Arriving at Casa Grande, Arizona

After our trailer was all fixed up in Ft. Stockton, Texas, we made our way to Andy's house in La Mesa, New Mexico.  Andy is part of the Boondocker's Welcome program and we met him a year ago when we parked on his property.  This night he was hosting two campers in his driveway.

We spent some time in Andy's house catching up with him and sharing camping stories.  A lot had changed in his life in the year since we saw him last. 

Al, Andy, and Nancy

Leaving Andy's place, we planned to stop and see another friend in Tucson, Arizona but his mother was in the hospital so we made the long drive all the way to Casa Grande, Arizona where we'll hang for the winter.

A couple we met in Quartzsite last January told us about an opening at an RV resort where they were working.  They said it's really easy work.  You work one week and then get two weeks off.  There are three couples camp hosting and rotate each week.  Since we planned to be in Arizona anyway for Baseball Spring Training we decided to give it a try.  We're paid and we got a discounted rate for our site.

Here we are set up in our site between the other two couples we are camp hosting with.

We arrived just in time to have Thanksgiving with some of our RV friends.

Al, Brenda, Cathy, Mark, Dave, Kathy, Mike, and Joie

Pictionary Challenge - Girls vs. Guys

The first weeks we had required online training classes to complete then on the job training before it was time for our shift week.

I work in the office a few hours in the morning preparing packets for incoming campers, answer the phone, and try to help guests who visit the office.  I also sell tickets for the Friday night dance.  

Al shows new arrivals to their sites and reads the electric meters.  He also had to lock up two entrance gates at 7PM each evening so that only the main entrance was open overnight.   

Both of us unlock all the facility buildings on the weekend mornings and lock all the doors and set the office alarm at 10 PM. 

Another "job" for Al was he was recruited for the park softball team.  The games were played at another resort (Palm Creek) where they had a beautiful field.

Al at bat

 

Being that most of the guys playing softball are pretty old, they had some interesting rules.  For instance, each batter starts off their at bat with one ball and one strike.  Another is to score a run the guys had to run to an area away from home plate to avoid any collisions and injuries.  There was a safety screen in front of the pitcher to protect them from getting hit.

Al hadn't played softball in many, many years so he practiced his hitting at the small batting/golf cage at our park.  

 

After some practice, Al found his swing and was hitting pretty good.

Some of the guys were pretty old but could still hit.  Getting to first base was sometimes a challenge so Al was called in as a substitute runner often. 

Al scoring a run

2019 Fiesta Grande Amigo's

On one of our non-working weeks we went to California to visit family.  We got to the 91 freeway and thought, UGH....., back to LA area traffic.  Suddenly our truck felt so big and the lanes of traffic so small!

We went out and found some nicely decorated Christmas trees.

We spent some time celebrating the holiday with close friends!

Ly & Ken, Susan & Mike, Carlene, Jackie, Sarah & Dan, and Al

Another day we went to watch the twins perform some Christmas carols with their after school class. 

 Then it was off for a dinner of pancakes with sprinkles!  "Seriously?"

Some nights we played cards with Carmen and Roberto. 

or Roberto tried to teach us how to play pool.

And we got to attend a Christmas service at our home church.

 

Carmen, Roberto, and Al

Carmen & Al

After a brief visit to California, it was back to Casa Grand, Arizona and back to work.

On one of our next weeks off we volunteered at the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open.  More on that in the next entry.

Big Bend National Park - Break Down

We were camped at Big Bend National Park in Texas for four nights at the Rio Grande Village Campground.  After our friends left the park, we visited more areas of the park on our own.  One day we took a drive for about half an hour to the west side of the park and stopped at the Castolon Visitor's Center.

This visitor center suffered a devastating fire in 2019 which took the historic building that housed the visitor center and La Harmonia store.  The fire began in Mexico and jumped the Rio Grande river in to Big Bend National Park where it burned for 11 days until it was contained. 

A historic house in the area now houses the Visitor Center

Historic Alvino House visible from the visitor center.

From the visitor center it was 8 miles to the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook and trail head.  We took a short hike on the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. The trail goes to a part of the Rio Grande River where in low water it's possible to cross the river and hike into the canyon. 

Unfortunately the water was too deep for us to cross and hike into the canyon but we enjoyed the view.

Santa Elena Canyon visible in the distance

Cerro Castellan

Mule Ears

Gazing toward Mexico, the Rio Grande, and Santa Elena Canyon in the far off distance about 14 miles away. 

Sotol Vista

We had a nice day driving through the park enjoying the views along the way and back.  It was a full day!

Back to the RV for the evening. 

Another day we drove to the middle of the park to Chisos Basis.  There is a nice campground in this section of the park but our trailer was too big to get there due to sharp curves and steep grades.  Nothing over 20 feet is recommended on this road and our trailer is 30'.   

Driving in to Chisos Basin

In the area we did the Lost Mine Trail.

There were nice views of the surrounding area from this hike.

The Chisos Mountains lodge, visitor center, and campground is in the basin

We left the Chisos Basin area and drove back towards our campground and made a turn on to an unpaved road to the trailhead for the Hot Spring Trail.

Along the Rio Grande is a "pool" with warm water fed by a hot spring.  The river water was cold and flowing pretty fast. The hot spring was a perfect temperature!

Rio Grande

While I was sitting in the pool, a Mexican shepherd and his flock of goats came down to the river for a drink of water.  

Nice palm trees

The day we left the park, we drove 20 miles from the campground to Panther Junction to get my Junior Ranger badge for Big Bend National Park.

Swearing in for my Big Bend Junior Ranger Badge

Then we stopped off at the park sign to get a photo since we forgot to stop on the way in. 

After taking our photos and walking back to our truck, Al noticed our trailer was tilted a little to one side.  Looking under the trailer he noticed that one of our leaf springs was completely broken.  Uh oh!

We didn't have cell service in the area of the park sign so we disconnected from the trailer and drove the truck about 2 miles back to the Panther Junction Visitor Center.  We called our roadside assistance and after figuring out where we wanted to be towed to, they sent a tow truck.  We needed a flat bed truck since we couldn't be towed with the wheels on the road.

We were broken down in an area with no services close by so it was determined that we needed to be towed 100 miles to Ft. Stockton, Texas.  

We went back to the trailer and hung out inside while we waited for the tow truck.  When it arrived, we realized that it wasn't big enough to hold our trailer.  So back to the visitor center to call our roadside assistance again.

A bigger truck was dispatched to get us.  Overall we waited about 5 hours for this "low boy" tow truck to get us.  Luckily we were in our trailer and had all the amenities we needed, bathroom, kitchen with food, comfortable chairs, water in our tanks, and solar if we needed electricity.  We both read our books for most of the wait so we were perfectly comfortable.

Finally the tow truck arrived.  It was HUGE! 

The truck driver separated the trailer from the truck.  Then Al had to back up our trailer on to the tow trailer.  There was no extra space on either side of the trailer so the tires had to be exactly right in position!

After a few tries, our trailer was up on the tow trailer and the driver tied everything down.

Then the driver had to reconnect his truck to the tow trailer.

Then we were on our way for the 100 mile drive to Ft. Stockton.  We followed the tow truck driver in our truck.  It was nerve wracking following our trailer on the tow trailer with the our tires barely fitting on the trailer width wise.  We had to go through a border partrol checkpoint.

We were towed to Sancho's in Ft. Stockton in Texas.  Then the whole process was reversed to get our trailer off the tow trailer. 

We spent the night in our trailer on the street in front of the repair shop.

The next morning, a Sunday, the guys from the shop were right on to our repair.

Broken leaf spring

While they were replacing the one broken leaf spring, we had the other leaf spring on the same axle replaced too.  Both were replaced with beefier springs.

In less than 3 hours on a Sunday, the trailer was repaired and we were on our way!

We paid nothing additional for the 100 mile tow with our FMCA Roadside assistance plan.

We contacted Grand Design about the leaf spring and learned that Grand Design will pay for our repair in Ft. Stockton and replace the remaining two leaf springs and both axles!  We are very pleased with Grand Design.  

Next we're making our way to Casa Grande, Arizona where we got jobs for the winter!