Sunday January 21st 2018

It was in the mid fifties inside the RV this morning. I turned up the heat and went back to bed. Consequently I got a late start to the day. I pulled out of my site at 10:30 for the drive to Benson AZ about 170 miles away.

It was an uneventful drive through the Sonoran Desert lands. I enjoy seeing all of the saguaro cactus along the way. Growing up with movies and TV westerns this is my idea of the desert southwest. It is still dusty and dirty but the scenery makes up for that. All through the day I saw cloud banks in the eastern sky ahead of my direction of travel, but I never caught up with them. As I moved into the higher terrain east of Tuscon the temperature dropped into the forties and the wind picked up. It hadn’t been warm or calm on the earlier part of the trip, but I’m glad I didn’t have to travel much further. It was very windy and gusty when I stopped for the day just after 1PM.

Site 35 at the Benson AZ KOA.

I wasn’t well prepared for today’s travel. I usually have written down the exit number or route number for any of my stops or destinations. Today, I was counting on the park having a highway sign to indicate which exit in town to take. As you may have guessed, there wasn’t one. The Arizona Highway Department let me down. I got off Interstate 10 at the last exit in town and consulted the oracle of Google. I had to back track one exit. The RV park is in the middle of nowhere, but within sight of the Interstate. I’m sure I’ll here the traffic tonight.

I got setup in time to watch the last three quarters of the Patriots Jaguars game. When I first turned the game on it didn’t look to good for the Patriots. As I watched the game the Patriot’s superiority gradually emerged. If the Jaguars had more playoff experience, it may not have turned out as well for the Pats. Look out Minneapolis, the Patriots are on their way.

It never got above fifty this afternoon. The wind has died down and the sky is clear. The overnight low is forecast in the twenties. I’ve disconnected the water hose so it won’t freeze. I’ll run the furnace low overnight so the basement pipes don’t freeze. There are two reasons for the cold. First a cold front just went through the area and second I’m at 3500 feet above sea level. It’s forecast to get back to daytime highs in the mid sixties and nightly lows in the high thirties during the week I’m here.

Tonight’s Sunset in the desert.