OUR TEMPORARY NEW DIGS SOUTHEAST OF PHOENIX SOMWHERE
This post is coming to you from somewhere in the Sonoran desert southeast of Phoenix, Arizona. We do not have a strong Verizon signal so I hope I'll be able to get this post published. We do have about a dozen TV channels with the antennae, & cell phone coverage is good.
MUST HAVE BEEN ABOUT A HUNDRED OF THESE MILITARY VEHICLES ON THIS TRAIN NEAR YUMA TODAY
We did not have a good night back in Yuma last night because of the miserable wind that harassed us again beginning about midnight. The winds were bad all afternoon but backed off around 7 so we thought that was the end of it, but 4 ours later we were scrambling to get our slides in again!!
The winds brought in cooler air instead of warmer air so we had to dress warm this morning before heading out. I had put things away & hooked the car up Saturday afternoon so by 8 a.m. California time we had the big wheels rolling eastbound. Twenty five minutes later we crossed the Arizona/California State line in Yuma & never looked back.
We had the wind at our backs & the traffic was light on Interstate 8 all the way to Gila Bend. Not a cloud in the big blue sky & the temps were soon up into the high 70's. It just felt sooooo great to be on the road again heading somewhere. I love watching the scenery going by & I'm always scanning the mountain tops for familiar landmarks. This was our 4th time on this stretch of road but the first time heading east. Kelly was at the computer desk behind me handling emails, the dogs wandered around with lots of room, & I enjoyed hot coffee with a tuna sandwich that Kelly brought up from the galley. Aw yes, ya just gotta love this whole Motorhome concept:)) Yellow & purple flowers abounded along the roadway & it was really nice to see the greening hills & mountains of spring.
Gila Bend is always an oasis stop for us because the north end Shell station is so easy to get into for dumping tanks & taking on water. We picked up a load of gas here as well. First fill up in a month & it relieved us of $150.00. It was high noon & by 12:30 we were headed east for Casa Grande.
There is a nice boondocking spot called, Jim Kortsen West Pinal Park about 20 miles west of Casa Grande right on I-8 & that's where we were headed. We stopped here for an overnighter a year ago & also back in February this year on our way west. But, by the time we got to Jim Kortsen I had already changed my mind. It was only 1:30 in the afternoon, traffic was still light & we were rolling right along so figured we might as well head on through to a place southeast of Phoenix called Florence Junction. Kelly had found a boondocking spot on the internet just of highway 60 so after a Safeway grocery stop in Coolidge we turned off the highway onto Queen Valley road. This road led a few miles to a bumpy dirt road & we followed this for a mile or so until we finally found an even more bumpy spot to pull in. We were proudly able to add some nice new desert pin striping to the sides of the rig & car as we wiggled & squiggled in amongst the creosote bushes & mesquite trees. We've got more dust & dirt on this old rig than they have in the average gravel pit. Give me that good old weathered look any day as opposed to that squeaky clean looking dealership lot look. Yesireeeeeeeee:))
This is also the first 'new territory' we have been to on this trip & oh how nice that is. As soon as we got east of Casa Grande today I once again felt that tinge of excitement returning as I looked around me with that little boy wonderment at new horizons, mountains, valleys, & canyons. I just love seeing new stuff.
This is one of those good news/bad news sites. First the good news. We are surrounded by green hills, mountains, Saguaro cactus, flowers, & all kinds of green vegetation. No people, no RV's & the scenery goes on forever. Now, the bad news!! We are also surrounded by gunfire at the moment. This whole beautiful area is obviously a hang out for younger people & a popular shooting range. Shotgun shells litter the ground as well as all the other usual litter & paraphernalia we always associate with younger people. Broken glass & garbage strewn about. Shattered bits of clay pigeons are everywhere so that tells us it's a popular area for skeet shooting. As I'm typing this I can hear shotguns going off somewhere to our right & to our left someone is firing with a high powered rifle. So instead of birds & the quiet sounds of nature, we have that horrid sound of buzzing ATV's, dirt bikes, shouts, & of course the old American standby here in the west................ gunfire!! But, am I complaining....................?? Well, of course I am!! And do we wish we were in an RV Park right now.....not a chance!!!!!!
Tomorrow we plan to not stray far from the rig. We'll climb back aboard the internet & see if we can find ourselves a better spot because we plan to do a bunch of day trips in the car around the area & we would feel more comfortable leaving the rig in a more humanly mature place. We have Apache Junction, Superstition Mountain, Lost Dutchman Mine, the 120 mile Apache Trail Loop & other spots in mind. I will also try & remember to put in our location co-ordinates tomorrow.
And just wanted to mention something else about the 'Blogs We Follow' post I had in last night's blog. I never flush anybody's blog down the drain, I just drop them into a desktop folder. I should have been more clear about that last night. I often pop in there, pull up somebody's blog, & see how they're doing & what they are up to. I also have people's blogs in that folder who I've never had on our site too. If you were on our list & don't see yourself on there now, it just means I've dropped you into my desktop file for awhile. You have not been flushed:))
And one last word about contentment.....I'm just one of those people with a restless soul. Never content for very long wherever I am or with whatever I'm doing. I've always been like that & it looks like I'm just stuck with it. But, it's OK.....I just like to complain about it once & awhile to keep myself on track.............10-4:))
GROANER'S CORNER:(( What do you call a mushroom who buys everyone drinks and is the life of the party?
A fun-gi.
BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.
Watch out for the pups there in frontierland with all the shooting going on in the wild, wild west.
ReplyDeleteIf it is a hangout for local thugs...oops, kids....you'd be better off finding a safer place to boondock. Leaving the rig behind for some sightseeing could find you without a rig.
Can't wait for more, as usual, Al.
I suspect that the closer you get to Phoenix and its suburbs, the harder it is going to be to stay in areas where other RVs are a half mile away. Some of the areas North of Apache Jctn require day use permits that have to be purchased in local gas stations. Perhaps you would be better off heading toward the Globe area. Rod
ReplyDeleteOur belief is -- the farther from Phoenix the better. Good luck finding a more "humanly mature" place to settle for a while. Walking amid gunfire doesn';t sound like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteAl, I think you are contented in your restlessness. You are a modern day pilgrim or pioneer, seeking new horizons, finding them, settling there until the wanderlust beckons again. Your wanderings take a lot of us to places we'll never see with our own eyss, and we count on you!
You and Kelly be careful out there in the "rootin tootin" West. You could become the new sheriff in town!! Travel safe and keep the visor down traveling West in the early morning...I am too short for the visor to do any good until about 9AM..
ReplyDeletePersonally I wouldn't want to be anywhere near gunfire. Also, you don't want to return from a day trip to find your rig vandalized. Maybe an RV park isn't all that bad if you are going to be traipsing around the vicinity and not sitting around the park itself. Please stay safe.
ReplyDeleteAl, Try heading south of Tucson, toward Ajo. There are bound to be some rusty, dusty places there you can try. Oh! Just thought of someplace else, though you'll find some company here and there. Go to Sabino Canyon area just north of Tucson. Pretty, pretty...especially this time of year. It gets steep, but I think if you go up the north side of that mountain, you'll find some spots.
ReplyDeleteHey, Al, I haven't heard any gunfire here in the RV Park lately so I guess you probably think we're missing a lot of exciting times - NOT!! Looks like you and Kelly have picked out a pretty good spot there though - lots of trees and boulders to dive behind when the shots start zinging around. I think you should hoist a white flag up with the Maple Leaf and the Stars and Stripes just in case!!
ReplyDeleteLets see....gunfire, or old dudes riding around the rv park on their bycycles....gee...what a choice! We've landed in one of them thar RV RE-zorts right smack dab in the middle of Phoenix. Hmmm....what happened to my desert view?
ReplyDeleteIt was great to meet you two, share some desert time with you and get to know your blog. We'll sure be following along with you, even though we've kind of sold out to the pavement and 50-amp deal again. You can be sure we'll be back in the boondocking stage again, though, sooner rather than later, we hope.
Safe travels!
Sounds like you're living the dream! We hope to do much the same thing once we retire. Be careful in that spot - you never know with rifles.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog!