Back in Benson

After several months of traveling in the Pacific Northwest and California, we arrived on Halloween Day to beautiful fall weather in Benson, Arizona, and are now parked on our lot at Cochise Terrace Resort. Daytime temps are warm and sunny, and nights are a bit chilly, as they should be this time of year. We can still see some leaves changing color, even though they were more spectacular in some of our more northern travels.

On Sunday, Nov. 1, we got together with our very good friends Jerry and Suzy LeRoy at their new-to-them park trailer in the Escapees Saguaro Co-op, just a few miles away on the other side of Benson. What a lovely place! You can read all about it on their blog at Our Life on Wheels. There are several entries about the purchase, moving and setup of the trailer, followed by furnishing and decorating it. The end result is a beautiful new home that’s very comfortable.

During the evening, Jerry gave me a tip about blogging, leading me to Windows Live Writer. This entry is my first using this (free) software from Microsoft. I have yet to explore all its capabilities, but it promises to make it easier to blog. (So maybe I’ll do it more often??)

While we were in Las Vegas (more on that later), I had a small accident with my Sony Cybershot camera. When getting out of the car in strong winds, the camera fell on the pavement and subsequently died. It gave me one last photo (how did that happen?) of the ceiling in the Bellagio Hotel lobby. These are glass-blown flowers, covering an area at least 20 x 80 feet above the casual lobby seating area.

Afterward, the camera refused to open when I pressed the On button. I took it to a camera shop, and the clerk said it would be $80-120 to repair, and it might take a while. I’ve been wanting a more powerful zoom lens, so I decided it was time for a new camera.

After shopping online, as well as at the Ft. Huachuca Post Exchange, Wal-Mart and Best Buy (the winner), I finally chose a Nikon Coolpix S630 with 12 megapixel resolution, 7x zoom, and ISO 6400 capability. It has a 2.7 inch high-resolution LCD, which is very sharp and clear, vibration reduction, 17 scene selection options, plus an auto setting, and a continuous shooting setting for stop-action photos. I can take short videos, too, with sound if desired. There are so many features that I haven’t explored; I have a steep learning curve ahead of me!

Here’s one of the first photos. The full moon last night over Benson with the Dragoon Mountains in the distance gave us the feeling that we’re happy to be in our winter home.

I promise to catch up with the adventures we had during the past few weeks of our summer/fall travels…soon! In the meantime, I wish everyone a happy Autumn, my favorite season of the year.