We left Why, AZ on Sunday and traveled U.S. 86 to Tucson, passing the Kitt Peak Observatory.  We passed through here in 2000.  One day we will stop and visit the place! This is quite a drive, through a Native American reservation.  Lots of rolling hills and dry washes to drive through.

We arrived at Beaudry RV in Tucson on Sunday afternoon.  We rolled up to the gate and the very disinterested attendant on the switchboard informed us that they only had pull throughs left at $36 a day.  Like we could back up when we were sitting at the gate.  Anyway they let us in, we registered and again the same person, who had the personality of a rock, finally got us through that process.  Then she forgot to give us a gate key.  After that, she sent us out to wait for the guy to take us to the site.  After about 30 minutes, I went back in to see what the hold up was.  She wasn't really too interested in our problem, so I stopped a sales guy.  He suggested we just get a map and go by ourselves.  Duh!  We had that one figured out already, but were trying to abide by their rules.  We finally just did go and park ourselves.  When we checked out they informed us that there was a $3 a day electricity surcharge.  HMMPH!  I think this is the last time we will stay at Beaudry RV and I can assure you we won't look to them for our next RV.  Other than that the campground is a very nice one.

We headed up to Apache Junction to visit with Bill and Sandy Spurrier.  Bill and Sandy attended our second RV America rally in April of 2001 and then we ran into them again in Quartzsite.  They were staying at the Arizonian Travel Trailer park east of Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  Nice park, lots of empty space around it.  The park was less than half full which surprised us.
Sally and Dave Stribling joined us later that afternoon and we all went to dinner at a local cafe.

The following day, the Striblings in tow, we left the Arizonian heading east for our ELKS initiation in Carlsbad, NM.  We traveled U.S. 60 through Arizona and New Mexico.  We stopped in Globe at a Mexican restaurant that Sally and Dave had been to previously.  Good food and not to pricey.

After Globe, we continued on east on 60 coming to the Salt River Canyon late in the afternoon.  What a site.  This canyon sort of appeared unexpectedly as we were traveling along.  A long, steep descent to the canyon floor and then an equally long and steep ascent up the eastern side of the rift.  This stretch of road gave Dave a good chance to learn how to use his exhaust brake and also showed him how the torque of a diesel engine makes climbing steep grades no big deal. 

We stopped in Show Low, AZ for the night.  The campground, K-Bar, was tight and there was a lot of snow on the ground.  Dave and Sally parked on the second street and we took the first spot next to the office.  The turn into the campground was more than 90 degrees and we were certainly pleased to have our 50 degree turning angle that the Freightliner chassis provides.  Dave and Sally are on the same chassis in their new Horizon, so we both made the turn ok. I am not sure a big rig without that turning angle would have been able to make the turn without unhooking and backing up.  The fee for the night was $25 for a full hook up.  Of course, we couldn't use the water since it was turned off due to night temperatures well below freezing.  We didn't hook up the sewer either for the same reason.  We were still charged $25 anyway! 

The next day, we turned east on U.S. 60 and passed into New Mexico.  As we traveled along, we came to the Very Large Array radio telescope.  This is the antenna array that you might have seen in the movie "Contact" with Jodi Foster.  We stopped and took pictures of this array.  What a site.  Big dishes marching off into the distance as far as you could see.  The VLA is 22 miles across, arranged in a Y pattern.  Each dish is 25 meters in diameter, roughly 75 feet, and weighs 230 tons.  The resolution of the
array is like a single dish 22 miles across.  The territory covered by this array is about 1.5 times the size of Washington, DC. The picture with our Tracker shows you how serious we are about satellite communications!

We spent the night in San Antonio, NM near a bird wildlife sanctuary.  Nice place, nice folks, but out in the middle of nowhere!
We headed on east to The Ranch on the next day and settled in to our old lot #64.  Dave and I were scheduled to go to the Elks orientation on Monday and then on Wednesday, we went through the initiation ceremony.  We are now full fledged Elks, part of Lodge 1558 in Carlsbad, NM.

We stayed at The Ranch until Monday the 25th.  While coming across U.S. 60 in New Mexico, we took a rock strike on the drivers side windshield.  By the time we stopped at the Ranch, we had a nice 3 foot crack in the glass.  Poop!  We called our insurance company Royal Sun Alliance and they found put us in touch with their glass replacement company.  We spoke to them several times and decided to have the glass replaced in Livingston, TX while we were at Rainbow's End.  So, on Monday we left the Ranch and drove all the way to Carlsbad. (22 miles)  One of our two furnaces had quit heating, so we wanted to get it checked out. There is a service center in Carslbad, RV Service Center, and we rolled in for a 10 a.m. appointment.  Alan, the owner came out and checked out our furnace.  He disassembled it and found a piece of lint under a microswitch that was preventing the burner from igniting.  I would have never found that switch, so we were glad he agreed to look it over.  The hourly charge is $50 and he worked on our rig for about 45 minutes.  He charged us $13.  Great guy, good service and very fair price.

We headed on south to Pecos, TX and ate lunch parked in the WalMart parking lot.  After lunch, we moved on south on U.S. 285 and picked up I-10 at Ft. Stockton.  We traveled east on I-10 to Ozona, TX and stayed at a little park associated with a seedy looking hotel.  Since we had a tail light that was not functioning properly, I pulled the bulb and we went to the local NAPA shop to get some spares.  We bought three bulbs and fixed the taillight.  (we also sampled the local DQ while we were there)

The next day, we continued on east on I-10 to Junction, TX.  We turned left off of I-10 and picked up U.S. 29, following it all the way to Georgetown and our friends Larry and Sara Wise.  Just west of Georgetown, we stopped to get a phone book and look up our friends phone number.  As we turned into the convenience store parking lot, Libby said, "I don't think we should go in here".  Of course, she was correct.  We dragged the right rear of the rig on the parking lot as we turned in. This is the first time we have every scraped bottom with this rig.  It bent some aluminum trim, but didn't do any other damage.

We spent the night in our friends driveway, swapping stories of our beer drinking days in Boca Raton, FL.  Larry and Sara are mentioned in our 2000 log.  We stayed with them for a few days the first winter we were fulltime.  We had a nice dinner and the next morning, Larry fixed biscuit and gravy for us.  We said goodbye and told them we would see them in the spring of 2003 as we head west and north on our way back to Alaska.  We rolled out of Georgetown on U.S. 190 which goes all the way to Livingston.

We arrived at Rainbow's End in mid afternoon.  Our glass had not yet arrived, so we just went on to the park and settled in.  Our friend Mark Nemeth is at RE working for the SKPs for a while.  You have likely been to his website, linked from our link page.  Mark started out almost 5 years ago for a 2 year jaunt around the country.  He managed to stretch his funds to almost 5 years, but now needs to w#$% for a few years to rebuild his nest egg.  He is doing lots of different tasks for the  SKPs but mostly is doing computer work.  We all went to the dine out with the park on Friday night.  Mark came and picked us up in his 78 pickup truck.  Great old truck.

We got our glass replaced on Friday.  It took only an hour and $500 (our deductible).  They asked us not to drive far for 24 hours, so we went back to Rainbow's End and spent the weekend.  On Saturday, we went into Livingston to the only movie theater in town.  We paid $2 each to get in and $2.50 for a coke and candy.  The theater is one of the classic ones.  Big theater, balcony, crummy sound system, but it was fun anyway.  We also visited the used book store in Livingston.  Great place, well organized.

In our few days at Rainbow's end, we hit the Catfish King, the Texas Pepper, the Whistle Stop and one of the BBQ spots in town.  It is always nice to hit town and go to our favorite eating places.

We headed out of Livingston on Monday the 25th and picked up I 10 again at Beaumont.  The road isn't any better than the last time we were there!  We had managed to cross all of Texas and only traveled on the interstate for about 125 miles.   A great trip across the Lone Star State.

We spent the night at a park in Biloxi, MS.  No train track nearby, but lots of noise from the shipyard, Keesler AFB and some other rather loud neighbors.  On Tuesday, we headed on east.  We filled up with fuel in Loxely, AL at a Love's because we knew that Florida fuel would be more expensive.  Heading on east, we crossed into Florida.  It had been almost a year to the day since we had the rig in Florida.  A long time considering our kids live in the Sunshine state and we have many friends here too!

We stopped for the night at the Emerald Coast Rv park in Panama City Beach, FL.  A very nice park, but very pricey too. The overnight rate is $37.  After we got all setup, we heard a terrible racket.  We went outside to see what was causing it and discovered that we were parked next to ZooWorld and the noise was a group of monkeys in a tree screeching like--monkeys! 
They continued like that for about an hour and we heard them off and on during the night.  No train went by but the monkeys were worse.  Oh well.

We were to leave the next day, but a cold front finally caught up with us.  The temperature was a balmy 32 degrees when we got up and the wind was howling, so we decided to spend another $37 and stay an extra night.  We left on Thursday, following U.S.98 out of Panama City and along the panhandle coast of Florida. 

We followed 98 along the coast, passing through Hulbert AFB and on to Appalachiacola.  We followed Appalachi bay until the road turned inland toward Perry, Fl.  We jumped over to I 75 at Ocala and followed it to Bushnell and the new SKP park at Sumter Oaks.  Nice park and more in our price range.  $10 a night plus electricity.

On the first, we headed south in the toad to see our new grand daughter Julia (six weeks old)   and our grand sons, Nathan and Spencer who are 3 and a half.   We did spend a few minutes talking to our daughter and son in law also!
 
 

Camping for February      $381
Diesel Fuel for February    $279
Boondocking days in Feb.    2