In everybody's life, a little rain must fall

In everybody's life, a little rain must fall, and so it has in ours. We were planning to head further Northeast but we received a phone call from my doctor who said we needed to head back to Mesa for some tests.

A few years back the PSA in my blood was slightly elevated indicating I had an issue with my prostate. As the last couple years have gone by my PSA has increased which required me getting a biopsy before leaving Mesa Arizona. Being the optimist I am we elected to move on toward the Flagstaff and Winslow Arizona allowing for a return to Mesa if necessary while hoping to continue our travels northeastward.

Well, the results of the biopsy were not overly positive and required us to head back to Mesa to undergo further tests to see what exactly the issue was. It appears I have prostate cancer and this added testing would determine how bad it might be.

Fortunately, after several days of testing, it was determined that the cancer is contained to the prostate. Further treatment will be necessary nonetheless because the cancer is aggressive. Therefore I will need to schedule surgery soon.

Yes, this will curtail our summer travel plans but we have talked about our future and plan to continue to travel after this bump in the road is over. We will stay in Mesa, Arizona for a couple of months which we are both dreading since it will be well over 100° during our stay but hopefully this too shall pass.

In the meantime, we'll make the best of our stay here at Mesa and start planning our travels post surgery. Many RV'ers have health issues causing an end to their travels and ultimately it may lead to an end to ours, but at this moment we have no plan to stop traveling and hope to continue our travels as soon as we can.

Winslow Arizona

We really enjoyed the Flagstaff area. We ventured out for some hikes, good bird watching and a few scenic drives. The weather cooperated although it did get really cold in the morning some days

Next up, Winslow Arizona. Everybody in my generation knows what's happening in Winslow Arizona. The song! Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona....

We've been here before but we're staying at Homolovi State Park this time around. A place with some nice ruins and a few hikes just outside of town.

The drive over was easy. We pulled into Homolovi State Park, set up our RV and had a fabulous site. We did hike most of the trails the park has to offer which are really very few.

However the hikes in the archaeological sites were quite a treat. With lots of pottery sherds everywhere. Yes, it's sherds not shards as a very dear friend of mine pointed out. I always thought it was shards, now I know, now I'm educated...

We only spent a few days here and of course we did stand on the corner and visit a nice little brewery. But it's time for us to move on and maybe not to where we want to go. But the road of retirement doesn't always go where you want it to...

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Homolovi State Park, AZ

We always love visiting the Flagstaff area. The scenery is beautiful, and it's a welcome change from the desert. The weather has been great, with early morning lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s and low 70s.

We've enjoyed several hikes with breathtaking views of the mountains and Flagstaff. However, it's time to move on to our next destination, Winslow, Arizona.

A few hours down the road from Munds Park is Winslow Arizona and our next stop at Homolovi State Park. This park has great camping spots that are very spacious with views for miles around.

There are a few trails here and you can hike couple of them that go to some ruins of the Hopi Indians. One of them is more primitive and not restored, however, there are plenty of pottery sherds to be seen. We certainly had fun looking for all the different pieces of pottery.

Of course! We also stopped in Winslow, Arizona for the photo ops at standing on the corner. We've been here before and done this before, but it's always fun to do it again. One thing we did find this trip that we didn't find last trip was the La Posada Hotel. Wow! What a place to spend some time touring and looking at all the art from a very fascinating artist who has a little bit of a morbid side. I won't say anymore to spoil it, but you need to visit this place and check out the art.

Our last day at Homolovi State Park the winds picked up to about 40 mph with gusts occasionally hitting near 60 mph. We were certainly glad we weren't traveling that day. The next day it was time for us to go and the winds were much more amenable.

Munds Park, AZ

Well we stayed a short time at Tower point for a few more music gigs and some dancing, and of course some fun! But The time had come to head north. Our next destination was a park called Munds Park just south of Flagstaff, Arizona.

A drive 150 miles north of us. However, it is straight uphill. We go from very little elevation to about 6,700 ft. We did make it, however, with little fanfare. We pulled in to our site only to find out they had moved us to another site near the highway, uh-oh, road noise ahead....

Nonetheless, we set up camp and have been here a few days. We have been to Flagstaff once and Sedona once so it's kind of hard to beat our spot even with the road noise. More to come later...