Last Day on the Road – Part 1

 

May 19, 2014  –  Monday

Yesterday and this morning have been the hottest days on our trip so far. We ran the air conditioner all night and morning. I hate hearing that thing, but it was too hot without it. There was a good breeze, but it was hot air, so just leaving the windows open wasn’t enough.

We planned to get up really early and get on the road to beat the heat. Yesterday, I could feel a sore throat coming on. I didn’t fall asleep till pretty late I think due to the loud air conditioner. This morning it was hard to get going, but we each took showers at the park and were on the road by 6:45 am. My gps says home is 4 hrs and 12 minutes away.

The Lake Havasu area is very pretty. I’m not all that familiar with the campgrounds, but I have stayed at all three state parks. The drive leaving Cattail Cove was scenic, and uphill. I had Bill snap some pictures.

Besides various RV parks, there are a lot of mobile home communities it looks like, right on the Colorado River.

Then the road got long and boring, on our way to pick up the I-10. We pass the Welcome to California sign at 7:20. We pulled over at 8:25 for potty breaks and to replenish our water bottles.

Soon we pass the Riverside County border sign, and we are still 2 hrs and 42 minutes from home! Riverside county is HUGE. We technically live in Riverside county, but near the San Diego county line.

Finally we get to the I-10 freeway in Blythe at 9:15 am. We gassed up in Indio, paying $4.05 a gallon, the most expensive gas we have had for the whole trip. Welcome to California, land of high gas prices.

At 10:30, we are on Hwy 111 that runs thru Indio and the Palm Springs area. Palm trees line the roads, with manicured parkways, expensive shops and golf courses. When I take this route, I always stop for a date shake at Shields. I pull into the parking lot away from the cars so we can run the RV generator and the air conditioner. An RV generator should be run at least 30 minutes or longer a month, to keep it in good working order. We didn’t use it much on this trip. Bill stays in the RV with the dogs while I go in to get my date shake and look around.

I’ve never taken the time to watch the “movie” .

With the monthly generator run done and my belly full, it’s time for the last stretch of the trip before getting home. It’s also the most steep road, on any trips I have taken, I think. My last RV climbed the hill without any problems. I hope this one does as well.

See Part 2  –  Last Day on the Road

 

Cattail Cove State Park, Lake Havasu – Part 2

May 18, 2014. – Sunday (continued)

I stayed at this state park with my son a couple of years ago on our way to the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival. It was pretty crowded then, because of the event in town. Today, being Sunday we practically have the park to our selves. We have a much better site, than when I was here last.

The road coming into the park keeps you in suspense of what you will see. Around a curve you get a glimpse of the water. On the last picture, above the orange things in the water, is another campground up on the hill.

As soon as we got hooked up, we walked the dogs down to the boat dock to see the lake. A lady walking on the dock gets in the boat that picks her up. Photo of the nice restroom shower building and in the photo of Bill holding Bella, you can see just how close our RV site is to the water.
The park may not have many campers here today, but there are still a lot of day use people using the park to launch their boats and jet skies. We have a great view no matter which window we look out of. It’s entertaining watching all the boats come and go during the day. Now that its evening, every thing is quiet, except for the noise of running our air conditioner!

I take the dogs out to potty and Bella wants to come right back in it’s too hot for her. Chica is always up for adventure, so I take her on a little walk over to the dog area and dog beach. My dogs really haven’t been around water in a lake, pool or river much. They don’t seem interested when they do see water. I tried to get Chica to touch the water with her feet, but she wouldn’t go closer than three feet. I think the small wakes scared her a little.

The stairs in one of the photos goes up to a trail. I didn’t take it today, but did with my son last time I was here. On the walk back, Chica caught the scent of something and dragged me up the side of the trail so she could get to whatever she smelled. It was a dead rat. Yuck. Luckily she left it alone when I said “leave it”.

So that’s about it for our day. I worked on the photos and blogs most of the afternoon. Feels good to get that done. Bill wants to leave here early in the morning, to beat as much heat as we can. We will probably be home tomorrow, but I’ll do another blog about the trip home.

Time to walk the dogs before it gets too dark. They have been very patient for most of the trip. I know they will love getting home and free of their harnesses and leashes.

Cattail Cove State Park In Lake Havasu, AZ

May 18, 2014 – Sunday

We left Williams at 8 am, trying to beat driving in the heat. Forecast for all routes leading home are in the 100’s. Got gas in Kingman, dogs and I had a short break while I called a state park in Lake Havasu to see if they had availability for tonight. She said it was almost empty, now that most people leave Sun morning, so that’s our destination.

The exit for Seligman was coming up, and you can get off here and back on I-40 a little farther up, so it wasn’t really out of our way. I wanted him to see this funky little Route 66 town that I’ve visited before. We didn’t stop, just snapped photos from the RV and back on the freeway.

The drive to Lake Havasu was long and not many places to stop for a rest. The scenery was pretty. The road required downshifting on some of the steep hills.

We arrived at Cattail Cove State Park, after driving thru Lake Havasu City. We got here at 12:15 and was allowed to pick our own site. We drove thru and found the best site ever empty, so we went back and paid for our site. Just $28 for a pretty lake view site. Plus, there are only about five of us RVers here today. We have no neighbors and a great view out of every window. But it’s hot, 104 today! There are a lot of day use people using the park to launch their boats and jet skies.

See Part 2 for photos of this nice campsite.

Part 2 – In AZ and Staying at the Grand Canyon RV Resort

May 17, 2014 – Saturday (continued)

This RV Resort is next to the Grand Canyon train station and hotel. It’s a huge place, and has a fancy restaurant, gift shop. RV guest are allowed to use the hotel pool and jacuzzi. I took pictures of the RV entrance, and office/store/dog kennel building, but forgot to take a picture of our RV on our site. It was a cement pad with full hookups.

We were checked in and hooked up by 2:00 pm. Once we all had a short rest and the dogs were walked, Bill decided to walk with us to Route 66. I got the dog stroller ready along with water for us and the dogs. The hotel has a free shuttle which I called, but they didn’t show up on time, so we decided to walk the few blocks over there.

I’m sure glad the dogs enjoy their dog stroller. It’s so easy to take them places in it. Chica is so interested in anything and everybody. She wants to see it all. She has to meet everyone that walks by and eats up the attention. Bella is more like Bill…she goes along but doesn’t show much interest in things. She loves riding in stroller and shares all the attention they get, but would rather be home napping. :-))
Chica loved smelling the coon skin hats, Bella didn’t care much. Chica even smelled the dream catchers.

I was really hungry, but most of the food places were busy and Bill wasn’t going to eat, so we just went back to the RV, since we were done walking the touristy area. It was hot walking back and we turned the air conditioner on as soon as we got to the RV. I tried to rest, but my tummy was growling for some non RV food. While Bill and the dogs napped, I took off walking for the hotel restaurant. Along the way I stopped at the train depot, gift shop, visited with the horse and buggy horses, before getting to the restaurant.

I didn’t see any prices at the restaurant for the buffet, but I was hungry and didn’t care. I was a little shocked when she said that will be $21. Yikes, that’s how much we paid for our campsite. Guess our RV site wasn’t half price after all with the cost of my dinner. It was a fairly small buffet as they go, but I had a good dinner while listening to a guitar player as the entertainment that night. Had cheesecake and ice cream for desert. I waddled back to the RV wondering why I pay to feel so full and miserable after eating out. I should have had a bowl of cereal at the RV. Oh well, diet starts AGAIN after this trip.

Spent the rest of the night fighting with the free wifi the RV Resort had. I had trouble getting on it and it was slow or stopped when I was on, so I didn’t get to blog that night. We looked at maps tonight deciding which route to take home from here. Maybe one more night on the road before getting home!

Already in Arizona and Staying at the Grand Canyon RV Resort – Part 1

May 17, 2014 – Saturday

This morning I called the Grand Canyon RV Resort in Williams to see if they had any availability for tonight. I had to call three times they were so busy and kept me on hold so long I just hung up and tried again later. Good thing I called back when I did, as we snagged the last site available for tonight. I like this fancy resort, as its in my 1/2 price Passport America book, and its a short walk to Route 66 tourist area.

We left Gallup, New Mexico at 10:00, heading for Williams, AZ. We encountered Indian Country and different Route 66 advertisements along the freeway, as well as National Parks. We didn’t stop at anything other than the Tomahawk Indian Store parking lot. Bill didn’t even want to get out, so I snapped some pictures quickly and we continued down the road.

I was looking for this pretty hillside village, as I stopped here on my last trip on this freeway. I thought the mountain was so pretty right behind the gift shops. I wanted to get some pictures of my “new RV” with that background, like I did with my last RV.

Notice the animals and eagle statues on the mountain. When I was here last time, I walked thru the stores, bought a vase and had the best hot, fresh fry bread.

Just past the Yellowhorse Gift Shop at Navajo Land, we came to the NM/AZ state border crossing. Then much farther down the road we passed the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert exits, Geronimo and their tee pees, and the Famous Rt 66 Jack Rabbit souvenirs.

Finally we got to Williams, AZ. I drove us down Route 66 historical main street before going to the RV resort. I wanted Bill to see where I would be taking a walk with the dogs in their stroller later that day.

Visiting Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

April 3, 2014 – Thursday

Left Gunsight Wash in Why, AZ at 8:10 am. We are on our way to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument 30 minutes away. We walked around the short visitor center nature trail with the dogs and took photos alongside the very tall organ pipe cactus.

After the dogs had their break, we put them back in the RV and Bill and I checked out the visitor center. We watched a 15 min video about the park, looked thru the museum displays and gift shop. Bill found a green baseball cap with a rattlesnake on it which he liked and bought. We couldn’t do the driving loop because our RV was too big.

 

Next stop was a trading post on route 86 for a stretch and snack. We noticed a coyote looking dog sitting on the porch. Went in and got a coffee and a hotdog. On our way out, I asked someone if the dog was really a friendly hand raised coyote, but they didn’t know who it belonged to. By this time, Bill was already back in the RV with both our dogs. As I walked towards the RV I noticed the “coyote” was following me. He probably got a scent of the hot dog. As Bill opened the RV door for me I got in quickly and he scared it off. But then the dog sat outside the RV for a few minutes before going back to the porch. Poor thing was hungry.

We stopped again just before getting on the I-19/I-10 to let the dogs potty, then it was on the freeway to Saguaro Co-Op SKP in Benson for another night of boondocking. We didn’t need hook ups so we saved some money. After we got parked, we took the dogs to their dog park, then put them in the RV while we went to the Happy Hour at the clubhouse. We met a lot of people from that park and had a nice time talking. I was forced to drink wine by someone who didn’t want to bring the bottle back to her rig, so when we left the “party” an hour later, I had a nice buzz.

Back in the rig, I looked at maps, wrote in my trip journal and uploaded the photos for the blog while Bill used the parks shower the took a nap with the dogs.

1st Night on the Road in Yuma, AZ

We left Jojoba Hills Skp Resort in Aguanga at 10:00 am. We took Hwy 79 to S2 to 78 to Hwy 111 to I-8 to Yuma. We made two pit stops for potty breaks, drinks and snacks.

Our destination for today is just outside of Yuma in the Foothills, at my cousin Larry’s summer residence. It’s a nice community of lots that people park their RVs on. Some add garages, landscaping or homes.

This is looking into his lot from the street. He has a big beautiful 40 ft motor home and lots of grown up toys, like a dune buggy, Mini Cooper, jeep, and a golf cart.

My cousin Larry, his wife Sue and their Westie dog Minnie. Bill holding Chica and I have Bella.