Chances of Precipitation

When the weather forecaster in Houston says there's a 20% of rain, it means there's a 20% chance that there's going to be rain over 20% of Houston.

When they say there's a 10% chance of rain in Tucson, it means that if you go to Walmart and forget where you parked, there's a 100% chance it's going to rain steadily for just long enough for you to get soaked, walking up and down the parking lot aisles, looking for your car. Memo to self: Uh, catch the aisle number on your way in; saves you a lot of grief later.

Not only that: I always thought Tucson was that hot and sunny place down in southern Arizona. Today there's some kind of funky weather thing going on and not only is it raining, it's cold as a welldigger's belt buckle.

Dogs and I left Las Cruces around 8:AM yesterday (Sat, Mar.15) to get an early start before the high winds of yesterday came back. It was a nice drive; mild weather, no wind. A little boring; I guess I'm getting used to the southwest and its novelty has worn off. Lots of low mountains on every side, and we didn't really get into any wind 'til we'd passed the NM/AZ border. Did go through another one of those US Border Patrol check stations, but this time, they were just waving through any vehicle with a US license plate. Way to go, Homeland Security. So much for protecting our borders.

Mapquest had given the estimated travel time from Las Cruces to Tucson as a little over three hours. That must be only if you're driving the speed limit, which, in that area, is 75 MPH. I only push Van Go to 60 (65 max), especially when I'm towing Oor. It took me 'til after 4:PM, around eight hours, which I rarely do. Arizona has no Daylight Savings program, so I at least saved an hour on the clock and turned it back to 3:PM.

I'm in Rincon West RV Resort. They have over 1,000 spaces, all narrow and close together. The place is landscaped beautifully and they allow dogs only in one small corner of the resort. They have put me in space number 847, which is so un-level that I can't use my own shower. The water in the shower stall puddles in the rear so deep that it almost runs out onto the floor. I tried to change spaces this morning, but the space they wanted me to go in is worse than the one I'm in, so I'll stay. I'll use the resort's shower facilities. They have at least four buildings scattered around the resort, and each one contains an exercise room, a laundry, a wifi room, and men's and women's showers. I'll live.

The Life on Wheels conference starts Tuesday, so today, other than staying inside the rig and trying to keep warm, I'm reading and updating the blog. Have tentative plans to run down some of the Escapees Class of '08 members and have dinner one evening this week. I was going to stay here two weeks, but their rates are sky high, so I'm going back to Las Cruces March 22 and stay there for a couple weeks and see what the weather's doing.

While in Las Cruces, I went to Walmart and stopped in for a quick pedicure. I met a woman, Linda, and we chatted while our toes were done. We got to talking about the green chili in NM, and she invited me to lunch. She took me to her favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican food cafe. I had the stuffed sopaipilla, which was perfect. We must have sat and talked for about two hours. She's a very funny woman, divorced, a nurse, loves to talk as much as I do, and we had a good time. We exchanged phone numbers, and I'm going to see her again when I go back to Las Cruces.

Poor little doggies are lying in bed, cozied up in the blankets, trying to keep warm. I think I'll join them with a magazine.

Tucson, AZ Elev: 2584'