant use and there was a fortune in spent ammunition all over the place.  Literally thousands of shotgun shells, .22 caliber and larger caliber shells.   There were piles of shells raked up in a number of places.  


While we were shooting, who showed up but the local Deputy Sheriff.  Oooops!  No, there wasn't a problem.  He shoots out there himself and was just checking who was there.  We had a nice long chat with him and he assured us that it was legal and fine to shoot there.  That was a big relief.  The range area was on BLM land and there was another area for shooting nearby.  We could hear them firing some very large caliber guns.

I had my .22 Ruger Single Six pistol and shot around 100 rounds and had a great time.  My accuracy sure has fallen off as I've gotten older.  I never was a great shot, but I could at least come close.  Maybe the sights were off and that was the problem.  I did help speed up the demise of some beer cans and a skeet target.


By this time Gerry was almost finished with sewing so I headed back to the park.  We had a nice relaxing afternoon and I tried to stay awake in my easy chair.  It did creep up on me a couple times and I grabbed a snooze or two.  I hope I can fall asleep this evening.