Our Travel Blog

Today was a holiday down here, Presidents Day. Held the third Monday of February it stems from a celebration of Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays.

We woke up to sun and clear blue skies, although it was down to 10°C overnight.

After breakfast Lyn headed over to the craft meeting, and I spent a couple of hours doing a lot and achieving nothing!

After lunch we headed out for some geocaching a few miles north west of here, we got in about 2.5 miles of walking and managed to go 12 for 12 on the geocaches. The afternoon temperature made it up to 26°C, which was a great improvement over yesterday afternoon.

The rest of the day we were busy doing nothing!

We woke up this morning to clouds… not impressed! Today was cooler reaching only around 20°C.

We decided to treat ourselves this morning and go to Sunday breakfast at the resort. This resort is unique among all the ones we have stayed at, it has its own chef. Every morning there are free waffles and orange juice; so far we have refrained.In the evening there is

either a catered meal, or a pot luck and on Sunday morning a breakfast buffet. The meals cost between $6 and $8 each. Breakfast was good with great omelettes, potatoes, sausages, ham, grits and biscuits as well as warm cinnamon rolls, O.J. and coffee.

We got back from breakfast just in time to say good bye to our neighbours who were moving out to Yuma.

After breakfast it was time to tackle the toilet repair. It actually went much better than I dared to hope. The toilet did not need to be removed from its mounting, and the whole valve replacement took less than 30 minutes with no “yucky” stuff.

Given the large breakfast we skipped lunch and headed over the road to the fair grounds where there was a President day fun-fair and a rodeo. Last time we tried for a rodeo was in Texas where we almost drowned in a prolonged downpour, and didn’t see anything of the rodeo. Today, as we walked there it started to rain, not too heavy but the clouds were gathering in the lee of the mountains. We decided to go for it anyway, and as soon as we took our seats the rain got heavier. We stuck it out, and the rain came and went throughout the afternoon, at least it was a warm(ish) rain.

The rodeo featured a number of skills:

Wild horse or bronco riding where the rider had to stay on the horse for eight seconds. To qualify one hand had to remain off the horse and saddle for the entire time.

Stray cattle roundup, where two yearlings had to be caught and tied up by the feet.

Wild cow milking, here a cow had to be caught, brought to the ground, tied up and some milk taken. Fastest time wins.

Rounding up stray cattle into a trailer. A crew of four with two horses simulated arriving in an area where there were two stray cows that had to be rounded up and put in a trailer. It started with two horses in the trailer and the cowbows at the truck. At the signal they had to unload the horses from the trailer, round up the cattle, get them into the trailer, get the horses back into the trailer and lock the doors, again fastest wins.

Finally, branding. Here about 20 cattle were brought into the area, and herded behind a line about one third of the way down the arena. A team of 4 cowboys had to isolate a yearling from the herd move it down the area, catch it, lay it down and tie it then mock brand it. The rest of the herd had to remain behind the line, again fastest wins.

Despite the wet weather, a good time was had at our first rodeo.

We walked back to the resort where we changed out of wet clothing and had a hot drink before heading off to a friends site for afternoon drinks and conversation. What a difficult life!

Well it’s the weekend again. It doesn’t seem that long ago since the previous one; conversely it feels as tho we have been here for ages.

Another warm, but partially cloudy day today, up in the mid 20’s but more humid than we have felt for a while. After breakfast I made an executive decision…. toilet repair can be put off at least one more day. Instead I decided to (re)do the trailer  brake adjustment. I made a half hearted attempt at this a few weeks ago, but I didn’t have the correct tool, and didn’t get the full range of adjustment. The tool arrived the other day, and it made life a bit simpler. I also wanted to test out the hydraulic jack; the previous one complained about the weight and died, even though it was rated for 8000 lb and only had to lift 3000 lb. The one I have now was a replacement for the other, and works perfectly.

Last night we ran out of hot water, for some reason the gas water heater didn’t start so I recycled it and all was good. I did notice when it fired up that there was some debris in the combustion chamber, so that got a good clean out this morning.

After lunch it was back to a bit more planning, our friends who will be in Alaska the same time as us said that the hotels in the Denali Park were filling up quickly, even in June. They were right! I managed to track down a room for two nights at an RV resort! The resort has an associated hotel, we won’t be in a trailer. Even better it is only two miles from their hotel.

The only thing not booked for this trip is where to leave the trailer when we head home. The choice is fairly limited where we will be staying for the final week, and the price is more than we were expecting. I thought we would be OK as the campground that we will be staying at offers storage at a reasonable rate, but it turns out there is a waiting list. I was thinking of towing the trailer back with us and leaving it around Reno, which would position it well for a Lake Tahoe trip when we start out next year, but I am not sure leaving it in the heat of the desert is the best thing to do. I finally tracked down a place that is about 20 miles off our route home, and the price is reasonable. Hopefully that is all I need to do for this trip other than work out stopping places for the long trek east in March.

Mid afternoon we headed out for our walk around the resort, we definitely felt the humidity then. Back at the trailer we had our neighbours over for a farewell drink as they are moving out tomorrow.

Guess what, warm and sunny yet again climbing into the high 20’s.

Today we were heading north east to the Apache Trail, which has some of the best Arizona scenery. We were also going to take a cruise on Canyon Lake, to get us ready for the bigger cruise in June!

We decided to avoid the Interstate and stick to the smaller roads, we gave ourselves two hours to do around 70 miles as we wanted to get the noon boat. The initial part of the journey was similar to previous trips, small mountains to cross then into fertile plains where there is a lot of green fields, which seems way out of place in the desert. At the latter part of the journey we got into some larger mountains with a few switch-backs and steep drop-offs to keep us entertained.

Towards our destination the speed limit dropped to 25 mph, and the guys ahead of us adhered to it, this was all well and good except that we were running out of time to get to the boat. We arrived at the boat with just under 10 minutes to spare, unfortunately it was fully booked. Luck must have been on our side, despite it being Friday 13th, as there were a few no-shows so we got a couple of those tickets.

The two pictures above show some big horned mountain sheep on the edge of the mountain.

Back on dry land we took a picture of the boat.

We continued driving along the lake edge for a while viewing the scenery, there were also a few gift shops along, a couple of which required visiting.

Local Transportation Outside a Store

More cacti in the two pictures above. Through the cacti in the bottom picture is Weavers Needle in the Superstition Mountains.

All in all a great day out, I must admit I do like the scenery in Arizona, it is totally different to anything we have seen before.

Back at the campground I picked up the mail; all the bits I need to fix the toilet had arrived so tomorrow may not be as good a day!

Another warm and sunny day, again climbing to 25°C. Today was the first windy day we have had since arriving, it was strong enough to force us to take in the awning.

Today was laundry day again for Lyn, and propane gas day for the trailer. At this resort the gas is delivered from a tanker by an outside contractor. This makes life easier as everything is done on site.

I finally got all the planning done for this trip; all the campsites are finally booked, one slight change had to be made. The trip from Vegas to California was right on our self set limit for one day of travel while towing the trailer. The Vegas site I finally booked was close to the Hoover Dam, on the east side of the city and added a further 25 miles to the trip. Given the last 75 miles or so of that trip is over hilly windy roads I decided to split it in two.

After lunch we headed out to do the weekly shopping, the store is only about a mile away which is convenient. After we unpacked the groceries we headed out for our walk around the resort.

Now this trip is finally planned, it is time to continue working on Alaska! After talking to the travel agent we found out it was best to take a coach from Whittier (where the boat docks) to Anchorage, as car rental from Whittier and returning it to Anchorage is not cheap! I also found out that if we hire a car from Anchorage Airport they charge an additional 11.5% on the base rate plus an additional $6.50 per day of rental. These (scam)charges are imposed to pay for the new car rental centre recently built at the airport. I think $15 for a cab fare to the downtown office will be a good investment.

I forgot to mention yesterday that we got some good news…… originally we were going to have to change to a different site on Sunday, fortunately (for us) there was a cancellation and the office staff were able to juggle things around and keep us on this site.

Another great start to the day, although it was cooler…. ONLY rising to 25°C in the afternoon!

We lazed around for the start of the morning, then headed out for a good walk around the resort. Lyn had a glass fusion class straight after lunch so I did some work on the truck. I got a few pieces of eBay so that I could tidy up the wiring in the truck now that the rear camera is working. Unfortunately, one of the cables I got was defective, so I couldn’t get too far. One thing I like about eBay is that if there is a problem a new piece is normally sent out straight away. Back to waiting for the mail man person.

I’ve spent a few hours trying to sort out RV sites in California. As we get closer to more populated areas we run in to the issues of more cost or less quality. When you do find the elusive good price / good review site it is invariably not available for one or more nights of the proposed stay. Finally I decided it was time to go for the higher price! In the end we changed our itinerary yet again. After Las Vegas we are heading to a resort right on the Pacific Coastline about 130 miles north of LA.  Still got to book Vegas and San Francisco. San Francisco will present a challenge as I need to try and find a site that is not too costly, not too far away from the city, close to one of the freeways that will lead towards home AND has storage for the trailer! Should be fun.

All in all another relaxing day at the resort.

Another fine day in the desert, again we climbed into the high 20’s.

After breakfast Lyn met up with a couple of friends and headed out on a craft shopping trip. I used the time to put the back end of the trailer  together after proving that the new internet wiring connection still worked after 24 hours of use. Now that is all done the internet wiring from the external antenna just goes into a socket on the rear of the trailer, no need to feed it through a small gap where the sliders come out. When the wiring is disconnected there is a small cap attached to the socket to keep it dry when we are travelling.

Just as I had finished the work I heard model helicopters being flown in the storage area behind us, so I got mine ready and headed over to join them. I was quite impressed with one guy who was effortlessly rolling his machine until I found out all he had to do was hit a button on the transmitter and the machine rolled all on its own! Could there be a new software project on the horizon?

After lunch we just sat around outside for a while, it’s a little too warm in the direct sun, but sitting in the shade of the trailer was very pleasant. Later in the afternoon our friends dropped by for some beer / wine and a natter… life is so difficult!

Blue sky and sunshine yet again today, up to 28°C.

After breakfast Lyn headed over for the craft group meeting, and I tackled one of the more unpleasant tasks to date. A couple of mornings ago there was some water on the floor around the toilet, not much but enough to be noticed. Yesterday it was dry, but again today it was wet. I don’t think that poor aiming on my part was to blame! Like a lot of things in the trailer there was not much room to work. The easiest way to find out what was going on was to remove the toilet from the floor. To keep the story clean and short, the problem appears to be in the fresh water valve attached to the foot pedal used to flush. The toilet was fixed back on its mounts and a new part ordered. Can’t wait to do it all again in a couple of days.

After Lunch we headed out for some geocaching exercise. I had found a group of caches on the main web caching site that ran along a bike path not to far away. Unfortunately when we got there and turned on the GPS there were no geocaches showing in the area. We decided to walk along the path anyway for the exercise; a few hundred metres in we met another geocacher. It turns out that the caches we were looking for had only been placed that day, and it was a week ago that I loaded the caches into the GPS. Luckily I was able to get the coordinates for the caches and load them into the GPS, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted. Along the bike path we came across a number of orange trees in back yards.Back at the resort, we found out that our neighbours weren’t having the greatest of days either. They had to replace 3 batteries in their motor home. As we were drinking coffee we were shocked to see an ambulance arrive and stop next door. It turns out this wan’t an ambulance, the company replacing the batteries next door was the “RV Doctor” and their works vehicle was very similar to an ambulance!

We finally got around to eating outside tonight, the first outdoor evening meal of the year.

Another sunny and warm day, with the temperature just reaching 30°C.

Being as this was a Sunday, we took it easy! I finally got around to flying the helicopter in the storage area directly behind us. There are only a few vehicles  in it, and it is probably the largest free space I have flown in.

Back at the trailer I continued working on the wiring I started the other day at the back of the trailer. I made up some new cables and tested them and all was good.

Once Lyn had finished her stuff we decided  we went for a walk around the resort for our daily exercise, while it was still coolish (<25°C) outside. We had planned to drop by our friends and ask them round for afternoon drinks, but there was no sign of them.

After lunch I went back to the wiring, got the socket all waterproofed and in position and tested it out. All was good again. Final task was to fill the area where I had been working with expanding foam to encase everything properly. Once the foam was in I did a final test, all was NOT good, nothing, nada, zilch etc. There was no power getting to the WiFi unit. I played around with every connection I could reach, with no luck. There was only one thing left to do, dig into the expanding foam and cut the connector out. Finally luck was on my side, the foam hadn’t fully dried and I was able to gently pull the connector out of it, and as a bonus the foam dried in such a way that the connector could be pushed back into position. To cut a long story short, something had got into the connector and caused the problem, It all went back together fairly easily, and continued to work after I put a final coat of foam in the gap.

To explain the title, Rain, slightly misleading as it wasn’t raining water it was raining eggshells! This morning we found half a birds eggshell in one of our outside chairs. While we were drinking coffee outside this afternoon there was a thump on the table; another partial eggshell had landed. We looked up into the tree above us and saw a dove sitting in a nest, I can only assume that as the eggs were old, she had found the nest and was cleaning it out.

The usual sunny clear start to the day. Temperature climbed up to 29°C by afternoon.

Earlier in the week we visited the Casa Grande Ruins, but forgot the camera. We went back today, with the camera, and got some photos.

Casa Grande (Spanish for Large House) was built around 1350 by the Ancient Sonoran Desert People ( to give them their politically correct title). The house itself was 4 stories high, which was quite an achievement back then, it is built out of a clay like material, and has disintegrated over the years. In 1932 a large roof structure was placed over the house to slow down the deterioration.

Like many older civilisations the sun and moon played a major role in their lives, Casa Grande was built to identify solar and lunar events as shown below.

The  Ancient Sonoran Desert People were also masters of irrigation and had been irrigating nearby land for nearly 1,000 years before Casa Grande was built. There are many smaller ruins surrounding the main house. One hundred years after the Casa Grande was built, the area became uninhabited; no one knows for certain why. Theories range from droughts, floods and aliens!

While we were out we toured around some of the back roads, there were many cacti in the area.

Not all cacti are green!

Although most of the landscape is desert, in this area there are many areas of green fields, which seems out of place. There is a very extensive system of irrigation canals around the area to help keep the land fertile.

We also came across this house on our travels:

Below is a more “normal” house:

On the way
back we passed the local airfield where there was a largish plane that I didn’t recognise. We dove around the airfield trying to get a better view of it, but no luck. I found a picture of it on the internet though:

(reproduce with the permission of John Olafson)

It is a WWII era Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, which is a Navy version of the B24 Liberator. There is a war-birds and vintage aircraft restoration outfit based at the airfield, and they were doing some work on the aircraft.

Back at the trailer I started working on putting an outdoor Ethernet plug at the back of the trailer. Simple job of drilling a 1″ hole through the fiberglass and wood backing material. Wrong! Some evil worker at the factory knew exactly where I was going to drill and sandwiched a metal plate between the wood and the fiberglass. Wood spade drills  don’t go through metal. Suffice it to say, hammer, screwdriver (used as chisel) and some well chosen words got the problem sorted after a couple of hours.

With all this out the way we got talking to our Ontario neighbours again. The small world started to envelop us again. The wife, Michelle, was vice principal at Osgoode High where our two kids went and she recalls their names. They also know a number of our friends from the Osgoode area, and it is quite likely we have been at the same parties.