Back in Havasu

We are back at our RV lot at the Havasu RV Resort. We left this morning about 8:00a California time. There was no rain but we didn’t see much sun the whole trip. Funny thing, the desert is supposed to be a hot place. The further we got into the desert the colder it got. The weather is supposed to be cool here in Havasu for a while.

Well is it or isn’t it

Being we are leaving Monday, at least that’s the plan, I have been keeping an eye on the weather forecast. Earlier all the weather sites I check said rain Sunday into Monday. Then they shifted to Monday into Tuesday. Now some are showing only 20% chance of rain Monday into Tuesday and some are showing No Rain Monday or Tuesday. It looks like, even if it does rain, it won’t be much and we should be out of it by the time we get to Palm Springs. I believe we are leaving Monday as scheduled.

I hope Christmas was good for all of you. It was good for us. We are looking forward to a new year. Hopefully our expenses in 2010 will be due to travel instead of repairs and maintenance like in 2009.

Oh No more rain

If you remember, when we traveled from Havasu to here in Vista we were concerned about rain. Fortunately he rain stopped the morning we hit the road. Well now I look at the weather report for the day we head back to Havasu and it says rain. Hopefully we will get a break like last time. If not we will wait a day for it to clear.

Christmas Cookies

Yum! I like Christmas cookies.

We put our Grandson to work today. Like he hated it… He had a ball decorating Christmas cookies. This has become a tradition.

What just happened

The night before last I was looking at my DirecTV account on line. I noticed that, since I have been a good customer, I am eligible for a free receiver. Perfect I thought since our present receiver is giving us troubles. So I called to make sure it is in fact free and there will be no shipping fees, setup fees, extra monthly fees, or other hidden fees. I was assured it is in fact free and there will be no hidden or added fees. I said, Thanks I will order one online. Tonight I went online to order and it now shows it is not free and in fact it is $69.00. So I called again to ask what happened to free. They say it was never free. I argued enough that they transferred me to “Programming”. They also said it was not free but it is $49.00. I said I was looking at it online and it says $69.00. They said they could send it to me for $19.00. I said I would not pay for it since it was free the other night. Then he says he can send it to me for free with $10.00 off my next 6 bills. I said, “What”! He then asks if I also want Stars free for the next 3 months. I said, “Why wouldn’t I”. He said, “OK you will be receiving the free receiver in 2 days and $10.00 off your next 6 bills and Stars free for 3 months”…What just happened?

RV problems

I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why RVs are built so poorly and their quality control is little to none. I read and have talked to plenty of people that have bought new RVs only to have to return them to the dealer or manufacturer for repairs. In most cases, not just minor repairs but major things that should have not happened in the first place and at the least should have been caught by the manufacturers quality control. Also many RVs are sold by dealers with known defects or broken items that the dealer won’t fix until the unit is sold and the customer returns it for repair. Now an RV is simply a house married to a vehicle. I have not heard of as many problems with a new house or new vehicle so why an RV? It doesn’t seem to be isolated to the lower end RVs either. I know of many high end RVs that have as many problems as entry level units. What’s even worse is many of the problems are not rectified on the first visit or second or third.

We went for it

I told Susan last night that if it is raining in the morning, we were going to stay put and not head for California until Monday. Last night it was very windy and the rain started. I though as I lay there in bed listening to the wind and rain that we are not going anywhere in the morning. When we woke in the morning the wind was still blowing and it was still raining. Then everything stopped. The wind died and the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. I said, “Lets give it a try”. We had a rain free drive and sun most of the trip. We are now in Vista California and ready to spend Christmas with family. I’ve got a lot of cleaning to do. The motorhome and car are a mess from the wet roads. I even had to stop at one point and climb up the ladder to wipe off the backup camera because it was so dirty I couldn’t see the car.

Packed and ready

We are packed and ready to travel. The plan is to head for Vista, CA tomorrow. There is supposed to be a storm coming through tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully it won’t be too bad or we will wait until Monday. Looks like we will be driving right through it since it is coming from the west and heading toward us. The rain is supposed to end in Vista about 10:00a and hit Havasu at around 11:00a. We are leaving Havasu around 8:00a and should arrive in Vista about 12:30p so we will be driving right through the middle of it.

Cold

I took one last cruise around the resort in the golf cart today before we undecorated it and return it to it’s owners. Man is it cold. I just about froze my…well, hands off. It’s getting close to noon and it’s still in the 40s. It is supposed to start warming up a bit in the next few days but of course there is rain on the way. We are planning to leave for California Sunday morning but if there is a lot of rain in the forecast we may wait a day.

I noticed while driving around town that there is a lack of Christmas tree lots here in Havasu, perhaps because of the humidity. It is still dry around here and I am sure the trees would dry out quite fast.

That had to hurt

This morning I was on my way up to the office, I got about 2 RVs away when I heard a bang and glass hitting the ground. I knew it had to come from my place because no one else was around at the time. I hurried back and noticed glass on the ground. At first I couldn’t figure out where it came from until I looked up and saw this.

The bathroom window was busted out of the casita. The best I can figure is a bird hit it. Although I did not find a damaged bird lying around, which is what I would expect after seeing the window. Anyway, it was dual pane, now it’s single pain since I just removed the broken outside pane and called it done.

Tonight was the golf cart parade. They judged the carts in 4 different categories.

Yep, Susan won the owners award. I say Susan because she did all the decorating, with some help from our neighbors. I just did the driving. We had about 15 carts in all. We weaved our way through the resort tossing candy from the carts to the viewers.

Blustery day

It started out last night with lots of wind. But that’s not unusual for Havasu. We do get a lot of wind. This morning when we woke it was looking like rain but the wind had subsided a bit. Finally early morning it started to rain. As the day progressed the rain got worse. Susan was not too happy since yesterday she decorated our borrowed golf cart

for the Golf Cart Christmas Parade here at the resort. We parked it under the neighbor’s patio but the wind and rain still took its toll on it. The parade is Wednesday so she has time to freshen it up a bit.
Since today was not a good day to hang outside Susan spent the day baking banana bread for all our friends. I spent the day nursing the convection oven since it’s fan motor is on the way out. I had the oven partially disassembled and had to keep nudging the fan to keep it running. I have oiled the motor a number of times in the past but this time it didn’t help much. I need to replace the fan motor but can’t see an easy way to get it out. I could just replace the oven but it’s a matter of $50 for a fan motor or $500 for an oven. I figure since I have to remove the oven to replace it I will probably find a way to replace the fan once its removed.

Freezing?

It wasn’t long ago that we were complaining about the heat. Now the weather forecast is calling for below freezing weather tonight and tomorrow night. The desert does get quite a wide swing of temperatures. It has been real windy all day today and will be tomorrow. Yesterday was beautiful with no wind and warm.


We finally got a TV for our patio. I did my usual research (my engineering background) and decided on a Samsung 32”. I found a series 5 at Costco for the same price as the series 3 that our local Walmart was selling. About the only difference is the contrast ratio, which is double on the series 5, which is best for outdoor use. It arrived yesterday, which meant wiring up the casita. I was smart enough to have the cable routed under the concrete and throughout the casita so all I had to do was add the connectors and hook it all up to the dish. Oh I also had to call DirecTV and get a new box turned on. This was absolutely painless. I actually got a hold of someone at DirecTV that was intelligent. Well it’s pretty much all hooked up but it was too windy to sit out and watch any TV today. Looks like the first opportunity won’t be until Saturday.