Springtime in the Desert

Spring here in Tucson is short and evanescent. When we arrived here on 4/9, daytime highs were in the mid-70's, with nightime temperatures in the low 50's, even dipping down into the high 40's. This was just about perfect weather.

Now, barely two weeks later, spring is just about gone. As I write this on Wednesday 4/22, tomorrow's high is predicted to be 92; if that forecast is accurate, tomorrow will be the first day in the 90's in Tucson in 2020.

But wait: the temperature is predicted to continue to rise, with next Tuesday's high forecast to be 100! One of the local TV stations actually runs a contest for viewers to guess the date and time when the temperature first breaks 100!

A high temperature of 90 we can deal with; not surprisingly, it's very dry here, with dew points typically around 20 or so. We usually have a breeze, especially in the afternoon. Afternoons here, in the shade of our olive tree, with a dry gentle breeze and a temperature in the low- to mid-80's, are absolutely delightful. Also, as soon as the sun sets the temperature drops rapidly; by 7 or 8PM it's very pleasant outside. How 100 is going to be... we'll see.

Meanwhile, we continue to enjoy walks with the dogs. Every day it seems like we see more and more blooms; the saguaro, of course, continue to amaze us, too...

This is the bloom found at the end of an ocotillo.

See the bloom at the top of this saguaro? They usually bloom in May-June.

Of course, the desert is also home to some less-than-pleasant critters. We ran across (not literally!) this little rattler the other day....

Back in Tucson

We're back in Tucson - a place that we didn't expect to see so soon. As all of us know, 2020 has been a time of greatly changed expectations.

Driving here from Ardmore, OK, we found ourselves taking some extra precautions. As is our custom when we're not pressed for time, we sought out some back roads instead of just chugging down the interstate; we ended up taking four days to cover just under 1000 miles. As usual, we found it very rewarding.

I won't bore you with the specific route, but from Ardmore we headed south and west on various US and state highways. We drove through Wichita Falls, TX and spent the first night in Lubbock. The next day, we crossed the Llano Estacado, a geographic feature I had heard of but never visited. That took us to Roswell, which still makes a big deal out of an alleged alien landing... in 1947! From there, we drove through the Lincoln National Forest and past White Sands National Park to Las Cruces. Our last day was a boring drive over I-10 to Tucson.

We took extra pains to stay safe on this trip. Ordinarily, we stop for fuel at a truck stop and both visit the facilities. On this trip, we mostly visited smaller, rural fuel stations; it's not uncommon for fuel stations in small towns to have a couple of diesel pumps for trucks off to one side or in the back. The advantage for these over the large truck stops is that one can usually pay at the pump; not so at your typical Pilot or TA truck stop. Immediately upon returning to the truck after handling the fuel nozzle I use the hand sanitizer we keep in the truck. Additionally, we used the bathroom in the trailer instead of going inside. Because of all of that, we ended up with only one of us (me) making only one trip inside a truck stop building the entire trip.

Additionally, RV parks have usually adopted special procedures. Once, we simply handled everything over the phone; they told us what site we were in, we pulled in that night and left the next morning and never talked to a soul. Other times, the paper work would be left outside on a table for us to complete and stick in a mail slot. Even when we had to deal with a person, they typically had a table in front of the registration counter to effect a safe social distance.

We arrived here on Thursday 4/9. We are staying for a month, at least, at the Tucson KOA. Our original plans were to stay at the Voyager RV Park, where we spent the month of January. Unfortunately, a week before we were scheduled to arrive they shut the place down to all new arrivals.

This really threw us for a loop. We know from our prior time here that there are several hundred permanent residents in the park; they're surely not being evicted. Rather, what we suspect happened was that they simply decided to protect the permanent residents and staff by not allowing anyone else in. Voyager is a 55+ park. Additionally, it's owned by the Thousand Trails organization. We suspect both of these factors weighed into their decision.

We quickly found a place to stay at the KOA in Tucson. Although this is costing a few bucks more, this place far surpasses Voyager. This is one of the nicest, cleanest RV parks we have ever stayed in. Furthermore, we've got a quiet, spacious, shady site in the very back of the park, away from just about all of the noise and traffic.

The iPhone camera distorts the perspective, but the shaded area under the olive tree in the background is very spacious.

Not surprisingly, we quickly settled into some old routines here. We already know where "stuff" is. We've had the dogs out to some of their old stomping grounds in the surrounding desert.

This is the best time of the year to visit the desert. All of the vegetation is green and growing rapidly. There are flowers blooming literally everywhere you look...

Lockdown!

I hope all of you are weathering these tough times in good spirits and good health. We WILL get through this!

As I had previously posted, we are in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Ardmore is a small city of some 25,000 population, roughly halfway between Dallas and Oklahoma City on I-35. We are staying in one of the nicest RV parks we have ever been in. It is new, spacious, clean... and barely occupied. We were walking around the park the other day, and of the 128 sites here, only 30 were occupied.

Here's the park, looking south...

...and looking north. All those units in the distance are people living here full-time. 

We are also maybe a mile from Lake Murray State Park, which is the oldest and largest state park in OK. Surprisingly, the state park is largely open. There are people in the campgrounds and on the lake.  We’ve taken advantage of the numerous hiking trails and enjoyed several nice long walks there with the dogs.

What’s next for us? We’re headed for Tucson. We’re leaving here tomorrow (4/6) and arriving there on Thursday 4/9. We’ll take the scenic route, dropping back into Texas and passing through Wichita Falls and Lubbock before crossing into New Mexico. We’ll head through Roswell, White Sands and Las Cruces before jumping onto I-10 for Tucson.

We've got reservations to stay a month in Tucson. Will we extend that? Right now, we have no idea.

Why Tucson? We've been there before, a couple of times, and know and love the area. The weather is still surprisingly moderate in April. It also places us quite a bit closer to the kids living in SoCal... just in case.

This all represents a significant change for us. Our original plan upon leaving Mercedes was to head up to north Texas (which we did) and then on to New Orleans, Gulf Shores, AL (both essentially shut down right now) and then into Atlanta.

In Atlanta, we were going to park the trailer for two weeks, board the dogs in a kennel and head to Hawaii, belatedly celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary. That's now out: a couple of weeks ago the state of Hawaii initiated a 14-day quarantine on everyone entering the state. There's obviously no sense in going on a 14-day vacation if you have to spend the whole time in quarantine!

From Atlanta, our next destination was central Florida; we've got several friends and relatives in that general area. From there, we were going to wander up through the Carolinas, mid-Atlantic states and on up into New England, ending up in Maine. From there, we intended to head west along the northern tier of states all the way to Washington; we've got a granddaughter there that needs some spoiling!

None of that is going to happen, at least right now. We're like the rest of you: our future is a little uncertain right now.

We still feel very blessed. We are safe and healthy, as are all of our children and their families. All of the kids are still employed, at least right now. Aside from being a little bored, transitioning into a self-isolation life isn't too big a change for us.