22 Mar Cold Weather Blues….
So I have to admit I am a bit behind on the blog posts. You creative types out there know that sometimes you got the words or creative spark, and sometimes you don’t. Couple of weeks of “don’t” for me. Let’s see if I can jump start some thoughts.
Franklin Mountain State Park. CR on the left
In our attempt to bid farewell to Big Bend and Texas and find our elusive warmer climate, we did a quick overnight in a state park near El Paso. It was a sweet place with five dry camping spots. The view spectacular. The location left Christopher Robin hanging on at a pretty significant angle. Not something I imagine a 37’ camper is usually situated on. The wind was howling this night. Good thing a RV store was not to far away and we could grab some more chocks to secure our tires. As we settled in for the night I said a little prayer that we would be in the same spot come the morning. We turned on our generator to zone out with some TV for a little bit. Jokes on us! Every crisp clear channel was in Spanish. No habla espanol since high school.
33 degree am had us leaving early the next morning. We zipped through the rest of Texas, New Mexico onto our next stop in Willcox AZ.
Some thoughts on our travels as we zipped along. (When I say zipped, please know that I am writing this after the fact, so it’s all good and Dave and I are not out of breathe 🙂 ) From the time we left Big Bend till now, most of the areas along the highways we are traveling are beige. Beige, tan and brown definitely dominate that landscape of desert areas. I’ve not spent any significant time in any desert, so this is kinda new to me. If you asked my kids, these earth tones make up a significant part of my wardrobe. I can say that I much prefer them on clothing than not seeing much color along the drive. But….I need to be open minded..so I will embrace beige landscape for now.
Ominous signs
Another “new” signpost for us was the dust storm hazard warning signs aka “haboobs” along the way. When you have lived in one geographic area for a looooooong time, these signs come as an eye-opener for us. My gut would tell me to pull over and put my hazard lights on. This my friends is not the case. You pull over as far as you possibly can, stay belted, and keep your foot off the brake and no emergency lights, because other vehicles may want to follow your lights. If I ever move to the desert I am now informed!
Vineyard Camping
tumbleweed 🙂
Not Starbucks, not bad 🙂
Our cool location for our next stop was a vineyard in Willcox AZ. Here we boondocked. We tasted some really nice wine. Here’s a mix that didn’t work so well for me. Not too much food, higher altitude and wine make for a slightly tipsy version of me. Yikes! After a most beautiful sunset, we called it a night.
Loving these brown signs
Chiricahua National Monument
Chiricahua National Monument
A reminder, we are in Arizona and woke up to 28 degrees. Headed for a picnic lunch at Chiricahua National Monument along the Bonita Canyon Road to enjoy a magnificent view. At 6870’ elevation, the magnificent view was truly that. There is a joy, as Dave reminds me, in seeing those brown “National”….signs, because you just never know what gem you may come across as we did at Chiricahua.
Strolling along the OK Corral
27 degrees 🙂 and so we left for our next stop,Tombstone AZ and the touristy local of the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. It was a fun stop. Enjoyed some lunch at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and a quick brewery stop. But for me, our next stop at Kartchner Caverns State Park was a more peaceful local. Ahhh. Another cave tour led us through rooms called the Rotunda and the Throne room. Really unless you have fear of being in tight spaces under ground, go do a cavern tour somewhere. Our earth is a most amazing creation!
Giant Sloth Kartchner Caverns
Loving the cactus
I apologize for the constant reminder of weather information. It’s really just an outlet for my confused sense of being. Woke up to snow. How naive of me to think we had left that behind us. Oh well. The roads were fine and we took the opportunity to do some necessary things like laundry and oil changes. This was very necessary. Lunch at a german restaurant in the middle of Sierra Vista AZ that had some of the best German food I have ever had. Pop, that was for you 🙂
Yum
For Us, It’s Not Abad Day 🙂