ARIZONA

Driving from New Mexico to Arizona along I10 we found ourselves crossing the Continental Divide at an elevation well over 4,000 feet. The Continental Divide is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas and extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean. Though there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Great Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions

First stop in Arizona was Tucson, where the weather is what you may wish to call perfect. Yup, shorts during the day, not a sign of rain or frost, and cooling down in the evenings as it does in the desert. Tucson is a pretty large city, population 526,000+ and sits 2,600 feet above sea level. Since we were there over a week-end we drove down to the centre of the city to see what it had to offer. It happened to be on football Sunday so I’m assuming that’s the reason there were so few people about. Very clean, some interesting traditional desert architecture mixed in with high rise office buildings. I took a picture of a gold building that reminded me of the Royal Bank building in downtown Toronto as well as a building that was covered entirely in tiles.

Similar to one of the Royal Bank buildings in Toronto. Gold coloured.

Some intricate tile work.

The entire side of this building is small tile.

Although Erik and I seem to be drawn to areas where there is water nearby (preferably an ocean) we are pretty happy with the desert environment. We are, after all, on an adventure and part of our adventure is finding a place where we can spend five or six months of the winter happily and comfortably. As such we are not just looking at the location but we are evaluating different RV parks and what they may or may not offer us as well as towns in close proximity.

While in Tucson we ventured out to Tombstone, AZ. Yes, it really exists, has a meager population, 1,380 in 2010 and sits 4,540 feet above sea level in the Sonora Desert.  Founded in 1879, the town was established on a mesa above a mine. Within two years of its founding, although miles away from any other metropolitan city, Tombstone boasted a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dancing halls and brothels. Tombstone was the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years and is best known as the site of the Gunfight at the OK Corral and draws most of its revenue from tourism.

While wandering around the main street you see street buskers, cowboys, a sheriff, stage coaches and saloons and show girls.

Just a couple of cowpokes.

Horse drawn coaches offer tours of the area.

Not quite sure so am calling him a busker.

Big Nose Kate (born Mary Katherine Horony Cummings November 7, 1850 – November 2, 1940) was a Hungarian-born prostitute and longtime companion and common-law wife of gunfighter Doc Holliday.

Guarding the entrance to the saloon

Inside the saloon. It was a hopping place.

Shady looking card shark.

The sheriff checking out Kaede and Freddy

Erik having a sarsaparilla with his new pal.

Tombstone's City Hall.

Boot Hill. No one got out alive.

From Tucson we went a little farther north and west to Phoenix, the capital and largest city, in Arizona. With 1,445,632 people (as of the 2010 U.S. Census), Phoenix is the most populous state capital in the US and sits 1,117 feet above sea level. For a big city Phoenix is extremely pretty, well laid out with plenty of wide boulevards, and seems to be set out in neighbourhoods with restaurants, shops, businesses in each, rather than one big sprawl. We did not spend a lot of time in the city, we did drive through many areas and quite liked what we saw. There was an enormous dog park that we took Kaede and Freddy to and we found a very interesting dog friendly and very cool bistro located in one of the neighbourhoods I mentioned where we had a leisurely lunch while the tired pups slept.

<sup>While in Phoenix we decided to try a 55+ RV Resort; there are plenty of those now that we are in snowbird territory again.  While it was beautifully kept, had every amenity you could possibly want and perhaps even a few more, it wasn't an environment that we enjoyed. Perhaps in twenty more years we would welcome a stay in that kind of park but in this one we were the kids on the block and there just seemed to be too much organization and too many committees and so darned many rules. We did, though, play some pickle-ball which was just so much fun that I'm certain we will be playing it again in the future.

Driving through the western part of Arizona toward California you transition from the hot Sonora Desert to the cooler and higher Mojave Desert. This is an arid region of southeastern California and portions of Nevada, Arizona and Utah and covers over 25,000 sq miles. In the Mojave Desert you will find the Joshua Tree, an unusual tree-like yucca that is usually considered the prime indicator of Mojave Desert vegetation and occurs only in higher elevations and only in this desert.</sup>

The Joshua Tree is the one on the left as you look at the picture.

We saw what felt like miles and miles of nothing but cacti. 

Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and it supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highways.

The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dry-land farming methods to prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon.

We were on Route 66 for a total of about twelve minutes. It is pretty defunct now, having been removed in 1985 from the Highway System and replaced by Interstates. However, the song is still pretty good and this version is, in my opinion, the best.  

Continuing west our next stop would be California, a little town called Needles, with the RV Park we had chosen located right on the Colorado River. And, I wonder how that is going to pan out. Stay tuned and you'll find out.

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT CAMPING, PART DEUX or TIPS FOR NEWBIES

On November 3rd, 2014, we started on this journey that we like to refer to as our 'adventure'. We did not take the idea of this trip lightly. We did research on what type of RV would suit our needs and chose carefully, we then purchased the best truck that would pull our new RV, we installed the RV in a campground close to home and stayed in it for several days and nights at a time so we could make a decision on what was needed when we were on the trip. We didn't want to be in the middle of nowhere and realize we needed a thingy or a such and such with not a store or supplier in sight. There was plenty of time to get used to pulling the Fifth-wheel behind the truck and, more importantly, getting used to backing it into spaces and maneuvering it.

GIVE IT A TRY - RENT FIRST
If you decide you would like to start the RV-ing lifestyle, do research. If after looking at various RVs you are still unsure then rent one. There are companies out there such as CanaDream and Cruise Canada or Cruise America and others. You will probably find the RV you decide to rent is completely outfitted with kitchen ware, linens, etc. When you log onto websites for the various companies (there are more than the ones I have mentioned) you will see a description of the models available, how many they sleep, what the amenities are, etc. We opted to buy and chose a Fifth-wheel which is not an option when renting. It requires a truck to hitch the Fifth-wheel to. Your choices will be self-contained units like the two shown below.

INTERESTING PEOPLE
Imagine you are six years old, or nine years old or twelve years. Now imagine your parents are going to home school you for an entire year while you travel around the United States in a motor home. Do you think you would be excited? I know I would have been. That's what one couple we met from Wisconsin was doing with their three children. They had closed up their house, whipped the kids out of school armed with curriculum for the school year

and set off. The trip will be mainly informative with stops at places that feature in American history. We met up with them in Virginia. They had just spent a couple of days in Washington, DC, taking the kids to their Capitol and showing them the sights. In Virginia they were hitting Jamestown, Williamsburg, and other places that would teach the kids about the American Revolution and the Civil War but instead of grainy black and white pictures to look at, the kids would actually be in the historic places. What a treat.


NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER
Driving along a highway that slows down as it takes you through small towns we saw a truck in front of us that we decided was a 'typical' redneck. The driver had his heavily tattooed arm hanging out the window, ball cap backwards on his head, lots of decals of dead animals on the truck that sat on enormous wheels that make you wonder WHY? A little further along, the truck passed us going at a pretty good clip and the driver rolled down his window and started gesturing to us. Yikes!! You hear about this stuff on the six-o'clock news....'Canadian tourists beaten and robbed of RV and all their belongings'. Finally we realized he was trying to tell us that one of our windows in the Fifth-wheel had been left open and was flapping in the wind. Okay, so, don't judge a book by its cover.

THE TRUTH ABOUT INTERNET IN RV PARKS
Most RV parks advertise free WiFi. Excellent to know. What's not so excellent is the actual WiFi service. In many of the parks we have stayed in the WiFi is, at best, terrible.  Intermittent service, no service unless you go to their main building and service that bumps you off when it feels like it. If you really, really, really need to have internet service due to work related issues then get yourself a hot-spot. Not only will you be assured of internet service you will also be on a secure connection. Oh, don't go downloading and streaming your favourite television shows with your hot-spot. That's why the internet coverage is so bad in the first place. Like-wise the cable television. If you're a television addict, be warned, there can be some pretty tragic coverage as well.



DECIDE WHAT'S IMPORTANT IN AN RV PARK

Very bad RV Park

Very good RV Park

Not all RV parks are created equal. Like real estate agents RV park owners take really good pictures of their parks and post them on their web-site. What you see is not always what you get. A good tip is to book in for one night with the option of extending your stay. You get a rate for daily, weekly and monthly stays. If your next stay is just for one night to get you on your way again then the park really isn't that important. It's not like booking a hotel for the night and discovering that the toilet leaks or there are fifteen twelve year old cheerleaders on their way to a competition with only one chaperone. Once you are set up and inside your little home away from home it's exactly the same as it was the night before and the night before that. Having a pool and huge laundry facilities don't mean a hill of beans if you are arriving at 4:00 pm and leaving at 9:30 am the following morning. Staying longer? Like a week, a month or more. Then decide what is important to you when making a choice about where to stay.  If it's sunny weather and you like to swim you will appreciate a pool or being within walking distance to a beach. Traveling with kids and you will love the enclosed playground. If you're outgoing and like to meet and greet then see what the park offers in the way of mixers.




 READ THE REVIEWS
When you are checking out RV parks where you think you would like to stay make sure to read the reviews. And not just the ones that the RV Park has posted on its own website. There are independent websites where individuals can give their review of places they have stayed. You can get some pretty good information that you may not necessarily get otherwise. If loads of people have reviewed that the park has really tight spaces but is beautiful in every other way then forgo staying there if you are just passing through. If you're going to be there for an extended period of time then give it a shot. You only have to back in once then you are set for the next month or so. Also check to see what is included in your fee and what is not included in your fee. One RV park advertised four hours of free internet service after which you could purchase internet. What they didn't mention was that the four hours was four continuous hours, not a half an hour here and a half an hour there. Once you logged on the first time and got off after twenty minutes that was it. Reviews can really help you to make sure you get to stay in a place that suits you.


SOME OTHER THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW
Did you know that some people actually live in RV Parks year round? The fact is they do. Imagine that you live in a 300 sq. ft. condo in downtown Toronto or London or New York. How much do you think that would cost? Beaucoup bucks, that's for sure. Now imagine that you purchase a cute little RV and plunk it down on a spot in a Florida RV park or a California RV park or any other park in a place where there is no snow. How much do you think that would cost?  My guess is a whole lot less than that condo. You have the added bonus of being able to walk to the beach whenever you choose and if you don't get along with your neighbours, not to worry. Chances are they will be moving on in a month or so. Sounds pretty good.

NEW MEXICO, LAS CRUCES TO BE SPECIFIC

It's barely noticeable as you travel into New Mexico from Texas that you are entering a different State. As you slide over the border it’s the same topography as we have been seeing for many, many miles, a tough landscape of brush, rocks, mountains in the distance and seemingly dry although there had been rain recently. Our destination was Las Cruces, a place that we both had heard much about and were looking forward to seeing. Our RV resort was a five minute drive from the city of Las Cruces and accessible to everything we needed. The office at Hacienda RV & Rally Resort was beautifully appointed with southwestern furniture and artifacts and the pads were very flat, made of packed gravel. There was a dog run, about 100 yards long,  a Wal-Mart directly across the street and an RV supply store where we were able to buy some new clips for our bedroom mirrors (our third set – they notoriously break in our model RV but are extremely inexpensive to replace).

We spent a day touring Las Cruces, in particular the section called Old Mesilla, an historic section that now caters to tourists, with over 40 shops, each a specialty unto itself and a couple of Mexican restaurants. We loved it. Wandering through the narrow streets with the adobe style houses slung low to the ground and the cactus plants it looked exactly as we had imagined and hoped. The city of Las Cruces, population 97,000, has an average temperature this time of year (January) of 29 – 59F or -2 – 15C, and is 3,896 feet above sea level. I had no idea we were so high up, it’s not like you are twisting around mountains as you go up, it’s a gradual rise and you are at the top of a mesa.

Taken in Mesilla, the historic district.

It's possible Billy The Kid did not enjoy Las Cruces as much as we did.

La Mesilla Historic District, which includes the plaza, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

La Mesilla Historic District, which includes the plaza, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Amazing shop that sold everything including what was on the outside.

Typical adobe style home.

Because of my obsession with infused olive oils and vinegars we went into a little shop called The Rustic Olive and started to chat with the owners. They talked about places to visit in the area and highly recommended that we visit White Sands National Monument, just 50 miles/80 kms east of Las Cruces. We were baffled when they described a landscape of white sand dunes that went on for miles and miles. Quite honestly we only went to see what all the fuss was about and because it took us across parts of the desert where missile testing had been done.

What we found when we arrived took our breath away. The park consists of 275 sq. miles of white sand dunes and drifts that is actually comprised of natural gypsum. Located at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert is a mountain ringed valley called the Tularosa Basin. The dunes rise from this basin, are brilliant white and are ever changing. The sand covers everything in its path as it is driven by strong southwest winds. The sand shifts to such an extent and so often that it is difficult to sustain life in the sand dunes. Some desert plants have adapted to avoid burial by moving sand. Wildlife consists of animals that stay underground in burrows and only come out at night. Rodents, rabbits, foxes, coyotes, porcupines and other nocturnal animals hide out during the day and lizards, beetles and birds are active in the daylight in the vegetated areas.

Driving up to the White Sands. The San Augustin Mountains are a small mountain sub-range at the southern terminus of the San Andres Mountains east of Las Cruces, where we stayed. Organ lies at the southwest foothills; the townsite, White Sands lies to the southeast. San Augustin peak is 7,030 feet (2,143 m) high.

Driving up to the White Sands at San Augustin peak.

246 sq. miles of white sand dunes

Met this cute guy and his two dogs

Stole his two dogs :)

The monument is very well organized with an historic adobe building that houses the Visitor Center and contains a museum, book store, a gift shop and washrooms. Dunes Drive leads you eight miles into the heart of the dunes where there are five marked trails to follow. Throughout the area where visitors are allowed roads have been plowed (just like snow is plowed) and various parking lots have been established with picnic tables and barbeques at each parking spot and public washrooms. The visitor center also has saucers for sliding down the sand dunes if you wish, perhaps for rent but we didn’t check. We walked through them and over them and up and down them for about 40 minutes and, exhilarated, went back to the car and drove back to visit the Visitor Centre.

Photographing the dunes is tricky at best. There are elaborate instructions for people who shoot with sophisticated cameras but I found no such instructions for shooting with a cell phone. The pictures I took don’t really do justice to the dunes at all.

There are many places of interest to visit in and around Las Cruces. There is a wealth of museums, art galleries, farmers markets, outdoor music and wine festivals. It was a surprise to us to learn there are several vineyards and

wineries in the area, some of them with tasting rooms. Who would have thought that New Mexico is the oldest wine producing state in the country – production started in 1629. Today there are 47 vineyards and wineries throughout the state, according to the information we received. Below is a link if you are interested in reading more about this thriving wine industry.

http://nmwine.com/wineries 

Of course a visit to any place in the southwest would not be complete without trying out the local Mexican cuisine.

We did just that in Las Cruces, taking the dogs to a dog friendly little hole in the wall called Rosie's Cafe. The food was, as you would expect, wonderful. Erik tried the chicken fried steak, something we had seen on menus since we got into the southwest. It's a steak, battered like fried chicken and deep fried then covered in either white gravy or Mexican gravy and served with rice and re-fried beans. It's a meal you have to try at least once and don't count calories.

The city of Las Cruces was one of our favourites so far. No ocean or even Gulf Coast, no fresh fish, but a charm that we loved. We liked the low skyline, no glass high-rises coming out of the desert sand, just low slung adobe homes in traditional earth tones. Even shops, shopping centres and business offices are built in this traditional manner.  Even though it poured buckets one night, our stay there was enhanced even more by the promise of that blue, blue sky that greeted us the next morning. 

Even Kaede and Freddy liked this place a lot. The dog park was huge and Freddy got to run and Kaede got to meet her little mini-me.

Kaede, on the left, and her little look-alike, Mia.