The Last Month of Our Third Year of Snowbirding

When I last posted we were in Yuma, AZ, we are now back in Iowa and our Third Year of Snowbirding is over, but that doesnt mean we are back in our house.  Last fall when we left we rented our house to Ann's daughter and her boyfriend, as it is working out well, and Ann wanted to be closer to work, we have ended up at Cutty's in Grimes, Iowa which is more or less a suburb of Des Moines.  This will be quite different than other years!

Originally we planned on leaving Yuma in Saturday March 17, but we changed our plans when we discovered that there was an air show at the Marine Air Station on Saturday afternoon featuring The Air Force Thunderbirds, and the Casino was giving away a 1965 Thunderbird and $4,000.00 on Saturday night after the Fabulous Thunderbirds concert.  A trifecta of T-birds!

The air show was a zoo!  I am not sure it was poor planning on the part of the military, of if they wanted all us civilians to experience the joy of standing in line for hours that the military is known for, but whichever was the reason, we got to do plenty of standing in line, and only arrived in our paid for seats to see the last part of the show, which fortunately, was The Thunderbirds in there General Dynanics F-16s.

I took lots of pics of them, but few came out.

I did get one video that isnt too bad.

After the air show was over, we hung around a while and looked at the static displays of various aircraft.

Here are some pics them.  This is a Ch-53 Sea Stallion.

 A Ch-46.  The Army version, which is similar, and that I am familiar with, is a Ch-47-Chinook

Here are our friends Dave and Marilyn by the nose of a C-130.

This is an Osprey.

This is the tail end of a F-18.

  This is a sideview of the F-18.

This is a Cobra Attack Helicopter.  This is a newer and upgraded version of the Cobra, that I was familiar with in Viet-Nam.

After wandering around these aircraft for a half an hour or so we thought the crowd would thin out but it didnt, the lines were getting longer instead of shorter.  It was over a mile to the parking area, and they were not letting people walk to their cars, so everyone had to ride a bus, and there were not near enough of them.

Here is a couple of pics of the lines, and these pics do not do the line justice at all!  Here is one looking from where we are to the front of the line.

And here is one from where we are looking back at the people behind us.

But not to fear, we did have some entertainment while we waited.

Not sure what this guy was up too, but he danced and pranced around for several minutes before he got back in line.  Maybe the green hair was for St. Pat's Day, but I am not sure.

Also, while in line I took time out to go the the porta potty.  Here is a self-explanatory poster that was on the wall inside.

Good idea to be reminded to keep hydrated in such a dry and warm climate.

Eventually, they brought a lot more busses, and started loading them at several points instead of the two they had originally started out with, and we got back to the car, and back to the motorhome in plenty of for some rest before going to the Casino for a little gambling, and seeing the Fabulous Thunderbirds.  When we got to the casino there was another snafu, originally the concert was going to be outside, but because of the weather, it got windy, cloudy, and cooler in the afternoon, they moved the show inside, and they were having problems getting everything set up inside, so it was another long time standing in line waiting for the doors to open, but they did serve tacos to us while waiting.  Once inside there was more waiting before the concert finally got started.  By that time a few of the people were drunk and very upset, and a couple of them left.

The concert was pretty good.  Kim Wilson is an awesome harmonica player, but the rest of the band was average.  Not the same without Jimmy Vaughn, and Kim Wilson is a lot older than I remember.

After the concert was the drawing for the car and money.  For every so many points you earned on your players card at the machines, you got free entries into the contest.  I had 30 entries, which I thought wasnt bad until I talked to a guy who had over 300.  Of course we didnt with the car or the money, but we still had a great time staying at the Cocopah Casino while in the Yuma area.

We got up at a decent time on Sunday morning, and because we had done a lot of preparation the afternoon before, it wasnt long as we were on the road heading to Deming, New Mexico by way of Tucson.




  Before getting on Interstate 8 we stopped and filled up with propane on the east side of Yuma.

Then it was on the road on our way to Tucson where we were going to meet our friends Debby and Randy for lunch, before driving on to Deming, NM.

When we left Yuma the weather was beautiful; warm and sunny, but as we approached Gila Bend it began to get cloudy to the south and east.

About that time our friends called and wondered how we were do traveling, as it was windy cool and raining in Tucson.

The rain stayed ahead of us until we passed Picahio Peak and Picachio Peak State Park.

The rain and wind was not a problem, and we got this nice shot of the clouds hiding the mountains just north of Tucson.

We made it safely to Tucson and had a nice meal and I nice visit with Randy and Debby who are looking great these days thanks to Nutri-Systems.  They have both done real well with the system, and we wish them continued success.  After an all to brief visit, it was back on the road toward Deming, NM.  By this time the weather had improved quite a bit and it wasnt too bad traveling.  We stopped in Benson to fill up at a Love's.  Everyone must have had the same idea as we did, as the place was jammed, and it took some maneuvering to get in and out safely.

As we got close to Wilcox, AZ the overhead sign on the Interstate said the the road was closed up ahead because of high winds.  Well, aint that sweet!  So we kept on not knowing how far we could go, but just as we were getting into Lordsburg, AZ, they were just opening up the road again, and the traffic heading east had to blend with the traffic that had been stopped in Lordsburg.  Law enforcement did a good job of blending traffic, and except for the road being real busy,  the rest of the way to Deming, NM was not bad at all, even though they still had the high wind warning lights and signs still on.

We had no trouble finding the Lo-Hi RV Ranch a couple miles south of town.  Although, the park is primarily for the group "Loners on Wheels", they do let anyone stay, and it is a Passport America so the rate is half the normal rate.

This is what we woke up to Monday morning!

Dont need no *&^$$% snow and sleet!  Just a reminder that it isnt summer yet.

But after the snow squalls passed I took these pictures.

Nice to see the sun again!

The week went pretty fast with Ann putting in lots of hours and the most of the week the weather was not all that good.  Ann did get in a great bike ride one day after work, despite the stiff breeze in her face on the way back.  Another night we just drove around town and the surrounding area. It is so sad to see so many of towns across the country that are just fading away.  Even though there are some new buildings in town, there are many buildings and houses that are not only run down, but falling down, and then there is the fences.  In Deming as in many other towns we went through in our travels, so many businesses had bars on the doors and windows, and fences with barbed wire on the top.  A sad commentary on the state of our civilization, or lack thereof.

Here are some pics we took on our tour around town one evening.  The first is the ridge to the south east of town that can be seen in the two pics in the bright sunshine after the snow squall.  We called it Stegosaurus Ridge as it looked like the back of a Stegosaurus.

The next two we found interesting to see the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses to have a sign both in English and Spanish.

On Friday evening, our last night in Deming, we were looking for a place to eat that had a fish special.  Although, the Holiday Inn advertized one, we were told it wasnt that good, but the local Knights of Columbus had a fish fry every Friday evening during lent. So we set out to find it.  It was a pretty good meal, and we were glad to help out a local organization.

Saturday morning saw us getting on the road at a decent time as we wanted to make it from Deming to Trinidad, Colorado today.



We started out going north east on State Highway 26 toward Hatch, New Mexico.  It was a nice two lane road with not much traffic, but you could see signs that New Mexico is up to speed on alternative energy as from the highway you could see several wind turbines and we also saw a huge solar array.  Good for New Mexico!

Although this isnt a great picture, we thought it odd to see a carnival evidently sitting in there winter quarters waiting for spring.

We continued on to Hatch where we saw hundreds of peppers drying everywhere.  Hanging from porches, hanging from clothes lines, hanging every where.  We thought it odd, until we found out later that Hatch is the pepper capital of the world!  We stopped at a local truckstop/Subway for a breakfast sandwich, and another coffee, then it was back on the road again, heading north on Interstate 25 toward Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Of course when traveling, you are eventually going to run into road construction.  We have been lucky so far that we hadnt seen much of it.  Fortunately, it was just a bridge replacement, and it didnt take long to get past it.

The drive on up to Albuquerque was uneventful on such a beautiful day with a south wind pushing us along.  Gonna get good gas mileage today!  When we got to Albuquerque we had to decide if we wanted to continue north on 25, with some pretty good mountain driving as I remember from when I originally drove the Winnebago home from Phoenix to Iowa.  The other choice was to go east on 40, then head north on state highway 84 and rejoin Interstate 25 at Romeroville, New Mexico. Going that way is only a few miles farther and the only real obstacle is a 7000 foot pass east of Albuquerque.  We decided to take the alternate route and head east.

Albuquerque has some beautifully painted interstate over passes and exits.

As we headed east we climbed and climbed until we reached 7078 feet above seal level a few miles west of Clines Corners, New Mexico which is a little spot in the road that does a huge amount of self promotion for as little as there is there.  We didnt even bother to take a pic of the place.

After topping the pass it was down hill to where we turned north on state highway 84, and with a south west wind, it was another day of great gas mileage!  Highway 84 is a nice two lane highway, and we made good time heading north, and it wasnt long and we again rejoined Interstate 25 and continued north toward Trinidad, Colorado.  There was only one thing in the way; Raton Pass.  It wasnt long and we began to climb toward the summit.

This was not the altitude reading at the summit but it was pretty close. 

The 8.1 liter GM V-8 in our Winnebago does a fine job of climbing mountains, and with a grade brake and a off and on switch for the over drive, it also does a great job going down mountains as well.

Once we got on the other side of the pass, the scenery changed a lot!

It was just a short drive from the New Mexico/Colorado border to Budget Host Derrick RV Park and Motel on the south side of Trinidad, Colorado.

We stopped in Trinidad to visit Gary ,  a "mafia wars" friend of Ann's.  Once we got set up, he came by with his son, and took us to dinner at Black Jack's Saloon.  We had some great steaks, and a good visit, as he gave us some history of the area, including a big flood after which the town was raised several feet to prevent future flooding.

 We ended the night pretty early, as we wanted to get on the road at a decent time Sunday morning, and get to Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora, Colorado so we could visit Ann's dad and her step-mom who has suffered some serious medical problems in the last couple of years.



Our first view after leaving the RV park was this downhill stretch as we passed through Trinidad. 

We had a pretty easy three hour drive to the park in Aurora.  The only issue we had was the GPS coordinates were a little off, and I took a wrong turn onto a dead end street.  As we were close to the park, we just unloaded the car, and then I was able to turn the car, and car dolly around, as we made the short drive to the park.  Here is a view of the Cherry Creek Reservoir.

Just as we were getting ready to put our money in the envelope to pay for our night's stay, a man came up to us and asked if we were staying just for the night. When we told him yes, he said, take my site it is paid for for the night, but we are leaving. We gave him $10.00 and all was good.  After getting set up, we headed a few miles up the road to visit Ann's dad and step-mom.  They both looked good considering all they had been through.

After a good visit, it was back to the motorhome to get some rest, and prepare for our short journey up to St. Vrain State Park near Longmont, Colorado.



Although the ride up to Longmont was short, it was one of the roughest stretches of road we have been on all winter!  Once we got there, and registered, we got set up with a real nice site by a small pond.

This is one of the nicest spots we have had all winter, despite the fact there were lots of people fishing in the many ponds that make up the park.  Shortly after arriving at the park, I talked to my sister Terry who wanted us to meet her and her husband Walt at a nearby RV dealer as they are looking for a class A motorhome, and have decided on a Rexall, and the dealer had one.  After waiting at the dealership for about an hour, a salesman showed up with the motorhome.  Although, the design was nice, it was not in all that good of shape, so they decided to pass on it.  While we were there, we looked at a Safari Simba.  It was in much nicer shape, but because the tv was located over the driver, it was a no go.  By then it was time for dinner, so went to the local TGIFridays and had a good meal and even better conversation. Then it was back to the motorhome, and after some computer time, it was time to call it a day.

Tuesday started with me meeting my brother Phil, who lives in Longmont, at the local Waffle House for some breakfast, and catching up on things in each others lives.

Then it was back to the motorhome to do some maintenance, and repair.  When Ann took a shower down at Cherry Creek State Park, the hot water was hot, and the cold water close to being hot.  I didnt think much about until Tuesday when we could hardly get anything to come out of the hot water faucets.  After much thought, logic, reasoning, and procrastination, I concluded that there must be a check valve in the line to the water heater, and if it malfunctioned, it could restrict the water flow.  So armed with this knowledge, and a few hand tools, the first thing I did was try and remove the nylon drain plug to drain the water heater before removing the water line, and check valve.  Of course it twisted off instead of coming out.  So I used a narrow regular screwdriver to remove the rest of the plug, and hoped I didnt do too much damage to the threads, so I could put a new plug in.  I then removed an inspection plate near water heater, and was able to see the connections on the back.  It looked like a pretty easy fix.  Just remove the incoming line, then remove the check valve, get a new one, reassemble, and we would be back in business.  The line and the valve were removed easily, and with a Camping World just a couple miles away things were looking good.

At the store I purchased a new check valve and a water heater drain valve to replace the ruined nylon plug.  I got back and installed the new parts and expected the problem to be solved.  No dice.  Still the same restricted flow of the hot water.  After some more thought and logic, I concluded that there must be a check valve on the out going connection on the water heater as well.  So once again to was drain the water heater, and remove the out going line, and sure enough it had a check valve too.  To verify that was the problem, I removed the damaged portion of the check valve, and reinstalled it, and sure enough it worked, plenty of water flow from the hot water faucets.  Since that was enough work for one day, I decided to wait until the next day to get the new check valve and install it.  The problem was that the teflon tape I had used to seal the threads was not holding, and the connection was leaking, but not too bad, and besides we had lots of water, and were leaving on Friday morning.  However, I didnt shut the water pump off, so that helped in increasing the flow of the leak.

Late in the afternoon, after talking to a few siblings, we decided to grill steaks at our place for dinner.  So Ann made a quick trip to the King Soopers in Firestone for steaks, my brother Brian brought refreshments, and my sister Sue brought some salads.  For a meal that was thrown together it short order it was delicious, and we still had plenty to talk about, even though we had seem most of the same family members at Thanksgiving.

Left to right is me(Paul), my sister Sue, my brother Phil, and my brother Brian.

As it usually is, all to soon it is time to call it a night, and a great night it was!

Wednesday morning Ann was not feeling her best, and didnt have the best day. I met my brother Kevin, and his son Trevor at Efrains Restaurant in Longmont for lunch.  That was the best Mexican food we had eaten all winter.  Since Kevin had to pick up another son, we didnt have that much time for chatting, but it was still good to see them.

Then it was back to the motorhome, and then back to Camping World for the other check valve.  Fortunately, they had it in stock, and it didnt take long to replace it, and retape the connections to stop the leak.  Everything went pretty much as planned, except that we had leaked out most of our fresh water, and since we were not close enough to water to hook up our hose, and refill the tank, we either had to go and get water with the motorhome, or use jugs of water.  While brainstorming(aka procrastinating) I came up with the idea of filling our 5 gallon container, and using the line in the water bay that is made for winterizing the RV.  It worked like a charm, except that the line was not long enough to reach the bottom of the container.  Since we still had some water, I would get a longer piece of tubing tomorrow.

On Thursday I went into Longmont to run several errands, and to meet my bothers Phil and Brian for lunch.  I had noticed that the rear tire on Ann's bike was flat.  So on my trip into Longmont after having lunch, I dropped the tire off to be fixed.

Then it was to Ace Hardware to get six feet of 3/8 " inside diameter plastic tubing.

Next I went to Bradley's Sinclair to fill up Ann's car for $3.769 for the unleaded plus.

Then it was back to the bicycle shop to pick up the repaired tire, and as I was driving down the street I noticed Dickens Tavern, a place mys son Adam worked when he lived in Longmont.

Back at the motorhome, I reassembled Ann's bicycle, and put the longer tubing on the "winterize" fitting and the water system worked fine.  Better than having to drive the motorhome over and fill up with water.

Shortly after that I visited with my brother Brian again and we decided for the evening we would go to Loveland and visit with his son Jon Paul and friends.  We started out at Applebee's in Longmont with sandwiches and cocktails.  Ann had decided she would be the designated driver for the evening.  Then it was to a bar than had been converted from the old train depot to a nice sports bar.  After a relatively short time there, we finished off the evening by going a short distance to a place called Chillers.  They had some nice music on the juke box, a we sang along with some of the songs.  Since tomorrow was going to be a long driving day we called it a night about 11:00PM.

Friday started by packing up, and loading up.  Before we left town we met my sister Terry and her husband Walt at Johnson's Corner.  We had a nice breakfast and more good conversation.  They have been rvers for quite some time, and are looking forward to trading their pull type camper for a class A motorhome, and they are excited to find one they like and be able to make the deal. After pics and good byes it was time to hit the road.

It was then that we did something we hadnt done it quite some time.  We hit the "home" button on the GPS, and "distance to destination" showed 631 miles.  That is a long way!  We didnt plan on going all the way home today; just drive as far as we felt like it, spend the night somewhere in Nebraska, and complete the journey tomorrow.



Again we had a tail wind, and were going down hill; a great day for driving!  We were hoping to buy some more Mega Millions lottery tickets in Colorado, but when we stopped in Julesburg at the Flying J, it was closed and the other gas stations close to the interstate didnt sell lottery tickets.  Oh, well, it was only 660 million.

We continued on east to Big Springs, Nebraska where we filled up with gas, and as we were leaving the Flying J this monstrosity was pulling in.  I would hate to have to buy tires for that truck!

The journey east was pretty uneventful but there were rain showers in the area, and we did run into some rain just west of Omaha.

We hadnt really planned on driving this far today, but things were going so well, we just kept on keeping on.  Finally just before dark we decided to call it a day, and stop at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa. After a very delicious, and expensive buffet dinner, and a donation on my part to the casino, it was time to call it a night.  Ann had better luck that I did, and came away with some spending money.

Saturday morning we didnt get moving too early, and after filling up with gas, and a failed attempt to find a parking spot for the rig, so we could get some breakfast, we just got on that long a lonesome highway east of Omaha. 

We knew we were not far from home, when we saw the wind turbines on south west Iowa.

We arrived back in our hometown of Panora, Iowa just before noon.  Since we had rented our house to Ann's daughter and boy friend, we stayed in the motorhome.  It really has become our home, and adjusting back to a big house would not have been easy.


We had contacted Cutty's of Des Moines while still on the road and made an appointment with them for Sunday afternoon with a salesman.  So after a small welcome home party at our favorite watering hole, and an even smaller after hours party, we got up Sunday, and drove in to meet with the salesman.  He showed us around and explained how things worked, the benefits of joining, and the costs.  We decided it would work for us, and we joined.

We went back to Panora, and on Monday morning Ann went to work, and I loaded up the Blazer on the dolly and came to the park. After registering, and picking out a site, I got set up for a two week stay.  Hopefully, by then, we will have been able to get a leased lot that we can stay on till we go south again in the fall.

A view of the goose pasture and the pond from our camping spot.

We are looking forward to getting a leased site, and things will be good.

So much for this update.

Paul