Josephina Javelina

I really have not had anything to post, our life is dull and boring.  Unless you want to see pictures of me doing laundry, grocery shopping and walking dogs..there is not much new.  It is hard to believe we will be here for a week already.

The weather is better today, lows are still below freezing, and highs in the 60's, but there was no wind today, and plenty of sunshine.  It really cools off as soon as the sun goes down.   I never get tired of watching the changing colors as the sunlight and shadows play across the hills, highlighting the cactus and rocks. We seem to walk farther everyday, the dogs seem to remember their dessert path.  Tonight, we had a coyote run across the trail right in front of us.

I did find out we can not download books onto our kindles without a wireless connection.  Amazon suggested we go to a wifi hot spot like McDonalds or Starbucks, or the regional library about 2 mles from us. Thank heaven we downloaded quite a few before we left home. I'll continue to work on this problem.

Now the rest of the story..Josephina Javelina.........definately NOT the 3 little pigs !!
(This is actually the name of a childs book that I fell in love with our first winter down here.)
 I was taking Mya out last night before bed, and from around the back of the motorhome, came a good size Javelina, Huffing and puffing at me..(they do not like dogs) It scared the ---- out of me !!!!  I threw Mya in the house, and Wally and I pulled out flashlights to watch.  There were 6-8 of them, the internet said adults weigh between 35 - 60 #, so they are not to be fooled with.  There were babies as well, so the momma's were not very nice. It has been so terribly dry here, they are eating the cactus which store water in the stems, and anything else they can find. If you have never seen one, do a search on Javelina, the AZGFD.org website has a great video of them feeding in the desert. From now on when I go out at night, Wally will be going with me.

                          Can you see the toothmarks where they are eating the cactus ??

The Misadventures of Wally & Sue on the way to AZ.......

We finally made it to Arizona, with only a few minor experiences, though they seemed major at the time !!

Left Minnesota Tuesday AM, drove as far as Lincoln NE, where we parked in the Walmart parking lot..what a mistake. It was so noisy no one could sleep, so we got up at 4:00am and hit the road again.
After a 14 hr drive, we stopped at a campground in Tucumcari New Mexico. We found out we had no water coming into the M/H, ..the relief valve on the water heater was out, and the water line in the bathroom was frozen.  After several hours of work, finally had water again and could actually use the bathroom.

Thursday, we left Tucumcari and headed south towards Las Cruces NM, as there was a severe storm front coming through the mountains with extremely high winds, and a storm alert for Flagstaff with snow. We also ran into high winds coming across New Mexico, which proceded to try and tear the awning off the motor home, we had 6 feet of canvas blowing over the roof, kind of like a sail. Nothing like standing along the road in 60MPH wind trying to fix it.  Thankfully, there was a little town about 3 miles down the road, where we could pull behind some buildings and get some shelter from the wind to do a repair job. The blowing dust also made it hard to see the road at times.

Friday, we did the final 400 miles into AZ. We drove through heavy rain by Tucson, but made it into Pioneer Park by 4:30pm.  Got everything set up, and just collapsed...... Spent all of Saturday just unpacking and putting stuff away.

We are in lot 152, on the opposite side of the park from where we used to live. There is a wash behind us, lots of quail and birds.  Just had a hummingbird at the feeder, and our old neighbor Pete Jensen stopped for a good visit. It dropped to 39 last night, high for today is in the upper 50's with sunshine and light wind, much better than the 14" of snow in Flagstaff, and the 24" in Show Low.  I can see snow on the upper peaks from where we are parked.

I'll try and get some pictures, and hopefully my next blog will be more interesting.

The backyard

My favorite co-pilots !!!

Home is where you park it