This is our 50th trip in our GMC motorhome. It is another pretty short trip – just over 100 miles – but we are getting to see some of Arizona that we might otherwise never see. This time the most interesting part of the trip was viewing the Sand Hill Cranes that visit this area every Winter. The cranes come in 3 slightly different species, the largest of which stand almost 5 feet tall and have wing spans of 6-7 feet. They weigh as much as 14 pounds. They come here because they like the climate, the terrain, and the food. The climate is warmer than the Rocky Mountains and the Central North American Continent up to Northern Canada.

We also took some short drives around the area to see some of the very interesting geological formations. This is the area where the Chiricahua Apache made their homes and where Cochise hid from the US Cavalry. We will be visiting this area again in the future, there is so much to see.

Here are some photos of our visit: 

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The Western Pyrotechnics Association (www.westernpyro.org) has been putting on these shows for 25 years and this is the 26th. There are professionals and amateurs involved and apparently you can join a club and design and make your own fireworks. The announcer on Saturday night explained some of what was happening and many of the fireworks we saw on Sunday night were made during the week by the local club members including the 81-year-old mother of the announcer.

On each of the 4 nights the fireworks started at dusk and even earlier and went until 10:30 p.m. On Thursday and Friday we thought they were not really exciting but still lots of fun with the big “boomers” going off even during the day. On Saturday and Sunday nights though, they were amazing. There were different companies showing off their wares and creativity with one show after another. With only a few small breaks to “put out fires” the shows were almost non-stop all evening with some huge displays that filled the sky above us.

The photos and videos (below photos) don’t do it justice but here goes:

This video is not the best quality and the sound may be deleted by youtube but it is just a small part of a 3-hour show that did not have many breaks.

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We had planned to go home on Sunday not realizing that the fireworks show was scheduled for that night too. Since we were staying we decided to explore the hiking trails that were right across the street from where we were camped. The trail we took followed a wash down to the Colorado River (Lake Havasu held by Parker Dam) and it went through a lot of rock and made for some very scenic views and some shade from the sun. We didn’t make it to the river this time – next year – because we were not prepared. We did walk a little over a mile toward the river but needed another mile-plus to make it there. The soft sand and occasional bad footing made it take over an hour to cover that mile so we turned around. We had to be awake and alert for those fireworks that night. 

 

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The organizers of the 2015 Western Winter Blast volunteered to lead a 4X4 trip out into the desert for all that wanted to go. Having never really done any off road traveling with the Tracker – a 4X4 – we decided to give it a try. It turns out the the couple that volunteered to lead the way and members of their family and we were the only ones who wanted to go. They said that it would take about 2 hours to reach our destination, we would explore the area – some cabin I think, and then 2 hours back. We would leave the highway about 5 miles south of where the event was held and follow the wash to the cabin.

We left the highway and almost immediately climbed a couple of very steep hills – I seriously thought the Tracker might fall over backwards on both of them. That was fun but the rest of the next 20 minutes or so were very brutal. They had told us the creek bed was “washboarded” but we imagined the washboarding that dirt roads get between gradings. This “washboard” had undulations that were about a foot or so and were throwing us and everything in the Tracker around like we were in a cocktail shaker. We pretty quickly decided that we could not take this for the next 4 hours and turned around. I don’t know if that is normal or if it has anything to do with the Tracker vs. a Jeep, or whatever but maybe next time. The trip back to the highway was much easier and more fun because we were not following anyone and could take our time vs. trying to keep up with the “big boys”.

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We heard about this event from a friend and decided to give it a try. This show is where manufacturers and distributors of fireworks demonstrate them for professionals. The charge is $100 for 5 nights of “dry” camping, i.e. no hookups of any kind. But, we have found that the events that we have enjoyed the most using the GMC involve dry camping and we are, after all, “fully self-contained”.

We arrived at about 3:30 on Thursday but the event had started on Wednesday evening. The free areas that the BLM allows camping on were more and more crowded on the way into town. When we got really close there were a couple of miles of signs and traffic-control stuff in the road that made sure no one parked on the road. We had no trouble getting to the rodeo grounds where the camping, grandstand viewing (extra $$), and Saturday night barbeque ($10/ea) are provided.

It turns out that the actual show is only on Friday and Saturday nights but Wednesday and Thursday are open for people (professionals) to do whatever they want from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. We’ll see how that goes but we are pretty hopeful.

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This was the third year in a row that the GMC -Saguaro Jetset Christmas rally has been held in Ajo, AZ and hosted by Jim and Adelle Decheine and Bob and Anna Frazier. It is a pretty short trip – around 150 miles – and there are two choices for routes. The quickest one is interstate highway for about 60 percent of the way there and the other is two lane highway through the desert (and the indian reservation) all the way.

The coach ran great as usual but we noticed that we touched ground in the rear pulling into a driveway part way there but thought nothing of it at the time. Once we got to the camp ground though I did notice that the air suspension system in the back would not turn on. I diagnosed the problem as the power relay that supplies power to the air compressor. I happened to have a spare one so I wired it in in place of the old one and it fixed the problem.

I also learned some things about Onan generators. One of the other GMCers there had a problem with his Onan not starting. It did have a Pertronix solid-state points replacement unit installed but, unlike the current way of installing them on the flywheel, this one was installed in place of the original points. It still utilized the push-rod mechanism and it had work the back of the unit out a little and that resulted in the magnet not passing in front the the pickup as it had done before. We readjusted the unit and the Onan fired right up.

We had a good time and no trouble.

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