Well woke up this morning at the Pilot truck stop where we parked yesterday, so I’m thinking that’s a good thing…as with any truck stop it was not a quiet night but it was not as bad as I had expected. We have not stopped at a lot of truck stops this trip we have chosen quieter options like Cracker Barrel restaurants or Cabelas the outdoor store chain although the big trucks are finding their way to those spots as well. A lot of the Walmart’s are about the same as truck stops anymore, just not as well organized. With truck drivers being tracked on electronic trip logs, they do not have the ability to cheat an hour or so here and there. They are mandated to stop after so many hours on the road and must be shut down for by a set time and must be off the road for a set time period, add to that situation the fact a lot of States are closing their rest areas, truck stops are getting busier, and I hate to take a spot that a professional driver may need.

Yesterday for us was an odd day, I came down with a migraine shortly after getting on the road, I don’t get them as often as I used to, and while they do not cause me pain any more, they do effect my vision, as if I have a smudge on my glasses, I just get this blurry spot in my vision that while not severe, make driving a little difficult. A couple of Advil and twenty minutes later, and all is good, but it just put us behind enough yesterday that we decided not to get the coach washed till the next day or we would have most likely tucked into a Cracker Barrel just up the road, with most Cracker Barrels we have to unhook as the RV spots were designed more for busses than RVs so they are about 40 to 45’ in length, which keeps most of the big highway trucks out. The other advantage to a Cracker Barrel is a good feed of biscuits and gravy for breakfast the next morning…

Thunder’s spa day went well, got a good wash, got the rims cleaned, all hand dried, and some tire dressing…so looking almost new…lol. And although the truck wash was busy this morning we still made it to the resort just after check in time. Miss Laurie had went ahead and got us registered and when I pulled in a park guide led me into our site, it’s a big park with well over a thousand sites, so a big enough park that you don’t want people with forty foot coaches just driving around looking for a site on there own. Our site backs onto an open area that will be developed into more sites in the near future, we are tucked into a site with a park model on our left and a big fifth wheel out of Tennessee on our right, in fact the guy from Tennessee come over almost immediately to ask me to keep the noise down…that’s when I recognized him as we had spent some time in Florida with him last winter, yes it was Ray and Karen with Trapper their puppy.

This came as a surprise to me as I knew nothing about this little get together, no – no this was all Miss Laurie’s doing, apparently this was planned some time ago. So as I continue to get hooked up, I hear another motor home coming in, I didn’t get a chance to look up to see which site they we going into until as I’m at the back of the coach turning on the water supply I see it is backing in on the other side of Ray and Karen, and then I see it is Bob and Shari! Now we have not seen Bob and Shari since early April when we left Florida, so they were even a surprise to Ray as he didn’t know they we going to be here, apparently this whole little get together was planned by the ladies and it should make for a great week, Miss Karen prepared a great dinner for the whole crew and we had a great afternoon catching up…I think it’s going to be a busy week…just saying.

Day 781

Saturday morning and it is a moving day, I packed most things yesterday afternoon, this morning I just have to lay the solar panels down, and secure the stepladder to the coach and we should be good to head out of Craggy wash. Now you have to understand all BLM areas are what is referred to as dispersed camping, so there are basically no rules as to where you can and cannot camp. Most people have enough sense not to park in the middle of high travelled areas but not every one so this mornings exit will be a little tight because of an over abundance of stupid people gathered in my immediate area, two vans parked directly behind me and some fool in an old ambulance parked almost in the middle of our exit point. Now you all know my tolerance level for stupid is very low, so we will see how it goes.

Our schedule is not tight today, and while we have about a four hour driving day, it is not a difficult day, our reservation is not until tomorrow so after a spa day for Thunder, we will most likely just hunker down in a truck stop for the night, there is a Loves near the wash.

Well we are hunkered down at a Pilot truck stop, we have not unhooked the towed and been to the truck wash yet, we will do that in the morning, it is four o’clock and we did not get a real early start. The mile drive out of Craggy wash was very slow as the route has a lot of ruts and boulder since the water ran down it the other night. Miss Laurie picked up a few things at the blue sine store as she waited for Thunder and I to make it to the back of the store to hookup. It’s a pretty drive down US-95 through the valley to Parker, and not so pretty into Quartzsite, a lot of the stores are not even open yet, I suspect many will open on December 1st as this sleepy little desert town grows from a population of less than 900 to 50,000 by the end of January.

So the plan for tomorrow is a late start, unhook, Thunder gets scrubbed, and then we make our way to the Resort for noon. Well that’s the plan at least, we will see how it happens. Phoenix is a very busy metropolis with multiple smaller towns creating the area known as Phoenix valley. We are heading to El Mirage it is a little north and west of Phoenix proper, it’s a small resort a quick look, I’m thinking 1600+ sites, but most of the reviews are good and it is part of the Roberts Resorts Group…not our usual type but Mr. Ray sent us a coupon, so what the heck we had a week to kill and it had a golf course and pickle ball courts…just saying 👍

Day 781