December 14 -- On The Road For A Visit To LaLaLand

It was, and will continue to be, tough to leave Portal and the Chiricahuas. To look out the kitchen window at night and see -- blackness, with just one or two house lights in the distance; the spectacular sunrises and sunsets, so different from the ones in the heavily urban area of the Port of Los Angeles, where I'm heading ; the friends I've made in Portal and Rodeo, New Mexico, 8 miles to the east; and Faranuf. I will of course miss the birds. Even the 2 young Coues deer bucks that chowed-down my bird seed. Cave Creek Canyon, Herb Martyr, hikes to spectacular views -- or near-rolls into barbed wire (well, I won't miss that one TOO much). In short, I'll miss pretty  much everything about the Chiricahuas. But I also like the occasional road trip, too, though I've come to realize, after 2 years of living, and traveling, in a 20-foot travel trailer, that I need 4 permanent walls. But once I bring Discovery II, my Lance 1685 travel trailer, down to Faranuf, I'll be in the perfect situation for me as I'll have the 4 permanent walls I need plus the footloose way to travel. The best of both worlds...

It was windy leaving Portal and heading down the road to Highway 80. A storm was due in the afternoon, so I wanted to get as far as I could before it hit. Heading up the 80, I had great views of the Chiricahuas and the snow on the higher peaks; this one shows Portal Peak to the left, and Cave Creek Canyon in front of the snowy mountain in the background --

Further up the 80, just before Granite Gap where the Chiricahuas are hidden from view, I took the classic scene of the road seemingly going straight into Cave Creek Canyon. You can stand in the middle of the road as there is very little traffic --

I used my 500mm lens for the rest of the photos going north up the east side of the Chiricahuas.  When I tried taking the photos outside of the truck, the wind kept on blowing the big lens so it wasn't stable, then I had the bright idea (doh) to shoot from INSIDE the truck, and stabilizing the lens on the half rolled-down driver's side window. Here's a closeup view of the more western section of Cave Creek Canyon, with that same snowy mountain, the high Chiricahuas --

Next is a closeup of Portal Peak, with snow still in the sections that get little sun --  

The east side of Cochise Head in Chiricahua National Monument -- 

Then at Road Forks, New Mexico, I connected on to Interstate 10, and took this photo of Dos Cabezas, a landmark of the northern section of the Chiricahuas near Willcox -- 

All done with the 500mm lens, a great landscape lens for otherwise distant views. I'd had another early morning and need to at least rest my eyes. There are 2 rest stops on the I-10 before Benson -- and they were both closed. Even the one at Texas Canyon in the Dragoons!  Shoot. So I kept on heading west, figuring I'd stop west of Tucson. The truck radio said it was raining in Tucson, and cold -- only 46 degrees. I was making good time -- then things came to a standstill. An accident? Road work? It WAS the latter. The freeway at Davidson Canyon was still being worked on, after about a year. At one point the backup seemed to stretch at least 10 miles, it started to rain -- and it took an hour to go about 5 miles. There had been bulletins about avoiding this stretch of road, giving alternate routes; I'd just assumed that it had been finished. Guess I haven't been to the Tucson Costco in awhile to find out the repair work was still going on. Things finally opened up, west of Tucson the rain stopped, I pulled into a Pilot gas station for gas ($1.75!) and a Subway sandwich, and had clear sailing to Mesa, a suburb of the Phoenix area. I was to meet my nephew and his girlfriend for dinner, but before that I needed to go to an AAA Arizona office nearby to get my Nevada title, registration, and license plate for Discovery II changed to Arizona. I'd checked and the Tucson AAA didn't do those, only the ones in Phoenix. I went to the office and stood in front of the title and registration desk for about 5 minutes, when one the gals there said "You have to check in at the concierge desk first". Oops. So I checked in, waited, then they called my name. They don't do that at the AAA Southern California, so I could plead ignorance. I gave the Nevada trailer title to the gal. She looked in her book to see what the price of the 2015 Lance 1685 was -- I guess to find out what to charge me for the registration -- then said "Do you have your invoice? Your trailer isn't listed in my book". What? When I called and asked what paperwork I needed, they said only the title. Oh oh. Then I remembered -- I'd brought all my papers with me -- sheer luck (serendipitous once again). I went out to Tundra II, got the invoice, gave it to her -- and she was a bit amazed as NO ONE has their original bill of sale with them. Whew!  I got the Arizona title, registration and license plate; this service alone makes belonging to AAA worth the member price. After checking into the motel -- just down the highway -- I went to meet my nephew and his g/f at an Applebee's where we had a nice dinner and caught up with what's been happening. All in all, it was a good start to my road trip back for a visit to my old home town.. 

Jacqueline, David, and yours truly