Off to the Escapade

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The drive out of the FMCA rally turned out to be dramatically better than the drive in. Rigs seemed to be pulling out at all times from early morning to mid-afternoon so the traffic flow to I-10 wasn't bad and since we were heading east, we snuck past the long line trying to make the left hand turn westbound. Plus we only had a 60 mile drive to our week long stop before heading to the next rally.

We had driven past Picacho Peak a couple months ago and thought it looked like a good spot to check out at some point in our Arizona travels. Picacho Peak State Park might have been a nice campground but we weren't able to get in for the week we wanted. Turns out the next weekend was to be a big Civil War re-enactment, thus the completely full campgrounds. Just outside the park, about 1/2 mile down the road is Picacho Peak RV Resort. They had room for us and our weeklong stay was just a little bit cheaper than the state park would have cost us.

Setup in the Shadow of Picacho Peak

The plan was to basically relax after the hectic schedule of the last rally. We did have a repair required with the refrigerator. A small plastic tab/pin that allows the meat tray cover to pivot out of the way when the door is opened broke. A simple glue job was not going to cut it so I needed to get a bit more creative. Half of a wooden clothes pin, 2 screws and some epoxy seems to be doing the trick. As it turned out, this place was a very nice park. The only real downside was the proximity to I-10 with all its traffic noise. Plus just on the other side of the interstate was a very active train track. The only saving grace regarding the trains is that there are no nearby crossings, so no whistle was blowing, just the low frequency rumbling nearly nonstop. 

Blurry Backside Photo

Pin Epoxied Onto Clothes Pin

Back in Place Working Like a Charm

The resort had pretty good amenities. No free wi-if at site but quite good in the library/exercise rooms. The real nice feature for me was the woodworking shop they had. It wasn't furnished with nearly the tools that I used to have, but dramatically better than what I have with me. I had been wanting to make a small table to go next to the driver side captain chair when it is rotated backward while we are setup at camp. My design only required three boards so the chop saw in the shop would be about all I needed. The top board would require some scribing and fitting to match up with the side console. A band saw would have helped but the one they had was missing a blade. My oscillating spindle sander would have been ideal but without having it, I had to resort to low tech - a couple good clamps and a sharp wood rasp.

We found a Woodcraft store in Tucson only about 40 minutes away. It had been some time since I have been in a woodworking store. I had to remind myself that I really only needed some wood. We decided it might take a lot of effort to try to match the existing wood and finish in our rig so when we spotted some good looking mesquite we decided to go that route. It is a wood that is associated with this part of the country and will always remind us of where we made it. The guy at the store said it is easy wood to work with but can be hard on blades. I only had a few cuts to make and the saw wasn't mine! I just used pocket screws to assemble it so it only took a couple hours and a lot of that time was walking back and forth from the shop to the rig a few times. Chris applied her clear coat finish and a few days later I was able to install it. I think it turned out quite nice.

Handy Table Next to Captain's Chair

Rechargeable Flashlight Has Secure Home

Filed to Fit Against Plastic

One of the "toys" I bought at the last rally was a device that plugs into the engine communication port (sort of like the OBD II port on all cars) and communicates with a Windows PC allowing all sorts of data to be shown in all different manners. For those interested, it is call a Silverleaf VMSpc. I have a couple laptops, but since this will be used while driving, I really wanted something smaller and ideally something that converts into a tablet when we are traveling so mounting it would be easier. We had been stopping at electronics stores in Chandler and also in Tucson but had no luck finding what we thought we wanted.

Finally we resorted to Amazon and found a ASUS Transformer Mini. For some reason, this campground's address was not valid in the Amazon order system. So we tried something we hadn't tried before or even ever heard of before. Amazon has delivery lockers scattered all over the country. The closest one was only 35 miles away in the outskirts of Tucson. Two days later, I receive a text saying it was delivered and then they emailed me a 6 digit passcode and barcode. The one we had picked was actually at a QuickTrip gas station. There is a odd looking locker with a touchscreen interface. I simply entered the passcode and one of the locker doors opens with my package sitting safely in there. A pretty convenient alternative when we are at someplace that doesn't allow shipments or if we don't feel comfortable with the location. When I get the system up and running, I will write a post on my findings.

Amazon Locker at Gas Station

View of Picacho Peak

Lots of Saguaros

During our week at Picacho Peak, we were experiencing a heat wave. Many days in a row with mid-90 degrees. It was hot enough that we needed to run our air conditioning during the afternoon and early evening. We did go into Picacho Peak State Park for a short hike one morning. We decided to buy the Arizona State Park annual pass since it is good for 12 months not just a calendar year. Since we will be here a bit longer and likely back in Arizona next winter, we should get our money's worth.

We did one of the shorter hikes. We will likely make it back this way and can try the hike to the peak then under cooler temps. There were a few others on the trail we hiked but there were many dozens on the longer trail to the peak. It looked like there was some school group that was out for a field trip based in the huge number of kids all grouped together. The trail we went up overlooks the campground we are in.  To sure we could specifically spot our rig but we know it's there.

Overlooking Our Campgrounds - Which One is Ours?

Large Group Hiking to Picacho Peak

A couple days after arriving here, I started to get sick. Nothing too bad. Just tired and a fever (100.4 one day and 101.3 the next day). The ostrich ranch that was just down the access road from us will have to wait for a subsequent visit. While we were here, Chris managed to get a serious head injury. She was working on finishing her boards and had them sitting under one of the slides. As she stood up, she brought the crown of her forehead into the corner of the slide! There was blood everywhere. After cleaning her up, we decided a trip to an urgent care facility was not required. I am probably not the best one to make that call but the bleeding had stopped an there wasn't any loose skin that would have benefited from a stitch or two.

Sunset at Picacho Peak

Our plan had been to head out on a Saturday to get in a day early for the Escapee's rally. But since we are going to be boondocking there and I was still not feeling great and Chris was still nursing her head, we extended our stay where we had electricity for an extra day. When we did leave, we had another 60 mile day. Other than stopping to top off the fuel tank, it was quick. This rally had a similar approach with a couple mile drive to the Pima County Fairgrounds from I-10. I kept expecting the catch up with a line of traffic and have to wait for hours, but surprisingly we pulled in and had no real wait to get into the spot. Part of the explanation was this rally had maybe 40% the number of rigs than the last one, but they layout of the facility and camping areas made for an easier approach.

The View From Our Rig at Escapade

So what is an Escapade, you ask? It is a big gathering of fellow members of the Escapees RV club which we joined when we went full time. Not all members are full timers. Some are snowbirds, others are part timers, but they all enjoy the RV lifestyle. It isn't limited to any particular class of RV, nor to any particular brand. Heck, of the ~950 "rigs" here, three of them were tents! We happened to meet one of the tent campers at a social one afternoon. They were thinking of getting some sort of RV and were taking advantage of the rally to learn. When we ran into them the next day, they commented that while looking at the new/used rigs brought in, it was hard for them to imagine what they would look like in "real" use. Since we had some time before our next sessions, we had them come out to our rig and check it out. I suspect they will do just fine figuring out what they want.

Inside the Fairgrounds

The Escapees club offers its own mail forwarding service out of Livingston Texas and has a series of RV parks scattered around the country. In fact we had already taken advantage of the ones in Summerdale Alabama and Deming New Mexico. At the rally were vendors, training sessions, and an RV dealer that brought in many dozens of rigs, new and used, for people to look through. Each night there was some sort of entertainment along with door prizes to be raffled off. There is definitely a younger vibe with Escapees compared to FMCA. Over sixty children were part of the attendees at the rally and many of them were the door prize "runners".

Not Sure Where One Buys an Orange Suit

For the first couple days, I was still under the weather, so I only went to sessions I really wanted to see. There were not as many sessions going on at the same time (maybe 4 to 6) but there were still a few time slots where we went to different ones to compare notes afterwards. We went to a handful of sessions on various volunteering opportunities. One about volunteering at National Parks or Refuges, and another about construction jobs with a Lutheran church group. The one that seemed to appeal to us the most was Habitat for Humanity. They have builds going on all over the country usually bringing in 5-10 rigs for two week work blocks. Some locations book up a couple days after they get posted while others don't get a full crew.

We didn't make it to every night's entertainment but the ones we did see were pretty entertaining. Woody and the Longboards did Beach Boys and the Eagles so everybody could sing along. The talent show was much more entertaining than I was expecting. One of the younger guys did a solo rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with a ukulele, not the easiest song to perform. Before each night's program, they would raffle off all sorts of donated items. Apparently over $16,000 worth of stuff. Unfortunately we didn't get any of the items.

Children Preform at Talent Show

Bohemian Rhapsody

Woody and the Longboards

We continued to have extremely hot weather while there. Bad enough that we often had to turn on the air conditioning in the early evening while running the generator. Our determination is that boondocking in the cold is preferable to doing so in the heat.  The good thing about this rally is that the rigs were spaced apart much better so there wasn't the constant smell of generators running. This rally might have been a bit more fun than the other one but with us being under the weather, we didn't get to fully enjoy it.

We had scheduled to stay in the boondocking lot an extra day past the rally.  By then, the temperatures had come back to a more normal mid-70 degrees so it was pleasant. There might have been 15 rigs that stayed and we happened to be spaced far enough apart that generator fumes and noise wasn't an issue at all. We took advantage of our extra free day and headed back to Saguaro National Park East. We had stopped about a month ago but had a few more things we wanted to do there. We ended up going to the Javelina Picnic area and walked the Freeman Homestead Loop.

Display at Visitor Center of Saguaro National Park East

Ocotillo in Bloom

Cactus Blooming

Lots of Yellow Flowers in Bloom