Show Low RV Lot Update - Finally finished

After almost a year, we can report that the Show Low RV Lot is basically finished. We didn't get to Show Low until near the end of July. Stayed in Yuma for various appointments. Still we hit the ground running and got the shed built, trees and shrubs planted, irrigation installed, and low voltage lighting installed in the first few weeks. Also built a shed loft and started hooking up utilities in the shed for appliances still sitting in Yuma.

Made a trip to Yuma and picked up our apartment stove, washer, dryer, and refrigerator which are now installed and functioning in the utility shed.

In the last few weeks, we had pavers installed in our patio area and we spread 9 tons of gravel in the shrub areas. Whew!! Glad that's over with.

Other than all the lot work, we've been socializing with our friends and neighbors. Ricky and Luci are doing fine and enjoying the fresh air and pleasant temperatures. We have had the usual seasonal monsoon thunderstorms in the afternoons.

We have an upcoming caravan with friends Ken & Scott to New Mexico for the Balloon Fiesta and then we will return to Show Low to finish out the season before the weather turns cold. After that, back to Yuma for the winter.

Show Low RV Lot - This years progress

We've reached a leveling off point on the lot for the moment so here are before and after pictures showing our progress thus far.

We first put an 18" culvert the full width of the lot parallel to the street and rough graded the lot. We had utility lines (power, water & sewer) to the shed location. After that we put in the concrete RV pad and an 8 x 10 pad for a storage shed. We had a big load of 'ABC' brought in and had it spread across the lot to firm things up for future work. We purchased and installed a 10 x 10 gazebo, including anchoring it to the ground with concrete piers. And, we started to frame in various planter areas with red/charcoal wall pavers. All of this in about one month.

This week we got to pull the RV on to the lot for the first time after waiting for the concrete to fully cure. So we are finally enjoying the use of the lot. We've been spending some time with our dear friends Gloria and Harriet as they work through their various issues with their new park model. We've also been getting to know our many existing neighbors.

Still to do this year.... We have a contract to have retaining wall blocks put on three sides of the lot where we currently just have rocks. We think that this will look much better and be more secure in the event of heavy rains.

For next year.... First project will be to build the shed which will be a place to store tools and stuff as well as be a laundry room area. More planter areas & low walls plus a little more final grading. We plan to put down pavers under the gazebo and into other patio type areas. Next we will be putting in a bunch of trees including irrigation. Lastly, we plan to fill in the remaining areas with gravel.

The contractor on the retaining walls can't get started until around the first of October, so we are going to leave the RV in Show Low and go down the hill in the car to Yuma for a couple of weeks. We'll come back to oversee the walls when he lets us know he is ready to get started.

Thats the latest from Show Low. Look forward to seeing everyone in Yuma this winter.

Bill and Chuck

Home Sweet Home

This update has been a long time coming. Partly because of bad internet connections, but more so because of being non-stop busy.

After the casino at Pendleton, OR we stayed one night at a Wal-mart in Twin Falls, ID, followed by a single night at a campground in Kanab, UT. On Wednesday morning we took off for Show Low via Page, AZ and the Glen Canyon dam adjacent to Lake Powell. The lake was way low, but the dam and the downstream canyon are visually quite striking.

On the way past Meteor Crater on I-40 we stopped by and spent a few minutes with Frank before he had to leave for work. Besides catching up, we discussed him coming up to see our lot and visit on either Saturday or Sunday.

We were able to get a space, at least for a few days, at the Hon-Dah Casino RV Park where our good friends Gloria and Harriet are staying for the month of August. Gloria and Harriet are purchasing an existing park model at White Mtn Vacation Village, the same community where we purchased our lot. We checked in with them the next morning and made arrangements to meet for dinner that evening.

Over the next few days we interviewed several contractors as candidates to install a needed driveway culvert and to lay down an RV concrete pad on the lot. During this same time frame, we also provided moral support to Gloria and Harriet as they interviewed contractors for various work needed on their park model they purchased that is only about a one minute walk from our lot.

On Friday, we joined the girls at the Beverage House for their weekly $2 wine tasting. Generous servings of six wines, plus roast beef, turkey, and cheese. Life doesn't get much better. Even Chuck participated in the wine tasting, but not being a regular wine drinker, he paid a price the following day with the equivilent of a hangover.

On Sunday afternoon, Frank came up to visit us. We showed him our lot and then later we got together with Gloria and Harriet for dinner at the Red Devil Pizza & Pasta House in Pinetop. It was a fun evening.

The casino RV park was an OK place to park, but the Verizon phone and internet reception was spotty at best. Also, they didn't have a space for us beyond Sunday so we moved to a different RV park in Show Low on Monday morning. We will keep the rig here while we get the culvert and concrete work done on the new lot.

We got our lot contracts finalized on Monday, so we decided to take off Tuesday and head for Yuma for a few days to check on the house. About six hours later, we arrived in Yuma where the temps were running about 105. We fired up the A/C and pretended the heat didn't matter. The house was in excellent shape. Not even hardly any dust inside, which surprised us. One of the under sink valves decided to succumb while we were gone and wouldn't turn on. Outside we had a lot of weeds and tumbleweeds but no dead trees or bushes. Yeah!! We did find one of our sprinkler valves was leaking pretty bad which explained the higher than expected water bill, so along with the inside valve we had to replace it. All in all, no big issues and it was good to get home.

We only stayed in Yuma a few days and left to come back to Show Low friday morning. We came the 'back' way through Globe and enjoyed the view of Arizona's other Grand Canyon, plus a good hard 15 minute rain storm along the way.

We had a good time this summer. The highlights were our visits with Frank, Don & Don, Kenny & Scott, Danny, Chuck & Jerry, Robb & Joe and Gloria & Harriet. That said it sure did feel good to get home to Yuma. I think we will reflect a little before deciding on our travel plans for next summer.

I will probably do one more entry to the blog for this season to show off the concrete work on the Show Low lot, but the travelogue updates are over. We look forward to seeing all our northern friends as they arrive in Yuma for the winter.

Special thanks to everyone for the hospitality during our trip visits this summer. Also thanks to everyone for the email support along the way.

Regards

Bill & Chuck

Kelowna 'Best Blooming Community'

We got into Holiday RV Resort north of Kelowna on Wednesday afternoon. The park is 25 years old so the spaces are a little tight, but everything is well maintained. We called good friends Robb and Joe and got directions to go to their house. We all got caught up on the latest news and Robb and Joe provided us burgers and fixings for dinner.

On Thursday we got to see a good part of Kelowna on a ten mile bike ride as well as a short walk around the immediate community. Kelowna appears to have more beaches and parks per capita as any other town I can remember. It really is a beautiful city with a lot of amenities. We can see why they chose this to be their home town.

Friday was our first designated shopping day and in the morning we went to about four stores. Costco, two houseware stores, and a Superstore supermarket. Robb and Joe provided us lunch and then we went visiting a couple of nearby wineries. At the first winery we encountered two dozen of Robb and Joe's interesting friends, but fortunately we were able to get away from them. After a few tastings, we purchased a number of bottles of wine, and then we all went back to the RV Park for dinner. We kind of forgot that you can't take back anything beef related when you return to the states so we ate up some steaks that we had in the freezer.

Saturday was RV shopping day. Robb and Joe are in the market for a new fifth wheel to replace their recently sold trailer, so we went at looked at their various options at nearby RV dealers. After this motored around some parts of the city that we hadn't yet seen and then we returned to the house for a belated birthday dinner for Robb and Chuck. They share the same birthday in June. The chicken cordon bleu dinner was gourmet quality and all the doo dads were on the table in addition to the great dinner. Dessert, which is Chuck's favorite part was a homemade chocolate cake that qualified as the best we ever tasted.

We can't thank Robb & Joe enough for their generous hospitality. Not only to us but to our two dogs who we didn't want to leave alone in the RV any more than necessary. Based on feedback from Rikki and Luci, I think Robb and Joe have become their god parents.

Some pictures are available at: Kelowna Pics

You'll notice some haze in many of the pictures. This is because the Kelowna area has been subjected to smoke and haze from a series of forest fires west and northwest of the city. One of the fires has been burning for over a month and is still not fully contained.

I also added some additional pictures to the previous post from Twisp, WA.

Today was a travel day as we head back to Arizona. We are currently at Wildhorse Resort & Casino east of Pendleton, OR. We are scheduled to make it to Show Low, AZ on Wednesday for a few days so that we can take care of supervising some improvements to our new RV lot there.

Our itinerary takes a Twisp

We decided to leave Crescent Bar, WA two days early and get a little closer to the Canadian border to shorten the drive to Kelowna on Wednesday. We ended up in Twisp, WA, a small mountain like town west of Omak on the Methow river.

We stayed at the Riverbend RV Park which was really quite nice with large spaces and lots of grass. We were able to get a pull-in space directly on the river. We had good satellite exposure and even though Twisp is off the beaten path, Verizon service was strong.

Unlike most private parks, they allowed us to wash the RV, so we spent a good bit of time on Tuesday doing a thorough rig washing. The weather was warm, but comfortable thanks to a gentle breeze, so we spent some time outdoors with the dogs watching the river and a few kayaks and tubers flow by. We decided we were due for a restaurant meal so we went into town and had pizza and a beer for dinner.

We left Wednesday morning for Kelowna. The border crossing at Osoyoos took about 30 minutes. The Canadian border patrol had us run the RV and car through a huge high tech CAT scan type device as well as the standard passport check and interview with the usual questions.

We are now comfortably in Kelowna at Holiday Park Resort. I’ll put up more pictures from Twisp and update on Kelowna after we get back to the states next week and no longer in Verizon surcharge mode.

Twisp Pics

Crescent Bar on the Columbia River

Crescent Bar is an oasis in a bend of the Columbia River nestled below large cliffs. Under normal circumstances this would not be a bad place to be at this time of they year. They brag about an average 24 hour temperature of 70 degrees from May to September. Don't know if this is a statistic or a damned lie, but our visit has fallen outside of those parameters. One hundred degree temperatures would have been more manageable except that for unknown reasons the pool and spa are closed for maintenance.

That said, as usual we were fortunate to find a nice parking space on the river view side of the park. Verizon service is 2nd tier so phone calls are OK, but use of the air card in the computer would incur charges. However, we are next door to the recreation room where the Wi-Fi is and we have a reasonably strong signal. Satellite is not in issue for most of the park

The Crescent Bar area has several RV parks, numerous hillside homes and a community of park models, all of which are nicely maintained. Based on the lack of 'for sale' signs, most people owning property here are very happy. Boating and water skiing are the most popular activities. The river is very inviting and we wish we had our boat with us so that we could explore the area. We may yet rent a boat or a jet ski before we leave.

In our travels we have made it to Wenatchee and Leavenworth. Leavenworth is a German alpine village with tons of great shopping and eating. They also have river rafting and tubing that was very inviting. Maybe on our next visit. We also drove another 45 minutes beyond Leavenworth to the Thousand Trails park they refer to as TT-Leavenworth. It's a really big, heavily tree'd preserve with many facilities but quite a distance from civilization. Although we love the town, we are glad that we chose Crescent Bar for our stay.

Last night the wind came up here, as we were warned that it might, and we had to batten down the hatches. I would estimate that the winds were in the 20 to 25 mph area. We brought the satellite dish down so that we didn't have to worry about it being pulled off the roof. Others here have said that they have experienced winds that caused them to bring in their slides, but we didn't feel that threatened. It was very noisy at bedtime but no issues or damage for anyone.

In a few more days we will be heading north to Kelowna. The weather forecast is for moderating temperatures which will be nice. Some pictures are available at: Crescent Bar - Leavenworth Pics

Oh Canada

This week we drove across the border for a day trip to Vancouver. We haven't been here since a memorable visit in 2002. After loading up the dogs and plugging Davie St into the GPS we headed across the border at Peace Arch crossing. The Canadian customs officer asked three questions. "Where are you coming from", "Are you carrying any guns", and "Are you going to cause any trouble?" He had a little smile on his face for the third question.

After arriving on Davie St, it was lunch time and we were hungry so we parked and walked straight to Hamburger Marys where we knew they had an outdoor eating area so that we could keep Rikki & Luci with us. After lunch, we and the dogs walked the shopping district, relaxed on a park bench at the bay, talked to a very nice vacationing lady from Toronto, and did some walking through Stanley Park before returning to the car.

The town was just getting started for Pride week so lots of activity and we enjoyed the visit. Even after seven years, it was amazing how little has changed. The return to the states took a little more time. About 45 minutes wait compared to 5 minutes coming into Canada.

Like everywhere else in the Northwest, temperatures have been on the rise. At Birch Bay and Vancouver the high temps were only mid eighties, but we finally had to run the A/C the last few days. Its going to be much warmer as we head inland, but we keep reminding ourselves how much cooler it is compared to Yuma this time of year.

We got excited about a 'screen room' that one of our neighbors had outside their rig as a place to relax bug free, so we went to Fred Meyer and purchased one for ourselves. We did a test 'explode' and a 'collapse', but we'll save actual use for our next destination.

Speaking of which, we arrived today at TT-Crescent Bar near Wenatchee. We're about 10 degrees warmer into the mid nineties, but 'still cooler than Yuma.' Anyway, more about our stay here later.