Good Bye Arizona!
As we now leave Arizona and head toward Nevada, we'd like to share some of the impressive sights that have left an impression during the past couple months!

This past week we spent at the Escapees North Ranch RV Park in Congress, AZ. They have a beautiful garden of Arizona cactus and other native plants. Among these plants is a gigantic saguaro cactus.
Here's some eye-opening facts from the Feb. 2009 Family Motor Coaching Magazine article by Lowell & Kaye Christie. "A mature saguaro may grow to 50' fall, weigh 10 tones, and live 150-200 years....It gets off to a very slow start. Beginning with a black seed the size of a pinhead, and assuming ideal conditions, the seedling may grow 1/4" in the first two years....It may reach 4" tall by the age of 10. Then things speed up a bit. It can reach 3 or 4 feet by age 30. By the time it reaches 50 years old, it will produce blossoms, and it might be 10 feet tall. And by age 75...the saguaro may begin sending out branches."

Now, do you wonder why the North Ranch cactus is nicknames "Methuselah"?

In January, Ken and our friend Gene (who owns a Seattle sod farm) visited the magificent new University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale. What impresses us is the sod playing field. So that it is present only for appropriate uses...like football games...the field is on rollers! The entire field can be rolled in and out of the stadium. The field has a 12" thickness of sand with sod planted on top.

Finally, there is the amazing new freeway in the Phoenix area, the 202 or Red Mountain Freeway, that goes past Valle del Oro to the east and makes a big circle back to I-10 near the airport. The aesthetics are phenomenial. Note the decorative concrete work of the overpasses, the walled perimeters, and the beautiful plantings. It is a joy to cruise down the freeway!