DESERT GOLFING

Dec 31, 2017

Across from our park is a desert golf course. I have never golfed, but can't imagine hitting in the ball in the dirt and sand.  There is another golf course not far from here that is a regular course with all green grass.  I would think people would go there. This one  is  9 holes. 

THOUGHTS ABOUT EARP

DEC 31, 2017

We left Earp/Parker  yesterday, but wanted to comment about a few things.

In Parker,  we have to buy our water. It is 25 cents a gal. There are water dispensaries at the campgrounds and in front of every store.  You never realize how much water you use, between cooking and drinking, until you have to buy it. We go  thru about a gal a day. The first morning we were there I forgot and used it right out of the faucet. It tastes terrible, had to spit it out. The dish drainer turns brown and yellow in spots. UGH!!! You also have to buy it in Southern AZ, but, we aren't going there this year. We keep 3-4 empty gal jugs with us for the water.

Also, a note on recycling. In Renton, we recycle everything so much so that we have a very small garbage can.  Washington recycles alot more than another state. On the way down, no campgrounds recycled. At Menifee we were able to recycle everything.  At Parker, nothing but aluminum cans. Since we don't drink pop or beer (in cans),  we can't recycle anything. . Here, in Cottonwood, we again recycle everything.  Amazing how much garbage we have when there is no recycling. 

Had a good time in Earp/Parker. It is one of Denny's favorite parks, but we also visit our friends from Windsor, Canada. They stay the entire winter there. We met them several years ago. That's one of the nice perks about traveling, we meet so many people from all around the U.S. and Canada.

The average temperature was about 75, so we spent alot of time in the hot tub because our next stop was going to be much  colder. The picture below shows you our we spend most evenings

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I have some Christmas decorations, but I don't want to take up alot of storage for something that is up only a few weeks. Showing you some RV's that have alot of decorations.

There is  also a huge Santa in the back on the right side that is on the ground.

ON TO EARP, CALIFORNIA

Dec 21, 2017

Last Saturday we left Menifee to go to Earp, California. Had a great time in Menifee. We did a little geocaching, a little wine tasting, a little reading and a little relaxing.  Our reading consisted mostly of reading guide books on Italy and Ireland (more on that latter). 

Earp is a tiny little town of about 300 people.  It is on the Colorado River, which is the state line for AZ and California. It  was named after Wyatt Earp. For all the places Wyatt Earp lived,  this is the only place he actually bought a house. You can still see it.

One thing about being on the State Line is that my iPhone never knows what time it is. Eventho we are  technically still in Ca,  Earp goes on AZ time because we have to go  to Parker, AZ. for everything. AZ time is an hour ahead. When we first got here, my phone changed to AZ time. For the next 3 days, it went back to Ca time. Now, yesterday it went back to AZ time. Can be confusing if I forget!

There is absolutely nothing in Earp, so everyone has to go to Parker for groceries,  the drugstore and other misc shopping.  It is only 6 miles away across the river.  We came here to visit friends that we met several years ago from Windsor Canada. They winter here every year. Will probably doing basically the same thing here as Menifee except no wineries for wine tasting. Luckily we brought our own wine to tide us over. HA. 

It was 76 yesterday so went to the hot tub for the first time this trip. Today we are going to the movies to see the new Star Wars.  There is a casino here with a Movie Theatre.  Movies are $5 for seniors, can't beat that. Sometimes there are benefits to being old!!

Showing some pictures of tiny RV's, can't imagine living in them for any length of time. Certainly smaller than our 35 '.

This RV is on the opposite scale. Some RV'ers love their "toys" This RV is called a Toy Hauler. Notice the back end of this RV comes down. Inside are usually ATVs, motorcycles or even another car.

Notice the back of this truck is filled with an ATV. Can't imagine how they got it up there!!

Picture of us wine tasting in Temecula. We belong to this winery, if we lived in the area, we could get  free wine tasting EVERY day. This winery specializes in Champagne, my favorite !

We see different styles of this flag on RV's that winter here. They can spend 6 months here, hence the split flag. Or sometimes it's because there is one person from Canada and one person from the U.S.

FIRES AND THE SANTA ANA WINDS

DEC 11, 2017

Some people have been wondering if the fires have affected us. Happy to say, no. Most of the fires are north/northwest of L.A. and in L.A. along the coast. We are in Menifee, which is about 75 miles southeast.  Last Wed. we went to Hemet,  a small town northeast of here. It started as a beautiful day, a little windy,  but not bad. We were out geocaching. In the afternoon, the winds came up suddenly and we had to force the car door open. Couldn't even hold your head up. We got out of there, decided that was enough and headed home. I  had sand in my ears and I could even taste it in my mouth.  It was fine on the way home, but that evening and all the next day into the night, the Santa Ana winds were gale force. The RV was a rocking' and a rollin'.  There were branches and trees down all over the park.

Thursday, the Liberty🔥🔥 fire started  in Murrieta. YIKES, a little close, only 5 miles south of us. Lucky for us, the wind was going south to Temecula, not north. If it had turned, we would have had to probably evacuate to Palm Springs a little earlier than usual.  The Liberty Fire was the smallest of them all, only 300 acres compared to others at 250,000 acres.  It is now fully contained. The  other 5 are not. Can't imagine  how it is for all those people that have lost their homes. 

We had planned on going to Temecula on Friday for wine tasting, so I decided to call to see if they were open and how the smoke was.  Blue skies and no smoke, so off we went. It was hard to believe when we got to the wine country, that there  was even a fire close by🍷

It is now back to beautiful weather with no wind.  Not to make you jealous, but,  it has been almost 80 for the last few days, with lows in the 40's.  I can't tell a lie, YES, I told you about the weather to make you all jealous!! HA. Wish you were all here to enjoy it.

Amazing that on the west coast,  it is all  about fires, the south and east coast, unexpected  snow. 

LOVE IT!!

DEC 7 2017

We had to get a new printer for the RV this year. I had seen one a few years ago, but, at that time, didn't need it.  Our house printer quit, so I moved the RV printer to the house. Perfect excuse to get the one I have been wanting. It is the tiniest thing, but works great.  It is only 7.5" x 12.5" x 2.5" high. Copies and prints pictures just like the big boys. Just had to show you my new toy. Certainly takes up alot less storage than the old one. Storage is at a premium in an RV, so small is a good thing.

The lady in the next site to us told me about another space saving thing. It is called WashEZE. It is a fabric sheet that has detergent, softener and static control all in one. You just throw the sheet into the washer, then when done, throw it into the dryer.  No need to bring separate detergent, brighter and softer with you. she says it works great, but, I'm not sure I'll try it. Seems impossible 1 little sheet does it all. I looked it up and it is big in the military deployments, RVer's, people on vacation and living in other countries. 

The sheet on the right is new, the one on the left is what it looks like after use. The new sheet feels gummy and a little strange. After use, the lady just uses it in her house as a duster or cleaning cloth. Still undecided, but had to show you. Kind of strange to me!

CHRISTMAS IN THE MONSTER

DEC 5, 2017

Put out our Christmas decorations.  Eventho our RV is considered big (hence the Monster nickname), it certainly doesn't take long to decorate, half hour at the most. There is an attached end table. Except for the tree, I put all of the decorations in there. If it doesn't fit, I don't take it.  Everything is soft, no breakables. 

This is the little end table where all the decorations live. Notice the sun coming thru the window! Yea

MENIFEE, CALIFORNIA

November 25, 2017

Out first go to stop on our travels is always Wilderness Lakes at Menifee, California. We like it because there are canals going thru the park. When you back into a spot. most of the time you are on the water. Unfortunately, this is the first time we have been here when we couldn't get a water spot. This year is the busiest I have ever seen here, luckily, we at least got the last 50 amp site. We do  have a view of the water at least. Our favorite spot became vacant yesterday. I hinted to Denny about moving over, but he said NO! I know it is alot of work to move into another spot but I was HOPING!!

Last Nov/Dec when we were here, it was so cold we wore our heavy coats and long pants.  When we first got here, it was T shirts, capri's and flip flops. Weather turned on us and now we are back to sweatshirts. We have a propane fire pit and we used it everyday last year.  Finally put it out again this year.  You never know from year to year about the weather.  Tomorrow is suppose to be 75, Sat 80. Can't wait.

The first 2 pictures are from this year,  the rest from last year, but I wanted to show you the canals and all the water fowl walking around the park.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN........

DEC 3 2017

We left on Nov 20th to start our new snowbird adventure down south. For the first time, we started  in the rain. We have been doing this for several years and this is the first time that happened. It rained all the way to Redding, CA, but hasn't rained since. It wasn't raining too much in the Siskiyous Mountains.  Rain is doable, snow is NOT.  That is always the biggest hurdle for RV'ers when they start out "can we get thru the Siskiyous without snow". It is the highest mountain pass on I-5. We have had only one year that it was snowing on the Siskious. We went around on 101, but will never do that again. Very curvy, steep and pouring rain. If it snows again, we will just wait it out at a campground in Ashland, Or.

On our 2nd night, we stayed at one of our favorite parks in Bakersfield, Ca,  Orange Grove RV. The reason we like it is that it is the middle of the orange groves. When oranges are in season, you can pick as much as you want at your site. There are 2 trees on each site. I always pick a whole bag. Amazing how fresh they are compared to the ones you buy at the store. 

Not sure how often I will be posting our adventures, maybe alot, maybe not. It all depends on what we are doing and if it is interesting enough to tell you about.   Don't want to bore you too much! Since we have been doing this for several years, you always have to shake it up a little or it would get too boring. Plan to go to a few different places. So far we have gone on  2 different roads than usual. One a good way, one not. Oh well, you never know til you try.

Hope you enjoy my blog this year as much as I  will enjoy telling our friends and family what we are doing. 

HOME AT LAST

May 23, 2017

We arrived home on Thursday May 11th.  I think I could live full time in an RV but Denny isn't ready for that. Six months is  enough for him.

Here is a synopsis of our trip:

 Left Nov 24, 2016

Returned May 11, 2017

Gone 5.5 months

Stayed at 13 campgrounds that we had been at before

Stayed at 5 new campgrounds that we had never been to

Spent $3039.89 on campgrounds

Spent $1353.72 on diesel

Because we have a large 57 gal tank, we only had to  stop 16 times for diesel 

Our most expensive diesel was $2.93 in Bakersfield, CA

Our cheapest diesel was $2.36 in Yuma, AZ

Drove 7162 miles

We really enjoyed our trip this year. We stayed in a couple of areas we had never been to:

Yuma, AZ

Surprise, AZ 

Bullhead City, AZ

The first 3 months of our trip were  colder than usual.  We went thru a lot more propane than we  ever have. The  last 3 months were hotter than normal.  The weather went from winter to summer, with no spring in between.  The weather was either below or above normal temperatures. The last  couple of months we were in the 90's.  The last few weeks, the weather was 95 to 105 degrees. A tad hot!!. The day we got home it was 52 degrees,  quite an extreme change for us.  We have been cold ever since we got home, but it is finally starting to warm up. 

Since we have been doing this for several years, it is always nice to see new places. Next year, we have plans to also go to an area we have never been to, Parhump, NV.  It is about 60 miles west of Las Vegas

Hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Til next year...........

CRAZY WEATHER

MAY 7, 2017

We have had several days of 100  degrees plus for  a few weeks now.  The day before we left Bullhead City, we hit 105.  We like the warmth, but that is a little too hot.  

We got to Bakersfield, Ca last Thursday.  We have never been as far north as Bullhead City when we start for home, so this time we had to go thru the Mohave Desert. It was suppose to be 105 degrees, so we left earlier the we ever had to beat the heat. Trucks don't like it  that hot,  it can overheat the transmission.  We left at 6:30 am, that  is the time we usually get up.  Even then, it was still 85 degrees.  When it gets hot,  sometimes you have to turn off the AC to help the engine stay cooler. There were only a few times the we had to do that.  Thank Heavens!!!

When  we got to Bakersfield, it was 104. The amazing thing is that within 2 days, it was 65 and raining. That's what I mean about crazy weather.  I know that is about normal at home (or even lower), but we were SO COLD because we aren't used to it.  We have not had temps under 90 degrees for quite a while. Last time we saw rain was early Jan. Not looking forward to going home to the cold weather.

When we were in Bullhead City, we took a road trip just in our truck to Las Vegas and Parhump, NV. We are thinking of going up there next year for something different.  We wanted to check out the Thousand Trails park in Vegas because we had heard some bad things about it.  We liked the one at Parhump much better, so might stay there.  Parhump is abut 60 miles SW of Vegas.
 The reason I'm mentioning this, is that we saw something unusual.  On our travels we see a lot of Veterans Highways.  There is also one going to Vegas, but a bit different. Every  hundred feet, there was a sign honoring Veterans from different wars. Usually you just see a sign  honoring all Veterans.

There were some signs that I have never  seen before: They all said
       Veterans of:
WWI
WWII
           Korean War
                                         Cold War (had never seen this)
            Vietnam War
      Iraq War
             Desert Storm
                                                        The war on Terror (have never seen that)

I think it was very nice to mention all of the wars, not just lump them all together

RIGHT PLACE, WRONG DAY

April 28, 2017

I wanted to go to Oatman, AZ, an authentic Western Ghost Town and Mining Camp. We had been there before a few years ago, but it is a fun place to go, so I wanted to see it again. Denny wasn't very enthused because the road to it is all  dirt and rocky.  It was  only 16 miles, but took an hour.  They have donkeys wandering all over town. They walk the middle of the streets and on the wooden sidewalks. It is a very touristy town, but still fun.  If you are old enough, you will recognize the names Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. They were famous movie stars. They honeymooned in Oatman, an amazing thought, but they must have wanted complete privacy.  It would have been hard to believe, but there are pictures of them in the hotel lobby where they stayed. The pictures show them playing chess and having dinner with the locals.  During the Great Migration, Oatman was the last town people were able to stop at before the Mohave Desert.  Also covered wagons were able to stock up before the desert. 

We certainly picked the WRONG DAY to go. There were probably a thousand motorcycles there lining both sides of the street and going down the middle. There was a big motorcycle rally in Laughlin this week. On Friday, they had a sanctioned event in Oatman. I felt so sorry for the donkeys,  it was noisy and crowded.  I'm sure they were scared to death. You couldn't even walk on the sidewalk without being sideways it was so crowded. Think of all those motorcycles in a one street town.  We had planned on having lunch there, but no way after we saw all the people. It was a mess. Every store was packed. The road is so dusty and rough, can't imagine doing it on a motorcycle. 

Finally saw a couple of donkeys, usually the town is full of them.

There were a couple of geocaches in Oatman, but they were even hard to find because of so many people. We were determined to find them after going all that way!!!!

YIKES-----100 DEGREES !!!!!

April 26, 2017

It was too early to go home because of all the rain, so we decided to go to Bullhead City, AZ for  2 weeks.  I thought Palm Springs was windy, but I think Bullhead City is worse. At least in Palm Springs it was calm in the morning and got windier as the day went on. Here in Bullhead City,  sometimes it is windy even when we get up and then gets worse. I will say, we love the warm weather, but are getting a little tired of the wind.  I'm talking about high winds of 25 mph and higher, with gusts up to 40-60 MPH.  It also means I have to do more cooking inside. When it is so windy, Denny can't grill outside. The wind blows the fire out. Darn!!

One day last week it was 100 degrees. That is a tad hot for us. Luckily, we had gone to Kingman, about 30 miles from here for most  of the day.   It was a little cooler there.   After we get home from being out all day, we usually sit outside, relax and have happy hour, but certainly can't do that when it is 100 degrees!!!

We have never been here, so there were new things to see and do. We went to see Davis Dam, a rock and earth dam that supplies electricity to a lot of AZ and NV.  It is isn't quite as spectacular as a concrete dam like Hoover, but still very interesting.  If you put all of the rock and earthfill in boxes, 3 cu ft sq, they would reach from Los Angeles to Chicago, 3, 642, 000 cubic yards total.

Davis Dam Power Plant

Davis Dam

Lake Mohave, can see the start of Davis Dam on the lower left

Also saw the Petroglyphs at Grapevine Canyon, about 6 miles west of Bullhead City. It makes you wonder what these symbols meant to the Indian tribes. They are about 1000 years old.

There are a lot of petroglyphs on the tall rock formations on the right. You wonder how in the world they even got up to the top. Can't really tell from the picture, but it is at least 20-25 ft to the top.

We also went to a car museum in Laughlin, NV, just over the bridge from Bullhead City.  As we travel around, my interests are in history (Petroglyphs and the Civil War)  and Denny's are Air, Car and Space museums. Also anything to do with science and the earth. Here we had both. 

I have never heard of a marriage trap, maybe the bride and groom traveled to the wedding in it ???  It could be yours for a mere $143, 750

Looking at the cars below, we have certainly come a long way!! Thank heavens

  1915 Ford Speedster

1935 Ford

1907 Red Runabout

1875 Hand Drawn Fire  Hose Cart

1963 Studebaker, looks so weird without a front grille. Thought I was looking at the trunk

1965 Harley

1995  Tropica electric car, didn't realize they had one this early. has Lithium batteries and gets 250 miles on one charge

Since the car museum is in a casino, it also included several slot machines. This is the earliest I saw,   a 1915 model

Here are two flags that we have never seen before.

This flag contains all the names of people that died in the 9-11 terrorists attacks

This flag contains all the names of the emergency personnel that died saving lives in the 9-11 terrorists attacks.  Both of these flags were quite moving to see, as we looked at them, we couldn't even speak.