As you can see, we have a new look to our blog.

We hope you like it and have a Happy New Year!

Snow

It was really windy and COLD last night. Cold enough that the hills behind us got a dusting of snow.

This photo was taken after noon when most of the snow had melted. This is the first time I have seen this and the second time it’s happened in about 7 years. The whole day was windy and cold but at least the sun was shinning. Yesterday was rainy and windy all day. Havasu is having a New Years party down town where they close off the streets and have bands playing and 2 firework shows. We were going to head on down there until the weather turned to REAL COLD. It is supposed to be in the low 30s on New Years Eve. I think we will pass.

The lights work

We just arrived in Havasu. It is about 8:30p and dark outside. I wasn’t even sure the lights on the motorhome worked until now. I never drive at night. I pulled over about 1.5 hours from here to get out and checked all the lights. Man! This thing with the car attached and all lit up looks like a Christmas tree. Everything worked just fine. The reason we arrived so late is because we took the motorhome in to the shop for a brake recall at 6:30a this morning and didn’t get it back until 2:30p California time. Then we had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us. I was hoping to get out of the shop by noon but you know how that goes. The recall notice said it was a 3 hour job. 7 hours later the motorhome was done. We needed to get back here today because there is another storm coming in and I would rather drive 2 hours in the dark than 4.5 hours in a storm. So giving time out for breakfast, lunch and cruising the mall I spent about 11 hours driving today. Fortunately my site here in Havasu is a pull in site so when we arrived I just pulled in, car attached, and shut it down for the night. I will get it setup properly tomorrow…between rain showers.

Redlands Elks Lodge

We arrived in Redlands today shortly after noon. It doesn’t matter what time of day we run through here, the traffic is always a mess.

At least the snow on the mountain in the background made nice scenery.

We are setup here at the Elks Lodge for the night so we can run the motorhome in to the shop bright and early tomorrow to get new brake calipers. There is a recall on our chassis and it is not going to cost me a cent. I called the shop to make sure they can get us in and out quickly so we can get back to Havasu before the rains start tomorrow. This means we will have to get up and about 5:30a. It is either that or drive back in the rain on Wednesday. I don’t drive in the rain.

Cheap Junk

Today I decided to pick up a new radiator cap for the motorhome. Now you can’t just go down to your local auto parts store and pick up one without knowing exactly what you need. Seems they don’t have a lot of stuff in their computers for motorhome and if it ain’t in their computer they are at a loss. So I did my homework and found out the one I have on the motorhome is obsolete (of course), but I did find the replacement. So I went to the parts counter and told the guy exactly what I wanted, brand and part number. He took a quick look in his computer and said $3.99 and headed back to the parts shelves. Now I thought I must have misunderstood him. There is no way a Delco radiator cap is going to only cost $3.99. Out he comes with a box, opens it up and pulls out a cheap piece of junk that resembled a radiator cap. This thing must have been made out of stamped tin. It was so lightweight a good breeze would have blown it off the counter. I told him that’s not what I asked for. He said it was from China and is just a good and if I had a problem with it I could return it to any of their stores for a refund. I think I would rather install a good quality cap rather than take a chance that I will have a problem and have to find a way to get from the side of the road in the middle of the desert to a parts store to return it. I will wait until I get back to Havasu and find the right part.

No More Rain

We got hit pretty good last night with rain. I think it rained hard all night. I say think because I finally put earplugs in to get some sleep because it was pounding so hard on top of the motorhome. There was a lot of flooding here in San Diego County.

This is a photo of Qualcomm Stadium where the San Diego Chargers play. The Chargers aren’t playing but they do have to get it cleaned up for the Poinsettia Bowl game tomorrow night (good luck). Tomorrow we should see some sun. It is supposed to be partly sunny and cool. Hopefully I can get things cleaned up a bit around here. The next rain will come Friday night but should only be a drizzle.

I guess it is raining just as hard in Havasu. Our neighbor says the walking path in front of our property has turned into a river and the 9th golf hole sand trap just beyond the path is now a lake. Susan and I have seen that happen during the summer monsoons but since our neighbors head north for summer this is new to them.

Since the rains were off and on all day today, Susan and Landen spent the day baking goodies.

This is pretty much a tradition with Landen since we have been fulltiming and coming back for Christmas.

Still raining

It has not stopped raining since my last post. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same as today. Here at the Elks Lodge we have no sewer hookup so once a week I unplug, suck in the slides, and head for the dump station. That was the plan for today…I say was. It just hasn’t stopped raining. We are not full and I think we can last until Thursday when the rain is supposed to be gone. At least that’s the plan for now. Surprisingly the three of us (Landen included) have survived cooped up in the motorhome all this time without going wacko. I have my computer, Landen has his PSP game, and Susan is cooking…Yum! Cinnamon buns, candy, and cookies.

Getting tired of the rain

OK, it’s been raining for almost a week straight now. I have had enough. The problem is it is not supposed to let up for a couple more days. There are times when the rain slows to a drizzle but it is cold and windy and just plane miserable. We can’t wait until we get back to Havasu. Sure it is raining there too but now so much. Our grandson has been with us for the last couple of days and he is getting rather board being cooped up inside the motorhome.

Settled in at the Elks

We got a bright and early start this morning and headed 15 miles up the road to the Elks Lodge. We had our Grandson stay with us over the weekend. He and Reese (our daughter’s dog) had a great time.

Reese enjoying the Sunshine

The kids sleeping

Hanging our waiting for mom and dad to come home

I was on alert on the trip to the Elks since I had a problem with the brakes on the last trip. I had absolutely no problems this trip. Good thing the next trip is to get the recall done.

I wasn’t here at the lodge more than a hour and I was already working. As you may know, I always jump in and help out around here when we stay. After finishing up the host handed me the key to one of the golf carts and said, you know where the tools are. It will give me something to do for the next 2 weeks.

We made it past the bomb house

I was worried that we were going to get stuck in traffic because they decided to burn the bomb house today.

Once we were getting close to the section of highway they were closing I had a brainstorm. I have a link in my favorites for a website that shows the speed sensors on the freeways. So I pulled up the closed section and it indicated everything was up to speed. How can that be I thought. It is only an hour after the predicted opening time and the traffic is sure to be messed up for a couple of hours after. I decided to take a chance and push on. To my surprise the freeway was free and clear.

One of the things we are going to do while here in California is get the brake recall done on the motorhome. There is a problem with brake calipers sticking on these Workhorse chassis and when they do the brakes drag and over heat. What make them stick is hard braking. The caliper piston gets hot and swells in the caliper, not letting the brake release. Well the last part of our journey was a 50 mph stretch with signal lights at every intersection. Of course everyone turned red just as we were approaching so it was accelerate up to 50 mph then brake to a quick stop over and over again. Then we smelled the brakes getting hot. They never did seize but they did get hot. We are now at our daughter’s house for a couple of days.

They are going on a trip and we will be dog sitting.

Not so favorable weather

Ever wish for not so favorable weather on a travel day? Well this is exactly what we are doing. I’m not talking about travel weather. I am talking about house burning weather. They have been putting off and putting off burning the Bomb House because the weather conditions weren’t what they were hoping for. Now the burning is scheduled for tomorrow, which will screw up our travels. Even if they get it done and open the freeway before we get there, I am sure the traffic will still be a mess for hours. We had a chance because the lawyers wanted to delay the burn to gather more evidence but a judge turned them down. We are packed and ready to head out of here in the morning.

Correction

Susan informed me that we didn’t win second place in the golf cart parade. We won first place in the day parade. There were two parades, one in the daytime so everyone could see the carts, and one after dark with all the carts light up.

The bomb house is screwing us up

We are heading for California on Thursday. Some of you probably don’t know but there is a house along our route that was used as a bomb factory. They are planning to burn the house down. The problem is they have put it off until Thursday and they will be closing off a portion of the freeway I planned to go through. This only means we will have to take a slightly different route. Not too much of a big deal except it will extend our travel a bit and the traffic will probably be a mess.

Tonight was the golf cart parade here in the resort. There were 14 carts involved. We had a great time.

Who won the best of the parade? We didn’t. We got 2nd place this year.

A lot to haul

Our neighbors had a friend come visit today. This is the rig he showed up with.

Not only does he pull a 40 foot fifth wheel but the truck also has a sleeper behind the cab. Oh, and not to mention the car. The fifth wheel hitch on the truck is special made to retract into the truck bed so he can drive the car off the back.

Today Susan spent the day decorating the golf cart for the Christmas parade we are having.

She took first place last year so she has to try extra hard to keep the honor this year. The twice pipes (dual exhaust) was my idea.

I just saw some empty wrapping paper tubes lying around, and with a little Mexican chrome (aluminum foil) whala! It’s still a work in progress.

Bypass the bypass

Last night I was doing plumbing all night in my sleep. This morning as soon as it warmed up a bit I tackled the leaky bypass valve. As you can see in this photo

I cut the input and output to the valve and connected them together, bypassing the valve. To my surprise my fix didn’t leak. I hate plumbing jobs. They always seem to leak. I had to lie there on my back shinning my flashlight into the access hole looking for the leak because I couldn’t believe it. After I was convinced there was no leak, I got out my shop vac and dried everything out. I waited and no more drips so I cleaned up and put everything away. After patting myself on the back and a few hours later I went around to verify no more drips. DAMN! WATER! It dripped in three places. Fine, I thought, I fixed one leak and created more. After cleaning up the water and checking everything I found the problem. The bypass valve has one input and two outputs, so you can divert the water either to the hot water tank or the cold water side. I didn’t do anything with the cold water side because the valve is set to the hot water tank side. The cold water side should be turned off. Seems it leaks through the valve and out the open tubes I cut, so now I need to decide what to do about that.

What a fricking nightmare

I have had an annoying drip from my water heater bypass valve since we arrived back from our summer trip. Seems in order to get the elbow coming out of the valve to face the right direction, they couldn’t tighten it completely so they gooped silicone around it. Surprisingly it lasted 7 years. My problem is I have a four inch access hole to get to it and as you can see it is a fricking nightmare

of fittings and plumbing. In my feeble attempt to fix it I just added more patch in the form of Plumbers Epoxy. The gray substance is my patch. This is a two-part putty that hardens when combined. It hardened but apparently didn’t stick to the fittings and still leaks. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to just bypass the bypass valve and go straight to the water heater, eliminating a lot of the mess and hopefully the leaks.