Oracle State Park, Arizona

I stayed in my cozy bed until it warmed up a bit this morning.  Kirby got up and turned the furnace on.  Still, when I did venture out from the covers it was only 56 degrees inside the camper.  We had become quite spoiled in Yuma by the warmer weather!  We are now in the high country (2600 feet) north of Tucson at Catalina State Park.  The spot we are in has no electric or water, lots of space and pretty mesquite trees.

Yesterday we had our morning coffee with Bill and Sandy and then headed out for our 90 minute road trip to this state park.  As Jake inspected the area we got set up, put the slides out and headed off to visit with Mac and Consuelo who live in near Oracle, AZ.  We did see them last year in Texas but missed the reunion last fall in Sedona so we had some catching up to do.

After a fantastic lunch at their home we headed off to Oracle State Park and some hiking.  We were the only cars in the parking lot.  The quiet and solitude were wonderful!  I love the desert so much with the big sky and the interesting cactus.

You can click on any of these pictures to enlarge them.

 After that big outing we deserved a brew so we went to the Oracle Inn.  We managed to get there just as Happy Hour was beginning.  Another score for us!  It was a fantastic day with the best of friends!

Reconnecting

We loved the drive from Yuma to the Tucson area.  Traffic was light and the sky was big.  In less than four hours we arrived at Bill and Sandy's home and Kirby backed in to their yard and we hooked up to power.  We decided that since the yard was so level we would just leave the truck hitched up as we will be moving on today.

We tried to decide when was the last time that we saw each other and came to the conclusion that it was about 14 years ago.  But, you know, when you are friends, you are always friends so we just picked up where we left off all those years ago and had a blast.  We also decided that not one of us had aged a day!

We had our dinner outdoors as the weather was so awesome.  I feel sorry for our northern friends who continue to have cold and snow.

Here they are looking just like they did all those years ago.  I love these guys and am so glad they invited us to come stay with them.  Freckles, their Corgi-Cattle Dog did not welcome Jake into her yard but she did not stop him either and they enjoyed sniffing each other.  They rescued her just a few months ago and she is a great little girl.

I have always known that Sandy is very talented and crafty but this time I got to witness it myself, get tours and samples to look at.  Sandy and her mother, who lives in a small house on the back of the property, do Scrapbooking - and in a big way.  They go to retreats, take online classes and Sandy also teaches it.  I was so impressed with her talent and with her studio.  She also knows how to make paper which is something I would like to do one day.

We will be moving on in a bit to our next stop - Catalina State Park. 

Departure From Yuma

Just as planned we departed our winter home in Yuma, AZ at 4 minutes before our projected 9:00 AM departure time.  Doesn’t such promptness almost make you sick?  But we were awake shortly after 5:00AM (which is our normal time) so we just took our time, ate our breakfast, got our showers, put everything away that could go flying inside the rig, pulled our slides in, hitched up to the truck and off we went. 

Of course yesterday Jake noticed that strange things were going on as we stowed and cleaned in preparation of our departure.  I didn’t think too much of him not eating his dinner as he does that on occasion because he watches his weight (haha).  But then this morning first thing, he greeted us by throwing up.  He is fine now.  He ate his breakfast. But he was settled into the truck 45 minutes before we left.  We think he was just nervous about going.

I took the picture above while Kirby was closing and locking the gate.  We are both pretty excited to be on our way for our second season of travel.

We were not even on the freeway 5 minutes when we had to stop at a US Border Checkpoint.  For those of you who live nowhere near a US border, this is a stop in the middle of the freeway that is manned by very military looking Border Patrol Agents.  It can be very intimidating until you understand what it is about.  They are looking for illegal immigrants – and the car in front of us was from California but had Mexicans in it.  So we had to wait for him to thoroughly check their passports and documentation.  Now we are on our way!

Our first stop will be to visit longtime friends Bill and Sandy and meet their newly adopted dog, Freckles.  We know Bill and Sandy from our boating days in Mexico.  We share a wedding anniversary with them – August 6.  But they have been married much longer than we have.  They have a large piece of property and have invited us to spend the night there with them.  This will be a first for us – someone’s yard!  I love new experiences!

Then tomorrow we are going to see Mac and Consuelo.  Last we saw them they were living in Texas but last year they moved to the Tucson area.  They are promising us a hike at their local state park.

We will probably stop along the way and have a light lunch.  The day is warm and sunny and life is good.

Predeparture Update

A picture of our fifth wheel on the lot where we have spent the winter.

We will be leaving Yuma the end of this month and heading back east.  Kirby has been working on all the systems and I have been cleaning, sorting and organizing the cupboards.  We are excited to get out on the road again.

Our semi plan for this year is to return to South Carolina where we started a year ago.  We have a grandson who will be graduating from Clemson University in May.  We plan to arrive there a couple of weeks before in order to enjoy family and friends in the area and also spend some time at one of our favorite places, Buck Hall Recreation Area, which is on the Intracoastal Waterway.  After that we will slowly head north and west and we don’t have any idea of our route.  We plan to finish the season back here in Yuma.  I am so excited!

Kirby has been adjusting the brakes on the rig, installing an antennae for our wifi and modifying all the electric to complement the new solar panels.  He “practices” with the solar panels during the daytime so I guess we are saving electric!  All the storage under the rig has been emptied, cleaned and reorganized.  We will be leaving a few things here in storage.  (We acquired a table and 8 chairs!) 

As I have mentioned before, we take almost daily walks in the desert as it is so handy to us.  This week we went a little later than usual plus the sun is finally coming up a little earlier so we went after the sun crested the hills.  I took my camera a got some panorama pictures of the area.  (I just love it that Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time as it does NOT SAVE any daylight!)

This is not the best but I tried to put three photos together to show the view from the hills back down to the foothills where we are staying.

 

I circled our home.

Long morning shadow.

There really is a lot of vegetation, just not what most people prefer.  I happen to love it!

Solar Panels

In just a little over a month we will be leaving Yuma and heading out on our second season in our 5^th wheel.  We have spent the winter traveling a little and playing a lot.  We recently returned from a long weekend in Ventura, CA where we visited our friend Heather and Jim aboard their 50 ft catamaran.

Now it is time to get serious about repairs and upgrades to our rig.  Kirby is happy – he has projects!  His largest project is the purchase and installation of solar panels.  So many of the places we want to go do not have electricity available.  Last season we purchased a generator which we used daily while we were at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument last month.  But a generator uses fuel and is noisy.  Solar panels are quiet!

After much research we hit the road for Phoenix where we purchased two- 250 watt panels, loaded them into the back of the truck, made a stop at Home Depot for some tie downs and returned back to Yuma.  It was an easy trip of about three hours each way and we got to see some new country.

Here is Kirby standing next to one of the panels so you can see how big they are - and they are very heavy.

Someone had to go up on the roof and it wasn't going to be me!  A couple of the guys came over to give Kirby a hand at getting them up there.

Here they are all mounted and ready to go.