Back at Jojoba with side trip to Mexico

We have been at Jojoba, our home base for a few months. We have spent time working on our lot, storage and motorhome, getting together with friends here in the park, doing some voluntteer work. Joe has been gong to doctor's appointments and we went to a memorial liunch for Brock's mother who passed away when we were up north with Kristi and Brock taking care of Mom and Dad's wishes. As life goes on with the passing of our parents generation, the latest generation continues to grow as both Heather and Kori are pregnant. Such good news!!!
We did take off for around 10 days to go down to Puerto Penasco with Larry and Orene, as they needed to take care of some last items for our Mexican Connection trip there which will be in early Febrary. We stopped one night at American Girl Mine, a boondocking site near Yuma that we have stayed at a number of times. We then met Larry and Orene at Organ Pipe National Park at the campground where we will stay for the pre rally. It is a lovely park with lots of desert plants.I didn't take many pictures this tirp as we have been here a few times.We got there just as it started raining. It had rained the night before and Orene had called us at a place right before the campground where the water was running across the road and they had to wait until someone checked it out before they could cross. It was okay when we got there.  We just spent one night here before heading over the border. The crossing was easy both coming in and gong out with few questions which was nice.

Border Crossing

We arrived at the Reef and met with Gas who runs the place. He is a great guy and has been very helpful to Orene on arranging some events for the Rally/ This is a wonderful place to stay and we wouldn't mnd coming back here on our own sometime. Orene and Larry also like it a lot and are thinking of spending a month here next fall.
The front rows were almost full but we got a beach front site and Larry and Orene one right behind us. Thanks Larry and Orene for letting us having a beach site!!  The views are great and we had some awesome sunsets and absolutely lovely weather.

One night Gus's family had a birthday party for one of his family's kids next to our site. Plus we got another great sunset.

Ella, Larry and Orene's dog

We ate out a number of times. We had to check out some places for the rally. Yeah, someone has to do it. :)

We met several nice couples. One, Mike and Tanya come down here a lot. They took us to one of their favorite places for breakfast. The first one, in Chola Bay, was closed that day but we went to their second favorite, Rosey's right in town. It was delicious. It will certainly be one we will recommend to those going to the rally.

One day we drove over to a lovely hotel outside of town wher Larry and Orene stayed before. I should have taken more pictures. It is on the water and there are a number of pools, outdoor bars and a few steps down to the beach with lots of seating both on the patio and the beach. The inside was very nice as well. I did get the one picture below of the lobby area.

Along with some other restaurant outing including the Wreck which is right next to the campground , we shared a few meals at our sites. Larry cooked breakfast one morning, I made Jambalaya which included some of the shrimp we got from a fish market in town. Larry also steamed some clams he got in town. It was definitely a foodie trip.

All and all it was a great trip and we are looking forward to the trip in Febrary. Orene and Larry are doing a great job of setting up the trip and I think everyone who is going to this sold out trip will have a wonderful time.
We are back in Jojoba and will be busy this month. We have three Ducks games this month and hope they will be turning around their losing streak to a winning one. There is a birthday party for Amber, her second on the 21st. We are thinking on staying at ONeil Park for 5 days as it is close to Kristti's and not far from Anaheim as we have a game on the following Tuesday. Then of course Thanksgiving the following week. We couldn't get any reservations anywhere but will go to Kori's and Nick's on the 28th for the family thanksgivng holiday.

Stay tuned

A Couple of Stops in Arizona and Onto New Mexico

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a International Biosphere Reserve in the Sonoran desert. Twin Peaks Campground is within the Monument and has around 200 sites. There are pull thru sites with lovely desert landscaping. We stayed here for the Puerto Penasco pre rally in 2012 and will do so as part of next years rally. We decided to spend a few days here before heading north. There weren't many other people here.We seem to be in the time between winter snowbirders and spring breakers and the busy summer season, though summer may not be too busy because of the heat.

We went into Ajo one day to replenish our food supply. Another day decided to check out Darby Wells Road, a BLM free boondocking area that is popular in the winter. We didn't see anyone at all there. Getting too hot I guess. Part of the area is now restricted as it was discovered that some of the land actually belongs to the mines in the area.  So there aren't as many sites for larger rv's it seems.

We were originally going to go to Parker for Michael and Casey's hydroplane races. Then Michael emailed us that he had a trailer problem and he wasn't sure they would be able to go. As we needed to decide which direction to head, we decided to head to Tucson instead. Parker is a little out of the way and suppose to be in the 100's and so we decided to head directly north instead. It turned out to be a good decision as the weekend we would have been in Parker Joe had a stomach flu and wouldn't have been able to watch the races anyway and that heat would be no fun when you are sick.

So, Our next stop was a new one for us. Catalina State Park is a high desert campground just north of Tucson. It is very, very popular site in winter and you need to get reservations way ahead of time. We usually stay at Gilbert Ray as it is a first come first serve campground. We were easily able to get a site. It is at the base of the Catalina Mountains and  is a different look from Organ Pipe. This place doesn't have the typical desert plants but lots of nice shade trees. 

Love the coloring on the mountains in the late afternoon.

We had more shopping to do, with our Trade Joe fix included. We also took care of some other  business in Tucson.

Well, it is getting pretty hot in Arizona and so we will start heading north to hopefully cooler weather. Santa Fe is on the horizon with a stop at City of Rocks, near Deming, New Mexico.
Stay tuned.

More Time at Lake Roosevelt and Back to Jojoba

We are still enjoying our time at Lake Roosevelt but decide on a drive for a chance of pace in our surroundings. We head for Payson and soon say goodbye to all the cactus and other desert plants and start to see trees and then taller trees as we get closer to the small mountain town.

We drive through Payson and head east on HWY 260 on the Mogollon Rim. The Mogollon Rim stretches for around 200 miles from the cool mountains to the burning deserts below ps with volcanic and sedimentary rocks and pine trees. We also were there to check out possible campsites in the area but none of them are open yet for the season and had closed gates and so we couldn't even check them out for the future. We drove for awhile and then stopped to check out the views below.

Well, after the weekend, we checked Bermuda Flats out again and then still pretty crowded saw a few spots open and so packed up and headed for beach front property. We parallel parked right on the water. We really love this area. Even Savannah enjoyed relaxing on one of the beach chairs.

We finally got our kayak out on the water. We kayaked one day and then Joe turned it into a sail boat and did a little sailing another day.

We would love to stay here longer but we need to get back to So Cal for Joe's doctor appointment and so start the month of April by driving back to Jojoba. We do an overnight stay at Dome Rock near Quartzsite. I took some pictures on the way and at Dome Rock to capture more of the spring floral including the beautiful palo verde trees with their lovely yellow flowers. They were everywhere. Of course, couldn't help a few more of those Arizona sunsets.

We got settled back at Jojoba for a few week stay. Joe had his doctor appointment which went fine and he is set to continue our travels with next visit in October when we get back from our summer travels. We did a lot of things around the place, such as cleaning up the shed a little, doing some yard work, putting some things from the motor home into the shed we don't need. Joe bought some stuff on Amazon, including a some freezer/refrig that goes in one of the RV Bays. We plan on filling it with shrimp when we go to Mexico and Halibut and other seafood on our Alaska trip. It runs on 12 Volt as well as regular power and we are going to stop at J &L Repair on our way out of town to have them set that up as well as a few other minor issues. We didn't socialize much while here, though did go to a doggie social at the Dog Park and Savannah got to see her friends.. However, we did make a trip to Kristi and Brock's for Easter. It is always good to get together with the family. We really enjoy seeing our two little grand nieces. They are both walking now and are really starting to show their personalities.

We are headed to J & L today, staying the night there so they can start work on the motor home first thing in the morning and then will start heading towards Ajo, Arizona where we will meet up with Larry and Orene for our week stay in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. Of course we will be be watching the Hockey Playoffs which started yesterday. Tonight is the first Ducks game against Winnipeg.

GO Ducks!!!!!