I hate wind

The wind was howling last night. I figured it would calm down by morning and our drive would be an easy one. Wrong! We woke to the same winds as last night. Susan asked if it would be OK to drive in such winds and I told her it won’t be fun but we can do it. Most of the trip we were heading straight into the wind so it wasn’t so bad except that the motorhome kept dropping out of overdrive with such a headwind. At times when the road turned we were fighting a cross wind that was pretty wild. All I could do was hang on and try to keep it in a straight line. This went on for about 40 miles. Not a fun ride. Finally we dropped over the mountain and all was calm. Whew! The motorhome handled very well in the wind.
We got to the Elks Lodge early and after setting up Susan took off to pickup our Grandson. He was so excited to see us.

Stopover point

We are at our stopover point in Indio California. We arrived about noon as planned so Susan can watch her NASCAR qualifying. After pulling in one of the workers came by and said he noticed the 48 in our window (48 is Susan’s favorite NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson) and told me that Jeff Gordon (Jeff is Jimmie’s team mate) just pulled out of this site. Not the Jeff Gordon NASCAR driver of course. We are only here for a one night stop over.

All packed up and ready to roll

We packed up ready for our trip today. We will be pulling out fairly early tomorrow because Susan wants to get off the road by noon. The reason? Well, NASCAR of course. Tomorrow is qualifying for the race. I called the park that we are Hosting at and found out our site will be occupied until Monday. They can give us a site with no hookups, which would be no problem except that they only allow generator use until 8:00p. No TV after 8:00p…what will we do. We decided to just hang out at the Elks lodge where we will have water and electric until Monday then head on over to the campground. This way we will be setting still on Sunday so Susan can watch the race.

They came and they went

Some of our friends here in the resort pulled out today. They have jobs they have to do for a few months to pay for all the toys they bought while here. The resort was sure quiet this evening. The good thing is we got our views back.
We will be packing up tomorrow and getting ready to head out ourselves. We will be on the road Friday morning heading for our Camp Host gig in Southern California. I sure wish we didn’t agree to do 3 months this year. We are going to let them know we are only doing the 2 months next year or none at all. We want to possibly do another “US Tour” next year so 2 months Camp Hosting will give us a little more time.

Having a nice time

We have just been enjoying the nice desert weather. The last couple of days it has been in the 80s. We did have a day and night of rain but the temperature was still in the high 70s to 80s. The rain washed everything down real nice. We are getting ready to head on out of here this weekend. We have our Camp Host jobs to do in Southern California for October through December. We are not happy about leaving but we are anxious to see our Grandkids.

Different weather

We went from clear and hot to cloudy and cool overnight. Yesterday it was about 80 degrees with a cloud cover all day. We even got a little rain. It sure was a nice change from Sunny and Hot the day before. Today it has been off and on so far with sun and clouds. We are supposed to get a little thunderstorm come through but so far it hasn’t materialized.

We spent half the day yesterday working on a neighbors boat. We had about 5 guys on it at one point, what else do we have to do. Turns out the hot Havasu summer destroyed the rubber impeller in his water pump so we had to partially dismantle the boat to get to the pump. They never make these things easy. But like I said, what else do we have to do.

Cool weather

Well, if you call 100 cool. It barely got to 100 degrees today and everyone was commenting on how cool it was today. You actually saw people out doing stuff all day instead of just in the morning. I took advantage of the “cool” weather and gave the motorhome a good washing. Later on I jumped in the pool and did a few laps. I am going to be sore tonight.

Two of our friends came rolling in with their motorhomes on the same day. It is slowly starting to get populated around here again. It won’t be long before the “Snowbirds” show up and the park will be full.

Half days

I am only working half days these days. Work you say? I mean working on the motorhome and whittling down my “To Do” list. The reason for half days? By noon it is over 100 degrees so I call it quits about then. Actually I start working on my inside “To Do” list. It is supposed to start cooling down in the next couple of days. By Monday it is supposed to be 98 degrees and by Thursday 94. It probably won’t last though but this is the time of year is starts to cool down out hear.

Tonight was movie night at the clubhouse. We saw the movie RV. This is the third time we have seen this movie. Every time I see it I get a laugh. If you haven’t seen it I recommend it.

Yeah it’s hot

We arrived in Havasu about noon today and it was about 100 degrees. I parked, set up the motorhome and thought, this is not too bad. The humidity is low so I hardly broke a sweat, well… Not like in Fontana at least. Then it started to get hot. It’s about 111 right now (3:00p) and hopefully that all the hotter it will get. It won’t start to drop off for another 2 hours or so.

It looks like everything survived the summer on our lot OK. I guess I got the irrigation set right because everything is still alive and about twice the size as when we left. The weeds survived pretty well too. They look bad but they are the type that have one root and cover several feet so cleaning them up wasn’t bad. Everything needs a good washing down though, after all, it is the desert and there has been a lot of construction going on in phase 3. I will be spending the next couple of days cleaning the ocean off the motorhome and car, and cleaning the desert off everything else.

One good thing is, not too many motorhomes are here right now so our view is killer. I suspect they will start rolling in in the next couple of weeks.

We are on the move

We made the move today. Tonight we will spend the night in Indio then on to Havasu in the morning. We usually stay at the Elks Lodge here in Indio however there is a Passport America park that during off season, their rate is the same as the Lodge. Passport America is a half price club where parks will charge members half price usually to bring them in during off season.

It is hot here, 111 degrees today but I guess it’s true what they say about dry heat because it is much more comfortable than Fontana was at 111 with much more humidity. I guess 106 in Havasu won’t be too bad since monsoon season is over so there should be no humidity. I can’t wait to wash everything down to get the ocean off. To add to that I am getting a good collection of bugs on the front of the motorhome and we haven’t even gone through the Colorado River farm country yet. I am not going to bother to clean it up until we get into Havasu.

Also, since I finally got in a location where I can get a fast Internet connection, I uploaded our NASCAR photos to our photo site. See the photo links in the left hand column.

Fire in them hills

We got a little excitement today. There was a pretty good size fire in the hills across the highway from the campground.

Rumor has it that a car fire up on the highway started it. They called in a couple of helicopters and a large fire crew to work on it. It was interesting to watch the strategy used to fight it.

Seems the helicopters would drop in front of the fire crews on both sides of the fire, and then the crews with chain saws and fire hoses would mop up after. I guess they know what they are doing because after about 4 hours now they are getting it out.

We were pretty wishy washy about pulling out of here tomorrow. It was 106 in Havasu today and doesn’t look like it is going to let up soon. We would stay but it is cooling down quite a bit here at the beach. Today was in the low 70s and it is supposed to only get up to 68 in a few days. Also everything is coated with a nice film of yuck from the ocean salt air. I need to get everything into dryer air and give it all a good bath. We are going to be on the beach again in a couple of weeks anyway when we head to San Diego for our Camp Host positions.

One more day and we gotta go

Well, we really don’t have to. In reality we should stay longer since it is still over 100 degrees in Havasu. We were going to leave last Sunday but it’s been so perfect here we decided to stay longer. Why are we leaving Wednesday? NASCAR. We will make our usual stop in Indio Wednesday night and get into Havasu Thursday. Susan will shop and do laundry on Friday and Saturday and Sunday will be free for NASCAR.

Low Tide

At $45 a night, we have just about reached our campground budgets limit for the month. Being the rest of the month in Havasu is free it will average out.

New Neighbors

Have you ever had a neighbor move out and cringe at the thought of who will be moving in? Well this happens to us a lot. Here at the beach we actually pulled straight into our site instead of backing in as the site was designed for.

This put us pretty close to the guy next door that backs in. Our last neighbors, who pulled out this morning, were real cool. We hardly new they were here. The guy that pulled in today seems OK but he has a couple of kids so he will probably not stay long as the kids have to go back to school.

Susan and I took a walk down the beach today. It has been a bit cooler and breezier today but still nice. I was going to pull out tomorrow and head for Havasu but we are enjoying the beach so much that we will stay for a while.

Another day at the beach

Today was NASCAR qualifying and the Busch race so Susan was pretty busy. I, on the other hand took a 5 mile walk down the beach. What a perfect day for a walk on the beach. The temperature was in the mid 70s with a gentle breeze.

Good thing I watch where I step or I could have stepped on this guy. This is a pretty good size jellyfish.

Being Friday all sites are full and I suspect it is the same case at the other campgrounds in the area. Everyone is trying to get away from the heat.

We have gotten used to the sound of the waves crashing all night and can get a good nights sleep, however this morning bright and early, a surfer came into the park and apparently doesn’t realize there are other people in this world and had his music blaring all the time he was getting prepared to go surfing. Then shortly after, the trash truck showed up to empty the dumpster behind the motorhome. Oh yeah, and the morning freight train. I guess it could be worse. It could be an alarm clock.

Maybe a little too close

As I mentioned we are REAL close to the ocean. Last night we sat in the front seats and watched as the spray from the waves crashing against the rocks were reaching the motorhome. I would imagine during high surf, stormy seas, this place gets flooded out a bit. Yesterday was a bit cool and windy, today was a little foggy at times but much warmer. Last evening just before sunset Susan spotted a weasel popping in and out of the rocks in front of the motorhome. I didn’t even know there were weasels around here. We watched for a while as he entertained us.

Today we took a drive over to the Ventura Harbor and visited the Channel Islands National Park. We can see islands from out the front of the motorhome but I wasn’t sure what islands they were. After that we cruised through the Harbor Village Shops.

It sure is nice to listen to the waves crashing at night. We get an occasional freight train going by on the nearby tracks but for the most part all we hear is the sound of the waves. I really do like being on the ocean. The only draw back is, yesterday I washed the car, today…you wouldn’t know it. The salt air leaves a dull film on everything. If you have anything chrome or exposed metal, it is history in no time.

Laundry Day

Ah, the dreaded laundry day. This is probably the only thing we hate about fulltiming. If we had it to do over, we would have bought a motorhome with a washer and dryer. I don’t know what it is about laundromats but they sure seem to draw the scourge of life. I usually pick a few in the area and we do a drive by and pick the lesser of the evils. Today we just said, let’s go to the closest and get it over. This place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. Susan had to fight the Mexicans to get a washer and dryer since a lot of the machines were out of order and some were just too down right scummy to use. The only laundromat we have come across that was worse was the one with roaches coming through the wall from the Chinese restaurant next door. We had to be careful not to bring home any hitchhikers from that one. Well at least it’s over until we get to our Resort in Lake Havasu City.

Parked only 50 feet from, and facing the ocean is great except for around 5:00p when the glare from the setting sun blasts into our window. I know, life should be so tough.

But after that the sunsets are great.

We will probably hang out hear for a few more days then head on out to Lake Havasu. It looks like it is cooling down to below 105 in the next couple of days so it should be nice and cool out there for us. We are looking forward to seeing our friends in Havasu.

MUCH Better

We got so tired of the heat that instead of heading to our RV lot in Lake Havasu, we decided to head for the beach. Man am I glad we did. We are now on the beach in Ventura California.

It is MUCH nicer here. We arrived about noon and it was about 80 degrees. I was hoping that since it was after Labor Day and all the kids are back in school that we could get a good beachfront site. We did! About 50 feet from the water with full hookups including 50 amps and cable TV.

Susan said, lets face in so we can get the ocean view out our window. Giving the weather in this part of the country right now, it can’t get any better than this. We can stay here for up to 14 days and we just may do that.

Way too hot

We have pretty much made the decision not to come to the California race in September anymore. Even though we are having a good time, it is way too hot. It has been in the 3 digits everyday. We are spending a lot of time inside the motorhome with the generator running and the air conditioners running. This is no way to spend time at the NASCAR race in the infield. We just can’t do much infield cruising to checkout the crazies without overheating. There are no races until Saturday so we have been spending Thursday and Friday sweating (literally) it out until the races start. One good thing, the races are night races so it should drop down to a nice cool 90 something for the races.

Here are a few ways people are cooling off here in the infield.


We got lucky, with the generosity of our friends from Riverside, and got to see the Busch series race on Saturday in a Hospitality Suit. It was air conditioned and included all the food and drink you could consume. We were also treated to an appearance from NASCAR driver and team owner Michael Waltrip.

He spent about an hour in the Sky Box with us but you could tell he was really itching to get back down to his Pit Box and give some instructions to his driver. We saw a bad wreck during the race that even Michael said was the worst he has ever seen.

It stopped the race for 20 minutes while they got all the drivers involved out of their cars and the mess cleaned up. They even had to bring out a welder and repair a portion of the wall. Everyone came out OK with the exception of a dislocated shoulder of the driver in the #88 car.

Fortunately the race on Sunday was a night race so it cooled to a tolerable 90 degrees. We got to see the race from the top of our daughter’s motorhome. Their motorhome is right up against the fence on turn 2 so we get a real up close view of the race from there.

To add a good capper to the weekend, Susan’s favorite driver won the race. She was real happy to see that.