Don't cha love it when you can just change your plans whenever you want? That's what I did this morning. I was going to Benson but the Escapee RV Park there (SKP CooP) was full, so I found another RV park here in Willcox that has all the Cox Cable TV channels I need so I can watch the Super Bowl and here I am!

The picture at the right was taken about 5 minutes ago at 6:15 pm MST looking to the west. It shows most of the fifth wheel and part of my truck behind a sun shelter that covers the picnic table. I like it here. Not too many other Rv's, lots of wide open spaces. But this is high desert country I found out this morning. I'm at 4,200 ft. elevation which explains the cooler temps here compared with Phoenix. Hi today was around 68, low last night about 27. Phoenix was probably around 80 today. Big diff! And this is cowboy country. Here in Willcox is the Rex Allen museum - Rex Allen was a cowboy actor back in the late 40's early 50's. When I was about 6 and 7 my friends and I went to the "matinee" every Saturday to watch cowboy movies including Rex Allen's. So anyway I can identify with him and that era. The town here has tried to make the most of its association with him. He grew up here. To the left is another picture I took this morning looking to the east or northeast from Fort Willcox. Nothing but open prairie with mountains in the background.


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Ok a new post is long overdue so here's a summary of the last week and a half or so.
I did leave Quartzsite on Friday Jan. 23rd. and ended up in Gila Bend again staying at Holt's RV park and truck stop. Nice place for the money, but no tv so it isn't somewhere I'd want to stay long term since I don't have satellite tv this trip. On Monday the 26th. I went up to Sun City and spent the day with Charlie and later he and I and Peggy went out to dinner after which I drove back to Gila Bend. On the morning of Wednesday the 28th. I left Gila Bend and drove the 50 miles or so to the SKP Coop RV park in Casa Grande. Again it's part of the Escapees rv club, very clean, well run and reasonable. But this one was very tight and felt exactly like what you might think of as a trailer park. Spaces too small and close together for my blood. I need more room! So after 2 nights there, I left this morning, Friday the 30th. planning on going to Benson again to the SKP park there, but ended up coming clear over to Willcox for the night to see what is here. Tomorrow I plan to return to Benson and settle in there for the super bowl. After a few days there, I'm thinking seriously I may head over to California to see the kids for a few days and then work my way home. Sherry's ex in laws, Willard & Bernita Nofziger left Lebanon in their fifth wheel yesterday and I think they're somewhere around Palm Desert so may try to see them enroute. So that's about it for now.

Ok a news post is long overdue so here goes: Left Quartzsite

Jeez, it's been a week since I posted here? I guess I'm just not that wordy. Or maybe I just can't think of anything noteworthy to write about. Probably the latter.
Yesterday I drove the 285 miles or so from Benson to Quartzsite to spend some time. Ah, yes, Quartzsite, that world famous gathering point for Rv'ers of all stripes, economic levels and interests. And January is the busiest time of year here. The town of around 4,000 swells by over a half million visitors, I'm told, between October and March with the biggest number in January. Here they've got huge tents, and huge numbers of smaller tents, where you can reportedly buy anything man (or woman) has ever thought of! This week especially is the RV show week where the big focus is on selling new RV's. Don't know how that'll go this year as I understand there isn't much credit available even for those with excellent credit ratings. On the other hand, it's a great time to be RVing because the cost of fuel has come down so much. Prices are literally half of what they were a year ago! A year ago a tank of diesel would have run me over $150. Now I can do it for around $75! Sweet!

Otherwise how are things? I don't know. Boring. I just can't get into Quartzsite. One of the things I don't like is crowds. So this morning I went into town, from my little perch in the desert, with the intention of parking and browsing some of the tents. Well, a mile south of town traffic was at a complete standstill and it took me about 15 minutes to get into town. There, it was literally gridlock with huge motorhomes, fifth wheels, cars and everything else. Forget parking. I could barely get through town! I finally found a Burger King where I had an early lunch and cup of coffee - coffee was a treat today cause I don't have a percolator and there is no electricity out here in the desert! Anyway, after that experience I just wanted to get back out of town as quickly as I could.

So how can I be online with no electricity? Good question. My computer went dead last night. But the other day I bought a small Black & Decker inverter that converts battery DC to 115 volts AC. It wouldn't work off the accessory sockets inside the fifth wheel so I went directly to the batteries and hooked it up and it worked. It takes about an hour to re-charge the computer battery to 90% or so of full. So now, I can re-charge my computer battery and be online with the help of my Verizon aircard.
I do think I'll move on tomorrow though. If I can't go to the shows here, and if I don't have TV or air conditioning (which right now at 4:30 pm I wish I had), then I'm in the wrong place. I thought I'd really like the Quartzsite environment. I was wrong. And that's what this trip is all about. Seeing what works and what doesn't!

On Monday Jan 12th. I left Gila Bend and headed east on I-8. Stunning sights along the way of the Sonoran desert - very wide open expanses covered with cactuses and trees that look sort of like sagebrush from a distance, but are much larger.

I went through Casa Grande and then south on I-10 into the Tucson area where I stopped for a short tour of the Sonoran Desert Museum. I could have spent at least a day there, but I did get to see one of the highlights of each day, the flying of the Raptors. In this case a "Harris Hawk."

Although the Sonoran desert is over 8,000 years old, they said that no species of Hawk has adapted and survived there yet. The Harris Hawk has some unique characteristics, like living in fairly large family groups and hunting in groups, that give them hope that perhaps this species will be the first to fully survive. All in all, they had 4 of them flying just over our heads, landing on cacti and hunting. Neat demo
I pulled in for the night Monday at an Escapees (RV Club) park in Benson, Arizona. Yes I am an Escapee! Mostly it's a RV club comprised of fulltimers, but they have some excellent facilities and a great website with tons of info for guys like me! (And everyone else, too). Benson is east of Tucson on I-10. It's a very nice place to stay and originally I decided to stay just one night. Then I stayed a second. This morning I signed up for one week as the rates are pretty reasonable and there are lots of places to explore from here. Today I drove down to Tombstone Arizona, home of the OK Corral, and then onto Bisbee, famous for many things in the old west including one of the sites in "3:10 to Yuma" the movie. More awesome scenery and lots of history.



One comment I might make: When I set out on this trip, I thought I would want to be "boondocking" it a lot - that is, camping without the benefit of a regular campground. So far, I have found that I do want to be in an organized campground, maybe mainly for the security of having others around, but also for the facilities. It's nice to have electric and water and sewer is handy now and then too! But, we'll see. Maybe after I've gotten more used to this, I'll go back to my original intention of boondocking more. I know I will some, eventually, in Quartzite,AZ, the Slabs near Niland, CA and maybe a WalMart or two if I am enroute somewhere and can't make the trip in one day.

Today I drove from Gila Bend to Benson, Arizona east of Tucson. The weather is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous: clear, sunny skies, temps in the mid 60's with low humidity. And I can and do appreciate the magnificent beauty of the desert and the Arizona mountains in the distance. While getting here today I also stopped at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum outside Tucson. I can't tell you how many varieties of rattle snake and lizards (Gila being one of the more poisonous) they had on display, or how venemous they are (it varies). But I can tell you that in Oregon I can go for a walk in the woods without worrying about getting bit by a critter that might kill or paralyze me. In Oregon I can go to the beach and get down to it anywhere.

Left Charlie's in Sun City and drove, pulling the fifth wheel, about 55 miles to Gila Bend yesterday Jan. 10th. Besides being the commissioning day for America's newest aircraft carrier, U.S.S. George H.W.Bush, it also happens to have been the day Pat Williams and I flew out of PDX and ended the day at Naval Training Command San Diego for Boot Camp --- 48 years ago (1961)! Oh yes, so much history!!
Anyway the trip down here to Gila Bend went smooth with no problems. I'm slowly getting used to pulling my home on wheels. Decided on a short trip for the maiden voyage. Stayed last night at Holt's Shell RV Park at exit 119 of I-8. With my Escapees membership it only cost me $9.50 for full hookups! A very good price. I decided to stay a second night also then tomorrow I'll move on.
One of the problems last night was NO HEAT in the fifth wheel! Lucky for me Sherry gave me a Mr. Heater portable propane heater for Christmas so I got up in the middle of the night and huddled around it and got warmed! Problem was the valve between the 2 propane tanks on the rig - I had it in the wrong position! Those are the kind of lessons you don't forget! So now the furnace works like a champ and so does the propane stove.
I've got a great view from my back windows of the entire truck stop that is in front of me here at Holt's. Trucks come and go 24/7 from the interstate and also from highway 85 that comes down from Phoenix. They're fun to watch, especially after dark with all their brightly lit running lights. Traffic never stops although it does slow a little in the middle of the night.
Today I went for a walk around parts of Gila Bend. The town itself stretches out for about 3 miles along I-8. It appears to be mostly dying or dead except for the 2 or 3 truck stop places which seem to be doing pretty well right now in the winter. Went out to the Gila Bend Municipal Airport. Nothing going on there either! There are a couple of large modern hangers at one end of the field, but no aircraft or people visible. The entrance to the airport is guarded by a couple of old fighter aircraft. I should have taken a picture, but didn't think of it. No TV here so this is a quiet place to do other things like fixing up the RV, reading or just taking it easy.

Thursday Jan. 8, 2009

As usual I'm behind in posting here. I'll try to get better and more regular with them. I arrived here in Sun City last Sunday afternoon at 2:30 local time, 1:30 Pacific. Nice trip in every way. I came down I-5 through half of California then took off at the Buttonwillow exit for diesel, then proceeded east on CA58 through Bakersfield and on into Mojave where I stayed Saturday night. I left Mojave at 6 am local time and drove out to Barstow, Needles then to Lake Havasu in Arizona and south on 95 through Parker and Vicksburg to I-10 then east into the Phoenix area and up 101 to Sun City! That way I didn't have to go up the grapevine or through the L.A. area at all! I like Mojave just cause. It has a huge airport where they store mothballed airliners from all over the world (not too many right now, maybe 50). I've seen it when there were literally hundreds of airliners stored there. You can see them from above as you come in on the highway. It's pretty impressive. Mojave airport is also the home of Burt Rutan and Voyager, the aircraft he designed and built that was the first aircraft in history to circle the earth without refueling or stopping!




Mojave is also right next to Edwards AFB so I always (secretly!) hope I'll see some top secret plane. Of course, I never have.
After getting into Sun City and going to see Charlie Caldwell, Sherry's step-dad, at his assisted living home, I settled in staying at his house on Roundup Court. Monday I got and installed 2 new Trojan T-105 batteries in the fifth wheel. They're 6 volt batteries that I got cause they're heavy duty with 225 amps of power each, normally used in golf carts, and I connected them up in series to get 12 volts for the fifth wheel. Then yesterday, Wednesday, after shopping around quite a bit for tires I got 4 new Michelins installed on the fifth wheel and got it's wheel bearings repacked too. It had been in storage for some time and I didn't even know its maintenance background. The Michelins are the XPS RIB 235/85R16 series. Load range E (the old 10 ply rating). Supposed to be about the strongest tire made for this application. I don't want any blowouts while cruising down the highway!! This fifth wheel weighs in at 14,000 lbs. That's 3,500 pounds per tire! When you realize that the only thing between you and being flat on the pavement is 4 rubber tires, you want good ones!
So today is cleaning day. Get it cleaned up good inside and get my stuff transferred into it. Then Saturday morning I think I'll be leaving, probably for Gila Bend for a couple days to put the rig through it's paces. Gila Bend is only about 52 miles from here so it'll be a nice breakin trip. Then if all goes well, I'll probably head for Tucson where I'd like to visit the high desert museum and then onto Bisbee, Tombstone, and Ft. Huachuca and that area. Here's a picture of the rig parked in front of Charlie's house on Roundup Ct. in Sun City.

Jan. 8, 2002

It's a beautiful morning in Sun City! Clear skies, sunny, temp. 38 the weatherunderground says, but the windshield on my truck is frosted over.

Arrived here last Sunday afternoon at 2:30 local time (1:30 Pacific). Had a good trip all the way. Spent Saturday night in Mojave cause it was convenient and causse I like Mojave. Big airport there. Burt Rutan has his company there where he designed, built and flew Voyager, the first aircraft ever to fly around the world without refueling or stopping.

Mojave is also next to Edwards AFB so I always hope/think maybe I'll see some top secret aircraft!!!

Tuesday I installed 2 new Trojan T-105 6 volt batteries in the fifth wheel, connecting them in series to produce 12 volts. That is a heavy duty golf cart battery with 225 amps of power that should work out good. Then yesterday, Wednesday, I got new tires put on it and the wheel bearings repacked. I was worried that I wouldn't make it to the tire shop on the old ones. They were very low and I didn't have a compressor with me. But I made it in fine fashion and now have 4 Michelin XPS RIB tires. One of the strongest tires made for this application. Good thing - this fifth wheel trailer weighs in at 14,000 lbs - that's 3,500 pounds per tire!! That's a lot of weight and I don't want any blowouts while cruising down the highway.

Saturday Jan. 03,2009
Well, I left yesterday to start the adventure! Left the house at 7 am Friday Jan. 02 and headed south with the truck fully loaded. I tried to only take the stuff I thought I'd need to outfit the fifth wheel, but it's surprising how much stuff I thought I'd need. In the end, I didn't bring a lot that I'd have liked to have brought. But I'm sure I'll get along just fine with the help of Walmart.
Drove to Sacramento the first day and spent a delightful evening visiting my cousin Fran Miller and her significant other Bob Birch. They are wonderful hosts. Fran is a true gormet cook and we had the finest seafood dinner I've ever had - huge halibut fillets plus her own special green salad and scrumptious potatoes and some fine wine to boot. then ice cream and raspberries for desert with a delicious special coffee from Trader Joe's. Then this morning for breakfast, Bob, somewhat of an omelet gourmet in his own right, fixed delicious omelets as only he can. That plus Bunky, their 2 year old doxon, was just a fun well behaved little lady! All of that plus wonderful conversation that lasted till almost midnight. Thanks Bob and Fran!
Then today I proceeded south where tonight I decided to stay at a motel here in Mojave. Mojave has a great, huge airport where they store surplus airliners, and where Burt Rutan developed and first flew "Voyager". Plus Edwards AFB is right next door. I really enjoy being around both places and the climate here too.
Tomorrow I plan on an early departure for Sun City, AZ. Charlie Caldwell, my old fishing buddy, Sherry's step dad and an all around great guy besides having multiple myeloma, who lives there just ended up in the hospital today with a severe respiratory infection so I'll be spending some time with him too, just for moral support.