Day 28, 29 and 30 (by default) Catalina State Park, Tuscon AZ
Day 28
One thing I didn’t count on was how much time it takes to do this blog. I have gotten WAY behind in posting so I am going to change tact a bit. You would think I might be sitting around all day with nothing to do but I can tell you that these travel days are WORK! Packing up, getting hooked up, driving, then unpacking and unhooking. When we get done, its usually time for dinner and after that all I want to do is jump in that bed! I am going to try to shorten my writings. Maybe not fully on this one but future ones are going to get shorter.
Well today is another travel day to Catalina State Park, just outside of Tuscon, AZ. The drive was nice out of NM, We went through Silver City, refueled and were going to stop but parking this beast reared its ugly head again and before we knew it we were out of town. As I said before, there Ain’t No U-Turns in this thing. Once we got down out of the mountains we picked up I-10 the rest of way…… Boring. We called and talked with our friends Dave and Stefania about the timing of our Humbolt trip and learned that we are not going to be able to connect as they get in long after we are gone…. Bummer. We called our friends, Kim and Michael and caught up on home town news.
Just before we arrived at the park, the rain started coming down. At check in, the Ranger warned us that the road may flood and they couldn’t guarantee when we could get out. I didn’t really believe him, and brushed it off. The surrounding mountains were spectacular, but our site was lame, a “group overflow site”. I had no idea what that was and learned that it is an oversized parking lot of dirt (mud with all the rain) that is assigned after all the good sites are gone. There is no electric and no water. Because the generator had never been set up, I had to gas it, fill it with oil, set up the ground wire, etc etc. It took me over an hour and I was completely soaked. I fired up the generator and must have really pissed off the guy next to me – he threw his hands up in the air and mumbled something…. The generator I’m guessing! In sites with no electricity there are certain times you are allowed to run generators and there are quiet times when no generators are allowed. I was fully within the allowable time, I just think the guy was a complete grump. In the morning he was gone. Riding around on our bikes the next day we found him in a full hookup site – I gotta give him credit, no one was coming in or going out because of the flood so he snaked one of the electric sites that were not occupied.
It was Valentine’s Day so we got ready and went out to dinner at Kegs steakhouse, right across the street from the park. We didn’t bring the dogs and Gina did not want to go far for fear of the road flooding and us not being able to get back in. We had a nice dinner and made it back before the flood. It was a cold night so we bundled the dogs up for bed and the lights were out by 10:30.
Day 29
Gina cooked pancakes for breakfast. We started to hear others in the parking lot talk about the flooded road. It had happened, there was one guy from Austria who took on the role of Road Closing Authority, and we could hear him telling everybody and anybody that wanted to listen. We decided to walk the dogs down to see and it was quite amazing – a 100+ foot wide river, 6 feet deep, rushing across the street, complete with hydraulic waves in the center. The road was packed with gawkers like us. The talk was it would be open tomorrow around noon. That worked fine for us as we can leave when it opens and make our next reservation.
Feeling good about the news, we decided to take Remi on the Romero Canyon Trail, a 6 mile hike up into the mountains. We left Teddy home because it was listed as a difficult hike. We got to the trailhead but could not cross the raging creek, turned around and took the Nature Trail instead. Teddy could have gone with us on that one, as it was quite nice. There is an equestrian center in the park and horses are allowed on the trails so Remi got to see his first horse, he didn’t know quite what to think about something on four legs that big.
Later in the day we rode our bikes with Remi back down to road closing to check on the status. The talk had now turned to tomorrow late afternoon at best or worst the following morning. That changes things: If not open tomorrow it impacts our reservation at Lost Dutchman in Phoenix. We still didn’t panic as we grilled chicken breasts with zucchini and onion for dinner. The weather had finally cleared and we enjoyed a great dinner around the fire bowl. We jumped in bed with our books and were asleep by 9 hoping for good news. One benefit with the road closure is that the park is really quiet and nice at night. No one driving around.
Day 30
We had yogurt for breakfast and walked the dogs down to flood. News was a little more pessimistic, maybe this afternoon but most likely tomorrow. Still no panic; we went for bike ride on the 50 year trail. It was a beautiful path along a ridgeline that overlooked the park. After a few miles it became very rocky and unmanageable for our bikes so we turned around and went back to the trailer for lunch – borritos and margaritas. We had just learned that the road was not opening this afternoon so what the hell, break out the Tequila. I called Lost Dutchman and informed them, they claimed to be well aware and would hold our site, not to worry. We were mixing the second margarita when were heard someone say the road is opening and anyone who wants to get out, better pack up and move! They are clearing the road for only a few minutes and once the last trailer in line is out they will let it flood over again. We did our fastest pack up ever – 20 minutes and the RV was rolling. I hit the dump station to release some weight and we started our short trek to Lost Dutchman in Phoenix. As we gassed up I called Lost Dutchman to inform we were on our way. The ranger said we were booked for tomorrow – nothing today! They had cancelled our reservation for tonight and our site was already taken by someone else! After some unpleasant haggling on the phone they managed to find us an “emergency site” for the night but we would have to move to our regular site the next day. We didn’t have a choice.
The rain was gone and the weather turned nice. We took a back road all the way to Phoenix and arrived at Lost Dutchman right at sunset. This was a beautiful park and we looked forward to exploring it tomorrow. We cooked gluten free burgers on the grill with campfire sauce for dinner and got to bed early.
