November 17th thru 21st (last posting till Feb)

Catalina State Park Tucson to storage location, to Phoenix Airport to Portland Airport to Anchorage Airport and home

We had a busy morning getting prepared to come home, but fortunately we had done most of the preparation work earlier. Things like emptying the 3 fluid tanks in Cassie, picking up a rental car from the most inconvenient location in Tucson, giving away food that we had in the refrigerator. After we parked Cassie and Chevy at the storage facility we had a bit more storage preparation to do, we put decon (rodent poison) and mothballs throughout both vehicles.

We had a 2 hour drive to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix where we dropped off the rental car and waited for our flight back home to Alaska. Everything was then up to Alaska Airlines to get us back to Anchorage which they did a fine job of arriving home shortly before 2am on the 18^th. 

It felt really nice to be home but it was cold in Anchorage, several degrees below freezing, we were questioning our sanity, for leaving a beautiful warm climate to come back to temperatures which are somewhat chilly. After a short night sleep we started to get things done which like going thru a couple of months of mail. I also took the summer tires off our car and put on the winter tires, something we do twice a year to match the season. There was also grocery shopping to be done, as the food department was kind of empty for this house.

In the evening we went to our boating club annual Thanksgiving Pot Luck dinner. It was a great time to catch up with our friends and share tales with them all in one spot.

We went and visited Holly’s mom who was very happy to see us. So we are pretty much settling back to life in Anchorage.

We plan on continuing our travels sometime in the New Year. We both really enjoyed the time and the way we were traveling and are looking forward to continuing our journey. This will be the last posting on this blog till sometime in February 2011. I have appreciated the positive comments and emails that I have received from doing this blog and  if you are interested in following our travels in the new year send me an email so that I can be sure to let you know when I start it up again.

Photos for Nov 9th thru Nov 17th Tucson Area

Nov 9th thru 17th

Sorry that there were no photos in the last post having computer problems. We post photos at later day for the period Nov 9th thru 17th
Keith

November 9th thru 17th

Catalina State Park Tucson

We are having a fine time here in Tucson. Our friends Jim and Luci Davis from Anchorage are here at their condo, so we have had a couple of nice hikes with them. One at Sabino Canyon, we saw many cactus in different varieties, lots of beautiful scenery and a very pleasant hike, not too difficult--the kind we like. That evening Jim and Luci had another friend of ours who used to live in Anchorage, Randy Knauff over for dinner, so it was like old times on a river sharing stories.

On the 11^th, Jim and Luci took us for a drive up Mount Lemmon, which is on the outskirts of Tucson elevation is about 2600ft and Mt Lemmon has an elevation of over 9000ft.The temperature at Mt Lemmon is about 30 degree cooler than Tucson. Of the many interesting things on the drive, we passed dozens of people biking up the mountain; it was exhausting watching them, as they were moving at quite a clip on their 27 mile ride. On the way down the mountain we stopped at about the 5000ft level and went for a hike on the Old Arizona Trail. 

There are 4 Casita trailers at this campground and we spoke to 2 of the other owners who are full timers living in their 17ft Casita’s. We got a lot of good ideas from them about how to better use the limited space that we have.  So I will be doing a few modifications next time Cassie is in Anchorage. On Sunday morning we had friends Lyle and Rose from Palmer Alaska, visit us at the camp. In the evening we went and shared time with friends David and Susan who live in Tucson. We met David on a Colorado River trip several years ago.  Each evening at Catalina Camp we see many very large Jack rabbits, and several times each evening we hear Coyotes howling, sounds like an Alaskan Dog sled Team.

We decided a couple of weeks ago that it would be nice to be back in Anchorage to share Thanksgiving with Holly’s mother, and stay home through Christmas and into the  New Year. We will be staying in Tucson until the 17^th of November, and flying home to Anchorage that evening from Phoenix. We have spent a couple of days here organizing things, like finding a place to store Chevy and Cassie while we are in Anchorage. We have also spent time getting Cassie ready for storage in a hot climate. In Alaska we have to winterize her so that the plumbing does not freeze up and break. Tucson has different problems when vehicles are left for a length of time so we have made some inquires as how to deal with the local problems. We have hot glued fine mesh netting over all the vent areas to prevent flying bugs from getting into Cassie and building nest etc.  

Monday November 8th

Dateland to Catalina State Park Tucson

160 Miles

Another nice days drive, got to the campground in the early afternoon. After setting up we drove to a library and caught up on some internet stuff, but unfortunately I was not ready to post my blog.  Catalina campground is way up there with Buckskin as a lovely place to camp; we feel that we will stay here a few days. We are at a higher elevation than we have been for quite some time, so the temperatures here are cooler and very comfortable.

November 4th, 5th & 6th (We floated, hiked and biked)

Buckskin Mountain Camp

4^th We drove up the road a few miles and when to Take Off Point, which is just above Parker Dam and there is a boat ramp for putting into Lake Havasu from the south end. We pumped up our Inflatable Kayak for the 1^st time on this trip. We paddle around the lake for a couple of hours this morning; it was great to be on the water again and to be dressed in shorts and t-shirts instead of a dry suit. I did not realize how much fun it can be paddling in warm water.

5^th There is a lovely trail starting at the campground going up to a place called Look Out Point, so we got a relative early start before the heat of the day. We also followed the trail up another hill, by that time the sun was starting to blaze a bit so we headed back to camp. In the afternoon we drove 14 miles into Parker and went to the learning resource center to catch up on news email and this blog.

6^th This morning we notice lots of paddle boats on the river, there was a race from Parker Dam to Blue Water Casino. There were sit on top kayak, ocean kayaks, white water kayaks, outrigger canoe and lots and lots of stand on paddle boards, everyone seem to be having a good time. In the afternoon we went for a 12 mile bike ride down the road to another campground that we had almost stayed in at La Paz. It was a far bigger campground than Buckskin and nowhere near as nice.

Wednesday November 3rd (Lake to Colorado River)

Lake Havasu to Buckskin Mountain Camp

50 Miles

Another short day’s drive, which are nice when are not in a hurry to get to anywhere in particular. Buckskin Camp is right on the banks of the Colorado River just downstream of Parker Dam. We are staying at a Nevada State Campground and across the river is California. We went for a drive this afternoon, and used the Parker Dam to cross the Colorado River. While in California we check out a couple of campgrounds but feel the one we are staying at is the best one around here. It is also very hot today, but we do have shade trees in the camp and they are greatly appreciated by us

Tuesday November 2nd (Lake Havasu)

Lake Havasu

We took a look around Lake Havasu today. There is a beautiful park near a canal that a bridge was moved from London is now situated. This bridge is what Lake Havasu City is built around, and is the magnetic that was the start in building this community. After spending most of the day at the park we went and visit Terry and Marge who are related to friends of ours in Anchorage and use to live in Alaska. We came back to Cassie and watch the results of the election but went to bed before the results from Alaska came in.   

Monday November 1st (Lake to Lake)

Temple Bar Lake Mead to Lake Havasu

150 Miles

After breakfast we discussed where we should be heading today. We did want to be in a campground that had electricity, TV and internet. The TV was important with the election on Tuesday, we wanted to be informed what was happening in the world of Politics, and I had several days of blogs that I needed to post. The internet connection had something to be desired, so I didn’t get posted all that I was hoping to. Nothing especially exciting today, we drove thru Kingman, what we saw of it wasn’t exactly impressive. Found the camp at Lake Havasu, Campbell Cove. It was extremely hot today, but the pool was extremely cold so we settle for the spa pool. We watch tv this evening, the 1^st time in quite awhile. The wind blew pretty hard this evening.

Sunday October 31st (Holloween)

Temple Bar Lake Mead

We got up early this morning and went for a walk to the boat launching area. We meet a couple from Las Vegas, John and Loretta who were launching their pontoon boat, I spoke to them a bit, and they invited us go for a ride with them on Lake Mead. That was a beautiful experience, John did a bit of fishing and caught a couple of bass, which he fillet and gave to us, which we had for dinner this evening. The lake was as calm as could be, and the colors were beautiful, but I didn’t have my camera on me.

Today been Holloween we had a campfire tonight and invited the only over person in the camp this evening Ernie to come over and share the fire with us. So we sat around sharing stories till we had to more wood.

Saturday October 30th (Crossing Colorado River into Arizona)

Terrible’s Lakeside Casino RV Resort Pahrump

To Temple Bar Lake Mead

160 Miles

We drove thru the outskirts of Las Vegas and the only money we dropped off was for gasoline. We went and looked at the Hoover Dam, finding a parking space was a little difficult with Cassie, and there was a large crowd due to the opening of the new bridge. We spent a couple of hours walking over the dam and looking at the structure. The water level on Lake Mead is down about 160ft, the overflow spillways were high and dry. Lake Mead look as if it has a ring around it which the high water had left the banks bleached.  We crossed the Colorado River on the new bridge which was open less than a week ago a magnificent structure. We saw a herd rocky mountain sheep on the hills on both side of the dam.
Our guide book of Southwest Camping Destinations had a given a lovely description of a camp on Lake Mead, but the coordinates were incorrect in the book. It was rapidly getting dark as we were driving 15 miles down a paved road with no traffic on it, twilight zone stuff, then our GPS wanted us to take a turn and go 6 miles down a gravel road. We though we better carry on the pave road it must lead somewhere. It leads to a beautiful National Park Service Campground, with 160 sites, only 3 of them were taken. All the sites were back ins, and backing Cassie in the dark was not the easiest thing I have done

Friday October 29th (Pahrump) (Nevada Day)

Terrible’s Lakeside Casino RV Resort Pahrump

We had a very relaxing day at this oasis in the desert. We meet a couple who were staying at this campground they go to Alaska each year and fish at Valdez. They gave us some halibut and smoked salmon which was very nice of them. We paddle around the lake in a paddle boat. It seems like everybody staying here has a dog that had to be walked around the lake several times a day. On the way to the spa pool this evening, there was a bunch of pumpkins that had been carved for Halloween, a group of people were having a get together on the beach, and joyously asked us to judge their pumpkins carving skills.

Thursday October 28th (On to Nevada)

Sunset Campground Furnace Creek to

Terrible’s Lakeside Casino RV Resort Pahrump

60 Miles

Today was another easy day’s travel, we had looked in our guide books and Terribles seem like a nice place to come for a couple days. There is a lake here and lots of trees and grass, quite a contrast from Death Valley. They also advertised wifi, but like many campgrounds that advertise wifi, it is very limited and really pain to get connected, and when you do get connected the speed is so slow you just don’t want to deal with it. I felt I could sit in Cassie and catch up on this blog, unfortunately we will be heading into Pahrump to see if we can find a place with a decent connection. This campground is in the Passport America’s program which gives you 50% discount on camping fees. There are some restrictions, but so far those have not affected us. This evening we went and enjoyed the spa pool, which was so lovely and relaxing.   

Wednesday October 27th (Return to Furnace Creek)

Stovepipe Wells Campground to Sunset Campground Furnace Creek

30 Miles

Well last night we decided that it would be nice to go back to Furnace Creek, as there was a couple of things we really wanted to do there. One was to go for a swim in the pool at the motel across the street from where we camped at Sunset, there is a warm water mineral pool and we just had to go for a swim in the dessert while we were in Death Valley. We also wanted to listen to another night of live music in the camp put on by members of the 49’s. We had really enjoyed the people we met at Sunset very friendly group of people. This year would be the Death Valley 49’ers 61^st encampment.

We were at Sunset camp with the folks that get here really early. Apparently 1000’s of motor homes and people come for the encampment and is held from November 7^th thru 14^th.