Wings Over Willcox

For Wings Over Willcox, we made reservations for two nights at the Sagebrush RV Park. Since we would be representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we thought showers would be nice. We got into town around 6 PM and checked at the festival venue, the local community center. Dan had come over to set up and table and see what was happening. We chatted a bit and then headed off to Sagebrush with a stop for take-out at a local Mexican restaurant.

We chose the Sagebrush because the other two parks sounded a little grim. One was beside the highway (I-10, a rather busy road) and the other one was a combo RV park, horse corral and bar. This could have been interesting but its on-line reviews weren't very good. Sagebrush was actually a mobile home park with a center area reserved for RVs. We weren't going to be there in the daytime and it had nice showers and friendly staff. So, good enough.

Friday was a very long day to say the least. Wings Over Willcox used to be a really great birding festival attracting the likes of Kenn Kaufman as speakers. At some point it was taken over by the local Chamber of Commerce and the festival morphed into a "nature" and everything else festival. Birders have decreased and the event seems to be dying. Our booth was near one from the National Park Service and the Kids and Geology table. Many of the booths seemed to be jewelry and hand-made soaps. Sigh. The local high school had a bake sale (which was quite good). Ellen went to a presentation on Sandhill Cranes and Steve went to one on Sonoran Pronghorns (until my cell phone rang anyway).

When 6:00 arrived, our tour of duty was over and we went out for dinner. Mexican again, a new place called Isabel's. It was quite good but when we came out it was raining and cold. Time to hustle back to the Sagebrush and our electric heater. Rob and Reta are coming over tomorrow and we're planning to spend the day birding. Should be fun!

Photos