Rockin' and Rollin'

I'm sure I've mentioned before how, in a motorhome, we get up close and personal with the weather. Last night the wind started blowing. It was not cold today, but with the wind gusting up to 50 mph at times, we ended up having a mostly inside day. The weather forecasters are talking trash -- I mean they are predicting rain and possibly snow for this area tomorrow!

I needed to get my blood test taken care of first thing this morning, this is a routine test and didn't take very long. Since it's a fasting thing, I was ready for the nearest Starbucks as soon as I got out of the lab. When I got back home, Jim was ready to take a few things to the little storage room we rented for the items we aren't going to take to Mexico.

Sandra stopped by this afternoon and we visited for a while. Here she is with Jasmine.

Finally, the wind died down just a little bit, and it looked like we might have a sunset worthy of photos. I think we both had a little cabin fever from being inside for the better part of 2 days. We loaded up the cameras and headed over to Tucson Mountain Park. The RV Park where we're staying, Doc Justin's Diamond J, is quite a ways out on the south west side of Tucson, on the west side of the Tucson Mountains. Between here and most of the city of Tucson is the beautiful area where the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is located in the Tucson Mountain Park. There are thousands of Saguaros in the park. Just northwest of the Mountain Park is the Saguaro National Park, another vast area just covered with these majestic plants.

One of the friends I've met in the RV-Dreams chat room is Dee. Last night, she was asking if the Saguaros are really tall. Jim took this picture of me standing between a Saguaro and an Ocotillo plant. I'm 5'2", so you can get a sense of how tall some of the Saguaros are. They fascinate me so much. The don't grow "arms" until they are over 50 years old. Tonight we saw one that had about 10 arms. Amazing how hold they must be.

Speaking of Ocotillos, they are my second-favorite desert plant. Most of the time they are just annoying sticks with stickers that look dead.

Then, all of a sudden, they turn green with little tiny leaves. I don't think they stay this way for very long. They do bloom, but I haven't gotten close enough to get a picture.

This is a close up of new growth starting on an old Saguaro. This is the same Saguaro I'm standing next to in the picture above.

Finally, the sun set. We got a couple of nice pictures.

Every Saguaro is different, after awhile I can recognize them individually.

There is a dead Saguaro right next to a living one.

I haven't gotten tired of seeing these sunsets yet!