As we started planning our summer adventure it seemed odd to see snow falling on the mountains around the valley. The Superstitions, 4 Peaks and McDowells all had layers of white stuff. It gave pause to wonder what the rest of the world would look like as we left the Phoenix area. We are spoiled and tend to forget the weather in other parts of the state and country. We also had heavy rain on the first day of the month and mid month.

We had decided we wanted to learn to fly fish so we found a class at the AZ Fly Fishing shop in Phoenix. A day long event where we learned to tie knots, were schooled on gear, the different types of flies, and then we went to a park to learn and practice casting. The instructors make it look so easy and effortless. I hope I can be half as good as they are….

After one of my previous races, Teri decided I wasn’t training hard enough so we had ordered a single speed custom built bike from Kaolin at the Flat Tire Bike Shop in Cave Creek. I picked it up a week before our travel day. As of this writing, I’ve only had 2 good rides on it. It is different from my full suspension geared bike. It’s going to be fun.

Of course no trip can be taken without maintenance on the vehicles. We took the motorhome to Roberts Tires to have the tires rotated and to identify a leak on one of the rear duals. I have a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) on the tires and one of the sensors had continually identified a low tire (outside passenger dual). I had checked the tire regularly with an air gauge and it always read properly filled. For grins I decided to check the inner dual. Guess what!!?? The sensor was on the wrong tire. Roberts fixed the leak and we were ready. A few final Dr. appts, get the motorhome washed and we were ready. We couldn’t leave without a final meal with my daughters, grandkids and friends. We met Nichole, Landon, Cooper, Melanie, Tom, Kennedy and Brooke for dinner at The Thirsty Lion and had a great visit. We had breakfast with Joe and Richard as well during the week prior to leaving. We always have a great visit with everyone when we get the opportunity.

The Cactus Cup mtb race was the final race for me in the valley. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked in my placing or my finish times. My coach Kevin had to remind me we had changed my training program and he knew my expectations were too high, but he didn’t say anything so as to not deflate my balloon. After much discussion, I felt better as I had fulfilled the underlying goals. Hammer Nutrition has always been a big sponsor of this race. Had the opportunity to meet with some other Hammer sponsored riders as well. Cory is always a kick in the pants and we love hanging out with him. He does a great job keeping the bike suspension in tip top working condition as well. Stillwell Suspension is the name of the shop in Scottsdale. stillwellperformance.com

As soon as the race was over, I hit the road to TX. We had offered to let my grandson, Damian, “protect” Teri’s jeep while we were traveling. He readily accepted our offer. So, I left Apache Junction on Sunday afternoon and drove 1200 miles to Harlingen, TX arriving on Tue morning. I spent several hours with Damian and my granddaughter, Mia while teaching Damian about the jeep. It is the first vehicle he has ever ‘owned’ and he has never been exposed to a diesel vehicle, so there was a slight learning curve. When we were done, they drove me to the airport and I flew home arriving late Tuesday night. Wednesday was spent getting everything ready to say goodbye to AZ.

We were on the road on Thursday, March 16 headed to Lake Havasu for an MTB race. Sarge had to say goodbye to Riley, the other cat in the RV park. In the race I did much better and had a fun race. The race was a bit different than others. I went out hard and hit the single track in 3rd. 1st was gone, not to be caught. 2nd slowly pulled away and I couldn’t hang with him. Jeff sat on my wheel until about mile 5 when he pulled around. He finished 3rd. I was too hot going into a corner and had to slow and was passed. At the top of a long climb, I stalled and the chain fell off. Got passed again, now I’m sitting in 6th. A mile later I caught #5 and I’m back in 5th. As I started the 2nd lap, I could see 4th in front of me about 30 seconds ahead. I was able to catch him several minutes later. We fist bumped as I passed and we encouraged each other. In a steep climb, I stalled again and he rode past me. At the 18 mile mark of a 20 mile race, I was able to catch and pass him again and that’s how it ended. I finished in 4th. It was fun chasing and trading places with John. That’s how racing should be. We had a chance to visit with a lot of people and Teri was talking about riding, racing, and our adventures past and future. We allow Sarge to wander around the campsite and monitor him through an Apple AirTag. Surprisingly he stayed very close to the motorhome and didn’t roam as far as he has been known to. We asked him about this but all he said was ‘meow’.

We took a drive to the Bill Williams Wildlife refuge to do some fishing. We stepped onto a dock and began setting up our gear. As we were using fly gear, we would need some extra room for casting. As we were preparing to cast, some guy came onto the deck and set up about 10 ft from us paying no mind whatsoever to us. Some people are just ignorant and rude. We packed up our gear and went to another area. Unfortunately, the wind was too strong and impeded any casting so we headed back to the car. As we were packing up, a gentleman about our age approached and asked some questions about the area. He had a strong european accent. It turns out, Chris is from Germany but has been living in Canada. He was traveling in a cab over camper and pickup around the country. We shared some stories, showed him some of our travel apps and had a nice visit. It was a good thing, because the highway had a backup that lasted about 2 hours due to a near head-on crash. Fortunately there were no serious injuries according to the officer I spoke with.

As we left Havasu and headed north towards I-40 and Kingman, it was windy with the winds from the south that had us struggling. It required concentration but wasn’t scary. As we rolled through Williams there were several feet of snow to the sides of the interstate and ADOT had not even bothered to clear the drives into the rest areas. The depressions along the interstate were full of water which I have not seen in a long time. Our destination was Cottonwood for another mtb race.

We rolled into the Verde Valley Fairgrounds and set up camp. We only had electric service but there was a water fill station and a dump station available. It rained the first night there (Sunday) and the dirt grounds became saturated and muddy. Teri started doing laundry and after 4 days we had to dump the gray tank and fill the fresh water. It rained again on Monday and Tuesday all day and night. You can imagine what the mud holes looked like now. The winds were 20 mph and fortunately we didn’t have any problems. We took a drive into Prescott Valley on Monday for fun and Teri was looking for an Espresso coffee maker. Apparently no one drinks espresso any more because we couldn’t find one in the 3 stores we checked. On the way back to Cottonwood we stopped off in Jerome and had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. The food was delicious. You have to try it. On Tuesday we went back to Jerome in the rain to check out the various stores. The folks in Jerome are very friendly and enjoy showing off their wares. As we drove north into Jerome, we could see the clouds coming down off Mingus Mt. that just enveloped the town. I am always mesmerized by the sight of roads that just cling to the side of a mountain. That afternoon we drove to the Verde River to see about fishing. The river was in flood stage with the brown water cascading through the river banks. Too high and too muddy to fish.

Wednesday we drove to Deadhorse State Park to try our hand at fishing in 1 of the 3 ponds in the park. As we were doing our best, a man who had been fishing to our left, called over and asked if we’d like some help. Of course we accepted. He spent about 15 minutes giving us casting pointers. He had such an easy cast, I can’t believe I’ll ever be able to match that. After he left, we were still practicing our casting when a man walked up from my right and said ‘you’re back casting too far’. We talked for about 30 minutes. His name was Randy and he works as a guide in Wyoming in the summer. He left, we practiced some more and called it a day. Still no fish. Thursday I took the single speed out to pre ride the 1st half of the race course. That was a tough ride. As I finished, the RV repair guys had shown up at the motorhome. They were early and they were there to make adjustments to the awning. The awning was hitting the slide out when the awning was being retracted. They spent about an hour and had it fixed. We highly recommend Currier Master Mobile RV repair. Friday I went out on the full suspension bike and pre rode the 2nd half of the race course. Afterwards we drove into old town historic Cottonwood and braved the wind and rain.

Race Day, Verde Valley Rally, Hurty30 was a 30 mile race. Some brave souls opted for the 40 mile version. The course is tough with steep climbing and descending, rocky ledges to climb and drop off. Chloe Woodruff was the only person racing who I knew. We chatted pre race. She was doing the 40 mile option. Cory Stem was announcing and he is always a character. At race registration, there were no age categories listed or to select, so I figured it was an open category. Chloe passed me at my 20 mile mark and she finished 1st in her category. As I finished the race, I was physically and emotionally drained. I had beat my goal by 10 minutes. After calming down, I had to go to the bathroom. As I exited, Teri is yelling at me “They called you for podium, get over there”. What??!! I arrived at the podium just in time for photos and received my 2nd place bottle of wine donated by Confluence918 winery. I was ecstatic and pleasantly surprised. As we sat to eat we were in a conversation with Erik and his wife from Henderson, NV. Then it was time to leave. We walked to the car and Teri says ‘Guess what I just did’?! I said ‘No you didn’t’ and she just nodded her head. I said ‘How could you lock both sets of keys in the Jeep???!!!!!!!’ I slammed the window in frustration thinking of the various ways we could get in, including breaking a window. Then Teri said ‘the Jeep app!” Oh yeah. The app allowed us to unlock the jeep with our phones. We were good to go.

A quick stop in Apache Junction to pick up last minute mail and we were headed for New Mexico. Why? Another race, of course. Tim and Monica’s dog Tito didn’t want us to leave.

Our first stop in NM was in Silver City. As you drive north into the city you can see the huge open pit mine that gives the city it’s name. Silver, copper, gold and other minerals are all being pulled from the ground. The size of the operation is astounding. We had arrived a day earlier than planned at the Manzano’s RV park and our space was not available. They did have a boondocking (no hookups) space available and we parked there for the night. The next day we moved into our space (#15) for 2 days and then had to move to space #22 for the remainder of our stay. Not a huge inconvenience and the folks were extremely friendly. We took a drive into the city and walked the downtown area. The buildings are old and historic and has a very ‘home town’ feel. A quick stop in the Visitor’s Center to gather some information and marvel at the murals painted on the walls of the Center and we were on our way. There is a metal arch announcing the entry into Silver City. As you cross under the arch, you immediately see a huge ditch with water running through it. This is called The Ditch. When Silver City was originally founded, The Ditch was Main Street. The founders failed to realize that their Main Street was also the main channel for flooding waters. The Ditch is now 20 ft deep and and has walking paths along it. Obviously Main Street was moved. The majority of the streets in the historic area are narrow and are designated as One Way. The Ice Cream shops boast homemade ice cream and they are fantastic. The Ice Cream Emporium boasts 36 flavors of homemade ice cream. The interior is designed as a gathering place with several tables for sitting, table sized checker boards, air hockey and other games. The Army/Navy store is as authentic as you can find. It reminded me of the Surplus store in Mesa many years ago. High Desert Pies is a pizzeria with some excellent food with a view of the street from 2 stories up. It was a nice relaxing place.

We took a drive out to Whitewater Canyon to view the Catwalk. This was the location of a mining operation long, long ago. The catwalk has since been reconstructed but is still in the original location. The catwalk was used to hold a pipeline that carried water from the canyon down to the mouth of the canyon to provide power for the mill and drinking water for the workers. The miners would have to traverse the catwalk with nimble feet less they fall into the gorge with the roaring waters. As you walk along the concrete and steel catwalk, you can still see remnants of the original catwalk with steel cables attached to rings that are pounded into the rock walls. While eating lunch we fell into a conversation with Chris. He is a nomad from CA who is living in his Sprinter van. He was a life guard, a life guard instructor, a CHP officer and then moved into Search & Rescue over the course of his life. He had ‘Covid hair’ as he called it. It was silver as he is a couple of years older than me, braided and landed at the middle of his back. He loved to talk and said that was from his time of solitude during Covid.

A drive up to Bear Canyon Lake to try our hand at fishing was another day of casting practice. We stumbled across a huge waterfall on the drive there that isn’t marked on any maps or road signs. When we finished casting practice, we were packing up our gear. There was a family packing up their boat and gear as well. As the man approached, he asked ‘Are you Law Enforcement’? I said yes and asked how he figured that. He said “The Oakley’s and the decal on the jeep”. I live in my Oakley sunglasses. I have a full sized window decal of the Thin Blue Line flag on the rear side windows of the jeep. I asked ‘You too”? He said yes. His name was Javier and he is LEO for the Forest Service, just promoted to Investigator (detective) and assigned to the Silver City area. We wished him and his family well in his next 10 years to retirement.

We took a drive out to the City of Rocks State Park to visit with the Flintstones and Rubbles. Unfortunately they were out so we just toured the City. These are rock formations that have been carved by water and wind providing paths through the towering rock skyscrapers. Some very interesting formations were seen. Some formations you wonder how they ever got that way, especially the round rock boulder that is balancing on top of 3 smaller rocks.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that we were there for a race. We went to the Historic Ft Bayard area for a preview. Ft Bayard was once a Ft used to protect the Buffalo Soldiers and later brought back into service for WWII. The buildings are all still standing, however most have been boarded up. One of the larger buildings has been remolded into a museum and visitor center. There is also a tour available with numbered stops throughout the fort and descriptive narrative signs. The parade ground was to be used as the main venue and parking and camping. The fort also has its own Fire Department and the Forest Service uses some of the property for their operations as well. At the entrance to the fort is the Forgotten Veterans Memorial at Bataan Memorial Park. A fitting tribute.

Next up was the race, but’s for the next chapter. Thanks for riding along with us on our adventures. We hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave any comments. See you next month.

John & Teri