On to Arizona

March – 30

The drive on to Arizona was less than pleasant as there were constant wind speeds of 32 mph with wind gusts of up to 45 mph.  There were many flashing signs along the highway warning of “Strong Wind Gusts for next 10 Miles – Zero Visibility Possible”.  This will give you some idea of how strong the wind was; typically, the center spoke of the steering wheel is horizontal when driving straight.  However, I had to hold it at about 35° to keep going straight. Believe it or not, that is very exhausting as this went on for over 120 miles and all the rest areas were closed.

We continued on to Kartchner Caverns State Park and were fortunate enough to get the last campsite available.  It was still very windy and cold, but at least we were done driving for the day.  That was the good news; the bad news was that woke up sick with some type of virus that made me so congested and fevered it was just miserable. That lasted two days until I started feeling better to the point of being able to do a short 4 mile hike.  As for Bonnie, well, she had the opportunity to read, rest, and wait around until I felt better. 

Our hike was very pleasant as it was sunny, yet cool and the scenery was interesting especially since it is so different from what we are used to seeing.

We ended up staying at Kartchner Caverns SP for six days before proceeding on for about another hour to Patagonia Lake SP down towards Nogales, MX.

One of the really interesting items about Patagonia Lake SP is the amount of bird species here.  The lake is fed by a year round running river, so when you couple that with pleasant temperatures, the number of birds available for observation is very high.  The lake feels a little out of place for the desert.

OBSERVATION:

• ·         One of the things you really notice here is with the skies so clear and very little light pollution, the number of stars in the vast sky jumps out at you when you go out at night.

• ·         We are surprised at the number of men that travel and camp alone.  Especially those fifty and older.