Hello Everyone. I have made it to Canyon Point Campground near Payson and I’m totally level at my site in the pine trees. The temperature is in the 80’s and fortunately the sun is behind clouds. I am so HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY! I would only be a little happier if Metaxa was with me, but I thought since it is dry camping, I didn’t want to risk it. There is no breeze so my awning is out all of the way to shade the passenger side of the rig. I would be happy to stay up here for 2 weeks if I could. I might try to do that next year. This campground is amazing. I passed by Sharp Creek Campground which is just a little bit closer to Payson than this one but on the same route -260. I have great cell service and my MiFi is working great – thus I can BLOG!
This is the turn off 260. This is at the gate:
Here I am at my site: There are only 4 sites along this loop:
There are 7 of us. Shannon, Cindy, Dagmar, Terri & Beth, Karen and me. Cindy is the facilitator. This is the agenda:
We’re going out to a “FISH FRY” tomorrow night and I’m using the DEBIT card to pay for it – no paperwork! The weather is amazing – it rained a little, but just cooled things off. Right now as I do this blog it is 78 outside, 76 inside. I’m using the Bluetti for battery. I ran the generator from 4:15PM to 6:15PM tonight to charge my batteries. They went down to 12.5. They are now 12.8. I may run the generator for another hour, although it is pretty noisy. I’m wondering what is draining them so much. The fridge? I’ll have to charge them up in the morning also. But we’ll see. I need to charge my bike battery also.
So this was dinner:
Cindy cooked smashburgers on her blackstone grill. They were delicious! I’m thinking about putting some lights out. But I think I want to do the motion detector ones and I’m not sure they are charged up. But I will get them now and check them out.
Cindy told me about a free app for weather – MyRadar. It is pretty cool. It is supposed to go down to 53 tonight. It’s 70 right now although my weather station says it is 77. So I’m not really sure what the temperature is but who cares – it ain’t 110!
There is a group area that I want to check out tomorrow because I think we could reserve it for next year. Not sure what Sue has planned at this point, but this weather is glorious! I just put out the solar lights around the rig. It will be interesting to see what they are like after dark. It’s getting dark now – it’s 7:15. My view is into the woods and I’m hoping I’ll see some wildlife out there – it’s SO QUIET!
This is how I’m sitting:
I’m going to close this for today. I’ll start it again in the morning.
It is now Friday, June 14th and I’m up in time for my meeting. The battery is at 12.4 this morning. I’ll turn on the generator after 6 so I can charge everything up. My Bluetti is at 93%. This was the temperature this morning:
I can start my generator now and I’ll take a look to see if my neighbors are up so I don’t wake them with that noise. My battery is at 12.5 so that is ok. I don’t think I need to worry about it. I should also have solar today. It isn’t cloudy today.
So this is how I do coffee in Daisy when I’m not plugged in:
The coffee doesn’t stay hot for long, but it uses less power than a coffee maker. If I move to a spot with electric for my last night – SUNDAY – I’ll use the coffee maker.
My project today is to walk around this loop to see where the electric is. Then next time I come, I can pick a spot that has electric, although this dry camping spot is pretty cool! I do hear a little road traffic noise, but mostly it is pretty serene! I actually put on long pants this morning!
I made a reservation I thought for Site 35 for Sunday night. Turns out I had the wrong dates on the reservation so I cancelled it – lost a little money. So now I see that Site 32 is a FF site so I’ll go to the gate and try to get it on Sunday morning. It has electric. Wish me luck!
This is my elevation – no wonder I had a headache yesterday and walking is a challenge:
That is why it is so comfortable here. It’s only 74 degrees at 8:30AM. We’ll see how warm it gets as the day goes on. I took a walk this morning:
I’m going to close this for now. Going to go for a bike ride now. See you later!
I have the generator on and I’m charging up my bike battery. Not sure how long that will take. It’s beautiful out now – warmer than yesterday but still under 90. I have the awning out:
Cindy sent our contact information out to everyone. Now I know where everyone is:
I’m going to walk up to the front gate and ask if I can get Site 32 on Sunday – it’s a First come, First serve. I’m wondering if they’ll stretch it or if I have to wait until Sunday. Anyway, I want to take off for a bit while my bike battery charges and the generator is on. I have to go to the gate at 8AM on Sunday.
I just noticed that it is 102 in MESA! It’s only 79 here. I just fired up the A/C for a while. Let’s see how it goes!
Beginning this again on Saturday, June 15th. Last night we went out to dinner at the 260 Cafe just up the road. There is a general store up there too where Shannon and I might go to look for stickers and patches since they don’t have any here. But first we’re going to hike to THE RIM!
Here is the group out at dinner:
Karen, Terry, Beth, me, Shannon, Dags & Cindy! It’s a great group! We’re having a blast! I’m trying to stay another night – SUNDAY – and Dags wants to stay too. I may let her. We’ll see. There may not be a spot (electrical) so it may be moot. We speant $180 on dinner. I hope that Madeline won’t be mad about that. Found out last night that Diane T was “forced out” of being the rally co-ordinator. Terry said that it happened, but Diane had become a little controlling about it, so it might have been a good thing, but her rallies were a lot of fun. I don’t really care, but my only complaint at this point is that a LOT of the rallies are dry camping and I really like to be hooked up to electric, although it seems that DAISEE2 is working fine now that the new batteries are installed. I’m really happy with her!
I went to the Ranger Talk last night on ELK with Bob the Ranger. It was really interesting and look at those antlers:
I learned a lot. The Elk shed their antlers every year. There was a video of the evolution of the antlers. Hard to believe they grown new ones every year! The difference between antlers and horns – like on the big horn sheep, is that the horns grow for the lifetime of the animal and don’t shed.
So I just saw there was an excessive heat warning in MESA – now do you know why I want one more day out of that HEAT!!!!!!
I love my Bluetti – it is running my computer, watch charger, iPhone charger and weather station. It is still at 85% and when I fire up the genie, it recharges to 100%. So much more convenient (less weight) than the 4Patriot battery bank, but it’s good we have that for the house. Not sure where that is, but I think it’s in the laundry room somewhere.
My new batteries are at 12.5 this morning also so they are doing their job also! I am HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!
It is another BEAUTIFUL day here at Canyon Point Campground. The sky is bright blue without clouds although the weather station is indicating rain. Let me check my weather app! I don’t know what that is all about. I don’t see anything on radar, but it may be later in the day.
I was complaining that the pour over coffee didn’t stay hot, so I’m trying this today – hope it doesn’t break the pot:
I’ve been thinking about camping with Jack. It seems like I’m really selfish, but I love just being out here with Metaxa alone. It’s kind of like his “car thing”. It’s HIS thing, this is mine. Plus I don’t want to make accommodations for his tastes – if the rig is messy – so what. I don’t want to do anything in here I don’t want to do. SO, time will tell. I just think this is my thing! I’m going to go look back on some other posts. I don’t have any more pictures to upload until after our hike today to THE RIM!
Went back to June 15 of 2015 and this was what I posted:
“So also, today is an exciting day in the life of our church – FCC and The Current. We’re having a wedding! Now that it is legal to marry same sex partners in Florida, Jamie and Lynn are “tying the knot”. I think I’ve mentioned them before in this blog. They discovered our church after they were “asked” to leave another church because of their lifestyle choice. Jamie was pregnant with their 2 wonderful children, so we welcomed them in with open arms. Lynn is also our vice moderator. She works for the City of Naples at River Park Center and runs “the joint”. She is “borrowing” chairs and tables from there so we have enough seating at their wedding. It has turned into a BIG wedding. All kinds of family members are coming in for the wedding from all over the country. Everyone is so EXCITED – me too!”
I remember that Bruce Frogge came to the wedding and officiated it. He was our pastor when Lynn came to our church so it was a great reunion!
I am back from my RIM hike with Shannon. It was great but I’m really feeling it! Here are a couple of pictures from the hike today:
This was the sinkhole. You can’t really see much, but it was beyond the trees. Not sure what it was all about. It was at the beginning of the hike. Here are a couple of other pictures:
I’ll need to add pictures in later. They won’t load this afternoon. I think it might be slow internet now. I can try again in the morning!
Beginning this again on Sunday, June 16, 2024. I need to go to my meeting now so I’ll be back and I hope I’ll have the same internet connection!!!
These were the temperatures that I woke up to this morning: I can’t seem to get it this morning but it was 61 degrees!!!!!
This was me at THE RIM! You can see that I’m wearing my GARMIN. So this morning I went into the website and look what I found!
This shows the exact location of our hike. I guess it’s worth $22 a month to keep it active. It’s pretty impressive!
Here is another picture from THE RIM:
I was told that there is a lot of FREE camping up here. With my old fart card, I got 50% off of the camping fee here at Canyon Point. So that wasn’t too bad, but FREE is FREE!!!!
Wish I knew where the FREE spots are. I have to go home – no room here. It’s been a great trip though. Met some great women!
Cuteness overload for today:
Love this video from Canyon Point:
