More RV Park Art

 Good morning, my friends! We had a welcome chill day yesterday. When we drive two or more days running, it’s nice to get up in the morning and not have anywhere to go. We made a quick trip to the grocery store, but otherwise lazed around.

I spent a good amount of time on the Kitten block, filling in most of the flower.

That made it possible for me to move my hoop to the right. That’s the last of it. I did a little more later in the day. Just the lighter parts of the kitten are left to stitch. I might finish it today.

And how could I go wrong when I had my stitching cat close at hand?

We were signed up for the telescope “show” yesterday evening. We knew the show would be canceled if it was cloudy, or if there were high winds. We were experiencing both, and it never really burned off all day. We saw patches of blue sky, but then it would cloud over again.

The “telescope guy” stopped by to give us a warning of the likely cancellation. He and Mike talked quite a bit about telescopes, and the “guy” ended up inviting us to come over today at 2:00. 

It rained hard last night with high winds. This morning is still cloudy, but the rain has stopped. The wind is supposed to continue into this evening, and so it's unlikely there will be a show tonight either. It's our last day here, and so we'll have to come back another time if we want to look through the telescope and see some stars. Oh well. Mike and I really just want to see his set up, and so a visit to the observatory will make our stop here in Benson worthwhile. It's a nice park, though, and so we probably will stop if we pass this way again. 

After chatting with Telescope Guy, Mike went for a ride on his bike. I walked up and down in the RV park. There isn’t much blooming here, but I caught a few things. This is a skinny apparently newly-planted shrub. The flowers were delicate and pretty.

When we left to go grocery shopping, I noticed this hedge of cholla cactus all in bloom. My walk included venturing back out to the street for a picture.

And then I walked up and down the rows of RVs, taking pictures of anything that caught my eye. This is another place with both snowbirds and full-time residents. The people who are here more or less permanently have done some cute things with their little garden patches. 

Just below is a park fire hydrant. Someone left some painted rocks there. I can see how painting rocks would be fun. If I didn’t spend all my free time hand-sewing, I might be motivated to give this a try.

I don’t have a lot to say about these pictures. I’ll just chime in if I have something to add. You can feel free to do the same.

This next one is so cute. Those are javalinas out front. 

A javalina (the "j" is pronounced with an "h" sound) looks like a wild boar, but technically, they are in the suborder of "Suina." Swine and hippopotomuses are their closest relatives. If you’ve never seen one, they look like this. I took this picture at the Sonora Desert Museum a few years back.

You can read my blog post about the Sonora Desert Museum right here. And if you ever find yourself in the vicinity, you should make a visit to the Sonora Desert Museum a high priority. We've been several times, or we would have stopped in again this trip. It's a combination zoo and botanical garden, and it is well worth seeing.

I love this quail too. Quail might be my favorite birds. We see them occasionally in Oregon, but not often.

Thinking a veteran lives here.

I love that blue bottle tree. And the roadrunner.

Gives new meaning to the name “blue” heron, doesn’t it?

So much cute stuff.

I pranked myself by sending this next image to my pig-loving friend, Sue. And then Sue pranked me back when she saw that it was a cow, and not a pig. Oops.

Of course, you needed a better look at the cat. 

Dinosaurs!!

I like these little burros too. Forever Home Donkey Rescue & Sanctuary is here in Benson.

More javalinas.

I only noticed this as I walked by. It was a headboard stashed behind one of the park models. It has a cat. And what are those things on the left? There were dozens of them. Are they intended to look like flowers? I have questions. 

This one is kind of naughty, and excuse me, but WTF? So this is an alien, and he’s lounging there naked, with his...um...schlong hanging out. And someone has dressed him up like the Easter bunny. I guess it’s supposed to be funny. I’m just not sure what to make of this at all. 

Moving on…

These rocks were along the sidewalk that leads to the pool. I like the little painted trailer on the right.

And that was my walk. So, we didn’t get the telescope show, but the clouds did provide recompense in the form of this incredible sunset.

I walked out to the road to get around all the RV’s between me and the setting sun. Walking back to the RV, I noticed the full moon. It would have been a very bright sky for telescope viewing, clouds or no.

So, we’ll meet up with Telescope Guy to see the observatory this afternoon. This morning, though, we’re going to take a walk around the town of Benson. I’ve read there is a series of murals around town, and that the Visitor Center is a good place to start. 

It's our last day in Benson. We'll move just a little way down the road tomorrow to Willcox, Arizona. Willcox wasn't on our agenda originally, but we are going to visit Chiricahua National Monument while we're there. We moved down the road a bit to avoid a long day of driving to see the monument. It was farther than I realized when I planned this trip.

For the next couple of weeks, we're killing time on our way to see the eclipse in Whitney, Texas. Not to worry, though. There's going to be plenty of sight-seeing along the way.