Arizona Bound....

Cabbage Flower - Madrid

Yesterday and today, we are traveling.  We were planning to stay a week in El Paso, TX at Ft. Bliss’s campground, but we found the place unappealing and very noisy from the highway traffic outside our front window.   Friday night sounded like we were at the races with vehicles going full-throttle down the highway all night long.  Well, at least it felt that way...

Ristra display - Madrid

Saturday morning we woke up tired  and decided to leave three days early.  It was very windy at times and we worried a little about running into dust storms.  Except for a light dust storm and some bad gusts trying to push the motorhome sideways, it was uneventful.  We spent last night in Deming at the Escapees’ park and we are on our way to another Escapees’ park near Benson, AZ.  Traveling today will be a lot calmer.  I am looking forward to seeing southern Arizona again.  It has been awhile.

I didn't take any pictures during our stay so these are all from Madrid.

Si! I take requests!

So, this winter we will be volunteering in Southern AZ on a private wild life preserve of 312 acres and we will be the only 'campers' on the grounds.  We will start around the end of November and will stay for at least 3 months.   It sounds like an interesting place to spend a winter.  I'm looking forward to getting some good photos of the wildlife and getting some quilting done while we are there.

Tired Hitch getting some rays

~~~~~~~~~~~Patagonia, AZ

Dan sent out the following description to our families:

The name of the preserve is Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve (PSCP) and is located adjacent to the town of Patagonia Arizona (AZ). It is privately owned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and preserve valuable habitat and waterways for the preservation of bio-diversity. In Arizona TNC has 1.5+ million acres in their care and 12 major preserves. Only 4 are open to the general public. PSCP was acquired in 1966 and is the first preserve acquired by TNC in Arizona.

It is a very valuable piece of land because it is an endangered riparian habitat that has year around water flow in the creek. Riparian habitats support the majority of biodiversity in a desert landscape. It is host to numerous fauna, mammals, reptiles, endangered fish, and insects.

The access to water attracts this diverse collection. The most common question is “what animals can we see”…In which we reply Deer, squirrels, cotimundi, skunk, bear, coyote, cougar and javelina and …yes rattlesnake can be seen once in a blue moon.

Link   to the last people who volunteered there (2.5 years!) and wrote about it.

Pictures of the area