Thursday, January 8, 2015

Bike, Hike, Shop

 

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Another week has flown by, and we survived the frigid air mass and rain that passed through the southwest and left the surrounding mountains covered in snow.

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Jim and Allison picked the worst week to come to McDowell, but we still managed to join them for one warm bike ride and two very cold ones in the upper 40s. Naturally since they left it is getting into the 70s.

Allison, Jim and Jim.

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Tuesday we took a drive to Gold Canyon to meet up with friends John and Carol for a hike on the Hieroglyphic trail in the Superstition Wilderness. This popular three mile round trip trail makes a gradual climb to a beautiful canyon where there are Hohokam petroglyphs and seasonal pools.

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John and I taking a little break.

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Beautiful desert scenery.

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Jim Carol and John. Jim is admiring Carol’s new iPhone 6

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We saw lots of petroglyphs. 

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There was plenty of water in the pools from last weeks rain.

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 And we got to do a little rock scrambling, which is always fun.

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We also had the pleasure of meeting this adorable 9 week old puppy on the trail.

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After our hike we stopped by John and Carol’s new casita in Superstition Views. When the driveway gets poured they will be able to keep their 5th wheel right next to the house. I forgot to take a photo, but we were impressed. At 700 square feet it was a perfect size and very nicely laid  out and furnished.

We have also been finishing up working on the Lazy Daze. Jim got the rest of the polishing done on the high parts that I won’t do, he flushed the hot water tank, and I removed and washed all the window screens. We also got a new bike rack for the car, which required some assembly and took longer than expected to put on.

And we’ve been out shopping around again for another RV. We would really like something a bit larger but knowing us we won’t ever take the plunge. It’s fun to look, though, and  many of them are designed so poorly we would never even consider them. Maybe one of these days the right one will come along and the Lazy Daze will be history. Or we will be driving this around until we’re old and gray. Oh wait, we already are!

John and Carol wanted to see more pictures of our cats, so here you go. Sophie is very pretty, but too bad she’s so rotten.

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And our sweet little goofy boy Elvis.

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One more week at McDowell before we move on to Quartzsite.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tour of Gold Canyon. I added it to our hikes when we get to that area.

    Poor Sophie....she doesn't look rotten at all!

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    1. Be sure to bring hiking poles. That trail is very rocky.
      As to Sophie, Looks are deceiving!

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  2. Maybe that Class A won't hangover as much as the Lazy Daze and you can camp along side Boonie :).

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    1. Actually it does have higher ground clearance, so he won't be able to avoid us as easily!

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  3. Sorry we missed it. That is an interesting trail with a nice reward at the end.

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  4. "Oh wait, we already are"! LOL!!!

    Good to see you all out and about surrounded by gorgeous scenery.

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  5. We recently returned from our first trip in our new to us RV. We were being chased by the storm from Southern California all the way back to Albuquerque..........we even got to set up in the snow the last night out (Caballo Lake State Park.........think I saw it on your blog once, bet it is wonderful when it is a teeny bit warmer). Needless to say we took the Southern Route home from California so could not even think about stopping to say hi...............someday I would love to go to McDowell and ride those trails. We do appreciate the advice on campgrounds that you gave. Check out my blogs (posted on both) and you can see some of the places we did end up.

    On the new RV............we bought ours about 18 years ago and have been looking for about 15 years. You don't want to rush into these things.

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  6. Glad you got a chance to do the hieroglyphic trail while the pools were full.

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  7. I am the attractor of bad weather. It has rained ALL DAY in Tucson. It's cold and windy. We are really looking forward to a better climate. Those are nice looking trails you were hiking on. The cats are adorable as always.

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  8. Your photos are much better than ours. Which camera are they from? We had a good time seeing you two.

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  9. Wow, that's a lot of rock art. Very cool. I shopped for two years before I found the current 5er, and almost that long for this camper. I'll be in Quartzsite 17-? Hope to meet you out there somewhere.

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    1. Hope to meet you, too. If you're still around on the 24th you may want to check the Blogger Fest. We plan to attend. http://blog.willywagon.net

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  10. I am really looking forward to get to McDowell this year for the first time. I understand there are many crested saguaro that I need to find:) Looks like you have had a lot of great outside exercise time. Good to get those household duties finished.

    Travel safely to the Q!!

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  11. Looks like a great trail with a little bit of everything - the pools are wonderful! You can't get a new rig, you just got this one polished :-) Glad you're getting this warmer weather there as well. Yesterday dopler showed the only rain in the country was in Southern AZ and NM which is very rare!! Of course there's still all that snow in the northeast.......

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  12. Replies
    1. With bike helmets on all those gray bearded men do look alike!

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  13. Love, love, love your pictures! All looks beautiful and I see you are doing well! Good luck with RV shopping, always a difficult task but yes, fun!

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  14. Those are gorgeous landscape pictures. I love petroglyphs and am really happy to see these have not been vandalized or at least it doesn't look like it from your pictures. Poor puppy looks tired. Sophie and Elvis look darling. Tell them I'm a fan and Sophie just has "personality". When I read about all the spiffing up of the rig you were doing I thought you were going to say you were trading it in. We go to the Tampa RV show every year and look at all the rigs and have yet to find something that looks as solidly built and as aesthetically pleasing as Winnona. Just hope she doesn't get TOO old before we do since all of us are already old.

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