Arizona Jewel Flower

Birds of a feather flock together. We had a terrific time in Gilbert Ray with old and new friends! Laurie and Dan drove out from San Diego for a couple of days of riding, socializing, and dining at the Airstream. While biking on Saturday, we met our new friends, Kathy and Mike, at a trail junction where we conversed for awhile. Once we heard they were also camping at Gilbert Ray, Amelia, of course invited them over for drinks. They were heading in the opposite direction, so Mike gave us great intel on what to expect ahead of us and how to easily get back to the campground. I was a little concerned about what they were about to ride down, after we hiked-a-bike up most of it.

Once we got back to the campground, I rode by Kathy and Mike’s site just to be sure they got back fine. They did and we chatted a little more. I biked back to our site, grinning ear to ear. Amelia looks at me and says, “They have an Airstream!” My response was, “Duh! Of course they do.” Sure enough an hour later they came over for drinks. We all clicked instantly, which isn’t exactly normal for me. They are in the middle of a seven month road trip. Amelia and Mike were completely geeking out on Airstreams while touring ours. Laurie and Dan needed to leave early the next day, but we set up a ride with our new friends. What a treat, Mike did all the navigation. Sometimes it’s a drag trying to navigate a course on new trails, typically there’s a lot of stopping at each intersection.

What a great couple. It’s a shame we couldn’t have spent more time together. Hopefully one day we’ll reconnect while on the road.

Gilbert Ray, a Pima County campground, is a little different. It’s an older campground for tenters and RVs with only 30 amp electric and no water. There are flush toilets, but no showers. Only charcoal fires are permitted, no campfires. There’s a lot of available land, but the sites are close to each other, and the roads are narrow, completely different than the Maricopa County campgrounds. It feels remote, but in reality it’s less than 30 minutes from Tucson.

Here’s a first for both of us…we didn’t have to spring forward on Sunday. Arizona is on daylight savings time year round.

Driving into the belly of the beast. Once again it was a tough travel day. Amelia was white knuckle driving Interstate 10. A few minutes later it was like we were in a typhoon. Windy, windshield wipers going full blast, and everyone doing 40 mph for long stretches.

When we arrived at 3pm it was still raining and 45 degrees. All we did was hook up to the 30 amp electric, turn on the heater, and drink a beer to decompress in site H-24.

The next day we waited until 1pm to let it warm up before riding. The best part of trails out here is that they can tolerate the rain, unlike back at home. That’s Amelia and Laurie by the truck.

Gordon’s Bladderpod covered big areas like a carpet.

You can always count on Laurie and Dan to bring some nice bottles of wine, which paired perfectly with the grilled pork loin.

A post dinner beautiful sunset

Classic old school entry sign

A little tent site jammed in behind a cinderblock wall right on the road. This was in the same loop as us. Like I said, a little different.

Checkmark, another National Park.

Here’s some fun facts about Saguaros:

• 1 inch tall Saguaro is 5 to 10 years old
• 2 feet tall, 20-45 years old
• 6 feet tall, 35 to 70 years
• In the Tucson Mountains the first flowers occur at 55 years on average
• Arms begin to grow around 75 years when the cacti is anywhere from 8 to 20 feet
• Old age and death typically occurs between 150-200 years
• A few live over 200 years and reach 50 feet in height

Old age surrounded by youth and middle aged much like our world.

Laurie explained that javelinas will eat the fruit on the Fishhook Barrel Cactus.

Amelia, Kathy, and Mike

Rock Hibiscus

Scarlet Globemallow

Trailing Windmills

Parry’s Penstemon

P.S. Most flowers have more than one common name!