Cruising Paradise

Our last episode had us arriving at the RV park in San Diego getting ready to leave on our 15 day cruise to Hawaii. We had booked this cruise almost a year ago and had given the information to one of Jackie’s long-time friends, Helen Reilly. Helen, who now lives in Western Massachusetts, lived in Southern California for many years and she and Jackie were very close. Helen lost her husband Joe in the summer of 2006 while we were visiting back there. Helen decided to book a cabin on the cruise as well and brought a friend, Joan, along. Joan works for Helen at her bar and grill back in Massachusetts. Helen and Joan had flown into San Diego several days prior to our arrival there and were up in Torrance, near Los Angeles, visiting some of Helen’s relatives. On Thursday they drove back down to San Diego to get ready to go on the cruise. We picked them up and went out to dinner on the waterfront in downtown San Diego. It was nice to see Helen for the first time since 2006.

Friday morning at 10:30 the shuttle came by the RV park and picked us up for the trip down to the cruise terminal. We only had about seven bags packed for the trip. Some of the bags had been packed for a couple of weeks. We weren’t too excited! We arrived at the cruise terminal and found that they still hadn’t opened up the entry area for arrivals since they were still clearing the previous passengers off the ship. The shuttle driver said that he would have to drop us off down the street and we would have to get our bags (all seven) to the terminal on our own. We asked him to go around the block one time and he agreed. When he came back around they had opened the lot for embarking passengers so we got dropped right in front of the entry to the ship. Yea!

Our cruise was on the MS Zaandam, a Holland America Line ship. This ship is what they call a medium size, not one of the mega-ships. The Zaandam carries a little over 1,400 passengers, compared to the 2,500 or so of the really big cruise ships. Also docked at the terminal was a Celebrity Line ship, the Mercury. The Mercury was supposed to have been in port on Thursday, but about a day out of Hawaii on the way back they had a medical emergency on the ship which required them to turn around and go back. This meant that the passengers on the ship got an extra day, but the passengers loading up on Friday would lose a day of their cruise. Bummer. We were able to get a porter to grab our bags and we zipped through the entry process and were on the ship before noon. We weren’t scheduled to leave until 5:00, but once you’re on the ship you are “cruising” even if you are tied to the dock! We met up with Helen and Joan, got some lunch, and hit the bars!

The timing for our departure was great, we left at 5:00, just as the sun was going down so we sailed out of San Diego harbor right at dusk, very pretty. Of course, there was a little “sail-away” party going on the fantail of the ship. About 30 minutes after clearing Point Loma we lost sight of the California coast and we didn’t see anything but water until Wednesday morning. We had a very nice cabin, an outside with a window, but no patio. We were on deck one. Helen and Joan had a veranda cabin up on deck seven. Not too much bigger than ours, but it was nice to have the veranda. The next four days were spent doing what people do on cruises. We ate, drank, gambled, shopped, went swimming, lazed around the deck, ate some more, drank some more, gambled some more, etc., etc. The food on this cruise was excellent and we had the open dining option which meant we didn’t have to show up at exactly 5:30 or 8:00 to eat. We usually went to the dining room around 7:15 for dinner and found that to work out very well. Jackie didn’t go swimming except for one foray into the hot tub. I was in the pool and hot tub for a little while just about every day. We also made good friends with the bar staff in the Ocean Bar, the central bar on the ship. We spent most of our drinking time either there or in the Crows Nest, which was on the top deck and had a great view. By the second day the staff in both these bars knew us by name and drink. Go figure! It didn’t hurt that one of the waiters that worked the pool area during the day, Ian, also worked in the Ocean Bar at night.

One thing that became apparent was the fact that Holland America had a lot fewer activities going on around the ship than we found on other lines like Royal Caribbean or Carnival. Holland America seems to have a much older clientele (we sometimes felt like we were among the younger folks on the cruise) so they didn’t have a lot of stuff going on. We didn’t really miss it last year when we were on the seven day Alaska cruise because we only had a couple of “at sea” days. With four straight days at sea we found it to be a little too quiet. The casino was typical for a ship, mostly slot machines, a couple of blackjack tables, 3-card, Carribean Stud, and roulette. They also had one Texas Hold’em table with two sessions each day and the table was always full. It was a fairly low stakes 3/6 game so they didn’t have any problem getting players. Like most casinos, we lost more than we won overall, but both Jackie and I did have a couple of $200 plus wins which helped keep the gaming going for the whole cruise.

Finally on Wednesday morning, after four days of nothing but water, we found ourselves cruising into Hilo, Hawaii, for our first port call. The four of us had decided that we weren’t going to take any of the canned “shore excursions” offered by the ship. They were mostly overpriced bus trips and we figured we could have more fun on our own. We got off the ship about 11:00 and took the free shuttle to Hilo Hattie’s, one of the best known Hawaiian tourist shops. Hilo Hattie has stores, usually more than one, on every one of the islands. After looking around for a little while we found some free-lance “tour” guides in the parking lot. We managed to hire a car and driver for the four of us for about $40 apiece, far less than the ship’s tours cost. Our driver was a local who grew up on the big island and took us on a nice tour of the area around Hilo. We went to a couple of beach areas, although we weren’t swimming they were still pretty to see. He also took us to the Macadamia Nut Candy Factory. I think the factory gives “incentives” to all of the guides, amateur or not, to bring them to the factory. We got back to the ship by late afternoon and sailed out of Hilo at sunset.

When the ship left Hilo harbor the Captain sailed Southwest along the shore to the area where the Kiluea volcano is dumping hot lava into the sea. This volcano has been active for about 15 years now and is adding a couple acres a year to the size of the island. It was pitch black when we arrived in the area, however, because we a couple miles off shore we really didn’t see too much except for a very distinct red glow on the shore. It would probably be pretty impressive in a small boat up close, but with a large ship we couldn’t get close enough for it to look like much more than a big bonfire on the beach. After a few minutes looking at the volcano, we turned and headed North along the chain of islands headed for Honolulu.

Thursday morning, the 13th of November, I woke up about 6:30 a.m. and when I glanced out the window I noticed that we were about five miles off of Oahu, headed into Honolulu harbor. I threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera and headed up on deck to get some great sunrise photos of our arrival into Honolulu. Even though it was about seven in the morning when we approached the Aloha Tower at the harbor in downtown Honolulu, they had brought out the Hawaiian band and hula dancers to welcome us in. I guess this is a tradition that goes back a sixty years that every passenger ship is greeted with hula dancers. Unfortunately, we learned later that the other tradition of providing lei’s to everyone as they get off the ship is no more. If you want to get lei’d in Hawaii now, you have to do it on your own. The four of us got off the ship about 10:00 or so and spent the next hour trying to locate a rental car. Again, we had decided against any of the organized tours and chose to rent a car and drive around ourselves. Since I had lived on Oahu for two years in the late sixties, and been back several times since then, I was comfortable playing tour guide for all the obvious stuff. We finally got a hold of an Enterprise agency and after going to two different downtown offices found ourselves in a big chevy minivan. It was nice because it was comfortable with plenty of room for the four of us. We were going to be in Honolulu overnight, until 9:00 p.m. on Friday, so we rented the car for a full 24 hours so we would have it the next day also.

We started the tour by heading to the windward side of the island across the Pali. The Pali is the mountain range (or ridge) that goes down the center of the island. There are only two roads that go up and over the Pali and one that goes around the Southeastern shore. Those are the only three ways to get to the other side of the island. We made a stop at the Pali lookout which is at the top of the ridge and looks out over the windward side towards Kaneohe and Kialua, the two big towns on that side. You can also see the peninsula on which Kaneohe Marine Corps Base is located. This is where I was stationed back in the late sixties. It was a major Marine Corps Air Station at that time, now there are only a couple of helicopter squadrons on the air side. The ground combat units still use it as the primary Pacific Marine Corps operating base. We then drove down and through Kialua, checked out where the apartments where I used to live only to find that they had been recently torn down. Ah, progress. We checked out a couple of the local beaches and then headed around the coast line for the scenic route back to the Honolulu side of the island. After a lunch stop we drove through Waikiki and located the Honolulu Elks Lodge. What a place! It is located right on the water on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki Beach. The front and sides of the bar are open to the beach and when you sit on the patio you can see all of Waikiki Beach just down the sand. This property has got to be worth millions. One of the members there told us that they lease a small piece of land they own adjacent to the lodge to a hotel for $70,000 per month! Even with all that, their dues are still close to $300 a year, but what a place to go have dinner and a cocktail. The four of us had a drink, enjoyed the lodge and chatted with one of the members who was originally from Southern California. We also got our first Hawaii Elks Lodge pin.

After visiting the Lodge we decided that we needed to drop the car off for the day. We had found that overnight parking near the ship dock was $50 a night, which was more than we were paying for the car for 24 hours. The Enterprise folks said if we got back to the office before they closed at 6:00, we could park it in their garage and they would give us a ride back to the ship. Then in the morning they would come pick us up and we could take the car out again. So we dropped the car off late Thursday afternoon and went back to the ship. We did do a little shopping in the shopping center right near the dock before we reboarded. The next morning we headed out about 9:00, picked up the car and then headed back over to the Southwestern shore for some more sightseeing. We went to blowhole, a pretty standard tourist attraction where waves go into an cave under the rocks then water blows straight up through a hole in the top of the rocks. After that we stopped at Haunama Bay, one of the prime snorkeling spots on the island. We didn’t go down to the beach, but got some great pictures of the bay from up on the bluff that overlooks it. When I lived in Hawaii in the sixties we used to go to Haunama bay a couple times a month for the snorkeling. Great place and very pretty. After that we headed to the other side of Honolulu to Pearl Harbor to visit the Arizona Memorial. We went into the visitors center and spent about an hour there, but we didn’t wait in line to actually go over to the memorial. You could see everything pretty well from the visitors center. We then headed over towards Waikiki Beach, but the afternoon traffic was so bad we decided to just take the car back and go back to the ship. At about 9:00 our ship pulled out of Honolulu just as the moon was rising over the Pali. We had a great view of the lights of Honolulu and Waikiki off the back of the ship as we pulled away, headed towards Maui.

The next morning, about 8:00, we found ourselves anchored off the coast of Lahaina, Maui. We were only going to be in Lahaina until about 5:00, so we decided that it would be our beach day. We took the tender into Lahaina, then took a cab to the Whalers Point area where all the big resort hotels were. We rented a couple of beach umbrellas and chairs and all four of us went swimming. The girls had a little trouble staying on their feet with the waves and such, so Jackie only went in once. I spent a couple hours in the water and got pretty red, but not too badly burned. It went away in a couple of days. After a couple hours on the beach we changed and went to lunch at a Bubba Gump’s restaurant on the waterfront, then walked old town Lahaina and did some shopping. I got a couple of shirts and Jackie got a muu muu. Then we went back to the tender pier and took the tender back to the ship. We pulled up anchor at about five and south back towards the Big Island and the town of Kona.

Again about 8:00 we anchored off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. After breakfast we took the tender into the port. Kona was very small and there was limited shopping, but we hit a couple of shops. We had a nice lunch in a café overlooking the water, then Jackie and I headed up to the Kona Elks Lodge which I had called and found to be open. Helen and Joan stayed in town and said they would meet us back at the ship. The Lodge was only a short walk up the hill from the tender pier and we found a kind of decrepit building but with a very “beach hut” feel to it. There were a couple of members there, including a woman who was a PER, who were very friendly. We had drink, chatted for a while and got our second Hawaiian Lodge pin. After visiting the lodge we went back down on the waterfront and looked for a geocache that we knew was hidden in Kona. We had downloaded a couple of caches for each of our port stops, but this was the only time we actually went out and looked for it. We thought we were going to have a DNF (did not find) until I spotted something up in the fork of a tree. I had to stand on the beach wall to get it, but we had our first and only Hawaiian geocache! After finding our cache we did a little shopping then headed back to the ship. At about 7:30 we finally pulled anchor and left Kona. We were supposed to have left at 5:00, but several things went wrong. First, the Captain came on the intercom and said that although all the passengers were back, they had to keep one tender in the water to off-load a medical evacuation. We never did find out any details, but apparently one of the passengers became ill enough to have to be removed along with their traveling companion. Then, as they were loading the last tender (which are actually some of the ship’s lifeboats, back up onto the side of the ship, one of the crew members was hit by a piece of equipment and fell into the water. Again, the Captain came on and said our departure would be delayed while they took the crewman ashore for treatment and evaluation. Finally, about 7:30 or so we felt the ship moving and the Captain announced that the crew member was doing OK and we were headed back towards Ensenada, Mexico, our final port call five days down the road.

The next five days at sea were pretty much the same as the four sea days coming over - eat, drink, gamble, swim, then more of the same. One activity that I did participate in was the Karaoke stuff. About every three or four days they would have a Karaoke session at night up in the Crows Nest bar. It was generally the same eight or ten people singing and we got to know each other pretty well. On Thursday afternoon, two days before we arrived back on the mainland, they had a contest where all the singers that wanted to participate got to go up on the main showroom stage and sing in front of a live audience. Since we were at sea and there wasn’t much to do, the showroom was pretty full. There were eleven of us in this “semifinal” round and they selected five of us for the finals, to be held the next afternoon, on Friday. I was fortunate enough to be one of the five finalists. On Friday I got all dressed up in my suit and went up on stage and sang “My Way” and a got a real nice round of applause from the audience. I didn’t win, but I had a good time and all the rest of the afternoon and evening I was stopped by other passengers and told that I had done a nice job. Made me feel pretty good.

Friday night we were supposed to go into Ensenada, Mexico for a couple of hours. Cruise ships that are not registered in the United States are not allowed to start and finish a voyage between American ports, so we had to make a “foreign” stop before we went back to San Diego. We were supposed to go into Ensenada about 8:00 at night, leave at midnight, and then dock in San Diego the next morning at 7:00. However, about 6:00 we noticed that we were going into a pretty heavy coastal fog and by 8:00 it was a thick as pea soup. You couldn’t see the back of the ship from the front decks. We were pretty much sitting still in the water for a while, then the Captain came on the intercom and said that the fog was too thick to safely enter Ensenada’s harbor, so we were cancelling the port call. I assume that since we were in Mexican national waters at that time that this satisfied the technical requirement to be in another country prior to going back to San Diego.

Saturday morning we woke up docked at the San Diego cruise terminal where we started 15 days before. We got off the ship about 9:30, caught our shuttle back to the motorhome and were back home before lunch. Everything was OK with the coach, the cat obviously missed us because he has been much more affectionate since we got back than he ever was before. I guess being pretty much alone for two weeks makes you more appreciative of what you have. We didn’t see Helen and Joan after we went off the ship. They were going up to Temecula for a couple days before flying back to Massachusetts. On Sunday we packed up the motorhome and left San Diego for Ramona, about 60 miles to the Northeast. We are now there, at one of our Western Horizons membership parks. Barry and Colleen were going to come up on Wednesday and spend the Thanksgiving weekend with us, but just before we got off the ship Jackie came down with a bad cold. We called them on Tuesday and let them know that Jackie was still feeling poorly, so they cancelled the trip. That same Tuesday we drove up to Indio so I could go to the doctor and get a suspicious looking mole cut out of my back. Took about six or eight stitches, but it doesn’t really hurt much. Just a little pulling from the stitches because it is right in the top center of my back. Every time I move my arms forward the stitches pull a little. The stitches should be out and OK in a couple weeks.

It is now Monday, a little over a week since we got off the ship and yesterday was the first time Jackie felt well enough to go out and do some touring. Yesterday we spent the day up in Julian, which is only about 15 miles from where we are staying. Julian is a cute little mountain community with a lot of shops. We did some geocaching, getting eight and spent a couple hours walking around town shopping. We are going to be here in Ramona until next Sunday, the 7th of November, when we will go to Pilot Knob in Winterhaven, California - just across the border from Yuma, Arizona. We try to go there at least once each year so we can go down to Algodones, Mexico for our eye and dental exams and treatments. We have done this for three years running now and are pretty happy with the system.

So folks, that’s the tale of our cruise and safe return. I will post again after our time in Winterhaven and before the Holidays. Until then, have a happy life!

Halloween in the Hills

Don't pay the ransom, we've escaped! Yes, yes - I know its been a long while since an update. I will allocate the blame about 50 percent to being really busy and 50 percent to being really lazy. Last you heard, we had arrived at Silent Valley, above Banning, for a 30 day stay in the mountains. On Saturday, the 11th, our first full weekend in Silent Valley, Barry and Colleen came up to visit. Although they are members, they only came up for Saturday and Sunday, so they didn't bring their coach. There was a small car show being held at the park so we spent a little time walking around there. We had dinner at the restaurant, spent a little time in the bar, and then went back to the coach where the girls played cards and Barry and I sang Karaoke until we were hoarse. The dinner was great, they were having Oktoberfest and had a German grill going. Barry had the knockwurst and I had the German ribs with kraut - great food.

The next morning we got up early and headed down the hill for lunch and then off to Pomona for the annual RV show there. We only spent about three hours walking around looking at the new RV's, but we had a good time. We did note that most of the dealers and manufacturers were now featuring their Class C's and smaller gas Class A coaches. When we were here four years ago they were hawking the big diesel Class A's. Sign of the times, I guess. After the show Barry and Colleen headed home and we went back up the hill.

The next couple of weeks were pretty quiet and we generally stayed around the park, just enjoying the pleasant weather and the activities. We got involved with a group that played low stakes Texas Hold'em four days a week and had a really good time. Some days we lost our $20, other days one or the other of us would make $15 or $20. It was a very friendly, funny group and we really enjoyed it. We usually went down the hill to shop once or twice a week, one day we had to drive all the way to Palm Desert for some doctor's appointments, routine physicals for both of us. On the 23rd we drove down to San Diego to see Jackie's mom and brother.

On Friday, the 24th, we spent the day decorating the coach and site for Halloween. This is one of the biggest holidays for Silent Valley and the place is absolutely packed. Since Halloween falls on a Friday night, they are celebrating the weekend before because they always do the big trick or treat on a Saturday afternoon. We didn't put up a lot of stuff because we would have to find a place to store it afterwards. We had a few cheap decorations we picked up at the 99 cent store, including a whole bunch of phoney spider web. Some of the decorations in the park are huge, elaborate scenes, haunted houses, graveyards, and pirate dens. The park staff tells us that some people actually have storage units full of stuff they only use once a year at Silent Valley. In the afternoon we drove around the park taking movies and photos of the decorations.

On Saturday the celebration started. They had previously put up notices around the park that from 1:00 to 5:00 the entrance to the park would be closed and no one would be allowed to drive on the roads inside the park. Shortly after 1:00 the security guys were busy stopping traffic closing roads and it was easy to see why. Within a few minutes the streets were packed with people in costume walking around. Everyone from babies to old folks were dressed up and walking the streets. Since there are nearly 900 sites in the park, and we were full, there were literally thousands of people on the street. Most coaches had tables and chairs set up near the road with the candy and give-aways. We had bought eight big bags of candy and we were cleaned out within 40 minutes. After that we just walked around the park looking at the costumes and the fun. Halloween in Silent Valley truly is a "happening" as they used to say. Sunday was almost as entertaining because the bulk of the people that had been camping there left, starting about 8 a.m. and running all day. At one point people were lined up for half a mile leaving the park and the road up the hill from the park to the main road down to Banning was bumper to bumper. Looked like rush hour in LA. By Monday night the place looked deserted.

Tuesday we drove back down to Indio for a some more medical tests, blood work for me, mammogram for Jackie. On Saturday we drove down to Indio to spend the day with the Cohen's. We ended up spending the night and had a really good time. Finally, on Wednesday, the 5th of November we packed up and headed south to San Diego. We leave for our Hawaiian cruise on Friday, the 7th. We parked the coach at the Sante Fe RV park in Pacific Beach for the duration. Jackie's brother is going to come over to the coach periodically while we are gone to check on the cat. The next blog will be a recap of our cruise in about three weeks. We will be gone for 15 days on the cruise.

Until then, take care and Aloha!

The End of Summer 2008

Well, our last episode had us a few days into our two week stay in Pahrump, Nevada, just after a great visit by Barry and Colleen Cohen. The remainder of our stay there at the Charleston Peak Winery RV Resort was pretty laid back and relaxing. We did take care of a few administrative things like making application for our absentee ballots for the November election. I also went through the qualification shoot and paperwork for my Federal concealed weapons permit renewal. Once again it was a pleasure to deal with the Nye County Sheriff’s Office - they made easy what California and Arizona law enforcement agencies made very difficult.

We did caching on a number of afternoons, usually only going out for an hour or two and doing a few caches because it was still very hot. Most of the caches in the Pahrump area are out in the desert around town so there was a fair amount of desert hiking involved in locating them. Nonetheless we still found close to 20 during the two weeks we were there. We also played Texas hold-em in the clubhouse twice a week. The games there are always friendly and fun and we really enjoyed playing. There were a number of folks there who were there last November when we stayed at the Winery. On Sunday the 21st we drove over the hill to Vegas to meet with my brother Russ. He is still a pit supervisor at the Golden Nugget and doing quite well. His daughter, Rachel is now a Junior in high school. She wasn’t able to make it to the lunch because she was at a friend’s house after the big homecoming prom the night before. We met Russ at an Applebee’s and had a very nice lunch.

On Wednesday, the 24th of September, we bid farewell to Pahrump and headed down I-15 towards Hemet and the Southern California Elks Rally. Wednesday night we stopped in Hesperia for the night and then left early so we could arrive in Hemet early. We got there about 11:30 in the morning, found our spot and got set up for the rally. It was great seeing all our old friends from the Desert Drifters, the Indio Elks Lodge RV group. We were parked with them at the rally. Those there included the Montez’s, the Tweedy’s, the Purscell’s, the Baron’s, the Argue’s, and the Daley’s. There were also several newer members of the club who seemed very nice. There were a total of 13 rigs from Indio at the rally, including us. It’s good to see the club having good turnouts at their outings again after what seemed to be several years of decline. We also met up with our friends from the Fullerton Lodge, including David and Marianne Conner, who were parked a couple rows over from us.

The Elks rally was fun, as it always is, but it was HOT! Since most of the booths and activities were outside in the sun, it got pretty uncomfortable in the afternoons. I think the charity fund-raising suffered this year because of the weather conditions. We ate all our evening meals in the clubhouse and the food was quite good this year. They also finally have the serving down pat, because there were no delays or long lines and they never appeared to run out of anything. On Friday the Indio group took up a collection and bid on one of the “pigs” for Saturday’s pig races. These are similar to the “horse races” they have on cruise ships where you have wooden pigs that move across the floor according to the rolls of a set of dice. There were six pigs and most of them sold for around $350, which is what Indio paid for theirs. It could have been a good investment because the owners of the pig who wins the most races of the six held got 25% of the total income from selling all the pigs, and the owners of the pig that wins the last race gets 50% of the total. Unfortunately, our pig didn’t win any races and the San Bernardino Lodge’s pig won three of the six, including the last one. They ended up splitting about $1,800 among their “investors”! We had a good time though. I made up a bunch of cheering signs and passed them out amongst our group during the races, so we had a great time cheering on our #5 pig, Shady Lady. Saturday afternoon they had the Commanding General from the 29 Palms Marine Corps Base speak to the crowd, and afterwards the Marine Corps Band from the base played a brief concert. It was a very patriotic afternoon.

On Sunday the rally ended and we headed up the road 26 miles to the Yucaipa Regional Park in Yucaipa. We have stayed in this park a number of times in the past with the Indio Elks group, as well as last Spring with our 100%ers Chapter rally. It’s a very nice park with full hookups for less than $25 a day. When I made our reservations some months ago, I blindly selected a site number - in the past we have not found any “bad” sites - and we found that the site I picked was in the new part of the park, just added in the last year. Unfortunately, the new section has GFI type circuit breakers installed on the power pedestals, including the 50 and 30 amp services. Apparently this is a new code requirement. At any rate, we found that the power to the coach would not stay on unless I turned off the inverter in the coach. All of the outlets in the coach go through the inverter so if the power to the inverter is off, everything in the coach plugged into an outlet is running off of the batteries. This meant I had to run the generator for a couple hours in the morning and again at night to keep the batteries charged. The air conditioners, refrigerator, and hot water heater worked off of the 50 amp shore power just fine, but I couldn’t have power going to the inverter/charger without popping the breaker. The park maintenance people tried changing the breaker, but it didn’t help. They said that they have seen the problem with other newer coaches and they think that something with the GFI’s in the coach interferes with the GFI’s in the power pedestal. So if you stay in Yucaipa, don’t accept spaces 24 through 33 - they are the new sites. After three days of problems I finally got them to move us to one of the older sites in the park - without the GFI breakers, and we had no more problems. We did have to move twice because of previous bookings in the park, but at least we didn’t have to worry about power anymore.

While in Yucaipa we didn’t do too much. We did some caching in the area on one day, and went shopping in Banning, San Bernardino, and Redlands various days. We are still preparing for our cruise next month. On Thursday the 2nd of October we drove down to San Diego to spend the afternoon with Jackie’s mom. She is living in a new assisted living home which seemed very nice. We took her out to lunch at Applebee and then shopping at the mall in National City. She was very pleasant and it was a nice afternoon. We also got to see Jackie’s brother, Dennis, who stopped by to see us at the home before we left. The next day, Friday, we went out to dinner in Banning with David and Marianne Conner. David seems to be doing better than he was when were here in the spring, but he stilled seems very frail. We had a very nice dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and managed to catch up on what was going on in our lives.

On Monday the 6th we headed up to Silent Valley, our ownership park in the mountains South of Banning. We are at about 3,700 feet here so the weather is cooler, but still very nice. We have a great spot where the satellite TV works, we get internet and the phones work. Spots were all three work well can be hard to find up here because of all the trees and the fact that the park is huge and down in a bowl surrounded by high peaks. We are going to be here the full 30 days allowed. We leave here on November 5th for San Diego and then out on our cruise two days later.

That’s pretty much it in our life for now. Talk to you again soon.

Hey Mom, We're Home!

Our last visit left us in Rawlins, Wyoming. On Friday, August 29th we left Rawlins and again headed West on I-80 to Rock Springs, Wyoming. We stayed at the KOA there, primarily because we had won a coupon for a free night at any KOA at one of the rallies back in July. We normally don't stay in KOAs because they are much more expensive than most other RV parks and you don't get anything much more for your money. The park in Rock Springs was no exception. It was OK, but nothing special - gravel roads and spots, very little grass and the spots were close together. We were only going to stay for two nights, so the coupon made it half price for the stay.

Rock Springs is a medium sized town, about 19,000 people, but it is built around a series of gullies and hills so it is widely spread out and the streets run every which way. I normally have a pretty good sense of direction and don't have trouble navigating, but I kept getting lost in this town because you never knew which way you were headed with the streets twisting and turning. On Saturday we toured around the town, did a little shopping and tried to visit the Elks Lodge. Unfortunately, it was closed for the holiday weekend. We also did some local caching and managed to find five fairly quickly. On Sunday, the 31st, we left to head down into Utah. We had reservations at a park in Provo, about 50 miles South of Salt Lake City. We made reservations because of it being the holiday weekend. We arrived at the Lakeside RV Resort in Provo and found a very nice little park. Lots of trees and green space and down in a quiet part of town near Utah Lake.

On Monday, the 1st of September, we did a little touring of Provo and visited the local mall for the holiday sales. We also went out to dinner to celebrate one of our anniversaries, which is September 1st. This date marks the 10th anniversary of my moving from Phoenix to the Coachella Valley and moving in with Jackie. We have now been together for 10 wonderful years! Yea! We went to an Olive Garden and had a very nice dinner.

On the 2nd we spent the day touring the Salt Lake City area. We drove all around the downtown area, around the State Capitol campus, and the LDS area in the center of town. We also spent some time walking around in Temple Square, which is where the LDS Church (Mormons) has their headquarters. Its sort of like the Mormon's Vatican City. They have the beautiful Mormon Temple, their headquarters building which is about 40 stories, a big hotel, a convention center, and a couple of historical buildings which go back to the 1800's when Joseph Smith first brought the Mormons here from the Midwest. Very interesting place to visit, even if you're not a Mormon. After touring the city we drove out to the Great Salt Lake and found that it was drying up. The area off of I-80 where the marina sits is now well over a mile from the actual shore of the lake. You can barely see the water from the marina. I guess the Western drought over the last few years is having its toll on the lake. After this disappointing visit, we went by the Salt Lake City Elks Lodge (actually in Murray, UT.) for a visit. We found them to be very friendly.

On Wednesday, the 3rd, we drove East into the mountains to Heber City, Utah, to take the tour train that goes through the Provo River Valley. The Heber Valley Railroad is an historical tourist train that runs from Heber City South for about 25 miles along the banks of the Provo River. About half the run is through a winding canyon which makes for very pretty scenery. The railroad uses old equipment for the trains. The two passenger cars and the "dining car" (actually a snack bar) were probably 30's vintage. There were also two open cars and an old caboose. Although the railroad has a couple of old authentic steam engines, our train was using a small diesel locomotive because the steam engines were undergoing renovations. The cars were not fully renovated and were kind of rough looking, but it still made for a fun ride. It took about an hour and a half to get to the turn-around point along the river. Of course, along the way we had to stop the train so we could get "held-up" by the obligatory horse mounted outlaws. I have been on both the Silverton train in Colorado and the Grand Canyon train in Arizona and was held up on both of those trains too! Bad luck, huh? The only one that we weren't held up on was the wine train in Napa Valley. I guess they don't allow bandits in that snooty part of the country. After they attached the engine to the other end of the train, we went back to Heber City on the same path we took South. The ride is pretty cheap, $23 for seniors, and about 3 hours. If you like trains and nice scenery, its worth a trip if you are in the area.

After the train ride, we went back down to Provo to do some more shopping at the mall and visit the Provo Elks. The Provo lodge recently completed their new building and it is gorgeous. It is a two story building with a dedicated Lodge Room and a nice bar. It is located right next to the big mall in town. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed the visit. The next day, the 4th, we went out in the afternoon to do some caching locally in Provo. We were able to find 13 caches in about 3 hours! This is a new personal best for us!

On Friday, the 5th of September, we left Provo for the ride South on I-15 to Beaver, Utah. Beaver is a very small town (2,500) and the only reason we stopped is because it was about halfway between Provo and Mesquite, NV. We stayed at the United Campground (which, in the Trailer Life book is called Beaver United!) which was a fairly nice little campground right off the interstate south of town. Our second day there, the 6th, we did a quick tour of town, including the local cheese factory (actually a Cache Valley Cheese Co. outlet) and had dinner at the Kan Kun Mexican restaurant just down the street. The food was passable Mexican, but pretty bland. At least we were able to identify the dishes, which we found difficult at the couple of Mexican restaurants we visited in the Midwest during our time there. I guess when you grow up and live most of your life in the Southwest, you think everyone should know what real Mexican food looks and tastes like. NOT! On Sunday we went out and did some caching in the local area and managed to find eight in just a few hours.

On Monday we left beautiful downtown Beaver and headed South on I-15 again, headed for Mesquite. Of course, to get to Mesquite, you first have to drive through the 35 miles of the Arizona Strip, between Utah and Nevada. This is some of the most beautiful roadway anywhere in the country. You are down at the bottom of the Virgin River Gorge and the road winds back and forth with thousand foot cliffs on both sides. Very pretty drive. We arrived in Mesquite early in the afternoon and set up camp at the Oasis Casino RV park. Pretty much an asphalt parking lot, but full hookups for $16 and night, who's to complain?

The next day we did a little caching and found eight. We also visited a couple of different casinos. Didn't win anything, but didn't lose too much either. We also went by the Elks lodge. We had stopped there on the way up from the Desert in April and had found it to be a very friendly lodge. We were again welcomed and found a large group of friendly folks in the bar. After the Elks visit we went to the Casa Blanca Casino for dinner. We went to the Purple Fez restaurant, which is essentially their coffee shop, and both of us had very nice porterhouse steak dinners for $10.50 each. The dinners were very good and I would highly recommend the Purple Fez if you are going through Mesquite.

On Wednesday, the 10th of September, we finally left Mesquite and arrived in Pahrump, Nevada - our "home". This is where we have our official mailing address which appears on our Nevada driver's licenses and other official documents. We settled into the Charleston Peak Winery RV Resort, which is one of our Western Horizons membership parks. We are finally going to light in one place for two full weeks - the first time since we left Spring Grove, Minnesota back on the 2nd of August. We have a couple of different things we need to take care of while we are here, including my annual weapons qualification for my Federal gun permit, and getting our absentee ballots for the November General Election taken care of.

On Thursday, we waited anxiously for the arrival or our best friends from Indio, Barry and Colleen to arrive. They live in their motorhome full-time in the Indio Outdoor Resorts, but are not retired yet. They are working towards full retirement and are hoping to be able to sell their property there, sell Barry's business and hit the road like us. When they found out when we would be in Pahrump, they made arrangements to come up and visit. Since this is a membership park, the only way they could come up and stay here was to agree to attend the sales pitch for the park. That way they get a four-day, three-night stay. They arrived late in the afternoon and got set up and we just spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up.

Friday morning Barry and Colleen had their appointment to listen to the sales presentation for Western Horizons. They ended up buying into the program so they are now Western Horizons members just like us. They actually ended up getting a better deal here at Charleston Peak than we did three years ago at our "home" park in Arizona! After they finally finished all the paperwork we went out to the Nugget Casino for some gaming and dinner. A little later Barry got to feeling badly, so he went home. The girls played cards for the rest of the night. On Saturday we went out to another casino for a couple hours, then went over to the Elks Lodge. The Pahrump Lodge is now our lodge since we demitted from Indio last year. After that we went back to the park and had a very nice cookout. The girls played cards and Barry and I went in the back of the coach and did karaoke for then next four hours. We had a great time, as we always do with our good friends. Sunday morning Barry and Colleen packed up and headed back to the Coachella Valley.

We will be here in Pahrump until the 23rd of September, when we will head South to Hemet, California and the Southern California Elks RV Rally. We haven't been to one of the SoCal Elks rallies in a couple of years so we are looking forward to seeing all our old Elks friends. There is a large contingent from Indio going, as well as folks we know from Desert Hot Springs and Fullerton. Until then, stay safe and live happy!

From the Prarie to the Western Slope

Our last entry had us arriving in Henderson, Nebraska, about 120 miles West of Omaha on I-80. The campground was actually right off of the interstate and the town was about 4 miles south. The campground was pretty barren, but had full 50 amp hookups and was moderately priced, OK for a three day stay. On Saturday, the 16th of August, we did a little tour through Henderson (Pop. 986) and then drove over to York, Nebraska, a larger town (about 8,000). We visited the York Elks Lodge #1024 and found them to be a pretty friendly group. Later that evening we drove to McCool Junction (great name for a town!) a few miles south of York for the local stock car races at the Junction Motor Speedway. Neither Jackie nor I had been to a local dirt track in many years and when we found that JMS had regular Saturday night races during the summer we thought it would make an entertaining evening out.

The speedway was nothing fancy, but since it was only a couple years old, the grandstands were well constructed aluminum, not the rickety wood one's I remember from when we used to go to the Hales Corners, Wisconsin track when I was a kid in the 50's. The track was dirt with a 3/8 mile oval main track and a 1/8 mile dirt oval in the center. They had four classes of cars, ranging from the four cylinder "starter" cars which raced on the 1/8 mile, up to the NASCAR modifieds which were pretty fast. All except the four cylinder class raced on the larger oval. The format was the same as I remember from 50 years ago - two sets of five to eight lap heats for each class, then an intermission, and then the "features" which ranged from 10 laps for the smaller cars to 25 laps for the modifieds. We noticed that this was very much a family venue with a lot of kids in attendance. Since all the cars from from within a hundred miles of the track there were a lot of family and friend type fans rooting the various racers on. The folks were very friendly and when the announcer found out we were from Nevada, we got introduced to the crowd and they gave me a free t-shirt! All this for $8 admission. All in all we had a great time and may try some other local tracks in our travels.

On Sunday we went caching in the local area which took us around the countryside to some of the other small towns in the area. We found 9 caches. Monday, August 18th, we packed up for the drive to North Platte, Nebraska, about 200 miles West of Henderson. About halfway through the drive we passed under the Great Platte River Road Memorial Archway. This was an interesting sight as it was this huge wooden arch which stretched completely across I-80. Since we were in the coach we didn't stop, but reading about it later we found that it was built as a sort of living history museum with all sorts of exhibits about Indian and frontier life. We also noted that this general area seemed to be the demarcation point between the heavy farming area of the central prairie and the western foothills leading to the continental divide and what we considered to be the "West." Around Henderson we saw the usual miles and miles of corn and bean fields. As we approached Western Nebraska we started seeing fewer fields and more rolling hills and grazing land. We settled into the Holiday RV Park which was a very nice park right off of the interstate at the edge of town.

The next day we did a tour of the area. North Platte is the biggest town in Western Nebraska with a population of about 25,000. We went to the local mall and did some shopping, then went to the movies. We saw Tropic Thunder, the new Ben Stiller movie. While not the best Stiller has done, it was still pretty funny and entertaining. Not Oscar material, but enjoyable if you like this type of comedy, which we do. After the movie we did some caching in town and managed to find 9. We also went by the Elks lodge that was listed in the travel directory and found that the building was now a church. A little later Jackie found a phone book and found a new address listed for the Elks Lodge. When we went by the address we found it to be a house on a residential street. There was a lady working in the yard when we stopped and she came over to chat - turns out she is the Lodge Secretary and the Lodge is in the process of remodeling their new building after selling the old one. The new building happened to be in the back of the mall parking lot where we had gone to the movies. She thought the Lodge would be up and running by the end of summer, so any of you passing through North Platte and wanting to visit the Lodge, go to the mall (only one in town) and look in the back parking lot. That night we went to the Whiskey Creek Steakhouse, just down the street from the RV park, for a nice Nebraska steak dinner. Everyone had told us we had to try Nebraska beef and we were getting close to leaving Nebraska. Had a very nice dinner and the beef was very good.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch and then did some more caching in town. We found another nine caches. The lunch was so-so, the Nebraskans seemed to have an odd idea of what Mexican food was. It wasn't the Sonoran we are used to in Arizona and California, wasn't Tex-Mex, and certainly wasn't Sante Fe Mexican. It was tasty, just not what we were used to.

On Thursday we headed West out of Nebraska into Wyoming. Our destination was Cheyenne, about a 220 mile trip. We climbed from 2,800 feet at North Platte up to 6,200 feet in Cheyenne, however, there was never any real grade to climb. It was just a gradual climb up over the whole 200+ miles. We settled into another nice Good Sam park, the A B RV Park, and did some laundry since the park had a nice laundry room just a few yards from where we had parked. The next day we did a tour of Cheyenne, which is the Capitol of Wyoming and then some shopping. On Saturday we went out for some local geocaching and found six more caches. We also went by the Cheyenne Elks Lodge # 660. They were still in their original building right in the heart of downtown which had opened in 1902. The building had been remodeled so it didn't look anything like it did at the turn of the century, but it was still very nice. The lodge room took up the entire third floor of the building and was gorgeous. The people at the lodge were very friendly and one of the trustees took us on a tour. On Monday, the 25th, we went out and found five more local caches and also spent some time in old town Cheyenne walking around and looking at all the old historical buildings. That evening we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I was jonesing for some crab legs and it had been forever since we had been to a Red Lobster.

Tuesday the 26th of August had us packing up again for the trek to Rawlins, Wyoming, about 150 miles West of Cheyenne. We now find ourselves truly back in the front range of the divide. In the 50 miles between Cheyenne and Laramie we went over two passes which were well over 8,500 feet in elevation. Surprisingly, there few long, steep grades - nothing like the grade west out of Denver on I-70. I can see now why I-80 is considered the busiest interstate in the west - it is a very good road. After Laramie the elevation dropped back down to about 6,800 in Rawlins. The worst thing about the trip was the wind. The wind was blowing about 35 MPH for the entire trip which was a little tiring. When we settled into the RV Park (Western Hills) the wind was still blowing, with gusts probably close to 40 or 50. It blew the rest of the afternoon and all night. The next day, the 27th, we took a drive around Rawlins (Pop. 8,500) and did some caching. We had a very successful day with 8 found and no DNFs (did not find). Part of our tour took us to Sinclair, Wyoming, a small town of 400 just to the East of Rawlins. Sinclair was founded as a refinery town back at the turn of the century and was originally known as Parco, named after the company (Petroleum and Refining Corporation) which built the refinery. In the late 30's the company was bought out by Sinclair Oil and the town was renamed Sinclair. The refinery is still active, in fact the company just spent several million dollars enlarging and modernizing the facilities. The town has about five streets and the refinery proper is about five times the size of the residential part of the town.

After Sinclair we drove around Rawlins, which is is a cute little town. We visited the Rawlins Elks Lodge # 609 which, like those in North Platte and Cheyenne, is still in its original downtown building. Like the Cheyenne Lodge, the Rawlins Lodge remodeled the building so it doesn't look like it did in 1908, but the inside still looked pretty original in places. It was a very friendly lodge and we ended up walking out with a couple free drink tokens which we plan to use tomorrow.

That brings us to today, Thursday the 28th of August. We have one more day in Rawlins, then tomorrow we head for Rock Springs, Wyoming, about 110 miles further West. That will be our last stop in Wyoming before we start South into Utah. In about two weeks we will finally be back in our "home" of Pahrump and the summer 2008 journey will be ended. Once we get settled into Pahrump I will post stories of the final leg of the trip. Until then, don't worry, be happy!

Cornstalks As Far As The Eye Can See

We have come to the realization that there is a LOT of corn (and soybeans) in the Midwest! Our last post had us just arriving at Hidden Bluffs RV Resort near Spring Grove, Minnesota. Hidden Bluffs is a private membership park and a part of our Resorts of Distinction (ROD) network. It is a very pretty park that requires travel on 3 miles of gravel road to access. Spring Grove is the nearest town and has a population of 1,020 folks. But there is corn - lots and lots of corn. Most of the land is farmed in either corn or soybeans and it stretches as far as the eye can see. This part of Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa is called the Bluff Country because of the rolling hills and bluffs in the area. The fields have very interesting designs to conform to the rolling hills. Makes for very pretty farmland.

When we arrived at Hidden Bluffs we were surprised to find some friends of ours already staying there. Ed and Carol are also full-time RVers and run a sales business on the road. They are vendors at many of the FMCA rallies and we met them a couple years ago at one of the rallies. We have befriended a number of the vendors because we see them so much at rallies. Carol mostly sells jewelry and they also have flags, windsocks and other decorative stuff. Ed also sells cargo drawers for motorhomes. When we first met them they sold Internet stuff and we bought our T-Mobile aircard, booster amp and antenna from them a couple years ago. They were only at Hidden Bluffs a couple of days while we were there. A couple of days after Ed and Carol left, some other friends of ours, Jan and Charles Alphonso, arrived at the park. Jan and Charles live in Indio and are members of the Indio Elks RV Club.

On Tuesday, the 22nd, we took a drive over to La Crosse, Wisconsin, a river city on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is by far the largest city in the immediate area. We had lunch, did some touring and geocaching and then headed back to the park. On Thursday, the 24th, we took a tour of the local area, visiting Harmony, Lansboro and Rushford, Minnesota. These are all small farming communities in the area. Harmony has the reputation of being the big Amish community in Southern Minnesota, and was one of the tours available when we were at the Elks International rally in Rochester earlier in the month. We drove and walked around town for a while but didn't see anything Amish except for the shops advertising the Amish Tours. I guess the Amish all live out on the country roads, not around town. We did see one buggy in Lansboro, another small town. Mostly what we saw on our several hour tour was a lot of corn and soybeans.

On Friday, the 25th, the we and the Alphonso's drove down to Decorah, Iowa, only about 30 miles South, for their Nordic Fest. We expected a big festival. They did have the main street closed off, but there were only a few food vendors on the street. We had lunch there, walked main street and checked out the small craft fair at the school, but all in all, there wasn't much there to see. The town had a bit of a Nordic feel to it in the architecture and all the flags, but the festival was a bit of a let-down.

On Saturday the four of us took another road trip to Houston, Minnesota, about 20 miles North of the park. Houston was having their Hoedown Days festival. This one was more of what we expected with a lot of vendors and stuff in the city park, a tractor pull and other festivities. We had a pretty good time at this one. Jan was all excited about seeing a tractor pull - she had never been to one before.

Most of the remainder of our time at Hidden Bluffs were spent vegging or driving into one of the closer towns for shopping or other errands. The Alphonsos left a few days before we did, headed back over to Wisconsin. Our final tour was on Saturday, the 2nd of August, when we headed back up to Lansboro for their Buffalo Bill Days. Lanesboro turned out to be a really interesting town and we spent several hours up there shopping in the old downtown area and walking around the park where they had the various booths and events set up. Had a really good time at this festival, the most fun of the three we went to.

On Sunday the 3rd we packed up and headed South into Iowa to Montezuma, Iowa. This is a little town off of the I-80 in central Iowa, about 180 miles South of where we were in Southern Minnesota. All the way down we saw nothing but corn and beans and then a lot more corn and beans. We were headed for Diamond Lake County Park to meet up with Ray and Anita Purcell, another of our friends from the Indio Elks Lodge. They had come up from Texas because both Ray and Anita were originally from Iowa. They had told us about this great little park near Montezuma, on a lake. We found it to be a great little place to stay. The sites had electric service and there was water in the campground close enough to most of the sites to be able to use to refill tanks as necessary. There were no sewer hookups, but they did have a dump station. The sites were only $15 a night, so who's to complain? I would recommend Diamond Lake County Park to anyone traveling through Iowa on I-80 who is looking for somewhere to spend a relaxing couple of days.

On Monday Ray drove us all to Tama, Iowa to an Indian casino there. Ray's sister, Dorothy, who lives in the area, was also with us. We spent a few hours and a few dollars, but no winners among us. The next day Jackie and I took a drive to Pella, Iowa, about 30 miles West. This is a small Dutch town, complete with windmill and glockenspiel. They had a number of nice shops which we checked out. We also did some geocaching in and around the town. Actually a very cute town and I would recommend a day trip for anyone in the area. On Wednesday, the 6th of August, we all packed into Ray's truck again and headed for the Amana Colonies. These are a group of five or six small towns all grouped together and originally formed by the Mennonites back in the late 1800's. The Mennonites were are communal society and the original towns were basically large communes with everyone sharing work and homes and the "group" owning the property. In the 1930's they ended the true communal life style, but the area still has a very old fashioned look and feel to it. We ate in one of the restaurants that serve family style meals where they just bring big bowls of potatoes and other sides for the table. Great food and fun shopping. And yes, this was where Amana appliances got their start. The appliance business was one of the big successes of the Mennonite group.

On Thursday the 7th we said our goodbyes to Ray and Anita and headed West to the Des Moines, Iowa area. We stayed at a resort called Cutty's. We were there because they were a Passport America park, but it turns out that this is a very large park right in the suburbs of Des Moines that is similar to our own Silent Valley in the way it operates. You buy into the park and get an undivided deeded interest in the park. Then you can stay for 30 days at a dollar a day, and as much time after that as you want for $6.50 a day. Pretty nice park with a lake and other amenities. On Friday we drove North to meet up with Don and Sally Richmond who were staying in a town about 60 miles North of Des Moines. We met Don and Sally at the Elks International rally earlier in the summer and took an instant liking to them. We were also with them at the Monaco International rally in Wilmar, Minnesota. Sally is a Past Supreme President of the Does, which is the top national position in this Elks Ladies group. We learned a lot about the Does and their activities from her.

Saturday the 9th we took a drive to Winterset, Iowa, about 35 miles West of Des Moines. Winterset has the distinction of being the birth place of John Wayne (visited his boyhood home) and also the location for the story of the Bridges of Madison County, the book and the movie. We had lunch in the same cafe where Clint Eastwood and Merle Streep dined in the movie. We also drove around and visited some of the covered bridges in the area which were featured in the book and movie. We also did some geocaching around the area. We had a really good time and enjoyed the town.

On Sunday we did a tour of Des Moines, the Capital of Iowa, and also did some geocaching around the town. Iowa has one of the prettiest state capitol buildings we have seen. The dome is plated in real gold. Monday morning we packed up again and headed West to Shelby, Iowa, about 95 miles West of Des Moines. Another 100 miles of corn fields! Shelby is pretty much in the middle of no where, but it was the closest decent campground to Omaha, Nebraska, which is located on the Missouri River at the border of Iowa and Nebraska. The park we stayed in was very basic, but did have 50 amp and full hookups for $25 a day. We didn't do too much around here except for a little geocaching and a day trip to Omaha. Omaha has a great market area down in the old warehouse district. They have really fixed the area up into a pretty cool shopping and entertainment district. It reminded me a small version of the Gas Lamp District in San Diego. We also were able to visit a couple of Elks Lodges, one in Omaha (Lodge #39) and one in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the river. These were the first Elks lodges we had been in for a while since we have been mostly out in the boonies for the last month.

On Friday the 15th we saddled up and headed into Nebraska, planning to stay at an RV park in Henderson. Henderson is another farm town (MORE corn!) in the middle of no where, about 60 miles West of Lincoln, the capitol of Nebraska. We are only here for three days, but it is a very nice park. As usual, we look out the front window of our coach at a corn field. It was interesting to watch the corn during the two months we have spent so far, starting in Southern Minnesota, then Iowa and now Nebraska. It was only about a foot tall when we first went into Minnesota, now it is taller than I am and they won't be harvesting for another six or eight weeks. I guess the corn really does get "as high as an elephant's eye" as they sang in Oklahoma.

Well folks, that's it for now - we are all caught up. We will be continuing our trip West, through Nebraska and Wyoming, then down through Utah to Nevada. We will be back in Pahrump (our nominal "home town") the second week in September. Until the next time, happy travels!

The Summer Rally Tour

Well folks, the Grand Summer 2008 Rally Tour is finally over! In our last post we had just rolled into Hinkley, Minnesota on the 29th of June. Hinkley is about 60 miles North of Minneapolis on I-35. The RV park was part of the Grand Casino Hinkley complex and was very nice. This stop was for the Full Timer's Chapter rally. We had about 20 coaches. The first night they had a nice potluck dinner in the clubhouse. Tuesday night's dinner was at the casino. Part of the rally fee was used to buy tickets for the buffet - I have to say that the buffet at the Grand Casino was one of the best casino buffets we have been to. A good variety of very well prepared food. If you're ever in the area, try it.

Wednesday was game day - the rally set up a couple of games and most everyone played. I was eliminated pretty early in the bean bag toss, but ended up on the winning team for the "snakes" game. That's the one with the two golf balls on a string. That night we went back to the casino and Jackie and I sat down at the Let It Ride table. They had a $1 minimum bet which is a low as I have ever seen on that game. After about 15 minutes Jackie hit a full house and ended up winning over $400 with just $1 bets out! Yea! I played for over two hours and only ended up $5 down.

On Thursday the 3rd we left Hinkley for Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic, is about 60 miles South of Minneapolis. It was about a 130 mile drive and we had to go through the Twin Cities to get there. Fortunately, we went through at midday and used the bypass route so the traffic wasn't too bad. The Rochester rally was for the Elks International Chapter of FMCA. At least one member of each coach family in this chapter has to be an Elk in good standing. We had 35 coaches at this rally and the park was quite nice, although the clubhouse building had no air conditioning and it was pretty hot and humid. Unfortunately, the rally masters had coach problems somewhere in Kansas while en route to the rally and couldn't get there. A couple of members stepped up and filled in so things went fairly well. The first night was a pot luck, then the rally had caterers for the next three days for breakfast and dinner. The food was pretty good. One thing Rochester had was one of the coolest water towers I have ever seen - a giant cob of corn right in the middle of town!

The rally masters had recommended a couple of tours, one to the Mayo Clinic and one to an Amish town (Harmony, MN) about 60 miles Southeast. We really didn't want to do either one so we went out on our own adventures. On Friday, which happened to be the Fourth of July, we went out geocaching with our friends Lu Verne and Gary Underhill. They were the one's who had really got us interested in the sport at the last Elks International rally in Lancaster back in February. We had never been team caching before, but we ended finding 8 out of 10 caches - not too bad for an afternoon. Rochester was having fireworks at the city park in the evening, but we decided not to try to fight the traffic and crowds and just stayed in the campground and chatted with folks.

On Sunday, the last night of the rally, we set up the karaoke stuff in the clubhouse and had a couple hours of singing after dinner. We only had a couple of singers, but for most part they were good and most people stayed until about 8:00. After that people started drifting off so we closed up shop.

On Monday, July 7th, we packed up and headed to Willmar, Minnesota for the Monaco International Rally. Willmar is located about 100 miles West of Minneapolis. We probably look forward to the Monaco rally the most because we know a lot of the folks, they always have good catered dinners and an open bar. YEA! On Tuesday we spent some time looking at the new Monaco coaches in the display area. We have been to most of the seminars at past rallies, so we had some time on our hands. We found a 40 foot Camelot with a new floor plan that we really liked. It had the mid kitchen, bath and one half and a nice computer desk in the living room. It also had the big mid coach entertainment center.

Unfortunately, we made the mistake of discussing how much we liked the coach within earshot of one of the Beaudry salesmen and he was on the hunt. We actually told him to give us some numbers but after a day and a half he couldn't come closer than $130,000 difference, so we told him we weren't interested. He finally gave up. We were a little miffed because the first "offer" he came up with was to give us about $25,000 under wholesale book for our coach and sticker price for the new one. We laughed and asked if he was serious and his response was to say, "let me go back to the boss and see if I can do better." I hear Beaudry is going out of business, selling out to Lazy Days. Not surprising.

The next day we went to a luncheon for an FMCA chapter called Monacos in Motion. It turns out that they are a caravan club that does at least two member-led caravans per year. Most of the caravans are 5 to 15 days or so and go to various parts of the country. Since membership was only $20 we joined the chapter. May be fun at some point in the future to caravan with the group, and a lot cheaper than the commercial caravan companies, like the one we are using for Alaska next summer. Later in the afternoon we went to the Willmar Elks Lodge which was only a couple miles from the fairgrounds where the rally was being held. Nice friendly little lodge. We told the bartender we would try to come back later in the week with a bigger group.

On Thursday we just kind of hung around the coach most of the day. In the afternoon we went back to the Elks Lodge with four other couples for a cocktail. We had a pretty good time. Dinner that night was pretty good and the entertainment was wonderful. They had a group called Three Men and a Tenor. At first we thought they were some kind of opera group, but it turns out they were a 50's & 60's group with a real cute comedy routine too. One of the better non-name entertainment groups we have seen at rallies.

Friday was the last day of the Monaco rally and this is the day that Monaco puts on its various customer service oriented seminars. I went to a service seminar and a seminar with the head of design development, Pat Carroll. Jackie went to a women's only seminar, also with Pat Carroll. Pat is the VP in charge of all products made by Monaco and he is hysterical to listen too. He is very irreverent and gives basically smart ass answers to most questions and comments. However, he also writes every comment down and actually takes them into consideration when designing future floor plans and coaches. Very worthwhile sessions to attend - informative and entertaining. The evening dinner was the last of the rally and was the prime rib. We had finished the happy hour open bar period and the Monaco folks were just going up on stage to present cash checks to the folks who had bought new coaches at the rally. Monaco always gives away money at the rallies to new buyers. The weather had been on and off rainy most of the day, but we had no idea what was coming. Just as the Monaco guy took the stage we heard the tornado sirens going off outside. At first the representative of the fairgrounds said not to worry, that the siren doesn't necessarily mean there is a tornado imminent. I stepped outside of the building and to the South of the fairgrounds there was a tornado coming down out of the clouds. This is only the second time in my life I have actually seen a tornado in person, and the last time was in Texas where the storm was about 15 miles away. This one was only about a mile and a half from us. I went back into the building just as the leaders got the word that there really was a tornado. They herded all of us (about 6 or 7 hundred people) into the bathrooms and locker rooms. (The rally activities were in a building housing two hockey arenas.) We stayed in there about 10 minutes and then they gave the all clear. By the time I got back outside the rain had stopped, the storm had blown over and we had a beautiful clear sunset. The tornado blew through the southern part of Willmar, destroyed two houses, a couple of turkey sheds and a barn. Only a couple minor injuries, no deaths. The path was only 1.5 miles from where we were parked. Close enough for me!

Saturday morning, July 12th, we headed out from Willmar to St. Paul for the FMCA Convention. We had decided not to go with the caravan since we were going to be parking in the area set aside for FMCA Governing Board Members. Jackie was an appointed delegate to the Governing Board for the 3Ts Chapter. Since the caravans go to a different parking area we elected to go on our own. We left early, about 8:00 a.m. (yikes) so we wouldn't interfere with the gathering of the caravan. The Monaco caravans are usually several hundred coaches long, so we knew we would beat them to St. Paul. We actually got to St. Paul and parked slightly after noon. We were parked on a gravel lot at the North end of the fairgrounds. Since we were expecting some rain during the rally, we were glad for the gravel lot.

On Sunday we both attended some training seminars for new members of the Governing Board. The Governing Board of FMCA is very large, consisting of the Executive Board (five National officers and about 8 area vice presidents) and the National Directors. Each FMCA Chapter elects a National Director and there are just under 500 chapters, so the Governing Board is about 500 strong. The Chapter also elects an Alternate National Director who attends if the National Director can't. If neither can attend, the chapter can elect a temporary delegate. That's what Jackie was for the 3T's Chapter. The Governing Board only meets once a year, at the summer convention. Monday was the day for the Governing Board meeting. I was able to sit in the spectator area and watch some of the proceedings. The meeting lasted all day. They started at 9:00 a.m., took an hour for lunch, and adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Both of us were amazed that this huge group was able to be very well controlled and disciplined to accomplish a lot of business, including cutting a half million dollars out of a seven million dollar budget with little shouting. This was a VERY well organized and run meeting.

The next three days of the rally were fairly busy for us. We were able to spend some time shopping in the vendor area, found some time to go through some of the new coaches, and also take care of our various volunteer commitments. We had volunteered to help with the ice cream social on Wednesday. The Full Timers Chapter handles this project. We managed to give away nearly 4,000 ice cream bars in 20 minutes. Its amazing how many people will line up and wait 15 minutes in 85 degree heat for a 50 cent ice cream bar! We also tended bar for the Elks International Chapter's social hour and handed out 40th Anniversary cake for FMCA. By the time we were done with the cake thing both of us were covered in frosting. Again, 4,000 pieces of cake in less than an hour. Of course, there were about three dozen people working at it, but it really was fun because we were doing it with friends, again from the Full Timer's Chapter.

In some ways, the venue at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds was nice because you could drive your own car just about anywhere on the property and find a place to park. This way you didn't have to rely on the shuttle service like we have had to at other rallies. The entertainment was fair. The first night was a hypnotist act which could have been pretty funny, but it didn't come across well on a large stage in a large arena. This type of act needs a smaller venue to be really good. The second night they had the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. This is a country rock group from the 70's and I thought they were pretty good. Jackie didn't think too much of them, but both of us got a little ticked because half way through the act the FMCA folks had the sound people turn the sound down - and they did it in the middle of one the songs. On the one hand FMCA wants to attract younger members, then they do something stupid like that. I have seen t-shirts with the saying "If the music's too loud, you're too old!" I think that was pretty true here.

On Thursday we had the business meeting for our 100%ers Chapter. This is the chapter that I was Vice President of and consists of folks who reside in their coaches 100% of the time. About the only thing we had to do was elect new officers and I was elected as President and Jackie was elected as National Director. We will hold these offices probably for two years.

Friday was time to leave St. Paul and head for the last rally of this round, the 100%ers/3Ts rally in Faribault, MN. Faribault is about 40 miles South of St. Paul on I-35. Jackie and I were the wagon masters for this rally and had set up the RV park based on Internet information. We had never been there before we arrived Friday. It turned out to be an OK park. Nothing really fancy or special, but all except one coach had full hookups and that was only because we added a couple of coaches after the original deadline date. We had a large clubhouse (more like a barn) to use for our activities and I think most folks had a good time. This was only a two day rally. On Friday the 18th we had a pot luck for dinner. On Saturday Jackie actually got up and served breakfast at 9:00 for 22 people! Saturday night we went to a restaurant in Faribault called the Depot Bar and Grill. This was another place that we found on-line and set up the reservations sight unseen. The restaurant was the old Faribault train station and was right on the railroad track. The manager was very accommodating and the menu they had on their web site indicated it might be a pretty good place. We also learned that if a train went by while you were in the restaurant you got two for one drinks. Problem was, after we got there we found that they had no clue how to handle a group of 22 people. They had one waitress assigned to our entire group and try as she might (and she did try) she could not get the orders in and the food and drink out in a timely manner. Most of the food came out cold and people were really unhappy. The majority of folks finally got fed and the food, once it came, really was pretty good. Then the train went by! Everyone in our group was hooting and hollering like they won the lottery. We all got two for one drinks and most people left happy. A group of us stopped at the Faribault Elks Lodge for a drink after dinner. I won a $50 pull tab ticket and one of the other members, Jan Alphonso, won a $100 pull tab.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed for Spring Grove, Minnesota, down in the Southeast corner of the State. We were headed for the Hidden Bluffs RV Resort, one of our Resorts of Distinction (ROD) parks. We are scheduled to stay there for two weeks. This is our decompression phase after a month of rallies. We arrived and found a lovely - if remote - RV park in the hill country of south Minnesota. I think we will like it here. Funny thing (for some of our friends who will know who they are), the resort is one of a small group of membership resorts called the "Midwest Outdoor Resorts." So, we are staying at an Outdoor Resort!

Well folks, that's it for now. You have heard the saga of our summer rally tour. Until the next update, enjoy every day! We do!