The Phoenix area

Wed. Nov. 20th
After leaving Marana we had a short drive to the Apache Junction KOA.
We took the I60 east. What an amazing freeway! One of the interesting things about freeways in the Phoenix area is that not only are they wonderfully easy to drive but they are also quite pretty, as freeways go.

Giant bales of cotton after harvest

Picacho Peak as seen on the way to Phoenix

One of the decorated overpasses in the Greater Phoenix area

The KOA in Apache Junction is right on the edge of town so we thought it would be quieter. Alas, it was right beside a busy intersection....
We set up camp and took a little drive to, as usual, scope out the lay of the land.
Found groceries and headed back to camp.
We were told by the campground admin. that the wifi is free but it is slow. We found out how slow it was when we tried to do some basic stuff on our devices. It was s o, s l o w I nearly cried. They also had no cable, which you may say, well who needs television when you're camping? Well, we are not really camping. We are living in our RV, traveling from place to place. These "campgrounds" don't have lovely wooded spots with fire pits and things you usually relate to the camping experience. They are basically parking lots with, if you're lucky a few trees or shrubs planted here and there. So, yes, tv in the evening is nice to have.
So, there we were, no wifi to speak of so couldn't watch Corrie or watch Netflix. We do however have quite a few good books to read, thankfully.

Thurs. Nov. 21
The following day we went to visit our friends JoAnn and Conrad Gaumont at their house in Mesa. It was so nice to see familiar faces and have another woman I know to chat with. I'm sure John felt the same way except with a guy to talk to.
We also stopped at a mobile home/rv park where some other friends stay. We got their address from the visitor centre and found them home so had a nice chat about their community and it's amenities. We found that the units were very close together. Packed in almost like sardines which is hard to be comfortable with especially coming from living in the country. But it's only for a couple of months, right?

Friday Nov. 22
We had chosen 4 mobile home/rv parks to check out this day. One was a ways out of the Mesa area, about 25 minutes but it sounded really nice. By a river, near the mountains. About half way to this destination the phone rings, bluetooth, and it's JoAnn asking if we would like to stay in their rental house, on Colby street. It is on the market now but we could stay in it if we wanted. There may be showings while we are in it but otherwise it would be ours to use.
Well how could we say no?!
It's a lovely little 2 bedroom house 1 block from Conrad and JoAnn's and two from Yvette (Conrad's sister) and her husband Archie's place. What fun! It's a nice, older (55+) quiet community. There are 4 citrus trees in the backyard and a Saguaro cactus in the front. Behind the house is a utility right of way that the neighbourhood people have made into a lovely desert walk with indigenous vegetation that is inhabited by indigenous animals:
foxes, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, bobcats and numerous birds including quails, thrashers, hummingbirds and others.
Now, we needed to find a place to store the coach and car hauler. One that wasn't too far, reasonably priced and most importantly secure.
We heard first hand from friends, Sue and Dan Derouin, who also live in this community, about how their rv got broken into and everything, really everything got stolen. Right down to some clothes that were left in the rv!
John scoped out a few and settled on one that had 8ft high concrete walls with 2 rows of razor wire on top. It was also well priced and not too far away. Perfect! We set up an appointment to go park our rig on Monday morning.
It started raining Thursday evening and it continued until Saturday morning. Unseasonable weather, we were told by the locals. Some areas had some flooding, which is usual around here when it rains.
We took several loads of clothes and other necessities over to the Colby house for our stay there.
We were glad to see the sun later on Saturday afternoon even though it was still quite cloudy.

Sunday Nov. 24
Grey Cup day! We were invited over to Yvette & Archie's for a Grey Cup party. What a fun time. There were about 15 people gathered to watch the big game. One was a native born Saskatchewanite, Jason, who is like most from his home province, an AVID fan of the Sask. Roughriders. In the true spirit of Sask. fans Yvette and Archie had fashioned a helmet out of a watermelon for Jason and "dressed up" an special chair for him. The outcome of the game was to his liking and most of the others at the party.
We had a pool for the game and I won halftime and John won final score!
We played a couple of rounds of "Pass the Ace" card game and then headed to the Colby house to stay over night.

Jason ready for the big game!

Monday Nov. 25
We went to the KOA in Apache Junction for the last time to pick up the remaining needful stuffs and then take the rig to the storage place. Then we moved into the Colby house proper.
From this day forward we have been enjoying the space of the Colby house and yard.

I hung a hummingbird feeder from one of the orange trees and in no time there were tiny jewel like visitors at

it. One particular male Anna's hummingbird has laid claim to the feeder and spends much of the day chasing other hummingbirds away.

We have spent the last couple of weeks golfing, shopping and visiting with friends here in Mesa. Very relaxing for sure.

A little visitor at the feeder

A lovely Joshua tree in the backyard at Colby street

Three of the citrus trees in the yard, L to R orange, grapefruit, lemon

The front view

Gambel's quails. They're all over!

One of the many Desert Cottontail rabbits in the neighbourhood

One, two skip a few.....
Monday, December 9th
We finally got internet two days ago a the Colby house. Super fast, so blogs should be much easier to put together.
Tomorrow we are taking an overnighter trip to do the Apache Trail loop. It will be great to get out of the city.

Willcox to Marana, AZ

Left Willcox by 9:30am which seems to be the time we get away on "moving days". The drive to Marana only took 2 hours and the campsite was quick to get to.
You may ask, "why only a 2 hour trip to Marana instead of just another 2 more to get to Phoenix"? Well, Marana is just north of Tucson and Tucson is where the Saguaro National Park is. The park is in two parts. The older Saguaro forest on the east and the younger on the west. We weren't sure if we'd go to both but I knew I wanted to see the west for certain.
The morning after we set up camp in Marana, we set off to Saguaro, pronounced: sa wah ro, National Park West. First we stopped at the Marana Visitors Center to ask about the nicest route to take. We like to take more scenic routes whenever possible in the car as we stick to the Interstate hiways with the coach and car hauler.
The young lady at the centre gave us a local map and showed us the route that took us through the preserve and out and back in, to the park gate. Very pretty and awesome. I just love those crazy saguaro cacti. They are a big part of what sets the Sonoran desert apart from other deserts. Each one is a unique wonder!
We headed right to the Visitor centre at the park, as we have learned that is the only way to start a visit in any of the parks/monuments. You get excellent suggestions by the park staff and wonderful introductions by a video presentation.
I'm not sure if I mentioned that we decided to buy a US Nat'l Parks Pass but it's almost already paid for.
Here are the photos:

The first Saguaro sightings as we neared Tucson, AZ

Driving through the preserve via the scenic route

 

The road into Saguaro National Park

The short Nature Trail in the park, paved and markers with plant and animal information

A couple of outstanding specimens!

Holes made by woodpeckers and flickers become homes for many others.

An apartment complex, The Saguaro Arms.....

Looking out over the Sonoran desert

 

Ancient carvings chipped into rocks on Signal Hill in the park

Rock carvings

Our picnic spot on top of Signal Hill

After our picnic we decided to take one of the hiking trails from Signal Hill. A 4.8 mile loop or nearly 8km hike, as per the map. The trail wound through the desert and because it was open to horse riders as well as people, much of it was pretty loose from being horse trodden. This made it tough going at times. The trail markers were few and far between and not very visible, kind of blending in with the scenery. Good thing we always carry a map! At one point where the loop trail should have been heading back we came to a bit of a dead end with what looked like trails used by animals around. We started following one that looked more traveled only to find it disappear. We decided to head back to the original trail. If we had to follow it back, so be it. We would see it from a different angle, that's all. As we headed back down the trail there in front of us was the trail marker. We'd walked right past it. It took us back to Signal Hill before our water ran out, thank goodness.
A little Sonoran desert info. There live in this desert a formidable type of cactus called Cholla, pronounced choy ah. One particular variety is called Jumping Cholla and it gets it's name because even a light brushing past it will leave you with bits of the cactus stuck to you! The cactus also drops pieces on the ground, many of which will take root and start a new plant or get stuck on a passing animal or person and carried to a new location. John became one of those as he was walking along the path. A piece of Cholla "jumped" and stuck to his ankle. Luckily we had read about how to use a comb or stick to remove the offending plant. We both ended up carrying a small stick to remove subsequent bits from our shoes along the way....
 The last but not least note on this hike, we saw a coyote and a roadrunner!! (the coyote was not chasing the roadrunner....)

Jumping Cholla cacti, do not mess with this plant!

A Teddybear Cholla. Looks fuzzy from a distance but beware, formidable spines!

The piece of Jumping Cholla that "jumped" onto John's ankle

A sign near our hike entrance.......

A mine on the edge of the park

So many prickly plants!

These "guys" kill me!

Part of the hike, pretty loose, soft footing.

A cute baby cactus.

A nest build in the arms of a Saguaro

Someone made a lovely rock design around this little cactus along the trail!

An interesting grouping

Ha! So unique!

The sun making the prickly pear all glowing

You see lots of holes around the cacti. Homes for all sorts of critters.

Growing up the mountain side

Well, not completely different...

Nov. 18th and backwards and kinda jumping around:
I've decided this post will start with today and work into the past as once again we've encountered less than optimal wifi which causes a "backblog".
We packed up from the Willcox, AZ campsite this morning and headed not too far up the road. Just north of Tucson to Marana. I am keen on seeing the Saguaro National Park which is split into two sections. One on the east side of Tucson, the other on the west. It was just a bit too far to take the car for a day trip and take in both parts of the park from Willcox, so we moved to Marana.
Saw the first saguaro cacti on the way which means we have left the Chihauhaun desert and have now entered the Sonoran desert, one of the hottest and driest regions on the continent.
We were in Willcox, AZ for 5 nights, not because we planned that but because when we left Las Cruces on Nov. 13th we didn't quite make it to our planned destination, Benson, AZ, as the water pump on the RV broke. Good thing John knows a bit about engines and such because he noticed the temperature gauge going up and felt it shouldn't be as we weren't pulling any hills and it wasn't particularly hot out. We pulled over at an exit and John got out to check, coming back to say that there was "coolant all over the place".
John contacted the Good Sams Road Assistance and within a couple of hours a huge tow truck (called a wrecker) was dispatched to help. The operator (Don) was excellent with 28 yrs of experience, John felt confident all would be ok. He had to take apart the drive shaft and breaks in order to tow it. He said he could tow the RV with the car hauler attached (we took the car out) if he went slow and took the back way into town.

Texas canyon

Texas Canyon between Wilcox and Benson, AZ

 Good Sams had contacted a local auto shop, Dick's Auto Service, in Willcox and they said they could take the RV. This was fortunate in a few ways:
1. It was very close to where we broke down so the cost of the tow would be covered.
2. The mechanics at the garage that fixed it, Thomas and Robert, were very proficient.
3. The owners of Dick's, Gary and Dina Ellis, were super friendly and helpful.
4. Willcox is near the Chiricahua National Monument, which we would not likely have visited if we had not ended up in Willcox.
So, there you go.

The Chiricahua National Monument is quite a sight to behold. As you may have figured by now, I love rocks!! This park is all about the rocks. More crazy rock formations due to ancient volcanic activity in the area and then other forces of nature sculpting them into incredible forms. Just too cool!

The road through Chiricahua Monument

This group was heading up by horse. The fellow in red is from Ponoka, AB!

 

 


 

John at the very top of the park at Massai point.

Looking down from the top. The rocks are supporting a lot of lichen growth.

Crazy, awesome rocks!

There was a big forest fire in the park in 1994. It is slowly coming back.

Spent a day in the park and it would have been perfect except for high winds.
There were possible dust storms predicted for the next two days so no way were we heading anywhere with the RV. We could see the dust storms in the distance when we were out of the mountains and back onto the plains. Dina (from Dick's Auto) had shown me a video she had taken coming through a dust storm where there had been a 19 vehicle pile-up on the other side of the freeway. It was horrible, both the lack of visibility and the number of vehicles smashed up.
We also went to Ft. Bowie National Historic Site. It was back in the mountains on an "unimproved" road which got worse as we got closer to the site, but not so bad as to turn back. There was an easy 1.5 mile hike in to the main site and visitor centre. Very interesting with historic markers along the way. This was the area where the Apache spring was located and because it is desert, water is very precious. Wherever there is a reliable source of drinking water it was protected. The Apaches were curious, at first, about the white men traveling through their territories but started to dislike what was happening on their land and started raiding the convoys. Soldiers were sent in to protect the convoys but in the end, due to a misunderstanding and probably miscommunication(s) a war broke out with many on both sides being killed. The Apaches lost in the end and the rest, as they say, is history.

What's left of Ft. Bowie

Gnarly old tree on the trail up to Ft. Bowie

 
Yesterday we decided to visit Tombstone, AZ. The place of the infamous shoot-out at the OK Corral. You know, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and the Clanton gang. We knew it would be touristy and boy, was it ever! The whole of the historic main street has been turned into a retail/historic area where, yes, there are historic buildings but they all have entrance fees to see more and a retail shop with souvenirs and trinkets etc. galore.
Happily, the old Courthouse was turned into a State Historic Site and although there was a fee to enter, it was very good.
After Tombstone, we took the loop route home to check out Kartchner Caverns State Park. This cavern site is very different from Carlsbad. There are no self guided tours and you get misted down with water so fibres, skin flakes, hair etc. don't end up polluting the cave. It was discovered in 1974 by two cavers. When they saw what an amazing cavern they had discovered, they kept it a secret for 7 years because they were afraid if it was found out it would be destroyed by random curious people. They eventually told the landowners about their discovery and they were thrilled and also concerned about preserving the cave. They approached the Arizona state government and after many meetings and much planning, turned it into the state park it is today. Now having said all that, we didn't go into the cave. John didn't want to at all and you have to make a reservation in advance as they only take small groups a few times a day. The photos they had in the Discovery Centre were great and the little video about the cave (where I got the info. I just shared) was super!

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. We saw our first Roadrunner on our way to Tombstone! What a lovely, funny bird. I hope to see more. We also had to play dodge the dead skunks on the way to Tombstone..... :P

A Roadrunner. Doesn't look much like the cartoon version!

 

 

 

 

The historic Tombstone Courthouse, now a museum

Main street, Tombstone, AZ

All kinds of retail in Tombstone

Now, jumping back a bit.
Before we left Las Cruces, NM:
We spent Nov. 11th doing some housekeeping inside and out of the RV and car, observing a minute of silence at 11am. We did such a nice job of cleaning and polishing our vehicles we treated ourselves to dinner out at La Posta Restaurante in Messila.
It is in an old historic building near where Billy the Kid was captured.
We enjoyed a Mexican meal with leftovers taken home to be made into lunch using the most delicious flour tortillas, purchased from the Andele tortillaria, also in Mesilla.
There was one other place of intrigue for me, Rockhound State Park, one hour west of Las Cruces.
We stopped at the local Tractor Supply Company, first, to pick up a few rockhounding supplies for me including a small pick, a hammer, some chisels, a small bucket and a lovely little shovel. None of which I needed, as it turned out.
There were plenty of pieces of jasper and perlite and geodes just laying on the ground along the hiking paths.
Well, now I'm ready for future rockhounding forays!
I have yet to break open the geodes, or what I think are geodes, that I picked up on my little hike.
John stayed down in the little campsite while I wandered around in the hills.
I saw lots of little Black-chinned sparrows, Yellow-eyed Juncos and White-winged doves, a little snake and a tiny, perfectly camouflaged lizard. It was a nice little hike followed by our picnic lunch.
There, I think I'm caught up, for now. 

This plant had fuzzy seed pods which reminded me of pussy willows.

Barrel cactus

Looking up the trail at Rockhound State Park

Agave plants

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Can you see the little lizard?

A field of cotton

A cotton boll that had blown onto the road

Combining sorghum

No water left in the Rio Grande by the time it gets to Las Cruces (well at this time of year)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many U.S. Boarder Patrol Inspection stops in the southwest