Another Day in the parking lot!

 

We are back in one of our favorite places, Phon D Sutton Recreation Area in the Tonto NF, and we never thought we would be so happy camping in a parking lot!

It’s the Salt River that makes it so special….(see above photo.) And the wild horses and bald eagles also entice us to stay. 

We moved here last weekend, thinking we would stay one night on our way back to the Cholla camp at Lake Roosevelt.  But as the day passed, we found no reason to move.

Now we are working on our fifth day!  The $3.00 daily fee for the senior version of the Tonto pass also helps us to stay put.

And we keep discovering places to hike!

One day runs into the next.  We chat with neighbors,  hike and sit and stare into the mountains.  Trying not to be sad….this is our last week in the desert.

Backing up to 10 days ago….

We pull onto the 202 after saying good bye to David’s family in Phoenix.  Not sure of our destination but have several camps in mind.  But after the Flatiron of the Superstition Mountains rises in front of us, our truck heads straight for Lost Dutchman SP.

We notice another Casita as we try to maneuver into our spot. Taking a second look, the Casita is waving at us!  What a great surprise, it’s Bob and Mary from Kansas! We last saw them at Quartzsite.

After talking them into  second night, we call other fiberglass friends from Mesa, John and BJ, and arrange a mini gathering.

David’s hand!

It’s great to see everyone again….may be another year before we visit again!

David wants to hike up the Siphon Draw trail as he has only looked up at the mountain looking over us.

(Our hike photos are on my camera….will insert here if I get to a place to download them. )

Less than a mile up the Siphon Draw trail in the Superstitions.

 

Lost Dutchman SP

Our parking lot home.

Salt River

Unidentified desert flower.

David feeling envious!

Another Salt River photo.

Although we are sad to leave our winter home, we do have many good things happening in the future. We are excited to be attending the rally in Montgomery, Alabama in less than two weeks.  Just need to get through the several thousand miles between here and there!

Then we can go home, catch up with family and friends and, fingers crossed, sell our house!

Winter Solstice, Challenges and Gratitude

 

AZ Morning

This is what happens when I don’t post regularly….I have too much to say and can’t figure where to start and where to stop!

Normally I build the post around recent photos….and I may go back and stick in a few.  But, for now, I am just going to start writing and see what emerges.

Today is the winter solstice, 12/21/2014..the day I live for each winter, the day the sun returns to lengthen the day.  (Just noticed that I sound a bit dramatic…..but I do get very “down” in the cold, dark months.)

Lying in bed this morning I made a list of 10 things for which I am grateful.  Later thought of sharing them as a post….and a way to catch up.  They are in random order….not in order of importance.

1.  Grateful for the house furnace that provides warmth although it is 32 years old.

2. Grateful for the comfortable bed and the deep sleep that comes with the comfort.

3. Grateful for Sylvester, my newest feline, who provides a deeper quality of love than my other cats.

4. Grateful that my husband’s heart is back in rhythm after it went into atrial fibrillation last week. Grateful for the hospital who shocked it back into rhythm after only one night’s stay.  Grateful that he is tolerating the medication that will be a necessary and permanent part of our life.

5. Grateful that my husband can walk normally and without pain. David, after the hospital stay, took a short walk which resulted in severe hip pain….probably from arthritic changes….and he was unable to walk without assistance for 4 days!  Afraid the take the anti-inflammatory drugs that interact with the blood thinner, he just toughed it out until the doctor gave him permission to use Aleve….which has “cured” it for now.

6. Grateful for the cardiac doctor who understands us and our priorities…who said there was no reason to stay home and we could make our trek to Arizona!!

7.  Grateful for the lovely lady who decided to spend the winter at our house…grateful our other kitties will have someone to feed and love them.

8. Grateful it is only 8 more days before we start our winter journey to the sun.  Grateful we have family in Arizona that prompts the travel and grateful for the memories of the Superstition Mountains towering over our camp…..can’t wait!

9. Grateful for the little 16 foot Casita trailer and how it has changed our lives.  And the 8 trips we made in 2014…after we returned from the two months in Arizona!

(Trips: Montgomery for the GE&H rally, Townsend rally, Blue Ridge Parkway, Fall Creek Falls rally, Chester Frost Park, Land Between the Lakes rally, Cherokee rally and Gulf State Park.)

10.  And, finally, grateful for the friends…..who seem more like family than friends….who have come into our lives through this community of bloggers, fiberglass rv owners and fellow tumbleweeds who love this wandering lifestyle.

Superstition MT and David 2/2014

2/2014 Lost Dutchman SP

11/2014 Gulf State Park, AL

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! And safe travels!!

Sunsets Continued……

 

Saguaro Lake Marina

…….

By Wednesday David is feeling a bit better.  We decide to explore other campgrounds in the A. J. area starting with Usery Mountain Park, a Maricopa County campground.  The park is  beautiful with mountains and hiking trails but it did not have the Superstition Mountain…..not interested in relocating.  From Usery we head to Tonto National Forest where many campgrounds are closed due to budget cuts.

Saguaro Lake Marina is our turn around point.  We sip ice tea on a patio overlooking blue lake, blue sky.

No alternative camps located, we return to our bit of real estate under the majestic rocks.

Valentine’s Day is approaching….we decide to do something that we never do while camping….go to a movie! 

The Flixster app locates our show in Mesa and we enjoy an afternoon with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.  Say whatever you will…August Osage County will make you appreciate your family! 

After splurging on fish tacos we head back to Lost Dutchman.

Saturday is a family visit day.  It’s only 37 miles from Apache Junction to David’s daughter’s home.  Lovely visit with a great meal at a Mile High restaurant.

It’s a holiday weekend, it’s hot and there are people everywhere!!!  Every hour or so I contemplate leaving for a remote campsite almost 100 miles away.  But the conveniences of Apache Junction with supermarkets, restaurants, electric outlets at Burger King and Fry's  and the mysterious mountain win out and we stay put!

The pain is still there, David reports, but it is tolerable.  We decide to hike the Treasure Loop Trail, a 2 1/2 mile trek with 500’ gain.  This is his first excursion up into the mountain.  The views are similar to the Siphon Draw hike.

Starting two hours earlier than the last hike, we are able to stay in the shade of the mountain for most of the climb. 

The rocks below are called the “Praying Hands”.  There is a trail but we opted out this year.

After six days in one spot, we move to another site…..(it was time to dump our tanks!)

While setting up, David comes inside and says he thinks “Bar Harbor” is next door!  Remember when we met the couple from Maine while scaling Dome Rock a few weeks ago?  They had a powered parachute that flew over the Casita gathering at Quartzsite.  This shot was taken on Glenda’s phone during one of the flights.

It was Mike and Jackie!……and we had a great time visiting….David got a promise of a flight someday in the future!

Then another strange fiberglass coincidence occurred!  Within a few hours two 19’ Escapes pull in, one on each side of our trailer.  The couple to our left are from Washington state and I go over for a chat.  They live close to the Chilliwack Escape factory…I tell them about seeing all the trailers leave the Osoyoos rally last June as we entered BC, heading for Alaska.  Suddenly Sue excitedly asks if we went to the Osoyoos visitor center?  Pausing, I think and nod affirmatively.  She says that they met us there!  I barely remember speaking to an Escape couple….but there is something to be said for our strong Tennessee mountain dialect.  They remembered us from our accent!

Sue and Dave

Our time in the desert is about over….just a few more days.  We are thinking a lot about next year…and spending more time here.

Finishing with a few more sunsets…………..

 

Sunsets and Shingles, Moonrises and Movies

It’s hot!  And I’ve escaped to the Apache Junction library…which has been closed for three days to celebrate President’s Day!!!

Need to back up about 10 days! 

It’s Saturday night and we are in the middle of the fiberglass rally at Quartzsite.  Complaining of pain, David asks me to look at his back.  Huge red whelps run in a band around his torso.  Not sure, I tell him that it looks like shingles!  I lie awake in the morning hours wondering what to do?

Apache Junction is 3 plus hours away.  There will be doctors, a campground and his daughter’s home close by.  By noon, after saying bye to friends, we are heading back to Lost Dutchman State Park…..our place to go when we are sick and need to heal!!!

Monday is spent at a quick care facility…David does indeed have shingles!  Prescriptions procured, we head back to the park. 

I decide that Tuesday will be my day to hike Siphron Draw….the trail that has been calling me.  I was too sick to hike it on our last visit two weeks ago.  David is content to sleep and take his meds.

It’s two miles and 1000 feet elevation gain to make it to the Basin…the trail climbs another mile and another 2000 feet past the Basin to get to the Flat Iron.  I know the later is out of the question, but can I make it to the Basin?

It was 10 o’clock before I get on the trail…too late…the sun is already brutal.  It is all up!  By 11 I am resting frequently and wonder if I can hike until noon, my intended turn around time.

The rocks loom over me…their energy pulling me up closer.

The campground disappears as I climb higher.

This is looking west toward Phoenix.

And I look up at the Flat Iron…..named after our great grandmother’s iron…the kind heated by the fire.

I am exhausted!  Finding a shady spot..no easy feat…I stop and snack.  The last hiker said I am less than a quarter mile from my destination.  Taking inventory of my energy level, there is no more climbing left in my body.  A couple of Canadians rest with me and continue their climb.  I start down, marveling that I made it as far as I did.

The two young men from Quebec surprised me on the way down.  They said I had quit only three minutes from the Basin…it was only another short climb!  Oh well…another year!

 I am running out of time again!  It’s one hour to sunset and Darkness.

Going to publish and promise to finish the saga within 48 hours!

For Better or Worse at Lost Dutchman SP

The better part is now!  We are at the Lost Dutchman State Park near Apache Junction, AZ.  The worse part started one week ago tonight when a severe sore throat and fever awakened me from a sound sleep.  I could tell that whatever crud had hit me,  it had hit hard.

We were finishing a 5 day stretch of visiting with David’s family, celebrating his grand daughter’s marriage and slightly drowning in the hordes of friends and relatives that were coming through his daughter’s home in Scottsdale.  But it was time to go and I should be well!

Somehow we managed, mostly David managed, to get us out of there and relocate an hour to the east at the state park.  The plan was to spend time hiking in the majestic Superstition Mountains, do a little biking, then tend to the domestic chores of washing clothes and grocery buying.

Superstition Mountains.

All the tasks were completed, but slowly, with lots of naps in between.  Tuesday was wash day and sleep.  Wednesday was groceries and sleep. By Thursday I was on the phone to the doc at home pleading for something, anything and…bless his heart… he prescribed some magic antibiotic that started working within 24 hours.  I’ll skip the illness details…but it was not a normal sinus infection!

Our plans of staying here for 4 days changed to 7 days.  We moved to the overflow loop as our site had other campers arriving.

I was able to catch a few sunsets.

 

 

There’s a few more…..but thought this is enough!

One day we drove east on Highway 88, into the Tonto National Forest where we camped for almost 3 weeks several years ago.  Sadly, our favorite campground in the forest, Tortilla, has been closed for several years.  We hear that budget cuts are responsible.  The drive to Tortilla Flat is breathtaking with the road snaking up and down through the mountains.

Canyon Lake is two miles before one finds Tortilla Flat.

 

This monstrous rock hangs over the town? (4 stores) of Tortilla Flat.  It has a name but can’t remember it…something about a shoe heel.  What I do remember is climbing it!  Not from the side pictured but from a gentler angle.

 

While hubby weaved our way back through the mountains, I hung out the window trying to capture the essence of Tonto.

By yesterday I was able to join a ranger led hike from the campground.  Loved hearing about the flora and a little of the area’s history. 

The native Americans told a tale of a great flood where bad people drowned and good people followed their wise men’s advice and climbed to the top of Superstition Mtn. Some bad people got turned to stone as they tried escape the flood.  They are said to be statues on the way to the top.  The early settlers heard this story and named the range, Superstition Mountains.

Mistletoe in a Palo Verde.

We have loved our time here and plan to come back before we head east.  I still need to hike at least part of the Siphon Draw Trail!

Tomorrow we head west, back to Quartzsite and the rally at Dome Rock.  Hope everyone comes along! 

 

the rally at Dome Rock. siphon draw flat iron basin