Cocopah, to KOFA, to Q

The rest of our stay at the Cocopah Casino was fairly uneventful, however, they changed their rules since last year.  Last year you could dry camp there for $5.00 for 3 nights for an indefinite time period, however, so many people took advantage of their generosity, this year you could stay for free until January 5th, then you had to pay $5.00 for three days, but if you wanted to stay after that, you had to cash in 200 points from your casino players card.  I couldnt get anyone to tell me exactly how many dollars worth of play that would take, but I estimated somewhere up close to $1000.00.  Wasnt going to happen for us!

One of the fun things we did before leaving the casino, we went across the street to the Cocopah Speedway to enjoy a night of stock car racing.  There was a huge crowd, and a long line for tickets.

The picture is a little dark, but if you click on it, it should open in another window, and maybe more clear.  I didnt get a lot of good pics, but here is one of the track.

The track was well prepared, and most of the racing was pretty good, however, in the feature race for the IMCA Modifieds, the track got slicker that the drivers could handle, and they seldom got more than a lap ot two without a yellow flag for a crash, consequently, the race was called after only about 12 laps out of a scheduled 30.  It was still a good night of racing!


When it came time to leave the casino, we were fortunate to find an Escapees Park a few miles east and a couple miles south.  KOFA KOOP is a real nice place with a swimming pool, hot tub, new Maytag industrial washing machines, a huge community room, and very nice lots. The lot we stayed on even had cement parking, plus a cement patio.  It was only about six miles to Yuma, but very little noise or traffic.

We originally booked for just one week, while we waited for Ann's glasses to be ready in Algodonnes, but when they were not ready when they said they would be, we decided to stay for another week.  BTW, Ann just talked to the eye clinic(today is January 23), and was told that before they would send the glasses out to have the glare coating, they wanted her to try them on for fit, and accuracy of the prescription.  That is not what they told her at the time!  So now we need to go back to Algodonnes, make sure the glasses are ok, then wait another two weeks for them to get the glare coating on!  Well, I guess you spend your money, and takes your chances.

We didnt do to much exciting while we were the Escapees Park, but we did do some shopping, and I took a day trip to Gilbert, AZ, which is suburb of Phoenix, for a gathering of retired rural carriers.

We decided we needed a new coffee maker, so a trip to Kohls was in order, where we chose a new Mr Coffee.  The feature that we like most about his model is that the carafe is insulated, so after the coffee is made, we can shut off the generator, and the coffee stays hot in the carafe.

Another shopping excursion was necessary when Ann decided that the rocker/recliner that she used was just too hard on her back, so we went to Yuma Furniture and she picked out a new La-Z-Boy recliner that is much more comfortable.

The next problem was what to do with the old recliner.  The lady at the park office suggested that we put a "free" sign on it, and set it in front of our motorhome.  It was gone the second day it was out there.  It was there when we went to bed, but gone in the morning!  We hope someone is getting some use out of it.

On Thursday January 19, I made the approximately 200 mile one way to to Gilbert, AZ for a meeting of the retired rural carriers in the area.  In order to get to the 9:00 AM meeting, I had to be on the road by 5:30.  I havent gotten up that early for quite some time, but it wasnt a problem, and after stopping at the Love's for gas and coffee, I headed east on Interstate 8.



After the sun came up, I took some pics as I traveled.

It was a hazy day, as you can see from this pic.

Here is the M on the mountain near Maricopa, AZ.

The trip was pretty uneventful until I was on I 10 going into the metro area.  Still well south of my scheduled turn off, I saw a traffic jam ahead, but was able to cross three lanes of traffic, and exit the freeway.

The GPS recalculated the route, and wanted me to get on the 101 going north, but as I was about to enter, I could again see the traffic was stopped, and stayed on Price Street which runs parallel to the 101.  The rest of the trip was easy, and I arrived at the Golden Corral with about 15 minutes to spare.

The meeting was a good one with our National Vice President and the head our Rural Carrier Benefit Plan in attendance.  The room held 76 people, and I believe we had 73 attendees.  Iowas was well represented there as somewhere between 15-20 people were from Iowa. I knew most of them, but not all.  As the room was so crowded, I ddint stay for the meal, but headed back to Yuma, but not before stopping at the Volvo dealer and picking up a courtesy light that fits in the bottom of the driver's door mirror, that had fallen out a couple of weeks before.

I am going to post this now, as we are going to dinner.  Hopefully, I will finish the update later, but I am afraid to just leave it, as it may disapear.

I am back.  It is now Tuesday January 24th.

The trip back to Yuma was uneventful.  Even the road construction by Gila Bend was not a problem for the GPS as it was on the way to Gilbert in the morning.

I stopped in Gila Bend for gas the the Love's, but was not impressed with the price!

Once back on the interstate I encountered these two trucks and their rolling road block.  I know that truck drivers and RV drivers sometimes complain about how inconsiderate drivers of "four wheelers" can be, but when you have one truck only going about one mph faster than another, and driving well below the speed limit, drivers of "four wheelers" believe that this is inconsiderate as well.

 

I arrived back at the motorhome at  KOFA KOOP  about 5:00PM after a great day of driving and meeting!

Friday afternoon we headed over to Arizona Market Place which is a huge place that sells all kinds of stuff some of it RV related, to see if they had anything we couldnt live without, and wouldnt you know it, we did find a few things, including some pony tail holders, a new grill brush, a headlight for Ann to use while riding her bike, some new reusable ice cubes, some driving glasses for me, a new kitchen faucet adapter, a mini speaker and ear buds for Ann's Droid Charge, a valve core tool, and a new case for my Droid Global.  Who knew we needed all that stuff!

On Saturday January 21st we decided to check out and travel on up to Quartzsite, AZ, as the optical office in Algodonnes is not open so we could get the glasses Ann was waiting on, even thought we were paid through Saturday night.  After getting everything together, stopping at Applebee's for lunch, Barney's Flying J to top off with gas we headed north on state highway 95.



Yuma Proving Grounds is just north of Yuma and one of the displays along the highway is a couple of pretty big artillery pieces.

Another interesting item we saw on the Yuma Proving Grounds was this blimp like balloon of which we had seen earlier on our journey that I posted about in this blog post.

The picture is not all that clear as Ann had the camera on full zoom as the blimp was at least a mile away from the highway.  After going past this one, we saw several more in the next few miles.  I should do some research to see what they are used for.

The state roads in Arizona are interesting as they follow the lay of the land, which I guess is to reduce damage to roads when there is flooding, but it makes for an interesting ride, especially when you come across dips in the road like these.

They are not as severe as the look in the pictures, but looking at the second one, and the skid marks, it appears someone had a problem with this one.

Ann took some "scenery" pics along the way to show some the the terrain.

One of the required stops on Highway 95 is the border patrol station.  These are usually formalities for most American Citizens, and evidently there is no smuggling on this road this time of day as the station was closed.

Another interesting place along the way is Stone Cabin.  I dont know the significance of it, but it was good for a picture, anyway.

You know you are getting close to Quartzsite, when you start to see this many rvs parked out in the desert.

We had no trouble in finding our group because we have been here before, and before leaving Yuma, Ann had programmed the satellite coordinates provided by Bob Buchanan of our group on this page into our GPS.  Also, here is a link of current activities at this years RV Forum Rally.

By time we arrived on Saturday the weather had turned very windy, with gusts up to 30 mph, and there was so much dust in the air we could not see the nearby mountains.  As the result the 4:00PM Happy Hour was cancelled, but later in the evening our neighbors across the road had built a fire, and invited us over.  They were first timers at the rally and are fun people.  One couple is from Texas, and the other is from Oklahoma.  For snacks they took saltine crackers, added a combination dry Ranch Dressing Mix, some canola oil, and red pepper flakes in a one gallon saver bag.  You turn the bag regularly until the mixture is absorbed into the crackers.  Really delicious and easy snack!

By 8:00 PM is was time to call it a day.

On Sunday we went to the "Big Tent" which is about 55,000 square feet of mostly RV related products, and some of the usual stuff you would see at a fair or a flea market.  One of the products we had been looking was an Oxygenics Body Spa shower head to replace our old one that has become plugged with so much lime that even CLR wont clean it.  Others on the forum had recommended it, so we got one.  It is really nice, and some friends liked theirs so much, they got another for their house.

Also, we had been looking at LED lights to save some amp hours on our 12 volt electrical system.  We bought one for the reading light behind Ann's recliner to see if we would like them before we would consider buying any more of them.  There are not cheap, as the one we got was $20.00, but they take about 1/12 of a regular bulb, and hopefully, last pretty much forever.  We shall see.

We got back in time for the 4:00 PM Happy Hour where everyone is required to wear their name tags.  Our group has three rules:

1)  Wear your name tags when you are at Happy Hour and other events.

2)  Wear your damn name tags when you are at Happy Hour and other events!

3) No animals at food events.

Everyone introduces themselves and tells what ever they want about themselves.  It is amazing at the diversity of back grounds of the people here who despite their diverse backgrounds have one thing in common; that is the love of rving!  After introductions and announcements, everyone just mingles and chats for as long as they wish.  We usually have morning coffee for those that want to participate about 7:00 AM, but since the guy who usually does coffee isnt here yet, I volunteered to do the coffee.  The group owns a large coffee pot, so I brought it back to our RV and set it up to do morning coffee.  Here is a pic of part of the morning coffee group on Monday morning.

Eventually we had about a dozen people show up, and about the same number on Tuesday morning.

Each morning about 10:00 AM those of us who feel like go on a walk.  Bob Buchanan has measured a two mile course.  Everyone goes at their own pace. I do the two miles in about 35 minutes. A nice way to start the day!

After Ann worked all day Monday, and I started on a blog update, and after Happy Hour, we went to Silly Al's Pizza in Quartzsite for some food and fun.  The place was crowded, and it took over an hour to get seated and served.  By that time karaoke started, so we stayed and Ann got to sing three songs before we headed home about 9:00 PM.  A nice end to another great day on the road!

Today, Tuesday January 24 started with us both getting up about 5:00 AM.  I started the coffee earlier today that yesterday, as it wasnt quite ready when the coffee drinkers showed up on Monday.  Today it was ready on time, and although it was a cool 36 degrees this morning, the air was clean and crisp from the rain we had last night.  It is really nice to be up early enough to see the sun rise!

After coffee, it was time for a snack before the 10:00 AM walk.  Then some lunch upon returning, and then back to updating the blog.

Tomorrow we are going back to check on Ann's glasses, and see if they can change the bifocals in mine to lengthen the focal distance, so I can use them to see the laptop, and to see the gauges in the vehicles I drive.

Let's hope so!


Thus ends another blog post, on Our Third Year of Snowbirding!

Paul