A slow time for us

From the top:

Fish Hook Barrel Cactus fruit

The upper Gila River (actually has water)

An interesting incline mountain

View east at 5,000 feet south of Globe

Our trailer lights

December 12, 2008
We did a little decorating at the front of the trailer this morning. It looks okay tonight when it was dark enough to turn on. The sky was mostly overcast all day but did come through with a sunset tonight. Showers are still forecast for the next week but nothing like the BC forecast. I’ll take this and be quiet. We took several walks around the park today separately and together. Mitzy will sleep well tonight.

Dec 13
We went to the clubhouse for breakfast this morning. We had pre ordered our own menu selection several days ago and breakfast was very good. We were surprised to awake to clear skies this morning but aren’t complaining. We took advantage of the weather by taking a drive to Globe then south west to Winkelman and on down to Oracle Junction returning to Florence via #79. Shortly after leaving Globe we went over a 5,000 foot pass. It was only 12C and the wind was just howling – brisk! We managed to find a side road out of the wind to have our lunch later after we dropped back down in elevation. I had heard something about Aravaipa Canyon so we drove the 9 mostly gravel miles up to the ranger station. It turns out that the canyon is off limits unless one has a valid permit as it is a restricted quota wilderness area and has been since 1972. Because it is one of the only areas in the desert that has dependable year round water, it has a large collection of rare wildlife and plants.

Dec 14
Boy did it rain in the night! We woke up at 4am and the rain was pounding on the roof. Aileen was pretty tired this morning so she went back to bed after breakfast and I woke her at noon. We kept a low profile most of the day. Mitzy and I went for a couple of long walks around this park and through the next park.

Dec 15
We only had a light shower today but the temperature only made it to 46F. That’s much better than many places. Bev and Kev flew in to Calgary last night from Mexico where it was +28C. This morning they awoke to -45C with the windchill! Salmon Arm reported -21C and much of Vancouver Island has snow. That puts things a little more into perspective for us. However, I do wish the sun would shine!

Pictures from the top:

Petroglyphs

Freeway overpass on the way into Phoenix

Florence yard lit up

The hiking group

Dec 8, 2008
We went to the Monday morning announcements up at the clubhouse which turned into a bit of a marathon; Aileen and Randy finally bailed out as they’d had enough. Later I took my laptop up to the clubhouse to get the blog online. Later still I took both laptops up and sent out our Annual Christmas letter to family and friends. I had to use Aileen’s laptop to look up the addresses as we left our email address book in storage. Then I found out I was still talking about Christmas in California when if fact we are staying here! Oh well.
At one point while I was out walking, I met Wendy near the mini golf so we had a bit of a game. We proved we aren’t golfers! I volunteered to cover our pool and hot tub up for this week and will probably do it until we leave. An old guy from Ontario has been doing it for the past week and was happy to relinquish the chore.
I was helping do dishes tonight when Randy came knocking to tell us about the sunset. The sky all around was coloured; a 360 degree sunset! After I took some shots of that from in front of the trailer, we four went into Florence to check out some lights an old guy was bragging about to me at the light parade the other night. It turns out he actually did have bragging rights. His yard was pretty full and bright.

Dec 9
Aileen played her first mini golf this morning with Wendy. She and I played a game after lunch and she got a hole in one on the second hole! Aileen said it was only 40F this morning when she went to the showers. There was a nasty wind all morning also. It was nice by 1 PM for awhile then the wind picked up again. Yuma and area had severe wind warnings this morning and north of there had dust storm warnings. There were also warnings for the east-west freeways warning of difficulty driving with high vehicles as the wind would tend to make straight driving difficult.

Dec 10
Beautiful clear skies all day but there was a tang in the air even at the warmest. I had to use my wind pants over my shorts this morning and evening when walking Mitzy. Aileen and Wendy went to the clubhouse this morning for a ladies clothing and watch sale. Prices were up to 50% off but they both returned empty handed. I think they enjoyed the looking though.
After lunch, Aileen and I drove Wendy and Randy into their hotel in Scottsdale. They get a free shuttle from there to the airport in the morning and will stay with Randy’s daughter in Vancouver tomorrow night. She’ll put them on the ferry Friday and then its back to work for Wendy until she can get more holidays in February. Aileen and I found some mincemeat in the second large store we tried. The other day Safeway in Coolidge had never heard of mincemeat they said and the WalMart Supercentre didn’t get any this year. We did more shopping later and Aileen also bought the ingredients to make mincemeat from scratch. I bought a bag of oranges off a truck here Monday so the peel will be the start for her. Most grocery items here are the same price as BC then there’s the huge hit with our dollar so they are close to 30% more expensive. Milk and eggs are a bit cheaper. However, we are saving big time on gas. I paid $1.559 US$ (US gallon) for regular today which would equate to about 54 cents Cdn$ per litre.
We were so late shopping that we had supper at a Wendy’s restaurant arriving home about 6:30. Aileen had an email from her friend Edna that she and Ray are coming to Yuma soon. Since we plan to go to Quatzsite via Yuma, we will try to get together. We went to the pool later tonight and had it all to ourselves as we expected. It was pretty quiet with just us. I guess all the locals who weren’t at Bingo or cards were glued to their TVs. Aileen helped me cover the pool when we finished. Our landlord has returned home so I’ll have to see him about staying longer and giving him more money. They had to fly home to Washington suddenly as his 94 year old mother in law had broken her wrist and needed to be moved to more care. They were gone 2 ½ weeks.

Dec 11
Mitzy had a thrill this morning on the way to the dog park before daylight. Aileen reports there was a dove sitting on the road trying to suck heat out of the pavement and it let Mitzy come up and nudge it. There were other doves along the road as well. We got up earlier than normal as I was going out with the hiking club. 11 guys and 9 ladies hiking today and we filled four vehicles. We drove north up #79 about 20 kms then turned east for another 7 on the dirt road. We parked at a ranch gate then walked as the route was up a wash (dry creek bed) and washed out road. We circled back down the wash and saw quite a large number of petroglyphs along there. Some were fairly distinct but others were pretty far gone. We left at 8 am and were home well before 11 am; that’s not a usual hike for me. It’s more likely to be 11 pm! Tonight we’re going to the clubhouse for supper to try chicken fried steak. I had it once before when we were stopped at a truck stop with Jordans last January. I had purchased tickets to the Christmas meal at the clubhouse but Aileen has now had an invitation to join some of the neighbours for supper instead, so I will have to return the tickets. The Dalgleish’s from Lac Le Jeune, near Kamloops are hosting.

Dancing and Sightseeing

Florence light

up parade.

A Harley Santa.




Salt River Canyon.

Randy &

Wendy.

Route 60 high country.

Four levels of highway Salt River Canyon.

Gila Woodpecker across the street.

He thinks he's a hummer!

On Thursday last we went to the Potato Bar which was the name for this week’s Hog Heaven up at the clubhouse. Supper consisted of a baked potato with every imaginable topping, done buffet style. There was a fairly good crowd for the meal. Friday evening after supper we went with Wendy and Randy into Florence to see the light up parade. We were amazed how many young children showed up for the festivities; there were hundreds. We’re so used to being among the youngest in here. We rushed back from the parade to go to the dance in the clubhouse which wasn’t as well attended as I expected. Less than 100, I would guess. The park isn’t half full yet, I think, with people arriving daily. I understand many of the residents don’t show up until after Christmas. The band was called 3 Wheel Drive and they played great country music. There was a definite slant towards Marty Robbins which they explained later. They have been the house band for the annual Marty Robbins festival for the past 15 years and have been playing together for something like 55 years! Wendy and I just about wrecked ourselves early on when they played a polka. We were the only ones doing a real polka though several other couples joined us on the floor. My calf muscles are still tender three days later! It was a lot of fun even though we had to forego our swim that night. The dance went an hour past RV midnight. RV midnight is 9 PM, I read somewhere the other day.

On Saturday morning Aileen and Wendy walked to one of the adjoining parks to their huge Winter craft fair. Actually they only walked home as one of the neighbours gave them a ride almost right away. They came home empty handed but enjoyed the looking. At 10:30 after they’d returned we decided to take our lunch and go to the Salt River Canyon which is north and east of here. I’d read somewhere about it awhile back and found my note on it recently, describing it as a downsized Grand Canyon but well worth the visit. It was! We gained quite a bit of elevation and found the temperature much cooler at lunch even though the sun was bright. We were nearly 6,000 feet at the highest point on the road. Route 60 is the only east – west route for quite a distance in central Arizona so they had no alternative but to engineer a road through the canyon. They did a good job too as 6% was the steepest grade. We had to retrace our steps home as any circle trip would have added many hours to the day. We made it home just before dark as it was. Route 60 passes several huge still operating open pit copper mines near Miami and Globe, AZ. Aileen was impressed with how close to town some of the operations were. As we entered Miami just before noon, there were hundreds of Harley’s marshalling for a toy run. I would have enjoyed staying just to see Santa riding in a two wheeled cart pulled by a Harley trike but we knew our time was short if we were to get to the canyon.

Another night, not sure which one now, we packed our food down to the recreation complex and used one of the gas barbeques to cook some shrimp Aileen had marinated. Yummy! Wendy made a potato salad as her contribution so we had a delicious supper. We’ll have to do that again. We’ve been missing our BBQ as we cooked several times a week on ours at home and we’ve yet to find a small one for traveling.

Sunday was cloudy and cooler with a nasty wind at times then rain overnight. Is anyone feeling sorry for us poor people? Oh well, it wasn’t enough to make me resort to long pants so as long as that’s as far as it goes we’ll suffer through. The sky cleared in the late afternoon and there was a nice sunset which I tried to do something with but suffered from a lack of suitable foreground again. The sun seems to be coming back this morning but it is cooler.

Time slipping away in Florence

Saguaro grove.

Mitzy says Hi.





Route 88.

Starting down Fish Creek hill.

A typical travel lunch scene.

Saguaro forest.

Apache Lake, below Roosevelt Dam.

Roosevelt Dam.

Bridge above Roosevelt Dam.

Roosevelt Lake.

Where do the days go? On Sunday we went to the music jam here in the park and danced to several of the songs. Sunday night was Mexican Train at Wendy & Randy’s; what a game. On Monday, we set the alarm and Aileen and I left here at 7:23 for a big loop trip. We went north to Apache Junction then took Route 88 east to the Roosevelt Dam. The first hour we made good time but the next 44 miles took us over 5 hours! We did stop and explore and take lots of pictures but the road was very rough necessitating slow driving with our hard riding truck. There was lots of washboard but the worst was all the erosion gouges across the road from the recent heavy rains. One of the highlights of the trip is the section known as Fish Creek hill which is mostly single lane and clings to the side of the mountain as it descends. Those not used to such roads find it a little uncomfortable (or terrifying) but it’s really safe enough if caution is exercised. The hill down to Bella Coola is a super highway by comparison! There were also some fine stands of Saguaro Cactus which necessitated a walk uphill to capture some images. Roosevelt Dam was built in 1911 as the world’s largest masonry arch dam and was constructed of locally cut stone. It was added onto in the 1990’s and made 70 feet higher. This dam is what made it possible for Phoenix to grow into the city it has become by providing a stable water supply. After leaving the dam we had to increase our pace to get home for supper arriving back in Florence after 5:30. It was all good paved road after the dam. Suffering from all the bumps, Aileen was in bed asleep by 6:30.
Monday was a rest day for us as was Tuesday for the most part. I went into Florence in the morning looking for a few things but was unsuccessful. I did spend quite awhile prowling around the True Value Hardware store which is a step back in time. They’re modern and up to date but also are like the old fashioned stores in that they carry most things required for farming and ranching that were common years ago. They are located in an old building which has its own uniqueness. On Tuesday afternoon I drove to Casa Grande to get the truck serviced and the tires rotated. No one around here had the machine to recalibrate the tire pressure monitoring system that I’m stuck with on the truck which meant I had to find a GM dealer.
We still pack our computers over to the club house most mornings to get online but was surprised to get a good enough signal here in the trailer this morning. That was a bonus. However, I found that the signal wasn’t strong enough to upload pictures to the blog so I will have to wander over there to get this posted. We played Mexican Train again last night at W&R’s then went to the pool afterward. We’re still enjoying having our own pool and hot tub! There are four pools scattered through the park.

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Exploring and sitting out the rain

Here's Aileen waving to Santa. Wendy & Randy beside her.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Spud the clown.

Lady clowns.

Pencil Cholla. Might be Christmas Cholla.

After the rain.

Purple Cholla.

Morning light.

On Wednesday we had 1/4 inch of rain and Thursday gave us another ½ inch. That’s quite a bit considering they only get 7-8 inches per year in this area. It’s amazing what happens to all the water as it doesn’t just sink into the ground but instantly becomes a roaring torrent. That’s how they get flashfloods in a hurry. The streets in the park slope to the centre and there’s quite a river runs down it. Surface drainage must be taken into account very early in the planning process when property is developed. Out in the desert, the roads get damaged a lot in these rains. I guess because the rain is so infrequent they don’t worry about it and just send a grader out to repair the damage. That’s one thing about this whole area; it’s all sand or gravel so the material is always there to smooth over. Every little gully has its flow of water and they keep joining others and increasing in size. Some of the washes (that’s what they call these temporary creeks) can get to be 80 – 100 feet wide and move a lot of water.
We drove the Florence-Kelvin Rd on Thursday and some of the washes were still muddy and a little tricky. When we drove north from Kelvin we passed the Ray Copper Mine which is huge. We drove along it for several miles; it’s amazing how much rock they have moved over the years. We drove through the old town of Superior at the junction where we turned west and it is in serious trouble. Over half the stores and offices are empty. It was a fairly substantial town in its time but now with the better roads is only 30-40 minutes from greater Phoenix shopping.
We had to be home in good time as we’d bought tickets for the Thanksgiving supper. 336 people were fed buffet style in nine minutes! The lady announcing said we’d all be fed and seated in less than 12 minutes and we’d said “yeah, right”! It was a very good feed but lots of people’s blood sugar got pretty elevated. After supper a professional couple did a musical skit on the 1940’s which had the guy going to war and the girl working for the war effort and finally their reunion. Their singing was excellent.
On Friday (Nov 28) we drove south of Florence and took the 96 Ranch Rd. The washboard for the first few miles was incredible! The sun had come out and we expected a warmer day but the clouds came back and the temps dropped down as low as 11C mid afternoon. The 96 Ranch was so called because they owned 96 sections of land. That’s 61,440 acres. The buildings were all abandoned and the road wasn’t much better. Some of it in the hills was bare granite shelves to drive on and there has been no maintenance on it for years. Some spots were washed badly and the brush was growing in on the sides. After passing through the 96 Hills and back into the desert on the east side we encountered some nasty mud holes. I was surprised to watch a guy with an old Suburban and a telescopic travel trailer blast through it after I’d clawed through in four wheel drive. Guess he was used to such things. We joined the Barkerville road and looked for the old community of Barkerville but found no sign of it at all. We took the Freeman Rd back west to #79 and home to Florence.
This morning we went with Wendy & Randy to the Florence Parada which I guess is Spanish for parade. It was a pretty good parade done fairly leisurely. The weather was sunny but not too warm, so perfect for both participants and spectators. After lunch we took a drive about 20 miles toward Phoenix to do some shopping. We still visit the pool and hot tub every evening after supper which makes a pretty nice end to the day. It is supposed to be sunny for the next several days and I hope they’re right.

Made it to Florence, AZ

Millet ready to harvest.

Wendy & Randy's trailer and palm tree from our site.

Our site taken from Wendy & Randy's.

A field of cotton ready for harvest.

Cotton balls bursting.

We arrived in Florence and found our way to Wendy & Randy’s before lunch. Randy had just ridden his bike out to the gate and saw us drive by so when I pulled over to try and decide which driveway to use and phoned him, he was able to say that he was looking at me. We parked in the clubhouse lot for the afternoon then were able to rent a vacant lot across and one up from them. It’s $90 per week utilities included. We went to the pool and hot tub last night and tonight. Today we went to a huge flea market south of Coolidge which was great for people watching. There was a huge crowd and we managed to leave with nothing other than the few pictures I snapped.
When we were driving here yesterday, I managed to find wide spot to park and take some pictures of cotton ready for harvest. Today Randy was able to drive in a side road to allow me some shots of millet which is also ready for harvest. We stopped at an old style restaurant in Coolidge called Tab’s and had a delicious breakfast for lunch. Following that we went to Safeway to restock the cupboards which were getting bare. Prices and selection in most of the small towns are not great. As soon as the groceries were put away, we went to the small clubhouse to listen to the regular Sunday music jam. Some of it wasn’t all that good but others definitely were. We four actually danced quite a few, joined a couple times by an old couple and later one old girl joined Aileen and I when the group did a rock and roll song.
Nov 24
We four took a drive into Mesa/Greater Phoenix after lunch and were unable to get the air card to work there either. The ball is definitely going to be in Telus’ court as either they have no service or the card is defective. We’ll be going to the pool and hot tub in a few minutes. This is a fun time of day; the pool is warm and the hot tub delightful. The weather is going downhill on us though. The next five days are possible showers or thunder showers. Temperatures will be dropping down into the 60’s for highs. Oh, poor me!