Author: Steve

At Ralph and Jill’s new house. I was playing with the kids, and got suckered into riding the monkey bike.
I don’t know why. I don’t even know what a monkey bike is.

Headed north. Passed the town of Hope. Of course, on the other side of
town was the sign, “You’re beyond Hope now.” Highway 89 north from Congress
is a slow road. The surface is good, but it is scenic. 20 mph road, all
the way to Prescott. Very scenic desert mountains. Advisories posted for
vehicles over 40 feet in length to turn around and go back. No problem for
us. We’re 39′ 10″ (plus the tow car). No problem. Prescott is a mountain
town. Beautiful setting. It’s all weathered granite and pinon pine. It a
bigger town than we expected. Kept moving. Still north. Stopped for the night at Sunset Crater National
Monument. Saw a stellar’s jay. That’s it. One stinking stellar’s jay.
Beautiful campground. No birds. A pine tree forest. Black volcanic
cinders on the ground. No brush. An open forest. Nothing on the ground
but pine needles. 7,000 feet. What a difference a day makes. Same state.
Ninety-five degrees yesterday in the low desert. Twenty-nine degrees this
morning in the high desert. When we first got here, we asked for a bird list. We always do that just in
case. Sometimes we get lucky, and they have one. We asked. They looked
all around. They said they had one but couldn’t find it. By the time we
left, I could have volunteered to write the bird list for them. Stellar’s
Jay. One bird.

Moved on. We’re headed back toward Colorado, still in Arizona. This is our
first visit to an Escapee’s park. Escapee’s Rainbow Park, just outside
Congress, AZ. $10 per night, full hookups. 110 sites. No reservations.
It’s first come, first served. No limit on how long you can stay, except
that it’s first come, first out. If someone arrives and the park is full,
the person who has been there the longest has to leave. There are also RV and house lots to buy. 432 of them. Filled with friendly
residents. The Escapees club is built on a philosophy of providing whatever
help they can to RVrs. They encourage volunteerism and cooperation. It
seems to be working. We talked to at least twenty people. Every one of
them seemed genuinely interested in making sure they did anything they could
to help.

Wednesday. California towhee. 302. Don’t get many of those in Colorado. Got two in
sister-in-law Barbara’s back yard. White headed small dark gull with an orange beak on the beach. Heerman’s
gull. Already got that one. Worked on some more mailing lists. Judy thinks I might be too excited about
expanding into another state. Like maybe that would be spreading us too
thin. Well, we’re not too thin yet. The sun came out. Beach time.
Judy had a great idea tonight. Hot Pastrami sandwiches at Angelo’s one more
time. Oof.
Probably should leave tomorrow.

Monday. Still at 299. Judy spent some time with her mom this morning. I spent some time doing a
little work online. No WiFi here, but a good cellphone data connection. I
wonder if we should expand into an adjacent state. It would be easier to
work on the road in New Mexico in the winter than in Colorado. We decided, since we were already here, to press a little farther into
California and go to the beach. Went to Paradise by the Sea RV Park in
Oceanside. It is almost on the beach, and has a trail that runs through a
little park and right out onto the ocean. It has a chain link fence for
security at night. The fence has a locked gate. And concertina razor wire
on top. Oh well. We’ll ignore that part. Seventy-five degrees. An ocean breeze. It is so nice here. That’s it.
We’re not going anywhere else. I can work from here. Racquetball therapy. Had to drive to Vista for it, but that’s not very far.
Challenge court. Two guys playing. The winner stayed. The other left.
The winner was awesome. He was totally relaxed. He hit every shot. He was
invincible. He crushed me at zero. My first game is never my best. I settled down and played again.
Methodically. I got a few points. I even got ahead. His game changed. He
forced a few shots and missed a few points. He won, but I got to double
digits. The next game, he only got to single digits. During the game after
that, his son showed up. I’d guess his son is eighteen years old. I played
him next. His son hit even harder than he did. But he didn’t hit as well.
He didn’t get very many points. Angelo’s in Oceanside for pastrami sandwiches and taquitos. Oof. Krispy
Kreme crème filled donuts for dessert. Double oof. It was all Judy’s idea.
I’ll never listen to her ideas again. I taught her a lesson, though. She bought the donuts, but I served them. I
put four of them on her plate. Alka Seltzer should finish off the night just fine. A forty-five mile day.