TRIP 2004 - PART 2
SIDNEY, BC TO PEI VIA THE US
by Bernie Klashinsky
Introduction:
14 April, 2004
Another really hot day, one of those that just sneaks up on you. By 9:30 it was already up to 85F.
We did the laundry in the morning, and finished at lunch time.
After lunch we drove to see the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. This is a very interesting tour, and costs just $3 per person. The ancient structure and the surrounding archeological digs indicate an indigenous people that date back to 1350. Just 19 miles from the campground.
Also stopped at the Wal-Mart Supercentre in Florence, AZ for a few groceries. On the way back in to Casa Grande we treated our rig to a new Sidewinder sewer hose support. The sewer hose connections in Havasu were 8” above the ground, and I got fed up trying to balance rocks, etc. to support the hose.
Because we have Bell Expressvu satellite TV we always watch the news from Victoria. We were surprised to see that Victoria had some hail today, but worse yet; Edmonton and Calgary had snow!
15 April, 2004
The temperature here hit 96F today, but we aren’’t complaining. We just find out quite soon that so many things we normally do outside are not difficult, like walking or working.
My sister and brother in law drove down from Scottsdale around 9:30 and we went out to Tanger Outlet Mall, to the south-east of Casa Grande. There are NO deals here, the ladies said regular prices in Casa Grande or Phoenix were better.
The staff here had recommended a place for lunch called The China Buffet, and it was all you can eat for $5.95. Really a great place to eat, located on the corner of Florence and Colorado in Casa Grande. If you are coming through here check it out.Got back to our unit around 2:30 and sat outside for awhile, and then to went to the pool at 5:00. According to the Crew Chief, supper was cancelled due to lack of interest, or because of too much lunch. Sounds good to me, besides it is too hot to eat too much.
16 April, 2004
A bit cooler today, some thin cloud layers and temperature only reached 93F.We were up and out early to go to Wal-Mart for hair cuts. We spent 2 hours there waiting while 3 stylists chatted about everything under the sun. Sorry, but these ladies definitely couldn’’t walk and chew gum at the same time! Went to Quik Kuts down the road and we were in and out in 20 minutes, with great cuts for less money.
Stopped to fuel up Max at Safeway’’s Gas Bar. Diesel was $1.89 per gallon and another 3 cents a gallon rebate with your Safeway card. We got 15.78 mpg which was part towing and part driving empty.We are having a belated Easter dinner tonight. We are cooking a 6.75 lb turkey breast in our portable electric roaster outside, so we aren’’t heating up the trailer.
After supper when the wind dies down we will start to pack up some stuff and take the flappers off the awning, etc.
17 April, 2004
Considerably cooler today, it is cloudy and overcast. We left Casa Grande at 8:30, and heading for our first stop in Tucson at the Costco outlet there. It is very easy to find, you can see it from the highway. When heading south on I-10 take exit 250 and then head east.On the way down to Tucson, we had some head winds, but fortunately they changed around to our back after we left Tucson.
We were planning on stopping in a Passport America campground in Willcox, AZ tonight, but when we got there, the whole area was cloaked in a white dust storm, the dust being caused by the alkali flats which was an old lake bed.So we moved on another 30 miles down to the road to a place called Bowie. Paid $10.60 for a site in another Passport America campground. We are facing more winds and dust here, and we sure won’’t be putting the awning out. The temperature is only in the high 70’s, so we are sitting with doors and windows open and without the AC on.After being in a five star campground, this is a bit of a step down, no pool, and the washplaces are definitely ““rustic””.
We are hoping that tomorrow will be less wind. The manager here says that we are at 3,700 feet, and the temperature will probably drop down to 50F tonight. Quite a change from 80F at night.
18 April, 2004
The winds last night were pretty fierce. At 9:00 we put the slide in as the awning over the top was flapping something terrible. Went to bed at 10:00, and around 11:30 the winds eased.
The manager was right, temperature at 6:00 a.m. was just 54F and I put the furnace on for a while.This should be a great day, sunshine, no dust storms, driving on flat terrain and we have the wind on our stern. Yeehaw!!!! Left the campground at 7:40.
Had two fuels up, first one was a bad fill, so we averaged the two; paid $1.79 and $1.69 a gallon and got 17. 7 miles per gallon.
Our stop today was supposed to be in Las Cruces, NM but were there quite early so we pushed on to El Paso, TX.
We stopped at Cottonwood RV Park, just south of El Paso, paid $20 with our Good Sam discount, and got set up at 1:10.Considerably cooler today, just 86F, skies are overcast, and we are able to sit with doors and windows open and AC off.
19 April, 2004
Last night before we went to bed we set our clocks ahead one hour from Pacific to Mountain Time. This morning we got about an hour down the road when we saw a sign saying that we should now advance our clocks one hour to Central Standard Time. Bam, another hour gone!!!We were out on the road by 7:50 so the loss of another hour wasn’’t that bad.
We had two fuel fills in the morning, paid $1.75 and $1.69 per gallon, and the average of both was 15.7 miles per gallon. Now that we are in the Texas oilfields, the price of fuels are coming down a bit.At Kent, TX we left the I-10 and got onto the I-20, this route will take us all the way to Dallas, and we are supposed to be there on Wednesday. The road is great and relatively flat, so the driving is pretty good.Our stop today was supposed to be in a Passport America campground here in Monahans, TX. When we tried to use the directions in the book, we couldn’’t find the site. We had recalled seeing a sign out on the freeway for another campground one exit further east. So we went there and found it. Thank goodness for some great west Texas hospitality, we had a great laugh with the manager when we told us the other campground had been shut down for about two years!!!! Paid $18 with our Good Sam discount and got set up by 2:15.
The campground is nice and clean, some grass and free cable TV.
We just saw on the news that north-west of here is expecting a hail storm with stones the size of golf balls. Our area and to the south and east of here is on storm watch for possible hurricanes till 5:30. We sure hope that it will move on, or simply disappear without causing any damage, and so that we can sleep tonight.
If we were to turn in a full circle, all we can see is those oil pumpers going up and down, and refineries.
20 April, 2004
The storm never happened last night, thank goodness. The winds died down around 11:00 pm, and we slept quite well. This morning there was a really heavy dew, I had to use the squeegee to clean the truck windows before we left.
We did the “up at 6:00 out at 7:00” routine this morning, and the sun wasn’’t up when we hit the interstate.We had two small fuel fill ups this morning, paid $1.69 and $1.61 and got 13.5 and 15.9 miles per gallon.
The run today brought us into totally different, but great terrain. We drove through cultivated areas, with gently rolling hills, streams, small lakes and ponds, and lots of trees with greenery.
Our stop today is at a Coast to Coast Good Neighbour Park in Baird, Texas. When we found the place, we thought there must have been a mistake. We are in this small town in front of a small house, with this huge yard with nice trees and green grass. The sign on the house says OFFICE, and when I knock on the door a dear sweet little old lady comes to the door. I said, “I think I must be lost can you tell me where Robbins RV Park is”? She said, ““right here””, and told me to park our rig by this big old tree. Turns out that her yard consists of four city lots and she has nine well laid out fully serviced sites with 30 and 50 amp services.In the afternoon we walked the two blocks into town, and checked out the Court House, the Pioneers Museum, and tried desperately to find a pay phone to send and receive messages on our Pocket Mail. We ended up borrowing a private phone from the nice lady in the convenience store.
Later in the afternoon, Jane Robbins the lady who owns and manages the campground brings over her lawn chair and sits in the shade with us and we chat for about 2 hours. Small but quaint, we would recommend this place for anyone, and just $13 a night.
The elevation here is 1,700 to 1,900 feet so we are hoping that it should cool down nicely for sleeping tonight.
21 April, 2004
We left the campground at 7:20 this morning. Our plans today were to skirt around the Fort
Worth - Dallas area on I-20, and then head up to the north-east to get onto I-30 heading to Arkansas. As a point of interest the west - east axis of Fort Worth - Dallas is 65 miles, and it took us just a shade over an hour to drive this distance.
I think we did pretty good handling all the traffic with up to 7 lanes in some areas.
About 3/4’s of the way along the southern by-pass we spotted a Wal-Mart so we bailed out for our morning break. It was easy in, easy off. They had a Fuel Mart there, and they even had auto diesel and we were able to get in and out of the pump islands with no problem. Diesel was $1.52 a gallon and we got 14.75 miles per gallon.
We promised ourselves last night that after we got clear of Dallas we would pull into the first campground we saw. All of us know that every city has campgrounds close to the city limits, right? Not near Dallas though. We ended up going 35 miles before we found a place.
I was joking with my wife; we always feel that while KOA campgrounds are nice, their add on charges on top of a very high basic rate, are a killer. I said to my wife, wouldn’’t it be something if the first place we found was a KOA. Well, you guessed right, it was a KOA. I said what the heck, let’’s give it a try. The office was closed for lunch and maintenance, but their rates were posted; and with a $2 additional fee for AC, we would have paid $28.95. We decided that we didn’’t need a site that bad.
I spotted a gentleman working in his front yard, so I pulled over and asked him if he knew where we could find another campground. He said he sees a lot of rigs go to the campground and then 5 minutes later they are leaving. Maybe KOA should realize they maybe pricing themselves out of business.
This chap gives me some nice clear directions, we go back on the freeway and about 10 miles later we head south on state road 69 on the way to Tyler, TX and find a real nice RV Park for $15 with full services, in Greenville, Texas.
We unhooked today as we were heading back into Greenville to the Wal-Mart Supercentre to replenish the fridge.
The weather today is slightly windy, a bit overcast but still warm and the temperature was 88F at noon.
22 April, 2004
Left Greenville, TX at 8:00 this morning. It is overcast but forecast is for sun in the afternoon and and a high of 84F.
We had two break stops, used the pay phone to send and receive Pocket Mail, and sat and enjoyed the outdoors for a few minutes.Stopped for fuel just before Texarkana, we figured we needed to fuel up one more time in Texas. Paid $1.59 for diesel and got 14.7 miles per gallon. As a point of interest, this afternoon I calculated over all average mileage for the trip so far, and it works out to 15.278 mpg. We have traveled 3,200 miles and we have about 2,400 miles to go.Today’s stop was at a Coast to Coast campground at Ashdown, AK. This is a really posh place, a Five Star Campground, complete with 18 hole golf course. There are only 14 fully services sites here, and 14 with power and water. We are here for 4 days so we can kick back and take it easy for a while. The campground is located on Lake Millwood, which is a big lake, 28,000 acres.
Weather today was hot and muggy, it got up to 92F here, and while it was pretty hot, we did sit out under the awning and enjoyed some refreshing breezes. The staff told us that there are alligators in Lake Millwood, so we won’’t go swimming there!!
23 to 25 April, 2004
Camping in Lake Millwood RV Park.continued Next Issue…
