California here we come

Till I went to bed last night it was 12:30 ish and the fridge had already shut off. Can't wait to plug into electric. And get new batteries. We woke up after we heard other generators running already. Did our morning routine I started putting stuff away. It's sad to leave our people. We met the neighbor in front of us and two sites away behind us right before we left. We really got up for the donuts, we went down to the activity area they had every kind of donut you can think of. Jim ate two I ate one, it has been a long time since we had a donut. Jim put most of the things away yesterday, it was a lot easier to leave without having  hookups to put away. We pulled out of our spot right before 11, then we went down to the dump station. There was only two, one from the direction we were coming from and one from the other direction for the lower sites. It went fast it wasn't a typical dump when you're in a line like that you pull your blacks you pull your grays and you GTFO, that's what they called it here. We all LOL. It was very quick we went to the bathroom and then got on the road at 11:25. Feels funny to be back on travel days. We only had a hundred and eighty miles to drive, to Palm Springs RV Resort Thousand Trails. It was a beautiful drive not stressful at all either. When we arrived  and our greeting was  "WOW where are we going to put this. Let me call the other Ranger and long story, found us a spot kind of right inside the gate, we had to drive all the way around. There's palm trees on top of palm trees which are so beautiful, each one has a hose around it to water which they come on at night.

We got set up, is wonderful to have hookups again. I vacuumed and got the wet hose out for my rainbow with all that rain I had a puddle in the carpet I had to get it dryed out. We went for a little walk as it was getting dark, talked to a guy that said he was a ranger and gave us some info on the area. You can see  snow topped Mountains from the one end of rhe Campground, is so pretty the phone pictures do not do it justice.

We came back and got some leftovers for dinner. We had the time change an hour again. We knew it was going to happen but it is so strange by the time it was 9:30 their time I was so tired and went to bed.

Escapers farewell party

Our last full day in Arizona, for now. Did our morning routine, blah blah blah. I made breakfast and Jim got ready and went to wash the truck. I cleaned up a little took a quick shower, emphasis on quick. Started getting ready for the vendor sale, which went from noon till 3. It's been a long time since I had a 3 hour work day, but I guess I can handle it. Our goal at one of these is to always earn more money than we spend there. Which in the end we did. I took my plastic bags that I sell, and I had some infinity scarves that I truly forgot I even had till I was looking for something else and found them. Keeps the Cool Breeze off your neck. Jim return when I was taking stuff outside. We took a load down to set up at the tables. I have some pictures of the setup area people were selling jewelry hemp oil, the lady that sang that I liked the other night was selling her CDs so I did buy one of them her name is Killarney Star, she was very good and I really enjoyed her the other day she played almost the whole time we were selling.

I was right in the Sun and boy did it get hot, first time I felt like my lips were dried out. I had a lady that wanted a water bottle holder so I made a special order one for her. It was fun talking to all the different people. Funny how you see some people over and over and then you see others that you felt like you never seen before. Jim help me carry everything back to the fifth wheel after 3.  I started working on this water bottle holder right away and he started putting stuff away for travel day tomorrow. I was almost finished with the bag took the last little supplies and we went down for the barbecue dinner and farewell party. I wanted to mention something I was talking about yesterday with our battery situation. With all the battery problems we've been having, when we get to California we're going to get AGM batteries, require no maintenance. We're also going to get a battery monitor, Jim prefers Bluetooth. Came back to the farewell party, they had free beer that night three different kinds amber lager, Oktoberfest, and blueberry. The beer was donated by escapees and you could give a donation which went to the CARE Foundation, which is in Livingston Texas for  retired rvers. We got in a long line for the barbecue, it was smoked pork, chicken and beef they called tri-tip. We have been smelling it for 2 days and it was wonderful . You can have it with a bun or without, without a bun you had a sample of all three and they had potato salad and coleslaw and baked beans asides. It was very good. I told Jim I guess there's no dessert. And later I heard someone say they should have had a potluck dessert, I thought would have been a fabulous idea. But we really didn't need dessert. When the meal was over they had a band play. Then we walked up to where the motorhome was with the big telescope, we wanted to do that ever since we got here. The moon is so bright it lit your path. Then we went back down to the party and they had this car that they drove in that was their DJ booth,  Jim has some pictures of it. Jim said it's like a giant jukebox on wheels.

Once the music Started thumping and bumping Jim was finished, so he went back to the FW. I stayed at the party with the young people, till I got back to the FW all the generators were off, and it was quiet. it was really fun such a beautiful evening so bright out. Till I got ready and went to bed it was probably 12:30. Tomorrow's the first traveled in over week.

Really fun day

Beautiful morning, saw bright son pouring in Windows, sort of woke me up. I had to get up, Jim said put heat on before he gets up to put generator on , so I thought it's the least I can do since he does it all. He made the coffee and I got back up after it warmed up a bit. I made a smoothie this morning first time since we got here with the generator, worked fine. I made some eggs and we got ready to go do some errands. We watched the people next to us leave this morning, so now we have room to park the truck next to us. We got propane gas at TSC and I wanted to get some rain boots there. Got diesel for the truck and gas for the generator. Then we stopped at Chili's and had lunch. He dropped me off at Walmart, while he ran into Lowe's, then we filled up the water jugs. We got back in time to see Kyle and Olivia from Drivin and Vibin they talked about boondocking 101. They are the cutest couple ever.

They are the same ones who sang the other night. I went back to FW put rest of the food away, and made Tex- Mex Quinoa for the pot luck tonight. We went down at 6:00, they had so many things enough to feed hundreds of people, they also had a guy there who smoked turkey really good.  then they did karaoke a lot of good singers there. We went back around 9:30 to shut the generator off around 10:30.

Jeep ride through the desert

Before we left I asked Jim if he thought it would get old having to get up early in the morning to turn the generator on. I think it finally is starting to. So we did our normal morning routine, which included Jim turning the generator on. Jim made plans yesterday to go 4-wheeling in the desert, with a guy he met at the Rally, named Cory.

He made some eggs and was going to leave, I said don't you want to make a lunch, or at least take a protein bar and a bottle of water. So he did and then left. He texted me about 10 minutes later and said nobody was around should I knock on the door or wait. I told him just wait it's early. Then I got worried I would miss my relaxing day at home alone. Then he texted me they were about to leave, and I gave a sigh of relief,  no offense hon. I got to relax watch TV shows I wanted to. I packed up and went down and took a shower at their shower house. It was really nice and I left the cleaner than I found it. I cleaned up a little and just chilled, had light lunch, was nice to have quite alone time.  About quarter of one Jim said they stopped for lunch so I figured he'd be right home. So I went and turned the generator off, I thought he would be home soon. Found out later they only stopped for a quick break had ice cream with them. Also had his bar and water. Bet he was glad he took it then. I thought he would fill the generator after it cooled off. But he didn't come back yet, so I went down to see what activities were going on.  Then I saw Jim, they were back, and I went to the talk they had about the upcoming convergence going to Mexico. It was very interesting to hear the process going through the border. I saw Peter and John there the RV geeks and I went to talk to them about our battery situation .  They gave me some good suggestions,  and then  talked to Jim about it and then the two of us went over and talked to him together .  We actually have the wrong batteries  for what we want to use them for,  they're actually are multi-use batteries  and not deep cycle. Plus we killed them by not putting water in and probably drain them too much,  they're only supposed to be drained halfway . Went back with Jim made him something to eat, he was pretty tired so he sat down to rest and I went to see what was going on. They were playing escapees Olympics, played 10  different games that they played teams of four or five, It was fun to watch. I was talking to some people, Jim and I both have a sore throat on and off from all the talking we're doing meeting all the new people. Then they had a guacamole throw down for people to made their best guacamole and the contest winner had over 50 votes, and also won last year.  We did not eat any we didn't like the idea of people putting their hands in the bag of chips, not sanitary and a lot of people weren't feeling well. Jim stayed home for the rest of the night and I went down and they had a jam session that was fun to watch. He texted me, he shut the genny down and went to bed. They played an RV version of the Dating Game. I stopped at the fire on the way back took a little walk around, the sky was beautiful to see, a lot of stars out and the moon was so bright.  It took me a while to warm up and I went to bed.

105 different Mac & Cheese

We both woke up today hearing Jim's phone ring, he forgot to turn it off last night. Then we realized we both heard the generators running already off in the distance. So at least we weren't the first one. After our morning routine ritual we watched as it got so sunny  out, beautiful morning. He went out for a little walk and swept the dirt / sand off  our rug as best he could. I finished the Today Show and got dressed then we went out and about to see what was going on. Jim went out to lunch with some people at a restaurant with Jersey Subs. I had lunch in the FW turned the generator off. Then  I went to something that was organized by a member called Stitch and bitch, was really just talking and everybody brought their projects, and we all got to talk and see what everyone was working on,  it was about 25 people there , even at least three men . This afternoon they had a woman that talked about how she got into renovating RVs. She was telling her story about how she had roommates, and her dad was ill and she had to take over his two businesses, had very little money, out of necessity was forced to move into a FW, almost homeless. So she bought a fifth wheel, but had nothing to pull it with. She was living in it and decided she wanted to renovate it. Now she buys used Montana's mainly and renovates them and sells them. She had a slideshow with before and afters, she loves to paint all the cabinets white. She was doing a beautiful job very interesting to listen to. She had a fifth-wheel there that she was living in that she was almost finished  renovating, that she had open that everyone could walk through and look at. Then I walked back to the fifth wheel with Jim and started making the macaroni and cheese for tonight. We went down then and 16 tables set up full of macaroni and cheese with a total of 104 different ones.

So we all had a tasting of each one I didn't make it to all of them. Then you got to vote on the best one, which was pretty much an impossible thing to figure out. Marcia won, she was one of the people we were talking to a lot. She put cauliflower in her mac and cheese . Everyone also brought their favorite beer and or wine or root beer to taste. Jim brought lager beer to taste.

Every time I couldn't find him I remembered oh yeah he's over by the beer. They made a big campfire, I came home about 8. I wanted to clean up and watch This Is Us from last night. Jim came back about halfway through I finished the show cleaned up  the dishes. Then we turn the generator off at 10 he went to bed first and I did shortly after.

5 fun things we did in the rain.

It started raining last night, all through the night and at least until 4pm, it rained. Found out later they said it rained here more in 24 hours then it did all last year. So when we woke up this morning it was  about 7:30 and Jim went out to start the generator, and it wouldn't start, and panic set in. At least for me. He came in to tell me which was obvious because I couldn't hear it.  It was warm under the covers but I didn't want to get up yet, I was waiting till he got it going had the coffee ready and the heat back on take the chill off, he spoils me so. He went back out, I said a little prayer, and this time it started. I was so thankful. Then he did everything I just said, I got up just after that, we watched The Today Show, which he gets sick of pretty quick.  I made him breakfast, It has pretty much rained all day long. Which I love a relaxing lazy day at home in the rain, but when it's kind of forced on you and you have minimal resources it was a little bit more of a strain. We made lunch and I got ready, was probably after 2 by then, I took a quick shower which I'm super good at doing a  minimum water boondocking showers, while Jim was out talking to the neighbor . When he finally turn the generator off, and the rain slowed down, when we walk down looking for some fun. First they had two couples talk about an Alaskan trip that they took, they gave a lot of tips on how to plan a trip for yourself which is very interesting. Jim went back to the camper and got another beer and I don't know what all we did. And then they had two guys talk on batteries. They call themselves The Geeks Peter and John, it was very interesting they were talking about their lithium batteries. Then JP the head ringmaster here which he is doing a wonderful job, talked about the schedule for tomorrow with some changes because of the rain. And then they had food trucks outside all set up. There was one with corn dogs, one with  tacos, ice cream truck, kettle corn, Burgers and Fries. So we walked back to the fifth wheel and had our smoked pork sandwich first, just the lines were so long. Jim refilled his beer bag, as I call it his man purse. We walked back and got in line and had some fries. The tacos were beef so that was a no-go for me. That was about all we had we were talking to whole bunch of different people and then they had another guy with a guitar and woman that were singing.

They were really good but I did like the guy from last night way better. They did start a campfire then in the big pot. We walked back through the mud again we had to turn the generator off of 10. It was muddy but even the mud is better here, it's like Sandy not so much dirt. I had some chicken thawed out from when I cleaned out the freezer I need to cook, so I grilled it on the Hubcap Grill inside. This time Jim took the smoke alarm down before it went off and took it upstairs, have to remind him to put it back. Then he turned the generator off and filled his beer bag up again, and with my slight encouragement, he took more beer and went back to the campfire for some alone quiet man time fun by the fire. So I worked on the blog trying to clean things up a little bit, which is not easy. Had a couple cups of lemon tea and got ready for bed, and waited for his return.

Second time on this trip the FW was in a different State then us.

Good morning Arizona. When Jim gets up it's usually about 7:30. He puts on the generator of course. I made him eggs for breakfast, and we did our normal morning routine. We talked about planning our day. We decided to take a drive into Lake Havasu. We also wanted to get gas for the generator. We used a good five gallons I guess in about two and a half days. We drove around a little and looked at the nice houses I love the style in the Southwest. We went down to where the London Bridges. Walked around a little went to some gift shops.

There was a man in there that told us we can take a boat ride  across the island and go over to the casino which is in California, for $2.00 a person, can't beat that. Went to the visitor center there was a lovely lady that was giving out brochures and telling you of the activities, in the area. We had to move the truck, and then we bought our tickets. The boat ride was really nice it was a good twenty-minute ride. It was nice seeing all the campgrounds that are right on the water and a beautiful homes and all the boats that were docked right there. We went into a casino that was right there it was really Smokey but the restaurant wasn't as bad, so we went in there. Had a bite to eat it  looked over the water, and then we boarded the boat again for the ride back.

When we were just about there I was watching this motorhome go up the hill and all of a sudden it was shaking like crazy, I thought it was going to tip over. I actually gasped, so when we were off the boat we walked up past where he was and he actually was stuck in the soft dirt, and trying to dig out with a shovel. You can tell there was no way he was going to get out without getting pulled out, ask us how we know. We were going to wash the truck since we have the camper washed now, but decided to wait and do it right before we leave, because we heard there's some rain on the way. When we got back we got ourselves situated and then had a light dinner of leftovers. And then we went down for the margarita party. There was a line where everybody made Margaritas, if you had a special recipe that you felt was exceptional. Jim must have tasted about 25 at least. One lady was from Alaska and brought frozen blueberries that she picked on her own property, she actually won as the favorite margarita. Then there was a couple who played guitar and sang. They were really good their names were Kyle and Olivia they were adorable he had the most beautiful teeth and smile I've seen in a long time.

They have a small camper that says Drivin and Vibin on the back of it and we remember passing it on the highway on the way here. We kept thinking somebody had to be coming here and going in this direction. Everyone tried to get them to play longer but when they were finished they had a big campfire and we were over there for a while talking to a lot of different people. When we finally got home and put the generator back on again oh, I guess it actually ran for a  while we were down there. We turned the heat off last night to see if it would make a difference and keep the fridge running longer, I don't think it helped much. It was a wonderful evening.