Dates: 14DEC – 18DEC2025

Delayed Post Note: This trip occurred in mid-December, but life got in the way of posting about it until now.

Locations Visited: Gilbert, Scottsdale & Glendale, AZ

This post is about our December trip in our van, Tofu. We are attempting to take at least one short trip each month during the winter in this van while exploring our own Arizona backyard. We made stops on this trip to Gilbert and Glendale, but spent most of our time in Scottsdale, AZ. This trip had a little bit of everything: tasty food, museums, hiking, architecture, a hot air balloon ride and cycling (of course). Overall, another great mini vacation that was mostly stress-free.

Gilbert & Scottsdale, AZ (Day 1): We stopped in Gilbert, AZ at the Gilbert Mission and had a very tasty lunch at the vegan restaurant, The Uprooted Kitchen. We had a nice walk around the area which included many cute boutique shops, restaurants, and parks. We checked into our campsite in WestWorld (not our favorite “campground,” but very convenient) before going to Frank Llyod Wright’s Taliesin West, which was his winter home. We took a guided night hike amongst his 500-acre property to explore the “shelters” that his apprentices had built and to see the landscape that inspired his architecture. It was a glorious evening and a wonderful experience. When we returned to the van for the night, the temperature was almost too hot and we had to leave the fans on most of the night.

Scottsdale & Glendale, AZ (Day 2): Tracey woke up to an inflamed and red eye, but we already had non-refundable timed entry tickets to visit the main house of Frank Llyod Wrights Taliesin West, so she wore a big hat to hide her face and went on the tour. We took a self-guided audio tour through this very well-preserved property and it was not hard to see FLW’s genius at almost every turn. The house was only used in the winter and was mostly disassembled each year for the summer season, including removing the roof and storing all of the furniture in one part of the property that had a permanent roof. The property is large and included his office, gathering room and a subterranean theater called the Kiva/Cabaret Theater. After the tour, we made a quick stop at Urgent Care where Tracey was diagnosed with conjunctivitis and given antibiotic eye drops. Then we dashed across Phoenix to Gilbert to join an evening Rainbow 🌈 Rider’s Hot Air Balloon ride. Tracey has had this on her bucket list for years and she was not disappointed with this experience. Overall, it was quite peaceful up in the air and we felt very safe, but the burning of the propane was quite loud and we ended up wearing ear plugs for most of the 90-minute experience. For take-off, the basket was lying on its side and we had to lay on our backs in a crouched position inside the basket while the balloon inflated and stood us upright. For landing, since our balloon was extra-large in size there were only a few spots it could safely land. There were both high voltage and regular power lines in front of this spot, so we had to come in for a landing at a steep angle and with more speed than typical. Our pilot had the basket hitting into the tree tops and bushes on our descent in attempts to slow us down and when the front edge of the basket hit the ground it “skipped” 4 times before coming to a stop. It was all safe and copacetic, just not how it is described in the literature.

Scottsdale, AZ (Day 3):  We decided to take it a bit slower on this day to let Tracey’s eye heal. We took a lovely 5-mile hike on the Lost Dog Wash Trail in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. It was quite warm (Tony says it was already too warm and we are only in December!) and we probably did not pack quite enough water for this length of hike, but we completed the trail although we were a bit parched. Tony still had some energy after the hike, so he did hill repeats on his bicycle while Tracey prepared lunch and relaxed in the (hot) van at the trailhead. Tony has determined that Scottsdale is not near as bike friendly as Tucson. The temperature dropped significantly that night so much that we had to use our van’s Webasto heater which we are happy to report worked perfectly this trip. During the middle of the night, Tracey woke up to the back/barn door of our van, which she sleeps directly next to, opening up completely. After being shocked out of our sleep, we deduced that nobody was trying to break in, but Tony must not have completely shut the door tight when he was putting something away and the wind caught it exactly right and flung it open. We laugh about it now, but at that moment it was a bit scary.

Scottsdale (Day 4): Tracey found the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt which is an 11-mile multi-use path through Scottsdale, so we set off on our Brompton’s to explore the area. The path took us through neighborhoods and golf courses, under/over roads, into parks and around lakes. It was a lovely path and a place we will certainly return to in the future. Next, we treated ourselves to a nice lunch at Tru Food Kitchen (which has since gone out of business, BOO!). We stopped at one of Tony’s favorite bike shops, Bicycle Haus, for some retail therapy before heading to Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) which we ended up being so impressed with. Although small in size, the art installations rival those found in much larger cities and we spent considerable time exploring all the unique and creative works on display, some of which we were allowed to actually touch and play with. As we returned to our house, we witnessed another spectacular sunset, although we misjudged our fuel and literally coasted into the gas station on fumes as the display indicated 0 miles left in our gas tank (and we had already driven 7 miles with that display on). Yikes!

AZ & FL Extras: After returning home, the grass did not grow under our feet before we went to a Christmas candlelight string quartet concert with our friend, Michael. And a few days after that we explored a Tucson neighborhood, again with our friend Michael, called Winterhaven (https://winterhavenfestival.org/) which goes all out with Christmas decorations every year. We both spent Christmas in Florida with her mom and Tracey also spent New Years there. While at her Mom’s, we finally finished the 3000-piece puzzle we have been working on for 5 years! #persistence

Up Next:  In January, Tony took a solo van trip to Joshua Tree National Park while Tracey flew to India with a friend!