Moving on to Gold Canyon and meeting up with friends...What the Hail?

After leaving our friends, Faye and Dave at Cochiti Lake we headed to Percha Dam SP near Truth or Consequences. NM

We've been through this area before and stayed in Elephant Butte Lake Resort and also the State Park. Each time we've been in the area we've stopped at  the Casa Taco for a meal. The food is good but can be a little more spicy than we like. All in all a good meal. 

Nice little hole in the wall restaurant

We only stopped for 2 nights at Percha Dam SP. We got the only pull through with FHU's. Just off I-25. A little run down but it worked for our stop and it was only $20/night. Our site probably was a host site at one time.

After that stop we headed to Rusty's RV Ranch near Rodeo, NM. This place is about 24 mile off I-10 in the middle of no where. It boasts it self as an Astronomers paradise because it is in the middle of no where and there is no light pollution from nearby cities. We were told not to keep our porch light on at night and to be sure and close our curtains. We did sit out one night and you could certainly see about every star there is to see in the sky. It was enjoyable. The only drawback was the wind.

We had a day where the wind was blowing so hard we pulled our slides in. We have slide awning now and didn't want to chance any damage to the fabric and with the wind it was VERY dusty.

Being in the middle of now where we got no cell reception but they had decent Wi-Fi. We also stopped our Direct TV account so we had not TV. Fortunately the office had a DVD library so we rented a couple movies. Funny thing was they had the movie RV with Robin Williams and Jeff Daniels. We had just seen the actual bus that was in the movie when we were in Oklahoma City.

Well with the slides pulled in and the TV right in our faces we enjoyed our first viewing of the RV movie. This is a classic for sure.

Our last day in the area we stopped at the Desert Museum with a display of Geronimo's bow and arrow and several artifacts of the old west and the history of the area. Very interesting learning about the advancement of the early train route across the west and the Apache Indians that inhabited this area in New Mexico.

We continued our journey westward toward Tucson, AZ and stopped at Catalina SP in Oro Valley. 

We had been in contact with friends from Bloomington/Normal that now live in Mesa, AZ. They have a 5th wheel and it just so happened they were bringing it back from Show Low to Mesa about the time we were coming into the area. Neither of us had been to Catalina SP and heard a lot about the park from other RV friends. We had a nice back in site with Electric and Water and the dump station was right down the road. We planned to be there for 5 nights but our friends, Todd and Corrine were only coming for the weekend. Todd still works but Corrine has just recently retired so they were able to make it a long weekend. 

Glenda and I got out a couple times before they arrived and scouted out the trails around the park. We were definitely back in the land of the Saguaros.

We had a day of rain while there so we planned a drive up Mt. Lemmon. It's a beautiful drive up the mountain but a little foggy and rainy at first.

The skies did clear some on the way back down and we were able to pick up a few geocaches along the route.

We also stopped for a visit to Sabino Canyon in Tucson. Unfortunately the tram that takes you up the canyon was out of order due to them loosing their permit. They're in the process of getting it renewed though. We took a walk around the Desert Garden trail and saw a beautiful Crested Saguaro.

 No one really knows why this happens to the Saguaro cactus. An amazing variation of the cactus.

While we were together we enjoyed some Beef Fajitas that Corrine made and grilled our some chicken. We also checked out a nearby Olive Garden and saw the movie First Man. The account of Neil Armstrong and the Race to the Moon. I remember this time period since it was between 1962 and 1969. My junior high and high school years.

We really enjoy this part of our RV lifestyle. Meeting friends in different parts of the country and traveling with friends though different parts of the country.

We're looking forward to hanging out with Todd and Corrine again while in the Phoenix/ Mesa area for our winter stay.

Shameless Selfie

We're now in Gold Canyon at Canyon Vistas RV Resort for our 5th winter. We plan to stay a little longer this year as our son, Chris and his fiancée, Kendra are getting married next April in Mesa. We're very excited for them to start a new life together.

Well I've been working on the motorhome...we had it washed and I just recently got it waxed. We've done some organizing of our things and converted our half bath into a much needed closet.

We're getting back into our activities of pickle ball for me and line dancing for Glenda. Unfortunately our Canadian friends Ron and Patsy won't be coming down to the park any more. They decided to sell their place here and stay in Canada for the winters. We have some decisions to make as to our stays here at Canyon Vistas in the future. A number of factors to consider. We really do miss them.

Finally we had a freak micro burst come through the other day with huge HAIL. Our beautiful newly repaired car(from the California accident) got some hail damage. Now we're back to having more body work and another deductible. Could have been much worse....the motorhome sustained no damage.

Just getting set up

Here comes the hail

Our rainbow after the storm

The weather is moderating now and we're enjoying the type of weather now that we came here for.

We will be making a trip back in December to the Midwest to celebrate Christmas with family. Until then let the fun begin.

I'll update the blog soon once we get all set up and fully into the activities here. 

Thanks for following along.