Fitness Hike and Move

This morning we got up early and headed over to the Wind Cave Trail parking lot to meet Ranger B at 8 a.m. for a three-mile fitness hike along the Usery Pass Trail. Two other people were in the group. We walked a mile and a half out and turned around just before the first really deep wash and returned. It was not an interpretive hike, but we learned something about the geology of the area and some tidbits.

Ranger B pointed out some blister beetles and some fireweed and told us that the centipede in the Nature Center is one that emerged suddenly from the dashboard of his truck while he was driving. He actually had the presence of mind to capture the specimen rather than crashing the vehicle as his wife said she would have. (I'm with his wife!)

While we were fixing supper, Ken told me to look out the window. A coyote was only a few feet away, loping across our campsite. We've seen more wildlife this trip, probably because there are fewer people here.

Some of the yellow flowers that are lighting up the desert were near our campsite.

We decided to go overnight at D & R Family RV, where we have an appointment in the morning to get a propane line installed for our new propane heater. Ken checked the tire pressures and I cut up a tarp to make covers for some things in the truck bed. Our small propane tank was getting rusty, and the gas can was collecting crud, so I wrapped them up in their milk crate like a silver present. The old cut down barbecue cover we had been using over the generator has been trying to blow away, so I tried to make something more stable. It was really too hot to work outside--the surfaces of the truck and truck box were blistering hot. We came inside and turned on the air conditioning. It managed to bring the inside temperature down around 86 degrees rather than the 98 degrees it was outside.

We drove across town over to Glendale and found ourselves at D & R's after dark. Fortunately another RVer was spending the night inside the fence and came to let us in. She said that Ron called her husband and her his "unofficial RV park hosts" since they've been here getting so much work done. We were glad to get inside the locked lot and plug in for the night.