Laughlin, AZ

We'll try to get today's post published this morning as the Internet signal is much better today. Our trip from Parker to Laughlin was terrific. It was a beautiful day, and we had clear and calm weather the entire way.

We left the casino/resort in Parker at around 9:30 following our great buffet breakfast. Immediately, outside of town on the US route 95 north, we saw many little communities that were tucked into the hills on the banks of the Colorado River:

The communities were a mix of RV's, manufactured homes and site built homes. Very nice.

We had already checked out the RV resort in Wellton, AZ, outside of Yuma and have dismissed that location as having any value for us. The other property we wanted to check out was located in Lake Havasu City which was on our way to Laughlin. We are so glad we stopped there as it is a fabulous park that reminds us of the Outdoor Resorts location in Palm Springs where we previously owned a lot. It has many of the same amenities and the class of rigs and construction was at a much higher level than those in Yuma. Plus, we felt that Lake Havasu City is a much nicer place to live. We took many photos yesterday and some good ones of the Resort:

We picked up a list of the properties that were for sale and drove around the entire resort. This is a good shot of one of the streets:

and the lot that we loved the most of the available, unimproved spaces:

We also came across this one site that was for sale and had to get this shot:

We definitely like this resort and will give some very serious consideration to it in the near future.

While driving north on Rt 95 toward Laughlin, we decided to take another side trip through Oatman, AZ where we visited many years ago. It is an old mining town that is located in the middle of nowhere, off of historical Route 66 in AZ:

The drive on this stretch of road was again filled with rugged mountains and nice desert views:

We arrived at Oatman in the early afternoon:

and for those who have never been there, is a town that is famous for - among other things - burros that roam the street:

They were all over the place, begging for food. The street is not very long, but very "old west" looking:

We stopped in some of the local shops and happened to catch this one license plate that we thought was funny:

and for folks that drove down the busy street - they had to deal with the burros who weren't afraid to come right up to your door:

The drive was terrific and the whole day was a joy. We arrived in Laughlin at the Aquarius Hotel and checked in at 3 PM (4PM PT). We are in the Pacific Time Zone now, so every trip across the bridge into Bullhead City will result in saving an hour.

Our first night in the casino here at the Aquarius was mixed. Josie still had her hot hand, and we played for several hours before returning to our room. We eventually gave our stake back to the casino, but have budgeted for another day of play today, before bringing in the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Parker, AZ

Sorry about the late post, but either our hotel, or room - or both - were located in a very weak signal area and I couldn't even start the post. We have good signals now, in Laughlin, so everything should be on schedule the rest of the trip.

We left Yuma on time yesterday and were surprised at the beautiful drive between Yuma and Quartzsite, our first stop. We saw lots of nice agriculture and mountains along route 95 north. The contrast between the green fields and brown mountains was different from most places we've driven in AZ. Here is a shot of a church that we saw just before getting some shots of the fields and mountains:

 

 

and the green fields with the dark mountains as the backdrop:

 

 

 

We only went about 15 miles or so when we saw a dark cloud that looked very familiar to us - a sand storm. We drove through this storm which brought back memories of a trip we made to Mexico several years ago and were scared to death. This one wasn't nearly as bad, but was bad enough:

 

 

It didn't last very long, and before we knew it, we were back into clear skies again. The entire day was filled with high winds, everywhere we went. We still enjoyed the many different views of the rugged mountains:

 

 

At about noon, we arrived in Quartzsite, and the RV's were pulling into sandy areas off the highway the entire way through town. We stopped at a food mart in town and took this one shot of the many "junk" displays that this town is famous for:

 

 

Actually, there are some terrific buys in Quartzsite for gems and antiques. This is the busiest time and the town grows to several hundred thousands of people and RV's for the months of January through March.

 

We drove through the wind the rest of the way to Parker and to the Blue Water Resort and Casino:

 

 

We checked into our room and were happy to see the location of the room - that is, before trying the Internet connection. We had a great view of the marina and the Colorado River:

 

 

and we also had a nice, private patio outside of our room:

 

 

The really good news is that we enjoyed the casino and left with almost as much as we started with - thanks to Josie and her lucky hand again.

 

We had a terrific buffet breakfast this morning before leaving - $5.50 each - and we left with calm winds and clear skies for Laughlin, with a stop in Lake Havasu City along the way. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about our fantastic day today...







Yuma, AZ

We left the Lake Pleasant Resort just a little after 9 AM for our drive to Yuma. It was actually a cloudy day even though no rain was in the forecast, and we had sun breaks along the way, but for the most part, it was overcast all the way.

Our first stop was in a town called Wellton and is where the Copper Ridge RV Subdivision is located. This a deeded property Resort where the sites are huge and the views spectacular. We drove around the property and were impressed by some of the units that were on these sites. As mentioned, they are huge:

The rules for site improvement are that you may have up to two RV's or park models, one manufactured home or one site-built home. Some of the homes we saw were very impressive:

and the use of the spaces were excellent.

This shot is taken from the top of one of the streets in the subdivision:

Notice the beautiful mountains in the background which were all around the complex. Also notice one of the negatives we found with this resort - there is a railroad that runs along the outside of the southern boundary of these properties. We are sure that is also a negative for the residents, as the tracks are very close to the rear of these lots. There were two more negatives that we discovered. The first was a very offensive odor from a beef factory farm that is located about 3 miles east of the town. When the wind blows from the east, you can hardly stand the smell coming from these thousands of cattle that are there. The town (Wellton)  itself wasn't that great and the fact that it is so far from the downtown area - about 15 miles, pretty much eliminated any further consideration by us. Another real problem for any of the site owners in this subdivision will be the resale aspect of these properties.

We arrived at our hotel - the Best Western Hotel - at around 1:30 which was much before the check-in time of 3 PM. They checked us in, but asked us to give them a half hour to complete the cleaning. Josie and I went across the street to the nice mall that is there and we had a Starbucks coffee while waiting for the room. Here is a shot of the view from our room when we finally checked in:

It's a very nice hotel and one we would recommend to anyone coming to Yuma.

There is a Casino in town that was about 5 miles from the hotel that we went to try before having dinner. The Cocopah Casino isn't very large, but they had some terrific slots and we played for almost 3 hours with our $40 stake. Josie hit a nice jackpot for $100 shortly after we arrived, so we played for the three hours and still left with about half of our original stake.

Following our fun stop at the casino, we went to another favorite of ours for dinner - The Olive Garden. We have never had any problem with any food at these restaurants before last night. Josie ordered the grilled salmon while I had the chicken parmesan. Josie ended up not eating much of any of her overcooked salmon and the manager credited back her meal. I felt bad for her, but it was obviously a piece of salmon that was either old or sitting for quite a while before being served. The service was also terrible as the waiter didn't bring some of our requested items, and he didn't even ask us if we wanted dessert. Oh well, sometimes you get exceptions to the best and most dependable places to eat.

Our trip today will take us to Parker, AZ on the Colorado River, via Quartzsite which is a popular and very busy location for RVers at this time of the year. There is also another casino in Parker which is where we will stay tonight. See you from Parker tomorrow...

Prep for Trip

Our day was mostly spent running the errands we needed to do in order to be ready to leave this morning for western AZ. We drove to Surprise where Josie got her hair done and I gassed up the truck. I also went to the Newport Audiology location near Surprise to have one of my hearing aids checked. Of course, it is like getting sick on a weekend when there are no doctors available. My hearing aid had to act up just before leaving on a three day trip where I need the use of both. Anyway, they checked it over, cleaned it and said they should send it back to Phonak to have some work done on it. It is still under warranty, but I need the use of it for this trip. I'll take my old ones along just in case I need a spare.

We then went to Josie's shop to pick up her paycheck to put in the bank. Following that little side trip, we went to Costco and Walmart to pick up more food items and then we came home. It was near 3 PM by the time we got home, and Josie went to do laundry for our trip.

Everything is done now except for packing a bag for the trip. The weather looks great and we hope to leave by about 9 AM this morning.

We'll see you from Yuma tomorrow morning...

Quickly Back to Normal

Yesterday seemed just like any other day to us - Josie went to work and I did some things around the rig to keep busy. The heavy work schedule for Josie is done - at least until Valentine's Day - and she can plan to do some other things during her normal work day schedule.

We will be out and about today lining up everything for our trip which begins tomorrow. Josie will pick up her paycheck and get a hair appointment done while we also will stop at the store for some items to take with us and to gas up for the trip. We are both looking forward to a few days in western AZ.

The weather forecast is for clear skies and warm temperatures over the next 7 days. Of course, there is no forecast for winds, but we would expect some while we are away and will prepare the outside furniture and the rest of the outside for some heavy winds. It's a shame we bought several "fake" poinsettias for outside that we have had to put away more often than we have used them as a result of all the winds. December was not a good month for having any small or loose items for outside display. We're learning.

I researched some slideout awning fabric yesterday to replace one of our "topper" awnings which is seriously damaged from the winds. They are only projected to last for about 5 years anyway, so it was due for replacement. They aren't that expensive and it is a job I can do myself. The other two topper awnings look OK for now, so the real heavy winds coming from the front of our rig - facing the northeast - has only resulted in the one awning being torn. That will be a job for sometime early next year. There are some other items that need fixing under our extended warranty, so we will also take care of those when we return from our trip. Hopefully, all of the repairs can be done on our site so we don't have to take the fifth wheel into a dealer for service. These days, just about everything can be done from a mobile service which is great for all RVers.

 We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and all of the gifts they received from Santa...

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Day turned out to be the windiest day we've had since we arrived in October. It was the highest daily average (11.5) and the highest gusts (35-40 mph). Worse, it was windy the entire day. It appears to have settled down for now - at least for this morning.

We used the time in the morning to take a walk along the lake before getting ready to go to George and Cheryl's for Christmas dinner. It was the first time we got out for some exercise in a couple weeks so the walk was good for us. The lake level is definitely higher as can be seen in this photo of the marina where the offshore islands are now almost completely covered:

Our walk took us along the bank of the lake where there are no real paths, but open enough to walk through the desert vegetation. There were lots of saguaro cactus:

and also buckhorn cactus, hedgehog cactus and ocotillo:

We left the house just before 3 pm to have dinner and Josie had made a nice centerpiece for the occasion:

The star of the whole day was the new puppy that Santa had brought for Jesse and Jason:

She is a yellow lab and they named her Traeger. It was entertaining to watch her playing outside and in the house, and she seemed very comfortable in her new surroundings:

The amazing thing about her first day in her new home is that she already goes to the door when she needs to go out to do her "duty". A neighbor friend of Cheryl came by to see the new puppy and even brought a toy for her to play with. This is a shot of the group sitting around the table following dinner:

Another surprise was how fast the puppy flopped and went almost instantly to sleep after playing with the toy:

It was a wonderful Christmas Day that could only have been better if our whole family were here. Maybe someday.

Josie goes back to work this AM but it should be a relatively short day for her. Then, it's free time until next Thursday and we return from our planned trip to western Arizona. There are only 364 more shopping days till Christmas...

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Santa came to our house and we hope he also came to yours. Many of our gifts are scattered though, as he didn't know which ones to put under the tree. Our tree is kind of small anyway, so he probably figured there was no room for more presents:

We went to Mt Zion Lutheran Church in Peoria last night for the candlelight service. It was our first visit to this church, and we were surprised at the format that was used. Instead of having a single sermon, they had two clergy - the Pastor and an assistant - give several, short Christmas Meditations throughout the service. It was good in that it broke up the service and didn't bore any of the children that were present. We sang lots of carols, and there were several duets by artists from the congregation. All in all, it was a nice service, but it lacked Communion which is something we look forward to when we go to church. We will most likely try another Lutheran church in the area next time

We have been "blessed" by high winds again during the night. It is gusting to over 30 mph and the average wind speed is 12.5 since midnight last night. Comes with the territory, I guess.

Our plan is to go to George and Cheryl's today for Christmas dinner and we are looking forward to that. Josie has her first day off in the last 10 days, and will return tomorrow for a short day. Following that, she will be off until January 2nd and we will travel to western AZ for a few days at the end of the year. It should be a fun time for the next week...

RVillage

Josie barely made it home last night by the time the Webinar started at 5 PM. I got us signed-on and ready to go by the time she walked through the door.

The new product is called RVillage and is a new social media website for RVers. It is really a Facebook for campgrounds and for full time RVers that is a very powerful tool. The site is free to users and to the campgrounds that register, but the advertisers are where the marketing and commissions come in. The whole concept is to get all campgrounds signed up for the service - an easy task as it is free to them - and to make folks aware of the power of this new website. Today, all local businesses and services are advertised in a brochure you receive when you check into a campground. RVillage automates all those services that are available all the time on your computer or smartphone to reference wherever and whenever you want. It also will indicate any other members that might be in the same campground as yourself so that you may connect with them while you are staying at the park.

The presentation was terrific and, even though we haven't totally discounted our involvement yet, it seems like it would take a long time and a lot of cold calling to get advertising contracts in place where you can receive recurring commissions. There is a lot of money to be made, but it is too close to working in a corporate environment once again and we want to stay away from those commitments. We'll see how it goes, and maybe there are other positions within the new company that might be suitable for the direction we might want to go. Another problem for us is that the park where we stay in Jackson, WY is the only RV park in the area and they don't even use a computer for reservations and park functions.

Following the one hour Webinar, we went to Costco and to Sam's Club to get a couple small items for each other so that we will still have something to open on Christmas morning. Gosh, that's tomorrow. Josie has her final day at work today before Christmas, and she is ready for some time off. The winds picked up again during the night making for a restless night, so we are hoping for a short day at work in order for her to be rested before going to church tonight. Watch out for Santa and his reindeer tonight...

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Webinar Scheduled

I responded to an email two weeks ago from Workamper News, requesting a survey be completed for a new RV-centric opportunity that is being introduced. There were 750 respondents to the survey and all the resumes of potentially qualified couples were invited to attend a Webinar tonight at 5 PM. It will be conducted by the CEO of this new company and some of the senior staff. I have no idea what the product is or what is required to become involved - if interested - but we should know more following the Webinar. These are live meetings that are held via computer and/or telephone connections. The emails hinted that the opportunities that will be available are high paying, so there is most likely a sales effort of some kind. There are also going to be several different areas that this company wants to staff with workampers, so it also sounds like mobility is key. We'll keep you posted.

Last year at this time I was involved in performing deliveries for Josie's shop. Since we only have the truck this year, and the truck is not a floral delivery vehicle, I get to pass on that activity. I will miss the extra money, but there was no way we could have made it work this year.

Today and tomorrow are overtime days for Josie, so there is a huge difference in her holiday participation this year. We are trying to figure out how we can get a few extra hours, somewhere, to get in some last minute shopping for each other. The Webinar puts a kink in the schedule for tonight, and tomorrow night we go to the Christmas Eve church service that is at a local church we haven't tried before. I hope we can figure out something. We have already bought presents for each other, but we have nothing to open for Christmas morning that will be a surprise.

I hope everybody is ready for Christmas with only today and tomorrow to go...

Out and About

It was my day to take Josie to work and run some errands. We left the resort at around 7:30 AM and it was shortly after sunrise so we stopped along the side of the road to take this shot of the rising sun:

It looked like it was going to be another cloudy and wet day, but the sun came out and even though the high for the day was only 56, it was clear and with very little wind.

My first stop after dropping Josie off at work was at the car wash in Surprise. I always went to the TNT Car Wash there as they always did a nice job of hand-washing and hand-waxing the truck for a reasonable price. It takes longer when it is done manually, but that is the best way to do the large truck. Here is a shot of the truck going through the drying stage before moving into the detail area for waxing:

I have to say that I was disappointed with the job they did this year. There were several places inside the vehicle that were totally missed and as I was watching the guy wax the truck I noticed he was only waxing the areas he could reach without any stool or ladder. He was a short guy, so that amounted to a lot of area that was missed. I had a nice tip that I was going to give them for the extra effort involved with the truck, but I changed my mind and only gave them $2 which was probably too much. Of course, that was after they went back and did all the touch up to make it right. With the long term dry forecast, the truck should be clean right through our trip that is planned following Christmas.

I then went to Mario's in Surprise for a haircut and on to Costco for some last minute things - it was a zoo there - and to Office Max to pick up an ink cartridge for our printer. The day went by quickly and I picked up Josie from work at 4 PM.

The air was filled with hot air balloons and we captured this photo of several that had just landed not too far from Lake Pleasant:

One of them is hidden by the balloon on the right.

And then, to complete the trip, we saw several other hang-gliders near the Lake Pleasant Airport:. This one was about to land:

Hardly a day goes by that we don't see these balloons and gliders.

Two more days to go before Christmas, and we are ready. Josie will be happy to see the day arrive as she will finally get a day off...

Winter Begins

It's that time of year again when it seems like it is dark outside most of the day. Of course, the first day of winter is also the shortest day of the year. We don't see the effect of the shortest day as much as we did when we lived in WA all those years, but conversely, the longest day of the year in summer was much longer in WA.

Josie is plodding through her busy schedule at work and she said this year is much busier than last. I guess that's another sign of the economical rebound. All the signs point to rising interest rates and more inflation to begin again in this country. I heard yesterday that there are some economists who are predicting another recession - worse than the last - to begin next year if the Feds don't slow the march to raise interest rates. It will be interesting to watch. It is beyond me how President Obama can justify flying off to Hawaii for a vacation when there is so much uncertainty and confusion surrounding his health program. I guess he believes that his house is in order.

We again had a beautiful sunset last night as the storm ended and the clouds began to move out:

How can you beat that?

I will drive Josie to work today and run some errands while she is at work. Since she will not have another day off until Christmas, it is the only way I can do certain things - like get a haircut, for example. This is one of the few occasions when we wished we had the second vehicle. Right now though, the advantages to having one outweigh the disadvantages, so we'll make it work...

The Rains Came

Fortunately, most of the day was nice yesterday. I spent much of the day outside continuing the consolidation of files and sorting through old papers and travel info. I even had a chance to take a bike ride around the resort. Since Josie uses the truck, there aren't many choices of places to go. The exercise is needed anyway, so I used a trip to the office to check for mail to also begin a ride which took me to the other side of the resort. The marina is an inviting place, and this is where the party was held over the weekend:

There is another boat launch on the north side of the resort that is also a popular spot for families that want to picnic or use a "beach" to swim:

I only rode for a few miles, but even that little bit of exercise was beneficial for somebody that has been sitting on his butt for about the last month.

The forecast was for a storm to move in late in the afternoon, and the forecast was accurate. By 5 PM, the clouds rolled in and I closed up the gazebo while taking this shot of the western sky:

We ended up with almost .5" of rain through last night, and the forecast is for more to come. The skies should clear late this afternoon and begin to warm up again for Christmas. Thank goodness there were no high winds with this storm - yet - and everything seems to be normal. There was a small problem that I will fix today, and that is to dry out our connections for the outside lights. Evidently, water got into one of the connections and we had no outside Christmas lights last night. I suspected a potential problem for that situation and I should have taped the connections when I installed the lights.

I suppose that tomorrow I will drive Josie to work and use the truck during the day to get a few errands done that I have been putting off. With her working straight through to Christmas, it is the only way I will get them done...

Outside Stuff

It was another beautiful day yesterday and a good one to get some outside work done. The main projects were to connect more plants to the watering system and to clear off the site from debris we received from the windy days last week. The plant connections were easy except I didn't have enough water line to reach the plant in the front of the fifth wheel, so that one will have to wait until I can get to the store to buy more line. The site clearing was another easy job using our blower that we brought home from the storage unit.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going through some files that we have been carrying around with us to try to consolidate them into a single box. That takes a lot of time since each file needs to be gone through in detail to eliminate all the old, unnecessary data and junk. I came across some other interesting things that I forgot we had, such as a rookie baseball card for Alex Rodriguez when he was drafted by the Mariners in 1993. That card cost me $4 when I purchased it years ago and is worth a lot (?) more today. I need to put that in a nice, safe place. Sometimes it pays to go through old boxes of stuff that have been ignored for years.

It appears that my outside activities are headed for a delay as we have a good chance for rain coming in by tonight or tomorrow morning. The rain is always welcome - in small doses - as long as the winds don't get ugly...

Week Away From Christmas

Man, we have been here almost 3 months already, and with Christmas just a week away, the time is flying by waaay too fast. It probably isn't going fast enough for Josie although she still loves her work. I'm enjoying our time here at Lake Pleasant more than last year at Happy Trails. It is a much prettier location and much quieter. We certainly don't miss the sirens from all the emergency vehicles that went behind our site last year. It seemed like there were two or three every day. Also, we don't miss the jets flying over our site from the Luke Air Force Base that was down the road about 10 miles from Happy Trails. If we can do something about the extra winds we've been having, it will be near perfect.

I have a shot of a couple more hats that Josie has made in the last week:

She is getting ready to move on to more difficult crocheting projects, so stay tuned for more goodies from her "needle". Her spare time is almost all consumed with her crocheting projects which provide some nice relaxation.

The big TV news from last night was, of course, the final of the Voice. I don't agree with the final choice, but the winner is terrific even though I thought the teenager had more talent. I'm sure that all of the finalists have bright futures in the music industry. It looks like The Voice has taken over from Idol as the premiere show for new singing talent.

The temperature hit 80 yesterday, and we had calm winds. Great combination...