Tuesday November 1, 2016 Capistrano Beach,CA

Sunrise from Neva's house

Not quite a month and we are off for a short week at the Diamond Resort at Rivera Shores in Capistrano Beach.  Gerri's mother, Neva, is with us.

Neva came to our house at about 10 AM.  She had already taken some sunrise pictures from her house.  Neva and Roger, her oldest son visited for awhile before we left.  Roger is staying at our house while in Las Vegas for doctor's visits.

We were on the road by 11:00.  We made a stop for gas and PR at the Costco in Victorville.  It was windy and the lines at the gas pumps were their usual long length.  Before leaving Victorville we stopped at Johnny Carrino's for a late lunch, early supper.  We all had left overs, especially Neva.  That skillet was large but the perspective in the picture makes it look even larger.  I did look for a cache near the restaurant but didn't find it.

I can't say too much about the traffic along the way.  I sat in the back seat and slept most of the way.  We arrived at the resort before dark and were in our room in time to get sunset pictures  from the balcony.  We are on the third floor with an ocean view across the PCH.

Gerri and I went to an Albertson's in nearby Dana Point for a few groceries, mostly snacks and some fruit and vegetables.  I looked for a nearby cache with no luck.

We played a game of dominoes.  I won after a failed comeback by Neva at mid-game.  She got stuck with the double blank at a critical hand and couldn't rebound.

We don't have anything planned tomorrow, so it will probably be a lazy day.  Computer time, reading, Sudoku and Dominoes.

Monday October 3, 2016 Las Vegas, NV

We didn't try for an early start on the last leg of our journey.  The start was delayed further by more problems with the leveling jacks.  I called Coach Net and waited two hours for them to call back.  I was waiting for a second call to tell me the ETA of a mobile service.  While waiting I tried several times and the jacks finally came all the way up.  I cancelled the call to Coach Net and we were on our way by 2 PM.  The worst part of the drive was after we got on I-215 in Las Vegas.  Bumper to bumper.

I filled the tank with diesel at the Sam's Club south of the house.  A woman was wiping down her entire car on one side of the island with diesel pumps.  I waited behind  a truck with a trailer on the other side.  Before I was able to pull forward a woman squeezed by and took the front pumps.  While I filled my tank, she washed her entire car using the windshield washing supplies before she put gas in her car.  I had never seen the like.  While fueling I disconnected the Jeep so Gerri could go on home.

I got to the house at about 6:30.  We only unloaded a few things before calling it a night.  Montyne fixed a delicious dinner, John was working.

Disregarding some of the things that broke along the way, we had a great trip.  We saw a lot of beautiful country, and visited with friends and relatives.  We traveled about 12,500 miles.  I found 236 caches, added two more Canadian provinces to my list of places cached and completed a goal of finding a cache in each of the counties in Arizona.

Now the hard part of the year, doctor's visits.

Sunday October 2, 2016 Williams, AZ

We didn't try for an early start today.  We only planned to drive to St. John, AZ,  about 150 miles.  The leveling jacks wouldn't come up.  I had to cycle them several times.  It was 10 before we were able to travel.  We opted to try to tune in church services in the evening.

The drive took us through the scenic Salt River Canyon on US-60.  A lot of steep hills and curves.  Gerri posted a slide show of many of the pictures she took along the drive on Facebook.  The lighting wasn't the best, very cloudy in places.

Just past Show Low we turned onto US-61 toward St. Johns.  I pulled over in a wide spot for PR.  I checked and there was a cache only 80' away.  I found it and I knew we were in Apache County, so I have now found a cache in each Arizona county.

It was still 30 miles to St. Johns.  We opted to turn around and head for Williams.  That decision will get us home a day earlier than planned.  When we turned west on I-40 we had a strong crosswind.  This slowed us down and called for constant steering  and correcting for gusts.  Even the big trucks slowed.

We arrived at the Canyon Gateway RV Park in Williams a little after 5. The wind was still blowing and had a cold edge.  I hooked up all the utilities so we can get back to Las Vegas with empty holding tanks.

Our decision to tune into evening service turned out to be a poor one.  The internet at the church end was down.

We had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and bacon for supper.  I watched another old movie starring John Wayne in the Son's of Katie Elder.

The wind was blowing hard when we went to bed and the slide room awnings were making a lot of noise.

Saturday October 1, 2016 San Carlos, AZ

Our plan today was to drive about 141 miles to Globe, AZ and spend a night there.  Before starting out I cleaned most of the bugs off the front of the bug smasher.  I had hooked up the Jeep last night, so all we had to do was bring in the slides, raise the leveling jacks and unhook the electric cord.  Yesterday's problem with the jacks didn't happen again.  We were headed north on I-19 by 10 AM.

We intersected I-10 at Tucson and turned off on Speedway which later becomes AZ-77.  This was the slowest part of the drive.  There were signal lights at almost all the intersections for 15 miles.  I thing we stopped for most of them.

Once out of the urban and suburban area we didn't have as much traffic but the road narrowed and followed the Gila river up through the mountains.  I'll bet people behind me were thankful every time we came to a passing zone, otherwise there were very few places for them to pass or for me to pull over.  Although sometimes steep and curvy it was a beautiful drive with a lot of ocotillo and sagauro visible from the road.  Only a few of the ocotillo had blooms.

I had chosen the Apache old RV park just east of Globe as our stopping point. The drive was 143 miles and took 3.8 hours.  The RV park is a large asphalt parking lot with a few trees around the perimeter.  It is lined for RV sites and has an electric pedestal serving two sites.  The pedestal had a 50 and a 30 amp plug.  We chose a pedestal without a neighbor so we could get the 50 amp plug.  Each site also has water and sewer.  There are some sites without utilities along two side of the park.

We decided to have an early dinner at a Mexican Restaurant Gerri had found online, Guayo's on the Trail.  We had to drive through Globe to get there.  We stopped and I found a cache on the way.  We had a delicious meal.  It was still light when we left the restaurant.  We stopped at two nearby caches and then a third one I had DNFed in May on the way east.  I only have one more county left in Arizona where I haven't found a cache.  Since we plan to spend tomorrow night in St. Johns, I will remedy that.

Back at the coach, Gerri did some computer stuff and reading.  I watched an old Burt Lancaster movie, The Kentuckian.

Friday September 30, 2016 Amado, AZ

After the rain early last night the wind blew until early morning.  We were ready to leave the RV park by 10.  But, the coach wasn't ready.  I had to cycle the leveling system 4 times before the jacks came completely up.

We went by Steins, NM without stopping

Finally, under way we traveled west on I-10 into Arizona.  Our goal for the day was a town south of Tucson named Amado.  We exited I-10 at AZ Hwy. 83.  We stopped at a wide place in the road and there was a cache nearby.  A couple of miles south on AZ-83 we turned left onto an unnumbered road.  Just before the turn it started raining heavily with low visibility.  There were dips along the road with warnings not to enter when flooded.


We encountered one questionable wash where a car had stalled.  We waited until the car was pushed out of the way and the water had subsided to a point the center line was visible before we crossed the dip.  There were a couple of other washes where we slowed for running water.  As it turned out we could have stayed on I-10 until taking I-19 south.  Amado was just a few miles south of where we intersected I-19.

Closed steakhouse

We were registered and set up by 3.  After relaxing for a while, I unhooked the Jeep and went to find a few cache.  Our purpose in coming here was for me to find a cache in Santa Cruz County, AZ.  I found six caches nearby.  Now I have only two counties to find caches in.









Gerri took some pictures of views from the park.

We were still operating on central time.  After some TV we were in bed before 10.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to Globe.  Globe is in one of the two remaining counties of Arizona where I have not found a geocache.

Thursday September 29, 2016 Deming, NM

We only planned to drive to El Paso today, about 240 miles.  So, we didn't try for an early start.  Gerri walked around the park and took pictures of the art work.  Some of it was humorous.

Not very long after leaving Fort Stockton I was behind a semi passing a slower car.  The semi went back into the lane in front of the car we were passing.  I saw a huge "road gator" in my lane.  The car I was passing was on my right and there was no shoulder on the left.  I hit the thrown off tread.  I stopped at a rest stop and the only damage I could see was to the rear mud flap. When we stopped for fuel in El Paso, a helpful truck driver helped me tie the flap up with elastic ties so it didn't drag.

With the change to mountain time it was too early to stop.  We drove on to Deming, NM.  When I registered at the RV park more of the mud flap had torn off and was dragging again.

After Getting set up in our site, I cut the mud flap off.  I hoped to salvage the Chrome strip.  The mud flap wouldn't fit in the back of the jeep.  With some assistance of a neighbor I got the chrome part and it's backing off and fit it into the storage area, across the coach.  I had already removed the mud flap when I thought of taking pictures.  Only the top bar is left on the coach.

Gerri made a delicious dinner with sausages and fried tater tots and a great salad.  We watched TV and did computer stuff until bedtime.  It started raining just as we were going to bed.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive to a town south of Tucson.  I hope to find a cache in one of the 3 Arizona counties I haven't cached in yet.

Wednesday Sepetember 28, 2016 Fort Stockton, TX

We left the RV park after getting the utilities unhooked and the Jeep hooked up.  We stopped at the Buc-ee's in New Brunfels for fuel.  Diesel was $1.929 per gallon

Even during rush hour we were almost around San Antonio on the Anderson Loop before we ran into a couple of slow downs.  Once on I-10 it was clear with no traffic problems.

We had lunch on the road after a short stop.  We arrived at the Hilltop RV Park in Fort Stockton before I got droopy.  The park had mixed reviews.  We liked it.  Easy on and off I-10 but far enough away for no traffic noise.  One reviewer complained about he caliche dust.  We found the roads hard packed with no dust.  The spaces are all pull through with picnic tables on concrete pads at all sites.  Some sites had shade over the picnic tables.

Gerri prepared a noodle dish using the pork chops left over from last night's supper at Curtis and Dana's.

It was warm when we got here and the sun was very bright in the west.  It turned into a beautiful sunset.

I took care of some computer chores and we watched TV until bedtime.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to El Paso, about 300 miles.