Our RV Adventures

Jan and I both slept late this morning so no time for coffee before we had to be ready at 10:30 to head out to Camping World with Nick and Terry.  We were taking separate cars since we were going to split up after that.

I wanted to pick up a grey water valve to complete my set, and while there the new issue of “The Next Exit” caught my eye. In case you’re not familiar with it, “The Next Exit” lists every exit on every Interstate in every state in the US.

It also tells you what stores, gas stations, restaurants, etc. are located there, and whether or not, diesel is available and if you can get a big RV in the station. It also shows rest areas and pull-overs. All in all, very useful.

But last year, after I had already bought the 2010 “Next Exit”, I came across a new one from Good Sam’s and Camping World called “Exit Now”.

Although it’s more expensive ($16 vs. $10 on Amazon), “Exit Now” is spiral-bound and uses much better quality paper. And the brighter-white paper should be easier to read compared to the newsprint-type paper used in “The Next Exit”. So it looks like in 2011 we’ll be giving “Exit Now” a try. We’ll see how it goes. While there Terry picked up a new faucet for the bathroom and some light bulbs.

Leaving Camping World, Nick and Terry headed over to see Nick’s cousin Beverly, while Jan and I headed toward Corona de Tucson, a small town south of the Pima County Fairground on S. Houghton Rd. We were meeting Al & Adrienne at Argenziano’s, an Italian restaurant they like.

Getting there about 10 minutes early we stopped at the Ace Hardware next door, but ran out of time before I found what I wanted.

Argenziano’s was really good, with Al & Adrienne splitting a pizza, while Jan had ravioli stuffed with roasted garlic and shrimp, and I had spaghetti and meatballs. We had our usual good time with them and made plans to have dinner tomorrow night, our last night in Tucson, hopefully.

I say ‘hopefully’, because it depends on our getting our Thousand Trails membership number tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

Leaving the restaurant and Al & Adrienne, we went back next door to Ace Hardware to finish up our shopping. Heading back to the fairgrounds, we detoured to get gas and stop off at Fry’s to pick up a few groceries, and while we were there, I talked to Thousand Trails to see how our membership processing was going. Again, ‘hopefully’, we’ll have our number tomorrow.

Later, we left the rig about 5 to meet Nick, Terry, and Beverly at Chuy’s – Tucson. It turned out to be more bar & grill than restaurant, and you had to order at the counter, but the food was good, even though the service was spotty because they were so busy.

Nick and Terry are leaving here tomorrow and heading up to Verde Valley Thousand Trails RV park near Camp Verde, AZ. Hopefully, there’s that word again, ‘hopefully’, we’ll follow them on Thursday . . . or Friday . . . or when we get our TT membership number. Hopefully.

We got home a little before 7 and were down for the night. Nick and Terry are leaving about 10 so we’ll be up in time to see them off.

I’ve reposted some more of our time in the High Sierras last year.

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Thought for the Day:

“Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.” – Otto Von Bismarck

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Clean today…Road trip tomorrow

Posted on May 1, 2010

Today we started off with breakfast at Pete’s Place and it was just as good as last time. Then, on the way home we stopped off to get gas for our road trip tomorrow.

Getting back to the park I stopped by the office to extend our stay by one day. We now plan on leaving Wednesday morning.

Jan had designated today as Cleaning Day, so we went thru the coach, dusting, cleaning, tidying up, moping, vacuuming, etc., ‘til everything was spic and span.

Around 12:45 pm Jan noticed a large bird in a tree right across from us. It was so large that at first I thought it was an eagle, but after a little research I think it’s a Ferry Hawk, or Ferruginous Hawk. Apparently it is often mistaken for an eagle because it is so large.

That is a beautiful bird!

This was a very popular tree limb. A little later a Acorn Woodpecker showed up.

Next, another bluebird showed up, again on the same limb.

About 5 pm we drove over to pick up our friends, George and Sandy Stoltz for supper at El Cid Mexican Restaurant. We had a great time getting to spend some time with them. And it was really nice for our friend Nick Russell to treat us to dinner. Thanks, Nick.

Tomorrow we are taking a road trip about 180 miles to San Simeon on the coast to visit the Hearst Castle, and spend some time driving down the coast to Morro Bay and Pismo Beach. We’ll probably stay overnight and come back on Monday.

More tomorrow…

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After coffee and some of Miss Terry’s great homemade bread, we slowly got the morning started around 9:30.

After Jan talked to Al & Adrienne about getting together tomorrow for lunch, I spent time talking with a client for a while, and then about 11:45 I went up to the RV Office and paid for our site for two more days. They told me that we would have to start using another entrance/exit to the fairgrounds since they are repaving the main entrance before the Pima County Fair starts on April 14th.

Then about 12:30 I called the fairgrounds office and found out my Priority Mail envelope had arrived, so I jumped in the truck and headed over there.

I was waiting for my paperwork from Thousand Trails so I could get it turned back ASAP, so we can head up to the TT park in Camp Verde, AZ within the next few days. We can only stay here for a few more days before we have to leave because of the upcoming fair.

I got the papers filled out and faxed in, and then called them to make my transfer payment over the phone. Hopefully I will have our membership number in the next couple of days so we can head north.

While I was driving around the fairgrounds we got these photos of some of the RCS carnival equipment.

This is one of their large dormitory 5th wheels.

And out on one of the side lots are a bunch of the ride trailers.

About 5:30 Jan and I drove over to Jack’s BBQ to meet Nick, Terry, and Beverly for supper. According to the online reviews, Jack’s is the best BBQ place in Tucson, and the reviews were pretty accurate. Jan had a BBQ Beef/Pork sandwich, and I had the Sampler Platter with a little of everything. All very good.

After dinner, we headed back to Beverly’s so I could look at a problem with her computer. It took a while to get it fixed, but that just gave us time to get hungry for DQ. So about 8:30 we drove over there to get Nick’s DQ fix.

Then it was home for the evening.

More tomorrow . . .

I’ve reposted some more of our visit last year to the California High Sierras and Yosemite National Park.

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Thought for the Day:

My greatest fear is that when I’m gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them.

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Oh WOW !!!!

Posted on April 29, 2010

We left the rig about 9:15 am heading out to see Yosemite National Park. As we got closer to Oakhurst, the 2nd town over, we started to see a lot of snow on the mountains that wasn’t there yesterday.

After stopping for gas in Oakhurst, we headed north about 5 miles and entered the Sierra National Forest, which borders Yosemite. Along the way we encountered more and more snow, which gave us some incredible views. Click to enlarge the pictures.

Another 10 miles later we entered Yosemite National Park at the Ranger Station. Because of the heavy snow last night (between 6 and 12 inches) we were told we that we needed either chains or a 4 wheel drive vehicle with snow tires to enter the Park.  We had the 4 wheel drive, but no snow tires, but lucky for us they didn’t really check, so we got in. As it turned out, the roads were pretty clear and we never needed it.

We did see several snow plows during our drive so I guess they did a good job. But the higher we climbed the more snow we saw. We finally topped out about 6500 feet, with snow covering everything but the road. And the views were spectacular.

After a lot of hairpin turns we came to the area known as Tunnel View, which of course involves a tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel there was a large viewing area looking out over the valley, including BridalVeil Fall. Yes, for some reason it’s called Fall, not Falls.

As we got closer, the Fall got more and more impressive.

We stopped at the Fall viewing area and walked up the 1000 foot trail to the base of the fall. With all the spray in the air, it was almost like it was raining.

Then it was on to Yosemite Village, which is the turnaround point for the trip, with more great scenery along the way.

As we got close to the Village, we saw the other big waterfall in the park, Yosemite Falls. Yes, this one is called Falls, not Fall. Don’t asked me why.

After buying some souvenirs at the Yosemite Store, we stopped and had a bad lunch at the Lodge. The best part was the cookie we had for dessert.

We also saw a lot of Sequoias in the Park. For some reason I always thought that Sequoias and Redwoods were the same tree, but they’re not. It turns out that Redwoods are only found in northern coastal California up near the Oregon border.

Coming home, we started seeing first rain, then sleet, and finally, sleet, hail,and snow, all mixed together.

We got home about 3:30 pm, glad to be back where it was warm and dry.

Tomorrow we plan on heading south about 75 miles to Sequoia National Park where we’ll see a lot more, bigger Sequoias.

More tomorrow…

Late Update:

Tonight  on CSI they investigated a murder they thought was done at a shooting range. Although the name was different, the store they used was the one where Jan did her machine gun shooting when we were in Las Vegas.

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