Sunday, February 21, 2010 we packed up the coach and left the Pilot Knob RV Resort in Winterhaven and headed East on I-8, destination Casa Grande, Arizona. We left about 10:00 a.m. for the 190 mile trip. Other than a couple of light rain showers en route it was an uneventful trip and took us about three and a half hours. We
arrived at the Western Horizon park, Desert Shadows, and got the same spot we were in last year when we were here. We will be here in Casa Grande, Arizona for two weeks. Casa Grande is located just about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson and is pretty much right in the middle of the state. Not too long after getting set up the rains started and it rained pretty hard the rest of the afternoon and all night.Monday, February 22 started early, about 6:00 a.m. when I woke up to the sound of an alarm. Our gas detector alarm in the kitchen was going off and as soon as I was out of bed I caught the overwhelming odor of ammonia in the coach. I immediately knew that something had gone wrong with the refrigerator, which uses ammonia for coolant as do all RV refrigerators. The first thing I did was shut off the power to the fridge and run outside to open the access panel to the fridge to ensure that there was no fire. There have been many many reports of RV fires caused by gas absorption refrigerators. Under the right circumstances the ammonia coolant can ignite if it leaks out of the system. Fortunately, there was no fire nor any indication there had been any. The next thing we had to do was open the windows and ventilate the coach. That was uncomfortable as it was about 40 degrees outside and we had all the windows open and the fans blowing outside air into the coach to get rid of the ammonia smell.
After a couple of hours we had cleared the air in the coach and we began to evaluate our options. We do have an extended warranty on the coach which meant that if we could find someone to do it, we could have the refrigerator repaired and it would only cost us the deductible on the policy. We could also consider replacing the gas absorption RV type refrigerator with a standard electric household type refrigerator. I have seen many reports from other RV owners on various chat groups indicating that this was a fairly common thing to do. Many new RV’s are coming new with household type refrigerators. After considering this for a while we decided that we would fix the refrigerator rather than try to do a conversion. A conversation of that type would be beyond my abilities as a do it yourself job and we were not in an area where a lot of coach renovators do business. We also had some time constraints. A conversion would require a lot of wood working and modifications and would probably take longer than the two weeks we had to spare. Finally, our extended warranty would not cover any of the costs. It covers repairs but not modifications.
Having decided to have the existing refrigerator repaired we contacted a local RV repair shop. My initial contact with the shop was not positive. The guy told me that it would take a week to 10 days to get a new cooling unit for our fridge. They were also not even sure they could get to us for a day or two. We then decided that we needed to find a small dormitory or office type refrigerator to put our perishable food in while we waited for repairs. We have had the refrigerator go out twice before in the five years we have been on the road and we found that using an ice chest was not a real good option. Everything got wet, they didn’t have much capacity and you had to get ice every day. We knew that we could get a small fridge for under $200 and decided that we would go out and try to find a used one first before we went to Home Depot for a new one. Fortunately, we didn’t have to worry about the stuff in the freezer part of the fridge because we have the freezer in the back that we had to buy in Alaska for our fish.
Since we didn’t know where there might be a used appliance store in Casa Grande we stopped at the RV park office on the way out to look in the yellow pages. It was there that the Gods smiled on us. When we explained to the lady in the office what had happened and what we needed to do she first pointed to guy standing in the office and told us that he was the “resident” RV repair guy. Seems that he has a mobile RV service business and lives in the park during the winter months. The office staff said he was very good. We talked to him and he indicated that he could get by the coach later that same day to look at the problem and that he could get a replacement cooling unit in about two days. He told us that he was sure he could have us fixed and back up and running before the end of the week. Eureka! Then, when we asked the lady in the office, Betty, where we might find a used appliance store she said not to bother, she had a dormitory refrigerator at her rig that she wasn’t using and that we could use it. She would have her husband drop it by our coach in an hour or so. Eureka Part II! With that news, we just went back to the coach and waited. The little fridge was delivered within an hour and after it cooled down we moved everything that needed to be refrigerated out of the non-functioning fridge into the little dorm cooler that fit perfectly in the corner of the kitchen. We put everything from the freezer section into the freezer in the back. The repair guy came by, got all our information, including our extended warranty info, and told us he would handle everything. Since we were staying home to handle all the fridge stuff anyway, Jackie also took the opportunity to do our laundry.
Tuesday, February 23rd we headed out after lunch to do some caching. We managed to find nine caches in a couple of hours and also did some light shopping. When we got back to the part we found that our friends Vernon and Peggy Bullock had arrived and were parked in a spot two down from where we were. We got together with them for cocktails and a BBQ. You may recall that Vernon and Peggy were on our Alaska
caravan with us and are one of the few from that group that we have remained in close contact with. For our BBQ we used Elk and Buffalo meat that we had both gotten at a place in Alaska during out trip. The last time we saw Peggy and Vernon was when we were in Cottonwood, Arizona back in November so it was nice catching up. They have a house near Redding, California, but they spend most of their time on the road. They were laid up for a couple of months because they had to have the engine on their coach rebuilt. It seems that during the trip to Alaska the air filter on the coach failed. It collapsed and allowed a lot of dust and dirt to get into the engine, pretty much ruining it. It cost over $15,000 to rebuild the engine. Fortunately, the air filter company stepped up to the plate and paid the cost because of the failure of their product. Makes our fridge problem seem small by comparison.Wednesday, February 24th we went out with Peggy and Vernon to a local Mexican restaurant, Eva’s, for lunch. Eva’s is just down the street from the park and is very good. It is a little on the high end side as far as price, but the food and service are very good. I would recommend it to anyone in Casa Grande looking for good Mexican food. After lunch we took Vernon and Peggy on a little tour of the area and did some geocaching. They are not cachers, but they enjoy being out with us while we are doing it. We managed to find five caches in a couple of hours, including one which was located at the Casa Grande National Monument. Vernon and Peggy had never been to the Casa Grande ruins and were very interested in visiting the site. We spent about an hour there touring the old Indian ruins. Vernon and Peggy said that they had been to a number of other Indian historical sites in the Southwest, but never this one. After our touring we went back for happy hour and then just relaxed the rest of the night. We had also heard from the RV repair guy that he had our part and would be at the coach on Thursday to install it. Yea!
Thursday, February 25th the RV service guy showed up at 9:30 to repair our fridge. The fix requires that the entire refrigerator, which is very big and heavy, be removed from the cabinet and laid on the floor of the coach. That is the only way to get to the cooling unit which is mounted on the back of the actual refrigerator
box. Since the mobile repair guy works by himself I had to help him with the grunt work of muscling the box out of the cabinet. Jackie went shopping with Peggy while I stayed with the repair guy. It took about five hours to complete the repairs and get the refrigerator back up and in the cabinet. By the time we were ready to go to bed the fridge was cold enough to move all the stuff from the little loaner fridge into our big one. Everything seems to be working fine. By the way readers, this is the fourth cooling unit that has been on that refrigerator in the five years we have owned the coach. The first two replacements were done within the first year and were covered by Norcold under the warranty. Norcold (the manufacturer of the fridge) has had a lot of problems with their refrigerators and have been doing recalls for the last three or four years because of fires being caused by the failure of the cooling unit in the same manner that ours failed. We are lucky we didn’t have a fire. I think it was only because the leak occurred when it was cold and rainy and the fridge heaters were not working so it was not hot enough to ignite the ammonia mix. However, when Jackie called Norcold to see if they would take responsibility for at least our deductible on the repair they denied any responsibility and said there was nothing they can do for us. Jackie was so mad she started an “I Hate Norcold” web site! It’s a rotten company that won’t stand behind their products.Friday, February 26th we set out again after lunch with Vernon and Peggy to do some caching. We drove about 20 miles to the small town of Maricopa and spent a couple of hours caching. We found seven, including one which was hidden on an old dining car from the 50's. The car had once been a part of the “California Zephyr” train that went coast to coast. This particular car had been moved here and was used for years as the train depot for Maricopa. Now it is just a display piece. We also had one DNF for our efforts. We had four sets of eyes looking for this one for 20
minutes and just couldn’t find it. Oh well, maybe another time. After our caching we did some shopping and then headed back to the coach. We got together with Peggy and Vernon for cocktails and then we BBQed some steaks. We had a great meal and a great evening. Ray and Suzie Babcock arrived at the park this afternoon and are parked right next to us. However, today was Ray’s birthday so they went out to eat and did not join us for the BBQ. Saturday was pretty much a hang around the coach and veg day. We did get together with Ray and Suzie and Peggy and Vernon for a couple hours of happy hour. Sunday morning we woke up to rain. It had started raining shortly after midnight and it was very gloomy and damp when we woke up. We had been watching the weather forecast so it was not unexpected, but still not pleasant. Around 11:00 a.m. We and Vernon and Peggy left the park to drive up to Florence, Arizona for lunch. Florence is a small town about halfway between Mesa, in the Phoenix area, and Casa Grande. We were going up there to meet Linda and Ernie for lunch. You may remember that Linda and Ernie were on the same Alaska caravan as Vernon and Peggy and us. They were staying up in Mesa and had met briefly with us last week when were in the Yuma area. They especially wanted to see Vernon and Peggy whom they had not seen since the caravan ended last summer. We met at a nice Mexican restaurant in Florence that I remembered from my days of working for the State of Arizona and traveling around the state on business. We had a very nice lunch and nearly two hours of pleasant conversation.
After lunch I took Vernon and Peggy on a brief tour of Florence which is basically a prison town. It is also the county seat of Pinal County, but primarily know as the location of the original Arizona State Prison. Of course, now there are now prisons all over the state, but when I was growing up the only prison was the one in Florence. After the tour we did a couple of caches in the Florence area and then stopped at the Florence-Coolidge Elks Lodge. This Lodge had built a new building a couple years ago down the road from their old location and we had not visited the Lodge since the new building opened. The last time we were visited the lodge they were operating out of the American Legion post in Florence. The folks were very friendly and we had our free drink and then one more. The new lodge is a metal prefab very similar in size and appearance to the Lodge in Pahrump, our “home” lodge. We didn’t notice if they had RV parking. After leaving the lodge we stopped at the grocery store and then headed home for the night.
Monday, March 1st we just stayed in and relaxed for the day. I did manage to get out and get the car washed - it was filthy, and Jackie repainted our couch tables. That evening the six of us, Ray and Suzie, Peggy and Vernon and us all went to Macayo’s Mexican restaurant for dinner. Macayo’s is an Arizona chain and I have been eating in their restaurants since I was a kid. Their original location was only about two miles from where I grew up and went to high school. The food is very good and you get a lot for your money. The only bad thing is the margaritas are overpriced. Next time I’ll drink beer. Tuesday Jackie and I went to the shopping center after lunch. She wanted to check at Penny’s for a particular brand of jeans she wanted. She ended up having them order them for delivery to the Penny’s in Tucson, our next stop. After the shopping center we went to the Casa Grande Outlet Mall for a while. We didn’t get much, but the mall was big so we got some badly needed exercise. It was really a shame to see the outlet mall about seventy percent vacant. Only about five years ago it was a busy mall with a hundred stores, now there are only a handful. I am not sure if it’s the location, the economy or just the concept of outlet malls running its course, but I will miss them. They were fun places to shop. We had a nice happy hour with our friends and then relaxed for the rest of the night.
Wednesday, March 3rd we did our laundry and then we had an early potluck dinner with the six of us. We BBQ’d some carne and chicken and we had a nice homemade Mexican dinner. We all had way too much to eat. Ray made rice and Peggy made beans. Thursday afternoon Jackie and I headed off to do some more caching. We drove back up to the town of Maricopa, about 20 miles NW of Casa Grande, where we had been caching earlier in the week with Vernon and Peggy. The first cache we went to was the one that we had the DNF on and - bingo- Jackie had it in less than two minutes. We went on to find a total of seven caches but managed to get another DNF in the process. After caching we went back to the coach for cocktail hour with the group, a nice dinner of Alaskan Halibut, and then relaxed the rest of the night.
Friday, March 5th all six of us headed over to the Casa Grande airport, which was just up the road from the RV park, for the annual “fly-in” celebration. There were about 50 antique airplanes that came in for the show. It was very similar to a car show, except with aircraft. They were all parked out on the tarmac and we walked
around, looked at the planes and talked to the owners. There were some very pretty old planes, most of them dating to the 40's and 50's. There were also five old Stearman biplanes that went back to the 30's. Four of the Stearmans went up and did a little formation flying over the airport. There were also a couple of vendor booths and food booths set up. We had lunch at the show and spent several hours walking around and looking at the planes. We had a pretty enjoyable time.Saturday we got up and once again the six of us headed out just before lunch, this time to the Arizona State Chili Cook-off, which was being held at a park just across the street from our RV park. Very convenient. There were a number of vendor booths selling crafts and stuff and a couple of dozen chili booths. For $4 they sold you an armband that let you go around and sample the chili at the various booths. You were also given a voting slip that you could drop into a can at the booth that had the best chili in your estimation. They also had a small car and
motorcycle show at the park. We spent a couple of hours walking around sampling chili and looking at things before heading home. After we got home I put away the stuff we had outside in preparation for our travels on Sunday. We are only going to a park about 30 miles South of Casa Grande, so it won’t be a long trip. Sunday, March 7th - time to leave Casa Grande and start South. We are headed for the Monaco International Chapter rally in Tucson. However, we don’t go into the rally until Wednesday and we have to leave the Western Horizons park today, so we are headed about 35 miles to the Picacho Peak RV Resort for three nights. We have stayed at this park before and it is a nice place. It is also a Passport America park, so we can stay for half price. Unfortunately, just as I was finishing preparations to leave the rain started. Although we only had 35 miles to drive, we did have to stop for fuel. I had to stand in the rain for 10 minutes with an
umbrella putting the fuel in the coach. Just as we got to Picacho there was a lull in the rain, so I was able to get set up without getting any more wet than I already was. Not too long after getting set up the rain started again, along with the wind. Monday was a stay at home and do chores day. It was still raining in the morning and gray and drizzly all day. Good day to stay home. Monday the weather cleared up a little bit, but we still didn’t go out anywhere. We stayed at the park and did some laundry and other chores.Tuesday, March 9th we headed out after lunch to do a little bit of caching. When we left the park the weather was partly cloudy, but by the time we got about 15 miles North where we were going to cache the weather had turned nasty and rainy. We did manage to get two caches before we finally decided to call it a day and headed back to the coach. Both Vernon and Peggy and Ray and Suzie had arrived at Picacho from Casa Grande to spend the night. They were both parked right near us. We are all going into Tucson on Wednesday for the Monaco International Rally.
Wednesday, March 10th we packed up the coach and left about 10:30 or so for Tucson, about 45 miles to the South. We are headed for the Beaudry RV Resort, which is located at the Beaudry RV dealership. Vernon and Peggy caravanned down with us but Ray had left earlier because he was going to stop along the way to get his transmission serviced on the rig. It only took about an hour to get to the park and we were all set up and ready to relax by 2:00 p.m. The first thing we did was get in the car and head off to do some shopping at Costco. After that we went back to the park to relax. Ray didn’t get into his spot until late in the afternoon, but we managed to have our happy hour get together on time. We are all three parked next to each other. The actual rally doesn’t start until Monday morning, but since the rally was being held at Beaudry’s, which is a very nice resort, we took advantage of the cheap rally rate to get a few early days before the rally kicked off.
Thursday, March 11th was a leisure day. We pretty much stayed around the coach except for a quick trip to the store. That evening we went to Red Lobster with Ray and Suzie for dinner. It was great. It’s been a while since we have eaten at Red Lobster. Although the food was good, the service at the North Tucson store was pretty poor. Friday morning we got out about 10:00 a.m. so that we and Peggy and
Vernon could go down to Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone is about 60 miles or so Southeast of Tucson. Although we had been there several times in the past, Peggy and Vernon had never visited. We got there and had lunch at the Long Branch Café in the middle of town and then set off sightseeing. We spent some time in the courthouse museum and walked up and down the main street checking out the shops and watching the people. Tombstone is a very interesting and historical place. After spending a couple of hours touring we did a little bit of caching in the Tombstone area. Although Peggy and Vernon are not signed up cachers yet, they enjoy going out when we do. We found five caches in less than an hour. We then headed back to Tucson for the night.Saturday, March 13th was another lazy day around the park. We did our laundry and not much else. Early Sunday, March 14th, Jackie got a call from her brother, Dennis, that her mom had died of complications from her broken hip. Beverly had been fading over the last week or so and finally passed away. Our original plan for the day had been to go down to the Titan Missile Silo Museum, South of Tucson, for the day. Jackie had been so interested in the missiles when we visited the Air Force Base up in Montana that I thought she would enjoy going down into an actual
silo. They closed all the Titan silos years ago, but they converted this one South of Tucson into a museum and take tours through it. It has a dummy missile and everything in it. At first Jackie thought she could spend the day doing fun things, but she got to thinking about her mom and getting upset, so we cancelled the trip and went back to the coach. Later that evening we had another very nice taco salad night over at Ray and Suzie’s coach along with Peggy and Vernon and Clark and Judy, a couple that we met at a previous Monaco rally. Clark and Judy were parked right across the street from us. Monday, March 15th Jackie was feeling a little bit better so the six of us went for lunch at a Greek Restaurant. Jackie discovered this chain called My Big Fat Greek Restaurant which has stores in several Arizona towns and she wanted to go. Most of the rest of the group liked Greek food also, so we all went. The food was wonderful. Most of the group had Gyro’s, but I had the stuffed peppers. I can say that the food was excellent and the prices not too bad. After lunch we all headed over to Costco because they had Absolute Vodka on sale! We never miss an opportunity to get cheap Absolute! We bought a six pack! That evening we had our first “rally meal” at the Monaco International Rally. Monday afternoon they opened up the new coach area so people could tour the new Monaco models. About 5:00 they put out a very nice spread of heavy snacks and a full, hosted bar. We ate and drank our way to happiness. Gotta love these rallies.
Tuesday, March 16th was the first full day of the Monaco rally. We started the festivities with a luncheon put on by one of the Chapters we belong to, Monacos in Motion. This is a travel club which puts on caravans similar to those sold by Fantasy or Adventure caravans. The big difference is that they are organized and led by members, so the cost is usually about a third of what you would pay for the same caravan through one of the commercial companies. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the rally site, going to a couple of seminars and going through the vendor area. There were only a couple of dozen vendors and none of them were selling anything we needed, so we got away without spending any money. That night we had cocktails and dinner in the rally venue. One of the nice things about the Monaco International rallies is that they provide three nights of happy hour, dinner and entertainment as part of the rally fee. From 5 to 6 there is a full bar, then a nice dinner, followed by a show. The dinner this first night was BBQ chicken and shredded beef BBQ. Both were very tasty. The entertainment was a couple who put on a pretty good impersonator show. The woman did both Mae West and Marilyn Monroe, and the guy did Elvis. They did about 90 minutes with several costume changes and it was very enjoyable. The lighting could have been better, they were a little hard to see sometimes. They had great audience interaction, with Jackie getting some attention from Elvis and me from Marilyn. Wow!
Wednesday, March 17th - St. Patrick’s Day. We spent most of the day going to seminars and meetings. Jackie went to the ladies luncheon for lunch and Ray, Vernon and I went out to where the new coaches were for a lunch of brats and green beer, provided by one of the coach dealers. That night the dinner was corn beef and
cabbage, along with chicken for the non-Irish. The corn beef was very good - I had seconds, but the cabbage left a lot to be desired. It looked and tasted more like sauerkraut. The entertainment was a 50's rock and roll band that had most of the audience on its feet for most of the night. They were very good. In case you ever see them advertised anywhere, they were the Tom Tayback Band and they were excellent. You have to keep in mind that 95 percent of the attendees at this rally were at least over 50, with a large percentage in their late sixties, seventies or even older. We have found in the past that if you give this group some good old rock and roll they will get up and dance!Thursday, March 18th, the last day of the Monaco Rally. I went to a couple of meetings in the morning, but we didn’t do too much in the afternoon at the rally. Jackie did some laundry and we went to the store, all in preparation for the FMCA Rally which starts in two days in Albuquerque. I also spent some time taking down shade screens and putting stuff away, getting ready for tomorrow’s departure from Tucson. That night we went back to the rally venue for our cocktail hour and dinner. This was prime rib night and the meat was very good. They also had huge thick pork chops for those who didn’t want the beef. They also let us take home some “doggie” bags of prime rib and pork chops for lunches in days to come. The entertainment this evening was a two person group doing a variety of music, but mostly country stuff. We stayed for the first set, but left early because the music was very karaoke and boring. Not too many dancing, although Jackie and I did get in one good two-step number.
Friday, March 19th we left Tucson about 9:00 a.m. We had a drive of a little more than 200 miles East to Deming, New Mexico. We parted company with Ray and Suzie for the first time in nearly a month. They are heading back West to California - Suzie didn’t want to go to the Albuquerque rally. We are traveling to Albuquerque with Peggy and Vernon. They have never been to a big FMCA Convention and wanted to have us show them the ropes. Normally the Monaco International rallies are held at places that are less than a hundred miles from the FMCA Conventions so that one can leave Monaco and go directly into the FMCA rally on the first day of parking.
However, this year FMCA is having their rally in Albuquerque and there were no other venues near there that were big enough for the Monaco group. This means that we have almost 500 miles to get from the Monaco rally in Tucson to the FMCA rally in Albuquerque, so they allowed two days for travel. Our plan is to drive to Deming today and then head North from Deming to Albuquerque on Saturday, the first day of FMCA parking. We had a very uneventful drive to Deming, arriving there in mid afternoon and getting settled into our RV park, the Little Vineyard RV park. That evening Jackie and I and Peggy and Vernon went to a little Mexican Restaurant called Erma’s in Deming. They had been through Deming last year and eaten there and told us the food was excellent. Since all four of us are Mexican food junkies, we decided to try it. It was outstanding. The food was very good, and very inexpensive. I would highly recommend Erma’s to anyone traveling through Deming, New Mexico. It is right in the middle of old downtown, on Diamond Street. We also visited the Deming Elks Lodge, but we got there during the Lodge's installation of new officers, so they were unable to serve us a drink at the bar. In most Elks lodges the bar is closed during a meeting and the installation of officers is considered a meeting. We were able to get a lodge pin for our banner.This is where I am going to leave you loyal readers - right here in the heart of Southern New Mexico. From here we travel up to Albuquerque and the big FMCA Rally, so it seems like a good place to stop the dialog and start a new chapter. The next episode will cover the rally and our travels back toward California. Until the next time, laugh, live and love! Remember that life is a journey, not a destination, so enjoy the trip.
