We came into the rally on the first day of parking, which was two days before the rally actually starts. The exhibits, vendors and entertainment kick off on Thursday. Our first day was mostly spent in travel from Casa Grande and then waiting
around in the parking lot to get parked at the rally. We really weren’t even parked and set up until 3:00 and didn’t get our final registration done until close to 5:00. We did have happy hour with Peggy and Vernon Bullock, who are parked right next to us, and Gary and Ramona Wilson, who are parked a few coaches down from us. We had a nice dinner with the Bullocks and just hung around the coach for the night.Wednesday, March 21st, was still pretty much a free day as far as the rally goes. We left the coach about 10:00 and set out to do some geocaching in the local area. We took the Bullocks in our car and the Wilsons followed along in theirs. The Bullocks have just recently gotten the Wilsons involved in geocaching and they seem to be enjoying it quite well. Since we got the Bullocks into the hobby I guess that makes the Wilsons our “Geo-grandkids” or something like that.
The six of us managed to get ten new finds in the course of a couple of hours, including several that were hidden by my brother Ken and his wife Susan, who live in nearby Goodyear. We also got them involved in geocaching a couple years ago and they are avid cachers now. They have about seven caches hidden in the west Phoenix area. Our last cache find for the day was our number 3,700, another big milestone for us. We took a group photo for posterity.
After caching the six of us went to a local restaurant in Avondale called A Taste of Louisiana, which advertised itself as a Cajun restaurant. We had first planned to eat at a local Greek place, but Jackie found that it had been closed down. The Cajun place was fairly small and did not have a huge menu, but the food turned out to be very good. Most of us had the lunch specials which consisted of a cup of gumbo and a “poo boy” sandwich. I had the shrimp, Jackie and Gary had the alligator, Vernon had the sausage, and Peggy had the catfish. Everyone reported that their poo boy was excellent. The gumbo was outstanding. They only have the more traditional Cajon dinner dishes, like creole and jambalaya once a week as daily specials. Otherwise the menu is mostly sandwiches and plate dinners of shrimp, crawdads, catfish and the like. I would like to come back on a Tuesday one day for the creole, which is one of my favorite Cajun dishes.
After lunch the Wilsons went off to do some shopping and we and the Bullocks headed back to the rally. After a little rest the four of us hopped on the tram and went to the infield to look at the new coach displays, which had opened for the first time at 3:00. We spent a couple of hours wandering around, looking at all the nice new coaches. We really didn’t see anything that we liked, overall, more than what we have. With the economy in a down state as it is, most of the coach manufacturers are concentrating on smaller, less expensive motor homes. After looking at coaches for two hours we had enough and went back to the coach for cocktails. We drank and visited until sundown and then went off to our own coaches for the rest of the night.
Thursday, March 22nd, the first real rally day. We left the coach about 10:30 and headed to the infield area where the heart of the rally is. I went to a seminar on supplemental breaking systems. For the non-motor home reader, these are systems or devices that are put into your tow car which will activate the tow car’s brakes when the motor home brakes are applied. The idea is to eliminate the “pushing” that you get from the tow car when the motor home slows or stops. It can really affect your stopping distance. The seminar was put on by the Roadmaster Corporation, one of the leading manufacturers of tow bars and towing equipment, including brake systems. Right after we bought our coach in 2005 I bought a Roadmaster braking system, called a BrakePro, for our tow vehicle. Although the system itself, the part in the car, still works well and meets our needs, the communication piece of the system has become unreliable. This is a little transmitter that goes in the car and a little receiver that is on the dash of the coach. It gives me a signal when the brake system in the car is active. This is important since if the something happened to the car system that caused it to stay active when it wasn’t supposed to be on, the car brake system could be damaged.
The guy that gave the seminar was actually one of the engineers for Roadmaster and was the man who developed the inertial braking system for the company. After the seminar I talked one on one with him and told him of my problem. I told him I was trying to troubleshoot the communications devices and needed some help, like maybe a wiring diagram. He said he would save me the trouble and just give me a new set of transmitter/receiver pieces. He said that even though there was no warranty after six years they believed in customer service and he didn’t have a problem replacing ours. He told me to go to where their service truck was parked out in the parking area and ask for his son who would get me one off the truck.
After the seminar I joined Jackie who was touring around the vendor tent. They have a large vendor area, probably over a hundred, and it is very similar to what you find in Quartzsite or at an FMCA rally. Pretty much the same stuff and the same people. We walked around for a couple hours, looking at stuff and buying a couple of little things. It started getting a little warm in the tent, there is no A/C and the outside temps are in the 80's, so we decided to get some lunch and get out of the tent. There are only a couple of food vendors here and the lines were way too long, so we decided to just go back and get the car and drive into town for lunch.
We caught the tram back to the parking area, which was an adventure in itself. There is only one entrance to the infield and only way to get from the rally activities area to the parking lot - the tram. It is too far for most people to walk and they don’t allow cars to come into the infield. They also don’t have enough trams for the number of people at the rally, so there are long lines and waits for trams. In the sun and heat it is quite uncomfortable. We finally got back to the coach and got the car. We first stopped at the Roadmaster truck so I could see about my parts. Well, it turns out they didn’t have any on the truck, but they did write up an order to have a set shipped to me at no cost. Still good customer service as far as I’m concerned.
We called our friends Bev and Jerry King, who are here at the rally but whom we have not seen yet, to see if they wanted to go to lunch with us. They said yes, so we swung by and picked them up. We drove up into Avondale, just a few miles north, and went to a Mexican place called Raul and Theresa’s, which is located on old highway 85 in the old part of Avondale. I remember this place from back in early 80's when I was a Patrol Sergeant with the Sheriff’s Office and worked out of the Avondale Substation. We used to eat there quite often and I remembered the food as being very good. The place has been there since 1968 and they now have a second location in Goodyear, up in the newer shopping area.
The four of us had a great meal. The food was every bit as good as I remembered it, and reasonably priced. Since we were there mid afternoon there weren’t a lot of people there, but the service was good. I had the red chili burrito and the red chili was among the best I have had, excellent flavor, thick and spicy with big chunks of beef. Jackie had the fajitas and said they were very good too. We had a very nice conversation with the King’s and enjoyed lunch very much. After lunch we drove back to the rally, dropped the King’s off, and went back to our coach for rest.
About 5:45 we started to go down for the evening’s entertainment, which is set up in one of the main grandstands for the race track. Again, the lack of trams created a real mess. The tram stop closest to our coach is one of the last on the route and with 6,000 people trying to go to the show, every tram was filled by the time it got to our stop. After watching about a dozen full trams go by we walked to a different stop where we were finally able to get a ride. Of course, by the time we got to the grandstands they were getting pretty full. We didn’t want to walk all the way to the top of the stands, so we found seats off to the side, but low down in the stands. We did run into some friends in the stands, Ray and Susie Babcock.
The entertainment was Bowser’s Rock and Roll Show, featuring John “Bowser” Bauman, who was the front man for the 70's rock group Sha Na Na. The group had a lot of records reprising old 50's music, a TV show in the late 70's, and were the band in the movie
Grease and did most of the sound track for the movie. Although Sha Na Na still tours as well, Bowser split from them years ago and now travels with his own show. The show was cute, with a lot of very good 50's music and some silly stuff from Bowser and his crew. There was a lot of audience participation, hula hoop and dance contests, that kind of thing. I’m sure they did it because it’s a regular part of their act, but it kind of slowed things down tonight because to get to the audience they had to climb over two walls and through a chain link fence. If you picture a race track, they were on the other side of the track from the grandstands, so there was quite a distance to cover. All in all, it was entertaining and it was free. Fortunately, the return to the parking area was better organized and we got back to the coach in just a few minutes with no waiting. A very busy and tiring day and we were ready to just crash in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.Friday, March 23rd, we had lunch at the coach and then left right around noon for the day’s activities. The first thing we did was jump in the car and go just outside the raceway grounds to capture a geocache. We needed a cache today for our “days of the year” statistical grid. In our nearly four years of caching we have never found a cache on March 23rd. We only needed to get one, just so there is not a zero in the box, so we got a real simple, easy to find cache that was only a minute away. Task accomplished.
After our five minutes of caching we parked the car and took the tram to the infield to do some more shopping and walking around looking at exhibits. This time I did spend some money. I bought a new rear view camera and monitor for the coach. The system that was built into our coach by Monaco has never worked right since the day we got the coach. It is the one item that no one has been able to fix. At first it was the camera itself that was bad. We replaced it four times in the first two years we had the coach. Now the monitor in the dash has gone south and I can’t get the parts I need to fix it. For the last year we have had no rear view camera. It’s not a huge deal, other than that I can’t see the car without a camera because it is narrower than the coach so it doesn’t show up in the mirror unless I am turning. I worry that something might go wrong on the car, flat tire, hot brakes, whatever, and I wouldn’t know it because I can’t see. I will be happy to be able to see behind me again.
We spent a couple hours walking around before the heat in the tent got to be uncomfortable, so we went back to our coach, fired up the generator and turned on the A/C. We don’t “camp” and I didn’t spent all the money for our nice coach to sit in the heat with no air conditioning. We left the coach again about 5:15 and started over for the evening entertainment. We learned our lesson last night that we needed to get an early start to get a decent seat and avoid the crowds. We packed a goody bag with some sandwiches, chips, water and vodka and got into the stands just before six. We got a nice seat and just people watched for an hour while we ate our meal.
At seven the evening’s headline act came on, Bill Cosby. I have always been a Cosby fan, but have never seen him in person. He came on stage and sat down in a chair in the
middle of the stage and just started telling stories. At the beginning his delivery was a little slow, which is his style, he doesn’t rush through jokes. It got better as the show went on and the audience was very into the stories. He knew his audience and did a lot of stories that had to do with age and marriage. He did about 90 minutes and got a standing ovation at the end. He looks good for someone who will be 75 in a few months.After the show we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes before we were able to catch a tram back to the coach. While I was waiting I chatted with a sergeant from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office that was there helping with crowd control. He started with the office in 1997, five years AFTER I retired in 1992. Needless to say I didn’t know him, although he did know a couple of older officers that I knew. We finally got on a tram and back to the coach. We then spent an hour or so sitting outside with the Bullocks and our neighbors having cocktails, chatting and enjoying the beautiful night.
Saturday, March 24th, we awoke to see that there were a few high, wispy clouds in the sky. Having grown up here I knew this was a portent of a humid day, at least by Arizona standards. We went down to the infield activities area about 11:00 so that Jackie could go see the dog show and I could meet my “match” and enter into a drawing for big prizes. I see the look of confusion on you face. One of the features of Good Sam rallies, at least for the last couple years, is a contest called “Meet Your Match.” When we got to the rally on Monday and finalized our registration by picking up our welcome packet, we were issued large round white stickers with a four digit number. Mine was 2540, Jackie was 2220. The idea is that there are at least two, and up to four, of each number given out to participants at the rally. You are then supposed to prominently display you number and look for you match, or matches, during the rally.
People really get into the process, displaying their numbers on the front of their RVs so people walking by can check them for matches, and ALWAYS walking around with your number on your body, sometimes front and back, and even on sticks so they can raise them in the sky. I can’t tell you how many times we saw people get on the tram, turn around and hold up their numbers and yell them out, looking for matches. I found my match on Friday night at the Bill Cosby show while we were waiting for everyone to file in. We exchanged information and agreed to meet today at noon at the Meet Your Match booth in the vendor tent.
I showed up at the booth, but the guy I met at the show yesterday didn’t. Fortunately, there was another lady there who also had my number. She had met the same guy I did yesterday too. Since she and I were a match, we got to put our names in for the big drawings. Had the other guy showed up we would have had two entries.
We went back to the coach about 1:00 and went out to lunch with Peggy and Vernon. We went back to the same Mexican place in Avondale, Raul and Theresa’s, that we had gone to on Wednesday with the Kings. We know that Peggy and Vernon love good Mexican and we wanted to show them the place. We had a very nice lunch, which they enjoyed, and then raced back to the rally. That seems to be the theme for this rally, run around like crazy so you can stand in line.
We had to be back inside the infield by 3:00 for the big drawing for the Meet Your Match thing. Both Peggy and Vernon had made matches as well. We got there right on time just as they started drawing for prizes. They are not stingy with prizes at the Good Sam Rallies. They gave away dozens of prizes, I would guess well over 40 or 50, and they were nice, big BBQ grills, lounge chairs, TVs, some worth two or three hundred dollars or more. They gave away two new RV GPS units, worth over $400 on their own, and then included a choice of any of the Good Sam tours, some of which are valued in the thousands of dollars.
The chairman and CEO of Infinity Group, the company that owns Good Sam Club, Camping World, Trailer Life, Woodalls, and all the other subsidiary companies, is Marcus Lemonis. We had been told by people that have been to Good Sam rallies that he could be very generous with prizes at these rallies. He set up a deal for one guy where he arranged for him to trade his old Class C motorhome in for a new Class A and brought the dealer up on stage and told him to give the guy $25000 for his trade, which was worth about $7,000 and sell him the new coach for $10,000 UNDER invoice. He told the dealer he would make up the difference. Quite a deal. He gave away a bunch of gas cards worth anywhere from $100 to $1,000, gift certificates for Camping World for $100 and $250, and all kinds of other great prizes. One lady, who wasn’t even drawn for a prize, made a big scene about her two year old fifth wheel trailer when Marcus had the representative of the company up on stage for another give away deal. He called that lady up on stage and found out that they had a lemon that leaked and the dealer who sold them the trailer couldn’t or wouldn’t make it right. Marcus told the company rep that he would make up the difference and told the lady to go to the Camping World RV sales lot in Sacramento on their way back home to Washington state, and that they would give her a brand new trailer of the same make and model in exchange for her old one. Quite a deal. Unfortunately, none of our group won anything. Poop!
After the drawing we went back to the coach again, fired up the genny and turned on the A/C because it had gotten pretty warm, about 86 degrees, and sticky from the humidity. After cooling off a little Jackie and I got in the car and went off grounds to get our one needed geocache for the day and to fill the car up with fuel. Once we had finished those errands we went back to the coach and just stayed there the rest of the night. The evening entertainment was Martina McBride, the country singer, but after the chasing around and standing around in the sun, we were just too pooped to want to fight the crowds. The Bullocks didn’t go either, so we just sat outside, drank and talked and had a good time. We later found out the show wasn’t that good anyway, so we hadn’t missed much.
Sunday, March 25th, the last full day of the rally. The rally was holding a veteran’s tribute, a “pass in review” at 11:00 this morning, so we left the coach around 10:30 and caught the tram down to the infield. Jackie went off to make one last tour around the vendors while I joined in the veteran’s parade. There were about 300 veterans from all eras, mostly Korea and Vietnam, and all branches of the service. They split everyone up by branch of service and after a little organizing we marched down the front straight of the racetrack in front of the stands. There were only a couple of hundred folks in the stands, but it was hot and this was really for the vets.
After the pass in review, where they played each service’s anthem when they passed by, we all sat and heard some folks give short speeches. One was the representative from Coast to Coast Resorts, a camping affiliation group that sponsored the tribute. Another was Marshall Trimble, who is an Arizona historian. Having grown up in Arizona I was very familiar with Trimble. He has been around since I was a kid and is designated as the Official Historian for the State. The second speaker was Barry Goldwater, Jr., another well know Arizona name. In this case it was his father, Senator Barry Goldwater, who made the name famous. Both gave nice, short thank you talks to all the vets. They then served cookies and juice for a little reception and it was over.
After my vet tribute I joined up with Jackie and we had a very overpriced and overcooked cheeseburger from a food vendor before going to a seminar on cell phones put on by a Verizon rep. Since we have Verizon phones we thought we could learn something. We didn’t really hear anything new or different, we are pretty up on technology, but we did get the name of what could be a very helpful contact with Verizon. The young man giving the talk is their RV rally representative and he handed out his phone and email addresses and said he would be their contact for anything related to Verizon. Cool. Sometimes the folks in the kiosks and stores are not very knowledgeable or helpful. After the seminar we boarded the tram again and went back to the coach. We had thought about going out to do a couple of caches, but we didn’t need one today for the grid and we decided to just stay in and relax for the rest of the day, so we did.
Monday, March 26th, was moving day. As soon as the sun came up, about 6:00 a.m. I started to hear RVs moving out. By the time we got ready to leave, closer to about 10:00 a.m., probably half the RVs had already left the grounds. When we pulled out the traffic was heavy and slow for the first couple miles because we were going north on rural, two lane roads, but once we hit the freeway there was no more RV traffic. We were only going 22 miles north, from Avondale up to El Mirage to the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort. This is a very large, well over 800 spaces, RV resort with a large community recreation facility and an 18 hole golf course. We have never stayed here before, but we got a certificate for a free week at the resort from their booth at the Western Area Rally in January. There were no restrictions on the free week, so we made it to coincide with our rally here in Arizona. The Bullocks, the Wilsons, the Babcocks, and Clark and Judy McKay, who are friends of the Babcock’s that we have met before. There was also one other couple who knew the Babcocks that came up with the group. Everyone got coupons, and we are all going to stay here during the same time.
It took less than an hour to get to the park and we got registered and moved in before noon. I remember having played golf many times on this golf course back in the late 90's when I still lived in the Phoenix area. After we got set up and had lunch Jackie and I went out for some quick geocaches because we had to have one on this date for our days of the year grid. We ended up getting three finds and one DNF. We were out less than an hour and then went back to the park to relax. We had cocktails on the patio with the Bullocks and then decided to burn some steaks for dinner. We ended up having a very nice dinner with just the four of us. We finally gave in to exhaustion about 8:30 and went back to our coach for some TV before falling into bed.
Tuesday, March 27th, we left the coach around 10:00 for some geocaching with our friends. The Bullocks rode with us in our Jeep and the Wilsons, who are fairly new to caching, followed in their own car. We wanted to get an early start because it was supposed to be hot today, somewhere in the 80's. We first took the other two teams to the three caches that we had found yesterday so they could get the finds as well. Then we went off for some others in the same neighborhood.
Around noon we stopped caching so we could all go for lunch. Peggy suggested Chinese, so we checked on the web and found a nearby Chinese place called Chen & Wok which had decent ratings. We all went there and found a rather small place that was counter service, almost like a fast food place. However, they had a very extensive menu and the food was reasonably priced, so we all ordered. Although you order at the counter, they bring the food out to your table. Oddly, they don’t bring it on plates, they bring it already in to-go boxes. I guess that way when you take the leftovers you already have the container. And, if you go, leftovers you will have. The portions were very large and the food was very good. I wouldn’t say excellent since the people who ordered spicy dishes said the food was tasty but not especially spicy. My chop suey was excellent. The egg rolls were small and a little bland. All in all, I can recommend the place if you want quick and good Chinese and don’t want to go to a buffet or a fancy place. It is located in Surprise, Arizona, on Litchfield Road near Waddell Road.
After our lunch we went out for another hour or so of caching before quitting and heading back to the RV park. We ended up with ten new finds, and the other teams had thirteen with their three extras. We also had three DNFs. One we were pretty sure was just gone, the other two might have been there but we all missed them. Once we got back to the RV park we relaxed for the afternoon. We had happy hour on the patio at 5:00 with the Bullocks and the Wilsons. The Wilsons left about six to go to dinner with the Babcocks, who are also at the same park. We went in for leftovers and watched TV for the rest of the night.
Wednesday, March 28th, we had lunch at the coach and then went out to do some shopping. We needed to do a Costco run, mostly for vodka since we will be up in Camp Verde for two weeks with no Costco nearby. We also needed some regular groceries from Walmart. We went to the Costco on Bell road just east of Sun City and then to the Walmart right around the corner. Spent a lot of money, but we should be good for most things for the next couple weeks.
After shopping we went back to the coach and relaxed for the afternoon. At 5:00 we had happy hour on the patio with the Wilsons and the Bullocks. About 6:30 my eldest daughter,
Tye, came over with her family for dinner. We generally only get to see my kids and grandkids once or twice a year. Tye is always good about making time to see us when we get into the Phoenix area. She had her husband Frank with her as well as her youngest daughter Jordan, who is also my youngest granddaughter. We visited for a while, BBQed some burgers and hot dogs, and had a wonderful evening catching up on what is new. I am very proud of Tye as she is working full time as well as putting herself through a BS in Nursing program. She has worked for a long time in
the medical field, but always in clerical positions. She has always wanted to be a nurse and she finally put her mind to it, got admitted to a private nursing college, got the grants and loans to pay her way, and is on her way to degree in nursing. Having put myself through college as a working adult back in the 70's and 80's I know what she is up against and I am looking forward to being a proud dad at graduation. Go Tye!!!Jordan is now 12 and looks and acts like she is 17. However she is very polite and very much enjoys seeing Jackie and I. She and our cat Smoky still don’t see eye to eye as much as she tries. He just does not like kids. She has a bunch of cats at home and can’t understand why Smoky won’t be nice to her. Tye and the family left about 10:30 and we watched TV for a little bit before heading off to bed. A very nice day.
Thursday, March 29th, we stayed around the coach most of the day just relaxing. At 4:00 my brother Ken and his wife, Susan, came over to visit. Ken lives down in Goodyear, which is another Phoenix suburb, located about ten miles south of where we are. We chatted for a few minutes and then loaded up in our car and went out caching. We had introduced Ken and Susan to caching about three years ago and they have become avid cachers. They are up well over 2,000 finds already and have a bunch hidden as well.
We did some caching up along Bell Road and managed to get five finds before the sun went down, along with one DNF. After caching we went to a local Mexican chain, Macayo’s, which has one of their stores on Bell Road. I have always liked Macayo’s and ate at their places a lot when I lived here. They are Arizona based and the food is good, not outstanding, but better than average. I enjoyed my meal, but I had the same combination that I had at Raul and Theresa’s in Avondale last week and their’s was a little better. We had a very nice meal and talked about all the things going on in our lives.
After dinner we drove back to the coach and sat and talked for another hour or so until they decided it was time to leave. They both still work and had to get up early. Poor working people, I feel so badly for them. We will probably see them next week as they have said they will drive up to Camp Verde, our next stop, to see us. We watched a little TV and then went off to bed ourselves.
Friday, March 30th, we again left the coach about 10:30 or so to go do some geocaching before it got hot. The Bullocks and the Wilsons had gone out for breakfast earlier and they were already caching up in Sun City West, so we got their location and drove up to join them. Then the three teams went in search of more caches in the area. We ended up, after a couple of hours, with nine new finds and one DNF. We had a quick lunch at Wendy’s in between caching, but lunch was just us because the others had eaten breakfast. By about 2:00 or so we were back at the coach relaxing.
Around 4:30 we had the whole gang over for cocktails. This was us, the Bullocks, the Wilsons, the Babcocks, and the McKays. We had cocktails and chatted for an hour before leaving for the Sun City Elks Lodge for dinner. We arrived at the Elks about 6:00 and found the parking lot packed. We have been here before and we know that this lodge is one of the larger lodges in terms of membership. This lodge has around 3,000 members whereas the average lodge is probably closer to 600. The bar was busy and the dining room was packed, but surprisingly they found us a table for ten within minutes. The choices were fish, chicken or steak and it was a wait in line and get your own food kind of a service, but they seemed to have it well organized. We had a couple cocktails with dinner and enjoyed the meal. We had intended to leave the dining room and go to the bar so we could talk - the dining room was very noisy, both with people and with the band they had playing. However, the bar was completely full, so we just left, went back to the coach, and all got together again outside in the very pleasant evening. We chatted until about 9:30 when everyone finally packed up and headed back to their own coaches. A very nice day and a great evening with friends.
Saturday, March 31st, we awoke secure in the knowledge that we would not have to learn how to live with tens of millions of dollars. That’s right folks, we didn’t win the Mega Millions lottery last night. The five couples that are here together all put in $10 and we bought $50 worth of tickets for Friday’s drawing. Checking the numbers I found we had five numbers. Not on one line, five matches out of the total of 600 numbers that appeared on our fifty tickets. No power ball matches, no nothing, zip, nada. Oh well, we get by.
After lunch we went out so Jackie could get her hair trimmed again, she is still working on her new look. Other than that we didn’t do much. I did a few chores around
the coach, including defrosting the freezer on the refrigerator. When it gets too frosty it won’t make ice and that just won’t do at happy hour. About 4:30 we went over to Ray and Suzie’s coach and set up for our taco salad night. Ray is a retired fireman and is well known for his excellent taco salad which he used to make for his firehouse. Whenever a group of us get together, and the Babcocks are there, we have a taco salad night. I brought over the makings for Margaritas and started making those for everyone. We had all five couples over and we just sat in the shade and talked, drank Margaritas and had a good time. After the sunset we had the taco salad and it was as good as ever. We hung out until close to nine before everyone decided to drift back to their own coaches. We watched TV the rest of the night.Sunday, April 1st, this will be the last entry for the blog. I am tired of writing for all of you. “April Fools.” Actually, I don’t like April fools jokes and always
tell Jackie not to pull them on me. She still does some with friends, she just can’t resist. We left the coach after lunch and drove over to north-central Phoenix to see my
granddaughter Ashley and her family. Ashley is the middle child of my middle child and is the mother of my great-granddaughter Mackenzie. Mackenzie is the youngest of my three greats. Ashley and her husband Mac live in a condo that used to belong to my ex-wife’s mother. Although I have seen pictures of him on facebook, this would be the first time I have met Mac. We had a very nice visit and watched Mackenzie run
around the room, showing off and being silly like most 18 month old’s do. We learned a lot more about Mac, who is a computer programmer/tech and works for a subsidiary company of Chase Bank. He seems like a very nice guy. We stayed a couple of hours before leaving and heading back to the coach.
We had happy hour cocktails with the Bullocks and the Wilsons and then we did some light BBQ for dinner. It was a much colder day than the last few have been, so we ate dinner inside the Bullock’s coach. After dinner we chatted for a while. The Babcocks and the McKays also came over for a quick visit and to say goodbye. Tomorrow is a travel day and most of us are going separate directions. The Bullocks are going to Camp Verde with us and the Wilsons will be nearby in Sedona, but the others are heading back to California. About 8:30 or so we called it a night and went back to our coach.
Monday, April 2nd, we left Pueblo El Mirage and started north to our next destination, Camp Verde, Arizona. The first 30 miles of the trip were through metro Phoenix, although by starting at 10:00 we missed the rush hour and the traffic wasn’t bad. Once we hit I-17 and started north the traffic thinned out even more. The only bad part was the wind was very bad. The forecast had said the wind would die down last night, but the wind had other ideas. The trip was only 92 miles, but by the time we got to the Western Horizons park in Camp Verde my wrists were sore from fighting the wheel.
This park is our “home park” in the Western Horizons system, which means it is the park we actually joined. It is just off I-17 on Arizona 260 and is about 20 miles from Cottonwood, where my brother Dennis lives. We got to the park right at noon and we and the Bullocks got adjoining spaces. We spent some time getting hooked up and set up and then Jackie and I loaded up a ton of laundry and drove into Cottonwood to the laundromat. They have a laundry facility here at the park, but it is small we had two weeks worth of laundry to do. We got back to the park about 4:30, just in time for happy hour. We also got one geocache on the way back to the park. I mistakenly thought we needed one today for our “days of the year” grid, but as it turns out we didn’t . Oh well, one more find for our totals anyway.
After cocktails we went into the Bullock coach for dinner again. This time Peggy made a pasta dish that I just love. It is just pasta, spices, tomatoes and cheeses, but I love it. I always tell her it is one of a very few dishes without meat that I really like. After dinner we talked for a little while, but we went back to the coach early after a long hard day.
Our arrival here in Camp Verde is the perfect place to close this chapter out. We will be here in Camp Verde for two weeks, so I will likely post again when we move on to our next destination. Until the next time, keep the faith, enjoy friends and live life to the fullest. Later, ya’ll.
