When I left you in my last post, we had just finished touring the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and plugged our second destination for the day into the GPS. We drove the ~20 miles back down Interstate 19 to the San Xavier del Bac Mission Church, aka “The White Dove of the Desert”. Click HERE for a link to their website for a “virtual tour”.
The Mission Church website claims that this is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona! The church’s interior is filled with marvelous original statuary and mural paintings. It is a place where visitors can truly step back in time and enter an authentic 18th Century space.
The San Xavier Mission was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797. It is a national historic landmark that still retains its original purpose of ministering to the religious needs of its parishioners.
Here’s a highly detailed diorama that is on display near the inner courtyard.
A tour of the courtyard(s):
When we first arrived, a catholic mass was already in progress. Stilla enjoyed taking part in the service, and afterwards we toured the main church.
After our tour of the historic church, we hurried straight back to the FamCamp to release our little dog “Coach” from his solitary confinement. And also, we had an important dinner date scheduled with our fellow Alpine Coach friends Tom and Marilyn Anteau to get back to…
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tom and Marilyn hail from Anchorage, Alaska. Therefore, Tom was in custody of some fine Alaskan shrimp known as “spots”. They invited us to partake in a mini-grillfest with these fine “spots” as the “guests-of-honor” 🙂
Man, were they ever good! Thanks Tom!
We also had a side dish of tasty rice that Marilyn cooked up along with a German-style salad that Stilla put together. Yum!
We had to secure little “Coach” in the pickup to keep him from begging too much during our dinner; which didn’t work so well, he just begged from afar 🙂
We enjoyed dessert(s), (yes, plural), and each other’s company until the sun went down.
We hope to see Tom and Marilyn again at the next Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally” in Quartzsite scheduled for January. But then again, you never know; it’s a small RV world out there after all.
We said our fond farewells and went back to our Coach to rest our weary feet. Safe travels Tom & Marilyn… til next time!
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we plan to pack up and move over to the Escapees (SKP) RV Park in Benson, AZ. Our time here really went fast. Stay tuned for more adventure… we plan on visiting Tombstone and Bisbee for starters…
Fair warning – Monday was another fun-filled tourist day with LOTS of pictures. Our first destination was the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
This time we got an early start and we took scenic Gates Pass to get to the desert museum. This is the same route that we took with Tom and Marilyn Anteau when we made our return trip from Old Tucson last Saturday. Old Tucson is just around the corner (metaphorically speaking) from the Desert Museum.
We stopped briefly at the top of the pass to enjoy the views:
Here’s the sign on the main road (N Kinney Rd) directing us to the Museum.
The Desert Museum entrance.
I just had to take a photo of this “rolling billboard” for the Desert Museum that was parked out front. A 1960 Studebaker Lark Station Wagon, I believe.
Once again we were able to use the coupon book we purchased at the FamCamp office for $15. This coupon book has really paid for itself… our half-price entrance fee was a whopping $15.50 for the two of us.
As you can see from the brochure below… no pets allowed 🙁 But, we knew that before we came here… poor little dog “Coach” had to stay at home in the Coach again. At least he has air-conditioning; whereas we don’t.
This was our tour-guide for the day; a fold-out map of the museum attractions. If you click on the picture of the map (below) to enlarge it, you can see the many trails and loops we walked.
According to Wikipedia: “The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre (40 ha) zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952.” (Click HERE to learn more from wikipedia, or HERE for the museum website).
Now follow along on our tour – I’ll keep the narration to a minimum this time:
So what do you think? Is this a cool place or what?
Now how about a tour through the gift shop:
Now that was like a gift shop on steroids, wasn’t it?
Adjacent to the gift shop and museum exit is one more aquarium display:
Book your trip now… you gotta see this place!
I even collected all the animal footprint stamps that are located throughout the park. Most of the kids that visit, get a cool booklet to put their ink stamps in, but I made do with the back-side of our tour-guide map. It gave me something to do other than take pictures… guess that didn’t work out so well, eh?
After our awesome, but somewhat hot, tour of the Desert Museum, we decided that we still had enough time left in the day to check out a big white church that we heard and read about. We saw the church along-side of Interstate 19 yesterday when we visited the Titan Museum. A neighbor at the campground told us it’s a “must-see” attraction and it’s only about 19 miles away from the Desert Museum. So we plugged it into the GPS and off we went.
However, since this post is large enough already; I’ll make a new one… Here’s a “teaser” picture of San Xavier del Bac Mission Church:
Sunday found us traveling south on Interstate 19 towards Nogales. An interesting fact about this highway, is that the “mile” markers are actually “kilometer” markers.
Our primary destination for the day was the Titan Missile Museum located 20 miles south of Tucson in Sahuarita. We decided to save the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for Monday – mainly because we got a late start to the day Sunday, and also, we were told it’s best to leave ourselves plenty of time to enjoy the Desert Museum.
We checked online and found out the museum isn’t dog-friendly, so we had to leave little dog “Coach” in the Coach with the air-conditioners set at 72 degrees.
Here’s the entrance to the museum parking lot which is right beside the gate to the missile silo located behind the building.
The museum entrance.
Once again, we were able to use the coupon book we purchased at the FamCamp office for $15 and got in for half-price. A very reasonable $9.50.
And here’s a view of the missile silo.
This is the last of the Titan Missile sites. (Click on the “green font” for a link to wikipedia) The Titan II missile is the largest missile ever built by the United States. During the Cold War, 54 Titan II missiles stood alert in their underground silos all across the country. In 1987, the last Titan II was deactivated.
“At the Titan Missile Museum, near Tucson, Arizona, visitors journey through time to stand on the front line of the Cold War. This preserved Titan II missile site, officially known as complex 571-7, is all that remains of the 54 Titan II missile sites that were on alert across the United States from 1963 to 1987.
Able to launch from its underground silo in just 58 seconds, the Titan II was capable of delivering a 9-megaton nuclear warhead to targets more than 6300 miles (10,000 km) away in about 30 minutes. Nowhere else in the world can visitors get this close to an intercontinental ballistic missile in its operational environment. This one-of-a kind museum gives visitors a rare look at the technology used by the United States to deter nuclear war. What was once one of America’s most top secret places is now a National Historic Landmark, fulfilling its new mission of bringing Cold War history to life for millions of visitors from around the world.”
The nose cone that housed the 9-megaton nuclear warhead.
The 9-megaton nuclear warhead: Yeah, I’m sure it’s the actual one 🙂
After a short wait, we were ushered into a small conference room for an orientation and video presentation.
Then we were herded out the back door of the museum building to the silo entrance.
The docent-guided tour consisted of several different volunteers. At the silo door entrance, a couple of the volunteers explained the procedures the missile silo crews had to go through to access the highly-secure facility.
We then walked down 55 stairs. Here’s one of the “blast” doors that had to be accessed to enter the facility.
Here the volunteer-guide points to the second “blast” door. The first one has to be closed and secured before the second one can be accessed.
Then we walked through one of the tunnels to the control room.
Entering the control room:
And here it is – the missile control room aka launch control center:
The launch keys were locked in the cabinet on the left in the photo below.
The guidance control panel.
The tour-guide told us this is the lunch clock… never to be confused with the launch clock.
More keys… these were mostly for important places like the mop closet and paint locker though.
Side view of the command console position.
The entire underground facility was protected against shock with these giant springs.
After our tour of the control room (complete with simulated launch demonstration) we went down the long cableway (tunnel) to the silo:
After going through another “blast” door, we got our first view of the missile.
Some of you may already know that several scenes in the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact were shot at this site. The missile itself was depicted as the launch vehicle for the film’s Phoenix spacecraft, the first warp prototype.
We had to view the missile through glass panels that were installed in place of the doors:
After everyone got their pictures, the volunteer tour-guide led us back down the long cableway (tunnel) to the stairwell where we came back topside.
Then we were let loose to wander the grounds on our own.
Old M151 Jeep parked near the silo.
A metal ramp provided access to the top of the partially open silo door.
At the top of the silo door, we could take pictures though the glass panels.
The hole you see cut out of the side of the warhead is to prove that it’s inactive. I learned that the 103-foot-tall missile had to be left outside for a month so that Soviet spy satellites could verify it no longer carried a payload.
Rocket engines were on display under cover near the silo:
What a cool tour and awe-inspiring place. Another “must-see” to add to your list if you haven’t been there yet.
On our way back out, we went through the gift shop and asked about the nearby copper mine. We heard they offered tours that were supposed to be pretty cool. Unfortunately, the copper mine is closed for tours on Sundays and Mondays. Oh well, guess we have to save something for next time, right?
After we left the Missile Museum, we stopped in for a “cold one” at the American Legion Post 66 that is located just outside the entrance gate. It’s been quite a while since we were in an American Legion Post. I used to be a part of the American Legion Riders (motorcycle club) back in the ’90’s when I was stationed at Fort Carson. I don’t belong to any specific post now, but have a “paid-up-for-life” or “PUFL” membership card. It was a nice place, with good prices and free popcorn. You can’t beat that! Too bad, the American Legion Posts and VFW posts aren’t as RV-friendly as the Elks Lodges…
And with that, we called it a day and headed back to the Agave Gulch Campground to see if little dog “Coach” was being good. He was.
Check back in tomorrow (Monday) for a full recap of our visit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum…
On Saturday we went to Old Tucson. Another full day of activities! But this time, we had leave little dog ‘Coach’ in the Coach for the day.
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts ( HERE), we made plans with fellow Alpiner’s; Tom and Marilyn Anteau, to tour Old Tucson together. We met them by chance (and good fortune) here in the Agave Gulch FamCampwhere they had just returned to – after being in Anchorage, AK. for the last few months. Tom graciously offered to drive, so we piled in his car and made the circa 20 mile trip.
Sign at the entrance to the parking area.
We were able to use another coupon from the booklet we purchased at the FamCamp office and got in for half-price. A reasonable $19 for a full day of fun and activities. Tom mentioned that it had been ~45 years since he was last here.
For those of you that didn’t know, (me included), Old Tucson Studios is a movie studio and theme park just west of Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and close to the western portion of Saguaro National Park. Built in 1939 for the movie Arizona, it has been used for the filming of several movies and television westerns since then, such as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Little House on the Prairie. It was opened to the public in 1960, and historical tours are offered about the movies filmed there, along with live cast entertainment featuring stunt shows and shootouts. (source Wikipedia)
We arrived just in time to join the first of the three guided walking tours that the park offers each day. Our guide was enthusiastic and informative. I had no idea so many films were shot in one place.
Guided tour of the Old Tucson Studios.
After our guided tour, we were released on our own recognizance to visit the many buildings or activities throughout the day guided only by the performance schedule brochure we received at the entrance.
Train station with armored stagecoach. Notice the “High Chaparral” sign in the background.
The first of many skits/shows throughout the day was “Sir William Wiley’s Miracle Elixir Show”, a ~30 minute presentation that was full of bad jokes and slapstick comedy… what fun.
Tom was pulled from the audience to play a part in the little show. His 5 minutes of fame…
Here’s Tom in action. He had to bang the drum on signal… and often the performer(s) would fake him out for everyone’s amusement.
Tom received his consolation prize – an ice-cold bottle of elixir (Root Beer) and was applauded for his efforts.
We continued on to explore the many buildings until the next scheduled performance.
Do you recognize any of these street views from your favorite Old Western Movies?
Here’s Stilla posing in front of the Town Hall.
Here’s Tom and Marilyn walking up the street… probably looking for a gunfight…
No explanation needed:
In the Grand Palace Saloon, we watched “Old Tucson – A Musical History of the Silver Screen”, to live singers. Nice.
Here, “Cookie” gave us a demonstration and informative dialogue on chuck wagons and campfires.
A gunfight skit provided for lots of entertainment. One of several throughout the day.
A western town isn’t complete unless it has a Sheriff’s Office and gallows, right?
Marilyn and Stilla sauntered around town, looking for trouble no doubt. Or are they looking for me and Tom?
Now join us for a little train ride around the town…
We got off the train at the station opposite the “High Chaparral” movie set. Click HERE for more on this.
The “High Chaparral” movie set.
Building at the “High Chaparral” movie set.
And here’s probably one of the most-filmed locomotives in the world. The Reno.
This locomotive legend was almost destroyed in 1995 by fire. Click HERE and HERE for more information on this.
Here’s a nice shot of the stagecoach coming into town.
And another well-performed skit, complete with high-flying acrobatics and lots of explosions…
Some of the buildings to visit, weren’t buildings at all…
This Saloon-Keep gave us the run-down on saloons ‘back-in-the-day’. I don’t think I would want any of the whiskey or beer they served up back then.
How did the OK Corral get here? I thought it was in Tombsone.
We paused for a few minutes to check out the Bluegrass music playing at the Arizona Theater.
Chinese Alley:
And another skit; a re-enactment of the movie – “Heaven With a Gun“. Well performed.
And here’s another shot of the stagecoach leaving town…
Many of the buildings were chock-full of movie memorabilia and wardrobe items.
What a great place! Another “must-see” if you’re ever in the area. Hope you enjoyed the visit with us and the pics.
After departing the Old Tucson Studio, we took the scenic route back to the campground. We’re going to have to come back to check out the nearby Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We hurried back to let our respective dogs out of the Coaches, where they’ve been cooped up all day.
Nice views from one of the pull-offs, eh? Once again, the pictures don’t do it justice.
Many thanks to Tom and Marilyn for taking us along with them to check out this very cool attraction. We sure enjoyed it!
Stay tuned to see what we’re up to next…
Oh, and by the way… little Coach did just fine again today all alone. We took him for an extra long walk once we got back 🙂
On Friday morning, we decided to extend our stay here at the Agave Gulch FamCamp located inside the Davis-Monthan AFB.There’s so much to see and do in and around Tucson! We paid for an additional 3 days so we could try to soak in as much as possible. So that puts us out of here on the 21st when we will probably head over to the Escapees Park in Benson. From Benson, we can visit nearby Tombstone and maybe Bisbee. Then, we’ll start heading north to Colorado since the house still hasn’t sold 🙁
After paying $60 for an additional three nights, we also purchased a coupon book from the campground registration office with many half-price deals for local attractions. The coupon booklet cost $15 and we expect to recoup the cost with the savings from the first attraction.
We then jumped in the pickup and drove just outside the southeast gate to the Pima Air & Space Museum. We found out the museum is dog-friendly, so we were able to take little Coach along. We brought his doggie backpack along so we could carry him around when we’re inside the buildings.
With over 80 acres and 300 planes, the Pima Air & Space Museum is quite astounding. Click HERE for more information.
Here’s the entrance to the parking lot:
And here’s the entrance to the main hangar-type building:
We used our coupon booklet to get the half-price discount so the entrance fee was a palatable $15 for the two of us.
Now follow along on our tour… I took a lot of pics as usual, but I pared them down to the following favorites in order to give you a good sample of what’s here at this superb attraction. Hope you enjoy…
The Wright FlyerWorld’s smallest aircraft, the Starr Bumble Bee.
Here’s a Chief Warrant Officer Four (CW4) uniform on display (Vietnam era) that I found particularly interesting since I retired as a CW4.
The new Dreamliner 787 from Boeing is now on permanent display here. Click HERE for the news article.
There was even an exclusive separate hangar building for the famed B17 “Flying Fortress”. I really enjoyed all the “nose art” on display in this building.
One building housed all the space related items. They have a lunar module simulator and a space station docking simulator to play with. I landed the lunar module pretty hard… probably caused some damage 🙂
Unfortunately, the bus tour for the AFB “boneyard” didn’t allow dogs, so we weren’t able to go. It would have been an additional $7 and I’m sure worth it… but oh well, maybe another time. At least we were able to take little Coach along with us everywhere else today.
As usual, the exit is through the gift shop… one thing I thought was especially interesting is that they sell old aircraft parts. I wonder if they sell a lot of these items?
Authentic aircraft items for sale in the gift shop.Dreamliner 787 items for sale in the gift shop.
Here’s a couple aerial view posters of the massive aircraft “boneyard” that were for sale. Click HERE for some more awesome aerial views courtesy of google.
If you like planes (and who doesn’t?) and have a day or two to kill… this is probably the most superb collection of aircraft in the world. I highly recommend this tour. Don’t miss this attraction if you are ever in the area!
We were pretty much beat after being on our feet all day, so we enjoyed a lazy evening and just kicked back in the Coach afterwards. I used the evening to catch up on the previous days blog. And now, as I write this… I’m still a day behind.
Today (Saturday) we toured Old Tucson, which is the old west town made famous as the location for more than 300 movies and TV shows. But, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow…. 🙂
On Thursday the 16th, we left the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande and traveled the 80 miles to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. We were sad to leave but made plans to get together again for a tour of Tombstone and maybe Bisbee sometime next week. My Mom, stepdad, brother, and Cheryl will drive down to meet us once we get closer to the area. But first we want check out the Tucson area…
I used the AllStays App for Military FamCamps on the iPhone which took me to the Davis-Monthan FamCamp website. From there, I clicked on the directions link which gave me the route through googlemaps. Click HERE if you would like to get the AllStays App for military FamCamps.
We arrived at Davis-Monthan AFB by 12:30 PM. Here’s the gate (below) that the GPS routed us to. We could see the campground to the right just inside the gate. However, as you can see from the photo below, we weren’t going to fit through with the barriers up. We turned the warning flashers on and walked up to the gate guard. He wouldn’t put the barriers down and said we had to turn around and go through the main gate. He offered to block traffic for us while we turned around. About that time, a nice lady that was going out the gate, stopped and came over to introduce herself. She was one of the campground hosts, and confirmed that we shouldn’t try to go through the gate, she had seen others try and fail. So, we disconnected our tow vehicle and did a three-point turn-around with the help of the gate guard. Oh well, another lesson learned – which is; Don’t just trust the GPS, always read the fine print on the website if directions are given, and in this case they were… I just didn’t read them 🙁
After going back around to the main gate without incident, we drove through the base to the campground registration office. We scored a nice site with full hookups for $20 per night. Click HERE for more information on the Agave Gulch FamCamp if interested.
After getting set up and settled in, we jumped in the Silverado and went on over to the BX to browse around. For my non-military readers; BX is short for (Base Exchange). If we were on an Army post it would be called a PX or (Post Exchange).
We made it out of the BX with minimal monetary damage, but then we went to the Commissary to stock up on groceries…
We took our commissary goodies back to the Coach and put things away. Then we decided to drive around and check out the base a little bit before it got dark.
According to my friend Wikipedia: The base was named in honor of World War I pilots Lieutenants Samuel H. Davis (1896–1921) and Oscar Monthan (1885–1924), both Tucson natives. Davis, who attended the University of Arizona prior to enlisting in the Army in 1917, died in a Florida aircraft accident in 1921. Monthan enlisted in the Army as a private in 1917, was commissioned as a ground officer in 1918, and later became a pilot; he was killed in the crash of a Martin bomber in Hawaii in 1924. Click HERE for more information on this cool air force base.
The most interesting thing (for me) about this air force base are the 4000+ aircraft from the Air Force, Navy-Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, and other federal agencies including NASA that are stored here for regeneration or recycling. The climate and hard caliche soil provide for ideal storage conditions. The nearby Pima Air & Space Museum offers docent-guided tours through the “Aircraft Boneyard” aka the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG). We plan on going there tomorrow.
Here’s a few pics we snapped while just driving around:
Don’t forget to click HERE to see some really cool aerial views of the boneyard, courtesy of Google.
When we got back to the campground, we drove through the different loops to check out the other sites. And much to our surprise, we saw another Alpine Coach. And we even know who it belongs to. Tom and Marilyn Anteau of Anchorage Alaska!
We last saw Tom and Marilyn at the Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally” in Quartzsite. They put their Coach in storage here on the air force base after the January rally and left for Anchorage… they had just flown back into town and pulled their Coach out of storage the previous day. It’s a small RV world after all, isn’t it? It was Tom, who first told us about this somewhat hidden gem of a campground. Thanks Tom!
We made plans with Tom and Marilyn to tour Old Tucson on Saturday. But meanwhile, tomorrow (Friday the 17th) we tour the Pima Air & Space Museum. I’ll do separate posts on those shortly… and yes, I know! I’m behind again on the blog posts 🙂
It’s been a while since my last post. We haven’t been up to a whole lot, so I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the blog. We’ve been hanging out at the “Dirt Farm” in Casa Grande since around the 2nd of April enjoying some family time with my Mom, Stepdad, brother Steve and his girlfriend Cheryl.
We’ve been parked in front of Mom’s house moochingdocking off their recently installed 50 Amp power. Steve and Cheryl’s house is situated a little ways behind this house on the same ~4 acre lot that they have affectionately nicknamed the “dirt farm”, complete with chickens and ponies.
Here’s stepdad Jimmy working on a little dirt and rock garden in our front yard – oops.. I mean their, front yard 🙂 Jimmy is always busy doing something. Sometimes retirement isn’t easy.
Stilla and my Mom have been pretty good about going on morning walks. They’ve been going distances of at least two, and sometimes three or more miles. I even went with them once 🙂
Here’s stepdad Jimmy and brother Steve working on yet another project. I’ve been helping out as needed to “earn our keep”.
There’s a seemingly endless number of projects to get done here on the “dirt farm”. Here (below) Jimmy is putting in some pavers. I kept telling him they’re crooked but that’s how mom wants it 🙂
Here’s Jimmy at the checkout counter on one of our many trips to Home Depot or Lowe’s. I provided moral support and light lifting as needed.
Mom and Jimmy getting a section of dirt ready for some grass seed.
This is going to be a green lawn some day, I’m told 🙂
The back yard is slowly coming together. The fence keeps Mom’s cats from escaping when they use the “doggie-door”. I call this the “maximum security” area. The “minimum security” area is defined by the fence around Mom’s house where we’re parked, and it separates the two houses on the farm. The “general population” area is around my brother’s house where the ponies and chickens are kept.
Another backyard “maximum security” area view with some recently laid sod.
It hasn’t been all work around here though… we took some time to get in a little ATV’ing one day.
My cousin Dale and his wife Lisa from Denver came by to visit during the Easter holiday. It was great seeing them again.
Cousin Dale hasn’t been on an ATV in years… since the days they still made 3-wheelers! And it was Lisa’s first time. We took turns riding each of the three ATV’s so they could get the full experience. Steven’s quad (below) found some tumbleweeds… I wonder who that was?
Relaxing after a hard days ride 🙂
Lisa and Dale. Stilla and little Coach in the background.
Easter morning started out with my Mom finding some baby “Easter Bunnies” in the horse manure pile she was spreading out for her fruit tree orchard.
Awww… aren’t they cute?
Even our Easter guests weren’t safe from projects while they were visiting. Here we all are, picking up a pool for the ponies that brother Steve and Cheryl bought.
Somehow we managed to fit the round object into the somewhat square hole on the trailer and safely made it back to the farm.
Brother Steve and Aunt Kathy. Steve is describing how the “pony pool” will be positioned in the ground with “ramps” for the ponies to get in and out.
And here we are; out for another meal… something we did often during our time at the “dirt farm”.
We kept busy evenings playing games around Steven and Cheryl’s nice dining (aka game) table.
And sometimes we had “movie night”.
Cheryl, Mom, and Jimmy. “Movie Night”
But alas… all good times have to come to an end 🙁 It’s about time to start heading back towards Colorado (weather permitting). The house still hasn’t sold, so we are going to go back to see what we can do. Besides, Stilla wants to check on the daughter(s) and grandson.
But first, we still want to check out some things in the Tucson area that we haven’t seen yet, so we’ll head down to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base FamCamp. We’ve heard it’s pretty nice.
Goodbye “dirt farm”! And goodbye, Mom, Jimmy, Steve & Cheryl… thanks for putting up with us for a while! It’s getting too hot here anyway 🙂 Hopefully, we’ll be back before the snow hits up north again (wherever we are).
After leaving Hemet, CA, we drove back north to I-10. Then we headed east until Indio, where we picked up 111 south to the Salton Sea. This time we opted to go around Salton Sea on the east-side. We traveled the west-side on our way to Pomona a couple weeks ago. The east-side of Salton Sea was certainly more picturesque and we passed several campgrounds and recreation areas. Sorry no pics this time 🙁 But here’s a link to the Salton Sea Recreation area website, HERE.
After Salton Sea, which by the way, is touted as one of the world’s largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level, we turned east on 78 to go through the Imperial Sand Dunes.
We traveled this way back in February, I wrote about the Imperial Sand Dunes HERE. We turned south after crossing the dunes and skirted the east-side of the dunes recreational area until we landed at our boondocking spot that Mike and Donna Kuper told us about.
Crossing the Imperial Sand Dunes.Crossing the Imperial Sand Dunes, CA.
And here we are after ~200 miles for the day.
All alone in the desert again.
This is a rather unique spot with a “rock garden” that someone spent significant time building. It’s exact location to remain undisclosed… we wouldn’t want it to become too popular, right?
We enjoyed the evening desert air outside while I grilled up some bratwursts. Stilla made sauerkraut to complement our meal.
“Why can’t I have some bratwurst?” Little Coach seems to ask.
Little Coach enjoyed some run-around time, he really liked the wide-open space.
And how do you like the sunset views?
This was a nice overnight boondocking spot… thanks for sharing Mike and Donna. If anyone else wants to know where it is, just contact me directly.
On Thursday, we will be back in Casa Grande to spend Easter weekend with my Mom, Stepdad, Brother Steve and Cheryl. And we’re supposed to have some additional relatives show up… We’ll see!
On Monday, after we said farewell to our Alpine Coach Association friends at the FMCA Rally in Pomona, we traveled a whopping 65 miles and landed at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, CA.
Urban Escape Vehicle parked next to Mike and Donna Kuper at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we chose this destination because fellow Alpine Coach owner and friend, Mike Kuper is staying here with his wife, Donna. Mike blogged about this place @ FlyingtheKoop.com. We last saw Mike, albeit briefly, in Phoenix, AZ when I was getting a new inverter/charger installed. Before that, we were together at the FMCA Rally in Redmond, OR back in August. They did not attend the recent FMCA Rally in Pomona with us, but have been spending the week here before heading south to their next destination. We don’t know when our paths may cross again, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to see them again.
Mike and Donna Kuper posing in front of our truck at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, CA.
This park honors the Passport America discount for three consecutive nights. So we paid $50 for two nights and scored the spot right next to Mike and Donna. Now, it was great to be parked next to them, but the sites here are pretty tight. We couldn’t put the living room slide out all the way without hitting the hedge, and I couldn’t move the Coach over without driving on the concrete pad. The park office sent a maintenance guy over to trim the bushes but it wasn’t enough – I have a few new scratches now. In the morning, the park sent another guy over with a power trimmer that finally got the job done.
Here’s a picture with the slides in after the hedge was trimmed. With the slides out, the thorny bush and fruit tree were mere millimeters away from the paint AFTER trimming.
Here’s the view out our front window. Mike and Donna reported that all the spots were full when they arrived several days ago. Many of the Canadians that frequent this park have already headed north.
On our first evening, we enjoyed some time with Mike and Donna outside their rig. Donna used her Vitamix to make us a caramelized banana pecan ice cream treat. Yum!
Wednesday morning found us enjoying some time at the pool and hot tub(s). Nice 🙂
Here’s my view:
And here’s Stillas’ view:
We also spent some time at the pickleball courts as spectators. Mike and Donna have become quite the avid players… maybe we should take this up for some much needed exercise… 🙂
Here’s Mike in the yellow hat:
We also attended a small Farmers Market that is held each Tuesday at the park. There were only a few vendors, but we still found enough to spend some money on. We bought some peanut brittle; english toffee brittle; home-made salsa; a chicken quesadilla; and a half-dozen tamales.
We made a late lunch / early dinner out of the quesadilla and tamales. Yum again!
Later, Stilla took a bike ride around the huge park with little Coach.
Later that evening, little Coach seemed to have another of his epileptic type seizures. He threw up, then he was wobbly and disoriented, and became very lethargic. I watched over him as he just laid motionless in his little bed for quite a few hours. It was 2 in the morning before he started moving again. He jumped up and seemed like his old self again. I took him for a long, late-night walk.
We missed the opportunity to spend more evening time with Mike and Donna because we were on dog watch 🙁
But, little Coach is fine again now. He has had these “seizures” more than a few times now… the last time was when we were in Yuma a month ago, and before that was last year in Redmond, OR. We’ve committed to not let him eat anything other than his normal dog food and approved treats from now on.
On Thursday morning, with our time here already at an end, we packed up and moved over to an empty site to dump tanks. We had to do this because I couldn’t open the door to the sewer controls with the bushes up against the Coach on the drivers side.
We said our fond farewells to Mike and Donna and plugged our next destination into the GPS. Mike gave us a tip on a sweet boondocking spot that is halfway between here and Casa Grande. We want to be back in Casa Grande in time to spend Easter with my Mom and brother.
Once again; better late than never… There was so much to do and see during our time at the FMCA Rally that I couldn’t find time to update the blog. Between Thursday and Sunday – When we weren’t attending seminars, we were either visiting the vendors and exhibitors or driving the golf carts for the volunteer tram service. And of course, there was entertainment scheduled each evening in addition to our evening get-togethers with the Alpine Coach group.
Tuesday thru Friday seminars and events at the FMCA Rally in Pomona.Friday thru Sunday seminars and events at the FMCA Rally in Pomona.
As expected; our Alpine Coach group met each evening for “Happy Hour”.
One evening, we even had Pizza! Here’s some pics of our group enjoying the Pizza:
We even paused long enough from our pizza to celebrate a birthday!
Here’s some of our group coming back from a fun, full-day of activities. Don’t they look happy?
This place was huge. Their website says that Fairplex is home to the L.A. County Fair, the largest county fair in the world. It’s a good thing we brought our bicycles to get around on. It took a long time to get around, even if you jumped on one of the trams or golf carts.
Here’s a view out the front window of the golf cart that I spent a couple 3-hour shifts driving around in. I was glad we volunteered to drive the golf carts for the handicap transportation service, it was fun.
Except it was no longer fun when my golf cart broke down on my last shift Sunday. We think the battery couldn’t hold a charge any more and the engine wouldn’t auto-start when you pressed the gas pedal. I had to get towed.
We took the time to snap a few pictures at the Railroad Museum and Display that is located along one side of the Fairplex.
And then, there was even a miniature railroad that we visited. This was really cool. The Fairplex Garden Railroad is the oldest and possibly the largest miniature railroad in the US according to their website.
If you look closely, you can even see a lizard that has taken up residence in the miniature Police Department building.
And the NHRA Motorsports Museum is located here. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the time to visit… maybe next time.
And here’s some more pics of our Alpine Coach group enjoying another “Happy Hour” get-together.
We also had other evening entertainment to enjoy. On Friday, western-music singer, Mary Kaye performed. And a really special treat; on Saturday we enjoyed Herman’s Hermits, starring Peter Noone.
Our final evening, Sunday; we were treated to a “Patriotic Night”.
All-in-all, it was a great Rally, however, I don’t think overall attendance met expectations and it seemed a little light on the quantity/quality of vendors from our experience at the two other FMCA Rallies we’ve attended in the past. But we still enjoyed our time here, especially with our Alpine Coach group friends.
Here’s Stilla showing off her goodie-bag of micro-fiber products that she won at one of the raffles. Go Stilla!
On Monday, we packed up along with most of the others (some left Sunday) and jockeyed for a position at the dump station. After taking care of the “dirty-deed” we headed east on 10, away from LA.
Since we still hadn’t decided where our next destination would be, I contacted fellow Alpine Coach Owner and friend, Mike Kuper. I knew Mike and Donna Kuper were staying nearby because I follow Mike’s blog; “FlyingtheKoop.com“. They are in Hemet, CA at the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. Mike told me there was plenty of room there, so I called the resort to check on pricing. They accept our Passport America (PA) discount, so it would be $25 per night. I reserved a couple nights and we headed that way after stopping at a TA to put $150 of diesel in the fuel tank; enough to get us to the next Flying J in Arizona where the fuel is cheaper. We want to be back in Casa Grande in time for Easter with my Mom and brother at the “dirt farm”.
Anyway, I’ll save all that for my next post. C U soon 🙂
