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When we last left off it was moving day. While simple in concept we approached this move cautiously as it was our first time towing a car behind our RV. Carefully, we went step by step through the instructions, double checking ourselves and all the connections. The last thing we wanted was for the car to roll down the road by itself or cause major damage to the transmission. Obviously thousands of other RVers tow vehicles, so we know it is feasible.

Thankfully, it was a short trip, under twenty miles to our next RV park and all went well. We even managed to back the RV into our spot without incident. It was a bit nerve wracking since it was our first time backing this big thing into a tight spot and we had plenty of onlookers. We breathed a sigh of relief once it was all over. Soon this will be old hat and our pre-trip jitters will fade just as they did after a month or so in our first RV.

In retrospect we are doubly glad we started out with a small RV and small investment. Like a first car, our first RV sustained minor damage as we learned its limits and abilities. Lesson number one for us was do not parallel park in spot where you can be boxed in. In an RV you need to be able to pull straight out, otherwise the rear end has close encounters with high curbs, fence posts, and street signs. Obviously it took us a few times to figure that one out.

Then there’s the lesson of inner city streets. They can be extremely narrow, confusingly marked, and all too often one-way. Smacking side mirrors with a city bus can be a real eye opener. Trying to correct your direction on a tiny one way leads to bent bumpers. These along with many others are lessons we have learned and hope to avoid in the future. Of course, now that we have a car, we can leave the RV somewhere safe as we explore for the day.

We are now happily ensconced at our new home for the next month or so, the Wrinkle Ranch. Their name for it—not mine. If we added our ages together Lance and I might come close to the average age of our fellow residents. Thankfully, they don’t act their age and there is always something going on. There’s the Sew & Sew group, the craft club, hikers, cyclists, geocachers, exercise groups, pool tournaments, a creative writing club, poker night, live music on the weekends, and a smattering of other activities that I am forgetting. As I type I am watching an older couple fly by the window, going entirely too fast on their rollerblades.

Quite possibly the best part about the Wrinkle Ranch is its location. The park butts up against the west side of the Tucson Mountain Park which joins Saguaro National Park West to the north. Walking out the door we have access to thousands of acres of pristine, protected Sonoran desert—it’s beautiful. If Lance and I weren’t working there would be certainly be plenty to do.

Speaking of things to do we have decided to tackle the long list of “Things to Do and Places to See” that we never got around to when we lived here. It seemed that between working, maintaining our house, and the other everyday obligations of our previous life we had precious little time left over for exploring southern Arizona. Not that there aren’t plenty of enticing options.

We began our exploration last week by familiarizing ourselves with our new locale, Avra Valley, on the west side of the Tucson Mountains. In this wide valley, two Indian reservations, the Tohono O’odham and the Yaqui, share space with Saguaro National Park West, the CAP canal and the City of Tucson’s catchment basins. (Briefly, the canal brings Colorado River water several hundred miles across Arizona to Tucson. The city created large basins where the water is allowed to soak into the ground. The water is later pumped back up and mixed into Tucson’s water supply.)

Anywhere there is water in the desert, wildlife will congregate, and these areas are no exception. Since the water ultimately winds up in the city’s water supply, access is restricted and our view was from afar. Unfortunately, without a scope we were unable to identify the small avian shapes in and around the water.

The drive was quite scenic although the contrast between the overgrazed and overworked desert of the ranchland with that of the pristine and protected national park was dramatic. The relatively lush Sonoran desert had been reduced to scraggly Mesquites which were few and far between. Not much of a habitat.

Yet surprisingly the highlight of our day was spotted atop a power pole in the middle of a corral of goats. Preening and stretching on its lofty post was a Black Vulture. We first met Black Vultures last winter in Texas, but this was our first sighting in Arizona. Our find was even more surprising since other Arizona vultures migrate down to the warmer areas of Mexico in the winter. Smart birds!

Tying for highlight status is the Cooper’s Hawk we spotted balancing on an Ocotillo stem. The sun was dying so the light was too poor for photographs but we were able to discern that he was eating a bird. Every minute or so he would lower his head, shake it vigorously, and then feathers would float down to the ground.

Closer to home, right out our bedroom window, we are treated to the daily spectacle of a Curve-billed Thrasher as it vigorously attacks nest making. Highly energetic and extremely particular, the bird is a hoot to observe. The ground under a nearby Creosote Bush is littered with twigs of various sizes that the Thrasher broke off yet ultimately decided weren’t good enough.

Unlike Cactus Wrens who artistically weave two football shaped nests (one nest serves as a decoy) deep in the prickly embrace of the Jumping Cholla, the Thrasher’s nest resembles a gigantic, jumbled explosion of twigs. This nest currently measures in at almost two feet long and well over one foot wide; and the bird shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. Actually, I think we all know people like that, bigger is better, more is better. Silly birds!

Photos: View our photographs from Tucson’s West Side Story.