Our time is coming to an end a Desert Trails RV park. We’ve
really enjoyed our time here with all the activities and making new
friends. It’s heartwarming to have folks
tell us that they’ll miss us when we’re gone.
One of our neighbors, Bill, even said that he was going to
miss “the two of us”. You see, Bear and
his dog, Sprocket, had a good relationship going. Sprocket looks like a small
version of Bear and they both have a lot of energy. So, Bill, Marty and Sprocket would invite
Bear to go play in the dog run area. It
turns out that Bear loves to retrieve balls (we already knew this) and Sprocket likes to chase
Bear. So when Marty said he was going to
miss “the two of us”, I asked him “what about Bear?” It seems that Marty had a “talk” with Bear
and Bear told him he wanted to stay with Sprocket. What a character, but this is pretty typical
of full-time RVers. The majority of
RVers are laid back and generally pretty happy folks!
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| A look out the windshield |
This past Monday we traveled to visit Tombstone with our
friends from Bend, Momi and Bob. the Courthouse is pretty cool. It was build in 1882. http://www.tombstonecourthouse.com/tombstone-history.
We also
saw the enactment of the fight at the OK corral. It was a little more realistic history-wise
than was Old Tucson.
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| Tombstone Courthouse |
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| Shoot-out at the OK Corral |
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| Crystal Palace Saloon |
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| Stage Coach |
We’ve been learning a lot about cacti. Especially those pertaining to pets as we walk through Desert Trails. The most predatory of the cacti, as seen personally through poor
Bear, is the “Jumping Cholla”. As quoted from a website (http://archive.bio.ed.ac.uk/jdeacon/desertecology/cholla.htm):
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| Katherine with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp |
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| Momi and Katherine at Tucson |
We’ve been learning a lot about cacti. Especially those pertaining to pets as we walk through Desert Trails. The most predatory of the cacti, as seen personally through poor
Bear, is the “Jumping Cholla”. As quoted from a website (http://archive.bio.ed.ac.uk/jdeacon/desertecology/cholla.htm):
“In fact, the fruits and stem segments of this plant often
are dislodged by passing animals of humans - so easily that the other common
name for this plant is the ‘jumping cholla’. The fruits are usually sterile,
and the plant reproduces when joints fall to the ground and take root.”
This past Monday night, we took Bear for his last walk of
the day after dark. As always, we took a
flashlight in case we encounter rattle snakes or other aggressive creatures. Somehow, Bear’s paw encountered not just one
but two of the “joints” from a Cholla plant.
Not realizing it until it was too late, Bear had tried, in the dark, to
dislodge one of the joints from his foot with his mouth and consequently getting it stuck in
the roof of his mount and tongue. My
greatest concern was that he would try to swallow it. He was in pain and panic, so when I tried to
dislodge the "joint", he locked his jaw closed.
It took several minutes to convince Bear to open his mouth. I was finally able to dislodge the offending
plant enough to get him home for further inspection. I was truly grateful to find that he wasn’t
experiencing any other mouth pain. He
did have another “joint” in his foot that was fairly easily dislodged. I had a bit of a time removing the burrs from
my fingers, but was again grateful that things didn’t end differently. Lesson learned: there are more than snakes to be aware of
while residing in the desert!
We will be off to Casa Grande RV Park on Tuesday. This is about 1.5 hours northeast from Desert
Trails and is closer to Phoenix rather than Tucson. We have been feeling the urge to move on even
though we’ve had such a great time here.
We’ll always have fond memories but are ready to make more!
So, off we go!!
Katherine and Mike
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