Monday 25th January 2016

We decided to bust it out of Miami a bit early. The WEST was calling. We needed a change in the humidity level. Miami 95% versus Yuma 15%.  We wanted to get back to that moisture sucking nose bleeding dry climate.

Dean found this shedded snakeskin wrapped around one of the motorhome jacks as he was packing up outside stuff. We kept our fingers crossed hoping the snake had not somehow slithered inside the rig for the upcoming trip.

We had hoped to spend some time in New Orleans but it just kept chucking it down with rain. We pounded out those miles and soon were in Texas, 1250 miles and about halfway to Yuma.

Finally we seemed to be out of the rain pattern. Dean lets me know about a hundred miles out when he needs to fuel up and I have a couple of apps to find the cheapest price on our route.  Hey, when you are pumping 90- 100 gallons (340-380 liters) of diesel, a few cents a gallon can make a difference.

I found this fuel station in Texas and paid $1.57 a gallon (cheapest for many years).  Mind you it was very close to many refineries.  It had a really cool store attached. Dean is holding a mega sized cup (we were in Texas after all). I think you get free refills.

The store was packed with just about everything.

A fancy container just to hold the Coke bottles.

A big selection of snake proof boots.  Texas has plenty of Rattlers.

We stopped in San Antonio for a couple days to visit with our good friends Linda and Nick. We shared some good memories from our time in the Air Force back in the 80’s.

Back on the road and we made it to Tucson, Arizona in record time.  It was time for a rest. We stayed in a nice park with a lovely warm swimming pool. We also managed to get quite a bit of pickleball in. Thank goodness no sign of the snake.

It was great to meet up with our 4 special Canadians. Donna, Tom and Jan and Tom we hope you are having a great time in Mexico. Get all the kinks worked out so we could possibly take a trip there this winter.

Donna gave Dean another french braiding lesson. Dean did the one on the right.  I do believe he is getting the hang of it.

Quite a few people at the park had orange trees.  I bartered a couple of bars of soap for a gazillion oranges.

Using our fancy squeezer Dean has supplied us with blood orange and  tangerine juice. We have a small glass in the morning, then a nice large one with vodka in the afternoon. The best way to get your vitamin C.

Why Oh why did I take a picture of Why. (Population 116) Why, because we had to pass through it to get to Organ Pipe National Monument.  Sorry, I just had to do that.

These are the Organ Pipe Cactus.  Nice healthy ones on the left  and some skeletons on the right.

We even saw a crested Saguaro.  Of all the multitude of these cacti we have seen over the years this is only the second crested one.

We hiked to an old abandoned mine in the park and in this little shack we saw an ancient bath tub.  Dean did not really want to get in the tub.

I think I look better taking a desert bath.

We got to visit more good friends. Dean used to work with Maxine in Grants Pass. It seems like forever since we lived there but at 12 years that was the longest we had ever stayed in one place in over 44 years.

A nice stopover in the desert.  The evening skies were beautiful.  On to Yuma.