At Home in Arrey

It feels SOOOO good to finally be here and get settled in.  At the end of my January post I said we hoped to go to the Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ, but we didn't get there.  My son Matt and his lady Shannon came to visit us in Casa Grande, which was wonderful.

As you can see above, Millie was happy to greet our guests!  Both are well.  I was hoping to see his beautiful dark blue Harley Davidson motorcycle, but it was cold and they came by car instead.
 
The next day we left for Benson, AZ.  While there, we took a trip down to historic Tombstone.  It's kind of hokey, but we had fun.  We saw several 
re-enactments of infamous shoot-outs.  Then we had our pictures taken in the saloon.

 One could take rides in this carriage, but we didn't take time for that.  Our dogs were at home, so we had to keep an eye on our time.  We saw the character on the right in the Bird Cage Saloon/Theater.

 This was one of many street entertainers we saw there.  After all of that, the guys stopped for some water from the horse trough, which was empty anyway.  

The next day we drove to Patagonia to visit the Paton Hummingbird Preserve.  It was cold, damp, and overcast so we didn't get a lot of good pictures, but we did have a grand time there.

 
 These two pictures were taken by Diane's husband, Jim, who we are calling Red to avoid confusion with my Jim.


When we left there, we drove through pretty heavy rain to get back to Benson.   After our three days there, we drove to Lordsburg, through rain and then SNOW. 

This was our car, outside Kranberry's Chatterbox Restaurant on February 11th.  We go there for dinner every time we drive out here.  Janice sent us pictures and video of the snow at Arrey RV Park, our home park.
  We weren't sure we were ready to face that, but the next morning much of the snow had melted and we were able to drive up here without any problems.  We still had some snow in the park for a few more days.  We got the RV parked in our permanent site and began setting up.  Our 8 foot by 12 foot shed won't be here for two or three weeks, so we still have stuff in here that will later be moved, but we did order the shed the very next day.  We have also ordered a 96 gallon propane tank that will be placed next to the RV and the company will come here to fill it, so we don't have to go get propane all the time. Yippee!!!  
Sunday we took Diane and Red to our church in TorC, and they really liked it.  That was when I really felt like we had come home.  More people than I could count came up to us to welcome us home.  
Pastor Ric and Mary were there, and after the service we stopped for lunch at Sam's Road Crew Restaurant.

Ric, of course called it the RoadKill Cafe.
We were glad to spend some time together, but we didn't think much of the restaurant.  We had a better meal the day we first arrived in Arrey and took Diane and Red to the A B Drive-in and I got my Philly Cheese steak sandwich.  I've been waiting for that for a very long time, and as always, IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT ME.
In a few weeks I will post pictures of our home site after we get the shed all set up.  We are going to buy about a dozen concrete paving blocks for them to set the shed on so it won't be right on the ground.

For now I will close by saying that we KNOW God watched over us in all of our travels getting back home.  I know I reported on our brake issue in January.  Happily, we had no other problems of any kind on our trip.  I don't, for one single minute, believe that was just luck.  We are eternally grateful for God's traveling mercies.  We know He watched over us and kept us safe from any harm.  Our faith in Him is unshakeable because we have seen what He has done for us and for others around us.  I pray that all of you who read this, if you don't already know God, will find your way to Him and find the joy we have, from knowing we are never alone.  If I thought all we had to keep us safe was our own strengths, I would be so afraid of all the things we might do badly.  It is such a huge comfort to know that God is ALWAYS with us and He will protect us from harm, as long as we permit Him to look after us.  
Happy Trails to one and all!