Saturday 14th February, 2015

Just popped in these pics of a bus stop in the old town area of Tucson. I thought it was pretty cool.

Finally we are on the move again.  Yippee!  With the fuel prices nice and low, we decided this would be a good time to explore the East side of this massive country.  We are hoping to be able to see some of our wonderful family and friends on the East Coast.

We are going to visit New Orleans and  Red Bay Alabama. Red Bay is not actually a destination spot but our motorhome factory is there and we need a few things fixed. Then onto Savannah Georgia and up the coast.  This journey will probably take the rest of the year.

Our first stop was Chiriacahua National Monument in south east Arizona.  We have visited this great place a few times over the years.  Being off the beaten pay it is a quiet park.

Yesterday we had a smashing 9 mile loop hike through many weird rock formations.  This place is famous for all these delicately balanced rocks.

At 7000ft its still a bit nippy in the morning.

Dean is always trying to hold up the rocks.

Time for a little rest although that boulder does not look very comfy.

Dean is trying a bit of crack climbing.

It’s amazing how some of these rocks stay upright.

I was not color coordinated but….

Dean matched the lichen really well.

I wonder how many years before this rock takes a tumble.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built all the trails in the park back in the early 1930’s.  This wall is typical of the wonderful workmanship.

Giant stones were placed for stairways up the steeper parts of trails.

We had to bushwack around quite a few trees blocking the trail.  After the hike we stopped in the visitor center to let them know and found out the park had been closed the day before due to massive winds that felled 16 trees on the road alone. Because the trail is in the wilderness area only hand tools are allowed.  Those park trail crews are going to have a big job ahead cutting and shifting trees upwards of 20″ in diameter with hand saws.

We did not get lost and no bashed up bodies like in Sabino Canyon, so altogether it was a lovely day.

Now we are heading toward Texas.  We plan on traveling along the coast and hopefully visiting our old friends Rhonda and Duke in Houston in a week or so.