Arizona

I just realized that I had not put an entry in the log in some time so I decided that it was about time I got something else in. The reason for the lull in postings is basically that we just have not done much in the past month or so. I man the gate 2 days a week which pays for our RV space (this is what I have referred to as workamping). Mona has been working as a waitress at a restaurant called Arizona Joe's. This brings in whatever spending money we need. I have kinda settled in for the winter at a 55+ park and have even joined in the weekly pinochle games and a nickel/dime/quarter poker game a couple days a week. It is fun and have met a lot of interesting people in doing so. Of course we have our weekly night of Bingo at the Rec Center on Tuesdays.

This is the gate shack that I spend my weekends manning. Not a hard job at all and there is a color television, a microwave oven and a small refrigerator inside. We have a golf cart available when we need to go turn on lights or lock up rooms for the night. Pretty easy stuff.

Really not much else to talk about so I will just close out this post. Just wanted to make sure that anyone out there following my postings would know that they will continue. I think we will take another little drive tomorrow and I will have more to post in the coming days. Until then, be good to one another and have very happy holidays.

Apache Trail to Roosevelt Dam

Well, Hello again folks! Ready to go on a little Jeep ride in the mountains of Arizona? I am. So strap in to your seats and we will get this show on the road or trail if you will. Figured I would start off with me in the jeep. We are going to head out Az Rte 88 from Apache Junction to Roosevelt Dam. We will go through Tortilla Flat and right by Canyon Lake and Apache Lake. Should be fun, so hang on.

How about that scenery? We have seen so much of it around here already! The roads are pretty narrow and it can be a long drop off the road if you don't pay attention.

Aren't you glad I'm driving and not the guy who was driving this van? Somebody wasn't paying attention and probably suffered the consequences. Sure would have been an E-ticket ride at Disney!

Talk about a drive back in time. This was Tortilla Flats and it looks like some of the cars there were still like new. Nah, it's just an old collector car poker run of some kind. Neat old cars though!

I am told that after we leave Tortilla Flats the road will no longer be paved. Just what we are looking for in a jeep.

While at Tortilla Flats we read about the Lost Dutchman's mine and the Inn there. Pretty neat stuff, although I think it is probably more of a myth than truth.

We stopped at Apache Lake and had a nice lunch. This picture shows the view that we had from our table. I took the picture right through the window. Came out pretty good.

This is a view of the Apache Lake Campground and Restaurant area. The Restaurant is on the far right with the green roof. Not many people there when we went through and took a little long to get food but was worth it and the guy who served us was very friendly and the meal was very reasonably priced. Food was very good.

We then came to the Roosevelt Dam. The first pick is on the other side of the dam which is fed by the Salt River (I believe I am correct on this).

This pic is below the dam. It is a beautiful river flowing through a couple of lakes, Apache & Canyon lake. The water was so clean and blue in color. Not like back home where most of the lakes, rivers and streams are all the color of mud.

This picture shows a little more clearly how blue the water is.

It also shows the road after it turned to nothing but a dirt road leading up to the Dam.

Well that is all for today's trip. I will be looking on the internet and searching for some more scenic drives or good places for us to go visit. Hope you enjoyed the short trip, even tho it took me most of the day to do. But hey, that is what we are out here for. Ta Ta for now.

Rock Shadows RV Park

On the left is the entrance to Rock Shadows RV Park. That little shack is the guard shack, which is where I will be spending 3 days a week, 6 hrs a day. This will pay for our RV spot for the whole 6 months that we will be here. Yes folks, we are going to be in one place for a while. But never fear, this is just our home base. We are going to branch out and see things all around Arizona. I have a jeep trail trip coming up within a week, we will also head down to Tombstone for some Wyatt Earp historic sites, to Old Tucson where a lot of Western movies have been made as well as others I will find or dream up during the time we are here. Should be fun so keep watching the blog.

This building is the main building in the park. It has the Office on the far left side of it. The main ballroom or activities room makes up the rest of the building. The office is where you would sign in or inquire about buying a park model should you want to snowbird in this area.

This is a picture of the pool area. Mona and I have already enjoyed this area of the park. If I didn't mention this, this is a 55+ park, so the only children you might ever see here is someone's grandchildren who are just here for a visit. We pretty much had the pool to ourselves today. It is a heated pool so none of that having to dive in to get used to the temp. It was warm from the start. Kinda cool when ya get out tho!

We got back to the RV and Mona sat down to read the local papers we picked up while down near the office. We have a mailbox here so if you want the address to send money to help keep us in this lifestyle so that the blog continues, just let me know. HaHaHa.

But seriously you can if you want to.

This is a picture of our home for the next 6 months. We have a palm tree in our front rock yard. Complete full hookups and all the comfort of home. Nice neighbors all around, quiet, helpful and nice.

And finally, this is a picture of what we can see if we are just outside the door and looking to the east. That is a part of the Superstition Mountains. If you know about these mountains you have probably heard of the Lost Dutchman mine. There is a Lost Dutchman park that will more than likely be on our lists of places to go see, all of which will probably generate a new blog. Until the next adventure. I bid you adieu!

Calico Mountains

This week we took a Jeep drive to the Calico mountains. We had a really good time. The Calico mountains were named because they have such color in them that they look similar to a calico cat in the way they look. There was a lot of mining in these mountains and they found silver, borax and other minerals. I think I covered a little of this when we did the Calico Ghost Town. The jeep ride was in the mountains just northeast of the ghost town. Enjoy the pictures, there are several.



The picture here was the entrance to the canyon we went into called Mule canyon road. The picture was taken on the way out. The town in the distance is where we are parked in our motorhome. The RV park is called Desert Springs RV park and is a pretty good park to stay in. We paid for the month and this has been our home base while in California.






This picture is just after we entered the canyon. I am going to try to go back before we leave at a later time in the day so as to maybe get some pictures with better color in them. After all, the lighting is always better for pictures in early morning or late afternoon.









This picture is at a point where there was a very narrow pass that was just wide enough to drive through. We had no problem getting thru but after we got through we could go no further and had to turn back.










This picture shows a little more of going through the narrow canyon. Pretty close but not too bad.













Found this neat little hole in which I believe was made by miners to cut a shortcut through the area. There were a series of these holes that came together at a bigger cave type mine.










This picture shows the bigger hole and actually has a timber tee shoring it up. Not too sure if we wanted to get back in there so we just took the pic instead.










Here is Mona at the entrance to the big cave mine. We are having a great time exploring all this neat stuff in California and we are kinda sad that we can't just stay out here and see the rest. But, I guess we can always come back.









Remember our friends from Deadwood who did the Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane show?
Well, we have been traveling together for a while. This is Cleda Jane who obviously played Calamity. This is just outside the entrance to the Cave mine.









And this is the picture with Cowboy Woodie, the mastermind as well as writer of the show, songs in the show and the one who played Wild Bill. This guy is talented. He can sing, play the guitar, act, write, and he even oil paints. (I have seen his work and it is good!)









This was a picture as we approached the entrance to the canyon. Pretty barren isn't it? Well, it should be, it is all in the middle of the Mojave desert. We have been here all month and we saw just a sprinkle of rain that lasted all of 30 seconds.











Here is the final picture of the way out of the canyon. We had a very good time and even had a picnic of sandwiches, chips and soda. All in all a pretty good day!

















That is it for today and probably for the week. We will be getting ready and leaving here on Thursday the 18th and will be headed to the Phoenix, Arizona area where we have accepted a workamping job at an RV Park in Apache Junction called Rock Shadows RV Park. This is a job you can take to pay for your RV spot with full hookups and you usually only work a couple of days a week to pay for it. Will post from there after we get settled in. Of course being in the Phoenix area I may have to take in a few spring training days. Well, enough about that for now. Talk to ya next time. Adios!

Calico Ghost Town

Today we are going to visit the Calico Ghost Town, near Barstow, California. It is an old historic mining town where they mined silver and other minerals including Borax which some of you might remember was the mineral mined to make a soap type product and was most associated with the 20 mule teams.

This was a wonderful view from atop the hill looking down over the ghost town. Of course it is not really a ghost town now, it is a tourist trap. Ha,Ha,ha. They charge $6 per person to get into the area. Then if you want to ride the little train, which is about 10 minutes long its another $3 per person. It is neat because they have a taped informative narrative about what the town was all about.

This picture was taken while riding on the narrow gauge train around the ghost town area. Then after the train we took the Maggie Mining Company tour which was only $1 per person. It was just a simple walk through the actual mine shaft for the company.

This is a picture of the Ghost town school house. It was a pretty neat building and was set back by itself at the upper part of the mountain. And hey, this one cost nothing to go in and see. Ha, ha.

Most of the little shops in the ghost town had the typical stuff you would find in other tourist trap areas. And most of the stuff was pretty high in price. But as far as the eats, they were comparable with most other places we have been in our travels. We stopped in at the Calico House Restaurant and had a buffalo burger and fries with a drink and our bill was right at a twenty dollar bill and change plus tip. So just to let you know our total cost on this little excursion was $41 for the both of us without buying any souvenirs of any kind.

Next post will cover a jeep ride through the Calico mountains on dirt trails among the many mine shafts found throughout. Till then, See Ya.

The Price Is Right!

The other day we decided that we wanted to go to L.A. and see "The Price is Right" TV show with the new host Drew Carey. So I decided to get on line and see about tickets. I got online and requested the tickets and was able to get E-tickets (that is tickets that you can just print out with your computer). I immediately checked my e-mail and there was a confirmation mailing with a link to confirm my tickets and then print them out. After all, they are free.

So we got our tickets and planned to leave early in the a.m. so that we might beat the high volume of traffic and get there early. Ha, ha, ha. We left here at 5 a.m. to try and make the 2 1/2 hour trip. Well, the trip ended up being a little over 4 hours because the traffic was horrid. We got there at around 9 a.m. Parking was hard to find and then we had to walk about 4 blocks to get to the studio area.

Well, we made it. We turned in our tickets and got our name tags and numbers. We then had to wait from 9 to 1 before the show would start. They did attempt to keep everyone amused and informed while we waited. Finally, at about noon, they started the line to go thru and talk with a guy who evidently gets to pick who is called. What criteria he uses is anyone's guess, but I did see that he does give credance to those who come up with the cute little tee shirts about Drew, cause they seemed to make up over half the contestants. We finally got to go in at around 1:30 p.m. It seems that they were running late due to having to make set changes as this was to be the Halloween show. Therefore the show will air on Halloween. We did not get picked as contestants and I don't even know if we will be able to be spotted in the crowd. But it was fun. It was neat also that there was a celebrity in the audience. It was Dawn Wells, Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island.

Now that story sounded so good that we decided to stay for the second taping and went thru the process again for the 4 p.m. taping. We again did not get picked but this time I know that we will definately be seen because, first, there was a marine just back from Iraq sitting in front of Mona who did get picked and we were right behind him. You will see a guy sitting behind him who has a big Black Cowboy Hat and that would be me. For those of you who have not seen me lately, my beard has gotten really long ;-). Then a few contestants later a girl sitting in the same row as us gets called and I had to stand up to let her get by. So I will be seen there too.
Then they did pan thru the crowd a few times and I know I was in there a couple of times.
It was all pretty cool. Well, outside of not having either of us called for either show.

Now, as if that wasn't enough, the neatest thing of the day was on the way back to the car in the parking garage. It is a big multi level garage and it has a big shopping, entertainment area attached to it. I wondered wy they had a red carpet on the walkway which goes around the edge of the garage to the entrance. Well, I found out. As we were walking toward where the elevators to the upper level of the garage is, there was a car stopping to use the valet. Out of the car comes a man and I looked up to see not more than a foot away from me.........Robert DuVall . Mona was stunned and thought that was really cool. It really topped our evening.

We headed for home and on the way accidently found Mel's Diner. The actual diner they used for American Graffiti. So naturally, not having anything to eat all day and both of us hungry we just had to stop there for a bite. It was pretty cool with a lot of pictures from the movie and the old style from the 60's.

Sorry I didn't have any pictures but at CBS the cameras were not allowed. They even made you turn in your cell phones to security. So I was not able to get pics. I guess I could have taken some of Mel's Diner but I didn't think of it when I was there. As for Mr. DuVall, I decided to be respectful of his privacy and not bother him. I did however say, "Mr. DuVall, How are You?" to which he replied "I'm fine, thank you!" Mona later told me that she thought Mr. DuVall looked at me like he was thinking, hmm, do I know him? It was cool.

Well, it was a pretty exciting day but the fighting of the traffic each way definately took its toll on me. I was beat when we got back. Well, that is all for today and again, sorry for no pics but the story should be just as good.

OOPs, I almost forgot, I will post a message or add to another message when the second show we were in will be aired. I don't even know myself.

Mesquite Nevada to California

This is the RV park at the Oasis RV Park in Mesquite, Nevada. This is where we stayed two nights just to recoup from the two days of solid driving from Deadwood. It was a really nice RV park and had all of the amenities.

There was even a casino right next door. It was a lot like most other casinos in that it just continually took my money.








This was the great view from the pool area. The pool was refreshing although it was kinda cold at first.

We left Mesquite quite refreshed and about an hour later we were going through Las Vegas. Lots of traffic there so when my brother Bob called, I had to let Mona take the call. I had too much other things to watch.










Here we just had to get a picture of what is probably the most well known casino of them all, Caesar's Palace.















The rest of the pics are from the last 100 miles of the drive. Just basically desert pictures. Pretty, but desolate.























This one shows the Calico Mountains and the desert in front of them. The one tall plant out there is what I believe to be a Joshua Tree. Either that or just a big cactus.
















That will be all to this post. I will show you where we are spending the next month in the next post. It will include the RV park we are staying in and some more pics of the Calico Mountains. Somewhere down the road We will visit the Calico Ghost Town. Will post all about it then. So, I'm done for today. Enjoy!

From Deadwood/Sturgis to Nevada

Here was a picture we got of a statue in Sturgis just before we hit the road towards Nevada on our way to California. We decided to hang out with Woodie & Cleda Jane, our friends who are in the music theater business. They are going to a place called Callico Ghost Town, where they hope to open a Cowboy Comedy Playhouse. We will be helping them anytime we can.











This is a picture of Mona adding some Tranny Fluid to our parking brake system. What a place to put the reservoir, underneath the coach. It is a pain to do but we have had some trouble with it and this is the only way we have to deal with it at this time. I only wish I could breath so I could be doing the work instead of my poor little beautiful bride.

That is Cleda Jane standing there holding the fluid jug. That girl can sing!




This picture is one of a sand storm we drove into on the interstate. The police had everyone detour off the Interstate for about 10 miles just to go around the storm. I guess it was white out conditions on the Interstate so we had to go a different route.








This was at the Rest Stop we stopped at to eat a bite of lunch. This was also the place that Mona worked on the Motorhome. It was a very beautiful place in the middle of nowhere.








Here is the only tunnel we traveled through. It was somewhere in Utah just after we left Wyoming.












This is just some more of the scenery we saw as we traveled through Utah. Pretty stuff but the more you see of it the more it all looks the same.











Well that concludes today's post. I will do the trip from here to California in the next post.
Til then, adios.

Cool Deadwood Nights

This post will have just a few choice pics of the classic and cool cars that were in Deadwood for "Cool Deadwood Nites". Not much I can say that the cars can't say for themselves. Enjoy!

I have many more pics but just not enough time or room to post on here. Get with me the next time you see me and I will show you any of the pics or extra pics that I took on this vast journey. They are all on my computer. Thanks for looking.

We will be leaving this area soon and I probably won't post much until we get to traveling again. Of course when on the vagabond lifestyle, ya never know, so keep watching the site for new posts. Till next one, Bon Voyage.