Our RV Adventures

Just to recap yesterday. . .

Today started out with me dropping off Jan at Wal-Mart to get her cute little toesies done. Before they were bright blue, and now they’re bright pink.

While Jan was busy with her toes, I headed back out to the Fortuna area to check out several more places, including the DQ that gave us gift cards last year.

Getting back to the Wal-Mart about noon, I picked up Jan and we headed across the parking lot for lunch at the Der Wienerschnitzel, a hot dog chain that we enjoy. While we were there I noticed that they had Tastee Freez ice cream products.

I asked the manager who bought who, as I was curious since my father and I owned a Tastee Freez in Greeneville, TN back in the early 70’s. For those who aren’t familiar with them, they’re like a full menu Dairy Queen. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, and pressure-fried chicken just KFC, and, of course, ice cream.

Although Der Wienerschnitzel bought Tastee Freez, they both carry each others products. DW’s have TF ice cream and TF’s have DW’s hot dogs.

After lunch we went next door to Barney’s to fill up for our trip to Gila Bend this afternoon. And since it was convenient, I also got a car wash. According the sign on the pump, a Deluxe Car Wash was $7, or $6 with 8 gallons or more of fuel. I put in about 14 gallons so I was surprised to find that I was charged $7 for the car wash on my credit card. So cheap me, I went inside to get my dollar back.

Hey, it’s a whole dollar!

The counter lady seemed kind of miffed that I was even asking. I just wonder how many people don’t notice the extra charge.

Hey, it’s a whole dollar!

Getting back to the rig, we both took a nap before we headed out about 3pm toward Gila Bend for my Elk’s Lodge initiation.

On the way we did make a couple of stops in Fortuna again to pick up some more gift certificates from Applebee’s and Tiki-Hut.

Then, soon after leaving Fortuna, Jan talked to both our son Chris and our daughter Brandi, catching up on Piper and Landon.

About an hour out of Yuma we encountered this Christmas tree in the median between the lanes. Don’t know who did it or why, but it is kind of neat.

It even has two of Jan’s favorite animal hanging from the limbs.

About 50 miles out of Gila Bend, we made a pit stop at Dateland, obviously named for the many date palms plantations in the area.

The place had a very nice gift shop where Jan found a bracelet she really liked, and we had to try a date shake from the ice cream shop. It was good but I’m not sure I could have recognized it as date-flavored if I hadn’t already known what it was.

I thought it was a nice touch that they had kennels for your pets with shade and water misters to keep them cool while you’re inside. Not really needed today, but probably a good idea when it’s 120 degrees in the summer.

I also saw this marker at the entrance to the store telling about the crash of a B-50 bomber on a training flight nearby in March, 1950. The “Long Ranger” as the plane was known, apparently blew up in mid-air after an engine caught fire. Only two of the crew of 14 survived by being blown clear in the explosion.

The B-50 was the last of the piston-powered bombers built after WWII, and was basically a souped-up, highly-modified B-29, but with so many changes that they gave it a new designation.

Getting into Gila Bend a little after 5pm, we stopped off at Augie’s Quail Trail RV Park to drop off some Gypsy Journals. While we were there I saw this satellite dish with a really nice paint job. Wonder where I could get mine painted.

I had been told to be at the Elk’s Lodge at 5:30 and that they would start about 6pm.

Yeah, right!

They finally got started about 7:45 and the initiation was over in about 20 minutes. The part with the donkey wasn’t too bad, but I wasn’t too crazy about the thing with the goat in a dress!

I hope the cheap RV parking was worth it.

They had a total of 10 people going through the initiation, including two women. And half of us were RV’ers.

After the initiation was over, we were stuck in a routine board meeting, with really interesting stuff like the reading of the minutes of the last meeting, and the detailing of the Treasurer’s report.

And poor Jan was waiting out in the car all this time.

Finally, a little after 8:30 we were released and Jan and I headed down to Sofia’s Mexican Food for dinner before heading home. Jan had her usual Shrimp Burrito and I had my usual Carnita Dinner. And of course, delicious as usual.

We finally got home a little after 11pm, and I was just too tired to do the blog, resulting, of course, in Nick’s usual sniveling.

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This morning started off with our usual coffee and an unusual email.

It was from John Anstey, the manager of the Anchor Inn we stayed at in Twillingate, Newfoundland in September 2009.

In fact I had recently reposted our trip there about a month ago. You can check it out here.

http://ourrvadventures.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/mermaids-and-moose/

He remembered us and just wanted to check in and say Hi. Nice man.

Then a little later our daughter Brandi to check in and see if I had survived my Elk’s initiation. I didn’t tell her about the part with the goat. It’s too embarrassing. I can probably never eat cabrito again.

Nick called about 12:30 to see if we were alive, since we still had the curtains and the door closed. We were just both too lazy to get up and open them.

Then about 2 Nick showed up with a big armload of packages that had come into the office for us. He was complaining about the heavy load, but two of them were his!

About 2:30 Jan and I headed out to beg for more door prizes, and had good luck at Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and several others. The last place we stopped was Kneader’s Bakery where we dropped off a door prize request, and also bought two Pumpkin Spice Muffin Tops.

Finally on our way home, we stopped off at Sam’s Club for a couple of things, getting home about 4.

Nick called about 5pm to see if we were ready for supper.

Dumb Question! And I thought Nick was smarter than that.

So Nick, Terry, Tom, Barb, Jan, and I headed off to IHOP for dinner. And even better, they were having a Buy one dinner, Get one free special for Seniors. Wheee! Cheap Food!

After spending almost two hours at IHOP, we were ready for dessert so we adjourned the meeting to a nearby DQ for another hour and a half or so.

Can we talk, or what?

Finally got back to the rig a little before 10pm. Counting dessert it was a 4 and a half hour meal. I think that’s a new record.

More tomorrow. . .

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Thought for the Day:

Government expands to fill any voids in your freedom

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