Lake Havasu

We arrived last Saturday here at Lake Havasu RV Park. This is another one of our CRA membership parks and was the only one along the Colorado River we had not visited.

We were looking forward to spending a relaxing 2 weeks here getting the motorhome cleaned (which we did manage to accomplish) and making our plans for the next leg of our journey.

But things do not always work out. Once we had gotten all set up, we realized that our Verizon Cell Phones and internet would not work here! Thats a real bummer when you are trying to make plans and reservations for some places.

We are only staying one week here and then moving back up to Needles, California. Hopefully, we will have a strong signal there so we can get some planning done.

This park is a beautiful one and our site is right across from this grassy area where they play Bocce Ball and on Mondays have a hot dog roast over a fire.



The sites here are very wide. We have more room here than in any of the other CRA parks.










It would have been really perfect if only we had good coverage for cell and internet. Right now, I am at the clubhouse using their wireless. I have a list of things I want to do while I can be on-line so I will be back, hopefully, once we get to Needles.

Rex Allen

Ed is a very big fan of the old western movies. When we found out that Rex Allen was born in Willcox, Arizona and that he had a museum, well we just had to go. It was only about 35 miles east on I-10 so it didn't take us long to get there.














We spent about 2 hours walking around the rooms, looking at all the pictures and reading all the captions.



This statue is across the street in a park.













Tomorrow we leave this area to return to Lake Havasu, Arizona. We will be in the area for another 2 weeks. We need to do some housecleaning. Both inside and out. We still haven't gotten all the mud off since we were at the rally in Casa Grande.

Tombstone, Arizona

Tombstone was founded in 1877 by prospector Ed Schieffelin. He found a very rich vein of silver ore and when he filed his claim he named it Tombstone, because of a warning given him by a passing soldier. He was told that the only rock he was likely to collect would be his own tombstone. Fueled by mineral wealth Tombstone was a city of 1000 by the beginning of 1881 and within the year became the seat of a new county. It was during this time that the businessman who ran the mines and the southern gangs called 'cow-boys' were at odds. The situation exploded on October 26th with the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Tourism is what is now keeping Tombstone going. We walked the streets that are still dirt streets that are blocked off.



We did stop at Boot Hill Cemetery.



We also went to a re-enactment of the gunfight.



We had a good time, although a little disappointed. Tomorrow we explore some more of the area.

Bisbee, Arizona

We took a drive today and went to Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee is the site of the Queen Copper Mine. This quaint little town seems to be built right into the side of the mountain.

The Old City Hall was also a fire station. The bell in the tower warned of dangers from fires, mine cave-ins and Apache attacks.







The Stock Exhange was the only one
between San Francisco and Chicago.




The Copper Queen Hotel was built in 1902. Teddy Roosevelt and John Wayne have stayed there.

We also took a tour of the Queen Mine. This was a real working mine but was closed in the early 1970's after being 'mined out'. Our tour guide was a man who had actually worked in the mine.



We entered the mine on a small train.



It was an interesting tour. Men would go into the mine and work all day to make holes in the rock using something like a jack hammer. They would drill almost 12 feet and then pile the dynamite into the holes. They would use 8 sticks per hole. The first went in solid, the others they would cut and really jam in the powder. They would make 12 holes of these holes. At the end of their shift they would set off the dynamite and the next crew would come in a load the rock to be pulled out by mules. It took about a ton of rock to get a pound of copper.

He even answered the question of bathrooms. This was the honey wagon.



Fun and interesting day!

On the road again!!

The last day of the Gypsy Gathering was the best. I went to a seminar on digital photography and RV tips for women. In the afternoon both Ed and I went to the seminar on diesel engine performance. The best seminar of the whole rally was on fire safety given by Mac McCoy. Check out his webpage - http://www.macthefireguy.com/.

I know there have been many discussions about traveling down the road with the propane on. We always did. We are trying to change our habits. Now we turn the refrigerator and propane off. We also learned a little more about fire extinguisher and I now know how to use them!! It seems like a simple thing to do, you know the concept of how they work. But to actually use one to put out a fire was a blast! I thought that once you pulled the pin the extinguisher was no good. But if you don't use it all you can put the pin back! I highly recommend this seminar to everyone! We have a fire extinguisher that Ed had in his machine shop. It is a very good one, but its an ABC. We learned that the chemical in it is highly toxic, so we took it out of the motorhome and put it in the outside bay. It will be okay to use on an outside fire, but its a good thing we didn't have to use it inside. The other extinguisher we have is for inside use but we do need to get a couple more.

After the seminar on diesel engines, we purchased a new air filter and turbo muffler. Major Wingfield started the install Thursday and finished yesterday. He had a real hard time with this install. He found some things that made us real glad we decided to do this. Seems a couple of the brackets holding the old one had come lose and our tailpipe was so rusted he could put his finger through it. Lets hope this helps a little with our gas mileage. That's why we got such a late start yesterday. We finally got on the road around 3:00pm which meant we hit Tuscon right at 4:30.

We arrived in Benson and went to the Saguaro SKP park and pulled into a boondock spot for the night. They could not get us a site so we moved to Benson I-10 Rv Park. We will be here until Friday so we purchased a week. It was $118 for a full week and we have 50 amp power and cable tv. Even though we have a dish, we have the option of watching something different on the other tv. It would have been that much for the SKP park by the time you paid for your electricity.

We plan to visit Tombstone and Ed has a t-time for Thursday to play golf. There are also some other towns we want to visit also.

This is such fun!!

Western Gypsy Gathering

Today was day 3 of the rally. Monday was a miserable day. The cold wind was gusting to at least 50 miles an hour all day. We walked up to the main building for orientation and then back again in the evening for social hour and door prizes. But at least the wind dried up most of the mud holes, until it rained again that night! You got it, more mud!!

Tuesday was the start of the seminars and we have attended most. We've learned about researching some back road finds, volunteering on the road and how to write a resume for working part time somewhere. Tomorrow is the last day and we hope to learn some fire safety and how to take better photos.

Tonight we had a pizza party and after we had the Cactus Queen Contest. We had 6 men dress as women to compete in a beauty contest. What a hoot! Of course, I didn't have the camera. Check out Nick's Blog, I'm sure he'll have some pictures.

This has been the first rally we have been to and while we have had a good time, I'm not sure if we would ever do another Gypsy Gathering. But, who knows! Next winter we may meander this way.

More travel in Arizona

We left Parker, Arizona yesterday morning. We only had 180 miles to get to the rally, but we weren't scheduled to arrive until today. But since we had to leave Emerald Cove, we spent last night boondocking at the Wild Horse Pass Casino in Chandler, Arizona. There were quite a few motorhomes in the parking lot. It was level and well lit.

Of course, we had to check out the casino. It was a very small. But like most casinos they did have a buffet. It was expensive and the menu didn't look that great so we didn't go in. Ed played poker for a while and I played video poker. We left with the money we went in with plus $9.00 of their money!!

It rained overnight and the fairgrounds here are a muddy mess. So much for having a clean motorhome. Oh well!! All we've done so far is get set up. The rally actually begins tomorrow. I hope it drys out a little. We are looking forward to some interesting seminars, seeing some venders and making new friends.

This is such a fun life!!

Enjoyment!

We have been enjoying our time here at Emerald Cove. We have spent a lot of time at the Pool Bar. That's the bar between the two pools they have here. They have Karaoke there on Friday and Saturday evenings and also on Sunday afternoons. We spent Sunday afternoon there watching the Super Bowl. 75 degrees. Not to hard to take! We finally got to wash the dust off the motorhome yesterday. I have cleaned some of the screens, still need to finish. Ed finally got to play some golf. Most of these resorts have small golf courses. The one here is called......



Yes, you see right...Jackass Flats! They need to update the sign since the course is open now..not coming soon.

It's a very small 9 hole course. You can see the green from the tee.



The tee and greens are green fake grass. Everything else is gravel. If you miss the green you may as well try again because you can't hit off the gravel! We have gone for walks around the park and played Bingo. Ed has played some poker in the afternoons.

We will be leaving here on Saturday on our way to the Gypsy Gathering in Casa Grande Arizona.