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In September, Nancy and I headed the Roadtrek down to our regional FMCA rally in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was a beautiful park setting along the river that separates Little Rock from North Little Rock. We visited the Clinton Library, and Nancy and her sister Anne had their picture taken with Bill Clinton. Not sure where his hands are in this photo.... Note the political campaign poster, guess some things in Arkansas never change. The library was having a chopper exhibit, some cool bikes, tho most strictly for show, not operable. Motorcycles as art? There were over a thousand motor homes at the rally in total, and about 15 from our Gateway Getaways club. Ladies enjoyed a red hat luncheon on a sternwheeler. We all did some sightseeing, had a great time, as usual, with our Gateway Getaways club. Note the exit sign from the campground where we stayed the night before the big rally!
We headed East to Kentucky to visit Bill's sister Pat and hubby Fred, and their son Eric and daughter-in-law Emily and family. Beautiful country, with plenty of green pastures and horse farms, curvy byways, and distilleries. Took a tour of several with Pat and Fred, and of course, sampled the goods. Yummy! Had a lovely visit with them, and then headed home.
In mid-June Keith and Anne Jerome (Nancy's sister), and Nancy and I hosted a Gateway Getaways rally in Kirksville, MO, Nancy's home town. This is where we first met, and where I went to High School. Keith lived in the Kirksville area for many years, and knew all the cool places to take the group.
The first week of July we headed out with the Gateway Getaways again, this time for Minneapolis, MN for the annual international convention of the Family Motor Coach Association. There were over 3000 motorhomes in attendance! We went to seminars on everything from what toilet chemicals to use, to how to get a satellite internet dish installed on your motorhome. Naturally, there were several hundred brand new coaches, ranging in price from below $100K to well over $500K, all open for our review and viewing. Lotsa fun! Oh, and of course, happy hour every afternoon!
Immediately after Montauk, Nancy and I went to a Roadtrek (the maker of our motorhome) rally in Branson, MO. There were about 20 or so Roadtreks, and we made some new friends there. Saw some shows, did the tourist thing.
Nancy and Jennifer, our St Louis daughter, flew to Gilbert, AZ to visit with our Arizona daughter and family for a long weekend in May. On Nancy's return, we took off with the Gateway Getaways again, this time for Bowling Green, MO. You can see that our little Roadtrek is dwarfed by the big boy campers! Here are a few pix from that beautiful area; can you tell I like old barns?
When we're traveling light, but still want auxiliary transportation, we use our motorcycle. It gives the advantage of not having to break camp when you want to go someplace, better fuel mileage, maneuverability, and fun. Drawbacks are limited storage space, not good in cold/wet weather, and it requires that we carry along protective gear...helmets, jackets, gloves. Still, it's nice to have the option.
After nearly 3 and a half months in Phoenix, it was time to hit the road for home. Bill checks his email one more time on the Tower Point WIFI (ok, it was a little chilly that morning!) and we are ready. A stop at the Schusters in Gilbert to say goodbye (and kiss new baby Emma) and pick up the stuff we'd been storing in Alex's garage. Then we hooked up the Honda, and rode into the sunset. We took highway 87 north, through the Tonto National Forest, and angled over to Holbrook. It's a beautiful drive, lots of wildflowers, and the high point is over 7500 feet (check out the altitude on Bill's Nuvi GPS). Our little 5cyl turbodiesel did very well hauling the loaded Honda over the mountains. We averaged between 15 and 16 mpg towing. There was still snow in spots in the forest, as you can see. Finally, after 3 days and 2 nights in Walmart parking lots, we made it home!
Next trip: Montauk State Park in south Missouri for a family reunion/campout/fishing trip with Nancy's side of the family (Baldwins), and then back-to-back a Roadtrek rally in Branson, Missouri. Will it never end? Nope, not til the money runs out!
So, we rolled into Mesa, AZ the evening of April 3, and spent the night in our Roadtrek for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks. It was like coming home! The next day, we did laundry, unpacked all our stuff from the Baja trip, and settled in. Nikki and Alex Schuster, our daughter and son-in-law, live about 10 miles away in Gilbert, AZ; this is the reason we've picked the Phoenix area as our winter HQ. Not to mention the weather, of course! Back to my story: Nikki has been having contractions all day, getting stronger and closer together. By mid-morning of the 4th, she and Alex alert the doctor, and it's time to go to the hospital. Nancy goes along as photographer, and Bill stays at the Schusters with 18 month old William. At 2:59AM on April 5, Emma Lorelei Schuster is born. She weighed 8lbs, 4oz and was 19" long, with medium brown hair (longer than her older brother's!) and dark eyes. Mom and baby are doing well, and everyone came home on the 7th. Here are some pictures of the newest family member.......
We returned from San Diego to our winter digs at Tower Point in Mesa, AZ on Thursday April 3. Had to swing by Tucson on the way, and pick up the Roadtrek RV from Sandy's West RV. They are a Roadtrek dealer, and we'd dropped off the RV there before heading for Baja. They did a great job sleuthing out our problems: micro-wave oven that wouldn't open, coach charging system that wasn't working, some crotchety cabinet latches, and a toilet valve that wouldn't flush. All were diagnosed and repaired, and Roadtrek warranty handled everything. We couldn't be more pleased with Sandy's service, highly recommended.
Wednesday morning, we were up bright and early, had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Menu for breakfast just as funny as the dinner one. I had scrambled eggs with Mexican sausage. Tastes great, just don't think too much about what might be in the sausage. Off we went back toward Ensenada, crossing Baja again from east to west. I've thrown in some more photos of Baja, it's just so amazingly wild and beautiful. There are only 450K people on the whole peninsula, compare that with 35 million in California. So much open space, unspoiled vistas, wide open beaches. It was a great trip, and I know we'll spend more time there in the future.
We had lunch at the same great little taco stand right along the main drag by the harbor that we'd enjoyed on the way down two weeks before. Then we walked around the tourist shops for a while, and finished up our souvenir shopping. Just north of Ensenada, we parted from highway 1 to take highway 3 back thru the wine country to Texate. When we got to the border around 4PM, there was only one vehicle in front of us. We answered a couple of questions, showed the INS agent our passports, and didn't even have to get out of the car. It was a breeze. MUCH better than going thru Tijuana!
The drive from Texate to San Diego is around an hour, no big deal, since you'd spend that long in the line at the border in TJ. Spent the nite at the Good Nite Inn in San Diego, 10 minutes from the airport and across the street from Denny's, as we needed to drop Anne and Keith off at the airport at 7AM.
Our hotel in Catavina turned out to be pretty nice. The hotel was spacious, and had a rec room with pool table, a swimming pool, bar, restaurant, and garden. It also had a posse of cats. They followed you around the grounds, and tried to come into your room. Outside our room's door to the open central patio, there was a wounded bat. We told the hotel staff, and they flicked it into the shrubbery. Later that evening, we returned to the room to find a cat outside the door munching on a freshly killed field mouse. Hey, at least they keep the rodents under control! We had a big laugh over the restaurant menu, the best item being "young donkey". Well, it's a literal translation.....see, a burro is a donkey, and a burrito would of course be a young donkey.... About the old car in the cactus garden.... I'm not sure how that fits in, but it did look kinda cool. Maybe the guy didn't pay his hotel bill or something.
The gas station in Catavina, Baja California
We asked an American expatriate bar-fly at the hotel bar where was a good place to eat dinner, and he recommended the El Patron restaurant on the beach. He said to follow the river road to the end, we couldn't miss it. So, we piled into the car and headed down the street. The street became a dirt track after 2 blocks, and I pulled over to ask directions of a local who was walking down the road. She assured us we were on the right road, and that it was only 3 km. down. We bumped along at 15mph, and finally came to the end. There was a little bar and restaurant on the rocky beach, with plastic lawn chairs around tables. We pulled out our dominoes, ordered drinks, and enjoyed ourselves until dinner time. Then, we ate the usual fish tacos and had a great time. We also walked along the rocks and found some nice shells. There was a single fisherman, in a red kayak, with rod and reel looking for supper in the calm water of the Sea of Cortez.
