Apr 9th to 13th - AZ to NM

Apr 9th - Thurs - Apache Junction
I made a nice, late breakfast while Terry was cleaning the truck a bit. There has been enough wind to coat everything with a fine layer of dust. I spent time figuring out how to reorganize a storage compartment under the oven. This required a trip to find racks for vertical baking pan storage and a stop for groceries on the way back.
Nice & hot so we went to the pool, came back for a lunch snack and then returned to the pool. What a wonderful, relaxing day.

Apr 10th - Fri - Apache Junction
Visited with Luke & Judy this morning. Soaked & pre-washed Terry’s micro fiber cloths and then took them and a load of towels to the laundry room. I exchanged books at the large park library on my trips to do the laundry.
We went to Hobby Lobby to buy 10 pounds of paraffin wax for our buddy burners. We want to compare paraffin to the candles that we have been using and that are hard to find for a reasonable price sometimes. Terry melted enough wax to fill the one burner that we had used while I did misc chores.
Very warm again so we spent some time at the pool.

Apr 11th - Sat - to Tucson AZ
Left at 8:30 for a 2 hour drive to Tucson to meet friends Claude & Val who are just returning from a winter in Mexico. Rained last night and one & off on our drive. We arrived at the RV park before them, paid and went to park as they were turning into the park so they just followed us to our site. The spots turned out to be too short for our rigs. Terry gave it his best shot but in order to miss the power box with our slide we were sticking out at least 4 feet onto the road. So we stood in the road & the rain and found another park. We got our money back (they were very nice about it) and found our way to the second park (Rincon Country West) which turned out to be beautiful. It cooled off enough that we moved inside after sitting outside only a short time after setting up.
We made dinner for Claude & Val and then introduced them to one of our favorite board games - Sequence. They both enjoyed it and caught on quickly.

Apr 12th - Sun - Tucson
C & V’s dog Tucker had a nasty cough so they decided they better find a vet to get him checked out. Their truck is going into the shop tomorrow so they will be without wheels and unable to wait for Monday and a “regular” vet as opposed to an “emergency“ vet. They also needed groceries and asked if we wanted to ride along with them. We didn’t have other plans so off we went.
On the way out of the park we saw some people using the park’s model train setup in front of the office so we stopped for a look. It was wonderful - buildings, flowers & small shrubs, figures, a circus and a farm complete with a scarecrow in a garden and someone using the outhouse. It had 4 rail lines and there were 3 trains chugging around puffing smoke.
When we got to the vet office, there were other people waiting and the staff was working on some major emergency. After a while we were told it would be an hour so we went to Camping World (closed for Easter!) and then stopped for something to eat. When we arrived back at the vet in 1 ½ hours, everyone was still waiting but their pets had been looked at. End result - we were there for probably another hour, the vet did not know what the problem was and wanted to do x-rays & tests which would be very expensive. He did say that Tucker’s lungs sounded OK so C&V decided to wait a couple of days and see how things went.
A stop at a grocery store for Val to stock up, back to the rig for happy hour and dinner prepared by Val. It was late by the time we finished dinner and looking at jokes & pictures on our computers so we didn’t get back to Sequence.

Apr 13th - Mon - to Grants NM
Long drive today so we were on the road at 7:15 after saying good-bye to Claude & Val. A sign informed us that there were daytime closures on Hwy 77 so we went, as advised, to Hwy 79 which was the same road that we took going to Tucson on Saturday. So we hit a “single lane” delay of 20 minutes on Hwy 60 between Superior & Globe instead. Then a “wait for pilot car” delay on Hwy 61.
The highlight of the trip was the Salt River Canyon between Globe & Show Low on Hwy 60. The road winds down one side of the canyon, crosses the Salt River and climbs out the other side. We stopped once for pictures when we reached the canyon and then I took lots of pictures as we drove. Very beautiful and worth a detour if you are near the area.
We finally arrived at the RV park (Blue Spruce) at 4:30 which was actually 5:30 in New Mexico as it is in the Mountain Time zone but does observe daylight savings time. It is a small park just off Hwy 40 - adequate for a couple of nights. They have a narrow strip of drive-through spots. Our length & the power box blocking our slide means that we are blocking the driveway to drive into sites past us. The guy who checked us in said that the people beside us are leaving in the morning and if someone else comes in there tomorrow they will have to back in - “if they can’t back in, they shouldn’t be driving” according to him!