Our RV Adventures

This morning began way, way too early, 6 am too early to be exact. I got up and let Jan sleep while I went outside and started disassembling our RV site. We plan on leaving the Pima County Fairgrounds here in Tucson this morning and heading about 230 miles north to the Verde Valley Thousand Trails RV Resort near Camp Verde, AZ

A little before 7 I went in to wake up Jan to get ready to go meet Al & Adrienne for breakfast at Poco & Mom’s. Although she was feeling a little better when I talked to her about 3 am, she definitely was feeling worse now.

So about 7:30 I headed out alone to meet Al & Adrienne. We had a great meal and talked about our mutual plans for the next few months.

They plan on spending the summer working in Cody, WY near Yellowstone National Park and we’re going to try to stop in and see them when we’re in the area later this summer, probably in June.

After saying our goodbyes and getting Jan a cheese quesadilla and iced tea to go, I got back to the rig about 9:15 to find Jan up and about, but without a lot of energy to do anything, but she was trying. I told her to stay on the couch and I would get us ready to leave.

By about 10:45 we were hitched and heading out. But the cats were very confused. They couldn’t figure out why we were moving, but Jan wasn’t in her chair for them to sit with. Finally Mister apparently decided he’d just climb up there and wait on her. Then a little before Phoenix, Jan was feeling well enough to leave the sofa and join me up front.

After some steep grades, but a smooth trip overall, we arrived at the Verde Valley TT gate right at 3 pm. And they had all our check-in stuff waiting for us, smooth as silk.

We knew Nick and Terry were in Section C, so we headed over that way. We soon found their rig, and got set up right next door.

They showed up a few minutes later, coming back from town, but since Jan still wasn’t feeling well, and we didn’t want to take a chance giving them something, we decided not to get together until later, although that ‘later’ maybe Saturday, since they’re making a daytrip to Show Low tomorrow.

The Verde Valley TT park is really nice. It’s out in the country, kind of carved out around the hills and valleys. And it’s got a really strong 30 amps. With everything else turned off except the frig and the water heater, we were able to run both A/C’s during the afternoon to cool the coach down quicker.

We didn’t do much for supper, with Jan having the rest of her quesadilla, and I had my spaghetti leftover from Argenziano’s on Tuesday.

Jan seems to be on the mend. Hopefully she’ll feel even better tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

"Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.” – Benjamin Franklin

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That’s the good news.

The bad news is that Jan is really under the weather. She woke up this morning with a headache, and then later in the morning started feeling queasy. And it just got worse as the day went on.

By the evening she still had her headache, queasy stomach, and maybe a little fever and joint aches. Basic symptoms might indicate flu, but she has no cough or runny nose. And to the best of my knowledge we’ve not been around anyone with the flu. The normal incubation period is 1 – 4 days.

We got up about 9 this morning and had coffee and Miss Terry’s toast, before going out to see Nick and Terry off about 10. They’re heading about 240 miles north to Camp Verde, AZ and the Verde Valley Thousand Trails RV Resort. Hopefully our TT membership number will come through this afternoon, and we can follow them tomorrow.

After extended hugs they pulled out and left us to our own devices.

Total boredom set in almost immediately.

About 2:30 I put in a call to Thousand Trails to see if the TT computer had spit out our membership number. And lo and behold, it had.

We were now officially Thousand Trail members. So I immediately tried to make a reservation at Verde Valley. And found out that you can’t make a reservation without a PIN number, and you can’t get a PIN number online, even though it says you can generate a new PIN, you must already have one to get one.

So after calling TT Membership Services and being given one, I went back online and made a reservation for tomorrow.

We’re on our way.

About 3 I drove over to Ace Hardware to pick up some 3’ #10 wood screws to use with the EZ Anchors I already had. I was trying to remount the grab bar mounted under the dashboard at the entry door and the original holes had enlarged too much when the bar came off. But these anchors will hold 50# a piece, so we’ll see if they hold.

About 5:45 Al & Adrienne called to say they were ready for supper, but Jan was just too sick to go, so we made a date for breakfast tomorrow morning at 8am at Poco & Mom’s. Hopefully Jan will be feeling better by then.

Later in the evening I decided it was time to finally install Service Pak 1 for Win7 that came out a few weeks ago. And I also installed Internet Explorer 9 at the same time. I’ve learned over the years to never install an update when it first comes. It’s much safer to wait a couple of weeks to MS to get the bugs out.

But luckily everything went fine. I’m still trying to get IE9 configured like I like it, since they moved some things around and hide others.

More from Verde Valley tomorrow.

I’ve reposted our visit to Sequoia National Park last April.

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Thought for the Day:

Wind is just air, but pushier.

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Some Really Big Trees…

Posted on April 30, 2010

Today we headed out to visit Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. Leaving about 9 am we drove 70 miles south thru Fresno to the entrance to Sequoia National Park.

But before we left we set the crockpot on a timer so that when we came home we’d have a big pot of Tuscan Chicken Spaghetti waiting for us. Then we hit the road, heading toward Fresno, about 30 miles south.

Leaving Fresno, which is at 300 ft elevation, we starting the climb up into the Sierras, with some great views along the way. Click to enlarge the pictures!

And just like yesterday we ran into snow. We started encountering it about 4500 feet, and it just got deeper the further up we went.

When we got to the Ranger Station at Grants Grove at almost 7000 feet, we really saw the snow in deep drifts.

There was a lot more snow here in Sequoia than in Yosemite yesterday.

After checking in at the Ranger Station and checking out the Gift Shop, we had to change our travel plans. We had planned to drive the big 60 mile loop thru the park and come out down south near Visalia. But we found that loop was closed due to the heavy snowfall and would not be open anytime soon. That meant we would not be able to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world. Bummer!

But we would be able to see the 2nd largest tree, the General Grant tree, so we headed over to Grant’s Grove a couple of miles away to take a look.

This is the first big tree we saw right in front of our truck when we parked. It’s hard to convey how really big these trees are. The pictures really don’t do them justice.

And across the parking lot were these twins.

And here is the General Grant tree. It’s 267 feet tall and about 35 feet in diameter. It is estimated to be over 1600 years old.

And here is an internet picture of the General Sherman that we didn’t get to see. It’s about 275 feet tall and about 40 feet in diameter at the base. That’s bigger than our RV ! It’s between 2300 and 2700 years old. The spread of the branches at the top is almost 110 feet wide.

After viewing the trees, we went back to the lodge for a really good lunch at the restaurant, much better than the one at Yosemite yesterday.

Then after lunch, we drove out into the forest for about 10 miles just taking in all great scenery along the way.

Then it was time to head home. Coming back down thru the mountains, we went thru several cloud layers, but by the time we got down to the bottom, it was clear and sunny again. And going from almost 7000 feet to 300 feet really makes the ears pop.

We got back about 3:30 to a coach filled with wonderful smell of our dinner cooking away.

We ate about 6 pm and it was great. It’s the first time Jan’s fixed this Tuscan Chicken Spaghetti, but we’ll definitely have it again.

Tomorrow is a take-it-easy day. We’re going to get together with some friends, George and Sandy, who we’ve corresponded with for awhile, but didn’t actually meet until the Nick Russell’s Gypsy Journal Rally in Yuma this past March. We discovered yesterday that we’re both in the same park here.

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