April 8th & 9th, Oliver factory

While we were waiting for our axle to arrive, Chuck decided to get striping to our 'Burb', so it would match the Oliver!

The guys did a great job, and as soon as I can find the note book with their names written down so I wouldn't forget who they were (sheeesh!) I'll post their names.

When Thursday arrived, it was time to say goodbye to our new friend Mark. He was headed to TX to spend Easter with family before he headed back to AZ.

During the day Thursday, a new axle was found at the plant! It was the right axle in an unexpected place! Within a couple of hours the new axle was on, the striping of the Burb was completed! We were free to leave! But as it was after 5 pm, we decided to spend one more night camped in the Oliver factory and head out early Friday morning for Lake Greeson!

April 7,8,9th Oliver Factory!

After a 7 hour drive, we made it to the Oliver Factory where we were surprised to see the Whaley's there getting a few things tweaked and new things installed, like the cool back up camera gizmo! We also met a new friend and Oliver Owner, Mark! Mark is from AZ and he bought one of the demo models. This is his first travel trailer so he wanted lots of hints. Chuck was only too happy to oblige! Hopefully, we will see more of Mark when we get out to NM for our workamping job.

Robert Partee even jumped in to help Mark with a bit of tweaking to his Oliver.

Robert even helped with a few bolts on our Oliver!

See? Robert Partee worked so hard, he actually worked up a sweat!

Mark and Chuck outside Mark's new home! Mark is going to be full time camping now! Hooray!

Well, bad news was, Oliver didn't have an axle for us. We were gonna have to stay a few more days waiting for the one ordered to get to us. Lake Greeson Arkansas was looking further and further away! We all went to The Junkyard Dog for supper, Tom and Karen Whaley, Mark and Chuck and I! Such good food there! Tom and Karen left the next day, Wednesday. Chuck and I camped in the Oliver factory in our camper waiting for an axle to arrive!

April 3rd to April 6th

Chuck and I were so ready to go on April 1st! But bad weather, heavy rains and tornado warnings for 2 days kept us home and still with most of the camper stuff packed and ready to go piled in the living room. Finally, Friday April 3rd, we got a bit of a break in the weather! We

could finally load the Oliver camper and go! Mmmm, but wait.... why is the shower leaking all over??? Call the plumber.... he comes out and says he will have to replace the faucet handles as these are so old, they are not repairable but it would be Monday or Tuesday before parts would be in! EEEEEEK! We wanted to be in Lake Greeson Arkansas by Tuesday with our Oliver and Casita buddies catching catfish and swapping tall tales around the campfire. We said the heck with it, turned the water off to the house, threw all that was left to pack on the bed of the Oliver and left about 3 pm! We were headed out of town! Onward to catfish heaven and camping friends. We drove 2.5 hours or so, pulled into our favorite campground in Fountain FL and finished putting stuff away in the Oliver and readied ourselves for a long journey tomorrow!

We hit the road early, about 9 am headed to highway 84 in Alabama with is our favorite East/West highway! Goes through Alabama, Lousiana and Mississippi and is 4 lane better than good highway most of the way! So many interstate highways have become so ragged and patched from the overabundance of travellers that everything in the trailer gets shook up and messed up. Besides, everybody knows I don't like travelling interstate! So we get to Andalusia Alabama. I had been badgering Chuck about stopping at walmart because I wanted a new Atlas. He finally give in and pulls into Wallyworld to indulge me. While I am in the store, he does his usual walkaround to make sure everything is connected, thumps the tires and feels the hubs to check on the bearings. OWIE! The hub burned the heck out of his hand! Bearings were shot! We had to pull over and get them fixed! Sure, Saturday just a few minutes before noon... right!

We did find one guy in his tire shop getting ready to leave. His mechanic had already left, but he told us we were welcome to dry camp there until Monday AM when his crew returned to work.

Frustrating, but what choice did we have. The bearing seal was noticibly leaking! So we hunkered down. Monday we find out it is much worse. Chuck knows the technical stuff! Our bearings had less than 5,ooo miles on them yet one burned out and fused the castle nut to the ??? axle and we needed a new axle! $200+ later they had us fixed up enough to head up to Hohenwald TN to the Oliver Factory to get a new axle!

Let me catch up!

After leaving Roper Lake State Park, Chuck and I headed to Texas to see our friend Pete Marks and his furkid Oscar! By the time we got there we were both so sick with bad colds, we decided to visit a "doc-in-a-box" clinic and see if we were dying or not! Turns out I had bronchitis and Chuck was close to it, We got our prescriptions and stayed in bed for a couple of days before we even felt like visiting with Pete! Pete's house is beautiful! Very Zen in it's simplicity with beautiful art everywhere! Deer roam around everyone's yards with total freedom. Pete cooked us a wonderful meal, showed us his flute collection and even played several songs for us. Haunting melodies! Just a wonderful time, we were sorry to have to head home, but Thanksgiving was only a week away and we were due to be in Leesburg at Chuck's niece's house for our Thanksgiving dinner! Chuck's sister flew in from CA and nephew flew in from Dallas so we had to show up too! This ends the adventures of 2008!

Roper Lake State Park, Safford AZ

I know I need to catch you up on the past 14 days......... but I just wanted to share where we are now! Chuck and I have found a favorite new campground and we found it by accident! After driving 2 hours on graded dirt roads headed out of Young AZ, roads that were more like washboard than graded with hairpin turns and mostly downhill. Several hours after finding paved road again, Chuck was ready for a campground!

We are both sick with cold/flu and have been since Lake Casita CA where we left 8 days ago. I just looked on the Atlas map of Arizona and found Roper Lake State Park, just south of Safford AZ. It was about an hour away. We didn't have high hopes for this park after passing the "seen better days" neighborhood homes on the road here. At the front gate was a guy with a great big smile and welcome attitude. The camping fee is only $16 a night for water and electric! The best perk of all is the hot springs that flow into a rock lined hot tub at a perfect 97 degrees! To 2 sick campers.... this sounded great! We paid for one night and drove on in to find a spot! WOW! This park is beautiful! The campsites are well spaced with plenty of room and none of that "parking lot" feel that you get at some campgrounds.

The lake is an amazing blue color, nothing like I have ever seen anywhere else! The lake is full of ducks that Chuck says are Greebs. This morning, while walking the dogs, a group of gambrel quail paraded across the campground. Grin! The lake is stocked with trout from Nov. to March, there are trails everywhere and mountain view on 2 sides of us! We paid for 3 more nights! We love it here! We are applying for positions here as workampers! It feels like we have found our second home! Enjoy the photos!

Good Bye Bonkers :-(

I hate to say it, I hate to even think it! But last Sunday, Oct. 25th, Bonkers left us! Stupid human error! Not even her fault! Chuck has some friends that were at the Casita rally in Lake Casitas, CA. Jim and Carol have a cat named Jerry that has been camping with them since he was a kitten. He even rides around in his own stroller greeting everyone. Chuck and I wanted to introduce Bonkers to Jerry and his family. We put her harness and leash on, Chuck carried her holding her in his arms. Amazingly.... the first few minutes went ok. Something happened to spook Bonkers. because all at once she went ballistic and in 10 seconds flat, or less, she was out of Chuck's arms and out of her harness and running in long leaps and bounds down the dry creekbed! It was all over before anybody could react! I immediately went down the edge of the creekbed calling for her........... no response. Just before dark, I went again calling her and she meowed back, but she was too spooked to come out of hiding. the man at the end of the wash, saw her Sunday night and Monday night... so Tuesday Chuck went into Ventura and bought a hav -a-heart trap at Harbor Freight. We had had her carrier set up at where she was last seen on Sunday and Monday nights and all the food was eaten....... but once we set the trap up she was never seen again nor was her food touched. The parks rangers said there are a lot of coyotes there and for her to last 2 nights was amazing. We donated the trap to the park. I am so mad at myself! If I had just kept her in the trailer instead of wanting to show her off...... she would still be with us.

Needless to say, I am behind on this blog. There is a lot to show and tell you of what we have seen and done while in CA. We are now in Barstow at a KOA. Chuck took me to the ghost town of Calico, and it was soooo cool! I took lots of pictures so I will share later. We are on our way home now, with several more adventures and discoveries awaiting us. I will try to get caught up asap. Needless to say, preoccupation with Bonkers has been the main focus. It was so hard to leave yesterday........ but I really think it was no good waiting longer, I think she is gone. But I guess being a meal for a hungry coyote is better than being run over on a roadside. She was loved for 4 years and she will be with us always in our memories.