Tucson sunset

Last evening we were driving home from mid-town Tucson and were greeted by this beautiful sunset. Had to share some of it.

St Xavier Mission Del B

Yesterday we went south of Tuscon and visited the St Xavier Mission Del Bac, a beautiful mission that was first constructed in the 1700s and still holds masses and has a school for the neighboring Indian reservation. The history of this mission is captivating and it is awesome to see that it still stands. The beautiful wood work and scrolling is almost beyond description. The temperature was around 72 and the wind was blowing about 25 MPH, making the distant mountains quite hazy to the eye. The cross on the top of the hill is a beacon calling people from long distances. It still amazes us how Sunny captivates audiences wherever she goes. People entering and exiting the mission stopped to ask questions and pet her. A Mexican family with a young boy about 8 stopped and could not speak English. The boy motioned as if petting the dog and, when I said yes, he did not want to stop petting her. When they came out of the church, the boy grabbed his father's camera and looked at Sunny. When I said "Si," he took her photograph and went on his way smiling so large he was competing with the sun for brilliance. What a day!

Sonny and Jim do The Sonora Desert!

Once a day, Sunshine and I take a walk into the Sonora Desert. We try to go early before it is too hot and before the rattlers come out into the sun to sun themselves. She starts out just curious with her ears down, then pricks up both ears so that her hearing is synchronized to work with her sense of smell. Once, when I was talking to her, she kept one ear up to listen ahead and lay the other one back to listen to me. The mountains all around us make for a beautiful background. The mountain in the distance is Kitt's Peak, the mountain we went to the observatory at the top to see the other day. The nearer mountain is Mt. Tucson, which is less than two miles across the desert from our RV. At the end of the trek, Sunny was hot, tired and thirsty. I wonder who made the cross and who it was for, hmmmmm!

Sunny at Tucson Meet and Greet

Today was a great Sunshine day. First, we took her to a Tucson Petco where the Tucson Chapter of GAL, Greyhound Adoption League, was holding a Meet and Greet. These are set up throughout America so that the public can become more aware of Greyhound Adoption. Our local group GEM, Greyhounds of Eastern Michigan does this from Ann Arbor to Flint. Adoptable Greys are brought to a sponsoring pet supply store and the public gets to meet them and hopefully start the process of adoption. Here we see Sunny as she gets to know a bunch of new friends. These sessions with other greyhounds are really liked by her. She is a very calm dog when she leaves there and the glow has lasted several days. Soon, the other Greys loved her as much as we do and she now has her own posse in Tucson. The black hound wants to be a "lap dog!" Later in the day, we were able to talk with our daughter Richelle and her family using Skype and web cams. What a great way to keep in touch. We can now see our grandchildren more often and watch them grow. They can also see us and we all were much happier for using it. This is an inexpensive way to keep in touch in a closer, more personal way. Then we took Sunny to the dog park in our campground. Since she has never learned to play, she was somewhat awkward but soon was at least mingling with a wagging tail with other dogs from the campground. We will now take her here daily and hopefully she will start learning how to play with other dogs.

Mt Lemmon Ascent

We have been seeing references to Mt. Lemmon every night on the news weather report. The forecaster gives weather for Tucson and vicinity and then gives conditions on Mt Lemmon. Typically, the mountain will be 15-20 degrees less than Tucson and may or also report falling snow, when Tucson has nothing or rain. The mountain is located just north of the city with the road leading to the summit starting at the city limits. The first pic shows the range that Mt. Lemmon is located in as seen over the City of Tucson. Then comes the 8000 foot climb that takes about 22 miles of roadway. At the top is a ski lodge. On the way up, the trees are very thin, with mostly cacti rising from the ground. After a couple thousand feet, the pines and oaks begin. This is explained along the way by an information board that stated that after the last ice age, 10-12,000 years ago, the valley became dry and the trees climbed higher into the mountains in order to obtain moisture. Many of the rock formations remind us of Needles Highway in the Rapid City, SD area with spires rising along the roadway. Looking out across the mountains, we sometimes can count over five ridges of mountain tops. The entire scene is almost unbelievable. Some sights do not look real, to our untrained eyes. More surreal! Some of these photos show this and you should see what I mean. It was so cool to be looking from above the snow line of one mountain DOWN to the snow cap of another mountain. We took so many photos on the way up that our camera battery died before we could take pictures on the descent. We will hopefully go up again next week to get the descent photos.