MichelleIt’s been a while since I posted anything – time gets away from me!. I stayed for a bit in Lake Havasu City, AZ area. It’s a nice size city and the home of the official London Bridge, which was bought from England, disassembled, brought to AZ, and reassembled which took a few years. Lake Havasu itself is very pretty and great for boaters. It’s quite large but like many other lakes and rivers in the southwest it doesn’t have nearly the amount of water as in previous decades. I spent some time at Rotary Park on the water and watched some senior groups playing Bocce Ball. I would really like to try this game; it looks like a lot of fun (if you’re good at it).
The day I planned to move to another area, the slide stopped working again only 2 months after it was repaired. So I’m back to sleeping up in the bunk since the slide must remain in the closed position. Unfortunately, it blocks my access to the rear wardrobe and the bed. And having the slide in the closed position takes away at least 60-70 sq ft of space which is a lot in an RV. The biggest frustration is how hard it is to get into a repair facility. I called several places that do warranty work but none could get me in before April 21 (unless I wanted to drive 1400 miles back to Washington). I finally found a place in Austin, TX that could get me in on April 4th for the diagnostic (again). Austin was on my itinerary anyway so that works well.
Back to the main story… I drove south through Parker and Quartzsite AZ (both are potentials for wintering over), and further south to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge which is in the middle of nowhere! My friend Anne was going to meet me there the next day and I got there ahead of time to pick a camping spot. I realized the ground was rather soft in some places so I pulled the RV/Car onto the side of the road that looked pretty packed down. I scouted a bit, decided on a site and returned to move the RV. Uh, NOT! As I accelerated, I dug the RV wheels right down into the sand and there was no way I was getting out easily. Luckily two guys saw me get stuck and came to help. After unhooking the car and digging sand out with shovels, (I knew I brought that shovel for some reason!), they hooked me up to their 4×4 pickup and as I drove in reverse, they hauled me out. Yep, then I got stuck a 2nd time and we did it all again. Moral of this story: Even if it looks hard packed, looks can be deceiving. Stay on the road! And don’t be afraid to accept a helping hand from strangers!
I gave up on the intended camp site – too soft; and ended up in a harder packed area. No one else nearby so it was very quiet. Anne made it the next day after all my drama. We had a great time getting caught up with each other. Cibola is supposed to be a top birding site and although we did see quite a few different birds, the areas that were supposed to be filled with water were mostly dry. That was disappointing but we loved the nature trail winding through trees with lots of songbirds to see. Some of my favorite bird sightings were a Scarlet Tanager (all red except black wing), a Burrowing Owl, Mountain bluebirds, lots of Kestrels, Sandhill Cranes, and some Coyotes. We saw lots of others too but these were highlights for me. Our time together was gone all too soon and it was time to move on.
I worked my way over to southern New Mexico and City of Rocks State Park (with a quick stop in Saguaro NP). What a Fun place! The campsites are all nestled in amongst giant red boulders. There are trails all over in the rocky areas that reach some great viewpoints. This was another really good birding area. There was a small visitor center and a botanical garden which provided me with names of some of those cacti I was seeing. I wished I could have stayed longer, but it’s a busy park and 4 nights was all I could get. Kids would LOVE this park with its giant boulder playground.
My final stop in southern New Mexico was Percha Dam State Park (northern New Mexico comes in May). This park parallels the Rio Grande river which did have some water but it was pretty pathetic (and sad). Another good birding spot (see pics in the photo gallery). Lots of trees at this park which made it feel a little less desolate .
