RV Shopping??

Last Saturday, BJ and I headed out to the RV & Boat show. We ignored the boats that were indoors and instead headed out to wander through the RVs on display.

The Airstream Nest was designed by a fellow in Bend, Oregon before Airstream bought the design. It has very nice fit & finish, but the design wouldn't work for us at all.

I was especially interested in touring the various Class B vans but we got waylaid by the Dock Diving competition.

I didn't expect to see dogs dock diving at an RV show, and apparently some of the dogs (open entry, run what you brung) didn't like the idea. Yup, the dogs were supposed to run, jump, and ideally catch that chew toy in the air.

Begging and pleading wasn't enough to get some of the dogs wet!

The Welsh Corgi was my favorite. Seemed to concentrate on form and keeping eyes straight ahead rather than watching the poorly thrown toy. (As always, you can click on a picture for a larger version.)

With the dock diving session done, we headed back to checking out RVs.

There weren't very many small rigs, so we toured a few larger ones as well. When you find a drawer with this many remotes, you know I was in the wrong place!

BJ approved of the bathroom

and especially liked the shower. Sorry about the reflection on the glass and the missing rain head on the ceiling that didn't make the frame. Yes, there were six shower heads. I didn't check the specs, but I'm pretty sure this rig wasn't using a 6 gallon hot water tank!

Seats for eleven and room for a party,

if you wanted to spend that kind of money on an RV. I think we'll stick with our Scamp.

Soft Preparations for Alaska

BJ and I have started making preparations for our 2nd Alaska Scamp trip. She's done a few small projects in the trailer, and completed a very interesting quilt while I wasn't paying much attention. Now that much of the quilt construction has moved to the office/guest room, the regular progress is less obvious to me.

This quilt has all sorts of detail built into it.

Even the back side has an outdoor theme to it. I hadn't intended, but this picture caught that one last pin that got left in until she was folding it after I took the pictures. (As always, you can click on any picture to get a larger version.)

It was only as I was studying some of the panels in this quilt that I realized that she might have a none-verbal message incorporated. I'll let you study the pictures to see what you notice.

I've been working on northbound route planning. Cachetur.no says it's a bit over 4600 miles covering 2 countries, 7 states or provinces, and 44 counties. With 401 potential caches on my list, we'll have a lot we skip, but we'll try to get at least one in every county.

Meanwhile, I need to go back and add waypoints for the quilt shops along the way in case she decides I can go along!

Doing Some Legwork

With cool weather, the timing is right to tackle some of the caches that require more strenuous 'legwork.' Many of the hills around here look innocuous, but they're steep, and often trailless.

At first, it looks easy enough, but the hint on the cache says it's behind a big rock. These hills are a pile of big rocks!

As we worked our way up the hill, picking a path with the most reasonable rocks and the least vegetation, the view started to grow.

Here comes the instigator. I've been willing to ignore this cache for years until I got some gentle encouragement.

This cache hadn't been visited by anyone for two years. Maybe a few spoilers will help. There's a view of Weaver's Needle (of the Dutchman in the Superstitions fame) that defines a line through a notch,

And a very nice Saguaro cactus. If you get to the cactus, you've gone far enough.

And somewhere within a 1000' or so was this very narrow gauge railroad. There were signs of old mining attempts all over the mountain, but nothing noticeable connected to either end of the rails.

Hopefully, that will be enough help if you decide to pay this cache a visit.

It's Supposed to be Spring

With the rain we've had, the wild flowers are trying to bloom.

We've had a couple nice warm days, but more often than not, the skies have reminded me of Seattle.

So instead of wandering the desert, I've spent more time curled up with my latest acquisition. Time to start planning - two months will go by quickly!

White Stuff

Unlike the rest of the country, our snow has been better behaved. We've had a lot of rain in the desert and enough cool days to dump a nice coating of snow on Four Peaks.

The snow on the Superstitions drew all sorts of traffic to Apache Junction for a couple days. There was no peace & solitude to be found in the desert with people everywhere looking for just the right angle.

If you can't beat them, join them!

As usual, the snow only lasted a couple days, but we had one of the wettest February on record.

The result was worth waiting for!

Midway

One of the side benefits of youth sport tournaments is the opportunity to visit other attractions while waiting for the next game. One day, we visited the Midway, now a museum docked near the cruise terminal.

We started on the hangar deck where they had several aircraft on display - everything from WWII era trainers to jets.

My favorite was the Corsair, perhaps because I'd recently read a book by an individual who'd flow the Corsair in WWII. The aircraft design made it extremely difficult for the pilot to see while maneuvering on the flight deck.

The grandson had to check out the brig

where he found his grandmother behind bars.

On the flight deck, there were many other aircraft on display.

The last recip powered fighter used by the Navy. We had a friend who flew one and shot down a MIG in Vietnam.

Of course, I gravitated towards the helicopters, even if the Sikorsky was wearing a mask.

We ran out of time before we got to the bridge, but found the whole visit very worthwhile.