THATCHER, AZ 2/3-8/11

We left St. David, AZ on February 3 and headed northeast through beautiful rock formations and desert.  To say it was cold was putting it lightly, but the sky was beautiful and the company grand.  Here we are stopped at a rest area where the wind was blowing quite well. 

 Balanced rocks like these were quite a common sight as we drove along.  It really made Wayne want to stop to climb them and try to push them over, but it was too cold!

 Just a peak at the dry desert scenery.

 Later in the day, Feb. 3, we arrived at our friends', Roy and Patty Curtis, home in Thatcher, AZ.  They were our fellow missionaries in Oakland, CA.  They lived in the trailer next to us behind the temple.  To say they are good people would be under stating it.  It was fun to reunite and share fun times together.  They were gracious hosts that allowed us to park our rig next to their house while we visited. 

 While there we were treated to and shared tours, family introductions, meals and a football game.

We visited their son's business that had big outside furniture.































We taught them how to play canasta and dominoes and even allowed Patty win once!!  We taught her the standard "Cowley Winning Chant" of  "I win! I win! I win!" which she used quite well.  Cliff, you would be proud of her!

 Thatcher is a wonderful little town that is quite well suited to us as a place of settlement.  We will keep it in our notes as to potentials for the future.  Our requirements for where we might settle, have narrowed to the following:  There must be near by; a temple, a major airport, a church and a regional family history library, a Wal-Mart, a Home Depot and a Subway sandwich shop. Thatcher has all but the major airport (Phoenix is 3 hours away).  For you history buffs, Thatcher was the home town of Spencer W.Kimball.
It also has a really dangerous woman that growls at you when you interrupt her cooking!!!

  It was a nice relaxing time for us all.  here is Ann knitting some baby booties.

 Wayne had harvested 24 hiking sticks from Alaska and Canada on our trip last summer.  He has been debarking and sanding them as we travel since then.  Roy volunteered his tools and help in drilling holes with his neighbor's drill press, varnishing them and frapping them.  We used their grandchildren's play room as the workshop.

 We hung them on bailing wire, laid down old rug padding and away we went!

 The finished products prior to preparation for shipping to our five sons and their families.

 Roy and Wayne went to a local furniture store and went dumpster diving in their recycling bin for cardboard to ship the staffs in, then packaged them in the Curtis' living room before shipping them at a local UPS location.

Thatcher has a new temple so we went there and did some initiatories and an endowment session.  Roy and patty were serving there the evening we went.

 It is a smaller temple, similar to the Twin Falls, Idaho temple.  It is much bigger than our Medford Oregon temple though.

 We stayed a day longer than planned because we were having so much fun.  We left on Tuesday, February 8th and headed southeast towards Deming, NM.