bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday– The last day of the Rally. We started the day with a breakfast of muffins and fruit. We took our coffee with us and met up with everyone at the firepit. There is usually a campfire going most of the day. This is a nice social time.

We returned to the rig and worked on our summer trip. We have decided to go the Maritimes. That area is the Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. I would also like to do a bit of Labrador while we are there, just because we can and so that we can say we have been to all the Provence’s.

We are going to Fredericksburg TX for the Alfa Rally, then to Holland MI for the Tulip Festival. From there we will travel a bit around MI, then to the Detroit area. From there across Ontario to Quebec. Then stopping in Maine before heading into the Maritimes.

We did the best we could with planning, as I have a couple of Canada books from the Library. The internet in Quartzsite is pretty slow, so working on travel plans is difficult.

We ate lunch, then ran to Quartzsite to the book store. It is run by a nudist, or at least we think so, as he was not there, and we wonder if he still owns the store. The place looks different. It is not as nice! They had a book about Maine, and one about the Canada Atlantic Provinces. Both were  wrapped in plastic, to protect them from the dust. I could not tell the copywrite, so I passed on both. We went looking at various vendors for a wooden Roadrunner, that one of the rigs here has, but we could not find the vendor. This is what it looked like…

 

We returned and read a bit before the Sheriff’s Dinner. The theme was Hawaiian, so I had made a Hawaiian Bread, which I had baked prior to leaving Paradise, and had frozen. We had taken it out to defrost early this morning, so I cut it and put it on plates.

The dinner was fun, with lots of great food. Most with pineapple.  I had some of the bread left over, so I will take it over for breakfast in the morning.

Rudy, who is a character, was the Sheriff. Rudy and his wife Beth, are German Citizens, who live and travel in the US. They have lived here for years, as Rudy was in the German Air Force and stationed in the US. They did not collect money this year, which was odd. Usually, you have some infraction of the rules and have to pay a fine. They collect the money and it is given to charity.

The final count of Alfa rigs here was 42! That is a big rally for sitting out in the desert. There is lots of room here and several of the count were SOB’s ( some other brand). There was also the Alfa 5th wheel, which is known as a SOS ( some other style).

We returned after dark, when the temp had dropped.

Sunday- We wandered over to the firepit to visit with the folks who were leaving, taking the leftover bread with us. It gone in just a few minutes!

We are staying one more night. We said our good-byes to about half of the folks. We did our usual budgeting and checking accounts. We filled our medicine trays, but cannot do laundry until we get to Tollison. We are going tomorrow to the Freightliner repair facility for our yearly check up.

We ate lunch and took a short nap. We walked the dogs and had a nice afternoon. We ate dinner in the rig, and went to the campfire this evening. We said our good-byes and returned to the rig and went to bed.

Monday- As usual we were awake early. We turned on the generator at 6:30 to warm up the rig. We packed up and left around 9:15. We stopped at the Ranger station to pay the $40 for the 10 days. Since the government had re-opened, we had to pay. The gal thanked us for being honest, as there were a lot of people sneaking out without paying.

We stopped at the Chevron for diesel, $ 2.67 gal. We turned east on I-10 and drove to the second rest area. Stopping to walk the dogs. We continued on to Tollison, to the Freightliner. We had made our reservation way back in September.  Tollison is at the junction of I-10 and I-101. We checked in and Bob backed into a site. They have full hook ups, 50 amp, and even a dog park!

While Bob set up the rig, I ran to the Honey Baked Ham for ham salad sandwiches, one of our favorites. I returned and assisted Bob with putting out the big slide. We only do this with one person watching and one putting the slide out. It was a good thing he waited, as we would have hit a post. We had to move the rig about a foot forward.

Bob had set up the sewer, water and electric. I took a nice, long, hot shower! Then Bob took his shower.  I immediately started washing clothes. I washed up to 10 pm, when we went to bed. I had a Doctor appointment, so I took off to the appointment.

Tuesday- We were ready when they came to get the coach at 7 AM. We went to McDonalds for egg McMuffins for breakfast. Then we went to Lowes, Home Depot and Petco.

We took the dogs into the Lowes, putting them in a cart. People kept stopping us to pet the dogs. It was a real conversation starter.

We stopped to pick up lunch at Jimmy John’s then returned to the Freightliner. We went to the RV waiting room, watched TV, read, and took naps, with the dogs on our laps. At 4:30, Kurt, the RV Manager called Bob to let him know that the rig was done.

Yesterday, when we were closing up the rig, Bob had found that there was a clear liquid leaking near the transmission. He knew it was not transmission fluid. It was still leaking this morning! So Bob had pointed it out to the technician.

They had discovered that the fuel transfer pump was cracked and we needed a new one. The cost was about $1000. So Bob reminded Kurt to check with our extended warranty company. We have a $500 deductible. So they paid half.

When we went to pay, it was $1067, with taxes. HUH? what about the rest of the items they were supposed to do. Bob had given them a list. They only changed the oil, and did a 30 point inspection. They also cleaned the radiator, which we knew was very, very dirty. We knew,  before we went to Quartzsite, it was dirty. After all the dust in Quartzsite, we knew it was going to be even worse. It was! That was the plan, to get them to clean it after we went into the dusty desert!

We left and arrived back at Paradise at about 5:10. The guards escort the rigs to the sites and assist with backing in. The guy almost backed Bob into the car and had the back passenger side wheel on the concrete. Fortunately, it did not break the concrete.

Bob made the adjustments, and we settled in. We left at 6 and went to Streets of NY for a quick dinner. Both of us were exhausted. It is very tiring when you just hang out all day…

Wednesday-  Nice long showers! I went to Maj this morning. I did not win once, as I was so tired from yesterday.

I returned at 12,we ate lunch. Bob called his cousin Jacque, and we set up lunch with them in a week, in Scottsdale. They are staying on the other side of the valley. Then we stopped at the Minders to let them know that there is an Alfa Social tomorrow at 4.

We ran to the Post Office for me to mail cards to family, as one of my cousins had passed, on Sunday, in Rhode Island.

We went to Lowes to return the items that Bob had purchased, as they did not fit. We stopped at the Library and dropped off a book and picked up a book.

Then we stopped at Walgreens for my prescription. We returned to the rig and Bob took a nap. Allen dropped by to check on our time at Freightliner. We had dinner at home and a quiet evening. It is soooo good to have the internet back on and working well. We watched shows on Amazon Prime.

Thursday- I was off to Maj this morning. Bob worked on a few more set up tasks around the motor home. I returned at 12, and we went to In ‘n Out Burger for lunch. We stopped at Fry’s on the way back to pick up a couple of cans of dog food. Karlie is not eating again. We try everything we can think of, but she sticks her nose up at it. We have tried the “ she will eat when she is hungry” approach and that did not work either.

We also picked up a log of Summer Sausage for the social hour this afternoon. We have left over crackers from Quartzsite to use up.

At 4 we went to the social which lasted until 7. The weather was nice, as it was 74. It was 68 when we returned home. Everyone but the Minders were there.

With her back to us is Linda, moving left is John, Bob, Allen, MaryAnne, Dave has on the black hat, Judy is standing, Gloria is next, then Ray is getting food, then Mike, Fred, Donna, my empty seat, and Karen. So we had 14 Alfa owners!

We solved all the problems of the world (not) and had a wonderful time.

Friday- I was off to card making this morning. I worked on using the new quilt dye cut.

When I returned, we ate lunch, then we were off to grocery shop. Our first stop ended up being dropping off one of the freezers at an RV repair facility. It is not holding the temperature. So we dropped it off to see if we can get it repaired.

Then we were off to Costco. We had purchased gas yesterday, $2.27 a gal, so we went straight to a parking place. We purchased a few items, then were off to Walmart for groceries.

We returned home and both fell asleep in the recliners. We ate dinner at home and at a little before 7, Bob went to Square Dancing. They had been begging for Angels to assist with the dance. I stayed home due to my ankle.

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