At Home in Pahrump - Fun With a Couple of Rallies

Hi there, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, October 1^st, as we were finally enjoying moderate weather at our home RV lot in Pahrump, Nevada. Sunday was primarily a stay at home and relax day. I got the Sunday paper in the morning and we went to clubhouse in the afternoon for the root beer floats, but other than that we stayed home. I got a few small chores done and mostly relaxed.

Monday, October 3^rd, was the first day of a rally of the FMCA Beat The Odds Chapter being held at the Pahrump Nugget Casino and the Preferred RV park across the street. This chapter only has two rallies a year, a February rally in Laughlin and an October rally, usually in Pahrump. Because we are usually in Yuma in February we generally only make the October rally. The last few years we have already been in Pahrump in October, the last two years at our own lot, so we attend the rally and the events without taking the coach over to the rally RV park. We left the coach about 10:00 and drove over to Preferred for the registration and initial greeting. We know most of the people attending the rally at least a little bit, although there were a few new people. We did our registration stuff and sat and talked for an hour or so before heading out and running a couple of errands. We went back to the coach for lunch and relaxed a while before going back to Preferred about 4:30 for the rally happy hour meet and greet. We stayed a couple of hours, until it started to get dark, then we headed back to our coach for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Tuesday, October 4^th, we were up early and on our way to the Nugget Casino before 9:00. Today is the rally slot tournament, which is the primary reason the chapter has rallies. Every rally has a slot tournament with a $50 a person buy in, which provides for some pretty decent prize money. Every player gets two five minute sessions, which are usually about an hour apart. I had some pretty decent scores, as did Jackie, but there are 27 players, so who knows. After we did our sessions we went back to our coach and relaxed for the rest of the day. I did some office work in the afternoon. We had a nice pork roast for dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. Wednesday was the last day of the rally. We left the coach and drove to Preferred RV Resort about noon where we joined most of the group in a Bunco tournament. Bunco has always been a tradition with this group and we were all disappointed last year when the Covid restrictions were such that we couldn't have any indoor group activities. I did very poorly in Bunco this year, only 3 wins and 15 losses in the 18 games we played. I also had no Buncos. After Bunco we went back to the coach and relaxed for a couple hours before changing clothes and heading back to the Pahrump Nugget Casino for the banquet at 5:00. We had cocktails then a pretty nice buffet dinner. At 7:00 they started to give away prizes. I did win $5 for having the worst record in the Bunco tournament. Both Jackie and I were just under the numbers needed to win any money in the slot tournament. Oh well, we had fun. After the banquet we played a little at the casino, then headed back home. We watched a little TV and went to bed.

Thursday, October 7^th, was a stay at home day. Around 10:00 I had a contractor come by to get the information to give us a bid on some landscaping work we want for our front yard area. Jackie had a meeting in the clubhouse at the same time. About 1:00 our friend Len came over and the two of us did an hour and a half of guitar practice out in the shed. Jackie went to the clubhouse for another meeting at the same time. After all the busy work was finished we just relaxed for the rest of the day and evening. Friday we woke up to wind and a threat of rain. We decided to do another stay at home day. We did some chores and played some games. For dinner we did some fish and sweet potatoes. After dinner we watched some TV and went to bed.

Saturday, October 9^th, my brother Russ and his wife Zen drove up from Las Vegas, where they live. They arrived about 12:30 and about 1:30 or so we had a late lunch. Jackie had made a cashew chicken oriental casserole which was very good. After dinner we sat and talked, catching up since the last time we saw them, which was at the end of August when we came back from our summer travels. They left around 4:30, we had cocktails at 5:00 and then relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening. Sunday I went out in the morning for the Sunday paper and then around 10:30 I went out to one of the local shooting ranges to do my annual qualification shoot for my Federal concealed carry permit. That took a couple hours after which I went back home and we stayed in for the rest of the day. We did some burgers on the BBQ for dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, October 11^th, a cold front moved in and we had overcast skies, brisk winds and cool temps. The RV repair guys arrived about 10:00 to replace the kitchen faucet and just as much trouble getting the old one out as the last guys did. In the end they disassembled the faucet on top and ended up pushing it down through the hole after basically destroying the thing. After that it took all of ten minutes to install the new one, but the total time was an hour and a half. At least we now have a kitchen faucet that works. At 1:00 we went to the clubhouse for a meeting of the Escapees Chapter, the Lucky Rollers. Most of the conversation was about next weeks outing to Golden Valley, a small community west of Kingman, Arizona. We will be going down this coming Sunday and coming back on Friday. After the meeting we went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day and evening. We were going to have steaks for dinner, but the wind was blowing so bad the dust was terrible, so we went with something we could cook inside. After dinner we watched TV and then went to bed. Tuesday was still cold a blustery, so we had another mostly stay at home day. We did go out after lunch to pick up our mail. We needed to do that because a part I need to fix our leaky toilet was waiting to be picked up. I want to fix the potty tomorrow. After we got back to the park we just stayed in for the rest of the day. We did our steaks on the BBQ for dinner, then watched some TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, October 13^th, Jackie went over to the clubhouse about 11:30 for a ladies lunch and a show from a local group of dancers. While she was gone I took the toilet apart and after two hours of messing around with it I learned that the part I got from Amazon would not work. I ended up putting the toilet back together, still not holding water, so we could at least use it. After Jackie got back from her show we drove to the UPS store again, this time to pick up the three wheel bike that she had ordered. The box was pretty big, but it fit in the car, so we got it home. After picking up our mail we drove to the Wild West RV Supply store, run by the same people who have done the last repairs on the coach. I was fed up with constantly fixing our 16 year old toilet and we bought a new toilet and made arrangements for the Wild West guys to install it in a couple weeks. We then went back home, unloaded the bike in a box and spent the rest of the day relaxing. 

Thursday I went out after coffee and the morning news and started working on the bike. It has been a long time since I put a bike together, and being made in China the instructions were sometimes a little less than crystal clear. I got a big chunk of the assembly done before lunch. After lunch I worked a little more, then our friend Len came over for our weekly guitar practice session. We had a good time and went a couple of hours. After Len left I spent another hour or so on the bike before quitting for the day. I still have some work to do, including hooking up the brakes and shifter and a few add-ons like the basket and the reflectors. We had cocktails at 5:00 with our friend Millie who came home yesterday from her month long travel adventure. Since her husband Dick died in January she has sold her motorhome and bought a semi-permanent trailer for her lot, but she still wanted to travel. So she did, doing car camping all over the Northwest for a month. She told us some stories from her travels and it was good having our friend back home again. After Millie went home we had dinner, then spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Friday, October 15^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and went to lunch at a Mexican taquaria that we have been wanting to try, Rubacaba's Taco Shop. The food was generally tasty and plentiful, but seemed to be a little “thrown together.” Everything was warm at best, not hot, and there were no real choices for sauces since the salsa bar was closed down. We will probably go back at some point, because the food was pretty good. After lunch we went to the laundromat and did our laundry. While the clothes were drying I drove to the office of the landscaping contractor we had bid on our beautification project and dropped off the deposit check so they could start work next month. They assure us it will be done before we leave to go to Yuma. After laundry we went to Walmart for some supplies and stopped at the UPS store to pick up mail. We are trying to get all our errands done today because on Sunday we are leaving with the coach to go Golden Valley in Northern Arizona with the Escapees Chapter here at the park. Tomorrow we have to do a lot of prep work in and around the coach. After our errands we headed back to the park, put away our clothes and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Saturday, October 16^th, was a stay at home day. I spent a couple of hours prepping the coach for our five day outing starting tomorrow. I needed to do some maintenance checks and load a few things, although we are not taking a lot of stuff with us for just five days. Jackie did some chores inside the coach while I was working outside. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening in the coach. Sunday was another travel day, after a month and a half parked. We didn't have to leave early because the trip was only 160 miles or so and we were told by the park that we couldn't check in until after 2:00. We pulled out of our spot a little after 11:00 and had to to stop at the equipment shed in the park so I could put some air in the coach's tires. We were finally on the road about 11:30. We pulled the hill over the Spring Mountains (the Hump) without overheating, even while pulling the car. We also found that the 25 mile trip across the Las Vegas Valley was easy as there wasn't too much traffic. The stress really started on the straight, open road in Arizona from the Colorado River crossing all the way to Golden Valley. The wind was blowing a steady 25 MPH with gusts to probably 35 or 40 and it was hitting directly on the side of the coach. I had to slow down and hang on, but we made it safely to the Tradewinds RV park in Golden Valley, Arizona by 3:00. My brother Ken and his wife Susan were already parked and set up, having come in only from Kingman this morning. They are Escapees also and are getting close to retiring and going full time like us. We asked them if they wanted to come to this outing and they were excited to be able to. After we got parked and set up we had cocktails with Ken and Susan and caught up with them. It's been over a year since we have actually seen them, although we do stay in touch. After they left we had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, October 18^th, the first day of the rally. We still had really high winds and most of the group, that was supposed to come in early this afternoon, were running late. A couple of people even canceled on the rally. We went out about noon and drove into Kingman for lunch at the Cracker Barrel restaurant. After lunch we did one geocache just to be sure we got one, then headed back to the RV park. We did drive by the Elks Lodge, where we are going tomorrow night for dinner, to be sure we knew where it was. We were here about three years ago and once we saw the lodge we remembered visiting it. We chatted a bit with a couple of the people who had come in early. Most of the people finally made it in around 4:00 or so, but because people had to get set up and stuff, the evening happy hour gathering was put off for tonight. We did visit with some of the group for a little while before going back to the coach. We visited with Ken and Susan for a little while, then went to our coach where we spent the night with the TV.

Tuesday, October 19^th, we again left around noon and stopped at a little Mexican place in Golden Valley called El Rancho for lunch. The food was pretty good, although it could have been a little hotter. After lunch we did some caching on the way to, and in, Kingman, getting six new finds. After caching we went back to the RV park and relaxed for a little while. Around 4:00 the group car pooled and caravaned to the Elks Lodge. We were the leaders since I knew where it was. We all got there about 4:30, got everyone who wasn't an Elk signed in, and the group had happy hour there. The Elks staff was really good, no issues with so many guest non-Elks and they came around and took everyone's orders for dinner, which was Taco Tuesday fare. The group was done and ready to leave a little after 6:30 and we all headed back to the RV park. Ken and Susan came over and visited with us in our coach until about 8:30, after which we watched some TV and then went to bed.

Wednesday, October 20^th, we went to the group area after lunch and spent the afternoon with the club. We spent some time just sitting and talking and also played Pokeno for a couple of hours. At 4:00 they had happy hour and at 5:00 did hamburgers for dinner. After dinner we sat and talked for a little while until it got too chilly and we went back to our coach. We spent the rest of the evening with the TV. Thursday, the last full day of the rally, we also stayed around camp all day. We went down to the group area about 12:30 and sat and visited for a while. The group then played some more Pokeno which was fun. Around 3:00 they quit the game and held a brief business meeting of the Chapter. After that they gave away door prizes and had the drawings for the “brown bag” giveaway. The door prizes were gift cards provided by the Chapter, the brown bag items were provided by the attendees. The Chapter sold tickets for both drawings, as well as a 50-50 drawing, during the rally. Jackie and I did OK, both of us had two tickets drawn for the brown bag drawing and both won one of the gift cards in the door prize drawings. We got some towels, a camping wind chime, and a motion light. Jackie got an Amazon gift card and I got one for Dairy Queen. We didn't get the 50-50 prize, but Susan did and got $65. Yea! After all the business was taken care of everyone just sat and talked until the pizza the club provided for dinner was brought in. We had a nice dinner and stayed and talked until it started getting dark. We went back to our coach and Ken and Susan came over and visited until about 8:00. After they left we watched some TV and went to bed.

Friday, October 22^nd, was another travel day. The winds today were much lighter and we started the 160 mile trip back to Pahrump around 10:30. We made a fuel stop and still got into Pahrump and back into our spot by about 2:00. We spent a couple of hours getting set up, then just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

We are now about three weeks into this episode and it is time to get it published. Until next time, remember the words of humorist Will Rogers. “Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don't want..to impress people that they don't like.” See ya soon.