Beauty of Lake Abiquiu and an Odd Monastery…

Our time had come to for us to leave Bernalillo NM and our friends behind until the next time ours paths cross. We packed up the RV and headed north, not to far, and we pulled in around lunchtime at Lake Abiquiu at the Riana COE Campground. The normally blue lake is more greenish in color. The lake is suffering from a blue-green algae invasion and is very, very low due to an extended northern New Mexico draught.

Wow, but what a nice campground. Not many sites here but they are well spaced and with plenty of hiking trails. Also the expansive views are fabulous. There is no wonder that Georgia O’Keefe spent much of her life here capturing the colors and landscapes in her artwork.

We spent five days here and found it to be very relaxing. Our morning hikes among the rocky ledges overlooking the lake were not only enjoyable but offered us different photographic opportunities everyday because the lighting would change not only because of the time of day but because the weather was a bit unsettled at times.

While here we did make a couple of short dives to some interesting places. One was a trip over to the half mile hike into Echo Amphitheater. The short hike inside a small canyon of sorts ends at the Echo Amphitheater. This large naturally eroded landscape feature is much larger once you are inside it looking up. The water stains from hundreds (thousands?) of years of erosive forces remain imprinted on the overhang above.

The red rocks that are evident here due to erosion and some uplifting of geologic rock created some rock formations more like those seen in Utah or Arizona but yes, they can also be found here in New Mexico.

We also drove out on a 14 mile dirt road to check out an oddity, a monastery that also brews beer. Yes you heard that right!  The Monastery of Christ in the Desert is just such a place. This peaceful religious retreat in the boonies is also home to the origins of Abbey Brewing.

While they brew beer on the premises they don’t have a tap room for sampling and they also do not allow tours of where they brew the beer. Luckily for us though the little store named Bodes in the little town of nearby Abiquiu sells some of their beer. I can say that the Monks’ Dark Ale they brew was quite tasty and it was even better knowing that we had visited the Monastery that the monks had brewed it in….

This sure is a beautiful place to spend a few days on the road of retirement…

NOTE: We are currently in Vallecito CO and going to Mancos CO in a few days…

Llano, Texas and we found a cool little RV park here…

We left San Angelo State Park driving west on state highway 87 to highway 71 heading to our destination, the small town of Llano, Texas, population 3200. Man that road to Llano was seriously beat up… There has been lot of oil activity in this area and the road has paid the price. Nonetheless, we pulled into Riverway RV Park unscathed.

We changed our original plan from going to the more remote South Llano River State Park to stay in Llano for three nights to see if we could find parts for our broken Thetford toilet. As full timers we really must have a working toilet on board!

Getting the toilet fixed hasn’t turn out to be an easy task. Once I had taken it out of the RV and disassembled it I discovered that two plastic pieces called the waste ball and the waste ball drive arm were broken. Of course no one had both of these parts but I was able to find them on Amazon and have ordered them to meet us at our next park in Fredericksburg. We move there today so hopefully by the end of the day we will have a working toilet again.

In the meantime we are more than glad we chose Riverway RV Park.  It is a cool little park I found while perusing RV Park Reviews and was amazed at their score of 9.7. I was even more amazed when I discovered that they accept Passport America so this 9.7 park is only $15 per night with full hookups! To top it off the park is on the Llano River and has a small trail that we have enjoyed alongside the river. The owners (Texas Aggies) are so friendly as have been all our neighbors.  Our view of the Llano River in our "front yard" along with the exceptionally nice,clean facilities have made our stay wonderful despite our toilet woes. This park lives up to its ratings for sure and we recommend it to anyone planning a stay in this area.

We did have some time to check out the small historic town of Llano, Texas. Our first discovery was a small place along the Llano River where some impromptu creativity had resulted in  the creation of about a 100 artistic cairns.  We noticed remnants of melted candles where some had apparently stayed during the night to meticulously construct their cairn. There were even other artistic displays scattered about making this spot rather interesting. It even inspired me to build a cairn. However, we found out later that these artistic creations were the remnants of the Llano Earth Art Festival that was held in here earlier in March.

We spent some time walking around the small town and soaking in the history of the old buildings remaining. Like many small rural towns in Texas this one shows the presence of decline and the beginnings of revitalization as some of the old boarded up buildings are being reborn into antique shops and small eateries. Most of the older part of town surrounds the stately courthouse building built in 1893.

Of course the Courthouse in Llano is really cool as so many of the courthouses are in Texas. Each county has a county seat where the courthouses were located and in Llano the original one had burned down but was rebuilt years later. We decided to check out the interior and were greeted by a friendly law enforcement officer who after chatting with us decided to give us a personal tour of the courthouse. He even showed us an old bank vault that was built to house the entire collection of legal records. Seeing the locking metal shutters around the windows indicated that it was built to withstand any future fires to protect the important documents. What a fun chat we had with this rather friendly fellow…

Llano has been a really nice stop especially since Spring is arriving as evidenced by warmer weather and the sighting of beautiful Texas wildflowers beginning to show their vibrant colors…

Laughlin NV and then Lake Havasu City AZ..

We left the Cal-Nev-Ari RV Park in Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada and drove a very short drive over to Laughlin, Nevada where we boondocked in the parking lot at the Pioneer Casino. I pulled into our spot and we were so level I didn’t even use the levelers. We went inside to register the RV (at their request so security would be aware of us and where they issued a tag to display in the RV window). The only requirement is you have to sign up for a player’s card which was no problem for us. So free camping meant we freed up a small amount of money to play a little video poker and even better, when we signed up for the Pioneer Casino Player Card we were each given $5.00 in free play credits..

We toured the casinos and played a little video poker at a few of them but spent most of our gambling time at the Pioneer Casino since we were camping in their lot. We had the most luck there as well as we actually made small profit… Free beer, free camping and we won enough to pay for all the tips with a little left over! Well we tried to leave Pioneer Casino some money like we did we the casinos in Las Vegas but it just didn’t happen.

We only stayed one night in Laughlin but enjoyed walking along the riverfront. They have a path that followed along the river although at some points on the trail you have to go in and out of some of the casinos to stay on it. The next morning I woke up and walked the river again to watch the sunrise. After Sharon woke up we went over to the Edgewood Casino since she won some comp dollars when signing up as a new member so we basically had free breakfast as well (it did cost a bit over a buck).

The next day we took another short drive down to Lake Havasu City where we pulled into a Passport America Park called Havasu Falls RV Park.  Although it was mostly concrete and gravel it offerred some great views of Lake Havasu. We were only in this park overnight as one night is their Passport America limit. With the $25/night on the PPA rate we didn't want to stay another night at full price.

We didn’t really do much our first day in Lake Havasu but we did make time to walk along the Bridgewater Channel to see the biggest attraction to Lake Havasu, the London Bridge. This bridge isn’t a replica as it is the actual bridge formerly located in London. In 1968 the founder of Lake Havasu, Robert McCulloch purchased the bridge for $2.46 million dollars. He then had it relocated in Lake Havasu block by block as each one was numbered before the bridge was disassembled to make reassembly in Lake Havasu a snap. The historic London Bridge now spans the  Bridgewater Channel between Lake Havasu and Thompson Bay.

Another novelty here is that Lake Havasu City is home to more lighthouses than any other city in America. There are 1/3 scale replicas of lighthouses from all over the place and were built to the original lighthouse specifications. There are currently 23 lighthouses that can be seen along the shores in both Arizona and California. A complete list can be found here.

Lake Havasu City was founded in 1963 making it a young city.  At an elevation of some 250 feet above sea level and the fact that it boasts over 300 days of sunshine per year it has become a huge retirement location making this young town a town for the oldies…We saw a very lively group of some retirees and veterans sporting their Red Shirt Friday T-shirts while taking every seat available at the bar at a local brewery we found called College Street Brewery.  They looked like a really fun group and lent a lot of positive energy to this popular brewpub and restaurant.  Sharon had a delicious Pumpkin Stout and I had an very nice IPA .  We both enjoyed our beer and the ambiance of this brewery.

Today we will leave Havasu Falls RV Park and drive 3 whole miles to another Passport America Park, Campbell Cove Resort,.  We hadn't found it previously but happily discovered with their PA rate we will be able to stay a bit longer here..

Pellicer Creek Campground…

We have been here almost a week and other than a little road noise from nearby Highway 1 this has been a real nice little place to stay. This park may not have a ton of amenities but it perfectly located to explore both St. Augustine and the Palm Coast areas of Florida. Combine that with their Good Sam’s discounted weekly rate we plan on staying another week here.

We are enjoying exploring this area and will continue to enjoy it the additional week we plan to stay. However we would really have preferred to move on to the Orlando area for week instead. Why don’t we? Well as it turns out, I have another appointment at the Mayo scheduled this next Tuesday and this is the main reason we have added the additional week here. I had a mole taken off last week at the Mayo that turned out to be an in situ melanoma… sigh!!! Nothing to overly worry about as these in situ or stage 0 skin cancers are 99% curable but still not the news we had expected to hear from the Mayo. I think I would rather deal with motorhome issues! However, C'est la vie we can’t always have good news in our lives… and for now we are both looking forward to our winter stay in Bonita Springs.

The weather has been a bit dicey with the some of the early season cold fronts coming through but even with a little rain here there is no puddling on the RV sites. The park has paved roads and pads and the sites are well sized. There are only about 30 sites in this park and the owner is well motivated to ensure that his customers are always happy. He is a friendly fellow who isn’t afraid to put some money back into his park. They even recently put fresh grass sod on any area that was a bit bare and while we were staying on our site there were several landscape plantings added.

There is a small club house with a laundry room but you won’t find a workout facility or pool here. However, one nice feature is the park is adjacent to Pellicer Creek and they have build a access point to the creek that is perfect for launching canoes or kayaks from. We plan to take our inflatable kayak on Pellicer Creek at least once before we leave this area.

Hopefully before getting to Bonita Springs we will be able to spend some time near the Tampa/Bradenton area since we really have only briefly explored this part of Florida. Also several of our RV buddies will be in this area as well… We have read a lot of blogs about this area and hope to not only visit some of our friends but see some of the nifty things we have read about…

Why we haven’t joined any membership campgrounds…

Our first few days here at the Thousand Trails Encore Park called St Clair RV Resort are reminiscent of our last stay at a Thousand Trails Encore Park. We are not members of the Thousand Trails system but have considered joining on several occasions. Why aren’t we members yet? Well there are a several reasons and some of them are reflected in this park as well.

The few Thousand Trails parks we have stayed at all seem to have a few things in common. Most of the parks we have visited are usually not strategically located to the places we really want to visit… in other words they seem to be out in the boonies! Now this is nice when we are wanting to get away from everything but often we like to explore not only our park but also the offerings in the immediate area.  Another downside is the two week limit because it interferes with our desire to have month long stays when we get to a preferred location.  Part of our reason for travel is our desire to immerse in certain areas testing them as possible future home sites. When we want to chill and get away from it all it is usually for only 3-5 days.

But what I really dislike most about the Thousand Trails parks we have stayed at is that they really just don’t seem to take care of them. The facilities and infrastructure are outdated and seemingly uncared for and this “resort” is no exception. St Clair RV Resort is a nice enough park and has a lot of potential. It is decently located about 1.5 hours north of Detroit and only a 10-15 minutes from the Blue Water Region of Port Huron, Marysville, and St Clair. However, the management has sadly let this park deteriorate…

For example, the dirt/gravel roads are full of potholes and the sites are mostly un-level and poorly maintained as tree branches prevent many rigs from using the sites.  Upon our arrival there was no staff at the gated entry but we followed directions for the walkie talkie connected to a staff member who rode up to the gate to register us.  In fact we have been in a line of at least ten cars waiting for someone to come open the gate. The staff member gave us a map saying we could choose any open 50 amp but there were only a few 50 amp sites in this park..  When we did choose one, the electrical box had a lock on it (as did the box in the site right next to us).  We called the park number and waited about 10 or 15 minutes for a staff member to unlock the box. Then after plugging in we discovered our 50 amp power pole had inferior power as only 108 volts comes through one leg of the power so we are using the cleaner 30 amp side.

The next day we used the washing machines here at the park and not only did we end up with stained brown clothes from apparent rust in the lines but we also had to wring out the clothes since none of the washers worked beyond the wash cycle and wouldn’t spin your wash. This park just shows many signs of neglect for a very long period of time…

We will be here a few more days before moving to Wayne County Fairgrounds.  Would we stay again at this park? Probably not, but it has more to do with the fact that we probably won’t visit this part of Michigan again than it has to do with the park itself since we chose it based upon its low weekly rate for this area. But certainly this stay has yet to convince us to join any membership park system.

For many others out there, and some of whom we have met, membership parks are the perfect compliment to their full time lifestyle but it simply doesn’t work for us… yet. It may do so in the future when we aren’t as picky as to the locations we want to stay. Other than maybe reducing our overnight camping fees we just haven’t seen the value of joining a membership club system. So for now we will continue to wander around the USA and look for those little campground gems nearer the spots we want to stay…

Yuma, Arizona…

We left the fascinating Salton Sea area and made the 140 mile drive southeast to Yuma, Arizona. The drive was uneventful other than the long line at the border patrol check station and the scenic sand dunes just outside of Yuma. We came to Yuma where we booked 6 nights at the Yuma Palms RV Resort.  We came in on their October Special rate of only $19.95 per night. Now this place is actually a resort as opposed to some places we've stayed at that call themselves a "resort"! Included in this rate are your standard amenities such as full hookups but there is also really good free Wi-Fi and great cable including several ESPN channels always great during college football season). But that isn't all as we also have access to the best pool and hot-tub facilities we have encountered during our travels so far.

In addition the resort boasts Tennis Courts, Shuffleboard Courts, an outstanding Fitness Center brand new,laundry facilities (with the added option of and adjacent outside area with lines available for hanging clothes to dry), a huge Billiards Room with 10 full sized tables, two heated swimming pools, two spas, specialty rooms for pottery (with a kiln), jewelry making,crafts and games. They even have a Putting Green and during the winter months offer Las Vegas-style

entertainment. Now this is a park that is really geared to trying to attract you toward buying a lot upon which a casita or winter home could be built.. At this time many of the corner lots have been sold and have some attractive houses or casitas built on them.  Until they sell all the lots this is an excellent choice of parks for wintering in the Yuma area.

The town of Yuma itself is a bit underwhelming for a town of nearly 100,000 residents but it still has a comfortable feel to it nonetheless. There are several Indian casinos nearby and several wildlife refuges as well. And with Algodones Mexico close by where there are nearly as many dentists as residents, you can cross the border and get your teeth fixed or get new glasses.  Also available are inexpensive pharmaceuticals and the ability to pick up a few liters of your favorite agave based beverages.

We had a first hand experience of one of the highest rated Mexican restaurants in the area when we chose to go to it for Sharon’s birthday. Before going to the restaurant we also tried one of the reader’s choice award spots for happy hours at Brewers Restaurant & Sports Bar. They had their flagship beer on tap, the Brewers Amber Ale, for the happy hour price of $2.50 so after a few nicely crafted pints we made our way over to a little mom and pop place called Mi Rancho Restaurant. Prices were a bit higher than I thought it would be but since we normally split a meal, but we found it to be actually inexpensive considering their portions are huge. After a few Mexican beverages, some excellent salsa and chips along with some fabulous green chili, we gave both of these places two thumbs up.

We heard a lot of things about Yuma, mostly negative, but it looks like a place we could stay entertained for at least a month but only if we stayed at this park and definitely not much longer than one month. Since we are here for six days we will just kick back and enjoy the resort along with some great Mexican food.