Escapade and Time in Tucson Area

We got to Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson on Saturday. The 5 day event starts on Sunday, the 8th. This is the 55th Escapade put on by the Escapees RV club. and the third we have attended. This is the first in Arizona and has turned out to be a popular one with over 900 rvs of all types. There are workshops and presentations geared toward RVs, both full and part timers, crafts, line dancing, entertainment. When we got there, we saw our friends, Larry and Orene, who we first met at the Escapees Mexican Connection trip several years ago. We joined them at their rig for a happy hour along with Margaret and Frank, who we also know from the Mexican trips. Sunday night was the opening ceremony. Kay Peterson, who started the Escapees Club along with her husband who passed away a few years ago, was the main speaker that night. She is 88 and is a great speaker with a wonderful sense of humor. I wish her speech was longer as she is very interesting. Her children are involved with the running of the club and now her grandchildren are as well. The club started with average age of members in their 40's and now around 75 percent are over 65. So the grandchildren have started a loose group within the club called the XCapers who should appeal to younger people. A good idea to keep this wonderful club going. They had entertainment every night but we just went one night to see Brent Web, the Master Mind, a Mentalist type of magician. It was fun and would love to know how he does his tricks. We attended various presentations, including some travel ones by Nick Russell, who publishes the Gypsy Journal, and also writes some mystery books that take place in Arizona. We have read the first six of the Big Lake series, and waiting on his seventh, which he is now working on. We also spent some money while here. . They have an area where rv products are sold, including satellite TV. As our rooftop satellite hasn't been working for awhile and we have been using our outside one which is a hassle to get set up. We decided to go for a while new unit instead of having it fixed as we have real old Direct TV receivers which once they go kaput we would need to buy a new unit anyway as the new receivers don't work with our old system. Tuesday it was installed and we are very happy with the results. We can now record programs again as we couldn't use our tivo dvr in the motorhome. We also now have HD. Our TV is HD ready but our system wasn't. I also finally upgraded my flip phone to a smart phone,a Galaxy Prime Core. The Verizon connection at the Fairgrounds wasn't working very good, especially with so many people there and we later ended up having to go to one of the Verizon stores in Tucson to get the phone fully set up. The reps at the Fairgrounds never set up the upgrade or some other changes we made and we ended up having to pay some upgrade and other charges the reps hadn't told us about. Working with Verizon is so fustrating as you get different answers depending on who you talk to. Anyway we had a good time. We did leave on Thursday before the closing ceremony as it is one of the Spring Break weeks coming up and we wanted to make sure we could get into the first come first serve campground, Gilbert Ray Campground which is in the Tucson area.
We were able to get into the lovely campground and spent 7 days, which is the maximum time you can stay, enjoying the scenery. We had gotten over our colds but Joe developed a knee problem while at the Fairgrounds and was limping around most of the time we were there and at Gilbert Ray and so no long walks or sight seeing. It was a nice place to just kick back and enjoy the nice weather with just a small amount of rain.

We did have a snake sighting. I was sitting outside reading when a guy came over and said there was a large snake heading our way. I thought it might be a time to go inside which I did. I tried to get a picture of it from our window but it was hard as the men capturing it were in the way. You can barely see a little part of it in the second picture below. You can see part of the hook and below it is part of the snake.

The snake is just to the left of the box with the orange looking top.

More beautiful Arizona sunsets. Next up in our adventures is a return trip to Roosevelt Lake, a few hours trip north of Tucson. Stay tuned.

Tucson to So Cal to Tucson

We had planned to hang out in Arizona until the Escapade in Tucson but needed to go back to So Cal for my Dad's Celebration of Life. We had a week before it and so made a few stops along the way. We wanted to stay at Picacho Peak but it was full. It was getting late in the day and we drove to American Girl Mine again as we knew the area. When we got there it was dark and even though we went to the area where we recently stayed, it was a little hard to figure out where to turn off the road. We drove in just a little ways and found a large area to stop. The next day while taking a walk we stopped and talked to a Canadian couple who we met the when we were here before the Mexican trip. We also met a gentleman who was traveling with his wife and kids for a year seeing the country. What a great experience for kids. More younger people are traveling in rv's, working on the road and sometimes with children that they home school.

We did some shopping but that was about it. Joe got a cold and gave it to me. Thanks Joe. It was a nice place to just relax and rest up while we weren't feeling well. The celebration of life was on Saturday, the 28th at Kori and Nick's place. We checked in at San Mateo Campground, near San Clemente on the Thursday before. On Saturday we went to Kori and Nick's. It was a nice gathering with family and friends. Kristi and Kori made a nice slideshow of pictures of my Dad.  Really liked the one of him taken when he was in Panama during the war. He was in shorts sitting next to a surfboard. Joe wished he could ask him if he tried surfing.  It was a nice day but we will certainly miss my Dad as well as my Mom. The next day we went to Kristi and Brocks for awhile, visiting and going over some things related to my Dad's death. Kristi has been the one to take care of all the things that need to be done and I thank her so much for it.
When we were in Mexico we had planned to go kayaking but discovered that we forgot our kayak seats. Uurrgh!!! Having a storage unit at Jojoba we need to be careful to make sure we have everything packed into the motorhome before we leave for our trips. Anyway, when we left the area, we stopped at Jojoba to pick them up and got a few other things as well. It was raining hard when we got there and continued as we drove to Borrego Springs, our next stop. We went the back way that goes on Montezuma Road , where at the summit we actually saw snow on the road and on our windows. We got a little nervous that it would get heavy on the roads but it didn't and as we made our way down the long slow drive to Borrego Springs the weather improved. We headed to Rockhouse Road, one of our favorite desert boondocking spots. Again, we didn't do a lot as even though we were feeling better, we still had lingering coughs and still feeling a little blah and so didn't go on any hikes or drives.

We made reservations for Picacho Peak for 4 nights right before the Escapade. The desert is just beautiful now with all the spring flowers and Picacho Peak is especially lovely.

Now onto the Escapade.

A Top 10 Site in Tennessee

Poole Knobs Campground is a Corp of Engineer Park on the Percy Priest Lake, not far from Nashille. When we got to the campground, the host said that someone had just left a day

early from the best site in the park. So we took that already paid for site and another couple days. We would later, as predicted by the host, go and sign up for one more day. If we could have stayed longer, we would have. This is a site I would get advanced reservations for two weeks. It is a pull through facing the lake with a cement patio in front of the MH and a few steps and a ramp down to another big patio area. Then you have a small grass area and the water.

There area a number of other sites on the water but only two have these nice patio areas and are this close to the water. Oh and this is a corp of engineer campground and so we pay half price, which comes to 12 dollars a night for electric and water. Can't bet the COE campgrounds. As I mentioned in the title of this post, This was a top favorite of ours in all our travels and we have been to a lot of nice parks.

We went into East Nashville one day to go to Trader Joe's.  Very busy. TJ's was packed and this was in the middle of a weekday afternoon! Then we stopped at an outdoor farmer market for some fruit and veggies. I couldn't resist some interesting looking peas, which are called purple hull peas and I think are only grown in the south, especially in Arkansas. I later made a dish using these fresh peas cooked with bacon, onions and garlic and served it over some brown rice. Very tasty. I also got some fruit which I think is a type of grape but with a slightly harder outer skin and a green jelly like center. They were also good. We were going to spend some time in the more historic part of Nashville but really wanted to just enjoy our lake front view. We have been pretty busy in the last weeks, especially in DC and Maine and wanted some downtime in a great setting. We did finally get our Sea Eagle boat out and did some kayaking.  After some kayaking we added the sail equipment and Joe did some sailing. Savannah and I were content to just sit and check out the views and I did some reading.

We got more beautiful sunsets. Thursday came and no one cancelled their reservation for this spot(darn) and so we are off to another Tennessee campground near Memphis.

I Love Hockey til the Day I Die -Hockey Hall of Fame

One of the things on our list this trip was to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was suppose to be a little under 2 hours to get there from our campground. Well we didn't die trying to get there but felt like we were a lot older. We were near the border and it was a weekday around 10 in the morning. How long could it take to get through the border. A long time. There were long lines with what looked like mostly Canadians per what license plates we saw. An hour later and just the usual 10 questions we were through. We are use to Western Canada with few towns or people once past the border and.or Vancouver which still is not that crowded. Well, getting to Toronto was like driving through Southern Calif with one large city blending into there. Hurray!!! And we LOVE Hockey and so all worth it.
The Hockey Hall of Fame is both a museum and Hall of Fame. They are many exhibits of the NHL, its players and teams, memorabilia and trophies.

Love the old sweaters worn years ago.

Of course we love seeing anything Ducks. Getzlaf, the Ducks Captain, who had such a great year.

Temmu Selanne, who was shpwn here as a Fan Favorite of the League one year and will always be The Fan Favorite of all die hard Hockey Fans. We will miss you out on the Ice but look forward to see you in this building as an inductee of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Here is a list of Stanley Cup Winners. We were fortunate to be at Honda Center when the Ducks won the Cup in 2007. One of our greatest memories. They won the Cup after only being in the NHL since 1993. It took the Kings almost 40 years .Yeah, now they have two but watch out. We will catch up soon. Looking at the different teams with their histories noted, it is surprising on some of the teams who have never won the Cup. It is really hard to win.

They had lots of interesting things, such as a replica of a locker room and items sold to fans and lots of different equipment from the early days to current days.

Below is some memorabilia from the 1980 Olympics "Miracle on Ice" Hockey Final where the US beat the Russians.

We watched a 3D film with glasses and all of a Game 7 Stanley Cup game played by a bunch of young kids. It was jpretty cool, especially when the puck comes right at you and lots of ice spray too. A fun ending with aup  special visitor at the end.
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We went into the Trophy Room which includes the first Stanley Cup ever.

The list of the inductees from 2013 includes Scottie Niedermayer, who helped the Ducks win the Stanley Cup and is now one of the assistant coaches. Every year, a group which includes coached and players who pick out the players who have had great careers. Scottie was certainly one of the greats, winning two Cups, Olympic Gold, Norse Trophies for Best Defenseman of the Year among other honors.

 The Hart Trophy with the Ducks Corey Perry was there as well as the Conn Symthe Trophy which the Ducks goalie J.S. Giguere (Jiggy) won in the 2003 when the Ducks almost won their first Cup but lost in game seven of the Finals. It is not often that a player from the losing team wins that honor but he was so great in the playoffs that he was honored with the Trophy.

Then there is the Stanley Cup on display. At first I thought it was one of the earlier cups as the current one which has the Ducks players on it as well as the Kings and others was traveling with the Kings for the summer. However, there is a special cup for the team that wins the cup to travel with for the summer after they win. So we got to see the Cup with all the Anaheim Ducks on it. That was pretty exciting.

What a great time. We are glad we got to see this and it only took 2 1/2 hours to get home, with no traffic at the border. And we got another beautiful sunset to end the day.