Mail

Our walk this afternoon took us over to the office to check for mail, plus a chance to chat a bit with Sandy, who manages the office at Eagle View RV Park. According to Sandy, the Park has more reservations than it had last year at this time, though we had been thinking it wasn't as full.

These bright orange flowers with the feathery leaves is over next to the swimming pool fence -

We had a couple of packages waiting at the office for us. Daughter MM had sent a box. It was not as packed as usual as she sent it off early so that we could get our ballots in the mail by next week. We also had a large box with a several prescriptions from Group Health. They send a 90 day supply at a time, so we should be in good shape for a while.

This is a shot of Auntie Violet looking from the office. As you can see, we have a nice little area with a Palo Verde tree that gives shade to our chairs in the morning and early afternoon.

Little Visitors

It was raining lightly when I first woke up about 6 AM. It cleared off a bit, then later about ten AM we had a brief thunderstorm: some lightening, thunder and a bit more rain. It cleared off again and we had a very pleasant afternoon. We went for a short walk along the fence. These prickly pear cacti on the other side are thriving -

As we were sitting outside afterwards, we noticed a pair of cute little birds -

A bit bigger than a sparrow with a long slightly curved beak -

With their buff bellies, we're pretty sure they are little rock wrens -

They played on and around the RV for over an hour while we were watching and trying to decide what they were.

More Settling In

We got a few more things unloaded from Toad II today. We're gradually getting settled in. I found the slide supports (that Forry just could NOT see!) in the back of the rig. We put them under the big slide on the passenger side as extra support when we are parked for a long time in one place. I also go the big rug out of the passenger side bay, but it's still sitting on the concrete pad. Maybe we'll get it spread out under the Palo Verde tree tomorrow.

The "Gang of Three" showed up again this afternoon. They had come by yesterday just after sunset.

The three of them come up the bank, walk along the fence for a ways, then go back down. You have to look hard to see the other two hiding in the bushes.

It was overcast when we got up this morning, but gradually cleared off as the day went by. The Four Peaks appeared to be shrouded in shadow as we looked across the Verde River Valley this afternoon.

Grocery Day

Having a bare refrigerator and cupboards dictated a trip to Fountain Hills to the grocery store today.
We got our showers out of the way, then headed into town.

The GPS needed to be reminded about taking the shortcut over the hill through the reservation over to Fountain Hills rather than going around on Highway 87. I had sat down added up the parcels and written a check to the Adams County Treasurer for the second half of the property taxes. The envelope needed to be postmarked by October 31, so our first stop was at the Post Office in Fountain Hills.

The street renovations that were started when we left last spring are finishing up, but there are still narrowed lanes and diversions as they finish striping etc. It didn't take us long to get re-oriented.
The Safeway store here is laid out just backwards of the last one we shopped at in Oregon, I ended up walking to the other end of the store to start my shopping. It's so much easier when I follow my usual routine.

When I went to pay for my groceries, my credit card was rejected. I used my debit card without difficulty. By the time I got the groceries out to the car I got an automated call from the Credit Union inquiring about a possible unauthorized credit card use!

When we got home I called the credit union and reminded them about our traveling status. Evidently, our original notifications of our mobility had run out. I really can't get upset with them - I'm actually glad they pay attention!

Setting Up

When we arrived at Eagle View RV Park, we hooked up the water and electric. It was a larger than the regular task as we parked  backwards to normal setup as we wanted to be able to look out the coach window at the view out across the Verde River Valley. We had to run both the electric cord and the water hose underneath the coach from the driver's side to the passenger side. Once we got that done, we put down the jack pads and then the jacks and left it go at that.

We started to put out the sewer hose the same way yesterday running under the coach, but quickly realized that we needed to replace our hoses. We had been talking about it and rather than having to do it twice, we decided to wait to do it until today after we got new ones. So a trip to Camping World in Mesa was in order. We bought new sewer hose (with the transparent corner I wanted); two new guest chairs; blue tabs for the tanks; and laundry soap for my washer/dryer.

When we got home, it didn't take us too long to run the new hose under the coach and get it hooked up. I was glad to get the tanks drained as I've been wanting to wash the sheets.

Sunset this evening:

Later -

And looking the other way -

I saw a comment on Facebook today warning teachers and nurses both: There will be both a full moon and Halloween this weekend. Be prepared!

A Quiet Day at Eagle View

We slept in this morning - at least Forry did. I was up early enough to take a bag of garbage out to the road for the daily garbage pick up. I fixed orange rolls for breakfast, but that's bout as ambitious as I got.

We watched the last day of the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) National Finals this afternoon. JB Mauney had clinched the 2015 Championship last night. That turned out to be a good thing as Bruiser did a number on his collarbone and badly injured the connection to his xiphoid process, so he couldn't ride today.

We spent a bit of time working on our sewer hookup this afternoon, but decided we needed to buy new hoses. That will tomorrow's task.

While we were working on it, our neighbor (he was our neighbor last year as well) came over and we spent an hour or so visiting and watching the sun go down. A few cows came wandering by on the other side of the fence, but I don't think they were watching the sunset...

We're Here!

We left Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel in good time this morning. Both of us were well rested and ready to go.

Instead of taking the freeway all the way, we took the shortcut, Hwy 93, south and east. A good share of it is actually four lane highway already. It is a beautiful drive, known as the Joshua Tree Forest Byway. The nicest part to me is beginning to see saguaros again.

It was a good and fairly easy drive until we got into the new construction of the 303 Loop. Our GPS just did not recognize the new construction. We finally ended up using Google Maps on my iPad to get us through greater Phoenix.
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Finally we got far enough east to connect with Highway 87 which took us into Apache country and to Fort McDowell Road. Soon we were at Eagle View RV Resort! We are back in WARM country - we were nice and sweaty by the time we were hooked up with water and electric. We are glad to finally arrive!

Jello Day

I had a suspicion last night when we went to bed that we would NOT be traveling today. I could tell Forry was really tired - even though he insisted he wasn't. It was a different story this morning however, he was very willing to say he wanted to go back to sleep when I woke him.

I called the office as soon as they opened at 8 AM to see if we could stay another night. It's a good thing I did as when I went down later to pay, the lady told me the phone had been ringing all morning and they had only one more site left. And only three left for the weekend! She had a whole stack of site reservations on the counter. Sites weren't get a chance to cool off. Folks pulled out by the eleven o'clock check-out time and others seemed to pull right in.

It was a gorgeous day today. The skies were blue, it was nice and warm with a slight breeze. We are now definitely in the land of cacti -

Auntie Violet is parked at the very end of a row, almost tucked over the bank -

Across the "street" are several rigs that belong to work campers. The lady who checked us in this morning lives in the Hitchhiker across from us. She got off of her shift at noon and she and her hubby took off on his motorcycle for the rest of the day,

I took advantage of the quiet day and caught up on the laundry. We had our first acorn squash of the season for dinner tonight. So good!

We Make It To Arizona!

We left Sierra Trails this morning and headed east towards I-40 across the Mojave Desert. It wasn't long before we started seeing our first yuccas.

And not much later, we began to see the groups of cholla cacti -

After a long day of driving, we finally came to the Colorado River, the border between California and Arizona.

It's always good to see the first Arizona sign -

Our next sightings were the Ocotillos. Note how green they are after last week's rains! They normally look just like brown sticks during the dry season.

And then the Palo Verde trees. Literally translated as "green branches", they are seen all over the state.

As we neared Kingston, we began to see the red rock and bluffs that say "southwest" to me.

We stopped for the night at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Stable, about twenty miles east of Kingston. We'll continue on tomorrow - unless we jiggle the jello and decide we need a rest day.

Sierra Trails RV Park

Sierra Trails RV Park outside of Mojave, California, is another sort of funky place we usually stop at. The park itself is nice with a wall around it and lots of trees and greenery. The area for transients, however, is a clear area in the back of the park. It has several 30 amp hookups with water spigots and barbeques. Last night and most of the day today, we were the only ones here.

Looking down the other way. You can see a portion of the block wall around the main park.

A peek through the entrance into the main park. It's pretty nice and there are many permanent residents.

Looking out the back, you can see some of the ruts of the run-off from last week's big rain -

Earlier this morning, the maintenance crew spent some time filling some of the ruts in -

This is one of the big juniper trees alongside this side of the park fence -
 

It has some of the biggest bunches of juniper berries I've every seen -

The berries are huge, as big as the end of my thumb -

Later this evening, three rigs have pulled in and plugged in for the night. We're no longer out here alone...