2021 Comes to an End

December was a very busy month! Jan’s amaryllis gave us 4 blooms — twice! One just before Christmas, and again for New Year’s. Prolific plant!

Jan and friends did a great job at a Sunday gospel jam. They did a great job! For the first time ever, I joined Jan for a song. We got home from Church, and she said, “Let’s sing a song together.” I agreed, then was informed it was a song I had never heard before! Thankfully, it wasn’t difficult, so I think we did okay. I’ll be a bit more careful before agreeing in the future!

When Jan had a retinal tear a couple years ago when we lived in Hawaii, they had to inject a silicone oil as a “patch” to keep everything in place. A couple months later, the surgeon tried to extract all the oil but, which is quite common, he couldn’t get it all out. since that time, she often saw floating “donuts” in her vision.

this month she saw a ophthalmologist, and he extracted the remaining oil. yea! The downside is that it is irritating, and taking weeks to heal. Hopefully she will be much better it January.

We actually were able to put up a Christmas tree this year! With our little storage shed in Quartzsite, we have a place to store our decorations. I forgot to take photos o all the things we put up, but we did put up a small tree, with ornaments. We had light strings over the slides, tinsel strands over the television, and Christmas cards on the desk and cabinets. We also added Santa stickers on the outside of Bella and the storage shed. We plan to add a lot more next year.

for a couple nights after her surgery, a couple of our friends provided meals for us. That was a very loving thing to do, and it meant a lot to us to be so loved.

And then there were the parties! Lots of social events in the park this year. Parties with friends, and a big Christmas dinner at the community center. We really enjoyed these activities. Lots of food, lots of friendship, Lots of funny games, and lots of sharing of love and kindness.

Jan volunteered as a Salvation Army Bell Ringer on several Mondays. I’ll let her tell the story of how that went.

We also had the blessing of helping give out presents to local families at the Salvation Army. can’t show those photos, but we did get our pictures with Santa!

We did take some time to play more desert golf! This time we played a different course south of town, and we think it is the better course, with fewer rocks!

For New Year’s we decided to attend an Escapees Hang Out event in Tucson. That is where we are as the year comes to an end. There have been activities every day. There are probably 50 people here. The weather has been both good and ugly. Warm at first, but the week is ending with rain and chilly weather.

We did a digital scavenger hunt in Tucson Old Town. Our team of five did very well, coming 5th of ten teams, and only 10 points behind the leader. The hunt took several hours, and we wandered all over Old Town. The dat ended with a big lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.

On Wednesday we drove to Tombstone and toured the town, along with a shootout at the OK Corral. Afterwards we looked at the antique buggies and read the history of the town and of the people. Wow! They led a tough life.

After Tombstone we drove south to Bisbee and took a tour of the Queen Mine. This was an amazing tour! We road a rail car 1,500 feet into the mountain, which was 1,500 under the peak. The mine is actually 3,500 deep, and has 210 miles of tunnels. There are over 2,000 miles of tunnels in the area.

Our guide had been a minor, so his explanations and stories were spell binding. This mine produced primarily copper, but also gold, silver, lead, and other minerals. He showed us all the methods and tools used over the years. Those guys were truly men of steel! The mine finally closed in 1975.

We also drove through the town of Bisbee. The houses are built into the hills, and long stairs led to each housing level. I didn’t get any photos of town because I was too busy negotiating the curving narrow streets. We definitely plan to go back and see more.

The Timbers you see shore up the mine. interesting how they go all different angles! The passageways were very narrow. Those wires hanging out of the wall were fuses for dynamite, each with a different length of fuse for a timed blast. Scary! Each hole was 7’ deep. We saw traces of silver, gold, lead, and a couple minerals in the ceiling. It was a fascinating tour!

On Thursday we visited the amazing Kartchner Caverns. This is a living cave, so no cell phones, camera, purses, or anything allowed, so I wasn’t able to take any photos. This was an absolutely amazing tour! We saw a 7’ soda straw, beautiful colors, and all sorts or columns. This cave has only been open 30 years, so it is new. Listening to the story of the two men who discovered this cave, and the steps taken to preserve it, is spell binding. Our tour Ranger, Jesse, was animated and excited about her job, which made the experience even better.

On Friday, the trip to the mountains was cancelled — snow and cold. So we stayed around the camp and relaxed. Then we had a super New Year’s Eve party! Lots of food, music, singing, visiting, and dancing! It was a great time! Jan did a great karaoke number.

We woke up today to heavy rain, wind, and cold temperatures, but that didn’t stop this gang from a monster food fest.

At noon, the clouds cleared and it was sunny, but still windy and cold, so we took a drive to the Saguaro National Park. It’s a 10 mile drive through the park. There are trails to walk, but the wind and cold kept us in the truck.

Looking back on 2021, we had a great year. Covid still holds some things back, but we worked around that and had a great time anyway. We saw new places, did some fishing, visited with family and friends, and still love our RV lifestyle.

Attending Church all year was a special treat. Being there in person, and attending classes was a huge blessing. In 2022 we’ll be able to attend the Temple again. We are really excited to start our Church Mission in May. 2022 is going to be an awesome year! We wish you much love and success in the new year.