We thought it was allergies

 But Judy may have caught that crummy cold that has been going around.  She is still ambulatory and plowing through it, but we’re keeping her well drugged. We’re still at Rusty’s. This is the dark place where the amateur astronomers come.  In fact, we’re surrounded by sparsely populated housing developments with home observatories; sky sheds.  Some of the telescopes here in the park look as big as a couple 50 gallon drums stuck together. Each one gets covered up with a silver blanket during the day.  We watched acorn woodpeckers.    

I remember

 I remember learning in school about significant digits and accuracy.  The number of significant digits you have defines the confidence you have in your number.  If you add, multiply, or divide, you only have as much confidence in the result as the lowest number of significant digits that went into it.  If you’ve got a weight measured to 17.2857 grams, you’ve got 6 significant digits of accuracy.  That’s accurate!  If you multiply it by a number, like 3.14, you get 54.277098, but not really; you don’t get an answer accurate to 8 digits.  The number you get is only as accurate as the least accurate number you used in your calculation, so the answer you have confidence in is really only 54.3.  A lot of the accuracy of your original weight just went away in the calculation, from 6 significant digits to 3. This was all brought to mind while driving down the highway; seeing the construction sign that announced the total cost of that project to be $45,172,843.10.  Really?  And ten cents?  Not eleven cents, ten cents!  I realize that a highway construction project is not bound by scientific accuracy, and there might be a fixed contract that specifies that exact amount, but how much useful information did that ten cents add?  Two significant digits $45,000,000 might give us all the information we need, maybe three $45,200,000.  Surely everything after the first five digits $45,173,000 is just clutter.  We’re still at Rusty’s. Watched curve-billed thrashers.  

Wednesday

 A warm calm day.  Blue sky and 65 degrees. We saw a Streak-backed Oriole.  That doesn’t happen very often.  This is a bird that lives in Mexico and Central America.  I think this is the only one being seen in the United States right now.  Lucky for us, it’s coming to eat oranges in Bob Rodrigues’s back yard every day. Happy Wednesday everyone. 

Plan C

 Tuesday.  The interstate opened last night after dark when the wind laid down, but it’s already closed again this morning.  We can stay put and wait out the wind, or we can do something.  It’s a big drive-around, but we can still get to where we want to be.  We were 95 miles from our destination, but our path was blocked.  We drove south on Highway 191 to Willcox and fueled up.  There was an interesting puller and trailer next to us at the fuel stop.They had a load of horses and a heifer. We continued south on Highway 191 through Cochise, Sunsites, Sunizona, Efrida, and McNeal.  We turned left just as we got to the Mexican Border at Douglas on Highway 90, and drove back up to the north through Apache and Rodeo, and here we are; Rusty’s RV Ranch!  One of our favorite places.  It just took another 175 miles today to get here. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1XYsAPbRQNrLQGGU8N54Xezsw54E&ll=32.017833025052084%2C-108.93821790273438&z=8 The sites are back-to-back, but they’re a hundred feet long and about that far between them too. Saw Gambel’s Quail.  

Change in plans 1a

  Monday.  Got on the road early to head through El Paso on our way to Las Cruces.  Going to have a short travel day and check in on work and do some laundry.  Funny thing; you know how when you’re driving down the interstate and you get to a town, the speed limit always goes down?  If the speed limit is 65, it will generally slow to 60 or 55 until you get out of town.  Well, driving through Van Horn on the interstate, the speed limit is 80!  Of course we only drive 65 regardless.  The first thing that happens driving west from Van Horn is we’re now in the same time zone as our children. Called up the weather forecast and saw high wind warnings, 60mph gusts at Las Cruces expected on Tuesday.  Another change in plans.  Decided it would be better to cover more miles on Monday and hunker down on Tuesday.  Called Rusty’s RV Ranch just outside Rodeo, New Mexico and she said she had room for us a day early, so that was our new plan.  West on Interstate 10.  A stop for lunch and provisioning at Deming.  Continuing West on Interstate 10, we got within 15 miles of our exit (30 miles from our destination) when suddenly all traffic was diverted off the freeway.  No explanation, must have been an accident or something, but the alternate route was well marked, with police moving everyone along at every intersection, and blocking any wrong turns.  Where we live in the Valley, it’s not unusual to get shunted off the freeway and right back on at the next ramp. The alternate route headed off the wrong direction, not a good sign, back to the east from whence we came.  Then it turned north.  Then it just went on.  And on.  And on.  With all of the truck, RV, and car traffic that would have been on the freeway if it could.  North-west.  The wrong direction for us.  Judy called the highway patrol.  There was a dangerous dust storm, zero visibility, on the interstate ahead of us at San Simon, Arizona, so they closed it, and sent us on a Hundred Fifteen Mile detour! We followed the scenic 2 lane highway 70 from Lordsburg, to Duncan, Solomon, and Safford.  We finally got to turn south, back toward the freeway, on Highway 191.  By then though, it was getting late, and almost a little bit cranky.  The interstate was still closed, so even when we got back to it, we wouldn’t be able to go east to New Mexico where we were supposed to be.  Another nother change in plans.  Judy saved the day when we saw the sign for a State Park we’ve never been to and called them just before we got to the turn.  They had room for us!  We made the turn and set up for the night in a delightful little park with a lake. 2017 Arizona Trip Map We’re sheltered here in the foothills.  A very calm comfortable evening. Saw a whole bunch of Common Mergansers. Tomorrow, assuming the interstate is back open, we only have another 95 miles to go to get back to where we meant to be tonight.