Escapees Graduation Class of 2006--Photo album in Quartzite, AZ

Members of the Escapees Graduation Class of 2006 met in BLM lands south of Quartzite, AZ, January 22nd to 25th and had more fun than anyone should be allowed! Followed by the class photograph are photos of everyone with their new homes on wheels. Look for us on the highways and give us a wave when you see us. We are the ones with big smiles on our faces!!

Escapees Graduation Class of 2006 in Quartzite, AZ, January 23, 2007

David and Diane Jones (ScubaDave) began their fulltiming from Seadro Wooley, WA, and travel in a fifth wheel pulled by their big red HDT "MorDarg"

Robert and Shelly Evans (RobertandShelly) fulltime in their coach "American Dream" and are originally from Laurel, DE

Mike and Charlie Harris (Charlie60) fulltime in their beautiful Prevost coach "TAD" (The American Dream) driving away from their old home in Antelope, CA

Dick and Paula Fenner (Dragon-Thread) left their old home in New Berlin, NY and fulltime in their beautiful coach

Gordon and Juanita Pierce (foggymtn) left Castro Valley, CA, with best friend Bodie in their fiver "Tiramisu" and never looked back

Gene and Shirley Schaeffer started fulltiming in their nice new Montana fiver from Kirkland, WA

Dave and Toni Worley left Lansing, MI, very late in 2005 and adopted the Class of 2006 joining us in the desert in their coach "Allison"

Rick and Carol Stancliff and with loyal sidekick Cheyenne, after leaving Cleveland, GA, can be seen wearing huge grins while pulling their All American Sport fiver

Dave and Barb O'Keeffe (BarbaraOK) happily drove away from Tyler, TX, in their coach "Figment II"

Jeff and Suzanne Ashlock (Two Hams in a Can) took their act on the road from Bedford, TX, in their Airstream "Mary Rose"

John and Maureen Pritchard (Dr Who) hopped in their coach and put Slidell, LA, in the side view mirrors

Larry and Karen Price have a nice home on wheels now that they have left Cambridge, OH

Yell out a big "howdy" if you see Mike Vogel driving along US highways in his LazyDaze Class C home from his old digs in Fairfield, CA

Steven Ball (Adagadak) will be found most anywhere in his Hurricane MH after departing his old homestead in Livermore, CA

Neil and Sheri Partyka and their eight year old daughter Ciera will be spotted in their big coach "Beluga" working on RV park brochures across the US after leaving their San Diego, CA, home behind

Say "hi" to Jack and Louise Nelson (tootucky) haulin' their fiver down the highway after leaving Hotchkiss, CO, in the dust

Lee and Mary Benfield will be easy to spot in "Sweet Suite" in the camps and along the roads from their origin in Cedar Rapids, IA

From her origin in Boulder you will recognize Ann Pruitt (Annies Song) by her big smile while driving along in her Born Free "It"

You can't miss seeing Joe and Nancy Liston (M2 to Go) on the highway after leaving Interlachen, FL

Judy Bell is a volunteer who can be found at parks around the country in her coach after leaving Kasson, MN

Keith and Gail Lindeman (Lindawoman) didn't leave their big grins in Ashville, OH upon departure in their coach "Dutch"

Scott Gad originally from El Paso, TX, showed up just in time to get his photo taken in front of the desert mountains

Quartzite--Days 1 and 2--The Graduation class begins to party!

All of the Escapees Graduation Class of 2006 are in place in the AZ desert and the party has started. AND HOW!! The first evening began with a snack pot luck that made for a substantial meal for all. We all gathered around Jeff and Suzanne's cell phone to give founding members Bette and Jim a call at their home and all shouted out a class greeting that probably could be heard on the east coast without the phone. After "snacks", we had a double campfire under the crescent moon and bright stars until fatigue and the cool evening air drove everyone indoors.

Toni Worley finds her way to the "snack" table with her contribution.

Circle up for great food and even better company!

Jeff led the rowdy group in a shouted greeting to founding members Bette and Jim on the east coast

Charlie found herself in the center of the action

Dave and Barb partied on!

The gathering moved to the campfire under the stars

Jeff and Suzanne (Two Hams in a Can) helped everyone get acquainted with an ice breaker.


Day two was led off by Barb and Dave O'Keeffe leading a large group of classmates into the surrounding desert for a geocaching adventure. Several caches were located by the group in several locations...a couple near saguaro cactus plants and one on a small bluff faced with a little dark cave, complete with a desert critter. It appeared that everyone had a great time on the hunt and all returned to the camp to prepare for the evening Hobo Stew.

Day 2 started off with geocaching in the nearby BLM land

Where is that cache??

The Crested Saguaro Cache is found!

Barb and Dave's cache convoy strings across the desert.

New friends in Blythe, CA, and into Quartzite, AZ

We put new friends Barb and Dave O'Keeffe temporarily behind us in Benson, AZ, and made the drive to Blythe, CA, on January 18. Snow was in the short range forecast for Benson, so we got out just ahead of winter again! As we pulled into Hidden Beaches RV Resort in Blythe from the east, two coaches drove in directly behind us. It turns out that Escapees Graduates of 2006 Charlie and Mike Harris and Shirley and Gene Schaeffer were entering the park from the west. Talk about timing!! We spent two nights in Blythe getting acquainted with these long-time internet friends and led the parade over to LaPosa South BLM desert parking in Quartzite. We joined a small group of classmates already camped in our selected area and made the "rounds". We will post photos of the growing group and follow the events in later posts.

Gene, Shirley, Charlie, and Mike in the Harris' home TAD (The American Dream) in Blythe prepare for even more parties in Quartzite.

Gene and Shirley prepare for our get acquainted gathering in Blythe.

Golden morning light on the Colorado River.

Arizona is just on the other side.

Morning glow on the river.

Charlie and Suzanne (the female half of RV'rs "Two Hams In A Can) try out the Tiramisu internet cafe in Quartzite, AZ.

Charlie takes picture of me taking picture.....weird, but I'm retired, so what can I say!

First geocaching adventures

Our geocaching mentor Dave O'Keeffe helped by Bodie locating cache "Betwixt and Between" located in Benson, AZ

Juanita, Dave, and Barb checking out the contents of our first cache.


Today we went out with Dave and Barb O’Keeffe to begin our geocaching adventures. We drove T-Rex II over to the first cache location, which was located just across the highway from our camp. The cache was a very easy find, but good for a first experience. Dave had earlier in the day had me load into our handheld several cache locations including one called “A Rocky Misadventure”. This cache location is very aptly named and Dave was quite happy that we brought along our nice new 4 wheel drive truck.

The Geocaching website had the following description for the cache location:

To get to the cache, take Exit 302 off I-10. Head south to French Joe Canyon, which is the first right turn after Kartchner Cavern State Park. Road into the canyon and to the cache is rugged, bumpy, rocky, and rutted. A 4WD or high clearance vehicle, like a pick-up, will do just fine on this road. We took Sneakiekittie's Toyota Matrix and we were fine up until the last quarter mile in the canyon, well beyond this cache. GPS will tell you when to park for the cache. Then you gotta climb a little hill. Cache is in a tin and where else would it be but among the rocks! Cache is at 5067 ft. elevation and woodcutter did get all the way up to it but was 10 minutes behind Sneakiekittie who is part mountain goat. The picture looking up at Trusty Companion and Sneakiekittie was taken when woodcutter was about one-third of the way down hill. Shortly thereafter woodcutter fell hard on her backside. So do be careful.
For a mini rock lesson, the rocks on the top of the hill and by the cache are geologically recent. And they lay cross ways to the rocks underneath. If you come down the hill by the big oak, look by its trunk. You will see Marbled rock near the oak's trunk. That has been uplifted and completely turned horizontally. That's the really old rock that the mineralogy classes come out here twice a year to see. There are more pieces of that rock showing around to the east of the oak tree.

Reality can best be appreciated by photographic evidence, which follows.

Road(?) to cache "A Rocky Misadventure" south of Benson. Dave led us to this wonderful adventure!

T-Rex II can handle it!!

The cache is up there? You have to be kidding!

Dave and Barb begin to negotiate the cactus covered, steep, and rocky slope up to the cache.

The GPS tells us we have only a hundred feet to go.

Barb and Dave think we are close now!

EUREKA!! Gordon found the cache.

This is what a very happy newbie looks like.

T-Rex II waits for our return far below.

Dave leads the way down the steep hill.

And Barb is relieved to have survived our adventure.

And we depart on a desert superhighway!

Thanks to our new friends Dave and Barb O'Keeffe, we had a day that we will not soon forget.

Out of Texas and into Arizona

Goodby Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX....we'll be back!


We left the Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX, on January 10 after a very enjoyable 2-1/2 month stay. A couple of days before our departure we were joined by Escapees Class of 2006 graduates Dick and Paula Fenner. We really enjoyed meeting our fellow classmates who joined us for a nice quiet dinner at Mamacita’s, a local Mexican food restaurant. We joined up for our drive west and spent one night at the Parkview RV Park located in Fort Stockton, Texas. This park was a Passport America camp and was basically a dirt lot with full hookups. It was adequate for an overnight visit, and the next morning found us on the way down I-10 to Las Cruces, NM. The Passport park there, Sunny Acres Resort, was very nice and had free WiFi service in addition to the full hookups. It was actually very quiet for it’s location in a city.

During our two-night visit to Las Cruces, we took a day trip over to the White Sands National Monument and the small town of Alamogordo, NM. The White Sands Monument was absolutely spectacular! The bright white and powdery gypsum sands provided a stark contrast to the dark cloudy skies. The passing clouds and short breaks of sunlight created an unforgettable changing landscape. The powdery sands stuck to everything and will be with us for quite a while.

Headquarters of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico

First view of the gypsum sand dunes

What a contrast between sky and sand!

Another contrast..T-Rex II and the white sands

Another feast for the eyes

Sand, sky, and shadows...a real photographer's dream

Darkening sky over White Sands

I just can't get enough of this!

Any sandy hill will do nicely!!

I guess you could call this all beach and no ocean

One more just because I can't help myself




Dick and Paula again joined us for our continued drive into southeastern Arizona. We stopped in Benson, and our new friends continued south to another destination. An Arctic air mass blasted down from the north and greeted us at Cochise Terrace Resort in Benson with very cold temperatures and high wind. Night time temperatures under 20 degrees made for the additional effort of unhooking and stowing the water hose each night, but the wind calmed sparing us wind chill. Cochise Terrace is another very nice Passport park with fairly wide spaces, excellent interior roads, and good facilities. The camp looks to be only a year or two old, and is very quiet even though it’s located less than a mile from I-10.

While in Benson, we met more 2006 classmates Dave and Barb O’Keeffe, who are staying in nearby St. David. They were very accommodating hosts and introduced us to geocaching. We’re hooked!! We went out into the desert in the Benson area and located two caches. Dave later logged our finds on the Geocaching website, and I immediately signed up with a new account. We joined Barb and Dave for a steak dinner at a local restaurant for good food and even better conversation. We will spend the next two days geocaching and taking in some local sights including Tombstone. On January 18 we plan to join more 2006 full timing graduates in Blythe, CA, to make final preparations for our big graduation party in the desert near Quartzite, AZ.

Frequently asked question: What is our favorite RV camp?

And the answer is: Red Rock RV and Camping Park in Idaho!


I think that the number one question that I have had to answer during our travels has been “what is your favorite camp?” This is an easy one!! After reading a number of reviews for camps located in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park, we found Red Rock RV and Camping Park in Island Park, Idaho. Because of the reviews given, we decided to use this camp as a base of operations for Yellowstone and surrounding area exploration.

The park entry and office/store.

View across camp toward Henry's Lake.



Red Rock Park (see website at: http://www.8004redrock.com/) is located off Hwy 20 about twenty miles south of the Montana town of West Yellowstone and the west entrance to the national park. At the north end of the lengthy (30 mile long) Idaho town of Island Park, a good paved road (Red Rock Road) extends the five miles to the entrance of the camp, which is located on the edge of an aspen-fringed evergreen forest. The camp is located on the high end of a large ancient volcanic caldera in the dry lands about a mile south of Henry’s Lake.

Aspen and evergreen forest on mountainside above park.

Henry's Lake is located about a mile north of Red Rock.




We arrived at the camp just prior to the Memorial Day Holiday to find that the winter snow was still giving way to grassy cattle grazing lands and vast expanses of yellow and purple spring flowers. The camp immediately felt like home! Parked in front of the small office and camp store, we were immediately met by one of the park hosts and led inside to register. The very fast, friendly, and efficient process completed, the host led us to our site, assisted us into the space, and even offered to help us set up camp if needed. As the host departed our space, his parting comment was “welcome home!” Our original plan for a two-week visit extended to three after one day in camp! We also made reservations to return for a late-season month…just couldn’t get enough! Because of county restrictions limiting the park to a small number of sewage hookups, most of the spaces are side-by-side with sixty foot grass front yards facing the next rig’s front door. We really came to appreciate the fact that our front door and picnic table didn’t face utility connections like most parks. The interior roads and pads are compacted gravel and the spaces all seem to be quite level. The grass front yards are lush and kept watered if necessary. Because the camp is located on very porous soil the few trees are fairly small and require a drip system to exist.

Gravel interior road at Red Rock.

Road to Henry's Lake runs adjacent to park.

Interior of camp looking toward Henry's Lake.


As in real estate, the main feature of Red Rock is location, location, and location! At an elevation of about 6500 feet, the late spring to early fall weather is dry and warm during the day and cool to crisp and clear at night. Because the camp is located about a mile from Henry’s Lake, the insect population is significantly reduced. There are a large number of nearby attractions and activities that would take months, not days, to explore and experience. Included are the obvious attractions of Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, some of the best trout fishing in the United States on Henry’s Lake and the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, the Red Rock Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and two fine Idaho state parks. Less obvious attractions are Ennis and Virginia City in Montana, Hebgen and Quake Lakes, the Madison River, Big Springs, Mesa Falls, and Jackson Hole in Wyoming. The remote location of Red Rock is a good thing in most respects but does have a couple of downsides. The only "real" supermarkets are located in West Yellowstone twenty-five miles distant. The nearest Wal-Mart is located in Rexburg about sixty miles to the south, and cell phone service is spotty at best. Verizon seems to be available in the camp, but Cingular service can only be found at the "phone booth", a spot along side the road to Henry's Lake and about a half mile from the camp. There is no cable TV at Red Rock, but WiFi is strong although somewhat slow at times due to the number of users. There are few, if any, southward obstructions to satellite antennas.

Bald eagles are common overhead visitors to the camp.

Moose and other critters can be seen nearby.

And Mountain Bluebirds top the fence posts in the spring.

In addition to it's weekly summer cowboy BBQ dinners, a local ranch hosts an annual cattle cutting contest during the Labor Day weekend.

The past comes alive as early fall cattle drives pass the entrance to the park.


Because of the mountain location, the sky put on a daily and nightly show that was beyond belief. Previous park visitors requested that the owner remove lights from the camp, and Red Rock is DARK at night, creating a real stargazer’s delight. The constant motion of mountain clouds generating a collision of light, shadow, and color had me constantly on the run for my camera in order to capture the latest sky fest. Also because of the camp’s remote location, this place is quiet. There are no nearby towns, airports, highways, so the ambient noise is mostly natural. During the day the sounds of cattle in the nearby fields is often punctuated by the screech of red tailed hawks, bald eagles, and the strange sound made by Sandhill cranes. Other than cheerful campfire laughter, the night sounds include the occasional cry of a coyote or the late season bugle of a nearby bull elk.

The daily light show is unforgettable.

Morning clouds put on a beautiful display of color and light.

And the light show continues!

Evening paints the landscape.

And mountain sunsets...WOW!


The Red Rock landscape gets a surprise Memorial Day alteration in white!

As spring is transported back to a temporary winter.


This park is FRIENDLY to the extreme. The owner and hosts spend considerable quality time with visitors providing information about the area and telling tall tales. Be wary! Leg pulling seems to a major sport and much appreciated by most of the residents in camp. Because of the very relaxed atmosphere here, we found that most fellow campers were unbelievably friendly and we discovered a good number of new road friends during our stay. Visitors at Red Rock are a varied group…everything from overnighters to seasonal and many return campers. We will count ourselves in the last category and return to this beautiful park for two months during the summer of 2007.

Red Rock's owner, hosts, and fellow campers wave good-by to new friends.