Arizona Bound--Day 18

Goodbyes, cactus, animals and a hike in the desert.

The majority of the coaches here at the rally were packing up and leaving this morning. We got out and wished the ones leaving goodbye until we see them next May in Kerrville, Texas. Later in the morning we headed out west of Tucson to the Arizona-Sonara Desert Museum. This is a combination of botanical garden, museum and zoo. The place has a couple of miles of trails out into the desert with all the different types of cactus and plants that grow in here in the Sonora Desert. As we entered there was one of the docents showing one of the owls on display in the zoo portion of the park. The Sonora Desert is very large and goes into several states: Arizona and California in the United States and the Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California Sur and Sea of Cortez. Due to this they have different types of cactus and plants that grow in the different regions. Also they have many different animals that are native to the different areas. I was surprised to find long horn sheep on display but they are native to the higher regions such as around Sedona, Arizona.

A major portion of the park was the different cactus and plants. They had everything from large saguaro cactus to the native grasses that grow in different regions. The saguaro cactus are very abundant in this part of Arizona. The hills and mountains are covered with them. This is the cactus with the arms that grow toward the sky that we normally visualize when we think of the southwest desert. Another of the interesting cactus is what is called the organ pipe cactus. They grow in clumps and look very similar to the pipes on musical pipe organs. The park consist of 21 acres and has more than 300 animal species and 1200 kinds of plants, all in their natural desert settings. This made for a very enjoyable day of exploring the beautiful Arizona desert.

Arizona Bound--Day 17

Some wind, some rain and then a great rally.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were spent getting ready for the rally. All of the club officer's, which includes me, were busy getting everything done. Getting golf carts delivered, setting up the Rally Hall, insuring the bar was set up and ready, etc. We are at the Beaudry RV Resort in Tucson. This is a beautiful park with all the facilities an RVer would ever need. As happens at most of the Monaco America rallies most of our attendees are in and parked by Sunday afternoon even though the rally does not officially began until 5:00pm on Monday. To get everyone together we have a "pot luck" dinner on Sunday evening. As has always happened in the past it was a great feed and a good time was had by all. Monday evening started the rally with our welcome meeting with open bar and light snacks. During these three days the weather changed dramatically from the hot 100+ temps we had been seeing to cooler days with rain off and on. We also saw some pretty good winds coming in which meant we had to keep our awnings pulled in since wind can mean "death" to an awning.

Starting with Tuesday we had catered meals at breakfast and dinner each of the three days of the rally. The caterer this time was the operator of the restaurant here at Beaudry's. Each time we experience a new caterer it is an unknown of the quality and service we will get. This time the choice of caterers was an outstanding pick with delicious and well prepared foods. It did rain a big part of the day and into the evening. The rally hall was in a large tent like structure so the rain coming down on it sounded more like one of the big hail storms we have back in Oklahoma. The rain did slack off by the time we finished dinner and the entertainment started. In one of my trips back to the coach to retrieve things I had forgotten the it was clearing and gave a great view of a beautiful rainbow. Also we were treated to another great Arizona sunset.

For this rally we had professional entertainment on Tuesday night, watched the move "The Blind Side" on Wednesday and play bingo on Thursday night. Tuesday brought was the music of Julie Anne Jazz. This was a lady with an outstanding singing voice backed up by a six piece jazz band. The movie was a bit disappointing, not the movie itself but the venue. Being in a tent like structure the acoustics were less than were desired. For those of us with hearing problems it was almost impossible to understand the dialog, even with the assistance of my hearing aids. After about ten minutes I headed back to the coach to work on the books for the rally and do some paperwork. (I am the elected Treasurer for the club and am responsible for maintaining the accounts and paying all the bills related to the rallies.) Bingo on Thursday was a rousing success. Joanne and I both won a game. I won a bag full of neat and useful items such as pliers, duct tape, wash mitts and several other items. Jo won the final game of the evening in playing a "black out" game. Her prize of the major one of the night, a folding bicycle. This things folds up fairly small and goes into a canvas bag. When unfolded it is made for an adult to ride. (Another thing to find a place to store away in the "basement" of the coach.) Fellow Oklahoman Ernie Robertson did the bingo calling and my brother Bill, the club's Wagon Master, presented the prizes to the winners. The bicycle in the picture is the one that is now stored away under our coach.

With the rally over as of last night we just relaxed today. Our Rally Masters, Roy and Kathy Goble, treated us coffee and donuts on the patio of the main park building this morning. This gave everyone a chance to say their last goodbyes before either heading out for their next destination. Most of the rally attendees left out during the morning. We still have a dozen or so coaches here for the weekend. After making a trip to the bank to deposit the monies we took in during the rally, plus the deposits we received for our next rally in May 2011, Jo and I headed out to do some shopping. First stop was Trader Joe's. We have heard about Trader Joe's from many of our RV friends. These stores, apparently, are in the western states. We definitely do not have them in Oklahoma. They are combination wine store and exotic grocery store. We found many unusual items at very reasonable prices. Next stop was an outlet mall so Jo could indulge herself with a stop at her favorite store, Bonworth's. We closed out today by going out to eat with several of the folks still here. Although I'm not fond of Mexican food we did go with them to Little Mexico Restaurant. Fortunately they did serve a few non-Mexican dishes. All in all it has been a good last few days and it's not time to head home yet. As a side note we were notified yesterday that this RV Resort is closing as of next Monday. The Resort is part of Beaudry's RV, a large sales and service company. This is where we bought our current coach four years ago. They have been in bankruptcy for the past two years and the sales and service departments closed this past Tuesday but it was thought that the Resort would remain open since it was making money and usually fills up in the winter months. There are approximately 1500 RV sites here in the park. It is sad to lose this great park and is especially bad for the employees who have done a fantastic job for us this week.

Arizona Bound--Day 10

New juice for the coach, a good steak dinner and a great visit with friends.

As this adventure continues we rolled out of Camp Verde on Wednesday morning heading to our main destination of Tucson. Arrived around mid-afternoon and started setting up the coach for the week and half we will be here. Spent the rest of the afternoon getting everything squared away, including cleaning several days of bugs off the windshield. Several of the coaches that are coming to the rally were already here. In the evening several couples got together and went down the street to Denny's for dinner. During this trip we have been experiencing problems with our house batteries. These batteries operate the DC electrical system and are used for power when we are not parked and plugged into AC power. When plugged in the on board charger/inverter keep the batteries charged up. Each day of travel after unplugging from the RV parks power pedestal we would lose the battery charge almost immediately. The battery bank consist of four large six volt batteries, the same that are used to operate golf carts. So, on Thursday it was off to Sam's Club to buy four new batteries. Thursday afternoon was spent removing the old and putting in the new ones. (The white batteries are the old ones, the black are the new ones.) In the 100+ degree temperatures we have been experiencing this type work gets to a person relatively quickly. Anyway, the new batteries are in and all is well. After getting cleaned up we joined some other couples and went to a local steakhouse called Lil Abners for a one pound T-Bone steak with all the trimmings. It was a wonderful meal. We also closed out the day with another fine Arizona sunset.

Today was a down day as far as rally preparation goes so we headed out this morning for Casa Grande to have lunch and visit with some good RV friends. We went to Bob & Marlene Rea's house for lunch. We were joined there by Rod & Jean Bahnson and Hank Corbin. The Rea's and Bahnson's had been full time RVer's but have now bought "stick" houses in Casa Grande and have become part-time RVer's like us. Hank and his wife are full-timers from Tennessee staying in a Casa Grande RV Park. We had a great lunch and an even better visit. Pictured here are Jean, Joanne and Marlene. We have had a fantastic trip so far and the rally start is still three days away.

Arizona Bound--Day 7

A gold mine, a ghost town and a return visit to a neat old mining town.

We left out this morning to visit, again, the old copper mining town of Jerome. It was a little cooler up there since it is about 2,000 feet higher up the mountain than where we are camping. Once we got to Jerome we drove on past a mile or so to King Gold, Arizona. This is also an old mining town that now only has a handful of residents who work there. When Jerome was going full bore in the mining of copper another company wanted in on the money. They moved up the road a ways and sunk a mine, hoping to tap into the copper vain the company in Jerome was digging. The did not hit the copper vain but they did strike gold. Although the mine never made a great amount of money it was worked for many years. When it closed in the early part of the last century the 1,200 foot shaft was filled with water. Today the property is owned by a family that runs it as a ghost town. They have brought in an unbelievable amount of old vehicles, mining equipment and has a large working saw mill.

After a couple of hours at King Gold we made our way back down the mountain to Jerome. At one time Jerome was the third largest town in Arizona. Due to the copper mines people flooded the area and the town was filled with saloons, gambling houses and brothels. After the mines closed in the 1950's the town dwindled to less than 50 people. Today the town has several hundred residents and has become an artist community with many art galleries. After walking up and down the slanted streets we stopped at a place called the Haunted Hamburgers for lunch. Since we had been to Jerome last April we did not spend as much time exploring as we normally would have.

We had read in one of the visitor's guides we have picked up that the Village of Oak Creek had an Outlet Mall. Since Jo enjoys these malls we headed north to find this place. To get to the Village of Oak Creek we had to go north to Sedona and then back southeast. This turned out to be a nice drive, even though the Outlet Mall turned out to be a bust. We had never been to Sedona and found it to be a really nice town set in a beautiful surrounding of unusual mountain formations. We took several pictures of the mountains with their red and white sandstone.

This was a great day of exploring north central Arizona. It ended again with another great sunset.

Arizona Bound--Day 6

An old castle built up high on a wall and a Calvary fort, all in one day.

Today was another travel day. Was not sure how long it would take to travel west through Flagstaff and then south to Camp Verde, Arizona, so we pull out about 9:00 this morning. We wound up arriving at the Distant Drums RV Resort before noon. After getting set up and eating lunch we headed out to explore. First stop was the Montezuma’s Castle National Monument. This is not actually a castle nor did it have anything to do with Montezuma. This is a five story, 20 room dwelling built in the early 1100’s by the Southern Sinagua Indian Tribe. It is built high up on a cliff in front of a natural cave. When it was first discovered by white explorers it was assumed that these were built by Incas and was given the name of Montezuma’s Castle. Just down from the “Castle” are the ruins from other dwellings. These were apparently for the less important members of the tribe.

After visiting the Castle we drove into Camp Verde to visit the local visitor’s center. After getting information about local attractions we headed to the Fort Verde State Historical Park. This is an old Calvary Fort that has been refurbished and turned into a museum. Several of the original buildings still exist and have period furnishings. After going through the main museum we toured the buildings on the grounds. The buildings were built around a large parade ground. This picture is of the Commanding Officer's quarters.

All in all we enjoyed a good day that was finished with a beautiful Arizona sunset.

Arizona Bound--Day 5

A desert full of paint and a bunch of trees made out of rocks.

Today was our day to explore the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert. This park is about 20 miles east of where we are staying here in Northern Arizona. It starts off going through the Painted Desert part of the park and then the road winds down through the Petrified Forest. The entire trip is 28 miles long. In the Painted Desert there are numerous pull off points where we could park and get out and take pictures. Several of them had hiking trails to give people a closer view of that particular area. We did some of the shorter trails but decided against the long treks down to the floor of the park. It is amazing to see the various colors in the formations in this area developed over thousands of years. The rock and soil is fairly fragile and changes over time as wind and rain impact it. The area where Joanne is standing in this picture is referred to as the Badlands, due to it's similarity to the Badlands up in the Dakotas. Due to it's rugged terrain it was very hard for travelers and explorers to cross.

As we moved farther south in the park we crossed the Puerco River and came upon the Puerco Pueblo. This was an area with the ruins for a 100-room pueblo built about 1250AD and housed nearly 1,200 people. Also in this area were many petroglyphs pecked into the stones by the native people of that time. These people farmed the low lying areas along the river. As time passed and the area became more arid the people drifted away, becoming a part of the Hopi Tribe or the Zuni Tribe that inhabits this part of Arizona today.

After a few more miles drive we came to the actual Petrified Forest. These trees are truly amazing. Thousands of years ago this area was covered with forest of large trees. As the trees toppled as the area changed they were covered with silt. Minerals drained down into the silt transforming the wood into stone. Eventually the silt eroded away leaving these massive tree shaped stones. These petrified trees are very hard, much harder than the rocks around them but yet are fragile in that they have broken into pieces with the pressure of the earth around them. When a person sees one of these logs it is in many sections. It reminds us of the trees we used to cut on my Dad's farm for firewood, laying there in sections.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day in the National Park. When we left the park at the south end we were eighteen miles east of Holbrook. We could either retrace our path back through the park to Interstate 40 or take the state highway into Holbrook. We chose the latter and decided to have a late Sunday lunch in town. We found a nice diner and had an exceptional lunch. Also, we were fascinated with the Wigwam Motel. I remember seeing this motel as a kid when we drove to California via U.S. Route 66. (This was before the advent of the Interstate System.) The guest rooms are teepee's (wigwams) set out around the property. Today they are still in use as motel rooms but the owners have placed classic cars in front of them to draw the travelers attention to their place.

Arizona Bound--Day 4

'Just sitting on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, oh what a site to see'

Today was to be just a travel day but with less than 150 miles to travel we were able to work in a little sightseeing. We left Grants, New Mexico, around 9:00am local time and headed west. We soon made it to Arizona, since we were only 81 miles from the border. Since Arizona is only one of two states that does not honor Daylight Savings Time (Hawaii is the other) we gained an hour so we arrived at the Root 66 RV Park a little after 11:00am. This park is supposedly in a town called Sun Valley. Actually all that is here is the RV park on one side of Interstate 40 and two businesses on the other side, one called Knife City and the other is one of the many places selling Indian art, crafts and artifacts along the road. The park is actually called "Root 66" although there is no portion of the old Route 66 highway left anywhere near this location. Anyway, we got settled in and were finished with lunch before noon.

We needed a couple of things from the store and also where hoping to find a visitors center to find some information on the Petrified Forrest and the Painted Desert, our destinations for tomorrow. We decided to head west in the car and go four miles into the town of Holbrook. Turns out all that is in Holbrook is a bunch of motels for travelers to stop over for the night. So on we pressed the forty miles to Winslow. Winslow is a fairly large town and at one time was the largest city in Northern Arizona. It fell on hard times during the 1960's when the interstate opened and took the traffic that went down Route 66 away. It has revived itself mainly due to a song by the group The Eagles. In the song "Taking it Easy" there is a line about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Local business men have banded together to make a park in the middle of downtown, right on the old Route 66, called Standing on the Corner Park, complete with a statue of a 1970's style young man standing on the corner with a guitar resting on his boot. This has now become a popular spot for tourist to stop to take their picture. As it turns out this is the weekend of the "12th annual Standing On The Corner Park Festival" and the town was loaded with people. We had to wait our turn to get a picture of the statue. Also, could not resist taking a picture of this vintage car sitting on Route 66. We enjoyed seeing the new makeover to downtown and then sought out the Wal-Mart store to pick up the items we needed. Made for a pleasant day of unplanned sightseeing.

Arizona Bound--Day 3

A volcano and an ice cave, all in the same place. Yesterday was a travel day. We left Tucumcari around 9:00 yesterday morning and moved farther west. We are now in the Blue Spruce RV Park in Grants, New Mexico. We spent today out sightseeing with a little hiking and climbing thrown in. First stop was a place called Fire and Ice. This has the Bandera Volcano and a large Ice Cave and are located about 25 miles south of Grants.

The Bandera Crater is the largest volcano in the region. It erupted around 10,000 years ago. This is a cinder cone volcano. When it erupted it sent these 'cinders', which are huge pieces of lava rock into the air. These cooled as they fell back to the ground and continued to build the cone. The look out point for the crater is 8,036 feet above sea level. The crater itself is nearly 1,400 feet wide at the top and roughly 800 feet deep. Over time, erosion and gravity has taken there toll and the crater is slowly filling up as cinders and rocks fall down into it. An interesting fact we learned is that the soil in this area is very rich with iron. Due to this the trees are very susceptible to lightning. There are many trees down due to lightning strikes. The hike up to the top of the crater took about half an hour. Fortunately the folks that developed this area placed benches along the path for us old folks to stop and take a breather. The trip down was much easier than going up.

After we returned to the Trading Post, at the foot of the volcano, we headed off in the other direction to the ice cave. The temperature in this cave never gets above 31 degrees. As rain water and snow melt seep into the cave, the ice floor thickens. Currently the floor of the ice is approximately 20 feet thick. The deepest ice is the oldest and dates back 3,400 years. Indians and travelers through this area used to mine the ice but this was stopped in 1946. This has allowed the ice floor to continue to thicken, making the ceiling of the cave seem lower. It was a fairly short hike to the cave entrance but then there was several levels of stairs down to the viewing platform. The only problem with going down is you must go back up to get out.

After our hiking we returned to the car for further exploring. The next stop was at El Morro National Monument. This is a beautiful rock formation. It is composed of sandstone layers deposited by wind, desert streams and an ancient sea. Sandwiched between upward pressure from underground forces and the weight of new rock above (since eroded), the sandstone developed cracks that gradually weathered into the long vertical joints prominent today. A large water pool at the base was a great stopping on the ancient trade routes. Today the pool waters sunflowers, cattails and native grasses on the shore. We stopped at the National Park Visitor Center but decided not to make the two mile trek to the base of the formation and the water pool.

Our next stop was the Pueblo of Zuni, about 45 miles west of El Morro. We were expecting to see some old pueblo ruins from the Zuni Indian Tribe. Unfortunately, after the ruins were excavated early in the last century they were bulldozed over and back filled in the 1940's. This was unfortunate in that a great site was lost. The visitor's center in Zuni did have pictures of the site back when it was being excavated. Since there was not much else to see in Zuni we headed north to Gallup to stop for a late lunch. This took us through the Zuni Mountains which are very interesting formations. This is just one example of the formations that jut up from the desert floor. After lunch we decided to return to Grants via old Route 66 instead of Interstate 40. This was probably a mistake. As it turned out this section of Route 66 directly parallels the interstate and there was really nothing to see along the way. So, instead of returning at 75mph on the interstate we returned at 55mph on Route 66.

Arizona Bound--Day 1

We are actually back out on the road. Rolled out at 8:00am today, heading west. Had a good driving day with some south wind, which pushed us around some. Was mostly overcast but only had a little rain, actually only a sprinkle, as we drove through Amarillo, Texas. Around 3:00pm local time, 4:00pm Oklahoma time, we arrived at the Cactus RV Park in Tucumcari, New Mexico. We like staying at the Cactus. It is an old motor court right on old Route 66 in the middle of Tucumcari. The motor court has been closed for many years but they have converted the parking area to a RV park with full hookups, free WiFi and cable TV.

After getting the coach all hooked up we settled in to relax a little. It is amazing how tired a person gets when driving one of these things in the wind. Takes a tole on the arms and shoulders. As evening approached it started to rain and has been raining off and on every since. We had a good dinner here in the coach and are now enjoying the cable TV for the evening.

Almost time to be back on the road

As Willy Nelson sings: "On the road again, can't wait to get on the road again". It's almost time to head west for our Monaco America Fall Rally in Tucson, Arizona. We brought the coach home from the RV storage lot yesterday and I spent the afternoon today doing a few minor repairs that result from driving a house down the U.S. highways. We'll spend the next couple of days loading it up with food, cloths and the other necessities required for a few weeks.

We plan to pull out early Wednesday morning. The rally does not officially start until October 4th but we'll make a few stops along the way. We are planning to stop in New Mexico to see some old lava flows and crystal caves that were left from the volcano's. We'll stop over in a couple of places in Arizona, the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest and the old mining town of Jerome. (We briefly visited Jerome when we were out there this past March and want to go back and spend a couple of days there.)

Current plan is to arrive at the rally site in Tucson on Wednesday, September 29. We always like to get to the rallies early to spend a few days helping to get everything ready and to meet up and visit with the other club officer's and key volunteers. We'll stay after the rally for a couple of days and then head back to Oklahoma in mid-October. Of course all these plans are subject to change at a moments notice depending on the health of my parents and Joanne's mom. Regardless, we are excited about getting going again since we have not been out since last June.