We bundled up our stuff and left Catalina State Park in Tucson. Tucson is an area Peggy and I both have come to enjoy, preferring it to the enormous concrete hell of Phoenix.
As we were finishing our departure routine, Peggy started waving her arms and giving me funny looks from her guard post at the back of the trailer. I bailed out of the truck cab and hustled back to the rear of the trailer to see what was making her so excited. Sure enough – there was an enormous spider climbing up the back of our trailer’s rear window. It wasn’t a tarantula but it was bigger than some tarantulas I have seen before. One good thwack and he was on the ground near the trailer proceeding with his frightening endeavors. We do not allow hitchhikers to ride with us.
We drove west on Tangerine Road for about 10 miles and then turned northwest on I-10 back toward Phoenix. About 35 miles later, we turned west on I-8 back toward San Diego and our former home. We continued on I-8 for a bit more than an hour before turning south on AZ-85 toward the bustling metropolis of Ajo, population about 3,000. AZ-85 passes through what must be a terribly bleak wasteland when it is dry but recent rains have made the area into a very green wonderland rivalling southern California where they cheat nature and use irrigation to transform that ugly portion of the world into a garden, albeit a parched one.
After about an hour on AZ-85, we pulled off at the Ajo Heights RV Park which is much nicer than I expected. The grounds are beautifully landscaped, the wi-fi works, they offer free cable TV, the spaces are large with full hookups, roads within the small park are very well maintained and the folks greeting us were very nice. We came here to see Organ Pipe National Monument, a cactus garden that is still about 35 miles further south.
It is a bit too warm for me outside and hooking up the trailer generated some sweat so I hustled until I could get on the shady side of the Invader and get some respite from the incinerating rays of the sun. We will go to Organ Pipe tomorrow, hopefully early so we can miss some of the benefits of the midday weather. There are lots of birds here.