The Adventures of Adrian & Cameron

After leaving Tucson, we headed back to northern Arizona and were ready to camp again. We entered the friendly town of Payson to find that it had most modern amenities and an adjacent beautiful National Forest campground at Houston Mesa. Being wintertime, the campground was cold, but we had a nice fire, and we made a delicious meal over the open flame that was especially tasty under the stars. 

There were elk along the road as we came into town. This was a majestic sight to see, as were the canyons and mesas along the way.

On our way out of town, we tried to get to Verde Hot Springs, but were turned back by USFS roads that had been closed due to washouts. So, we continued on north.

Roosevelt Lake

Roosevelt Lake

Houston Mesa Campsite

Houston Mesa

After the excessively snowy but beautiful visit to Flagstaff, we headed to Tucson for a couple weeks to visit family and enjoy some warm weather and sunshine. Actually, I (Adrian) was there for two weeks while Cameron headed back to Gainesville for a week of work and  unseasonably cold Florida weather. 

While not working, I spent time visiting with my Dad, Brother, and Brother in law, eating way too much Mexican food (is there such a thing?),  and doing some exploring around the area. 

One of the highlights of my solo week  was a 4WD trip across miles of desert high country exploring the BLM backroads with my Dad. We spent hours driving through extremely rugged country, not seeing any other people or signs of human life and being jostled from the rough dirt roads. We had further bonding over some BBQ at a great place in Oracle, AZ that we liked so much we decided to take Cameron back there for dinner after she got back in town.  

I also got in some great hikes with Eric and mounting biking with Richard.

While Cameron was there, we got to go to a very interesting outdoor Sundance film screening, witness the Sandhill Crane migration in action (with a gourmet picnic lunch), try out some of Tucson’s finest Mexican restaurants, such as El Charro and Guadalajara. However, we both agree that the best food we had was lovingly created by Eric Carr, including delicious ‘Holy Mole`” sauce and many other amazing dishes. His mixology skills cannot be overemphasized. Wow!

On a sad note, despite being super careful and keeping our bikes in Eric and Richard’s garage for almost two weeks, we loaded them up the night before we left and dutifully locked them up with two strong cables, strung all through the wheels and frames. The next morning, we awoke to find them gone. Stolen. Cables and locks cut as if they were nothing. While insurance thankfully softened the blow, it felt very personal. As a good friend said afterwards, “Treat your bikes like pets. Bring them in with you.” That seems overkill, but that will be the plan as much as going forward.