Catching up on Early 2018

Patsy and I are currently in the North Little Rock RV Park waiting on our granddaughter, Rachel and her parents to come meet us later this evening.  Having left Victoria yesterday morning, we pulled in here about noon.

I have been needing to get the blog up to date, so I can go back to blogging current travels.  I haven't posted since last Fall.

Here are a couple of Christmas 2017 pictures to show the growth of our three grand kids.  The first is Aubrey and Rachel......

and, the picture that Matthew would pick is one standing next to me to show his height being only 13 years old.............

Our current road trip is to visit Rachel for her 7th birthday, next week on March 22.  Since we are close to the Tiffin Factory in Red Bay AL, we also have an appointment on March 21 to get a little bit of body work done on the Bus....... a result of me backing into an electrical service box in a Houston RV park, back in December!!!  My intent is to cover this an future trips on a "as done" basis, and not get behind again.

I really blew it on our first trip of 2018........ our annual Winter Road Trip!  We left on January 6, with the intent of doing the following events,,,,,,,, their spread-out schedule requiring the trip to be almost 2 months long:

• Attend the January rally for the Texas Bluebonnet Allegro Club in Marble Falls TX
• Visit Las Cruces NM where we visited Ole Mesilla and met up with RV friends for travel to Q
• Visit Quartzsite AZ for the annual 10-day RV Show
• Visit Yuma AZ, and cross into Mexico at Los Algodones for fun
• Attend a week-long Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally in Tucson AZ
• Attend a week-long Tiffin Motorhome owners Rally in Tucson AZ 

The trip turned out to be a lot of fun, and we traveled with various RV friends on different parts of it.  However, I got behind on blog posting, and with so much going on, I never got started on catching up.   When we got home on Feb 28, we had so much yard work, RV trip repairs and mods, cleanup, and more, I never had a chance.

NOW I AM ON THE SECOND DAY OF A NEW TRIP, AND I AM CATCHING UP!!!!!    😅😫
  
In Las Cruces, a group of us went to a Mexican Restaurant to celebrate a fellow traveler's birthday.  Shirley Buckert, of Victoria and also member of our Allegro Club, wanted to celebrate her birthday, the 42nd, I believe, so we had a party!   This party is best told by pictures............

 

 

Most of the group had plans to visit the Air Force Graveyard of airplanes in Casa Grande, but Patsy and I went directly to Quartzsite where the whole group had reservations at the Rice Ranch Campground which is directly across the street from the main tent.  We passed a lot of Saguaro Cactus on the way.....

 

We have found that when the sun is shining just right on the 'needles' of the cactus, it looks like a lighted outline on the plant.....

We were all parked closed together at the Rice Ranch campground, and on the last night, we had a potluck dinner on the area at the side of our Bus, and had a drone take some aerial photographs.  Here is the best one showing the party.........

That night, after the sun went down, we set off some "candle-powered bag" balloons.  We had a lot of fun!!

Between the Quartzsite show, and the FMCA rally, Patsy and I spent a week in Yuma.  We found out the Mike and Charlene Miller were also there, so we spent a day in Los Algodones, Mexico together.  Charlene was looking for a purple outfit for her granddaughter....

We also had lunch........ and a lot of fun just walking around!

While in Yuma, Patsy and I went to some of the large Flea Markets (and bought two portable rocking lawn chairs), and toured the city.   We also took a day and drove the car over to "Slab City" in California..... what a site!!!

 

 

 

We also found ourselves in the same Yuma RV Resort as Gerri and Art Ball, a couple that we first met at the Tiffin Red Bay Service Center campground where they were working as the camp hosts.  We had recently ran into them again when we visited Red Bay last Fall to have the Bus' Hurricane Harvey damage repaired!!  Art and Gerri were also coming to the Tiffin Rally in Tucson in a couple of weeks.  Here is Gerri and Patsy hanging out at the pool area......

After Yuma, Patsy and I moved on to Tucson for the FMCA and Tiffin Rallies.  There were RV supply vendors at both shows, nightly entertainment (some was really good), and the Tiffin Techs did some FREE minor repairs.  I got the Bus windshield wipers replaced, some carpet framing around Patsy's front Bus chair replaced, and they caulked a replacement entry door light (with motion sensor) that I bought from a vendor and installed in the camping area.............. with a lot of supervision from the folks we were traveling with!!!

Both of the rallies were fun, and they had several RV-related information seminars that we attended.

All in all, this was a great trip, especially with a traveling 10--12 RV group that kept meeting up and splitting up again in Arizona.  With the rallies over, Patsy and I left alone, and headed back home!!

I'm going to end this post with misc scenery of the trip in Arizona.....
 

 

 

 

 

Before I end, one more bit of information.  Valentine's Day was a sad one this year because it was my 70th birthday!!!   I guess I'm lucky to make it, but it sounds like such an old age......... maybe 5 years from now, it will look a little better!

 Now.............. Ready to post our current trip(s) posts!!!!!!!