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The Truth About Arizona Winter Camping

RV wannabees love to be told what they want to hear. (How did the lyric go in that old Simon and Garfunkel song? "A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest...") And you know what that is, for Arizona desert camping.

Now let's show you that it isn't always like that!

 

Comments

Bob said…
Fog makes for good photo's, no complaining here!
Ed said…
The photo is a "twofer"; it not only shows that Arizona does not always have sunshine and a clear blue sky but it also has some very sick saguaro cactus. Well done.
XXXXX said…

I was a little confused about this one. Wondering....is that supposed to be ugly? The foggy sky is beautiful (I have always loved fog and mist) and the saguaros are waaay too unique and interesting to be disagreeable in any way. I hate Arizona personally.....unending blasting sun which gives me a headache and usually hotter than hell. This picture is a lovely respite from all that. This pic could be an advertisement to bring snowbirds to 'mysterious' Arizona, land of the Saguaros. The particular saguaros pictured remind me of this thought:

Saguaro
By Brenda Hillman

Often visitors there, saddened

by lack of trees, go out

to a promontory.


Then, backed by the banded

sunset, the trail

of the Conquistadores,


the father puts on the camera,

the leather albatross,

and has the children


imitate saguaros. One

at a time they stand there smiling,

fingers up like the tines of a fork


while the stately saguaro

goes on being entered

by wrens, diseases, and sunlight.


The mother sits on a rock,

arms folded

across her breasts. To her


the cactus looks scared,

its needles

like hair in cartoons.


With its arms in preacher

or waltz position,

it gives the impression


of great effort

in every direction,

like the mother.


Thousands of these gray-green

cacti cross the valley:

nature repeating itself,


children repeating nature,

father repeating children

and mother watching.


Later, the children think

the cactus was moral,

had something to teach them,


some survival technique

or just regular beauty.

But what else could it do?


The only protection

against death

was to love solitude.



George, there is some malformity in my soul that keeps me from enjoying poetry, but I am glad you found this poem and shared it.

Actually I didn't think the scene was ugly at all. Endless sunlight is oppressive. I wanted to show that Arizona is not the standard postcard as presented by "Bob & Sue's Mighty RV Adventure" blog.
Ed, indeed, most sagauros don't have the standard picturesque shape that they have in a Roadrunner & Coyote cartoon. They look sickly and tumescent many times.
For us native Arizona folk the rain and fog (which I have never seen stay for the day as it did today) it is beautiful. We know how much we need the rain and will take it any time we can get it!