More from Peoria and a few days in Lake Havasu City

This was a first for us and a sad day for others. Near where we were parked when Chris wrote our last blog entry, there were a couple of fellows in smaller trailers who looked like they had been there for a few months if not the whole season. One morning, about an hour after one of them drove off in his truck, we heard some sirens and shortly thereafter a firetruck and ambulance pulled up to their camp. After some activity, a couple of police cars arrived followed a bit later by a third. About an hour after this, the firetruck and ambulance left but the police stuck around for a few more hours until a nondescript white van arrived and we could see them moving what looked like a body bag into the back of the van. Shortly after that they all left. A bit later the other resident, who had left earlier, arrived back and one of the other longer term neighbours went over to chat. Apparently he had no idea what had transpired and looked quite distraught. We don't have any idea what transpired but have a couple of hunches.

As we had found this location a bit noisy with all the traffic nearby and the bad vibes from the earlier incident, we decided to pull up stakes and move to another spot we had found about a mile further up the road. Not before one very nice sunset though.

The new spot proved to be quite nice; quiet and no neighbours right close by.

Nearby was this old (probably pushing 200 years) Saguaro that Chris promptly named Carmen Miranda. I guess the top reminded her of the fancy hats and head dresses the dancer/singer/actress wore.

We also had some other neighbours who just kinda wandered around wherever they felt like. They are quite wild and won't let you get very close at all.

We wound up staying here about 10 days.

During this time, I did some exploring around the old airport where we used to stay when in Peoria. It was quite sad to see it shut down and everything torn down. They were even in the process of busting up all the old concrete foundations and rehabilitating it all. I am not sure what the full story is but I guess things have been in decline for a number of years. It was as recently as 2012 that this was still a very active glider school with quite a large number of gliders, tow planes and resident aircraft. 

Here are a couple of before and after shots.

As I said, I am not sure what the whole story is, but I hope the couple that ran the place, Rick and Jenanne are OK.

Our last weekend in Peoria, we heard about an all electric Fun Fly at the AMPS club field that our friend Paul belongs to. It sounded like it could be fun so I loaded up my little Cessna and we headed over. This was their first event of this type and judging by the popularity, it will become an annual event. I put in 5 flights on the Cessna and had a great time.

After leaving Peoria, we headed back to Lake Havasu City to meet up with our friends Steve and Tammi. When we last saw them in early January, they were looking for a place in Havasu. Well, in the interim, they had found and purchased a house there. Steve had asked for some help with moving but by the time we had got there, they had pretty much moved in so there wasn't much for us to do. We spent a few days visiting then moved on.

 

Things are starting to bloom here now. The Prickly Pear cactus seem to get things started.

 

I guess you could say we are officially on our way home (home being BC that is) now. We are presently on some BLM land just at the northern edge of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. This is also just outside Valley of Fire State Park which we visited back in 2019. 

There are 2 fairly good size BLM areas here popular with RVers. The one where we are is called Poverty Flats. Nearby is Snowbird Mesa. Both of these are just outside of the Moapa Valley. This one was a bit easier to access with the trailer and also was the first we came to so here we are!  We plan to stay here for a week or so, and then head North targeting April 1 or thereabouts to cross into Canada.

Yuma, Quartzsite and Peoria

After our 2 weeks were up at the Imperial Dam LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area), we hooked up, dumped and filled the trailer, and then headed towards Yuma. A couple of days before, we had scoped out a spot to stay at for a few nights before we headed that way. We ended up staying at an old gravel pit about 10 minutes north of Yuma. It was actually not a bad spot. Wide open and not over crowed like it was up at the LTVA. While there, we discovered another little BLM area for camping nearby, but not sure if we would be able to get our trailer in. It has some tight areas.

 

We stayed 2 nights at the gravel pit and then moved on over to Contreras Field, the home of the Yuma RC Aeromodellers, where they were hosting their annual RC airshow. Rob was planning on flying his RC jet at this event, but discovered about a week before that the jet had some cracks on one of the tail booms. We believe that this happened when we went over a large frost heave going through Rogers Pass as we headed to Okotoks, AB for work last year. So the jet is grounded until he gets it repaired. But he was able to fly his small Cessna electric airplane at the event. 

 

 

We ended up leaving the airfield on Sunday, Feb 20, to head back to Quartzsite for the Grand Design RV "Rally in the Desert". This is the only Grand Design rally that is boondocking, or no hookups. This is the second one that we have been to. The last one was 2 years ago in 2020, just before COVID roared into North America.

 

If you look closely, you can see Rob in the foreground. He's the one with his arms up over his head!

At night, if the wind wasn't blowing too strong, we would have a large fire.

The rally started on February 24^th and was done on the Sunday. The final rig count I believe was 164. We were able to meet more people this time. Had a good time, but did not win anything. Maybe at our next Grand Design rally this June in Spruce Grove, AB. We decided that we will not be working this summer as we want to do a bit more of the RC airplane events in BC and maybe a couple in Alberta.

While we were at the rally, Rob had a chance to install the stained glass window that we got when we were in Los Algodones. We discovered though, while removing the inside piece of the window frame, that the stained glass piece was a bit smaller than the actual window in the door. Rob had to MacGyver a fix in order to get it in. We had to keep the original glass in the frame and silicone the new one onto it. Here it is the morning after with the sun shining through it as the sun was rising.

 

 

While here, there were a couple of other attendees with truly impressive Solar/Battery systems.

Mark and Elizabeth - 3300 watts of solar and 16.2 KWH of Lithium batteries

Joshua and Elizabeth - 7600 Watts of panels and 28.8 KWH of batteries

We left Quartzsite on March 1^st and headed to Phoenix. We were going to try and stay at the same place we normally do when we go to Phoenix,  the Pleasant Valley RV Park and Airport, but have discovered that it is no more. Apparently, from what we can find out is that the lease for the Arizona State Trust Land that it is on, was not renewed. We took a drive over there and sure enough, all the buildings, hangers and rv park have been taken down or torn up. We are now on State Trust land just across Hwy 74 from the airport. The permit we needed costs $20 for a yearly family pass, and is good for 14 days here. 

 

Last nights sunset

We did a quick grocery shop the day that we arrived here after setting up camp. While at Fry’s Foods, they had chicken thighs on for .99 cents a pound. Ended up getting 4 packages of chicken thighs and it looks like they have 4 pieces in each pack. The 4 packs before sale was $19.64 and with sale price they came to only $7.50!

 

One thing about this location that we have mentioned before is the hot air balloons that will take off or land in the area. Yesterday morning (March 3), there were 13 hot air balloons that were up. The majority of them landed across the highway from us, but there was one, that landed not far from us.

 

Quick video of the balloon landing. We watched as the chase vehicle got into position in order for the one helper to help get the balloon into position for deflation and packing it up as the pilot and the 2 passengers had their celebratory drink and snack. There are 2 main companies in the area that do daily passenger rides. Rainbow Ryders and Hot Air Expeditions. This balloon was with the latter.

On Wednesday, the day after we got to Phoenix, we went up to Bartlett Lake, about a 1 hr drive from our location, for a small float fly. We met up with our good friend Paul Good. We haven’t seen him for 2 years. Unfortunately, after about a month after we saw him last, his wife Joan passed away. It was nice to see him  again. We met them quite a few years ago while we were at a float fly at Sandy Point Campground, just outside of Salmon Arm, BC.

We headed up to Bartlett Lake around 7:40 am. When we got up to the lake, there were a few guys getting ready for the little float fly. Rob ended up being the first one in the air. It has been awhile since he has done that.

As the video plays, at about the 16 second mark, we will see Rob flying by doing a roll with his airplane.  As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day there. It was an iffy morning though, in regards to the wind. By the time we got to the lake, the wind was starting to die down. Rob ended up getting 5 flights in with his plane. Me, I was reading and getting a sunburn. Yes, I know, I should of put some sunscreen on but I didn’t. Let’s just say that wearing a t-shirt today has not been fun.

One thing that we like about the landscape when we get to Arizona, is the desert and the cacti that we see. What we see the most are Saguaro Cactus. (Cacti is the plural form). While there are some around Yuma and Quartzsite as we traveled to Phoenix, we start to see more and more. 

 

 

As you can see, the saguaro cactus can take on many different shapes and sizes. The ones that you see are probably between 150-200 yrs old.

 

Some info on the saguaro cactus can be found at the below links.

https://www.livescience.com/58520-crested-saguaro-cactus-photos.html

https://www.nps.gov/sagu/planyourvisit/upload/The%20Saguaro%20Cactus.pdf 

We will be in the Phoenix area for a couple of weeks. Will do another post in a few weeks. Stay safe and warm. Talk to everyone soon. 

Christine and Rob.

Update by Chris

Hi everyone. It has been a while since Rob has posted anything on the blog, so I am doing one.

We last left off where the truck was acting up again, and we were able to find a GM dealer in Cathedral City, CA (just outside of Palm Springs) to look at it back in November, and we are sorry to say, it had to have 4 fuel injectors, 4 bad pigtails (they had corrosion on one end) and 2 fuel rails replaced. It took over a week around US Thanksgiving to have the work done. In the meantime, we were able to have rental car paid for by GM. Thank goodness we got the truck back when we did because we needed to empty the trailer and I don’t think AVIS would be pleased if we used our portable black water tank in it. We are hoping after this, that the truck should be good.

While we were waiting for the truck, we hosted US Thanksgiving for the Escapee Boomers. We had a small turnout, total of 7 rigs including us. For the first group gathering, it was the perfect size. We had a couple of small units that had camped near us just after we got there for a couple of nights, and one of the units went to reposition and ended up getting stuck in the sand. So, Rob to the rescue. It took a little bit, did not use the truck, it was all digging and using some mats, and pushing of the van, they got it unstuck. As it turned out, we ended up helping 3 or 4 more vehicles after they got stuck in the sand or in a big hole using the truck to pull them out.

After the gathering at Joshua Tree wound down, we headed to Yuma where we spent all of December with Michael and Robin at their double RV lot in the foothills of Yuma. On Dec 31, we headed up to Lake Havasu City to spend a bit of time with Steve and Tammie, who we met last time we were down for the winter. They were looking for a house in a more temperate climate. They now have an offer on a house which is pending and they just recently put their house in Grand Junction, Colorado up for sale.

By the middle of the first week of January this year, we headed back to Quartzsite and stayed at La Posa South LTVA area for a few days and then emptied the tanks and filled with water and headed over to the area for the Escapees Boomers yearly Boomerville gathering. This location is just off Plomosa Rd at mile marker 3 north of Quartzsite. This will be our first large gathering since COVID started.

During Boomerville, they hold an auction for the Escapees C.A.R.E (Continuing Assistance to Retired Escapees). This organization is where you can go and get assistance during any type of health issue while you are traveling or done traveling and do not have a home to go to. It is all volunteer based, so they need donations to stay running and volunteers to help. The hosts of Boomerville weren’t sure if there was going to be an auction, but, there was, and I ended up being a co-chair for it. I wasn’t planning on being as hands on with the auction as I was. I still did do some baking for the auction though. Overall, with donations for pancakes made by Gretchen, cinnamon buns by me and the proceeds and some other donations for the auction, the Boomers raised $10,0001.00 for CARE. Considering this was the first auction in 2 years, we did pretty good.

We are now at the Imperial Dam LTVA area just outside of Yuma till around the middle of February, and then we will be heading over to the Yuma Aeromodellers RC airplane field for their annual airshow. Not sure if Rob will be flying in it again though. We will see when we get there.

Saturday we made a quick day trip to Los Algodones. As you cross the border into Baja Mexico, there are quite a few people that ask you if you need a dentist or a pharmacy, as this is one of the places that a lot of snowbirds will flock to for dental and cheaper meds. We haven’t been to any there, but the prices are supposed to be much cheaper than back home, even with eyeglasses. We noticed that the vendors around the area have become very aggressive in trying to get you to buy from them. I did not feel comfortable enough to stop and look at a lot of stuff in case they got too pushy in forcing me to buy stuff. On that note, we did end up buying some items. Rob picked up another Los Algodones jacket, black this time with the 3 lizards in color and a nice tablecloth for the RV at one vendor and then as we went through a courtyard, we saw one vendor that was selling stained glass windows that you can put in the door window of your RV. In all, we spent around $175 US while there. Oh, and I bought a 4 litre bottle of vanilla for $11.64 US. I couldn’t resist it at that price. Not sure how long that will last.

 

 

 

 

We've made Southern California.

When I left off the last entry, we had made it to Osoyoos on Nov 7 and had parked for the night in a church parking lot about 3Kms from the border. The plan was to get a decent nights sleep and then head for the crossing around 6:30.
As it turned out, we were both awake a bit before 5. We were also seeing a fair number of rigs driving past us headed for the border so we got ourselves organized and headed off ourselves.
We ran into the lineup about 1 Km from the border but it seemed to be moving along fairly well.

We hit the line about 10 to 6 and it wound up taking about 45 minutes to get to the plaza. We were met by one of the border agents who was directing traffic a bit to help organize the flow to the booths. She asked us about our vax status to confirm we were vaccinated but didn't ask to see any documentation. A few minutes later we made it to the booth and the agent there who looked at our Nexus cards. We chatted for a half minute or so and were sent on our way. No questions about where we were going, what we were carrying, or any of the usual things. Probably the easiest crossing we have ever made!
Our first stop was Walmart in Omak to pick up a few groceries as our pantry was pretty bare and for a quick bite.
An hour or so later we passed another rig heading south and Chris said it looked like a couple we used to live close to in Kamloops. Sure enough it was! We arranged a fuel and food stop in Othello and stopped for a bite and some catch up. They were heading to LaGrande to get some work done on their trailer en-route to El Centro, CA.
We wound up stopping at the Wild Horse Casino in Pendleton, OR for the night. And what a night it was! It blew and blew all night. The trailer was rocking so bad at one point that while working on my laptop at the kitchen table I actually felt slightly nauseous. I had to raise my head to regain my equilibrium. We were up early the next morning again and found out that I-84 East of Pendlelton had been closed overnight due to the wind.  Fortunately we noticed the truckers starting to head out around 7 so about 8 we did the same.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until about an hour out of Twin Falls, our nemesis, the check engine light lit up again! We continued on to our stop for the next couple of nights at the Twin Falls Fair grounds. After parking the trailer we set out to visit our friends Eric and Susanne.
First order of business the next day was to the local GMC dealer to see what was up. Same basic codes as before, injector related. This time the advisor suggested we ensure we were running with the 4 wheel drive mode locked in 2 wheel drive instead of Auto. Honestly I can't remember what we had been using. Anyway, he cleared the codes and reset the system and sent us on our way. We also did a bit more extensive grocery shopping now that we had access to some larger stores.
The rest of the day and evening we spent with Eric and Susanne again.
Thursday morning we were off again. Up until this point we had been hoping to be able to visit with some other friends, Steve and Tammie in Colorado but with the truck issues and possible weather issues, we reluctantly decided to forego that and head straight south. We took the route through Ely NV and then over to NV-318. Our last time through Ely was a bit of a white knuckle drive as it was in the middle of a heavy snow storm on our way back 2 1/2 years ago. This time thankfully it was the polar opposite. Beautiful weather the whole way.
Shortly after turning onto NV-318 we saw a couple of highway patrol coming right at us weaving back and forth across all lanes with all their lights on. Turns out they were clearing the way for this big boy.

I think that sign is a bit of an understatement! Fortunately I was able to pull over onto a wide spot on the shoulder in time and get stopped. He had the 2 Highway patrol and a pilot car out front along with another pilot car and anther highway patrol bringing up the rear.
The rest of the drive to Alamo which was our next planned stop was pretty boring. We found a spot on BLM land across from Pahranagat NWR where we parked for the night.
Friday, we were on the road by about 8:30 and headed toward Las Vegas. We had noticed that the truck was starting to sound similar to what it does when the check engine comes on and sure enough, after an hour or so, it was back on. Not much we could do about it so we carried on.
We blew through Vegas and made a fuel stop at the Railroad Pass Casino in Henderson, then on towards Needles. From there we cut over and picked up I-10 just east of our destination arriving at the Joshua Tree BLM site about 2:30. We found a decent site and were set up in short order.
Most of the way down we have been using our TSD Logistics fuel card to enable us to fuel at truck stops. We also get a not insignificant discount over regular pump prices. So far this trip it has probably saved us between $80 and $100 over posted diesel prices. We first started using this company just before heading back in 2019 and have been eager to keep using it on this trip. Their card does work at some truck stops in Canada but without any discounts to speak of.
I find truck stops are also much easier to get into and out of than most regular gas stations. We have also noticed that all fuel prices so far are quite a bit higher than our last time down here. I am not looking forward to our next fuel up in California though. They have the highest fuel prices in the lower 48; pretty much on par with and some places higher than what we pay back in BC. Today's price for example is averaging 4.81 / US gallon which translates to around $1.60 / litre.
Our next order of business is to visit another GMC dealer in the valley and see if they can figure out what is going on. Otherwise, we will just hang out here for the next couple weeks until after US Thanksgiving.

Long overdue catch-up

Wow! It’s been a solid year since my last post. I guess there just wasn’t enough that I thought was all that interesting to post about.
So here is a bit of a recap of what we did do.
As you recall, we had just settled in for the winter at the Desert Gem RV park in Oliver BC. The first couple of weeks was spent getting the trailer skirted and some other preparations for winter taken care of.
I should back up a bit first though. Recall when we were in Kamloops, we had a check engine light come on in the truck while we were towing from Okotoks to Kamloops. In Kamloops, the GM dealer changed a fuel injector and sent us on our way. Well, while towing to Oliver, the light came on again just as we were getting into Vernon. Once we had things organized in Oliver, we took the truck into the GM dealer in Penticton where they diagnosed more injector issues. This time they changed another 2 and sent us on our way. Stay tuned, more to come on this topic.
Back to Oliver and around the end of November, Chris got a part time job at the NoFrills grocery store as a cashier. She wanted something to do while we were there and this got her out of the house and allowed me some time to myself. She was working 4 hours a day and usually 5 days a week.
One thing I had wanted to do for a while was to get back into my electronics hobby somewhat. I am not a winter flier and wasn’t planning on spending a lot of time flying my models over the winter. One of the avenues I wanted to explore was some small microcontrollers. There are a couple major players in the market and the one I decided on was the Arduino platform. I started with a mid level experimenters kit and spent the rest of 2020 learning the ins and outs of the platform. A large part of the Arduino is the programming. It uses a version of the C++ programming language which is something I hadn’t even looked at in many years. I also remembered rather quickly why I had never gone into programming as a career. As a programmer, I suck! I can muddle my way through basic stuff and given enough time can usually overcome most challenges but I most definitely cannot call myself productive! I did find it rather enjoyable though.
I started with some simple stuff but then spent a fair bit of time developing a new holding tank monitoring system for the trailer. It took a while but I did get it to a point where I think it would be a significant improvement over the stock system in this trailer. It currently is at a point where it is pretty much ready for installation. I just have to finalize a couple of hardware challenges and then get it installed. Hopefully this winter sometime. I also came up with a couple of other projects that are 95% complete and I’m just looking for the right time to finish them off and get them into use.
Other than COVID which affected everything, the winter went pretty well. We stayed warm and healthy, nothing froze up, at least not seriously and we emerged in the spring ready to get on with things.
At the end of March, we packed up and hit the road again; this time back to Vernon for a few days to visit with family, then on April 1st, back to Kamloops for a couple of weeks. While there we took care of the usual medical appointments and stuff.
At the end of the previous season at the Okotoks Lions campground, we had told Pauline, the manager, that we would be interested in returning for the next season so on the 15th we packed up and headed east.
About 45 minutes before getting there, guess what? The check engine light came on again! We arrived in Okotoks late, spent the night in the parking lot and the next morning got in and parked. Soon after that, I took the truck up to the Okotoks GM dealer and they diagnosed more injector issues! This time, rather that changing more injectors, the changed out the engine control module along with a couple other minor bits and sent us on our way.
The first couple of weeks were spent getting the campground ready which basically was cleaning up the rest of the leaves from last year, getting the water turned on, signs up and all the usual maintenance items on the equipment after their winter storage.
We also had 2 new host couples to get to know.
As COVID was still ongoing, we opened at half capacity, the same as we ran all last year and again, no tenting as the washrooms were kept closed as cleaning and keeping them sanitized would have been a nightmare.
I won’t go into too much detail about the campground as it was pretty much a repeat of last year.
One thing we did do shortly after arriving though was go get our first COVID vaccine shot. It seemed Alberta was a bit ahead of BC in that regard. That made us feel a lot better. In fact the numbers in Alberta were looking pretty good and getting better and it didn’t take long before Pauline decided to open up about half of the remaining sites. And again about  month later, most of the rest of the restrictions were lifted and she opened almost all the rest. That brought us up to around 50 sites of 55 in use.
The end of June, we received our 2nd COVID shot and while leaving the location, I noticed some movement in some bushes right beside the clinic. It was a Mule Deer doe who had just (within the previous few minutes) give birth to a fawn! 

One thing about this summer that was quite different was the extended heat we experienced over the summer. We didn’t get the high 40’s like parts of BC but by Alberta standards it was damn hot! One thing I have never been good with is heat. I have to say, during the hottest parts of the day, I was struggling. Complicating this was Alberta was getting a lot of the smoke from the BC wildfires which made breathing difficult as well.

We did get away a couple of times. The first time was around the middle of July. We headed back up to the Propbusters club in Red Deer. I was able to get some flying in and some much needed time away from the campground.
The second time was in the middle of August to a small community campground just south of Okotoks called Archie and Janet Hogg park. Again it was for a weekend and just to get away for a bit. The first couple of days were still hot and smokey but while we were there, the weather broke and Southern Alberta got the first good rain it had seen in several months.

A couple of weeks later, we busted out again. This time up to Edmonton for the first organized model event we had been to in almost 2 years. This was the Bruce Bender Memorial Scale Fun Fly. We had an enjoyable few days there and it was nice seeing friends we hadn’t seen in quite a while. It was memorable in that while flying my jet, I had a minor structural failure halfway through the first flight. The right hand flap blew off during a high speed pass. Fortunately it didn’t cause any serious handling issues and I got it back on the ground without issue.

As luck would have it, while headed up there, around Red Deer, that damn check engine light decide to make another appearance. There wasn’t anything we could do about it then but when we got back, it was back to the dealership again. This time, while it was still showing the same injector related codes, they decided to just change the fuel filter even though it wasn’t really dirty.
During all this time, the Canada/US land border was still closed to non-essential traffic which meant that we wouldn’t be able to drive across to go south for the winter. And one thing we were sure of, was that we didn’t want to spend another winter here. As Canadians could still fly into the US we found that there were a number of commercial hauling companies that would be able to transport our truck and trailer across while we flew. We made arrangements with one such company to take our rig across and a small charter airline to fly us across for October 25. At least now we had plan for the winter.
We closed up the campground at the end of September and spent the next few days putting it to bed. The last thing was to blow out the water lines which we did on October 5. That afternoon, we pulled out and made our way back to BC.
And guess what? Around Canmore, our old friend the check engine light makes another appearance! Really? Again, not much we can do about it and as it doesn’t seem to affect performance any we carried on to Kamloops and our usual spot at Silver Sage.
As soon as we could, it was to the GM dealership again. This time after consulting with GM Canada, they decided to replace all 8 injectors. As none could be found in Canada, they had to get them air shipped in from the USA somewhere. They changed all 8 this time and sent us on our way. It sure is a good thing that this is all being done under warranty as each one of these service visits is an all day thing for a tech. I can’t imagine what the repair bill would be if we had to foot it.
While still in Kamloops we heard that the US had finally decided to open the land border to fully vaccinated travelers on Nov 8. After some discussion (slightly heated at times), we decided to forgo the truck/trailer transport for the 25th, save the appropriate. $2,000 cost and wait a couple extra weeks and drive ourselves across.
We spent an extra week in Vernon where we could spend some more time with our families which was nice and then this morning hitched up and headed south.
That is where we sit as I write this. We are parked about 3 Kms from the border in Osoyoos and plan to head out first thing tomorrow morning. Now, I just hope half of southern BC doesn’t have the same idea! We have already heard there is quite a lineup waiting at the border to cross. We shall see in the morning.