Week 551 - From Old to Cold - 03-05-2017

From Old to Cold

Five weeks after Ellen's knee repair we will finally be leaving Arizona. Did the repair work? The jury is still out; please continue to pray. Nonetheless we are heading north leaving our mature friends behind. We will meet with Dr. Hedley once more and hope that he has good news for Ellen.

We have chosen our path from Casa Grande to Butte Valley, California. We always try to pick new roads on every trip. Half of this path will be new to us and may yield some nice photos and points of interest; we'll see. Google maps states that this 1,013 mile trip would take 16 hours and 54 minutes in a car. We'll be in the MotherShip and we follow Craig's 2-2-2 rule. Don't travel more than 200 miles in one day, always get to your destination by 2 o'clock PM and always stay at least two days. This means the trip will take 10 days.

Here is our estimate about how the trip will happen. We show the trip starting from Dr. Hedley's office in Phoenix. On Monday and Tuesday we will leave Casa Grande and get some RV service in Mesa, Arizona. The doctor appointment is on Wednesday.

Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort is our number one park in North America. The sites are huge, the landscaping beautiful, the facilities are expansive and there are 32 pickleball courts with over 800 club players. Ellen could not play in this year's Duel in the Desert PB tournament. Pete partnered with Dennis who is absolutely delightful to play. But with 624 players in the tournament, the competition was tough. They were out in two matches, leaving plenty of time for Pete to referee.

Our first stop will be at cousin Bob and Barb's in Avondale. We'll say hi, pick a boatload of grapefruit and head to Quartzsite, Arizona. In late January there is an RV show, which we attended in 2007. Several hundred thousand RVers come during the month. We are stopping by to visit Discount Solar. We received a good recommendation to them for solar systems and batteries. We'll get some info for a future purchase.

Our first overnight will be in Lake Havasu City. We will try to stay at the Elks, which will be the 102th Elks lodge that we have stayed at. Depending on the weather, we should stay two days, according to Craig.

Next stop will be Laughlin, Nevada or Bullhead City, Arizona which is just across the Colorado River. We are planning two days there. However, the drive from Havasu was short and perhaps we'll just stay one night.

Death Valley can be beautiful. The best time to visit is during a "Superbloom". If the rains are heavy in October and November, then the wild flowers are plentiful in the spring. You know we had a huge amount of rain this year. However, it was in January and February. The prediction is NOT for a superbloom as the flowers will try to poke their heads up but the hot sun will burn them out quickly. We'll see!

The remote areas of Neveda do not offer much for RV travelers. We have seen the website for Whiskey Flats RV Park and hope that it will be decent. We have 402 RV parks on BigRigBible.com. We show "real" pictures of the park and link to their website to see "what they think it looks like". If it is a decent park, we'll offer our web design services as the site is old and outdated. We predict a one-night stay.

Our last stop before reaching Chad and Emily's house will be Reno, Nevada. We have stayed twice in that area. Once at Bordertown RV Resort and the other time at Sparks Marina RV Park. Both were very nice. Bordertown is north of Reno in a remote area. Sparks Marina is very close to some major shopping. We will try to visit our decades-long friend and computer client Bill. We will probably stay one night, but more depending on Bill.

At the end of our 1,013 mile trip we will arrive at Emily & Chad's house. This 2013 photo shows Chad, Emily, Zebulun Lloyd and Micah Mazie. The family today has been expanded with Coralyn and Hannie.

Check out the weather at each leg of our trip. The temperatures shown are from today, March 5th at 3:30pm. As we travel, each day may get warmer. But as of now, there is snow in Reno. So why would snowbirds like us make this trip? In 2011 we missed Micah's birth as we were in Maui, Hawaii. We are never in Northern California in March. Recently Micah Mazie told Grandma Ellen that she was going to spend her next birthday in Grandma's house (the MotherShip). As Emily is teaching, they could not come to us.

So off we go from Old to Cold. Call us Sunbirds or Crazie for Mazie. We are hoping to make Micah's day special. In the next two weeks we report on how this trip actually occurred.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Mar 2017