Day 4 - Benson and Batwoman - April 26, 2018

Day 4 – WalMart, Kartchner, Batwoman, and Kampfire – April 26, 2018

Today was travel and grocery shopping. The Benson Super WalMart had everything we needed to resupply the Aliner.

The Kartchner Caverns State Park Campground is one of the nicer ones we’ve visited. It’s up at higher altitude than the Tucson area, which means it’s about 10 degrees cooler and has a cooling breeze.

We went over to the visitor center and made reservations for a cave tour on Sunday morning. Karen prepared for the event by getting into character (see below).

As often happens when we’re traveling with the Aliner, we got lots of questions about it. This led to us meeting two other couples who are camping near us. After dinner we all met at their campsite for a fire, some stories and some cowboy songs. We’ll likely visit with them again over the next couple of days here at the campground.

Tomorrow:  Bisbee, Tombstone and ?

Day 3 - Saguaros and Things - April 25 2018

Day 3 – April 25, 2018

The first task this morning was to make sure the snake was gone from the shower/restroom. The front desk attendant assured me that the snake wrangler they had on retainer had cleared the area late last night. The second order of business was for Karen to get on the phone to AT&T to upgrade our cellular data plan. It looks like we’ll rarely have access to wi fi on this trip, so we’ll be using our phones as hot spots to help upload info, etc. After an hour on the phone with customer service, we were good to go.

We headed toward the Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park. To get there, we went right through the middle of Tucson – lots of traffic on Broadway. Once we cleared the city, we climbed into the foothills. The Cactus Forest Loop Drive is a one-way paved road that winds about 8 miles through some beautiful desert landscape. The prickly pear, ocotillo, staghorn cholla, gold poppy, palo verde, mesquite and ironwood were all in colorful bloom with colors ranging from bright yellow to deep red and everything in between.

Then, we drove about an hour back to the northwest to get to the Tucson Mountain District of the Saguaro National Park. Gates Pass Road is a very scenic, steep and winding road that starts down in Tucson and goes through a dense Saguaro Cactus forest on the way toward the park. Just before we got to the visitor center, we took a short side trip to visit ‘Old Tucson’. Apparently, this has been the site of well over a hundred western-themed films dating back to the 1940’s. Today, it looks a little like Knott’s Berry Farm (without the thrill rides) with its old west vibe and its high admission price (we did not go in).

The Bajada Scenic Loop is a one-way dirt road that climbs through a very dense forest of Saguaro Cactus. We noticed that the cactus here had many more ‘arms’ than the ones over in the eastern district. The ranger at the visitor center told us this was due to the temperature difference between the two districts. On this side of the park, the Saguaro were showing early signs of their soft white summer blossoms. 

Karen took over the driving duties on this road and showed some good dirt road skills. The highlight of this loop was the petro glyphs at Signal Hill.

Going back down Gates Pass Road, we pulled over when we saw some unnaturally bright flowers on prickly pear cactus planted in someone’s front yard. The homeowner happened to be out there when I went up to snap a couple of photos. I asked him how he managed to get such large bright flowers on his cactus. He tapped me on the shoulder, and with a wry smile he said, “I buy silk flowers”! We both had a laugh and he seemed genuinely appreciative of the fact that I’d taken a moment to stop and have a closer look.

On the way back to camp, we stopped at the Pinal Air Park to check out the mothballed airliners that are stored at this facility. The air field is a short drive from the I-10 and has the semi-abandoned look of a former secret government facility you’d see on an old episode of the X-Files. We couldn’t get a clear view of the many jets parked there, but we did get a feel for the place.

Next up:  Kartchner Caverns State Park.

Day 2 - Snakes in the shower

Needed a shower after a day of wandering around Joshua Tree and sitting in the car with the sun always on my side of the car. It was 102!!
As I am finishing up, another gal comes into the common area asking me - "Did you see it?"
"The Snake!!" Of course, I had to scream because I scream when a green beetle flies past me, so a snake at my feet brings that scream to a whole 'nother level!!!
We (she) wrangled it out of the common area and into the hallway. It then hid behind a trashcan, and I left using the flashlight on my phone to watch for critters on the way back to our site. UGH!! I hate reptiles of any kind!!

Day 2

Day 2 – April 24, 2018

This was a long driving day. We left Ryan Campground at 9:00am and got back to I-10 via the road through Cottonwood, which is the south entrance. Our first stop was at the Skull Rock Trailhead. Karen was a little leery of the trail when, at about ¾ of a mile we still had not seen Skull Rock. It was getting hot already, so she turned around to go back to the car. I went ahead a short distance and found the end of the trail – it emptied into the Jumbo Rocks Campground. I turned around and jogged back to the start of the trail where we saw a group of Slovenian tourists dressed in Harley Davidson biker garb and taking selfies next to Skull Rock –right next to the roadway where we started our hike. Karen was not amused when I pointed this out, especially since she had earlier told me she thought Skull Rock was probably close to the trailhead!

As we dropped in elevation from +4000 feet, the Joshua Trees faded away and we drove through a large ‘forest’ of Cholla cactus that looked like it was glowing in the morning sunlight. We also went past a large grove of Ocotillo trees in full bloom.

By the time we got to I-10 it was close to 11:00am so we headed off to Quartzite for gas. We decided to bypass Phoenix by taking Highway 85 to I-8 and catching I-10 at Gila Bend. It probably didn’t save us much time, but we were able to keep moving at highway speed the entire time.

We pulled into Pichaco Peak State Park a little after 5:00pm. The rangers were gone and it was about 96 degrees and we couldn’t determine if there were electrical sites at the campground. So we went down the road to the Pichaco RV Resort (Good Sam) and checked in. This was the first time we’ve used the air conditioner in the Aliner and it works great. Tomorrow we plan to drive down to both the east and west districts of the Saguaro Cactus National Park and do some sightseeing. We may also stop in Tucson. We’ve booked three nights at Kartchner Caverns State Park (with electrical) and this should allow us time to visit the caverns, along with Tombstone and Bisbee before we head off to New Mexico.

Great Transcontinental Circuit Day 1 April 23, 2018

Great Transcontinental Circuit – Day 1 – April 23, 2018

After much thought, but not a lot of specific planning, we pulled out of town for the first leg of our trip. Our goal:  Joshua Tree National Park, about 150 miles away. It’s funny how the normal points of friction between the two of us seemed to fade away as the miles began to pile up. Example: we had some disagreements as to the best way to pull out of the driveway to start our trip. By the time we were backing the Aliner into our campsite, we were well on our way to being in synch with regard to how best to back a trailer. We have about another 9500 miles to go on this trip, so it will be interesting to watch (and more importantly, to experience) how our teamwork develops.

There was lots of traffic on I-10 coming in west from Palm Springs. Karen thought it was because the two week long Coachella Music Festival was ending today and it turned out she was correct (as usual). The park ranger at the West Entrance to Joshua Tree told us we were likely to get a campsite at the Ryan Campground and after a trip around the loop, we got one of the last remaining sites. After getting set up, we went back out of the park to visit Betty and John’s sister, Bonny.

Bonnie lives on a couple of acres in the hills above the town of Joshua Tree. She wasn’t home when we got there, so we headed into town for some lunch. On the way, we stopped at a small artist’s enclave right on Highway 62, where Karen toured the ‘World Famous Crochet Museum’. 

 I don’t know how the rest of the trip will be able to live up to the thrill we got here on our first day! We found some food at the Joshua Tree Saloon, where we were served by a bartender who looked just like Robert Downey, Jr/Tony Stark (he told us he actually has an agent who gets him some types of gigs that rely on this resemblance).

After lunch, we had a nice visit with Bonny, who showed us her home and let us visit with her three horses. We’re glad we got the chance to see her.

Back at the campsite we ate some leftover pizza and salad, photographed the sunset, did a quick hike to the ruins of the Ryan Ranch Adobe, and played a little uke and guitar.

Tomorrow:  a little morning hike, then exit to the south through the park and back to I-10 toward Pichaco Peak State park near Tucson,

The Great Transcontinental Circuit Begins

Stay tuned. The journey starts tomorrow...