Laundry

I have gotten a handful of emails over the last few days asking where we are and what we are up to. I guess that means that it's time to put another little blurb out there that explains the nitty-gritty details. The quick report is that we are now in Palm Springs doing laundry. Brenda says that she can smell my dirty socks that are hiding in a secret laundry compartment that resides underneath our bed, so here we are, doing laundry(I think my socks smell good). Since we have been in the desert for the past couple of months, there is a thick layer of dust and grit on everything so we are going to be here for a few days while we get our home on wheels cleaned up, and since we are here, we are going to check out Joshua Tree National Park which is pretty much right next door.

The longer version of the report is that we spent a week in Tucson playing around and seeing the sights. We really liked Tucson and had a lot of fun there. We were pretty good tourists and saw as many of the sights that we could squeeze in during our week in town. We went to a couple of museums (the Pima Air and Space Museum was great) and we visited the zoo (sort of a sad zoo compared to Seattle's or San Diego's zoos). We took a side trip to the old-west town of Tombstone where we saw a gunfight and got a lot of the town's history while we took a tour on a “haunted trolley”. Ton's of western movies have been made about Tombstone and the unruly gunfights that have taken place there. Tombstone was a fun and interesting place to spend a day.

We also climbed one of Arizona's highest peaks while in Tucson...Mt Lemmon at 9,157'...it was a long way up. Mt. Lemmon is a pretty interesting mountain. As you make your way up the mountain, it is said that you will pass through as many different climate zones as if you had driven from Mexico to British Columbia. I didn't believe it, but sure enough, when we started at the bottom of the mountain we were in a dry and dusty desert and at the top of the mountain we were in a lush and green pine forest that reminded me of some of the places we had seen this past summer while we were sailing through the inside passage. We also saw tracks and markings from black bears and mountain lions that were in the area. I didn't know that bears were in Arizona?!?!? There is also a ski resort at the top of the mountain that was unfortunately not open (still no snow). We would still be in Tucson if the mountain was open for skiing. That would have been heaven to have 75 degree days in town and to be able to ski on top of the mountain.

Somewhere near the top of Mt Lemmon

Me just about to the tippety-top
Brenda on the top of the world!  The view was great from up there.  

After Tucson, we stopped near the town of Yuma. We found a great spot to call home for the night in the middle of the desert that was next to the Imperial Sand Dunes. We wanted to see the dunes (they are incredible if you are wondering) and we wanted to have a night out of the hustle and bustle of the city...in the boonies with just the two of us. The 2 best things about being in the boonies is that the stars are generally out in full force and there is no one around but us to see those stars. It was great.

Now that we had a night to ourselves in the boonies, I felt like I could handle some more city time. Off to San Diego we go for 5 days. We made a home base in a RV park that was about 20 minutes out of the city which made it pretty easy to explore the area. We went to the San Diego Zoo, ate at some great restaurants, and spent a lot of time at the various beaches. Something about seeing the ocean, smelling the salty air, and seeing sailboats in action tugged at me to get back on the boat and set sail for distant horizons. For the first time since we have been on the road in our home on wheels, I have missed our sailboat and the boating lifestyle. Brenda reminded me that it is only a matter of time for us to be back in San Diego on our boat as we make our way to Mexico. Until then San Diego...adios.

Brenda with her tosies in the water.
We finally saw some grizzly bears...in the San Diego Zoo

So here I sit...watching the washing machine scrub my so called smelly socks. That is the quick review of our last couple of weeks. Nothing super exciting to report except that we are still having a great time and that there seems to be an endless amount of stuff that we need to see. So after our short stay here, we are heading to Death Valley to see some more stuff. We will check in soon. Until then...adios.

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