A land of who the hell knows what the weather will be like today!

Yesterday.

In the night.

Today

 Oh yeah, I think I saw a road runner!

Roper Lake State Park

Beautiful skies, desert vegetation, a peaceful 32 acre lake, swimming, an island beach, fishing, a view of Mount Graham and a natural hot springs.

What more could you ask for?

The lake was built by a man named Mr. Winifred Roper. (Winnie, to his friends)

As a kid, growing up in Texas, he was chased off by a farmer while fishing in a small remote pond. After working for many years as a prospector and making his fortune with gold, silver, and copper he sold it all and in 1959 he "scooped out" his own lake.

This beautiful private oasis only kept his rich man interest for a few years and in 1969 the lake was sold and opened to the public.

Through the years there have been a lot of improvements and now it is a wonderful state park with camping and RV sites, cabins, docks, trails, an island, and a hot tub.

A man at the hot tub this morning told me this was one of the parks to be closed down, I guess during the Bush years, and is only open now because of volunteers.

For $23.00 I decided to spend the night. The weather here is a little cool. It may get down to 28 degrees tonight so a little electricity will not hurt.

This is the island. It really is grand if it wasn't so cold.

The hot tub is great until you have to get out.

 For now I won't think of the getting out part.

This is the view from one of the hiking trails. That is me, the white spot way, way down there towards the right.

This is the view looking down the trail.

 This is looking behind me.

The view from one window.

The view from the other window.

The weather changes rapidly here. For right now, the sun is setting and the sky is kind of blue. The wind is not rocking the house van. That tells me it is time to head to the hot tub again.

Essence of TranQuility

After 8 days in the dry dirty dessert what I really needed was water. Not water to drink or do the dishes. I still had plenty of that. Water for my poor dry, dirty body. And behold!  The Perfect Solution.

The Essence of Tranquility

There are 5 private soaking tubs and 1 communal tub. The one above was mine for a glorious hour one day and another glorious hour the next day. The water was about 103 or 104 degrees in this tub, which was a little warm, but I guess some of the others are cooler. This is the only one I could take a picture of because all of the rest of them were being used.

Payments of $5.00 per hour per person is on the honor system. Although there is also a sign close by warning that a video camera is watching. 

Not real fancy.

A few whimsical resting areas and decorations.

Some of the decor is a little over the top like this birdhouse collection and in another area a frog collection I did not get a picture of.

They also offer tent camping, (not sure exactly where), body massages, reflexology, herbal wraps, a sauna and pedicures. 

www.azhotmineralspring.com

I am back in the desert but I can hear that glorious water calling me back already.

Blocking Traffic

I was asked to move by a really nice BLM guy. He said I was blocking the road.

Never mind that I am in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!!!!!!!

And that the road that I was 'blocking' had a huge ravine through the middle of it, right in front of where I was parked. Nothing short of a 4 wheel drive monster truck could make it through there. And, never mind that I have seen a total of about 10 cars on the main road in the last 2 days. Zero on the road that I am "blocking".

This is the view towards the east.

Towards the north.

To the south.

And to the west.

I will move. I would not want to be the cause of a traffic jam!

NIGHTMARE .....OVER!

There are many possible opening lines to start this story. 

I am glad that is over!! or How could I have been so dumb??? or I could be dead right now!! or Luney might have eaten me when I thawed out!!

OK, maybe I am being a little overly dramatic, but it wasn't a very fun way to pass a Sunday afternoon. Or to use an extra tank of gas. Expensive gas, I might add.

I should have just turned around when I first noticed that I had gone the wrong way.


 When I realized I  was on a number 60 highway instead of a number 70.  But I had been traveling about 2 hours on a very curvy, windy road  through canyons, up hills, down hills, past drop offs, behind huge slow trucks.  I felt like I had been driving forever. So, when for some reason I decided to pull off and look at the map, even though it had only been about 65 miles, I decided I would keep going instead of back tracking. 


I would go highway 60 to 191 and then south and come out on the wrong side of where I wanted to be, but close. 


I was thinking it couldn't be any worse then what I just drove on and besides I must have taken the 'Wrong Turn' for a reason.

So I drove. And I drove. And I drove. I must admit I was getting tired and my shoulder hurt in spite of, or maybe because of, the massage I had had the day before. I was beginning to think I would pull over and just spend the night and worry about it in the morning.

And I would have pulled over except for that is when I noticed the snow.

I thought, snow, there's no way. I am in Arizona, so I kept driving if for no other reason than to get past the little patches of snow.

I stopped briefly to get gas, then kept driving. To my right I saw a beautiful little lake and as the thought was entering my head, 'Oh, this is why I was meant to come this way' I realized the lake was frozen over. 

I kept driving. 

The snow got deeper and deeper and deeper. These blurry pictures are through the window going 40 miles an hour on a windy mountain road with no other traffic in sight, thank goodness. 

See that little bit of snow over by the tree on the right of the picture?

Oh my, more.

And, More!?

And, some on the road.

Bad pictures, but it was really far down.

And across. This should have told me there would be a lot more downs, and ups.

Snow covered mountains are something I want to see off in the distance, not  drive on.

I kept driving. There were a lot of great camping places along the way if the conditions had been different. 


I just needed to get over that mountain and down because I couldn't stop. Even though Luney and I could probably stay warm my pipes would most likely freeze.

I couldn’t turn around. It was way too far back.

Every time I started thinking, 'Oh, finally, we are going down, there is less snow', we would start going up again and there would be more snow.

Of course, I have never driven the house van in the snow before. Of course, I don’t have snow tires or chains and of course, we have never 'winterized'. We just went slow, like a turtle, but of course, I was scared to go too slow because it was almost 5 o’clock and 46 degrees, all the way down from 75 degrees this morning when we left Mesa.  

I was just about ready to stop worrying about using my brakes too much when I saw a sign that was out of a Halloween nightmare. 


ALL vehicles over 40 ft MUST turn back now!!! 


There was this little round about thing to turn out and turn around. 


I was thinking I have just been through HELL on this road and yet they are saying that NOW people need to turn back. I was also thinking how could it get any worse? 

So, I kept driving.

Every time I thought we were home free it got worse.

It did get worse. But we made it. 


I should have turned back when I figured something was wrong. I started thinking how one little choice, one little decision, one little hesitation, one little anything can change everything.

It was a beautiful sunset dampered only a little by the constant thought of the fact that when the sun was set it would be dark.  Darkness, in the middle of the wilderness, on a curvy snow covered road with a drop off on one side.

Here are a couple of  pictures of the beautiful sunset I took as Luney leapt across the dashboard for the open window and almost escaped.

Even though the pictures do not do it justice, 

This is what I will choose to remember.

Hot Spring Desert Oasis

What is it about black starry skies with a million twinkling stars, dry air with a slightly cool breeze and laying naked in 105 degree natural hot water bubbling up out of the ground? 

Could it be the memories of cross county skiing in the back country of Idaho, staying warm all night in the snow shelter because of soaking for hours in the hand made hot springs tub? Memories and the black night sky, the endless stars, the warm air and being naked. 

The brochure describes El Dorado Hot Springs as a A Rustic Mineral Oasis.

This desert oasis is located in the town of Tonapah, Arizona, on W. Indian School Rd. 45 miles West of Phoenix on highway 10.  Tonopah means “hot water under the bush” in local Native American language.

I just spent 7 lazy do nothing days and 7 lazy do nothing nights parked in one place and scheduling my free hot tub hours whenever the desire hit me. Or more like when the desire oozed into me.

The 'resort' is situated above a subterranean hot springs of pure, odorless, tasteless mineral water. The water also contains trace amounts of the natural occurring mineral, lithium, which must partially explain my relaxed melancholy mood and attitude. I didn't even care that I didn't have internet access for a week. I am also giving it to Luny and he too is acting a little melancholy.

The water is an average of 107 degrees, with a pH of 8.2. The brochure says it’s like bathing in liquid silk.

And it's true. After sitting in the tub for part of one of my 2 hours free for each day I pay to park, I  wondered when I had taken the time to put lotion all over my body. I hadn’t. It was that liquid silk feel.

There are about 7 tubs not including the ones that are joined to one of the 5 or so rooms that are for rent.

This is Desert Moon, the tub I spent most of my time in. It was private and I could just lay back and relax. I only had to raise an arm to turn the hot water on or off.

I sat in this one one night right at sunset, appropriately called Sunset. The colors in the sky lasted my whole hour.

Camping, or parking the house van, is $25.00 per day which includes 2 hours per day in a private tub or unlimited in a semi private tub.

I paid the weekly rate of $105.00 to park for 7 days which, have I said? included 14 hours of private soaking. A bargain at twice that amount!

Most of the people working there are work campers, working for the camp in exchange for a camping space and soaks. They were all so very accommodating and kind. I was sad to leave them.

There is also a locally owned restaurant and bar a short walk away, which came in very handy for superbowl.

The web site is www.el-dorado.com


So now, 8 hours from paradise, I am parked at a truck stop.