January 5, 2022

Oh where does the time go?  Hard to believe it’s a new year already though I feel that way almost every year.  Our first week boon docking in Sonoita, AZ was rather chilly and rainy after a couple of initial days of warm sunshine.  I decided I had cabin fever though and booked a tour of some of the local vineyards.  After all, this is wine country so how could I skip truly experiencing this area for what it is famous for.  The wines and the cheese were tasty.  The tour guide also showed me the spot in Elgin, AZ where part of Oklahoma was filmed.  At the first spot I was able to meet the owner and get a quick private tour of the back room.  I asked if she used the same tried and true recipe and learned that winemakers don’t really follow the recipe as the grapes will be different year to year dependent on the climate and acidity, etc.  Completely makes sense though had not occurred to me.  The vines were all dead this time of year and the skies were grey so the pictures weren’t too stunning.

  

Luke and I both received part time consulting job offers.  For both of us the jobs are things in our fields which we’ve done before so neither of us was overly excitied about them as we are on a chapter now.  However, having some income would be helpful as investments seem to have a habit of crashing lately and living is expensive.  

We went scouting for some other BLM land to boondocks on as we knew we would eventually have to leave.  We went to 4 different spots and of those we found one we thought was suitable for us around this area.  One of them was too difficult to get to for us to haul our rig into.  Another was right in Tuscon, but very crowded and dirty with several homemade or makeshift looking camper type structures.  I would have taken a photo of some of them, but there was always someone outside of them and that was not the place where I wanted to piss anyone off.  The third was also fairly full and difficult to get into.  The last one was large and spacious.  There were many campers there, but there seemed to still be plenty of room.  We have a couple more places we want to scout so we went out again the next day.  That day we seemed to hit the jackpot again in Patagonia, AZ.  Not only were there some great sites down easy dirt roads, but they were separated far from each other so there was lots of privacy.  The reviews say there is road noise, but we’re going to take a chance on it.  Let me not get too far ahead of myself though as camping in Sonoita has been awesome and we decided we will definitely come back here. We are in the Las Ciengas Conservation area.  There is a working ranch here so we see cows go by a couple of times a day.  The campsites are spacious and there’s a few areas with campsites out here.  I read up on this region and learned that it is unique to this desert state as it has a creek that runs year round.  The creek attracts plants and animals that you don’t often see in the desert.  In the summer, it is lush and green here (especially in July monsoon season).  There are also mountain ranges in every direction so the scenery is breathtaking.  The little town has a couple of shops where you can get most daily amenities and the lady at the gas station didn’t charge us for our sodas more than once!