Heading to Quartzite

1/10/2007
Had a good nights sleep but sure was sore from yesterday. after that climb to the ruins, geesh that was really not worth the walk up there. But oh well we got our excersise in. And if we would of had to pay we wouldn't of gone up. Long cliimb up there.
Great sunrise this morning.

Headed out after cleaning the motor home, i think it was around 11:30 before we finally got going. So stopped at Goldfield mining town. another one of those touristy places were everything is a shop, not really into those kind of places but did manage to get some photos .
We then left there to head for Q but on the way we saw the sign for Yuma and decided to head that way instead. Ended up at Gila Bend, as your coming into town on the right side there is a rv park resort next to the travelodge, in the Shell gas station. RV parking with full hookups is $9 decided to spend the night there, heck we would of spent that just in gas alone to run the gen, altho the traffic is right there and the train is a few feet from there it is noisy, but like Nevada said tune it out. Didn't sleep all that bad once i got to sleep.
No wifi tho.... going to have a lot of mail to sort thru. going thru it. seems like a lot of trucks use this rt tho. .
GOing to get breakfast and then head on out hopefully will get on the internet tonight.





1/14/2007
Well we have been in Q for 3 days now, bring your long johns when coming cause it is cold and windy the wind is the worst when your out and about, yesterday was really bad. Decided that today we go looking for another source of heat, it has been so cold that the heater at low is drawing more juice and by 3 am no battery.Not sure what we will get but it has to be something, can't get no sleep as the cats are cold too and they want warmth so either they cuddle up together at me feet were i can't move or they try to get under the covers.

We are staying at Laposa West we decided for $30 for 2 weeks and being able to dump and get water was well worth it comes out to about $2.50 a day, they won't let ya dump if your not paid, so going into town you have to pay to dump and get water so rather than the hassle of driving this rig in town its better out here.

they have rvlongon 1 that you can get but the strength is very low here at the site, i get 2 bars so might try and sign up for it later, going to take the lap top into town today and see if i can get a better signal. The sun is shining but oh so cold......


1/16/2007
Took Princess in for her last shot, the vet is only open from 9 am to 12. he is one smart cookie, he has them all lined up, when we got there. He had 4 people in front of us and then more kept coming in , i think most of them were all snow birds. The darn office was so cold that the gal at the counter had to take the heater on the desk so that she could heat up the pens so they would write.. Vet looked at her papers and said well i will give her the shot but i add one other shot to it, can't remember what he said it was, i asked what it was for, don't remember accept his answer was you need it down here. I said wonder how come she didn't mention it and he said well maybe in your part of the country you don't need it, i said well then why do i need her to have it then, cause there is a series of 2, his answer was becuase your here right now.! Well ok i wasn't going to argue with him, he didn't take her temp or weight, nothing just the shots, and he wasn't all that nice about poking her either she really let out a yelp. didn't do that with the other vet. Well then he tried to pass it off and give her a treat and say what a good doggie she was, well she wasn't having any of it. LOL. Don't think she will like going to a vet again.

Boy the weather has not gotten any better the last few days, Still cold. we went into town on Sunday and found a catalytic heater, i guess that is what this is, $160 for 10,000 BTU's no thermostate as Nevada said we can regulate it ourselves, yeh right.! went over to the pit stop and got a regulator and a propane tank. brought it home and got it hooked up, surely thinking that we were going to be keeping really warm... HAHAHA!!!!! we also blocked the windows with sheets and the front cab with more blankets so that the cold wouldn't come thru. Sat here last night at 72degrees thinking yep its going to be real warm. Actually it was warm TOO warm to sleep however. so turned it off accept the pilot light. I woke up about 2 am freezing my tooch off. so turned it back on but never really did get warm till i had to turn the furnace back on and help get it warmed up in here again.

Decided this morning to go into town and get the heating insulation for the windows, man they windows let out a lot of the heat.
Turned out to be a fairly nice day today. Picked up a dash cover for the motor home $36.95 they made it right there. Hope it fits. Went home and tried the insultaion on the windows, which we had to cut, right in the middle of doing that Mary called and said they were here. so went and met them at the gate, brought her over here so she can see our site, and to see if they can park it . well they are not too far from us.
Anyway sure hope that we can figure this heat and cold out tonight and sleep better.

Apache Trail

1/9/2007
Well we ended up driving the Apache Trail in the motor home. YES you can do it if your no longer than 40 ft, but beaware the roads are very narrow and steep, and curvy and i mean curvy. ours is a 30 ft, was it scary at times YES you bet it was, only good thing was there was not much traffic. We decided to do the entire trail, took us 7 hours with stops.
We first stopped at Tortilla Flats, neat place. all those bills on the walls. even the ice cream place was covered in dollar bills. We ate breakfast there Ham & Cheese omlet not the best i have had but ok. We sat by the window were all the birds are. The lady came out and fed them, man talk about birds and Quials.Nice and fat they are.
This place is covered in $1 bills, the lady said that last count was around $92,000 there is also a ice cream bar next door that is also covered in bills, not sure if that was included or not. Fire took the first building i think she said in 1960 which was a whole lot more money than this.
by the time we were done there must of been 50 people show up, don't kow if they all went on the trail farther up or not. had a few pass us on the road. The view was just spectacular. I am glad that we went and took the motor home and not bother with the car again issue, figured that another day would of been wasted. I had called Advantage and they didn't have anything till 11 and it was a midsize car of $59 well good excuse that was.. also wouldn't come to the campground to pick us up. Poop on them.



some of the squirrels taking a drink





WE left there and headed on down the road. Here are some photos of the scenery i took. go to there website above and you can get some better photos of the things to see i will also eventually add them on yahoo photos but slow connection is too hard to deal with.

This is Apache Lake
Click on the blue so you can get there webpage for more details. and better photos. Remeber all underline blue will take you to websites for more information and photos.


Here is some of the rock formations that we went thru, and if you notice the yellow arrow sign yes that is a really sharp curve. and this was on a dirt road, which by the way was not all that bad, just take it slow. and the curves were even worse than this one.





good thing there wasn't much traffic coming









Canyon Lake
And yes there is a campground you can park at and also a boat ride But i think i have this out of order this comes after Tortilla Flats if i am remembering right. Getting late now.





This is Roosevelt Dam
Not much water there.




We then continued to the cliff dwellings. Not worth the trip for this one. what a climb. Coming down was even worse for me as i don't like hights to begin with and no rails. We took Princess up there and had to carry her back down, cause i was afraid that she would somehow get out of her leash and end up going over the edge.










This was looking down over the valley from the top of the cliff dwellings.


Cats didn't get sick which really surprised me with all the twists and turns we had to take. But it was slow going.
Tomorrow we will go to Goldfield Ghost town just down the road and then head out and working our way back to Q might decide to stop at Ken and Bonnies again but not sure.

It was warm last night so am wondering if it will be that way tonight again. didn't turn the heat on till this morning.

Lost Dutchman State Campground

1/8/200
Sunrise from our camping spot loo
God what a crappy day this turned out to be, started out with being cold, can't run the gen till 8 am, no battery and its cold. I didn't sleep well for one thinking about finding a vet for the dog to get her last puppy shot, and two it was cold. So got up and started the coffee. Had to turn the heater totally off. we sat in the dark waiting for the sunrise. Hopeing it was going to be a pretty one. Nope not this morning it wasn't... must of set the day for it.

Finally could start the gen. and heat. so we preceeded to get things set, i called enterprise car rental at 8:30 sure no problem but we can't get a car to ya till 2 pm, we said ok thats fine.
Decided to go ahead and go to town in the motor home, get the dog to a vet and fill up the motor home, with gas, propane and water and dump. Decided to take a look at the papers the dr.. gave us so that i would have all the records with me when we went, GEESH! didn't have to go to vet after all, not till the 15th. man that really upset me cuase i had a terrible night sleep thinking about that. Oh well still decided to take the rig into town and get it taken care of.

Looked at some park models, some are really nice, small but nice, the price range wasn't all that bad either. Oh well won't be doing any of that till much later. like when the motel sells might consider it.
Started to head back to the camp site and stop to see the museum. Enterprise called about 12:30 wanting to know if we were located at the apache junction is said yes thats the road its on. Ok no problem we will see you at 2. ok decided we didn't have enough time to see the museum properly so decided to head back to camp and wait for them to show up. 2pm came and went, 2:17 they call and say we went to the campground and there was no one there waiting for the car. I said we are still sitting here waiting for you. Hmm sorry wrong campground. driver should be there in 20 minutes. NOT! i called at 3:09 oh yes driver should be there in just a sec,I said are you sure you know were we are and how to get here, yes we know for sure now. 3:17 he called back and said we went to the campground you weren't there. I said here i am going to let you talk to the ranger as far as we are conserned it is too late for a car now, the whole day is gone. I put the ranger on and she proceeds to tell him were to find the place. He says well i don't know i don't think that is in our area anyways. I just blew up and i said forget the dam car, i said you know it isn't my resposinbilty to tell you were to go and how to find us. as you assured me that you knew were it was.He said well the driver is on his way, i said well that is what you told me 3 times before. I said forget the car and hung up. Boy i would love to call the head office and really put in a complaint. Here we wasted another day just waiting for a dam rental car. We then drove back into town and looked to find a rental car dealer. Would you believe as big as Apache Junction is there isn't one in this town, have to go into Mesa for one. So not sure if we are going to be able to get a car tomorrow or not.

We did stop at the Miners Restaurant, Great food. if you get here and want a nice dinner out, its set up like the mining days. served family style. $18.95 for dinner all you can eat. Ribs, ham, chicken, Baked beans, cole slaw, and rolls. Great BBQ ribs too, and the Beans were really good too.well it was all good. needless to say we were stuffed the first time around and didn't eat all of that. Nope can't order seconds and expect to take it home.

Anyway it is windy out now, and early yet, can't have the gen on after 9 so can't watch tv, and cant watch movies on the puter as it drains the battery. definitly have to do something about adding another battery. Geesh it is really blowing hard/ rocking the motor home like crazy. must be part of the desert thing. altho it is warm tonight coould use the window open right now.
Well i hope that tomorrow is a better day.
Night.

Tombstone

1-4-07
Made it too Tombstone Az, decided that we needed to do laundry and do nothing, the winds were really kicking up, and the clouds were comeing in. We left the rv park at 11 so it was a bit on the late side to see much anyways. And laundry needed doing for sure. Took most of the afternoon to do that. Man spendy washer and dryers, and took forever to get the clothes dried..

We than proceeded to look for a place to park for the night. Free of course. so we found one on the edge of town, a place with a little sign saying humane society,at one time i think they must of used it for picknicking, but hasn't been used in along time as some of the tables and benches were torn up, a lot of grafitti as well. But they did have a cover over the tables and also water, looked like someone was trying to clean the place up and make it look good again.No signs stating that you can't park there overnight so we parked outselves and watched the clouds come in more and soon it was raining. Had a great view of the hills, We did keep thinking that someone would come by and say something about parking there, Once the dog catcher drove by us but never stopped to see what we were doing there. and later on a police car also came driving by, but noone said anything so we decided that it must be ok so slides went out. Had a nice quiet night there, listended to the rain for a while till it too went away.












Got up early and fixed breakfast and decided to head to tombstone, Well i can say i have been there and done that, won't be going back there again. What a touristy place that was, took in a gunfight scene, but well i guess it was ok decided not to do anymore tho. Didn't spend much time there, too touristy for us, all the places that you wanted to see inside charge, and those that don't have gift shops in them.





Yep see the sign tips.








So then we headed for Bisbee. Another big mistake as heck we had no idea the town was so laid out bad , houses and shops built on a hill beautiful site but not a good place to take a motor home too. they did have some parking which cost $5.
Well we are heading back too Tuscon and they too Apache Junction.

Biosphere 2

1-3-07
We headed for Oracle to see Biosphere, they were already closed by the time we got here, besides i think that is a few hour trip thru there.We tried to find a Rv Park here or a place to dry camp but most of the land was fenced off so that was out. got into town and seen this little motel called the Chalet . pretty run down place, but we stopped and asked if we could park here, and the owner said sure thing. Got to talking about motel business and we had the same idea about who to rent to and not to rent too. Altho she said that they don't get much business anymore since the mine closed up. Her husband does keys and locks. so the front office is more for that than actually renting rooms out.
Will head for the Biosphere in the morning as they open at 9 am .

1-4-07
We made it here, Wow it is huge, thought for sure that my feet would never make it all that way, but you can't see the whole thing anyway, we were the first to get here accept another lady who was from China, she spoke english pretty good but had a translater machine with her. I think i need one of those.

Our guide was very good and informative, also very funny. Have to say that we were a bit disappointed in the place, as they don't keep it up much anymore. He said visitors were down a lot and they have all these housing apartments that are sitting there empty. He said the man that owns all of this is quiet wealthy . He also has it for sale. Anyone want to buy this money hungry research center.?


The buildings here are some of the apartments they used to house for researchers.




This was the kitchen at the closed in center

On to Old Tuscon Town

1/3/2007
Slept good last night, altho there was a light shining on the motor home all night. Heard a few sirens but other than that pretty quiete night. We left the park about 9:20 headed Back to Tuscon Town, and waited till they opend the gate which was at 10 am. wow paid $16 per person to get in. what a differance from yesterday. But they gave us a schedule of all the things that was too happen during the day. so we ended up staying most of the day as they had a show about every hour. Have to say it was well worth the money. at first we didn't think it was becuase we didn't see the schedule of events that was going on. And since we had nothing better to do for the day we decided to stay for the entire day, well at least to the end of the show since we had already seen that yesterday. Sure glad that we decided to go back and get a refund from yesterday.. otherwise we wouldn't of gone back.

This was one of the scenes they were doing, they picked a lot of the characters from the visitors, a lot of them were kids, they sure had a good time with it.




Here is another scene in the saloon were they took some men out of the audieace and dressed them up as can can girls.

Sequaro National Park

1/2/2007
Slept good last night, other than waking up to be cold, wow i figured that AZ wouldn't be this cold at night. So far since we have been in Cal or AZ we have had to run the heat all night.
Went over at the station and filled up with gas and dumped, it was free to dump, but couldn't get water as it was a bit inconvienant. had a guy in front of us in a trailer and he let his black and gray water run all over the dump site, good thing they had a concrete casing around it, god what a mess. not sure but i don't think he put anything up against his hose to hold it in and it spewed out when he opened the valve. YUKKKKK!



Drove down the road and saw the sign for Saquaro National Park. Nice area. got in free, with the golden age card.














Then we moved on down to the Senora Desert Museum.... Nice area as well the cost to get in was $12 per person. Too bad my feet gave out to walk the whole thing, but they sure were hurting by the time we did the National Park and all the walking at the museum.







Did you know when a Saquaro reaches about 75 yrs of age, they might begin growing branches of arms.And seldom live longer than 200 yrs old.


We then drove down to Old Town Tuscon were they made all the movies. Neat place. the lady at the desk charged us $10 to get in, told us if we hurried we could see the gunfight they were having at 3:30 so we rushed on out, saw the show, but it wasn't more than 15 minutes later they announced that they were closeing at 4 pm . well now that really upset me. so i went back to the ticket office at the store and said to the lady, i sure wish you would of told us that it closes at 4 as i would of forgot the trip in here and come back tomorrow. She had a dumbfounded look on her face and said do you have your ticket. I said yes, she said i will refund your money. which she did. so we will go back tomorrow.

We went looking for a rv campground and couldn't find much in town. accept a mobile home park that allowed rv parking so we decided that since we wanted to go back to the old town that we would get it. full hookups are $20 there was campground at the National park for $20 but no water only elec. so decided if we were going to pay it would be full hookup. Altho i was disappointed that all these mobiles and not one had wifi.
The rules did state only one pet allowed. but she never did ask if we had any, so not sure if all that ment for if you were planing on staying more than one night; oh well she didn't ask and we didn't tell. since its my home and they don't go out. Princess still is not getting the fact that she can potty outside so won't have to worry about takeing her out . She loves to go out but sure waits till she is back in the motor home to potty.

I am fixing stew tonight in the crock pot since we have elec so will cook it all night long rather than using the inverter tomorrow.

To Surprise Az to see Ken & Bonnie

12-31-06
Well this morning the gen wouldn't start at all, so had to turn the engine on to get it to start up. Oh then i was washing dishes and Nevada was cleaning up when the water went spurting, meaning we are out of water. Yep hubby never listens cause he just knows that there is lots of water in the tanks. NOT!
Anyway we got ready to go and went into town, looking for water and gas, stopped at the pilot gas station $2.19 for regular. sure beats $2.65 or what ever it was in Niland.
Then we wanted to stop at the Dollar store to get a few things, its on the way out of town, anyway next to it was Beals Discount store, well i could of spent a whole lot more time in there, they have some neat clothes really cheap. ,kind of like a factory outlet store. Anyway spent a few bucks in there. Think i will stop again on the way back to Q. $3.99 for shirts with Logan on them from AZ .

We saw the sign for gas, water and propane across the street from there as well. oh yeh and dumping. but we didn't need to dump just water. They charged $2.50 to fill your water tank.
Not too bad altho i am sure that a lot of places wouldn't charge anything. But i am not sure as they seem to be in the hands out position about this time of yr. Nothing is free.I also noticed that the Pilot station had signs up saying No Parking accept for truckers and ask permission first. They probably charge to have you park in there parking lot.

Boy we have been on this road before but don't remember all the Rv parks along the way, some are really huge, some have motels that have not been used in a long time and look pretty well in ruins. Guess all these resorts are coming up so maybe that is why there are so many.

Well we are in Wickenburg, about 12:30 pm geesh has this place grown as well, No places to park either, finally drove down to the rest area, were we are now, Nevada takeing a nap, we ate and so now he is sleepy, altho he was getting pretty tired before that.Not a bad place, but they do have signs out saying poinous snakes and bugs. So Princess is not going to be going outside, neither will I.I guess that we will go on down the road once he takes his nap.


Well we made it into Surprise AZ, man what a neat clean place, we drove around to some of the neighborhoods, clean, even looks like they polish there driveways, never did see a car sitting outside there home or along the streets. Very immaculate. also golf course for there back yards i think. They sure do run a lot of there golf carts down the street, guess you can do that, wonder if you can do that in Bend? I sure never have seen any.

We didn't want to call Ken & Bonnie till morning, so we found a road just not far from them. Actually its a road that also goes to the dump. but must have lots of houses that way,. we found this side road that has a few bushes and not far from the road that we are parked in. Waited till dark to put the slides out., but i don't think anyone knows we are here now.
No wifi tho, but i am going to put a movie on and watch one tonight havn't watched any for awhile. Another free night here, so far we have spent $5 for parking.





1/1/2007
I guess we must of slept pretty good last night as i didn't hear the train or the cars go by so that was a good thing, Got ready to head down the road to Ken & Bonnies, found a Fry supper market and stopped and got groceries, it was a little after 8am when we left out camping spot. called Ken a little after 9:30 i think it was. he gave us directions on how to get to his place. I have to say for an Rv resort this is really nice, so many things to do around there just in the gated community. He droves us around to see some of the rv sites. i guess i never thought about how those Az rooms were set up, some are really huge.

This is Ken & Bonnie's AZ room, i call it a house. Check this site out for more information

Happy Trails resort








Here is there Motorhome next to it is there other lot and orange trees that she gave us some oranges from.YUM YUM.






This is the center were they do a lot of the crafts and stuff what a beautiful setting it is .





There is a lot of activity that they do there, they have there own quilting rooms, Lapidary shops, and computer training and well the list goes on and on,, one would never have to leave there for things to do. Parties all the time. entertainers . Well when i get ready to never want to travel i think that would be a good place to be, but for now i will look forward to my traveling when ever i can.









Ken's folks were there as well from Pennslyvania. Nice couple that also Rv but came to see Ken during the holidays and flew out, also Ken was scheduled to have surgery. But i guess they will be leaving on thursday. Mary and Rich will be leaving the slabs on tues which is tomorrow.They will love Happy Trails rv resorts.

We are about 50 miles from Tucson in a TA truck stop, well actually there is a empty field next door and that is were we are parked, didn't see any signs for no tresspassing or no parking so here we sit all by ourselves in this huge field. But no wifi as all 3 signals requires a sign up. so will have to wait till the next free spot.Guess i will put another movie in later. Oh stopped at Pizza hut and had pizza $10 for all meat for a large what a deal.