Time To Head East

We have now been in Arizona for over a month. Overall, and considering that it was February ... it has been a good month. We have seen very little rain and have had mostly sunny days during our visit. The temps have been a little on the cool side - only reaching 80 degrees on a couple of days and generally in the 60s - but you won’t find us Maineiacs complaining ... too much.

But it is time to start heading back east. We don’t plan on heading too far north of I-10 anytime soon ... and will generally retrace our steps heading east. We still do not have a plan much more detailed than that and will try to keep travel days around 200 miles and not more than 2 in a row. I see the whole southern part of the nation will be seeing a cold snap these next few days so I guess there is no avoiding that ... but hopefully that will keep the thunderstorm activity to a minimum over the next week or so.

We have enjoyed the last week here in the Tucson area - staying East of Tucson this time at the Pima County Fairgrounds. The fairgrounds has been fairly busy during the last week with an equestrian show (jumping horses) going on, the LaMesa RV folks showing their wares, a 5K on Saturday at the nearby drag strip, and of course the local weekend oval track racing at the nearby NASCAR track. All sorts of interesting noises and activities all around us!

Peggy and I didn’t play tourist much this past week but did get a chance to do a little shopping at Camping World (always a fun time), took in a movie on our rainy Saturday (Call of the Wild ... good flick!), visited a couple of our favorite local eateries (Daisy Mae’s and Little Anthony’s 50s diner), kicked a few tires at the local RV show, and even watched the Equestrian Events for a short time. 

We have been gone on this trip for about 7 weeks and have traveled about 3,700 miles while staying at 17 different places. That also means we have had 17 travel days. 17 travel days out of about 49 total days (about 1/3 for you math challenged friends) is pretty relaxing by our past standards. On our first coast-to-coast trip we managed 24 travel days over 41 total days! Glad to see those days are behind us!

I figure it took us 3 weeks to get here ... so 3-4 weeks to get home sounds about right. Only about 2 weeks until the Daylight Savings Time mess starts, only about 3 weeks to the first day of Spring, and only about 6 weeks until the snowbanks melt in Southern Maine.

Meanwhile we still have warmth to try and find, BBQ to enjoy, and perhaps even some more Gulf Shrimp to feast on .. and oh yeah .. some 3,000 miles of USA still to experience!

Still Searching Arizona

We are continuing to enjoy the desert southwest during our 2020 Winter Escape. We are escaping the snow and bitter cold of the northeast but the mornings here in central Arizona still get a bit chilly - down to about 40 degrees - but the afternoons are quite comfortable in the low 70s. Such is life here in the desert with 30 degree temperature swings daily. The best news is that we get to enjoy sunshine pretty much all day - everyday.

We finished up our week up near Wickenburg at the Escapee “North Ranch” last week. One of our highlights was attending church last Sunday at a real Cowboy Church held in the majestic and historic Saguaro Theater in downtown Wickenburg. The theater was packed with lots of Cowboys and Cowgirls and Pastor Wes did a nice job. We had a bonus brunch with Jim and Ellie afterwards at the Spur Cafe next door.

We left Wickenburg last Tuesday after having a nice breakfast out with Jim and Ellie at the Nichols West restaurant in Congress. Nichols West may be a small little place in out of the way little Congress, AZ but the food is well worth the stop if you happen to find yourself traveling between Kingman and Wickenburg!

We also got Winnie The Two weighed by the Smartweigh folks on our way out of North Ranch. We had WTT weighed 3 years ago while we were staying at the Escapee Park in Bushnell, FL so this was an opportunity to see if “we” had gained any weight along the way — and an opportunity to have the Colorado weighed as well. Before you all start commenting on how much weight I must have gained along I-10 (Norm Payne) ... let me report that WTT with us in it weighs just about exactly what it weighed in 2017! Of course comparing weights on two different sets of scales with different amounts of fuel and water on board is an imprecise task ... but overall we are still well within our weight limits - including pulling the Colorado which weighed in at 4,400 lbs.

After leaving North Ranch on our one rainy day so far in AZ — we traveled down about 100 miles here to Casa Grande, AZ where we pulled in to another Escapee Affiliated Park - RoVers Roost. RoVers Roost is a Co-Op Park where all the lots are owned by Escapee Club Members but some are rented out to us Club Members when the owner is not using the lot. We were able to obtain a nice spot with full facilities for a really decent price for the week. Not bad at all for no reservation in Arizona - during peak snowbird season!

Peggy and I have stayed here at RoVers Roost in the past for just a day or two - but have not stayed long enough to check out the local area - so this time we thought we might do that!

Last Wednesday we spent a few hours checking out the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument - just east of the city about 10 miles. The National Monument consists of the remains of ancient structures built by the Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert over 1,000 years ago. The “Great House” ruins consist of a four story building made using Caliche (concrete like mixture of sand, clay, and calcium carbonate (limestone)). These ancient peoples were quite numerous in the desert southwest back about 1300 or so but had pretty much disappeared by the time the Spanish missionaries found these ruins in 1694. Peggy and I took the 45 minute guided tour by a National Park Volunteer Guide which was very interesting.

On Friday we ventured North to visit the Superstition Mountains just east of the Phoenix/Mesa/Chandler metro areas. We drove to the Lost Dutchman State Park along the Apache Trail at the base of Superstition Mountain. We spent a little time touring the small State Park with gorgeous views of Superstition Mountain and then drove a short ways northeast along the Apache Trail to another nice viewing spot but alas — the road was closed to all but local travel beyond that point due to ongoing road construction. I’m told there is some beautiful country to view up there around Apache Lake and Canyon Lake. Perhaps next time!

We finished our tour of the area by playing tourist at the Goldfield Ghost Town where we checked out some of the many tourist shops and had lunch at the Mammoth Steakhouse and Saloon. A fun place to spend a few hours on a nice February afternoon.

Saturday was Barn Hunt Day! What is a Barn Hunt you might ask!? Well ... a Barn Hunt is where you take your dog to an arena full of hay bales and turn it loose to find rats that are strategically hidden among the hay bales. That’s it in a nutshell ... but it is a competition enjoyed by lots of people around the country ... including Jim and Ellie Meacham ... and their dog Baxter. Since Ellie and Baxter were participating in a Barn Hunt down here in Casa Grande while we were here - we decided to go and check out the action. We didn’t get to see Baxter in action but we did watch several dogs hunt through the hay bales for the hidden rats (actual rats placed in PVC tubes with holes in them). Some of the dogs were really successful while others were more content to run around the hay bales and frustrate their owners!

See ... you can find entertainment of all kinds ... just about anywhere ... all you have to do is look for it!

Tomorrow we plan to head south and a bit east again ... all the way back to Tucson for our final week stay here in Arizona. This time we hope to stay at the Pima County Fairgrounds RV Park which has a full service RV Park but is first come first serve and no reservations. You may remember that we stayed there back in 2016 ... and ended up buying a new Motorhome ... I know Peggy remembers! I understand there is some sort of Rodeo going on there next week. 

Who knows what horseplay these Maineiacs can get into!

Experiencing Arizona

When I last posted Peggy and I had just made it to Arizona and were about to visit Tucson for a week stay. Well we did — and we enjoyed our stay where the weather was a bit on the cool side but we did get a couple of very nice days in the high 70s to get outside and soak up some of that Arizona sunshine. 

We generally just enjoyed not traveling during our week in Tucson although we did get out to visit some our favorite spots like El Choro’s Mexican Restaurant, Daisy Mae’s Steakhouse, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Our go-to spot while in Tucson is usually Justin’s Diamond J RV park which is west and south of Tucson several miles. We like Justin’s because it is out of the hustle and bustle of Tucson, we can better view the gorgeous Arizona sunsets and bright clear starry nights, and because it is right at the edge of the Saguaro National Park where we can walk out of the park on some trails and will immediately be in the desert walking among all kinds of cactus and other desert vegetation. Not a real hospitable place too hang out for hours on end - but beautiful nonetheless. You do have to be careful when walking out in the desert as there are all kinds of dangers like:

1) Easy to get lost if you don’t pay attention to where you came from.
2) It is really dry and it is easy to become dehydrated - So carry and drink plenty of water.
3) You may find a critter or two that doesn’t care to be disturbed (fortunately those snakes aren’t too active in the winter months).
4) Any and all of the vegetation you come across will hurt you if you get too close.

Peggy learned the hard way about danger #4 during one of our morning walks when she wondered off the path a bit and got too close to a Teddy Bear Cholla. Those things have lots of really sharp long needles that will go right through most clothing and are difficult to remove. She had to suffer through me pulling out the majority of the needles through her pant leg and then pulling out the remainder from her ankle. It really wasn’t too bad but not a pleasant experience at all!

We left Tucson last Tuesday and made the 100 mile drive north - up I10 - around Phoenix to the west a bit - and then north again up past  Wickenburg to the very small town of Congress, AZ. Congress isn’t much more than a few homes and businesses but it is home to the Escapees North Ranch RV Park. North Ranch is one of the Escapee RV Club’s “Rainbow” Parks which has a small (about 120 sites) RV campground and then a community of several hundred small privately owned lots with everything from full blown homes built to not much more than a gravel spot with hookups to park your RV. North Ranch is also home to our RV friends Jim and Ellie Meacham who purchased a lot w/home several years ago while still RVing but have now transitioned to full-time home owners having left their gypsy ways behind them! We were treated to an arrival day dinner over at the Meacham’s place complete with grilled bacon wrapped pork tenderloin watched over by Grillmaster Jim. We had a great time catching up with Jim and Ellie and their friends Don and Vickie Crow who we have met here before. It was great fun ... but we missed visiting with Mike and Pat McFall. Mike and Pat have been good friends of Jim and Ellie for many years, and well known to RV’ers nation-wide when they were traveling and selling the Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Sensing Systems (and other RV related ‘Stuff”). Mike recently passed away after a long bout with Cancer and Pat was busy with family getting ready for Mike’s Memorial Celebration which was held yesterday.

Mike really was a special guy that I only met a few times but it was hard not to appreciate a genuinely special man. A cowboy, police officer, investigator, pilot, skydiver, entrepreneur, and just fun to talk to. His memorial celebration yesterday was held here at North Ranch in the activities building and attended by around a hundred folks. Western Music, Cowboys, Line Dancing ... it was a celebration Mike would have liked. I’m really glad we were here to participate.

We also got a chance on Thursday to travel over to Prescott to visit with Larry and Linda Fuegan. I used to work with Linda back in the Maine Yankee days .... and she and husband Larry made the move out here to Prescott in the late 90s. Linda treated us to some great homemade soups for lunch - including a fantastic seafood chowder and an equally great “stuffed pepper” soup. As usually happens when we visit — there was too little time for all the visiting we had to do — but we enjoyed every minute. Well maybe except for the drive down the mountainous switchbacks at night! Just kidding (sorta). It’s always pretty special to visit Larry’s workshop while we are there. Larry is an internationally acclaimed knife maker who’s work is just fantastic. From his home forged Damascus blades, intricately carved blade handles, hand engraved everything, precious metal inlays ... unbelievable workmanship. I took these pictures of his latest project in progress .. an Inca warrior inspired piece being made for a collector. Look closely and you can see the artwork he started with and some of the intricate carving already started. This piece will have some $5,000 to $10,000 worth of gold involved before it’s finished. Just WOW!

So here it is ... Saturday the 8th of February. The Super Bowl is behind us, Impeachment is behind us (it is isn’t it?), Daytona is in front of us, Spring can’t be far behind and it’s a fine looking morning here in Arizona. You folks in Maine remember — we love you all and hope to see you and green grass soon!