What a difference in weather from a week ago

 It looks like our weather down here in Arizona has improved dramatically. Last Sunday it was snowing here in our RV Park and the propane heater got a real workout. I felt chilly all day so wore a hat. Benno thought that was funny.

Today we reached a high of 19C/66F that we thought was perfect weather to do a bit of hiking and exploring. Not wanting to drive too far, we turned right toward Tombstone from our park along the Hwy 82 until we made a left turn onto a dirt road called: In Balance Range, but is actually the N Kellar Rd (very close to the old town of Fairbanks) that took us to a parking lot on the right side of the road from which a trailhead starts. Right next to the gate and fence stood a sign outlining the trail to the ruins of a former Spanish military fortress called Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate. It’s a 3 mile hike with view of the mountains and towards the San Pedro River, which is partially dried out at this time of year. 

The hike is quite easy on a bare winding hard dirt trail through the Sonoran desert with gentle slopes and through some washes. However, I found some interesting vegetation of prickly bushes, yellow blooming cactus and red coloured cactus. After two thirds of the hike it merges onto the old railroad bed for a while up to a sign “Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate” and from there veering again onto a dirt trail for another quarter of a mile to the fortress.

Abundant Railway Bridge over a wash

There is not much left of the fortress nowadays and if it weren’t for the signs you might miss it completely. 

It was built in 1776 by Hugo Oconor (an Irish man) for King of Spain Charles III. It was never finished because of Apaches attacks, lack of crops and corruption. The fortress was abandoned in 1780 but the US Army used it for a short time in 1878. Hugo Oconor later established another presidio (fort) and named the settlement San Agustin de Toixon that was later modified to its present spelling of Tucson! 

We encountered one person on a bicycle (it could be an electric bike) going the opposite direction and noticed traces from horses on the sand. It was a nice outing and I’m sure our dogs enjoyed the walk as much as we did, it was a fantastic trail.

This is all there was of the San Pedro River further down on Hwy 82

There were several horse trailers at Fairbanks that have come from Tucson

Thanks for dropping in again.

A good day for us

 

On Friday morning, when Benno stuck his hearing aids into his ears, he couldn’t hear anything. They had stopped working. He let them stay in the charging station thinking they may needed more time, but it made no difference. So the plan was to drive to Costco in Tucson and have them take a look at them the next day. These Philips hearing aids are an exclusive make for Costco, and are manufactured in Denmark for any Costco in Canada or the USA. In case there is a problem, any Costco will look after them. After I called the store to find out if we needed an appointment, I was told to just come in and bring the hearing aids. Tucson is about an hour from here taking Hwy 90 and then the I-10. We dropped the hearing aids off at the hearing aid service counter and were told to come back in 20 minutes. In the meantime we browsed the store and I picked up a rotisserie chicken. They sure looked good and big. It was also very delicious at supper time and for the price of $5.11 incl. tax, it was a bargain. 20 min. later the hearing aids were ready. It turned out that a cable had come loose or was defective. The technician replaced both of them and Benno said he could hear fantastic, even better than before. He probably hears things now that he shouldn’t be hearing:-) There is a 5 year warranty on those devices.

In Tucson the price for gasoline was $2.76/gal at Circle K and so much better than here in Huachuca City or Sierra Vista where they wanted $3.35 at Circle K. Costco’s gas price was good too, but the lineups were quite long and I don’t know if they take our Canadian credit card without a US zip code.

Speaking of savings, we get our 30 lb. propane cylinders filled at GM Propane on 2539 Hwy 90, Huachuca City, about 5 minutes from the park. They charge $15 for a fill of that tank. We forgot that we had an empty tank and the company is closed on weekends. With cold temps in the forecast Benno thought we should fill it today at the TSC store just in case we run out of propane tonight. Ops, we should not do that again, as they charged us $28.45 for the same size tank!

At the Camping World store in Tucson we purchased a few items that we will need on the boat and hadn’t seen before in another Camping World location. With everything accomplished, we thought yesterday was a good day.

On our return trip home from Tucson, we took the scenic route of Hwy 83 from I-10 up to Sonoita and then took highway 82 all the way to our park. It is a bit longer with its winding road, but we thought it was a pretty area. All, except one of the photos were taken through the windows of our truck. We’ve been on that highway before and I’m sure we will go there again with more time on our hands to take better photos. 

We are staying in for the rest of the day because it is quite windy with gusts of 45 mph/72km and the travel trailer is rocking ever so often. 

Thanks for dropping in again.

That was unexpected

 When we arrived on Dec. 30 here are the park, I went straight to the office of the park to check in. Nina, the owner, answered the door after I rang the bell. I asked her if she remembered us from 4 years ago and surprisingly she said she did. I hoped we were in luck to get a spot and preferably a pull through. What I then learned came totally unexpected. Nina said to just find a vacant and suitable spot for us and that she was no longer in charge. Her husband Kenneth had passed away three years ago and she just sold the park. The new owners would come on January 1st to take charge. Then when I asked how much the monthly park fee would be, she said she had no idea!

That news was a bit unsettling to say the least. However, we took a pull through spot and settled in. After talking to our neighbours they were totally in the dark as to the future of this park as well. 

New Year’s Eve we were invited to a wonderful get-together hosted by a nice couple that own a Keystone Redwood fifth wheel, I guess 40 ft or larger on our row. They had put up a large tent with a gas fire pit and picnic table and chairs inside, as well a large gas lit fire pit outside the tent. They had purchased several extra large pizzas that they warmed up and served as well as snack contributions from other park guests. What a great way to ring in the new year and we got to know a bunch of nice people.

On January 1st the three new owners showed up and took inventory of the park. Our stay is still at $305.70/month. We were told that improvements will be forthcoming starting with a laundry facility. So we are relaxed for the time being. 

So this park is now called: Mustang Corner RV Park. It is located on Arizona State Route 82, not far from the intersection of Hwy 90. At the south-east corner of Hwy 90 the Chevron gas station’s store is called Mustang Corner Convenience. I presume the current website of K&N RV Park will be updated or a new one will appear.

As to other happenings, we needed a SIM card for our cell phone. Usually this is not a big deal, but we also use it as a hotspot. I went to the Verizon store in Sierra Vista to get this done. They tried to connect my iPhone SE3 but it would not make any calls. Remote experts were involved and after 2-1/2 hours of unsuccessfully trying this or that, I suggested to try another SIM card as the current one might be defective. The technician thought that could not to be the case but did so on my request. Wouldn’t you know it, then it worked!

Today I had Benno fix the big drawer in my kitchen underneath the stove, this involved a trip to the  “Harbor Freight” hardware store, how convenient for my man, isn’t it! He got lost in it because it took him a long time, while the dogs and me were waiting in the truck. He came out empty handed and we got every thing at the Home Depot, haha.

This drawer is huge and has come off the slides a few times while traveling and now the slides were bent. He installed new slides and removed the heavy double bottom piece that we estimate weight 15 Ibs+ He will figure out a solution so that this drawer will stay shut when traveling.

We have a cold spell at the moment with freezing temps at night. The sun helps during the day and hopefully soon we get to more seasonable temps. 

Thanks for dropping in again and stay tuned for my next update.

We have arrived

 That was a long trip from our home in Canada to Huachuca City/Sierra Vista, Arizona. A whopping 3645km/2265miles!

Parked in our favourite area

Benno had planned two different routes to Arizona based on the North American temperature chart and the weather forecast for the estimated travel days. There was a system going through the USA with heavy rain and cold temperatures that we wanted to avoid and we did. So our decision was made last minute to drive the further south route rather than the diagonal Oklahoma City route, which would have saved a bit on miles.

At 9 a.m. on Christmas Day we pulled out of our driveway and once we were through the border control in Windsor/Detroit we took the I-94 west to I-69 south. Next from Indianapolis in the westward direction of St. Louis on I-70 where we spent our first night at a Walmart parking lot in Greencastle, Indiana.

Benno was going to get comfortable and as he was taking off his shoes, the sole of one shoe separated. Those were his favourites Sebago boat shoes, you should have heard him whining!!! He told me to pack light so sandals, crocks, hiking boots or slippers were not going to cut it. Good thing we were parked at a Walmart parking lot for the night and where he found a decent pair in the store to help him out until he can find a replacement. Mind you nobody would have taken notice if he were going to limp into the store :-)

I always wanted to see how those shoes are made ;-)

After leaving the parking lot on the way to take on some fuel the next morning I spotted an Aldi grocery store right on the main road. It just opened up and we did a quick u-turn, I went in to see if there was anything I needed or wanted. They had discounted all the Christmas chocolates and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Marzipan Stollen (German fruit cake) sold for $1.74 (I paid $12 for the same one back in Canada. Dominos at 92 cents and other Christmas chocolates like truffles, etc for 99 cents. I presume we now have enough chocolates in the cupboards to last us to Eastern.

The next day we overnighted at a large parking lot shared by Lowes, Walmart, TSC and other stores in Blytheville, Arkansas on the I-55S. It was peaceful.

In the afternoon on our third travel day we were ready to stay in an RV Park. We needed to get water and flush out our antifreeze so we could take showers. Right on I-30W, at Exit #7 in Texarkana, Arkansas we pulled into the Sunrise RV Park. It had lots of pull-through sites and we got a good spot. We didn’t have a reservation, but it was no problem since it was early afternoon. By late evening the park was chock full of RVs. The price was $34.32

Sunrise RV Park in Texarkana

The next morning we needed to fill up a 30 Ibs propane tank and got the runaround at a few TSC stores until we finally succeeded at one, but had wasted a lot of time. Also the bypass drive around Dallas and Ft. Worth took longer than we had anticipated. In the evening we decided on another RV Park and got the last spot at White RV Park in Clyde, Texas just before Abilene at Exit 298 on I-20. The price was $30.

There must be thousands of windmills in Texas (enlarge to see more)

Day 5 we travelled the I-20 to Kent, Texas where it joins the I-10 and it was kind of uneventful until we decided to look for an overnight spot. There are some rest areas along the way and at mile 100 on I-10 it has unique teepees but not suitable to stay overnight and we could not see anything suitable along the Interstate. Not wanting to drive on in the dark all the way to El Paso, we eventually pulled into a vacant piece of land next to several construction machinery that joined a Flying J Travel Center at the town of Van Horn on the I-10. We settled in and had dinner. Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose. We thought we were in a war zone, but it turned out we were next to the train tracks and a freight train with four engines just passed by us, oh my God, was this a racket. Had we already been in bed we would have fallen out in shock. There were a few more trains during the night. Next morning we were surrounded by several RVs that had come in during the night.

Nice rest area along I-10

Day 6, on December 30th we arrived in the afternoon at the RV Park in Huachuca City, Arizona. It is approximately 10 miles from Sierra Vista, which is a city that offers major stores. We have been to this area before and you can check out those blog entries here.

To tell you more of where we are staying, you have to wait until my next blog update.

Stay tuned and thanks for dropping in.

Merry Christmas Everyone

So the big day is upon us again. Benno and I wish all our family, friends and blog readers a joyful Christmas! This year with the absence of snow and mild temperatures in our area it feels more like springtime. We like it as it means no salt or slush on the roads to mess up the truck. As you might have speculated, our departure for the trip out west is imminent. We are looking at the weather forecasts in the various states we are traveling through to see if there are conditions we have to be concerned about, but are fairly optimistic so far. So hopefully all will be well.

These past few weeks since my last update Benno used the days when the weather was mild enough to work on the boat. Lots of trim work that is time consuming was done as well as some wall paneling. The odd shapes required templates before cutting, so progress was a bit slower. A Corian counter top for the bathroom vanity (head compartment in nautical terms) got installed. We purchased that from “Designer Countertops” in town where also my kitchen countertops came from and tops for two previous travel trailers. We had a ceramic vessel (sink) for the bathroom ordered, but it didn’t look like the picture of the advertisement, so we returned it. This has to wait now until we are back home.

And yes, Benno got his hearing aids and he is happy with them. He just has to remember to put them in :-) The fitting and fine tuning for hearing aids is quite a process. Something like getting glasses made just for you.

Oh, not to forget our two rascals that got their wiener sausage treat to celebrate Reggies birthday 10 days ago. Elsa’s is in January so we will do it all again.

We are wishing everyone a wonderful holiday time in good health and a Happy New Year!