AstroGypsies

It was a short hop from Kartchner State Park, good thing, about five minutes after we got on the highway we could hear a chittering, metal making contact with something sound, even the cats were looking back at the trailer, not a good noise. Mike pulled over on the shoulder, just room for us, barely, I hopped out and saw the left front jack was just about to touch the ground! Yikes, the right side had dropped a bit as well. I carefully unlocked and opened the small side panel while standing under the nose, where the controls for the jacks are by reaching my arm around (I couldn’t stand on the road side without being run down) the big trucks moved over, thank you truckers, when they could, motorists are absolute twits, OK, twats, not a single car tried to move into the next lane as I was trying to lean around and raise the jacks. They went up, that was good, fifteen miles later they were drifting down again, repeat the previous step, several more times until we pulled into the RV park in South Tucson. Stressful. But, we arrived, jacks intact, in fact while I was checking in they’d drifted down again.

New ownership here at the park, things had changed, things remained the same. I’d picked out a spot we knew well, it backed up to mesquite trees and palo verdes, cactus as well. The prices had been hiked substantially for what they call a premium site but at least with the Good Sam discount it wasn’t too bad and we needed a rest, and we had already booked a mobile RV guy we had used before to look at the vanity slide that would only go out a few inches, and now apparently, the front jacks!

People have been coming to this place for decades, the pros, the bike riding paths to the park right behind, miles of trails into the desert. Apparently when the pandemic started the previous owner listed it for sale, took 4.2 million for it and left without even saying goodbye. Two new owners hired folks to run it, the man at the counter said he didn’t know a thing about RV’s, odd, if you are running a RV park. Tough job here keeping several hundred people happy! It used to have a funky old amusement park feel to it, it was an old amusement/water park at one time, now it feels, well different. Half the sites are empty, especially the ones where you are packed in like sardines. They’d removed the beautiful barrier of shrubs and plants behind out site, we now looked out at our neighbours back window, luckily it was an empty trailer. We pulled and set up, hoping the jacks the hold us up, they did, we also pulled out the 5/32 hex wrench and looked at the check valves on the hydraulic system, aha! Two were loose, so hopefully that was our problem! We put the trailer back on the truck before the RV repair guy came, and the jacks didn’t drift down, when he arrived he said that most likely fixed it. I never like those “most likely” statement but hey, we’ll see! Our vanity slide is not repairable here, it needs to come out so looks like we’ll live with it until we get back to Knoxville, Tennessee to visit a DRV dealer there, known for their excellent service. Asi es la vida!

Did I mention I like it here for the birds, a plucky Costa’s hummingbird found my feeder and the array of other neighbours found the sunflower seed as well. The saguaros’ are home to multiple Gila Woodpeckers, a Cooper’s hawk but I noticed the tree they used to nest in, a huge cottonwood over the RV park office was dead, so no cover for the nest now. Our site does have the only flowers I’ve seen though! Bonus! Mother of thousands, Kalanchoe daigremontiana. Toxic if chewed on but lovely for the hummingbirds!

There was a plucky Verdin checking out the hummingbird feeder as well as Cactus Wrens, Curve Billed Thrashers, House Finches, House Sparrows, Tammy Fay Doves and the ever chatty Gila Woodpeckers, it almost sounds like they are laughing, maybe they are!

While the bird sound is music to my ears, I’d forgotten just how noisy civilization is. Yes, we are extremely spoiled to live in a remote, quiet area away from the sounds of, well, everything. There is a Trap and Skeet club just down the road to the South, and a rifle and pistol range to the North. It sounds like a warzone, or what I imagine a warzone might sound like. Low flying jets, in formation, shotguns, rifle and handguns firing, noises…geez! Previously the skeet club was only active Friday, Saturday and Sunday, apparently they are open all week now, letting Americans blow off steam? No Trains, Planes, or Freeways the RV park advertises…they neglected to mention the gunfire and jets 😉 the sound of freedom Mike overheard a man telling his friend once. I didn’t realize there was a 200 site RV park at the Skewet club as well, come and camp and shoot at things…fun for the whole family…I bet you they have stopped to shop here:

What’s the old adage…a fool and his money are soon parted? 🙂 Explains where all the flags came from in this RV park, what is it here with people having to fly a huge flag from your A class or giant 5th wheel, where is my United Federation of Planets flag?? Ha! Did I mention the troupes of barking dogs on nearby properties?

The park manager gave me a piece of paper with four different WiFi networks on them and their codes, none even came up on my search for wifi, so yeah, nonexistent. There are supposed to be food trucks that come in Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Italian, BBQ and Mexican. Only the Bubbaque‘s truck showed up Wednesday which was nice, his smoked pulled pork was tasty! It is a park I feel quite young in! Ha! It used to be a 40+ but I’ve noticed they are taking pretty much anyone now! Although we did see an old sugar daddy walking with at first what I thought might be his granddaughter, no, the thigh high heeled leather boots and miniskirt while they held hands was the sight, whatever floats yer boat! Ha! I enquired when we checked in about leaving a day early but he said he gave me the weekly rate and it would cost more for 6 days than a week, so I left it. A single night is $79, I think they only want week and monthly rentals, less work. As I entered the office a lady was leaving telling him, the manager, to spend some of the rent they give him on wifi… not a good sign! Even though the laundry is only $1.50 a load I don’t think we will be back but dozens do come back to this spot. Lot’s of mountain bikes strapped to bumpers and trailers. I’ll stick with walking! I couldn’t spend months here listening to guns going off.

The trails behind this park, Desert Trails and their neighbour, Diamond J RV Park are a wonderful walk into the desert and Tucson Mountain Park but I think we’ll try for the county park, Gilbert Ray Campground on our way back, then I can walk to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! I look forward to that in February!

Groot had a tough afternoon, a CAT walked by HIS trailer, free, loose! The outrage was evident! He hissed and growled at the perceived intruder, protecting his family from the wild animal outside! Rocket made the mistake of coming up behind him and was on the receiving end of several brutal swats! Back you young impertinent orange! I am protecting you! Look at my BIG TAIL! Watching with incredulity at the intruder go under the trailer a site over from us! Her name is Tiger, a big beautiful mackerel tabby girl, we have been told, she wanders around the park, she is from the trailer across from us and sits on her owners car and surveys her domain! Groot has stalked her every day since, Rocket will only go out for a few minutes, just too scary out there he says. So we are leaving a day early, I managed to book a site for two nights a short hop away, Picacho Peak State Park so hopefully it will be somewhat quieter for us all!

Hopefully I can find some more Gilas there as well! We have a few days of light rain ahead of us, the desert always smells so good after a rain! I’ll leave you with the resident predator here, Mr. or Mrs, Cooper’s hawk, me, looking around, why are there no birds?…Mike…look over on the fence 10′ away….sigh:) Ha! Little birds worst enemy! Hasta la vista Tucson! We’ll be back;)