 |
||
|
||
|
Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month The SunTree Traveler
The Valentine’s weekend was a most pleasant and somewhat quite weekend at Elephant Butte. The hot tub was used quite a bit with the beautiful weather. There was fear that wind might mar the clear, sunny day, but it turned out quite comfortable. As was usual, the food supply was over adequate, but a noble effort was made by all. The major physical activities of the weekend consisted mostly of jaw-swinging.
We are again, planning to visit the Mira Vista RESORT in Marana, AZ (Tucson area) on the weekend before St. Patrick’s day. We plan to be there on 13 March when the Mira Vista folks have plans for a St. Patrick’s theme dance that evening. Be sure to give them a call at (520) 744-2355 to reserve a room or RV space. Most of the SunTree folks already have a great opinion of the opportunities of the Mira Vista Resort and most of us prefer to check in and stay there during the entire stay for SunTree events. There are a lot of nice places in the Tucson area for those of you who can stand to get dressed and visit around. During our stay during the weekend of 12 – 14 March, there is an annual event that might encourage some of the SunTree gang to go earlier than usual or stay later than normally planned. It is, of course, spring training for major league baseball. For example, during our stay in March, you might want to take a little time off and catch one of the following games:
These are only the Tucson games. If you want to drive north to Phoenix or south to Hermosillo, Mexico, there are more games (note, Phoenix is closer, but Tucson is extremely close).
The Return of Venus into Bright Saturn’s Own Sky Evening Sky: March could easily be called Saturn’s month since mighty Saturn will visit at the closest location to our Earthly home as it will come for the whole year. It will make this visit on the night of 21 March. On that night, Saturn will be glowing at magnitude 0.5 which will be the brightest of all of the other planets and brighter than all be four of the stars in that night’s sky. Unfortunately for the Saturn planning committee, the wonderful rings of that magnificent Ringed World will be poorly adjusted for his fans on Earth. The rings will be pretty-well edge on to planet Earth giving Saturn a disappointing dim appearance. Don’t give up on looking for Saturn this month, though. He will be easy enough to find since he will be the brightest “star” in the eastern sky. Saturn will attempt to make up for his relatively “dim” state by rising in the east right at sunset and staying up on the sky-stage all night long. Mars will attempt to make a good showing this month. He will be well up at dusk and will still be very bright. Unfortunately, however like last month, he will continue to lose brightness through the month. This month, Mars loses half of its light even as it continues to outshine every star except Sirius. Prepare a wonderful welcome for lovely Venus. She will keep her audience in nervous anticipation while she waits in the wings through the month, only making her appearance finally during the last week of the month. She will make her dramatic return quite low in the western sky after sunset. She will be accompanied by her friend, the fleet-footed messenger, Mercury just below her in the waning dusky sky. Truck Day has arrived and moved on. Happy Truck Day everybody. If you are not a major league baseball fan, then you may not know what Truck Day is. That is the day when all of the teams report to their home stadiums to pack their equipment in trucks and start moving off to their designated training locations. Since the sky planners watch the major league cosmic force movements, it can only follow that it is time for spring. As a direct consequence, spring arrives with the Vernal Equinox on 20 March at 11:32 AM MDT.
© 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Winter 2010 |
||
Valentine's Day SunTree Event in Elephant Butte, New Mexico