SEDONA TO PAGE APRIL 8-16, 2012

Our stay at Page Springs RV Park in Sedona was so relaxing. We arrived Sunday afternoon and had a site right along the river with a beautiful grassy area to set up our chairs and just enjoy the peaceful setting. 

Monday we made a day trip north along Oak Creek to Flagstaff. We checked out the campgrounds along the way then a stop at the Indian craft market at the rim of Oak Creek Canyon. 


Our first destination was the Riordan Mansion State Historic Park in Flagstaff.

A beautiful craftsman style home built in 1904 by the Riordan brothers, Tim and Michael, who owned a successful logging business.  It was a quiet day at the museum so we had our own private tour. The house and grounds are lovely; a remarkable example of Arts and Crafts style architecture with a rustic exterior of log-slab siding, volcanic stone arches, the interior of the house has 40 rooms. The house was designed by the creator of Grand Canyon's El Tovar Hotel, Charles Whittlesey.

The brothers married 2 sisters and both families lived in the house having 2 identical homes joined in the middle by a common family room..an early duplex idea. Much of the furniture and belongings are original to the house.

Once we left the house we still had much of the afternoon to spend at Walnut Canyon National Monument, 10 miles east of Flagstaff. The cliffside canyon was home to the Sinagua people for more than 800 years. The dwellings date from 1125-1250. Remnants of the 25 cliff dwelling rooms are there to visit by walking down 280 steps along The Island Trail, a beautiful hike with views of the 

The dwellings were made from shallow caves eroded out of the limestone cliffs which archeologists believe the women built. Walls were built by gathering limestone rocks, shaping them roughly then cementing them together with a clay material then plastering the walls with clay inside and out. As we looked around the canyon we could see more dwellings tucked into nearby cliffs. A great afternoon! 









Tuesday we knew we wanted to stay another 2 nights at our park so once we got registered we just relaxed at the campsite, Paul got out his tools and did some fix it things on the motorhome, I sat under the tree and finished reading, The Hunger Games. Late in the afternoon we took a scenic drive into Sedona, stopping by the Elks Lodge for burger night and a chance to watch sunset from their beautiful deck.































The weather was changing from our warm sunny days to clouds and wind by Wednesday. Sweaters back on but with the top still down on the car, we went wine tasting at the Page Springs Winery right down the road from our campground. Interesting that many of their wines use grapes  grown on our Central Coast. I chose the Arizona flight of reds to give them a try. Fun. 

We stopped by the National Forest Visitor Center to get maps and recommendations for a new hike. Sedona requires a "Red Rock Pass" to park at trailheads or turnouts but our Senior National Park Pass can also be used...nice! Turning west on Indian School road we drove to the trailhead and had a picnic lunch along the river. 

Stopped to get some groceries on our way home for a late dinner...and..such a fun surprise as we're sitting at our little bistro table we hear our neighbor playing his guitar and the music was getting closer. We looked up just as he walked over to serenade us while we were having a candlelight dinner. We laughed and visited with him and his wife while we finished our meal. One thing for certain as we travel...we have met the friendliest and happiest fellow campers everywhere we go!

Since the weather report was showing high winds and snow for Flagstaff by Friday, we decided we better get on the road north on Thursday morning. Hard to leave our darling campsite, but sure didn't want to deal with thunderstorms or snow. I had so wanted to stop at Sunset Crater National Monument north of Flagstaff but we were late getting away from Sedona and we didn't have the extra 2 hours needed for a stop...next time!  We pulled into Page Elks Lodge about 4:30 and met Peg for a glass of wine, then set up our dry camping site and went to her place for dinner. When we returned late that night we learned that we were parked directly under the powerful yard lights of the parking lot...giving us an unusual free lighting coming through the sky lights of our house. Too funny!

Friday was sooooooo cold and gray! We hung out at Peggy's condo playing around on the internet, doing laundry, and other chores. 

Early Saturday morning we woke up to really high winds and rain that made our little motorhome really shake, rattle and roll! Didn't last long but sure gave us a scare. By the time we got up, The sky was still dark but the storm was passing over us. We headed to Peggy's once again and spent most of the day just talking, laughing and catching up on her life and future plans. About mid morning, the rain turned to snow which sent Peggy out to her garden to cover her newly planted marigolds.

Paul's latest interest was shopping Craig's list for a newer and slightly larger motorhome for us. So every few minutes he'd be showing me a photo and he'd make phone calls all afternoon. We have decided that we LOVE OUR GYPSY LIFE so we'll be staying on the road as long as we can. And...even though our little yellow house is cozy and has all we need, a few feet longer (no more than 32) and a slide out space in the living room would give us and Foster a more comfortable space. 

Saturday night was dinner at La Fiesta Mexican restaurant with the "best margaritas in town"! Fantastic! Then back to the condo to watch The Help. 

Sunday Paul had a serious interest in a motorhome he found so the morning was spent discussing our future plans and the possibility of buying it for us. By noon we'd made an offer to someone in Oceanside, Ca for a 1999 Fleetwood Flair, 32', with a slide in the living room and one in the bedroom. I never knew that having a "walk around bed" would become so desirable to me...but it has! I'm done with crawling onto the bed to try stretching the sheets to fit over the mattress in our tiny place. 

Once we made the deal we then had to look at a whole new plan for our route for our travels...we'll have to put off the Utah Parks for a while...Looks like we'll be back in California by late April!!!! 

The rest of Sunday we did sight seeing with Peggy all around Page. We walked out to Horseshoe Bend and took lots of photos,

Hiked down to the Scenic Overlook at the Dam

Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell

Then to the Marina for a glass of wine and sunset. 

Even caught this rainbow!  What a perfect day!

We said good bye to Peggy Monday morning, collected our mail at the Post Office and stopped by one last time to look at Mark and Peg's Big Water house. Peggy has a buyer and hoping to close in the next couple of weeks. Memories....lots of memories, of love and laughter in that house!

It was a spectacular drive from Page to St. George, Utah on our way to our next few days at Snow Canyon Sate Park.

TUCSON and MEDFORD March 29-April 6, 2012

With only  5 days in Tucson the days went quickly. We camped at Catalina State Park about 15 mi north of Tucson. Far enough away from city lights and traffic with plenty of room to ride bikes and just relax.

The days were warm with cooler nights. We took off on Saturday to visit the  beautiful Mission at San Xavier, though too hot for Foster to stay in the car...so Paul sat under a tree with him while I did the tour. The Mission was founded in 1692, church built in 1797 and is the oldest European structure in Arizona. Evidence of an earthquake in 1887 still shows on the damaged right tower which has never been repaired. 

From there we went into town to visit the stunning Tucson Art Museum. We saw an amazing exhibit,
 Frida Kahlo, Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray; so many photographs of her along with clothing and handcrafts from the region. We spent 3 hours there and even watched a PBS speical of her life. Fantastic afternoon!







Sunday we trip took us to Saguaro National Park in western Tucson.

 It's a 9 mile loop drive with viewpoints and stops for short walks. Beautiful to see a forest of cactus! 

Monday morning I was up early to do a solo tour of the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Paul stayed home with Foster and just enjoyed our pretty campsite and fiddled on the motorhome.  I was so surprised to find the gardens in the middle of the busy city. It is a densely packed 5 acres of a variety of gardens. The gardens were once the private property of the Porter family dating back to the 1930s. In 1970 the gardens and home became the Tucson Botanical Gardens.  I loved the iris garden

and the variety of cactus displayed.

But the most interesting part of my visit was the Chrysalis House.  I have always been fascinated by the transformation of butterflies and the exhibit was amazing...must have been about 100 different varieties displayed. As the butterflies emerged they were moved into the Butterfly Garden near by. 

The rest of the day we spent at the campground getting ready to head back to Phoenix. 

We were on the road about 10:30 Tuesday morning but instead of returning to Mesa, AZ on the interstate we took a great route on highway 79. Beautiful drive with wildflowers along the roadside and prickly pear cactus blooming off in the desert. 

We planned to stay at Palm Gardens RV Park in Mesa, AZ since I had an early flight out the next morning to Medford and a visit to see my Mom. The RV park was closer to the airport and Paul and Foster would have a friendly park with a jacuzzi to enjoy for the 3 days I was gone. 

The northwest was quite a change after being in the desert for a couple weeks. I had this beautiful photo of Mt. Rainier out my window as we came into Seattle, enroute to Medford.

I stayed with my brother, Harry and his wife Mary and spent time with Mom. She's in a new residence since I saw her in Nov. and it was so good to see where she now lives.


Medford was so pretty with flowering trees everywhere and daffodils in gardens. The weather s perfect for me...crisp and cool but some sun peeking out and only a few rain showers but enough to cover the hills with snow.

I returned to Phoenix/Mesa Friday evening and enjoyed a great dinner with PK In the little town of Gilbert. We met up with Mandy and Logan Saturday morning for a yummy breakfast at Vincent's Market Bistro and said good bye to them back at their house.

then went back to do the basic clean up and laundry at out site.

We left early Sunday morning and moved to Sedona for the next 4 days. We stayed 4 nights at Page Springs RV Park right on Oak Creek...such a gorgeous place to spend time. 

I feel soooooo good now....I've caught up on all our recent travels and can be in current time again. The blessings of an iPad: I wrote all these blogs while Paul drove our 2 hours north to Sedona. Plus it kept my mind off the steep and scary downhill mountain pass, 6 miles of 6% Grade. Now, hopefully I can get internet often enough to download more frequently.

SPRING TRAINING, PHOENIX, AZ March 19-29, 2012

Once back from our trip to Guatemala we enjoyed a couple more days visiting friends.

Then Sunday we packed up our little house and got ready to head east to Arizona for 2 weeks of  Spring training, but not before a last minute sale of both the little brown Mercedes and Paul's VW van. What good fortune for us! The Mercedes sold through Craig's list rather than eBay as we had hoped, our only eBay buyer turned out to be a flake never responding to us at all once the auction ended, disappointing but in the end it all worked out. The new buyer was from Jackson, Wy and had seen our Craig's list ad while he was here in CA. We left the Mercedes in the Rizzoli's lot till he could get back out to pick it up. 

The van was a little more difficult, we just couldn't get a serious buyer... but Sunday evening Paul gave one last call to someone who had seen it on Sat, offered it at a lower price and the guy said yes, he'd take it. He's a surfer and the van will be perfect for hauling surf boards around the county.

So, after a long try both cars were sold and we had 2 less items to store and worry about, such a good feeling, though hard to part with our little MB of 42 years. We dropped the van off at a Santa Maria High School where the surfer buyer is an English teacher, then we set out for our next adventure.

One more night's stay along the coast then a REALLY long day driving 520 miles on to Phoenix and our camp at Cave Creek Regional Park. We finally arrived at sunset...gorgeous!

Paul's sister, MarLyn, and her family have been coming to Spring Training in Phoenix for over 20 years and this time we decided we'd join them. What fun we had!  MarLyn had taken care of getting our seats reserved for each game and I'm so glad she did! Great seats and no hassle.

Due to our delayed departure from San Luis we missed our chance to watch the Giants play, a bummer. But we did get to see 3 other games all at different fields and in different parts of the city, and even a night game.

I totally got in the spirit  of the games,

March 21st we had fun celebrating our 42nd Anniversary, spending the afternoon at the Desert Botanical Gardens.  So beautiful to see so many desert plants in flower.

and a butterfly house to explore.

Mandy and Logan took us out for a wonderful dinner, what a fun evening! 

We also got to celebrate MarLyn's grand daughter, Mackenzie's, 7th birthday at a horse ranch late Saturday afternoon. 

Once everyone had arrived we loaded onto a wagon for a hayride, followed by a tasty BBQ and cake of course!

Such a fun night! Especially loved this new idea for roasting hot dogs...Stick them on a pitch fork and roast 8 at a time! With 3 pitch forks going, there were plenty of dogs cooked up in no time.

The birthday girl was busy having fun playing with friends and cousins so I never caught her with my camera, but I did get photo of MarLyn and Randy with their oldest grand daughter, Kiley. 

Sunday was a little overcast and cooler so we decided to stay inside and visit the Heard Museum North in Scottsdale.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of this Safeway sign...very "Scottsdale"! Don't think I've ever seen such a stylish sign for Safeway anywhere else.

Afterwards we drove into the Boulders Resort and came upon a wonderful afternoon of jazz and wine in a nearby shopping area. The rock formations at the Boulders Resort were surrounded by beautiful wildflowers. So pretty to see color in an otherwise muted scene. 

Another baseball game that following Tuesday then we said good bye to MarLyn and our nephew, David. She was flying home early the next morning.

I also got to visit Mandy and her first grade class at Quail Run Elementary on Wednesday

afternoon...what a treat! I read them a story, talked about Guatemala and had fun watching their little dance routine as they practiced skip counting. I had brought them each a bookmark from Guatemala and got this fun photo before I left.

It's so fun to see Mandy in her element, she's such a natural in the classroom.

Our last night in Phoenix, Mandy and her friend Molly came out for dinner, campfire and sleepover leaving at 6:30 in the morning. A beautiful sunrise and we were soon packed and ready to go.

With our new South Dakota license plates attached, we drove south to visit Tucson for the next 5 days.