Yuma Arizona

The FAMCAMP at the U.S. Army Proving Ground is 21 miles north of Yuma and it's out in the desert with nothing around it. The nearest Wally World is 26 miles away. The base doesn't have more than 75 full time Army personnel so needless to say most everything is closed. The FAMCAMP is mostly gravel but at least it does have full hook ups. This is the type place to stay for a short period but not for a long time, too far from everything and nothing to do on the base.

We drove into Yuma to see the "Old Town" but since we're between seasons everything was closed. We were there early September and things don't open till sometime around mid October when the "snow birds" arrive. We did tour the old Yuma Prison and it was real interesting. There isn't too much of it left but what is left is just like it was back in the 1800's. The Colorado River runs right along side and the area around it is nice and green. Since the entire of Yuma is in the desert, this looks like an oasis.

On one of our tours we came along a date grove. They place large plastic bags over the dates and shake the trees to harvest the dates. All the farms use an irrigation system that takes water from the Colorado River. You can drive by a farm that is just being planted and come back three weeks later and see crops beginning to show.

San Diego, California

We finally made it to the FAMCAMP where we had reservations and got settled in. We have friends here that we've know since our grown children were babies. We made a special trip here to see them. We also have an OLC friend here who we've never met but have chatted with for a couple of years and we want to see them.

We went to see our long time friends Alex and Kiki and spend some quality time with them. We use to live next door to them when we were stationed in San Diego and Alex use to baby sit our children from time to time. Jerry said she'd like to have some good home made tamales so Kiki and I went to a Mexican store and got a couple of dozen for lunch.

Jerry wanted to go to Tijuana and do some shopping so we talked Kiki into going along since he speaks Spanish. We spent most of the day buying things to take back home for our kids and friends. I looked like a Donkey hauling all the packages back. She and a lady at the FAMCAMP went down another day and Kiki went with them.

We got together with our OLC friends, John and Carolyn and went out a couple of times for supper. One time they took us to a restaurant over looking the San Diego Bay. The restaurant had "ribs with bar-b-que watermelon" It was supper. They served the ribs on a slice of watermelon and the bar-b-que sauce had a hint of watermelon in it. I have a friend who likes to pick on the waitresses and ask for "bar-b-que watermelon". I ask the waiter for a copy of the menu and some of the sauce for my friend back home. He gave me the sauce but it didn't make it back home, I guess it evaporated.

We went to the area known as Coronado where we lived while stationed in San Diego. They have a famous hotel there the "Hotel Del Coronado" where a lot of movie stars have stayed. The hotel is well over 100 years old.


After leaving Coronado we drove over the "Silver Strand" and Jerry wanted to once again walk in the cold Pacific Ocean waters.

We left San Diego heading to Yuma for a while. We've never been there but have heard a lot about it and can't wait to see it for our selves. The weather was cool when we left San Diego but as soon as we crossed the mountains and got into southern CA desert it got HOT.

Las Vegas

We hit the road to Las Vegas with plans to spend at least a week there. When we left Salt Lake the weather was quite pleasant. When we hit Vegas it was HOT. It was about 114 in the shade but there was NO shade. We stayed at Arizona Charlie's Casino RV Park. It was right on the site where the casino and restaurants were so we didn't have to go too far to gamble or eat. The casino had four different restaurants so we could have a different style of food each time we ate. You could get a Prime Rib dinner with all the trimmings for about $6.95. The only problem with the RV Park is that its all asphalt and we had to carry our little dog to the pet area. It was too hot for him to walk on the pavement.

We would drive to the "Strip" and park at Baly's Casino and then walk around town and see all the beautiful casinos. There are some of the most opulent casinos you can imagine. We didn't spend too much money gambling but we did eat at some of the casinos especially the ones that served "all the shrimp" you can eat. Jerry was able to get in touch with a lady she plays Internet bridge with and we went out to eat a couple of times with her.

Here are some pictures of the casino we saw during out trip.

Hoover Dam

We were able to get together with John and Sheryl again and took a tour of the Hoover Dam. It's real BIG. We were in an auditorium for a lecture and John sat down, but oops he tore his pants. We then called him "John with his dam torn pants". There were several parts of the Dam we couldn't see due to "9-11" controls. The lake is also down 25-30 feet due to a drought up the river.

After bidding John and Sheryl a fond fair well again we headed to San Diego, CA. The road from Vegas to CA is right through the middle of the hot desert and there is nothing much to see except open space. We drove from Vegas to San Diego easily in one day. However the traffic in San Diego was terrible. The folks there don't care if you're in a 40 foot motor home or not, they're not going to give way and let you change lanes. You just have to say to yourself, "I'm bigger than they are and here I come".

Salt Lake City, Utah

The Great Salt Lake

We arrived in the Salt Lake area and were able to get into Hill AFB with no problems. The FAMCAMP is real nice and the sites are all level pads with full hook ups and no big trees to block the satellite. One of the advantages of staying in a FAMCAMP is access to the commissary and the BX. We spent a week in Salt Lake and really enjoyed it. We drove to the Salt Lake National Park and got to see the lake "up close and personal". The lake was down about 25-30 feet due to a drought they were having. One of the Rangers said we could probably walk across the lake and never get over knee deep since it was down so much.

Hill AFB FAMCAMP

Low Salt Lake We went into town to see the famous Mormon Church but you can't get into the church. It's only open twice a year and the only ones allowed inside are the high officials of the Mormon Church. We were able to see where the church services are held and televised and saw the large pipe organ.

Mormon Church Mormon Church Pipe Organ

The City of Salt Lake is really a pretty place and is remarkable clean. The streets are very wide and this dates back to when the Mormon's founded the city. The streets had to be wide enough so that an "eight up", which is a wagon pulled with eight horses, could turn around in the streets with no problems. The traffic signals are designed for the "seeing impaired". When the lights change you can hear a different bird call for each of the signals.

Cruising Through America

After leaving Sumas, we drove to Richland, WA and spent the night in one of our favorite camp grounds, "Wally World". We had not been able to use the satellite dish in Canada and when we got parked in Richland I tried it and it worked fine. We were able to check our email and let our children know where we were. After Richland we cut across the top of Oregon and again the scenery was beautiful. We spent a couple of days at a nice camp ground outside of Ontario, OR. The park owner told us of a nice family owned restaurant than served home cooked food at reasonable prices. After a couple of days we headed into Idaho. We had planned to stay at Mountain Home AFB FAMCAM, but since 9-11 the barriers at the gate prevented a motor home from getting in. We were fortunate to find a nice camp ground where we stayed for another couple of days. Well after all we're not in any big hurray.

Mountain Home Camp Ground

After a good rest we slowly headed to Utah and planned to spend at least a week so we could see everything there. The mountains heading to Salt Lake City are awesome. They are not hard to climb and no big problem going down them.

Hoover Dam

We were able to get together with John and Sheryl again. We went to the Hoover Dam for a tour and it was more than we expected, it's BIG. We were in an auditorium for a lecture and John sat down, but oops he tore his pants on the chair arm. We then called him "John with his dam torn pants". There were several parts of the Dam we couldn't see due to "9-11" controls. The lake at the Hoover Dam is also down about 25-30 feet due to drought.

Here are some pictures of the Hoover Dam

Crossing Canada

Beautiful BC Mountains

We finally left Edmonton and drove to Hinton, Alberta which is a small quaint town. We stayed at a nice RV Park which had full hook ups including cable TV. It was very expensive, the cost was about $6.50 American. Although Hinton was a small town they had a "Wally World". From there we drove to Jasper National Park but due to the season, they were full so we had to move on. Our next stop was Kamloops, BC which has some beautiful mountains. This is one of Canada's most popular sky resort areas. We met some residents of BC and they told us about a real high mountain pass we had to cross on our way to WA. They said the truckers would stop at the rest stop and figure out what gear they could use to go down the steep grade. They had me somewhat concerned since I had never been over that road before. But I figured, "what the heck"if the truckers could do it I could too. We pulled into the rest stop and the scenery around there was unbelievable. There were beautiful mountains on both sides of the road. I pulled out of the rest stop and there was a sign "Use low gear 8% down grade". I put the PAC brake on and we went down the steep grade at about 45 mph. Piece of cake.

Highway to Kamloops, BC

We crossed the U.S. Border at Sumas, WA and then we ran into trouble. Since this was "Post 9-11" they had steel pipes in the lot and there was not a lot of room for a 40 foot motor home with a "Toad" to maneuver. There was a sign for trucks and also one for cars and RVs. To be on the safe side I took the one for cars and RVs. I had to come in and then make a tight turn to the right and then back to the left after just a short distance. I didn't make it. I hit one of the pipes with the rear awning arm and scratched the side of the coach. To make things worse, after I got to the check point the official there was a real pain in the neck. He didn't want to accept my drivers license and retired military ID card. The official said the retired Navy ID card was no good. He said "everyone knows half of the Navy is from the Philippines". I told him I had some damage to my coach because of the dumb barriers and if he was going to do something to me, do it or let me go. He gave me back my ID and said go on you've had enough problems. I'll never cross the border at that point again.

We found a real nice camp ground in Sumas and spent about a week there surveying the damage and getting it fixed so that we could travel with it. We met some real nice RVers from BC who come down every time they have a "long weekend". They invited us down to their camp fires each night and the ladies took off to do some shopping during the day. We got their names and addresses so we could keep in touch.