Quartzsite, AZ

We finally escaped from Casa Grande! On the road at 9:30 planning to spend the night by Joshua Tree National Park in CA. Didn't make it. We had a hint when we passed the FedEx truck laying on it's side but when a pickup bed liner blew across I10 we figured that was a BIG hint. I knew the truck would miss it but thought it hit the back of the trailer. The vehicles behind me were all over the road taking evasive action. We stopped in Quartzsite AZ a few miles further down the road. I checked the trailer but saw no damage or scuff marks, good news. In the pics Judy shows how much she likes palm trees by giving one at our site a hug. You can see in the other pic that real estate here in AZ is also depressed.

Casa Grande AZ

OK, the pictures will tell you what we did this morning. Judy's first crown. Also did a few errands getting ready to depart Saturday. Good bye ground squirrels and Arizona sunsets.

Casa Grande AZ

Milwaukee Brewers 4, San Francisco Giants 8. Today we drove up to Todd's home and checked it out. He's got a real nice home with lots of palm trees and cactus, enough grass to make his two dogs happy, and a nice pool to keep cool in. Thanks for the tour and lunch Todd! In the afternoon the three of us went to the Brewers and Giants game. Beautiful day in the low 80s with lots of sunshine. We enjoyed the game with 4100 other baseball fans.

Casa Grande AZ

We spent 10 hours in the truck today traveling the 140 mile Apache Trail, 22 miles were dirt roads. The trail is in the Superstition mountains, a very rugged and isolated country. Our cell phones didn't even work! Many places the road was very narrow allowing one vehicle to pass at a time so you had to coordinate with oncoming traffic, fortunately it was wasn't heavy. The dirt road started at Tortilla Flats, population 6, where we had lunch. The road was built to carry construction materials for the Roosevelt Dam many decades ago. At one scenic overview, Fish Creek Hill, we met Shirley & Frank Ecker from Ohio and had a very nice chat with them.

We also stooped at the Tonto National Monument, a 600 year old Indian cliff dwelling. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Casa Grande AZ

Today we hooked up and went back to the Pinal County Fairgrounds and a Good Sam Rally where we had our rig weighed. We have put on some weight since last May! We are still within all specs for the rig but are getting very close so we'll have to watch our diet! Nothing like packing on over 1100 pounds in 9 months! We also played with our new truck air bags and determined 50 pounds corrected our low speed towing shudder. Judy climbed back up on the roof and we verified we were 13' 3" tall.