The Great Alaskan Adventure

We heard about a New Years party at the Cocopah Casino and had no other options so we called to check it out. It was a buffet dinner with King Crab and Prime Rib, a dance with live Motown type singers, Champagne and noise makers at midnight for $40.00 per person. Sounded good so we ordered the tickets. On the big night we got all dressed up and headed off to the Casino. The Buffet seemed a bit disorganized but it all looked reasonably good. Back at the table, we discovered the King crab was over cooked and some may have been bad , the roast beef was over cooked!

The music was interesting......they had 3 girls impersonating the Supremes.....a little too dramatic at times and off key a lot of the time. The band was having a terrible time with their amplifiers and microphones. Next were the Temptations (wanna be’s) the one fellow could have fit himself and another good sized person in his “Way too Big White Suite”. There were two very good singers....the guy hitting the high notes and the guy singing out of his boots. Their dance routine was a little out of sync but they weren’t too bad to listen to but it was all very LOUD!

We were promised a chocolate fountain with fruit but I don’t think that the chocolate got hot enough to flow till about 4 in the morning. They also missed the midnight count down by at least a minute....thank goodness we had Ed’s accurate watch.

Shortly after midnight we headed home. Since everyone else had drinks, I drove home. As I was going down the road suddenly I saw a little white dog in a dog coat sitting in the middle of the road ....right in front of the truck! I swerved......scared the beegeebers out of everyone but managed to miss the dog. What a great way to start 2006.

New Years day Ed and Frances invited us over for dinner.....It was very good!







On January 4th we took a drive to the Picacho State Recreation area. I knew Colin wouldn’t disappoint me and I was right ......he found some most interesting roads, which I think were about ½ a lane wide with huge gullies down the middle. There were sections that resembled going through a car wash only instead of “Soft Cloth” there were nasty scratching bushes.

We saw some neat birds and some interesting volcanic rock formations. While clinging to the edge of a cliff we got a very good view of Bear Canyon. The area was extensively mined for gold beginning in the 1860's. There is still evidence of some mining going on but this was well protected by razor wire fencing. We made it home by about 7:00 PM.

Slow but sure I am starting to feel better. I managed to get Christmas cards off and two packages to the kids. They were late going but they are on the way. We also managed to put up some decorations inside and outside the trailer, but not up to my regular standards.











X-Ray no. 2 was good, there were no signs of pneumonia left and my lung was clear! I still have a cough but hopefully that will go soon too. I have relieved Colin of his domestic duties but I still require a nap now and then.







On the 23rd Frances and I went out and shopped for our Christmas dinner fixings. We went to 6 grocery stores and could not find a turkey.......uh oh!! Well we bought a big chicken instead and that did not go over at all. We also could not find Brussel Sprouts or Christmas pudding or Christmas cake......what kind of place is this ? I guess these items are just not popular around here. Colin did go out later and went to the one place we did not and found turkeys so all was not lost.

I am having a hard time this year as it is the first year that I have not had Christmas with the kids.







We got up and exchanged our gifts and listened to Christmas music. It was a very warm day and perfect for deep frying our turkey. We had appetizers at our trailer and dinner at the Agnew’s trailer. Even though we didn’t have all our traditional stuff.....dinner was very good. Everyone walked away well stuffed







On the 28th Colin and I drove into California to check out the Imperial Dunes. On route we stopped at a Gold Mine which seemed to still be operational but gearing down. Splash and Colin walked up to the look out but were not highly impressed. We also discovered that the area was a desert Tortoise Sanctuary, but we never saw any.

We have been seeing a lot of Motor Homes towing huge big closed in trailers......now we know where they were going. These big tailers house everything from 4 wheel ATV’s, Motor Cycles and Dune buggies.....by the hundreds. The fifth wheels and Motor homes head into these dunes and park in the sand and then off they go on their toys. The dunes are just alive with motorized vehicles. Looks like it might be fun........but also very dangerous. As we approached one area there was an ambulance coming out of the dunes and transferring someone to the helicopter which had landed on the road and stopped traffic. Too much speed and too many vehicles.....kind of scarey!







































As we continued down the road the landscaped changed to more irrigated fields of vegetables, hay and straw. There were also huge feed lots for cows and sheep. We stopped at the side of the road and watched a crop duster spraying fields of produce. We were back to the trailer by dark.

Our original plan had been to spend a week in the Grand Canyon before going to our park in Yuma but they were forecasting freezing temps through the night and not much better during the day for the Canyon. I think we will have to leave it for our next trip.






We decided we would head for Quartzite and spend a week there. A description of Quartzite: A huge area of RV parks and Flea Markets surrounded by Bureau of Land Management Land also filled with RV’s......maybe 10 permanent buildings in the entire town and NO GRASS!! This has got to be the most depressing area I have ever seen in my life! If they made all the RV’s leave there would be nothing else there. Apparently in the winter months the place is just a buzz with RV’ers and Flea Markets.













The day we left Vegas I started to get a sore throat, and by the time we hit Quartzite I spent the night hugging the toilet and developed a fever. I’m not sure but I think we spent 3 nights there. We decided to call ahead to Yuma to see if we could get in early. Our spot was available but Ed and Frances had to wait a day. Colin packed everything up and threw me in the truck and headed out. I was definitely not feeling well.

Yuma is a much more productive looking area. They are allowed to take 40% of the water out of the Colorado River for irrigation purposes. There are endless fields all irrigated and growing mostly parsley, lettuce and cabbage.

After Ed and Frances got we here we took a trip to Mexico to Algadones. It is pretty much within site of our trailer park but to drive there is about 15 miles. We did some shopping and checked out the street vendors and had some lunch at an open air restaurant. The prices were quit reasonable and the food was tasty. After lunch I started to deteriorate so we headed back to the trailer.










After 10 days of a fever Colin decided that I was not getting any better and found me a doctor. After an examination and a chest X-Ray it was confirmed that I had contracted a case of Pneumonia. No wonder I feel so rotten. First day I got a shot in the rear and prescriptions for antibiotics and cough mixture. Back the second day for another shot in the rear. I got two days off and then back again for another check up. I am allowed to stay away for a week now and then back to get another chest X-Ray to see how things are going. I am amazingly tired and get wiped out just having my shower and washing my hair. Colin has been very good, making food , washing dishes and he even did laundry (under my supervision of course)!







Needless to say I really haven’t seen much of Yuma other than the road to the doctor’s office and the road to the X-Ray place. How much fun is that?

Our remaining two weeks in Vegas we tried to go to the Strip a few times to take in the new casinos that were not there the last time we were here. It’s amazing what can be built when money seems to be no object. The Belogio and the Venetian are definitely amongst the most opulent on the Strip.



























We also took in some of the free shows, Airplay which was an aerial act, The pirate ship attack at Treasure Island, the Water and Music shows in front of Ceasar’s Palace and the Volcano eruption. Then there was of course Colin’s fascination with thE trucks that drive Billboards around advertising “Hot Babes”!











We packed a lunch one day and drove to the “Valley of Fire”. Another collection of very interesting rock formations and Arches. You can actually camp right amongst all this wonderful scenery.


























































































U.S. Thanksgiving dinner was a definite hit with our first ever deep fried turkey. Colin and I did the stuffing and the turkey and Frances did the vegetables and dessert. The turkey took a little longer then we first calculated but it was worth the wait. It was juicy and tender and very tasty! We ate over at Ed and Frances’ trailer and everything was delicious. Even the dogs got to have a Thanksgiving Dinner.





I think we were all looking forward to leaving Las Vegas......it’s a very dirty city and the drivers are crazy....time to find a slower pace in Arizona.

The night we packed up it was very windy and was getting quite cold. By 10:30 the next morning we were all packed up and ready to head out. They were predicting freezing temperatures for that night so we were glad to leave.

Naturally when you get back after being away there are the menial things that need to be done like grocery shopping and laundry, unpacking and putting everything away again.






























One day Frances and I had a shopping day which was quite fun. On Friday we packed a picnic lunch and drove out to Death Valley . We miscalculated our amount of daylight and the length of the drive so unfortunately we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to. On the way in we ended up in the 49er’s Gold Rush parade......Everyone was waving at us and yelling....I felt like a real celebrity!

When we got back we did a dumb thing......we went to a Seafood Buffet with only 40 minutes to get our food. Needless to say we all ate too much too fast and felt awful afterwards. Lesson learned don’t go to a buffet when it’s almost closing time.

On Saturday we made a bunch of calls and finalized where we will be staying in Arizona. After that was done Frances and I went grocery shopping and got all the fixings for dinner which would include Chris, Tina and David, friends of Ed and Frances’ that we know quite well. They arrive for a week long vacation in Vegas at around 2:30. We had a great meal together but had to send them home as they were really tired from their days travels.

Frances made us dinner the night we left which made life a lot easier for me getting everything ready. We left for the airport in Vegas for our fligh which left at 10 to midnight. Splash was not too excited to go into her “Doggy Travel Bag” but it had to happen for her to go on the plane. We landed in Toronto early so we had to call Shelly as she wasn’t going to pick us up for another hour. As luck would have it, she had a flood in the basement of her new home. She picked us up and then Colin took her car, dropped us off and went to Home Depot to pick up a shop vac and a fan. To make a long story short after our flight and no sleep we were into full contact water cleanup. By dinner time we had fans going and heaters running and things were starting to dry up. Okay.......Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z.....

The next day we drove to Hamilton and checked out the boat. When we got back, Shelly made us an awesome steak dinner.

Friday it was time to get our rental car and head to Barrie to visit Cort and Sherri-Lyn. When we got there we went to watch Cort play Ball Hockey and then back to their house to enjoy some yummy food with Sherri-Lyn’s mom and grandmother.

On Saturday we went into Barrie to get our flu shots and then had breakfast out. Then it was off to the pet store to buy an aquarium and filter etc. which was what Cort and Sherri-Lyn wanted for their House warming/Christmas gift. When we got back to the house it was time to change and go to Sherri-Lyn’s Grandparents house for dinner. We met almost all of one side of Sherri-Lyn’s family and had a delicious meal.

When we got back Shelly and Luke had arrived and we had a great fun family evening.

Sunday we had breakfast and packed up to head into Fergus to visit with Colin’s Mum and Dad. We went out for dinner and then headed to Arthur to spend the night.

Monday morning Colin had a Small Claims Court case and when we were done we went back to Mum and Dad’s to visit a bit longer. We left there leaving enough time to take back the rental car and get something for dinner before we boarded the plane.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived on schedule in Vegas. We called Ed and he came to pick us up. We were glad to be back “home?” It seems weird calling the trailer parked in Vegas home .

Now that we are settled in Vegas for the Month of November we aren’t sight seeing every day and doing things all the time so I decided to go for bulk entries hitting the highlights of the past few weeks.

Over the first week here we checked out Fairmont Street. This area is the old Las Vegas. The entire street is covered with a canopy of lights and each evening they have light shows overhead. We walked up and down the street and then had dinner at one of the Casinos. When we came out the light show started and everyone on the street stopped to look up. There was a big Peterbilt truck parked at the end with a Grand Piano on the back of it. There’s nothing too outrageous for Vegas!
After that we drove down the Strip to take in some of the lights. We were here 10 years ago but things have changed a lot.

Before we knew it was time to prepare for our trip home.

We had a cleaning day today and then in the evening we went to a Seafood Buffet at one of the small Casinos close by. After dinner we all decided that we would do one pull each on the slots. Colin.......nothing........Ed......nothing......Frances.......nothing, Margaret.......Oh ya! $6.75 win!! I’m not usually that lucky so I cashed out and got the heck out of there.

The power thing is all done and we moved into our permanent spot for the next month. It felt good to be settled in.

We headed to Vegas this morning. It was not a long drive and we were in the Wal-Mart parking lot by about 1:00. We dropped the trailers, went and had lunch and then came back to research our Woodall’s Campground Guide. While Frances and I were doing that, the guys discovered that someone had tampered with a wire that goes from the trailer to the hitch that activates the brakes on the trailer should it come detached from the truck. Ours was right out and Ed’s was just twisted and loose.

In the mean time Frances and I had gone through the book and made some phone calls only to find out most places we wanted to stay were full and that narrowed us down to 2 places. We settled for the one with the hot tub. We hooked back up since we were heading right there. Check in took forever and then we had to go into temporary sights until we went to the Power office to sign up for power......it was only 20 miles away! Gee what an ordeal. Next we discovered that out of 4 hot tubs only one was working and it was marginal.....just barely warm! The entire recreation building is closed and under renovation.....can’t use that either. Not to mention about 4 pages of rules......just a bit much!!

We decided to take a drive through Virgin and up the Kolob Reservoir road. We stopped in the town of Virgin to check out a Trading Post with a cute little mocked up western town beside it. We had Cactus-coconut ice cream . Then we continued on up the road to the Lava Overlook. They were logging out the surplus wood up there, it was called a fuel reduction program. As we were heading towards the reservoir we saw some very large birds on the side of the road and some flying overhead. They had large tags with numbers on them. We thought they might be turkey vultures but later on found out that they were California Condors. They had been extinct in the wild and only recently they released some back into the wild. These were obviously those birds. The size of them was amazing! They aren’t real pretty birds though.

We continued on and drove around the reservoir and then started on our way back to Zion. We ended up in quite a bit of snow and actually turned around and took another route down as one of the locals told us it was quite slippery up ahead. We came down this amazing huge hillside and ended up in a town with a Wal-Mart......how uncanny is that! We didn’t actually stop though. We did stop at a little grocery store to get some quick dinner stuff as we wanted to go see a movie and we were running late.

We went to the Zion movie theatre to see “Serenity” with Ed and Frances. It was a good movie to see on a 6 story high movie screen!

After breakfast we headed out to the Shuttle Stop to catch the bus to Zion National Park. We took the bus right to the end of the road and then walked the Riverside Walk, a two mile walk along the Virgin River. Avery scenic walk.

When we got back from that we took the shuttle back to Weeping Rock. It was quite a steep walk but worth the effort to see the water droplets coming down through the rocks.

On the way back down we saw a buck with an impressive rack eating a lunch of leaves at the side of the trail. He posed handsomely for all who wanted to take his picture.

Next stop was the Zion Lodge. We had lunch at the lounge and then carried on to hike up to the Emerald pool......not really emerald but pretty neat non the less.

From here we took the shuttle back to the RV park and then went out to get some groceries. Glad we didn’t need too much because the store’s stock is minimal. We did manage to find the ingredients for a half decent salad.

We got the trailer all ready to go before we left and then headed to the trail head. It was a very steep walk down but once down there it was beautiful. The walk back up was another matter.....step, step, step......rest. The fact that you are at such a high altitude doesn’t help matters any. We got back and all flopped into the hot tub.......ah ......that felt good!

We left the park and headed for the next stop which was Zion National Park. To avoid adding 50 miles onto the trip we drove through the park which required us to go through two stone tunnels. The first one was fairly short and narrow, the second was a mile long and cost us $15.00 as they had to stop oncoming traffic because the tunnel is too narrow for two large vehicles to pass. I don’t like tunnels and this was no exception. We pulled into a park just outside the South entrance to the park. It was too late to do any exploring so I decided to give the dog a hair cut.... she was getting rather wooly.

We drove to the end of the park and then started to work our way back. There were a lot of lookouts and a lot of trails. When we got to the Paradise Look Out we could see a really neat trail that zig zagged down the side from the rim and then wound it’s way through the Hoodos at the bottom. The only problem is it was getting too late to start. When we got back to the trailer, Ed and Frances wondered if we wanted to get up early and do the same trail we just left. It was decided we would leave at 9:00 and do the hike and then come back and hook up and leave for Zion.

We arrived at Bryce Canyon and pulled into the park just outside of the National Park. There was a hot tub at the park so we all had a good soak! We had a delicious dinner at the Lodge and then checked out the gift shop and store while the guys had another soak.