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Part 1 of the Summer 2022 Vacation.
This year for our family vacation, we joined Mia, Sabrina, Mylinda & AJ and their families on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. The plan was to get to Island Park and stay in a house together on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The way we arrived and left was our own responsibilities. As such, we met up with different people during the journey.
Terra and I left on Sunday morning about 5:00am. Once we arrived in Tucson at Ina road, we realized that we left Terra's insulin pump at the house - so we turned around and headed back. At 7:00am we left again and journeyed up to Provo. There we met up with AJ and Mylinda at a Holiday Inn that had an indoor water park complete with water slide. Here we found our that the water slide was not to be used only on weekends and it wouldn't do us any good on Monday (we planned to stay at the hotel on Monday so the kids could play).
On Monday after a few hours, the kids tired of the pool, and Alan busted his chin open and was banished from further playing in the pool, so we looked for some other activities. Mylinda had a friend living in the area so we headed over to a park near her house to play on the playground equipment.
The play ground was extensive. It was here that I first saw a small zip line type piece of equipment. On the way back we stopped at a different park and it also had this same zip line thing. The kids had a good time playing round and we ate some pizza for lunch. Mylinda and AJ were here as well, but I didn't get many photos of them. The weather was nice. A tad cool, but pleasant. The mountains still have snow on them. It was obvious that just because it is summer in southern Arizona, doesn't mean it is summer everywhere else.
I couldn't get over the housing present around the park. As can be seen in the background there were many apartments built with each building having 12-24 different units in each. There were probably 30-40 of these same buildings with this park located in the center. I don't understand what people do for work that attracts them to this type of living arrangement. The apartments were not located near a local university, but were in the west valley near a mine. The appeared to be fairly new occupying former farm land. I don't pretend know if the locals were permanent or transient type residents. I am not sure where I would park my trailers if I were to try this life style, let alone all of the junk I have out in the shop.
We played catch, frisbee, and ate while some visited and others played on the playground equipment. After a while it was time to head over to Heber for a planned ride on the Heber Creeper train. Sabrina was to meet us at this location and we all joined for a group train ride. Due to some maintenance activities on the track our 1.5 hours ride was shortened to 1 hour.
With this train ride being their Monday night train ride, instead of them just letting us ride in peace, they tried to do sing-alongs and dancing to the music they played. This was less enjoyable then watching the scenery pass the window at 10-15 miles per hour.
While some in our group joined in, the majority of us just watched the scenery pass out the window and tried to ignore the noise. It was punctuated with a guitarist and a fiddle player performing a few songs which was a nice relief from the torcher that proceeded it. Kyle particularly enjoyed the live performance. Serra really liked having the window open and laying her head on my arm looking our the widow at the passing vegetation. She really likes to have the window down when she travels in a car, and the train was no different.
As always, when residing in the desert and traveling to a non-desert, I am amazed by all of the vegetation, greenery and water that abounds elsewhere. I quickly forget that not everybody lives in a field of cactus and that rivers, creeks, an other drainages usually have water in them. This ride traveled along a ditch that was running with enough water to supply all of the farming activities in Cochise County. It also passed a reservoir where boating activities happen in the "summer", which was not yet.
At the conclusion of the train ride, we all gathered for a photo in aside a steam locomotive they had parked there. Naturally I didn't get a photo of this event so you will have to suffice with the ones that I did get. The ride was short and much noisier than I anticipated, but it did get me wanting to go and do some other train rides. Perhaps next year we will once again embark on a summer vacation that includes different train rides around the area. After looking at photos of past vacations, the younger kids don't remember any of the older vacations, so it is probably time to repeat the journey for their benefit anyway.
Return to Start Page
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Part 1 of the Summer 2022 Vacation.
This year for our family vacation, we joined Mia, Sabrina, Mylinda & AJ and their families on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. The plan was to get to Island Park and stay in a house together on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The way we arrived and left was our own responsibilities. As such, we met up with different people during the journey. Terra and I left on Sunday morning about 5:00am. Once we arrived in Tucson at Ina road, we realized that we left Terra's insulin pump at the house - so we turned around and headed back. At 7:00am we left again and journeyed up to Provo. There we met up with AJ and Mylinda at a Holiday Inn that had an indoor water park complete with water slide. Here we found our that the water slide was not to be used only on weekends and it wouldn't do us any good on Monday (we planned to stay at the hotel on Monday so the kids could play). On Monday after a few hours, the kids tired of the pool, and Alan busted his chin open and was banished from further playing in the pool, so we looked for some other activities. Mylinda had a friend living in the area so we headed over to a park near her house to play on the playground equipment. |
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The play ground was extensive. It was here that I first saw a small zip line type piece of equipment. On the way back we stopped at a different park and it also had this same zip line thing. The kids had a good time playing round and we ate some pizza for lunch. Mylinda and AJ were here as well, but I didn't get many photos of them. The weather was nice. A tad cool, but pleasant. The mountains still have snow on them. It was obvious that just because it is summer in southern Arizona, doesn't mean it is summer everywhere else.
I couldn't get over the housing present around the park. As can be seen in the background there were many apartments built with each building having 12-24 different units in each. There were probably 30-40 of these same buildings with this park located in the center. I don't understand what people do for work that attracts them to this type of living arrangement. The apartments were not located near a local university, but were in the west valley near a mine. The appeared to be fairly new occupying former farm land. I don't pretend know if the locals were permanent or transient type residents. I am not sure where I would park my trailers if I were to try this life style, let alone all of the junk I have out in the shop. |
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We played catch, frisbee, and ate while some visited and others played on the playground equipment. After a while it was time to head over to Heber for a planned ride on the Heber Creeper train. Sabrina was to meet us at this location and we all joined for a group train ride. Due to some maintenance activities on the track our 1.5 hours ride was shortened to 1 hour.
With this train ride being their Monday night train ride, instead of them just letting us ride in peace, they tried to do sing-alongs and dancing to the music they played. This was less enjoyable then watching the scenery pass the window at 10-15 miles per hour. |
|
|
|
While some in our group joined in, the majority of us just watched the scenery pass out the window and tried to ignore the noise. It was punctuated with a guitarist and a fiddle player performing a few songs which was a nice relief from the torcher that proceeded it. Kyle particularly enjoyed the live performance. Serra really liked having the window open and laying her head on my arm looking our the widow at the passing vegetation. She really likes to have the window down when she travels in a car, and the train was no different. |
| As always, when residing in the desert and traveling to a non-desert, I am amazed by all of the vegetation, greenery and water that abounds elsewhere. I quickly forget that not everybody lives in a field of cactus and that rivers, creeks, an other drainages usually have water in them. This ride traveled along a ditch that was running with enough water to supply all of the farming activities in Cochise County. It also passed a reservoir where boating activities happen in the "summer", which was not yet. |
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At the conclusion of the train ride, we all gathered for a photo in aside a steam locomotive they had parked there. Naturally I didn't get a photo of this event so you will have to suffice with the ones that I did get. The ride was short and much noisier than I anticipated, but it did get me wanting to go and do some other train rides. Perhaps next year we will once again embark on a summer vacation that includes different train rides around the area. After looking at photos of past vacations, the younger kids don't remember any of the older vacations, so it is probably time to repeat the journey for their benefit anyway. |
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