April – 7
We left Patagonia Lake State Park
and went just north of Tucson to Catalina State Park. We made reservations
because, as it was nearing the weekend, it was selling out fast. When we got there, both campgrounds were
full, but it didn’t feel like it as the campground was laid out very well with
lots of space between each camp site.
Here is a picture from our camp site; that is the Catalina mountain
range.
There were a number of prairie dogs
(rodents) in the campground that were quite entertaining. It was obvious people feed them all the time
because they were not shy about coming up, begging for food, and willing to take
it out of your hand.
We rode our bikes and took a few
short hikes here at Catalina SP. There
were several cacti flowering and the blooms were really pretty. The good news is it did not irritate our
allergies.
Other native flowers were also blooming
which added color to the desert environment.
Have you hugged your Fishhook barrel
cactus today? If you look real close at
the long, light pinkish colored spines, you will see why they call it a
‘fishhook’ barrel cactus. Most of the
ones we saw were between about the diameter of a basketball and a beach ball and
about two feet tall. However, we did see
one that was about my height.
We stayed at Catalina SP until
Tuesday, April 12th, then drove on out to Roper Lake SP where we
stayed for three nights.
Our observation has not changed with
regards to the number of men who travel and camp alone; we have seen that
everywhere we have been.
One thing we do find interesting is
the number of people who check into the campgrounds and never come out of their
rv’s whether that is a travel trailer, 5th wheel, or motor home. That just seems odd to me.
We are now at Roper Lake SP, and
this one could be the favorite of all.
It is a bit out of the way when compared to the others but that reduces
the number of people as well. The lake
is small but very nice. Here is a picture from our campsite; the blue patch in the middle of the picture is Roper Lake.
In the background, you can see Mt.
Graham which stands about 10,000 feet.
The day we arrived, so did snow on the top of Mt. Graham, but the temps
were great down where we were camping.
It even had a natural hot spring
that was nicely maintained and rarely used by guests of the campground.
When you see something like this, you just want to say out loud
"We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy."
A couple of interesting stories:
- One time when we stopped for gas, I
swiped my card at the pump. The prompt
on the screen said “Please see cashier”.
So, I went in, and told the cashier and she said, “yes, that pump will do that sometimes.
You can either tell me how much you want, or if you want to fill up, you
can leave your card here and come back in when you are done pumping.” I told her I would leave my card there
because I wanted to fill up. After
filling up, I went back in; she swiped my card and told me it was declined. I was quite surprised by this as the card has
a high credit limit on it. She asked if
I had another card I would like try, so I tried another card from the same
bank. It too, was declined. At this point, I am getting a little edgy, so
she called the manager over. He asked if
we were traveling through from a good distance away and I confirmed that we
were. He told me he sees this all the
time and to call the customer service number on the back of the card to let
them know we are traveling. I agreed,
went back out to the rv to call, and by that time Bank of America called me to
confirm it was me and not fraudulent use of my card. With all of the straightened out, I went back
in and finished my transaction. Of
course, while all of this was going on, there were a number of other customers
witnessing what was going on. So, I go
back out to the rv only to have my faith restored in fellow man; a guy with
very trusting eyes pulled up and said to me, “aren’t you the guy that just had trouble with your credit card?” I confirmed I was and he said “well, if you need gas I can help you out.” I thanked him and told him I got it
straightened out. I was blown away by
his generosity!
- When we arrived at Roper Lake SP, we
got everything set up and were just relaxing at the campsite. It was time to light the charcoal to grill
dinner so I proceeded by putting the charcoal in the metal fire starting
chimney then crumpled up some newspaper on which to set the chimney. I set this on the grate of the campsite fire
ring and lit the newspaper which in turn lights the charcoal without the use of
lighter fluid. Well, when the newspaper
first starts burning, it smokes a little before the charcoal starts burning. I am watching this closely when I heard
someone about 50 yards away hollering to someone to “put your fire out, you’re stinking up my rig.” I didn’t think much about it, but I did look
up to see to whom he was hollering. It
was ME! He was standing there staring at
me and was disgusted that the wind swirled around and was blowing smoke his
direction. I looked away totally
ignoring him but decided if he came up to me I would apologize for the
direction of the wind which, was out of my control, but he could contact the
ranger if he wanted some intervention.
Nothing happened, but it’s like I told Bonnie, “if you don’t want to get splashed, don’t sit around a swimming pool.
If you don’t want smoke permeating the air around you, stay away from a
campground.” He left the next
morning. That was a first time experience for us!
