Tag Archives: Elks

Havasu Springs Resort (Lake Havasu, AZ)

2015/02/19 davidhobden@mac.com

Our stay here at Havasu Springs Resort has come to an end 🙁 Time to move on today (Thursday). But first, here’s what we did the last couple days;

On Tuesday we hit the pool and relaxed in the hot tub for a while.

Then we took another long walk and explored the other half of the resort that we didn’t get to earlier.

Here’s another view of some RV spots and “vacation homes”… they can really pack-em-in when they want to, eh?

Another nice cactus garden.

Here’s the office building at the park’s entrance. This is where we first went when we rolled into the park.

We also visited the bar/restaurant. Looked like a very nice place, but we had already eaten so we just did a quick look-see.

Manicured tree near the motel area of the resort.

Our view out the windshield. All-in-all, a pretty uneventful day.

On Wednesday, we attended the mandatory presentation at the sales office.

It wasn’t painful at all. The presentation was very professional and no high-pressure sales tactics. They talked about their Colorado River Adventures resorts (9 of them I think) and their affiliated programs, such as Coast-to-Coast, etc., We watched a video presentation and then talked to the sales manager. We never got as far as discussing costs or their different levels of membership. We explained that we just weren’t in a position to commit to anything like this right now. We still haven’t sold the house and we already have other memberships such as; Passport America, Escapees, Elks, VFW, American Legion, Good Sam, and military fam-camps. So, we thanked them for the opportunity to stay here and said we would consider such a membership in the future.

After the presentation, we decided to take the raft out on the lake. We drove the Silverado over to the boat ramp and unloaded the Sea-Eagle raft from the back seat.

After mounting the trolling motor, I launched the boat while Stilla parked the Silverado.

I came back in to shore to pick up Stilla and little Coach. Then we toured the whole resort side of the lake.

We passed a pontoon-type fishing boat, also a Sea-Eagle.

And another miniature lighthouse.

We pulled in to the inner harbor after being on the water for an hour or so and visited the gift shop that was next to the snack bar/restaurant.

Then we headed back to our put-in spot, but before calling it a day we toured some more of the coastline away from the resort and went around an island or two while just enjoying the sunshine and scenery.

Not bad for $10 a night… even with the mandatory sales presentation. Anyway, it’s time to move on now.

I reserved us a spot at Alamo Lake State Park for the 20th thru the 27th. So we’ll still have to find a spot for tonight (the 19th) on our way there. We have about 110 miles to find something.

Stay tuned…

Arizona

On to the Rally… (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

2015/02/13 davidhobden@mac.com

Yeah! This post will get you caught up to date… here we go:

On Wednesday morning, we puttered around at the Elks Lodge in Parker until sometime around noon – did some more laundry, and topped off the water tank. Then we headed on up the road to meet our Alpine Coach group for the Fireworks Rally in Lake Havasu.

Here’s our spot in front of the Elks Lodge. This picture was taken after our neighbors had already left for the day.

It’s a very scenic drive up US 95 after the town of Parker heading into Havasu. Here’s a few pics to try and prove that claim… what do you think?

There are several scenic turn-outs (view areas) that can accommodate big rigs but we’ve been through here a few times before in the past, so we just cruised on by and snapped pics out the windows.

Here’s the entrance to the rodeo grounds. We turned off of US 95 just south of town onto the loop that surrounds the park.

We were greeted at the parking area entrance by volunteers or park employees that confirmed we were pre-registered. I had to put the Coach in neutral and set the air brake so I could jump out and step into a trailer parked alongside the makeshift entrance in order to check-in. We got a “welcome packet” of sorts that included info on the park and it’s activities along with local advertising flyers, brochures, etc.,

Then I was told to follow the guy on the ATV… he would direct us to our site. That’s him way-ahead of me in the picture below – I think he was in a hurry to get me there.

There are several tiered levels of parking areas here at the SARA Park Rodeo Grounds. We chased the guy on the ATV to what I think is the second level from the end – where he stopped to indicate our spot. Here’s a couple pics of the surrounding parking area:

According to this website; ” SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park is an 1100-acre park with spectacular mountain views and access to Lake Havasu. The park’s facilities cater to a wide range of recreational activities and also serve as venues for events such as the popular Winter Blast firework display, obstacle races and concerts throughout the year. SARA Park has a network of hiking and mountain bike trails, ballfields, dog park, rodeo and fairgrounds. Other activities include BMX and motocross racing, roller hockey, RC plane field and a shooting and archery range.”

The same website goes on to say in another paragraph; “The park is also home to Havasu 95 Speedway, an ASA-sanctioned paved oval track which is one of the biggest attractions in Lake Havasu City…”

Our parking site was on a slope and we couldn’t get quite level without the HWH leveling system telling me were maxed out on one or more of the jacks. The HWH display panel indicated an “excess slope” warning and one of the front tires was 4-6 inches off the ground. So I turned the coach around and moved over closer to one side in our allotted space and it leveled alright. We found out later that the fireworks are going to be behind us now… hmmm – might have to rethink this if we want to sit in the Coach to watch any of the fireworks out the front windshield.

The coaches and rigs continued to file in throughout the rest of the day and into the evening.

At last count… seventeen Alpine Coaches were in attendance!

After all the rigs had filed in, we found out by the end of the day that we are all alone… no one has the spot on either side of us. The other Alpines are mostly next to each other and are in the next two rows over from us. Oh well, we probably need the exercise anyway when we join the others for our scheduled activities.

We had an impromptu “Happy Hour” with our Alpine friends. There was lots of meeting and greeting going on. Some folks we haven’t seen for quite awhile – since St George, UT a few years ago even – others we saw as recently as the Desert Rat Rally in Quartzsite just last month.

On Thursday, we drove into town in the morning to pick up a few additional grocery items to get us through the rally and then we just kind of hung out at the park until it was “Happy Hour” time again. The rally doesn’t officially start until Friday but that doesn’t stop anyone from getting together. There was more meeting and greeting and then there was a small sample of fireworks after dusk. Most of our Alpine group gathered at our designated meeting spot between the Host and Co-Host Coaches… will post pictures later.

Little dog “Coach” did fairly well with the little sample of fireworks so far, but he wasn’t without problems… he appears to be limping now while favoring a front paw. We couldn’t find any stickers or thorns, so we have to assume he jumped off the couch and landed wrong or something like that when we weren’t looking. He’s already better this morning (Friday) as I’m finishing up this post.

Let the Rally begin! Stay tuned for more of our Alpine SoCal “WINTER BLAST” rally fun… coming soon. I’ll try not to get behind again for a while 🙂

Arizona

YPG (Yuma Proving Grounds, AZ)

2015/02/12 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

Almost caught back up now with the journal entries… I’m only a couple days behind now 🙂

On Tuesday morning, we left the Coach parked at the noisy campsite behind the VFW post and drove the Silverado to the Yuma Proving Ground Museum.

Fair Warning – This post is picture heavy! As a veteran of 26+ years, I enjoy military history and equipment, therefore, I took lots of pictures.

These are the signs you see at the turn-off from US 95 to the Proving Grounds and Imperial Dam.

YPG sign on US 95 (taken later when we drove by in the Coach)

These giant cannons are on the west side of US 95 opposite the signs above… you can’t miss the turn to Yuma Proving Grounds with these landmarks! The “Atomic Cannon” was designed to fire a nuclear shell per this link @ RoadsideAmerica.com

Here’s another couple vehicle displays outside the main gate at one of the two base entrances.

The following tanks, vehicles, and other military equipment are located on the side of the road just a short way down from the US 95 turn. We parked and checked them out. No ID card or anything is needed to view these, they are open to the public… they are just off the side of the road and there is ample parking.

This is the museum entrance on the base located just across from the Fam Camp. It used to be the installation’s headquarters and is now called the Heritage Center Museum. (Click on the link)

We were going to stay at this Fam Camp but changed our minds when we were having too much fun down by Los Algodones. Besides – it would have cost us $130 for the week or $40 for one night.

You do need an ID card to gain access to the base which is the administrative side of this massive post. However, I assume they allow visitors with proper identification to get a visitors pass. Here’s another good link for more information.

It took us a couple hours to tour through the museum. You could easily spend more time here if you stopped to read all the literature or sit through the several recorded presentations.

Did you know that General Patton trained his tank corps here to prepare them for battle with Rommel during WWII?

And who doesn’t like Jeeps?

A couple cool pictures of vehicles being tested back in the day.

There were quite a few cool dioramas, I like dioramas… maybe it’s a not quite grown-up “guy thing”.

The original Installation Commander’s office has been recreated here with all the furnishings.

A couple more cool dioramas:

There was even an entire room dedicated to the cowardly terrorist attacks of 9/11. The video presentation was riveting.

Great museum – highly recommend it!

After our tour of the museum, we stopped at the mini PX and gas station to save a few bucks on fuel for the Silverado. Then we exited the base and headed farther down the road to check out the BLM sites in and around the Imperial Dam (Click link for more images) for possible future camping locations. Wikipedia has more interesting facts about the dam here if you’re interested.

The following pictures are of the Imperial Dam area. We saw many different long term visitor areas (LTVAs) and other nice camping spots. We might have to come back here some time in the future.

This guy was para-sailing… or is it para-surfing?

Typical signage seen throughout the area.

When we got back to the Coach parked behind the VFW post, we immediately got ready to roll on up the road. We weren’t going to spend another night here with the planes and trains.

We pulled into Parker, AZ (about 40-50 miles up US 95) and found the local Elks Lodge. They had 12 spots with 30amp and water for a suggested donation of $15 per night. We were packed in pretty tight – we couldn’t even put out the awning more than a couple feet or it would hit the RV next to us. Oh well, it was nice to have electric again. It’s been a while. Stilla loaded up the washer/dryer combo to get caught up on some laundry since we had hookups.

The Elks were having a lodge meeting and didn’t have anything to offer for dinner, so even though it was short-notice, we called some friends from Colorado Springs that we knew were staying at the Pirates Den Resort just up the road. They hadn’t eaten yet so we made plans to meet at the Black Pearl Restaurant located inside their resort.

“Greeter” inside the doors at the Black Pearl Restaurant located in the Pirates Den RV Resort, Parker, AZ.

We met Bob and Mary McCord and had an awesome BBQ rib dinner while we caught up on things. It was sure nice to see them again, it’s been several months since we saw them last in COS. They belong to the Family Campers & RVers (FCRV), Rolling Springs Chapter that we also belong to along with my Dad and Stepmom. We only get to see them during campouts or meetings.

After dinner we went over to their site and relaxed in their nice Coach. They recently got “upgraded” to a spot overlooking the Colorado River instead of being a couple rows back. Nice Coach, Nice spot! We called it a night, said our farewells, and headed back to the Elks lodge in downtown Parker. We’ll see you down the road Bob & Mary!

Stay tuned…

Colorado

We Can See the End (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/12/16 davidhobden@mac.com

We are finally getting close to being able to put the house on the market. The carpet is finally done, I guess the adage; “3rd time is a charm”, is true. The original carpet guy finally just paid a competitor to order and install the carpet at his expense since we had already paid. Here’s a view of the stairs in progress.

And, here’s a picture of the finished stairs for your viewing pleasure.

The downstairs “family room/game room” looks a little weird with the light brown color carpet (called Honeycomb 201). It used to have a light blue/gray carpet that complemented the wall colors. I hope a potential buyer doesn’t “dislike” it.

This is the bar that we’re including with the house. I just wasn’t going to remove that back piece off the wall because I anchored it with lag bolts to the studs and ran electrical outlets to it when I originally finished this room. Removing it would just create too much additional work with drywall, paint and texture issues.

We had new carpet put in the Master Bedroom and walk-in closet along with the stairs and everywhere downstairs except for one of the bedrooms where we decided to leave our King Size Bedroom set. We just didn’t want to move it again and figured it might add value and an additional incentive to buy the house for the new-owner(s).

This is the chandelier we put in the dining room. The old one was just fine, but it was brass. This was no easy chore due to the extremely high vaulted ceilings. I even had to make another trip to Home Depot to get more black chain so it wasn’t hanging too high. It doesn’t look too bad I guess.

The driveway concrete repair has been the most expensive task so far. This is where I used to park the Urban Escape Vehicle and the concrete just wasn’t thick enough to handle the weight. It had some pretty major cracks and had settled in places. The concrete guys did all the tear out and re-pour in one day.

We were finally able to paint the Den after I got the tenant’s stuff out.

Here’s a view out the front Den window looking up the street. We haven’t been able to easily look out this window for a while due to the “stuff” I had to move out from the former tenant’s.

We still have to clear the previous tenant’s stuff out of the Master Bath so we can give it a good cleaning and re-caulk where needed.

And there’s some wood-laminate flooring repairs I still need to make in the Great Room… sure glad I kept a couple boxes of the original floorboard.

We still need to finish re-staining the deck also, but that’s contingent on good weather, hopefully it warms up soon.

With any luck, we’ll finally have the house on the market at the beginning of the New Year.

I’ll try to keep you updated. Stay tuned…

Colorado

Taking a Day Off (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/12/08 davidhobden@mac.com

We finally took a day off (Sunday) from working around the house to help our friends Daniel and Monika move their daughter’s belongings back to their house. Dan keeps up with the blog and knew about the new trailer purchase. We were happy to be able to help, because as you know – what goes around comes around.

We were able to make quick work out of all the stuff that needed to be moved, the trailer ramp made loading easy.

While we were on the way back to Dan and Monika’s house with the trailer loaded, we stopped by the house of our mutual friend’s – John and Angelika. The Christmas lights and decorations are looking good Angelika 🙂

We wanted to drop off a Coca-Cola Cooler that we gave them. It’s much more satisfying to give some of our things to friends or family as opposed to selling them at greatly reduced prices or even taking things to Goodwill or ARC Thrift Stores. We already gave John and Angelika our “retro” Jukebox that Stilla got for her birthday several years ago. At least it’s in good hands and getting some use instead of being put in storage.

NSM Jukebox “Digital Thunder” on the wall at our house (pic is a few years old)

While stopped at John and Angelika’s house – I used the opportunity to install the load-leveling hitch that I just got in from Amazon.com. Their little cul-de-sac is much more level than the one at our house, and it’s important to do the installation on level ground. With John and Dan’s help, we did some measuring and got the hitch installed at the correct height. The load-leveling bars take a lot of weight off the hitch ball and distributes it more evenly, I’ve heard it described as functioning in a manner similar to a wheelbarrow.

After we unloaded the trailer, Dan and Monika treated us to lunch at Applebee’s. Thanks again Dan and Monika!

We visited for a while back at Dan and Monika’s beautiful home and admired their awesome deck while our little dog “Coach” checked out the back yard and probably left his “calling card” somewhere… sorry about that Dan 🙂

Dan and I also made tentative plans. If the timing is right, Dan offered to help me drive our stuff down to storage in Casa Grande. With his help, we could drive straight there, drop off a load, maybe spend the night and then get right back in record time. Dan is a professional truck driver by profession, (after his illustrious Army Career), so he’s no stranger to driving long distances. We’ll have to see if the timing works out…

After chatting for a while and saying our goodbye’s, we drove straight back to the Urban Escape Vehicle which is safely parked at the Elks Lodge overlooking the pool that is (sadly) closed for the season. This is the first day in – what seems like ages – that we didn’t spend the day at the house cleaning or painting something.

It was a good day off 🙂

Urban Escape Vehicle at the COS Elks Lodge RV Park

Colorado

6000 miles later – Back at the House (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/10/01 davidhobden@mac.com

On Monday we left the Elks Lodge in Saint George, UT early in the morning. I really would have liked to stay here, what a nice lodge and RV park area! The lodge had brats and nachos for donations in the bar area, so that was our dinner.

We needed to get back home to prepare for our son William’s visit from Germany. He’ll be here the 5th of October and he’s bringing his girlfriend that we haven’t met yet. So we made a bee line straight for our house in Colorado Springs. Sorry, no pictures today… I know you’re disappointed, but with the fast pace and often rainy windshield, the pics wouldn’t have turned out very good anyway.

We continued North on 1-15 until we hit I-70. We made it all the way to Grand Junction, CO by Monday evening. A grand total of 392 miles! If you’ve never seen the San Rafael Swell along I-70, it’s definitely worth stopping at the rest areas to view. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Rafael_Swell

We researched the Elks.org website and found a lodge in downtown Grand Junction that claimed to have 4 electrical hook-up sites. I didn’t call ahead figuring that since it was Monday, they were sure to have a spot. Sure enough, they had 4 electrical hook-ups all on the same pole in the middle of their empty parking lot. The lodge was closed so I called the number listed on the website, which was the same as the number posted on the door, and got no answer. There was a box on the pole with empty envelopes in it, so I put $10 along with our business card in it and slipped it under the lodge door. We hooked up to the 30 amp, watched a little TV and went to bed so we could get another early start in the morning.

On Tuesday, we continued on I-70 and drove through the rain at times. It sure was beautiful near Vail with all the aspen leaves changing colors and snow on the mountains around us. I was a little worried about the rain turning into snow on the Eisenhower Tunnel Pass so I researched a “short-cut” over Hoosier Pass and the weather outlook said it was dry. So, we turned South at Dillon Reservoir and took 9 through Breckenridge and then over Hoosier Pass. Sure enough, it was dry and easy going. The weather even cleared up nicely the closer we got to I-24 and then home.

So, after another 290 miles for the day, here we are in Colorado Springs again. We’ve put a grand total of 6,100 miles on the Urban Escape Vehicle since we started full-timing in May. It’s good to be back for a short time and see daughter’s Jennifer and Joleen again.

I’ll post again soon to keep you apprised of our status… hopefully we can get back on the road again soon. Maybe, I can use this “downtime” while son William is visiting, to update the blog with the places we visited before I started the blog… I’ve got some great pics of our time at such places as: Lake Tahoe, Crater Lake, the RV Rallies in Portland and Redmond OR, Mt Rainier, and Mt Saint Helens, etc.,

So stay tuned…

Nevada, Utah

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

2014/09/29 davidhobden@mac.com

It’s been a busy few days since my last post. I’ll try to get caught up here.

We found a (somewhat) quiet corner of the truck stop in Barstow for Thursday evening as I mentioned in my last blog post. Here’s a picture I took Friday morning before we headed on up I-15 to Las Vegas.

About 150 miles later we passed the Welcome to Nevada sign:

We found a RV park by using the “Points of Interest” option on the Rand McNally GPS. Of course, I researched it quickly on the internet to validate it’s authenticity. It was a very reasonable $20 per night.

We ended up at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery, Hotel & RV Park near the famous (or infamous) Fremont Street. That’s on the North side of Las Vegas. I called ahead to confirm a spot and they assigned me to site 200… and what are the odds – we were parked right next to another Alpine Coach! With only ~1,400 Coaches ever built between the years 1999 and 2009, that’s a somewhat rare occurrence. Unfortunately, we never got to meet the owners in the two days we were there. They were always seemed to be out and about at the times we were in the park.

It wasn’t long after we arrived that we were met by my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl along with my Mom and Stepdad in their chauffeured Escalade. They have a time-share of sorts with Wyndham Resorts which is where they were staying. The limousine service is courtesy of the resort.

They took us to Caesars Palace to enjoy the Bacchanal Buffet.

The food was excellent albeit rather expensive. All the dishes are prepared by Chef’s. Here’s a link to learn more if interested: http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html#.VCorPUtGGQc

And then we supported the local economy by playing the slots.

Here’s an indication of how our evening went… notice that the “7’s” aren’t on the payline 🙁

Here’s my beautiful Ma and wonderful stepdad! Love ya mom & Jimmy.

Obligatory picture of one of the Las Vegas signs.

We spent the rest of the evening touring the Fremont Street Experience. For those of you that have never been, here’s a link: http://vegasexperience.com

The light show is pretty cool.

And there were lots of characters walking the street… many of whom I couldn’t post to this blog in order to maintain something less than an “R” rating.

This is the zip-line that runs above the street. You can see some people getting ready to go in the second picture below.

These folks got stuck and had to be rescued.

We ended up at the Heart Attack Grill, http://www.heartattackgrill.com for a late night “light” snack 🙂

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to my Mom, Stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after a hearty breakfast at the Plaza Hotel’s Hash-a-go-go http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/dining/hash_house_a_go_go They have to get back home to Las Cruces to go on diets 🙂

After breakfast and goodbye hugs… Stilla and I then spent the rest of our Saturday checking out a few local tourist attractions… the first was one of my favorite’s, the site of American Restoration.

The free guided tour through the shop was really neat, but they don’t allow photos inside because customers haven’t seen their finished restoration projects yet.

I pulled the truck up front for a photo-op. Rick didn’t come out to offer to restore the Harley for me 🙁

I did get the T-Shirt at the gift shop though.

Next, we went by the site of Pawn Stars. I honestly have only seen a few episodes… not one of my favorites, but it was cool to see.

This Elvis painting was for sale at some outrageous price.

We must have arrived at just the right time… there was quite a long line forming as we exited. Must be a popular site, or a tour bus might have shown up.

Then I tracked down where Counting Cars is filmed at Counts Kustoms http://www.countskustoms.com was located and we headed over there. I bought the T-Shirt.

Stilla and I visited Fremont Street again to close out the evening and took in some of the street band music that plays in a few different spots along the covered street.

On Sunday, we hit the road again for Saint George Utah.

We continued on I-15 and went through the corner of Arizona after leaving Nevada.

It had clearly rained the day prior as evidenced by the very soggy desert.

Interstate 15 passes through a pretty cool canyon at one point.

And here’s the Saint George, UT Elk’s Lodge 1473. Now this has to be the most scenic Lodge we’ve stayed at to date. Travel distance for the day was around 120 miles.

We pretty much had the RV Park portion of the parking lot to ourselves. Only two or three other rigs there. We heard that we just missed a busy weekend, the lot was full this morning.

Here’s a couple pics of the lodge.

The view from their deck.

And this was our spot below the cliffs. It’s only $15. Electric hook-up only. Wish we could stay here longer, but son William is due in from Germany on the 5th of October, so we have to be back in Colorado Springs. Also, we have a small problem with the rent – we haven’t gotten any for the last month or so…

Til next time… stay tuned.

California

Bro Time (Westley, CA)

2014/09/25 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

It’s been a couple days since my last post. We’ve been busy hanging out at my brother Ron’s house in Westley, CA. Let me bring you up to date:

We arrived early Tuesday evening after our long day’s drive down I-5 and through Sacramento. After hugs and a tour of the house and adjoining machine shop, we made a trip to the local WalMart to replenish the fridge and more importantly – get some steaks for the BBQ grill. We spent time grilling and catching up. It was great seeing them again, it’s been a long time… years in fact.

We parked on the street beside their house during our stay. Ron graciously provided a power outlet so we could run one of the air conditioners or the microwave without having to start our generator.

Wednesday ended up being a full work day in the fully-appointed machine shop next to the house. I conned (I mean, talked) Ron into doing some modifications to the Silverado’s bed-rails and motorcycle ramp. Nephew James stayed home from work and helped out as well. Ron figured out how to slice a long piece of aluminum off the bed rails so I can better secure my tonneau cover when I’m not carrying the Harley. He also invented a quick-release mount for the motorcycle ramp to secure it on top of the rack. Now I don’t have to struggle with a bunch of bungee-cords every time I transport the ramp.

Here we put everything back on the Silverado after having to disassemble the truck rack to make the modifications.

The tonneau cover now rolls shut and and fits tightly between the bed rails. Thanks Bro!

Ron even took the time to modify the pivot bar that holds the three-piece motorcycle ramp together… the bar was too long and the hole for the pin allowed for too much movement between the individual pieces, so he cut it shorter and re-drilled a new hole for the pin. Now it’s much safer to use, and there’s no chance for a foot or even worse – a motorcycle tire to accidentally slip between the pieces.

I forgot to take a picture of the quick-release mount that Ron invented to secure the ramp on top of the rack during transport. But here’s some pics of Ron in action:

We closed out the evening with another great BBQ meal in the back yard.

It rained Thursday morning… just enough to make us not want to get packed up and move. But, we need to move on down the road and get back to Colorado Springs before our son William comes to visit us in October. So we slowly got packed up by noon, said our goodbyes’s and thanked Ron & Terry for everything. It was about 1 PM by the time we hit I-5 headed South.

Hopefully, I get to see my brother again on Thanksgiving… he’s planning on being in Arizona, as do we.

The roads between the many orchards in the area were muddy from the rain. Lots of vehicles coming onto the roadway from the orchards had made a mess of the pavement. Looks like I get to give the Urban Escape Vehicle and pickup a serious washing now.

The sun came out and it dried up quickly. It wasn’t long before we had to turn on the dash AC again.

We started going through our routine of finding a campground or RV park while traveling down the road since we had good cell signal on I-5. It looked like the Elks Lodge in Barstow would be a good destination for the day. The website said it had 77 RV spots in the Lodge parking lot. So I plugged it into the GPS and we decided to make it a long travel day. Also, we still needed to decide what route to take back to Colorado, and Barstow happens to be located at the point where we can either choose to go North on I-15 through Las Vegas and then on to I-70, then I-25 at Denver to get to COS; or – we can catch I-40 East at Barstow which will take us through Flagstaff and Albuquerque to get on I-25 to COS.

It so happens that my Mom, Stepdad, and other brother Steven along with his better-half Cheryl, are currently in Las Vegas on vacation. So I contacted them to be sure they are still there (they will be until Saturday) so that cinches it – we now have our next destination… Las Vegas, here we come!

Typical highway scenery after we got close to Bakersfield.

It was 7 PM when we finally rolled into Barstow looking for the Elks Lodge. We found it, but it was closed! We wondered why the Elks.org website didn’t show info on the Lodge but we did find all kinds of info and reviews on google. The place looked like it was being sold. Anyway, we chalked that up to another lesson learned… don’t trust google without verifying!

So we did a quick search for other overnight options and found a Flying J truck stop 4 miles further down on I-15. Good enough for the night since it’s late anyway. And besides, we now want to hurry up and get to Las Vegas tomorrow so we can get as much time as possible in with my Mom/Stepdad & other brother Steven and his better-half Cheryl before they go back to Phoenix and/or Las Cruces on Saturday!

We did 335 miles today… whew! I don’t want to do that too often.

Signing out from the truck stop… C U tomorrow!

California, Oregon

Lighthouse Celebrities & Sunsets (Brookings, OR)

2014/09/21 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

We started our Friday beach tour before 10 AM. We weren’t sure where we would end up at the end of the day, but we had another Elks Lodge in mind. We continued our route down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) through the picturesque town of Bandon.

We of course stopped at most of the pull-offs to enjoy the views. The weather was nice again, but a little windy.

We wanted to stop at Oregon’s westernmost lighthouse, so just South of the small town of Sixes, we turned West.

This is the road to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a 5 mile side trip off the PCH.

Notice below how I utilized my keen photographic skills and managed to capture the lighthouse inside the hole at the top of this sign 🙂

We were able to park the Urban Escape Vehicle in the large turn-around parking area located a little ways from the lighthouse.

It was a decent hike from the parking area to the lighthouse as you can see from this photo with Stilla in the foreground.

When we arrived at the gift shop/greeting area that is separate from the lighthouse, I immediately recognized Chris & Cherie from their full-timing RV blog, “Technomadia”. I have followed their blog for quite a while and especially enjoy their tips for staying connected on the road. They are volunteer hosts here at the lighthouse. And guess what – I found out that another couple is also volunteer hosting here at the same time – Paul & Nina from “Wheelingit”. I also follow their blog, they were up at the lighthouse whereas Chris & Cherie were down at the gift shop doing the meeting & greeting. Here I posed with Chris & Cherie in front of the lighthouse. It was neat to finally meet them in person after reading their blog all this time.. it’s like meeting celebrities!

Here is Chris & Cherie (above). Their website is: http://www.technomadia.com/2014/09/new-views-on-cape-blanco/Windy…. Check it out!

Dogs aren’t allowed in the lighthouse, so Stilla walked Coach around the grounds while I went up for the lighthouse tour.

This is the light at the top of the lighthouse. Cool pic eh?

I zoomed in on the Urban Escape Vehicle back at the parking area. Good to see it was still there.

Here’s Paul from “Wheelingit” explaining the inner workings of the lighthouse at the top.

And this is Nina from “Wheelingit” giving the tour in the downstairs area of the lighthouse.

Nina graciously posed with me for a pic. Must be nice to be a celebrity 🙂

Paul & Nina’s website is: http://www.wheelingit.us

Another view of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse which was built in 1870.

Here’s a view of where we are on the Rand-McNally.

We snacked in the Coach before we continued on down Hwy 101. It was nice to get out of the wind here. Then we motored on.

Here are some views down around the town of Port Orford.

Sometimes little Coach doesn’t want to get out of the Coach, he’d rather just watch us silly humans take pictures.

Sometimes there weren’t any pull-offs for pictures, so I just took pics from the cockpit.

Near the town of Gold Beach we pulled into the parking area for the Prehistoric Gardens.

Have you ever had this view outside your window?

They wanted too much for admission. $12 per person just didn’t register on my value-meter, so we passed. Coach was more interested in the chipmunks and bluejays anyway..

I took advantage of a photo-op along a wide pull-off just North of Gold Beach to get a possible new Cover Photo for the blog or maybe Facebook.

Another historical bridge leading into Gold Beach.

More over-the-road pics:

This was a nice rest area with a hiking trail – Arch Rock.

Located here:

A couple artists were using watercolors to capture the view.

Then, we drove over the highest bridge in Oregon – at least, that’s what the sign says.

We ended up at the Elks Lodge in Brookings, OR. Total distance traveled for the day was a little less that 90 miles. The Lodge RV Park, located in their parking lot, had full hook-ups with the exception of sewer. A dump station is on site. They had a suggested donation of $18 per night, and it was Friday which at most Lodges we’ve visited, means they serve dinner. Tonights menu included Fish & Chips or Hamburgers. Stilla had the fish and I had a cheeseburger that was undercooked. It must have been a bad day for the waitress, I think she quit while we were there. (Hopefully not because of my undercooked burger). Stilla played a little on the slots. I forgot to take pictures of our RV site and the lodge.

After our dinner, we drove around town and checked out the harbor and then decided to drive a couple miles South of town to a nice beach where we could enjoy the sunset. The beach happened to be just across the California border. So here’s the sunset from sunny California… it looked the same to me as the one in Oregon. What do you think?

Tune in tomorrow to see where we are…

Oregon

Sea Lions & Lighthouses (Florence, OR)

2014/09/17 davidhobden@mac.com

Tuesday was very nice weather-wise. We left the AC(s) on in the Coach for the dog and headed back North on 101 a few miles to the Sea Lion Cave.

Here’s a picture of the building which doubles as the entrance point and gift shop. We took this pic yesterday at a pull-off on the way down to the RV Park.

This is as close as we got to Sea Lions for the day (pic below). We were told that at this time of year, they are all out in the ocean “fattening” themselves up for winter. They offered a discounted price and a “rain-check” if you come back within a year. And oh yeah, they gave me a free popcorn for being a veteran. Their discounted price was still rather high at $24 for the two of us. Since we’re only here once, and here now… we paid and walked down to the pathways behind the building. One of the two paths goes North down to a viewpoint and the other goes South to the elevator that takes you to the cave.

Lookout point along the pathway to the Sea Lion Cave elevator. No whales here today 🙁

One of the pathways and a lookout point behind the entrance of the Sea Lion Cave.

Looking back up at the Sea Lion Cave entrance building and gift shop from the North pathway.

Pathway to the Sea Lion Cave elevator with Lighthouse in the background.

Looking back up at the Sea Lion Cave entrance building and gift shop from the South pathway.

Here’s the elevator that takes you down to the cave.

Here’s the empty cave. Still impressive even without sea lions.

This answers one of the questions you always wondered about but were afraid to ask:

The Sea Lion Cave has a secondary lookout point with a view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

These next three pictures were taken with my camera instead of the iPhone. I was able to zoom in on the only “real” sea lions that we would see today.

Nice view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse as seen from the Sea Lion Cave that would be our next destination.

We toured through the gift shop at the entrance after going back up the elevator and long pathway.

I spotted these Cool refrigerator magnets in the gift shop that I probably would have purchased before we went full-timing in the RV. RV style refrigerators are generally not conducive to magnets. Although our refrigerator is a residential style Amana stainless model it still won’t hold magnets – besides, who would want to keep picking magnets up off the floor all the time after a road trip?

We were a little disappointed with not seeing sea lions, except for the couple we were able to see from a distance out at sea. But, the cave was definitely worth seeing.

We left the Sea Lion Cave and went up the road to the Heceta Head Lighthouse which was our next intended destination for the day. We drove through a tunnel and across a bridge and then looped back under the bridge to the parking lot.

And of course, we get to pay for this pleasure.

Here’s the tunnel and bridge we went through and crossed over then under to get to the parking lot.

A little interesting trivia on the bridge.

We pulled the folding chairs out of the back of the Silverado and sat on the beach awhile. We enjoyed the sandwiches we had made to take along with us today. Mine was peanut butter and jelly, made with the cranberry jam we bought while on Long Beach.

When we returned to our chairs after walking around on the beach, we found that this bird had pecked away at our plastic trash bag we left hanging on one of the chairs. He must like cranberry jam.

How about some more pics on the beach:

After our lunch on the beach, we hiked up the pathway to tour the lighthouse.

Informational placard on the pathway to the lighthouse.

And here it is! Another lighthouse… you haven’t seen enough of these in this blog yet, right?

The tour was free. They only take groups of 4-5 people at a time to limit the weight and vibration on the spiral staircase.

Picture of a picture – Lighthouse keepers and their families taken in 1904.

Out volunteer tour guide leading us up the spiral staircase.

Glass inserts in the floor, as seen from underneath, around the rotating light.

And of course, we had to do the selfie while we were at the lighthouse.

After our two tours for the day, we headed back to the Coach to get little Coach (our dog). Once again, he was just just fine.

We did some exploratory driving around the town of Florence. It turns out that it is only 1 about 1.5 miles South of the Elks RV Park where we are at.

There seem to be a lot of sand dunes around this area. Here’s a view across the channel below.

We walked around the “Old Town Florence” and stopped here for some calamari and liquid refreshments.

We toured through the little shops in the area and found a doggie carry bag. It’s like a backpack but for front use. I guess you could call it a frontpack, right? It should come in handy on the rare times we are allowed to take dogs on hikes in the future. So we bought it and put it to use right away.

We then drove over to the Elks Lodge in town to check it out. As I mentioned in a previous post, they also have RV parking with hook-ups – cost is $15. Here’s a pic.

View of the Lodge parking lot.

We went inside and ended up staying for Bingo. Yes, I said Bingo. It’s was kind of fun, although we didn’t win anything. We stayed until 9 PM. We were able to bring little Coach inside with us. He stayed in his new frontpack on my lap while we marked bingo cards.

The lodge also had burgers, dogs, and fries to order courtesy of the vets group. We shared some fries and Stilla had a kosher dog. After bingo, we left about $10 in the slots and then headed home.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we plan on packing up and driving over to a local casino parking lot that we scoped out while driving around town earlier. There were lots of motorhomes and RVs in the free parking area. Free sounds good for a day… so I’ll post from there tomorrow.

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: Elks

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We Can See the End (Colorado Springs, CO)

Taking a Day Off (Colorado Springs, CO)

6000 miles later – Back at the House (Colorado Springs, CO)

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

Bro Time (Westley, CA)

Lighthouse Celebrities & Sunsets (Brookings, OR)

Sea Lions & Lighthouses (Florence, OR)

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