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!

Spent The Night on Route 66 in Gallup, NM

May 16, 2014  – Friday

It was fairly quiet in the casino parking lot last night. I went to the casino in the evening while Bill and the dogs slept. It’s a colorful casino, all decorated in Route 66 decor. Got some free coffee and blew $4 in a couple of slot machines. Cheap entertainment for me.

This morning I walked over to the gas station/store/fast food side of the parking lot for coffee and my favorite, biscuits and gravy.

We left the casino at 9 am, heading west on I-40 towards Gallup, New Mexico. Within about 20 minutes of driving, the scenery and landscape started to change and get real pretty.

On the other side of the freeway, I saw a group of motorcycle cops followed by a lot of bike riders. I guess some of the riders I saw yesterday tag along for part of the ride, then I back to where they started from.

Bill has had a stiff neck for the last few days and wanted to stop early today, so I got off in Gallup on Route 66 and started looking for a campground. I snapped a few pictures of the downtown area.  Saw the El Rancho Hotel Motel Restaurant that said Home of the Movie Stars.

Finally saw an RV Park sign, just before getting back on the freeway. It’s called USA RV Park. I checked us in to a full hookup site next to the restroom and laundry. Soon as we were parked, I took the dogs for a walk over to the dog park. I took their leashes off and Bella just stayed in the shade while Chica walked around a little bit. They find dog parks boring without other dogs.

After walking the dogs around and taking pictures of the campground and store I did laundry while Bill and the dogs slept. After laundry started editing pictures, looking at maps for our destination tomorrow and updated the blog.  A woman’s work is never done.  🙂

Part 2 – May 15’s Post, The Exciting End Involving Cops

May 15, 2014 – Thursday (Continued)

Ok, so we are both tired, but not fighting. 🙂
We were looking forward to getting to the campground and I was going to get to do laundry. Yippee. Now we are driving and searching the side of the freeway for more campgrounds. We see a couple, but they look pitiful too. I would rather stay at Cracker Barrel or Walmart than a junky campground. We pull off to get gas and I got on his iPad to search for another place. It doesn’t have hookups, but by now we don’t care. We can boondock again.

We are at Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque for then night. I stayed here before when I took my Arizona/New Mexico trip a few years ago. It’s the first time on this trip staying at a casino in their parking lot.

Sorry about the Cop tease. I wasn’t pulled over again, but there were a lot of them here at the casino.

When we pulled in, there were maybe 50 motorcycle cops all lined up by the entrance. There were Sheriff cars too. I parked the RV and took the dogs out to potty and to snoop a little bit, to see what was going on. I took a few photos along with other RVer’s. I took the dogs back in the RV and watched the bikes from the window. Pretty soon, there were hundreds of motorcycle riders pulling into the adjoining gas/truck stop area. They were just regular bikers, not cops. I didn’t think it was a club, since there were so many different type of bikes. I asked Chica if she wanted to go for a walk and grabbed my camera phone again. Bella didn’t want to go, she would rather take a nap with Bill.

By this time there were more people standing around taking pictures. I asked one of them what the deal was. He told me it was a club of bikers that are on a cross country motorcycle ride in honor of military veterans, prisoners of war, those who have been killed in action and their families. This ride is called Ride of Their Lives. I did a google search to get more info and it came up with Run for The Wall Motorcycle Event May 14-23rd. One mission Three Routes. Riders visit VA medical centers, veterans memorials, VFW posts, as well as schools along the routes. This particular group was taking the middle route, while others were farther north or south. They all started in Rancho Cucamonga, CA and will all end up in Arlington, VA.

The cops were there to escort them thru the traffic to keep them together. Once everyone was ready, a signal was given and the cops rode off followed by all the bikers. There were so many of them! I just took photos every few seconds till they were all gone. Chica wasn’t even scared. Her ears are kinda funny in the photos, like maybe it was too loud, but she wasn’t afraid that I could tell.

For those that are interested, like my son Rick, I’ll post the rest of the bike photos in the next post called Bikes – Ride of Their Lives – Part 2

Another Long Day of Driving with an Exciting End

May 15, 2014 – Thursday

When we woke up at Walmart, most of the other RV’s were already gone. There must have been at least 20 of us spending the night there. We had our own campground, dogs got to mingle as well as the people. One lady, had a relative in Norwalk, where I grew up, and she lived in Cerritos area I think she said. She also belonged to SKP and has stayed at our RV park in Aguanga before. Small world.

We left Walmart in Amarillo, TX at 9:20 and just 15 minutes down the freeway we saw a lot of cars stopped on the frontage road on the other side of the freeway. I thought maybe there was an accident, but then I noticed them pointing cameras out into the field just off the freeway. I looked and just barely caught a glimpse as we drove past, of the Cadillac Ranch cars! Bummer, I didn’t even have a chance to take a picture. I did a google search and “lifted a couple of photos” off the website RoadsideAmerica
.

We crossed into New Mexico at 10:30.

All along the freeway there were big billboards for various tourist traps at a gas station. First one we saw was for the Flying C Ranch. Bill said I could stop, and it was time for the dogs to have a potty break…so I did. We walked the dogs, then I went in to browse around and my reward at the end was a Pecan, Carmel Blizzard at the Dairy Queen there. Yummy

Farther down the road, we started seeing similar signs for Clines Corners, a famous stop so I’ve read. Bill gave me the OK to go see it too, so I took the off ramp with intentions to stop. It wasn’t as impressive as I thought it would be, probably had the same souvenir stuff and the parking lot was a lot smaller and had pot holes all over it. I decided to skip it and get back on the freeway.

Bill’s goal was to make it to Albuquerque today, which was a little over a four hour drive for me. I had looked thru my Passport America 1/2 price book before leaving Walmart, for a campground that advertised full hookups, laundry and free wifi. After two nights of no hookups, I was ready for electric and to do laundry finally. When we finally got there, it was a dumpy place with older RV’s that appeared to be living there with junk around them. The place was gravel and weeds. It was ugly. I told Bill I could t stay there, so we continued west.

SEE PART 2 of where we stayed and more COPS! Just a tease….

Goodbye Oklahoma, Hello Texas

May 14, 2014 – Wednesday

We had a quiet evening at good old Cracker Barrel last night. We were on the road this morning at 8:30. Destination, Amarillo, TX. We are both in a much better mood today. Bill says he is feeling better.

We see billboards for Cherokee Trading Post in Clinton ahead. They advertise live buffalo too. Bill asked if I wanted to stop, so we did.

So many fancy boots, hats, and western stuff. Then we went outside to look at the buffalo.

Bella and Chica didn’t react at all to seeing the big animals. As we walked back to the RV, I noticed a dead bird on my front bumper. Bill thought he saw a bird fly into the RV earlier that day. Poor little thing.

We continued only stopping to eat lunch and get gas. Along the way I snap pictures of the Welcome to Texas sign, the leaning tower in Groom, TX, a huge cross, and the famous Big Texan Steak House. If you can eat their 72 oz steak, you get it for free.

During our lunch break, I found a half price campground in my Passport America membership book. Full hookups, and they had a laundry room, which I could use about mow, all for $12.50. Nobody answered the phone when I tried to call a couple times to see if they have space for us. Since it was just off the freeway in Amarillo, we just decided to drive there and hopefully get a spot. When we saw it, we drove in one driveway and out the other. It was a dumpy looking campground. Down the road we got gas and saw another campground. It looked a little better, but too many old, permanent trailers living there, so we passed on it too. I got my overnight RV parking website up and found a Walmart nearby.

Good old Walmart and Cracker Barrel have saved us a lot of camping fees. I went in and got a haircut and bought a few groceries. One stop shopping, haircut and camping. We got her around 3:00 I think, and there was already about six RVs here. Tonight there are probably at least fifteen of us parked for the night. Big expensive motor homes as well as a few old ones. It’s like a real campground here. The dogs found a few other dogs to socialize with too. One lady I talked to with the long haired Chihuahua even had relatives in Norwalk and grew up near there.

I have a few more pictures to go with the text above, but for some reason, WordPress isn’t letting me add more right now. I’ll try publishing this post, then go back and try to add the other pictures.

Ozarkland, Antique Mall, and Heavy Rain

May 12, 2014 – Monday

Last night, while parked at Walmart, we checked all our weather apps for weather conditions for the next few days on our route back west. I had been looking forward to going to Branson, but the weather wasn’t going to let that happen. Yes I could go, but with high winds, rain and thunder storms, we decided it wouldn’t be much fun in that kind of weather. So, another disappointment for Patty on her Bucket List of things she wanted to see. The weather was suppose to clear up on Thursday, but Bill didn’t want to hang around that long. He wanted to try to beat the weather and get down the road.

We left Walmart at 8:50 am and stopped for gas at 10:30. Love the gas prices on this trip…just $3.28 a gallon. Going to miss these prices when we get back to CA.

At 12:30 we saw a big sign for Ozarkland & Antique Mall, right off the freeway in Cimarron just about break time, so we stopped.

The shop was HUGE and had lots of gifts and souvenirs. There were these really tall dolls for sale, every type of collection you could think of like eagles, cows, chickens, Indian decor, etc was there, along with clothes and fudge. I finally broke down and bought 1/4 lb of sugar free fudge, which is now gone.

The antique “mall” was a cluster of old buildings and sheds full of old stuff. I think Bill enjoyed walking around there. The stroller wouldn’t fit down some of the isles, it was so packed it. Kinda looked like a fire trap. Chica was real interested in some animal fur skins on a table, but mainly they just enjoy going places in their dog stroller!

Bill spotted some guitars, but he said they weren’t very good, and was way over priced at $100 each.

Back on the freeway, we passed the Missouri/Oklahoma state line at 12:50. We pulled into the visitor center for information.

We needed to find a campground soon so I wouldn’t have to drive in the storm. I also wanted electric hookups after three days of boondocking. I checked my SKP membership book and found a campground with full hookups about 30 minutes away in Big Cabin, OK. We called and they said there was room for us. We didn’t stay at the visitor center long, as the sky was getting dark and ready to rain again. Back on the freeway it started getting dark. It was daytime and everyone had their headlights on and rain was pounding us. It got so bad, it looked like we were driving in the fog. I couldn’t wait to get off the road.

Sure was happy to see the 69 turnoff exit to the campground. Had to go thru an Oklahoma toll getting off the freeway. The truck stop just ahead had a huge Indian statue, then we pulled into the campground one mile south of the freeway. This place was very “unique”. It was a big truck repair facility that added RV spots behind their truck business, with a big grass area separating the two places. It sounds ugly, but our view was pretty. We looked out at a big field of grass that has cattle in it, and the truck business was behind our pull thru RV spot, so we really didn’t even see it. Plus, there were only 10 RV sites and free wifi. Not bad for only $21 a night. Bill hooked up our water and electric in the rain, while I took the dogs out to potty.

I spent two or three hours going through all the Route 66 brochures and maps, picking out places to visit in Tulsa and Oklahoma City tomorrow. We can even stay here another night if the weather is still bad. Bill says he still doesn’t feel good and now says he is getting car sick, while we are going straight on the freeway! I think he is just getting homesick and doesn’t want to do the touristy stuff I want to do. He doesn’t want to go to an urgent care or doctor till he gets home. I’ve tried to get him to see one now. I suggest staying another night here so he can sleep and get better, but he wants to keep going. Lot of rain, thunder and lightning tonight.

St. Louis, MO and Disappointment – Part 1 Mothers Day

May 11, 2014 – Sunday

Happy Mother’s Day!

We left Cracker Barrel at 8:45 am, destination St. Louis, MO, a little over an hour away. It rained off and all all the way there.

There were a few things I wanted to see in St Louis, but the Arch was the main thing. I put an address into the GPS for a place along the river that was suppose to have RV parking. Today the GPS had a mind of its own. As you get close to any major city freeways and interchanges there are roads going everywhere and not much time to get in the correct lanes. My GPS usually does an excellent job, but today, not so. She told me to go one way and the overhead freeway signs seem to say another way. She “Recalculated” over and over, while we were left to our selves to figure the interchanges out. Not sure if the overcast sky or tall buildings threw her off, but she was crazy that day.

I’m not even sure what bridge we crossed but it was pretty and we could see the Arch in the distance to our left. I just got off on a random street and tried to get close to the Arch while the GPS was still recalculating. Bill hates big cities, but I kept pointing out to him how empty it was on Mothers Day morning and in rainy weather. We had no traffic, so I continued to search for the Arch. There are lots of one way streets in downtown, some with construction, some with vehicles blocking lanes. When we got to the river, there was construction and road closures. The following pictures were all taken from the RV. We never got out.

I finally gave up and we tried to find our freeway on ramp again. After more than a few cuss words at each other and the GPS, we finally found our way back on the correct freeway and direction.
To cheer myself up, I pulled into to a White Castle, only my 2nd time trying one. Since it was still morning, I got a waffle, egg and sausage sandwich and a plain hamburger to split between the dogs.

Next touristy thing I wanted to see was the Sculpture Gardens, which I read, allowed dogs. When we got there, we encountered a Mother’s Day Art Fair going on at the park, with a big sign that said No Dogs Allowed for this event. Rats, I didn’t want to walk around without the dogs at a park, so we left. Strike two for the day.
Back on the freeway, eventually getting off at the Visitor Center at the entrance to Route 66 State Park. Finally, I could pick up brochures for touristy things to do on Route 66. I walked away with lots of information.

I thought the dog sign was cute, and reminded me of my dog Bella who loves to lick people.

I will continue this days post in Part Two, since there are so many photos. Stay tuned for Meramec Caverns!

Military Museum Tour and Cracker Barrel Camping Again

May, 10, 2014 – Saturday

We left Cracker Barrel at 10 am, first stop was gas. Seems like we get gas a lot, but we like to keep the tank topped up when we can. I’ve been keeping track of all the gas fill ups, and plugged those numbers into a gas mileage app on my phone, that calculates miles per gallon for you. We are getting an average of 10 to 11mpg. The best was 13.12 mpg and the worst was 8.85 mpg.

Next we went to Best Buy to buy a new car phone charger. The one we had stopped charging.

At 10:45 driving on I-70 we passed the “Welcome to Illinois” sign.

At 11:30 we saw a billboard advertising a historical town just off the freeway. Sounded like a good potty break stop and a chance to walk around. The town is called Greenup on The Historical National Road, also called US 40. Parked on the street next to a grassy park, which the dogs loved. While there, a lady walking to her car stopped to talk to us after seeing the RV. She was very proud of her little town and started telling us about it. She said there was a really nice military museum we should see. We said ok, so she went back to her car to get the key. Apparently, she is in charge or a volunteer of the place to have the key. We got the dog stroller out then walked down the street passing little shops she would point out.

It was a nice old building with a lot of displays. I took a photo of Bill next to the uniform he wore in the Marines. I saw a Navy uniform that reminded me of my dad in his uniform photos. We stayed about fifteen minutes, signed the guest book and put some money in the donation box. We thanked Margaret for the private tour, then walked down the other side of the street.

We went in a couple of the antique/gift shops, then headed back to the RV and back on the freeway.

We are getting really close to St. Louis, Missouri. I don’t want to get there till tomorrow, so we stopped at 3:30 in Troy, Illinois at another Cracker Barrel. St. Louis is where we will pick up Route 66 towards home. I haven’t been able to pick up any information about St. Louis or even Route 66 on the trip yet. I needed an evening to go online and see what to do tomorrow. Chances are, the big city will freak Bill out and he will want to get out of there fast, so I’m probably planning for nothing. 🙂

Bill still isn’t feeling good. He is slowly getting better, but isn’t there yet. I’m hoping the extra day will make him feel better before we start Route 66.

This Cracker Barrel has RV parking in the back, so cars aren’t coming back here to park in the RV spots. We did have a truck pulling a horse trailer park next to us, while the two cowgirls went in to Cracker Barrel for dinner. One kept kicking his stall while they were gone. I think he wanted out.

I walked Chica around the restaurant a few times, trying to wear her out. She has a lot of energy, and misses being able to run free, without a harness and leash, like she does at home.