Wed.. Apr. 29…. (Chula
Vista , CA ) We started out our trip on
Wednesday and headed to Chula Vista Marina RV Resort with our RV Club, The
Camping Squares (www.campingsquares.net).
There were just four rigs in camp on Wednesday so we all headed out to dinner
at Dick's Last Resort in the Lamppost District in San Diego . This place is nuts! The
girls got special hats to wear! It was fun. Then it was back to the
rigs to kick back and wait for the rest of our group to show up.
Thurs.. Apr.
30…. (Chula Vista , CA )
We now have 9 RVs
in w/2 to go tomorrow. We spent the day just lounging, and eating and swimming
and walking the dog, - not necessarily in that order. We did hit the spa
for a while and then hit the hay.
Fri. May
1…. (Chula Vista , CA )
We had decided to go
back to a restaurant we had been to earlier in the year – La Bella Pizza Gardens
– and all 22 folks in our group went.
Good turnout and really good food!
We held our Club meeting and went in the spa again before heading home
to watch TV. This is our third trip out
with full HD TV. We are now spoiled!
Sat.. May
2…. (Chula Vista , CA )
Saturday was a food
fest. We held our annual
Guys-Cook–Mothers-Day-Breakfast-For-The-Ladies, which I think went over
well. We had plenty of food. We had heard that the Cinco de Mayo party by
the pool on Saturday was held on Friday (the night we went for Italian) so we
decided to have our own party. We went
out and got margaritas and chips and salsa and guacamole and ate again. This was at 2:00pm. At 4:30 we had our potluck. Do you see what I mean about a food fest!. We were hardly able to waddle over to the
clubhouse for the dance! But we did it
and played four games of bingo before calling it a night. After that we went home and started to button
things up and get ready to head out in the morning.
Sun. 5/3 ….. (Wellton ,
AZ ) We left camp about 9:00am
on Sunday and drove 212 miles to our first stop, Tier Drop RV Park in Willton , AZ.
Not a special place but we did use their indoor spa after Lydia fixed
dinner for all six of the travelers.
Mon. 5/4….. (Tucson , AZ ) We headed out about 8:45 this
morning and drove 202 miles and hit our third stop - one night at the
Cactus Country RV Resort/Adventure Bound Camping Resorts just outside of Tucson AZ.
Again, no big deal in the way of anything here but it works for an overnighter!
Even though it was way across town we had arranged to meet up at Cracker Barrel
in town to have dinner with Mike and Karen (Sandie's sister) who live in Tucson . It was
Janie's first time at Cracker Barrel! All of us had gift cards because we knew we’d
use them on the trip. The meal was very
good and the company was better!
Sun. 5/3 ….. (
Mon. 5/4….. (
Tues. 5/5…. (Deming , NM )
This morning’s drive was 214 miles.
Again, we left around 8:45 or so.
We pulled in to Stagecoach RV Ranch.
This place was a $15-20 donation per night. But we support these places so all of us gave
them $20. It was another no frills park
and also a PA park. PA, or Passport America
is a membership group that RV parks join up and agree to charge 50% of their
normal rates (w/restrictions). There are
almost 1900 parks in the US
and Canada . These parks are not 5 star resorts and
usually rate 4-5 (out of 10) in amenities.
But it helps them fill up their sites and they work for us for
overnights so we support them. In this
park, we didn’t even bother to unhook the tow cars. we just stayed in camp and
Treasa fixed tacos for all of us (Happy Cinco de Mayo!). We headed back home
and hung out outside for a bit and watched some TV before going to bed.
Wed. 5/6…. (Alamogordo , NM ) Today we
only had 127 miles to go so we slept in and ate breakfast and got on the road
about 10:30. The drive was uneventful
but really pretty when we headed down into the White Sands
Valley . We passed the Missile Range
and National Monument on the way to Edgington RV Park. We are here for two
nights. This park is really maintained nicely by a friendly couple, John &
Barbara. They gave us a nice packet of
things to do while here. One of those we
knew about already – the local crop here is pistachios so we chose to visit
McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch, just down the road. Manager James gave us a tour around the ranch
and a little history - Thomas McGinn, of Thomas English Muffins, opened up the
ranch and decided to invest the time (eight years from planting to first
harvest). He liked the roadside attractions he had seen in his travels (giant
shoe, giant ball of string, etc.) and wanted the giant pistachio which was
really big! We learned that the trees
have it backwards – the females have the nuts and the males do not! The males work for a couple of weeks a year
to pollinate the trees and then they’re done for the year! I want to be re-incarnated as a male
pistachio tree! After that we stopped at
another pistachio farm and visited the wine section and tasted Pistachio Rose’,
which tasted ok but not good enough to buy so we passed. We then headed back
home and pooled the leftovers from each of our fridges. After dinner we went to
Caliche’s Frozen Custard, which the girls had spotted earlier. It was pretty
good
Thurs. 5/7…. (Alamogordo ,
NM ) Today we
decided to visit the White
Sands National
Monument , about 20 minutes from camp. After time spent watching a video in the
visitor’s center, we headed off to the sand area. This place is the largest gypsum dune field
in the world, ranging over 275 square miles.
We got out a couple of times and walked around. A few of us adventurous ones walked a bit up
and down the sand dunes. The sand here
is finer than sugar, almost a talcum, but it had a crust on it so you didn’t
sink in. Weird but very interesting.
After about an hour of exploring, we decided to head back to town and over to
the New Mexico Museum of Space History ($5. seniors). This is a four-story
building with interactive exhibits. All
who tried found out they couldn’t master how to land the shuttle simulator but
it was still fun. But later I did mange
to be an astronaut for a bit, complete with the suit! Pretty cool. We were
hungry after our outings so we decided to have linner (late lunch/early dinner)
at a local Mexican Restaurant. The food was really good but a bit too spicy for
most of us. We went back to the rigs and
let the dogs walk for a bit and then headed up the local mountain road (to
about 6,500 ft) to have dessert at an apple place. After heading home, again to walk the dogs,
Bill and Treasa hit the laundry and the rest of us went over to Walmart (note –
you will see this written again – Walmart is a usual stop for all of us!). I broke my fly swatter and needed a reason to
go.
Fri.. 5/8… (Carlsbad ,
NM ) The
run today was the prettiest so far! But more on that in a minute… We left camp
with one huge hiccup! As I was powering
down the satellite dish (it stows in a stored position laying down on the roof)
I set it to stow and then went out and worked outside disconnecting the water
and electric. Not thinking about checking to be sure the dish was down we
eventually drove away, Rick leading and us following and Bill in behind. Bill hit the horn and called on the cb to
tell me the dish was still partially up!
Thank God for friends! Turns out
I pulled the power cord and thus stopped the stowing process. I now have a reminder card on the steering
wheel to double check the dish! Anyway
we headed out and up into the Lincoln
National Forest and
climbed about 6300 feet in 16 miles. No
issues and the 148 mile drive was very pretty.
We are now in Lake
Brantley State
Park , pretty close to the water. Nice place. We rested from the day and it was
Lydia ’s
turn to fix dinner. Her casserole was
well received. We are here for three
nights.
Sat. 5/9… (Carlsbad , NM ) Our
plan today was to visit Carlsbad Caverns ,
which is about 57 miles away. First stop was Carlsbad (City) for breakfast at Happy’s
which was pretty good. Treasa still
isn’t 100% and this morning really wasn’t
feeling well so at breakfast they made the decision to go find the ER
and see what they could do for them.
Janie and I drove today so I gave Bill my car to use and we decided to
continue on to the Cavern. Our day was
fun and a bit strenuous. We got in with Lydia ’s National Park
Pass (Rick, Janie and I
also bought ours – it’s $10 for lifetime pass). We decided to take the Natural Cave entrance instead of going down the
elevator to the Big Room section. It was
a tiring walk for those not used to walking much especially holding back on the
steep downhill incline! When we finally
got to the Big Room (about 1 ½ hours) we decided to continue on and complete
the Big Room as well. So it was a long
day. Once out and back in cell phone
range, we heard from Treasa that they were doing a CT scan. They were supposed
to be cooking tonight so we decided stop by Walmart to get things for dinner
for the four of us. By the time we got back to town they were on their way
home. She is on another batch of meds
and is feeling much better so we’ll keep an eye on her. As I said, they skipped dinner with us so she
could rest. Janie fixed spaghetti and
made bread and we brought over salad which was all good. We talked later with Treasa – and they have decided
to head to Carlsbad tomorrow (if she feels up to
it then) while we are heading to Roswell
for a few hours. Lydia
and I then each retired to our motorhome and our respective TVs to catch up on
some of our taped shows.
Sounds like good times. Post pictures if you can. :-) <3
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