Tag Archives: UEV

“Dirt Farm” (Casa Grande, AZ)

2015/03/06 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

We’ve enjoyed our time here in Prescott Valley at Scott and Julie’s house. But, with more rain and possible snow expected on Tuesday afternoon, we decided it was time to head south for warmer weather while we had the chance. So, we said our sad goodbyes in the morning between rainstorms and moved on. Plus, we didn’t want to wear out our welcome at the Richardson Ranch 🙂

The evening before we left, Julie made us an awesome spaghetti dinner… thanks Julie!

Here’s our moochdocking spot, looking east. The streets were finally drying somewhat after the last couple days of rain. Sure Julie… we believe you… it’s really nice weather here most of the time… suuuure…. 🙂

And here’s looking west.

Our hosts saw us on our way. Bye Scott & Julie… see you again soon! Thanks again! We’ll definitely be back to see some of the local attractions with you when the weather’s better.

A sign over I-17 just north of Phoenix told us to drive with care due to winter weather conditions. Luckily, we were able to stay dry and the Urban Escape Vehicle stayed clean except for a very brief rain shower near the middle of Phoenix.

By the way – we had decided to go down to the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande to stay a while with my Mom, Stepdad, brother Steve, and his girlfriend Cheryl. They reported good weather there, plus we can save a little money on diesel and campgrounds until it’s time to go to California for a couple Rallies in mid-March that we already signed up for.

We got to the “dirt farm” without incident after fueling up and dumping tanks at a Pilot/Flying J nearby.

Brother Steve and Stepdad Jimmy showed us the 50-Amp pedestal they finally got installed 🙂 However, the ground was still pretty soggy from recent rain at the designated spot, so we opted to park in front of Mom’s house until it gets a little drier here.

Our own 50 amp pedestal at the “dirt farm”. Pedestal is to the right, next to the house.

Brother Steven and Cheryl’s house, aka “the dirt farm”. Their name for it – not mine 🙂

Here’s where we’re parked in front of Mom and Jimmy’s house on the “dirt farm” until the 50-amp site on the side of Steven and Cheryl’s dries out.

View up the drive. The Coach is parked in front of Mom’s house on the right.

On Wednesday, we downloaded the ATV from the pickup and puttered around. Here’s Mom (below) starting her garden. She’s planting some corn and onions. The “dirt farm” has gotten quite “green” since we were last here in mid-January.

We went into town for lunch at a place we call the “Cactus Garden Restaurant”. It’s official name is BeDillon’s. Nice place, good food with cool ambience, this was the second time we’ve been here. They even have a little museum on site.

After lunch, Mom had us all working hard in the garden. We even managed to keep the rows straight and even, with a little help from tent stakes and string. Then we enjoyed another family meal and an evening of movies.

On Thursday, I helped stepdad Jimmy pick up supplies at Lowe’s so he could finish up some more electrical runs and breaker boxes to supply power for outlying sheds and the garage. There’s always something to do here at the farm.

When I returned and stepped into the Urban Escape Vehicle, I heard the Inverter/Charger (Xantrex) alarm going off. The display panel indicated an Inverter/Charger internal fault and there was no power except for 12 volt. This is especially bad for us because we have a residential refrigerator. We must always leave our Inverter/Charger running with the Inverter “enabled” in order to power the fridge at all times.

I checked everything I could think of, but we have no 110-120 volt power to anything, no matter what I do. Every time I reset (either from the display panel or on the actual Inverter/Charger) it goes directly to “fault-mode” and the alarm sounds.

Our surge-guard appears to be working fine and “clicks” when I plug in to shore power. The generator appears to be supplying voltage when I turn it on, but again, the Inverter/Charger keeps going to “fault-mode” whenever I “enable” the Inverter portion of the Inverter/Charger.

Now, I thought that when hooked to shore power or with the generator running, I could still power all my appliances (Fridge, Microwave, TV, etc.,) without the Inverter being “enabled”. But, since I ALWAYS leave my Inverter “enabled” for the times when we disconnect from shore power or turn the generator off… so that the batteries will continue to provide seamless power – I’m not sure. I certainly can’t get any appliances to work now, no matter what I do with the Inverter/Charger.

Here’s a picture I took of the Inverter/Charger which is mounted sideways on the back wall of the basement. It’s the RS2000 model from Xantrex, and I’m relatively sure it’s original equipment from 2005. As you can see from the lights; the “Network” light is on and the “Charger Enable” light is on. In this current state, it does not alarm, but there is also no power to any appliances. Now, if I press the “Inverter Enable” button, the “Fault” light comes on and the alarm sounds at the display panel at the front of the Coach in the upper cabinet. The display shows “Fault F026 – Inverter/Charger Internal Failure”.

I then have to hit the “Reset” to stop the alarm.

I checked the network wires and connections.

I pulled off the front panel to see if there was anything obviously loose or wrong.

All the connections are tight and clean.

Then I pulled off the top cover. Note: All necessary safety precautions were taken – no one was hurt in the making of this blog post.

Again, nothing obviously wrong. I guess it’s time to call my extended warranty service and see what run-around I’ll get from them (based on my past experience with the refrigerator compressor) and see where they will allow me to take this problem to get fixed. Oh well, always a new adventure… it’s a good thing we’re parked where we are and not in the boonies somewhere, eh?

We emptied the refrigerator and freezer and moved everything into the house… thanks Mom and Cheryl!

Hopefully, we can get this resolved without a lot of money or drama. Honestly, I should have seen this coming, because I HAD noticed recently that the Inverter/Charger was louder than usual. It always “hummed”, but lately it’s been louder than I remember. I chalked it up to the lower voltage service we’ve subjected the Coach to in recent weeks; 30-Amp at Alamo Lake State Park, garage power (probably 20-Amp) at Scott & Julie’s, and now 20-Amp in front of my Mom’s house…

I called our extended warranty service, EasyCare. They tell me that there are only two “authorized” Xantrex service centers in Arizona. One is in Tucson, the other in Gilbert. I’ll be making some calls in the morning. Stay tuned…

Arizona

Moochdocking (Prescott Valley, AZ)

2015/03/02 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

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…

As I said in my previous post from 28 February: “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 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 🙂

Arizona

Alamo Lake State Park – continued (AZ)

2015/03/01 davidhobden@mac.com

We made it back to Scott and Julie Richardson’s house this evening (Sunday) after enjoying the day with them touring the area. I’ll post about that shortly.

But first, I have to bring you up to date on the rest of our time at Alamo Lake State Park. As I mentioned in my last post, the reason I got behind is because internet connectivity at the lake was almost non-existent. So, to continue on where I left off in my last post from this morning, here’s what we did…

21 Feb (Saturday):

We got invited to go ATVing with some other campers that we got into conversation with the day before. So we graciously accepted their invitation and met the group first thing in the morning. We carried our little dog “Coach” in his doggie backpack. And off we went…

There were seven ATV’s in the group altogether and our first destination for the day was going to be the “Mud Cliffs” that you can see on the right side of the hand drawn map (below) that we got from the ranger station. Our start point is labeled “Camp C” in the lower center of the map.

Stilla took some pics while riding on the back.

And here are the Mud Cliffs.

We rode through the sandy bottom of the gorge between the impressive cliffs.

The trail got smaller and smaller as the cliffs closed in on each side. Most of the group waited at the entrance to the cliffs because they had been there before and many of the side-by-side ATV’s were too wide to make it very far without getting stuck anyway.

We rode until the trail was blocked.

Then we parked and walked a little ways further up the canyon.

Stilla posed (at a safe distance) under an arch that looked like it could collapse at the first hint of rain.

After our “Mud Cliffs” adventure, we rejoined the rest of the group and headed further east. The destination was supposed to be a magnesium mine that some in the group had an agenda to see. However, during a short rest break, one of the side-by-side ATV’s wouldn’t restart. So we ended up spending the next hour or so troubleshooting the problem. We finally got it restarted but it was getting late so everyone decided to head on back instead of continuing on to the mine.

We got back in time to stop at the “Wayside Inn” before they closed for the day. This little bar and grill is in the middle of nowhere but they still manage to serve up great burgers and fries. They also have the only gas for sale within 35 miles.

Little “Coach” was happy to run around a bit after a long day of riding on the ATV. We had gone about 55 miles for the day and still had a few more miles to get back to the campground.

The “Wayside Inn” A small campground bar and grill – miles from nowhere.

One of the other riders in the group had a Can-AM ATV just like ours. His was a year newer than our 2007, but it was the same silver “limited-edition” series… the first one I’ve ever seen like ours. I took a couple pics and took note of how his mirrors are mounted because that’s something I’d like to add to ours in the near future.

We finished up our adult beverages (also available at the Wayside Inn) and motored on back to the campground to call it a day. And what a fun day it was!

22 Feb (Sunday):

We decided to spend the day (Sunday) on the lake to see if we could get some good use out of the $55 Arizona fishing license I purchased at the ranger station when we got here. So we broke out our Sea-Eagle inflatable raft that we keep in the back seat of the truck. It’s the SE-9 model called the “Fisherman’s Dream” with an electric trolling motor. We got ours from InflatableBoats4Less.com. The link to the SE-9 model we purchased is here.

We bought some live minnows at the ranger station / general store ($2.75 per dozen) and went to the boat ramp on the west-end of the lake to inflate the boat. After we got the boat into the water, we slowly motored our way to the other end of the lake while I trolled behind us with the minnows for bait. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the east-side of the lake, which is peppered with dead trees, the wind had picked up significantly. We were told that the “hot spot” for fishing was near the dead trees, however, an inflatable boat, no matter how sturdy, is no match for dead trees sticking up out of the lake… especially in high winds. So, we had to cut our day short and motor all the way back against the wind. We were worried the battery might not hold up, but luckily we were fine and didn’t have to flag down anyone for a tow.

Once we were safely back at the dock, we stored the trolling motor and battery, left the raft inflated and loaded it onto the back of the truck. We then released the remaining minnows on their own recognizance to fend for themselves in the dark waters of the lake.

Oh well, there’s always another day. You know what the say; “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work” 🙂

We spent the rest of the day hanging around the Coach. I used the time to give the ATV a good washing. Then I cleaned and serviced the K&N air filter after removing an old animal nest I found under the plastic cowling in front of the seat. A fellow camper gave me some of the “recharge” oil I needed to properly service the filter.

I know you’re disappointed, but there’s only one picture for the day.

It rained off and on all night.

23 Feb (Monday):

It was still sprinkling in the morning and it was chilly… I don’t think we’ve had temps this cold since we left Colorado. Another ATV ride had been scheduled with the same group we hung out with before, but everything was cancelled due to the poor weather.

We took the inflatable boat off the back of the pickup and drained out all the water it had collected overnight.

Then we decided to take the pickup out to the Wayside Inn to get our 5 gallon fuel can refilled, but that ended up being a short trip because the dirt road that goes out to the Inn was too muddy… I didn’t want to spend another day just washing the truck. We turned around and went back to the campground.

So we ended up taking another trip up to the dam to look for burro’s. We’ve heard the burros almost every night but haven’t seen any yet… Stilla wants to see some burros. Unfortunately for Stilla, no burros were to be found anywhere… just several road signs that say; “Watch for Burros”.

The rest of the day, we spent hanging around the Coach. At least the rain washed some of the dust off the Coach, so I spent some time wiping it dry once it stopped drizzling. Then we closed out the rest of the day with a lot of television.

24 Feb (Tuesday):

It was another chilly morning, but at least it was dry. We got invited to join a different group this time to do another ATV trip. The destination today was a giant Saguaro cactus that someone in the group had discovered on an earlier trip. This time, we left little dog “Coach” in the big Coach since it was supposed to be a long ride.

There were seven or eight ATV’s in our group today.

It was a long way out, but we finally arrived at the giant cactus.

Stilla posed for this picture which gives the huge cactus some perspective.

Pretty impressive, eh?

We then headed towards a distant mountain range… the goal was to see if there was a way across and then back to the campground. That goal was not realized…

Along our route to the mountain range, we stopped to explore around some abandoned mines.

Everyone had brought their own lunch which we stopped to enjoy after checking out the abandoned mines.

We then headed on up the mountain. Check out the long winding road in the picture below.

Here we can see the top of the mountain with all the antennae on top.

Getting closer to the top.

View back towards the lake… way in the background.

We ended up having to turn around at a gate near the top. At least the views were awesome. It’s a shame we couldn’t make it all the way up, or even better, down the other side. The GPS said we had attained an altitude of ~5,200 feet above sea level.

We stopped at the Wayside Inn on the way back. We must have been on fumes after traveling over 70 miles for the day. The fuel gauge was showing empty for miles before we finally rolled in. They close at 4 PM on weekdays, so we were especially lucky to have made it back on time, just as they were closing. Another good day!

25 Feb (Wed):

Today (Wednesday) was another full day of ATVing. We met John the first day we got here and he was with the group from yesterday when we visited the giant cactus. He and his wife offered to take us to the north side of the lake to “Red Canyon”. We took little “Coach” along with us today.

We crossed to the north side of the lake by going through the marsh-like river bed on the east side.

It was dry where we crossed the river, the water was running underground. John said they had to ford through at least six inches to a foot of water when he crossed last week.

After an hour or so we finally reached the “Red Canyon”. Here’s some pics for your viewing pleasure…

We even explored a couple side canyons, but most just dead-ended like this one.

This is truly a “must-see” canyon… and super fun to ride through. We’re going to have to come back here sometime in the future to explore of the area, we only scratched the surface from what we’ve been told. We ended up going about 50 miles for the day.

26 Feb (Thursday):

It was time to give the fishing another try. Today, the water was calm with very little wind. We stopped at the ranger station / general store to get some more minnows on the way to the boat launch. We met a guy that was checking out of the campground and he offered to give us his remaining minnows. I thanked him and we hit the lake.

Stilla thought it would be funny to take a picture of my catch. Really, it’s the bait minnow ready to go into service and do his duty.

This time, we stayed on the west side of the lake and didn’t worry about trying to go around the dead underwater trees on the east side. We didn’t want to get caught too far away from the boat launch if the wind picked up again… plus, we didn’t want to fight for space with the other fishermen in their boats.

After an hour or so, I hooked a fairly large fish, but it got off the hook just as Stilla was putting the net in the water. Bummer.

But it wasn’t too long before I landed another one.

It was a male crappie according to a fellow fisherman and our ever-helpful friend; Wikipedia.com.

It was a slow fishing day according to other fishermen that I talked to later. But at least I didn’t get skunked this time 🙂

We cleaned the fish back at our campground at the fish cleaning station with the help of yet another friendly fellow camper that was an experienced fisherman. We got some pretty nice filets for the freezer.

Here’s a final parting shot of the lake, since this is our last day here.

Tomorrow, we plan on moving on, as our weeklong reservation concludes.

And Stilla finally got a picture of some of the local burros. So she’s happy too.

Goodbye and good evening from Alamo Lake State Park. We’ll be back!

27 Feb (Friday):

We left the state park after driving the Coach over to the dump station and taking care of business there. Tire pressures are all still holding… no more slow leaks, at least for now.

Once we drove the 35 miles or so to get back to highway 60, we expected our AT&T service to be back on. But, alas, it was not to be… it seems we used all our “off-network” allowance and can only connect once we get an actual AT&T 3G signal. At least we can still make phone calls, but I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of our billing cycle to get the “off-network” ability reset in order to use WiFi or google maps, etc.,

We decided to head east on 60, and since we were this close to Prescott Valley where my good friend and former coworker (Julie Richardson) now lives, I gave her a call to see if we could stop by.

After ~150 miles, and the help of google maps, we made it to Scott and Julie Richardson’s beautiful retirement home. And guess what – there’s a strong AT&T 3G signal here!

I’ll post more about our visit here at the “Richardson Ranch” later. Stay tuned…

Arizona

Alamo Lake State Park (AZ)

2015/02/28 davidhobden@mac.com

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…

Will finish updating you later… stay tuned.

Arizona

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

Winter Blast Farewell & Hello Havasu Springs Resort (Lake Havasu, AZ)

2015/02/17 davidhobden@mac.com

On Monday morning, the Alpine group met for breakfast and fond farewells.

Here’s a series of photos I took during our last breakfast together before everyone went their separate ways:

The parking area here at the SARA Park quickly cleared out.

Bye everyone… til next time!

What a great time we had here with some of our old friends and even more new ones! The Pyrotechnics show every night was just icing on the cake. The real fun was spending time with fellow Alpiners. Hopefully, we’ll see many of them again in March at the Alpine Pre-Rally in Valencia, CA and then right afterwards again at the FMCA Rally in Pomona.

There were still a couple Alpines left in the parking area as we departed. I thought for sure, we’d be the last to leave… we weren’t in any hurry and weren’t even sure what our next destination would be.

On our way up here to the “Winter Blast” Rally last week, we passed a sign that read; “RV Park – $10 Full Hook-Ups”. So remembering that – we headed back south from Lake Havasu City… saw the sign again and turned on in to the Havasu Springs Resort. (This is where I’d normally put a link to the resorts webpage, but the connectivity is so slow here… I gave up)

Now, we figured there’d be a “catch” to the $10 per night but also figured – what the heck, we’d check it out. And sure enough, here’s the “catch”. We’d have to sit through a 90 minute presentation on this place. I’m sure they are trying to drum up new resort members or buyers of their vacation homes. The presentation is a small price to pay for three nights at $30 🙂 So, I’ll report back after the presentation and let you know the details if anyone is interested. It is a very nice resort so far, except we haven’t been getting good internet or cellphone signal here.

We were given a quick tour on a golf cart as soon as we arrived to check out sites. We settled on a relatively open spot in the gravel that overlooks the water. The other sites we were shown had trees that might have interfered with our satellite TV dish, plus, we would have been packed in rather closely to other rigs.

We wandered around part of the resort after we got parked and set up. Here’s the building that we have to go to on Wednesday for our presentation. I think they’d charge us $50 per night if we didn’t do the presentation.

We walked down along the water and mini-beach. All the areas of the park are dog-friendly… just not any of the buildings.

They have a pretty nice fishing pier that is open 24/7.

Picnic areas and nice green grass in front of the motel rooms and near the pool.

Pool and hot tub area.

View of the pool area above our parking site.

Here are some of the vacation homes.

One of the dock areas. I believe there are more on the other side of the resort.

Nice cactus view along one of the lake-side paths.

We’ll check out more of the resort on Tuesday and maybe hit the pool. Anyway, this is a good time to catch up on laundry since we have full hook-ups with 50amp power. The washer/dryer has been going non-stop since we parked. It’s a pleasant change to not have to monitor battery usage or run the generator. We can splurge and leave the coffee pot on, or watch TV late into the night, etc., 🙂

Will post again on the blog within the next day or so… contingent on internet connectivity. Until then… don’t work too hard:)

Arizona

Winter Blast – Day 3 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

2015/02/16 davidhobden@mac.com

Sunday morning found the Alpine SoCal family enjoying another continental breakfast courtesy of our fine rally hosts. Another warm and sunny day was on tap.

After our continental breakfast, coffee, and chit-chat… folks started heading off to begin their individual planned activities for the day.

As we headed back to our coach, we met a couple of our fellow Alpiners returning from their morning hike. Jack had returned to “The Crack” to conquer the route he had attempted the day before. I reported in my last post that Jack turned around yesterday when confronted with the dry waterfall “cliff” that I wrote about. This time, he reported that they had conquered the canyon and had basically taken the same return route that we did.

This park has some very neat trails, hopefully we can get the opportunity in the future to check out some of the others.

However, we had already decided to spend the day checking out the ATV trails on the east side of US 95 that we’d heard so much about. There was reportedly a massive network of riding trails waiting to be explored.

David Guhse took a photo of us – all geared up and ready to go…

We put little “Coach” in his doggie back pack and after a short drive through the residential area across from the SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park where we are staying, we soon hit the network of trails and were on our way.

Luckily, we had taken our hand-held Garmin GPS so we can find our way back by following our “bread-crumbs”. Otherwise, with the many forks and criss-crossing trails, we might still be trying to find our way back 🙂

Lots of beautiful desert scenery:

After stopping at a particularly difficult section – deep in one of the many valleys. We decided to stop to eat the lunch (sandwiches) that Stilla had packed for us.

We were soon joined by another couple that were out exploring on their Can-Am ATVs. They are also staying at the SARA Park to enjoy the fireworks. Since we also have a Can-Am ATV, we already had something in common. We chatted with them while we had lunch and they shared the location of a mine that they had just found.

They were also carrying along their own little dog, so Coach had someone to talk with as well, while we ate lunch.

After our lunch break, we followed the directions our new acquaintance(s) had given us and soon found the abandoned mine.

It turns out there were at least three separate mines in the immediate vicinity. We walked a little ways from the ATV to check them all out.

Here’s a few pics of some holes in the ground… in case you didn’t know what those look like 🙂

I dropped a rock into this one and never even heard it hit bottom.

More holes:

We used the GPS to keep us on somewhat on track but took an alternate route to get back near our starting point.

What a cool area… so much to explore… definitely have to come back here.

We made it back without incident with plenty of time to spare before our scheduled chicken dinner, also courtesy of our rally hosts.

Here’s some fellow Alpiners enjoying their chicken dinners.

Looks good, doesn’t it? Tasted good too!

After dinner, we had our general membership meeting to discuss old and new business. We successfully dodged (I think) being nominated to host any future rallies. Unfortunately, we just don’t know what our long-term plans are until we can get the house sold, and can’t afford to make any commitments just yet.

Alpine SoCal general membership meeting/session.

Our rally hosts (Nick & Ramona Escamilla) and co-hosts (David & Nicole Guhse) now officially get an A+ rating for their outstanding performance… after the meeting they broke out “make-your-own sundaes” with all the fix in’s.

Everyone crowded in for the dessert. No one was to be denied.

What a treat! I topped mine with the Snickers crumbles as well as the Butterfinger’s chips… yumm.

And what better way to enjoy our dessert than with some more fireworks!

Yes, it’s official… you can get tired of fireworks. After 4 nights – they were still spectacular but were wearing on us just a little. Even little Coach hardly noticed them at all tonight.

It’s been a great rally! A big thank you to our host(s), co-host(s), and all the great Alpine Coach Association members! Tomorrow morning everyone will be going their separate ways… see you down the road 🙂

Stay tuned to see where we end up next… even we don’t know.

Arizona

Winter Blast – Day 2 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

2015/02/15 davidhobden@mac.com

Day 2 (Saturday) of the Alpine SoCal “Winter Blast” started out with another fine breakfast courtesy of our (so far) outstanding hosts (Nick & Ramona Escamilla) and co-hosts (David & Nicole Guhse).

Notice the Valentines Day motif. awww… 🙂

I heard about a nice hike located right here in the park from Jack Giddens. He and a couple others had attempted it the day prior. Sounded fun, so we decided to give it a try.

The trailhead is located at the entrance to the rodeo grounds here where we are parked, and since the parking area is so huge, we thought we’d get a head-start and drive down to the trailhead parking lot. There we broke out the doggy back-pack and my “sympathy” stick and headed on down the trail.

Coach was perfectly happy with the situation as you can see.

We stayed on the main trail and headed down the wash into a canyon.

I found some information online about this hike, click here and here for more info.

We paused for a flower picture because you don’t see flowers too often here in the desert.

The scenery was incredible.

There are trails all over these hills… see the people way up there in the pic below?

The canyon started to get tighter and tighter…

Even little Coach said; “Carry me again… Carry me…”

We meandered our way through the canyon, which by the way – I understand is called “the crack”.

Finally, we came upon this drop-off that Jack had reported about yesterday. It was like a little dry waterfall chute and was treacherously smooth. Oh, and did I mention it was definitely more than a ten foot drop… this is where Jack and his entourage from yesterday had turned around.

I wasn’t about to turn around after going this far, so I scooted down on my stomach while Stilla held me with my “sympathy” stick (cane). After I was a foot or two from the bottom the cane came apart and I plopped to the bottom. No harm done, just a bump on the knee. 🙂

Once at the bottom, Stilla lowered little “Coach” to me in his back-pack and then Stilla lowered herself while I held her feet as she slid on down.

Now we were committed… no turning back now. Hopefully, there’s another trail to get back out of here!

Next, we came upon a spot where there was no way through without getting your feet wet. I opted to take my boots off and my trousers had the zip-off legs. Stilla decided to trudge on through.

If you were able to stay (balance yourself) on the mini boulders it was only knee-deep.

We continued on… all the while, thoughts of that movie where the guy is trapped in a slot canyon and had to cut off his arm, was going through our minds…

And then, at last! We came back out into the daylight. What a cool canyon.

After coming back out into the open, we saw a trail on the right that went up and back towards the way we came, but this time above the canyon. We followed it up for this magnificent view of the Colorado River.

Then we stayed on the main trail heading back. There were several chances to go higher when the trail forked, bet we were careful to stay on the lower trail… finally we ended up back in the wash where we started before the canyon got tight.

And were we glad to see the rigs back at the rodeo grounds as we got closer to the parking lot 🙂

Nah… it wasn’t bad at all. An awesome way to spend the day… and we got some much needed exercise.

After we got back and relaxed a bit, it wasn’t long before it was time for the scheduled “Cowboy BBQ” sponsored by the park.

Here’s a view of the huge grill sending up some smoke and good aroma as we walked down to the lower parking lot area to partake.

Close-up view of the huge grill. Yummm.

We saved some seats for our fellow Alpiners as the line for the food grew longer and longer.

A band was in full swing.

Here’s a couple pics of our happy SoCal Alpine Coach group:

Good food, Good people, Good fun!

We walked back to the rig to get ready for the evening’s happy hour and fireworks show.

We passed by this mound of sand that was the center of activity for all the kids… and even some teens. They were having a blast sliding down the sand hill… Oh, to be young again, eh?

Another Arizona sunset reflected off the front of the Urban Escape Vehicle.

Then – We all gathered at our designated viewing spot and enjoyed each other’s company and the spectacular fireworks. Here’s a few pics that came out alright once I used the Canon instead of the iPhone. Of course, pictures can’t do justice… you have to see it in person.

There was music and announcements specifically for the fireworks extravaganza on the radio, but it was difficult to get tuned in for whatever reason. At one point, I went to the Coach and retrieved our old AM/FM ’57 Chevy radio that I used to take to car shows. After messing around with it for a while, we were finally able to get it tuned in and hear some of the announcements and music.

And finally, if you want to see some more of the fireworks… just click on the following video clips I recorded with the Canon. Hopefully, they represent a little of the better displays. Several of my clips wouldn’t copy over to the blog due to size. So these will have to do. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for more adventure tomorrow… we plan on taking the ATV out and checking out some of these trails in the area that people here have been telling us about.

Arizona

Winter Blast – Day 1 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

2015/02/14 davidhobden@mac.com

Friday morning was the official start of our Alpine SoCal group’s “Winter Blast”! It’s at the SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park in Lake Havasu City. We’re here enjoying the 26th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show. (Click on the links for more info.)

Here’s our official gathering spot, between the Host and Co-Hosts’ Coaches.

Our agenda for the weekend:

Although on Friday morning we didn’t “officially” have breakfast scheduled – most folks gathered in the morning to enjoy coffee and each other’s company. Here’s a group of our fellow Alpiners out walking their kids in the morning.

Here’s another shot of a row of elegant Alpines. 17 Coaches are in attendance.

We ended up at the end of a row with no one beside us on either side. A row or two away from our “gathering spot”.

Since we had time to kill until Happy Hour and Pizza this evening, we jumped into the Silverado and headed into town. The park is only on the southern outskirts of town, so we didn’t have far to go.

View of Lake Havasu coming into town from the south.

We stopped at a Polaris dealership that had a lot of cool looking off-road vehicles, ATV’s and such… it doesn’t hurt to look, right?

If you have about $30k burning a hole in your pocket – here’s a pretty wild looking new Polaris with a Ford engine you can spend it on. I thought I’d share a couple pics of this unique vehicle. Wonder how many they’re selling?

Looks like a fun “toy”… too bad we can’t afford any more “toys” now that we’re retired 🙂

Although difficult to read – the banner says; “Welcome to Lake Havasu City” under the blazing Arizona sun.

We crossed over the London Bridge onto the man-made island to see if anything changed from the last time we were here in January of last year for the Balloon Fest. Click on the London Bridge link for more info if you don’t already know about it.

We drove down onto the beach and hung out with little dog “Coach” for awhile. He was here last year too – wonder if he remembers?

The Lake Havasu water isn’t as clear today as I remember it from other times we’ve been here. Lots of green algae-like stuff floating along the shoreline. Still pretty though.

The town seems to get bigger each time we see it.

We also stopped at a couple of the lighthouse replicas that dot the landscape in and around Lake Havasu. I believe there are around 24 of these. Click here for more info on those if interested.

We watched folks out on their boats, either fishing or just cruising around. For a brief moment we thought about breaking out the inflatable sea-eagle raft with trolling motor that I carry in the back seat of the Silverado. Stilla squashed that idea… it was getting late.

Stilla is always on the lookout for German bakeries or such. So she googled locations in Havasu and came up with this place. It was more of a fast-food deli and didn’t have what she was looking for. We walked in and right back out.

After another quick detour at Ross Store, we headed back to the rally site.

We made it back on plenty of time for happy hour and before you knew it – our Pizza had arrived!

David is on the left, Nick on the right. Nick and Romana Escamilla are our fine hosts for this event. David and Nicole Guhse are our co-hosts. And what a fine job they have done so far! Although it is still early… we can’t give them a rating just yet, right? 🙂

The pizza and salad was fabulous… no one could complain, there were even leftovers for breakfast on Saturday.

And here are some pics of our fellow Alpiners enjoying dinner and each other’s company:

As it got dark, we moved the groups’ ez-up tent out of the way to clear the view for the evening fireworks show.

Another nice Arizona sunset.

Everyone moved their chairs to good positions for the evening’s fireworks show. I didn’t take any pics of the fireworks… you’ll just have to take my word for it – they were pretty awesome! The iPhone camera doesn’t do good night-time photos. Maybe I’ll break out the Canon for some pics later. We still have a couple more evenings of fireworks… wonder if we’ll be tired of them by then?

Little “Coach” did real well during the fireworks. He appears to have gotten used to the loud noises… especially if he’s carried 🙂

We did have a couple moments of excitement during the fireworks show on Friday evening. A couple of them shot way up in the air trailing flames, made slow arcs and came down in our parking area with big thuds. Fortunately, no big explosions and as far as we all could tell. no rigs were damaged. Whew… felt like Iraq again for a couple moments…

There were a few long intermissions between firework displays. At one point, I went back to the Coach and brought back my night-vision device to share with others and look at the stars. Here’s a pic I took with the iPhone through the night-vision at some of our Alpine friends sitting in their chairs.

And here’s another with Stilla and Nicole looking over the wall, waiting for the next fireworks volley. Pretty cool, huh?

We’ve been told that the Saturday and Sunday fireworks show are even more impressive… can’t wait to see… it’s been great fun so far.

Stay tuned for day 2 of our Alpine SoCal “Winter Blast” Rally… coming soon.

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 🙂

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: UEV

“Dirt Farm” (Casa Grande, AZ)

Moochdocking (Prescott Valley, AZ)

Alamo Lake State Park – continued (AZ)

Alamo Lake State Park (AZ)

Havasu Springs Resort (Lake Havasu, AZ)

Winter Blast Farewell & Hello Havasu Springs Resort (Lake Havasu, AZ)

Winter Blast – Day 3 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Winter Blast – Day 2 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Winter Blast – Day 1 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

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

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