We are now staying in a desert RV park just southeast of Tucson. Tucson is another city in a valley amongst the mountains here in the southwest. Our first outing was a trip to Saguaro National Park East. This park and its brother on the west side of Tucson are home to the giant saguaro cactus, the nation’s largest. There was a nice driving loop that was quite scenic with parking lots at the trailheads. We hiked a couple of trails to explore the terrain. The next day, we drove up to the top of Mount Lemmon. With the peak at over 9000 feet, it is cold enough in the winter to have some great skiing. No skiing now but the chair lift operates all year to take visitors to the peak for the view. Days later, we celebrated Claudia’s birthday by visiting the 22nd Street Antique Mall, the Historic 4th Ave District, and dinner at one of the highest rated Mexican restaurants in Tucson, El Charro. A day later, we were off to find the Tanque Verde Falls. Yes, they do have waterfalls in the desert mountains, but this was a moderate rated trail that we were never going to see as it was beyond our abilities. We did get our exercise along with some great pictures.

Benson Arizona sits just about 50 miles north of the Mexican border in a valley surrounded by mountains. The difference between the Texas gulf coast and the high deserts of southern Arizona are startling. We have not seen them yet, but this RV park has javelinas visit at night. A few miles south of here is the town of Tombstone, made famous by the gunfight at the OK Corral. The town is a fun place to visit with its many shops, eateries, tours, and of course, the reenactment of the gunfight itself in just about the exact spot where it happened on October 26, 1881. Another day, we drove a little southwest of town to Kartchner Caverns State Park. We didn’t know about this site until we got here, but it is one of the more popular parks in southern AZ. The cave tours are currently. sold out for the next six weeks! The trails around the park still offer some real desert beauty. At one point, we crossed out of the state park into the Coronado National Forest.

When I was younger, I could drive a semi over 600 miles in a day. Today, retired, there is no hurry as where ever we stop, our house is right behind us. Our next area to explore would be in Arizona, 985 miles away, so we drove about 250 miles a day and stopped for two nights each in Fredericksburg, Ft Stockton, and El Paso before landing in Benson AZ. Two nights gives us one day to relax. In Fredericksburg, we strolled along the main street in town to shop for jams, jellies, and hot sauces before having some traditional German food for lunch. Also saw the National Museum of the Pacific War. In Ft Stockton we did our grocery shopping. In El Paso we went to Franklin Mountain State Park for some hiking. Lastly, after driving straight thru New Mexico, we landed in Arizona, this year to explore the southern part of the state.

Two weeks ago, I started writing this post….
“A very close friend winters down here and last year we spent some time down here with him. This year we came back again as it is a nice quiet town with beaches, parks, fishing, shopping, and great weather! We are on our way to see the carrier USS Lexington down in Corpus Christi. Today’s high temp here is 73 while Chicago will see a whopping 16 degrees”.

What’s funny about that post is 70 – 71 degrees is the NORMAL temperature for this time of year. One week ago, heaven turned into hell! For several days, the highs hovered around 34 – 35 wile lows went down to 17. The entire state was hit with snow, ice and temps below 0. There were major pile ups and closed roads. In Rockport, we had some warmer weather, but that 17 degree low burst pipes and caused water shut offs. Never expecting weather not seen in a century, 45 megawatts of power was offline for maintenance and that forced power outages and rolling blackouts. I put a couple days of water into the onboard tank the get thru the coldest night, but that was when we lost all water for four days. We did have power, but below 40 degrees the heat pump stops, so heat was furnace only. That caused 3 trips to get propane in one week. One time at the coldest, the line was three and a half hours long! Today, we are going to hit 60 and the water got turned back on this morning. After breakfast, I have a date with a long, hot shower.

Galveston Island is a home to many things. Very popular with tourists for its beaches, home to oil industry services, state parks and wildlife preserves. While here, we got to see the Ocean Star Oil Rig and Museum, the Strand Historic District, a state park, and miles of wide, hard packed beaches with some great seashells. Claudia got to visit with a friend from school who lives here now. There was a near empty beach right across the street from the RV park that we drove out on.

After hearing about the state park here on the gulf, we stopped last year to see it. Looked so nice we booked two weeks a year in advance at that time. So here we are after spending a fun two weeks on the Alabama coast. First, there are hotels on the beach in Gulf Shores and way down in Orange Beach, but in between is a long, beautiful white sand beach. Gulf SP is across the road and has almost 500 campsites with full hookups and all facilities. Half the RVs in here are transients like us at two weeks or less while many come to spend months here. Being midway between Pensacola and Mobile, there is a whole lot to do here. Luckily, we got to see a lot of the sites last year before Covid hit. This year, we have stayed outside mostly, like at the beaches, the parks, and the miles of trails here in the state park. The park is host to a number of animals, but we have only been visited by armadillos. Also, while walking a trail, we got to see a family of eagles. We toured Fort Morgan, a historical site from the Battle of Mobile Bay.

We crossed into Florida November 1 and we have had a lot of fun, but sadly, it’s time to move on. we made the best out of the last week here as we went up to Wakula Springs to take the boat tour to see manatees, alligators. blue heron, vultures, and so much more wildlife. After saying goodbye to my niece, we left Eastpoint and travelled up to Pensacola. While here, we walked on several beaches down on the gulf and stopped for some great seafood. These beaches are quite empty now as this is just about the coldest time of the year, but 60 degrees and the bright sunlight keeps you pretty warm! Tonight, we will start a two week stay on the Alabama coast. Alas, once again, Pensacola NAS is closed to non military, so no visit to the Air Museum there.

Well, the actual name is Tate’s Hell State Forest. It was named for Cebe Tate, who while hunting here, got lost, got dehydrated, got bit by a rattler, and stumbled out of the forest naked and delirious and just before dying, claimed he had been in hell. The state has owned the land for about 25 years now and is actively restoring the forrest. There are many rare plants and endangered animals here, and it has been the only place east of the Rockys that we carry bear spray. We really walk a lot of miles in this area especially the beaches in Carrabelle and on St George Island. Due to Covid this year, we are avoiding restaurants, so we had to buy, shuck, and flame grill our own oysters, and they turned out great. Out on the St Joseph Peninsula, we saw many birds and sea life. Occasionally, you will find a jellyfish or octopus that was caught stuck on the sand by a receding tide.

Yesterday we arrived in Eastpoint Florida, and we will stay here until after New Years. This area is called the forgotten coast and was a major source of oysters until the oil rig spill many years ago. All but destroyed, the oysters are slowly coming back, but it will take decades. Our site this year (we were here last year) is literally a stone’s throw from the gulf. The sunrise over the water was beautiful sitting on my picnic table. On the way here last year, it was such a long drive that we decided to stop for the weekend in Tallahassee. This gave us time to stock up as the Eastpoint area has limited shopping. While there, we visited the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum. Although not the biggest one we have seen, it is more than just cars. From Duesenbergs to Corvettes, the collection spans over a hundred years of auto history. There are also collections of Case knives, grand pianos, golf clubs, and bat-paraphernalia. Yes that’s right, batmobiles, bat-cycle, bat-boat, and more.

We are currently residing at Grand Lake RV and Golf Resort. It sits on the south side of Orange Lake, 20 miles south of Gainesville. We came back here as when we stopped here last year, there were so many activities to keep you busy. Thanks to Covid, this year there is very little. Still, we love to bike and hike and there are so many places here for that. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park has wildlife, trails, and buildings to explore. Silver Springs State Park has some great trails, too. We took the dog out four a four mile hike thru forests of palms and along a meandering stream. with only six days left here, we will see more parks and drive out to a gulf key for lunch.