On The Road

Hanging out in the cactus

 

 

As our kids, grandkids, and friends know, Betty doesn’t swear. But now every morning when she wakes up and looks out our bedroom window, she exclaims: “Those are some big frickken cactus!” LOL.

 

 

 

In the Tucson area of southern Arizona, the cactus is ubiquitous. Front yards, boulevards, license plates and whole mountains are covered in this unique plant. On the one hand it is readily identifiable by its covering in sharp spikes, but we have found that there are so many variations in our campground alone, that we had to stop by a downtown 4^th Avenue bookstore after dinner last night to pick up a primer on the perfectly prickly plant.

So here are some of the variations in Gilbert Ray Campground, our current Reddoch Retreat Centre, as identified in Cacti, other Succulents, and Unusual Xerophytes of Southern Arizona:

(Disclaimer: OK, so I just opened the book and there are 96 pages of cacti, many looking very similar to the variations on the previous pages. Apparently there are 850 species of cactus. My bad if I don’t get the names right. Just don’t use this blog post on your next biology test. LOL)

The saguaro (cereus giganteus), or as Betty calls it “a big frickken cactus!” is
just outside our bedroom window, towering over us at about 20 feet. They can grow up to 50’, according to my handy book.

 

This is Betty in our backyard, surrounded by some of her prickly friends. They are obviously nothing like our good friends back in Manitoba. LOL

 

 

The palmer agave is a great plant to photograph, as the sun and shadows can make a dramatic rendering.

 

 

I think this is the pineapple cactus, but it’s bigger than any pineapple I’ve ever seen!

 

 

 

 

This is a closeup of something spikey, although I don’t think that’s the technical name.

 

 

The pancake prickly pear is a common plant, but I wouldn’t eat it with any amount of maple syrup!

 

 

 

 

This may be the ocotillo, or coach whip. Ouch!

 

 

 

This furry tree is also known as the jumping cholla

 

 

 

 

Flowers are just starting to appear on the tops of cacti.

 

 

The cacti add to some dramatic views from our campsite at sunset.

 

OK, that’s enough of our botany lesson for today. If you forget any of the official names, feel free to use Betty’s appropriate term: “That’s a big frickken cactus!” LOL

When we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum yesterday, just a few minutes away from our campsite at Gilbert Ray, I expected to find a more traditional museum, filled with old dead stuff. It turned out to be more of a beautiful botanical garden, crossed with a zoo, crossed with desert hiking trails, crossed with caves, crossed with a museum. Possibly 90% of it is outside, and the place is very much alive!

I wasn’t initially planning to post about a museum tour, but ended up taking so many pictures that I wanted to share a little of this experience. From the many dozens of pictures taken – just a small fraction of the possibilities – I have chosen a few to add to this blog. I am hoping to learn how to add captions to pictures, but in the meantime will put a short note beside each.

 

As is typical in this area of southern Arizona, the views are spectacular.

 

 

 

I am posting 2 pictures of this prairie dog and lizard, looking in opposite directions, just so you can see that they are real. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned in a prior post, there are apparently 850 species of cactus, and I think this park has all of them. Rather than posting 850 pictures, here are a couple of the photogenic plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of photogenic, here is a lush tropical scene. Ok, don’t take that lush the wrong way! LOL

 

 

 

There are also many variations of the agave plant, which capture light and shadow in a dramatic way. Here is one.

 

The park included a reptiles, invertebrates, and amphibians live exhibit, a cave and mineral gallery, a mountain woodland, desert grassland, desert loop trail, cat canyon, riparian corridor, walk-in aviary, art gallery, and hummingbird aviary, among other attractions. Here is one of the hummingbirds.

 

Overall, this find was a true, beautiful, live treasure. Of course I’m talking about the one in the hat. The park was nice too! LOL

We are east of Yuma, Arizona, at a rock formation covered in graffiti that is thousands of years old! On a whim, we pulled off the highway at a sign directing us to the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, and not only found these amazing historic renderings, but a beautiful BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground as well.

Our unserviced site has at least 150’ of frontage, with a large circular drive in front. The back(age?) goes on forever, as there is nothing behind us but a dried up river, desert, and mountains beyond. Included is a level parking area, a sturdy cement picnic table, a fire pit, and all the firewood you can gather from the surrounding deadfall. All of this for $6.! Because we have our America The Beautiful pass, our visit to the petroglyphs is free.

Attached are a few pictures of our campsite, but they don’t do justice to the amazing views in all directions. Some of the pics show others in the campground (maybe 12) that are some distance away, although because it is so absolutely quiet here, you can hear their voices quite clearly — an interesting experience when the city and traffic noises are reduced to zero. As we have come to expect, the nightly sunsets are so spectacular, I’m glad I don’t have to pay to develop all the film I take, like back in the day! LOL.

As I write this post, the temp is 89 degrees f. outside, and because this is a boondocking site, the a.c. is not on. Boo hoo… I have to cool off with those margaritas that are intended for stinkin’ hot days. So now you see the reason for my lack of eloquence…

Anyway, here are some pics of those rock of ages. Hope you enjoy!

Hi everyone. As you can see we have arrived in beautiful warm Quartzsite. I have to post two of Gavin’s pictures because I couldn’t fit the whole sign in and be able to identify that he was there! Take good care and hope you are all cozy in your nice homes.

As we know from Greek mythology, in an attempt to escape imprisonment, Icarus met his demise by flying too close to the sun, melting his artificial wax wings and plummeting into the Aegean Sea.  While there is no risk of falling into the sea in the Arizona desert – we haven’t seen significant signs of water since we left Texas! — Betty & I do wonder if we risk being melted by the sun as we escape Winnipeg’s winter…

Of course we came to Quartzsite, Arizona for the sun. We are dry camping in the desert, and I do mean dry! The sun bakes down for more than 300 days a year (I could google the actual average number of days, but the sun is frying my brain just now. LOL) Dry camping, or boondocking, means that we are not hooked up to a water supply, and we do not have a sewer outlet, so we do our best to conserve our fresh, black & grey tanks. And of course there is nothing to plug an electrical cord into. There is evidence of former rivers and streams in the desert, but at this point they are bone dry. Needless to say, I haven’t seen car, truck, or RV washes for a long time, and everything gets a generous coating of desert dust/ sand.

Anyway, to the main focus of this post: the sun. Our little Smart car cover does a good job of reducing Shake-n-bake, and our Home Depot purchase of a 4’ x 10’ sheet of foil insulation greatly reduces sun heat gain through our motorhome’s large windshield (when parked, of course…LOL). But the big deal this week is our new solar system!

Everywhere we look on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) properties, RVs are covered in solar panels. We have been considering solar power for some time now, and what better time than in the sun-soaked desert! Unlike northern dealers who may install 1 or 2 systems a year, Solar Bill specializes in RV solar installation, installing up to 8 systems a day. Solar Bill’s our man!

We chose 2 250w solar panels for our roof, for a total of 500w of power. They are attached to a 2000w pure sine inverter-charger, an MPPT solar system controller, with remote digital meters for both, and 4 coach batteries. Tilt arms allow the panels to be adjusted to catch the most sun each day.

Of course yesterday Murphy’s Law took effect: It was the first day after our system was added, and while it didn’t really rain, we had the first overcast day since arriving in Arizona. Augghhh! Well the double rainbow was pretty anyway!

Even so, we had enough power to run my CPAP machine all night and grind & brew coffee in the morning. All of our interior and exterior plugs are now activated, and we can charge our phones, computers, ipad, digital camera batteries, gps. etc., etc., etc. all day, whether we are parked or driving. Yeah!!

The sun is a marvelous thing, and we continue to be amazed by the sky around us, particularly as the sun sets over the mountains. We now have literally dozens of sunset pictures, and while we are still extremely limited in our control over that big ball in the sky, a few more shots we have captured at our campsite this week are hereby attached. Unlike Icarus, we’ll try not to fly too close, but appreciate the warmth just the same…

Cheers!

The Oxford dictionary defines an oasis as a fertile spot in a desert where water is found. It can also be described as a peaceful area in our everyday lives. That is where Betty & I find ourselves in Arizona this month.

Now that we have added a solar system to our motorhome, we are able to sustain our own little fertile spot in the desert, without the need of a noisy generator to power our equipment. When we arrived in Quartzsite, we chose to stay in one of the four large, long-term visitor areas, comprising thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM – the equivalent of Crown Land in Canada) open land with no assigned camp spots. There is a paved entrance to each of the four, and we paid $40. total for a 14 day stay, allowing us to dump our tanks and fill up with fresh water as often as we need. There are other BML lands where camping is free. However, then you have to pay to dump & add water, so we thought $2.86 a day to camp isn’t a bad deal! (BTW, I think they have seasonal rates that are even cheaper!)

Attached to this post are some pictures of our current surroundings. One is a panoramic 180 degree shot from the roof of our motorhome, and another shows the other 180. One shows Betty on our patio, with the seating area, BBQ stand, and fire pit on the dusty sand of our “yard”. As mentioned, there are no assigned campsites, so you can park as near to the road, or as far away as you wish. Because few of the paths through the desert lands are graded, only adventurous risk takers drive long motorhomes or trailers to the farther spots down the atv trails. Regardless, at this time of year the distance between units provides both privacy and quiet.

Apparently, January in Quartzsite is a different place, with the number of campers swelling into the hundreds of thousands. Many groups organize rallies during that time, to take advantage of all the added pop-up vendors. Lots of folk bike, hike, or ride ATVs in the area, and all are a friendly bunch. The atmosphere both in the desert and in the town of Quartzsite is very laid back, with more than a few hippies that never left the 1960s. LOL

To add to our adventure, yesterday Betty convinced Charlie & me to go with her on a day trip to see the London Bridge. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Wow, these must be rich jet-setters who can fly to England and back the same day!” But no, we actually drove our little Smart car 60 miles up the road to Lake Havasu City, where Robert McCulloch (of McCulloch chain saws) bought 13,000 acres of land, and then for $2.5 million bought the London Bridge from the City of London, and relocated it to his desert oasis. The Colorado River is dammed south of the town, so it is a unique experience to see large palm trees, green grass, and beautiful green golf courses in the area, which is all surrounded by jagged mountain ranges.

The two oases described above are quite different from each other. One is a lush, commercial district, while the other is an uncommercial, undeveloped corner of God’s earth. Both have their appeal, and both provide fertile areas for renewal. Whichever direction you go, we hope you can find a peaceful area in your everyday life.Cheers!

The words of Glen Campbell’s sentimental, melancholy song roll through our heads, as Betty & I make the journey from the desert at Quartzsite to the booming metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona. The song is about leaving and going somewhere new, and that is what we are doing. While I had previously flown into Phoenix for a conference, I have never really been there – just from the airport to the hotel and back…

So this sentimental drive away got me thinking about this blog. It certainly wasn’t my idea to write a blog, and I didn’t think much about contributing to it. But once our son Andrew set it up, and Betty made the first post, I thought I’d experiment by adding something. Then something else, and by the time I get to Phoenix will have added over 40 posts! In some ways this surprises me, since I have added maybe only one post to my Facebook page in the past 10 years – I’m just not interested or experienced in sharing my life that way.

And it’s not that I’m unfamiliar with writing. I majored in English in university, but have almost exclusively written funding proposals and formal business correspondence in the past 40+ years. Journaling, or otherwise writing about myself, or our family life, has not been a consideration. (Yes, I was taught not to start a sentence – let alone a paragraph – with a conjunction like So, And, or But, but times have changed and grammar is a little looser now. BTW, if you ever watch a home reno show on TV, almost every sentence started by the architect, interior designer, etc. starts like: “So this is the look we were going for…” Whatever! I could write a whole blog post on how life is one continual conversation now, through a variety of media. Starting a sentence or paragraph with “So” just links what you are about to say to your ongoing life story, but I digress… LOL)

But this is different. My understanding is that the blog was established to help Betty & me keep in touch with our family and close friends during our travels. The content is not set up as “Google searchable”, so unless you know the exact address, you won’t find it. One of my goals is to improve my photography, and it turns out the blog is a good vehicle for adding and describing what we are seeing on the road. That provides a great amount of fodder for the mill.

I enjoy preparing these little vignettes, and hope that you also enjoy reading them. While it was not established as an interactive blog with an active comments section, any responses to Betty or my e-mail addresses are most appreciated. Hopefully it won’t be as sad as the note Glen Campbell left hanging on her door… LOL

Cheers!

Major holidays for us have always been times for family gatherings, so it was a bittersweet experience for Betty and me to be thousands of miles from our children and grandchildren during the Easter weekend. Despite how much we enjoy the hot weather and unique scenery, we miss our family, and were so relieved to be able to see them all together for Easter dinner through the marvels of FaceTime. There is no doubt it was the highlight of our weekend!

On arriving in Phoenix, we chased off the Quartzsite desert dust by treating our motorhome to a full service wash and hand dry, back to its sparkling full body paint job. Yeah! We then checked into the Phoenix Metro RV Park, in close proximity to all local attractions, and took advantage of the on-site laundromat and swimming pool to freshen up our clothes and ourselves.

Feeling refreshed we went on a tour of the town, although it was a very quick visit.  The attached downtown pictures were taken by Betty from a moving car in moderate traffic, so please excuse the shaky framing… As we exited a tunnel into the downtown, I was reminded of a Christian Worthington painting we have in Winnipeg, showing Lazarus transitioning from darkness to light – a very dramatic image. Because we were leaving Phoenix on Easter Sunday morning, Betty & I attended a Saturday evening service where we were again inspired by the recounting of Jesus’ transition from death to life. Hallelujah! He is risen!

Our next stop was the Lake Pleasant Regional Park, just north of Phoenix, where we found another picturesque campsite with more dramatic backyard sunsets over the surrounding mountains. You may tire of seeing so many sunset pictures, but we continue to be amazed at the beauty of the land and sky as the sun goes down each night! Being Easter Sunday, we ended the day with a fabulous feast of lamb (with mint sauce, of course), potatoes and asparagus, all cooked on our trusty barbie, and paired with a bottle of Mouton Cadet, a tasty Bordeaux.

It was such a treat to see our whole family together at Adam & Lisa’s new home when we called. A marvelous happy feast was being prepared, and it warmed our hearts to see everyone. While we are off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, with many great adventures still to come, we look forward to sharing hugs and kisses in person next month on our return.

Much love and cheers!