Meanwhile back at the house.

Las Vegas, NV. 1/8/2012

The work we had done on the coach didn’t take as long as we thought it might.  We only spent Saturday afternoon and night at Vito’s in Quartzsite.

We tuned in the net cast of worship services from Oakey Blvd.  and then got ready to leave.

We left Quartzsite at about noon and traveled North on Arizona Route 95 to parker and then across the river to Vidal Junction to pick up IS-95.  The road has improved a lot with nearly new pavement.  The problem was we were stopped twice for construction and lost an hour waiting in lines.  After topping off the fuel tanks we got home a little after five.  We traveled about 235 miles.

During this trip Glenna had stayed with Curtis and Dana.  Curtis brought her home at about six.

This will be a busy week.  We have to take down Christmas decorations and store them.  We also have to unload some things from the motor home and park it.  Wednesday I start with preparations to have a couple of surgeries.

Our next planned trip is to Cabo San Lucas for the month of February.

Quartzsite, AZ. 1/7/2012

Quartzsite, AZ. N34°39.725’ W114°12.633


We got up early, as in 6AM, to head to Quartzsite. Our plan was to meet Kevin Mallory to finish some work we started at his shop in Celina, OH in August. We got everything read to travel but didn’t want to crank up the diesel before 8AM. We waited and after eight we got the rooms in and the jacks up and drove to the registration area to hook up the Jeep. All went well until I got in the coach and remembered that I hadn’t locked the cargo doors. I didn’t think much about it and picked up the remote and locked the doors. I started the engine and realized my mistake when the alarm went off. It seemed like an eternity before I could turn of the engine and restart it to shut off the alarm. So much for getting out of the park without disturbing the neighbors.

Underway we headed south on Arizona 95. Our route took us across the Bill Williams River trough Parker Dam and Parker, AZ. , on to Indian Route 1 and on to the “Q” via AZ-95. We got to Quartzsite at about 10:30 and were set up next to Kevin a little while later at Vito’s RV Park. Eighty three miles for the day.

Kevin didn’t waste any time getting to work. He had everything that could be done on our list by 4PM. We got lucky and didn’t have to replace all the TV coax cable.

I went out and found six caches. I also gassed up the Jeep before heading back to Vito’s.

We had Kevin over for supper, leftover bean soup, salad and fresh made cornbread.

After supper we watched some old westerns we had recorded and put in some computer time before calling it a night.

The view from Vito's, if you zoom in you will see the "Q"

Lake Havasu City, AZ, 1/6/2012

Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886


We spent another night at the Havasu RV Resort and will head to Quartzsite in the morning.

It was mostly a lazy day. I did spend some time putting away the tables and chairs. I think I even managed to fix a pin that was coming loose from one of our chairs. I also managed to fold one set of chairs properly, now I only need to remember how to do it next time.

We had a farewell supper with Keith and Alice. We also bid farewell to them after supper. We hope to get together again in the spring. We have had a great visit.

The Kerslakes

I did take the flags down and put the flagpole away before going in for the night. Tomorrow I only have to unplug electric, water and sewer and put away the jack pads.

It’s to bed early tonight for an early start in the morning.

Lake Havasu City, AZ, 1/5/2012

Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886

Our first planned activity for the day was lunch with a classmate from Charleston High School, Roger Galloway. Since the plan was to meet with Roger at 1:15, we spent a leisurely morning at the coach. Coffee and computer activities.

With Roger Galloway

We had lunch at a country Club in Desert Hills, The Refuge. While there we met the owner and he told us about future plans for an upscale RV resort. It sounds like a timeshare arrangement. Buyer actually lease for ten yen years for some period of time chosen, one or two weeks or more at a specific time at a specific site.

We had a good lunch and good visit with Roger whom we hadn’t seen for two years. Roger has lived in Lake Havasu City since 2004 and is manager of a radio station and has a talk show that he hosts. He has lived an eventful life in show business and the media meeting a lot of luminaries in the process.

We didn’t get home until after 4:00. Gerri had started 15 bean soup cooking last night and only had to fix cornbread to round out the meal. Alice and Keith came over at about 5:30.

Earlier in the day I heard from Kevin Mallory, who we are scheduled to meet in Quartzsite tomorrow for motor home work. He had a break down near Hatch, NM. It’s not certain if he will get to Quartzsite and set up on Thursday. That means we may stay in Lake Havasu City another night. Kevin will call me tomorrow morning and we will decide then, since he plans to work on the weekend.

I did talk to the office about staying here another night. Hopefully we will get to Quartzsite and have the work done and drive home before Tuesday.

View from the Country Club

Lake Havasu City, AZ. 1/4/2012

Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886


After coffee and computer time I returned the leftover items of my failed handyman projects to Lowe’s.


The weather here has been great. It's a little warmer than Las Vegas. With lows in the mid 40s and highs in the mid to upper 70s, we run a small heater in the mornings to knock off the chill and are looking for shade by mid afternoon. Alice and Keith have a small propane heater on the patio area of thier casita which makes visiting and eating outside comfortable after dark.

Gerri had signed up for game time at the clubhouse and was there for several hours with Alice. I went caching and found ten, which brings my total to forty two during this visit to Lake Havasu City.

Supper was planned at 5:30 with the Kerslakes. Gerri fixed mash potatoes and Alice cooked the chicken fried steak with a side of green beans. After the great meal we just relaxed and visited before going home. Some TV and computer time rounded out the evening.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona 1/3/2012

Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886

I started the day with trying a couple of handyman projects. Replacing the countertop light under the microwave and replacing a screw holding the window shade valence by the Lake Havasu City, Arizona 1/3/212

dinette. I couldn’t find the old bulb. I Googled GE Profile Convection Oven and saw that Lowe’s sell them, no info on the bulb. Lowe’s is only a couple pf blocks away so I went there to check on the bulb. The bulb doesn’t screw in, it goes into a socket with pins on the bulb. At Lowe’s I found out they carry about a dozen different Halogen bulbs with different bases and different power, both volts and watts. A trip back to the coach and trying to read the label on the bottom of the oven upside down and backwards, revealed that the required bulb is 50 watts and 130 volts. Back to Lowe’s. They had two different base styles in 50 watt and 130 volts. I bought both, neither worked.

To get the screw in the wall to hold the valence in place required an offset screwdriver which I didn’t have. On one of the trips to Lowe’s I bought the screwdriver. When I got back to the coach and tried to put the screw in, I couldn’t get enough pressure on it to start the screw. Thus ended my handyman efforts for the day.

I check Facebook and found a comment on one of my blogs from Roger Galloway. Roger and I went were classmates at Charleston High School. Rogers now lives in Lake Havasu City. I contacted him and we are meeting for lunch on Thursday.

After my failed handyman projects I decided to go caching. I headed west into the hills for one that had been recommended by an owner here in the park. A rough Jeep ride and a tough but short walk to a cave and the cache was in my hands. I found six more during the afternoon.

A supper of taco leftovers followed by TV and computer time rounded out the evening.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona 1/2/2012

Lake Havasu City, Arizona 1/2/212


Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886

We were hoping to spend two weeks at San Clemente State Beach in July. The reservation system, Reserve America, wouldn’t allow reservations for July of 2012 until 8AM PST this morning. Gerri briefed me on using the Reserve America system. We set alarms for 7:50AM PST. Since we are in Arizona that means we planned to get up at 6AM MST. Gerri miscalculated and the alarm went off at 5AM MST. Of course we couldn’t get back to sleep. At Exactly 8AM PST we tried to make our reservations. We couldn’t get them, all the spaces were taken. We suspect that there is something we don’t know about making these reservations or other people know how to scam the system. Our plans for the summer have been to spend most of the summer in the Southern California. Since we couldn’t get into San Clemente we extended our stay at Paradise by the Sea in Oceanside another week. We will be there from July 1 through July 15. As an alternate we decided to try for some time at Soledad Canyon and found out we have to wait for closer to the dates we want to stay. We may go there for 2 or 3 weeks and then on to Fun Valley in South Fork, CO.

My next order of business was to visit a local optometrist to see if I can get my glasses fixed, either new frames or at least a new bow so I can keep them on. The shop I went to put a new bow on and didn’t charge me.

I did four caches while in the downtown area. I went shopping and then went home to complete cleaning chores before Keith and Alice came to dinner at 5PM. We visited before dinner. Gerri had fixed tacos with all the trimmings.

What a great meal and the company was very enjoyable.

After supper and more visiting I did some more checking for space at the San Clemente State Beach for the end of June. No luck there. I plan to keep checking.

Keith and Alice Kerslake

Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Lake Havasu City, AZ.  N34°33.125’ W114°30.886

Saturday, December 31, 2011

One of the first things I did today was break one of the bows off my glasses. I had been having trouble keeping them on for awhile, now they are just perched on my nose and one ear. When outside I can use my sunglasses. They are too dark for inside and are two prescriptions old. My first stop was at Walmart to see if the lenses could be put in another frame. They didn’t have any that fit and weren’t equipped to grind the lenses to fit. I originally bought these glasses at Sam’s, but the closest Sam’s Club is in Bullhead City. I also stopped at Penny’s, no luck there either. They gave me the name of an optometrist downtown. I went there only to find the street closed for a New Year Party and the shop was closed anyway.

I did some caches in the downtown area. I had to work around the street closure and fenced off areas. Between downtown and back to the park I managed to find eleven, There were some I couldn’t get to Downtown and a couple of others I didn’t find.

Our evening activity was a dinner and party at the clubhouse. We weren’t seated at the same table as Alice and Keith so we met some new people. The dinner was just ok, the entertainment was good and the company interesting. We managed to stay up to ring in the New Year.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona 12/30/2011

Lake Havasu City, AZ.  N34°33.125’ W114°30.886

Friday, December 30, 2011


After a slow start I got out to do some caching. I did two caches that were of ATV trails north of the park. The Liberty is a little wider than an ATV, so when I met others on the trail I had to pull off the trail to pass safely. I did four caches before Gerri called and asked if I wanted to come home and take a walk with the Kerslakes. I went back to the park and we walked on all the streets in the park. We stopped and visited with several other occupants. After snacks I went pack out and found five more caches.

For dinner Keith and I went to Scotty’s and picked up Broasted chicken. It was very good. I had heard the words Broasted Chicken before but had no idea what it was. Of course I Googled the term to find out what it is. I have capitalized Broasted because I found it is a patented process using special equipment manufactured by a company in Wisconsin. Basically it’s fried chicken done in a pressure cooker, cooked really fast and supposedly has less oil than regular fried chicken. I still used two napkins during the meal.

LakeHavasu City, Arizona 12/29/2011

Lake Havasu City, AZ.  N34°33.125’ W114°30.886

Thursday, December 29, 2011


As is our habit we slept in and then put in some computer time. In the middle of our trip last year my hard drive crashed. I had the hard drive replaced with a solid state drive and installed programs. I spent quite awhile this morning getting things configured as I like them.

Early last year I bought a solar powered flagpole light. Today I installed it after I went to Lowe’s for smaller clamps to attach it to the flagpole. I guess when I buy something I ought to try it out sooner than a year and a half, it didn’t work. I don’t suppose Harbor Freight will give me a refund now.

When I went to Lowe’s I looked for a nearby cache, I didn’t find it. I did find the next closest.

We visited with Alice and Keith and later had a supper separately of leftovers we brought from home.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona 12/28/2011

Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

I didn’t bring the coach to the house until late Monday evening, another reminder that I don’t like to drive the coach after dark. That put us behind schedule getting things loaded and ready to travel.

On Tuesday I had to air up all the tires. Although my electric compressor claims to have enough pressure to air up the tires, it is nearly useless. I had to get out the Powertank to bring them up to the correct pressure with Co2.

The coach has set since September and was very dirty. While Gerri went to the store I decided to start a cleanup with the Solution. I only planned to do the front and back caps. That went well so I decided to do the areas I could reach from the ground. Surprisingly that went pretty quickly. The cooler weather makes the job quicker. I still had some daylight so I got out the long mop poles and pads and finished the upper parts too. It looked like a pretty good job, I only missed some corners and curves at the roof line.

We were up early on Wednesday doing the final loading and were ready to travel by noon. Our destination was only about 150 miles, so it was a leisurely drive. Our route was I-215 to US-95 to I-40 to Arizona 95 and then on to Lake Havasu City. We arrived at about 4PM MST, which is an hour ahead of Las Vegas time. The Havasu RV Resort is park where the sites are owned by individuals and the developer and rented out by both to daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The amenities at the park are very nice with two clubhouses and pools. The sites vary in size and amenities. Some have extensive landscaping and many include elaborate Casitas.

We were originally assigned to site 198. We parked and Gerri called Alice who called the office and got us moved to site 177. Our main reason for coming to Lake Havasu was to visit with Alice and Keith Kerslake, who we met last year in Lake Texoma, Texas.

After we moved to site 177, across a wash from the Kerslakes, we had a warm reunion followed by a spaghetti dinner that Alice had prepared.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona 01/01/2012

1/1/2012 Lake Havasu City, AZ. N34°33.125’ W114°30.886


2011 has come and gone. All in all it was a very good year. We were able to travel and we made some good friends. Gerri is still in good health and my health has stayed about the same.

We are in Lake Havasu City, Arizona visiting with a couple we met in Texas in July.

We celebrated New Years Eve with dinner and dancing in the RV Park’s clubhouse.

This morning we started with some computer time and coffee. At 10AM, Las Vegas time, we tuned into the net cast of the worship service from Oakey Blvd. we were worried about the slowness of the internet service here, but the only problem was that the sound went off a couple of times.

After church I went out to bag my first cache of the year. I drove about a mile off the pavement toward the lake using the Street Pilot in the Jeep. When I got down to feet to go I started my hand held GPS but the battery was dead and my spare was dead too. By the tme I drove back to the Lowe’s store and bought some it was getting late, we had dinner plans with Alice and Keith at 4PM. I had failed to find the closest cache to the ark twice so I decided that I would give it another shot on the way home. Since it was a new day and a new year, I decided I would find it even if I had to look under every rock. Fortunately I found it easily. I don’t know how I missed it on the last two searches.

Our dinner plans were to have supper with Alice and Keith. Gerri made her world renowned black eyed peas. Alice fixed salad, popped potatoes and a prime rib roast. What a great meal. After eating Keith was intent on watching a football game with no talking allowed so we went home at about 7PM.

We got to sit with the big people