Hello, welcome back to our travel blog.
Our last episode concluded on Monday, March 23rd, when we
arrived in Pomona, California to the LA County Fairgrounds for the
FMCA Convention and rally. We spent Monday in travel and getting
setup at the fairgrounds. The rally doesn't actually start until
Thursday, so we have a couple of free days ahead of us.
Tuesday, March 24th, we were
able to sleep in a little this morning and have a relaxing morning
with our coffee and nothing else we had to do. I got a few things
down, like publishing the last chapter of this blog and doing some
office work. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching. We
haven't cached in this area before and there were lots of caches to
choose from. Our first cache was a DNF, but after that we had eleven
good finds before we decided it was getting a little hot. The A/C in
the car is still broke, so after a bit we decided to go back to the
coach to cool off. About 5:00 some friends of ours who are vendors,
Geoff and Johanna, came over for cocktails. We had last seen them in
Quartzsite back in January. They stayed for about 45 minutes. After
they left we went out to do some shopping we had been meaning to get
to and were back at the coach just before 7:00. We had a nice dinner
of some of the meatloaf Jackie made on Sunday and then watched TV
until bedtime.
Wednesday, March 25th,
another relaxing morning. We went out after lunch to do some
shopping and we picked up one geocache while we were out. At 5:00 we
had a bunch of people, mostly members of the Full Timers Chapter,
over to the coach for a happy hour. We ended up with about 20 people
sitting on our “patio” talking and enjoying themselves. This
went on until about 7:00 when everyone went off to do their own
thing. We had dinner, a crockpot meal of pork ribs that Jackie had
been cooking all day. We then watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday, March 26th, the
first day of the rally. The vendors do not open until tomorrow, but
the seminars and meetings started today. We left the fairgrounds
about 11:30 or so and drove a few miles to nearby San Dimas to meet
for lunch at Bev and Jerry King's house. Because they live so close
to the fairgrounds they wanted to have everyone over for lunch. Gary
and Ramona Wilson and Ray and Suzie Babcock were also there. We had
a great time talking, especially about Gary and Ramona's new motor
home, or at least new to them. They had sold their old one a couple
years ago, but got the hankering to go back to full timing, so they
have been shopping and found one very similar to the one they sold.
After lunch we went back to the
fairgrounds and gathered our stuff for the Chapter Fair. We set up
the booth for the Full Timer's Chapter, but were a little
disappointed at the turnout. We only had eight or ten people come by
the booth and talk to us. We had better turnout at the Chapter Fair
at the Western Area rally in Indio in January. At 4:00 the fair was
over and we took our stuff back to the coach. About 5:30 we went
back to the events area for the Elk International business meeting.
They had a short meeting and then adjourned to a picnic area near
where the coaches are parked for a social. They had beer and wine,
along with a big stack of pizzas. We spent about ninety minutes
eating and visiting with other members of the chapter before heading
back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Friday, March 27th, the
mobile service guy came at 8:00 a.m. to service the transmission on
the coach. It was due for new fluid and filters. The job was done
in a little over an hour. We are good for another five years now.
We had lunch at the coach and then packed up the stuff we needed for
the Full Timing Seminar we are putting on today at 3:00. We dropped
the stuff off at the meeting room and then walked over to the vendor
building to tour around the vendors. We spent an hour and a half or
so looking at all the vendors. We didn't buy anything this trip, but
will probably be back another day to pick up a few things. We went
back to the seminar building and hung out until it was time for our
seminar. We had a crowd of about 60 and Jim and Pat Goetzinger
helped Jackie and I put on the hour and fifteen minute seminar. It
was well received and there were a lot of questions and comments.
After the seminar I convened a business
meeting of the Chapter which took about 20 minutes or so. The only
major item of business was to elect new officers for next two years.
Also, FMCA rules require at least one Chapter meeting each year so we
needed to do this one to meet the requirement. When I adjourned the
meeting I was officially the Past President of the Chapter. I had a
good time during my term, but am now looking forward to helping when
I want rather than because I have to. After the meeting we packed up
our stuff and went back to the coach. We skipped tonight's
entertainment, which was some female unknown (to me at least) country
singer and just had a quiet evening at home.
Saturday, March 28th, we had
a relaxing morning and had lunch in the coach. After lunch we went
over to the events area so I could start getting things setup for the
Ice Cream Social at 1:00. FMCA always has an Ice Cream Social at the
big conventions, and the Full Timers Chapter has always been the
chapter that provides the people to hand out the ice cream. I picked
up the aprons at the Miller Insurance Agency booth in the vendor
area. Miller is the sponsor of the event and pays for the ice cream.
They have a box of aprons with their corporate logo on them that we
are supposed to wear when we hand out ice cream.
I took the aprons over to the area
where the ice cream was to be and worked with the fairgrounds staff
to set up the tables and lines properly. The ice cream, sandwiches
actually, was already there and ready to go. As always, we had great
support from the chapter and had way more people to help than we
really needed. Everyone shows up because it isn't hard, doesn't take
long and is always fun. The people were lined up ten minutes early,
but we were ready so we opened early. Within five or six minutes we
had served the majority of the customers. There are a little over a
thousand coaches here, so figure about two thousand people, give or
take. We stayed open until 1:30 and were almost out of ice cream
when we closed it down. I took the aprons back to Miller and my
duties for this rally are complete.
We walked around the vendors for a
while, bought a couple little things, and then went back to the coach
to rest for a while. About 7:00 we caught a tram back to the events
center for the evening entertainment. Tonight was Peter Noone and
Herman's Hermits. We saw this show back in 2008, also here at
Pomona. We were only three rows back from the stage and Noone did a
great show. He is very personable and interactive with the audience,
and a lot of oldies to sing to. It really was a good show and we
were glad we went. After the show we caught a tram back to the coach
and got home about 9:30. We watched a little TV and then off to bed.
Sunday, March 29th, the last
day of the rally. I went out and got a Sunday paper and we spent the
morning with the paper and morning news shows. After lunch we walked
over to the new coach displays, which were just down the parking lot
from where we were parked. We spent an hour or two looking at
coaches, but didn't see anything that really lit our fire, not to
mention was affordable. We really like our floor plan and the fact
that our coach is paid for. I was able to pick up some engine fuel
filters I needed from the parts truck and then we went back to the
coach and relaxed the rest of the day. There was no entertainment
tonight except for a patriotic salute put on by the FMCA Volunteer
singers and band players, the Frustrated Maestros. It didn't start
until 8:00 and by that time we decided we didn't want to go out
anyway.
Monday, March 30th, another
travel day. We didn't get into too much of a hurry to leave the
fairgrounds, since we knew we had to travel the I-10 all the way
through the Inland Empire to Indio and the morning rush hour was
something to be avoided. Of course, that didn't stop some people as
we heard engines starting up as early as 6:30 this morning. By the
time we got everything packed up and were ready to leave it was 10:00
or so and everyone around us had already left. Traffic was still
heavy, but we made the hundred miles to Indio in a couple hours and
arrived at Indian Waters about 12:30. We got settled into our space
and spent the rest of the very hot afternoon resting inside the
coach. We are only here for a three day stopover, so we didn't do
anything outside except put the awning down and hook up the
utilities.
About 5:30 we drove over to Cactus
Jacks to meet our friend Barry Cohen for dinner. Regular readers
will remember Barry and Colleen as our best friends when we lived
here in Indio. Colleen died a couple years ago and Barry just
started getting out in his motor home last year. We were hoping to
be able to meet up with him somewhere along the road this summer. He
is planning to travel again this summer, but it is unlikely our paths
will cross. We had a great dinner and after went back to the coach
and watched TV until bedtime.
Tuesday, March 31st, we left
the park around 11:30 to meet our friends Jerry and Bev King for
lunch at our favorite Chinese place in Indio, the China Bistro. Bev
had called last night and asked us to meet them for lunch. She also
asked if we would then come over to their RV place at Desert Shores
here in Indio to help Jerry load a few things into their car so they
could take them back to San Dimas. We knew that Jerry has been
having a few health issues lately, so we were glad to help.
We met them for lunch and had a great
time, good food and visiting with friends. Bev then told us that
Jerry had been able to get the stuff in the car on his own and they
didn't need our help after all. They still bought lunch, which was
very nice of them. After about ninety minutes they headed out to go
back to San Dimas and we went to Walmart for some supplies. We then
returned back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon.
About 5:00 or so we left again to go to
some geocaching friend's house for dinner. Rex and Vicki Jennings
are fairly new to the Coachella Valley and are really involved in
local geocaching. We first met them at the Christmas Party that our
other caching friends, Roy and Darcy, put on last year. We also ran
into all of them in February at the big geocaching event in Yuma and
they came over to our place there for a BBQ. Rex and Vicki live in
North Indio in a newer area of town and have a very nice place with a
spot to park their motor home on the property. Roy and Darcy were
there, as was another caching friend of ours, Kevin, and his partner
Ron.
The eight of us visited for a while, of
course talking about geocaching mostly, but also some traveling
stories. Rex cooked some burgers, Jackie had made a big salad, and
Vicki had some beans made. All that and some chips made for a great
BBQ meal. We talked and visited until about 8:30 when everyone left
to head for home. We went home and watched a couple TV shows until
bedtime.
Wednesday, April 1st, NO
April Fools Jokes! We had a relaxing morning and after lunch we went
out and did our laundry. When we got back to the coach we relaxed
until about 6:00 when we went to our friend's Jay and Donna
Blumenthal for a barbeque. We were parked only a couple of spaces
down from Jay and Donna, who have been here since November. They
spend six months here in Indio and then drive their coach back to New
York, where they are from, and park for the summer months. They are
full time Rvers, but only go two places for the most part.
Jay and Donna had their daughter and
son in law, as well as their granddaughter Linda, who was almost two.
They also invited a couple other long term neighbors from the park
and we all sat and talked and ate salads, chips and burgers. It was
a great time, and the night was very pleasant. About 8:00 we went
back to our coach for the rest of the night.
Thursday, April 2nd, we
headed out of Indio about 9:30, moving east about a hundred miles to
Ehrenberg, Arizona, just across the river from Blythe, California.
We wanted to get an early start because it is supposed to be close to
a hundred degrees today and there is quite a climb from below sea
level Indio to a couple thousand feet at Desert Center, halfway to
the river. The coach did well, no heating issues, and we arrived in
Ehrenberg, Arizona right around noon time. We got checked in for our
one night stay, which didn't cost us anything.
When we were in Pomona at the rally the
parent company of Arizona Oasis had a booth and when I mentioned to
the lady in the booth that we would be passing through Ehrenberg
later in the week she gave us a free night. We had a pull through
spot and didn't even unhook the car. We connected the utilities and
just vegged for the rest of the day. I got a lot of travel planning
done for our summer travels and Jackie got all the paper and stuff
sorted out from the rallies. We just made a relaxation day of it.
Friday, April 3rd, we left
Ehrenberg about 10:00 and continued east on Interstate 10 towards the
Phoenix area. We arrived at the Cotton Lane RV Resort in Goodyear,
Arizona, about noon, a trip of around 130 miles. We will be staying
in Goodyear for two weeks, mostly enjoying the Phoenix area and
visiting with my family. My three kids and all but one grandchild
still live in the Phoenix area, as do three of my great grandkids.
My brother lives in Goodyear, just a half mile or so from the RV
park.
After we got settled into the park we
went out to Walmart for some supplies and then went back to the coach
to relax the rest of the night. My brother's wife works for
Southwest Airlines and was working late tonight, so we won't see Ken
and Susan until later in the weekend. This should be an enjoyable
couple of weeks.
Saturday, April 4th, I was
up early and headed to nearby Avondale for an 8:30 appointment with
the Jeep dealer regarding the air conditioning on the Jeep. You may
remember from the last episode that the A/C quit on the Jeep AGAIN
and the dealer in Pahrump was unable to get the needed parts in time
to have it fixed up there. We waited until Goodyear because we will
be here for two weeks and should be able to get it done here before
we leave.
I made the appointment online at the
dealer's website last Tuesday, but when I arrived this morning the
service writer didn't have the appointment and could not explain why,
even when I showed him my confirmation email. He said they were
fully booked for today and there was no way they could get to our car
today. I have to come back on Monday morning. Not so great service
Larry Miller Chrysler-Jeep in Avondale!
I went back home and then after lunch
Jackie and I went out and did some geocaching. We were able to get a
dozen new finds, one of which was another milestone, find number
6,900. Although it was a bit hot, we stuck it out to get the
milestone. After caching we headed back home and stayed in the rest
of the day. We are hoping to visit some of the family next week
after the Easter holiday weekend is over. We figured that most
people probably already had plans for the weekend. We did a visit
late in the afternoon from our Coachella Valley caching friends Roy
and Darcy. They had driven to Goodyear for one of the Spring
Training baseball games and were on their way back home. They only
stayed a half hour or so, but it was good to see them again.
Sunday, April 5th, Happy
Easter. I went out first thing in the morning and got the Sunday
paper and we spent the morning with coffee and the paper. After
lunch I started on a couple of my projects. We have been having a
lot of trouble with the front door, it doesn't close properly and is
hard to lock sometimes. I spent some time diagnosing and have
determined that the latches on the door itself are out of adjustment.
The coach is ten years old, so it is not surprising that things
would shift over time. I did a workaround that allows the door to
open and close, and lock, more easily, but it still needs to be
adjusted. I have looked at the diagrams online and have decided that
I may leave that to a professional later on down the road.
I then did some work on our door steps,
which quit working a week or so ago. I crawled around in the dirt
under the coach for an hour and finally got the motor unbolted from
the steps themselves. A quick examination showed that the main gear
in the motor box was stripped and that was why the steps were not
working. I had heard that the motors for most RV steps are actually
just standard automotive power window motors. The motor I took out
had a part number and within ten minutes on the internet I had found
multiple suppliers for the motor. The step manufacturer wants over
$200 for a new motor, I was able to find it on Ebay for $70 plus
another $15 for expedited shipping. I ordered it and it will be here
by Tuesday.
Around 6:30 or so my brother Ken and
his wife Susan, who live only a half mile or so from the park, came
over to visit. We have not seen them for a year or so. They were
busy all day with some duties with the Arizona Rangers, a
quasi-police unit they volunteer with, as well as some family
obligations for Easter. They stayed until about 9:00 and we were
able to chat and catch up with everything going on in our lives. I
am sure we will be spending a lot of time with them during our two
week stay here. After they left we watched a little TV and then off
to bed.
Today marks about two weeks since we
last published, so I will close this episode and get it online. As I
said, we still have about two weeks here in Goodyear and we look
forward to lots of good times. Until the next time, remember the
words of Frederick Keonig, 19th century inventor and philosopher.
“We tend to forget that happiness
doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but
rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” Find your
happy. See ya next time.
