Romping around at Roper

Roper Lake was our last short RV trip of the year before we head out for much cooler country.  Why Roper you ask?  Well, we had never been to this state park before even though we have lived in Arizona for over half a century (yikes!).  I was going to say 50 years, but half a century sounded so much more impressive.

Our friend, Norm, decided to go along with us.  Boy, he is a glutton for punishment!  He has to put up with not only Don, but me too!  We had to bribe him with promises of good food and cold beer.  It worked!  We headed out on towards Safford on Tuesday for our third camping trip since January.

This is the front entrance to Roper Lake State Park.

Each site at our campground came with a little shelter and picnic table.  It worked out well and we ended up eating all of our meals outside under the shaded ramada.

This is what happens when you forget your trail mix overnight.  The birds/animals liked everything except the Pepita seeds.  They were even clever enough to pry the top off the container.  At least we got one snack session before the critters got the rest!

The first day at the campground there was a huge group of yellow headed blackbirds.  The following days we saw neither hide nor hair (or should I say feathers?) of them.  As I went through reviewing the pictures, I envisioned what this male and female bird were saying to each other.  I've decided to call them Fred and Ethel.  : )

Fred: "So, Ethel have you finally decided on where we are going to fly this summer?"

Ethel:  "Uh, no for the 50th time.  Would you quit bugging me about it.  I'll make it up by the time we have to leave."

Fred: "Don't get mad about it.  Quit being so "flighty" at times.  Come back here!"

Fred: "Guess I'll just have to figure this out. Those yellow headed females are hard to deal with!"

Don checked out the warm water in the hot tub at the park.  This is fed by natural springs in the area.  It is drained every night at 10 PM and refills each morning at 6 AM.  We did end up riding our bikes one evening over to the area and had a nice, relaxing soak.  It was windy that night, so I was glad the ride back to the trailer was a short one.

Got a nice shot of this Cardinal one morning.  My weird mind came up with a Southwestern Christmas tune : "On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: two morning doves and a Cardinal in a Mesquite tree! If I was ambitious enough, I probably could come up with more verses and pictures to go along with them.  However, right now when it is 100 degrees outside, it's tough to do.

On Friday, we took a drive up the side of Mt. Graham.  I was glad that Norm was driving and not me.  The road was much narrower than I remembered and the drop off was more steep.  That happens as you get older.  Your perception changes, or maybe the road really did wear off around the edges during the last 40 years and the mountain rose a few hundred feet.......  On the way back down we stopped for lunch in the Noon Campground even though it was only 11 AM.

Here is a view of Roper Lake at dusk.

All good things must come to an end.  Norm and Don are lined up at the dump on Saturday morning before we head back to Phoenix.

Time for male bonding at the dump area.  Don and Norm look like they have everything under control so why should I offer to help?  After all, someone has to take pictures to document our stay and it might as well be me!

Good grief!   Are people really so stupid that the park people have to put up signs like this?

The four days at Roper had come to an end.  The bad part was that we were heading back to Phoenix which was experiencing record high heat.  I was not looking forward to emptying out that trailer when the temperature was 103 degrees!