Tag Archives: Arizona

Hot then cold

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So Needles ended the first day on a hot note.  High 90’s and lots of wind.  We used the A/C all evening.  In the morning the temperature was very temperate.  We were able to see how beautiful the river was right behind our trailers.  Here is Bob and Phyllis:

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We hooked everything up and headed on to a relatively short day (200 miles).  We crossed over into Arizona and immediately became the slowest vehicles on the road.  The speed limit in AZ is 75mph regardless of vehicle type.  Well I still stay at 60-65 but even the big rigs were zooming right by us.  Except on the hills where we could pass the loaded ones.

We made a fuel stop in Kingman, AZ and noticed that the old Route 66 took off there.  We had been on this stretch before about 7 years ago on our Grand Canyon trip but don’t remember too much about it.  We thought we might as well do this stretch while we were there.  Great decision.  There was more traffic on this stretch but it was more scenic and more populous.  We were kind of looking for a quaint, Route 66’ish place to eat.  We thought at least one of the towns on the stretch between Kingman and Seligman would have something.  Phyllis produced a printout of a place in Seligman that looked very appealing.  Continuing to enjoy the scenery and nostalgia (even the Burma Shave signs) we headed to Seligman.  We found just the place:

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Delgadillo’s Snow Cap drive in.  It was a very fun place and the Delgadillo’s are a very famous part of Seligman.  There were various other shops to purchase touristy stuff, which we obligingly did.  It was odd that for a period of time we were the only primary English speaking people there.  A tour bus dropped of a group of Europeans (I think German) and they milled around.  Later there was a Japanese group.  It was fun to listen to all the languages.

We parted ways with Seligman after almost 2 hours of leisure (sadly missing from our previous day) and stayed on the ‘mother road’ as far as we could.  We were eventually funneled back to I40.  We came across a sign on the freeway before Williams that stated slow trucks next 18 miles.  Usually slow trucks mean a grade but I could not think of an 18 mile grade that I have ever been on.  Well it was a grade and it was almost 18 miles long.  The transmission continued its’ light show but the truck performed just fine.  We made it to the Flagstaff KOA at any astonishingly early time of 4:15pm.  I called a transmission shop and discussed the problem.  I also conversed with my boss, who likes to rebuild vehicles also and every concurred that there was something probably bad with the sensor.  I am going to the transmission shop in the AM to get a type of temperature gauge for the outside of the pan.

We setup the trailers and decided to try another discovery from Phyllis, the spot this time: Miz Zip’s.  Very good food.  Chicken Fried steak with mashed potatoes was highly rated by the girls.  The guys liked the Roast Beef dinner.  We ALL loved the Peach pie with ice cream, even me and I don’t care too much for fruit pies.  We made a few more house keeping stops and came back to the trailers.  So what is the cold part regarded in the title?  The temperature tonight is supposed to be 32.  What a difference a day makes.

Arizona Part VII

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Last installment for the Arizona trip so it might be a bit long.  I will make up for the previous no photo post also.

We are westward bound since home is calling.  However the only real paths out of Green Valley are north to Tucson or south to Mexico.  So north we go to do a bit of backtracking (not too much).  We weren’t sure if we wanted to head back toward Phoenix maybe with stop at Picacho Peak State Park.  We didn’t do that.  I remembered a place that I went to as a child and it was pretty much on the way.  Organ Pipe Cactus National Park.

So we go up to Tucson and then head west on AZ86 from there.  The vast majority of the drive until the Why cutoff were in the Tohono O’odham nation.  It was pretty barren with one or two minor population areas.  Along the way we drove past Kitt Peak observatory which is one place I would like to go to, without the trailer.  The drive was enjoyable and we stopped for lunch at Why (yes that is the name of the town).  From there we headed south to the park.

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This was one of the locales my father loved coming to.  Of course pretty much anything in the desert was where he liked.  He loved the smell of sagebrush, the dark nights with the stars.  It is good to be able to take my wife to these places that she has never been.  Organ Pipe is right on the Mexico border and there are some trails and roads that are closed to the public due to illegal activities.  We were only there for one night so we did not do much exploring, just resting.

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Above is our spot in the campground.  As usual I like to see what other Airstreams are in the campground.  There were about 4 but no one was out so I couldn’t converse with anyone <sigh>.  However when I was sitting there an Airstream motorhome drove through, we waved at each other but that was the extent of the contact.  That evening after a steak dinner we went to the evening ranger program and then came back to the total darkness.

The next AM we went to the visitors center and I got a pin for my hat.  We walked around their cactus garden and I took two of what I feel are my favorite shots of the trip.  Both are cactus shots.

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The above is an Ocotillo cactus.  What is odd about this one is there are leaves on it.  Leaves only happen once or twice a year at best.

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This one is an Organ Pipe cactus I do believe.  I love the pattern that the spines create.

As I was talking to the rangers at the visitors center I mentioned that it was over 40 years since I had been to the park but I had some photos of my parents trailer in the campground.  I wondered if they might be interested in copies of them for research (I had them on my thumbdrive).  They agreed and I gave them the electronic versions.  Here they are:

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and

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The first one was probably around 1967 and the second around 1963.

We left Organ Pipe and headed north to join I-8 and head to our next stop for the evening, Yuma.  However on the way we stopped to visit some relatives of my mother’s boyfriend who happened to be in Ajo and had an Airstream motorhome.  We contacted them, found out where they were staying and stopped.  As we met them and I started thinking about it, this was the same motorhome that I saw in the park!  I had no clue until now.  It seems they have a favorite spot but it was unavailable so they did not stay at Organ Pipe that night.  We visited for a bit and then continued one.

We stopped in Gila Bend for lunch and Roxie shopped around to add to her collection of metal fence art.  We trucked on down to Yuma to spend the night.  The next day we headed back to Sam’s Spa in Desert Hot Springs and finished at home the next day.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trips through southern Arizona and look forward to a trip through the northern part soon.