We drove to Tucson, Arizona on October 30th and set up our camp for the next few days in Catalina State Park. There are nice long pull through sites with water and 50amp electric and lots of space between sites. It is very reasonably priced compared to other RV parks available in the area and we’ll be here for a few days. Here is a photo of our campsite:
And here is a Tucson sunset with almost a full moon:
We arrived at the Sun City Elks lodge and set up camp, had lunch, then went to visit Ken’s Aunt Mable. We always enjoy getting to see her when we are in the area and we take her out to lunch or dinner a couple of times while we’re there so she can get away from the retirement apartment cafeteria food. This time she had some new equipment for her cable tv provider for Ken to set up for her, and we also moved some furniture around. I helped get her email set up and working again and bought her a book to help out in the learning process. This photo is of Aunt Mable holding her dog, Gracie, and Ken:
And a Sun City sunset:
We arrived at the Escapees RV Club campground, North Ranch, in Congress, Arizona with plans to spend a couple of nights there. However, a cooling trend was predicted for the next couple of days along with winds, so we decided to stay for just the one night.
We left Visalia on the October 23rd with plans to stop for the night in Boron. By the time we got there, it was still early in the day and we had already toured that area, so we decided to continue on to Laughlin, Nevada. The following day, we visited with Ken’s cousin Verna and her husband Art then went out to dinner with them. Here is a photo of Verna and Art:
On Sunday, we packed our lunch and headed out to see Hoover Dam. In our past travels through this area, we had never seen it and Verna and Art had shown us some photos they had on their computer of the new bridge being built there to route traffic away from the dam. After crossing the Colorado River to the Arizona side, we came across this unfortunate truck accident at the bottom of the hill:
Here are a couple of photos of Hoover Dam and an informational sign about it’s size:
The next two photos are of the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge as it appeared the day we visited there and of a sign that gives an idea of how the bridge will look when it is completed:
Art had advised us to return to Laughlin on the Nevada side, and we were very glad we did. Traffic was backed up from the dam about 5 miles to Boulder City of Phoenix people headed home from Las Vegas! When we got back to Laughlin, we visited with Verna and Art for awhile before returning to the RV to get ready to travel the next day.
After leaving Fresno, our next stop was Visalia, CA. We set up camp at the Elks lodge camping area which had upgraded to 50amp service since we last stayed there. We don’t have any photos from our stay there as we were there mainly to pick up our mail and do a little shopping. We did have a meal at the lodge which they called a “chili sizer”. It was what I would call a chili burger and was pretty good. A salad and root beer float were also included with our meal.
We left Sacramento and drove to the Elks Lodge in Fresno, CA for 2 nights. We planned to see Jan’s youngest brother Dean who moved there about 1-1/2 years ago. After getting set up, we drove to Dean’s apartment, got a tour, and then took him to Red Robin for dinner. The next day, Dean had a doctor appointment and he asked me to go there with him. I met him there, and shortly before his appointment, a sign language interpreter arrived to go in with him too. California has a law where an interpreter must accompany a deaf person to a doctor’s visit. That worked out great since I don’t know sign language. After the appointment, Dean took me back to the Elks lodge so he could see our RV. After that, we took him to a late lunch at In-N-Out Burger. Dean had never been to one before and really liked their french fries (one of Dean’s favorite foods). Here is a picture of Dean and Jan:
We traveled from Redding to Sacramento, CA and set up camp at the Sacramento Elks Lodge for a couple of nights. We then traveled to visit good friends Ron and Carol. Ron updates the RV Elks Travel Guides and we wanted to buy more current issues. We visited with them for a short while then met Ken’s cousin Jeanne. Ken hadn’t seen Jeanne since sometime in the 1950’s, so it’s been a long time and we had a great visit. Jeanne took us out to dinner the first night there…thanks, Jeanne! The following day, Jeanne and Ken went through old family photos after which we took Jeanne out to pizza. Here is a photo of Ken and Jeanne:
