Back in Havasu

We arrived back in Havasu yesterday about 2:00p Arizona time.  Traffic along the drive was a bit heavy which can be expected since New Years is coming up.  The temperature here is about 10 degrees cooler than the California coast and today we have about 20 mph winds.  Fortunately the winds are supposed to die down tomorrow.

'It seems like, to me, a vagina - as a man - would be more desirable than a man’s anus.

I’m a Big Spender

For the last year Susan has wanted, well needed a new cell phone.  Finally I decided to start looking for a replacement for her antiquated communication device.  One problem is, since I don’t want to give up my Basic Phone Plan through Verizon (no need for a Data Plan) there is a Very limited selection of phones available.  I was in the local Best Buy store here near our daughters house and spotted a phone I though Susan would like.  As I always do I returned home and started my research on the Internet before making my purchase.  Well I found the same phone at Walmart Wireless for $0.01.  That’s right, 1 cent.  So I started the online order process only to realize if I ordered it now it would arrive at our place in Lake Havasu City before we arrived back.  Also the website said it would be activated when delivered.  Not wanting it to be delivered before we return and be activated leaving our present phone unless until we get back I decided to abort the order.  Not wanting to possibility miss the 1 cent deal I called the order number and asked about the activation process.  Well the girl (from India) said I could have it delivered after I return.  So I placed the order and asked to have it delivered after the first of the year.  The next day I checked the order status online and noticed it was shipped and will arrive Dec 20, which it did.  Good thing is it hasn’t been activated and our present phone has not been shut off.  The other thing that amazes me is they actually charged my credit card $0.01, yes that’s 1 cent.

Moved to California

We are now in California for Christmas.  We only took the car, which gets MUCH BETTER mileage than the motorhome.  I was pleasantly amazed that I got 30 MPG on this trip.  The last times I got around 28.  Guess the wind was blowing in the right direction. 

Anyway, we are now at our daughters house until the day after Christmas, then we will head on over to Susan’s parents house.  They are only 30 minutes away. 

We arrived Wednesday and today we got our grandson who will spend a few days with us.  Tomorrow we will pick up our granddaughter for the day.  We haven’t seen her for quite some time. 

I don’t plan on doing much here.  It’s just nice to get away from the resort for a while and it will be nice to see the family.

OK a new post

The comment on the last post requested an update.  Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I really have no excuse.  Anyway here goes.

 

After posting about no rain we finally got it.  We REALLY got it!  We only got 2 rainstorms this season but I think we met our average rainfall totals.  I was sitting on my patio watching the rain just hammering California across the lake when I noticed it was getting darker over us.  It was raining so hard I could hear the rain fall even before it got to us.  It was either a wide band of rain or it stalled over us because it came down hard for close to an hour.  The walking path in our common area got so washed out that it took 10,000 pounds of fill to repair.  That was a lot of work but the manager and I repaired it.  We also had 3 trees blow over this year and we replaced those too.  This summer was so hot for so long that we didn’t want to do any trimming of the plants for fear of damaging them.  So when the heat let up we had a lot of work to do.  We worked all day, every day, for over a week trimming over 500 palms and probably twice as many plants and other trees.  The place sure looked nice for our snowbirds to arrive for the winter season.

 

 

 

Halloween was a blast here.  We had a golf cart parade where we decorated the carts and drove through the park trick-or-treating.  We drove by as the watchers tossed candy at us.  After the parade it was party time.

 

 

Well the park is filling up now.  The Snowbirds are pulling in at the rate of a couple a day.  Looks like we lost about 5 lot owners over the summer from cancer and heart attacks.  I think this is the most we have lost in one summer.

 

My plan to work semi fulltime during the summer and very little during the winter didn’t work out this year.  We didn’t get the Workcampers we usually do for the winter so the managers asked if I would work my summer schedule of 20 hours a week through the winter.  Actually they wanted me to work fulltime but I refused.  I think I can keep up with all the maintenance on a part time basis.  If not the managers said they would hire me a helper from town.  Hell, I am supposed to be retired!  Not only that but I have become somewhat of a handyman around here.  Since I keep a high profile working here everyone knows me and knows I can do just about anything.  So whenever there is something broken they bring it to me.  I have even been hired by some of the lot owners to cleanup their lots for them.  What the heck, it’s extra mad money.  The problem is, sometimes it hard to find time to do my own chores.  I still find time for the cocktail parties just about every night though.

 

In October the Lucas Oil Drag Boats came to Lake Havasu.  What a kick that was.  It was the same weekend as the Finals for the World Jet Boat Completion.  I intended to spend half a day at the Drag boats then head on over to the other side of the island for the Jet Skis but never made to the Jet Skis.  I spent the whole day watching the 250+ MPH Top Fuel drag boats along with about 15 other categories of boats race.  I even had access to the pits and watched them getting their boats ready for their runs.  It was interesting to talk with some of the crews and learn more about the ins and outs of the sport.  Friday evening they all lined up on Main Street and at dusk they fires them up.  Lots of noise and flames shooting from the headers and the burning eyes from the nitro methane fuels.

 

 

October was also the month of the annual classic car show.  This is the largest collection of classis cars and hot rods from all over the country and some from Canada.  There were over 750 cars not including the more than one hundred cars from our local car clubs.  Some nice cars!

 

 

Oh I forgot to mention, one of the lots I cleaned up here is owned by the father of Susan’s favorite NASCR drivers Jimmie Johnson’s jet pilot.  He just came back from the race in Phoenix and said he tried to get her Jimmie’s autograph but didn’t get the chance, as if Susan doesn’t already have a few autographs.

 

Anyway, that’s the update for now.  There has been a lot more going on here in Havasu and a lot more coming.  I will try to keep you posted.

Still no rain

Here we are in about the middle of August and still no rain in sight.  This is usually our monsoon season where we get winds, thunder, lightning, and rain.  None of that has happened.  The humidity has dropped and the temperatures have also dropped.  It is now below 110 but still over 100 everyday.  The nights have also dropped to the 80s.  Sometimes we can get by with only one air conditioner running.  The plants here in the resort are struggling.  Hopefully we will get some moisture before everyone starts coming back so the place will look nice again for everyone.

I just added some photos of our trip to the Sonoma NASCAR race this summer.  Click on the link in the left column to view.

Wet weather

No not rain, humidity.  We did get some rain Tuesday but not as much as we need.  What the rain did though is bring in the humidity.  It is now over 100 degrees and humid.  I like the heat but when I sit and do nothing and sweat, I’m not very happy.  With temperatures running over 110, some of the vegetation in the resort is struggling.  The ones that get afternoon shade are doing fine but you can really tell how the ones that get full sun are having a hard time.  This humidity will do the plants good though.

115 today

My thermometer reached 115 today.  As you may know, I work part time here doing maintenance.  It is tough to do any work around here in the resort with that kind of temperature.  Many of the plants here are struggling.  I have been doing my best to keep up with the dying vegetation.  The temperature is supposed to start dropping a bit but there is a new threat coming.  Thunderstorms.  The humidity is rising and the weather is calling for chance of thunderstorms toward the end of the week.  This usually brings a new set of problems, winds.  We could use a good rain though.

HOT HOT HOT

It’s pretty darn hot around here.  Today I went back to work here at the resort, first day since we got back from California.  I took it easy and did some lite trimming of trees and shrubs.  Drank plenty of water.  I only worked until noon then called it a day.  After lunch I cooled off in the pool.  Well as much as I could considering the pool is 86 degrees.  Not to refreshing but at least it is cooler than the 115 degree air.  They measured 125 in town the other day but there are parts of town that are hotter than here at the resort.  It only gets down to the low 90s during the night.  There is not much relief in sight either.  The heat doesn’t bother me too much and even though the inside of the motorhome gets to 90 during the hottest part of the day it is tolerable to me, considering.  The other day I picked up an evaporative cooler that someone put out on the curb, for free.  It is in excellent condition and with a little cleaning it looks new.  It works well however it doesn’t get along well with my air conditioners.  It put too much moisture in the air and the evaporator in the air conditioner iced up and wasn’t putting out much air.  I guess we will have to save that for a cooler day when we don’t really need air conditioning.

121 here today

The temperature got to about 121 degrees today.  I spent most of the day still cleaning and getting thing organized around here.  I had to take a couple of breaks and duck inside to cool down though.  Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same.  No relief until Thursdays and even that won’t be much of a break.  Last nights low was 92 but we were cool with only one AC running.  Turned the second one on as soon as we got up this morning of course.  Even the water coming out of the cold water tap is over 90 degrees.

All in all though, we are glad to be back.

We are done

We arrived back in Havasu today.  We were going to stop over in Barstow for one more night on the road but the weather in Havasu is supposed to get REAL HOT so we decided to get here before it does.  It is already HOT.  My thermometer is showing 119.5 right now at 4:30p.  We had originally planned to spend the weekend in Las Vegas but with this heat coming we decided not to.  We are anxious to get unloaded and clean everything up.  Our lot here is a real mess too.  The winds blew in a lot of debris and dust so everything needs cleaning.

No more Elks

We will be staying in campgrounds from now until we get back to Havasu.  We are now at The Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield.  We have stayed here several times and it never changes.

 

 

We have always enjoyed our stay here.  This place is a popular transit stop for people just passing through.  During the day hours the place is empty.  We arrived around 11:00a and pretty much had our pick of sites.  However, during the late afternoon/evening hours this place will fill up and before 8:00a it empties out again.  The price is right, they have a pool, meeting room, lounge, small store, free WiFi, and orange trees.

 

Every site has about 3 well groomed orange trees.  During the season you can pick all the oranges you want.  Unfortunately we never seem to be here during the season which is January through April.

 

For some reason though I cannot connect to their internet.  Landen connected right away with his computer, Susan’s computer connects but mine won’t.  It might have something to do with all the blockers I am running.  No problem, I still have my MiFi card.  The drive here was really good.  I was a little concerned about the Dash Air in the motorhome but it performed so well it was freezing us out.  The weather here was about 100 degrees today and tomorrow will be hotter.  We are comfy though with both ACs running.

Touring day

We left the motorhome this morning about 8:00 heading for Hearst Castle. We had a 10:00 tour and didn’t want to be late. We got there in plenty of time, which worked out well. When we arrived I checked in with the ticket counter and got our reserved tickets. This included a 40 minute movie of the life of William Randolph Hearst. We had about 15 minutes before the movie so we checked out the gift shop. Everything was way too expensive so we passed on buying anything. After the movie we had about 10 minutes to board the bus for the 5 mile ride to the top of the hill and the castle.

 

 

 

After the guided portion of the tour we were free to spend as much time on the hill as we wanted.  This is something new.  After Hearst Castle we headed up the coast a bit to check out the Elephant seal.

 

 

Landen got a kick out of watching them.  Then it was back down the coast to Morro Bay for lunch at Giovanni’s.  This is one of our favorite places for fish and chips.

 

While in Morro Bay we also stopped by our favorite salt water taffy shop.  Landen was like a kid in a candy shop…oh wait, he was a kid in a candy shop.  He bought close to a pound of candy.  Then we did the tourist shopping thing.  We finally got back to the motorhome about 3:30.  A full day of fun.  The weather on the coast was just perfect but here in Atascadero it is a bit warm, about 97 degrees.  I sure hope the dash air conditioner still works in the motorhome because tomorrow we start our inland journey back to Arizona.  I will break it up into 3 days of driving and the next 2 places have pools so Landen will have a chance to cool off.

Didn’t get there in time

Today we left Gilroy with little gas in the tank.  I planned to stop at a gas station about 30 miles down the road.  What I do when I know I will need to stop for fuel is look at the stations on Google Maps Satellite View and see how the station is arranged to see if I can get in and out with the motorhome with car attached.  This station was an easy in easy out.  Just as I was pulling up to the pump a guy was stringing yellow caution tape around the pumps.  He said they are closing the pumps for maintenance.  I begged him to wait a few minutes until I fill up but he wasn’t going for it.  I made my way over the Highway to the no name station on the other side to get enough gas to make it to another Chevron station.  Turns out the only exit of this station puts me right back on the highway…IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!  So I had to take the next exit, drive down the road for about a mile, then under the highway and back another mile to get back on the highway in the right direction.  Well we made it back here to Atascadero again.  We will be here for 2 nights so we can take Landen to the Hearst Castle tomorrow.  Today was Laundry day, Fun!  I just got the notice that I have used up my Data allowance for our Internet.  That means I am now on “Overage Charge”.  I think it will only be an additional $10 for the month so it’s not too bad.

Resting

 

 

Landen had one of the best weekends of his life.  We did about everything one can do at the track.  Yesterday we got garage passes and Landen got to see more drivers along with some of the NASCAR announcers and more signatures including Rick Hendrick, which is Jimmie’s team owner.
 

 

As we were roaming through the garage our daughter text us and said she saw us on TV.  We also got to see a first when one of the drivers went off track and his exhaust set the grass on fire.  Although Jimmie didn’t win he did well and Landen had a great time.  After the race they let us walk the track.  Then since we had to park so far away from the exits they let us drive the track to get to the other side so we didn’t have to drive all the way around.
 

Landen had a ball as I drove down the switchbacks and down the straight stretch right in front of where we were sitting.  Then we took the pit road to the track exit.  Although I was only going 40 MPH it was fun for us all.  I thought we had it made since there was no traffic turning in the direction we needed to go, until we got about 5 miles down the road and there is was.  Fortunately the traffic was turning off soon and we weren’t stuck too long.  It still took us about 1.5 hours to do the 15 minute drive though.  After we got back to the motorhome I discovered we had no hot water.  It only took me about 10 minutes to find the problem and we were back in hot water.

Well today I expected to wake to rain.  It didn’t happen.  All the weather reports over rated the rain that was coming.  We got a small sprinkle at the beginning of the race yesterday and there was 1 short rain caution during the first part of the race.  I haven’t seen any rain since.  So we made our way back south to Gilroy again.  This is another one nighter before we head south again.  This time I went around the east side of San Francisco.  MUSH BETTER!  We ran into some slow traffic but I can much better tolerate slow traffic than driving through San Francisco streets and traffic.  Other than the drive and having to do some shopping, this is a relaxing afternoon.

Tired

Sorry, I am too tired to post today.  Will update tomorrow evening.

OH MAN!

Our plan is to start traveling south Monday.  This is the weather forecast for Monday.

Atmospheric River Moisture Plume

 

 

Computer model forecast of the moisture plume stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast on Monday (yellow and orange shadings).

 

Of course this thing is heading right for us.  I guess this is one of the good things about only traveling 2 to 3 hours a day.  If it looks too bad Monday we will hang out here and do 5 hours broken up by lunch on Tuesday.  Unfortunately we have a schedule and have to move on.

 

So far this NASCAR experience has gone extremely well.  We are close to the track and the traffic has been light.  It only takes us 10 to 15 minutes to get back and forth. 

 

 

As you can see there are not many people here today.  However Sunday will be a different story.  Not much going on at the track today for us except for Sprint Cup Qualifying.

 

 

We did hang out over by the haulers for a while so Landen might get a look at some of the drivers.  Just happened that his favorite driver, Jimmie Johnson, came walking by.  Also he spotted Carl Edward.  He got Carl’s attention and gave him a wave and Carl waved back, made his day!  There was a NASCAR Pro Series West Race today.  We watched half of it but lost interest since we don’t know any of the drivers.  It was getting late and we were getting a bit more sun than we wanted so we decided to head back to the motorhome and rest up for tomorrow.

Track day Friday

We hit the track about 9:00 this morning.  Being only Friday the traffic was no issue.  We have some pretty good seats that overlook just about the whole track.

 

 

The rest of the stands are limited including the Grandstands.  For the final practice we sat in the Grandstands since there were not a lot of people there today and no one was checking tickets.

 

  

 

The only good thing about the grandstand is the upper seats are in the shade and they are right in front of the start/finish line and some of the pits.  Before they went out for practice we stood near the haulers and Landen got to see some drivers heading for the garages.  Landen had a great day and even after everything was over he didn’t want to leave.  We had to remind him that we got 2 more days.

Disappointment

This morning we took off for the Jelly Belly factory.  The factory is in Fairfield about an hour away but we took a detour through Napa for breakfast.  Susan and I have been to the factory 2 times prior to this.  A couple of years ago we came through here with Landen and toured the factory.  Unfortunately it was a weekend and the workers were off for the weekend so the factory was quiet.  It’s what they call a “Quiet Tour”.  I planned this time during the week so the factory would be active.  Wrong!  This is the time of year they stop production and do repairs and cleaning.  Not only was the tour a “Quiet Tour” but all the equipment was covered so there was even less to see this time.  I give up.

 

Every time we come to this Elks I have noticed a shop next door that appeared to be a race shop where they build and work on Porsche and Aston Martin Race cars.  I decided to check it out this time so Landen and I went over.  It turns out I was right.  This is the TRG shop, which stands for “The Racers Group”.  They race at Laguna Seca, Long Beach, 12 Hours of Sebring and others.  The team has posted the most wins of any in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 28, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championships; three wins in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and a single victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.  After asking if they gave shop tours they said, The shops through those doors.  Make yourself at home.  If you have and questions feel free to ask someone.  So Landen and I entered the shop. 

 

 

He spotted this NASCAR and asked about it.

 

They tried NASCAR for one season and decided to stick with the Aston Martins and Porsches.  We even got to checkout the inside of a race hauler.  This was a pretty cool experience for Landen.

Long busy day

This morning we drove into San Francisco.  Traffic not to bad.  We spent some time at Fisherman’s Warf than jumped on the boat to Alcatraz Island.

 

 

 

 

 

Landen especially enjoyed his time on Alcatraz because he has a Zombie game that takes place on the Island.  He said everything on the Island was just like in the game.  He was showing us around because he was already familiar with the place.  After a whole day in SF we fought the traffic out of town back to Petaluma.  Then after a short rest we jumped back in the can and headed to Rohnert Park (just north of Petaluma) for dinner.  We are now back in the Motorhome and ready for a good night rest.

Do nothing day

We had no plans today except laundry.  When we have to use a Laundromat, Susan will use about 5 washers and get the job done in a hurry.  While she was in doing laundry Landen and I were in the car listening to Metalica and Ozzy Ozborn.  After lunch Landen and I did a trial run to the NASCAR track.  It only took 10 minutes to get to the track and is literally down the street from us.  We played it cool and just drove past security into the track.
 

We checked out our seats and where we need to be for the garage tour then checked out the rest of the track.
 

It is smaller than I though and we got a good view of the whole track from our seats.

We got a pretty nice site here at the Petaluma Elks Lodge.

What a PIA

Today we are in Petaluma California.  We are now on the north side of San Francisco.  I didn’t want to deal with traffic so I decided to head for the coast and take California 1 up and over the Golden Gate Bridge.  What a dumb move.  Of course the coast route was closed when I got there so here I am with 55 feet total length trying to find my way around the narrow streets of SF not knowing where to go.  We made it with no real big problems but as I said, What a PIA.  Landen got a kick out of going over the Golden Gate Bridge and seeing Alcatraz Island. 

 

 

He took the pictures, I was too busy watching the road and traffic.  After I arrived I sat down and mapped out a route around San Francisco for the return trip.  I am willing to sit in a little slow bumper-to-bumper traffic rather than deal with narrow crowded streets.

 

I feel like we are back in Havasu with the wind.  It is blowing about 22 MPH with 26 MPH gusts, but it is only 70 degrees instead of 105.  The wind is supposed to blow for one more day then is should be good.

 

We are here for a week so we can settle in for a change.  Tomorrow we need to find a Laundromat and I need to wash the car.  Landen is happy that he can sleep in tomorrow and I am glad I don’t have to drive for 2+ hours.

 

We finally lost our local channels on our Satellite TV.  I was pretty amazed we had them all the way up to Gilroy.  There is cable here at the Elks Lodge in Petaluma but I used the cable input to rewire the motorhome for 2 satellite inputs for our DVR.

No blown fuses today!

We are now in Gilroy California, The Garlic Capitol of the World.  No really, that’s what they call it.  Next month is their big garlic festival.  Glad we won’t be here.

 

The drive was great.  No problems on this leg of the trip.  Came close to a problem though.  I never worry about driving under the canopy at the gas stations since most are plenty high.  As I was pulling into the station in Templeton the attendant came running out and pointing up.  I opened the window and he asked if I would fit.  I then noticed the 12’ sign and told him I would fit.  He watched as I slowly pulled in.

 

No problem, except the gas was $4.25 a gallon.  I had to laugh because the attendant asked if it I was going to pump over $10.  After I said it was going to be over $100 he said he would turn the pump on from inside.  This was good because I didn’t have to swipe my credit card several times to fill it.

 

This Elks Lodge is very nice.  It sits on top of a hill surrounded by a golf course. 

 

I am surprised that even though the lodge is on a hill and the parking lot is pretty steep, the RV sites are level.  In fact this is the first level site we have had since we started this journey.  I thought Susan was going to be out of luck with her NASCAR race today because we are in trees and it took me a while to finally find the signal.  I thought I read that where this lodge is supposed to have WIFI.  Wrong.  This is too bad because I found out that Landed has been playing his games online and has used half our allotted monthly usage in just 3 days.  Of course I put a stop on online game playing unless we are on another WIFI.

 

No wonder my body was tingling.  See the big tree behind our motorhome. 

 

 

It is of the Cellularus Towerus variety.  In other words…A Cell Tower.

 

 

 

This is the sign placed near it.  If I didn’t have cancer I will now after spending 20 hours under it.  Or maybe I will get lucky and the radiation will kill the cancer.

 

It’s nice to sit for a day and not have to chase down problems.  I am pleased though that even though the problems have affected the motorhome none of the problems have been with the motorhome.  Oh I forgot to mention that our Satellite receiver would not come on yesterday when we arrived.  Found out the plug fell out of the socket as we were traveling.

Another fuse

I found another blown fuse today.  After getting on the road today and getting up to speed I hit the Cruise Control and… Nothing.  I tried several times during the trip with a no go.  After arriving in Atascadero, CA I checked out a few things with no luck so I figured I will have to do the rest of the trip with no cruise.  I went about cleaning the motorhome, what a mess it was, all the time thinking about the cruise problem.  After getting the motorhome sparkly clean again I decided to check the brake light switch.  I depressed the brake pedal and it would not budge.  I mean it wouldn’t move an inch.  This is not good at all, I thought.  I started the engine and at least had brakes with the engine running.  Well at least I can still drive it.  See, my motorhome has an electric assist that operates the power brakes even if the engine is shut off (for safety).  With the engine off I can depress the brake pedal and hear a motor run which electrically gives me power brakes.  So I though, another blown fuse.  Sure enough I found it and all was well again.  But Why?  After looking through the schematics and giving it some though I realized both the brake problem and hydraulic leveler/slides problem had something to do with lights.  The hydraulic levelers/slides shares the same circuit as the turn signals, in case you were wondering (don't understand why).  Must be the car I am towing.  Before tearing the car apart I decided to check out the electric cable between the motorhome and the car.  Well that was it.  I found all the wires loose in the connectors and some of the clamping screws even fell out and were rattling around inside the connector (shorting wires as they did).  I even found a burnt spot on one of the wires as evidence.  The problems could have been a lot worse.  Glad that’s over!

 

The trip here was otherwise a good one.  I got a good idea of what towing an additional 800 lbs can do.  I climbed a 7% grade and was down to 40 mph in 3^rd gear.  I have never been reduced to less that 55 mph with my other car.  I still had acceleration but didn’t want to rev the engine too far.  The motorhome didn’t seem to mind the pull though.

 

We have full hookups at this Elks Lodge.  Tonight we are going to enjoy nice long showers since we have sewer hookups and don’t have to conserve.  We will have full hookups again in 2 days when we reach Petaluma, Ca.

Another travel day

Today we left Ontario, CA and made our way up the coast to Santa Barbara.  It was a better drive than I expected.  The traffic was not bad at all.  There was only a short time I was down to 35 and the rest was 50 to 65.  After backing in to our site here at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge I looked down to lower the jacks and saw no life in the panel.  It was completely dead.  That also means the slides will not work.  Not Good!  After not finding the correct fuse I called the Motorhome manufacturer to ask where the fuse was and they couldn’t tell me.  There only comment was just check all the fuses until you find a bad one.   It took me about 15 minutes to find the blow fuse and all was well again.  The only question now is Why did the fuse blow?  I have been through all the schematics and am more puzzled that before.  Things that were not supposed to be working with that fuse blown were.  I guess I will deal with it if it happens again.

Anyway, we are only here for one night again then our trek north continues.  I called ahead to see if there was a space available for tomorrow and they said there were about 4 spots open right now.  Hopefully there will be one for us tomorrow.  There are alternatives if not.

Movin on

Today we left Vista California and traveled a whole 75 miles up to Ontario.  I know it’s now very far but why be in a hurry.  We don’t have to be in Sonoma until the 21^st.  We are only going to be here for one night then we are on the road again.  Tomorrows drive will be about 2.5 hours, most of it in LA traffic.  I am not looking forward to that.

 

 

Today we went to the Bass Pro Shop in Rancho Cucamonga.  I thought we were at Disneyland when we pulled into the parking lot.  They have a very large parking lot and there was no place to park. 

 

 

While there Landen got a chance to do a little target practice.  He hit the target every time and even got a Bulls Eye.  The Motorhomes on both sides of us here at Ontario are from Arizona.  One is from Havasu and the other is from about 30 minutes north of Havasu.

We are back at it

We left Havasu at 8:00 this morning.  It was already 90 degrees and we anticipated getting out of the heat.  I took about 250 miles of driving to get out of the 100s.  It wasn’t until we left Beaumont, CA that we hit cooler temps.  Turns out it got to about 110 today in Havasu and supposed to be about 118 this weekend.  We are now in Vista, CA where it got to about 70.  We are on a 3 week trip.  We will be picking up our Grandson, as we do every summer, and heading up the coast to Sonoma for a NASCAR race.  Landen is so excited.  So far the trip has been a fixit trip.  We lost a hub cap somewhere along the way, the battery went dead in the car, our portable fan quit working, and Susan’s iron stopped working.  However the motorhome ran great and the dash air that I just recharged blew cold air the whole 100+ degree trip.

 

More later.

Last Hike

We went for our last hike of the season today.  The reason it is our last hike is because the Snakes Are Out.  Actually we quit hiking a couple of weeks ago but some of the hikers wanted to see if they could see a real live rattlesnake.  We really didn’t want to have any confrontation with snakes so we decided to hike the higher altitude in hopes it would be cooler and the snaked wouldn’t be out.

Well we didn’t get very far into the hike when I (not knowingly) stepped over this guy.

 

Yep a real live Diamond Back Rattlesnake.  I didn’t even know I stepped over him until the guy following me said snake!  He was about to place his walking stick when he realized he was about to place it right in the middle of this guy.  I turned and spotted him right away and noticed he was looking right at the guy behind me.  I said, “You might want to step back”.  It didn’t take long before the rest of the hikers were surrounding the snakes to get a look.  He was pretty lethargic since it is early in the season and they are just warming up.  Even after tossing a few rocks at him he barely lifted his head to see where they were coming from.  Never did rattle.  I didn’t really want to excite him too much in fear that he would try to retreat and since we had him surrounded there was no were to go besides through one of us.  At this point the hikers decided they saw what they came for and were ready to get out of there.