We've been robbed!!

January 10, 2022

Tucson ride take 3

This morning as we looked out our windows, we noticed that the suet and seed blocks we'd hung from a railing on the wood fence next to our campsite were gone. Like totally gone! Not even the strings or metal hooks remained!

What the heck?! They'd been there when we went to bed. Hmmmm - had a ground squirrel or some other 4-legged critter nabbed them? Do they have raccoons here?

When Don went out later after the sun rose, he noticed the tracks of our thieves. They were the hoof marks of javalinas! Yup, the little opportunistic thieves had just ripped the bird food off the fence as it was easy to reach by putting their front legs up on the bottom railing.

Now we've never seen javalina here but according to the rangers, knew that they were around mostly at night. He had said that they liked to raid the garbage cans in the employee residential area.

Well, guess we're going to have to rethink the bird food situation as we enjoy watching them feed. We decided to go back to ACE hardware later as we knew that they had some shepherd's hooks that would allow us to hang the food higher up in the air.

The forecast for today was for 30 mph wind gusts starting round noon but we still wanted to do a ride. The decision was to wait until later in the morning and then figure out what to do.

Don went to pick up some more propane and by the time he got back, we still didn't have much wind yet and it was warming up so got the bike ready for a spin. We had hoped to do a much longer ride but opted for a short one around a different part of Oro Valley.

We headed north again to Tangerine and turned west along the trail until we could get onto the road itself since there was a wide bike lane. The trail had too many driveway cutouts to negotiate which can be unsafe, so being on the road was better for us.

Continuing west we passed many nice developments with large custom homes tucked into the desert hillsides. At one point a coyote ran across the road in front of us. It nearly got hit by a car as it turned it's head to stare at our strange bike while still running.

When we reached La Cholla Rd, we turned left to continue south. It also had a nice bike lane and less traffic than Tangerine.

Well, they were spot on in their wind forecast as the gusts started up at 12:15. We were up in the hills here and very exposed. Luckily we were now going downhill, so other than buffeting us around, the wind didn't bother us too much. But we were glad that we weren't trying a longer ride. We hoped that when we reached the La Canada wash that we'd be more protected.

It didn't take long to reach the wash and access the trail where we turned north to return to the state park. I kept my eyes peeled for birds but other than a couple of Phainopeplas, I didn't spot any others.

When we reached the park, the wind had died down a bit so we continued riding to the trailhead parking lot to get more mileage in. We stopped so Don could use the restroom, then visited quite awhile with some folks that said that they rode Cruz recumbents and were interested in our tandem.

From here we rode back to our site where we ate some snacks, then went over to ACE where we found a 4-hook shepherd's pole and some different bird food. After that errand, we continued to Walmart and did more shopping.

I sure hate these grocery runs and wish I'd stayed home as it stresses me out! Even though they require masks to enter, many customers take them off as they shop. Even though our cashier had a mask on, she had it pulled down below her nose.

I was so tempted to call her out on it or at least mention it to a manager but decided not to as it wasn't worth the aggravation. As far as we're concerned, if you aren't going to enforce mask wearing, then don't have a mandate to wear them.

Back at camp, I put the groceries away while Don put up our new hook and feeders. It was pretty breezy up until the sun went down and other than the propane tank on our grill running out of gas while Don was trying to cook dinner, a fairly uneventful evening.

The evidence of our bird food theft were these Javalina hoof prints!

There is a low spot on the road through Catalina State Park where sand is constantly washed onto the pavement. Park employees are always working hard to clean it up which we appreciate!

I guess this is what you do when you can't afford to buy many live saguaros.

I spotted this woodpecker high up in a tree in our campground. I think it's a Ladder Back but kept wavering between that and a Red Napped Sapsucker due to the white above and below the eye.

Here's another view of the mystery woodpecker.

Check out the strange looking RV that pulled in near us. The name on the side is very appropriate, don't you think?!

Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 1,630 miles (2,623 km)

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Rich FrasierI totally get being stressed out my mask non-wearers. It happens to me too. I’ve switched to an N95 mask because I’ve read that it protects me regardless of what others are doing. That might be fiction but it keeps me calm. It mystifies me why we can’t work together on this.
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2 years ago

marilyn swettTo Rich FrasierWe have KN95 masks that we wear to stores etc. My dentist claims that no mask protects you 100% but we'll keep wearing ours except when we dance as it's too hard to breathe with one on. Hopefully our vaccinations and boosters will provide some protection.
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2 years ago