Enjoying Central Arizona

Welcome to the next chapter of our lives. Our last episode ended on Friday, October 29th, with us leaving Tucson after the Monaco rally and headed North to the Phoenix area. We had 140 miles to travel on I-10 to the West end of the Phoenix area. Our friends Vernon and Peggy had also made reservations at the Cotton Lane RV Park in Goodyear and shortly after making a fuel stop near Casa Grande, about 60 miles North of Tucson, I noticed a coach behind me that looked like theirs. They had still been in Beaudry’s when we left, but we had stopped at the Flying J for fuel and for lunch, so we lost about 90 minutes. I sort of guessed it was them because when we got into the Phoenix Metro area and the traffic got bad I noted that every time I changed lanes, they changed lanes. They also stayed right behind me despite the fact that I never drive over 58 mph, even when the speed limit is 75. It is very rare for any vehicle to stay behind me for more than a few miles, much less over an hour.

We had to drive right through the heart of metro Phoenix but the traffic wasn’t too bad until we hit the West side of town. There was an accident on the freeway that had traffic tied up in knots for about 5 miles. Once we got passed that we had smooth sailing until we reached our destination in Goodyear. When we pulled off the freeway I finally saw the tow vehicle behind the motorhome in back of us and it was Vern and Peggy. Since they were not familiar with the Phoenix area I guess they just decided to follow us all the way. We both got settled into the park by mid afternoon and took a little break. When we got in I called my brother Ken, who lives just down the street from the park, and told him we were settled in. He said that he and Susan, his wife, were going out to dinner around 5:30 and asked us if we wanted to join them. We were dirty and tired, so I told him no, but come by the coach after dinner for a few minutes.

About 7:00 p.m. Ken and Susan came by and we introduced them to Vern and Peggy, with whom we were having a cocktail outside in the nice weather. After that we had a nice visit with Ken and Susan until about 10:00 when they needed to leave. Susan has to get up at 4 a.m. for work, so she needed to get home. We agreed that they would come by again Sunday afternoon for a cookout. My kids and grandkids were coming over Sunday for a visit and we were planning a cookout for everyone.

Saturday, October 31st. After relaxing in the morning we decided to take Vern and Peggy out for some geocaching and then we needed to do some shopping. We were able to find one cache close to the RV park and then the damn car started acting up again. We were pulling onto the freeway and it started smoking and running rough and the check engine light came on. As we continued down the freeway the engine smoothed out and seemed to be running ok, but the light stayed on. We went ahead and drove into West Phoenix to the Costco and then stopped at a grocery store. About the third time I started the car, the check engine light went out and stayed out. This car is going to drive me insane with its problems.

That evening we had a very nice cookout with Vern and Peggy. We did some pork ribs on the BBQ and had that along with a salad. Vern, Peggy and Jackie all had escargot and said it was great. I skipped the snails again. After dinner the four of us just sat around and chatted until about 10:00. Although it was Halloween, there were no kids going around the park because it is a 55 plus RV park. We did hear a lot of barking dogs in the surrounding subdivisions early in the evening which was probably the kids all running around trick or treating.

Sunday, November 1st. Shortly after lunch my oldest daughter, Tye, her husband Frank, my youngest granddaughter Jordan, (Tye’s youngest) my son, Roy, my oldest granddaughter, Crystal (Tye’s oldest) her husband Tyrell, and their son Tyrell Jr., my great grandson, all came over to visit. We pretty much had a houseful, but we had a great time. We had last seen the family in March at my mom’s funeral. It was nice to visit under better circumstances. Little Tyrell is 18 months old now and walking! Later on in the afternoon we had a very nice BBQ and the gang stayed until about 8:00 or so. Because of our lifestyle of travel we don’t get to see family too often, so its nice to have a fun visit. Everyone seems to be doing pretty well considering the economy. Crystal and Tyrell had lived in Scottsdale the last time we were here, but they recently bought the trailer next door to Tye, so they are much closer to the rest of the family in West Phoenix now. Little Tyrell was a little more outgoing than he was last time also. Although he is still a momma’s boy and wouldn’t let me hold him without crying, at least he would interact with me while Crystal was holding him. Before they moved closer to Tye, Crystal and the baby weren’t around many people, so he was very withdrawn and shy. He sure is a cute little bug.

Monday my brother Ken came over to the house after lunch to do some geocaching. He said that they hadn’t come over on Sunday because Susan had gotten a cold. She also didn’t come over Monday, but Ken said he wanted to learn something about caching because it sounded interesting and fun. He already had a very nice handheld GPS. I spent about an hour with him on the computer, going over the basics, then the three of us went out and found about six caches fairly close by. He really seemed to enjoy it and said that he wanted to start doing it as soon as he recovered from his surgery. He is going in for a minor hernia operation on Tuesday. It’s an outpatient procedure, but he will still have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.

Tuesday, November 3rd we packed up and headed North out of Phoenix for Camp Verde. We are going to be staying at the Western Horizon resort near Camp Verde for the next two weeks. The longest we have been in one place since early in the year. YEA! It only took a little more than two hours to go the 100 miles from Goodyear to Camp Verde. This Western Horizon park is technically our “home” park, the park where we bought the membership. We bought it in 2005, shortly after we bought the coach, but we have not been back since. It just never worked into our plans. We pulled into the park and got registered into a nice 50 amp full hook up site near the clubhouse. While I set up the camp Jackie did our laundry. It was about 85 degrees and sunny so I worked up a pretty good sweat. We hadn’t come up here in the past because we were afraid that it would be too cold in the fall or spring when we are in the area. Guess we need not have worried. One of the reasons we wanted to be up here for a while is that my brother Dennis lives in Cottonwood, only about 15 miles up the road from the park. I also love the Central Arizona mountains because it is where I recreated when I was growing up in Phoenix. Sedona, Prescott, Flagstaff, Oak Creek Canyon and Payson - all hangouts for much of my life - are less than 100 miles away.

Wednesday was to be mostly a relaxation day. I called my brother Dennis and made plans to meet him at his house on Saturday to spend the day. He works for a bank in Sedona, so he was not available during the weekdays. Jackie and I later took the short drive into Cottonwood to do some shopping, but other than that we just hung around the coach and relaxed. One thing we did do was firm up an appointment at the Jeep dealer in Cottonwood to take the car back into the shop next Monday so they could check on the various engine problems we have been having.

Thursday we were going to go out and do some local caching, but Jackie woke up with a scratchy throat, headache and congestion. She thought she was getting a cold and didn’t want to go out and do anything. She really didn’t feel well. Fortunately, whatever she has hasn’t affected me - yet anyway. She slept most of the day while I just caught up on stuff and played on the computer. Friday morning, November 6th, Jackie woke up feeling a little better and we decided to take a drive up to Sedona. Our friends Vern and Peggy had also come up to the Verde Valley area and were staying at the Thousand Trails RV park, just about five miles up the road towards Cottonwood. We knew they were only here until Sunday, so we called to see if they wanted to drive up to Sedona with us. They did so we went by and picked them up. We drove through Cottonwood and were about three miles down the road towards Sedona when the damn car went crazy again. It started running rough, blowing black smoke out the back and worst of all, the oil pressure warning light came on. Only briefly, but it did light up, twice. I stopped the car and checked the oil level and it was fine. When I restarted the car it ran rough for about a minute, then settled down and was running OK again. Nonetheless, we didn’t want to chance driving the 30 miles to Sedona, so we turned around and took Vern and Peggy back home. We visited with them for a while, then went back to the coach for the rest of the day. This car is really starting to piss me off. A two year old car with only 20,000 miles should not be this unreliable. Our old 10 year old Jeep with 150,000 I would drive anywhere, this one I hesitate to go around the block right now. Poop!

Saturday morning Jackie had a relapse and woke up not feeling well again. I still feel fine and she was OK with me going and spending the day with my brother, so I went over to Dennis’ house. We went out to lunch in Cottonwood and had a really nice visit over lunch. We then went back to his house and spent about four hours just talking and looking at pictures of our Alaska trip. We really had a good time. Dennis’s girlfriend, Mona came over about 3:00 so I got a chance to visit with her also. I left about 5:00 because I still didn’t trust the car and wanted to head back to the RV park before dark. Jackie was still feeling poorly, so I cooked dinner and we stayed in for the night.

Sunday, November 8th, we were planning to go spend the day at Dennis’s again, but Jackie still wasn’t feeling good. I called Dennis and told him that we would get together on Tuesday. He had told me he was planning to take a couple of days off next week so he could spend some time with us. Hopefully by Tuesday Jackie will be back to par. We spent the day just hanging around the coach. I caught up on some chores - like this blog - and played. She watched TV and relaxed.

Monday Dennis had to work and I was scheduled to take the car into Cottonwood to the dealership late in the afternoon. They wanted to have the car Monday night so that they could run it Tuesday morning while it was cold. We just stayed around the coach until I took the car in about 3:30 p.m. The dealership gave me a ride back to the coach and we just stayed in since we had no car.

Tuesday, November 10th Jackie woke up feeling much better. In the afternoon Dennis and Mona came over to the coach and the four of us went out geocaching. Dennis was one of the first people to mention geocaching to us several years ago, and he has a caching name. However, he has not really done any caching. He only has a few on his record, and they are all the “out in the middle of the woods” type of caches. We wanted to show him what urban/suburban caching was all about. In the course of about three hours we had found 11 caches (as well as one DNF) and Mona was very excited about caching again. While we were caching I got a call from the Jeep dealer who told me that they had found a bad fuel injector and a bad oxygen sensor, a part of the emissions system. They said that they had to order the parts and that the car would not be ready until Friday. Since we were in Cottonwood caching anyway we had Dennis drive us by the Enterprise car rental place to see if we could get a car. The lady there told us she didn’t have a car for us but that she would have one on Wednesday afternoon. We knew we would be together with Dennis and Mona again on Wednesday so we said OK.

After the caching we went to Walmart and got some pizzas and chips and dips for dinner. We went over to Dennis’s house and had a very nice informal dinner. After dinner we listened to some music on Dennis’s neat jukebox he restored and then had Dennis drive us home about 9:00.

Wednesday afternoon Dennis and Mona came over and picked us up at the coach again and we went back out for some more geocaching. Both of them seemed to really enjoy getting out and searching for caches. This time we found 12 caches in just a few hours. Late in the afternoon we went back to the Enterprise place and picked up a rental car, a nice little Chevy Cobalt. It’s a little compact car but seems to have all the gadgets. It was almost new, with only 2,700 miles on it. It didn’t even have license plates yet. After we got the car we visited at Dennis’s house for a while and then went to one of the local Mexican restaurants for dinner. We have eaten at the Hacienda before and the food is always very good. After dinner we drove our little car back to the coach for the night.

Thursday, November 12th we drove over to Dennis’s and picked he and Mona up and we all took a drive to Sedona. We went to the uptown area and spent several hours shopping and sightseeing. After walking around all afternoon we were whipped, so after we drove back to Cottonwood and dropped Dennis and Mona off, we just headed home.

Friday we decided to take a relaxation day and just stayed around the coach most of the day. Jackie made up a big batch of Halibut chowder for the next day. About 3:30 I got a call from the Jeep dealer that the car was ready so we drove into Cottonwood to pick it up. Thankfully, all of the work was covered under warranty. I had a long talk with the service tech who said that they had replaced two fuel injectors. After replacing the first one they found that a second one had also failed. He also told me that the bad injectors had caused fuel to contaminate the engine oil and that I had at least a quart of diesel fuel in the oil, which was what caused the oil light to come on - the oil was too thin at high RPM. Because of that they also changed the oil and oil filter. When I glanced at the invoice as I was signing it I noted that the cost of parts on the invoice was over $1,300 - just parts, no labor. Sure glad the warranty covered the repairs! As we were driving the car home I noticed that it seemed to be like a new car. No rattling noise, no smoke, just a nice smooth ride. I hope that this has taken care of the problems!

Saturday, November 14th Dennis and Mona came over to the coach after lunch to spend the day. Dennis and I did some karaoke in the back while Jackie and Mona visited. We then fixed a really massive meal for the four of us. Jackie first made salmon dip for an appetizer, then some escargot for she, Dennis and Mona. After that we had some of Jackie’s Halibut chowder - it was SO good. Everyone had more than one bowl so we decided to postpone making the BBQed Halibut we had planned. We decided that we would do that on Sunday. After dinner we sat around a talked for a while until Dennis and Mona headed home.

Sunday we drove over to Dennis’s house in the early afternoon and picked him up to go out and do some caching. Mona was not there because she was not feeling well. We were surprised to find Angela, Dennis’s youngest daughter at his house when we got there. She and her boyfriend were up in the area for the weekend and just stopped by to say hi. After a brief visit with Angela, we headed out in our Jeep to do some caching in the area. We were able to once again find 11 caches in about three hours. AND - the car was running great. I am very happy. We went back to Dennis’s house after caching and did some karaoke on his home system, a great system I might add. About 5:30 the three of us headed back to our coach for dinner. We had some more chowder and then did some Halibut on the BBQ and some Salmon in the frying pan. We had way too much food for the three of us, but it was great eating! After dinner we just visited until Dennis had to leave.

Monday Dennis had to go back to work so we took care of our chores. We drove into the Cottonwood Medical Center in the morning so Jackie could get her annual mammogram taken care of. After that we went back to the house so I could pack everything up for Tuesday’s departure from the Verde Valley. That took me about three hours. I had to laugh because when I got up at 7:00 a.m. the outside temperature was 30 degrees. By the time I got done packing everything back into the coach it was 70 degrees and I was sweating! Welcome to Arizona weather! After finishing my work we drove back into Cottonwood to do some grocery shopping. We will be spending the next two weeks in Salome, out in the Western Arizona desert, and will be far from any big stores. We wanted to get most of what we thought we might need before heading out. After shopping we went over to Dennis’s for one last visit before we left. Mona was feeling better and had picked up some KFC for dinner. We had a nice dinner, did some karaoke and then headed home about 8:00 or so. This has been a very nice visit. It has been a long time since I have been able to spend this much time with my brother.

Tuesday, November 17th - travel day. We left Camp Verde about 10:45 a.m. and headed back South towards Phoenix. The plan was to spend two nights in Tonopah, Arizona, about 30 miles West of Phoenix, before heading to our membership park in Salome, Arizona. We got into the Saddle Mountain RV park about 1:30 p.m and got settled in for our two night stay. After about an hour the 50 amp breaker on our power pedestal went out. The maintenance guy came out and checked it and told us that he couldn’t fix it until the power company came out to turn off the master power to the pedestal. The 30 amp circuit was still working so I told him that we would rather stay put with 30 amps then pack everything up and move to another 50 amp spot. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying the rest. The next morning, Wednesday, the maintenance people showed up around 10 a.m. to fix the power. It only took them about 20 minutes to put in a new breaker and we were back on 50 amp again. After lunch we went out to do some shopping in Buckeye (about 30 miles East) and some caching. We were able to find nine caches within a couple of hours. There is one series of several dozen caches located along the Sun Valley Parkway running North from I-10. The caches are less than a quarter mile apart and most are fairly quick finds. After caching we drove out to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, located several miles South of the RV park. Jackie had never seen the place close up. I had the opportunity to tour it while it was under construction in the 1980's while I was with the Sheriff’s Office. It is a very impressive sight close up. There are three separate facilities and together they are the largest nuclear generating plant in the Western hemisphere. After that tour we went back to the coach for the night. By the way, the car performed perfectly! We had it up to 70 on the freeway and it continued to run great. In the past it was usually at highway speeds that it would start to act up.

Thursday, November 19th we headed out of Tonopah Westbound towards Salome, Arizona and our next stop. We only had about 50 miles to travel so we didn’t have to leave until just before 11 a.m. We are headed for one of our membership resorts, Desert Vista, which is located just South of Salome on Highway 60. This puts it pretty much out in the middle of the Western Arizona desert. We had been there in February and enjoyed our stay, although there isn’t too much to do out there. This time we were only going to be there nine days. Because we didn’t have far to go we got to the park shortly after noon and quickly got settled in to a nice full hookup 50 amp site. The weather is wonderful, in the low eighties, and the views are gorgeous. Being here will give us a chance to catch up on some of our “homework” that we have been putting off because we have been busy. One of the things I want to work on is to continue scanning my parent’s old photo albums. While we were with Dennis I picked up three more photo albums to scan. I have already done two. Once I get them done I will distribute the photos on CD to all of the family. Looking at the old photos sure brings back memories.

With our arrival in Salome, Arizona I am going to close out this chapter of our travels. As I mentioned, we will be here a little over a week, then in Winterhaven, California (just West of Yuma, Arizona) for a couple of weeks. Those three weeks or so will be the subject of our next episode. Until then, treasure every day and keep smiling!

Fall in the Deserts

Hello loyal readers. Our last chapter closed out our Summer 2009 travels and left us in our “home” in Pahrump, Nevada. We arrived there on Tuesday, October 6th early in the afternoon and got settled in quickly. We wanted to get to the park early because our best buds, Barry and Colleen Cohen, were also coming up to spend a few days with us in Pahrump. Barry and Colleen live in Indio, California, where we used to live before we went full time. They also live in their motorhome full time, but Barry still works so they don’t get to travel too much. They have a nice lot in the Outdoor Resort Country Club in Indio. After we got set up we went into town to pick up our mail and say hi to the girls in the UPS Store who have worked with us all year to get us our mail. As we were leaving the park we saw Barry and Colleen coming up the street to the park.

When we got back from running our errands Barry and Colleen were set up in the space next to us. Interestingly, the people in the space on the other side of us were Bob and Bette Thomas. We have known the Thomas’ for several years. They are also full timers and are the Treasurer and Secretary of the 100%ers Chapter of FMCA. I am the President of the Chapter and Jackie is the National Director. After Barry and Colleen got settled in we spent the rest of the day and evening visiting and catching up. We had not seen them since we left the Indio area in April, just before we began our trip North. Jackie and Colleen played their beloved Skipbo card game and Barry and I spent several hours doing karaoke in the back of the coach.

Wednesday morning I got up early to take the new Jeep down to the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealership in Pahrump for repairs. In our last blog episode I mentioned that the car had some issues, including an apparent oil leak and a check engine light which wouldn’t go out. Barry followed me down and brought me back to the coach after I dropped off the car. A little later in the day we all went to Romero’s, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Pahrump, for lunch. For those visiting Pahrump, Romero’s is off the main highway on Humahuacca Street, across from the Chrysler dealership. The food and service are great. After lunch we did a little shopping at Walmart and then the four of us went up to the Elks Lodge for a cocktail.

The lodge was very busy - a lot of the snowbirds and other RVers are coming into town this time of year. Since we were here in Pahrump last October the lodge has been able to reinstall slot machines in the bar. They had been without them for several years. We were just sitting, talking, having a drink and playing some nickel poker when I hit a Royal Flush! Even on nickels this was a $200 win! Yea! The timing was great because while we were at the lodge I got a call from the service writer at the Jeep dealership. It turns out that the oil leak was the result of a small hole in the oil cooler apparently caused when someone hit the front of the car and pushed the grill back into the cooler. This really ticked me off because we know that it happened before we bought the car - we had noticed a small crack in the plastic bumper cover when we got the car. We didn’t give it too much thought because we had already bought the car and it wasn’t a big crack. Since the damage to the cooler was due to an accident it would not be covered by the warranty. The service advisor told me that the cost to replace it would be just under $1,000! Yikes! The check engine light was caused by bad glow plugs and a bad controller for the glow plugs. At least that would be covered under the warranty. The service advisor told me that he had to order both the oil cooler and the glow plug controller module from the San Francisco warehouse and that they wouldn’t be in for at least two or three days. He did say we could pick up the car and drive it as long as we didn’t make any long trips. Barry drove me over and I picked up the car. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out in the coach.

We spent the next three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, just hanging out with the Cohen’s and having a good time. We hit a couple of casinos but didn’t have too much luck. After my Royal Flush at the Elk’s no one hit any really big jackpots. We had lunch one day at the brand new Italian restaurant in Pahrump, Tomasinno’s. It is right next door to Romero’s and is owned by one of the owners of the Chrysler dealership across the street. The food and service were excellent and I would recommend it to anyone who visits Pahrump and wants some Italian. It is also a jazz nightclub, but we never got back to it for the evening entertainment. On Saturday we saw in the newspaper that there was an Oktoberfest at one of the parks in town, so we decided to go check it out. It took us forever to find the park and when we did we found a VERY meager festival. All that was there was an amateur polka band and a couple of tables with homemade crafts. They also had a BBQ set up and were doing brats and sauerkraut. It took us about an hour to find the park and we stayed there for about five minutes!

On Sunday Barry and Colleen packed up and left Pahrump. Barry had to go back to work on Monday. By the way, he owns and operates a transmission repair shop in Cathedral City, California (near Palm Springs) and is one of the best transmission guys in the country. If any reader of this blog ever finds themselves in need of transmission work while in the Palm Springs/Indio area, call Courtesy Transmission and ask for Barry. After the Cohen’s left we pretty much stayed around the coach and relaxed for the next few days. I had to get up early Monday to go out and do my qualification shoot for my Federal concealed weapons permit. I met the weapons instructor in the desert and he had me shoot one magazine (10 rounds) at a target. Since all 10 rounds hit in the middle of the target he told me, “OK, good enough” and signed off my qualification form. It took me longer to drive out to the desert for the shoot than the shoot itself took. Oh well, it’s something I have to do every year to keep my permit active. For those that may not know, several years ago Congress passed a bill which exempts law enforcement officers, both active and retired, from any state law regarding possession or carrying of a handgun. The only caveat is that you have to have a certification from a law enforcement agency to qualify for the exemption. Nye County, the county in which Pahrump is located, makes it fairly easy for retired officers to get a permit. I only have to shoot once a year with a licensed firearms instructor, and give the Sheriff’s Office $25. For that I get my permit and don’t have to worry about violating state laws regarding handguns as we travel. Some states, California, Massachusetts, and New York especially, have very strict handgun laws. Although I almost never carry a gun on my person, I always have one in the coach so its nice to know that I don’t have to worry about being hassled about it as we travel around the country. Monday afternoon the Jeep dealer called and said the parts were in and told me to bring the car in on Wednesday. Monday night we played Texas Hold’em at the RV park in the evening. We always enjoy these poker games with the other RVers at the park. You have a good time for a couple hours and can’t lose more than five or ten bucks even on a bad night.

Wednesday I took the car in to the shop so we were “grounded” for the day. I picked the car up late in the afternoon all fixed, although still unhappy about having to pay $1,000 for the repairs. I put in a call for the owner of the dealership in Great Falls, Montana where we bought the car to tell him about the situation and see if I could get him to pay for the repairs. I wasn’t too hopeful since we bought the car used and the paperwork clearly stated it was “as is”, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to at least tell him that we thought his dealership pulled a fast one on us. Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t in, so I had to leave a message.

On Thursday, the 15th of October, we finally got our first chance since arriving in Pahrump to do some geocaching. We only found eight because they were all remote desert caches requiring us to do a lot of driving on desert back roads and some hiking into the cache locations. Although we prefer the urban style city caching, it is fun to get out into the desert once in a while. Friday the owner of the dealership called me back and I explained the issue of the damaged car to him. He seemed to be concerned and told me he wanted to “check into” the problem and he would get back to me. I am a little more hopeful, but only a little.

Sunday, October 18th my brother Russ and his wife drove up to Pahrump from Vegas to spend the afternoon with us. We had taken them caching with us when we in Las Vegas a couple weeks before and both seemed to enjoy it. In fact, Russ told me that he had gone out on his own and gotten several caches around his house in Vegas. Since they were interested, the four of us went out and did some caching in Pahrump. We found another three caches that were new to us, plus we took Russ by two or three other caches that we had previously found so that he could get his find count up. After caching we had a nice BBQ at the coach before Russ and Zen headed back down to Las Vegas. Monday, the 19th, was our last day in Pahrump - seemed like the two weeks went by very fast. We went out and did some final caching and managed to add another five to our count.

Tuesday, October 20th, we got up and headed out about 10:00 a.m. heading South. We are due in Tucson, Arizona for a Monaco rally on Friday, the 23rd, but we are going to split the 500 mile trip into three segments. Tuesday’s drive was about 160 miles from Pahrump to Needles, California. The hardest part of the trip was the 30 miles through metropolitan Las Vegas. Even though it was mostly freeway, it is still a lot of traffic and road construction. We got into Needles mid afternoon and settled into the Needles Marina RV park for the night. We didn’t even unhook the car, so we just stayed in and relaxed. The next morning, Wednesday, we left Needles and headed South through California to Interstate 10 near Blythe, California. There we turned East and headed into Arizona, ultimately stopping at the Saddle Mountain RV park in Tonopah, Arizona. Tonopah is about 30 miles West of Phoenix, out in the middle of the desert. Its only claim to fame is that it is only a couple of miles from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest nuclear power plant in the country. Again, we stayed in and relaxed for our one night stay.

Thursday morning we left Tonopah and headed towards Tucson. We bypassed the Phoenix metropolitan area and finally stopped at an RV park along Interstate 10 about 20 miles North of Tucson. This would be our last stop before heading into the rally on Friday. After doing our laundry we just hung around the coach. This RV park, Picacho RV Resort, was also out in the middle of nowhere. Finally, Friday, October 23rd we left Picacho and headed the final 50 miles into Tucson to the Beaudry RV Resort. This resort was the site of the Monaco rally. This rally was the first that Monaco has put on since their bankruptcy in early 2009. Most of Monaco’s motorhome assets were purchased by the Navistar Corporation. Navistar has its roots in the old International Harvester company which used to make tractors and trucks. Navistar now has subsidiary companies that make International Trucks, buses, Workhorse motorhome chassis’, all the Monaco products (Monaco, Holiday Rambler, Safari and Beaver) and an Indian company that makes cars, trucks and farm equipment in India. They also have a number of other companies that are in the defense industry area. The rally we are attending is a Monaco corporate rally so there are a lot of the Monaco executives that attend and put on seminars. They are expecting over 500 coaches to attend, so it will be a very big rally. We are looking forward to it. The last Monaco corporate rally we attended was in Oregon about two years ago.

The actual rally starts on Monday, but we wanted to come in early so we could do a little exploring a caching in Tucson before the rally. We got settled into our spot and were going to go out and explore a little, but we got a call from the service writer that a service tech was on his way to our coach to check our slide problem. We had put in an advance notice to Beaudry regarding any service issues we wanted taken care of while at the rally. We had written up the problem we are having with our large living room slide not coming in without me having to go outside and push. We also had a couple of other minor issues. The technician came to the coach and checked the slide and told us that it was definitely the motor that needed replacing. He also fixed a small problem with one of the body panels coming loose by putting in a new screw. He told us that he would write up the motor issue so the service writer could check with our extended warranty company to get approval to replace the motor.

Since having the technician around pretty much used up Friday we didn’t go anywhere else. I went to the Beaudry parts counter and bought some stuff I needed to fix some of the lights inside the coach and spent an hour or so working on the lights. I try to have service people only work on those things I can’t do myself - it’s a whole lot cheaper since living in a motorhome means pretty much always having to fix something. We also walked over and met up with some old friends that we hadn’t seen in about a year, Ray and Susie Babcock, and Gary and Ramona Wilson. Both Ray and Gary are retired fireman from California. Ray and Susie are full timers, in fact, Ray is the Vice President of the 100%ers Chapter of FMCA. Gary and Ramona just went full time this year when they finally got their house rented. We stopped by and visited for a little while and caught up. Gary and Ramona work-camped all summer in Colorado, while Ray and Susie work-camped in the Lake Tahoe area. So far we have not been tempted to work-camp, but it certainly remains an option down the road..

Saturday we were contacted by the service writer who told us that they could take the motorhome into the shop to do the front wheel bearing pack that I had requested. We also found out that the shop had our slide motor in stock and that the total cost was just under the $500 deductible for our extended warranty, so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting approval. Sort of good news-bad news! Anyway, we packed up the coach and they picked it up at our site and took it into the garage. We headed out to do some geocaching in the area and then some shopping. We went out and spent a couple of hours caching and managed to get five more finds. When we got back to the park we found they had finished the repairs and parked the coach back in our spot. After getting set back up we went out and visited with some friends, Vernon and Peggy, who had just arrived at the rally site. They had been on the Alaska caravan with us and are very nice people. They have a Monaco coach and we had talked them into coming to the rally. We went out to dinner with them to a local Mexican restaurant. They are from Northern California and still have a house in Redding, California, although they spend most of the year on the road.

Sunday, October 25th was the last day we had before the rally starts on Monday. We decided that we would invite some of our friends who are at the rally for a Halibut cookout on Sunday afternoon. Jackie made a big pot of Halibut chowder on Saturday (it’s better if it sets for a day) and did some baked Halibut for the dinner. We had Ray and Susie, Gary and Ramona and Vernon and Peggy all over at our coach and had a wonderful pot luck. Everyone loved the fish and the chowder.

Monday, October 26th, I got up early and headed out by 7:00 a.m. over to a tire shop about a mile from the campground. We had gotten to the point where I felt we had to get new tires for the coach. The coach came with Goodyear tires and they just did not wear well. They did have about 50,000 miles on them, but they were wearing badly and one of the front tires was out of round, all of this causing a lot of bumping and bouncing while on the road. When we had arrived in Tucson on Friday I had made some calls getting estimates for new tires. Camping World, which was located right next door to Beaudry, wanted just under $3,500 for six new tires, but they only sold the same type Goodyear motorhome tires which I had on the coach. Beaudry wanted $3,600 for six Goodyears, and $4,400 for six Michelins. I finally called Western Tire and got an estimate for six Michelins for just a little over $3,500. This made me happy because I knew that the Michelins were usually more expensive than the Goodyears and everything that I had read indicated that people who switched to Michelins got better wear and better ride.

The reason I was up so early on Monday was that I had talked to the guy at Western Tire and gotten the estimate about 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. When I called him back about two hours later he indicated that he had gotten three other calls for the same tires, and he only had ten tires in stock. He told me that he would hold them for me until Monday morning, but that I had to show up early because he would sell them to the first person that came in and paid for them. Since I didn’t want to get Jackie up at 5:00 a.m. to pack up the coach, I headed over there in the car to look at the tires and pay for them, if necessary, to keep them available. I also wanted to check the dates on the tires to make sure they weren’t too old. Federal law requires the manufacturer to put a date code on every tire indicating the week and year of manufacture. You never want to buy a tire that is more than a year old at the time you put it on your vehicle.

I got to the shop and told the guy that I was there to “claim” the tires and that I would get the coach over in about an hour. We started the paperwork which held the tires, although he didn’t make me pay in advance. When I checked the dates on the six tires he had brought over from the warehouse I found that one was about a year and a half old. I asked him to check the other four he had in the warehouse to see if there was a newer one because I didn’t want any tires over a year old. He did and I ended up with three tires that were almost exactly one year old and three that were about six months old. I then went back to the RV park, got the coach and brought it over. While they were putting on the tires Jackie and I went out for breakfast and did some caching. We only found one cache because it only took them about 90 minutes to change out the tires. We took the coach back to the RV park and parked it in our spot again.
After getting the coach set back up again, we went over to the service center to talk to our service advisor. We had been under the impression that when they had replaced our slide motor on Saturday while the coach was in the shop having the front wheel bearing work done. When we had tried to put the slide in on Monday morning to take the coach to the tire shop, the slide wouldn’t come in and I had to go out and push, just like before. Come to find out, they hadn’t installed the motor yet. The tech got busy when the coach was in the shop on Saturday and never got around to putting it in. Late Monday morning the technician came out to our site and installed the new motor. It still doesn’t make the slide come in fast - I think we would need a bigger motor for that - but at least it comes in without any help.

After lunch we headed over to the exhibit area to check out the new coaches that they had on display. The seminars and vendor displays don’t start until Tuesday, but Monday you could go through the new coaches and they were going to have an “Oktoberfest” party with brats and beer in the afternoon. We went over with several other friends to check out the new coaches. What we found were mostly a lot of new 2008 coaches that were left over. There were also a couple of 2009's that had been built before Monaco went bankrupt in early 2009. Since Monaco, under their new ownership, had only started building coaches again in June of 2009 there were only a couple of actual brand new 2010 models on display. Back a couple of years ago Monaco was building 40 coaches a week in their plants - right now, just starting back up, they are doing about 8 a week. They are also only building coaches that have been ordered, no more “spec” coaches, at least for the time being. As we could see with the stock on display at the rally, dealers still have a lot of brand new two year old coaches for sale, leftovers from when the bottom dropped out of the RV market.

We spent a couple of hours checking out coaches and didn’t see anything new or different, or enticing enough for us to consider a new coach. We also stayed for the brats, which were pretty good, as well as the open bar, which was even better! After the party we went back to the coach for the rest of the night. After getting up so early and staying busy all day, I was pooped.

Tuesday morning, October 27th, was when the “real” rally started. They served breakfast in the morning and the seminars started about 8:00 a.m. Since we have been to so many rallies over the last four years, we have been to a lot of the seminars already, so we didn’t head over to the rally center until mid morning. We went through the vendor sales area and were surprised that there were several dozen vendors that had decided to come to the rally. We hadn’t thought this was going to be a real big rally when we first signed up five months ago, but there were over 500 coaches in attendance, so I guess the vendors heard about the number of sign-ups and decided to come. Jackie and I both went to a couple of seminars, pretty much those that were put on by the Monaco corporate staff. The VP of Product Development always puts on a pair of seminars, one for men only and one for women only. Both are well attended and they give the current Monaco (and Beaver, Safari and Holiday Rambler) owners an opportunity to provide input for future coaches on what they like, don’t like or would like to see in a coach. These seminars are always very interesting to attend.

Each afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, at 3:45 the various dealerships represented at the rally held a keg party out where the coach displays were. Since they only served beer and wine we always skip those. At 5:00 p.m. each of the three days they have an open bar in the dining hall. THAT we attend! The bar is open until around 6:00, then they have brief presentations and announcements and then they serve dinner. The dinners are always buffet, but the food is usually pretty good. On Tuesday they had Mexican food. After dinner they always have entertainment. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not so much. On Tuesday evening they had Jim Stafford, a comedian/musician who was excellent - a very funny guy that I would go to see again in venue like a casino or something.

Wednesday was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday, as was Thursday. A little walking around, a couple of seminars, then cocktails at 5:00 and dinner at 6. Wednesday’s dinner was turkey and meatloaf - OK, but not super good. Thursday’s dinner was flat iron steak which was pretty tasty. The entertainment both nights was some husband/wife singing team. Wednesday was supposed to be 50's - 60's music so we, along with most of the rest of the 1,000 or so people in the room stuck around to see how it was. The sound was horrible - they couldn’t get their sound system to mesh with the system in the hall. They also were not that good at singing. They were essentially doing karaoke - I saw the TV monitor on the stage and I recognized some of the soundtracks they were using as the same ones I have on my system. Bottom line was, after about 20 minutes, most of the people, including us, left. On Thursday night, most everyone left immediately after dinner and didn’t even wait for the show to start. I know we didn’t miss too much because as we were leaving the guy was doing some Willy Nelson songs and he was very bad. Oh well.

After I had the tires put on the coach on Monday, I never left the rally grounds until Friday morning. Jackie and Peggy went out to lunch on Wednesday to a local Greek restaurant. I guess it was good, they were raving about it. I’m not too big on Greek food. After Thursday’s dinner we headed back to the coach and crashed. Four days of being on your feet, walking around and drinking and eating nonstop makes you tired. Poor us!

Friday morning was the end of the rally. Everyone who had not registered to stay extra days at Beaudry had to be out of the park by 12:00. We were out at our usual 10:00 and on the freeway headed North towards Phoenix. We are going to stay in Phoenix, actually Goodyear on the far West end of town, for four days before heading up to Camp Verde, North of Phoenix. Camp Verde is a Western Horizon park and is actually our home park. We bought our WHR membership there a few months after we bought the coach and we have never been back there. We get a lot of use out of WHR, we spend a lot of time in different resorts, we just never made it back to our “home” park. We are going to spend two weeks in Camp Verde. The park is only about 20 miles from Cottonwood, Arizona, which is where my brother Dennis lives.

Well loyal readers, that is where we will end this chapter of the life and travels of Roy and Jackie. Join us in a few weeks to see what we are up to in the wilds of Central Arizona. Until then, stay safe, be happy and live well. Adios.