Long road to the Valley of the Sun

We left Van Horn amid freezing temperatures and early morning clouds. I expected it to be a long day like yesterday with drizzle and cloud cover for most of the day but as we drove, the sun came out and it warmed up to 82 by the time we hit Tucson.It was still a long day, over 8 hours in the car. It was a beautiful day to drive and Becky took the first shift. She drove through El Paso and did a wonderful job, I took a nap. Thanks Dad, I got my passenger skills from you. The day I passed my driver's exam and got my license, he took a nap on the way home.

Our early morning view

Lots of trains running along I-10

I took over driving in New Mexico after a pit stop. The Border Patrol had westbound I-10 shut down and made everyone go through a checkpoint. When we got to the Border Patrol guy, he asked if we were all American citizens. I said yes and he waved us on. I wanted to ask if he was because he was of Mexican descent and had an obvious Mexican accent. I didn't think that would go over very well. I learned later that these check points occur all over the United States and that there is a 100 mile Constitution exclusion zone all around the country where US citizens can be stopped, searched and have their electronics seized and searched without probable cause. This has been upheld by a judge, too. Our Constitutional rights are being eroded everywhere. Even the poor law abiding gun owning citizens in Connecticut are being forced to register or turn over their semi auto firearms and "large capacity" magazines. Some day they will be coming for ours and other states are following Connecticut's example.  I can only hope that we will stand against that tyranny and hold fast to the Constitution and our founding principles rather than allow our country to be thrust into deeper Socialism. Okay enough of my soap box, you're not here for that and this isn't that type of blog but feel free to do your own homework on these issues. We all have our opinions on these subjects and these are mine. If they don't happen to be yours, please don't be offended.

DHS Constitution Free Zone

Our first campsite here at Desert's Edge.

We crossed into Arizona and rolled through massive boulders. Don't know why I don't have any pics of that it was gorgeous. (Maybe I was gawking too much) Stopped for final gas of the day north of Tucson and then passed an Ostrich ranch and Picacho Mountain. I told Patrick look, it's Pikachu Peak, like in Pokemon. "Its spelled differently, dad." He whined and on we went into Phoenix at rush hour. We got bound up on the I-10, I-17 stack and then it was slow rolling north on 17 to our destination at Desert Sands RV park. We got there, got in our site and both of us were like, "ugh, this place isn't very nice." It had deep gravel and it was hard for me to get around and most of the place was mobile homes for 55 and older, there was a smell of sewer and dog urine.
In the morning, I found a place at Desert's Edge and we moved there. I intended to stay a week and find another RV park but we ended up here for the month and we moved to another spot.

Stay tuned....more to come- NASCAR in the desert and our travels around Phoenix.