Tonopah, Arizona

One Hundred and Eighty Seven miles northwest of Tucson is the little wide spot known as Tonopah, Arizona.  There is an offramp, three gas stations, a restaurant that is part of the Shell gas station, and Saddle Mountain RV Park. The park is super clean, with Palm trees at each spacious site, and it's a Passport America park, so it's only $18 a night!.  This time of year there isn't much going on here, because it's still warm from the summer off season, but a few hardy souls are out, and we're scattered around the park.  Many of the sites are purchased by people who return year after year, and other sites with or without park model trailers on them are for sale. The only problem I can see is that the nearest "anything" is east in Buckeye or even farther east into the Avondale, Glendale, Phoenix area. That would be about 60 miles to Phoenix; a little far for a dinner out! The park is designed for snowbirds, so maybe it's all about social hour here, because there's not much in the way of amenities other than a swimming pool.

We went into Casino Del Sol for breakfast this morning, having survived the night in an hispanic concert parking lot.  I was so tired that I fell asleep while the party was still going on. Donna waited about 30 seconds, and then she went to sleep, so we didn't get to see or hear the end of the concert or the departure of hundreds of cars from all around us.

Strangely, we were up early this am, probably because we've gained another hour in our headlong rush to the west coast.  We're finally on Pacific Time, Hooray!! On the way to breakfast, we saw an Ocotillo cactus just starting to bloom.

The breakfast was great, the weather was perfect (70 deg at 9 am), so we hit the road.  A few miles on I 10 go us to Casa Grande where we jumped off onto I 8 to bypass Phoenix. The first few miles of I 8 were a little sketchy:

But then the road smoothed out and we were in the middle of a Saguaro Cactus "field".

At Gila Bend we turned north on Butterfield Trail and picked up I 10 again at Buckeye, where we turned west. Eighteen miles from Buckeye we were in Tonopah!

Today's trip was uneventful and smooth. We arrived at our "home" early enough to do some much needed cleaning, and even washed most of Nessie and all of Gus.  They needed a bath! The park has its own well, and also its own sewage disposal facility, which may not be particularly unusual, but when I was washing Gus, I noticed that the car didn't water spot as has been the case throughout the midwest. I hope I was using the correct water….

When the sun goes down in the desert, it gets really dark very fast.  I wanted to wait until the sun was off one side and the front of Nessie before washing, and I had to wait until the sun set.  Within 30 minutes I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.  We're out in the middle of nowhere, more than a half mile south of the freeway, and there are very few lights in the park.  That's a good thing, though, since for the first time on this trip we can see the night sky without much light pollution.  It is gorgeous! We've enjoyed a cup of mocha outside marveling at the infinite beauty of the universe.  It truly is awe-inspiring!

We just talked to our daughter, who ran in her first Nike half marathon today in San Francisco. She's always loved running, and has been training for the long distances recently. She finished well, 1723 out of a field of more than 25,000! Congratulations, young lady!