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Snowbirds

Migration South

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

November 7^th, 2018

"The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” -Shirley MacLaine

After completing our run down the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada’s, we left Lone Pine headed for Las Vegas and a chance to visit with Joey and his son Benjamin. Joey’s wife Sandra had to work late so we missed seeing her this trip. After our visit to Las Vegas we headed to Antelope Canyon to see the slot cannons and then on to Phoenix to see another friend from Baton Rouge that has relocated to Arizona. After our visit with Val, we headed east with a quick stop in Guadalupe National Park before heading on east to San Antonio for a camper rally.

Las Vegas-Circus circus

Las Vegas is not our normal camping stop, especially to stay on the strip but that is just what we did! It gave us a chance to catchup with a lifelong friend whom I cycled across Death Valley with. We had our mail and Amazon supplies shipped to him and he and son Benjamin were happy to deliver it to our campsite in the Circus Circus RV park, really a parking lot with RV hookups. What was surprising was the several European RV’s in the parking lot… how did I know they were European, because they had EU & Swiss license plates on them! We met a German in the Inyo National Forest that had his RV shipped over for his one or more-year American travels. There was also was a benefit motorcycle ride that weekend and more than the normal share of toy hauler rigs and Harleys in the RV park.

Joey and Benjamin came and picked us up and we went to dinner at Honey Salt, an earthy modern restaurant that happens to be one of Benjamin’s favorite. It was great to catch up but we forgot to take any photos of the evening. :(

After our hard push getting here, other than walking down the strip for dinner the following night we didn’t really do any other Vegas things. We had planned to go to a show but memories of falling asleep in a Blue Man show that we squeezed in before flying home on a red-eye flight, we decided to pass this time. Moving the camper every day can be more tiring that you would think.

After our Mt. Whitney climb in 2013, Joey Lewis, Sam - guide, Morgan and Jeff

Antelope X

Since we were in Arizona, we wanted to squeeze in a tour of one of the slot canyons. There are three major slot canyons in the Page, Arizona area on Navajo land. On recommendations of a friend, we went to Antelope X because of the smaller crowds. We also booked the photographers tour which allows more time and you can bring tripods, which with the low light is some areas is necessary.

What God created with water and sand is far beyond the hand of man. Unparalleled by and architect or sculpture and we have seen with Michelangelo’s David, this is an unbelievable place to see. We hope to return during the late summer when the sun rays are able to reach bottom of the canyon.

Looking into the slot canyon at Antelope X Canyon

GRAND STAIRCASE

We were unable to book a spot at Lake Powell for the first night we were in the Page, Arizona area so we found some BLM land that allowed boondocking (free dry camping). This gave us a chance to explore the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument and get some great dark sky star viewing.

It was EarthCaching weekend, geocaching like but focused on geologically significant place, rather than looking for a box with trinkets and a log to sign. In order to log an EarthCache you visit these natural places and learn about them, then answer some questions. Less than a mile from our campsite was the Toadstool hoodoos and EarthCache ‘Fairy Chimney’ (GC649EN). What a special place that makes you scratch your head about how they were formed.

After our visit to the toadstool hoodoos, we went over to the Old Spanish Trail and visited the former site of Pahreah, later changed to Paria, a town established on a trading route that proved not to be successful because of the riverbed it was in and flooding which was a problem. Later used as a location for a movie set for a Frank Sinatra / Dean Martin western ‘Sergeants 3’, which didn’t survive a vandal’s fire.

Hikers with goat on the trail to toadstool hoodoos

Day Trip to Mesa

We rolled into Phoenix after encountering our first snow in Flagstaff. We were worried about snow in Wyoming and decided to delay visiting Glacier NP because we were concerned about getting in over our head, lacking snow chains and experience. Never thought we would hit snow in Arizona.

We made it in Mesa and this was a 55 and over RV park (didn’t even know such a thing existed but they cater to the retired). We arrived after the office had closed and they had forgot to leave our slot number taped to the door as they had told us so we dry-camped in the parking lot until the office opened the next morning. Guess the office had a touch of old-timers…

The next morning, we drove over to our friends work and got a tour of the guayule (southwest native rubber plant) research facility. After our tour, we headed to Goldfield Ghost Town and the Mammoth Saloon for lunch. We then toured the ghost town (reconstruction) and took the mine tour. This was all in the shadows of Superstition Mountain famous for the legend of the ‘Lost Dutchman Mine’ where it is believed that a rich gold vein exists in a lost mine somewhere in the area. We meet Bob who is one of the treasure hunters that is now part of the Lost Dutchman Mine hall of fame.

We then went over to Saguaro Lake to see the wild horses that are in the Tonto National Forest. We found three eating some aquatic vegetation out of the river.

Our day was cut short after JoAnn lost a crown and we had to make an unexpected visit to the dentist.

JoAnn and Val at Goldfield Ghost Town Saloon

Val, JoAnn and Jeff at Goldfield Ghost Town

Wild Horses in the Tonto National Forest

Top of Texas

We made an overnight stop in Guadalupe Mountains National Park where I was able to fulfill one of my Texas goals, to climb Guadalupe Peak, the highest peak in Texas. Guadalupe peak is 8751 feet above sea level and is part of Capitan Reef, the best example of a fossil reef in the world. It was created over 250 million years ago when North America was part of the supercontinent of Pangea and this area was a vast inland sea. Shift in the tectonic plates and an upshift lifted this section thousands of feet up and erosion exposed the limestone reef.

With limited time to make the 8+ mile round trip to the summit, I got an early start. Hiking by headlight an hour before sunrise is not always fun but seeing the sun rise while on the trail was worth it! It wasn’t long before hikers who camped a mile below the summit were heading down after their sunrise summit. I was about half way up when Nixon, another solo hiker caught up with my slow and careful pace and we stayed together until we reached the summit together. We were passed by three younger hikers who had also camped out at the trails backcountry site. Right behind us was Tim, another solo hiker, so the six of us shared our summit experience. The summit was windy and a bit chilly. At the ‘Top of Texas’ as the summit is called, there is a three-sided, elongated tetrahedron monument placed there in 1958 by American Airlines to commemorate the US Postal service. The original Pony Express route had a station at Pine Spring where the trailhead is now and when Airmail started, El Capitan was used as a route marker. While not as impressive as the Yosemite granite wall sharing the same name, this 1000-foot limestone wall is the most distinct feature of the park. After pictures and signing the summit registry we headed back down. It took a little better than six hours to make the trip, not counting the time I spend at the summit.

View of back side of El Capitan from Guadalupe Peak trail

GRAND DESIGN RV RALLY

Being new to the RV lifestyle, we had reserved a place at this RV Rally before we ever hit the road. We were hoping to meet others who lived this lifestyle also and vendors who could help us solve problems we discovered on this first trek.

We arrived at the San Antonio KOA a few days before the rally began and hoped to resolve a few issues but rain put a damper on some of the work. We did get the satellite TV looked at by a certified tech but weren’t able to install the new digital TV antenna that we needed to replace after racking the original one off the top of the camper somewhere along the way.

Once the Rally started, we attended some informative classes, the one lead by a RV owner who had his truck catch fire while traveling down the highway and burned it and the trailer, everything was lost. We also attended a class hosted by the trailer manufacturers lead technicians about issues and repairs. There was also a session on modification others had made to their rigs, and time afterwards to go look if you wanted to dig deeper and an Instapot demo. I meet Paul who had installed solar on his rig and he was very willing to share everything he had done and even willing to help me install a system on my rig if we are in the same area! Evening they had every flavor of moonshine you could imagine (surprising the dill pickle was good) and visiting by the fire was the best.

Meeting people is by far the most beneficial part of these events. We meet the solar guy Paul and his wife Vickie and discussed going to Alaska with them in 2020. We also were lucky to be parked next to another full-time couple, Tony and Robin who really enjoyed sharing ideas with, and Barbara and Dan who stopped by our fire pit and spent the evening.

Door prises at Grand Design Texas Rally in San Antonia

Grand Design Techs down to support the rally

What we Learned: -We have been moving too fast to really enjoy our style of traveling. With a hard deadline around the rally and service we had to roll. -We were reminded at Antelope Canyon, no architect can create anything to compare with what God had created. - People is what makes travel special. We have meet so many people along the way that we expect will be lifelong friends.

Next Stop: We have been missing family and we will take the camper on to our dealer in Buda for some much needed service and then on to Lake Jackson for a visit with our Son Gabriel then to Baton Rouge for a visit with our daughter Chelsea and other family members and to pickup our grandson Dawson for a visit and short trip, destination TBA.