Colorado Summer

In early June, Carol and I headed over to Houston's Hobby airport on a sunny, hot, and humid morning.  She had a one-way flight back to Chicago, while my one-way flight would take me to Denver.  Had to fly around one thunderstorm in the panhandle, but otherwise, another smooth and successful flight as a wheelchair patient. 

Visiting Iconic Horseshoes & Cathedrals

As the calendar flipped into September, I suddenly realized that I only had a few weeks in southern Utah...and I'd not yet visited any of the surrounding iconic places that I'd vowed to see before leaving.  Time for some quick road trips!

My first trip was an overnight tent camping trip up to Capitol Reef National Park, three hours northeast of Bryce along the stunningly gorgeous Utah Highway 12.

Arizona to Amarillo

In early April, after leaving my fabulous boondock at Saddle Mountain, I wisely time my drive through downtown Phoenix for a low-traffic Sunday morning. Soon, I have Scottsdale in the rear view mirror as I climb up to the cooling pines of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.  I've never been to this area before, and look forward to some crisp pine scented air and evergreen vistas after months of brown desert scrub.

Fiery Farewell to Arizona

After our month of Baja beaches, in late March, Hans, Ursula, and I pointed our Winnies back to Yuma to take care of some dental and business activities before heading our separate ways.  Since Yuma has become so familiar, it seemed the easiest place to get all our tasks accomplished quickly.

We weren't back to our familiar old RV park more than a day or two before tragedy struck one of our neighbors.  We were sitting in the clubhouse one afternoon when suddenly a women ran in saying a nearby travel trailer had just burst into flames...

Little Tracker's Big Day & a Yuma Reunion

On my last day in Ajo, I decide to take the little yellow Tracker for another off-pavement jaunt into the Arizona desert.  This time, it's to a new-to-me National Wildlife Refuge west of town.

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, at 860,000 acres, is the third largest NWR in the lower 48 states.  Most of it is complete wilderness, but a couple 4-wheel-drive roads exist along the edges of the park.  I decide to give the Charlie Bell Road access point a try just west of Ajo.

The entrance sign is pretty sun-baked.  Not much rain ever gets to these parts of southern Arizona.

Sonoran Serenity

By the beginning of February, I'd been parked at elevation 4,500 feet in central New Mexico for 4 months.  As much as I loved the people and Refuge at Bosque del Apache, I was itching to replace the Chihuahuan Desert's brown with some greener surroundings, do a little boondocking, and get back to "T-shirt and short-pants weather" (as Tioga George used to call it).  Southern Arizona's Sonoran desert was just the remedy!

Back in the U.S.A.

After 2 months in Mexico, crossing back into the U.S.A. can feel like you’re suddenly living an episode of Robin Leach’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

Ursula must have felt the same way as she popped open a bottle of champagne to celebrate our return to the land of excess and abundance, and our successful completion of 2,000 miles on the infamous Baja Highway 1.

The Ultimate Baja Fish Taco Quest

Ah, there is so much to love about visiting Baja—the gorgeous beaches, the abundant marine life, the world-class water sports, and of course, the always friendly and fun people.  But more than anything, what will make a person crave Baja again and again (even  just a few days of leaving it)?  Two words – fish tacos!

Sure, I had eaten fish tacos before this first trip to Baja.  Mainly, in Southern California at the fast-food chain restaurants known for them: Wahoo’s and Rubio’s.  I also had some surprisingly good and fresh fish tacos last Fall at a chain restaurant up in Utah called Costa Vida.

As good as these were, they were just pale, tasteless imitators compared to the real thing in Baja.

The Power of Prayers & Prednisone

As much as I try to catch this blog up, it is now running about 6 weeks behind real-time life.  I promise to finish up the Baja trip posts soon, but wanted to give everyone an update on this past week’s events with Millie.

Last September, Millie’s mast cell cancer returned after a 3 year remission.  She showed no symptoms, but I knew that her long-term prognosis was not good and knew I didn’t want to put her through any more heroic cancer treatments.  So, our hometown vet suggested a regime of Benadryl and Pepcid AC, and we hoped for as many happy, active months as possible.

Final Preparations

After boondocking all week in Yuma, it was time to give some attention to our RV tanks.  Fortunately, Evelyn knew of some great deals in the area to address all our needs.  First stop was to Cactus Propane, that offered a bargain basement cash price of only $2.14/gallon to refill our RV propane tanks! 
Next, we drove down to one of Yuma’s various water filling stations (MUCH better water than the smelly stuff I got at the Sidewinder Road Shell station a few days ago.  Only problem is that the water fill stations only have slender unthreaded nozzles and nothing to attach a hose to.  But, I had a nice new 5 gallon collapsible jug that perfectly collected the 5 gallons of water for only 50 cents.  I then used the old “winterizing siphon hose water filling” method to get each 5 gallons of goodness into my RV fresh water tank.
Then it was on to the free RV dump station at the Dateland exit about an hour east of Yuma.  What’s better than a free dump station?  After getting cleaned up, getting a yummy date shake for dessert!  There’s a large date tree plantation at the exit that sells all sorts of date foods.
By the time we got done will all those chores, it was getting dark and our intended target of Tucson was looking like a bit too much of a stretch.  So, we pulled into the quiet Pilot truck stop just south of Casa Grande for a night’s rest.

Millie loves this truck stop because they have a nice big patch of lush green grass to run around in (quite a rare commodity here in the desert Southwest!).


The next morning, we headed down to Tucson and set up camp at the Desert Diamond Casino next to the airport.  A great basecamp boondock from which to get all of our final shopping trips done.


It’s nearly impossible to think of everything one might need for spending 3 months out of the U.S., but I certainly tried to gather as many items as I could think of—extra oil for our Sprinters at the Mercedes dealer, vegan favorites from Whole Foods, a wide assortment of things from Wal-Mart, food and dog toys from Petsmart, and even extra printer ink cartridges from Office Max.  Whew!  On a Christmas-shopping Saturday no less!

On Sunday, with my shopping accomplished, I headed down to Mountain View RV Ranch just north of Nogales for my final night north of the border.  The park was nothing special, but the manager was friendly and price was reasonable.  I spent the rest of the day strategically packing the rig for the next day’s border crossing.  I had read that Mexico only allows a 2 day supply of dog food to be imported, yet Millie has a special diet of foods not available in Mexico.  So, to be on the safe side, I moved her 3 month supply of dog food from the back of the Tracker into a hiding spot in the RV, and then found of few heavy, bulky items in the RV to move out to the Tracker to balance the loads out.

Am I forgetting anything?  I’m certain there will be something!  But I'm hopefully now as ready as I’ll ever be for Mexico!

“Dental Camp” at Algodones

Evelyn and I both needed some dental work, so our first stop was to Algodones, Mexico near Yuma, AZ.  Coincidentally, my friend KamperBob was also in need of a dentist, so he drove down from his winter camp hosting gig at Death Valley National Park to join us for the week.  Rather than haul his RV out of it’s winter resting spot, he decided to try a more minimalist approach and just bring his tent.

We enjoyed a spectacular sunset one night from our hilltop boondocking “Dental Camp” just north of the Algodones border crossing.


On Monday morning, Bob and I headed into Algodones to our dental appointments with Dr. Eva Ureña.  We both appreciated her thorough explanations (in English!), careful skill, and friendly staff.  The prices were pretty great too (compared to the U.S.)!  In between our appointments, we walked around the streets of this small Mexican border town focused exclusively on serving the needs of American “medical tourists” seeking low-cost dental, optical, and pharmacy services.



Nina from WheelingIt did a great couple of posts earlier this year about Algodones, so I won’t repeat the basic information here.   But, besides all those great medical services, you will find sidewalks literally overflowing with all kinds of touristy goods to feast your eyes upon—purses, hats, blankets, pottery, jewelry, leather goods, and even piñatas!

Bob admired this fetching Snow White piñata…

 
While I was not quite sure what to make of this robustly-endowed baby piñata!



But, Algodones seems to have a little something to bring smiles to everyone!



On Tuesday, I put the “Recreational Engineer” to work installing my previous solar components to my new RV.  I knew there was a good reason why I had never permanently installed my solar components to my last RV (I must have known I’d be trading it for a new one!).

I wanted a system that would let me still keep the solar panels portable while keeping the controller and monitor panel well-secured and easily accessible.  Bob came up with some brilliant solutions of mounting the controller just inside the step well on the passenger seatbase (so I can still easily connect and disconnect my solar cables to the controller), and then found a perfect-fitting spot at eye-level for my battery monitor right between the door and the kitchen cabinets.  Bob accused the two dogs (Millie and Molly) of being “government supervisors” in their paws-off approach to helping out with the work effort!



With work done, Evelyn, Bob, and I enjoyed a few good meals out on the town in Yuma and even put together an impromptu vegan potluck. 



It turned very windy and a bit colder for our last night at Dental Camp, so we had to keep the outdoor furniture on the ground and move the party inside the RVs!



Overall, we got some great work done on our teeth (and RVs!) and had an enjoyable week.  Dental Camp 2013 was a rousing success!

Mad Dash to Mexico

Even after preparing for this Mexico trip for nearly six months, I still found myself in a mad scramble to get the house buttoned up, rig packed, and get on the road.  Adding to the chaos, we managed to squeeze a house closing in there too (my stepsister, Holley, and her husband bought my mom’s house a couple days before I left).

Since the family had so much activity going on, we decided to move up our Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration to the weekend before Thanksgiving and had a wonderful evening together.  With that finished, it was now time to focus on the getting all the piles staged in my living and dining rooms moved out into the RV.  A bitter cold front had also just arrived further motivating me to hurry up and get out of town!

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Millie and I were finally on our way.  I was plenty nervous about this new rig (especially with visions of what surely were hundreds of pounds of excess cargo I had shoved into every nook and cranny!).  But the “T1Nnie Winnie” performed like a champ and had no problems at all.

I probably should have done a test hook-up of the new rig to the Tracker earlier, but had never gotten around to it.  So, on the day before Thanksgiving, when I finally hooked up the Tracker to the View, I now realized that this new View’s rear hitch was a couple inches lower than my previous View (so, now making my 6” drop hitch receiver a bit low and making the tow bar un-level).   Remembering that eTrailer.com was in the St. Louis area, and I could easily route that way on my trip to the Southwest, I called them to see about picking up a new drop hitch later that day.

Of course, I never manage to estimate my departure times correctly when leaving on a big trip, and this time was no different.  I now would not arrive to eTrailer until well past their closing time.  But, no worries!  A wonderful customer service girl named Rose, found a good hiding spot for my box outside, gave me the access code to open up their driveway security gate, and even gave me her home phone number to call that night if I had any problems.  Wow!  All that on the day before a holiday!  What a great group of folks (with great products and prices) at eTrailer.com !!!

Millie and I made our way across Missouri and Kansas as fast as we could, driving about 500 miles a day, and spending our nights at Flying J truck stops.  I had planned to stay overnight at a Wal-Mart in Kansas on Thanksgiving night, but then remembered that it would be Black Friday eve and that parking lot would be jammed with shoppers!  So, we found this nice Flying J in Emporia, KS to bed down for the night.  Millie enjoyed meeting her equine “neyhhh-bors"!



We routed through Kansas for two reasons—the diagonal route would be the shortest distance to Arizona from Chicago, but more importantly, we had a very special delivery to make at the family gravesites in Augusta, Kansas.  When we had scattered my mom’s ashes this past summer in Colorado, I had held back one small container to scatter at her parents graves.

My mom (as well as her mom) were consummate shoppers and considered Black Friday the highlight of their shopping year.  So, no better a day to reunite these 2 shop-a-holics!



We then continued our long day’s drive across Kansas.  It remained clear and sunny, but turned quite windy by afternoon.  No worries, though!  I just pulled into a nice city park in western Kansas and took a quick nap on our new RV’s nice permanent rear bed.  The sun shining through the windows made it a perfect warm and cozy mid-afternoon retreat!

Pushing on, we continued towards Liberal, Kansas and through the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas.  The drive was rather dull and uneventful, but I can report that I observed no liberals in Liberal, KS.  Nor did I see any hookers at the Hooker Inn in Hooker, Oklahoma!!!  But I did manage to snap a few pics of our new View’s shadow to break up the monotony!



By the time I reached the Texas panhandle, it was now after dark and the 2-lane Highway 54 felt a bit treacherous at Texas’ legal 75 mph speed limit.  I was glad to finally cross into New Mexico to return to a slower, safer speeds and spent the night at yet another Flying J in Tucumcari.

On Saturday, I hit the road early to meet up with fellow View-owner, Evelyn, at a casino on the outskirts of Albuquerque where she’d spent the night.  We caravanned along I-40 to make our way west to Arizona by nightfall.  Other than some dense fog and white-knuckle driving around Flagstaff, we finally arrived to one of my favorite BLM boondocking locations just outside of Cottonwood, AZ just after dark.   We awoke to this serene sunrise vista on Sunday morning:



Wishing we had more time to spend in Cottonwood, we regretfully had to leave on Sunday to continue pushing on to Yuma (as I had a dental appointment the next day). We decided to take the more-direct scenic route through Prescott and stopped for lunch in the little town of Yarnell, AZ (where the 19 firefighters lost their lives battling a wildfire last summer).  A touching memorial has been erected right next to the town’s restaurant.



Also, while in Yarnell, we happened to see another View (this one from Missouri), but we were never able to locate it’s drivers!



We finally arrived to Yuma by mid-afternoon and were greeted by warm, sunny temps in the mid-70’s.  We settled on a nice gravel plateau about a mile north of the Mexican border to boondock for the week with my friend, KamperBob, while getting our dental work done in Algodones, Mexico.  

Hopefully, all of my future cross-country drives will be at a much more leisurely pace!

Heading to Higher Ground

Arizona is one of the few places where you can nearly always find a comfortable temperature without leaving the state.  As Tucson and Phoenix’s forecasts were starting to climb well into the 90’s, it was time to start looking for higher ground!  I wanted to visit the Apache-Sitgraeve area around Show Low, but the weather there was still a bit too cold.  Checking the forecast around Prescott and Sedona, however, showed a string of perfect days in the 70’s.  So, Millie and I headed north!

I stayed in Prescott Valley for the first five days as the unlimited $15/night Passport-America rate at the Fairgrounds RV Park was just too good to pass up (it even included free WiFi, what a treat!). 

I had visited the Prescott area briefly last winter and remembered driving past a lake that looked like it’d be awesome to paddle in warmer weather.  So on Easter Sunday, I did just that.  Watson Lake is one of two lakes in Prescott that are in the midst of a red rock area.  Watson is a bit smaller than Willow Lake and seemed more popular with kayakers, so I headed there.

It was a terrific lake to explore!  Lots of little nooks and a few rocky islands to paddle around… and I even saw a bald eagle!

After doing up Prescott, I wanted to move to the northern side of the Mingus mountain range to even prettier places—Cottonwood and Sedona.  I had spent a weekend there last winter and knew I had only scratched the surface of all there was to explore. 

I was eager to do some more boondocking after staying in campgrounds and RV parks so many weeks, and I lucked into a phenomenal BLM site a few miles east of Cottonwood near the Thousand Trails RV resort.  I had a terrific view of the Mingus mountains and Cottonwood to the south, with Sedona’s red rocks off in the distance to the north….what a view out my “office window”!
 

I even watched a small rain shower roll over the moutains one afternoon and make it’s way across the valley:

Just before sunset each evening, I’d take the Tracker for a drive up to the Sedona area.  One night, I drove the trails out beyond Dry Creek Rd where all the tourist jeeps go:

The next night, I drove the main tourist route from Oak Creek into Sedona and really lucked out with spectacular lighting (and even a rainbow!).  This area really should have been a National Park—it’s just jaw-dropping gorgeous!

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  A big cold front was moving into the area and bringing some thundershowers with it.  Time to move back down to lower ground!   Also time to finally leave beautiful Arizona and start making our way back home to Chicago.

Farewell to Tucson, our Winter Home

Millie and I left Roper Lake and got back to Tucson with only 10 minutes to spare before her follow-up visit with the vet.  After getting a good “look over” from her oncologist, and getting about a dozen goodies from the treat jar from various assistants who came in to give Millie a pat, the verdict was that Millie was doing so well that she wouldn’t need another follow-up visit for a month—so we were now free to head on home!

As we left the vet’s office for the last time, I surprised at my emotions.  After feeling so “stuck in Tucson” the past 6 weeks and consumed by Millie’s treatment regimen, I now was a bit sad to leave all the surroundings that had become so comfortable and familiar.  While there were certainly some difficult days in these past few months, there were far more really wonderful ones.and certainly more rich an experience than sitting at home in Chicago.

We ended up staying at only 4 different places during the past 3 months—a hotel, the state park, the county park, and at the fairgrounds.  It would have been great to find an RV resort to stay at the whole time but most of them here in Tucson were all 55+ parks and/or didn’t allow dogs over 20 lbs.  The ones that did all seemed to be located smack dab in the middle of the big I-10 construction zone, so we bounced around the public parks instead.

The Hotel:
Our first month in Tucson was spend during the week at the Best Western Tucson Foothills hotel as the client project I was working on covered business travel expenses during the week.  I normally would have stayed at a Hampton or Courtyard like most other business travelers, but since I had Millie and the View, I needed to find a hotel that could accommodate both—so Best Western it was!  The hotel was actually quite comfortable and a great value.  Millie loved the big beds (much better than the View’s jackknife sofa!)--


I liked the perfectly-heated Jacuzzi spa--


and the View had a nice spot to park and rest in between the weekend adventures--
  

Catalina State Park:
After the project ended, we spent the months of February and March in the RV full-time.  We spent 3 of those weeks (3 separate stays) at Catalina State Park on the far north end of town in Oro Valley.

It’s a clean and pretty park right up against the Catalina mountains, yet very close to dozens of shops and restaurants along Oracle Road.

While there were many warm and sunny days, there were also a couple downright cold and nasty ones due to the slightly higher elevation.  One day in February during a rain storm, the temps suddenly dipped down for a couple hours to produce big fat snowflakes!  Nothing stuck to the grass in the campground, but it sure did cover the mountains in a blanket of white!


It was also the perfect day to try out my new Crock Pot Ratatouille recipe, and it sure was yummy with a couple of slices of French bread and glass of red wine!

When we returned to Catalina in March, it was warmer most of the week, except for the first day, when again, a freak rain storm came through and dusted a bit of snow up on the mountains:

Just so you don’t get the impression that it always snows at Catalina, here are a few other pics when it was sunny and nice out!

I wished I could have hiked some of the trails in the park (which are supposedly spectacular), but between work and caring for Millie, I just never found the time.  Something to look forward to during our next visit!

Pima County Fairgrounds:
I wanted to explore the east side of town, so booked a 2 week stay at the Pima County Fairgrounds RV Park in March.  At only $100/week for a full hookup site, it was quite a bargain, and a nice, quiet, low-key place to work and rest.

It was also a great place for sunsets!


While my mom was still in town, we went to a Mexican restaurant in South Tucson a couple of times that my boss had recommended for authentic Sonoran Mexican food-- Crossroads.  The place was nothing fancy, but food was perfectly spiced, margaritas were only a buck, and the flan was to die for!


My friends, Evelyn and Steve, and their View “Tulip” stopped on their way to Mexico to be my neighbor for a few nights and to take me out to yet another dinner at Crossroads (what nice neighbors!).  It was great seeing them, and I hope to cross paths with them again next winter…hopefully in Mexico!

The only downside to the Fairgrounds was having to drive across a large gravel parking lot to get back to the RV park.  One day, they were putting up chain link fencing in the lot for an upcoming event and the workmen apparently dropped some screws in the gravel roadway.  Guess who managed to get one of those screws lodged into one of her tires on the Tracker?  Thankfully, I discovered it while in town and was able to get to a nice Firestone tire shop without the tire blowing out first.  The tire was not repairable, so I ended up going ahead and replacing all 4 tires as they were almost ready anyway.  The guys also found another potential disaster in the making—a split starting in my main radiator hose (and here I thought the car ahead of me on the highway had been spraying a few droplets of anti-freeze on my windshield—duh)! 

Thankfully, they were able to get everything taken care of within an hour, and Millie was absolutely thrilled to be able to nap on a nice strip of lush cool green grass out behind the garage!

Gilbert Ray Campground (Tucson Mountain Park):
While Catalina and the Fairgrounds were nice, my favorite park in Tucson remained Gilbert Ray, the place I had fell in love with during last year’s visit.

 
Situated on the West side of Tucson next to Saguaro National Park, the density and variety of desert plants here is just phenomenal—just about every campsite has their own Saguaro! The only “downside” here is having to drive over Gates Pass to get back into the city itself, but wow what a trip to the grocery store it is!

I spent a couple of days exploring Saguaro National Park and scenery was fantastic as always:

All in all, I really enjoyed Tucson and could easily see myself spending some future winters here again someday.  The city is big enough to offer all the conveniences and culture of any large metro area, yet still small enough to avoid the excessive sprawl of Phoenix or one of the California cities.   The people were very friendly and easy-going, and except for a couple of cold days at Catalina, the weather was almost always perfect—warm and sunny!.

Now that I’ve completed my second season as a “snowbird”, I’m solidly hooked on this lifestyle.  I hope to never spend another winter in Chicago again!