Arizona Renaissance Festival 2014

A most unusual renaissance entertainer

It was that time of  year again for Jean and I to take our annual trip to Apache Junction, Arizona to attend the Arizona Renaissance Festival and Pleasure Feast. This particular trip has been going on now for about twelve years since we first discovered the Festival during a visit to Phoenix, Arizona.

As always, we manage to spend our first night of the trip at Chiriaco Summit so that we can casually drive into Arizona the next day. This stop over seems to work for us since Jean does not get home from work until around 6:30 p.m., leaving later that evening allows us to get through traffic and closer to Arizona. Once Jean gets home we collect our last minute items, jump into the RV parked near the house and head off toward Chiriaco.

As I have mentioned before, Chiriaco Summit is basically a trucker stop east of  Indio along Interstate 10, here they allow you to overnight if you are travelling through. What I like about staying at the Summit, is we can get breakfast at the Cafe before we hit the road to our next destination. Because there are plenty of truckers that overnight at the stop, the meals are substantially filling and at a good price.

Breakfast time at Summit Cafe

While eating I looked out a window and noticed there was a small Post Office next door. So after we finished breakfast we went outside to go look at the Post Office. It was closed, but it is an official and working Post Office catering for the local folks that live near the summit. I really like the way they have decorated the outside giving it a true old time desert feeling.

Chiriaco Summit Post Office

Just in case you need an address

Well, after our breakfast and exploring it was now time to head off toward Arizona. At 55 -60 miles per hour we crossed over into Arizona around 11 am - Arizona time. The first thing I wanted to do when we crossed over the Colorado River (State Line) was give the RV a bath, and I remembered that they had just opened a Truck and RV Wash next to the Flying J truck stop. At the truck wash the RV got a good wash for about $1.25 ft or $39. I don't remember the name of the truck wash business, but you can't miss it as you will see the Flying J on your south side when entering Arizona.

Back on the road, Jean and I both agreed that we really enjoy driving through the desert and being sure that when we do travel, we are not in any kind of  hurry. Yes I do plan out our trips, time elements of travel and locations we will be staying at in advance to assure our adventures will be with minimal issues. And yes, at times incidents or problems do arise, but if you do good planning it only prepares you  to handle them when they do materialize. Having a good GPS unit, access to internet maps (like Google Maps), planning tools (like Good Sam trip planning tools), scheduled maintenance of your rig and so on, only make your travels that much more hassle free when you are on the road.

Link to Good SAM Destination Planning Tool

By 3 pm our next stop was going to be at my Cousin Louie's place for a visit. If we are in the area we will always stop by and spend some time with him and visit. At Louie's we went out for dinner that evening  at Gordon Biersch and had breakfast (Menudo) the next day at a the Peoria Cafe in Peoria, Arizona. After an enjoyable breakfast and visit, we said our good-byes and headed off to our next stop - Cabela's Outfitters for a little shopping.

Rolling Magic's first visit at Cabela's

 At Cabela's we spent about two and half  hours walking the floors looking at all the merchandise they have to offer, but it was now time for us to move on. We know that we will be back again and yes we did manage to find some items to buy while we were in the store.

Our drive from Cabela's to Apache Junction went exceptionally well, with light traffic on the interstate. We arrived at the KOA within an hour. At the KOA the folks inside registered us and guided us to our RV site. The staff at the KOA were all very helpful and friendly folks. We even had a nice site assigned to us while we stayed there. This was going to be home for the next two nights in Apache Junction.

Those are the Superstition Mountains in the background

Our site

Tucked in with nice desert plants surrounding us

Clever sign at the KOA

Sunday, February 9th - Renaissance Festival Day!

Alright, it was now time to Garb Up (get into costume) for the Renaissance Festival and to look forward to having a fun day. Our friends Susanne and Ken were going to pick us up at our site and take us to the festival. Susanne and Ken for the last four years have been joining us at the festival and pleasure feast. They come from Wickenburg, Arizona where they stay to avoid the winters in Montana where they are from. 

The drive to the Festival is a few miles from our campground on Highway 60. At the festival location parking is free but they do have an admission for entering. Jean buys our tickets well in advance so we can get the combined Festival and Feast deal.

Once inside it was my job to plot out our activities for the day, which also includes the feast. This year we managed to see some new entertainers besides some of our favorites. We decided it takes at least two days to be able to catch enough of the goings on at the Festival, so next year we are going to plan on a two day visit. The Arizona Renaissance Festival offers so much to see from great entertainment, plenty of food merchants, artisans and more!

New act - Barely Balanced, Comedic Daredevils

+

Clan Tynker - family circus, all time favorite

Yes, let's not forget the refreshments

Being a Pyrate is a tough job!

Jean managed to find an English Lord...

Time travel is encouraged...

It was another great and fun day at the Arizona Renaissance Festival and Pleasure Feast. At the feast we had a wonderful five course meal, raucous revelry and entertainment, plenty of beverages (beer and wine), and a souvenir special edition feast goblet to take home and add to our collection. We ended our day watching the Joust  Tournaments at the King's arena.

Our friends Susanne and Ken delivered us back to our RV, said their goodbyes leaving us to complete the night relaxing under the Arizona sky. We went to bed early because I wanted to have a really early start on Monday morning to beat the work day commute on the Phoenix freeways. By 5 a.m.Monday morning Arizona time we were up and packing away our stuff to prepare to travel. By 5:30 we were on the road and making good time moving through the Phoenix area. Once we manged to blow by the early commuter traffic we stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast (a must for Jean). After breakfast we were now on the road heading home and starting to think about our next RV adventure...

THE END

Info Arizona Renaissance Festival

Cabela's Outfitters

KOA campgrounds

Quartzsite 2014

Sunday, January 26, 2014. Well I safely arrived home from my trip to Quartzsite, Arizona to attend the Annual RV Tent Show. It was another fun time RV camping under the Arizona Skies, even though I did spend some money on gadgets for the Rig.

Yes I did purchase some useful items, like a 90 watt portable solar panel and 14 LED lights, plus a few other items.

The new solar panel at work...

Got the panel from Off the Grid, Surprise, Arizona

However, let's start at he beginning of my trip. My dear wife Jean was unable to go with me on this trip so it was a solo adventure until I got to The Rose RV campground in Quartzsite. Wednesday was my first day of travel, first off I had to stop in Azusa for some personal business, but later that day I was going to meet my cousins Tony, Patsy and her husband at the Islamorada restaurant located at the Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamonga for dinner.

After an enjoyable dinner and visit with my cousins it was now time to go and make my first destination on the trip - Chiriaco Summit.

I have mentioned this location in several other of my posts. It now seems to be a tradition to always over-night at this place. In the morning I had breakfast at the cafe and I was again on my way toward Quartzsite, Arizona.

First stop of the trip...

Thursday, January 23, 2014. It was around 10:30 a.m. when I arrived in Quartzsite and I stopped at the Pilot Truck stop for fuel. While I was filling the RV's tank with gas I decided I would take a shower at the truck stop. It cost me $12 dollars for a shower, but the stall was roomy, I got a bar of soap, a bath towel and a wash cloth to help me freshen my day!

With gas in the rig and a clean me, I headed over to The Rose Campground to set up camp for the next few days. I was expecting my old chief ranger Ken Smith to arrive later that afternoon with his trailer.

By 1 p.m., Ken had arrived and our camp was set. No sooner were we sitting back and relaxing when the Quartzsite Fire Department arrived to extinguish a trailer fire...

Quartzsite Fire Dept in action!

The cause of the fire was the generator...

What was interesting about this fire, just last week I was helping to put out a trailer fire, I hope this not some kind of omen. Any who, that evening Ken and I were invited over to dinner at some of my Elk's Lodge friends camp at another part of Quartzsite. We were glad that we went, Bill Sears from Simi Valley cooked up some awesome Pork Chop Steaks that evening and they were delicious! That was a great way to spend my first night in Quartzsite.

Rolling Magic at camp, The Rose Campground

Friday, January 24, 2014. It was the RV Big Tent Show day! What's nice about staying at The Rose campground is the close proximity to the Big Tent. In the morning we started by having breakfast at the Bad Boys Cafe. Once we finished with breakfast we headed over to the Big Tent to see what was going on. Well I managed to find all the items that I was looking for and them some. On the list was LED lights, a 90 watt solar panel, some cleaning supplies and a new sign for the rig.

By the early afternoon Ken and I were back at camp waiting on Ken's wife Susanne who was due in around 3 p.m. The plan was to go meet up with the Simi Valley Elks group at Silly Al's for Pizza and Beer. By 3:30 p.m. all three of us met up again with the Simi Elks and enjoyed Pizza and Beer with them all. It was good that Susanne was our designated driver cause Ken and I were feeling no pain. That evening after a short nap, we had a campfire under the Arizona night.

Saturday, January 25, 2014. Well since Susanne need to go check out the Big Tent, we started off again having breakfast at the Bad Boys Cafe and walking over to the Big Tent. We left Susanne there so she could shop without us distracting her and Ken and I went to the other side of the street where the Tyson Wells swap meet vendors were.

You can basically find almost anything you need here...

By 1 p.m., it was time to go find Susanne at the Big Tent, but Ken and I got distracted. We decided it was time to get a beer as we were walking by Beer Belly's. As we entered Beer Belly's we manged to find a place to sit down, enjoy the music and beer. Ken called Susanne to meet us there because we were not moving!

Nah, how can you bypass a jumping place like this?

Susanne finally found us at Beer Belly's and she showed us all the stuff she picked up at the Big Tent. There was a solo Country Singer/Musician (I think he called himself "Smokin' Joe) playing away to the crowd at Beer Belly's. In fact the singer/musician was so good Ken and Susanne got up to dance to his music. At last, we need to head back to camp because it was my turn to cook dinner for us.

My two stepping friends...

Finally back at camp, we settled in and relaxed for a while till it was time for me to start preparing dinner.
I was going to cook a meal using my "CanCooker" for Ken and Susanne. The ingredients were Corn, Carrots, Celery, Baby Potatoes, Onion, can of Tecate Beer and a link of Beef Kielbasa. By 6 p.m. dinner was ready and the campfire was on.

In goes the beer...

 It was my last night in Quartzsite before the drive back home. It was a nice trip and now I'm back already making plans for our next road trip. I should also mention that in Saturday I saw two friends of ours Francesca Puccio and Craig Crowell at Quartzsite who were visiting family that live there. Talk about a small world, that was a surprise to meet them there!

With my friend Francesca at Tyson Wells, Quartzsite. Photo taken by Craig Crowell

My new "Can Cooker" FYI

One of my favorite pastimes while RV camping is cooking with my Dutch Ovens, but now I have a new cooking accessory that I have added to the mix. It is a "CanCooker". I received it at Christmas time and have been having fun coming up with new menus ever since.

At camp with my "CanCooker, Jr."...

The Can Cooker is basically a steaming/convection oven cooker. They come in two sizes, the Original at 4 gallons and the Jr., at 2 gallons. Depending on who you plan to feed either will do the job. The CanCooker Jr.is basically design for a family supper, but it can be a very large family.

For more info on the CanCooker hit the link.
http://cancooker.com/

Here is the first meal I made in my Can Cooker, Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHBZE8oSRRk

Camping with the Elks

So our first trip in 2014 (January) was with the Simi Valley Elks. The location we stayed at was not your typical campground, it was hidden in a corner of an Oil Refinery near the city of  Piru, California.

Entrance sign to the Piru Petroleum Club Campground

The Elks sign lets you know you're in the right place

We are here...

Our camp spot

I've been a member of the Simi Valley Elks Kamping Club for over a  year now and we have been on a few trips with them. They have managed to find some interesting locations to gather and camp, but this place I believe is the most interesting of them all.

With that said, I had a great 4 days camping with the club. We even got in a 5 mile hike on Saturday. The most important thing to know is that this Elks Club loves to eat and drink. So be prepared to participate in the action, because no one is left hungry!

The campground is managed by the Piru Petroleum Club and they rent out the location for other groups. It has a main community room, two large Santa Maria style Bar-B-Ques and several 110 volt outlets to plug into. You can also find two Horseshoe Pits and plenty of space to park your rig. It is not the typical RV campground you would expect, it does have it's own unique style that truly fits in with the Fillmore-Piru area.

Horseshoe pits

Did you say Bar-B-Que?

Fellow Elks enjoying an relaxing afternoon...

Our Wagon Master, Bill Sears

I must say with all the eating, drinking and great camping camaraderie, the Piru campground did supply a unique and relaxing weekend.

THE END

Rolling Magic, our new motorhome!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho it's a new chapter in our RV adventures we go. Yes I been absent for awhile not posting because 2013 has just been crazy! Yes we had some camping trips that I did not post, but yes we did do some travelling

One trip I want at least mention was that  I attended the 2013 Burning Man event at Black Rock City with the Tioga.

The Tioga did a great job helping us live comfortably in the Nevada Desert during our stay at Black Rock City.  The whole Burning Man experience was awesome! I went with two friends and made a few more while I was there. I highly recommend that you attend the Burning Man Event at least once in your life.

My Burning Man buddies Jennifer and Liz

Any way in October Jean and I went to the Southern California RV Show at the Pomona Fairplex to go look at all the new RV's at the show. Jean wanted to go with me to be sure I was not going to buy another new rig, but the plan changed.

I wanted to go to the show to go look at a motorhome that I was interested in, but when I looked at it I was not satisfied on what I saw. So we went to the Mike Thompson RV section at the show to see what they had there. One of sales persons from Mike Thompson had suggested a model that we should look at.

It was the Forest River FR3 30DS Class A Motorhome. Well we started to examine the outside and then the inside and we discovered that it had a floor plan we really liked plus it had all kinds of additional options included.

We sat inside it for awhile and really felt good. It was very comfortable and it just seem to fit. We looked at each other and said let's get it, and before we knew it we were signing papers and became the owners to a new motorhome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnSUaEb7no

On November 2, Jean and I traveled to Mike Thompson to go pick up our new motorhome and turn in the Tioga Ranger as trade. After a few more changes on the paperwork we were on the road heading home with our new FR3!

We call our new rig Rolling Magic or Romi, and we are looking forward to future camping trips with our FR3.

Arizona February Travels 2013

So why...read on!

Once again we hit the road with our RV for another adventure to Arizona. Our plan had many destinations; the Arizona Renaissance Faire near Apache Junction, a visit with my cousin Louie, a small concrete job for a friend in Wickenburg and a rendezvous with my buddy Mike and his wife Jennifer at Joshua Tree National Park.

We departed on Wednesday in the late afternoon and drove to our first stop - Chiriaco Summit. Any time we plan to head towards Arizona, we usually try and make this location to spend the night before we cross the state line. I have previously mentioned why we  stay the night at Chiriaco Summit on some of my other posts. (see Quartzsite)

Thursday: The next morning we got up, had breakfast at the Summit Cafe and headed to my cousin Louie's house in Peoria, AZ. At my cousin Louie's, it  was going to be an overnight stay, because we were going to camp at the KOA in the city of Apache Junction for a few days. 

Any time we stay at my cousin Louie's, one of it's advantages is he lives really close to Cabela's Outfitters. Oh I should also mention that Jean like the idea of going to Cabela's because there's a Cracker Barrel restaurant next door. 

http://www.cabelas.com/

http://www.crackerbarrel.com/

KOA, Apache Junction

Friday: Over the years when we visit the Faire we have stayed at local hotels to  be close to the event. Now that we have a motorhome we now stayed at the KOA at Apache Junction. The KOA campground is not far from the faire, which makes it a good base location while visiting. This will be our second year camping at the Apache Junction KOA. When we arrived to the campground we were assigned a good spot under a large Mesquite tree, which provided some nice shade.

Sunday: For the past ten years we have traveled to the Arizona Renaissance Faire near Apache Junction. The first time we attended the faire was by accident. We were staying at a condo in Fountain Valley, picked up a local paper to find something to do and saw an advertisement for the Faire. That caught our interest and we were glad that we went. Now we try and make it an annual event to go to the faire!

ARIZONA RENAISSANCE FAIRE

http://www.royalfaires.com/arizona/

Why? The Faire offers a Pleasure Feast where you get a delicious 5 course meal, some really great entertainment and a souvenir ceramic goblet. (We now have 20 goblets).We always make it part of our visit at the faire to be part of the feast. If you every decide to attend the faire, I highly suggest you get tickets to the Feast, it's a lot of fun and a raucous event!

Just cause I like Belly Dancers - Arizona Renaissance Faire

Great entertainment at the Arizona Renaissance Faire...Clan Tynker

The Queen came by for a visit at the Feast

Lady Jean Marie and the Notorious El Feo...

Pyrate's and Gypsies at the Renaissance Faire

Monday:After our stay at Apache Junction and visiting the Renaissance Faire we headed back to Peoria, AZ., to spend another night at my cousin Louie's before  traveling to Wickenburg.

Tuesday: Our next destination on our trip is Wickenburg Arizona. We planned  to stay a few days with my Old Chief Ranger and friend Ken and his wife Susanne. We were going to driveway camp at their home while we stayed there. 

Last year when we stayed at Ken's,  I made the remark about the broken up porch for his backdoor. His wife Susanne said, "well then you need to come back next year and fix it".  Of course I said I would and and that was the plan to fix the porch.

When we arrived I first started setting up the Motorhome for our stay. After that  I went right to work setting up the forms for the porch. The plan was to pour the concrete on Thursday because of a storm that was moving through Tuesday night and Wednesday. Sure enough the weather did get cold and on Wednesday it tried to snow. The cold weather didn't deter us from hanging out in town, we still manged to make to the Hog Trough for some delicious Ribs, and walk around the town to visit the various shops.

            The above photo was taken on Tuesday while I was setting forms for the porch concrete project.

Thursday: The day of the pour finally arrived and the concrete truck was scheduled to show up at 7:30 a.m. It was cold 28 degrees that morning and I was trying to figure out , while I was still half asleep,  how Susanne talk me into doing this. It has been awhile since I poured any concrete so this day was going to be interesting.

The Job..

Despite the cold weather the concrete did behave that morning and it allowed me to finish the project without any complications.The job actually came out looking really good. But wouldn't you know It, by evening it started to rain hard. We had gone to dinner and all I could think about was what kind of holes the rain was creating in the concrete porch. When  we finally made back to the residence, I was surprise to see that there were no craters or holes in the porch  The concrete had set enough during the day so the rain did not ruin it. 

The next morning I looked the project over and decided later that day I would be able to strip the forms from the porch.

Later that morning my friend Ken took me to get bowls of Menudo at a local restaurant in town. When we returned I stripped  the forms and the concrete porch came out looking good.

To celebrate Ken and I went to have a few drinks at the local Elks Lodge in Wickenburg. 

Wickenburg Elks Lodge

Saturday: On Saturday morning it was now time for us to move on to our next destination...Blue Water Casino, located in the city of Parker, AZ.

After a great breakfast that Ken had prepared, we packed up our rig and said our good-byes to Ken and Susanne and headed down the road toward Parker and the Blue Water Casino. 

From Wickenburg we took the Highway 60  and then took the Highway 72 cut off to Parker. We rolled into town around 2 p.m. 

While staying in Wickenburg I had made reservations at the Blue Water Casino for us to stay the night there so we could do a little gambling and have dinner in one of their restaurants

Since we got into town a little early, we stopped by the local Walmart to pick up a few RV supplies before we could check in at the Casino. While I was shopping at Walmart, Jean stayed behind in the RV and did some internet stuff.

The Bluewater Casino is RV friendly place. You can dry camp in their parking lot if you are passing through. But I guarantee you'll go inside and check the place out. They also have a RV Park there as well. See the link for more information about the BlueWater Casino.

Our view from the hotel room...Colorado River. That's California  we are looking at.

http://www.bluewaterfun.com/


Sunday: Well I didn't make any money that evening, but I did have a good tasting Steak at the Casino. Jean enjoyed having an opportunity to take a bubble bath and do some relaxing in a hotel room.

Now on the road, today's plan was to travel to Black Rock Canyon Campground, located on the North West portion of Joshua Tree National Park. Actually the campground is near the city of Yucca Valley.

Black Rock Canyon campground is where we were to  link up with Mike and Jennifer and camp with them for a few days. From Parker we took Highway 62 all the way to Yucca Valley and the campground in the National Park.

Well we arrived early and found a nice campsite for us to stay. The site was somewhat uneven, but I managed to level off the RV for our time there. The campsite also had plenty of room for Mike to park his truck and set up their camp.

Our Camp, Black Rock Canyon

Eventually, Mike and Jennifer arrived to camp and began setting up their area for the stay. Within an hour we were already hiking around the area. We pointed toward a small hilltop and began walking and before long we had some nice views of the area.

Since we were close to the city of Joshua Tree, we decided to go into town and eat at the Crossroad Cafe. It has been awhile since we ate there and we all decided that would be fun to do.

When we got back from dinner at Joshua Tree we then examined the park map hiking trails and came up with a 7 mile loop hike for the next day. This would be the first time any of us have ever hiked in this part of the park. We were looking forward to seeing some new desert area.

Monday: It was a cool brisk morning, we all finished our breakfast and began preparing ourselves for the hike today.

By 10 a.m. we were off on our hike. Our trail started on the Black Rock Canyon Trail, then connecting to the Burnt Hill Trail and over a ridge connecting to the Eureka Peak Trail, next connecting on to the Short Loop Trail and then back to camp.

On the Burnt Hill Trail

The hiking party on the Eureka Peak Trail

Desert Travelers

By late afternoon we finally made it back to camp from our hike. The good part was we were all feeling pretty good. My feet were a little sore, but nothing to cry about. It was a good hike we took that day. 

Back at camp we started our dinners and kicked back to a nice campfire that evening, sharing stories and observations we had seen that day. Joshua Tree is truly a magical place to be.

Tuesday: Bummer, it was now time for us to start heading our separate ways back home. That morning we broke down camp, prepped the RV for travel and said our good-byes for now. We know that we will be seeing Mike and Jennifer again soon, but it's still not a pleasant thing to do with good friends.

The RV was ready to go and off we went back to our home in Thousand Oaks, California. This was again a fun adventure we took for the month of February and with many memories to enjoy.