Wednesday October 4th 2017

It was a few degrees warmer than yesterday and the breeze was gone. Some areas of the greater Phoenix valley got up to 99 degrees today. It was only about 95 here, but it was uncomfortable. Leaving the air conditioned RV was hard to do.

I went out to get familiar with the area and to buy some groceries. The stores are about 10 miles south in the community of Peoria. This community has clearly grown out of the desert in the last decade or so. There is an abrupt transition from a narrow two lane road crossing open desert to wide roads along heavily landscaped areas. It is hard to tell what is along the road behind the landscaping if you don’t already know. In some areas it is housing developments and in other areas it is shopping areas. There is little to no advertising along the road. I knew from Google map searches before I departed the RV that there were grocery stores and a Walmart along the road. Even so, it was hard to find them.

The Walmart was a large store. It had a lot of space allocated to the produce, bakery and deli section without taking away from other areas of the store. The store seemed to be well stocked. In my opinion they are overstocked in the area of Christmas decorations. Couldn’t they have waited until after the Halloween stuff came down before moving all the Christmas decorations and other seasonal paraphernalia out for display. It looked like they had expanded the toys section for the holiday as well. (I know; Bah Humbug!)

Moon rising at dusk. It is full tomorrow.

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I was only out for a couple of hours before I returned to the air conditioning in my RV. This evening as the sun was setting I walked around the campground looking for signs of wildlife. The other morning around sunrise I saw a couple of wild burros down the hill from my RV. They were moving right along so I couldn’t get to my camera in time to capture a picture. I also heard a number of animals that I assume were Coyotes howling and barking near my RV last night. It was dark so I couldn’t see them but they were close. I like that fact that you are camping near nature in state parks as opposed to the urban aspect of some of the private RV parks.

Tuesday October 3rd 2017

The temperature was up a couple of degrees today into the mid 90s. It is a little above the average for this time of year. It isn’t bad outside if you stay out of the sun. A nice breeze is blowing to keep it comfortable. Inside, I’m running the AC to keep it livable. The good thing is that the night time temperature gets down to the sixties for good sleeping.

One of the residents at the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. 

I finally got around to locking in some plans for the next few months. Ever since hurricane Harvey, my plans for the winter have been up in the air. The large scale flooding in southeast Texas caused me to change my plans. I want to give the Texans a chance to get things back closer to normal before I spend a lot of time in the area.

I haven’t stayed in any one place longer than two weeks since April. Most of the time I’ve been moving on in less than a week. One of my goals for the winter is to stay in one place for a month or more. Somethings are just easier to complete when you don’t have to worry about where your going to be next week.

One of my prime criteria for a long stay is a place with a lot of things to do in the area. Most long term RV parks have local social activities, but those aren’t really my cup of tea. I need an area with plenty to do in the surrounding area. That usually means a vacation area or a city. I’ve investigated the San Diego area and found only expensive options. The Phoenix and Tuscon areas are possible, but I saw a lot of the big attractions last winter and spring.

The other option that has been quietly screaming at me is Las Vegas. It has been my favorite vacation spot for years. RV sites can be found at a reasonable monthly rate and there is plenty to do. The only reason I’ve been holding back is the concern that I’ll spend too much on entertainment. The bottom line is I’ll be happy there and the monthly rate will provide me significant savings over nightly rates elsewhere.

My campsite looking up from the bottom of the hill.

Las Vegas has a lot going on during the holiday season. It’s one of the times of year I enjoy the city the most. The Professional Bull Riding (PBR) finals in early November bring the headliners to town. Thanksgiving brings tons of people and more headliners. In the beginning of December the National Finals Rodeo and lots of ranch hands from around North America invade the city. It quiets down for a week or two only to get busy again for Christmas and New Years. So there will be plenty of opportunity for people watching and catching a visiting headliner or two.

I have reserved a site in Las Vegas for three months starting near the end of this month. I’ll be staying in the same park I stayed at in April. When I leave here next Wednesday, I’ll head for the Grand Canyon South Rim area. Then I’ll make my way west to Las Vegas. I’ll stop for a few days in the Lake Havasu area on the way.

Monday October 2nd 2017

The day started with the news about the tragic shooting in Las Vegas. The heavy TV news coverage drew me in and delayed the active part of my day. It doesn’t take long to learn the basic known facts from the TV coverage, but the anchors and commentators continue to talk. The more they talk the more I’m entertained and appalled at the contradictions and mistakes that come out of their mouths. I think a two to five minute interrupt at the top or bottom of the hour to provide an update is all they really need. That would give them more time to think and get their facts straight.

Lake Pleasant

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I’ve been to Las Vegas many times over the last twenty years and have even been considering spending a couple of months there this winter. Every time I have been there I’ve considered the tempting target it would make for terrorists. It hasn’t deterred me in the past and won’t going forward. You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time anywhere. Being aware of your surroundings and the location of the exits is good, but it wouldn’t have made much difference in this situation.

After the TV coverage slowed down I got outside and finished up my unpacking from yesterday. Specifically, I took my bicycle off the rack and locked it to the ladder on the back of the RV. The picnic table is my normal choice for locking the bicycle, but the one on this site is not conveniently located. I also took the bike rack off the car and stowed it under the motorhome. At that point the car was ready to travel, but I didn’t have anywhere in mind to go.

A couple of ordinary saguaro

Old cactus with lots of branches

Later in the day I took a walk around the campgrounds here at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. There are not many people here this week. I suspect it will fill up toward the weekend. The lake level is low. This is normal for this time of year. It is at its highest level in the late spring. There is still enough water that many people were enjoying the lake in boats and jet skis. The lake and the saguaro cactus are the two most prominent features that I saw on my walk.

Sunday October 1st 2017

I had less than 100 miles to travel today. I took my time packing up and getting on the road. It was just before noon when I left Dead Horse Ranch State Park. My destination was Lake Pleasant Regional Park in Maricopa County AZ.

Site 53 at the Roadrunner Campground in the Lake Pleasant Regional Park.

Most of the travel was on Interstate 17 with some significant elevation changes. Dead Horse Ranch State Park is in the Verde River valley at about 3,300 feet. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is at about 1700 feet. It sounds like it would be all down hill but it isn’t. Leaving the Verde Valley to the south you need to climb about 1500 feet rather quickly then it is mostly down hill with a few additional climbs thrown in for good measure. The complicating factor was the wind. I had a strong cross wind to fight much of the way. Traffic was also heavy with one accident slowing traffic for a couple of miles.

View of the saguaro cactus in my front year. Phoenix is out there ten miles or so.

I arrived at Lake Pleasant Regional Park around 1:30PM. The terrain in this area is much different from the higher areas to the north. First this area is about ten degrees warmer than the Verde Valley. The other significant difference is I have returned to an area with tall saguaro cactus. My campsite is on the side of a hill with a view across the open desert. I have several saguaro cactus in my front yard.

Sunset over the desert.

Lake Pleasant is a large reservoir providing recreation and water for the Phoenix area. There were lots of watercraft around when I arrived, but I haven’t checked out the area yet. After I got setup I turned the Air conditioning on and stayed inside until the sun was setting. It was around 95 degrees when I arrived and is expected to get even warmer as the week goes by. I’m here until the middle of next week. It will be nice not to be traveling on a Sunday when I leave here. The end of the weekend contributed to the heavy traffic.

Saturday September 30th 2017

The Verde River is the prominent feature along the southern boundry of Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Today they were celebrating the rivers contribution to the area with the Verde River Day. Admission to the park was free. Area non-profit groups, government organizations and others gathered in the day use area near the man made lagoons for a festival.

Forrest Service booth

Smokey the Bear picture taking.

The “real ?” Smokey the Bear.

I hiked over from my campsite to check out the festivities. I found lots of people enjoying the events. People were fishing in the ponds, listening to the musical acts and generally checking out the booths. Some of the bigger attractions were the Forest Service which brought Smokey the Bear to get your picture taken with. There was a long line of kids and adults waiting. The kids were having fun on the blow-up kids playground equipment and a climbing wall. One of the booths was giving out duck calls to the kids. There was a cacophony of noise from these things.

Climbing wall with a young girl in a princess dress climbing.

Cottonwood Fire Department display.

Canoes in the lake.

In the bigger pond there were canoe rides. It was interesting to watch the skill level of the people in the canoes. It was clear that steering was a difficult task. Others seemed to be afraid to dip the paddle in deep enough to move the canoe forward. Somehow they all seemed to make it around the center island and back to the dock without testing their floatation devices.

I hung around for an hour or so listening to the music and people watching before I started back to my campsite. It was a warm day in the high 80s with a good breeze. Back at camp I started getting to travel tomorrow. I’m heading for Lake Pleasant Regional Park on the northern edge of the Phoenix Metro area. It’s between 90 and 100 miles of travel depending on which GPS you believe.

Friday September 29th 2017

Today I returned to tourist mode and took a ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad. This is an excursion train along the Verde River and through the Verde Canyon. The train travels eighteen miles north and west from the town of Clarksdale AZ. It starts in the open high desert type territory near the old smelt works for the mines in Jerome AZ. The route proceeds down into the canyons and along the steep cliff like walls. At Perkinsville the train reverses direction and returns to Clarksdale.

The route of the Verde Canyon Railroad

The train before departure.

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Wild burros feeding in what little shade they can find along the tracks.

Verde River.

Once again I went crazy with the camera. I took over 350 pictures. Some of the better more descriptive photos are included in this blog entry. I spent most of my time on the open air car behind the coach passenger car containing my official seat. The weather was perfect for an outside ride. The sky contained scattered clouds and the temperature was in the low 80s. The train traveled between fifteen and twenty miles an hour. It took a little over an hour to get to Perkinsville. After about a half an hour for the engines to be moved one end to the other the train returned to Clarksdale. The journey lasted a little over three hours total.

Front of the train around the side of the canyon

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There were about 24 cars in the train.

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Canyon sides were often very close to the train. In the 680 foot curving tunnel they were supposed to be closer, but it was too dark to know for sure.

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Pair of engines passing down the side of train on a side track to hook onto the caboose for the trip back.

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Thursday September 28th 2017

Things are back to normal today. I got up at the normal time and I didn’t get engrossed in a book. The temperature has returned to seasonal averages. The high today was in the low 80s. It will be back in the 90s by the weekend. I didn’t do much blog worthy, but what follows is a synopses of some of the day.

Breakfast was a leisurely affair. I spent a good two hours drinking my coffee with a couple of English muffins while reading news and blogs on the Internet. This was followed by a few chores such as washing the dirty dishes in the sink before I was ready to leave camp for adventure. The only problem was I didn’t have any planned adventure.

I ended up checking out my departure route for Sunday. I will be relocating sixty to seventy miles south toward Phoenix. Most of the trip will be on Interstate 17, but that’s not an easy thing. As soon as I get on the highway the road starts up to the top of a mesa. It’s a good nine miles of maximum interstate grade to the top. The US Interstate highway system “never” exceeds a six percent grade. Let’s just say it’s enough that the trucks were down below fifty by the top of the climb. It was also an uninteresting trip. I turned around after about thirty miles.

On the way back I stopped at Walmart to stock up on groceries for the weekend. I don’t think this is the best run Walmart in the country. I’ve been there three times. Two out of three times the only available carts were in the parking lot. Today I brought one in from the parking lot and found there were some available by the door. The shelves are very poorly stocked. Each of the three times some of the items I wanted were not on the shelves. The price labels were there so I knew it was supposed to be available, but it was never on the shelves. My guess is that they haven’t stocked those areas in the week and a half I’ve been here. Today clerks weren’t stocking shelves but rather dragging product from the back of the shelves and lining it up along the front edge. At least I didn’t have to spend 20 minutes in the checkout line like last week.

One of the State Park’s man made ponds. One of the Verde River Days events will be open fishing for freshly stocked fish.

Here at the campground the park is filling up for the weekend. There is a special Verde River Days celebration in the park on Saturday. It looks like the campground will be full. I can’t decide if this event is a good thing for me or something to run away from.   I’ll probably check it out Saturday.

Wednesday September 27th 2017

Today was a real do nothing kind of day and it’s all because of my current binge reading trend. I finished the book I was reading in the middle of the night or should I say today’s early morning hours. It was after ten this morning before I got the day started in slow motion. I’m not complaining. I enjoyed the book and I enjoyed today’s do nothing day.

Motorhome as evening arrives.

I used to be an avid reader. Before surfing the Internet became a thing I’d pick up a novel after supper and read until bedtime. The TV was always on and sometimes it would steal my attention, but the book was always nearby. I probably read one new and a couple of old books per week. Once the Internet stole my attention, I became a binge reader. Whenever I start reading a book I seem to dedicate more than all the available time to reading it until I’m finished. When the book is several hundred pages long, like the one I got into the last few days, that can eat up a lot of time. Once I’m near the end of the book, sleep is optional.

It is interesting to me that I haven’t really gotten into binge TV watching. I think that’s because TV has always been a secondary activity for me. The TV is always on, but it only keeps my attention for short periods of time. I have to be doing something else. On the other hand, when I’m fully into a book the TV background noise isn’t necessary. Last night the TV timed out and shut off after four hours without any changes to the controls. I knew it happened, but I didn’t stop reading.

All of this boils down to I didn’t do anything today. I was dragging for the first part of my waking day. After I woke up from an impromptu nap, I had more energy, but the usable part of the day was just about over. The next few days should be more active. I have a few things that I want to see before I leave here on Sunday. This should be the last blog entry about reading books for awhile.

Tuesday September 26th 2017

It was a rare cloudy day in Arizona today. The temperature topped out in the 80s. The gloomy nature of the day and my continued fascination with the book I started yesterday kept me at home until early afternoon. I finally broke away from the book to do some more touring of the area.

I drove twenty miles or so north to the village of Sedona Arizona. This is a destination area known for its upscale shops, boutiques and art galleries. Visiting these types of places are not on my must see list. What I wanted to see was the surrounding country side. The town is set in an area of red rocks and cliffs. The red coloring is a much deeper red than many of the areas I’ve already visited to the north in Utah. The approach on route 89A from the southwest is probably the least spectacular of the three approaches, but a broad red strip in the cliffs above the town is clearly visible.

Approaching town from the southwest.

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Area to the south of town.

I found conditions less than ideal for viewing the scenery. The time of day and the nature of the town made finding parking very difficult. The roads are designed to keep speed down. There are many roundabouts and shops seem to be clustered and set back from the road with small parking lots. The parking at the trail heads and scenic viewing areas were all full. The cloudy day was an added negative to enjoying the views. I will probably try to get back to Sedona at a better time of a better day while I’m in the area.

On the way back to camp, I stopped in Cottonwood for breakfast supplies. I had to resort to cooking muffins to go with my coffee this morning. Cooking them isn’t the problem, it’s eating all six for breakfast that’s the problem. My excuse is they don’t keep well.

Monday September 25th 2017

This was one of those days that makes creating a blog entry difficult. The day started in the middle of the night. I woke up cold and had to add a blanket to stay warm. The inside temperature was around 50. I went back to sleep quickly enough after adding the blanket, but woke up this morning congested with a slight head ache. I’m feeling fine now, but it wasn’t a great start to the day.

I ended up reading a novel that I had on my tablet most of the day. I’ve read the book before, but it was an effort to put it down long enough to prepare and eat dinner or do much of anything else. Writing this blog entry was another interrupt to my reading addiction of the day.

Around the campground there has been a lot of turn over. Many of the sites that emptied out yesterday at the end of the weekend filled up tonight. The site next to me is now occupied by an older couple from California. A much quieter alternative to the extended family with three kids and two dogs that occupied the site over the weekend.

Sunset over the desert

I finally got out for a walk around the campground after dinner this evening. The sun was setting after another beautiful day with only a little wind and a high temperature in the low 80s. It is forecast to get warmer as the week goes by.