After spending over 30 days in “The Valley” of Phoenix, AZ, Sara and I are on the move. We will stay a few days before traveling south through the city of Tucson to the Green Valley area.

It has been an interesting stay as “The Valley” has many attractions for both permanent residents and vagabonds like us. We moved out of Meridian RV resort and decided to stay a few days in a lovely recreational area called Usery Mt. which overlooks the entire valley. As I type this sitting in a lawn chair with Sara and our two dogs, Rudy and Ollie, under a large saguaro cactus, we scan the horizons.

To the north are the towering Superstition Mts, to the south the cities of Apache Junction and Mesa, to the east a narrowing corner of the valley towards Globe, to the southwest the massive city of Phoenix and to the northwest the famous “PHOENIX” sign edged into a mountain with bold white letters and an arrow pointing the way. This is a truly RVing in the desert with no buildings in sight and cactus everywhere. The sites do have water and electricity so they can’t be described as rustic but lack sewer hookup. That means that after about 5 days your grey water tank (dish and shower water) is full and you have two choices. Move out of the park and empty your tanks at the “dump station” on the way out or move the RV to the dump, empty tanks and return to your site for another 5 days. Black water tank (from the toilet) will last for weeks at a time with the addition of an enzyme and deodorant.

It is illegal to dump grey water in the desert for obvious reasons however most of the plants that surround our site are in desperate need of water. It has not rained in the valley for over 90 days. Even desert plants show the pain of a drought. You almost want to give them all a drink even if the water has a bit of shampoo or an occasional rice kernel in it.

Sara and I have the bikes out and set out for daily b rides. There are over 10 hiking trails in Usery that range from .5 to 5 miles. Most hikers have walking sticks which Polly got for us as Christmas presents at the flea market. Why a walking stick? Well, let me tell you, the one thing you don’t want to do is fall down in the desert or be without a hair comb. A walking stick allows you to recover if you happen to trip or stumble and why the hair comb? There are literally millions of thorns everywhere and if you happen to get into them, the pain is hard to describe. There are balls of thorns called chollas that fall off the cactus and are almost impossible to remove from the skin without a hair comb. Ouch, just ask Sara as tears streamed down her face or Ollie and Rudy as they limp along crying. Flea and tick “checks” for the dogs have been replaced with thorn checks. The guy who sells the walking sticks also suggested that they come in handy to flip an occasional rattlesnake out of the way, a function I decided not to share with Sara.
Night in the desert is accompanied with falling temperatures, from a high of 70 during the day to the 40’s, and the eerie sound of howling coyotes. They wail in unison and Ollie and Rudy love to join in with their canine relatives. The ranger has informed us however, that each year so many pet dogs and cats are lost to coyotes that the park keeps score, and if we don’t want our critters to join the list, we must keep them on a leash when they are outside.

We spotted an adult coyote in the park and let me tell you they are not at all like the mangy, skinny rat tailed ones found in Wisconsin. Native Arizonian coyotes look more like well groomed, well fed German Shepherd’s with big bellies and bushy tails.

Well, what were our impressions of “The Valley”? First, the incredible explosion of growth is evident. Over 200,000 people have moved into AZ this past year and it seems like all of them decided on “The Valley”. What we call a subdivision in Wisconsin, the locals call ranches. Many are for 55+ folks only, with four to five models to choose from. Homes do not have basements and few are two stories due to the summer heat. Most roofs are clay tile instead of shingles and the loneliest sales person in “The Valley” is the lawn mower salesman. Grass lawns are non existent as rocks and gravel of various colors grace the front “lawns”. Landscaping with large cactus, small leafed trees and pottery complete the theme. And almost everyone has the obligatory orange or grapefruit tree.

The incredible growth in the Phoenix has brought terrible traffic jams, air pollution alerts and a fairly high crime rate. This is not unique to Phoenix of course, but it is the rate of growth that is so impressive.

Other little observations are the preponderance of drinking water dispensers which are everywhere. Twenty five cents buys a gallon and five gallons for a buck; you provide your own containers. Also there are flea markets everywhere. They range from entire complexes with literally hundreds of booths selling tools, socks, sunglasses, skin creams, lawn ornaments, leather goods, nuts, clothes and furniture just to name a few. But then on many road intersections outside the city there are people selling oranges, cars, cactus, clothes and candy. We even saw one guy that had a beat up front end loader for sale. One would think that if it were not to sell, most items would be just left for the garbage truck, but each evening everything is gone with a few exceptions only to return the next day.

Also trash seems to litter most road ways. In Wisconsin when someone throw something in the ditch, the vegetation or snow this time of the year covers some of it up. But in Arizona every cigarette butt, plastic bag or beer can just sits there day after day, month after month. Few “Adopt a Highway” programs are evident. In the month we have been in Arizona we have observed only two occasions where road litter was being picked up. We see little signs of recycling in Arizona and wonder why. Maybe they unlike Wisconsin have just too many places to bury the stuff easily. We try our best but there is literally no place to take what you have recycled.
Another unique characteristic of Arizona is the way that the Christmas holidays are celebrated. The lack of snow is more then compensated for by the use of lights. I mean millions and millions of lights. You can have your home professionally decorated. You don’t own the lights and they are installed and removed by a company for fees that range from a few hundred dollars to thousands. As you drive down some of the more affluent neighborhoods, it is a sea of lights, figurines and window decorations.

One church we visited, the Mormon Tabernacle had 1.4 million lights, some in trees over 60 ft in the air. Business owners also shower their buildings with lights and the Phoenix Zoo has its annual “Zoo Lights” which we visited. There were all sorts of animated animals dancing in the trees and on the grounds to Christmas music.

The signs of guns and firearms are also quite prominent. There are gun shops in many strip malls and one gets the feeling that a lot of people are “packing a rod”. The tradition of firing off one’s personal armaments is a local New Years Eve tradition which will be celebrated about 12 hours from now. This of course is illegal after the passage of the county’s “Shannon’s Law” which prohibits the practice after a little girl named Shannon was killed by a falling, yes, falling bullet a few years ago. One local I overheard at the gas station said, “No damn law is going to stop me from shooting off my guns.!!!” I think Sara and I may just bring in the New Year under the cover of our RV roof. Of course, we hope that no one has decided to use our RV in another local area tradition. To rival the “Dropping of the Ball” in Times Square, folks out here hoist one RV up in the sky with a crane (labeled 2006) and drop it on two RVs on the ground (2005) to bring in the New Year. We assume no one is inside at the time of this lovely event or that it is a reflection of how the locals feel about “snowbirds” considering the amount of cash we pump into the local economy during this time of the year.

Sara and I had the pleasure of sharing part of our stay in the Phoenix area with our daughter Polly and her friend Eric. Eric’s parents recently purchased a new home in one of the ranches called Las Palmas Grand. Christmas Eve was celebrated at their spread with wonderful food and drink as was Christmas Day. Eric’s parents are retired after running a successful hair salon in Minneapolis. We received hair cutting lessons from Eric’s father. The need for this was apparently quite obvious to John based on his pre lesson coiffure comments like when Sara said, “I cut Don’s hair and he cuts mine.” And John response “That is obvious.” We hope that our new techniques will make our appearance look more professional.

Also during their visit Eric and Polly joined us on a mountain ride from Apache Junction to Tortilla Flats. With drops of over 2000 feet and few guard rails, Eric was overheard saying “OH SHIT JEUS CHRIST” from the back seat of our one ton diesel dually truck as we passed another truck on the narrow road. I think he was more than happy to get off the mountain. We had the advantage of having done it three times before and didn’t want to tell him that to ruin the fun. The ice cream at the “Flats” was excellent and by the way the entire town is for sale on E bay for 5 million dollars.

One might wonder what we do all day but we find it easy to fill up our days. The dogs have to be walked three times a day and allowed to visit a cactus twice a night as their aging bladders need very periodic relief. For that matter, Don is sort in the same situation. There are RV issues, like washing, waxing and cleaning the roof. Of course, major projects like jacking up the RV with a 12 ton jack to adjust the brakes, grease the suspension or changing the oil, fuel, air and automatic transmission filter on the truck is sometimes accompanied by some foul language, but much money is saved by doing our own repairs and maintenance on the vehicles. There is a saying in RVing, “If you aren’t fixing something, you aren’t RVing.” I stay busy with the internet when I have a decent connection, planning the route for the next part of our adventure and of course my photography. I have taken over 3,000 pictures in the past three years and with the narratives I am thinking about a book or at least a few magazine articles. Oh, and meals to cook. Every region has its own cuisine and its fun to shop and improvise in our small kitchen.

Sara is an incredible housekeeper and has the interior divided into several numbered quadrants which are cleaned and vacuumed on an alternating basis. And of course Sara’s favorite pass time far surpassing reading, Scrabble, e mailing or dog grooming is WASHING CLOTHES. We have a colored basket, a white basket which is smaller now that Don has been switched to black underwear for some reason and, clothes racks for drying.

Do you see shades of OC???? And woe be on to any damn woman in the laundry mat that would dare to save a dryer for a friend. The wrath of “Sara, the Laundry Queen” will descend with a vengeance. It really is nice to have clean sheets and clothes however.

Well, enough for now. We are on our way to the Green Valley and Pipe Organ Cactus National Monument on the border with Mexico. We hope that you and your family enjoy a safe and happy new year. Send us an email about what is happening in your neck of the woods. We so enjoy hearing from you as life on the road can get lonely when you are away from all your friends and family. Someday we may knock on your door and ask if we can park in the driveway and use your bathroom.

UP DATE........WE MOVED SOUTH OF TUCSON TO THE GREEN VALLEY FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE......WILL WATCH BADGER GAME THERE.............

DOUBLE CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE