The Beginning of summer? (04/20/25)

 

Paul and had already decided to head to Massachusetts this summer- our son is there, and we still have lots of friends and my family there. We don't drive all the way back very often anymore, but I sometimes fly on my own.

So, it was time for a longer visit.

With all that in mind we decided to leave for the summer on April 3rd. That's a full two months before we usually leave Arizona.

We made the most of our time with Liz and Randy before leaving,  getting in one boating day and a couple of pool days.

Just before we left, we went out to dinner to celebrate 75 years of marriage. 25 years for us, and an impressive 50 years for them.

Paul also finished one of his projects that he was working on in his spare time- a stained glass window for the trailer. It came out awesome.

I sorta promised Paul that we would stop and see new things along the way to MA,  and not make a beeline for the coast. By leaving early, we will have plenty of time to explore. We also needed to be in Green Valley, AZ for a week in April to pick out flooring, cabinets, granite etc for the new house.

While we were there we took a drive up into nearby Mt. Wrightson wilderness in the Coronado National Forest. This area is on the migratory path of an  incredible amount of birds, including hummingbirds.

I saw two New to Me varieties of hummingbirds-

The Rivoli Hummingbird

and the Broad Billed.

I didn’t get to spend too much time looking because Paul couldn’t find a spot to park the dually so he dropped me off at the visitor center. I can’t wait till we live here and can spend more time bird watching.

Of course, I put up my feeders as well, and in addition to hummingbirds, we were visited by Hooded Orioles, both the male (pictured) and the female.

Leaving Green Valley, after a short visit with friends in Sierra Vista, AZ,  we landed  just outside Las Cruces New Mexico. The nearby Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks National Monument has some hiking we were interested in. We drove up to the Dripping Springs (note to self, it is barely dripping) area and did two hikes. The first was 3 miles, to Boyd.

The story behind this building is that Dr. Boyd agreed to rent this area from the owner at the time, Eugene Van Patten, for $25 a year, but shortly thereafter, refused to pay, and refused to leave. Van Patten sued him, but in the course of the court battle it was discovered that Van Patten had described the area incorrectly, so his homestead patent was actually for a different area. He got it straightened out, and was still owed all the rent from Boyd, but trying to collect it  for 13 years forced him into bankruptcy and he ended up selling the area to Boyd for a dollar.  Very Strange.

The other hike we did was a 1 mile hike to La Cuerva, the Cave, which is really just a rock shelter. Apparently I deleted all my pictures of it, oh well, I guess that tells the story of how interesting it was.

Next up on our journey was Mayhill New Mexico, which is near Cloudcroft. This is one of those spots we like to stop for a day or two to do some exploring and hiking. The Lincoln National Forest has a lot of hiking trails, but with only one day, we chose the 3 mile loop, Little Apache Trail. I really enjoyed the smells of the forest.

Of course we also stopped several places to watch the wild horses.

Our final visit with friends for this leg of our journey was in Abilene Texas where we spent a few days with friends Wil and Gayle. While showing them pictures of our house project on the big screen, Gayle became our own version of Vanna White…

After a couple of days and lots of camaraderie, it was time to move on from Texas to Oklahoma.

The Holidays and Beyond (2/22/25)

 

Back home after our adventure, we had just enough time to get ready for the holidays. Our friends Brad and Marilyn from Canada arrived in their RV for a few weeks, and our daughter Jess came for Christmas, bringing our soon to be son in law with her. A fun time was had by all….

One of the highlights for me was the night we went out to the bars the night after Christmas and Justin, who is the lead singer in a band, sang a Karaoke song, just for me. Very cool.

As soon as the holidays were over,  as hard as it is to believe, we got busier. We left in the rig mid January, with our first stop being Mesa, where we spent two weeks visiting my brother and his wife, who were staying a park model for two months, at one of our favorite RV resorts.

We managed to see other friends and family while we were in the Phoenix area as well.

From there we headed to Green Valley, south of Tucson. In the last year or so we have been looking at our next step, house wise, and Green Valley is on our short list for a location-specifically Quail Creek, the 55+ Robson community there. We booked a 3 night stay in one of their villas to see if we liked the “vibe” of the community. We have been here before and are pretty sure it’s where we want to be.

After meeting with our sales rep, he showed us the new lots that are now available- and we did a thing. We bought a lot before we even stayed in the villa! Our new house, once it’s built, will be on the golf course which we don't care about but it will afford us a great sunset view.

Decision made, we relaxed and enjoyed all the amenities in the complex.

We happened to be there the night of our 25th wedding anniversary, and were gifted by Robson, dinner for two at the resort restaurant.

We started with a shot of our favorite sipping tequila, Fortaleza before enjoying an awesome dinner.

We were given a golf cart for our use which was great because driving the dually everywhere would not have been fun. It didn’t even fit in the driveway of the villa!

After a quick stop in Phoenix for doctor appointments, we were back home the second week in February.

The Winter Blast pyrotechnics event is Presidents weekend every year and this time Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Sue were coming with their RV club.

We parked our rig at the site so we could relax and enjoy some time with them.

Once they left we had about a week to unpack, spend some time with Liz and Randy, and of course, take Paul out for his standard birthday celebration.

And then….. it was time to leave for Los Angeles for our daughter’s wedding.

The Wave (12/18/24)

 Paul and I pretty much got home from St. Lucia right before Thanksgiving, and were greeted by our friends Liz and Randy who were already staying in our yard in their RV.  It was a quiet Thanksgiving, just the 4 of us, which worked out, because all 4 of us were sick- and all with something different- someone had Covid, someone had a cold, someone had a respiratory infection, and someone had a stomach bug. Several trips were made to urgent care. We did have Thanksgiving dinner, but not very enthusiastically, and pretty much at 6 feet apart from everyone.

At this point Paul and I also knew we were on the clock, training for a big hike.  Last year, Paul’s friend Robin (who he has known since Boy Scouts in high school) asked if we were interested in hiking “The Wave” if we could get permits, and we were, so the 4 of us have been applying, trying for whatever months we thought we could get there. Well, Rob won the lottery for December 11,  and we made plans to meet he and Kim in the Page area of AZ, for 4 days of hiking.

The afternoon we arrived,  we met up with them at the trailhead for the Toadstools, a short hike, at 1.4 miles, but with interesting rock formations.

One of the cautions on the federal website for hiking the Wave is that if it has rained recently, the road to get to the trailhead can be impassable, and the weather in December is very iffy, with the potential for rain or even snow.   With that in mind, we all decided to stay at Stateline Campground, a primitive federal campground down the road from the trailhead. Paul and I were in our truck camper, figuring we would provide meals, because Rob and Kim were going to car camp.

We were  planning to get the firepit going and sit outside,  but it was too cold. After hanging out for a while after dinner we said goodnight. Paul told them when they hear the generator in the morning, the coffee will be ready.

Paul and I noticed that it was cold that night, and when we looked at the thermometer in the early AM, we were shocked to see it was actually 13 degrees!. When Rob came in for coffee, he mentioned that Kim was mumbling about taking a bus home. Can’t blame her! I don’t think she signed up for that kind of cold, lol. Anyway, decision was made that since the roads were fine, we could move to an RV park/motel in town for the duration.

We spent the first full day at White Pocket. We have been here before, as has Rob. It’s a beautiful area for hiking, and hard to reach because the “road” requires 4WD, and experience driving in deep sand. It wasn’t difficult for the Bronco and the views here never get old. (some of the pictures I am using belong to Robin and are labeled as such- Thanks Rob!)

                                       

And then it was time for the Wave!

This is a very protected area- only 64 people a day are allowed to hike this trail.  There are two ways that you can apply for the lottery- four months in advance- they allow you to choose 3 days in a given month- you pay $9 and if you “win” the lottery you get to hike it that day.  The other way to do it is to wait until two days before you want to hike it- but then you have to be in that geographical area (location services has to be activated on your mobile device) , apply for the permit, show up for orientation the following day, if you win, and then hike it the third day.  There are actually volunteers at the trailhead that check everyone’s bright pink  permit, which has to be visible at all times.

The trail itself isn’t difficult-it’s 6 miles or so round trip if you don’t wander off to look at other things.

The hardest part is that most of the hike is on rock so it requires a fair amount of map referencing. We were tracking ourselves on two devices and 3 apps. There are no trail markers to speak of.

Once we arrived at the Wave itself, I think we all dropped our backpacks and immediately started taking pictures. Even with all the hype, this place is spectacular.

“The Wave” is actually a small part of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. In the monument are several spectacular areas for hiking. The Wave is part of the Coyote Buttes North area.

We also visited White Pocket, and Coyote Buttes South, and Peekaboo Canyon.

Permits for Coyote Buttes North, The Wave, are difficult to get, but another area that also requires permits, is a much easier. Coyote Buttes South. It has the same lottery process, which was actually annoying on this trip.  It’s very easy to win permits but we had to apply the day we got to the area, because if we won, we had to be in their office at 9 am the next day for orientation. We couldn’t have done that on the 11th, the day we hiked the Wave, so we applied on the 11th, went to orientation on the 12th, and hiked it on the 13th.

Kim took a pass on this hike and elected to explore the town of Kanab on her own.

Obviously different from Coyote Buttes North but we all enjoyed our day at Coyote Buttes South.

This last one is called Witches Hat, and it’s not hard to see why….

Our last day in the area was spent exploring Peekaboo (Red) Canyon. There are actually two Peekaboo Canyons.

This is the one north of Kanab.

Like White Pocket, it requires 4WD. 

The Bronco had no problems, and Paul got to use “sand mode’ on the Bronco.

I think this “road” was a little worse than White Pocket, but I kept thinking that all 4 of us know how to push a vehicle.

Once we walked into the slot canyon, we realized how cold it was.

It was still worth the views, and the fun hiking...

And once we finished this hike, it was time to head home for Christmas- but we love this area and would go back in a heartbeat.