Day 43 Friday June 10, 2022 Yesterday when we crossed into Arizona and the GPS and our iPhones dropped back an hour which surprised us since we weren't supposed to be changing time zones today, so when we were in the office here at the RV Park we asked the lady that checked us in about the time change. She said Arizona does not do daylight savings time so that is why our time dropped back an hour.
I got out early this morning and washed the bugs off the windshield and front of the motorhome, then after breakfast we put our sunscreen on the windshield to keep some of the heat out. This is a custom made screen that fits on the outside of the windshield and it really helps to block out the heat from the sun and we can see out and people on the outside can't see in.
Then we drove a few miles to the San Xavier del Bac Mission, which is a late 1700's Catholic mission. When we got there we discovered they require everyone to wear a mask on the grounds and inside so we left. I have enough trouble wearing a mask in an air conditioned building much less outside in 100 degree heat.
So we went to the Pima Country Air and Space Museum that a friend had recommended. They have dozens of really large airplanes outside and lots of smaller ones inside. We only viewed the ones inside. We just aren't adjusted to the 100+ degree heat yet even though the humidity is only 14% today compared to 50% at home HOT is still HOT. You just don't sweat as much in low humidity. They also have parking under large solar panels as do many places in Tucson. We enjoyed the museum. We left and went to a local Dunkin Donuts to get a treat and enjoy their air conditioning. I needed oven mitts when I got back in the car to hold onto the steering wheel.
One thing we have decided about Arizona and New Mexico, a lawn mower salesman would starve to death, because people don't have grass in their yards, just dirt and gravel. I guess they would have a really large water bill trying to keep grass alive here.
Day 44 Saturday June 11, 2022 We went to Denny's for breakfast this morning. We haven't been to a Denny's in a long time. Then we made a dry run to the facility where we are taking the motorhome Tuesday to get some work done on two of our slides.
From there we went to visit the Saguaro National Park West. Saguaro is pronounced “sah-WAH-row”. The Saguaro is the tall cactus that are as tall as some trees. Many have multiple arms. They grow very slowly at first—an inch or so during their first six to eight years . It may be 70 years before they sprout branches or arms. They reach full height, 40-50 feet, at age 150. The tallest may reach 75 feet. Long woody ribs support their multi-ton bulk. If you watch some of the old westerns on TV you have probably seen them. From a short distance they look like you could walk up and hug them but that would not be a good idea as they are covered in VERY sharp needle like spines.
All the cactus we saw have very sharp needle like spines on them. Birds love the sweet fruit that grow on the Saguaro and the desert people (the Tohono O'odham) harvest the fruit and make syrup, jelly and ceremonial wine from the fruit in much the same way as we would make grape jelly. Some birds bore a hole in the Saguaro and nest in them.
They have many walking trails but you can drive through and pull off in many places to get a good look at the different types of cactus. We also stopped at the visitor center and watched a 15 minute film about the cactus. We did a short walk just outside the visitor center that had interpretive plaques with the name of several of the varieties.
From there we drove about 5 miles down the road to Old Tucson. This is the location that many movies of the old West have been made and they are still using it to film movies but it is not open to visitors until September. We thought maybe we could get some photos from the road but the buildings were hidden behind from the road by some bushes.
Next we drove down a two mile dirt road to a take a short hike to see some ancient petroglyphs on the rocks. Lena didn't want to take the hike so I went part of the way. It was lots of step going up and back down on the terrain. I did see a few of the etchings before turning around and heading back to the car.
On the way back to the RV Park we stopped for lunch at El Guero Camelot Restaurant to try a local sensation called the Sonoran Hot Dog. They refer to the roll as a sweet roll. It has a wiener wrapped with bacon, baked beans, mustard, mayonnaise, grilled and raw onions, tomatoes and jalapeno sauce. We got one each without the jalapeno sauce. You can also get it with two wieners. It was quite good, something different. I think it would be even better with some good chili on it. It is now 104 degrees so we returned to the RV Park for the day.
Day 45 Sunday June 12, 2022 Today we drove out of Tucson to drive the Catalina Highway. It begins about 10 miles outside the city and climbs up through Santa Catalina Range and is one of the most scenic highways in the southeast with some of the most unusual rock formations, cool mountain forest and large canyons. The road is 27 miles long and rises from an elevation of about 2400' to 8000' and today it was 73 degrees when we got to the top and was 102 degrees when we got back to the RV Park. We actually saw some trees for the first time in several days. The trees are only near the top of the mountain. Lower elevations was mostly scrub bushes, some dried grass and cactus.
Don't know how they do it but there were dozens of bicyclists pedaling up the road all the way to the top. There is a ski area at the top, several small cabins, a couple of restaurants and some gift shops. The road was started in 1933 and finished 17 years later but has been improved since then and is in very good shape with lots of pull out so you can pull over to lets cars pass you, several small campgrounds and lots of picnic areas.
Day 46 Monday June 13, 2022 Today was a lazy day. We did some house cleaning inside and outside the motorhome. Still over 100 degrees in the afternoon so not comfortable sitting outside even if the humidity is much lower than at home in North Carolina. You just don't sweat as much here.
Day 47 Tuesday June 14, 2022 We took the motorhome to Vroom Slide Systems this morning at 7AM to have the bedroom slides worked on. Ours have never failed to open or close but there are a lot of RV people that has serious problems with the type of slide motors, etc. that we have so we are being proactive and getting our replaced with a better system before we do have a serious issue. Kind of hard to drive down the road with your slides extended. For safety reasons they didn't want us to hang around the work area all the time because they do a lot of other dangerous work in the same building. So we turned it over to them and went to a nearby McDonald's for a couple of hours and then returned to take some photos of the new stuff.
Then we left and went to a inside Mall to keep cool and later to get lunch in the food court. About 2PM we returned to Vroom and stayed until they finished at 3:30PM. I got to ask a lot of questions about the new system and take lots of photos. They did a good job. So we returned to the RV Park for our last night here.
Day 48 Wednesday June 15, 2022 On the way out of town we had to go back to Vroom the pay our bill for yesterdays work The office was closed when they finished yesterday. When the lady handed me the bill I just looked at the bottom line to see what to write the check for. On the way back to the motorhome it hit me “hey that can't be the correct amount”. So I went back inside and questioned the lady. There was a mis-communication between her and the shop foreman. They had only charged for one slide repair and we had two done, so the bill was twice what I had wrote the check for. She thanked me for being honest.
We departed about 8AM and headed for Camp Verde, AZ. Once we FINALLY got through Phoenix AZ the terrain changed quite a bit. Lots more hills and valleys and a few low trees. We got to our campground about 12:30PM. It is still hot. We will start exploring tomorrow.
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