Glad it’s not a house

I am glad I am just building a 144 sq ft casita instead of a 1440 sq foot house. It is unbelievable the planning that goes into one of these things. I am on my 3rd set of plans now. Seems every time I want to do something it get shot down because of code. Also every change I make affects something else. One simple change starts to snowball. I think I am finally on my last set of plans. I didn’t intend on purchasing any of the inside fixtures until we get back here in January but the vanity we want went on clearance this week so I snatched it up. My neighbor is nice enough to store it in his casita until I need it. I got to admit I am a bit anal about this thing but I don’t want to have it built and find something I wish I had done different. I know no matter how much planning I do I will still find something, but hopefully it will me minor.

I thought I destroyed my computer the other day. I have been fighting a charging problem, which I discovered was a broken solder joint. So I decided to go in and fix it. This was not an easy task because the Mainboard is the last thing that comes out of my laptop. Lots of screws and lots of parts. Keeping track of where they all go was quite a task. Well when I got it all back together I was pleased to see I had no parts left over however when I switched it on…NOTHING! Oh CRAP! Now what? I took it all apart again looking for something I failed to plug in. Nothing was found so back together it went again in hopes this time it will come alive. No luck. I had just about thrown in the towel but didn’t want to admit defeat so it came apart again. This time I discovered I didn’t close the CPU socket. I knew right away this was the problem but couldn’t help wonder if I screwed it up by not having the CPU clamped in. After putting everything back together I hit the switch. IT’S WORKING! That was a close call.

It’s time

I have been putting off and putting off building a Casita even though Susan has been wanting one for quite a while now. The reason is because it will take up a lot of space on the lot and most of all, because it will block my views of the river and California mountains.

Well as you can see in the above photo, since my neighbors have taken care of the views, it’s time I build mine.

This is pretty much what it will look like except we are not going to do the side door and do French doors in the patio instead.

This is my tentative layout with a bath in the back and laundry in the front. The construction will start when we head for California for Thanksgiving and Christmas and should be done when we get back for New Years.

When we got back to Havasu this time I noticed our patio furniture has not survived the intense sun. Even though we cover it while gone just the time we are here and it is not covered has taken its toll. So since it is the end of the season (somewhere, not here in Havasu) Sears had all their patio furniture on sale for half off.

We snatched up a pretty nice set and hopefully since it is mostly metal it will last more than the two seasons we got out of our last set.

White knuckle ride

Susan and I finally made it back to Havasu today. I was going to drive straight through from Bakersfield to Havasu yesterday (5.5 hours, yeah…I know) but I was tired of fighting the wind. Good thing I didn’t because I guess it was pretty bad around here, like 45 mph sustained winds. We stopped at our regular stop in Yermo/Barstow and got an early start this morning. Made it almost all the way to Needles with no wind then had a good amount of wind all the way to Havasu. They say it was pretty bad around here while we were gone. Glad we missed it.

My 55 mph test came up with some interesting results. I maintained mostly 55 mph all the way to the rally. After filling up I calculated we got 8.9 mpg. Not bad but not much more than the 7.8 mpg I usually average. There is another factor here though. During this drive we didn’t tow the car. I calculated on another test drive that without the car I only picked up 0.5 mpg. So I figured running at 55 mph I only picked up 0.6 mpg. On the way back I decided to run it at 65 mph. I usually run it at around 63 mph. The results were 8.5 mpg, and this was bucking winds most of the way. So 8.5 mpg running at 65 and 8.9 mpg running at 55, not enough to slow down.

I hate Wind

We made it back to Barstow around 11:00a this morning. I was thinking of pushing on to Havasu but I had enough. I was fighting wind the whole trip. We will sit here for tonight and get an early start before the wind gets too bad again. I hate wind! This KOA here at Yermo/Barstow is sheltered by trees and is not too bad.

Back in Orange Grove

We had a great time at San Antonio Lake and are now on our way back to Lake Havasu. We are doing the reverse of the trip we did to get there which means we are back in Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield. The last time here (last Wednesday) we were disappointed that the oranges were still green. While talking to a friend at the rally, he told us that even though they are green they are ripe and sweet inside. So after we got setup I plucked a green orange and sliced it in half.

Huh, not green inside. I then took a taste. It was sweet! Susan and I were surprised. So after eating the orange I went out and picked a bowl full. Susan had one too and it was also sweet. If they are this good while still green I can imagine they are REAL good after they turn orange.

At the rally

We have arrived here at San Antonio Lake near Paso Robles California yesterday. The weather has been in the cool 60s during the day and 40s at night, a far cry from the deserts and Lake Havasu City. Our air conditioners are finally getting a few days off. There are about 16 RVs at the SAL rally here. Twenty were expected but the price of gas and the state of the economy has most played a roll in keeping them away. We are having a great time hanging with some friends that we only see twice a year here at the SAL Rallies.

Still traveling

We made the 2.5 hour driver over the Tehachapi today to Bakersfield where we will stay put for the night.

We stay at the Orange Grove RV park. This used to be an orange grove and there are still at least 3 orange trees per site. They let you pick all you want but it is too early for oranges.

The trees are loaded but they are all still green. We have about a 3.5 hour drive tomorrow up to San Antonio Lake where we will stay until Monday.

I can’t drive 55

Yermo/Barstow KOA

We traveled today on our way to a rally at San Antonio Lake near Paso Robles California and I thought I would travel at 55 MPH to see what the mileage results would be. I haven’t checked my mileage yet but what I did observe is that my 2002 workhorse W22 chassis with Allison Transmission does not like running at 55 MPH. The transmission normally upshifts to overdrive at 55 so it stands to reason that you can lug the engine very easy on an incline at 55. The transmission wants to downshift into 4th on any moderate incline so it appears to be shifting more often. At 63 MPH where I usually travel, the engine and transmission love it. I am going to continue to drive 55 until the next fill up. At that point I will calculate my mileage. If the results are not significant I am going to continue driving in my 63 MPH comfort zone.