Back to Winter Home in Picacho, AZ

As we watched the weather for the travel window, we saw that 2 different hurricanes were approaching up the Baja California coast, into Arizona, starting Friday, October 12th, so we decided to head back early to avoid driving in the rains that were predicted.  Thursday morning was quite uneventful other than some of our normal duties to move from one place to another were changed to reflect putting the RV to sleep for the winter.  That meant winterizing the water tanks, packing up everything.  We packed about 60% of the 'stuff' and got on the road by 10:30am.  We knew we had about a 3 hour window of travel, all backroads, no highways, and very scenic.

Off we went dropping down out of Payson into the Tonto Basin which is where Roosevelt Lake and Dam are located.  One of the huge reservoirs for collecting water for the Phoenix area, it was low but not as low as we have seen especially in Colorado.  Saw many boon-dockers (dry camping) along the banks of the Lake and traveled the 50 or so miles along the lake and then climbed again up into Globe, Arizona.  What a poor community even though the copper mines are running full blast.  Very depressing to us.

Roosevelt Lake

The little boxes along the shoreline - RVs boon docking

Bridge near the dam 

Marina - reminded us of Lake Mead and all the houseboats

Picked up Route 60 and dropped south into Superior where we picked up Route 79 that goes to Tucson.  About 80 miles further we turned to Park Link Road which connects 79 to the Marginal Road of Interstate 10 and did the quick 15 miles and pulled into Picacho Peak RV Resort.  Glad we were home.  Friday and yesterday were terrible rains, lots of flooding, so our decision to leave early was wise.

Back up into the White Mountains

So many copper mines in Globe

Moving into the mountains near Superior

Didn't realize Arizona is not all desert, huh?

And through Devil's Canyon

Spent a hectic 2 days unloading the RV and then straightening up the Park Model, and we are good now for the winter.  Had a great visit yesterday when we drove to Chandler and caught up with the grand girls and Jill and Erez.  Back to our routine now for the winter.  We drove the least amount of any year (9 years full-timing) with 2,207 miles.  Thank goodness we had the Jeep for our shenanigans we did this summer, that little CR-V would not have made it, we would have destroyed that car.

Through Queen Creek Tunnel (not far from Apache Junction) 

Picacho Peak

We only stayed in 11 campgrounds, another record.  Was away from Picacho 165 days, the record for least days out was in 2014 with 132 days - that was the year of my foot surgery and did not leave until July 15th.  But what a summer of extremes.  Found out we DO NOT want to off-road Jeep or do any of those extreme OHVing; NEVER want to white water raft EVER again; cannot live long in 10,000 feet altitudes due to altitude sickness; but did see some lovely, lovely scenery.  Colorado is a beautiful state, will go back again.  Was also wonderful to catch up with our niece Emily and her 2 - Cody and Imana and also spend lots of quality time with nephew Rob and wife Dee.  And glad we were near to neighbor's Skip and Linda to help them evacuate due to wild fire near them.

So what are our plans for next summer?  Seriously thinking of the Boundary Waters of Minnesota to spend long days floating/kayaking on the many lakes.  This will be the last post of the summer, will post if we do something out of the ordinary.

Moved to Payson, AZ

We decided to leave early from Monument Valley, got kinda tired of all the comings and goings of the campers coming into the KOA.  Was a weird experience, never knew who was going to be sitting beside you, some were good RVers with good manners and others you had to yell at them at 11pm at night to be quiet.  And, since we did the loop drive into Monument Valley, not much else to do.  A tremendous thunderstorm came through about 5am yesterday morning, hoping it would quickly end. By 8am we had sun and no clouds.  We had drugged up Buddy by 7am so by the time we got on the road at 9, he was pretty out of it.

Donkeys were in campground every night

Sky night before we left.  Rut-roh

8am on morning we left, thank goodness for clearing skies

Tanked up the RV at Gouldings Trading Post which is the famous trading post that the owners invited the producer/director John Ford to make movies in the valley in the 1930s and 1940s, with John Wayne staring in them, and then the rest is history.  Gouldings could be seen from our campground, about 5 miles in the distance, up against a huge red mesa.  Quite a complex, grocery store, museum, gift store, lodge/hotel, park models to rent, campground, gas station and car wash, restaurant.

Last look at Monument Valley before heading south to Kayenta  

Made the turn west out of Kayenta and climbed west towards Tuba City

Rain runoff - was very wet everywhere

The white cliffs way in the distance - near Page?

Headed south on Route 163 to Kayenta where we picked up Route 160 west towards Tuba City where we would pick up Route 89 heading south towards Flagstaff.  Planned mileage was 224 miles, 5 hours, get into campground around 2pm.

Close to Tuba City, the soil is so red

Oh no, now what?

Past some pretty country, all within Navajo Nation.  Saw lots of standing water which we attributed it to Hurricane Rosa.  Got into Tuba City, dropped to the junction of Route 89 and Route 160 and our plans did a big change.  Route 89 was closed south, so we were detoured up north on 89 to a small town of Gap.  Stopped at a gas station, I ran in to see what the detour was about - seems there was a sinkhole that opened up, road closed for days.  Great.  We turned around and headed back to Tuba City.

And back to Tuba City to pick up detour

You could see the dried mud on roads from washouts

2 1/2 hour detour, 176 miles later, ugh

In Tuba City took the detour east towards the Hopi Reservation and a town called Second Mesa where we then took Route 87 (Arizona Avenue) and followed that to Interstate 40.  Crossed I40 in Winslow and continued to follow 87 down to Strawberry where we picked up Route 260 (our original route) and then followed that into Payson.  Long, long day.  We put 369 miles on the RV and did not get into the campground until 5pm.  Will stay here for a week, beginning to get ready to close down the RV when we get back - sometime middle of October.

Very twisty, up and down, and road was very bumpy, not pleasant ride

Near Second Mesa

Some turns were pretty hairy

Long, long road to Winslow (I-40) on Route 87

And up into the Mogollon Rim of Arizona (8000 feet)