Hi there, welcome back. Our last episode concluded on Saturday, September 14th, when we arrived in San Diego, California for a week long stay. Sunday we went out about 12:30 and drove to a shopping mall in nearby La Jolla for lunch and some shopping. We had lunch at a burger place called Shake Shack. I guess it is an up and coming California gourmet burger place that has gotten very popular. Jackie's brother Dennis, who lives here in San Diego, has been trying for a year to get us to go to one. I found the burger to be good, the meat was juicy and the toppings OK. The fries were very good. Both Jackie and I had burgers, but she had hers without the bun. The problem I have is that for two double burgers, one order of fries and one drink it was over $27. Considering our favorite place, In N Out, is at least a third less expensive and just as good, Shake Shack is just not worth the premium price. After lunch we walked around the mall and did a little shopping. Jackie picked up a top at Macy's, but other than that we just looked. We left the mall and did a couple of geocaches, then did a Walmart run. After Walmart we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Monday, September 16th, we pretty much had a stay at home day. I did some office work and chores around the house, including replacing the 12 volt water pump on the coach. We had notice a week or so ago that the pump wasn't working. It is only used when we are not hooked up to a city water supply, which is rarely, so I have no idea how long it had been out. Ten minutes of trouble shooting led me to the belief that the pump had seized up. I had a replacement pump in the storage bay, so within a half hour the new pump was installed and we had water again. This was important since in about two weeks we will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Balloon Fiesta and will be dry camping. We will need a working water pump. After lunch we did do a quick run to a nearby Target so Jackie could get a new hair dryer. Her old one crapped out this morning. Around 4:00 Jackie's brother Dennis came over for a visit. We sat and talked and caught up. Although he and Jackie talk and text frequently, we don't see him a lot. We last saw him in May of last year when we drove down to San Diego in the car to spend one night. I checked on the last time we were in San Diego with the coach and it was in April of 2013. Dennis stayed until about 6:30 then left. We had dinner and spent the rest of the night with the TV.
Tuesday, September 17th, we spent most of the afternoon doing laundry. There is a nice laundry room right here at the RV park, so we didn't have to go out. Jackie's brother came over about 3:30 to visit and stay for dinner. We sat and talked for a while and then I did some fish on the BBQ and we had that along with rice and veggies for dinner. Dennis left about 7:30 and we spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Wednesday we left the coach about 11:30 and drove to the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, north of Balboa Park, for lunch. We went to a place called Pete's Seafood and Sandwiches, a place recommended to us by one of our Coachella Valley friends, Kevin Ray. His mother lives in San Diego and he comes down here a lot, so he told us to try this place. Jackie's brother met us here for lunch and was even nice enough to buy lunch for us. The food was good, Jackie had the lobster roll, I had a similar crab roll sandwich, along with the clam chowder. The sandwiches were smaller than I expected, but the seafood seemed fresh and was not cut with a bunch of lettuce or other filler. We also got a geocache which just happened to be right inside the patio of the restaurant. Didn't have to go far for that one. After lunch we did a little drive by sightseeing, driving through the Gaslamp district near downtown, and then the actual downtown area. We didn't spent too much time there as President Trump happened to be visiting San Diego today and was at a luncheon in a downtown hotel. As a result many of the streets were blocked off and there were demonstrators on the street. We did get to see the famous “Trump Baby” helium balloon that the protesters like to fly at any Trump event. We also took a drive through Old Town, but didn't stop because there was no parking. We then did a Costco run for a few things. We then went back to the coach and relaxed there for the rest of the day.Thursday, September 19th, we left the coach after lunch and went to the local Auto Club office so I could get a passport photo done. My passport expires this coming March and I need to get it sent in next month. After getting my photo taken care of we did some geocaching. We had a good afternoon, getting ten new finds and no DNFs in the course of a couple of hours. After caching we stopped at a nearby Vons for a few things, then headed back to the coach. We had bought a couple of sirloin steaks at Vons to have for dinner tonight and I did them on the grill. We had steak, scallops and asparagus for dinner. Unfortunately, the two fresh steaks were two of the worst pieces of meat we have ever had. Tough and stringy, almost inedible. So bad we are going to file a complaint email with Vons tomorrow. After dinner we watched TV until bedtime.
Friday, September 20th, we had a stay at home day. I got some things done around the coach, including finally getting all of the old paper removed from the Plexiglas panels of our new screen door. The door had set out in the elements for a number of years and the paper kind of bonded to the plastic. We now have a nice looking new door. Yea! About 3:30 Dennis came over to visit and have dinner. We sat and talked for a couple hours then Jackie served a nice meatloaf dinner. He left around 6:30 and I went outside and took down the screens and did a couple of other things in preparation for our departure tomorrow. We then spent the rest of the night with the TV.
Saturday, September 21st, another travel day. We left the RV park about 10:30 and started east on Interstate 8 towards El Centro, California, about 122 miles. As of today we are working our way east to Albuquerque for our fourth time at the Balloon Fiesta. We will have a week and a half of two and three day stops. We arrived at the Rio Bend RV Resort about 12:30, found our site and got parked and set up for our three day stop. We have never been to this resort, which is quite nice, and actually never stayed in El Centro before. We have been here a lot, especially back when we lived in Indio. The Blue Angels aerial demonstration team winters at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro and always does there first show of the year in April at El Centro. When we lived in the house the came down every year for the airshow. The base is just a few miles due north of the RV park. After we got set up and ate a light lunch we went out to explore El Centro a bit. We drove around, got some geocaches, and just looked around for a couple hours. It was pretty hot so we only got four cache finds and one DNF. After exploring we went back to the coach and relaxed. We had a nice pot roast for dinner which had been cooking all day in the crock pot. After dinner we watched TV and went to bed.
Sunday, September 21st, we left the RV park about 11:00 and went out to do some geocaching before it got too hot. It was supposed to reach a hundred today. We cached in and around El Centro and were able to get seven new finds, including some very clever caches. We technically had two DNFs, but because the cache owner was watching his geocaching.com page, he saw them and immediately contacted us with some hints. We were then able to go back and find the caches. We stopped for lunch around 1:00 at a little Mexican restaurant on the east side of El Centro, near the Barrio area. It had very good ratings on Yelp. The place, called Antojitos Como En Casa, had a fairly limited menu, but the service and the food were excellent. I had tacos and enchiladas and Jackie had chorizo con huevos. After lunch we went out and did a couple more caches, then stopped at a couple stores, including Walmart, for some supplies. We then headed back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day.
Monday, September 23rd was a stay at home day. We got a few chores done around the coach, but mostly just relaxed and stayed cool during the hot day. Tuesday was another travel day. We were on the road about 10:00 headed about 80 miles east to Yuma. We arrived at the Adobe Village RV Resort about 11:30 and got checked in. This is the park where our good friend Ray Babcock was able to get our reservations set up for the Spring of 2020. The park where the four of us, Babcock's, McKay's, Bullock's and us, have all stayed during most of January and March for the last three years no longer gave us any preference over their six month Snowbirds. We all like to be together, but we only stay two or three months at the most and it is getting harder and harder to find RV parks in Yuma that have spots for these “short” stays. He had worked very hard this last February talking to various parks in the Foothills and a week ago this park called him and told him that they had exactly four spots available for January, March and April. We made the reservations for the Spring and then I also made reservations for our three day layover now. The couple that run the place were very nice and they parked us in the spot we will have in January so we “wouldn't get lost” when we come back. Of course, the park is nearly empty right now in the heat of early Fall. After we got set up we drove around the Foothills area a little bit just to check out any summer changes. After an hours driving and getting one geocache, we went back to the coach and spent the remainder of the day relaxing.Wednesday, September 25th, we left the coach about noon and drove to Tacos El Cositas, the little taco stand in the Foothills area that we visit at least once a week when we stay here in Yuma. We had a great lunch and it was weird to see the place nearly empty. Normally during the season it is extremely busy. Of course, the traffic in the Foothills was almost non-existent too during the off season. After lunch we drove to get one geocache, one of the few we haven't already gotten here in the Foothills. This is the monsoon season in Arizona and for the last couple days there have been on and off storms. After we got the geocache we noticed that the sky was starting to look threatening, so we went back to the coach and “hunkered down” for a possible storm. There were some good thunderstorms in the area but watching the radar they went north and south of us with no rain at all for our area. It did get a little windy, but nothing serious. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the coach.
Thursday, September 26th, we went out after lunch to the local nail salon. Jackie got a pedi, I got my toenails clipped. After the nails we went back to the coach because the weather was still a bit threatening. As it turned out, we still didn't get any rain, but we did get a few things done around the coach. Friday was another travel day on our mission to get to Albuquerque and the balloons. We left Yuma about 10:00, did a fuel stop and then headed east on I-8 towards Arizona City, about 175 miles. It was freeway almost all the way and it was an uneventful trip through the desert. We arrived at the High Chaparral RV park about 1:00, got parked and set up for our three day stay here. We didn't go anywhere after we got set up, just relaxed and did a few little chores. Arizona City is just southwest of Casa Grande and Phoenix is only about 50 miles north. I contacted my brother Ken to see if they wanted to come down on Saturday or Sunday to visit since it is only about an hour's drive. They will be down tomorrow. Yea!
Saturday, September 28th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove into Old Town Casa Grande to the Big House Cafe to meet Ken and Susan for lunch. There were waiting when we arrived. We got seated and had a great lunch. Although we stay in touch often by email and social media, we haven't seen Ken and Susan since we were here in Casa Grande in March of this year. After lunch we drove back to the Coach and they came in and we sat and talked until about 6:00 when they left to drive back to Goodyear. We had a light dinner and spent the rest of the night with the TV. It was good to see Ken and Susan again. We spent quite a bit of time talking about RVing as they are looking at a future as full time Rvers when they retire in about four years. We are sort of mentoring them. Sunday we went out about 11:00 and went to lunch at a Chipotle restaurant in Casa Grande. Jackie has been wanting to try them for some time. The food was pretty good for Mexican fast food. After lunch we went to a Great Clips and Jackie got a haircut, then we stopped at Walmart for some supplies. After Walmart we went back to the RV park and took some stuff down to the laundry at the park. We didn't do our clothes, but we did some of the stuff that only gets washed periodically. This way when we do our clothes in a few days we don't have to fuss with the other stuff. We did the various cloth chair covers, a couple throw rugs, the comforter from the bed and a blanket. We spent the rest of the day either in the coach or running back and forth to the laundry room, which was just a hundred yards down the road.Monday, September 30th, another travel day. We were on the road about 10:00, continuing East to Willcox, Arizona, about 140 miles. Other than having to drive through Tucson where the traffic was pretty heavy, it was an easy trip. We arrived at the Grande Vista RV park about 12:30 and quickly got checked in and parked. We got set up for our two night stay here and then just stayed in for the rest of the day and evening. We were last here in March of this year, but didn't get to see too much since we were both sick most of the time we were here. We'll go out tomorrow to see the town a little. Tuesday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. There were only seven caches in town and in a couple hours we got all seven. We drove around a little, exploring Willcox and stopped at a couple of antique stores. A little after 4:00 we went to the Elks Lodge. We have never been to this lodge and unfortunately they didn't have any lodge pins for our banner. There were several members in the bar and they were very friendly. The Esquire took me on a tour of the building and they have a very nice, large facility with a dedicated Lodge Room. They have a little over 500 members and the Esquire said the lodge is struggling to stay in business. We did find that they have a very nice RV park with 28 hookup spots with water and electric. Next time we come through the area we will stay there. We had one drink, then went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.
Wednesday, October 2nd, another travel day. We left Willcox about 10:00 and headed east to Deming, New Mexico, about 140 miles again. We “lost” an hour when we crossed into New Mexico but still arrived at the Low Hi RV Ranch about 1:30 local time. We got our spot and parked, then did our set up for our three day stay here. After we got set up we went out for a late lunch/early dinner to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Irma's. We have been to Irma's every time we stop in Deming. Lunch was wonderful. After lunch we checked out a laundromat because we want to do our laundry tomorrow. We also located the fairgrounds because the Southwest New Mexico State Fair starts today and runs through the weekend. We may go on Friday if the weather doesn't get bad. After our touring we went back to the RV park and spent the remainder of the day in the coach.
Thursday, October 3rd, although the weather forecast called for rain today, it was a pretty nice day. Some overcast, but pleasant. We left the park after lunch and went into town to do our laundry. After laundry we did a little shopping, going to a great Mexican food company here in town called Amigos, to buy some of their frozen chili rellenos. We got some the last time we were here and they were great. They keep well in the freezer and are delicious. We also did a Walmart run before heading back to the coach. After we got back we put everything away and spent the evening with the TV. Friday we left the coach after lunch and drove to the fairgrounds here in Deming for the Southwest New Mexico State Fair, which we had 
noticed on our arrival was running through this weekend. We enjoy fairs and try to go to them when we come across them. The fairgrounds were pretty small, so we didn't expect much and our expectations were met. We like looking at the various animals that are being shown, almost always by kids, FAA or 4H, but the selection here was pretty sparse. One building had all the animals and there were only a dozen or two of each, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, rabbits and birds. We spent the biggest part of our time watching the judging where the kids would bring in the animal to be judged. We learned that they were judging the kids on their showmanship even more so than the animals themselves. We watched a “multi showing” event where the same six kids brought in a steer, then a sheep, then a goat and finally a pig. Some of the kids had great control, others not so much. One of the girls looked to be about 12, skinny and she was having problems. It was kind of fun to watch. It only took about ten minutes to go through the one building they had with displays, the arts and crafts, plants, and vendors all together. For being billed a “State Fair” it was very small. Every county fair we have been to was bigger than this “state fair” in New Mexico. After the fair we went back to the RV park and spent the rest of the day and evening in the coach.
Saturday, October 5th, another travel day. We left Deming about 10:00 and headed East and the North to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, about 145 miles. We arrived at the RJ RV park about 12:30 and got checked in. This is a nice little park and with Passport America is only $14 a night with full, 50 amp, hookups. Yea! We will be here for three nights. As we were coming into town we passed the fairgrounds and noticed that the Sierra County Fair was going on. We checked and found that today was the last full day, so we got parked and the basics hooked up, had a quick lunch, and then drove to the fair. Two fairs in two days! Although this was a county fair, it was still bigger than the one in Deming that was billed as a regional State Fair. There were lots of animals to look at in several buildings, and one large building with displays as well as a variety of vendors. We spent about two hours at the fair, then went out and drove through town just to get the lay of the land.We have only been to T or C, as it's known locally, once, after the balloon fiesta in 2010. That was just for one night and we didn't do any exploring or caching. T or C is a city of about 6,000 located in the high desert of central New Mexico. It is about 100 miles north of Las Cruces, the second largest city in New Mexico, and 160 miles south of Albuquerque, the largest city in the state. The town is situated on a series of hills and arroyos along a three mile main street that runs between two exits on Interstate 25. It was founded in 1916 as Hot Springs, but in 1950 the city administration changed the name to Truth or Consequences in response to a contest by the very popular radio quiz show of the same name. The creator and host of the program, Ralph Edwards, advertised that the show would broadcast it's 10th anniversary program from the first city that officially changed it's name. Thus, T or C New Mexico was born. Edwards visited the town every May for 50 years, until his death, during the celebration of the name change which was called “Fiesta” by the city. The tradition of Fiesta continues to this day, celebrated the first week of May every year. There is even a Ralph Edwards park in town. After our little tour we went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the evening.
Sunday, October 6th, I was able to get an Albuquerque paper at the local market, so we had a normal Sunday with the paper and our coffee. After lunch we went out
Tuesday, October 8th, our last full day before Albuquerque. It was also a travel day and we were on the road about 10:30, heading north to an RV park out in the middle of no where about 12 miles north of Socorro, New Mexico. The trip was only about 95 miles, so we got there about 12:30 after a fuel and lunch stop in Socorro. This was a very rustic park, but it is only 70 miles south of the Balloon Fiesta park in the north part of Albuquerque where we will be parked for the Fiesta. It is also about as close as you can get to Albuquerque this time of year without the price going sky high. All the parks in and around Albuquerque triple their rates the first two weeks of October and most require a minimum three day stay. Since we are leaving early in the morning so as to arrive at the park at the appointed time of 10:30, we didn't unhook the car and didn't go anywhere after we got set up.Since tomorrow starts our rally at the Balloon Fiesta, this would be a good time to close this chapter and get it published. Until next time, remember that life is not a fairy tale. If you lose your shoe at midnight, you're probably drunk. See ya soon.
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