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Season 4

Post COVID Travels & a New Baby

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

June 25^th, 2021

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

- Mae West

Summary

After surviving and recovering from COVID in November, we headed west to kickoff Season 4 of our RV life! It is hard to believe we have been at this for three years now with a ton of experiences under our belt. Living on the road has become our normal and we are so blessed to be able to do this.

After our routine stop in Livingston, TX for a package pickup and sorting and dropping off items we don't want to carry all year long, we made our way to the Texas Hill Country. We got to see snow in Fredericksburg before continuing on west.

Some friends joined us in New Mexico for some boondocking before we all headed for Quartzite Arizona.

Quartzite – Wintering grounds for many RV’s

This is our second year to spend a month in the desert near Quartzite. It is quite a place where half a million-dollar rigs park next to thirty-year-old rigs that live the RV life out of necessity. Quite a melting pot of society. This year we watched the movie ‘Nomadland’ which a portion is based on the retirees that have limited income and live in campers and vans out of necessity. It was fun to watch and recognize the places we have camped off-grid, referred to as boondocking. To us its was a sad story and not all who RV are homeless, some of us are just ‘home free’.

Being back in Quartzite a second year we took time to explore some of the less common sights that are out in the desert, left by pioneers or RVers that have been making the trek to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands since late last century.

We also tried our hand at prospecting for gold, I was working on the goal of breaking the 50 cents an hour barrier! We did find gold later in Prescott Arizona but worked hard on a hole in a dried-up creek bed searching for and catching a mild case of gold fever!

labyrinth on BLM Public Land new Palm Canyon

Joshua Tree National Park

After leaving Arizona we headed for California and Joshua Tree NP. We stayed at the Elks Lodge at TwentyNine Palms and with the lodge closed we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

We enjoyed exploring the park and seeing where I first tried rock climbing many years ago.

Hidden Valley and The Arch trails were our favorites. We also hiked the Fourtynine Palms Oasis, which was nice but took an investment of energy to get there. Another historical trail was Wall Street Mine trail which lead to a closed mine with lots of early 1900 vehicles and machinery. On the way back we cut through the park and stopped off at the Cholla Cactus Garden, beautiful but dangerous. Rose thrones have nothing on cholla! Only trail that not only warns you not to get close but had needle nose pliers at the trailhead to extract the barbed cholla needles from your body if you get too close!

Jeff in cholla cactus garden, Joshua Tree NP

JoAnn in cholla cactus garden, Joshua Tree NP

Mesa – Our winter stop

We made a week stop by Mesa to visit friends and connect with others. We did get a chance to visit a local restaurant called The Perch Brewery which besides serving great beer and food gives rescue birds a new home. They focus on South American birds and have quite a collection.

We also got back out to the Salt River and watched the wild horses that make this river so famous. Always interesting to see these wild horses and how they interact.

Dinner with Val, Donna & Mike in Chandler, AZ

Prescott – Arizona that looks like Colorado

We headed North to get into some cooler weather and the place we spend part of the early pandemic last year. We have really taken a liking to Prescott/Prescott Valley where we stay at an RV park attached to the Elks Lodge.

We started looking for our western landing pad. We are considering purchasing a place to park the trailer on a scenic lot where we can have a western home base to spend the summer. We still plan to come back home to Louisiana in the fall/winter but not sure we want to spend another hot and humid summer in the deep south. Having COVID changed some our security and we now feel it would be good to have a community we could engage out west.

We also got a chance to do some prospecting in Lynx Creek where the National Forest Service (NFS) has setup a stretch of the river for public prospection (panning and hand tools only), for recreation. This didn’t help my mild case of gold fever when I started seeing tiny specs of gold in my pan! Still haven’t broken the 50 cents an hour goal but gold is gold. I think I have a half dozen tiny flakes in a small glass jar but for a rock hound it was success!

Jeff shoveling snow off roof in Prescott, AZ

Prospecting in Lynx Creek near Prescott, AZ

Sedona Area

When snow ran us out of Prescott, we headed south to Black Canyon Trailhead, BLM land with Tom & Ceije where we spent a few days hiking around the area. They had their two Australian Shepard’s which gave us a change to start thinking about what changes we were in-store for us when we pickup our new puppy.

Then we moved to an area outside of Cottonwood within sight of the red rocks of Sedona. We visited an archeolical site of the Anastasia, where we got a chance to visit the Montezuma Castle National Monument where the pueblo Native Americans built a three plus story cliff dwelling. It was quite impressive to say the least.

New Mexico - Trek for the Vaccine

We headed to New Mexico when we got word that if our home was in NM we could get the vaccine. We latched onto our home and drove 500 miles to New Mexico and got our first shot. We spent about a month in the area so we could get our second shot, even though we have both had COVID, we felt it was worth the extra protection a vaccine may offer.

Our new Baby

We drove across the mountains in Colorado to Montrose, CO to pick up our new bundle of joy with razor sharp teeth! She was so sweet and driving back through the mountains in the hardest snow this Louisiana boy has ever been in , it was one to remember. When we stopped every 30 minutes for her to take a potty break she never got a chill. Guess this is what to expect from a Bernedoodle. She was at home in the snow. She is a TeddyBear Bernedoodle, mixed breed, Bernese Mountain Dog with Poodle. She will be 40 ads full grown and doesn't shed, which is a big plus in a camper. We are so in love with her and couldn't be happier.

We also got a chance to explore some of the archeology and geology of the area and made a stop by Winslow Arizona so we could stand on a corner. We found a black blues man across the street to be much more entertaining and totally enjoyed the stop.

Petrified Forest National Park

We knew that life with a pup would change our travel style but luckily the first National Park we visited was dog friendly! At Petrified Forest National Park, Baisie was earned her Bark Ranger status!

Jeff and Baisie at the Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park

Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park

New Paper Rock, Petrified Forest National Park

What's Next

With our new baby our travel style will change but it is a willing change, we can't wait to share our RV world with our new puppy! We plan to head to Utah and tour the state and the Big 5 national parks.