Tucson At Last

Finally we are here. After 36 days and 2,100 miles we arrived at my cousin's house in Tucson last Wednesday about 2:00. Actually it is only 1,200 miles if you drive directly here but we didn't do "directly." And we drove around quite a bit at many of our stops. My cousin's house is really north of Tucson. If you have a good Arizona map, find Highway 77 going north out of Tucson. If you find Oro Valley we are a little northeast; if you find Catalina we are just a little east.
But first some pictures.

Jana has a picture of Lilly like this only she is looking left. She wanted one of Josiah to put with it for a gift for Korak. This is what we came up with using my little camera and some photo software. And of course the other picture is the family at Christmas.

On the way here we stopped at Lake Havasu City to touch London Bridge. This is the one which Robert McCullough purchased in London, dismantled, and moved to Arizona to be a landmark in the city he was building on the shores of the Colorado River. This is the same man who developed the McCullough chain saw so he had a little money to throw around.

Last Tuesday we bid Quartzsite a fond farewell and moved east to Glendale (near Phoenix). In fact we drove past the stadium where the Arizona Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles today for the AFC Championship (this is football stuff for the uninitiated). Quartzsite was fun; I wouldn't be opposed to going there again.

In Glendale we stayed in the yard of an old friend. Wes attended the Eugene FM church I grew up in. He owned a construction company and gave me job each summer while I was attending college. In fact, he was one of the men who were responsible for the Eugene church paying my tuition for the first two years I was in college. Over the years we kind of lost track of each other but last year we connected and had dinner together. So he invited us to stop at his house. He said he had a big yard, lots of space. Well... he does have a big yard but not much driveway space for a 12 foot high, 8 foot wide, 45 foot long (including the pickup) RV. We were just going to stay in the street in front of his house but found out that was illegal. So we cut some tree branches out of the way and backed into his driveway. I had to disconnect the pickup so there would be room for his wife to get her car in and out. Her name is Carol and she fixed a great dinner. Then we played a card game named Twiddler (I think that is right), kind of like the game of scrabble. It was fun and very relaxing. They have a home-based business in packaged soup mixes and sent us off with a nice selection.

Today we worshiped at Casas Church where Jim and Joyce attend (my cousin and his wife). My uncle Ken also attends there mostly because he is dependant on Jim for transportation. Today Joyce and I picked him up for church because Jim was in Mesa putting his wife on a plane for Bellingham. They have a son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids there. The son is a hospital chaplain but also in the National Guard. He has been deployed for the second time to Iraq so Joyce is going up to help with the kids for a month. Jim will join them later for a couple weeks.

This week we begin our duties at Wycliffe. I'll give more details when I know exactly what we will be doing. And when we begin! All the verbal messages were that we would begin with an orientation on Monday. Except their volunteer manual says Monday is a holiday -- Martin Luther King Day. So we are not sure what to do. But we'll figure it out.

Hope you can get your week figured out just as easily. (My friend Sue's blog reminds me brag about the weather. It has been in the mid 40s at night and in the mid to high 70s during the day. Beautiful warm sun. However it IS supposed to rain about midweek. Love ya, my freezing friends!)