Our Airstream and 4CUnit friends Michele & Carol

from Clarkdale, AZ had made an appointment for

Monday, 5 April at Oasis RV in Tucson to have

some work done on their rig … and decided to make a camping

weekend out of it. They originally were going to leave home Saturday and stay at Picacho Peak State Park about 45 miles north of Tucson for the weekend and then go on to Tucson for their appointment on Monday. We had independently made plans for the same weekend — Easter Weekend — to go to Gilbert Ray Campground on the west side of the Tucson Mountains in Pima County’s Tucson Mountain Park on Thursday and stay for the weekend. So when Michele & Carol told us they were coming our direction, we invited them to join us at Gilbert Ray ... which is much closer to Oasis, and quite wonderful (not that Picacho peak isn’t wonderful). So they decided to take up us up on it! A campout weekend was in the works! We had called the park to see how busy they were, and there appeared to be plenty of room and all the loops were open through the weekend.

We arrived at Gilbert Ray about 1:30 PM on Thursday, 1 April. When we told the

                     volunteer at the check-in station that we were one of two rigs — both

                             small trailers, they suggested a couple of sites, on the east side of

                                Upper Loop A, which happens to be our favorite loop in the

                                   park. (They like to assign spaces so that small rigs don’t take

                                    all the larger sites ... so that those with larger rigs have spaces

                                   they will fit into. However, if you see a site you’d rather have,

                                 they will usually accommodate you.) We said that was perfect,

                                   and proceeded to site #A-32 and set up. We had chosen our

                                    “Cabana” décor for this trip … It’s a striped design that reminds us of beach cabanas, ergo the name. The fabric is a Sunbrella-like material with maroons and golds and a touch of green, that is very sturdy and stands up well to all sorts of abuse … not that our décors get much abuse, mind you! (When you change the décors out as often as we do none of them gets much “wear.”) It was a great choice for the weekend ... very happy and bright ... just like our moods. We

got set up and grilled steak for dinner. It was a great start to the weekend. We also checked in with Michele & Carol that evening just to make sure it was still a “go” and sure enough, it was! Yea!

We settled in for the night and watched a movie. It was a cool night, which made

for good sleeping. It got down to 37 degrees that night. We had had quite a bit of

rain earlier in the week, but this weekend was forecast to be clear according to the weather folks … and we were not disappointed. The first few days we had partly cloudy skies — making for a wonderful sunsets — and as the weekend progressed we had clear skies with an occassional fluffy cloud ... a very green desert and mid-

to-high-70s temps. Spring was springing!

We slept late and had a leisurely Friday morning in the campground. Greg had a doctor’s appointment at the VA in the early afternoon, so he left to go to that. The VA Hospital is on the south side of Tucson and actually not very far from where we were camped … no further than from our house, but in the other direction. Meanwhile, Terry took pictures of all the neighboring sites and sent them to Carol & Michele, so they’d have an idea of where they would be camping and the choices they’d have once they arrived.

We had a nice afternoon in the campground, then we got an unexpected call from Michele & Carol … they had been able to take off earlier than they thought and had left that afternoon … they would be at the park about 7:30 PM Friday evening instead of Saturday! Yea! While we waited for the ladies, Terry put up flamingo lights, etc., and got our site all gussied up in anticipation.

When Michele & Carol did arrive, it was already dark, so we helped them get backed into the site they chose which was right across the road from our site. It was one of those sites that’s hard enough to get into in the daylight because of the back up angle, much less at night, but with our help and lots of back and forth, Michele was able to get their Bambi in the site quite nicely.

That night we had hot dogs and veggies … Michele &

Carol came by and visited until we began cooking our

dinner. They are on a special diet, so we didn’t share

meals over the weekend, which was OK ... we recognize

the need for special diets sometimes ... but we did have

plenty of time to visit and chat. That first night we all

called it a night early. We watched a movie and had another cool night in the low 40s … Life was good. We were so glad the ladies had managed to get away a bit early. It made for a much more relaxed and easy time for them … no hurrying, no pressure, more time to do nothing.

Saturday we didn’t rush to get out of bed … we got up about 9:30 AM and took the Girls for a walk, as is customary … the first order of business, actually. We had a relaxed morning visiting with Michele & Carol, and helped them lubricate their sticky awning arms which had been giving them problems. A little silicone spray and everything slid like it was supposed to. We hung out with then until almost 2:30 PM before we “broke” for lunch. They had their lunch and we fixed sandwiches. A lazy afternoon ensued. It was even warm enough that we cranked up the AC to cool things down inside midway through te afternoon. It was a good opportunity to blow the dust out of the AC. Everything worked great.

Late that afternoon we took a walk through the desert on the trail that leads to the nearby Old Tucson Studios with Michele & Carol just before sunset. We were treated to a wonderful, colorful sunset. We got some nice shots of the four of us at sunset … After the walk, we came back to our Bambi and fired up the grill again

and fixed BBQ hamburgers. We had a quiet evening of TV and catching up on the Airforums since we had both a great internet connection and good TV reception.

Remember that spring was springing ... and for the first time ever, allergic

reactions ramped up for both of us big time by end of evening… Neither

of us have ever suffered from extreme allergic reactions to spring in the

desert, so we were taken by surprise. But we learned on this trip that

there is a first time for everything. We aren’t sure what set us off, but

both of us had itchy, burning eyes that gradually turned to red swollen

eyes by the end of the evening. Michele donated a bottle of eye drops which

helped with a little relief (thanks, Michele!), but didn’t stop it. It was very uncomfortable. We thought we were going to rub our eyes out! Fortunately, we

slept well that night and just resting our eyes was the best thing we could have done. It only got down to 51 degrees that night … pretty warm, actually.

Up on Sunday, Easter morning, to take the Girls for their morning walk … and say “hi” to Michele & Carol across the way. None of us had made a sunrise service!

                          Terry drove to the check-in station to pay for another night so we’d

                               be paid through that night. When he got back his coffee was

                                   perked and he sat outside in the morning air to enjoy it.

                                   Nothin’ like camping and freshly brewed coffee. Michele &

                                 Carol stopped over to visit and hang out. We had very pleasant

                                morning with them, and then broke for lunch.

                            Another relaxing afternoon was had by all. The weather nerds had predicted even warmer temps for Sunday … in the low 80s … We went over to Michele & Carol’s trailer with the Girls to visit and hang out … Being Sunday, the park thinned out a bit, but then new folks came in, too … The loop we were in was scheduled to close on Tuesday, the day after we were planning to leave. We were pleased that we got there before that happened, since it’s the nicest loop in the park, (in our humble opinion).

For our “last supper” for this trip, we had steak, shrimp, and grilled veggies on the grill with baked potato … not too shabby! After dinner, Terry took a walk with Carol & Michele to show them how to find to the dump station the next morning. When we got back, Carol & Michele came over to get our address, etc…so they can stop by our house Monday after their work at Oasis was done. Since they didn’t know when that would be we offered our driveway to them if they wanted to hang out another night before heading north. Also, they liked the aluminum edging that we have added to our Bambi’s table and counter tops and they wanted to do the same. So we offered to help then get the edging and Greg would help them install it.

Sunday evening allergic reactions took over again… we were really shocked at how we were reacting to whatever was in the air. We knew we were right in the middle of a spring desert bloom, but we were not ready for that! Made us appreciate the poor souls who suffer each spring and summer from allergies. We hoped we were not developing new allergies ourselves, which apparently sometimes happens to people after they live in an area for a while.

Monday morning we were up about 9:00 AM to get the Bambi packed up and hit the

road home by the 11:00 AM checkout … Michele & Carol had already gone for their

appointment at Oasis by the time we were up … but we’d hook up with them later. We had just arrived home around noon when Michele & Carol called after a trip to

Costco. They were on their way to stop by the house, pick up

Greg and go shopping for aluminum counter edging. It was

fun seeing them again at our house … Greg and Carol

ended up going out for the edging while Michele and

Terry stayed at home and minded the pooches… our two

Girls, of course, and Yodi, Michele & Carol’s Springer

Spaniel … a real ball of energy. Greg & Carol came back

after a successful trip, with aluminum edging in hand.

Their Bambi was still at Oasis, so we hung out and visited.

Once Oasis called to let them know their trailer was ready, they returned to Oasis to

pick it up … then back to our house for Greg to help install the aluminum.

We thought they might camp in our driveway till the next day, but they wanted to get back home in Clarkdale that evening, even though it would be late. They took off for home about 6:00 PM, expecting to get home about 10:00 or 10:30 pm … a long drive … We got an email later that evening letting us know that they’d made it home safely. We had a great time with them and were glad to spend a little one-on-one time with them … and we look forward to camping with them again soon. They are fun, easy to be around and a load of laughs.

So what had started out as a quiet weekend at Gilbert Ray turned into a fun social weekend with Airstream friends, and a chance to get to know Michele & Carol a little better. This is how memories are made!

Enjoy the pictures below by clicking on the Slideshow icon. At the end of the picture section you can click on “Other Trips” which will take you back to the 2010 trips listing page. From there you can access previous trips, including several to Gilbert Ray ... if you’d like to see more pictures of this park or want more information

about it.

Stay tuned ... and happy trails!