Keeping busy in Arizona

Hi all,
Pretty busy week for us, we got in a drive to Globe with co volunteers Bob and Rose last Friday. Globe is about 70 miles northwest and gets you into the lane of saguaro cactus.

We wanted to visit the Pickle Barrel a indoor- outdoor decorative store with some antique items and you never know what else you may find store. A neat old time place that is fun to walk about.

 We checked out a couple other shops on the main street enjoying ourselves but not buying much. We then had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant.
 Along the way home Bob drove us to see a old impressive dam that had been built back in 1927. The work and artistry that was put into the dam was pretty impressive and finding it at this out of the way location seemed surreal.

 On Wednesday the volunteers and staff gathered for a pot luck turkey dinner. Pot lucks are great and a fun get together, we were all stuffed when we left.
 Thursday during our shift I stepped out to register a incoming camper and after I write the vehicle license number down I realize it was a South Dakota number and from the same county we are registered to. Well as I look up I find it is Al and Nancy, a couple who we have volunteered with in Custer the past three years. They knew we had worked at the park previously and were just stopping to check it out for possible future work.
 Wendy and I stopped over to visit later and we decided to get together for a drive the next day. We headed to the Gila Box Riparian Area.  A 2300 acre area with four waterways feeding through it making a refuge for birds and wildlife.

 We drove the narrow winding rode grateful not running into any other traffic. We stopped a bunch of times taking some short walks enjoying the sunny warm day.  After we stopped at Casa Manana in Safford for some good Mexican fare.
  Al and Nancy are from Minnesota had started at Custer the same year as us, went full time as we did, and are our age so we seemed to have some good stories to swap. They had been working exclusively  in the visitor center at Custer and are planning to host in one of the campgrounds this year. It was fun getting to know them better and we look forward to meeting up with them again down the road.