Monday, October 10th was a free day. Although we arrived on Sunday, we were part of early parking, meaning we got our spot, but the actual rally doesn’t start until Wednesday. I went out in the morning to the bank and then to get the car washed. After all the rain and stuff from the last couple weeks it was pretty filthy. We then picked up some friends of ours, Bev and Jerry King, and drove into Farmington for lunch. Bev and Jerry have a home in Indio, but we actually know them from FMCA rallies. Bev is the Secretary for the
Military Veteran’s Chapter, of which I am a charter member. We went for lunch to a Blake’s Lotaburger drive in. Since we have been running all over New Mexico for most of the summer, we have noticed that there are Blake’s drive ins in every town, usually more than one. We had never been to one and I have wanted to try them. Since this is our last stop in New Mexico, I figured it was now or never, so we went. The food was OK - nothing special, so now I can say I tried it, but won’t be in a big hurry to go back. After lunch we went to Walmart because the King’s needed some supplies for a Vet’s Chapter social they are hosting later in the week. They don’t have a tow car because it got wrecked a couple weeks ago and is still in the shop. After we took the King’s back to their coach we went back into town to do some laundry and more shopping. After we got home we relaxed at the coach until cocktail hour when we got together with Peggy and Vernon for happy hour. We decided to break out some steaks for dinner, along with some veggies and sweet potatoes, at Peggy and Vernon’s coach. It was a great dinner and afterwards we chatted until about 8:00 when we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.
Tuesday, October 11th, we left with Peggy and Vernon to do some geocaching. After five finds we went to lunch at one of the My Big Fat Greek Restaurant’s locations here in Farmington. Jackie spotted it yesterday while we were driving around and she loves Greek food. We have eaten at the same restaurant in Tucson several times and the food is always good. This one is a new location and has only been open less than a month. Jackie had a Gyro and I had a steak and cheese pita that was very tasty. Peggy had a huge sampler platter that was way too big for one sitting. She took a big part of it home in a box. After lunch did more geocaching, finally ending up with ten new finds and no DNFs. After caching we went back to the coach and had happy hour with the Bullocks. We skipped dinner because we had eaten such a big lunch.
Wednesday we hung around the coach until after lunch when we went down to the events center for a seminar on destination ideas. The seminar was well attended and was basically a round table discussion of great places people have visited with their RVs. About half were places we have been, and we got some good ideas from the other half of the suggestions. After that seminar we spent a little time walking around the vendors. Didn’t buy anything and didn’t spend too much time because there were only about 16 or 17 vendors, not a great turnout.
We then went to the first timers seminar where they told us a little about the history of the Rocky Mountain Area and the rallies. We are first timers at this particular rally, but, of course, we have been to many other rallies, so we didn’t learn much new. We then went to the
Chapter Fair, where I helped out with the booth for the Military Veteran’s Chapter. The chapter fair at a rally is an hour long forum where different chapters of FMCA can set up a booth to recruit new members. We got about a half dozen new members for the chapter.After the chapter fair we headed back to the coach where we had happy hour with Peggy and Vernon. Peggy then cooked us a lasagna dish that her daughter, who is a gourmet chef, had made up and froze for her. It was sinfully delicious. We stayed for a little while after dinner and then went back to our coach for the night.
Thursday, October 13th, the weather just keeps getting better and better. We went down to the activities area about 10:00 for a seminar on geocaching. A friend of ours, Gary Underhill, who, with his wife LuVerne, are very active cachers, was teaching the seminar. We didn’t learn too much new, but enjoyed the session and met several other cachers. After the caching seminar we went back to the coach for lunch before returning for another seminar at 1:00. Jackie and I split up this time with Jackie going to a course on co-pilot training, and me going to a session on the benefits that come with an FMCA membership.
At 2:30 we sat out on the patio area and watched the pet parade. They had about 50 entries, all of which two were dogs. There were two cats that they brought out first. They were leashed trained cats,
but being out in the open with lots of people and dogs nearby made them VERY nervous. Jackie and I joked that if we tried that with Smokey he would eat us alive right there. Peggy and Vernon’s dog Belle was in the competition, dressed in a nice orange dress. Unfortunately, she didn’t win any of the prizes, but she was cute. After the pet session we went back to the coach to pick up snacks and headed over to Bev and Jerry King’s coach for the Military Veteran’s Chapter social, which they held at their RV site. There were over 50 people that showed up for the 
social and we had a good time. We finally got back to the coach about 5:30 to relax for a little while before changing into our Halloween costumes for the party at 7:00. We didn’t really have costumes, we both bought orange Halloween tee shirts at Walmart and goofy wigs. I had a big Afro wig and Jackie got a witch wig with long black hair. We dressed up and went down with Peggy and Vernon to the party, which really wasn’t much. They had a DJ playing music, but he was playing really old country music, 40's stuff, which is not my cup of tea. They had a pumpkin carving contest, but only six people participated. They then had
a costume contest, which went better. There were a couple of dozen people who had really elaborate costumes that were fun to look at. Once the contest was over at 8:30 most everyone left, including us. We went back to the coach for the rest of the night.Friday, October 14th we were up early and out of the coach for breakfast at 8:00. The rally provides breakfast for everyone on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, however, we are not normally breakfast eaters and don’t
get up early enough for a buffet that ends at 9:00. However, today we did because we are going on a Jeep run with a bunch of people from the rally. Originally, I signed up and planned to take our Jeep, however, on further consideration I decided that we had a little too much of a “Gentleman’s Jeep” to risk a trail ride. We decided to ride along with Peggy and Vernon, who have a “real” Jeep Wrangler. We all met up in the parking lot and there were about 25 Jeeps on the run. We caravanned from the fairgrounds to the area where the trail was, on the northwest side of town. Once we got to the trail start the leaders set up the order of driving so that those who didn’t have a lot of experience were in between some people who were more experienced. Once we started the up hill part of the run I was quite happy that I decided not to bring our Jeep. It might have made it without damage, but there were some really rocky areas and even a couple of rock shelves to climb. Our Jeep has soft suspension and is not trail rated, so I think I will stick to
dirt roads and keep off the Jeep trails. That actual run was only a couple of miles long, but it took an hour and a half for everyone to get through it. Some of the more radical Jeeps even took some of the more difficult shortcuts, which was pretty impressive to watch.After the Jeep run the four of us did some more geocaching up in the north part of Farmington. We got four before deciding to head for home. After we got home we relaxed for a little while and then went up to the Farmington Elks Lodge for some cocktails. We had told several other friends at the rally who we know to be Elks, that we were going up there at 5:00. Besides Jackie and I there were Peggy and Vernon, and two couples who had been at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with us, including David and Kay Piper, the wagonmasters for the Balloon rally.
After the Elks we went out to eat with Peggy and Vernon. We had thought about eating at the Elks because they had a Friday night dinner. However, we had heard from several different people that the food at the Elks was not so good. We ended up at a steak house in downtown Farmington called Dillon’s. The service was great and my steak was wonderful. Jackie first ordered a Veal Oscar dish, but sent it back because it was very salty. She ended up with veal picata, which she said was excellent. The portions were huge and I ended up taking half my New York home with me, which is rare for me. Jackie took a big portion of her’s home for lunch also. After dinner we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Saturday, October 15th, the last day of the rally. I got up early and went over to the events area about 9:00 because I had signed up for bean bag baseball, one of the games they play at rallies. I was on the military veteran’s team. Since I was early enough, I stopped in and had a free breakfast. Jackie was still home in her jammies and missed breakfast. I only got to play one game of baseball because we got beat in the first round and were out of the
competition. I spent a few minutes looking at the classic cars that had come in for the morning’s car show. My favorite was a 1964 Studebaker Silver Hawk coupe. I always wanted a Studebaker when I was a kid. After I got back to the coach Jackie and I went out geocaching with
Peggy for a couple of hours. Vernon didn’t want to go and stayed home with the dog. We managed to get ten new caches in the course of a couple hours, along with one DNF. We had our happy hour at 5:00 at the coach and then the four of us went back over to the events center for dinner. They only had one dinner at this rally, an optional event, but we all bought tickets for it. They had a choice of pork or chicken and both were OK for buffet food. We didn’t stay for the entertainment, which was a barbershop quartet from Farmington. After dinner we went back to the coaches and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Sunday, October 16th, a travel day again. Peggy and Vernon pulled out early, about 7:30 because they are going to Moab, Utah, which is over 200 miles on some pretty mountainous roads. They will be heading home to northern California in a week or so Peggy can have her second knee replacement. We will see them again in Indio in December. We took our time getting ready and pulled out of the fairgrounds about 10:00. We stopped for fuel in Farmington and then headed southwest to Gallup, New Mexico, about 135 miles. We pulled into Gallup to the USA RV park at just about 1:00 p.m. and got set up. For the first time in nearly two weeks we have full hookups with sewer and everything. Yea! We will be here for three days before continuing west, working our way to Pahrump, Nevada. Jackie was not handling the increase in altitude to 6,500 well, so we just stayed in the rest of the day.
Monday, October 17th, Jackie was still not feeling well, so we just stayed around the coach all day. Tuesday was more of the same. We have pretty much cached this area dry anyway, so we aren’t missing much.
Wednesday, October 19th, we packed up and left Gallup heading West on I-40, 190 miles to Flagstaff, Arizona. Once we crossed the Arizona border we “time traveled” back an hour into what amounts to Pacific time. We got into Flagstaff about 1:00 or so and went into the Black Bart RV park, the same one we stay at anytime we come through Flagstaff. We are only going to be here one day, so we did the minimal amount of hookup. The gal in the office told us it was going to freeze tonight, so I didn’t even hook up the hose. We will just run off what is left in the fresh water tank. After we got set up we went to Sam’s Club and Walmart for supplies. Neither Needles, California nor Pahrump, Nevada have a Sam’s or Costco, so we needed to get some liquor and other bulk items. After shopping we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.
Thursday, October 20th, we left Flagstaff about 9:00 and were again westbound on I-40, this time going 211 miles to Needles, California. We stopped just prior to going into California to buy fuel. The fuel in Arizona was $3.78 per gallon. 30 miles later, when we got off the freeway in
Needles we saw a station selling it for $4.79 per gallon. Holy Moly! Granted, it was probably one of those stations that jacks the price up because they are right off the freeway, but give me a break. Even the California truck stops I checked on line were at $4.19. We went into the Needles Elks Lodge about 1:00 and got settled into a space. They have six full hookup sites, but no one
else was there. They charge $15 a night for 50 amp, water and sewer. Indio Elks only has 30 amp and no sewer at the sites and they charge $25 a night. We will be here for five days, hoping that Jackie will get re-acclimated to the lower altitude. Needles is only a little over 600 feet in elevation. Yea!Friday, October 21st, we got up and had a leisurely morning, enjoying the mild weather and the thick air. Our plan was to do our laundry today, so we looked for local laundromats on the internet.
Nothing found in Needles. Jackie finally called the City of Needles and learned from a woman there that there were no stand alone laundromats in Needles. There was one in a motel in downtown Needles and one in the Marina RV park, both of which were open to the public. We decided to just wait until we got to Pahrump early next week to do laundry.We then decided to go out after lunch and do some geocaching. One of the caches we found was outside the Needles Chamber of Commerce so after finding the cache we went in and talked to the gal in the office. She confirmed that the only laundromat in Needles went out of business about a year ago. We ended up getting ten finds for the afternoon. Many of the caches were remote, desert caches, so it took us a while to get from cache to cache. A couple required some doubling back to find the right gravel road. We also got one DNF. After caching we headed back home for the rest of the night.
Saturday, October 22nd, my brother David’s birthday. He lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Happy Birthday Dave. We left the coach before lunch and drove forty miles south along the Colorado River to Lake Havasu, Arizona. We had heard yesterday at the Needles Chamber of Commerce that there was a big car show going on this weekend in Lake Havasu. We got down into town and stopped for lunch at a Red Robin. After lunch we went out onto the
island, which you get to by driving across the old London Bridge. We found the car show being held at one of the resorts, out on the golf course. It was, by far, the largest car show I have ever seen. It was called Relics and Rods Run to the Sun, and there were more than 700 classic cars and street rods on display. They also had a lot of booths, many with car-related items for sale. We spent about two hours walking around the cars, taking pictures and admiring the vehicles. One of the highlights
for me was a car that looked identical to my very first car, a 1954 Chevy convertible, red with a white top and red and white interior. Really brought back memories. I bought the car in 1965, after I graduated from high school, for $285. Probably worth twenty grand now.We could have spent more time looking at cars, but it was very hot, mid 90's, and we needed to get out of the sun. We went back to the car, cooled off with the A/C, and then did some caching in the Lake Havasu area.
We ended up finding ten new caches, with one DNF. One of the caches we found was our 3,000th geocache find! A big milestone for us. A little over three years and we hit 3,000. Yea! After caching we drove back up to Needles and relaxed the rest of the night.Sunday, October 23rd, we stayed at home for the day. I got a couple of chores completed, including cleaning the radiator on the coach. Our motorhome has a rear radiator, and I have read quite a few articles that say one must clean the radiator from time to time because gunk builds up on the inside of the radiator which restricts the air flow. I have not experienced any real overheating issues, but thought I needed to do it anyway. I bought some Simple Green degreaser and sprayed the radiator good. After letting it sit for a while I hosed it out good and then started the engine to blow the water and soap out. The engine on the coach is in the back and the fan pushes air towards the radiator rather than pulling it in like it does on a car. It was funny watching huge soap bubbles coming out of the back of the coach until the soap was gone. I also cleaned off my batteries and did some other chores before settling in for a relaxing day in the coach.
Monday, October 24th, we left after lunch to do some final day geocaching in the Needles area. Actually, we did all of our caching just east across the Colorado River in Arizona, but still less than 20 miles from Needles. We managed to find ten new caches, with one DNF for our records. Several of the caches were on the Mojave River Indian Reservation, and we only got ten in three hours because the caches were pretty far apart.
After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while before going into the Elks Lodge for cocktails and tacos. Although we are staying in their RV park, this is the first time we have been in the lodge on this trip. We were here a year or so ago for one night and we visited the lodge at that time and got our lodge pin. The calendar said it was Monday Night Football, but all the TV’s had the World Series on. They had tacos for $1.00, so we had dinner for $5.00, along with a couple of cocktails. The lodge bought the first round, so we only had to pay for one. After we finished our drinks and tacos we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Tuesday, October 25th, time to pack up and head north for “home” in Pahrump. We had about 165 miles to go, but the trip takes us right through Las Vegas. As we were packing up Jackie noticed that the control panel for the inverter system was showing erratic readings. The inverter is the device that converts the 12 volt DC power from the coach’s batteries into 120 volt AC for the electric outlets when you are not connected to shore power. I unplugged the control panel and then reconnected it, which usually solves the problem of a crazy display, but this time it didn’t work. The inverter itself seemed to be working fine. It doesn’t require the remote to function, the remote only makes it easier to monitor the inverter from inside the coach. I guess the control panel has gone south and I will need to replace it.
As a result of the time spent trying to determine the problem with the inverter system, we got a late start, not getting out of Needles until about 10:30. The trip was uneventful and we made it through Las Vegas traffic with no problems, arriving in Pahrump about 1:30. We settled into what used to be a Western Horizons membership park, Charleston Peak Resort.
Unfortunately, the company lost the park to foreclosure earlier this year and it is now owned by the bank. The operators have said they will honor Western Horizons members through the end of 2012, but after that I guess we will have to find other accommodations when we come to Pahrump. This is a bit of a bummer because this was our favorite Western Horizons park. Unfortunately, the entire WHR system is in trouble, so I think this membership will be out of business in a few years.I spent much of the rest of the afternoon getting set up for our two week stay here in Pahrump. This also seemed like a good time to close this chapter of our tale and get it published. I will probably do another episode when we finish our two week stay here. Until the next time, keep the faith, wear a smile and enjoy every moment of life. See Ya!
