Arizona Winter in a GMC Motorhome
Hey, not only do I get harrassed by my friends back home, the folks here are after me now. We have a general delivery address here in Duncan. I go to the post office this morning and the lady handing me my mail is laughing at me for coming here for the winter. That is fine, it will be 70 degrees here again Monday. It was a bit depressing yesterday though. I was stuck inside the motorhome most all day. I don't like that. It was 18 degrees when Teri got up this morning. Was 34 when I got up. I am sure it hit the middle teens as the furnace was kicking on a good bit. I finally turned it off. We don't need it running except to make sure our water in here does not freeze. We have been here when it got down to 12 two mornings in a row. Now, that was nippy. You must realize that we are at 3600 feet. Sometimes it gets cold and snows here but normally it is gone by lunch time. We are getting nothing compared to the Flagstaff area.
Duncan is in the Southeast corner of the state. Take a look on the tracker or on a map. We are 140 air miles east and north of Tucson. 150 air miles east of Phoenix and about the same west of El Paso. This is where they film the tv show, Border Wars.
The fighter jet is in the park up above Duncan, home of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner.
Here is a shot of the mountain behind us in New Mexico.
You can see where the snow is. Those peaks are above 4,000 ft.
Another shot over in New Mexico.
Same
Now, here is the mountain we must climb when we go to Safford. Safford is where Walmart is. 40 miles West of us. Do you know why the towns out here are 40 miles apart? Let me know if you know.
Look close. There is a poor old stripped Volkswagen there. I feel for it everytime I pass by. Makes me think of mine back in Mo.
The snow clouds still hanging around.
A view out our back door.
Same thing, different mountain over in New Mexico.
Duncan is right on Highway 70, at the NM./ Az. line. It is a nice little town and we enjoy coming here. Everyone knows when we roll into town for the season. I have made many friends here and always look forward to spending time with them. Tonight we will go over to some friends' home near Virden, NM. I don't plan to stay until midnight but we will visit for a few hours. They have us and several others over every New Year's Eve.
This could be my last post this year. Thanks so much for riding with us in 2010. We always enjoy your company. Will be looking forward to a prosporous 2011 with you as our friends.
Happy New Year from Dan and Teri Gregg
GMC Motorhome, Snow Covered
Oh yea, it does snow here. Teri told me at 830 am to look out the window. I told the girl to "get real". You see, I am not an early morning kind of guy since I retired. Now, if there is something going on I can get up anytime I want, but for snow, not happening. So, I sent her outside while I stayed all warm and snuggled up to my electric mattress cover. Here are a few shots that she brought back in. Quite a contrast to the irrigation pictures from yesterday.
I did get up to take a look about 9 am. It was total whiteout when I looked. Of course that did not last long.
As you can see, an inch or two in just a few minutes. We are at 3600 feet here in Duncan.
We still have directv so you know it was not too bad.
Josh about to be ambushed by his little brother, Cdub.
What can I say? By noon this will all be gone. At 1045 am it is now 35 degrees. Teri said the lowest she saw on the thermometer this morning was 27. Was 21 Wednesday morning. The temp rose and fell several times last evening. At midnight it was 40 degrees.
Life is great here. Hope everyone back home is warm and full of lunch by now.
Dan
Out and About From the GMC Motorhome
Oh boy, was good to head out over the mountain today. We have been hanging around here for the last few days and I was ready to travel. We took off about 930 am. Did not even get up to the top of the mountain and wham. A rock hit the windshield. Called our daughter and got the address of a glass shop in Safford. We rolled in and for 19.9 they fixed us up. See the glue?
Mike was quick and we were out in 15 minutes. I have never had such service. The owner wants to do our GMC glass. We have some fogging around the edges. May let him look at it. This windshield has been patched 5-6 times since we bought the car. I hate to have a windshiled replaced. Always a chance it might leak.
Here is a shot of Mt. Graham. Looks like snow.
I am sure it was snow.
If you look hard you can see the 11,000 ft. mountain hiding in there.
Should you look at our tracker for today you can see we got off the beaten path a little. We did grab a cache in town that had been fixed since we looked for it a couple of weeks ago. We have conquered all of the caches in the city now.
Anyway, we snuck up a road north of Solomon. I had never been up it. It runs up to San Simon River. Here you get a shot at the end of the pavement.
Farm crops are irrigated different out here than back home. Folks share the water on different days. This is where the local irrigation starts. You can see the water taking off down the canal to water the crops down the way.
Here is the locked gate for the water. I am glad we drove up to take a look. Very interesting. Also checked out one of the local prisons. Very popular employment out here. I think there are 3 prisons right here close.
There you have it. Got back home about 4. Rested up and headed to bible study. Got out and it was raining. The temps are going to be low in the morning. Got the heat running now.
Hope everyone is wrapping up the old year. Won't be long til it is gone. We have plans to be at friends' home Friday night.
Dan
Christmas Day Geocaching
Teri and I hope everyone had a great Christmas Day. We shared a meal in Wilcox at a resturant. When I looked up Teri was hugging the waitress. Small world sometimes. They knew each other from years gone by.
Look at this house in Bowie.
We started rolling around 830 am. Took off for a path through the desert that ran 43 miles down to Bowie, on I-10.
To our surprise, over 30 miles of it was pavement. That allowed us to get right along.
We stopped at the Hot Springs but they were all dry. You can see what is growning in this one.
A shot of the ground cover.
A shot of the mountains that were our destination today. You can see for miles and miles out here. those are 40-50 miles south of us.
As we rolled into Bowie we found lots of new orchards. Looks like pecan trees. They grow a lot of them here. Could have been pistachio trees, not sure.
Our first cache of the day.
Our second. We are at about 3500 feet here.
This was a really good cache in Wilcox. It took us a while to find it even though I had picked it up and did not realize what I had in my hand.
Look at that rock.
Now, look at the bottom. I am telling you, folks come up with some great ideas.
Another one in Wilcox. Lots of historic stuff in Wilcox.
The train is a resturant.
South of Wilcox on our way to the Chiricahuh Mtns. An old graveyard.
Look at this. these mountains were something.
I guess the wind rounds these things off like this.
On top looking toward Mexico.
This was an awesome sight. The camera can not capture the beauty we saw.
Coming back down. Lots of trees up here. Take water for trees to grow. At this altitude they get watered pretty regular. Lots of Decembers there is snow here.
Back into the desert and stopping for the Border Patrol. When they hear me talk they just smile and wave me on through.
We found this cache at a crane refuge. Neat area. They had high powered binoculars so you could look all over the desert.
Cochise, Az.
Yep, a cache here.
This one was behind the post office in Cochise.
Our last one of the day. It was about a mile up a dirt road, just off of 191.
What a Christmas. We had such a good time. Stopped and had our meal at a resturant. Saw lots of places we have not seen before. Got close to Douglas, Az. That is a border town. Rolled on back and finished 310 miles just as it got dark. The tracker worked great. If you get a chance take a look at if for Christmas day. We skyped our grandkids back in Dexter. They were so excited to see us and to talk about all of their new toys. Teri skyped her mom and got the lowdown on what the family in Washington did for the day.
Life is good,
Dan
Hey, not only do I get harrassed by my friends back home, the folks here are after me now. We have a general delivery address here in Duncan. I go to the post office this morning and the lady handing me my mail is laughing at me for coming here for the winter. That is fine, it will be 70 degrees here again Monday. It was a bit depressing yesterday though. I was stuck inside the motorhome most all day. I don't like that. It was 18 degrees when Teri got up this morning. Was 34 when I got up. I am sure it hit the middle teens as the furnace was kicking on a good bit. I finally turned it off. We don't need it running except to make sure our water in here does not freeze. We have been here when it got down to 12 two mornings in a row. Now, that was nippy. You must realize that we are at 3600 feet. Sometimes it gets cold and snows here but normally it is gone by lunch time. We are getting nothing compared to the Flagstaff area.
Here is a shot of the mountain behind us in New Mexico.
You can see where the snow is. Those peaks are above 4,000 ft.
Another shot over in New Mexico.
Same
Now, here is the mountain we must climb when we go to Safford. Safford is where Walmart is. 40 miles West of us. Do you know why the towns out here are 40 miles apart? Let me know if you know.
Look close. There is a poor old stripped Volkswagen there. I feel for it everytime I pass by. Makes me think of mine back in Mo.
The snow clouds still hanging around.
A view out our back door.
Same thing, different mountain over in New Mexico.
