Snake
Alert
Instead
of a gorgeous opening sunset, I've inserted this warning to my
snake-a-phobic friends. But I have to tell the story! It's on Day 24.
Day 23: February 28
Looks
like we're slowly starting East as of today. On our way out of our
sweet little site, we measured a 1,000 acre or more Solar Farm and a
10-mile (both sides of the highway) cattle feed lot. There were
planted acres and a whole “town” with an array of housing from
the “boss's” large house, to nice detached homes, to clean
attached homes to rather run-down housing. An interesting few miles.
On our
journey, we passed another large feedlot, giant Pecan Orchard and
Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch (did nobody copyright that name?).
As we
headed towards Catalina State Park, we passed some pretty fancy new
housing (and loads of signs for more). Being Sunday, there were also
a lot of expensive convertibles cruising. But a mile or two away is
the park and we snagged one of two remaining electric sites (#B38,
$30 E/W). It was time to charge everything up, so we paid the price.
After
lunch and some campground birding:
...and
Prairie Dog watching:
...we
rode the bikes to The Birding Trail. The ride and walk was five or
more miles, and it was more a flora than fauna hike. Though we didn't see any new birds, we enjoyed the exercise (and the awaiting beer).
Here's the sunset view from my chair:
Day 24: February 29
I had
read about Sabino Canyon as yet another great birding site, so we
headed there early this morning. Again, a lot of fancy housing and
shops in this area of Tucson. We arrived at the National site, had to
pay (!) and fight the crowds.
It was a
long hike with very few birds. The reward was a good look at a
Cooper's Hawk perched near its nest:
The
drive towards the Saguaro Cactus National Monument took us through an
older part of Tucson with a 60's feel to it. I liked that better (and
loved the name “Lim Bong Liquor”). Oh, and there was another
reward after our long, hot hike: Hot and Ready Pizza and ice cream!
We had a
crazy drive through the hills to the Gilbert Ray campground (we later
discovered that, though our GPS sent us on that route, we really
shouldn't have take it!) and arrived at this awesome county park. We
chose Site C22 ($20 E) and chilled for the afternoon.
That is
until I saw this:
...slithering
across the campsite, not 10 feet away from me. I woke David from a
snooze with my “Oh, my Gods", but made sure he got his camera. It's
a Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake in case you wanted to know. I
couldn't relax again until it went under the MoHo, through the garden
and out into the desert (very far away; that's my story!).
Here's a
final Arizona sunset view from my chair (imagine a packs of Coyotes howling in the
background-it happened):
Day 25: March 1
Last
night, we decided we wanted to see more birds, so we adjusted our
plans to include Texas! So off we went. It was yet another gorgeous
day.
We noted
how the houses in the parts of Arizona we visited are all
low-to-the-ground and in muted tones to fit into the landscape. It's
quite lovely.
As we
drove out on Highway 10, we started to see the billboards for “The
Thing”: jewellery, moccassins, t-shirts, etc. We stopped. I bought
a t-shirt. Little did we know that this company had similar stores
across New Mexico, too!
My
favourite other billboard was for “Dwayne's Really Good Fresh
Jerky”. Like, really, jerky canNOT be fresh!
We
stopped at Rockhound State Park in New Mexico and got a non-electric
site (#0 $10 no services). I hiked
for 1.5 miles, and we birded and bunnied:
...and
were able to enjoy our final New Mexico sunset:
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