Homeward Bound

DAY 18:
Our last day in Mesa was quite uneventful.  We stayed around camp most of the day as it was really too hot (for us) to do much of anything else.  We cleaned the windows of our rig, swept and wet-mopped the inside, did laundry, and packed up all that had to be stored down below.  Then at 4ish we headed to a doggie park in downtown Phoenix before we had pizza at the number #1 restaurant in town.  Now that all our basic needs were met, we were able to leave our pups in the car for a few hours while John and I attended a Dancing With The Stars performance that was on tour.

DAY 19:
Before skipping town we had to return our rental car in the northern part of Phoenix.  Off through rush hour we went, one behind the other.  It only took an hour to our surprise.  It was nice to be together again when driving the rig as a copilot comes in sooo handy!  Off to Wickenburg we went. It is a cute western town that, according to John, has one of the best museums he has been to.  Nice boutiques and eateries line the main streets.  We had to watch out for the branches of  the little trees that lined these streets.  More than once we had not choice but to be scraped gently by them.  By noon we hit the road for our final destination for the day, Needles, CA.  (More pics of Wickenburg to follow.)

 We ended up staying at the same resort where we stayed on our way down.  Since we got there a little earlier, we actually met some of the other campers that were there.  Rob and Doreen from Montana, were kind enough to show us around a bit and give me a ride to the store to purchase some milk.  We also met the activities  coordinators from camp.  What nice couples.  We would have stayed a few more days and partaken of Taco Tuesday, but we have a deadline to get home.


DAY 20:
We had planned on being on the road by 7:30 this morning but one last conversation with Rob and Doreen delayed that by half an hour.  Breaking down and pulling out has almost become second nature.  John does the "outside" and I do the "inside' work.  Lucky me!  I don't have to put on "THE GLOVES" to do MY chores!  We stopped in Barstow for gas and a late breakfast at Lola's Mexican restaurant.  It was a small place that had excellent food.  So good in-fact that I had to buy some of their home made salsa to take home.  On the road again to Bakersfield where we arrived at Orange Grove RV park at 3ish.  It did not appear to be very full but that is because we were one of the first to arrive for the overnight stays.  By 5:00 the place was packed.  Orange Grove RV park is part of an orange orchard, and one of the perks is that we got to pick oranges.  Oh they are sooooo good!  After walking the dogs and a much needed shower, we settled down for the night.

Fecal Face

DAY 15, 16, 17 :
The last three days have all melted together.  We're still at Mesa Spirit RV Park and we're using that as a spring-board to activities in surrounding areas.  We spent the majority of Day 15 (2/5/15) with our Mesa friends (Alvin 96, Miss Ellie 73) that we met in Panama last year.  They are a lovely elderly couple that is entertaining to be around.  They bicker back and forth in the spirit of fun.  We went out to lunch, got lost with Miss Ellie behind the wheel, and picked citrus fruit from their trees to bring home.

The next day (16) we woke up good and hungry as we had skipped dinner the night before.  We treated ourselves to a southwestern breakfast that was "out of this world".  We were now energized to take on our first lesson of shuffle-board at 9:00 am.  To say the least, shuffle-boarding is a SLOW game!  For someone who's a bit more of an aggressive player, this is not your cup of tea.  It wasn't mine!  I was glad when the session ended and hoped that Pickle Ball would be better suited for me.  Unfortunately we just found out that the next lessons are not scheduled until Monday.  In the afternoon we took our pups to a great doggie park in a neighboring community where they playfully chased balls and made new friends.

Yesterday (DAY 17) we went for a hike on the Wind Cave Trail, just east of Mesa.  It is a moderate trail, the last half of which has a pretty steep incline.  The trail is very rocky with lots of loose, rocky soil.  It was Saturday and the trail was full of hikers, some with their little ones and many with their pups.  I can't say enough how proud we are of our doggies for taking on this hike with us, not that we gave them a choice.  Teddy did especially well.  His short legs made climbing onto the rocks harder.  He also seemed to be bothered most by the heat, and I could tell that he was ready to be done and I debated carrying him at one point.  By then however, we were almost at the top so, to save his pride, I let him climb the rest of the way to the outlook.

The return trip down the trail was easier on all of us.  But, because it was very narrow, it was now our turn to move over and let those going up have the right of way.  At times the pups got vegetation stuck to their coats that I quickly removed as I was not sure if any of it may have contained stickers.  Apparently there were no stickers.... good, however Otis and his irritable-bowl-syndrome did manage to get some sh*# on his hind legs.  And, do you know what happened?... I got some on my hand while removing some innocent leaves.  The worst part was that I did not realize it until a second later,  AFTER I wiped away a fly that had land on my nose. I would have entitled this post Sh*# Face but then you would have thought I had gotten plastered as is the usual meaning for this idiom. No, I got poo all over my nose, and it smelled horrible, and all we had was some water.  No soap, no disinfectant wipes, no tissues, no nothing! I did the best I could to remove the stench from my nostrils and could not wait to make it to the bathrooms at the trail head.  What?  No soap! No toilet paper! No paper hand-towels! What kind of facilities is this?  It is a paper conservation site.  They only had a blow dryer to dry hands, the soap and toilet paper were out, I imagine because it was such a busy day.  As you'd understand, I was eager to get to a place where I could wash up.  A ColdStone Creamery on the way to our RV was our next stop.  We ordered our decadencies and off I went to the bathroom.  NO SOAP again!  What is this, a conspiracy?  We rushed back to our RV where I scrubbed my face raw with tons of soap and hot water, followed by a two hour swim in a well-chlorinated pool. I finally feel clean.  Our TOP (Teddy, Otis, Pippa) were more than glad to be left in the RV while John and I were at the pool.

We enjoyed a Mexican dinner from a whole-in-the-wall, and then we spent the rest of the evening around the RV drinking coffee and eating some treats we had purchased earlier.  The pups were pooped and slept the rest of the day away.

An Unexpected Find

DAY 14:

After one day in the black-top parking lot world of Mesa, John and I were ready to leave this busy civilization behind, at least for a day.  We decided to head to the McDowel Mountain Park just a 40 minute drive from where we are staying.  It is supposed to be a beautiful desert park with many trails to chose from.  We made it there just before noon and gave our pups an opportunity to drink some water before heading onto the trail.   The park ranger at the entrance had recomended the North Trail for us as she saw that we had dogs with us, and it was supposed to be an "easier" desert trail.  There were many varieties of cacti to be seen and felt. After having been on the trail for a few minutes we were glad we had heeded the ranger's advice and not gone for the more moderate trail.  The North Trail was indeed an "easy" hike for us, but for the dogs it was much harder.  They were hot, tired quickly, and poor Teddy got multiple cacti thorns stuck in his paws... three times.  (Teddy has had a rough vacation!)  The other trails were a bit harder in grade and narrowness, which would have made it even more difficult on the pups to not step on throny vegetation.

We had worked up an appetite so we decided to head back to the town of Fountain Hills that we had come through on our way to the park.  It had looked so cute and we were now ready to explore it.  The town has a small lake in the center with a fountain that shoots a stream of water 350 to 500 feet into the air, every hour for 15 minutes. The only times when the fountain does not blow is if there is a wind higher than 10 mph.  There is a nice walking path all around it that is frequented by the locals all day long in the winter.  When I say winter, here that means 75-85 degree temperatures.  It was fabulous.  In the summer when the temperatures easily reach 120 degrees, the people only use the path in the wee hours of the morning.

The whole town of Fountain Hills is very clean, landscaped beautifully with native plants, and the people are very friendly. We used Trip Advisor to help us find an eatery.  The #1 in town is DJ Bagel Cafe.  Neither John nor I can remember a time when we had such good sandwiches.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of our orders.   Next time we make it down to AZ in an RV, we will stay around Fountain Hills.  There is supposed to be a beautiful Native American site that is right on the river.  Live and learn. Next to Sedona, this is our second favorite town we've visited.  Back in the RV, everyone is taking an early evening nap, except yours truly.

 Before going to bed tonight we decided to try the pool that is in our section of the park.  The water was a balmy 82 degrees and the air temperature was 76 degrees. The hot-tub was too warm for me; it was huge... 20 feet in diameter.  There is only seating around half of the hot tub so I can only guess that this is so you can walk or swim in it.

I Miss You Sedona!

DAY 11:
This morning, while the birds were still sleeping,  we got up for one last meal out in our favorite town thus far.  Cafe Jose, where the locals eat, has a $4.99 Huevos Rancheros special that was to die for. After that we gassed up our rental car, dropped it off in the RV parking lot where it will be picked up, and broke down camp.  We were so sad to pack up as we didn't get to hike anywhere near enough trails.  Sedona, you are breathtakingly beautiful! We will come back to see you again!!!

Pippa travels on the sofa and now thinks its "her" spot!

We arrived at our Phoenix campground around 11:00 AM and we were looking forward to have a day or two to relax at "home."  We had been on the move so much that relaxing had not been high on the agenda. But first we were off to a Super Bowl party in the afternoon at Alvin and Miss Ellie's home in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix.  We had a wonderful visit with our elderly friends and have made plans to meet one more time before we leave town.  While we were at Alvin's home I became increasingly concerned about Teddy's health.  His neck seemed to have swelled up considerably over the past few hours.  We ended up taking him to a 24 hour emergency vet where they had to reopen the drain holes, where the tubes had been removed.  This will
allow the release of the fluid buildup.  He was put on another round of antibiotics and pain meds.

DAY 12:

Our new campsite where we were planing to stay the duration of our Phoenix visit,  was nice enough with one exception.  It was right next to an airport and boy did we hear that.  It was hard to get any sleep, and the morning and afternoon were not any better.  It was so bad that we complained at the office;  they apologized and were willing to refund us our money without penalty for less than a 72 hour cancellation.  Apparently the airport has been crazy busy with private jets coming in due to the Super Bowl.

Giant cacti at the outlet stores.

Now we had to scramble to find a new place to stay that would be more agreeable. Within an hour we had broken down camp and were on the road again, this time in separate vehicles: the RV and our rental car for the week.  All this during rush hour, one behind the other, over freeways that had construction zones. This was just a tad bit intimidating without a copilot to rely on for directions.  Thank goodness for Apple MAPS app.!  We could not have done it without you.  We drove down to Spirit Mesa Resort, where there was just one dog-friendly space for us. Yay!  We were piloted to our site by an employee driving a golf cart.  He then guided us into our spot only to find that the construction that had been done the week before on that site had not settled and our RV tires were sinking as we were backing up.  We told them that this site would not do as our automatic levelers  would sink too.  To make a long story short, they did find us another spot that was actually much nicer and right next to a fenced doggie area!  It was 6:00 pm before we were settled and John and I were ravished.  Neither of us was up to starting the "fixing dinner  process," so we treated ourselves to yet another dinner out. Then we slept the night away.

DAY 13:
I started my day with doing two loads of laundry while John "gently sleeps," again. LOL  Our first order of business is to complete the registration process for which we had arrived too late the evening before. Then we were off to take the dogs and ourselves for a much needed walk.  When we got back we started meeting all sorts of doggies and their people.  I guess that is the beauty of being right next to the doggie potty area.

Breakfast and coffee on our patio.

There are folks here from all over, some that are here just for a week or two, and others that are here for months at a time.  They have pot-lucks for "all folks from Ohio," or "all folks from Alberta," or "all folks from Minnesota," etc.  We haven't heard of a pot-luck for folks from Oregon yet.  Maybe we'll have to host one! :)  Tonight we BBQ the chicken that was supposed to have been last night's dinner.  I was going to bake some dessert but John has this thing


about not using any of the propane appliances, so no dessert for us.  Tonight we poured over the pages of activities that are offered at the resort this week and we've decided to let ourselves be know in several of them over the next few days.  The Caldwell name will be remembered as true competitors or as fools who didn't know what they were doing.  Regardless, we'll have fun doing it.