On the road again…Cruising East to Arizona

Waking up back in the USA was a different feeling for us. Turning on the hotel TV and understanding what people were saying was pretty nice. Today was a day that Julie and I had waited 2 months for. We were going to be reunited with Bubbles and continue our “normal” life of camping in a van. After taking our last hotel shower for quite a while we called an Uber and headed back to our RV storage site. We had called the RV storage company a few days prior and when we arrived Bubbles was washed and ready for us to pick up. We packed up Bubbles and we were off!

The first day (or half day as was the case) was prepping for the road again. First stop was Home Depot as our bike rack needed a few new pieces of hardware to keep our bikes steady as we rolled down the road. Next stop was Vons (California version of Safeway Grocery stores) to stock up on groceries. Then we had to visit Target to get a few RV specific items. Lastly we headed back to the San Diego KOA which we had spent our last night in 2 months prior. Even though the first day back on the road consisted of just prep it was great to be back on the road.

The next day we woke up ready to go. Today was the day. We were hitting the highway and heading east for the first time since leaving Rochester back on May 15, 2017. We had breakfast, packed up Bubbles and headed towards I-8 heading east from San Diego. The start of this drive (as anyone who has done this drive knows) is immensely beautiful. From San Diego you almost immediately head up in elevation through high desert mountains filled with pine trees and beautiful vistas. Once you reach the top you slowly drop down south of the Salton Sea through desert and the southern end of California’s central valley. From there is more or less flat all the way to the Arizona border. The drive from San Diego to California’s eastern border took around 5 hours. We had made a reservation at a campground in California just over the border from Yuma, AZ so the fun of crossing into a new state would have to wait until tomorrow.

We woke up the next morning excited. Even though technically we had already been in the state of Arizona twice (When we went to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and on the way to Las Vegas from Utah) we had not actually spent any time in any of Arizona’s cities. First stop was a quick 5 minute drive to Arizona’s most western town of Yuma. Looking on Google maps we could not find any center shopping areas or any areas where stores were at all. We decided to drive around anyway and found a little area of stores. While talking to one of the shopkeepers he was surprised that we were not able to find the center as it was just one block away. So off we went to the next block and low and behold there it was. There was even a farmers market going on. We were not sure why Google didn’t help us find main street but we had a lot of fun walking up and down the street looking at produce and all the food carts. When we were done browsing the farmers market we hopped back into Bubbles and headed for Arizona’s largest city of Phoenix.

It was a few hours drive to Phoenix from Yuma, which went by pretty fast. Before going to our campsite for the night we were stopping by good friends of ours (Keith & Casey’s) house for a few hours to catch up. I had met Keith years prior while working and had lived in an apartment with both him and Casey as well. They had moved out to Phoenix from Rochester a few years ago and it was the first time being able to see both of them since they moved. It was great seeing them and catching up (and getting to meet their baby girl Isla). Before we knew it a few hours had passed, the sun was setting and we had to still check into our campground. We made plans to have brunch the next day and we were off to the far side of Phoenix where our campground was located.

As the next morning was Sunday when we woke up we decided to have a bit of a relaxing day. Instead of our usual breakfast of fruit and dried cheerios we met Keith & Casey at a nearby diner for breakfast. Breakfast was great and it was fun being able to see them again. They also said it was the first time they had brought Isla out to a restaurant. (She did great by the way, slept thought the entire meal!) After brunch we said goodbye to Keith & Casey and made our way to Mesa, one of Phoenix’s biggest suburbs. We found the main street, which was huge but as it was Sunday not much was open. We did find a small brewery called Oro Brewing that was open and stopped in for a drink. Now it’s no surprise that Julie and I like beer but stopping in small breweries also serves another purpose. Generally speaking you are able to find out a lot about the local area from friendly bartenders and patrons around you. We spent some time talking with Joe the bartender who gave us some great information about the Phoenix beer scene as well as some fun stuff to do in Mesa and the greater Phoenix area. We thanked Joe for the information and we were off again. The last stop for the day was to head to another Phoenix suburb called Scottsdale. Julie’s grandparents had lived there for quite a while in the 90’s and she wanted to find the house where they lived. After some discussion with her mother on the phone we narrowed down a few streets and went on the hunt. Apparently her mom had a pretty good memory because in no time at all we were stopped in front of the house in Scottsdale. Julie got out of the car and took a few pictures pointing out what was there when she was a child and what was new. It was a blast from the past for her. From Scottsdale we ventured back to the campground and called it a night.

The next two days were spent having a lot of fun. We tried to do very “Arizona” things and I think we succeeded. First off we headed to downtown Phoenix to continue seeing state capitol buildings. This was our 17^th! This capitol building was a bit different than others as the senate and house chambers were in separate buildings separated by a courtyard. The building that stands in front of them that looks like a capitol building is actually the old capitol building and is now a state museum. We passed up seeing the actual senate and house chambers and went on a tour of the state museum. It was pretty neat walking through the history of the building and learning Arizona history as well. From the state museum we headed a little north of downtown to the Desert Botanical Garden. We had been seeing cactus and other desert plants for miles since we left San Diego so we figured that we should have some sort of idea of what we were looking at. The gardens were huge with a wealth of information to look at and absorb. The one plant that stuck out the most was the giant Saguaro cactus. We learned that these cactus grow extremely slow, roughly 1 foot for every 10 years. They also do not flower until they are 60 or grow their famous arms until 80 years or so. After learning this we had a newfound respect for them.

The next day, our last in the Phoenix area was spent playing golf. Both Julie and I had never played golf in the desert and were eager to give it our best shot. We had found an inexpensive course (Apache Creek) close to our campground so we made a tee time and we were off. We were surprised when we arrived as the place was packed. It was mid week around 10am and we thought we would be the only ones out there. This was not the case. We had forgotten the fact that this was Arizona in February, which is prime time for Northwestern and Canadian snowbirds. We checked in and they said to go to the 1^st tee that the rest of our 4some was waiting there. We were paired up with Jack from Wyoming/Florida (82 years young) and Ron also from Wyoming (60 years young). We lined up, hit our tee shots and we were off. Julie and I were both impressed how good Jack was considering he was in his 80’s. While he didn’t hit the ball far, every shot was straight down the middle. Ron wasn’t too bad either. We were beat by both of them. Julie and I had a great time playing with them and enjoyed a few beers after we finished the round. It was a fun day.

The next day we woke up, packed Bubbles and we were off. Today we were headed to the red rocks of Sedona. After a few hours visiting the town of Scottsdale (we both loved it) we were on the highway and headed north. Our original plan was to go all the way to the south rim of the Grand Canyon but as winter in northern Arizona is colder than we had anticipated, Sedona was as far north as we could go without the possibility of Bubbles’ pipes freezing/bursting due to below freezing temperatures. No worries though, Sedona is beautiful.   For those of you who have never been to Sedona, picture red rock canyons, desert landscapes and in the middle of it all, a nice small town. We had booked a great campsite, which was located within walking distance to town and upon arrival decided to take a walk for happy hour and an appetizer (a rarity for us). We found a great little restaurant with an overlook to one of the canyons. It was great. On the walk home we even came across a family of Javelinas. We had originally thought that they were small deer but as we got closer we saw that they were actually wild pigs! We had never seen them before so after getting back and doing some Googling we found out that no, they were not a type of wild boar, they are called Javelinas and live in the desert. You learn something new every day.

The next two days were spent having a blast in Sedona. Day one was spent exploring the town. There was a huge somewhat new shopping center called Tlaquepaque (Named and modeled after the small town that we had been to near Guadalajara a few weeks prior). We walked around there, in and out of the small shops before making our way up the hill to the main area of Sedona’s tourist district. We walked in out amongst the shops stopping for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and booking an off road tour for the next day. It was a fun “In Town” day.

The next day was an amazing fun day. It was our Pink Jeep tour day! We had set up the tour to pick us up at our campground in the morning at 11. Once the time came, we walked to the pickup spot, spotted the Jeep and we were off. Tour Jeeps are set up in Jeep Wranglers with the back end specially made to fit 6-8 people. Our tour had 2 other couples and us so there was a bit of room to spare. We had chosen the Pink Jeep’s Broken Arrow tour, which was their most hardcore off road trail. The tour as well as our guide Larry was a ton of fun. The tour took us up and around in the canyons surrounding Sedona. At times the Jeep went up and down rocks at a 45-degree angle. We were bouncing around and laughing the entire time. If you are ever in Sedona we would 100% recommend the Pink Jeep tours! After the tour dropped us off we decided to just have a relaxing rest of the day. We walked down to the creek next to our campsite, Julie played her flute and we talked to the couple next to us from Montreal who also had a Roadtrek RV. It was a great way to end the day.

Next up….We head south to Tucson and the rest of south eastern Arizona!