Sand in her eyes - a gift from the Algodones Dunes

The first sign that we were getting close to the Mexican border was the border patrol station stopping and checking all traffic driving north. We were on our way south so we just zoomed on by, passing by a huge ugly behemoth of a mine, and then suddenly coming upon the most beautiful scene of the Algodones Dunes.


Also known as the Imperial Sand Dunes, they extend more than 40 miles and are about 5 miles wide. They've been formed by the windblown sand from the now dried up ancient Lake Cahuilla.

Boy, did the wind blow. It blew the sand up and across the street, in front of our truck and was covering the left side of the road. I wondered how often they need to come through and plow it off the road. It was surreal driving throught it, like we were travelling through well ... a desert.

We were wishing we could stop and take pictures but there was no shoulder to speak of, so I started trying to take them out the side of the window, knowing they'd never be much good. Our wishes came true moments later when we came across a scenic viewpoint. We had to drive up a hill to the parking lot, where we found no parking signs on the north side, due to the ground eroding there.

I was surprised to see, on the south side, signs that said camping was allowed there for 14 days. It's definitely not where I'd want to camp, with all that wind and sand, but I suppose it's useful for the ATVers.

We got out of the car and into the wind, and it was cozy warm and strong, like standing out in front of a huge dryer vent. I couldn't help but hold my arms out and lean into it, much like Kate Winslet did on the front of the Titanic. Teddy was enjoying it as much as I was, frolicking around in the wind and sand while Harold took photos, but poor Toonie was another story altogether.

She is easily aggravated when I teasingly blow in her ears, and this was so much stronger. She kept hunkering down on the ground, and rolling her ears into the ground. She didn't seem scared, and was rather excited by it all, but also very aggravated. 

Making things worse for herself, she smushed her face down into the ground, getting sand in her eyes and up her nose. When I told her it was time to go back, she ran quicker than I've ever seen her run. Her eyes and nose were caked with the sand and she was relieved when I picked her up and carried her, pushing her entire head down into my neck for protection. Sometimes it's really hard being a Chihuahua.

Adios Phoenix! So long and thanks for the ladder!

This is a list of the places we visited while in Phoenix that I didn't blog about (all the photos on this page are from Old Town Scottsdale):

Scottsdale
From Wikipedia:
The New York Times described downtown Scottsdale as "a desert version of Miami's South Beach" and as having "plenty of late night partying and a buzzing hotel scene". Its slogan is "The West's Most Western Town".

Old Town Scottsdale is a touristy shopping and restaurant district, where we wandered the streets looking at t-shirts, hats, and jewelry. We've been keeping an eye out for hats to use at Burning Man (if we ever manage to score tickets!) and other forays into the desert and Harold found one we both liked. The only problem being they only had a small, and Harold has far too many brains to ever fit his head into a small.

So we spent the next hour or so wandering through stores looking for hats just like that one. On the way we browsed into a leather store, by accident, not by choice. "Take a big whiff. That's what cattle misery and death smells like." I told Harold, to which he rolled his eyes and laughed. "It does not smell like that!"  "Well, of course you can't smell it. You're beef-addled!" I came back. He ushered me out of the store before anyone heard me. I used to like the smell of leather.

Driving through the rest of Scottsdale to our dinner spot, we took a few wrong turns and went through some very lovely neighbourhoods. There are a lot of rancher style one floor homes here, which makes sense given the retirement ages of many who live here during the winter. The houses sprawl on large double or triple size lots, all beautifully landscaped with the requisite orange trees and cacti. Up above is Scottsdale Mountain, dotted with mansions looking out over the community. It is a really gorgeous setting.

Tempe
Tempe, named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece, is located just east of Phoenix and south of Scottsdale. It is the home of Arizona State University. On New Year's Eve, the city hosts the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Block Party, one of the nation's largest New Year's Eve parties.

The Mill Avenue District of Tempe, part of the ASU campus, is a really nice looking modern area full of trendy restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and shops.  The area dates back to the 1800s as one of Arizona's first urban areas. Some of the original buildings still exist.

The Tempe Town Lake borders the north side and there was a triathlon going on. Along the edge of the lake is a bank of ultra modern high-rise office towers with big logos at the top for KPMG, Microsoft, US Airways.

Mesa
Mesa is where our RV Park was located. Of course this is because it's like the RV/Trailer Park capital of Phoenix. We enjoyed our stay at Palm Gardens, and can understand why some older people like these sorts of places, even though it's not really for us. It feels very safe and secure. Nobody even locks up their bikes and they leave all manner of items you might be afraid to leave out in a non-gated community. Everybody is so friendly and helpful, and they are all out walking and cycling and chatting to their neighbours. It's like a Beaver Cleaver neighbourhood, except you have to be 55+ to fit in.

The area of Mesa where we were was very old style, with no cool restaurants or shops. Every 5 blocks you'd find the same set of stores, with a Fry's Grocery store as the anchor for a few smaller ones. There is a Camping World right down the street but we never got to it.

Gilbert
The only things we did in Gilbert was shop and drink wine. Our favorite wine bar, Postino had a location here, surrounded by other trendy restaurants. We were able to find two Walmarts, and a Trader Joe's here as well. I believe there was also a Costco but we never made it there.

There are many places we just didn't make it to on this trip, but that's okay, we'll definitely be back. We enjoyed the weather, shopping, restaurants and anywhere with good wine bars is our kind of town. We really enjoyed our week in Phoenix. So long and thanks for the ladder!

Kiss my Lone Butte!

We need to work every weekday, but we also needed to check out of our RV park by 11am, so we opted to drive down to the Lone Butte Casino in Chandler, AZ and work there until the afternoon. This is where my parents stay every time they come to Phoenix. We had originally planned to dry camp here for the week but when the temperature got very hot we changed our minds and checked into an RV Park. So glad we did that now.

With no time for coffee or breakfast before we left that morning, I volunteered to walk over to the casino to get some coffee and maybe something for breakfast. As soon as I got in the door I smelled that stench of stale cigarette smoke covered up by perfumed deodorizer, heard the sounds of the machines dinging and clanging, and took in all the flashing shiny lights beckoning to me. All thought of coffee was gone, to be replaced with the idea "Players Card Perks!"

Every casino has their own deals. This one gives new players $10 to play with on the machines, and if you get up to 10 points on your player's card, they give you another $10. Since it was their money and I didn't have a lot of time, I chose to play max credits on a 25 cent Video Poker game. I was doing pretty well for a while, and had won $20 but then I lost it all. I went back and got my other $10 and then lost all that too. Time to call it quits, I went looking for coffee, but all they had was basic coffee, and I wasn't tempted at all by any of their pastries.

Getting back to the trailer, Harold told me security had come around to tell him that as of the end of March, they no longer allow RVers to camp overnight there. I guess my parents and their friends have just been partying it up down there too much.

I told Harold about the Players Card perks and he went over to the casino before we left. He also chose to play max credits. He was back in about 45 minutes and he'd won $250! That's our biggest win so far! So we took the money and visited Camping World to buy him a new hat and a handy dandy collapsing ladder that stretches from 3ft-14ft! We'd been looking at that ladder last week but couldn't bring ourselves to pay so much. Now this found money was the perfect time to get it!

Up the Apache Trail

Click any of the images
for larger versions.

"The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is the most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful." -- President Theodore Roosevelt

The oldest highway in the US, the Apache Trail was first used by the Apache Indians on their way through the Superstition Mountains, later as a stagecoach trail, and now as highway 88, a route to many recreation areas, though parts are still unpaved.

We had been warned that the road wasn't the best to tow our trailer up, with narrow winding roads, though we saw many people doing it. It's doable, but I'd have to be staying a while to go to the bother.

We drove up the winding road from Apache Junction, up through the mountains, stopping along the way to hike, and look at the views.

One of many lizards

Our first stop was at a view area where we found a trail that took us out into the wilderness. With all the different cacti and plants flowering and all the vegetation a bright green, it was so beautiful and alive.

Something creepy is hiding under here

We saw a hare running away and a bunch of tiny lizards scurried away as we approached. We kept seeing big webs over the husks of dead cacti, with big holes into underground dens. They must be spider dens and big spiders at that, though we didn't see anything moving

There was one view point that looked fantastic but we couldn't get in because the guy there already managed to take up the entire space that three cars could have easily fit in. The next pull-out we found didn't look like much from the road but when we climbed up and then came around the other side of the rock, it opened up into this amazing canyon much more beautiful than the one before. So thanks Mr. Selfish, we won!

At the Canyon Lake overlook, we got out to go take in the view but we were overtaken by three children very taken with Toonie. The irony is that Teddy, at just over a year old, was all excited and wanted them to pay him some attention, and Toonie just stood there in misery, looking up at me with sad-sack eyes, "Must I be subjected to this torture? Please tell them to stop." But they only had eyes for her, and both dogs were majorly disappointed.

Children, especially girls are always most enraptured by how tiny and delicate she is, at 5 lbs, but I need to keep an eye out, in case they get too rough and she needs rescuing. So I stood there guarding her, Teddy looked on wistfully, and Harold took a ton of photos.

A sign welcoming us to Tonto National Park could be seen as we drove down the hill to the waterfront where it is more built up with a restaurant, boat launch, marina, park, beaches, and campground.



The road curves around the southern side of the lake and then comes to a small old west town called Tortilla Flat.  It is the last surviving stagecoach stop along the Apache Trail, Arizona's smallest official community having a U.S. Post Office and voter's precinct.


The town started as a campground for gold prospectors in the mid-to-late 19th century. When the Theodore Roosevelt dam was being built, it was used as a freight camp. These days the town has a small store, restaurant and bar.

The day we were here, a Saturday, there was a band playing out back and there were a lot of people sitting out in the sun, drinking and having a good time. The campground here is supposed to be open until May 1st, but for some reason it's already closed.

We had planned to go further up the road but we hit a patch that was unpaved. We're driving a 4WD truck, so we can definitely handle worse, but it was all rutted like a tractor had just driven on it. It was nonstop chattering of teeth and we were told it would go on that way for 20 miles.
When we got back, Harold noticed he'd brought back a souvenir, in his leg! Since it was already 3pm we decided to turn around and head back for happy hour. There's much more to see and hike on our next trip!

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

Today was a big spending day. Harold was up early to take the truck into the shop just down the road to have a new oil pan put in. We'd been warned there was a potential leak in it when we were at home, but we weren't noticing any oil drips and we were quoted $1,500 to fix it so we put it off.

On Saturday we noticed some drips on the pavement where we were parked and figured it was a good idea to get it fixed while we were in one place in a city. He took it in and they quoted us pretty much the same price, with the exchange, so they're working on  it now, and we should get it back tomorrow.

The other big expense was more exciting. We're finally getting our solar panels installed! We bought them from a place called Solar Penny that was referred by someone my parents met in Laughlin, NV. So we have Mike here installing them today.

We've been taken in by the relative ease of electricity and air conditioning the last few days, and today has been so much nicer, now that we've shucked that off.

With all the windows and the door open, a breeze wafting in, the neighbourhood sounds of barking dogs, wind in the palm trees, and our neighbours yelling and throwing things, it's a sublime nirvana.

The drama started off as minor grumbling and grouching. These two are very elderly and definitely hard of hearing. We could hear them going at each other all morning. She was picking incessantly at him and he was growling at her to leave him the hell alone. Then around noon, it got worse, when he was damning her to hell for throwing things at him. "Damn it woman! You better not go breaking my damn glasses like you did last time!" he shouted. Most of the rest was incomprehensible. Believe me, I was straining to make out the words.

We kept listening, to make sure it didn't escalate into anything worse, also because we were amused at the drama of this couple who had looked so polite and refined, but mostly because we couldn't escape it, even if we'd wanted to.

You're just too close in these places, and unless you're whispering inside your closed up, air conditioned RV, your neighbours are bound to hear you. A plus when you're the one working in your trailer and looking for an entertainment respite. A curse if you really want to let your own husband know he did something supremely foolish -- yet again -- and maybe throw a pot or plate at his head.

These are the days of our lives.

What does Gordon Ramsay know about restaurants anyways?

I used to watch Kitchen Nightmares, but I've never seen the episodes that included his most infamous restaurant owners, Samy and Amy Boulzago of Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale, AZ. I did however, manage to be around while they were having their first Facebook shoutdown and have watched videos of them on TMZ and others.

My brother told me we just had to go there and check them out while we were in Phoenix and it seemed like a fun thing to do, even if we ended up paying good money for some awful food.

We showed up about 6pm on Sunday night and couldn't see it at first. It's hidden right at the back of a strip mall. We passed by two packed restaurants and then got to ABC, which was completely empty, both the patio and the inside dining room. There was only one table with two women, who looked to be almost finished.

As we walked in the door, I looked around and the decor was attractive, in a gilded European pizzeria sort of style, and there was a pleasant scent wafting across the room. It wasn't a food scent, it was a musky, perfumy scent of the type you buy in a home store. (I later heard Samy telling the women across from us that it was the vanilla scent from Costco.)

The two servers at the front were folding boxes and looked up to ask if we were taking out or eating in. I looked around and didn't see Samy or Amy and wondered if we should just leave. When we told them we were eating in, the one server started to turn us away, in a stilted manner, "Oh, we're not ..." but her sentence trailed off as Samy came racing out from the back. "No! No! We have space for you! Come in! Come in! Take a seat anywhere you like!"

We chose a seat along the back edge where they had half booths and as soon as I sat down, I wished I'd taken one of the tables that could see into the kitchen. Samy gave us some time to look over the menu and came back a short while later to take our orders. Then he took the order back into the kitchen and we heard loud voices yelling back there, but we couldn't make out what they were saying. That was when I figured Amy must be in the restaurant, after all.

As we waited, we saw all sorts of people walking by, and looking in, but none came in, except for one older couple of ladies who took out some desserts. Harold could see over there and told me Amy was serving them, and I was so frustrated that I couldn't see or hear anything. I spent my time trying to be surreptitious about taking pictures with my phone.

Our pear and gorgonzola salad arrived and it was a huge bowl we were happy we had shared. It wasn't the best salad we've ever had but the ingredients were fresh and tasty. Soon after our pizza arrived. The crust was a thin artisan style topped with basil, black olives, spicy peppers, red onions, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, basil pesto, feta & mozzarella cheese. It was very tasty and we were pleasantly surprised. So much for the bad food we'd expected. At least we'd heard a fight back there!

Samy came to clear our plates and asked how we'd enjoyed our meals. When we told him we'd really enjoyed it, he asked how we'd heard of the restaurant. I paused, and he jumped in. "From the tv?" I laughed and came clean. "Well yes, we heard of you from online and tv. My brother is a big fan of Amy's and he told us we had to come in here when we came to town."

Samy went on to tell us how their problem was other restaurants in the area badmouthing them, and Gordon Ramsay was just plain wrong. We felt right on Samy's side. What does Gordon Ramsay know about restaurants anyways? We'd just had a good meal with a fantastic pizza, and somewhat strange but enjoyable service. Samy took our plates back to the kitchen and we could hear him loudly telling Amy about us, and how my brother was a big fan of hers, and then a minute later, they were both coming out to join us.

It's funny, but it was a little exciting to be talking to them both. Amy was just like I've seen her in clips, but in a friendlier manner. She called Gordon Ramsay "a pansy" but then backtracked, saying she doesn't mean that as a gay insult. It's her way of saying he's a wimp. She is very animated and amusing to watch and listen to as she tells the stories of how they've been on the show three times and Gordon Ramsay left it all up to her to take care of the most recent show.

They were both surprised neither one of us has seen their shows, and urged us to make sure to watch them when we get home. We most definitely will.

As we were leaving, Sami shook our hands and thanked us, "Make sure to tell your brother to come in and see us when he's in town!"

Are we too young for Mesa?

With the temperature sticking in the high 90's until at least the middle of next week, we decided to opt for an RV park in Phoenix instead of dry camping at the Lone Butte Casino. There is just no way we can leave the dogs for any amount of time to visit non-dog-friendly places without having the power for air conditioning.

I looked through the web site listings at Passport America and found some nice places that offered lots of amenities we probably wouldn't use, but because we'd get them at 50% off they were very economical. One problem: We are too young!

All the parks here are 55+ communities. Here I had been wondering if I was supposed to feel old since my recent birthday put me into a new decade and Mesa was pushing back at me, saying "Go away young'un!" I couldn't help but be happy and thankful to them. To think there are actually places that will card us and turn us away because we're just kids, is the most wonderful feeling. Thanks Mesa!

I called the one smaller park that didn't have a 55+ rule, but they were full up until the end of the month. She gave me the name of some of the other places in the area, but they were the ones I'd seen already. I told her our dilemma of being just babes, and she asked about our rv year and type and told me we should just call up the parks and not say anything about our ages.

I should have taken her advice but I didn't. Like I've mentioned in other blog posts, I'm not particularly good at hiding the truth.

The first place I phoned had some spots available for us, and was all ready to book us in, and then I told her we weren't 55. She stopped and did a few "Hmmmm"s and then asked more about our RV type and year and I could feel us being judged and I felt like I was holding my breath, waiting to hear if we passed or failed. "Please let us be old enough, please let us be old enough." Finally, she made the decision and I let my breath out. If we got there before 5pm, and came to see her, she'd let us in, "wink, wink". I felt like a 16 year old setting up an assignation to be let in the back door of a bar.

On the way there, I found myself questioning my clothes style. Should I have worn capris instead of shorts? Sandals instead of flipflops? Maybe a cardigan? If I even had a cardigan, which I don't. I wondered if maybe I should have let Harold go in and register since he has grey hair. Would they turn us away or look down on us because we were just youngsters?

We got in alright and everyone seems very friendly. Nobody is glaring at us. They wave and smile at us as we walk or drive by, as if they can't even tell we don't fit in here.

I've warned Harold not to go doing cannonballs in the pool, or pop wheelies on his bike, and I'm not gonna be wearing my string bikinis and rollerblades while I do laundry or play shuffleboard. We'll figure this thing out and just maybe we'll manage to last the week here without being turfed out by the bouncers.