Category: Dog Parks and Brew Pubs

More photos from L.A. >>

The drive into L.A. hit a glitch with a blowout on the 10. If you have never been to California they refer to all their highways as “the”. For example we took the 10 to the 605 to the 105. Luckily it was a rear tire and we have two on each side and we were able to limp to an abandoned store parking lot to work on getting back on the road. It actually was not a huge setback. We located a tire place was just minutes away and the tire was half the price we expected to pay. After only 90 minutes we were back on the road.

We were greeted by a very “active” RV park on Dockweiler Beach, which was literally a parking lot that was converted into an RV park by adding hookups. It was full of old motor homes of all shapes and sizes. We noticed there are so many old class c coaches parked all over the place in Venice and Santa Monica. Seems like the RV has been a hosing choice for many Californians for some years now.

The park was right on the beach, but it was cold and grey! Not what we expecting for June being so accustomed to the warm sunny weather in Florida at this time of year. We have come right at the beginning of what locals refer to as “June Gloom”. Perfect timing right? 🙁 Also no dogs were allowed anywhere near the beach.

The first night we had a great time hanging with my long-time friend Sean. Sean is a fellow photographer who I have been close friends for over 20 years! It was so great to see him and spend time with someone we know. That has been one of the hardest things on this trip is the isolation from good friends. Sean also introduced us to his girlfriend Gina who was a wonderful person, but we did not expect anything less from someone Sean who choose to share his life with. We highly recommend if ever in the Santa Monica area to go enjoy the Farmer’s Market on Sunday. There is great food and produce. You can get a wonderful breakfast there. From Crepes to Sausage sandwiches, they have it all! It was a great call by Sean to go.

The dog park in Santa Monica was not a great experience, so I am not going to go into detail. We are started to be soured on SoCal dog owners. Not all are bad at all by any means, just quite a few bad ones that are not making dog parks there a good experience. Self absorbed attitudes seem to abound in SoCal but that is not news for most I am sure 🙂

We would like to thank Kelly and Alex for a very fun evening on their roof patio eating and sharing time with good friends. It felt so good to feel like we belong somewhere again where people know our name.

The diamond day came when we got the tour of the area by Sean. He took us all over Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. He gave us a tour that many would pay big money to get. We got to have excellent Thai Food at Toi on Sunset Strip. Touring the hills of Hollywood was a blast. The homes were unbelievable, I just cannot imagine how so many people have made so much money!

While winding up Mulholland Drive I spotted a great shoe perched in a perfect spot, and I mean a perfect spot! The hollywood sign was in clear view right behind it, I could not have set it up any better unless I had a f-me pump. But this shoe was almost just a good. Check it out here. We continued to go down Sunset Blvd. to Rodeo Dr. We could not be there and not go down that road. It is so funny to actually see first hand the Paris Hilton wanna-be’s walking down the street. This was right after she went to jail just down the road. We passed by someone who had a “Pray for Paris” sign hanging on a yellow jumpsuit dangling from a tree in their front yard. Good stuff!!

After we got back to the coach the sun was actually breaking through the gloom and lighting up the clouds for our first sunset over the Pacific ocean. We watched it go down with a glass of Shiraz we picked up in New Mexico, bundled up in our Mexican blanket from San Felipe on Dockweiler Beach. It was so awesome. Sharon even spotted a seal that had beached himself for a bit and then he slid back into the surf. Very surreal! Overall we had an awesome time in L.A. area but it was time to move northward.

The traffic gods looked down on us and gave the CruiseMaster smooth passage to Claremont. We stayed at a very nice KOA at the Fairplex in Pomona. We did not have much time to check it out as my Claremont Exhibition was later that day and I had stuff to get ready.&

It was a great location that Shoes That Fit had procured for us to exhibit at Sonja Stump Photography. Sonja was very nice to us and made us feel at home with great hospitality. It was the best looking exhibition we had set up to date. And I took NO photos!! I guess we were just having too much fun. We really enjoyed ourselves and met some great people including Michele, Ronnie and Lee from Shoes That Fit. We want to thank everyone who made our evening a great time. We did not get the traffic we may have liked but it was quality over quantity.

Special thanks to Lee for taking us for a nice breakfast at Walter’s.

Since we were only staying one night we did not get to see much of the area but what we did see we found to be great. The downtown area was alive and had a small town community feel. Everyone we met was very friendly. DR Grubbs is a great place for a quick bite with gourmet food. To fit in with our theme we went to Heros for beer with over 20 on tap. And the Claremont pooch park where I had to help a little girl by literally fending off some huskies who were attacking her little beagle puppy. And the owner was just going to let it happen. Coward! Overall it was a nice park, very well kept and maintained.

NOW OFF TO LOS ANGELES!!

The Fisherman’s Retreat RV Park in Redlands was a mixed bag. At one end of the park there was lush landscaping and well-maintained buildings. The sites were small but level and cement. We were assigned a site along one of the three lakes, we really liked that view. The other side of the park was totally opposite. It was the permanent sites and was filled with a few very well kept sites but mostly was old deteriorating motorhomes and trailers. Pit bulls tied up outside, trash piled everywhere. It was squaller living one might say. Pretty scary over there.

The park was next to foothills and offered numerous mountain biking opportunities. It was so nice to just ride from the motor home out into the hills for great riding. One of the highlights was riding to the top of one of the higher peaks and looking out over the valley as the sun was beginning to set. I saw two coyotes out there and the hawks were screeching overhead, it was quite surreal.

Another small drawback to the park was its close proximity to the railroad tracks and they proved to be quite busy. Probably a train every five minutes or so would rumble by drowning out the TV and any phone conversations we were trying to have, but somehow they did not bother us much when we slept. The nights were still cool so sleeping was still primo 🙂

While riding the hills on mountain bike on evening I came across several solo shoes and even a large pile of discarded shoes that numbered over 20 with only a couple of complete pairs in the mix. I thought it would make a good “find the solo shoes” type of photo. This was the largest pile of shoes I had come across to date.

One day we tried to go into Claremont, which by our calculations would take 45 minutes to get there, but took much longer. In fact we never made it there as we hit bumper-to- bumper traffic 20 miles out and we decided to cut our loses and bail out to head home. We did stumble on a good thai restaurant though after getting off the highway 🙂 The traffic stressed us out because we knew in a day we were going to have to navigate it with the Cruismaster towing our Jeep.

More photos from Big Bear and Oak Glen >>

One of the things we wanted to do while out west was to go to a ski resort and take the lift to the top of the mountain with our bikes and ride down. With Bear Bear Mountain only an hour from Oak Glen where we were staying it was a perfect day trip.

;The drive there was amazing on highway 38. Wide open mountain vistas, cool rock outcroppings and roadside waterfalls. I was so excited to be high in the mountains. There is something about a rugged peak high up that makes me want to dream of hiking it to the top and looking out across the valleys below. And today I felt like I would get that chance again.

We arrived at the resort and loaded onto the lift and began the ascent to the top. The view of Big Bear Lake below was incredible. The anticipation to get riding in this great landscape was killing me! I was greeted with some disappointment when we got to the top of the mountain as I checked my camera bag and found no memory card anywhere (which became a blessing in disguise later).

The ride started off great, perfect blue skies, green trees all contrasted against big gray granite boulders. We rolled along, down a smooth rolling fire road. But to our dismay the trail turned uphill, for quite a bit. I remember thinking, “werent we at the top already? Shouldn’t we be going downhill soon?” And later I would realize that would be the most ironic statement I have made in some time.

The trail continued along, and turned downhill, not steep just fun. So far so good, Sharon is still smiling having fun and so am I. We hit a really nice singletrack winding through the woods, but most of it seemed uphill. “When do I get to downhill on something a little steep and technical?”. Well after getting back on a fireroad for a bit we hit the trail going back to the resort. It was overall a blast. But soomething was bugging me. I wanted to know what the expert section was like and I never got any photos up there. So I decided to go back up solo to tackle the expert section.

As I first got on my bike on the top I was excited. I began to take a fire road to get to the Upper Fall Line trail. I passed through a free ride section with stunts built by crazy unbreakable teenagers and almost killed myself trying one. I found the trail head and began going down, and I mean steeply down. I had not adjusted my seat for this descent and upon hitting a rock my front tire locked and I was sent over the handlebars. Landing on my helmet and rolled over to mt butt and skidded down the hill a few feet on my rear. I was fine, I had scrapes but was fine. I could not help laugh when I thought back to my statement of demanding to find a challenging downhill. Well I found it. After lowering my seat all the way I proceeded to dodge rocks as I descended down the gnarliest downhill i have ever ridden. I was worried I could not ride stuff like this anymore as I had no attempted a hill like this since West Virginia. Once I relaxed and got a feel for the hill I had a blast!

More photos from Big Bear and Oak Glen >>

Situated up in a valley in the San Bernardino Mtns Oak Glen proved to be a rough uphill climb for the Cruisemaster trudging along at 10-20 mph. Once we finally arrived at the top we were greeted with cool mountain air and a high altitude view that was stunning.

The first night was very foggy. Around 9:00 I went out to the jeep and noticed something big next to it. I bent down to see the outline against a street light. It hit me quick went I saw an outline of a furry head and round ears…BEAR! A BIG BEAR! It just looked at me and ambled back off into the fog. I was so close to him it scared the crap out of me. The following day we learned they roam around the park at night quite a bit. There were even sightings of mountain lions and numerous coyotes. The rest of the stay we never went out at night without everyone being together. To ease Sharon’s mind we loaded the dogs at night and drove them up to the well-lit clubhouse to go potty before bed.

This little town of Glen Oak is famous for its apple groves. We had apple cider, apple butter, apple jelly, apple crisp, apple syrup and we loved all of it.

A must eat is the breakfast at Laws Coffee Shop. The omelets are huge and so are the pancakes so come hungry. Other good finds are the Los Rios Ranch for cider and crisps along with La Mexicana for homemade tortillas.

Hiking at the conservancy trails was great. They were well kept and a perfect length with great varied terrain, streams, open meadow, sequoias, hills. It was a perfect time. Had some great cider and played with the puggles on the open grassy field. A diamond day.

Note to self: Check shoes for lizards before putting them on.

We visited all the shops up there in Oak Glen on memorial day, getting some souvenirs and stuffing our faces. We picked up some Granny Smith apple wine adding to our growing collection. The highlight of the day for Sharon was the petting zoo, and for I it was the staged old west gunfight. Good stuff 🙂

More photos from San Felipe >>

The purpose of this journey of ours is to explore new places and make new friends with people from all over. Our recent trip to the baja served both of these purposes perfectly.

Sharon wanted to visit an old friend of hers, Liza in San Diego. But as luck would have it Liza was not going to be in town as it was her and her friends annual camping trip down to San Felipe, Mexico in the Baja. And it just worked out right that we could join them.

Not wanting to venture into Mexico with the motor home we opted to drive the jeep and camp in a tent like all the others in the group. Ironically though we are full time campers that have no camping equipment and had to go buy stuff at Walmart, this would also be Sharon and I’s first real “roughing it” camping trip.

We all met up in the border town of Calexico and crossed into Mexico at Mexicali. This was Sharon’s first adventure in the country of Mexico so she was not sure what to expect and felt a little apprehensive about it all. It is so wild how Americanized the town of Mexicali was. It had all the major chain stores and restaurants of the U.S. such as Home Depot and Applebee’s. The drive down was littered with solo shoes all over but since we were caravaning in a foreign country not knowing where we were heading we decided it would not be good to get split up. The drive through the baja was very remote, felt like we were really on an adventure. I loved it.

The first time we stopped was at a little beer and ice store, it is tradition for them to get a photo of everyone in front of a big Corona six pack sign. We all drank a beer and then pushed forward. After around a 3 hour drive through a lunar-like landscape we arrived at the small beach town of San Felipe. Everyone was hungry so we stopped for a fish taco. This is where we formally introduced ourselves to the group. Names were said but went in one ear and another. I figured I would learn them better once we got to the campground. The fish tacos were good, we had a great patio table overlooking the water with a cool breeze coming through, complete with pushy streets merchants coming to our table trying to sell us over-priced crap probably made in China.

I saw an awesome Mexican cowboy boot when we entered town before so I convinced Sharon to go get the photo and we would find the campground on our own. We got momentarily lost, but found the caravan turning in as we backtracked. Perfect timing. The campground fee which was $20 last year had gone up to $35 blowing our budget for the trip. We decided to just do two nights to save money, plus we were not sure we would last three nights in a tent on a mexican beach. The group offered to all chip in so we could stay, and it was a really nice gesture but we fine with not staying the third night because we had a lot to do when we got back.

After getting set up at our beach side camp we got into relaxation mode and were excited to sleep under the stars that night as we were exhausted. What no one planned on was that a few sites down a Mexican fiesta was about to begin, complete with a generator powered karaoke sound system. Okay so picture this. Sharon and I laying in the tent with the sound of a mexican accented old man singing Born to be Wild as loud as possible. We felt like we were in hell. We wanted to sleep so bad, once we got accustomed to the sounds of La Bamba and New York, New York they started riding the dune buggy up and down the campground. It was a rumbling, rattling sound that hurt my head as it zipped just feet from our tent. It was not good. Once they stopped around 3 or 4 a.m. we passed out, only to be woken up by a Mexican Miltary helicopter thumping by twenty feet above us around 6, the dogs were now ready to get up. So day 2 of the trip started.

I must say this, it did get progressively better from this point. It was a gorgeous day out, clear skies and cool sea breeze. We played with the dogs in the water all day. Took the kayak for a paddle. Found a shore exposed by the extreme low tide. I caught a perch which we grilled that night and ate it along with great carne esada on tortillas. We had margaritas, good conversation and laughter around a big fire, all was good.

Our new friend Dana came across some ear plugs for us so we would be able to sleep through the Karaoke. But we almost did not really need them as they played the music softer and stopped around midnight. Best of all, no damn roaring dune buggy! We slept like rocks. The helicopter did come again but with the earplugs it was barely a low rumble.

That morning we had eggs with soy-ritso burritos as we packed up the gear and hung out until it was time to head out. We got to say goodbye to all of the great people we met. We felt privileged to be able to share in their outing. They made us feel like we were a real part of the group. The kids were probably the best looking and well behaved group of kids were have ever spent time with. We were very impressed. Sharon was so happy to see her friend Liza and her husband Scott, with their adorable little girl Ava.

The worst part of the trip was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic waiting to get over the border back home. There were vendors selling all kinds of crap walking through the cars non-stop. There were people pushing wheelchairs with disabled, a legless guy who was filthy and crawling down the middle of the street pushing cardboard under his hands to keep them from contacting the extremely hot asphalt. It was all a very hard scene to witness. And we were a captive audience stuck in time to see all the sadness parade by us for almost two hours.

Even through the mexican karaoke, screaming ATVs, searing hot sand, and two hour poverty gauntlet to get back to the USA it was an awesome weekend the we will always remember. We hope we can do it again with everyone. And thanks so much for the blanket, it is a treasured gift that will get a lot of use and help us remember the great times and friends we made in San Felipe.

Well it seemed to be hotter here than in Phoenix, but that may be just because summer is closing in. It was hovering around 100-105 range under clear skies for the entire time we spent there. Which sounds really hot, which it was, but it was bareable compared to the Florida and Louisiana heat we have been through.&

Our first impression of the area was, wow this is a wealthy place. Everywhere were golf courses, gated communities and fancy restaurants. But after spending some time there we met people of all walks of life. While some people were very nice and friendly, we got pompous vibe from a lot of people there. People seemed very engrossed with themselves.

Palm Canyon drive in Palm Springs was a destination we were excited to check out. We located the Hair of the Dog Pub that we read about on the internet and stopped in for a beer. It was an alright place, pretty common for a pub. Nothing stood out. It did have NewCastle on tap so it got kudos for that 🙂 The next stop was the Village Pub. It was not in a village and it was not a pub. It was more of a danceclub/pickup joint. Again they had newcastle on draft so I was happy. Overall Palm Canyon struck us as a place where attitude is everything and people are more into how they look instead of socializing and meeting new people. Which is great for some people as they love that environment but for us we felt a little out of our element.

Every Saturday there is a street fair in Palm Desert so we decided to check it out. Once again it was not what we expected. The prices were high, the merchandise was crappy Chinese made products. And the people were rude. Started to be a repeating theme for the area 🙁

But a refreshing thing happened at lunch. We ate at Health Nutz and met a great kid working there. He made us great sandwiches, with all organic and vegan ingredients. He was from Utah and aspires to open his own cafe in the style of one he visited in Utah. The cafe had no menu and no prices. You just come in and eat what you want and just pay whatever you think is fair. And it is no problem for someone down on his luck to come in and grab from the free food section. And all the food is healthy and organic. He said something very profound to us. “I want to just make enough money to be able to have myself and my dog eat healthier food and life a healthy lifestyle. Stuff means nothing to me, it is just is not important”. He was a good kid and we wish him all the best in whatever life throws at him. What a great lunch that day.

Note: A $12 bottle of maple syrup tastes no better than a $6 bottle 🙂

If you like beer and have never been to a Yard House establishment you must go to one at some point in your life. They have over 150 beers on tap and in some locations up to 250! The bartender was very nice and we spoke with a very nice englishman as well. I was in heaven I tried samples of almost a dozen beers. The highlight was the half Young’s Double Chocolate Stout with the other half being Framboise’. It was soooo good. More of a desert beer, but fabulous. I cant wait to get back there. Also the food was top-notch with 1/2 price happy hour appetizers!

Behind the Thousand Trails RV resort there is an abandoned desert road the leads to an incredible dune field. I discovered a gold mine for shoes along this road with 11 solo shoes on this small broken stretch of road. The dunes were a blast. The puggles ran and ran and ran, i believe looking for the water. They are so accustomed to having a beach that whenever they see sand they run for the water 🙂 No water to be found here.

And the blog would not be complete without a lowdown on the dogparks in Palm Springs. There were currently 3 in the area at the time we were there.

The first one we visited was the Civic Center park. It was not the biggest park, but what it lacked in size it made up for in personality. Misted covered benches were a plus. A small kiddie pool there made it okay to bring the dogs there before sundown. The other dogs were well-behaved and well-monitored by their owners. Jack did get in trouble as he got a little possessive over a frisbee with a jack russell puppy. Jack just had to let the puppy know his spot on the totem pole. He was not ever that mean, just was not about to lose his frisbee to a puppy 🙂 Overall this park was a well-kept park, very nice, friendly people. Just watch out for the park nazi with her dog Garbo, she is pretty nasty but she breaks the no smoking rule so she has no ground to stand on *LOL* If you meet a nice older british chap, tell him the gypsies from Florida they say hi. Make sure you ask him about his hitchhiker story.

The second park was nice, good grass and seating, but small. But hey at least the community gave the dogs somewhere nice to run off-leash. We never encountered more than two dogs there but it was close to where we were staying so we went a couple times.

The third park located in Palm Springs itself was a major disappointment. The park was physically nice, good size, nice grass, but the people were so self-absorbed and unfriendly. The only way they would talk to us is if they could talk about themselves. We did meet one lady who spoke with us and was not all about herself. But we did find it a little odd she did not own a dog and just goes there to pet other people’s dogs, but if you love dogs and can’t have one, it is a perfect place to go. In the short time we were in there, Jack was snapped at by 3 chihuahuas, 1 peekinese, 1 scotty, 1 besenji, 1 fox terrier, mounted by countless others. ALL without one owner saying a word to its dog, or barely even noticing it was going on. Aggressive behavior was just the norm I assume. It was all topped off when a stupid little Yorkie bit Sharon when she bent down to pet JAck and the owner never noticed. i had to eventually, after several tries to get the owner’s attention, yell “Who’s little sh** is this and could you please come get it!” Finally a little girlie guy owned up to it and came and got the snarling little Sh**. “He never acts like this, maybe its just you.” I decided I was too mad to really say anything because it would have gotten heated (I am still a little mad typing this) and he was not worth anymore of my time. We just left out of there, never to return again.

I have heard about Palm Springs being a pompous town filled with self-absorbed people and it did project that vibe. We did meet some very nice and interesting. However, sadly to say, they were the minority.

When we crested over the hill we saw the small town of Eherenberg sitting in a valley of green along side a beautiful clear river surrounded by the dry, rugged landscape of the Sonoran Desert. We were so happy to see green and water, the desert has started taking tis toll on the dogs. They were so excited to run in soft grass again and swim in cool water. The RV park we were at had sites that were right on the Colorado River. Its was such a nice retreat.

Across from the river was a small California town, Blythe. Blythe was a bit run down. It was a little rough around the edges so to say. We did have a nice chinese dinner in town one evening. It was pretty amazing that I did find five shoes in this tiny area within a couple of days being there.

We never ventured far from the RV park. It was a very nice park in which were staying for free as guests with the obligation to listen to their campground membership pitch to join Western Horizons. It was a nice deal and worth it for someone who does not have a Thousand Trails membership. The sales person was a hard seller, but we are professionals at “Vacation Ownership” presentations and got out without buying anything.

Note to self: Blogging is more fun with a margarita:)

The memorable part of this leg of the journey was the desert drive we took in the jeep. This road was recommended to us by one of our neighbors who spends months at a time in Ehrenberg and loves getting out into the desert. It was tough to get clear and precise directions from him though, he bobbed and weaved every time I tried to get exactly where to get on the road at talking about how cool it was and easy to get to…but WHERE IS IT?

Finally I halfway understood and halfway gave up on where to go. What I got was there was a dirt road by the Flying J to Cibola past the dump which leads to River Road to get back to Blythe. So we went to the flying J and looked for the tracks going to the dump. Nada. No tracks or dirt road. I asked the gas attendant where the road to Cibola was. She did not know. I remembered he said something about a dump, so I asked how to get to the dump. Again, she did not know. We were on our own. We headed down the only road we saw and it turned into a dirt road, that went by…wouldnt you know it, a dump! You were on the right road. It winded around and up and down and over dry creeks for quite a while. He never could tell us how far it was on this road until we met up with a fork in the road to go towards Cibola because “the desert is not a place to be measured in miles” he said.

Well everything started to blend in, and the miles kept going by and the sun kept setting and we were still heading away from Ehrenberg. I started to get nervous, we did have a full tank of gas but did not want to be out in the middle of the desert in total darkness. On top of that stress something started making a weird noise rattling under the Jeep after running over some bigger rocks and they hit the undercarriage pretty hard.

After another half hour or so we came the fork and headed to Cibola. It was still a dirt road, but in smooth shape. As we drove something in front of us was stirring up a heap of dust. We thought it was an ATV or something until we got closer and discovered it was a group of wild asses (a.k.a. donkeys 🙂 They were so cool just raoming about under the desert night sky. The rest of the drive was uneventful, we no longer heard a strange noise under the Jeep and we now on the promised paved River Road.

Note: Do not have windows down on a dusty desert road.

Our first outing to Scottsdale was to scout out the Mandala Tearoom which was to serve as our venue for the upcoming One Shoe Diaries exhibition. It was a great little tearoom/cafe that served an organic vegan menu selection so Sharon was in heaven. It was also had a nice outdoor patio on the sidewalk that was perfect for setting up our easels. We met the owner, Jennifer Miranda, that night for the first time and she was a very nice, and her mother was a good soul. She was very sweet and genuine, Sharon clicked with her quickly. On our way own we stopped at the Four Peaks brewpub for a pint. Their Kiltlifter Scottish Ale was very nice. The pub itself was not much of a pub, but a larger scale restaurant built around their microbrewery. I wish we had time to revisit for dinner as the food looked great!

The exhibition went pretty well, the traffic was very light as we were not on the main route of the Art Night event. But we still had a great time, we met some very interesting people. Some a little pretentious and pompous but mostly very nice and engaging. Our hosts, the Shoes That Fit volunteers Sharon and Stewart were really good people, they had several friends show up to support us, not so much with any donations but they did take time to come out and help make the night a success.

We did make friends with two young women who operate a gallery in Chandler, Arizona. They were so nice, we had a lot in common and felt a good connection with them. We are going to work out details so that we can return and exhibit the One Shoe Diaries at their gallery sometime this fall. We are very excited to exhibit and hang out with them again. They were good people.

Overall we generated a lot of interest in our story and built generated good exposure for our coffee table book, now I just have to create it! 🙂

More photos from Arizona >>

The second we got into our Destination of Mesa we were greeted with unwelcomeness. It could have been our older motorhome (1998) or the puggles, or the fact were under 55 years old, or all of the above. Whichever it was it was not right. The guard at the Encore RV Resort made us feel like such outsiders that once he showed us to our site we just kept driving and out the exit! They treated us like we had two heads. Never have I felt so uncomfortable and uneasy as in that old community where I guess if you are not there to check in and die you do not belong. AHHH now I feel better getting that out.

We found a place to stay in Apache Junction, Carefree Manor. We got a great deal and a great site, paved driveway, paved patio and level. The pool area was so nice, the pool hall was perfect. A little gem in a vast array of RV Parks located there. We met a very nice older gentleman, Mike was his name. We met up with him it seemed every afternoon in the pool. We chatted with him non-stop. He not only felt like the grandfather I always wanted, but I believe he and I could have become good friends. Hopefully we will cross paths with him again someday.

he dogs took some time to get used to the dirt of the desert as a potty area, but have become quite the desert dogs now, they are troopers. We found two dog parks that we went back and forth between. One had a great pond for dogs to swim and play with another “dry” area for them to play as well. The only thing was that the owners seemed to just not pick up after their dogs. Such a shame, a top notch park and they can not even have enough respect to keep it clean. The other park was very nice as well, it was quite large and they could roam free and they loved it. Jinjer’s fascination with Huskies continued, too bad it was not reciprocated 🙁 Big Jack even taught the pitbull and american bulldog that he was in charge.

We managed to get a hike in at the Lost Dutchman State Park one day, it was pretty hot ad it was only 8:00 a.m. it was a typical esert hike, prickly and rocky. It was a steady uphill that got a little much for Jack and Jinny so we decided to cut off some by crossing over a canyon and pick up the trail on its downhill section. The crossing was not so easy as the rocks were hurting the puggles feet so I had to carry them, Jinny in none arm and big Jack drapped across my shoulders. adding 70 pounds of dog to my load was more than I bargained for. I wore myself out getting them across. I took a good break and we headed back down. It was a beautiful hike through rugged desert mountain terrain complete with the majestic Saguaro Cactus everywhere. I loved it 🙂

A highlight I will always remember from this part of our journey was the drive out to Canyon Lake on the Apache Trail. We had just gotten back from a dog park and I wanted to go out for a beer. I remembered seeing a saloon at the Goldfield Ghosttown just a few miles down the road. Once we got there it was just about to close and they had no good beer, but I also read about a place called Tortilla Flat, another 10 miles down the road, had a local brew named Kiltlifter that we tried earlier in the trip and we really liked so we decided to head there. I thought for sure it would be still open. Just as we got going we saw a coyote walking through the desert and he stopped and looked at us. It was so stereotypical of a scene, picture perfect one could say. It was the start of an awesome little adventure. As we first headed out on the famous scenic Apache Trail it headed into some really rugged area, the sun was just starting to set, it was gorgeous out there. We drove in silence from the awe of it all. But once we rounded the bend at the summit of one hill we saw it. Canyon Lake. it was a natural sight that was as beautiful of a view as I had ever seen. Breath-taking. It was a desert mountain lake wedged between sheer cliffs and bluffs going up hundreds of feet. The sunset illuminated just enough to make the water look electric. The road winded in tight “S” turns for the entire length going over a couple one lane bridges along the way. After arriving at our destination of Tortilla Flat we were greeted with a closed sign 🙁 So we turned around. We were very low on gas at this point and I thought we would be able to get gas somewhere but there was nothing out there in the remote area of Superstition Wilderness.

Sharon asked me if we had enough to get back, i looked down, it was on the needle and we had 18 miles of mountainous driving to get back so i got stressed. I could not let her feel that though so i responded with a “yeah, no problem”. The next 18 miles seemed like 100 miles. I get more and more worried. What would I do if we did run out in the middle of the desert, at night, miles from civilization. I had to put it out of my mind, the incredible scenery did help though. After an eternity we made it back to town, but no before we saw an incredible glowing orange full moon rise over the Superstition Mountains. It was inspirational.

We got gas but were still extremely hungry. After deciding on pizza we stumbled upon Fat Man’s Pizza. A Chicago-style pizzeria. After getting our pizza I opened the box and “Wow, its beautiful” came out of my mouth without thought. It was a great looking pizza that tasted even better. It was a true find for us. It was a fitting end to a wonderful evening.