We are staying in Tucson for 9 nights!

Good-bye, Arizona. We had a ton of fun.

Our last full day here in Tucson. Trying not to think of it.

We had coffee and decided to head out early to hike even though we'd be arriving at the trailhead at noon, in the heat of the day. I didn't want to get back to the campsite and have the day gone.

We went someplace new: Sabino Canyon. We did the Bear Canyon Falls Trail to Seven Falls. We hiked for 3.25 hours. It was a beautiful hike! I'm so glad we decided to try a new one.

We parked at the visitor center, which was packed. People were swarming all over. Fortunately, it was easy to find the trail we wanted looking at the map they had posted. 

The trail starts in a flat area; it's sandy and wide. There were a lot of people on it, but not so many as to be too off-putting. About half a mile in, the trail narrowed and headed up. The scenery was very nice—lots of saguaro and prickly pear, mountains in the distance, cool rocks on the ground. The only distracting thing was that this part of the trail ran along side of a blacktop road. It wasn't busy or anything, it's just I like to feel I'm a little more removed from civilization, I guess. 

After about 1.5 miles, we crossed a bridge where we saw a roadrunner, basically waiting until we passed to cross the road. Hahaha.  

Then the trail headed higher, not too steep. It was a little more rocky but still very comfortable. A little ways after the bridge, the trail turned into the canyon. It was fantastic! At the bottom of the canyon there are huge boulders laying across what would be a wide stream were there any water, of which there was none.

The canyon walls were lovely and the trail was fun to hike. Eventually we arrived at an impasse and the apparent end of the trail. This must be the famed Seven Falls, but none was evident today. 

​When we got back to the campsite, I took a shower and then we headed to Tierra del Sol for our last dinner. It was good! Then we had our last hot tub. We met another interesting couple, this time from Minnesota.

We had coffee and exercised. Scott went down to fill up the basketballs with air and shoot some hoops while I finished exercise.

Then we relaxed for a while and had an early lunch to kill time before heading off for another hike. We decided not to do it in the very hottest part of the day since it was already 80 and since we had a bit of PTSD remembering the heat of yesterday's hike.

While we were sitting outside, a roadrunner went by!

It was an awesome hike. It took us only 2 hours, which was good for my foot anyway. There was a nice breeze, so even though it was hot, we were comfortable. The climb was very steep (elevation gain is 900 ft) and at times a bit scary with the narrow, rocky path and the drop-off next to it. Scott says one wouldn't die if one tumbled down it, but I am pretty sure I would.

After climbing the summit and heading around and down the back side of the mountain, we were in shade. It was actually chilly then! But I wasn't complaining. 

The climb up is beautiful with the expansive view of the valley and mountains, and the climb around and down is a different kind of beautiful. There is lots more vegetation, beautiful rock formations, and the dry creek bed you crisscross several times. 

We got back around 6 so I made dinner. We ate, played cards, and lay down to watch some TV. We're rewatching For the Love of Dogs, a series not a movie, since one of us is usually asleep after 10 minutes in.

Ah, our trusty coffee maker. We love the coffee out of this thing. The only problem is that it takes a lot longer than drip coffee. But we've gotten a routine. 

First, Scott gets up earlier and he gets it going. Sometimes he comes back to bed while it percolates. It's usually ready by the time we want to get up, well, I want to get up. Scott is often up earlier. Second, we started filling it up the night before with water and coffee. I don't like to put the coffee in it too early, so I'll fill it with water in the am and add the coffee in the pm. See where this is heading? 

So today, we lay in bed while it boiled. I was ready for coffee before coffee was ready and Scott said "10 more minutes." I stayed in bed for a bit and when I got up, he said "2 more minutes." Finally, I had to have coffee. When I got up to get it, I realized no coffee had every been put in. But it was the cleanest, most boiled water in the history of water.

​After coffee, we took a bike ride around the campground. It's a beautiful day! Sunny and about 72 right now. Unfortunately, something big is on fire upwind and after about 20 minutes, the air was too awful to breathe, so we headed back to the RV. But then we went a little past it and biked over to an area of the KOA we hadn't seen before. It's cute: a basketball court, a short path, trees, a small pavilion with table and chairs, a lake, some horseshoe stations, and a racetrack for remote-controlled cars.

New license plates: Cherokee Nation, North Carolina, Delaware, Nova Scotia.

So then I said to heck with the foot, we must hike. We headed to Saguaro National Park to do the Bridal Wreath Falls hike we did last year. According to last year's post, we did it in 3 hours. I thought I could handle that. 

Well it was a stellar hike, simply beautiful landscape with mountains, cool rocks, varied cacti and trees, some lizards, blue sky, and warm temperatures. No water though. Last year, there was so much water in the stream on the down side of the dam that we had to scramble over some rocks to cross. This year, dry as a bone. There was a bit of rusty water in a pool just in front of the dam.

There is all kind of vegetation on this trail and in some places, it is much denser than the pictures make it seem. There are a ton of beautiful saguaros, as you might expect in the Saguaro National Park.

Actually, it was a little too warm with a little too much sun for me. I was feeling it. Scott was carrying plenty of water and we drank it. We got 1.5 hours in and we were still 2 miles from the falls. Something was wrong with my reporting skills last year or my reading skills this year. 

So we decided to head back. Good thing. By the time we reached the truck, we had hiked for 3.5 hours (having made it to the Steel Tank of the three-tank trail), and I was spent. My foot hurt. But it had been a beautiful hike and I'm glad we did it.

We decided to hit the KOA restaurant for dinner. Before going, we showered. When we were walking back and past the pool area, someone in the hot tub whom we had chatted with there a couple times—an artist and former architect named Dick Graves—called out "Is that Monica?" He said he had something for me. He had painted a watercolor of the pool area and wanted to give it to me! I almost cried I thought it was so kind and generous. It's a very nice painting and a sweet remembrance of our time here. 

After dinner I suggested taking a drink over to the firepits. The sun was just setting, and it was a very pleasant place to relax for a bit. Nice KOA.

After we drank coffee and Scott had breakfast, we exercised for a while. Then I had lunch and we got ready for a bike ride.

There are a lot of miles of paved bike paths in Tucson. It's just hard to tell for any given one you're considering what the scenery will be, how hilly it is , or how much it weaves across streets or goes by homeless encampments, decomposing buildings, or trash. The one we were on last year was nice but short before it got too steep for me to manage. 

So I researched it for a bit and found one that looked promising. On Traillink it's called the Canada del Oro trail, but once we go to the trailhead, it's called the Loop. There are no maps but fortunately Scott asked a couple of bikers which way we should go and they said the way we would not have gone. We rode 2.5 hours and it was a fantastic ride. 

The views were mountains on one side and fields on the other. In front of the mountains but generally obscured by a wall or landscaped ridge were beautiful homes or developments, some commercial buildings, golf courses, and a a ranch before it started to get more industrial about an hour in. 

I heard verdin a few times as we were riding and we saw two beautiful birds but didn't get pics, a phainopepla and a scarlet flycatcher!

Just as we were finishing, Thome called me for my birthday, and we chatted a bit.

When we got back, I practiced and Scott went to the pool to read and listen to podcasts. Then I cooked dinner and for my birthday, Scott wrote me a nice card and we had Haagen Das!

Then we started playing cards and Thomas called  for my birthday, and we chatted. For a movie, we started Little Dorrit. It's well-done, but it's like 8 hour-long episodes and Scott was asleep 5 minutes into the first one. So I changed to Would I Lie to You.

Today, we got out soon after we drank our coffee. We headed to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which was about 30 minutes away. We wanted to see the raptor show the hot-tub couple told us about, and it started at 10. We arrived just in time. The guide told us to head down there asap to see it. 

Unfortunately, the museum was really crowded. Lots of others were headed to the show and they were all manner of slow walkers and baby carriages. We all arrived in plenty of time. But so many people. My worst nightmare.

But the show was super cool and it didn't matter that there were so many people. We saw three types of birds in total. First, was a great horned owl. Then was a caracara. (BTW, the bird we thought was a bald eagle in Mesa at Usery was definitely a caracara, not a bald eagle.) Finally, we saw Harris's hawks, four of them, because they live in family units and hunt as a pack.

In fact, we got to witness them hunting. The show consists of trainers spread out among the trees and brush off the path right next to the crowd. They entice the birds to fly down on the trees next to the path with little bits of meat. The Harris's hawks were doing their thing, flying from tree to tree, squabbling sometimes over one, but all of the sudden, they flew to the same point in the air about 10 feet above the ground, and then all together swooped down to the ground. One flew up to a branch and started tearing at the catch: probably a small bird. It was pretty cool.

So we got close up looks at these beautiful birds, plus we got to see them soaring above our heads. 

Then we walked along the path through the exhibits: landscaping with all sorts of cacti, flowers, bushes, trees; animatronic dinosaurs, and animal enclosures. We saw javelinas, a beaver, a rattlesnake, a scorpion, a gray fox asleep in its den, an ocelot (no pic), and a bighorn sheep. 

Lots of cool geology, igneous and sedimentary. They had a cave exhibit and inside was also a rock museum. Lots of different copper ores, which are mined in Arizona, plus some meteorites and other cool rocks.

There were two bird enclosures, one for hummingbirds and one for regular birds. Neither had much wildlife inside. We saw as many birds outside as we did inside. We saw 1 hummingbird inside and 3 outside. Inside the aviary we saw a male and female hooded oriole and a bunch of white-winged doves. Outside we saw a cactus wren, and that orangetip moth we had seen at Usery Mountain.

I get that the enclosures need to be true to life so the animals can enjoy them, but sometimes it's discouraging like this promising sign located right next to the prairie dog enclosure.

We happened to be near the theater when the live-animal show was about to start, so we saw that too. We saw a Gila monster and some other related Mexican lizard and a spotted snake. The snake's coloration helps it blend in with the rocks where it lives, like in the picture below.

In the evening, we went to the hot tub, like for hours. Scott just loves the hot tub. We had company for about half of our time. Nice folks, but it was nice when we got to be alone. A beautiful night, and right next to the hot tub are beautiful palm trees.

Coffee, laundry, exercise, bike ride 45 minutes.  New plates: Quebec, Manitoba. Here are the ones we haven't seen yet: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.

Here's the huge rig in the spot next to ours. 

Exercise pics that Scott took and told me to post.

Scott spent a few hours on the phone with Thomas while he worked, and we played cards. Then I practiced until they were done. After that, we went to the hot tub. We stayed until it was dark. It was a cool evening and the stars were out. Very pretty. Lots of activity in the hot tub. We met some interesting people.

To close the day, we ate dinner and watched a movie.  

When I was done, I went to join him at the pool only to find him napping in the lounge chair. We did the hot tub for a bit. Half the time we were there, it was quiet. Then it got busy, but people were nice. 

After showering, we headed to the restaurant located in the KOA for dinner. Someone in the hot tub said they'd heard it was good. I should have ordered something different. Scott liked his wings and cheese sticks a lot. 

After dinner, we took another bike ride, this time probably 40 minutes. The mountains surround this area and are pretty. So even though we couldn't leave the campground, we got some exercise and it was pretty.

When we got back from bike riding, Scott read his phone and I wrote up this day. I hope he's going to play some cards!

It's a big KOA!

Scott spotted some roadrunners! So cute. There were three but he was trying to photograph them from his bike. There are lots of mockingbirds here, too. It's fun to hear them. 

But then a new obsession befell me and I started looking at license plates. We spotted plates from 39 different states, including Alaska! Also, there were plates from Canada: British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

I also love to look at the bullet-shaped Airstreams, and there are a lot here. There are mostly the big ones, the Classics, Internationals, Globetrotters, and Flying Clouds, but there is also a tiny Bambi. Other campers include mostly these enormous modern rigs that are as big as Greyhound busses, only these also have slide-outs to increase their square footage. There are also a number of Class-B van campers, the ones that cost like $150,000 and up, and some Class-C campers. Travel trailers as small as ours are few, but they are here. 

After dinner, it was cards and another cheesy rom-com.

We arrived at the Tucson KOA 40 minutes before check-in, but our site was ready so they let us check in!

Our site is okay. The location is half great, half bad. We are right by the entrance, so there is a lot of traffic. But we are right next to bathrooms, laundry, the pickelball courts, the pool, and the hot tub. Too bad I just learned Scott has zero interest in pickleball.

The campsite itself is nice. We have a tree. Unfortunately, there is no fruit on it! Lots of grapefruit trees on other nearby sites are visible.

After we set up camp, we headed out for lunch and grocery shopping. We ate 5 Guys and then I shopped in Sprouts. We got back to the KOA, went for a short bike ride (this place is huge), and then we saw the distant hot tub had only a couple people in it, so we jumped off the bikes and jumped in. Over the course of our time there (at least an hour), 6 other people were in with us. All very nice but heavens if this hot tub is not popular. 

The second week of our trip is in Phoenix, Arizona. We will stay for 9 nights at the Mesa/Apache Junction KOA.

Hey, today was kind of the opposite of yesterday. Yesterday we were going to play tennis and hike and we had to call it all off and take it easy. Today we had planned to take it easy with no hiking or tennis in order to rest my foot, but we got to do an amazing hike in a new park we found.

Scott got the idea to check out a local lake because it's featured on the new mural at Nando's—Saguaro Lake. We looked it up and discovered it's pretty close. So we decided we would drive out and, at first, we planned to only look at it from the car window.

So we got up, drank coffee, read, did our exercises, and rode our bikes around the campground for a while. Then we made lunch and headed out to Saguaro Lake Park. I did look up a hike just in case.

Saguaro Lake is located just past Usery Mountain Regional Park, about 20 minutes from it. The scenery was awesome driving through the mountains.

We drove to the park entrance and got out at the picnic shelters to have lunch. This place was gorgeous. Here's our lunchtime view.

Away from the water, the rock formations are beautiful.

Here is a view of a portion of the lake from a higher vantage point, taken as we were leaving this part of the park. The lake was formed by damming up a part of the Salt River, so it's not a uniformly rounded shape. It's more like a couple colons lined up one after the other. 

I felt I could handle a hike with my new shoes. I really didn't want to let the opportunity pass to check out this park. So we drove over to the trailhead of the Butcher Jones Trail. It's said to be a popular hike, and it was. It was about 1 pm and 75 degrees, so pretty nice conditions. The park was full of cars. There was a beach where people were actually swimming.

​Boats, kayaks, and fishermen were on the lake. We met plenty of people on the trail, but it was okay. 

I'm so glad we did this hike because it was amazing! A fun hike with stunning views.

The trail starts off level through some vegetation but is soon climbing the hill and hugging the lake.

The trail followed the lake for a good while, winding around its contours where it curved into little bays or opened up into wider views. The path was narrow, a bit rocky, and close to the edge. Somehow not too scary though. Then the trail turned back into the land. The scenery, the rock formations, and the cacti were varied and beautiful.  

Then we started climbing again. A hiker we met coming the other way told us we were close to the endpoint and the payoff view. She wasn't wrong. It was stunning!

We admired for a bit and then turned around and headed back.

The hike was 5 miles out and back and we did it in 2. 5 hours. Worth it!! 

And the day was still young. We came back to the campground and had a hot tub!

Unfortunately, we were not alone. Just one other fellow, but he was a talker. Actually some of his conversation was super interesting, but there was just a bit too much of it. And he was a loud talker. But we stayed for a bit and then headed to the camper for dinner; tonight, our standby.

After dinner, cards, some dark-chocolate-covered almonds, and then a movie. 

But, the best-laid plans. We played tennis for 40 minutes and I had to call it. My foot was killing me the entire time and finally I couldn't take it anymore. Sad because it was perfect weather for tennis, even at 12 in Phoenix. No wind, warm but not hot. I will say the noise was getting to me this day too. Little commuter planes fly continuously overhead, landing across the street at the airfield. They are low and extremely loud. Honestly, you look up and 3 or 4 planes are always in view approaching the airstrip with their path directly over whatever court you're on. Today, there was also a clinic going on and they were playing Michael Jackson over and over and loud. Actually not very pleasant.

So then we did a couple errands and headed back to the campground. I practiced while Scott headed to the pool to read. Then I joined him and we hit the hot tub. We had about 15 minutes of quiet and then some very nice folks stepped in and started talking. They were interesting--full-time RVers who told us about the Renaissance festival that happens every year right up the road from the KOA. 

Then, what the heck, we headed to Nando's for dinner. When got back, we watched a movie.

After coffee, reading, and exercising, it was almost noon. Then we went hiking! We did Pass Mountain in Usery Park again. It was absolutely perfect weather, 72 degrees, sunny but with a thin coating of clouds so no overly hot sun, and a light breeze.

The park was crowded and even though this is a long, somewhat challenging hike, we crossed paths with more people than ever. A few times I felt I had to go fast to stay ahead of people, and in the end, we did the full hike in 3 hours and 15 minutes. ​

You never see too much wildlife, but today we saw more than usual. Driving in, Scott spotted a bald eagle flying. On the hike, he saw a beautiful green hummingbird at an orange-flowered bush and a white and orange butterfly. On looking them up, they turned out to be an Anna's hummingbird and a Southwestern orangetip, respectively. I spotted a few lizards. Those were the same species, an ornate tree lizard. I saw a a number of birds too far away or too fast so I could not identify them. Then I saw a bunny. That was a desert cottontail. We saw a couple chipmunks, which I looked up to find they are called cliff chipmunks (the photo of it below is someone else's).

After hiking, we played cards, took showers, and ate dinner. Then we went for a bike ride around the campground for about 30 minutes. Then it was more cards and a movie before bed.

When we got back to the campground, Scott headed to the pool to read and soak up some sun. I exercised and practiced, and then we headed to the hot tub. We were in there a little too long. Scott was light-headed when he got out. 
​

We came back to the site, had dinner, lounged around, played cards, and finally watched a movie. Lazy day.

After getting up, we took our time lounging around. Coffee, emails, news reading, exercising.

Then we went hiking. This time, we chose to go someplace new. We chose one of the other regional parks run by the same outfit (Maricopa County) that manages Usery Mountain Regional Park. The Maricopa system has more than 10 different parks located around Phoenix. The one we went to was San Tan Regional Park. We had an amazing hike!

The drive to the park was about double the drive to Usery, 45 minutes. We drove through vast desert that is being built into a new suburb. Phoenix is really packed with people. Suburbs galore, RV parks galore, and it's still growing.

San Tan is a different set of mountains. As we started hiking the Goldmine Trail, I worried it might be a dull hike because there didn't seem to be a ton of bigger vegetation. The terrain was very different from Usery but it turned out to be an awesome hike, winding up and down and around and around this set of mountains..

It started out with about a mile of flat sandy trail, after which it climbed straight up to the top of the mountain (these are very small mountains). On the map, it has a warning about the "extreme" steepness of the climb. Fortunately, the path was wide so it wasn't scary.

After you got to the top (I didn't climb to the tippy top, maybe next time, but Scott did. He said it was a nice view.

After descending that peak, the trail continues going down but it becomes very rocky and it was a challenge to keep from falling. That lasted for about a half mile and then it turned comfortable again. That's when the trail started winding around and through this mountain range. There was some up and down but nothing super steep. Views were beautiful, there were loads of cool rocks and land formations to see, and the weather was extremely pleasant. We met another great dog on the hike, and we saw a historical gravesite.

Like Usery, San Tan has a "tortoise habitat," complete with habitat but no visible wildlife. I think the sign is probably 100% accurate. It didn't promise tortoises, just habitat.

Today we headed out earlier than usual to play tennis at 9 am at the Mesa courts. It was a beautiful morning, sunny, about 72, and not super windy. We played for 2 hours, and I had a lot of fun.

When we came back, we lounged a bit and then headed to the hot tub. We took some pina coladas along. Unfortunately, there was someone already there who was perhaps not quite right in the head. He was overly talkative and after hoping for about 20 minutes that he would get out, we decided to go.

I was researching some new trails to hike, and while I found a couple possibilities, they were 45 minutes to an hour's drive, and my foot was killing me so we never got out the door.

To round out the night, we took showers, did laundry, played cards, and watched a movie.

We woke up and took our time to get going. We had our coffee and I updated this blog and did some final tax paperwork while Scott read, napped, and then exercised. When we were ready, we headed back to Usery Mountain to do the Pass Mountain Trail.

It was overcast and a bit chilly. We went prepared, and we had a great hike. Some parts of the trail were scary as usual for me, the worst being the part the locals call the saddle but that I have redubbed Nemesis Point.  Even after Nemesis Point there are lots of others scary parts where the trail is very narrow and a vast space stretches to the right. Inexplicably, there were a number of bikers on this trail.

​The views along the trail are amazing.

Park info says people take 5-6 hours to do this trail but that's nuts. It took us 3.75 hours and we weren't jogging it. 

After our hike we were pretty hungry and I hate to admit it, but we went to Nando's and had a great early dinner. 

When we got back to the KOA, we relaxed a bit and then had a long hot tub. Several couples came and went and we chatted with all of them. Before the heat got Scott, the chatting did, and we headed back to the camper and played cards then watched a movie before falling asleep.

A great but exhausting day.

First we went for a hike at Usery Mountain Regional Park, one of our favorites. We walked the Blevins Trail and added parts of the Chainfruit, Talon, Cat's Peak, and Cat's Peak Pass Trails. There were many bikers, some hikers, and we even saw horses! We walked for 3 hours, it was wonderful, and then we had lunch.

At the top of Cat's Peak Pass, there is a bench. This time I read the plaque. It's in honor of a soldier who died at 22 serving in Afghanistan. It reads: "Spc. Wyatt Joseph Martin. From the deserts of Arizona to the deserts of Afghanistan. What we do in life echoes in eternity." 

We saw lots of cool birds. Only one could we identify: Harris' Hawk.

Then we headed to Nando's for dinner! It was delicious as usual. We stopped by the grocery on the way home and then decided to watch a movie. Scott was out in about 10 minutes. I lasted another 20.  ​

We left Boulevard before 9 and headed to Phoenix. It was a pleasant drive even though the Google sent us for an hourlong trek on a two-lane highway and a city street with stoplights all to save 4 minutes. Just stick to major highways, Google.

It was nearly 80 when we arrived at the Mesa/Apache Junction KOA. We really like our campsite! This KOA is packed tight, but it's Phoenix. Every place that can be is packed tight with RVs, most of them huge.

You can see the Superstition Mountains from the campground. 

We had our dinner outside, and later it was still warm enough to play cards outside. The sunset was pretty, and guess what? We got to sit in the hot tub for a long time after cards. There were two people in it already when we arrived, one getting out. Soon after,  another guy came, then a couple, then another couple. Oh my, it's popular.

Our first week we stayed at the Boulevard KOA. It's about an hour east of San Diego. This KOA is located next to the Cleveland National Forest, where we could hike. There is a KOA right in San Diego, but I figured it might be in an icky area or too far from good hiking. In the end, it probably would have been better, though the Boulevard KOA was nice. Update: after a day in San Diego, I'm glad we chose to stay in Boulevard. Cities are draining.

OMG, we had an epic hike today. It was amazingly beautiful, and at times, extremely challenging. The hike was in the Laguna Recreation Area, an area which we have driven past on Highway 8 every day for the past week (excepting the day we did our taxes), unaware of what we were passing up.

It was absolutely beautiful. We got off Highway 8 at the Sunrise Highway. We drove for about 10 miles to get to the Penny Pines Trailhead, and the views were stunning all the way up. The pics below don't do it justice. There are several trailheads along the way and a few campgrounds as well.

We found the hike on a website called the Hiking Guy. He has the absolute best instructions, complete with a multitude of pictures at all the confusing points along the trail. There were a lot, but with his post, we followed it perfectly, with one exception.

It was a 12-mile hike and the expected duration is 5 to 6 hours. It took us 6. We took lunch and plenty of water, but unfortunately, we didn't take enough clothes. For the first 7 miles, we were fine. I was taking my sweatshirt off and putting it back on back and forth as we went through treed areas or direct sun.

The first part of the hike was easy hiking on a comfortable path through bushes and pine trees. ​

Here we discovered where acorn woodpeckers get their name! We came across this amazing sight. The pine tree's bark is loaded with holes pecked by the woodpeckers and filled by them with acorns. The acorns covered this tree, going all the way to the top.​

We saw the cutest dog.

Two new birds we saw are a pygmy nuthatch and a bluebird of some sort. According to Merlin, it could have been a western bluebird or a mountain bluebird. Whatever it was, it was an amazing, electric blue. No time for a picture. These below are stock photos. (The pygmy nuthatch looks just like our nuthatch only smaller.) Also, by the by, twice driving to hiking we saw birds that I thought might be scrub jays flying. Okay, now that I think about it, I have no idea which of these blue birds we saw. Could have been any!

After the lake, we went for a while through pine forests and did more climbing. We started to get some views. We saw some charred trees, remnants of a forest fire. 

We saw some huge pine cones. 

Then we made the turn to Monument Peak​, which was a steep climb through scrub. The trail was clear. The views were stunning, when you avoided catching a glimpse of the huge cell tower at your back, so I'm glad we made the trek. Across the way you can see another facility with the white sphere. That's some Cold War radar detection system that is now being used by NORAD.

But after we got to the top of Monument Peak, things turned. The peak was at a high elevation, the sun was gone, the temperature had dropped to below 50, and the wind was blowing hard. Here's a cool chart from Hiking Guy showing the elevation gain on the trail.​

We were both in shorts, and we just wanted to get down off the mountain. We did pretty so quickly, but as soon as we did, we had to start climbing again for Hays Peak. I was so cold that I think I started to think a little recklessly. I was just moving ahead as fast as I could on a trail that was not clear. It was easy enough to walk through the shrubs to regain the trail so it was a quick climb to the top. Again, the views were stunning. ​

Hiking Guy said getting off this peak was the hardest and most confusing part of the whole trail. He was right. There had been a number of confusing junctures on the trail before this point, but his pictures and directions had steered us right every time. This time, we weren't so lucky. 

We headed down the peak. It was exceedingly steep. I felt I could have easily lost my footing and fallen over. The ground was rocky; it was really hard on the knees. We couldn't see a clear trail to walk on down the hill, though we could see our destination trail (Pacific Crest Trail or PCT) a little beyond the bottom of it. ​

We got back to the PCT and we were grateful, but were still freezing. We were moving fast to warm up, and then we saw one last point of interest suggested by Hiking Guy. We almost skipped it, but then we went back and did it—Foster's Point. It was a short stretch there and back to the PCT and it was worth the view. The plaque there has an embossed drawing of all the peaks you can see from this point, along with the distances to each, one of which was 38 miles away. Unfortunately, the plaque is worn down and the names and distances are hard to make out.

We walked for about 15 minutes and then stopped for lunch. I was still pretty cold. After a quick bite, Scott gave me his shirt so now he was in a tank top with bare arms, and we started walking.

​We had 2 miles left at this point. It was a pretty long 2 miles. We weren't all that tired of walking, just cold, and somehow we kept expecting it to be over but there was always another turn and more path and often it was up and down again and sometimes it was cliff-edgy. It was pretty, though, and there were some very beautiful views.

Finally, we completed the loop and made it back to the parking lot and the truck.

On the drive home, the sun was setting, and Scott stopped at a viewing point to snap a sunset.

Back at the campsite, we treated ourselves to some pina coladas and cards. 

Today we decided to head into San Diego. We had been planning to go to the zoo, I guess because it's so famous, but when we thought about it we realized that it didn't interest us enough. For me, I realized that one particular type of animal was too numerous: the human.

So we changed and went first to the USS Midway Museum. Scott wanted to see aircraft carriers. It was a cool experience.

The aircraft carrier itself is impressive as a massive technological achievement, but learning about the Battle of Midway and seeing where and how people lived and worked—and what they had to work with—while serving in the military and defending the country was pretty humbling and moving.  Scott read that the USS Midway was built in a hurry, just 17 months. It was completed though the week after World War II ended.

A couple things to point out before I do a photo dump.

One exhibit featured George H.W. Bush. He joined the military when he was 18 and a year later he was flying this plane in combat! Can you imagine? He was 19 years old flying this tiny machine in actual battles? Amazing. He names all his planes after Barbara.

When we were in the bowels of the island, we met some fellows who turned out to be ham-radio operators who were making use of the ship's antennas. Scott's friend Frank Roman is a massive ham-radio buff who also served in the Navy. So Scott sent him a photo and chatted with the guys, all self-described "nerds."

It's impossible to capture the scale (hugeness but also crampiness) of this ship. The flight deck, for example, is over 4 acres!

One other stop we had thought about making was to see any in-service aircraft carriers that might be stationed in the navy yard. From the map, it was a 20-minute drive, but it turned out you could see the ships from the USS Midway Museum!! They were just across the bay. There were two ships in port being worked on: the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Roosevelt. 

We walked along the boardwalk for about 15 minutes, but we were really hungry and also cold, so we stopped at a restaurant we had passed and got lunch. We broke down and ate lots of carbs but it was tasty. We sat outside (they had heaters) and the view was awesome. That is, until the end when a scantily clad runner chose the spot directly in front of us to do his post-run stretches. At any rate, by the end of the meal we were freezing. 

We headed out into the chill and wind and looked at each other and realized we had got the full experience. We don't really enjoy the city experience. We could have driven over to Balboa Park, it's well-recommend and not too far, but we weren't that interested. It was time to head back.

It rained all night and into the morning, and the day ahead looked to be the same. 

So we decided to drive to the grocery in Alpine, a drive of about 45 minutes, and to do taxes when we got back. Somehow, the day went by quickly. In the evening, we played cards and watched tv as usual.

On the drive Scott was admiring the way the colors of the landscape had changed because of the rain. By the time I got around to taking photos, the prettiest views had passed. But here are some photos that give an idea of the color. There is also a picture of a grove of trees we see on the drive that we like.

It was lightly raining this morning when we woke, and it was a little chilly. Here's the view of the campground from our camper as the sun was rising.

When we got to 1.5 hours out, we were still thinking of continuing. But the trail was descending after climbing for most of the time and we were approaching a fence along the highway. I saw a man fidgeting near it, and stepped out of sight. Scott saw him and said "let's turn around," so we did. I walked pretty fast up that hill. The fellow could have been a hiker, a biker, a ranger, a rancher, a local explorer, an illegal immigrant, or a vagrant, who knows? But I'm glad we didn't wait to find out.

After about 15 minutes, we stopped and had our packed lunch. When we got up, we were cold!  I bundled up as best I could.

We enjoy the views of nature, but there are a couple technological marvels to see as well. The highway through the mountains is visible in several spots, and there are couple of bridges that are quite astounding in their design and construction.

Today was a rinse and repeat of yesterday: tennis in the morning and a hike at Pine Creek afterwards. Tennis was fun, for me anyway (this time the hours and hours of $, practice, and instruction paid off, and I won all three sets). It rained last night so when we began playing, the court was still damp. But the sun came out eventually, and by the time we were done the court was dry.

We went on the same hike as yesterday—the second, longer, clearer one—except we went for twice as long. We walked an hour out and an hour back and it was extremely pleasant. The clouds were long gone, the sun was warm, and the views were beautiful. 

The trail was level at first, but in the middle it climbed gently up the small mountain. It wound around and opened into a new set of mountains where the vegetation changed to bigger and more numerous trees. 

The trail seemed rarely used. We were the only car in the lot yesterday and today. There were footprints and tire marks on the trail, but at first we saw no one on the trail. I worried about mountain lions and bears, and so I read the information on the park sign today, and it turns out there are a lot of bobcats in the mountains, mountain lions (though "rarely spotted"), and, get this, illegal immigrants. 

We had noticed some animal footprints here and there. The obvious source would be dog, but because the trail is so long and no one seemed to be on it, I worried they were the prints of something wild. To me, they never seemed to stay long on the trail; they'd appear briefly, as if the animal was crossing the path, not following it.

Scott started to wonder, and we decided to take pictures of any good prints we could find, especially those with obvious "claws," so we could research it later to figure out what animal had made them. We spent some time looking at the ground as we walked in search of good prints, took a few pictures, and were about to take another when we looked up and saw a man and his dog resting ahead. Right after Scott commented "nice dog," a biker rounded the bend and drove past us. 

As we passed the man, Scott asked him if he knew what had made the footprints we were photographing. "Probably dog," he said. "There are a lot of bobcats around, so maybe that." Then he noted the distinction that made our whole obsession more comical: "If you see claw marks in the print, it's a dog. If you don't see claws, it could be a cat." Ah ha. 

On the agenda: tennis and hiking. We headed to Pine Valley Park again for tennis, and for a hike we planned to check out one the trailheads we had spotted yesterday.

But first we took a walk around the campground. Scott visited his "soulmate," the male ostrich, and we got an up-close view of these plentiful birds that we determined are acorn woodpeckers. Very pretty with striking white and black feathers with a touch of red on the head. 

Isn't it funny? The ostriches won't cross that teeny tiny trench.

Then Scott and I had the lunch we packed and headed for the hike. It was called Pine Creek. It was down a long, windy, single-lane road. But it was a designated hike with a parking lot, an outhouse, and a sign. Someone had defaced the map on it with the comment "this map sucks," which turned out to be completely apt. Scott studied it for a while, got an idea where we were, and pointed us in the direction ahead.

In a few yards we discovered a trail marker labeled "Secret Canyon." There were two paths, but the marker seemed clearly to indicate the lower trail on the left.

When we got back to the trail sign, Scott said we should try the other, unmarked path right next to "Secret Canyon." It looked like a country lane of some sort, with tire marks of some sort (maybe just bikes), but also lots of shoe marks. So why not, we started on that path.

​It turned out to be amazing. It went on and on. It was easy to walk. And the views were incredible.

As we turned back on to the road heading back to the KOA, I saw two different trailheads with big official signs. Good job, AllTrails. Not. 

The drive from the truck stop in Gila Bend to our first KOA was around 4.5 hours.  It was pleasant. The landscape was flat and dry with mountains in the distance, small farms here and there, and what seemed to be a couple oases of palm trees. A little before we got to the mountains at the end of the journey, we saw big stretches of sand and big sand dunes on which people were driving dune buggies! Interesting terrain.

The mountains we drove into were super cool. Many peaks looked like giants' pebble piles.

​We arrived about 40 minutes before check-in, but they let us in anyway. The campground is quite lovely. It's in the mountains, it's got lots of trees, and the sites have a little room. The KOA is practically empty. The road in was windy but safe. We have a beautiful tree on our site, and the showers and laundry are right across from us. Maybe in my early years or maybe if the campground were full, it would be a disadvantage to be located here, but right now I think this is the best spot in the campground.

We walked around the campground and discovered...ostriches! They have a small park next door with farm animals, for which you have to pay $10 to see and show up at 11 am, but the only animals they have worth seeing are the ostriches, and they are out in the yard all the time where you can walk right up to them.

It turns out driving all the way here over the course of five days was pretty draining. Scott drove more slowly this time, always a bit under the speed limit, which was quite pleasant. But it was nice to open a bottle of wine and relax in the 65 degree temperature.

This year, we're going to repeat our stays in Phoenix and Tucson, while for the third location we chose San Diego. Something new, something warm, hopefully.

We decided to maximize our time in each of the three locations, so we planned to drive straight through to San Diego, actually a KOA an hour east of San Diego in Boulevard, California.

​The plan was to start in Columbus to visit our daughter and then lay over at Cracker Barrels in St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, and Phoenix. Phoenix didn't work out in the end.. 
​
On the way home, it will be the same: we'll finish in Tucson, then it's a straight shot home, staying over at Cracker Barrels...or truck stops, which we discovered on this trip are pretty good layovers.

Mishaps began early on the trip. As we were taking selfies, I knocked the coffee pot off the shelf.

I noticed that Petrified Forest National Park was on our route. I'd never seen it, and we had plenty of time, so we decided to stop. It was beautiful. We drove the 30-mile road through the park and stopped in a few places: several views of the painted desert, and Blue Mesa.