A Mind-Boggling Place 

Yes, in a number of ways, this place is mind-boggling. In the first place it was mind boggling how we found it, we searched Green Valley, Tubac, Nogales and were getting discouraged but then we stopped in Rio Rico and saw one place for rent, called the owner who came to show it to us but the then current tenant wouldn't be out until the next day. The owner said, "I have another place that's available" and vacant. We followed him for a couple of miles and here was this kind of weird looking house, brand new. The next day we went back and looked at the first house and then took another look at the new house. It was no contest and we rented this new one the spot after a little successful negotiating. 

Ironically after we sold our Green Valley house in January the first Air B&B we stayed in was probably 1/2 mile from here so to some degree we were familiar with this "outback" area of Rio Rico. We enjoyed our time before and now we love this place. Beautiful surroundings, hills of all sizes and shapes and the peaks of our familiar mountains in the distance. The sky is so blue, gentle breezes most of the time and so quiet. It is an unusual occurrence to see or hear a truck. Coyotes serenade us every evening with birds joining in that we haven't been able to identify. Gorgeous sunrises and sunsets every day.  

This will be our home base for a year but who knows after that. We still have the travel, wandering bug so that won't go away. Need to go take care of an errand at the mini post office that's a ten minute drive from here but we will be back on soon I'm sure.

Stan the Man 

 Beams From Above-Mind Boggling...

 

Yes, we are linked to Starlink, back up and running, including our phones with Wi-Fi calling. Hooray!! A real eye opener how "linked" we are to the internet.

Another mind-boggling experience...suitcase separation anxiety!  Who would have thought with clothes neatly put on shelves and hangars, that I would look winsomely at our lonely suitcases now relegated to the storeroom, thinking they were so much a part of our daily lives since January.  Oh well, time to move on...oops, I mean stay put for a bit.

Our brand new home comes with appliances that play a lovely melody when the cycle is finished or to remind to close the fridge door.  Quite nice from the old buzzers on our old machines.

More from Stan the Man soon...until then, Adios!

K 

 

 

 

New Home  

What a mind-boggling development and what a change. We have leased a brand new home in Rio Rico, AZ. Rio Rico is an unincorporated area in the hilly desert of Southern Arizona, surrounded by mountain ranges providing gorgeous views. There are many homes scattered about, many new houses going up but none of those tract homes and developments with houses 3 feet from each other and no HOA, not one. We celebrate the NO HOA as much as anything. We are just 12 miles from the Mexican Border and a big portion of the population here is Mexican, seems like everyone speaks Spanish.

Our first night in our new home we sat on the back porch and watched an incredible moon rise over a mountain about a mile from us. An awesome and mind-boggling welcome to our new home. Yes, its brand new, not only to us, no-one else has ever lived in it, an experience we have never had in our 33 years together. And, to make it more interesting we have no furniture, that's already caused us to spend a good deal of money. The only piece of furniture for that first night was a brand new bed delivered at 3PM on May 1, the day our lease went into effect. We bought it several days earlier in Nogales. Of course the bed was what allowed us to spend night number 1 in our new home. 

We are also still staying in our Air B&B in Tubac which is just a short drive away. Our time there doesn't run out until May 5th so its a little chaotic right now with one foot in each place. Also a lot of our stuff is in Green Valley in a storage unit so we need to begin ferrying those belongings to our new digs.

This new home provides 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms which is a lot more space than any of the places we've stayed in the last 3-4 months of travel. We are not done with travel so if you are interested where we might go next stay tuned in here. Thinking about Europe, Mexico or who knows where. But we felt the need for a home base rather than constantly living out of suitcases.

Stan the Man 

 An Unexpected Turn...

  

A clap of thunder at 5:55 pm today, then 10 minutes of earth rejoicing rain.  Maybe it was the earth clapping at the prospect of rain-"bring it on!"  Mind boggling!

Reflecting on our travels as we are about to put our long-haul, over-filled suitcases to rest.  Yes! We have leased a house for a year in Rio Rico, 50 miles south of Tucson.  We've explored this area and Stan the Man has been a part of the community Face Book chat for some time.  We like the sense of people helping each other which seems to be the vibe here.  We know what that feels like-we experienced acts of kindness on our travels back here-strangers helping with the heavy lift to overhead bins, or carrying our over-filled suitcases up a flight of stairs-we didn't have to ask! We were grateful.  So, keys in hand, we move into our new home tomorrow, and a new chapter, and another adventure as desert rats unfolds.

Until next time...

K 

 

Mind-Boggling Travel

Yes, we traveled but first we went to the Panama Canal and watched several huge ships pass through the locks. It's mind-boggling to see those gigantic ships going through what looks like a canal that they would never fit through. They only make it by a couple of feet and are guided by what are basically train engines on both sides. Looks like a complicated process but it works with ease. The visit to the canal was our last full day in Panama, Panama City and in the portion of the City known as Casco Viejo.

The next morning we  are in an Uber slashing through intense traffic on our way to the airport. We arrive very early, eat some breakfast, required to go through two separate security systems and finally four hours after arriving at the airport we board, finally. Four and a half hours later we land in Atlanta. It always feels good to be back in the U.S. of A but, this time we have some qualms since we haven't heard any news about the war with Iran and other things happening in our homeland. We are thankful that everything seems about the same as when we left, at least at the airport.

We barely make it to our next flight, the last ones on board, row 29. We are headed to Phoenix, another 4.5 hour flight away. The flight is uneventful, I doze, Katherine sleeps and before we know it we are landing in the Valley of the Sun. Of course its around midnight, so no sun but still 90 degrees. Our Shuttle doesn't show up so we grab a taxi and arrive at our hotel, The Sure Stay where our car has been parked for 6 weeks in a secure parking lot. Nice room but the first thing I notice is the toilet is plugged up and won't flush. We call the office, the manager comes to our room and hands me a plunger, now it's my responsibility to take care of the plugged toilet, which I do, problem solved. Air travel is mind-boggling, it's hard to imagine we could be in Panama for breakfast and have a late night snack in our hotel in Phoenix, AZ.

A few hours of sleep and, what do you know, the car, our trusty 2017 Ford Escape starts right up and we are on our way to Tucson and on to Green Valley. We have dinner with a good friend, home cooking tasted very good . One night at the Green Valley Best Western where we had an interesting conversation with a guy at the bar and we are on our way to Tubac, AZ, a cute little arts and crafts town 20 miles south of Green Valley. But before that I have an appointment with my dermatologist, a couple years ago I did have two spots of cancer on the top of my bald head, they were removed surgically and everything has been good since but they want to check me out every 6 months or so.

Now, we are staying in a very nice Air B&B in beautiful Tubac, the home is quite classy. We will be here for two weeks then move on to parts unknown. Yes, we don't have a plan beyond those two weeks but we will come up with something, we are still homeless but please stay tuned in to see what we will do next..

Stan the Man 

 

 

More Mind-Boggling Contrasts .

We are in Casco Viejo, a section of Panama City, Panama. At one point, years ago we lived in Panama City, Florida in the USA. I didn't even know there was such a place in our home country but then Katherine got a short term job there and we were on our way. It was a fairly small town where, I don't remember one high rise apartment/condo building in that city, there weren't any I'm sure. But there sure are here.

We said to ourselves back then that it was a sign, someday we would go to the real or other Panama City well we've made it. Here, in contrast to the Panama City in Florida there seems to be hundreds of high rise buildings that house many Panamanians. The skyline of the city across the bay from us is astounding. It rivals New York City's skyline. It is the banking center of Latin America and those bank skyscrapers add their might to the scene. 

Where we are staying, Casco Viejo, is a tourist area. Many buildings, many floors of hotels, beautiful buildings and gorgeous views of the rest of the city across the bay. Buildings date back to the early 1900s.  There are people on the streets from just about anywhere in the world you can think of. People who live here speak many languages but of course Spanish predominates. Its been a good opportunity to practice our Spanish and I can feel my memory working on bringing my fluency back from 60 years ago.

The other day we had a hired driver give us a tour of the City. First we went to Old Panama City, which turned out to be the ruins of the earliest buildings in Panama City, Circa 1600. Besides the ruins there is a great museum depicting the history of the city. We had only about 40 minutes there but could have spent most of the day.

Then back into the traffic, the number of cars on the roads at all times is mind-boggling and there are only a few stoplights here and there. Mostly drivers are courteous and give others a break to flow into the traffic but judging from the dents in many cars that doesn't always work.It's not unusual to sit in traffic without any movement for ten minutes or more. Parking is what one could call a free for all but it all seems to work.

At any rate, we made it to our second destination, the Metropolitan Park which is essentially a jungle withing the City. Beautiful trees, vines and so green. Many birds with unusual songs serenade. They tell us there are monkeys here but we didn't see any, wrong time of day. Its all surrounded by concrete and traffic. Pretty remarkable how they have accomplished this. We did do a short hike and got some great pics that I wish I could put on this blog but that's apparently not working! Maybe at a later time.

From the Parque we drove into a hilly area that gave us a distant view of the Panama Canal. Many beautiful, unusual buildings in the area including administrative offices of the Canal and other government offices. We also had brief views of the downtown skyline again.

On our way back to our temporary residence (two more days here) we drove through an entire different environment, no fancy buildings nor tourist traps, but just people living in what we might call tenement buildings, dirt roads, people look happy and engaged in life. Driver says its a Barrio and its right next to our part of town, what a contrast, mind-boggling.

Getting back to our place proved to be a difficult chore. We were sitting in traffic with no or very little movement for probably 30 minutes. Finally we got out of the car and walked home leaving the driver sitting there with no passengers. We did pay him $100 for half a day of struggling through traffic. Good thing, we could sit and watch and not do the driving.

So today we are planning on going to a nearby museum, tomorrow to one of the locks at the Panama Canal with Katherine's son who showed up from Washington DC. Then Sunday we will be on our way to Atlanta then Phoenix and by Monday, back in Green Valley where we don't have a home to return to.

 Whats Next? Stay tuned for the next chapter when we figure it out.

Stan The Man 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it  rained a little here in Panama City early this afternoon, just as I was going to write a new entry on this blog. When it rains apparently the usual thing is for the Internet to go down. There went my plans and now its our dinner hour and Katherine is cooking something delicious as usual so I am going to postpone this entry until tomorrow morning. Thanks for hanging in there.

Stan the Man