I was going to tell you about Becca’s trip and mine to Sedona but instead, I’ll direct you to my RV Life column, “Christmas Packages” under “Silver, Single, and Solo” that will come out December first. It is a longer version of her visit and includes the part about visiting Sedona.
Right after Becca left, Friend Dick Reed came into the park for a couple of weeks. He once owned the Driving School and taught at Life on Wheels, as I did. He shows up once in a while and this time he had an inflatable kayak hiding in his tow car. He is reasonably new at kayaking but we won’t hold that against him. We took off on two different occasions for paddling Pleasant Lake which is about 45 minutes from North Ranch; not many places to kayak in this territory. The kayak was rapidly inflated and my job of putting the paddles together was accomplished as well.
While Dick is a “take-charge” kind of guy in order to make things happen, he isn’t the male chauvinist type so when he suggested that he do all the paddling so we wouldn’t get into a paddle war, I agreed, that in itself probably amazed him as we have been friends for many years. I just settled into my comfortable inflatable seat and watched the world go by…slowly. That is the best way as you get to see herons and 
ducks who wait until they see the whites of your eyes before finally deciding just maybe you aren’t to be trusted and fly away. On one of our forays, we also saw a number of wild burros who frequent the area.
Fortunately, we had fluffy white cloud cover and it was nice to lay back and watch them play hop scotch with the sun. A few other people were quietly fishing, boating, sleeping, or doing whatever their hearts desired.
One late afternoon, we drove down to the BLM land surrounding the Vulture Mine Peak, one of Wickenburg’s landmarks. Dick started a campfire and I unpacked the picnic fare. After the Peak was painted in sunset pink, the stars came out along with a faint moon. Sausages never tasted so good and the stars in Arizona are always spectacular. We enjoyed all this until the cold desert night drove us home again. God Bless until next week.
Minshall’s RVing Alaska and Canada (A “How to
” and “Why not” book) is available thru Amazon.
At 45, Widow Minshall began 20 years of solo full-time RVing throughout Alaska, Mexico, and Canada. Sharlene canoed the Yukon, mushed sled dogs, worked a dude ranch, visited Hudson Bay polar bears, and lived six months on a Mexican beach. She lectured at Life on Wheels, published six RV-related books and wrote a novel, “Winter in the Wilderness.”
Leave a Reply