Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 8

Tuesday Nov 11

Up on time and quick with breakfast. We had tickets to the Sabino Canyon Crawler, a tram tour that goes up the canyon. Google Maps totally messed with our minds—we left at 9:30 for an 11:00 ticket time, and we had about a 40-minute drive to the place. Easy breezy. Except when we arrived, Google insisted we hadn’t arrived!!! It wanted us to keep going, driving along the tram-only route.

We were stuck circling a parking lot full of cars and lots and lots of people, until I finally asked Ed to park and I’d walk up to the ticket office and find out where to go. When I got there, I freaked. (briefly) The ticketing was all electronic and there was no one to ask!

But then I saw the sign for the Sabino Canyon Crawler tram loading area, and just then realized that the lady working on the ticket machine was actually an employee. She very nicely confirmed we were in the right place and had plenty of time to get on our tram. Whew.

It was a lovely ride. It would have been great to get off at the end and walk back, but that wasn’t on the agenda for the day.  Molly was waiting at home.

There were lots of other trails of varying lengths out in the canyon, including half-day hikes. That would have been fun!

But we enjoyed the ride and saw our fill of mountains and saguaros and scary, narrow, low-water crossings.

Then back. I ate a little lunch and wished I’d eaten less (will explain later), then took Molly for a long walk. Before setting out, I looked at the computer clock and thought that we were leaving at about 3:10 for a one-hour walk, but after a while I remembered that my computer clock was an hour fast. So we actually left at 2:10 and walked until about 3:50.  About 1-3/4 hours. Wow.

It wasn’t all that hot and I’d taken a half-bottle of water and Molly’s water dish. So at the halfway point, when we reached the trailhead that we’d driven to the day before, I promised Molly I’d split the water with her if we didn’t find a spigot. But as it turned out, there were lots of spigots. And a restroom—pit toilet style--waterless but also odorless so I can’t complain.

So Molly got a full bowl of water and I got to empty the bottle and refill it with fresh water for my drink.

And then we walked back. Shorter this time, as it always it. On the way I saw several birds but didn’t take the time to see them well. Stupid me.

 

Phainopepla -- a common bird in the desert but you'll never see one at my house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We ate supper at La Hacienda Family Mexican. A great place with lots and lots of food items on the menu, plus a very long wait to be seated. 40 minutes on a Tuesday?  At about 5:15 in the evening?  There were tons of old people there—what can you expect.

Anyway, Ed had Beef Molcajete and seemed to like it; I had Portabella Fajitas, which were great. I had leftovers but never managed to eat them all. If we’re ever in the neighborhood, we’ll definitely go there again.

 

By the way, I believe that was the day when I actually met Debra Winger, the author. She had a Ellie Dwyer advertisement on the spare tire cover on her pop-up camper. Seeing her poking around in the dumpster (they were camped in the row in between the one with the restroom and the one with the dumpster), I mentioned that I loved Ellie Dwyer. And she said that she was starting on Book 8 of the series right away. So it was her!

I didn’t mention that I was actually re-reading the series even then. All I did was holler something like, “don’t let anything bad happen to Ruth” and get on my way.

 

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 7

Monday Nov 10

Destination: Catalina State Park, near Tucson. It was a very short drive, as planned, so we had to kill time. We dawdled around the KOA, eating their breakfast which was good but it took a long time to get our food. Then I took Molly for a second walk and we ended up leaving pretty close to eleven.

Although it turned out that the KOA check-out time was 12. No matter, but it’s annoying when the time I looked up doesn’t match the time on their printed document.

 

 

 

 

Sights from the KOA before we left:

 

 

We stopped at a rest area to waste more time. We needn’t have--the navigator app took us off I-10 and a long way through the heart of Tucson. Maybe not actual downtown, but not far from it. Eleven or twelve miles of stop and go traffic lights with heavy traffic. On a Sunday!

But the arrival at the park was lovely. It’s a gorgeous state park, with big sites, lots of vegetation although of the desert variety (prickly and sparse), and  well-marked roads. There weren’t a super big lot of campsites in the two campgrounds, which may explain why it fills up so frequently. According to the signage, our campground B was full for both Sunday and Monday. For Sunday I can believe it but on Monday I would have guessed it at 1/3 full or less.

Still,  plenty of room for us. Our pull-thru site was near the edge of the campground which was what I typically choose, all else being equal. If there’s a site near the edge, then I can walk Molly without having to pass by a lot of neighbor sites with chances of free-roaming dogs.

By the way, I haven’t seen a single one of those so far. All dogs are leashed or tied.

It was about 85 degrees in the afternoon when we arrived, which felt good while sitting but was a little too hot for active exercise. But we went walking anyway. There are quite a few trails in and around the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, so we drove the Jeep down to the trailhead (common to several of the trails) and took the “birding loop”. Not many birds, but a lovely trail. It went across the wash of a dry creek, then gradually up hill and around. At one point there were steps and it went up rather precipitously, but not to an especially scenic view or anything. Just nice.

 Saguaros all over!  Most  of them seemed mature with lots of arms; I saw very few young ones. Hope that’s not a bad sign. I did eventually see a Phainopepla, a cardinal-like bird of the desert; all black with a crest. They seem very common here.  And a few  house finches. And one white-rumped woodpecker, but I couldn’t tell if it was a Northern Flicker or a Gilded Flicker. The underwings seemed orange—so was it a Northern Flicker with red underwings that looked orange or a Gilded flicker with yellow ones that looked orange? Yeah, you guess.

 

But it was still a nice walk with amazing mountain views. And soon enough it was time to go back to camp, fire up the charcoal, and cook Ed’s barbequed chicken. I had leftover shrimp and Molly had dog food. Poor Molly.

 

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 6

Sunday, Nov 9

On the road again at about 10:15. The jump onto I-10 was painless despite the intermittent road construction. And the traffic was light, pretty much all the way. 

Our first rest area—in New Mexico—was closed.  We ended up at a rest area in Arizona which was only 45 minutes from our destination. The only thing really interesting on the drive was that we went through a dust storm!  Ya-hoo! I even got notification on my phone, and there were police cars with flashing lights in the median at the beginning and end of it . 

It ended up being anticlimactic, which was fine with us. There was only a little dust and not much in the way of storm.

Dusty mountains: 

Continental divide again 

I made three notes during the drive:

1.     When trip planning  be more selective about restaurants

2.     At least for now, the kick of driving 15 to 20 mph under the speed limit is over. I should have known it would not last.

3.     So tired of being cold.

Our destination was the KOA in Willcox/Chochise Arizona. It was a very nice place; my review is below. Molly got a run in the dog park, then a pretty long walk but nowhere near the hour I’d like to see her have. We went around the trail, jogging, then Ed joined us and we walked around the campground. Then we started jogging again, intending to make a second circle of the trail, but all of a sudden there were people walking dogs all over the place. Including a woman letting her dog run off leash.

We immediately reversed direction and I put her inside the motor home while I resumed my jog. Poor Molly.

I think the one thing about this trip so far, that’s really getting me down, is the cold. Inside the RV. Yesterday I rode with shorts on and was miserable for the whole drive. So today I left on sweatpants and a jacket and…was miserable for the whole drive. Even now, I’m sitting outside in the setting sun with the wind blowing, and I’m chilly but not nearly as cold as I was all day. When I went inside just now, it was icicle cold. And I’m supposed to take a shower in this?

I’ve mentioned it to him and he inches the temperature up, but I’m still cold. Like now, it’s set on 78 or so. If I were going to be comfortable, it would probably need to be 82. The other issue is not Ed’s, it’s the placement of the sensors for the thermostats. One is too close to the window in the front, so whenever the sun is on that side of the house, it registers heat. And the other is somewhere in the back so the engine heat persists for hours after we park.

What a nice KOA!  Need to review it—

Wilcox/Cochise KOA Holiday   site 31 $76.60

Desert convenience for the I-10 traveler

It’s pretty nice—I could see staying here for a day or two. There are things to do in the area, maybe not close, but near enough. And the KOA seems to be excellently well run! But mind you, it’s in the desert which means wind, dust, not a lot of lush greenery (but not bare either!); hot days and cool nights. And it’s right by the Interstate, which means constant road noise.

The sites are very big and spacious; we opted for one of the longer pull-thru sites that cost more. There may be cheaper sites for the smaller rigs. Utilities seem to work fine.

There’s a pool but too cold for now (November). A little bit of a playground. And a really nice big K9 Camp dog playground plus a dog walking trail with poop bag stations in a couple of spots.

The only other thing I can think of that isn’t perfect is the café—it’s reputed to have really good food but the prices are…well…pricey. The breakfast entrees run at about 15-18 dollars, according to the menu. But it did turn out to have tasty breakfast food with generous portions.  One of us had an omelet and the other had biscuits and gravy plus a couple of fried eggs. Things tasted a little different from what I’m used to—maybe they used a different kind of sausage or maybe the eggs were fried in a butter-flavored shortening?  But quite acceptable.

So everything you could expect from a KOA. Very nice.

 

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 5

Saturday Nov 8

It was a difficult morning for planning. The check-in time at our next site, Great Escapes RV Resort of Anthony Texas, was 4pm. And they were an hour behind us, so I couldn’t expect the lady at the office to answer her phone before 9am our time at the earliest. So we had a three-hour drive with a gas stop and a rest stop, but with the time change to Mountain Standard Time, in order to get there after check-in we’d need to leave around noon. Which is really hard to do.

But we tried our best to be lazy and somehow managed to poke around until 10:30. I called several times but didn’t get an answer, so we just got ready and left.  The lady did eventually call back and say it was fine to check in early, which was a mild relief. But we were already on the road by then.

 The drive was pretty tame until we got into the road construction on I-10 in El Paso. That was horrid. The whole highway was shut down at exit 11, and the highway department signs were telling through traffic that they should take the mountain loop. Wow. We took that route in the Jeep once--it goes way up, way back down, and way, way far around. We ignored the signs and went on the route that Ed’s trucker app chose, which wasn’t great but not too awfully bad either. It had us getting off, crossing under the Interstate, going north, crossing under again and then turning south into the park.

We arrived to find that the place was better than I remembered. They’d apparently joined the two areas of the park that were formerly separated by a gate. It’s all hard, hot gravel although of course it wasn’t so very hot right then in November. I remembered that it was very hot last time we stayed there, which was probably why I never let Molly use the dog park. It was in blistering sun and was completely grassless—her feet would have been destroyed. 

But right then it was nice. Both of the two dog parks were free (one in each area), so she got to do a lot of sniffing and even some tennis ball chasing. Very nice.  But on the way back we saw that there are buttloads of dogs at the park.

It was very crowded but the sites were large, although unmarked except by a little light on a pole, a picnic table, and the hookups. So it’s basically just a huge, gravel parking lot for RVs. There’s no shade or grass at the sites.

We ate at Corralito Steakhouse. Pretty expensive, but very good food—what there was of it. I had made a note that they had expensive rib-eye but lots of cheap vegan options, and that was completely wrong. Completely. I must have been looking at a different restaurant. Instead they had normal-priced ribeye and no vegan options at all. I ended up with a salad topped with a $10 slab of salmon. It was good, but not at all what I was hoping for. And Ed’s steak was good but his sides were meager.

We probably won’t go there again unless we win the lottery. And we definitely can’t afford to take the kids there.

WRITTEN LATER:

It’s weird walking Molly in the dark out here. The area is very open and very much well lit. There are dark corners, and there’s that ravine where creature might lurk, but I’ve never even seen a rabbit.

Other people walk their dogs at this time—between 7:30 and 8—but not many. I saw only one woman with a couple of dogs; they left the dog park and headed back to our campground.  And since in the mornings, Ed and I usually get out walking Molly before most people are out of bed, I can assume that the average dog owner expects their dog to sleep from about dusk (6:30 or so) until an hour after sunrise, say around 8. That’s almost 14 hours. Is that sensible?

At home Molly gets to stay outside until almost 10pm  and goes out in the morning at about 7:30. Earlier in the summer.

But when camping, she never seems to complain about the extra hours.

Back to me. It feels a little creepy walking up and down the street in front of the campground. It’s wide open and well lit—although not as well lit as the campground itself is. But it still feels creepy. Unlike a state park or a COE campground, there are all sorts of people who might decide to cruise through here. Not that I’ve seen any. The only people I’ve seen driving around seem to be residents at the RV park.

State parks are sometimes gated—Balmorrhea was—and they’re often far enough away from civilization that not many criminals would expect to find anything stealable there. So I can’t imagine them taking the time to make the extra drive out. Opportunistic thieves, maybe. Or homicidal maniacs…although even they wouldn’t expect to find a lone woman walking her dog out on the roads after dark. I feel safer in the remoter places than I do here. Strange.

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 4

Friday, Nov 7 

Second day at Balmorrhea. The campground got a little crowded in the night—more than I preferred, anyway. Maybe one-third to one-half full. Some of the people practiced “dark sky” sensitivity but an equal number did not. Still, I was able to walk Molly with the light of the full moon and not have stupid people’s lights blasting me in the face everywhere I went.  I managed to trip over one curb but just enough to scare me a little—I didn’t face plant! 

From my journal:

This is such a great and not great place,  I am conflicted. The pool is awesome. The sites are pretty spacious. And the landscaping pretty much immaculate. But it’s not a place I’d want to spend too many days at—not enough birds or wildlife, for one thing. And as before mentioned, nowhere good to walk the dog.

We went on a short side-trip over to Davis Mountains State Park. Visited the two bird blinds and saw Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay, House Finch, Desert Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, White-winged dove, Acorn Woodpecker, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, and that’s about it.  Back at camp I saw some Black Phoebe, a Pied-Billed Grebe, and some sort of Kingbird, Cassin’s or Western. 

Posing for me: 

At Davis Mountains, we drove up to the overlook in order to play with our new altimeter. At maximum height we were at about 200 feet above a mile, so, 5480.  I’m sure we’ll see higher numbers before this trip is over, but I’m making no promises.

After we came back, we braved the wind and weather (high around 80) to go swimming in the huge, spring fed pool. It was full of fish, very clear, and had a very mossy bottom. I’m told there are turtles in there, too. Algae on the concrete steps made for a slippery entrance. I located the shallow end—3’, and was able to get in the water, all except for the top of my head. Ed located the diving board and jumped right in.

Once you were in there, it wasn’t bad at all. But the bit of a breeze made in murder to get out. You were better off staying under the water.

It would be great to go to this place again sometime when it’s just a little warmer outside. The previous day, when the high was 90 degrees, would have been perfect.  But I expect the pool gets awfully crowded in the summer.  Even though we’re way out here in the middle of nowhere, it’s a wonderful place and people will come.

After our very cold swim, we took showers. Ed in the motorhome and me in the bathhouse. Not that there was anything wrong with the motorhome, I was just yearning to try out the great big modern shower in the bathhouse. Which was squeaky clean and new and had lots and lots of hot water. Yum.

And then it was off to the Mexican restaurant I’d selected, El Cueva de Oso or something like that. Translated as The Bear’s Den. It was very close to our camp, very pretty inside, and had a wonderful waitress. But, sadly, not so good food. There wasn’t a single vegan dish on the menu. There were three catfish dishes, but they were all $18 or so and none of them looked interesting enough to be worth the price.

So I was left with ordering side dishes or choosing something that didn’t look too meaty. I ended up with a cheese enchilada plate. Not very good. And the beans tasted funny, “off”, so I skipped them just to be safe. Ed’s food was better, but also not great. But it was very much bearable and we didn’t have to wash dishes. (Yay!) 

Then back to watching Netflix’s Wednesday. I couldn’t take Molly on the same long walk as on the day before, because the moon was procrastinating about coming up.  The sky was dark but there were just enough nearby campers and lights in my face to make me not want to walk all the way back up to the road. So we just moseyed around the camping area.

Nice stars on display! It wasn’t super clear, but if I’d been so inclined—and not so freezing cold—I could have sat out and looked for planets.

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 3

Thursday, Nov 6

On the road from Lake Colorado City State park to Balmorrhea State Park. For reasons unknown, the trucker app chose to take us about 18 miles out of our way--first south and then north again, instead of taking the shorter route to the interstate. Who knows?  I’m pretty sure we took the shorter route in the past. But of course I was navigating then.

No problem, though, other than the annoyance of the longer drive. We were soon back on I-20 and headed west. Midland and Odessa were horrible. Midland had scary, narrow and dangerous road construction for a long, long way. And Odessa was just crowded and ugly. I’m not looking forward to taking that road again next year to Edward’s new job site.  And again and again. Ugh!

 

But eventually we made it. (Typical 3 hour planned drive turned into 4-1/2 hours) And Balmorrhea appeared to be a really nice place. Little shelters at each campsite. Most of the sites appear to be little curved pull-thrus off either sides of little curved roads. Cute. And all are clean as new. Almost too much so.  But I’m not complaining.

Written at the time:  I can imagine the place being very crowded in summer when everyone wants to swim. Which we should have done—it was 90 degrees when we arrived and the swimming pool pretty much empty.  And huge, and very lovely. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow.

The only think I don’t like about Balmorrhea is the lack of dog-walking places. All I can do is walk through the campground to the parking area, the office and the swimming pool. And then back again.

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 2

Wednesday, Nov 5

Ed asks me which way to go, and when I tell him, he doesn’t do it. And then argues that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Frustrating.

In summary about Lake Possum Kingdom: this is a nice little park on a nice little lake but it has no birds, there are houses all around the other side so therefore no view, and no wildlife except three deer, a possum and a lot of Canada Geese.  Very boring and I see no reason to come back.

I’m still not sure why I routed us so far off the route to get there. But now I know--been there, done that, and don’t have to do it again.

The day’s drive was taking us to Lake Colorado City State Park. It’s not a great place and we’ve been there several times already, but it was conveniently placed halfway between stops.  So, we’re going back.

We spent much of the drive monitoring our elevation with the new device: 

From trip notes:

And we are there. And it’s hot. 90 degrees in a completely clear sky.

There was very little shade from the mesquite trees and prickly pear, so I chose to stay inside for an hour or so until the sun started to slide down the sky. Our campsite was an excellent one, site 53, although one on the west side of the loop might be better for afternoons. Just next to our site there was a cut-through dirt road over to the non-electric sites. They’re close to the lake but still not lake view—you an only see the lake from the road in a vehicle. The lake is down in a deep valley.

 

I remembered from the previous visit that there was a nice trail all alongside the lake. Pretty rugged, too. So I was thinking about taking it again. When Molly and I took a short “arrival” walk in the sun, we went to the trailhead at the north end, near a boat ramp (dry, mostly) and a day use area. But I remembered that you could cut across country from the electric-only campsites to get to the trail, so that may be what we do. Either that or walk to the south end, get on and circle back the way we just went.

There were no birds when we arrived although I did hear some little chirpy birds in the trees and saw one golden-fronted woodpecker.  You’d think the place would be just swarming with horny toads and roadrunners, but no.  Or at least, none that I’ve seen. There used to be ground squirrels here but I don’t see any right now. There are several filled-in holes near our campsite, but I’d not expect the squirrels to have gone underground so soon.

Maybe we’ll see some later.

 

LATER  Never did. I saw a roadrunner and a few rabbits and…that’s about it. And a curve-billed thrasher, a mockingbird, and some finches (I think.) Pretty dull.

Molly and I ended up taking the trail at about 4:30 when the sun went down enough for the walk to be bearable. And soon it became enjoyable. I didn’t manage to make it all the way up to the start of the trail because there were some campers up around there, right about where I thought it might start.

The lake seen from the trail, 

And even if they weren’t at the start of the trail, we would have had to walk right by them to get to it, so I chose to bushwhack across behind one of the nearer campsites. It was a little scary at first, but soon we found the trail. We kept losing it again during the walk, but only a little bit—it’s pretty well marked and also pretty well used—even when I wasn’t sure of the way to go, all I had to do was consult the the shoe prints on the ground. Showed us the way.

It took about 45 minutes total, from our campsite up the road, across the bush, down the trail to the day use area, and then back up the road to our camp. Pretty close to my target afternoon walk for Molly. It was only after we’d gotten back that I remembered my plan to jog that day. Oh, well.