March 2017 - Forward and Back Again

March is already a memory, man the year has been flying by so far. We started out March where we ended February, in Benson, AZ at the Valley Vista RV Park. However, by March 2^nd we were ready to roll and on the road again. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5627213163003904

Stop #1 in March took us to Quartzite, AZ and the Holiday Palms RV Resort http://www.g7rvresorts.com/arizona/holiday-palms/ .

Just like the pic - taken somewhere on the way

Our mission for this stop was to attend the American Coach Chapter (ACC) http://www.acc-fmca.com/ rally.  ACC is a subchapter of Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) https://www.fmca.com/ and this rally was actually a “pre-rally” to the FMCA rally we attended later in the month. This was our very first major rally of any kind. I guess it’s kind of odd for this to have been a first after all the years we have been RVing. Anyway, there was around 30 American Coaches that showed up and it was cool to see so many in one place. We really haven’t seen many American Coaches during our travels. We had a good rally and met some nice people. REV, the company that owns American Coach, helped sponsor the rally and had some techs there from the factory in Indiana (remember our maintenance trip a few months back). The techs were swamped as they were offering FREE labor on work for coach owners. That was nice to see as REV labor at the factory runs $120 per hour.  

Susan and I did a little exploring while we were in Quartzsite. We were and still are trying to learn the ropes of the Snowbird Migration to Quartzsite. Every year this little town of about 2000 grows to about 1.5 million (ALL RVers)… I’ve seen pictures and watched videos but have not yet been a part of the Quartzsite craze – maybe someday we will have to give it a try.

Cactus on BLM land - the Finger?

During our expedition we realized there was BLM land everywhere and we could easily get our coach there…..hmmmm……Do we hear boon docking coming on? We have talked about staying on BLM land in the past and know many people who do but only a few have rigs the size of ours. It was nice to see some of the areas for ourselves, now we just have to find time in our schedule to slow down.

Also while at the ACC rally we had the “privilege” to meet/see/hear Paul Winer aka

He does wear clothes sometimes

“the Naked Book Seller”….LOL.  He has owned a book store in Quartzite for about 25 years and he is a nudist. So put the two together and you get the title.  We didn’t go to his bookstore, but from what we were told all he wears is a sock and a hat. Anyway he is also a singer, song writer and he came to the rally and entertained us – fully clothed. Look him up on Youtube if you have a moment. He was a very interesting person to say the least and here is a short article about him that was featured in the LA Times a few years ago http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-the-strange-true-tale-of-the-naked-bookseller-20150331-story.html.

She was a Hyde - she wrote this joke!

 

A little Hyde humor

And just like that, the ACC rally was over and we were headed east to Chandler, AZ and the International FMCA Rally our  #2 stop of the month.  The event was held on the grounds of Rawhide Western Town, Chandler, AZ http://rawhide.com/ and became the second major rally in our life. I must say we had no idea what to expect and we left still kinda scratching our heads.

RVs in staging for arrival

When we arrived it didn’t take long to realize this thing was gonna be big, we just didn’t realize how big. It took us a couple hours to get checked in and escorted to our parking site for the week. We were fortunate enough to get a handicapped site on asphalt with electric. Thank you Uncle Sam for disabling me and allowing me to get this spot. Most people were parked on dirt with no electric. They did have water trucks spraying the area regularly but it was still a dusty mess.

We arrived on Sunday the 5^th though the rally didn’t start until noon on Tuesday. By Tuesday there were motorhomes everywhere. I’m not even sure how many different places they were parked but we were informed that the final number was 2726 motor coaches - not counting show coaches and vendors. There were tons of show coaches and we tried to look into as many as we could but I know there were many we missed. So add attendee RVs to the show numbers and there was easily over 3000 coaches total. If you have never seen 3000 motor coaches in the same place at the same time, well to say impressive is an understatement.

As for the actual rally, well it was interesting. There were some decent vendors with options for everything from awning repair, satellite installation, campground/resort information, window repair and replacement, a plethora of cleaning options for inside and outside of the RV, new furniture, some unique cooking utensils, jewelry and more. Susan attended a couple of the education seminars on RV cooking and full time RV living but was not impressed by them. She described them as very elementary, crowded and while they might be good for the beginner she had hoped to learn something. All in all we can say we have now been there, done that and may or may not do it again.

We did take advantage of the time we were in the area and visited a Prevost dealership in Mesa, looked at some new Harley motorcycles (nope, not trading in the Goldwing yet) and purchased a new motorcycle lift http://mountainmaster.net/motorcycleloadingsystem.html for the back of the truck. So aside from spending way too much money we had a good time.

Look at the amount of room!

Our next stop (Stop #3) for the month was Canyon Vistas RV Resort http://www.cal-am.com/resorts/canyon-vistas/  in Gold Canyon, AZ. This stop was only about 40 miles from the rally and we only went there as a stop over as we had a few days to burn before our repair appointment in Apache Junction. We arrived at Canyon Vistas about noon on Saturday and stayed until Monday morning. The resort was huge and the lots were very large – more than enough space for us to park, set out the chairs and relax. Each site was well graveled and had a concrete patio area.

The views of the Superstition Mountains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition_Mountains were spectacular and the resort had all the necessary amenities. We stumbled onto this park by accident as we were trying to book another park in the Cal-Am system but they had no availability and so referred us to Canyon Vistas. The people were friendly and the rates were great as we were able to reserve through our RPI membership.

Like many resorts in the area there were a large number of park models available for

View from roof top of model home

purchase and they also had a very nice resort home community - actual stick and brick homes with great usable floor plans. We toured several of the available park models and explored the display homes. If we were looking to settle down and own a home, this is a place we would likely consider. http://www.cal-am.com/resort-homes-for-sale/?Resort=1530&Price=All&Sort=Newest

While at this stop Susan and I unloaded the bike and took a ride down the infamous HWY 88 (Apache Trail).

Wondering if any Wicketts were the models

We had planned to ride HWY 88 from start to finish but that didn’t work out..lol! After running about 50 miles the blacktop turned to washboard sand and the sign said 24 more miles. Uh no, we rode about ½ mile and I made a command decision to turn around. A sand and dirt road was NOT a good combination for 2 up on a Goldwing. So we turned around and went back to Tortilla Flat http://www.tortillaflataz.com/ . We had to stop here because ANYTHING having to do with a tortilla is good and this was no let down. Anyway, the ride was ALL in the Superstition Mountains and they are absolutely something to see.

Stop #4 found us at East Valley RV Services https://eastvalleyrv.com/ on Monday afternoon as we had a 0730 appointment on Tuesday morning. These guys were great and even set us up with 50amp electric for the duration of our stay. We were there for an AC repair, engine service and generator service but as always there is always something more and this time was no different.

Tuesday morning they began the service and about noon checked the AC. It didn’t take long for them to determine that it was indeed Out Of Commission and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately there was not one in stock anywhere close so it was ordered out of Texas and wasn’t scheduled to arrive until Friday, (it was noon Tuesday when we found this out). We knew we had developed an oil leak on the big Cummins so I had them look at it. Also, I knew we were having cooling issues, actually the engine had been running way too cool and only made it to operating temp in high summer when it’s HOT outside. So of course we had them look into that too. AND when I reviewed my service records I realized I was only a month away from our annual HydroHot service, yep - told them to do that as well.

Service writers

Our mechanic

Here is how that week worked out if you really want to know……..new #1 AC installed, they found a crank seal had broken into three pieces resulting in oil leak (replaced crank seal), the thermostat was found to be stuck partially open and all seals gone (replaced thermostat and seals), serviced engine, generator, and HydroHot system. You don’t want to know what this week cost.

Russ - Miracle Worker and Genius 

Well it didn’t end there, we thought by

replacing the #1 AC that we would have the issue resolved, nope. The non-supported, no-longer-made circuit board had fried. SO after

talking with the service tech he was positive he could devise a complete new system to completely replace all old non-supported parts and install all current and modern circuitry. Long story short, a week later and he had us a brand new AC/heat comfort control system installed and it worked flawlessly. We were finally able to leave and our one day service eventually had us camping in their lot for 11 days…lol,

The Lost Dutchman State Park -They wanted $14 just to drive through - we passed - maybe next time

As the coach was being worked on, we had lots of spare time on our hands so Susan and I went on a 200 mile bike ride and saw some more of the Superstition Mountains. We went past the largest Copper Mine I have ever seen (Miami, AZ and Globe, AZ),  http://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/Globe.htm.  

Globe mine

Tonto National Monument

Roosevelt Dam

Tonto National Monument - up close

We also stopped by the Roosevelt Dam and lake, it was not quite what I expected but was still an impressive example of stonework that was completed in the early 1900s. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/phoenix/projects/rooseveltdam/rdhistory.html and as we were driving found the Tonto National Monument https://www.nps.gov/tont/index.htm. I could easily see why people like it here. This area is beautiful.

Everything tends to work out though. The time we were in the shop allowed us additional time in the area. Of course this meant another motorcycle ride, this one to Congress, AZ to spend the day with Randy and Deb LaBrash (friends we met last year at Lake Texoma). We had actually planned to spend the week with them at their North Ranch home https://escapees.com/support/parking/rainbow-parks/congress-arizona   as they have full hook-ups and had graciously offered to show us the area. Deb chauffeured us around the Ranch so we could look at RV lots. Susan and I have talked about setting up a home base at some point so we often find ourselves looking at lots with purchase or lease options as we travel. The area surrounding North Ranch has had a bit of a revival with gold mining so lots there have been selling fairly fast and the prices are currently a bit higher than what we want to commit to at the moment.

Ride routes for all motorcycle trips taken while at Gold Canyon and while we were staying in the shop can be found at the following link: http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5845749005287424. The dates on the link are a bit misleading but sometimes filling in the dates for day trips is a PITA as we are not overnighting and RV Parky is really set up more for planning overnight stuff. So just be aware that the link covers 3 separate trips on three separate dates. Break down of trips - 1) Tortilla Flat - there and back, 2) Globe, Roosevelt, Payson and back to Apache Junction and 3) Congress trip to see Deb and Randy - there and back.

We were also still in Apache Junction when Karl and Marilyn Stroman arrived in

Hooper and Wylde @ the Handlebar Pub & Grill

town. Karl is a retired Coastie I have known online for quite a while but never met.  He and his wife (another couple who are full time RVers) were a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the visits and dinner at the Handlebar Pub and Grill – relaxed atmosphere, incredible food and live music on the night we were there https://www.facebook.com/The-Handlebar-Pub-and-Grill-413937897673/.

As with all things RV, the best laid plans are always subject to change…lol Because of our long stay at East Valley RV Specialist (they are now like family), Susan and I completely changed our route plans the night before we left the service center. After a couple hours of back and forth we had it all worked out…whew glad we didn’t care or have a schedule, and we went to bed.

We got up early the following morning ready to hit the road but decided just one quick check of the weather was in order before we left. Are you kidding me??  Snow from Flagstaff to Gallup, high winds, lows in the low 20’s…etc all forecast for the next 7 days, uhh no!!! So guess what, we completely revised our schedule for the second time in 12 hours…lol,  This time we decided to take the south route along I-10. That would make us backtrack, but that was ok as there were things we wanted to see anyway. So with a NEW plan laid - we were rolling.

Good BYE East Valley RV Services, you guys were awesome and almost became family. We shall see you in the winter for annual service and hopefully no major surprise repairs.
For our 5^th stop of the month we rolled on back to the RPI park of Valley Vista in Benson, AZ. This time through we allowed enough time to see some things we had wanted to see when we were here before but ran out of time for.

Mexico - do we go?

Day one we unloaded the bike and went to Nogales, AZ and saw the border into Mexico, the border wall and tons of Customs and Border Patrol officers. It was a cool place to see, interesting topography, but there was nothing that gave me any desire to live there.  We had a beautiful ride down Hwy 83, across 82 and back up 80. We also had a nice stop at a really cool restaurant, Wild Horse Restaurant which is located in the Stage Stop Inn http://www.stagestophotelpatagonia.com/, in Patagonia, AZ. Read the About section of the Inn’s web page for some interesting history.

Random photographer - we got his finger

Prepping for a gun fight?

Day two we again took the bike and this time went to

Tombstone http://tombstoneweb.com/ where we spent the biggest part of the day. It was very humbling to be able to stand where so much history had taken place. Even though it is now mostly a tourist destination it was still neat to say we have been there. We visited the Boot Hill Cemetery,

Wyatt's House

walked the same streets as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, stood beside the OK Corral and toured the historic Tombstone Courthouse http://tombstonecourthouse.com/. 

Tombstone Courthouse

Once we wore out our walking shoes we continued south on the bike to the strangest (ok, not strange, but hard to describe) town I think I have been to, Bisbee, AZ http://www.discoverbisbee.com/. It was built on the sides of mountains and can attribute its founding to the mining industry – copper, gold and silver. You really would just have to go there to experience the streets. There are twists and turns everywhere as one street ends another angles off down a hill or up again. Even on a motorcycle they were a challenge with all the stopping on inclines and odd angles. If you look into the sides of the hills

as you drive along there are stairs, stairs, stairs. In fact there are over 1000 stairs built into the hills of Bisbee http://www.bisbee1000.org/ (about 1/3 of the way down the page is History of the Bisbee 1000).

We finished the day by circling through the town of Fort Huachuca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Huachuca where we stopped for a brief lunch before heading back up to Benson for some rest and relaxation in preparation for the next move.  

The link for bike routes while staying in Benson is as follows: http://www.rvparky.com/trip/6686150826131456. Note that we did separate this one into the dates we made the actual trips. Some days you the reader get better information than others - but darn, we are trying.

What is in Deming, NM (Stop 6), a small western town in southwest NM? Well, for a short time in March, we were at the Dream Catcher RV Park https://www.escapees.com/support/parking/rainbow-parks/deming-new-mexico in Deming. There really isn’t much in Deming but we are generally able to find something to do.  

We did take a short motorcycle ride http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5888933760598016 to a couple of the state parks. Both were in the middle of nowhere and we really like the middle of nowhere. Spring Canyon State Park is actually a sub-unit of Rock Hound State Park http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/rockhoundstatepark.html and they are only a

few miles from each other. Spring Canyon is day use only with a couple of trails.  On the other hand, Rock Hound http://www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/rock_hound/state_park.html had a few RV sites and could be a stopping point on a future trip. Both parks were nice and clean with great scenic views.

What goes up - must go down

At one point during the ride to Canyon Springs I was almost positive I heard Susan gasp and say a very descriptive word @#!$ as we went over a hill! That “little hill” was 17% up and IMMEDIATELY 17% down. It literally took our breath away as we crested….lol

On the way back we decided to go into Deming and search out the Luna Mimbres Museum http://www.lunacountyhistoricalsociety.com/. All I can say is wow, if you are ever in this area you have to see it!!! There is no cost for admissions but they do accept free will donations and it has a ton of stuff! The building was actually the National Guard Armory and out-processing point for all NM National Guard going to the battle of Bataan in WWII. Equally important is that the building was

built in 1916 and NM troops actually mustered there to defend the boarders during the raid of Poncho Villa. If all of this were not enough the building also served as the USO building for the area.

Oh but it got even better, as Susan and I walked outside there was a Veterans Park with several nice memorials. While we were looking I couldn’t help but notice an older gentleman sitting in a wheelchair under a flagpole looking at a specific monument. As I walked over to his location I noticed he had a Navy cap on, so yes that was my opening to conversation.

We introduced ourselves and he stated he was in the Navy during Viet Nam. During or conversation he mentioned that upon his return from Viet Nam he became an alcoholic for the next 25 years. He went on to say that finally one morning he woke up, went outside and for the first time realized there must be more to life. He

built the monument we were looking at. He said he was never an artist or a builder, but that he knew he had to do it. That he had a vision of what it was to look like and how it was to be done. That was 22 years ago. 

He described the meaning of the monument and how each side was angled and leaned in odd direction because in his words, “nothing about Viet Nam was true”. I understood what he was saying. We carried on our conversation for probably ½ hour or more, I thanked him for his service, for building the monument and told him thank you from my dad who had also been there, but passed away recently. HE got a tear, shook my hand and we parted ways. I knew right then it was moments like this, unlikely chance meetings that really described why we drive around the country and live in our RV.

We finished out our stay in Deming and our month with a horrible dust storm, winds that would blow a horse over and memories of the old man in the wheel chair. The true irony was that I met this man who told me his story only one day after the remembrance of Viet Nam Day – I think him and I both got something out of that visit.

Until next month, we shall see you again.

February 2017 - Westward HO and Away We Go

February started off as January ended, barely…. as we had just arrived back at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe in Texas on the 31^st of January. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5901558540140544.

Did I mention that when we arrived back from our cruise Susan and I were very sick and remained this way for a couple weeks? We later found out that MANY people on the ship had gotten the same illness which we are pretty sure was a strain of the flu. We did eventually recover but not before we both ended up at the doctor due to this “flu” turning into sinus/respiratory infections so antibiotics were in order.

We enjoyed some pretty nice weather except for the occasional late winter/early spring thunderstorm. But this camp was soon for the end as we were gearing up for our spring migration. We weren’t 100% sure where we were headed, but we had been planning to head to the Pacific North West for the summer; however, Susan and I both had medical appointments to finish up before we left the area AND as is always the case with one of these big rigs we had a couple issues to repair, like the toilet and the #2 A/C unit, so our time was pretty busy.
We couldn’t have left though without our good friends, Leon and Anita Kirby bringing their rig over to Lake Conroe and enjoying some good cornhole (beanbag toss) games. Leon also held one of his famous fish fries before we left – delicious!
Finally the month was half over and it was time Susan and I headed out. Away we went with a few planned stops for fun and exploration along the way to our now finalized destination for this part of our trip to end in Chandler, Az and the FMCA International Rally in March.

For the first leg of our journey we  headed to Davis Mountain State Park and Fort Davis, TX. Susan typically doesn’t let me drive more than a couple hundred miles per day, but on this day she allowed me to open it up a bit and we went a whole 350 miles….lol! We always try to adhere to the 2+2+2 rule at a minimum (no more than 200 miles, arrive no later than 2 PM and stay no less than 2 days). We missed the miles a bit, but everything else was met.

North Llano River RV Park - roomy

We finished up our first day by arriving in Junction, TX at the North Llano River RV Park ttp://www.junctionnorthllanoriverrvpark.com/.  I must say, this little park was pretty nice. The sites were plenty big, right on the river and most all sites had patios and a gazebo. You typically don’t find that much in our price range, so it was a very pleasant change.  We really enjoyed this park, and the people were very friendly and very military supportive. Did I mention I was able to impress my wife with my rock skipping abilities while here? It’s the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.

I just like this picture

It was only a few miles from our campground to the South Llano River State Park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/south-llano-river. The park provided a brochure on the history of the park about how the land was donated by Walter Buck. We tried to find a good link that shared this history as the TPWD link does not say much and we feel it is important to remember the contributions of those who have gone before us. The following link does not give the whole of the story but does add a bit to the history provided by the TPWD link http://www.work5hop.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?flag=article&article_pk=10000008.

Stop two again found us exceeding the 200 mile rule, but only by 88 so it wasn’t bad. We pulled into Davis Mountain State Park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/davis-mountains and found our site. They put us in a nice large site with a covered picnic table and plenty of room. This place was awesome and the scenery, landscape and temps easily exceeded our imagination. Unfortunately we only had three nights here but we filled the days completely full with adventure.

If you haven’t kept up, or don’t remember, Susan works part time from the motorhome and requires internet. Davis Mountain State Park had none…lol 😊 Well let me rephrase, they had internet and phone signal at the top of a mountain behind the campsite. So daily we would take truck trips up the mountain to the parking area on top where we would park beside all the other people seeking the signals from the skies..lol Susan would turn the truck into her mobile office. I would isolate myself on said mountain to give her privacy and surf the internet, stir the Facebook pot and search for coach parts, it was fun.

Fort Davis National Historic Site - View of Officer Row

During our stay we visited the old Fort Davis National Historic Site  https://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/fort-davis-national-historic-site which was very cool (we both love that kind of stuff). It was a quiet day at Fort Davis and there was only a handful of people around which allowed us to take our time and not worry about anyone trying to hurry us along as we read from the information kiosks. One can only imagine what life in the military was like back then but I'm sure it was not an easy assignment for enlisted men. Susan is pretty sure the officers "had it made" and likely completed little of the manual labor but rather provided supervision over enlisted personnel without breaking much of a sweat. Regardless, they all lived a hard life that not many of us today would choose to try. 

We also took a trip to Alpine, TX where we found probably the most interesting Ace Hardware Store you will ever see. Thank you Rusty and Leon for the tip on its existence and location. It is hard to find a parts store in the middle of nowhere but as is always the case, I had a small project that needed to be attended to and needed parts.

If you know me at all, you know that I will look for about any excuse for a motorcycle ride and a day of nice weather is really all the excuse that is ever needed. Susan and I took a beautiful motorcycle ride through mountains and desert surrounding the area of Fort Davis. There was very little traffic along the way and we were the only vehicle on the road most of the day. Much of the land was set up as open range which did require me to be on the look out for cattle guards in the middle of the

highway - it really is a good idea to slow down for them, especially when riding on two wheels. Roadside parks were all over so we did avail ourselves to the use of one for a hydration break and a granola. Susan knows me well and generally packs a small cooler even if I tell her it will be a short ride. Short has been known to take five or six hours.  Along the way we passed a gentleman who had his easel set up in the grass just off of the side of the road. We didn't get a look at his painting but there was a magnificent set of mountains that likely were the main subject matter for his artistic inspiration. We finished off our ride by heading to the top of a another mountain where we found, not by accident, the McDonald Observatory http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/. Our timing did not allow us to attend one of their evening presentations and while Susan has an interest in astronomy she is not much into viewing solar displays. So we rode around a bit and explored the visitor’s center but did not actually go into the observatory. This was a cool place to see and I know if we are in the area again Susan is going to insist we attend an evening of stargazing there!

Stop number three took us to the “Original Escapees Ranch” http://skpranch.com/index.htm in Lakewood, NM. It is actually located about 25 miles north of Carlsbad, NM. Finally, we were able to adhere to our 2+2+2, which was good because our drive day found us in heavy 40+ MPH sustained and 60+ MPH gusting side winds the whole day of travel and high wind warnings when we arrived in our camp site. We made it, but it was an interesting drive with the periodic brown outs from blowing sand. We found the park clean, inviting, and the people were some of the friendliest people I think we have ever met and we will certainly go there again.

We didn’t have much planned for this stop over except to see Carlsbad Caverns https://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/index.htm and I must say, it was breathtaking. Susan and I chose to do the walk in as I was able to walk that day, and we were sooo glad we did!!! If you are not into caving, it may not be for you but to Susan and I there is just something awe inspiring about exploring caves and seeing all the various formations that nature has made over thousands of years. Words really cannot explain or express the magnitude of what saw during the hours we spent spelunking. The caverns are huge and even if you are not able to make the trek from the top, there is still so much to see - they have an elevator that can be taken down 79 stories and once you are down the terrain is fairly level and easy going. If you have the chance, GO! 

Carlsbad Caverns is worth the trip - that’s all we can say.

Stop four was just a short 145 mile hop with a one night stop over to help break the long drive the next day. “This will be easy,” I remember telling Susan those always famous last words …lol! We have a new RV GPS that warns us of roads that do not meet our height, weight or length requirements and it will not route us on those roads. But hey, it’s a device that doesn’t always know and I saw a road I wanted to go on. It got interesting when only a couple miles into it we continued to see signs that said ridiculous things such as “weight limit 11Tons”, and then another that said “length limit 60 feet”. Oh, and one that said “7% grade next 15 miles”….lol Susan looked at me and said

something to the effect of “Uhhhh, should we be on this road?”,  followed by, “How heavy and long are we?”…..lol, I believe she was a bit uncomfortable but I had to be truthful and tell her we are 26 tons and about 70’ long… I’m not sure she found much comfort in my words as she made a post on Facebook “just in case”

It ended up being fine just as I figured it would. We got to drive to an elevation of 10,000 feet, saw snow, elk crossing signs and 15 miles of 7% grade with a ton of curves. Then just like that, the ride was over, the brakes were hot but nowhere near danger hot as I had been using the engine brake mostly (Susan pointed out that she could smell them and she could) and next thing you know we were at our stop in Alamogordo, NM at Edgington Garden RV Park http://www.edgingtonrvpark.com/. This was just a little park, basically a big parking lot, but clean, cheap and friendly. They accepted Passport America so the nightly rate was hard to beat and we just needed an overnight for this stop. As we left Alamogordo we drove by the White Sands Missile Base and the White Sands National Monument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_National_Monument. Both of which were pretty neat.

White Sands at 4,200 feet 40 miles away from the snow.

Photo copied from Yahoo 

Stop number five, our final stop for February, took us another 300 miles to Benson, AZ and Valley Vista RV Park (can book at RPI or as Encore park) http://www3.resortparks.com/xap/nwb/MR010?resort=773. Again we found a nice park with sites that were plenty big and people that were very friendly. We did have to fudge the length of our coach as they had a 43’ length limit but hey, if you can fit 43’, you can fit 45’, right? Right! ……..oh and they had a BIG hot tub and pool, gotta make momma happy.

Benson is a neat little town and only about 25 miles from Tombstone, AZ. Nope we didn’t make it there as much as we wanted to. The day we had planned to go was forecast for heavy thunderstorms all day, of which we got NONE. However, the clouds in the surrounding areas indicated that some places did get hit pretty hard and our friends even messaged us to make sure the rains would not delay our plans or hold us up. We really didn’t do much except visit the hot tub and spend time getting to know fellow campers. We even ran into a couple who were actually camped next to us at Lake Texoma, TX last August. You never know who you are going to run into out here on the road…lol. All in all it ended up being a nice stop and we enjoyed it, but it was again time to move on as we had Quartzite, AZ in our sites. But you can’t hear about that until next month….

January 2017 - Cruisin'

January started and ended in the same place - Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Texas. We had lots of travel over the month but only minimal RV time.  If you click on the link http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5873178604208128, know it is not broken - we flew and road the boat so the APP was unable to provide a route. It does however show destination points.

We started the New Year quietly in the park but we did see a few fireworks going off here and there. The first couple of weeks of January we spend relaxing, finishing up doctor appointments and enjoying evenings in the hot tub. A few days before we left for our cruise Brett's mom (Bridget) came and camped at the campground with us. She is enjoying her little Siesta and stopped to see us on her way to "the valley" to visit her mother.  She never comes with empty hands and this trip was no different - several dozen chocolate chip cookies as well as oatmeal cookies and pickled eggs for Brett.

Mid month we left Lake Conroe and drove the coach over to my good friend Stan's to park for the two weeks we were gone on our cruise to Hawaii on Carnival Miracle, January 14-29, 2017 round

Picture courtesy Leon Kirby -  Port Long Beach

trip from Long Beach CA.

Would love to say the cruise was great but this one was just not all we had hoped. It was January after all and January in the Pacific can be touchy as well as chilly. Hawaii itself was great - Susan had never been so it was nice to be able to share the island adventures with her. Weather prevented us from making two of our ports so we did not see Nawiliwili, Kauai or Hilo on the big island.

Spiny Silversword

In Maui we took a sunset tour
up to Haleakala Crater ttps://www.nps.gov/hale/planyourvisit/summit-area.htm to see the sunset at 10,000 feet. The view was indescribable and pictures do not do the experience justice. If we ever make it back to Maui we will plan to schedule a sunrise visit to the crater and we will most assuredly take jackets as IT GETS COLD AT 10,000 feet!! LOL! While at the crater we did see several Spiny Silversword plants - the only place in the world they are known to grow is at Haleakala Crater. This amazing plant lives anywhere from 3-90 years or more but they only bloom once in their lifetime and once they bloom, they die.

We were blessed to have wonderful tour guides while on Oahu - Norm and Michelle Gann were great!  We started the day off by watching the inauguration on Fox News before we walked to the Ala Moana Regional Park Beach https://roadtrippers.com/us/honolulu-hi/places/ala-moana-regional-park where Susan put her feet into the Pacific Ocean for the very first time and where we met up with Norm and Michelle. They then spent the rest of the day driving us from

Norm, Michelle and Brett

USS Missouri

one end of the island to the other. Our day included stops at
Pearl Harbor and tours of the USS Bowfin http://bowfin.org/ submarine and museum, the USS Missouri https://ussmissouri.org/#, and a view of the Arizona (tickets were sold out so we were only able to see it from shore but the sight was still humbling to say the least)! We also had a great late afternoon lunch and of course a few beers. Thank you again Norm and Michelle for helping to make our time in Hawaii enjoyable - it truly was the best day of our trip!  Unfortunately by the end of the day my back started to protest so we had to end the day rather abruptly. Feeling rather bad about this we informed our guides they could just "let us off here" and we would walk the last few blocks to prevent them from having to deal with pier traffic. Thankfully they declined as we arrived at our pier only to find our ship was GONE, and to be informed that it had relocated to another pier and due to weather we would be staying an additional day in Honolulu! So thanks again Gann Family for sticking with us and "going the distance" to get us to our relocation destination!
Day 2 in Honolulu was a bit less exciting but we know how to find fun. We made a few early morning calls to find out the bus schedule and made our way down to Waikiki. It may have been a wet drizzly day but the bar on the beach at the Halekoa http://www.halekoa.com/ was open for business! Guess where we spent the day?

Borrowed clip-art

Our next stop was Kona and Susan signed us up for a historical tour excursion that took us by 3 places we would not have otherwise visited. OHHH did we mention the storm we hit on the way from
Honolulu to Kona? Let's say it was a pretty good one and I have been in some pretty good ones...lol We had winds overnight in the mid 90MPH range and seas 25-30 feet. Cruise ships are not designed for those conditions as they are very top heavy. Needless to say it was a bouncy night, awww but I slept like a baby.

Stop 1 brought us to the Royal Kona Coffee Center with lots of samples of 100% Kona Coffee? If you ever have the chance, you must have some! This coffee was not cheap but the samples were free so we indulged in a few or more. 100% Kona Coffee was about  $18 per pound in the store. Not going to make it to Hawaii anytime soon? No worries, you can order it online - for a price. http://royalkonacoffee.com/visit/. 
Stop 2 was at The Painted Church, http://www.thepaintedchurch.org/default.asp which is a historical Roman Catholic church built in 1899 and painted by a priest with no professional training and a very limited budget. His labor of love and devotion took years to complete. The church has ongoing efforts to continue to preserve this quaint beauty and donations from tourist go toward aiding in the preservation/restoration efforts. I know our catholic friends will find this interesting but anyone who enjoys history is likely to enjoy it as well. 


Our 3rd and final stop of the historical tour was at Pu’uhonua o Honaunau https://www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm. We could have easily spent hours enjoying this stop. The good and the bad of booking an excursion - Good: you see lots of stuff quickly, Bad: you see lots of stuff quickly.
We ended up spending two days in Kona due again to bad weather but we opted to stay on the ship the second day as we were only scheduled to be in port half of the day and had no interest in shopping at the time. While we were in Kona we did receive the new that we were expecting a kitten! Well, actually we were informed that the expectant mother had delivered six kittens so we would get one around the first of April.

We were a bit bummed that we did not get to go to Hilo as we had scheduled an all day trip to see the Hilo Chain of Craters (volcanos) and the famed Lava Tube! I don't know if we will make the journey back to Hawaii anytime in the near future but if we ever do, we have seen a peek of what there is to see and have a LONG LONG list of things we would still like to do there. Maybe Susan can get her professional license in Hawaii and then get a contract job there for a few months.
There was a short stop over in Ensenada Mexico and while it was another adventure, it was the mandatory foreign port for this cruise and just another tourist trap in our opinion. Don't get me wrong, it was an interesting stop just not a place we will put on our "have to see again" list.

Partial list of delays due to protest

We finally arrived back in Long Beach on January 29th and spent the night in LA for an early flight back to Texas on the 30th. Did someone say something about protestors? Grrrr.... not even going to go there other than to say the airport and traffic into and out of the airport and the surrounding areas was a MESS!

The 30th found us overnighting at http://www.aggielandrvpark.com/ in College Station. We were just too tired (and not feeling well) to go any further - even the extra 75 minutes it would have taken us to get to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe was just too far.
But on the 31st we were up bright and early, or at least we were moving by mid-morning and on the road by 11 for the short trip back to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe for a much needed bit of relaxation and recuperation.

This is where we head to relax - our "home park" Lake Conroe