Today is our last full day at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona. Last week, the weather guessers predicted hot weather ahead and they got it right. Thursday we hit 96 degrees, Friday reached 99 degrees and every day since then we have topped 100 degrees. Our rooftop air conditioners are running non-stop for about 12 hours a day. The nighttime temperature drops down to about 70 degrees. Soon enough, that will end and overnight lows of 85-90 degrees can happen. It’s time to move on.

We’ve continued our precautions against the novel coronavirus. We’ve pretty much avoided contact with others and have only gone out for groceries. Donna has taken several bicycle rides out through the neighborhoods, but doesn’t come into contact with anyone on her rides.

Donna confirmed our reservation in Springerville – I was a little concerned about it. Some RV parks aren’t allowing new visitors to enter. We’re good to go. I’ve been extra careful about wearing a face mask when I shop and washing my hands thoroughly. The last thing I want to do is carry the virus down the road. Springerville is a small town of about 2,000 people. It’s adjacent to Eager, another small town with a population of about 5,000 people. There has only been one confirmed case of COVID-19 in the area.

We’ve been watching more TV than usual. Over the last few weeks, we binge watched Narcos, then the first two seasons of Narcos Mexico and now we’re watching the Netflix series called Ozark.

That reminds me – I haven’t mentioned Ozark the cat in a while. When Ozark the cat moved in with us, I bought cat food at Petco. There was a particular brand I favored. The thing about pet food is the marketing is meant to appeal to the pet owner and I wonder how much difference it all makes to the pet. Having said that, I’ll admit to buying premium brand cat food just like I always did when I had dogs. I don’t want to get into a brand discussion, so I’ll leave it at that.

When we were in San Diego, we were told Petco was discontinuing this line of cat food. We found it at PetSmart and started buying it there. Then I found out it wasn’t just Petco not carrying this particular cat food. The manufacturer was phasing it out and replacing it with a re-branded label. The new cat food has a similar nutritional profile but some ingredients are changed and the shape of the food nuggets is different.

Dogs and cats don’t need to have a wide variety of food. In fact, they become accustomed to eating the same foods and often have a bit of a rough adjustment when new foods are introduced. We bought the new brand of cat food for Ozark last week while we still had some of the food she’s been eating for the last five years. Donna slowly introduced the new product by mixing it with her usual food. Ozark seemed a bit off the first day or two, but she’s doing fine now.

Yesterday, I had a phone call from my old friend, Jim Birditt. Jimbo and I go way back – we met in eighth or ninth grade, I’m not sure which it was. He told me he was drawn for an out-of-state Big Game Combination hunting license for Montana. I’m envious. We used to hunt in Montana every fall back in the ’90s. I wrote a post about it here. The funny thing was this – he was telling his wife, Cindy, about hunting and staying at Mumbro Park. Cindy Googled Mumbro Park and found my old post about the place.

I started prepping for our move this morning. After four months here in Mesa, the trailer needed to be re-organized. I straightened the trailer out and packed the Weber Q and Traeger. By late morning, it was already 92 degrees and the trailer was hot. Later, I’ll put Donna’s bike away and pack the folding table. The chairs can wait until tomorrow when I do the final packing. I’ll dump the holding tanks in the morning. I always like to have empty holding tanks and plenty of fresh water on board when we travel. You never know what might come up and it’s always good to be ready.

With that in mind, I had the propane tank filled on Tuesday. I paid a premium to have it filled by the Arizona Propane delivery truck. The tank was just about empty after having the regulator replaced. Once I disconnect from the power pedestal here, we’ll need the propane to run the refrigerator.

With our limited refrigerator and freezer space, I’m hoping the food supply chain stays intact. Talk of food shortages looming are a bit worrisome. We shop for groceries once or twice a week to keep fresh food on hand. We also eat well. Here are a couple of examples from the last week.

First is a pork tenderloin Donna marinated in her mojo marinade and I grilled it on the Weber Q. Donna made a new side for it – cauliflower Spanish rice. It was delicious.

On Monday, Donna grilled Caribbean jerk marinade shrimp topped with a fruit salsa over jasmine rice with corn and broccoli on the side.

Tomorrow morning I’ll finish loading up and hook up the trailer. Once I get the trailer out of our site and onto the street, I can load Midget-San and hit the road. We have a few options for the route to Springerville. I think we’ll head out past Saguaro Lake then go up the Beeline Highway to Payson. From there, we’ll head east through Show Low and on to Springerville. It’ll be warm there, but with an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level, it’ll be at least 20 degrees cooler than Mesa. Tomorrow’s forecast for Springerville calls for clear skies and a high temperature of 83 degrees – better than the 105 degrees forecast for Mesa!

It’s too bad we have to leave without saying our goodbyes to friends and my daughter Jamie who just bought a house on the west side near Goodyear, but we’re taking the pandemic seriously.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!