May 9, 2006 - Bakersfield, CA - Aptos, CA

Today we arrived back home to beautiful warm weather. This is unlike the weather when we left. During our trip we received emails from our California friends with pictures showing us snow, and hail in Santa Cruz. For most of our trip we were very fortunate to have had great weather.

After two months and 3 days, we traveled through 15 states and put 10k miles on Big Red. During our trip, Big Red had two oil changes, one ignition coil replacement and has 4 new tires.

After we got home the first thing to do was fix Taylor. Within a week we have replaced the panel, and cleaned him up.




Taylor went back home today (May 17, 2006) and we would like to thank Sabrina and Jeff for allowing us to use him for our trip.


Taylor going home

Our trip has so many memories that we will treasure forever. We hope you enjoyed the blog during our travels.

The End

May 8, 2006 - Laughlin, NV - Bakersfield, CA

We are coming to the end of our vacation. After packing everything up, we headed over to the casino for our .99 cent Ham & Egg breakfast. While at breakfast we played Keno for the first time. The .99 cent breakfast turned into being 1.99 breakfast. We left with full tummies but empty handed. We fueled up and headed to Bakersfield for our last vacation stop. We were driving through Tehachapi pass, where there were signs for high wind warnings. At one point I looking in my rear view mirror and saw the inside insulation of Taylor. I told Johnny he needed to pull over right away, Taylor was falling apart. When we got out to investigate the damage, the wind was so fierce we could hardly stand. Luckily the panels that came off were still partly attached to the trailer. We managed to cripple our way into the town of Tehachapi and found a hardware store. Went into Ace Hardware and bought 40 screws, electric drill and good ole duck tape. Three hours later Taylor was ready to go again. It was night fall by this time, so we drove to Bakersfield and camped out at our last Wal-mart for this trip.


OOPS!!!!!!!!!!




ALL BETTER

May 7, 2006 - Laughlin, NV

Today we just relaxed at the trailer and I played catch up on the blog. In the afternoon we played golf at the Mojave Resort golf course. Boy was it HOT!!!! Our tee time was at 3:08pm, we did not start cooling off till we made the turn to the back nine.
We ended our last evening with another bargain at the casino. They had $3.99 all you can eat Spaghetti and Meatballs. It was just ok.

May 6, 2006 - Laughlin, NV

This morning we went over to the Casino for .99 cent all you can eat Ham & Egg breakfast. What a deal, it just wasn’t Ham & Eggs, they also served hash browns and toast.
We spent the day at the pool with Amy and Todd and their Parrot Head friends. The weather has been awesome and getting hotter as each day passes. Today was a perfect day for the pool. The pool had several beach balls, inflatable sharks and a lot of Parrot heads. The four of us played pass the beach ball, we started with one and graduated to passing two at a time. Let’s put it this way, after awhile, we started creating our own beach ball games. The pool is in a horseshoe shape. Later on, Amy and I wandered over to the other side where we found beach ball dodge ball going on. Well I got right in the middle of the action and had a blast.

Amy and Todd mentioned to us that they were going to participate in a silent auction today. Todd was interested in a neon sign for his bar. So, around 4:00pm, they went to check on the auction. Amy stood by the table of the item they were interested in winning and she went back and forth with another bidder and finally, Amy won the bid….right on “Parrot Head Chick rules”. After the auction we meet up later for Prime Rib dinner. Thank you Amy and Todd for inviting us to be a part of your event.

May 5, 2005 - Laughlin, NV

This morning we showed up for our early tee-time.



We were paired up with a couple, Amy & Todd from Marina Del Rey, CA. They are here for the “Phins to the West” party week-end. This is a group that puts on an event for Parrot Head clubs of Jimmy Buffet. The party has been here at the AVI Resort & Casino for the past three years. This year there are Parrot Head clubs from 33 states attending the charity event. We overheard someone saying there are about 700 Parrot Heads here. The event cost $175.00 per person and includes an upon arrival gift pack, all meals and lodging for 2 nights, 2 live evening concerts (this years concert had two horn players from the Coral reefers appear), $1.50 Corona’s and Margaritas, silent auction, vendor booths and much more. These organizations are non-profit and funds raised are donated to charities. Amy & Todd are members of the San Diego Parrot Heads and their charites goto the Special Olympics. If you are interested in joining a parrot head club in your area, go to http://www.phip.com/. If you don't find your location listed, contact them for the closest one in your area.


Amy & Todd (San Diego Parrot Head club members)

We were thankful we had an early tee time. By the 17th hole we were all feeling the heat. After our round, the four of us had lunch in the clubhouse. We then meet up at the pool in the resort with all the other Parrot Heads. The “Phins to the West” had their own Tiki bar set up and like I said earlier they were serving up the $1.50 Corona or Margarita’s. After a couple of Margarita’s I felt right in with the Parrot Heads and they made us feel welcome.

May 4, 2006 - Sedona, AZ to Laughlin, NV

Our destination today is Laughlin, NV. On our road map, I had mapped for us to drive along the historic route 66 on our way back home. The route was from Ash Fork, AZ and ended in Seligman, AZ, which is about 16 miles. The road ran pretty much parallel to Interstate 40. We did not find any historic sites till we drove into Seligman. But, it was a pretty drive and the road was in good condition.






We arrived in Laughlin at the AVI Resort & Casino RV Park at 4:30pm. The RV Park, just changed names within the last two months to KOA Campgrounds. The RV Park is across the street from the Resort & Casino. They have a golf cart that will take you over there, which is what we did. We were told by the cashier, if you have an Advantage card, tonight is two for one buffet. What the heck…the card is free and we filled ourselves up on buffet food which was pretty good.
Afterwards, we drove over to the Mojave Resort golf course to checkout the driving range and booked our tee time for the next day.

May 3, 2006 - Sedona, AZ

Johnny drove me out to Oak Creek Winery, which is one of the two wineries near our RV Park. I wanted to try one of their Merlots. The only Merlot they had was white, which I was not familiar with this type of Merlot. After sampling this Merlot, it was sweet, bubbly and berry tasting. It reminded me of an after dinner wine and not for me. So, I guess I’ll just have to try a few and pick one that I like. After tasting about 5 wines, I selected a very nice smooth red wine, which consisted of 35% Merlot and 65% Syrah.
When she handed me the bottle, I was surprise it did not have a label of the winery. I asked her about the wine and she told me this particular wine is made at their sister winery; Don Gabezas wine works in Cochise County, AZ


Oak Creek Winery

After my wine tasting we had lunch just down the road at Page Street Restaurant. The restaurant is located on the Oak Creek River. After a very nice lunch we headed out to play some golf. We drove to the Oak Creek Golf course and we were told they are having a tournament. They also informed us the other golf course we wanted to play, which was Sedona Golf Resort, was also having a tournament. Well dang it….what are we going to do. We checked out our tour map and found another course, Mesa Canyon country club. This course is surrounded by a retirement community and is a 9 hole executive course. They had no driving range, which we really needed after not playing golf in over 2 weeks. OK…well give it a shot. Let say we enjoyed ourselves and both played very well for not having any warm-up.