Around the campsite...

Morning breaks...

Time for a drive...

oooo, too much dog hair all over everything!!!
Let's see if this works... Maybe if we vacuum it up BEFORE it hits the floor?!

Too many waking hours in a row...!
Time for another nap...

Join up with a fellow camper. Walk our two kitties with her two Jack Russells...

Her terriers are straight-up friendly! No fooling around - let's get to know each other better, shall we? Scratty thinks it's a bit forward, but she's cool with it. She's pretty good at intuiting a dog's intentions. And these guys are pretty nice!

Tractor? Not so much! You've got to be kidding me! Socialize with such fresh dogs?!

(all joking aside though, you see the little kid? The lady we were walking with told us that her daughter had just left her little boy with her. I thought she meant for a little while, for a break. Nope. Her daughter's a druggie. She dumped her 2-yr-old. Grandma and Grandpa get to raise another kid. Very sad. Thank goodness for this poor little boy he apparently has a VERY cool, nice Grandma. While she obviously considered it a sad, awful situation, she seemed to be a very amazing, generous, take-it-in-stride, do-the-best-you-can kind of person. I guess this phenomenon - of grandparents raising the kids of their own drug-addled offspring - is getting more and more common...)

OK, enough of the serious stuff. You should see this view!!

No really. We can see EVERYTHING from here!!

But boy, what tiring days! So much doing, smelling, seeing, peeing,...! A dog needs to hit the sack early if he's going to be up for another day of it...!!!

But then again, there are those city lights! Man, what a view! Can't I just stay up a little longer, Mom?!

Close-up Cats

While in Tucson, I ordered a point & shoot (a Canon S90).

Our critters are really sorry about that...

Moods of the Mountains

Welcome to New Mexico! First stop, Las Cruces. We had a great KOA campsite. When they claimed "viewsites," they weren't kidding! Perched on a hill, many of their sites overlook the city, with the rugged Organ Mountains as backdrop. Don't believe me? Look, see...

Hazy morning

OK, so this photo is cheating - this one's actually from down in the city. The light was so perfect - we had to settle for a parking lot shot... (hey! it's better than not at all!)

Back to the KOA.

Orchards.

A perfect day.

Pastel.

Sunset after the storm.

What a range and what sunset color!

And we'll close with a cloud.

Lost in Las Cruces

Is this the "Consequences" part of Truth or Consequences?!!!

Or the RV God, looking out for all of us who "wander but are not lost?!"

We found this dude in Hatch, just north of Las Cruces. Reputation as the "Home of the world's best chili pepper." Might be true - we only know about their Subway sandwiches and Bactine. OK, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

So...we spent Feb. 10th exploring - with all 4 critters. We had made a date with some folks who service Winnebagos in Las Cruces. Not to belabor the already-made point, but there were still A LOT of things wrong with our new Tour. Bill wrote out a detailed description of each problem for them, so it was a bad omen when they called us several times throughout the day to ask things he'd already answered on that paperwork... Long story short, out of the five things we took the Tour in for, they might have fixed one - we're not sure (waiting for a good hard rain to know...). Needless to say, we were both very tired and frustrated after that long day... Unhooking, delivering the RV, spending all day cooped-up with the critters, driving around, back to pick up the RV in the late afternoon, back to the RV park, hooking up again - in the dark and the rain, and then discovering the extent of the non-service!!!!!!!!!!!

It didn't help that where we went to explore was Truth or Consequences. Sounds like an intriguing place, right? It's not. It's ugly beyond words.

Do they look disgusted? Yup, beyond words. Guess they were as impressed with T or C as we were...

The one good stop in T or C - at a park along the Rio Grande.

The kids DID enjoy getting out, walking around, and peeing all over everything (the dogs, that is - the kitties just sniffed everything). At least it wasn't a total waste...!

They do neat murals on their water tanks there.

At the end of the day...we were all completely exhausted. Looking forward to better days...! And the Bactine...? Well, stay tuned for more NM fun!

Escape from Wasson Mountain!

Right! So a lot of time to make up for here... Woosh, we shall whisk right through the rest of Tucson, into New Mexico, and out into Texas (which is where we are actually now)!

So Feb. 7th started out with rain and cats strolling around in puddles... It ended with me hiking through the desert with my flashlight... And I AM happy to report zero mountain lion sightings and a safe return to the RV! Yes, I got a late start on my hike up Mt. Wasson and spent the last hour or so back in darkness. Dummy me, would've been my fault if a sick, hungry puma decided to try for easier prey...! Esp. that delicacy fed on ice cream and chocolate...!!! But at least I got to see sunset from a cool vantage point...

This picture is actually just behind our RV park, in the Tucson Mountain Park. Aren't the saguaros cool? And they rightly deserve our respect! One of these cacti can weigh 10-15 tons (almost all water), and grow up to 40 feet tall, at maturity. They can live 150 years or more. And they grow so slowly! 5 years for that first inch!!! 30 years and it may be as tall as 3 feet! So be nice to them!!!! They have a hard enough time!

OK, so now on with the hike! The trailhead for the King Canyon Trail is right behind the Desert Museum. It's 6.5 miles and almost 2000' gain to the 4687' peak. This is a view looking back over part of Tucson proper towards Mt. Lemmon.

A moody scene, looking out to the east. Our RV park is in the shadows, center right.

Mt. Wasson, highest point in the Tucson Mountains and the western portion of the Saguaro National Park.

Mt. Lemmon and Mt. Wasson's shadow.

View to the west - the rest, I suppose, of the Tucson Mountain range.

Straight into the sun.

Headed back down the trail.

Trying to beat the night - yeah, right!

Pretty sight and kind of weird look with some kind of reservoirs. Hmm, don't think I'm likely to do the return 3.2 miles in the next 10 minutes or so...!! (esp. while I can still boost the ISO on the camera...!)

OK, well this is it. The parting shot. There's no more light.

And so we leave Tucson.

New Mexico next.

Puddle Jumping!

You are tuned in to

THE TRACTOR CHANNEL -

it's "ALL Tractor, ALL the time!!!"

We find the intrepid explorer, venturing out on a rainy morning.

As is well known, it's extremely difficult and unpleasant

for ordinary CATS to get wet!!!!

But Tractor Man is no ordinary cat!!!!

Undaunted, he wades right in, impervious to the pain, the risk.

Relentlessly he searches the streets,
rooting out evil, pursuing villainy,
leaving no puddle uncrossed, no paw or tail dry -
all in the name of those in need,...

or in the name of those HE needs -
(like the bird in the red circle)!

Tractor gives a shout out to his audience -
"Quiet! Actor on the set!!"
(or maybe, "Mom, back off! You're cramping my style!!!")

And...the International Man of Mystery busts a move -


but the bird takes flight and kills his groove!

Mt. Lemmon Day

On Sat., Feb. 6th, we took the dogs for a drive up Mt. Lemmon,

a 9157 foot peak just NE of Tucson.

On the way up: father and son.

Father and daughter.

A view looking back down at the road we came up. I think they called it "Windy Point" or some such, very appropriate name!!

Snow and dead trees (must've been from a fire). I liked it better as a B&W.

Heading back down and looking back. Cool clouds!
Love them UFO lenticulars!!!

Late afternoon, almost back down. Looking towards Tucson, sort of.

I didn't get any great photos of Mt. Lemmon itself on this day, but there will be some coming later - from a hike to the SW of it.

Many of our days at that Tucson campground included this stuff:

"Walking the dogs..."

The End

...for now.