Benson, Arizona

It has been awhile since I have posted because we have spent the last six days at Carol (Hap's sister) house in Tucson. We had planned to leave yesterday but developed a problem with our Verizon Card. We decided to stay so we could make sure we had it working properly. This was the first time in our whole trip that we have had any problem with it. We spent most of our time at Carol's just resting and spending time with Carol. We don't get to see her very often. We have been out to bicycle in the Tucson area a couple of times. We did El Tour de Tuscon in 1989. This is a 100+ mile around the perimeter of Tucson that is held around Thanksgiving every year. The year we went out was the same year that I had my ACL Knee Reconstruction. We did not realize that El Tour is actually a timed event with a mass start. That was a first for us. We had a great time.

Friday we had a person from the Arizona Star Newspaper come over to interview us and take a picture. It took them along time to get the picture set up, but I think it came out great. Don't you?

On Saturday I went Christmas shopping at the Tucson mall. You have to understand that I usually buy my christmas gifts on December 23-24. So this is a major event for me! Do you realize the advantage of buying the day before Christmas? First of all, you have to make a quick decision. Second, everything is on sale. And third, there is nobody in the store! I managed to get most of my shopping done, wrapped and mailed home. Hold your applause please. Going to the mall was an adventure. First of all, be sure to brush up on your spanish before you go. I am sure I will get used to this at some point on this trip. Hap, offered to go shopping with me.................. Actually I think that he begged to go with me...............of course you can go with me, I said................but don't you want to help Carol ?????????............... So, I went shopping, all by myself. It was hard being all alone.

Sunday, we went to church with Carol and had a wonderful service. After church we met a friend of ours who had recently moved from Circleville to Tucson to become a pilot. Scott and his wife Julie. Scott invited us to go flying. It didn't take us long to make that decision. Carol, Hap and I met Scott at the Tuscon airport and went up for a flight over the city. It was great to see Scott first of all. We have spent alot of time bicycling with Scott in Circleville, so it was great to see him. Now I am not a big fan of flying but the ratio of fun to fear was much higher. It had been raining the last two days but today was a beautiful sunny day. It was great as you can see from the pictures. When we were getting ready to land Scott assured us that he had reread the chapter on landing just the night before. We had a smooth landing. Scott dropped Carol and I off at the airport and he and Hap flew on to another airport to return the plane. Then we all met back at Scott and Julie's new house for dinner. They fixed us an amazing meal of rice, beans and "fixins". He also made some great guacamole dip. It was such a great time. We loved seeing them again.

Monday morning we got up at 6am because the TV station Channel 4 was coming over to videotape us and do an interview. It was about 38 degrees while we were riding around the block and they were videotaping. This should air this week. I will try to put it on the blog asap. After the interview we realized our verizon card wasn't working so we decided to stay another day. With nothing to do I suggested that I should go to the mall to see if Bicycle Santa forgot anything. Also, Marsha called to tell us that Heather's water had broken and she was beginning labor. So we were expecting the call all day. Hap and Carol dropped me off at the mall and went to run errands. I got my haircut while I was there. And yes, I did find a few little things that I had to have. What can you do? It was on sale...............

We finally got the call about 9:30pm. Heather and Scott had a petite baby boy weighing in at 10.1 pounds and 21 inches long. Korbin Scott Landrum. Baby, Mom and Daddy Scott are doing great. I am not so sure about Grandaddy Mike! He said that when the nurses started moving equipment in and put on their rubber gloves it was time for him to leave!

We left Tucson this morning, stopped to mail Biker Santa's gifts home and headed east on Interstate 10. There was lots of traffic on the interstate. More truck traffic than we expected. But we may as well get used to it. We have about 270 miles to El Paso, Texas and we will be on interstate until then. Tomorrow we are headed for Willcox, AZ. Later........