Back to Utah

We finally finished all our business in Arizona--house closing, building permit, bids for leveling and grading the site for our pole barn, and ordered the pole barn kit from Sutherland Lumber in Sierra Vista. Time to head home. Steve will go back in about a month when the pole barn kit is delivered. He decided it would be fun to build it himself. Hmmmm. Maybe. I think he's going to try and round up a little help from some of our new friends.

Ellie and Tex knew something was up and didn't want to be left behind; they planted themselves in the doorway of the Royal Palms and watched us as we packed things up and secured the house. We spent the first night on the road at my brother Jeff's in Dewey. He's the one who's built a house and gorgeous home up on a hill overlooking Prescott Valley. Steve built his wine cellar for him. Jeff has bees now, and chickens. Any family member that visits gets to have a chicken named after him or her. So far, there's Little Dawn, Susannah, Lolly, and Car Car. Car Car is me--that's the name my younger brothers started calling me when they were learning to talk. How they got that from "Sandy" is a mystery, but it stuck. I am "Aunt Car" to all my nieces and nephews. That's "my" chicken in the picture. The patio is Jeff's. It's much larger and grander than we will have at the new house, but I can see something like it on a smaller scale, so I took a picture.

We spent the second night at the NFS campground in Red Canyon, between Panguitch and Bryce Canyon National Park. It's a nice little campground right off the highway, and has some nice big pull-through sites that were perfect for us. We were quite a parade--Steve driving the Royal Palms pulling the trailer , followed by Kermit the Truck with me at the wheel. We got settled in our campsite early enough to take a hike in Casto Canyon, just a few miles from the campground. People call it a mini-Bryce Canyon, and they're right. The area has miles of trails suitable for hiking, mountain biking, ATVing, and horseback riding. We were there late in the day, when all the ATVers had gone back to their camps to suck down some beers, and had the place pretty much to ourselves.

That's it for this trip. My next blog entries will probably be in July or August. We plan to head up to Idaho then for some canoeing and kayaking. maybe our friends, Jim and Janice, will join us again.

It's Not Easy Being Green

The Varleys have a farm truck. No laughing, please. We decided a truck would be a good idea, both for hauling constructions materials to the new house from Sierra Vista and/or Tucson, as well as hauling things from our Salt Lake house to the dump and/or Deseret Industries (Utah's version of Goodwill and St. Vincent dePaul). Steve got on the internet and started researching used trucks, and by far the best deal are trucks that used to belong to the National Forest Service. They are in amazing good shape, the government has performed all the regular maintenance, and they are much, much cheaper than equivalent trucks that are not painted Forest Service green. This one is a 2003 Silverado with 72,000 miles, crew cab, and new tires. Runs great and drives like a dream. We'll add a camper shell and a hitch, and Steve can haul the trailer down loaded with stuff for the new house, and not have to put so much wear and tear on the Royal Palms. Now all we have to do is sell one of our cars. Steve thinks we should sell my Subaru Outback and I think we should sell his Honda CRV. Maybe we'll do what we did the last time we needed to sell something and couldn't decide--put both on the market and see which one sells first. I'm not going to give up my heated seats without a fight, though.

The other picture is a not-so-good shot of Omar's Highway Chef Restaurant at the Triple T Truck Stop at Mile Marker 268 on I-10 at the south end of Tucson. We stopped there by chance to get gas, were starving and decided to try the restaurant. There was a big sign as we walked in proclaiming it to be The Food Network's #2 Choice of "Best 18-Wheeler Food Stops." Omar himself was sitting at the cash register as we walked in. The tables were manned (womanned?) by waitresses who looked like they'd been there all their lives; not one of them was younger than 50, and few looked under 60. Some were motherly, some were hard-boiled, and some were funny and wise-cracking. All were friendly and effiicient, and kept Steve's coffee cup filled. No need to refill my Diet Coke--it came in a 32 oz. glass! Ice water and tall plastic glasses on each table to help yourself. The food was great. And reasonably priced. Steve had a Spanish Omelet (breakfast is served 24 hours) and I had a patty melt on a wonderful marbled rye and onion rings. Our waitress told me the onion rings were the frozen kind, not homemade, but were very good. She was right. We're putting Omar's on our list of roadfood stops, for sure.

The Home Tour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAOho_-F29w
Steve figured out how to get the home tour onto YouTube, and I figured out how to upload the link here. It was our first movie, and unedited, so please be kind. Ignore me and just look at how cool the house is.

I took the pictures of some of the plants in bloom around the property. Prickly pear, mesquite, and yellow daisy-like things. I'm planning on making some planting areas in the front of the house where all the gravel is and transplanting some of these and some others here. I picked up a brochure at the library the other day from the county extension service that lists the native plants of Cochise County according to how much water they need. Prickly pear needs no water, mesquite needs a little, and I don't know about the daisies, but since they're growing along with everything else, I'd guess not much.

Settling In

We've been busy, although from these pics, it looks like we've mostly been busy relaxing. I drove up to Sun City West to pick up my parents and bring them down to the house for Mother's Day weekend. We had a great time. We went to the big Festival de la Primavera at the monastery in St. David on Saturday, where I fell in love with another Mexican rug. My parents bought it for us for a housewarming present. Steve and I are argui8ng about whether it should go on the wall (Steve) or floor (me). It started out on the floor, but is now draped over a chair. I don't want to hang it up and put holes in the walls until we get furniture in and decide where the rug will stay. Other than the festival, we spent a lot of time hanging out on the patio. All the pictures were taken with my new camera that Steve surprised me with for Mother's Day. It's been years since I've had my own camera. This one is a cinch to use and takes great pictures. And little movies. haven't done that yet, but I will.

Yesterday on a trip to Benson, we stopped in at the western shop next to Ace Hardware and Safeway for a stampede string for Steve's new straw cowboy hat he bought at the festival. I wandered to the back of the store and started looking at cowboy boots. I've been wanting a pair of red ones for a long time. they didn't have any red ones in my size, but I found these, on sale, and fell in love with them. They are on my feet now.

We are still working on a bulding permit for our pole barn (storage building). Thought we had it all set, but when the permit arrived, they flood zone people said we had to be 250 feet from the wash instead of the 50 to 100 feet they quoted us originally. There isn't that much room where we'd plan to put the barn, so back to square one. Found a new site, called the planning people to check it out, and got more glitches. They driveway can't run over the septic leach field because it "might break the lines", even though utility trucks and big machines used to build our house had been running over that area for months. After some careful measuring, we were able to just squeeze in the driveway between the leach field and the property line and still meet code. I just faxed the new site plan over to Planning and Zoning in Bisbee; we hope to get the okay quickly so we can order the pole barn kit from Sutherland Lumber. Actually, if it goes through, it will probably be a better location anyway. It was going to cost $4000 to grade the site and do the driveway because it was very uneven ground and we'd have had to install a culvert to deal with a drainage. The new site is already level, and there are no drainage issues. We were initially worried that it would block our best view of the mountains, but we don't think it will. Cross your fingers and toes that it all works out.

Official AZ Homeowners

Hurray! We did it! After signing a stack of papers literally 2 inches thick (Steve measured!), on Wednesday morning, we now own a solar home on four acres in St. David, AZ, or at least we will in 30 years. We moved out of our real estate agent's front yard and out to our little house on the prairie, umm, desert. We spent the rest of Wednesday unloading the trailer we has hauled from Salt Lake with some things to make the place livable and semi-comfortable--a bed, dishes and pots and pans, a camping table and chairs, TV and DVD player and a couple of living room chairs. None of us (dogs included) slept very well the first night--too many new creaks, hums, and other house sounds. Last night was a little better.

Yesterday was getting-established-in-the-community day. We went to the power company and got the electricity in our name, established an account at the local credit union, got library cards. We met our nearest neighbor, Keith, and his dogs, Lobo and Tramp. Keith is an old motorcycle guy/ex-hippie who scrounges around in the desert for downed mesquite and manzanita, and makes really beuatiful rustic furniture that he sells in upscale shops in the little tourist towns around here.. He had a really cool bar stool that I thought would look great in our kitchen. He would give them to us wholesale at $125 apiece, but we need three, so I'll have to think about it.
And save my pennies.

Today we went shopping and spent a couple hundred dollars on little things--shampoo, laundry detergent, paper towel holder, shower curtain rod, etc. It's amazing how fast that stuff adds up. We are also getting used to all the new appliances, and running into a few problems. I've cooked on a gas range all my life and this one is electric--definitely a learning curve.l The dishwasher and fridge are great, with the ice cube dispenser far superior than the one in our SaltLake house.
The shower controls in both bathrooms needed some tweaking. The installer had set them so the handle wouldn't go past warm, apparently so we wouldn't accidentally scald ourselves, probably for liability purposes. Steve and Glenn, the general contractor, were able to take fix them, so we can have nice hot showers instead of lukewarm ones. Our new washer, however, is another story. It's a front loader, and when it tries to spin, it makes horrendous noises and bucks and shakes halfway across the room. Doesn't matter how large, small, heavy, or light the load--it does the same thing. Luckily, being brand-new, it's under warranty. The good news is that there's an authorized service person right in Benson. The bad news is that his repairman is out sick, so we'll have to wait until Monday to get it looked at. I counted my undies and have enough to get by until then.

Our son Chris and his girlfriend, Sharon, are coming up for the weekend. We're looking forward to showing them around.

Unexpected Fun

Yesterday, we had planned to go to the Bluegrass Festival in the park in Benson. We had taken the dogs for a hike in the wash near where we're staying, messed around for a little while, and finally wandered into Benson in the early afternoon for the festival. When we got there, close to 1 p.m., we discovered that it ended at 4:45, admission was $12 apiece, and you had to bring your own lawn chairs if you didn't want to sit on the grass. Didn't seem worth it, so we left, stopped at the Benson Ice Cream Stop for hot fudge and banana shakes, and decided to take a Sunday drive to see some of the country instead. We drove down a little country road, through a town (smaller than St. David, which is pretty small) called Pomerene; we were headed toward the mountains when we saw a small sign in the middle of a cluster of mailboxes on a side road, pointing the way to something called Gammon's Gulch and a donkey rescue center. Intrigued, we turned in, and soon found ourselves at a parking lot to what looked like a set for Western movie. We were the only car in the lot, but got out to have a look, and were met by the owner and proprietor, James "Jay" Gammon. It WAS a Western movie set, lovingly built by Jay, and furnished with antiques from 1870 to the early 1930's that Jay has scrounged from all over Arizona or had donated. All the buildings are "real," not just fronts, and are mostly very old buildings that were ready to be torn down that Jay discovered, took apart, and reassembled here. Jay's father was chief of security for John Wayne in the 1960's, and Jay has been around the making of westerns all his life, as a set designer and a bit player. If you remember the John Wayne movie "Rio Bravo," the little Mexican boy leading the funeral procession and beating on a drum was Jay. Gammon's Gulch has been the setting for many movies, mostly independent student films, but also some for the History Channel and some Hollywood ones too. Jay has met and worked with many Hollywood actors and had an opinion about them all: Val Kilmer--"very hard to work with, full of himself;" Kurt Russell--"the worst. Thought he was better than everyone else;" Peter Coyote--"toilet mouth, but a really nice guy;" Sam Elliott--"great guy, really friendly and down-to-earth." Jay took us on a personal tour of all the buildings, talking a mile a minute about where everything came from, and obviously very proud of his little town. He even played us a tune on the honkey-tonk piano in the saloon as well as a number on the banjo. He and his wife live on site, in the Grand Hotel at the end of the street. The price for our personal tour? Seven dollars each, payable only after the tour was finished and only if we liked what we saw. We did both, and left smiling, promising to spread the word and bring our friends. The donkey rescue next door is only open for tours by appointment only, but we took the phone number and will save it for another visit.

Back "Home" in Benson

We are back in Benson (actually, St. David), ready to close on our new home. Yep, we bought it! We got an amazing deal--apparently the builder had several spec homes that weren't moving in this market, and wanted to sell before it went into foreclosure. It was originally listed at $214,900 when it went on the market in October, dropped to 189,000 in January, and had just dropped again to 179,000 when we looked at it for the second time in early March. We made an offer of 167,500, figuring that would give them room to counteroffer, but they accepted the offer as written. We couldn't believe it! So, for the past month, we've been mailing and emailing paperwork back and forth to the mortgage company, the realtor, and the title company. The amount of paper is staggering--we half more than a half inch worth of copies! Things certainly have changed since the last time we bought a house (20 years ago). Both the realtor and the lender agree, saying that it gets worse every year. Some of it I can understand, but some of it is totally ridiculous. The lender actually required a "motivation letter" saying why we wanted to buy a house in Arizona. Why that is any of their business is anyone's guess. Anyway, all is well; our closing is scheduled for Wednesday, but may happen a day early, which would be great.

We arrived here on Tuesday for the home inspection and final walk-through on Wednesday. We parked the RV on the property Tuesday night, but, because of liability issues, the realtors didn't want us staying on the property after that one night until it's officially ours, even though it was ok with the owner. Sydney, our realtor, offered her front yard as an alternative to $30plus a night in an RV park, and we gratefully accepted. She lives on 15 acres, has a huge yard, horses, and two dogs who welcomed Ellie and Tex like long-lost pals. There is a lot to see and do around this area, and we've been doing day trips here and there. Once we close and have the keys to the house, we'll be moving some things in. Although we won't be moving here permanently for at least a year, we'll be making lots of trips down with stuff, and working on building a storage building and a garage/workshop.

The pictures in this post show a couple of views of our house and some of the flora on our property. The barrel cactus are starting to bloom, and prickly pear and cholla won't be far behind. There are lots of little desert wildflowers in purple, yellow, and white. The mesquite, which in the winter looked black and dead, like they had been in a fire, are beginning to green up too. The elevation is 4000 feet here--too cold for saguaro and citrus, but I can have my favorite ocotillo. My mom said she'd buy me one as a housewarming present (Thanks, Mom!).

Update on the Benson House

Today is Friday, March 5th. We forewent (is that a word?) the drive on the Apache Trail with the Cuatros folks to come into Apache Junction and take care of business. We have been proceeding on the Benson house. Sydney, our agent, emailed us copies of all the legal documents, disclosure forms, well and road maintenance agreements, etc., and it all looks good. We are trying to get ahold of her to set up an on-site meeting with the builder so we can get more info about how all the solar stuff works, warranties, and so forth. We've contacted a lender, and, while we haven't formally applied for the loan, it looks like we won't have any trouble qualifying. Our plan, if it works out, is to drive back to Benson and meet with the builder on site Monday, and, if things still look good, make an offer soon after that.

Sadly, Chris and Sharon had made other plans for this weekend and won't be able to join us for a reprise of the Boulder Canyon hike. However, we offered to lead any interested Cuatros Estados folks who want to come, and it looks like we may have a few takers. That will be tomorrow, as Sunday we hope to be leaving for Benson.

Hiking in Boulder Canyon

Today is Thursday, March 4th. I got up this morning and met Edith for our birding walk around the campground loops. We saw quite a few birds, including some Lesser Goldfinches, lots of cactus wrens perched atop saguaros, a couple of cardinals, a White-Crowned Sparrow, a beautiful hummingbird with an irridescent red throat, a Gila Woodpecker, and tons of grackles. We watched one of the cactus wrens fly into his (or her?) nest in a cholla, and, with the binoculars, could see his tail sticking out and his head peeking out to look at us. Very cute! I will try to get back and take a picture with the sort-of-telephoto and see if I can get a decent one.I also learned to identify the chattering call of the cactus wren.

Afterwards, Steve and loaded the dogs into the Samurai and set off to find a trailhead. I remembered seeing by Canyon Lake as we drove in yesterday. It was about 2 miles back up the highway, right across the road from the marina. We parked the car and set out. What a beautiful hike! Good trail, varied terrain, and gorgeous views in every direction. At one point, a huge saguaro cactus had fallen over and was blocking the trail. Luckily, it had fallen a LONG time ago and has lost all its spikes--climbing over it wasn't as crazy as it looks! We talked to some people we met along the way who have hiked it before. They said it goes on for miles and miles into the Superstition Mountains. We hiked for two miles, to a little spring and pool, before turning around. With all the rain the area has had lately, the desert is really green, and there were lots of little wildflowers everywhere. Too early for cactus blossoms, though.

Back at camp now and heading out of the canyon back to Apache Junction to check on phone messages and post this. I’m going to call Chris and see if he and Sharon are interested in driving up on Saturday or Sunday and doing the Boulder Canyon hike with us.

Tortilla

Today is Wednesday, March 3rd.We left Chris’s this morning and drove to Tortilla Campground in the Tonto National Forest, on the edge of the Superstition Mountains, home of the famous Lost Dutchman Mine. The campsites are huge, with nice views of the canyon and the rocky cliffs. There’s sewer and water at each of the 70 or so campsites, but no electricity. The campground is tiered in three levels, so if feels much smaller and more intimate than it really is. The price is right--$3 a night.

We’re here for a rally with Cuatros Estados, one of the FMCA Rving groups we joined. This is our first outing with them. We got here around noon, and welcome festivities and potluck happy hour didn’t begin until four, so we quickly set up camp and, with directions from John and Mary, the campground hosts, set off for a little hike. We waded across the creek at the edge of the campground and found the trail that eventually led to the tip top of “The Boot”--a big rock formation that towers over the camp. The views from up there were stupendous in every direction. The lake is called Canyon Lake, and it’s about two miles from the campground. Can you pick out the Royal Palms in the campground? We’re in the center tier of campsites, about in the middle.

There are 12 rigs here for the rally. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming. Most of the people are long-term members and know each other pretty well, but there are two other new couples besides us. There are different activities and sightseeing in the area planned most days, but tomorrow is a free day until happy hour and fajita dinner. I’m meeting one of the other women, Edith, at 8:30 a.m. for a birding walk around the campground. She doesn’t claim to be an expert, but others say she is very knowledgeable, and I’m sure I’ll learn a lot. There are lots of birds here; I’ve already spotted several cardinals, which we don’t have in Utah. After that, Steve and I are planning to take another hike, probably from a trailhead we saw as we drove by Canyon Lake this morning.

Florence Junction to Tempe

After leaving our campsite in the desert gardens south of Florence, we proceeded another 40 or so miles northward to a BLM area near Florence Junction. It was listed in our Don Wright Free Camping Guide, but the directions were so vague that I was sure we wouldn’t be able to find it. “From the junction of Highway 60 and Highway 89, head past the rest area on the north, past a tree on the south, cross the railroad tracks, go south through a gate about a mile.” The highway was 79, not 89, and we saw a rest area but no tree. Just past the railroad tracks was an unmarked dirt road with a cattle guard and gate. Miracle of miracles! About a mile back were lots of nice campsites. We chose one by some big trees next to a dry wash. It had a campfire ring and a fair amount of trash; I cleaned up the trash and Steve scouted for firewood, and we had a nice spot with a campfire. There was less cactus for the dogs to pick up, but there were cows. Ellie’s herding or guarding instinct kicked in, and she patrolled our perimeter, carefully herding the cows away anytime they got too close to camp. Tex found the cows, or rather cowpies, irresistible. He would go out on patrol and come home brown and smelly from rubbing himself. We had to bathe him not once but twice. He hates baths, and felt very sorry for himself.

From that campsite, it was only about an hour and half to our son, Chris’s, in Tempe. We arrived Saturday morning, and he and Steve spent the next several days tearing apart and then rebuilding his patio roof. I played clean up crew one day, then spent another checking out the yarn shops and quilt shops in the area. On our last evening there, we went to a really fun restaurant called Oregano’s, near ASU. The food was delicious and the portions gargantuan. Possibly the best part was the dessert--a huge half-baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, baked in its own little iron skillet and brought to the table piping hot with a huge scoop of ice cream on top. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Even Steve and Chris, who are not normally big on sweets, ate their fair share. I should have had the camera, but, as usual, it didn’t even occur to me to bring it along.

Home Sweet Home?

Benson has been touted as a great place to retire. At about 3500 feet, it's considered high desert rather than low desert, and, while not too cold in winter, it doesn't get the summer heat the way the Phoenix area does. One of Steve's goals was to check out this area as a retirement place for us. He has developed an extreme aversion to cold and snow, and really wants to move to a warmer climate. For me, it's going to take some convincing, at least to do it as soon as he'd like. I love my life in Salt Lake, and would have a hard time leaving. My grandson, Jack, is at my favorite age, and his little brother isn't far behind. I don't want to miss that. My friends, my job at the quilt shop--these are important to me. I'm not ready to give them up and start all over somewhere else.

Nevertheless, as we often do when we travel, we looked at houses for sale, a little more seriously this time. Steve had seen one on the internet that he really liked, and, when we got to Benson, he contacted the agent and arranged for us to go see it. It didn't quite come up to his expectations, but Sydney, our agent, took us by a couple of others, and gave us a list of still others for sale. We drove around, nothing really catching our eye, until we found this one. It was one that Sydney had almost dismissed as being too small, but we were intrigued because it is a total solar home. We drove by, peeked in the windows, liked what we saw, and arranged to see the inside the next day. Both of us got pretty excited.

The house sits on four acres with gorgeous views of mountains all around. It's 1300 square feet, with 3 bedrooms and two baths, and nicely laid out. The little courtyard in front is off the master bedroom. Radiant hot water heat in the floor, heat and AC all solar-powered. Downside: no garage or storage for all our stuff. The price is rockbottom, though. they started out at $219,00, and it has dropped a couple of times, now at $179,000. It's never been occupied, and the builder apparently has several others he hasn't sold and is eager to sell before it goes into foreclosure.

It's a longshot. Steve is working the numbers now. But IF we can get the price down still lower, and IF his inheritance is enough to pay off some of our debt, we MAY be able to swing it. It would be a second home for now, that we could use a base for winter traveling while we build a garage, workshop, and storage area, and wait for the grandkids to grow up a little so I could bear leaving them. Stay tuned.

Camping in the Boondocks

We’ve been slowly making our way from Holtville up towards Tempe and our son, Chris, where we’ll end up tomorrow. First came Benson, which is worth a blog entry of its own (see “Home Sweet Home?”). Then we headed to the town of Bowie and Fort Bowie, which was a favorite place of ours several years ago when we did our first “Tour de Arizona” to celebrate our retirement. Fort Bowie, in case you don’t remember, is a National Historic Site that can only be reached by a 1.5 mile hike each way. It was built and occupied in the 1860’s to protect mail routes and emigrants from Cochise and his Apaches. The hike itself follows the path that the soldiers took to the fort, and includes an old cemetery, ruins of a stagecoach stop, and the site of a battle between the army and the Apaches for control of a spring in the area. Once you get to the fort, there are foundations and partial walls of buildings as well as many photographs and artifacts from when it was operational. We found a great campsite at Indian Breadrocks National Recreation Area , about halfway between the trailhead to the fort and the town of Bowie. I have no idea why it is called “breadrocks,” but the rock formations there are truly unique and beautiful.

Our next stop was Florence. There were no boondocking sites listed in our trusty free camping guide, so I dug out our Arizona atlas. The area map showed some state trust and BLM lands off highway 79, about 20 miles south of Florence, so we set out to find them. We turned up Freeman Rd., a very good dirt roads, and soon found smaller dirt roads branching off it. We chose one at random, and struck gold! Although I had never thought of using the word “lush” to describe a desert, that’s exactly what this place is. I’ve never seen so many cactus and desert plants in one place--all huge and healthy. We were there two nights. The only downside was that the dogs attracted cactus like red flowers attract hummingbirds; they’d pick it up on their legs, feet, and pads, and then get it stuck on their noses, chins, and in their mouths when they’d try to pull it out. Naturally, neither of them liked us “helping” get the spines out. Ellie bore it with a fair amount of patience, but Tex, as soon as he saw us coming at him with the hemostats, took off in the opposite direction.

Today we drove north from Florence to Florence Junction and found another good boondocking site. We’re camped by a wash, under some trees. The desert is still nice and green here, but there seems to be less of the “jumping cholla’ that plagued the dogs at our last camp. Or else they’ve finally gotten smarter about where to step.

Adios, Mexico

Thursday was our final day in San Felippe. I had a mocha fria and homemade cinnamon roll at Baja Java and tried to post the blog entries I’d written, but the internet was very slow today, and just didn’t seem to want to upload my photos.I saved them to post when we’re back in the states with better service. Jim and Janice took their Hobie kayak out on the sea when the tide came in, and then I took a turn with Jim as well, Steve being in the middle of “Master and Commander” and content to sit on the beach and read. We paddled out quite a ways, and saw a couple of jellyfish pulsing along. In the evening, we drove into town for dinner at a restaurant on the malecon. Everyone but me has tired of seafood at this point--they all had various Mexican dishes; I had “Governor Tacos”--chunks of shrimp with grilled onion and melted cheese folded into corn tortillas and topped with the chef’s special sauce. Oh, and a couple of pina coladas to wash the down.

Yesterday, we crossed back into the U.S. at Mexicali. Border crossings have always been pretty much ho-hum for us, but not this one. After questioning us as to where we’d been, how long we’d been there, and what we were bringing back (all very politely), we were told to move our RV to the side and wait. After about 15 minutes, they brought out the canine squad. The handler and the dog checked everything inside and out of both our vehicles pretty thoroughly, and left. We thought that was that, but no. Two more border guards came over and spent another 10 minutes re-inspecting our Samurai, again, inside and out. They felt around all the padding in the doors, upholstery, and window visors. They peered down the door frames with flashlights and poked and prodded up under the chassis, the wheel wells, and any other crack or hole they could find. Eventually, they appeared satisfied that we were not smuggling in guns, drugs, or undocumented Mexican nationals; they handed us back our passports and said we could be on our way. Jim and Janice got the same treatment, although perhaps not quite so thorough. Once back in the states, we speculated on why. Do they do this to all RVs? Why here and not when we came through Nogales a few months ago? Did we fit some kind of profile? Maybe retirees are smuggling drugs across the border to make up for lost pensions in this economy? Enquiring minds want to know.

We spent last night at the short-term BLM area near Holtville, and introduced Jim and Janice to the joys of a long soak in the hot springs. This morning, we went our separate ways. Jim and Janice were heading to Quartszite and then home to Salt Lake. We really enjoyed traveling with them again--it’s been many years since we’ve done that--and hope to plan another trip with them this summer. Steve and I are headed to Benson, which is east of Tucson. Steve has heard that it’s a popular place to retire, and wants to check it out. We are currently camped out in the desert at a county park about 20 miles west of Casa Grande. I found it in my Don Wright Free Campground book, and yes, this one is actually free.

Still San Felippe

Today is Thursday. We leave here tomorrow and it's going to be hard. This place has really grown on me. The weather has gotten warmer each day. Janice and I go on a long beach walk every morning when the tide is out. We've found lots of wonderful shells, some of which are inhabited by hermit crabs. The sea is much warmer than I had expected, and yesterday I couldn't resist going for a swim. It was wonderful! Ellie was not happy about it, however, and kept swimming out to "rescue" me. She takes her herding job very seriously, and when I'd send her back to shore, she would station herself close to the water and give me the border collie eye, as if to will me back to dry land where she thought I belonged. Tex prefers watching the action from under his favorite palapa; he leaves it only to chase away marauding gulls or come in for his dinner.

More Rocky Point Photos

These are the ones that mysteriously disappeared from my desktop, but suddenly reappeared when I tried to recopy them. The cool ocean scene is the inside of a beachside restaurant called Gamma's. We went there on a recommendation of a local selling fresh fish out of coolers down by the shrimp trawlers. Did I mention that fresh caught shrimp here is $5 a pound and fresh flounder is $4 a pound? We are eating as much of it as we can. Gamma's specialty (we found out after we had ordered our fish tacos) is a whole fried fish--generally flounder or grouper) that they bring to the table with tortillas and all the trimmings so you can make your own fish tacos. We were going to go back and try it but ran out of time. We'll keep it in mind for another trip. I have a couple of photos of the shrimp trawlers, but the internet is slow here, so I'll add them later.

San Felippe

We left Rocky Point on Sunday, Valentine's Day, and drove most of the day. The roads were actually very good, vor the most part, but we were slowed down by three military checkpoints 9two of which conducted thorough searches of our rigs) and one bad stretch of a pockmarked, bumpy road under construction. We are staying at an RV park called Pete's Camp, about 7 miles north of of town. It's an odd little community of mostly Americans living, or at least wintering in dwellings that range from run-down shacks to elegant little villas. Camping is on the beach below the houses. Fifteen dollars American per night gives you a ramada for shade, a palapa in front, and a beautiful beach. No hook ups, but there is drinking water, a dump, dumpster for garbage, and a restuarant and bar with Wi-Fi. Since we are on the opposite side of the Sea of Cortez from Puerto Pinasco, we get sunrises over the water instead of sunsets. The pictures i took and theoretically loaded onto the computer are nowhere to be found at this moment, while I'm trying to write this, so I'll add them to my next post.

I somehow came down with a cold between here and Rocky Point, so I've mostly been sitting on the beach, sneezing and blowing my nose. Still, as a friend on Facebook pointed out to Janice when she was complaining of the same thing in Rocky Point, if you're going to have a cold, the beach is a pretty good place to have one.

Mexico at last!

Hooking up with Jim and Janice proved more difficult than we had thought. I checked in on the internet at the Ajo library one more time before we left, and, although Janice had posted a message on Facebook to her son saying that she was so excited that we were on our way, there was no indication of where in Puerto Pinasco they were staying. We found a beachside campsite at Concha de la Mar, and I began scouring the area for signs of Jim and Janice. There was a big RV park, Playa la Bonita, right next door, and I checked at their office to see if they were registered there. Nope. I drove to the other large RV park at the other end of town and inquired. Nope again. Our RV park had good internet service, so I posted our location on Facebook and asked them to come find us. The next morning, they came driving up. Turns out, they were in Playa la Bonita, right next door, all along!! Janice had sent us their location, even their site #, but their internet service was flaky and it never got posted. We never did find out why the office did not seem to know they were there.

Our days at Rocky Point were great. We had a lot of fun strolling along the beautiful beach, walking on the malecon, and poking around the harbor where the shrimp trawlers come in and the fishing charters go out. We watched the pelicans crowd around the fishermen who were cleaning their catches, waiting for their share. Each evening, the sunset over the Sea of Cortez was more glorious than the night before. Our nights, however, were not nearly so pleasant. This is Mardi Gras week; the carnaval started at 4 p.m each afternoon, and officially ended with fireworks each night about 10 p.m. That would have been fine, but unofficial parties on the beaches and in the city park continued well into the night. Loud music with a deep, throbbing bass blasted past 2 a.m. Sirens woo-woo’ed off and on until 4 a.m. Sleep was impossible. After three nights of this, we decided we’d seen enough of Puerto Pinasco and decided to move on to San Felippe, our original destination

The last thing I did at Rocky Point was to fulfill one of my all-time fantasies--gallop a horse along the beach. They wouldn't let me actually ride it in the surf, but, other than that (and the stupide Horse for Rent blanket flapping in the breeze), it was perfect.

Puerto Pinasco

We arrived here today, in search of our friends, Jim and Janice, who decided to come to Rocky Point instead of San Felippe because it was closer and they don't have as much time as we do. Unfortunately, Janice was not specific about which RV park they ended up in. We are camped in Concha de la Mar, right on the beach. No hookups, but only $10 a night. There are only about 5 or 6 other RVs camped here, so it's nice andf quiet. The beach is beautiful and the weather is balmy. The manager speaks excellent English, and has agreed to help me with my Spanish. He has an adorable almost-two year old son named Alan. Good internet connection at the park office. I'll take some pictures later and/or tomorrow and post them. Looking forward to a great sunset over the Sea of Cortez. Now off the jump in the Samurai and see if i can hunt down Janice and Jim.

Heading Home

We got word this afternoon that Steve's mom passed away today, peacefully, in her sleep. She was 99, and had been in an assisted living center for a little more than a year. Her quality of life hasn't been very good for some time, but she rarely complained, was always gracious and grateful, and kept her sense of humor right up until the end.

We are leaving Holtville in the morning and driving to my parents' in Sun City West to pick our Honda and drive home to Salt Lake. We will leave the Royal Palms at their place, or at my brother's in Prescott, so we can come back after the funeral.

Goodbye Quartzsite, Hello Hot Springs

We left Quartzsite yesterday, after visiting the RV show in the big tent one last time. It was an expensive stop. Steve has been talking about getting a little portable Honda generator ever since we started rv-ing. The Royal Palms has a generator, of course, that we need to use pretty much daily when we’re not hooked up to outside electricity, which is almost all the time. The generator powers the microwave and the electrical outlets that we use to run Mr. Coffee in the morning and the air popper in the evening. We also fire it up when the batteries run down, especially when it’s cloudy and the solar panels can’t do their work. It works just fine, but it runs on propane--two days of cold and/or cloudy weather where the solar panels aren’t working and/or we need to run the furnace, and we are out of propane, which we need to run the fridge and the stove. Hence, the need for an additional generator--one that is light, quiet, and efficient, and doesn’t use propane. The Honda fits the bill. It weighs less than 50 pounds and “sips” gasoline. A gallon of gas will last 12-15 hours with light use or four hours with heavy use. Unfortunately, such efficiency doesn’t come cheap. We paid $1000, which is a pretty standard price, I guess. It works like a charm, though, which is the important thing, since propane can be hard to come by sometimes, but gas is always available.

I can’t leave Quartzsite without talking about the bakery. We spent a lot of money in there, visiting it almost every time we went to town. The Quartzsite Bakery is housed in an old double-wide trailer, with tacky Western murals painted on the side. A sign out front proclaims “We’re Open! Get Your Buns in Here!” There are always cars parked out front, attesting to its popularity with both the locals and the snowbirds. Inside, there’s a big display case with an amazing variety of doughnuts, muffins, cookies, and pastries. The kitchen is in the back, and besides all the pastries, they make at least three kinds of bread every day, and eight or ten different kinds of pies. They have a few mismatched tables and folding chairs when you can hang out with your friends and have a cup of coffee and a cream-filled Bismark or an apple fritter or a sunshine muffin( carrots and coconut and raisins and bran) or anything else in the display case. Yum! They open early, and by noon, half the case is empty, which is when I took the photo.

We are now camped in the long-term area at the Holtville Hot Springs. We had hoped to go to our favorite spot back in the short-term area, about 3 miles from the actual hot springs, but this area got hit with the same storm we did up in Quartzsite, and the dirt road is a series of mudholes. Steve was worried about getting stuck, and reminded me that Good Sam Emergency Road Services would only pay for one tow-out per year; we decided not to chance it. We’re hoping it will dry out later in the week so we can still move out there by the weekend. Meanwhile, we are camped close to our good friend, John Ruch, and his dog, Heyyou, and it’s a 5 minute or less walk to the springs for a good soak. Life is good.

Storm of the Century

Well, maybe not the whole century, but it was a doozy! Remember how I reported that it began to rain on Tuesday, right after we returned from our trail ride to Dripping Springs? It rained all night, off and on all day Wednesday, and then Wednesday evening, the wind came up and the rain really started in earnest.. By Thursday afternoon, the dry wash we were camped near had turned into a rushing river and had overflowed its banks, and the wind had reached gale force, howling at a steady 50-70 miles per hour. Our campsite became a lake, and we moved to higher ground, tucking in behind a big rig for protection from the wind. In our hurry, we left our big “patio” mat behind. Although it was anchored down with rocks all around, that didn’t make much of a difference--that’s it in the picture, all crumpled up, along with someone else’s chair. I did manage to rescue it before it blew away across the desert. The pictures show the wash-turned-river, and what it looked like after the rain stopped, Thursday evening. Those tire tracks are from a jeep that was parked near our campsite; the owner got stuck in up to his hubs when he tried to move it, and had to be pulled out by another jeep.

We found out later that the storm devastated much of central and western Arizona. There were tornado warnings from Yuma to Parker (Quartzsite is halfway in between), and a twister actually touched down in Blythe, CA, 30 miles away, knocking over three semis. Wenden, another town about 30 miles away in another direction, got flooded out, and the whole population was evacuated to Salome, the next town over. Freeways were flooded and closed, power lines were down. Today, Saturday, you would never know anything had happened. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and there’s just a gentle breeze. Most of the rally folks left yesterday after the rain finally stopped and the ground began to dry out, but there are still a few of us here. I need to go to town today and do laundry, and to the bakery for some of their great bread and wonderful cookies and possibly a few of Steve’s favorite chocolate donuts, if there’s any left. We will leave tomorrow, destination still unknown. We have a week to hang out before meeting up with our friends, Jim and Janice, in Holtville.

Trail Riding

It rained during the night on Sunday, and we woke up to dark, ominous clouds. The forecast was for “partly cloudy and 20% chance of rain.” There was some discussion about cancelling the day’s rides because of possible flash flood danger in the numerous washes you go through on these trails; in the end, however, the powers-that-be decided it was safe to give it a try, as there were several places we could bail out of the ride if it started looking iffy. Ten adventurous couples in their jeeps lined up behind us and off we went to find Tank Pass. Steve and I were both pretty nervous--not only about the weather, but also about being able to find our way through the maze of little dirt trails in the desert. For some unknown reason, we were unable to load the trail map into our nice big Garmin nuvii GPS. Instead, we had to rely on our little handheld GPS, which doesn’t have nearly the detail, is in black and white instead of color, and is much harder to use, especially while driving on bumpy roads and holding a CB radio mike to give instructions to the group behind you. We took a wrong turn. And then another. And then another. Luckily, each time, we figured out our mistake within a 100 yards or less and were able to get back on the right track. Steve also remembered where several of the really cool points of interest were along the trail (the “jailhouse” quarry and a couple of old miners’ cabins), and the group really enjoyed those, particularly a couple from Ohio who had only been out west once before. They had been motorcycling for years, came out last year on a Gold Wing motorcycle and went jeeping with some friends. When they went home, they traded in their motorcycle and their car for a jeep! We got through the whole ride without rain, although there were gale-force winds at the top of Tank Pass. Everybody seemed to have a good time, including us, once we got over our initial nervousness. We would definitely lead a ride again, although not until we can figure out the GPS map thing.

Yesterday, after rain again during the night, we woke to a clear, brilliant blue sky, and lined up for a ride to Hogback and Dripping Springs. A lot of folks didn’t go out on Monday because of the weather and were making up for the lost day. There were 24 jeeps, one pickup truck, and our Suzuki, lined up and ready to go at 9 a.m. Despite the cumbersome group ( an ideal size is no more than 12-15 vehicles), we had a great time. The scenery was beautiful, the terrain rugged, and the obstacles were within our capabilities. I took a lot of pictures, but I guess I need lessons, or else more practice. Steve says my photos look like they were taken in a K-Mart parking lot instead of a rough, 4 wheel drive trail. I have to agree.

It started pouring rain as we got off the trail, and it rained hard and the wind blew from late afternoon through most of the night, ruining any prospect of Happy Hour around the campfire. Bright, clear skies again this morning, and several rides went out. We’re taking a rest day. Heading into town to shop, see about the brake lines on the Samurai, and get on the internet. Our campsite here in La Paz Valley is too far away from town to establish a reliable internet connection. Sometimes we can look at email, and occasionally send it, if it’s a small file, but that’s about it.