“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
– Lao Tzu
The weekend at Barry and Deb’s flew by. We played cards, went for a Thai Massage, then out to Thai food for dinner. We got lunch from a food truck parked nearby, and then out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I helped (a little) with Barry’s project of replacing their irrigation system, and Deb and I got (mostly) caught up. I made strawberry ice cream and Deb made an olive oil chocolate cake which was totally amazing. If it sounds like we ate well, we did.
Tuesday morning I packed up and Barry noticed my tires looked a little under-inflated. He checked and they were quite under inflated. He got out his tire pump and filled them. His pump ran out of charge before the last tire, so Clyde (a neighbor who was there) offered to take care of that. I drove to his house, and he took care of the final tire. On the road again, my van drove like it was brand new. We drove back in the direction we’d come from and camped once again in the cactus forest. Deb had warned about unusually hot weather this weekend, so I got out the weather map. Indeed, if I took my planned course, I’d have ended up in triple digit heat through the weekend. It took some planning, but I decided to leave Wednesday morning, skip my stopover in Gila Bend, and go straight to the hot springs in Tonopah, AZ. That meant a long drive (Yes, Richard, I drove nearly 3 hours in ONE DAY) but I couldn’t figure out another way to avoid extreme heat. We went to El Dorado Hot Springs. They had done some work since I was there last October, and the place was looking a lot less neglected. The weather was still very hot, but didn’t reach triple digits while I was there. I lucked out and got my favorite spot by the pond where I encountered a new resident.
I stayed two nights and on Friday morning, after checking the weather forecast, I moved farther north to avoid the heat. I drove just north of Phoenix, where it was hot, but not as hot as where I’d come from. I pulled into a spot on Arizona Land Trust and settled in for a week or so. I was fully stocked up on food, water, propane and gas. The sun was blazing, so my solar batteries got charged to 100% by noon each day. We did a little walking each day, but after being with people for over a week, I mostly just enjoyed the solitude.
Lessons From The Road: It is once again that time of year where I have to be very aware of the weather forecast. Arizona is strange in that it can be 105⁰ in the south near the Mexican border, and still snowing in the northern mountains. I was planning on staying in the south until May, but the heat snuck up on me unexpectedly. At the same time The Weather Channel was warning me of winter storms in Flagstaff. Spring and Fall are difficult times to make plans of where to be, because the weather can turn on a dime. And although it will be 99⁰ where I am today north of Phoenix, it will only be 73⁰ in Flagstaff, with the temp dropping to near freezing tonight. And this time next week, Flagstaff’s high temperature will be 44⁰ with a low of 27⁰. It makes planning where to go next and when to get there difficult.
I’m also trying to expand my horizons. Flagstaff and Two Guns are nice places to be in the summer. I’ve stayed there the past two summers with minor excursions into Utah and New Mexico. I wouldn’t mind going someplace new this summer but I don’t want to spend more time driving than I spend enjoying just being wherever I am.