On the Road Again: I Got Slightly Lost On This Evening's Walk

Maggie and I headed out for the walking path after dinner. The sun was low, the temperature cooling off (we hit 90 today), Roger was doing dinner dishes. Seemed like a perfect time to see if I could walk the entire path in one trek. (It's said to be slightly over 2 miles all the way around.) Maggie seemed willing, even anxious, to get out and move, so off we went.

We got past the spot where we normally turn around and come back in the mornings, and she was willing to keep going, so I figured why not keep going. Well, on the other side of the park from where we started, the path seemed to veer off in different directions. All of them had a sign that said "Path," so I wasn't too concerned. We kept getting further and further away from the RV park and the sun started setting. Roger had commented earlier that there were palm trees at the entrance to the park (that's how he finds the driveway), so I kept my eyes on them and headed that way. I ran into a fence. Barbed wire. Hmmm. I could see RVs in the distance, people with their dogs in one area, but I couldn't find the end of the fence. I was getting a bit nervous as it was getting dark so I texted Rog what was happening so he knew where we were. I reversed direction and started back the way we came. Maggie decided she didn't want to go that way. Great. Had to drag her a few paces to get her to come with me. FINALLY we found a cutoff to the park near the front entrance (where I thought I was going in the first place). I texted Roger we were back in the park and would be home soon. All's well that ends well.

In the meantime, though, Roger got on his bike and started to come towards where I texted that I was. The roads here are gravel. Big gravel. Not your everyday puny stuff. Where the cars go it's pretty compacted, but at the edges and around the corners the gravel is very loose. He spun out and unceremoniously ditched the bike. People came out to check to see if he was ok. That was nice. He was. He didn't fall - only the bike. This is not a good place to ride. Maybe on the trail - if you take your GPS with you!

We had a pretty busy day. We met the salesman at noon, signed a bunch of papers and got instructions for getting some of them notarized and then where to take them to file with the county. That will all happen Monday, hopefully, when we will pay the balance on our site. Have to wait for Schwab to put the money in our checking so we can access it.

Then it was a trip to find groceries. I mentioned in a previous post that we were out in the boonies. Well, the nearest grocery store is a Safeway 15 miles away. It's fairly new and in a small shopping center with a couple restaurants, a bank, and a service station. I can see next winter having to plan ahead for food a little better than I usually do so we aren't running into town all the time. It's quite a trek.

We are moving to our site tomorrow morning. They are going to go ahead and let us on it even though they don't have their money yet. It was too hot and we were too busy to do it this afternoon. The plan is an early move before it gets too warm.

Right now our thoughts are that we will stay about two weeks while watching the weather at home. We need to rent a post office box, sign up for a library card, visit some friends in Casa Grande, and just get to know the park and the area a little bit before we leave. We will leave the RV here and pick it up the end of the month when we head to Pensacola.

There's a fitness center, a woodshop, a pool, a stain glass studio and we are told, enough activities in the winter to keep us busy all the time if we want to be. I think I saw today there will be an ice cream "social" on Sunday. Rog will probably start riding the bike at the fitness center as he now has a flat tire and even with a good one, it's very difficult on the roads. Rog is loving the heat - me not so much, but it's not cold and damp that's for sure. The mornings and evenings are just lovely.

Maggie is having some separation anxiety when we leave her in the RV. She was having no problem in Santee or Yuma, but yesterday and today when we left we came home to one wound up dog. She had scratched the door, knocked over the recycle, and pulled placemats off the table. It took 15 minutes to calm her down once we got home. So what is different? The only thing we can think of is that we have been turning the A/C on when we leave so she won't get hot. It is noisy. She doesn't seem to mind it when we are here, though. We really don't know what is up with her. We are going to have to see what happens. It's like when we first got her except she's not peeing on the carpet.

Some photos from my crazy evening walk I hope you like. Even lost I had to stop and take them. You will be sick of my desert pictures soon, I'm sure. Between Maggie pulling on me while I'm trying to take them, and the little tremors from my Parkinson's, I just can't seem to get really good focus with the iPhone. Maybe we will take the tripod and the good camera out one evening before we leave and get some professional shots.