A day at the Zoo

Today Susan and I took our grandson, Landen, to the San Diego Zoo. It was a belated birthday present plus we wanted to do something special with him before we hit the road again. It was a long day for all of us but we had a great time.
I think Landen’s favorite thing was the Skifari ride. This is a cable car ride from one side of the park to the other. We all got a kick out of the Primates and Big Cats too. By the end of the day we were pretty worn out. I don’t think Landen even made it out of the parking lot before he was fast asleep in the back seat of the car.
We got stuck in the infamous San Diego traffic and crawled about 10 mph for 20 miles. I took us an extra hour to get home. Once we pulled up to the motorhome, Landen woke and said, you took a shortcut. Yeah, he was asleep the whole trip so it went pretty fast for him.

Stuck in Lodi again

Wasn’t there a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival called stuck in Lodi again? Well we are singing stuck in Vista again. We were planning to start heading east this Friday. Susan and I visited the dentist today and found out that Susan needs some work done that will keep us here for at least another 2 weeks. It’s looking more and more like we are running out of time to make it to Massachusetts this year. I will have to decide if we want to go ahead and get as far east as we can before we need to turn around and head back or just stay along the west this year. There is plenty to see along the west so it won’t bother us much if we put Massachusetts off until next year. At any rate, I need to get back on the road no matter what direction we travel. We have friend in Santee that just moved out from Kentucky that we want to visit and there is some property in Lake Havasu City Arizona that I want to take a look at. So it’s looking like we still have plenty to do around here.

It’s always something

We have moved back to the Vista Elks Lodge where we will spend the rest of the month. We got up early this morning to bring our home into the shop at 8:00 for a new muffler. They told me it would take about an hour and a half to do the job so Susan and I took off for breakfast. After breakfast and a little shopping we finally headed back to the shop at 11:00 to check on the progress. It was done except for the paperwork. Another ½ hour and we were on the road. After arriving in Vista we got a strong odor of plastic burning. So much so that I immediately jumped out and opened the hood for investigation. Nothing there so I went inside to remove the “doghouse” (engine cover). Nothing there. I decided to back it into our spot, set it up, and search for the odor later. After parking I went to the back to hook it up and noticed the odor was stronger so I took a peek under the coach. Awe Ha! I spotted the plastic label still stuck to the side of the muffler, all burnt up of course. Now why didn’t they remove it so the customer doesn’t get alarmed when they smell it burning? It’s always something.

Pechanga again

We are spending one night here at Pechanga Casino RV Resort tonight. We left the Vista Elks Lodge to spend a night in the casino parking lot so we can get up early and head over to the service center just down the street to get the “other” muffler replaced. Turns out we remembered the last time we spent the night in a parking lot and decided to get an RV site at the resort and have dinner at home. Better accommodations and better food. This will be the first time with full hookups since the first of the month. Susan is looking forward to a loooong hot shower.

It will be nice if the service center can get a 2 hour job done in less than 8 hours tomorrow but we are not expecting much. Heck, it took them 4 hours to find out they had the wrong part last time. This will be the third time in the shop for the muffler replacement and I am going to remind them of that.

Back to Vista

We are back in Vista California. Seems like we just can’t get away. The reason we came back is to get the correct muffler replaced. You may remember back when I took the coach in for a muffler replacement and they replaced the wrong one. The trip was great, the weather was great and I only had one idiot cut me off on the freeway, not bad.

The month of March has been a real blast even though we couldn’t get away from Southern California. We spent a weekend at the Nascar race in Las Vegas. We spent a week at the FMCA pre-rally with some members of our Rexhall International club in Palmdale, then a week at the FMCA International Rally in Pomona. The best part of the whole month is we spent it with a bunch of really good friends.

We plan to be in Vista until the first of April, and then we will start our trek east. We will be trying to get to Massachusetts. I don’t know if we will make it however because we need to be back in Southern California by November for our Camp Host jobs. We will at least make it to Branson Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky. At that point we will do a time check to see if we have enough time to get up into Massachusetts. We want to allow enough time for Massachusetts because we are going to visit all the New England States while there.

Our work is done here

Susan and I just finished our last shift as Volunteer Tram Workers here in Pomona for the FMCA RV Rally. We both had the last shift, which runs an hour before the entertainment and an hour after the entertainment so we were busy with full trams. We have had a great time here. The Entertainment was good, there were lots of vendors and over 800 new coaches to look over with a price range from the $100,000s to the 2 million dollar range. We met up with a few really good friends and met a few new friends while here. While here I got my generator tuned up by the good folks from Generac Generators, no charge. These guys were just super. I also got a leaking leveling jack looked at and since they didn’t bring a replacement of my kind they are going to expedite one to me, no charge, and I will replace it myself. We have been here for 6 days and now it’s time to travel on. We will probably take our time leaving tomorrow to let the traffic subside a bit. Even though a lot of people left today, there will still be a lot of coaches trying to leave tomorrow. We only have about an 1 ½ hour drive so we will not be in any hurry to leave.

Pomona Fairplex California

We have arrived at the Pomona Fairplex for the FMCA RV Rally. We left at 7 this morning, yes I was up before 7am, and arrived at the Fairplex at 9:30 which was our scheduled arrival time. However, we sat in staging for about an hour and a half. Seems they sold all the electrical sites to people just driving in instead of holding them for us that reserved them. It did work out for the better though since they placed us inside the fairgrounds, with electricity, right in the hart of everything. We couldn’t be closer. Susan and I are not scheduled for our volunteer work until Wednesday so we have a few days off to enjoy the rally. I just wish the weather would cooperate and get a little warmer.

Palmdale California

Well we left Yermo this morning and headed for Palmdale. It was an easy and uneventful drive. The weather was great for the drive. While in Palmdale, we are attending a pre-rally to the Big FMCA rally in Pomona. The Palmdale rally is made up of all Rexhall motorhomes and we are all Tram volunteers for the Pomona rally. While here we are all going to take a tour of the Rexhall motorhome factory in Lancaster. We are looking forward to a good time here. I posted some photos of the Nascar race on the photo site. See photo links in the column to the left.

Fun in Las Vegas

We had fun in Las Vegas this weekend but not the kind of fun you would expect. Have you ever gone to Las Vegas and NOT set foot inside a casino. We did. The closest we came to a casino was to drive by on I-15. We spent the whole weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Nascar UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. We had good food, good racing and with great friends. The weather however wasn’t so great. After the strong winds, rain, snow (yes I did say snow) and cold, the weather cleared enough for both races on Saturday and Sunday. And after all that, the driver I was rooting for, Jimmie Johnson, won the race. We left the race track today and along with everyone else that decided to stay until today, it took us a hour just to get out of Las Vegas. Once out of town it was smooth sailing with perfect weather all the way. We are back in Yermo, California but this time we decided to stay at the KOA instead of Peggy Sue’s parking lot. After all the wind, dust, and rain we wanted full hookups to get everything, including ourselves, cleaned up and catch up on a little laundry. Tomorrow we are on our way to another Rally in Palmdale California.

Motorhome Hill

This is what’s known as Motorhome Hill here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is one row of RVs lined up on top of the back stretch. From these full hookup sites, you get a view of the whole track. If you want to join the folks on Motorhome Hill you better be prepared to fork over more than $3000 for the weekend. We are having a ball as usual, although the weather could be a bit better. It has been very windy with a threat of rain all weekend. We did actually get a bit of snow this evening but it wasn’t cold enough yet to stick. I won’t be surprised if we wake to a light dusting of snow tomorrow morning. Today was practice runs and qualifying. Tomorrow is the Bush race and Sunday is the Nascar race. Weather permitting that is.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Here we are at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was a lot of work getting here and now the race might not happen because of weather. As mentioned in our previous post, we were heading for Las Vegas over a week ago. We had to make a detour back to Vista California for family matters. We finally got started again on Tuesday and landed last night in Yermo near Barstow California at Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner. The trip was good except for the last 40 miles when the wind started blowing pretty hard. Last night we got dusted out pretty good until I moved to the downwind side of the building. We had dinner at Peggy Sues since they were nice enough to let us spend the night in their parking lot.

Above is a sample of the décor inside the restaurant. Pretty cool place. They have a gift shop also with a lot of nifty fifty stuff. Back on the road this morning it was pretty good traveling until we got to the California Nevada Stateline. The wind was so bad I considered pulling off for a while. I heard things thumping and banging outside the RV. Not sure what it was but I did adjust the passenger’s side mirror so I can keep an eye on the patio awning. I was smart enough to secure it at Peggy Sues as best I could and it held up. After Stateline the winds mellowed a bit. We planed to dump and fill with water at the Flying J’s Truck stop near the racetrack since we will be boondocking through the weekend. When we got there I drove around the place a couple of times before finally going inside and asking where the dump was. It was in the worst location possible and there were 5 other rigs waiting to use it holding up traffic trying to get to the gas pumps. I dropped the toad in the truck lot and got in line. To my disappointment the only water they offered was at the dump station. They say it is good water even though there is a sign saying it is not safe (being at the dump station). While waiting, I happened to look around and found a faucet between a couple of gas pumps. Got to be better than the dump station I thought so I got out my 2 hoses and hooked them together to reach. So while waiting in line to dump I was able to fill the water tank. Finally back on the road, we got to the track. Now being we don’t get mail regularly I elected to be on Will Call. I also had no idea where the RV lot we were in was. I pulled into the nearest lot and of course it was not the right one but they did direct me to the correct one. After waiting in line for about 30 minutes I was informed I have to go back out and drive over to the other side of the track to get my tickets from Will Call before I can enter. Fortunately that was relative painless. Back to the RV lot we went. Wow, No line this time however they could not find our site on their map. Of course not, we are in 639, NOT 693. There is no 693. Another 30 minutes and we were finally able to park it for the weekend. Now we will sit and wait for the wind to stop and the rain and snow, yes they are calling for snow also, begins. Should be an interesting weekend.

Rockin’ and Rollin’

We are rockin’ and rollin’. We are in Yermo just outside of Barstow. We are at the half way point to Las Vegas. We are parked at the Peggy Sue’s 50s diner but that’s not why we are rockin’ and rollin’, we are rockin’ and rollin’ because the wind is blowing about 50 mph outside and the motorhome was rocking quite a bit. I had to put the jacks down to stabilize it, which we usually don’t do for just an overnighter. The motorhome was getting sand blasted parked on one side of the diner so we moved around the other side. It is still windy here but at least we are not getting sand blasted by the sand coming across the parking lot. Tomorrow we head out for Las Vegas.

Happy camper again

Well I am happy to say that my pressure relief valve finally stopped leaking. I guess it needed some time for all the air to be purges from the system before the accumulator would work. Now I don’t need to be constantly cleaning the hard water deposits off the side of the motorhome.

I am also happy that we are getting back on the road this Tuesday. We are heading for Las Vegas again. We will be spending Tuesday night in Barstow again in the parking lot of the Peggy Sue’s restaurant, then off to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR race next weekend. From there we head for 2 back to back RV Rallies. WAHOO! Lots of fun ahead!

We came in $50 under budget for the month of February but that doesn’t make up for the $460 over budget in January…How Did That Happen! Don’t know, not paying attention. We got some make up to do in the next few months.

Waist of time and money

Today was one of those days. A waist of time and money day. I decided I needed an accumulator for our water system. An accumulator is supposed to reduce the pulsation of the water pump and reduce the time the pump runs. Also it is supposed to absorb the added pressure of the water as it expands when heated by the water heater. Since my water heater pressure relief valve has always weeped (especially after the water heater has just run) I thought the accumulator would help. I made the trip to Camping World and purchased the accumulator. Of course it does not come with any fittings and there were none in the isle along with the accumulator. I went to Home Depot, No luck. I went to Lowes, no luck. I went to a plumbing store, no luck. I went to a RV supply store, no luck. I went back to Camping World and said since you guys install these things sell me the fittings, no luck..Huh? How do you install these things if you have no fittings? They sent me to the RV dealer across the street. They had them! Well happy at last I headed home to install it. I removed the access panel where the pump is located and found I only had 12”X12” access to the spot where I wanted to install it. After struggling for 1 hour to accomplish a 15 minute job, it was done. But…The accumulator did not solve my problems. The pump doesn’t pulsate but it runs just as much. The Pressure relief valve is still leaking. I’m not a very happy camper right now.