On Monday, we entered the enchanted
world of the Superstition Mountains, close to a town called Apache
Junction in the Sonoran Desert. We are camping at Lost Dutchman
State Park. Don't the names sound like they were borrowed from a
wild west novel?
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The superstition mountains in the background. |
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We've been bicycling around the trails here, pulling Eva in the bike trailer. |
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Eva is a little bit scared of the poky cacti. |
I hope my kids are not sick and tired
of me aahhh-ing and ohhh-ing over the beautiful scenery. I just feel
so blessed to be immersed in all this wild beauty. Kai and Lukas
write in their travel journal every night, but they don't write
about beaches, valleys, canyons, or famous national park landmarks.
They write about what we had for breakfast that day (“Granola
again, drats.”) or what I cooked for dinner (“Mommy made tuna and
egg casserole, can you believe it?”). Even though the boys are not
openly gushing like their Mama, they seem to enjoy themselves.
This family is getting sunburnt, and
oh, do we love these sunburns! No pale, pasty, doughy complexion
from Marblemount winter weather, no, no! Instead, we sport rosy
complexions and sun-kissed cheeks. What's not to love?
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These guys are tall!!!! |
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Steve lugging Eva around... |
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Sunset colors. Too bad my batteries died! |
I keep feeling emotional about this
road trip, in a really, really good way. We get to spent time as a
family, we get to make awesome memories together. We get to decide
spontaneously where we will sleep that night, or which road we will
take the next day. No plans, no schedules, no chores (except the
cooking, of course, but I take joyful pride in making healthy,
home-cooked meals in the RV).
I am kind of waiting for things to fall
apart. After all, we are spending all our time together in a
relatively small RV, day and night, night and day. We have managed
great so far, and we have settled into a RV routine of sharing a
small space. Eva goes to bed much later than usual, but even that
works out fine. Even with only ten hours of sleep at night instead
of her customary 12 or 14, she rarely melts down. She is made for
this traveling life, it seems. Must be the gypsy genes from my side
of the family!
The Superstition Mountains are – you
guessed it – superlative. They loom in the back of gigantic cacti,
spires jutting every which way and caves beckoning to be explored.
We climbed up a mountain today, which rewarded us with a jaw dropping
view of many other surrounding mountains and a killer sunset. Just
as the sun started to dip behind the mountains in the distance, my
camera battery died, and I missed some amazing shots. If it weren't
for a certain family member who dropped my real camera in the salt
water while attempting a hand stand in the ocean, I could show you
that I am not lying about the beauty of the sunset.
That night, we didn't have any hookups
at our primitive RV site. Instead, we had a view to die for out of
every single window, and we planned on running the generator and the
gas heater instead of being plugged into the grid with our efficient
little electric heater. The problem was that we were not allowed to
run the generator after 9pm, and that our propane heater didn't work
without the generator! We are still in a very uncommon cold spell
for this area. It was a very, very cold night. (An old timer told us
that this day broke the record for the lowest “high” daytime temp
in Arizona's history.) I got up at 5am, and the temperature in the RV
was 34 degrees. In order to heat up the RV, I baked brownies at 6:30
am. It heated up our little house enough to get us by until 8am, when we were allowed to run the generator again to plug in the
electric heater. The kids loved waking up to the smell of brownies!
On Tuesday, we went for a hike
up a mountain called “Flatiron”. Steve carried our heavy three
year old Eva half way up. Steve is skinny, but strong as an ox.
Strong, muscular and wiry. We all had lunch in a sunny spot, and
then Steve and Eva went back down, while Kai, Lukas and I pushed up
to the top. It was very, very beautiful, very, very cold, and very,
very scary. There was a lot of scrambling through a steep, rocky
canyon called “Siphon Draw”, and some exposed cliffs. I kept
thinking to myself, “I can't believe I'm taking my kids up here.”
But they were up for the adventure, although we were all very
nervous about it. I think it's good to be out of our comfort zones
every now and then, and this hike definitely qualified as such an
occasion! The views and bonding between the three of us were worth
it! We took turns talking each other through our fear, cheering each
other on, reminding ourselves to be slow and careful, holding hands
every now and then. I love these boys!
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This is how far Steve and Eva went. The boys and I headed further up by ourselves. |
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The view from above. |
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The boys kept saying, "If we survive this hike, we will be nice to each other from now on." |
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We scrambled up this rock canyon, and up, up, up from there. |
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Sheer drop offs. Our stomachs were queasy. |
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See how crazy I look? What kind of crazy Mama would drag her kids up here? |
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On the way down, there was a lot of sliding on our butts. |
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The hike was worth it. The boys told me that this is the greatest adventure they ever had! |
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