Catalina Again

We have never stayed at the Catalina State Park, just north of Tucson.  But we have visited here before when we went hiking.  That was about three years ago.  We are here now because we wanted to see my brother and his wife who are in the area for a few months at their home in Saddlebrook.

Catalina State Park is great.

It is a breath of fresh air and just what we like in a state park.  It has level spacious camp sites and well maintained facilities.  We have 50 amp electric and good water pressure.

Like most State Parks, it doesn't have sewer at the site, but they have two dump stations so it is very convenient.

And the views.  Oh my.
We are right at the foothills of the mighty Santa Catalina Mountains. And they are majestic!

We are looking forward to hiking and hanging out.  But in the meantime, I have some work in the next few days.  Another thing we like in a state park is good internet service and we have that here.

It's nice weather although a bit on the chilly side (compared to 80 degree days up in Mesa) and can get a little windy.
In fact a couple of days ago, I set up the beach umbrella in the PVC stand I created.  We went over to my brother's house for dinner and I decided to leave the umbrella out.  I wanted to test out how well it would do in the breeze.

Ugh oh... Not a good choice.  When we got home it was pitch black and no umbrella.  I walked over to the area and the whole thing was gone.  I looked around for a minute and saw no sign of it.  Not much I could do about "the case of the missing beach umbrella" until the morning.

Man!  I loved that bit of shade.  I hated that I made a bad decision and it was gone...My first reaction was "Someone stole it!".  Nah -- never ever in all of our 5 years of full-timing have we had to worry about our things missing.  And as I found out that wasn't the case here either.

I was thinking, "Maybe it blew away and I just couldn't find it."   Or, "Maybe it blew away, slammed into some trees/bushes and broke up and a ranger or camp host picked up the pieces and put it in the dumpster."  Or.... Not much I could do about it late at night so I slept on it.

The next morning after the sun came up I went searching.

ugh -- I hate these lessons learned.  I should have put it away when we left.  Like pulling in the awning when we leave the Roadrunner.  We probably don't really have to each time, but that one time we don't it may blow around and get damaged....

I was bummed out and then in the distance I saw the umbella!

75' from the original position and upside down agains some bushes!  That was a relief.  And I won't do that again.

So things are back to normal and we are ready to enjoy our couple of days here in the beautiful, quiet and scenic Catalina State Park!

Thanks for joining us on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...