Steve and Judy's Travels!

The beach RV park at Oceanside.

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.