“Gizmo” is a nine-month old long-hair Chihuahua that we adopted from the local humane society a week ago. He’s only sort of potty trained at this time so we have concerns about him and the motorhome. As long as we take him out every few hours, he doesn’t potty inside, which is a good thing. Gizmo got his name from the movie “Gremlins”. The lead animal in the movie, a Mogwai, was named “Gizmo”. Now, for those of you who saw the movie, don’t you see a striking resemblance between Gizmo and Gizmo? I do!
Anyway, we are now on the road again. I am driving, Claudia is navigating and Gizmo is lying on an imitation leopard pooch pad on her lap…fast asleep! So much for worrying about how he would take to motorhoming. We took the I-15 to Yermo, turned off on Ghost Town Road and headed north for about three miles to Calico and the RV park. The ranger told us to just grab any open site and he would be around to check us in. We picked a power-only site and settled in for the night. It was about 80 to 85-degrees but cooling off fast as the sun set behind the hills. We slept GREAT!
Gizmo’s whimpering got me up at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am. Dressing quickly, obviously not quickly enough for Gizmo who now whined louder “encouragement”. I opened his cage and we stepped out to face the dawn. He was soon finished with his “duties” and we returned to the rig. He ran inside and slid to a stop in front of the refrigerator, anticipating his usual after-duty treat, a small chunk of a mystery meat product from our favorite dog food company. Does he have me trained, or what?
Claudia and I finished dressing and set off for the ghost town. The first building we came to was the Calico House Restaurant. We went to the rear outside patio and were met by a young waitress in a yellow hoop skirt which was covered with large yellow and black bees, a vintage outfit from the late 1800’s. She took our order and soon returned with two huge plates of chicken fried steak, two eggs to order, a side of home fries and another side of biscuits and gravy…EACH! We immediately decided to skip lunch today! The breakfast was $9.25!
After about an hour, we waddled out of the restaurant and started to walk the town. We walked to the train station for a short train ride through the mine area and then continued our walk through the rest of the town, stopping at every gift shop to look for “bargains”. Luckily, we found none. Returning to the motorhome, I walked Gizmo and we settled back to wait for our previously assigned site to open up.
About forty-five minutes after the checkout deadline, the slugs in our assigned site finally decided to leave and we slid in right behind them and got all set up to meet several of our Allegro Club members. We are all headed for the Oasis RV Resort in Las Vegas and a rally being put on by Tiffin Motorhomes. The rigs started arriving and we got everyone parked without incident. Since the temperature was now a toasty 105-degrees, we decided to abandon the “Five O’Clock Rule” and headed for the bar for a few cool ones.
Calico Ghost Town
After a couple of beers, iced teas, and assorted other refreshing liquids, the gang headed down the hill and back to the rigs. Everyone had a lot of “extra” food so we set up an impromptu pot-luck at the meeting area in front of the rigs. Suffice to say, we ate well…again! After-dinner showers were well-appreciated by both us and those whom we came in close proximity to. We cleaned the rig as much as we could for a planned early departure for Sin City.
We woke up about 6:00 am. I took Giz for a morning “prance” while Claudia finished cleaning up. We took off right at 7:00 and got to the RV park at 9:30. After checking in, Claudia took off in the car to meet Jacque and Gizmo and I got the rig all set up. Claudia returned sometime around 1:00 to find the motorhome perfectly set up, cooled down and ready to party. We tinkered for a while and then headed for the pool. Boy did it feel great. The temperature was perfect! Walking back to the rig after swimming, we looked toward the motorhome and went “YEAH, BABY!” Just on the other side of the freeway was a Bass Pro Shops (for me) and the Silverton Casino (for Claudia). Guess what we are doing tomorrow after we do the rally check-in thing.
Tuesday started off bright and early. Gizmo greeted us with his usual glee and whining. The only thing wrong(?) with this park is that there is no dog grass. There is people grass, like the little chipping golf course, but there are 1, 219 signs stating “NO DOGS ON THE GRASS”. There is also a $50 fine for letting your dog use the grass and a $25 “bounty” to anyone turning you in. Naturally, we are as far as possible from the closest dog run. Oh well, we get our exercise walking to and from the dog run…LOTS of exercise!
Since it was early, we jumped in the car, crossed the freeway and went into the Bass Pro Shops store. I found a killer deal on a long-sleeve camo shirt for my soon to occur predator hunting trips. I just about have my black powder muzzleloader sighted in. When I get that done, look out varmints! We then went next door to the casino where Claudia joined 99% of all slot machine players as she lost again. One of these days, she’ll hit the big one. At least, that’s what she keeps telling me. We then returned to the park, ate lunch and met up with the rest of our group to register for the rally. We won a $20 gift certificate to Walmart as a door prize and an oil change for the generator. That’s cool! After checking in, we perused all the new motorhomes on display here in the park but decided to keep Godzilla. We then attended a hosted social and dinner featuring a baron of beef. They do feed us good at the rallies. The only meal not covered is breakfast on Thursday.
Wednesday started early again as we both needed showers. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, perfectly cooked bacon or under-cooked sausage, home fries and fruit. Not spectacular, but adequate. After breakfast was a seminar on the electronics installed in our RV’s. The questions centered mostly around satellite and radio systems…interesting and helpful. The next seminar was on convection microwave cooking. Since my Dutch ovens don’t fit or work in the microwave, I decided to pass on this seminar. Claudia and some of the other ladies decided to check out the local outlet mall.
The weather turned weird this afternoon. We got a bunch of dark Cumulus Nasty clouds in that kicked up the winds in the afternoon. The awnings on the motorhome started flapping so wildly they woke me up from my afternoon nap. I had to get up retract them. Luckily, it has electric switches to bring them in. I didn’t even have to go outside. I love this motorhome! Since I was now up and awake, I fixed a toddy and turned on the news. Tonight is a dinner and entertainment with a western theme so I get to dust off my boots and show off my new belt that I bought in Quartzsite back in January. It even has my name embossed on it! WOW!
The dinner was good, the show was great and we went down to Fremont Street afterwards. The light show was all about rock music…”We will, we will ROCK YOU!” etc., etc. We stopped for a few minutes at one of the casinos along Fremont Street so Claudia could lose some more money and then returned home for some very welcome sleep.
Thursday started with a shower and a romp. In case you were wondering, I took the shower and Gizmo romped. (just to set the record straight) After breakfast, we headed out to the demonstration rigs for a one-on-one with the Tiffin reps. We then went in for a show-and-tell with craft makers from the group. One member of our club makes wooden toys for disadvantaged kids and displayed his toy trains, planes, tools and push toys. He’s really good!
We woke up about 6:00 am. I took Giz for a morning “prance” while Claudia finished cleaning up. We took off right at 7:00 and got to the RV park at 9:30. After checking in, Claudia took off in the car to meet Jacque and Gizmo and I got the rig all set up. Claudia returned sometime around 1:00 to find the motorhome perfectly set up, cooled down and ready to party. We tinkered for a while and then headed for the pool. Boy did it feel great. The temperature was perfect! Walking back to the rig after swimming, we looked toward the motorhome and went “YEAH, BABY!” Just on the other side of the freeway was a Bass Pro Shops (for me) and the Silverton Casino (for Claudia). Guess what we are doing tomorrow after we do the rally check-in thing.
Tuesday started off bright and early. Gizmo greeted us with his usual glee and whining. The only thing wrong(?) with this park is that there is no dog grass. There is people grass, like the little chipping golf course, but there are 1, 219 signs stating “NO DOGS ON THE GRASS”. There is also a $50 fine for letting your dog use the grass and a $25 “bounty” to anyone turning you in. Naturally, we are as far as possible from the closest dog run. Oh well, we get our exercise walking to and from the dog run…LOTS of exercise!
Since it was early, we jumped in the car, crossed the freeway and went into the Bass Pro Shops store. I found a killer deal on a long-sleeve camo shirt for my soon to occur predator hunting trips. I just about have my black powder muzzleloader sighted in. When I get that done, look out varmints! We then went next door to the casino where Claudia joined 99% of all slot machine players as she lost again. One of these days, she’ll hit the big one. At least, that’s what she keeps telling me. We then returned to the park, ate lunch and met up with the rest of our group to register for the rally. We won a $20 gift certificate to Walmart as a door prize and an oil change for the generator. That’s cool! After checking in, we perused all the new motorhomes on display here in the park but decided to keep Godzilla. We then attended a hosted social and dinner featuring a baron of beef. They do feed us good at the rallies. The only meal not covered is breakfast on Thursday.
Wednesday started early again as we both needed showers. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, perfectly cooked bacon or under-cooked sausage, home fries and fruit. Not spectacular, but adequate. After breakfast was a seminar on the electronics installed in our RV’s. The questions centered mostly around satellite and radio systems…interesting and helpful. The next seminar was on convection microwave cooking. Since my Dutch ovens don’t fit or work in the microwave, I decided to pass on this seminar. Claudia and some of the other ladies decided to check out the local outlet mall.
The weather turned weird this afternoon. We got a bunch of dark Cumulus Nasty clouds in that kicked up the winds in the afternoon. The awnings on the motorhome started flapping so wildly they woke me up from my afternoon nap. I had to get up retract them. Luckily, it has electric switches to bring them in. I didn’t even have to go outside. I love this motorhome! Since I was now up and awake, I fixed a toddy and turned on the news. Tonight is a dinner and entertainment with a western theme so I get to dust off my boots and show off my new belt that I bought in Quartzsite back in January. It even has my name embossed on it! WOW!
The dinner was good, the show was great and we went down to Fremont Street afterwards. The light show was all about rock music…”We will, we will ROCK YOU!” etc., etc. We stopped for a few minutes at one of the casinos along Fremont Street so Claudia could lose some more money and then returned home for some very welcome sleep.
Thursday started with a shower and a romp. In case you were wondering, I took the shower and Gizmo romped. (just to set the record straight) After breakfast, we headed out to the demonstration rigs for a one-on-one with the Tiffin reps. We then went in for a show-and-tell with craft makers from the group. One member of our club makes wooden toys for disadvantaged kids and displayed his toy trains, planes, tools and push toys. He’s really good!
Gerry and his toys
Next was lunch and Bingo. Claudia stayed for Bingo but I had to talk with the repair guys and coordinate with them about a venting problem. I have now filled the gray tank as requested and am awaiting their arrival. They got here at 4:15 and got everything fixed that could be fixed. The venting problem was diagnosed as a vent pipe inserted too far into the tank. I will have to do a quick examination of the vent tube to see if it can be fixed. If it can, it will be easy. If it can’t be fixed, I’ll live with it. I have a couple of little follow-ups, but they are within my technical expertise and I shall prevail! Now…I heard there was an unadvertised wine party in the ballroom. Better check that out!
Unfortunately, after putting stuff away and taking a much needed shower, (the second one today), we barely made it to dinner on time. After dinner, the entertainment started. It was WAY loud and not to our liking so we, and a few others, drove next door to the Silverton Casino. Claudia went left (toward the slots) and I went right (toward Bass Pro Shops). I did have to stop for a few minutes at the huge salt water tank to admire all the fish. There were lots of sharks, bat rays and other salt water fish. There was also a scantily clad mermaid cavorting in the tank waving at all the children. She was a big hit…with the kids! I was admiring the fish. I then went into BPS and killed some time looking at the new in-line muzzleloader rifles. Now, if I could only win a modest jackpot…well, maybe a little more than a modest jackpot as Claudia would probably (yeah, RIGHT!) request her share. After drooling and dreaming, we returned to the rig, romped the mutt and watched TV. Tomorrow, we return home.
Friday started with the usual romp followed by a box breakfast of a muffin, fruit, yogurt and coffee. We then returned to the rig and made preparations to get underway. Once it was cleaned up, stuff put away, tanks dumped and Gizmo walked, we said our goodbye’s to our club members and headed south on the old interstate. It was pretty windy so the trip was a “both hands on the wheel and pay attention” trip. We hit “creep & crawl” a few miles from home but still made the trip in six hours and twenty minutes…not bad at all. We unloaded all the stuff, parked the rig on the street for the night and called it a great trip.
Unfortunately, after putting stuff away and taking a much needed shower, (the second one today), we barely made it to dinner on time. After dinner, the entertainment started. It was WAY loud and not to our liking so we, and a few others, drove next door to the Silverton Casino. Claudia went left (toward the slots) and I went right (toward Bass Pro Shops). I did have to stop for a few minutes at the huge salt water tank to admire all the fish. There were lots of sharks, bat rays and other salt water fish. There was also a scantily clad mermaid cavorting in the tank waving at all the children. She was a big hit…with the kids! I was admiring the fish. I then went into BPS and killed some time looking at the new in-line muzzleloader rifles. Now, if I could only win a modest jackpot…well, maybe a little more than a modest jackpot as Claudia would probably (yeah, RIGHT!) request her share. After drooling and dreaming, we returned to the rig, romped the mutt and watched TV. Tomorrow, we return home.
Friday started with the usual romp followed by a box breakfast of a muffin, fruit, yogurt and coffee. We then returned to the rig and made preparations to get underway. Once it was cleaned up, stuff put away, tanks dumped and Gizmo walked, we said our goodbye’s to our club members and headed south on the old interstate. It was pretty windy so the trip was a “both hands on the wheel and pay attention” trip. We hit “creep & crawl” a few miles from home but still made the trip in six hours and twenty minutes…not bad at all. We unloaded all the stuff, parked the rig on the street for the night and called it a great trip.
2 comments:
You're right. You do resemble Gizmo!
Sounds like you had a wonderful trip! Gizmo is a real cutie-pie - can't wait to meet the little critter.
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