Devil's Canyon

One of the reasons I chose the Santa Fe RV Park is they generally have Jeep rides out of the park once a week. Today, I joined the group on a ride to Devil's Canyon east of Superior, AZ...

It's a scenic trail that can be done in any high clearance vehicle...

Digital Trail Camera

I purchased a CamPark T80 trail cam capable of taking photos &/or videos of anything that moves day or night thinking it might be fun to set it up in the desert to see what critters might be lurking out there. In order to learn how to use it, I started with a couple of videos taken in the park. Here's a short compilation of some shifty looking characters passing by while I was out for lunch...

SxS Ride

John was kind enough to invite me to join him and his rowdy friends at the Arizonian on a side-by-side ride to the coke ovens (I believe they are actually charcoal kilns, but everyone refers to them as the coke ovens). If you are not familiar with the trail from Martinez to the ovens, it is a long and rocky ride with a number of obstacles that could be described as not for the faint of heart. I told John I would ride with him if he promised to keep at least two wheels on the ground at all times. Much to everyone's surprise, he kept his promise.

Professional rock crawlers

The camera does not capture how steep this hill is
Click on photo to see the smile on Becky's face

Beautiful scenery along the way

Ron making it look easy

Distant view of the ovens

Unfortunately, the top of one of the ovens has collapsed since I was last here

I hope it was caused by mother nature and not by man

Jeep Ride

Jayne, Steve and I explored some trails north of Saguaro Lake near Four Peaks. On the way up, we went through an area known for its wild horses. As fate would have it, I was able to photograph the legendary "horse whisperer" at work...

The trails were fun, not difficult and could be done in a high clearance vehicle. There were a couple of creek crossings which always makes it interesting...

All in all, a nice day to be outside with friends. 

Wyze Plug

Back in November of 2018, I wrote an article on Wemo Mini Smart Plugs. As I mentioned in the update to that post, they were great when they worked but occasionally they would fail. And as I discovered again with my recent move, they are not particularly easy to setup.

In May of 2019, I bought an inexpensive Wyze Cam that was easy to setup and has worked flawlessly since then. Now that Wyze has their own smart plugs, I ordered a pair which at $14.95 plus tax and shipping is cheaper than one Wemo plug.

They arrived today and just like the camera were very easy to setup including linking to Google Assistant which allows me to control the on/off switch with just voice commands. If I have a problem in the future, I will update this post to reflect my experience.

Today's Sunrise

I woke up hungry this morning, so I decided to have breakfast at Mickey D's. When I walked out of the restaurant, I was greeted with this...

I had almost forgotten how beautiful the sunrises & sunsets can be in Arizona
Unfortunately, photos never quite capture the experience as well as the eye does

Visiting Friends

Greg & Merry invited me to a cookout and to see their new park model with Arizona room. Never one to turn down a home cooked meal, I immediately said "yes" and joined them and friends that I met the first four winters I stayed at the Arizonian RV Resort. The food was delicious and the company was even better.