Date:                           March 16, 2007                                             

Location:                    St. David, AZ

0900

            It is bight blue sky and just the slightest hint of a wispy cloud on the horizon and we are headed for the 90’s. Life can be so harsh in the desert.  I would guess that a person could get bored with all of the bright blue sky and sun of the Arizona desert, but I am from the northeast and I don’t think it is going to happen anytime soon for me.  I have had the weeks upon weeks of grey funky skies and the rare glimpse of momentary blue sky for most of my life.  I am now enjoying the endless days of sun and warmth and will worry about boredom some fifty years or so down the road.

            It is a different life style.  The air was not extremely hot yesterday, but as I was cleaning out our car I did notice that I seem to heat up quite fast.  To dispel this discomfort I just slowed down a bit and took many more rest stops as I searched out a cool and shaded spot to reflect on the beauty that surrounds us.  Slowing down is a new, or not so new, work practice that I am learning to employee with great aplomb.  I think that I can now slow down with some of the best of the world.  When someone walks by the camp site and says, “Good morning.” I can stop what I am doing and carry on a half an hour conversation on just about nothing.  When this happens 3 or four time a morning you can accomplish quite a nice slow down.  You may not get a lot of work done, but the days do go by quickly.

            The half hour or forty-five minute job of vacuuming out our car was finally accomplished after a full morning of practicing my slow down technique so it was time for me to find a cool spot to rest.  I needed to rest not because I was tired, but because it was just time to do a full nothing and not a partial nothing.  My dear wife, who has not fully incorporated the “slow-down Arizona” work schedule was still slaving away in the RV doing what women do when they are getting ready for guests.  I wisely stayed outside and out of her way.  I was so “out of her way” that she could not find me.  I had found a cool shaded spot near the back cornet of our rig and positioned my chair there to enjoy the breeze and the coolness of shade as I worked at finishing my book.  This is another chore I managed to complete yesterday.  I guess I had a pretty fruitful day.

            Connie managed to bake bread, make brownies for desert and prepare our home for company along with the normal cleaning and spiffiing up women do when they are expecting company.  Like I said, “She has not mastered the slow down technique yet.”  She even managed to make me lunch and complete her own book. Where does she find the energy to get it all done?”

            Our friends came for desert and we enjoyed our homemade brownie and ice cream; we played an exciting game of Wizard, which always frustrated me; and we shared stories.  There stories were a lot more exciting that our stories, but I will let them tell you about their story.  It was a pretty full day at the desert resort.  Somehow during the height of our busy day Connie and I even managed to drive into town and mail some postcards.  As mundane as that all may sound to the normal people in the world, that is a pretty exciting day to we retired geriatrics.  If I could I might even have to find a way to slow down even further today, but I seriously feel that is nearly impossible.

Date:                           March 15, 2007                                             

Location:                    St. David, AZ

0830

            It is another fine day in the desert of Arizona.  The temperature during the day rises to nearly 90 degrees and then plummets into the 30’s for the night.  One might think it is almost perfect weather.  The days are warm and perfectly clear and it cools off for great sleeping weather.  The humidity has been in the single digits or very low teens and we have not seen enough clouds in a week to remember what they look like.  Some days it does get a bit hazy and we can see a subtle blurring of the mountains on the horizon, but they are 30 or 40 miles a way, or farther, and I guess that is normal. In New York if we can see across the street it is a good day.

            As I have opined so many times previously, we are not on total vacation and we do have chores that need to be accomplished.  I know that there are very few of you out there that would find much sympathy for us, but it is still a fact of life. Connie and I still have house chores to do.  We just manage to do them in some of the most beautiful and majestic areas of this country.  Yesterday it was clean up the outside of our home, day.  That meant that we had to wash and wax our motorhome.  On days that demand this type of chore it is surprising just how big this bus can be.  Yesterday we had a bit of a challenge.  We needed to wash our rig and the campground forbids such activity. Something about being in the desert and water and stuff like that.  We did not let a small thing like that deter us from our scheduled tasks.

            A trip to Wally world and a purchase of a “waterless” wax and wash compound provided us with almost everything we needed.  The can of stuff did not come with a person to apply the foam on our rig.  Nor did it come with someone to wipe it off and buff this monstrous bus to a beautiful shine.  I guess it was just a chore that needed to be dome the old Mexican way, Manuel.  Luckily, I have a wife who shares the giant chores of keeping this rig presentable to the world and she joined me for a day of wiping and buffing and producing sore muscles.  By the end of the day we had a very shiny and bright new looking home and feeling of a major accomplishment.  As I was cleaning up the throw away leavings of our days work I carried all of the papers to the dumpster across the street from us.  On the way back I noticed that I could see my reflection in the beautiful shine we had given Aurora.  From nearly 20 feet away I could have combed my hair using the RV as my mirror.  That is if I had enough hair to comb and if I really cared if my hair was a bit messy.  The shiny and deep reflection was awesome; the condition of my hair was less thrilling.

            We now have a rig that we will be proud to drive into the full-timers rally.  We can only hope that in the next week the dust of the dessert will slide off the shiny shell of our home and we will still have this glorious rig to show off.  One nice thing about being in the desert is that if you wash your car or rig you do not have to worry about it raining.  Rain is not a word that they use a lot around here.  There is, however, an enormous amount of dust that is just waiting to find a nice shiny place to settle.  I guess there is always a bit of imperfection in almost every perfect spot.

            By the way, Connie and I discovered the beauty and pleasure of desert cactus needles.  The floor of the campground is covered with little, almost invisible needles of some kind of cactus or other.  They are the type of needles that will jump up and attach themselves to just about anything that happens to pass near them.  Now these needles have had millenniums to perfect this ability and talent.  Add to this situation a micro-fiber polishing cloth that is purposely made to attract small bits dust and dirt.  Just for fun drop this cloth from the top of a ladder and then imagine the fun you can have trying to pick each and every the needle out of the miserable rag.  We managed to enjoy this game a couple of times yesterday.  I think the final score was cactus 37, Rob pissed off.  Have you ever tried to clean seven thousand tiny cactus needle spines out of a micro-fiber cloth?  I can only wish you the enjoyment of such a task.  I got to play that game with 4 clothes yesterday and with some of the clothes I got to play the game more than once.  Yes, the air did seem to have a hue of blue; and yes it was really stupid of me to throw cloth into a pile of cactus needles.  But, things happen, and, lucky me, it happened over and over again.  Oh well, It was a pretty day, and I got to sit in my chair enjoying the soft breeze of an 80 plus degree afternoon as I cussed and swore at Mother Nature for doing exactly what she has to do.

Date:                           March 14, 2007

Location:                    St. David, AZ

0800

            The human animal is a strange, but enjoyable animal to watch and enjoy.  If I were to even begin to think I could explain anything that pertains to the human animal I know it would be time to make my reservation for the loony farm.  It is still fun to observe the strange weird actions of this animal.  Yesterday, Connie and I traveled across the desert to find a hole in the earth.  It was not just any hole it was a big hole and, apparently, a very popular hole.  We drove over to Kartchner Caverns  It is only 9 miles or so from us, but it took us nearly 30 miles of driving to get there.  Sometimes in the desert you can’t get there form here.  As the crow flew we could have been there in 10 minutes, as the car drives it took us nearly half an hour.

            Our plan was to visit the Discovery Center and to have a picnic on the grounds of this new state park.  We had called ahead and tried to make reservations to have a tour, but were told that all the tours were booked and we could not get scheduled until sometime next month.  Most of the people that were smart enough to call ahead and schedule there tour would not walk across the street to look at a piece of limestone.  Put that limestone under the desert floor and they will wait in line and pay money to see it.  Doesn’t that sound a bit strange to you?

            Connie and I did enjoy the Discovery Center and we had a very nice lunch sitting in the desert near this large cavern.  We got to see the movie and learn about all of the attempts they are making to save this living and growing geological example of Mother Earth.  We also got some funny looks from the little ranger lady as we paid our 5 dollars just to park in the parking lot and realized that we were not going to be able to crawl in the hole. I guess she thought we were a bit strange, and she may not have been too far from right.

            While in the visitors center we found a reference to an old movie set that is located near Gammon’s Gulch.  So, we decided it would be a neat thing to try and find it.  After our lunch and a stroll around the park we hopped in our car and started our hunt.  Sackee could get us to the town that was near the gulch but she had no idea what I was talking about when I asked her to take us to Gammon’s Gulch.  One nice thing about being in the desert is that you do not have a lot of roads from which to choose when you are on a hunt.  We went to Pomerene and just kept going.  It was the only road and it headed straight out into the desolate desert.  There were signs on the road that warned us that the pavement was soon to end and that we should consider turning around. Connie was in full agreement, but I was on a mission.

            It is a magical feeling to head out into the desert.  What passes for civilization is so quickly left behind as you take a turn here and cross over a rise in the desert floor and proceed into a valley or basin.  Within a very few miles you feel as if you have left the world as it once was and are now heading into an unforgiving barren waste land that has never see human animals before.  The paved road, while it last, helps dispel some of this apprehension.  A very few miles out of civilization and a life time away from humanity we saw a sign that point to a desolate dirt trail that said, “ Gammon’s Gulch.”  With some fearful trepidation we headed off road and through the desert.  Believe it our not we found the old movie set.  It was all locked up and secured.  It seems that they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  I guess we should have made a reservation here also.  By the looks of the ruts in the sand that tried to pass for a road, I do not think that there is a very long line here normally.  We did meet one large junk yard dog that barked his greeting to us rather loudly.  We decided not to get out of the car and go for a stroll.  We also decided it was really neat that we had a high clearance, 4 wheel drive vehicle as I forged through the desert ruts and sand to extricate us from this destination. Why anyone would drive way out here in the desolation of a desert to make a movie I still have not figured out, but I said we are a strange animal.

            To complete our day, Connie and I decided that since we were having so much fun searching for treasures we should get out our Geocache list and try to add a few more finds to our record.  Again, a strange example of what adults do for fun.  We use millions of dollars of nation security satellites to find Tupperware, or metal, containers hidden in the desert.  Today we were very successful.  We found all 6 caches that we attempted to discover.  We did manage to get in a few places that we probably did not belong.  Like in someone’s front yard, if that is what you would want to call it; and headed down a private drive way that looked something like a desert road.  With 4 wheel drive, my wife’s hands over her eyes, and Sackee constantly saying, “Off route, recalculating.”  We did manage to get to every cache that we wanted.  We also managed to see a lot of Benson and the surrounding area from a perspective that few tourist ever do.  It may be a strange way for normal adults to act, but then we have never claimed to be normal.  Finding a new and adventurous way to get around an area is the true fun and excitement of Geocaching.

            I guess that one persons fun and excitment is another persons strange and weird example of the oddities of the human race. I think that that fact may be why we were created in the beginning.  Whoever or what ever placed us on this planet needed a source of amusement.  Watching the human animal on a daily basis can be nothing but a source of amusement and often a head banging, jaw dropping, unbelievable wonder.  I know that Connie and I do our part to keep our end of insanity alive and exciting.  I hope that you are also; otherwise life would be so boring.

Date:               March 13, 2007                                             

Location:        St. David, Az

0930

            It was another normal day in our abnormal life yesterday.  We did not pack a picnic lunch and hop in our little 4 wheeler and explore the desert.  We did not find a hidden Indian stronghold and meet the neatest of people.  We stayed home and did home things.  Even in the Nomadic life of a full time RVer it is necessary to do home things and minor repairs.  It is, also, necessary to wash windows clean floors and all of that home making stuff. Yesterday was our day for accomplishing just such chores.

            Connie decided that it would be nice if we could see out of our windows so she grabbed her new micro fiber cloth and a bottle of Windex and attack the outside of our home.  Since we are parked in the desert, which is, as we all think we know, a flat steady hard rock floor she grabbed the ladder and started to climb high enough to reach the windows.  Oops the floor of the desert is not perfectly flat and we are not parked on the most level site we have ever had.  Discretion was the better part of valor, and she asked me to steady her ladder as she cleaned the windows.  Yes, I was standing on the ground leaning against the ladder for stability and my lovely wife was climbing up and down the thing rag and Windex in hand to clean the windows.  I saw nothing so strange about that scene.  I can stand around and watch people work all day long.

            I did have a few chores that I wanted to investigate.  We needed some minor repairs made around the house and today was going to be the day to attempt to accomplish them.  It was, actually, a very productive day.  I managed to get done all that I had planned. I only had to go into the store once.  And I do not remember the air turning blue even once.  It was not only a productive day, but it was a rare one.  Usually my days of home chores turn into an exploration of my command of the blue language of failure.  Yesterday was not such an excursion.  I did have to go into town to purchase a tube of silicon to replace the one I thought I had all ready purchased last summer.  If that tube is on this rig it is well hidden and I am sure I will find it sometime next summer when I least need it.

            Half way through our work day as we sat and enjoyed a light lunch we had a visit from our dear friends John and Eileen.  Needless to say my wife was mortified.  You see, our home was not quite clean yet.  It was in the middle of becoming clean.  That means it looked far worse than it ever does, but these are our close friends and they also live full time in an RV.  Embarrassment put aside, we had a very nice chat and spent a couple of hours catching up on winter tales.  They were on their way back to their rig after a visit to family south of us and we were, sort of, on the way.  I guess they had little trouble stepping over the vacuum to reach a seat.  The important facts were that it was great to see them and we had to plan our, soon to be, visit to see them at their winter work site.  I am sure Connie will, someday, get over her chagrin at having drop in visitors right in the middle of a work day.

            It was not a very exciting day, but then that is reality.  It was a rather productive day, and that in itself is note worthy.  I am sure that any one that is still reading this is asking themselves why they have wasted so much of their valuable time.  I can’t apologize for the boring summation of our day yesterday.  That is just how it was.  I can’t excuse your wasted time, it was yours to waste and it took me a lot longer to write this than it took you to read.  But, isn’t nice to know that some days our exciting Nomadic life of adventure is just as boring as yours?

            The ladder is put away, the repair jobs are completed and now it is time for Connie and me to go and play.  Our life may not always be exciting and adventurous, but it is seldom, if ever boring.

Date:                           March 12, 2007                                                                     

Location:                    St. David, AZ

0830

            To understand the beauty and magic of our day’s exploration, you must first understand the stark reality of where we are.  Connie and I are resting our work tired souls in the southeastern corner of Arizona.  We are not far from the border of Mexico and right in the middle of the roughest and toughest section of the west desert region of this country.  This is the area that the white man let the Indians remain the longest because it had nothing of any value to the westward moving settlers. That is it had nothing of any value until they started looking in the hills and caves and found precious metals like silver and copper, but I digress.

            We are on the edges of the Sonoran Desert and it is the picture of the stereotypical southwestern scene in almost any old western movie.  To think about crossing this very unforgiving landscape on horseback or in a wagon is almost unimaginable.  The slim examples of vegetation are creosote and turpentine bushes and, of course, a collection of almost every type of cactus there is.  Especially the saguaro cactus, as it stands sentry duty, arms raised, as if to warn you to stop and return to civility and the life supporting habitat from which you have just left.  It is a very stark and harsh environment, and yet it has its own majestic beauty and, dare I say, charm.

            The stark brown and harsh desert floor is surrounded by towering mountains that play with the bright sunlight as it travels across the enormous blue sky.  The minerals in the hills reflect a multitude of colors and shadows as the day progress and the brightness of the sun is reflected from constantly changing angles.  The closer mountains seem to be constantly changing personalities and colors as the shadow play with Mother Nature’s hues of red and brown.  As this pictorial light show is demonstrating the beauty of desert sun and light on the near mountains, the mountains in the distant are subtly morphing through a magnificent array of deep purples and slight essences of blues.  Due to the bright blue deep skies and crystal clear dry air, you can see from yesterday into tomorrow and this provides varied and multiple levels of depth and perspective.  So as harsh and unforgiving as the desert and hot dry air can be, it also has a charm and rustic beauty that draws you ever deeper into its control.

            It is from this starting point that Connie and I went looking for Cochise and his stronghold.  We had found an old map that directed us to an area that is supposed to be his protected hiding place and the area in which, it is said, he is buried.  As a young boy I had watched almost every episode of “Broken Arrow” so I was sure I knew all there was to know about Cochise and Tom Jeffords.   I was sure I could find the stronghold.  I had seen it a thousand times on Saturday morning on TV.

            Along the way we searched for and found a cache that was hidden near the Dragoon Springs mail station.  It is also the site of the only confederate soldiers that were killed and buried in Arizona during the Civil War.  I am not sure if you realize it or not, but the “Jack Ass” mail does not exist anymore and the old stations are in a bit of disrepair.  This one was no exception.  We also found that the old mail routes do not follow the interstates.  Chianti, with much chagrin from my hands over her eyes wife, became a real fourwheel drive trooper as we climbed over rocks and rutted desert floor to reach our destination.  The sign said that the roads were not regularly maintained.  They were not even roads most of the time.  We did manage to find the cache and the foundation of the old stagecoach station and we paid our respects to the four rock graves that were near the site. It was form here that we headed deeper into the Dragoon Mountains and the stronghold of my Indian hero Cochise.

            Have you ever found a hidden place on this earth that immediately touches your soul?  Cochise’s stronghold was just one of those special places.  It is located deep in the Dragoon Mountains and invisible unless you know how to get in and out of the area.  The mountains look to be just large rocks that jut a mile or so from the desert floor, but the area that we found is an oasis hidden behind these towering boulders.  The starkness of the harsh desert is miraculously replaced by lush vegetation and fruit trees.  The air is cooler and it seemed that a constant slight breeze wafted through this box canyon of sorts.  The sides of the area were towering rocks and mountain that made it almost invisible to the world outside and a perfect place to hide from the prying eyes of the Calvary.  It was not only great pace to hide but a great place to feel your energy and souls recharge and reconnect with Mother Nature.  It was special.

            I am not sure if the true beauty and magic of this haven is what made it so special or the people that we met while we were there made it so special.  The National Forest host was charmer and allowed Connie and I to have our picnic lunch with out the necessity of paying for a campsite as the directions at the fee station stated.  He thought it was nice of us to stop and have a visit with him and since it was Sunday we were not gong to be bothering anyone.  We thanked him and after a rather long chit chat we ventured to our picnic place and  our lunch.

            After our lunch we decided to walk through this very small camping area and enjoy the pure wonder and beauty that is hidden in this crevice of the Dragoon Mountains.  It was with this simple decision that we met example number two of special people in a very special place.  Mary and Will from upstate New York were setting out at their campsite and we just had to say hello.  You do not expect to meet people from Binghamton as you stroll through the stronghold of Cochise.  It seems that Mary and Will are retired and do a lot of work with Habitat for Humanity.  Needless to say we had a lot in common as we traded NOMAD stories for Habitat stories.  The warmth and personal connection was almost immediate and a wonderful pleasure.  After another lengthy chit chat we traded cards and address and we left them a brochure for NOMADS.  Connie and I were invited to visit them at Raquette Lake and we invited them to visit us at HHCR.  It just felt like one of those Celestine Prophesy moments that was meant to be.  We were meant to meet and make a connection and what a magical place on this earth in which to accomplish the moment of kismet.

            The stronghold of Cochise is a magical and wonderful hidden lush spot in the middle of a very harsh and unforgiving desert in Arizona.  It is a spot that is not easy to find, it is not easy to get to, and it is so easily overlooked as a destination.  Yet, if you persevere and are fortunate enough to find this safe haven on our planet, you will feel the magic and power that emanates form Mother Earth at this hidden oasis.  It is also near the final resting place of Cochise, although the exact location of that is unknown to any living person.  I am not sure if it is the place that holds the magic or if the people that we met there provided the magic.  I do know that is was wonderful day and will linger in our memories for a long time.  The value of what is hidden in the mountains that dramatically accentuate the Arizona desert floor is not always equated to minerals and materialistic opportunities to wealth.  There is also a magic that is secretly hiding on the other side of some of those impressive boulders and seemingly impenetrable mountain walls.  Cochise found his place of wonder and protection on this earth and now Connie and I have had the privilege of, for a moment, sharing it with him, or at least his spirit.

Date:                           March 11, 2007                                                                     

Location:                    St. David, AZ

0815

            Nestled in the desert of Arizona between Tombstone and Benson Connie and I started our restful vacation from work by attending another piano concert.  If you are doing your assigned reading, you know that we finished our NOMADS projects by attending a fabulous concert in Tucson.  The concert that we attended last night at the local SKP Park was not quite the same.  Friends of ours that stay most of the winter at the SKP Park invited us to attend the evening entertainment at the park. It was called Piano Extravaganza.  Connie and I had no idea what we were about to experience, but we had a free evening and it was nice to see Don and Kay again, so we traveled up the road for an adventure.

            The Piano Extravaganza turned out to be a 4 ladies form the park who all had keyboards and a desire to play them.  To say that they were not fully professional would be a major understatement.  They did, however, showcase a desire to enjoy music and share that joy with the collected audience.  There were quite a few people there to share in the evening’s fun.  I guess it just goes to show how far we are from anything.  The show lasted nearly 2 hours and consisted of four piano keyboards trying to play the same music, sometimes on the same beat, but always with an emphasis on enjoyment and fun.  There may have been a few aged composers that were doing a bit of rolling over in their collective graves, but there was also a collected group of appreciative Escapees that had a full evening of fun and entertainment.  There is no question that the ladies had put a lot of work and practice into the performance that they offered.  It is also not a far stretch to think that they may need just a little more practice before they audition for American Idol.

            The ladies did make a big point in their fashion statements and the decorations that they had on the stage.  The ladies were dressed in long black skirts with white blouses and a vest that had a piano keyboard decoration across the back.  It was quite appropriate and lovely.  There were, of course, the expected musical notes and piano key decorations adorning the wall behind them and piano keyboard skirts around the standing instruments.  It was a very festive and bright scene. 

            After the “concert” we went back to Don and Kay’s to pick up our car and head back to our home.  Instead of leaving immediately we were invited in for a few moments to arrange our next adventure and to compare our calendars.  It seems that when you retire you must coordinate calendars with other retirees if you ever want to have any time together.  Don and Kay are very involved with the Escapee Park and their calendar made ours look empty.  After nearly 2 more hours of catching up and date checking we now have a plan for new and exciting adventures.  We have scheduled some more entertaining evenings at the park, a fourwheel excursion into the mountains that surround us, and an exploratory mission to Fort Huachuca.  It seems that our calendar is also becoming quite full as we take this two week rest from our NOMADS winter.  The new additions to our schedule I have listed do not include our time with Dave and Mary as they are soon to arrive at the Escapee park and of course our rally that is soon approaching.  By the way we are also going to search for Cochise and maybe some of his geocaches.

            One of the wonders and pleasures of this life style is the ability and treasure of having friends all over this country.  Don and Kay are friends that we just happen to meet at the Newmar factory a few years back.  It was one or those chance meetings that will always be a moment in our life.  It was the same time that we met Dan and Adele and it must have been meant to be.  Dan and Adele are both gone now, but will forever remain in our hearts and memories.  Don and Kay always seem to be near and dear friends every time we manage to cross paths in our travels.  They are the kind of wonderful people that seem to always be in your thoughts when you are apart and seem to have never been away when you finally meet again.  But, that is the wonder of this life style and the people that you meet.  Often the close friends that you meet as you travel around this country may be physically absent for a time but they are never far from your thoughts and when you meet again it is as if they have never been gone.  Only now you each have brand new stories to tell and memories to share.  Friends will always be close, even if they are far away.

Date:               March 10, 2007                                                                     

Location:        St. David, AZ

1040

            I looked at my last entry and I was a bit shocked.  It has been over a week since I last took time and bored all the readers and accidental visitors to my blog site.  That week has been the completion of our project at TMM and now Connie and I are truly leisure members of society.  We can now call ourselves part of the stereotypical society of nomadic RV retirees.  We do not have to get up early and prepare to go to work. We do not have to feel any obligations to accomplish this or that chore to help a volunteer group of hard working souls.  We can now be lazy and mindless, just like most of the other RVers we see on the road.  We can run to the early bird specials at the local eat all the food you can buffets and then we can sit and watch our thighs and bellies grow beyond our pants control.  We could do that, but I doubt that we will.

            We finished our last week at TMM working at a day care center on one side of Tucson and taking care of some left over maintenance chores at the main TMM facility on the other.  We also had our team dinner at a Sweet Tomatoes and a good bye luncheon provided by TMM at the main facility lunchroom.  It was a pretty normal week while working on a project.  The last day we tried to find all of our tools and return the tools that did not belong to us.  There is always the final list of chores of making a home a bus that must be accomplished and most of that duty rests on Connie’s shoulders.  Somehow she finds time to do that and still join in the dinners, final project meetings and still take care of me.

            Most of the team left yesterday or the evening before and as we left the cramped parking lot of TMM it looked very empty.  If you take a small parking lot and remove four of the motorhomes that have been cramped in there for nearly a month, it looks very different.  It looks very empty, and it looks like it was nearly impossible to place 6 large RVs in there in the first place.  This project had many positive points and feel good moments about it but it never reached the plateau of being one of my favorites and the lacking of facilities may well be part of that feeling.

            It was just after 10:00 in the morning when I finally started up the beast and let the diesel engine roar to life.  It was time for the final hugs and good byes.  There were no tears but a maybe a few sad thoughts as we said our final farewell to some of our team and a momentary so long to others.  The reality is that we will probably not see most of this team ever again and on some level that may be a good thing from some points of view.  It is also true that we will dearly miss some of the team members that we had the privilege and honor of working with on this project.  It is those members of this team that we may be able to make contact with in the future.  Of course or team leaders will now and forever be deeply seated in our hearts and we will, prayerfully, keep close contact with as they meander east by way of California.

            As I said, the final hugs were warm and caring.  Some were warmer and tighter than others, but they were all truly honest emotions of warmth.  The hand shanks were firm and true and the wishes of safe travels and good fortune were honest and from the heart.  It is just a true fact that even when all is right it is not necessarily perfect.  It is that  reality that helps define the very special moments as special and singles them out in your memory.

            There is just one such moment that occurred during our time in Tucson on this project that I would be quite remiss if I did not attempt to describe it for my own recorded memory and for your edification.  Dave and Mary had read about a performance of the Tucson Symphony that was to take place on our last night in Tucson.  The symphony had been show casing Russian composers and music in a festival of sorts and they were to culminate their efforts in performance of Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto number 2.  It is a peace of classical music that if you were to hear the first few measures I am sure would immediately recognize.  It is also one of my very favorite pieces of music and Rachmaninoff is one of my very favorite composers.  Dave and Mary offered the experience to the whole team and only Connie and I and the Smiths showed any interest in attending.  To shorten the story and not to go in to the lack of intellectual depth of any of the team members let it be understood that we managed to get tickets for the few of us with taste to attend the concert.  We were seated in the next county nearly but the symphony hall is a magnificent example of pure sound acoustics and design.  My wife was smart enough to bring her binoculars so she could actually see the performers.  The rest of we cloud soaring, nose bleed section seaters, were relegated to just enjoying the music and imagining the faces on the performers.

            The piano soloist was Fabio Bidini, an Italian protégée that is now living in Germany.  He has been playing piano since he was 5 and a half and winning the most prestigious competitions since the age of 7.  He is a Van Cliburn finalist and is now, at only 38 years old, one of the worlds most accomplished concert pianist.  Before the concert he and the director of the TSO had a conversation with the collected early audience and Fabio related that Rachmaninoff was not only one of his favorite composers but also one who wrote some of the most difficult music for a pianist to perform due to the very large stretch of his hands.  He also said that in order to properly play a concerto by Rachmaninoff you must first learn to let the music into your soul and mind and than learn to leach your fingers.

            As the opening chords of this concerto filled the packed symphony hall it was very apparent that not only had he let the music become part of his soul, but that he was more than capable of sharing that pleasure with we collected visitors tough the years of effort that he had spent teaching his fingers how to communicate with the instrument at which he sat.  As the musical concerto developed and was performed for the luckiest of audiences we were transported to a new level of musical experience.  Fabio’s ability to communicate with the symphony director and to play of the excellent performance of this wonderful orchestra was an experience that will forever echo in my soul.  To say that he received a standing ovation is almost mundane.  The audience exploded to their collective feet and paid him the due that he deserved for curtain call after curtain call.  As the audiences was attempting to collect their breath and return to the real world at the very end of the piece, Fabio jumped form his piano seat and gave a very large and deep hug to the orchestra conductor.  I know that I experienced a “moment” in my life, but I feel that the visiting pianist, conductor and collected orchestra were also aware that a very special moment had just happened and we all were honored and lucky enough to be present to share it.  The standing ovation was not only from the 2000 plus members of the symphony audience but also from the orchestra members.

             We are now resting in the desert in St. David, Arizona and Connie and I will now prepare to return to the real world.  We have laundry to do, shopping to accomplish, friends to visit and a rally to prepare to attend.  We have, also, memories to store and new acquaintances to either place in our memory file or soul touching categories.  We also have a new performer to be on the look out for as we wonder through musical establishments and inspect the collection of music available for purchase.  We also, now, have the picture of this young, some might say good looking, Italian pianist as he shares his love of music and his tremendous talent.  He not only allowed us to view how he had made this concerto part of his soul, but he has now made it part of ours.

Date:                           March 2, 2007                                                           

Location:                    Tucson, AZ          

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            It is Friday and that means it is play day for Connie and me as we have now finished two of our three weeks on this NOMADS project.  This project is an interesting sample of what it is like to be a NOMAD.  The organization is wonderful and is doing the work society needs as it addresses the needs of the neediest of God’s children.  The team is hard working and there are no caustic personalities that can so easily disrupt a team.  Connie and I are not over working ourselves but we are keeping busy most of the time.  And yet, these two weeks has seemed like seven and I am getting very anxious to see this project come to its proper end and allow Connie and me to venture on to new explorations.  I have no profound explanation for my attitude and I am not going to bore you with an attempt to understand my temperament.  I will just summarize with a statement; the team is heading to Voyager to have a day in the hot tub and enjoy a pot-luck dinner and Connie and I are heading out to do our own thing.   Whatever that means kind of sums up our mood.

            As I opened my door this morning to, again, let the rest of the team know that we are not to be part of their weekend excursion, I was notified that the sewer system at TMM is not having a good day.  The rig next to us tried to dump his grey water and now has a polluted lake right in front of his steps.  That kind of sums up my mood also; sometime the world just backs up on you for no reason.  I am just glad it was his grey water and not the black water, or I would really be in a shi - -  mood.

            Our week has been a little disjointed as we are trying to complete a laundry list of small repairs on the TMM campus.  That can always make life seem like a Chinese Fire Drill.  We are doing repairs on old stuff that has not been taken care of in the manner it should have been.  We are also expected to do a job that is “good enough” for the situation, and accept that as a job well done.  That philosophy does not sit well with my wife or me.  It is much more frustrating to Connie than it is to me, but it is not the way either of us likes to work.  When you know how a project should be done and you are not allowed to spend the capital or effort to accomplish that result you do not have a feeling of satisfaction when you are complete.  I know, “It is not about me.” But, it is about respect. It is about respect for the client, for the project, and for you own self esteem.

            In an attempt to make this a “learning experience” we are doing the best that we can under the given circumstances.  I, philosophically, totally disagree with the tenant that the clients do not respect their surroundings enough to provide them the best efforts.  I fully believe that respect is learned and earned by the people in your surroundings.  If little respect is demanded of you, that is what is given.  Also, if little respect is given to you, that is what you return.  Having pontificated that, I do not work here on a daily basis and I do live in a bubble of reality.  It is very easy to have idealistic philosophies when you do not live in the reality of the situation.  I may try to empathize with the people that we work with and for, but I truly can not sympathize with a situation that I have not lived.

            As the third week of our project arrives, we will still try to do the best that we can under the circumstances that we are given.  We will try to add a little more character to our souls as we attempt to help some of the least of God’s children.  I am sure that as we leave TMM it will be a little bit better for our having passed this way.  I can only hope that our presence here may touch the soul of a person, as they realize that there are people in the real world that do care enough about them to spend some time patching a hole in the wall, or stripping and Waxing their dinning room floor, or replacing a screen here or there.  There are people that care enough to drive their homes and fill up the parking lots just to be of some aid for a little while.  Maybe I will learn that any effort is a great gift and we all must experience the need to work within the parameters of the given situation.  I am sure that the next team will come and change the same light bulbs, fix the same walls, and paint the same fence, but maybe for new faces and a few more of the least of God’s children.