Sitting in an RV, listening to the Eroica while a gentle rain waters the ever thirsty desert. We have one month left. It has gone fast, time slipping away like the rain water on our RV roof. These winter months in SE Arizona have been one of growth. Our Camp Host position has really not been a challenge but is steady and sometimes hard work. Since the beginning of January we have been booked solid with travelers, campers and snowbirds. The weekend folks that come out tend to build fires, throw back a few brews and relax from their work. They leave more of a mess than others but bring in a vibrancy we do not have with other groups. Spring break is around the corner which will increase the energy in the campground. The motorhome folks come and go leaving hardly a trace of their visit. They do the hikes, view nature and return to their self contained world taking pleasure from their rigs. The people with small trailers are the one's I enjoy the most. Some are fulltime while others are snowbirds and weekend people. They seem to revel in the simplicity of their rigs making no excuses nor presumptions about who they are or what they are about. This and more comes together in this little microcasm in the universe making for an ever changing never boring life. Carol and I have grown finding we can work together in our roles. We make rounds first thing in the morning posting new tags for reserved campers later in the day, cleaning sites that have been vacated and then there are the dreaded bathrooms. Bathroom cleaning has become a science beyond anything I ever imagined and when done, they sparkle and are clean. Never thought I would do such work but we are okay with it.
We did find a rattle snake at one of our sites and the ranger came out and removed the varmit. As you can see he used tongs, sort of like a trash picker, to gather up the snake. We drove to a far point in the Park in my work cart to place the snake in a bush. It was was an early awakening by Arizona standards and the snake was pretty groggy. It does signal that care needs to be taken in the future as temperatures climb.
We visited the Pima Air and Space Museum today. My father flew the Burma Hump during WWII in a C-46 Commando. Needless to say I was attracted to this exhibit. The C-46 had not been tested as it rolled off the assembly line and was put into duty due to the demands of the war. The safety record was less than stellar so between mechanical failures and the Japanese there were a lot of crashes. As if that was not enough the cargo was primarly gas which made the aircraft a flying bomb. The pilots lived in poor conditions with dysentery, malaria and a host of other diseases and maladies afflicting the crews of these planes. In a book I was reading, Among the Headhunters, Lyman describes the emotional state of the pilots as a very brave group of men under incredible stress. In the pictures I was able to capture some of the stuff the Museum felt important and the fact this bird had its own little spot with supporting photos and relics testifies to the importance of this mission and aircraft.
Carol's favorite aircraft is the SR-71, something I like to call the James Bond of spy planes. It is perhaps the most smooth aircraft ever made. You can see in the photos the lines and angles of the bodywork. It is a world apart from the C-46, but wow! She supported TR-1's, sort of like U-2s, when she was active duty and understands the mission the SR-71 had. The Museum has a great deal of pride in this aircraft and it shows.
You can see a number of aircraft from different eras of which I offer just a sample. The Museum has a restored B-24 that my adopted father supported in Europe. It is an awesome looking aircraft and is open beneath so as to peer into the bowels of the plane through the bomb doors. Other aircraft one can see are previous Air Force Ones, a B-36 bomber and the list goes on. The tour guide we had was a F-15 pilot who knew his stuff.
Finally got a visit in to the Tucson paths. We have similar in Albuquerque but I have to say I have never seen a trail with a bicycle repair mechanic on it who also sells drinks and snacks with a place to sit and talk with other cyclists. I started at the north end of town where the path ends and rode east. I did run into some road construction closing that part of the trail but got around it. The rest of the trail was not too bad, in fact pretty good. I stopped after 22 miles as Carol had finished shopping and had frozen items that needed to be brought back to the freezer in the rig. I am going to cycle downtown and check it out as well as out to the most eastern part of the trail. Tucson has a very active inline skating community, most of the skaters are far more advanced than my old bones are. Nonetheless I will get on this trail with skates just to try it. Beautiful scenery is breath taking, or perhaps it was the bicycling:)!
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