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 6, 2007 at 6:07 pm · Filed under Places to go
The neat thing about Catalina State Park is that it feels completely remote, with amazing views and wonderful hikes, yet is directly adjacent to all the services of Oro Valley and Tucson. Convenient, yet peaceful.
The real reason we are here has nothing to do with the hiking, however. Once we complete the purchase of our house, Catalina is a park we’ll probably never camp in. It’s too close to home. So camping here a couple of days before we pass papers for the house is sort of a last-chance opportunity.
Our Google Earth location.
Another last-chance opportunity is hiking in mild weather. This time of year it’s not unusual for the weather to be in the 90s and to start breaking into the low 100s. But right now we’re having a few cool days, topping out around 78 or 80 degrees, so it’s perfect for hiking. By the end of this week, we’ll be more inclined to head for the swimming pool.
Our hike today was about three miles. We concentrated on butterflies, since they were out in abundance today. It’s tough to capture a butterfly in flight, but I got a few blurry shots, enough for Emma to identify a Pipevine Swallowtail, and a Sleepy Orange. A few others escaped without identification, like masked robbers at a 7-11. We’ll catch them next time!
The other marvelous thing about the desert this time of year is that the blooms just keep coming. I am amazed at the diversity and intensity of the colors. There are several types of prickly pear cactus that grow here, and their flowers range from peach to rose to bright yellow.
Sometimes you can find all three colors on a single cactus. They are lovely enough in their form and color to be a prom corsage. I wonder if anyone has actually tried that? The spines can be easily trimmed off, much like the thorns of a rose.
A small announcement. Trailer for sale. I have decided to sell the 1953 Airstream Flying Cloud I found last fall in Virginia. I was hoping to take it on as a project later this year but it doesn’t look like that will happen, so it’s for sale. You can see photos of it as found in our Flickr photo album.
Since the photos were taken, the trailer has been moved to Plattsburgh NY, cleaned up a bit, and otherwise left alone. It’s a very interesting trailer with all original appliances and a great layout for one or two people. But it does need a good restoration. As-is, where-is, $3500 or best offer. Colin Hyde will be happy to restore it for you, too.
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 4, 2007 at 4:28 pm · Filed under Places to go
We learned a few things today, as we seem to do every day when we are adventuring. This lake we are camped beside is the result of a massive dam-building project from the early 1900s. When it was completed in 1911, the Roosevelt Dam was the largest masonry dam in the world and it caused the largest man-made reservoir to be formed behind it. Teddy Roosevelt himself came down here for the opening ceremonies and to hand out awards to the workers.
The level of the lake fluctuates quite a bit, like other man-made desert lakes. I mentioned to our real estate agent that we were here and he asked, “Is there any water in it?” Yes, we seem to be here at a high point. The lake is about 20 feet down from the apparent high-water mark, but still very full relative to other years.
People occasionally zip by on jet skis or fishing boats. There’s plenty of room, since the lake continues north-south for many miles. About four miles from our campsite is a visitor center for Lake Roosevelt, next to the marina, and it has a good interpretive area with information about the dam, the wildlife of the area, and native American history.
For more on the native Americans, called the “Salado”, you can drive south two more miles to Tonto National Monument. This smallish member of the national parks system protects Salado cliff dwellings high above Lake Roosevelt. The dwellings are found about 350 feet vertically above the visitor center and reached by a half-mile steep hike.
Visitor Center with dwellings far above
The Lower Cliff Dwellings are mostly gone, victims of erosion and vandalism in the early 20th century, but there’s still enough left to make it worth the hike. At some times of year the rangers will also lead a daily trek to the Upper Cliff Dwellings but we missed that on this visit.
Another reason to make the hike is the incredible view of the Tonto Basin and the lake. We were lucky to find many of the cacti still blooming, as well as turkey vultures making slow and majestic circles above.
The turkey vultures aren’t the only things flying around. The entire Tonto Basin has a large number of insects this time of year too. Normally we don’t encounter a lot of bugs in the desert, or even the higher elevations such as last week in Prescott. But here there’s plenty of water to encourage breeding and it’s springtime. Nothing seems to bite but a lot of little flies made themselves annoying on our hike, at times when the wind died down.
Emma picked up the Junior Ranger packet and completed the questions on the way down, thus earning her 17th Junior Ranger badge.
Last night we took a short walk around the campground and found a messy site. Some slobs left trash all over their site, including plastic bags, empty beer cans in the fire ring, and a quarter-bag of charcoal. I have never understood why people so often leave crushed beer cans in the fire ring. I see it all the time. Do they think aluminum cans burn?
The residents of the campsite were clearly long gone, so Eleanor did her good deed for the day by cleaning up the site and I snagged the charcoal. So we have a surplus of choarcoal and that means tonight we will cook out.
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.
May 2, 2007 at 11:25 pm · Filed under Places to go
Today Prescott returned to the fine and sunny weather we’ve become accustomed to, but work trapped me in front of my computer most of the day. I finally broke away in the late afternoon for our second hike over the rounded granite of the Dells.
It’s an incredible playground out there. Everywhere are canyons, cliffs, stairways, and shelters formed of rock. You can wander around and climb in them for days and not see it all. And despite the initially barren look of the place, there are many animals as well. A long Arizona Mountain King Snake crossed our path, along with more common creatures: squirrels, violet-green swallows, hawks, lizards, and even a skink about six inches long.
The snake is a rough look-alike for the venomous Coral Snake, but I caught the picture above before he slid out of sight and so we were able to positively identify him when we got back to the Airstream.
Once again the Dells proved to be a photographic delight, and so I’ve uploaded some new images to the Prescott album on Flickr. It was easy to get some nice shots with just a short zoom, a circular polarizer and a flash.
This is our last day in Prescott. We are going to wander over toward the Mogollon Rim, east of here, and then southward toward Tucson over the weekend. It’s hard to leave Prescott but I’m sure we’ll be back. Next time, I’m hoping to have a mountain bike and maybe our tent camping gear too.
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