Hemet, CA - Day 15

Day 15 – January 20, 2010
We’ve been in Hemet for a week now. Haven’t really done much since we got here, but have been able to spend quite a lot of time with family (that's why we're here). The first night here we had dinner with Wanda’s sister, brother-in-law, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
Chad, Wanda’s youngest son, is working two jobs, so we spent Saturday with Melissa and the kids watching football ("Who Dat, Saints"Yea !; AND Jets over the Chargers WhooYea!). Wanda was able to get the laundry done that day, as Melissa graciously offered the use of her washer and dryer. Melissa and Chad prepared a wonderful steak dinner for us that night.
Sunday the 17th, it started raining and hasn't stopped yet. We attended the 9:30 a.m. services at Crossroad Christian Center in Banning. This is where our nephew and niece attend. We were joined by our sister and brother-in-law. Following church services, the six of us had lunch at Chili’s, then we headed back to Hemet. Wanda spent the afternoon with Chad doing some shopping at Best Buy, and seeing the movie, Sherlock Holmes, which was way too long and really not a very good movie. Certainly would not recommend it as one to see. In fact, would discourage it. Was thankful she did not have to pay full price. J.W. stayed at the RV Park watching football and napping. Melissa and the kids spent the day with her dad and sister.
We finally made it too Walmart on Monday to buy groceries. That evening Wanda fixed pepper steak at Chad and Melissa’s and we stayed at the house with the two younger kids while Chad took Eric back to his dad and Melissa had coffee with a friend. Tuesday night we had Spaghetti with the kids and played Buzz on the Play Station 3. Needless to say, we were not the winners, but we did have fun. Our grandchildren are quite competitive and really not very good losers. However, that is something you have to get used to if you play games with Chad. Things have not changed over the years. He is consistent in winning. We had a wonderful time.
Today we went to Banning to watch $2.50 movies at the Fox Theater. Bill and Jim saw The Book of Eli and Wanda and Deanie went to It’s Complicated. Both were very good movies. Both of these we would go see again. The rest of the day was spent back at the RV Park watching TV and fleshing out.
We came to California for warmer sunny weather. It has rained the past three days and they’re forecasting rain for the next three days. The weather is not exactly warm (50's-60's), but it is above freezing. We have a terrific view of Big Bear Mtn. from our motorhome and we watch the snow continue to get deeper on the Mtn. every day. (We are glad it's up there and not down here).That's it for this update, check back with us in a few days as we continue our journey to and from California.

Quartzsite, AZ - Hemet, CA (Final Destination)

Day 9 – 1/14/10
We got up early this morning and got the coach ready to go to Hemet before going to breakfast with Gerald and Gladys. Yea, we went back to "Sweet Darlenes" We had almost as long a wait this time as we did yesterday but the food was delicious when it finally arrived.

11:00 MST we pulled out of Holiday Palms RV Park in Quartzsite, AZ, on the last leg of our trip to California. We changed the time on our watches at Blythe, CA when we stopped for gas at the Flying J and entered the Pacific time zone. It is 70 degrees and it is extremely windy. The wind was very bad for about an hour and a half as we crossed the desert from Blythe, CA to Coachella, Ca. Visibility was practically non existent at times due to the heavy blowing dust/sand.
At 1:00 p.m. we stopped in Coachella, Ca, at the T/A Truck Stop and had the Motorhome and car washed. J.W. needed a rest stop due to the terrribly heavy winds. I had fallen asleep, but J.W. saw a mobile office building on its side along the side of the road.
2:20 Back on the road.

When we came through the mountains at Banning, CA., we saw literally thousands of wind turbines. They were everywhere you looked (I have never seen so many wind turbines in one place) very impressive.

We arrived at Mountain Valley RV Park where we will stay for the next month. We got all set up, changed our clothes, freshened up and ready to meet Chad & Melissa and their family, & Deanie & Bill at the Hometown Buffet. After dinner we went to Chad & Melissa’s for a nice visit. We got back to the RV about 10:00 p.m. A long, exhausting day but we're finally here. Now for a months worth of resting before we head back to Branson, Mo.

Our blog updates will probably be sporadic for a while as we rest and take some day trips. We will notify everyone on Facebook and by email when we have an updateto this blog.Thanks for following along with us. When we make the return trip to Branson, we plan to make stops in Phoenix to visit the capital, Carlsbad Caverns, San Antonio, Austin, TX to visit the capital and also Oklahoma Citys Capital. See ya down the road . . .

@ Quartzsite, AZ - Day 2

Day 8 - 01-13-10

Wanda was up at her usual 5:00 'ish or so, JW 8:00am. This is our 2nd day here. Visiting with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Gladys was the order of the day. Our first stop was "Sweet Darlene's Restaurant and Bakery". WOW ! what a breakfast. First we had to get waited on, and I think half of the RVers in Quartzsite were in there. The restaurant is a Morton Building that seats probably 300 people and the tables are all in a row with about 50 to a table. We had to sit with some "new friends" and after 45 minutes we were waited on. Getting the food was another adventure (another 30 minutes), first the waitress brought us the wrong order, twice, then finally got it right the third time. It was delicious.

Uncle Jerry took us on a tour of Quartzsite and all the flea markets (hundreds of them) and we got to see the "BIG" tent going up that will open this weekend. We then headed for Blythe, CA for fresh grapefruit. Then it was on to Parker, AZ and Lake Havasu City. Beautiful mountains folks. RV Parks "everywhere", by the Colorado River, on top of the mountains, on the side of mountains and in the desert. Everywhere you looked, RVs. Aunt Gladys said " and they aren't all here yet. They'll all be here for the RV show that starts next week". Whew! ! ! I can't imagine. It was an excellent day with temps in the mid 70's, light wind. We arrived back in Quartzsite around 6:00p.m., just in time for a jam session at the campground. Wanda & I, Uncle Jerry & Aunt Gladys took this in. Lots of good music, some not so good but "HEY" they got up there and gave it their all. The lady with the mandolin that performed Amazing Grace was excellent.

Tomorrow, the 14th, we head for Hemet and the Mountain Valley RV Resort. Chad and Melissa, "here we come".

That's it for this update, please check back tomorrow as we continue our journey to sunny Southern California.

Lordsburg, NM - Quartzsite, AZ

Day 7 – Tuesday - 1/12/10
We were up early again this morning, Wanda 6:15, J.W. 8:00. Breakfast was over and we were on the road by 9:30. 10:00 a.m. found us crossing over into Arizona. Our scheduled destination for tonight was the Holiday Palms RV Park in Quartzsite, AZ.
At 10:15 we went through a Photo Enforcement Zone at San Simon. What is that? ? ?(Later in the day we found this is a process by which your vehicle and license plate is photographed by Law Enforcement Officers and your ticket is mailed to you.)
11:15 we stopped in Wilcox, AZ to fill up with gas. On this tank we got 8.4 mpg. Not too shabby. We also filled our propane tank. It is hard to believe it is so expensive. It is normally $2.98 / gallon. We got it for $2.69 because of a tax issue.
We saw beautiful rock formations at Texas Canyon. And found it interesting that the City Limit sign for Tuscon was 21 miles east of the actual city. At Pichacho Peak, AZ there was a really neat mountain that J.W. fell in love with. We arrived in Phoenix at 2:30, so once again missed the rush hour traffic. However, we encountered the worst traffic thus far on our trip. Even though it was not rush hour J.W. prefers much less traffic. He maneuvered quite well.
We reached our scheduled destination, Holiday Palms RV Park in Quartzsite at 4:30. J.W. was not real happy because they did not have any pull through spots so we had to take the car off the dollie. But we were in our spot and set up by 4:55. We called Gerald & Gladys, our aunt and uncle. They came and picked us up. We went to Palo Verde Café for dinner, then to their house for the evening. J.W. helped Gerald with some computer issues while Wanda visited with Gladys. They brought us back to our RV about 10:00 p.m.

That's it for this update. We'll be heading out for Hemet on Thursday morning. and finally get to see our son and his family. Check back later for more updates as we continue our journey to sunny Southern California.

Ft Stockton, Tx - Lordsburg, NM

Day 6 – 1/11/10
We got an earlier start today. We were up, had breakfast and were on the road by 10:30 a.m. CST. We didn’t hook up the sewer last night and found that the Gray Tank was full and backing up into the bathtub. So we had to dump the tanks before takeoff. We saw some really interesting mountains along the trail. We think they were the Guadalupe’s. About 100 miles east of El Paso the mountain tops were covered with snow. What a pretty sight.

At 12:30 we stopped for gas in Van Horn, where we had originally planned to spend the night last night. We stopped at the Pilot Station where gas was $2.75 a gallon. We could have gotten it at Murphy for $2.48, but that was in Fort Stockton and we were not ready to fill up at that time.

The time changed from Central to Mountain just west of Van Horn. About an hour west of Van Horn the Border Patrol were thick. We also saw some really neat wigwams at a Rest Area and lots of very rocky mountains (not to be mistaken for the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.) Somewhere along this area, we crossed the Continental Divide, took me by surprise and I didn't get any pictures. Maybe on the way back thru here . . .

We arrived in New Mexico at 2:00 p.m. MST. We had planned to spend the night in Las Cruces, but drove a couple more hours down the road and stopped at Lordsburg. We hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, so we stopped at Kranberry’s Restaurant. That was at 4:30 and we had breakfast at 8:00 MST. We got to Lordsburg KOA at 5:30 where we will spend the night.

That's it for this update. Check back tomorrow for more updates as we continue our journey to sunny Southern California.

San Antonio, Tx - FT Stockton, Tx

Day 5. 01/10/10 Today was somewhat uneventful. We slept in. When we set the clocks last night we set them an hour behind so we had to hustle to get out of the Park on time. We had to be out by noon. We planned to stay in Van Horn tonight but Map Quest showed it was 483 miles from where we were and that it would take 5 hours to get there. They were apparently arriving at that time based on the fact that the speed limit on I10 is 80 miles an hour. Well, guess what? In the RV and with the winds we were able to travel about 60-65 mph. Therefore, 5 hours down the road we decided to stay in Fort Stockton which is 119 miles east of Van Horn. Map Quest showed it was 7 ½ hours from San Antonio to El Paso and El Paso is 238 miles away after having traveled 5 hours. Now tell me, what is wrong with this picture.

We stopped in Sonora for gas. Even with the wind and all these hills in southern Texas we still got 7 mpg. There were some pretty sights along the route and some pretty barren areas. Some places looked like Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado, others like Southern Colorado and New Mexico. Lots of cacti, sage brush and Joshua Trees. We also so bunches of Wind Turbins.

Still no armadillos but lots of dead deer along the road. We also saw a herd of about 100 antelope grazing on somebodys crop of wheat or whatever. We also saw bunches of sheep and some llama.

Thought this was an interesting town sign. Wanda was a Missouri Welfare Case worker.

JW also commented that he has seen very few Mexicans and thinks that it’s because they have all gone to Oklahoma, Kansas or Missouri to work.

We got set up at Fort Stockton RV Park at 5:25 p.m. The Roadrunner BBQ & Café, which is located just behind the campground office, opened at 5:30 p.m. so instead of cooking tonight we decided to dine at the café. Very good food. JW had Chicken Fried Steak, WJ had Pork Ribs.

We took many many pictures of the West Texas landscape, but after awhile all the mountains started to look alike.

DID YOU KNOW, you can leave comments on the blog? Yep, you sure can ! ! !

That’s it for this post, check back tomorrow for updates as we continuie our journey to sunny Southern California.

Ft Worth, Tx - San Antonio, Tx

"CAMPING WORLD IS #1"

Well, we are into day 4 of our trip to California. We had to be up early this morning to take the Motor Home back to the Camping World Service Center. When we checked to see if the drop light had thawed the ice in the water pump, we found it to be unsuccessful.

We delivered the Motor Home then went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. When we got back to Camping World it was ready to roll. All they had to do was thaw the pump. All we had to pay was labor which was pretty expensive ($109.00 / hr). It took them 45 minutes to by pass the Accumulator and one hour to thaw the pump. You do the math.
Getting the car back on the dollie went off without a hitch (no pun intended). We were on the road out of Fort Worth at 10:30 a.m.

For lunch we stopped for a famous “Robertson’s” ham sandwich, yum – yum. JW said we hadn't had one of these for over 20 years. As I recall, they were a lot cheaper back then, but just as good..

J.W. commented that he hadn’t seen any armadillos since we entered the state of Texas. He decided the reason was that they had all gone to Missouri.

We went through several well known cities, Waco (anyone remember what happened there???), Temple, Georgetown, Round Rock, Austin, San Marcos, New Braunfels and San Antonio (we all remember the Alamo).

Around 1:00 p.m. JW decided that we needed fuel for the motorhome and started looking for a Flying J. As we saw one 8 miles south of Robertsons sandwich shop we discovered that the exits are about a mile before you actually get to your turnoff, so about 2 more mile down the road we got turned around and headed back to the Flying J. As we pull into the station JW discovers that RVs need to go to the back of the station, so here we go, only to find that it's all diesel pumps. Back to the front of the station we go. To make a long story a little bit shorter, we made the loop around the station 3 times before JW decided to park the motorhome and fill er up. Some times I wonder . . .

At 4:30 p.m. we arrived at Alamo Fiesta RV Park, Boerne, Tx, just west of San Antonio, 18 miles from Sea World. Once again, we got through all the big cities without running into any rush hour traffic. As JW was almost finished setting up, a couple showed up and said that the site we were in was theirs (pre-registered) I checked my papers and found that the office folks had reserved the same site for two of us. I offered to move but the couple said no, they would just setup in an empty site.

Wanda came out to help me for a few minutes and she said she had just seen a herd of deer on the far side of the park.

5:00 p.m. found us set up, water running, the door open, and dinner on the stove. What a wonderful feeling to be in warm weather once again. It was 45 degrees when we got here, but is supposed to drop to 20 tonight. It looks like this will be our last night of below freezing weather. Our relatives in California tell us they have been having 70 and 80 degree weather. Looks like it is from the freezer to the oven. However, I think we’ll have no problem adjusting to the warmer weather.

Tomorrow (Sunday), we head for El Paso, 7 hours 31 minutes or 553 miles, long day. Don’t know if I want to drive that far in one sitting or not. That’s it for this post, check back later for more updates as we continue our journey to sunny So. California.

Ardmore, Ok - Ft Worth, Tx

Today was another frustrating day right off the bat. In the life of the RVer, everyday is a new adventure. JW expressed how much he enjoys RVing in the bitter cold weather, "NOT" ! ! ! At least we're consistent Got a late start again today. We needed to dump both the black tank and the gray tank. Wouldn't you know it, they were both "FROZEN" ! I ran the hot air gun for what seemed like an hour (actually 30 minutes or so) and finally got the valves to open. Still no water as it is beyond frozen. As we traveled to Ft Worth, we went right by the Texas Motor Speedway (huge complex and an enormous RV camping area). We searched for a Camping World Super Center on JW's BlackBerry and found one south of Ft Worth on, I-35. They had the Accumulator that we needed so were going to put it on, well SNAFU, they had the part but not the fittings to make it work, so they bypassed it. Now they think the water pump is frozen (or bad) so tomorrow will bring yet another day of trying to fix our water system. Bought a couple droplights so I could have a little heat on the water pump where needed tonight. Ya'll think we'll ever make California. Yea, we will but just not as quick as we wanted to. Sorry Chad and Melissa, but we're trying. That's it for this post, tune in tomorrow evening for the next post as we continue our journey to California.

Joplin, Mo - Ardmore, Ok

Wanda was up at 4:00 o'clock again this morning to face 8 degree weather.



Before we went to bed last night, Smokey, the cat, and J.W. heard water running just outside the bedroom (where the water pump is). He went out to check, and sure enough, water was running everywhere. So he turned the water off . When he got up this morning he found all the water was frozen. What a delight! We got to practice our real camping skills. (NOTE: there is a small pressure tank in line with the water that apparently froze and split, so no onboard water utill repairs have been made) BUMMER!



At 10:50 we left the campsite but not before learning that the leveling jacks were frozen to the ground, which delayed our departure. Oh! The joys of winter weather. After attempting, for 45 minutes. to get them raised, J.W. took a hammer out and broke the ice where the jacks were frozen to the ground. Needless to say we did not use jack pads when we set up last night. Whew, we got out of there just in time. Checkout was 11:00 a.m.



J.W. stopped to get cappucino and picked up a map showing the route from Joplin to Oklahoma City. At Big Cabin we had to pay a toll of $9.75. On down the road a ways he wanted to know where the next Toll Plaza was. When I looked at the map it didn't show any Toll Plazas. In fact, it didn't show Joplin, Tulsa or Oklahoma City. I told him that apparently the towns dropped off the map once you through them, because Joplin was no longer on the map. Low and behold, there were two sides to that map -- a Missouri side and an Oklahoma side. I was in Missouri, J.W. was in Oklahoma.


I love this restaurant (near Big Cabin, OK.) The turnpike goes right under the restaurant. Only one of its kind that I know of. ----->




We stopped in Tulsa for gas. On the first leg of the trip we got a very low mpg rate (3.3, remember, we're pulling the PT Cruiser). This was due to the hills and strong winds. In Tulsa we saw a big steer sculpture near the Cowboy Hall of Fame and three sculptured cows at the Hiland Plant. Sad to say we did not get pictures. In fact, we missed several "Kodak Moments".



At 3:55 we turned off Highway I44 onto I35. We missed the Rush Hour traffic through Oklahoma City. Way to go J.W.!

As the sun quickly began setting in the west, we arrived at Hidden Lake R.V Park, Ardmore, OK at 5:40 p.m. What a lovely park. The sites are positioned all around the lake. What a beautiful sight. Not only is it a wonderful park, but the cost was quite pleasing. We thought it was going to cost about $48 but with our Good Sam discount we stayed for $24.

That's it for this post. Check back for more updates tomorrow as we continue our journey to Sunny Southern California.

Joplin, Mo - Brrrrrrrrr ! ! !

Gooooooood Morning !

In Joplin, Mo, woke up to 4 degrees and frozen water lines! We'll make do tho. Hope to make Ardmore, OK today (further if possible). That's it for this post. Check back in about 7 hours or so.

"ON THE ROAD TO CA."

Wanda was up at 4:30 a.m. getting things ready to head out to California. I was a little later (about 3 1/2 hours to be exact, 8:00a.m.). We wanted to be out of Branson View Campground by noon because that was when the snow was supposed to hit. We had to back out of the lot and thru several other sites due to the ice and snow, Charlie (the canpground manager) said he'd never seen anyone do that before, I said "you have now". We had some problems getting the car on the dollie, but with the help of Charlie, we got on the road at 2:00 p.m. The skies were cloudy and the temp was 26 degrees.

We had run out of propane the night before so we stopped and filled up at Sams RV, then on to Springfield, MO where we filled up with gas. It started snowing just as we pulled into Springfield. We turned onto I44 at 3:34 and arrived at the KOA in Joplin, MO at 5:30 where we decided to stop for the night.

It stopped snowing just west of Springfield and temp was 33 degrees when we got to Joplin. The folks at the Joplin KOA were downright friendly. Now we're setup and ready for a little TV then sleep. More tomorrow as we make our way to Hemet, Calif.

TIME OUT I I ! ! !

It's now Monday the 4th and we're still at the BransonView. Started snowing on Sunday evening and we are actually snowed in (4.5 inches), wouldn't be so bad if we could make it up the hill to get out. Can't even go to the Dr. to have my finger checked out. Hopefully by Wednesday we can leave (supposed to snow again on Wednesday). Till later . . .

"Time Out ! ! ! "

We should be all packed and heading for the West Coast, but a couple of things came up. 1.) First, back around the middle of December, I injured a couple of fingers while at work. We kept an eye on them and thought everything was OK, so I signed off for clearance. BUT, it's now about three weeks later and the finger/s are swollen pretty good and looks like I might lose a fingernail (ouch). Go back to 1st aid on Monday and they will determine whether I need to go to the Dr. or not. 2.) Secondly, It snowed pretty hard on Christmas and we were unable to go to my Moms for our annual Christmas visit, sooo, we are going on Saturday the 2nd (supposed to snow then also, but I think lightly). Right now we plan to leave Missouri on Monday afternoon the 4th or early Tuesday the 5th. Check back for updates. We plan to take alot of pictures and post some.