AstroGypsies

It’s impressive that even two miles away the sound of gunshots can be loud, very loud. Located due South of the RV park is Tucson Trap and Skeet Club. from 8 a.m. until dusk the sound of shotguns going off fills the air, a continuous barrage of sound since 1948.

• 50 Trap Fields with Canterbury system
• 13 Skeet fields (International capable)
• Two 5-stand fields
• 3+ Sporting Clay Courses with 12+ Stations each
• 5 Station Sub-Gauge Sporting Clay Course
• Fitasc
• Five International Bunkers (Use Mattarelli machines)
• 2 Wobble Traps
• Trap, Skeet and 5-Stand Leagues (see games)
• A 9,000 square foot club house (Now with Air Conditioning!!!)
• Restaurant
• Bar
• Pro Shop
• 200 full-service RV hookups
• Free Wi-Fi

It’s the 200 full-service RV hook ups that get me…people come and stay here! They must love the sound of guns…sigh…to the North of us, Tucson Mountain Park, full of trails and nature, to the South, crazed shotgun shooters (I’m sure they have every manner of guns stored in their RV’s as well) shooting ALL DAY LONG…0_0…plus there is a bar…how can alcohol and crazed gun owners be a good thing? I had to look at their website to even understand what they do…sit and wait, for a clay object, or a live bird to be released, then shoot. Maybe we have been here too long, a week has felt like a month. I’m sure the RV park where we are is doing their absolute best but they need to take the “Quiet!” advertisement off the front page of their website! A couple from Saskatchewan pulled in, after he hooked up, he looked at Mike and asked “Does that go on all day?”….yup.

Depending on which way the wind is blowing dictates the sound level. The last few days it has been howling. Gusts you can lean into! We woke up one morning to find the truck hood covered in snow. Not expecting the 25°F -4°C mornings either! It was warmer in Perth! Added to the hydraulic woes Mike was wondering what exactly we were doing…escaping the Winter? No, I said, “Escaping shoveling snow!”;) smart ass that I am. On top of that we’ve had an intermittent check engine light coming on in the truck, we thought it was a bad load of diesel, apparently not. Mike took the truck into a diesel specialist…turbo is failing…sigh…always happens in threes? What’s next? Maybe I can count the slides, jacks and turbo as three! Whew! We did make it down from Catalina State Park with no issues, until we tried to put the slides out when we arrived, I could hear the motor, no movement, after pushing the in button, then the out button several times, they slid out. Yes, I’m the impatient kind that keeps hitting the keyboard in hopes of getting a result…it works…sometimes! I did read about a sliding jack fix and we did take care of that for any future issues, I believe it is completely unrelated to the hydraulics, but what do I know? Muffler clamps, carabiners (no they are not called stainless steel hookie things!) and plastic coated chain will hold these puppies up! I was informed rope would not on my DRV fixes group on Facebook!

We did finally get an RV tech out. He was colourful, chatty (very chatty!) took readings from wires and grounds, took pictures (he liked our jack fix! Cool!) said he’d have to call Lippert and explain and then ask about the component error message we got, maybe Monday he could have an answer. We are booked in here until Wednesday, then most likely will have to try and move again. It will be a crap, or would that be skeet shoot, if we can get the jacks up, slides in, the all out again. Truck goes in Monday for the turbo replacement..apparently it is the Achilles heel of the Dodge Cummins motor. But, we are healthy, we have food, water and power…oh, and a toxic spill a few miles away, guess it made the National news. Reason our RV tech was late, he was on lockdown a mile from the spill. What’s a little nitric acid blowing our way going to do….in gale force winds. It has been one of those weeks hasn’t it! Ha!

…and yes Karen, you can eat the fruit of the barrel cactus (she’s kept me busy looking at recipes for all the interesting and unfamiliar fruits we have encountered, both edible, and toxic) you can have it dried, chutneyed, candied….I see a store that sells it! Ha! Maybe that will be something to do!

Now that the wind has calmed down I can go for a walk without swallowing copious quantities of dust and dirt! I spotted a juvenile Harris Hawk on a dead tree, and one butterfly, a “sleepy orange” it sounds more like a variety of pot than an insect name! The Gilas are quite loud, like the laughing hyenas of the woodpecker world. We had a cardinal at the feeder yesterday as it swung in the wild winds but so far no hummingbirds have claimed the feeder. Maybe today.

…and we wait. I went to the office to inquire if this spot would be available after Thursday morning but it was closed. Poor manager, her beautiful black lab died yesterday another lady told me, she was giving away free boxes of Gamesa strawberry cookies and zucchinis from a kids red wagon with her husband, how could I refuse? My day is much better than the poor managers, I did tear up, her face was unrecognizable the cookie lady said she had been crying so much. Been there, my heart aches for her. So my day isn’t going too badly after all.

I could be wearing one of these! I threatened to buy Mike the sequined Boss cap, or the pot flower, it is a pot flower isn’t it? The shiny pink butterfly one is remarkable if only for the quantity of applied sequins. I fear I would need a walker, and an old pink cadillac before I am ready for one of these;) Might not be too far off! Ha!

The traveling mewberries were not impressed with the snow, puddles or the spot we were in before we moved again! Too much traffic and OMG…dogs everywhere! We did encounter a couple walking a siamese and a daschund! Cute! It is not a Groot approved park. I keep telling them we’ll get back to state parks sometime soon…soon…in the meantime we will need to occupy our time here with frivolity and fun! Ha! Now to figure out how to do that! Stay tuned for fun in Tucson…Ok, we will figure it out! We will! Also, if anyone has a spare turbo for a Dodge diesel, let me know, would save us thousands;) Ha!