Saturday March 1st

There's a rule that all good things must come to an end. If I ever find the person who made that rule, I'm gonna have a few words with the SOB. I mean, why not make all BAD things come to an end, and let the good ones last forever? Wouldn't that be a more reasonable rule?

We (Gab, Mojo, and I) arrived safe and relatively sound back in Lamont about 9:00 last night. Rather than go the usual route from Coutts home, we took highway 36 pretty much due north from Warner all the way to Viking, then cut over to Tofield on highway 14, up to Chipman on 834, and then across to Lamont on 15. Streets and Trips showed this as the shortest route home, and I have no doubt that it was. It failed to take into account the miles and miles of bad frost heaves, however, or the thousands (OK, dozens) of stock haulers insistent on travelling at 130k+. Most seemed rather surly at my 100-105k speed - at least there were no thank-you flashes of the backup lights or 4-ways when I signalled over to the shoulder and slowed to let them get by as quickly as possible. The only thank you flash I got was from a regular trucker pulling a box trailer.

On the bright side, the number of stock trucks on the road must mean that the price of cows is good, right? So the ranchers'll be happy. Hah hah.

So anyway, an uneventful trip from Helena home. Even the border guard had a good sense of humour when I pulled up with a cheat sheet of receipt totals, licence plate numbers, quantities and types of meat, dairy, and produce items in the unit... then had to dig for a minute or so when he asked to see my ID. OK, so I was ALMOST well prepared.

Highway 36 is flat flat flat, except for the occasional precipitous plunge in and out of a river valley and the mini mountainous terrain of frost heaves. If you go I recommend new shocks beforehand and, if cow prices are good, fill up with premium as you'll need the extra octane to keep ahead of the truckers.

The weather co-operated nicely today, and we (Wendy and I) were able to get the motorhome unloaded in nice +6C temperatures today. There's a little more snow here than when I left - Wendy says there was lots and a lot of it melted, but she has no pictures or other proof so the jury's out on that one - and it looks like what's here might be gone within the next couple months. So Alberta is EXACTLY like Utah. Except for the forecast of -17C or some
foolish thing tonight.

So now I'm enjoying the last remnants of the trip: a glass or two of duty-free rum ($11 for a 40 pounder, if you can believe it, and REAL rum too - not that prettied-up stuff that passes for rum below the 49th) mixed with some Sam's cola from Vegas and ice cubes made with good water from Phoenix, munching some potato chips from Montana. That's about it for this particular journey, except that over the next few days I want to pull a little stats table together & post it. If you're interested, check back in a week or so, and if I don't have anything posted yet email
me a reminder. I get forgetful sometimes.

I've heard that everyone else has made it home safe and sound (or at least, I haven't heard that they haven't), so that's definitely something for which we should all be thankful.

Thursday February 28th

Tonight finds me in Helena Montana, without a whole lot to report. Today was a long driving day, with the roadside scenery going from patches of rotten snow to 2 foot high snowbanks and back to patches again. Good thing, or I might have been looking for a turn-around spot. Nothing much else to do, so I took a whole card full of thu-the-windshield scenery shots. I won't inflict you with ALL of them, though.

If you notice any little black spots in the pictures, those are bugs on the windshield believe it or not. I have no idea when they hit, but there they are. There was also a housefly flying around inside the windshield for a while, but he keeled over and died all on his own. My theory is that he looked outside.

Tonight I'm doing my best to try to finish off Tina's beer, so it doesn't infringe on my alcohol entitlement at the border. It's a tough job, but one that has to be done... Other than that, I guess it'll be add up the receipts & head for bed. Supposed to get down to 27F here tonight, so
I'll try to stay cozy (funny story: last night in Payson the furnace kicked on a few more times than I thought it should... when I got up this morning I noticed I'd left a window open after it was so nice out in Nephi. So if spring comes a little early you'll have me to thank).

In the last picture, both the other motorhomes in view have Alberta plates, by the way. In case you're keeping track.

Wednesday February 27th

In case you haven't noticed yet, I seem to be struggling with what day it is. I like when holidays go like that; soon I'll have no choice but to know.

Anyway, I just checked the calendar and Wednesday is indeed the 27th, so I must be in Utah. Actually, I only made it as far as Payson today - a whopping 192 miles. Believe it or not, it was still a full day. Since the weather was forecast in the 50's and no rain or snow, it was a good day to do the scheduled oil & lube on the Bounder. I'd serviced it last fall before I put it away, but the odo was ticking over 3,000 miles since then & there was no way I wanted to put another 1,400 miles on & do it at home. I had picked up the oil and filter and one of those mini cartridge grease guns (assuming I'd just leave that in the MH for anyone who needs, um, greased), so I had the supplies and the Flying J in Nephi was the perfect place.

While I was there, I also did the winterization on the water lines - I hear it's still cold way up north. Given a choice I think I'd have preferred to just wait until the weather warmed rather than waste more good antifreeze... but unfortunately nobody's given me a choice. In any event I pulled into Nephi around noon and I left around 5:30 having accomplished pretty much everything I needed to do (a couple things I wound up not being able to do because I was short parts, but they're not critical). Good timing to be gone then, as the lot was filling up with trucks for the night.

Leaving Nephi the choice was to either stop early or get past Salt Lake City (another 80 miles or so), as I DON'T want to be navigating it in morning rush hour tomorrow. The Payson Wal*Mart is right beside the Interstate, so convenience wins out. It's only supposed to be in the high 20's or low 30's tonight (about the same as last night in Cedar City), although there's a lot of snow on the mountains and patches on the ground here.

The first couple pictures are from Cedar City this morning - last night's pictures in the dark turned out like crap. Notice what's hiding behind the Wildwood trailer, thinking he can't be seen. Hey, I'm just saying...

BTW, the Dutch Star is from Alberta and headed back. The brown MH in the first pic also had Alberta plates, but I'm not sure which direction they're headed. Probably saw another 8 or 10 Alberta MHs, trailers, and horse trailers headed north today, so the spring migration must be starting.

I didn't take any pictures at the Flying J - thought about that as I was leaving. Would have made good pictures with all the crap unloaded, compressor running, etc. The last pic is from Payson.
I'm showing an unsecured WiFi connection available, so I'm gonna try to jump on it and get this posted. TTFN

PS - I just finished the last of the rum, so I'm gonna try to tough it out and finish off Tina's beer before Great Falls...

Tuesday February 26th

Guess I haven't done an update for a few days - sorry about that. You know how it is.

As I'm writing this I'm in the Wal*Mart parking lot in Cedar City, UT. I don't have a WiFi connection right now, but I may later so I'm prepping this just in case.

Not much has happened since Thursday - the wedding, visiting, sighseeing, etc. If you want to know more about the wedding, check Cliff's website. I won't bore you with the other stuff.
Got the kids to the airport Monday night, and Wendy there at noon on Tuesday. As I write this she's probably touching down, and Steven's already been back to work for a day. Ah, the advantages of air travel! Me, I have to work myself back gradually.

As I said, I'm in Cedar City tonight. Temp is supposed to drop into the high 20s overnight and only into the low 50's tomorrow. There's a pile of dirty snow at the edge of the parking lot. Guess I'll sart to acclimatize. Sigh.

Thursday February 21st

Looks like the 'peace and solitude' part of the holiday is over: all the clan are arriving for the wedding, and Steven, Tina, and Fuzzy came in Thursday night. Believe it or not we managed to get everyone and everything (including two car seats) into the car at the airport and get everyone safely back to Sams Town.

Wednesday we did a couple touristy things - Ethel M chocolate factory and the scenic drive out to Red Rock Canyon. We hadn't done either of those on the last trip. Funny the things you see along the side of the road here, like a wireless tower disguised to look like a tree (not sure if that'll fool the Russians) or a homemade tow truck made from a Lincoln Town Car. Wednesday nght was out to dinner with the gang (Sean and Alicia, Brent and Carmen, Claire, Diane, and Cliff and Kathy). The day started out cloudy, and we got some rain in the afternoon (still beats the heck out of snow, though).

Thursday we spent the morning cleaning the MH and doing the last of the laundry (told you the holiday was over). In the afternoon we spent a couple hours in the casino, checked out a K-Mart, and did a dry run through the airport to make sure we could find the right terminal later. Then it was back to the park, a little more casino for me and a rest for Wendy, a bite to eat, and back to the airport to pick up the kids.

For anyone not sure of where Sams Town is, it's NOT near the strip (a bonus for me). It's out on Boulder Highway in Henderson, about 1/2 hour from the airport and 20 minutes from the strip. In the picture with the sign you can see the strip and judge the distance for yourself. The last picture I took just to show that we're not the oldest unit in the park anymore. Also, check out the lot sizes - we usually have more room that this at Wal*Mart!

Tuesday February 19th

You probably figured it out already... we have internet! Yaaayyy!

We pulled into Sam's Town in Vegas this morning, and have now done two things that I haven't done since I left:

1. Paid for a campsite - we're on full hookups for the next week.

2. Paid for internet - after not having it for the past few days, we both decided it's worth it. 20 bucks for the week, but what the heck.

The last post I had prepped was for Saturday, and now that that's uploaded here's an update on Sunday & Monday.

Sunday morning we bid farewell to Quartzsite and moved up the river to Lake Havasu. This is a long weekend in the states (President's Day), and the weather was sunny and warm, so of course all the local sun bunnies were out. Imagine Kelowna on the May long weekend. Unless there's a big chunk of Lake Havasu that's out of sight of the town, I think if all the speedboats pulled up on shore went out on the lake at once you could probably walk from one side to the other.

We stopped at the BLM dispersed campsite "Craggy Wash", which is just on the north side of the local airport which is in turn on the north side of town. Don, if you ever stop here the road goes right up the canyon about 5-6 miles and there are camping spots al the way along. We didn't know this so wound up setting up at the bottom, and only found out after we unhooked the car and went for a cruise. Had we been staying longer than 1 night it would have been worthwhile to move.

So anyway we took the car & went back into Lake Havasu, did London Bridge & some shopping. The last pic is the view of Lake Havasu out our back (bedroom) window in the campsite, by the way. Sorry, I guess I should have cleaned the window first.

Monday we moved on up to Laughlin,and overnighted at the Riverside again (same spot as the trip down). This time we actully checked in and got a permit, though. It was still free, just had to fill out some forms. Wendy did well, but I contributed my usual amount to the greater good.

This morning we made the move up to Vegas - a long drive for us after the past few days. I think we covered about 80 miles in the MH today.

Saturday February 16

We did the loop over to Bouse, up to Parker, across to the California side, down to Blythe, and home. Lots of desert to see, if you're into that. There's access to a whole bunch of backcountry roads around Vidal CA, but on the map most are marked as 4WD roads. Since the area's so dry I think a lot are probably passable in 2WD, but maybe with a little more ground clearance than the Cavalier offers. I do see a little 4WD SUV in our future sometime...

Stopped in at Mayflower county campground along the river, just to check it out. $18/day or $250/month, with hookups, boat launch, etc. Looks pretty much like the typical campground you'd see in Canada in July. This one'll be closed for the season at the end of March, though.

Back to the campsite, and it was even warm enough for Wendy to change into shorts, miracle of miracles. Happy hour, dinner, a couple games of crib, and a few Corner Gas episodes and it was bedtime. Big Time Saturday Night in Quartzsite (but not much different than our Saturday Nights in Lamont).

Friday February 15th

OK, so I haven't posted for a few days. I plead extenuating circumstances. As I write this it's 3:00 Friday afternoon, and we're (Wendy and I) in La Paz road campsite back in Quartzsite. Not sure when we'll have internet again, so put your head back to Friday when you're reading this (I hope that's easier than going back to 1971, for some of the younger crowd out there. You know who you are).
So here's a quick recap on the week:
On Monday the plan was to check out a potential RV site for Wendy's arrival, and then do some other touristy things. Unfortunately plans change, as Monday morning the car wouldn't start. Crank like a bugger, but no go-go. After diddling around a little we hitched up and hauled it to a GM dealer in Chandler. Long story short, the fuel pump was gone (OK, it was still there but it was on strike) so it was Tuesday afternoon before we got it back working again.
Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) sightseeing potential is seriously cut back when your transportation mode changes from 40 mpg to 6 mpg. So Monday afternoon was hilited by a trip to the laundromat (not an unpleasant experience when you can sit in your kitchen and play crib while waiting for the machines to finish), and Tuesday morning was hilited by intensive cleaning of the living accomodations in preparation for the arrival of the queen bee. Tuesday afternoon we picked up the car and headed back to camp.
In our travels we passed by a sign for another casino - the Gila River Wild Horse Pass casino just out of Phoenix - so we decided to check it out. Lots of RV parking and fairly close to the airport, so rather than making the 20 mile trek out to Maricopa and back we bunked in there for the night.
Wednesday morning we did a little pre-scouting for a dump/fill station, since we were down to about 1/8 tank of water and the grey tank was full. Found one at the Flying J on I-10 just west of Phoenix, then we scooted back to the airport and did a couple (OK, about 15) trial runs at finding the right terminals for Wendy's arrival at 2:00 and Don's departure at 11:30 Thursday AM. As it turned out, finding terminals at the Phoenix airport is a breeze; finding parking isn't. Anyway, picked up Wendy and headed back to the casino, where we arrived in perfect time for happy hour, then had the buffet dinner (because we couldn't cook, right? No way to wash dishes with the grey tank full).
Thursday we (Note: "we now means Wendy and I) got Don dropped off at the airport, stopped by Beaudry RV to pick up a few parts and deposit some spittle on the floors of some of the new class A's, and then hitched up and headed west. After a stop at Flying J to dump off/water up/gas up we reached Quartzsite about 4 PM. We had a short look around and wound up back in the La Paz area where Don and I stayed, mainly because I didn't want to spend a bunch of time hunting up a new site and I knew that area was OK. Wendy decided to do a little impromptu cleaning, and upon opening up a cupboard that (I swear) Don and I didn't know existed found a bag of potatoes and the remains of a bottle of wine from last fall. Honest, I don't know how she sniffs these things out. Anyway, once she was done playing in the cupboard we had a nice meal and settled in for the night.
Friday was a sleep in / lazy day. After we did get up and get breakfast done we cruised Quartzsite and the area. Don - all the big tents are now gone, as are about half the people in the long term areas. The place is starting to look like a ghost town, and I imagine in another month it will be. And that brings us pretty much right up to current.
I asked Wendy if she wanted to add anything, and the only response I got from her was "There's no freaking snow". She says that'll mean something to the folks back home, so I guess she's OK with her trip so far even though it's been a little chilly since she landed. Highs only in the mid 60's today, but it's supposed to get back to normal for the weekend. Hope so.