Yesterday was a fairly quiet and lazy day for me. In the morning, I unloaded Donna’s bicycle from the trailer. This isn’t a good location for riding a road bicycle. The park is just off AZ89 on a straight, narrow stretch of two-lane highway with a 65mph speed limit. Too dangerous to be out there on a bicycle.

Donna rode laps of the park, zig-zagging her way through the streets. The North Ranch RV Park has three distinct sections. One area has gravel sites for dry camping. The problem with dry camping here is that generator use is banned. If you have a sufficient solar system, it’s not an issue. It wouldn’t work for us though. The next area is full hook-ups for RVs. It’s also on gravel and that’s where we are. The largest section of the park consists of privately owned lots on paved roads. You have to be an Escapees member to buy a lot.

People do different things with their lots. Some are just covered with gravel and have RV hook-ups. Some are landscaped with concrete pads and hook-ups. Most of them have a structure of some type on them. It may be a small storage shed or garage. In some cases they have built small houses on the lot.

A private lot in North Ranch with a small dwelling and million-dollar Newell motorcoach

After lunch, we rode the scooter up AZ89 to the small town of Congress. There isn’t much there – an antique store, gas station, Dollar Plus store. As we were bombing along on the scooter, a bee bounced off of my right bicep. He left his stinger behind. I pulled the stinger out as we rode into town. We cruised through the back streets to see what else we could find. We saw a public library – would that be the Library of Congress? We stopped at the antique shop and poked around. They also sold ice cream. Donna had a cup of chocolate ice cream and I had a cone with rocky road ice cream.

Another five or six miles up the highway is the town of Yarnell. This is the site of a tragic wildfire. The fire started from a lightning strike on June 28, 2013. On June 30th, a team of 20 firefighters called the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew from nearby Prescott, Arizona, went in to fight the fire. The wind kicked up and the fire shifted, trapping  19 of the firefighters in a box canyon where they perished. There is a very good article describing the fire at this link. It’s written by Stacie Solie, the same author that wrote this comprehensive account of the devastating mudslide near Darrington, Washington.

I didn’t want to ride up the hill to Yarnell. The traffic moves too fast on AZ89. I wanted to come home and put Benadryl cream on the bee sting. We rode back home and went to the book exchange library. I dropped off a book I finished reading and picked out another one. Donna also found a book. We relaxed and read for the remainder of the  afternoon.

Last night, I grilled garlic shrimp on skewers. Donna served it with zucchini sauteed with fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic, topped with parmesan cheese.

Grilled shrimp

Donna also baked an almond torte. Her sister, Linda, sent her the recipe. It was the first time she baked in the convection oven. The torte was delicious.

Almond torte

Donna is going to make chili in the slow cooker today – not exactly a traditional Easter dinner, but it sounds good to both of us. I want to watch the Formula One race and the Red Wings playoff game in Boston. This is problematic for me. Both telecasts are scheduled for 3PM EDT. The race is on NBCSP which I get on the Dish Network and the game is NBC local broadcast, which I get over the air. My current set-up doesn’t allow me to record. I need to buy another hard drive that I can format to allow Dish Network recording.

Meanwhile, it’s a beautiful morning here. It’s 68 degrees this morning. The weather guessers are forecasting a mostly sunny day with a high of 82 degrees.