I did -in my own way. I knew yesterday that we were going to the beach today, and that the dogs had to go to the groomer at 11am. My plan was to have the Jeep loaded and ready to go before dropping the pups off. Which I did. I’m in the Jeep wih the dogs, Dave gets in after locking the bus and I noticed he forgot his water. Goes back in and comes back with his portable speaker. “You forgot again, Honey.” Goes back in and grabs the water. On the way to the groomer he says, I forgot my sunglasses.” Me: 🙄 I guess someone’s head was not on going to the beach!
I knew there were canned margaritas and Paloma’s as well as his beer in the cooler, so I threw in some aguas to be responsible. We get to the beach and I’m saddened by the fact that there is seaweed, which there was not just two days ago. It wasn’t too bad where we set up, but it had also become crowded. No problem, plenty of room. We had no tent, umbrellas or any shade, so we only planned to stay a couple of hours.
A little bit f seaweed wasn’t stopping us.
I always have to take a pic of waves and/or birds. Got ‘em both in this shot.
A fishing pelican scans the waves.
I also always have to get in the water. Today I only went in as far as my hips. Unbeknownst to me, Dave was taking pics. Thank god they are blurry!
Me trying to brave the chill. ⬇️
After downing my water I broke out a canned margarita from Cut Water and ate some goldfish cracker, cause that’s all Dave grabbed, lol. He didn’t even wear swim trunks! 😡 It’s like he totally forgot we were headed to the beach!
He did go in and rinse his feet. Love the kicked up waves behind him too.
Turns out he likes taking pics of birds too.
Mr seagull waiting for a nibble.
We decided to leave and get home to shower before picking up the girls, and I had mentioned going out for a Margarita to celebrate properly.
Whiskey (top) and Brandy fresh from the groomer.
We did go to San Juan for a Margarita and some nachos, but I’m sad to say, for a Mexican restaurant the margaritas weren’t good. Nor did anyone in there care one bit about Cinco de Mayo. No greeting saying Happy Cinco de Mayo, no specials, just business as usual. One of these years I’ll get it right. Oh well, we tried to celebrate anyway! And we had a good day!
Karl and some others on the trip had taken a few photos of me that I finally saw on the Facebook group dedicated to Picacho happenings around the park (and other places). I thought I’d share them with you. ☺️
Half as tall as this organ pipe cactus.Carefully navigating my way down the hill with another lady from the trip. Forgive me, I forgot her name.In the poppies with a gifted piece of a dead cholla Karl gave me. I need to fetch it from him!The happy group of trekkers.Finally seeing the crested saguaro!I was so excited!
I will miss the desert and the friends we’ve made here, but hope to keep in touch in case we ever come back to Picacho. ☺️🤗
We made a second trip into Casa Grande today, so I snapped some more shots on the way there and back, but first, a few from around the resort.
The huge garden at the resort’s entrance.
We took a shower at the on-site shower room first thing this morning, then came back and gathered our computers and laptops to go back to the library and try to attend to some business, however, we still could not log on! Dave got frustrated and left, but I stayed with my iPad and did my blog, checked my emails, and played some games. I also caught up my Spanish lessons so I didn’t lose my streak!!
On the way back, since I was now walking home, I snapped some shots of the beautiful entrance and a few of the many cacti in the area. You now know about the saguaro, but there are lots more that the park features, but I don’t know the names of yet.
The other end of the same garden features palms, cacti, rocks, and a wagon.Also, the ever-present Palo Verde trees.
Eventually, I want to show all the facilities, but since I was at the entrance, I took a pic of the office, which has been closed since we got here due to the holiday.
Not sure if it’s real adobe, or just in that style.
As I walked through the rows of homes and RVs, I snapped more interesting cacti.
Not all the saguaros just have three, um, arms. 🤣 Some have many! Bent, twisted, droopy, all kinds!Not sure what the straight, single cacti are called, but I need to do more research on local cacti!
On the way back to my street, I turned and snapped a clearer pic of our view of the peak.
I just love looking at this view every day!Oops! I left out the sign at the entrance warning that there is no trespassing or peddling allowed here!
Now some pics from the road.
I have never seen as many pecan orchards as we have since traveling from New Mexico to our present location and beyond. These were on the way to Casa Grande, about twenty minutes away.
These pecan orchards stretch all the way from New Mexico to who knows where, on both sides of the highways! It’s too hard to catch the rows and rows from the road.
Coming back from the malls and stores, I snapped more view of rugged mountains to the left of us, as well as our peak’s range from the back side. This is home to Arizona State Park also called Picacho Peak State park. I need to check the regs again, but I believe as vets we should be able to get in there for free.
Rugged mountains on the left.Approaching our peak’s range, or the back side on the right. A closer view now, featuring sage that grows wild along the highway everywhere here. I wonder what the tiny peaks are in the middle?
There are people camping in and around the state park. They must be boondocking, because there’s no resort in there that I know of. I’d rather do it our way, with hookups to water and electricity thank you! Notice the inverted bumps at the sides of the highway designed to keep you awake if you start to drift off the road! Also note the small hill in front of the mountains, it appears to be purple, which doesn’t show up in this picture. My theory is that the greenery mixed with the red dirt makes them appear purple.
A slightly clearer pic of the range features the back view of the peak and those tiny little peaks in the middle.
And that concludes today’s pics from the road and around the “neighborhood” but stay tuned because I have yet to tour the entire resort! I still haven’t made my way to the “rally house” yet, as my man is slow to get out and socialize. But when we got back from the shopping trip, it was hot in our house, so I sat outside in my fabulous rocking camp chair to cool off, when who should stop by in her golf cart but Karen! She had her hubby, Dave, and her two giant dogs, a standard poodle, and a poodle mix of some sort. I wish I’d have taken their pictures, but we were soon joined by Glen and Glen and their three adorable tiny dogs…can’t remember their names, but they are a gorgeous breed. Glen and Glen are two pals that hit the road together because “big” Glen recently lost his wife, and they already had the trip planned, so his buddy Glen said he would go with if big Glen didn’t mind.
One more thing before I sign off for the evening. I am now blogging from the motor home thanks to David! The shopping trip was mainly to go to T-mobile and purchase home wi-fi, so now we are connected to the internet, thank the Lord! I’m more relaxed and not worried about how much time I’m spending at the library, doing what I used to not be able to do from home. Now, I can blog, play a game, read my emails in their entirety, or watch something on Hulu if I don’t care for what Dave is watching. Heaven I tell you! But still, I’m gonna get out and about as soon as things are running on a regular schedule. I like doing things, meeting new people, and I’m dying to get in the hot tub! So much to see and do, I can’t be sitting around in the motor home all the time!
Last note: we are the last site on our row, which is right next to the freeway, and the train tracks! Believe it or not, I never even notice! When I put my book down at night and turn off the light, I’m out in two minutes! 😂🤣
Good night all! I hope you are enjoying the new blog so far and enjoying the holiday weekend. ☺️🤗
After querying my readers about my new blog name, a couple of you said it sounded perfect, and that was good enough for me! So what better time than now to talk about it, especially since it’s cold and rainy and we are sort of stuck inside.
The idea with this new blog is to share stories and pictures from all the great places we plan on visiting. Now what I need to know is, do you want me to just stick with that, or still do challenges-like Word of the Day, SoCS, and others?
Monday will be our first week as newbie RVers and was meant to be a practice run to learn what this new life would be like. We’ve learned a few things, like how to operate the washer/dryer combo, how to hook up to water, electric and sewer connections, and get an idea of the costs associated with propane, diesel, and groceries.
It’s been a pretty calm and quiet week, so perfect for practicing. Unfortunately, weather and our pets prevented us from doing much, but that will change, I’m sure, when we get to the next destination. We plan to stop in Van Horn, Tx for the first overnight, then Deming, New Mexico for the next night, then the final leg will end in Tucson, Arizona where we’ll stay for three and a half months.
It should be an exciting journey as with all kinds of new photo ops, but for now, I’ll leave off with a couple more from the River here in Junction, Tx.
I have three different club memberships, and plenty of Facebook forums to ask pertinent questions, but feel free to pipe in with advice and suggestions you might have from your own experiences. I bring all my present blogger friends and welcome newbies-with or without experience-at life on the road in a motor home.
(Photos from The Llano River taken by yours truly) 😘
Ahhh, I could develop and adoration for this life if I could start them all this way!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “morning.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!HEREare the rules & ping back if you’d like to join in either as a writer or a reader or both!!
I’m reading my blogs and emails from my bed this morning, looking out the window at a different view of the river, while the cold wind rages outside…I’m warm and toasty inside, enjoying the view. Caught up on my blogs and Spanish lessons too! All I need is a hot beverage and I’d be in Heaven.
Twisted Trunk-I’ll take another pic or edit the table out before making it my logo.
The day before yesterday, I was looking out the front window at this cool tree with a twisted trunk, and a brilliant idea formed in my head. So yesterday, after taking the bus to town to get propane and diesel, we were walking the dogs and I took a picture of said tree, and I think it will be the logo for my new blog! I’m going to call it Twisted Trunk Travels to commemorate the first stop on our journey. What say you? Good idea? Stinker? Let me know in the comments.
I really thought I was going to be sick when Dave told me we had a 100 gallon gas tank and we had to refuel yesterday, but I was pleasantly surprised 😮 Propane and diesel together were less that $300!! I was afraid it would be more like $500+. We had to prove our teamwork skills and put everything away before making the short trip to Main Street, but the dogs did so well, sitting on the couch and not moving when the coach was running down the road! I was impressed, because I didn’t want to have to put their kennels together and put them in there. They were such good girls!
We have no such agenda today, maybe another load of laundry later, but now I know how our on-board machine works, so I’ll get that going later. My only complaint this morning is that I had to listen to the screeching windmill across the park in the high wind from about 4am until I fell back asleep. That and the dogs had to go potty about that time, I hated for Dave to deal with that in the cold wind, but unfortunately he is taller and can manage that bottom step off the RV carrying dogs much better than your accident-prone author here.
I hope everyone has a warm and toasty Saturday morning wherever you are!
Twisted Trunk Travels 