Kathy and I spent early spring 2019 as Camp Hosts at the Fort Peck Downstream Campground – Fort Peck Montana. This is a U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Project and our campground is just one of the recreation areas at the project which includes Fort Peck Reservoir, Fort Peck Dam and spillway, the Interpretive & Visitor Center and about a dozen other outlying recreation centers that are along the shores of the 135 mile long reservoir where visitors can use the boat ramps, picnic shelters, and camping areas.
Fort Peck Lake Montana
Campground hosts volunteer 24 hours per week to the park in exchange for their camp site and utilities. There are paid Gate Attendants to handle camper fee collection and the park has contractors who; cut the grass, clean out fire pits, and keep the restrooms and bath houses clean.
Our job as hosts are to be another set of eyes on the park when the ranger can’t be here. There are four rangers here at Fort Peck Project who are responsible for about a dozen outlying recreation areas and the Interpretive Center, so they’ve got plenty to keep them busy.
I’ve gathered some pictures to help illustrate what sorts of things we get involved in. Some of these are things we’ve been asked to do while many of these are things we’ve volunteered to do just to help out and to keep us busy.
We cleaned the inside of the Gate House
Kathy helps with a school group at the Interpretive Center
We raked leaves near the Gate House
We removed all the old flyers and posters and washed down the information kiosk
We emptied, swept, and organized the recreation shed filled with fishing poles, life vests, balls, bats, horseshoes, and lots more
We assembled 400 “Goodie Bags” for the elementary school field trips
We repaired Invertebrate “Viewing Cups” that had been damaged during previous field trips
We used the Mule to collect downed tree limbs after the winter storms
We removed old broken site number posts
And replaced them with new posts
Have chainsaw, will cut firewood
Helping Ranger Sue install a dock in the Donut Pond
After installing the dock at the donut pond
We pulled all the utility flags after the comfort station construction was completed
Kathy and I prepared the electric boats to take over to the pond for the field day kids to use
There’s lots to do here, and lots of “pieces parts” and equipment to do it with. The challenge is having enough staff to get it all done before the onslaught of visitors each spring. That’s where volunteers can help out. We can do the “little jobs” that might otherwise require time from the (4) rangers and (2) maintenance personnel on staff here at the project. That way these folks can utilize their time more wisely doing the types of jobs that their specialized training allows them to do.
One example of the specialized training I mentioned is shown in the photos below. Last year the campground received a new comfort station. The staff here at the project performed the complete operation. They poured the concrete pad for the comfort station to sit on, they did all the trenching and back fill for the supply lines, they did all the rough in plumbing and electrical, they’ll be doing all the final connections, and they will set forms and pour all the concrete curtain and approach walks.
Trenching for the power lines to the new bath house
Trenching for both power and water lines
New Comfort Station w/ private showers
Setting the form for concrete to support the electrical transformer
Setting the form for an electrical sectionalizer
Just some of the equipment these guys use to get the job done
Scott on the back hoe
Hooking up the power
Just one of the typical mundane maintenance jobs
We enjoyed our time at Fort Peck. The folks we worked with and for were very kind, professional, and courteous and they appreciated everything we did to help out.
We also made some great new friends. Dan and Bev came in early May and were contracted as the paid Gate Attendants. They’ve been full time RV’ers for 21 years!
Our new friends Dan and Bev Foster
If you have any interest in working as a volunteer in exchange for your RV site and utilities, go to www.volunteer.gov where you can search by; state, agency, and position type.
Thanks for following along and remember to visit our You Tube channel herbnkathyrv to see some of the videos we’ve published lately.
As we travel north to Montana, we are constantly blessed by the natural beauty that surrounds us.
Kathy and I were born and raised in the midwest and the beauty we saw there was in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan shoreline along northwestern Michigan. If you haven’t spent any time in Michigan, you must do yourself a favor and take a driving tour along Michigan’s northwest coast.
But the scenery we’ve been exposed to these last few months has been so colorful, so impressive and awe-inspiring that I just had to share a few pictures here.
This is a short video showing the landscape up RT 89 north of Congress AZ where we spent our first night at the Escapees North Ranch RV Park.
An overlook of Congress, AZ just across from the Yarnell Memorial to the Granite Mountain HotShots – Nineteen men who lost their lives on June 30, 2013
Our second stop wasn’t really “natural” but man-made. When you take in how massive this project is and what man created here … that alone is beauty in it’s own right.
Looking from pedestrian bridge on Rt 93 to the downstream side
Looking from the Lake Mead side
Inside one of the powerhouses
Hoover Dam is an arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hoover Dam is 726 feet high. It is 650 feet thick at the bottom and 45 feet thick at the top. The purpose of the Hoover Dam is for power, silt and flood control, irrigation, and water for both industrial and domestic use. When Hoover Dam was finished in 1936 it was the world’s largest hydroelectric power station. The four intake towers (penstocks) on the north side of the dam take in water from Lake Mead and feed up to 91,000 gallons (each) of water per SECOND to feed the two banks of seventeen hydroelectric generators that produce over 2,000 megawatts of capacity and produce a yearly average generation of 4.5 billion kilowatt hours to serve the annual electrical needs of nearly 8 million people in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.
One of the most interesting facts I learned about Hoover Dam (originally called Boulder Dam) is that the design included a HUGE refrigeration plant to cool the concrete as it cured. We were told during our tour that had they not provided artificial cooling to the concrete it could have taken a hundred years or more to cool and cure correctly so as to avoid premature cracking and failure.
Here’s a few pictures of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam showing how much lower the water level is than it was in the past. (It’s gone down 75′ in the last twenty years)
Remember, clicking on any of the individual images below will open a larger view.
Lake Mead from a distance
Shows a water intake port
Man walking his dog on the beach
Downstream side of Hoover Dam with Lake Mead in the background
The upstream side of the dam as water from Lake Mead is held back
Here’s a view from one of the overlooks at Lake Mead showing the marina. You can see how much lower the lake has become in recent years.
As we headed north from Boulder City Nevada and Hoover Dam, our next stop was Zion National Park.
We actually parked the coach at Ruby’s Campground at Bryce Canyon and then took the car to visit Zion National Park and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab Utah.
Our site at Ruby’s in Bryce
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
The main building at Best Friends
Unfortunately, we were unaware that you had to call ahead and make reservations for a tour at Best Friends, so all we were able to do is visit the Visitor Center and take a drive through part of the grounds and see a few horses. They have tens of thousands of acres and lead tours in small vans – something we’d still like to do but just ran out of time (and daylight) the day we were there. Click on the video below of a waterfall in Zion — it’ll zoom right in on the source.
A waterfall at Zion National Park
We came back to the coach, spent a second night at Ruby’s and then went on to visit Bryce Canyon National Park the next day. We could take the main road about 12 miles into the park after which the path was closed due to roads blocked by the snow. It would take a few more days/weeks of nice weather to get to the point that the park would be totally open to visitors.
But what we were able to see was Oh So Impressive! (click on any pix for a larger view)
After visiting Bryce, we took a drive over to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
The next morning we hooked up the car to the back of the coach and left Bryce continuing our trek north. We decided not to stop at Salt Lake City, but instead continue on to Rock Springs, Wyoming where we new there was a county fair grounds and event center with 1200 full hook-up sites (water, sewer, electric) and we knew there was a pretty hefty winter storm coming our way. We knew we could hook up and “hunker down” at Rock Springs if we needed to for a few days.
The “Toad” and the bikes on the back of the coach
We’ll tell you more about that in our next post. ’til then …. thanks so much for riding along. I just wanted to share with you some of the amazing beauty we’re seeing out west.
If you’re not already subscribed to this blog, just enter your email address in the little box at the top right side of this page and you’ll automatically be sent an email each time we publish a new post .. no need to keep coming back to see if there’s anything new – you’ll get it as soon as it’s published!
We bought our Airstream motorhome (2002 model) in late 2015 and shortly afterward we noticed that part of the oak trim down by the floor was stained as if it had been wet at some time in the past.
This is the 6″ wide oak trim that runs the height of the living room slide
This piece of trip runs from floor to ceiling on the slide immediately behind the driver’s seat.
Initially, before we replaced all the carpeting with vinyl plank flooring, we were not really aware of the leak because it was small and “wicked” into the carpeting under the couch in the slide. But when we removed the carpet and padding to prepare for the new vinyl flooring, we could then see the effect the water leak had on the carpet and the padding.
This shows the subfloor and the new vinyl plank flooring being installed – the spot that showed evidence of water was located behind the driver’s seat
Since that time we’ve been watching the floor behind the driver’s seat very closely anytime it rained when we were parked with the living room slide in the out position. We never saw any water when the slide was in, but it seemed anytime it rained – even just a little – produced a small puddle of water on the vinyl floor.
We’ve worked at making sure we carefully leveled the coach anytime we parked at a new location. Using the hydraulic leveling system, we would have the coach tipped slightly to the left so as to allow any water on the top of the slide to run off outboard.
Hydraulic leveling system controls
The boys at West RV in Livingston, TX in Jan ’18 installing our new slide topper
We even replaced the slide “topper” in hopes that this would cure the problem. No luck. So we resigned ourselves to the need to bring the slide in anytime rain was in the forecast. Although this is not a HUGE deal, it is inconvenient for whoever is trying to see the TV while sitting on the couch. And since this person is typically KATHY, it was becoming a thorn in MY side if it was going to rain and I decided it was time to pull in the slide!
The way our coach is designed, the TV is mounted on the left side of the cabin, so if the slide is “in” then the side wall of the slide comes in and partially blocks the TV from view of anyone sitting on the couch
But now that we’ve been basically in one place for a few months, and there’s a shop here at the RV park that has tools we can use , we’ve taken this opportunity to get into some repair and update projects …. and this slide issue is one of them.
I got a step ladder from the shop and started taking a good look at the top of the slide. I also took a good look at the bedroom slide as well since we never get any water in there. “What is it about the bedroom slide that’s different from the living room slide?” I asked myself.
Once I got up on the ladder (knees shaking) I looked closely at the bedroom slide and the top and side gaskets. The picture below shows how the side (vertical) gasket tucks in BEHIND the top (horizontal) gasket. In addition, ALL the gaskets are glued to the body of the coach from the INSIDE, so they had to be installed at the factory first before the slide was installed in to the opening. The light green metal box in the picture below is the frame opening in the body of the coach. With this gasket configuration, any water that might pool on the top of the slide is caught by the top gasket and wind (or pitch of the coach) allows it to run to the front or rear end where it then drips off the edge and onto the ground below or onto the vertical gasket (that takes the water away at the bottom). This is the way ALL the gaskets should be installed in all the slides.
BUT … Look at how I found the gasket on the front of the living room slide!
Living room slide gasket installed incorrectly
Two things are wrong here. First, the vertical slide gasket is installed on the OUTSIDE of the body opening instead of the inside. Was this installed incorrectly from the factory in 2002? Or did someone have the slide out sometime in the past 17 years and replace the gasket (incorrectly) for some reason?
Secondly, the side (vertical) gasket is “outside” of the top horizontal slide gasket. This always then allows any water on the top of the slide to travel toward the front of the coach and immediately run in behind the side gasket and on down the wall of the slide and into our living room!
Since it wasn’t feasible or practical for me to move the vertical gasket to the inside of the body opening (without removing the slide) I found the solution was to trim a little off the top of the vertical gasket so that it could be tucked in under the top gasket. I then put an ample amount of silicone sealant on the lap joint to keep it in that position.
My fix was to trim the vertical gasket and tuck it under the horizontal gasket
Right after I made this change, we hit it lucky and it rained for about 2 solid days here in Arizona. At times the wind was about 25-30 mph. And you know what?
NO WATER ON THE FLOOR!
My Airstream buddy Ed Leland down in Florida has the same make, model, and vintage coach as ours and so I’m anxious to find out how his is put together and if he’s ever had any problem with water infiltration. I know he’ll read this post and I’ll bet he’ll go right outside and take a close look!
Here’s the 100% Silicone Sealant that I used. It’s available from our Amazon Store by clicking on the image below.
Thanks for riding along …. Oh, and by the way … we have a new logo for our brand … whatta ya think?
Our new logo … We’ll use it on our web site, YouTube channel, and more
One of the great advantages of being in one place for a bit of time (in this case the winter season) is that you get to know the other folks in the park and they quickly become your friends, or in many cases .. your family.
Last week a lot of “the family” took a tour of one of the many local cotton farms – The Caywood Family Farm just east of Casa Grande.
Being that we lived in central Ohio for 30+ years, we were somewhat familiar (but not well versed) in the farming of wheat, soybeans, and corn. This tour provided us with TONS of information about the cotton business. We’ve seen the cotton bales and modules in fields along the road and we’ve become well aware of the cotton transport trucks, but this tour really opened our eyes to the entire process.
Some of the pictures in this post were taken while on the tour, others were taken at fields or at nearby gin, and then a few were pulled off the internet to round out the post.
Nancy Caywood was our tour guide and shared with us that she is the third generation of the Caywood family to farm that property.
Nancy Caywood
Her son Travis is now actually running the farm and Nancy and her helper Al handle the tour operation.
We learned a lot during the 3 hour tour about the cotton farming business and how hard it is to “make it” given the dire water situation here in central Arizona along with all the government regulations on when they can plant, when (and if) they can have water, how they are required to control dust, when they must have the crop out of the ground and so many more “must” and “must not” regulations.
Here are some of the interesting facts we learned;
Water rights are first given to the;
Native Americans then;
City and County Governments then;
Industry then;
lastly to the farmers (if there’s any left)
A typical round “module” of harvested cotton weighs about 5000 pounds
The rectangular modules weigh about 15,000 pounds
The harvest weight will be about 2/3 seed and 1/3 cotton lint
Crops can be planted as early as late March (weather dependent)
Crops MUST be off the field by mid-February (regulation)
Crops generally get picked twice each season before the plant is cut and turned under
Between field preparation, planting, fertilizing, picking, 2nd picking, cutting, tilling, leveling, and other necessary operations the field is crossed by tractor 15 times or more during a typical season
A typical John Deere 4 row picker costs about $650,000 (new)
Central Arizona farmers typically grow either Pima (Egyptian) Cotton or Upland Cotton
The cotton “modules” are trucked to the local cotton gin for cleaning and separating the seed from the cotton lint and packaging to be transported to storage and ultimate sale to textile mills
Cotton or cotton seed is used in; clothing, animal feed, pharmaceutics, explosives, adhesives, oil, toothpaste, currency and hundreds of other applications
95% of the cotton grown in the U.S. is exported to the Pacific Rim (China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and others)
Al and Nancy started off the tour with a little homespun music (play the video)We loaded up on two wagons for the farm tour
The cotton seed is planted in the spring after the final frost. The seeds begin to germinate and pop their heads out of the ground about a week later. Cultivating is done to minimize weed and grass growth that would otherwise choke out the cotton plant.
The crops are watered by flood irrigation. The ditches are filled with water from either; on site wells or from canals coming to the area from the Central Arizona Project. The CAP gets it’s water from Lake Mead. Yes, that’s right … central Arizona gets it’s water from Lake Mead (nearly 300 miles north of Phoenix). The opening and closing of the irrigation gates to the fields are controlled by government agencies with hefty fines to the farmers should they be caught abusing their privileges.
Typical Irrigation Ditch (gates controlled by government agencies)
The flower has fallen and the unopened boll is exposed
About 2 months after planting, buds begin to form on the plant & in another 3 weeks or so the blossoms open with pale yellow flowers.
In a few days the petals change color to dark purple. A few days more and the flower withers and falls leaving the BOLL that contains the seeds and moist fibers. Eventually, as the seed matures the BOLL bursts open exposing the fluffy bounty. The cotton now is ready to harvest right after it is sprayed with a defoliant. This allows the leaves to fall thereby producing a cleaner cotton harvest.
Now the boll is open and ready for the picker
Here’s a typical hopper style picker. This two-row picker collects the cotton in the large hopper in the back. When it’s full, the picker then dumps the hopper into a large rectangular Module Builder
This picker holds loose cotton
Here’s Nancy showing us the head of their two-row picker. This picker pulls the cotton out of the plant boll and places it up into a hopper in the back. The loose cotton is then “dumped” out of the picker into a large rectangular cotton module builder that can then be transported to the gin for processing.
Nancy and the Picker Head
Here’s one of the picker heads showing the tall row of spindles (silver horizontal spikes). The spindles are about the size of your baby finger and rotate (very fast) and have little teeth on them that catch and pull the cotton off the plant. At the same time, the vertical shaft that the spindles are attached to is also turning and moving the spindles under a brush to remove the cotton so it can be blown up into the hopper at the rear of the picker
Inside the picker head showing the spindles and brushes.
This shows the doffers that pull the cotton off the spindles so it can be blown up into the hopper
Once the cotton is picked it needs to get to the gin for processing .. right? So the farmer dumps the cotton from the picker into what is called a Module Builder.
The wheels on the Module Builder are mounted on hydraulic rams so that the “box” can be lifted off the ground so it can be towed by the tractor
The module builder is basically a large metal box that is open on the top and bottom, one solid end and a gate on the other end. It is usually hooked to a tractor to not only move it around the field, but also to supply the hydraulic power for the ram to pack the cotton tightly
The inside of the large module builder. Note the large white arm that holds the ram to pack the cotton tightly. The ram is remotely controlled to move from end to end
The walls of the module builder are sloped being wider at the bottom than the top so that the builder can be pulled off the module easily
Here’s a You Tube video I found online that shows how the Module Builder works
After the module is packed, it’s time to pull the builder away and then the transport truck comes to pick up the module and take it to the gin for processing
The wheel hydraulic rams lift the builder, the tractor pulls the builder forward, and the cotton module is left on the ground awaiting transport to the gin
This cotton transport truck drives onto the cotton field, backs up to the end of the packed cotton module, turns on the chain drive track in the floor of the trailer, and backs up …. at the same speed that the chain drive runs. This picks up the module .. one foot at a time .. and neatly deposits it into the truck trailer where it’s then taken to the cotton gin for processing.
One of the large 15,000 lb modules on the feed conveyor into the gin
Close-up of the conveyor system feeding the gin. The blue bin in the front holds the yellow (round) module wrappers to be compacted and sent to plastic recycling
Just some of the modules sitting in the gin lot waiting to be processed.
The newer and larger cotton pickers can produce their own round modules
A newer 6 head cotton picker that makes it’s own round modules
This picker rolls the cotton into round 5000# modules. These larger pickers eliminate the need for a separate (rectangular) module builder
The round modules are dropped in the field by the picker and then a very large fork-lift type of truck goes out and picks them up and sets them onto the flat bed trailer for delivery to the gin.
This picture below shows round modules arriving at the gin and being weighed
Round modules coming from the farm and being weighed at the gin (40,000# est)
Look closely below (right side of picture) and you’ll see the tractor placing the round modules onto the conveyor to head into the gin for processing
Modules being loaded onto a conveyor belt that feeds them into the gin
Trucks loaded with the ginned 500# cotton bales to head to storage (for ultimate sale)
Unfortunately, we can’t go into the gin to see the operation first hand (safety issues), but I found this YouTube video online that explains the process very well. Although this video was done in Australia, the process is very similar if not identical to how it’s done here in Arizona.
An Australian video of the cotton ginning process
The picture below shows the large piles of cotton seed that will be processed further for things like; cottonseed oil, fertilizer, animal feed, soap, glycerin, cosmetics, rubber, and a lot more that we use every day.
Large piles of seed outside the gin. This will be processed further for other products
All in all it was a great day and we thank Nancy Caywood for the very informative tour. Now when we drive throughout Arizona and see all the cotton farms, we’ll have a new appreciation for the crop and the people that work so hard to produce it, especially given the limited water supply.
Entrance to the compound with the Great House in the background. Note the bird nest holes in the cactus on the right.
Throughout the southwest, and specifically Arizona, there are many sites of ruins from early native peoples.
Last week we took a short drive from our winter home at Rover’s Roost RV Park in Casa Grande, Arizona on over to Coolidge where we visited the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.
The other ruins we’ve visited in Arizona have been home to cliff-dwelling peoples (see this link to our other visits) while this one was home to Sonoran Desert farmers. In the center of the community is the “Great House” and the foundations of other smaller buildings and meeting and work areas surround the larger structure. Further out from the walls of the community were an impressive network of large and small canals for crop irrigation.
The Sonoran people abandoned (for unknown reasons) the area about 1450 A.D. archeologists tell us while the area was first visited by non-native people around 1690.
Here are some pictures of our visit, but you can find more information about the ruins by clicking here.
As always, you can click on any picture to get an enlarged view to see more detail.
The wood beam and metal bar are recent efforts to reinforce the wall to keep it from falling
Thanks for riding along with us.
Take Care of yourselves and our best wishes to you wherever you might be.
Kathy and I were both born and spent our early years in Michigan on the west side of Detroit and then spent our school years in Redford Township where we met in high school, got married shortly after we graduated and started a family of our own. I’ll tell you about those early years some other time.
Our vacation travels as a young family consisted of driving on up to the Kalkaska area of Michigan’s lower peninsula where my folks had moved after Dad’s retirement from Ford Motor Company in Dearborn. It would always be a “low budget” trip. We would be able to stay close to home (about 4 hours away), the kids would have some time with Papa and Nana, and Kathy and I might even be able to sneak away for a couple hours alone while we got free baby sitting from my folks. All in all, it was a “win-win” for all of us. We had fun back then.
And although we spent a lot of time up in this neck of the woods, we had no idea there were so many waterfalls in Michigan. Workamping here at Pere Marquette Oaks RV Resort gives us every other week (7 days straight) off so we can do what we want. Kathy thought it would be fun to go on up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula). As we researched our potential trip, we found that Michigan boasts being home to nearly 200 waterfalls and all but 2 are located in the UP! We had been up to Tahquamenon Falls years ago, but we thought that was it. Boy were we wrong!
We loosely planned our road trip to take up 3 days time. We decided to not take the coach and stay in motels 2 nights so we had more mobility and easier entry to some of the sites where the falls might be located. It was a good thing we decided this as many of the sites had small access roads and/or parking areas with not much turnaround room.
We invited our new friends Chuck and Joanne to come along with
The Fantastic Foursome
us and we all had a great time. They’ve retired from the Grand Rapids area and as a family they’ve done lots of camping over the years and they had some ideas on where we could go and what we could see.
Although we wanted to see LOTS of falls, we knew that time, money, and our “rear ends” in the car would tell us that 3 days out would be about all we could handle.
Here’s a map showing our 3 day route up and back. If you want to see an interactive map where you can zoom and pan for yourself, click here.
Besides the numerous falls we saw, and the pasties and smoked fish we ate, there was something we learned that I had no idea existed. I knew that folks who lived in the Upper Peninsula were known as “Yoopers”, but I had no idea that those of us who were born in or lived in the Lower Peninsula were known as “Trolls”.
I couldn’t imagine why I would be called a “Troll”, until a Yooper shared with me it’s because we live “below the bridge”! Now it all makes perfect sense.
“UP” Road Trip Map
Here’s a slide show of some of the high points of our trip. I’m including a few short videos too.
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Here’s the video montage of our UP Falls Tour to go along with some of the pictures in the slide show above.
All in all, we had a great time seeing beautiful sites with great friends and looking forward to our next adventure. So long for now from your friends “The Trolls”.
We left the SKP park at Lakewood, NM Thursday morning and the map told us that State Route 285 would be a direct route down through Carlsbad and on to I-10 where we’d head east.
Yes, it was “direct” but FILLED with all kinds of tanker trucks and heavy equipment working the oil fields that lined the state route on both sides of the highway. As far as the eye could see, it was nothing but gas and oil wells and all the trucks and equipment to service those rigs. (Ugh)
Additionally, the asphalt was pretty bumpy having been heaved over and over by the heavy trucks day after day. Although the speed limit was 75 mph (and the trucks liked to do it), I wouldn’t subject the coach (pulling the car) and the two of us to the high speeds with all the bumping and rolling this way and that.
All in all, it was a LONG drive down to I-10 to Pecos, TX (100+ miles) where we were FINALLY able to get on SMOOTH I-10 and head east.
We then drove about 4 hours east to a great little RV park we found on Allstays.com. Pecan Valley RV Park boasts only 14 sites, (3 are full-timers and 2 are tent sites), but our host David told us on the phone he had a great 60′ 50amp pull-thru site that would be great for us.
The park is nestled a few thousand feet off the road behind a HUGE pecan grove and up against the North Llamo River.
Although there was no Verizon coverage and no television, we’d definately stop here again. David was a gracious host, the park was spotless (see the slide show below) and the setting was peaceful and relaxing. We cooked brats on the grill, sat out a bit and when we slept, it was with the windows open all night. And NO traffic noise.
Beautiful and peaceful. Pictures below.
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Last night we stayed at a “cement” RV park at Port Charles, TX (near Beaumont) and today (Saturday the 18th) we’ll continue east on I-10 where we’ll stay at what appears (online) to be a much nicer park at Livingston, LA.
More to come. We hope your day will be a great one.
Our intention was to see the aliens at Roswell and visit Carlsbad Cavern National Park. They are each about an hour away from camp, but in different directions.
We went to the Caverns first, then heading back north toward camp, we decided to swing in and visit Sitting Bull Falls in the Lincoln National Forest. By the time we got out and headed north again, we realized our day was done.
The caverns were phenomenal. We took the elevator down 850 feet into a beautiful wonderland. There’s a path throughout the caverns with handrails on both sides so you can’t get lost or fall into an abyss (and there’s a few of them). It’s a little tricky walking through because we’re always looking up toward the “ceiling” to see the beauty instead of looking down at our feet … and the path is anything but flat and level. It takes a little over an hour to walk from start to finish.
And then you get to wait in line for the elevator. The place was super busy. The ranger told us they usually have about 1300 visitors daily, but since all Texas schools are on spring break, this week they are running about 4500 visitors daily. And the two elevators that were in service only hold 9 people each!
I’m just going to give you a few pictures here. You can follow the links above to be taken to the official web pages for each to get more information and pictures.
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Unfortunately, we were at the falls late afternoon and I was taking the pictures looking into the sun, so it’s really hard to see the water. Some people waded in the pool below, while others climbed to the top to look over the edge – SCARY!
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Today we’ll be leaving the SKP Ranch at Lakewood, NM and heading east toward Junction, TX where we have a reservation at Pecan Valley RV Park.
While we were at Quartzsite, we decided to take another day trip and be able to check something off our bucket list. We wanted to see Lake Havasu and London Bridge. One of our fellow workampers suggested we be sure to take a small detour on our way to check out Parker Dam at Parker, AZ as well.
We weren’t real keen on going to Lake Havasu City, but we had a Chili’s gift card, so we drove on in for lunch and to see the famous bridge.
Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia about the lake and Parker Dam;
“Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the lake’s eastern shore. The reservoir has an available capacity of 619,400 acre feet (764,000,000 m3). The concrete arch dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938. The lake’s primary purpose is to store water for pumping into two aqueducts. Prior to the dam construction, the area was home to the Mohave Indians. The lake was named (in 1939) after the Mojave word for blue.[1] In the early 19th century, it was frequented by beaver trappers. Spaniards also began to mine the area along the river.”
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I was, of course, fascinated by the dam and how they move the water through the gates and into the hydro-electric plant. But we both enjoyed the beauty of the blue water and the majestic mountains of the area.
Kathy had read to me in the car that the London Bridge there at Lake Havasu City IS the actual bridge from London, England, (I assumed it was a replica). But no, the fella that developed the city purchased the bridge from the city of London.
“In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London began to look for potential buyers for the London Bridge. Lake Havasu City founder and entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch placed the winning bid of $2,460,000 on April 18, 1968.
McCulloch came by this figure by doubling the estimated cost of dismantling the structure, which was $1.2 million, bringing the price to $2.4 million. He then added on $60,000 – a thousand dollars for each year of his age at the time he estimated the bridge would be reconstructed in Arizona.
Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled. The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. Following reconstruction of the London Bridge, Lake Havasu City rededicated it in a ceremony on October 10, 1971. Since then, it has consistently remained a favorite among Arizona attractions, drawing in visitors from around the globe.”
After knowing THIS information, it certainly made me have a much higher respect for the bridge and the effort of so many to bring it here to Arizona.
Stay tuned … more to follow from the Quartzsite trip (Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge & “The Naked Bookseller”)
As you might imagine, since we carry fresh water (about 80 gallons) with us, it’s important to sanitize or disinfect our fresh water plumbing system periodically. The experts say this should be done at least twice annually.
On our trip to the west coast this past April, we only used the water in our fresh water tank for showering, washing hands, and flushing the toilet. We used bottled water or gallons of water we filled along the way for cooking, drinking, and brushing our teeth.
Nonetheless, I wanted to disinfect the system and since the coach is in our driveway right now, I decided to do that today. This involves a few steps:
Drain the fresh water holding tank to about 1/2 full
Add appropriate amount of chlorine bleach to the holding tank (In our coach this equals about 1 cup bleach per 80 gallon holding tank)
Using the garden hose, fill the tank to overflow
Go inside and turn on all spigots on “warm” so that hot and cold are flowing and drawing through the water heater as well (water heater is “off”)
Once you smell chlorine bleach, you can turn off the spigots and let the system sit for about 24 hours. This will disinfect the; holding tank, the hot and cold supply piping, the hot water heater, the water pump, and all the plumbing fixtures.
Next day, turn off the water pump, turn on (open) all the fixtures, open the fresh water tank drain and the hot and cold supply line drain valves and let the entire system drain out on the driveway.
Hook up your sewer drain hose and open the GRAY water tank valve to empty the tank of any chlorine water you ran down the drains in the kitchen and bath sinks/showers
When all is drained, then close all the valves and refill the fresh water tank. Our 80 gallon tank takes about 15-17 minutes to fill.
