A walk around the perimeter of the campground. The tiny thunder of quail wings as we disturbed the evening wandering of a hundred birds. A lot of energy expended for a flight of fifty feet. Some birds had to escape several times. The juncos, finches, sparrows, and siskins have discovered our feeders. Cactus wrens. Ladderback woodpeckers. Life in the desert.
Anza borrego
The job finished up on Friday like it was supposed to. Saturday morning we said goodbye to the couple across the street, said goodbye to Jim and Elle. Said goodbye to Barbara and Wally, and headed west. West on Interstate 10 past the Picacho Peak Ostrich Farm and RV Park. West on Interstate 8. Past Gila Bend and Yuma, elevation 160 feet. This is the first time we’ve been below 1,000 feet since last March. We cross the California border, into the Pacific time-zone, and don’t change the clocks; we’ve been in Arizona. Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time. It has been a strange time-zone trip for us. We went from mountain daylight time to mountain standard, without crossing a time zone, when we crossed into Arizona, so we changed the clocks. Then we crossed from mountain standard to pacific daylight time when we crossed into California, so we didn’t change the clocks when we crossed the time zone. But the funny thing is that we crossed into the next time zone on the same day the time changed from daylight to standard (in California), so we had to change the clocks anyway. Passed the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area; packed with off-road vehicles buzzing up and down the dunes and a thousand RVs dry camping in the desert. Yuma, El Centro, Ocotillo, right along the Mexico border. We stopped at a quiet place, outside Anza Borrego Desert State Park. No cellphone service, but we’ve got email. We’ll stay here a week.
Tucson
Happy Anniversary to us. November 1st. We’re starting our fourth year on the road. If you can get entrenched in not being entrenched, it’s happening to us. Mesquite tree update. It’s an olive tree. 150 rigs checking in today for a motorcycle rally. Tomorrow morning they all take a group ride. Talking to neighbors here in the park in Tucson, we discover that we’re talking to Don McKee’s half sister, Barbara, twenty years older than he. What a coincidence! We hang out with Don and Barbara Mckee in Louisville for thirty-five years, then we run into Don’s older sister in Tucson. And know what she, Barbara formerly-McKee is here doing? She and her husband are here for the motorcycle rally. Eighty-five years old, and they’re here for the motorcycle rally. Things not to do while fifth-wheeling. Don’t drive off without the hitch latched in place. If you don’t latch it, the trailer falls off the hitch, lands on the back of the pickup, makes a loud noise, does some damage, and you feel stupid. It just happened to a neighbor of ours this morning. I think it happens eventually to most every fifth-wheel driver. Had dinner tonight with Jim and Elle, last seen in Colorado, they just crossed the border from Mexico, and we happened to end up in Tucson at the same park at the same time. Enjoying this life on the road. It’s a trip. Happy Anniversary to us.
Tucson
Up and gone at dawn. Madera canyon, one of the most highly regarded birding spots in Southeastern Arizona, which is itself a highly regarded birding spot. We’re in search of the Arizona Woodpecker; a life bird for us. Got a flock of wild turkeys. Mexican jays and acorn woodpeckers everywhere, bridled titmouse, white breasted and red breasted nutchatches, various finches, siskins and juncos, and two really cool birds: the blue-throated hummingbird and the hepatic tanager. Neither are life birds, but each one only seen once before by us, so good reinforcement of the life-list. No Arizona Woodpecker though. Now we’re starting to attach adjectives to his name, like we did with that rotten little green bird, the green kingfisher, until we finally found him. Busy days. Back before lunch; in time for Annie’s grooming and some client work. Yesterday, Judy got the coach washed (I didn’t say she washed it, she arranged to have it washed; and she did a very good job of that), and got the carpets cleaned too. Today, Judy got Annie groomed and replaced the electrical cord between the coach and the tow car (seven pin to four pin), and got some new awning straps. Now, in the daylight, looking at the mesquite tree overhanging the hot tub, I see something wrong with tree. It has black olives hanging from its branches. Strange place, this RV Park in Tucson. How do you suppose they get black olives to grow on a mesquite tree? And why would they want to do that anyway?
Tucson
Still in New Mexico, we say good morning to the roadrunner wandering the RV Park, then head west. Interstate 10 is a trucker’s highway. The road is straight and flat, so I drove 70 for a while, but that required a lot of leapfrogging trucks. I slowed down to 65 and got to stay in the right lane. That was better. Easy driving. From Las Cruces, past the turnoff to Silver City at Deming, by Lordsburg; moon in the windshield all morning. Through the border patrol checkpoint (with Judy clicking her seatbelt to make sure I didn’t get another ticket for an “unrestrained wife”) and New Mexico was gone. Smallish ravens in the air; must be Chihuahan Ravens. Lordsburg. Willcox. Lunch at Texas Canyon. White throated swifts above the boulder cliffs. Ladderback woodpecker in the scrub trees. On past Benson, and down the hill into Tucson. We got to drive two days in a row. Nice trip. We didn’t change time zones, but we drove into Arizona, so we changed the clocks. Lows in the twenties and thirties in Santa Fe; a little cool. Lows in the forties at Las Cruces; better. Here in Tucson, it’s late at night and the outside temperature is still in the eighties. No more winter camping rules for a while. Beaudry RV Park. Gila woodpeckers. Curve billed thrashers. Private hot-tub site. Stars. Oleander hedge. Overhanging mesquite tree. A new client on Monday. We’ll stay here a week.