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