Parts 1 and 2 of our roundup covered our travels in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Florida. This final Part 3 will cover our winding route through the Southwest and California.
December 2023 - January 2024, The Southwest
We spent the Christmas holiday in Tucson and Maricopa, Arizona, visiting with Doug's parents and other family members. It had been some fifteen years since the parents, all three siblings, their spouses, and the four nieces plus one nephew had all been together!
Our Tucson RV park, while lovely, caused us a bit of trouble when they banned Hershey for lunging and barking at one too many golf carts. We had to take him out of the park to walk him and to let him do his business. Fortunately, there were some good walking neighborhoods surrounding the park, and a great dog park a short bicycle ride away. (Alison was also very excited to see the small but brilliantly scarlet local bird, vermilion flycatcher, several times at this park.)
We also had the chance to have some work done on our rig: A mobile RV tech staying at our RV park for the season replaced the smaller slide topper, as it had ripped and was also pulling out of the roof channel, and both rooftop air conditioner units, which had rusted out prematurely due to our extended time in Corpus Christi, Texas over the past four years.
February - March 2024, California
We spent a month in California visiting friends from high school and college, from our time in Los Angeles in the 80's and 90's, and from Doug's pre-retirement jobs.
Doug also surprised Alison with a behind-the-scenes tour at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, including meeting with the platypus keeper (for the only platypuses in captivity outside Australia) and "going on walkabout" with the western grey kangaroos.
March 2024, Nevada and Arizona
Next stop: Las Vegas, baby! We toured The Sphere, which was even larger in person than we had expected. The Sphere is covered on the outside with LED bulbs that behave like pixels in a TV screen, filled on the inside ground floor with humanoid automatons presenting exhibits, and houses a theater with a screen that stretches before you, above you, and on either side. The seating area is very steep (young ladies behind us wished for seat belts!) and the surrounding screen area gives the illusion that you're flying through the scenes. Also on the Las Vegas Strip, having heard so much about them over the years, we finally attended the Blue Man Group, which is a really fun musical and visual show with interactive comic bits - we highly recommend. And Bruce Springsteen was in town! From songs that poignantly reflected on the meaning of life to a spirited collection of E-Street Band rockers that had the lights up and the audience on its feet, The Boss was back!
We finished up March back in Maricopa, Arizona, visiting Doug's family. The annual rains brought a brief and glorious green to the desert:
From Arizona, we would head for Texas: Solar Eclipse or Bust!
Comments