Westward Ho--Spring 2010--Day 12

We got busy with the rally and did not continue to make updates on this trip. Wednesday and Thursday were spent at different activities at the rally. Jo attended the Women's Luncheon on Wednesday and I made a couple of the many seminars that were offered. We continued to eat well with breakfast and dinner catered each day. The entertainment on Wednesday was a good 1950's type rock and roll band. They played music that most of our rally attendees could relate to. On Thursday that was a single singer that did numbers from the 1950 to present. We were not as impressed with him. Then all too soon the rally came to an end and it was time for the folks to break camp and move on. We were able to make arrangements to get our awning repaired that was damaged by the wind on our first day out. One of the vendors at the rally operates an RV repair facility in Las Vegas. They got the information to order the material and will do the work when we arrived in Las Vegas later next month. We left on Friday morning and headed north and west. We are now at the John Wayne RV Park. The official address for the place is Maricopa, Arizona, but we are actually 13 miles due south of that town. We are also about 13 miles straight east of Casa Grande.

We took Friday afternoon to do some of the normal, everything type of things that must be done when folks are traveling. We drove into Maricopa to the Ace Hardware to pick up a few things so I could do some minor maintenance on the coach while Joanne got the laundry caught up. On Saturday we took off for some sightseeing. First up was the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch down by Eloy, Arizona. This is a very large facility that not only raises ostriches for the commercial market but have tourist facilities to allow the public to participate. This was started by a family in Guthrie, Oklahoma. They quickly outgrew the Oklahoma facility and moved the whole operation to Arizona. The ostrich flourish in the dry atmosphere. First off was a ride/tour on a huge monster truck. This tour took us throughout the facility to the many different sections with some areas for feeding and other areas for breeding purposes. One stop on the tour was to a "fishing pier" built out over a large feeding pen. We were able to move onto the pier and then feed the birds sections of grapefruit using fishing type poles.

After the tour and some wild riding through some rough terrain at a fairly fast speed we returned to the main facility where we could get up close and personal with the animals. They provided us each with a cup full of feed that consisted of pressed alfalfa. In addition to the ostriches they have a large pen of fallow deer. These are small dear that come from Europe. They also had the usual goats and burrows that people would normally find in a petting zoo. They did a a new twist on feeding the goats. In most petting zoos you are just out in the midst of the goats and can find yourself being butted by them. Here they were behind a wall with holes for them to poke their head out. This is called the "Hole in the Wall Gang". In several of the holes there would be two or three goats sticking their heads through. On fellow was having none of that and tried to climb out to insure he got his share of the treats. From the goats we moved over to a raised area to hand feed the ostriches. This is the only place that a person could get bit. The deer, goats and burrows were fairly gentle and would eat directly out of your hand. The ostrich, now that is another game. Before Joanne could even get her first handful out of the cup an ostrich reached completely over the fence and bit her finger. After that we just tossed the food into the pans nailed to the top rail.

The final area to interact with the wildlife was an enclosed aviary full of Lorikeets. This are very noisy birds that appear to be over sized parakeets. We had been given small containers of nectar to feed the Lorikeets. These are very sociable birds and will lite on your person in order to get at the nectar or just check you out. They particularly like rearranging your hair due. It is not unusual to have several of them visit you at a time. As you move around they will flitter away and others will take their place. Here, in addition to the ones on Jo's hands she has two more checking out her hair.

After leaving the Ostrich Farm we headed back up Interstate 10 toward Casa Grande when we saw a sign directing toward the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. This is one of the places we had planned to see while here so we veered off the interstate and headed east. This is the ruins of an ancient Indian Tribe called the Hohokam. They flourished here between 1100 and 1400. There is not a lot of information on these people and what little is known comes from these ruins. They were apparently an agricultural people and farmed the valley where the monument is located. All that is left is the one main large structure, named the Casa Grande, and the foundation walls of many other structures. The National Park Service took control of the area in the late 1800's to protect it from vandalism. The current structure over it was built in 1934 to protect it from erosion.

After our touring we returned to the RV Park to pick up Buddy Joe and go to the home of some of our RV friends. Two of the couples that we trekked to Florida with in the winter of 2007 now have given up the full-time RV lifestyle and have bought new homes in Casa Grande. They both still plan to do the RV thing but now on a part time basis like we do. We went to the home of Bob & Marlene Rea. They have a beautiful house on a corner lot in a relative new addition. Since they have moved in they have been busy decorating and furnishing plus doing some major landscaping on the exterior. Also there were another RV couple, friends of Bob from when he lived in Washington State. We were also joined by the other couple from our Florida trip, Rod & Jean Bahnson. Rod & Jean just purchased their new home this month and had spent their first night there on Friday. They also are in the decorating/furnishing phase. When you live full time in a RV you have to start all over once you move to a "stick" house. After a happy hour at the house, where we were also joined by Bob & Marlene's next door neighbors, the ten of us headed out to Golden Corral for dinner and visiting while Buddy stayed at the house to play with Scout, Marlene new dog. By the time we returned to the coach it was time to turn in after a long but very eventful day. Pictured here, on the Rea's patio area, are Bob & Marlene along with Jean Bahnson.

Today, Sunday, has been a day of leisure. We have pretty much laid around the coach and done nothing. Tomorrow we will break camp again and move farther north and west to the Phoenix area.