Palm Sunday

We were out of our SKP's site this morning, precisely at 11 a.m., check out time.  We were parked on the road, hooking up the jeep (at 11:08) when a gentleman in a golf cart raced up and handed Dave a little piece of paper telling us that check out was at 11 a.m. and since we hadn't checked out yet, we should, at our earliest convenience, either do check out or make plans to extend our stay!   I was really shocked by this, and we drove away with a bad taste in our mouths.   Everyone was so friendly and welcoming to us on both our visits to this park, I know they run a tight ship, but I felt that this little note was over the line.    The park was not full, there were not people waiting in line for our site.    Tarnished my feelings about this park - and we're escapee's members!

Ah well, put it in a balloon and let it go into the sky....

We parked at the Benson Rail Station (think small, dirt parking lot adjacent to the tracks) and ate our lunch before getting on I-10.   An enormous freight train thundered by, horns blazing, and we both smiled huge smiles.   We love to hear trains, feel the wind whirling around them.   It takes us both back to our week tethered to a flatbed car (Beluga was tethered, not Dave and I personally!) winding down into the Copper Canyon.  We could just feel the sway of the car as it lumbered along past incredible scenery and poor towns, kids racing to the tracks to wave at us.   Fond memories indeed.

 The blaring horn brought back stressful memories, however.  We remember being in bed, at around 5:30 a.m. and hearing an engine fly past us, on the next track, heading for the front of our line of cars.   We had to leap out of bed in the cold, pull on some clothes and get the dogs off the train, do their business, and get them back up on to the train car before the engine hooked on  and began to slowly move our train away!   Some days were closer calls than we  wanted.   We laugh now when we look back, but then it wasn't so funny.

From memory lane to I-10....

Arizona has beautiful artwork on their bridges and overpasses

We're back at Catalina State Park just north of Tucson - same site as before.  We really like it here, we feel isolated, really out in nature with beautiful views all around and lots of birds and wildlife,  yet close to every modern convenience.   Nice.

now we're back to those crazy cactus

Shhhh    Dave is dozing in the sun

this tree is right outside our door and is the hub of much bird activity

As soon as we put up our seed feeder and hummingbird feeder we had birds of all kinds dropping in.  We swear that they sit in nearby trees and watch as each new camper sets up, then check out what will be offered by the new folks!   We had three different types of hummingbirds feeding and arguing about who should eat on what schedule!   Male and female Vermillion flycatchers flitted around and a Gila Woodpecker helped himself to the orange halves I stuffed into the base of the tree.  I picked the oranges from the trees at Lazy Days RV Resort and ended up carrying them around in the jeep all this time!  Too many things in that car, its hard to keep track of what is really in there!

isn't this little Broadbilled magnificent?

this tree attracts not just birds.   can you see him?