Cemetery Holy Hope

One of the spots reputed to be a great birding area is this cemetery. Oh! Birding in a cemetery?! Why not! It’s very peaceful and quiet. The Cemetery Holy Hope is the largest green space in Tucson that isn’t a golf course! Birds are supposed to really enjoy spending time in the trees here.

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The cemetery is huge… this one tree grew up between two headstones, almost engulfing them.

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There were a huge number of stones with no date; just noting the Spanish American War. That was the conflict that started with the explosion of the USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor in 1898. It ultimately resulted in Cuba’s independence from Spain… The U.S. was worried about Spain… but later ended up worrying far more about Cuba.

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The section I walked through had a lot of memorials from around 1911.

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Extra poignant .

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Oh, yeah, we came here to look at birds. The first animal we saw didn’t fly, but rather quietly stalked around between the stones. He was very wary, even at a long distance, but we did manage to catch a shot of the wily Coyote.

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So the only unique bird we saw was this guy: an Abert’s Towhee. There were a few a long ways off, digging in the grass. They would totally disappear for a while, then pop up and look around, then duck down again.

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Our RV Park

At the back of our RV park is a small garden, set up for birds and butterflies. We see more birds in the park than we did in the cemetery. Here are a few pictures taken here in the park.

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Cherryl says her favorites are the Gila Woodpeckers. They are very pretty, with sharply striped wings, a tan head, and a bright red toupee that shows when they tip their heads towards you. Which isn’t often – they are very good at staying on the far side of trees. They have a distinctive call and talk a lot.

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An RV storage lot is adjacent to the RV park, and this rig caught my eye… That’s a lot about what RV life is all about!

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Motorhome Improvement Project

In keeping with the philosophy of the above motorhome, I must admit we never like to see unusable space. We have this beautiful little chest freezer in our basement, which slides out so you can open the top. But look at all the wasted space above it! We’d generally stick a couple folding chairs there when we were moving, but then when we needed in the freezer we’d have to unload the chairs, slide out and access the freezer, then replace the chairs. (I know, first world problems…) I’ve built shelves over sliding trays in other storage compartments, and now finally got around to doing this one. It was a little challenging to go around the electrical connections for the freezer, but the shelving turned out great. We ended up putting the little Burley bike trailer on the shelf, and the chairs where the Burley used to live. Feels really good now!

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Pima County Sheriff’s Department

In some of our local exploration, we noticed a large building with no signage. A little effort driving around got us to the entrance – the Jail! I’m including pictures here because I liked the juxtaposition of signs in the bottom picture… Don’t Go To Jail! That’s The WRONG WAY To Live!

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Sentinel Peak

A large “A” is situated on one side of Sentinel Peak. It’s not visible from the approach to the peak, however. In fact, the top doesn’t look that impressive as you get nearer. But the view from the top is very nice, and well worth the bit of a walk from the parking lot.

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Signs said the park closed at sunset, but there were a lot of cars there (and folks partying around them) so I wasn’t too worried about getting locked in. A great sunset!

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This following picture was not posed… I saw this cute couple standing there while I tromped all over the peak, taking pictures. I decided to shoot them without asking, since I knew that would ruin the moment. After I got the shot, I offered to email it to them, which I did. A fun way to end the day… and this blog!

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