Pacific Northwest: Covid-19 & Fires-July, August, September

Midsummer, I headed to the pacific northwest for three months. Diverted from Canada (border closed) and getting chased out of Portland (fires) aside, this was a fabulous trip.  Great company, great scenery and great weather. From the Cascades-where there were fantastic campsites, to Fidalgo Bay and Port Angeles-where there was great seafood, to Olympic National Park-where there were amazing rainforests. 

 

 

Spring 2020

It's amazing how much life has changed from picking up the Airstream in December until now. Fawkes is no longer my copilot and I'm back in Arizona after seven months on the road.  

After C-19 shutdowns made traveling difficult, Fawkes and I headed to northern Utah, where snow was still flying and the scenery was beautiful.

During our stop in Park City, Fawkes had a stroke and was put to sleep.

Probably like many folks in the US, the Covid-19 travel and hospitality-industry restrictions presented an opportunity to spend time with family.  We tackled a water feature project in my brother's front yard.

   

Finished!

  

The new normal

For me - hardcore extrovert and perpetual "fixer," the hardest part of our new normal is how to help.  In my former career in toxicology we had an expression, "Don't bring more victims to the incident." Which translates into - "keep yourself out of the mess-sometimes you only make things worse."

My Ego informs me that I can/must help. Which leads to the biggest problem with the situation, how to best give people who want to help, something to do.  I went to all the local hospitals and tried to volunteer.  "No thanks, we sent all our volunteers home." Went online to hospitals and volunteered. No response (so far).

Fawkes finally had enough of me talking at him, and excused himself to the front cabin - on the other side of the curtain.  I think he's threatened to pee on a cushion if I don't shut up.

At which point, I did what any self-respecting extrovert would do, started looking for sanctioned gatherings.

Enter the hard working folks with Bread of Life Missions Inc. This organization prepares hot meals and distributes food baskets to families in the Camp Verde, Montezuma, Rimrock, Cornville, and Verdes Lakes areas every week.

 

 



Yesterday, we built and distributed over 220 meals to peoples who lined up in their cars. Distributors placed bags of veggies and fruit, milk, eggs and frozen chicken into trunks and truck beds. No direct contact and great social distancing on the part of the volunteer crews.

What a day. What a great group of volunteers-especially the five kids that came out and helped.
Me and my aching back will be there next week. 

Dry Wash in Camp Verde

Week two in Camp Verda just wrapped up.  When I landed here on 1 March and backed into my "river view" spot, I had to stand on tiptoes to see where the river bent and went north of my southern RV spot.

Trees and grass outside my window

I've already figured out in my very short RVing life any back-in spot not looking at another RV is going to be enjoyable, so, woods and no water, still good.

Then came the rain....

Then came more rain......

     I got my water view and the rain kept coming.  Do Airstreams float?

    At the end of four days of rain, we got a magical gift:

Heading north.....

Yes, it's been almost a month since the last post.  My intention of writing and posting every three days fell apart pretty much the minute I articulated the plan. 

Could I in good conscience blog when I really needed to get my taxes done?  Of course not. Fawkes was no help at all. And while I wasn't blogging was I actually working on my taxes?  Nope. I needed to stress about taxes for at least a month before putting any numbers on paper. Why do I torture myself and does anyone else? I liken it to writing a semester paper the night before the semester ends. Fifteen weeks of mental anguish and 8 hours of real work. Every January 31st when those W2s and 1099s start landing in the mailbox and I'm right back in high school. 

While I was busy not getting my taxes done, I learned some new skills, RV trip planning for multi-leg multi-week excursions, making reservations at state and federal parks and the vagaries of on-line bookings. Oh, and during this time Fawkes wanted to move north. So we packed up and headed to Verde, AZ.  I'm happy to say that my second truck-hitching adventure only took one hour.  My first hitch hookup took over four hours. There might be hope for me. 

New spot by Verde River

River view

 

Blue Ox hitch

Jeep Trek

One interesting pastime out in Arizona is jeeping. I first saw what I dubbed a "grown up all-terrain vehicle" at my first RV park in Apache Junction and thought it must be a golf cart on steroids.  I was all wrong. It was a Polaris RZR (aka razor) ATV used for off-roading, a very popular activity amongst retirees (and plenty of non-retirees) in Arizona.
Fast forward a month to the RV park I'm in now-where there are probably 10 jeeps and 8 razors that go out in a weekly procession and return eight hours later in the same procession-with dusty vehicles and grinning inhabitants. Curious about what they do and where they go, I asked my jeeping neighbor, who generously volunteered to take me out for a day of off-roading. Driving up and down dry washes, cruising mountain trails and ridge lines with beautiful vistas was inspiring.
As it turns out, quite a bit of the open land is used for cattle grazing.  It was interesting to see how ranchers manage cattle in an arid region with water capturing cisterns and corrals.
Here are some photos from our jeep trip. Don pointed out a crested saguaro cactus pictured below. Very rare. Many thanks Don for a fun and educational day.

The beginning of a beautiful day

Rail line-still in use

Old farm house

Don, the jeep whisperer

Sad sight...dead end.

Crested saguaro cactus with a cholla in the foreground

Saguaro skeleton

  

Stick fence corral

Working windmill

Solar panels on the roof of the shed provide power to the water pump

Picket Post Hike-Feb 2020

Last weekend our merry band of Rancho Sonora hiking warriors headed out to Picket Post Mountain, north of Florence Az.
It was another beautiful day and a very picturesque hike.

 

 

Louie, the cowboy