Chores & Visits Over…(for now)

Posted on December 7, 2021 by rvrrat520

So we motorvated back to Kalifornia for family visits and medical/dental duties. We checked in and helped out with Jeanne’s mother’s health care, then looped around from Atascadero to Santa Rosa for grandkids’ literal face time. We ended up spending about two months in that God forsaken state, but the day we completed our last appointment (me getting a tooth crowned, had to wait 2 extra weeks for the dang thing to get molded/created/installed) we went jacks up and sped away toward Hwy. 58 and the Tehachapi pass, our preferred path of escape from Kalifornia. (***Spoiler alert – if you want to avoid my politically incorrect rants, skip now to the next paragraph***) Each and every time we go back there the amount of garbage, homeless encampments, graffiti, dirty air, and the quality of the roads seems to get progressively worse. The politicians (who KEEP getting re-elected) have run what once was the most beautiful of the lower 48 states right into the toilet. What’s worse, the people still living there keep putting up with the socialist and totalitarian crap spewed by the likes of Gav & Nan & Maxie & all the rest. The facemask Nazis are everywhere, screaming at unsuspecting customers who may errantly wander into stores without the suffocating face diapers being worn in “the appropriate” manner. Even worse, some businesses actually require proof of vax (“Your papers, please!”) if you want to enter their buildings. This whole farce of a “pandemic” got out of hand long ago. I got news for everyone – it’s the flu, people! Covid, the flu. Delta, the flu. Omicron, the flu. Guess what? All of the future 347 variants over the foreseeable future, the flu. And anyone with a brain can see how effective the big pharma vaccines have been. But hey, if you’re fearing for your lives feel free to keep wearing those ineffective face diapers, getting multiple (failing) experimental chemical injections, maintaining that social distancing, self-imposing your very own quarantines, and continue being blindly obedient sheeple to your ruling class. I’m changing the name of the state from Kalifornia to Psycholovakia. Right now, if you are asking yourself, “What gives this moron the ability to make such broad, sweeping condemnations of the state of Psycholovakia,” I spent 53 years of my life as a resident of said state. And with 9+ years of full-time RV-ing throughout all of the lower 48 for use as a comparison, I think I’m qualified to render the opinion. ‘Nuff said.

With very little time for tourista activities during the last two months, I will leave it at that with a montage of grandkid photos…

Our new adventure started at Lake Havasu City, AZ. Our home for that stay was the Lake Havasu Elk’s Lodge. (For any of you Elks reading this post, this Elk’s Lodge is an extremely happening place. One of the members we spoke to claimed it to be the second largest lodge in the country…). The RV lot for the lodge is a gravel lot with 25 FHU spaces that are fairly spaced apart. The lodge has an active calendar with all types of events and meals of which we made good use of during our stay.

First outing was a return visit to the area of the London Bridge. As is our custom of unwittingly arriving in areas during special events, we discovered that the annual Lake Havasu City Christmas Boat Parade was scheduled for that evening. After a quick recon of the area during daylight, we left only to return later for the parade which was slated from 1900-2100 hrs. Sometimes, no, oftentimes, “The best laid plans…”! The master plan was to head back a couple hours early, have a nice meal at one of the many restaurants in the area, then scope out our viewing site. We returned at 1700 hrs. to discover the parade is kinda popular in these here parts. Parking anywhere near was nigh on impossible, but we found curbside parking still within long walking distance. The area up and down from the bridge was jam packed with humans! Not only that, ALL of the restaurants were full with SEVERAL hours wait time. Oh boy, like the famous quote from a memorable Seinfeld episode, “No soup for you!” We soldiered on and found our viewing site for the parade and proceeded to hurry up and wait. The parade was pretty cool, after the boats did their thing some aquatic acrobats did their thing on lit up jet skis, flips & dips etc. We decided to cut out a little early due to impending traffic jams and boy howdy I’m glad we did. It still took a while to get away, thousands of other folks also had the same idea. But we survived…

When we were here a few years ago, we found a cool bar located out in the desert between Parker & Parker Dam, dirt road accessible, aptly called “Nellie E Saloon – The Desert Bar”. At the boat parade we spoke with a couple who mentioned a second desert bar located north of Lake Havasu City (about 6 miles from the Walmart). That one is only open on weekends, so on a bright and cheery Sunday we ventured north and found “The Bunker Bar”. This was a short dirt road drive (a couple of miles off the highway) to arrive at the military bunker themed outdoor bar. It is a big-time pro-military, pro-first responder, pro-America venue. They had a small converted freight container for a stage with a band called “Roadwork” playing at the time. Food bunkers are on site (pub fare) as well as a swag store. Family friendly, there are all manner of things for children to play/climb on and cornhole for all. The band was pretty good (rock-n-roll, baby!), the gee-tar man making his rounds through the audience while he played licks from the likes of Ted Nugent, Eddie Van Halen, etc. Jeanne even got to mug for the camera with him to the tune of “Stranglehold”…

The area of Lake Havasu has a cornucopia of outdoor desert activies for those of you so inclined. The whole area between Quartzsite and Lake Havasu City (70 some miles or so) contains non-stop boondocking opportunities, a lot of it very popular and on BLM land. Their are miles and miles of OHV areas, Jeep trails, hiking/biking trails, not to mention all the lake activity available at Lake Havasu/Colorado River. Jeanne found a popular hike at Sara Park, on the south end of town, called “Sara’s Crack”. We loaded ourselves up, sans Woody, and headed out to explore Sara’s Crack (pun, well, heck yeah, but no, we are not budding proctologists!) This was about a 3+ mile round trip trek containing a large slot canyon. There are several trails that take off from the parking area, mostly criss-crossing through the bed of the gully/draw heading toward the slot canyon, some branching up onto the mountainside, you can pick your poison. We chose the “yellow” trail and once we got through the slot we branched uphill onto what I think was the “blue” trail which headed up for overall views of the area. I would classify the difficulty level for our journey at moderate. There was some rock scrambling and rope assisted climbing.

So that about catches us up to the minute. Until next post…

Chasing Down That Cooler Weather

Posted on September 3, 2021 by rvrrat520

One last stop off before we left Michigan was to check out Pere Marquette Park in Muskegon. We let Woody lead us out onto the jetty for a clear view of the lighthouse, beach, and open “ocean” that is Lake Michigan. It was a nice, clear day, not a lot of beach goers in the morning, and we got to watch the ferry “Lake Express” head out to sea with a load of passengers. It was nice to see the crystal clear quality of the water…

Michigan behind us, it was off to our next stop, West Lake Park near Davenport, IA. West Lake Park is a county park with a couple of campground areas, one with FHU’s and the other with W/E, all surrounded by several small lakes. Unfortunately for us, as usual, the park was in the middle of some type of restoration and the lakes were dry for the most part. So much for the anticipated scenery! We still tried to make the best of it. They have a hiking/biking trail around the park which we attempted on our bikes, only to find they do not mark the trails and trying to follow the map on the park’s information pamphlet was an ugly endeavor.

We stumbled upon the Freight House Farmer’s Market in downtown Davenport next to the Mississippi River. We walked the area of the market, it being the modestly sized market it was, and it was a typical farmer’s market with the various booths of produce, crafts, wineries, etc. It also had a small stage area with a live band for entertainment.

Welcome to Freight House Farmer’s Market

Stompbox Brewery was our lunch stop of choice while walking the downtown area. They had some pretty good adult sodas (aka: beer) and holy moly what a lunch! I had a polish sausage and Jeanne had a veggie burger and both were humungous! After completing that gluttonous orgy, we had to walk it off in a big way. Nearby we checked out the Skybridge. Skybridge is an elevated walkway over the main drag, River Dr. At night it is supposedly lit up in spectacular fashion. But we chose to see it in daylight and we were treated to some cool views overlooking this part of downtown and the mighty Mississip.

Continuing our post-lunch-walkoff, we ventured down to the LeClaire Park & Bandshell. This is a large park area for music venues and we just happened upon a practice session gearing up for the current yearly event titled “Riverfront Pops”. It is a music festival featuring the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, each year they perform a musical homage to a particular musician, and this year they are playing Mick Jagger tunes. Orchestra does Stones, quite a concept. We watched part of the practice session, then mosied further down the river area to a small parking lot area where a band called “Squonk” was playing for a small crowd. Their music was something similar to Woodstock fare.

The Dallas County Fairgrounds became our next short stop in Adel, IA. The campgrounds for the fair were nice enough, we got FHU’s with 50A service albeit parked right under a thick tree, so much for satellite service. We only stayed a couple of days, quickly toured (read “drove through”) the megalopolis of Adel, then continued on our merry way.

A couple of quick stops at some KOA’s was on our agenda. We have been running into issues finding places to stay lately, lots of full RV parks and whatnot. We overnighted at the Grand Island KOA, then parked for a couple more days at the Ogallala KOA, both in the barren state of Nebraska. At Ogallala we at least had to check out their “world famous” Boot Hill. This was a disappointing re-creation of what once was. Apparently the graveyard basically burnt down years ago; most of the “residents” had already been relocated to another cemetery; and all the wooden grave markers are re-created versions of the originals.

The Boulder County Fairgrounds campground in Longmont, CO provided us with a good base to do a couple of days of exploring. It was a small campground with W/E and a dump station on site, and for $15 per night, just about the right price. They run a farmer’s market which was very convenient for campers such as we to check out. And nearby we found the Left Hand Brewing Co. as well as Oskar Blues Brewery to go visit. Left Hand was OK, but Oskar did not disappoint since it is one of my favorite breweries.

We took a day drive out to Nederland, CO in search of a brewery our son Chad recommended we hunt down, Knotted Root Brewing Co. The drive was very scenic through the mountains and we happened upon Boulder Falls. This is a small waterfall area tucked back just off the highway, popular tourist stop. After gawking at the waterfall, we continued out to Nederland. It is what I would call a small hippy town (throwback to the 60’s), kinda reminded me of my working days in the river town of Monte Rio, CA., but even smaller. But Dorothy, we are not in Kansas any more. In fact, we are in Colorado now, as evidenced by the massive proliferation of marijuana shops. There must have been at least 3 different shops we passed while driving around town. As a matter of fact in just about EVERY tiny little town we drove through here in this area there were numerous pot shops in each town. Dope smokers rejoice! (Lots of sarcasm here…). We found Knotted Root, sampled some of their fare (underwhelming) with a deli sandwich, then returned home to prepare for another travel day.

On the drive to Nederland, mountain climbing is a popular activity

Next stop was the KOA in Central City, CO, in the mountains outside Denver. It was a nerve racking drive, what with the altitude and grades, constant worry over frying either my transmission or my brakes. But we survived and arrived. This was a very nice KOA, but along with that it was pricy as well.

First order of business was to go ‘splorin’ the big city of Central City. This was a big mining area back in the days. We parked “downtown” and walked the area, gawking at the old buildings and quaint layout of the town.

Another suggestion from Chad was to hunt down the town of Frisco and a local brewery, Outer Range Brewing Co. It was about an hour’s drive from Central City, further up into the mountains with some pretty steep grades along the way (glad we were Jeepin’ it!). We tested some of Outer Range’s brews with our lunch, their Ledges Imperial IPA was outstanding as was my Ahi Poke lunch. I’m not one for eating fish bait, but this raw tuna was pretty tasty.

The drive off the hill into Idaho Springs, on the way to Frisco

Now Central City is a small town alright, but it is a little bigger than what we had covered in our walkabout previously. I suggested we return and cover a little more ground in the Jeep, and Jeanne agreed. Holy moly Billy Batson! We got caught up in some of the one-way streets and ended up a very short distance away through the hills at another megalopolis called Black Hawk. Black Hawk is even smaller than Central City, but it is a virtual mini-Vegas. Wall-to-wall casinos, most of which are of the very large sized variety. There was a small area of town that looked to be newly constructed/renovated buildings with the outward appearance of being residential but me thinks they were soon-to-be little stores & shops. Well, twist our arms, we just HAD to test the waters in the casinos at the Pai Gow tables, it has been a while since our last transgressions. It was a good time had by all (both of us hit straight flushes within about 15 minutes of each other)! And this time we managed to avoid donating it all back to the house…

Our time in Central City expired, it was onward and upward, actually downward as in down the mountain. We managed to get off the mountains without frying either transmission or brakes again, and made our next stop at the Colorado Springs Elk’s Lodge so as to regroup and plot out our next course of action. Until next post…

A Little Midwestern Time

Posted on August 16, 2021 by rvrrat520

We survived our torture in good ol’ Red Bay, Alabama to the tune of about 18 days. The temps in and around August tend to be in the large number range and this time they did not disappoint. Plus, we got to enjoy some pretty intense humidity just to enhance the pleasure of our stay in Hades. We got the fixes done to Rosie that we needed, and then got the added enjoyment of doing some of our own fixes after the Tiffin gremlins went to work on us. I actually got to tear apart and repair our front toilet for a serious water leak, being the expert that I am in plumbing repair (LOL, very much in the NOT category!) It was a $hitty job, but I persevered…(insert lots of loud moans here).

Next up on the agenda was to head towards Indiana for a visit with my cousin Bev & her family. We happily put Red Bay in our rearview mirrors and made our way to a return stay for a couple of days at the Good Ole RV Resort in Goodlettsville, TN (Nashville area). There we got some big box shopping done (Costco) before we headed north. We barely had time to do much in town, but at least the RV park still puts on live music nightly, so we got to see some old-timers do some pickin’ & grinnin’…

A little pickin’ & a-grinnin’, at Grand Ole RV Resort

Bill Monroe’s Music Campground in beautiful downtown Bean Blossom, IN, was our choice for home for a couple of days to visit cousin Bev. This is a very large, rustic campground that puts on the Southern Indiana Blues Festival, the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival, and the Hippy Hill Fest 2022. The festivals tend to draw large crowds, we were lucky we were there at a non-festival time. The park office also houses what they call the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Hall of Fame Museum which is free to wander through and gawk at all the memorabilia. I will forewarn all you RVers wanting to check this park out…DO NOT RELY ON YOUR GPS DEVICES TO GET THERE!!! Rosie (the MH) has a trucker’s version GPS and it still led us on a tour of half-lane, overgrown with trees, heavily traveled back-roads along Lake Lemon. #%$&@^%#*!&&!!!! But we survived…

We took a little time to check out downtown Nashville, Indiana. It appeared to be a huge tourist attraction, geared more toward bikers, and it was certainly busy the day we were there. We walked the main drag checking out the shops, then stopped off to quench our thirst at Big Woods Pizza/Quaff On Brewery. Not much to write home about on the suds…On the way home we found a covered bridge, Indiana style. The poor ol’ thing had it’s share of graffiti…

Welcome to the Bean Blossom Bridge, circa 1880

We got to have a very nice visit with Cousin Bev, her daughter’s family Leila, Jay, and their little ones, and Bev’s son Luke. Regrettably, we missed out on Bev’s hubby Greg, he was away on a job. Leila put on a great brunch spread and we thoroughly enjoyed the eats and the family time, a big thank you to all.

Since we were in this part of the world, and with a small break in the action vis-a-vis the China-virus-hysteria, I had my sights set on a visit to one of my favorite breweries…Founder’s Brewery in Grand Rapids, MI. We headed northward and landed at Steamboat Park & Campground in Georgetown Township, MI along the Grand River. We used our time for some errands/chores but the highlight for me was checking out Founder’s Brewery. It’s a large one, as far as crafties go. We had a nice lunch there & sampled some of their wares that I had not sampled before.