Desert Encounters

During our adventures thus var, we wanted to strike out as pioneers & honeymooners into the backcountry on our own and avoid the silly annoying city-slicker tourists from the north who rent giant RVs and travel around the desert seeking sunshine and sometimes taking in a natural exhibit. We came upon some amazing wildlife......... see the pictures below:








For those of you who are worried that we may meet our demise at the hands of dangerous wildlife or those of you who may be happy that we are taking risks interacting with wild animals such as rattlesnakes, wolves & sharp-billed hummingbirds, I must disclose the following: we witnessed these creatures from the safety of The Desert Museum near Saguaro National Park. Oh, for those who were nervous or excited, just wait till you hear about our bouldering/rock-climging bout at Joshua Rocks, I mean Tree NP.

Mansions On Wheels

We are enjoying 2 different types of suites on wheels for this 20 day leg of our honeymoon: 1) This 22' version will be utilized for 75% of the trip while a 2) 30' version will serve the remaining of the trip. The differences are small in quantity but large in value: The larger of the two is a bit wider but a lot longer which essentially changes the floor plan to have a larger shower and 7 feet of extra length for a queen size bed in the back. In the 22' model, the masterbedroom is above the cab as seen in the pictures. The other main differnece is the larger has an upgraded chassis base & motor and has a walk through design where in the 22' model, entering the RV must be done from the door on the side unless you can crawl like a squirl(lisa) through the window of the cab. The pictures do a much better job describing our luxury accomadations.

Joshua's Wind

Currently, we are at Key's View in Joshua Tree NP which is on the top of a mountain that overlooks the San Andreas Fault, Palm Springs and the mountain ranges near by. We were up early (story later) and decided to drive up to this lookout to catch it before everyone else. Well, it's 8:15 now, we've been here for about 2 hours, cooked a hot breakfast of eggs, potatos and fresh picked grapefruit. I believe the wind(see video, it's difficult to hear the narration as the very high winds are muffling my voice) could be a factor in keeping people away; we're the only ones here and the park is full meaning their is no room at the inn. There were tons of people everywhere we went yesterday afternoon. That takes me to our story as to why we were up early: our only option to stay in the park without cheating the system was to hike into the backcountry and pitch a tent. We came equipped thanks to "David's Basement Outfitting" so that's what we decided to do. Everythign was kopasetic until about 6 hours into the night, the wind got worse and worse, similar to what we're experiencing now while the 30' RV rocks back and forth in the wind. That wind late last night ripped the stakes out of the ground and our tent became a version of the parachute game we used to play in elementary school. After a middle of the night fix-it, the wind was so loud and havocwreaking on the tent, we couldn't sleep and were packed up and heading back to our luxury mansion by dawn.

Night 4&5 Catchup

Nights 4 & 5 were not all that interesting if you are a reader, as we stayed in a Wal-Mart parking lot(Wal-Mart welcomes RVers as they assume that you'll buy your to-get list there if you are sleeping in the parking lot - yes, Lisa & I did spend one of our honeymoon nights in a Wal-Mart parking lot)on N4 and broke down and got a priceline Hilton Resort for N5. Yes, RV life isn't quite as romantic as Vdara in Vegas so we were ready for a nice hotel with all the ammenities. This brings me to another subject, that of frugality. It's a wonder that Lisa & I are on the same page here as some people that know me well might say that I am on the extreme end of it, I guess she see's the benefit now that we can justify a 25 day honeymoon. Either way, given that our nightly cost for the RV is less than a bill at Ruby Tuesday's for two, we have budgeted in some nice priceline hotel nights along the way, especialy when we roll through San Diego for Lisa's Birthday. The RV deal that I hooked up is one for the ages and too complicated to explain over the blog.

Hohokam

We’ve now been to two locations where we learned about and saw firsthand the works and lives of the Hohokam people who according to our readings were around this area almost 10,000 years ago up to just after the birth of Christ. They had advanced irrigation systems, sports arenas that housed a game similar to basketball and developed really nice community dwellings. I’ve attached pictures of their petroglyphs found near our campsite on night 6 and their dwellings at Casa Grande national monument. These people and their existence so long ago have spurned some interesting thoughts as we’ve been thinking about our short existence here on earth, the legacy we will leave and how God influences and interacts in our lives. I have a decent grasp on what the details of my life are like and I’m continually trying to understand and follow through on what God would have for me. However, these people (their ancestors over thousands of years) who I have hard evidence existed and must have come from Russia across to Alaska boggle my mind. I feel good about connecting God to me but I am struggling to connect God to these ancient people who existed in Old Testament times. By the way, the sunset and nearby mountains are amazing right now…. How could these people who were before Jesus’ time not look around and into the stars and think wow and wonder to the Creator. My bet is they did, and now I am on to refresh my memory of God’s view on those people who lived 10,000 years ago in the Arizona desert and all of the other ancient, remote, unknown peoples of the world that He created.

Currently : Real Life - Laundry & Hi-tech Explosives

For the past 2 hours or so, we've filled up our RV with water for showers at 2$ per fillup and spent time at the Laundromat where we have met a variety of travelers. One lady from Canada where the temperature is -4F where she lives and one couple who are full-time travelers (amazing). The location is Quartzite AZ. This town swells in population by about 800% during the winter months as RVers flock here. There are more RVs and tow vehicles than cars on the road. As soon as the laundry is done, we're heading back into the desolate desert to find our campsite for the night. If you look closely during the streth of 95 north from Yuma you can see RVs far off into the distance sitting lonely in the desert. Hopefully they are off the US Army's Yuma Proving Grounds where they test all of our hi-tech weaponry and display signs such as exhibit A.

Superstitous Climbing

The most adventurous part of the trip so far was our hike through a gorge in the Superstition mountains. When i say hike, I really mean scramble, climb, slide, etc. The going was challenging and a bit scary at some points but we most often chose the difficult paths as like life here on earth, it's more about the Journey than the destination. (Side Note - Lisa maintains an unreal balance of carrying the sweet, pretty, feminine qualities every man wants in a woman while also nimbly scrambling to all of the adventurous places we go with an excitement and joy that only rivals my own.) In the pictures you'll see a somewhat phallic formation in the back ground; we made that our destination to refresh ourselves with water and apples before we turned back towards the camper. Crossing over the river was an adventure in itself and when we approached the second river crossing that flowed over the road, two ommish looking gentlemen allowed us to hitch a ride on their bumper to keep us from having to go pants up and barefoot through the cold water. Cheers to nice travelers on the road..... speaking of which, we just met a couple in their eighties that are full-time travelers, they have a huge fifth wheel and a smal motorhome, they choose which one based on where they are going... the most amazing part is they've been doing it for 15 years!