Lake Pleasant

Our last post left you at Gilbert Ray Park just west of Tucson.

After our one night there, we moved about 20 miles to Catalina State Park

which is about 15 miles north of Tucson in Oro Valley.

We always love coming to Catalina.

Besides being a real convenient location to take care of any needed business,

it also gives us a chance to catch up with our Tucson friends and visit with them.

The sunsets that reflect off of the mountains are always a special treat too!

While here this time, we both had eye exams and got new glasses.

I had the tires rotated on the truck, a bit of a chore on a dually.

Our site below the Santa Catalina Mountains.

A view as the sun gets lower and turns fiery red.

While here I also did some Doodle Maintenance.

Trying to keep them in top form for their upcoming visit to

Uncle Rons Doodle Ranch - I did some Sunday nail trimming.

This time I got Gracie a bit too short on one nail and made it bleed.

To keep her away from it and give it some time to stop, we wrapped a sock on her foot.

On Monday our 6 day visit to Tucson was over and me moved up to

Lake Pleasant Regional Park which is just on the North West edge

of the Phoenix Metro Area.

Here at the lake we still get great sunsets and have a lake view from our site.

I have been busy getting my 2015 budgets for work wrapped up,

so this slow pace has been perfect for that.

We are here until Thursday.

Thursday morning we'll head 4hrs west over to the Palm Springs, California area.

We'll stay in Palm Springs Thursday and Friday night.

It will be there that we will drop the doghouse at a storage facility

 on Saturday morning and run empty, 8 hours North to

Uncle Rons & Aunt Maxines Doodle Camp.

We will stay at Doodle Camp for a few days, and spend some time getting

the Montana ready for the winter desert festivities.

We will then head down to San Francisco on Weds for

our 11 hr flight to Germany and 3 weeks of the holidays

in Germany & Switzerland.

It promises to be a very interesting month.

Tucson

It seems that all roads lead to Tucson.

We seem to keep finding ourselves here when on the road.

We left you last in Midland Tx.  

The weather had warmed into the upper70's and I was in shorts.   

During the night however the DogHouse started rocking and getting cooler inside.  

By morning the wind was howling and it was 27 degrees outside.  

The wind chill was close to zero.

Winter had returned with a vengeance.

Our travels the last two days.

After leaving Midland we drove about 7hrs west to Rockhound State Parkin Deming, NM. 

On the way we crossed back onto the warm side of the previous nights cold front

so thankfully the temperature once again climbed back into the 70's

We really like Rockhound and its nearby sister park,

City of Rocks which is north of Deming.

Rockhound is located on the side of a mountain, and overlooks Deming.

The views are great during the day and once the sun sets the shimmering lights of

Deming far below lend a beautiful backdrop.

Morning paints the mountains to the west, as viewed from our perch.

If you've been to Rockhound, but haven't been there in a year or more you

might be surprised at the upgrades.  There has been a fair amount of landscaping done

and the bathhouse and showers are new and delightful.

Only $10 a night for a boon docking site or $14 for water/electric.

Morning dawned clear and crisp.

It was a chore waking up the Doodles.

A quick 4 hour drive found us in Tucson, Arizona.

Tonight we are at Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson Mountain County Park.

Gilbert Ray is in a beautiful natural Sonoran Desert Setting.

Normally we have the greatest sunsets from here but it is cloudy today

so I think we're not going to get one tonight.

Tomorrow we'll move about 20 miles to Catalina State Park,

north of Tucson where we will spend 5 days tending to business

and just chilling.

Tonight however a very light rain has begun to fall...

That means the smells of the desert will soon begin to lift up from the soil.

Anytime it rains here in the desert it seems as if every pore of the planet

opens up to consume the rain, and in the process releases 

the most amazing cacocphony of sweet scents into the air.

It promises to be sweet sleeping tonight!