Summer 2019

Headed out for the summer. We hate to be leaving Tucson. We have had a beautiful spring thanks to winter rain and the weather has been perfect for the last two weeks, highs in the 80's! About 20 degrees below normal. Right now the desert is a carpet of yellow with the palo verde trees in bloom. Mature saguaros are topped with a crown of waxy white flowers, and various other cactus are blooming as well.

Palo Verde trees in Tucson Mountain Park a few miles from home:

In your own yard the nopales put on beautiful flowers, our three palo verdes are in full bloom, several of our trichocereus hybrids have produced spectacular, if short lived, flowers, and the stag horn chola on each side of the driveway are threatening to bloom any day.

Our Palo Verdes:

Another shot of Palo Verdes in our yard. You can see our newly planted Ironwood tree to the right of the sidewalk:

One of our Noples along with a Palo Verde and our Ironwood:

Our trichocereus hybrids. These were planted in the fall of 2017. Flying Saucer had a big bud last spring that was eaten by a deer. We have been watching the big buds for a week, egging them on to bloom before we left and they came through two days we hit the road! 

Flying Saucer:

Ruby:

Apricot Glow first bloom two weeks ago:

Apricot Glow the day before we left. 14 blossoms!

One of our small Goat's Horn around the patio:

Planning on a short stop in Denver, then on to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Karen and Gary managed to arrange a week for us at the park where they work camp, Rocky Mountain RV Park in Gardiner, MT., just outside Yellowstone. From there we will work our way west to the Oregon coast again. Planning on staying in Charleston, near Coos Bay, for a few weeks this time, then on up into Washington, a spin around the Olympic Peninsula, a stop at Mt Rainier then a trip across US 12 & I-90 to Northern Illinois by early August. We’ll spend August in Illinois and September in Wisconsin before heading home. 

Friday 5/24/19

Planned on getting on the road about 10 AM and pulled out at 10:05! Not bad. Uneventful trip to Deming, NM. Our friends Brenda & Jim were also leaving around 10 and stopping in Wilcox. We stopped in Wilcox for lunch and pulled up beside their motor home turning left just as we were turning right, don’t think they saw us though.

Lunch at McDonalds in Wilcox because there was a closed truck stop across the street with room to park. Arrived at Dream Catcher Escapees park in Deming about 3:30 MT. Lost an hour on the time change.

Saturday 5/25

Hung around Deming long enough to watch F1 qualifying from Monaco. On the road 10:30. Straight through to Albuquerque, arrived 2:30. Good weather, tail wind most of the way, and light traffic. After settling in at Enchanted Trails we went to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch, stopped at Flying J to top off tanks with the cheapest fuel we will see for a while, then back home to relax.

Sunday 5/26

Watched the F1 race from Monaco first thing in the morning and got on the road at the crack of 10:30. Very windy day, but fortunately out of the south so we had a nice tailwind all the way to Trinidad. Fuel mileage computer touched on 9.9 before we began the climb towards Santa Fe on I-25. Even after climbing up over Raton Pass it ended up at 9.2 since the fill up in Albuquerque.

Stopped in Las Vegas, NM for lunch at Hillcrest Restaurant and on to Trinidad Lake State Park. I was too late to reserve the long pull through that we usually use, so had to settle for a back-in space. A bit tight getting in as all the spaces across the street were also full with cars parked, but I got it in there pretty well.

No water hook-ups here and once we get settled our water pump crapped out! To make matters worse the spare pump I carry did not work either! Further investigation needed. So we need to do without running water tonight.

Very windy this evening, trailer bouncing around pretty good. Severe storms and tornado watches to the east of us. Winds finally died down around 8 PM.

Monday 5/27

Survived the  night without water. Fortunately we carry a couple of empty one gallon plastic bottles for emergencies so we took those to the nearest park spigot and had water for washing and flushing the toilet. We already had a couple of jugs of drinking water in the fridge, along with water bottles in the cooler, so Nancy was able to manage our waterless night with a minimum of discomfort. I never would have thought of heating water in the microwave for washing up!

I tracked down a water pump at Walmart that can be picked up on Thursday at the Neighborhood Market we pass by on the way to the Wood’s. 

Wind did die down late in the evening as predicted, although we did bounce around for a while. Got moving at 8:30 and back on I-25 North right at 9 AM. Light traffic until we hit Colorado Springs, then heavy traffic with stop and go in construction zones until we hit the multi-lane south of Denver. Arrived at Cherry Creek State Park just after noon.

Spent the evening at Wood’s house. Emily & Gregg brought the kids over and we had excellent homemade pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce that was outstanding. 

Tuesday 5/28

About 11 PM Monday night we were entertained by two brief hailstorms about a half hour apart. No damage that we could see this morning.  Needed blankets on the bed the last two nights, 45 degrees this morning.

Spent the day with family. Noodling around this afternoon I determined that the water pump I ordered based strictly on availably (Shurflo 4008101E65 Revolution Self-Priming 3 GPM 55 PSI 12V Fresh Water RV Pump) has an excellent rating! One website called it the number 1 RV water pump. On Amazon it has 73% 5 star rating. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!