This time, we met in Gold Canyon, Arizona, just east of Apache Junction and in the shadow of Superstition Mountain.  I wanted to call this rally Y2.01k, but most folks just called it Y2K2 or the Rally in the Valley of the Sun.

Once again, Nancy and Patrick Gallagher were the Rally Masters. They did another superb job.  The 2001 Rally included seminars by Ron and Barb Hofmeister of MovinOn fame, Rodney Simmons, from Blue Moon RV repair, Dave Peters from the RV America Bulletin Board, Blue Ox, a medical insurance group, and yours truly.  Libby and I did an impromptu driving to Alaska forum.  I also did a two hour seminar on communications on the road.  When Nancy told me I had two hours,  I figured I would take an hour at most, but the two hours came and went and I was still talking.  I know that is hard to believe, but those of you who have met me in person will certainly be shocked to learn that I can talk for two hours non stop!  Ok, so maybe you are not shocked.

Anyway, the party was a great success and we even had a couple of dealers bring in fifth wheels and motorhomes for our viewing pleasure.  We resisted the temptation to trade and managed to drive away in the Discovery after the party was over.  We did get our water heater repaired.  It wasn't turning off by itself when running on gas.  I figured it was either the Electronic Cut Off or the thermostat.  Rodney brought a kit that included both of these items and repaired it for us for the cost of the part and $25.  Next time, I'll do it myself, but it was nice to know that I had at least made the right diagnosis.  Dave Peters, Norm Payne and myself spent quite a few hours helping other folks do small repairs.  One couple in the rally traded their fiver and F550 for a motorhome and toad while we were at the rally, but we didn't get to see the new rig.  They took delivery in California on Monday to avoid paying Arizona sales tax.

We all had a great time and the new rig couple even volunteered to chair next year's Y2K3 party.  It looks like it will be in the southwest again, maybe in the same time frame.

The party was a great place for old friends and new to come together.   We got to see Willie Nunez and Betty Sue, Bob and Donna Eberly, Dick and Kay Ackerman, Vicki Peters, Dave and Pat Peters, Melanie Carlisle who drove all the way from Atlanta for the rally and many other friends from the RV America BB.  We also got to meet many new friends including Peter and Kate Pleasance, from London, England, who flew over just for the Rally.  Talk about pressure.  We think we threw a pretty good party for them.  They will be fulltime sometime this year after they sell their business in England.

Libby and I had to remain at the Gold Canyon RV Resort to wait for a new part for our rig.   A week before the party started I called Thetford to get a new toilet seat as ours was cracked.  They were very accommodating, sending us the new part in just a few days and delivering it via UPS right at the park. Unfortunately, when I opened the box, it contained a toilet lid, not the seat.  I called them again and they assured me they would send the correct part this time.  It was scheduled to arrive on Friday or Monday.  You guessed it, Monday.  We had to stay over the weekend to get the darn thing.  There are some things that one must just have and a toilet seat without a crack in it is one of those must have items.  Early Monday, it arrived, but by then we had already paid for another day at Canyon Vistas.  Luckily, they extended the rally rate of $17 to us for three days before the rally and three days after.  The normal rate at this park is $30 per day, even though the park was about 75% empty.  One would think that getting $17 per day for as long as some of us would stay would be better than $0 when we moved to a cheaper park.  I guess the management at that park doesn't understand that just like a motel, if you don't rent the space for a night, you can never recover that money.  $0 is a lot less than $17.  Oh well.

One neat event that happened just after the party, it snowed on the Superstitions. 

While we were at Canyon Vistas, we took a day trip to the Casa Grande Ruins.  These ruins were constructed in 1350 AD by the local native american tribe that we call the Hohokam. This is a Pima word for "all gone" or "all used up".   We don't know what they called themselves because there is no written record of their civilization. They built Casa Grande (spanish for the Big House) around 1350 and we think it was used as a religious temple, grain storage facility and an observatory. It appears that about 500 people lived near Casa Grande and the total Hohokam population may have been from 5,000 to maybe 10,000 people.  The structure is built of caliche (pronounced cuh-lee-chee)  This stuff is very hard, but can be softened with water.  It is estimated that it took over 40,000 baskets of caliche to construct Casa Grande. That translates into 3,000 tons carried by hand.  The Hohokam dug caliche with dead Sagauro cactus spines. They also constructed over 1,000 miles of canals with simple hand tools. They were very adept at farming and making the desert bloom. They floated construction timbers for Casa Grande down the Gila river from 60 miles away.         Note the sloping wall of the structure.  They are 4 feet wide at the bottom, tapering to the top with a curve on the outside to cause the building to lean in on itself for strength.  Considering that this structure is basically constructed with mud, it is just amazing that it is still standing.  The roof that covers the building (this is the second one) has prevented any further erosion.  The building has been covered since sometime before 1900.  The current roof is also on the National Register of Historic places and was constructed in the 1930 timeframe.  An interesting side note on the roof.  It now costs more to paint the structure than it did to build the whole thing.

On Tuesday we pulled out of Canyon Vistas and headed through Phoenix on I 10.  We made it through the 6th largest Metro Area in the U.S. and then turned north on Loop 101.  This road brought us out to U.S. 60 in the middle of Sun City.  Then, dodging the older retirees, we drove through Sun City West and Sun City Grande.  Actually, these are pretty nice retirement developments that live on the west side of Phoenix.  After many miles of this congestion, we finally broke free and ran the 30 or so miles up the road to Wickenberg, AZ.  Just north of Wickenberg, is the SKP Park called North Ranch.  We pulled into the registration spot and lo and behold, snow was flying in the air.   It was very cold and windy.  Nice Arizona weather.  About 2 minutes after we pulled into North Ranch, Norm and Linda Payne and Jim and Patty Hammond rolled in behind us.  They had been at the park just east of where we were for the weekend.

Of course, we had all been at the Y2K2 rally, the Emonds, the Paynes and the Hammonds.  This was the first time we had all been together since last September when we were at the Escapade in Goshen, Indiana.   We really enjoyed getting the whole group back together.  We e-mail each other on an almost daily basis, so to actually be face to face was quite nice.  The Emonds did not travel with us to North Ranch as they are still in Mesa.  They decided to do their annual physicals at the Mayo Clinic there.  If you need to get checked out, that surely is the right place.

On Wednesday, the Paynes and Hammonds pulled out heading for Las Vegas.  Libby and I took a day trip in the Tracker to Prescott, AZ.  The elevation at Prescott is over 5,000 feet and you could tell we were up a lot higher.  The air was thinner and there were snow showers.  As we topped the grade at Yarnell, AZ  the ground was covered with snow.  We toured the Sharlotte Hall museum and ate lunch at the Palace Saloon.  Sharlotte was a single lady who preserved a lot of history of the area around the turn of the century.  The Palace is the oldest saloon in Arizona.  While the original building burned in 1900, the patrons carried the bar out the door during the fire and saved it.  It is a huge bar. Either there were a bunch of patrons in there at the time or the adrenaline rush was so great they could move mountains.  In any case, the bar is back in the saloon which was rebuilt in 1901 and is still in use today.  Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday were patrons at that bar.  Doc Holiday's significant other, Big Nose Kate, died and is buried in Prescott.

Many varieties of cactus were blooming, including those in the picture.  There were some really big ones, but we missed getting their pictures by a day.  By the time we got back to them with the camera, the blooms were gone!  There is a great cactus/desert garden at North Ranch.  They have this big old Saguaro that is supposed to be about 400 years old.  They call it Methuselah. 

One day, a fellow drove into the park in a Winnebago Adventurer, pulling a Saturn.  I walked past as his wife was getting them registered.  I noticed something funny about their tow bar and realized that it had broken.  A bad weld had broken, and then the bolt that was holding the bar in sheared off.  This is the exact same tow bar that we have, so it was a pretty scary experience.  However, Blue Ox is sending them a brand new one right away, so I guess they were lucky it didn't come apart on the road. 

The weather finally started warming up on Thursday and by the time we pulled out of North Ranch on Monday, it was about 85 degrees at mid morning.  We drove route 71 from Congress to route 60 and then turned northwest off of route 60 on route 72.  Route 72 took us directly into Parker, AZ where we crossed the Colorado River into California.  We turned right just after the river and went 6 miles to the Colorado River Adventure park near Earp, California.  This is a really nice park, right on the west bank of the Colorado.  We are parked about 100 feet from the river, second row back.  From our front windows, we can see the river and all the folks playing in it.  The temperature at mid afternoon was 96 degrees.  Summer at last!

We have a coupon for this park that we picked up at Camping World in Mesa.  It gives us three nights of free camping here for listening to the 90 minutes sales pitch they give.  We figured at about $25 a day, we can listen to the sales pitch.

At dinner time, we drove up the California side of the river to the Parker Dam.  We crossed the dam and ate dinner at Lois' Country Kitchen.  No credit cards, no other patrons, excellent food and the cost was less than $14 for both of us.  On the way up the west bank of the river, we ran across a herd of wild burros.  There were six of them playing in the desert.  Of course, we didn't have our camera, but we hope to get a picture of them tomorrow.

After dinner, we sat outside the D and watched the night sky.  Bats were chasing bugs, planes were scurrying back and forth to LAX and we were pretty darn relaxed out there in the desert night.

We took this picture for  Dave Peters, our friend the good golfer.  We have played golf with Dave twice now and this is probably the only course I might have a chance to whip him on! 

Tuesday, we traveled back up the California side of the river looking for the burros.  Before we found them, we came across a coyote wandering down the road.  Of course, he didn't co-operate and we missed the picture, but we did find the burros. 
 

On Wednesday, we did our duty and listened to the sales pitch.  Our sales guy was named Bruce.  Nice guy, no pressure and did a pretty good job presenting their park system to us.  Since we have to find a new home park to replace Ft. John,  we were interested in hearing their spiel. When we asked Bruce about transfering our home park to CRA, he didn't know if we could, so he got his manager.  The manager sat down and drew a pretty classic T close diagram.  He offered us $1500 off the cost since we were already Coast to Coast members. Of course, that brought the price down to only $3500.  I guess they didn't listen when we told them we had both had careers in sales and sales management.  The manager told us if we didn't take the deal that day, we couldn't buy at that "discounted" price for two years.  Now that was really the wrong approach to take with us.  Had we been even remotely interested (and we were) that was a show stopper for us.  I bet had we turned up a week later with cash in hand, we would be welcomed with open arms!  When we told them no, the manager immediately changed from the amiable, helpful manager to the "well, obviously there is something wrong with you two for passing up this deal" guy.  Wrong again!  Needless to say, we thanked Bruce for his time and the three free days and left the next day.