The travel day routine is by now so ingrained that we are pretty much on auto-pilot. By 9 AM we were back on the highway, heading east on I-15 towards Tuscon. Today was our turn to confuse Ginny because we needed to take a detour. As directed by the highway reader board, we turned south on Rt 85 towards I-8 in order to avoid going through Phoenix where part of the interstate was closed. For at least 20 minutes, Ginny kept re-directing us to the nearest crossroad to make a u-turn. Eventually she figured it out and followed the detour route.
We were in this neck of the woods earlier on in the year. I can safely report that nothing much had changed. The scenery remains the same. The tall saguaro cactus dominates the landscape together with very healthy-looking creosote bushes and palo verde. And the mountain silhouettes have not changed. The day was bright, the sky clear and sunny.
This was my panoramic view for the 5 hours we were traveling:
By 2 PM we arrived at Cactus Country RV Resort. It was already 89 degrees. In mid October. I cannot imagine what this place is like in the height of summer. The office did have a sign warning about rattlers being out and about in the evening. So if we go for a walk later when it's cooler, we need to bring flashlights with us because the rattlers like to lie on the tarmac to take advantage of the warmth.
More Alpines joined us - the Mazoccos, Magees and Lacys. There are 9 Alpines in the group here tonight. Later we gathered for Happy Hour, a great SoCal tradition.
