2/14 - After leaving Phoenix, Zoe and I headed out and stayed at a HH not too far away. It's an animal sanctuary and lots of places to park. Zoe and I wandered around the farm in the evening and the next day I paid to walk around among the animals.
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| Zoe very focused on Victoria expecting more carrots. Her tail is tucked, but it's in concentration, not fear. |
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| Enjoying a good roll |
Farm tour - I had a bucket of carrots to feed everyone.
2/15 - Next day I went to the Lost Dutchman SP. I asked about overnighting there, but they were full, which was fine since I had a HH booked for the night. After walking around the campground, I was happy to not stay there as the sites were really close together. I paid the day fee to hang out for the day. Zoe and I took a quick walk, but the sun was too much, so I dropped her off in the van and took a hike on my own.
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| Another interesting sleeping position |
Hung around at Lost Dutchman for sunset.
Showed up at the HH - Jackass Junction, which really should be a BW as it's not a sanctuary. She's basically making money to take care of her pets... They did have a nice campfire setup with chairs, which I enjoyed with Pam, Mark, Olan, and Melissa. It was really funny as I pulled in, there were two other blue gray sprinter vans - so there were three of them now!
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| It's hard to tell the color of the vans in this light... |
2/16
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| Good morning |
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| Apparently the one on the left does this "smile" for photos. 😁 |
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| She looks so concerned |
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| Which is the farm fresh egg?? It's actually the one on the right. I think the pasture raised ones I buy at the store must eat something to make the yolks almost orange. |
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| I wonder why she likes to hide her face. |
I decided to take a drive to Tortilla Flat. I really didn't know where to go from here, but ended up just doing a day trip to this little town and enjoyed the drive. The rocks are all green with lichen and it was pretty cool.
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| The lichen that gives the hills the bright green color. |
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| I made it! Not to where I had planned to go, but that's OK. You gotta go with the flow. |
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| Canyon Lake overlook |
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| We stopped for a walk at Canyon Lake. I was surprised at how dirty the water was. I wonder why... |
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| Plastered with dollar bills |
After leaving Tortilla Flat, we drove to Peralta Regional Park to find a campsite. It seemed the website wasn't working properly and I was expecting to find a host, but no luck. After driving all that way down a washboard road, I really didn't want to turn around. Luckily, I was able to get the website to work by putting it in map mode and found a site. Only a few were occupied, but most were reserved. Grrr. Anyway, I picked the only available site in this loop. I had gone to look at another loop road, but it was going to rain overnight and the road already looked like it would be bad news, so I turned around and grabbed the other site.
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| Such a pretty view from my site. |
It did rain overnight and the road was a bit messy, but it wasn't too bad. On my way out, I was waving to Michelle and heard a crunch. Oh, no, I scraped a boulder with the side of Big Bertha! And this is the day after I had submitted the claim for the rodent damage. I was pretty upset as I am so careful, but got over it pretty quickly. I was just distracted and had parked in the spot at an angle. I can't remember the last time I had an accident driving and had to make an insurance claim. I hope this doesn't affect my rates.
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| 😭😓 |
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| The culprit |
I had Bryce Thompson Arboretum marked in my Google maps, so decided to hit that on my way towards Globe, AZ.
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| Eucalyptus Forest |
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| Cool looking Boojum tree |
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| Hopbush |
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| Apricot Mallow |
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| Major vines on the rock face. I wonder if you could climb them. Haha. Maybe? |
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| Some kind of daffodil |
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| I didn't know Aloe had flowers |
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| Cute statues of a donkey going for some grass in the boy's back pocket. Zoe was curious about the donkey. |
After leaving the arboretum, we headed to Globe, AZ. I drove through town, but wasn't too interested, so I went to an RV park to get a shower and then left from there to go find a place to stay for the night.
I found a great boondocking spot - thanks iOverlander.
2/18
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| Good morning to the several cows passing by |
After leaving that great spot, we headed to Tucson. I had a HH stay scheduled at a brewery. I have been a bit under the weather for a couple of days with a cold, so I figured I'd put off going to Eleanor's for as long as possible. Typically I get only a few sniffles and then the cold goes away, but this one hung on a little longer. I was sure it would be fully gone by the next day.
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| Cool artwork with the butterflies on the sidewalk too. |
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| A Moto Rita at the HH brewery. I just wasn't feeling the beer. |
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| Instead of the $47K one in Prescott, this was only a few hundred. |
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| Nature's art |
After wandering around downtown Tucson again today, we headed to Eleanor's new home in Tucson. She's been renting for a few years and found a new place. It's very nice, but there's a lot she wants to do before moving in, like painting every wall and ceiling, remove the carpeting upstairs and replace with vinyl planking. Lots to do, which is unfortunately stressful.
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| Zoe in Eleanor's new home |
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| Bracelet the Lenore gave me. I love it! |
We went back to the other house where Emma was and where we'd be staying. I will stay in the van as the house is in a bit disarray due to the pending move. It's actually perfect. I really am happy staying in BB! Eleanor picked up a plain pizza and we added toppings - yum. Unfortunately, though I had been feeling fine all day, my throat became really scratchy, so I was clearing my throat all evening. Obviously my cold wasn't done... Grrr. I really don't want to get Eleanor and/or Emma sick as they both just suffered a very long cold. I am hoping that what I have is the same as what they had so they're likely to be immune. 🤞🤞🤞
Due to my cold and Eleanor having things to do with the new house, we didn't do much other than hang out and do some house stuff. This was totally fine with me. Eleanor apologized for not entertaining me more, but that's not her job! I don't visit people to have them tour me around. If that works out, then great, but if not, it's the friends/family I'm there to see. I can tour on my own.
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| Zoe was less than impressed by our visit to Home Depot. Eleanor wanted to pick out some paint samples, backsplash ideas, and flooring. |
2/23 - I did some laundry, filled up my water, showered, and hit Trader Joe's - I don't know when I'll see another one! And then stopped by the new house to say my final goodbye and to help Eleanor with some decisions. I am planning to head to some BLM land just 45 minutes south to be on my own and rest my voice.
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| Another weird sleeping position... |
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I had planned to go to another spot nearby, but for some reason decided to go here. There were only about 8 sites (free), but huge. I ended up in a non numbered spot that was pretty close to the dirt road, but unless I wanted to share, which I did consider after meeting some nice people. My spot was fine, so I stayed. Also, I wanted to come out here to rest my voice, so being on my own was better. I did find out the next night, you can park beyond the gate. Oh well.
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| You can see how close I am to the road, whereas the real spots are big and farther off the road. |
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| Lenore had given me this little book for water colors, so I actually got out my pencils and water brush and did the first picture. It was really nice to allow myself the time to just chill and paint. |
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| I went for a walk (without Zoe as it was hot) and met up with a bunch of free range cows. I always wonder if they'd ever become aggressive, but they seem fine at least with no bulls. |
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| This cactus provided the only color I saw out here. |
2/25 - This morning we took a short walk before it got too warm, hung out in the sun (Zoe) and shade (me) for a while, then went to see the Empire Ranch, which was a ranch from the 1870s. The buildings are open for you to explore at no charge. I always enjoy looking at old buildings in the style and furnishings they were in originally. I took Zoe with me and then returned her to the van so I could take a little walk on the Heritage Trail. So many huge and beautiful Cottonwoods.
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| barns |
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| barn and windmill |
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| The Empire Ranch house was constructed by hand using hand cast adobe bricks, made from sand, clay, grass, and water that was mixed by hand. The bricks were covered with mud plaster (also made from clay, sand and water) back in 1878, when the house was built, and then painted pink. Later, probably in the 1930s, the white cement layer was applied. |
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| The family kitchen |
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| Master bath |
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| Dining room |
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| sleeping porch |
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| Hired hands kitchen |
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| Over 52 movies and tv shows have been filmed here. Like Gunsmoke, Oklahoma!, A Star is Born, Bonanza, Desperado, The Young Riders, etc. |
After the Ranch tour, I decided to head to the spot I had been planning to go to and I'm glad I did. I found a great spot at the end of the road (4x4 only after here). There is another RV within sight, but I'm very happy with this spot. The only down side is that there are flies, but not too many. Also, the cell service is very weak, so I restarted the Starlink. I've been trying to learn more about watercolor pencils, so I need YouTube. 😀
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| I LOVE this photo! |
2/26 - I decided to stay here another day to continue to recover my voice and just chill out. I really haven't been talking, so that's gotta be good for it!
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| Morning view from my window |
I still need to figure out what my trajectory is from here. I think that I might be late enough that I could head through Taos, NM. I didn't hit that before, so that would be good. And then go through Oklahoma (never been) and to Arkansas. I had thought I'd visit Peggy (from Fairbanks) in NOLA, but I don't think I'll get that far south. We shall see! I wouldn't mind going to NOLA again.
In the afternoon, Kelly, who is staying down the road, came by asking if she could use my phone to call Verizon. She got a new phone and when they tried to activate it, neither new nor old now work. She was on the phone with them for an hour and was so testy with the guy, I give him lots of credit. In the end they couldn't do anything for her and she had to drive to Tucson, only 45 minutes away to get it sorted out. She was NOT happy.
2/27 - It's really hot - abnormally hot - so I just don't know what to do with myself, so I decided to pack up and head out. I was just about to leave when Kelly stopped by to offer dinner tonight and to drive around in her car and explore, plus go and get a shower. I really did not enjoy her energy, so I kept to my plan to depart. First stop was a shower, which was 1.5 miles down a washboard road. It ended up being a good shower, so it was worth it. I had considered using my own shower, but this way I save the water and get a full on shower. Since I can usually get water for free, it would make monetary sense to use mine, but it's a decadence I give myself.
Once I was clean I decided to give myself another treat and went out for lunch. The wine was good (I shouldn't have had a glass as I ended up so sleepy!) and the pizza was good, but the crust was so crispy that I couldn't eat much of it.
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| Zoe's crust (after already having some!) |
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| I love it when she sits up and looks around. She's normally curled up on the seat or on her bed between the seats. |
I decided to head towards the Chiricuhua mountains to get to a higher elevation to hopefully be cooler. It is about 8 degrees cooler than where I was and I can walk around here (considered a Walmart in Bension, but hotter and usually not good for walking). After selecting a boondocking spot, Zoe and I went for a walk, then I went on my own to get a few more steps in.
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| New neighbors. I worry a little about them with the horns, but they are very scared of me, so I guess I don't need to worry. |
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| Cute house number display |
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| I like the saddles on either end along with the emblem |
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| It's not an awesome spot, but still offered a nice sunset. |
Tomorrow is Saturday, so the park might be a problem for me driving Big Bertha... We'll see!
2/28 - The park was fairly crowded and I did have a bit of a problem finding parking, but we managed. It's an interesting park with very cool ROCK formations! I really do love the geology of it. I managed a hike, which ended up being longer than I expected. I was able to have the temp monitor on since there was signal at the van and I had intermittent signal as I hiked, so I could check in on Zoe. It started at 81 degrees in the van, then by the time I was done, it was only up to 83, but I didn't like that it was climbing, so I was anxious to get back to the van. Obviously she was fine.
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| Looks a bit like Abe Lincoln? |
Hiked to the Grottoes, which was fun to explore, but this was the end of my trail and I was anxious about Zoe, so probably didn't explore it as much as I'd have liked. Grrr. This park is such a clear representation of the lava flows that once were here and the erosion due to rain, ice, wind, plants, and temperature changes.
That night I stayed at a HH - Pillsbury Wine Co. The owner, Sam, was the wine tender. He was arrogant, crude, rude, and demeaning. He told one guy basically what an idiot he was for liking sweet wines and said something to me about art and basically that people who think that some art takes no skill (I said that about certain types of paintings) are idiots. He also talked about the reviews and how people complained about the road coming in. It was seriously rough, but thankfully not long. But he went on about how bad the dirt roads are in Australia and NZ. Whatever. This is people driving their traveling homes around and the washboard was probably one of the worst I've been on (town road - not his road). Can you tell that I didn't like him very much? It was super hot and there was no AC. There were some other people there, so I enjoyed chatting with several groups, so that made it enjoyable. Though the wines had apparently won lots of rewards, I wasn't too impressed. It's hard when you're actually interacting with the winemaker... But there were dogs too. I am so tempted to leave a negative review of my experience with Sam, but I just can't do it. He reviewed me and said I was lovely... But of course!
There was no shade (no surprise in the desert), so I was very grateful for my window covers and AC so the van was comfortable when we returned. Lots of spiky things to get into Zoe's paws, so I had to keep an eye on her.
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| The two older pups taking it easy |
So, I'm not super happy, in fact I'm kind of obsessing like I'm apt to do, about the paint. I love the color, but I think I got bad advice from the seemingly experienced paint person at ACE hardware in Cottonwood. She convinced me that I didn't need high bonding paint, like had been used originally. She sold me an exterior paint. So, I thought this paint would adhere properly to the original paint, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I guess, being such a small space and with all the corners that can get rubbed up against, the high bonding cabinet paint should always be used. No one has told me this, but I'm guessing this is the case. Lesson learned, but I don't know what to do for the future. I know I'll be touching up the paint quite a bit (small bits so far, but some spots are actually peeling away 😞😭), but I'm guessing this will be a continual problem, even if I painted over the top of it. What a bummer after all that stress and effort. Sometimes I hate these lessons...
3/1 - I had heard and read that Olive's Cafe was wonderful and it was just a bit further down that terrible dirt road, but I decided to go for it. It was around 10:30 on Sunday and no one was there. It's a lovely setting and super well done. My food was good and I ended up chatting with some other people who wanted to say Hi to Zoe, so it was a very pleasant morning.
From there, I went to Willcox, AZ and wandered around a little (without Zoe, cuz it was so hot!). Not too much happening there on a Sunday, but it's the hub for the wine country around here.
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| Cute dog park. |
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| And you can go into the train car at the dog park. |
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| The main st |
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| Leaving AZ after about 2 months |
Ended up going to the Shakespeare Ghost Town, which is a HH. It's privately owned, but a historical site. I was the only one there and the tour, which normally costs $15 per person would cost me $30 if no one else showed up. Oh, well. I liked the idea of actually getting a tour of an old mining town.
I took a walk out onto some BLM land on my own, which was across the road from where I was parked. It was a bit nerve wracking when I was just entering the trail, when 2 pickup trucks slowed down as they went by (they had to as there was a bit dip in the road), so I pulled out my phone and pretended I was on it. They continued on their way and so did I. It would have been a nice place to stay back there, but I wouldn't have done it in my van as the road was super narrow, but not too bad. I could have done it, but probably wouldn't have. On my way back, I saw the same two pickup trucks parked off to the side, which made me really uncomfortable, so I pulled out my phone again and was ready to call the Ghost Town guy just in case. But all was good. It's not often that I get nervous, but I really was in the middle of no where...
What I really like about this Ghost Town is that the buildings are original. There aren't many and they have been supported to prevent collapse, but they are much closer to original that what I often see.
You should enter that sunset picture with the tree in a photo contest! It was awesome!
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