PGA Golf Tournament

Tomorrow is the first day of the FBR Open PGA Golf Tournament in Scottsdale, AZ. Many of the big names are playing, including Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Zach Johnson, J.B. Holmes and more. We are planning to attend at least two of the four days of the tournament and so today we moved to an RV park in Mesa. The first golfers tee off at 7:40 am tomorrow. What are the odds Jo will get up early enough for us to see that?

Monster Jam

When we thought our nephew Luke was going to be with us for the entire month of January, we bought tickets to take him to a Monster Jam event in Phoenix. Sadly, Luke had to leave a little early so wouldn't be able to go. But we decided to go ourselves anyway. What the heck, we'd already bought the tickets. It could be fun. And it was!

The huge colorful trucks, the noise, the energy of the crowd all made for an exciting evening. There are two parts to a Monster Jam event. First is the racing where two trucks go head to head around a short course which includes sharp turns and a jump. The fastest moves on to the next round and the losers are eliminated until finally only one winner remains. The second part is the "freestyle" competition where one truck at a time will pop wheelies, make big jumps, spin donuts and perform whatever other tricks they have in their repertoire within the allotted time. Each performance is scored by 3 judges and the highest score wins. Most times a different truck will win each event, but last night it was Jimmy Creten driving Bounty Hunter who won them both.

Casa Grande again - feels like home

Well, the re-work on our roof repairs is finished and the majority of our concerns with the original work have been corrected. But unfortunately the paint still doesn't quite match to our satisfaction on the back end, which means we will be making yet another trip to Yuma in a month. But for now, we have left Yuma and are back in Casa Grande, AZ. We've spent so much time here over the last year, it's starting to feel like home. We really enjoy this area. Casa Grande is still pretty much a small town, but has all the goods and services you need for daily life, including several golf courses. It's also less than an hour away from the Phoenix area to the north and Tucson to the south. So there's plenty in the area to keep us busy.

Yuma part 2

All too soon our time in Quartzsite has come to an end. We had so much fun visiting with friends, old and new, we hated to leave. But we had to return to Yuma for just a bit more work on the roof of the motorhome. Last time we were here, we had what we hope will be the last of the fiberglass cracks in the roof repaired, but we weren't entirely satisfied with the paint matching job and some of the smaller details. It was as much our fault as the shop's since they only had 2 days to do the work as we were trying to leave to get to the dog show in Indio.

Anyway, we are now back in Yuma and will take the coach into the shop tomorrow for the finishing touches. The good news is we heard from Monaco this morning and they are going to cover the cost of the repairs under our warranty. We had been hoping they would, but weren't entirely sure since we are actually a couple months past the end of the warranty period. Even though it seems like we've had to get a lot of pesky repairs along with a few major ones, Monaco has been very good about paying for it all, so we can't complain too much.

Hopefully we'll only be here for a couple of days, and then it's on to the Phoenix area for a golf tournament (as spectators) and a dog show (as exhibitors.)

Luke Heads Home

Well, we are up to 12 RVs in our group out here at Quartzsite with at least one other supposed to arrive today. But we are down one camper. Yesterday was the last day of Luke's visit with us. Early this morning Tom drove him back to Palm Springs to catch a plane home to Anchorage. His vacation is over and it's time to go back to school. We'll miss him.

Gathering in Quartzsite, AZ

Friday we arrived in Quartzsite, AZ to meet up with a group of RVing friends. This place is hugely popular for winter RVers because it's extremely inexpensive. Many folks will spend several months out in the dispersed camping areas of the BLM desert land where there is no electricity, no water, no sewer dumps for miles and miles. They have it down to a science. They have water tanks in their trucks to haul fresh water out to their RVs and then another tank to take the waste water back out to a dump station. Many have several solar panels installed on their roofs to help keep their batteries charged.

We are not that adventurous. We are staying in an area of BLM land that is minimally developed for camping. There are a few sewer dump and fresh water stations located in the area as well as portapotties. And there are a few paved roads to get you out into the camping areas. Then you pull off into the desert - which is hard ground around here - and set up camp wherever you want.

There are 8 RVs and 17 people here from our group so far. More should be arriving this weekend.

One of the gals, most of us call her Mama (though she is nowhere near old enough to be any of our mamas), was brave enough to offer to make dinner for everyone tonight! She has a delicious salmon recipe that we will all get to enjoy. Luke helped a couple of the guys build a large firepit, so tonight hopefully we'll all gather 'round the campfire after dinner. Tomorrow night is a potluck.

In addition to being the winter home of thousands of RVers, Quartzsite also has what has to be the worlds biggest flea market. Vendor tents stretch for miles along the frontage roads next to the highway and there are organized "shows" in the Big Tent a few times a year. This week is the 26th annual Sports, Vacation and RV show. After that is a Hobby, Craft and Gem Show and then a Rock and Roll Classic Car Show. Unfortunately we are only staying through Monday, so we'll miss the Gem and Car shows.

Golfing

Yesterday Tom and Luke met up with our friend Don (who spends much of his winter in the Palm Springs area) for a game of golf. They played at the City of Indio Golf Course, which is an 18 hole, long par 3 course that is lit up at night. Tom and Luke kind of liked playing in the dark but Don said it was harder for him to follow his ball. Either way, I thought it looked very pretty.

After golf, we met up with some of Don's friends for dinner at a place called Babe's BBQ and Brewhouse. YUM!

FMCA Rally, Indio, CA

We spent last week at the motorhome rally in Indio, along with about 3000 other attendees. We went to a few seminars, did some shopping at the vendors and enjoyed the entertainment in the evenings. We were parked next to our friends Mic and Rick and had cocktails one evening with folks who were parked across from us in Palm Creek last November.

The theme of this year's rally was "the wonders of ancient egypt" and the various member chapters put on a parade on afternoon based on the theme. There were some pretty elaborate costumes and floats.

Reminder from Fairbanks

Just in case we were starting to take the blessing of our new lifestyle for granted, a friend sent us a picture from Fairbanks that was taken yesterday. We actually do thank God daily that we are able to travel around as we do, but after seeing this picture, we'll add a few extra amens!

First Week of the New Year

We've already been pretty busy this first week of the new year. New Year's Day found us parked at the show grounds for the Palm Springs Kennel Club dog show where Gracie was entered. After getting ourselves all organized at the site, we were surprised with a knock on our door from a friend who lives in Anchorage. Debbie had her Norwich entered in the show too. It was great to spend a bit of time catching up with her again.

On Friday our nephew Luke flew in from Anchorage. He will be staying with us for the month of January. It will be fun to have someone to share the adventures with. He brought his guitar with him and played for us a little bit that first night. I'm very impressed with what an accomplished musician he has become in the relatively short time he has been playing.

On Saturday evening, we hosted a get-together for some of our dog show friends who were there that weekend. My hope had been that it would have been warm enough for us to all hang out outside the motorhome, but it was a bit cool and breezy that evening so we had about a dozen people inside the motorhome. We were cozy, but not too cramped. And we all had a great time. We were pleased to have been able to spend time with old friends and get to know some new friends better.

As for the show itself, well, it was not our weekend. An important part in the presentation of a Norwich is the coat, and Gracie just doesn't have much right now. It got too long about a month ago and had to be stripped out and not enough has grown back yet. So as it turned out, Gracie was just there to help contribute to the point total for the other exhibitors.

However, it was a good weekend for friends. Nancy and Dwaine finished the championship on one of their girls and Carolyn got "majors" on both her Norwich and her Kerry Blue Terrier.

After the dog show, we took the short drive to a county park in La Quinta (still the Palm Springs area). It's a nice, quiet park with trees and a lake. We will enjoy relaxing here for the next couple of days before going to the motorhome rally on Wednesday.