Ford Bronco Off-Roadeo (6/20/24)

 The Off-Roadeo is an all day event sponsored by Ford Motor Company. It is offered to Bronco owners, both those in possession of a Bronco, and those who have one on order (we technically qualify in both categories, lol). There are 4 or so locations throughout the U.S.  Paul chose Las Vegas because it has more of the terrain he is interested in.  The goal is to learn what the Bronco is capable of in an off-road setting. Let me start right off the bat by saying this organization is absolutely top notch, and I had a great time.

Our two leaders, who were with us all day, were Mike and Dani-girl (called that because there is a Danny Boy).We started the day with some outdoor classroom training.  Mike spent about a half hour describing the parts of a car that pertain to driving, and what each one does.  He was looking for audience participation, and of course Paul was happy to oblige. Anyone who provided a correct answer to a question got a sticker. Mike ran out of stickers, and Paul has most of them.

Once that portion was done, we walked a nearby trail. Here there was one driver, and one Bronco. We all walked along side as Mike and Dani told the driver what to do, and explained what drive setting was being used and why. 

The Bronco has a center knob by the center console, labeled GOAT- Goes Over All Terrain. Each turn of the dial brings up a different mode- rock climbing, hill descent, Baja mode, sand, etc.

They took that Bronco through a short course, with different challenges along the way, and changed drivers a couple of times as well.

Naturally Paul volunteered, and took the vehicle over some interesting rocks. At this point Mike had me spotting Paul, letting him know which way to turn the tires etc.

He deliberately had Paul drive up onto a boulder, to showcase how much of an angle the Bronco can handle. Paul had it at a 19 degree angle, and Mike says Ford is comfortable with 25 degrees.

Once we finished that course, they took us to “our Broncos”. They provide all the Broncos for the day. Each one is equipped with a walkie talkie, so that the instructors could tell all the drivers what mode they should be using and how to approach each obstacle. 

Once we were all situated in vehicles, they took us on what they called the “bunny trails” They insisted that by the end of the day we would agree that they are easy trails.

After an hour or so, we headed back to base camp, where they provided a very decent lunch for us all.

And then it was on to the “real” trails.  I could have shared the driving with Paul, but we elected to have him do it all, since that’s the way it would be in our own vehicle.

Paul was the “tail gunner”, always in the last position, I think because Mike realized that he had more experience than most.  It was our job to let the leaders know when we were caught up after running through a course.

The first time they took us over a large boulder to show us a) how to approach it and b) what the Bronco is capable of, Mike was outside, directing each driver.

Once the Bronco was on the boulder, he rocked it to show how far off the ground the tire was. The second time we had that type of obstacle, we did it on our own.

It didn’t take us too long to figure out that Mike and Dani were experts at what they do, and we could trust what they told us to do,  even if it didn’t feel comfortable.

One of the neat settings is Trail Control- we used it on a very steep hill. Once the vehicle is in that mode, you set the speed you want – using the up and down buttons of the cruise control. You don’t touch the brake or the gas- the Bronco does whatever needs to be done to maintain that speed, including using the brake. It was very impressive.

 

After a very full day, we headed back to base camp, where they fed us dinner before we left for the day. Both instructors were on hand to answer questions.

If I sound like an advertisement for the company, its an indication of how impressed I was. I came away feeling much more comfortable taking the Bronco off road.

Vegas, Baby! (04-22-16)

For Paul and I, Vegas falls into the “been there, done that” category. And yet, we just spent over a week there. However-  we only went into the city itself once- and it wasn’t to gamble or see a show!




Our primary purpose in coming to Vegas was to attend the Scottish Highland Games.  Paul and I both have a fair amount of Scottish in us, and we enjoy these Celtic Festivals.

We were joined by Mike and Julie, and Randy and Liz, who had all just left our house the day before.  We also met up with Dave and Jan, friends of Mike and Julie.

Paul and Mike both look great in a Kilt, and seem to enjoy getting into the spirit of things by wearing the traditional garb (the man in the middle is the leader of one off the Celtic bands).

Highland Way was one of several bands that performed on the main stage.  There was live music all day long.

There was plenty to see and do, with competitions taking place all day long.

The Athletics, such as the Caber Toss, are always fun to watch, and other competitions included  Drum Major, individual piping, drumming…

….and pipe bands.

Food and beverage were also plentiful, and several of our group attended a whisky tasting.



Over Yonder, away from the music, was an area of tents where you could buy all things Celtic, and check out the Clan tents.  Neither the Johnston or Campbell clans were represented, so I affiliated myself with the Clan Inebriated. Easy to join- just look them up on Facebook!











Closing Ceremonies featured Scotland The Brave:

The only time we ventured into the city was to check out the Carroll Shelby Museum.

 Anyone who is interested in cars should check this out.  We had a guided tour that lasted an hour and a half, and I never got bored!

This is Shelby #1- the first car Carroll Shelby ever modified.  He was offered $26 million for it, and turned it down.

The Shelby 1000- Yup, that’s 1000 horsepower!

The Super Snake- topping out at over 200 mph.  And even though Carroll Shelby died a few years ago, you can still have one of these built for you

The tour was full of anecdotes about Carroll Shelby- his racing life, the cars he built and his relationships with auto manufacturers . 

Our adventuring mostly consisted of hiking.  Maybe surprisingly, there is a lot of hiking available in the Las Vegas area. 



We first headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
















The Calico Hills area is one of my favorites.  The rock colors and formations are just really cool, and fun to hike on.











We also hiked to Madre Spring on a different day, but we called that hike “exercise”.  Not much to see of interest, but at least we were out and about.

On one of the hotter days we headed up to nearby Mt. Charleston, which sits at a higher elevation. The trail we chose was to Mary Jane Falls.  It was almost 5 miles long, and over 1500 ft of elevation gain.

We call this type of hike a “twofer”.  The scenery along the way was great, and there was a cave. and a waterfall at the end of the trail. 




Julie and I sat by the waterfall while Mike and Paul wandered over to the cave. The arrow points to the guys.












Of course you can’t hike all day every day, so we had plenty of time to hang out.

The RV park where we stayed happened to be a shooting range, and all the guys took advantage of that to do some target shooting. 

After dinner it was time to get out the firewood and the musical instruments.




Life is good.









Soon enough, it was Wheels Up, as we all scattered for our summer destinations.  Our next stop is Utah, where we’ll do some hiking.

S.O.I.T.C. Rally (04-11-15)

SOITC stands for Suite Owners International Travel Club and is a social club for people who own DRV products, more commonly referred to as Mobile Suites (although there are other lines within the company).  The national Rally was held in Las Vegas this year and its the first time we have attended any national rally. 





In all, there were about 68 DRV 5th wheels at the rally.  We have met quite a few of these people in the past, when we attended some smaller, regional rallies.  It was nice to catch up, and to meet some new people as well.

The rally was a mix of planned events and free time- apparently many people had requested a lot of free time in order to take advantage of the fact that we are in Las Vegas.  One couple drove here from Florida just for the rally!

One of my favorite activities was the morning poker run.  Each morning we walked to a couple of trailers, stood in line, and when it was our turn, drew a card out of a bag.  The idea was to make the best poker hand we could, over the course of the week.  It was a great opportunity to talk to people in a small group setting, and no- we didn’t win.

Our major outing was an evening trip to see the show “Jersey Boys” which is about Frankie Valli. Originally we were told we had to provide our own transportation, but the powers that be re-thought that (we ALL drive huge trucks) and ordered 5 party buses.

The show was just ok but the trip home was a riot.  The music was blaring and the women ( and some men) were pole dancing.

Amongst all the fun, the annual national meeting and elections were held, as well as the regional meetings.
There was also a “Meet DRV” meeting where a company representative was available to answer questions.  DRV was recently purchased by Thor Industries, which has caused some concern for existing and potential owners.

They fed us several times during the week, including ice cream a couple of times- yum!

Most days there were seminars to attend- one was about solar, and another was a discussion panel on the subject of fulltiming.

On Friday there was a craft session where a pre-set up quilting project was available for anyone who wanted to make it.  I haven’t touched a sewing machine in 40 years, so one of the women took pity  and made this mug rug for me. That was nice of her!  Maybe while we are settled in Havasu some winter I will take sewing lessons…..hmm, probably not.










To a certain extent the week dragged on because we’ve been to Vegas several times and don’t gamble so we had a lot of down time, but overall we had fun and met some great people.

From one Valley to the next (03-28-12)

   Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada is one of those places that everyone says we need to go, so here we are.  If it looks “otherworldly”, it’s with good reason. 

This was the site of the planet Veridian III in Star Trek: Generations, and it happens to be the location where Captain Kirk takes his final breath.

The Wilson Cell phone antenna that we bought is doing it’s job, and is the only reason we have any internet and cell coverage.  The minute we move the phone 2 feet away from the antenna, our coverage is gone.  Except when we’re out on the trail, apparently.  We were out hiking yesterday, miles from anywhere, and the Paul’s phone actually rang! We had a nice chat with our daughter while we hung out on some beautiful red rocks.

This park is only about 60 miles from Las Vegas, but it’s a world away in atmosphere and attitude.  We drove through the city on the way here, but didn’t stop at all. 
I’ll post more once we’re not in the park, because as it is, I have no idea if this will post, with the pictures in it.

Las Vegas NV - Benson AZ

There's no getting around it. I take too many pictures. Its always been my philosophy that with digital cameras, you can always delete. Tonight, though, I am really tired, but I want to post an update as to where we are etc. Usually I upload my pictures at the same time, so I can use some if I want to....in the last 2 days I have taken about 300 pictures. Probably about 250 of them could be deleted, and probably only about 50 or so will actually get deleted. So now tonight I have to sort through all of the pictures and delete them.

Anyway, Sunday we dropped Jess off at the airport very early. We must have set about 4 alarm clocks since we usually use our cell phones but daylight savings time started Saturday night and we had no idea if our phones would automatically update the time or not- so we set other alarms as well. Her flight got off fine and she made it back to school with no problems. We drove straight back to Red Rock Canyon after dropping her off, determined to get some hiking done. The weather was much better this time around! It was mostly in the 60s. Our plan was to hike 3 trails- the first was Calico Hills trail- the rocks in this part of the park are really striped pink and white. In other areas of the park they are quite red. We walked about 2 miles or so, scrambling over boulders. That was a lot of fun for me. We saw people rock climbing, and we saw one guy hiking with his dog, and both he and his dog had backpacks. When I commented on it, he laughed and said he learned to let the dog carry his own when he noticed that at the end of a hike, he was breathing heavy and the dog wasn’t.

We drove to the next trail we wanted to hike, but after turning down a narrow dirt road to get to the trailhead, we were blocked by an official vehicle with its lights flashing. It turns out that they were in the process of rescuing 3 campers who had unintentionally spent the night on the mountain-apparently their ropes had tangled and they couldn’t get down and it was too windy to attempt the rescue the night before. We watched the helicopter fly back and forth for a bit before moving on.

We did hike Ice Box Canyon trail. This hike was about 2.6 miles, with not much elevation gain, but it was a very strenuous hike. It was along a river, and there were plenty of times we had to hop from boulder to boulder in the water. It ended in a canyon, known as Ice box because often in the winter there are icicles hanging from the waterfalls. Not this time, but there were two really cool pools and the whole hike was great, but not easy on our knees and ankles! Again we stopped along the way back to watch some rock climbers do their thing.

We ate lunch back at the truck and headed back to the trailer for the afternoon. We actually cleaned the “basement”. We took everything out of the storage area, and re-organized it.

Yesterday when we left Vegas, we had no idea where we were headed. We just started driving in the general direction that we wanted to go. About 40 miles outside of Vegas, we came to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. I had never seen either one before. It was interesting to cross the dam, but it wasn’t as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. It was a windy road, but it didn’t have an open feel to it like a bridge does ( I hate bridges).  We didn’t see anyplace to stop with the trailer attached, so we just kept going. While Paul drove, I did some research. One of the places we are interesting in seeing is Tonto National Forest in AZ. After taking a look at it though, it looks like it might still be a little too cold, so we decided to skip it and go a different way. We drove rte 93 and found a Federal campground (Burro Creek Campground) along the way that sounded like it would work for us for the night. I called to see if they had any availability, but the actual campground has no phone and the BLM office couldn’t say, although she did say that they are never full, and if they were full, we could stay in the group area.

When we arrived, naturally they were full, and the host wasn’t keen on letting us stay in the group area. He said he had gotten in trouble for doing that once, because he didn’t charge that person the group rate of $50. We had no intention of paying $50 instead of $7 but we finally convinced him that it made no sense for the campground to lose out on our $7.

We spent the afternoon walking along Burro Creek. This area attracts birders and people interested in geology. There are all kinds of different rocks here- several different color agates, etc.  We found a couple of small interesting rocks, but nothing compared to what the camp host had at his site!
We had a peaceful fire that night, using driftwood we found by the creek. At dusk the skies became filled with bats. I spent a fair amount of time trying to get decent pictures of them, without much success.

This morning, once again we left without really having any idea where we were going. I have been wanting to go to Tombstone AZ, and after researching while driving, we decided to spend a few days in Benson, AZ. It’s about 25 miles from Tombstone and is also home to Kartchner Caverns, which will be fun to check out.

There is another reason we wanted to stay here though. The park we are staying in belongs to an organization of people who RV full time. They are called “Escapees”. I have been using their forum to chat and get information, for the last year. So, we wanted to stop at this park and meet some other “escapees”. Every year the Escapees have a class graduation for all of the members who “go fulltime” that year. We are members of the class of 2009.

Las Vegas, NV

Wow, time goes way too fast sometimes.  Stephen left a few days ago to go back home to Boston. We are already trying to figure out when we can get together again, but life is a little too up in the air to figure it out right now.  Jess went to her stepsister's wedding and had a great time.  She spent Tuesday with them as well, so Paul and I tried to take advantage of her being busy and took off to go hiking Red Rock Canyon.  The day was nice, so we brought lunch and wore light jackets.  Unfortunately by the time we actually got to the canyon, it was 33 degreees out and snowing.  hmmmm. It would have been smart to pack warmer jackets, but we weren't that clever.  Actually, it wouldn't have mattered much.  It was snowing QUITE a bit, and the wind was blowing.  We just did the scenic drive instead, but we are interested enough that we will try to head back there tomorrow after we drop Jess off at the airport.

   Wednesday Paul and I took the shuttle to the strip, wandered around for a bit, did some window shopping, and watched the fountain at the Bellagio.  Later on in the day we met up with Jess, her stepsisters and the guys with them.  We all met at Margaritaville, had some drinks and food, then wandered the strip some more.  We saw the "Siren" show at Treasure Island and none of us were really sure why we actually stuck around to watch the whole thing. Its really silly.  We also saw the fountains at Bellagio again, which was nice for me because I have never seen them at night before.

Also on our list of things to do was visit the Ethel M chocolate factory.  We did that Friday, but they only operate Monday thru Thursday!  We did get some free chocolate though, and since it was only a  2 mile drive, it was no big deal. We came back and decided to go see a movie.  The RV Park we are staying in has a movie theater and bowling alley.  Valentine's Day was starting soon, so thats what we went to see.  It was actually a fun movie.  Once we got back home we played another game of Phase 10, the game that Jess is apparently addicted to at the moment.

This afternoon Paul and Jess went to see Avatar.  I had no interest in it, so I stayed behind to clean up, and make Jess's favorite dinner- Macaroni and Cheese.

Las Vegas, Part 1

Both kids have now arrived, and the last couple of days have been very busy!  Actually, Stephen leaves to go home tomorrow, so the visit with him is flying by! Saturday we picked Jess up at the airport around lunch time, got her settled in, and then she took off to be with her stepsisters!  Her stepsister Jocelyn is getting married here in Vegas, so their family is here too.  So Jess took off with them to go ride the rollercoaster at NY NY, and Paul and I hung out for the afternoon- Paul put together some Chili Rellenos, one of Stephen's favorite meals.  We left to go get him at about 7 pm, and picked Jess up on the way back.  We had a late dinner, but it was really great for the 4 of us to be together for it. We walked Stephen over to the hotel later in the night- the hotel is attached to the RV Park, so its convenient.
Yesterday we had a great time with them. We did some shopping in the morning, then headed back to the trailer to get ready for our outing.  We had tickets to Blue Man Group and we went to Margaritaville for an early dinner before the show.  Its a good thing we left early, because we had quite a wait at Margaritaville.
Our RV Park has a shuttle that has stops at several places along the strip.  We figured it would be easier than Paul having to drive the F350, so we took the 3 pm shuttle.  A few minutes into the trip in the shuttle, Stephen was telling us a story about a customer (he is a computer tech at Staples) and a problem the guy was having with his hard drive. It was really quiet in the bus and his was the only discernible voice.  It soon became apparent that the bus driver was trying to get Stephens attention.  He told Stephen he was being too loud and he had to come up to the "Time out" seat (the Jump seat next to the driver).  Luckily Stephen  has a great sense of humor, so he went up there to sit, apologizing for talking to his parents too loud after not seeing us for almost a year. Then he said it was ok, he didn't mind hanging out with "the dude"  for a while.
Turns out the guy had heard the conversation and was also having a problem with his hard drive, so he was picking Stephens brain to find out what he should do! Everyone was laughing- telling the driver he was lucky to get free advice, because probably people PAY to hear what Stephen has to say about their computer!
     Lunch/Dinner at Margaritaville was great- the food was OK, but it's a fun place to be.  The Margaritas packed quite a punch! Stephen was kind enough to order a drink his sister wanted and set it close enough to her for her to reach easily (she just turned 20- and has been bemoaning the fact that she has been to Vegas TWICE, before she even turned 21). People were coming around giving out small flowers for people who made a donation for Breast Cancer, so we all got a small flower and put it behind our ears.
After dinner we walked to the Venetian, where Blue Man Group performs.  Paul has seen it before and has always wanted us to see it.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it- me, partly because it was fun to see how much fun the kids were having.  The show is somewhat interactive and at one point the Blue guys walked towards the back of the theatre, stepping on the backs of seats to get there.  Our seats were in the first row behind the splash zone. One guy paused right over Jess and Stephen, and the kids handed him their flowers.  It was really cool because once he got to the back and had picked out a volunteer to bring on stage, he presented her the flowers and she took them with her.  The flowers were in the show for about the next 30 minutes. That really made the show great for us.  There were other times it was interactive too, so  it kept our interest.
After the show we took the last shuttle back home, and left Stephen at the hotel.  Since it wasn't even midnight, he had no intentions of going to his room, except to freshen up, since as he said- he's 23 and on vacation in Las Vegas! I wonder if he ever made it to bed?