Tuesday, March 21, 2017

March 20 - 26, 2017, AZ

Monday, March 20.  Happy first day of spring! Here in AZ, we have beat the record and reached 96 degrees - pretty early for that.  And - not too welcome when you are camping for a few days.  We got packed up and headed out for Picacho Peak State Park where we met up with Chris and Norm, Gerry and Jeanie, and Mike and Judy (the same group that camped together over New Years weekend). So we have gone from one extreme to another - cold and rainy then and hot, hot, hot now.  There is a really nice breeze most of the time and if you can find a shady spot, life is good.

I was hoping to see lots of wild flowers, but they seem to have dried up - more so than I expected.  Some of the cactus are in bloom now, though.

I took another fall, tripping over a rock that was holding down my rug. My left knee has a few scrapes, one is pretty deep, and the palm of my right hand landed on a good sized pebble, so that's a pretty deep one too. It hurt like hell - but not for too long.  I cleaned them up good, smothered them with triple antibiotic cream and carried on.  I'm beginning to question the stumbles - is something going on?



     My hiking buddies; Roger, Chris, Norm, and Pat
     Mama Cactus Wren was busy feeding her chattering brood in this unique nest.
     The inside of a dried out Prickly Pear pod.

     The Cactus bloom has started.

Friday, March 24.  I camped until Wednesday morning and then headed back home. Pat and Roger started their trek back to Wisconsin that morning after we had a nice walk around the park with the dogs.  I had a lot less to pack up, since it has been so windy that the awning had to come down after the first night of flopping around in the wind - it sounded and felt like I might just fly away.  The wind was a blessing though, as the days have been hot - as long as you could find a spot of shade to sit in.

Frisco had his checkup at the vet this week and all is good with him - he got an updated Bordatella shot in case I have to board him and we refilled his heart worm medication too.  There is a new bacteria in the area (spread by infected dog's urine) that is causing dogs to get an extreme intestinal illness, so we got the vaccination for that also.

I had my annual eye exam today and all checked out there - a very minor change to my prescription, so all is good.

I had a nice chat with Ben the other night and he said the kids are all excited about my moving there.  I also learned from Randy that he and Julie will be squeezing in a visit starting on April 2nd. That news led me to move up the date for the U-BOX to April 6 - and they will be helping me to get it loaded and it will now be ready for pickup in Minneapolis by May 1. 

I've been packing and cleaning and the pile is getting bigger and bigger.