My Last Post about the Escapade Seminars & More

As promised, this will be the last post about the
seminars we attended at the Escapees Escapade.
We attended several seminars by Nick Russell. 
Some of you may be familiar with his blog, or his
Gypsy Journal.  He and his wife have been "full
timers" for many years, and he also writes books.
He spoke about being a frugal RVer, and had many
great tips on ways to save money on the road.  He
also gave a talk on "Highway History and Back
Road Mystery" that lead me to buy this book.  His
other seminar was called "Welcome to My Arizona"
which told of many worthwhile and interesting
places around the state that we hope to see someday.
Lisa & Jim Koca gave a seminar on Making and
Financing Your Bucket List.  We got more ideas of
places we want to go, so now we must start saving
money so we can make our dreams come true. 
This was taken at the Holy Trinity Monastery in
St. David, Arizona.  We also saw the "True Cross"
and the relic inside it from the pectoral cross of
Pope Pius IX.

Our last day in St. David we drove over to the

little town of Bisbee.  A really neat little western

town, and Jim got himself not one, but two

cowboy hats!  We had lunch in a nice looking pizza

place, with a lovely chandelier over our table.

There was also an interesting little train in town.

 

 

After leaving St. David, AZ, we drove into

New Mexico and spent one night in Deming,

before continuing up to a nice RV Park in Arrey.

Today we drove into Truth or Consequences to

see some friends.  In case you don't know the

history of this town, it used to be named Hot

Springs, for the many hot springs that occur in

town.  Many years ago, Ralph Edwards offered

to bring his TV show Truth or Consequences to

any town that would change it's name to the same.

After much debate, Hot Springs, New Mexico

agreed to do so, and Mr. Edwards literally put

the little town on the map!  Sixty six years later,

they still hold an annual Fiesta  in the town, with

a parade, and many events and crowning a Miss

Fiesta.  There are several art galleries and the

Geronimo Museum in town.  On weekends, there

is also a Farmer's Market in Ralph Edwards park.  

 

 

There are also some neat ghost towns in this area,

such as Chloride, which has a rustic museum of

old tools and supplies, and a cafe in what was

once the Chloride Bank.

 

There is so much to see and do as we travel this

great country.  We hope you will be inspired to

travel and see places like these too. 

Keep the rubber side down!

 

 

 

Hi Folks, 
As promised, today I'll tell you some more about the
seminars we enjoyed at the rallies we recently attended.
At the Good Sam Rally we went to a talk about tire
pressure monitoring.  That may not sound interesting,
but it IS very important, which we learned the hard
way!  In 2012, on our way to New Mexico, we had a
blow-out on I-10 east of Tucson, AZ.  We lost hours of
time getting a tow truck and getting the tire replaced
and the rest of our tires checked before getting back
on the road.  This also made us very late to our next
destination for the night, since we left Tucson in rush
hour traffic!  After the seminar we did our own
research, ane we chose to purchase the Tire Minder
with six sensors for our RV and four more sensors
 for our tow car.  Their website is:
 www.Minderresearch.com.  They have received gold
ratings in 20012, 2013, and 2014 from Reader's Choice.
We like that they use lithium batteries, and they will
supply us with replacement batteries for the next seven
years if we send back the old ones.  We like that it will
give us both a visual and audible warning alarm
if there is a sudden loss of tire pressure.  They also
monitor the tire temperature.  I am sorry to say that we
have not yet installed them, but we will be doing the
installation tomorrow, so in my next posting, I will
tell you how it went and how it seems to be working as
we begin our travels east.

When we got to the Escapade, we also bought their
Temp Minder.  It can monitor the inside temperature,
and more than one extra location (up to three I think). 
We chose just the basic model with one outside sensor,
which we have in one of our outside storage bays.  It
seems to be very accurate and we are happy with it.
We also attended a talk by Don Greene on free nights
of RV camping at wineries, farms and some museums. 
Their website is www.harvesthosts.com where one can
join.  The cost is $44.00 per year.  For this, you get to
choose from many area wineries, farms, or museums to
stay at, usually for a single night.  Many people tell of
forming friendships with the host families, and
returning again and again to these locations.  They do
 have some rules, which are very reasonable, about
being a considerate guest on these private properties, 
and they do ask you to buy something from the people
as a "thank you" for your night's stay.  The wines are
usually very reasonable priced, and are always nicer
than what you'll find when you stay at the local
Wal-Mart!  Imagine the fun of traveling to a new area
and buying fresh, locally grown produce for your
dinner, or being able to have a new local wine with
your dinner!  We look forward to many such stays
during the next several months as we travel east to
New York state this summer.
More seminar news next time.  As always "Keep the
shiny side up and the rubber side down" as you travel
these wonderful and exciting roadways of America!

After the Rallies!

Hi Everyone,
Now that we are settled in at Western Horizons
campground in St. David, I thought I would write a 
few words about the Rallies we attended.  First, in 
January, we went to the FMCA Rally in Indio, CA.
While there we went to a few seminars, and at one
we met Gail & Mike Alexander.  Much like me, she is
a little OCD-ish, and cannot tolerate living in clutter.
She also pointed out that, if one was to get their RV 
weighed, most of us would find we are carrying MUCH
to much stuff!  Being over-weight for the rig can have 
serious consequences, including damage to the
structure of the RV, safety concerns, and even legal
concerns if the extra weight causes the RV to be involved
in an accident.  I began right then and there to sort out
and get rid of stuff.  If we hadn't used it in the last 12
months......chances are we wouldn't need it in the next
12 months either.  I bought many of her space saving
items, and took her advice on things to do to bring
down our weight.  We saw her again at the Good Sam
Rally in Avondale and I bought some more things from
her.  I attended another of her seminars, because no
two are the same, and I learned more things.  Finally
at the Escapees Escapade in Tucson, we attended her
last seminar.  She has more to teach, but we won't
catch up with her again for a while.  I bought her
amazing, flat whisk.  I can't tell you how neat it is!!!
She also taught me that instead of having to take down
ALL my wall hangings when we travel, all I needed to
do is secure them to the walls with 3M Extreme
Mounting Tape.  We found it at Ace Hardware here in
Benson, so I'll let you know how it works.  Before we
left Tucson, we had our RV weighed by Smart Weigh.
I am happy to report that we are UNDER our total
weight limit.  However, we are a little too heavy on
the front passenger side by 150 pounds and our rear
axles is carrying about 450 pounds too much. 
However, we were also at that time, carrying half-full
holding tanks, which would account for much of that.
When we had our previous RV weighed back in 2010,
we were horrified to find we were carrying about
1500 pounds too much on our rear axles, so this report
was encouraging.  If you have never, or even if you
have not recently had your RV weighed, we would
strongly suggest you do so before long.  I am going to
close for now, but in my next posting I will talk about
some of the other seminars we attended, and the
many amazing things we have learned.



Again, remember to
 "keep the rubber
side down and
the shiny side up" as you travel down the roads of
this wonderful land of ours.  Millie was exhausted
after all our Rally adventures.

A Brief Summary of our Travels

We have been on the road since April of 2010, so I would
like to share some of the highlights of our adventures.  
We drove all the way from California to New York
state to visit family and friends.  Later we went to
Hershey, PA to see the chocolate factory.  We made a
stop in New Jersey to see the Tear Drop Memorial in
Bayonne.  It is awe inspiring, and we hope many
people will make the trip there someday.
We went to Elkhart, IN to visit the RV Hall of Fame &
Museum before going to the Good Sam Rally in
Louisville, KY.  After the rally we went to Dollywood
and to see The Great Smokie Mountains.  Later we
went to Missouri to visit the birthplace of Harry S.
Truman before going to Branson.  Great fun!  We
returned to southern California for the winter.  Our
big trip of 2011 was up the coast of California into 
Oregon for the Good Sam Rally in Redmond.  We
spent some extra time in Oregon, which is very
beautiful.  In 2012, after our usual January visit to
Quartzsite, AZ we made our way to New Orleans for
Marde Gras.  Wow what fun that was.  We came back
to Avondale, AZ for the Good Sam Rally, which had
as a headliner, the incomperable Bill Cosby and
Boomer from Sha Na Na.  Great entertainment.
 In 2013, we went to Utah to visit friends.  We visited
Zion and the Arches.  Later that year we became 
WorKampers and took a job at Riverbend Hot Springs
in Truth or Consequences, NM.  We met many really
wonderful people and had a great time.  We went to
Roswell to look for aliens, and to Alamagordo to the
Heart of the Desert Pistachio Farm.  They also sell
fantstic wines there!  In 2014 we took a Workamper job
as camp hosts in Port Angeles, Washington at Crescent
Beach & RV Park.  It is really beautiful there.  The only
bad part was the unexpected and sudden loss of our
beautiful Yorkie named Mitzi.  She of course, can never be replaced, but my son

asked us to give another dog a loving home, so we
accepted Millie into our home,and into our hearts.

This year we are not workamping as we have new adventures to persue, which we will share in future posts.  As a dear
friend of ours used to say,
"Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up!"   
 

  

Our first blog

We are in Tucson for our first ever Escapees Escapade.  It has been really great!!!!  Today we attended a seminar called Every RVer needs a Blog, by the Geeks on Tour.  It was very informative, so now I'm trying to create one.  Sure hope this works!  When we leave here, we will be going down to Benson, AZ for a while. 

This was us at Tuzigoot in Cottonwood.

These are our two canine kids, Willie & Millie.         

Below picture is of Jim & Willie & Millie at the Dwarf car Museum in Maricopa, AZ.