Green Valley, Happy Valley

Views from J&Cs patio

We’ve been parked at Jaci and Cory’s in Green Valley, AZ, since Saturday afternoon. Twenty miles south of Tucson on Hwy. 19, Green Valley is a retirement community at the base of the Santa Rita Mountains. It’s been beautiful here with the sun smiling every day on cul-de-sacs and winding streets of pristinely maintained stucco homes and intertwining golf courses.

We’ve known Jaci and Cory for 40- some years, since Michael’s days of college at Southwest Minnesota State and then farm living near Marshall, MN. Annual Christmas cards and a couple of dinner dates during those 40 years, and then the discovery they own a home in Green Valley and are spending the winter here – right on our Arizona route.  So we brought our riff-raff to this fount of pleasantness, parked in their driveway and have been enjoying their incomparable hospitality.

One of our days here we hiked in nearby Madera Canyon, a dent in the Santa Rita range, crisscrossed by hiking trails, home to many migrating birds. The trail we chose was steep and rocky, following a dry stream bed and at a high enough elevation to be mostly shaded by cedar-type trees and a few live oaks. Even Nina slowed down as we climbed to 6000 feet.

Mary & Mike's rig

Another day we drove 15 miles north and look who we found! Friend and former co-worker at GLCS! It was great to see Mary and Mike and be able to catch up on retirement travels.