November - December 2011 Arizona

Tempe Travel Trailer Villa, Tempe, Arizona

10 days at $185.00.

What a beautiful state Arizona is!  The landscape is subtly different than the high desert of Nevada.  It’s very red for one thing.  The rocks are red and are different.  The plants are different.  Here you see an abundance of Saguaros, Cholla, Prickly Pear and Organ Pipe Cactus.  Traveling through the lower part of the state in November is the best time to visit as the weather is perfect—around 70 degrees every day with clear blue skies.  The Indian or Native American influence is just as strong as the Mexican-Spanish influence and you see it in the art, the architecture and the ambiance of the state.  There is also a strong cowboy presence here too.  Summer temperatures can reach above 120 degrees which would scare me to death!  I don’t understand how people can live in such intense heat.  Of course there is air conditioning but what if the power fails?

As we arrived in Phoenix we were debating on whether or not to continue down to Tucson, but then the front brakes on the truck went out and the decision was made for us.  We stayed in an RV park in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, where Pep Boys one block away did the work in less than 2 days.  They actually had to do several things to the truck and as a result it depleted our bank account almost $700.  The tires are worn too and need to be replaced but that will have to wait until the next paycheck.

Between gas for the truck and repairs from the chronic wear & tear on an old truck and trailer, it keeps us poor and we have to travel very slowly, literally from 1 paycheck to another.  Did I mention that we get 8 miles to the gallon when we pull the trailer?  That averages out to $100 per every 200 miles we drive.

So we stayed in Tempe for one week.  Weekly rates in RV parks are cheaper than the daily rate; and staying a month is the cheapest of all.  But if we stay a month in one place, it would take us forever to travel and get anywhere.

We liked Tempe and Mesa very much.  It’s very pretty and upscale and Tempe is a college town which houses the university.  Phoenix is rather a dump but has a few nice parts.

We ate out very little but did manage a nice evening at a sports bar & grill called the New Yorker.  Dan enjoyed watching the golf game on the big screen tv.  We ate breakfast one day at a café called Cracker & Company where I had the most incredible, fattening plate of French toast and Dan had blueberry blintzes.  We had to take home a box of leftovers which Dan finished over a 2 day period.

We went to the Heard Museum one day in Phoenix and there we were immersed in Native American history.  We really enjoyed it—the basketry, Navaho blankets & rugs and the Katchina dolls.  I wish I could have afforded one for the granddaughters but everything was too pricey.  A hand-made wooden flute cost $350.

One thing we enjoyed very much was a movie theater we went to.  It was very unique.  We chose it because it was the only one playing the new Planet of the Apes movie, which happened to be as good as I hoped.  The theater was one of those traditional 10 screen theaters, but it only cost $3 per person and it was decorated to the nines.  One side of the lobby had a very large, ornate Christmas scene and the other side had the entire cast of the Pirates of the Caribbean—with life-size mannikins.  All through the theater were these life-size Hollywood mannikins—Tom Hanks, the Rat Pack, Elvis, the 3 Stooges, etc.  There was even a glass display case with metal lunchboxes—also with celebrity faces.  I found out later the theater is privately owned so that explained its unique-ness.

Our RV park was managed by a very nice couple but the office and attached public bathrooms smelled terrible from their cigarette smoke.  There are too many smokers out there!  It’s one of the few chronic irritating things about travel.  The bathrooms also had no dressing rooms and nowhere private to dress and undress.  That to me is a deal-breaker.  From now on, every RV park we enquire about is going to be asked about privacy.  For the week we stayed here, we just used our own trailer shower even though it’s small and we have to unload all the storage from it every day.  The shower/tub is where we store our laundry hamper, our bathroom bags of wash stuff and clothes and towels.  It’s just easier to use the public showers.  I’ve also found that all the showers from every park we’ve gone to just isn’t quite as clean as I’d like.  Mostly my complaint is about the showers.  There’s always mold in the grout, in the corners and discoloration.  I don’t know why all rv parks don’t use a little spray bleach to whiten and kill the mold and bacteria.  I also wonder why they don’t install hand-held shower heads.  They’re cheap and make it easy for people to get a quick shower, plus it makes a shower stall easier to clean.  They spend money on other non-essentials, you’d think they could afford such a useful thing as these. 

11/20/11

Tucson Mountain RV Park, Tucson, Arizona
$25 per day
10 day stay

Wow, this is what I get for not checking out the park before we arrived, as I called the park after seeing it listed among others online and this one looked to be in the town so we decided to come here.  I’m going to get better about asking questions because the management never tells the whole truth.  I would definitely rate this park as a 1-2 star (out of 5--5 is for the rich executive types).

When we arrive in a town it’s actually difficult to pull the trailer everywhere to check on parks so I’ve gotten to where I research online and pick one before we arrive.  I call ahead to see if they have room and feel thankful when they do.  Because the southwest is where all the winter Snowbirds vacation, it’s not that easy to get an RV spot.  And some parks are out in the woods, far from town, making it expensive to drive around to explore the area.

For instance, here the bathrooms are private but are so rustic they border on absolute decay.  The old walls and floors are crumbling, the old, exposed pipes are filthy and in one shower, the first day, there was a huge wad of hair in the corner.  At first, horrified, I thought it was a dead rat.  I also discovered that even though there are 2 bathrooms, only one shower can be used because the other one only runs cold water.

I solve the bathroom problem by taking a bottle of spray bleach with me and I spray the shower down beforehand.  I wear a pair of flip-flops into the shower so my feet don't touch the floor.

For toileting we use our own trailer bathroom most of the time and Dan is good about keeping the tanks maintained.

This particular park gets very few travelers because most of the people live here.  They cater to Vets and the Disabled so poverty is apparent.  However, what a nice group of people here!  All friendly, all helpful.  The spots are very crowded though and there is little privacy unless you stay in your RV.  Our spot is next to the bathrooms and laundry room on one side and next to a walkway on the other so people pass by within a foot or two all day long.  Somehow, these things don’t bother me all that much, maybe because we won’t be here long.  Living and traveling this way on a limited budget means that we can’t stay at 5 star parks and make demands.  So it changes ones’ attitude.

Payday is on the day we leave here but we are thinking about staying a few additional days.  That would allow us to do some more local exploring but we just aren’t certain yet.  Unfortunately, Thanksgiving fell on this week and that means days we couldn’t go do things.  Holidays always mess up our plans.

We’d like to take a couple of day trips without the trailer.  We’d like to visit Biosphere 2, Tombstone, and Bisbee before we leave.

We’ve noticed that RV people divide up into 3 groups.  One group, the largest, are the retired people who either live and travel on the road, or are out often or for extended periods of time.  The second group are the vacationers.  These are people with or without families who still work and go camping or rv traveling when they get vacation time.  The 3^rd group are the poor who hit upon hard times and found themselves without jobs, then went broke, lost their home and now all they can afford is to live in their run-down rv/camper/trailer and live in an rv park.  Some of these have struck a deal with the parks they live in.  Free or reduced rent in exchange for work.  Of these poor, some are permanently disabled, mentally or physically, and cannot work and have to get by on social security or disability payments.  And of these, many are veterans.

These poor are 1 step from being homeless.  If it weren’t for having some sort of rv to live in, they would be on the streets.

At one park we saw a man up on top of his run-down trailer, placing tarps over the roof just before a rain-storm moved in.  Another lived in a camper on blocks, and he must have had a wood-burning stove in there because we noticed smoke regularly coming from the pipe attached on the roof.  Some have wood tacked up over missing windows.

I have to say that so far, not one thing has been stolen from us.  That is something we worried about when staying where there are obvious poor people living.

In fact, I have never met a better group of people than RV'ers.  Rich or poor, doesn't matter.  They all respect boundaries and privacy, but look out for each other and most enjoy chatting and are very friendly and helpful.

It costs an average of $350-$500 a month to live in one of these 1, 2 and 3 star rv parks.  That is not bad considering it includes utilities.  Sometimes, the electric bill is extra but most people don’t spend more than $50-$100 per month on electricity.  And people like us with a solar panel use only about $20 per month.  I can't think of a cheaper way to live but one must own their rv for it to be cheap.

December 1, 2001

So, Dan wants to keep moving on.  He doesn’t really want to stay here any longer.  We’ll have to catch Biosphere 2 another time.  Today we head for Tombstone.  We’ll try to get an RV space at one of the 4 or 5 parks there.  We only plan to stay maybe 2 days and then head on to New Mexico. 

The 10 days here has flown by.  A couple of days we just stayed in—me writing, reading, watching tv and cooking; Dan doing his thing—playing online fake poker and enjoying walks and tv and doing maintenance on the truck and trailer.  He’s in charge of our money so he works on the budget and logs in the receipts for everything we spend money on.  That way we can budget and see where the money is going.  No matter what, it’s very hard to save while traveling.  Everything costs so much.  We often have to hunker down the last week before the pension or social security check comes, just to avoid spending money.

We certainly enjoyed ourselves here.  We always enjoy ourselves wherever we go.  Yesterday we went to high tea at Chantilly, a local tea house.  That was nice.  A bit of elegance from another time.  Sometimes I need a touch of civilized life—to drink tea from a china cup and saucer, eat delicate scones and finger sandwiches.  I’d like to go to a symphony concert soon too.

We took pictures, we drove around.  Enjoyed what beauty there is.  Tucson is very run down in many parts and there is poverty here.  But there is beauty and culture as well.  The Cathedral downtown and the southwestern architecture all around.  The mission, the historic buildings, the saguaros and the beautiful cactus landscape.  The clear blue skies.  And of course, the shops and stores we are familiar with.  In addition to sight-seeing and soaking up local history and culture, there is also the day to day mundane chores at home, and cooking and grocery shopping and general cleaning and maintaining.  Laundry, ironing.  I even had to buy buttons to replace lost ones on one of my blouses. 

The every day chores include filling our water filter and then bottling the water for drinking and cooking.  We empty the ice trays and fill them back up again.  We use a lot of ice in our drinks.  There are always dishes to wash, bed to make, floor to sweep and mop everyday.

Our neighbor next door is from Georgia and I love his thick accent, although he’s been living and traveling elsewhere for years.  His wife is a nurse so they travel now and then while she takes jobs.  He was sitting outside in his chair yesterday while cooking a pot of ham-hocks and mustard greens.  It smelled delicious.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen mustard greens before.  I left my soda cans with him because I noticed one of the park residents, a disabled vet, makes the rounds every day looking for cans and this guy keeps a bucket next to his rv for that purpose.

Another old guy with plenty of wear on him and no teeth, stopped by to tell us someone put several boxes of yellow squash in the laundry room and to help ourselves to it.  He chatted for a while, something we all love to do around here.  He freely told us about his years in prison and parts of his life, laughing about the whole thing.  He seemed very nice although I can see his status in life is very low.  But, what an amiable guy!

While in Tucson, we managed to drive out to Sanctuary Cove, a place advertised on the Attractions of Tucson list online.  I was curious about it—it’s an interfaith meditation place.  It was very pretty there but nothing special and at least we got some photos.

We enjoyed a visit to Trail Dust Town—an old western village great for picture taking and there is a little restaurant there.  We got a few pictures but the batteries died in the camera there.  Dan obviously forgot to keep the batteries charged.  It’s one of the downsides of growing older—we are both forgetful of things we shouldn’t forget.

The Chapel of San Pedro was one of my favorites—an old street that is now residential and houses about an acre with little paths to walk and at the end of it is this little Spanish chapel that has been restored and maintained.  It was right in town and yet felt so far away.  We were the only ones there and it was very quiet.  I spied a cottontail bunny, who didn’t appreciate us invading his sanctuary.

We enjoyed a couple of nice restaurants but mostly ate at home.  The Blue Willow provided a tasty breakfast.  One of the bakery-coffee bars cheated me on a latte but it’s not worth it to complain about it here.  And of course, our tea room, my favorite.  We visited a Waffle House but were not impressed.  It’s simply a diner, a step up from a fast food and we didn’t think the food was all that special although the waitress was very nice.  We try to get a game of cribbage going whenever we’re out at a restaurant like that.

Dan, ever mindful of every cent we spend, enjoyed discovering that Costco’s food court has great fast food very cheap.  They had a special going—a hotdog and soda for $1.50.  He wanted to go there whenever we planned to eat out!  We went there twice but that was enough!  The food was good but still, it was Costco and didn’t reflect the culture of what Tucson really is at its heart.  Dan doesn’t seem to appreciate things like that.

We spent one afternoon in Old Town Artisans—the art section of town where we enjoyed a visit to the Museum of Art and the historic County Courthouse.  We walked a few blocks to a great little Mexican restaurant where I ate delicious food, but of a type different than back home.  Even Mexico has many cultures and the food reflects that.

December 1-4, 2011

Wells Fargo RV Park, Tombstone, Arizona
3 day stay @ $ 102.00

I’m so glad we were able to get an RV park downtown, next to the 3 block square of Tombstone.  It’s a historic and tourist town, much like Virginia City, Nevada, only smaller.  The economy has been hit hard here too—many of the shops are closed.  The little houses surrounding the town are very run-down.  We did have fun though.  We enjoyed the shops that were open but did not want to spend too much money.  We bought Brian a funny t-shirt.  We also got Arizona tshirts for the granddaughters with Navaho coloring books and a Christmas card with $50 in it for each girl.  We bought post cards.  All this we mailed out.

We found a nice little Pizza restaurant, housed downstairs in a motel.  Very plain décor but clean and good food.  We bought some fudge at the chocolate shop.  We visited the museum and a Magic Shop where spiritual and Wiccan things are sold.  It smelled so good in there with all the incense.   We got a kick out of all the men in Tombstone.  They have long beards and dress up in the old west style.  They really get into it!  Dan and I took a stagecoach ride through the town.  It was a simple town and we enjoyed the modest attractions they had to offer.  It wasn’t crowded at all while we were here.  And of course, we had our home chores to do—laundry and cooking and cleaning.  The usual.

The towns leading into Tombstone are nice too—Benson, St. David’s.  It’s a 2 lane, 24 mile long road into Tombstone, so it’s definitely out in the middle of nowhere.  That’s the way the old west was too—mining towns that boomed and then became ghost towns after the mines were stripped.  Dan and I read up on the history here.  Dan enjoyed it more than I did because Tombstone is one of his favorite movies.  He likes old westerns.  It was nice to see Wyatt Earp, his brothers, Doc Holiday and the other compatriots immortalized in this town.  Enjoyable to see the OK Corral and the Birdcage Theater. 

There are a lot of tourist things to do too but we didn’t do any of them.  The Queen Mine Tour, which was in its heyday, the most productive copper mines of the 20^th century.  The Tombstone Trolly takes you for a ride throughout the area and ends at the Boothill cemetery.  The evening Ghost & Murder Tours.  Bisbee, an old mining town, and the Kartchner Caverns State Park are within driving distance but because the weather turned so cold, we didn’t go there either.

Even though it's small and very touristy, Tombstone is a must for any Arizona traveler.

Nevada

October 2, 2011
Reno RV Park, Reno, Nevada

Dan has never been to Reno so we decided to stay here for a week to give him a chance to play poker in the casino.  It’s actually nicer in this town than it was when I was last here as a child with my parents.  Even though one of the locals assured me that Reno is one of the hardest hit by bad economy, I guess I don’t see it.  The infrastructure looks good here.  The streets are newly paved, shopping centers look new.  Everything is clean.  We’re going to stay here a week.

Sometimes our traveling days are spent doing the most mundane things.  Just because we are traveling doesn’t mean we still don’t need to clean the trailer or truck, wash laundry, or shop for groceries or sundry items.  Today for instance.  On my list to buy was ibuprofen, allergy medication, jewelry cleaner, udo’s oil, a smoke detector, some makeup, some boards to buoy up the sagging shelves in the bathroom and some small shower rods to use as braces in the bathroom closet—like in the refrigerator.  When we are moving, these braces keep things from rolling around, and keep cupboard doors from flying open.

Nevada has been a delight in many ways.  The hot, red, dry landscape dotted with bits of plants and scrub brush.  The wide open, uninhabited spaces.  Warm, desert weather. Blue skies.  Nevada has more hills and mountains than any other state.  There is a lot of mining history here.  Since the economy collapsed, the small towns in Nevada are especially affected.  There is a lot of squalor and poverty in these little towns.  Mina had to be one of the worst towns.  Goldfield was also a slum town.

We also learned that because of the economy, there aren’t as many gas stations as there used to be and we’ve had to be careful to gas up whenever we can.  A lot of the little towns on the map that we hoped to be able to gas up in, have defunct stations and there are often no services for hundreds of miles.

Nevada has a strong industrial-military complex and there is lots of evidence of this as you drive through.  Nevada has large test sites and Nellis Air Force Base is prominent next to Las Vegas.

Brothels are also subtly present.  It’s surprising to see these housed in mobile homes in-between towns and many of them are quite ugly.  Some have big, cheesy signs advertising Girls!  Nude Dancers!  Gentleman’s Club! And others are fortified fortresses.  The signs are kind of cheesy—Shady Lady, Wildcat Ranch, Playmate Ranch were a few I saw.  I can only hope the girls in them are there because they choose to be and not being forced into the business, and that they are safe and healthy.

As soon as I entered the state of Nevada, I started sneezing.  It’s the first sign of allergies I’ve had in years.  I wonder if it will stop when I leave this state.

Took a drive to Virginia City one day, then Carson City after that.  I had forgotten that Carson City is the capitol of Nevada and I enjoyed visiting it.  It’s a pretty town.  Here we saw the cheapest petrol advertised--$3.47 per gallon.  Dan wanted to eat Chinese food so we plugged in the GPS and it took us first to a restaurant that is no longer there, and the second one was closed that day.  Third time was a charm and we found just the kind of restaurant we were looking for and it was delicious.

The Truckee River plays an important role in this area of Nevada.  It’s long and quite pretty in some spots.

We liked the town of Beatty, situated almost halfway between Tonopah and Las Vegas.  It is small but nice, with a candy/nut factory and RV park.  It also has the requisite brothel just a few miles outside of the town, which you pass as you drive through.  I think it was called Angel Ranch or Angel Lady or something like that.

One of the off-putting sights is all the litter along Nevada’s highways.  You don’t always see it as you are speeding past but stop to take photos, and you notice it all around—broken beer bottles, mainly.  There must be a lot of drunk drivers on the roads here.

 

10/11/11

Main Street Station Casino RV Park, Las Vegas, Nevada
3 day stay = $48.00
Arrived in Las Vegas.  We know that a lot of the casinos have RV parking cheap so we found one in the old section.  Main Street Station is only $16 per night with full hook-ups.  We stayed here 3 days.  We found that it was little more than a parking lot and some of the other people there were creepy.  The bathrooms were a deal-breaker.  There was no private place to dress and the showers had flimsy curtains that had clear plastic from the chest up.  They weren’t that clean and the water was cold.  Plus some smart-ass young woman lit up a cigarette in there on her way out and left a trail of stinky smoke for us to breathe.  After the first day I showered in my own trailer bathroom.

After 1 day here, our son Joe and his wife Stacee showed up at our doorstep to surprise us.  We were thrilled and spent 3 days running around with them.  We had a good time but were exhausted by the time they left.

We enjoyed the strip with them.  We saw the shows on the Fremont and saw what we thought was Alice Cooper, only later to discover it was an impersonator.  We went to the Bellagio and toured their indoor garden and saw their water fountain show.  Ate a meal at the Harley Davidson Café.  Spiderman yakked with us and tapped us for photos because Joe was wearing a Superman shirt.  He had a coffee can strapped to his waste to collect his tips!  Stacee had her picture taken with “Elvis” and he was really cute.

10/15/11

The Hitchin’ Post RV Park, North Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, Nevada
1 month at $481.00 plus electrical
This morning we moved to our semi-permanent park.  We were only going to stay 2 weeks but found the monthly rate so much cheaper.  We’ve run low on funds so decided to stay put until Dan’s next pension check comes in 2 weeks.  We don’t mind.  We have no schedule so can do what we like.  It’s petrol that costs so much.  The truck which pulls the trailer gets 8 miles to the gallon so it’s easy to run out of funds before the end of the month.  We stayed a long time in Oregon and spent a lot of money there.  We wanted to get out of there before the winter snow sets in so at least we made it this far.

Our park is very nice but we are quickly learning that no place is perfect.  We got a large, corner lot near the bathrooms, showers, Laundromat and pool and we have no neighbor on the other side of us too close.  The weather is warm with clear skies.  People are nice.  The facilities are clean.  The downside is we are across from the dog park and the smell of dog poop often wafts through our window.  Sitting outside is pleasant except for the flies which are so pesky I’m going to buy a fly strip or something to help curb this.  The red ants are also out there and I had to sprinkle salt everywhere as a deterrent.  I was afraid they would crawl up my legs while sitting out there. 

Ahhhh!  Lovely nature!

We are so near Nellis Air Force Base that the jets scream overhead all day long.  They are so piercingly loud that it feels like we’re under attack.  It starts off as a low rumble and quickly escalates.  It feels much like an earthquake.

However, the morning Reville is quite nice.  It sounds every morning at 6:00 a.m. 

The dry, dusty weather has also kicked up my dormant allergies and I’ve had to take an allergy pill every morning since entering the state of Nevada.

The western U.S. is so vast that we’ve already traveled 3000 miles but have only made it to Las Vegas.  This is very different than the east coast where one can travel 3 states in just a couple of hours.

Wild Burros roam freely on the Nevada range in Mineral County.  The area is named The Marietta Wild Burro Range and there are about 100 burros who live here.  The closest town is Mina but it’s one of the worst towns in terms of poverty and squalor.

I would have liked to see more of the state of Nevada, especially the Native American lands but there doesn’t seem to be many gas stations in those vast areas.  This is where a motorcycle would definitely come in handy.

Learning to cook in this trailer is a challenge.  It’s just so small.  The refrigerator is very tiny so we can’t stock up on much and have to go to the store at least 2-3 times per week.  But I’ve managed to make a turkey dinner using stove-top stuffing and canned turkey that I had on hand.  I made several steak dinners, as Dan barbequed the meat outside and with leftovers have made Steak Salad and other things.  I buy chicken already prepared and shred it and use the meat for a variety of dishes.  I’m learning to cook vegetables in the microwave.  We eat a lot of sandwiches and canned soup.  It’s not so bad.  Dan is very helpful and sometimes he’ll cook breakfast for us and often he’ll do the dishes after I have cooked.  It’s nice to work as a team.

10/25/11

We continue on in Las Vegas with 2 more weeks to go before we leave.  We like it here.  And due to very little money, we’ve stayed close to home instead of venturing out much.  We go to the market, gas up the truck and visit the library.  But it’s kind of nice, this down-time.  I’m getting caught up on my journal, I do my daily chores, do laundry every couple of days, cook.  I read, write, watch tv or movies.  Enjoy the pool and sunshine.   Everything is quite nice.  Next week after pay-day, we’ll probably be gone all day every day, seeing the sights. 

Last Sunday, we visited the Bahai Temple and it was quite nice.  Beautiful architecture, nice people, interesting religion.  The message was on music and the importance of it in life.  I liked that very much.  Next on the list is maybe visiting the Zen Center.  The Bahai faith is a renegade religion from the Middle East.  Most of the people in the faith are immigrants from Iran and the neighboring countries.  They speak their native language, Farsi, and English of course.  I like their religion very much but could never become one of them.  They are very anti-gay and feel being gay is a sin.  I’m not looking for a religion that narrow or old-fashioned in its thinking.

10/28/11

Things are still quiet around here. Stayed home all day yesterday but went to Barnes & Noble last night for a special type of notebook, and we read magazines and enjoyed a latte in their cafe.  Played Cribbage at the table. Had a nice time. Felt good to get out of here for a little while.

The movie theatre is in the same shopping center and there are a couple of movies we want to see next week. The Ides of March and I see the new Planet of the Apes is still playing. It's already gone from most theaters.  I noticed in one of those free rag newspapers that there is a cheap theater somewhere here in Vegas where all movies are only $1.50 and on Tuesdays all seats are $1.00. That's odd. My only experience with cheap movies like that is the theaters are sticky, the a/c doesn't work, the film constantly breaks, it smells like old tennis shoes in there and is located in a crime-ridden neighborhood. I hope this one is different if we decide to go.

Dan and I are talking about maybe staying in Vegas another month but it's just talk at this point. I like big cities and there is much I'd like to see and do. But who knows. We'll probably just leave and head south like we planned. I just hope we don't run into hurricanes, tornadoes, dust storms, and snow.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Still in Las Vegas but are leaving tomorrow.  Our 1 month here has literally flown by.  Part of the plan of traveling this way is that I wanted time to write and so much of my mornings are spent at the computer doing exactly that.

The weather turned cold about a week ago, in keeping with the new season.  It’s about 60ºF at peak time during the day but drops to about 40ºF at night.  We use up one propane tank every 2 weeks.  Propane is what we use to run the heater, and we also cook with it, and our hot water heater and refrigerator are also partially powered by propane.  We have two 7 gallon propane tanks on the trailer and they each cost about $25 to fill. 

When one lives in a regular house where the city provides utilities, you don’t have to think of things like this.  But living on the road, you have to manage your own utilities, and that includes propane.  Everything has to be budgeted for.

I wish I could say we played hard in Las Vegas but the truth is, we tired of the casinos very quickly.  We just aren’t big gamblers.  I actually have no interest in gambling and Dan only likes to play poker.  But he’s way too conservative to play for big money with the risk of losing it all.  So he doesn’t go out to play very often.  Dan doesn’t play the slot machines at all.  He calls them one-armed bandits!

We also can’t stand the smell of cigarettes and smoke in the casinos.  Some of the newer casinos have good air filtering systems and they even pump out some sort of chemical air freshener but still I can’t stand it.

We went to a movie the other night and saw Take Shelter.  It was rather interesting.  It’s about a man who begins to have terrifying dreams and nightmares of impending disaster.  He begins to enlarge and build a storm shelter in the back yard and becomes obsessed by it.  He’s afraid he is losing his mind but at the end, a disaster does indeed, occur.

The movie theater is housed in a casino, as many of them are here, so it’s impossible to completely get away from the gaming or the cigarette smoke.

We went to a late night supper at Denney’s and didn’t realize until we stepped inside that it was also located in the back of a very small casino. It had its own entrance so we were fooled until we stepped in. And every machine was busy with some zombie playing and losing their money.  Where do people get the money to come here and throw it all away?  Anyway, we could barely enjoy our cheap supper special because it smelled of stale cigarette smoke so bad in there.  We couldn’t wait to get home and shower and wash our hair.  Las Vegas must be the lung cancer capitol of the world.

They actually do have several medical centers and cancer research hospitals here.  How appropriate.

The only nice thing about it was that we sat across from 2 Danish couples and we enjoyed chatting with them.  They were very interesting.  They were very proud of the big Chevrolet convertible they rented—they even took a photo of it on their phone to show us.  That was the big draw for them to come to the U.S.  The big cars were the ticket.  They told us that petrol is $10 per gallon in Denmark so most people do not drive and if they do, the cars are very tiny and cost 3 times what we pay for ours.  Amazing.  So, the big thrust for their vacation here is to rent a car, and drive around on our “cheap” gas!

Las Vegas has a lot of things to do besides the gaming.  They have nice parks.  Red Rock Canyon is a natural preserve and is located just a few miles from town.  There is a visitor center and a scenic drive.  There are bathrooms and picnic areas.  It is quite beautiful.  There are a lot of trails for hiking and rock-climbing is a big attraction.  The ranger told us the beautiful red rock formations are actually ancient sand dunes and that this area used to be the Malibu of the ancient world.

Our First Destination--Oregon!

Thurs, 9-8-11 to 9-11-11
Day 3
Gold Beach, Oregon
Indian Trails Campground
$100 for 4 day stay w/full hookups

Traveled up 101 north to Redding and then took a left to the coastline on Pacific Coast Highway 1, to our destination, the Oregon coastline.  It took all day but was so beautiful.  Most of the coastline is forested and wild, and as beautiful as Big Sur, but it gets a lot less attention.  Traveled through Trinidad, the prettiest town on the northern California coast, and through Oreck, which we thought was dumpy but charming and on through Crescent City to the border of Oregon.  We even passed through a grove of Redwood trees.  By afternoon we decided to stay in Gold Beach, Oregon because we were tired and needed a break and needed to begin to experience the country that we had set out to see.  Gold Beach is a small, but charming town which sits right on the Rogue River as it meets the sea.  We found a woodsy campground for a reasonable price of $24 per night with full hookups.  They put us, at our request, at the back 40 where we could have some distance between our neighbors and extra parking space for the big dooley we drive.  We stayed 4 days and mostly went sight-seeing.

Day 3:  No time to really write anything.  Too busy setting up camp the first day, doing laundry and cleaning and sorting out some of the drawers in the bathroom and kitchen that I didn’t do before we left home.  We hadn’t used the trailer in more than a year so I couldn’t remember what things I had and what was needed.  Plus, it’s different to use an RV for a vacation as opposed to living in it full-time.  Different things are needed.

As we set up camp we discovered the refrigerator  and the water system didn’t work.  So it took Dan several hours to fix both, or at least get them working.  Also, things began to break.  One of the shock absorber bars under the bed broke and we’ll have to get new ones ordered and installed.  The gas cap on the truck disintegrated and we’ll have to replace it.  We are worried these things may be a harbinger of worse things to come, and our funds to fix and repair stuff is limited.

We get restless every day too, to explore the town and our surroundings, to try to suck out ‘all the marrow out of life,’  (Thoreau from Walden), and do not wish to just hang around our trailer and campsite.  We wasted an entire day by driving to see a historical community only to find, after 90 minutes of driving, that it was nothing more than a post office and store.  Big deal.  And the worst was having to drive back 90 minutes as well.  The only nice thing about visiting Agness, was that we got to see so much of the Rogue River, which is beautiful, and see a couple of bridges and enjoy the wildflowers and all the lush greenery that flanks the road. (See my photos on Facebook).

We also, to my delight, discovered that Dairy Queens continue in the state of Oregon!  I had not been in a DQ for more than 30 years, and in fact, had thought they were obsolete.  So we made a couple of trips there for ice cream desserts and burgers and fries.  I find DQ much superior to the fast foods of my hometown although I’m certain, from a nutritional standpoint, they aren’t any healthier.  They only taste better!

We rented movies for evening and indulged in tv and I finished the book I was reading, the third in a trilogy of Swedish mysteries entitled The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stig Larrsen.  I enjoyed reading all three of them.

So, we visited shops, talked to people (our favorite thing) and the four days passed quickly and we felt ready to move on.

At a ‘Sacred’ Shop where they sell incense and buddhas and icons and tarot cards, I bought a very funny bumper sticker that read, “Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap.”  We got a laugh out of that.  The cashier was a middle-aged woman we enjoyed chatting with, who resembled in many ways our deceased friend Carlah Henderson.  Her hair was a different color but she had the same eyes and expressions, and I thought it uncanny.

We quickly discovered several things that are very special to Oregon.  One is the bridges.  There are so many and not only beautiful in their way, but could often be considered engineering wonders.  We just don’t have bridges like this where we come from (Central Coast of Calif).  The other thing is that so many of the little towns up the coast have so many murals on their buildings.  We tried to get as many pictures as we could.  Another thing is the beautiful lighthouses.  Oregon is very rural and we saw so many charming towns and pastoral scenes everywhere.  We found that Oregon is populated with mobile homes which are everywhere and these are a marker of status and class.  The run down mobiles are a sure sign of poverty while the newer ones which are in good repair and have landscaped yards and matching garages and storage units, are a sign of middle-class.  The upper class have the beautiful, large homes, while the middle class have the smaller A-frame, clapboard houses.  These A-frame architectural style from about 1920 are really my favorite.  Coupled with the lush greenery, there are some homes to envy.

 

I especially loved the old historic churches with their steeples.  Lots of these around in the small towns.

Unfortunately, we aren’t able to access everything as we are travelling from one destination to another because the trailer with truck is too big to park in most places.  We really have to be creative to figure out how and where to park when we see something we want to take a photo of.  What we really need is a motorcycle to do the actual exploring with, and leave the trailer at a campground.  We missed photographing several bridges and lighthouses as a result and will have to make do with postcards.
 
Truth #2 Learned:  Everything is filled with both good and bad.  There is an upside and a downside to everything.
 
Sunday, 9/11/11
South Beach State Park Campground
Newport, Oregon
$21 for one night of dry camping

We pulled into this campground just to get a nights’ sleep and a shower and planned to leave early the next morning.  It turned out to be a delight—very new and clean and we were put in the outback away from neighbors with easy access to bathrooms.  The bathrooms and showers were almost luxurious because they are so new.  We slept well and were on our way early the next morning.

The state of Oregon has really invested a lot of funds to build new campgrounds and refurbish old ones, and the ranger said the governor made it a priority so more families can go camping.

 
One of the unique things about Oregon is their Myrtlewood Trees.  This particular species is Umbellularia Californica, a member of the laurel family and is found only in a small area along the Oregon coastline.  'The myrtle tree is a broadleaf evergreen which is peculiar from other evergreens due to its tiny white blossoms that appear annually.  The tree grows in a stocky umbrella-shaped manner and produces a wood that varies in color from a deep, rich brown to silvery gray, red and even yellow.  The grain is so interwoven that no distinct growth rings can be seen and splitting the wood apart becomes nearly impossible.  When you take a leaf and tear it you’ll enjoy a pungent, spicy odor that is strong proof that it is indeed, a myrtle.  These trees usually exist in relatively isolated groups.  Growth is moderately slow, taking from 100-150 years to reach commercial use.  But the limited range, and the fact that myrtle is not particularly productive, will no doubt always relegate the species to the class of rare trees.  Many household items are made from these lovely trees—bowls, lamps, trays, cutting boards, jewelry, coaster sets, candlesticks, clocks, carvings, cribbage boards, etc.'
 
Myrtlewood trees are ancient in origin and mentioned in the Bible several times, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree.  And instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.”  Isaiah 55:13.

Monday, 9/12/11
Vancouver RV Park, Washington

Back on the road traveling north up the coastline and then east across the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, then turn south and drop into Vancouver where we found an RV park.  Will stay only a couple of days and leave on Friday, Sept. 16^th for Oregon and to see my cousin.

We enjoyed just passing through some of the most delightful, charming towns along the northern coast of Oregon —Winchester, Reedsport, Bandon, Seaside, Warrenton, etc.  In Reedsport they had some sort of cyclist thing going on and what looked like thousands of tents set up at the school we passed by.  In Bandon we visited the Game Park where we got to pet a baby tiger and mingle amongst the petting animals—deer, goats, geese and even a little burro who would bray in the most dejected manner.  This little burro followed me for a little while and kept grabbing at my purse.  I don't know what he was up to so I tried to dodge him until he lost interest in me.  The children around thought he was adorable.

The sand dunes in Oregon are very different than California.  They have a lot of trees and forest growing out of them in clumps.  And some of the sand is grey colored.

Lincoln City was very nice and I wouldn’t mind checking it out again someday.  They had so many old clapboard  A-frame houses and old buildings.  I also love the old churches with the steeples.  The land around Cloverdale all the way to Hebo and up through Tillamook is all dairy farming and it is all so picturesque with the pretty little Jersey cows everywhere.

Rockaway Beach was very charming and artsy.  I’d like to see it again.

Astoria marks the end of the Oregon coast and is at the mouth of the Columbia River.  I found it interesting—gigantic bridges, very crowded, narrow streets and old buildings.

Lots of wildflowers along the roads, very different ones from California.

We sent postcards to people back home and a few packages to others.  We’ve had to make repairs to both the trailer and the truck.  We’ll need to find an RV center to buy some replacement parts.  The northern Oregon coastline is very beautiful.  Some of the coastline is rocky and other parts have accessible sandy beaches.  There is easy parking in Ophir with access to the beach.  And there are lots of State Campgrounds as well that are very nice, much nicer than Calif State Parks.

 

Tillamook, Oregon is famous for their cheeses which are marketed in the supermarkets back home.  So we visited the Cheese Factory and had a delicious breakfast there.  We bought the granddaughters  magnets with their names on them with the Tillamook logo.  We also bought a bright orange (cheddar cheese color) crazy t-shirt for Dr. Bloom, our family doctor back home.  He likes funny t-shirts.  We mailed everything off as soon as we could.

The reason we are in Vancouver is because our son Brian asked us to do a reconnaissance mission for him.  When we arrive he tells us it’s a mistake, it’s Tacoma he wants.  Sorry, pal.  Maybe next year.

So we are stuck for a couple of days here but we need to get the truck fixed and work on the trailer a bit.  Buy some parts.  We take the truck into a shop to replace the U-joints.  And I have laundry to do.  So we keep busy.  Most of the other RV people and campers are very nice and helpful, although I knew our luck wouldn’t always hold in having great neighbors.  An old chain-smoking woman moved in next door yesterday with about 8 barking cocker spaniels.  I like dogs, but not when they are excessive like that.  More than 3 and I consider it a mental illness.

We went to the cinema last night.  That’s what they call going to the movie theater here.  We saw Contagion, which I really liked but Dan found boring and he groused about the $33 it cost.  We got a senior discount but bought small sodas and soft pretzels and that cost more than the movie did.  Normally we don’t eat at the movies but we skipped supper and were starving.  It's the first movie I've been to in 6 years so was a treat for me.

Afterwards we stopped at a Pie House Restaurant and had coffee and pie and played our beloved Cribbage.  Dan won as usual.  It’s nice when people stop to talk to us and comment on our game.

We made a trip to Wal-mart to pick up some RV supplies and a few other things and found a couple of funny t-shirts to send to Joe and Brian, our sons.  We’ll have to get those mailed off.

We also purchased a $25 gift card to McDonalds for a woman named Nancy who helped us with our new laptop and showed us how to access the internet at McDonalds.  I was supposed to have bought her meal and forgot all about it, so I’m going to mail it off to her.  Thank goodness she gave us her card with the address on it.  My declining brain and short-term memory loss gets me into embarassing situations sometimes.

September 20, 2011

Anderson RV Park

Vernonia, Oregon

Today is Dan’s 62^nd birthday.  Both boys called him which made him happy and pleased me.

We’ve been staying in Anderson RV Park in Vernonia, Oregon for about 4 days now.  It seemed to be the closest we could get to Forest Grove where my cousin Dianna lives.  I’ve spent several hours visiting her this week.  I like her daughter Krisha equally well, and it was nice to see Aunt Phyliss.

It’s very pretty and rural here.  The town of Vernonia is a block away and a very small historic town.  There is a little latte bistro where we can get free internet.  It’s very charming.  The people are all very nice.

The only problem is the hornets which have been driving us mad.  We finally bought a trap and today when we returned we saw that it had collected about 50 of them.  I hope we don’t have further problems with them.  They are very aggressive and try to get into the trailer.  At least bees we can appreciate--they produce honey and pollinate crops.  These pesky red and yellow-jacket hornets are nothing but carrion feeders and I get a certain pleasure out of killing them.  This is another indication that I won't ever make a very good Buddhist, with the dharma teaching against killing.

Almost every day we discover more things broken either in the trailer or the truck.  Yesterday we saw the platform under the bed was broken, which is why the hydrolics weren’t working.  Dan repaired it and put new hydrolics in.  I hope it holds.  I hope it wasn’t my fat ass that broke the darn thing in the first place.

Every day we head for town and shop for parts or things we need.  We bought a little bookshelf to set on the counter.  We bought some wood to shore up the sagging shelves in the bathroom cupboard.

This is much like living on a little boat and sailing the ocean, like in the book Dove.  I keep reminding myself this is an adventure and not to expect perfection.  Really though, so far everything is fine, except for the daily trials, many of which are draining our bank account.

Our routine follows along these lines:  We awake and I make coffee and tea for us.  I read a bit.  Dan works on the computer.  I do some writing.  We make the bed, sweep the floor, wash dishes, tidy up.  We go take showers.  Then we decide what we are going to do that day.  Lately it means a trip to the hardware store to buy parts for repairs.  Or we head to the coffee bar to use the free internet.  We do laundry once per week, and that takes a couple of hours.  Sometimes we go out just to take pictures of things.  Sometimes we go to thrift stores just to look around.  We keep our eyes open for funny t-shirts and things for the girls.  We go to libraries to read and kill time.  Sometimes we do tourist stuff.

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011

We rented 5 movies for $5 for 5 days and we watched the last one this morning when we awoke early and couldn’t sleep.  Two of the movies were good, the other 3 lousy but at least it gave us something to watch since we don’t get cable or internet in this park.  So, today we return the movies and we will do laundry at the corner Laundromat.  This park we are in is very rural and there are no laundry facilities like in some parks.  It’s very green here and since the park is barely half full we have plenty of space between our neighbors.  If there weren’t so many hornets, it would be pleasant to sit outside and barbeque.  I have learned this—that to live in green, forested beauty, one has to pay the price for that with an increased number of insects.  Here, the insects are larger than I saw back home, there are more of them, and they sting and bite!  No wonder people have screened-in porches and patios.  Even the ants are larger and meaner looking.

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011

So, today I decided to try out my oven and bought a package of muffin mix to use.  Back home I bake only with whole grains and make everything from scratch, but this lifestyle is very different. First, I tested the oven by putting in a thermometer and found that the oven was reading 25 degrees lower, so I turned up the degrees.  But the muffins turned out burned on the bottom because the temperature jumped about 50 degrees too hot.  The front of the oven bakes hotter than the back.  So, okay now I know and will know how to use it in the future.  Then I cooked bacon, which also burned a little because I got sort of scattered at the end, trying to remove the muffins and the bacon at the same time with the smoke detector sounding.  In the chaos, I wasn’t thinking properly and burned my fingers when I touched the thermometer I had just removed from the oven.  It was excruciatingly painful and for an hour I had to hold on to an ice pak.  Finally, the pain subsided and I saw that all my fingertips are blistered.  Great.  One would think I have never cooked or baked anything before.

So, the day unfolded thus….not really anything too exciting.  We went out to take pictures which is really a lot of work.  It’s not easy to pull the truck over on the road to snap a photo of something interesting.  Another reason why we need a motorcycle.  We also talked about having another laptop as we’ve discovered it’s difficult to share one.  We seem to both need one and they are not that expensive.

I’d like to stay put for awhile when we reach Arizona, at least for a month.  That would allow us to get a few things done on the truck and trailer.  I also need to get a few alterations on clothes done.  Dan ripped his fanny pak yesterday and now it needs repairing.  We had to rush out to buy a replacement but obviously, he could use a spare for times like this.  And I would like to try to conserve money better, so that we could afford some big things, instead of seeing our cash slowly leak out day after day.  A lot of this is just the eating out every day.  At least once per day we’re out at the burger shacks where we spend a minimum of $10-$15 for a meal; or a coffee bar where we spend $20 for lattes and pastries and use the wifi for free.  This past week we were staying out in the sticks and would head to town every day which is a 30 minute drive.  That means eating at least one meal out plus gas.  It adds up to hundreds of dollars in no time.  It’s cheaper if we find a place close to town and just stay put.

Friday, Sept. 23, 2011

Today, we move to Portland for a week.  A big city.  We’ll see how that goes.  The park hosts here in Vernonia are a wonderful couple.  The woman, Geri, gave me her Yuma address and told me we could stay on her property if we have trouble finding a place.  It’s true what I have been told —camping people, rv people are the best people in the world.  All so kind, and all so helpful and cooperative.

Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011

Jantzen Beach RV Park
Portland, Oregon
8 days for $192.00 with full hookups

More and more RV parks are offering alternative lodging—cabins, yurts, teepees.  I’ve read up on yurts and would like to try one for a couple of days someday, as we continue to travel.  Maybe a teepee too.  I know that in the Black Hills the archeologists use teepees.  It’s the only thing they can use there.  The winds tear up their tents in no time.  And yurts are quite common throughout Mongolia.  It’s good these alternative housing options are appearing here too.

One has to be very resourceful to manage this kind of travel on a shoestring budget.  There are some tricks of the trade that we are currently learning.  While it’s easy to rent a space in an rv park with full hookups and all the amenities, that is very expensive to do day to day unless you stay in one park for a month at a time.  The longer you stay, the lower the rates drop.  For instance, we paid nearly $200 for 8 days while another camper staying there for a month only paid $390 plus extra for electricity.

When we are on the road driving every day to a new destination, we try to take advantage of free, or nearly free, overnight parking.  Like in Wal-Mart parking lots, or auto centers/truck stops.  At the truck stops we can share a shower for $12 if we like.  At state parks the rates for dry camping are about $21 per day/night and they have public showers to use.  In the Wal-Mart, of course there are no showers and we either use ours or we use baby wipes to wash up with.  We don’t mind paying rent when we stay somewhere for a while but when driving all day and just wanting a safe place to park at night, it seems wasteful to pay for a full 24 hour spot.

Most McDonalds have free wifi which always works good for us—meaning it’s not too slow because there really aren’t many people there using the net.  The downside to it is that they usually don’t have any electrical plug-ins, so you’re forced to use battery power, which runs out after an hour or so.  I guess that is their way of insuring you don’t overstay your welcome.  One McDonalds had one electrical outlet on the ceiling, ensuring of course, that you can’t really use it unless you bring a ladder with you or you are 9 feet tall.

Many McDonalds do let RV’ers stay in their parking lot only overnight—like 8 hours maximum—as long as you patronize their business.  I try hard not to buy their food and just order coffee.  I use their restrooms and their free wifi and consider it a bargain.  I’m sure before long McDonalds will be wise to this and start changing the rules to make it harder and more expensive for people like us.

The McDonalds that are inside of a Walmart don’t usually have any free wifi.  They want to make sure you’re on your way as soon as possible.

Traveling Between Oregon and Nevada

The traveling we are doing can be divided up between the time we stay in a park, and the actual traveling we do to get to a destination.  Most of the time we are on the road about 3-4 days at the most before we arrive somewhere we want to stay.  Sometimes we stay a couple of days, a week, or sometimes longer.

We watch the landscape change between the Oregon Outback which is a scenic byway from Sisters on down through the California border to Susanville, where the highway turns off and we head to Nevada, and to Reno.  There are funny and interesting names of towns.  One that caught our eye was Wagontire, on highway 31.  In Lakeview we stopped for gas and were interested in the mining operation across the road.  The gas station attendant told us they were mining gypson which is used to make drywall.

I really loved the town of Sisters, Oregon .  We had lunch in a café where we could gab with the locals.  One of the guys told us about the great hunting and fishing they have.  We stopped at a  food stand and bought some interesting things we’ve never had—Huckleberries, Honey Crisp Apples, and Elk Jerky.  All this in keeping with our goal to try new things including foods.

I enjoyed traveling through the little town of Alturas in California where my dads’ dad operated a little store for a few years during the depression.  The store went bust, my father told me, because grandpa was a soft touch and would let poor people get groceries on credit which they could never pay.  Back to Oregon they went after that. 

We passed by Goose Lake which sits on the border of Oregon-California.  It's a huge lake and looked very deserted of people.  What an interesting place this upper area of eastern California is, in Modoc county.  High desert landscape and very few people.  Some day I'd like to come back and camp at this lake.