Welcome to Oregon!

Thursday March 29^th

I had a slow start this morning; it was raining lightly and my body thought I should just stay in bed and sleep today. We got rolling about 1130 and the rain had picked up by that time so I was kind of wet when we took off, although we didn’t unhook the trailer last night so getting started was quicker than normal – I could have gotten a lot wetter.

As soon as you leave Redding you start climbing and most of the drive from Redding to Medford was up and down and rain all the way. This is typically a very scenic drive but not much to see today because the clouds were hanging pretty low and it was snowing at the higher elevations. We made a stop in Mount Shasta so Cathey could go to the bathroom. She didn’t tell me that she was going to have breakfast there. She said she thought I would come in if she didn’t come back, but I was busy playing solitaire on my Kindle. She did bring me a giant bear claw pastry as a consolation.

So we got here about 430; I was a little disappointed that the campground is 10 miles N of Medford but the daily rate is only $20 so I guess we can afford a little gas. Unfortunately gas is more expensive here than it was in CA by about $.10 – the best price I have seen thus far is $4.39/gal.

So we are here and staged for the sisters convergence on Medford.

Up the Sacramento Valley to Redding

Wednesday March 28^th

It wasn’t raining this morning but it wasn’t much fun getting the trailer ready to travel with puddles everywhere that I had to walk. This place definitely needs some rock spread around to raise the surface level above the water level. But in all fairness this is probably the wettest time of year for this area. The forecast for today was 80% rain but we lucked out and got rolling about 1100 without seeing a drop of rain. And the weather got better the farther N we went. We are heading for Redding, CA tonight, only about 170 miles away. We traveled N on I-5 which follows the Sacramento River Valley. I thought it was the California Central Valley, but apparently N of Sacramento it is called the Sacramento Valley since the River flows down the valley to Sacramento and then flows west, eventually into the Pacific. I didn’t realize that the Sacramento was such a major river. Its flow is second only to the Columbia on the W coast of the US. It drains a major portion of N California and a small part of S Oregon.

Yesterday when the Goodyear folks fixed my tire they did me the ‘favor’ of correcting my tire pressure to 35 lb., which is the recommended pressure for these tires. I could tell the difference as soon as we were on the interstate; lots more sway and wiggle than when I have them inflated to 40 lbs.. So the first truck stop we came to we stopped to add some air. As luck would have it the air compressor available to the public was out of order. There were more in the truck area, but that was so busy I didn’t want to go over there. So we went up the road to the next rest stop and I got out my 12V air compressor and pumped up the rear Suburban tires to 40 lb. That took some of the wiggle out and also prevents the tires from heating up, since they flex less with more air in them.

We stopped for lunch in Corning, CA which is a center of the olive industry in N California. We first stopped at a produce stand and bought some nuts, oranges and grapefruit. The lady at the stand said the grapefruit came from Idaho. So I said “Is that a town in California?” She said no, they really come from somewhere near Boise where they are raised in huge indoor fabric buildings. That was a stretch for my brain; I can’t imagine why grapefruit would be so valuable as a crop that you would grow them in a climate where you have to grow them inside. Next stop was a place called the ‘Olive Pit;’ It was mostly a store with lots of different kinds of stuffed olives, olive oil, and a lot of other kind of local bottled or canned produce. There was even a brand of jellies from the Kozloski farms; so they must have at least one Polack in California!

It was only about 50 miles from Corning to Redding and we got here about 4:30. While setting up I met our neighbor who is from Whidbey Island, WA and his dog (a standard poodle) Max. I said that that was the third standard poodle I had met in the last three weeks that was named Max. As it turns out this Max knew the last Max that we had met in Phoenix at the Desert’s Edge RV Park – what are the chances of that? I think I better buy one of those $500 million lottery tickets – my improbability meter is pegged and I better make the most of it!

Last Day in West Sacramento

Tuesday March 27^th

As soon as I had breakfast and coffee, I headed for the Goodyear store just down the road. They took a look at it and patched a nail hole and I was out of there in about a half hour. Back is feeling better today but still not 100%.

Just before noon I went to the nearest Barnes & Noble about 5 miles away. Bought several books and map books for CA and NV. By the time I got back to the trailer, Rose was here and we went out to lunch at a Red Robin Restaurant on the S side of Sacramento. The service was so slow that I was afraid Rose would be late to work at 4:30; she changed clothes in the trailer and left about 4:05, so I hope she made it.

Later Cathey had a package to mail and then needed to pick up a few things at Walgreens.

It’s been raining since before noon and we are scheduled to leave tomorrow, so I hope it quits before morning.

Pick up Groceries

Monday March 26^th

Woke up with a backache this morning, so after being up for a while I went back to bed and took a nap. Afternoon I located a Walmart a couple of miles away and went there for some supplies, mostly groceries. When I loaded my groceries into the Suburban, I noticed that the right rear tire was low on air, I will have to take it to the tire pace tomorrow and see what’s up with that.

We Meet up with Cousin Beverly in Vacaville

Sunday March 25^th

Barely got up in time to get on the road to Vacaville and had to stop and get gas too. We thought it would take nearly an hour to get to Vacaville but it only took about 25 minutes, so we were on time despite ourselves.

Beverly showed up a few minutes later and we had a great visit. She lives in Half Moon Bay but works for a wholesale flower market in or near San Francisco. She and I were in the same grade at school until they moved to Idaho in 1958. I told her we would probably be passing through here again in December and she said John and Joanne would also be coming down after Christmas; she would like to have a ‘strudel party’ in December if we can all converge at the same time. The strudel party is a family tradition passed down from our Grandmother Hummel. When we were kids Grandma would get her daughters together and they would make a bunch of strudel with various fillings. Several of the Hummel granddaughters still have the skills to carry on the tradition, Beverly being one of them. I wonder if the strudel skill will make it to another generation.

We visited for about 3 hours and then went our separate ways. We took some back roads back to West Sacramento. Vacaville is kind of interesting because it is near the Coast Range and has hills that are green we also noticed that the ornamental trees in Vacaville were in bloom.

A Quiet Saturday

Saturday March 24^th

Once I was showered and had my coffee made, I walked over to the office and paid up through Tuesday. They have a grill trailer in this KOA, so I picked up a breakfast burrito for myself and French toast for Cathey – no dish washing this morning.

Shortly afternoon Rose came to the trailer and we visited for awhile. Then went out for lunch; we had planned on a nearby Italian Ristorante, but they didn’t open until 4pm on Saturdays, so we dined at Nick’s Diner across the street. It was good basic diner food and probably just what we needed on an overcast day. Rain is forecast but never did get here today. Rose had to be to work by 5 so she left about 4pm.

I have been in contact with my cousin, Beverly, today. We have set up a meeting with her for tomorrow in Vacaville.

A Day With Rose

Friday March 23^rd

We had a quiet morning and heard from Rose about noon. We arranged to pick her up at her house; then had a hard time finding it because we had the wrong house number. But we finally got together and then went for a late lunch at Mimi’s Café. That is a chain restaurant that we enjoyed last summer when we were here. Mimi’s has a French theme and the food was as good this time as it was last summer. Next stop was the Westfield Mall where Rose works. Rose and Cathey did some shopping and I did some exploring on my own. Mostly I explored Sonoma cooking ware store and Crate and Barrel but also did a lot of walking around. It’s a large mall, so I still didn’t see all of it, but I was tired already and ready to move on.

For the next part of our day I suggested a movie and the girls accepted the suggestion. Rose guided me to the theater and we went to see the “Hunger Games.” It wouldn’t have been my first choice of a movie to see, but it was pretty good, although I don’t really understand the hype about the movie. Just one of the burdens of being a crabby old Polack, I guess.

We took Rose home and then headed back to the trailer. It is about 20 miles from the KOA to where Rose lives and works. We now have a new Garmin GPS to replace the Magellan that is no longer working. We probably wouldn’t have found our way back in the dark without the GPS.

Over the Sierra Nevada into California

Thursday March 22^nd

We did our own breakfast this morning and got rolling by about 1030. As soon as we got on US-50 we started going uphill and it was a fairly steep climb, the Suburban was barely able to maintain 30mph at times. I think the summit between Carson City and Lake Tahoe was about 7300 ft and there was plenty of snow along the road from the storm last weekend. Lake Tahoe is about 6200 ft and the scenery is everything you hear about it. Once we left Lake Tahoe, we started the uphill grind again and went over another summit about the same height as the one between Carson City and Lake Tahoe. But, I was surprised to learn, that it was all down hill from there. I had expected several summits but there were only a few more uphill areas and none of them were very long or very high. Even the downhill grade was not too bad with only two areas posted with grades greater than 5%.

We had originally planned to stay in Placerville tonight but we were there by about 1pm so we stopped for lunch and then kept going to the KOA in West Sacramento. While I was setting up the trailer, Cathey called Rose and she came to see us briefly before she had to go to work at 5pm. She doesn’t have to work tomorrow so we will get together then.

Hawthorne to Carson City

Wednesday March 21^st

I had looked at maps last night to pick out a route to Sacramento and pretty well concluded that I had better stick to I-80 even though I know it will be a long pull up the mountains and lots of truck traffic. Then this morning I must have been a little more optimistic and decided that we would go through Carson City to see Lake Tahoe and then take US-50 over the mountains. I know nothing about that road but some of it is shown as four lane on the map and we cut off 30 – 40 miles by not going all the way to Reno.

We got rolling about 9am and had a brief breakfast stop, but we just couldn’t seem to make many miles today. Too many bathroom stops and leg stretching stops and by 3pm we still hadn’t started over the pass. So we decided to stay in Carson City tonight and attack the pass in the morning when we are rested and ready for whatever is up there.

There is a small casino just across the street from the RV Park so that was our place for a late lunch/early supper. The food was good and quite reasonable.

Las Vegas to Hawthorne, NV

Tuesday March 20^th

Cathey did get hold of her friends in Las Vegas and she talked on the phone with them but we had already decided that we would rather have more time in CA than spend extra time here.

We didn’t do any cooking in the trailer so that made getting the trailer packed up easier. We were rolling by 9am but then stopped for breakfast and as luck would have it, had slow service so it was nearly 1030 by the time we were on US-95 and headed N. Tonopah is about half way to Reno but there are no RV Parks listed there so we are headed to Hawthorne, NV, which is about 240 miles from Las Vegas. That’s a pretty good day’s travel for the way we travel but the trip was uneventful and quite scenic. We are seeing more and more snow capped mountains to west, which I assume are the Sierra Nevada Mountains. For part of the trip we were close to the CA border and saw lots of signs pointing to Death Valley. Lots of Air Force installations in the area, Nellis Air Force Base, Creech Air Force Base and of course the infamous “Area 51.” No signs for that one, you just have to have watched enough of the History Channel programs to know where it is!

You see lots of mining activity, although I am not sure what they are mining or whether or not the tailing piles are recent. The oddest sight was a square concrete (?) tower about 100’ tall several miles from the road. It looked like a flight control tower but was out in the middle of range land with no other facilities around it. Most of the towns along US-95 are old mining towns that have seen better days. US-95 is without exception, the best road we have traveled on our entire trip. I am not sure how old the pavement is, but I would say less than 3 years and the Nevada DOT got their money’s worth – very few patches and the road surface is consistently smooth. It might be that there is very little frost damage to contend with or not much truck traffic, although we did see trucks so I don’t think that’s the answer.

Hawthorne, NV is the site of a major weapons depot. When you get in sight of the town you can see bunkers spread out over many square miles of rangeland and hundreds of buildings, which I concluded were storage warehouses.

I bought gas in Hawthorne for $4.19/gal and for the first time it would have cost more than $100 except that the pump shuts down at $99 so I left without having completely filled the tank. But when you are 80 miles from the next gas station the price is not the first priority.

The RV Park that I had called (and did not return my call) had no vacancy so we had to find another place in town, which probably saved us a few dollars and turned out to be fine.

Not enough energy left to go hunting for supper tonight so we feasted on the gourmet campers’ favorite – beans and wieners!

Las Vegas

Monday March 19^th

First thing on the agenda today was getting the oil changed in the Suburban. Our electronic assistants have failed us so I had to go hunting for the oil change place the old fashioned way – with an address. The folks at the Quick Oil change place recognized an easy mark when they saw one and sold me 1) special oil for a high mileage engine; 2) transmission flush and fluid replacement; 3) new gear oil for the rear differential. Unfortunately all that stuff was well overdue, so I tried to smile at the bill, but it was difficult.

With that done and the Suburban filled up ($3.79/gal) we got the trailer packed up and headed N towards Las Vegas. Cathey has friends that live in Las Vegas but she has not contacted them yet so we might stay more than one night there if we get in touch with them.

The drive seemed quite easy, traffic was light and the scenery was pretty good. The plant types have changed, no more saguaros or cholla cactus, just short brush, some of which I think is sage but it’s not the pale green kind that I am used to like in Idaho and Wyoming. We got through Las Vegas before rush hour and got to our RV Park on the NE side of the city and got setup with plenty of daylight left.

The Woodall’s listing for the RV Park mentioned a Steak House next door to the RV Park Office, so we went over there with great expectations. We were disappointed, the ‘Steak House’ was mostly a bar and pool room with two tables. The only ‘steak’ available after 4pm was a ground round with mushroom gravy. We declined the honor and went looking for something else. The area of the city that we were in seems to be heavily Hispanic and we ended up at a Mexican Seafood restaurant. We were probably the only Gringos in the place, but the service was good and I had a big bowl of “Caldo Mixta” and Cathey had a huge shrimp cocktail and a non seafood entrée. I am not sure what Caldo Mixta translates to but it was a fish soup with hunks of octopus, shrimp and two kinds of fish in a reddish broth, very tasty. I would order it again.

Early to bed to try and get an early start tomorrow.

Phase I of Trailer Reconfiguration

Sunday March 18^th

A chilly morning, although the rain appears to be over for the time being. I used the hamburger that inadvertently got thawed out the other day, to make a batch of chili. The cooking also helps to warm up the trailer on a cool morning, although once you turn on the stove hood fan to keep from saturating the trailer with chili smell, the benefit is probably negligible.

We ventured forth about noon. We were going to drive up the river and do some sightseeing but we only made it to the edge of town where we found a WalMart. I bought a sound bar to replace the stereo speakers that are currently in the trailer. We are just about to the point of replacing the built-in dinette in the trailer with a table and chairs. The problem with the conversion is that you lose a lot of storage space under the bench seats. By getting rid of the old stereo speakers we will create a little more storage space to stow some of the things that are now stored under the bench seats. We may have to get rid of the stereo set too, although for the time being Cathey wants to keep it because it functions as a CD player.

So instead of driving around, we came back to the trailer and I spent the rest of the afternoon making changes in the trailer.

A Noisy Saturday in Lake Havasu

Saturday March 17^th

A pretty quiet day for us as far as activity was concerned, but not quiet at all as far as ambient noise was concerned. The races are taking place about a half mile from our campsite and the PA system is loud enough to be heard clearly as well as the noise of hundreds of motorcycles and ATVs. Our only venture from the trailer was to finally go and get the laundry done about 4pm. It had been overcast much of the day and just before we went to the laundramat, it started raining lightly. The change in weather had been in the news for days already; the weather forcasters are predicting a big drop in temps and lots of snow in the mountains. Much of Arizona is drier than normal; they have only had half of their normal precipitation this winter so they need all the moisture they can get. By 10pm the rain had picked up and was pretty steady.

Had problems getting on the internet through our Mifi gizmo; I made some changes so that the laptop would not try to hook up to just any wifi available. The changes must be the problem……

Retreat Back to Arizona

Friday March 16^th

I didn’t feel like setting up my coffee pot this morning so I went to Blythe in search of a Starbucks. Blythe isn’t a very big town but it was big enough to have a Starbucks. Also had a Ace Hardware Store where I stopped and got a spring loaded shower curtain rod to use as a prop to hold some trim in place while it is glued back into position. The piece is part of the ceiling trim in the main slide-out; I had noticed that the end was loose at our last stop but when we got to Blythe it was much worse. So another super glue application to keep things in place!

While I was in Blythe, I noticed that gas was $4.45/gal. That was discouraging since we had planned to make the easy (no high mountain passes) route to California and then drive up the valley to Sacramento. So the first thing I did was drive back across the river to Arizona and fill up the Suburban there. Gas was ‘only’ $3.89/gal there so the difference was $.55/gal. Cathey called several RV Parks in Cathedral City, CA (adjacent to Palm Springs), but could not find one that had a vacancy. I still didn’t have John’s address in Palm Springs, so we decided to back track a few miles on I-10 and then head north to Lake Havasu or one of the towns along the river between here and Las Vegas. The trip through Nevada now looks a lot better with the gasoline price differential to help us endure a few chilly nights along the road.

We stopped in Parker, AZ for lunch and then I called a campground in Lake Havasu and got one of the last sites at The Crazy Horse RV Park in Lake Havasu.

Once we got registered and went to setup we discovered that the site not only had a cut-off pole sticking out of the ground near the back of the site, but the site wasn’t long enough for our trailer. They gave us another site near the water, which was nice, but there was no sewer hook-up and no cable TV, both of which were available at the first site. So we will just have to watch our waste water production for the next three days, and we should be okay. Oh, yeah, and the electrical hook-up was 50 amp and our trailer is a 30 amp, so we shopped around half the afternoon for a converter plug.

We went out for supper at a place called the Javelina Cantina, and noticed a lot of people along the beach having a noisy party. Oh yeah, it’s spring break and Lake Havasu is a popular spot for college kids to gatherer. Later Cathey read in a local newspaper that there are motorcycle and ATV races here for the next two weekends!

Across the Colorado River and Into California

Thursday March 15^th

I was up fairly early and began the routine of getting everything stowed again for the move. We are headed for Blythe, CA today on the way to my cousin John’s near Palm Springs, CA. I don’t have his address yet but did call his sister Nancy in Moses Lake, WA and should have the address by tomorrow. After breakfast I decided to get a few things at the grocery store and went down to Fry’s and got the stuff and pretty much wasted the better part of an hour that should have been used to get rolling.

We did get on the road about 12, which is the official checkout time. We were within a mile of the 101 Freeway which is the beltline highway that connects I-17 on the N side to I-10 on the W side of Phoenix. The trip was pretty uneventful except that we didn’t do a good job of checking off our “Pack-up” checklist. The refrigerator door and the freezer door were not latched and both came open during the trip, resulting in a lot of stuff rolling around on the floor when we got to our destination. Fortunately there was no breakage and the biggest mess was the ice cubes that melted on the floor.

We set-up in the KOA in Blythe, CA, just on the W side of the Colorado River. Cathey was a little surprised that the Colorado wasn’t larger than it was, but that’s because everybody along its banks is taking water out of it from Colorado to here. We were pleasantly surprised that our campsite had grass on it. That is the first grassy campsite that we have had on this trip. Typically they are covered with pea gravel with a concrete patio pad. I think the high temp today was 87 so once we were set up we just sat in the shade and had a couple of wine coolers. The park manager had invited us to a pot luck supper that they were having but we didn’t make it over there – not much interest in eating after a hot day.

Prescott and Sedona

Wednesday March14th

It always seems to be cold in the morning, especially if we forget to close the windows or the roof vents, but it only gets down to about 55, so it’s not like we’re freezing to death. Cathey was communicating with Dorrie in Prescott via Jeanne in Cascade, WI, so we knew that she wouldn’t be home until the afternoon.

We started out about 1100 but I forgot to fillup with gas before we left and had to stop in Cordes Junction and had to pay $4.20/gal for regular gas – that hurt.

We got to Dorrie’s house about 1pm and had a nice visit with her and her little poodle, Molly. When we left Dorrie, we drove into Prescott to see what there was to see. I though Prescott was a lot bigger than I thought it was but I think that’s true of almost every place I have been in Arizona. We stopped at a place called the Gurley Street Grill and had a nice lunch. (Gurley Street is of historical importance in Prescott, but we didn’t get any details on that.) The highlight here was the labeling on the restrooms; the Ladies’ was labeled “Gurleys” and the Mens’ was labeled “Gurley Men.” I assume the California Govinator was the inspiration for the Mens’ label.

About 3:30 we headed for Sedona. Between Prescott and Sedona there is some pretty mountainous territory and the highway took us above the snow line; the summit was 7023 ft.. But even up there is wasn’t cold today – 58 degrees. Once we got over the summit we started seeing some pretty amazing scenery in the distance of red rocks and jagged peaks. About half way down the mountain on the Sedona side we came across the old Mining town of Jerome. I think it is a re-populated ghost town but it is built on the mountain side so the highway through town is extremely narrow and the houses are right up to the road. The highway does several hairpin turns through town and then goes down the mountain the rest of the way and into the town of Cottonwood.

By the time we got to Sedona the sun was getting pretty low in the sky which lit up the rock features around Sedona in an amazing show of color and grandeur. That’s the second time we have been to Sedona and have not stayed long enough to explore. I guess we will have to come back again!

It was about 20 miles from Sedona back to I-17 and then about 65 miles back to our RV Park, so we had a couple of hours of night time driving, but nothing too scary.

Kind of a Day Off

Tuesday March 13^th

We were supposed to go to Prescott today to visit Jeanne Nigh’s sister, Dorrie, but Cathey wasn’t feeling too good today so we were going to do laundry and get haircuts. I checked out the Laundromat and it was pretty busy so I went for a drive to find the local grocery stores and possibly haircut places. The first thing I did was get lost when I came to a freeway that I wasn’t expecting, and then made turns thinking it was a freeway that ran in a different direction. I discovered where two grocery stores were and two small strip malls. Then I went N a ways and found a big shopping center at Happy Valley Road and I-17. During the course of all this I stopped for lunch at a place called the Greek Patio; I had forgotten how much I liked Greek food!

When Cathey was feeling better we did go and get our haircuts but we never quite worked up to the laundry.

We Visit With Bob Larson

Monday March 12^th

We skipped breakfast to get on the road early, so we got rolling about 0920. Traffic was reasonable and we stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Marana, north of Tucson. Unfortunately the Cracker Barrel was very slow and we didn’t get out of there until almost 1130. Then, on to Phoenix.

Bob Larson called us when we were still S of Phoenix and said he would like to meet us for lunch, when we got there. We picked an RV Park named Desert Edge RV Park a few miles S of where Bob lives. By the time we got the trailer set up Bob was on the phone looking for us. Shortly after 2pm we met Bob at a Chili’s near where he lives and stayed and visited until nearly 5. Then back to the trailer; we were able to sit outside until it got dark and started getting cooler. Temps were over 80 today and expected to stay that way until Sunday when they are expecting a couple of 60ish days.

Preps to Move Back to Phoenix Area

Sunday March 11^th

Pretty quiet day of reading, computer stuff and TV. Mid afternoon I ventured forth to the Camping World store to get some bulbs for the light in the stove hood. It looked like a specialized bulb not available just anywhere. A stop at Camping World always takes awhile because there is so much to see there. Got the bulbs and a few other minor things and got out for less than $30, which is pretty good.

Then found a WalMart and got a few things that were on our misc list for a week or so. Gassed up on the way back to the trailer so we will be ready to go in the morning. Gas is now $3.69, that was $3.65 a few days ago.

I mounted my new chair mount on the rear ladder on the trailer. That will give us a little more room in the Suburban. Also did some other odds and ends to get us on the road quickly tomorrow.

Visit to Larry and Liz Wehrli's House

Saturday March 10^th

Went over to the office and added two more days to our stay here; now we will be leaving on Monday. While I was there I found out they had had a free breakfast this morning, but we didn’t know about it – failed to look at the events calendar. Then took a LP tank down to the fill station and left it there; they will bring it back when they fill it. We haven’t used as much LP gas as we have in previous trips because we have been relying on our electric heater as much as possible. Unfortunately the new one that we bought in TX quite a couple of days ago and I don’t have a screw driver with the right head to get it apart so it’s just sitting in the corner. The old one works ok but doesn’t distribute the heat like the new one did.

We were supposed to be out at Larry & Liz’s house by 1100 but we didn’t leave until about 1030 so we didn’t get there until almost 1130. They live near Pearce, AZ and it was farther to their house than I remembered, about 70 miles, and I was thinking about 40.

Liz is still recovering from recent back surgery and is still doing physical therapy and acupuncture therapy to aid in the recovery. We had a good time visiting and meeting the new standard Poodle, Mad Max and getting reacquainted with Emma the female Poodle. Also went out and looked at the horses and Henry, the donkey but they weren’t much interested in us.

We went over to the local golf clubhouse and had a nice lunch and then headed back to their house and visited until after 4pm. On our way back we stopped at the Walgreens in Vail and got some gel cold packs for Cathey; her wrist is hurting and also has sensitive feet.

Then back to the trailer for a quiet evening.

Excursion to Catalina, Oracle & Beyond

Friday March 9^th

Up a little earlier than the past few days; in order to get ready for our luncheon engagement with Terye and her Mother, Eileen. We left at about 10 and I thought we were on schedule until just before we got there (1055) when Cathey said we were supposed to be there at 1030. So we all enjoyed a leisurely lunch and visited a little and then Terye and Eileen were off to the airport to pick up a visitor.

We decided to drive over to the Catalina and Oracle area where Cathey’s niece, Lynn used to live. I had a vague idea of driving around the mountains and coming back to our RV Park from the east. But I had not anticipated doing an excursion today so I had left my map book at the trailer. It took three stops in Oracle before we found an Arizona map and by the time I looked it over and found the route I wanted to follow, we decided it was too late in the day to make that trip.

So we drove from Oracle over to San Manuel and then took the road that goes up Mt. Lemmon. We probably went 6 or 8 miles on that road and turned around. My passenger was not enjoying the ride because the road kept getting narrower and the drop-offs on the sides of the road kept getting deeper. We went as far as the Peppersauce Campground, which looked like a nice place to camp but not very accessible for a trailer of our size.

On the return trip through Tucson we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant named Macayo’s Del Este and had a fine supper, although I thought their salsa had too much cilantro for my taste. But that just kept me from eating too many chips before the meal.

Gas that was $3.59 on Monday is now $3.65.

A Blustery Day of a Different Kind

Thursday March 8^th

Didn’t do much today; a few minor fixit projects and rearranged some of our pantry/storage space to make things that we use often, easier to access.

I think we are getting over-exposed to each other; too much time spent together in a limited space. I guess we will have to make an effort to get out more or make sure we don’t spend too much time in our little house.

Got the grill going this afternoon and grilled some salmon that Cathey bought a day or two ago. Had a nice dinner of salmon, baked potato and a salad. Better than crabby patties for a couple of crabby Polacks!

A Blustery Day

Wednesday March 7^th

Still waiting for the GPS gizmo to heal….. Another quiet day of reading, TV and some cleaning chores. We had a call from Terye and set up a meeting at AJ’s for Friday lunch. Later I called Larry and we set up a meeting for Saturday lunch – we’re getting booked up.

Mid afternoon we ventured to the Camping World Store about 10 miles down I-10 from here. I needed to buy some spring loaded bars for the bathroom shelves. The shelves are spaced vertically far enough apart that shampoo bottles and other tall things fit nicely there, but when we move the bottles have to be put inside the cabinet because there is nothing to keep them on the shelf when the trailer hits a bump in the road. So the spring loaded bars are like a spring loaded adjustable shower rod on a small scale that can be adjusted and pushed into place to hold things on shelves or upright in the refrigerator. Also bought some cutesy hummingbird lights to hang on our awning – if we ever use it. At this particular site there is a tree preventing us from using it but it has been far too windy to use it anyway.

Once we left Camping World we went and checked out the ‘Lazy Days’ RV Park adjacent to the Camping World store. We stayed there 3 years ago and it hasn’t changed much although it has changed hands; it used to be called Beaudry’s.

By that time hunger pangs were working on both of us. I remembered a good hamburger place about a mile down the road from the Camping World store, so we headed there. It was called ‘Brooklyn Beer & Burger’ and the burgers were even better than I remembered.

The weather today was kind of blustery with a high of only 55 and it was mostly cloudy until late afternoon when it finally cleared up.

GPS goes on Strike - We Wander

Tuesday March 6^th

Not much action around here today. I took the opportunity to do a few minor maintenance chores – nothing too serious a little super glue here, a little duct tape there and opened a panel to get something that fell behind the stove.

So about the time the rush hour traffic began we ventured out to find a Target. Unfortunately the GPS seems to be on strike or on the fritz. It kept saying we were still at the RV park when we were miles away so we kind of just drove until we saw a K-mart and stopped and picked up a few things. We also found out that the Target was just a few blocks down the street and just before we saw the Target we spied an Olive Garden. So after a brief Target stop we headed to the Olive Garden and had a great dinner.

Hot Day for Snowbirds

Monday March 5^th

Cathey had an appointment to get a perm today at 1pm. I delivered her to the beauty shop and then had two hours to spend. Bought gas at $3.59/gal at the nearest Shell station. Looked over the stores near us and then drove over to Vail and had a great hamburger at Montgomery’s Bar and Grill. Then came back to the trailer and laid down for a little while. I thought I would do some cleaning but it was too hot in the trailer; the outdoor temp was about 85.

Once Cathey was done at the beauty shop, she went over to Fry’s and bought some hamburgers to grill for supper. So it was more hamburger on the menu but it was still wonderful!

Another Quiet Sunday

Sunday March 4^th

Slept in and didn’t really do anything until about 4:00, when we drove over to AJ’s Deli in the far reaches of N Tucson. It was more than 20 miles over there, and there is more Tucson to the W of there. This is the AJ’s that is in the foot hills on the N side of Tucson and the outdoor seating looks out over the city. Very scenic, but I doubt I will be driving 40 miles roundtrip to have lunch there very often. By the time we left it was just about dark so the view from there was even better.

Move to Cactus Country, Tucson

Saturday March 3^rd

Up relatively early and got showered and fed and proceeded to stow things for the move. Then I discovered that we were out of coffee so made an emergency trip to Fry’s for coffee and a couple of cleaning items. We were hooked up and ready to go by about 11:30, unfortunately, I think the check-out time was 11:00.

We bid adieu to Curt and Max and finally got rolling a few minutes before 12:00. Traffic was no problem and I even let the GPS take us through Chandler on a state highway. We stopped around Casa Grande for some lunch at a Dairy Queen.

The RV Park we were going to was way on the E side of Tucson so we finally pulled in a few minutes before 4:00. Setup went smoothly and by 5:30 we set off for the nearby Fry’s for all the things that I didn’t get this morning. On the way back we took a detour to the town of Vail about 3 miles E of here. I was looking for a steakhouse that I had seen advertised along the highway. We didn’t find the steakhouse but we did find a little Italian restaurant that was pretty good. There was more in Vail that I thought; there were several other restaurants there which we may visit later.

Then back to the trailer to “unstow’ whatever we need. Gradually over the course of a week everything gets spread out again and then you have to stow it all again before the next move.

We Get Our Own Mobile Wi-Fi

Friday March 2^nd

For some reason we were both kind of crabby today so we decided today was the day to go and see Verizon about getting our mobile wi-fi service. I wasn’t expecting this to be a very pleasant encounter but Dustin, our salesman, was so good at his job that he talked us out of an additional $70 per month and we left smiling. We added the mobile wi-fi device to Cathey’s contract with 5Gb of data per month for $50 and also bought another dohickey that converts our home phone to a cellular service for an additional $20/month. That will save us from reactivating the phone at home to TDS or Time Warner and lets our home phone travel with us when we are traveling.

Then made a brief stop at Best Buy to buy a cable for my camera. I have been taking pictures but failed to bring the right cable to download the pictures to my computer. The Geek at Best Buy sold me an USB SD card reader so I can take the card out of the camera and read it into the computer. That’s good until the camera battery goes dead and then I will have another problem. I was shocked to learn that despite the cable for the camera being the same size as other cables, all camera cables are unique to the brand of camera. No standardization for camera cables like there is for phone cables.

So after dealing with all that, we had a nice lunch at a place called “The Paradise Bakery and Café.” Then drove out to Lost Dutchman State Park just a few miles north of Apache Junction. There wasn’t much there to look at except great views of the mountains. The park is mostly a campground and starting point for several hiking trails that go up to the Superstition Mountains. The campground there was pretty nice, but like most state camping facilities there are no sewer hookups.

When we got back to the trailer we did some preps for moving tomorrow – we will be going to the Cactus Country RV Park on the E edge of Tucson. That is a place that we stayed at 3 years ago and enjoyed.

Went and filled up the Suburban before it got dark. Gas was $3.89/gallon; hope it doesn’t get too much worse or we will have to start hitchhiking!