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.