And Then There Were the Full-Timers
A funny thing happened since Thanksgiving… we lost the vacationers. Thus far on our trip we’ve mostly met folks traveling for just a short time. Now that winter is officially here, we are down to just the full-timers, which has been good for us as it feels like we are engaging in different ways with these folks. We can discuss destinations and share RV stories with people who understand. We’ve also gotten significantly more limited geographically as the cold has settled in at elevation so we find ourselves running into our new friends in new spots from time to time.
After Death Valley, and the wonderful news from Cate School, we took a few days to relax atTecopa Hot Springs, a lovely place for mineral baths that don’t smell like sulfur. Though a fierce wind kicked up the first night, Alanna was not deterred. She has an incredible ability to soak in mineral baths for hours on end. I last about twenty minutes. On our second day, the wind was so strong, there were practically white caps in the hot pool, which is not covered on the women's side. Did I mention that the pools are segregated by gender, and that full nudity is required. That's a first for us, the mandatory naked. Interestingly, it's a county ordinance, I guess to preserve the integrity of the water.
Nudity aside, we met some really nice fellow travelers who invited us to meet up with them at the rather quirky Death Valley Brew Pub that evening. We got there at 6pm. Turns out they normally close at 6pm--it was a Friday night! Well, since they had customers, they stayed open and we shut the house down at 8pm, having had some great craft soda and a wonderful conversation with new friends.
After Tecopa, we made another stop in Las Vegas to see our friends Katie and David, and their adorable children. We loved holding the baby, and playing with Sienna. We restocked at Costco and Trader Joe's and drove away with clean clothes. They are very good to us.
On the way to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, we passed through a wacky little town in Arizona. Quartzsite seems to exist solely to serve RVers avoiding the cold. Motorhomes are literally everywhere! We camped on BLM land just north of town and made a quick pass through town in the morning, where we were reminded that we were in Arizona when we saw a countdown clock for the end of the Obama presidency.
Organ Pipe Cactus NM was a really different place to visit. Right on the border with Mexico, this is the one place in the US where you can see organ pipe cactuses as they are primarily found in Mexico. They are very interesting and fun, and mixed in with the saguaros and ocotillos and chollas, it is a unique and breathtaking landscape. They call it the green desert with good reason.
Though we read plenty about the monument, and understood before we arrived that the proximity to the border meant potential safety concerns, it was unnerving when we were out for a good hike and came across evidence of smugglers. The park warns to be on the lookout for black water bottles--they actually look like the type of bottle from which you would fill your windshield wiper fluid. We saw a couple of those on the trail as well as some smugglers pouches under a bush. It's a really different thing, to have all of your senses on high alert for other humans versus bears. The ranger that we talked with afterwards said what we saw is pretty standard and though it is possible to run into migrants or smugglers, it does not happen often since they are working overtime to not be seen.
On our way to Tucson, we crossed through two border checkpoints and passed over a dozen border patrol agents. It felt like another world entirely. I've been to Tucson a number of times, mostly back in the late 80s, and it was nothing like this, and this was unnerving in many ways.
For the last two nights, we have been in Tucson Mountain Park, the closest Minnie-accessible camping to Saguaro National Park, enjoying stunning Arizona sunsets and sunrises, all shapes and sizes of the comical yet majestic saguaro cactus, and doing some loose planning for the weeks ahead. We've also been basking in 75 degree days with ample sunshine, soaking up as much vitamin D as possible. Tomorrow, we are off to explore the artist colonies of Tubac and Bisbee.
