- This is what life is all about!
This is a really long post but keep reading as I really enjoyed writing it! Four weeks today since we started on this adventure and it was a fabulous day. The day started out with moving across the street to an Escapee RV Park. Escapee’s is an organization for RV people that have all kinds of support including taking care of you when you can’t anymore!!! We joined Escapee’s several months ago in anticipation of this adventure so that we would have places to stay without reservations and really cheap! It is costing us $5 per day. The camping is not beautiful and there is no electricity, water or sewer but we don’t really need that as we stayed in the desert for 17 days without and were fine. What a park like this has is socialization and near town! Most of the people own their space or lease it and stay the whole winter or year round so they have lots of activities to keep them busy. Tonight was Birthday & Anniversary night for February and August cause no one is here in August! They sang Happy Birthday/Anniversary and took photos and then served cake and ice cream. My birthday is in August but I begged Paul to keep quiet and he actually did! I am not quite ready to jump right in but maybe next time. After ice cream Paul got involved in an interesting game of pool called “101” and I was ready to go home when a nice lady asked if I would like to play cards so I did. I forget the name of the game but it is like “hand n foot.” I played a couple of games and then it is 8:30, time for bed! Paul loved it! I enjoyed it! The most fun is meeting the people and telling them where we are from and hearing their stories.
But the best part of today was we went adventuring. First we made a trip to Walmart so Paul could get a new GPS as he sold his right before we left California. Then we found this place in the desert where they teach skydiving. It is called SkyDive Arizona and they have it all. They have places to stay while you are taking the lessons; they have RV parking, a bar, restaurant, hotel, bunk rooms, and an indoor skydiving adventure. There was the most amazing storm while we were there so we only got to watch the indoor skydiving. This looked like so much fun! We may have to go back so I can try it.
This is the outside of the Skyadventure. Inside this structure there are giant fans that create wind so they can go in and practice. There were beginners who could barely keep there knees bent and experts that could stand up in midair and do flips and jump around moving up into these tubes and back down. I could have watched for hours.
Back to the desert storm – while we were visiting the skydiving site a storm started coming across the sky. You could see this huge black cloud and areas where it was reaching the ground. The desert is so flat that you can see this happening miles away. Well when the storm finally hit where we were it was raining sideways because the wind was so strong and then it began to hail. It rained really hard for about 15 minutes and then it is past. It was very cool and the sky looks amazing cause you can see so far – there are not many mountains to block your view.
This is Picacho Peak that is probably 10-15 miles away right after the storm passed over us.
Picacho Peak State Park was were we were headed when we left the RV park this am. We finally made it there about 3:30 pm and it was very much worth it. This peak is right off the interstate but you can see it forever and at the top of the peak you can see forever in both directions. We took a hike up to a lookout point that was about a 1/2 mile but it was straight up I swear!!! I had to keep stopping to catch my breath. I guess I better get in shape.
In Arizona even dogs get to enjoy the trails
Paul and Duke were like mountain goats. Duke was not on a leash as there was no one around so he ran ahead sniffing and exploring and waiting only when I told him to stop. It reminded me of when we hiked when the girls were little, they were always running up the hills and me struggling to keep up. Life is like one big circle.
Saguaro Cactus
We were able to get up close and personal with the cactus’. They are very much like a tree with green bark. We could see the roots and they appear to look just like other trees.
No idea what type this is but I thought it was fun looking!
Paul and Duke at the base of the trail
Yep, Duke is there. He blended in with the landscape so well it was a good thing he listens well or we might have lost him. Later they made me go ahead of them so they could watch me. I guess they were waiting for me to fall- too bad I never did!
Almost to the lookout point
So that was our Sunday. Oh, I almost forgot. I got a Starbucks Latte this morning after over 4 weeks without. It was wonderful. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings!