The No Blog Blog of This Summer 07/2/26 to 08/31/26
Don’t forget…you can click on any picture to enlarge it.
Perhaps some of you noticed you did not get a blog from the Vails about their RV travel in WOW this summer. That’s because when our plans changed, we decided not to do one…until now.
Our plan was to leave AZ in early May headed for the East Coast, the last section of the US we have not traveled in the RV. But uncertainty in the Middle East and the jump in diesel fuel to over $6.00 a gallon made us wonder if this was something we should do. Did we really want to take the chance of being 2,000 miles from home with the possibility of the US getting involved in a war and the uncertainty about availability and cost of fuel to get home?
Ultimately, we decided to stick closer to home, but get out of the heat. So, we canceled plans to leave the state and mapped out some time in northern AZ on the Mogollon Rim. The majority of our time was spent at elevations of 5,000′ to over 8,000’ where the air was cool and fresh with the smell of pine trees, and frequent afternoon rains.
We spent July 2nd through the 13th camping with our Fellowship Camping friends at Woods Canyon Lake on the Mogollon Rim. There was much time spent playing games, but our time also included more active events like hiking and kayaking on the lake (including getting caught in a hailstorm)! Jeff and Tom even did a little fishing- no catching, just fishing.
Most of our friends went home after that and we found Snow Valley Ranch, a very quiet Harvest Host with full hookups 13 miles outside of Show Low (the “big town,” with a population 12, 625). Most Harvest Hosts are just dry camping, but this one had full hook-ups (power, water, and sewer) and a first for us, a washer and dryer (3 loads for $10), which we needed.
Paula reconnected with a friend, Sandy, with whom she played tennis 25 years ago. She knew she summered in the area, and we got together to play pickleball with her several times over the next several weeks and her pickleball instructor boyfriend, Wayne, was an added bonus! He was a gem and taught us some strategy as well as improving our strokes. Paula even learned a top spin serve!
We spent 4 nights at the beautiful Canyon Point Campground (39 miles away) in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. While there, on a rainy day, we drove the Jeep 26 miles to Young (population 250) to spend the day with past Sunday school friends Charlie and Bev Wilson, who built a cabin there. One can only get to Young by dirt road (13 miles for us). The town’s big event of the year is the Young Rodeo, a fundraiser for the town’s historical museum. The rodeo ground was a mud pit, but the show went on. We drove out to their cabin (further from town on another dirt road), and it was lovely, filled with their personality, charm, and expertise, since Charlie was a contractor during his working career. Sitting on their patio, we could watch many birds come to their feeder, and Bev shared a cool app with us, Merlin, which identifies the birds by their calls and then tells you about them. We also enjoyed a fun side-by-side ride with them around their area. They love summering there.
Then it was back to Show Low Lake Campground (62 miles) for the week of Paula’s birthday to be able to play some more pickleball in Show Low. Show Low Parks and Recreation recently built 12 free public pickleball courts where many people gather to play every morning. We rarely had to wait to get a game or a court. Everyone was very friendly. We even ran into someone who lived and played in our home neighborhood of Westbrook Village!
Next, we spent 2 nights parked in the driveway of past Sunday school friends Bob and Kate Tucker. They also live at Westbrook Village during the winter and summer at their cabin in the Bison Ranch community, only 39 miles from Show Low. We plugged into their house power, relaxed, and played pickleball at their neighborhood court. Are you seeing a pickleball theme here?
Time for a little work. We drove to Flagstaff (population 77,260, the largest town in northern AZ, a whopping 157 miles) to J & H RV Park for the upcoming Canyon Ministries BOD meeting. The evening we arrived, there was a potluck at the campground, and we were invited. Free burgers and hotdogs on the grill and lots of delicious homemade dishes. We learned most of the campers were retirees who spent 1-5 months there and had been doing that every summer for 3-10 years!!! A great way to get out of the heat. Whisper got to meet a desert tortoise who seemed to want to play, but Whisper was having none of it (see video here).
The Canyon Ministries BOD meeting was productive but produced much follow-up work for Tom, Chairman of the Board, and he finished our travels working that in.
After Flagstaff, it was time to work our way to Greer, AZ (population 60 and the highest town in AZ at 8,356’) to camp again with our Fellowship Campers at the beautifully wooded Hoyer Campground. There were only 6 of us this time, but we enjoyed each other’s company, played games in WOW every evening to stay out of the rain, and hiked or toured the small towns nearby during the day. We took a great hike along the headwaters of the Little Colorado River and all enjoyed a delicious lunch together in Greer at its German restaurant, Edelweiss.
Enroute, we stayed at Holy Ghost Ranch, a Harvest Host in Taylor, AZ (population around 4,500), a gem of a place Tom found. It is a horse rescue founded by a Mac & Hilary Rojo after a horse was left tied to their fence. In the past 3 years, they have rehomed 72 horses. We spent 2 nights there and enjoyed it so much, we returned there for 9 more days after camping in Greer for a week. We had Mac over to WOW for his birthday dinner, just 17 days older than Tom, the first evening we returned. (Hilary had to make a trip to Phoenix for the day and we couldn’t let his day go by without a celebration.)
During our time there, we ate with them 3 times and exchanged books. They both worked for the Sheriff’s Department in Southern California (Mac with the gang division) and have traveled to all 7 continents, so they have an unlimited amount of stories to share and are great storytellers. Hilary has written a very encouraging book entitled, Close Encounters of the Heavenly Kind, reflections highlighting faith, redemption, and the miracles she has seen God work in their lives, including being healed from multiple sclerosis on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje close to the border of Croatia. Reading her book encouraged us to slow down and look for God’s guidance in our daily lives.
Paula enjoyed feeding, watering, and brushing their current 13 horses, playing with their 15+ dogs (we don’t think they really know how many they have), many of them Mini-Australian Shepherds they breed to raise some money toward their expenses to care for the horses. Whisper even played with their newest puppy. Holy Ghost Ranch is a wonderful non-profit organization, and we see ourselves keeping up our friendship with them into the future.
We finished out our summer camped in the backyard of another past Sunday school couple, Phil and Cheri Sanders, who have a cabin in the Overgaard (population less than 3,000, 33 miles away). They put in a spot for Cheri’s dad’s RV, so we plugged right in, spent our nights in WOW and our days thrift shopping with them. We helped with a workday to clean up the yard of a fellow church member, played games in the evening, and believe it or not, went to a crisis pregnancy fundraiser where we sat with Mac and Hilary Rojo! These small towns bond together.
So…have you seen a trend to our summer? Friends from the valley hibernate above 5,000’ to escape the desert heat, there are many small towns in NE AZ that swell during the summer, and distances between towns are short. We traveled only a total of 715 miles the whole summer once getting to our first destination until leaving to return home (about 150 miles each way) and quite a few of those were retracing routes between destinations.
It was not the summer we had hoped for, but we made the most of it and got to see quite a few friends. Tom had time to do some Canyon Ministries work, and Paula got a lot of knitting done. And yes, we saw God’s hand of protection in all of it. Lord willing, fuel prices will drop some before next summer and we will be able to finish our US tour of our National Parks with a trip along the East Coast!
We hope the summer was a good one for you.
The Vails (and Whisper)
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