Whole Lotta Nothin' in Casa Grande

So, Casa Grande, AZ was a bit desolate, to say the least. The SKP park was about 10 miles outside of the main "town".  It was situated surrounded by miles of flat desert which was nice to let the dogs run free.  Woody, the chihuahua almost got left there after he took off after one of the owls which appeared to nest in the ground.

The dogs living the motto, "All that roam are not necessarily lost!"

We did get a chance to have a nice visit with cousin Linda and Roy in Queen Creek. Got caught up on family doin's and whatnot. We met them for lunch at a Cheesecake factory in the Chandler mall.  That is one large mall! 

My quest continued while in Casa Grande for the screw-on extension rod/handle for my black tank valve which I had previously broken off and have been using needle-nose pliers to empty my black tank. I was a bit surprised when I went to a place called the RV Store.  It was a small parts store but when I asked the clerk there if they had any such screw-on rods, he said no and that they could not even get replacement rods from the factory any more.  I also inquired about the "T" rubber weather-type stripping for the top and bottom of my shower door and he gave me the same answer. Well, that don't work with me.  I remembered an RV parts/sales place in Mesa (Adobe RV Sales) from a year ago where I had bought just such a piece of weather stripping.  We returned there and voila! Screw-on extension rods by the truck load (slight exaggeration on my part). Unfortunately they were out of shower door stripping. But any time you happen to be in the Phoenix area and are in need of RV parts or assistance, I highly recommend Adobe RV Sales in Mesa.  Their staff is extremely friendly and helpful. 

When we were told by some folks that "boondocking" was exciting, boy, were they right!

Our next adventure took us to another SKP coop park in Yuma, AZ, the KofA Ko-op. This park was a bit nicer as far as SKP's go, they actually had a pool! Lots of activities here as well, shuffleboard, horseshoes, and many planned activities like bingo and a Friday night "Taco Night" where we caravanned down the road to a private ranch. It was quite "rustic" so to speak, kinda a quonset hut shaped frame covered in fabric and partly under camouflage netting, dirt floor, wooden tables, and is a legit business called "El Rancho Tacos".  The food was touted as authentic Mexican, and it certainly was.  The Cowboy taco and the shrimp tacos were TASTY!

Our home in Yuma, AZ

The chef, hard at work in the "kitchen" at El Rancho Tacos. Come on, camo netting?!?

The dining room for El Rancho Tacos.

We had read in several blogs and heard from the locals here that Los Algodones, Mexico was THE place to go for medications, dental work, and eye glasses and exams. It was only about 20 minutes from our location, so we decided to go check it out.  We parked in the LARGE parking lot at the border run by the Indian tribe on whose reservation we were located, then walked on across the border.  It was a simple walk across, no lines to stand in, no customs to go through. Once in country, we immediately locate Liqui's Purple Pharmacy, the one pharmacy that had been recommended to us.  Wow, the prices were ridiculous! We loaded up on several prescription medications (here, no prescription required). My generic Protonix cost a whopping $15 for 60 ct. 40 mg tabs, about $0.25 per pill. We got some generic Zantac, 100 tabs for $3.  Wow!  Los Algodones is a small area jam packed with pharmacies, wall to wall dental services, wall to wall eye glasses and optometrists, and the usual vendors "ankle-to-elbow".  We walked around town for a bit fighting off the hawkers (another exaggeration on my part - the vendors were actually very well behaved and did not hound us all the way down the street).  The place reminded me of Disneyland, jam packed with American tourists (most of them elderly). We had heard that we needed to get out of town fairly early, the exit lines can be a Disneyland-ish 3 hours long in the afternoons. So we heeded that advice and scooted by 11:00 am.  It was an interesting morning and I highly recommend anyone staying even remotely close to Yuma for any period of time to hit Los Algodones for their meds, dental work, or optometry work. The folks we have talked to that have utilized the dental and optical services in Los Algodones swear by them. One woman had some (16) individual teeth capped (white caps) and she said her caps ran about $380 each.

Yes, the building is REALLY painted purple!

Especiales de día.

A shot of downtown Los Algodones...

Let's hope a $3 haircut doesn't LOOK like a $3 haircut!

Looking down the sidwalk of one of the main streets.

Lots o' dental and optical...

Before leaving Yuma, we just HAD to rent an ATV and hit the desert.  Jeanne had never been on one before and I quickly discovered that she is DEADLY behind the wheel! "No Dear, just kidding..." We found a stretch of desert just on the east side of town off Fortuna Rd. that turned out to be perfect for Jeanne the Newbie, lots of flat land and lots of hills and valleys. We had a blast, but then I got to drive (it was a two seater UTV Yamaha Rhino).  I made Jeanne a tad bit car sick when I got carried away with the donuts and abrupt turns through the hills and around the flats. We had FUN! You would be amazed at how fried you can get in the desert in just 3 lowly hours of ATV-ing.

Jeanne's new nick-name is Helen Wheels. Get it? Hell On Wheels?

Such an intense STARE!

C'mon, BOTH hands on the wheel!

Well, it is time to move on eastward bound. Until next stop...

We're off, again!

With Pop stabilized, we headed back out on the road again.  Our visit to California would not be complete without a stop in to check on our son and daughter-in-law, Chad and Crissy, at San Luis Obispo.  We stayed at the El Chorro county park again and spent the weekend visiting.   We had a very nice time, taking a walk out of Avila Beach in some actual SUNSHINE.  Chad and Crissy then took us for dinner to Schooner's, a small beachfront restaurant out in Cayucos.  It was great food at a nice, oceanside location.

Next day we set out on foot downtown SLO and cruised all the shops and sights. We also took in the historical San Luis Obispo Mission in downtown.

Oh, wow. Standing on church grounds and no lightning strikes! I must be living right....

And while in SLO, Chad of course had to get his Madison "fix".

Must be some kinda eerie connection between the two, don't you think? It's something in the eyes...

From there it was onward ho.  Our next "Griswold Family Vacation" travel day started out appropriately. As I loaded things up, taking boxes out of the storage area I managed to snap off the aluminum arm to the black tank valve handle. Great. "@%#$&*!!!" Thankfully, I was still able to empty the black tank using a pair of needle nose pliers. So we headed toward our preferred destination - Lake Mead and the federal campground there.  Upon arrival, in the just-turned-nighttime hours, we were greeted with the "Campground Full" sign across the driveway, on a weekday no less! "@%#$&*!!!" It was rather fortuitous that we found the Railroad Pass Casino nearby, which allows 3 nights of overnight parking for RV's (no connections).  So now the plans changed...again.  For some reason I guess we are not supposed to be at Lake Mead right now.  So we headed into Congress, AZ and stayed at the SKP/Rainbow Park for a while. Not somewhere I would say is a "must see" area, but at $95/week it was a good stopover spot.  The park had full hooks and was good, gravel spaces.  They had a manicured desert garden area that was nice to walk through and the weather was mild (finally!)  

"Cacti..." 

"Cacti..."

"And more cacti!"

"I am communing with Nature. I am one with my cacti brethren!"

Our home in Congress, AZ. Note the BLUE skies...

We have now decided to not try and plan too far ahead and just "leap frog" our way across the country.  You just never know where it is you want to head to on any given day and our new motto is "Plans Change".  We might have to have a sign made with that motto on it.  Anyway, our next stop was...stay tuned.