Phoenix to California's Salton Sea

We pulled into the Freightliner truck facility in Phoenix for what turned out to be a $1600 oil change. Actually a lot more than just an oil change: Filters, inspections, lube, transmission fluid change and more. There is a lot to be said about preventive maintenance.
We had a great couple of days together with Frank Ramsey, my roommate and squadron-mate from Vietnam days and his wife Janis. A few dinners out, a round of golf that I prefer not to talk about (Franks home course, a mountainous, but beautiful desert course, destroyed me), and plenty of time to recall our experiences as Lopez FACs (forward Air Controllers) made for a most enjoyable way to spend time while the RV was getting its annual checkup.
Frank and Janis have a place in Alaska where they spend the summer and keep their bush plane, a Maul, that Frank uses to get into the back country for hunting and fishing. We’ve been putting a trip to Alaska on the back burner for sometime but the invite from Frank and Janis to see Alaska the right way may be too good to pass up.



From Phoenix we made a short drive to Tonopah, AZ where there is a great hot springs. The private area that Sandi and I rented for two hours had a beautiful rock hot tub with a water temp around 106F. There was also a cooling tub which we did not use. Lounges and chairs faced to the west and the setting sun. The private area was enclosed on three sides and completely open facing the desert. What a great way to watch a beautiful sunset.
We finally arrived in Quartzite, AZ, the boondocking destination for thousands of RVers. We heard from our great friend, Marilyn Darling, from Mexico and Yellowstone and met her and several other friends whom we had travelled with into Mexico. We joined up with another 100 other RVers who belong to a group called the “Boomers” all baby-boomers born between 1940 – 1960. We were all parked in the middle of the desert on BLM land. The “Boomers” are an interesting group—no officers, no rules. A working display of anarchy. If you do not like what you see or what is going on, you are free to leave anytime. Our visit here coincided with a huge flea market and a rather large RV show each with hundreds of vendors selling everything from RV-unique items to things that I can’t imagine anyone needing – miracle eyeglass cleaner, kitchen aids that chop and dice (just like seen on TV), tools, nuts and bolts, jewelery, and much more. We did get new RV slide-out awnings and a few other item that we really needed. It is also a rock-hound’s mecca and all kinds of lapidary equipment, rocks and fossils are on display and are available for sale.
This town is quite different. It has a gum museum (never been to one of them), a book seller that has a store on Main Street who does not wear any clothes, and there is a monument to Hadji Ali, a Syrian camel driver that came here in the early 1860s to help the U.S. Army with a test to see if camels would work in the American deserts. Known locally as Hi Jolly, he is buried beneath a pyramid monument in the local cemetery. We are surrounded by mountains, but the desert is flat and quite suitable for boondocking. It really is like a big party. It has been fun but we were ready to continue on towards California.

From Quartzite we headed to Yuma and then into california where we faound a great place out in the desert to spend a few days. The rains came and we watched an Arroyo "dry stream bed" go from bone dry to a raging flood torrent. The wheather forcasters commented that they had never in a liffetime seen Arizona entirely in the green forcasting rain. Many had more than a half a years rain in one day. We endured the rain and 50 mile-per-hour winds and really apreciated the nice weather when it returned. We took a side trip without the RV into Algedones, Mexico where we had another tooth filled and both got a couple pairs of glasses.

Then on to El Centro Naval Air Facility. Small Navy Air base that is used for training and also is the winter home for the Navy's Blue Angels. It was quite thrilling to see a daily air show right over the RV when the Blue and Gold F-18s would return from their practice sessions.

North of El Centro in the Salton Sea, one of the Important Birding Areas. An awesome inland sea, that is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, is a great place to see birds. I've seen nearly 100 species and have added a couple new birds to my life list. I think the Eurasian Widgeon is the best so far. A close look in the photo will show Ross Geese. Snow Geese, American Avocets, Shovellers, Pintails, Widgeon, and more. What a place.

Departing Tucson

Thought I better bring this blog up to date, if not for those who may try to keep up with us, then just to keep up my historical record of where we’ve been or what we have done.
After departing Sabino Canyon, we parked the RV at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base(DMAFB) and flew back East to visit our kids, grandkids and my parents. We managed to have this visit coincide with Sam's birthday. Birthdays are special times and just maybe we will be able to attend a few more of them in the future. Another short visit, we decided we needed more time so our next visit may be a bit longer and we will, in all likelihood, head back East after Yellowstone this coming summer.
On returning to Tucson after our trip east we got tickets and went to see a great production of the Nutcracker Suite on Christmas Eve. We had two Christmas dinners: a party put on by the DMAFB RV Park and a great Christmas dinner at the chow hall on base. Military members, their wives and kids, all manned the serving line, giving up some of their Christmas day to bring Christmas dinner to those who could not head home for the holiday.
We departed DM for Kartchner State Park and the Kartchner caverns, a magnificent recently discovered cave, that has been meticulously managed and developed to preserve its natural qualities – no colored lights, no music played on stalactites, and little focus on the naming of the features but a lot of geology facts. From there, a quick trip to Douglas AZ and Agua Parieta Mexico for some golf, shopping, and some dental work. Then we headed a short distance to Naco, AZ so I could play the Turquoise Valley Golf course that is home to the 10th longest golf hole in the world – a 747 yard par 6 – called the rattler. Not a favorite hole of mine where the best I could do was bogey.
We returned to DMAFB and I managed a few more rounds of golf- One at the Tucson National course (which was home of the Tucson Open years ago) and another round on the DMAFB course. We also took a trip to the San Xavier Mission which is just south of Tucson. One of the missions founded by Father Kino, this mission still serves the Tohono O'Odham Indian Nation.
Disney has been advertising a day at the park in return for a day of volunteer service. Sandi and I decided to accept the invitation and gave a day to help the Girl Scouts distribute 351,000 cases of cookies. Our plans are to get to Disneyland sometime in the next month. We will probably forgo the hi-speed roller coaster rides and opt for more sedate attractions but we are looking to take a Segway tour of the park.
We will leave DM today for Phoenix for some routine annual maintenance on the RV.

Sabino Canyon

Sabino Canyon is a beautiful place. It is a Federal Recreation Area and our RV is parked amongst the assorted Cacti of the Sonoran Desert. Not a single day goes by without wildlife of some kind appearing. White-tail deer, Gambril’s quail, desert cotton-tail rabbits, and assorted lizards seem to be every where. Tucson weather is awesome. There was one day of winter where we had temps during the day in the 50s but most days we see 80s and 90s. In 1 1/2 months we’ve seen rain twice with not enough either time to make anything wet.

We are volunteers at the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center. Sandi mans the visitor services desk and I have developed a Junior Ranger Program which I am supposed to present twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays. We only “work” three days a week but are always with two or three other volunteers or paid personel. Sabino Canyon, next to the Grand Canyon, is the most visited natural area in Arizona (so I’ve heard). Very few of the daily visitors come into the visitor center with only 400-500 coming through the door on a busy day; most come to the co-located bookstore that is operated by a separate organization so the three or four of us essentially take turns helping the few visitors who ask for help. The Forest Service has not been very aggressive in advertising the Junior Ranger Program and I have only given the program to about 40 people in eight weeks. Needless to say, we are far from over worked. The rest of the volunteers who work here are a good group. Like many public land management agencies (National Forest, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife, and National Park Service), the organizations would not be able to do what they do without the volunteers. It is very apparent here. I think the other volunteers are kept rather busy during their work periods but Sandi and I are very underutilized. Never-the-less we sure enjoy being in the area.

On our four days a week off we generally take a hike through the canyon area. Our 1-6 mile hikes are special events. We always hope to see Coatis, Gila Monsters, Bobcats, or Mountain Lions but we are never in the right place at the right time. We have seen an assortment of comon lizards including collared-lizards. It is probably too cold for the big lizards but in the time we have been here others have reported seeing the cats and coatis. Maybe we will be lucky before we leave here. We’ve been to the Tucson Opera, toured the Biosphere, driven to Mount Lemmon, and have found the selection of resturaunts in Tucson great. A China-Thai resturaunt serves great spring rolls and friends of ours from Yellowstone NP and Big Bend NP stopped by and we went to the El Corral resturaunt for great prime rib where we were surrounded by old photos of the likes of Tom Mix, Roy Rodgers, Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, Gene Autry and others--all the others.

Golf has been good. I get out twice a week and am playing well but just can not seem to get the game to where I want it but I guess all golfers never get low enough scores. Maybe today will be the day. Sandi has been spending lots of time exercising her sewing machine and is nearing completion of several projects.

We have gone through a rash of RV maintenance problems. A rogue rock jumped out and scraped the RV and the car-in-tow while I was pulling into a camping spot. Can’t believe what it cost to fix up just a scratch. Our powered patio awning had a multiple component failure. A gas spring failed and the motor stopped working. I had to have a gas spring special made but I was able to dissassemble the motor assemble and fix that myself. We came home one day to find our refrigerator on but not cooling. Took a new cooling unit. Then themicrowave/convection oven had a capacitor short out and I had to take it to a shop. They did fix it in just a couple days. Hope the string of failures stops. We have really been fortunate that we have had very few equipment failures since we started RVing.

We are in our last few days here. It has been interesting. A huge tortise wandered into the canyon. I t was identified as an exotic African Spur-thighed tortoise. We found out that it had escaped from a neighboring yard. It weighed over 80 pounds and was probably ten times larger than the native dessert tortoise that lives here. On Monday I went out of the RV and came face-to-face with a bobcat. I called to Sandi and she nearly swooned. She has a special attraction to wild cats and seeing one so close is special.

Crand Canyon NP to Sabino Canyon, AZ

The Grand Canyon is inspiring, not just because of the beauty but also because of it’s massiveness. A short hike out to one of the overlooks and some time spent looking for California Condors was time well spend even if the Condors were not cooperative.

From the North Rim we headed west to Las Vegas for a few nights at Nellis AFB and a show to celebrate our 37th anniversary. We watched the Lion King and the puppetry and the music were everything we had heard. What a great show. Another round of golf for me (46/42 again), a lunch with Angelina Yost, our boss a few years ago at Big Bend and we were back on the road to see the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We camped at another National Forest Campground and spent several days in the area. The views are awesome. We listened to two different Ranger programs – one on geology. We enjoy learning about geology and have developed a real interest in the geological history of the Earth. The second talk was an excellent talk on Condors and right in the middle of the Condor talk one of the huge birds (#33) flew over twice. What an experience. Bird #33 is the last remaining of the original birds released into the wild around 1996. After the talk, and some ice cream, but before leaving for the day, we saw a total of five different condors. With a 9+ foot wingspand they are easy to pick out from the turkey vultures with which they soared. A hike into the canyon is a must. I hiked a short way on the Kaibab trail to Ooh Aah point and then down to the Cedar Overlook. I wish I had considered a rim-to-rim hike. It would have been an awsome accomplishment. Maybe the next time.

We left the south rim and headed toward Tucson. We get an occassional high coolant temperature warning light when climbing up these mountains. A check with both Caterpillar and Freightliner indicates that we need a good radiator cleaning. We’ll get that done in Tucson sometime before heading out again.

We have made to the Sabino Canyon recreational area and are now set up and have good cell phone coverage as well as a good internet connection. The view from our RV of the mountains to the north and the hills covered with saguaro cactus is awesome. We’ll only be here for a few months before we head off somewhere else.