We Made It!

Once we finally got MayB hooked up to Maggie it was smooth sailing, and it was nice once again to be traveling together. The conversations, the laughter to where we both thought we were going to bust something.

Over 300 miles the first day to just outside of Midland, but not yet to Odessa, the drive west on I-20 is mostly oil rigs and the smell is in the air. The worse part in these areas are the roads, we are not talking about little holes, there are holes the size of the Grand Canyon EVERYWHERE!

Our next few days of travel were under 200 miles each day and we were just playing it by how we felt to where we would stop. Our stops ended up being in Van Horn, Texas, then Deming, New Mexico, then Benson, Arizona which left us a short 40 miles on Friday morning to Tucson to make our 10am appointment at Camping World. We were early but were immediately taken in and were given the utmost attention and just five hours later and a few thousand dollars lighter we were on our way. A new refrigerator, just like the old one but this one works and all we can hope is that it lasts as long as the other one did…12 years!

Spent a few days in Tucson trying to catch our breaths and hoped to find a tow dolly, but that was not in our cards. We are looking for one with brakes, since the one we rented from U-Haul did not have them, we could feel the difference and we did not like the feeling of Maggie having to do ALL the stopping. New ones, if we could find them are around $2,000, and we are hoping to find a used one for around the $1,200 to $1,500 range if possible. We thought we got lucky several times, but it wasn’t meant to be. We are now in Casa Grande for a few weeks and hope to find one before we begin travel again.

This is hard, we have been non-stop for so many months with our work and then with the travel to get here and now…NOTHING! It is so hard to just do nothing, we have honey do’s, but it still feels like, nothing. Then all the aches and pains in our bodies are catching up to us and we are sore…EVERYWHERE!

We will learn how to just slow down for now since it never lasts, and we will have to find more work, but for now our job is to learn to slow down.

We were going to do some Lt Blender’s again this year to fill in the gaps, but they changed the pay structure and since we were hardly making any money with the old one and now with this new structure, we would not be making anything at all and our camping is no longer covered. So, we are looking for something else. We did get accepted to work with Aramark at the Spring Training in Surprise, Arizona, but that is not until February and March, we will need to fill in the gap of December and January with something exciting.

On our list to begin our research is the Quartzsite RV Show in January, if anyone hears about any of the vendors needing help, let us know. For now we are enjoying our time in the desert…

Rincon Country West RV Resort

4555 S Mission Road

Tucson, AZ 85746

800-782-7275

12/8-12/10/2017, 11/23-11/26/2018

  

2018 UPDATE - We used our Passport America again and paid $89.08 for 3 nights.

We paid $64.39 for two nights using our Passport America 50% off membership. Even though they advertise the price is $53 per night for a back in, water, electric, sewer site on gravel with a patio and picnic table, this is one of those resorts that add all sorts of taxes on top of the price.

Even though there are many park models in this 1,000+ site resort, there are also many RV’s too, so we didn’t feel out of place. They do have the 10 year rule but checked out Maggie and allowed her in without any issues.

There are several areas for laundry, restrooms, showers and loads of activities with rooms for everything including workshops and craft rooms.

We were welcomed and would stay again if we are ever in the area again.

Benson I-10 RV Park

840 N Ocotillo

Benson, AZ 85602

800-599-0081

11/22/2018

We paid $25, using our 50% off Passport America for a 30amp electric, water and sewer pull through site on gravel. The site needed a bit of leveling but not too much.

It was Thanksgiving, the office was open, we were invited to dinner several times, but we were just too exhausted to join in on anything, we just wanted to hang out with one another which is what we did, but we did appreciate all the kindness.

The park was rough around the edges, in need of some TLC but for an overnight spot, it worked for us.

Home To Maggie

At this humongous event at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, we work 4 days, first day is about 12 hours of setting up our store, the next 3 days are 5am to midnight days, except the final day we are done about 3am instead of midnight, as long as things go according to plan, this year they did. We have three teams there plus several of the bosses from Cedar Hill join us for this one, they are also the ones who relieve us throughout the days for little meal breaks that they provide for us. It’s grueling but we enjoy it.

This year we took an extra day to hang out in Indy afterwards, are bodies needed more rest and we were avoiding an even colder snap with snow. Our stay at Baymont in Plainfield was great, comfy bed, spacious room, great shower head. We were on the third floor which is the executive level, weird but pretty cool at the same time, until we realized meant people hang out there. One of the nights we got back to our room we had to ask folks to be quiet, it’s posted quiet at 10pm and it was past midnight so they immediately kept quiet. At least we think they did, it’s possible we just passed out and no longer heard them.

When we began our trek back to Cedar Hill we drove about 260 miles the first day to the Hollywood Casino & Hotel in Maryland Heights, Missouri for a little playtime and lots of rest and relaxation. We had a very comfortable king size bed in the Sunset Tower with a terrible view, a nice walk in shower with strong water pressure. A large TV screen, fridge, coffee maker, blow dryer, and an iron with a board. Customer service was outstanding with everyone going out of their way to assure we had everything we needed. Loved the uncarpeted floors, they seem to be cleaner without the rugs.

Our next day was just about 300 miles to Quapaw, Oklahoma, where on our path was frigid temps and snow everywhere, not one of our best travel days. Seeing all that white crap, knowing the temps are way below freezing and any water on the roads were frozen. We made it safely to our destination at the Downstream Casino & Resort for one night but we were emotionally drained. The room was spacious with a marvelous walk in shower and a comfortable king size bed. The view was rooftops filled with snow, not that great. It was clean and customer service was excellent.

Our next day drive was a little over 300 miles to Winstar Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma, where we stayed one night. We were here several years ago in our motorhome and they had a nice RV Park, so we thought we would see what the hotel was like. The casino is HUGE, too huge for our us, and the room was just okay, the only standout thing was the mints on the bedside table.

Our last night in a hotel was spent in a Best Western Plus in Forest Hill, Texas. We were close but needed that extra time so we could get our stuff situated, plus we have been non stop so we needed a rest and my brand new IPad died so we took it to Verizon and they told me it needed to be replaced and we needed to take it to an Apple Store, so we set the appointment for 10 the next morning.

Our day to pick up Maggie did not go according to any of our plans…

Our plan…drive 30 miles pick up Maggie and MayB…pick up tow dolly then drive to RV Park by noon and get all unpacked and situated…NOT.

How our day actually went…Our 10am appointment didn’t get us out until noon and without a solution. They agreed it needed to be replaced but could not verify the serial number because it would not power up…duh…so it would take a week or so to get it back to us but needed an address to send it, which we are in full travel mode and had no idea where we would be. To make matters worse, they then claimed they didn’t even have a replacement at that store. We chose to take it to another Apple Store somewhere down the road.

Drove 30 miles to drop off the truck and trailer and things went extremely well picking up Maggie and MayB, once reconnecting they both started up without any issues.  But then from there things got so much worse…Picking up our rented tow dolly was a fiasco, they had the incorrect address on our contract so we stood in line for almost an hour just to be told they did not have a tow dolly and sent us to yet another place that didn’t have one either, then we finally got a call from the place that had our contract wondering where we were, BUT when we got there, they were not an authorized dealer so they could not and would not instruct us at all. This was our first time with a tow dolly and we wanted instructions, so…we needed to go back to the original place we stopped at for wiring and instructions. 

By the time we got to the RV Park, the sun was setting, we were exhausted and drained so we opted to stay two nights. Usually that wouldn’t be an issue because we are in relax mode for about a month but unfortunately our fridge really is dead so last week we made the only available appointment left in Tucson for Friday so we are pressed which meant our Monday travel would be over 300 miles, but the rest day was worth it. It was nice to be able to drive together again with the rental tow dolly which made the over 300 miles to Odessa not so bad. Looking forward to getting to Tucson to get our fridge fixed and pick up our own tow dolly…life is good!

Midessa Oil Patch RV Park

4220 S CR 1290

Odessa, TX 79765

432-563-2368

11/19/2018

We paid $31.50 for a water, sewer, 30amp electric, pull through site on level gravel with a picnic table.

They have some sort of water issue that they advise you not to use their water for anything else but showers, so when you check in, they give you a case of water.

The drive to the park from I-20 is frightful, there are potholes the size of the Grand Canyon, seriously, they are humungous. And, then when we arrived at the entrance, there was construction that the front desk explained just started that day that made it almost impossible for us to enter or exit. We made it but almost lost the tow.

Wonderful, fun, customer service, they had such a great sense of humor, even the owner was fantastic. We will definitely search this place out if we ever pass through this way again.

Vacation Week and My Birthday!

This adventure is coming to an end…we have a week off before we work the big Grand Nationals in Indianapolis and we plan to do all sorts of exploring before we start that grueling event!

Our first day on vacation we did have to run some errands but our drive was light, just a little over 200 miles. We know where we’re headed but we do not want to stress too much about getting to that area, so we are leisurely taking our time.

Our first stop was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the Quality Inn, they were remodeling so parking our trailer could have been an issue if we had not checked in early afternoon. Room is spacious with all the essentials, comfortable king size bed, desk with chair, chair but no ottoman, great step-in shower with great water pressure, and clean.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel next door for lunch and had some comfort food…

Jerry started my day with my coffee and a birthday cupcake, he is the sweetest man on earth...

Our next travel day was interesting that ended at Horseshoe Casino & Hotel. It began with some sort of bomb threat near the hotel in Murfreesboro. The entrance/exit onto the interstate we needed to go on was closed and traffic was horrific. We found a way out, a slower way but we continued moving. Apparently, they have had several bomb threats in this area, wish we knew this before we made the reservation. Then when we arrived at Horseshoe, they had roads closed to repair the damage on the roads and railroad tracks due to the flooding this past February. It’s always so hard when driving a trailer or motorhome, it can get scary when you have to turnaround, or worse yet, to have to back it up for blocks.

The hotel is under major construction due to the flooding, but we were not too inconvenienced. Spacious room with the most luxurious mattress, we both slept wonderfully, and they had a rain shower head.

Another interesting travel day with hard rain for about 100 miles into Indy, always makes it an adventure, especially when construction is in the mix too. We had just under 300 miles and a shopping stop, since we are back in Faygo and our choice wine area.

We stayed 2 nights at Blue Chip Casino & Spa for some rest, relaxation and massages. Life is grand!

This was the neatest invention we had ever seen, no more signs that fling off the door handles, this is a lighted accessory that you set from the inside of the room and a light on the outside indicates "Do Not Disturb" or "Need Service". Wish all hotels had this, since those signs are always flying off to the ground all the time and housekeeping is knocking, just to see if we need anything.

Then just under an hour drive to Benton Harbor, Michigan for 3 nights at Hilton Garden Inn. It was not where we originally planned to stay but the other place had terrible parking, especially since they had some sort of convention going on and we had no place to park the trailer as we had planned, so we canceled that one and got this one for a great price. Great check in, wonderful staff and the room was spacious and had all the essentials, fridge, microwave, desk, comfortable king size bed and a walk in shower with a pulsating shower head. The one thing they didn't have was NBC Sports for our weekend NASCAR fix, so we had to set up on our computer through our DirecTV and plug into the TV to watch it...technology, isn't it wonderful.

While there we did some sight seeing, we first drove to the Big Red Lighthouse in Holland, and it was not so big, and it was wet, windy and just frigid.

We got back into the truck and headed back to South Haven, where again there was a lighthouse and once again we were disappointed. It was small and to walk out to the end would just be even wetter, windier and colder so we just took pictures from the beach.

Then we went to St. Joseph, quant little town with three wineries that we stopped at and did some tastings and bought a few bottles for when we get back into Maggie and we can reminisce about our time here in Michigan.

Michigan is always a soft spot for me, it seems everywhere we go it just reminds me of many memories to sort through, but we always love spending time there, finding our own new memories for the areas we visit.