Winter in the Desert 2017: Heading Home

We left out winter rental house in Indio by about noon at the end of March. The previous day was consumed with packing and cleaning. This is always a bit stressful and we were happy when we got the house in immaculate condition and finally got on the road on Friday.

Somehow, I don't think the vehicle was this full when we got here but I can still see a bit of the road in the rear view mirror.

Heading east on I10 to Phoenix, we were amazed at how different the desert landscape looked compared to when we arrived in December. Very green and lots of coloured wildflowers along side the highway.

We arrived at Brian & Linda's in time for some kick back time with wine and dinner and had a chance to relax. The next day we had the opportunity to meet some of their friends for "happy hour" drinks and dinner at a really nice restaurant (#1 for Glendale on Tripadvisor!) and then retreat to their house for the evening.

Sunday, the four of us headed to the town of Cottonwood (near Sedona) for a night away. This is a great little town. We had a package deal with a nice Inn/Tavern that included our room, dinner, breakfast and wine tasting at a number of local wineries.

We had a fun time and managed to regroup in Phoenix the next day to re-start our trip home.

Tuesday we departed for Las Cruces NM. A relatively easy drive and we ended up near the old town of Mesilla.

We had a bit of time to walk around the square and enjoy the ambience.

The St Clair Winery / Bistro was just down the street and seemed like a good candidate for dinner. We enjoyed our meal and as we were leaving, looked up and I saw a superb sunset. I grabbed the camera and was off to try to capture some nice photos.

The next day was going to be our longest drive of our return trip, about 1000 km to San Antonio TX. This route took us along I10 which passes through El Paso TX then about 800 km of pretty well nothing. At least it was better than I20 with less junk beside the roadway.

As we approached San Antonio, there were signs of more habitation and we eventually got into the rush hour traffic of a city of 2M people.

Our hotel was very close to the central part of San Antonio, only about a 15 minute walk to the "Riverwalk" which is populated by many restaurants and bars.

On our first full day here, we walked to the Alamo and toured the historic landmark.

After lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, we walked for several km on the "Riverwalk" pathway.

We returned to the "Riverwalk" for supper and took the opportunity for some nice nighttime photos of the area.

Our dinner place...

The next day it was off to the Mexican Market, just a few blocks away from our hotel. This was an interesting collection of many stalls selling essentially the same stuff. Very colourful but nothing we would buy.

After lunch, we embarked on the Mission Trail to search out the missions in this area. These are all part of a National Park Historic Site and very interesting with respect to the history of the southwest USA. The docents/guides were fabulous and we enjoyed the afternoon.

First stop Mission Concepcion...