Week 28: the one with all the arms -- and all the errands!
Ironwood Forest National Forest back to Tucson, Arizona
Hey, hi, hello! Welcome back to another weekly update. This week was jam packed — so let’s get right to it!
We Put Up Our Christmas Tree!
I put up our Christmas tree on Sunday and we had a good laugh!
I’ve had this tree for years — wonder how many miles it has on it now? I had it on trips in my Subaru before we got the van, and then I took it with us when we picked the van up from the Ford dealership in Kansas City, Missouri, and drove it back to Austin. The guys at the dealership laughed when I pulled it out of my suitcase and stuck it to the dash!
Also — see that saguaro hanging from the rear view mirror? That was a gift from a friend (hi, Mon!) that I used to have on my purse. I just had to move it to the van when we started our adVANtures!
Farewell, Ironwood National Forest National Monument
We reached our 2 week limit at Ironwood Forest so we had to move on this week — but not before having a few more adventures ! If you missed it, you can get caught up on our first week here.
Ragged Top Mountain Hike
Our camp faced Ragged Top Mountain and it was beckoning us to hike it the whole time we were here. So Monday we decided to give it a go!
One thing I’ve learned about hiking in the desert — things always seem to look closer than they really are!
So we made a pact to turn around at 2:30 to give us plenty of time to get back to camp before it got too dark. The winter sun dropped behind the mountains around 5:00 and it got cold fast after that!
There are no trails here so we had to make our own way. This is both really fun and really nerve-wracking all at the same time! No worries, friends and family — we use an app with satellite images and have a marker set for the van, plus we take our trusty Garmin inReach mini on adventures like this just in case something should happen. We each also have a battery pack so we can charge any devices we need to.
And we kept an eye out for snakes, but didn’t see a single one.
We also took plenty of water, snacks, and Jason made his signature pb+j sandwiches.
Making your way through a cholla forest can be a prickly situation — there are usually pads on the ground that like to jump up and stick to your shoe — not someplace I’d want to hike in the dark!
We ended up making it farther up the mountain than I thought we would! Here’s J at our turnaround point — there was a big ravine and a boulder field up ahead that we definitely didn’t want to try and navigate in the dark.
Can’t wait to try this again next time!
We could see Mount Lemmon while we were hiking — which was pretty cool since we were up there when we came to Tucson 3 years ago — and there was snow!
Can you spot the van? Hint: it’s on the left side about 2/3 of the way back in the scene. It was reassuring being able to spot the van now and then on our hike.
We ended up making it back to camp about 4:45 — just in time to watch the sunset.
What an awesome day!
Huddle House
Just down the road from where we were camped is a group of saguaros growing together that I nicknamed the Huddle House. (We kept seeing Huddle House restaurants on our drive back East to visit family last year but we never stopped, ha!)
Doesn’t that cactus to the left of the huddle look like he’s running to catch up and join in?
Here are some views from inside the huddle:
Just so cool!
Making Paint from Soil
One of my projects since we started traveling full time has been to make paint from soil — where collection is allowed. I used about a teaspoon of soil from the road and mixed up some paint — and now I have a really cool souvenir from camp:
The soil was more of a peachy color so I was surprised at how it turned into more of a brown. But it’s still super cool! And I have new respect for Karen from the Art of Soil!
Nature Journaling
I also did a little nature journaling with some finds from our hike up Ragged Top:
That’s a dried ocotillo flower and a fruit from a barrel cactus. We left them in camp. I’ve loved keeping a record of cool botanical finds in my perpetual journal!
I usually make time to add a sketch to it once a week, following the format I learned about from Lara Call Gastinger. January would be an awesome time to start a perpetual journal, and Lara will have a class all about it! I’ve been keeping a perpetual journal for 3 years now — but started a new journal when we started traveling full time. I can’t wait to fill it up — and look back on it in the years to come!
Shiva, the 80-Armed Saguaro!
We left camp early Wednesday and headed out on an adventure to find Shiva, the 80 (plus!) armed saguaro in Ironwood Forest! We finally found her!
It was really hard to get a good photo to show just how impressive it is — so here are a few!
We also found a 60 (!) plus armed one down the road!
According to the Friends of Ironwood Forest website, saguaro researcher Bill Peachey believes that the “Shiva” saguaro probably had no more than four or five branches until it was about 100 years old when a burst of hormones led to a proliferation of branches.
It was so amazing to see.
Then it was on to…
Dinner at Saguaro National Park
We stopped at the visitor center so I could stamp my sketchbook and buy a few postcards to send to friends and family, and happened to see a sign with visible peaks — and we were surprised to see that Ragged Top is only 21 miles away!
We were totally not expecting that!
We went to the same picnic area where we were back in 2018 and were treated to an amazing sunset.
The last time we were here it was super cold and windy and I had to put our propane stove up against a wall inside the shelter. What a difference having a van makes!
Then we headed off to Gilbert Ray Campground, just 12 minutes away.
Back at Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson Mountain Park, Tucson, Arizona
A halo around the moon greeted us after we set up camp — so cool, right?
According to Space.com:
The moon's halo or lunar halo is an optical illusion that causes a large bright ring to surround the moon. This striking and often beautiful halo around the moon is caused by the refraction of moonlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.
In effect, these suspended or falling flecks of ice mean the atmosphere is transformed into a giant lens causing arcs and halos to appear around the moon or the sun depending on whether the effect is happening during the night or day respectively.
Arizona sure has some amazing skies!
Too Many Errands!
One of our main reasons for coming back to Tucson was to run some errands.
It’s always a shock to the system going to a city after spending 2 weeks camping off-grid. Anyone else out there relate to this?
The stress and sounds of traffic, car radios blasting music, and all the smells to overload my senses. My nose goes wild smelling so much perfume, dryer sheets and greasy food. Blerg! I try to imagine that I’m a dog with my head out the window of a car just taking it all in since they seem to be enjoying themselves — but it doesn’t work.
Here’s what we did:
Thursday: The First Batch
Haircut - I used to go to Super Cuts all the time in college so I thought I’d try them again — and they didn’t disappoint! When we lived in Austin I always went to Bird’s Barbershop and highly recommend them if you’re in the area. I got the Lady Bird. :)
Fry’s - we kept seeing Fry’s grocery stores and there was one in the plaza over from where I got my haircut so we decided to check it out and pick up a few things.
Dentist - we were past due for our 6 month cleaning, so we called a ton of places but couldn’t find a dentist that had availability until January! So we tried a chain called Risas Dental and got it done. It made me miss my old dentist and hygienist of 20 years.
Laundry - we went back to the same place we went before heading to Ironwood Forest. Feels like luxury to have everything clean again!
Friday: Errand Day From Hell!
Friday we left camp around 11:30 and ran a ton of errands. And when I say a ton, a really mean it! Just look at this list:
Arizona Art Supplies - where I got some markers, a rubber pickup eraser to remove masking fluid (I mostly use it for cactus spines), and a tube of Daniel Smith lunar earth — I love this color for out here in the desert but the tube I had went all wonky and weird — hoping this one works better! Art friends, have you had any problems with this paint?
Michaels - to pick up one marker that Arizona Art Supplies was out of. That was the first time I’ve been to a Michaels in a looooong time!
REI at the Tucson Mall - to pick up a pair of pants for Jason that he ordered online.
Container Store - there was a Container Store in the mall so we popped in and I got a container to store my graphite pencils in so they wouldn’t be too messy and J found a few things too. That store is dangerous to organization nerds like us!
Warby Parker - got a new pair of glasses woo hoo! They’re the same frames as my old ones but in tortoiseshell instead of green. I’ve had my old ones for 3 years now and they have two scratches on them so it was time for a new pair. Between the haircut, dentist and now the glasses I feel like a new woman!
Western National Parks Association store - got some Christmas ornaments for family, one for the van, and a sticker and tee for me! From the WNPA website: “Western National Parks Association (WNPA) supports the National Park Service to enrich and protect the park experience now and into the future. Your purchases fund scientific research, community outreach, educational products, and more programs in national parks. As a nonprofit partner to the NPS, WNPA helps provide parks the vital support they need.” WNPA runs many of the park stores in western national park units. It feels good to support the parks!
Trader Joe’s - this will probably be our last Trader Joe’s for a while so we stocked up on all the goodies we can’t get at regular grocery stores! There was an incredible sunset, and the cashier said that the sunsets there can’t be beat!
Natural Grocer’s - to pick up a few odds and ends
and then our van took a dump — at the dump station LOL! Our van has a composting toilet so we just have to dump our gray water tank, thankfully!
We got back to camp 67 miles later around 8:00 pm and we were both exhausted after all that! Whew! I’m super glad we got it all done tho. Traffic was bad and I know it will just get worse so close to Christmas so we decided to power through it instead of splitting it up into several trips.
And then…
We had left our leveling blocks in camp to mark our spot since it took a while to find a good one — and they were gone! We looked at each other and started cursing like sailors since we just wanted to relax after that long day — plus we really needed them to level the van!
The people camped next to us came over and said that they saw someone about to steal them so they stopped them and saved the blocks for us. We thanked them and then wondered if they heard all the swear words, ha!
The moral of the story? Don’t leave your blocks out at camp, and there are still good people out there.
Welp, that’s it for this week!
We’re going to be here at Gilbert Ray for a few more days so that we can go back to Saguaro National Park to do some hiking — can’t wait!
We’re also gonna take it easy for a few days — we’re both still feeling prettying tired from all those errands! Plus I gotta get my Christmas cards sent!
Thank you so much for following along on our adventures — I’m feeling so lucky that I get to do this. My heart is as full as the moon.
I’ll leave you with this photo of the moonrise over the mountains from camp last night — it was so pretty and peaceful. Needed that!
Thanks for following along on our advantures — Lisa & Jason
It have been fun to follow you and think about this time off grid except that you also and in high use of technology. At some point I would love to know more about the apps and the technology you are using. Solar panels, satellite use and more. Very cool to learn about.
Love your travel blog. It is like traveling with you. Could you tell us more about your perpetual journal - brand, what you put in it, have often you journal in it, etc.? Thanks