It was great having my photo taken in front of the famous “Zona Zoo!!” This is the student section on the west side of Arizona Stadium. This sign did not exist the last time I was at the stadium.
I had a wonderful time visiting Tucson to attend the University of Arizona spring football game! It was a beautiful day and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting an old friend Bill at the stadium. It has probably been at least a decade since I have been at Arizona stadium. It was filled with memories for me. While waiting for the game to start, I remembered major wins as well as heart-breaking losses while in that stadium. It was great to visit again!
It was fun to attend the spring game. The music was pounding loudly in the stadium!Some of the cheerleaders were gracious and allowed me to take their picture. It was fun to see all the excitement and pageantry of college football!Being inside Arizona Stadium again brought back so many special memories!!It was fun to watch some of the new recruits as well as many of the established players. Coaches for the game were famous players when I had season tickets for UA football. Now, the football team hopefully will be able to win some games! They have only won one game in the past two seasons, so hopefully the team will improve their win-loss record. Is it too much to ask to have enough wins to go to a bowl game?? We will see.After the game, I drove the motorhome to South Tucson and enjoyed some wonderful Mexican food!! I think Tucson has some of the best Mexican food anywhere in the nation!After eating dinner, I drove to Catalina, Arizona for some boondocking camping. After getting organized, I opened the motorhome door and was greeted with a spectacular Tucson sunset! Truly beautiful!!
This was a wonderful day!! It was great to visit Tucson, I had a wonderful time at Arizona Stadium, I enjoyed seeing the football team, I enjoyed talking with my friend Bill, the Mexican food was fantastic, and the sunset was awesome. (Now, hopefully, we will win some football games!!)
I think it is important to be grateful for special times and to savor days like today!
This is our motorhome in the foreground with the gorgeous stars shining brightly over the rural desert skies! Awesome!
I went to a RV rally in Quartzsite, Arizona and had a wonderful time. There was a photographer that held a workshop that showed us how to photograph stars. Being in the desert south of Quartzsite there are no major cities nearby and it was beautiful to see so many stars. These were my favorite photos.
The stars are so bright above the isolated desert!I love the flexibility of RV travel that allows the possibility to enjoy such simple and majestic scenes!
I had a wonderful time visiting Death Valley National Park! It is quite unique and has many usual attributes. Death Valley National Park is the location of the hottest place on the entire planet earth and it was recorded on July 10, 1913. The high temperature on that day was 134⁰F!!
During the summer of 2021, Death Valley National Park reached an amazing 128⁰F which was the hottest temperature recorded anywhere on Earth since 2013. Death Valley National Park has serious heat!! Maybe I should stop complaining about Arizona summer heat?? I am very grateful that I visited the park in November to enjoy very pleasant temperatures!!
The lowest elevation in all of North America!!
In addition, Badwater Basin is famous because it is the lowest elevation in all of North America (-282 feet). Death Valley National Park is also the driest national park in the US.
I think this is the most famous sign in all of Death Valley National Park!
I was amazed at the steepness of the roads going into and out of the national park. Today I drove on 9% grades for several miles. That is incredibly steep!!
The salt flats were interesting to walk on. Smooth and squishy.I loved the vibrant colors!This very nice guy was from Rome, Italy. He asked to borrow my hat for a photo so that his girl friend could take his photo wearing a “real cowboy hat.” His girlfriend and I could not bring ourselves to tell him that this hat is not a cowboy hat. He loved wearing it anyway!
I loved all the colors in the rock! It looked like a flowing river!
A wonderful aspect of traveling is that you get to make spontaneous, unexpected changes to your travel plans. I was driving through Nevada when I saw a sign for the Valley of Fire State Park. I decided to take the exit and see what it looked like. I remember the rich rock colors west of Las Vegas a few years ago, so the name Valley of Fire demanded I take a look. What a beautiful location!!
Spectacular swirls of color in the rocks! What a beautiful location!
I found a campsite inside the park, left some chairs out to save my campsite, and then went to the visitor center. I was told the hike to the “Fire Wave” was the most popular hike in the entire park. I jumped into our motorhome and went to the trailhead. What I discovered were many rich red-orange-colored rocks. Some rock contained multiple layers of different colors of rock. I had a wonderful time taking photos in directions all around me!
The colors looked hand-painted because they were so perfect!I marveled at the rich colors!It is interesting to see all the colors and shapes!This beautiful arch reminded me of some of the gorgeous arches in Utah! I love the depth of the orange tones throughout such an amazing structure.My campsite was fantastic and simple. No bother with hookups. Simply park and enjoy the view!Both days I was in the Valley of Fire State Park I saw bighorn sheep! They are majestic creatures and I watched them climb the mountain!
I am sure that the temperature is too hot during much of the year, but November is a superb time to visit Valley of Fire State Park. It is a true treasure in Nevada!
After a wonderful visit to Monument Valley, I had the honor of visiting my Aunt Kathy and her friend Bob in Kanab, Utah! This is where Kathy and my Mother grew up, so Kanab is a very special place to me.
It was fantastic to visit and visit with Kathy and Bob! It has been several years since we have seen each other, so we had many things to catch up on. From relatives, to dogs, to future motorhome trip locations in Utah. It was a truly fantastic visit!
After leaving Kathy’s house, I headed east and found a wonderful isolated camping spot near Hurricane, Utah. It is near Zion National Park, one of my favorite national parks! I did not bring my mountain bike on this trip, but there are mountain bike trails all over the area. It is beautiful and the weather is ideal.
The morning sun on the rock formations was majestic!
I have had an absolutely fantastic motorhome trip to visit Monument Valley. Although I grew up in Flagstaff, I am embarrassed to say that I never have visited Monument Valley. It is spectacular!
This Mexican Hat is quite famous in southeastern Utah!
I started off spending the night in a dispersed camping area in Mexican Hat, Utah. I had a fantastic spot to camp with a perfect view of the famous Mexican Hat! No one was around me, so it was quiet and had a great view of the stars at night.
I loved this early morning photo that silhouetted Mexican Hat rock! As the sun became closer, I noticed a sliver of the moon up above!
From Mexican Hat to Monument Valley, I drove through the road that was made famous by running Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. It was fun to recognize the location.
Forrest Gump running and running made this section of Utah road extremely famous!
The morning sun was wonderful as it highlighted the rock structures on my way to Monument Valley.
I loved the clouds in this early morning photo!
Below are some fun photos from my 3 hour “sunset tour.” I need to return here. I was breathtaking and difficult to take in all the scenes. This was a wonderful bucket list item!
I thought the left mitten was beautiful! The correct name is West Mitten Butte.God is quite creative and awesome! This is East Mitten Butte.God has a sense of humor. Do you see Snoopy laying down on his back?This is Chief! I think he is awesome and fierce!Monument Valley has some amazing rock formations! Everywhere you look there is something amazing to see!My guide showed me a number of different petroglyphs. I think she said this was estimated to be 900 years old!This photo was taken through a hole in Submarine rock looking north in Monument Valley.The amazing rock formations in Monument Valley never end!I think this was my favorite rock formation. It is called Totem Pole. She timed our trip so we could see Totem Pole highlighted by the setting sun. This is the eagle eye! I had to use my cell phone to take the photo because my 18 mm wide angle lens was not wide enough to capture the whole eagle.The setting sun created some nice “U” highlights of Monument Valley!The setting sun created a fun photo of the Three Sisters!As we arrived back at our tour starting point, the sunset created a warm glow on West Mitten Butte.
I absolutely loved visiting Monument Valley! It was well worth the trip!
It is so fun to visit Wisconsin. Where else can you wear a cheese hat? Although I tend to not eat as much cheese today as I have in the past, it is a requirement to buy cheese curds when traveling in Wisconsin. Cheese curds are fun and squeaky to eat!
Beautiful shoreline at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore!
I really enjoy seeing our national parks. Today I was able to discover beautiful sections of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Two spectacular aspects are beautiful waterfalls and beautiful coastline. I went on a hike and thought the colors were amazing! The upper peninsula of Michigan is rugged and beautiful. I would like to spend a longer time here on a future trip.
This is Munising Falls. I loved all the waterfalls in the upper peninsula!I love listening to the sound of the water.All the rain produces rivers and streams flowing everywhere in the upper peninsula.The intense green throughout the forests is awesome!Never, in my entire life, have I been on a hike and encountered a sign about snowmobiles!I love the vibrant ferns!The coastline is simply stunning!Interesting rock formations.I have been captivated by the green foliage. Gorgeous forests throughout the upper peninsula!
The Mackinac Bridge is an amazing engineering accomplishment!
Today I drove over the Mackinac Bridge in the motorhome during a rainstorm! Everything was fine, but I was very careful to stay in my line going uphill and then downhill. The Mackinac Bridge is truly an engineering marvel. It is huge and awesome and commands attention. It is amazing that it opened in 1957.
This monument was dedicated to the union workers who built the bridge and died during its construction.Truly an amazing bridge!The massive bridge is visible in the midst of the rain storm!This is a clear spring called Kitch-iti-Kipi (“Big Spring”). The wind is slightly rippling the surface of the spring, but it is crystal clear! You can see 40 feet down to the bottom of the spring. Over 10,000 gallons per minute of water gush from the spring! All of these logs are under water, but the water is so clear, it almost seems like they are on the surface.“UP” is how people often refer to Michigan’s upper peninsula. A person living in the UP is commonly called a “yooper.” This Yooper bar is a candy bar made in the UP. It is a requirement for anyone visiting the UP buy a Yooper bar!This is the famous red lighthouse at Manistique, Michigan in the upper peninsula facing south.
Today was a milestone for me in my RV travels. With our previous diesel pusher and our current motorhome, I have had the opportunity to sleep in our motorhome in all 48 lower states. Michigan was my final state to complete all 48 states!
It is fun that I was able to arrive in Traverse City as my first tourist stop in Michigan. Traverse City is known as the “Cherry Capital of the World” because of all cherries grown in the area and the wide variety of cherry products that are available for purchase. I had a wonderful time going from store to store tasting various cherry products. The obvious cherry jams and syrups were wonderful. The cherry trail mix was great, and the chocolate covered cherries were outstanding. I tasted 6 different cherry wines (more were available, but a tasting event was limited to 6 wines). It was a difficult decision, but I decided to buy bottles of two different cherry wines. Cherry fudge was bursting with flavor too. The cherry salsas were great. There were also unusual items. Cherry flavored barbeque sauce? Cherry bacon spread? Cherry queso?
This was my favorite wine! It was described as “cherry pie in a bottle.”Their cherry spiced wine is wonderful.These are fantastic! I am glad that samples were available to try!Yum!!I was not able to try their pancakes, but I think I would love them!I love cherry syrup!Cherry coffee is certainly worth a try!Maybe I would like this?Sounds great to me!No thanks. I think I will pass on this one.I am doubtful about this one.My taste buds said that Black Cherry and Chocolate cherry were excellent fudge flavors!I loved this colorful mural!There are several popular beaches in Traverse City!I liked this sculpture near the marina.
Fiesta on Wheels 