30 May 2017
Benson, AZ

It’s gettin’ hot, folks!
It’s the end of May (already?!) and it’s getting hot. It’ll be above 90° F all this week- hot enough we might even touch 100°. And what are we going to do about it? Not a damn thing.

The culprit is yours truly who did a horrible job scheduling appointments. I managed to string things out so there’s something about every week. The Admiral is getting a little pissy about it, but then I guess that’s her job. 🙂

Visitors.
RVing friends visited us in January. David & Becky, who we first met in mid-2010, stopped by SKP Saguaro on their way to a workamping job at Boyce Thompson State Park up near Phoenix. Since they were first-time visitors to the park they got the bargain deal… the park is always looking to make a good first impression!

And with good-first-impressions in mind, we had to take them to our favorite restaurant in southern AZ- Mi Casa here in Benson. It was the first we’ve visited with them since 2012 when they had a workamping job in Branson, MO at the visitor center at Table Rock Dam. That job came with a campsite to die for!

The park had a bunch of visitors in general. Both last year and this we found a *lot* of rigs in dry camping sites. If a visitor arrives without space to accommodate them, they will usually spend a few nites in dry-camping till a site becomes available and they can move to a leased lot that’s in the rental pool.

Lousy planning!
I usually can do a decent job scheduling appointments so that we can be on the road by early May. And with all my whining about not traveling fir 4 years you’d think I would have gotten it right.

Unfortunately the nurse practitioner we have been seeing at San Pedro Family Care decided to retire and we ended up rescheduling. At the insistence of The Admiral’s previous doctor we switched to an MD. San Pedro normally has 2 MDs- Carter and Andrew Mayberry. Unfortunately Carter is on a mission with his church. He’s in South America taking care of about 2,000 people as I understand it. That leaves Andrew buried in patients.

Plus I had a bunch of tests with the heart specialist and the urologist plus the annual trip to the dermatologist plus the dentist. Then I added a trip to the urologist again for a biopsy. And of course wellness checks for the dogs and an echo cardiogram for Kelly. And Celia had to have her mammogram and a bone density scan. And I’m probably leaving out a few. Oh… I have to start seeing a vascular surgeon and he’s got a couple tests he wants run before we leave. Plus Celia had cataract surgery on both eyes plus she was fitted with glasses with a small correction.

And oh by the way, I had to be fitted for hearing aids. Damn! I thought the problem was Celia but once again she was right. I hate it when that happens! If you think you may have a hearing problem I’d strongly suggest looking into COSTCO. Hearing test $0, hearing aids are very reasonable, and they take care of them for as long as they can get parts for $0. The main continuing expense will be a pair of batteries about once per week. I was out of there for $1,600 for a pair that include Bluetooth connectivity. If things get out of adjustment I just make an appointment, step into the test booth, and she calls up my file and reloads the programming via Bluetooth. Plus the devices collect data on how I adjust them and they download that and keep a record of where I normally set things. The technology is amazing!

Anyway, at the moment it looks like sometime in late July we may be able to escape. We may try to get up to the Northwest for awhile. I just hope we start seeing some cooling from the monsoons before we leave.

Lots of fires
Our side of the Dragoons was covered in brush fires following some lightning. Then the other side started burning too (Cochise Stronghold). Now it looks like another substantial burn on the North side of I-10, again on the East side of the Dragoons. Fires in Arizona are certainly not rare, but I sure don’t like having them close like this!

We stopped at Adolpho’s for lunch yesterday and found 10 fire fighters with T-shirts from their homebases that appeared to have cpme from all over the US including Denver, Wind Caverns NP, US Fish & Wildlife Service and so on. They were having lunch before they headed back to the fire line. We understand there are something like 250 fire fighters from all over the state and the US that are working these fires.

More when (if!) we finally get on the road.