April 6 and 7

 Saturday morning we had breakfast at the beach with the pelicans, the tricolored herons, and the stilts. As well as the gulls. Then we got ourselves in gear and left the Salton Sea: my turn to drive, first via rte 111 south, then 8 along the Mexican border into Arizona, 10 south to Tucson, and 86 west to the RV park. We are here in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, which isn't nearly as dry as the Mojave, and all we hear and see is birds: two kinds of doves, cactus wrens, and at dusk, on our after-dinner stroll, two horned owls. No trains or highway traffic!

Sunday we took the Prius a mere few miles to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and got a one-year family membership - you know how it works, the second time you go, you're ahead already. So right away we went for the second time this morning (Monday). Since we're going to leave the RV here until October or so, we'll get one or more visits in then. It's really a great place: we went to two raptor flight shows, the rattlesnake and gila monster talk, and the small desert animal encounter. I have to tell you, a hooded skunk is awfully cute... There's also a  hummingbird aviary, a few animal enclosures, a cactus garden - oh, btw, the cacti bloom in April! We were a tad early for the big wave, but there were enough of the gorgeous papery flowers open for us to get a good idea of what it's like when the desert blooms. Apparently the Sonora gets enough rain in winter for almost the entire desert to turn green, yellow, pink etc in spring.

What else was noteworthy the last few days. Let me think. O yes! Today is super windy, 25-35 mph with gusts of 45-50. We understand this kind of wind in the Northeast, in the winter with snow and in the summer with rain; but here it's dust. It was reasonably clear this morning, but by now (4:30 PM) we can't see the mountains anymore and the air is beige. We had just gotten ourselves some straw hats yesterday at Walmart to shade our heads at the museum, but I was holding mine in my hands pretty much the whole time - had to chase it a few times, after that I smartened up and just held the thing... We're planning to have our showers before we go to bed, to wash the dust off. Maybe even before dinner ;)

While we were shopping for hats, we bought some rodent repellents to leave in the RV while it's here in storage. Keeping our fingers crossed... there's a reason there is a pair of horned owls living in the palm trees of the RV park... We also purchased a cover. That will be fun to try and put over the RV on  Wednesday morning. The camp boss says the wind will be much less. We hope he's right.