As promised Friday morning the delivery trucks arrived with new batteries and a new motor for the slideout room. When we were preparing o return from lunch I got a call that the coach was ready to roll. We finished our walk back from Andele, a Mexican Restaurant about a half mile from Sunland, paid our bill and were underway before 2 PM.
While we were rolling we called Bev and Dan Armstrong who we knew were in the Tucson area to see if we could get together. After a bit of back and forth we realized that they were going to drive to Saguaro SKP Coop in Benson AZ to hear Arvel Bird perform in the Coop clubhouse. We were aware of Arvel Bird since he has played at the Ganandogan Powwow just south of Rochester several times, while we were away. He has also performed with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. Since we were already headed for Saguaro Coop and planned to stay there a couple of nights, it made sense for us to meet there. And we did. Bev and Dan arrived at about 11 Am and we had a great lunch spread that Carol put together with a minimum of effort. We ate in the sun just outside the coach and conversation continued non stop until Dan got word that Arvel was in and setting up. We walked over to the clubhouse where Dan contributed his effort as a “roadie” schlepping stuff from the car to the stage.
Eventually we returned to the coach and ordered in pizza which we elected to go and pick up.from G and F Pizza in Benson. Good pizza if you happen to be in Benson and happen to be in the mood for pizza. Not likely for most of you readers I am sure.
The show was wonderful. Arvel is a master of the fiddle and native American flutes and I am sure many other instruments. Rather than my blathering on about him click here to go to his website http://arvelbird.com. We came away with 2 CDs we bought and 1 that he had messed up the signature on which he gave to us. We also picked up a DVD of him in performance which he gave away with the purchase of the CDs. He and his wife are very close with our friends the Armstrongs.
We all parted company after the concert and in the morning Carol and I left Benson behind to roll closer to LA. We stopped mid afternoon at the Hi Jolly STVA (that is Short Term Visitor Area) just north of Quartzite AZ. As I may have mentioned in the past Quartzite straddles I 10 just east of the California border. Most of the land is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the Department of Interior and with some limited regulation is generally open to free or very low cost camping. In STVA here there are no facilities. We have no access to water, dump or electric. We have plenty of water with us – 100 gallons and the capacity to hold 100 gallons of sewage. For electricity we are using solar panels and some time on the generator. Those new batteries are working out just fine.
We shopped for a new coach, we will be doing that for some time now, we may even buy something eventually. Today I was pretty enamored of a Winnebago Journey (you heard that right Dot and Larry). It is the same length as out coach and has a lot of nice features. The price is, lets just say up there. Plenty of time to think this over and look some more. In the mean time we added some new LED lighting and other “stuff” that we just had to have.
Tomorrow we will rise at our usual time and try to get on the road by nine. we have about 4 or 5 hours (LA traffic will determine that) to drive I 10 to the coast and then up the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) to Malibu Beach RV Park where we will stay until the 24th. There may not be much posting for the next two weeks. We also booked flights to Rochester from Phoenix, February 17 to 20. Haven’t been in Rochester in February in 12 years but our friend Zvi Zeitlin is giving his 45th annual recital in Kilbourn Hall on Sunday at 3 PM and he has announced it will be his last. Two days later he will be 90.