Sunday, July 29, 2012

July 29, 2012, Returning to Reno and Sparks, NV.

We enjoyed our two week stay at the Antioch Fairground campground. 

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It isn’t much, but the price ($20) and location work for us when we have to be in Antioch, CA, for less than a month.  The fairground rules limit campers to 14 days in a six-month period.

We headed for Reno/Sparks, NV, with the intention of avoiding some of the hot weather plaguing the nation.  I lived in Sparks, NV, a LONG time ago and wanted to just look around at my old stomping grounds when I lived in the trailer like we saw in Albuquerque, NM.  See that post here: Enchanted Trails restored trailers.

Site unseen (yes, I meant RV site) I booked us a week’s stay at the River’s Edge RV Park in Sparks, NV, based on price and location next to the Truckee River.  We are very happy with the choice of this park.  The sites are flat and enough space side to side to park the car easily next to the camper.  The restrooms and laundry are very clean and the staff is friendly and helpful.  What more could we ask for?IMG_2613

(Oh, maybe fewer plans landing and taking off from Reno International Airport located just across the river, smile.)

In order to lessen the “shock” to our bodies by traveling after sitting for 14 days, I reserved a site at Dutch Flat RV Park in Gold Run, CA for the first night on the road.  It was lovely!

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Even Larry enjoyed it the campground and the opportunity to rest up—after traveling a whopping 100 miles in one day, smile.

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I wanted to savor the opportunity of going over Donner Pass early the next day; it is one of the most beautiful routes in the entire U.S.

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It was interesting to note how the trucks had literally worn off the black top covering the cement highway underneath.  We ran into road construction and I was glad it was Larry’s turn to drive.  We stopped to enjoy the views at the rest area at Donner Summit.

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And then we went down—down the hill to Donner Lake.  I was able to get a photo over my shoulder over the old Route 40 down the face of the mountain:

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If you look carefully, you can see the old highway winding its way up the face of the mountain to the bridge at the top—where we used to prior to I-80.  And looking to the left, in the next photo, the dark line from left to right is the snow sheds built to protect the tracks during the winter snows so the trains can run all year.  A long time ago, I rode the train from Reno, NV down to the SF Bay area to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  In those days, the snow sheds weren’t the solid line in the photos—they only covered the areas in danger of snow slides.  The train conductors let us stand in the open doors of the train cars as we went in and out of the snow sheds--breathing in the brisk winter air.  It was exciting for a 19 year old!IMG_2599

The sign is still standing on Virginia Street, Reno, NV.

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And some things haven’t changed that much.  The casinos still offer affordable meals.  The gal I moved to Reno with worked at the Cal-Neva.  I wasn’t old enough to work in the casinos. That was almost 49 years ago and it still is in business.  Maybe we can get parked downtown and check it out for old-times sake.

On a side note, we checked out some of the other RV parks.

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This is the Sparks Marina RV Park and that grass at each manicured site doesn’t require mowing.  It is artificial turf!

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We have driven around some of my old places, but the most fun so far, is a new place.  Cabala's is located next to Boomtown Casino west of town.  We like checking out the different stores as they have different types of displays.  This one has an African scene inside:

IMG_2628 The only thing we could think of as we left was:  If Cabala’s doesn’t have it, you must not need it.  I could have gotten in serious financial difficulty in that store…from vacuum sealers, cast iron cookware,  solar chargers for electronics, camping gear, towing parts, clothes, etc.  And the gun and  ammunition department had lots of customers!

We are paid up until Wednesday morning and then heading to Alturas, CA, for a few nights. We discovered Larry doesn’t do low- humidity weather well.  We have the humidifier running 24 hours in the camper and only venture out in the cooler mornings with a bottle of saline spray.  We really, really don’t want a repeat of February’s ER visit with a bloody nose.  We may need to re-plan our travels omitting very dry areas. 

Friday, July 20, 2012

July 20, 2012 Wrapping up doctor appointments..

Where did the last two weeks go?  I left off at Root 66 RV Park where we spent the night on our way to Bakersfield, CA to have the truck’s air bag repairs done by Camping World.
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We stopped at Zuni RV Park in Kingman, AZ the following night.  It was HOT in Kingman!  We didn’t dally, but continued to Bakersfield, CA.  Instead of the Elks’ Club, but decided to make sure we had electric hook-ups by calling the Bakersfield Palms RV Resort.
It was a good move!  For $25.50 a night with the Escapees 15% discount (We paid for two nights), we were very impressed with their new section of pull-thru sites.
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The sites were level, concrete and so clean.  It was a delightful place to spend the next two nights.
The pool looked so inviting, but I needed to do laundry in their little laundry room on Sunday afternoon to be ready for our Camping World appointment at 9 a.m. Monday morning.
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We left the car at the park and drove just drove the truck and camper to Camping World first thing Monday morning.  We were impressed with the service department. They diagnosed the problem and replaced the leaking valves in the new air bags that had been installed by the truck store in Livingston, TX.  Even though it took most of Monday to get the work done, we were happy with the service department.
We will be return to the Bakersfield Palms RV Resort on a future trip; it was a good experience.
Next stop was the Contra Costa Fairground in Antioch, CA, on July 10.  Just like the rest of the trip, it was HOT when we got up here.  However, just a week later, it cooled down enough to sleep without the air conditioner running all night—a first since we left Livingston. 
We are done with lab tests and doctors’ appointments.  Larry is cleared for six months until the next appointment….as long as Larry’s creatinine level doesn’t increase further.   We have lab tests done monthly and the results faxed to his kidney doctor.  If things start going sour, we will have to come back ASAP.
Life is GOOD!!!  We will leave here next Tuesday and head for Reno, NV, for a week.  And then it will be time to toss the coin—again.  Either stay another week in Reno, NV, or head for Alturas, CA, to visit our longtime friends who are also our Quartzsite neighbors—Fred and Arlene Cray.  Check back to see what we decide to do.

Friday, July 6, 2012

July 6, 2012 – From El Paso, TX to Root 66 RV Park…

We celebrated 4th of July at the American RV Park in Anthony, TX,   located up the hill from Camping World at Exit 2 on I-10.  The $25 price is a bit high for us, but the park location is convenient to travelers.  We were delighted to see the park now has bathrooms with showers, a laundry area, and free Wife.  One special benefit is we don’t need reservations—it has LOTS of spaces—wide spaces with 3 different sewer hook-ups for each site.  It was developed originally to be a RV club rally destination park—with accommodations for several hundred RVs.

A bit of extra spice was looking out the camper windows and seeing the beautiful display of fireworks lighting up the sky almost directly across I-10. It was a nice finish to a safe day of driving west.

We were up early and headed through Los Cruses, NM, to head up I-25 to get through Albuquerque before the rush hour.  We had reservations at Enchanted Trails RV park just west of town.  It offers a Passport America rate of $16.

If you are interested in the history of Route 66, this park is the place to visit.  They pride themselves on the memorabilia from the 50s and 60s along Route 66.

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The park has a beautiful pool, welcome on the hot desert days, laundry facilities, a meeting room, pool table room, laundry room and clean rest rooms.   Larry loved the speedy free Wi-Fi.   But, the best part—several wonderful restored trailers from the Route 66 days.  Long for the good “ole days?” Enchanted Trails can scratch the itch.  You can stay in a restored vintage trailer that probably saw Route 66 a time or two.

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This is a 1974 Silver Streak.  Next to it is a 1963  Winnebago “Dot.”

IMG_2524  Isn’t that the cutest thing you have ever seen?  This next one  woke some “forgotten memories for me—I knew this trailer.

IMG_2526 It is a 1956 Yellowstone. 

I came to the RVing lifestyle early—back when I was 19 years old.  Another gal and I rented a small trailer in Woods Trailer Park in Sparks, NV just like the 1956 Yellowstone above.  We had moved to Reno, NV, for a few months so she could get a divorce and she didn’t want to go alone.  Apartment rents were expensive, but we found the little trailer for rent for just $15 a week—affordable to two young ladies living in the big city—for the six weeks needed for her divorce.

It was better than any apartment because it came with a small, private yard—grass and all, next to it.  We could sit outside and BBQ on nice days.

And this long silver trailer home was a blast from the past too.

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She returned to CA at the end of the six weeks, but I stayed and a year or so later married a young man who’s parents lived close by in the same park in a trailer just like the big silver one above.  It was funny looking back at my long-lost memories this morning!

So, if Route 66 is your passion, be sure to stop by Enchanted Trails and be enchanted by the 50s and 60s.  Plus plan on exploring Albuquerque, NM, from this great vantage spot.

We headed west on I-40 for Holbrook, AZ, for a small Passport America discount park, Root 66 RV Park—full hook-ups for $16.50.  The park is about 20 miles west of the Petrified National Forest.  For rock hounds, the park has lots of petrified wood for sale by the pound…much better than getting arrested for collecting it in the National Park.  The NPS doesn’t have a sense of humor about rock hounds collecting THEIR rocks.

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We stopped early this afternoon because the elevation is 5050 feet.  We are trying to minimize Larry’s time above 5,000 ft. Tomorrow we climb up again with the cooler weather on the plateau before descending to 3,000 ft. and much higher temperatures at Kingman, AZ.  We will enjoy today’s 80 degree weather—something to remember when the temperature gauges zing back above 100 degrees!

Next posting, I will tell about the rain—and more rain…..and cleaning the car and truck.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

July 1, 2012 – Luling, TX—on the road west.

We are back in the Shoe Box—moving from 1/2 acre lot with 1100 sq. foot house to living in 10 1/2 feet again.  We left Livingston, TX, this morning and stopped in Luling, TX, at a nice Passport America/Escapees discount park called RiversBend RV Park.  
We spent the last two weeks getting ready to leave.  Larry has a doctor appointment on July 19, 2012 in Antioch, CA—2000 miles from Livingston. 
This is one reason why it took so long to finish up the chores and pack the camper.  This is NOT how you want your windows to look like first thing in the morning:
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The reason you can’t see the trees—or the forest—is because of HIGH humidity outside.  The house is so much cooler at 72 degrees at 7 a.m. than the outside air that the windows fog up on the outside.  Not a good sign when you have to work outside.
We forget how much work it takes to close down a hou and yard for several months.  We turn off the water as the last thing done before we leave—capping 14 days of chores—and hot sweaty work. 
We stopped here in Luling, TX to rest up for the ride though San Antonio, TX,  tomorrow morning.  As we arrived at noon, we had time to explore Luling. 
I have heard this is the BEST BBQ place in the country, but alas, we have consumed our sodium allotment to last us for the next few days and the refrigerator and freezer are full—so no ribs this trip.
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The place was packed!  Across the street, I didn’t find many shoppers in the Farmer’s Market in the 90-plus heat.  I bought some Luling home-grown tomatoes as Larry’s red globes just never developed the strong tomato flavor we expected.  Hope these are better.  Notice all the watermelons for sale:
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Luling is home to the Watermelon Thump festival in June.  The locals are very proud of their watermelons.  We didn’t have room for one of those either.  We are packed!
We made time to visit the the Zedler Mill Museum and Park , located on the banks of the San Marco River–a real gem in downtown Luling.
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We noticed most of the visitors were enjoying the San Marco River more than the museum:
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The drop-off is about 20 feet for the old mill way.  This view was a bit scary as there aren’t any fences or barriers to the drop off where the old wheel was located:
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From down stream looking back at the mill dam.
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We finished our visit to Luling with a visit to DQ for a Blizzard treat.  Yum Yum.
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Tomorrow we will pass around San Antonio on Loop 1604 and stop in either Ozona or Fort Stockton, depending on the heat and our tiredness level, smile.