BACK IN THE SONORAN DESERT

Yesterday was a short drive, from Gila Bend to the west side of Tucson. Just a few miles east of Gila Bend, we ran into a scary sight: two helicopters and five or six ambulances blocking the westbound lanes of I-8, attending to victims of an accident.

Traffic on the east side of the accident was backed up for several miles, completely stopped. Drivers and passengers were standing outside their vehicles peering west, or talking in small groups. There were many motorhomes and trailers in the mix, and big semi's. I'm sure those with CB radios were spreading the news that they wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Be careful out there!

As soon as we settled into our new site, we took off out into the desert for a short walk. This side of Tucson has two public parks, Saguaro National Park, and Tucson Mountain Park (which I think is owned by the city).

We have stayed frequently at Desert Trails RV Park, where a network of trails lead from the RV park to join with the trails in Tucson Mountain Park. We stay at Desert Trails because we LOVE walking through the flora of the Sonoran desert here, and we know the trail network by heart.

Desert Trails has a limited number of sites that are suitable for us and a reservation is absolutely required this time of year. During the past couple of years, we have watched the development of a new RV park, right next door, with interest. At times it looked abandoned, but this year Doc Justin's Diamond J RV Park is open.

Completely undiscovered by the Tucson snowbirds, they have plenty of space and no reservation required - our prefered method of travel. Here's Scoopy in site 65, where we will be for the next week, and likely beyond. We are facing east-ish, towards the mountains and the rising sun.

Yesterday the temperature hit the lower 70's! Last night, we slept with our bedroom windows open! No wind! Wow, is this nice, especially listening to the reports of the rain, wind, and snow pounding the west coast.

As I was walking around taking the picture of Scoopy this morning, I came across this little surprise next to a tree at our site - violets in the desert! I don't know who painted this and left it here, but I was delighted. I examined it closely and put it back with a big smile; I hope whoever left it was able to imagine how much pleasure it would bring.

We had another nice surprise here: we met JoAnn and Doug (and their poodle Fillmore), who are staying in this RV park for a month. Remember my post of a few days ago describing my non-compliant attitude towards being "tagged"? JoAnn and Doug were the taggers, and turned out to be friendly, interesting people who didn't seem to hold my recalcitrance against me. JoAnn and I are planning a BookCrossing outing one day... I'm looking forward to getting to know them while we are here.