Mystery Structure Pt 2

I wrote about the mystery structure earlier this month and included a picture of it.  Link to previous posting   The structure is lighted at night with blue and green lights and looks weird sitting alongside of the road.  I promised Gloria that I would include a night photo of the "art" and we went out late last night to fulfill that promise.

The first photo has a white sign in front telling everyone to stay off the "art" and the flash from the camera made it glow.

Photo below was taken without the flash and contributes to the weird "art" out in the desert. 

We finally made it up to the Tucson Truck Terminal (TTT) for breakfast.  The TTT is a well known truck stop just east of Tucson and they serve up huge meals that are very tasty, but have an average of 2,000 calories per serving.  Well, at least they feel like 2K calories.  It was surprising to see so few people in the restaurant, but it was early in the morning.  Our favorite table was waiting for us and we were drinking weak coffee in a jiffy.  Gerry ordered the one egg special and I had the Denver omelet, hash browns, biscuits and gravy.  No dessert after that huge meal.  

A couple other groups arrived about the same time and the men all had on NFL football sweater, shirts, etc.  Eagles, Steelers, Cardinals and Redskins were featured.  We all got a laugh out of the different teams and were chatting with each group.  No fisticuffs were displayed.   The restaurant did start to fill up before we finished our meals.

That was the highlight of our day here in Tucson.  Was yours as exciting?


 

Merry Christmas

Gerry and I usually go to the children's mass at church on Christmas day but decided to get a jump on the celebration by attending mass on Christmas Eve.  We left for church early and were quite surprised to see the parking lot & street parking all full of cars.  We thought the 5:00PM mass wouldn't be that crowded but we were totally wrong.

Usually the 5:00PM mass is over in about 50 minutes but we got our money worth on Christmas Eve.  It took well over 1hr & 20 minutes for the mass.  The church was decorated very nicely with a ton of red poinsettias and had a nice nativity scene at the entrance.

Today we went to the recreation center here in the park and joined about 100 other people at the Christmas dinner.  Gerry prepared a green bean casserole and we took a nice bottle of wine with us.  Ron K had saved us a seat and it was a good thing he did since all the tables were full of hungry people.  The park provided the ham and scalloped potatoes and the remainder of the food was provided by the attendees.  The selections were great and there was a surplus of food and even a couple small portions of dessert remaining.  Nobody went away hungry and it was a really festive occasion.

We hung around and chatted with some friends and then returned to the motor home and started receiving calls from our children.   Gerry's sister and bil called before we left for the dinner and we had a nice talk with them.   Larry Jr, Jane & Grant called and we caught up on their day and while we were talking to them, Barb & Henry called on the other phone.  I chatted with Barb & Henry and Gerry continued talking to Jr & family.  Gerry finished up with them and joined us and chatted for another hour or so.  Cassie, Jack, Elizabeth & Bella called shortly thereafter and we chatted with them for quite a while.  Cassie is having problems with her eye and voice so Jack had to interpret a couple times.  They had Jack's parents over for dinner and Cassie & the girls prepared a nice traditional meal. 

It was great talking to everyone and we wished we could have been there, but that was impossible this year.  Maybe next year.

We spent the rest of the night just lounging around the motor home in front of the fireplace and taking it easy.  It was a quiet Christmas evening for us and we enjoyed the day.

That was our day, how was yours?  

Houghton Rd Christmas Tree

Rockefeller Center has a Christmas tree, the National Tree is on the Ellipse and we have one on Houghton Rd near the campground.  It isn't as large as theirs, but someone thought enough of it to decorate it for all to see.  Now if we could get some electric lights on the tree it would be complete.  What do you think?

When our daughters were very young we used to take them down to the Ellipse to see the National Tree and all the trees from each state.  They had some reindeer in corrals and it was always a must see for us.

There was a nativity scene on the Ellipse during the 50s & 60s and it was always a highlight to see it, too.  There have been numerous attempts to exclude the nativity scene over the years and I'm not sure if it is still included.     

 The Pathway of Peace around the National Christmas Tree is free and open to visitors starting the week of December 15, daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., through January 1. The pathway loops around the National Christmas Tree and features 56 unique Christmas trees to represent each U.S. state, U.S. territory, and the District of Columbia.

If we are ever back in the DC area around Christmas time we will surely make it a point to take the trip down there and see the trees and decorations.   

We attended the coffee and donuts gathering this morning at the clubhouse and arrived early, but not early enough to snare a couple apple fritters.  Evidently they are well liked and you have to get there at least 25 minutes early to get one.  Maybe next week.  We also participated in the "lucky buck" drawing but did not win again.  We've won it once in the 8 years we've been in the park.  

Gerry joined the "quilting ladies" at the clubhouse after coffee and made a lot of progress on her quilt.  She's been working on the quilt on and off for a long time and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.  

At the last minute we decided to have dinner at Argenziano's in nearby Corona de Tucson.  It's an Italian restaurant in the building of the old Road Runner Market.  The Road Runner moved to a new building nearby.  We both enjoyed our meals and wound up taking home enough food for lunch tomorrow.  

That was our exciting day, how was yours?

Christmas Party

Saturday was the date of the Christmas party at the park.  They had a gift exchange but we didn't participate in that since the motor home doesn't have any space to take on additional items.  Those who took part in the exchange seemed to have a good time so it worked out well for all of us.

Santa Claus stopped by and came in the back of a pickup truck rather than a sleigh, but that made more sense out here in the desert.  Sleighs don't function very well on the sand we have out here.  

There are a number of children in the park and most of them stopped by to see Santa and get their picture taken with him.  One elf had a list of who was naughty and who was nice and the look on the children's faces was priceless.  I don't like to publish pictures of children so I took some photos from a distance.

The little boy with dark hair in the photo below was so excited to see Santa that he could hardly sit still.  I think he was the first child to go up and talk to Santa.

 The young lady on Santa's lap had a big smile on her face and was surprised when the elf handed her a gift.

 Carl insisted on sitting on Santa's lap and was excited to find out he had been a good "boy" the past year.  Actually, it looks like they had to drag him up there and then hold him down.  He was a good sport about it.

After all the children visited Santa and the gift exchange was over they started taking pictures with Santa with whomever wanted one.  Ron K pushed us into getting our picture taken, but he chickened out and skipped the photo op.

The party was from 2-4 pm and once it was over we had to do some shopping in order to get ready for Christmas.  I thought it was going to be a $35 or so shopping trip, but it was about 3 times as expensive as that.   A dollar doesn't go very far nowdays.  We stopped at Panda Express on the way home and then unloaded all the stuff we bought and had to scramble to find storage space for it.

We brought the Christmas decorations out and Gerry put some up in the motor home.  We have more decorations to go up and hope to finish the task on Monday.  Pictures will be forthcoming.  When we had a house, decorating the house and tree was a 2 week affair.  Early on it took us a week to decorate the tree since we placed the old lead icicles about an inch apart on each branch.  Those days are long gone, but we did have a beautiful tree each year.

Gerry received some sad news today.  Her Aunt Mary passed away this morning after a brief illness.  She was 96 1/2 years old and was very active until the past year or so.  They are going to have a private service on Saturday.  It would be impossible for Gerry to make airplane connections so she will be unable to attend the service in Ohio.  Our thoughts will be there with the family.  

Fidel Castro & Cuba

Gerry and I were married in 1957 and moved to Washington, DC after we were hired by the FBI.  We wound up there because of my being too young to become an Illinois State Trooper.  I had applied for the ISP job and when they told me I had to wait until I was 21 to be accepted, I put them out of my mind.  A short while after this a FBI Special Agent came knocking on my door.  Oh Oh, what did I do wrong and how was I caught?  He assured my mother that I hadn't violated any Federal laws and was recruiting me to work for the FBI.  It sounded interesting.  Gerry and I both applied for a job with them.  Note, jobs were scarce in Central Illinois in 1957 and we had the wandering bug way back then. 

We both passed our security checks after three months or so and were offered positions in Washington, DC.  We packed all our belongings into a very small U-haul-it trailer, hooked it up to our 1950 Plymouth and headed for DC via Cleveland, Ohio.  Hey, it didn't look like it was that far out of the way at the time.  We visited with Gerry's Aunt & Uncle a few days and then continued on to DC.

We arrived in DC after dark and were totally lost except we knew the room they had reserved for us in a row house was on East Capital St NE.  We finally saw the Capital Bldg. and I turned down what I thought was a small road and found out it wasn't a road, but a sidewalk leading to a statue in front of Union Station.  I thought I saw an opening and continued driving and saw people looking at us wide eyed and moving out of the way quickly.  Then we went down 6-7 steps, across a sidewalk and back onto a street.  No problem, right?  We finally found the row house and then had to park the car and trailer for the night.  Yes, it was still there in the morning.

Move forward a few years and we were still living in DC and Fidel Castro came to visit the UN and wound up visiting in DC also.  A friend of ours down the street invited us to a party at his house and didn't tell us who was going to be there.  Imagine our surprise when we looked out the window and saw Fidel sitting on the hood of a car enjoying some chicken and throwing the bones on the sidewalk.  What?  This was the honored guest and the area around our apartment was crowded with people, press and a few FBI agents thrown in for good measure.  By then I had resigned from the FBI so I could have joined the party, but I had a good inkling what Fidel represented and didn't agree with his political views.  Later he came out and voiced his Marxist-Lenin views.

Now 54 years later Cuba is in the news with the President starting to renew relations with Cuba.  From what little I know about the situation the POTUS bailed Cuba out of a difficult jam.  Russia & Venezuela have provided support to Cuba all these years and neither can afford to prop up the present regime in Cuba any longer.  Was it a good move?  I don't really know, but time will tell and it will be interesting to see if they change their ways.  What do you think?

BTW:  I never was in a position of importance working for the FBI and never became a Special Agent.  J. Edgar Hoover was the director then and ran a tight ship and I knew I couldn't work under the conditions existing at that time.  I saw him on numerous occasions, but we weren't on speaking terms.  

Enough of my rambling about this but the recent events triggered these memories.