We didn’t head south today. Judy got sick last night; a freight train of a stomach thing, that didn’t allow her any sleep. Must not be food poisoning; we ate the same things all day. Must be a bug. After two years on the road with nothing more than a glancing blow from a cold, something finally got us. Darn. We’re not invincible just because we’re a moving target. We’ll stay here until her stomach calms down, and hope the bug goes away as fast as it hit.
Birds
Wait! I know why the parrots aren’t in the book. They’re illegals. Illegal parrot immigrants. We need a higher fence.
Mesa
A fun surprise yesterday. Forty miles outside Mesa, Arizona, US Highway 60 just before the town of Superior on the most narrow remote section of trail in Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, we meet our favorite family physician (and competitive racquetball player) from Louisville, Colorado: Doctor Becky and family, here on vacation to visit her sister. What a coincidence. Guess we’d better behave like people know us wherever we go. Never know when someone actually will. We really like the grill they have here, a big permanent one with natural gas piped right to it. No bottles to refill. Variable flame, nice distance from the heat source, it cooks steaks fast, but can be turned down slow for chicken. Doesn’t flare up like a portable gas grill. We grilled dinner every night. I’m spoiled. Now I want one like that with us all the time. Progress on the coach repair. The insurance adjustor showed up this morning, examined the repair estimate, surveyed the damage, and wrote us a check. Now we’re free until Monday the 11th when the repair work actually gets done. Tomorrow…. points south.
Mesa
Woke to unusual bird sounds. Not totally unfamiliar, but not normal for the sonoran desert, either. Had to go look. Same exotic birds we heard years ago at Bluewater Key in Florida. Peachfaced Lovebirds. Back then, they were coming from our neighbor’s space; clipped captives let out to play. This time they were wild; a whole flock of peachfaced lovebirds, twenty or so, chattering their way from palm tree to palm tree. They’re not in the book. Looked them up on the web. There are several breeding flocks in the Phoenix area. We don’t get to count them, though, because they’re not listed in our book and they’re not listed on our birding software where we track our sightings and life-list. But we know they were here.
Along the way
Classic Sonoran Desert. Saguaro, organ pipe, senita, cholla, prickly pear, hedgehog, and barrel cactus, creosote, ocotillo, agave, ironwood, cat claw acacia, mesquite, and palo verde, inhabited by gambel’s quail, mourning doves, inca doves, anna’s and costa’s hummingbirds, gila woodpecker, verdin, cactus wren, black tailed gnatcatcher, mockingbird, curvebilled thrasher, abert’s towhee, and lesser goldfinch.