October 5 - November 12, 2018: Scottsdale, Arizona
We left Grand Canyon on our way to Scottsdale, Arizona and wanted to stop for the night before we got there. We choose to stop near Camp Verde on some BLM land. The area was just off I17 and close to the Out Of Africa Wildlife Park. VERY cool because we could hear the lions 'roaring/moewing' in the evening around their dinner time and then throughout the night we heard either jackals from the facility or neighboring coyotes howling. What a great sunset, location, and wish we could have stayed another day to explore.
Part of why we stopped in Scottsdale for about 2 1/2 weeks was because our friend Cyndi has a winter/snowbird place here that we could park our trailer and it gave us a great launching point to do some final prep on the trailer before crossing the border, order stuff from Amazon, and golf. We also needed to fly home for a week and airfare is reasonable from Phoenix to Boise.
Cyndi flew in from Boise for the weekend to attend her grandson's birthday party and then flew back to Boise on October 8. So, we met Cyndi at her place on October 6 to get settled in, come up with a list of 'honey-do's' and get the lay of the land before she flew out.
At Cyndi's place we parked our trailer in her driveway and were able to unload the bicycles and motorcycles for most of our daily running around. She invited us to stay inside the house, use her guest room, and treat the house like it was our own. I have to tell ya, Craig and I were both loving actually living in a house for a few weeks. A real bed, shower, kitchen, watching Sunday NFL games and movies again. It was GREAT! Cyndi's location is INCREDIBLE! We were able to ride our bicycles to grocery stores, downtown, old town, dinners, movies, library, shopping, you name it.
Cyndi's Place. Great yard and although it was chilly to get in the pool, this was our favorite spot for eating, reading books, and just being lazy!
And...of course, we are still in our search for the best ice cream : ) Check out our Activity Catalog to see what we tried and their rating!
One of our evenings, we went to Craig's step brother Bill's house for dinner. It was great to see Bill and Katyea again and catch up. Thank you both for dinner!!! And...I forgot to take a picture - doh.....
And...We golfed. Not as much as we had hoped, but we got some great golf days in! Check out our Activity Catalog for how we rated these courses.
Some of the honey-do's that we did around Cyndi's place to earn our keep (smile) was: pruning, fixing the wiring on the dryer, replacing an old telephone outlet, plant some flower pots, building window screens for the guest bedroom, etc.
Pruning the back yard. The before, during, and after pictures
Building the window screens. One completed, one more to go!
Pruning the Mesquite tree in the front yard. This one still needs more work, but we will wait and do it next Spring when we come out of the Baja
We took a day trip and rode the motorcycle to Tucson, Arizona since we had not been there before. We wanted to make it a scenic ride, so we took Interstate 60 East and then Highway 177 South. What a great scenic road and man...we saw two HUGE open pit copper mines, just amazing how much change the terrain and damage it.
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As we rode into Tucson, out first thoughts were. Huge gorgeous mountains in the desert? Wow...what incredible mountains to hike and camp in. We had no idea that Tucson was so beautiful!
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In Tucson we met up with Nancy (Michele's sister) and had a great lunch and good time catching up. It had been probably 20 years since we had seen her. And...we forgot to take a picture - doh....
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We also visited the Saguro National Park - East side. There is also a West side to the park which is across Tucson. We did not have time to do any hiking on the East side or visit the West side, so....next year when we come out of the Baja, we want to camp on the West side for a few days and do some hiking.
Stopping along the route for a drink and butt rest
This is one of the copper mines. This rail crossed Highway 177 to bring the copper from one side of the road to the other
This is the other copper mine. I missed getting pictures of the open pit which was huge and deep, this is just the tailings around the mine
Saguro National Park East - the one way road and driving through the park.
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Saguro is pronounced "suh-wah-roe"
On the ride back to Scottsdale, we passed by the Pima Air and Space Museum and also the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group area. We would have loved to stop and go through these, but...darkness was approaching and we did not have time. Next Time!
What we didn't think about on the motorcycle ride to Tucson was...the ride home. We thought 159 miles, no problem. Well....159 x 2 and it gets dark earlier, so...we rode home in the dark and saw a beautiful sunset. Since we were driving the back roads (Highway 79) and trying to avoid Interstate 10, it was a little nerve racking since it was pretty desolate, no lights, no towns. We made the ride without incident, but hindsight, we should have taken Interstate 10 the whole way since there were less chances for animals to cross the road. The pictures below do not give justice to the sunset, but they are cool in their own sense with the 'blur' from riding.
We visited the Penske Racing Museum in Scottsdale which was really cool! The museum is surrounded by car dealerships of Lambroghini, Bentley, Ferrari, Austin Martin, Rolls Royce, and more. You can walk around these dealerships and choose which car you want! We both found a car that...well...we could live with if we had to - hee..hee...
Holly liked the 2014 Laborghini Aventador Roadster
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Craig liked the one below. Forgot what it was, but the price was only around $150,000 USD : )
One of our many bicycle rides around town! This was along the Arizona Canal Trail which spans from Scottsdale to Tempe.
We flew home to Boise for a week and finalized some real estate items and visited with family/friends before we headed to the Baja. It was great to see everyone and we had a great time back in Boise. We didn't realize how much we needed or wanted to get done so we extended our trip a few days. Thanks to everyone for visiting with us!
Once back in Scottsdale, we stayed at Cyndi's place again and used the time to wrap things up on the trailer and get it ready for the Baja. Of course, we did relax and spent some time riding bicycles, pruned a few more trees, visited with Cyndi since she was home, and of course, played with her German Shepard Stella!
Craig installing the backup camera on the truck. With our new GPS we bought we now have a dash cam, truck backup cam, and trailer backup cam! YEAH!!!!
Stella - she is such a sweet heart! We both enjoyed hanging out with her, but Holly really loved snuggling on the couch and bed with her : )
One of things we did with Cyndi was go to the Scottsdale Canal Convergence. This is 10 day interactive event along the canal celebrating light, air, water, and wind. The pics below are some of the exhibits that local art students created. We also got to visit with Cyndi's daughters (Bryna and Crystal) and their families. What a great night!
Cyndi and Craig moving magnets on a spinner to control the music and lights on this cactus display
This is a hand-crocheted lace ribbon the streches more than 600 feet. It took 100 crochet volunteers to create it!
This is a 20' tall sculpture made out of 5,000 recycled plastic bottles. You could spin the sculpture to change the light design
These are some of the decorated garbage cans. The green one is a frog with lips, eyelashes and totally cool! And the robot is VERY creative! I want to do this back in Boise with our garbage cans : )
This was mine and Cyndi's favorite. It is an infinite crystal made with mirros that changes colors and music. We were so memorized by it!
Our time in the Scottsdale area was GREAT! There were a few days of rain in the beginning, but overall the weather was incredible and perfect! This is a great time of year to be here!!!!
Cyndi - THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting us stay at your place and make ourselves at home. We had a GREAT time and really appreciate everything you did for us!!!!