Jan 5 -Jan 8

After leaving El Cajon(San Diego) area on Monday morning we finally started to headed east and leave the West coast behind. Shortly enroute we began to climb elevation, the wind picked up and still some lingering snow along the side of the road shielded in shade by rock. Soon after with the wind still blowing, gripping the wheel with both hands, large signs displayed – “Warning-Strong Winds for the next 45 miles” . At least they warned me and continued as we counted down the miles. Luckily we only went through about 15-20 miles of this. After heading through a Border patrol checkpoint (which we have seen several of) a strapping noise from outside the ring began, so we pulled off quickly as I though it was the awning having issues after all the wind we experienced. It turned out that the trim around the side door had come out of it’s track so we had to push it back in.

Back on the road, and still in California we started passing through a desert area that looked like the Sahara – sand, sand and more sand(see pic). In this area there were many RV’s pulled off and parked randomly in the desert so they could play on the off road machines. That would be fun.

We pulled into our camp for the night in Gila Bend, after losing 1 hour due to time zone change around 3:30 pm. No wind and 73 deg weather-ahhhh! We took in the rays for a while and once the sun was down, 6 loads of laundry and 2 Breaking Bad episodes later, we hit the sack.

Wednesday morning we woke to another sunny and eventually warm morning. The temperature swings in the desert are quite dramatic going from 75 during the day to near freezing at night.

We arrived in Benson AZ around 1. The park we stayed at have there own observatory (free), so we signed up for the evening session. We grabbed some lunch and headed over the pool and spa for a couple of hours of R & R. After an early dinner we headed to the astronomy dome (see pic)and enjoyed a 1 hour hands on presentation. The park has two amateur astronomers who take turns. There was 14 of us in the dome, and the presenter talked a lot bout planets, moons and stars. The dome has a university grade telescope in it hooked up to a computer/GPS tracking system.  He would hone in on one then discuss it and they we each took a turn looking into the scope. Fun and interesting!

The next morning was housework then off to the pool for some more rays. I took a bike ride around town then caught up with Kathy at the pool. It was a great park with putting green and driving nets (although I didn’t use them).

Next stop – the Wild West!!! –

Stay tuned.