ALASKA TRIP, PART 2

Wednesday morning, June 6, we left Sikanni River and headed for Fort Nelson, BC. We saw bear and moose along the way...unfortunately, not in an area where we could pull over and take a picture; however, we did see some spectacular scenery.

View from MP DC182.8

Travelin' down the highway:











When we arrived in Fort Nelson, our first stop was the Husky 5th Wheel Truck Stop and RV Park where we learned that all the RV parks in town were full and no one was being allowed to continue north on the Alaska Highway unless they had confirmed reservations someplace up the road. All this because of the washout at Iron Creek, south of Watson Lake.

The woman at the RV park suggested that we could use the city park to park overnight, so we stopped by the Visitors Center and City Hall to confirm that we could, indeed, do this. I don't think they normally let RV's park overnight there, but under the circumstances, they let us stay in the city park. As soon as we parked, other RV's started coming in and parking, too. By the time we went to bed, we had a full house.

We toured the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum which has an excellent displays of pioneer artifacts, Alaska Highway history, wildlife (including a white moose), and a spruce bark canoe. We had dinner at Dixie Lee's and later walked across the street to the Elk's club for drinks.

The next day, we learned that the road up ahead was to be opened to traffic about noon, so we left Fort Nelson and traveled 118 miles to the Toad River Lodge in Toad River, BC.

While on a walk around the park, we saw the two women we'd met in Whitecourt, Alberta. They had been stranded there for three days because of the washout and were looking forward to moving on the next morning. We were told that the road had, indeed, been opened that afternoon but that there was now a 12-mile backup waiting to get through!

Headstone at Steamboat Lodge:

View from Steamboat Lodge:











View from MP DC336.7 (Canadian Rockies):












On our way to Toad River, we saw Stone sheep along the road at one of our rest stops. Stone sheep are indigenous to the mountains of northern British Columbia and southern Yukon Territory. They are darker and somewhat slighter than the bighorn sheep found in the Rocky Mountains. They are often seen on the road as they like to lick the salt off the road.













View from our rest stop, MP DC379.7:











We had a beautiful spot on the Toad River...backed up to the lake where we could watch the ducks, beaver, and a moose who came down to the river to eat.

View from our campsite:

Moose:

ALASKA TRIP, PART 1

We spent three days in Spruce Grove, Alberta (a western suburb of Edmonton) getting our king pin fixed...actually, the supporting structure around the king pin which had broken again on the same side as last fall. We were really lucky that we found a great welder who not only welded the break, but also put in some additional supports so, hopefully, we'll be okay for our trip to Alaska.

Originally when we left Edmonton, we were going to drive north on Highway 2 up to Lesser Slave Lake; however, that area was having terrible forest fires and, in fact, the roads had been closed for a time. Instead, we decided on the same route we had taken in 1998 -- Highway 43 which heads northwest out of Edmonton to Dawson Creek, British Columbia. So on Thursday, May 31, we left Spruce Grove and drove 124 miles to the Sagitawah RV Park in Whitecourt, Alberta. The word Sagitawah means "where the rivers meet" and, indeed, the park is just about 1/2 mile or less from the confluence of the Athabasca and McLeod Rivers.

A couple of older women pulled in behind us when we arrived at the park and ended up parked behind us in their small truck and fifth wheel. We stopped and chatted with them until the bugs drove us back inside and found out that one of the women lives in Youngstown west of Phoenix. Small world.

The next day, we drove 184 miles to the Camp Tamarack RV Park in Grande Prairie, Alberta where we spent two days doing laundry and stocking up on supplies at Costco and the grocery store. On our second day in Grande Prairie, we had a late lunch/early dinner at Tony Roma's.

Our first moose sighting!











On Sunday, June 3, we drove the 90 miles into Dawson City, B.C., where we met up with the other two couples who will be traveling with us -- Bill & Gisela Pollock and Kirk & Gen Griffith (all New Horizons owners) -- at the Northern Lights RV Park. Unfortunately, the other couple who were going to make the trip with us, Judy Maynard and Gus Gurule, couldn't make it. We'll really miss having them on the trip.

We spent two days in Dawson Creek seeing the sights and having a couple of meals at the Alaska Cafe & Pub. We toured the Dawson Creek Station Museum which contains pioneer artifacts and wildlife displays, including a collection of more than 50 birds' eggs from the area which was quite interesting. We also went through the Dawson Creek Art Gallery which is housed in the last of Dawson Creek's old grain elevators and has a good display of Alaska Highway construction photos, and had ice cream cones at the Blue Goose Caboose which is housed in a 1903 railway car.

Dawson Creek Art Gallery:

Alaska Highway Monument:

Mile 0 Marker:











Iris in bloom at the Art Gallery:

Getting ready to leave:











We left Dawson Creek on an overcast Tuesday morning. Our first stop was the Kiskatinaw River Bridge which is located on part of the original old Alaska Highway and is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Highway that is still in use today. We stopped in Fort St. John, the oldest white settlement in mainland British Columbia, for lunch.

Kiskatinaw River Bridge:

Maxx looking for critters:











Looking back at the Kiskatinaw River Bridge:











We drove 162 miles to the Sikanni River RV Park in Sikanni River, BC, where we dry camped by the river. While at the park, we learned that the road farther north, at a place called Iron Creek, had been washed out. They expect it to be repaired in two or three days. It did rain a bit after we arrived at the park, but we were able to start a fire and sit around it for awhile.

Sikanni River:

Restroom facilities!











Sign for dog walk area:

MAY 2001

Tuesday, May 1

We left Smith Center and drove 122 miles to the Johnson Lake State Recreation Area near Lexington, Nebraska. We stayed here in 1999 on our way to a New Horizons rally and thought it was a really nice park. It has only electrical hookups, but there are several places around the park where you can stop and fill up with water and there is a dump as you leave the park.

Johnson Lake:

Our rig at Johnson Lake











Wednesday, May 2

We drove 102 miles to Ole's Lodge & RV Park in Paxton, Nebraska. We were originally planning on spending the night in Ogallala (another 20 miles down the road) until I found out that Ole's had "instant" telephone hookups. Even though AOL doesn't have a local number in Paxton, we decided to spend a couple of days here so I could at least update our web site for April. After setting up, we drove into Ogallala to pick up our mail and stopped to do some grocery shopping.

Friday, May 4

We left Paxton and drove 154 miles to Riverside Park Zoo Campground in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. This is a nice campground (although a little on the muddy side because of recent rains) that is right next to a small zoo. Had the weather not been cold and rainy, we would have taken a tour through the zoo -- we'll have to save that for a future visit. We passed right by Chimney Rock and would have stopped to take a picture, but it was shrouded in fog. Again, guess we'll just have to come back in the future.

Saturday, May 5 through Friday May 11

It rained most of the night and was still raining Saturday morning when we got up. While we were having our morning coffee, it stopped raining so we decided to pack up and leave before it started to rain again. We stopped in Torrington, Wyoming for breakfast.

We drove 183 miles to the Fort Caspar Campground in Casper, Wyoming. After having dinner at Pecos Lil's, we made a trip out to the Teton factory to see exactly where it was. It's quite a ways out of town -- in fact, when we arrived, there were cows all around the factory eating the grass. It was quite a site and we wondered if the cows made occasional visits into the factory!

On Monday, we drove out to the Teton factory and took a tour. We were suitably impressed with their manufacturing process. Earl said he liked Excel's frame work better than Teton's. Teton has some things we like -- floorplan, higher payload, bigger holding and fresh water tanks, and larger basement area; however, they're 102" wide compared with Excel's 96", and the Teton's are 12'8" tall compared with Excel at 11'11" (not to mention the difference in price). Also, we found out that the line that we like in the Teton (Tradition) will not be produced next year -- it's going to be incorporated into the next higher line, so at the present time, we don't know how that will change the pricing. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how things shape up this fall. After our tour, we had lunch at Adam's Rib.

We took our truck to Casper Truck Center on Tuesday to have the oil changed and a lube job. The service manager took us back home and picked us up again when the truck was finished. The truck should be all set for our trip to Alaska now. Hopefully, we won't have any trouble with our rig on this trip. When we went to Alaska in 1998 with our truck and camper, we didn't have any trouble -- not even a flat tire or broken headlight -- and don't really expect any trouble this time (especially considering the fact that we now have 4 brand new tires on the fifth wheel!).

On Wednesday, we had breakfast at Hardee's then filled up with diesel and went shopping at Sam's Club.

Thursday we did some grocery shopping. I was so excited when I found Kashi at Safeway! Kashi is a "breakfast pilaf" that contains different types of grains which I use to making Maxx's food, but it's difficult to find. Safeway had four boxes and I bought all four. We also went by a pet store and bought a new collar for Maxx to replace the one he destroyed when we were in Smith Center. It was an old collar and the plastic clasp must have gotten brittle because when he saw a cat and hit the end of his lead, the clasp snapped and off Maxx ran after the cat! Fortunately, he treed the cat so he was easy to retrieve as he stood at the bottom of the tree looking up at the cat.

An original "RV":

Buildings at Fort Caspar:











On Friday, we took a tour of the Fort Caspar Museum. The name of the fort was originally Platte Bridge Station, but was changed to Fort Caspar after Lt. Caspar Collins, who was killed by the Sioux and Cheyenne when he was sent out with a small detachment to help escort a wagon train to Platte Bridge Station. The town of Casper, Wyoming was named after Caspar Collins, but was misspelled; thus the difference in spelling. We saw an "original RV" like that pictured above (actually, a sheepherder's wagon) in a field on our way to Billings, Montana. It looked in good shape, so I think it was still in use.

Saturday, May 12

Monument at Connor Battlefield:

Tongue River:











View of Big Horn Mountains from our campsite:











We drove 184 miles to Connor Battlefield State Historic Site in Ranchester, Wyoming. This is a nice little park (no hookups) along the Tongue River. We thought that the "battle" was probably between soldiers and Indian warriors; however, a plaque on the monument shown above says: "Here Aug. 29, 1865, troops and Indian scouts commanded by Gen. P.E. Connor destroyed an Arapaho Indian village." An Indian village? I assume that means women and children, too. Some "battle."

Sunday, May 13 through Wednesday, May 16

We drove 121 miles to the Trailer Village RV Park in Billings, Montana. We decided on this park rather than the one at which we'd stayed last year because it was less expensive than the other one. Now we know why -- this park is made up mostly of decrepit RV's that are here on a permanent basis. Guess next time we come to Billings, we'll go back to the park we stayed at originally.

It was hot when we got here, so decided not to cook. We were going to eat at the Olive Garden, but had forgotten that it was Mother's Day and Olive Garden had people lined up outside, so we ended up at the Jade Garden, a Chinese restaurant, where we had pretty good food.

One of my partial crowns came off Sunday night while I was flossing, so I called a dentist and was lucky enough to get an appointment. The dentist was able to re-glue the partial -- hopefully, it'll last until after our trip to Alaska! After the trip to the dentist, we went by Costco to pick up things that we weren't able to get at Sam's Club when we were in Casper.

We did additional shopping while in Billings, picking up final supplies before heading into Canada (of course, it's not like Canada doesn't have stores), including filling up with diesel. No matter how expensive fuel is here in the lower 48, I imagine we'll be paying more in Canada and Alaska.

Thursday, May 17

We drove 145 miles to the James Kip Recreation Area on the Missouri River. This park is north of Grass Range, Montana on Highway 191. It's quite a nice park although it has no hookups. It's quiet here and dark at night, unlike a lot of RV parks that feel they need to keep the park lighted at night like it was noon -- we can even see the stars here!

Saturday, May 19 through Wednesday, May 23

We crossed over the Canadian border today at the Morgan Port of Entry -- where Montana Highway 191 crosses the border into Saskatchewan. The lone border guard was busy with someone else when we arrived, so we fixed a sandwich and had lunch while we were waiting for her to finish. We expected a search much like we'd had when we went to Alaska in 1998 (the border guards at the Alberta station -- where Interstate 15 crosses the border -- searched our camper and truck with a fine tooth comb then), but this guard just asked us some questions and we were on our way -- after paying duty on some liquor and wine (which is still cheaper than buying them in Canada).

Saskatchewan Highway 4 north from the border was terrible most of the way to Swift Current. We decided that we wouldn't come into Canada this way again because of the road. We drove a total of 223 miles today and checked into the Trail Campground in Swift Current.

On Monday, we went to the bank to exchange money, but found that the banks were closed because of Victoria Day. Fortunately, there was an ATM available so we were able to get some Canadian money. We then went by one of the local gas stations and filled up with diesel.

Tuesday, we did grocery shopping and stopped at the Post Office to pick up Canadian stamps to mail bills while we're here. To mail a letter to the U.S. from Canada costs $.60 Canadian, which is about $.39 U.S. The exchange rate now is around 1.55 which means for every U.S. dollar, you get $1.55 in Canadian money. It really makes it great for people from the U.S. to travel in Canada.

On Wednesday, I picked up sandals (the kind with a heel strap) and we found a health food store that carried Noni juice for Earl. That evening, we went to dinner at Poverino's Pasta Grill where we had excellent Italian food.

Thursday, May 24

We drove 201 miles to Tillebrook RV Park in Brooks, Alberta. This is a very nice park where all the sites are laid out in circles. Two of the circles, A and C, had electricity at each site; the other two had no hookups. It looks likes a park that may, at one time, have been a public park, but now is private.

A storm rolled in during the wee hours of the morning bringing thunder and lightening. As usual when the thunder starts -- or at least when it starts getting loud -- Maxx jumped up into bed with us (to protect us, of course). We covered him up with the down comforter and there he stayed for the rest of the night. I though maybe he'd get too warm and eventually crawl out from underneath the covers, but he didn't.

Friday, May 25

We drove 168 miles to Rosebud Valley Park, a city park in Didsbury, Alberta. Again, this park has only electrical hookups -- no water or sewer. But for $13.00 Canadian (about $8.40 U.S.), it's a great bargain.

Saturday, May 26 thru Sunday, May 27

We drove 145 miles to the Whitemud Creek Golf & RV Resort in Edmonton, Alberta. The roads getting to the park are pretty bad, but the park itself is nice -- quite a ways from the freeway out in the country, so it's quiet.

Sunday, we drove out to the West Edmonton Mall -- the largest mall in the world. And it is huge! It has water slides, an ice skating rink, a submarine ride and lots, lots more that we didn't get a chance to see. It would take several days of walking to see everything in this mall!

Monday, May 28

I'm going to wrap this up for the month of May. We're leaving the park earlier than planned because we got an appointment with a hitch repair place...we need to get our hitch repaired before we take the trip to Alaska. We're meeting two other couples in Dawson Creek (the start of the Alaska Highway) on June 3.

I'll try to update our web site as often as possible during our Alaska trip -- I'll do so whenever we have a chance, so it won't necessarily be done once a month like it normally is. Check back once in a while and follow us along on our trip. It should be exciting!

APRIL 2001

Sunday, April 1 through Thursday, April 5

On Sunday, we drove 166 miles to the Blue Bonnet RV Park in Mission, Texas. Mission, McAllen, and Pharr are at the "Tip of Texas" west of Brownsville.

Monday, we went shopping at Camping World and the H.E.B. grocery store. That evening, we had a wonderful visit with Joe and Arlene Strain, a couple we'd parked next to at last year's Fall Escapade in Goshen, Indiana. They prepared us a great steak dinner!

On Tuesday, we did some shopping at Sam's Club and took all three tires back to the local Goodyear tire store (the two flat ones and the last of the remaining original tires that Earl had replaced with one of the new tires we bought in Ozona). We got an adjustment and were able to purchase a new tire for only about $70. Of course, had we known at the time we had the first flat tire that three others were going to go bad, we would have gone ahead and bought four new all steel tires. Oh well, hind sight is always 20/20!

Tuesday evening, we visited with Don and Margaret Leonard, fellow New Horizons owners who we met at the New Horizons Owners rallies. We had a great visit with them and went out to dinner at Las Caneras, where we had some delicious Mexican food.

We had planned leaving Mission on Thursday morning, but Wednesday, as we were driving around town, the fuel filter clogged up on us again. We barely limped into the Freightliner dealer where we had to leave the truck overnight since they were too busy to get to it right then. We rented a car and returned to the RV park.

Picked up the truck Thursday afternoon and then took our picnic table out to Don and Margaret Leonard's place for them to store until this Fall. The only place we have to put the table while we're traveling is behind the chair in the living room and, since it's a real pain to deal with there and we probably won't have any use for it on our Alaska trip, we decided to let Don and Margaret keep it until we can pick it up later this year.

Friday, April 6

Drove 166 miles to Smith's Trailer and RV Park in George West, Texas. This is the same RV park at which we'd stayed on our trip down to Mission. It's a nice, quiet park that's not listed in either of the campground guides we use.

Saturday, April 7 through Friday, April 13

We drove 112 miles to the Lone Star Corral -- an Escapees park -- in Hondo, Texas. We had lunch in Hondo at Margarita's, a Mexican food restaurant, after we'd set up.













On Tuesday, we took a trip into San Antonio to see the Alamo and the River Walk. I was surprised at how small the Alamo is -- I'd thought it was a much larger building. And I learned some things about the Alamo that I never knew, or at least had forgotten: it's original name was Mission San Antonio de Valero and was a home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly 70 years. It wasn't until the early 1800s when the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission, that the name was changed to the Alamo (Spanish for "cottonwood") in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. There is a wall inside with the names of the 189 men who died in defense of the Alamo.













The River Walk is located on a portion of the San Antonio River that loops through town. This portion of the river is lined with shops and restaurants and there are tour boats that travel the loop. The river here is small since the river's headwaters are springs located about three miles north of downtown. These springs are part of a vast underground lake called Edwards Aquifer which is 180 miles long and varies from 5 to 30 miles in width. We had lunch at one of the restaurants along the river, Cafe Ole.












On Wednesday, Earl played golf at the Hondo Golf Club and we went out to dinner at Bill & Rosa's where we had a steak dinner. And Thursday found us back at Margarita's for lunch.

Saturday April 14 through Monday April 16

Saturday we drove 96 miles to the Fredericksburg RV Park in Fredericksburg, Texas. After setting up, we went to the Auslander Restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner and had some great German food.












Sunday we drove out to the Wild Seed Farms, the largest working wildflower farm in the United States. The fields were ablaze with the blooms of poppies, moss verbena, Texas Paintbrush, Texas Bluebonnet (the Texas state flower), and others. We tried to get into a couple of other places, but it being Easter, they were closed, so we went back home and prepared the chicken we got for Easter dinner.

On Monday, we went to the Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Museum which contains exhibits on the early history of Fredericksburg and the career of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Also included in the museum was the National Museum of the Pacific War which tells the story of the people, battles and campaigns of the Pacific War. One of the exhibits here was a Japanese midget sub captured at Pearl Harbor.












We also drove by the local cemetery and walked around. This is a very old cemetery, but still in use -- there was at least one grave from the 1700's.

Tuesday, April 17 through Monday, April 22

We drove 199 miles to our home Coast to Coast park in Whitney, Texas -- Suncountry Resort. The fields around the park are filled with blooming Texas Paintbrush and Texas Bluebonnets. Of course, Maxx loves to go for long walks in the fields!













On Wednesday, we went to Radio Shack and bought a weather radio. This is one that can be programmed with up to 15 counties and will turn on when the National Weather Service issues a weather warning. We figured it might be wise to get one of these devises since we're going to be heading into the part of the country that can have tornadoes this time of year.

On Thursday, we drove into Waco to the Social Security office where Earl signed up to start receiving Social Security when he turns 62 on July 19. Of course, the first payment won't be until September. While we were in Waco, we had lunch at the Olive Garden and then stopped by Office Max to pick up some office supplies.

Friday, Earl went golfing at the Lake Whitney Golf Club while Maxx and I stayed home and did laundry (Maxx is a really big help!).

Saturday, we did some grocery shopping and went out to dinner at one of the local restaurants in town. We also had a nice visit with the people parked next to us.

Monday, April 23

We drove 209 miles to Kiowa Park at Waurika Lake near Hastings, Oklahoma. This is a Corps of Engineers park and most sites have both water and electricity. This is such a nice park that we decided we definitely must come back again.

Sunset over Lake Waurika:











Tuesday, April 24 through Thursday, April 26

Drove 237 miles to the New Horizons factory in Junction City, Kansas, where we're going to have some changes made to our fifth wheel -- permanent shelves in the pantry, a cupboard in the bathroom (the area that contains the shower and toilet), etc. There are two other couples here that are also having stuff done to their fifth wheel and one couple who is picking up their brand new fifth wheel. We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel with one of the couples who are here having changes made to their fifth wheel, Tom and Kay Seliskar. The couple who are here picking up their new fifth wheel, Brad and Rama Katz, are a very nice young couple (in their early 30's) who are just starting out on their fulltiming lifestyle.

On Thursday, we did some grocery shopping and made a run to the hardware store to pick up some pegs for the coat rack that we're having Horizons make for us. In the evening, we barbecued hamburgers and had dinner with Tom and Kay and then played Mexican Train Dominoes with them.

Friday, April 27

Before we left the New Horizons factory, Kay gave me a copy of their story about how they came about buying a New Horizons fifth wheel. I realized I'd read their story before on the RV Consumers Group website and exclaimed, "Oh, so you're those people!" The short story is that when they came to tour the factory, Tom and Kay discovered that they lived in the very same house that Harold Johnson, the owner of Horizons, Inc., had built and lived in many years ago in Burnsville, MN!

We drove 112 miles to the Triple J Campground in Russell, Kansas, the hometown of Bob Dole. We stopped by Smoky Hill winery on our way here to pick up some wine -- we had stopped here in 1998 on our way back from touring the New Horizons factory and like some of their wine.

Sunday, April 29

We drove 84 miles to the Sunset Park Campground in Smith Center, Kansas where we will be touring the Excel factory (a fifth wheel manufacturer). After arriving and setting up, we had lunch at Paul's Cafe.

Monday afternoon, we drove down to the Excel factory and a very nice young man, Jay, took us on a tour of the factory. We were quite impressed with the quality of their work (of course, we already knew they manufactured a quality fifth wheel -- RVCG rates them 4 stars). After the tour, Jay followed us back to our fifth wheel so that he could inspect a New Horizons. That evening, we had a delicious steak dinner at Duffy's Steakhouse.

More nap buddies:

MARCH 2001

Thursday, March 1

Got up early this morning, hooked up, then drove down to RV Doctor to have the wheel bearings packed and the awning repaired. After dropping the fifth wheel off, we went to I-HOP for breakfast and then stopped by Mom's house for a visit.

After leaving Mom's house, we drove by Sun City RV to look at some Teton fifth wheels. The guy that showed them to us was really hot to sell one to us...if we bought TODAY, we could get a $80,000 RV for $40,000! Yea, right...and I have some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you!

Just after we left Sun City RV, we got a call from RV Doctor to let us know that the work on our fifth wheel was finished, so we headed back, paid the bill, hooked up, and were on our way to Quartzsite.

We arrived in Quarzsite shortly after 3:30 PM and made our way to Don and Patti Hellman's house (amazingly, Earl remembered how to get here from last year). Don & Patti also have a tri-colored Basenji. After setting up, we had a nice visit with Patti and then she fixed us all a delicious spaghetti dinner.

Views from the Hellman's place:













Friday, March 2 through Sunday, March 4

On Friday, the four of us drove into Quartzsite and walked around the vendor area. Most of the activity is over for this winter season, but there are still quite a few vendors around selling their wares. I bought some t-shirts that were on sale at 3 for $10 and Earl bought a sweatshirt. We also got a shedding blade for Maxx to help pull out the old hair. Maxx sheds every spring once the weather starts warming up and we have been using a pumice stone to strip out the old hair, but the shedding blade works even better.

Friday evening, we took Don and Patti out to dinner at the Palo Verde Cafe. We all had their fish and chips which was quite good.

On Saturday, Earl took the truck down to one of the local truck stops and filled up with diesel. Then we went grocery shopping...had to go to a couple of different grocery stores to find what we wanted. Then, later, Patti took us by the General Store...we hadn't stopped at this store previously...which had a nice looking meat counter.

Hi Jolly's Monument:











On Sunday, Earl, Patti, and I took a drive down to the local cemetery to see Hi Jolly's Monument. Hi Jolly came to the U.S. from Siria in the early 1900's and drove camels in the desert for the Army in what was a failed experiment. We walked around and looked at the grave markers, some of which were quite old.

Of course, Maxx and Chico had fun playing together as they always do:

Chico:


Maxx:









Wanna play?

Can't reach me!

I'm gonna get ya!

Monday, March 5

We left Quartzsite about 10:30 AM and drove 235 miles to the Adalanto RV Park in Adalanto, California. We decided we wanted to go out for dinner and drove around town for quite awhile looking for a restaurant. Most of the business in Adalanto seem to be boarded up, but we finally saw the Thai Siam Restaurant and decided to try it. It was a good choice...they had really delicious Thai food!

Tuesday, March 6

We were going to leave Adalanto today, but it was raining when we got up, so decided to stay one more day and complete doing our laundry. We drove into Victorville to do grocery shopping. I was hoping there would be a Kinko's in Victorville so I could download e-mail, but no such luck. The RV park where we're staying has a modem hookup, but they want $2.50 for it's use and I refuse to pay for a phone hookup particularly when I'm already paying to use AOL's 800 number. Not to mention the fact that $2.50 is an outrageous price!

Wednesday, March 7

Drove 305 miles to the Santa Nella RV Park in Santa Nella, California. We stopped at the Flying J north of Bakersfield on our way north for lunch and to fill up with diesel. This Flying J had modem hookups at the tables, so I was able to download e-mail. The morning started out rainy, but by the time we crossed the Tehachapi Mountains, the sun was shining.

Thursday, March 8

We drove into Los Banos to tour the AutoMate factory, which is a factory-direct custom fifth wheel manufacturer much like New Horizons. We were really impressed with some of the things that they are doing...like air ride suspension and hydraulic disc brakes. Plus, they have a very sturdy framework similar to the one on the New Horizons. And they will do the three things we want in a new fifth wheel that New Horizons currently does not do...triple slides, flat floors, and ducted air conditioning.

So, after the tour, and a lengthy discussion with the owner of AutoMate, Bill Warrick, we went back home (after stopping for lunch, of course) and added up what it would cost for the fifth wheel we wanted. It came out to over $80,000! Since we'd be dealing directly with the factory instead of a dealer, there's no wheeling and dealing like you might do with a dealer...whatever the price turns out to be, that's the price you pay. The thing that struck us was that it seemed like they were nickel and diming the buyer to death. "Everything" seems to be an option...things that are standard in many, many RV's (such as a microwave). The other thing that bothered us was the fact that, for the price they're asking, they don't use solid oak for the cabinet framing...it's all vinyl wrapped pine...and some of their other woodwork just wasn't up to the standards we've become used to in our New Horizons. At any rate, although AutoMate does produce a very nice unit, for what we want, it's out of our price range.

Nap buddies:

Saturday, March 10 and Sunday, March 11

We drove 67 miles to the Big Bear Park in Waterford, California.

After setting up, we drove to Judy Maynard and Gus Gurule's house in Modesto. Gus and Judy are friends whom we became acquainted with through the Internet. They'd just recently purchased the house and have already put in a lot of work to fix it up -- new kitchen appliances, hardwood floors, painting, and new carpets. They've done a really wonderful job and their place looks great!

Gus and Judy served us lunch and then the guys went off to play a round of golf (the golf course is just across the street, a situation Earl would find very appealing!). Gus and Judy have taken some Indian cooking classes (Eastern Indian) and they prepared a delicious Indian dinner for us.

Gus, Judy, and Manchas:

On Sunday, Gus prepared his world famous tortilla breakfast -- homemade tortillas with scrambled eggs, bacon, salsa, avocado, etc. YUM!

While the guys went golfing again, Judy and I wandered around, stopping at a roadside stand where Judy picked up some fruits and vegetables which she was kind enough to share with us. We also stopped at a book store where I found the new Milepost. We both bought a copy for our trip to Alaska this summer. That evening, Gus and Judy fed us another delicious dinner.

Monday, March 12

We left Big Bear Park and drove 225 miles to Bakersfield Palms RV Resort in Bakersfield, California. This is one of the few parks that have "instant" telephone hookups at each site, so I was able to do some surfing on the Internet.

Tuesday, March 13

We drove 162 miles to Twin Lakes RV Park in Newberry Springs, California. On our way there, we stopped at Boron, California and had lunch at Domingo's, a Mexican food restaurant. The next time we come this way, we're definitely going to stop here and eat again because they had really GOOD Mexican food -- even better than one of our favorites, Lilly's in Glendale, Arizona!

After lunch, we continued heading east on Highway 58 toward Barstow. We started having problems with the truck which, at first, we thought might be a tire or driveline problem. We pulled off the road and Earl crawled underneath the truck to look for problems while I checked out all the tires. We didn't find anything that looked amiss, so we continued on our way. We remembered an article we'd read in the last "Freightliner Towing Times" we'd just recently received about someone whose truck had the same symptoms and it turned out to be a fuel filter which was plugged. We figured this was probably the problem and it was confirmed when we lost power going up a small hill once we got on Interstate 15. We stopped at a Rip Griffin just a mile south of where we'd entered the freeway to have both fuel filters changed. Fortunately, we had a spare small fuel filter, as Rip Griffin didn't have that one in stock. We were back on our way within about an hour, problem fixed.

Wednesday, March 14

We drove 203 miles to Emerald Cove, a Coast to Coast park in Earp, California (across the Colorado River from Parker, Arizona). We stopped in Needles before arriving at the park to do grocery shopping and have lunch.

Thursday, March 15

As we were preparing everything to leave Emerald Cove this morning, Earl noticed that the front, curb side tire on the fifth wheel was flat. In attempting to loosen the lug nuts on the tire, we found out that the person at RV Doctor who had packed the wheel bearings had tightened them way too tight and Earl had to struggle to get them loosened. After getting the lug nuts loosened and the tire off, Earl had another struggle getting the spare tire off -- it's underneath the fifth wheel just behind the rear tires. Fortunately, the guy behind us came over and helped. Finally, the tire was changed and we were on our way back to Cotton Lane RV Resort, 144 miles down the road.

Friday, March 16 through Wednesday, March 21

We took a trip over to Mesa to look at fifth wheels, stopping at Flying J on our way to fill up with fuel. We didn't get to see much, however, as most of the places that used to carry the RV's we are interested in have either gone out of business or are no longer carrying the brands they used to carry. You'd think in a place as big as Phoenix and with as many snowbirds as there are in the area during the winter, there would be lots of places that sell the high-end fifth wheels; however, it seems that most of the places are going with the low-end products. Very disappointing.

We did a lot of running around while we were back in Phoenix for the week: we stocked up on supplies at Costco; Earl took the flat tire to Goodyear and got a new tire (they gave us a credit for the old tire since the flat was due to tread separation); Earl did some golfing; stopped by the local Napa Auto Parts store to pick of a couple of extra fuel filters; I got my hair cut; and, we went back to Murphy's of Glendale with Philip and Lorraine Steinberg, friends from Cotton Lane Rv Resort, for some of their delicious German food.

Thursday, March 22

We drove 392 miles today to Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico, an Escapees park. This was a very long day for us as we normally don't drive that far in a single day. We didn't arrive until 6:00 PM and were exhausted so we decided to go to K-Bob's Steakhouse for dinner.

Even though we had a long day, the drive was very pretty. The southwest has received a lot of rain this winter and the desert is in bloom. We passed areas that were a carpet of yellow flowers with splotches here and there of orange and purple.

Desert in bloom:

Flowers up close:

After resting a day in Deming, we drove 223 miles to El Campo RV Park in Van Horn, Texas. This is the same RV park we at which we stayed last year when we got our Class A driver's licenses.

Sunday, March 25

Well, this just wasn't our day! We started out the day with the intention of driving to Junction, Texas to spend the night on our way to the Freightliner RV Haulers Club rally near Medina Lake (northwest of San Antonio).

We'd had breakfast and fueled up at the Truck & Travel Truck Stop in Van Horn and started on our trip. Later that morning, we pulled off the road at a rest stop and Earl noticed that the rear, curb side tire of the fifth wheel was flat! Again, Earl struggled to get the lug nuts loosened. At least the new tire we'd bought in Phoenix was riding up on the bed of the truck, so he didn't have to crawl underneath the RV to get it. After changing the tire, we proceeded on to Fort Stockton to find a Goodyear dealer and get a replacement. However, we found the Goodyear dealer closed (it was Sunday, after all).

Later that afternoon, after passing the small town of Ozona, Texas, a trucker passed us and told us, via CB, that one of our rear tires was flat. We had the good luck to be in an area that had a wide, flat, grassy area to the side of the road, so we pulled off onto that area. Sure enough, the rear street side tire on the RV was flat -- and not only flat, but shredded!

Well, here we were, our second flat tire of the day (and the third one within less than 2 weeks), and without a spare. What to do? Fortunately, we were in an area where our cell phone had good coverage, so I called Good Sam Emergency Road Service. I figured that, being Sunday, we probably wouldn't be able to get the tire changed until Monday and someone from Fort Stockton would have to come out. Again, good fortune shined on us -- Good Sam ERS found a tire shop in Ozona that was open and had a tire the size we needed and in about an hour we had our tire changed. We followed the buy back to town and bought another tire just in case our last remaining original tire gave up the ghost, too. By this time it was about 5:00 PM so, instead of continuing on to Junction, we stayed at an RV park at the eastern edge of Ozona.

Monday, March 26 through Friday, March 30

We made the remaining 189 miles to the Freightliner RV Haulers Club rally without incident. We arrived late morning at the Thousand Trails park near Medina Lake at which the rally was being held and checked in and set up. It was great seeing all those Freightliners all in one place!

During the week we had seminars with people from Freightliner, Allison and Eaton (transmission manufacturers), Cummins and Catepillar (engine manufacturers), insurance specialists, a fire safety seminar, and others. We had a catered breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner plus a potluck on Thursday evening. A good time was had by all.

Earl and I drove into Bandera on Wednesday to pick up our mail and get fuel. Tuesday, we drove into San Antonio so that Earl could see a doctor about the recurring problem he has with the glands in his neck swelling. On our way back, we stopped and did grocery shopping.

There were lots of deer and rabbits around the park which drove Maxx crazy -- he'd forget why he was out on his walk because he wanted to get to the animals, the deer in particular.

Saturday, March 31

We drove 161 miles to the Smith's Trailer Village and RV Park in George West, Texas. We had a beautiful drive on the back roads -- flowers in shades of yellow, red, pink, purple, and while carpeted much of our route. It was awesome!

FEBRUARY 2001

Saturday, February 3

As I mentioned in the September 2000 travel update, we volunteered for the 2001 New Horizons Owner's Group Rally Committee (well, actually, I volunteered us). Our (my) job was to do the registration forms.

Having designed them, getting them copied, and gathering all the supplies, we had a "stuff and stamp the envelopes" party consisting of Earl, me, and Bill and Gisela Pollock who also own a New Horizons fifth wheel. Gisela and I folded the forms and put the mailing labels and return address labels on the envelopes; the guys stuffed the forms into the envelopes and put the stamps on. It was an efficient production line and we had all 400+ forms done in about two hours. Afterward, we all went to dinner at Bella Luna, an Italian restaurant in Litchfield Park. We had a really good time and got a chance to get better acquainted with the Pollocks. Thanks for helping!

Monday, February 5

We went to dinner at Lilly's (the Mexican food restaurant in Glendale that we like) with John and Deanne Cooper and Buck and Phyllis Draughn. After dinner, we went back to the Draughn's to play Mexican Train dominoes and have dessert.

Thursday, February 8

We got up early, had breakfast, and headed into Glendale where Earl had a chest x-ray (part of his annual physical) and I had some blood drawn for three different blood tests to see if I have some of the same factors than my mother has that would/could lead to "thick blood" and, therefore, an increased risk of blood clots. Hopefully, I'll get the results before we leave Phoenix at the end of this month. Afterward, we went to visit Mom and all three of us went to lunch at Takamatsu's, a Japanese and Koren restaurant.

Saturday, February 9

We took a trip out to Camping World in Mesa to pick up supplies for the fifth wheel. Wish they'd put a Camping World on the west side of the Valley since Mesa is quite a long way from where we're staying. But I don't suppose they ever will since the vast majority of RVers who stay here during the winter stay in Mesa, Tempe, and Apache Junction. There is another RV supply store in Glendale, Isley's, and we usually go there; however, they don't have nearly the amount of "stuff" that Camping World does, so we usually end up making the trip to Mesa at least once while we're in Phoenix.

Sunday, February 10

Bill and Gisela Pollock invited us over for dinner at their place -- Pleasant Harbor RV Resort at Lake Pleasant. We had a great visit and they prepared a wonderful dinner for us. We even played Mexican Train dominoes, teaching them our version, until it got too cold to play outside.

Tuesday, February 13

Earl took the truck to Freightliner so we could have a couple of recall items taken care of. We've been trying to get in since we got here in November, but Freightliner Phoenix didn't get the part in until just recently. I picked Earl up in the rental car which we had gotten because the last time Earl had taken the truck into the Freightliner dealer here, he waited about eight hours for them to do something which took maybe an hour -- once they got to it.

Wednesday, February 14

We went to dinner at Carraba's, an Italian restaurant in Glendale, with a bunch of Earl's high school classmates and their spouses: Buck and Phyllis Draughn, John and Deanne Cooper, Joe and Kay Devita, and Dick and Marie Oren. Dick and Marie are down here from Seattle visiting.

Friday, February 16

Had dinner at Joe and Kay Devita's house with the same group of people who were at Carraba's plus Judee and Bill Bird, also down here visiting from Seattle (Judee is one of Earl's high school classmates). Kay fixed a wonderful dinner for all of us.

Tuesday, February 20

We picked up Mom and drove to Scottsdale where we had lunch at Malee's On Main with Bill and Gisela Pollock. Malee's is a wonderful Thai restaurant. After lunch we walked around Main street looking into some of the shops which sell mostly paintings and sculptures and other expensive doodads. We did find a hat shop, so Earl bought himself a new, felt hat.

Wednesday, February 21

We had dinner at John & Deanne Cooper's house along with the rest of the Bothel "Class of '57" who either live here or are visiting from Seattle. Deanne prepared a great Italian dinner.

Monday, February 26

Earl had a doctor's appointment this morning and then he took the truck by Mountain Master to have some additional headlights installed (they are located in the bumper below the regular headlights). Earl dropped me off at Mom's house before he went to the doctor so that we could spend some time together before we leave on Thursday.

Tuesday, February 27

We went out to dinner with Buck and Phyllis at Murphy's of Glendale, a German restaurant. None of us had eaten there before, but we'd heard good reports, which weren't exaggerated...we had some wonderful German food!

Wednesday, February 28

We spent the day getting stuff ready for our departure tomorrow. We had to clean off a lot of the things that were outside before storing them because of the red dirt around here which turns to mud when it rains, which it's been doing off and on since last night. We have everything done that can be done ahead of time. All that's left to do is to hook up the truck, unhook the electricity, put in the slides, unchock the wheels, and leave.

JANUARY 2001

We welcomed the "real" beginning of the new millennium by being in bed and asleep before 12:00 AM...obviously, we not party animals!

Friday, January 5, was my 55th birthday. We celebrated by going to Lilly's, a Mexican food restaurant in Glendale, together with Buck & Phyllis Draughn and John & DeAnne Cooper. Earl got me a new printer for my birthday.

On the 9th, we took Maxx in for another blood test to see how his liver enzymes were doing after he finished his course of medication. The tests showed that his liver enzymes were way down which was great news! We can really tell he's feeling better because he's much "perkier" than he has been for awhile. We've started him on his daily heartworm pills and I've been cooking his meals, which he really loves! Hopefully, this problem will not reoccur.

We joined Sam's Club (we already belonged to Costco). We've found that some states don't have any Costco's but do have Sam's Clubs. Now, as we travel around the country, we should be able to find one or the other. We don't buy a lot of stuff in bulk, of course, since we don't have the room to carry it, but there are some things we can buy cheaper at Sam's or Costco than at a grocery store...coffee, for instance.

We had United Aero Shine come out to wash and wax our fifth wheel. This is the third year we've had this done. It's kind of expensive, but it sure beats us having to do the work...especially the waxing, which is a hand rubbed Carnuba wax.

Earl joined the Elks Club this month. Many of the Elks Clubs around the country have RV parking...some with hookups and some just dry camping, so we'll be able to stay at these clubs as we travel and have a place to have dinner and socialize.

We had more doctors appointments this month. Earl went in for his annual physical; I saw a dermatologist for a "mole" checkup and to have a couple of tags removed from my face. I also had a needle breast biopsy done, which turned out to be benign. Of course, I ended up catching something at the hospital...I think I might have had bronchitis. I think I'll live, though!

On the 30th, Earl, Mom, and I drove out to Carefree and had lunch at the Cantina del Pedregal, a Mexican food restaurant. We usually try to make it out here once while we're in Phoenix, although we didn't make it last year. We also ate at some of our other favorite restaurants... Cracker Barrel, Takamatsu (a Japanese and Koren restaurant), El Paso Bar-B-Que, and Bella Luna (an Italian restaurant). We also tried a new fast food Italian place called Fazole's which had surprisingly good food for a fast food restaurant.