Rare Occurrence, Goodbye Friends, Location Change, Meal for a Queen

I woke around 6:30 am and yet didn’t get up for another 20 minutes on Thursday, Feb. 15^th. I could hear the steady patter of rain on the roof so knew I wouldn’t be walking today. Darn! I was getting pretty regular with my morning meanders. I had also hoped to take our step ladder out to raid our orange tree once more before we left, but not in the rain, thank you very much!

Saying goodbye to Ken and Nancy

I’m not really complaining about the rain and the 50F isn’t really cold. There is no wind at all, trees are still and flags are limp. Today is moving day and it is very rare for us to have to pack up in the rain. We haven’t done it this winter at all. We only have the barbecue to put in the back of the truck since we didn’t need the table or mat or even our chairs out during this stay.

My turn!

Bill was up just before 8 and Clemson had preceded him by 5 minutes and went out for his ‘shower’ and piddle. We had our coffee and tea together while catching up on blog posts. We are using our own wifi hotspot in here even though KOA offers it at a $3-day rate. It isn’t a bad price but who knows how good it would be? We are doing really well within our limits so happy with using our own.

All ready to go

With only an hour’s drive this morning we are in no rush to leave before 9:30. Check-in is 11 am at our next park. The rain remained steady although quite light. If you stood out in it to put a barbecue and propane tank away, you’d get wet. That explains why Bill wore his rain jacket and hat! We all know how rare that jacket is for my sweetie!

As he was hooking up, I texted Nancy and Ken to let them know we were close to leaving. They walked over, in the rain. That is what good friends do! We hugged and it always makes me sad to say goodbye to them. We never know when we’ll see them again but at least we have already started making plans for meeting up next winter. We pulled out onto the I-10E at 10:05 so that was good timing.

The colours were stunning and different

Ocotillo in the foreground and a mountain hiding in the clouds at that back

The drive was smooth, just light showers, the sun trying it’s darnedest to peek through with no success. I was snapping pictures of the view off to my right. The colours change so much in Arizona depending on which way you travel. The brown and green shades are now golden yellows and rust colours. 

Peekaboo mountains and more colour changes

Even the mountain range tints vary. I like how the clouds are so low and the mountains still try to pop out.

We're sure we saw these train engines last year near Vail
There had to be 100 of them just sitting there

As we were just about to turn off Az90, the showers were heavier and Bill said, “aw come on, don’t start pouring now!”, so it slowed down again as we turned onto Hwy 82. The sign for Quail Ridge RV & Mobile Park was visible immediately. Again, we feel like we are home. We were here in November of 2016 for 2 weeks and met some good friends, here for their first time, and who now live here permanently.

This is one of our membership parks, under AOR, therefore we only pay $9/night. We have full hookups here but their electric is either $3/night or metered. We plan on using our solar panels as much as possible so after tomorrow, have ordered a huge order of full sun and asked that they read the meter today and as we are leaving. What kind of pull do we really have?  😊

We were given an easy pull-in site, directly down from the Office. Bill has never had it so easy, pulling into our large site and setting up between a Mobile Suite and a Cougar. I get a chuckle out of the silliest things and noticed a Jayco Designer on the other side of the Cougar. Funny because these are the same 3 brand name fifth wheels we have owned.

Bill pulled out the bbq and table and set it up, as well as our patio mat since there is no cement pad. I heard him raking the small stones to make it nice and level. With the dampness I first felt stepping inside, I asked him to plug in so I could take the chill off with the fireplace, rather than using our propane. Soon after setting things up inside the Suite, it was turned off and our power usage dropped off.

I must remember how I did this, it was awesome!

The temperature hovered around 55F and the rain stopped by 1 pm. Bill was looking online ahead at where we will go next while I just felt my whole body relax. Two weeks here without moving sounds really, really good! Both of us were hungry so at 12 noon after set up I made up an egg omelette. Bill had his on toast and I had mine grilled in a quesadilla. Oh my, that was so good!

We got the dishes out of the way and I went for a walk. Not far, the sky was looking a little ‘iffy’. I mailed Bill’s post cards and popped into the Office for a minute and checked out the wifi password for guests. Hmm, free. Will it work? I wandered down to stick my head in the first clubhouse. Oh yes, I remember this now. There is a treadmill in there and a couple of tables across from the kitchen. A sofa at one end where the shelves of books are.

Nice looking El Camino at the Office

The spatters started up again so I didn’t walk back to the farther clubhouse. Instead I turned back home, taking a picture of our site. I couldn’t quite get into starting a new book so I turned on the television and watched a couple of my recorded episodes of This is Us. Bill isn’t into the program so he went upstairs with a new book. Even though it was a James Patterson book he said the first 3 chapters were very unlike his normal stories. He wasn’t interested in it at all. It is called Maximum Ride.

Bill set up the satellite dish while I was watching the second episode. As it finished, all of a sudden, the picture came in. He had it bang on without me having to check inside. Just a little fine tuning required. He also pulled our Blue Flame heater out of the closet and turned it on to take the chill off. We won’t need it for sleeping but at least we’ll be comfortable for the evening.

I don't know the name of these spikey plants

But their white edges are very sharp 

 At 5:30 Bill lit the Weber Q and he washed and cut up a big potato. We were sharing a large thick cut of steak. It wasn’t windy but it was spitting so he put the awning out to stand under while he barbecued. NCIS reruns were on, something we can never get enough of, so he was in and out and in and out, like Clemson.

This steak was done to perfection!

Supper was just steak and potato. No point in adding more carbs when this will be plenty of food. Bill loves a potato with his steak, otherwise we’d have either a salad or veggie instead. The best thing and the best thing for us is the meat and we certainly had lots of that.

It has been a good day to move and get settled in a new park. Tomorrow will not find us going anywhere. We plan on just chillin’ and looking forward to seeing our friend for a visit. A change is as good as a rest. Who said that, besides me? After dishes were cleaned up we turned on another recorded show. “Better Late Than Never” with Terry Bradshaw, William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George Foreman and Jeff Dye in Berlin.

Goodnight from Huachuca City

We laughed a lot and I was distracted a lot as I tried to finish this post. I hope you’ve enjoyed your day as much as we have enjoyed ours.

Thank you for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to read it.