Snowbirds Trip 01/31/2012--Bakersfield

We left Barstow/Yermo and stayed at Bear Mountain RV park near Bakersfield.  

http://www.bearmountainrv.com/

Pretty drive here through farm land to get here, but it looks smokey or misty.  

The park has large gravel spaces, but not much vegetation.  The wifi didn't work at first, so Carlos gave me an alternate router to try.  

Went to Camping world where Ray exchanged some chocks he had bought to stabilize the trailer and then we picked up some groceries at an Albertsons.

Snowbirds Trip 01/30/2012--Calico Ghost Town

Today we toured the Calico ghost town.  There are lots of shops, a train and a walk through a mine tunnel. 

This must be Ray's ghostly girlfriend.

Calico Ghost Town

Me on my 55th Birthday celebrating in Calico!

Ray having a beer in Calico (I had one too!)

 Italian for my birthday dinner--It was okay :)

The two most highly rated restaurants in Barstow (according to TripAdvisor) were both closed, so we had dinner at an Italian place (photo just above) near the radio shack where we bought an av adapter for my iPad for my birthday present.

Snowbirds Trip 01/29/2012--Barstow/Calico

We left our camp at River Island and drove to a KOA near Barstow, California. In a little town called Yermo. We now have good cable and wifi here.  There is no sewer on our hook-up.

http://www.barstowcalicokoa.com/

Snowbirds Trip 01/28/2012-Sara Park --Hooper

Hooper came in to town (no Jeneil) and we met him at the Sara Park shooting range.  He likes to target practice there.   He shoots trap.  We all had lunch at the China Buffet in Lake Havesu.  Returned our Redbox movie at Walgreens.

Snowbirds Trip 01/27/12-Barley Brothers

Drove back in to Lake Havasu and had dinner at Barley Brothers.  We had the all you can eat fish and chips.  

Went to Kmart and then to Smiths.  Rented movie Cowboys and Aliens at red box.

Snowbirds Trip 01/26/2012--Quartzite

We went and dumped trailer tanks and then went to Parker and found a great Laundromat on Kofa street.  Washers cost $1.50.  We used 5 washers, but probably could have used one big one for the blues.  The dryers are .25 for 8 minutes.    I got $15.00 in quarters at the change machine and put 24 minutes on each of three dryers.

The one with the heavy pants and shirts took another 8 minutes.  Some things were just a little damp and the shirts were a little wrinkled.  This laundromat has free wifi!  Ray went and filled the propane and bought lunch at Blimpie and brought it back to the laundromat.

We put the laundry away and then drove to Quartzite and looked through several rows of vendors.  This place is crazy!

I called my brother Danny, because we are headed there soon.  The Bella Vista RV park in Cayucos will be $25.00 to $28.00 per day.  Which is not bad.  We will have full hookup, but no wifi there.  I think the park is mostly full time snowbirds and year round residents.

Beautiful and warm again today.

Snowbirds Trip 01/25/2012--London Bridge

Drove in to Havesu and looked at the state park there.  No hook-ups and it isn't even nice.  Decided to stay where we are for three more nights.  

Checked email from Mcdonalds.  

Toured London Bridge which was moved to Lake Havesu.  (From Wikipedia-- The bridge once spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, which was bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a planned community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 (along with a canal), and links an island in the lake with the main part of Lake Havasu City.)

 

Went to Staples and then bought a water pressure gage at the RV store.  

Called mom but the signal wasn't good enough to carry on a good conversation.  

Warm enough weather that I am wearing capris rather than long pants and short sleeves!

Snowbirds Trip 01/24/2012--Hiking Buckskin State Park

We got a little rain last night but have blue skies today.   We hiked in Buckskin state park.  The camp ground there is nice and has a lot of shade trees.  

We drove in to Parker and had lunch at coffee Ern's and then shopped at Walmart and bought a toaster.  

Gas is high here too.  

Drove to Cattail Cove state park and looked it over.  The rate is $26.00 there.  

We like our camp much better.  The sites at Cattail Cover are close together and there is no shade there.  

Our neighbors here are playing music outside though. Damn those outside speakers on travel trailers.

After dark I tried my skywalk ipad app.  I think it'll be cool when you can see the stars!

Snowbirds Trip 01/23/2012--Havasu Area

Leaving Kingman, we stopped by Safeway and told Hooper goodbye.  He said they might try to come to Lake Havasu City on Wednesday and visit us.  

We drove to River Island State Park.  


The sites here are big and have all but sewer for $25.00 a night.  The Verizon cell service is pretty good.  

Ray and I explored the camp and took the 1/2 mile hike.  

Had leftover Manwich for dinner and watched Gran Torino from Wil's iTunes library.  Thanks Wil!  There is no over the air TV here.

Snowbirds Trip 01/22/2012--Seligman, Arizona

Hooper called and said Jeneil is sick. So their plans to meet with us today are cancelled.

Ray and I drove the old Route 66 to Seligman and had lunch at Westside Lilo's.  

This photo of Westside Lilo's Cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Good food, good service.  

This is a fun drive.  Here are some photos of Seligman:

  

I crock potted brisket with potatoes and onions for dinner.

Snowbirds Trip 01/21/2012--Oatman Arizona

Rode in Hoopers car to Oatman, Arizona.  

There are burros everywhere here and it's kind of stinky.

Had lunch (navajo taco) and looked in all the shops.  

Heated meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Snowbirds Trip 01/20/2012--Kingman and Hoopers

Arrived at Kingman, Arizona KOA

We met Ron and Jeneil Hooper for dinner at Plaza Bonita Mexican restaurant.  

They came and saw our trailer and visited for a while.

Snowbirds Trip 01/19/2012-Hiking Valley of Fire

Nice day in the park.  Took a couple of hikes and lots of photos.

Snowbirds Trip 01/18/2012--Valley of Fire

We had breakfast at McDonalds again and used the wifi to check email etc.  Two of the security cameras are not working, but the laundry room and front doors look fine.

We went back to camp and loaded up the trailer, dumped the tanks and headed out.

Ray filled a propane tank in Mesquite and shopped in Overton and gassed up. 

I called mom from there and she said Rhonda was there and had taken her to the foot doctor.  

We parked in number 23 at Valley of Fire State Park. We will be here 2 nights.  The rater here is $30.00 per night for a site with water and power.  No sewer.

No over the air t.v. here either.  

The campground has large sites --gravel, beautiful views of red rocks.

Snowbirds Trip 01/17/2012--We feed hotdogs to the company

We went for another hike today and just hung out in camp. 

George and Mike came to our camp for an early dinner of hot dogs.  It was too cold to eat outside so we ate in the trailer.  It was nice visiting with them and getting to know Mike.

We watched our old home movies in bed using the new blue ray player.  One of the DVDs that Ray had converted from tape didn't work so Ray is going to try to finalize it again when we get home.

Snowbirds Trip 01/16/2012--Hiking the dunes

Ralph from Montana moved out and we got some new neighbors with a small trailer.  We now have a bit of a view.  We had to dump the grey tank, so Ray left the chocks in place and tried to back in to the same spot.  It worked pretty well.  

We hiked a bit over petrified dunes and red sand.   We took a few photos (I'll see if I can find them and post them here). 

I got a text from Amanda, they went ice fishing over the weekend.  She will try to access our security cameras for us.  

We rested a few minutes and then went shopping.  

I got some more storage bins for the pantry and we bought a blue ray player. 

I made tacos for dinner.

Snowbirds Trip 01/15/2012--Not enough juice

The trailer batteries died in the night!  We woke up at 2:00 a.m. to freezing temperatures.  Ray plugged the truck in and started it and we warmed the place up for about an hour.  We woke up about 7:00 a.m. and he plugged it in again.  

Sooooo, we moved to a camp site with water and electric for an extra $12.00 for the rest of the stay.  I'm sure it will be well worth it.

The camp site is a very tight squeeze.  On our first attempt we couldn't open the trailer door due to the cover over the picnic table.  

The slide out nearly touches our neighbor (Ralph, from Montana).

We ate breakfast at around 11:30 and the went to K-Mart and bought a blanket, slippers for Ray, a table cloth, the other two curtains I needed for the closet in Wil's room (we don't have a K-Mart nearby us at home and I could only find two of these curtains when I bought them near Amanda's place) and some other supplies.  Picked George up after filling one of the propane tanks and took a drive to Pine Valley.  Stopped at Gunlock reservoir and had a beer and some snacks.  We took George home and then I heated leftover chicken for dinner.

Snowbirds trip 01/14/2012--On to St. George

It got cold in the night in Fillmore!  We will use electric heater in bedroom from now on until things warm up.

We stopped in Beaver on our way south and ate at McDonalds and used the wifi there.  It worked great.  Gas prices were high in Beaver.  Note to self: next time gas up in Cedar City.

We are staying at Snow Canyon state park near St. George.  (Take exit 6 Bluff street, keep right.)  There is no entrance fee for campers because it is included in camping fee.  $16.00 per day for a standard site. We don't have hook ups here.  We are signed up for for four nights here, departing Tuesday, the 18th.

George Diehl picked us up at our camp and gave us a tour of where Paul's place used to be and then took us to his and Vi's ( now Tina and Mike's) condo.  Very nice condo with a view of some petraglyphs.  I love the yellow leather (pale yellow) furniture that Tina has chosen.

We had a glass of wine with George and Tina and Mike and met their dog Cinnamon.  We toured Tina and Mike's pop up trailer and then went to dinner at Red Robin.  George bought dinner for us.  Thanks George!

It was great getting to know Tina and Mike better.

Snowbirds Trip 01/13/2012--Heading out. First stop Fillmore

Hooked up the trailer at storage and left Evanston and headed south on I-15 to Fillmore, Utah.  

Got parked at the Wagons West RV Park in Fillmore.  They charged us $2.00 extra for cable TV.  They have no Internet because the owner said she is leaving.  She said the new owners can fix it.  The total was still only $27.00