Hello from Gila Bend, AZ

Hello from Gila Bend, AZ

Tuesday morning December 30, 2008 (Second travelogue of this trip)

We are at Augies Quail Trail RV Park (map). This is a great campground. Very open and the spaces are rather large. We decided to stay in a campground in order to do a couple of loads of wash (need 50 amp service for the dryer or run the generator) and we needed to top off the water since we may be dry camping for a few days.

Sunday we drove a bit over 350 miles and stayed at a Wal Mart in Deming, NM (map). Monday we drove about the same distance and ended up here.

For those of you new to our blog, you will find that we often stay at Wal Marts. Many, but not all, welcome overnight stays by RV folks. We always try to shop when we stay at one. Sunday night we were all settled in, watching the Broncos stink up the place, when there was a knock on the door. We assumed that we were being “evicted”. Turns out that they have a special place for RVs (away from the trucks waiting to be unloaded – they run their engines all night). In general, the Wal Marts that do not allow overnight stays, are regulated by local ordinances – generally enacted because of pressure from local campgrounds. Staying at Wal Marts is very convenient for us when we are on a tight schedule (happens all too often). We can arrive late afternoon and depart fairly early the next day. Spending $25 to $40 for a campground for 8-10 hours just does not make sense.

We have finally gotten into reasonable weather. Deming was not too bad (into the 20's in the night). Monday we started the day with the heater on and ended up with the air conditioner running. That was fun. Still gets chilly in this area (30's at night).

We started early yesterday and got to the campground about 2:00 PM so that we could enjoy our short stay. We stopped at a big truck stop at noon and I washed the bus and truck. We can wash the vehicles using our on-board water and simple brush and pail equipment. I can get the worst of the road grime off in a few minutes. I felt kind of guilty, as we were about 100 yards from a commercial truck wash, but they get about $90 to wash the equipment. I figured they would run us off, but they were pretty busy and did not seem to care.

Today we head to Quartzsite (less than 150 miles) where we will dry camp and meet a good friend for dinner. From Quartzsite we head to Indio, CA for the first of two trade shows.

It will be interesting, as I screwed up and did not get my reservations in for camping at the Polo grounds where the dog show is being held. They, apparently, are a bit of sticklers for getting payment quite a bit ahead of time.

Why a dog show? Check in our next blog for the thought process.