December 15-31, 2023 New Mexico and Arizona

For those that have not been west of El Paso, it amazing that once you cross into that central time zone everything changes. The views are simply amazing. It’s 100 percent entering into Gods Country. Spectacular!!

So our first stop was the Faywood Hot Springs which a guy named Ned recommended to us as his Top Pick. We met him and his wife 4 years ago in Texas and marked his top pick down in our Google maps, that’s where we keep track of all our travels and all the recommendations that we get from YouTube and from people. So we headed there and it was pretty amazing. They had 9 different soaking options. Some of them were clothing optional which was a little weird. I’ll never be able to “unsee” the sagging butt of this older gentleman as he got out of the hot tub. The hot tubs themselves were naturally built into the scenery around them. Greg soaked in all of the pools. They were all different temperatures ranging from 95 to 103°. I’m not a fan of the hot springs so I don’t go in but I did enjoy the area and the whole vibe of the place.

We stayed two nights at the Hot Springs Place. the second morning, we woke up to 28°. Brrrrr, Time to head out to warmer grounds. We checked the weather and saw that Tucson’s weather was perfect so we headed out. It was over three hours to Tucson so we picked a spot half way to stop for the evening. We had marked this place on our Google maps called Indian Bread Rocks, its public land where you can camp for free. They call that Dispersed Camping. Usually a dirt road that heads into the land with little spur roads to a camping spot.

As we were driving in, a dog by a van started barking at us. I said to Greg, “Doesn’t that look like Roodle?” Roodle is this dog that we follow on YouTube. We follow the travels of OneAdvanturAtATime. As we got closer we realized it was them and they recognized us as well as we had spent time with them at the Tiny House Convention in Florida last year.

On that small table there are two Pecan Pies that they picked up in the Pie store when they went into town on our 2nd day here. They had heard from someone about this town and their Pecan trees and they heard about these pies being the most delicious. They were kind enough to share the pies with us and also another van couple. I can tell you that the pie was stupendous!!! We ate both pies. Hahaha That’s a lot of pie.

This area here is pretty amazing. I would definitely rate it as top 5 dispersed camping. We did a great hike to the top of the rocks where the American Indians went to grind the mesquite bean pods into flour. This place is called Indian Bread Rocks Recreation area for that reason but also because there’s a rock above the grinding holes that looks just like a loaf of bread. you can see the loaf of bread behind Greg and below the sun.

We are surrounded by rocks in one side and mountains on the other. The cows come through the area every evening and throughout the day. It’s quiet and peaceful here except for the occasional Moo.

The weather is starting to warm up. Back to wearing shorts during the day but pants at night. We are heading towards Tucson Arizona today to even warmer weather. I’m looking forward to taking the sweatshirt and winter hat off.

Our first stop was at The Diamond Desert Casino. this casino allows overnight parking as long as you get their players card and get a pass from security. The players card also gave us $20 in free slots and also a free buffet and some other discounted meals. The place is beautiful with everything being decorated for Christmas. Plus Saguaro Cactus everywhere.

Next day we went to the Titan Missile Museum. We are trying to get out and do stuff especially when the weather is good. Because on those cold rainy windy days we sometimes get trapped in the van depending on our location. This museum had a 45 minute tour which Greg loved. His Dad actually worked at a Missile area when he was younger which made it even more interesting for us.

That photo above with Greg looking down, we actually went down there and got to see all the inner working of this missile sight.

That night we headed to another casino in Southern Tucson. It was another Desert Diamond Casino just a different location. We got a whole bunch of new perks here as well.

Next day we headed to the Sonora Desert Museum. It’s not really a museum more like a zoo. We had been there years ago when it first opened but they have really expanded the place.

After the museum we headed across town to a Harvest Host Location. Little Anthony’s Diner and Gaslight Theater. I have never seen a more welcoming place than this place. Way over the top in service and friendliness. When we arrived there was a coned off area for Harvest Host parking so we pulled right in and went inside the 50’s themed diner. The manager took us on a little tour and then took us into the theater box office. They do 4 shows a day here and have been sold out since May. However, because they are ridiculously nice, they told us we can sit in the aisle and if someone doesn’t show up, we can get their table. We chose the 6 pm show but first had dinner in the diner which was pretty amazing.

After dinner we headed to the theater which is next door and they put two chairs in the aisle for us. There were no cancellations so we watched the show from the aisle. The show was $30 per person but for us it was free because of the aisle seats. The show was quirky and fun and we really liked it a lot.

Woke up to rain. We knew it was going to rain which is another reason why we wanted to overnight in a regular parking lot so to avoid any flooding that happens in the desert. Today our goal is to find a shower. There’s a couple of community centers in town that supposedly offer showers for two bucks. Fingers crossed.

Yes!!! We found a shower and an amazing rec center. I’m regretting not playing a few rounds of pickleball or taking advantage of their gym and walking track. The showers were awesome though and totally worth the buck fifty to get in. Being clean is awesome.

Once showered we did a Google search for nearby churches. I wanted to be near a church for Christmas so we found a few and I actually went to church twice on Christmas Eve. Once for the normal Sunday Mass and once in the evening for The Christmas Vigil. The first Mass had about 25 people and no music and the second Mass, (different town) had about a thousand people with a full choir and a packed house. They even had the children perform a Nativity Play. It was really cute.

From there we arrived at our next location in the dark. Being that it was Christmas Eve, we had no issues finding a spot. It was practically empty.

The Campground host suggested we go to the Dwarf Car Museum and I’m so glad we did. It was so far, the highlight of my trip. And the artist and builder of these cars was on site and even let us sit in one. He built every single one of these cars. It took him about three years to complete each one and they really looked exactly like the car he was modeling it after, just in a smaller version. So cool.

I highly recommend this place in Maricopa, Arizona. From there we headed to the Organ Cactus National Monument in Ajo. We’ve been here before but it’s worth a re-visit. Definitely one of my favorite areas in the country.

They had Ranger Lead programs in the Amphitheater both nights that we were there. One was about this Spring Pond in the south west corner of the park. Do the next day we decided to go check it out. This pond is right in the Mexican border and there was a sign by where you turn that suggested not going down that road because of Border Patrol activity. This was right in the town of Lukeville which had just recently closed their border because of too many migrants coming through at once and the inability to be able to process so many of them. So this dirt road to get to the spring pond was 14 miles long and ran right along the Mexican wall. We sat there and pondered a bit and then decided against it and headed north.

We drove a little under two hours to The Petroglyph Rock Campground. We were here once before when the campsites were 8 bucks but now they switched their reservation system to Recreation.gov and now that system charges a fee if 8 dollars just to make a reservation. So now an $8 campsite turns into a $16 campsite. Not a lot annoys me but this really really annoys me. Anyway, the sites are nice. There’s lots of room and the Petroglyphs are pretty cool if you’re into that kind of thing. Other than the dumb 8 dollar fee, the only other thing about this campground that is negative is the amount of flies here. I have literally killed over 50 flies this morning. I thought I got em all last night when we went to bed but apparently after the sunsets, the flies go to sleep. They found little nooks and crannies to spend the night in the van and when the sun came up, they were everywhere!!!! I’d kill ten and then ten more would appear. Mind you, all the windows and doors of the van were shut. It was crazy. Lucky for me, I enjoy killing flies so I had a very enjoyable morning.

From there we drove to Yuma. Spent the days in Parks and the nights at Cracker Barrel. Seems to be a thing here cause the Cracker Barrel was packed with cans both nights. We are both over due for a shower. We haven’t been to a campground with a shower in a while. This year we brought our on demand hot water heater with us just so that we could take showers on the road. So we drove to the Public land and got everything set up. This was a very exciting moment.

we bought extra water and everything. I’m sure I’ve mentioned in a previous blog how they have water machines on all the corners in Arizona. 5 gallons for a buck. Anyway, after all Greg’s hard work and getting it all set up, we realized that the two D batteries we brought with us to fire up the spark that ignites the Hot Water Heater were from 2018 and were DEAD!! So no hot water heater for us, atleast not today. Instead we heated up some hot water on the stove and poured that into a bucket. Then in the bucket went our water pump and shower head and all of that went into our portable shower tent. Yes, this was disappointing especially since I ran out of warm water before conditioning my hair but in the end it didn’t really matter because it felt so good to be clean!! We also used up all the propane so it was meant to be because the hot water heater runs on propane and we would have ran out right in the middle of the shower. That would have been terrible. So after our short showers we headed to the gas station to get more propane and two new D batteries. From there we headed to the Q Casino for New Year’s Eve and the big balloon drop at midnight. I’m pretty sure I’ll be asleep for that but Greg enjoys the New Years band and all its hoopla. Then tomorrow we will head back to the Public Lands and maybe attempt to set up the shower again.

We had an amazing New Years Buffet. I ate crab legs the entire time and they were really good.

I’m currently sitting in the Hotel Lobby of the Q Casino typing the rest of this blog so that I can post it tonight. For this that don’t know, the blog is all typed out on my little IPhone Mini. I’m going to head into the van to take a picture of the December Calendar and add up our costs for this month. Then I’ll head back in here to the lobby to upload the blog using the hotels WiFi. Aaaaaah, life on the road.

ok so as you can see from the calendar, we spent $309 in Gas and $355 in Campgrounds this month. That’s not too bad. As long as we stay out of California. We actually went over there today when we got our propane tank filled and the Deisel over there was $579 a gallon. Yikes!! Over here in Arizona it’s $3.79. So clearly we won’t be filling up anytime soon in California. Happy New Year Everyone!!