Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Crazy Horse RV Park

Windy and a little cool, I’m ready for this wind to go away!  We drove around town, to post office, car wash after breakfast in town. THE London Bridge is here and we cross over it each time we go out to the Park. Expected it to be more impressive, not sure why. Walked around Crazy Horse RV Park, a lot of year rounder park models and a couple that stopped and talked to us told us that a lot of snow birds come back here each year. Appears to be a fun place to spend the summer or winter.

Crazy Horse RV Park, Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Raining and supposed to last a couple of days so we are moving on. Packed up during a break in the rain and now slowly heading back east. Had to check with the ranger regarding the weather as high winds are further up north and expected to move this way. He said that I10 should be ok as they had not been given any advisories. It was ok, most of the way but here’s a picture of a sand storm we hit, there was a semi in front of us that we could just barely make out. There were advisories flashing on the highway sign but Bruce figured as long as there were some RVs coming from the east that we should be able to go west. The sand storm only lasted for a few of miles, thank God!

I-10 Dust Storm

We should have stopped for the night a little sooner but chose to keep going. Three of the state parks that we tried were all full, except for overflow, which was dry camping. We didn’t want to do that so went on in to Lake Havasu to a private park, Crazy Horse RV Park. We got a spot right on the water front, no sewer or Internet, and I’m having withdrawals!! Since it was late we just stayed hooked up and leveled it good enough until morning. Went over to the hot tub for a while, boy did I need that! I sure do miss my tub.

San Diego Zoo

Planning to go to the Zoo, Old Town and Hard Rock’s today but the Zoo trip was all the walking I had in me so cancelled the Old Town tour. The Zoo was unbelievably hard to find!! You would think that something that big and famous would be marked on the highways! After an hour of driving around we finally found it and not that impressed.  A lot of the pens were empty or would have only 1 animal sleeping back in the far corner. I did get a lot of exercise though, a very large zoo! From there we went to look for Hard Rock’s, which of course, wasn’t easy to locate either. Bruce finally found it and even got a free parking spot up front! Left there around 6 pm so managed to get into the rush hour traffic but it moved along pretty good. Had to drive around to find some WiFi we could borrow for a bit to check emails, bills, etc. Back to the RV, walk around the park circle and had Stacy check on the weather for us. Still talking about high winds coming in so still not sure if we’ll be able to leave tomorrow.

Thousand Trails - Pio Pico, California

We had made reservations with Thousand Trails at Pio Pico for 25th-28th so packed up and went about 30 miles or so east through some pretty country side to get to a pit of an RV camp! We were greeted by a salesman who told us to pick any empty site we wanted but they were close together and the campground was pitiful! We told them we were not interested in staying there even 1 day, and it was free for the whole 3 nights! We came back to the Sweetwater Regional RV Park and she let us drive around to pick which site we wanted. We picked 51 which is a lot more level and plan on staying until Tuesday. Went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and to get a new coffee pot as the other one broke on our bumpy trip. Went back into Coronado for pizza and to see the sites at night. The weather report isn’t looking too good for Tuesday – high wind warnings so plans might have to be changed.

Coronado, California Day Trip

After going to Registration to get signed in, we headed toward Coronado at the recommendation of the lady at the Park Office.  We walked through the famous Del Coronado Hotel which was a very interesting tour. They had a hall with pictures and history of the Hotel that dated back to 1886, I think. We thought about having lunch there but it was a bit pricy (and since we are unemployed) decided to look elsewhere for lunch. I had a terrible headache so BJ could tell I wasn’t enjoying myself which he knew being on a beach that I would usually be giddy with excitement. So, we took a short stroll down the beach then back to the RV to try to get rid of the HA. Spent the rest of the day and night just laying on the bed watching TV. Watched the movie Selena which was pretty good.

Sweetwater Regional Park - San Diego, California

Up at 7 am to pack and make our way toward California. Thought we might stay in Yuma but it was a very windy day so sand was all in the air, not a pretty site so kept on driving. The 1st part of California was pretty cool, sand dunes everywhere! Had a lot of RV-Toy Haulers with ATVs for playing on the sand. After leaving the sand we got into the mountains and did the temperature drop and the mountains were made of big boulders. Just boulders, like God had gathered them up and made big piles of rocks. Was very interesting terrain!

Sweetwater Regional Park, San Diego, CA

The San Diego area has a lot more mountains than I expected. I had found a County Park that was close to town so called and made reservations and a good thing that I did that too. Sweetwater Park only had 2 sites open so we got site 48. Thought we be there by 5:30ish but it was closer to 7 so got to set up in the dark which I hate doing. The site was not very level so the front had to be jacked up pretty high. We had not eaten yet, stressed for the drive and terribly home sick – had a minor meltdown. We ate a little then took a stroll around the park. It’s about a half mile circle with backins on the outside and double layers pull throughs on the inside of the circle. Horse back riding must be popular as most of the outside circle sites had pens for horses. It’s up on a hill so we can see the valley below.

Another great day at Kartchner Caverns!

Bruce on our walk around the foothills of Kartchner Caverns

We’d decided to stay another day since it’s so nice here, the weather has been great, 75 today and we have no idea of what’s ahead. Weather is supposed to get a little cooler with a chance of rain tomorrow so we’ll move on tomorrow. Got up this morning and took a 3 mile walk through the hills. What a great work out and beautiful scenery! Grilled some burgers then into Hauchaca City to do laundry and the truck. Lady running the Laundry Mat was from OKC and her ex is the Sam’s Club manager in Lawton. Small world!

Tombstone, Arizona

Happy Birthday Gary!

Enjoying Tombstone!

Bruce's Tourist Shot

Today we made a trip to Tombstone for a nice relaxing day. It’s about 15 minutes SW of where we are so it was a nice, short drive.  Tombstone has closed off the main street, Allen St, and laid down dirt so that it looked like it did way back when. Most of the buildings were souvenir shops and all had about the same thing. Had a Bank of America so we went in and paid our credit card bill. Had lunch at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and took some tourists type pictures.  We did a little more walking around then went to find the Post Office to mail Gary’s BD card and a couple of post cards. Had tolerated a bad headache all day which was not getting any better so was ready to go back and see if a little relaxation could get rid of it. Decided to take a couple of shots of liquid pain killer, Tequila, which helped very quickly. We sat outside and enjoyed the sun and warmer weather, about 73 degrees, then fixed supper, watched some TV, worked some Soduko puzzles then to bed.
Update on Dad’s hand, he had to be transferred to another local hospital for surgery - debridement. Not sure why that could not be done at the hospital he is at so called and left a message for a friend that is the QI Director to please check it out – crazy things are happening at what was once a great little hospital.

Kartchner Caverns Arizona State Park

Getting the heck outta Lifestyle RV Park in Willcox, AZ! There is a train track nearby that runs every 15 minutes and has to blow their horn all the way through the city. As you can imagine, very little sleep! By 6 AM decided that we just as well get up and get things packed down for hitting the road. Found an ACE store around the corner that had the screws we needed to get the skirt back in place, went to McD for breakfast and head toward the Kartchner State Park.
WOW, do we love this park! The view is unbelievable, the Camphost, Mary, came up immediately upon us picking our spot to greet us and give us any brochures we may not have got at Registration. She said that she had been told that traffic was pretty brisk so may want to get Cavern tour tickets ASAP so headed over the Dicovery to see what was what. The Big Room tour was already booked for the rest of the day so we bought tickets for the Routunda/Throne Rooms tour at 3:00. Went back to the 5er to have lunch then back for the tour and what a tour!! Our tour guide was an older gentleman, thinking probably a volunteer that trades RV site for work. Very nice and enjoyable guide. Very impressive the amount of time and expense that the State took to make sure that the Caverns were protected as much as possible and what the 2 guys that had discovered it when through to protect it. The 2 guys had found it in 1973 and kept it a secret of 14 years before deciding that there was enough concern that someone else could stumble across it and vandalize it. They thought that they were on government land but after investigating, found that it was private property owned by a teacher/rancher named Kartchner. They approached them with the find and the concern for secrecy. The family decided that they could not afford what would be required so then the decision was made to approach the State. This was also done in secrecy, it was quite fascinating the way they managed to keep this all under wraps until the time was right to protect the caverns. The caverns were something that left everyone speechless by the end of the tour. Want to go back some day to go through the Big Room, which is used during summer by the bats as a nursery.  Bruce called his Mom to see about everyone and found out that his Dad had to be admitted to the hospital due to his cat biting his hand and it was now severely infected. Hard to be away from "home" when family is sick!

Leaving Texas on Our Way West

Up at 7AM which is a feat for me!! Actually woke up around 6 but laid around until then – breakfast, packed and to the dump station and out of the park by 9am. Bruce managed to bang his poor forehead again! This time on the overhead door of the basement. Luckily, no need for stitches but was a long shallow gash and the language that spew forth from his mouth!! Oh well, I’d probably have done the same. Not sure of our destination when we left but didn’t see anything in NM worth stopping for so headed for AZ. Just outside of AZ, Bruce noticed something flapping from my side of the camper – it was the skin of the camper which had come loose from the underside. Limped along for about 2 miles until we got to an exit that had a truck stop. All of the screws from the underside of the front section of the skin had stripped out! Bruce called RV Life/Funtime RV where we had bought our traveling home.  They gave us the service number, who gave us the manufacturers number, who was on the east coast and it was after 5pm there. Bruce was brilliant and took a couple of screws from other places on the underside to screw into the loose section and thought even to use a washer to help them stay in.  We made it to an RV park we found in Trailer Life, Lifestyle RV Park, which SOUNDED wonderful in the book but…not all that. It’s just a large gravel parking lot with tall evergreens next to each tight, side by side site. I’m not kidding that we could reach out and touch our neighbors RV!  The pool/spa/exercise room…well, pool was closed, spa looked nasty and the exercise room was ok. Bathrooms doors were kept locked and had to get the key from the office, which closes at 7 pm. Needless to say, just here for the night and will head over to Kartchner Caverns State Park to see what it is like tomorrow, find some more screws for the RV and call the manufacturer to see what they will do.

Ft. Davis Texas State Park

Drove over the Ft. Davis State Park which was about 30 miles away. Beautiful drive, mountains were made of stones that appeared as if they grew out of the ground. Don’t know how else to explain the way they looked. Ft. Davis looked like a great place to stay also, had a look out point to drive up to which had an awesome view of the valley below. A bit chilly, it was in the 50s with no sunshine. Has been definitely worth the $60 we paid for the Texas Annual Park Pass to not have to pay $3 - $5 each day to any park we go to in Texas. Gas is a bit higher here but I guess since we are in “no man’s land” it costs more to get it here. Back to the RV to watch the NASCAR Daytona race, too bad Mark Martin lost by inches to Kevin Harvick. Bruce grilled some burgers for our dinner and we packed what we could to get an earlier start outta here tomorrow morning.

Balmorhea Texas State Park

Taking the day off from driving anywhere! We spent the day roaming around the park and relaxing and, of course, I took a nap. Bruce washed the RV, his idea of relaxing. Took a walk around the spring-fed pool and watched some divers that were taking a class. Went to the playground and had to try out the swing, Bruce even went down the slide! Watched a little TV and off the bed since there was no internet.