We made it from Illinois to Arizona without too much trouble. Covid finally caught up to us on the way. We managed to quarantine in a park (turning one night into 7). Now several weeks later, we are all three still “getting over it”. Minor symptoms persisted for weeks.. We spent a couple of weeks in Phoenix at a Thousand Trails Encore, then we scheduled two weeks at an Arizona State park.
All was well. We had reservations for the end of December in Yuma (still do). But we tried to make alternate reservations between a couple of AZ state parks. My daughter who is camping next to us, has three vehicles. They are in the process of trying to move to a 5th wheel and obtained a pickup truck which they need to bring along with their class A and a small car. When we came to this park, the ranger said – no problem, you are all the same family, correct? But when we tried to make another reservation – it was “$15 a day for the third vehicle, no exceptions!” So, an additional $210 per week to park a third, unused, vehicle in the same site as the other two. This is at an electric only site at a park with dump station, but NO WATER for filling tanks. Sad Arizona. Really Sad. I understand there is a bit of an issue with people coming in with one RV and multiple cars and families all packing into a single site but rangers ARE ALLOWED to be reasonable. Rangers are allowed to count heads and charge extra. When they choose not to be, they drive people away. Drive reasonable people away. And we drove away and it will be cold day in hell the next time we visit an Arizona state park.
So, we dropped the state park plan and are moving on early to the next TT Encore Park. Meanwhile, we are taking it easy, trying to get back to 100% health. Enjoying the warmer weather and sunsets.
Crazies on the Mountain
Back home….. My mother found out we had covid via Facebook. That generated one “how are you” query via a text message. That’s it. Nothing more. I could be dead, and my mother might have to find out about it via Facebook. Some family. Meanwhile, the weekly family zoom meetings have mysteriously stopped. Not that most of the family would stoop low enough to actually participate. There were lots of lame excuses, but the real reasons were all political and all excuses to avoid acting like we were a family.
Dozens of questions remain unanswered about the homestead. Family updates are few and very far between AND never complete. That’s more than enough of that.
San Diego!
We all made a side trip to the San Diego Zoo with a short stop at the beach and Pacific Ocean. The zoo was a little disappointing with all the empty cages, but that’s what you get when you visit on the cusp of winter on a cool day. We stayed to see the light show which was made more interesting by a very visible meteorite blazing across the sky at the start.
I have been making progress in the astrophotography. Deb bought me a nice scope a while back, but learning how to use it, and getting the right software all configured is a bit of work. Add to that the necessity of clear nights that aren’t too cold. But Janessa (a granddaughter) and I are working through it. At least in the southwest, the skies in general, are darker and clearer. Unfortunately, around Yuma they are terrible. Short evening sessions under pressure to make things work aren’t conducive to achieving the best results, but we have made progress. We made a nice mosaic of the moon last night. Christmas went well, if very busy as usual. In a few days, we head back toward Tuscon, in the rain.