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| Alder Picnic Area, Mt Lemmon |
The Wisconsin is weather making it too cold to work in the storage shed, Tucson seems to be the best place to finish it without freezing my fingers off. All packed up Tuesday morning, I had breakfast with my friend David J, then hit the road at 09:30, avoiding interstate highways as much as possible.
Wednesday, I had lunch and took a short nap at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, drove south to the Mexico border and Hwy 9 west to the Arizona state line. At 21:00 I arrived in Tucson and boon docked on BLM land. Thursday, I spent the day at one of my favorites, Gilbert Ray campground, then Friday morning, moved to the RV Park site where I'll likely be for the next three months.
This morning, Christmas Eve day, was a bit slow and emotional. As I watched the "clouds" go by, I set up the FT-710 and FTM-7250D radios in the camper and made my first QSO with N0A, the Christmas Train special event station operating out of Fort Worth, TX on 14.258 MHz. Nice, because I love trains, Christmas, and amateur radio!
Late this afternoon, I spoke with my oldest son on the phone. He and son number 3 are together making fireball meatballs and our family's traditional Christmas sticky roles. Since I am not there with them, I was given an assignment: build a snowman tomorrow, Christmas day, and post it on my photo album. I accept the challenge. I'll head over east of Tucson to Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. I'm sure they will have some snow. I will build an awesome snowman for the kids up there! And so I did!
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| Not snow, it's white sand. A perfect 68 degree weather at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico |
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| Site C6 at one of my favorite campgrounds, Gilbert Ray, in Tucson Mountain Park |
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| Trail setup of the HF and dual band radios in the newly renovated Intech Flyer Chase camper |
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| Marshall Gulch, Mt Lemmon |
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| Redington Pass overlooking Tucson |
