Some Time With Family, Some Time To Ourselves

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Thursday, October 31^st, when we arrived in Surprise, Arizona, a suburb in the northwest part of the Phoenix area. I grew up in Arizona and lived here for most of my life before moving to Indio, California in 1998. Most of my kids and grandkids are in the Phoenix area, so we try to get through here from time to time to visit.

Friday, November 1^st, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching in the Surprise area. We really got slammed today with DNF's, getting four new finds but also four new didn't finds. Yikes. I don't know if it was the 80 degree temperature, the urban caching after a couple months of rural caching, bad luck or just poor searching skills, but we were missing about every other cache. We finally quit about 3:00 and went back to the coach.  The picture is of an old covered wagon parked in front of the RV park's office.  The sign says, "Very first RV to arrive in Arizona."

At about 4:30 we left the coach again and drove to nearby Sun City to have dinner with our friends Pat and Howie Bates. Up until a couple years ago Pat and Howie were full time RVers like us, but then they bought a house here in Sun City. They still travel about half the year, but decided they needed a home for the winter months. Howie is the immediate past president of the Full Timers Chapter. We saw them a few weeks ago in Pahrump as they were finishing their summer travels and made arrangements to have dinner with them when we got down here to Surprise.

They have a very nice home in the middle of what was the original Sun City. This was the part of Sun City that was being built back in the 70's when I was working for the Sheriff's Office and working both as a beat deputy and a detective in the Sun City area. We had cocktails and chatted for a while before Pat served a very nice chicken cacciatore dish and salad. After dinner we talked until about 8:00 when we left and went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, November 2^nd, we left the coach early, about 10:30, and drove to the Sun City West development, just across the road from the park. We went for their annual craft fair. All of the Sun Cities have really great recreational and activities centers for their residents. These centers, and there are usually several for each of the different developments, have ceramic shops, wood shops, metal shops, and all sorts of craft clubs. As a result, the residents make huge quantities of crafts over the years. These craft sales are ways to sell the stuff to the general public. There were probably a thousand different sellers and several thousand shoppers. There was some really nice stuff, but nothing we really needed. After our shopping trip we stopped for lunch at Wendy's and then went out and found our geocache for the day.

After we had our cache of the day we drove over to Glendale, another northwest valley suburb of Phoenix, to visit my daughter Tye and her family. They recently moved into a house in a nice neighborhood, only a few blocks from the house my ex-wife and I had in Glendale and in which Tye and my other two kids lived during their high school days. When we arrived I found that my son Roy, who lives in Phoenix a few miles east, had also come over to see us. We got to see Tye, her husband Frank, my son Roy Jr., and two of my grandchildren, Courtney and Jordan. Jordan is my youngest grandchild and is in the 7^th grade now. Tye's stepson Daniel is also living with them and was there for the visit.

We had a really nice visit and sat and talked for several hours, catching up on the changes in life, as well as other relatives. Jackie went out and took the two girls shopping for a while and I stayed and talked with Tye and Roy. We finally left about 5:00 because Tye had to start getting ready for work. She works as a medical clerk in a large hospital emergency room and is on the night shift now. She works 12 hour shifts, which I think would kill me, but she likes them because she gets three days off every other week. After our visit with the kids we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sunday, October 3^rd, we had our usual relaxed Sunday morning with the paper and coffee. About 1:30 we left the coach and drove to the nearby Olive Garden restaurant where we met my brother Ken and his wife Susan for a late lunch. Ken and Susan live in Goodyear, another suburb of Phoenix in the southwest valley, about ten miles due south of where our RV park is. We last saw Ken and Susan in Casa Grande back in March of this year when they came down with their RV for weekend. Susan works for Southwest Airlines and Ken is a code inspector with the City of Goodyear.

We had a great lunch and after lunch we went back to the coach so they could see our remodel work. We sat and talked for a while and then the four of us went out so we could get our cache of the day. Ken and Susan are also cachers, having been introduced to the hobby by us about four or five years ago. They really love the sport and have a number of their own caches hidden now. They don't have the numbers that we do, but then the still have full time jobs, so it is understandable that they can't cache as often. We ended up getting three caches, two of which were new to Ken and Susan as well. After our caching we went back to the coach and just sat and talked until about 9:00 when they left to go home. We watched a little TV until it was time to go to bed. A great visit with my brother and his wife.

Monday, October 4^th, we left the coach after lunch with Benji in his carrier and took him to the nearby Petsmart store to get his claws trimmed and the little plastic soft paws covers glued on. As usual he was very calm and well behaved, even though this Petsmart, being in the middle of Sun City, was very busy. There were at least four small dogs getting haircuts in the same room and he was not bothered at all, at least not so you could see.

After Benji was done we took him home and then went out to do some geocaching. We managed to get nine new finds in a couple of hours, along with one new DNF. Once we were done caching we went back home for the rest of the day. Around 7:00 or so we had a group of pretty strong thunderstorms pass over the area. We had about an hour of strong winds and lots of lightning, but not a lot of rain. It sprinkled a little, but not enough to be a concern. We only had to close the windows because the wind was blowing the wet into the coach. After the storms passed over it calmed down for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday was another afternoon with family. We left the coach after lunch and drove over to my grand-daughter Ashley's house to see her and my youngest great grandchild Mckenzie, who just turned three a couple weeks ago. When we got to Ashley's townhouse we found that my son Roy Jr., who only lives a couple miles away, was also there, as was Ashley's roommate. We had a great time visiting and playing with Mckenzie, who was much more friendly and outgoing with me than she was a year and a half ago when we last saw her. She is a typical, rambunctious three year old with boundless energy. We finally left about 5:00 because Ashley had to take a nap as she was working the graveyard shift tonight. She is a nursing assistant at an inpatient mental health facility.

We dropped Roy off at his condo before heading back to the coach. We had picked up a birthday present for Mckenzie on the way over to Ashley's and found our geocache for the day in the parking lot of the Walmart, so we didn't have to go find another cache before going home. We did stop at KFC to pick up some chicken for dinner since we were getting home late. We made it back to the coach about 6:30, had cocktails and dinner and watched TV the rest of the night. Another nice day with family.

Wednesday, October 6^th, we left the coach after lunch and took a drive over to Roy Jr.'s condo. He invited us in and showed us around and we talked for a little while. We then went out in the Jeep to do a couple of geocaches. Roy had shown an interest in geocaching when we were talking about it yesterday and we told him we would take him out, show him a couple caches and give him a light introduction. We found out today that he had gone onto the website, looked around a bit and had registered a caching name, the first necessary step.

The first cache we went out to look for was a bit tricky, which is good for an introduction because it shows that all caches are not real easy to find. This one was behind a Phoenix Fire Department station and, although we were on the sidewalk side of the wall, the station Captain came over on his side of the wall and asked what we were doing. We gave him our usual brief description of caching and found he knew nothing. He stuck around and after about ten minutes of searching I finally found the cache, a tiny plastic tube stuck in a crack in the block wall. The Captain came around the wall so he could see and seemed to be impressed. Roy was all excited as he signed the log of his first geocache.

Our second search was unsuccessful and we had to explain to Roy that DNFs were a natural part of the hobby too. The third cache we went to was behind a home improvement store and Roy found this one before we did. This one also had a little tiny toy chicken, which he took as his first “swag” from a cache. After this cache we dropped Roy back off at his condo so we could go do our shopping.

We first stopped at Costco and stocked up on a few things. We took the Costco loot home and unloaded it and stored it. We then went out to Walmart for some more stuff. We leave tomorrow and will be spending two nights in Ehrenberg, Arizona, across the river from Blythe, where there are no Walmarts, and will be going from there to Silent Valley, south of Banning, California. We will be in Silent Valley for a month. Although there are Costcos in Indio and Palm Desert, and a Walmart in Banning, they are not nearly as convenient from Silent Valley as they are from here. We have to drive twelve miles down a mountain road to get to Walmart from there, so we figured we would stock up here. After shopping we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Thursday, October 7^th we packed up the coach and headed out for Ehrenberg. It was 146 miles, but once we got out of Surprise it was wide open road for the entire trip. We made a lunch stop at a rest area and got into the Colorado River Oasis, one of our Western Horizon parks, about 2:00. We quickly got settled into a nice site right along the Colorado River, looking into California. It didn't take long to settle in as we didn't do anything other than the basics for our two night stay.

After we cooled off a bit we went out to get one geocache for the day. We are up to 137 consecutive days of caching a figure that our streak will come to an end once we get to Silent Valley. We have cached a lot in that area and there are few close caches to where we will be. Plus, the fire this past summer probably burned up most of the caches right in the area anyway. It has been a good run, but we always said we would quit once it got to where it was a real struggle to get out and get a cache. After finding our cache we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening. We had a great dinner of pork ribs that had been cooking in the crock pot all day while we traveled.

Friday we left the park after lunch and went out to get a couple of caches. We have cached a lot in this area over the years and there is not a big group of cachers in the area putting out new caches. As a result, most of the caches we haven't found are way out in the desert or other areas where it is a real hassle to get to them. We were able to get two newer caches that were pretty close into town, only about five miles out or so, and then we said that was enough. Everything else was way too far out.

We headed back to the coach and relaxed until dinner. After dinner, a little before 7:00, we went down to the clubhouse for karaoke. There wasn't much of a crowd, the DJ, Jackie and I and two other guys. Since there were only four singers, we all got to sing a lot. I probably did ten songs for the night. On one of them my granddaughter Courtney, whom we had seen last week in Phoenix, called Jackie and got to listen on the phone while I sang. She didn't even know I sang karaoke. We sang until 10:00 at which time we packed up and went back to the coach for a little TV and then bed.

Saturday, October 9^th, we had the coach packed up and ready for another travel day by 10:30 or so. We made a quick stop at the truck stop just inside the Arizona border for the last cheap fuel, then got on the I-10 and crossed the Colorado into California again. Our destination was Silent Valley, about 150 miles to the west. Silent Valley is our ownership park, the closest thing we have to owning property. We actually have one twelve hundredth of a share of a forest service lease, but hey, it's property. We pay $600 a year in dues and for that can stay up to 120 days a year in the park with no additional expense. The park has full hookup, 50 amp sites and is a very nice place to spend time. We try to spend at least a couple months a year here to make it worth our while to keep the dues up.

The only drawback is that it is eleven miles of winding, mountain road to get to the place from Banning on the freeway. The park is about 3,700 feet elevation, so it is a little cooler than the desert floor, and true to it's name, it is quiet. No trains, no planes, no traffic, nothing. We arrived at the park about 2:00 after getting hung up in construction traffic on the hill for a short while. This past summer there was another big fire in these mountains, one which started right at the edge of Silent Valley and threatened the park for a while. You could see the results of the fire on the hillsides as we came up the hill. Luckily, it didn't do any damage in the park and the park only lost one small outbuilding in the fire, a shed that was across the road from the entrance. We were here in October of 2006 when they had the last big fire in the area. We were trapped in the park for two nights with the fire burning all around us. Fortunately, the park was spared in that fire too and we were allowed to leave after the two nights of being sheltered in place by the fire department.

We got one of our usual spots close to the community center and got settled in. You pick your own spot when you come up here and this time of year there are not a lot of people up here, so we got a nice spot. Fortunately, the fire didn't burn any of the hills except to the north of the park, so the views from down in the valley are still nice. We will be here for 30 days before moving back down to the Coachella Valley for the holidays. We also didn't get a cache today, thus ending our consecutive caching streak at 138 days. Not too bad when you consider that our goal was only to improve on our previous record of 6 consecutive days. The problem is that most of the caches up in this area that are accessible without having to drive 20 miles have been found by us. In addition, the fire destroyed a lot of the caches on the north side of the mountains, so it just would not be at all convenient to try to keep the streak going. Caching is a hobby for us, not an obsession, so the streak is ended.

November 10^th, the 238^th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Like all Marines, this date is seared into my brain and celebrated. Happy Birthday and Semper Fi Marines! We had a very quiet day planned for up here on the mountain. After lunch I spent a couple of hours finishing our outside decorations and accommodations. Since we are up here for a month, we put out our ground mats, I put up my flags, of course the U.S. and the Marine Corps. I put out some lights, including our rope light palm tree, which we got back in 2006 when we were visiting Jackie's friend Helen back in Massachusetts. After my outside work we did some chores inside, but mostly just relaxed for the day.

Monday, November 11^th, Happy Veteran's Day and a great big thank you to all who have served. Never forget that all gave some, but some gave all. We had another beautiful Indian summer day up here, with temps approaching 80 degrees. We stayed in the coach all day again, doing chores and enjoying the quiet. I managed to get our malfunctioning ice maker out of the refrigerator so that I can try and get a replacement when we are down in the desert. To get it out I had to defrost the freezer, so it took well over an hour to get the job done. For dinner we had some chicken cooked on the BBQ. Life is good!

Tuesday we left the coach about 11:30 and drove down the hill to Banning for the first time since we got here. We went to lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurant chains, La Casita, which has a place in Beaumont. We love their taco salad there and that is what we always get. We usually go to one of the La Casita stores every couple weeks when we are in the Coachella Valley area. They have about six stores located around the desert area.

After lunch we went out to do some caching. Although we have done a lot of caching in the Banning-Beaumont area over the years, there is an active caching community here that is always putting out new caches, so we had a lot of new caches to go look for. We were able to get ten new finds in under two hours, along with a couple of DNFs. After our caching we stopped at Walmart for some supplies, then headed back up the hill. We spent the rest of the day at the coach.

Wednesday, November 13^th, we stayed in Silent Valley for the day. Went down to the laundry after lunch and washed clothes and played a great game of Skipbo while we waited.

Thursday we left the coach and the park about 11:15 and made the fifty mile drive to Indio so we could have lunch with our good friend Barry Cohen. Barry and his wife Colleen were pretty much our best friends since shortly after I moved to Indio from Phoenix in 1998. We spent a lot of time with them, both before and after we started our travels. They were full time RVers several years before we started, the difference was that Barry still worked full time in his transmission business so they didn't travel in their motorhome much. They lived in a very upscale RV resort in Indio.

Their dream was always to be able to travel freely as we do and they spent a long time working towards that goal. A couple years ago Barry was finally able to sell his business and last year he quit working all together. Early this year they finally sold their property at the RV resort and got enough money to be able to pay off all their bills. They also got an unimproved lot at the same resort, free and clear, as part of the sale. It looked like they were finally going to be able to live their dream and travel.

In May we got a phone call from Barry telling us that Colleen had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and probably only had a few months. We were traveling at the time, but kept in touch with them as much as possible. About nine weeks later Barry called us and told us that Colleen had died. They had been married for nearly 50 years. Lunch today was going to be the first time we have seen Barry since Colleen's passing. In keeping with her wishes, there was no funeral or service. We have talked a lot on the phone, but not actually been with him.

We picked Barry up at his RV and drove to Cactus Jack's bar and grill in Indio, our favorite watering hole when we still had the house here. We had a very nice lunch, talked a lot about Colleen and how Barry is holding up. We all shed a few tears but also had some laughs. While we were having lunch Colleen's sister Janet and her husband John also came in to have lunch. We talked with them for a little bit too. Barry seems to be doing as well as can be expected at this early date. He is clearly lonely, but seems to be coping. He still talks about traveling with the RV some, and we are trying to encourage him to come out and travel with us for a little bit this coming year.

After lunch we went back to Barry's place and had another cocktail and talked some more. We finally left about 4:00 so we could head back to Silent Valley and get up the mountain before it got completely dark, which is about 5:30 this time of year. We made it home just before 5:30 and relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Friday, November 15^th, we decided to stay at home for the day again. After lunch I went up on the roof and tried to discern the location of the water leak over the dash. It occurred to me that the leak became apparent after we had our new satellite dish installed in the summer of 12, so I concentrated on the dish and it's connections. Sure enough, upon very close examination, I spotted an area where they ran the wires from the dish through the roof where there appeared to be a tiny area that was not caulked properly. I got out my caulking gun and resealed the area as best I could. Now we just have to wait until the next rain and see how it comes out.

After I finished with the roof I just played games and worked on the computer the rest of the day. Jackie worked on some crafts for most of the day and we had a very nice, relaxing day. It was getting cloudy and for the first time since we have been up here it stayed cool, under 65 degrees, most of the day.

Saturday I woke up to see the entire valley shrouded in mist. After a few hours the mist lifted to where it was just covering the surrounding mountain tops and we started getting an off and on sprinkle that lasted most of the day. Not a lot of rain, but enough to get everything wet and make puddles. Also enough to make the leak in our slide start up and we had to work with that most of the day, keeping dry towels in the cabinet to keep the water from dripping out onto the counter and couch. The good news is that the leak over the dash, the one I thought I fixed yesterday, didn't leak. I guess I got that one. I don't have the ladders or tools to fix the one on the slide. It will have to wait until we get down to the desert in a few weeks. None of the mobile RV service techs will come up to Silent Valley this time of year. Too far to travel and not enough business to merit it.

Since it was cold, wet and foggy, we just stayed in for the day. Jackie worked on crafts and watched her shows on TV. I did a few chores, including one that has been on my to do list for a while. There is a small opening under the sink for access to the plumbing, kitchen and shower, and the water heater. It has a louvered door that allows air for the furnace to come in. Jackie wants to use some of the space under the sink for storage, so I put some hinges on that panel so it became a door. Now she can get in there to put stuff. Other than that, we just relaxed on a cool, rainy day.

Sunday, November 17^th, the clouds are mostly gone, but so are the warm temps. It was breezy and cool today, but we decided to get out and go to a movie. We headed down into Banning after lunch to the old Fox theater. This theater was built back in the 40's, but a few years back was remodeled and turned into a tri-plex, with three small, but comfortable theaters. We went to see the movie Last Vegas, which stars Morgan Freeman, Micheal Douglas, Robert De Niro, and Kevin Kline as four best friends, who met in Brooklyn in the 50's. They are all now approaching 70 and end up going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. It's sort of a geriatric “Hangover” movie. It is pretty much a formula romantic comedy, or perhaps a bromantic comedy since most of the drama is between Douglas and De Niro over a girl from their past and a new one they meet in Vegas. It is a heartwarming and funny movie, with some really good lines for actors not known for their comedic roles. We enjoyed the movie. Those who think movies need to be serious, meaningful, and full of important messages will probably think it is inane, but we thought is was pretty funny and entertaining, the entertaining part being the reason we go to movies.

After the movie we went to Walmart for some supplies before heading up the hill before dark. We also looked for a geocache before the movie because we had a few minutes to spare, but we ended up having to DNF it. Oh well.

Monday, November 18^th, we woke to another mostly clear day with temps expected to be in the high 60's. We decided this would be a good day to do some caching, so after lunch we drove down the hill to Banning and started caching. We cached about three hours in the Banning and Cabazon areas and in about three hours we had managed sixteen new finds. We were within one find of getting our number 5,900 milestone, but our last two searches ended in DNFs, and the sun was going down. We will have to get the milestone another day. We headed back up the hill and made it back to the coach before dark and before cocktail hour.

Tuesday was another relaxation day. We stayed around the coach, did a few small chores and just enjoyed the day and each other's company. Life is good!

Wednesday, November 20^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove down the mountain, then headed west to Moreno Valley, the town near the intersection of the 60 and 215 freeways. It is actually the closest major shopping area to Banning at about 30 miles as opposed to 40 or so to Palm Desert to the east. We were headed to a place called Jason's Deli to meet our friends the Babcocks and the Wilsons for lunch. Regular readers will remember Ray and Suzie Babcock and Gary and Ramona Wilson as fellow Monaco Motor Home owners, travel companions, and caching friends for many years. Although both couples were full time RVers at one time, they have both moved back into stick houses recently. The Babcocks have a house down in Menifee, about 35 miles south of Moreno Valley, and the Wilsons have a house in Ontario, about 20 miles west. The Babcocks still travel in their coach about half the year, the Wilsons are considering giving up motor home travel for health reasons.

The last time we saw both these couples was back in July when we were all in Mineral, California at Peggy and Vernon Bullock's 50^th anniversary party. Since we were all fairly close by, we decided to arrange a lunch so we could get together and catch up. We picked Jason's because of the fact that they serve muffulettas, a New Orleans specialty sandwich that Ray and I both fell in love with a couple summers ago when we were traveling through that area together. It is ham and salami on a big round bun with an olive spread for garnish. Outstanding and hard to find outside of Louisiana.

We all arrived at the restaurant around noon and spent the next couple of hours talking and enjoying lunch. Ray and I had muffulettas, everyone else had something else off the menu. Lunch was good, although the service today left a little to be desired. The help got the order mixed up and it was like pulling teeth to get them to figure out what they needed to do to make it correct. After lunch we went out and got one geocache in the parking lot of the restaurant. This was our number 5,900 and we wanted to celebrate it with caching friends. We introduced both the Babcocks and the Wilsons to caching and they are both still avid caching teams. After finding the cache we called Vernon Bullock on the phone so we could all sing happy birthday to him. The Bullocks are still in the Redding area, we won't see them until January in Indio. Once everyone went their own way, Jackie and I went over to Walmart to return a couple of things, and then did a quick Costco run before heading back up the mountain for the night.

Thursday, November 21^st, we awoke to fog and cool, damp weather. It had rained on and off most of the night and was forecast to rain most of the day. With that in mind, we just stayed in the coach and did chores and played and watched TV. When we read the forecast last night we pulled in the curb side front slide, the one that has been leaking, and I was pleased to find that there was no water this morning despite the on and off rain. The front leak I fixed was also dry. It rained a lot today, including some periods of pretty heavy rain, and the slide did not leak at all. This will be useful as a diagnostic tool to find the leak.

Friday it is still wet and rainy and we are still staying in. Did a few things around the coach, but mostly just relaxed. I did some work on our geocaching travel bugs and Jackie did crafts.

Today marks about the halfway point for our stay up here in Silent Valley, and is a good place to close this chapter and get it published. We will put out the next episode in a few weeks when we head down to the Coachella Valley for the holidays. Until then remember the words of the author Henry Miller, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Go see something in a new way. Bye.

Some Time In The Grand Canyon State

Welcome back folks. Our last episode concluded on Thursday, October 10^th, our last full day in Pahrump, Nevada. On Friday morning we packed up the coach and left Pahrump headed for the lights of Las Vegas. We were out of the RV park by about 10:00 and settled into the RV park at the Arizona Charlie's Casino by a little after 12:00. We normally don't come to Las Vegas to stay, but this year is a little different. Jackie has a followup doctor's appointment on Monday, a result of the tests she had done last month, and there is a big geocaching event in Vegas this weekend. This combination caused us to reconsider and change our plans slightly to leave Pahrump a little early and spend a few days in Vegas. This will also give me a chance to see my brother Russ, who lives here in Vegas, without one of us having to drive the 60 miles over the hill.

After we got settled into the park we went out to get a couple of geocaches. We got two and then went back to the coach for a while. We had an early dinner and left the coach about 6:30 to drive to one of the hotels off the strip, the Alexis, for one of the weekend's geocaching events. Tonight's event was just a “meet and greet” for the big event on Saturday and an opportunity to pick up our registration packets early. We figured that this would be a big event, but we were surprised when we arrived at the hotel and found a line a block long waiting to get into the ballroom. We waited on line at least forty minutes before we finally got into the room to pick up our materials. We did have a good time chatting with all the other geocachers. We also saw a few cacher friends, including a couple from the Coachella Valley, Roy and Darcy, and some RVing and caching friends from Yuma, John and Rita Ham.

After we picked up our packets we visited for a few minutes more then drove home via the strip so we could look at the lights. As always, the strip was packed with cars and people and business for Vegas seems to be looking pretty good, despite the hard economic times. We finally got back home about 9:30 and just watched TV until bed.

Saturday, October 12^th, my brother Russ and his wife Zen came over to the coach about 9:45. Russ lives here in Las Vegas and works at the Golden Nugget Casino downtown. They were going to go to the big geocaching event, Las Vegas Geocoinfest, with us this morning. The event was at the Alexis, the same place we were last night. We arrived a little after 10:00 and went into the event. There were probably well over 1,000 people in the ballroom and there were lots of booths set up with people selling things. A lot of them were selling geocoins, a type of trackable item that looks like an ornate coin, but has a unique serial number for tracking purposes. There were also booths selling GPS devices, caching tools, cache containers, tee shirts, just about anything caching related.

The four of us were at the event for about three hours and we ended up buying several things, including some shirts, some coins, and some cache containers. We also met up with a lot of cachers, some of whom we knew, many we did not. It was an interesting and entertaining event. This was Russ and Zen's first caching event and they really seemed to enjoy it too. After we were done looking at everything at the event we left the hotel and went to a nearby Coco's restaurant for lunch. After lunch we went out and did some caching for a couple of hours. We managed to get nine new geocaches, and the last cache we found for the afternoon was also number 5,800 for us, another milestone. Yea! This also puts us at 111 consecutive days with at least one geocache find.

We finally quit caching and went back to the coach where we all relaxed and chatted for another couple of hours. Russ and Zen left for home about 7:30 or so and we just chilled with the TV the rest of the night. We will probably see my brother one more time before we leave Vegas.

Sunday, October 13^th, we had a relaxing morning with coffee and the Sunday paper, our usual Sunday routine. After lunch we went out and found our cache for the day not too far from the RV park. Once we had that task completed we drove over to the west side of town to the Bass Pro Shop so I could get some ammunition to replace what I shot up for my qualification shoot last week. I was surprised to see how low the stocks of ammunition were, even in a big retailer like Bass Pro Shop. Fortunately, they had both the types of ammo I needed, so it worked out.

After our stop at the sporting goods store we drove over to the Mandalay Bay Casino, which is on the south end of the Vegas Strip, near the airport. Jackie's brother Dennis has been there for a couple of days attending a conference. We had told him we would come over and see him before he left tonight to fly back to San Diego. We met him in the lobby area of the hotel and spent a couple of hours talking to him. We usually only see him once a year or so when we visit San Diego, but Jackie stays in touch with phone calls a couple times a week and on the internet. We had a very nice visit and left about 4:30 or so as Dennis decided to use the hotel's spa one last time before he left.

After we left the Mandalay Bay we drove back to the south end of Boulder Highway, just south of our RV park, and stopped at the Sam's Town Casino. I remember this being one of my favorite casinos back in the seventies and eighties when my ex-wife and I used to come up to Vegas for weekend visits with our little RV. They have a nice RV park here, but it is now more expensive than Arizona Charlie's, where we are. We gamed for about ninety minutes or so. I lost about $60, but Jackie ended up $250 ahead when she cashed out of her machine. After our gaming we went to the Mexican restaurant that was in the casino complex. The food was quite good, although the service left a little to be desired. After dinner we gambled for another few minutes, but didn't have much luck, so we packed up and headed home. The cats were a little irate that we were only getting in at 9:00, well past their feeding time, but they forgave us when the food came out. We then just watched TV until bed.

Monday, October 14^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and drove over to the west side of town for Jackie's last doctor's appointment. This was the final followup for the tests and procedures she has been undergoing trying to find the answer to her stomach pains. The pain is pretty much gone now that she has followed the doctor's advice for a high fiber diet and the appointment didn't take long as the doctor explained that, for the most part, everything in her digestive tract was pretty normal. A few nodules here and there, but nothing to be concerned about.

After her doctor's appointment we drove up to the nearby Costco to get some supplies. Our next few weeks will be in rural Arizona, so we needed to stock up on vodka since there will not be a Costco nearby. We also had lunch at the Costco snack bar. After Costco we did a few geocaches, finding four in pretty quick time. Once we had our cache for the day we went back to the coach and did some chores.

About 3:30 we left again and drove to North Las Vegas to my brother Russ's apartment for a last visit before we leave the area. We sat and talked to Russ and Zen for a couple of hours before heading out for an early dinner. We went to a favorite Chinese restaurant of theirs for dinner. The food was pretty good, although a little pricey for a common Chinese buffet. We all left very stuffed. We said our goodbyes to Russ and Zen at the restaurant and then drove back down to the RV park and the coach.

Tuesday, October 15^th, another travel day. We left Las Vegas about 9:30 and started southeast, headed for Williams, Arizona, a trip of a little over 200 miles. The trip took us out of Vegas and across the Colorado River into Arizona via the new bridge that spans the river just south of Hoover Dam. Back before 9/11, I used this route all the time to get from Phoenix to Las Vegas. Back then you drove down and then back up some really wiggly roads and had to drive across Hoover Dam. After the attacks, commercial traffic was banned from crossing the damn and all RV's had to be searched before being allowed to cross. This was too much of a hassle, so we used the route through Searchlight, Nevada down to Needles, then east on I-40, a detour that added about a hundred miles to the trip. A couple of years ago they opened the new bridge, so the winding road is gone and you don't have to cross the dam, so there are no delays. A great time saver. The bridge is the second highest in the U.S. and the longest concrete arch bridge in North America. Unfortunately, you can't see anything when you drive on the bridge because of the solid concrete railings.

The trip to Williams was pretty uneventful and we didn't make any stops. We arrived at the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park in Williams about 1:30 and were checked in and setup an hour later. We went out and got one nearby geocache for our cache of the day and spent the rest of the day doing chores and relaxing. It is much cooler here as the altitude is nearly 7,000 feet. That also means no strenuous activity because it is a little too high for Jackie to breathe well. It is supposed to get down to freezing tonight, the coldest we have been in over a year.

Wednesday, October 16^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching and were able to get six caches right in town pretty quickly. One of them was in the Williams' cemetery which had some very interesting looking grave sites. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day.

Thursday, we were supposed to pack up and leave this morning for Camp Verde, however, I woke up in the middle of the night sick and was still throwing up in the morning. I had a bit of a fever and just wasn't up to traveling today. Jackie went over to the office and extended us for a day and I spent most of the day in bed, trying to feel better.

Friday, I woke up feeling a little better. I hadn't thrown up all night, so we decided we would go ahead and make the fairly short, 87 mile, trip from Williams to Camp Verde. We got everything packed up and headed south about 10:00. After a fuel stop and a stop in a rest area for a quick geocache for the day, we arrived at the Western Horizons Camp Verde Resort a little after noon. We got settled in and I only set up the minimum requirements today because I am still feeling a bit beat down by whatever bug I got.

This resort is our home park for the Western Horizons system and we try to get here at least once a year, although we missed last year because of our travels. My brother Dennis lives in nearby Cottonwood, but we won't see him until after the weekend because he is out Elk hunting. I hope he gets one so we can have a nice BBQ. We spent the day doing light chores and resting. Jackie did a couple loads of laundry at the park's laundry.

Saturday, October 19^th, I woke up feeling almost a hundred percent, but now Jackie was feeling poorly. Today she stayed down on the couch or in bed for most of the day and I did a few chores. I finished the laundry at the park's laundry facility, which is just across the street from the coach, and did few other things. By evening she was feeling a little better, but we didn't do anything or go anywhere outside the park except for one quick nearby geocache, which I went after on my own. We are still trying to keep our consecutive caching days streak going.

Sunday, I woke up feeling pretty good, but Jackie was still not up to par. Fortunately, I had made arrangements to have the coach washed and waxed, so that would have kept us in the coach for a good part of the day anyway. The wash guy arrived a little after 9:00 and started work. He finally finished about 1:30 and the coach looks great. It has been a couple years since it had a good waxing and it really is shining. I went out and picked up a geocache and stopped at the grocery store in Camp Verde for some ice, a Sunday paper for Jackie, and the makings for chicken soup. I am going to stop this bug in its tracks!

I spent a little time in the afternoon finally putting up the sun shades on the coach and some outside decorations to liven up the look of our nice clean house. Jackie never left the coach, but by the evening she was feeling quite a bit better. I made the soup for dinner and I think that will spell the end for the bug. Nothing like Jewish penicillin to kill a stomach bug.

Monday, October 21^st, we both woke up feeling good finally. After lunch we went out and did some geocaches, finding five in about an hour. Most of the caches here, at least those we haven't already found, are out in the boonies on the gravel roads through the deser

t and hills, so it is a little slower to go from cache to cache than it is in the city. After caching we did a Walmart run, then returned home for the rest of the day.

Tuesday we did some chores around the house in the morning and after lunch went out to do a little more caching. We found two caches before heading back to the coach. Just before we left to go caching some friends of ours, Mike and Darlene Neighbours, arrived at the park. We keep up with them via the internet and we learned after we got here that they were at the Prescott Elks Lodge, which is only about forty miles from here. Jackie talked to them a couple days ago on the phone, to try to set up a lunch or dinner date with them, and they decided that they would come over to the Western Horizons park for a few days. They are also full time RVers and Mike is currently my Vice President for the Full Timers Chapter.

About 4:00 we went over and talked to Mike for a few minutes before going down to the clubhouse at the park for dinner. The park was serving a meatloaf dinner for $6 each and we had signed up, along with Mike and Darlene, a couple of days ago. The dinner was quite good, the meatloaf was excellent, and we enjoyed talking to Mike and Darlene, as well as a couple of other people we know who are staying in the park. After dinner we went back to the coach to refill our drinks, then back to the clubhouse for Texas Hold'em. We had also talked Mike and Darlene into playing, even though Darlene had never played before. She knew poker in general, just not the hold'em style of game. The game was the typical RV park $5 buy-in, limited betting and play for a set period of time. In this case we played from 6:30 to 9:00. Jackie lost $6, I ended up ahead $3 and Darlene, the one who didn't know the game, was a big winner for the night, up about $8 or so. Hmmmm. After cards we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Wednesday, October 23^rd, we went down to the clubhouse after lunch to set up for the 1:00 geocaching class that we had agreed to put on for the RV park. Unfortunately, we only had three people show up, and two of them were our friends Mike and Darlene. Nonetheless we spent about 90 minutes talking about geocaching to the three of them and they all seemed very interested.

After the class was over Jackie and I went out to get our cache for the day, we are now on day 124 of our streak, and Mike went with us just to see what real caching in the field was like. We gave him a great introduction as the first cache we went to ended up being a DNF because we just couldn't find it. There was a second cache just down the road and we did find that one, so we got our cache of the day, and Mike found his first geocache. Not sure if they will take up the hobby, but they seemed interested. After the caching we went back to the coach for a while. About 5:00 we went down to Mike and Darlene's coach for happy hour and sat outside for about an hour just talking. About 6:00 the sun went down and it got cold, so we went back to the coach for dinner and then watched TV the rest of the night.

Thursday I did a couple more small repair chores in the morning and we went out for some caching after lunch. We found two new caches and had to DNF another one. Since we were in the area, we decided to stop at the local Indian Casino, called Cliff Castle, to do some gaming. We were there about an hour and ended up losing about $20 each, but having some fun. After the casino we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 6:30 we went down to the clubhouse for another round of Texas Hold'em. Tonight I lost about $2.50 and Jackie broke even. This is a good group to play with, most everyone is friendly and easy going. After cards we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Friday, October 25^th, we again went out after lunch for some caching. We were able to get seven new finds in a little under two hours. I then noticed that we were low on fuel, so we drove into Cottonwood to fill up the car. After that we made a quick stop at Walmart and then headed home. We fired up the BBQ tonight and had some great steaks that we had bought back in Tillimook, Oregon earlier this summer. We relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Saturday we went out after lunch to do a few caches. We found five new caches pretty quickly, with the last one being a virtual cache located inside the Montezuma Castle National Monument. The monument is located only a few miles north of Camp Verde, on the edge of the small Yavapai Apache Indian Reservation. Although I had been to the Monument several times in the past, prior to my moving to California, Jackie had never been. The Monument is small, only a little over 850 acres, and contains one large, very well preserved cliff dwelling, and several other ruins which were once part of the same community. The pueblos were built and occupied by what is now known as the Sinagua people starting in about 700 A.D. By the end of the 1300's the pueblos had been abandoned, although no one is quite sure of the reason. The National Monument was created in 1906 by President Teddy Roosevelt and is managed as part of a group of monuments in the area, including Tuzigoot National Monument, near Cottonwood-Clarkdale, and Montezuma Well National Monument, a few miles north of the Castle.

We spent some time in the visitor's center looking at the displays and Jackie got her National Parks passport stamped. We then walked the short trail to the view point where you can see the preserved cliff dwellings. The virtual cache we were seeking was a little further along the trail, near the ruins of an even larger cliff dwelling. We got the information we needed for claiming the cache and then left the park.

We returned to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we got together with Mike and Darlene Neighbours, and Mike's brother Ozzie and his wife, and all got in Ozzie's truck to go to a dinner show in Cottonwood. We headed for the Blazing M Ranch, located right next door to Dead Horse State Park in Cottonwood, which is a local entertainment spot. Although I used to come to Cottonwood a lot before I moved from Phoenix, and have been back a number of times since, I had never heard of this place. They have built an small, artificial western town, with a saloon and a few shops and some games, around a large barn where they serve a western style BBQ dinner and then put on a western themed musical show.

For the first hour or so I had a couple of beers while we wandered around the various shops and looked at trinkets. They finally opened up the barn, which was just that, a big mostly empty space with a whole slew of wooden picnic tables set up on the floor and a stage at one end. The MC got up and made a few jokes and then talked about how dinner would go. It was a cafeteria style serving line and they got most of the people through it quickly. Tonight's was a small group, probably only a hundred guests or less, and there is seating for close to 300 in the barn. Dinner was actually quite good, with a baked potato, slaw, BBQ chicken and ribs, and rolls. The meat, both the chicken and the pork, was excellent, as was the slaw, which they said was spiced with prickly pear syrup. Sweet, but very tasty. They also served a variety of non alcoholic beverages and a desert of apple cobbler with ice cream. All in all, very tasty and very filling.

After dinner they started the show. The headliners were a trio that played guitars and other western instruments, and they played for about an hour. There was also a comic that came on stage from time to time for comic relief. The three main singers were very good and did a mix of western and bluegrass that ranged from fairly recent to very old. After the show was over they opened all the shops again and we wandered around for a little while before finally getting back I the truck for the ride home about a quarter to nine. It turned out to be a very nice evening. After we got home we watched TV for a little while, then headed off to bed.

Sunday, October 27^th, I went out and got a Sunday paper as soon as I got up and Jackie and I relaxed with our coffee and paper, as we like to do on most Sundays. After lunch we went out to do some caching. We were out there for about 90 minutes and found three new caches. The reason the count was low as that a couple of the caches were really way out in the boonies. One cache was a couple of miles off a paved road on a dirt and gravel track. We had to really go slow to avoid damage to the Jeep. After our caching we stopped at one of the big antique stores in Camp Verde and spent an hour there wandering around. I ended up finding a new Marine Corps coffee mug and Jackie got some artificial flowers, Calla Lilies of course.

We had been planning to see my brother Dennis tonight, he lives here in Cottonwood, but has been gone since we got here last Thursday. Most of last week he was out elk hunting, he didn't get one, and on Friday he drove down to Phoenix to attend the Arizona State Elks Convention. He is a state officer, Grand Lodge Officer, and was also the entertainment for the convention with his dance music and karaoke. He was supposed to get home this afternoon, but while we were out caching he called and said he was still in Phoenix, in the late afternoon, with some vehicle problems and wouldn't be home until late. We decided to make plans for Monday instead of tonight.

After the antiquing we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 5:00 Mike and Darlene came over for cocktails. We sat outside and chatted until it got cold and then decided to go out and get some dinner. The restaurant we planed to go to was closed, so we drove into Camp Verde and tried a new place called The Horn. It is quite upscale for Camp Verde, but the food was outstanding. The service left a little to be desired. The waitress, while knowledgeable about the restaurant and the food, always acted a little put out when asked for things, and towards the end of the evening acted as though she had better things to do than wait on us. I would still recommend the place for the food, but watch the wine, it is very pricey. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Monday, October 28^th, we stayed around the coach until about 4:00 when we left to drive into Cottonwood to meet my brother Dennis. We first found two geocaches in town, so we would have our cache for the day, then drove to Dennis' house. We talked there for about an hour before heading down to dinner at a new Mexican place in Cottonwood called 15 Quince. Up until about four months ago the owner had a much smaller place in Jerome, the old mountainside mining/ghost town that sits above Cottonwood to the east. The place was very popular for it's great food, but only had a dozen tables and wait times on weekends could be hours. He finally decided to relocate in a much larger location down in Cottonwood. Clearly it worked because even on a Monday night the place was very busy when we went in.

They have an interesting menu, with a mix of Mexican and American dishes and sandwiches. The Mexican stuff they have is good, but what they don't have are any combo plates or the stuff you usually see on a Mexican food menu. I had the burro with shredded beef and it was outstanding. Jackie had a stacked enchilada plate with chicken that she said was also very good. Dennis had the same thing I did, except with chicken. Both Dennis and Jackie took half their meal home. I managed to finish mine, but I was really full when I did.

One of the most interesting things about the place is that they have a “locals” menu. You have to prove you are from the area, then you get a menu that has about half the items that are on the regular menu, but everything is $8.95, about a third less than the price on the regular menu. I have never seen this before, but according to Dennis it really brings in the local crowd. I would definitely go back to this place again the next time we come up to the Verde Valley. We had a great meal, lots of nice conversation, and it was inexpensive too given that Dennis also had a coupon for one free entree. After dinner we dropped Dennis off at home and drove back to the coach. We got in just before 9:00 and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Tuesday, October 29^th, we woke up to cold, wind and a lot of clouds. They looked like rain, but the forecast didn't call for any precipitation in our area. We spent most of the day around the coach. Around noon or so our friends Mike and Darlene Neighbors packed up and left the park. They were headed for Flagstaff, only about 50 miles north, and had an appointment with Camping World up there to have their coach serviced first thing in the morning. They were planning on boondocking in the Camping World parking lot for the night. I suspect they are going to be in for a cold night as Flagstaff sits at around 7,000 feet. Not too much later Jackie saw a Facebook post where Darlene said they were parked and it was lightly snowing. Eek.

After lunch we did our laundry at the park's laundry. It was cheap and convenient as it was right across the road from where we are parked. After we finished the laundry we went out for half an hour to get one quick geocache so we would have our cache of the day. We are up to nearly 130 days of consecutive caching now. At 6:30 we went down to the clubhouse for our last night of Texas Hold'em here in Camp Verde. We had a much smaller crowd, only five players, but still had a good time. For the first time I finished a couple bucks ahead and Jackie lost about six dollars. After cards we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Wednesday, October 30^th, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove into Cottonwood to a favorite Thai restaurant our ours, Mai Thai, to meet an old friend for lunch. Pat Ruese and her husband Ed were big movers and shakers in the Family Motorcoach Association (FMCA) for many years, holding National offices as well as a wide variety of chapter offices. Ed was the first president of the Full Timers Chapter, which is the chapter I am now President of. Pat was the president of the 100%ers Chapter back in 2007 when they recruited me into being the Vice President, my first chapter office with FMCA. About four years ago they gave up the full time RVing lifestyle and bought a house in Clarkdale, the next town over from Cottonwood. They still went to a few rallies and used the RV some, just not full time. A couple of years ago Ed died while they were on a trip back to Wisconsin for an FMCA rally. We have kept in touch with Pat and try to have lunch with her whenever we are in town.

She is now really active in a variety of activities in the Verde Valley and really seems to be doing well. She told us that she just sold her old RV, a 20 year old diesel coach that they had used for many years while traveling full time. We had a really nice lunch, the food at this place is great, and were able to catch up with all Pat's activities. She told us she reads our blog, so knows what we are up to most of the time. It was really good to see Pat and to see she is getting along so well.

After lunch we went out and got a geocache so we would have our cache for the day, then made a quick stop at Walmart before heading home. Around 5:30 my brother Dennis came over to coach for dinner. He had not yet seen the changes we made to the coach this past summer, so we wanted to show it off to him. We talked for a while and Jackie made her chili relleno casserole for dinner. About 7:00 we had dinner, and then after dinner we sat and talked until almost 10:00. After Dennis left we watched a little TV then went to bed. Since we are leaving tomorrow we probably won't see Dennis for another six months or more, but it was good to see him for the time that we did.

Thursday, October 31^st, Happy Halloween! Boo! This was a travel day for us and we had the coach packed up and ready for travel by about 10:30. We had a fairly short trip, about 85 miles south to the Phoenix area, actually the town of Surprise, in the northwest part of the valley. We made it to the Sunflower resort, a very nice park in the heart of the Sun Cities retirement area, a little after noon. We got registered and settled in, after a bit of a mix up on spaces. The first spot they put us in didn't have a convenient sewer connection because the neighbor had not parked where he was supposed to and took the one intended for our site. They moved us to what is actually a better spot, wider with a nicer view. We got settled in, had lunch and were out of the coach by about 1:30.

Jackie wanted to get a haircut, so we found a Supercuts close by and she got sheared. After her haircut we did some caching, finding five new caches within less than an hour. We are now at 130 consecutive caching days. Yea! After caching we went back to the coach and rested the rest of the evening.

Our departure from Camp Verde marks a great place to get this edition of the blog published. We will be here in Surprise for week, visiting with friends and family, before moving on to the Coachella Valley in California. Until the next time, remember the words of that great philosopher, Ron White. “I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.” See ya next time.