Bill Williams River Hike

I just added the photos of our hike at the Bill Williams River here in Arizona. This river was named after an early explorer in the area. It joins lake Havasu just north of the Parker Dam. The River area is a National Wildlife Refuge because of the many species of birds found there.

Snakes are out

Saw this guy on a hike today. He was stretched across the path in front of us. We tossed a couple of rocks toward him to send him on his way but he didn’t respond until we tossed some gravel at him. Boy that sure pissed him off. He spun around into a coil and looked right at us with rattle going a mile a minute, then ran off into the bushes. We could still hear him as we passed by on our way. I will post more of the hike pictures to our photo site soon.

This is what I did today

Yesterday I damn near wore myself out wiping down the motorhome. I was going to wash it after the dust camp we stayed at in Vegas but it really didn’t look that bad so I just got a bucket of water and a step ladder and wiped and dried the whole thing down. Going up and down the ladder and wiping with one hand and drying with the other gave me quite a workout.

Today I attacked the wheels. I have been wanting to shine up the aluminum for a while now and got it done today. Fortunately I have one of those Power Balls from Mothers

and borrowed my neighbors drill motor so it took me about an hour instead of 4.

All fixed

I finally got the seal replaced on my front wheel. I made the appointment and the day of the appointment I called the shop that first replaced the seal, and who agreed to pay for the replacement, to let them know I was taking it in and they should expect a call from the shop I am taking it to. This time however I got a hold of a different guy that gave me a hard time about it. I finally told him I had the appointment and am taking it in and will deal with who will pay later. I arrived at the shop and told them to call the first shop and let them know what they find and maybe expect a hassle. Turns out that when they called they got the first person I talked to and was told to fax over the bill and they will pay by credit card. Anyway I got the job done at no charge to me.

The trip back to our lot didn’t turn out too well though. I couldn’t avoid some debris in the road and ended up ripping some wires out under the motorhome and put a good dent in my tail pipe. The wires were an easy fix and I straightened out the pipe as well as I could.

After cleaning things up I happened to look over at the wheel that was worked on and spotted a stream of oil running down from the axel across the wheel and pooling on the ground. All I could do is stand there and laugh. After pulling the center cap off the wheel I noticed the oil was coming from the axel oil drain plug. A simple ¼ turn tightened it up and after cleaning up the oil there were no more leaks. Now I got a small mess under my tire that I either have to move the motorhome or jack the wheel off the ground to clean.

Better

Susan is feeling much better now. She still has a cough and is feeling a bit weak but she is at least up and around. This makes me feel much better also. I rescheduled the motorhome appointment to get the bearing seal replaced. I will also be calling Chem-Dry to get the carpet cleaned since we were going to have it done before Susan got sick.

The weather is shaping up real nice around here. It has been comfortably cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons and the wind has not been an issue.

I added the NASCAR pictures from the Vegas race, enjoy.

Sick

We didn’t come back from the NASCAR race without a souvenir. Susan came back with the Flu. I am talking serious flu. The doctor said it is the Swine Flu…I thought that was gone. Anyway, they prescribed some high dollar drugs which I bought thinking it would make it all go away. I should know better. I am one that won’t even take an aspirin unless I am really hurting but I wanted her to feel better. Turns out that the major side effect of all 3 meds they prescribed is vomiting. I thought that was what we were trying to stop. For 3 days she could not eat, drink, or sleep because her stomach wouldn’t let her. She finally decided to stop all meds and today she feels much better.

If you get the Flu, don’t let the doctor talk you into paying mega bucks for Tamiflu. It will only make you feel worse.

Back in Havasu again

We made it back to Lake Havasu City today in spite of the high wind warnings. The weather report said the winds would be worst in the afternoon so we got an early start and made it through without problems. I filled the leaking wheel bearing and checked it a half hour into the trip. I had to top it off again so an hour later I pulled over to check it again. It was still full so I felt better about that. It hasn’t leaked since. However I called the shop that replaced it in December and they agreed to replace it again. The problem is they are 260 miles away. So they agreed to pay the bill if I take it to an authorized service center here in Havasu. Nice work! Even though it isn’t leaking right now I have an appointment Friday to get it replaced.

NASCAR was fun, as usual. Susan and I got into Las Vegas about noon Thursday and took time for a little lunch before heading into the track. We spent the days with our daughter, her husband and friends and headed out to the motorhome for the nights. Thursday was NASCAR practice Friday was qualifying and Saturday and Sunday were the races. I will post photos to our photo site soon.

The race is over

Well the race is over and Susan’s driver didn’t win. We still had a great time with our daughter and friends.

The races were exciting nun the less with some pretty spectacular mishaps right in front of us.

Tomorrow we head back to Havasu. I filled my wheel hub with fresh oil and I think we can make it back to Havasu with no problem there. The problem might be the weather. They are calling for High winds which makes driving a motorhome kind of tricky. I will just have to play it by ear and drive slower and more careful if the winds are too bad.

Las Vegas

Oh, did I mention we are in Las Vegas? We arrived Thursday for the NASCAR race weekend. The drive was good until we arrived in town then every stop we made we smelled something burning. I pulled over to investigate but didn’t notice anything. After arriving at the track and getting settled in I checked things out closer and found the culprit. I have a leaking wheel bearing seal on one of my front wheels. The fluid drips out on the hot brake rotors and hence the smell. I bought some oil and will top it off before we leave on Monday and see if we can make it back to Havasu.

Other than that we are having a great time as usual.

We are with our daughter again and it is so nice to be able to spend some time with her, her husband and Reese the dog.