I’ve been staying at an RV park in between Tucson and Phoenix since December 1. I will be here until January 31. Winter here compared to Albuquerque is like a summer day! Once February 1 is here, I will be starting my “never ending road trip” with a goal of driving all the way to Alaska this summer.

The RV park I’m staying at is near an interesting shaped peak called Picacho Peak. There are lots of Saguaro Cactus to walk through in my morning walks.

While I’m wintering here, I have planned several short trips to see and photograph some sights. And my first short trip was to Anza Borrego Desert State Park. It’s a small park east of San Diego, California. I have wanted to visit this park for several years. It’s known for it’s large metal sculptures just out in the middle of the desert.

I stayed at the campground within the park so I wouldn’t have to travel a long way to photograph the sculptures. My plan was to photograph them with the night skies. But sadly Malibu was on fire and the smoke was just thick enough in the atmosphere, that you couldn’t see any stars while I was there. They even turned the power off at the campground to keep from starting more fires in the hills. As I’m writing this, Los Angeles is on fire and destroying homes and landmarks.

With this in mind, I will be avoiding the coastline of California on my way to Alaska. It’s just too dry and too dangerous for me and my home on wheels.

I did wake up at sunrise to go photograph the sculptures in the daylight. With all the smoke in the air, it made a colorful sunrise.

The main sculpture that everyone wants to see is the sea serpent. It’s massive! It has several humps that make it look like it’s swimming in the sand. And the serpent is so long that the humps cross the road.

Of course, I had to take a selfie of me and Maddie at the serpent. This gives you a sense of scale of this beast!

From there I drove down the road to start at the beginning of the sculptures. Maddie was terrified of the first sculpture! She had her hackles up and was barking like crazy. I have to admit, I found it a little creepy myself!

I like that a lot of them were life sized. It made for fun interaction. Maddie and I just had to see what was in the prospector’s pan. It had riches! LOL! People left coins in the pan.

The life-sized Jeep was fun too! It was great that had it climbing giant rocks.

The cleric with his dog carrying a stick (just like Maddie!) was fun too.

There were lots of prehistoric animals that were indigenous to the area. Did you know the US used to have a giant sloth!?!

There were also Tapir, saber tooth tigers, tortoises and so much more!

While photographing the prehistoric area, a lone coyote came passing through. He paused long enough to get a photograph and then moved on. Maddie didn’t like him at all and was barking at him. Good girl!

The two totally not to scale sculptures were the standoff between the grasshopper and the scorpion. Who do you think would win that fight?

The detail in some of the sculptures was just amazing! Look at the detail on that grasshopper!

And of course all the while I was taking photos, Maddie was carrying around a stick. She never fails to find one to carry around. Silly girl!

Back at camp, I had a few bird visitors checking out my site hoping I had left some crumbs. They were in luck because I had put out some crumbled animal cookies.

Little Maddie was a very naughty girl on this trip. Up to now she has been an easy puppy. But I guess the long day of driving didn’t provide enough exercise time for her. I had walked her in the morning and then in the evening when we first arrived. But I guess it wasn’t enough. While I was sound asleep, she tore a huge hole in my linoleum in the living room. I woke up to a big mess! I can’t believe I slept through it! LOL!

Thankfully back at the RV park where I’m staying in Arizona, there was a man there willing to put my new floor in for me. Since I had to replace the entire floor because the existing linoleum was one big sheet, I decided to replace it with something pretty. I chose 12×12 linoleum tiles that can be replaced individually if any of them get damaged. He did a beautiful job on my floor and I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

It’s so much brighter and more cheerful in my RV now. So I can’t really be too mad at Maddie. But she definitely knows to leave the floor alone now!

I’m slowly personalizing my little home on wheels. It’s a fun process and I’m truly enjoying living the RV life – even with all of its ups and downs along the way.

Stay tuned for my next little trip.