Interstate 40; Arizona to Oklahoma

We picked up I-40 at Kingman, AZ on Friday and arrived in OKC this evening, Monday. Now to arrive in Oklahoma two days after loosing in the first round of the NBA playoffs is somewhat humbling, but oh well! We are here for several reasons; it's our first time in this part of the state, we've wanted to see the Federal Building Memorial, and best of all, our nephew, Matt, is graduating from OU Law School.

We had some interesting stops along the way, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Pampa.  After a fairly big lunch in Kingman, we had resolved to eat a salad at home that night but that was before we stopped at Black Bart's RV just east of Flagstaff. The RV park is in the OK variety, but Black Bart's Restaurant and Musical Review is way better than that. The waitstaff all sing with the awesome piano player. At times they took turns on stage, other times they all broke into song wherever they happened to be. Great fun and good salads too!

We stayed at High Desert RV just west of Albuquerque, a place we have enjoyed before. We got in early enough to have a homecooked meal and see the full moon rise over the mountains.

Pampa was our first stop back in Texas for a year. We stayed at the city park which turned out to be great! It seems that there is so much oil field work in the panhandle that it was available only because they limit stays to 14 days. We were in Pampa to get the vehicles inspected and get our driver's licenses up dated. Mine was expired and could have been handled on the internet, but we were here anyway and I felt like having a horrible picture taken today. Russell had learned that he has been driving with the wrong type of license for an RV our size. He studied all the way over and made a 90 on the written test. He also had to take a driving test and did very well on that one also. The folks at the DMV were very nice and helpful.

We'd had mail sent to Pampa because we expected to be there several days. Fortunately it was already in this morning. The post office in Pampa is a beautiful old building that I really enjoyed visiting. We had expected to be at least 2 days getting all of these things accomplished. We were gone before noon! It was really amazing to have all of these chores; 2 vehicles inspected, a driving test, a license renewal, and mail in a single morning. Small town America is great! Coming out of the post office a tall cowboy was walking in. He smiled, tipped his hat and said, "How'r yew this mornin?" How could you say anything but "GREAT!"

We had lunch in the town of McLean. Now unless you are related to Russell, you probably never heard of it, but Russsell's Aunt Irene, Uncle James and their family lived there for many years. We visited with a couple at the Shell station, which has THE BEST HAMBURGER IN TEXAS, who remembered James owning the Chevy dealership. He asked about all of the kids. Of course the kids are all about 60 now, but it was fun to share a memory.

End of the Rainbow!

My soggy walk this morning was rewarded with a beautiful rainbow coming out of the valley and stretching out beyond the hills. Further examination led me to find the rainbow's end in a field. As picture shows, there is no pot of gold at this end, maybe the farmer on the other side of the hills got the tangible rewards. My reward was the glow in my soul at such a rare sighting. The owner of this field will hopefully be blessed with a bounty of crops due to today's rains.

We are in the small, pop 1000 on a good winter day, town of Aguanga CA. Now for those who don't know, it is 17 miles east of Temecula in the coastal hills. Still in the dark? Temecula, a city of about 100,000, is just about mid way between San Diego and Los Angeles on I-15. This park, Jojoba Hills, sits just north of Mount Palomar. If the clouds clear, we plan to drive there today or tomorrow.

Jojoba Hills is a Escapees Co-op, the jewel in the crown! These folks have it all, including a long arm quilting machine! They have dinner dances a couple of times a month with a live band. The views from the community center hall and pavilion are out of this world breath taking. Tennis courts, horseshoes, putt-putt, extensive library, full size swimming pool, 2 hot tubs, a sauna in both men's and women's restrooms at the pavilion. They have citrus fruit trees, olive trees, various gardens and all kinds of plants from agave to pine. The mechanics shop is large enough to pull in any size RV with tools and equipment to just about do a re-build. The adjacent wood shop would have our son, Kyle, hooked forever. They have it all and more than enough room to make use of it.

Yuma Surprise

We enjoyed a week in Yuma, accomplishing most of what we set out to do. "Historic Downtown" isn't so much, unless you consider that most of the stores are history and probably have been for the last decade. We did enjoy lunch at Lute's Casino. The non-casino restaurant and pool hall has been in operation for over 100 years and does serve a mean hamburger. After placing our order, we found that the speciality of the house is potato tacos, a new one on us. They looked great and calorie-laden. The piano man was very entertaining as is the eclectic decor.

We really enjoyed a walking trip across the border to Los Algadones. Passports are safely tucked away in Las Vegas, but we went anyway with assurances from the border patrol guy on the phone that we would be fine. I got a new hat, vanilla and a purse, Russell got meds and Tequila. We had all we wanted to carry, so planned what to buy on the next trip over. The border patrol officers checked our docs, we had printed off copies of birth certificates in addition to our licenses. There really was only a slight delay, not the horror stories we'd heard. Just as I was walking away, the officer I talked to said, "Don't come back until you have your passport!" I completely believed him! We'll make another trip next winter to catch those other purchases.

The Territorial Prison was another nice surprise. It is a fraction of the facility that existed for 33 years around the turn of the last century. It was complete built by the inmates, a total of over 3000, and very advanced for its time, but overcrowding caused its closure in 1908. The buildings were later used as temporary housing for the high school at which time the mascot became, and still is, The Crims.

We walked along the Gila and Colorado Rivers which converge at Yuma. We walked under the single lane Ocean To Ocean Highway Bridge. And through the very popular park that provides sandy beaches along the Colorado River.

We were not able to see the 2 military installations, so that too will wait for another trip.

Yuma, AZ

For the last week, since the rally, we have been at Rovers Roost in Casa Grande. Most of that time I was sewing...YEAH! Russell was working, but not having as much fun. Both of us were enjoying the park and the town. I talked to several park folks about other SKPs (Escapees') parks. Everyone recommended that we come to Yuma. They said the SKP park, town, and Mexican border town of Los Algodones were all very safe and well worth a visit.

Driving to the Escapees Park southeast of town we passed the Marine Corps Air Station. It was fun to see a few jets land, and plan to take a tour if possible. We had a late lunch and then went to the downtown visitors center. What we found out was that there is even more here than advertised.

The vast irrigated farmlands were no surprise as we drove in; we've been on this stretch of I-8 before. This is the route we drove coming back from San Diego a few years ago. This is a continuation of the Imperial Valley of California. The bounty of produce from this region is courtesy of the Colorado River and its many irrigation channels. We walked along the banks of the river and stood at the point where STEAMSHIPS docked here! The safest way to transport goods to the southwest was out of San Francisco, around the Baja, through the Gulf of California and upriver on the Colorado. Today we walked the grounds and museum of the Quartermaster Depot.

The town appears to be prosperous, clean, and very historic. We hope to visit the old town, the Territorial Prison, a few produce markets, the Yuma Proving Ground in addition to the MCAS. That is certainly a full week!

Phoenix Rally

I kept thinking that I should write a post each day of the rally, but just lacked the energy at the end of the day. This is really good news, however, because several days later, you just get the highlights instead of that blow-by-blow description that gets much too detailed!

The basics:

• We managed to dry camp for 5 nights without water refill, having tanks emptied and electric provided only by our generator. We were completely self contained. Many folks do this for weeks at a time, but this was a first for us.
• We attended our first rally and really enjoyed it. The seminars, interaction with other campers, and exhibits added to our knowledge of RVing.
• We met many new folks and hope to stay in touch with them. We have new friends in Washington state, Massachusetts, New Mexico and British Columbia.
• Russell installed a new solar panel to help give our new house batteries a boost. A rally is a great place to do this because the vendors either have what you need right there, or manage to get it for you in a timely manner. There is also a wealth of tech help to draw from.
• The entertainment was truly entertaining, and geezer rated. Shows started at 7 and were over just after 8, just the right time to drag our old, tired bodies back to the rigs.
• We left without buying a new rig, not that many salesmen didn't try to change that!

A few details:

• Over 3,800 rigs were camped at the show, which was held at the Phoenix International Raceway.
• Assuming 2 people per rig, and guessing at the number of people who got day passes, there must have been about 10,000 people in attendance.
• All of the campers got a 4-digit number. A total of 4 people each had the same number. The game was to find at least 1 other person with your number. I found 2! We each got a t-shirt and a chance to win one of the many big prizes. No wins here!
• The best seminar we attended was led by a personal trainer who taught about a low impact approach to walking. She was great and I walked with her each morning. The class grew each day!

The layout:

• Picture a Nascar track. There is a large oval infield with a fenced perimeter. Next is a track, also fenced, then the grandstands are on 2 sides of the track. Of course there is lots of parking for all the folks who come to fill the grandstands. All of that fencing is designed to keep people safe and out of designated areas. There is 1 tunnel to allow people into the infield.
• The rally was set up in the infield. That meant that all traffic (trams, golf carts, vendors, RVs, workers, campers, day-trippers) was routed through this 1 2-lane tunnel! You can see the problem! Campers were arranged throughout the parking lots. Trams ran all day and into the evening to transport folks to and from, but we found it was just as efficient to walk. There was a single fenced-off lane for pedestrians.
• Phoenix! Saturday's temps were in the 90's! The other days weren't as hot, but OMG, Saturday was not good!  The huge tents that housed exhibits and seminars could only open the flaps and pray for a breeze. The mornings and evenings were very pleasant fortunately.
• The grandstands were only open in the evening for the entertainment. Handicapped seating was on the track, the rest of us were in the stands, behind the fence. The first night, getting out was a nightmare because of the way they were funneling everyone to specific tram pickup points. The remaining nights split the traffic flow in two directions; tram riders and walkers. That eased congestion and frustration immensely!

Methusala!

We met Methuselah on this first leg of our trip. We are at the Escapees' Rainbow park in Congress, AZ. Like all Escapees' parks, it is friendly, well planned, and fairly in the middle of nowhere. The area had snow on the ground yesterday morning, but had melted by our arrival about 2pm. The peak to our northeast still has a crown of white, but less than it had this morning. I hate to sound like we have sat around watching snow melt, but there are worse ways to spend a day!

Now, about Methuselah! She is a saguaro cactus said to have started life about 1600. At 4000 years old, she is very stately and home to dozens of cactus wren, sort of an ancient condo. Methuselah sits in a beautiful cactus garden on the north side of the RV park. The interesting paths circle around rock gardens of a wide variety of cacti, each labeled. Rabbits and other small burrowing animals live in the garden and throughout the complex. We really enjoyed our walk and the houses in this neighborhood.

North Ranch, the name of the RV park, has about 100 RV hookups and about 400 housing sites. The houses are all well kept, varying in size from single wides to roughly 2000sf. An interesting building restriction; you can only have 1 bedroom, but numerous dens! This is done to avoid having an age restriction in the community, but amounts to about the same thing.

Tomorrow we head to Phoenix and our first Rally. We will be dry camping for 5 nights, another new experience. We have been looking forward to this trip, now I'm starting to think about the logistics of showering and such basics.

Las Vegas Hikes

In the last month here in Vegas we have done a lot of walking, mostly local or city parks, but 3 of our walks were actually in the category of hikes. I classify a hike as any walk that doesn't look silly doing it in boots, using a walking stick.

Our first adventure started with a drive northwest of town down Kyle Canyon Road toward Mount Charleston. Our roadside picnic was perfect, with a snow-capped Mount Charleston in the west. We picked our way up a canyon. We found scrub, iron rock, a red Chevy car hood and a foot path that circled the hill. We met a beautiful horse and his owner. The day was just perfect; temperature, scenery, drive, and hike difficulty.

Our next adventure was a bit less perfect. We drove northeast of town, out Lake Mead Blvd. This road does go out to the lake, we'll have to do that one day. We stopped at Sunrise Peak to scale a small mountain that promised to give a wonderful view of Vegas at the top. Russell was concerned that I was not up to the steep grade, but I really wanted to see the view at the top. The rocky path goes straight up until you reach the switch backs near the top. Russell was very motivating! He kept me with one foot in front of the other with encouraging comments and short-term goals; "we'll stop for water in 25 yards," "the view from up here is great," "we're almost there," and my very favorite - "it's flat, all the way to the top!"

Somewhere along the way I remarked that sometimes you get to the top only to find that there is another peak invisible from below. Sure 'nough, we reached the peak to see that the view was that of another peak; down and back up again. Russell could have easily made it, but I was done! Except of course for the trip back down. The entire hike was less than 3 miles - it felt like 20 or 30! I was 2 weeks recovering, seriously!

Our hike this last week was back out to Sunrise Peak, but on a less daunting trail. We were rewarded with a panoramic view of Las Vegas after only 1/4 of a mile up and out. We had a nice rocky perch to admire the city and Nellis AFB. Fighter pilots put on an airshow that included a Stealth Bomber. It really was great fun to have our own private show.

Today we drove north to the Clark County Shooting Range. We were greatly impressed with the size and quality of the facility. It is right at the foothills and therefore provides a great view of the city.

This weekend we leave again for a month. This trip is to Phoenix for our first RV Rally, then on to a tour of Escapee's parks in the southwest. We have been looking forward to getting back on the road.