Beginning our journey north

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Meeting friends at Salida, CO

My next stop was Salida, CO where I will meet up with John and Linda and caravan up to Baker City, OR for a rally there and then begin our Canada adventure. I had a bit of trouble finding the place John had designated to camp and eventually meet, but a couple of calls to John straightened me out. It is the Arkansas River Recreation Area and runs all along the Arkansas River. Here is my no hook-up site.

I was watching out across the river and spotted this car driving near the railroad tracks. I thought it a bit odd since it’s trunk was open and it had a Dominoes pizza delivery sign on top of it. There was a guy walking along the tracks guiding the way and several people in the trunk dangling their legs out the back just enjoying the ride. Maybe he was delivering pizza to the railroad. HA!

Here is a pic of the sunset that night.

John and Linda meet up

The next day John and Linda came down and they treated me to a great pizza at Amico’s in town. That pizza is soooo delicious.

Then we took off and our destination was a winery at Palisade, CO. We had to go over the Monarch Pass. It was 7 miles going up and 9 miles going down. Very slow going both ways. I took this pic at the summit which was 11,300 feet.

It was pretty smooth sailing once we got over the pass. We stopped at the American Legion Memorial Park in Gunnison, CO for lunch and to let the dogs run. It was a beautiful day.

Final stop

Our last stop of the day was at the St. Kathryn’s Winery in Palisade, CO just outside of Grand Junction. It was a beautiful winery and after the long day some wine tasting was in order. They had some really great wines.

Then we pulled up our chairs and had wine and cheese. Thanks Harvest Host for finding us this great spot to spend the night.

Long day…

It was a long day but it was good. Tuesday we will have even a longer day driving, but then it will be some short days after that. Our goal will be to reach another winery outside of Santaquin, UT.

Love Trader Joe’s and the Apple Store

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Off to the Apple Store…

I entered the Apple Store on my Garmin and it said it was about 16 miles from the Enchanted Trails RV Park. I had scheduled my appointment online for 2:00pm. I got to the store at 1:00pm so I went to the Genius Bar hoping they could take me sooner. No such luck. They are very busy and told me to come back closer to the time I had scheduled.

The Apple Store is located in a very high class shopping area know as Uptown. Lots of very expensive stores. I did find a Starbuck’s and stopped in there for a coffee and “Very Berry” coffee cake. Then I just walked around until my appointment.

The Apple Store is really a very friendly environment. I walked to the back where they checked me in and then they found a seat where I could sit until they could wait on me. They had all my information regarding my speaker problem with the phone. Within a few minutes I was showing another guy my phone and he was writing all the information into an IPad. Stuff like what I had done to see if the speaker would work, etc.

He took my phone and said they would check it out in the back and replace the speaker if needed. He mentioned it could take about 25 minutes. Within 10 minutes he was back with my phone and demonstrated that the speaker now worked. GREAT!! I can now hear when someone is calling me. That is what a phone is for, isn’t it?

They were very professional and when I asked if there was any charge he said absolutely nothing.

Trader Joe’s in the same shopping center….

I walked out to my car and happened to notice a Trader Joe’s on the other side of the parking lot. I haven’t shopped at a Trader Joe’s for a long time and had to go.

I usually buy my groceries from a list that I create on my IPhone. Whenever I think of something I immediately write it down. I usually don’t buy anything else unless it is on the list. It usually keeps me from overspending.

However I only had a couple items on my list when I entered Trader Joe’s, but went ahead and shopped the entire store and bought my items that weren’t on my list. I love eating seafood and if you check out the seafood in Walmart it is rather bleak. Most times I usually buy any seafood from a good grocery store instead.

However, I did see some great seafood items at Trader Joe’s that I just had to have. That and a packet of sushi that I used to enjoy many years ago. I had the sushi for dinner that night. YUM! YUM!

I also bought my favorite Italian Roast coffee. I used to drink this coffee for many years before fulltiming.

Very windy…

The rest of the day was very uneventful. I was glad to get home after shopping as the wind was blowing very hard. New Mexico winds can get rather gusty at times.

Billy as in Billy Goat…

When Jim and I went 4 wheeling in Rockhound State Park he suggested a name for my Suzuki Samurai. He said it was just like a Billy goat since it could go just about anywhere. So Billy it is!

My Lazy Daze “The Breeze” as in the song by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Billy. That sounds cool. They make a great pair.

Will leave here on Saturday…

Saturday we will be heading north. I didn’t want to travel on Friday because Amazon will be calling for my interview. I missed the last time they called because my IPhone speaker wasn’t working and didn’t even here the call. So they rescheduled it and I really need to get it right today.

I am leaving in the morning and found a Harvest Host winery that I can stay at for the night just north of Albuquerque. Harvest Host offers many great places to stay like wineries, farms, and orchards and it doesn’t cost anything. These places are located in every state even Canada and Mexico. They don’t have hookups but with solar panels who cares anyway. Besides I need to try a different wine for a change.

Visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Guard the rig Chica!

I left Chica in charge of guarding the rig while I made a visit to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. It is only 26 miles from our campsite, but it was all mountain driving. I stopped along the way at an overlook and took the following pics. The area is really beautiful.

I stopped at the Visitor’s Center before heading up to the cave dwellings. I always like to get the history of the area first and see the many displays they have. They had a show film on the history which is a must see. The Visitor Center is rather small but very nice. I took a couple of pics of their displays.

Then off to see the cave dwellings.

The Gila Cave Dwellings were free to those like me that have the Geezer card (America The Beautiful Senior Pass). That card sure has saved me a lot of money!

You cross a bridge over the Gila River and head up a canyon that leads to the caves. You will cross many of these small bridges as you continue to go up in elevation. Then you reach a rather steep spot, but it is still easy going and then you reach the caves.

There is an easy path to follow from cave to cave. Some of the smaller caves were probably used by a family. There are also rangers at the caves that can answer any questions you might have.

There are also steps you must climb and ladders to descend to move from cave to cave.

It is really interesting to see the many rooms the Mongollon Indians who inhabited these caves built. The rangers pointed out many of the rooms used for storage and living.

This is the view looking out to the other side of the canyon from a couple of caves.

The entire tour of the cave is about a mile. It wasn’t difficult at all except for carrying the camera. There were only a few people on the tour so I pretty much had the place to myself.

Beautiful Mountains…

I stopped at this place on my return and took a couple more pics of the mountains. I bet it would really be neat to travel through these mountains on a horse. I did see several corrals while traveling through here.

Chica did a good job.

Chica was really glad to see me. I think she mostly sleeps while I am gone, but who knows. She was a very happy girl. We went for a walk and I told her all about the cave dwellings, but all she wanted to know was where was her dinner.

Camped at Walmart in Silver City

I am camped for the night in the Walmart parking lot in Silver City, NM. I was thinking of traveling the 130+ miles to Rockhound State Park, but we had already traveled down the mountain which took over an hour of very winding roads. That plus the wind was really blowing so we decided to hunker down in Silver City instead.

Early start tomorrow…

I hope to get an early for me (HA!) start tomorrow and head south. I just hope there isn’t too much wind.

Gila National Forest

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Boondocking in the Gila NF

I left Deming and headed north to Silver City. I have never been there so wanted to see what it was all about. My trusty co-pilot Chica decided she wanted to do the driving for a change.

I decided that this time I was not going to let Chica lie in her bed unprotected while I drove, but put her in her carrier instead. You would think I was killing her the way she screamed. She yelled at me most of the way to Silver city although there were some times that she must have realized that I wasn’t going to give in and decided to sleep instead.

I stopped at the Gila National Forest Ranger Station and inquired as to where we could camp. They suggested a few campsites about an hour from Silver City in the mountains. That sounded good to me so I headed up there past Mimbres, NM and pulled into the Sapillo Campground. It was all primitive sites but there were outhouses and water available.

I found a nice site and we stayed there for the night. It is a beautiful area among the Ponderosa pines.

A trip to Roosevelt Lake

The next morning I decided to check out some of the other campgrounds close to here. I unhooked the Sami and headed off. I didn’t take Chica because I new I wasn’t going to be gone too long. It was only about 3 miles to the Mesa Campground where they had electric/water sites. The place was packed and it was not the place I wanted to spend the next couple of days. Plus it is not on the lake so that was out. The second campground was called Land End. It was nice but the remaining few campsites were not very level. So I guess we will stay where we originally stopped. Besides the price was right and the campsites were very far apart with lots of Ponderosas everywhere.

Before heading back I turned into the boat launch area at Lake Roosevelt. There were quite a few fishing boats on the lake and several people fishing from the shore.

On the return trip I stopped and took a couple pics of the beautiful rock formations. They were really magnificent.

Moved rig to a more level spot…

Upon return I decided to move the rig to a more level campsite. Chica and I went for a good walk in trying to locate a better site. We finally found a nice spot and moved everything over to it. It is a nice spot and close to a trailhead where we plan on hiking.

No Internet or cell phone service

The park ranger in Silver City had told us that there was no Internet or cell phone usage where we were going. I even turned on my wifi booster but still couldn’t get any connection. Thursday night I got out my Kindle Fire and did some reading. It is really quiet out hear at night. During the day there is a group with some ATV’s but they do not really bother us.

Friday night I decided to hookup my Satellite TV and see if I could get any reception. I am in a small clearing and it is surrounded by tall Ponderosa pines so I didn’t think there was too much chance I could get any reception. But it was amazing that I was able to get a lot of channels. I couldn’t get all the channels and some of them were not HD but I could watch a movie at night. By the way I do not have the dish on the ladder as I normally would. I do not want to travel with it up there and even though it is rather lightweight it is very awkward going up the ladder holding that as well. So I laid it on the ground.

Since I don’t have Internet I am writing this post and will upload it when I move.

Staying for a few days…

I will be staying here until Monday and then maybe head over to see Old Town Silver City. Then I am going south to Rockhound State Park where I will meet up with Jim and Gayle of Life’s Little Adventures. I plan on spending a few days down there before making my way to Elephant Butte State Park outside of Truth or Consequences, NM.

Below is a view taken on a short hike from our campsite.

Chica loves to go on hikes and is very curious about all her surroundings. I would love to let her go off leash, but am concerned about any other dogs or other animals, even hawks overhead, that might look at her as if she was their lunch.

Life is good!

I am camped in a beautiful location with my “best bud” Chica. The weather is perfect and we have enjoyed many short hikes around the campground. Then when I am kicking back I can enjoy reading a good bock with Rascal Flatts or even Mark Koepler playing in the background. I was also able to watch the Masters Golf Tournament. It just doesn’t get much better then that.

A visit from my son

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Jim Melvin

My son stops in for a couple of days…

My son Curt is traveling from California to Texas and stopped in to see me for a couple of days. We went out to dinner at Gordon Biersch Brewery in downtown Tempe. It is a great restaurant overlooking Mill Street.

We also walked around the Mill Street?University Drive area. It was a great place and lots of people out.

Off to see the MIM again…

He hadn’t seen The MIM (Musical Instrument Museum) so I suggested we go there on Tuesday. We spent most of the day walking around this fabulous museum. They have an “Experience Gallery” where you can experience playing the many instruments they have on display. Or should I say trying to play them. HA!! It was a lot of fun. Here are several pics from the Experience Gallery.

While there I found several things that I had not noticed in my prior visit.The first was instruments made out of cans.

Bamboo

and even a brake cylinder. It is amazing the different instruments that people use to make music.

I can’t imagine paying $27.45 for this organ, but back in 1902 that was probably a fortune.

Gourmet meals in the MIM cafeteria…

After touring the museum we were hungry so stopped in their cafeteria for lunch. What a pleasant surprise. The lunch was all gourmet meals. I couldn’t believe it. Someone had commented on my previous post about the delicious meals so I just had to see for myself. What a pleasant surprise. Of course I had to have a Monkey Shine ale to wash it down!

Here is a pic taken in the courtyard of The MIM. This statue moved ever so slightly that you could not even tell if you were looking at it.

Chica pic

Curt also had a good time with Chica and she enjoyed his company.

Rangers game and then off to Texas

Curt is a Texas Ranger fan and went to the game on Wednesday. Then it was off to Texas. It was fun getting together and I really enjoyed seeing him.

Finally meet my soul mate!!!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Working the Angels Spring Training Games

I am still working the Angels Spring Training games in Tempe. It has been fun and I am meeting a lot of fun people. I usually work 3-4 games per week. I am not making a lot of money, but it pays the expenses.

Weather has been beautiful…

You really can’t beat the beautiful Arizona weather. The days have been in the high 70’s with a slight breeze at times. However it will be changing shortly as they expect the temps to dip into the low 60’s tomorrow with a possibility of rain. There is a game scheduled and hope we don’t get rained out. After a couple days in the 60’s it is predicted to go back into the 70’s with more great weather.

Found my soul mate!

After many years of searching I finally found my soul mate. I wasn’t even looking for her. She just happened to run into me. I was talking to my sister on the phone and just happened to look out and see her. I went outside to meet her and we both knew we were made for each other. Here is a neat pic of her.

She was very hungry and had crusty eyes. She came into my rig and made herself at home. I have been looking for anyone that may have lost here, but without any success. I checked with the office and they did not know who her owner was. However she did say that there have been many little Chihuahuas running wild in the area.

I checked Craig’s List and the SPCA here in Mesa without any luck. I have had her over 2 weeks so decided if nobody claimed her that she and I would make a nice pair. HA!!

Potty training

Although I don’t think she is a puppy I have still had to housebreak her. It was not very easy at first and there were a lot of accidents. It was probably mostly my fault as I didn’t let her out often enough.

We have finally gotten into the swing of things as far as potty breaks go and she is much improved. She still doesn’t bark to let me know when to take her out or even go to the door. But when I see her sniffing around I know it is time.

Vet day…

Since I haven’t heard from anyone who may have been her owner, I decided to take her to the vet and have her scanned to see if she had a microchip implanted that would tell me who owned her. They scanned her and came up with nothing. I decided at this time that she and I would be soul mates for life so I had her checked out by the vet who gave her two shots (which she did not like at all). They also implanted a microchip and trimmed her nails (which she also hated). A couple of her nails where almost ingrown and it looked like they hadn’t been trimmed in a long time. Here is a pic of her at the vet.

I have named her Chica (which means little girl). It was a great name that my sister suggested. We are both happy with each other and she hates when I leave to go to the ball park for the games. She is very excited when I get home. She is really a lot of fun and a very happy girl!

Back from a California visit

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Jim Melvin

To California and Back

It has been a while since I last posted and I apologize for that. I spent the last 11 days visiting family in Southern California. I hadn’t even planned on driving there but I had to sign in at the Elks Lodge in Oceanside where I transfered my membership. The Elks that I originally joined was in Benson, AZ but they were closing that lodge due to lack of new members.

I was also able to visit my mom several times and went out to lunch with my sisters on Valentines Day. I even got in a round of golf on the last day I was there. It will probably be a while before I get back there again so it was really a great visit.

By the way I drove my new (to me) Sammy (Suzuki Samurai) over there and back. It was almost 400 miles one way. Although I don’t intend to drive it that far again it handled beautiful.

Dish Network up and running

Yesterday my friend Phil came over to see where I had been. Hopefully I will be working for either he or Sindy at the ballpark when the Spring Training games start on Saturday. He helped me lift my Satellite dish on the roof where I was able to attach it to the bracket. I tried doing this myself, but it was just too awkward.

I hooked everything up and it found the satellite very quickly and I had TV.

Employee Orientation and then first ballgame

I have an employee orientation tomorrow where I find out all the details about my job such as where I will be working and what I will be doing. Then the first game is Saturday with the Angels playing the Cubs. I am really looking forward to it.

Dropped by the stadium where I will be working

I decided after lunch to drop by the Tempe Diablo Stadium and see if I could get some pics. I was hoping they would be practicing at the stadium but the players had closed practices in the other fields in the area of the stadium. I managed to get a few pics of the stadium as well as a couple players.

There were a lot of photographers taking many pics of Mike Trout.

While CJ Wilson was busy signing autographs.

This was a banner on the road to the stadium.

I was hoping to see some batting practice but will have to wait until a later time.

Great Breakfast!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Jim Melvin

On the way to the Super Bowl!

Yesterday for the second year in a row we saw the Metlife Blimp on it’s way to the Super Bowl. It is headed to New Orleans, LA and it was moving fairly fast. I just had time to run inside and grab my camera and snap this pic before it disappeared out of site.

Another super campfire and sunset.

We also had a fun “Happy Hour” as usual and a chatted around the campfire.

Plus we were treated to another magnificent sunset. What more could you ask for.

Arose early for a breakfast get-together.

Linda suggested that we all get together for a 9:00am breakfast get-together. Everyone brought a dish and we all were treated to a very filling and very good breakfast to start off the morning.

Up early to catch the sunrise.

I am not one to get out of bed early in the morning, but since I volunteered to furnish the potatoes for the breakfast, I set my alarm to make sure I didn’t sleep in. It was nice to awaken to a beautiful sunrise.

The big tent is nearly empty…

After breakfast we walked down to the big tent which was nearly empty. There were still a few vendors in the center of the tent, but they were getting the rest of the tent ready for the car show. We strolled through it and then walked across the street, but many of the vendors there were either gone or were starting to pack up.

Some of the tool vendors were there and probably will be here for some time. I liked this sign at KB Tools.

A lot of the campers have also gone. We still have 10 rigs here in our group but most of us will be gone by Sunday. I will probably leave Sunday as well and head to my next destination in Mesa about 135 miles from here east of Phoenix.

Here is a view down “Old Yuma Road” on our way back from the tent.

Rain and more rain

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Lots of clouds

The rain clouds have moved in and we had 50% prediction that it would rain. Here are a few pics before the rain started on Friday.

The rain started on Friday night right after our “Happy Hour”. Everyone was driven inside for the night. It rained all Friday night and even into Saturday. We were going to have a Hot Dog dinner but that was put off until Sunday.

Cleaning the desert…

The rain is Nature’s way of cleaning the desert. The air is really fresh and it really keeps the dust down. This is how it looked out the window of my rig most of the day.

Then the rain stopped and although the clouds were still there everyone slowly migrated towards the campfire Mike had started.

Mountains covered in clouds…

Then we were all treated to a beautiful sunset. There were still lots of clouds, but the rain was moving east. The clouds left us with a beautiful sunset. We didn’t have “Happy Hour” and postponed the hot dogs until Sunday, but everyone hung out by the fire swapping stories.

I got out my telephoto lens for this shot of the clouds over the mountains.

A beautiful sunset…

Then we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

RV Show ends tomorrow…

The RV Show ends tomorrow. I am sure there may be some great bargains but I have bought everything I need at this point. The sun is out and it is a beautiful day in the desert.

Thar’s gold in them thar hills!!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Jim Melvin

Hiking in the desert…

Jeanne of On the Road with Riley fame, Chris and I planned last night to go on a hike in the morning. I mentioned there was a old gold mine close by so that was our destination. It was a nice hike thru some washs and Riley was able to go off leash and wander among all the great scents.

When we got to the top of the hill we were met by a couple who had driven up in their 4X4 truck. It was a great view of the entire valley. Here are a couple of pics of our encampment at Roger’s 1/2 Acre.

Here is a shot of the valley floor with all the white RV’s everywhere.

An old gold mine…

The gold mine was in very poor shape and rotting away. I am sure it was some time ago when it was last used. It would have been exciting to see in it’s better days when miners where using it to extract gold.

Here is a pic of Jeanne, Chris and Riley at the top of the mine.

More views of the mine.

It was a great hike and good for the old legs.

Drove to the Walmart at Parker…

I needed to pick up a trailer hitch and some groceries at Walmart. Jeanne went along to pick up some groceries as well. It was the first time I had the Suzuki on the open road for any length of time and it drove quite well.

Rain clouds moving in all day…

We had lots of clouds all day long and it was raining further west. We all got together for “Happy Hour” and soon after the rain started to come down. We all headed into our rigs and then it started to rain a lot. It was rather soothing listening to the raindrops on the roof of my rig. It is supposed to rain tomorrow again, so probably not too much outdoor activity will be going on. It will be a good day to just stay inside and read or catch up on the Internet.