Exciting Times at Catalina State Park

 

Exciting Times at Catalina State Park

We’ve been to Catalina State Park a number of times, and it’s never disappointed!  This time, however, we got a bit more excitement than we bargained for!

We like camping at Catalina State Park for a few reasons – there’s a nice back road to explore, which I covered in a previous post, the campsites are nicely spaced, so we’re never on top of the other campers, and the view is great!  We often sit at the back of our rig, to take advantage of the great open views, which include the Catalina Mountains.

We also get to have visits from the local roadrunner family – however extended that family is!  I have become a fan of the quirky looking roadrunner – doesn’t look at all like the cartoon version, and although they make a distinctive chirping type sound, it’s also nothing like the “Mbeep, Mbeep!” of the cartoon!

One evening, when Jeff took Max for his last walk of the evening, he called me outside.  As soon as I stepped outside, I smelled smoke, which was unusual, since the campground was under a burn ban.  We could see something off in back of the rig, beyond a ridge or two, that had an orange glow.  Wildfire?  I called 911 and the operator confirmed it was a wildfire, that people were already working on it, and at that point, there was no cause to evacuate the park.  The next morning, as we headed out for a grocery store run, we noticed the entrance to the park was closed.  When we checked with the ranger, he said that the park had been closed to new campers and day-use folks, due to the wildfire, but as of yet, the park didn’t need to be evacuated.  We couldn’t even smell the smoke any longer, because the breeze was blowing away from us, also keeping the fire away.  The ranger did tell us not to head too far away, in case the park did need to be evacuated.  Later in the morning, the firefighting planes were out, dumping the fire retardant foam off behind the ridge(s) where the fire was.  It was quite impressive to see, and a bit of an illusion, as the plane looked at times like it was going to crash into the landscape!

After one of the foam dumping runs, one of the planes flew directly over the campground, and I was able to get this shot of its underbelly.  The red color is the residue of the foam.  The plane was a very large plane, a DC-9.

Although the campground was not evacuated, since no new campers were allowed in, and several left, either because their reservation dates had expired, or because they decided to evacuate anyway, the campground began to have a bit of a “ghost town” feel to it.  We drove around both camping loops – ours was only about 1/3 filled, and the other was about half full.  Still, it made for a very quiet day and evening!

Enjoy!

 

 

On the Road Again!

Our first RV trip of this year, we are revisiting the Florida Keys!  Why?  Well, when we were last there 3 years ago, we never got to see Dry Tortugas National Park, due to confusion on our part.  We thought we could get tickets for the ferry over to it by walking up to the ticket counter a few days before we wanted to go – NOT!  At least, not during Spring Break month!  But, we’re smarter this time around and already have tickets!!  But, before we can do that tour, we need to get there……

We left home and the weather was pretty good.  To be safe, we decided to just head south and then make our way east.  So, off we were to Las Cruces, we thought!  But, due to a reenactment of a historic march (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March ) where over 1,000 New Mexican guardsmen died, every campground in Las Cruces (near the march site) were full.  So, we detoured to Deming, NM, and enjoyed a wine tasting at the largest winery in New Mexico, that also happens to have wine we enjoy!  Great Plan B!

The following day, we took off for Fort Stockton, TX.  However, our luck with good weather ran out – we took off with snow and icy sleet accompanying us – ugh!  However, the silver lining to that cloud (no pun intended) was the great cloudscape created by the clouds swirling around the Organ Mountains!  That is a National Monument (see https://www.organmountains.org/ ) that we checked out a few years ago.  I’m happy to say the weather transitioned to just rain and finally to sun, so things worked out after all!  Whew!!

On the third day, we had a much better day traveling, and enjoyed the various rest areas along the way.  One stop had a lovely little path with some local flowers just starting to bloom!  There was also a bird calling very loudly.  I think it was a female cardinal (mostly brown, but some very vibrant red), but she was illusive and didn’t let me get a photo of her.  At another stop, we had a very nice quiet lunch – a nice respite from the drive.  We ended up in San Antonio, where spring has definitely sprung!!

One of the things I have always loved to do is to daydream about the frontage roads that run alongside the highways.  When I was a kid, I’d start to make up stories about the people that drove those roads on a daily basis – where they were heading or coming home from, their jobs, their dreams, if they wanted to leave, etc.  When I see one now, as we are prone to do on this trip, my mind wanders back to those imaginings and in a way, I’m a kid again!

One of my favorite parts of this drive is the I-10 route through Louisiana.  The road is very close to what would be the ground, if it wasn’t on swamp land.  It always feels very odd to be on solid ground, but then look off the shoulder of the road and see nothing but swamp!!  

We had a nice 2-night break in our travels when we got to the Gulf Shores, AL, area.  Granted, this was another man-made lake, but we both welcomed the getting warmer weather and sunny skies!  So peaceful – let us recharge our batteries a bit!

As we were driving thru the panhandle of Florida, I commented to Jeff that we were seeing a lot of damage that looked to me to be either tornado or hurricane damage.  When we thought about it for a minute, we realized that this was still the visible damage from Hurricane Michael, which hit the panhandle on October 10, 2018 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Michael  ).  There have been 27 hurricanes that hit the panhandle since the late 1800s.  The last hurricane to make landfall close to the panhandle was Hurricane Ivan in 2004 (it make landfall in Gulf Shores, AL) and the last direct hit to the panhandle before Michael was Hurricane Opal in 1995 (it made landfall in Pensacola, FL). These photos were taken roughly 5 ½ months after the hurricane hit and the clean-up is still underway.  The photo on the bottom is what the land area looks like after it’s been cleaned up.  It really hit home to see this devastation so long after the hurricane was gone.

The last stop in our travels down the road to mid-Florida, where our fun really got started, was in Tampa.  We had lunch with some friends – a guy I used to work with and his wife.  They took us to a Cuban restaurant for a great dinner, and then we got to see the sunset from the balcony of their condo!

Enjoy!!