Bullhead City, Arizona – Adios Arizona

As evident from our most recent posting, we were having some fairly severe issues with the coach and coping as best we could.  But I’m very pleased to report that everything has been resolved and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that nothing new emerges to frustrate us or delay our plans, because for the next month we intend to relocate once a week as we inch our way northward.

Thanks to the coach-related problems, we spent most of our two weeks in Bullhead City waiting for phone calls or visits from RV techs, appliance deliverers and installers and assorted other events which kept us “at home”.  That was a good time to get the taxes prepared and in the mail and attend to assorted other minor chores so all was not lost.

As head chef, the biggest event in my life was the installation of a new microwave/convection oven.  The exterior is the same size as the original but new technology allows for a larger interior which means a 9x13 pan can be extracted without third degree burns to one’s fingers.  Since its installation it has been used in the microwave mode and the roasting mode thus far and seems to perform well.  It remains to be seen how it works for cake and cookie baking.

The Laughlin-Bullhead City International Airport, which is just across the highway from the campground, was the scene of an air show featuring many of the WWII-era planes in the collection of the Commemorative Air Force based in Tempe.  The star of the show was “Fifi”, the only remaining operational B-29 Super-fortress.  Perhaps flights were being sold to the general public because she made a number of take-offs and landings all weekend and well into Monday as well before disappearing for good over the horizon.  Wouldn’t that be a great adventure?

On Saturday we decided to make a dash “up the hill” to Kingman to visit the Route 66 Museum.  Having traveled The Mother Road in the early ‘60s from St. Louis to Los Angeles, I’m particularly nostalgic about the lore of the places along the way, although most my own memories are now really vague.  Lost as I was in musings about that long-ago trip, it came as an especially rude shock to return to the parking lot to find the car covered in several inches of heavy wet snow.  In Arizona.  In April.  Isn’t that against the law?  It can’t be said that a white-out was occurring but visibility was not especially good and we had no idea how much longer it might continue so we scrapped plans to visit The Mohave Museum and headed back to Bullhead City.  As soon as we crossed Coyote Pass and began the descent into the valley, the skies cleared and we were again in sunlight and enjoying the spring-like weather.  Snow, when confined to far-off mountains, is an admirable element; up close and personal…not so much.

We had picked up a flyer for a River Cruizers car show at the Avi Casino our final weekend in Bullhead City.  Naturally we assumed the Avi was one of the herd of casinos that crowd the shore of the Colorado in Laughlin.  Not so.  It’s quite a ways downstream.  Luckily Howie had asked for directions (breaking one of the cardinal rules of Guyhood) so we weren’t totally surprised that we had to drive for miles to reach it.  But there were times along the way that we thought we’d taken the wrong road, especially when we stopped seeing signs of civilization.  But, finally, there it was – an enormous complex with a huge array of classic and muscle cars, all that chrome just glittering in the sunlight. 
And what a pretty setting for such a show – the blue Colorado River matching the cars for glitter, huge blue sky, faux beach with white sand and tiki huts.  Hey, it’s a Nevada casino after all so a little sham scenery is to be expected.

 

Here’s a photo of one of my favorites.  This paint job was just amazing and the photo doesn’t begin to do it justice – it was so red that it almost hurt to look directly at it.   It would be a great color for nail polish if one had Dragon Lady fingernails.  We even found a Plymouth Fury convertible with push-button drive similar to my first car.  This one was buttercup yellow, however, and not powder blue.  Most of the cars’ owners were sitting under canopies or under trees, sipping colas and trying to stay cool in the desert heat, but with frequent pop-ups to wipe away imaginary fingerprints with soft cloths kept at the ready.

We also made another trip to visit Oatman, a ghost town and tourist trap.  On our first visit several years ago, we’d taken along a bag of carrots for the town’s herd of burros but this time we decided against it.  There were quite a few very young burros wandering about, some napping in the middle of the road, others just standing around staring into space, but most of them mooching from tourists.  And none too gently if some of the yells from some of the folks were any indication.  Being butted from behind by an insistent burro can come as a surprise.  The Oatman Hotel is notable for the legend that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their wedding night there in 1939 – one certainly hopes it was in better repair then than it is now.  So much for Hollywood glamour.

One of our running jokes is that we seem to find these rental RVs everywhere, usually on roads that are barely suitable for Jeep Wranglers much less anything larger.  It’s a bit off-putting to come around a hairpin turn on some winding mountain road and see one of these coming at you, probably driven by someone who hasn’t driven one before and who is “speed touring”.

 
We are currently just north of St. George, Utah where spring has arrived, trees are budding, the grass is green and wildflowers are in bloom.  Stay tuned for next week’s report from here in the land of red rocks.

Bullhead City, Arizona – Spring Version

We find ourselves back in Bullhead City following a two-week stint in Ehrenberg.  It rained last night and this morning there was a dense fog which obliterated the view of the high-rise casinos across the river in Laughlin, Nevada.  As the sun came up over the hills just east of the campground, it began to light the buildings near their tops with their lower parts still wrapped in fog; they appeared to be floating in mid-air, an appearance which slowly devolved until they were fully lit by the sun and looked much the way they always do.  It was much like watching the opening scenes of some space-age movie without the background music.

Our stay in Ehrenberg turned out not to be what we had expected.  We had hoped to catch up on some chores plus see the local sights we’d skipped on our first visit.  That was not to be and we spent the entire two weeks “coping” – that’s the term we use for dealing with the myriad problems which crop up when you live in an RV full time.  Imagine what would happen to your house if it were subjected to a fair to middling earthquake every few days; things would shake loose, break, fail.  And that’s pretty much what happens to a motor home. 

Our first big issue was dealing with a microwave/convection oven which had failed completely and was apparently not reparable, at least not by anybody within shouting distance of Ehrenberg.   A not-quite-exact replacement was ordered from a furniture and appliance store in Blythe but when it arrived the two installers couldn’t figure out how to remove the old one much less install the new one.  This exercise in futility took most of two weeks and we’ve had to make do with slow cookers and electric skillets in the meantime.

As we were about to enter into the final weekend, the water heater sprang a leak and was soon spritzing hot water all over the place.  Fortunately we were home at the time and were able to get the water turned off before any damage was done.  We spent the day sitting around waiting for a mobile RV tech to show up but by 4:00 we’d given up hope and located a handyman nearby who dealt with the problem in pretty short order. 

When we first arrived back in Ehrenberg, Galen and Betty Jo were already set up and had a nice pot roast dinner ready for us.  Our stays overlapped by about a week and so we were able to enjoy some neighborly time together, although not do any of the sight-seeing we’d had in mind.  On another day we made a mad dash up to Parker to join fellow Full-Timers, Jim and Pat, for a three-hour lunch at the Crossroads Cafe.  It had been exactly one year since we’d last seen them and so there was a lot of catching up to do.

The Crossroads Cafe is my idea of a really good diner – they serve breakfast all day long (except for pancakes and French toast) so I was able to tuck into one of my all-time favorites, steak and eggs with rye toast.  The daily special taco salads looked good, too, but I try never to pass up the breakfast option.

It ended up that the only sightseeing we were able to do was a quick stroll through the Ehrenberg Pioneer Cemetery which is directly across the street from the RV park.  It’s more an impression of a cemetery than an actual one; most of the graves (piles of baseball-sized stones) are unmarked and there’s just one large memorial to all of the early settlers who may or may not be buried there.  The prickly pear cacti were in bloom which lent a bit of color to the landscape but, being spring and quite warm, I was very suspicious of what might be lurking under those piles of rocks or coiled at the base of the cactus plants.

 

We are hopeful that our stay in Bullhead City will see all of the maintenance issues resolved and that we can look forward to our northward trek with a bit more optimism.

Adios to California

We’ve returned to Arizona after spending a week each in Desert Center, California and at the Fountain of Youth Spa near Niland, California.  Our trip to Fountain of Youth, known as FOY to it’s inhabitants, was specifically to visit with RVing chums, Roger and Cathy, who always spend their winters enjoying the many activities and amenities of the spa.  After a number of years there, they’ve developed a “neighborhood” of friends and we instantly felt at home among them, with a lot of visiting back and forth and good-natured joshing and lots of good eating.  Too much good eating, but that’s another story.

We got a bit of late start leaving Desert Center and had barely reached cruising speed when traffic came to a screeching halt on I-10 due to a very serious accident involving two semis.  If the CB chatter was accurate, the accident had occurred during the night and still hadn’t been cleared by late morning.  We crept along for an hour or more and finally broke free of the snag and continued on our way.

Our site at FOY was on a terrace so that we overlooked the park models in front of us, giving us a fine view of the Salton Sea and the mountains beyond.  Not that the Salton Sea is much to look at.  Thankfully, prevailing winds took the odor elsewhere.  Once thought of as a premium vacation spot, the Salton is now a “dead sea”, killed off by effluence from the New River and run-off of farm chemicals from the shoreline.  But it certainly does contribute to some lovely vineyards and orchards along the shore, proving that all the desert needs to bloom is water.

Although I’m sure they’ve seen it many times, Roger and Cathy graciously escorted us on a tour of the surrounding area, including a trip to Slab City.  Once a military base, it is now home to a collection of eccentrics, boondockers and assorted other free spirits who don’t seem to mind living without  life’s modern conveniences.  They’ve developed their own society there, including places for entertainment, worship, fellowship and artistic expression.  Maybe even bathrooms and laundromats, although we didn’t see any evidence of that.

At the outskirts of Slab City is Salvation Mountain, an enormous expression of faith by a desert dweller named Leonard Knight.  Leonard loves welcoming visitors to his shrine and when we found him he was having a little mid-morning break in the shade.  He ruefully admitted that he’s “slowing down some” now that he’s 79.  It didn’t look, however, that he’d be running out of paint any time soon.  Mostly the paint has been donated by do-it-yourselfers with left over dribs and drabs but some has come from manufacturers and distributors who’ve erred in their color mixing.  Climbing Salvation Mountain affords a dandy over-view of Slab City which is, all things considered, more attractive the further you get from it.

After descending from The Mountain, we drove off into the desert to what Roger described as “the volcanos and mud pots”.  The terrain was dead flat, once likely sea bed, and we saw little chance of encountering a volcano.  But there they were, barely five  feet tall, in the middle of a sun-baked field.  They burbled and gurgled and spit up hot mud.  Like a kid with bubblegum, one blew big shiny balls of mud which then split and spewed.  After the terrible earthquakes in Japan, it was disconcerting at best to be standing on the San Andreas Fault on ground that gurgled and bubbled.  There is a geo-thermal power plant close by to take advantage of the situation.

It was a relief to all the senses leave the baked ground and sulphur of the mud pots and go just a few miles to a farm which raises flowers for the florist industry.  There were acres and acres of them, stripes of color under the hot sun, and a sweet fragrance in the air.  Again we were amazed at the fertility of the desert once once liberal amounts of water is applied.

It was overcast on the day we chose to go to Anza-Borrego State Park but we couldn’t let a little ugly weather get in our way.  Cathy had researched the weather reports for our destination and advised us to “bundle up”.   And aren’t we glad we took her advice!   We stopped in Borrego Springs for a stroll through an art festival and then again on the outskirts to see the enormous metal sculptures pictured here.

Our next stop was Julian, an historic town high in the mountains, known for its apple crops…and the resulting pies that are sold in all the eateries around town.  It happened to be the Daffodil Festival weekend so things were hopping, bundled up tourists crowed the sidewalks and jammed the restaurants.  We checked out a number of the shops, followed by lunch at The Bakery. 

Once we left Julian the sun was beginning to make an appearance now and again so by the time we got well up into the mountains, the sky was dazzling blue with big fluffy clouds making shadows in the valleys and hillsides.   Wildflowers were in bloom, even at that altitude, and one almost expected to see Julie Andrews skipping through the meadows, apron flapping,  singing about the hills being alive with the sound of music. 

We couldn’t identify most of the wildflowers, especially the shrub shown here, which reminded us so much of Korean lilacs. 

 

 

 

 

Eventually we reached the point where we began our descent into the Imperial Valley to meet Sam and Barb at Tony Roma’s for dinner.  We were all still feeling over-fed from lunch in Julian so we confined ourselves to salads and munchies and some much-needed cold beers and sodas.  Yes, it was a long day but certainly one we’ll always remember for its good company and beautiful scenery. 

Desert Center, California

After leaving Apache Junction, we headed west on I-10 to the Colorado River town of Ehrenberg where we spent a week at a membership park.  The first evening, as we strolled around the campground we met a gregarious couple from Oregon who sport the same last name as we do.  We soon established they were not related.  They promptly issued happy hour invitations for precisely 4:00 p.m. on whichever days we chose to “drop in”.  From their  riverside site  we spent several evenings watching the river flow by, yakking up a storm and nibbling away on various goodies.  Meeting new friends is the very best part of full-time RVing.

Since we’ll soon be returning to Ehrenberg, we didn’t want to see all the sights at once and then not have anything to do for our next visit, so we made only one brief trip to the notorious town of Quartzite.  Most of the snowbird population had already flown the coop, there were only a few rigs boondocking out in the desert. so it was less than an exciting visit.   I did manage to hit several bead shops and made a few purchases.  One would hate to be stranded somewhere with no projects to work on! 

We also visited the Hi Jolly Cemetery in Quartzite, the final resting place of one Hadji Ali aka Hi Jolly who came to the Arizona desert before the Civil War as a camel driver  during an Army experiment utilizing camels as pack animals for exploration of the southwest.  The experiment was abandoned and so were the camels but Hi Jolly stayed on, living into the 20th century.

Desert Center has turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.  We came here to visit our friend Betty who winters here.  The town has about 170 permanent residents and was originally constructed in an oasis by Kaiser for their mine workers at Eagle Mountain.  When the mine closed, so did the town.  Now, during the winter months, the population swells with flocks of snowbirds, primarily from the Northwest sections of the U.S. and Canada.  There are two small lakes (they’d be called ponds in less arid neighborhoods), a golf course, a library/firehouse and a community center.  There’s one cafe that’s open and one that’s not.  A general store provides staples to hold folks over between trips to either Blythe or Indio for serious shopping.  Either direction, it’s a 50 mile jaunt and given the rapidly increasing fuel prices, not one undertaken lightly.

Oases are very peaceful places.   The Interstate is two miles away so there’s no traffic noise.  There are a lot of birds tweeting and chirping and hummingbirds abound.   Lots of flowers are in bloom at present and the air smells sweet.   A stroll down to Lake Tamarisk to watch for fish jumping has a calming effect.  The air must contain some kind of soporific because the urge to nap happens several times a day.  It almost seems un-American to have a nap both before lunch and after.

Betty had never visited Joshua Tree National Park so we spent one day there.  We had hoped to take the ranger tour of Keys Ranch but it was filled for that day and so we had to improvise our own route.  The light when we arrived at Cholla Cactus Garden was incredible and this photo doesn’t quite do it justice.  There seemed to be a lime green cast to everything, including the air around the plants with a hard blue sky above.    Some of the ocotillos appeared just about ready to bloom and I expect by now they are pretty spectacular.  The joshua trees inhabit the northern  ranges of the park at a higher elevation and were not yet ready to bloom.

It being a relatively clear day we took the drive to Keys Overlook.   As you can see, there’s still snow on San Jacinto (on the left) and Gorgonia (on the right).  The low point in the middle is the San Andreas Fault.  I-10 goes between the two mountains and usually contains a semi-solid wall of smog trying to force it’s way into the Imperial Valley from Los Angeles. 

And so now it’s on to Niland on the Salton Sea for another week of fun in the sun. 

Editor’s note:  I’ve never been a fan of the Internet Explorer browser, but it is the best one for viewing this blog.  I have preferred Mozilla browsers for years, but, frankly, Firefox does an atrocious job of displaying photos, sometimes excluding them completely.  It took about six re-publishes to get the “Lake Tamarisk” photo above to show up.  Clicking on photos also sometimes fails to display the larger image.

Apache Junction, AZ – Wrapping Up Our Stay

February 28th was our final day at Superstition Lookout in Apache Junction.  Ordinarily we can be ready in a matter of an hour or so to hit the road but not when we’ve been sitting in one place for three months.  Not only does it take longer to stow everything but we needed to check and re-check our “to do” list so that we didn’t do something stupid.

Our final month in AJ was relatively calm.  Russ and Howie continued their cycling routine, doing roughly ten miles a day six days a week and ending the season with just over 425 miles logged.  One of their discoveries was a lady hummingbird who had set up housekeeping in a tree they passed some days.   She was relatively uninterested in their presence and so Howie was able to get this photo of her “at home”.  Meanwhile, Rochelle continued with her water aerobics but I threw in the towel thanks to a bad knee and total lack of interest, especially once temperatures began to dip into the 40’s.  I didn’t become a snowbird so I could be cold and miserable and wet only adds to the discomfort.  As you can see from this photo of cacti dressed for the winter,  we’ve had a fair amount of chilly weather.  I thought they resembled a caravan of Arabs gathered at an oasis; it looks a bit like a high school production of “Kismet”, doesn’t it?

 

On one fine day,  Russ and Howie decided to hike the Peralta Trail  to Fremont Saddle for the grand view of Weaver’s Needle.  It’s a 2 1/2 mile hike up with an elevation gain of 1365 feet.  The uphill trek took four hours and a little over two hours coming down (they stopped for a rest quite often).  We ladies were beginning to get a little worried as the sun edged closer to the horizon with no signs of them but they eventually returned, considerably worse for wear.  It’s a moderately strenuous climb  for experienced hikers so you can imagine how two over-the-hill novices felt the next day!  (One guide book rates it “easy”, but suggests that grandma might want to stay home)

During the snowbird season, The Superstition Mountain Museum out on Route 88 offers free programs on Thursday afternoons on a variety of topics.  We’ve been to see singer/songwriter Ted Newman several times and always enjoy him.  Most of his songs are about the Sonoran desert and some of Arizona’s famous sons and daughters and it’s pretty nifty to sit there under a big blue sky with the saguaros standing guard and the mountains beyond.  Prior to the concert, we toured the museum where we encountered a delightful docent who told us a great deal about the construction of Roosevelt Dam in the ‘30s.  We wish she’d had more time to spend with us but she had to hurry off to participate in preparation for the concert.

Russ entered one of his woodburning projects at a show in Mesa and came away with second place in his division.   The piece is entitled “Cheyenne To Deadwood”.  Pretty cool, wouldn’t you agree? 

 

It has been my intention to visit The Bead Museum in Glendale ever since taking up the hobby but it always seems like such a long trip over there.  In checking their website, we learned that the museum is about to close its doors in early March due to lack of funding so we made the effort to pay a visit before it folds.  I guess I was expecting something else and found it less than interesting although I did avail myself of their 40% off sale in their gift shop.

Harold and Ruthann decided to throw a surprise  birthday party for George Rorke and it turned out to be a humdinger.  There were several couples we’d met on previous visits to the Valley plus we met some new “fun folks” so we had a jolly time.  We arrived late due to a prior commitment so we didn’t get to see George’s expression of surprise first hand but we were told he was truly surprised.  It wasn’t long before a fairly rowdy game of Wii bowling had us laughing and carrying on.  We hope that the neighbors don’t hold it against Harold and Ruthann; it’s not their fault (entirely) that they have some particularly noisy friends.

It seems we have an ever-increasing circle of friends who either winter here in the East Valley or live here year round so there was a great deal of socializing going on.  It was wonderful to see everyone in decent (the best we can hope for at this age) health and still active and involved in various endeavors.  David and Shirley invited us to the dance lessons they were giving at View Point.  It’s hard to believe it’s been over 20 years since we took our first dance lesson from them.  We also enjoyed a rock ‘em sock ‘em game of Pictionary and learned a few other card games from them.  One game, Golf, prodded us to go on a search for a four-deck automatic card shuffler at the Mesa Flea Market.  And of course we bought the first one, thus paying nearly twice what they were selling for at the other end of the market.  Rats.

We also got to see Gayle one more time before we hit the road.  Her brother and sister-in-law are in town for a few weeks so we all had a pleasant reunion over what Gayle described as a “down home dinner”.  It’s a good thing we don’t have regular access to the yummy gravy she makes!

Our final weekend in Apache Junction was celebrated with the Lost Dutchman Parade and Rodeo, an annual event here in the East Valley.  It was threatening rain and we had to start packing up so we skipped the rodeo and just attended the parade.  The Budweiser Horses were missing this year but there was a Clydesdale Drill Team participating so there was no shortage of big shaggy equines.  We couldn’t help noticing some anomalies such as the regal-looking Knight of Columbus in his elegant black suit, white gloves, purple satin cape…and black cowboy boots with silver toe guards.  No spurs, however.  And the Shriner with the tall glittery fez with a Bluetooth receiver in his ear.  Was he expecting some calls while he’s marching down the street?  Oh, yes, and the WW-II era jeep with a pink blanket on the front seat.  Is pink the new camo?

And so Tuesday morning we uprooted ourselves and headed off into the sunset for a week on the Colorado River at Ehrenberg, followed by a week each in Desert Center and Niland, CA before returning to Ehrenberg.  Stay tuned for additional reports from along the way.

Apache Junction, Arizona – January, 2011

While most of the country is shivering knee-deep in snow, howling winds and power outages, we are living under a bright blue sky…which is not to say we are even remotely warm.  The overnight temperature dipped well below freezing and we don’t seem to have running water this morning. The big golf tournament in Phoenix was delayed because the greens were frozen and home-owners are being advised to cover their plants.  Just imagine how difficult it is to wrap a cactus!

Our stay in Apache Junction is drawing to a close and we’re pretty much on schedule to get our winter chores done before it’s time to move on down the road.  My exercise regime has fallen by the wayside; it’s hard to work up much enthusiasm for water aerobics when the thermometer is stuck below 50 degrees.  But Howie and Russ continue with their biking routine on a nearly daily basis.  They are doing in excess of ten miles per outing and have  explored most of the highways and byways here in Apache  Junction.  Rochelle printed out an area map and Russ has dutifully checked off all of the routes they’ve taken so there is an accurate picture of how far they’ve traveled.  (Click on map for larger image)

 

Last week we were able to attend a country/western dance lesson given by our New York friends, David and Shirley, at their home park.  However, this week a sore knee kept me sidelined.  We’re hoping I’ll have improved enough by next week so we can get in a few turns – dancing is one of those things that benefits from constant practice so that muscle memory kicks in when the brain fails to send the correct signals on its own.

My college roommate, Gayle, and I were able to spend a play day nosing around the mall on Val Vista.  Sadly, many of the shops at this upscale mall have closed their doors and beautiful retail space remains empty.  The stores that do remain open were having big post-Christmas sales and so we scored a few good bargains.  I fell in love with a pale blue “boyfriend shirt” at J. Jill, one of my favorite shops, but the fine linen fabric seemed inappropriate for our nomadic lifestyle.  And it wasn’t on sale, either.

January excitement was pretty low-level except that we went on a cruise aboard The Dolly, a steamboat which plies the waters of Canyon Lake up in the Superstition Mountains.  Canyon Lake is one of four lakes formed by dams on the Salt River (aka Rio Salado).  The views from the water range from saguaro-studded low hills to towering cliffs  with the opportunity of seeing plenty of wildlife.  Even though the ship’s captain gave everyone plenty of warning about spotting wildlife, many of us failed to look in just the right places.  Rochelle’s daughter, who was  visiting from Wyoming, managed to spot the bald eagle and photograph him (or her) posing majestically on a crag.  Howie shot blindly in the general direction of some desert bighorn sheep  and, sure enough, they appeared in the photos once he got them loaded into the computer.  Those critters take “camo” to a whole other level!  There’s one just about dead-center in the above photo with another slightly to the right and lower. 

The weather was just perfect for a cruise, bright and sunny but not overly hot, so a good time was had by all.  We finished up the cruise with lunch at Tortilla Flat,  an interesting little tourist trap on the paved part of Route 86, a snaky road that winds its way uphill from Goldfield, past Canyon Lake and Roosevelt Lake and through Tonto National Forest.  Here are some photos that give an idea of the variety of terrain we traveled through on our cruise.

Apache Junction, AZ – Starting 2011

 

We have been enjoying life in the slow lane since arriving here in Apache Junction in early December.  The weather has been a bit on the cool side so some outdoor activities have been curtailed to some extent.  But at least we haven’t had to shovel any of the weather in order to get out of the driveway.  However, there was one day when a few snowflakes managed to fall out of a cloudless blue sky and the mountains just north of here had mantles of white on their shoulders.

Dental appointments are over and done with and we are on the books for wellness exams at the end of this month.  That should leave plenty of time for any necessary medical tests before we hit the road again in March.  Most snowbirds use the winter months as “vacations” but we come here to get chores done.

The highlight of the past few weeks was a visit on Wednesday from our old friends, Joe and Bernie (aka Dina), from Upstate New York.  In Phoenix to visit two of their children, we were so happy they could spend a day with us.  There was a lot of catching up to do so we just sat around and yakked.  They’ve visited this area before and have probably seen most of the sights so we just took them to our favorite Beall’s Outlet, then drove past our favorite saguaro cactus.   Who wouldn’t love this guy?  After a late lunch (or early dinner, depending on your perspective), we drove them to their youngest son’s home where they will spend the remainder of their Arizona vacation. 

Nearly every day, regardless of the temperature, Russ and Howie have gone off on their bicycles to explore the area and get some exercise.  Most days they are logging close to ten miles, often made more difficult by flat tires.  Howie’s new bike turned out not to be much of a bargain because he had to almost completely reassemble it and the tires keep going flat, slime or no slime. 

I gave up trying to do two water aerobics classes back to back.  It was costing a fortune in body lotion and I didn’t much care for wasting most of the morning flailing around in the water.  I’d rather spend the time working on my beading projects and have completed several pieces since we’ve been here.

Of course one of the chores of sitting in one place for an extended period is to map out a route for the next few months.  The task this time was to get us into position by Memorial Day to make the leap across the border into Canada to begin the push northward to Alaska.  Of course we’ll be trying to utilize as many of our membership parks as possible in order to save money before venturing into the unknown.  With oil reaching $100 a barrel, it doesn’t seem like the most appropriate time to be planning a really long trip.  But we aren’t getting any younger and neither is the rig so if we’re going to do it, we might as well do it now.