A Quickie in Arizona! Feb 17th, 2014

As many of you know it is almost impossible for me (Jim) to either talk or write in a "Quickie" fashion.

For you that read the title and thought this post was something else... you need to move on - hahaha!
So, I will try my best to make this Blog entry short!

TUCSON - Casino Camping.
On Feb. 11th we made it into Tucson and stayed at Desert Diamond Casino. There were a few other rigs parked there with us. You may know we go to these not so much to gamble (because we don't) but to park for free. Most casino's let RVers park in their lots in designated areas and it sure helps the travel budget!

Valentines Day.
We went out for a nice dinner in Tucson. The sunsets were fantastic. You can not beat the sunsets in Arizona!

If you look close you can see it is -30 degrees here too!

After a couple of nights there Barb found another casino nearby called Casino Del Sol, so we moved. I would rate this new casino as probably the nicest we have ever camped at. It is a typical casino on a Indian Reservation but it is done to the 5's, I am impressed!

Packed Parking Lot Camping!

These photos don't do it justice as to the number of RVs here!

From almost every state & province! 

A local Band I made friends with! Great music!

I love old Bus Coaches!

They just come and then they go.

I was told at one point they counted 81 RV's in the parking lot and I would venture to guess there were a good 100 at times or more when we were there! It was packed like an Arizona RV Resort with RV's from all over, there was even one group of RVs that belong to a club having their annual meet there!

No doubt the casinos know that if they allow RV's to live there for free they will also attract some of their money! We met one couple from BC (and there were others) that had been camped there for 7 weeks!

It was quite the sight to see all those RV's, big, small and everything in between all parked in the parking lot. Some stayed a night or two like us and others were really camping out with their slides open and jacks down. Yes we had our slides opened and jacks down too, whoo hoo!

One day we walked inside like we owned the joint and went right to the pool area. This place has a hotel like many have and is at least a 4 Star location so we couldn't resist. No one said anything to us and we enjoyed a relaxing couple of hours by the pool. A nice change!

Barb is enjoying the swimming pool!

Nice place and hardly anyone here at the pool.

Cabana's anyone?

It's good to be back in the warm Arizona sun.

Jim doing what else, working online??

A very nice resort with lots of class amenities.

If you're in a RV and need a place to stay keep
Casino Del Sol in mind!

GET PAID TO CAMP!
We heard a tip back at a casino in southern Florida on how to get paid for camping at a casino so we tried that too!

All you have to do is sign up for a Free Players Club card. In this case they gave each of us a Free Buffet and a $10.00 card to gamble with. If we were smart we would have just played the $10.00 for a penny game and cashed out the rest but like they in the business know, we spent it! My only negative about this casino and many others like it, is the smoke. On reserves they allow smoking most anywhere and it was giving me a headache. There were some areas where is was more manageable but they do need to get better air systems in these places. The buffet was pretty good though and it was free - Thank you Casino Del Sol!

CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA

After another casino night we decided to move on up to Casa Grande (see map). We had never stayed here before and we quite like the area.

It's a smaller city and the place we stayed called Casa Grande RV Park was priced right. It even has free WiFi that works which is a hard thing to find in a RV park! Now we don't have to worry about running out of Gigs on our mobile Internet!

We are booked in here for a week until next Friday morning (Feb 21st).

Yesterday I started to get some work done on the RV. It needed a real good cleaning on the outside after travelling through all that weather from back east. I am glad I brought my pressure washer as I hadn't washed it since Fort Myers, Florida, now she is starting to shine again!

The Bounder Buddy is getting a bath!

The "Man Cave" is where I store the "Blue" things!
You can never have too much storage in a RV, I love having a basement!

Add to that I think some more "pool time" is in order as they have a nice pool here too. Oh... and free breakfast every morning! In a couple of weeks stock car racing season starts here and they have two tracks nearby. Wish we could stay for some of that. We like this area!

Casa Grande is located just south of Phoenix.
They say 48 miles and I'm guessing that's to the center of Phoenix which is not too bad. So not as close as I would like but it is quiet and seems like a nice well cared for town. I think we may come back here some day, affordable, clean and quiet!

NASCAR SEASON!

My Favorite Time of Year! **** NASCAR Time!

Next Monday, Feb 24th we move into the dry camping area at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) and will be there for one week for the races. Its a great deal at only $60 a week. As you know we try to do this at least once a year if not both races (spring and fall events).

As you may know I am a NASCAR fanatic and have been all my life having raced and worked in the industry for some 30 odd years. The season begins mid February at Daytona, Florida. Phoenix is the second stop in the schedule. I will be following Daytona's events very closely.

Last year I worked for a NASCAR race team that competed in the USA. The driver is a young (17 year old) up and comer from Calgary, Canada. I have resigned from that position and Cameron has now moved over to the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series. From what I saw in yesterday's race he will do very well this season. I am hoping to see him as a NASCAR Champion soon!

Cameron Hayley of Calgary
Qualifies on the Pole for the season opener at New Smyrna, Florida!
He finished .083 of a second behind the winner - Side by Side! 

The next race for Cameron is on Tuesday night at the famous Daytona International Speedway, televised live on Fox Sports.

Go Team Canada!

It broke my heart that we couldn't stay for the seven nights of NASCAR Stock Car action in Florida. But it would have made it too hard to make it to Phoenix in time. We spent 11 days at Speed-Week in Daytona last year while Jim worked for the team and will be thankful for that!

At the races in Phoenix we have friends coming out to the track with us. That we know of so far Jim's longest & oldest buddy, Fred is coming out from Huntington Beach, California. Another couple we are good friends with from Corona, California are bringing their new 5th wheel and camping with us at the track too.

After we are done with the NASCAR week in Phoenix we will move out of the track on March 3rd and likely stay in the Phoenix area for a bit. We don't know how long yet or where - part of the continuing adventure!

We have several neighbours and other friends down here that we hope to get a visit in with while in Phoenix. The first visit is a couple who used to live up in Cochrane and live down here now. Debbie and Mike are coming over tonight!

I can't help but to post this as we think of the alternative; Wintering back at home...

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As we will be so busy this next week or two I may not get to posting much. Rest assured we will be back with more news when we can!
Until then - MAKE it a GREAT DAY!

El Paso, Texas - Feb 9th 2014

We are deep in Cowboy Country now!

That's part of what I like about being on the road and camping in free areas like Wal-Marts, Truck Stops and other lil places we find for the night when travelling. It feels like we are living the old fashioned way, like Cowboys (and Cow Girl too!). Freedom in a weird sort of way.

As we neared the west end of Texas I was wondering where to get the oil changed in the rig. I am a bit of a stickler for doing oil changes on vehicles and making sure they are done in the right time frame. It's the best and one of the cheapest things you can do to properly look after it and make it last a long time. So... where to get one done in something this size?

Here we are inside the BIG state of Texas!
Anthony is just west of El Paso.

I have pondered doing the oil changes myself while on the road and I have the tools but the problem is where do you get rid of the old oil? Finding that can be a hassle.

So we drove into El Paso and through west bound and found a Camping World This is a franchised RV parts, service and sales store located throughout the USA. We decided that the parking lot was big enough that we would camp there for the night. As it turned out a few other RV's had the same plan so we were not alone.

Beautiful views from our new home for the night

See, we really aren't that big compared to some!

Camping World
An alternative to Wal-Mart for Dry Camping on the go!

We got up bright & early the next morning at 7am as the service department opened at 8am. I wanted to get in and out as fast as we could. As it turned out they didn't get it finished until 5pm, so much for that idea!

Nothing went right actually.
What I was quoted was about $180.00 shy of the actual bill! I had asked them to change the oil & filter on the generator too. That ended up being triple the price because between the time I told him what I wanted and the time of when he wrote it down they messed up big time.

To make a long story short after complaining about the unbelievable price they were trying to charge me the Manager was able to widdle down the invoice to a reasonable price. They didn't make any money on me that day!

So as it was so late we decided to stay another night in their parking lot. Camping along the side of the I-10 Freeway always offers something to see.

While we waited the day out for the rig to get serviced we took the car into El Paso to see the sights. I have seen things like this on the Tijuana Border, on the news and perhaps in a movie or two but seeing it in real life is something.

You see what we have here are two fairly large cities side by side. One is in Mexico (Juarez) and the other on the US side called El Paso.

The city in Mexico is estimated at 1.5 to 2 million people. No one really knows or can say for sure. People from all over Mexico and South America come here if they want to enter the USA. Some of them do this legally and others, well not so legal. All that separates the two cities is the Rio Grande river which is pretty much dried up here, a large steel fence, sensors and the roaming US Border Patrol.

As you may or may not know the Gangs & Drug Cartels in this city are many. The violence has been plenty over the years having slowed down a bit right now. Hundreds of people have been murdered and hundreds more disappeared from this very city each and every year in the past. One place that you do not want to visit at night.

El Paso, Texas
Downtown

An old military building

Looking thru the fence at Juarez

Miles of fence separating the two countries & cities.

The Border Patrol is everywhere watching.

After a day of touring, back home to the rig at Camping World.

On the US side El Paso seems to be much safer and less violent. After doing some research and reading the local papers it seems it does not suffer near the same amounts of criminal activity. There are plenty of criminals here though, from both sides of the border.

Driving around El Paso we saw some of the nice areas and there are lots of them. We went down town and one street reminded me of many I have seen in Mexico. In fact this whole area reminds me of Mexico to varying degrees.

We drive along the fenced border looking at the other side. Many of the homes appeared vacant and that was later confirmed. Apparently as many as an estimated 400,000 people have left Juarez due to the violence. The homes some burnt, others with windows missing all sitting along quiet paved streets. The odd person, family or children are seen walking along the streets. A top of one hill is a large fancy home. One wonders who lives there and why is his/her home so much different? I will leave that to your imagination.

What a difference a political border line can make. As intriguing as it is to see this in some ways... it is very sad too.

Boy... We've come a long way baby!

I will end it here. If you want to learn more you can easily Google it and see lots of information, both the good and the bad news.

DON'T BLINK - YOU'LL MISS IT! Fredericksburg Texas.

That would just be a bad mistake! 

In fact I almost forgot to Blog about this place but it is just too good to miss sharing.

Fredericksburg is one of those chance happenings you just don't plan on but are happy you fell right into the middle of it. We stayed two nights at the Lady Bird Johnson RV Park. If you are my age or older you will know who she was.

Her husband was from here and it's the first time in a long time that I have seen a "LBJ" (Lynden B. Johnson) style cowboy hat. These are what my Grampa used to always wear. You can still buy them here!

We ended up here on our long trek through Texas, we just couldn't go any further and needed a break. We loved this lil town! It is located just outside of San Antonio and a lot of the city people come out here for a break from the daily grind. Once you visit you will see why.

In fact we are so close to San Antonio we made sure that we got a trip into the big city to visit some long time friends. It was sort of funny that they all lived here in the same town and didn't know it. We didn't know it either...

It was me posting (as usual) on Face Book that allowed them to see we were in the area. So we made it happen and had a great meal/visit together at Cracker Barrel (one of my favorite places to eat, especially breakfast!).

I love Face Book for that very reason, connecting with, staying in touch and re-connecting with great friends! It worked again this time!

Another famous person from here is Admiral Nimitz of WW11 fame. You may know they named an Aircraft Carrier after him and there is a large museum here all about that too.

As we wandered the streets looking in all the shops it just reminded me of the "All American Town." The parking on the main street is still at an angle.

There are a lot of historical buildings and homes that have been restored and kept in great shape. Many of them built using the locally natural lime stone as blocks in their construction. Texas has its own feel and its own style, its great!

We even went to a concert one night. It was called The Platinum Hits. As the name would imply it was all the big hits from the 50's thru to the 80's. We had a great time out!

I won't go on and on but I will say this if you are in the area near San Antonio set a day aside to go out here to Fredericksburg. It is well worth the trip! Here are some pictures and maybe they will add a few thousand words?

You can't beat Texas!!!!

Whop See Daisy!

So as many of you know I am a true professional and I take driving the motor home very seriously. I am attentive to detail and I do not take chances.

We finally made it to the west border of Texas!

Yesterday we had a long day (Feb 9th). We drove all the way from Frederickson, Texas to a small town called Anthony, Texas.

Originally I wanted to make it inside the border of New Mexico however we needed to service the motor home and we found a place to get that done in Anthony.

Anthony is right on the border of Texas and New Mexico. In fact the exit we took off of the I-10 Freeway was exit "0." If I threw a rock I guess it would land in New Mexico.

Add to that we are also on the border of the country of Mexico and I mean right on the border!

By the way I had to post this a little out of order as I didn't want to forget as what I am about to share was so funny for us. So bare with me please.

As one drives through El Paso, (Texas) which is just a couple of miles behind us now (east of us) you can see the wall. Everything on the other side of the Rio Grande River is Mexico. The wall reminds me of Berlin.
Add to that there are Border Patrol cars all around watching.

The Wall! Everything on the other side is in Mexico.

If you can make it past the sensors, all the Border Patrols and the fence you might get in?

Oh yea... Don't forget there is razor wire too...

Ciudad Juárez is the city in Mexico that you can see behind the fence.
No one knows for sure but the population is estimated between 1.5 and 2 million.

Such a difference from one side to the other in economics and all that we take for granted in North America. Sad really.

In researching I find that although the violent crime has dropped in this Mexican city, it is still very violent with drug cartels fighting their turf wars and other non-related murders. Car jackings, robberies, rapes and murder make up the landscape of this once named most violent city in the world, now it only ranks 37th.

Suffice it to say that we have some violent cities north of the Mexican border but nothing like these poor people have faced. I was going to post a link to some information on Ciudad Juárez but there was just too much news. If you want to search it or have any interest (which you likely don't), then go ahead.

Also; I should mention the Rio Grande River is no more. It is all dried up!
We went back and toured the area today.

Before I forget to mention, Texas is one very BIG State!
I think it is close to 900 miles across the bottom on I-10. It takes forever to get across and I am sure there are many countries smaller than Texas!

The USA shares 2,000 miles of border with Mexico, of which 1,254 miles are along the Texas border.

On our way yesterday we were having a great day. It was hovering around 79F all day long, not a cloud in the sky. As we got closer to Fort Stockton, Texas I determined we would need some fuel in "Bounder" the motor home.

Using the in-dash computer I checked and it told me I would have 50 plus miles to spare if I were to stop in Fort Stockton to fill up. So that was the plan.

Once there I took the exit off the freeway to go to the truck stop. We were about 2 city blocks away from it and I could see it clearly. I'm sure now you have the idea of what happened next.

As I pulled away from the stop sign onto the overpass above the freeway whilst turning left "Bounder" just died. That's right, she quit right there! I tried frantically to get her to start and she refused! Right away I knew what had happened. We were out of gas.

So close, yet so far away!
The real problem is that we were sticking out into the middle of the intersection! When you are in a rig this big that can be a bad thing. I quickly jumped from my seat and told Barb to get into the driver's position and steer. I ran outside to the front of "Bounder" and pushed her back out of the intersection. I can confirm that between Bounder and our Honda on the back that is about 23,000 pounds! It's a good thing I work out on a regular basis (yea right, bad joke).

Our next issue was how to get gas into Bounder? I unhooked the Honda and drove over to the truck stop. I was very thankful at this point that we had purchased a motor home and were towing a car so that we could do this. Barb stayed out behind Bounder to direct traffic.

At the truck stop they told me they didn't have fuel cans for loaners but I was welcome to buy one. After pleading my case I was directed to the Manager who just happened to have a loaner gas can out back, no deposit required, yes!

I was back to Bounder inside of ten minutes with the gas and in "pit stop" fashion dumped it into the fuel tank. She immediately started and we were off and running with a sigh of relief!

Sorry... But I think we are out of gas!

I'll have this baby running in about 2 minutes, Honest!

That my friends is called a "Whop See Daisy!"

As noted earlier we made it all the way to the border just west of El Paso (just east of Las cruces, New Mexico) and camped in the parking lot at a Camping World Service Centre. I wanted to make sure we were first in line at the service desk in the morning and we were!

A good sleep along with a chuckle was had by all!

Our Home for the night - Camping World Parking Lot.
Four other rigs joined us.

PS: I won't be trusting that travel computer again in the future!

G'd Night!