2013 - Our Year - The Highs and the Lows

This is going to be a long, long entry.  A rundown of our year. 

January - everyone was leaving Casa Grande, going this way and that.  We were going to Yuma and then Quartzsite.

February - after spending time in two locations in Quartzsite with friends, we moved on to Lake Havasu City.  For quite a few reasons, this was our worst month on the road.  The generator malfunction blowing the generator, the converter and the television.  My father had a heart attack.  And funds were low, very low.

March - From Lake Havasu City we moved on to one of our favourite places, Overton, Nevada.  We boondock at the Wildlife Refuge just out of the little town.

April - Time to return to Canada.  Straight up through Nevada and cross the border March 31st.  We park in Graeme's driveway this time.  A very tight squeeze but we do it.

It's nice to have our youngest around for a while.  Lots of laughing.

April is also birthday month.  Sophie was 6, Jason was 43 and I was 62 years old.

Towards the end of April we return to Monck Provincial Park to begin our work year.  The first week this huge tree fell across the road.  Good thing we didn't have this part of the park open.

May - We get all settled and dive right in.  There are lots of jobs to take care of before the park opens.

 
June -  The gatehouse opens and the campers arrive.  Not a lot of campers until school is out.   But we are visited by a bear.

 Lots of time to celebrate Doug and David's birthdays with family.  We have a lot of fun with David and Elizabeth.  They live about 5 minutes from the park.

Angie, David and Elizabeth

July - Lots of campers now.  Lots of work and time to organize activities for the campers.

A scavenger hunt

So cute!

August - Jason, Michelle and Sophie come camping on the August long weekend.  It was great to have them next door.

 We held I first annual Sports Day in the park.  The children had a great time.  The parent too.

Granddaughter Sophie and her new friend Xaria

September - We had expected to be leaving the park after the Labour Day weekend.  The boss asked if we could stay until September 18th.  We closed 20 sites and expected it to be a relaxing time.  Time to recover from a very busy summer.  The busiest we have had.   No luck!  The park fill to the brim and we were alone.  Alone to collect fees, clean sites and do the end of summer maintenance.

At this time, Doug had promised to help brother David with a few construction projects in town.  As you can see from this time sheet, he had little time to do that.  He would work 50+ hours in the park and 30+ hours with David.  Toni took up the slack in the park!

 We finally leave the park September 18th and spend the next two weeks in Langley at Brae Island Park.  A lovely park not far from Graeme.

October - And we are off.  October 1st we are on our way south.  This time we spend some time on Whidbey Island with our friends Joe and Lynda.  We go to Port Townsend for the Kinetic Kartoon Festival.  

While in Oak Harbor, we found a beautiful teak table with two leaves in a thrift store for $88.00.  We took out the booth, and found 2 chairs at another  thrift store for $4.00 each.

Looks so much better

 Joe treated us to a Mexican dinner with some friends of theirs.  Good fun.  New friends.

From Whidbey we met up with Jeri and Terry.

We piggy backed down the Oregon Coast staying mostly at casinos.  Casino camping can be profitable.  Even if you only play with the casinos money and eat the free buffets, you come out ahead.  Always a good thing.

We did a lot of sight-seeing as well as eating out.

Fish and chips at ICM in Florence, Oregon

Our last stop with Jeri and Terry was in Florence, Oregon.  They stayed at the Elks.  We casino-camped at the Three Rivers Casino.

 

At this point Jeri and Terry continued down the coast and we went inland to the Escapee Park at Sutherlin, Oregon.

We then headed across California through Susanville, and past Reno. (long story there but I'm not going into that @*%*$!

We spent 4 days off the grid at Walker Lake, Nevada.  Walker Lake is about 10 miles north of Hawthorne, Nevada.  There is a very large military base there.

Walker Lake is an interesting place but I don't care much for being without cell service or internet.  Doug loves it.

 From Walker Lake we headed to the SKP park in Pahrump, Nevada.  The park was having it's 25th Anniversary and there were activities everyday... including Halloween.

We learned all about brothels.  Brothels are legal in Nevada.  There are many in Pahrump including the Chicken Ranch and Sheri's Ranch.

November - We met up with Jeri and Terry again at Boulder City, Nevada.  They arranged for us to stay at an Elks.

 Joe was there too!

Boulder City is just about 20 minutes from Las Vegas so we spend a day doing the sights.  It was impressive but just not our thing.  At least now we can say we have been to Vegas not just driven past it.

From Boulder City/Las Vegas it was on to Congress, Arizona.  We don't like the Escapee Park at Congress much but we had come here so that we could visit friends Jenna and Bruce in Prescott.

We then moved on to Apache Junction, a suburb of Phoenix to visit friends Sandie and Jim.  We went out for the very best hamburgers ever with them and another friend, Paul at Porters in Superior.

 

Our site, by the pool, in Apache Junction.

On to Tucson!   First we spent two weeks boondocking in an area called Snyder Hill.  Lots of space and lots of freedom.

And amazing sunsets.

We were joined at Snyder Hill by friends Karen and Bob and Terry and Edi.  This photo was taken from the top of Snyder Hill which Doug and I climbed.

Our rig on the left, Karen and Bob's in the middle.  Terry and Edi's rig is behind my head.

After two nights in an RV park to dump and fill, we decided to extend our stay in Tucson at the Casino De Sol.  Wow, casino-camping at its best.  Great buffet for free too.

 We traveled south the the artsy, fartsy  town of Tubac.  Very expensive so we just window-shopped.

On our way to Casa Grande, our favourite SKP park, we stopped at Pichaco to visit Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich ranch.  Doug had a wonderful time.  The ostriches are kind of vain and dangerous but the lorikeets are a hoot.

December - So we arrive at Rovers' Roost in Casa Grande, Arizona.  It's like home to us.  We are lucky to get our usual site.  The lady who owns this site is SKP member #42 - we are #104071!!

Our little Christmas tree.

Toni goes out to lunch with some of the women from the park

Doug visits a cotton farm

We have lunch with friends.  l to r - Diane, Sandra, Doug, Terry, Cathy, Dale and Doris

Toni waits for the laundry

And we have fun.

Tonight is New Years' Eve and we will spend it with good friends.  The night will be an early one though.  We watch the ball drop in New York's Time Square, 3 hours early on the satellite.

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

We will continue to have fun!!!