take the long way home: part four

Not a single elk was seen

We were treated to some of the prettiest scenery on our way down the mountain. Matter of fact it was so pretty that I tried to find another RV park to spend more time up there. All we found were seasonal RV parks which were all booked months in advance and filled to capacity. We did manage to find several mostly unoccupied state parks without hookups. I really regretted my decision (the week prior) to hold off buying a portable generator for the sake of saving money. As cool as it was up there I still needed the extra power my  now 3 year old deep cycle battery was incapable of holding long term. There were a few other reasons we had to have hookups as well.

View from the Mogollon Rim

We pressed on and landed in Payson for the night. The park we settled into was on the edge of town and not as close to the wilderness as we were hoping for. This was made up for by the quaintness and good food the town had to offer. We went for a nice walking tour of the place and then picked up some dinner to go at Gerardo's Firewood Cafe. The pasghetti and meatballs was so worth it! After being at this for almost a week now we both settled into our new routines. A glass of scotch while I watched another episode of Kitchen Nightmares and the beagle .... well she had found an enjoyable yet peculiar way in which she repeatedly ended the night.

I saw this every freaking night

Our last stop before finally making our way into Phoenix to visit with some friends was Camp Verde, AZ. This place is at about a 3000 ft elevation and we definitely felt it's lack of effect on the heat compared to where we had just come from. Most of our time there was spent either inside the truck or trailer with the AC running full blast. The park we stayed at had some rather colorful locals residing there, but none who were life threatening to us. Just slightly off in a fun way. We found this out when we hung out and had lots of beers as we hoped around from RV to RV in a kind of full timers version of a pub crawl. In the morning, while I was trying to fight my hangover, I made a discovery. Well ok, it was really more of something I had missed completely. When I left TX one of my stops was to be the Gila cliff dwellers site in NM. I had to scrub that because the Park service had closed it to the public from the 3rd to the 7th. The worst part came when I learned that even if it wasn't closed I, the beagle and her kind are not welcome there. Montezuma's Castle was not only just a ten minute drive from where I was staying, but they also Welcomed dogs there. We packed up, drove in, and spent most of the morning there while I got my Anthropological geek on! Bridgette was treated to a couple of bits of steak again that night.

A slight fixer upper

The next three days were spent down in Phoenix with a catching up with childhood friend and his family. A nice benefit was that his house was built on a one acre lot so I didn't have to find a place to stash my rig. He was also generous enough to provide power to keep the AC running and everything inside from melting. We stlll also slept in it during our stay despite his offer to put me up in the house. It was more out of convenience that we did that than any other reason, and the beagle had to her hind legs on back of the couch thing or else she wouldn't get a good nights rest. Our stay with them was Great, but long overdue. The last time I had visited was ten years ago and I reazlied then that I need to be more diligent with keeping in touch. I will most definitely make plans to visit my friend and his family again. Only this time it will be in the winter when we can enjoy being outside a bit more and I also plan to cook for his clan as a Thank You!

On Monday evening we made our final destination in southern CA to stay with my family. We're staying here for the summer'ish before moving on again. Our timetable depends mostly on getting some work and adding to our savings. This was a fun yet hectic nine days for us. I'm looking forward to doing it again but at a more relaxed and stationary pace.