OUR WINTER ESCAPE 2008

Dear friends, family and interested parties visiting my blog, this is my first attempt at blogging. So, readers are warned.

At this point in our lives, we are just snowbirds. Ken would like to be a fulltimer but I still have to have my house so we are compromising and traveling four or five months this year.

Thanks to meeting our new friends Jerry and Suzy LeRoy here at the Saguaro SKP Co-Op Park in Benson, AZ., I am blogging. Jerry and Suzy were nice enough to share their knowledge of blogging with me over happy hour and pizza. We had a nice evening getting to know each other and it was great for me to learn how to setup our "Kings on the Road" blog page. Jerry and Suzy are great teachers.

Jerry and Suzy were also co-chairs and hosts of our table #7 for the Thanksgiving Day Dinner which was held in the clubhouse here at the Benson SKP Co-Op Park. They did an excellent job and made everyone feel right at home, even to a couple of "snowbirds".

Of all of the tables that were setup, which I think were about 10 tables seating approximately 200 people, I think that our table was the most decorated and festive. But of course, I could be prejudice.

The food was wonderful! Everyone brought covered dishes with ham and turkey being provided by a couple of ladies with excellent cooking skills and then we all made a small donation for the meat. We had a great assortment of food to select from. Oh my gosh did we eat! You know us...food is us.

Okay, to tell you a little bit about our trip and get everyone up-to-date with our travels. We left Bella Vista, AR, on November 11, 2008. Our first major stop-over was in Corsicana, TX. Ken had to visit a jobsite in Frost, TX, which is near Corsicana, so we stayed there for a few days. It was cold and windy. We didn't get to do any sightseeing; however, we did find a bakery that everyone should stop at if they are in town, so I am making a special note here in my blog.

NOTE: A great place to stop when in Corsicana is the COLLIN STREET BAKERY established in 1896. They had the best pastries I've ever eaten! And they had a large assortment of cakes, pies, cookies and just about anything you could want. They have a small coffee shop with limited seating and a menu offering sandwiches. The bakery will also ship their bakery products. I could definitely stop here again.

Heading west, we stopped at the SKP Rainbow Park in Deming, NM. While we were there, we met Roger and Sue Bell from Westminster, CA. The Bells are New Horizon owners like us. They are very active in and with the New Horizon owners' group. We hope to correspond with the Bells and are going to try to attend one of the groups' meetings. They are supposed to be very informative and fun.


Finally, we arrived in Benson, AZ, tp://www.cityofbenson.com/ on November 17th. We really enjoy this area and this park so we have decided to stay here through the end of December. The weather here has really been nice. The mornings and evenings are a little cool (jacket/sweater) but the days heat up in the 70's. The mountains around Benson are beautiful and the sunsets are awesome.


We try to walk around the park at least once a day. Ken does walk more than me. I knew I had to put this statement in before he reads this and says he walks more than I do. So, here I've confessed.


I took this picture one evening when we were walking around the park together after dinner. It's not the best pic because I took it with my phone but in future blogs; I hope to have some better photos of the area.


Since Ken does most of his work during the week, we do most of our sightseeing on the weekends. One of the neat places that we've visited is the town of Tubac, AZ. It's a town south of Tucson, featuring over 120 local merchants showing arts, crafts, neat shops of all kinds and restaurants. It's really neat.

Ken liked this old Hudson Hornet which was out in front of one of the neat shops. Plus he also enjoyed holding down the benches-lots of benches. And we both enjoyed an ice cream cone at a neat sweet shop in the center of the town. He did enjoy some of the shops, once he got off the phone. Here is the website if anyone wants to see more info on Tubac: http://www.tubacaz.com/ .






Here is our favorite pic for the day at Tubac and we took it because we have a friend back home that just loves armadillos - NOT. Glenn this one's for you.

We have been staying busy. The park has a monthly Calendar of Events and there is something to do every day. It's up to us to decide what we want to do each day. This is really the best park we have stayed at, thus far. Some of the activities that we are participating in are:

• I do beading on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
  
• Movie Nights-(They sell hot dogs & popcorn what a cheap date!)
  
• Fish Fry’s-(I don't have to cook and the food is good.
  
• Genealogy-Which I hope to get to the next class.

The activities here are numerous. All are welcome which is what is so nice and everyone is willing to show you how to participate. I think we are going to try our hand at "Pickle Ball". Will update later on how we do. That is, if we survive.

Also, for our good friends back in Bella Vista, Glenn and Clara, they have LINE DANCING here. However, I have not even suggested to Ken that we try this class-Ha.

On Sunday, 12/7/08, we visited the Benson Assembly of God Church and enjoyed meeting the minister and a few couples in the church. We will try attending again while we are here in town.

After church, we drove to Tucson and visited with my cousin, Don Crow. He is my cousin on my Father's side of the family. Don is retired and has lived in Tucson all of his life. Don's parents moved him to Arizona from Arkansas when he was a baby. He had really bad breathing (allergy) problems and his doctors suggested that they move him to Arizona, and he has been living here every since. We really enjoyed our visit and we will be visiting with him again right after Christmas.

I think we will leave you guys for this month but we both wish everyone peace, love, good health and a very Merry Christmas.