Travels with Twinkles - July 6 - 12, 2026

Travels with Twinkles - July 6 - 12, 2026:

My wife Sue, aka “Twinkles” and I are heading out today on our first serious road trip in our ARK Camper Van.  Sue thinks I should use Chat GPT to do this blog rather than racking my brain trying to make it sound professional, because my brain isn’t as professional as in days past.  She could be right ?       

We have no real travel plan, no solid destinations, campground plans or time restraints.  The plan is to basically head north out of the heat into Utah and then just wing it from there.

July 6-7: Our first stop is the Sunset Volcanic Cone National Monument, located near Flagstaff, Arizona.  It’s not our first time there, but is a very special place that deserves a return visit.  To our surprise, the campground and the monument were not crowded.  This may have been due to regional forest fires causing hazy sky conditions. The volcanic Cone and the flow field are one of the most recent volcanic sites at 1,000 years ago for their type of volcanic eruption.  It’s also remarkable that the native people actually lived here when this volcanic eruption occurred and they escaped to surrounding sites. 

This is from a recent fire, but is a vibrant black 

We then visit the nearby Wupatki National Monument ruins.  The museum there has the best displays of the lifestyle, customs and struggles of these people up until the take over by the park service in the early 1900’s. 

 

These panels were so well done

We also visited a few other small pueblo ruins in the area. There are hundreds of these pueblos sprinkled around this area that were inhabited by small family groups.  Most were constructed in small canyons created when the underlying limestone rock eroded creating canyons that collected rain water.  This enabled the people to grow crops for their existence.  The park service is now restoring or at least stabilizing some of these small remote sites. 

   

Amazing how these houses were built by hand and still stand

July 8:  We drive on route 40 east to Winslow, Arizona making a stop at Two Arrows, Arizona where the remains of an old roadside cafe and gas station remain. It is now a graffiti covered ruin, but it must have been pretty great in decades past.

We then make another stop a few miles away at Meteor Crater created about 50,000 years ago with an impressive museum and amazing views.  This is one of the largest and most intact meteor craters in the World.  The view looking down into the crater is quite amazing.

We then stop in Winslow, AZ at the famous corner waiting for the girl in the flat bed ford to take a look at me.  Actually, there was a very young girl on a skate board who sort of took a look at me. This town is looking way better since my last visit, they have played this song to the limit as far as a tourist attraction is concerned.

Standing on the corner

Rt 66 too !

Yes, it's a railroad town

We also toured the famous Fred Harvey La Posada Hotel in Winslow, a beautiful hotel and restaurant. 

A mural of people who committed subside, very weird !

We then find a rundown looking campground for the night a few miles away, no hookups, but we had it all to ourselves.  The heat was pretty brutal even by Tucson standards, but a weird storm front converged on the area during the evening and night with light rain, wind and thunder, but not much relief.  The payment machine was out of service and there was no camp host so it was a freebee !

The pink storm front moving in from the Vans window

July 9: We backtrack towards Flagstaff where we get on route 40 traveling north through Navajo country, so beautiful and yet at the same time so poor and distressed. 

Love these road views

We end up in Page, AZ in mid afternoon at a full hookup campground.  It is very hot and we are roasting in the ARC, so much for the idea about heading north to get away from the heat !  We plug in and the AC unit runs and runs for hours eventually getting down to 85 degrees.  

July 10: We go to the very popular Horseshoe Bend scenic attraction, it is like the united nations there, all sorts of languages are being spoken.  It’s about 10 AM but already very close to 100 degrees.  I’m kind of surprised how many people are doing this rather strenuous 1 1/4 mile walk down hill and then the more difficult uphill walk back.  So many selfies at the bend, people doing crazy stuff to get a cliff edge photo !

 

It is a great view from all angles

The entry sign

Tourist photo's

Hope that woman doesn't lean back any further

We then visit the Colorado River Bridge Museum which we have seen years ago, but it’s always amazing to see again.  There are so many great hiking and scenic attractions to see here, but it’s just too, too hot, we can’t handle it.  It’s back to the campground, run the AC Unit, somewhat of a wasted day, but we’ve seen all this stuff on previous trips here. 

 

July 11:  We then drive on route 289 north to Dixie National Forest where we will camp for the night.  We find a great spot under several shade trees making it much cooler.  We also had a few ravens flying around much to our amusement.  This was a very relaxing overnight spot  !!!

July 12: We stop at the quaint Mormon town of Panquitch, UT to wander around the Main Street.  We spent about a week here several years ago which brings back some memories. 

It’s then a long winding uphill climb for about 100 miles on Utah route 12, an amazingly, beautiful drive.  Sue is a nervous wreck all the way, especially when I take one handed iPhone photos as I drive.

These are photos in Dixie National Forest

Route 12 weaving through this area is amazing 

We arrive at Capital Reef National Park about 4PM to check into the campground; stay tuned for the next episode.

Travels with Twinkles - February 27 - March 7,  2026

  

Tucson, AZ - San Pedro, CA - Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan, Mexico - San Pedro, CA - Tucson

We leave Tucson on Friday February 27th on I-10 to Phoenix then take route 202 around Phoenix and back onto I-10.  It’s then a long desolate drive on I-10 with a lunch break in Quartzsite, Arizona.  Back on I-10 the traffic increases dramatically as we cross into California and becomes stop and go all the way to San Pedro, CA.  We check into our hotel for the night  across from the Princess Line docks where we will leave from in the morning.  We find a nice brewpub, San Pedro Brewing, nearby for dinner and find that the area has quite a lot of interesting restaurants, pubs, stores, etc.

Interesting mural

Twinkles is now relaxed

On Saturday, the 28th, we park the Jeep and then go through the normal gauntlet of checking in at the port terminal.  It actually is a very efficient operation.  It takes several hours to  get everyone on board and ready to depart.  They make this into a a dance party scene on the main deck until the ship left port at about 2 PM.  It’s a beautiful sunny day and everyone is out on the deck relaxing and getting into the vibe.

We are very satisfied with our cabin and hook up with our family members who are traveling with us, John, Cindy, Angie and Tatum Perduk.

Heading for the ship

View from the stern

We are at sea the rest of the day and all day Sunday finding our way around the 17 decks of bars, restaurant and buffet dining areas, stores, casino, gym and all the planned activities.  The buffet food is of an endless quantity and variety during breakfast, lunch and dinner and there are also several other more formal dining room options.  As the food price is built into the overall cruise cost, there is no limit on the quantity, you can eat to your hearts content and most people are. Also, lots of bars but you pay for your drinks although there is a special drink packages available for the heavy drinking crowd.  There are various entertainment shows, seminars, movies, etc planned throughout the days and nights, a well equipped gym, several pools and hot tubs, a walking track, and a pickle ball court.  We are having fair weather, calm sea conditions and no sea sickness issues. 

Twinkles is relaxed

Looking down from an upper deck

We arrive at our first stop in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on the morning of March 1st.  I wake early to get some sunrise photos of the ship coming into the port.  At Cabo we are anchoring away from shore and get ferried to the port on large life boats called tenders. I take the tender into Cabo in the early afternoon and wander around the downtown area taking photos and scouting things out.  It’s a bit crazy at the Portside with hordes of locals trying to sell you tour packages, boat rides, jewelry and souvenirs.  Your daily activities are limited as you must be back on the ship by about 5 PM, not sure what happens if you miss the boat ?

Tatum posing with a lizard

Busy dock

The Perduk clan posing

Party crowd here

On March 2nd, our second day in Cabo I return to the port and take a water taxi tour.  It’s just me and a couple from Ottawa, Canada on a small power boat. The Water Taxi ride is a little wild as there are so many boats racing around barely missing each other.  It was a beautiful ride however and I managed to get a few good photos amidst all the rolling and tossing of the boat.  Twinkles did not come with me for this ride as she was going to a program on the ship. 

After the water taxi ride, I go off on my own roaming around the downtown area looking for photos of interest.  As I was starting to get hot and thirsty, I saw this tiny street side bar with a sign, "World's smallest bar " with the interior was covered in US dollar bills.  There was another American sitting at the bar who was super friendly and who started a conversation.  He had been here for a few weeks and said this was his favorite bar in town.  Then my phone rang, with Twinkles asking where I was and as I looked out the window I saw her directly across the street.  I then went outside and waved for her to come over.  We then had a drink there with our new acquaintance.  We then walked around stoping at an attractive dining spot where we had a nice light meal. We then visited several shops loaded with souvenir items and colorful clothing, where I bought a tee shirt, my only purchase.  It was then time to get to the dock area and back to the ship which was scheduled to sail in the evening.

World's smallest Bar ?

This is true !

We are not spending all of our time with family members as they are signed up for numerous tour packages which we have mostly avoided and are more into the evening magic, comedy, sing and dance shows which we are not.  

We  have joined them mostly for meals and a few show events as we are more into the piano bar, sitting outside on the deck with drinks and doing our own port activities. 

We sail all night and then arrive early the next morning, March 4th in Mazatlan, Mexico.  Again, I get up early to catch our arrival in the port, It was impressive to watch how this incredibly huge ship pivots around to dock.  The ship is tied up to the dock here making it very easy to get off, no boat ride.  Everyone departs quickly as possible, but once off the ship you do need to take a short shuttle to the tour center.  My family members have booked ahead of time for a pirate ship adventure.  Instead, we book a guided van tour at the tour center.  The tour guide was great, a local man who spoke very good english and explained things very well.  The tour stopped for a lunch break at a seaside restaurant that was scenic but kind of long.  We then headed straight back to the tour center, until we had flat tire, that was exciting, but another van was called and arrived shortly to get us back in plenty of time.

Looks so huge from this angle !

Inside a large shopping market

Beachside restaurant

We now will sail from this evening for two days, February 5th and 6th and arrive back in San Pedro, California on February 7th.  We had a couple of windy days from this point, but the sea was not overly rough.  I spent a lot of time on deck in spite of the wind and cooler temperature.  I used the gym once and did a few circuits on the walking track.  We have a nice family meal on our last evening and arrived in San Pedro early in the morning on the 7th. 

Big dinner get together

Coming back into port at San Pedro, California

At San Pedro, we were off the ship at about 9 AM and on the road within a half hour.  It was another long drive, but less traffic on a Saturday.  All in all it was a very good adventure, Twinkles is already thinking about another cruise, I'm not as much into it as she is, but perhaps ?