I am so far behind I don’t remember what day is what. I left off at the evening session of my Rock Hound State Park stay. The next morning, I took a walk with Hope on one of the trails and also took a few pictures of the mountains and valley.
The view of the mountains from my campsite The view of the valley from my campsite
From the half mile hike up to the top of one of the hills, these are views of the Florida Mountains and of the campground and mountain range to the back
I only had 250 miles to go – about four hours according to Google Maps, which, of course, I turned into six or more. There really isn’t too much I remember about the trip. I finished my book-on-tape but never came upon another Cracker Barrel to return it. I went through my first Border Patrol stop today. Being from Connecticut, I sailed through with no problems. In conversation with some of the women here at the campground, the Border Patrol usually does random checking. Some women have been stopped, some haven’t.
The terrain between New Mexico and Arizona is very much the same, yet very different. The rock formations in New Mexico seemed to be more jagged, as Arizona’s are rounder.
A rock formation at a rest area in AZ
I stopped in Tucson at a grocery store to stock up on some needed food and to also get something for our pot luck dinner that would be held on Monday evening. Not knowing the area and thinking that Amado was off in the never-never land of the Arizona desert, Tucson seemed to be the most likely place to grab a grocery store. You can see signs of every other kind of store from the highway, but not grocery stores. That excursion added another hour to my four-hour trip. I think it was the day before, I stopped in another major city to get cat food for Olly. I saw the PetSmart sign from the highway, but by the time I made my way through traffic around the city's one-way streets and around massive shopping centers and back roads and alleys behind the buildings -- not to mention the actual shopping -- I probably lost another hour and a half of travel time. And I wonder why it takes me twice as long to get anywhere as it should!
For about the second time ever, my GPS failed me in finding the Mountain View RV Park. It had the correct street, but was off by about a mile. If it wasn’t for the large sign, partially hidden by trees, I would have had a harder time finding the park.
Checking in took quite awhile. The Tubac Arts Festival was on and the campground was full with artisans’ rigs. Us Roadtrekkers were doubling up on sites, many of us to be moved on Monday after the artisans left. I was to share a site with Tom, one of our three males among 25 women, who wasn’t arriving until the next day.
The view from the "Dog Walk" at the RV Park. Oh look, a stray dog!
The rest of the evening was spent setting up and getting to meet everyone that was there so far. The evening ritual is to gather somewhere in the park for Happy Hour at 4:00. Everyone had their dogs with them, so when I went back to the van to grab my chair, I brought Hope with me. My mistake was walking right past Nikki who had her cat on her lap. What a bad introduction and bad first impression. Sam freaked out and dug his claws into Nikki’s lap. Poor Hope could care less what was going on, but I was embarrassed to the hilt. I later apologized to Nikki telling her that I was road weary and just wasn’t thinking. DUH! I have my own cat; I know how Olly freaks out in large crowds and when dogs are around.
I honestly do not remember the rest of the evening. I don’t remember what/when/where dinner was or what activities happened after Happy Hour.
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