January 14, 2021 Yuma

Arizona West RV Park Yuma, Arizona

It was dark last night…really dark!  One of the things that we don’t realize is how artificially light our ordinary world really is…electronic devices, street lights, lights from the DVD player and the microwave oven.  In the desert last night on the night of the new moon…it was really dark!

We have visited Painted Rock Petroglyph Site before but I wanted to see it again.  I saved it for my morning walk and in doing so, was able to walk the path all alone.

At first glance, this site looks like any other heap of rocks in the desert but, this is a sacred place.

These petroglyphs have been etched into the accumulated, weathered basalt or desert varnish on the granite rocks.  The first markings were estimated to have been made by indigenous tribes about 7500 BC and then over the course of thousands of years. 

Carvings were also made in the rock by travelers on the Mormon Trail and the Butterfield Stagecoach Trail.

We took 8W across the Sonoran Desert, stopping for breakfast at a rest area along the way.

We crossed the last set of mountains and then Yuma lay below.

We are staying at Arizona West RV Park.  It is a simple place and familiar to us.  We don’t need a fancy luxury park.  We plan to stay put for the next 10 days.  This afternoon was spent setting up, organizing, doing laundry, cleaning, and just enjoying the warm air with our windows open…and our flip flops on!

January 13, 2021 RV Service and Into the Desert

Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Campground Gila Bend, Arizona

We had to set an alarm to get ready for our morning service appointment.  We left the RV in capable hands at Cummins and looked for a close place to walk.  We found Friendship Park just 4 miles away.  This was a great well-appointed recreation area with fields and tennis courts and dog parks and playgrounds and miles of paved walking paths. 

There was an area where the old guys went to fly their model RC airplanes.

There was a Japanese garden at the duck pond.

Tim walked with me for over 4 miles and then I walked again after our picnic breakfast and did 6 miles.  There was a chill in the air when we first started but the warm sunshine quickly made for comfortable temperatures.

We took the Jeep to the carwash…because it needed it and I think also to fill time.  We headed back to Cummins where I sat working at the outside table, basking in the sun!

The RV was ready by 2 pm.  Oil change, filters, and 21-point inspection.  When you are on the road as much as we are, it is a relief to know that the belts and hoses and other engine stuff all look good!

Tim wanted to drive to Painted Rock Petroglyph Site.  It was a little more than 80 miles from Phoenix.  It proved to be a good decision.  It is so very peaceful here.  Sangria, spinach salad, chili, and fading sunlight all really helped us to relax and enjoy the evening. 

We had a fire and as we sat in the twilight, we spotted an owl on a nearby tree.  We saw him take off, swooping low across the desert floor.  We stayed out to watch the stars.

January 12, 2021 Getting Things Done

Camp Cummins Avondale, Arizona

I walked my three miles,laps around the campground, in 40-degree blustery weather…but I am quite sure I was warmer than I would have been at home.

Today we had a mission.  We have an appointment for service for the RV tomorrow at 8am at the Cummins dealer in Phoenix.  We had only a short 80-mile ride to get here.  On the way, we stopped at a pharmacy and a grocery store to gather stuff.  We arrived in Phoenix around 1pm.  The service department here is wonderful (but NOT cheap).  They got us checked in this afternoon and then we are able to stay here in the lot with electric hookups until morning. 

We got a really nice spider crack in our windshield this afternoon driving on 10.  We already had a smaller chip that we intended to have repaired once we got to Yuma.  With 2 chips, we were glad to find a Safelite only 3 miles away that could accommodate the RV this afternoon. 

The windshield is now fixed!

We parked at Cummins, did some maintenance/modifications on our bikes, and then I went out to get salads for our dinner.

We got a lot accomplished…that’s a good thing!

January 11, 2021 Desert Drive

Rancho Sonora RV Park Florence, Arizona

The morning was chilly, clear, and blue.  I took my walk and I noticed the silence.  I strode along in quiet meditation.  I could hear a cactus wren calling from his perch on the top of a saguaro.  A covey of Gambel quail chortled warnings as I approached.  Suddenly there was an explosion of birds from the underbrush.  They flew low to safe cover on the steep side of the trail.  Woodpeckers were tapping and I spotted a pair roosting on the branches of a creosote tree.  All reminders to slow down, listen, and appreciate the gorgeous surroundings.

It was nice to have two nights in one place after traveling more than 1,500 miles this week.  Now our pace slows as we enjoy wandering in Arizona.  Today, we took Oracle Road out of Tucson to the Pinal Pioneer Parkway.  This is a scenic route through desert.  This is one of the oldest roads in the state.  It was first used by the Pinal tribe as a footpath.  Later, Spanish peoples used it as a stagecoach trail. 

As we approached Florence, we began to recognize familiar landmarks.  We had thought we were traveling through a new town…but we unknowingly ended up making a reservation in the same RV Park that we stayed in last time we passed this way…no matter…it is a really nice park!

We quickly set up and packed a lunch and took the Jeep for a drive in the desert.  We drove on a gravel road east of Florence.  It was a great afternoon.  I am always amazed at the amount of open space and we drove for several hours without seeing anyone at all.

When we got back to the RV, I got fascinated by the hummingbird traffic at the feeder next door.  I worked for about 30 minutes and took more than 50 pictures, trying to capture decent images of the flighty little things!

A woodpecker.

January 10, 2021 Visiting Friends

Catalina State Park Day 2

So, we had no hookups last night…it was 35 degrees…in the RV at 5 this morning it was 40 degrees…BRRRR!!!  We turned on the auxiliary heat at 5 and then at 8 we started the generator and the furnace!  We decided we might switch to a full hookup site if there was one available…we got the last one.  We moved this morning and then I walked 3.5 miles on park trails.

This afternoon we had an invitation from our good friends Lee and Claudia.  We went to their house and enjoyed a wonderful meal of elk steaks.  It was so nice to visit and chat and spend time with kind and gracious people.  We are hoping that our schedules collide and that we can camp together in southern Arizona/California this winter. 

Thank you Lee and Claudia for “getting us” and for amazing hospitality!

Go RAVENS!

January 9, 2021 Catalina

Catalina State Park Tucson, Arizona

We got a late start.  We took advantage of the hookups and did more laundry first thing in the morning.  While I was on my walk, I scoped out the nearby carwash.  The other day on 10, we followed the Texas DOT truck that was pretreating the road surface and our RV.  The carwash was able to accommodate the coach and so big baby got washed!

We arrived at Catalina State Park and settled in.  We went for a nice bike ride, enjoying the beautiful scenery.  I love it here!  It is hard to believe that we are in the city of Tucson.

We made a nice turkey chili and then took our showers early because we are in a no hookup zone and generator hours are over at 8.

January 8, 2021 ARIZONA!!

Grande Vista RV Park Willcox, Arizona

It was 30 degrees as I started my morning walk.  The sun was out, the air here is dry, and there was no wind, and so it was a pleasantly invigorating walk.  I did my laps around the campground and out to the road. 

We left to finish our drive across Texas.  Our breakfast spot.

In El Paso, there is a crossing into Ciudad Juarez.  From the highway, you can see the border fence and the houses on the Mexican hillside.

We had our lunch in New Mexico at the Welcome Center.

Our ride today was sublime.  The weather was perfect.  The sky was a pale blue with wispy clouds, the mountains in muted colors were our backdrop.

We arrived in Willcox shortly before 4.  Tim waited in the Safeway parking lot while I gathered groceries.  We then went across the road for diesel fuel.  We found a 4.5-star Mexican restaurant, La Unica Tortilleria y Taqueria.  We ordered carryout and then headed to our campground.

We enjoyed our meal and the first Arizona sunset of the trip!

I had breakfast in Texas, lunch in New Mexico, and dinner in Arizona. I am a very lucky girl! David called and we had FaceTime with the boys…who miss us and we miss them! It was nice to share bedtime stories…

January 7, 2021 Still in Texas

Van Horn RV Park Van Horn, Texas

I had a great walk through the Kerrville Park and onto the River Trail.  I wish we had known about this 6-mile paved hiking/biking path yesterday.  It would have been a nice place to cycle.  I saw a few deer and only saw one other person out enjoying the cool, crisp morning. 

We rode/drove 373 miles today…our fourth big driving day in a row.  Route 10W in Texas is 880 miles.  It crosses the very widest portion of the state.  We have been in Texas for days…but we will cross the New Mexico line tomorrow.

Up until today, Tim had driven all of the more than 1,000 miles from Atlanta.  This afternoon, he suggested that I take an opportunity to drive for a while, to practice.  The road was good and straight and the traffic was light.  I contributed 85 miles today!  I wasn’t nervous this time and I think I did just fine!  I even passed a tractor trailer!

The Texas DOT was pretreating the roads.  They are expecting wintry weather this weekend in the higher elevations in Central Texas.

The landscape began to change today.  It was more mountainous, rocky, and scrubby.

We arrived in Van Horn after 4pm. We took an evening walk.  The alligator was in the middle of his pond.  He has a chilly night coming.  The forecast is for 31 degrees.

We passed this bush full of house sparrows.  They are plain brown birds but they engage in social singing we could hear the music of beautiful birdsong as we walked by.

A simple eggs and toast and applesauce dinner and that is the end of this day!

January 6, 2021 Middle of Texas

Kerrville-Schreiner Park Kerrville, Texas

Last evening, after I posted the blog, the lights came on at the brand new arena in the park. We saw horse trailers being unloaded. I decided to go and watch!

As I walk back home…the Rv was bathed in Christmas lights.

I had a nice morning walk around the campground.

Today we spent all day getting to the middle of Texas.  We passed through Houston.

We had leaden skies for most of the day with intermittent rain showers.

We took the loop around San Antonio and in late afternoon we stopped at a rest stop to make a plan for tonight.   We found the Kerrville-Schreiner Park not very far away, a city park with plenty of spots available.  We set up and started a load of laundry right away.  We are going to make an effort to stay out of laundromats and so we will use the RV washer anytime we have hookups. 

I was able to talk with a good friend today…with all of the craziness and chaos in this world…it’s important to stay in touch with the people we love!

We took a nice walk down to the Guadalupe River.  We saw these Egyptian geese.  They are likely ancestors of escaped ornamental birds.

Some wine and an easy dinner of smoked salmon and raw vegetables.  We are starting to relax into our camping routine.

January 5, 2021 Winnie

Winnie-Sowell County Park Winnie, Texas

I did 5 big laps around the Walmart/Lowes parking lots while talking on the phone with my sister-in-law, Dana this morning.  The time passed quickly and I got three miles done.  Tim had finished his morning exercises and had started the RV and was pulling in the slides as I finished.  We topped the RV off with 60 gallons of diesel fuel and got back on Route 10W. 

We bypassed New Orleans by taking 12W to Baton Rouge.  This saved a lot of time.  We crossed the Mississippi River.  Just this summer we were at the headwaters of the river in Minnesota.  Today we were fairly close to the end. 

Parts of the highway are elevated over swampland.

As we approached Lake Charles, we began to see storm damage.  Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm, landed just south of this town on August 27thwith 150mph winds.  “Trees were shredded and houses were cracked open like eggs.”  20 days later, Hurricane Delta made landfall less than 20 miles away.  There are hundreds of house roofs with blue tarp still in place.  These poor people…

We stopped at the Texas Welcome Center and walked the boardwalk nature trail over the Blue Elbow Swamp.  It was great to get out and walk around in warm sunshine.

We arrived in Winnie in mid-afternoon.  We have camped here at the county park a couple of other times.  There are no hookups but it is free and away from the highway.  We rested and then rode bikes though the park and the surrounding neighborhoods.  It was still warm enough and light enough to take our beet salad and cold roasted chicken and eat outside. 

We are looking forward to a quiet night in this small town.  Tomorrow westward ho!

We bought the boys a magnetic map of the US so that they can follow our journey. Yesterday Ollie moved the heart to Louisiana and today he will move it to Texas.