Monday October 9th 2017

I was serenaded in the middle of the night by the coyote pack in the area. This set of calls and barks were further away than the set last week, but they were close enough to wake me up. They kept up the communication for a few minutes then went silent. I probably stayed away for another half an hour or more waiting for them to start up again to no avail.

Sunset over the desert.

The night was short. Around six this morning the wind started to blow. It was rocking the RV and howling across the roof obstacles and the slide out room awnings. I tried to ignore it but the wind continued to intensify and the noise continued. Around 6:30 I gave up and got up. The first order of business was to bring in the big living room slide room. This quieted things down enough that I could hear the TV. The roof noises continued. I’ll have to get up on the roof on a calm day and see what’s causing all the fuss. It has always been noisy in the wind, but it seems to be a little worse today.

The wind continued most of the morning. This afternoon it had settled down to a stiff breeze. I put the main living room slide back out. It is much more comfortable in the RV with the extra forty five square feet the slide creates. This evening, as I write this blog entry, the wind has picked up again. The gusts are just as noisy as things were this morning, but the steady state is calmer and the gusts aren’t as frequent.

During the middle of the day I went out to run some errands. Once again I was struck by how far in the middle of the desert I’m located. The only thing of significance for ten miles in any direction are some really impressive Saguaro cactus. Interstate 17 is twelve to fifteen miles to the east, the town of Peoria is a little further to the south and US route 60 is twenty plus miles to the west. I don’t know of any roads that go north between US 60 and Interstate 17. Once you reach the interstate or Peoria you are in metro Phoenix in a big way. The traffic is heavy probably because of all the businesses and housing lining the roads.

I made a big loop into the north part of Phoenix. I went south on Interstate 17 to the loop 101 west to US 60 northwest back to Arizona 74 east to the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. Along the way I filled up the car’s gas tank and stopped at Walmart for groceries. Every Walmart I go into has something that catches my eye. A this one I observed that almost a third of the bread isle was dedicated to tortillas wraps or shells of all varieties. The English muffins and bagels that I was looking for were relegated to the next isle. I guess they know their clientele.