Visiting with the Collinets in Tucson, AZ

Tucson, AZ - Sunday, October 31 (Happy Birthday, AJ!)

My last post, almost two weeks ago now, was from Camp Verde, just prior to our visit to Jerome and Sedona. We also visited Montezuma's Castle, a National Historic Site, there in Camp Verde, AZ. You may have already seen the photos of those visits, as I posted them, but did not write a blog.

Since then, we have traveled to Mesa, where we worked an RV show this past week, from Wednesday, 10/27 through Saturday, 10/30. The show closed Saturday at noon, so we decided to pack up and head down to Tucson on Saturday afternoon. It was a short drive of about 2 hours (allowing about 20 minutes for a fuel stop). We arrived in the Tucson area at about 5PM Saturday afternoon. We found a campground which is located about 15 miles from the Collinet's home. The campground, the "A bar A", is in the town of Marana, AZ, and it is right off of the Interstate (see photo gallery). This morning, we decided to go out to breakfast, and I found a coffee shop not too far from our campground, in Marana. The restaurant is named the "Sky Rider Coffee Shop" because it is located at the Regional Airport in Marana. We took a few photographs outside the coffee shop (also in the "gallery").

Later, around noon, we headed over to Susan and Jean Claude's home for lunch. As luck would have it, Susan and Jean Claude's sons, Christian and Jeremy, were there. Christian, who lives in Colorado, was there for a visit with his daughter, Drew. Jeremy, who lives about 5 minutes from his mom and dad, was there with his wife, Nancy, and their two daughters, Quinn and Jade. We took lots of photographs of our visit. Unfortunately, after I captioned the photos we took and posted them to my gallery, when we reviewed them, none of the captions appear. This makes it extremely difficult to identify who's who in the pictures. So, in an attempt to let you know who is in the pictures, I will try to familiarize you with everyone by listing everyone in the family photo we took. This is a group photo, and, from left to right, the members are: Christian and daughter, Drew; Jean Claude, Nancy, Quinn, Jeremy, Jade and Susan.

OK, on to our visit! Upon arrival, we met Christian and Jeremy, who were in the driveway. We haven't seen either of them since they were very young boys. Susan and Jean Claude came out and, after hugs and handshakes all around, we went inside for a tour of the house, which is very charming, warm and inviting. Susan and Jean Claude have only lived in this house for about a year, having moved from a bigger, two-story house about a mile from this house. After our tour, we all sat out on the patio to catch up on all those things one never gets to talk about for long at "family gatherings", because there are so many family members to chat with. As we travel around these United States, whenever we get to a location where we have relatives, it is always a priority for us to visit. We get so much more out of these visits because we can really spend time and catch up without interruptions. After a while, we were joined by Nancy, Jeremy's wife, who was working. Nancy is a sign language interpreter. The only family member we did not get to meet was Nicole, Susan and Jean Claude's daughter, who lives in the Phoenix area, and was not able to get to Tucson.

Next, we were treated to a sumptuous luncheon on the patio-not your typical lunch. The weather here is so beautiful that you can enjoy sitting outdoors for meals and not be bothered by BUGS (mosquitoes, yellow jackets, etc.). As we enjoyed our lunch, we got to know the boys, Christian and Jeremy, and Nancy, whom we have never met. We also got to know Lucy, Jean Claude's companion chihuahua (unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of her). Finally, it was time for us to leave. The girls, Quinn, Drew and Jade, were anxious to carve their pumpkins, and the dads were on-deck to do the carving! We departed with a promise to return to the area for a longer visit.
This was a wonderful visit with family, our gracious hosts who were so very welcoming. Thank you Susan and Jean Claude. We hope to return to this area and spend some serious time.

Tomorrow, we begin the loooooong trek to Florida (about 2000 miles). Stay tuned for more posts as we travel east!

Here's the link to the photos: gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii