Saturday March 11th 2017

Today was a beautiful clear sunny day with the temperature pushing ninety. There was a light breeze, so as long as you weren’t in the direct sun it was very comfortable outside. Inside was another story. The sun hitting the motorhome raised the inside temps to the uncomfortable level by about two in the afternoon.

It’s necessary to run the air conditioners to keep the inside of the rig manageable. I put one of the AC units on about 3:30. The idea of using them in March hurts my northern head so I only used one. It was starting to get the inside temperature under control around five when the power went out. It wasn’t just my site, but it wasn’t everybody. About twelve of us blew a breaker for our section of the park. It wasn’t the result of a true overload, just too much juice for a weak high power breaker. As I’m writing this blog entry it is eight o’clock and the Electrician has just arrived to try and get the power back on. I can last overnight on my battery bank, longer if I was in true conservation mode. I just can’t run the AC or the Microwave off the batteries. So I’m not worrying.

After two days of heavy tourist action, I took it easy today. I started the day watching a hot air balloon pass over the valley. The same balloon seems to be up every morning that isn’t too windy. It is always very high as it crosses over this area. Some mornings it is going in a southeast to northwest direction and other mornings just the opposite. When the balloon is up, the wind on the ground isn’t blowing hard enough to tell which direction it is blowing.

Hot Air Balloon over the valley.

I used some of my free time today to continue to research my journey when I leave here at the end of March. The good news is it appears May is warm enough all the way up to the Canadian border in this area of the country. So the plan I’m working on now is April in northern Arizona, Las Vegas and Reno Nevada. Then I’ll cut across the southeastern corner of Oregon into Idaho and head toward Glacier National Park. I need to work reservations, but I’m hoping that June reservations will be easier to get than July or August. Some of that area is also in the path of the total eclipse in August which is another big tourist draw to contend with.

Once I finish with Glacier National Park, I’ll start working my way south at a slower pace. Utah will be the focus of the second half of the summer into the fall. I’ve given some though to the Albuquerque balloon festival in the beginning of October, but I’m not locked into the idea yet. I’d like to have the motorhome better prepared for boondocking before spending two weeks without electric and water.

I think I’ve got enough of a plan to start finding places to make reservations up until about the July Fourth holiday. That means using Google maps to calculate distances, then online and paper directories to find campgrounds, followed by more research on the campground review sites. I need to make reservations for the rest of the summer too, but there are a few things I need to know about possible commitments before I start to lock in the return from the north.

It is now around 8:30 and the electrician has fixed the breaker panel. I have electricity again, but it has cooled off enough that I don’t need the AC.

Friday March 10th 2017

Today, I was off to another Baseball Spring Training Game. Today the Brewers played the Diamondbacks at the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. This is the same field I went to on Tuesday.

Salt River Fields at Talking Stick stadium was full today including the lawn seating in left and right field. 

The ball park is the furthest one from my campsite on the east side of Phoenix. There are several more on the west side of Phoenix that are even further away. I’m drawn back to Salt River Fields because of the ticket prices. I can get better seats, which are real seats, for less at this stadium than at the Tempe Diablo stadium I went to last week or the fields in Mesa. My guess is this stadium makes up the difference with higher concession prices.

What team I’m watching doesn’t make much difference. Since none of these teams are from the American League East, I recognize very few of the players. I’m really going for the experience. Watching baseball on television is not something I enjoy for long. TV puts the focus on the picture and the batter. Everything else may be mentioned in passing to kill time.

I enjoy watching the fielders adjust for the different batters and situations. In these “training” games it can get quite interesting watching the coaches or the senior players try to move the younger guys around. I’ve seen a few really odd maneuvers. Why would the third baseman play short right field and the outfielders all shift toward left? Deep right is empty and third base into short left field is empty. The implication is the hitter can drive it deep to left and is prone to blooping the ball over the infield to right. Does such a hitter exist or was the contradictory shifts a mistake?

At the Salt River Fields they have different “Ball Kids” each game. There are four boys or girls that are assigned two to a dugout. They are introduced before the game in a little ceremony shown on the big screen. I’d guess some are as young as eight or nine up to their early teens. These kids are kept very busy. They manage the on deck circle, collect balls taken out of play, bring drinks to the umpires, keep the home plate umpire stocked with new balls and do the traditional collecting the players bat and equipment after they move on to first base. Some of the kids can barely carry the bats. I’d say the teams and the park get a good deal, but do the kids?

The other fun thing is listening and watching the people in the stands. You can see the full spectrum from avid fans to people that have never seen a baseball game before. The lady a few rows behind me today insisting to her companion that games were only seven innings long is one example. She seem to understand a lot about the game, but the length of the game was a sticking point. The exchange became quite heated. I think they left around the seventh inning.

The final score was Diamondback 6 and Brewers 3.

Today’s game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Arizona Diamondbacks was a shorter game than the last two. The Diamondbacks won six to three. It lasted less than three hours, but it still ended during rush hour. Traffic coming back through the eastern Phoenix suburbs was very heavy but it kept moving. It took an hour to get to the stadium and an hour and a half to get return.

Thursday March 9th 2017

Today was a tourist day. I went to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson. It is next to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base which houses the 309 Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group(309 AMARG) also known as the aircraft bone yard. One of the added attractions at the museum is a bus trip trough the bone yard.

Aircraft on the floor and hanging in the main hanger.

F-14 Tomcat

German V1 Buzz Bomb.

The museum is about an hour away from my RV home. I arrived a little after ten and departed around three in the afternoon. The museum has four hangers of aircraft, a building dedicated to space and another building dedicated as a memorial to the 390th bombardment group which was part of the 8th air force in England during WWII. There are also many planes and helicopters on display throughout the grounds. The majority of the aircraft are military, but there are also many commercial aircraft.

B-29

Mohawk Observation Plane

Presidential and VIP transport aircraft. The jet transport is the plane used to bring the Iranian hostages home.

F-105 from Vietnam era

F-18 used by Blue Angels

Line of aircraft in the museum

More lines of aircraft in the musuem

They advertise this museum as the 3rd largest aircraft museum in the country. The Smithsonian Air & Space museum and the Air Force museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio are the two bigger museums. I’ve been to both over the years as well as other aviation museums. This one concentrates on the aircraft more than the story surrounding the aircraft. Other museums like to tell a story about the aircraft in action. This museum is focused more on the direct facts such as type and service dates. The big value at this museum are the many volunteer docents. They are mostly retired military pilots with lots of stories and a desire to tell them.

390th Group Memorial Museum

B-17 in the 390th Memorial Museum

The 390th Bombardment Group memorial museum is a real tribute the B-17 crews operating out of England during the Second World War. It houses a B-17 and the archives of the 390th Bombardment Group. Special today and most Thursdays a former pilot of a B-17 in WWII is on hand to tell stories of his service. The gentleman is in his 90s and does a great job of giving the crowd a sense of his life during the war. I could have spent more time listening to him, but I had a bus to catch.

In addition to the museum, I purchased a ticket for a bus ride through the aircraft bone yard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. From the seat of a Grey Line Bus I saw the acres and acres of mothballed aircraft. US Military planes that are no longer used in active service are brought to the desert. The low humidity and soil like concrete make it ideal for keeping the aircraft viable. They are kept for possible re-activation, for parts on other similar aircraft, for sale to other governments or eventual scrap.

Fighter aircraft in the bone yard. Photo through bus window

C-130 aircraft in the bone yard

C-5 aircraft in the bone yard

Everything from little helicopters, primary training aircraft, tankers and big huge C-5 cargo planes are lined up side by side. The docent on the bus tour told the story of using the planes in the bone yard to keep the air wings of the Air Force, Navy and other services operational. The basic premise is without the bone yard we wouldn’t be able to keep all the aircraft we have operational.

I enjoyed seeing the museum and the bone yard. I’ll probably do the museum again when I’m in the area. It is constantly changing and improving. Boeing donated the second 787 it built to the museum. It was a test aircraft that couldn’t be used in commercial service. It arrived at the museum last summer. In the past week an F-16 arrived at the museum. For some reason, it’s the first F-16 the museum has obtained for its collection.

I probably won’t tour the bone yard again. It is definitely something to see once, but perhaps not multiple times. The magnitude of the collection of aircraft is the primary attraction. The fact that there are more C-130s now than there was another time is not as interesting.

Wednesday March 8th 2017

The day started out sunny in the low 60s, peaked in the afternoon as a sunny day in the mid 80s and is finishing up moving down through the 70s toward the 60s again. My focus for the day was planning and relaxing.

I need to figure out the details of my travels after I leave here at the end of March. I’ve been working under the general plan that this year will be focused on the area between the Rockies to the east and the coastal ranges to the west. That is a lot of territory. I don’t expect to see everything there is to see, just to make productive use of my time. Ideally, I would like to travel to an area then remain in one place for a couple of weeks before moving on. That way I can tour from a fixed base in the car up to a hundred miles or so in each direction.

I need to have reservations for the holiday weekends, the peak season in the tourist areas and near any of the major cities. I also need to stay aligned with the weather. I don’t want to be in the middle of the desert in the summer or too far north before the warm weather gets there. Based on visits to Las Vegas in May and June, I know the desert area becomes uncomfortable in June. My only experience in Salt Lake City was in mid May. The city was warm but the mountains still had snow on the ground. Given those parameters, I think I need to be in the north or at elevation by mid June if not sooner.

Right now I’m thinking I’ll spend the month of April in northern Arizona and southern Utah. Then I’ll slip over to Las Vegas for a week or so in the beginning of May. The end of May would be in the Reno NV, or the Lake Tahoe area. The question then becomes where do I go for June and the fourth of July? The real problem is I want to go Las Vegas before it gets too hot. The smart thing would be to stay in Utah for most of May and June. Then continue moving north as the summer approaches. Logic vs. emotion, a common dilemma. Consequently, I haven’t booked anything yet.

The wall that encloses this RV park with the mountains in the background.

I also took at drive around the valley I’m staying in. There are four types of territory in the valley. The natural state is open desert that is primarily dirt and scattered low vegetation. Groups of buildings and shops have been constructed here and there to support civilization and commerce. Walled enclosures a thousand or more feet on a side have been created to isolate housing developments and trailer/RV parks from the desert. Most surprising of all is the amount of land dedicated to farming. Irrigation canals have been constructed to distribute water from the mountains. It’s hard to identify the crops other than to say they’re green.

Tuesday March 7th 2017

Today I went to another spring training game. This game was at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale. Scottsdale is northeast of Phoenix about sixty miles from here.

Google Earth view of the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The left field area at the top of the picture is for the Diamondbacks and the right field area at the bottom of the picture is for the Rockies.

The Salt River Fields at Talking Stick complex is shared by the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies. It is a modern facility with two sets of everything from batting cages to practice fields. Before the game it was possible to see Rockies players doing bunt drills and Arizona players taking batting practice on different fields surrounding the main stadium.

View from the area of my seat before the game. I had a very good seat for the game.

Strike three and he’s out.

The game I went to see was between the Oakland Athletics and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a good game from an action point of view because the pitching was terrible. The A’s went down in order in the top of the first inning, but that was the last quick half. The home team scored five runs in the bottom of the first. It took over an hour for the first two and a half innings, then another hour for the next two inning. The sixth inning was particularly long. The A’s scored eleven runs. The final score was Athletics 21 Diamondbacks 13.

Moon rising over the light post. Thought they might both be shinning brightly before the game got over.

Final score on the big screen.

The game ended at 5PM, just short of four hours from the 1:10PM start time. Most of the eight thousand plus in attendance had already left by the end of the game. It made getting out of the parking lot and to the highway easy. Once on the highway I had to deal with rush hour traffic most of the way back to my camp. It took almost twice as long to get home than it did getting to the park.

It was an enjoyable game. I want to try and go to a Rockies game there as well so I can compare the experience.

Monday March 6th 2017

Today’s wind was only a breeze compared to yesterday, but it was out of the north. It kept the temperature down to around 70 even with full sunshine all day.

I slept a little later this morning. Maybe I’m finally getting acclimated to the time zone. In the last two weeks I’ve been in three time zones. In many ways I’m still on Eastern Standard time even though I’ve been in Mountain Standard since last Monday. The local TV is on a 7PM to 10PM prime time schedule, but the satellite cable channels I watch follow eastern time. It really keeps me confused. Next Sunday it will get even stranger. Most of the country changes to Daylight Savings Time, but Arizona stays on standard time. I’ll be three hours offset from Eastern time.

Today was a domestic chores and errands day. I did the laundry this morning and picked up a few groceries this afternoon. The laundry in this campground is on the other side of the park. I needed to load up the car and drive to the laundry. I didn’t wait for the wash to finish, so I drove back to the RV only to return in 30 minutes to move the laundry to the dryer. Then 50 minutes later I returned to unload and fold the laundry. It was a real production with all the driving. I could have hung around the laundry and read one of the many books other residents have left in the informal library, but a quick scan didn’t show any good books.

My grocery run into the city of Casa Grande could have been accomplished at the convenience store down the street. I only needed bread and orange juice. The eight to ten mile trip into town was also an exploration trip. I found the local Home Depot and Lowes home improvement stores. One of the things I’m researching is ways to fix or replace my broken closet door mirror.

This dove was cooing up a storm as it sat on the water faucet.

Late this afternoon I was back at the campground for another walk around the complex. There were plenty of others out walking, but most of them had dogs. Walking just one dog isn’t enough, most people seem to have two. This park may have more dogs than people in residence.

Sunday March 5th 2017

It was a warm, cloudy and very windy day in Arizona. In this area the winds were sustained in the 20s with gusts into the high 30s. In the north western part of the state the gusts were near 60 with the sustained winds in the 40s. High winds in the broad flat valleys with nothing to break them up are a real problem here.

I saw the impact of the wind first hand today. With nothing planned, I set out to explore the country to the east of my campsite. As I was driving into the wind I saw a dust storm out in front of me. Luckily it was not in my path of travel, but it pointed out to me that being out on the roads without a specific destination in mind was not the best idea. I returned to camp and the TV for the remainder of the day.

One of the things I did today was walk around the campground. In the previous few days I’d only walked through parts of the park. Today I went up and down most of the roads. This campground is full of snowbirds from all over the continent. Most of my immediate neighbors are from Canada. I’ve haven’t seen any rigs from the Canadian maritime provinces but from Quebec west they are all represented. British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan are heavily represented.

The northeast United States are represented by Vermont and New Hampshire. I haven’t spotted anyone from New York, but the rest of the States across to Washington are all represented. This also seems to be a draw for Alaskans seeking to avoid winter in the north. I’ve counted at least 4 rigs from the northern most state. The southeast seems to be poorly represented. Other than me and one other RV, also probably a full timer from Florida, I haven’t spotted anyone south of Tennessee on the east coast.

License plates are the easiest way to identify the origin of the people in the campground, but it isn’t the only way. Some people have signs with their names and point of origin. These used to be far more common than they are today. I think people are concerned with privacy. Other people fly flags. There are many US and Canadian Flags along with State and Provence flags flying from flag poles and other flag flying contraptions. Some of these flags can be a challenge to identify.

Flag being flown by my neighbor from British Columbia.

The motorhome behind me from British Columbia is flying a flag that takes some thought to figure out. It is an American flag with a Canadian Maple leaf superimposed on the field of stripes. This is probably an attempt to pay respect to both nations, but it could be taken more politically. I didn’t ask. The guy seems like a nice fellow.

Saturday March 4th 2017

Today was a beautiful sunny day with highs in the 80s and light winds. Tomorrow and Monday are not forecast to be as nice, so I took advantage of the weather to visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

Road coming down Gates Pass

The museum is to the west of Tucson about 50 miles from my campsite. I got there off of Interstate 10 on a road clearly labeled for passenger cars only. It soon became clear why there were many warning signs. West Gates Pass Road was barely two lanes wide and twisted and turned up to the top and then steeply down the opposite side. It was surrounded by desert with many saguaro cactus. It was a fun drive in my CR-V, but the guy in the rental Class C motorhome that didn’t heed the signs may have needed to change his underwear. Then again he may not have been smart enough to be scared, since he didn’t believe the signs. I returned the longer way out to Interstate 19 south of Tucson. It wasn’t much longer, but more populated and a lot less scenic.

Overview of the area surrounding the museum.

The museum has a collection of plant life from all over the Sonora desert and representative animal life from the desert as well. Not all of the plants and animals are native to this part of the large desert. There are also a few exhibits that I can only believe are here to draw visitors. Why is there a stingray touching tank. They stretch the line by pointing out that the desert abuts the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California.

The remainder of this blog post contains some of the pictures I took today.

Desert squirrels run around the museum. They aren’t part of the exhibit, but provide a level of entertainment. The fur on their backs look like scales.

Mountain Lion hiding in the artificial cave.

Mexican Wolf

White Tailed Deer

Organ Pipe Cactus

More Organ Pipe Cactus

Agave in Bloom

Bighorn Sheep

Black Breasted Whistling Duck

Friday March 3rd 2017

I went to my first Arizona Spring Training game today. The Milwaukee Brewers played the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe Az. Tempe is about 50 miles north of my campsite.

Entrance to Tempe Diablo Stadium on the hill.

I arrived for the 1PM game around noon after about an hour drive. The stadium is right beside the interstate at the base of a butte. Parking was available beside the stadium for only five dollars. Security was tight at the stadium. They were searching bags and wanding everybody.

View from the area of my seat.

Warning signs all around the promenade.

Batting practice was over when I arrived. The grounds crew was preparing the field for the game. Diablo Stadium has one level of seating below the promanade with all the concessions. I located my seat in section 18 on the first base side. It was the first section beyond the dugout. Unfortunately, it was also the first section without real seats. It was a section of bench seating. I thought I’d bought a better seat than that. It was the primary reason I left after two and a half hours of game at the end of five innings. Sitting on that bench seat for three plus hours was too much.

Close up of the butte behind the stadium. The building behind the butte is the Marriott Buttes hotel.

I knew the names of many of the Angels starting players since they are an American League team that plays the Red Sox a couple of times a year. The only Brewers player I knew was Travis Shaw who played for the Red Sox last year. By the time I left for home, all of the players left on the field played were trying to make the big league team. Nobody knew who they were.

The game was very slow. Most batters took the count full and fouled off many pitches. Two Angels pitchers left the game with injuries and the replacements took their time getting ready. The Brewers got injured on offense. One batter fouled the ball off his foot and a base runner got hit in the head by the ball stealing second. In both of those cases the trainer spent a long time with the player before allowing them to stay in the game. The score, when I left, was tied at three. The Brewers got their runs via home runs. The Angels had to work harder for their runs and they took advantage of a couple of errors by the Brewers Right Fielder. The final score was Angels 6, Brewers 5. The Angels got a run in the bottom of the ninth to break a five five tie (according to the internet).

I got caught in Phoenix rush hour traffic on my way home. It took closer to an hour and a half to get home. Traffic went from stop and go to 80 plus miles per hour.

Thursday March 2nd 2017

Today started in the 40s but climbed into the 70s by mid afternoon. My focus for the day was getting familiar with the area and replenishing the refrigerator. I didn’t stop for groceries on my week long cross country trip, so I was low on everything.

I’m located in a valley south of the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 8. Most of the valley floor is natural desert, but some of it has been cultivated. The only crop I recognized was the abundant area of Pecan trees. It was a bit of a surprise to learn that the desert areas of the south west are prime territory for Pecan growing. When I think of Pecans, I think of Georgia, but I’ve been passing Pecan groves starting in West Texas, through New Mexico and into this area of Arizona. The trees are kind of naked right now. They should start leafing out soon.

Saguaro Cactus on the side of the road. All the arms indicate it’s a senior citizen.

The natural desert plant life in this area is different from the desert areas in Nevada and eastern Arizona that I am more familiar with. This area has saguaro cacti. In this area there are a few out in the undeveloped desert land beside the roads. One of the places I plan to visit, is the Saguaro National Park in the Tucson area which features these tall treasures.

For grocery shopping I found a Super Walmart in Casa Grande about nine miles to the north. I take comfort in the similarities between Walmarts. There are several standard layouts that most of the locations adhere to. Even so, there are subtle differences that stand out. Most of these differences are driven by the local area. At this Walmart all of the signs describing the departments are in English and Spanish. Another difference is the first display rack in the produce department is filled with a selection of hot peppers complete with a chart describing their heat level. The ones they were selling weren’t that hot, but considering my tastes, I kept walking.

Visitor to my neighbor’s bird feeder. It was noisy like a rooster.

My refrigerator is now full of food. I clearly over compensated for being out of fresh food. I now have a weeks worth of meals waiting to be cooked and that doesn’t count the frozen dinners I added to the freezer. This is very unusual for me. I usually only buy for a couple of days at a time. The trick will be using the supplies before they go bad.