4/6/08 A Public THANK YOU!

I just want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past years.

Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the
number one pass-time while driving alone is picking your nose. (Although cell
phone usage may be taking the number one spot)

Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can't touch any other woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. Yuck!

I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones be cause I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore and Uzbekistan .

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas companies!

If you don't copy my list and email it to at least 144,000 people in the next 70
minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this
afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back causing you to
grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a
friend of my mother's next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician... Have a wonderful day....

OK, OK, this isn't actually MY list but I have received the warnings of the above over the last 13 years since we've had a computer.

Now on to our day......

We've decided to go down to Mexico for a few days but we won't take the rig. We'll do the hotel/motel thing as much as that pains me. I like having my own bathroom, bed, etc.. But we'll do it because Bob has to get his fishing "fix". It's been a long time since he's been fishing,,,,much too long. It looks like we'll drive down to Los Cabos on Thursday so he can fish in the Sea of Cortez. I'll hang out at the hotel/motel pool while he's out on the boat. There's no question of whether I'll go or not....I get seasick!

Today I did my best to lay out for awhile to work on getting rid of this farmer tan I've got going on. I lasted about an hour and had to come in, it was just too hot.

Bob took advantage of another of his benefits here on the post today. A free car wash! Now our truck is all sparkling clean again.

For dinner we went into town, El Centro, to look around and get the lay of the land. We ended up in Sizzler for dinner. We had the most tender steaks we've ever had I think. We could cut them with a fork! A good sized baked potato to go with it and our tummies were full in no time.

4/5/08 A Windy Day

First and foremost birthday wishes go out to our sister-in-law Michelle! May you have many more!!!

We had a windy day here in California. Of course the wind picked up just as Bob finished putting the awning out. He had put it out yesterday also but at 2 o'clock in the morning he was outside taking it back down. It seems the strong winds just come out of nowhere. We do need the awning because of the way our rig is situated in the camp space. We get the sun almost all day on the patio side and its just too hot to sit in the sun, we need the shade if we are to sit out at all.

Here are some pictures of where we're parked. Our site.

Looking down the street.

Looking down the other way. The building at the end is the Recreation/Welfare building. That's where RV'ers go to sign out sports equipment, get answers to questions and find out about planned activities/trips.

Of course the planes were flying today and we ran out to take more pictures. We've got to stop this, how many pictures does one need of a plane flying?

As I mentioned a few days ago, we e-filed our tax returns and we are getting a small refund from the state of Missouri from when we workamped there last summer. So we e-filed on April 2nd and I looked at our bank records today online and what do I see? A deposit on April 3rd from the state of Missouri in the amount we are owed! Is that F A S T or what? We hope the Federal is just as fast. Of course the two combined won't buy a tank of gas at today's prices but its our money and we want it.

We added California to our Visited State Map that we keep on our rig today.

We now have 25 states filled in! We have camped in half the USA!

4/4/08 WOW...WHAT AN ALARM CLOCK!

I'm sure you all know what a annoyance the sound the alarm clock makes in the morning is. I think I would welcome that incessant buzzing right now. We were awakened this morning by the sound of a fighter plane flying overhead. If you didn't get up, don't worry, another one came by soon after. Oh that's right, we're in a Naval AIR Facility! The place where the Blue Angels call home in the winter.

Actually, it wasn't the Blue Angels we heard as they left here in mid-March for their show tour. Thank heavens!

A little history on where we are....

The facility was commissioned on May 1, 1946, as a Naval Air Station. Prior to that, the base was a Marine Corps Air Station. Through the years, Navy El Centro has had several names: Naval Air Facility, Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, Naval Air Station, and the National Parachute Test Range.

For the first 35 years, the mission of NAF El Centro was devoted to aeronautical escape system testing, evaluation, and design. In November 1947, the Parachute Experimental Division from Lakehurst, New Jersey moved to El Centro. In 1951, the Joint Parachute Facility was established and consisted of the Naval Parachute Unit and the Air Force 6511th Test Group (Parachute). The Air Force remained part of El Centro’s test organization for the next 27 years.

Currently, the facility has two operating runways. The 9,500-foot east/west runway handles 96 percent of the traffic. It is equipped with a Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System at each approach end as well as lighted carrier deck landing areas at both ends so pilots can simulate carrier landings.

Apart from "touch and go" landings and take-offs, aircrews use the many ranges at NAF El Centro to develop their skills. A remote-controlled target area allows naval aviators to practice ordnance delivery. The desert range is used for air-to-ground bombing, rocket firing, strafing, dummy drops and mobile land target training. The target complex uses the Weapons Impact Scoring System that microwaves target images to a range master control building for immediate verification of weapons delivery accuracy.

The addition of the Display and Debriefing Subsystem, known as DDS, expanded the role of NAF El Centro to include air combat training by utilizing remote television, acoustical and laser scoring systems. The DDS is linked with TACTS to provide a computerized record of the tactics employed by individual aircrews and to evaluate the effectiveness of each maneuver. Many believe the training at NAF El Centro is as close as pilots can get to actual air combat.

We also learned that much of the movie "Jarhead" was filmed around El Centro and many of the extras from the movie were from NAF El Centro.

I was told by one of our neighbors that in 2 or 3 days we won't even hear them anymore. We'll see.

Bob got the camera out this morning and took some shots of the planes as they flew overhead.

We got more settled in today and gathered information such as maps etc from the RV Park office.

This afternoon we went to the commissary. Its been quite awhile since I shopped in one. It isn't a very large one but it had most everything we needed and wanted. The best part was we didn't drive a mile to and from. A huge difference from Arizona City.

The planes were overhead a good part of the day today but by late afternoon I hardly noticed them unless I was outside.

It got quite warm here today, 88 degrees and sunny. It is supposed to be like this all week.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

4/3/08 Is It YOU?

Haven't had Internet connection for two days, just got to see how close the count is. Is it YOU who turned the corner on the counter. If so, let me know!


Hi Snookie,
I'm #22000. Hopeyour journey out of QR is going smoother than ours - we broke down on I-10 in Benson and got towed to an RV park! I'll be blogging it in the next few days.

Elizabeth Higginbottom :-)

Wow, 22,000 hits! The counter just seems to be turning faster and faster and that makes me happy!

4/3/08 California, Here We Come!

We left Phoenix this morning around ten after closing up the rig and getting it ready for travel. We said so long to Bill and Peggy and were soon heading west. It was a long drive today as we had to cover about 260 miles. It's been a long time since we've been in the truck this long.

It was good day for traveling, sunny and not too hot.

The scenery along I-8 was typical interstate scenery. Open fields and mountains. Typical until we came to this! (Click on picture) This is just HUGE!

I almost missed this picture a short time later.

The scenery changed almost immediately. SAND! Huge sand dunes!

We were getting low on fuel and as soon as we crossed the California state we saw a Shell station that had diesel fuel. I took note of the sign as we were pulling in and saw that diesel was........are you ready for this? $4.48 per gallon! YIKES! We drove right back out! There's got to be cheaper diesel somewhere! We did find a more affordable (?) price in El Centro. We filled up at $4.07 a gallon! Oh that hurts!

We finally reached our destination, the El Centro Naval Air Facility.

This is our first FamCamp as the RV parks on military bases are known. We will certainly make use of the benefit we have from Bob's military service from now on! Our daily rate for staying here is $15.00 per day. We would be hard pressed to find to find a commercial RV Park this cheap.

After we received clearance at the gate we proceeded into the base to find the RV Park with directions we were given.

On the way we couldn't help but notice these planes. One of the Blue Angel planes!

We made the left where we were supposed to only to find the road closed with orange cones due to water. It didn't look that deep and we surely could have made it through. I called the RV office and asked them what we should do and the fellow says to make a U-turn and go to the next block and make the left. I explained to him that we were 53 feet long and there would be no "hangin' a U-y" going on here. We did find a place we could turn around and proceeded to make the next left. When we got to the next corner we saw a guy in a golf cart and were going to flag him down for further directions. No need for that, he was the camp host and was out looking for us!

We checked in and were told where the swimming pool was, where the restaurant was, where the movie theater was and by the way the movie theater is FREE to us. In addition, we can eat in the dining facilities with the Navy Airmen at $3.00 per meal. If their food is as nice as this base is so far I may not be doing any cooking while here!

We got into our space with no trouble and got set up. It didn't take long after that when our neighbors started coming out to meet us. I think we're going like it here!

Since I haven't done grocery shopping in awhile and didn't think to take anything out of the freezer we ordered a takeout dinner from the Mirage Restaurant here on the base. Oh yeah, we're going like it here!

We have a good Internet connection and that makes us happy campers! We were somewhat dismayed to find out that most of the TV channels we could pick up with the antenna were all spoken in Spanish. HELLO! This is America, we speak ENGLISH! Thank heavens my weekly fix of Survivor came through in English. Bob will put our satellite dish up tomorrow.

So here we are in sunny California. I have mixed feelings about this. I've always shunned the idea of coming here because I'm afraid the "big one" will happen while we are within its borders. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we won't even have a little bitty earthquake while we are here.

4/2/08 Waiting, Waiting, Waiting....

I HATE to wait! For anything! Well, except maybe for getting a needle.

We closed up the rig to get it ready for the service bay where it will spend the day. We got in line at 8:30 even though our appointment wasn't until nine. Lucky for us, Tony our Service Writer, was available just 10 minutes later. Bob told him that we wanted the wheel bearings repacked, the brakes checked out and a tire with a slow leak looked at. They don't do tires. That's ok, its a very slow leak anyway. Since they are under warranty we can wait until we can get to a Goodyear dealer.

Our plan was to drop off the rig and then go spend the day with my cousin Mike and his wife Jeannette who lived fairly close by. Well, THAT didn't happen! Tony said our rig would be taken in right away and since our service guy had a helper today the work would be done in no time. OK, that's a good thing. Yeah, right!

We went out for breakfast and took a ride in the area giving them time to get the work done.

When we returned in the late morning we were informed that we have heavy duty axles (that's a good thing!) and that they don't stock the size seals needed. (that's NOT a good thing) He assured us that they could get them locally and would have them delivered, ok, we're back to a good thing again. He didn't know how long it would take to get them here but it could be in as little as a half hour. We decided to wait rather than drive to Buckeye to see Mike and Jeannette. They were about a 30 minute drive away and we would have to back before they closed the service department so we thought it best to stay put. By one the seals still weren't delivered so I called Mike to tell him to go on with his day that we weren't going to make it. I was bummed out about this because I really wanted to spend the day with them sitting around their pool.

So we hung around the dealership. We were at Beaudry's not too long ago and had already gone through all the rigs so there was no need to do that again. Bill and Peggy were also hanging around the dealership so we spent time with them. Peggy didn't have a blog when we met them but she does now! There were two computers in the lounge area so we got on one and got her set up.

By late afternoon the seals were delivered by NAPA and the service man agreed to stay as long as necessary to get the job done. Another good thing since is our HOME after all and we needed it to sleep in tonight.

The best news of all was that our brakes are fine and no work needed to be done on them. Tony reduced our bill since we had to wait all day when he told us the work would be done in no time at all. Another GOOD thing!

It was now going on six o'clock so we decided to spend the night in the parking lot once again since it was too late to go anywhere this late in the day. Besides, it was FREE!

We'll head to California tomorrow.

4/1/08 Once Again.....

Everybody SING!

On the road again

Just can't wait to get on the road again

The life we love is makin' new Rv'in' friends

and we can't wait to get on the road again

On the the road again

Goin' places we've never been before

Seein' things we may never see again

And we can't wait to get on the road again

We pulled out of Quail Run at 10:56 this morning. It was hard leaving as I knew it would be. Our neighbors came out in force to see us off. All eight of them. That's all that's left. After hugs and handshakes and yes a few tears we made our to Phoenix.

We had an uneventful run up I-10 and arrived at Beaudry RV at 11:43.

We joined eighteen others in the parking lot "campground" and realized too late that we forgot to put water in the tanks. Luckily, Love's truck stop is right next door and we were able to buy water by the gallon there.

We met our neighbors, one couple in particular, Bill and Peggy from Pennsylvania. Everywhere we go we meet nice people.

After dinner at Arby's we settled in to visit with our neighbors outside and then called it a night and exchanged our lawn chairs for recliners and a night of TV.

We don't have great TV reception here on just the antenna so we watched the movies I picked up for five bucks a piece at Walmart.

I'm going to miss Quail Run. Not for the RV park itself, but the wonderful people we met and made friends with. Hopefully, we'll run into many of them again in our travels.

It was a great winter with all the new friends we made.