We had pretty much just got back from our trip to Arizona but I was thinking of another.  Roxie was/is getting close to starting a new job so I knew we had a bit of time.  Knowing that we had better head south in CA or AZ for some warmth I thought of Alumafiesta.  This is similar to Alumafandango that we attended in August.  This is another one of the 4 events that are put on by R&B, the others being Alumaflamingo and Alumapalooza.

I contacted the coordinator, Rich of R&B, to see if there were any cancellations.  He said that registration was still open.  We mulled it over a bit and decided to do it!  Back to Arizona again.  That was fine with Roxie and I as we do enjoy Arizona.  We were in.  The registration actually closed about a week after that.  Two weeks after decided to go we were leaving.

I have really started liking the idea of staying in truck stops.  I don’t feel uneasy in the slightest.  They are usually pretty level and often lit up well.

Day 1

We left on Saturday and I wanted to get at least 1/2 way.  That would be about 340 miles.  That turned out to be around Chiriaco Summit on I10.  I researched it on freecampsites.net and there is a place you can stay right by the General Patton Museum.  That was the plan dependent upon how we felt and amount of sunlight.

We got out early and stopped for breakfast down 99:

We headed over the grapevine and the truck did wonderful.  I have to keep it down to 60 going uphill as it will easily do more!  We did the 210 route to skirt the LA basin and did a quick dogleg over to I10.  Driving through here I recognized the area.  Here is the back story.

Many years ago we were driving in SoCal.  I remember we came across a truck wash with bays high enough for the trailer but they also had platforms on the sides of the bays so you could get to the roof of your trailer.  I have been searching for this spot ever since.  I always thought it was in Banning or Beaumont.  I was wrong.  As I was driving down I10 I saw a sign about a Self Service Truck Wash.  I got off the freeway.  There it was!  The one I had been searching for!!  It is the Valley Colton Truck Stop (in Colton).  We hosed off the trailer a bit and got back on the road.

When we got to the tentative stopping location, Chiriaco Summit, there was still a good deal of daylight left and I wasn’t too tired.  I always research a bit ahead for times like this and I knew that there were a few truck stops up ahead and even Quartzsite was not out of the question.  We pushed on and made it to a Flying J truck stop just 1 mile over the AZ border.  Roxie cooked up some good sausages, cheesy noodles and white corn kernels.  Yum.  Day 1 over.  400 miles under the belt.

Day 2

We got up early also, or at least we thought.  That one extra mile added 1 hour to our time.  That made the differential.  We got on the road not knowing how far we were going to go.  I checked out our friends’ blog (MaliMish) and found that they were boondocking outside Tucson.  A few Twitter exchanges later and we knew where they were.

Me being the eternal tightwad, in some ways, I thought another day of dry camping would be great!  We took the US85S cutoff of I10 to bypass Phoenix and got on to I8.  Boy this was a boring stretch!  Now I know how people fall asleep at the wheel.  This stretch would do it for you.

We passed by Picacho Peak State Park.  We mentioned how often we say we are going to stop there but never do.  Might have to fix that this trip…  We also passed by an Ostrich Ranch.  I asked Roxie if she wanted to ride an ostrich and that brought up an interesting exchange.

We made it to the Snyder Hill BLM boondocking site around 4pm.  Only about 280 miles today but we are here!

Saw 4 other Airstreams and setup a spot for us (near Aluminarium):

Other Airstreamers showed up and we talked a while with them with this great sunset behind us:

Roxie made some tacos this evening.  Very tasty!  End of Day 2.

Tomorrow we will head over to the KOA and get ready for the Alumafiesta.