Late Spring (04-30-23)

 Spring was really late this year in Arizona. I mean, really late. That means our “warm weather” fun, like boating and swimming, were off the table, and we had to entertain ourselves with other pastimes. When the cover is off the pool, it either means we are swimming, or the weather is so cold there is no hope of heating it to swim in. Unfortunately in this case, it was the latter.

After arriving home from our winter trip, it wasn’t long before we had company arrive. Our daughter Jess was supposed to be coming for Paul’s birthday weekend, bringing her roommate Jamee, and Jamee’s parents, who we had never met. Jamee’s birthday is a couple of days before Paul’s so it was going to be a birthday bash weekend. Well, wouldn’t you know, at the last minute, Jess couldn’t get the weekend off from work.

Not wanting to be deterred, Jamee decided to come without her roommate, and her parents came as well.  We had a great time getting to know them. Jamee has been here many times, and is very easy to have around.

Paul, of course, had his usual birthday celebration at his favorite local restaurant, El Paraiso.

The end of February brought more new houseguests- Our friends Debbie and Al arrived with Debbie’s brother and his wife. While they were still here, our friends Kirk and Karen arrived from Fresno CA.

We had big plans with Kirk and Karen. I have never seen The Eagles in concert, and they were having a show in Phoenix.  Paul and I bought tickets a couple of months ago, and when Kirk heard, he asked us to buy them tickets too. 

So off we went, the 4 of us, to Phoenix, where we stayed overnight in a hotel that is walking distance to the venue.

Their tour is called the Hotel California Tour because they played every song on the album. Before they started the concert, someone strolled across the stage to an old record player, where she took the album out of the sleeve and placed it on the player. Then the concert began.

Halfway through the album, another person walked across the stage, picked the album up off the record player, and turned it over to play the other side. Side two began.

After about 40 minutes, Don Henley announced the conclusion of the Hotel California portion of the concert, because albums back in the 70s were about 40 minutes long. Luckily, they moved on to other songs.

To me, the concert was fantastic. Of course Glen Frey passed away a few years ago, but Vince Gill has been playing in his place.  He is a perfect fit for this group.

As an added bonus, Glenn Frey’s son Deacon came on stage to sing 3 of his father’s songs.

It was a great trip, and led to another, longer jaunt with Kirk and Karen.  But that one gets its own post. Once we were back home, things settled down for a bit, and we were able to do some local exploring in the Jeep and Teryx.

Paul and I had driven the road that follows the California side of Lake Havasu, but we didn’t get a chance to explore a large cave that is along that road. We remedied that with a day trip in the Jeep with Liz and Randy.

There were a couple of barely passable areas, but we managed to make it, and got to the cave.

We took the Teryx out to look for something called Rovey’s Needle.  As it turns out, Paul and I had been here before, but didn’t realize that there was anything of interest to see. 

We had to crawl through a small opening in order to see the really interesting rock formations.

Eventually, spring arrived, and brought with it the flowers….

And the birds.

Winter Road Trip (3-5-23)

 Once mid January arrived and the weather was horrible, we looked at a map to see where we could go to explore-we were specifically looking for someplace new.  We decided to make a small loop, staying within the state of Arizona, but hopefully heading someplace warmer.

The trip didn’t go exactly as planned-but we had a great time nonetheless. Our first, brief stop was Quartzsite AZ. This is a haven for RVers in the winter, and the town hosts one of the largest RV shows in the area.  We- the 4 of us- found a spot to park for two nights, and waited for the “Big Tent” RV show to open. In the meantime we met with friends Debbie and Al for lunch and just generally wandered around. Although we spent very little time actually exploring the RV Show, we spent a fair amount of money, since Paul decided our tow bar for the Jeep needed to be upgraded.

Leaving Quartzsite, we headed for Yuma, AZ, where we encountered our first change of plans. We decided we were really enjoying resort life, so we extended our stay for a few days.

Also on the agenda was dinner with friends, and getting the rigs washed and waxed.  The guys were happy with the results, and very happy they didn’t have to do it themselves.

Of course, no trip to Yuma is complete without a side excursion to Los Algodones Mexico.  We headed there for lunch and shopping, buying some of the ingredients for our margaritas.  Liz and I also apparently bought other things, but our memories of the purchases are clouded by the margaritas we had with lunch.

Next stop on the itinerary was a short one at Painted Petroglyphs Campground.  This is a wide open BLM campground in the desert.  Naturally there were petroglyphs, which took about 30 minutes to explore.

We also drove around the area, and ended up unintentionally trespassing on private property. Luckily no one chased us off, and we saw a really interesting grave site.

 

After leaving there, we were headed to Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, but we stopped for lunch in the small town of Why AZ, which resulted in our second change of plans. The town looked interesting, so we found an RV park and stayed for two nights.  After setting up we drove back into town and walked around. The town square was really pretty, and definitely gets plenty of use by the locals.

As an added bonus to our unscheduled stop, we visited Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to hike one of the trails.  Paul and I have been here before but Liz and Randy haven’t.

Arriving at the Wildlife Refuge, we checked in at the visitor center to find out about camping. We know there are close to a hundred dispersed boondocking sites, but wanted some insight as to where would be a good spot for us. After driving around a bit, we found an awesome spot to spend a few nights. Mind you, the weather is still not great, no sitting outside, etc. but warm enough to explore….

We drove the Pronghorn Tour Loop Rd.and although we saw exactly zero pronghorn, I  was amazed at the number of hawks there are on the refuge.  It was the wrong time of year to see a Gray Hawk (which would have been really cool) but we saw tons of red tailed hawks, and  I even saw my first Northern Harrier.

This is when the “Merlin Bird ID” comes in very handy!

The four of us hiked Cienega Trail, which is a 1.5 mile birding trail.  The most interesting things on the trail were the trees.

Paul and I also hiked 4 mile Mustang Trail, and although we didn’t go all the way to the end, it was a good trail, and good exercise.

Our plan was to boondock in the Patagonia area of Arizona, but the recent rains made the roads too slick for us to deal with.  Instead we headed for the small town of Sonoita.  Along our travels, we were trying to find ways to connect with friends who live in the area.  We missed a few due to last minute plan changes, but we did manage to connect with a few as well.

As I said, Sonoita is a small town, and doesn’t have much going on- but it does have a good brewery.  In fact we liked it so much we ate dinner there twice.  The rest of our time was spent driving back to Patagonia to explore.  The Paton Center for Hummingbirds there is a great place to spot all kinds of birds, not just hummingbirds. We found it to be a very relaxing and enjoyable place to hang out.

Although I saw the Violet Crowned Hummingbird ( a new variety for me) getting a picture of one turned out to be an exercise in frustration.  We visited the sanctuary several times over the course of a few days.  I had my good camera at the ready, but it jammed before I could get a picture (this is not my picture.)

The following day Paul and I went back, specifically to see if I could get a picture of this bird- and I forgot to put the battery back in my camera! 

Armed with an annual pass to all Arizona State Parks, we made the effort to check out Patagonia Lake State Park. There is a campground here, but the lake is very popular with boaters, and the campground books out months in advance.  That’s ok, we were just there for lunch.

The Sierra Vista area of Arizona has a lot of interesting things to explore.  We have spent some time here but Liz and Randy have not, so we were happy to head back there.  Then we realized the drive to El Paso to check on Paul’s mom would be a lot shorter from here than from our house- so we left the rig with Liz and Randy and took off for El Paso, returning a few days later.

Oh, one of the few things we did while in Sierra Vista is go see the movie ‘80 for Brady’.  I admit I am biased, being both a Tom Brady, and New England Patriots fan, but I thought the movie was a lot of fun. It brought back some great memories. 

The Super Bowl the women were trying to attend was the Super Bowl of 2017.

 Lots of my friends thought at the time that I must have loved the game because the Patriots engineered the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history. BUT- we were losing for most of the game! 

 

It wasn’t until there was less than 2 minutes on the clock that we tied it up (from 28-3 to 28-28).

Everyone was shocked and awed when the Patriots won the game 34-28!

What made it extra special is that the original game was played on mine and Paul’s wedding anniversary, and we went to see the movie on our anniversary. Fun day!

From there it was time to head home, since we had visitors arriving soon.  On the way, Paul and I stopped in Phoenix for a couple of doctor appointments. 

Obligatory Winter Post (01-23-23)

 Pretty much every winter now, I first decide I am not going to write a blog post, then I change my mind, and then the post becomes HUGE because I try to fit everything I want to say in one post.  This year is no exception.  I am writing it sooner though, because we are actually on the road now, exploring. 

Once we arrived home after our White Rim Road trip in late October,  several things happened. Liz and Randy arrived soon after us, so you would think the partying would have begun.  Well, it did, for a short while.

In early November Paul and I left for California to help friends Kirk and Karen celebrate their new cabin with an Open House.

Its always a fun time with Paul’s fraternity brothers, but when we got back home a few days later, we both tested positive for Covid. 

Of course we isolated ourselves, and Liz and Randy were kind enough to drop meals off to us on the back deck, saving us from having to cook.

Once we were recovered, we took two trips to El Paso to see Paul’s mom.  She had doctor/dentist appointments and we prefer to be there for those.  We weren’t missing much in Havasu- the weather was so cold and windy, we never heated the pool after coming home from our summer trip, and we never got a chance to take out the boat.

We were very happy that we were recovered  in time for Thanksgiving. Paul’s brother and his wife came in their RV, and brought their grandson for the weekend.  I think he had a great time being the only kid around all of us adults.

It always makes us happy when our Jess comes to visit, and this time she brought her boyfriend, so it was double nice!

Adults Only entertainment included a trip to our favorite country bar- in fact we actually went there a couple of times before Christmas.

We decided to skip the Christmas Boat Parade this year, but we did walk around the London Bridge, to enjoy the Christmas lights.

December brought more illness- first Liz and Randy were sick, and then Paul was sick again.  It wasn’t Covid this time, but it lasted quite a while.  So, we were back to isolating for a while. The weather was still very cold and windy for the most part, so there wasn’t much to do anyway.

With the empty “cold and flu” shelves in the stores, we knew we weren’t the only sick ones in town.

Everyone was finally healthy just in time for Christmas. And the weather improved too- for a couple of days anyway.

It was actually warm enough to eat outside on Christmas- a nice perk. By this time our Canadian friends Brad and Marilyn had arrived, and Jess was back again.

New Years brought the Californians, and we had quite the party!

Once things got quiet again, we made an executive decision- it was time for a road trip!  Lake Havasu is a lot of fun, but we are tired of the wind and the cold so the 4 of us decided to leave.

The one thing we never get tired of though, is the sunsets!