When Life Gives You Cr*p

It’s been almost 3 weeks since we left Tucson and those weeks have been….well,  character-building is one description.  Or maybe lessons in how to make lemonade from lemons, or a chance to see how one deals with adversity, or all of those things.

A short chronology follows…

The first night out of Tucson it was pouring rain and getting dark when we landed at the RV park.  The site assigned to us was very unlevel (still no jacks) so we tried another and another and another, finally ending up rolling onto 3” of plastic blocks and still being too slanty to put out all the slides.  No wifi topped the evening and we turned in early.  The next day dawned sunny and clear and headed to Willow Beach National Recreation Area – a beautiful park and campground on Lake Mead below Hoover Dam.  It was a steep, curvy, hair-raising 4 mile descent from the highway down to the park but we made it.  Did I mention that our supplemental brake for the car is out of order?  Normally it would activate the brake pedal on the car when I brake Chuck, but alas, it’s not working.  Luckily Chuck is big and powerful enough that it manages the car just fine, but technically we may be a little illegal at this point.

Anyway, Willow Beach has a brand-new campground with beautiful sites overlooking the lake.  This time it only took an hour of driving around to find the levelest possible site and we settled in as the rain started again.  When we had checked into Willow Beach, we asked the office person what they do when it rains hard, given the steep terrain and sandy soil.  She admitted that during “flash flood season” they occasionally were stuck by mudslides but assured me that it wasn’t flash flood season. 

Sign in the park

We were only there for one night with a short, 80 mile drive to Las Vegas scheduled for the next day so when the next day again dawned sunny and clear we packed up and headed to the office to check out and hit the highway.  Surprise – there had been a flash flood during the night and the road out was closed.  They were working on it and we should sit tight and check back in an hour.  To make a long story short, it took 3 hours of nervously waiting, wondering if we’d make our very expensive reservation in Las Vegas before the road opened with minimal mud and goo on it and we barreled out of there, back up the 4 miles of twisty, steep road and on the Vegas.

Chuck waiting for the road to be cleared

Willow Beach view

You know what they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas so I won’t go into too many details but it was wonderful!  A week at a beautiful, glam RV park with good amenities.  Visits with Kenosha friends and a California friend.  A wonderful Cirque du Soleil show and amazing eating at big-deal and funky local restaurants.  Pricey but fabulous.

After Las Vegas we headed to Palm Springs for 2 nights to scout RV parks for an upcoming longer stay when we were due to meet up with some of the Navigator’s family.  We had picked out a park based upon the reviews and at first blush is seemed fine.  Older but friendly people, a level site.  Except (long story made shorter here) the power pedestal was funky and messing with Chuck and making noises like mice chewing under the Navigator’s bed all night and we ended up unplugging and working off our batteries.  Not pleasant and possibly damaging.

Next we were due in Temecula, CA at the RV service place to get a definitive diagnosis on the jacks and a few other little things repaired.  We arrived Saturday and our appointment was 8 am Monday morning so we camped in their lot Saturday night but decamped to a LaQuinta hotel for Sunday, figuring it would be easiest to hang out with the cats in the hotel Monday morning while they started working on Chuck.  Sadly, Beanie was unhappy with the hotel and yowled and paced the room from midnight to 5 am when we finally gave up and got up.  We still have no idea what got into him, but it was a long night. 

Monday afternoon the diagnosis was complete, and yes we needed the new jack system.  Pricing to follow.  We camped in the service place’s lot again and took off Tuesday morning…or tried to.  Except the jack alarm was sounding because of their diagnostic work.  They disconnected the jacks panel, but then the air suspension system dumped all the air and we were riding on the frame, so they panel was reconnected.  Two hours later the panel was wrapped in towels to muffle the alarm and we headed for Palm Springs and a rendezvous with Robin’s family.  Thankfully the alarm stopped just as we pulled into town.

This was an RV park we had scouted and identified level sites ahead of time so we checked in and were assigned our preferred site.  We started to back in and our neighbor came out to warn us that he was having issues with the park’s power system.  Crap!  Off to find a different site, not that many choices and we finally ended up in an unlevel site, up on 5 blocks this time.  The next day, assured that the park power was checked and repaired, we moved 200 yards back to our preferred area.  We plugged in and all seemed well until we started having power problems a couple of nights ago, made apparent by weird popcorn popping noise under our feet.  Inconvenient but we can deal with it with some adjustments.  Just not fun.  And the estimate for the jacks is in and it’s VERY expensive with a lead time for parts of 6-8 weeks.  In 8 weeks we’ll be starting to think about heading home so we’re still mulling over when/where to get them fixed.

Meantime, we’re having lots of fun with the Navigator’s family including dinners out and a trip to a very neat zoo here.  We’re here a couple more days, then off to visit more friends and family.  Our character is built to the max and our frig is full of lemonade.  We’re building synapses at a rapid rate as we troubleshoot our various problems.  But, the weather is (mostly) beautiful, the scenery is gorgeous and the time with family and friends is priceless.  Stay tuned!

Mexican Gray Wolf - all but extinct in the wild, being reintroduced via zoo populations

"Don't touch the butterflies" we were instructed.  No one told the butterflies to leave the Navigator alone.

Swallowtail in motion

Farewell Tucson

Tucson "snowmen"

I’m sorry to see our 2+ weeks in Tucson are coming to an end.  We enjoyed both Christmas and New Year’s Eve with friends, we watched the sun rise over the mountains on New Year’s Day, we shopped, we hung out, we toured and we ate.  Both RV parks were nice in very different ways.  The KOA was huge with amenities like citrus for the picking between the sites, a big laundry and swimming pools.  It was a bit out of town.  Our second week was spent in small (23 sites), urban RV park.  Sentinel Peak is new and basically is a big parking lot with RV hook ups in the oldest part of Tucson called Barrio Hollywood.  The neighborhood is a bit scruffy but the park is a mile from the new light rail line that runs through town (more about that later), and adjacent to a bike/walking trail.  The people running it are extremely friendly and the owner explained his rationale for locating the park where he did.  He’s an RVer and found that most RV parks were way out of the cities making it inconvenient to dine or attend cultural events in the city.  So he decided to build a park within the city, close to mass transportation and cultural activities.  There are fewer amenities; no shower house, small pool, small laundry, but all the necessities are here and the location is outstanding.

Cacti wearing sacks to protect them from frost

Tucson is about the size of Milwaukee and I can’t help but compare the two cities.  The western terminus of Tucson’s new light rail system is in an area that a few years ago was probably considered undesirable.  The housing stock is older and the freeway passes nearby.  There are large, open areas waiting for development, some buildings housing social services and convenience stores selling everything from beer and razors to tires.  But, with the light rail has come new, upscale housing, both medium rise apartments and very upscale single family housing.  There is marketplace housed in a historic building.  The light rail (SunLynk by name) travels east from there past the convention center, through the downtown corridor, then through an area comparable to Milwaukee’s east side and ends in the heart of the University.  For $4 we got an all-day pass and rode the rail its length and back and could see the development all along it.  The downtown is bustling with restaurant, shops and theaters.  The 4^th Ave. corridor has more restaurants and funky, alternative shops (including a very cool, independent bookstore) and the University area is looking very prosperous.  It’s clear that investment is being made in the infrastructure of the city.

Repurposed building at the terminus of the SunLynk

What’s the lesson?  I’m not an urban planner, but as a citizen I embrace easy, convenient mass transit to areas with fun stuff to see and do.  What opportunities did Milwaukee lose out on when the light rail was killed?  What could Kenosha do with the trolleys?  What if they ran from Parkside to Carthage to downtown to the Metra and the out to the former Chrysler land?  And what if there was a fun, little RV park on the Chrysler land?  Food for thought.

Vulture sculpture

On a lighter note - other fun Tucson stuff – a great little urban zoo where they are obviously spending money to constantly improve the habitats for the animals including a huge African elephant area.  A neat little botanic park.  Nearby historic missions.  The Sonora Desert Museum – one of the great zoos in the country.  Antigone Bookstore – keeping Tucson feisty for over 40 years.  Yes, I think we could live here.

Rhino at Reid Park Zoo

National Historic Site - abandoned mission

Next stop - Las Vegas!