Yesterday we left Blythe with a plan to stop in Phoenix to say hi to some friends, and then to push on to Tucson for a few nights of camping, wine tasting, and hanging with a cousin. Without reservations yet, we began to call around expecting to find something quickly but after a half dozen or so calls with no vacancies, Stephanie called a friend in Tucson who reminded us the Gem and Mineral Show is going on, one of the biggest annual events in town and a huge draw for exactly the kind of people who pack RV parks in warm states in the dead of winter. Oops.

After another flurry of phone calls with an increasingly large radius, we finally found what looked like a clean and safe KOA outside of Benson, AZ, about 40 miles down the road from Tucson and equidistant from wine country.

The long push through Arizona, past Phoenix and Tucson, brought us to a lovely desert KOA – some of the facilities are in need of repair, but it’s clean and quiet and most of the guests are in nice rigs. The hosts, an aging Korean couple, are lovely and friendly.

That first night after unhooking and setting up, we jumped right back into the truck and headed back to Tucson to get burgers at Lindy’s on 4th with Jordan. A 90 mile round trip for burgers after driving 250 miles that day was a bit extreme, but those burgers are damned good and the company was excellent. We made plans to see Jordan again the next day to go wine tasting, and headed back to camp for a hard sleep.

We had a slow morning allowing everyone to decompress from the road, and I got some much needed work done. Jordan arrived around 11 and we had pancakes. By noon we piled into the truck and headed towards Arizona’s wine country, centered around Sonoita, about 45 minutes from camp.

Stopping in at the local mercantile, we picked up a map of local wineries, and eyeballed the cowboy joint next door, The Steak Out, that had served us up some incredible slabs of beef a few years before when we were touring after Stephanie’s level 2 somm test. We made an oath to return that night.

Our first, and longest, stop was to Hops and Vines, a funky place run by two sisters – it has an eclectic, shabby chic vibe, with unique wines paired with Cheetos, Cocoa Puffs, and other unexpectedly good weirdness. This was our second visit, and we’d come back again.

Full confession: I tried to make a stealthy flight with my drone, and it ended up in its first crash ever, colliding with a beautiful scrubby tree about 15 feet up, taking it out of service until I can do a little work on it. 

We had planned to hit Rune next – the last time we were there it was just a tent and camper on a beautiful lot – but they were closed, so we got recommendations from Shannon at H&V to go down the road to Callaghan and Deep Sky.

At Callaghan Vineyards Archie met a friend Kiva, and Stephanie and Jordan grabbed a glass or two, and then we moved on fairly quickly.

Deep Sky was essentially the polar opposite of Hops and Vines – a big, shiny, new place, but the wines were good enough to keep us there for a flight, lots of pictures, and to take a bottle of “Orbit” – a 50/50 syrah/grenache blend – to go. We stayed until the sun was going down and the air temperatures dropped enough to start thinking about the BBQ that was awaiting us on our final stop.

We hit Steak Out just after they opened, but we weren’t the first people there. A few larger groups showed up, and the place was short handed with someone out sick, but our waitress was a superhero. We ordered a rack of pork ribs, a ribeye, and a half BBQ chicken, and it was pure, unapologetic, carnivorous gluttony long enough that Wes passed out before we were finished.

Finally, we headed back to camp, fully sated from a wonderful day of sun, wine, food, and family. The best part of the day was the rare opportunity to spend time with Jordan away from the large clan holidays where we usually see her.