First of all, I had the pleasure and honor to attend a former co-workers retirement ceremony. It was held at Schriever Air Force Base within the highly-secretive Missile Defense Agency Integration & Operations Center (MDIOC). I worked there for ~7 years after I retired from the Army at Ft Carson in 2007. It was truly a ‘grand ceremony’ for a ‘grand gentleman’.
Pictures aren’t allowed inside the facility, but I hope to receive some “official” photos that the public affairs group took during the ceremony… if so, I’ll post them later. Meanwhile, here’s a front page photo of the ‘flyer’ or ‘handout’ with biography that everyone in attendance received…
Arthur, or ‘Art’ as he is known, completed over 32 years of government service in DoD Contracting and now plans on retiring to Hershey, PA. Good Luck Art! It was a privilege to have known you during my time at the MDA.
It was great to see the old workplace and coworkers… it’s been just a little over a year since I resigned my position there and we went full-timing in the Coach. Other than the awesome ceremony, the best part was catching up with the many fine folks I used to work for and with. Many of my old coworkers follow along on this blog or Facebook and know what we’ve been up to (somewhat), but many also do not. So, when asked (repeatedly) by many folks during the reception; I found myself trying to remember some of the many places we’ve visited in the last year. It’s truly difficult to pick a favorite place we’ve been over the last year, it seems like we’ve been to so many. I passed out a lot of my “non-business” UrbanEscapeVehicle.com business cards, so maybe more will follow along now.
When I returned from the ceremony, I found Stilla at the Elks Lodge pool with our grandson Kaan, and a couple of her girlfriends. (Sorry, no pics)
And then, before long we were hanging out with our Alpine Coach friends again as they trickled in from their day of sightseeing around the Colorado Springs area.
Another fun evening of good conversation with good people ensued…
This picture (below) almost looks like a repeat of yesterday, but it’s not – we just happened to snag the same table at the downstairs bar.
And then we spent some time out on the patio when the karaoke got a little too loud for conversation…
Jack Giddens and Ricky Broussard at Elks Lodge 309.
Like I stated at the beginning of this post… Another fun day!
We expect to meet up again tonight (Friday) for dinner here at the Elks Lodge with the Gidden’s and Broussard’s. Unfortunately the Foster’s left this morning to visit relatives in Littleton. Maybe they’ll be back by before we leave here on the 2nd of July. Hopefully, the Foster’s will sign up for the Alpine Coach Lake Powell Rally in October and we’ll see them there… I know they were tossing around the idea. 🙂
Stay tuned for more impromptu Alpine Coach “mini-rally” fun…
It’s wet, cold, and raining in Prescott Valley this morning (Monday), so we’re just hunkering down… we got here on Friday and I’ve used the last couple days to play catch-up on the blog since we didn’t have connectivity during our week-long stay at Alamo Lake State Park. Now let me bring you up to date on our time here so far…
Scott and Julie Richardson inside their retirement ranch.
It’s great to see Julie again… we haven’t seen her since May of last year at her retirement party in Colorado Springs. After we arrived on Friday afternoon, we got caught up on recent events and old times a little bit and shared what little knowledge we had about mutual acquaintances’. We also got the “grand tour” of Scott and Julie’s beautiful home, aka., “Richardson Retirement Ranch” or (3R).
We parked the Urban Escape Vehicle in front of the 3rd garage so we wouldn’t block the driveway. Then we ran an extension cord to the garage outlet so we wouldn’t have to run our generator to charge the batteries.. the residential-type refrigerator sure sucks them down. Thanks for the juice Scott and Julie! And also the moochdocking, – er, I mean boondocking spot!
On Saturday, we took a little driving tour to catch some of the sights in the area. Julie acted as our tour-guide and we all piled into her car. We went north on AZ-89A aka the “Prescott Jerome Hwy” towards Sedona. We hadn’t gone very far up the winding pass before we spotted snow on the higher mountain tops around us. Ugh… thought we’d left that behind in Colorado.
We stopped to enjoy the view at a pull-out. It was windy but not raining yet.
When we got to Jerome, AZ, we decided to park and walk around a bit… what a neat town nestled on the hillside.
Here’s a pic I swiped from Google Images:
And here’s some actual pics we took while wandering around a bit.
Anyone recognize the lamp in the window?
We heard that the hotel in the pic below is supposed to be haunted.
We drove on down the pass and finally rolled into the picturesque town of Sedona. (don’t forget to click on the link for more info).
As you can see below, the rain picked up once we arrived in Sedona.
The rain didn’t stop us from shopping for some t-shirts though…
We passed by Pink Jeep Tours, who has quite a large fleet… and the crummy weather didn’t appear to be stopping tourists from lining up to take tours in the rain.
How about a couple more pics of the area:
Our downtown area walk was cut short with a brief downpour that made us dash for the car, so we headed on over to the Golden Goose Cafe & Bistro for a late lunch / early dinner. Scott and Julie treated… thanks again guys, you didn’t have to do that.
After our fine dining experience, we drove over to the nearby Chapel of the Holy Cross. Don’t forget to click the previous “green” link to go to the official church website, or here for more pictures from Google.
We were able to park in the upper lot and made the short walk to the semi-circular walkway up to the chapel.
Stilla, Julie, and Scott on the walkway up to the church.
The views from inside the church windows looking out – were awesome.
And here’s some views from the landing in front of the church entrance.
After visiting the picturesque church, we continued south on (also) picturesque route 179 until we got on I-17 which we took to the 169 exit, and then back to the house, effectively completing our loop for the day.
On Sunday, we stayed close to the area. Our highlight for the day was a trip to the local IN-N-OUT Burger. Yummm. This time Scott and Julie allowed us to treat. Julie acted as our chauffeur once again. Thanks Julie!!
Then we drove through the Bob Stump VA Medical Center… reminded me of an old Army base stuck in the ’50s. Check out the officer’s housing area:
Unfortunately, the museum here was closed.
In downtown Prescott, we stopped briefly in the rain for a picture of the courthouse. The crummy weather prevented us from wanting to wander around.
Then, on the way back home, we stopped at the Phippen Museum for a little “Art and Heritage of the American West”.
However, only a small portion of the museum was currently open for viewing due to new exhibits being put into place. So we opted to save our $7 per person entrance fee for another time and just browsed the gift shop.
Then we headed back to the house to relax again and hide out from the rain.
And that brings us to the present… here it is Monday (my new favorite day of the week since retirement) and it’s still raining outside. It rained all night, and it’s even been snowing a little bit this morning. At least it’s not sticking.
So we plan on just staying inside to wait out the weather. There’s a lot of cool stuff to see around here, but none of it’s quite so fun to do in the rain and cold.
As a parting shot… Julie shared this picture of an eagle with me that she saw in the back yard just the other day. We haven’t seen it since though… probably hiding from the cold weather like we are 🙂
Sorry readers… haven’t been able to post since we got to Alamo Lake State Park last Thursday due to limited connectivity. Our Verizon MiFi Jetpack had zero signal and our iPhones on the AT&T network only had one bar and we were “off network”. We were lucky to even be able to make phone calls.
We are now in Prescott Valley at the home of Scott and Julie Richardson. Julie is a friend and former co-worker from my days at the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). We were both in the MDA Contracting Directorate together at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Julie retired at about the same time that I resigned from my position back in May of 2014 and moved here to their lovely retirement home in Prescott Valley, AZ. We drove straight here from the lake (about 150 miles) when we learned that they were home and also willing to put up with us for a day or so.
Scott & Julie Richardson at their “retirement ranch” in Prescott Valley, AZ.
Plus – They have great internet connectivity 🙂
But first, let me bring you up to date with our adventure(s) since I last posted. It’s been a fun week with lots of off-roading on the ATV and even some fishing in the Sea-Eagle inflatable…
19 Feb (Thursday):
We got ready to leave Havasu Springs Resort and I noticed one of the tires was low on the Silverado. It was only at 20 psi, it should have been at 35 psi. The truck has a built-in sensor in each tire that alerts the driver on the instrument panel when it’s started or while driving. At the same time, one of the rear tires on the Coach was reading about 85 psi and it should be at 95 psi. I have a tire pressure monitoring system from Pressure Pro that I bought shortly after we got the Coach. It has sensors that replace the valve caps on each tire. Each of these valve caps have a non-replaceable battery in them that send a wireless signal to my display that I plug into a cigarette-type power outlet each time we get ready to roll. This particular tire, a rear inner dual, has been slowly leaking down (2-3 psi each month) since I last filled it in Colorado Springs back in January. I’ve had this problem before on the opposite side inner-rear tire. It seems that Redlands Truck & RV didn’t properly tighten the stainless steel valve stem extenders that I had them install a couple years ago while we were in Quartzsite having new shocks put on. The only way to tighten the valve stem is to remove the tire.
So, I used a can of Fix-a-Flat that I keep on hand, for the Silverado tire and then topped it off with my air hose connected to the Coach’s on-board air compressor. With that done, we hooked up and headed into Parker AZ, only a few miles away, to find a tire repair shop for both vehicles.
After a quick stop at an RV Supply store to ask for recommendations and directions, we were directed to a small garage/service shop in downtown Parker. The tire technician couldn’t find a leak on the Silverado… guess the can of Fix-a-Flat did it’s job. They even pulled off both rear tires and leak-checked them. Although, this was due to miscommunication between their techs. Oh well – Total cost was only $13.
While a tire technician was working on the Silverado, another one made good time removing the rear tires on the Coach. He was amazed that I was able to use the HWH leveling jacks to raise the right rear of the coach when it was obvious his hydraulic floor jack wasn’t up to the task. Once the inner tire was off, we quickly confirmed that the valve stem was leaking by using a soapy water solution in a spray bottle. The leak was evident where the valve stem goes through the rim, and was made worse by wiggling the stem. A quick tighten was all that it needed. Total cost $14.
With our tire situation resolved, we stopped at the local WalMart to stock up on groceries for our week at Alamo Lake State Park. We were told about this state park by our new friend and fellow Alpine Coach driver, Nick Escamilla. We met Nick at the Fireworks Rally that we had just attended (link here). Nick and his wife Romana did an awesome job hosting the rally. They told us they had spent a week at the park prior to going to the Fireworks Rally and said it was a “must-see” for anyone that likes ATV’ing and fishing. But they warned us to take everything we might need in with us, because it’s about 35 miles from the nearest gas station or grocery store.
I made online reservations for the park and was able to find what looked like a good spot in the C loop for the 20th through the 27th. The park has different rates for different areas, depending on whether you want full hook-ups, just electric and water, or are willing to dry-camp. We followed Nick’s advice and reserved a spot in the C loop. Our cost was $22 per night for 30 amp electric and water hook-up.
So, we headed south out of Parker and turned east on 60. We figured we would find an overnight spot somewhere on our way there since it was still the19th and our reserved site wasn’t available until the 20th. However, after passing several opportunities that just didn’t have that “it” factor we quickly found ourselves at the turn-off to Alamo Lake at the town of Wendon. So we decided to just head on up north towards the lake.
After traveling the 35 miles or so up to the lake, we still hadn’t seen any spots to spend the night at, so we ended up at the ranger station and asked the nice ranger guy if a spot was available for the night. Our reservation wasn’t until tomorrow and the spot was currently occupied by someone else, but the site across from them was open.
The park ranger directed us into the site across from our reserved spot and told us that when the current occupants leave our reserved spot in the morning, to just move on over and then come back to the ranger station to settle up the extra night’s cost.
20 Feb (Friday)
On Friday morning, the occupants in the site across from us left early in the morning, so we moved on over, put up the flagpole, set out the tablecloth, and put up Stilla’s chili pepper/cactus awning lights since we were going to stay put for a while… Nice spot with nice views! We even have a few Saguaro cacti in the back yard.
Then we went back to the ranger station / general store to pay for the additional night and got I also broke down and got an Arizona fishing license for $55. The general store portion of the ranger station had plenty of basic commodities, like milk, cereal, drinks and ice cream. But I was certainly glad we had already stocked up on food after seeing the prices.
Here’s a layout of the parks campsite loops. We are now in site C34.
And here’s a bonus… it’s a hand-drawn map of the area ATV trails and significant destinations, courtesy of the nice ranger guy.
We took the pickup and toured around all the campgrounds and quickly decided we liked our choice of spots. We even drove over to check out the dam.
Here’s Stilla and little Coach with Alamo Lake in the background. You can tell the water level is low.
After we got back from touring the campground loops and the dam, we downloaded the ATV and rode down to the lake.
We found out that there is a dirt road that bypasses the state park campground and leads to many boondocking spots. Oh well, maybe next time… it’s nice to have electricity sometimes.
Back at our campsite, we relaxed for the evening. Nice view eh?
And Stilla made us some Nacho plates for our own personal “Happy Hour”.
Well, gotta go now… Scott and Julie are going to show us around the Prescott Valley area… maybe Sedona…
We’ve been parked at the house since my last post and I’ve been taking my time to wash and wax the Urban Escape Vehicle while Stilla is inside the house cleaning in preparation for son William’s visit from Germany this coming Sunday. The undercarriage and especially the wheelwells got pretty muddy when we left Westley, CA in the rain as I mentioned in this earlier post: (http://www.urbanescapevehicle.com/westley-ca/). We also drove through a lot of rain along I-70 while hurrying back from Las Vegas.
My washing efforts got slowed down yesterday when my expandable hose burst. I’ve been carrying around one of those “pocket hoses” that I got from WalMart which has been great for it’s storability characteristics but apparently not so great for durability. When I went to use the hose, I noticed that water was squirting out of a pinhole. It wasn’t long before the green outer covering split and the clear plastic inner hose oozed out… it looked like a big fat sausage skin that bloated up until it exploded in a shower of water. This incident made me think about the commercial regarding the X-hose where they warn you not to be fooled by imitations. Wish I saved the receipt. Anyway, I got rid of all of my old hoses here at the house when I was down-sizing to go full-timing, so I need to go buy a new hose. I certainly don’t want to use my drinking water hose for washing, it’s important to keep it clean and free of contamination for filling the water tank and hooking up at campgrounds.
The Urban Escape Vehicle parked in front of the house.
I got a surprise message from my good friend, old co-worker, and former roommate, Maile Unten, who follows the blog and noted that we were back in town. She kindly invited me on behalf of the agency that I used to work for, the Missile Defense Agency Integration & Operations Center (Schriever AFB), to come to their “end of fiscal year” celebration to be held at Cheddars on the North end of town. The end of the fiscal year (FY) is a big deal for the Contracting Directorate that I used to work for… a lot of long hours and hard work is put into getting all the funds obligated and contracts awarded before the end of the FY when funds expire.
I went alone since Stilla was in the middle of cleaning the house as I mentioned earlier. It sure was great seeing most of my old co-workers again. There were a couple new faces too.
The MDIOC “Contracting Directorate” crew. Maile Unten is at the bottom left.The MDIOC “Contracting Directorate” crew. The director (Bob) is at the head of the table.
We caught up on things while we passed around appetizer dishes between folks. Bob, the “Contracting Directorate” Director, graciously showed his appreciation for everyone’s hard work and dedication by paying for the first round of drinks. Thanks Bob!
And Maile surprised me by paying for my appetizer and drinks… Thanks Maile! You didn’t have to do that. And thanks for the invitation! It was nice seeing everyone again, I just wish that my old boss, Sandra Yaden, had been there as well… I was told that she is on a well-deserved vacation. Take care Sandy – hope all is well with you.
I was told that the group’s annual Christmas Party is already scheduled for Dec 10th at the EdelWeiss restaurant here on the South side of COS. Our current plan calls for us to be far South by then to stay ahead of the freezing weather, but you never know…
I made it back home in time to watch the sun go down behind Pikes Peak from our front porch. Our house is situated at the end of a cul-de-sac, so we get a nice unobstructed view of the mountains up the street from the front of the house. The back of the house overlooks downtown COS.
Stilla, oldest daughter Jennifer, and grandson Kaan on the front porch.
In other news – the camping group we belong to along with my Dad and Stepmom; the Rolling Springs Chapter of the Family Campers & RV’ers – is holding the last group campout of the year this weekend. It is down in Colorado City at the KOA. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to attend since William is coming in on Sunday and we have to drive to Denver to pick him up along with his new girlfriend. If time permits, we plan on maybe driving down in the Silverado on Saturday to visit with folks. My dad already went down a day early on Thursday to get the most out of the weekend. Hope you guys are having fun Rolling Springs FCRV!
Welp… I have to go find a new waterhose, so that’s all for now.
