Steve and I decided to head up to Payson for the weekend, where it was about 20 degrees cooler than it was in Mesa (around 79, instead of 99, degrees). Payson is in the White Mountains, northeast of Mesa. ← The drive up and back is gorgeous, especially this time of year. We camped among the pine trees, and enjoyed the cooler weather and quiet of the woods at Houston Mesa State Park. We hooked up with some other WINs there and enjoyed a happy hour together.
Then we drove down to Yuma so that Steve could get some dental work done. Yuma is right on the border, you park in a large parking lot and walk across to Algodones, Mexico. There are many dental, medical, and pharmaceutical offices along the streets just across the border. Going to a dentist in Algodones is similar to going to a dentist it the US, except the prices are much cheaper, and your dentist may speak English with a Maxican accent. Many of them have someone fluent in English as their assistant, to help with any needed translation. My exam included an x-ray and it only cost me $10. And the dentist used a dental camera that I'd never seen before to take a picture of my cavity to show me. I was impressed. After you are done in Algodones (including a stop at the liquor store, of course!), you stand in line to get back across the border. The lines everywhere were much shorter than when we were in Yuma in March. Most of the snowbirds have headed for home by the end of March.
On Tuesday, we had a "day off" (waiting for them to build his crown) so we took a short hike through the desert at Imperial National Wildlife Refuge [palo verde left and desert spiny lizard below] and ate lunch on the patio at Lake Martinez [photo at bottom].
After Steve's dental work was done, we headed back east, in the general direction of New Mexico. We stopped for the night outside of Tucson, where we went to a movie ("Limitless") which we both enjoyed. I've never gone to a movie while I was on the road before. But I'm learning to slow down....
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