Tucson & Phoenix, Arizona

Visited March 18-30, 2021

 

By Janell

This shot was taken through the Beast's windshield on our drive from Alamogordo, NM to Tucson, AZ. The sign, which is probably too small to make out, reads "White Sands Missile Range 1/2 mile". So this is fairly soon after our departure from our campsite; before we picked up many bugs! I thought you'd like to see these mountains, as they're so unique. They are the Organ Mountains -- aptly named, I'd say. Last year in New Mexico we saw them from the opposite side and hiked around the base of them.

Notice the airpod in Marty's ear? We frequently share a pair of airpods to listen to audio books or podcasts on long drives. This particular book was A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and its Aftermath, by Jeanine Cummins. 

We were in Tucson for three nights and Mesa (in the greater Phoenix area) for ten nights. We visited with several members of family and friends while in Tucson and Phoenix, but we managed to get some sightseeing, biking and even hiking into the schedule as well. 

In Tucson:

The Arizona-Sedona Desert Museum is listed as the #1 thing to do in Tucson (according to TripAdvisor). It was a very cool place. Well, actually it was interesting, but it was not cool. The high that day was only 81°, but in full sun (which much of the museum was), it felt a lot hotter. I would not want to go on a hot day.

These "bumpy", tall cactus in the foreground are called Totem Pole Cactus. Bet they have an official name too, but I like this one!

View from the museum

In the Phoenix area:

We rode our bikes 21 miles on the Indian Bend Wash Trail in Tempe. The trail goes alongside Tempe Town Lake and over this cool foot bridge. As you can see, it wasn't a very pretty day. It was gloomy and windy and a teeny bit rainy at the end of our ride.

These birds were perfectly happy sitting in their line until Marty approached to take their picture. Camera-shy, maybe?

Just for fun: this picture was in a restroom

 

 

 

 

We took the Beast in for routine maintenance at Velocity Truck Center in Tolleson; then we spent the night in their parking lot so we could be ready for our 7am appointment the next day. Their parking lot is set up just for this purpose -- they have 7 or 8 spots with full hook-ups. (The alternative would've been to get out of bed before 5am in order to pack up the Beast and drive the 45 miles to Tolleson.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Beast was in the shop we biked 19 miles on the Grand Canal Path in Phoenix. It was windy this day also. We rode into the wind for the first half and then turned around and had an easy ride back. Definitely the way to do it!

 

 

Not one of our more scenic bike rides, but it was good exercise.

 

 

 

 

After the bike ride we went to the Roosevelt Row neighborhood in downtown Phoenix. We had lunch and walked around looking at the neighborhood's art. We were here last year and took a lot of photos of their many, many cool murals. I'm sorry that you'll have to wait until we rewind to that post to see the majority of the art/murals; however we did see two new pieces, or perhaps pieces we just didn't see last time.

I call this "corrugated metal shipping container art".

Teddy Roosevelt on Roosevelt Row

Last year we had a visit to Phoenix scheduled primarily so that we could go to Spring Training (we'd never been). Well, Covid took care of that: Spring Training was cut short before we even got there.

This year we scheduled time in Phoenix even though we knew there was a good chance Spring Training wasn't going to happen again; or at least not the way it used to be (pre-Covid).

As you may know, Spring Training was happening this year but in a much reduced capacity: 1,000 fans in a stadium that holds 12,000. We debated about whether to go or not, and at the last minute we found some tickets on StubHub.

 

So, here we are! Posey and Belt are in the line-up!

It was a very nice evening.

Sporting our new souvenirs

Buster Posey at bat

Our last activity in the Phoenix area was a hike, but not just any hike. We hiked Echo Canyon Trail up Camelback Mountain. Last year when we were here I encouraged Marty to do it without me, as I knew he really wanted to, and I was too chicken. Ten weeks prior I had broken my wrist. My wrist was far from feeling 100%, and I was worried about needing it for scrambling up this trail. I think I made the right call last year. You'll see from the two signs at the beginning of the trail, that it's not for the faint of heart!

Notice that it says, "THIS TRAIL RATED EXTREMELY DIFFICULT" with a double black diamond!!

Yikes!

We were out of bed before 5:00am in order to get to the trailhead early in the morning. We were on the trail before sunrise but not much earlier than that. Some folks manage to get up even earlier and are at the top before sunrise to watch from there. Over achievers!

Good reasons to get there early: 

1. The parking lot for the trail fills up pretty quickly. When we were finished hiking there was a line of cars waiting for spots.

2. The trail gets more crowded the later you go.

3. The high temp for the day was 88° -- get back down before that happens!

The trail is only 2.5 miles round trip, but with 1,400' of elevation gain and difficult terrain, I'm glad it wasn't any longer.

The moon was behind us as we went up the mountain.

We stopped to watch the sunrise. I was glad for any breaks, no matter the reason.

My thoughts at this point: "OMG, what have I gotten myself into?"

Looking back on the ground we'd just covered

No, it doesn't really look like a trail to me either.

We made it to the top!

Check out the 360° view from the top:

Of course, I knew the downhill would be no picnic.

This is Camelback Mountain from our car on our way home. We hiked that!

And my quads cried for two days afterward!

Carlsbad and Alamogordo, New Mexico

Visited March 12 - 17, 2021

By Marty

From Dallas/Fort Worth we drove 484 miles west to Carlsbad, NM. Hitting the road at 7:00 a.m. we pulled into the Carlsbad KOA after a nine hour day. 484 miles is our third longest drive of over 100 travel days since August, 2019. We typically drive 100 - 250 miles per day in part because the Beast is more taxing to drive than a regular vehicle. With 60' of motorhome and tow car and a width that takes up most of the lane one must be vigilant at all times (not that one should be unvigilant when driving other vehicles.) While I do enjoy cruising down the highway in the Beast there is more work, most of it the mental variety, involved.

Our motorhome, while a beauty, is actually not really the "Beast" that we make him out to be. The Allegro Red is the "entry level" diesel pusher in the Tiffin line. There are three levels above ours!  While we are very happy with our Beast (it's a great value) the loaded Allegro Red weight is "only" 32,000 lbs. The Phaeton weight is 38,000 lbs, the Allegro Bus 41,000 lbs, and the Zephyr 51,000 lbs.  With the heavier coaches comes a beefier suspension and smoother ride. Those bigger fellas don't get pushed around by the wind or passing semi trucks the way I do.

Crossing into New Mexico on Friday we entered the Central Time zone and gained an hour. It made the drive shorter and got us there in time for happy hour!

We were pleased to have that extra hour but we only got to enjoy it for a day....  On Sunday daylight savings time kicked in and cruelly stole back our extra hour!

 

 

Took this photo memorializing 25,000 miles as we turned off the highway into the campground. We hit 20,000 miles as we drove into Charleston back in mid November. The Beast had 4,701 miles on it when we started our travels.  20,000+ miles in 20 months on our adventure so far!   

 

A warm greeting awaited us at the Carlsbad KOA! How did they know where we were from?

Let me tell you about the wind...

On Friday, driving across west Texas, I fought a bit of a head wind and watched my MPG drop slightly over the course of the day. But this was nothing compared to the wind on Saturday and Sunday. Both days were cloudless but you almost wouldn't know it due to the dust filling the air. The sustained winds both days were 35-40 mph with gusts of 50 mph on Saturday and 60 mph on Sunday. 

The videos below give you a good idea of what we were dealing with:

The winds were so fierce that we pulled in the slides for most of the weekend. The short video above shows you the slide "toppers" that protect the top of the slides from tree debris and rain. When it's really windy the toppers whip up and down (by design to prevent damage) which can make quite a racket inside. Aside from the racket I worry about the fabric and coil mechanism wearing out and tearing or breaking on me prematurely.

 

Our world on Saturday and Sunday. It felt like being in a submarine (albeit a tall one with windows.) This is also travel mode. Just wide enough to get to the bathroom and the fridge!

For comparison

Saturday.  I didn't check the air quality index, but it couldn't have been good!

Monday morning

There are signs on the freeways in parts of New Mexico and Arizona telling you how to respond if engulfed by a dust storm. While driving through Carlsbad on the way to Carlsbad Caverns on Sunday we got a small taste of the seriousness of those warnings.

Gee, why the frowny face Marty?

I'll tell you why:  We visited Carlsbad for the sole purpose of visiting Carlsbad Caverns NP. The park is about an hour south of our KOA.  Due to Covid the park allows only 1,000 visitors per day but does not sell tickets online.  We arrived at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday to find that all tickets for the day had been sold. I was completely surprised by that. The ranger told us that people were lined up at 8:00 a.m. when the park opened. I also learned that Spring Break for the ENTIRE state of Texas (population 29 million) is this week. Apparently 1,000 of those Texans made it to Carlsbad Caverns on this particular morning before we did. 

The picture above is representative of the many people milling about the visitor center and gift shop on Sunday morning. Because all 1,000 showed up by 8 or 9 am. but most had to wait for timed entry (entry times were from 8:00 am. through noon we were told) many of them chose to kill time by hanging out inside the building (where the wind wasn't blowing at 40-60 mph). In addition to the 1,000 lucky ticket holders how many hundreds of other naive people like Janell and me who drove to the park and were in and around the building? Thus the NPS "Covid safe" limit of 1,000 people in the Cavern resulted in several hundred people mingling in close proximity inside the building. What's wrong with that plan?

We have visited many attractions during Covid where advance ticket purchase was required and entry limited to specific time slots. I approached a ranger to express my dismay at their lack of such a system. He said that a reservation system was coming soon, in about four days in fact.  I checked the NPS site while writing this and there is in fact a reservation system in place now. Better late than never! 

We were leaving Carlsbad the next day, so no opportunity to visit the Caverns this time. Perhaps we'll catch it another time.

Hmmm..  What would be the perfect name for the Carlsbad High School mascot?  Let me think, let me think....

Go Cavemen!

Pretty big and snazzy stadium for a town of just 29,000 people.

Janell and I play games in the evening sometimes. Not as much now that we are bloggers....

Last week I played this Cribbage hand which totals 20 points. The maximum score in a cribbage hand is 29 points. That's my highest score ever so I saved it for posterity!

We passed through Roswell on our way to Alamogordo. No unusual sightings. Just this sign.

Beep beep!

Can you find the roadrunner in this picture? We almost didn't see him as we walked by from 10' away.

Our Alamogordo destination was chosen in order to visit White Sands National Park, 20 miles away. Heading down the grade from Ruidoso, NM  toward Alamogordo you can see the white sands at the base of the distant mountains.

 

 

 Parking lot at White Sands.  Did I mention that it was Spring Break for Texas schools?

 

Looks like the tubing hill at a ski resort.  Did I mention that it was Spring Break for Texans?

Fortunately White Sands NP is quite large with plenty of areas to park and explore. If you are willing to walk five minutes from the road you can easily get away from the crowds as the following photos will demonstrate.

Alkali Flat trail is a five mile loop hike.  I wondered how there could be a "trail" in the sand dunes. These red posts are spaced so that one is always in view as you follow them to work your way around the dunes.

Pretty teeny, but there are are two posts and two people visible in the distance on the right side of the photo. I told you it wasn't crowded.

Janell warned me that we didn't have enough water...

We had to empty our shoes from time to time.

Sandalanche!

The effect is somewhat diminished on the video but a gentle push of the foot at the top of a dune causes a layer of sand to flow down.  The dune angle was around 60 degrees.

We are rule followers. They didn't have to threaten to blow us up. We would have stayed out anyway!

White Sands Missile Range is just visible in the distance.

The weather was very pleasant.  It was in the high 50's when we started and low 70's when we finished. It was nice to have some shade for lunch though!