Inside Passage!

Mackenzie was recently surfing Craigslist and found a posting from a Port Angeles couple looking for companions to cruise the Inside Passage with them from their home to Ketchikan on their 60-foot boat. We were intrigued enough to schedule a meeting with them last week as we passed through Port Angeles on our new RV check-out tour, but labor pains related to their newly arriving grandchild interfered. We did, however, get to tour their boat while there, as we mentioned in the earlier post. (We mysteriously left out why.) We joined them last night at Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor to meet each other and discuss the possibility. They’ve been doing this for 15 years on their 37-foot boat, and last year bought this 60-foot boat in Alaska and brought it back to Port Angeles. He has his Coast Guard Skipper’s license, is a licensed diesel mechanic and a general jack-of-all-trades, and she’s a teacher. He’s retired from many careers, including an Alaskan fishing guide for many summers. Their boat, “Gold Rush”, is a 1981 fiberglass Enterprise. The plan is we’ll drive to Port Angeles next Sunday, August 2. We’ll go through Canadian customs at South Pender Island, stop for provisions on Salt Spring Island then head north. We plan to take 9 days to cruise the distance with about 5 hours of cruising daily. Along the way we’ll fish for salmon and halibut, stop at hot springs for a soak, kayak (we’re taking our kayaks with us), and drop crab and shrimp pots to catch our own dinner. We’ll make reservations to fly home from Ketchikan Thursday morning, August 13th. Greg and Terry are nice folks with adventurous spirits and mellow personalities. We told them we’ll want a bit of time most days to read a book, take a nap, have some “separate” time, and they completely agree. We’ll post entries periodically while on this trip, as they tell us we should be able to find internet a few times along the way. So, off to the next big adventure!

Thank You Teddy (& the squire from Hyde Park)

In 1908, one hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt designated 1442 square miles of the Olympic Peninsula as a protected area. 30 years later Franklin Roosevelt upgraded the designation to that of a National Park. Teddy, during his Presidency, preserved enough land in national forests, parks, landmarks and other designations to cover all of the east coast states from Maine to Virginia, plus Vermont, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Land he preserved includes what would become the Grand Canyon, Olympic and Grand Teton national parks. We just returned from a tour of the periphery of the Olympic National Park, where the roads that allow us access to places have amazing names like “the Hoh”, Shi-Shi, Elwha, Sol Duc, Hurricane Ridge, Hama Hama, Duckabush, and Staircase. It’s clear that there aren’t the same opportunities to leave geographic legacies like this for our generation, but don’t you think that maybe there is something we could do that might have equally large benefits to future generations? Perhaps we should remind our elected officials that the current debate over climate change and “cap and trade” legislation could be thought of from this perspective?

A Successful Shake-Down Trip

We spent Tuesday on the Washington coast, walking Rialto Beach in the morning with Bob taking photos and Cathryn collecting rocks along the way, then hiked out to Second Beach in the afternoon. Between our morning run and two beach walks, we did 10 miles today. It was cloudy and cooler than Monday, more typical of the beach. Wednesday we moved on to Heart O’ The Hills Campground just outside of Port Angeles, up the road toward Hurricane Ridge. Among other activities, we toured the 60’ motor vessel “Gold Rush”, pictured above. “Gold Rush” may play a role in an upcoming trip for us next week. Perhaps we’ll write more on this later. Thursday we moved to Staircase campground near Hoodsport on lower Hood Canal. We were joined by our friend and neighbor Hobie Denny in his VW Westphalia. Hobie led us on a lovely 5-mile hike along the Skokomish River. Following dinner together outside, we sat around a campfire, talked and had wine, altogether a beautiful day. Friday morning we packed up and headed home, having completed our shake-down cruise. All in all, a very success venture. We’re happy with our choice of the Arctic Fox and were able to try out most of its’ systems (we never had power hook-ups on this trip, so microwave, oven and air conditioner will have to be tested some other time). But the solar panel did a great job of keeping our batteries charged even in cloudy weather without our having to skimp on using inside lights and various small appliances. We even successfully completed a first trip to a “dump station”, an activity we approached with much trepidation. It actually was neither difficult nor distasteful, although we don’t think we’ll ever fight over who gets the privilege of completing this task.

Our first Camp

Our First Camp We pulled into Mora Campground around 2:30 and picked a pull-through site with lots of privacy. The process of setting up went very well; it’s actually quite a bit easier and quicker than the Chalet was. We spent the afternoon walking on the beach at the town of La Push 5 miles away. The air temp was 67 degrees, 15 degrees cooler than further inland. However, to our surprise the sun was actually out on the Washington coast, which is almost unheard of! We had a nice dinner then sat by the fire reading books and having a glass of wine, then retired to bed. Happy to report that we slept well in our new bed. This morning we went for a run, then came back and SHOWERED in our own bathroom, about which Cathryn is ecstatic! It’s only been 24 hours, but it feels like we’ve accomplished our goals in terms of our new accommodations. For those of you who suffered through all the Baja posts we made regarding the “mechanics of life”, we may be able to move on to other topics; we’ll sure try. But the three things that led us to sell the Chalet and move to the Artic Fox (a bathroom, a bed that is easier to get into and out of – especially for Cathryn who had to climb over Bob in the middle of the night at times – and a bed that is easy to make without having to completely re-make it daily) have clearly been completely satisfied with the Fox.

Shake Down Cruise

We left Olalla Monday morning to take a four-night Olympic Peninsula shake-down cruise in the new 5th wheel “Arctic Fox”. The plan is to spend two nights at Mora campground near Rialto Beach, one night on the Elwha near Port Angeles and the final night at Staircase near Hoodsport, all of which are in Olympic National Park. Monday we drove about 225 miles, and the 5th wheel handled very well, however we have verified that moving a “house” is not the key to good gas mileage! We got about 10 miles per gallon on this first leg. The brake controller for the trailer (the mechanism that applies braking to the trailer whenever the brake pedal in the pickup truck is applied) didn’t seem to be working properly, so Bob called the 1-800 phone number for Prodigy and a tech named Dan diagnosed the problem in about 2 minutes. Sumner RV had used the wrong wiring harness when they installed it. They had obviously also failed to test its proper operation! Dan was able to give us the name, address and telephone number of a Prodigy dealer in Port Angeles, about 10 blocks away from where we were parked next to the road when we made the call. We called them and they told us to come on in, and they would take a look, which we did just as we ended the phone call! About 10 minutes after we pulled into Mobuilt RV, the tech came out, moved a wire to the proper location, and off we went! Nice to have our first on-road problem so easily solved.

We've Been Remiss

Since getting home at the end of March we've been remiss about keeping our Blog up to date. In part because we were not sure what, if anything, we wanted to do with it on an ongoing basis. We’ve decided to keep going with it, since it served a useful role easing the process of keeping our friends and family informed about our location and well-being last winter. Since we plan to be gone even longer this year, we think it can play that role on an ongoing basis. As a result we've decided to post a series of postdated entries that essentially bring the Blog up to date on some major happenings over the last three months, with emphasis on the things we've been doing to make next year's travels even better. We promise not to let anymore large gaps occur, although we do not intend to try for daily posts as we did while we were in Mexico. Until we leave in the fall we will probably only post “significant” events, since our daily lives, while pleasant enough, don’t deserve memorialization! Given the more periodic nature of our posts you may wish to take advantage the feature on the blog where you can sign up for email notifications of a new post. Bob also intends to make some changes to the blog and try out a few new things, so don’t be surprised if you see some features come and go over the next couple of months. If you know of any good sources of blog tutorials, let him know. The updates are posted in the normal blog fashion: latest first, so you have to go back to the April post to begin the update.

Crab Season

We've been having a good crab season this year. This week we caught 7 on Thursday and 4 more on Saturday, including one big guy which was 8 1/2 inches across. We found a new site about half a mile north of us at Anderson Point that has been very productive. Thursday night we had a crab feed for 5 and are starting to freeze the leftovers. We feel so lucky to live where we do.

Our Arctic Fox is Delivered!

Last week we got a call from Sumner RV informing us our Arctic Fox is here! We'd been told when we ordered it that the delivery was scheduled by the manufacturer, Northwood of La Grande, Oregon, for August but that they often deliver early. But we never expected this early. On Wednesday we went to pick up the new 5th wheeler, and after a two-hour orientation, most of which we will probably not remember, we were ready to hit the road. On the way home we stopped at the YMCA in Gig Harbor, where they recently expanded the parking lot, so have lots of empty room to drive around, and spent half an hour practicing maneuvers and backing the trailer around corners. We then drove home to Prospect Point where we're going to store the trailer at our friend Hobie’s. It took us over an hour to get it into the parking spot which involved two 90-degree turns in short order. Without going into details, let’s just describe it as a “learning experience”for which our practice in a big empty lot did not prepare us for close quarter maneuvering. But we've dug out an old set of walky talky's to minimize the noise pollution we produce in these situations.

4 of July

We went to the Tacoma waterfront last night on George and Josi's boat for the fireworks. We had perfect weather for spending the evening on the water, and it was still 65 degrees when we got back to the dock at 11:30 PM. As you might imagine, the cruise back to Gig Harbor was a little wild with literally hundreds of boats moving in the dark at the same time - not all of them perhaps crewed by folks with all of their faculties. As you can see, the movement of the boat produced some interesting effects. Here is a link to the complete set of photo's . http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=BobWhite1&target=ALBUM&id=5355039336027506257&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfevpeGze3MTw&feat=email

South Sound Tour

June has been unbelievable: the sunshine never seems to quit. We had 29 days straight with no rain. As another week of forecasted sunshine began, we packed up the boat with our gear, and added Jim and Phebe and their camping gear. Monday we cruised through the Tacoma Narrows to the south end of Hartstine Island, then up the west side of Hartstine to Jarrell Cove State Park. Jim and Phebe pitched their tent just up the hill from the dock in a spot with a great view, and we relaxed in the boat reading before heading out for an afternoon stroll. We spent our first night here cooking on the camp stove before retiring early. Tuesday morning we cruised up to Fair Harbor across from Treasure Island where we fueled up then went to the middle of Case Inlet where we floated, relaxing in the sun and eating lunch. After lunch we cruised around the Key Peninsula until we reached Lakebay and Penrose State Park. That afternoon we took another stroll followed by a nap on the beach for Jim and Phebe, and on the boat for Bob – Cathryn was the wakeful one – she read a book. Wednesday morning after a leisurely breakfast and the trip home, we arrived around 2 PM. It’s time for the women to get ready for book group.

Dinner and an Overnight in Seattle

We had dinner with Ryan and Jaime at their place last night – our first meal in their home. Jaime spent a good part of the day preparing an oxtail and vegetable sauce, served over pasta – fabulous! The weather was so good yesterday we decided to take the boat there from our place and stay overnight at Bell Harbor Marina. It was a 45 minute trip from our buoy to the dock at Pier 66. The next morning, another beautiful day, we went for a run at Myrtle Edwards Park. After our run and a shower we went off to Pike Place Market to do some shopping and meet Mackenzie for lunch, humbows and lemonade on the grass at Victor Steinbrueck Park. About 2PM we piled into the boat and headed home. This is the kind of spontaneous activity that makes being retired in the Northwest so much fun.

The Chalet Leaves For Alaska - Without Us

With some nostalgia, we put a For Sale listing on Craigslist for the Chalet. For the first week we had a few contacts and lookers, but nothing very serious. Then one day we got an email from a woman saying she was very interested in the Chalet and asking us to call a 907 area code. About an hour later we got an email from the other half of this couple with some specific questions about the Chalet and repeating the request that we call. We looked up the area code and it turned out to be in Alaska! We made the call and thus began a weeklong series of calls in which we discussed the Chalet’s features and condition, possible trips by the buyers to come and inspect the Chalet, the locations of ports that they might use to ship the Chalet out of Washington and how we might get it there. As it turned out, we ended up with a good enough rapport and level of trust that they just wired us the money, and we took the Chalet to the Port of Tacoma the same day and put it on the ship leaving the next day to Anchorage. Quite the experience!

We Found It

After lots of looking online and visiting a number of dealers on “RV Row” along I-5 in Tacoma, we ended up at Sumner RV. We were soon focused on an Arctic Fox 21R 5th wheel as best meeting our criteria. We were ready to deal, but Cathryn had one condition she needed met before we could cut the deal: She wanted to take it on a test drive! Darrell, our salesman, seemed to think this was a little unusual but said; “OK, what sort of truck to you have to haul it?" At which point we said; "well, we don't have a truck.” This presented a bit of a problem but eventually Darrell arranged to use the owner’s truck for a test haul the next morning. So, Sunday morning we showed up at 8AM, but found out the hitch didn’t work, so we wondered how to deal with that, given that we had an appointment later that morning in Seattle, so we couldn't dally a long time. Luckily a woman who was delivering a new trailer to Sumner RV from the manufacturer showed up, and upon learning of our conundrum offered to let us use her truck! A few minutes later, we hooked up and Cathryn and this woman took off on a test drive and free “tutorial” on how to drive a 5th wheel, what a great deal! Half an hour later Cathryn showed up and declared, “I can do this”. We arranged to come back that afternoon to close the deal! When we did, we learned that because of the options we want, the trailer will need to be built for us, and will probably not be ready until August. While we're a little disappointed, it’s not a big deal since we like to spend the nice summer months at home on Colvos Passage and out on the boat. An August delivery will still allow time for us to take a few short trips before we leave for the winter, to become familiar with our new home away from home, and work out any bugs that might exist in the new equipment.

OK, Now What

So it’s time to figure out how to satisfy part one of our plan for 2009/2010: “1) A rig that had a toilet, shower, and a north-south bed that could be made up easily.” It’s time to go shopping! Cathryn knew early on during our trip that a bathroom was importantto her, so she had used her skills to get herself (and me, when she found one with interesting features) inside a lot of rigs while we were in Baja. Based on this, and conversations with people about the pros and cons of motor homes, 5th wheels and travel trailers, we decided that a small 5th wheel was right for what we wanted and where we planned to go. So off we go for visits to RV dealers. We expected to have to deal with lots of salesmen who would pull all the “used car salesman” tricks on us. Interestingly it was a pretty good experience. The prices and discounts where all freely offered and the salesmen tended to give us a quick orientation of their inventory and then send us on our way, saying, “Let me know if I can answer any questions”.

Reflections On Our Road Trip

For those who read our blog during our trip to Baja and the Southwest last winter you know we enjoyed it tremendously. You may recall that the purchase of the Chalet last spring and the winter trip to Baja were officially regarded as experiments. Would we like traveling for such an extended time? Could we stand each other for that long, living in 72 square feet? The answer to those questions was unambiguously yes. In fact we spent many hours of the trip home asking ourselves: OK, this is great, but what would we do differently if we were to do it again? We came up with three basic changes we would want to make for the trip for the winter of 2009/2010. 1) A rig that had a toilet, shower, and a north-south bed that could be made up easily. 2) A plan that allowed us to be both gone longer and home for the holidays with our friends and family. 3) We want to reduce the number of days where we moved, so we can do more exploring in each area and to get a better feel for the communities we are visiting. We also hoped this would provide the potential for friends and family to come and visit us. So we arrived home at the end of March and began to figure out how to do that. We will describe how we addressed this plan in a series of posts. (The photo is from Playa Requeson, one of our favorite beaches, located south of Mulege, but the one place on the trip where we literally needed to take a shovel with us on our morning constitutional – and there were only a few small bushes and no trees. It’s included here as an example of why we think having our own facilities is important).

I-5 Daze

Nothing of great note to report, so will only say that we drove 4 hours Wednesday evening after dropping Adrienne off at the Las Vegas airport, 10 hours yesterday, and spent last night in Yreka, CA not far south of the Oregon border. Today we will push the rest of the way home, expecting to arrive in the evening. Cathryn’s parents graciously offered to go to our house this morning and turn up the heat, and we’ll be happy to return to our own bed, kitchen and bathroom. It has been a fabulous journey for us, and for those of you who participated in person (we saw you along the way), as well as those who “participated” by reading about it here on our blog, we hope you enjoyed it too. Hope to see you soon!

Heading Home

After we drop Adrienne off at the airport Wednesday afternoon we are going to be "on our way back to the barn". So you may not get any blog updates until we are back in Olalla. The trips been great, but we are ready to be back home! ETA is Sunday night.

Shoshone, California (near Death Valley)

N 35* 58.775 W 116* 16.301 This morning we drove 225 miles from Joshua Tree to Shoshone, California, just southeast of the entrance into Death Valley National Park. After unhooking the trailer, and a run for Cathryn and Adrienne (Bob doesn’t do afternoon runs) and showers for everybody, we took a short trip through lots of geology. Shoshone is at about 1700 feet. To get to Death Valley, you drive up to 3300 feet and then down to minus 74 feet in Death Valley, all within 24 miles (half an hour). We really didn’t have time this afternoon to see much of the valley but we did want to at least get an impression before we venture out tomorrow. And what an impression it was! Stark, varied, layered, subtly colorful and desolate. Wea look forward to our survey tour of Death Valley tomorrow. We only have about 6 hours to check out Death Valley and we suspect that will be enough for a “windshield tour”, but the finer details will have to wait for another visit. We need to leave here by 2 or 2:30 tomorrow in time to drop off Adrienne at the Las Vegas airport for her return to Boulder. The visit with Adrienne has been great, but too short! Yesterday afternoon we took two short hikes in Joshua Tree National Park: Barker Dam and Hidden Valley. They were beautiful, but we were probably on “rock overload” by this point, so we need to make another trip to really capture these locations. There were lots of climbers hanging from ropes, installing protection and climbing in cracks: what fun – but not activities Cathryn and Bob will be engaging in at this stage of life. This evening before dinner we had Adrienne playing Doctor, taking out stitches from Cathryn’s chin. The operation went well and everyone felt good about being able to do it without a visit to a Doc-In-The-Box in Las Vegas.

Mechanics of Life Part 7

In addition to our two hikes this afternoon (described above) we also had a new experience with the Chalet. While at Joshua Tree National Park, in Jumbo Rock campground, we have been without shower facilities, only toilets. Bob and Adrienne complained repeatedly about the inability to perform daily ablutions, so we decided to try it out in the sink inside the Chalet. We heated up some water with our Chalet’s hot water heater, then Cathryn washed Adrienne’s hair, then Bob’s hair, over the sink! We were all surprised by how well it went: using very little water, taking very little time, and ending with a very satisfactory result! Bob and Adrienne also took “sponge baths” in the Chalet and described the result as very good. It was cold and windy outside, so our usual “tent shower” was not a happy option. We learned that with a flexible attitude about how to get it all done, the Chalet continues to serve us very well!

Hike: Lost Horse Mine

We woke up this morning to sunshine and 33 degrees, with the wind still blowing. Adrienne joined us in the Chalet around 6:30 and we continued last night’s inside huddle, drinking coffee and tea and talking. Bob and Cathryn felt the night had been mighty chilly, but Adrienne said she was warm and toasty in the sleeping bag and tent! We decided it was too cold and windy for a run, in addition to the fact the restrooms here do not include showers, only toilets, and it’s too windy to set up the shower tent. Around 8:30 we packed up and left for our morning hike. We drove 10 miles to the trailhead for the Lost Horse Mine. The trail was 4 miles round trip, with only 500 feet of elevation gain through high desert landscape. The scenery, including many Joshua Trees, which is a humongous and distant relative of the lily family, was very pretty, if austere. We were a bit disappointed to find the mine itself surrounded by an eight-foot chain link fence which made photography difficult, but it was fun nonetheless. We returned to camp about noon for lunch and will leave shortly for town to pick up a few groceries and hopefully post to the blog. Then this afternoon we have a couple more short hikes planned. Tomorrow morning we’ll pack up and head for Death Valley about 225 miles to the north, northeast. Adrienne seems to be enjoying her time away from school, and we are enjoying our last days of sunshine before returning to the Pacific Northwest.

Jumbo Rocks Campround, Joshua Tree National Park

N33*59.521 W116*03.670 On the way out of Las Vegas, we drove “The Strip” twice looking for a Starbucks as the coffee and continental breakfast offered at our hotel were too awful to partake. Bob and Cathryn felt significant culture shock, despite having been back in the U.S. for almost two weeks. The “bling” and “wow!” factor were hard to absorb. The Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and London Bridge replicas, along with Trump Tower and gold-clad skyscrapers were astonishing! None of us had ever before been to Las Vegas, so this was a new experience. We left town and headed west to Joshua Tree National Park in California. The terrain between Las Vegas and Joshua Tree was somewhat interesting, but mostly we were astonished by the strong wind and swirling dust. Winds were running 25-30 mph steadily, with gusts to 60 mph, we were told on arrival at the Joshua Tree Visitor’s Center. We made our way to Jumbo Rocks Campground, set up the Chalet, and headed out for a hike to Skull Rock. The granite rock here is spectacular, and Cathryn was repeatedly amused watching how much alike Bob and Adrienne were in their pursuit of fabulous photographs. She took photos of the two of them taking photos of the rocks! After our hike, we returned to our campsite to set up Adrienne’s tent (on loan from Mackenzie and Matt, the one they used in Arizona and got as a wedding present from Jim and Phebe). The wind made the temps in the low 60s feel positively freezing, so we huddled inside the Chalet for a bit, then Bob and Adrienne returned to the rocks to take photos at dusk, as the light made the scenery so much more picturesque. Dinner in the Chalet, then the three of us read our respective books until bedtime.

Back In Baja?

Today was as expected. We went for a run, broke camp, and headed northwest to Las Vegas. We got held up briefly at the Military Check-point near Hoover Dam (staffed by the Arizona State Patrol), where they were checking for explosives. They required we open our Chalet for inspection, and we felt a bit of déjà vous, as if we were back in Baja at the frequent military checkpoints there. The traffic jam through Hoover Dam took 30 minutes to clear, and we must admit it appears to be an engineering marvel, and if we had more time, we might have chosen to take a tour. Arriving in Las Vegas, we checked into our hotel, did laundry and grocery shopping, then killed time until we got a call from Adrienne at 11:00 pm saying she’d arrived at the airport, one mile away. After collecting her, we returned to the hotel and went straight to bed. Friday, March 20, 2009

The "Painted Desert" of Sedona is Real

The Red Rock monoliths, as they are called, surrounding Sedona are spectacular! There must be 20 shades of red, orange, pink and tan, all so picturesque it makes you think they must have really been “painted” as limestone and sandstone have never looked so vibrantly colored, except in Bryce Canyon, Utah which has similar hues. Today we took a hike to Brin’s Mesa. The trailhead is not far from town, and winds its way through the Coconino National Forest filled with ponderosa pine trees that are a brilliant shade of green in this sunshine and thin, dry air (4500’ at the trailhead). From the top of the mesa, views extended in all directions to nearby and far-away red rock formations, of which Bob took many photos, and you’ll see a couple included. Though the morning started out chilly again (42), by the time we reached the mesa it was 80 degrees with a light breeze. We had lunch at the top, then headed back down. We drove to the Oak Creek Canyon north of town and had a beer on the shore of the creek at Encinoso, where Cathryn dozed off for 20 minutes while Bob read the New York Times, which is much easier to find in Arizona than it was in Baja (not at all!) We do not plan to post anything to the blog tomorrow, as the day will be filled with “mechanics of life”, a topic we’ve thoroughly discussed in previous posts. However, we’ll be breaking camp here, driving to Las Vegas, and picking up Adrienne at the airport just before midnight, as she’s arriving to spend her spring break from the University of Colorado with us. It looks like about a 6-hour drive, and because of Adrienne’s late arrival, we’ve booked a room in an airport hotel so we won’t need to bother driving a long way back to a campground, setting up a tent for Adrienne, then breaking it all down early the next morning. Sunday morning we’ll cross the border into California and head for Joshua Tree National Park for a couple of days. Cathryn’s chin is recovering nicely and is hardly bothering her at all. Adrienne says if we can’t find a convenient Urgent Care Clinic next week, she’ll remove the stitches for Cathryn on Wednesday!

Slow Day in Sedona, AZ

After a quiet night at our campsite on the river, we awoke to 40 degrees this morning. Bob went for a run, then we headed into Sedona to wander around town for awhile. Beyond the spectacular Red Rock scenery surrounding the town, downtown Sedona is filled mostly with restaurants and shops featuring fairly tacky t-shirts, dust-catchers and cheap art, but just south of town is a village called Tlaquepaque that has several dozen galleries and shops featuring lovely items. We wandered around for a couple hours seeing many items we liked, but many of which were out of our price range, and eventually purchased two framed photographs, then had lunch at a grill in the village. Cathryn was ready for a nap, so after collecting information from the Forest Service office regarding local hikes (which only confirmed the location of hikes Hobie had already recommended) we headed back to the campground for a few hours so Bob could read a good book in the sun while Cathryn napped then did some email and newspaper reading online. It hit 85 degrees this afternoon. We did a short walk to Cathedral Rock Crossing this afternoon.

We plan to do more of a hike tomorrow and hope to post some interesting photos afterward.

Leading With Her Chin

N34*43.426 W111*59.477 Elevation 3266’ Turns out we should have ended our visit with George and Josi at their townhouse in Mesa, AZ as soon as we got up this morning. We’d had a fabulous dinner last night, eaten outside on the patio in the warm evening air: fish tacos made from seared tuna with mango-avocado salsa, and plantain chips sautéed in olive oil and parsley, along with black beans for dinner, accompanied by wine and after-dinner port. However, we started our day with a quiet cup of coffee with George and Josi, then headed out for our run thinking we would get a relaxed start to the day. This plan began just fine: the weather was clear, blue sky, about 70 degrees and we’d had a good night’s sleep. We were just arriving at our 2 ½ mile turn-around on our run and feeling good, when suddenly this crack in the sidewalk jumped up, grabbed the toe of Cathryn’s shoe, and threw her into the air! Unfortunately Cathryn had failed to pay attention during her flying lessons and ended up skidding to a stop several feet later, using the back of her right hand and her chin as her final landing gear. No question about it, it hurt, and she needed several minutes to recover enough to get up off the sidewalk. We ended up collecting quite a crowd: walkers, other runners and people driving by, all of whom stopped to offer a variety of assistance: calls to 911, Kleenex to put on the bloody chin, and the offer we actually accepted of a ride back to George and Josi’s townhouse. Once back, Cathryn cleaned up the wound on her chin and a few on her hand and relaxed a bit. We ended up deciding to go to an Urgent Care clinic at George’s urging and have the chin checked out since it looked like it might benefit from a stitch or two. It turned out she got two stitches and at least twice that many bad stories from the New Jersey doctor who staffs the clinic. The trip to the clinic ended up taking 3 hours total (partially mitigated by Starbucks coffee and a New York Times delivered courtesy of G and J while we waited) so we didn’t get back to their townhouse until 1 PM. After showering and saying our goodbyes, we headed north. All in all, not a great day, but luckily it seems that with a couple of Tylenol every few hours to address a sore chin, and a rather large bandage to cover the stitches, we should be able to have a better day tomorrow. After leaving Mesa, we drove 2 hours north to Cottonwood, Arizona, about 15 miles west of Sedona. We intend to stay here until we head west to pick up Adrienne in Las Vegas Saturday night. We decided that today’s major event didn’t lend itself to a photo; we’ll let you all see if you can find the scar under Cathryn’s chin when you see her next. We’re at a nice campground with a site on a river, hot showers in heated bathrooms, and internet – altogether nice! We intend to do some hiking in the next couple of days.

An in Park Home Run

St. Patrick’s Day has certainly been more pleasant than Valentine’s Day was (the lost wallet and extortionist cop day, remember?) When Bob and Cathryn got up, George and Josi were heading out the door for the gym, so we had coffee, ran and showered. At noon the four of us headed into Scottsdale to watch a S.F. Giants vs. Milwaukee Brewers spring training baseball game (George is a major Giants fan). If you’ve never been before, we have to tell you this is much more fun and exciting than attending a regular game or watching on TV. The field is small, the audience is so close to the players, and the “feel” is so intimate, that it really seems you’re part of it! You can see the players’ faces, hear their voices, and the action seems quick and interesting. Today’s game started slowly, with the score sitting at 0 to 0 at the end of the fifth inning, then things took off, and in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Giants got two runs, including an out-of-the-field home run, to win 7 to 5. It was sunny and 85 degrees, and we each had lunch and a beer (George’s beer was even green in honor of St. Paddy). What fun! Now we’re back at their townhouse puttering in the kitchen and getting ready for a relaxing evening. What a nice visit we’re having, catching up with neighbors and enjoying the beautiful desert and sunshine! Tomorrow we leave for Sedona.

Chiricahua Mountains

We wanted to share pictures of our hike in the Chiricahua Mountains and our campfire with Matt, Mackenzie and Hobie Sunday, so here is a link to a Picasa Web Album http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=BobWhite1&target=ALBUM&id=5314008004032283457&authkey=Gv1sRgCN6ii67YwKzb-wE&feat=email

George and Josi's Mesa, AZ Townhouse

N 33*29.411 W 111* 40.427 We woke this morning to 30 degree temperature, and shortly after, Mackenzie and Matt knocking at the Chalet door to come in for coffee. They were sleeping in the marvelous tent that Jim and Phebe gave them as a wedding present, and stayed warm in their sleeping bags, but immediately froze on getting out! After breakfast and breaking camp, the five of us headed up to Sugarloaf Mountain in Hobie’s VW Westphalia and took a nice and scenic hike to the top of the mountain where there was a fire lookout. After a look around and food and water break, we headed back down and caravanned to a coffee shop in Willock, AZ where we got coffee and posted yesterday’s blog posts on the internet, then parted ways with Hobie who headed back to his casita, while we continued on to the Tucson airport to drop off Mackenzie and Matt. We drove another two hours and arrived at 5:30 in Mesa, AZ at a townhouse owned by George Cole and Josi Callan, our Prospect Point neighbors two doors to the south. They come here for a portion of each spring to enjoy spring training baseball games (they are Giants fans) and we plan to attend games with them for the next day or two. We went to a marvelous restaurant for dinner and are now basking in luxury at their place. In fact, we’re suffering a bit of culture shock because we will sleep in a REAL bed tonight for the first time in two months, and have our own bathroom which is warm and does not need to be shared with anyone else. Wow! Pleasant conversation, homemade key lime pie courtesy of Josi, and off to bed we go!

Chiricahua Mountains

We left the Kartchner Caverns Campground at 8:30 a.m. after rising to find it 37 degrees outside. Arizona is nowhere near as warm as Baja, and we are “suffering” under the adjustment! However, today dawned sunny and with clear skies, so we were happy. We drove 1 ½ hours east to the Chiricahua Mountains National Monument and Campground, picked a campsite for ourselves and an adjacent one for Hobie (who arrived separately in his Volkswagen Westphalia about an hour later from his casita outside Tucson), then left to take a hike. We’d planned to take a particular hike that would direct us through the Heart of the Rocks, but got off on the wrong trailhead, so ended up still finding our way to Heart of the Rocks, but completing an 8 ½ mile hike instead, longer than we’d planned. We started off at elevation 6700’ and meandered up and down from there. The rocks here are essentially indescribable – amazing, gorgeous, unfathomable, peculiar – we’re not sure what other adjectives to attach to how attractive and unusual they are (Lynn, you would think you’d died and gone to heaven on these hikes with spectacular rock formations!) Google “Chiricahua Mountains” and you will see what we mean. We returned to our campground around 3:30 to find Hobie settled in at his across-the-road campsite. Bob and Matt took showers in our outside shower tent (this campground has flush toilets but no showers) but Mackenzie and Cathryn felt it was too cold (50s) to bother. Eventually our pyro-maniac son-in-law Matt (former Oregon Forest Service fire crew worker) built a lovely fire in the grill at our site, around which we huddled for the next 5 hours to keep warm throughout cocktail hour, dinner, and S’Mores (courtesty of Matt and Mackenzie). The stars were in full brilliance, and we were happy to retire to the Chalet with propane heater, rather than the unheated tent to which Mackenzie and Matt retired, with the outside temp already down to 40 degrees at 9:15 pm.

A Hole in the Earth

Up early, we said goodbye to Hobie and his casita, and Bob, Cathryn, Matt and Mackenzie headed southeast to the Kartchner Caverns Campground, picked a campsite and dropped off the Chalet, then drove ½ mile to the Kartchner Caverns. We had a 10:20 appointment for a tour that lasted 1 ½ hours. These caverns were only discovered by two young men in the 1970s, and they kept their presence a secret from everyone except the family that owned the property for 14 years. In the 1980s when they had sorted out a plan to transfer the caves to the Arizona Parks Department, the caverns were opened up in limited fashion and they completed construction of the pathways, lighting and “weather” system including a series of six air-lock doors to maintain the humidity and temperature that would allow the caverns to remain alive (wet) and growing their formations. We very much enjoyed the sights inside the caverns, reminding Bob and Cathryn of a much smaller Carlsbad Caverns in some ways. After lunch, we headed into the Arizona wine country near Elgin, AZ and participated in wine tastings at two wineries, Village of Elgin Wines and Sonoita Vineyards. Here they have the unusual (to us) practice of charging you a higher fee if you don’t have your own wineglass, but after you’ve purchased one at the first vineyard, you can take it with you and pay the lower fee at any subsequent vineyards you tour. The weather was cloudy, breezy and chilly today, never climbing above 60 degrees, and becoming quite cold as soon as the sun dropped behind the hills. We sat outside, bundled warmly, for cocktail hour, then spent the entire evening, all four of us, inside the Chalet having dinner and chatting until bedtime at 10:00.

Picacho Peak

After coffee in Hobie’s casita, Bob, Cathryn, Matt and Mackenzie left for Picacho Peak, an hour northeast of Hobie’s home. This trail is amazing! Picacho Peak is a volcanic cone in the middle of a desert plain, unimpressive surroundings in almost every aspect, other than the ostrich farms. However, this pile of rock soaring 1500’ feet above the plain, is spectacular to view even from the adjacent freeway, Interstate 10. We left the parking lot at the trailhead at 9:15 a.m. and immediately began ascending a rocky, steep trail into the rocks. Shortly the trail became steeper, and in the shadows of the peak, out of the sun, which was welcome relief from the sun. Upon reaching a saddle about 1000’ feet and one mile above the trailhead, we started downhill, so steeply that there was large gauge steel cable strung along the rocky trail to hang onto, and leather gloves were recommended gear, which we had available courtesy of Hobie. After a 300’ drop, the trail again ascended, and continued to the summit steeply, heavily steel cabled, scrambling territory, and achieving the summit after another 30 minutes. We passed a group of 20 students aged 8 – 15 on our way up, and got to the summit 30 minutes before they did, so had lunch, enjoyed the view, then headed down the trail as soon as the group of students arrived. It was an absolutely unusual, incredible trail, unlike anything we’ve every hiked before, and sunny and warm. We got back to Hobie’s house at 2:30 p.m. in time to take showers, do laundry, take a tour of his property, Mackenzie and Matt dozed a bit in the hammock, and Bob and Hobie did chores. Shortly, we had cocktail hour and sunset, followed by dinner courtesy of Mackenzie and Matt (a fabulous dish featuring couscous, broccoli, chicken, garbanzos, feta, red onion, raisins, garlic and some other ingredients I’ve forgotten) then amiable conversation before heading to bed. Life is good in Arizona in March!!! Tomorrow we leave Hobie’s house for mountains and caves south of here.

Romero Pools with Mackenzie and Matt

Mackenzie and Matt flew into Tucson today just after noon. We picked them up at the airport and drove them to Catalina State Park northeast of Tucson, where we went on a 5 ½ mile hike up to Romero Pools. It was a wonderful hike with beautiful scenery, sun and warmth (79 degrees) and it was great to reconnect with the “kids” who really enjoyed the transition from Seattle’s 35 degree temperatures. Mackenzie fell in love with the scenery and warmth and threatened to build a house on the granite shore adjacent to the pools, however we pointed out there is no nearby Bank of America branch, so perhaps it was not a good plan. We returned to Hobie's about 6:30pm for a great steak, potato and salad dinner washed down with Hornito’s tequila and red wine. We all loved it. While all of us have inundated Hobie’s home, he is sleeping at night in his Westie camper, we are sleeping in the Chalet, and the “kids” have Hobie’s double bed in the bedroom – ha! What a wonderful visit!!!

Lovely Day at Hobie's Casita

We had our first cup of coffee in our Chalet, joined Hobie in the house for breakfast, then Bob and Cathryn went for a run while Hobie did some chores. Bob then made a couple small repairs on the Chalet while Hobie and Cathryn ran errands, including stops at the post office to pick up Bob’s replacement Washington State drivers license and credit card (sent thankfully by sister Lynn), Costco, groceries, Lowe’s, and gas. While they were gone, Bob also did some maintenance work on the “White Wash”. When we were here last year, Hobie took us on a tour of his property, naming the various cactuses, plants and trees for our education. He showed us the walk through the “wash” (referred to as an arroyo or by other names in other places, a dry stream that becomes a river in times of rare storms). Last year when we were here, Bob did some pruning of plant overgrowth in the wash, picked up lots of garbage that had come in with the rain, and generally restored it to a nice place to take a walk on the property. As a result, Hobie christened it the “White Wash” J So Bob did some more maintenance on it again today to keep it up. We took a brief nap in the Chalet while Hobie did an exercise routine in the house, then did some sorting and storing of stuff in the car to prepare for Mackenzie and Matt’s arrival tomorrow, when we will need to be able to fit four people and their luggage in the RAV for the first time. Cocktail hour to watch the sunset from Hobie’s patio followed by shrimp curry and salad for dinner, then more amiable chatting before heading for bed. Altogether a lovely day. We are very much looking forward to the next 5 days with Mackenzie and Matt joining our adventure. Hobie has been a wonderful, generous host, as always.

Hobie's Casita

N 32*14.808 W 111*13.926 elevation 2228’ This morning dawned sunny, clear and 46 degrees. By 11am it was 66 degrees, we’d gone for a run, packed up the Chalet, and headed south. We stopped to do a couple of errands as we traveled through Tucson, then arrived at 3:30pm at our friend Hobie Denny’s winter casita. He lives in our Olalla neighborhood April through October, and here the rest of the year in his custom-built home on 2 acres adjacent to the Saguaro National Forest. We set up the Chalet next to his house, complete with electric and water hook-ups, and joined him on his covered patio with a view to the west of the Baboquivari Mountains, catching up on news until the sun set behind the mountains, the moon rose in the east, and we headed inside to make dinner. The rest of the evening was followed by continual chatting and making plans for the rest of our time here through Friday night. It’s wonderful to see Hobie and his lovely park-like property with many species of cactus and desert trees again. We were here last year as part of our winter road-trip and are pleased to have more time to hike and explore the area for additional days this year.

Siphon Draw and The Flatiron, in the Superstition Mountains

After a good nights’ sleep during which it rained most of the night (first rain we’ve seen since we left California in January), we got up early this morning, kept our eye out for departing RVs, and quickly moved the Chalet into a vacated campsite by 8:30 am. We have a spectacular view of the mountains, a picnic table, a leftover pile of firewood and outdoor fireplace/grill and a cell phone signal (and lovely hot showers, flush toilets and all the modern amenities)! We’re told there’s a town library nearby where we can access the internet. At 11am we left for a hike. The trail is rocky all the way, starts off with a gentle incline, traverses steeper, slick granite, then becomes a scramble after passing The Basin headed for the Siphon Draw. We hiked up two miles and 1200’, stopped for lunch and then decided we’d gone far enough. It was another 1400’ to the summit and we were told pretty steady steep terrain and scrambling all the way. Since we’d already gone for a run in the morning and Cathryn’s left knee was a bit sore, we decided that was enough. Dark clouds have blown through, interspersed with blue sky and sunshine, but the temperature is still 70 degrees (52 when we got up this morning) so very pleasant.

Lost Dutchman State Park

N 33*27.278 W 111.29.086 Elevation 2020’ We left El Centro, CA about noon after completing our chores and drove across the desert through Yuma, Gila Bend, Maricopa, Phoenix and Mesa to Apache Junction where we arrived at our destination for the next two nights, Lost Dutchman State Park. We’re in the overflow parking lot tonight but hope to move into the formal campground in the morning. This is a wonderful campground. Because it’s in the desert, the vegetation is somewhat sparse but each campsite is probably 100 feet or more from the next one, so there is no sense of crowding. According to the map there look to be some great hikes up into the Superstition Mountains (shown in the accompanying photo) that we hope to take tomorrow. There’s a trail to the top of the flatiron, shown in the upper right of the photo, which goes to either 4300’ at the base of the flatiron, or 4800’ at the top. We intend to go up this trail as far as we feel comfortable – the brochure urges caution beyond the 3100’ “basin”. But it isn’t clear where the “basin” is. We had a great sunset tonight, as you can see. Once the sun has gone down, we have a view of the lights of Phoenix to the west. The campground had a ranger-guided moonlight hike up a trail scheduled for this evening, and we intended to join in, but there was cloud cover, and we weren’t able to find the spot to congregate, so sat outside by the Chalet and watched the moon instead.

40 Day and 40 Nights of Wandering is Over: Back in the USA!

N 32*46.530 W 115* 34.228 With some sadness, we’ve left Mexico. Our last night at San Pedro Martir/Meling Ranch was pleasant. We ate dinner in the ranch dining hall by the fire and were in bed by 9:30. It was very cold, 26 degrees outside and 37 degrees in the Chalet when we woke up the next morning, but with sunny blue skies that soon warmed the air. We broke camp and headed for the border. Following 5 hours of driving, it took about an hour to clear U.S. Customs with a thorough inspection of the car and camper that resulted only in the confiscation of some turkey sandwich meat. Re-crossing into Mexico on foot to turn in our Tourist Cards at Immigration, then back on foot through U.S. Customs took another 30 minutes. That process seems unnecessarily complicated. We felt some relief to be back on a U.S. highway that has wide lanes, shoulders, and good sight distances, but still we’re missing the warmth and amiability of Baja, the relaxed pace of life, and food and friendliness of its’ people. We drove to El Centro, CA just north of the Mexican border, and about 50 miles west of the Arizona border to spend our night in an urban RV park with full hook-ups, a laundry room and internet. Now all our batteries are re-charged, clothes are clean, and we will grocery shop this morning, then head for Arizona. Our friend Hobie Denny from Olalla has mapped out several nice campgrounds and hikes in Arizona, then we expect to arrive at his winter casita in the Saguaro National Forest outside Tucson on Tuesday. We’ll connect with Cathryn’s parents and all 3 of the kids by cell phone by the end of today. We hear the weather back home continues with a bit of snow and hail, so we remain happy to be in sunny Arizona for the next 10 days. (It' 47 degrees here in El Centro at 7 AM, cool compared to Bahia de Los Angeles.

Parque Nacional Seirra de San Pedro Matir

Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Martir Last night for the first time in quite a while, we were cold during the night, having failed to pull the comforter out from its’ storage place. We were surprised to learn it got down to 33 degrees overnight, and was only 45 degrees inside the Chalet when we got up. At 9am we left Meling Ranch in the RAV, leaving the Chalet behind, for a day trip to the national park high in the mountains. This is a trip recommended by friends Kal and Amy Brauner, who went there last winter. The road to the park is newly completely paved, and while it is narrow, winding, and very steep in places, it is not a difficult drive. We passed only two oncoming vehicles, and saw no one else headed our direction. Views from the road are spectacular, winding through green, mountainous terrain with pine forests and distant sightings of the Pacific Ocean at spots. At one point we came around a curve and found ourselves directly in front of a gigantic bird on the edge of the road. Bob took a photo, we watched briefly, and the bird took off in flight, further demonstrating its’ enormous size. Turns out we later learned it was a California Condor, an endangered species sporting a 9 ½-foot wing span. On arrival at the park, we had to register, pay a fee of 46 pesos (about $3.50 each) and put on a bracelet proving we had paid our fee. Shortly after the entrance, the road became a dirt road for the final 12 miles. Again, it was narrow, winding and very steep in places, but smooth and easy to travel. About halfway up, we encountered a grading project underway, so travel was reduced to one lane, a grader was operating at the time, and there was a 2-foot-high pile of dirt lining either side of the lane for a couple of miles as a result of the grading work. There was no room to pull over in the event of an oncoming vehicle. We encountered the grader coming down as we were headed up, and he simply veered off into the piles of dirt to allow our passage. We encountered a convoy of two school buses, two dump trucks and one pickup truck on our way down, and we had to back down 3/10 mile to a wide spot in the road to allow their passage. We reached the park in about an hour and the top was reached in an additional 45 minutes.n The road had climbed from just over 2000’ elevation at Meling Ranch to just over 9200’ elevation at the park summit. It was 46 degrees, so windy it was difficult to stand still at times, and felt very cold. There are 3 different-sized telescopes at the top, and we’d hoped for a tour of the larger one, but the door was locked and no one was present, so we looked around on our own and headed down. We had also hoped to do a hike, but the grading project prevented getting off the main road to side roads or parking spots, so we returned to Meling Ranch happy to have seen the scenery and views. Views of the Park can be found at this link (which includes photo’s of Meling Ranch)

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=BobWhite1&target=ALBUM&id=5310651678254130929&authkey=Gv1sRgCJrivtzexeS1mgE&feat=email