We moved on to Arizona. This has been a favorite playground of ours in the past, but we planned to just pass through on our way to LA this time. Ah plans! A year ago we stopped in El Paso, TX to catch a plane to Atlanta for a Bat Mitzvah.. When we got back, we found a Southwind set up next to us. As these things happen we got to talking and as we sat down to dinner we heard a knock on the door and Pat was there inviting us over for a glass of wine after we got cleaned up from dinner.
We have kept in touch by email and these blogs ever since. Bob had sent us their planned stops at the beginning of the travel season and I have kept it on my desktop. As we headed for Arizona I looked at it and noted that they planned to be in Tucson when we would be passing through. A phone call later and we were set to meet at Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Park near the Sonoran Desert Museum. As we traveled we got a phone call from Yechiel suggesting that they would like for us to be with them February 23rd and 24th when Azriel was going to have a minor medical procedure done. This gave us the idea of extending in Tucson and delaying our arrival in Malibu. A call to the campground in Malibu got that in motion.
We arrived in Tucson mid afternoon and once we got set up we spent the time catching up with Pat and Bob Hogg. They have a 2003 Southwind 36E and it was the first with that floor plan that we saw. Bob has made many modifications and improvements and with Pat they have personalized the interior far beyond what we have achieved so far. I was particularly taken with Bob’s solution to storing the sewer pipe (the stinky slinky). He has bolted a section of PVC pipe to the back of the street side slideout compartments to hold it. For those who don’t get it, when the living room slideout is extended the storage compartments below it move out with the room. When the room is closed, there is sufficient space between the backs of those compartments and the frame for a four inch diameter pipe. This will be one of my next improvements; otherwise the stink slinky rides in the same compartment as the freshwater system. The other changes were too numerous to mention, but certainly make for a comfortable way of life which is important since they are full time on their Southwind.
In the evening we went to dinner in town at Seri Malaka a Malaysian restaurant that was very lovely. We all managed to order dishes that met our desires. I had a lamb chop dish in curry that was just on the edge of fiery and was perfect for my mood. The next day we set out to spend the day in the Desert Museum. We had spent some time there four years ago, on our first voyage. We had much more time and managed to take in most of the outdoor exhibits. While there we had lunch in the restaurant. This turned out to be more of a dining experience than we had expected. The food was excellent the service was interesting. How do you divide a bill in two even parts and end up with a $7.00 difference between the results? The waiter never did understand our complaint and it became more trouble than it was worth to sort out. He reassured us that the two separate bills added up to the correct total. Oh well. We continued our tour and then returned to the campground to relax and have some wine before venturing out again. This time we introduced the Hoggs to Sweet Tomato, a restaurant we first enjoyed in Atlanta and more recently in St Petersburg, FL. We had spotted it from the car the day before and suggested it as a treat for our credit cards. In all of our experiences this has been a source of good fresh vegetables well prepared and modest prices. We had a delightful time and returned to the campground sated and ready to keep talking for another hour or so. On Wednesday we took our leave.
We stopped first at an Albertson Grocery we found in Casa Grande, AZ to stock up our food supplies and ate lunch while stopped there. We then kept moving until we reached Quartzsite, AZ. This modest crossroads in the far west of Arizona grows from it’s permanent population of less than 1,000 to over 250,000 at any one time during the peak of mid December to mid February. This is the second time we have stopped there. No Bob, we didn’t figure out where to boondock in the desert, we just pulled into the B 10 campground where we stayed two years ago. Prices are UP. Our purpose was to hit the vendors and the swap meets to see if we could find some items for Gee 2. We had very little luck. We started too early in the day – 9 AM – and had to be out of the campground by 11. As we pulled out of town, we could see many more vendors open, but none had the kind of things we were looking for.
We still have a couple of days before we want to be in LA, but we want to be able to get in mid day, to avoid the rush hour and to be able to get to Miriam and Yechiel’s before Shabbat. We decided to stop in the Palm Springs area. We are in Sky Valley Resort in Desert Hot Springs, CA and a very nice resort it is, especially since they are Passport America and we were able to take advantage of the 50% off program. Two nights for the price of one. The place is packed with many park models and otherwise permanent looking arrangements. We are a lonely itinerant RV in the block we are located on. The hot spring fed pools are very nice and I am sure we will get back to them tomorrow.
