Arizona Tourist Traps

June 24 - Jerome and Sedona, AZ

The 24th was both a travel day and a tourist day, and man did we really fit in some activities!  From Usery we drove about 120 miles to Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, AZ. I prefer to call it Desert Drums, however. We pulled out of Usery at about 7:00 AM (of course) and had a great highway/interstate drive. There are some steep parts of the interstate in AZ on I-17 north so we decided it would be best to settle in behind an 18 wheeler with our emergency flashers on and take our time to do out best to keep our temperatures low and stay off the brakes.

Here we are in the reflection of the truck taking our sweet, sweet, time.

We got to Distant Drums about 9:00 AM.  With the great help of the super friendly staff, we parked in our pull-through spot and decided to start our exploring for the day. We knew we were near both Jerome and Sedona so we thought we'd go to Jerome first. Distant Drums is the perfect location for visiting these two places and that's ultimately why we choose this park. Plus, our new Newell friends from Lazy Days (Ron and Debbie) gave it a great review.

Here we are at Distant Drums. Beautiful park!

So what else is there to do with basically a full day ahead of us? Go be tourists. And, baby, we are proud of it! This next set of pictures is in Jerome, AZ. I would describe it as a city that was built into the side of a mountain. The road to get there was just a lot of switch back turns up the side of the mountain. I said to Dad, "if we got here in the Newell, I would be crying," Dad goes, "me too!" So go Jeep! Jerome was a cute little town with many restaurants and  people yet not commercialized at all, managing to maintain the feel of a tiny town. There was a lot of FREE (YAY!) visitor parking and we ended up having to walk quite a  ways, but that was no big deal (free, duh). So we walked around here for a while and the streets were stacked into the mountain so we walked a lot of stairs. A great place to spend a few hours, and we were proud we didn't spend any dollars! Go us!

I missed all of the other Jerome City Limits signs, so this is as good as it gets. Apparently as a picture phone taker, I am pretty darn bad.

The elevation of Jerome, AZ. Mile high!

Cute little firehouse in Jerome.

Overlooking part of the city from where we parked. It was amazing how far we could see. On the right side of the pictures, you can see some houses, and there are actually houses  in the city.

Off to the left is just a drop off down into the valley and around the curve is just up, up, and more up!

Looking down into the valley from the road to Jerome.

We are standing on a higher street here, and you can see how the roads are "stacked" into the side of the mountain. You can see how steep the side of the mountain is and those roofs are roofs of homes within the city.

The Jerome Grand Hotel. Built into the side of the mountains.

After we had enough of Jerome, we got back in the Jeep and decided that we still had plenty of day left to go to Sedona. It was probably about 2:30 or so. The drive to Sedona was only about 45 minutes and it was really amazing to see the red rock start to appear closer and closer as we approached the town. I had left the informational map that we found at Distant Drums in the Newell (whoopsie) so Dad just put Starbucks in Sedona in the GPS (or talking lady as Darlene calls her).   She easily directed us to Sedona. Sedona is significantly more touristy trappy than Jerome. The main street was covered in people, shops and traffic, yet it kept flowing nicely probably due to the gazillions of traffic circles. So we could obviously see the amazing red rock but didn't really know how to get a better view closer to it. So we decided to park and walk around some more.  I planned to redeem myself for forgetting the map. 

There is no other picture that could do Sedona justice. It was just absoluetly amazingly beautiful. Dad and I both loved it, and it was so interesting how there was this red rock and these huge formations out of the normal land.

We walked around and found a new map and talked to a tour information guy about how to get close to the rock.  He suggested:
 1. A Jeep ride and did we have back problems or was I pregnant? - NO! to both.    Dad thought I would have a heart attack in a Jeep in these mountains and I totally agreed.  
2. A helicopter ride. Yeah, right.
So suggestion number 3 was to drive down this Loop Road and that's exactly what we did.   It was certainly close enough for us.   We saw both some amazing rock formations and some amazing houses too!

These pictures are all from my cell phone, and the rock is still so different than anything I had ever seen in the East. This is on the Loop Road.

More red rock. Look closely and there are houses in the middle of the picture. The architecture fit right in with style of the mountains and with the feel of the city of Sedona as well.

We took a different way out than in and this is heading away from Sedona. It was designed for heavy traffic yet always room to see the beautiful landscape as well.

More rock to see when leaving Sedona.

For dinner, we were back in Camp Verde, and didn't want to go to the Casino (even though we had a free shuttle).   Dad found a restaurant called the Horn Saloon. Well, it was just the best dinner. We each had something we couldn't pronounce but had an idea of what it was. We both truly enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant. It was beautiful inside and had several fancy wines and beers.

I had the Arribiatta salad and Dad had the Lahmacun. Our waitress made Dad pronounce his and he didn't do too terribly. It was so good, it wouldn't surprise me if we go back!!!



More tourist trapping later...

Mesa, AZ

Mesa, AZ - June 20 - 23

We arrived early in the morning in Mesa at the Usery Mountain Recreational Area (it's called something along those lines, we just call Usery) after pulling out of Lazy Days at 6:30 AM. Yes, that early. Dad wakes up every morning at 5:00 AM. I've been sleeping to about 6:45--7:00 AM  only because it is so bright in the morning that it's hard for me to stay asleep. The GPS gets us right here (she has been behaving much better since the beginning of this trip).    We pull into the campground and climb out to chat with the guys in their booth.  We tell them we're here to camp (by the way, there is not a motorhome/trailer/anything on any site...at all)  He goes "OK, well do you have a reservation?" Dad replies with, "No," and the guy looks at his computer, clicks around and goes, "Well, we do have vacancies." We have noticed....no kidding! There is no one here. It's 110 degrees. Only the crazies come out here. There are four sites that have extra large car ports for shade and those are for the campground hosts (the extra crazies) that are responsible for the cleanliness of the park, etc.

 We manage to find a spot we are satisfied with that qualifies as a "pull-through" but we really just pulled off the side of the campground straight onto the gravel. There is a picnic area with a sturdy picnic table.  We are facing north so that when the sun sets, our patio will be shaded in the evening...even though it's still so HOT!

Same outfit as dinner the night before, oh well. Here I am on the patio side of the Newell where we will have shade in the evenings. I bet those chairs would burn my butt if I sat in them in the middle of the day!

Don't touch. This is the landscape of the entire campground.

Dad actually bought the Newell in Mesa, AZ in February 2010 and picked it up in Mesa in June 2010, and almost to the day, two years later, we are back again to visit. Another Newell friend - Tom McCloud lives in Mesa and I met him when we came to Mesa to pick up the Newell. Right now, Tom is basically totally re-doing a 2002 Newell in his driveway and Dad has been summoned to work on the air conditioner. The first night we were here, we went over to Tom's to see the Newell and his work.   An amazing amount of time and effort  has gone into his Newell. Tom bought the Newell from Honda Racing and it was basically a party bus for the races on the weekends. There were plenty of clues of prior parties!  Dad and I are both really impressed with the handy work of Tom and his wife Darlene.    They have a daughter, Heather, who is my age.   It's great to visit with her and become better friends as our Dads work away at their project.

On Thursday morning, I headed up to the Nature Center for Yoga. When I was in the Keys this past spring, I spent a lot of time doing Yoga because it was time for me to do something for myself, and give Dad a break from me as well!! I thought I might be the only person taking it, especially because it was a week day.  It was such a terrific class!  Misty practiced right next to me and she saw that I had the ability to go through a pretty tough class (Thanks, Catherine!!!!).   We had a great time. Although we were inside, we looked out  huge glass windows to the desert too see the little critters running around. Great start to my day, and I definitely appreciated her teaching skills. Dad spent the rest of the day working on my computer as it seems the hard drive might be crashing soon. Luckily for me, he knows how to take precautions and work on backing up all of my things to a separate hard drive....on and on....I'm so lucky he can take care of that for me!!

At Usery, there are great hiking trails all over the area, and Dad choose one called Wind Cave which we planned to hike on Friday morning. I mean, like get up at 4:45 and start hiking by 5:15 in the morning. This was in order to avoid as much sun as possible and have the hopes of being outside when it was a tad cooler than the 111 degrees in the middle of the day. Well, we thought we were the early birds, but turns out other people were already on the trail by the time we started. The trail was a total of 3 miles and was pretty steep at the end. It was very different than hiking in the Smoky Mountains because you could see everything as the landscape is so different. We could even see people way up ahead of us on the trail. We also saw people turn around at the trail head and do the hike again. Good for them, but I went back to bed for 3 more hours!!!

Personally, I was thrilled to get up at 4:45 and hike...when it was already light outside.

This is the terrain of the trail...it looks flat, but I promise it had a steady incline.
Then really went up nearing the end of the hike. This is about 5:30 am.

View from the top...with binoculars, we could clearly see the side of the Newell. It's a little difficult to see the terrain because of the way the sun was rising, but we managed to avoid it until the last 15 minutes of the hike...which was about 6:45 AM. It gets so BRIGHT so EARLY here.

Here I am at the Wind Cave. Probably eating food and wishing I was still in bed, althoug it was a really great hike and was some good exercise for both of us

At the end of our hike. Happy to be done!

Always in fishing gear.

Just in case you got lost and needed to know which way to Phoenix.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday at Tom's so he and Dad could work on Tom's Newell. I was very useful by staying out of the way and reading and tinkering around, sitting by the pool, and helping with the special sheets for the Newell bed with its rounded corners.  We had dinner at the McCloud's almost every night that we were there and truly enjoyed their company. This week they are heading east and will actually visit the Bare Farm (in the Ozarks, which we visited at the beginning of this adventure). We really enjoy the cities out here in the west. Everything is  organized and new.  The city has this feeling that it was well designed for its future growth. On the interstates, in preparation for expansion, there were even exits that had already been built, but with no roads. Very cool to see! So far we are loving it especially as time passes and we get more into the swing of things. So overall, Mesa gets an A+ from us!

A to Z....Arizona!

 

Tucson, AZ

Tucson, AZ - June 15 - 20

Lazy Days and our stay here was really a treat. The Lazy Days Campground is on the same property as a Camping World and the Lazy Days RV Service Center. I think there are just over 400 lots, and I am sure in the winter months there isn't a spot available. However, because now it is the middle of the summer we had no problem finding a spot. It is a beautiful facility with a restaurant, pool, and fitness center. It also had the most friendly staff and was gated 24/7 so we always felt safe. We spent 5 nights here and ate at the Waffle House every morning. YUM!

Big pull through spots. We should have brought at TN flag to fly.

Truth.

A life long friend from Maryville, Jennifer McAmis, lives out here because she is getting her PhD in political science.  We have been able to spend some time together which has been really wonderful. It is so great to have friends all over the country. Since it is summer and university classes are not in session, she has been busy teaching ZUMBA all over the Tucson area. Friday evening Dad took us out to dinner at a restaurant Jennifer picked called Sauces. We all had delicious pizza and caught up on what's been going on in our lives. Although college has separated many of my friends since high school, it really is such a joy to realize that we can still pick up as friends immediately. Since she is teaching so much, I thought it would be so fun to take an Aqua ZUMBA class from her so Saturday morning I went to one of the Y's and took her class. She did such a stellar job teaching, and I really had a fun time! We spent the rest of the day visiting and catching up at the pool before a small storm came up. Fun fact for that day - that was the most it had rained in one day since 1908 - .29 inches!!!

Jennifer and I at this great Mexican place.. So happy to see her doing so well!  I'm so proud of her and so thankful we were able to meet up! Love love love!

Our Newell next to the 2011 Newell at the Lazy Days Campground. We met the owners, Ron and Debbie of Tucson. They gave us a gold mine of great information on campgrounds to visit and day trips to take in the Jeep. Maybe we will be able to meet up with them down the road as they are planning some time in the West this summer.

Dad and I thought it would fun to do some touristy things since we were not going anywhere for a few days.  He choose the Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson on the way to Mexico. The museum is home to the Titan II which was one of many nuclear ballistic rockets that had the power to reach Russia during the Cold War. It is the only totally preserved silo, and we took a very informative tour. The  best part was that it was 90% underground so we didn't spend too much time in the sun.



On the way to the museum. I-19 south uses kilometers to measure the interstate distance the closer we got to Mexico. Jennifer had told us this was going to happen, and it definitely felt like we weren't in America.

This museum had a gift shop and displays about the Titan II.

A very good overview of what the Cold War was about.

This is what we toured underground. The far module to the left is the control center where there were 4 military personnel working at all times. The middle module is the entrance, and the module on the right is where the missile is housed. All of the structures in the silos had these huge springs so that if the missile had been launched, the structures would have been able to move to be able to absorb the force of the missile launching. The springs also assisted in the safety of the personnel from possible earthquakes, and even incoming missiles.

The cover of the silo is opened half way and inside that glass dome is the Titan II.

A  good view of what the facility looked like topside. The vehicle was for security and you can see the top of the glass dome and the cover opened.



This is looking down through the glass dome from outside. I got a tad woozie when I looked in because it was so far down. I think the heat might have attributed to the wooziness, but it sure seemed like the hole went on forever.

The entrance to the silos. There were 55 steps down to the visitors level and there was an incredible safety sequence that had to be performed every single day with all of the military personnel as they entered the silos.



This is a picture of the HUGE springs I mentioned earlier. This station is also where the commander sat. This seat had to be filled 24/7. 



The Titan II is at the 571-7 Missile Site.



Control Center. If the missile had been ordered (by the President) to be launched there was a six character code that had to be entered. The tour guide showed us that each of the six dials had sixteen possible characters. So there were 6 to the 16th possible codes and only one could launch the missile.



Looking up into the missile module at the Titan II.

Dad snapped this of me probably taking the picture above.

This is a picture of the hallways that connected the different modules together. Dad has on a hard hat. Everyone over 5'10'' had to wear one so I was spared.

So what else did we do in Tucson? Well, I spent some time at the pool with tons of sunscreen and tried to get onto the time zone, ate at the Waffle House, and got a new phone. The GPS on my Droid hasn't been working for a while and we finally remembered that I have insurance (yay!).  We spent a good 45 minutes on the phone with the Verizon tech guy and he finally concluded that, duh, it wasn't working.  He would send a phone to me in Tucson. It's always exciting to have something new to play with so that has kept me very entertained. It's not even the same style of phone! Exactly two years ago, I had to have a Blackberry sent out here when we were getting the Newell. What are the chances of that? So we spent quite a while working with my new smarty phone and trying to get it all set up. It's practically a little computer in your hands these days. 

Early in the morning on the 20th, we hit the road and arrived safely at Usery Mountain Recreation Area in Mesa, AZ (only 200 miles, so a short and easy trip). The trip to Usery was without a doubt the best drive we have taken on this adventure. It was straight interstate and then a four lane highway around and major roads to Usery. We will stay here 4 nights as well.

I think I just saw a rattlesnake. More later!




Travel Day - June 15

June 15 - TX, NM, AZ (travel)

When I last updated, we were on the road (I-10) heading towards Tucson and the Lazy Days Campground. Because of the time changes, we managed to hit El Paso at rush hour which was a bit of a mistake as there was a TON of traffic, but Dad did well, and we managed to escape. It was the longest city!  I thought we were never going to make it through. I think we did see Mexico, however. I missed taking a picture of the sign for the road to Mexico. I don't know why Dad didn't turn around for me.....



Downtown El Paso, TX. Glad we didn't stay here for the night. Apparently from all accounts we've heard, not too safe and not the smartest place to stay in the Newell.

Close enough to Mexico that I can say for this picture "Look, Mexico!"

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful until we started seeing the signs for a border patrol check point in New Mexico. Oh boy! So everybody had to go through the checkpoint, and the guy asked us how many were on board (2) and if we were United States citizens (yes, AMERICA!). So I took pictures, total tourist, but whatever. I've never seen anything like that, so I thought it was pretty cool. Also very happy that we weren't planning to cross the border, even though Dad thought it would be fun to just say that we did. I thought it would be easy to get in, yet harder to get out. My passport doesn't have any stamps in it though. Too bad I probably wouldn't get any in either Mexico or Canada, if we end up there later in the trip.

We drove across the entire state of New Mexico which included over the Rio Grande. I was working on my previous post when that happened and had to look up a map of the Rio Grande on the iPad. This river borders Mexico and Texas before turning north and flowing through New Mexico.  That's how we ended up crossing it.

Self explanatory.

Line of traffic to check point. No one was getting out of their vehicle.

We gained two hours on this trip (leaving TX and getting to AZ). I thought we were just getting into Pacific time zones, but apparently areas of AZ do not participate in daylight savings time, so we have been 3 hours behind Eastern time. When we leave Tucson, I suppose there is a chance we'll end up in Mountain time soon. Who knows? I hardly know what time it really is anyway!

More trains in AZ.

Beautiful rocks in AZ. The camera setting (extra vivid) really made a nice difference in the color of my pictures.
 I think it's just beautiful!

Dad called these "Dirt Devils." They were coming up from fields and probably just a combination of dust, dirt, and dessert that caught the wind. We really didn't want to run into one of these as it crossed the interstate because it had some pretty strong winds. We didn't, but very cool to see.

The destination of this travel day was Tucson, AZ - Lazy Days RV campground. Because of all of the time changes, we arrived around 12:30 local time and had NO trouble getting into our large pull through spot. They even put us next to a Newell (2011 - fancy)! This park is really top notch. The owener was hanging around and was impressed with our Newell. There's a pool, great laundry room, and a very clean fitness center as well. Immediately, I wanted to stay for more than one night. Without much hesitation, we decided to stay until the 19th. I am so thankful because I have had the chance to become acclimated to the time changes and enjoy Tucson!!!