Prescott Valley, Arizona 

September, 29 - 30 - October 1 - 2, 2025

Sue and I are off on a shake down run with the new Ram / Entegra ARC Camper Van to Prescott Valley, Arizona.  We have a reservation at the Lynx Lake Campground in the Prescott National Forest.  We drive I-10 west into Phoenix and then take route 17 north with moderate traffic flow, the flow through Phoenix seems to be much improved with minimal construction and added traffic lanes.  The drive up route 17 is always a little crazy with the steep hills, curves and trucks tying up the slow lane in places.  Driving towards Prescott Valley on route 69 takes you through beautiful country but as you enter the valley it quickly goes from open country to city with all the shopping malls, strip malls, businesses, hotels, fast food and restaurants.   Prescott Valley was incorporated in the 1960’s by a Phoenix real estate company and it shows, the city is booming.  

We find the Lynx Campground easily a couple of miles off route 69 and drive to our campsite.  This rig basically requires no setup, that’s the beauty of it.  It’s small and very compact with no space to spare, some might even call it claustrophobic, but I prefer to call it minimalistic. I’m of average height and I have bumped my head several times already and have added a few bumpers.  For the sake of domestic relations I am trying not to complain, but there are several things about the Van, we call it the ARC, that I don’t like, such as the excessive use of overly complex control panels to control the hot water heater mode, fuel or gas function, water temperature, fan speed and clock settings. 

We head out immediately on a hike around Lynx Lake which is something less than half full at present due to a problem with a drain valve malfunction.  It’s a nice hike of about 4 miles around the lake, but the trail down to the river is steep and not well marked.  As a result we kind of bushwhacked our way back uphill.  Later research indicated that gold was discovered in the Lynx River in 1863 which continued into the 1930’s which was quite productive.  I had noted much quartz along the hiking trail which is an indicator for gold. 

Lake level is very low

We have no hookups at this campsite so we are running totally off of our house batteries which hold up well overnight, in the morning we run the generator for a while to recharge. During the night, I heard some chewing sounds under our bed, I am a very light sleeper which Sue is the opposite, she heard nothing.  I didn’t want to say anything, I thought it may be a critter under the Van.
On our second day, we go to the nearby Lynx Creek Ruin Trailhead which is through an area that has sustained a forest fire years ago, but is still very scenic.  It goes to an ancient pueblo Indian site called that appears more like a few piles of rock, but I’m sure has had some archeological activity.

Burnt tree trunk 

View from the trail

Artistic depiction of the Pueblo

Scattered remains of the Pueblo

We then travel to the Smith Ravine Trailhead for another hike adjacent to a former forest fire burn area.  It eventually climbs uphill into a beautiful forested area with huge Ponderosa Pines, Oaks and lots of Manzanita. We now have satisfied our hiking passion and its back to the campsite.  On our second night, I am now sure that some critter is in our van and Sue hears it also.  As we slide the bed frame back in we see the telltale signs, also looking under the hood there are more of them.

On the edge of the burned area

Heading into the deep forest

Manzanita shrubs are everywhere

It’s now our third day and we drive about 10 miles away to the  lake and hike on the Peavine Trail with a slight detour to the Watson Woods.  We then exit the Peavine Trail and take the scenic Watson Lake trail.  It’s a beautiful trail winding through giant boulder fields with a great lake view.

Sue posing in front of a massive Cottonwood Tree

Watson Lake is beautiful

Afterwards, we drive to the historic downtown Prescott area where we walk around the Whiskey Row area, do some shopping, have pizza and ice cream.

I'm always drawn to the Jersey Lilly Saloon

That's how cowboys take a break

Historic Fountain in Courthouse square

It’s now our third night and our mouse is still with us.  Due to the size of the droppings, we now believe it to be a mouse, but we are wondering if it has traveled with us from Tucson to Prescott or has joined us here.  Sue claims that the seed residue left behind looks like the seeds on a shrub near our Tucson driveway, the mystery continues ! 

It's eating well on the top of engine 

 I had some concern about our house battery voltage overnight, but I thought that as we drove the van in the morning, the batteries would recharge from the Ram engine alternator.  After stopping in Phoenix and looking at the invertor panel, I see that the house batteries have not charged and the inverter is showing a fault code.  Back home, I learn that the code indicates that the batteries were overly discharged causing the inverter to shut down.  The solution is to plug into 120V shore power to recharge the batteries or run the generator, however the generator will not start because the batteries are dead.  I plug into a household outlet at home and everything corrects itself, but I’m still not sure about the function between the Ram alternator and the house invertor.

Another mystery, but probably simple electrical stuff, I’m more of a mechanical guy ! 

Overall, it was a successful shake down run, but much remains to learn, it has so much technology.       

     

Tucson, Arizona - Portland, Oregon 

September 5 - 9, 2025

This is a short trip with Sue to Portland, Oregon to visit our old friend Carole.  We depart from Tucson flying to Phoenix, Arizona and then on to Portland, Oregon.  All flights were on time and mostly smooth.  Sue and I were in different seats on the second flight, it was a full flight and I have a center seat, but I have an attractive woman in the window seat who is very friendly which greatly improved the flight.  

We arrive in Portland around 6 PM and easily find the MAX light rail train to downtown Portland.  It’s about a half hour ride to downtown and then a short walk to the Mark Spencer Hotel.  We are now felling pretty great, it was a near perfect travel day.

Our room is on the fourth floor and has no view but it’s clean and everything works, that’s all we need.  As we have this great trip vibe, we go back out on the street to explore around the block. As we approach an interesting building, I say, I know this place, I’ve been before.  It’s one of the iconic McMenamins properties around Portland that are historic buildings that they have restored or rehabilitated with the addition of art, photos, antiques and lots of unique decorative objects everywhere.  This one is Hal’s Cafe at the Christal Hotel.  You enter by going down steps into a small bar area, there were many interesting characters inside, a flashy bar tender and some kind of comedy show in an adjacent room.  We stay and have a couple of beers, it was a great ending to a successful travel day.  

September 6, 2025

Sue has been in contact with our friend Carole who is taking a streetcar from her house to meet us a few blocks away.  We find each other easily and start off with coffee at a Starbucks.  We then go to the famous Powell’s Books where we wander around for a least an hour, those girls can spend lots of time in a bookstore.  Carole knows her way around and gets us on a streetcar to the 23rd street area which has many interesting shops, sights and restaurants.  We walk around this area for quite a time, then go to a Deschutes Brewery for lunch.  

After lunch, its back on a street car to the Broadway and Everett street area.  We walk through Chinatown and then to the Willamette River park area and the Portland Saturday Market.  It’s now late afternoon and Carole leaves us to catch a streetcar back to her house.  We are impressed by how well Carole has walked, she's a trooper, as we have logged in excess of 10,000 steps according to our phones and she has held up well.

Carol and Sue 

Street view

Place to get your cow hide ?

Girls taking a break

Portland souvenirs here

Kinky stuff here

The river looks high

Portland Saturday Market is the oldest continuous market in the US

 Sue and I then casually wander back on to our hotel taking in the sights along the way. We then relaxed at the Hotel for a while and then go to the roof top area for the free wine tasting and entertainment with a great view.  

It’s then back on the street to check out the nearby Whole Foods Market and then to another nearby McMenamins restaurant for dinner.  The place was decorated to the hilt, very impressive but the food was just ordinary, kind of disappointing. 

The Skidmore Fountain

Impressive building adjacent to the Portland Market

A food vendor at the nearby Skidmore Market

The road leads to VooDoo Doughnut's

Where there is always a line

Portland is weird

They strive to keep it that way

Chinatown gate

Back at Hal's Cafe

Interior wall painting

It's a most unique building

Inside Whole Foods

Sign depicting the Forefather of McMenamins

 

September 7, 2025

We stop at a local bakery for a breakfast pastry and then take a streetcar to another section of the city to meet Carole where she lives with her daughter Sherry and husband Michael.  It’s a short walk from the streetcar stop to their house in a nice residential neighborhood.  They have lots of stuff outside to sell during a neighborhood yard sale. We have a tour of the house and the improvements they are making to it.  They have a huge collection of books for sale and Sue and Michael have much in common with several of the authors, I on the other hand have no idea what they are talking about.  

Sherry volunteers to take Carole, Sue and I for a ride to a location where a shuttle bus normally runs to the Multnomah Falls.  Unfortunately, the shuttle bus was not operating, but Cherie thought that she could still drive us there. Unfortunately that didn’t work out since when we arrived, the entry road to the Falls was closed. 

She then drove us up a very uphill, curvey, road to a cloud covered trailhead parking lot where we started to walk up a  trail for a scenic view but quickly decided to turn around as it was too cloudy to see much of anything.  

We then drove back making a stop a Columbia River viewpoint.  We then drove to the scenic town of Troutdale, Oregon where we stopped at a fabric store.

Love this lush green foliage

The girls walk ahead, I marvel at the size of the tree

Scenic viewpoint overlooking the Columbia River

Corole and Sue pose

Historic mural in downtown Troutdale

The city of Troutdale loves everyone !

Michael, Sherry and Carole

It was then back to the Carols house where we helped to move all the yard sale items back under cover.  We then went to a local food truck pod site for lunch and then took a drive downtown to a favorite ice cream shop.  

After that we said our goodbyes and made our way back to our hotel passing the old Court House and seeing several other interesting buildings.

The faded looking Portland Outdoor Store

Great old sign and facade that needs some repair

Beautiful door

Interesting statue

The lamppost and flowers caught my attention

A mural that speaks to a city coming together

Colorful Mexican restaurant window

I often prefer distorted views such as this one 

We peeked inside this restaurant to check the interesting art

Nice Theater marquee, but appears to be a store now

September 8, 2025

We are on our own today to explore, we go to the Central Library which is an incredible building outside and inside.  The Library has so much, I just walked around in amazement.

 

It's a large two story building filled with books

Mural celebrating Portland  diversity

Tree sculpture inside childrens area

We then take a Streetcar on a loop route across the river, up the other side and then back again. 

Crossing the river

Art visible from the streetcar 

Sue loves a train ride

We then walked to Portland’s beautiful Union Station and then had lunch at Deschutes Brewery. 

   

View of Union Station from highway overpass

Waiting room view

Portland Union Station is impressive 

There was another visit to Powell's Books and then to Whole Foods for some takeout food to eat back at the Hotel.  

We finish off by going back to McMenamins for a couple of beers and a huge plate of tater tots.  

Portland has its share of crazy homeless types and one of them went to sit down at a nearby table when the hostess said “keep on walking” which incited the woman to start a ruckus, that was exciting.  

Portland has much to see and do and is a very vibrant, colorful, progressive, friendly and socially diverse city.     

September 9, 2025

It's  an early start for us walking to the MAX light rail stop to take it to the airport.  Once there we breeze through customs and to our gate with hours to spare.  I had the greatest egg sandwich at the Tillamook restaurant in the terminal, it lasted me all day.  

Our flights from Portland to Las Vegas and Tucson were all on time, all good.

Train to the airport

Tillamook is great 

In flight view at Las Vegas

Coming in for a landing near Tucson ?