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. 

Leaving today, sad. We got up early and got everything ready to go. We realized we still had a couple hours before we had to vacate the site, so we decided to go for a final hot tub!

My original itinerary for the trip home had us stopping at 4 Cracker Barrels: Albuquerque, NM; Amarillo,  TX; Springfield, MO; and Terre Haute, IN. But Scott felt he could drive farther each day and if we did, we'd get home a day earlier. So we ended up doing 3 Cracker Barrels: Albuquerque, NM; Oklahoma City, OK; and Effingham, MO (which was a lot of fun making fun of, "where in the Effingham are we?). All were very nice, and eating at them is a great way to add fun to the trip home. Here's a sunrise Scott caught one morning.

And we arrived home to a little snow on the ground. Sigh. Here is a comparison of our last moments in Tucson and our arrival home.

We got up early because we wanted to get a hike in that was 45 minutes away and have time for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We had our coffee and exercised and then we headed to Kartchner Caverns State Park, which we knew about because we went there a few times a couple years ago when we stayed at the Benson KOA. We wanted to do the Guindani Trail again, so that's what we did. It was a beautiful day and the hike was awesome. This year, there was water in the stream on the back side of the mountain. Scott noticed this time that there are no saguaro cacti around here, just agave, prickly pear, and maybe small barrel cactus. Lots more trees and bushes.

​It's mah 65th birthday today. I got to talk to Thome after our hike and Thomas in the morning. After our hike we tried a new (to us) Mexican restaurant, Little Mexico. It was cute but the food was not that great; maybe we were maxed out on Mex. After we got back to the KOA, we rode our bikes around the campground for an hour. It was very pleasant, and lots of people were sitting outside or walking their dogs.

And we finally saw another Vintage Cruiser, and it was a Woody, like ours. Theirs was a lot bigger and it had a slide. The owner said she loved it. And then we came back and had a fire. Scott's going to watch some tv with Thomas and when that's done, I'll ask for my birthday present, more cards!

After our usual morning routine, we hit the hot tub! It felt great after that long hike yesterday. Then we played tennis at Reffkin again for 1.5 hours. Then we went back to Saguaro National Park and hiked the Cactus Flower and Lime Falls trails. Total trip was 4 miles and it took us 1.5 hours. It was a beautiful, beautiful path. I didn't expect it. I thought it would be flat and dry and boring, but it was green and varied and hilly. 

Then we did a Walmart run, came back to the campsite, and while I made dinner, Scott watched a show with Thomas. Then we had a night time hot tub! The tub closest to us was occupied, so we rode our bikes over to the main hot tub which was empty after a guy and his daughter got out after about 5 minutes. 

Wow we had an awesome day and an epic hike. The day started early. The campground announced it would shut the water off at 8 am to fix some leaks, so I got up before 6 to put a load of laundry in. Then we did our usual morning routine: coffee, exercise, relaxing. This day we had breakfast because of the challenging activity we had planned.

Our hike was back in Saguaro National Park. We walked all the way to Bridal Wreath Falls this time, on the same path we started a couple days ago: Loma Verde to Squeeze Pen to Carrillo, then onto the new trails of Three Tank, Douglas Spring, and Bridal Wreath. It was a 12.5 mile hike, and it took us 5.5 hours. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the temperature was mild (low 70s), the sky was bright blue, a few puffy clouds were floating above the peaks, and there was a light breeze. The paths wound through a hilly terrain at the base of the mountains, so there was always something different to see. Very beautiful. 

Bridal Wreath Falls had water. The view here was amazing. 

In the evening, we did our typical routine: Scott watched a movie with Thomas while I did dishes from breakfast and made dinner. When Thomas went to bed, Scott and I had a drink and played cards. Then we went to bed and watched a couple episodes of the Chosen before falling asleep.

One awesome feature of this KOA is that there are citrus trees all over the campground. The fruit seems to be ripe now. Every day, I see mounds of fruit on some campsites' tables, and the KOA puts some in baskets at registration that anyone can take. I picked up two grapefruit from the registration building and an orange. Both were delicious, though not as sweet as at home. We have a tree at our site, but it's not doing too well. I hope it will be okay, but the few fruits on it are all dark, shriveled, and hard as a hockey puck. 

We had another great day. We had coffee, exercised, and lazed about until 11:30. Then we headed out to Reffkin Tennis Center, another local tennis facility. It was also amazing! It cost $2.50 to play. There are 17 tennis courts, some pickleball courts, a wall, and I saw several ball machines and one guy using a ball machine. You don't have to be a member. Wow. We played for an hour and a half. It was fun. Then we drove to a bike trail and rode for an hour and a half. The trail was very nice. It's paved, wide, and it goes through some pretty landscape. The last third we rode was along a major street, and it was very hilly, so I didn't like that very much. The other part was all the usual desert plants, plus a roadrunner ran right across the path in front of us! Going north, one's view is mountains. Pretty nice.

Then we came home and had a hot tub! After that, we took showers and made dinner: meatballs again! Time for an evening walk around the campground and then cards.

By the way, why no photos or news of the the White Ingrate? We didn't bring him! My friend Ruth is watching him. This trip has been a LOT more pleasant without him. I am a little sad when I see other people walking nice and pretty dogs, but the White Ingrate was not fun, so traveling without him is, in the end, much better.

Today was a good day. We had coffee, Scott had breakfast, and then we exercised. Then, we headed out about noon for a trail in the Saguaro National Forest.  We were intending to do Bridal Wreath Falls. We used AllTrails to navigate. Oh jeez. We got to a dirt road that forked; one way led through gates and there was a sign saying "this ain't the way to Bridal Wreath Falls." The other was a narrow dirt road. I said, no thanks, let's find the actual entrance to this place.

So we googled it. Google maps said 20 minutes. We started and went down a road for a mile or so and hit "road closed" signs. The road looked washed out. We turned around and went another way. Finally, we got to the entrance. It was swarming. There was no available parking at the visitors' center, but a ranger at the entrance gave us a map and suggested other places to park, so we had what we needed.

The park has an 8-mile loop road, along which there are a few trail heads. There are many trails in this part of the park (there's an eastern area and a western area; this is the eastern), and it would be a long hike to get to most of  them. I guess that's why AllTrails shows you how to get to them by parking along city streets, which out here means remote, narrow, and possibly washed-out dirt roads.

Anywho, we parked at the Loma Verde trail head, got on that trail but quickly switched to Squeeze Pen, and then got onto the Carrillo Trail. It was a fabulous trail, and the day was beautiful, sunny and warm. It was probably mid-70s at least; in fact, I got a little hot. Scott carried plenty of water for us, still, I got so tired. There was a fair bit of climbing; maybe that was it. On this trail, we crossed a stream with running water! Maybe coming from Bridal Wreath Falls? We are planning on going on this trail again and making it to the falls so we'll find out. We hiked for 3 hours, probably about 7 miles.

There were cool rocks, beautiful and varied plants, but very little wildlife. We saw a phainopepla again at the start of the trail, a sparrow, a small lizard, some tiny butterflies, and some insects.

Then we came home and made dinner. Scott had a webinar and I practiced. Then we relaxed.

So today was a day of chores and errands. We needed groceries. The hotspot died last night, so I needed a new one. The KOA's wifi is terrible. The propane firepit had an accident so to fix it, Scott disassembled the electronic ignition, and to bypass it and reattach the propane tank, he needed to find a particular propane fitting.

Oh, but before heading out, we hopped on our bikes to check out the hot tub.  Occupied, but by just one man, so we went in. We stayed about 30 minutes. It was awesome.

So then we started our chores. First, we went hunting for the propane fix. We went to one RV store, then to Camping World, then to a hose and fitting store, where the super helpful guy made Scott a new hose and assembly. Then we headed to BestBuy for a new hotspot. I waited a loooong time for help (they were short staffed). After I got the hotspot, we got lunch. Then we went shopping at Walmart.

Back at the site, I realized that the hot spot was the wrong thing as soon as I read the packaging. It only works on its service; doesn't work on ATT. While I was still trying to set it up just to make sure (I never got it to even connect to anything), Scott was attaching the hose to the propane tank. But something was going wrong and it took him a while to figure out. He got it working, and then we headed out to the ATT store, which happened to be near the BestBuy. The rep was super nice but ATT is so screwed up. He said he couldn't really help and that I should go to BestBuy. OMG. I pressed him to give me other options through ATT, and they were just plain astronomical. You have to buy the device—okay, not a problem—then you have to pay for service. A lot. And you have to keep paying for the service all year; you can't just use it when you need it. So I said no thanks.

On my way out, I saw a Verizon store. I went over and in 15 minutes had a hotspot that I can use as often as I want. It's a prepaid plan. I buy the device ($80) and then a service plan. I chose 25 gigs for 30 days for $60. When I don't pay next month, the number is deactivated, but when I want to use it again (next December), I go back to Verizon, they give me a new number, and I prepay for service. Unbelievably easy and sensible. I don't know what ATT is thinking. Oh, and then I called and canceled the extra line I was using for the ATT hotspot. That felt good. Then I tried to return the wrong hotspot device to BestBuy and they took it! That felt amazing!

So in the end, it was a successful day. No hiking, no tennis (but I did talk to a man at BestBuy who recommended some courts to us), but at least these issues worked out in the end. We have wifi, we have fire, we have food.   

We got up early and had our coffee. Then we started to pack up because we wanted to be out early enough to get to our 10 am tennis reservation at the Mesa courts. We got there in plenty of time. We played for 70 minutes and had a lot of fun. Those courts are really beautiful. There are orange trees all around. Scott picked one and ate it. Then we headed out to Tucson. 

So we arrived in Tucson around about 3 pm. A new KOA. How would it be? Well, it is beautiful. It is enormous. We rode our bikes around after dinner and it took us 30 minutes. There are lots of orange trees, hedges, and trees. The sites are pretty darn big for a KOA. It is a very pleasant atmosphere. Our site is very nice. We have a concrete patio with a metal patio table and chairs. We have an orange tree and a hedge right along the side of our campsite, giving privacy from the neighboring monster RV. Soon after we arrived, we saw 2 roadrunners running around the site. There are two pools, two hot tubs, and 2 bath houses. However, that's not enough for all theses campers. The bathrooms are okay, not all that clean. We walked to the hot tub about 5 pm. It was teeming. We left and went up about an hour later on our bikes. Still full. We checked out the other hot tub near the front of the campground. Packed. We gave up. It is Sunday, so hopefully things will be less busy tomorrow. 

We arrived at the KOA at 3:35. We're always anxious to see what an unfamiliar campground will be like. This one was not too bad for Arizona. The RV parks you see from the highway all over Arizona are downright depressing to me. Who knows? Maybe there are many tucked away from the highway that are lovely, but the ones I see are dumpy, dusty, dry, crowded, and brown. They look like parking lots either in the middle of nothing or riddled through with and surrounded by rusty, decaying buildings and trash.

So this KOA has trees and cacti sprinkled around, and it looks nice. Our site is actually pretty private and nice. I just need to get used to it. It's not perfect, but there are plusses and minuses, and in the end, the plusses far outweigh the negatives.   

Minuses of this KOA

• I feel a tenser ambiance, like what rats probably feel when they're packed together in some experiment. Sites are no closer together than in any other KOA, so I don't know where I'm getting the impression. Maybe seeing on arrival a line of people carrying laundry to the laundry room and our placement next to tent sites, with the one next to us a bit hillbilly-looking (although probably pretty pleasant on the inside). UPDATE: The ambiance of this campground is super nice, and all the people we've run into have been as nice as anywhere.  
• There is only one bathroom for the whole campground. There are 133 sites! The ladies have 3 toilets and 3 shower stalls. The men have 2 toilets and 3 showers. Scott said there was a line to use the johns when he went at 7:30 am. Update: Scott has been going in a little earlier in the AM and having no problem. I've never had a problem going to the bathroom or getting a shower when I wanted one.
  
  One thing we are doing for the first time on this trip is using our RV toilet, but we use it only for tinkle. We still use the KOA facilities for showers and their toilets for doo-doo. But being able to use the RV kitchen sink for water and washing dishes and the RV toilet has been a game-changer. We didn't hook up to water before on our February trips because we were apprehensive about water freezing and plus we were newbies to the sewer-dumping process. However, on this trip I insisted we use it because I was tired of carrying dirty dishes to the outdoor sink (or the bathroom if there was no outdoor sink!) and trekking to the KOA johns in the middle of the night. If the johns were too far, I'd use a porta potti that I have, but that was a pain because I'd have to empty it every morning.
• At Las Cruces, we had full hookup (water, electric, and sewer). Here there is no sewer hookup. So in the middle of the week, we will have to hitch the camper up and drive over to the dump station. It's a chore because there is a lot of leveling and stabilizing that Scott has to do. I'll probably have to secure some stuff inside the camper as well, but not as much as if we were heading onto the road. Update: We have had to dump once, and it was not too bad. It took Scott almost 30 minutes to unhook and get the RV ready to drive 20 yards. So it's ideal to have full hook up, but not too bad if you don't.
• Their wifi sucks. The receptionist warned us it's good only for minimal searching, no streaming. Thank goodness we have our WeBoost and hotspot, though we pay through the ass for the latter. Update: our WeBoost and hotspot have been working pretty well. 
• Our site is on the end of a row. In the end, this is awesome because it gives us a lot of privacy. But we are next to a fence that hides the workers' equipment and sheds. They work over there and we hear a lot of noise. My view is fairly blocked, but Scott can see straight over it because he's tall. Update: One day it was super noisy, but it hasn't been bad since.

Plusses of this KOA

• There is a hot tub. It is small and tucked into a kind of gross corner, but it exists. Two people were in it yesterday and it didn't look big enough to hold more politely. Update: it holds about 6–8 people. We've been in three times in 6 days, about any time we wanted. We have shared with at most 3 others, and they have been nice.
• Our site is located next to the showers, bathrooms, laundry, pool, and hot tub.
• As mentioned, our site actually gives us great privacy. We will never see neighbors on the main side of the site. The tent people are visible only looking out the window on the other side. We have two big trees at the back of the site with lots of foliage.
• Over the fence, we can see the Superstition Mountains.

Creepy hot tub. 

We lazed around until about noon. Then we headed over to Usery Mountain Regional Park. We had hiked here two years ago and loved it. And today, OMG we had such a fabulous hike! We started on the same trail, the Blevins Trail, which is a mostly gravel and sand path through hilly terrain filled with a variety of desert plants and sprinkled everywhere with saguaro. It's so gorgeous. We added the Cat's Peak Trail, which climbed to a beautiful view and went through similar terrain as Blevins, though the trail was more narrow. We got back to the parking lot and felt ready for more so we made another loop out of bits of the Noso, Blevins, Cat's Peak, Meridian, and Pass Mountain Trails. It was extremely pleasant, maybe our favorite hike. Total hiking time was about 2.5 hours and about 7.5 miles. 

We saw a lot of wildlife! Unfortunately, they all move quickly and it's hard to be sure exactly what you're seeing. We saw a number of rabbits, a lizard (I don't know what's out here but it looked like an anole), prairie dogs, prairie chickens or partridges, chipmunks, a hummingbird, a Gila woodpecker (I think), and a number of sparrow-sized birds with all different sorts of markings.

At our campsite we have routinely mourning doves, thrashers, cactus wrens, and some other birds I haven't identified yet.

We got out about 11 am and headed straight to Usery Mountain Regional Park again. We first hiked the Wind Cave trail, a narrow and steep climb to a cave. It's gorgeous the whole way and a good workout. It got a little scary for me in places, but not as bad as the last time we hiked it two years ago.  

Then we went and had a carb-filled and delicious lunch at Nandos, and then we went to some beautiful courts in Mesa and played tennis for an hour. It was a lot of fun. We got back to the campground and checked out the hot tub hopefully. No dice. It's packed with people who weren't going anywhere. Not much of an amenity if you can never get in it.

We woke early--6:30 am mountain time. We had coffee and exercised. At 9 the hot tub was open and empty, so we ran to the camper, got ready, and ran to the hot tub. A guy was stepping into it. We said "screw it, we're going anyway." He was nice, and once we were in the tub, we realized it's plenty big enough to hold 6 stranger couples. I wouldn't want to be the fifth and sixth person stepping into it, but it wouldn't bother me if a fifth and sixth person came in when we were already in it. Anywho, it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Later, another guy came in for about 15 minutes, also nice, and then the original guy's wife. They were from BC, Canada, and we had a nice chat with them. 

After hot tub, we headed back to Usery Mountain Regional Park! We hiked Pass Mountain Trail. It was AMAZING. It was 7.5 miles and it took us 4 hours. I logged 22,000 steps on my fitbit. The trail was 98% fun and 2% absurdly scary. The worst was at the peak of the trail; we had to cross what was basically an f-ing cliff face, slanted down toward the cliff below. One fellow jogged across it as I was on my butt gripping the sides with my nails. Another couple passed us and walked across like it was a sidewalk in the city. Scott wasn't afraid at all but I had to cross it on my hands and knees. I was terrified and felt nauseous.  After that, the trail was normal again for a bit, and then it got scary, narrow and on the edge of a steep, steep slope; plus, we were high up. The views were absolutely stunning. I wish I wasn't so afraid of heights, but so it is.

This is where I panicked. 

When we got back to the campground, we ate dinner outside! It was warm and sunny.

We sat outside today by the fire drinking our coffee. We took off at 9:30 to head back to the Mesa tennis courts. We played for an hour and had a lot of fun. Then we went to Walmart, came back to the KOA, and made a bee line for the hot tub. Only one other odd person was there, so it was super nice.

Next, we tried a new place to hike, Lost Dutchman State Park. It cost more to get in than Usery ($10 vs $7), and was okay. The views of the mountains were beautiful, the terrain was a little different so it was something new, and the first third of the path shot almost straight up the mountain so it was a good workout (which after Pass Mountain yesterday and tennis this morning, I didn't really need). The second third was super rocky and a chore to hike. The last third was a nice walking trail but the views were less amazing. Pleasant, but not stunning. I don't think we'll do this one again. We hiked the Treasure Loop to the Prospector's View to the Jacob's Cross Trail. The trails were not well marked at all but we didn't get lost until we came out into the wrong parking lot. Thank God Scott could figure out the map. I would have been lost and I was exhausted.

Then we went to Nando's. Again. It's so good.

Well, today we were quite exhausted, me especially. We exercised, Scott fixed a couple things, and we took a bike ride around the campground for about 15 minutes. Then I practiced for 2 hours and Scott watched a webinar. Then we went to the hot tub again!

We were planning on going over to Usery again and walking some easier paths for a couple hours, but then we didn't have enough time before Scott and Thomas were scheduled to watch a show together. In the end, I'm glad because my legs really really need a rest. They watched their show, and I read Citizen of the Galaxy.

We woke up with enough energy and strength to go hiking. We drank our coffee and exercised; then Scott fixed something else that fell off the camper and I did dishes. Then we did a half-hour hot tub and after that, we headed out to Usery again to do Pass Mountain Trail again!

It was an absolutely beautiful day. The temperature was perfect and there was a small breeze. The scenery was again stunning. The trail is challenging, with plenty of climbing and walking over rocks but often it's sand or pebbles and generally comfortable to walk. ​

I was still scared at the scary parts of the trail, but less so this time. I studied the death trap that the locals call "the saddle" before walking over it. It wasn't AS steep as I imagined the first time, and I realized I wouldn't die if I fell, though I would be covered in cactus barbs. I get scared up there because it's VERY high up and exposed. 

When we got back, we had another hot tub and then we ate our meatball dinner outside.

Our plan for this year's February trip was to get to warmth as quickly as possible. I mapped out various Cracker Barrel stops to three final weeklong destinations (Las Cruces, Phoenix, and Tucson), and then various Cracker Barrel stops to home. As per usual, the plan was adapted once we got going.

Then it was on to Bloomington to see our son. We arrived early enough to go for a long hike with him and then get dinner at the Cracker Barrel. We went back to his apartment, where he and his dad watched their show and I chilled. Like literally and figuratively because he keeps the temperature at like 55 degrees. Anywho. 

During the day, we could see the Organ Mountains.

You could see the view sitting at the table.

Right before we left, I said I wanted to get a propane fire pit. I'd been debating it a long time. On the one hand, I prefer a real fire a million times over, but on the other hand, you can't take enough wood for a monthlong trip or buy any good wood when you're traveling to make all the fires you'd want. My sister has had a propane pit for a while and I discovered I enjoyed sitting around it more than I thought I would. So we picked one up and we're both so pleased. You can fire it right up and it's quite enjoyable. It's not as nice as real, no question, but it's pretty nice. And it's always available, with instant and easy startup.

On our first day, we headed out to the Desert Peaks National Monument area in the Organ Moutains. We followed AllTrails looking for the Achenbach Trail, couldn't find it, and wound up at the Bar Canyon Trail. We hiked for about 2 hours. It was awesome!

Here are some pics from the day although I can't honestly say that these were all from this trail. I may have mixed some in from the next day.

The next day we went back to the same area, but this time we went on a bunch of trails that start with the Dripping Springs Trail and then make a big loop back to the starting point at the visitors' center. Dripping Springs ends at a tiny dribble of water coming out of the rocks, and there are 2 historical sites there as well. One is Van Patten's camp, which was a recreational resort for folks in the 1800s and early 1900s. Several buildings are still standing. The other is Boyd's sanitorium. Some of those buildings are standing, too, and they are creepy. The hike was beautiful.

​Next we took another trail, the Crawford Trail, which led to an offshoot trail, the Fillmore Canyon Trail. We went down that. I saw a mule deer on the way, but it was too fast for me and I didn't get a photo. The end of Fillmore was a bunch of huge tumbled rocks, many worn smooth and round by water that was not there now. It was bone dry. Very pretty.

​We came back out to the Crawford Trail and it soon turned into or onto La Cuerva (the cave) Trail. Indeed, there was a small cave along the trail. Then the trail led back to the visitors' center. Total hiking time was 3 hours. 

The Organ Mountains, according to some literature at the visitors' center, were formed by an upwelling of a shit-ton of magma into the sedimentary layers formed during the time the Southwest was a massive inland sea. This orogeny makes for loads of cool rocks. 

We used the morning to get some projects done. Scott put in a new clear window with a shade in the RV door to replace the frosted glass, he painted the tires so they look like whitewalls (like the original tires, but they blew and he bought better tires but no whitewalls), then he took apart our propane tubing and valves because we had a leak and all the propane was gone, and I worked on this blog writing about this vacation instead of living it. After that, we went hunting for propane replacement parts. First we went to the RV store. They had only the valve bit but not the hose. Then we went to Home Depot. They don't have propane stuff. Then we went to Griffin's propane. The guy who knows parts was out for a bit so we had to go away and come back. 

But we were close to super nice tennis courts! So we went and played tennis. It was fun but it was pretty windy, which did interfere quite a bit with the play. Hopefully we can play again there when it is not windy.

​Then we went back to Griffin's and the fellow helped Scott get the one hose off the part that needed replacing, then we went home and ate dinner. After that we had an hour of daylight left and we decided to go for a bike ride. We had spotted a nice bike path along the Rio Grande. So we went and did that. It was very pleasant. Cold, but a pleasant ride. The Rio Grande is not that wide here and it is bone dry. I googled and found out they divert the water with dams and levees this time of year and they'll start to release it when growing season begins. About a mile down the path, there was some water flowing into the river. There were a lot of birds hanging out there—geese, ducks, crows or ravens, and doves.

Day 4 we decided to hike City of Rocks. We were there two years ago on our Western trip and we really loved it. It was an hour and a half drive from our campsite, but we thought it would be worth it. It was. We hiked the Hydra Trail again, and the Table Top Trail. We hiked for 3 hours. The temperature alternated from needing a coat to not as we went through shade or sun. It was a beautiful day.

​City of Rocks is an igneous formation that has been eroded into pillars over the years. According to the display in the visitors' center, there were eruptions starting 35 million years ago and repeating periodically. There is a lot of pumice because lots of the eruptions went high in the air.

We had lunch at a picnic table near the visitors' center and then headed home. 

As soon as I sat down at the picnic table, birds started flying in. In all, three different species visited us. One flew right on to Scott's head! I thought it was a wood thrush, but after buying a guide to local birds later in the trip, I am pretty sure it's a cactus wren. Then we saw a bunch of black-throated sparrows, and finally, there was a thrasher of some sort, curved-billed, Bendire's, or Crissal's. There are 3 thrashers here, and I can't tell them apart. Also we saw a hawk or falcon soaring. It was big and beautiful.

There is a botanical garden at City of Rocks with little plaques in front of various species.

Some plants probably look a bit different when it's summer; I was curious about "Bird of Paradise" and found this picture on the web.

Our plan was to do the Pine Tree Trail on the other side of the Organ Mountains.. But it was rainy and chilly early in the day, so we decided to wait a bit before going. So, in the morning, we hung out at the camper. Scott was making an improvement to the bed and fixing the exercise band in his truck. I was working on this post, doing dishes, and exercising. Then we went to Walmart to pick up supplies. 

Then it was off to Pine Tree. Slushy snow was falling as we headed out of the KOA! As we got to about 20 minutes before the trailhead, the weather got bad. The snow was fairly heavy. Traffic on the highway slowed. Then we turned onto our turnoff with 15 minutes to go to get the the trailhead. There was a sign about watching out for bad weather and windy roads. I started to get nervous. About 2 miles up the road, the gate was pulled closed. There was a camp host station at that point and a couple of cars. A guy in a truck saw us arrive and came over. He was in an NPS truck, so not sure if he was a ranger or the camp host. He said he'd just closed the gate because a car had gotten stuck up the road, and he could not get to them because the road was so bad. He said we could park and hike the terrain or walk up the road.

We decided to walk up the road. It was slushy but tires had left tracks where we could walk snow free. The hike turned out to be exceptionally fun and beautiful. We never made it to the trailhead, but we walked 1 hour 20 minutes out and another 1 hour something back.  The landscape was lovely, with hills, mountains, various flora, and beautiful rocks tumbled onto hills and into canyons. 

When we were ready to turn around, we decided to hike up a small hill that promised a good view. On the way we saw a statue of Mary! Scott made another statue out of rocks. In the basin below, we could see White Sands Missile Range. It wasn't that exciting.

Reading the reviews of this trail, a couple people saw oryxes. These were brought in from the Serengeti decades ago and now they roam the area. I was hoping to see one, but alas, I did not. We did see cows. A couple, one a baby, even crossed the road in front of us.

When we got back, the setting sun was hitting the mountains and the dark clouds were above. It looked like they were on fire!

We had a great trip. I wish it could have been longer. We went to the Smoky Mountains, Pensacola, Galveston, San Antonio (twice), Big Bend National Park, and Hot Springs, with stops in Columbus, Atlanta, and Bloomington (Indiana) to see family.

This is the second time we stayed at this campground. We love it. It is wooded and well-maintained, the showers are amazing, and it's right next door to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Right behind our spot was the back of the campground and the entrance to a path leading to national park trailhead, 1/2 mile down the road. 

We had a fabulous hike, the same path we took the last time we were here. This time, temperatures were in the 60s. No snow on the trails!

We loved Fort Pickens! The campground was very nicely maintained with lots of trees. It is located on an island and is part of the Gulf Island National Seashore. On one side of the island was Pensacola Bay, and on the other was the Gulf of Mexico.

We hiked the beaches and the Blackbird Marsh Trail. A beautiful, white-sands beach surrounded the island, and through the center of the island there were old dunes covered with bushes and trees. Blackbird Marsh Trail runs through the island's center. There are newer dunes closer to the beach with short trails through those.

We saw an armadillo on the path!

We saw a huge snapping turtle, too, a huge heron, and lots of mockingbirds. 

We visited the fort and one of the hideous "batteries," which were structures for defense that housed guns and provided protection for soldiers.  There were about four spread over the island. The one we climbed up was the least hideous. The last one in the picture below was especially gruesome. We came upon it by accident on one of our walks. We needed to go past it to get to a beach path, and I could not look at it as we went by. Look at it! It's repulsive. Even the photo of it gives me the creeps.

It was a nice campground. Campers packed in as per usual for a KOA, and the campground was packed! But there were some palm trees around and nice grass. I liked our spot.

One warm day we stayed in the hot tub for a couple hours. I know they say "limit 30 minutes." But we didn't care and we didn't die. We did have a jolly good time. We chatted with a couple other campers who popped in and out. 

We hiked a couple times on the beach. The beach here was easier to walk on than the Pensacola beach, but I found it kind of boring. 

One cool thing we got to do is tour NASA Johnson. A friend's son works there and he gave us a personal tour! We were very lucky because he only got the request a day before we arrived but he made time for us, and he was transferring back to Ohio in just a month. He drove us around the base and took us into a couple cool buildings. One was where an enormous space holds loads of exact models of various International Space Station structures. People from different countries are working on them, testing things out. 

The other thing I loved was Mission Control. You go into a room overlooking the actual mission control where technical specialists are manning various stations while they are keeping an eye on the astronauts on the International Space Station. It's operational 24/7. There are large screens at the front of the room and the one in the middle was dark when we got there. But as we were watching, the space station was heading to the light side of the Earth and the ship came into view. It was a lot like being on the starship Enterprise.

My husband loved the models. There are some big ones when you drive in, one of the shuttle on top of an airplane, and one of the Space X rocket that transports astronauts to the space station. The other set of models he liked were these that showed comparisons to scale of different rockets through the years.

Here's a shot of everyone in the camper having a cozy time of it.

The White Ingrate got a little antsy on the drive. He loves to look out the window, but even when he could get close, he wouldn't sit still. So Scott made him this shelf and it worked really well, keeping him (the dog) content enough to tolerate.

We had a very nice campsite.

Right in front of our site was an entrance to a city path that ran miles and miles through  a number of city parks and out through fields and woods.

The campground was nice, with lots of trees. There was a pretty pond.

We walked along the city trail one day and rented bikes the next and went a lot farther. Both days were very bright, warm, and pleasant.

One day we went to Mission Concepción and then walked the River Walk. It was fun but very hot and we didn't bring water. Toward the end, I was spent and close to having heat stroke. But did I learn my lesson? No. Stay tuned for San Antonio #2.

We stayed at ​Marathon RV Park and Motel. It's pretty barren, but that's par for the course in this part of Texas from what I can tell. It was a nicely run, nicely maintained park. Here's our site.

We had planned on staying 5 nights, because it's like really far from home. But several things combined to compel us to leave after two nights.

First and foremost, it was cold. The first night it got into the teens. Hiking during the day was very pleasant, but part of the fun is hanging out at the site, too, and it was too cold for that. Plus, that's no fun at this type of campground.

Second, there was one bathroom. It was a very nice bathroom, but that's all there was and it housed the shower, too. But then on our second night, the park hosted a music festival. That is cool and all (though we stayed in our camper), but still there was just the one bathroom. The music festival was going to happen on the second night, too.

And third, the drive to hiking in Big Bend was over an hour. For some locations, it would have been closer to two. The drive was actually beautiful and it went by fast. But we had to leave the dog in the camper and including time for the hike, he would be have to be left alone for 5 to 8 hours. Five is pushing it, more is not possible. ​

So we hiked for one day. It was a splendid hike.

​We drove to the Chisos Basin Campground and walked the Window View Trail. It was spectacular. I was surprised by the number of other people on the trail.  The mountains are cool. They're volcanic.

The window view at the end of the trail.  There is a crazy person in this  photo. You can see his arms and head as he's getting a picture. Admittedly, it's a better picture, but not worth death in my book. Do you see those shiny, slick rocks you have to cross to get to this perch? He said it was less dangerous than it looked. But he's always saying that.

Here's the view you get when you risk your life.

As we were leaving the park, we stopped at another short trail and exhibit. Eocene-era horse-ancestor bones had been uncovered here and there was an exhibit dedicated to that, other fossils, and the geology of the area. It was interesting.

So we cut Marathon short and added three more days to the next San Antonio stop we had planned. I'm so glad we did. I still feel guilty leaving Big Bend with only one day in the park, but we had a blast in San Antonio the second time. And it was warm. Very warm. Upper 70s and low 80s. You can't beat that.

This time our site was next to the pond. The sites were close together, and while one large camper was on our right, no one ever came into the site on our left. We had a big space behind the camper where the dog had his area and we had our campfires overlooking the pond.

For the second hike, we started out on the same Joe Johnston Trail, but then we decided to make it a long hike and add some other trails (Cave Creek, Sendero Balcones, Overlook Trail). Looking at the map, I thought we were pushing it, but I guess I figured if we got tired, we could double back. 

Well, we did the whole thing but it was monumental. It turned out to be 11.6 miles. It would have been a challenge in any case, but stupid us, we didn't bring water. We were extremely thirsty when we got back to the visitors' center. OMG. But it was mostly shaded, and for that reason I think we are not dead or rescued by local law enforcement.

The next day we rented bikes at a nice little shop in San Antonio, Blue Star, and went for a long ride on the River Walk. The bikes were reasonable and very comfortable. This time we brought water. We had a terrific ride.

We drove in at night and couldn't see much. We were pleased when we woke up and saw the campground in daylight. It's a nice little campground. We were close to the bathrooms. No one took the site next to us and that's a bamboo patch behind us.

We had only one day and we drove to the trailhead for Hot Springs Mountain Trail in Hot Springs National Park. It was under 10 minutes from our campsite. The trailhead was in the campground, and that campground looked very nice. 

The hike was beautiful. A couple nice climbs and lots of beautiful woods. We saw plenty of other people on the trails. We hiked the Hot Springs Trail and the Peak Trail up to a fire tower. I don't like heights, but Scott really wanted to climb it. I agreed and we went inside to pay.

We had forgotten to bring money! So we finished the hike, went back to the car and got his wallet and my America the Beautiful pass, and started the trail again.