Centipedes at Tucson Botanical Garden

This young guy really enjoyed sharing his knowledge of
centipedes.






This one is full of posion.

Tucson Botanical Gardens

Wow!!! There sure are a lot of different
cacti in this world. The Tucson Botanical
gardens had Cacti from Africa, South
American, and the USA. It's amazin how
large some of them grow.


Organ Pipe cactus



This one is called Old Man. Looks like it has
a beard.

Butterflies

Imagine walking along a path and seeing numerous butterflies
landing on leaves and flowers. If you stand still, they may
even land on you. Seeing the smiles of the children as a butterfly
landed on their shoulder or hands was priceless. The Tucson
Botanical garden was featuring butterflies from South
America.

Casa Grande Ruins National Park

What an amazing site to see. We could not help but wonder how
the Hohokam Indians were able to build a four story high and
60 feet long building in 1350. The walls of the great house face the 4
cardinal points of the compass. This village was surrounded
by 7 foot high walls. The Hohokams also had an irrigation
system which allowed them to produce two crops a year. They
planted beans, squash, tobacco, cotton, agave, and corn.



Casa Grande.


The hole in the upper left corner aligned with the solstice sunset.
There was another hole on the right that aligned with the moon



This is an Olla- a large pot used for water and food storage.
This one was found near the foundation of the great house.


This is a model of what the great house would have looked
like in 1350. There were lots of cacti to be seen in the area.
As always, you can view more pictures by clicking on the photos
link.

Quartzsite Sunset

The sunsets at Quartzsite were wonderful. We are now in
Yuma, Arizona. Will be here until Feb. 15th. We are
currently camped at Sand Bar with mom and dad, and Jim
and Sherri Reed. Weather is wonderful. We are anxious to
attend the Yuma Market on Thursday and to go into
Mexico to get our teeth cleaned.

Our new camping spot, Quartzsite, 2008

Our rig is the one on the right.


View behind our rig

Mountains behind our rig.



Love looking at this cactus every day.

Gary standing by a huge cactus.


I love to see the different shapes of these cactus.


We are blessed with beautiful sunsets every night.


Lights of Quartzsite.

Fish are still biting

As you can tell from the smile on Gary's face, the fish are
still biting at Turtle Beach, Manteca. This time the fish
are larger. Take a look at the one near Gary's right hand.
He caught another one later that was close to the same size.
We are enjoying the view and the birds. Lots of pelicans
fly over every day. This is a wonderful campground.
The people are very friendly here. Oh yes, Gary is off
fishing again this morning.

Thanksgiving 2007

Gary and I are in Los Banos for Thanksgiving with my
family.

Four generations. Jarrod, my nephew, his mom, my sister,
Riley, my great-nephew, Dad, Mom, and Payton, my great-
niece.


My great-niece and great-nephew.

Fishing at Turtle Beach, NACO campground

Gary and I stay at Turtle Beach outside Manteca, CA. when
we return to Ca. My parents also come down for a week.
Our great-niece and great-nephew usually come up for the
week-end. Gary enjoys this campground because of the great
fishing. Payton, our great-niece, decided to fish with Great-
grandpa and Uncle Gary. She had a great time. She caught
7 of the catfish that are on the stringer. This was Payton's first
time fishing and she might have gotten the fishing itch, only
time will tell. If you look closely at her hands, you can tell
that she likes to catch them but does not like to touch them.
Dad was kept busy putting the fish on the stringer. He and
Gary sure had a lot of fun watching Payton catch fish.


Dad, Payton, and Gary with their stringers of catfish.

My great niece, Payton

Payton is a cheerleader for one of the town youth
football teams. We were able to attend a game
and watch her cheer. She sure has a lot of energy.
Payton is in the 4th grade.

My great nephew, Riley

We finally got to see Riley play a soccer game.
He is in the first grade.