Arizona, Yuma - Saturday, October 12, 2019 - Travel to Del Pueblo RV Resort

We’ve arrived at our home for the winter.  We will be here until April, 2020.  Our address here is Greg and Diana Jones, 14794 S. Avenue 3E, Space 145, Yuma, AZ 85365.  Our South Dakota address is still our official mailing address, but if you need to get something to us while we are down here it would get to us quicker if you use the Yuma address.

I’ll post more pictures of the resort in a later post.  I think we are going to be very satisfied here.  We’ve been working with our boss cleaning the kitchen and we both like her.  Management here is very hands on and we are considered part of the resort staff.  The resort is very well kept, sites are large and most have a shade tree.  I feel like we have more room than we did in Mesa. 


Things may change once everyone gets here, there are just a few of us right now.  But, the park seems neater and cleaner.  Granted it’s a smaller resort but no sites have overgrown plants and patios aren’t overloaded with the things people should get rid of, it might be easier to enforce neatness in a smaller resort.


We are actual workkampers here – we don’t see a paycheck, we work 12 hours each per week, there is no time clock, they know that most workkampers give more than what is expected of them, and in exchange we get our site, $200 toward our utilities, free DSL Wi-Fi hookup and cable TV, half price meals and free admission to all events.  Our site is right next to the building where we will be working, not blocks away.  Most workkampers are in the same area.  We’ve met our neighbors and think we will enjoy them.  


Our jobs will be quite different from what we have ever done.  The café where we work serves breakfast and lunch only, no happy hour.  Greg will be working as a grill cook and I will be working in the food prep area making soups and salads.  We’ll see how warm it gets in the kitchen even though it is air conditioned.  I’m thinking it can’t be nearly as warm as working an outside patio area like we did in Mesa.


I haven’t done a post since June, I hope I remember how!  Most of our updates this summer came through phone pictures on Facebook.  We had a fantastic summer spending time with all the kids, grandkids, great grandson and the rest of our family and our friends.  A plaque on the counter next to our dining table says, “The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been and the memories we’ve made along the way”.  That is so true, not a day goes by that I don’t think about how lucky we are.  I know every mom probably says this, but I am just in awe when we visit the kids – we may not have done everything in life right, but we nailed the kid thing!  The amount of knowledge and community involvement that we see from them in addition to being great parents – makes me proud!  I’m so glad that technology now allows us to keep up with what’s happening in their lives as we travel.


Our first stop after we left Kansas was the Corral RV Park in Dalhart, TX.  We’ve stayed here before.  It’s a nice park and easy to get to.

Us in one of the large pull through sites.  Not a lot of amenities but we don’t need them for an overnight stay.

Texas has lots of wide open spaces.

Those spaces are broken up by some beautiful scenery from time to time.

The next day we are on the road again, New Mexico has some pretty roadside sunflowers.

Part of our route was on old Route 66 in Santa Rose, NM.

Scenery is starting to change in New Mexico.

Starting to see some cacti.

And, some mountains.

Our destination in New Mexico is the Route 66 Casino.

We’ve stayed at this recently finished campground a couple of times while it was under construction.  We enjoy it here. 

Our stay was just overnight and we are back on the road bright and early because storms are predicted for today.

We hit rain just as we were coming into Arizona.

Meteor Crater RV Park was our destination for the night.  It is on the road to a popular tourist attraction, a large crater made by a meteor.  The park is behind this gated area next to a gas station and convenience store.  We’ve never been here before so we were a little leery at this point as to what was on the other side of the gate.  It was pouring down rain when we arrived so we were hoping it was decent because we were going to stay no matter what.

The park is actually very nice.

It is a bit out of the way – note, the cattle crossing sign.

Next morning we are headed into Phoenix and noticed there is snow on this mountain.  The gray cloud behind it enhances the look of snow, but there is definitely quite a bit of snow up there.

We’ve been this route before, but this 18 miles of steep downgrades always bothers me.  Greg and the motor coach always handle it well but I spend quite a bit of time holding my breath.

When I remember to take pictures, there is some pretty scenery on the way down.

The flag on the mountain made me smile.

We’ve made it down 3000 feet at this point, about 4000 to go, we should be seeing Saguaros in the next 1000 feet.

The trip into Phoenix has some pretty overpasses.

At this point this mountain seems like it will never end!

Spotted the first Saguaro, we are below 3000 feet.

Seeing lots of Saguaros now, getting close to our destination.

Hello Phoenix! traffic looks mild at this point but its deceiving, not sure which is worse – traffic or mountains.

Phoenix does have some pretty walls and medians.

Our home for a week while we get doctor appointments completed.  The campground at the Ft McDowell Casino.

This storm passed up by, from a distance it was pretty looking at it from our dining area window.

Heading into Yuma we have more mountains.  When we get down to Yuma, we will be only about 150 feet above sea level.

North Carolina, Charlotte - Monday, June 10 2019 - Over the Wall Tour at Charlotte Motor Speedway

The Charlotte Motor Speedway is within walking distance from where we are staying in the campground.  Today we decided to drive over since rain was in the area and we are going out to Red Lobster after the tour to celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary (a couple of days early).

We started out the tour in some really nice seats.  Our tour guide spent about 15 talking about the history of the track and what we were seeing from our seats.

There are some really great views here.

Tomorrow night they will have school bus races.  The busses are taken to local schools prior to the race and the students decorate them.  Tomorrow night the school principals will race them around the small quarter mile oval in front of us.

When you are watching the race from those great seats you have access to food and drink in this area.  I understand this is a popular area for wedding receptions.

We’ve walked the concession area before.  The last time we were here we had to shelter in place here when bad weather came through during a race we were attending.

We got to go into a couple of the corporate suites.

First was one of the Coco Cola suites.  They have another suite that accommodates 300.

Your view of the race would be great from here.

The companies can decorate their suites as they see fit.  The Bank of America suite looks more family friendly.

They have that same great view.

Lighting in the press box wasn’t great.

Performance Racing Network is where the radio coverage comes from.

Lots of buttons to push in here.

Next we headed out to a van to go on a tour of the outside facilities.

The ZMax Dragway where we were a couple of days ago for the Hot Rod Tour.

This is the drivers view down the four wide drag racing track as they get ready to come to the starting line.

The dirt track is where the World of Outlaws run.

Notice the bottom section of seats, they are all stained from dirt that flies up in the stands during the races.

There are 52 condominiums here, all are sold and 10 of them are occupied year round.

If you see strange things in the sky above the garage area, that is just the reflections on the window of the van.

This room is the media room where the drivers come for a pre-race meeting.  Driver interviews also happen in here.

Standing in the winner’s circle.

The view of the stands when you are in the winner’s circle.

The seats for observers in the winner’s circle don’t look too comfortable.  There is tape marking where the select few are supposed to sit.  We noted that one was marked “CIA”.  Someone asked, “really?”, answer was “yes”.

No more pictures at this point, we are out on the track and without the seat belt I would be on the floor, I see now why they have the drivers secured so well during the race.  This track has 24 degrees of bank in the corners. Oh my, that is steep!  I don’t know how they keep their cars up there.  We experienced decelerating to get down to pit lane speed.  However, we were only going about 80 mph – nothing like racing speed.  This was a really fun tour.