Hodge Podge

Pearl has always talked about her cowgirl outfit as a child. It was no surprise that she bought a leather cowgirl hat in Quartzite and promptly put her artistic skills with jewelry to work in adding a band for it. Of course when we stayed in Benson AZ one of our trips was to Tombstone, not just to see the old west buildings, the OK Corral, and to ride the stagecoach but to check out the western wear. She headed right for the boots and moccasins. She looked at boots, leather cowgirl skirts, remembered she already had a leather vest and ended up buying a pair of moccasins. She even checked out the stick horses but passed on those also. Probably a gun and holster is next.

We are always on the lookout for animals. I’ve already mentioned that we got to see a bobcat trot by our motorhome in Quartzite. At the Imperial Dam LTVA near Yuma we got to see a wild burro and its foal a short distance from our campsite. Just a couple of days ago coming to Fort Davis TX we had four javelinas cross the road in front of us. I’ve seen a couple of coyotes and we hear them frequently at night.

We’ve seen some desert tortoise holes and kept our eyes open for rattlesnakes but until recently we’ve been told its too early—not warm enough for them to be up and about. I’ve spent lots of time hiking through the desert, rarely on a trail and the only creatures I’ve seen were a garter snake and some small lizards.

Nick Pavlopoulos with me in Tucson AZ

We’ve linked up with a couple more students. We met Nick Pavlopoulos at Chile’s in Tucson. Nick was a student of mine when I was teaching at NorthStar Academy. I spent five years teaching chemistry and physics over the Internet. I have had many fine students during my teaching career. In every way Nick was one of the finest with the student quickly surpassing the knowledge of his teacher. He is currently working towards a PhD in nanochemistry at the University of Arizona in Tucson.. It was fun to see his growing teaching skills as he reversed roles to become the teacher and successfully explained to his teacher turned student the nature of his research. Of course it had to be kept simple for us.

Elmer, Mike Harner, Pearl

Mike Harner had contacted us many weeks ago saying that if we were going to be in the Tombstone area to be sure to look him up. Mike was one of the students at International Christian Academy of Cote d’Ivoire when we were there. He served several years in the U.S. Army and is now a civilian consultant teaching computer skills to military personnel at Fort Hoachuca near Sierra Vista AZ. He and his wife Kylie invited us to their home for a delicious steak dinner. Fun to spend time with them, renewing friendship with Mike and getting to know Kylie (sp?) and their two year old son, Shawn (sp?).

In less than two weeks we will be in Houston TX reconnecting with Jim and Ora Lee Kirkham, staff members with us many years ago at Dalat School in Malaysia. We are expecting that we will be able to see other friends there as well.

Can you ever see too many desert sunsets?

Where Do We Camp?

Right now we are in Fort Davis, TX at a private RV park selected from a website description. The reviews were mostly very negative but it was in the right place and had a ½ price for Passport America members. We paid about $15 per night for full hook-up. Most of the negative reviews were spot-on.

We started out staying in a church parking lot in Sublimity for $0; overnight at Humbug State Park in OR for $13; overnight at Patrick’s Point State Park in CA for $33. At Joshua Tree National Park it was $5 per night; one night at a rest stop in CA for $0 and another night on the side of a street in a small town for $0.

The bargain price was the $180 for a LTVA permit for any of several desert areas in CA and AZ. We were only there for about two months ($3 per night) but the permit covered September 15 through April 15.

View from our motorhome at Imperial Dam LTVA near Yuma

We stayed a few days in Tucson at Catalina State Park’s overflow area (big parking lot) for $15 per night; and then a week at an Escapees RV Resort in Benson AZ for $50 (a special offer to entice us to join) and that brings us to the present. Our last site was Rockhound State Park near Deming NM where we paid about $17 per night.

Our goal for the entire trip is to average $10 per night. Pearl did the math and says we are currently at about $5 per night.

Our next three nights will be about $20 per night at the Stillwell Ranch near the Big Bend National Park and then four nights in the park itself at $7 per night.

I’m hoping for lots of U.S. Forest Service, BLM, Corps of Engineers, National Parks and other campgrounds offering the 50% discount for us old people to offset the times when we have to use the more expensive state parks and private parks.

Rockhound State Park near Deming NM

Campsites don’t seem to fit the adage that, “you get what you pay for.” My favorite campsites have been those no-hookups-of-any-kind LTVA sites in the desert.  My least favorites include our current private RV park in Fort Davis and the Escapees RV Resort in Benson—both were full hook up. One had all of the amenities of a resort. One was a dusty, run-down place w/ little similarity to the promised resort of the website.

Camping often seems an inappropriate word for an outing in a motorhome. It seems even more inappropriate to describe snuggling up to another RV in a closely packed resort as camping. Even though using a motorhome I think we still like to think we are camping. We have enjoyed the dry camping in the desert so much that when we spent the week in the Escapees resort we didn’t even hook up the electricity! 

Friends and Family

One of the downsides of taking off a year to travel around the U.S. Is being away from our family and friends. We miss them already but as was expected we are making new friends and occasionally running into family-almost literally.

Jim & Juanita Pettet

We had traveled north from Quartzite to Parker for a Wal-Mart visit and were in the produce section when I saw a familiar looking lady. When I called out, “Juanita” and she turned around I realized it was indeed my cousin's wife. They were staying in their motorhome in the Lake Havasu area but were coming to Quartzite the next day. We made arrangements to meet and had a great time together over a meal before our paths separated again.

Roadrunners

We hadn't seen a roadrunner until we got to Quartzite. Then every Friday we would see from 10 to 40 of them at a time in a group. The Quartzite Alliance church has a group who regularly take their jeeps and other 4WD vehicles on an outing into the desert for scenery, collecting rocks, and just visiting. They call themselves the Roadrunners. The chairs circle around a fire and roasting hotdogs is a popular activity using super roasting sticks made from old golf clubs with the head replaced with two or three prongs. I've got to have one of those (Monte?). We joined the group almost every week while in Quartzite.

Chuck & Frieda Hamilton

We met them at the first Roadrunner event we attended and discovered that Frieda had been a missionary to an MK school in Brazil as a retired teacher and widow. Later after marrying Chuck they went on several short term mission trips including to Kenya and India. They live in Portland but spend the winter in Quartzite. Chuck is a rockhound and has a favorite petrified wood site. Pearl and I talked him into taking us and we found a few pieces while Chuck unearthed a beautiful piece. He is the master!

Bert

Bert with her two pieces of petrified wood

Our daughter, Roberta, had planned for months to join us for a week in Quartzite. She flew to Palm Springs where we picked her up from Quartzite. We had already been in Quartzite for a month and would see an area every day that we had not visited--there are certainly several hundred and maybe thousands of vendors of all kinds scattered around the area during the winter. Bert only had one week and wanted to include rock collecting trips, bead and jewelry shopping, and see & experience everything available!

We made three different rock collecting trips and she came back with pounds and pounds of agate and jasper along with two excellent and large pieces of the petrified wood. Bert had only carry-on for her flight. After picking out only her best rocks she still had enough to fill two USPS Priority Mail boxes with about 35 pounds in each box. Pearl and I had already recognized that if we took her to the petrified wood site she would undoubtedly find large pieces to be stashed away in the motorhome for the rest of our trip. She did. It would be interesting to hear conversations of future campers staying near the little wash where many pounds of rock and agate from far distant places are now found.

When Bert received the boxes of rocks back in Sublimity OR all was well except for one corner of one of the boxes—the one where the rare earth magnets she had purchased for her husband (Monte) were located. Those strong magnets had already pinched/bruised both Pearl and Bert. I envisioned the box stuck to some metal object enroute and a USPS worker calling for help as he tried to pull it free.

Allen & Carol Strand

Carol was married to my brother many years ago and was a welcome part of the family. Today, married to Allen, we still consider her family (and Allen too!). We knew from earlier conversations that Allen and Carol were considering buying a travel trailer but were surprised to read on Facebook that they were in Yuma for a month or two in a new trailer. It was a special treat to get to meet with them and spend a few hours together in Yuma.

Eating Humble Pie

Our Quartzite Home

I've been pleased with modifications I've made to our motor home. I replaced the bulky old TV above the front windshield with a new LED model. Looks great and works fine. I removed the second bulky old TV from the bedroom and replaced it with a newly installed shelf and cabinet space. More useful than a 2^nd TV.

Expecting to do most of our “camping” without electrical hookups and not being fond of generator use, I created a new battery compartment and replaced the two 12V batteries with 4 golf-cart batteries. I then installed two large solar panels on the roof (thank you for your help, Monte). We have now been living for two months without having an electrical hookup and have used the generator only 2 or 3 times, mostly to give it regular exercise. We have all the electrical power we need/want and the batteries are back to full-charge every evening.

We had our first RV back in the late 60's—a small trailer we could pull with our '64 Mustang. Since then we have had a converted van camper, two different travel trailers and now our class A motorhome. We have traveled many thousands of miles, spent countless days and nights in the RV's, and experienced (and solved) many of the problems that occur.

I should be able to pat myself on the back in congratulations for being an RV “EXPERT.”

Then came time to visit the dump station half-way through our stay at Quartzite. A routine event, not eagerly anticipated but one handled easily many, many times by all RVers.

I pulled the motorhome into the narrow space and slowly crept forward to align my waste tank outlet with the dump station drain. Leaving the motor on I opened the door to double-check and hear the noise of the automatic steps grinding on the curb. Attempting to retract the stairs was not successful but moving the motorhome forward a few feet (with accompanying grinding) finally freed them.

The following is not for the squeamish! Now in position to empty my tanks. I get out the drain hose and set it up ready to connect to the outlet of my waste tanks. I grasp the cap to unscrew it and attach the drain hose. That should be an uneventful procedure. This time it wasn't! One or both of the slide valves for the grey water and black water tanks had been leaking. I would like to think it was only the grey water valve but suspect it was worse!

After a messy cleanup I finished dumping the tanks and proceeded to the next task. Filling the water tank. How difficult can that be?

There is a line of RV's wanting to dump and fill with water. I don't want to hold anybody up and am hurrying on to the water spigots when I realize that I always fill the water on the passenger side and am now waiting in line for the driver's side. No problem. I think there's a way to fill on the driver's side.

My turn comes and I hook my hose to the spigot and hook it to the city water connection on the motorhome. I turn on the spigot and wait for the tank to fill. After considerable time another RVe

r asks, “Are you sure you have connected that correctly?” I hadn't flipped the switch to send it to my water tank instead of directly to the motorhome plumbing. No water was going anywhere.

I went around the motorhome where I could see the water level in the tank and convinced myself it was filling but slowly. By this time another RVer was beside me and I was commenting on how slow it was going but I was still convinced it was filling. Then I noticed the spray around their spigot connection and none around mine. I checked the spigot. I hadn't turned on the water.

The fact that a 30 minute dump station trip had taken me an hour was bad enough. What was really bothering me was that multiple RVers had observed my ineptitude and undoubtedly concluded that this gray-haired old man was undoubtedly no longer capable of handling the operation of a motorhome.

Hopefully this dump station trip was just an anomaly and not an accurate picture of my qualifications to continue this trip in our motorhome.