It’s been pretty quiet out here at Springerville RV Park. We’ve had a few people check in, but it seems that most visitors are using this park for a one- or two-night stop as they travel. As I mentioned before, the park is located about one mile east of town, right on US60. It’s in Round Valley – that’s what this area is called, it’s a valley in the White Mountains.

It’s open country with only a few homes and commercial buildings visible from the park. It’s very quiet – one of the things that strikes me is the lack of traffic on the highway. US60 runs from the west side of Arizona, near Quartzsite to the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas. Out here, it’s not unusual for five or 10 minutes to elapse between cars coming down the highway. Of course, the Wuhan coronavirus has had an effect on traffic. Also, most east/west travel through Arizona and New Mexico is on I-40 or I-10 nowadays. We like the old routes through smaller towns.

Speaking of the pandemic, I have to say with the sketchy data available, you can make whatever case you wish to make either for or against restrictions. What I mean is, the way cases are confirmed and cause of death is determined varies widely from country to country, state to state and even, in some cases, from county to county. You can draw many conclusions, but if the data base is unreliable, so are the conclusions. It’s called lying with statistics. One of the best explanations I’ve read on how the virus spreads comes from an epidemiologist named Erin Bromage. He posted this article on his blog last week. I think it’s worth a read, then make up your own mind about how much social contact you are willing to make.

When we were in Mesa at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort, we had a hummingbird feeder on the window right outside of Ozark the cat’s window-mounted bed. Between the hummingbirds coming and going and quail strutting through our site, Ozark had plenty of entertainment. Here, not so much. We hear birds, but the only birds I’ve actually seen in the area are ravens or high flying turkey vultures. Ozark is lacking stimulation and spends a lot of time napping.

Donna’s been out and about exploring on her bicycle. Last week, she rode her bike to the west side of town, locked it up at the Becker Lake Wildlife Area and took a hike along the Little Colorado River Trail. Right away, she encountered a mule deer doe.

The trail had a few signs for points of interest and scenic views of the river. Donna snapped a few pictures.

The next day, Donna rode her bike into town to mail a letter at the post office. She found a couple more points of interest right in town across from the post office.

There’s a statue called Madonna of the Trail – it’s one of 12 statues in the area dedicated to women pioneers.

She also found a well that dates back to 1885.

On Friday night, Donna prepared an old favorite for dinner – chicken enchilada skillet casserole.

On Saturday, Donna rode her bike out through Eagar on an 18-mile loop. She found more sights to see.

I’m sure this was a real wild west town 150 years ago!

As you can see from the photos, we had excellent weather last week. The skies were clear. It was warm with the temperature reaching the low 80s. The afternoons are generally windy and we had several gusts in excess of 30 mph. The most striking thing is the relative humidity (RH) though. It’s been extremely dry with an RH of only eight or nine percent!

We could tell on Saturday eveningthat we were in for a change in the weather. The forecast called for rain moving in over the next couple of days. We had a few clouds before sunset.

We had rain with thundershowers and high winds off and on all day Sunday. About one third of an inch of rain was recorded. The RH improved with the humidity level reaching 35%. Today we have clouds, but only a couple of rain drops have fallen. The long range forecast calls for sunny days ahead with daily highs in the mid to upper 70s.

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