March 24, 2005

March 24, 2005

Imperial, California

DAY 279

 

Today was partially cloudy, very windy, with a few minutes of light rain in the afternoon.

This morning I went to a seminar on diesel engine air filters and their maintenance. It was more comprehensive than it sounds, covering not only the air induction systems of diesel engines, but the turbo-chargers and exhaust systems as well. I came back to the trailer at noon for lunch, then while Joanne went to a seminar on RV maintenance for women ( dummies ? ) I puttered around the trailer. Despite showering in the fairground's shower facilities for most of the week, I managed to fill the bathroom grey water holding tank this afternoon. And our fresh water supply must be getting quite low, because the electric water pump is starting to gurgle. We'll have to wash our hands in the kitchen sink, and use water sparingly. We'll be leaving tomorrow about noon, and will have a full bathroom grey tank, and probably no fresh water, until we get to wherever we're going to spend tomorrow night. There's no dumping station, or water refill station here on the fairgrounds.

Mid-afternoon, I took Bo for his daily obedience training session, and he did great again. Good dog ! I met up with Joanne after her seminar, and we headed over to the main building for the Escapade closing ceremonies. Afterwards, I went over to the media building to use Wi-Fi. I thought the Wi-Fi service was going to end at 6:00 P.M. tonight, but they've extended it until noon tomorrow, so I'll be able to get e-mail and update my blog one more time before we leave. We wanted to send an e-mail today to a cousin of Joanne's who lives in California, to see if perhaps she and her family are interested in having us come over for a short visit. They are just south of San José, so they're in the general vicinity of the route that we plan to take heading north. Joanne and her cousin Susan don't really know one another, so I don't know if Susan and her family are really interested in having a pair of total strangers come by for a visit. Some families ( not mine ! ) subscribe to the theory that "blood is thicker than water".

Joanne decided that since we were low on water, we shouldn't dirty any more dishes than necessary, so we should go out for supper. HUH ? Did you follow the logic of that ? She seems to be quickly becoming a candidate to join the Escapees women's group called the LEO Club. That's the "Let's Eat Out" Club, a very popular group amongst Escapees women. HA HA HA ! We went to a local Mexican take out restaurant. The menu board above the counter was in Spanish, and might as well have been in Greek. We bought a couple of combination plates, not having a clue what we were getting. While we waited for our food to be prepared, we became mesmerized by their pastry display case, and ended up buying a half dozen assorted Mexican pastries. Gee ... Mexicans sure can cook great Mexican food. HA HA HA HA HA ! Supper was great ! So was dessert ! The population of Imperial and neighbouring El Centro are 78 % Mexican. And that's just the legal ones ! HA HA HA HA HA < SNORT SNORT >.

We watched the second half of The Apprentice as we ate supper, then headed out for Oso’s Cantina, the Escapade’s final evening wrap up party. Recorded music by a DJ, dancing, visiting, and saying farewell to old friends and new. We stayed late, because Joanne was on the clean up crew, her final volunteer assignment. Marcel and Louise from Montreal won the award as the Escapade attendees from furthest away. I was somewhat surprised by the lady from Tampa, Florida, who was certain that she was from further away than Montreal. Get a map, lady ! Even the woman from Alaska immediately conceded that Montreal was further from Southern California than Alaska.

DSK

March 23, 2005

March 23, 2005

Imperial, California

DAY 278

 

Today was sunny and warm, but with a very strong wind, which made the evening feel quite cool.

Early this morning Joanne went off to another line dancing session, while I took care of morning chores, then went to shower. Mid-morning, I went to a seminar on battery maintenance. It was awful. I left after 15 minutes, and I spent 10 of those minutes wondering how to exit discreetly. By about the 15 minute mark, half the audience had left, so I no longer was concerned with making my exit discreetly. This seminar speaker was extremely poorly prepared for his topic, and very inarticulate. I went to the hospitality centre, got a cup of coffee, and sat down to read the newspaper. Around noon I returned to the trailer for lunch. After lunch, I went to a seminar on RV electrical trouble shooting. It was very good, and I'm certain that what I learned today about RV 12 volt electrical systems, and problems, will come in very useful some day. Hopefully not too soon. Joanne met me after the electrical seminar, and we went to both the indoor and the outdoor market areas to buy a few things. We returned to the trailer, I napped, then did some maintenance work. I took Bo out for an afternoon obedience training session, and he did great ! He finally gets it ! Way to go, Bo. Good dog ! I gave him a lengthy brushing session. Geez, he looks ratty most of the time. A dog with long, silky hair looks terrible after a few days of romping around the desert without a brushing. We call him a rat shit terrier because of how he looks most of the time. Which reminds me, while I was walking him early this morning, he came across a rat which had just died over night. It wasn't there yesterday. Welcome to California. Bo was puzzled. I pulled him away before he got more than just a quick sniff.

We had supper, then went to the regular evening door prize awarding. For each door prize, there are 4 small supplementary / consolation prizes given to the people surrounding the main prize winner. The man in front of us won a "camp fire in a can" thingy. Welcome to California ! ! ! As a consolation prize, since we were seated behind him, we got a huge bag of unshelled peanuts. Later, while I was gone to sit in the Ham-O-Rama performers' section, Joanne traded our bag of peanuts with some other consolation prize winner for a huge bag of flavoured popcorn.

Finally, after the door prizes, it was time for Ham-O-Rama, the amateur talent show that is an Escapade highlight. Prior to 2 weeks ago, I had never performed magic for a group larger than about a dozen people. About 2 weeks ago, I performed for the Alberta Roamers Chapter Rally, an audience of about 140. Well, tonight at Ham-O-Rama, I performed for an audience of around 2200 people. And a flawless performance it was, thank you very much. Ham-O-Rama went quite well, lasting about 2 hours, with about 20 acts. Most of the performers were singing guitar players. Apparently that is usually the case. So the organizers were really thrilled to have Marcel and Louise from Montreal do a juggling routine, and me do a magic trick. My magic trick was actually a magic trick / stand up comedy routine, which worked out very well since the woman that I picked to assist me was a good sport, and played along very well. I was less nervous tonight in front of 2200 people than I was in front of 140 a couple of weeks ago. On a stage with bright lights, you can't see more than the first few rows of the audience, so it's less intimidating than 140 people sitting on lawn chairs in the bright desert sun.

DSK

March 22, 2005

March 22, 2005

Imperial, California

DAY 277

 

Today was sunny and hot.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, and wasn't able to fall back asleep. So I got up and walked over to the showers, and took a shower before the morning rush. When I got back to the trailer about 6:30 I was sleepy again, so I walked Bo, then went back to sleep for another hour. These fairgrounds are huge, and everything is so far away from where we're parked. We're certainly getting a lot of exercise walking around here.

Joanne went to another line dancing session early this morning. I stayed back at the trailer and took care of morning chores, then went to a seminar on Wi-Fi. It was very interesting, mostly about what to expect in Wi-Fi development over the next year or two. Joanne and I met back at the trailer for lunch. After lunch, we both went to a seminar and demonstration conducted by the U.S. Border Patrol K-9 unit stationed a few miles south of here at El Centro. It was interesting, although Joanne and I agree that most Canadians would think that the U.S. Border Patrol's efforts along the southwest border with Mexico are somewhat misguided. After that, I had to go to the Ham-O-Rama dress rehearsal, and Joanne went to see what was happening at the Crafts Building. After dress rehearsal, I met Joanne back at the trailer again. We fed the animals, then left to drive into town to buy some groceries. This was the first time we shopped at a grocery store other than Wal-Mart in quite a while. That, and the fact that we are now in California, left us very surprised at the cost of our grocery bill. We have been told, and are now finding out for ourselves, how expensive everything in California is. Diesel fuel is 50 cents a gallon more than anywhere else. We returned to the trailer just in time to watch Amazing Race, and eat the not so great fried chicken we bought at the grocery store.

Joanne walked Bo in the evening, and made a surprising discovery. Bo was absolutely ecstatic, jumping waist high, when he met some black people a few motorhomes down from us. We realized he hasn’t seen any black people in the 3 months we’ve had him. There are very few blacks in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, plus ... RV’ing seems to be very much a white boys’ gig. We wonder if his previous owners in Alabama were blacks ?

DSK

March 21, 2005

March 21, 2005

Imperial, California

DAY 276

 

Today was sunny and very warm, although as I sit and type this outside the women's showers late in the evening, waiting for Joanne, it's quite cool.

I started this morning by attending a seminar on trailer brake and suspension systems while Joanne went to a line dancing instruction course. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the morning wandering around the indoor market area, the outdoor market area, and "The Row". The Row is an area where the different Escapee chapters, and the different BOF ( Birds Of A Feather ) special interest groups have tables and displays set up, each outside the rig of someone representing their chapter or BOF. While we were in Livingston in January, we were asked to represent the Maple Leaf Chapter 18 on The Row at this Escapade. We declined. This is only our second Escapade and we're still too new at this, and want to see so much, that we didn't want to be tied down representing our chapter on The Row. Maybe some other time. We seem to be one of only two couples from our chapter here. Most of the Chapter 18 members are from southwest Ontario, and the spring Escapade in California is further than most Chapter 18 members want to go. Many of them attend the fall Escapade, always in the northeast somewhere, like Goshen, Indiana.

We lost track of time a bit, so by the time we went back to the trailer and had lunch, it was too late to attend any of the early afternoon sessions or seminars. We rested a bit after lunch, then returned to the main area around 3:00 P.M.. I went to the Ham-O-Rama auditions, and Joanne went to one of the jobs she has volunteered for this week. She spent the ret of the afternoon being a "gate guard". After my audition, I went over to the Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 area on The Row. I had been invited to their late afternoon "Happy Hour". Around 6:00 P.M., when it was time to feed the boys, I returned to the trailer. I thought Joanne would be getting back to the trailer about the same time, or maybe even earlier, but she didn't come in until quite a bit later. She got a bit disoriented and lost finding her way back to the trailer from her gate guard assignment. Poor Joanne. After awhile, 1250 or so fifth wheels and motorhomes all parked in rows somewhat helter skelter all around a large, complicated layout fairgrounds all look pretty much the same.

We had a light, late supper, then rushed off to the evening's door prize drawings and entertainment. Tonight's entertainment was Mariachi Mixteco, a small Mexican orchestra comprised of about a dozen young people ranging in age from 12 to 19, and Tlaxcalteca, a Mexican dance troupe also comprised of teenagers. They were very good. The Mariachi band, in particular, had amazing stage presence for such a young group. We walked back to the trailer, then I took Joanne over to the showers. I walked her part way back to the trailer, until she was certain of where it was, then I went over to the media building where Wi-Fi had been set up for use during the Escapade. The building was closed already, but I sat outside with a whole bunch of other people with laptops, sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog. I love Wi-Fi. But not enough to spend about U.S.$3000 to buy an RV rooftop Wi-Fi satellite dish. Well ... here at the Escapade, the vendors are selling them at a discount. They're only about U.S.$2500. I guess that's peanuts to the Escapees here who have the half million dollar Wanderlodge motorhomes.

DSK

March 20, 2005

March 20, 2005

Winterhaven to Imperial, California

DAY 275

 

Today was sunny and warm.

Well, here we are at the Escapees RV Club 2005 Spring Rally "Escapade" in Imperial, California. We left the Gold Rock Ranch RV Park this morning, driving east for a mile and half on the gravel Gold Rock Ranch Road, then 9 miles south on Hwy. S-234 to Interstate 8. West on I-8, we passed through the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area where we saw small mountains of sand, filled with ATV's, dune buggies, and dirt bikes. Driving up steep mountains of sand on dune buggies looks like fun. We passed from the Mountain time zone to the Pacific time zone. Teddy's stomach doesn't appreciate passing into new time zones. He gets "cheated" out of an hour on meal times. Poor hungry Teddy. At El Centro we turned off I-8, north onto Hwy. 86. A few miles down Hwy. 86 and we were at Imperial. We were bucking a head wind driving west on the Interstate, so Dee-Dee needed a fill by the time we got to Imperial. I thought it would make more sense to fill after we got to the Escapade fairgrounds, and unhitched Harvey. What I didn't realize was that it would take an hour and a half after we reached the fairgrounds to get in and parked. Getting over 1200 RV rigs into a fairground is an onerous task. By the time we had been crawling bumper to bumper for an hour, Dee-Dee was gasping for fuel. I had to jump out and pour the emergency 2 gallons of diesel in, and hope that we would be parked soon. It was touch and go ! We managed to get parked before running out of fuel. Late this afternoon I drove over to a station a few blocks away, and filled up, although I grabbed the wrong set of keys when I left. I didn't have the key to the Rubbermaid tote in the back of the truck where the empty emergency fuel container was, so I didn't refill the 2 gallon emergency fuel supply.

After arriving and unhitching, we went over to the registration building and got registered. While walking the long distance from the rig to the registration building, we started to bump into the many acquaintances we have made in the Escapees family. People that were working at C.A.R.E. at the same time as us. People that we've met at one or another of the Escapee parks that we've visited. The biggest surprise was meeting Linda Hayes and Don Mitchell. Linda and Don are from Ottawa, and are the first Escapees we met. After we had joined the Escapees RV Club, butbefore we had even bought Harvey and Dee-Dee, we got a phone call from Linda and Don. They were the only other Escapees in Ottawa. The club had phoned them to advise them that there were new members of the organization in their city, and encouraged them to invite us over to welcome us into the Escapees family. They did so. It was a pleasant surprise to meet them here. We found out awhile later they are parked across from us. In addition to Snowbird, their Bichon Frisé that we have met before, they have recently acquired a Bichon Maltais named, of course, Snowflake.

While registering, I was "strong armed" by one of the organizers of Thursday's "talent show", Ham-O-Rama, to perform a magic trick or two on Thursday evening. He was one of the attendees at the recent Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 Winter Rally at Mesa that we attended. He liked my magic performance there, and wouldn't take no for an answer, so I very reluctantly allowed myself to be "persuaded" into performing at Ham-O-Rama.on Thursday evening. The largest group I've ever performed magic in front of was the 140 or so a week ago. This audience will be about 2500 ! YIKES ! ! !

After registering we went over to another building for the orientation session, followed by opening ceremonies. Opening ceremonies concluded with an ice cream treat for every one, courtesy of one of the corporate sponsors. We munched on our ice cream as we walked the long distance back to the rig. I rushed out to fill up with diesel, then barbecued burgers for supper. At 7:00 P.M. we walked back to the main building for the evening's door prize awarding, and entertainment. Every Escapade includes an hour of door prize awarding every evening. By the end of the Escapade, almost every one will have won something. At the Escapade last fall in Goshen, Indiana, we didn't win anything, so maybe it's our turn this time ? The entertainment was a comedy / singing husband and wife duo from Canada. They were hilarious. Afterwards, we chatted with Lee and Marsha Squires, who were WorkCampers at C.A.R.E. at the same time as us. Lee had his knee replaced in Houston while we were all WorkCamping at C.A.R.E.. He was recovering very nicely until a week ago when he was filling the tank on his truck, and something in his knee went "pop". We got caught up on the C.A.R.E. gossip since we left at the end of January. Our friend Chuck's 17 year old dog Jack just died. Poor Chuck. Jack was all he had. We'll send him a card tomorrow.

DSK

March 19, 2005

March 19, 2005

Winterhaven, California

DAY 274

 

Today was sunny and warm.

Today was a lazy day, just resting and killing off a day before we head to Escapees Spring Rally / Escapade tomorrow in Imperial, California. I started the morning with my normal daily preventive maintenance procedure. Saturday's procedure includes checking the truck's air filter. Sheesh ! It was plugged with Monarch Butterflies ! While I had my head under the hood of the truck, a couple of neighbours from 2 sites down came over to visit. Guys about my age. Bikers, or more likely, ex-bikers. Retired bikers, perhaps ? Long, greasy hair, rotten teeth, filthy clothes, head to toe tattoos, an aversion to soap and water evidently. Welcome to California. They wanted to chat "trucks". They are towing an old fifth wheel trailer with a 1952 pickup truck. Not exactly my kind of guys. Not exactly my kind of demographics. After preventive maintenance, I finished fixing the damage to the fibreglass skirt caused by the tire blow out. The drill battery pack had charged over night, so the drill was functional again. I drilled where I needed to, then spent a long time looking for the baggie that I had put the frame brace mounting screw into. I couldn't find it < fume > ! I gave up looking, drilled slightly larger holes in the fibreglass skirt and the brace, and used a nut and bolt from my hardware supply. I checked out the water heater to see if I could figure out why it wasn't working on electricity. I dug out and read the manual. It seems likely that the heater element has burned out, or possibly the electrical switch needs to be replaced. In any case, I don't want to start tearing the water heater controls apart until I'm in the parking lot of an RV parts dealer like Camping World. We'll just have to use the water heater on propane.

After lunch I took a nap with the boys while Joanne did laundry. Then Joanne and I went to browse around this park's store which is much more of a museum than it is a store. It's filled with mining history, and antiques of all sorts. It's a rather interesting “hodge podge” collection of stuff, mostly from the 30's and 40's. After browsing around, we checked out the other facilities in the park. There is an interesting small chapel used for Sunday services for the park's occupants, and which seems to be popular for local weddings. There's a club house for social gatherings, a kitchen /café, a games room, a library and video room, etc.. The same stuff you would find at any large RV park, but in a kind of downscale, dune buggy crowd sort of style. This is a large park, covering quite a bit of desert land, but it's very different from most of the places we've stayed. Lots of seasonal occupants, with license plates from all over, including a few from Alberta and British Columbia. Bikers, large families of Mexicans, lots of dune buggies, dirt bikes, ATV's, and, of course, six figure RV's with affluent older folks like in every RV park.

We spent the latter part of the afternoon just sitting outside in the sun with Teddy and Bo. I don't know why Teddy likes to roll in gravel ! I wonder if it scratches his back, or if he’s taking some sort of dust bath ? There are more blossoms today, and hummingbirds visiting them. Spring in the desert is nice.

There are about a dozen TV channels we can get here, but only 3 of them are in English. Same thing with the radio. Most of what we pick up on the TV and radio is from Mexico, about 10 miles south.

DSK

March 18, 2005

March 18, 2005

Quartzsite, Arizona to Winterhaven, California

DAY 273

 

Last night when I lay down on the bed to read for awhile before undressing and going to sleep, I thought ; gee ... my back seems warm ? ! Uh-oh ! ! ! I took off my shirt, and as soon as my wife started to holler at me about stupidity, I knew ! Shouldn't have done all that work outside yesterday without a shirt on. Burnt to a crisp again ! At least I didn't burn my nose so badly that the tip would blister and fall off like I did in Costa Rica.

Today was warm and partially cloudy.

We left Quartzsite this morning heading south on Hwy. 95. I'm somewhat sad to say that I drove for about 75 miles in clouds of migrating Monarch Butterflies returning from Mexico. I think about 87 million Monarchs start the migration northward, and maybe 3 of them make it back to Canada. The rest are smooshed on the front of RV's ! I smooshed so many of them that the truck radiator is plugged with them. I'm going to have to brush or wash the radiator to prevent over heating. As we drove south from Quartzsite towards Yuma, through the Kofa Mountains, we noticed the Ocotillo had bloomed over night. We didn't even know that Ocotillo had flowers ! They're beautiful. Late in the day, just after we passed into California, I stopped and took some pictures. I’ve seen it spelled both Ocotillo and Ocotilla. I don’t know which is correct, or if both are correct.

Approaching Yuma, we came out of the Kofa Mountains down into the fertile Colorado River Valley. There were farms for the first time in a long time. Fields of vegetables like lettuce and cabbages. We stopped at a road side vegetable stand, and while Joanne bought produce, I took Bo to see the burros in a nearby corral. WHOA ! Bo didn't know such beasts existed ! I guess they didn't have burros back in Alabama where he comes from. Once at Yuma, we found our way to the Kofa Co-op SKP Park where we were planning to spend the next 2 nights. It was full, so we decided to keep heading west, into California. Just beside the Kofa SKP Park was a grove of lemon trees in full bloom. WOW ! ! ! The fragrance of a lemon grove in bloom in the spring is something everybody should experience once in their life time ! On the other hand, I have had such an attack of hay fever today that I had to take an antihistamine. We found a Wal-Mart in Yuma, and stopped for lunch and grocery replenishment. After lunch, while Joanne went into Wal-Mart to buy groceries, the boys and I napped. On the way out of Yuma we stopped at the Arizona Tourist Information Centre to pick up a new map of Arizona, for our travel file. The one we have been using for the last few weeks travelling across Arizona was torn in half, and beyond salvation. Surprisingly, when we crossed from Arizona into California a few minutes later, there wasn't a California Travel Information Centre. HMPH !

Yuma is in the southwest corner of Arizona, on the borders with Mexico to the south and California to the west. We took Interstate 8 out of Yuma into California. Shortly after entering California we were in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. This is an area of small mountains, made of sand. It's a popular area with the dune buggy crowd. At Winterhaven we turned off I-8 north onto Hwy. S-234 for 9 miles, then turned west on a gravel road named Gold Rock Ranch Road for about a mile and half to Gold Rock Ranch RV Park. This park is the site of an old, abandoned gold mine, sort of an old gold mining ghost town. It's quite an interesting place, with remnants and artifacts of the old gold mine strewn about, including a bunch of abandoned old mining trucks from the 1940's, left to rot in the desert. We found an old grave in the desert with a decaying wood cross. The horizontal member of the cross has a Mexican name on it, and the vertical member of the cross says “Reckless”. This is the area of the California desert where the first Star Wars was filmed. When we got here and set up in our site, we saw that the Prickly Pear Cacti had also bloomed today. Gold Rock Ranch RV Park has one of the most absurd and amusing rules we've ever seen in RV park rules. "Do not encourage illegal aliens or coyotes by feeding them." HA HA HA HA HA !

We've just discovered that the hot water heater is not working on electricity. We had to turn it on to propane to heat water to wash dishes after supper. Great ! Just what I needed. I'm not even finished the last big repair job and I've already got another one. Such is the life of full time RV'ing. The wear and tear on the rig is tremendous. Today is our nine month anniversary of full timing. We've travelled almost 24,000 kilometres / 15,000 miles.

DSK

March 17, 2005

March 17, 2005

Quartzsite, Arizona

DAY 272

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

I lost most of the day to dealing with yesterday's tire blow out, and the damage it caused. First thing this morning I resumed the repair to the damaged fibreglass skirt. I had done the rough repair of it yesterday, and today, after it had dried over night, it was ready to be filed down, then drilled for attaching the brace. I wasn't too concerned with the cosmetic perfection of it, because it's the underside of the skirt, and not really visible. I filed it down, then got out my rechargeable drill. The battery pack for the drill was out of "juice".

Damn ! What a piece of junk. Just before we started this journey, I bought a rechargeable drill and vacuum combination kit. Up until a couple of months ago, it was the vacuum Joanne used. She was constantly complaining that the battery pack would only hold enough power for her to use the vacuum for a short time. She would vacuum part of the trailer, recharge the battery pack over night, vacuum some more the next day, and so on. It would take her a few days to vacuum the whole trailer, which isn't that large. She got really fed up, and bought a new 120 volt small vacuum a month or so ago. I tossed the rechargeable vacuum, and put the fully charged battery pack with the drill. After sitting for a month without use, the battery pack was completely discharged. So much for drilling today.

I removed and straightened the middle frame to skirt brace. Then I rewired to the missing side marker light. Then I installed a new side marker light, without the lens. I had previously purchased a trailer side marker light assembly, when I needed to replace a broken lens, so I had the entire marker light assembly, minus the lens. I figured I might as well install this one, and get a new lens whenever I can. All of that took the whole morning, and a little bit of the afternoon. I stopped working, put everything away, washed up, had lunch, and then disconnected Dee-Dee from Harvey. The whole time I was working, there was a bunch of banjo playing going on around us. I discovered later from the couple in the motorhome next to us that this camping area is filled with bluegrass musicians here for a bluegrass music festival.

We drove into the town of Quartzsite, about 3 miles south. I went to a tire shop, and they took about 15 minutes to ascertain that they didn't have the size of trailer tire I needed < fume ! >. We drove to the Love's Travel Centre ( like a Flying J ) to use up a Love's $5.00 gas coupon we got from the Good Sam RV Club. We went to another tire shop. They had the right size tire, at a reasonable price ( lower than the first shop ), and had it mounted and balanced in less time than it took the first shop to figure out that they didn't have what I needed. We drove around Quartzsite a bit, checking things out, and trying to figure out what the huge attraction about Quartzsite is to RV'ers. We stopped at one of the many market areas, and wandered around for awhile. There are a whole bunch of these large flea market type areas in and around Quartzsite. Most of the vendors have left for the season, but we stopped at one that still had a dozen or so semi-permanent businesses, each under a large tent. We bought a bunch of small stuff. I replenished some maintenance supplies, like auto fuses and wire connectors and little disposable paint brushes. Joanne bought something that we didn't even know existed. We had been told that Quartzsite is the place to buy anything and everything you need, and even some stuff that you didn't know existed. Such was the case with Joanne buying bi-focal reading / sun glasses. She's very light sensitive, and always needs to wear sun glasses. She recently bought reading glasses, because she's having difficulty reading maps. She's been constantly switching back and forth between sun glasses and reading glasses while we're travelling, and she's navigating. Now she has sun glasses with a 2.5 X bi-focal reading glass component at the bottom. Neat !

We headed back to the trailer about 5:00 P.M.. I had just enough time before it got dark at 7:00 to rehitch the truck to the trailer, install protective cable cover that I bought today onto the new wiring that I did this morning, jack up one side of the trailer, remove the spare tire that I put on yesterday, install the new tire that I bought today, remount the spare onto the back of the trailer, lower the trailer off the jack, and put everything away < sigh >. The trailer's spare tire is one load range lighter than recommended for the weight of the trailer, so I prefer to keep it as a spare, for short term emergency use only. We took Bo for a walk to see if there was any bluegrass music being played nearby. There wasn't. With the small amount of energy I had left, I barbecued burgers for supper.

DSK

March 16, 2005

March 16, 2005

Congress to Quartzsite, Arizona

DAY 271

 

Today was sunny and warm.

There are two "pilgrimages" almost all full time RV'ers aspire to. One is to go to Rainbow's End in Livingston, Texas. Been there, done that ! The other is to go to Quartzsite, Arizona. Here we are ! I don't "get it" !

Quartzsite is the RV "boon dock" Mecca. A sleepy little town out in the desert, in southwest Arizona, becomes home to a couple of hundred thousand RV'ers every winter. Most everybody dry camps / "boon docks" out in the desert on BLM ( U.S. Bureau of Land Management ) land. Thousands of vendors set up shop out here in the many market areas. It becomes a large city for the month of January. Most of the activity has died out already. Most vendors are gone. Most campers are gone. I think the challenge lies in camping without services for an extended period of time. This place appeals to the solar powered, hippy / flower child crowd. I actually prefer to hang around with people who shower with soap and hot water on a daily basis.

This morning we hitched up and prepared to leave North Ranch. We paid our bill, and I drove the rig over to the maintenance garage to adjust the air pressure in the trailer tires. We left North Ranch heading a few miles north on Hwy. 89 to Congress. At Congress we turned southwest onto Hwy. 71 which we followed to Aguila. At Aguila we turned west onto Hwy. 60, and followed Hwy. 60 to Interstate 10. We got onto I-10 heading west, to Quartzsite. At Quartzsite, our first stop was the little tourist information centre. As we walked back to the rig after picking up some tourist information, I noticed the trailer seemed to be leaning to one side. The curb side front tire on the trailer was flat !

Well ... more than flat ! The curb side front tire was non-existent. The curb side of the trailer was resting on the rear tire, and the front rim. The rim was somewhat chewed up. I don’t know if a new tire can be put on it, or if it will need to be replaced. The “flapping” rubber remnants of the tire caused quite a bit of damage. The wiring to the trailer lower side marker light was stripped of its coating. The exposed copper wiring had short circuited, and blown the fuse in the truck for the lights. The trailer lower side marker was torn off. The front brace from the fibreglass skirt to the frame was all bent and twisted. The fibreglass where the front brace was attached was damaged. The screw through the fibreglass into the brace had torn through the fibreglass. The middle brace from the fibreglass skirt to the frame, between the two tires, was also all bent and twisted < SIGH >

While Joanne prepared lunch, I assessed all the damage, and tried to figure out the repair priorities. We ate lunch, and I began the first task of removing the chewed up rim with the remnants of the tire sidewalls on it, and installing the spare tire. Then I cut off the damaged wiring, taped the ends of the exposed wires, and clipped them up under the side steps of the trailer, out of the way until I need them when installing a new side marker light. Then I searched for the blown truck fuse. I knew where the fuse panel is under the hood of the truck, so I opened it up and began searching for a blown fuse. I couldn’t find one, so into the owner’s manual I went. Of course ... I should have known. Dee-Dee has two fuse panels ! I found the second fuse panel, and inside, the blown fuse. Now I had repaired enough to be able to drive from the tourist information centre to the grocery store. While Joanne shopped for groceries, I worked on straightening the front skirt to frame brace as best as I could.

After getting groceries, we headed north on Hwy. 95 out of Quartzsite to the first of the BLM camping areas, about 3 miles from town. We pulled into this desert camping area, and found ourselves a place to park. There are no defined camping sites. There’s not even defined roads. You simply pull off the highway into the desert, and drive around until you find a place where you’d like to camp amongst the thousands of other rigs. Okay !

While Joanne prepared supper, I began to work on repairing the damaged fibreglass. I think the fibreglass needs to be repaired, so that the brace can be reattached, before we travel any great distance.

DSK

March 15, 2005

March 15, 2005

Congress & Wickenburg, Arizona

DAY 270

 

Today was sunny, but cool and windy.

Teddy was sick this morning. Poor kitty. I think he must have been grooming himself to lick off the flea "spot-on" treatment we put on him yesterday. I wasn't feeling well this morning, either. I wasn't sick from licking the back of my neck, however. HA HA HA ! I did my regular preventive maintenance this morning, then took an empty propane tank for refilling. I thought more sleep would make me feel better, so I took a nap until lunch. After lunch, we drove to the town of Congress, about 4 or 5 miles north. We wanted to get haircuts. Congress was a smaller town than we thought, with only one hair stylist business. There was a line up waiting, so we decided not to wait. We looked for a service station to fill up with diesel, but Congress doesn't even have a gas station. There was a sign pointing down an old trail up into the mountains, to the old Pioneer Cemetery. We decided to go take a look. We drove a few miles up into the mountains until we reached an old, abandoned gold mine. There are quite a few old gold mines in this area. Most of them are long ago abandoned by mining companies, but some die hard individual prospectors known locally as "scroungers" still work the mines and nearby streams / "cricks" running down out of the mountains. Near the old mine is a cemetery from the mid-1800's that served the town that existed up by the mine back then. The path to the cemetery was a couple of miles of a path that got less and less defined the further up we went. I switched Dee-Dee to 4 x 4 mode and crawled, at idle speed, up and over and around a trail that was more horse trail than vehicle trail. It was an interesting old cemetery, and a very interesting "off road" experience. We were both very impressed with Dee-Dee's capabilities.

We drove down out of the mountain, and back into Congress. Joanne bought some fresh produce at a road side stand. We decided to drive south about 15 miles, past North Ranch SKP Park, back to the town of Wickenburg. Wickenburg was a much larger town than Congress, perhaps a population of a couple of thousand people. We both got haircuts, and filled up Dee-Dee with diesel.

We drove back to North Ranch, and had a great barbecue supper. I spent most of the evening working on updating and analyzing my investment files. We watched Amazing Race.

DSK

March 14, 2005

March 14, 2005

North Ranch SKP Park, Congress, Arizona

DAY 269

 

This morning was cloudy, a bit cooler, and windy. It rained for a few minutes this morning. A bit of rain makes the desert bloom even more. The afternoon was sunny and warm. The evening was cold and very windy. The forecast calls for snow tonight in the northern parts of Arizona.

Teddy and Bo woke me up at 6:15 A.M. again this morning. Teddy seems to think that as soon as the sun rises, he should be fed. His antics wake up Bo, who then wants to be walked. The two of them ganging up on me makes it impossible to sleep. I fed them, walked Bo, and went back to sleep. Harvey's windows have day / night shades ; a semi-transparent shade for day use, and an opaque shade for night use. We lower the night shades only in the bedroom, and always use only the day shades in the living area. I think I'm going to start lowering the night shades in the living area, to see if that keeps Teddy sleeping a little longer. If that doesn't keep him sleeping longer, my next step will be to buy solar / light shades for the roof vents.

This morning I phoned MTS Mobility, and paid the cell phone bill. Next winter I'm going to have to try a different service package. Our cell phone bills on a monthly basis are outrageous, and we rarely use the phone. Then I unhitched Harvey from Dee-Dee, and took Dee-Dee to adjust the air pressure in the tires. I check tire pressures and adjust them as necessary, on a weekly basis. Joanne joined me on an obedience training session with Bo, then we walked over to see Saguaro Park. Saguaro Park is a landscaped park on the edge of the RV park property. It was built by, and for, and is maintained by the residents in the park. This is a very large park of over 400 home sites. Some sites are RV home sites, some are mobile home sites, and some have regular “stick and brick” homes built on them. Saguaro Park is built around two old, named Saguaro Cacti. Sheba is about 145 years old. Methuselah is over 400 years old and is one of the oldest known Saguaros in Arizona. I'll walk back another time and take a picture of Methuselah for my blog.

This afternoon, I took a nap, then walked back to Saguaro Park to take a couple of pictures of Methuselah. I returned to the trailer and downloaded the photos from the camera to the laptop.

Then I took the computer over to the computer room, got online, and retrieved investment data. I'll update and analyze my investment files tomorrow. I spent some time playing with Bo, with his new "Foxy" retrieving dummy. Ducky is dead ! He sure loves those retrieving dummies. We have to always keep a spare in the cupboard. He destroys them at the rate of about one every two weeks. We administered monthly doses of flea "spot-on" treatments to Teddy and Bo, and heart worm medication to Bo.

At 6:30 I went to watch a session of the park's wood carving group. Tonight's gathering was a group of one. I chatted with the fellow as he worked on a wood carving of a fisherman. We chatted about Escapee organization politics. I don't think I'll be taking up wood carving any time soon. I returned to the trailer about 7:30 for dinner, and an evening of watching TV.

DSK

March 13, 2005

March 13, 2005

Mesa / Phoenix to Congress, Arizona

DAY 268

 

Today was sunny and hot again.

Teddy and Bo woke me at 6:15 this morning, asking for breakfast and to be walked. Usually I would feed them and walk Bo, and go back to sleep when they wake me that early, but this morning I stayed up and went for a shower. I didn't want to risk going back to sleep, and being late to meet with the men at the group area by 8:00 A.M.. This morning was the last morning of the rally, and traditionally there is a "hitch up breakfast" on the last morning of an Escapees rally. The Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 has a tradition of the hitch up breakfast being prepared by and served by the men, for the women. The men all met at 8:00 A.M. and began working on breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes. If I would have known how horribly most old men cook pancakes, I would have volunteered as one of the cooks. Instead I was a server. And a charming one at that ! Tea served correctly. Coffee cups never empty. Serve from the right. Take away from the left. Too bad the pancakes were all burnt, and the eggs were all cold.

Breakfast was over by 9:30, then it was time for closing ceremonies and farewells to new friends. We returned to the trailer and prepared to leave. We were on the road about 10:30. Out of Usery Mountain Park, then onto McKellips Road in Mesa, travelling west across Mesa and into Tempe where we got onto Hwy. 202. McKellips Road had mature orange trees growing along the side of the road, so I stopped and picked some for myself. How convenient. Through Tempe on Hwy. 202 and onto Interstate 10 in Phoenix, heading west, and partway across Phoenix, onto Hwy. 17 heading north. Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs are quite a large city. North on Hwy. 17 to Hwy. 74, west on Hwy. 74 to Hwy. 60, northwest on Hwy. 60 to Hwy. 93 at Wickenburg, a short distance northwest on Hwy. 93 to Hwy. 89, then a short distance north on Hwy. 89 to North Ranch SKP Park.

The desert is in full bloom, and it's astounding ! We arrived here at North Ranch about 2:30 P.M.. We set up in our site, had lunch, then I napped with Bo while Joanne got caught up on laundry. At 6:30 we went to the park's Sunday evening Ice Cream Social. We met and chatted with a couple from Washington state, north of Seattle. After eating ice cream, we weren't really hungry for supper yet, so I took the laptop down to the club house, to get online to retrieve e-mail and update my blog. I haven't been able to get online in about 12 days. I was third in line for the modem connection, and by the time I got online, retrieved e-mail, and updated 3 days worth of blog, somebody else was waiting for the phone line, and it was the time Joanne told me to be back at the trailer for supper. I signed off and went back to the trailer, planning to get back online late at night. Hopefully there won't be anyone else wanting the phone line late at night.

It's now about 10:00 P.M., and I'm sitting in a little outdoor phone booth / computer room beside the club house, updating my blog, and listening to coyotes howling nearby !

DSK

March 11 & 12, 2005

March 11 & 12, 2005

Mesa, Phoenix, & Apache Junction, Arizona

DAYS 266 & 267

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and hot. Temperature in the mid-80's.

After morning coffee and socializing, the rally group left for the Landmark Restaurant in Phoenix. Joanne and I "car pooled" with Marcel and Louise. Louise's English is a bit weak, and she appreciates having Joanne around to converse in French with. The road sides are all abloom with blue, orange, red, and yellow wild flowers. The late brunch / early lunch at the Landmark was nice. A very nice salad bar / buffet. It was a teensy bit over priced, I thought, and most everybody in our group thought that the 18% gratuity built into our bills was a bit outrageous. Over lunch we chatted with a couple from Idaho, who belong to the Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 because it's the closest Escapee chapter to them. She was his third wife. He lost his first wife to cancer, after 25 years of marriage. He lost his second wife to cancer, after 7 years of marriage. Sheesh ! I hope his third wife outlasts him.

From the Landmark we headed to the America West Airlines Training Centre at Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport. America West ( Air Traffic Control call sign "Cactus" ) is a regional air carrier based here in Phoenix, flying "hub and spoke" routes all over the southwest, as far north as British Columbia and Alberta, and as far south as Costa Rica. One of the members of the Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 has a son working for America West as a flight attendant, and he arranged for our group to be able to tour their pilot training centre, flight attendant training centre, systems and operations control centre ( flight planning and dispatch ), and emergency command centre. I found it very interesting, as did the other pilots in our group, of which there are quite a few, but Joanne was bored to tears. We drove back to Usery Mountain Park from Sky Harbour International during afternoon rush hour. I'm glad Marcel was driving and I could be just a passenger. Gee ... Montrealers drive the same no matter where they are !

We had a late "Happy Hour" when we got back to the campground. Joanne was one of the women who provided today's "Happy Hour" snacks. I taught Marcel and Louise 2 magic tricks, and they taught me some duo juggling. There's a number of different ways for two people to juggle together. I was able to marginally grasp a couple of the techniques. A new juggling technique is not the sort of activity that can be mastered in 5 or 10 minutes, even when one knows how to juggle. Marcel "tortured" a couple of women around a picnic table with my "magic genie bottle" routine, a trick I usually reserve for only young children. I didn't think that adults wouldn't "get it". Apparently I was wrong.

We had a light supper back at our trailer, then I went back to the group area about 7:00 to get the campfire started. I was tonight's campfire "host" again. After the campfire, one of the rally attendees brought out a telescope and we did some star gazing. I got to see Saturn and its seven moons.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and hotter. Temperatures in the high 80's.

I went to the group area fairly early this morning for coffee and toast. At 10:00 A.M. Joanne and I left for the 17th Annual Arizona Renaissance Festival & Artisan Marketplace, about an hour east of here at Apache Junction. The rest of the group left about 9:45. We were late this morning. We spent a long, hot day at the festival. The Arizona Renaissance Festival is a big event here, on each of eight weekends every February and March. The festival site is a huge venue. I would estimate it to be between 5 and 10 acres of parking lot, and an equal size of festival grounds. The theme is, of course, medieval times. The site has about 6 stages scattered throughout its grounds, with continuous entertainment at each stage, rotating every half hour. From stage area to stage area, are vendors, craftspeople, and artisans, all selling their wares. There's a variety of food and beverage booths, and children's carnival rides. The main arena stage has 3 performances a day of a jousting tournament. All entertainers, vendors, and employees are dressed in medieval costumes, as are a significant number of the visitors. Many of the local people attend this festival year after year, and are attired appropriately. Kind of like how those of us from St. Boniface dress up for the Festival du Voyageur every winter. The entertainers are comedians, jugglers, magicians, musicians, dancers, etc.. We attended a few comedy type shows, a magic show, an exhibition of tame, trained raptors such as falcons and hawks, and a ventriloquist act with his irreverent skeleton dummy named Ded Bob. We were surprised to see a magician with less magic skills than me, performing professionally. Marcel and Louise later told us they feltthe same about a juggling act they watched. The best show was a young husband and wife comedy team, performing as Ima Nutt and Mark Ease. We saw their 1:00 P.M show, and returned to their 4:00 P.M show which included their Border Collie, Bonehead. They had a gumball machine with a large lever. It was filled with dog biscuits. Whenever Bonehead performed as expected, he was allowed to run to the side of the stage and flick the lever, dispensing a biscuit to himself. Bo would like one of those !

We stopped at a Wal-Mart for a bit of grocery shopping on the way back to Usery Mountain. In the Wal-Mart parking lot, we bought some Girl Scout cookies. I referred to the little girls who were selling the cookies as Girl Guides, and their product as Girl Guide cookies. They looked at me as if I were from Mars. Down here they're called Girl Scouts. Talk about branding myself as a "foreigner" ! We got back to the trailer around 7:00 P.M., just at dark. We weren't hungry, so we headed over to the group area for an evening of musical entertainment, and a campfire.

I just returned from taking Bo for his bedtime walk. As we walked by a neighbouring motorhome, the 2 German Shepherds inside began to bark. That started a pack of coyotes howling, just a couple of hundred feet away in the desert. Needless to say, I walked Bo on a pretty short leash ! ! !

DSK

March 10, 2005

March 10, 2005

Usery Mountain Park, Mesa, Arizona

DAY 265

 

Today was another sunny, hot day. I like it !

Last night, for the second night in a row, we could hear coyotes in the campground. Their howls sound as if they right are at the trailer door, but I guess sound carries at night. Last year at this rally, a dog sleeping outside, tied to a rig was attacked by coyotes. I guess they're pretty bold.

I woke at dawn this morning, to feed the animals, and walk Bo as the sun rose over the mountain. Warm, light breeze, birds singing, it was almost enough to turn me into a morning person. Well ... almost enough, but not quite. I showered, and went over to the group area for coffee and socializing at 8:00. I was planning to join a led hike to the top of the mountain, leaving at 9:00, but the hike leader was this gung ho drill sargeant type. I'm not really keen on hiking up a mountain first thing in the morning at break neck speed, so at the last minute I decided to pass on the opportunity. About 10:00 some group games began. More my speed for the morning. I played a game of Ladder Golf in a group of four. I lost. Then I played Rummykub in a group of four which included Joanne, who had come over to the group area about 9:00. I won the game of Rummykub. We recently got that game, so it was an opportunity to learn how to play. Then I played another game of Ladder Golf. This time my team of two won, but I didn't make much of a contribution to the game. My team mate contributed 13 points before I finally managed to score a two to win the game. I passed on playing Marshmallow Golf. Around 11:30 I returned to the trailer to take Bo out for a walk and give him an opportunity to visit a bit. Some "pill" has requested that dogs be kept away from the group area due to allergies. It's beyond me how a dog in the general vicinity of an open picnic area can aggravate somebody's allergies, but ... I guess there has to be one in every group ! Joanne continued to play Rummykub, and won the next two games in a row. She liked the game, so maybe it'll be a game that we can enjoy playing together, like Scrabble. Great ... now she won't be asking me to play that damn Humzinger !

We had lunch in the trailer, then I took a short nap while Joanne prepared our contribution to the late afternoon communal dinner of finger foods. We returned to the group area at 2:30 for a "get to know one another" mixer game, followed by a men versus women game of beanbag baseball. I snuck out of that to go back to the trailer to prepare for my magic performance. I felt particularly nervous about performing today. I performed on Hallowe'en at Trout Lodge for a bunch of kids, and again at the C.A.R.E. Centre for a bunch of old folks, some of whom were Alzheimer's patients, but other than that, I haven't done magic for about 15 years. Performing for this large gathering made me nervous. The communal finger food dinner started about 4:30, and entertainment started about 5:30. First performers were Marcel and Louise Lemieux from Montreal who do a good duo juggling act. Marcel purports to be able to teach anybody to be able to juggle within a few minutes, following just a few simple instructions. He picked a member of the audience at random, and sure enough, was able to have him juggling within a minute or two. Good thing that the "randomly selected" audience member was already a juggler ... me ! HA HA HA HA HA ! Marcel has offered to teach me duo juggling tomorrow. My magic performance followed Marcel's and Louise's juggling. I made a few little mistakes, but nothing that I wasn't able to adequately recover from. All in all, it went quite well. Rather than watching me, Joanne watched the audience to guage their satisfaction with my performance. She thought my act was well received and appreciated. After my magic, Marcel and Louise performed again, this time as dancers. Finally, there was an act of really bad joke telling, à la George Burns and Gracie Allen. There was a short break, and we returned to the trailer to feed the boys and walk Bo, put away our leftovers and dishes, and sort out and put away my magic props. At 7:00 we returned to the group area, for campfire, music, and dancing. Tonight’s musicians were a man playing keyboards, and another playing saxophone and clarinet, performing mellow dance tunes from the 50’s and 60’s. The horn player was very good. Joanne even asked me to dance. I can’t recall the last time she asked me to dance. I never knew a good saxophone mellows her out that well. Maybe I should take up the sax ? NAHHH ! About 8:30, we left the campfire, and returned to the trailer to watch the last half of tonight’s episode of The Apprentice. Joanne went to shower, while I worked on this journal entry.

I tried to get online, through the cell phone, to update my blog, and retrieve e-mail. I made about 5 attempts to sign on, and each one failed, despite the phone showing a strong signal. I finally realized we must be in an area of only analog cellular coverage. Data connections won’t work.

DSK

March 9, 2005

March 9, 2005

Usery Mountain Park, Mesa, Arizona

DAY 264

 

Today was sunny and very warm, temperature in the low 80's. I couldn't help but think repeatedly today ; some people have to drive through the snow to their PET VALU stores, and unload trucks in the freezing rain ... but I don't ! HA HA HA HA HA < SNORT SNORT SNORT >

Teddy and Bo woke me early this morning to be fed and walked. Sometimes when they wake me this early, I feed them, walk Bo, and go back to sleep. Sometimes I just roll over and ignore them. Today I stayed up after feeding them and walking Bo. I watched the sun rise up over the mountain. I went to the comfort station and showered early. We're using the comfort station here for showering, since we don't have a sewer connection at our site, and we don't want to fill up the bathroom grey water tank too quickly by showering in the trailer. Without using the shower in the trailer, we can probably make it the whole week without having to drive to the dump station to dump the holding tanks.

I spent much of the morning working on a job I've been procrastinating doing for a long time. I worked on building our investment files in the MS Money software. I have the investment files built into spreadsheets, and when I update them, I manually transfer the data to MS Money. When I'm finished building them into MS Money, I should be able to update them directly into MS Money. Just before noon, we walked with Bo over to the group campground to see what's happening with the rally. The official start to the rally activities was at 2:00 P.M. today, but we wandered over early to check things out, and socialize, which is the largest part of any Escapee rally. We chatted with a new arrival, a couple from Montreal. We returned to the trailer for lunch, and as Joanne was preparing lunch, I took Bo out for an obedience training session. He's progressing well.

After lunch, we returned to the group campground picnic area where the rally officially began around 2:00 P.M. with registration ( and socializing ) followed by official opening ceremonies ( and socializing ), then the "adoption" of each first time Chapter 44 rally attendee ( like us ) by an "experienced" Chapter 44 member couple. We were "adopted" by Lil and Gord Casey from Pincher Creek, Alberta, in the southwest corner of the province, near Alberta's borders with British Columbia and Montana. After more socializing, the communal spaghetti dinner began at 5:30. Immediately after supper, I went back to our rig to get my campfire building supplies. I volunteered to be the "host" for tonight's campfire, as well as again on Friday evening. I got the campfire going by 7:00 P.M., in time for the evening's entertainment. Tonight was a woman singing and playing guitar, accompanied by another guitarist and a man playing the dulcimer ( tsymbaly to my Ukrainian friends ). The entertainment ended about 8:30, and we all sat around the campfire until about 9:30, "dissing" Americans. HA HA HA !

DSK

March 8, 2005

March 8, 2005

Usery Mountain Park, Mesa, Arizona

DAY 263

 

Today was sunny and very warm. The temperature was in the high 70's. The rest of this week is supposed to be sunny and getting even warmer every day. Spring has arrived here in southern Arizona.

Bo got humped today by a Lhaso Apso. HA HA HA HA HA ! Who's Top Dog now, Bo ? HA HA HA HA HA ! ! !

This morning I gave Bo a bath. After he dried, I brushed him thoroughly. He sure is a gorgeous dog right after he's bathed. Too bad his freshly groomed look only lasts about 10 minutes. Right after lunch, we went to the campground registration station and paid for our campsite for the rest of the week. We've decided to stay in the serviced part of the campground, as opposed to the unserviced group campground where the Alberta Chapter 44 Rally is being held. Our site is very close to the group campground, and we prefer to stay in the serviced part of the campground, so that we have electricity. If we're going to be leaving Teddy and Bo alone for long parts of each day while we attend rally activities, we want to be able to have air conditioning in the trailer. Well ... that ... and, of course, we wanted to watch Amazing Race tonight and The Apprentice on Thursday. After renewing our campsite, we headed down the mountain and into the city to buy groceries and fill up with diesel. When we got back, and put away the groceries, we took Bo and wandered over to the group campground, where most of the rally participants had already arrived. The rally officially begins tomorrow, but most of the attendees were arriving today. At 4:00 P.M. there was an unofficial "Happy Hour" gathering at the group campground ramada covered picnic table area. Everybody introduced themselves. I got recruited to perform a magic show at Thursday's Happy Hour. We thought we would be the only "visitors" to this Alberta chapter rally. There were actually quite a few non-Albertan Escapees attending this rally. It seems this annual Arizona rally hosted by the Alberta chapter is quite a popular event. As we were leaving the group campground area after "Happy Hour" Bo met a little white Lhasa Apso tied up outside his rig. They sniffed each other, tails wagging, then the Lhaso Apso mounted Bo. HA HA HA HA HA ... poor little Bo. Looks so good, and smells so good, right after a bath, he's irrestible to even other neutered dogs. Yes, yes ... the little white fluff ball wasneutered !

We barbecued burgers for supper. The days are getting longer. The weather is getting great. Barbecue season has returned for us. WOO-HOO !

DSK

March 7, 2005

March 7, 2005

Usery Mountain Park, Mesa, Arizona

Day 262

 

Today was perfect from a weather perspective. The sky was clear. The sun shone brightly. The humidity was low. The desert sun was hot. The cool breeze and altitude up high here in the mountains tempered it.

Joanne's favourite campground was Rondeau Provincial Park in Southwestern Ontario. I think this place is my favourite. Well ... I'm talking favourites on this trip. Nothing can ever supplant Rushing River Provincial Park as my all time favourite.

We got up early this morning, for a few reasons. First of all, we went to bed early, to conserve power, since we were dry camped. Secondly, we had to be at the campground registration station at 8:00 A.M. to see if a site was available for us today. If not there at 8:00 A.M., people on the waiting list for a campsite stay on the waiting list. Thirdly, we need to get back onto a "normal person schedule" to participate in the upcoming rallies, here, and at Escapade in California. We did get a site, to be available by noon. We got the rig ready to move. I took some great pictures in the overflow camping area we were in. We hiked over from the overflow campground to the main campground, to find our site and see if it had been vacated yet. It was empty, so we hiked back to the overflow campground. The scenery / landscape in this park is astounding. We're high on a mountain, in the desert, overlooking Phoenix. Saguaro Cacti are all around us. The wildflowers are blooming. The birds are singing loudly. Spring rains seem to make the desert happy. We drove over to the dump station to dump the holding tanks. We set up in our campsite. I set out the folding chairs. I opened the trailer awning. I hooked Bo up to his chain outside. I poured myself a Diet Cola. I sat down in my chair, put my feet up, and ... ZZZZZ ! ! ! There went the morning !

After lunch, just to balance things out, I took a nap ! HA HA HA ! After Bo and I had a nap, we went on a hike. Around the campground, and into the desert, following a marked hiking trail. Well ... Joanne and I followed the trail. Bo didn't !

I'm typing this at the picnic table in our campsite, as I barbecue supper, and watch the most magnificent sunset. The sun is positioned between two large Saguaros. The Cacti are in silhouette in front of the red horizon. WOW ! A song bird is sitting on the Ocotilla in front of me, singing very loudly at the setting sun.

I really like this part of the Sonoran Desert ! It's much more vivid than the Chihuahuan Desert in West Texas and New Mexico.

DSK

March 6, 2005

March 6, 2005

Casa Grande to Phoenix, Arizona

DAY 261

 

Today was sunny and warm.

I just took Bo out for an evening bathroom walk. What a beautiful vista here. We are dry camped in Usery Mountain Regional Park, in Tonto National Forest, in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. We are high up on the mountain, overlooking the lights of Phoenix below. Within 50 feet of the door of the trailer, there are Saguaro Cacti, Teddy Bear Cholla Cacti, Prickly Pear Cacti, Barrel Cacti, Ocotilla Cacti, and Palo Verde trees. The desert has erupted in bloom. All around are little orange, yellow, and purple wildflowers and blossoms and blooms, thanks to the recent rains. Apparently the desert only blooms like this once every few years, when the spring rains are just right. The right amount of rain at the right time. We're fortunate to be here at this time to see it.

We left RoVers Roost RV Park this morning. South on Montgomery Road to I-8, east on I-8 for a few miles to I-10, northwest on I-10 to exit 160, and east off the Interstate into the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. I wanted to drop into Kokopelli Winery in Chandler. They were advertising a special event this weekend. Wine tastings, blues and jazz music, Creole and Cajun foods. What could be better than some crawfish, washed down with some excellent Arizona wine, while listening to some Mississippi Delta Blues ? On the way through Chandler, we saw a Petco in a strip mall. We needed some pet supplies that are not available at Wal-Mart, so I wrangled the rig into this strip mall parking lot, and we went shopping ... with Bo. We needed to fit him with a muzzle, so he came along into the store with us. WOO-HOO ... Bo goes shopping. He liked it. We found the winery in “historic downtown” Chandler. We were expecting a winery adjacent to a vineyard, like the wineries / vineyards in the Niagara-On-The-Lake region. This was a retail winery outlet and restaurant. Their vineyard was 20 miles away. Their wines were very good. Their tasting portions were very generous. The tastings / admission fee of $7.00 allowed 6 tastings. The man pouring the samples was pouring a glassful for each sample. It’s a tad difficult to drive Dee-Dee and Harvey after six glasses of different wines ! The music group entertaining while we were there was a jazz group. I’m not much of a jazz fan. However, after six glasses of wine, even the jazz started to sound okay. For lunch, I had crawfish tails in a creamy white sauce, on bow tie pasta. Very, very nice ! After lunch, we had to go walk around “historic downtown” Chandler for awhile, to wear off the effects of all that wine tasting.

Through Chandler, through Gilbert, and through Mesa, all suburbs of Phoenix, to Usery Mountain on the northeast side of the city. The campground is full, so we are in the overflow area. Actually, the overflow area is full, so we are in the overflow overflow area.. I’m not sure if we’ll stay tomorrow, or leave and return in a few days. This is where the Escapees Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 Winter Rally is, starting in a few days. We’re here a couple of days early.

DSK

March 5, 2005

March 5, 2005

Casa Grande, Arizona

DAY 260

 

Today was one of those days where the weather changed on about an hourly basis. During the night, it rained. When it rains in the desert, it's usually not a peaceful, gentle rain. It's usually accompanied by a violent thunderstorm, with high winds and lightning. Last night was no exception. Bo is afraid of those kinds of storms. We think it's from having lived through Hurricane Ivan. Something else about desert storms. After an overnight rain ... the desert changes from brown to green ... and it blooms ! Little brightly coloured flowers all over, both on the ground cover and on the cacti. All the dried, brown ground cover turns green. It's quite amazing.

We slept late again, and after morning chores, we left for Casa Grande. First stop was Dave White Park & Golf Course, a municipal park in the northwest corner of Casa Grande, where the 27th Annual Arizona State Open Chili Competition was being held. Whooo ! They sure do take their chili seriously down here. We walked around the park from about noon to about 2:30 P.M., sampling many of the competitors' entries. During that time, the sun was shining, and it was warm. A "classic rock" band was playing in the park. There was an area of vendors' booths, selling all kinds of things. We both really liked the golf cart modified and customized to look like a miniature antique truck. Regular $18,000, today only $16,000 ! That says something about the demographics of this area, doesn't it ? Lots of affluent, old people with money to spend on hot rod golf carts to drive either around the golf links, or the RV park ! There was an antique and classic car exhibition. Nice '58 Rambler ! What a great afternoon. We cast our "best chili" votes for the Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort. What a grand effort by this large group from a very large RV park. We checked our camping directory later to find out that this resort has 1600 sites, which would put the population of this RV resort at over 3000 people. No wonder they had so many people involved in this chili competition. There were probably a dozen or so people dressed in chili pepper costumes hawking their booth, and passing out home made cookies that were shaped and coloured like chili peppers. They had much more chili available for sampling than any other competitor, and they were more generous with their sampling portions than the other competitors. Most importantly, their chili was the best !

About 2:30 we left Dave White Park & Golf Course, and headed for Casa Grande Municipal Airport, and the 47th Annual Cactus Antique Aircraft Fly-In. We were walking around looking at old airplanes when suddenly another storm blew in. From the time the dark, ominous looking clouds first appeared, until the rain and hail started, was about 20 minutes. Heavy rain, strong winds, and hail, brought the air show to an abrupt halt. Most people went inside the small airport. We walked in the storm back to where the truck was parked. We drove back into the city, heading for Wal-Mart to buy some groceries before we leave tomorrow. The streets were flooded ! They don't design their streets here to allow for rain water to drain. I guess they don't get enough rain to justify it. The traffic was moving slowly, because all the streets were like rivers. Even after we came out of the Wal-Mart, and the rain had stopped about an hour earlier, the streets were still flooded.

As I type this late in the evening, the rain has begun again. I wonder if these rains signal the beginning of spring in the desert ?

By the way, the cactus that jumped out and bit me the other day in Saguaro National Park was a Teddy Bear Cholla Cactus, also known as a Jumping Cactus. HMPH ... with good reason !

DSK

March 4, 2005

March 4, 2005

Casa Grande to Coolidge, Arizona & return

DAY 259

 

Another sunny, very warm day.

Another lazy, late start to the day. Hey ... why not ? I puttered around this morning with routine preventive maintenance, then read the paper while Joanne did some laundry. We had an early lunch, then set off for Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge, about 20 miles away. North on Montgomery Road to Hwy. 84 / Gila Bend Highway, then east into Casa Grande. We stopped at the Tourist Information Centre at the Chamber Of Commerce in Casa Grande to pick up some information on local tourist attractions. Then through town, and onto Hwy. 287 east, then north on Hwy. 87 to the town of Coolidge, where the Casa Grande Ruins are.

At the intersection of Montgomery Road and Gila Bend Highway, just a mile or two from RoVers Roost SKP Park is a luxury hotel and golf resort. It's just the sort of place our friends Sep and Susanna Liang from Kingston, Ontario would enjoy. I’m going to invite them to fly down to nearby Phoenix, and meet us here for a winter holiday next year. They can stay in the sort of upscale resort that Sep favours, while we stay nearby, here at RoVers Roost.

The Casa Grande Ruins are the remains of a Hohokam Indian village from the 1300's. They are an interesting, and significant, archaeological exhibition. Archaeology isn't really my “cup of tea”, however. To me, the most interesting thing was the Great Horned Owl sitting on top of the Casa Grande. Casa Grande translates from Spanish as Big House. The most significant archaeological component is, of course, the “big house”.

On the way back, our first stop was at a road side produce stand, where we stocked up on fresh local fruits and vegetables. Then we stopped at the Pinal County Fairgrounds to check out the huge Samboree RV Rally that’s going on there right now. Samborees are the RV rallies conducted / hosted by the Good Sam RV Club. We’re members of that club, but nowhere near as involved as we are with the Escapees RV Club. We wanted to take the opportunity to see what a Samboree was all about, since we were going to be near one. I had wanted to attend, but Joanne did not want to attend three rallies, one after another. From here we are going to attend the Escapees Alberta Roamers Chapter 44 Winter Rally at Mesa, Arizona, then on to Escapees Spring “Escapade” National Rally in Imperial, California.

After stopping at the fairgrounds, and walking around the Samboree site, we drove back into the city of Casa Grande, and through the city to their municipal airport. I wanted to find the airport, and judge whether or not I wanted to attend the second and final day of the 47th Annual Cactus Antique Aircraft Fly-In tomorrow. Probably ! After we attend the 27th Annual Arizona State Open Chili Championship. From the airport, back into the city to find Lupita’s Mexican Restaurant. We had seen an ad for this restaurant, and Joanne wanted to go. It’s only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. It’s owned by a woman named Lupita. All food is cooked by Lupita. No menu, just a buffet. All plates, cutlery, glasses, etc. are disposable. The greeter is Lupita’s son, about 10 years old. The waiter is another son of Lupita’s, about 12 or 13 years old. The Mexican food, and ambience, doesn’t get any more authentic than this. It was like sitting in on a big Mexican family dinner. Lupita keeps coming out from the kitchen to chat with the diners. Except for us Canadian gringos, all the other patrons seemed to be family or friends of Lupita’s. We returned to the trailer over stuffed a bit with Mexican food. Waiting for us were a starving cat and dog. Geez, guys, your supper is only an hour late !

Now our pets have pets ! ! ! Bo refuses to come to sleep without having his duck faced retrieving dummy ( Ducky ) in bed with him. When I climbed into bed, I tossed Ducky off the bed. Indignantly, Bo jumped off the bed, picked up Ducky, and jumped back onto the bed. I tossed Ducky down again. Bo brought him up again. Fine ! Sleep with your freakin’ Ducky !

DSK

March 3, 2005

March 3, 2004

RoVers Roost SKP Park, Casa Grande, Arizona

DAY 258

 

Today was sunny and very warm. The afternoon sun out here in the Sonoran Desert is hot !

We got a late, lazy start to the day. We often sleep in late on days when we're not travelling. We had a nice breakfast, enjoyed some sunshine, read today's newspaper, and firmed up our travel plans for March. We gave Bo a bit of a hair trim on his face. We couldn't see his eyes any more because of the long cascading hair on his face and head. The haircut didn't go particularly well <snicker >. Now we call him Funny Face Bo. I spent an entire long afternoon, and part of the evening, reviewing, sorting, and taking action on January's mail, which we just received when we got here. Dealing with a whole month's worth of mail all at once takes a long time. Much of tomorrow will also be taken up with taking action on the incoming mail. This evening I went to the club house, got online, retrieved e-mail, updated my blog, and retrieved updated investment data, which I'll work on tomorrow as well. Sometimes I seem awfully busy for an unemployed guy. After supper we watched The Apprentice on TV. Goodbye, Audrey.

When I walked Bo late in the evening I couldn't help but notice what a nice warm night it was, and how bright the stars are. We've noticed before how bright the stars are out here in the desert. I wonder if that's got something to do with how many scientific observatories seem to be located here in the desert areas. Does the low humidity, and absence of air pollution, make for clearer night skies ? Bo is happier here than in the last few places we were at. The ground has changed from gravel, with Goat’s Head Cactus needle clusters all over, to smooth, clean, hard packed sand.

DSK

March 2, 2005

March 2, 2005

Tucson to Casa Grande, Arizona

DAY 257

 

Today was sunny and very warm.

We left El Molino RV Park in Tucson this morning. What a dump. One of those places that gives meaning to the term "trailer trash". A muddy park full of old mobile homes, parked close together, with a few empty spots used for RV's. Each mobile home seemed to be inhabited by at least 3 generations of Hispanics / Mexicans, each trailer with at least 2 pre-school children.

We headed northwest on I-10. Every mountain we passed was covered in Saguaro Cacti, but only the mountain slopes. Either Saguaro don't grow on the plains, or the flat lands have all been cleared. Shortly out of Tucson we passed the Pinal Air Park, where airlines from all over the world store their surplus airplanes in the warm and dry desert. WOW ! What a lot of huge airplanes just sitting out there in the desert. We stopped at flying J in Eloy for diesel. Flying J was selling diesel for 10¢ a gallon less than the other stations, and the line up at each of the many diesel pumps was 3 deep with RV's and commercial trucks. A long wait for fuel ! After filling up, we continued on I-10 to I-8, then a few miles on I-8 to exit 167. A mile on Montgomery Road, and here we are at RoVers Roost SKP Co-op RV Park. This was the first SKP Co-op. We checked in, set up, had lunch, and then while I napped for a while, Joanne picked up the mail that was waiting for us here. We had our January mail sent here for us by my sister in Lorette and my cousin in Thunder Bay. The mail office here phoned us a couple of days ago to chastise us for having mail sent here without advising them in advance. I had advised them by e-mail, but apparently they recently changed Internet Service Providers and did not receive my e-mail.

At 3:30 I went to social hour. One of the new arrivals today, in addition to us, was a couple we had met at C.A.R.E. while the woman was there as a participant, recuperating from having both knees replaced. After social hour I puttered around with some cleaning and maintenance projects. I fabricated and installed a heat shield that I designed for our portable propane heater using a roof vent insulated solar shield I bought at Camping World the other day. Then I made a new "bowl within a bowl" water dish for Teddy and Bo. Joanne had made one shortly after we began travelling, using a small pet dish and a Frisbee. I made a larger version today. We need a larger water dish, and larger "spill pan" to accommodate Bo and his sloppy drinking. What a dog !

This evening, I read for awhile, and worked on the photos I took yesterday in Saguaro National Park. I think they're stunning. Late in the evening I went to the club house to get online and update my blog, but apparently this is one of those retirement communities that rolls up the sidewalks at 8:00 P.M..

DSK

March 1, 2005

March 1, 2005

Huachuca City to Tucson, Arizona

DAY 256

 

Today was sunny and warm.

We left Huachuca City this morning heading north on Hwy. 90, to Interstate 10, then west on I-10 to Tucson. At I-10 exit 264 in Tucson we got off to shop at Camping World. After buying a few items we needed at Camping World, we were back onto I-10 to exit 255. At exit 255 we got off for an RV Park we had picked out, El Molino. We checked into El Molino, unhitched, had lunch, then headed out for Saguaro National Park. As we were approaching Tucson, we began to see Saguaro Cacti here and there in the desert. The Saguaro Cactus is the quintessential desert. It's what people think of when they think of the desert. They're the tall cacti, often with "arms" out at the sides. Think of the character Spike in the comic strip Peanuts.

WOW ! ! ! As we passed out of the west side of Tucson, via Gates Pass Road, we began to see "forests" of Saguaros. Tucson is surrounded by mountains on all 4 sides of the city. The mountains are covered in Saguaros. On the west side, where we went, first we passed through Tucson Mountain Park, a municipal park, I think, then we were into Saguaro National Park. We drove the six mile gravel scenic loop road through the park.

We were amazed at the size of the Saguaro Cacti. They are often 25 feet tall ! Out first photo stop was to take a picture of Joanne standing with Bo in front of a tall Saguaro, to give perspective. As I was snapping the picture of Joanne standing in front of the Saguaro with Bo in her arms, Bo leaned over to sniff a nearby cactus. Joanne leaned away just as he was about to get cactus needles in his nose. I took the photo, then as I was walking back towards them ... OW OW OW OW OW ! ! ! I brushed up against a cactus with multiple "arms". At the end of each arm was a lemon sized ball filled with unbelievably sharp, barbed needles. Just brushing against it broke one of these lemon sized balls off, with the needles piercing my jeans, and embedding a bunch of the barbed needles into my knee. OW OW OW OW OW ! ! ! I tried to pull my pant leg away from my leg, and the pain was severe ! I gently grabbed some of the needles on the ball, and slowly pulled it away from my pant leg. The needles poking through my pant leg and into my knee broke off, and the ball embedded into my hand. OW OW OW OW OW ! ! ! We walked back to the truck with me hobbling with a knee full of needles, and this cactus ball embedded against my hand. I shook my arm hard, and the ball broke off, leaving about half a dozen barbed needles in my hand. I pulled the needles out of my hand, and out of my knee. OW OW OW OW OW ! ! ! Each little needle hole bled profusely, itched, and swelled. They bled, itched, and stayed swollen for about half an hour.

As we drove through Saguaro National Park, stopping frequently to take pictures, I decided to touch of these needled balls wearing leather work gloves. I touched it, and the ball immediately broke off the plant, with the needles imbedded into the leather. I shook my hand, but it wouldn't break off. I asked Joanne to try to gently hold one of the needles, while I pulled my hand away, to break the ball off my glove. Oh, it broke away all right. And immediately embedded into Joanne's hand. Ooooops ! Seemed like a good idea at the time.

After driving all the way around the scenic loop through the park, we made our way to a Wal-Mart where we replenished groceries. Then back to the trailer at El Molino, for a late supper, and the first episode of a new Amazing Race. WOO-HOO !

DSK