I awoke around 2:15 after J tapped me, probably because I was snoring. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got out of bed around 4:15 and worked up a blog entry. Then I looked at more sensor cleaning products. J started stirring around 6:40. I made instant coffee to go then had a bowl of Post Raisin Bran for breakfast as J was getting ready. We left around 7:15 in the Jeep.

We went to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and stopped at a wash to photograph an Arizona scarlet-bugler. It was a bit too breezy for easy macro photography, and to make matters worse my cable release stopped working. :(

We went to the Visitor Center to photograph the flowers there. My favorite images were with the flower backlit. The whole chuparosa flower (below left) glows when backlit, and the hairs of the Rancher's Fireweed (below right) really light up.


We returned to the RV at 11:00. I downloaded the images I took this morning then downselected them in iView. I had had to take many more images than usual because I was using the two-second self timer after my cable release broke, and many times the breeze picked up and the flower started moving after I started the timer. It was nice to use iView to delete the images that were definitely blurry before looking at them in Capture One (C1) which is a slower process.

I had lunch at 11:20, then downselected the images from this morning in Capture One (C1). We prepped the RV to move and left around 12:35. We hooked up the Jeep before getting on the main road, and got underway at 12:50.

We took AZ-86 east out of Why. I listened to an episode of Car Talk.

We went to Beaudry RV in Tucson around 3:25 to use their dump station. I started filling our fresh water tank then started to dump. We were treated to a show by the Thunderbirds, the air demonstration squadron of the U.S. Air Force. They were giving the show at the nearby Davis Monthan Air Force Base, and they would occasionally fly low right over us making it a much more enjoyable dump experience than usual. :) We left around 3:55.

We stopped at a Quick Trip (gas station) to load up the RV and Jeep at $2.579/gal.

We reached our favorite boondocking spot on some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land on the southwest side of Tucson around 4:40. We were parked and level by 5:10, and started to enjoy the fast Verizon Broadband access signal. I did some computer work then took a shower. J wasn't feeling too good, so I left by myself in the Jeep at 6:25 and ...

Went to a nearby McDonald's for dinner. I had a Big Mac meal — not very exciting.

I returned to the RV around 7:00. I looked at cable releases and more sensor cleaning products, then processed two images for the blog.