Saguaros and Ostriches

A Visit From Friends

We have had the pleasure of meeting up with our new friends, Don and Connie, Full Timers from northern Ohio. This intro sentence is my excuse for not having made a new entry until now.

We have had a ball, catching up, sharing and seeing some new and different things. One day trip was to Saguaro National Park west of Tucson. What natural beauty! These big things are huge and stand like an army of prickly soldiers on the hills and mountains. Amazing to know that the cactus is 75 years old before an 'arm' is grown! Even more amazing is that I learned how to pronounce the name, which is "Sa-Whar-oh".

We also went to Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch at the foot of Picacho Peak, about 25 miles south of Casa Grande. This is an excellent stop for anyone with kids, as you can feed ostriches, emus, donkeys and deer. Rooster also has an aviary with lots of Lohrikeets, cousin to the parrot. They light all over you and peck a bit, looking for the hand with the cup of nectar. Beautifully and brightly colored birds.

Don and Connie are heading for Albuquerque, NM, and we look forward to catching up with them again, maybe on our way to Colorado in April.

We are staying at a park aimed at Snowbirds-- lots of activities, outings and get togethers. It is a great park, but when we look around, we feel very young. To make my point, at the Monday Night Music Singalong, we didn't know most of the songs until they sang a newer tune called "Honeycomb". Do you remember when Jimmie Rodgers made that famous??? I think it was 50 years ago.

We are playing bridge tonight, that will be fun. Lots of nice people, and a lot of folks from the upper Midwest, including 20 or 25 couples from Iowa. In all, we feel so very lucky every day to be able to be doing what we are doing...and that is being on vacation all the time.

Thought: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra