The end of the "have to"s

Retirement is all about "want to" - not "have to".  Well, we had one last "have to" that had to get done before we could really let go:  the storage unit.  Well, four days and 6 trips to Goodwill later, its done.  I forgot to take an "after" picture, but rest assured, it looks much better than the "before" picture in the last post.  (I don't even want to think about the conversation among the Goodwill volunteers when they discovered our donation of a full-size disco ball, 2 sets of crutches, and 3 RV ladders).

But wait - there's more!!  We also took all the extra beds and couches out of the RV to lighten our load.  Several hundred pounds gone and much more room for useful stuff like motorcycles and mountain bikes.

Beds, couches, chairs (and yes, a snow shovel) all out of the RV and into storage!

After Doug worked his magic in the garage, we were left with a well-organized traveling toy room!

We also did some great walks in "our mountains" while we were here, and ate some good old Western NY pizza from Vinny's (not to be confused with NY pizza, this is the kind you only find west of Syracuse and is properly consumed only after having dipped it in blue cheese dressing).

Note the Statue of Liberty at the entrance. 
The inside walls are covered in murals depicting Western N.Y.

Jen also got to catch up with some Army friends, and the pups rediscovered their love of chasing lizards and bunnies.  Next up - Tucson!

Ft. Huachuca walks

There are so many walks around Apache Flats RV Park, it would take forever to review them all.  Here are the three easiest ones - great for hot weather or getting your lungs adjusted to the elevation.

1.  Apache Flats loop and optional Heritage Trail. 

From the northeast corner of the RV park (near site #50), walk straight down to the T, bang a left and follow the path west and then south to the entrance back to the park.  There are lots of little diversions to explore, including going down the stairs before you turn south to access the 2-mile Heritage Trail.   This loop is great for dog walks, but does have a lot of wildlife.  Over the years, we've seen javelina, turkeys, deer, gopher snakes, one rattlesnake, lots of lizards, and families of bunnies. 

Lots of good smells out here in the wild!

2.  Cemetery Loop.

A longer walk starts and ends at the Ft. Huachuca Cemetery.  You can certainly access this on foot from the RV park, but that adds a good 2 miles and requires walking along the road for awhile.  I chose this time to drive to the Cemetery parking lot and do a 2-mile loop from there.  Make sure you summit "Star Hill" and look down on the parade field and the main part of post. 

Panorama from Star Hill (see the shadow of the star?)

Looking into Huachuca Canyon from the ridge up to Star Hill.

Most of the trail looks like this - wide and easy to navigate.

3.  Huachuca Canyon singletrack.

Another great walk (or mountain bike) is along the singletrack that parallels the dirt road into Huachuca Canyon.  You can pick up the trail at the junction of Reservoir Hill Road and Huachuca Canyon Road, or you can drive just a little bit up the dirt road to the first picnic area, which is what we did here.  If you're going to mountain bike it, I highly recommend riding up the dirt road, then dipping into the single track and swooping your way down. 



We took Adventure Kitty on this walk, so it was a little slow going!

Adventure Kitty!!

Finn's squirrel tree.  Since 2013.  Every time we come back, he knows exactly where to run.

High Desert Home

Made it to Fort Huachuca, Arizona today, the place we called home 2012-2014 and again for a few months in the summer of 2016.  This is where our storage unit is located and one of two places our hearts truly feel at home (the other being the White Mountains of New Hampshire).

We are staying at the RV Park on Fort Huachuca (only open to Active Duty and Retired military), which is absolutely gorgeous.

Lots of room to sit outside in the shade!

Those views!!

When we downsized into the RV full time in 2016, we still weren't sure what kind of material things we would need, so while we sold lots of furniture and house-related stuff, we kept lots of other stuff and moved it all to this storage unit in AZ.  At the time, we thought we'd be here for 2 full years, living in the RV while Jen worked at Ft. Huachuca.  That would allow us to trade stuff in/out of the RV to/from the storage unit as we settled in and figured out what we'd really need.  We didn't plan on getting an unexpected cancer diagnosis and an emergency move to San Antonio, Texas!  So we left Arizona in a hurry, randomly throwing whatever we didn't want to carry to San Antonio into the storage unit.  And this week we have to sort through all that stuff.  We toyed with the idea of just selling the entire contents to one of those storage-unit-buyer people you see on late-night TV, but there's a fair amount of family stuff in there that we want to keep .... or pawn off on the kids so they have to deal with it.  😏

Where to begin????

Finn immediately knew when we arrived.  He woke up from a deep sleep in the back seat when we went through the gate to post.  Then he did this for the rest of the way to RV Park.  (This is a dog who is afraid of his own shadow and absolutely terrified of evil things like wind and open car windows).

A dog's nose knows when he's home.  

We'll be here til at least Sunday (the day, not the dog), sorting through that nightmare of a storage unit and donating lots of stuff to Goodwill.  There will also be some early morning hikes in the mountains and at least one motorcycle ride out into the Coronado National Forest.