[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, troops. Welcome home, Jessica. You're a true hero in the eyes of everybody.

Good morning, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub. How are things in Oregon?

[HiJinx]

Good Morning, Canteeners. Boy, it sure took a lot of effort to come in to work this morning. Good friends of ours invited us to go RV'ing with them last weekend...and we did! What a way to spend a weekend...no phones, no pagers, no TV (by choice), but oh the luxury! The RV park we stayed at had an outdoor pool, a jacuzzi, a card room, a library, and two PCs wired for surfing! We enjoyed a very quiet time playing cards, talking, making plans to go to Hawaii next year, and watching the trains. My buddy is really into trains, that's what drove us to set up next to the main line running through southern Arizona. We watched the Amtrak go through, it was only an hour and 45 minutes late. Seems that the commercial rail lines don't go out of their way to clear the rails for Amtrak. Oh well, that's life...

This is the RV we were in, a Roadtrek 190 on a Dodge Ram 2500 chassis. It handles like a dream and has all the comforts of home. Very nice.

About 10 miles to the east of the RV park lay the Dragoon Mountains and Texas Canyon with its wierdly stacked HooDoos. This rock formation dominates this area, where you will also find the Cochise Stronghold. Cochise is reputed to have been a master strategist and leader who was never conquered in battle. Cochise died peacefully on the newly formed Chiricahua reservation in 1874. His son, Taza succeeded him as chief. Upon his death, he was secretly buried somewhere in or near his impregnable fortress. The exact location has never been revealed or determined.

All three nights we watched as thunderheads built up around us, lightning flashing in bold stokes to hit the earth or in sheets across the ever darkening skies. In every direction we watched the clouds swell until they could no longer hold the rain, and then dark grey curtains were drawn across the view, blocking out the mountains behind them and leaving only the rush of water earthward to nourish the parched land.