A Little Bit of This….And A Little Bit of That….

April 10.  Well, our winter season in Tucson has come to a close.  I must admit that is wasn’t all that enjoyable with our bikes being stolen in December and the crime just getting worse as the season went on.  Gang signs etched on windows, gun shots in the trailer park next door.  Young boys sneaking around and roaming the park at night, cars sneaking past the gate, bodily threats to residents, police cars searching for somebody in the middle of the night, and helicopters flying over in the middle of the night with search lights on, just didn’t make for a warm cozy feeling in a “GATED!” community.   I hated saying goodbye and giving up my friends and the activities I loved.  But we all promised to stay in touch.  That is the luxury of living fulltime on wheels-we can just pick up and move.  We don’t have to settle for bad situations.  Plus, I over volunteered this year and left a bit tired because I worked too hard!  Learned my lesson about volunteering without having all the details first! 

A few nights before we left on April 1, some good friends had us over for dinner.  That night was a rare sighting of the moon.   It is called “Moon Rings”.  I have never seen anything like it in my life.  Amazing formation! It formed as moonlight was refracted in millions of randomly oriented hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.  We played around with cameras to get these shots.  What an amazing sight to witness!

The flowers all over the desert are in full bloom and so beautiful!  This flower bloomed in the park just before we left.  I have never seen such a huge bloom!  Gorgeous!  It is a Night Sirius and only blooms for 24 hours.  So all the camera nuts in the park were hanging out in front of the poor lady’s park model each early morning trying to get lots of pictures each time this cactus had blooms.  Glad I got to see it!  Of course I was one of the camera nuts!!

So it was fair-well to the beautiful cactus covered desert and on to Mesa, AZ, for some tweaking to repairs we had done in Nov. 

We stayed 2 nights in the RV Renovators repair lot.  It was just as dirty as last time!  It could have been shorter but those guys don’t rush about anything!  I am still not completely satisfied but I just have to accept it.  We then moved over to Mesa Regal RV Resort just up the street for a week .  We had a few things to take care of and took advantage of the special weekly rate.  Place sure was deserted this time of year. 

We had the chance to visit with some friends, John and Lora, who we met in Tucson last season, in Surprise, AZ, about an hour north of Phoenix.  They showed us the RV park they own a lot in and we were impressed.  It was clean, gated with 24/7 security, and lots of amenities, so much so that we are seriously going to try and stay there next season.   Mesa Regal would be our second choice because we are still definitely not returning to Tucson.  Then a couple of days later we had lunch with our good friends, Jim and Sandie, who spend each winter in Apache Junction.  We visit with them every time we are in Mesa.  They are great folks and share our love of Tom’s BBQ, the best BBQ there is!

We have stopped for the night at the Krazy K RV Park in Camp Verde for just one night.  It is about a 2 hour drive from Mesa.  Just a stopping off place but a very pleasant little campground and it is cooler here with a nice breeze.  Glad to get away in time to avoid that infamous AZ summer heat!  The drive to Camp Verde is through rather scenic landscapes so it was a pleasant trip. 

Tomorrow we will probably drive through to Albuquerque, NM, and spend a week at the military campground there.  We will take a day trip to Los Alamos, where the Atomic Bomb was developed.  It is a beautiful drive through the mountains and up to the top of the bluffs.  We have been before, so our main goal is to return to the little café up there that serves cinnamon buns to die for!  Great reason to go, right!?!  We remember our favorite places by the food we had!  Then we will visit the Old Town Square again and my favorite Mexican/Indian jewelry shop to see if there is anything I just can’t live without!  The selection of jewelry is HUGE and the prices are really good, so I feel myself and my wallet getting into trouble already!   Just glad to be on the road again….