Cardiff By The Sea

We had a long drive today. It was actually only 165 miles but the traffic was outrageous. We were buzzing along until we got to the Cajon Summit. The traffic was backed up all the way to the I-15/I-215 split. That was 15 miles of 20 mph bumper to bumper traffic. Actually it was still backed up on I-15 but I peeled off onto the I-215 to avoid it all. Later when we hit the turnoff to Oceanside it was backed up again. Another 10 miles of 15 mph traffic. Even though we had no schedule, it still made for a long day. Well, we are now at Cardiff By The Sea where we will be for 2 months as Camp Hosts. Everyone was excited to see us back. We will spend a couple of days relearning the system then we are on our own again.

Back in Barstow

We arrived in Barstow just before noon today. This is good for Susan because the race started about 12:15. The first thing I did when we got here was to plug in the motorhome and setup the satellite dish. We will be here for 1 night then on to Cardiff By The Sea.

We really didn’t want to leave Havasu but we do have the commitment in San Diego. We are looking forward to hanging out on the beach for a while though, and there are always the Grandkids. So we will enjoy our stay.

Getting ready to travel

Well we are getting ready to travel today. We will be heading out in the morning tomorrow heading to California. We are going to Cardiff for our Camp Host jobs at San Elijo State Beach. Aahhh, 2 months on the beach. Life is good.

Them Shiners sure know how to have fun!

Today we checked out the London Bridge Days parade. This is something they have been doing since they brought the London Bridge over from England. Yes it is the actual London Bridge they sing about in the song “London Bridge is falling down”. That is why it is no longer in London. They had to replace it since it was sinking into the river. They put it up for auction and McCulloch well known for his chain saws won the bid and brought it to Lake Havasu City Arizona. They erected the bridge on a peninsula and dug a channel under it to create the island. At almost 200 years old, they say this is the oldest Antique ever sold.

The mouse is history

Last night the mouse lost. We were sitting out on the patio with some friends when we heard the trap go SNAP. I would post a picture but it isn’t a pretty sight. We got him just as he was coming in for the night via the sewer hose. I have reset the traps just in case he told some friends about the place.

Today is a pretty nice day so they are finishing up my patio. Unfortunately we won’t have much time to use it since we are back on the road this weekend. At least it will be done. When we come back we will do a little artificial turf and some plants to finish it off.

This is what it looked like before they started.

This is after the framing.

Another during the laying of concrete.

The finished product.

This will give us more room to spread out. When we come back in January we are going to install some artificial turf, a few plants, palms, an outdoor grill and possible some lighting.

Upgrades

They started the upgrades to our lot on Monday as planned. This morning they were supposed to pour the concrete however, this morning we woke to rain. They came by to tell me they would try again tomorrow morning. I was hoping to get it done and get things cleaned up. The weather changes so quickly around here. I guess I can wait another day.

We are still battling the mouse. We thought since none of the traps were tripped and we haven’t seen any more droppings that he was gone. Well last night we were awakened to the sound of munching in the cabinets. I had to bang on the cabinet a few times before he got the hint. This morning we pulled a few things apart and found more evidence that he has been with us all along. I decide to try bacon instead of the peanut butter in the traps this time. When I went to bait the traps, they were cleaned of peanut butter however they were not tripped. That sneaky little… I had Susan pick up more traps when she went to the store today so now we have 6 traps set, some with bacon and some with peanut butter. THIS MEANS WAR!!

Busy day

I guess there is no noise ordinance here in Havasu. This morning at around 2:00a they started work for the day on the new storage units across the street from the resort. Lots of pounding and tossing things around. Fortunately after being awaken, it didn’t take me long to fall back to sleep. The wind has been blowing all day and is suppose to do the same tomorrow. Monday should be better.


Susan and I got an early start to beat the heat today and headed on down to the Relics and Rods car show at the London Bridge Resort here in town. There were over 1000 beautiful classics none newer than the 50s.
I got my Architectural plans approved today for the work I want to do on the property. It took two submissions because they lost the first set and I had to redo them. Thank god for computers. They are going to start the concrete work on Monday and will have that phase done on Tuesday. The rest will be done in January when we come back.
I saw an ad for a nice outdoor grill that went on sale. Just had to have it so I headed on down to pick us up one. Oh sure it’s on sale but they don’t have any. They will have a bunch in January, which sounds good since that’s when we come back. Bet they will be double in price by then though. Just as well because I have no idea how I was going to get that sucker in the Saturn.

Got mice

Well I knew it would happen eventually. We got a mouse somewhere in the motorhome. Last night he left his calling card. He didn’t get into anything, just did a bit of rummaging around. Not sure how long he has been in here but this is the first time we have seen evidence of the little guy. He may have been with us for a while because we found drops in the bedroom and under the couch in the living room. Now, we like nature, but outside. I am afraid we will have to remove him dead or alive, most likely dead since I went out today and picked up a couple of good old fashion mouse traps. I guess I need to pick up some steel wool and mothballs. I will wrap the mothballs in the wool and stuff it into all the holes where the little critters can get in.

Today I contacted the cement contractor that is doing all the slabs in the resort to see about doing an extension of our slab. I was going to setup a date in January to get the work done since we are only going to be here 1 more week. To my surprise they wanted to get started on Monday and will finish up Tuesday. I OKed the work and am now just waiting for the Owners Association to OK the work. They say it should be Oked tomorrow.

Wind and no water

There was lots of wind today. It seems to be coming from the coast. I understand they are having some lousy weather right now on the coast. Anyway, the wind has not let up all day. The lake looks like an ocean with all the whitecaps. There is no one on the water at all. The wind is supposed to let up later tonight and it should be calm tomorrow.

We woke to no water today. I am not sure what is going on but they gave an estimate of when the water will be back on and they keep extended it out. It really doesn’t affect us though since I always carry about 30 gallons in our fresh water tank. We simply switched on our water pump. It was funny watching one guy fishing water out of the pool this morning with 5 gallon water bottles. I assume he is in one of the park models and needs it for flushing.

Well the weekend is coming so the population in the resort should pick up. We are going to head on down to the Hot Rod show this weekend and gawk over the nice rides. We have been seeing some running around town all week, Really Nice.

Back to normal

Today was beautiful. The skies cleared and the temperatures were in the 80s. Everything was clean and fresh after the rain. I spent the day drying things out including my Boom Box Stereo that I left out in the rain yesterday. It took a while in the sun before it started working again. I will let it dry one more day just to be sure before putting it back into fulltime use. This coming week and weekend is the big Relics and Rods car show. There are a few cars showing up already. It should be fun. I will be bringing my camera.

Another day of Thunder

We are having another day of thunderstorms here today. I thought it was done since this morning looked pretty good. Last night my weather alert radio went off about midnight with a tornado watch. That’s right, tornado. I guess the conditions were right even though none developed. I think today’s storm is the same one as yesterday since it seems to be going in the opposite direction as yesterdays. This time it picked up some hale with it. There doesn’t seem to be as much wind (yet), which is a good thing. I hope the wind doesn’t develop because I didn’t get a chance to tie down the patio furniture or bring in the awnings this time. I may be getting real wet later. Of course our satellite is blocked by the water in the clouds again and today is NASCAR so Susan is not a happy camper. Hopefully it will come back on before the race starts.

No it’s not a tornado

This is a photo of part of the storm that just blew through here. We could see it coming so I tied down all the patio furniture. There were two pretty good storms with LOTS of lightning so far and I am sure there will be more. I tried to get a photo of the lightning, which is very hard to do. Also I didn’t really want to stand out there trying to get it. I had to go out between storms and tie down the Satellite dish a little better because the wind almost took it over even though I have it tied down to my tow bar. We loose the signal when the sky gets REAL black. Of course this is all happening during Susan’s NASCAR race.

Rain

Wow, it went from Clear, Sunny, and calm winds to Cloudy, Rainy, and windy just overnight. It did lower the temperature a bit though so that’s a good thing. It is still in the 90 out here and in the high 60s in the evening. I am getting a chance to clean things up, fix a few things and just sit and relax. I have been neglecting a few things that need fixing because I knew we would have plenty of time for that in the next couple of months.

Back in Havasu

We are back at Lake Havasu. We arrived this afternoon about 1:00p after another 3 hour drive. The drive wasn’t bad however, just long. Again the truckers entertained us with their chatter.

We even got to travel a portion of the original Route 66 today.

There are a lot more coaches here than when we left in July. It could have something to do with the fact that today it was in the 80s and in July it was in the 120s. I uncovered our patio furniture, which hopped off the cement pad onto the gravel during one of the monsoons. The furniture survived OK except we lost one pillow. It’s probably floating down the river somewhere. Tomorrow will be cleanup day. I already washed the car this evening but I need to give the motorhome a good washing and clean the dust out of the patio furniture. We have neighbors now and their motorhome is partially blocking our view that we enjoyed last summer. At least it provided shade on our lot so that’s a good thing.

Calico Ghost Town

We are now in a KOA just outside of Calico Ghost Town in Yermo California. We won’t be going into the Ghost town this time though. We were there earlier this year. This is one of the nicer KOAs I have stayed at. It was another one of those long days (2.5 hour drive) but not a bad drive at all. We were entertained by the truckers on the CB the whole way. I sure like the way this motorhome goes. We climbed over the Tehachapi’s today with no strain on the motorhome what so ever. We passed by anything that was going slower than 55, of course they passed us again on the down grades going probably 75. I just kept it between 55 and 60. We will be here one night then it’s over to Lake Havasu. Susan is anxious to get there and just sit for a couple of weeks. I know I will get antsy.

SAL Rally

We left San Antonio Lake today and are now in Bakersfield heading for Lake Havasu City Arizona. We just had the best time at the lake. There were about 20 rigs at the rally this weekend. Most went home Sunday but a few of us stayed until today.

We had lots of good food, good conversation, and just good fun. Some brought their boats and pulled anyone that wanted to attempt to ski.

The wildlife here was glad to see us as the deer and rabbits showed up every night at happy hour and hung around until after dinner. After we all turned in for the night, the raccoons came out to clean up. We even had a tarantula take a cruise through camp one evening. The weather couldn’t be better.

We had cool mornings, sunny warm days and evenings were perfect campfire weather.

San Antonio Lake

We are now at San Antonio Lake which is in the hills just west of Paso Robles. It sure was nice here today but they are calling for a chance of thunderstorms tonight and rain tomorrow. We shall see. The drive here was just great. Coming up here we saw a tarantula crossing the road, Squirrels, Chipmunks, birds, deer, and cows. Here at the lake, the deer just come up to you looking for a handout. They are not too shy. It is soooo quiet up here that my ears are hurting. After staying at the Elks lodges that are mostly right in town and right next to the freeway, this is nice. We are actually here 2 days earley but were so close and couldn’t wait. Some of the Rally goers will be coming in tomorrow and the rest on Friday. This will be a fun weekend.

Nice day

What a nice day. Yesterday we had overcast skies all day and even a little bit of rain. I was getting concerned about the weather this weekend since we are heading for a rally that will be primarily outdoors. But today however, the skies were blue and clear all day and the sun shined bright. We took a run into Paso Robles to do some grocery shopping at the nearest Wal-Mart. After shopping we took a tour around Atascadero to see what’s here and scope out a good Laundromat for tomorrow.

Since we had a little rain I decided to check the condition of the motorhomes wiper blades. They are shot! What’s worst is I can’t seem to find 26” refills. I can find the whole blade assembly but I only need the refills and of course I have to do some modifications to the assembly to make it fit. I think I will go ahead and pick up the assembly because this will give me a chance to get some longer ones. I have always thought mine were a bit short.