Archive for Uncategorized
May 8, 2007 at 6:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Owning your own home is the American Dream. Going to the real estate closing is a pivotal moment in the process. Once you’ve signed all the papers, the house is yours, for good or for ill. And that’s what we did today. We passed around sheets of paper until everything was signed and sealed. We’ll get keys on Thursday when the deed is recorded.
Yet we have strangely ambivalent feelings about home ownership this time. Our perspective has changed so much. It has been two years (OK, one year and eleven months to be precise) since we sold our last house. In that time, we’ve been officially “homeless”, roaming the country in our Airstream and it has become our primary residence.
With that experience, the fixed-location home feels like a second home … a vacation place where we might live between extended trips in the Airstream. We’re still trying to get our heads around the concept that this brick-and-mortar place is what we are supposed to call “home”.
It’s very much like going virtual with a business, or paying bills online, or switching from film to digital. Once you get used to the lack of physicality (no office, no paper, no negatives), you quickly get hooked on the advantages and before long you can’t look back.
It is exactly like that with our house. Buying a brick-and-mortar house is like going back to paying bills with the checkbook. What’s all this paper in my mailbox? I need envelopes? Stamps? How archaic!
Right now we are inclined to not take the house seriously. We bought it so we’d have a home base and Emma would have a place to go to school. But the Airstream still feels like the place we want to be. It’s still our magic carpet. School schedules are going to seriously impinge on our travel — we aren’t kidding ourselves — but the life of travel still calls.
I wonder how long that can last. Can we combine the lightweight, low-overhead existence we’ve enjoyed these past two years, with the obligations of home ownership? We’re winning a few battles but they are small: the house won’t have a phone installed, nor cable. When we are there we’ll continue to use our cell phones.
But already the house has won a round too. We’re stuck here for a couple of weeks while we arrange various services the house needs: roof replacement, electrical upgrades, minor plumbing fixes, etc. We’d rather be on the road exploring some corner of Arizona, but instead the house demands we stay close and give it our attention.
You’ll notice the little ad for Airstream Life magazine above. I’ve been writing daily entries in this blog for eighteen months, and at this point we have over 600 entries and thousands of photos online. Unfortunately, the web hosting expenses have skyrocketed because of all the traffic we get now. I don’t like the idea of putting out a “Donate” button on the blog because I would feel awkward cadging money from my friends who read it regularly.
So instead, once in a while you’ll see an ad promoting Airstream Life magazine — my day job. If you subscribe, thank you!, and if you don’t you might give it a try even if you don’t own an Airstream. At $16 bucks a year it’s very affordable and a lot of fun to read. Click on the image above if you want to learn more.
May 7, 2007 at 7:27 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
With house obligations looming, we’ve moved out of Catalina and back into Tucson for a few days. Our spot in Tucson doesn’t have the natural beauty of Catalina State Park but it does have a convenient location for the things we need to do.
Our campsite at Catalina State Park
Since today was a very full work day, I have no adventures to report. But I do have a few photos left over from our hike on Sunday to share. As I mentioned, the desert is still blooming and the temperatures are still mild for this time of year. All the tourists and snowbirds seem to have departed the area, so we’re getting the benefit of off-season prices at campgrounds, our pick of campsites, and lots of privacy on the trails.
The purple flowers on this cholla cactus were so vivid I couldn’t believe they were real at first.
Everywhere you look around here there’s a view of the Santa Catalinas, or the Tucson Mountains, or the Rincon Mountains, or the Tortollitas. They’re all fantastic to look at, and they’re all a little different. I can’t seem to get tired of seeing them. Look at the view above … is it any wonder we love this place?
Interestingly, the media are finally getting a hold of the fact that it has been a buyer’s market for houses in Tucson for several months. But the best buying opportunities have already disappeared, as the good properties with motivated sellers have been snapped up. A lot of the 10,000 properties on the market at the moment are overpriced or less-desirable. (I know, we’ve seen dozens of them.) Good houses priced fairly are selling fast.
In a year or so they’ll be talking about how this was the time to buy. But the popular media are always behind the curve on this sort of thing, because they rely on historical data and public statements by self-interested parties. I’m satisfied that we bought at the right time and at the right price, but of course only time will tell.
May 5, 2007 at 5:49 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
At the Tucson Gem Shows, Eleanor and Emma have always loved the turquoise displays. A lot of the local turquoise comes from the Sleeping Beauty Mine, in Globe, which happened to be right along our path today.
The mine operates a wholesale ore shipping business in a building near the historic center of Globe. Although they don’t actually make anything from their own turquoise, they do re-sell jewelry and other items made by artists from Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, and that brought us in for a look.
If you go, you can park your trailer or motorhome in the big lot next door and walk over. But hang on to your wallet because the shop is loaded with great art & jewelry made from turquoise, sandstone, wood, and clay. Prices run from $25 to $7,000.
Eleanor was kind to our budget and chose only a pair of earrings. Emma got a few small bits of turquoise and peridot for her collection. I browsed the local newspaper and ended up with a 2-for-1 coupon for buffet lunch at the local casino … which we hit later.
Hawk and Airstream: click for larger.
Our trip ended at Catalina State Park in Oro Valley, a community just northeast of Tucson. It’s very pretty here. Grassy level ground and mesquite trees, with an incredible backdrop of the west side of the Santa Catalinas. I went out to get a photos and a Coopers Hawk swooped by at low altitude right past the trailer. I had the Nikon in my hand, ready to shoot, so I managed to capture two shots of it in flight. You can see one of those photos above. Look to the lower left of the photo, by the bumper, and you’ll see the bird.
May 3, 2007 at 7:44 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s hardly a spot in central Arizona that isn’t scenic. Our drive from Prescott east brought us through hills and valleys, past buttes and wilderness area, and through parts of the three national forests: Prescott, Coconino, and Tonto. Every minute brought another spectacular view, studded with tiny hamlets named Pine, Strawberry, Rye, and Punkin Center.
We wanted to visit Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, but got skunked by a 14% grade on the entrance road. I didn’t remember the website mentioning that “¦ but there was a “trailer drop-off area” and then signs warning of a 14% grade ahead. That exceeds our comfortable maximum of 10%. We could certainly go down a 14% grade using low gear and the disc brakes (on both truck and trailer), but getting back up it would be a challenge that I don’t need.
Parked for lunch
So we parked in the “drop off area” for lunch, and continued down the road to Payson, where we got our second surprise of the day. The Houston Mesa campground in the National Forest just north of town must be very popular in season, because it charges an exorbitant $18 per night for sites with no hookups.
Yes, boondocking for eighteen bucks. I suppose that seems reasonable to heat-plagued Phoenix residents (Phoenicians?) in the summer, but we decided to pass. So we continued south, descending from 5000 feet to 2200 feet and watching the temperature rise from upper 60s to over 80 degrees.
In the Tonto National Forest, there is the beautiful blue Roosevelt Lake, with about half a dozen nice campgrounds surrounding it. Some are directly on the water, while others have views or are a short distance from the shoreline. To camp here, you stop at a retailer outside the National Forest (for example a grocery or gas station) and buy a “Tonto Pass” for $6 per day. Then you drive down to the lake and pick out a campsite, self-serve.
Camped at Roosevelt Lake. Click for larger
These campsites don’t have hookups either, but they do have a great setting and at $6 a night they’re a bargain. Where else can you see saguaro cactus beside a lake?
We’ll stay here a couple of nights. My Verizon phone doesn’t work inside the trailer due to weak signal here, but the backup Sprint phone works just fine. Likewise my Internet card doesn’t work, but I’ve found I can get it to connect ““ slowly — by sitting outside in a particular spot. (That’s why this blog entry has only two photos.) With limited connectivity, it will be hard to get work done. I guess we’ll have to just call this a three day weekend. What a shame.
April 30, 2007 at 8:10 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Prescott continues to amaze … the recreation here is fabulous. This afternoon Rich C took us to the Granite Mountain Wilderness area inside the Prescott National Forest. Like all the great recreation here, this was very close to town.
We went for a short hike, about 3 miles roundtrip, to see some of the great climbing areas. There’s also a campground in the National Forest, called Yavapai. The hiking was easy on a trail called only “261”, but the granite boulders are extremely rough to the touch and take a heavy toll on the skin of climbers.
Still, we tried a little easy rock climbing after the hike, and Emma seems to be very interested in it, even with the rough granite.
From our campsite, it’s an easy scramble up to a section of the Dells where the views are panoramic. Emma has gotten in the habit of going up every evening to take sunset photos. This evening Rich C and I accompanied her.
It’s an incredible thing to just walk out our door and into this amazing granite playground. None of us want to leave, so I think we will extend yet another day.
April 29, 2007 at 7:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This morning Brent and Tiffany packed up their Airstream to head back home, but we decided to stay on for a couple more days. Prescott is full of great recreation (hiking, cycling, boating), the camping is cheap, and the weather is beautiful this time of year.
Two Airstream Safari 30 bunkhouses side-by-side
Just around the corner from our campground is an abandoned rail line that has been turned into a multi-use trail. It’s the former Santa Fe, Phoenix & Prescott line, which served mines from Crown King (54 miles from here) down to Phoenix. Rich C led us on a trip up the trail, past Lake Watson.
Emma’s legs were a little sore from all the rock scrambling of yesterday, so she and Eleanor bailed out after about two miles, but Rich C and I checked out about six miles of the trail. So far that’s all that you can ride, but the trail will eventually go much further.
The views as the trail works through the granite dells are absolutely fantastic. The granite has eroded into magnificent spires, balls, crevices and grikes. Looking at them is like studying clouds, with an endlessly changing arrangement of imaginary things floating by.
Rich C and I went out for lunch at the historic Hotel St Michael in downtown Prescott. It’s rare to find a downtown early 20th century hotel still in operation. Most seem to be victims of urban renewal, blight, or lack of parking. This one appears to still have a lively lodging business, restaurant, and a small mall.
Being down in southern Arizona I’ve forgotten the variety of weather that most other parts of the country enjoy. But up here in Prescott (elevation 5300) anything can happen. This afternoon we abruptly went from sunny, dry and upper 70s to rumbling thunder and spitting rain.
It doesn’t rain a lot here but the thunderstorms can be dramatic. Now it’s in the 50s and dropping while the trees sway in the gusty wind. It’s a neat change to see a little weather again. But having had a taste, I won’t mind returning to the scorching dry desert next week.
April 28, 2007 at 5:14 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I missed a blog entry last night. I can only plead distraction — Friday was a very busy day. We pulled out of Picacho Peak State Park around 10 a.m. and made our first stop at the new IKEA store in Tempe. Being future homeowners, we are thinking about the things we’ll need to buy to outfit the house. So we parked the Airstream in a corner of the parking lot and spent a couple of hours making notes inside the store.
While we were inside, browsing and then having lunch (Emma had the Swedish meatballs), the temperature outside once again soared into the upper 90s. The inside of the trailer was 100 degrees when we came back to it, but fortunately I had remembered to turn on the refrigerator boost fans and so the fridge was comfortable at about 42 degrees.
Plowing through Phoenix-area traffic on I-17 is not much fun, but we had little choice of an alternate route since our next stop was a restaurant a few miles further north, where we had planned to meet a friend. Normally we don’t have the trailer behind us when we are doing errands around town, so at all times the consideration of where we could go with our 50-foot parade was paramount. This makes for tricky logistics but we have a lot of experience at this game so it worked out just fine.
From Prescott we headed north up I-17 and then west to Prescott. Prescott is an absolutely beautiful place dotted with eroded granite outcrops called the “Prescott Dells”, buttes, and rocky mountains. Being about 5,300 feet in elevation, it’s also much cooler than down in Phoenix and Tucson, so this was the time to come up here.
We’ve joined up with our friend Rich C (gadget) and our new friends Brent, Tiffany, and their two children, who also have an Airstream Safari 30 bunkhouse just like ours.
I can’t begin to convey the natural beauty of the area we are camped in, so I’ve uploaded a few pictures from our hike this morning with Rich C and the kids. You can find them on our Flickr album. The pinkish-orange granite dells surrounding us are magnificent to hike and climb on. They are very similar to the exposed granite of Acadia National Park, in Maine.
Even the campground is absolutely amazing, with most campsites surrounded by giant rock walls. I am sure that this area will be a favorite spot for us to return to, once we are established in Arizona. It’s a cool respite from desert heat, and a great jumping-off point for other beautiful spots such as Sedona.
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
