Saturday, December 17, 2011

And no suntan yet

Well, I haven't yet sat under a palm tree with a drink. After some hectic preparations to leave Albuquerque, we drove straight past Flagstaff and on south towards Phoenix. Enough of this cold and snow! Off with the winter boots and on with the shorts .... um, not yet. Although it did get a little milder as we travelled south, and the snow left us as we came down to lower elevations.



This was the sign that greeted us as we came into Arizona. Looks like the tables have turned, and I'm not the one going to be nervous on our hikes in the wilderness. As far as I know, bears are not indigenous to desert areas.


I figure we must be in desert land. If you look at this picture, you will see a huge saguarro cactus on the corner of the adobe house. It is taller than the house, and even the light pole!

On the way south from Flagstaff these tall cacti were everywhere we looked. Some were just a straight pole, others had multiple arms.



We came into Phoenix just before sundown. The campground we chose was outside of the city, but convenient to the highway. It was the fanciest place we've stayed in so far. It boasted a swimming pool and a hot tub, which we took advantage of!



And it had trees, which private RV parks often don't have. These were lovely citrus trees. I even sampled a grapefruit and a couple of oranges before we left. We only stayed a couple of nights, despite how nice it was. It was pricier than what we've come across so far, but this is southern Arizona, so I guess it is to be expected.




We've now crossed the Colorado River into California. We are staying at a regional county park just across the border. It is a lot more rustic than the Phoenix park, but the folks that stay here are very friendly. One couple even put on an ice cream social for the whole campground, around thirty people in all.



I finally got a close look at the cotton fields we've been passing. The area around us is mostly agricultural and there are numerous canals coming up from the Colorado River for irrigation.







We will be here for a week and hope to get our canoe wet again. The river appears to have quite a flow to it, so if we get our exercise going upstream for a couple of hours, we can float back easily and call it a day!

Who needs a palm tree to drink under, anyway?

W

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