RTR 2019

We left La Mirada, CA on a Monday morning and headed to Boulder City, NV to spend the night in a hotel.  We had some things we needed to do at our storage garage there before going to Surprise, AZ to pick up the RV from the repair shop.  All of those tasks went well.  We picked up the RV and headed to White Tanks Mountain Regional Park to spend the night.  We arrived after dark which is not ideal but we got pulled in to our pull-through site just fine.  We went to hook up to the electric post and found out our electric cord was missing.  😭  We purposely paid for a site with electric and we couldn't use it.  The RV repair shop accidentally kept our electric cord.  Bummer!  Oh well, at least we had the battery.  We connected the water and settled in for the night.  We had a lot of items to organize since we last spent time in the RV before Thanksgiving.  We had a beautiful site at the campground at White Tanks Mountain.

Someone refurbished a public bus into a camper.

The next morning, we went back to the RV repair shop in Surprise, AZ to get our electric cord and then stocked up with groceries.  We then headed west on I-10 to Quartzsite, AZ.  There was an event there called Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR) and we were meeting friends there.

RTR is in it's fourth year and put on by a guy named Bob Wells.  He lives in his van camper and has been putting together an event every January for more specifically others who live in van campers but he welcomes all RV's.  The event has been growing exponentially over the years and this year was very well attended.  Bob is another YouTuber and he put out an entry on the coordinates to find his event on YouTube.

The GPS coordinates to RTR 2019

We planned to meet another couple, Joie & Mike of @OurMobileBackpack, that we met last fall in Albuquerque and then connected with in Amarillo, TX and caravaned to the RV NomadFest in Wellington, TX with them. They arrived at RTR the day before us and saved us a spot. 

We found Joie and Mike and got set up.  They also met up with a couple that follows them on Instagram, Kelley & Wes of @RoadHoundAdventures.  So the three of us formed a nice horseshoe at RTR.   

Our "street" at RTR

Our horseshoe arrangement

Al made some yummy soup and Red Lobster biscuits!

Sun setting on the desert

Desert sunsets are spectacular!

Check out this guy in his flying contraption!  Looked like fun!

The big dip in the road into the RTR area (so glad we set up outside the camp)

Every day there was a schedule of topics that were presented to the group for those interested.  We attended the solar and boondocking/dry camping talks.

Bob Wells giving announcements

The crowd for a topic talk

Joie's sister and brother-in-law tent camped with us for one night.  Brave souls!

Al playing Frisbee golf with one of our neighbors.

One day we drove over to the location where a couple, Sharon & Bobby of @PhoenixRamblers, were camped.  They bought an old Rambler RV for like $300 and remodeled the whole thing.  It's beautiful and they also have their own YouTube channel about their adventures.  Such a nice couple and Bobby's enthusiasm for the RV lifestyle was contagious.

The Phoenix Ramblers YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2dShwJG0x4cXafpg5TmmTA/videos

People with YouTube channels have subscribers.  When they arrive at a location, they sometimes post their location or GPS coordinates so people that want to meet them in person can find them.  It's been interesting to meet people we've watched their YouTube videos as we were preparing for our adventure. 

Thanks Joie and Mike for saving us a spot at RTR and it was so nice to meet Kelley and Wes.  We enjoyed our time at the RTR but it was time to move to a new spot in Quartzsite.

Holiday Wrap-up

Remember we left the RV in Surprise, Arizona with a dealer to fix some minor warranty items.  That way we didn't have to pay to store it while we were in California for the holidays.  We spent the night in a hotel and then we arrived back in Southern California just before Thanksgiving.

This year 23 family members went to Buca di Beppo for Thanksgiving dinner.  I expected to get a turkey dinner but that sadly didn't happen and we ended up eating Italian food for Thanksgiving.  (I'm still waiting for my turkey dinner! 😢😢 )

All of us at Buca!

The twins are getting so big now!  They're 5 and a lot more fun!

Carmen

Pilgrim Alex

Us looking for a turkey dinner!  (Still waiting!)
(Tino, Kaden, Dori, Nancy, and Al)

Al got some special attention from Carmen and a photographer caught it!

Al & Carmen

Al & Carmen

After Thanksgiving we went to Disneyland and California Adventure for a day and met up with people we know. 

Nancy & Cathy

We went straight for our favorite ride which is now re-purposed as Guardians of the Galaxy!

It's A Small World (after all)!

Al captured this beautiful shot of the Magic Castle during sunset!

Getting crazy after being around so many people!

Another beautiful shot by Al!

In the late afternoon, we were met by Al's brother, Tino, his girlfriend, Dori, and her two kids, Kaden and Keelie.

Of course the kids were full of energy and so we did a few rides with them before we ate dinner.

Oh no, we're gonna get wet!

Space Mountain!

And, another beautiful shot by Al during the fireworks!

Another day we went to a Christmas party hosted by our financial adviser, Marc, in San Diego.  It was a beautiful day and we got to spend some quality time with Santa.

Other days we met up with friends here and there and went to our home church a few times.  Unfortunately I didn't take photos of everyone we connected with but it was great catching up.  

Al, Nancy, and Cathy

Some of my special friends from Experian hosted us for holiday get-togethers!

Filling our plates with delicious food at Susan & Mike's house

Mike, Susan, Jackie, Al, Nancy, Carlene, Ly, and Ken

While Nancy was off meeting someone for lunch Al took Carmen and Roberto to Philippe's in downtown LA for their famous roast beef sandwiches.

Philippe!s

A treat for us was Al's mom, Carmen, made tamales!  Tamales are a Mexican tradition this time of year.  Nancy helped out just slightly to show she knows how to assemble them.  We love Carmen's tamales and appreciate all the work she did to make them for us!

Pork with red sauce

Anaheim chili peppers and cheese

Nancy assembling a pepper and cheese tamale

Sweet tamale batter (masa, coconut, prunes, pineapple, raisins, sugar, and red jello mix)

Into the pot the go and steam for 1.5 hours.

And the best part......eating them!

Enjoying a pork with red sauce tamale!

A sad day for Al was the day we sold our Chevy truck to our friends, Ira and Frank.  It was a great truck for us as we went on many water-ski trips over the years.  I think I saw him shed a tear or two as they drove off with it.

Then it was my turn when we sold my RAV4.  It was parked at Al's Mom's house while we were gone but we needed to get rid of it before we went back on the road again. 

So since August 2 when we hit the road, here is a road map of our travels.  The map software would only let me put so many markers so it stopped in Tucson, Arizona.  From there we took the Interstate 10 & 91 freeways back to La Mirada, California.

Note:  I'm planning to do a Q&A blog entry some time in January so click on the title (if you're reading this entry in email) and then on our blog page there is a place to send me a note (in the right side column).  Put any questions you have for us there and we'll try to answer them in an upcoming entry.  I won't include your name so don't worry about "stupid" questions.  I'm sure others have the same questions too but are afraid to ask!  Sadly I haven't received very many questions. 

2019
The beginning of 2019 has us headed to Quartzsite, Arizona for some boondocking with many more snowbirds avoiding the cold winter weather.

In February and March we'll be in Tempe, Arizona volunteering at the Los Angeles Angels spring training games.  We'll be ticket takers or ushers for about 10 games.

In April and May we plan to be at a park we found and fell in love with, Snow Canyon State Park in Utah.  We plan to be camp hosts for those months which means we'll get a free full hook up site in exchange for 20 hours of work from each of us each week.  I expect I'll work in the office and Al will do light maintenance around the park.

If you happen to be in Arizona in the next few months, please let us know so we can meet up and show you our rig.

Happy January!