Today started out dark and gloomy and went downhill. It started raining a bit before noon and rained all day and into the night. Not sure how much longer it is supposed to rain, but a nice bright sunny morning would be welcome.

Yesterday afternoon we met with friends Clark and Carol and the 5 of us went to the Organ Stop Pizza palace. It opened at 3pm and if you ordered your pizza before 4pm you got a discount of $2.00. So you can be we got our order in pronto. Evelyn and I split a large Vegie pizza and drinks. The building was built around this huge Wurlitzer theater organ. It has 4 manuals, 276 keys and 798 stops and nearly 6000 pipes.

The organ was built by Wurlitzer in 1927 and installed in the Denver theater. It was used regularly until the 1930's depression hit. Theis building has 43' ceilings. the wind is provided by 4 huge turbine blowers housed in a separate part of the building. It has been added to over the years and is currently the largest Wurlitzer in the world.

It is mounted on a rotating hydraulic 8,000 lb. elevator. Many of the percussion's (such as the xylophones, glockenspiels drums, etc.) are installed in the dining room for greater audience appeal. These sections are individually lighted when they are played.

All in all, it was a truly an experience to sit there and hear a masterful gentleman play this huge organ. He could really make it talk. He played without any music and took requests and would play most anything requested. Something anyone would enjoy hearing. The pizza was quite good as well.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all. We spent a quiet day with Nancy B. and a nice meal this afternoon.


It has been a while since I posted anything, but we have been taking life easy and enjoying the warm sunny weather here in Mesa, AZ.


Not really a lot going on, just eating and sleeping and not really doing much. We do go to Church on Sunday and Christmas Eve at a nice little church that is not very far away.


The oranges are ripe and quite tasty and very plentiful on Nancy's little tree. Evelyn has been doing some cleaning in Nancy's house and we are making plans for next year as far as the hamfests we will attend and out trip back to the midwest for the summer months and our round of doctor appointments, etc.


We are planning on working our way south to Florida next year and work the circuit down that way during the first of 2012 and them across the south to the warmer climates of the southwest.


We have several friends yet to see and visit with in this area before we head out the middle of January for Quartzsite and Yuma and Palm Springs, CA before starting east.

Lots of things going on around here. We got the motor home parked on Monday morning and all hooked up. Nice to have cable tv and all those good things. The air card is working quite well.at least we do not have to rely on someone elses wi-fi that is usually pretty slow.

Tuesday we had a water problem with a broken valve on the outside shower fixture. As usual the manufacturer that built the motor home makes things easy for them but creates problems for the repair person. I will not go into details, but it was a big job to change the fixture when it should have only taken half an hour. On top of that, after the repair was made, the water worked fine except in the kitchen sink. No water! Water everywhere else in the motor home. So we bled the lines to the sink and had water everywhere. Finally discovered that the water diffuser on the sink was completely plugged with lime/calcium or what ever. I cleaned it out and all worked fine. It semed it was just one thing after another.

Our photos are of route 66 on our trip to Oatman, AZ. It is really the "Mother Road" in all respects. It is narrow and it really follows the contour of the area. Few of the hills were graded out and the low areas filled. The areas that drain the water from the mountains were not bridged, the road just followed the "draw" and lets the water flow over the pavement, thus preventing the need for a bridge and that expense. The road has not been improved since it was built. Some of the curves are 15 and 20 mph and
the road is about 20 feet wide. It is difficult to stay on your side of the road and stay on the pavement. Not a lot of traffic so it is not a problem.

I can only imagine what it was like negotiating these mountains and curves back when the road was new. There are lots of areas on the up grades to pull off the road if the car got hot. There are places to pull off on the downhill side to let the brakes cool. The grades are what appear to be 6 and 7% grades and the sharp curves that you can not see around. Pretty steep for vehicles at that time.

While we were in Oatman, I saw a relatively new Rolls Royce come in from the pass up the mountain and it parked on the south side of the business area. I did not have a camera available so I did not get a photo. A very unusual thing to see in Oatman, AZ.

There were a lot of cars, trucks, and RVs coming and going all evening and this morning in the Hi Jolly LTVA. There were several units parked in various areas and appeared to be there for the duration. Many, I am sure are set up in the same place as last year and will be with many friends as they assemble around the area. There are many Escapees bof groups that meet in certain areas and spend time together and enjoying one anothers company.

We will be meeting with the Amateur Radio (Ham) group at the 99mm south of town off of US95. There will be many units in that gathering with all types of units and all kinds of antennas you can imagine and some you have never seen before. They will have an antenna shoot out on the day of the hamfest to determine who has the best antenna setup. A lot of fun for all involved.

We will not be able to stay the whole week as we have to go to Palm Springs, CA on Friday for a hamfest on Saturday. A very good hamfest last year and we anticipate a good one this year as well.

Today, we left HiJolly LTVA and made our way to Mesa, AZ and the home of good friend Nancy B. where we will be until sometime in January. There will be lots of things to do while we are here and we want to take advantage of what is available.

Our photos are from downtown Oatman, AZ showing some of the stores and items for sale.

The trip to Oatman on the original US66, the "Mother Road", is quite an experience and one experience all should have.

Yesterday we took a trip to Oatman, AZ, an old gold mining town, now a town trying to survive. At one time the population was almost 10,000 and dropped to 15 and currently about 150 people live here full time. There are wild burros that roam freely through the old mining town. The burros were used to bring supplies to the area. Later, they were used to haul rock and oar from the mines. When the gold gave out and the mines closed the burros were left to fend for themselves. Today, they roam the streets of Oatman and beg for food. You are allowed to feed them in town but not outside the city limits.

There are all kinds of old time shops and outside one of the businesses there is a sign that says that the people and businesses maintain the right to carry and use firearms. A right given to them by the state of Arizona, as well as all those in the state.

The burros are two kinds, as we saw in town, a brown and white burro with distinctive black stripes over the shoulders and down the middle of the back and down the tail. The others are white or mostly white with some dark areas. You would think that in this many years they would all look alike due to inbreeding, but that is not the case here.

This morning we got things hooked up and secured ready to travel and hit the road. We went down US95 in Arizona toward Quartzsite and are at the Hi Jolly LTVA, a free camping area for 14 days. You can spend the winter here or in any LTVA for $180.00 until April of 2011. Not a bad price, however there are no services or water. You have to go to Quartzsite for that.

Tomorrow we will go to Mesa, AZ and get set to sit tight until after the first of the year and attend a couple of HTC lunch bunch gatherings.

Another beautiful morning, a bit overcast but the sun was soon shining brightly.

We took a tour of the park and out on the peninsula that runs along the Colorado River. There are some 25 sites that will accommodate up to 5 units each. There is water and electric for each unit as well as public restrooms and a dump station. Most all have a beach area where you can swim or fish.

Most of the areas had at least one unit and we talked with one woman and they were there for the winter and would leave in April, so it is really a winter destination for a lot of people. Certainly a place to keep in mind if you are interested in a winter place to camp.

We decided to stay another day and take a trip to Oatman, AZ and see the old gold town and the burros. But, we have to go back to Arizona to do that, it seems we have been crossing the Colorado River over and over again going from California to Arizona and back.

This park is in California and really looks the part. Just a mile or so away, across the river in Arizona the terrain is very different with mountains and desert.

We drove late last evening and did not get to the RV park until after dark. This was a little after 5:30, but it was dark. We got caught by a train and lost about 10 minutes, so that did not help any either.

We did not get away today until after lunch, however we only drove a dozen or so miles to the Moabi Regional Park just south of Needles, CA. This is really a pretty place situated along the Colorado River. There is a regular campground and a peninsula that has group camping areas that is really nice. I will get some photos tomorrow of the area.

After we got hooked up, we went to Lake Havasu City, AZ to the post office and to Walmart to get some groceries, etc. We put the address in our GPS for Walmart and when we arrived it was not Walmart and we were not looking for the post office, but it was across the street. We then ask the GPS to locate the Walmart and when we went there, it was a huge shopping center, but, no Walmart. We checked with a Schwaun man that was in the parking lot and he directed us to the new Walmart about 4 or 5 miles up the highway toward home. Finally we got our shopping done and headed back home, stopping at the Loves Service/Subway, picked up a sandwich and came home. The mountains were quite interesting as the sun was setting behind them and it was getting dark, all in a matter of a few minutes.

We had a lot of things to do today, get the rig ready to travel, laundry, go to town and pick up our mail as well as fill the lp tank with gas, etc. We finally got things done and away from Pahrump a little after noon. You have to go back to LasVegas to get through the mountains and then you can go south down US95. This is a good 4 lane highway and there is no towns along the way, just desert with mountains in the distance. There was one town, Searchlight, which had a couple of Casinos and a few filling stations, but that was about all. The town of Cal-Nav-Ari was less than that, just a wide spot in the road.

You know it has been cold at nights and we could see the snow on Mt. Charleston, but as we went up the mountain to get to LasVegas, we say a lot of snow along the highway and it was still pretty cold.

We are currently at the Calizona RV Park in Needles, CA. we are down considerably in altitude and at 10pm it is still near 50 degrees outside. Much warmer than the last week or so.

Not a lot going on the last couple of days, just getting things ready to travel. We were not sure our mail would make it today, so we really could not make any definite plans one way or the other.

We spent the evening sorting mail, paying bills, and deciding where we would go tomorrow. It will not be an early start as we will be late to bed tonight.

As we traveled down US95 we could see lots of high voltage power lines crossing the area from Hoover dam that was just a few miles to the east. That power plant furnishes power to cities all over the southwest grid. We even saw a huge solar system that was right along and under the power lines. Every little bit of power helps.