Buyer Beware

Mar 14 - 27, 2013 Desert Trails RV Park - Tucson AZ 85735

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DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT! It is addicting.
FOOD PRODUCT REVIEW:
Philadelphia Indulgence, Milk chocolate
My rating 5 out of 5
Oh------my-----gosh!!!!! This is absolutely delicious!
While I was food shopping alone, that's how I get in "trouble". I was looking for yogurt, a healthy snack. Why or why did I have to spot this in the dairy cooler section also! As I was checking out, the female checker about my age asked if I had tried this. I said no, but look forward to it. She went all googly eyed and said it was heaven.And right she is! I have been just having a spoonful here and there right from the container. I refuse to look at the calorie and fat count. Ignorance can be bliss.
This product also comes in Dark Chocolate, Cinnamon, White Chocolate, and Dulce de Leche. Oh Boy!
From the comments on the Philadelphia Indulgence site "...When you run out of ideas, spread it on your hand and lick it off!!!!
Question: Besides crackers and fruit, anyone have any good idea to use this product in or with? I don't really need the ideas, just my spoon is good enough.
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RV LIFE:
Haven't felt like blogging lately, so here is one big post on our Tucson stay. 
We have had a nice two weeks here. Decent RV park and we did get a decent site. The weather has been beautiful. Mostly cool over night and 70's during the day. Even when the temps rise to 80's, we have a shady site and it is very comfortable in the shade. I've spent most days sitting outside, enjoying the company of our dogs.
Scott has been hiking on his own and has found 7 geocaches within walking/hiking distance of the RV park. He rode his bicycle along the trails a couple of times.
We've had a really nice balance of activity and relaxing.
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PETS:
Devin has been having a pretty good time here at Desert Trails. He's found a few friends to play with.

This is Izzy, a Mexican Hairless dog. Or it's official breed name is Xoloitzcuintli pronounced "show-low-eets-queen-tlee," or more commonly called the Xolo ("show-low")

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SIGHTS:
Arizona-Sonoron Desert Museum $15.00 per person
Our rating 4.5 out of 5
I've been reading about this place on many RV blogs. Many RV'rs are in the AZ area for the winter months. I've read over and over how great this Museum is. Well, I agree.
This is a well run "attraction". It is not only very educational, but also entertaining for kids and interesting for adults. This is not a typical museum that you just view items on display, but this is a living museum.
There were water fountains readily available to keep us hydrated since we are out in the open under the desert sun for most of the day. Also, sunscreen is supplied in all the restrooms.
We took the walking tour and our guide was very knowledgeable. We learned so much about the desert and the plant life. Being from NJ, the desert is definitely a foreign land to us.
We saw the Jojoba plant. Ladies, you've heard of Jojoba. It is used in moisturizers and make-up. This is used in place of whale oil, and is thought by many to be superior.
The Raptor show was highly recommended. It was a unique show in that the birds are trained to fly out quite a distance, fly near the crowd and then perch nearby. So even with a very large crowd, we all were able to appreciate the beauty of the birds.

There is a hummingbird aviary which is really cool! We saw nesting hummingbirds and even saw a baby hummingbird! Fascinating.

Mission San Xavier del Bac Free
My rating 2 out of 5 for the church
My rating 4 out of 5 for the grounds and fry bread vendors

The bad: This church has been restored and is quite gaudy, as I find many Catholic churches to be.

The bad: And then we come up to this!
Oh my gosh! Freak me out! I'd have nightmares if I were a kid! At first I thought it was a mummified "saint". Ends up it's wooden St. Francis. Either way, still creepy.

The bad: Loose UN-ALTERED dogs. The mission was built by Papago renamed in the 1980's to Tohono indians. This mission is on the Tohono reservation. We saw at least 5 loose dogs. They looked to be in reasonable shape and all were fairly friendly. I'm sure they belonged to the reservation, but to see those male nuggets hanging down really drives me crazy! This just leads to more dogs needing homes.

The good: Beautifully landscaped right around the church itself. Cactus were just beginning to bloom.

Never knew they came in purple!

Quite nice to sit on a bench and enjoy the cactus gardens and give a dog a pet and snack.

The good: Seeing this adorable little creature amid the garden area. He was not afraid of us big humans at all. He seemed to be posing and waiting for us to take as many photos as we pleased.
We thought he was a Pack Rat, but looking on the internet, he is not. I don't know what he is. Any ideas?
**Update 3/30/13: PRAIRIE DOG! So cute!
Thanks to
Tammy from It's Good to be Us
Susan from Travel bug
Judy from our motorcycle days.
They all suggested Prairie dog, which I believe is correct.

The good:
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Fry bread! Even though this isn't really a restaurant, it's a great place to stop for a casual lunch.
Since this mission is on Native American land, there were aboutf 15 fry bread stations set up. We've read about fry bread, but never had the opportunity to try it. To be honest, the ONLY reason I wanted to come to this mission, was because I was told about the fry bread for sale on the weekends! So many to choose from and all offering basically the same thing. We chose a happy looking couple. He gave us a sample of their green chili. Delicious. Scott opted to get a combo fry bread taco. This taco included beans, tomatoes, lettuce, chili, cheese, and probably more items I forgot. Delicious!!!

I opted for the cinnamon fry bread. Which I would not get again. The bread itself was good, but not enough sweetness in the fry bread.  I would recommend the honey and powdered sugar fry bread. Similar to a funnel cake, just not as fluffy. 

This was delicious!

PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM: $15.00 per person
Our rating 4.5 out of 5 
I would rate it less, but that's because I'm not that interested in planes. But for military veterans, and airplane enthusiasts, this is a great place to visit. Would have been rated 5 by Scott, if we could actually have seen INSIDE more planes.

Some kind of fighter plane flying overhead

First off, it is a huge museum! Plan ahead for an ALL DAY visit. There is a great guided tour and the volunteer was very informative. You could tell he loved to talk planes. Scott would whisper in my ear about a certain plane and next thing, the tour guide would say the same thing. Wow, I got to hear info I don't really care about 2 times, like an echo! I definitely went here for Scott. I think he would have had just as good or a better time if he went alone.  I brought a book along, so he could take as long as he wanted. If I got bored, I'd read. I heard another woman tell her husband she was going to go sit in the car. It's a guy thing.

This plane below is some kind of stealth, under the radar type plane.

There is also a shuttle tour that is about 50 minutes long. That costs $6./per person extra. The volunteer who took us on the tour was a former fighter pilot! I was in awe. His talk was really interesting. Well worth the extra money. I didn't open my book to read during the whole shuttle tour. There is also a plane "bone yard". Huh? Scott was very excited. That was an extra $7./per person and fills up quickly. You do not have to pay the $15. museum fee for this tour. Just the $7.

Between a couple of hours looking at planes and an hour shuttle tour, I was done. I just couldn't visit the "bone yard". Scott would have to come back another day to see it.

KITT PEAK NATIONAL OBSERVATORY Night Observing $48.00/per person
Our rating 5 out of 5
I have been itching to go to an observatory. I can't say I'm really into star gazing, but to see it through a telescope is a different story. We missed out on going to observatory somewhere earlier in our travels because of "party pooper" Scott. We had plans, but he didn't feel like it that day. So I stupidly agreed, that we could go after the weekend and then forgot about it.  This time, I TOLD Scott, this is the night I'M going. If you care to join me fine. I made reservations on line for their Nightly Observing Program. There were only a couple of slots open by the time I made reservations. Cool beans! We're in!
We had to first drive up to the Peak. A 12 miles hairpin turn ascent! I was not happy. I had memories of Pike's Peak. By the time we got to the top, I was slightly carsick, so had a massive headache.

We had to arrive at the peak by 5:31pm, which was before sunset. Upon arrival, we were given a box lunch for dinner, included in the tour price. Then a lecture of introduction to astronomy, about the history and present day observatory and the many telescopes. We then go outside for sunset. Our tour guide was great. While waiting for sunset, we walked around the peak and the different scopes were explained to us. Did you know there is such a thing as a solar telescope?

The odd inverted v-shape is to diffuse the incoming sun.

The tour guide's enthusiasm for the night sky was catching. He explained the different coloring of the sunset and what it means (of course I forgot).

It was a very special moment as we saw the sun go lower, and lower and then disappear.

Being on this peak, we were able to view the sky beautifully all the way around/360°.
Back inside and were handed flashlights with a red light. The red does not interfere with viewing of the telescopes. If we used a regular flashlight, we could only have it light completely face downward. We were also loaned a planisphere & were taught how to use them. Who knew? Not me! If I had known these existed, I may have been more interested in viewing the night sky.

These devices make the mess of the sky into a readable map. We picked up two for $6.50 each. One for the upper US and one for the southern US. After figuring out this ingenious device, we were loaned binoculars to view the sky & try to find various stars and planets. Very very cool!
Our final stage of the tour was to actually look through one of those huge telescopes. But right beforehand, we were invited to one of the building where there were students actually tracking a comet. They were viewing the image on a computer screen. Ahhh technology. No more looking through the eye piece. The telescope sends the image to the computer where it can be saved and easily documented. These 4 students and their professor would be there all night observing. Now our group goes on to a "normal" or what we lay people consider normal telescopes. The roof opened and swung around for the telescope to view the night sky. We each had our turn in viewing the M42, The Great Orion Nebula, the M3, globular cluster, the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. An unforgettable evening!
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PRODUCT REVIEW:
Tucson Book of Fun Attractions Passport $15.-$18.
If you go to 2 more local attractions, this coupon booklet is worth it. Desert Trails RV park sold it at their office for $15.00, which is $3.00 cheaper than other places.
We only used it for 2 places, but it still was a savings.
Desert Museum $14.50 each.  Buy one get one free
Pima Museum $15.50 each.  Buy one get one free
Total saved $15.00 after cost of coupon booklet. And that was just two attractions.
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RESTARUANT REVIEW:
Coyote Pause Cafe Tucson, AZ
Our rating 3.5 out of 5
We found this place on the way to the Desert Museum. Not much else on this road. We decided to stop here for breakfast since there wasn't anything else close and the cafe had good reviews.
We arrived at 11am. Breakfast is served until noon. Upon arrival, we saw the chalkboard lunch specials. Damn! Lunch looks good, but I want breakfast.
COYOTE HASH: Very good. Huge pile of corned beef mixed with cubed potatoes, green peppers, and onions. Melted cheese on top. Two eggs on the side.
WHEAT BREAD: Yes, this will get it's own rating. Wheat bread on the side. This is not just wheat bread that seems to be just colored white bread. This is whole wheat bread. I don't know if they bake on premises or order from a local bakery. It was excellent! I normally don't bother with the bread, but I HAD to eat this. I will crave this bread.
MESQUITE PANCAKES: Don't bother. I don't think the pancakes were bad because of using mesquite powder, I just think it wasn't a good recipe. Too thick, too heavy and no sweetness.
BROCCOLI SOUP: We ordered this "to go", from the chalkboard lunch specials. Fabulous! It was probably a bunch of left over ingredients, but who cares if it's delicious! Thick soup without a lot of cream. Just a touch. It was mainly finely chopped and pureed broccoli. Diced smoke bacon, carrots, and other stuff that made this absolutely delicious.

Another reason for blogging...if I didn't blog, I would bother looking up what mesquite pancakes were. I found out they are made from mesquite flour. Well how do you get mesquite flour? From mesquite pods, silly! I didn't know mesquite trees had pods until now.

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An Engagement in Seattle: Groom Wanted\Bride Wanted by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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WHERE WE'RE GOING

Mar. 28 - Apr. 10, 2013 Dead Horse Ranch State Park - Cottonwood, AZ

Apr. 11 - Apr. 17, 2013 Trailer Village - (Part of Grand Canyon Park), AZ

Apr. 18 - Apr. 24, 2013 Meteor Crater RV Park - Winslow, AZ

NV, CA, OR, ID, WA, MT, ND, SD, WY, then south for the Winter of 2013/2014