Catching Up

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Time to catch you all up to date.  From Carlsbad we drove to Huachuca City, AZ, best known probably for Ft. Huachuca, an Army base.  For us it was the proximity to Tombstone and Bisbee, two places in Arizona we wanted to revisit after just passing through on a previous trip.

There’s a lot of history in Tombstone, and it is real history, not the Hollywood version of the fight at the OK Corral (which actually took place in the street and not in the corral.  We started at Boothill Cemetery, full of stories of all the miserable and/or violent ways to die in the old days.  

From there we toured the old city hall which is now a very nice museum and should be the starting point for visitors. 

The next day we went to Bisbee, AZ, home for many years to productive copper mines and now a historic town with artists, shops and a very cool mine tour.  

We tried to tour the mine several years ago but it was so crowded that we couldn’t get on the train.  This time we were 2 of only 6 on the tour and had a great guide, a former miner.  Once again it was a lesson in the many ways one can die, among other lessons.  

Riding the train into the mine

The "facilities" down in the mine.  Yes, it's a two-seater

Also in Bisbee is a great mining museum.  As I get older, I appreciate these historical lessons more.

From Huachuca City we moved Chuck to Catalina Mountain State Park on the northwest side of Tucson.  It was a beautiful place, surrounded by rugged mountains and very remote feeling.  And just outside the park and across the road was a wonderful shopping center with some of our favorite stores.  Yes, even we are touched by the Christmas spirit as we bought the Navigator a new laptop at Best Buy and more wine at World Market.  The best of all worlds?

After 3 nights in the park we moved 16 miles to one of our favorite RV parks, Sentinel Peak RV park in Tucson.  This small (23 sites) urban park in on the western edge of Tucson in the old Mexican barrio neighborhood.  I wrote a fair amount about it last year so I won’t repeat myself.  You can see that post here:  http://chucklewagon.blogspot.com/2016/01/farewell-tucson.html

We’re here for over 3 weeks.  Beanie and I are thrilled.  We’ve already had dinner with our friends who live here, we’ve had our mail delivered, we have Amazon packages coming and more friends are joining us here before we leave.  We’re so friggin' happy that we’ve signed up to attend the RV park’s holiday potluck tomorrow.  For a couple of screaming introverts that’s holiday spirit.

So wherever you are, enjoy the spirit of the holiday(s) you celebrate.  Goodwill towards men and women and stay warm, safe and contented.

On the Move

So we waited one whole day for a RV service guy to show up and when he didn’t show up or call, we tried again.  This time Joshua did show up, crawled under the rig, removed some pieces, ordered parts from Dallas and returned 2 days later and put some pieces back in all in the coldest 3 days of the year.  Viola – it worked.  We were good to go.

In the meantime we decided to go see some Christmas lights in Carlsbad.  In most cities you drive around in your warm car and gawk.  Not here.  In Carlsbad they do Christmas on the Pecos River.  You wait until dark and get onto a pontoon boat with a bunch of other people and ride 2 miles downriver and back looking at displays done by businesses and homes along the river.  It was our last night in town and it just happened to be the coldest night of the year.  Yes, 31 desert-freezing degrees and we were on a boat on the river.  

I don't know what Intrepid Potash is but they had a nice display

One lovely home on the Pecos River

We survived and even enjoyed getting a taste of yet another Christmas tradition in yet another town.  But, as I said to the Navigator, we wouldn’t even do this in Wisconsin!

From Carlsbad we drove to Las Cruces, NM, which requires going to El Paso, TX and then back up to New Mexico.  It’s a lovely drive over the Guadalupe Mountains and we had plenty of time to enjoy the view as low clouds and hoar frost at high elevations made the driving slow and interesting. 

The road ahead in the Guadalupe Mountains

Beautiful but scary hoarfrost

In Las Cruces we enjoyed wine tasting, especially at Rio Grande Winery.  Every once in a while we luck into a wine tasting where the owner/winemaker is behind the counter and we get treated to a discussion with the expert and a specially curated tasting.  This was one of the best we ever had and we left with half a case of wine, which is now stored under the bed since the wine case in the storage bay is also full of wine.  The challenge begins – can we drink enough to stay ahead of our collecting and storage limitations.

From Las Cruces we moved to our current location is Huachucha City, AZ, chosen for its proximity to Tombstone, Bisbee and other AZ attractions.  We’ll have 4 nights here and then on to Tucson.  

All photo credits to the Navigator.

Lemonade, Synapses and More

The good news is that we’re in one of our favorite RV parks, Escapees Ranch in Carlsbad, NM.  Yes, we’re still here.  The bad news is that the part is in Dallas and it will take at least 2 days to get here.  The good news is that the diesel mechanic came out yesterday and diagnosed the problem and ordered the part.  The bad news is that we spent all day Monday waiting for Vince, a different mechanic, who assured us all day that he’d get to us before the end of the day and then never showed up.  The good news is that we have several lazy days to just hang out while we’re waiting.  That’s the lemonade.

Such is life RVing.  Things break.  In this case a valve on the air system that powers our air brakes, fills the air bags we ride on, and powers the jacks.  We packed up Monday morning, thwarted the Lord of Rig (Beanie), got him in his carrier and headed out the gate, only to realize that we were not aired up like we should be.  Our butt was literally dragging.  Luckily the Escapees had room for us to return to our site and settle in to find help. Turns out that there is a desiccant/dryer as part of the air system that needs maintenance every 2 years or so.  Oops, guess we missed that day at boot camp.  Apparently we got condensation in our air system and then it froze and split a brass valve.  It gets cold in the desert you know.  That’s the synapse part – we keep learning.

But, we like Carlsbad.  The people here in the park are great and have been helpful with advice and hugs.  The Carlsbad Cavern was amazing, and best of all, it was practically empty.  We wandered through like we owned the place, marveling at the formations.  It’s hard to capture the enormity in photos. 

The Great Room - total floor space equivalent to 14 football fields.

60 ft. tall stalagmite

We also toured a nice state park that is half botanic garden (for the Navigator) and half zoo (for me).  I like good zoos.  Maybe because I grew up going to the Milwaukee County Zoo, one of the best in the country.  Maybe because I believe that once we see live animals, we can better appreciate their counterparts in the wild that we don’t see, and hopefully that inspires us to consider them as we impact the world.  This Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is worth a visit.  Oh yeah, they did a good job with the plants also, in case you care.   http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/spd/livingdesertstatepark.html

Young bobcats acting like cats everywhere

Native female elk

Vulture sculpture at the zoo

Another Carlsbad attraction is the Flume.  A large, 100 year old aqueduct used to divert water from the Pecos River to farm land for irrigation.  It is an impressive edifice.

Back at the RV park the local animals were hanging out on the road.  In addition to the cattle we regularly see roadrunners and other birds.  

So here we are, still in Carlsbad.  The cats are content and the rig is warm.  Life is good.

Wichita Mountains

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge is 60,000 acres of rocky hills and pristine prairie just over the border of Texas in OK.  In the early days (pre-white settlers) it was home to millions of bison, elk and lots of other wildlife.  Following a pattern seen across the west, the elk and bison were wiped out by hunters and the land was empty of large fauna.  Teddy Roosevelt came along and made a deal to bring bison from New York to repopulate the prairie.  Then came elk from Wyoming.  Someone else thought it would be nice to have some longhorn cattle so they came from Mexico.  Quite the diverse population, eh?  The bison re-population has been so successful that every year surplus are auctioned off, hopefully to find happy homes elsewhere.  You can read more here https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Wichita_Mountains/

We went to view the massive herds of bison and elk.  Below is our bison:   This lone male was happy to represent the species.  

Our bison herd

We also found longhorn cattle.  Again the lone representative.  No elk were spotted.  Actually, it makes me happy to know that the animals have enough room to disappear from our view.  I’ll take the ranger’s word for it that they are out there.

Our cattle herd

Prairie dogs however were abundant and very entertaining.  These communal tunnel dwellers chitter, chat and pop up like a game of Whack-A-Mole. 

We left Wichita Falls heading to Colorado City, TX and nice state park intending it to be a one-night stand on our way to Carlsbad, NM.  Beanie however had other ideas.  Despite our most diligent efforts, he disappeared under the slide as we got ready to go.  Time passed and finally it was best to concede that another night in the lovely state park was the best option.  We love Texas state parks and this one was virtually empty of other campers and a very nice stop over.  Yesterday we managed to foil the Lord of the Rig (Beanie) and made the drive to Carlsbad, NM.  We’re about 17 miles north of Carlsbad in a park owned and operated by the Escapees, an RV club we belong to.  We stayed here last year also and are planning 4 nights this time.  I wrote about it here:  http://chucklewagon.blogspot.com/2015/12/cocoon.html

The price is right, the WiFi is good, the site is very pleasant and the people lovely.  Today we head to Carlsbad Caverns.  Last year the elevator down 800 feet to the cave was broken so we contented ourselves with staying on the surface.  Word has it that it got fixed for President Obama’s visit earlier this year so we’re hoping to benefit.  Stay tuned!

Surprising Wichita Falls

RVing is full of unexpected events.  Things like, “what do you mean the jacks won’t go down” to “is that red light on the dashboard a bad thing?”  Fortunately most of the surprises are good things, which is probably why we keep doing this.  Case in point, Wichita Falls, TX.

We planned a 2 night stop here to be close for a visit to the Wichita Falls Wildlife Refuge.  The RV Park looked good on paper and the manager was lovely on the phone as we made reservations.  Then we pulled in, greeted by colorful 10’ flamingos and a rainbow of fire hydrants.  This could be fun.  

Welcome to Wichita Falls RV Park

The check-in lady enthused about the sites to see and we soon had a map with highlights marked.  Wichita Falls???  Who knew?  The next good omen, the rig next our site was a twin of Chuck.  Yes, another 36QSH Phaeton, only one year newer.  If we came home drunk we could be in trouble.  And the frosting on the cake?  Outstanding free WiFi – a rare occurrence in most RV parks.  Turns out we are parked under the repeater.

We got set up and started touring.  World’s littlest skyscraper – check.  Funny story that.  http://www.texascooppower.com/texas-stories/history/legend-of-the-worlds-littlest-skyscraper

Museum of North Texas History – closed for the day, but interesting.

A downtown full of resale and vintage clothing stores – fun.  After dinner at a great barbecue place we decided an extra day in Wichita Falls would be worth it.

The next day we devoted to the town.  First stop - WEE-CHI-TAH.  To quote from the website: 

This marvelous life-sized sculpture features a Comanche family crossing the Wichita River. The actual legend of their crossing defines where Wichita got its name. This multi-part piece of art is of a Comanche woman, her child, two braves, their horses and a colt set in the natural beauty of rock & flowing water. The woman is testing the river's depth, as the legend tells, and describes it is ""waist-deep"", which is how ""Wee-chi-tah"" is translated. I hope that everyone who looks upon this sculpture will see a people who loved their own, the land, the horses, things that The Great Creator gave, not to be sold or owned, but a way of life, free, free to enjoy, free to live. Jack Stevens, Artist

It was very cool.  The gloomy day added to the atmosphere and the figures looked alive.  The expression on the child’s face is so gleeful.

  And, immediately adjacent is the best reuse of an old grain elevator imaginable – a climbing gym.  How smart is that.  An old trestle bridge is part of a nearby hiking trail along the river.

Climbing gym in an old grain elevator

The Navigator leading the way off the bridge

Next stop was the Riverbend Nature Center devoted to bringing city residents in touch with the river and the outdoors in the city.  It was a quiet day and we got a guided tour of the prairie dog colony (former pets that outgrew their pet life), butterfly house and other attractions.  

Prairie dog

Orange Juliet (not Orange Julius) butterfly

From there I insisted we find the “falls” that give Wichita Falls its name.  Sadly the original falls were wiped out in some natural disaster in the 18^th century and the current falls are a man-made re-creation built in the 1990s.  Nevertheless, it makes for an attractive park.

Wichita Falls

Back home to Chuck for lunch and a break and a wait for darkness.  Darkness because the biggest attraction in Wichita Falls at this time of year comes alive as darkness falls – The Fantasy of Lights!  My pictures don't do it justice and the story is interesting so check out the website:  https://fol.mwsu.edu/story/

It was pretty spectacular and the surrounding neighborhood was well – lit also (with lights silly). 

Part of the Fantasy of Lights

Today we might actually head for the Wildlife Refuge – our original plan for Wichita Falls.

Ruling the Rig

Our very first trip in Chuck was to a state park 15 miles from home to test out our abilities and our rig.  We had only one cat at the time, Beanie, and of course he went with us.  What we didn’t realize at the time was the variety of nooks and crannies built into the interior of Chuck.  We woke up that first morning and couldn’t find Beanie.  We called and opened every cupboard and closet and door.  We searched outside, sure he had is some mysterious way escaped and been eaten by a coyote.  We were frantic and hysterical for a good half hour when we heard a soft “meow” from a cavity below the closet that he somehow found.  We spent the next 45 minutes cajoling, begging and bribing him out of that cavity, popped him in the car and drove him home to spent the 2^nd night alone at home while we continued to camp.  Once the weekend was over our friend Simon cut a board to cover the opening to the cavity and we felt safe.  Unknown to us, that was just the beginning of the “Where’s Beanie” saga. 

Our next trip was to Door County and Beanie made the trip in his cat carrier strapped with one of the seat belts to one of the couches.  He seemed OK when we arrived at the campground and the Navigator and I went in to register.  We came out to find that he had managed to escape his carrier and was nowhere in sight.  We were sure he was in the rig so we went ahead and set up and starting calling for him with no response.  Worried, but not yet panicking, we opened some wine and sat with a friend until, all of a sudden, a tiny paw was seen pushing through an air vent behind the kitchen cabinets.  Yes, yet another cavity, apparently accessed behind a couch.  This time a bribe of cheese lured him over the back of the cabinet, through the cabinet and back into living space.  We stuffed a couple of pillows behind the couch to block the opening and the game was on. 

By far his favorite hiding place is under the bed in the slide mechanism.  Over the years we’ve added 5 body pillows and a bed pillow, all of which are jammed into the openings around the bed.  Additionally a pool noodle is wedged into place to hold the pillows.  We also make sure that the cabinet over the bed where we store extra towels is open and it is an alternative hiding place for him, but one we can reach.  99% of the time all of this preparation works, keeping him within reach.  But every once in a while the system breaks down and our preparations for departure sends him into hiding.  Hiding in the slide ensures that we can’t leave since bringing in the slide would crush him.  Not that we’ve ever considered that, even at our most frustrated….which was just the other day.

We try not to telegraph that we’re getting ready to pack up but there’s a certain tension in the air on moving day and on Wednesday Beanie disappeared.  We searched all the easy-to-reach hiding spots and concluded he was under the bed.  We started the waiting game.  “Act casual”.   After 20 minutes we were on the floor cajoling.  Then we put out wet food and treats trying to appeal to appetite.  No sign.  Alternatives were considered.  Should we push the vacuum cleaner hose under there?  We agreed that scaring him was counter-productive.  How patient could we be?  We had reservations for the next campground but if we had to we could stay another night in the parking lot of the RV service place and spend Thanksgiving in Big Cabin, OK.  It was now pushing noon, way past our hoped-for departure time of 10:30.  We told the campground managers that we had a mechanical issue delaying our departure – a cat in the slide.  They didn’t laugh in our faces but we heard snickers as we left the office.  Finally we decided to go into town and do a little grocery shopping figuring our absence would lure him out.  Yes, we returned and he was casually peering out the window, all departure fears gone.

Rig Monarch

With a swoop he was tucked into his carrier and we finished our preparations and departed.  Score:  Cat-25,  Humans – still behind.  

Theoretical Question

Theoretical Question – how many navigation systems does one need to find one’s way in the rural US?  One or two maybe?  We currently have 5.  Yes, 5, and we’ve still missed our mark 2 days out of 3.  To be fair, we aren’t using all 5 all the time but you’d think with 2 or 3 we’d land at our destination on the first try. 

System one is our RV Garmin GPS system.  Brand new last year after our other system dumped us on the side streets of Los Angeles, it’s pretty reliable, routing us away from low overhead hazards, roads too small for RVs and other dangers not apparent until too late.  We have her voice set on the “Samantha” setting so we call her Sam for short.

Sam

System two is a trucker’s navigation app on the iPad.  It has a male voice so we call him John.  John doesn’t not connect to satellites, instead relying on memory and the occasional wifi connection so that he knows where he is.  Also able to keep us away from weak bridges and low overheads but not aware of traffic jams and other quickly developing hazards.

John

System 3 is the Navigator (aka Robin) and a big paper trucker’s atlas.  Yes, very old school, but reliably present with safe routes color-coded.  Not always fast but reassuring.  Systems 4 and 5 are two cell phones with Siri on one and Sir Laddie on the other (Robin has changed Siri to the male British voice we affectionately call Sir Laddie in honor of our British friend Simon).  We rarely resort to 4 and 5 in Chuck, probably because we only have 4 hands between us and two of them are on the steering wheel.

On the first day we were feeling pretty smug as Sam and John agreed on routing all the way from Kenosha to Springfield, IL.  Day two started out well, as again they agreed even while talking over each other occasionally.  They both routed us one exit past our destination but then disagreed on exactly how to get back, Sam seemingly putting the RV park in the middle of the freeway while John landed us pretty much on point.

Yesterday got a little hairy at the end.  Sam seemingly had the RV park firmly programmed while John couldn’t get closer than the highway number.  We exited the Oklahoma Turnpike at Big Cabin and following Sam’s directions sailed past our destination at 60 mph.  It was a divided highway with a fair amount of traffic and no places to pull off and turn around especially when the combined length of rig and car is about 50 ft.  Next opportunity to reverse was the town of Adair, 11 miles down the road.  In Adair we turned off the highway on Main St and headed around the block, we thought, except the street didn’t have any cross streets and rapidly turned into a narrow gravel road crossing tiny streams on tinier culverts that clearly were not designed to support 32 tons of RV.  We crept along for several miles, passing bulls and cows in adjacent pastures until Sam finally indicated a cross trail leading back to the highway.  The Navigator got out to scout before we turned onto it.  The vultures were circling (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration) and we turned onto the goat track.  A mile further and we were back onto the highway and soon arrived at our destination.

Today we head for Oklahoma City, a big city.  I have high hopes.

New and Better (in theory) Beginnings – 2016-11-21

When we left for the winter last year, we had a bad surprise when our leveling jacks didn’t work at our first RV stop.  Without being level we were unable to put out the 4 slides that turn the tunnel into reasonable living space.  In addition, our water system had frozen and once thawed it leaked so badly that we couldn’t hook up to the RV park water system and had to work off our fresh water tank which meant showering in the various parks’ bathhouses until we got it fixed.  Eventually the Navigator got really good at eyeballing level sites and we lived without jacks all winter but all in all, It was not a comfortable start to last year and we vowed this year would be different.

Nortie holding down the dash

Chuck (the RV) spend most of this past summer up in Wausau, WI at a dealer, getting the jacks and various other things fixed.  As we brought it home we made vague plans to get out for at least a weekend before we left for the winter so that we’d find and fix any issues before the long trip.  Of course, life interfered and Chuck spent the remainder of the summer in storage until about a week ago when we brought it home and started loading it up.  The good news – the jacks worked.  So yesterday we were ready to go.  Except of course for that pile of stuff in the hallway that constituted the final 6 trips out to the rig.  Which of course scared the cats enough that they disappeared into that maze we call a basement.  Finally, cats corralled, house locked, cars moved, we turned the key and Chuck fired right up.  The Navigator was in position, I shifted into Reverse, released the airbrake and alarms started beeping hysterically.   Oh yeah, those pesky jacks were still firmly anchored to the ground preventing movement.  Oops.  Reboot.  Jacks up and but now the rig wasn’t airing up and was sitting on its chassis instead of on the inflated airbags.  10 minutes of pumping the brakes and now we were ready to go and we maneuvered out the driveway.  Time to hook up the car, except do we really remember how the auxiliary brake attaches?????  Several (6 or 8) tries later, that was working.  Except did that tire look low?  Get out that fancy digital gauge we bought 4 years ago and have never used.  Oops, dead battery in the gauge.  We sat in Chuck for 15 minutes debating the options starting with putting a “For Sale” sign in the window and dropping it off at the RV dealer and driving to Tucson in the car.  Finally we got out and looked and the tire looked better so we drove to the local truck stop for a possible air fill.  It looked even better so we eschewed professional help and hit the highway.   5 hours later we were settled in Springfield, IL at the basic, but inexpensive Illinois State Fairgrounds RV park for the night.  After a good night’s sleep we were back on the road today to St. Robert, MO.  It was a blessedly uneventful day’s drive and we are now comfortable ensconced at the Magnuson Motel and RV park.  Stay tuned, we have another 119 days to go.

Magnuson Hotel and RV Park - Glamorous Living

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!