The Tooth Fairy Visits us in Yuma 2014

 

Last week in Quartzite, I broke a crown on #15.  That’s the rear Molar on the upper left.  We’ve been hearing the sweet stories of the Mexican Dentists, now was the time to test it as while in Yuma we border Los Algodones, MX, a hot bed of Dentistry, Optometry  and Drug Stores just 8 miles away. 

Immediately after walking across the border, you are in the center of town.  There you are besieged by a virtual mob of street vendors wanting to herd you to their employers specializing in the above services.  The town is plastered with bill boards as well as the usual street vendors of curios and food.  

I had prearranged an appointment with Eva Urena D.D.S., she quickly (and painlessly) prepped me for a crown which was finally fitted today (Thursday).  The little waiting time we had to do was done in the pleasant courtyard of her office.

While in town we were directed to a very nice local street side {meaning much of the food is cooked at a grill on the side walk!) where we feasted on Fish and Shrimp Tacos.  Fancy? No.   Good?  Great!    Price $11, I only had 1 beer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rare picture of Anne-Marie as she is repatriated to the United States.  B.T.W. camera usage in the secure border areas is strongly discouraged, ask me how I know!  This Shrimp in Coconut was her homecoming feast on this side of the border.

 

Meanwhile, back at camp the work continues.  I removed the 4 Golf Cart Batteries (About 350 pounds and $600) and put them into our new to us Bounder.  I took the dead Bounder’s ‘Interstate’ 5 year old D.O.A.  P.O.S. and swapped the out for some good stuff to put in the 5th wheel.  Did you follow that?  Neither do I!  My back can attest to juggling all those 80 pound batteries however.

Tomorrow, We tow to Las Cruces, CA where we will spend 3 days preparing for our Mexican Connection trip.

Passing of a Friend, Moving Forward with Life. 2014

Sad here to learn of the passing of Bob Marvin.  It appears he had sudden illness in Orlando.  I can only hope he was on vacation with family. Bob lived in New Hampshire and was a sales rep. for the small foundry I worked for.  AS I’ve noted before, our life style turns painful when we cannot respond to this type of personal crisis.

I’ve been hint for the past few weeks that we are looking at buying a motorhome.  We’ve had several motorhomes and would like to go back to that lifestyle.  Our trip to Alaska kind of ruined both of our backs, a 3/4 ton pick-up is very rough riding.

I focused in on Mid-Cost diesel pushers. They cost about $200k new, our budget was about 1/2 of that.  That meant that we would get a unit that is several years old with good records.  We saw several that we liked, once we added up the improvements we want the price shot up.

Well we found one!  Here is a U-tube video of a very similar rig that we are buying.  Our is a 2004, this one is a 2005.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WafgYxTrz9s  Our 38N Bounder has a dinette where this one has a 2 person table.  We do not have a sofa, that space has 2 recliners.  Our also has a nice custom built desk in the area in back of the passengers seat

I drove it about 40 miles, it does nothing rude, smooth power delivery out of it’s Cummings Turbo Engine, Alison Transmission, Air Brakes and Air Ride.  At 74,000 miles it should last a very long time.

Anne-Marie is happy with interior storage, it even has a walk-in closet going across the back wall.

 

 

 

 

I suspect that the recliners will be swapped out for a sofa when we are in Elkhart next year.

We will take delivery mid-March as we are time crunched with our upcoming Mexican Connection and AMA’s surgery. 

Got to Love the Wal-Mart's here for their great sales!

 

Too damn many buttons & gages here!

2014 Quartzite, Last Days

 

Do these folks look like they are having fun?  This was a 1:00pm gathering that featured ‘60s music and hors d’oeuvres.  Great crowd of about 200 Escapees, all involved in one capacity or another.

It really shouldn’t be to tuff to figure out which song these folks are singing on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a while since I had a bottle of Yuengling.  This sign brought me a pleasant memory when I found it in middle of the desert.  It is easier to find a cold beer than a drink of FRESH water out here.  Tap water is very hard, ruins coffee pots and water heaters at an amazing rate.  There are street corner kiosks selling RO {reverse osmosis) water, the cost is about $.25/gallon.

 

Tomorrow {Wednesday} we will relocate to Yuma, about 90 miles south.  Daytime temperatures will be in the high 70’s, not too bad as it’s a dry heat.  Of course the wind chill at 10 mph will drive it down a bit .

On Thursday we will be test driving and evaluating the 38’ Bounder that we are interested in.  It’s a model 38N which is a Cummings diesel pusher with 3 slides.  Being 10 years old, it has a few maintenance issues that I will attend to before it’s launched.  6 new tyres and 4 new house batteries are it’s unguent needs. 

Our plan is to use our present rig to do The Mexican Connection trip in the 1st of Feburary.  We will return to Austin where Anne-Marie’s surgery is scheduled.  After her recuperation, we will possibly fly to Yuma to transfer the Bounder, do some of the maintenance and travel back to Austin.

Well, that’s the plan…..

 

 

 

2014 Quartzite RV Show Opens Today

We’ve been camping in the desert outside Quartzite for the last week tending to several social obligations as you may see here.  Anne-Marie and MooCow went to visit the Too Crazy Ladies to finalize the badge design for our anticipated trip next year to Kino Bay, MX.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had several Social Hours, The standard start time is 4:00 pm which allows us to get a head start on working folks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temperature's are in the 60’s during late afternoon with an ever-present breeze, sweatshirts or light jackets are the dress of the day.  Note the mountains in the backround as they go into shadow while the sun sinks in the west.

Our bid has been accepted on this 38 foot Bounder It is a model with triple slide and all the bells and whistles, next week we will give it a test ride in Yuma and seal the deal with a large down payment.  After Anne-Marie’s surgery we will return here, put some new sneakers on it and return to Texas.

How about the ‘40 Ford Coupe Barn Find, I sure hope someone restores it rather than making another Hot Rod.  In my heart, I’d like to see it built as a  50’s style hot Rod with a Flatty, Duel Pipes and 3 Stromberg carbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got to eat some time, our group is shown here at Silly Al’s one of our favorite Pizza Houses.

Quartzite 2014 Arrival

 

We arrived in Quartzite, AZ on Sunday afternoon. We’ve set-up camp with The Boomers, a BOF {Birds Of a Feather} group on the Escapees RV Club.

Quartzite gained notoriety as the base of the United States Army’s Camel Corps in the mid-1800’s.  Proposed by Jefferson Davis, it was one of his 2 well known poor career choices.

 

 

 

 

This is a rare photo of a camel in Quartzite.          (Not my Photo)

Hi Jolly is the nickname given the fellow who was imported with the 70 camels.   The Government ended the experiment as war erupted, Hi Jolly bought some of the surplus camels using them to move freight.  There is an appropriate monument in the town cemetery to acknowledge Hi Jolly’s achievements.                    {Not my Photo}

{Not my Photo!}

This is also the home of The Quartzite RV Show, which will open next weekend.  This show is said to draw a million RV’ers  into this area every January.  I’m sure the 75° daytime temperature's have some thing to do with that also.

Map Below:  We are located about 2 1/2 miles west of I-10.  It is a mine road which means it is a huge dust storm when ever we use it.

 

 

 

A few folks have asked me about the software I use for this blog.  I use Window’s Live Writer which is freeware from Microsoft.  I’m not a huge fan of M/S but this program rocks as far as being easy to learn and run.

Equipment Upgrade in Yuma 2014

 

We are in Yuma, AZ enjoying the warm daytime temperature of 70°.  While suffering with this, we are have a few upgrades made to our 5th wheel   Our first stop is an appointment at Starlight Solar, our preferred Solar power provider.  I need them to move our existing panels back about 14” to make room for our new A/C install.  This took about 1 1/2 hour's.

next we went down the road to Sumbum RV, they were recommended by Starlight.  Great work here, they seem to be the Beaver Experts as they had 5 in the yard they were working on.  Unlike many Rv’s our unit was not prewired for a front A/C which required them to pull wires to the ‘basement’.

Later we went to The Texas Roadhouse where I had a great siloin, very rare as requested!

Tomorrow there is a car show I hope to attend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arizona at 65° is Wonderful 2014

We really like Deming, NM, it has good services and shopping along with historical linkage to the early western culture.  I even noted a masonic S&C on this pillar at the cemetery.

We spent one evening at The Dreamcatcher’s Escapee Park before we had to move on to be in Yuma, AZ on Friday morning.  This is BIG FLAT country, I-10 is straight as a arrow and has a great surface.

We arrived at Rover’s Roost at 3:00, being another Escapee's Park, we were warmly greeted even though we could only stay 1 night.

 

Note that we took our walk as the sun was retiring in the west as witness by the long shadows.  65° in the sun wasn’t too hard to take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something a little special here for Dawn to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we will drive to Yuma in anticipation of our appoint to add a second A/C to our unit.  We are ‘lucky’ as there is a huge flea market about 1/4 miles from where the installation will be done.

You know what a flea market is; It’s a place where every thing is never on sale

What, Me Run Out of Fuel? 2014

 

Ok, I plead guilty on this count.  We stayed Sunday night in Pecos, TX {P on this map}, it was cold in the morning as we left, I casually looked for a fuel station and could not find one.  No problem, we had a little less than 1/4 tank of fuel.  By the time we got to the ‘X’, I knew we were in trouble.  GPS said I had about 35 miles to closest fuel stop and I was on fumes.  I called Good Sam Road Service, they had to use G.P.S. coordinates to locate my position.  They had a service truck to me in 35 minutes who sold me 10 gallons {$43 plus a tip for the driver} of fuel which was more than enough to get me into Van Horn, TX. (V on map).

 

We went through a Border Security Check on I-10 near the New Mexico Border.  I have no issues with these folks who go in Harm’s way to protect our borders.  Our dash Cow has no fear of the electronic sensors of the Canine patrols.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hope that you ’al are coping with the cold weather.  We have not used our exterior water hose for a week as it will freeze at night here.  Good weather for soup and crock pot.

We’ll be in Yuma on Friday, we are moving our solar panels back a couple of feet at StarLight Solar  our preferred dealer and installation source.   After that, the owner Larry Clutcher has arranged installation of a new A/C at a shop near his.

2 years ago while we were in Quartzite we were exposed to several solar companies that had no technical knowledge to speak of.  Their only interest was selling panels and putting them of your roof.  Our friend Charlie Boles suggested Starlight Solar and we have never been unhappy.

Westbound Spring 2014

 

We’ve spent a large amount of this winter stay in Georgetown tending to Medical issues.

Anne-Marie will be returning to Austin in March when she will have minimally invasive surgery to correct disc damage in 2 areas of her back.  This is very similar to my surgery last year, our doctor expects 90% improvement.  She is also going to have cataract removal on one of her eyes.

Our Neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Loftus cleared me to continue on with our travels.  Dr. Grad, my Cardio Fellow had ultrasound evaluation done on my flakey aortic valve, we are keeping an eye on this as it slowly deteriorates.

We left Georgetown on Saturday morning, driving 200+ miles to be with our friend the Schaffers who were broken down in Abilene with a grenaded transmission. Their Ford has 286,000 miles on it, they go their monies worth out of that transmission!

On Sunday, we left for Pecos, TX where we stopped at an escapee’s park for the night, today we are hoping to stop on Deming, NM where we have mail waiting for us.

 

Look closely at this picture and you will see a small numbers of the thousands of windmills used to harvest wind power.  The constant West Texas winds added to 20 degree temperature are not appreciated when you live in a tin house.  I’m replacing 30# propane tanks every 2 days!  Hope y’all are staying inside and warm….

Post Alaska, the second 6 months 2013

September:  As stated in yesterday’s blog this blog will summarized our travels as we returned to the States after our Alaska Adventure.  When the tour ended, we were about 500 miles north of the border.  We needed to get to the lower 48 as I was out of a med and The Canadians would not honor my U.S. Doctors prescription.  They wanted me to contact a local Doc who would do a work-up on me to see if the drug {I’ve been taking for 10+ years} was appropriate.  I could see a virtual stack of $100 bills going to little more than satisfying their profit needs.

The Columbia River Valley has 7 major dams which control flooding and provide power.  The state run campgrounds but a little pricy at $30 night.  We spent 2 weeks here recuperating, and re-tiring our poor truck that had taken the brunt of our 6,000 miles of rough roads up north. 

We next stopped in Salt Lake City where we meet up with George & Margret Wales {Connecticut O.E.S. members}, they were transporting their son’s car to him in Washington State.  We had a nice dinner from a spot I picked using the Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives locator on my i-phone.  We toured the beautiful site of The Church of Later Day Saints, it very easy to spent a complete day here.  my friend who are interested in genealogy are missing a huge treasure with regards to the treasure trove of records The Mormons collect, maintain and freely share.  Anne-Marie is shown relaxing at the entrance to public auditorium where attend a magnificent organ recital.

 

 

October:  Our friends Charlie & Dawn Boles advised to make the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta one of our stops.  We spent 10 days there.  We joined the crew of the balloon sponsored by Durango, MX.  We spent long hours, worked hard and both go to fly.  It was a great week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November:  After Balloon Fiesta, we went to Deming, NM and rested for a time to help our backs recover.  We stayed at the Escapee’s park there, made an evening dinner trip across the border for dinner and sight seeing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December:  We returned to Texas and visits to several of our Doctors.  We had pleasant holidays visiting with friends and networking with our Church here and the local Masonic lodge.  Georgetown is a very pleasant small town with great community events.  Here we are shown on New Years Eve when we attended a dinner party held in the Palace Theater, in the center of town.  Back at camp, the next morning Mr. Hawk was looking for breakfast on New Years morning.