Moved to California

Today we took the car to California.  We are now at our daughter’s house in Encinitas.  We will be here until Christmas day when we will move over to her parent’s house in Fallbrook.

Of course we had to pick a crappy day to travel.  Actually it was good until the last 1.5 hours of the trip.  Then we ran into rain.  Most of it was just light but we hit a few spots of heavy rain.  Since we were in the car instead of the motorhome it wasn’t all that bad.  Along the way we did come across a car upside down on the interstate though.  Not a good day for them, I suppose.  Gas here in California is about 30 cents higher than in Havasu Arizona.  Not only that but with all the crap California puts in their gas the mileage is worse too.

Well we are settled in for a while and will have a great time visiting family.

TV job is done

Well we got the new TV and everything fit well.  As you may know we replaced our older style picture tube TV with a new flat screen TV.  This involved some remodeling.  The top of the old TV cabinet was sawed off just above the fireplace and this made a nice shelf for the new flat screen TV.  I researched (huh, imagine that) TVs and found one with the perfect dimensions to fit on the new shelf.  It turned out to be a 37 inch JVC on sale at Walmart for only $288 ($318 with tax).  You can see some photos here.

 

This project sparked a whole motorhome remodeling job.  We got all the furniture reupholstered.  I had the same material as the original so it looks the same except new with no ware.  This was no easy task.  I had to disassemble the recliner to fit it out the door and the couch had to go over the steering wheel, the dash, and out the drivers door.  I had to disassemble the driver’s door to remove the limiting strap so I could swing the door open enough to get the couch through.  The next job will be to rip out the carpet and install wood flooring.  I will replace the carpet in the bedroom, in the cockpit area, and top of the slide but the rest will be new wood floors front to back.  This is going to be a major job with all the obstacles involved.  I have been researching (huh, imagine that) what to do about the slide, stairwell, and engine cover but I think I got it all figured out.  We shall see.  I am not going to attempt this until after the holidays so stay tuned.

$300 remodel job

Our old school picture tube TV is on the fritz so we decided it might be time for a new TV in the motorhome. The problem is, the TV is build into a cabinet and the new flat screens are different dimensions than the old. The solution is a remodel job. So this is what I did.

It took some planning and guts due to wiring and screw holes. The wiring comes from the top of the motorhome down into the bottom portion of the cabinet so I had to hide the wires. Also the upper part of the cabinet was screwed to the wall with A LOT of screws. I managed to use parts of the removed upper cabinet to solve both problems. Oh, the reason this remodel job cost me $300, a new 37 inch flat screen TV (TV is on order. The one in the photo is my outside patio TV).

Sad but happy

As you might know, we bought a 2005 Saturn Vue during the summer.  We decided we didn’t need 2 cars so we put the Saturn SC2 up for sale.  I placed an ad on Craig’s List with no response.  Last night I reposted the ad again.  This morning before we even got out of bed we got a call.  I had just finished my morning coffee when he showed up with a fist full of 100 dollar bills.  About 30 minutes later he was driving off with our Saturn in tow behind his truck.  It was a bit sad to see it go away but we are glad it sold.  I told the guy I was sad and he said not to worry, he will take good care of it.  He even mentioned he wanted to fix the little things that needed attention.  I am glad it went to a good home.

Met a web follower today

I always enjoy meeting the people that follow our Blog.  The other day one of our Work campers said there was someone inquiring about me.  They have been following our Blog and were in the resort and wanted to meet us.  Today they stopped by and we had a good conversation.  Unfortunately I was on the phone most of the time with my insurance company and was not too hospitable.  Maybe we can get together before Monday, when they leave, and talk some more.  From the short conversation we had, it sure sounds like they have been having a good time.  They left the northeast and have been visiting the National Parks of America.  They even took a loop up through parts of Canada.

 

The snowbirds have been arriving at the rate of a couple a day now.  The park is filling up and the parties have begun.  Thursday we started our weekly hikes.  Jolene, the leader, took part of the group around the “low road” and I took the more experienced hikers over the “high road”.  I really though I might have scared them a bit but they told me they really enjoyed it.
 

 

Today the weather turned from a very bright and sunny high 80s degree to a windy cool high 60s day.  It is amazing how much change there can be over night.  The weekend is going to be cool but the heat will be back next week.  I prefer HOT.

Killer Bees

So yesterday I was our working on the resort. I was trimming trees along the street, up against the wall at the front of the resort. Suddenly I noticed a bee buzzing around my head. Knowing there are bees around here I didn’t think anything of it. Then there were more, then more, then more. I said to myself, this isn’t normal. Then the next words out of my mouth were SHIT as I made a run for it. There was a small swarm around me. Those little suckers were going down my shirt and down my work gloves. Then it hit! Yep, one got me on the wrist. I finally out ran the guys but not before getting stung. I looked and could not find the stinger. Apparently he didn’t loose it. After about 10 minutes the pain was gone and no other indication that I was stung was apparent. No marks or swelling. Now, I don’t know if they were “Killer bees” or not but after a few hours my wrist ached like arthritis in the bone. Then I noticed a little swelling. This was hours later mind you. This morning I woke to an arm that itched, ached and looked like it belonged to a 300 lb man. So the next step was off to the store for some benadryl. I have never had an allergic reaction to bee stings but I guess these guys pack a pretty good wallop. Now we are trying to figure out how to get rid of those guys.

Back in Havasu

I can't believe we have been back in Havasu for a week and I didn't update our Blog. California was pure STRESS! The traffic was a mess and it was sad to say goodby to our grandson for a few months. Hopefully we will see him again in March.

It is nice to be back in Havasu. The temps are a bit hotter but even though the humidity is higher than I like it is still lower than California was. I like the heat, just don't care for humidity.

This is our monsoon season and the thunder clouds have been hanging over the mountains ever since we got back. The storms seem to always go around us though. I don't know if it is the mountains or some sort of lake effect but we get very little of it.

California again

We are in California again. We have to take our grandson Landen back home for school. We just drove the car since Susan’s parents bought a house and have an extra room for us. Besides it’s $40 for fuel rather than a couple of hundred for the motorhome. Tomorrow we are taking Landen and his best friend to Seaworld since we didn’t get a chance to go anywhere with him this summer. Hopefully next summer will be different. We don’t really want to spend another summer in Havasu so I am thinking about heading up to Sonoma and go to the NASCAR race next summer. Then we will find something to do after that where it is below 100 degrees.

Broken Computer

Actually the computer is fine, it’s the operating system that’s broke. I should have known better but I clicked on a link in my email and from then on things were wacko. Some Internet pages took forever to load and some didn’t load at all. Google was especially difficult. When I did a search, Images wouldn’t work and if I clicked on a link it would redirect me to someplace completely different. I searched for viruses but found none. A while back I lost my ability to create restore points because of another virus. So I figured it was time to dump everything and restore my system. This went well but took a couple of days to get everything reinstalled and configured. Funny how some things don’t work the way they did before. I know it’s got to be some configuration setting I can’t find right now. Anyway I am back up and running again. Al least I know my recovery disks work. I was always wondering about that.

Craigslist is a winner

So I decided to yank the 12V battery from my golf cart. I could never figure out why the golf cart had a separate 12V battery just for the radio. The 12V lights and horn are connected to 2 of the 6V batteries so why not the radio. Every time the 12V battery needed charging I had to brake out my 12V charger and charge it separate from the golf cart batteries.

The battery box I pulled out looked like it might be something someone might want. I looked it up on the internet and they sell for $60 new. So I posted it on Craigslist for $20. Within about 30 minutes I got a call. The guy came out and not only took the battery box but the 10 year old battery along with it.

Less that an hour from placing the ad and it was gone.

How does that happen? Do these guys sit around all day monitoring Craigslist for stuff to buy? I couldn’t believe how fast I got the call.

Now I’m looking around for more stuff to sell.

No rain today

At least yet. It is 8:00p and the day has been rain free. There is plenty of moisture in the air though. It was, for the most part, an indoor day since the humidity was very high and uncomfortable. I can see out the windows that the thunderclouds are welling up again though. The weather says lightning, thunder and heavy rain until midnight but I kind of doubt it. Last nights rain was another bad one. There were more rescues in town and the streets got another dose of mud, rocks and debris. We got a dose of that one here at the resort. This morning I took a drive around to access the damage. We survived real well. The only real damage is the path through our common area. It is washed out in places and rutted pretty badly.

We took another drive into town to check on the houses we are watching today and they survived another one although the streets around them were near impassable. We did have to turn around on one street and find a different route. The bad weather should be all gone by tomorrow.

More floods tonight

The rains are back and there is more flooding in town. Tonight the storm is over us also. We are getting very heavy rain here at the park. I haven’t gone outside but by looking out the windows it appears everything is intact although there is a lot of water flowing down the roads. There is lots of lightning and thunder and of course our satellite TV is going in and out as the signal tries to get through the moisture in the air. I am listing to the Havasu Police, Fire, And EMS on the internet and they are very busy.

Susan and I took a drive in town today and it looks like a hurricane went through. A lot of roads were blocked off due to washouts and LOTS of debris and rocks in the roads. Unfortunately there was one death last night when one car was swept into a wash. Two in the car got out OK but the third was swept away and found dead 2 miles down the wash.

We checked on our friend’s houses, which aren’t in town right now, and all was well. Looks like we will have to take another drive tomorrow to make sure they survived tonight’s storms as well.

There are a lot of videos on You Tube of the floods.

Boss called today

My boss called from home this evening and asked if we got nailed by heavy rain here at the resort. He said they got hit so hard on the south end of town that his pool overflowed. We got nothing but a little rain and a very close bolt of lightning and thunder that knocked out our power for a split second. We figured we were going to be hit next. Luckily it bypassed us. I called my boss back and he said the south end of town was chaos. The washes turned into rivers and flash floods washed cars off the roads. Cars were washed out of one of the restaurants parking lots in town. Earlier Landen asked if we could go out to dinner. I told him not tonight. After telling him about the restaurant parking lot he said that is were he wanted to go tonight. We dodged that one but there are more to come.

116 degrees today

I started the day working this morning at 8:00a. The temps quickly rose to 100+. My shirt was so soaked the pool guy asked me if I went into the pool with my shirt on. That probably would have been a good idea. I worked until noon at which time it was around 114 degrees. For some strange reason Susan decided to put 2 pots of soup stock on the stove. This raised the inside temp to 90 degrees. The motorhome never recovered from that. We are supposed to get some thunderstorms starting tomorrow evening. This doesn’t mean it will be cool, it’s still going to be over 100 degrees and raining.

Yesterday I took the Saturn Vue into the shop to get the timing belt replaced. I knew it would take about 5 hours to complete so I wasn’t surprised when they didn’t call until 4:00p to say it was done. The ladies I bought the car from were pretty meticulous about the maintenance but for some reason the car was about 20,000 miles over due for the belt change. A broken belt means a destroyed engine so I feel a lot better now that it’s done.

Tomorrow the temp is supposed to be a bit lower. I am going to work again in the morning then I got a 2:00p dentist appointment to get my new crown placed. I have been running around with a plastic temp for 2 weeks now and will be glad to get the real thing. I have been so afraid of knocking it off that I haven eaten on that side. Takes me twice as long to eat that way.

Big change for 4th

The weather around here in Havasu has been consistently over 100 degrees for quite some time. The 4th of July, however was much different.

We had rain in the morning and the temps never reached 100 all day. This didn’t stop most people from partying in the channel.

In fact it was much more comfortable than the 100+ temps. The cloud cover was high so the fireworks were great.

Oatman

One of the things Landen likes to do while here in Havasu is take a ride up to Oatman to feed the burros. Oatman is an old gold mining town up in the Arizona mountains on the old route 66. The burros are descendants from the burros that were used by the miners. After the price of gold went down and the mines didn’t produce enough to make it worth looking for the operations closed and the burros were let loose. Everyday they roam into town to look for a handout from the tourists. You can always count on a few babies tagging along also. Here a couple of photos of Landen having fun in Oatman.

Landen and his buddy

Landen clowning around

Landen feeding the burros

Burro lunch box

Missing TV

No it didn’t get stolen.

It gets too hot on the patio for the TV. The specs say not to operate the TV over 104 degrees. Well, it is 104 about noon. So I decided since the grandson's game console uses an HDMI port only and none of the inside TV have HDMI it makes sense to move the patio TV inside and get some use out of it. So now Landen is happy he has his own TV for his games.

Normally I would not let him sit inside all day and play gamer but when it reached 114 outside it’s just too hot for him to play outside. He did go to the movies with Susan today while I wiped down the motorhome and flushed the holding tanks…someone has to do it.

Crash And Burn

Landen and I went over to the racetrack again today to run his car. We did a reprogram on the electronics because he lost braking and reverse. The test drive went well until he crashed and broke the right rear suspension piece. We packed up and headed on over to the RC shop to pickup a new part thinking, “How much can this cost”. I was thinking somewhere around $3.00. Was I surprised… $10.00. $10 was the price for a set of left and right but still. So I thought I would see if I could glue it back together.

I drilled the pieces and inserted a pin for strength and used a 2 part epoxy. I got to thinking that even if this held, it is a weak point and will most likely break sometime down the road so I got on the internet to search for a better price. I ended up placing an order from an Ebay seller for the left and right set for $3.74 with free shipping. We should be getting it in the mail by Thursday. Hopefully my fix will hold until then.

RC Truck Racing

Landen and I had a guy day today. We headed over to the local RC car track to run his Radio Controlled Car. He has one of those really fast RC Off Road Trucks.

He has never been on a dirt track and found that to be a different experience than running it on the streets.

There were lots of turns and jumps and his tires didn’t have much grip so the car was all over the place. After a while though he got the hang of it. I asked him if I could give a try and I was wrecking all over the place. After the track we checked out a couple of RC shops in town to see the new stuff. We also headed on over to the RC Airport to see if anyone was flying their RC planes. We found that the airport is only open on Saturdays so we might go back tomorrow. By this time it was lunchtime so we stopped at In and Out for a couple of Double Doubles.

HOT Summer

It’s been HOT. Everyday the temps are over 100 before noon. It drops into the 80s during the early morning for a while then starts heading back up to the 100s. Landen and I went to the Aquatic Center today for a couple of hours. Unfortunately (for me) it was Summer Camp Day. Bus loads of kids, good for Landen though. He had plenty of kids to play with. At the center there is a LARGE pool and a water slide. At one point the pool was so jammed with kids that I couldn’t move without running into one. I had to just get out and wait it out. The line at the water slide was too long to deal with. Fortunately the kids only stayed a short time then they packed back into the busses and left the pool to the rest of us. Landen is worn out…well so an I.

Back in Havasu again

We left California this morning. Since we picked up the “new” car (Saturn Vue)

we had two cars to bring back to Havasu. Susan wanted to drive our original car and I drove the Vue. Landen, our Grandson, rode with me. We made several stops

to check on each other and see how the trip was going. Everything went well and now we are back at the Resort in Havasu.

We had a great time at our daughters house in California. The weather in California was sunny and overcast at times. The temp in the high 60s was comfortable. We arrived in Havasu to sunny skies and 107 degrees. But then again, we are used to it so it didn’t feel bad.

Visiting Friends

Today I went down to the State Park we used to host at to see some old friends. After visiting friend I took a drive down the coast. It’s good to see the beach again.

It was a good day since I can now stand straight up. Let me explain, Before we left Havasu I messed up my back doing some work around the resort. I was laid up for 2 days before we left and was hurting pretty bad the day of travel. The drive wasn’t too bad since the seats in our Saturn are comfortable enough but I was really stiff at the end of the trip. Today I can finally stand straight up with no pain. I still have pain bending and twisting just right but it just gets better everyday.

Uneventful Trip

Just the way I like it. We made it to our Daughters house in about 6 hours arriving at 2:00p. The trip went well and the car ran good. I haven’t had time to calculate the mileage yet but last trip out here we got 38 mpg in our Saturn SC2. I do know it cost more this time because of the price of gas. Last time it cost me $28 to do the 300 miles and this time the bill was $36. We paid $3.89 when we left Havasu Arizona and paid $4.25 here in San Diego California.

The weather will take some getting used to. It was around 85 degrees at 8:00a in Havasu and was in the high 60s at 2:00p when we arrived here. Good thing I packed some long pants and tennis. No more shorts and flip flops for a while.

I will have to cruise the beach while I am here. I do miss the beach.

California here we come

Tomorrow bright and early we are heading to California to pickup our Grandson. Those that follow our Blog know we do this every summer when Landen gets out of school. He loves to hangout with Nana and Papa for the summer and travel with us. We plan to hang out here until after the fireworks on the 4th of July then take the motorhome on a short trip somewhere. Not sure where just yet but I’m thinking the Grand Canyon area. Landen wants to get back home by the first of August so he can spend some of the summer with his friends. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he wanted to spend summer with his friends and soon he might not even want to hang out with a couple of old folks like us. We need to take advantage of having him travel with us while we can. We are just going to take the car over to California because we are only staying for 4 days at our daughter’s house then head on back here to Havasu. It’s a whole lot cheaper fuel wise to take the car than the motorhome. Also while in California we will be picking up another car. We bought a 2005 Saturn Vue so we will have 2 cars coming back. If the Vue checks out OK we will sell the other car. I know the people that own the Vue and know how it’s been taken care of so I am sure it will be a great car.

Welcome to my back yard party

Just can’t go through a holiday weekend without going down to the Channel and watching the crazies. Then coming back to our quiet calm paradise here at the resort.

Here are a few photos. Some I don’t dare post…

It’s getting hot

I have altered my work schedule. Now, instead of working 2 full days, I am now working 3 to 4 half days. I start early and knock off around noon. The place is starting to look real good. Everything is growing well and the manager and I have been trimming and cleaning up all the fall leaves. Unfortunately most of the “Snowbirds” have headed back up north for the summer so there are few left to enjoy.

Boats boats and Bigger boats

This weekend is the Desert Storm Poker Run and Shootout on the lake. All the BIG boats are in town from all around the country. Today was the Desert Storm Street Party. This is where a lot of the boats are lined up along Main Street for viewing. There is some amazing engineering and artistry involved in these boats. Tomorrow we will go down to watch the boat parade through the channel before they head out on a poker run.Here are a few photos I snapped today at the Street Party.

Big trucks for Big boats.


These things are so big they have to be trailered on their side to fit the road.



Some crazy graphics

Big motors for big boats.


Seating for 5, how about a ride?

This is all you get when you spend too much on your truck.

Honest, I was taking a picture of the big screen TV mounted on the side of this truck.

Cool job

Where can you find a job where you go to work in the morning, knock off for lunch at noon, jump in the company pool for a couple of hours then go back to work. That is exactly what I did today. The temperature was just under 100 today but after trimming about 100 palm trees I was ready for a dip in the pool.

Big Boats and fast skis

This weekend was the boat/car show and high speed water ski racing.  There were lots of fancy pontoon party boats and some really big and really fast boats at the show.

Also there was a water ski race where these guys and gals were skiing at close to 100 mph on the lake.

This was our first 100+ degree weather this year and no wind so the conditions on the lake were perfect for the ski competition.

NASCAR? In Havasu?

Yep, NASCAR came to Havasu this Saturday night. Actually it was the NASCAR K&N West Series but it is an official NASCAR race. They brought out their own pace car, crash truck, flagman, and officials.

They raced on our 1/4 mile track that was freshly paved for the event. They said if all goes well they would make us one of their regular stops. All went real well. The crowds had a great time, the race went off without a hitch and we really let them know they were welcome.



It looked a bit sketchy for a while there because a big cold front came through Friday night and didn’t leave until Saturday noon. There was even a light dusting of snow on the hills behind us.

As you can see the snow is gone and the hills are clear again. We went from 80 degree sunny skies to the low 50s with 30 MPH winds and rain. Fortunately it blew out Saturday noon and all was well. Today it was back in the high 70s, sunny, and a light breeze. We are looking at high 90s by next weekend. This time of year the weather can go from one extreme to the other in a mater of hours.

As you can see today was a beautiful day.

New Link

I just added a new link to MY RV LINKS in the right hand column. It’s titled Lake Havasu City. Click on it any you will see why we decided to make this our home base and why we spend so much time here.

No boat race

Yes there was a boat race this weekend, but I didn’t see it. As I said earlier, the trials Friday didn’t happen due to wind. Saturday’s race went off OK except I was working. Since the Work Campers here at the resort have gone home I have taken on extra days to help cover the gap. Today I talked to a few people that went down Saturday to see the race and they said it wasn’t worth fighting the crowds for. So I decided to just stay home and do a few things that needed to be done on the motorhome.

Grand Prix Racing

Today was supposed to be practice and testing day for the Grand Prix Racing East vs West GP Challenge Hydroplane boat race. But the 20 MPH winds didn’t cooperate. These boats travel about 140 MPH on the water and that can mean trouble. We headed on down to the lake in hopes to see some boats running but

they didn’t even get them in the water before it was all called off. This is the first time these boats will be running here on Lake Havasu. They usually run in the Northwest and Canada. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day with winds around 5 MPH so the race should run. We will be heading back down to catch some racing.

Followers

Hey, I see that my list of followers has finally shown up, see right column. For quite a while the title Followers has been the only thing that was showing. Now there are actually photos with names. Welcome back y’all!

The wind was short lived. It only lasted a day and now it is beautiful here again. Too bad it’s time for many to head back up north. Won’t be long before it’s only Susan and I again. We are NOT going to spend the summer here again…well the whole summer. We will be heading to California the first of June to pick up our Grandson again this summer and will travel with him for a few weeks. After we drop him off back home for school we will probably come on back here. This will be in August so yeah it will still be HOT.

WIND

Man was it windy today. It got up to over 30 MPH and everyone was securing their belongings. I took a cruise around the park and secured a few items for people that have already left for the summer. Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day.

We use Verizon for our cell service including our wireless Internet. Here in Havasu Verizon does not exist. We are on Extended Network on our phone and I am able to pick up 1 bar of signal for my Aircard from the Verizon tower 6 miles away across the lake. This all sounds good but a lot of the time it doesn’t work well. Just about every call gets dropped at least once. My Aircard works most of the time, although slow, but there are times it can’t find the Internet. I called Verizon yesterday to see if there was anything that can be done. The service tech told me he could put in a service ticket but it would get rejected because I haven’t updated my roaming since December. I explained to him that I couldn’t update my roaming because I am on Extended Network and can only do that while on a Verizon Network. He offered no help there. Huh…Great customer service! Today I traveled to the end of the island here in Havasu to see if I could pickup a Verizon signal on our phone to update it. I was successful in doing this to activate my Aircard but this time I could not find a Verizon signal. Either their tower is out of whack or their signal strength is weaker than it used to be. But they won’t look into it until I update my roaming!

No NASCAR?!

As you all might know, Susan is a big Jimmie Johnson fan. So she if she can’t watch NASCAR she is not a Happy Camper. Today about a half hour before the race, she tuned the TV into the FOX network to watch the race and this is what she found.

Seems DirecTV is at it again, battling with the networks and apparently lost this one, and on NASCAR day no less. I told her not to fret, we will just head up to the Club House and watch. After confirming it was on in the Club House I got a brain storm. My next door neighbors are hooked up to cable and since their utility pedestal is only about 10 feet from my patio TV…

A cable splitter and a few feet of cable solved that problem. In a short period of time we were watching NASCAR on our patio TV.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do about Clint Boyer crashing Jimmie out of the lead close to the last lap.