Nikko and I have landed in Payson,
AZ. I’m not sure how long we will be
here, but one thing’s for sure….we are out of the 90’s of the Yuma, AZ desert! The weather here is close to perfection! The elevation in Yuma is 141' above sea
level (mid 90's) Scottsdale is 1,257’ (about 90*) and Payson
is way up there at 5,000’ (mid 70's!!)
We stayed one night in
Scottsdale…a stop over to presumably put some things in the storage unit I have
there. UHHHHHH – that did NOT work
out! I unlocked the door and I thought I
was watching that cable TV hoarders show! I
was surprised everything didn’t tumble out on top of me and bury me alive! I had remembered it was “pretty full”, but I
didn’t remember it like that. It’s only
5’x10’ and I do remember, for the most part, what’s in there. I think what happened was at the end of
deciding what was going to be stored, at the last minute, I just threw in (or
more accurately, “shoved” in) the final remaining items that I couldn’t take
with me when I went back to Ohio. At
that point, there was no rhyme or reason to it….just get it all in there! Someday, I’ll figure out what I’m doing with
it all, but I doubt it will be anytime soon.
Soooooo….I bought two new
totes for the back cargo rack. The
originals were almost two years old…cracked from the sun and various “accidents”. The new ones are a little smaller but fit better on
the cargo rack. I reorganized “stuff” throughout
the RV to try to redistribute weight.
The new totes are now secured, tarped and ready for travel. I won’t need to get into these at all for travel, so I’m
not concerned about the ease of “unwrapping”.
Moral of this story? If you are planning to full time RV, get rid
of everything
BEFORE you embark on your new lifestyle!
To my defense, at that time, I had no idea I would be a full time RVer,
but for those of you who might be thinking about it, just keep in mind, it will
not be something you will want to deal with later! Trust me on this!
GET RID OF STUFF!!
The drive from palm tree laden
Scottsdale up to pine tree encased Payson is a pretty one. 60 miles on a mountain highway (Route
87). It’s a roller coaster with curves
and 6-7% grades which are a little unnerving.
The key is….just drive an RV slower than you would normally drive a
car. You can’t care that cars are
passing you…let them!
Before the pine trees start,
the drive quickly leaves the palms behind and the climbing terrain changes to
mountains and huge groves of saguaro cactus.
Cactus doesn’t always mean “desert” in the dry, sandy sense of the
word. (Photos taken while driving --- NOT recommended!)
Being springtime, the brittle
bushes are in full bloom along the way.
Vast amounts of yellow everywhere!
Great bursts of color penetrating a more or less camouflage-like
background.
Other spring blooms appear
along the roadway, too.
Once in Payson, the cactus and
anything resembling the aforementioned landscape vanishes. Pines are everywhere! Payson is virtually in the middle of the
Tonto National Forest. There’s not much
dispersed (free/no amenities) camping in Tonto for some reason. That’s unlike most every other National Forest. However, there are “pay” campgrounds. With my “Golden Pass” I would pay only 50% of
the normal camping fee…maybe something like $7/night...that's doable in the budget. Before we leave Payson, we might go into Tonto and camp for a few days…whatever
campground is closest to town. I don’t
want to get too far away from Payson because, ultimately, we will probably be
going in the opposite direction for the summer.
So, we went from literally
sleeping under palm trees to sleeping under pine trees….all in about 1.5
hours! Such a nice change! I never want to take my house on wheels for granted. It's the perfect solution to changing your environment rather quickly!
The inevitable pitfall has landed, too. I’m back to the real world of
paying the high Verizon internet fees.
So ridiculous! Any purchases you
make via my Amazon link give me a small commission (your costs are not
affected) which goes directly toward my internet bill so I can continue this
blog. The link takes you directly to Amazon just like you are used to. I very much appreciate your purchases! Thank you!
That’s a wrap for now from our
residential driveway parking spot in this small, unique Payson neighborhood. More on that in the next post. It will be especially interesting to those of
you who take note of the differences in real estate from one area-city-state to
another.
So long for now!
Yay...Payson! Nice post!
ReplyDeleteNice pics (as usual) and nice accompanying comments!
ReplyDeleteI've been following you for over a year now. I've been full timing since 2009 and still I learn something new from you all the time. I enjoy your posts. Keep them coming when time permits.
ReplyDelete