I’m still getting used to how little time it takes to drive from one environment to a radically different one in Arizona. I was the last to leave our forest campsite on Thursday morning. This meant I could drive straight through what used to be Amanda’s campsite to get out without backing up the trailer. A rest area just a few miles down I-17 let me dump everything I needed to dump, and then it was all downhill to Phoenix. Literally.
It was a steep descent through the hills. The pine trees gave way to high desert scrub, and eventually to just ordinary desert before long. I descended about a mile in elevation, and the temperature increased accordingly. I woke up to 40º in the forest but saw 90º before the day was done.
I hate driving through Phoenix. Google Maps kept me squared away as far as what route to take, but traffic was pretty bad even at 1:00 PM on a Thursday. It’s nothing compared to Boston pretty much anytime, but it’s still no walk in the park. It’s just something you grit your teeth and get through.
My destination for the day was Casa Grande, the midpoint between my forest camp and Wayne’s house. When I-17 ended and dropped me onto I-10, the Big Loop was technically complete. I haven’t returned to Quartzsite, but I was now overlapping the route I took when I left Quartzsite to head east to Florida back in February. The loop is now closed.
I rolled into Casa Grande in the middle of the afternoon with time to run a few errands. I did laundry, got gas, and refilled on groceries before heading to Cracker Barrel, my overnight stop. Yellow Wolf was on a journey of her own but was only a few miles down the road at a truck stop. She backtracked to hang out with me for the night instead. We had dinner together, then became old people sitting in rocking chairs outside. We enjoyed the warm evening, especially in contrast to how cold it was getting even before the sun went down in the forest.
The next morning we each took advantage of Cracker Barrel’s free Wi-Fi to get some work done, then resumed our separate journeys toward a common destination. Tucson came and went with no problems, quite unlike Phoenix. I was hoping for a rest area to pull off and have lunch, but one never appeared, so I took an exit with a sign for food. It turned out to be a shopping area two miles away from the highway. The parking lot was way too small for my van and trailer. Trees with very low branches made it even worse. I did manage to find a place to park without scraping my roof (much), then continued on my way. Soon came the exit for Sierra Vista, then the turns onto side roads, and finally a couple of dirt roads that led to Wayne’s house. I spotted Yellow Wolf about a quarter mile ahead of me on the dirt roads.
My first order of business was to get a minimal camp set up, with the trailer and van next to each other and the shade cloth between them to protect me from the heat of the sun. Sierra Vista is at about 4,300 feet, so while Quartzsite is still roasting near 100º, we’re still in the 80s, despite being a bit farther south. The closest lights of civilization I can see at night are from Mexico, 15 miles away.
Then I relaxed and caught up with Wayne, Darryl, and Marilyn. It was like we’d never left Quartzsite, except we weren’t in Quartzsite. After visiting the area, Wayne quickly bought a house here a bit over a year ago. He’s thrilled to be able to have a bunch of us visit, use his bathrooms and laundry, and hang out and explore the area. We talked around the fire well after dark last night and saw a meteor as bright as the full moon streak halfway across the sky. It lasted at least five seconds as it burned up. I’ve seen a few meteors in my life, but this was by far the most impressive one I’ve ever seen.
It’s time to get out of travel mode and into winter nesting mode, even though the weather here is still rather summer-like. That’s how I like it.
Smokey Da Van 