Thursday May 21st 2020

After sixty one nights on the travel sidelines, today was a travel day. To ease into travel mode I only went fifteen miles down the road to Picacho Peak State Park. I spent the morning in the relatively cool mid eighties temperature finishing the packing. I pulled out of the RV park just before noon and arrived at the state park before 1PM. Along the way I stopped to add fifty five gallons of gas to the motorhome.

Despite the short distance this location is very different from the RV park. I am back among the saguaro cactus and they are blooming. The campground is arranged in loops in the shadow of Picacho Peak with good distance between sites. Interstate 10 and the railroad track are still nearby, but not as close. The road and train noise is not as noticeable. This is closer to my kind of park.

I’m settled in for the holiday weekend. If it doesn’t get too hot I’ll check out a few of the trails. There is plenty of nice scenery and lots of birds and small animals to see in the campground area.

Wednesday May 20th 2020

Today was a brief brief relief from the high temperatures. It didn’t get out of the eighties and there wasn’t much wind. Overall it was a beautiful day.

This is the last full day of my two month suspension of the Rambling Road Trip to allow the pandemic response to settle in. Tomorrow I start to slowly resume the Rambling Road Trip. I’m looking forward to resuming my travels, but I do so with a great deal of trepidation. I am less concerned with catching the virus as I am with dealing with the new normal. The expectations, rules and restrictions evolve rapidly. There are many new challenges.

I got two walks around the RV park in between all of the travel preparation tasks. There are a few more things to do in the morning. My plan is to depart shortly before noon. I only have about fifteen miles to travel to the nearby Picacho Peak State Park. Along the way I plan to stop for gas in the motorhome and kill some time in the RV parking area at the gas station. I don’t anticipate any problems checking in early, because this is not prime season at this park. It is still in the hot desert.

Tuesday May 19th 2020

The operative word for the day was wind. It started calm, but be 10AM it was blowing steadily from the southwest. The steady state wind was reported at 15mph on the noon news, but there were gusts much higher. During the afternoon the steady wind got stronger and so did the gusts. It was well after dark before the wind let up some. The good thing about the wind was it kept the temperature down in the low nineties.

It was a routine day complete with a morning and evening walk. I had considered going back to the grocery store, but the wind was a deterrent. Outside the walls of the RV park the wind was stirring up the desert into dust devils. It really didn’t look like a fun drive up the highway. I’ll make the grocery run another day.

Some of my time today was spent packing. After two months in one place, I have a lot of things spread out around the RV. Thursday is a travel day, so I got a start at putting stuff back in travel mode. Tomorrow will have a similar focus.

Monday May 18th 2020

This morning was very still. Without any real wind, the eighty degree temperature and bright sun discouraged me from taking my morning walk. By mid day memories of the calm morning were distant. The wind was blowing hard and gusting even harder. It kept the upper nineties temperature bearable.

The long stretches of hot sunny weather in the desert along with the disruption in routine caused by Covid-19 make it hard to believe Memorial day is in the future. My irrational thoughts believe it is the end of summer. Looking back to last year on this date I was just beginning my summer travels. I was in Baton Rouge Louisiana looking for a way west around the lines of tornadoes crossing the country. I spent the Memorial Day weekend in the Albuquerque New Mexico area before heading for Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah then on up into Oregon over the first couple of weeks in June.

All of this serves to remind me that there is plenty of time for more adventures this year. It may take more flexibility and patience to travel within the restrictions that the various governments put in place, but it appears possible. Most of the activities and places I like to visit are naturally socially distant. A little caution and I should be able to avoid crowded areas. The only downside is I’ll be in continuous planning mode just like last year. Unlike last year, there is the added consideration of the current restrictions in an area. They seem to change on a weekly basis.

I spent time today researching options in New Mexico for late June and early July. Many things have not reopened yet. June 1st seems to be a magic date for some things. I’ll keep researching and monitoring what’s opening for the rest of this month. The first week of June is my target to have plans in place through the Forth of July weekend.

On my evening walk around the RV park I noted another departure. I’m not going to be the last of the non year round residents to depart, but it will be close.

Sunday May 17th 2020

The warming temperature trend continued. It made it into the upper 90s today. The wind was light most of the day, but when it chose to blow there were some goodM gusts.

I got in two walks around the RV park today. On my morning walk I managed to get some nice pictures of cactus blossoms. They have been hiding from me the last few days. I’m not sure what conditions cause the blossoms to open. Most of the time I see them on the plants tightly closed. When I catch them open they are very pretty.

A NASCAR race from Darlington South Carolina was on TV today. It was run without fans in the stands. Watching on TV I couldn’t tell the difference. Being able to watch new sports entertainment was a treat. I just can’t get into replays of sporting events from five, ten and fifteen years ago. Watching weird sports like professional bean bag tossing also gets old fast. I hope Major League Baseball can negotiate a way to play games for TV this summer.

On my evening walk I noticed that some of the residents of the RV park have found the reopened pool. The closed sign was taken down on Friday. It was replaced by social distancing instructions. Today was the first time I saw anyone in the pool. There were four people in the hot tub totally ignoring the six foot social distancing rule. Maybe they all live in the same RV.

Saturday May 16th 2020

This was a very lazy Saturday. I got up too late for my early walk of the day, but the morning hours seemed to drag on as the day warmed up. The temperature peaked in the mid nineties under a full sun. Even the wind seemed to be lazy today. There wasn’t much wind all day.

I spent most of my day channel surfing across the channels on my satellite TV. I never really found anything to keep my interest. The day dragged on until sunset caught me by surprise. I got into action for my sunset walk. The rabbits were out and about again, but not many people. This RV park is turning into a ghost town. My count down to departure is at 5 days and counting.

Friday May 15th 2020

The full sun was back today and the wind wasn’t blowing as hard as yesterday. The end result was a warmer day in the low 90s. The temperature trend is upward until Monday before it drops again.

I didn’t take my morning walk. Instead, I headed into town after breakfast. My destination was Walmart for groceries. It has been three weeks since my last visit to the nexus of the virus phobic and fearless fools. They still have the provisions for controlling the number of people in the store, but their capacity must be pretty high. The store had lots of customers. Less than half had masks.

The only thing new from my last visit were direction arrows on all the aisles. They don’t seem to make any difference. I think more people were going against the arrows than with. Even the Walmart employees with their blue pickup carts weren’t following the arrows. I called one of them on it, who was being particularly obstructive. His response was some garbage about his computer tells him where to go. How can the store expect anyone to follow the directions if its own employees don’t.

The meat and paper goods sections were the only significantly under stocked areas. Other than ground beef, there wasn’t any beef on the shelves. There seemed to be a fare selection of pork and lots of chicken. I found enough product to restock my freezer. In the paper goods area I found paper towels for the first time in three visits during the pandemic. I still haven’t found toilet paper. I’m going to have to be more persistent in my search. I’m down to about three weeks of supply.

On my afternoon walk around the park, I discovered the new summer residents. The rabbits have arrived. I’ve seen one or two while I’ve been here, but today they were all over the place. I probably saw a dozen scattered around the park.

Thursday May 14th 2020

It was a partly cloudy day which kept the temperature right around 90 degrees. It was a very comfortable day.

I’ve got a bad case of hitch itch, the desire to hitch up the towed car to the motorhome and hit the road. This morning, before I was really out of bed, another neighbor hooked up and departed. This place continues to empty out. My departure count down is now at one week. I am looking forward to staying at places that have more access to nature and opportunities to hike.

My plan is to be as flexible as possible this summer. I’ll try to lock in reservations two weeks to a month out. That allows me to figure out what’s open and what travel restrictions might be in place. It seems to be a good decision. I’m currently booked through June 8th in Cottonwood AZ. Options for my next stop are opening up every day. The Lake Powell area is already open and the Grand Canyon is starting to reopen. They may not have available reservations and restrictions might make them a bad choice, but they are back on the list of possible destinations. I am also exploring a few other options in Arizona for the second half of June. My first real challenge may be Fourth of July weekend.

I still have four reservations in Wyoming and Colorado that I will probably cancel. My evolving plan is to head toward the east along the Interstate 40 corridor over the course of the summer. I have been doing some research on places in Tennessee for late August into September, but everything depends on how a little virus twists the world into chaos.

Today was another two walk day. I’ve gotten into the habit of taking the morning walk before breakfast. During last weeks triple digit temperature days it was the only real time to walk before sunset. Today I could have taken the walk at anytime.

Wednesday May 13th 2020

The high temperature is back down in the seasonal normal range. It only reached 93 degrees today. The steady breeze out of the west kept the day in the comfortable range.

Today was back to a very routine slow day. I got my morning walk in before breakfast and my evening walk in after the evening meal. The RV park is really getting sleepy. There are fewer people out walking and more RVs look like they are empty. Many of the RVs that aren’t empty look like they are getting ready to leave soon. I’ve got a little over a week before I move on. I won’t be the last to leave, but not many people other than the year round residents will be here.

Tuesday May 12th 2020

Today was a little closer to a normal May day in the Arizona desert. The high temperature was only a little above the normal at 95 degrees. A steady wind also kept things comfortable.

Between my two daily walks around the RV park I actually had a little more active day. The first order of business was canceling a couple more reservations. All of my original summer travel reservations through the June 12th are now canceled. I made reservations last week here in Arizona until June 8th, so there is still a possibility of catching up with the original itinerary. I think it is very unlikely. I’m working on alternatives.

My other major activity for the day was a drive southeast to the northern suburbs of Tuscon. Traffic on Interstate 10 was much heavier than last month when I made a similar shorter trip. Off the interstate in the retail areas, it looked like a pre-pandemic day. Retail businesses have had permission to open with safety considerations in place since last Friday. The parking lots weren’t full, but they had plenty of parked cars. My only stops were at an Amazon locker to pick up a package and a gas station on the return trip. This was my first opportunity to take advantage of the lower gas prices. With all of the Arizona gas taxes it was only $1.95 a gallon.

Arizona’s stay at home order ends on Friday. The governor is still calling for people to work from home if possible, but most businesses can start to phase into operation. Even movie theaters and casinos will be allowed to open. Large gatherings are not allowed, but sports teams can practice and play in empty stadiums. This later opening may be a bid to have the baseball spring training facilities used by Major League Baseball during this years modified regular season. Arizona is opening up again.