The American flag was still flying at the house on our last day in Germany.  I’m sure Wolfgang put up the Bavarian (Bayern) flag after we left.  What a great time we had 🙂  It was sure nice to see all of Stilla’s family again and especially our son William.

Wolfgang drove us to the Munich airport early in the morning on Monday in his RV.  It was raining again, but we made it without incident.

Thanks for the ride again Wolfgang 🙂

Our flight to Atlanta lasted about eleven hours, three movies, and two meals.  Of course the meals are conveniently timed to interrupt any sleep that you might feel coming on 🙂  Distance traveled was around 4,800 miles.

Our Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experience for incoming international flights was certainly different from our outbound flight experience.  We must have stood in four or five separate lines after getting off the plane and almost missed our connection to Phoenix.  First, there was a line to put your passports in a newfangled reader that spits out a customs form with your picture on it; next, there was a line at customs to show them the form that we just stood in the previous line to get.  Then we had to pick up our luggage from the carousel and stand in line to recheck it.  And finally, we had to go through another security check to get to our gate… you know, the security check where you put half your clothes and all your carry-on in bins to be x-rayed, followed by the dreaded pat-down because I have an artificial hip.  Anyway, we just made it to the plane as it was boarding for our last leg to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

My Mom and stepdad Jim picked us up at the airport after our ~4 hour, 1,587 mile flight.  It was sure nice to see them again.

Our first stop before heading south to Casa Grande was a Taco Bell at Stilla’s request.  One thing that’s hard to find in Germany is a Mexican restaurant 🙂

And here we are back at the “Dirt Farm” again after more than 5 weeks in Schnitzeland.  When we got to Casa Grande in the late evening on the 11th, the first thing we did after saying Hi to our little dog ‘Coach’ was to put the slides out on the Urban Escape Vehicle and check things out before we went to bed.  Everything checked out good and seemed to be alright until the next day when I plugged in the tire pressure monitoring system and found out two of the tires had gone way down.  This wasn’t obvious to us at first because we left the jacks down while we were gone on our trip.

I couldn’t understand how the tires could have lost pressure until I remembered that I had an oil change and service done at the nearby Speedco® just before we left for Germany.  The Speedco® technician that checked all the tire pressures didn’t reseat the pressure monitoring cap correctly.  I have a Pressure Pro® Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) that I installed soon after purchasing our Coach.  This system uses valve caps that send a wireless signal to a monitor on the dash.  It’s been pretty reliable and saved me from driving on low tire pressures on at least two separate occasions.  Well worth the money.

I used my old air compressor which is stored here at the ‘dirt farm’ (my brother Steven & Cheryl / Mom & Jim’s place) to air up all the tires.  I used the opportunity to purge any leftover nitrogen from the tires that Redlands Truck & RV® put in a few years back while we were in Quartzsite.  I haven’t seen any advantage to using nitrogen in the tires.  Plus, where do you find nitrogen at when on the road and you need a refill?

On Wednesday morning, we put ‘Coach’ on a leash and took a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the nice sunny weather.  We also need to get started on losing some of the weight we put on while in Germany 🙂  We walked over to the Escapees RV Park “Rover’s Roost” which is just around the corner.

We walked through the rows of parked RV’s and saw another Alpine!

Of course when I saw someone outside the Coach, I walked over and introduced ourselves. We met Joan who then introduced us to Ken. We talked for a short time and Ken & Joan showed us the inside of their beautiful 2005 36′ Front Door Double Slide (FDDS). It’s always great to meet up with other Alpine Coach owners! What nice people, as all Alpine owners seem to be 🙂 I asked them if they were going to Quartzsite for the Desert Rat Rally but they already have other scheduled plans. Hopefully, we’ll get to see them again in the future at one of the Alpine Coach Association rallies. Nice to meet you Ken & Joan… please keep us in mind for one of the upcoming Alpine SoCal or ACA rallies 🙂

And that’s all for now folks. We’re just fighting off the jet lag and prepping to head over to the Desert Rat Rally in Quartzsite (←link). I’d like to get there a couple days before the Alpine Coach Rally kicks off so I need get the ATV ready and loaded up, among other things. I’ll post again as time permits… lots going on.

BTW – We just heard from good friends Jerry and Marilyn.  They just got into town here and are staying at the Casa Grande Elks Lodge. We first met Jerry & Marilyn at the Colorado Springs Elks Lodge and went on a nice motorcycle ride with them (among other things). Old Post HERE.  We plan on getting together today (Thursday)…  stay tuned…