El Tour de Tucson 2009

Today was El Tour de Tucson.  Will did the 80 mile portion and finished in 4 hours 49 minutes!  Not bad for a senior citizen!!  He had a great time, was a fun ride, good weather, great day for a bike ride.  That is our friend, Kevin as the two of them bike across the starting line.

Now this is the lead pack of the big guys.  They went 109 miles.  They mean business!

Latest kiln fire

This is a commission for Stephanie.  She needed a kitchen tool holder.

I should make one for myself.

I had a really good "fire" this time.  Got some good pots.

The last three pics were done on a wheel, including the lids.

Puerto Penasco

A couple more pictures of Puerto Penasco.  The luxury high rises on Sandy Beach in the distance across the Bay.  Popular place for Arizonans to come, its only 4 hours from Tucson to the shores of the Sea of Cortez.  April and John Ritchie stayed an extra day with us after we finished working in the barrio.

  The story of the week.  Apparently, when the work crew foreman got the list of his crew from St Andrews, he got really worried because the average age of our group was pretty high!  He even complained about it to the organizers, he didn't think we could do the work!  I don't know if he expected us to come off the van in wheel chairs, or what, but we had a good laugh over it.  I have to tell you that our "old" crew finished our house and were back in camp at least an hour before anyone else!

Building a house for Maria and Francisco

We are home, tired and humbled and very blessed by the experience in Mexico.  We worked really hard for 3 days and built a home for Maria and Francisco.  They shared a marvelous testamony about thier faith journey.  We had a great work crew, it all came together nicely.  Seemed like chaos at times but we all found our gifts and learned some new skills in the mean time--we became a great team.  It was hard but so worth it.  We received as much as we gave in so many ways.

Mexico mission trip

Not a whole lot going on since we got home from China a week and half ago.  Took us a good long while to recover from jet lag.  Must be our age.  Will came home with a cold also which did not help but he is back to health and we are ready to go again.  So. . .

Can't let those suitcases get cold.  We leave bright and early tomorrow morning on a mission trip to Puerto Penasco in Mexico to build houses for some people who are in desparate need of help.  Our church, St Andrews Presbyterian has a team on 16 people going.  We will be joining Pantano Christian also from Tucson to make up a group of maybe 150 people going to serve in a variety of capacities.  We partner with "Amor" which is a Christian organization that supplies all the materials and plans for a 11 x 22 structure, 2 windows, 2 doors, 2 rooms, that to us would be a good utility shed but to these people it is a welcome new home.  We provide the labor.  We will be working in the barrio with no electricity and no running water so we will be mixing cement in wheel barrows, building framing with hand saws, and doing a lot of hand labor.  I think I feel tired already.

pictures to missed the blog

 As far as I can remember these are the only pictures that I sent to the blog from China that did not make it through and those were from Hainan Island.  This is our Cactus Resort--was a bit of a surprise to find a central american-Mayan themed hotel in China--with a saguaro cactus logo--but why not!!  It was quite nice and swimming in the warm South China Sea was pretty fun. Doug remembers being here maybe 15 years ago and there were no hotels or resorts.  Now it is a major tourist destination and the coast of YaLong Bay is lined with destination resorts--China's Hawaii.

   Laundry is done, all unpacked, just memories left.  Missing the kids.

We got back to Tucson in time for a cold snap but now is warming up again to mid to upper 80's.  In fact I think I need to take my cup of green tea out on the patio right now and read my book!