The blogging drought has ended. Maybe.

We have been in Arizona for over two months now and I have basically posted nothing. No photos since San Angelo, no thoughts on what we did or did not encounter along the way, no discussion of how we wound up camped at the county fairgrounds instead of an RV park with more bells and whistles, and for sure nothing about COVID-19 except one cartoon.

Only time fairgrounds have been busy; a rodeo weekend in February.

It's been an interesting two months. We had a wee bit of trouble getting here -- the mechanical issues in Texas capped by negotiating a messy snowstorm as we traversed the Davis and Guadalupe Mountains -- and then were greeted by a singular lack of available RV spaces. I knew getting into the 55+ RV park we stayed at in 2016-2017 was a long shot because we weren't able to make reservations. I did not, however, expect the second choice park to also be full. And the third choice. We were starting to wonder if we might end up dry camping out in the Coronado National Forest in one of the dispersed camping areas. There are a couple spots that the Guppy can get into without too much trouble, but it wasn't something we really wanted to. We also thought about the established BLM campgrounds, another option we weren't overly keen on -- the Guppy could manage the road out to the Riverview Campground in the Gila Box National Riparian Conservation Area, but the single lane road with the blind curves would not be fun.

Then I remembered seeing signage several years ago for RV parking at the county fairgrounds. So that's where we are: the Kevin Burns Stables & RV Park (or maybe it's RV Park & Stables) at the Graham County Parks & Recreation Complex. The RV sites are lined up along a fence that separates the parade paddock from the stables. There are 20 full hookup RV sites; at the moment, only five are occupied. Given that the other RV parks were bulging at the seams when we arrived in February, a combination of snowbirds and copper miners (the Safford and Morenci copper mines are both hiring so if you know any down and out depressed unemployed coal miners tell them to check out the Freeport-McMoRan website), it surprised me a bit that the fairgrounds park was so empty.

Granted, there is always a faint whiff of horse dung in the air, but other than that it's really not much different than any other Arizona RV park. The site is basically bare dirt, and there's no shade for most of the day, but that's true of just about every RV park I've seen in this state. It's fairly bare bones, no clubhouse, swimming pool, or laundry room, but it does have an amazing view of the Pinalenos, Mount Graham and the Pope Scope. It's quiet. It's secure. If you want to do extended stay here you have to pass a police background check. Because it's part of the recreation complex, there are some nice picnic areas close by, there are playgrounds (currently closed thanks to COVID-19), and there's a trout fishing pond stocked by Arizona's fish and wildlife agency.

One thing the fairgrounds lacked was wifi. That definitely cramped my style as well as keeping me out of the Internet swamps as much as I normally like to wade in them. My phone is a TracFone; it doesn't have a whole lot of mobile data for me to burn. We were going to the Safford Public Library to check emails and do other Internet stuff, but that had its limitations: the library was open only 4 days a week, it tended to fill with kids (junior high and high school in the afternoon; preschoolers being read to in the mornings), and it wasn't real close to the fairgrounds. Then health officials found two COVID-19 infected persons in the county. County officials moved remarkably fast to shut things down and to encourage people to stay home. They were ahead of the state when it came to taking things seriously. Although I can't dis the Republican governor too much. He did issue an executive order closing bars and restaurants in counties with COVID-19 cases pretty quickly, at least compared with what's happening in a lot of other red states.

It's been a wet spring; there are gazillions of wildflowers.

No library, no easy access to wifi. Choices became burn data on the cell phone or sit on a bench in the middle of Walmart. Notice I left out the third and most logical choice: forget about the Internet, Facebook, blogging, whatever for awhile. After all, we're lucky enough to be sheltering in place in a location with no near neighbors (we see the other RVers only in passing, not to talk with), where the days are sunny and pleasant, and we could do other things, like sit outside sipping cold beverages and reading. If we were back in the U.P., we'd be stuck inside watching it snow and cursing the slush covered mud (the muddy slush?). We don't need the Internet.

Except I sort of do. I do the online stuff for the Baraga County Historical Museum -- the EBay sales (anyone interested in some instant ancestors? We have some late 19th century cabinet cards we'd love to unload), the Facebook page (which hasn't been updated in much too long), the Amazon book sales, the emails from various people asking questions that always make me want to respond with "Would you like me to Google that for you?" In short, in addition to my own desire to waste time with social media, I'm obligated to be online occasionally for other reasons.

Discouraging grave robbers?

So how am I on the Internet now, inquiring minds want to know. Corporate generosity, believe it or not. One of the local ISPs decided to set up a couple free hot spots in town to help out folks who were in that category of people who relied on places like McDonald's or the library to stay connected. One of those free hot spots is in a fairgrounds parking lot. It's not quite close enough to the RV area to reach the Guppy, but it's a whole lot closer than a bench at Walmart. So here I am, sitting in my car in the shade of a telephone pole with an antenna on it. A pole which, incidentally, does not actually cast much shade and this is Arizona. My Focus is evolving into a sauna. Time to salt in a few photos, proofread, and then head back to the Guppy for the above mentioned cold beverage.

Next time, I may actually do my version of A Journal of the Plague Years. Or not. In these interesting times, you may find a description of the best RV camping in Fort Stockton, Texas, (the Walmart parking lot) more diverting.