Arizona – Page 2

Cottonwood, Jerome, Sedona, Prescott, more {Arizona}

May 102016

Cottonwood-Verde-Valley-Arizona

Travel dates – April 11 – April 18, 2016

After staying for so long in Mesa, Arizona we headed north a couple hours to Cottonwood, Arizona to spend nearly a week. Cottonwood, Arizona is centrally located for exploring a lot of popular areas including Prescott, Jerome, Sedona, Tuzigoot National Monument and Montezuma National Monument. The first part of our week in the Cottonwood area we stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. . . .

Dead-Horse-Ranch-State-Park-our-spot

Let’s talk a little about Dead Horse Ranch State Park – it is a very nice state park! Our spot was level, the campground was clean and there were some great trails in the area. At $30/night our back-in spot had water and 50-amp electric.

Dead-Horse-Ranch-campground-spot

This is the view from up on the hill behind our trailer and campsite at Dead Horse Ranch State Park – where there is a nice short trail with some nice views. There were 3 or 4 other Airstreams in our same loop while we were there.

Dead-Horse-Ranch-State-Park-lake

There was so much to explore in the area that we didn’t spend near enough time in the state park but we did discover a beautiful set of lakes with lots of people fishing from the shore. If we were going to spend more time in the area we would have probably paid for fishing licenses and spent many an afternoon here!

Tuzigoot-View-looking-down

Our first day in Cottonwood, we got settled into Dead Horse Ranch State Park early and we headed to the nearby Tuzigoot National Monument. It’s a short 10 minute drive away! Tuzigoot is an ancient pueblo, built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 CE.

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Healthcare benefits on the road – We break an arm and end up in emergency room!

May 32016

Healthcare-benefits-on-road-emergency

Healthcare benefits on the road

I like to post things chronologically and lately I’ve been a few weeks behind on the blog posts (always watch our Instagram account for real-time travel updates). But I thought I’d jump ahead to talk about a big event that happened last week on the road – Hadley broke her arm! My sweet, adorable girl broke her humerus (the long bone in the upper arm). Let me tell you about it. . .

Playing-Lone-Rock-Beach-Powell

We were enjoying an amazing spot at Lone Rock Beach on Lake Powell. It was beautiful and the kids had so much room to run around and play that it made me so happy. To make things even better – we were traveling with one of our favorite families (@upintheairstream on Instagram) so not only did the kids have an epic place to play, but they had some of their best friends to play with. Things were going so well and I was so happy to see them run, smile, laugh, play and be outside. They were falling into bed exhausted and happy every night – what more could a mom ask for?

Our last night at Lone Rock Beach the kids were playing in the “fort” they created on the beach. It was a hole of sorts near the water. Liam jumped into the fort and Hadley followed closely behind – as she often does. She landed wonky – on her elbow, on harder, wet sand and was instantly in pain. I knew something wasn’t right because she’s such a tough cookie – she rarely cries when she gets hurt. . .but she was in pain and it quickly swelled up. We iced it right away and I found the nearest Urgent Care facility in Page, Arizona (about 20 minutes away). They closed at 6 p.m. and we got there at 5 p.m. – but they didn’t have an x-ray machine! So they sent us across the street to the Page Hospital Emergency Room.

Page-Hospital-waiting The silver lining of the ER was they had cable so Hadley got to watch the Disney channel. 🙂

The hospital in Page was amazing – they got us right in, did x-rays and quickly confirmed she had broken her humerus near the growth plate in her elbow. We explained we were headed to St. George, Utah the next day (a MUCH bigger metro center) and they referred us to an orthopedic doctor there. It was a good thing that we were already planning to head to a metro area – because Page is such a small community they had to send our x-rays to PHOENIX to get them reviewed! The emergency room staff put Hadley in a temporary cast and sent us home with after-care instructions.

Hadley-Ortho-Office Hadley looking at a pet adoption magazine at the orthopedics office. Now she wants a dog. 🙂

We got a call from the orthopedic doctor in St. George and he recommended surgery on Friday. Before this accident I had no idea a kid could need surgery for a broken arm! But because the break was so close to the growth plate, surgery was the best care option for her. I spent a half-day on the phone calling our insurance company and considering our options. . . Do we fly home to Washington for the surgery? Do we have the surgery here? Can we drive home in time to get surgery? What was the best choice for Hadley?

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Lots of wonderful FAMILY TIME in Mesa {Arizona}

Apr 302016

Mesa-Arizona-Family-Time

Travel dates :: March 18 – April 11

We spent a solid THREE weeks in Mesa, Arizona – one of the LONGEST times we’ve spent anywhere since we started this journey. I thought we might get bored, but honestly it went by too fast. We left Tucson and pulled into Mesa around March 18 with reservations at Monte Vista RV Resort, I told you all about that here (we loved it)!

Usery-Regional-Camping-view

After Monte Vista we moved over to Usery Regional Park with a 2-week reservation! Just a short 20 minutes from my Grandma’s house in Mesa we had actually been to Usery for a hike on a past vacation in 2013 (see how young my kids are and a little bit about our hike there)! Based on our previous visit we knew we would love camping here.

Usery-Regional-Park-large-camping-sites

Our spot was HUGE and gorgeous. Sweeping views of the mountain behind us and lots of room for the kids to run around and play. We have a set of rubber baseball bases and the kids set up a baseball field as soon as we got situated. Our spot was a bit far from the bathrooms – which was tricky since we didn’t have sewer hook-ups, but we managed to only have to dump ONE time in those 2 weeks – YAY! Cost for this campground is $30/night.

Desert-Survival-Arizona-Usery-class Kids taking a Desert Survival Course

Usery Regional Park has some fantastic volunteer-led educational programs. Our kids did two classes during our stay – a Desert Survival course that covered how to safely hike in the desert and a What Lives in the Holes? course that shared about all the little critters that live underground in the dessert.

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Tucson :: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Saguaro National Park {Arizona}

Apr 32016

Tucson-Arizona-Travel-Airstream

Travel dates :: March 14 – 18, 2016

After a quick couple days in Las Cruces, New Mexico (and White Sands!) we headed west again. Our next stop was Tucson, Arizona.

We stayed at Gilbert Ray campground up in the Tucson Mountains. It’s a county-run park, first-come, first-serve (read: no reservations!) and was only $20 a night with electric hook-ups (not water or sewer). It was a BEAUTIFUL place to stay. Great hiking trails, clean restrooms, fantastic volunteer-led programs and close to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. We’d stay here again in a heartbeat.

Filling-up-water-Gilbert-Ray-Campground

We almost always have water and electric hook-ups, so our first stop at Gilbert Ray campground was to fill up our fresh water tank so we’d have water for the five nights we were here. (Remember we got our fresh water tank repaired in Michigan? It’s still working like a champ!)

Gilbert-Ray-campground-campsite

We got a spot on an inside loop. When we pick our own sites we try to go for outside loops – because they are generally bigger and then you don’t have another trailer behind you. But this one was nice and big, with lots of vegetation.

Gilbert-Ray-Campground-Tucson

Our spot was close to the restrooms – which is great when you don’t have full hook-ups. I loved that the roads are paved – great for walking, biking and you don’t have a bunch of dust from vehicles driving along.

Gilbert-Ray-Campground-Tucson-spot

Here’s another angle of our campsite. Mountains on all sides – we loved it.

Nature-Walk-Tucson-Arizona-kids

Our first morning at the park they had a volunteer-led hike through the desert to identify local plants and birds. We included this as part of our homeschooling for the day (read more about our homeschooling here) and we learned SO MUCH. In the photo above the volunteer is explaining about the Cholla cactus. This cactus looks all fuzzy and friendly but it has nasty barbs on it’s spikes making it latch on to any sort of clothing or skin that might brush up against it! You do not want to come into contact with a cholla!

Octotillo-cactus-flowers-tucson

Here a county park volunteer points out the flowers on the Ocotillo plant. Not a true cactus, the flowers on this plant are beautiful and appear in the spring, summer and sometimes the fall.

ocotillo-Flower-Tucson-blue-skies

A close-up of the Ocotillo flower. Apparently the hummingbirds LOVE these flowers because their shape makes them perfect for their thin, pointy beaks. Isn’t it beautiful against that blue sky!?!

Nature-walk-Gilbert-Ray-Campground

Along the hike one of the volunteers showed us the hard bird nest (also called a Saguaro boot) that is created inside the Saguaro cactus! It’s a hard shell of callus tissue inside the cactus as a way for the cactus to protect itself from the birds nesting inside. These holes are generally started by the Gila woodpecker and the Gilded Flicker which have beaks strong enough to break apart the rib tissue. A variety of local birds use the Saguaro cacti for nests – living inside these hardened shells. Native Americans of the Seri group used these saguaro boots to carry water! How interesting is that!?

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Cottonwood, Jerome, Sedona, Prescott, more {Arizona}

Healthcare benefits on the road – We break an arm and end up in emergency room!

Lots of wonderful FAMILY TIME in Mesa {Arizona}

Tucson :: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Saguaro National Park {Arizona}

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