Cool temperatures are a welcome relief for Lisa and I as we rapidly approach our final month here in Kingman Arizona.  With the monsoon season finally ending and sunny days returning – we have enjoyed the high temperatures being a moderate 85 and have hit into the 40s at night several times.  We have even been forced to turn our furnace on in our RV the last several nights – something we could not imagine in June when temperatures were breaking record highs.  The rains have left everything much greener here in the desert and locals say it seems greener now than they can ever remember.  We have also experienced a bizarre invasion of caterpillars.  Thousands and thousands are moving to mate or spawn or hatch eggs or morph into butterflies or moths or something.  (Where is Joe Ford or Marlin Perkins when you need them?) They squirt this nasty green juice on you if you touch them and though they say it is harmless to humans – I don’t want to get near them.  As for Lisa – if one makes its way into our RV – it’s good-bye Kingman.  We have experienced tarantulas, lizards, jack rabbits, and now caterpillars in biblical proportions.  Life in the desert is a bizarre world but the fall here feels more like home.  We will miss the colorful changing leaves  Kentucky brings.  But won’t miss all the raking that will follow.  Here – there are no trees to speak of and I don’t know if they change colors or not.  They have not yet.  This will be the third time we have been away through changing seasons and that always makes our travels seem longer.  It feels like a long, long time ago when we arrived to record high temperatures hitting 110 and 115 degrees.

This week we will be saying good-bye to Carol and JC Harshman, friends we made here at the campground.  I will be particularly sad seeing JC leave as he and I have become good friends playing golf twice a week.  I will be writing more about JC and his story as a retired craps dealer.  He is quite a character.  The Harshmans are full-time RV’rs who live in Las Vegas.  As the temperatures start to drop around the area – even the lower elevations cities like Vegas are experiencing comfortable temperatures and people are starting to return to those places – leaving Kingman behind.  Our camp friends gathered last night to send JC and Carol home in style with dinner at the ‘Hualapai Resort’.

Today Lisa and I are going to the 29th Annual “Andy Devine Days” Rodeo here in Kingman – another first for us.  I am looking forward to writing about that experience.  We have no idea what to expect.  Neither one of us have anything close to cowboy attire – I do have a ‘Chicago Bears’ cap and some jeans.  I will probably look more like Billy Crystal in “City Slickers” than Andy Devine.  Who is Andy Devine – you ask?  He is the most famous native son of Kingman and was an actor who starred in many old westerns.  If you ever hear him talk – you will recognize him immediately.  Along with a parade and rodeo they have a major road named for him here which is actually part of the original Route 66.

Just about six weeks from now we will head home – but we will have much to write about before that happens.  Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Steve and Lisa