Week 595 - 2018 Tour Begins - 01-07-2018

2018 Tour Begins

Where are we headed in 2018? If you know, let us know!

When we started traveling in 2006 our income was from creating and supporting accounting software. That required Pete to be available from 8 to 5, Monday to Friday, to support our clients. It was great for a decade, but then we realized it got in the way of our travels. For example, in 2008 we discovered that Oklahoma had more man-made lakes than any other state. The state has two natural lakes: Oxbox and Playa. It has over 200 man-made lakes, mostly on the Arkansas River which flows from Colorado to Arkanas before joining the Mississippi River. We stayed at Copan Lake and the Great Salt Plains Lake. Both are gorgeous, but we could only stay on the weekend as there was zero cell reception in 2008.

Something had to give. Stop traveling or give up the 40 hours of support. Duh! Goodbye accounting, hello web design. Now our entire business focus is on RV web development, see MattsonExpress

Now we head to RV parks that need our web services. First stop will be the 2018 Western MotorHome rally in Indio, California. We will present two seminars: 1) Full Time Wannabes and 2) Vehicle Maintenance and Personal Scheduling.

This week took us from Benson, Arizona to Indio, California with a stop over in Casa Grande and Yuma, Arizona. One of the things we love to do is find inexpensive places to camp. We are not looking for bargain-basement sites like Slab City. Slab City is the former Dunlap Marine Base in Niland, California. Abandoned after WWII, it consists only of the remaining concrete slabs. A large number of RVers winter here for free.

We belong to many RV clubs of which Escapees is one of our favorites. In Benson, Arizona is SKP Saquaro Co-op. Most of the 344 sites are occupied by owners. We rented a site for a week for just $63.00. This is a special price to introduce you to the park. The normal Escapee price is only $20/day plus electricity.

1) The sites are huge and 2) the owner's RVs are a cut above Slab City.

Pete's sister Donnalee and friend Don joined us for a few days. We enjoyed playing cards with Donnalee and bocce ball for all.

A side trip to Triangle-T Ranch was fun. It was the film location for the original 1957 movie 3:10 to Yuma. The ranch has many unique rock formations including the one the saloon is built around.

From Benson we spent one night at beautiful Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort. The single night was the cost of a full week at Benson. Okay, they have golf, 32 pickleball courts, wood shop, computer lab, three pools, three spas, four dog parks, a softball field, bistro, lawn bowling, shuffleboard, blah, blah, blah. But do they have bocce ball?

Our last stop before Indio was in Yuma at Westwind RV & Golf. We first visited this park with Ben and Sid in 2007. Then we helped them spend all their money on a new motorhome. This time we just played pickleball which is new to the park in the last few years. The pickleball group was a fun bunch and we think there was even one player not from Canada!

Now were are off the Indio for the rally. See you next week.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Jan 2018