Trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Here is Sandy getting ready to jump into the truck so we can head down to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. This park is about 150 miles south of Phoenix on the Mexican border.




As we were getting ready to leave on our small adventure, several dozen people were taking off on their high adventure in 5 hot air balloons. They were taking off at a launch site about 1 mile south of the park, so pulled over and took a few pictures. We have never been in a hot air balloon, but pehaps we should put it on our “Bucket List”.










When we stopped at McDonald's for a quick breakfast this old relic was sitting out front. It’s a 1928 Ford. Sandy got it right when she said “this should be kept just as it is and not be restored”. It was called "The Old Ratter".










At the Park entrance there was another couple , so we did the you take ours and we’ll take yours routine.


At the south end of the park is a border crossing. This is the same crossing our friends from Quartzsite crossed going to Puerto Penasco, Mexico.




Here is the road map of the 22 mile road called Ajo Mountain Drive. This is the only drive open at this time. The other road bordering Mexico is closed indefinitely.


This is a picture of the fence that is being built along the border.


This Saguaro seems to be saying "come here and let me give you a hug".


Most of the road is one way, thankfully. About 2/3 is dirt and the rest is paved.


Here are a couple of Chain-Fruit Cholla pictures.





Another thing you see are Touristos, AKA as my wife.


Now HERE is a Organ Pipe Cactus


Here are several photos taken along the road.














This picture shows a Saguaro Cactus skeleton with a "shoe" sticking out the right side. A "shoe" is where a bird has hollowed out a nest and the cactus has healed itself by forming a cork-like scare tissue.


Here is a photo of a young Saguaro Cactus growing in a young Organ Pipe Cactus.


Now why would you name a town Why?









Bye for now,
Dave and Sandy

Back in Phoenix

Friday, the day after we got back was a busy day as Sandy cleaned the inside of the motorhome because of all the dust we had in Quartzsite and washed 6 loads of clothes. While Sandy was doing that I ran the California duster over the motorhome and cleaned the bugs off the front of the motorhome. At 5:00 we went over to Mary Jo and Mike’s for happy hour. Mary Jo and Mike had invited Jane, Ron and us for a supper which consisted of a 7 layer salad, homemade vegetable beef stew, corn bread and dessert which was peach and strawberry sorbet with fresh peaches, strawberries and blueberries from back home in Illinois as topping. Way to good!





On Saturday morning Sandy mentioned that we should take a road trip and go on the Apache Trail but the weather looked like it could still rain so we started the day by going to breakfast at Harold’s in Cave Creek. It was a little after 11:00 when we finished and came outside to see that the weather had changed for the better, so we decided to give the Trail a try. The first problem is that the start of the Trail is an hour away at the intersection of US 60 and AZ HWY 88. Then the second problem is that although the Apache Trail is only 48 miles long, 22 miles of it are gravel, and a lot of that is single lane with pullouts for opposing traffic. We ended up not stopping at Goldfield, supposedly a ghost town but now rather commercialized, and the town of Tortilla Flat also rather commercialized. This turned out to be the right decision as we still had good sunlight when we got to the end at Roosevelt Lake.




The Apache Trail starts with a view of the Superstition Mountains











A couple of miles up the road is Goldfield, but we did not stop here. At about twenty miles on the Trail the road pretty much follows the Salt River.


Some beautiful scenery along the way.













The first reservoir that we came to was Canyon Lake which is one of four dams on the river, three of which we will see.



Some more scenery along the way.


After about 26 miles on the trail we came to the start of the dirt road.


Here are some pictures while on the dirt road.














Then next lake we came to was Apache Lake.




The third and final lake we came to was Theodore Roosevelt Lake and dam. This dam was made of bricks in 1911 and remains the world’s largest masonry dam at almost 300 feet tall.


This is a picture of Roosevelt Lake and the bridge they built to divert traffic off the bridge to do repairs.














If you ever get to the Phoenix area, this is a trip worth taking, but give it a full day so you can stop at the Goldfield and especially Tortilla Flat (which we did not because of time constrants). The road also connect to AZ HWY188 leading up to Payson which is also a very scienic area. That trip will have to wait for another day.

Until next time,
Dave and Sandy

Quartzite, AZ

After breakfast on Saturday the 17th, Joe and Barb took off to the Barrett Jackson car auction. Then at 7:30 PM they flew back to Minnesota. After they left in the morning Sandy and I left for Quartzsite, AZ to meet up with some friends we have met during our travels.

A note about Quartzsite for those who do not know.....
"Quartzsite, Arizona's population at last count is a meager 3,400 residents. And yet, in the months of January and February over a million people flock to this 36 square mile patch of land in the middle of nowhere. Impromptu villages composed of recreational vehicles form overnight as snowbirds from Canada and the northernmost States seek a warm refuge during the worst of winter."
And 99% of these campers are dry camping which means there are no water, electric or sewer hookups where you camp. When you need more water or need to dump your sewer tanks you either move to the dump/water station or pay to have these services delivered and removed for you. One of the guys said he saw honey wagons that had slogans painted on the tanks that said, "Yesterdays meals on wheels" and "We're #1 in the #2 industry".

As soon as we got on the road Sandy noticed that one of the nosepads on her glasses was missing, so we made a short trip out of our way to a WalMart to have one put on. $2 and 30 minutes later we were back on the road. We got into Q about 3:00 PM and Chuck met us out by the check in station and guided us back into our camping area. This is boondocking out in the desert and if you get on the wrong trail you end up going through some washes like this that would be a problem.


It was good to see Chuck, Lorraine, Mark, Sue, Richard and Patsy again. Every day there is a 5:00 gathering where everyone brings some snacks, a fire is started and most nights we sat and visited until 7:30-8:00 in the evening. One evening Virgil made a big batch of chili and another evening Linda made BBQ ribs. The weather was just perfect for sitting around the fire to eat and visit.

Here are some of the first arrivals.


Carl, Virgil, Linda and Mike.

Lynda, Richard, Patsy, Lorraine, Steve, Sandy, Sharon and Jeanette.

Bob, Manuel, Connie, Sandy and Mark.










On Sunday Lorraine and Chuck made pancakes, waffles and sausage for everyone and after breakfast a group of us went over to the big tent to do some shopping. I picked up a Grill Guard (basically a wind break for the grill), a couple of other items and looked at, as one vendor put it, everything you don’t need but I can sell to you. After shopping awhile we had to get back to watch the football games and then, later, our 5:00 get together.


Here are some of the ladies, Connie, Sue, Lorraine, Patsy, Linda and Sandy.









We took pictures of everyone who was here today.

Rhythm, Sandy, Yoda and Steve
From Washington


Patsy and Richard
From Texas


Manuel and Connie
From Texas


Sue and Mark
From Louisiana
Mark has the best Boudreaux (Boodro) and Thibodaux (Tibado) jokes. (Cajun versions of the Ole and Sven jokes for all you Minnesotans). I hope the spellings are correct as Dave hardly knows English let alone Cajun.


Sandy and Dave
From Minnesota


Chuck and Lorraine
From Washington


Bob and Lynda
From California


Mike and Linda
From California


Frank
From Texas


This morning, Thursday the 21st, a group of us went over to the La Mesa RV lot and had a free pancake breakfast and toured some of the motorhomes they had for sale.



Mike had this fake water and electric hook up post dug into the ground next to his motorhome. Every time someone walked by and saw it they would come over and give it a good look over. It was amazing how many people thought they were real even though we were out in the desert and no one else had hook ups. The fun part was when someone realized that they were fake.

On the last night that someone new is there with the group they have a little ceremony to install them as members into the Quartzsite Trailer Trash group. The inductees this night were Steve and Sandy, Manuel and Connie, Dave and Sandy standing with Mike the founder of the Trailer Trash group. This is something Mike and a couple of friends started in 2001.



Now this is as bad as a driver’s license photo.
















Some members of the group planned on staying as there were 4 more motorhomes coming that day. Others moved on and will be regrouping a week later as 14 of the motorhomes are going as a group to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. We left Quartzsite on Thursday the 22nd and headed back to the Phoenix area.When we got to Cave Creek we had to go into the overflow parking area for the night and wait until someone leaves in the morning to get a camp site. We are #2 on the list so we should have no problem getting a site in the morning. While driving to the overflow area we came across Mike and Mary Jo, friends who we had met through Ron and Jane last year. They are staying here for a few days and said Ron and Jane were coming over for supper tomorrow night and asked us to join them, and, of course, we accepted.

Until next time,
Dave and Sandy

Spending time in the Phoenix area.

There has not been much going on in our lives for the last couple of weeks. Ron and I worked on their Lazy Daze by installing an exhaust fan above the coils for the refrigerator to help cooling. We also installed a spray kit in the black tank to help clean it out when they dump the tank.

I have started scanning old picture into the computer. This is going to take a lot of time and a few of you might be getting an e-mail to help me identify some of the people in the photos.

The weather here has been pretty good. When my brother Glen was down here golfing with some of his friends the temps were in the mid 30's for the lows and in the low 60's for the highs. Then he went home and 5 days later my other brother, Joe, and his wife, Barb, came down. Since then the lows have been in the 40's with highs in the low 70's to the low 80's. Glen, we do love you, but let us know when you are coming down again so we can head to someplace warm. HEE HEE.



Joe and Barb came over around 9:30 AM on Monday the 11th and we had coffee together and talked about how cold it was back home. Then we went for a 4 mile hike on the Overton Trail that is in the park system adjoining the campground.



Whats the matter Joe, ain't there any hills in Minnesota?



That took us a couple of hours and we were hungry so we went to downtown Cave Creek and had lunch a Harold’s. It ended up we all had the hot roast beef sandwich. After lunch we drove out to Bartlett Lake which is a reservoir north east of Phoenix. Then we came back to the motorhome and visited into the evening. Joe was saying that he could get used to the weather real easily. I wonder why, the high here was 74 degrees and back home it 20 below zero.


Joe and Barb went golfing the next two days and then they headed up to Sedona for a couple of days. They came back to stay with us on Friday night, so we had Ron and Jane over for supper.


Here is Sandy, Jane, Barb, Dave, Joe and Ron.











Tomorrow the 17th Sandy and I are heading down to Quartzsite, AZ to meet some friends of ours and Joe and Barb are going to be catching a plane back to Minnesota. At least it looks like the highs are going to be in the upper 20’s when they get back. Our highs will probably be in the upper 80's.

Until next time,
Dave and Sandy