Travel Log – Our trip to Arizona and California 2009

(Updated – March 03, 2009)

March 3, 2009 – Phoenix – House Hunting - Dog Shows

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. We have been so busy.

We spent the last 5 days showing Mona at the Scottsdale shows. Mona went Best of Winners both days at the specialty and 1 day at the all breed so she picked up a few more points. Unfortunately no majors, seems to be always a dog short.

The rest of the month we have been house hunting. We finally bought a foreclosed house in Phoenix. It has been a long hunt as there are so many on the market. The only drag is the low Canadian dollar but the prices of the homes are so low that it is still worthwhile.

The following are a few pictures of the house. It needs some repairs but that will give Sandy something to do in his spare time when we are down here in the winter.

February 1-8, 2009 – Phoenix - Dog Shows

I got back from working in Lethbridge on Saturday afternoon and we headed to Quartzsite for the night and then into Phoenix the next day. We are staying at the Covered Wagon Campground about 5 miles from the show grounds. $29 a night at the campgrounds, $50 a night at the show. Its not that we are cheap but thrifty.

The show grounds were very dirty. We showed indoors and the floors were so dirty that we had to wrap Mona’s puffs in saran wrap to keep them clean. Even thought we thought we should have won everyday we didn’t. Reserve the first two days, best of winners the third day and 2^nd in my class the last day. So in the end we picked up one 3 point major, so now Mona has 5 points.

We are headed to Mesa to a Regional Park tomorrow. Watching the Westminster show with Nancy and Dick. Then we are looking forward to seeing Dad and Catherine on Thursday.

We are going to spend the rest of the week looking at foreclosed houses. We are still amazed how cheap the houses are. We will keep you posted.

January 24-25, 2009 –San Bernardino-Orange Empire Dog Show

Well we did the best we could at the Orange Empire Dog Show. Mona went Best of Winners both days. Unfortunately there were only 7 dogs (2 absent) and 8 bitches (2 absent) so it was only one point per day. But better then nothing.

The judge on Saturday was Mr. Zee from Taiwan. The judge the second day was Mr. John Shoemaker from the Sothern CA area. We were told that we were going down to Allan Chambers under him. Allan was showing an Espree puppy girl. Glad the nay sayers were wrong. And gosh darn it Allan forgot to congratulate me again today, must have slipped his mind. Mona showed great, lots of nice comments from ringside. When Shoemaker gave me the ribbon he told me that he loved her. Later we were told he was very disappointed that I did not have a picture taken. Maybe if he would have given me the breed J

The Canadian group did well at the show. Dick and Nancy from Cranbrook finished one of their Papillion’s. Kathy Stewart from Alberta finished one of her Keeshonds’. We all went out for a celebratory dinner last night.

Well back to reality. I am flying out of Palm Springs tomorrow. I have to work for the week at the Blood Tribe in Standoff Alberta. From the warmth into the freezer. Talk to you soon.

January 21, 2009 – Headed to San Bernardino

This morning we packed up and headed out of Quartzsite to San Bernardino. Tonight we are camping at Yucaipa Regional Park. We plan on getting Mona bathed as well as ourselves. Camping in the desert is fun but with the limit on water the showers are very short.

Things were much quieter in Q this year. I would guess they were down about a third in numbers at the RV show. A lot of the full service camp grounds were half empty, but the desert was actually quite full. I guess folks decided they would rather camp for free then pay for hookups.

The dog show in San Bernardino does not actually start until Saturday but we decided to go into the grounds on Thursday and watch some of the specialties on Friday. I will report how we did at the show at the end of the weekend. Bye for now.

January 15 – January 16, 2009 – Camping at Quartzite

We went to Phoenix this morning and looked at houses that have been repossessed by the bank. We only looked at one area (Glendale, suburb of Phoenix). There were at least 2 houses on each block that were either for sale of just boarded up. We saw one house that was sold in 2006 for 200k. It was for sale for 49k. 3 bedrooms, swimming pool etc. the problem was that there was wiring ripped out, as well as half finished renos. This was an older area but we were amazed at the prices. We are going to look again in a couple of weeks. There are some good buys if you have a lot of time. In one area there are over 100 houses going up for auction next week. In another area the same thing. If makes you wonder about the American banking system.

Jan 15, Big excitement here at the campgrounds. A lady camper has gone missing. She left for a walk at 7:30 this morning and was still missing at 1:30 when her husband finally decided to let someone know she had not returned from her morning walk. By 3 they had the sheriff and the search and rescue out looking for her.

They showed everyone her picture and started searching for her by quad, horse back and plane. They searched till dark. We went to Phoenix early the next morning and were gone most of the day. When we returned I asked around to see if she had been found. Well I got two stories. Story one, they found her in the desert with a broken hip and the helicopter took her to Phoenix, story two they found her near the highway with a broken ankle and the ambulance took her to the hospital.

So I walked up this morning and asked the camp host. Well this is what really happened J It turns out that her and the man had a fight and she took off mad. She went to town and stayed there the whole day, I am not sure when they found her but it was after dark. Oh well, excitement over. Back to lazing in the sun.

I will try and take some more pictures this week.

January 6 – January 14, 2009 – Camping at Quartzite

Well I did try and keep my log up to date but I have been concentrating on lazing around in the sun.

So far the weather has been perfect. Cool at night and in the 20’s during the day.

January 1 – January 6, 2009 – Palm Springs Dog Show

For the past few days we have been showing at the Palm Springs Dog Show. Mona did okay for her first showing this year. She won the bred by class as well as best standard in bred by all but one day and was considered for the points on the first day and at the poodle specialty. We were out gunned by the California gay mafia. I was really pleased with the way she shows.

I entered Heiry the last day instead of Mona just for some experience. Heiry won the bred by standard and went 3rd in the bred by group that was offered only on the last day. He showed really well for his first time out.

We are going to stay in Indio until Wednesday and then we are off to Quartzsite to camp in the desert.

Hope the weather is getting better where you are and that the snow has gone.

Talk to you soon.

December 28 – December 31, 2008 – Arrive in California

We arrived in California on the 28th. The roads were not bad, just a lot of sand. They have also had snow in the desert. Big surprise to all of the cacti.

We are now camped in Indio CA. and are here until after the Palm Spring dog show.

I took these pictures just on the other side of the pass before you get to LA.

December 26 – December 27, 2008 – Border Xing

Can you say snow, snow and more snow? I think I am repeating myself. Sandy went in search of a kind sole with a tractor or ? to help us get out of the driveway. He found a fellow plowing out the gas station down the road. He came up and for 50 bucks plowed out a spot for us to turn around and cleaned out the driveway so we could get out.

We finally got out, just barely. Sandy had a bit of trouble at the end of the drive but we made it and headed to the ferry. Caught the 3:15 boat to Vancouver. Lots of wind so we arrived ½ an hour late.

Made it to the border by 7ish and had to go through an agricultural inspection. They actually were very friendly but they did go through the MH and the car. They said they say a broom in the back of the car and had to look at it. They thought it was from China ?? not sure what that has to do with anything. They checked to see if it had any seeds on it but let us keep it because it was not from China. No melamine or lead on it I guess. They also let us keep the dog food even though it was not in a bag; we told them it was not lamb or goat. That is the only restriction right now.

We drove as far as Tacoma and stayed at a Costco parking lot for the night.

Dads yard the day we left.

December 19 – December 25, 2008

Can you say snow, snow and more snow? We are camped in Dad’s yard and are up to our eyeballs in snow. There is at least 3 feet in the yard. It has snowed from the time we got here until we left on the 26^th.

We had a nice birthday dinner for me, Sandy cooked a prime rib. Complete with Yorkshire puddings. Dad made an awesome poppy seed cake. There were 13 of us for dinner. A good time was had by all.

One Christmas Eve we went to Sherry’s for dinner. We dropped Dad off at Catherine’s as he was spending the evening with her family. We then picked him up on Christmas day and headed to Jim’s for breakfast. By the way there is still snow everywhere. We had to hike up Jim’s hill as it is impassable.

Left Jim’s and headed back to Dad’s to put the turkeys in the oven. Had a great dinner with 17 of us.

December 15 – December 18, 2008

We headed to Vancouver on December 14^th and attended the Auld Lang sign dog show. Mona won the breed over 2 other special all three days and got a group 4^th.

The weather was really bad all weekend. Cold blowing wind and pouring down rain mixed with snow. One of our jacks would not go up (frozen) so it took an extra hour to get that problem solved. We ended up missing the ferry so got on the 8:45.