Arizona – The Wandering RVer

Adventuring Solo

Ever since leaving Florida, we have been making our way westward with the goal of reaching Tucson on March 18th. Steve would be working for Briter Products, a lithium ion battery company at an FMCA Rally. Since what I know about installing batteries, inverters and such is zilch, I would have several days on my own.

My first priority was to head to the post office to get those “special bolts” I’d been waiting for. When Steve ordered them, I looked up the closest post office to the Pima County Fairgrounds, where the rally was being held and told him to use that address. Silly me!! A little about Tucson Post Offices: there are 5 of them, one of them is within the Davis Mountain Air Force Base, completely inaccessible to non-military personnel, and only one of them accepts general delivery I was told. Guess which post office is closest to the fairgrounds, yep, the one on the base. Guess where my bolts were, on base! Long story short, I re-ordered the bolts, under my name because I couldn’t pick up mail addressed to my husband, and had them sent to the only post office accepting general delivery. Sheesh! Who knew this would be such a PIA!?!?!?!?

Interesting side note about Davis Mountain Air Force base, it has the world’s largest military aircraft cemetery.

Anyhow, we already established I couldn’t get on base, so I only got to drive by it. Miles and miles of planes!

In 2022, Steve and I visited Saguaro National Park, I didn’t tell you about it since I was slacking on writing blog posts. I really love the desert southwest, so I decided to revisit. Since we were there in March of 2022 and I would be there, also in March, I’m including some of the pictures from both visits.

I drove the loop trail again and stopped at many of the same locations. March is a great time to visit since it isn’t too hot and the wildflowers are blooming…

The Asian beetle blends in almost perfectly on this Brittlebush flower

But cacti were what I went to see!

Or, how about cacti AND wildflowers…

The barrel cacti had already bloomed, but the fruits were still forming…

You definitely do not want to fall into one of them!

Road runners are one of my favorite birds, but hard to get a good picture. I did see one, resting atop a dead saguaro…

As I was driving along, I thought I saw a saguaro in bloom. Knowing it was pretty early in the year for blooms, I almost didn’t stop to investigate, but I’m sure glad I did! As I was walking back to take a picture, I met a lady, Liz, who also seemed interested in the wildflowers, so I told her what I thought I had seen. Together, we walked a bit further and, sure enough, it was just starting to bloom.

On our walk back to the parking area, I told her all about our nomadic life and adventures. She gave me lots of suggestions of things to see and places to visit while we were in Tucson. She told me about her family and suggested maybe one day while I was there we could adventure together. We swapped phone numbers then she followed me on FB and IG. We said our goodbyes and I headed out.

I took the side road, which goes to a picnic area, and saw my first cristate or crested saguaro…

Zoomed in, I though it looked like an alien. Scientist still aren’t sure what causes this mutation, but I though it was pretty cool. If I had read more on the NPS website, I would have been able to find others in the park.

I was about 3/4 of the way around the Cactus Forest Auto Loop when I received a message from Liz. She and her son were at Javelina Rocks and was wondering if I’d be along soon. I let her know, I was only a few minutes out. When I arrived, it wasn’t hard to spot Liz and her son…

Liz was kind enough to come down to show me the easiest path to climb the formation. Once she pointed it out, she offered to stay below and take a picture of me…

Then she rejoined us and we admired the outstanding view…

It had been a great day. A visit to one of my favorite landscapes and a new friend!

Coming Up…

The Sky Island Scenic Byway

Into Arizona

On the way to Tucson, we visited Rope Lake Sate Park, just outside of Safford, AZ. I hadn’t really planned any day trips, it was just a place on the way. Had I done ANY research, I would have known, there is plenty to do!

The drive from New Mexico took us less time than we thought, so we arrived before check-in. A $10 day pass was our penalty. Luckily, on an overcast Friday in March, there was plenty of room for Waldo in the day use parking area. We disconnected the Jeep for a drive around the park while we waited for a call from the ranger’s station. In the loop we would be camping in, I saw some Gambel Quails, they always make me smile…

Mt. Graham was still wearing a thin blanket of snow…

Once we were settled into our site, we spent a relaxing afternoon playing Yahtzee (one of our favorite pastimes).

Looking at the map, I found several places of interest. The first was the Black Hills Rockhound Area, renowned for its deposits of fire agate.

Not one to miss a chance at picking up pretty rocks, we headed out. I spent our drive time reading about how to find and identify fire agate. I found a great post by The Rolling Rockhound which gave me, at least, a clue as to what we might find. I showed Steve what to look for and we set off it opposite directions. Every so often, I’d look up to make sure I could still see the Jeep…

In the end, we found lots of pieces of chalcedony and 2 containing fire agates. Without the proper tools and skills to reveal the agate, they will remain just pretty rocks in my collection.

Another area which drew my attention was the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area. I confess, I had to look up what “riparian” meant. For any of you who don’t know either, it means “relating to or situated on the banks of a river.”

There are lots of off-road trails, but since we still don’t have 4 wheel drive, we stuck to the easy trails.

Our first stop was the information kiosk and scenic overlook…

As with several other of the places we’ve visited lately, the spring wildflowers were dazzling…

With so much scenery to take in, it’s hard to see everything, but we did our best!

We realized how a campground, chosen strictly as a place en route to Steve’s upcoming job, really could be a destination for adventures! Until next week…

Coming up…

While Steve goes to work, Laura goes to play!

Out With The Old

Almost all of the bloggers I know do a special post to mark the end of the year. I always enjoy reading them. Inevitably, it makes me reflect on our own travels, trials and triumphs.

2018 held lots of promise for us as we began our first full year of RV living and working. We knew we’d be starting in Florida, but had no way of knowing for sure December 2018 would find us back there. Hell, there were times when we were broken down, I didn’t think we’d ever make it back to Florida. But we did. We met so many wonderful people along the way. People who changed our lives, possibly without ever knowing so.

I count us a dang lucky…our adventures have been many and our trials have been relatively few, given our lifestyle.

I thought long and hard about how I was going to commemorate 2018. Usually I end up trying to pick a favorite picture from each month – a top 12, if you will. 12? Who was I kidding? We took pictures in at least 13 states, visited 15 national parks/monuments/preserves and drove through western Canada. I couldn’t possibly narrow it down to 12!

My solution was a collage made from every state we spent any real time in (and Canada will just have to forgive my exclusion of them in this post). The following collages are in alphabetical order, not the order we visited. So without further ado, here is 2018 in review…

I don’t know for sure what is in store for us for the next year. We have some tentative plans and lots of hopes.

I sincerely hope 2019 brings health and happiness to you and yours! Thank you for wandering along with us.

A Strange Twist of Fate – aka Unplanned Happiness

Our original plan when we left Texas was to head to the Grand Canyon. I hadn’t been making RV park reservations because we weren’t dead set on the dates we would arrive anywhere. This turned into a problem when I started looking for a place near the canyon. Everywhere was booked solid. Apparently there is a water crisis in the park and outlying parks are picking up the slack. I had resolved we would just drive on to Las Vegas and see the Grand Canyon on some future trip. This had left me a little cranky and it didn’t help that Waldo was overheating – again. As I sat in my seat, sulking a bit, and perhaps muttering a few profane words, Steve pulled off the highway and turned into the parking lot of the Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP for short). Hmmm, maybe we should find an RV park near here and explore. I called the Sunny Valley RV Resort and made reservations for 3 nights. The park was right off the highway and only about 20 miles from the PFNP. We were unhooking the Jeep and trying to get settled in when I noticed another rig pulling in. I didn’t really give it much thought, but suggested to Steve he move the Jeep out of the way because we were about to have neighbors. A few minutes later, I came out of Waldo to see if there was anything I could help with outside. This was the moment my entire day turned around!!!! I was watching the camp host escort the incoming rig to the site next to us. She was walking with the passenger as the RV followed behind. When they got near us, in a less than ladylike fashion, I hollered, “Holy S*#T, I know you!” Technically, I didn’t really “know” them, not personally, but I have followed their blog for quite a while. It was Dawn and Mike from Random Bits of Trial and Error! Luckily, they almost always include what Dawn calls “Our obligatory selfie to prove we were there” so I knew it was her. At nearly the same instant, we ran towards each other, like some corny romantic beach scene, threw our arms around each other and hugged. We’ve been conversing via blog comments and email for close to a year and it felt like meeting a long lost friend. But, just think about this, we only stopped at THAT park on a whim – no planning. I had no idea Mike and Dawn were heading back east. They had no idea we would be there. I can’t even begin to calculate the odds of us arriving within an hour of each other. There are dozens of parks either of us could have chosen, but we both ended up at Sunny Valley.

Steve and I went back into Waldo and had dinner. I just kept saying “How flipping cool is that!” “What are the odds?” I have personally met a few of the bloggers I follow, but it was always by design, not some strange twist of fate. After dinner, the four of us sat out by the picnic table and talked and laughed over a few glasses of wine (well Steve was drinking beer). It was the perfect ending to what had been such a crappy day. Actually, it wasn’t exactly a perfect ending because the wine went straight to my head (I’m going to blame it on the elevation about 5400 feet above sea level) and I fell off the picnic table. Doh! Thankfully, Dawn and Mike just laughed it off, but I was pretty embarrassed.

Over the next few days, we each did our own thing during the day and spent evenings around their very cool propane firepit. Mike still works full time, so Dawn does quite a bit of exploring on her own. While we were there, she visited the ghost town of Two Guns. I can’t wait to read her post about it and see all of her pictures!

We had dinner together our final night. I brought stuffed shells and she made a huge salad, garlic bread and dessert. I was truly sad we were leaving. Looking back, I’m really bummed I didn’t take more pictures of us together! It was such an awesome experience meeting them in person! Thank you Dawn & Mike for being the best neighbors we ever had at Sunny Valley!

“Our obligatory selfie to prove we were there:”

If you enjoy reading about cool places and great people, check out Random Bits of Trial and Error

Tag: Arizona