"Where do you want to go next?"
"I don't know.
Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know.
Where would you really like to go?"
"I don't know."
"Well, let's just go somewhere!"
And that's how we came up with the name for our blog. :)
We weren't sure which way we wanted to go. The only thing we knew for sure is that we
wanted to go some place WARMER.
On RV.net, I had read that Arizona has some very good state
parks. We chose to visit the only one I
had found that had full hookups and still be way out in the desert: Alamo Lake
State Park.
We headed west on I-40.
We have really been surprised at how mountainous Arizona is in places.
We headed south on Hwy 93 and were pleasantly surprised how
much smoother the road was than I-40.
The views were great too!
We also began to see the cacti dotting the landscape.
Then, we kind of ran out of the lone tall cacti and started
seeing Joshua trees.
We turned off on Hwy 71...
...and then drove through two towns, Aguila and Gladden on
Hwy 60. Aguila and Gladden were so small that if we had blinked we would have missed them. We stopped at a very small grocery store in
Winslow to pick up some cokes and then turned north on Alamo Lake Road for
another 35 miles to the entrance of the park.
We kept driving further,
and further,
and further,
into the desert.
As we got close to the park entrance, we saw these wild
burros on the side of a hill.
There were plenty of sites to choose from after we arrived
at Alamo Lake SP. After disconnecting
the car, we drove around the campground and decided on Site #12. Pretty nice, don't you agree?
Here, we had the security of a campground, the comforts of
full hookups, and the luxury of satellite TV, out in the middle of the
desert. The only thing we didn't have
was cell service or internet.
There were all kinds of cacti surrounding us:
Yeah, I think we are going to enjoy Alamo Lake SP for the
next few days.
Later that afternoon, we walked down to the boat ramp...
...only to find that the lake was so low that this ramp
didn't work!
I found out from the ranger that they are at the end of a drought, they hope. With a good rain, the lake can rise as much
as 20 feet in an hour and is normally much closer to the campsites.
A lot of fishermen must visit this lake because there were
two big parking lots for boats and trailers and these very nice fish cleaning
tables.
As we walked back to our campsite, we noticed what we
thought were partridges but found out later they are quail. Chuck said they didn't look like any quail he had ever hunted in Tennessee.
A dripping water hydrant next to our site was a watering
hole for the birds...
...and this rabbit.
I saw a coyote crossing the road in front of us but I wasn't
fast enough to get a picture of ol' Wiley E. Coyote. :)
We were looking forward to sitting outside our first night
here hoping for a beautiful night sky full of stars. We weren't
disappointed.
You really didn't think I could get a picture of all those
stars, did you? My camera is pretty good
but it's not that good. I did get these
pictures of the bright evening star also known as Venus.
We could see the Milky Way too. While we were sitting out there, we saw a couple of shooting
stars. And then off to the northeast this series of bright lights in sequence
and then shooting off and disappearing.
Chuck likes to think they were aliens.
I like to think they were some type of high-tech Army helicopters on
training. Whatever they were, it was
pretty neat to see.
The next morning, I got up early to work on the blog and
watched the sun come up on the mountains...
...and the cactus.
Later in the morning, we went on a 5 mile walk through the campground and on the road. We found another boat ramp where the boats could get in.
And we saw another burro..
...and more cactus.
Chuck grilled some pork steaks and we had a nice fire
on Wednesday evening. We saw the strange
looking lights in the northeast horizon again for a few minutes but by the time
I got my camera they were gone again. I
don't know if my camera would have picked them up but I was able to zoom up and
get the evening star so I should have been able to have gotten something.
We sat outside until we burned all our firewood enjoying the
beautiful night sky.
On Thursday, we decided to go for a bike ride. The weather was just a little cool but there
was no wind so it should be a perfect day for a bike ride.
We rode out to an overlook where we could see the Alamo Dam.
And then we turned around and rode back down the same road
we had driven on coming into Alamo Lake State Park.
We passed by some more of those big cacti.
Hop on my bike and you can ride with us for a few minutes.
After we got back to the motorhome, we enjoyed just sitting
outside for awhile.
We set out our pumpkin for Halloween...
but no trick-or-treaters or aliens paid us a visit
tonight. :) Just a few coyotes. Listen:
I got up early Friday morning to watch the sun come up on
the mountains again and was treated to a beautiful moonrise too!
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Alamo Lake State
Park. It really was a great place to "get
away from it all."