Quick Trip Home

Usually, we would have made the trip home a 2-day affair...like we had getting down to the rally. However, we were eager to get back home, so left early.

We stopped in Marana to have breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, and in Eloy to get gas for the Lazy Daze. We were back home by early afternoon.

Maxwell Satellite Rally, Day 3

We decided to skip the morning session which was on computer maintenance, and make a trip to Camping World instead...which is really within walking distance, but we drove! We had 5 $10 coupons, 3 of which would expire while we are volunteering at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge this summer...and there is no Camping World any where around that area of Oregon! By the time we were finished, we had amassed slightly more than $50 worth of "stuff," so we walked out of there only having to pay $4-something!

We did take in the afternoon session on VoIP and wireless. Since we already have VoIP, we were more interested in learning about wireless.

In the evening, we all got together for a potluck, and as usual, we both ate too much! I made a "Spicy Rice Casserole" in our new Nissan Thermal Cooker.

Maxwell Satellite Rally, Day 2

The morning session consisted of troubleshooting and system maintenance. George Bruzenak, a friend of ours who has had his system for only a few weeks, was sitting by us, and in comparing his Training Manual with ours, I saw that ours was out of date (we've had our satellite Internet system for almost 2 years now). After the morning seminar was over, I got a new, improved one from Margo!

Since the afternoon session consisted of a setup contest, in which we weren't taking part, Earl and I drove up to Circuit City to purchase a new laptop -- another one with an internal WiFi card. Next door was a PetsMart, so we stopped there, too, and picked up some more food for Maxx. Then we had lunch at Chipolte Grill.

In the evening, we had a catered dinner by Beer Bottoms Bistro, the on-site restaurant here at Beaudry RV Resort. Our name was drawn for a prize! We selected the Maxwell Satellite Rally polo shirts...now I guess we'll have to decide which T-shirts to throw away when we get back home!

Maxwell Satellite Rally, Day 1

We arrived at Beaudry RV Resort around 1:30 PM, checked in, found our spot, and set up...including, of course, our satellite!

We found George Bruzenak and Jaimie Hall who are also here for the rally, and stopped to visit with them for awhile.

At 5:00 PM, we walked down to Margo and Glenn's rig to register for the rally, and for Happy Hour. One of the couples here for the rally also has a Basenji -- a little red and white female. Of course, we had to go down to visit her for awhile! Hopefully, we'll have a chance to get her and Maxx together for a visit while we're here.

On the way to the rally

We're on our way to the Maxwell Satellite Rally being held at Beaudry RV Resort in Tucson, Arizona. Since it's about 270 miles from Quartzsite, we (of course) are making a two-day trip out of it!

We loaded up the Lazy Daze, but didn't leave until after lunch. We stopped for the night at the Elks Club in Gila Bend where we dry camped ($5.00).

Garage sale

We spent most of yesterday clearing out all the junk in the storage shed, putting out what we wanted to sell, and putting prices on each item. Most of the stuff were items we'd put in storage when we started fulltiming in 1998. As we pulled it out, we wondered to ourselves why in the world we'd saved some of it!

We had a very busy day, especially in the morning! It was a community-wide garage sale, so we had lots of traffic. It was supposed to start at 9 AM, but in reality, started about 8:30, maybe a little sooner. Traffic petered out after lunch, and finally latter in the afternoon, anything that didn't sell got put back in the shed -- although there wasn't a lot left (except for the books, which we didn't think would sell well...seems that people just don't read much any more).

We ended up taking several boxes of Reader's Digest Classics down to the local high school.

Lazy Dazers visit

We had a nice visit today from fellow Lazy Daze owners, Dell & Marv Kline who live in Pennsylvania.

Costco run to Palm Desert, CA

When we make a Costco run, we usually go into the Phoenix Valley. This time we though we'd try something different and go to the Costco in Palm Desert -- it's about the same distance from Quartzsite as the Costco in the Phoenix Valley is that we usually go to.

We got up early, stopped by the Love's to put gas in the Lazy Daze, and stopped by the McDonald's in Blythe for breakfast.

Our first stop was Costco, just south of I-10 in Palm Desert. We then went across the street to the PetsMart to buy a new bed for Maxx. Then it was down the road to Trader Joe's where we bought a case of Two-Buck Chuck (in California, it really IS Two-Buck Chuck -- in Arizona, it's Three-Buck Chuck).

On our way back home, we stopped at Chiriaco Summit for lunch. This is the site of the George S. Patton Memorial Museum. Although we didn't take the time to visit the museum this time, we had stopped in April 2003 on our way to Joshua Tree National Park...you can read about our visit at http://hometown.aol.com/linda0146/joshuatreenp.html. It's well worth the stop if you have some time when passing this way.