Travelogue -- 2005

We sold our property in Mexico at the end of 2004. We now have more time to to enjoy our Montana Big Sky. We started the year with a trip to Parker AZ in January. Then we went to El Golfo in Mexico, Yuma Lakes in AZ and to Puerto Penasco in Mexico before heading out on our summer travel.

Once again, our summer plan is to cross country through Albuquerque to Kentucky to visit Vikki's brother Gary and Gloria. Then up to Michigan for most of the six weeks or so. Then we plan to cross the country again through Wisconsin and New Mexico arriving in California by early July for a wedding and more exploring in Northern California. We plan to be back home in Phoenix about 1 September. Beyond that, we are planning to attend the Montana Owners.com rally in Reno in October.

You will find this travelogue presented here in sort of a reverse chronological order. That is, the subject on top of the pile is the most recent. You can get back to the activities page by clicking on the following logo




29 August thru 2 September 2005	We left Windsor (Santa Rosa) and headed out thru Oakland and down I-5. We are discussing how far to go but the "get home itch" has gotten to me. We climbed through the Tejan Pass on I-5 at 45 miles per hour and shut the airconditioner down just in case. We stopped at Valencia for the night. The park is almost on top of "Six Flags" but, we don't feel a need to attend. We left the rig hooked up for the night. On Tuesday, we rolled through the north side of the LA Basin and hit Banning Pass by noon. The GPS said we can make it to Glendale (home) by 6 pm. Diesel hit 3.40 per gallon in Pasadena but, it was down to 2.92 when we got to the AZ border. Little did we know, that will be the cheapest we see for awhile. Coming into AZ, we weighed the total rig and concluded it is best if we go on a weight reduction program. We need to drop about 1000 pounds. Could be a challenge. It took us 3 days to unload the trailer and get it into storage. Then, the weekend rolled in with Katrina hitting New Oreans and the Gulf Coast. How lucky we are to be where we are.
22 August thru 29 August 2005	We left Cloverdale and moved to a campground in Windsor California. This is a lot closer to Santa Rosa and better suited to our contact with Erin, Mike and kids. This campground is adjacent to a water park as well so there are activities for the kids when they come to visit. We did the usual things here, going to the farmers market and Wednesday Evening downtown Market. The big hit this week was Rosie's birthday party at the skating rink. The kids enjoyed a lot of skating followed by cake, presents and more skating. It sounded like Erin may have used some muscles that were a little tired from lack of recent exercise. Our last day included a visit to the Bodega Seafood and art festival. This was not the highlight of our summer excursions. Turns ou Rosie and Laurel had refused to go. We should listen to kids more often.	*Erin and Victoria near the Rusian River*
15 August Thru 22 August 2005	On Monday, we pulled out of Pacifica and followed highway 1 through San Francisco, picking up the 101 and crossing the Golden Gate. We passed Sant Rosa north to a NACO campgrounds outside of Cloverdale California. This campground is quite rustic although all of the sites are paved with water and electric hookups. The grounds front the Russian River with a gravel beach and stretches up the sides of the canyon opposite to highway 101. Even though we are close to Santa Rosa, it is 10 to 15 degrees warmer here. There are warnings posted about a mountain lion frequenting the camp. Also, it is very dry so no campfires or charcoal cooking is allowed. The Big Green Egg will have to stayed tucked away while we are here. We managed to pick one of the few sites where foliage blocks our satellite reception and there is no local TV coverage. We will have to manage our stay with books and DVDs. Unfortunately, there is no cell phone coverage in the canyon so staying in contact with our kids in Santa Rosa is a bit of a problem. The 40 mile drive back and forth is also a pain. Erin and Mike are both job hunting at the moment and the kids, Laurel and Rosie, have not started school yet, so their time is flexible. We are sharing meals and hitting the open air markets in the area. We also made contact with MaryAnn again and journeyed down to Marin for a beautiful evening and meal with MaryAnn, Chreyl Lynn and her husband Donald.	*MaryAnn, Cheryl Lynn, Victoria, Rosie, Mike, Erin, Laurel, Donald*
13 August thru 15 August 2005	The campsite in Pacifica is gorgeous. We are backed up to the Pacific ocean with a great view to the west. Unfortunately, there is an almost continuous low cloud cover and fog. Yet, the cool breezes remind you just how close you are to nature even though we are right next to downtown San Francisco. The approach to the campground was rather exciting. We instructed the GPS to take ust to this address by the short way. It did as instructed and had us exite on Skyline drive and then take Manor drive down to the coast. We slipped down 16% grades and then 19%. To put this in perspective, I had never been down anything greater than 6% with our Montana Big Sky. I dropped into low gear and used the trailer brakes a lot. Fortunatly, there is a better way in and out using highway "1" which goes right past the campground. On Saturday, we attended the wedding of Vikki's cousin Paul's son John and his new bride, Lisa. The very upbeat Catholic ceremony took place in a church in Menlo park followed by a reception at a golf country club. The service and reception were all outstanding. However, the highlight for us was the opportunity to renew acquaintances with Vickki's cousin (Paul's sister) MaryAnn and here daughter Cheryl Lynn. We are resolved to keep in closer touch. On Sunday, we enjoyed visiting the local markets and restaurants in this beautiful and vintage part of California. We found a market with more than ten varieties of heritage tomatoes on display. Another market had a large hunk of Irish blue cheese as well as Italian, French and local selections. And, of course, all of the markets offer many local wines at very reasonable prices.	*John & LisaVictoria and Paul***
11 August thru 12 August	On the road again. This time there is some schedule pressure. We have reservations in Pacifica CA for Friday night thru Monday. Pacifica is almost 1100 miles from Albuquerque. In addition we have to stop in Flagstaff long enough to register our new Cambridge in Arizona. We were on the road by 8 am and made Flagstaff by noon AZ time (five hours) in the rain. Registration only took about an hour. We did a body refuel at Taco Bell and made Needles CA by supper. This leaves about 550 miles for Friday. We hit huge rain and hail about 20 miles east of Kingman AZ but did not sustain any damage.	*This was the first tankfull for more than three bucks per gallon.* *The next fill was at $3.199 per gallon*
5 August thru 10 August 2005	There are three events attracting us to Albuquerque at this time. First, Terri is overdue with Rob and Terri's first child and brother to our grandkids Kevin and Allison. Then there is a 60th birthday party scheduled for our dear friend Norma being planned by husband Chuck and their sons Chris and Paul. Finally, Kevin's fifteenth birthday is on the 10th of August. The first big event was Norma's birthday party. The theme was an English tea party patterned after Alice in Wonderland. A three course luncheon was followed by dessert and punctuated by a croquet game and testimonials from friends and family. It was definitely a gala event. I began to lose count of the dinners and events in Kevin's honor. We were honored to have the grandkids share our camper while Rob and Terri prepared for the new baby's arrival which finally occured on the 9th. The final party for Kevin occured in Terri's room and was attended by the new brother Connor. Rob and Terri's new son Conor on his first day *Kevin, Allison and Grandma Vikki*	That's Chuck and Norma and guess who...
1 August thru 4 August 2005	Leaving Prescott WI, we made Missouri the first day, Pratt Kansas the second and Santa Rosa, New Mexico the third. Our route was down Interstate 35 thru De Moines and Kansas City to Witchita. Then US 54 across Kansas and corners of Oklahoma and Texas to Tucumcari where we picked up Interstate 40 headed west. The head winds down 35 and 54 really cut into our fuel mileage. We were back to normal as we turned west even though we are now into high plains and mountain driving. Leaving Santa Rosa we will only have about one hundred mies to go into Albuquerque.
25 July thru 31 July 2005	Monday night finds us in Prarie du sac after a pleasant ride over the top of Lake Michigan and a final hair raising ride through a thunder storm amid tornado threats north of Madison. We parked on the street by my brother Jim's house. Jim and Karen joined us for shopping in Madison, I rode a golf circuit at Lake Wisconsin Country club with my brother and his golf partners. Of course there were great dinners aznd lots of visiting. Jim and Karen are planning to house-sit for us next year when we tour Mexico. All too soon, we headed west again to visit my brother Edward and Kathy in Prescott. Here, I helped my brother launch on a week long canoe trip doun the Mississippi from St Cloud MN. Then, Kathy, Vikki and I picked up Aunt Betty for an excursion to Pepin WI and dinner at the legendary Harbor View Cafe. It was just as good as we remembered. I capped this part of trip off with a visit with Bob and Dorthy, thier daughter Betty Ann, and Doris. Dorothy and Doris are 88 year old twins. Bob is about to be 90. They were all life long friends of my Dad. My folks and these people partied together and farmed together over most of their lives. The conversation often drifts back to farming even now. Doris and her husband Dick had 13 kids and several were close to my age. I graduated from high school with her daughter Judy	The dinette in the new trailer at Edward and Cathy's *Aunt Betty in front of the Harbor View*
17 July thru 24 July 2005	This week is busy in the extreme. We traveled to Mackinaw City and set up camp in the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground. This is a huge campground with over 600 camp sites. There are good views of the bridge and island as well as ship traffic. We are in the time of the Chicago to Mackinaw sailboat races providing lots of scenes. Vikki's brother Gary and Gloria are here as well as several of Gloria's relatives. We have visits from Art, Mary Ellen, Alexa, Kala, Colleen, Tim and Diana. I made a trip down to meet one of Diana's friends at Pellston airport. He is restoring Cubs in his hanger. The shop was absolutely pristene. The workmanship is near perfect. It was a real pleasure to see such fine craftsman ship. Then, we took a day to wander around Mackinaw Island with Diana, Gary and Gloria before launhing into the move to the new trailer. I set up our 12x12 screen tent and we unloaded the contents of the Montana into the screen tent. On Thursday we executed the trailer trade and arrived back at camp around 8pm. I parked the new trailer on the first try with about fifty onlookers. It was the end of a long day and a scotch and water tall never tasted better Diana came back and helped Vikki put stuff in appropriate places in the new Cambridge. Altogether, I took about two days to move out and three days to move back in. Frankly, I was becoming quite envious of the other people in camp who could relax and enjoy the park. After visiting Darrell and Diana on Sunday, we broke camp on Monday and headed for Wisconsin. We are now under a schedule. We have to be in New Mexico by the sixth. *Vikki getting stuff out of the Montana*All our stuff between trailers	*Partying at Mackinaw Mills Campground* *Gary, Gloria, Dianna and Vikki on the ferry to Mackinaw Island*
10 July thru 16 July	Cousin Janet made the trip back up to Houghton lake with us and we parked in her son David's yard right on the lake front, It is a beautiful setting. Later in the week, Deana, Jason and family as well as Janet's husband, Don arrived to enjoy the lake. In the midst of all of this, I negotiated a trade with Burnside RV. They will take our 2004 Montana 3295 Big Sky plus some money in trade for a new 2006 Cambridge 358. We can pick it up on 21 July 2005	*Sunset over Houghton Lake*
7 July thru 9 July 2005	Back in Lansing (Dimondale) we had the opportunity to have dinner with Aunt Sandra, Esther and Gene. We will miss Esther's 80th birthday party in August so This was our best compromise. Then, there were more birthdays to celebrate. This time it is was for Donovan and Jerrod.	*Kids getting rid of energy before ice cream and cake*
31 June thru 6 July 2005	Fishing is getting better but, just not as good as a year ago. There is a great mayfly hatch going on and those fish we catch have full gullets. However, it seems to take a long time to catch a limit. We had a big birthday party for Jordan, Bob and Sharon's grand daughter. Jordan and her brother Bob have been here with their grandparents. Bob and Jordan's parents had to skip their usual Drummand vacation as their dad (also Bob) is in chemo treatments following a bout of colon cancer. Jordan's best surprise was the arrival of her parents at Drummand for the weekend. Now it is time has come for the annual 4th of July celebration. The weather is cooperative, the food is excellent and all of the kids in camp are having a lot of fun. Bob, Dennis, and Art headed up the BarBque team doing chicken and country style ribs. The rest of the menu was a dish to pass buffet of wide variety. We left the island amid reports of improved fishing and headed back to Lansing to retrieve our mail forwarded from Phoenix and pick up the repacement rim for our Montana fifthwheel. Bob, Art, and Dennis preparing the feast	*Jordan enjoying the campfire* *Jordan and the special cake* *Vikki reading to kids and dogs*
27 to 30 June 2005	Now there are small craft warnings so we are staying in camp. Lots of time for group cookouts and story telling. The tiki bar is getting a lot of use.	*Wayne describes his recent Alaskan fishing trip.*
26 June thru 28 june 2005	We are experiencing typical Michigan weather -- lot's of change. The water is still below 70 on the surface so the cisco fishing is sort of poor. We caught 24 one day but not much since. That's Bob about to help Sharon board the boat. The wade out can be pretty chilly.	*Dave & Vikki with Dharma*
22 June 2005	We are on the move again. We left Lansing for Drummond Island with a stop over at Houghton Lake to see Guy and Pat. While at Houghton Lake, we stopped into Burnside RV Center to have another look at the new Cambridge fifth wheel. It is duly noted that the posted price is a significant improvement over the asking prices we encountered in Phoenix when we looked earlier this year. We arrived Drummond and set up camp on 22 June. As you can see in the picture, we plan to be here for awhile. I built a "tiki bar" to take traveling this year. It gets a lot of attention where ever we are camped.	*Camped at Drummond Island Township Park* *This is our outdoor kitchen*
June 2005	There are a lot of graduation parties. The snap shots are of grads and relatives celebrating the occasion.	*Aubry is Valedictorian of her class*
30 May into June 2005	We are setup in Bob and Sharon's yard and ranging out to various Graduation Open House's for the Kids of Vikki's cousins.	The morels are in. These were found on Memorial day in Jim's backyard. They are on sale at teh local markets for $32.95 per pound. This looks like fifty bucks worth. They sure were good.
27 May thru 29 May 2005	We landed in Michigan just in time for a a combination Memorial Day roast and birthday party just because I made it to 65. Bob and Sharon were staying in town for the holiday and decided a party was in order. Preperations started on Friday with the arrival of the pig. *This is Sharon with Lance, the latest addition to the family.* This party ended up lasting for two and one half days. The pig was huge and the guests all brought food to pass. No one went away hungry. The pig was too big for the roaster so the head was cooked seperately. Later, Sharon's 96 year old Aunt Betty cleaned all of the good meat from the head and bones to make head cheese. A few of the guests enjoying a lot of pork. And, in typical midwestern behavior, several card games got started as soon as desserts were sampled.	The pig getting dressed for the party Time to check on our guest *Bob checks the internal temperature.* *Some of it is ready to slice according to Dan, Gerry, Jimmy and Bob.*
19 May thru 27 May 2005	We arrived at Lake Cumberland on Friday, ready to meet up with Gary and Gloria on Saturday. It was nice to relax after a week on the road. That's Vikki enjoying some grilled portabellas and pasta. Gary and Gloria took us out on the Lake on Saturday and we had a nice dinner in camp that night. On Sunday we pulled up to Lexington and setup camp at the Kentucky Horse Camp Where we stayed until Thursday. We enjoyed several mealks with Gary and Gloria including Stuffed Hamburgers, and Almond crusted Lamb chops. They took us out for my birthday dinner to a new restaurant in Lexington called the "BoneFish". It was outstanding.	*Conley Bottom Resort at Lake Cumberland* Dude enjoying the boat ride *Vikki giving instructions to Dharma.*
May 14 thru May 18 2005	We left for our Summer trip in mid May. The first night was just inside the New Mexico border where I got the picture of this old adobe modified trailer. Figure I will keep it in mind if we ever decide to quit traveling. First real stop is Albuquerque to see grand kids, Kevin and Allison and help Terri and Rob celebrate their graduations, respectively, from business school and medical school. They just bought a new house near the U of NM and were heavily into remodeling while we were there. Once again, we camped in Chuck and Norma's yard and enjoyed their hospitality. Then, we rolled out across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee enrout to Kentucky. Unfortunately, I caught a curb with the front right tire on the fiver pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot in Fort Smith Arkansas. The tire was split and the rim was cracked. Big expense as the rim alone is about $250.00. I knew we should have waited until we found a Costco.	*Kevin and Allison enjoying the new pool.* *Future retirement Home??*
April 2005	Vikki's cousins Art, Colleen, Tim and Brandon visited us in April. Their stated objective was to attend the NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway. They had an extra day before the race so we made a quick trip to Mexico. *Colleen and Vikki getting ready for a Mexican meal* We stayed at Playa Bonita and roamed the town feeling right at home. We even stopped by our former home and marveled at the remodeling accomplished by the new owners. We found much development going on as usual in this booming town. But, we were glad to find our favorite fish market as clean and honest as ever. That's the owner, Frederico, back in the corner preparing to work on a fish.	*Watching the tide go in and out* *Our Campsite at Playa Bonita*
March 2005	In March, we went to another CRA resort called Yuma Lakes at Yuma AZ. This is another snowbird resort. In fact, Yuma is quite remarkable in the winter. There are several huge RV dealers. Cars in the local Wal-Mart sport mostly out of state licenses. It is definitely a winter tourist town. Local industry supports the truck farms surrounding the town. For an old farmer, it was fastenating to watch the near automated harvesting machinery in action. There were also a lot of workers chopping plants. Lettuce and other vegetables were leaving town in strings of eighteen wheelers. Yuma has a lettuce festival in January. Our Granddaughter Cinnamon was with us on this trip -- one of the very few kids in camp.	*Our campsite at Yuma Lakes.* Cinnamon enjoys the pool.
January and February 2005	Our first trip of the year was to Parker Arizona and a camp along the Colorado River. We made a side trip up to Bullhead City and spent the night with Friends Pam and Doug. On the way back to Phoenix, while we are way out in the desert, miles and miles from nowhere, the "check engine" light came on. This was my chance to checkout my own version of "info sourcing." As we continued to drive down the road and dialed OnStar. I explained the problem and the operator connected me to a service technician. This person conducted an engine diagnostic while we continued to drive. In a few minutes, the technician came back on line and told me my fuel pressure was low and I should take the truck to the dealer within the next twoo days. I did and they replaced the fuel pump under warranty. I forgot to ask but, I wonder where the people talking to me actually resided -- Michigan -- Bangalore -- Bejing? Who knows. Our second outing took us to El Gofo resort in Mexico. El Golfo is south of Yuma. Leaving the US takes you through 30 or 40 miles of very prosperous truck farms. Then, another forty miles of sand dunes and desert brings us to the sleepy little fishing village. El Golfo is very small - maybe ten blocks square. There are three or four really good restaurants, but only three places in town that sell off-sale liquor. The resort is part of the Colorado River Adventures (CRA) group. It sports a swimming pool, game courts and several hundred full hookup sites. There is a recreation hall and bar. The bar is open between Thanksgiving and Easter. This resort definitely caters to the snowbird crowd. Almost everyone we met was retired from the midwest or northwest. Many were from Canada. The beach here is very beautiful -- all sand with no boat docking. The fishing boats are towed into and out of the water by pickup trucks with truse mounted hitches. There were a lot of dry camp sites between the town and the resort. A lot of ATV traffic launches from this area to explore the beach all the way down to Puerto Penasco.	El Golfo Resort *Suset at El Gofo*