So Happy to Be Here in Arey

Before we left Benson, AZ we took a drive  to Willcox.  We had planned to visit the Cochise Stronghold, but that turned out not to be possible.  We called and were told there was a bad fire just to the west of it and we should not try to come there.  We waited two more days and drove out that way.......but the road to the Stronghold was blocked and there were signs that it will be closed until further notice.  Instead we went to see the Rex Allen Cowboy Museum in Willcox.  It was such a fun outing!

Here is the museum and across the street is a statue of Rex Allen in his park. 

It was an overcast day but not too cold to enjoy being outside.

Rex Allen was born and raised in Willcox, and worked as a cowboy here when he was young.  Later he was a rodeo cowboy, but he found out just how hard that was.  He became a singer and later got into movies, along with his beloved horse Koko.

This guitar case had his likeness carved on it.  On the right are some cowboy outfits he wore on stage and in movies.

I had to get one of Jim next to a life size picture of Rex Allen!

This was a much later picture of him with his aunt.  He was always very close to her.  The docent told us that he used to come into the museum and chat with visitors, and on more than a few occasions he would sing a favorite song for them.

After we left the museum, we went to a place called The Dining Car for lunch.  They also have some Rex Allen memorabilia on display there.


I think this plaque refers to when this railroad car was used as a railroad car. 
One could sit outside to eat, but it was a little too chilly for that.

I don't know the origin of these hammered tin pieces on the walls, but I thought they were quite beautiful, so I had to include a picture of one.  The food was good, and the prices were not bad!

I think this was the old train station in town.  It's across the street from The Dining Car.  After lunch we had to head back to Benson, and our dogs.  We started packing up to travel to Lordsburg the next day for a one-night stopover. 

Before leaving Benson, Jim bought me these lovely roses.  He's such a sweetie!  They lasted a full week!  We went to Lordsburg because we found a restaurant there that we like.  It's called Kranberry's Chatterbox.  We had a nice dinner and came back to the RV.  On Thursday we arrived at the Arrey RV Park before noon and got all set up.  I had many packages that I had ordered from WalMart.com that had arrived before we got here, so we spent all afternoon going through our mail and packages.  On Friday we met Ric and Mary (his cougar) for lunch at the AB Drive-in.  He wanted to go someplace for Mexican food, but I just had to get one of my faves......the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich at AB Drive-in is the best I've had anywhere!  Mary is a total delight and she can handle all of Ric's craziness!  Sadly she had taken a fall and hurt herself on Thursday, so she was on crutches and after a couple hours, she had to get back home to elevate her leg.

Our friend Mary Iron Elk arrived this week on Wednesday and is set up next to us.  On Friday we drove her to TorC to get a dental cap re-inserted at the Ben Archer Healthcare clinic.  Once she could eat......................we went to lunch at AB Drive-in.  Now she also knows where to get a great Philly Cheese Steak sandwich too.

I can't close without including pictures of our newest owls.  In Benson Jim got me one that I named Freaky Frieda because of all her many colors.

The one on the right is Hootie.  He is motion activated and his eyes light up AND he hoots.

here he is lighted up after dark.  Jim does turn him off before bed time so the other people here won't complain about his noise.

That's about all the news for now.  My older sister Donna is still in the hospital recovering slowly from her broken hip.  I have talked to her, and her husband George a couple times.  Her spirits were low for a while, but she seems to be getting stronger now.  Thanks again to all who are praying for her and for George too.  As far as we are concerned, there is nothing more powerful than prayer.  All too often people think of prayer as their "last resort" but it should be your first choice in a crisis.  God wants to help you, if you will just ask Him to.  Please remember He is always there for you, he's as close as anyone could be.......so when you have any kind of crisis, remember how very fast he will respond to "knee mail".  Have a grand, blessed weekend, and we will be writing again soon.

An Extra Post Today

Today I would like to share something that someone else wrote.   Our very special friend, retired Pastor Ric Miller is a member of the Sierra County Missionary Alliance.  He writes a weekly column for their newspaper.  I am fortunate to be included in his mailing list and last week he wrote one that really spoke to me.  I asked his permission to share it with all of you.  Often I have shared a portion of things others have sent to me, but this I will share in its entirety.  Here it comes:

 Rix Relationship Ramblings
February 12, 2018
Why do it? There are times I need to say, “Why do it?” I wake up in the morning, wanting to not do it, never sure what it is I am not doing. The bed is more comfortable than the morning stress. The bed is warmer than the morning chill. Why do it? My body aches and I rise to face the day. You see, at my age, Why do it is a serious question that needs to be answered.
I remember Pastor friends of mine that I wondered why they did it. They had the right after so many years of ministry to call it all an end. I would ask them Why do it? Their answers are often different but more times than not they are the same. They are doing “it” because they were called to a different life than most. They were called to ministry. Ministry does not have a completion date. It is open ended.
I get out of bed and read the list of things that need to be done. The day progresses and I discover, “Why do it?” People come to me with needs and hurts. Why do it? The answer is Jesus trusted me with the needs of others. Jesus enabled me to help and gave me the skills to meet others needs. Fellow pastors call me and ask if I can do “it” for someone that needs help.
Why do it? Because God called me to do it. Why do it? Because God enables me. I guess the next question, “So what does that mean to me?” I can allow others to do “it”.  However, if you are a child of God, there are no others. God has called YOU. Who else is there at the moment of need. Who else has God trusted to do “it” besides you? Please understand I do not know what that need is, but you do. God placed you there at that moment and is more than capable of empowering you to fulfill His need.
I am talking about a unique calling that God has placed upon you, however, what if God had said to you in your deepest need, Why do it? If God had taken a day off when your need was so great, you would be in great pain. If Jesus said, “Why do it?” when the father called Him to die upon the Cross, where would you be?
God has called you to a special ministry that no other can do, that is why “why do it? Thanks for your time. Ric Miller

I cannot add anything to what Pastor Ric said.  I just hope the writing above will inspire you as much as it did for me.  I could not think of anything scarier than the idea 'if Jesus said, "Why do it?" when the father called Him to die upon the Cross, where would you be?'  If Jesus was willing to die for all of us, how can we not be willing to do what He has called us to do? 

I have often asked you to begin your day with an attitude of gratitude and to be kinder than you need to be to your fellow life travelers.  Now I am also going to ask you to look for" that special ministry that no other can do," and try your best to do what is needed of you. 
Good bye for today, and we wish you many blessed days ahead.

Time to Catch up on Things

When I posted the short blog entry last week, I had not yet downloaded some pictures we took in Quartzsite, so I would like to back track so I can include them now.

 This cute little van is the only public transportation I know of in that small town.  As you can see, it is called the Camel Express.  That amused me.

 I had to show you the Hi Ali swapmeet!!!!!
If you are looking for something you have not found ANYWHERE else, you might find it here.  Some say if you can't find it here, it just does not exist.
 
 This gives you an idea of how empty this town gets after most of the RVers leave town.....  
This is one of the restaurants in Q.  It is called The Grubstake.  More often than one would want to believe this place has run out of food before they ran out of customers in line outside! 

 On Sunday we drove out Plomosa Road to where we had read we would find the Intaglios and the Bouse Fisherman.  We did NOT find the Intaglios, but we parked at the "second viewing area parking" and hiked almost a mile to where we thought we would see this stone image of a fisherman.  This stone tablet to the right is all we found.  We saw hiking trails that led up into the hills, but it was getting hot, and we knew we couldn't go that far, so we started back.

We did see lots of cactus plants.
 

 
 On the way back, we took some pictures of some of the remaining "boondockers" out in this area.
 






 Our last day in Q we did something we have always meant to do, but had not.  We went to the Tyson's Wells Stage Station Museum.

This building on the 
right was out behind the main building.  These stone buildings are miniatures created, and donated by the Barrett family. 

I'm sorry my shadow got in this one.

 






After this we went inside the building. 
 These two scenes were carved entirely from a piece of wood.

These were from the "gold mining" room.  There is a rock hound group that you can join and they have land where you can still pan for gold!

This was what they have on display about Hi Jolly.


The docent said nobody remembers who this man was, or where the wheel chair might have come from.

This was the original post office for the  town of Tyson's Wells.  Later it was closed down.  Some time later they wanted to open it again, but the postal service does NOT re-open any closed offices, so that was why the name of the town of Tyson's Wells became the town of Quartzsite, Arizona.

This is an old baptismal font.
The picture on the right shows that the inside was coated with mercury.  Babies were baptized to save their souls, but the holy water may have been tainted with mercury!
 
This is outside the main building an represents the best place in town to spend the night back then............sleeping on a dirt floor.  OMG.

This is also out front of the museum.
Jim wanted to take this guy home with us, but he just didn't want to go........
That was our tour of the museum.  It is well worth the time, and was very interesting to learn so much of the local history of the area.
The next morning we packed up to leave, but had to get our tires replaced before we could head out to Tucson.  On my next post I will fill you in on all we saw and did at the FMCA rally.  We had a good time, but were disappointed in some parts of it.  More news and pictures to come.  I will also TRY to attach a few videos, but I don't know if that will work or not.

One of the golf cart drivers asked us if we had a good time at the rally.  We said we did.  He commented that if you come to a rally like this and don't have a good time, maybe it's your own fault.  At first I felt that was a cold thing to say, but then I realized he was right.  Each day we wake up and we make a choice.  We choose to have a good day, or not to.  We choose to see the good in others, or not to.  We woke up this morning.  God gave us another day to enjoy.  None of us knows if we will have tomorrow, but we do have today.  It's here and we choose how we will use this day.  I don't remember who said it (or I WOULD give that person credit) but life is 10% about WHAT happens, and 90% about HOW we react to what happens.  Please think about that for a minute.  Even when it seems like bad things happen, there could be a silver lining to it.  

When Jim told me that our neighbor in Q said we needed to replace the inside rear dual tire on the passenger side, my first reaction was "why was he under our RV looking at our tires?"  But when we took the motorhome to the tire place, we found out that ALL of our tires were very bad, and not safe to drive anywhere on.  Thank you God for using our neighbor to tell us what may well have saved our lives.  Yes, the new tires cost us a lot of money, but we think it was important to get them when we did.  Not all examples are this dramatic, but even on little things, life IS about how you react to the things that happen.  

You can choose to see all kinds of things from a negative perspective and be disappointed in everything.  OR, and this is huge folks:  you COULD face life with an attitude of joy and gratitude and actually LOOK for the good in things; and by the way, also look for the good in people.  We always hear about the bad things a few people do, but MOST people are good and we seldom take the time to thank folks for their little acts of kindness.  I would like to suggest taking a moment to thank people for their kindness AND then pass it along.  That may not seem like much, but it can change your day, and just maybe it will also change the day for the people you see each day.  You don't have to always be in a hurry, and angry with anyone who slows you down.  Maybe you should thank them for allowing you to stop and smell the roses!  Like an old song says:  "Don't worry, be happy" and pass it on.

Under the Tucson Sun

We finally left Quartzsite, and now we are in Tucson, AZ.  We are here for the FMCA INTO Rally called, Under the Tucson Sun.  Yesterday was pretty rough on all of us.  

I do NOT have the exciting news I had hoped we would have to share by now.  We had hoped we were going to get set up with solar panels and an inverter to operate most of our electrical stuff in the RV.   Then we could save on electricity and take advantage of all that sunshine we live with.  However, to make a very long and sad story short, we could not get what we wanted at the price we had been quoted, and at the price quoted, we would only be able to run the TV for a few hours a day.......not worth the cost.  To get what we had been told we would get, would have required at least four more batteries and a much larger inverter, so we said thanks, but no thanks.  

Another reason not to get the solar done was that we discovered we needed replace a rear tire.......and when we took it to the only tire place in Quartzsite, it turned out that ALL of our tires needed to be replaced.  They all had huge cracks in them.  We KNOW that it was only by the Grace of our Heavenly Father that we made it to Quartzsite safely.   Tires might have been less pricey someplace else, but we did not want to leave there on the old ones, so it was worth it to us to get them before we left.  The only bad part was that they had to order the tires and we had them put on yesterday, which gave us a late start on our travels to Tucson.  We didn't get here until about 5 pm.  Usually we like to arrive between 2 and 3 pm so we have plenty of time to set up and relax before dark.

The good news is that we have a full hook up site.  The bad news is that I think these sites were established before RVs had slide-outs, and are very narrow.  The rig on our driver's side has his awning out, and it is less than 18" from our slide-out.  He complained to Jim that we are too close to him!  We can't put out our awning as it would hit the RV on our passenger side.  Jim put out our chairs, but it is really too close for comfort!  

We couldn't get a satellite signal last night, so we gave up on it.  Today we spoke to a lady in one of the booths that sell and install satellite equipment.  After telling her what had happened, she suggested we check ALL connections, and sure enough, Jim found a loose one inside the compartment next to the TV.  It only took one try to get it to work once he tightened it up.  I'm sorry we missed watching Scorpion last night, but at least he WILL be able to watch NCIS tonight.

This morning we went over to the Old Pueblo Building to register and check the vendors.  We were happy to find someone selling beautiful American flags.......made in America!  Twice in stores in California we were going to replace our flag, but the ones we found were made in China, and call me crazy, but we wanted an America flag that was made in AMERICA!!!!!  And now we have one.  We had already taken our poor old one to the Elks Lodge for proper disposal of it.  We might invest in a new gauge system for reading the levels in all of our tanks, batteries and propane.  They will come to our site to install it too.  YAY!  

They have good entertainment for the next three nights here, and tomorrow I get to go to a Ladies Social.  There are several seminars we want to attend too................and this afternoon is the ice cream social.  On Thursday is a BBQ with entertainment and arts and crafts and even a "yard sale".  I think we are going to have a great time here this week.  There are also many RVs for sale that we can walk through, but there is no chance we want a new one after all we have done to make this one perfect for us!  Still, it is fun to walk through the new ones to get ideas for ours.  Will close for now, but more later on.