2015 Trip – Summation and Stats

We were out on the road from April 29^th to July 15^th – a total of 78 days.

We drove a total of 5,119 miles in the motorhome and a whopping 2,363 miles in the car! Remember – our car does not accrue towing miles - that was just from driving around (and around!). Plus we shared driving with two other cars and that doesn’t include those miles! I'm guessing adding them all up would at least equal the motorhome miles!

We stayed at 32 different RV parks.  Shortest time at a park was overnight.  Longest was 5 days. Using the ratings like we did last trip (from 1-10, 10 being best) we still found there were no parks we gave a perfect score of 10.  Three parks got a 9, four parks got an 8, five parks got a 7, nine parks got a 6, nine parks got a 5, and two parks got a 4. (for you RVrs I have the file with names and addresses and the ratings for each park so if anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll send it to you.)  The parks we rated a 4 we probably wouldn’t go back to.  Those with a five were good for overnight or just ok for a couple of days. Some were sparse; some were tight for our rig. Those with 6-9 rating we liked very much and will stay there again in a minute. Turns out we enjoyed all but a few of the places we were in. Since the Passport America parks are ½ of the advertised price (with limitations) we always try to base more at those. Turns out we ended up staying in 12 pa parks and three military bases (thanks to Betz and Moore for getting us on base). The others were found mostly in Trailer Life.   Some parks we found were close to the highway and easy in and out. We liked that (unless they were too close!).  Some were extremely hard to get to or were a distance from the things we wanted to go see.  We didn’t like that but that’s part of the adventure.

We made 8 fuel stops for the rig.  This coach has a 150 gallon fuel tank.  Note – I can go a lot farther on a tank of fuel than in the old rig and we did but I still have a policy not to let the fuel go below a ½ tank.  Usually way before it gets to ½ tank I start figuring where the next stop will be.  Rick & Janie and Bill & Treasa have smaller fuel tanks but when they stopped we just hung around so we could still travel together. Turns out on this trip all of our stops were at Flying J.  We have an account so we search out those stops along our route.  Also they turn over their supply very quickly so we are assured of fresh fuel.  Stops were:

(1) Eloy, AZ (Phoenix area) ($2.89 per gal),

(2) Pecos, TX ($2.77 per gal.),
(3) Orange, TX ($2.81 per gal),
(4) Hope Hull, AL ($2.89 per gal.),
(5) Olive Branch, MS ($2.71 per gal.),
(6) Dallas, TX ($2.75 per gal),
(7) Tucumcari, NM ($2.67 per gal.)
(8) Kingman, AZ ($2.63 per gal). 

That made the avg. price $2.74.5 per gallon. I still have over ½ tank so I won’t fill up for the August club outing (probably good till we head out in September). On last year’s trip the avg. price was $3.68 per gal. so we think we did ok.  I got a high of 8.2 mpg on one tank and a low of 6.8 mpg on my worst tank. On the lesser mpg runs we had the generator on so we could run the coach a/c. The generator runs on diesel so that affects the mileage. But even with that, average was 7.6 for the trip (probably would be over 8.0 without air being on).  That’s definitely lower than the last motorhome we had but right at what we expected for this coach given the 400 hp engine, plus the size and weight.  

Highlights on the trip:  for me were the five Presidential Libraries we saw, the Carlsbad Caverns, the boat ride at Riverwalk in San Antonio, the Houston Space Center, the Tabasco tour, all of New Orleans, all of the antebellum/plantation homes, the Carnival Museum in Mobile, the Civil Rights and Hank Williams museums in Montgomery, the laser light show and the tram ride at Stone Mountain, Graceland, Bass Pro Shop, and Beale St. in Memphis, Texas Stadium and the Texas Book Depository in Dallas, the play Texas, the Grand Canyon train trip and Bearizona in Williams.  I think my two favorites were the stadium and the book depository.

Except for the Space Center (not her thing), Lydia enjoyed all of the above and listed her favorites as the Libraries, the SAS Shoes tour, the play Texas, the Riverwalk, the first Confederate White House (Montgomery), the train ride to the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, and the various quilt stores along the way!  

Now expenses!  This trip was comparable to the 3 month 2012 trip where we crossed a little more of the country (as far east as Pennsylvania).  But we still tried not to buy everything in sight and other than a few things we didn’t expect to buy (like the RV gps and the Sirius Radio docking station I ordered and had delivered while traveling, and the $100. deductible I paid to replace the car’s windshield) I think we did pretty well. I was especially glad not to have any major mechanical issues on the trip.  Our seven week trip to Oregon in 2013 was the first long trip in this new-to-us motorhome so we now halfway knew what to expect.  I was pleasantly surprised that we only had minor issues and nothing major mechanical with the coach. I’ve got a water pump to replace, the windshield needs to be re-sealed, the toilet needs to be fixed, the dash air needs to be addressed, the bathroom fan needs to be checked out, the material on two awnings (one slide out plus the Girard main awning) needs to be tightened up, and the microwave timer needs to be fixed. Plus I had a leak over the shower that I thought I fixed but it did leak for a while. It seems to be ok now but I’ll check that out later. 

Dumb stuff!   I looked at my last summation from the maiden trip in this rig to Oregon in 2013 and reread all my dumb stuff so I just had to put it in writing again for this trip!  Among other things – even though we had just recently installed the HD satellite on the roof and knew it had to be stowed I pulled the power cord and stopped the process and actually tried to pull out of the campground before it was completely stowed!.... A couple of times we failed to turn on the hot water tank between trips and didn’t discover it until the next morning when we showered…  More than once we left the locking drawers unlocked and drove off.  I guess these are all minor things so I’m, good with that.

Traveling with Friends.  We left California with Bill & Treasa and with Rick & Janie.  Treasa already had a trip plan as a base and had a lot of the campgrounds tracked to take us to New Orleans but the six of us did sit down and plot out the details and the nights and the places we wanted to see. Each of us had things to suggest.  We also had to set up the second half of the trip after B&T left us after New Orleans. It’s not easy when six people with opinions (and attitudes!) get together for any length of time on the road.  I think each of us had our moments when something went awry during our days together, but we always got through them and didn’t kill each other so I think it was successful.  I would travel with either of these couples again. We had many, many fun times that will remain in our memories forever.

So, what’s next?  We did our Caribbean Cruise back in 2013 but would like to plan another one in the near future to another location….  We are definitely going back to Hawaii.  We were there for our 25^th anniversary and want to celebrate our 50^th there in 2018 so that’s being worked on…. We do still want to travel to the New England states so maybe that will be on our list for next year…. The balloon festival in Oct 2016 is also something we will be looking at…. Of course I always want to go fishing and June Lake and Branson are on MY radar.  We’ll see. Hopefully, the good Lord will keep us healthy enough to do all of the above.

Almost done…..  just wanted to say thanks to all of you who followed my blog.  Even though only a few of you made comments it was nice to know they were being read!  I am funny about capturing our adventures in writing and in pictures.  It’s not for you that I do this – but rather for us to look back on later in life (or have our kids read to us in the home!). Thanks to my sister, Penny (and her helpers grandkids Jeremy, Cassandra, and Lauren, and husband Ron) for taking care of the house. Thanks to Bill & Treasa and Rick & Janie and especially to Lydia for putting up with me on this 2015 trip!  See you all on the next adventure……..! 

2015 Trip – Williams, AZ to Long Beach, CA

Mon. 713… (Williams, AZ)  This morning we decided to go see Bearizona.  We’d seen it in the AAA guide and researched it on the internet.  It’s a drive thru a wildlife park, similar to the old Lion Country Safari in the OC. We went to one of these in Idaho on the way to Yellowstone and liked it so we thought we’d go see this attraction.  We knew the animals were out more in the mornings and evenings so we went to breakfast at 9:00am at the Pine Country Inn (very good) and then drove the short distance to the park. It’s just outside Williams.  The cost was in AAA tour book as $18. for seniors but when we got there we found they’d gone up to $19.75.  But it turned out to be well worth the price! 

 

 

We started out with the three mile drive-through portion.  We saw Rocky Mountain Sheep, Dall Sheep, Rocky Mountain Elk, Mule Deer, Alaskan Tundra Wolves, Arctic Wolves, Juvenile Black Bear, White Bison, American Bison, Bighorn Sheep, and Black Bear. Almost all of the animals were out and really close to the road so we got some good pictures. 

 

 

Then we parked and went in to the walking part of the park and our first stop was the Birds of Prey Show, which was really fun.  The bird’s flight path was to zoom inches over the audience.  You could actually feel the wind when they went over!  Cool! 

We walked past the enclosures where we saw smaller animals such as goats, red foxes, porcupines, river otters, swift foxes, and badgers.

Then we boarded what’s called The Wild Ride.  This open air bus went back through the drive-through area, this time with the driver, Jen, telling us the names of all the animals we saw.  That was really the interesting part when we got history how each of the animals came to the park and why.  Like some of the bears were three strikers who tried to snatch munchies from campers in the national forests one too many times! They got relocated here and are very well adjusted. 

We ended up the Bearizona visit with a trip through the gift shop.  It was being worked on but was open for the first time today!  This park is five years old and is privately owned and receives no tax dollars.  Admission prices help take care of the animals and fund the future developments of the facilities.  It looks like this will be around for awhile and is well worth the time to go through.

 

After we got home the girls went back to the train depot gift shop and to the local quilt store to buy souvenirs and check out quilting stuff.  I walked Bailey and ran into a mobile rv repair truck and asked him to come by.  I had a leak in my aqua hot system and thought it was a hose that had worn through.  He came by and found it was a fitting that he tightened.  I also have not had the water pump working.  This was not a problem since we only use it when we are actually driving down the road (we use city water hookups while parked in the campgrounds).  He put a meter on it and found that I had a bad ground and the pump burnt out. It’s a quick fix to change it out and I’ll do that when we get home. We both skipped lunch so after a bit, the girls got hungry and didn’t plan to cook so we took off to town (about 3 minutes away) and chose Rod’s Steak House for dinner.  Turns out to be another highlight, especially for me.  I had liver and onions and it was delicious!  Afterwards, we drove around and checked out the neighborhood to see what kind of homes are here.  They told us on the train that a company is planning on building an amusement park here just out by I40.  Property value is going up.  Nothing for us here though so we drove on home to rest and walk Bailey and work on this blog. Tomorrow we leave for Needles.

 

Tues. 7/14…  (Needles, CA)  The drive today was 170 miles and we were going to Needles so we were in no hurry.  We decided to leave at 10:00am and the drive was no problem. Unless you count the road and a lousy asphalt truck driver!  We finally hit a stretch of I40 that was in really bad shape.  It was about an hour or so west of Williams.  There was a lot of construction so hopefully they will have the worst parts finished by the next time we are on that route.  We had the worst close call of the trip.  We were necked down to the left lane and were working through the coned area when an asphalt truck moved out of the construction lane right into ours.  I locked up and missed him by maybe three feet! Too close for us! Everything that wasn’t secured came forward.  Bailey was on the couch so she was fine. We made the rest of the drive with no problems and we are now at Needles Marina RV Park, Needles, CA.  Price was $36.00 with Good Sam card but they charge $5.00 per AC so we paid $46.00. Temps were in the 80s in Williams but now it’s 107 here in Needles!  I won’t even take Bailey out for a walk until it cools down later tonight.  Rick unhooked his car as they are driving today so they went off to explore beautiful downtown Needles.  They found a few places to choose for dinner and we later headed off to Juicy’s River Café. It was pretty good and easy in and out. Once back at the rig, I walked Bailey down to the river (of course she took a good swim!) then we went over to the pool to cool down.  It was something we wanted to do to compensate for the price of this park.  It was nice and relaxing and we stayed a while before heading back to the rig to watch TV and then hit the bed.  We have the longest drive of the trip tomorrow (270 miles) and want to leave by 7:00am to beat the heat.     

 

Wed. 7/15… (Home)  We got up early and I walked Bailey back to the river for a morning swim. We did leave but it was a little after our planned 7:00am.  I had an issue with the toilet not flushing so that’s another thing to add to the list to get worked on.  We managed to get past the heat by driving early and it was actually a nice drive home.  We hit the usual traffic in the usual spots but no major worries. We stopped at a rest area to walk the dogs and it was here where we did our hugs and said goodbye to Rick & Janie.  They later split off at the 241 toll road to cutoff time and distance.  We really had a good time traveling with them and I apologize for giving each of them trouble along the way but hey, that’s what I do! We got home about 12:30 and set out to unload the rig.  But first step was to fill Bailey’s pool.  We wanted to give her a bath to get rid of the river water smell and the pool was to help rinse off all of the soap after the bath. I worked on the toilet a little but realized I couldn’t resolve the problem so it remains on my list.  I moved the DirecTV boxes back to the bedrooms and got them set up and operational.  We both have things we taped on these boxes so we will need to watch them in the days to come. We unloaded some more and then gave Bailey her bath.  Later, we went out to Five Guys for a quick meal and went home and did some more unpacking and closed the rig for the night.  Tomorrow I will call my mechanic (Bill) and set up a day where he can come look at the things on my list to work on.  Plus I will get an appointment to take the rig in for a wash and wax job. I put the bugs on it but someone else can wash them off! 

Ok, that's it for this 2015 adventure.  Tons of fun and lots of pictures.  Hope you weren't bored with all my narrative!  If not, check in on the last blog which will be a summation and some stats of the entire trip. 

   

2015 Trip – Albuquerque, NM to Williams, AZ

Thurs. 7/9… (Albuquerque, NM)  Our last day here in Albuquerque…. Our plan was to go first to the balloon museum. Then we wanted to go back to Old Town and pick up some jewelry Lydia had spotted before.  Then we hit a Post office so we could mail something and Rick could send some photo albums to Kelli that he forgot to give her earlier. The balloon museum was priced right – only $2.00 for seniors!  It was bigger than I expected and very well done. We saw some exhibits of historical flights and learned about early balloon bombings by the Japanese during the war.  We also stopped at the Fiesta Center to learn about where the camping sites were as well as transportation (park & ride) if we camped in another location and drove in.  We decided that we would not come back in 2015 but will look into reservations for 2016. 

 

 

Afterward, we hit old town again and everyone bought something (except me) and Lydia mailed her package and Rick mailed his.  We stopped at Subway for lunch and went back to walk the dogs and rest a bit before heading out again to La Mesa RV just down the road.  We saw a few nice coaches but nothing we needed to see more of.  We came back home and watched some taped shows and then headed back out to Garcia’s Kitchen for dinner.  I had pretty much the same meal I had a few days ago just to compare.  It was very good but my favorite is still La Placita. We came back and played with Bailey before calling it a night. I did take a picture of my neighbors rig.  He's got a diesel truck/tractor pulling a fifth wheel which is pulling a Smart car.  He's illegal in California where you can't tow triples and also illegal in all other states because he's over total length.  He says no problem. He won't go to Calif and will take his chances elsewhere.  He left this morning. I also got a picture of a plant in bloom in the park....

 

 

 

 

Fri. 7/10…  (Holbrook, NM)  This morning we had 235 miles to drive so we left at 9:00am after walking the dogs one last time.  We crossed into Arizona and into Pacific Time and are now at OK RV Park in Holbrook, AZ. This park has only basic amenities (no pool) and they charge $34.50 w/Good Sam/AAA/FMCA etc.  It’s an ‘Ok’ park but a little overpriced for us.  It’s only for one night so we’re good.  After we got set up we fixed lunch and rested a while.  It is our turn to drive today but Rick volunteered to so we left the car hooked up (unplugged and ignition off!) and took off with them.  We cruised around the city a bit and found a grocery store. Lydia is fixing dinner tonight so we went in to check out things to go with her chicken/egg hash casserole thingy. We stopped at a local street fair called Cowboy Days. It was small so we walked through it quickly and then headed for home to get dinner prepped. The meal was delicious.  I helped her make a pistachio pineapple fruit salad which was good too.  We hung around a bit and then watched some more of our shows that we had taped.    

 

Sat.. 7/11… (Williams, AZ) Happy birthday Jeff! We had a short 140 mile drive today to reach our next stop.  We are now at Gran Canyon Railway & Hotel RV Park, in Williams, AZ.  I had booked this park and the train trip way out ahead so all we had to do was check in and get our space assignments.  Once we got set up we headed over to the train depot (we were told to pick up our tickets at will call today rather than wait in some serious lines tomorrow so we got that done.  We went back to put things away then we headed back to the check in desk to reserve doggy day care for tomorrow while we are on the train trip.  We decided to go back to town and have linner.  We chose the Cruisers Café 66 and all of us had hamburgers of some version.  All were very good, though not my favorite on this trip.

 

 

 

Afterward, we walked the street a bit (no funny remarks!) and bought a few souvenirs and then headed back home. Back at the rig I worked on my tow car light hookup.  I wasn’t getting a right turn signal.  I took the connection apart and found I had a loose wire so it works as of now so I think all is good.       

 

Sun. 7/12… (Williams, AZ)  Today was train day!  We got up early and ate breakfast.  We had to walk Bailey (and Daisy & Little Bit) over to the kennel before we went over to the gunfight before boarding began. The dogs will have a day of rest (if you can call it rest in a kennel with other yappy dogs!).  We have never boarded Bailey before so we’ll have to see how she does.  They will get her out for play so she’ll like that. We saw the shootout and walked back over to board the train. 

 

 

 

They are busy in the summer months so they have two trains leaving one behind the other.  We are on the second train so we leave at 9:45.  I chose the air conditioned cars over the older Pullman cars with the open windows.  I’m not sure which was better but we had good seats. You are allowed drinks so we packed a cooler and had water and soft drinks on the way in. We were on Coach D (seats 7C& 7D) and had Finn as our coach conductor (he also had double duty in Coach E). He was a young man with only a few months experience but he did an outstanding job!

 

The trip in was ok.  There’s not much to see but mesquite bushes leading to pine trees as we got into Grand Canyon Park.  You get dropped off just below El Tovar Hotel and are free to go anywhere you chose.  They offered bus tours direct from the train but we opted to just walk around for the 2 ½ hours we had there.  We took the obligatory pictures of the canyon and then went to the Bright Angel Café for lunch.  I had buffalo chili and Lydia and Rick & Janie all had the turkey sandwich plate. Both were very good.  The server was late in waiting on us and another fellow came over and asked about us and then took our table. Since we were not happy he offered us a free dessert which we accepted.  He did a great job so he got a good tip.  Afterward we walked to Bright Angel Trail and saw the folks walking down the trail.  They tend to go farther – hey it’s easy walking here! Little did they realize that they had to turn around and walk back up!  We saw a lot of young daring (stupid) folks out on ledges testing the rocks.  Scary. 

 

 

We then went over to the Hopi Village to see the Indian dance exhibition which was very entertaining. 

We walked over to the El Tovar and found some rockers out front and rested a bit before going into some of the gift shops and then making our way back to the train.  We boarded and made the trip back with no issues – oh yeah, we were robbed!  It was fun even though Finn told us what they expected and when they were coming.  You roll up a dollar bill and place it behind your ear and the guys come in and find it and take it. It’s more of a tip for their little show and it was fun.  Janie decided to put hers in her blouse and that caused them a little concern with Rick watching!

 

We got back to the station around 6:15 or so.  The day started with dropping off Bailey at 8:10 and the cowboy show was at 9:00am.  We boarded at 9:45am and left at 10:00am and left the canyon at 4:00pm and got back around 6:30 so it was a long day!!!  We went and got Bailey and walked her back home.  She sure was glad to see us.  They said she did fine but that place was something she was not used to.  On the train, we made dinner plans.  We had decided to go eat at a local pizza place in town but it was just closing (7:00pm) so we went to another Italian Restaurant called Station 66 and split a pizza and Rick and I enjoyed flights of beer from the local brewery. There were some I liked some not so much.

 

 

 

 

We got back and I walked Bailey a few laps and then came home and crashed for the night.