St. David, AZ -St. David Resort - Jan 15 - Feb 2, 2012

After a rocky start, the next few weeks at St. Davids turned out to be lots of fun.  Bill was assigned to cooking deserts, homemade rolls and cinnamon buns for the Saturday morning coffee and craft show. I volunteered us for clean up duty after the dinner and breakfast functions; a suggestion that was promptly accepted by Mae. The craft fair turned out to be very lucrative for us; averaging $120 per week in sales.  We even learned some new card games including several versions of hand and foot; sevens and progressive hand and foot. Card Golf, pocino and card bingo are some of this parks regular games.

The fifteen person attendance at our first pot luck dinner in the park was disappointing.  However, the food was diverse, delicious and plentiful.  Bill made a mile high lemon merange pie and yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and multicolored sprinkles.  The pie didn't last long; many people took the pie before they took their main course...quite a compliment.

Thursday nights activity was a beef stew dinner outside by the lake. Bill was assigned to make rolls and an apple crunch for desert. I ran errands and served the desert. About sixteen people attended; not a huge turnout. However, those in attendance had a great time and sat around the bonfire after dinner for quite some time chatting and roasting marshmallows .

Highlighting our stay at St. David's RV Resort were the two evenings that Johnnie Ben Como, an Indian/Mexican country western singer performed at the park. Johnnie is a local who talks, sings and plays one of the three eighteen string guitars in existence.  He entertains for over two hours non-stop  taking requests, singing old standards and songs he has written himself.

All good things must come to an end.  Over the next few weeks things slowly spiraled down hill....Our assignments changed like the wind.....one week we were assigned to run activities on Mae's days off the next week she told us the guests would be on their own; no need for us to organize card games for them. She insisted we take two days off a week....never mind we still didn't have a regular schedule. Bill had received rave reviews for his cinnamon rolls which should have made Mae happy....but it didn't.   The following week, she went back to cooking Sisco Foods cinnamon rolls herself. She told us someone told her there was a rumor in the park that we wanted her job; we think she made it up to see how we would react! She obviously felt threatened by us, in spite of the fact that we assured her we were headed to Florida and had another volunteer assignment on April 1st.

The next week Mae told us  she was taking Thursday off and we would need to put on a pot roast dinner by ourselves. No problem....Bill found a great recipe on line that had received rave reviews. So at 7:30AM on Thursday morning he put the pot roast in the roaster with secret gravy making ingredients that we bought ourselves. I peeled and chopped tons of vegetables and potatoes...by noon the sign up sheet had hit thirty! People were signing up because the pot roast smelled so good.  Mae showed up three times during the day to check up on us.  When she discovered that Bill had made two cakes, a carrot and a yellow with chocolate frosting and was decorating them with flowers and mini carrots she got ugly and said he was using powdered sugar that she was planning on using that weekend. We offered to replace it, but she said never mind she would figure it all out. Well, the dinner was a huge success. Thirty two people signed up...four of them being Joan and her husband and two visitors from the corporate office. The pot roast turned out great; the reviews were right the gravy was delicious.  Lots of compliments to the chef! Joan's husband took most of the remains home with him; a compliment by itself.

Sunday, Feb 5th, we worked the pancake breakfast with Jeanie, another volunteer.  Jeanie and Bill were assigned to cook pancakes on the griddles. Jeannie told Mae she didn't want to cook; she never cooked at home her husband did all the cooking. Bill and I both offered to cook for her, but Mae said  she needed to learn how to do this reminding us once again that she was in charge. Bill  ladled pancakes onto her griddle and Jeannie went into a melt down and ran off crying  when she couldn't flip the pancakes.  Bill, the volunteer who normally grills the steaks on Saturday night, happened to be attending the breakfast and took over for her.  Mae said nothing to him. Bill or I would have gladly taken over for her, but did not dare to interfere since we had been duly warned by Mae just minutes before that "she was in charge".  To further complicate matters, we ran out of pancake batter half way through the breakfast...Mae had decided to let ten people in who did not have reservations...fatal mistake! She had no reserve batter in the store room and had to improvise with Jiffy biscuit mix. Mae handed the bowl of batter to Bill hissing "don't you say a work Mister". I was serving Mae's burnt sausage patties, and lest we run out, cut back the portion to one pattie per person. I think there were a few unhappy customers that morning.  After breakfast we headed back to the clubhouse to wash the dishes. Mae followed us over saying we should clear the air and have a chat.  The chat only served to convince us it was time to move on. The following morning Bill wrote Joan a letter explaining our reasons for leaving and we pulled up stakes and hit the road.

St David, AZ - St. David RV Resort - Jan 2 - 15, 2012

Moving day we were on the road by 7:30AM headed for St. David, AZ, the next stop on our trek back to Florida.  St. David is located 270 miles south east of Salome, Az, a good six or seven hour drive most of which is on Route 10. Our empty pantry, you may recall our  Salome pot luck dinner story, and the fact that Susan J. Cat was down to one can of cat food necessitated a stop for groceries.  Our GPS listed three Walmarts en route and we decided to "stop and shop" at the one mid way. It took about an hour to fill our extensive shopping list. Climbing back into the coach, I put the groceries away,  Bill started the engine and we exited the Walmart parking lot. With a long ride ahead we were anxious to get under way, but it was now lunch time and I was craving a french vanilla coffee.  A few miles out Bill spotted a gas station/convenience store where we were assured of getting a hot dog, one of our favorite  junk foods; add a french vanilla coffee and we are in heaven! We gobbled down the dogs and headed back to the coach with our coffees ready to hit the road once again.

St Davids RV Resort is a  Western Horizon Resort that accepts RPI members. Ten dollars a night isn't bad, but we found out later it also accepts ROD members... we could have had a rent free week....live and learn. The park has some nice amenities: hot tub, swimming pool, miniature golf, bacci ball court, club house and activity center. The down side is the park provides only 30 amp service. This means we have to  monitor the use of appliances, electric heat, water heaters and the washer/dryer. For example we cannot run the micro waive, coffee pot, and water heater at the same time. Washing/drying clothes needs to be done midday when we can turn off the electric heat.  The punishment for forgetting is one of us (Bill) needs to go outside to reset the breaker; not fun on a 25 degree morning. 

Perusing St David's weekly activity schedule we discovered there was a lot to do: pot luck dinner, craft sale, steak dinner, a sausage gravy/biscuit breakfast...and two ice cream socials! Bill spotted the general manager's help wanted advertisement. The manager was looking for a couple to volunteer in the area of food/activities for the months of Jan, Feb and March. Perfect...we had time to kill before our April 1st report for duty date at Koreshan State Park.  After changing into appropriate interview clothing we headed to the office in search of Joan, the general manager. Our timing was not good. We found Joan, but she told us she was on her way out to handle a crisis. We told her that we were retired, in no hurry, and would wait for her. Twenty minutes later, our patience paid off and we ended up having a lovely chat with her. Joan told us she had just returned from vacation that day and had unearthed several serious problems: a non working phone system being the worst.  The position, she finally told us, was for a couple to work twenty five hours a week organizing games in the activity center and preparing/serving food at park sponsored events in exchange for free rent. She said she would send Mae, the activities coordinator, over to talk to us on Thursday.

Wednesday we decided to visit Desert Diamond Casino located a mere fifty miles away.  Why not  take them up on their offer to new players club members of a free buffet and $10 in slot money?  The buffet food alone, we discovered, was worth the drive and we were able to play for quite sometime before loosing their money and some of our own.

Thursday afternoon we were sitting outside, Bill cracking pecans at the picnic table and me reading from my Kindle, when Mae showed up.  We had a lengthy chat with her and we assumed we were hired when she gave us assignments for the week: show up for some card games and help out with the Saturday night steak/chicken dinner. Bill volunteered to make the biscuits for Sunday morning breakfast; she agreed to let him. We should have known after week one that our talents were not going to be used by Mae.  Playing cards with the other residents and standing around doing nothing at the Saturday dinner didn't consitute earning our keep in our minds.

The following week we were again given limited assignments. So onWednesday we decided to visit  Tombstone, AZ located about ten miles from St. Davids. A perfect day trip. Our first stop was at  boot hill cemetery where we found a McFarland grave site (my maiden name...a possible relative ?) among the graves of infamous historical persons.

The town of tombstone was a hoot! The pictures below tell the story best.  We strolled the streets looking into the windows of many of the gift shops; browsing inside a few. There is really just too much to take in in one day.  We will definitely need to return to see the "gun fight at O.K. Coral" and tour the old hotel/brothel.We had burgers for lunch in the O.K. Cafe. The multitasking waitress/ hostess/cashier was pleasant in spite of being overworked. The hamburgers were just OK. (pardon the pun) Maybe we should have tried the buffalo burgers!

Salome, AZ - Desert Vista RV Resort - Dec 27, 2011 - Jan 02, 2012

This is our first visit to Desert Vista RV Resort in Salome, AZ. As its name implies, the park is located in the desert  and is surrounded by mountains. Desert Vista is an Encore RV Resort park that also accepts reservations from members of Resort Parks International. Our RPI annual membership fee provides us with access to numerous parks throughout the US at a much discounted rate. Our stay here will cost us a mere $12 a night which includes 50 AMP service, water, sewer and access to the club house, miniature golf,  swimming pool and hot tub.  

On day two of our stay we headed out  to see what the area had to offer. We needed groceries and thought lunch out would be lovely. Bill fired up the GPS and entered our favorite store, Wallmart. The closest one turned out to be 50 miles away. We had no desire to drive that distance today.  A restaurant search listed a Subway 46 miles away and one other alternative, the name of which escapes me,  five miles away making it our only viable choice.  When we reached the restaurant's GPS location, we discovered a building that appeared to have been boarded up for years! Nothing else to do but head back to the campground. As luck would have it, our return route took us through the town of Wenham where we found Wenhams answer to a mini mall:  grocery store, restaurant, Post Office and a laundromat.   On entering the tiny store we discovered shelves sparcely stocked with unappealing and high priced items. The dairy section contained a few jugs of outdated 2% milk and a lone jug of whole milk (which we never drink) with a valid sell by date of Jan 6th. We were totally out of milk and in desperation purchased the whole milk.

By this time we were starving. The  restaurant next door didn't look like it was open; there were no cars parked out front or any other signs of a welcoming environment inside. We decided to live dangerously and try it anyway.  We were pleasantly surprised when on entering, we were greeted by a friendly gal who escorted us to a table near a pelet burning wood stove. The room was  nicely furnished and decorated with large mirrors, wall plaques and local memorabilia.  Dinner plates, sporting the names of various states and decorated with pictures, logos and cute sayings, hung on the wall over our assigned table. The menu listed basic but high priced  luncheon fare; hamburgers, hot dogs, chili and grilled cheese sandwiches etc.   We both ordered a bowl of chili. Since, we were the only customers in the restaurant we expected a minimal wait for our food.  After ten minutes  we  realized that the chili was being thawed out and microwaved on a per order basis. The chili, however, turned out to be well worth the twenty minute wait.  We were presented with a huge bowl of delicious, mildy spiced chili with lots of hamburger and beans.  Bill couldn't even finish his...  me well...On the  way out I noticed there were now five other customers; safe to say all the business they would do over this  lunch period. No wonder prices were so high.

We had planned on spending New Years Eve alone in the coach.   However, things in our life can  change rapidly. The afternoon of New Years Eve we had gone over to the pool for a swim and overheard a woman talking about the pot luck dinner at the clubhouse that evening. Bill asked the magic question....was it to late to sign up? She told us there wasn't a sign up sheet just bring a covered dish and show up at 4:45 PM...We wanted to attend but with a pantry that was pretty well depleated and  no decent grocery store nearby  we had a real dilemma about what to bring?  We decided to recycle the Au Gratin potatoes in our freezer;  left overs from the last pot luck dinner.  Bill nuked the potatoes and cooked up a lone winter squash from the pantry and we headed to the clubhouse at exactly 4:45.  Most of the tables were already occupied but we were able to find two seats.   After adding our contributions to the buffet table we sat down with our tablemates who turned out to be a friendly, chatty bunch. At 5PM dinner was announced and people began lining up with their plates. We waited till most of the people had filled their plates and sat down before we got up to fill our own.   The buffet table contained an interesting assortment of hot and cold foods:  meatloaf, black eyed peas, spare ribs, spaghetti, jello salad, rolls, shrimp, a spicy pasta dish and several unknown dishes.  A separate desert table was laid out with a scrumptious looking Cherry pie, a store bought cake,  holiday cookies, an apple brown Betty and two plates of peanut butter fudge. As usual, we both ate way too much food and  I knew  Bill was longing to get in his lounge chair. Not wanting to be the first to leave we waited until  6:15 when most of the people began gathering up their dirty dishes; we packed up and followed the crowd out of the rec hall.

Our drive through the surrounding towns had made it pretty clear that not much was happening in this neck of the woods and we would be on our own for entertainment. No problem, we are pretty self sufficient. We spent our time in Salome swimming in the pool, soaking in the hot tub, playing miniature golf, reading, knitting, and working on our blog.

Lake Havasu City, AZ - Lake Havasu RV Park - December 20 - 26 2011

We had heard wonderful things about Lake Havasu RV Park from our friends, Lloyd and Mary Hanneberg. We had no plans for the week of Christmas and decided this would be a great time to explore this part of AZ. Lake Havasu RV Park is a Colorado River Adventure park that also accepts reservations from Resort Parks International members; at $10 a day we felt we had a deal. The park employees were really in the holiday spirit and had put lots of effort into decorating the grounds and clubhouse.  Christmas Eve the park hosted a  carol sing with refreshments of home made cookies, candy, soda and coffee. Christmas day consisted of a park hosted pot luck dinner; the park provided ham and the attendees brought accompanying side dishes. Our contribution was Potatoes AuGratin and home made Crescent  rolls.

Lake Havasu City, AZ is the home of the infamous London Bridge. We spent time one morning exploring the town, walking along the river taking pictures of the bridge, shops and restaurants reminiscent of Old England.  Lake Havasu is beautiful  even in the off season. I am sure this place is bustling with tourists in peak season; shopping, dining, fishing, boating and enjoying a whole host of other  activities available in this river communuity.  Unfortunately, since we are experiencing Lake Havasu off season and with the exception of the Visitors Center almost everything else is closed, we had to look elsewhere for entertainment.  We discovered that the Blue Water Casino was offering perks for their new members; a free buffet and $10 in slot play.  Perks we felt were worth the 40 mile drive.

Lytle Creek, CA - Mountain Lakes ROD Park Aug 16 -22 and Sept 6 - 13 2011

Mountain Lakes is a  heavily treed, well maintained park nestled in the mountains in Lytle Creek, CA.  The park stocks its many lakes weekly with catfish and trout making it a favorite camping spot for locals as well as full timers like Bill and I. We also love this park because of its many amenities which include three swimming pools, several hot tubs, both an adult and a family lodge, a general store, restaurant, game room, paddle boats and a miniature golf course.  There are lots of activities as well; we wouldn't dream of missing a chance to win big at bingo which is played three nights a week in the adult lodge.

On our first visit to Mountain Lakes back in 2010 Bill bought a license and spent the best part of the day soaking up some sun and kibitzing with fellow fishermen. Although he never did catch any fish, he had a great time. Our first week this year was pretty uneventful.  He decided to forgo the fishing license and pass the time with several of his many interests; Backgammon cooking and jewelry making. We are now on our second week at Mountain Lakes and Bill has become the proud owner of a Kindle and is reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson; one of my favorite reads and part of a trilogy that will keep him occupied for a while. Since Bill is the primary cook in our home, cooking takes up a great deal of his time. This weeks culinary treats included a few of my favorites, biscotti and sausage-gravy on home made biscuits.  Anything to thwart my diet plans.

This week, and for many weeks to come, my time will be spent making Christmas gifts for our twenty some relatives.  Knitting slippers and scarfs for that many people will keep me out of trouble for a while...especially since I am new to this craft. Reading is one of my favorite pastimes as well and I too have a Kindle. (Space in the RV is a valuable commodity - books are big space consummers).  I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I loved the book and am looking forward to seeing the movie.  I am currently reading a light read by Janet Evanovich,  Smokin" Seventeen.  Evanovich  is always good for a laugh.

Menifee, CA - Wilderness Lakes TT Park August 2 - 15 and Aug 23 - Sept 5

Wilderness Lakes in Menifee, CA is by far one of the most popular parks in southern California for full time RVers, snow-birds and locals as well. The park is wall to wall families in the summer time. We spent quite a few weeks here this year and would gladly have spent the entire summer here  except our membership only allows us to stay two weeks at a time.  We can return to the  park after a weeks absence.....so that is exactly what we did... spending our off weeks between Pio Pico and Mountain Lakes.

We returned from our 16 day European  cruise on August 2nd and spent the night in the RV on our storage site. We were dog tired after a day of flying across the country; moving the rig anywhere that night was not something we were physically capable of. All I can say is we sure were grateful for the RV's portable water supply and being on a storage site with electricity. The next morning we were up and early and located a spot for the rig not far from our storage site.  In a little over one hour we were set up and on the road to Murietta Hot Springs to retrieve Susan J. from All Creatures Great and Small ....boarding facility. Susan J. sure was happy to see us.  She followed us around for a week demanding lots of lap time, stroking and attention.  She is a creature of habit and it didn't take her long to get back into her old routines; breakfast at 4:30 AM, lap time with dad, then at least a half hour sitting outside the rig on the entrance carpet...(she never goes much further than that).  She didn't even forget about eating her treats from her plate on the dining table...bedtime is a whole story in itself!

The four weeks we spent here were filled with days of swimming, crafting, setting up our tables for the parks weekend swap meets...we sold out of jam and were able to sell some unwanted items we had been storing...like our old style TV...We also took time to work our own exercise programs...Bill bought a bike and began riding to various geo cashing sites early in the morning while I tried to work my butt off on the treadmill and exercise bike. We also found time to pay a few visits to the local casinos making our contribution to the local economy...We didn't get to play our favorite game...candy bar bingo once during this stay...oh well..we will be back!

Panama Canal Cruise - Dec 15 - 30, 2010 Aruba

Aruba is a Dutch speaking country that encompasses 74 Square Feet with a population of approximately 34,000. It is one of my favorite islands. I have spent many a vacation here walking the beaches, dining in the many fine restaurants and even contributing to the economy with my donations at the casinos. Bill and I decided that today we would spend our time in port exploring the downtown harbor area. We went on our own walking tour milling in and out of the local shops, picking up our free charm bracelets at Diamond International, meandering through a park past a marina and making a quick stop at the casino to try our luck.

Panama Canal Cruise - Dec 15 - 30, 2010

We boarded the Coral Princess on December 15Th after parting with Susan J. for her vacation at "All Creatures Great and Small" veterinarian and pet hotel in Murietta Hot Springs, CA. Her accomodations include her own three room suite and two play periods per day in the community play area. We brought along her favorite cat food, Fancy Feast, a huge supply of her favorite Temptations treats and her favorite toys. We should not have felt guilty, right? But we do anyway.

The Coral Princess holds about 2000 plus passengers and we read that it had been refurbished within the past few years. Once on board we discovered that it was, pardon the pun, all decked out for Christmas with ropes of lighted, green garland everywhere, Christmas trees on all the main decks and a Santa display in the Atrium. We were also delighted to find that the inside cabin we purchased had been upgraded to one with an unobstructed ocean view.

Having taken the red eye from LAX airport the night before and then spending five hours sitting in the cold, cruise line terminal, by the time our 1 PM boarding time arrived, we were pretty tired and hungry. We were first in line for check in and headed for our cabin; simply setting our suitcases inside our state room we headed for the lunch buffet. Once our hunger was more than amply appeased we headed for the pool and a comfortable deck chair and a siesta in the sun. An hour or so later we were ready to unpack and prepare for our first dinner in the dining room.

We discovered that we would be dining with seven very interesting people. Carolyn, a single, retired, California resident had once been the buyer for a large department store. Mike and Candy the parents of six grown children were also from California. They told us they were seeking some alone time and had requested a table for two. They must have succeeded because we never saw them again; anywhere! We discovered that we had several things in common with the second couple, John and Katie, a retired couple from Amarillo, TX. They had only been married for six years and had also met online. The last couple, Renon and Robert, were from Las Veges, NV also retired and celebrating their wedding anniversary. After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show that lasted all of 45 minutes and headed to bed. Glad the day was done!

Banning, CA - Silent Valley a ROD park

We had a late start this morning because our motor coach would not start. Bill enlisted the aid of the park maintenance man and used our Yaris to jump start the coach. We really need to look into new batteries. The drive from Yuma, AZ to the town of Banning, CA was pretty uneventful. However, from Banning it was a ten mile harrowing drive up a narrow, winding mountain road to Silent Valley RV park. This park is a ROD park and we were expecting great things. To our disappointment, the park was virtually empty. There was a sea of orange plastic bags over most of the electric meters and we were told to go and find one that was not covered. The spot we found was not very level, as you can see from the picture above. Bill had to put his tool box under the steps so we could step on it in order to get into the rig. Walking around the park we discovered that the pool was closed and there was some uncertainty about the status of the hot tub. The night of our arrival we left our tow car in one of those numerous closed spots next to our rig. The next day we headed into town and on our return found a note reprimanding us for taking two spots. Oh well...we moved the car onto our site. Later in the day we were confronted by the maintenance team who handed us the rule sheet and told us we needed to use wood under the stabilizing pads on our rig. After reading the rule several times we didn't see how it applied to us since we have a fairly new rig with adequate size pads. But....there was no pleasing the two maintenance men who were not leaving until they were sure we had complied with the rule. They told us in warm weather small pads would sink into the asphalt and ruin it. Gee, it is winter and the temperature is close to freezing! The more I thought about the park and its rule enforcers, the lack of activities, and the cold climate the more I didn't want to be here. So I suggested that we mosey on out of here the next day and bump up our reservations to Wilderness Lakes by a few days. On the way out of the park we cancelled the future reservations we had made for Silent Valley. No wonder Silent Valley is so Silent; who would want to be here under these conditions when there are so many other wonderful places to choose from.

Yuma, AZ - Araby Acres an Encore Park

A repeat visit to Araby Acres in Yuma, Az was a must. We had spent six weeks the prior year from Thanksgiving through New Years at which time we had purchased our Alpha motor home. This year we would be spending only a month. We very quickly got back into the daily routine we had established during our prior visit availing ourselves of Paradise Casino's toys/food promotion; bring $25 worth of merchandise and they give you $50 on your players card. The trick, of course, is to leave each day with as much of the $50 as possible. At the end of the month, we had made a $1200 profit for our efforts. A visit to the swimming pool and hot tub were also part of our daily routine. We were here once again over Thanksgiving. The management at Araby Acres historically provides Turkey with the basic fixings and the attendees augment this with vegetables, deserts etc. Our days were also spent making Christmas presents and cards for our family members. We are planning a Panama Canal cruise over the Christmas Holiday and we will need to mail our cards and packages off before we leave on December 15th. I have been working on a project scanning over 2000 photos from my father's albums to disc. over the last six months and this too needs to be finished before our departure. All of this kept us hopping for the entire month.