Welcome back folks. Our last episode
concluded on Thursday, October 10th, 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 12th, 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 13th, 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 14th, 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 15th,
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 16th, 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 19th, 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 21st, 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 23rd, 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 25th, 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 27th, 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 28th, 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 29th, 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 30th, 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 31st,
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.
