Eastern New Mexico

 We are on the road again for a longer trip to test out Lance trailer systems on our new-to-us travel trailer. Very windy here. 50 mph gusts on our first day.

Only one bar of service so more later.

Spring Flowers and Wildlife

During my time in Arizona over the past 9 months, I've seen many Saguaro cacti.  This one, we see almost every day on our daily walk.

Cool Old Dude

Normally, from what I've been told, the Saguaro don't flower until later in the year.  With the exceptionally warm winter we've had and recent dry conditions, the flowers have arrived.

The Saguaro flowers are on full display for a very short time. Meanwhile, the prickly pear bloom has been prolific.

We saw another western diamondback last week, stretched out on the edge of the sidewalk.  I think he was waiting for us to go by, but we waited him out, and eventually he slowly crossed ahead of us.  

Some of the wildlife has been next door.  

Bobcat 

And some of the wildlife has been at the front door.

Kids playing Ring and Ditch

April in the Tucson area has been much more pleasant than March was.  Temps have been in the upper 80's and low 90's, but nothing like the record-breaking 100 degree days earlier in the year.  Nights have been amazing with the windows open and lows in the 50's.  Before too long though, we are going to head into the high country with the Lance.  We may need sweaters and jackets.  That would be a real change!

Catalina State Park

 Visitor season is over, and it’s time for camping.

Leaving Storage

Like most camping trailers, there have been a few mechanical issues to sort out. The fridge is bigger, a lot more technologically advanced than the small Scamp fridge, and still not working right in the 90 degree Arizona desert. 

But we won’t let those issues prevent us from having fun at Catalina State Park, which is only fifteen minutes from home.

Tonight there was live music at the park, playing the hits from the 60s and 70s.

Not a late night. We were back at the campsite in time to watch Mount Lemmon turn pink.

Early April Report

Michael reminded me that I haven't posted for awhile, and he was right.  Visitor season has kept us quite occupied with only a couple of days between a series of guests from Wisconsin.  Our current guest is one of my favorites:  a friend that Julia met in pickleball from Wisconsin, who is a retired forensics police officer with lots of homicide case experience.  She is quiet, thoughtful, and very detail-minded.  Very interesting person.  But even so, it will be some relief when Julia drives her to Phoenix on Wednesday, and visitor season for us in Arizona will be over.  Next year, we've agreed there will be fewer visitors for different reasons.  Some of our visitors just plain didn't like the desert and missed the green/water of the Midwest.  Others will return but probably not for a couple of years.  They wanted to see where we landed, and now they have.

My pickleball season ended without a trip to the state tournament, but that's okay.  It was fun, and our team was competitive at a high level. Some members of our team competed on another team at a lower level and won the state championship in Phoenix (Arizona Players Pickleball League), but that's just not how I'm wired.  I like to go against players better than I am; for me, it's the only way I improve.

We have a few nights reserved in Silver City, New Mexico at the end of April.  We will do a trial run with the Lance camper, and if successful, stay for a few weeks to beat the heat. Then we will come back for a month before leaving on our summer's journey to the Upper Midwest.  I owe my Mom a trip to Iowa, and we will spend some time in Wisconsin also.  Depending on how the Lance is doing, we may take our time heading back home.  Julia has never been to Yellowstone, and I love Wyoming after Labor Day. We have a neighbor who doesn't like to travel, so she will keep an eye on our house while we're gone.

Windy Point, Mount Lemmon

Next weekend is the 41st Annual Tucson Folk Festival, a free event for the community.  There will be a lot of music and a songwriting competition.  We are looking forward to attending.

Record-breaking Heat

Fun Fact:  Tucson has never experienced 100-degree weather in March for as long as records have been kept.  We are poised to blast through that record this weekend, along with a bunch of other individual day records next week.

Lance updates:  With a couple of hiccups, my LiFePO4 battery project went well.  I ordered two 100 ah batteries from Amazon.  The Lance has a small battery compartment on each side of the trailer, which needed to be modified in order to accommodate the wider SOK batteries.  The local auto parts store was happy to take the dead lead acid batteries.  I ended up building wood boxes that sit on top of the sliding tray in each of the battery compartments. The sliding tray locks in with a rod and locking outside door, and a strap makes sure that they don't move around.  

I bought an Eco-Worthy LiFe PO4 20 amp charger from Amazon to get both batteries fully charged before installing in the Lance, made sure that the batteries fit into my crude wooden boxes, made sure that the wooden boxes fit nicely inside the battery trays of the Lance, and then still managed to make a mistake raising my blood pressure.

The solar charger in the Lance does not have a way to check on the health of each battery, individually.  It only shows when both batteries are charged to 100%. Fortunately, the SOK batteries come with an app that allows me to monitor the batteries individually by bluetooth.  After everything was installed in the Lance, the app worked perfectly, showing both batteries with full charges.  About a week later, I went out to the trailer and could only find one battery on the app.  My first thought was somebody stole one of my brand new batteries.  A few choice words were muttered.  After confirming that both batteries were physically still in their respective battery compartments, I was at a loss for explaining why the second battery wasn't showing up in the app.  

I took the solar charger off the wall inside the Lance and couldn't find anything wrong.  Then I went to Mr. Google and saw that if one of the SOK batteries isn't being charged for awhile, the built-in operating system shuts itself down into sleep/storage mode.  But why wouldn't both batteries be charging?  The sun was continuing to blast into the solar panels in the Sonoran Desert.  I checked battery one.  Nothing wrong with it.  I checked battery two.  Hmmm, the positive post looks different than the negative post.  A washer had hung up when I tightened everything down and wasn't making contact.  I took the wires off the positive post, straightened the washers, and tightened everything back down again.  Sure enough, the app immediately showed both batteries, and they were both still at 100%.  

We are in the middle of our last three sets of guests.  Even though the Upper Midwest has experienced record-breaking snow and cold this winter, I'm afraid they aren't going to be ready for the triple digit days that have prematurely arrived.  Dave and Ruth spent last weekend here and then spent the week in Joshua Tree after driving there in a rental car.  They return today for this weekend.  I've known Dave since sixth grade, and he has always lived within a mile of the moderating climate effects of Lake Michigan.  He's going to think he's arrived in hell!

Saguaro West National Park

Margaritas on the Patio

Do we have any regrets moving to the hot desert?  Not yet.  The thing is I can still wear a t-shirt and shorts almost every day of the year.  And even though it will reach triple digits in the mid-afternoon, mornings are quite pleasant.  This morning it was 62 degrees and even a little bit chilly when I took Callie outside just before dawn.  By the time that I make morning coffee and sat on the back patio, it was a beautiful morning with the birds singing.  Compare that to Wisconsin where we had weeks when it never rose above 32 degrees or even saw the sun.  

Lance Trailer

Yesterday, I had a mobile rv technician come out to storage to get some work done.  My mechanical abilities are limited, and despite having a friend show me how to service the bearings on the Scamp, I didn't trust myself to do it for the first time on the dual axle Lance.  He looked everything over, and everything looked good-to-go by the time he finished.  Unlike some rv repair places, he was glad to take questions as he worked and showed me what he was doing and why he was doing it.  I've been having problems getting the fridge cooled down, and he figured out right away that there was some previous-owner DIY insulation blocking the hot air from going up and out the vent. He also took a look at the roof and pronounced everything good.  

Before he arrived, I had been working on the propane system, which the previous owner claimed to have never used.  I soon found out the reason why it wasn't being used:  there were several propane leaks under the stovetop that were setting off the alarm.  That would definitely provide a disincentive to also use the propane for the fridge or water heater.  Anyway, I disassembled the various bubbling connections in the line and tightened everything back up again.  

The other problem I was having with the fridge is that the flame was going out overnight.  Well, it turns out that the two conventional lead acid batteries were at the end of their lives and not holding their charge.  Unlike the Scamp fridge, which required no battery to operate on propane, the Lance fridge has a control panel and a battery-operated propane ignition. I've got two 100 AH Lithium batteries arriving tomorrow.  That will be the next project.  I have one 190 watt solar panel on the roof and will probably get a portable panel before we leave for our summer adventures.  

What's the Password?

I pulled up to the Dove Mountain Ritz Carlton guard shack in my dusty 2020 Dodge Ram. The guard came out wearing a frown and carrying a clipboard with a list of approved guests and hired help.  He was pretty sure that I didn't belong.  I rolled down the window and greeted him with a smile.  "Wild Burro Trail," I said.  He looked crestfallen and then motioned us through.  "You two have a good day," he managed.  

The Wild Burro Trailhead is technically on land owned by the Town of Marana Parks and Recreation Department.  The only way to get there is through the property of the Ritz.  We hiked Wild Burro once before, but yesterday we had a more ambitious hike in mind.  Wild Burro is an easy 3 mile trail that mostly follows a flat wash.  We chose the moderate Wild Burro Spur and Alamo Springs Loop, which is about a 6 mile hike, scrambling up and down the Tortolita Mountains.

We started out on the Wild Burro Trail but quickly joined Alamo Springs which gradually ascended to the tallest peaks in the area.  It was a hot day, and we quickly were down to shorts and short-sleeves.  

This is an area frequented by mountain lions, bobcats, javelina, and snakes.  However, the only wildlife we saw that day were plants and birds.

The rocky trail consists mostly of 600 million years or older granite.  Nothing like rock aging to make one feel inconsequential.  

There was no password required to leave the Ritz property.  We did not stop at the bar for a $13 IPA.

Visitor Season Continues

Julia's brother and sister are with us this week.  They've been doing all of the tourist things. Tombstone today, the Desert Museum tomorrow.  

Tonight, they were enjoying the neighborhood pool and hot tub when I got a call from Julia as to what to do about a rattlesnake.  I told them to just leave it alone.  I ran over there to make sure that no one was doing anything foolish, and the snake was moving at a slow slither, eventually through the fence and back into the desert. 

I guess winter must be over here.  Time to wear my headlamp when taking the dog out again at night.

Hugh Norris Trail to Wasson Peak

We made it to the Hugh Norris Trailhead about 7:15 a.m.   The sun was hidden on the other side of the Tucson mountains, but there was enough light to get going. Alltrails suggests that this trail is 9.2 miles with a 2404' elevation gain; however, we made it a little harder than it needed to be 

This trail was recommended to us by a couple that we met while completing the Finger Rock Trail on Mount Lemmon.  It was an excellent recommendation. This trail starts by climbing up well-maintained switchbacks and then along a ridge that climbs and climbs and climbs.

 

For the first hour, we were in the pleasant shade while still being able to see the sunrise off in the distance.  As we climbed higher, conditions became quite windy.  Also, we eventually began seeing wildflowers.  

 

We kept seeing higher and higher peaks as we climbed.  Usually the trail wound around the peaks, but we were left to wonder what might actually be the final peak.  There were a lot of false summits.  Eventually, we made it to the top. There were no higher peaks.

On the way down, I inadvertently got off on our trail toward a different trailhead.  Julia was not a happy hiker.  I tried to tell her that it was an opportunity to explore the Sendero Esperanza Trail (which we were accidentally on), but she was not amused.  We had to backtrack (all uphill) and wound up hiking 11.3 miles with an elevation gain of 2818 feet.  Her mood mostly recovered by the time we reached the car.  A late lunch at our favorite Greek restaurant and a pint of IPA brought her mood back.

Visitor Season

Visitor Season has commenced.  My mother spent a week here in Oro Valley during mid-January.  For 86-years-old, she is doing amazing.  We took her to the Sonoran Desert Museum, Tohono Chul, Whitewater Draw, and Bisbee.  We also fed her more Sonoran Mexican food than she has probably had in her lifetime.  Except for one day of rain on the way back to the airport, we had great weather for her visit.  And no, my Mom is not slamming margaritas, but Julia thought it was quite funny to place a large margarita in front of my non-drinking mother.  Well, it was kinda funny.

We have a couple of weeks without visitors, and then Julia's brother and sister arrive separately in the next wave.  We've been busy during the lull, but I'll save that for another blog post.

Maiden Pools via Ventana Trail

 It's a drizzly, cool, and cloudy day in Tucson.  Starting temperature was 46 degrees.

Julia and I got up at 5:30 a.m. this morning, had a quick coffee and were to the trailhead by 7 a.m.  It was still pretty dark as we left the parking lot behind the Ventana Canyon Resort.  The first mile took us past the rich people's estates.  The trail was a narrow corridor with barb wire fence warning of the consequences of trespassing, but soon we began winding up through the canyon.

The trail passed back and forth across a dry wash. Huge saguaros rose up along both sides of the trail with closer prickly pair and pencil cactus leaning in to catch our clothing if we weren't careful.  

After the first mile, we rose high enough to catch nice views of Tucson below.

Until today, there hasn't been much rain here lately, so the first"pools" were small and algae-covered.  The Maiden Pools are actually an underground stream which rise to the surface in several locations on this trail.  After the first mile or two, the trail climbed steeply via sharp switchbacks, and the terrain changed to tall grasses and shrubs, leaving most of the cacti below.  The pool below was the largest of the ones that we saw.

By the time we reached this pool, the sprinkles had started.  We hung out above the pools for a few minutes to eat our snacks.

Then the drizzle picked up, which had two effects for the rocky trail.  The water brought out beautiful colors in the rocks, especially deep red, which Julia mistakenly took as blood or ketchup at first glance.  Second, the bare rock became slippery as pig snot, which resulted in a very slow walk back to the trailhead in the rain.

No blood was spilled on the way down, and we made it to the truck.  Total distance was 5.6 miles.  Elevation gain of 1335 ft.  And a leisurely 3 hours and 20 minutes for a hike that turned wet and cool. We rewarded ourselves with a late breakfast at Victoria's Cocina Mexicana on the way home.  A little pricey but so good.