Casa Grande, Arizona

We spent the month of May in Casa Grande. A total of 58 miles were put on the house when we returned from getting it serviced in Phoenix. We also put 727 miles on the Jeep(s).

5/1 – 5/31

We spent most of May relaxing. Joan painted and continued to scan old photographs while Ken caught up on his reading (it is great being in a location where we have access to a public library). We did make a few interesting side trips between bouts of laziness and we also bought a new car.

That is correct, we no longer have our 10 year old Jeep Cherokee. Almost every car we have owned we have either voluntarily or, by necessity, replace after it reaches its 10th year birthday. Last month we had decided that we were going to wait until we made it to Washington and then purchase a Honda CRV. It was a difficult decision, we had both liked the Jeep Liberty’s ride, comfort, gadgets (Ken) and acceleration but the CRV was almost as good and got 5 miles/gallon better fuel economy. Well, this month Jeep came out with their $2.99/gallon three year deal and Ken was sold. We managed to pick up the Jeep for about $500 more than the Honda would cost while keeping a constant fuel cost for three years. So we are now driving a brand new 2008, gray (light gray, almost silver) Jeep Liberty Limited. See, someone is trying to help the economy.

One interesting trip this month was to the Mystery Castle in Phoenix. In 1930, Boyce Luther Gulley discovered that he had tuberculosis. He abandoned his wife and daughter in Seattle, traveled to Phoenix and set about building a house for his daughter. Boyce lived considerably longer than he expected, it took him 10 years to complete the house and he lived until 1945. What makes the house interesting is the construction material. Basically it is constructed with salvage material, local stone and cement. His major expense was the cement. The three story house has 18 rooms and sits on the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the mountains on one side and the city of Phoenix on the other. The house is very creative and a joy to visit. While there we met Boyce’s daughter, Mary Lou Gulley, who lives in the house.

We also visited the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch which is about 30 miles south of Casa Grande in Picacho, Arizona. This is a working ranch with over 2000 ostriches. You can buy a fresh egg for $15 which is the equivalent of about two dozen eggs. Unfortunately we were not there during the season, hopefully next winter we can try them out. You can also purchase chicks if you are so inclined. The real attraction of this ranch is that they have a feeding area where you can feed the ostriches. Yes,we had them eating out of our hand – it was neat. Although they do not have teeth, they have very strong beaks and if they pinch your skin it hurts. You also get an opportunity to feed deer and donkeys. In addition, they have a netted building where they have many lorikeets that you can feed. Lorikeets are a small parrot which, at this ranch, do not seem to have any fear of humans – just curiosity. We had a great time feeding all the animals and would recommend it to anyone.

6/1 – 6/13

Since the temperatures in Casa Grande were well over the 100 degree mark (as hot as 114 F) we spent most of our time indoors testing out our air conditioners. Joan worked on her art and Ken spent most of his time reading. It was great having a library available. Ken read two books by Obama and one by McCain (besides his normal mystery and adventure trash) – both seem like very honorable men even though this election season will surely reflect poorly on both.

May 1, 2008

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