The Family Tree
Volume 11, Number 1 April 2004
A Publication of the SunTree Travel Club
SunTree Travel Club is an affiliate of The American Association for Nude Recreation
(AANR), AANR-West, the International Naturist Federation
and The Naturist Society

Thought for the Month
Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.- Anon.

The SunTree Traveler

St. Patrick's Day in Alamogordo

The event in Alamogordo on the weekend of 20, 21 March was everything that you would expect of an Irish oriented party. There were even leprechauns. One of them was only wearing the hat, but we are counting him in order to up the census records. Actually, the second one was Paddy the Piñata, but he was the center of attention with his green suit and red beard.

The food could not get any more Irish with Green Chile Stew, Green Enchiladas, Asparagus Quiche and green tostadas with the dip. There were, of course some off the wall things that probably would not be considered Irish, like corned beef and cabbage, but it was a fun time for all.

This two-day event has become one of the SunTree annual traditions. The turnout was fabulous. There was a waiting list for the hot tub.

An urgent note is being inserted here to draw your attention to the calendar of events for April. There is a change in the event on the first weekend of April due to a conflict in schedules. That event will now be a camping trip to Faywood Hot Springs. Faywood Hot Springs is located halfway between Deming and Silver City, NM.

The meals for this event will be, as they are for most of the SunTree events, potluck. Bring an entrée, side dish or a snack dish to share with the others at the camping trip. For this event, the meals will be set up in the Faywood Hot Springs camping area. No food will be allowed in the vicinity of the soaking pools.

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Arizona Camping Trip

The events calendar is correct for the weekend of 23 & 25 April. We are, yet again planning to visit one of our club's favorite places, Jardin del Sol, located near Marana, AZ. About all that was said in the description of the event for 3 & 4 April can be repeated here.

The meals for this event will be, as they are for most of the SunTree events, potluck. Bring an entrée, side dish or a snack dish to share with the others at the camping trip. If you plan to participate in this event, call Jardin del Sol as soon as possible to make camping/RV slot reservations. Their phone number is 520-682-2537

April Celebration

This is the month that we all joyously send off a major portion of our annual income to the Eternal Revenue Service to support their Memorial Day Office Party.

Celebrate Income Tax Day by joining your fellow SunTree Family members in a nude march to the post office to mail your return.

We will meet, at 10:30 PM on 15 April, in the parking lot of the city/county building.

Gladys (Peter's wife, the quiet one) will be there with their big orange SUV. Gladys will have plastic bags for you to store all of your clothes, except shoes.

We will then join with a contingent of party people from the University complete with a small marching band and parade to the main post office. Postal employees will be in the parking lot to accept the income tax packages. There will be a flatbed trailer parked in the lot with a jazz band (it is to be hoped that Gladys will also be there, she is not too good with directions and she will be alone. Peter is planning to march with us). Tables will also be in the parking lot with refreshments for the parade participants.

I do not know what sort of "marching band" to expect. I know that Miguel has a trumpet and he said that his cousin plans to join in with his accordion. I suspect that there will be a number of amateur percussion musicians along for the parade. It should be a lot of fun.

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April Celestial Events

You may remember from last month's newsletter that I mentioned that we would be having a grand parade of planets across the sky toward the end of March. That parade is going on as this newsletter is being published and will continue through the first week of April. Poor little Mercury will be the first to drop out of the parade, but the other four members will remain in the night sky in April. What is fantastic about this parade is that it is made up of all five naked-eye planets viewable from Earth. They remain simultaneously visible for the final time for many years to come.

Mercury, in dropping out, concludes its best evening apparition of the year.

Venus, now unbelievably brilliant, floats near the famous Seven Sisters star cluster called the Pleiades. We all know, by the way that you can only see six of the seven stars in that cluster, but did you know that there are actually many more than seven stars in that cluster? If you happen to have an astronomical observatory in your neighborhood, look at them. There are very many more than seven in the "seven sisters". Until this month (thanks to Lloyd Johnson of the Friends of Black's Beach, I did not know that that cluster, in Japan is known as "Subaru".

Mars, fading from its grand show of last year is nearly 200 times dimmer than Venus now. Mars hovers above and to the left of Venus's for entire month. Both Mars and Venus will be joined by the crescent Moon on 23 April.

Jupiter has a great month planned for April. It is extremely bright to the naked eye this month. In fact, after the Moon and Venus, it will be the brightest object in the night sky. If you have one, you can see that Jupiter is very striking through a telescope. It is high up at sunset in the eastern sky and reaches its apex more than halfway up in the southern sky at 10:00 PM. The Moon pays a visit to Jupiter on 29 April.

This and That

There is not much room for non-SunTree news this month, but I wanted to mention three things:

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