Tuesday April 7th 2020

Even with more clouds and less wind today was a beautiful day. The temperature got into the low eighties. Tomorrow has a forty percent chance of rain.

My day was another routine wait it out style day, so I don’t have much to blog about. I worked on my four plus years of pictures for a little while. Included below are a few of the fireworks pictures I taken. I enjoy the challenge and some of the surprising outcomes.

Monday April 6th 2020

Today began calm and sunny, but my mid day it had more wind than the last couple of days. A few high clouds joined the mix to keep the temperature in the low eighties.

In addition to my daily routine I resumed a long term task today. Back in December I began to filter through four plus years of pictures. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted, so I got back to the task today. The reminder about all the things I’ve seen on the road is encouraging. It raises some hope of getting back to seeing things in the future. I may try to include some of the old pictures in future blog entries while I’m in virus induced travel interruption mode.

On this evenings walk around the RV park I was more interested in watching the rising moon than the setting sun. The April full moon is tomorrow night. It’s called the Pink Moon and is also a super moon. Tomorrow night will probably be clouded over in this location so I spent some time watching the moon rise into the Arizona sky. I even managed to get a picture with the light of the setting sun allowing the detail on the moon surface to show through.

Sunday April 5th 2020

Today’s high temperature was in the mid eighties a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday. The daily pattern seems to be a cool calm start to the day followed by warming temperatures and stiffing winds. It was another nice weather day.

This is the beginning of my third full week of interrupted travel. As I watch the progress of the virus and the social countermeasures around it, finding this place to stay put was the right decision. I may know every crack in the road and plant in the desert outside the park along my daily walking route by the time I leave here.

It was nearly noon before I got out on my morning walk. TV and internet reading while sipping coffee delayed the start a bit. The afternoon was filled with more TV and reading. A couple of Italian sausages and some rice pilaf with peas, onions and carrots was my big meal of the day before my final walk of the day as the sun set.

Saturday April 4th 2020

There was nothing to complain about today’s weather. It was a repeat of Friday with just enough wind to keep the bright sun from overheating the area. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

I woke up this morning to find my rear neighbors had departed for their home state of Colorado. They had been packing a little bit each day for the last week or so. It seemed like they would pack for the first two hours of the day then rest the remainder of the day. Yesterday, they really got busy and loaded there little Smart Car into the back of the Fifth Wheel. That was an interesting sight. Think about a minnow swimming up the back end of a whale.

Most of the RVs remaining in the RV park are here for the duration. They are either full timers like me, come from states in bad shape or have too far to travel. Basically, they are allowing common sense to dictate that they stay put. Right now California to the west of Arizona and New Mexico to the east both have stronger stay at home measures than Arizona. Finding places to stop while traveling through the state might be difficult. In Utah to the north, it depends on the county. Some areas are very anti traveler and others have much weaker stay at home policies. Arizona still seems to be in the middle of the pack in terms of directed stay at home rules.

Today was a two walk day. My mid day walk extended into the undeveloped area outside the RV park walls. Once I was in the middle of nowhere I realized I was wandering in a desert without water, so I returned to the RV park. I’ll be equipped with water next time I venture out.

Friday April 3rd 2020

Today’s weather was a clone of Thursday. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties with lots of sun and wind. Tomorrow is forecast to be a little warmer.

Yet another of my reservations going forward was canceled today. This one was for the end of April into the beginning of May. I was a little surprised that it was canceled this early. It was at a private campground that probably needs the revenue. I would have been calling to cancel the reservation anyway, but closer to the time. I still have one six night reservation in the second half of this month that I haven’t canceled yet. It will be interesting to see if they do it before I call them.

So far five of the fifteen reservations I made for the first half of my summer travels are canceled. Right now I suspect the other ten will be canceled as well. If I can’t get back on the road by Memorial Day, catching up with my planned itinerary isn’t practical. I’ll need to figure out a whole new travel plan. Trying to figure out when it will be reasonable to travel again is impossible. Health officials, politicians and psychics all have different opinions and they’re not sharing them. After forcing myself to plan more than normal back in December and January, it looks like I’m going to be winging it more than ever this year.

Overall today was very routine. I took two walks around the park. The last was at sunset so I could get a picture or two of the setting sun.

Thursday April 2nd 2020

Windy is the best way to describe today’s weather. It was a bright sunny day with lots of wind out of the west. The temperature reached the low eighties.

Nothing broke my daily routine today. It was a two walk around the park day with a little cooking in between. I’ve given myself the challenge to stretch my food supply as long as possible, so I’ve been cooking things that will work for two or more meals. Today I cooked a beef stew. It isn’t the best meal for hot weather, but a little stew beef, carrots, onions and potatoes goes a long way. I still have more beef in the freezer. By biggest issue with stretching my food will be things like milk, bread and munchies. I’ll probably make another venture into the wild west of the grocery store long before my primary entrees are exhausted.

Wednesday April 1st 2020

Today approached the warmest day of the year so far in central Arizona. The temperature got into the mid to upper eighties. I haven’t heard if it reached the high for the year yet, but tomorrow is forecast to be warmer.

I forgot to get up early this morning to make another reservation for next winter. Sitting on the travel sidelines waiting for the virus to work its way through the world and uncertain about when I can start traveling again makes it hard to remember to plan. It was afternoon before I remembered I needed to make my March 1st 2021 reservations in Florida. The high demand State Parks didn’t have any available spaces, but I found a couple of open sites in a nearby State Park. I booked another two week stay for next year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep it.

I built my whole travel plan for this year around attending the Escapee RV Club’s Escapade in the mountains of Wyoming at the end of June. Today I learned that they have canceled the event. I understand why it was canceled. I would have been a little concerned attending the event with other RVers from around North America in these uncertain times. Once the future becomes a little clearer I’ll have to find a place to stay and things to do for the newly available week. The longer things need to remain shutdown, the more change I’m likely to have to address.

Today was a three walk around the RV park day. The additional walk was in the morning after breakfast. I didn’t linger over my coffee this morning. A couple of new RVs arrived today presumably to wait out the “Stay at Home” orders. There were also a few departures. The first of April represents the end of the snowbird season around here. The lure of home seems to have won out over any concerns about traveling north. I guess if they have a place to go, their only real problem is places to stop along the way and maybe law enforcement asking why they are on the road. I’m happy to stay put.

Tuesday March 31st 2020

It was a cloudy day today. The sun never found a gap in the cloud cover, but it still managed to raise the temperature into the high seventies. It was a comfortable day and dull at the same time.

Today was very much a representative case of my new routine. Breakfast is slow and unfocused with the TV news playing in the background. Most of the morning news seems to be a restating of the yesterday’s COVID-19 news as if it had just happened. The state of Arizona releases its latest virus numbers in the 9AM hour, so the news people keep reminding the viewers the new numbers are coming. That makes the news program a combination of old news and hype for new morbidity statistics interspersed with cuts to the meteorologists doing the weather from their living rooms. Somehow having the weather forecasts done remotely is a way for the TV stations to encourage work from home.

The rest of my daily routine begins with a walk around the RV park around noon followed by another walk before dark. Between the walks its more TV, some reading and a little cooking. Today it even included a brief nap. I need to add a little variety and a few more elements to this routine.

I’m afraid these blog entries are going to get even more boring as the days and weeks go by, but I’m going to continue to write them. They are one thing in my current routine that is also part of my normal routine.

Monday March 30th 2020

The beautiful Arizona spring weather continued today. The high temperature was a degree or two above Sunday, but was still very comfortable in the seventies.

The state of Arizona issued a “Stay at Home” order today. It starts tomorrow evening. It seems to only close a few more business than those that were already closed. I think the order is more of a public perception issue than a serious step up in restrictions. The state was starting to get coverage for not having a “Stay at Home” order in the national press and the mayors of Phoenix and Tucson were calling on the Governor to implement stricter controls. On paper, there is more shutdown here than in a lot of states, but the mayors still want more controls.

This new restriction doesn’t impact me significantly. It does not cause the RV park to close. That is my biggest concern with the current pandemic countermeasures. I continue to worry about being without a place to park my RV home. As long as I’m parked in a safe place with some access to power and water, I’m fine. Social isolation is pretty much my way of life.

Closing RV parks and campgrounds is seen by officials as a way to discourage tourists from coming into an area. They not only represent a potential virus carrier, but also a potential burden on the local health care system. A compromise solution, in place in other areas, is to close the RV park to new arrivals. All of the big RV groups are currently reaching out to government officials across the country on the issues of full time RV travelers. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Sunday March 29th 2020

The temperature made it a little above seventy five today. That’s still about five degrees below the average for the date, but I’m not complaining. The forecast is for a few degrees increase each day this week. Most of the day was sunny and calm. Near sunset a line of wind came through and blew the dust around for a few minutes. It has been calm again since.

Another routine day in the travel holding pattern. After a slow breakfast accompanied by some TV and internet reading, I took my first walk of the day. This time I ventured a little further out the front gate of the RV park compound. The area has some nice desert wildflowers and a better view of the passing trains. There are two parallel tracks along the route between the Phoenix area and Tucson. Most of the trains are very long with four engines. The tracks in this area are fairly flat. East of Tucson is probably the nearest mountainous area along these tracks.

My second walk of the day was near evening. There are more people out at that time walking their dogs. The dog people in this park all seem to have more than one small to tiny dog. It is rare to see someone walking a single dog or a bigger dog.