#54 – Coveys Great Adventure – Feb & Mar 2019 – Benson AZ

#54 - February and March 2019 – Benson AZ

Some evenings are just spectacular

When I sat down to write the February edition, I realized that we spent the month living at the Co-op, hanging around with SKP friends, working on the coach and the casita, and going to doctors in Tucson. None of that seemed to be the stuff of legend that these blogs usually embody, so rather than just fill space, I decided to combine February and March. Ok, maybe sloth and indolence played a role, too. 

Really annoying

Tucson has become our medical destination. We are now firmly established with the local medical services industry that is dedicated to fixing (plucking?) the snowbirds that flock to this area every year. Get your appointments early, though, because demand is high. Tucson is roughly 50 miles from Benson, and one week we made four round trips, two in one day. Scheduling is not our strong suit.

I had been looking forward for months to getting a carpal tunnel problem fixed. The procedure worked great, but for some reason the incision has refused to close. As I write this six weeks later it is still not completely fused. It isn’t a problem as much as it is an aggravation at this point, but it is annoying to be still dealing with it several weeks later.

Bingo Queen

That problem did put a halt to my co-op volunteer activities. I usually work with the landscaping and facilities groups three days a week, and take on special projects if needed. The family honor was redeemed, however, when Kayeanne stepped into the breach. The Co-op is a local mecca for Bingo. Every Tuesday night, close to a hundred people from our park and a couple of the adjoining parks gather to do battle with Lady Luck. When a plea went out for new callers, she stepped right up and is now one of the stars of Saguaro Bingo night. 

Due to the unusually cold weather this year, unanticipated trips to Tucson and the recalcitrant incision, work on the casita didn’t move as fast as we planned. We did get the ceiling and wall joints sanded, replaced the window and door trim, installed new

The back yard

baseboards and painted everything, but we didn’t get to the wallpaper or the floor, never mind furniture. At the rate we are working, we might actually get to use it in a couple of years. We’ll see how much energy we have next winter. That said, it is nice to have a place to store things. We moved a load of books, clothes and “stuff” out of the coach, something we haven’t been able to do since we hit the road.

It's called "Out Takes." Broadway calls!

There are several annual events on the Co-op social calendar that everyone looks forward to. The Cactus Wrens provide all of the entertainment at the park and their big fund raiser is the food auction. Over two hundred dishes are prepared by members for sale, and progressive dinners and gift certificates to local restaurants are also auctioned off. This year the auction raised over $5,900. Kayeanne baked one of her signature key lime pies and it sold for $45! We won the bid for a Japanese dinner offered by one of our friends that we’ll claim in January. Saki is included!

I may have mentioned that the Co-op is the single largest source of volunteers in the town of Benson. Our members actively support the hospital, the library, the hospice and two local food assistance programs. The highly anticipated Polar Bear Party and food drive helps feed many needy people in the area. Much alcohol is involved and everyone has a really, really good time. This year about 2,600 pounds of food was collected, and over $6,000 in cash had been donated to the Benson Food Bank, doubling both totals from last year.

We were very happy when Liesa and her boyfriend Cory decided to take a road trip to visit Bisbee. We were able to get together with them a couple of times. We all enjoyed the day we spent together walking around Bisbee, one of our favorite Arizona towns. They stayed in a 1920’s era high school built during Bisbee’s mining heyday that has been converted into a really nice B&B.

Bisbee and Jerome, AZ, share a unique vibe that is distinctly different from the rest of the state. The collapse of the mining industry in both areas made real estate so cheap that hippies and artists began to move to these towns in the 60’s and 70’s, creating a local flavor in both communities that we and many others find attractive. Bisbee residents also claim to have the best climate in Arizona, and they may be right.

One of Bisbee's alleys

Remember last year we visited Chet and Cheryl Baffa at their new house near Phoenix? We managed to shoehorn Ripley into their yard and spent three great days visiting with our very close friends. Well, they recently bought a trailer, and came down to Benson to see what we have been raving about. We spent a couple of days drinking wine and getting caught up, and we introduced them to Benson and to Bisbee, too. Lunch at Ana’s Seasonal Kitchen was just as good as we remembered.

We pulled out of Benson on March 21^st, headed to our first volunteer job of the season at Cape Blanco Lighthouse near Port Orford, Oregon. We stopped in Tucson to try to get an air system problem on the coach fixed, but no dice. We spent the next two nights at Walmarts in Surprise and Bullhead City AZ, and then a night at Bear Mountain RV Park in Bakersfield, CA, all three eminently forgettable. We took a short break then, spending two nights at one of our favorite parks, The Park of the Sierras SKP Co-op in Coarsegold, CA. Think of it as Benson with trees. Raleys’ market up the road in Oakhurst has one of the best deli’s we’ve seen in quite awhile. Pass on the El Cid Mexican restaurant, though.

Emigrant Lake is just as pretty as we remember

We spent the next night at Walmart in Red Bluff, CA, and then three nights at another favorite, Emigrant Lake Park in Ashland, Oregon. All of the sites at the park have lake views, but we were lucky enough to get one of the big pull through sites that have especially good views. The county clearly takes pride in their parks and the maintenance is flawless, but a little heat in the showers would have been appreciated!

Ashland is a neat town to visit as long as the Shakespeare festival and the other major art events aren’t going on. Locals just shudder when you ask them about traffic during those times, but none of that was happening last week and we wandered around, parked wherever we wanted to and generally had a good time.

Schroeder on the mend, we hope

Schroeder continues to have issues. We took him to a vet in Benson three times to get help for his back and hips, but all that did was make him very, very sick to his stomach with the drug they prescribed. He was so bad that we took him to a vet when we got to Ashland, expecting to be told that there was nothing more that could be done. This vet really knew her dogs. She diagnosed his problem in five minutes and gave him a spinal adjustment and new meds. He has a degenerating patella that won’t heal. The new drug will help make it tolerable. He seems to be on the mend for now and we are cautiously optimistic that he will be with us for some time to come.

We pulled into our volunteer’s campsite at Cape Blanco State Park on March 30 to give ourselves a couple of days to settle in before we start giving tours of the Cap Blanco Lighthouse for the next two months. This is our first non-camp host volunteer gig and we have been boning up on the history of the lighthouse.

More soon,

Bob