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.