Dan and Susan's Excellent Adventure

Been real busy lately

2012-01-22T20:30:00.006-07:00

There is so much going on, it’s hard to keep up. The other day I went on another off road ride with the guys here in the park. Most have the Polaris Razors and those things are amazing. I can’t believe where these guys can go with these things. There were about 15 units this day and we did an all day, 80-mile ride. They asked me to go on another ride but it was a working day for me so I declined. After telling my boss I was invited he said, “Why didn’t you go, Riding is more important than working. Next time they ask, GO.” Cool boss and cool job.

Also this weekend was the second annual Havasu Balloon Festival. Fowl weather blew out the first one but this one was only interrupted one day and since they extended it a day it didn’t matter. We went 2 days and watched the mass assent and night balloon glow. Lots of venders and entertainment.

See more photos here.

This weekend we also squeezed in a short track race here at the Havasu 95 track and after that went over to the resort manager’s house for Pizza. It’s now quite NASCAR but cool to watch anyway.

Oh and amongst all that I even found time for a colonoscopy. I won’t go into details on that but all is clear.

We are activated

2012-01-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

So today, instead of taking the boat over to the California side of the lake, I decided to try going to the end of the island and see if I can pick up the Verizon tower across the lake. It worked. After my phone said I was on a Verizon tower I fired up the MiFi card and it activated within 10 minutes. We are back online with our MiFi.

Another trip to California

2012-01-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we are making another trip to California. No we are not taking the Saturn this time, nor are we taking the motorhome. We are traveling by boat. After talking to 7 different people at Verizon to get this new 4G MiFi card activation issue resolved, I finally got someone to help. Turns out I can’t activate the card here in Havasu because we are on an “extended network”. We need to be on the Verizon network on a Verizon tower. I suggested that to the prior 6 people but they said it didn’t matter. I figure if I can’t get my balance or update my roaming from here, then I surely can’t activate a Verizon device from here. So I got a couple of coupons out of the local paper and tomorrow Susan and I are going to take a free boat ride to the casino over on the California side of the lake where they have a Verizon tower. Hopefully from their we can activate the card and be good to go.

One step forward two steps back

2012-01-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

While I was at my daughter’s house over Christmas I noticed they had the new Verizon 4G MiFi card. Also they said their monthly bill is $50. I have the 3G MiFi (old school) and am paying $60 for my service. So I got on line a found that the same data service I am paying $60 for is offered for $50. The difference is the new plan charges extra for data over 5G whereas mine just throttles you back to a slower speed. Now since I never go over the 5G limit I decided to go for the $50 plan. Well what I found is the $50 plan is not compatible with my old 3G MiFi card so I will have to upgrade to the new 4G card. It turns out I am eligible for a free upgrade to the new card under my “New Every Two” plan so I placed the order. The card arrived today, Wahoo!

Here’s the rub, the new card won’t activate here in Havasu. I have been on the phone 2 times for a couple of hours and there is basically nothing they can do. They said to give it overnight to see if it will finally activate. If not they say I can reactivate my old card…that probably won’t work either. If all else fails I will take a drive to a strong Verizon area and try it there. Fortunately there are good Verizon areas near by.

2012-01-01T08:18:00.001-07:00

Back Home

2011-12-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

We are back in Havasu. What a nice trip. We spent time with our daughter, grandson, and I even got to see my sister. Our daughter’s house that has been under construction for over 5 years is really nice. They still have a lot to do on it but it is coming along nicely. The trip over and back was long and boring but went well. 5 ½ hours on the road is not what I like to do. Our friends here in Havasu fixed dinner tonight so we could just relax. It’s good to be back.

2011-12-25T10:43:00.001-07:00

We are here

2011-12-21T21:50:00.002-07:00

We made it to California today. We arrives at our daughters house about 1:00 pm their time. The trip went well even though I had a small space to sit compared to the motorhome.

The car was packed for the trip. I was real pleased though that the Saturn got 38.6 MPG. I guess it really likes highway driving.

All packed

2011-12-20T19:32:00.001-07:00

We are all packed and ready to go, to California that is. Only this time we are not taking the motorhome. We are going to spend Christmas with our daughter. They finally moved into the house that has been under construction for about 5 years and they have a spare room for us. We of course will be spending time with the grandson and will see Susan’s parents, since they moved back to California. I think the car has just as much stuff in it as we normally carry in the motorhome. Susan didn’t want to fight the crowds in California so she shopped here and we are hauling it all with us.

WHAT!

2011-12-13T18:51:00.004-07:00

Have you got a couple of hours to kill? You can find some pretty crazy stuff on the Internet. Check out this website I found by clicking on this photo. I guarantee you sill spend hours. It’s addicting.

Then scroll through the pages by clicking on the link at the bottom of each page.

Were still here

2011-12-07T20:25:00.006-07:00

I know, it’s been a while since I added a post to our blog. I have been working 2 days a week as maintenance and 3 nights as security here at the resort. What a cool job. It takes me less than a minute to walk to work (from my lot to the office) and I get to go home for lunch.

Susan’s parents decided the desert life wasn’t for them so we packed up their fifth-wheel and back to California they went. Before they left, her dad offered to traded golf carts so we traded my classic gasser for his more modern electric cart.

Who got the better end of that deal?

We also got a chance to see the last race of the season at our local short track. They will be starting up again in January so I am sure we will be heading out to the track for more then.

Short track racing.

Today I went on a 20 mile ATV ride. We trailered the machines down to Parker and headed for the hills from there. Some of the ride was calm but we got into some pretty hairy stuff.

The use of tow straps were needed and a lot of finesse in some spots. At times we were heading down the trails at close to 40 MPH. What a wild ride.

Here are a few photos, enjoy.

Getting ready to ride

One of the mines we came across. One was a turquoise mine.

Time for Lunch

Horse head canyon.

Came across an old grave site. I think it was one of the miners.

Where's everyone going?

Life in the desert. These are descendants from the burros used by the miners.

There are two sheds loaded with core samples taken from the mountains when they were building the water lines to supply water for Los Angeles.

2011-11-23T20:32:00.001-07:00

Hoping you and your family enjoy a fabulous day of food, fun and fellowship.

A Happy holidays and safe travels.

The hikes begin

2011-11-10T19:19:00.005-07:00

Each year one of the activities at the resort is hikes into the desert or around the lake. Today was the first for this season and we went to a place known as the “Crack in the wall”. This is a wash that is near the lake.

Here are some photos and you can see more on our photo site by clicking on the link in the left column.

Also the other day there was yet another car show here in Havasu.

Here are a couple of nice Novas.

These next ones have two V8 engines in line under the hood…and partially inside the car.

How’s a Pinto with a blown V6 grab ya.

Havasu Video

2011-11-08T20:24:00.003-07:00

A Best of the Road contest sponsored by Rand McNally combined with USA Today traveled across the country in search of the best small towns in America.

Lake Havasu City was mentioned in the "Friendliest" category behind Walla Walla, Washington.

I heard these guys liked the city so well they came back and booked a site here at the resort.

Lake Havasu City, AZ from Gone With the Wynns on Vimeo.

My toes hurt

2011-10-31T20:24:00.001-07:00

This new job is killing my toes. Well, actually it’s my shoes that are killing my toes. I can’t remember the last time I wore a pair of shoes. It’s been flip-flops for quite some time now. On the job I still wear my shorts and t-shirts but I figured I should wear shoes rather than flip-flops. My feet are not used to being cooped up in a pair of shoes and it feels like someone took a hammer to my big toes. I remember last year when the weather forced me into shoes my big toes ended up all bruised under the nails. This time I see no bruising but they sure do hurt.

The working man

2011-10-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

As I watched our manager here at the resort suffer through the summer trying to keep this place up by himself, I thought, it would be nice if they hired me to help out around here. My investments are down and I have gone into a conserve mode as far as spending so a little extra spending money would be nice. I help out around here a lot so why not get pain for it. So one day I asked the managers what they thought about hiring me. Well the other day while I was raking out the horseshoe pits the manager came over to me and asked if I was still interested in some work. After answering with “Sure” he said lets go into the office. I got hired on the spot. So now I am the new maintenance man for Havasu RV Resort. It’s just a part time gig and I can take time off to enjoy the activities here so that’s cool.

We had the big one

2011-10-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

The big car show in town that is. Each year Lake Havasu City’s Relics and Rods Car Clubs puts on the Run to the Sun car show. This year there were 782 entries in the show, of which 263 were Lake Havasu City residents. 132 car clubs participated from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming and 4 contenders from Canada. It is said that there are more classic cars per capita in Lake Havasu City than anywhere else in the country. Sure were some nice cars!

The resort here is filling up quite fast. There are a lot of owners, return visitors and pass troughs coming into the park every day now. It won’t be long before we are full again. Activities are starting back up and so are the cocktail parties. The weather has just been perfect during this transition between the hot summer and cool winter.

Mixed feelings

2011-10-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

So recently I called my Financial Advisor and suggested we sell some of my stocks and put the money in a cash account until the market starts to recover from this slump it is in. He agreed so the move took place. The mixed feelings come now when I see the market move in either direction. When the market is up I think I should have left my stocks alone, yet I’m happy because I still have some money in there. When the market is down I am glad I moved some money out of stocks, yet I am sad because I still have stocks that aren’t doing well. I guess the good thing is no matter where my money is it isn’t doing much for me right now. Did I just say that is a good thing? Huh.

It’s starting

2011-10-08T18:46:00.003-07:00

We are getting into the “Snow Bird” season here in Lake Havasu City so things are starting to happen. Today they had the Big Boys Toy Show downtown.

Above is a photo of one of the Big Boy Toys…or should I say a Big Toy. This is an example of what was at the show.

After the BBTS I headed out to the Island where they were in the final stages of the 30th Annual IJSBA World Finals.

This is an International Jet Sport Boat Association competition where Jet Skiers from all over the world come to compete. There is also a race tonight at the Speedway in town but we will not be seeing that this time.

Hey I fixed the Stock Market

2011-10-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

I got sick of seeing my investments going away day after day as the Market continues to drop so I gave my financial advisor a call. We discussed the situation and both agreed the best thing to do right now is to dump at least half my stocks and put the money in a cash account for now. And when he sees some opportunities he would move some money back in. Well as soon as I did that the market turned around and has been up for the last three days so I guess I fixed the Market. I at least still have the other half in there working for me

I found a real gas tank for my golf cart. I posted a message on one of the golf cart forums on the internet and got a response. After communicating with the guy we settled on a price and he sent it out. I received it today but have to make a couple of minor modes since it is for a different year. Tomorrow I should have it all back together and ready to move on to the next project. I’ve got to say though, the gas can mod worked quite well in the mean time. I have been driving it around for close to 2 weeks with the gas can in there.

It’s that time of year again

2011-10-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I was awakened to the sound of a mouse in the house. This morning I cleaned up the traps, loaded them up with peanut butter, set them and put them in place. It didn’t take long. Shortly after sunset we heard the snap. Sure enough, we got one. The trap is reset and ready for the next one.

Desperate measures

2011-09-24T20:56:00.001-07:00

Since I have been having such a tough time finding a gas tank for my golf cart I decided to improvise.

I know I got too much time on my hands. Well I pulled out my little 2 gallon gas can and it fits pretty well. When I need gas I just slip the hose out of the gas can and head on down to the gas station to fill it up. Susan asked if it works and my reply was, “I don’t know. I haven’t got any gas yet.” This is just temporary until I get a real replacement.

Still here

2011-09-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

Wow has it been over 10 days? Not much going on here lately. I am still looking for a gas tank for our golf cart, can’t believe it is so difficult to find a used gas tank for this thing. I need to get on the ball since people are coming back soon and I will have to give up the carts I am taking care of for the summer.

The managers went on vacation and I agreed to help out here if anything that the workampers can’t handle needs attention. Well, the security gate crapped out and I had to fix that. Then it crapped out again so I just opened it up and shut it down until the managers get back. The pool guy decided to fire up the pool heater for the winter and it wouldn’t stay lit so I got involved with that. That was a matter of calling the manufacturer since it is still under warranty. They sent a repair guy out and he was an idiot. I had to call him back 2 more times and it still doesn’t work. I wish I could fix it myself but don’t want to void the warranty.

People are starting to trickle in for the winter here at the resort. Soon this place will be busy again. It has been a quiet summer.

OH GROSS!

2011-09-08T16:28:00.002-07:00

One of the things I really dislike about working on vehicles is the smell of 90 weight gear oil. This is what I have in my front wheel hubs that keep leaking. Well today I got to know what 90 weight gear oil taste like. I decided to remove some of the oil in my leaking hub thinking it was over filled and may be contributing to the leak. The only way I can do this without jacking up the motorhome and rotating the wheel so that the drain plug is at the bottom is to suck the oil out. So I got a bit of tubing, removed the drain plug, stuck it in and started to suck. Now this is one thing they tell you NOT to do but every mechanic has done it. Well I sucked a little too hard and got a bit of the oil in my mouth.

My senses were shocked with the smell and taste of the oil. I tried spitting it out but 90 weight oil is some thick stuff. I tried water. I even tried a mouth full of Hydrogen Peroxide and sloshed it around. Then I tried Pepsi. I figured if it will remove acid from batteries it might remove oil from my mouth. Ever try gargling with Pepsi? That actually helped a bit. I still have a nasty taste in my mouth but it is going away.

In your face California

2011-09-06T20:19:00.001-07:00

I have mentioned a number of times about the heat here in Havasu this summer but today it was actually hotter in Southern California than it was here. We had a nice low 90s day with cloudy skies and a few drizzles throughout the day. Other than the humidity it was a really nice day. California was seeing high 90s along the coast to over 100 inland today.

Is it fixed

2011-09-01T20:39:00.005-07:00

Today we ran our home into the shop to get the leaking seal replaced…again…for the 4th time. I also had them take a look at the dash A/C system. The compressor has been making a rattley noise and I was afraid it might seize up and toss a belt, and since I drive across the deserts, this would not be good. First the seal. They found the hub it mounts into was out of round so after installing a new seal they gooped silicone around it to keep it from leaking. Sounds kind of “Mickey Mouse” but I feel it is acceptable. Time will tell. I took it for a 30 mile test drive and all looks dry so far. Well dry on the inside. I pulled the hub cap to check the oil level in the hub and it appears they over filled it and there is oil on the outside now.

Note the Minimum Oil Level circle and where the level actually is.

I will drain some and clean it all up tomorrow. As far as the A/C, everything worked well, except when I was setting up on our lot I left it idling and I heard a sound that sounded like a pressure relief valve going off for a few seconds and there is what looks like compressor oil on the engine. Another reason I took it for the test drive is because I wanted to check my shroud replacement. Everything was great there. Of course, I did that myself.

Where are my followers

2011-08-26T20:23:00.001-07:00

Not sure if you noticed but in the right hand column there is a heading called Followers but nothing shows up under it. This doesn’t mean I have no followers. This is a Blogger software glitch. I actually have 12 followers. I can’t even see them when I go into my account. Hopefully they will figure it out soon.

Job done!

2011-08-25T17:05:00.003-07:00

What a PITA. The old upper shroud came out fairly easy since it was mostly missing and flexible. The new upper shroud being complete and stiffer was a real pain to get up in there. I tried the driver side. I tried the passenger side. I tried going between the wheel wells and the frame. Finally I had to disconnect the tube from the throttle body and the PCM/TCM assembly and push, yank, and bend. Finally it slid into place without further damage to the radiator. The lower was a bit tricky but a lot easier. After that everything bolted up without too much trouble. It wasn’t too easy to get to the 3 top mount bolts but do able. I hit the key and it started right up, and no warning lights came on so I guess I didn’t break anything or knock anything loose. My arms and hands look like I got into a fight with a wildcat though.

Before I started the job this morning I took the time to straighten the radiator fins that were bent when the shroud got shredded. There wasn’t too many of them fortunately. Then I got out the hose and shot some water through the backside of the radiator. I was surprised at the junk that came out. Looks like it might have been more pieces of the fan shroud. I still need to run it into the shop to have them look at the leaky front wheel seal again so when I do I will take it for a run up some hills here in the Arizona heat and see if it stays cool.

Now on to the next project.

I added more pictures to the photo site..

Shroud replacement

2011-08-24T15:55:00.002-07:00

Well they wanted about $200 labor so I decided to attempt the shroud replacement on the motorhome myself. I figured I would start with removing the old one and see how that goes. Not too bad. The shroud is out and I started cleaning everything up until I was soaked in sweat. I decided to give it up for a day since it was 110 outside and I am not going anywhere for a while. Here is a link to the photos
I went to order the shroud this afternoon and they actually had them in stock. They say they have replaced a lot of them. I am a little concerned though. The new shroud is an exact match with numerous improvements. I added some photos of the new shroud to the photo site (link above). My concern is the new shroud is much stiffer than the original, which means it might be more difficult to get it back in since I had to flex the old one to get it out. I was able to get the old one out (upper and lower) from the bottom without removing anything.

They sure want a lot for 2 pieces of molded plastic. I have a price list that lists the upper at $14.04 and lower at $13.53. Apparently these are wholesale prices because I paid $42.78 each, $95.31 total with tax and $2.87 for some hardware.

No more whining

2011-08-23T16:03:00.001-07:00

My Saturn had developed a whine. At first it wasn’t too bad so I just ignored it. But of course it got louder. I did some investigating and found that it was coming from the idler pulley. This is a somewhat common thing for these Saturns. In fact there is even a video on how to replace the pulley on Youtube. I figured it would get a lot worse before it downright fails so I mostly ignored it. The last couple of months here in Havasu have been so hot that when in the car we have the AC running with the fan on high so it mostly drowns out the whine. While in California I could really hear it since we didn’t run the air on high. Even my daughter’s husband asked what the noise was. So I figured it’s time to fix it. Yesterday I bought the part but by then it was afternoon and 110 here in Havasu so I really didn’t feel much like fooling around under the hood of the car. This morning while it was still only 90 I brought out the tools. It took me less than an hour and the whine is gone.

Back in Havasu

2011-08-20T20:07:00.002-07:00

We arrived back in Havasu today but now without mishaps. We were traveling through the California Desert when my cooling fan decided to suck the fan shroud in, chew it up and spit it out. Suddenly we heard a WAM then a high speed buzz and had no idea what it was. I immediately pulled over, took a quick glance at all the gauges (which were normal) and shut it down. I first thought I threw a belt because my AC compressor has been making an odd sound lately. I thought it froze up and threw the belt. On first inspection I noticed the belt was still there and in good shape. I looked around and was at a loss. Then I started it up again and gave it a few revs of the accelerator. That’s when I noticed the fan sucking in the shroud, which on closer inspection was missing a few chunks.

So I assessed the situation and found if I drill a hole in what’s left of the shroud I could tie wrap it out of the way. Back on the road for a test run proved it wasn’t completely secured so I found a safer place to pull over and shimmied under again with drill and tie wraps in hand. Back on the road and no more shroud eating fan. However not all was well. Since the shroud was munched the fan was sucking air around the shroud instead of through the radiator so it ran a bit hotter than normal. I kept an eye on it for the next 3 hours and managed to get back to the resort in Havasu. Fortunately the pieces of shroud didn’t punch through the radiator or AC condenser so it looks like no major damage was done. I will probably replace the shroud myself but I still need to take it into the shop because the front wheel oil seal is leaking again…for the third time. I will have them check out the air conditioner while it’s there too.

Left Disney

2011-08-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

We left Disneyland (Garden Grove) this morning and are now at our Daughters house in Encinitas California parked in their driveway. We dropped off our grandson at his dads this afternoon, sad, and tomorrow morning we head back to Havasu. We are not really looking forward to going back to the 100+ temperatures but Susan wants to get back and help her parents with a few things. It should only be another month of heat before it gets better.

Disneyland

2011-08-17T21:22:00.003-07:00

We arrived in Garden Grove California yesterday. We are here to take the Grandson to Disneyland before we drop him off back at his dad’s for school. We spent 14 hours at Disneyland today and are going back tomorrow.

Our daughter is driving up from San Diego tomorrow in the morning to go with us. We bought a 3 day Park Hopper pass that lets go between Disneyland and California Adventure. Our daughter bought the tickets under a Southern California resident discount since we are now Zoners (Arizonians). We are only going 2 days but the 3 day discount passes were cheaper than a regulator 2 day pass.

Strange sighting

2011-08-11T20:50:00.003-07:00

Landen and I went to the lake the other day for a day at the beach.

While he was playing in the water with his newfound friend I spotted this strange contraption.

What the heck is it? Looks like a water tractor. It has paddle wheels for propulsion. Turns out it is basically a lawn mower. He was cruising up and down the channel cleaning the grass that grows on the bottom. What a cool job…well not so cool since the temperature is still over 100 everyday. Even though it has been hot the weather has been fairly comfortable since the monsoons have stayed away and the humidity is low. With a breeze, it is tolerable.
We are getting ready to head out on Tuesday. Landen has to get back to California to go back to school. We tried to enroll him in school here but his Father wouldn’t allow it. Since we didn’t go anywhere this summer we are going to head over to Disneyland for a couple of days before dropping him off at his dads.

I knew that would happen

2011-08-04T21:44:00.001-07:00

Today since it was about 110 degrees and 30% humidity I decided it was a good day to stay inside and search for the best online quote on Arizona auto insurance. Since they all require an address I know I will be getting tons of junk mail. Also they all required an email address so I was expecting tons of Junk Email. Also some required a phone number. Just after the first online quote I get a phone call from an agent. I politely told him, if I wanted to talk to an agent I would have called for a quote. Then the next call came in and I wasn’t so pleasant with this one. Then the next call, this one I just let go to voice mail. Finally I got smarter and started giving phony phone numbers. Of course my email box filled up real fast but that is OK because I want a record of the quotes anyway. I will either request to unsubscribe later or just block them. I’m not too worried about the junk mail because I got a cure that seems to work well. If they send me a post paid return envelope I write, “Please remove from mail list” on the order form and return it using their postage.

Leaks leaks and more leaks

2011-08-02T19:15:00.002-07:00

Found another leak yesterday. I was under the motorhome changing the oil when I looker over at the right front wheel. There was axel oil leaking from the bearing down through the brake disk and onto the tire.

This is the same leak that I have had “fixed” 3 times now. The latest was just before I parked it here on our lot 4 months ago. Right now it is not leaking very bad and we have a 600 mile trip planed in 2 weeks so I will keep an eye on it and get it fixed again when we get back. And of course there was the toilet and gas tank leaks. The toilet seems to be the only one that is fixed.

Didn’t save any money there. I am referring to changing our vehicle registration from California to Arizona. You would think I would save a bundle and that was what I thought, especially when she first told me the cost of the Saturn. For about the same cost as 1 year in California I got 5 years in Arizona. Then she told me the cost of the motorhome. It was double for 1 year. So I saved $50 per year on the Saturn and paid $200 more on the motorhome. Not such a good deal. However I was reading on the California DMV site where they are going to raise the fee on my motorhome to the tune of $520 so I guess it’s all good. At least I don’t have to get a smog test on either anymore.

So why would you pay over $30 for print cartridges when you can get a printer for less than $30? My printer has been acting up lately and I figured it might just be the inexpensive refilled ink cartridges that I bought. They worked for a short while then quit. I don’t use the printer often and they may have plugged with dry ink. I considered buying new cartridges to see if it would work but even though the printer still worked it wasn’t 100% compatible with Windows Vista anymore. So I started looking at new printers. I found a Canon printer for $28, less than the cost of print cartridges. So I think in the future, when I am ready for print cartridges, I will look at new printers. The only problem is what will I do with the stack of old printers.

Failed again

2011-07-31T21:07:00.001-07:00

The tank patch failed again. I am getting pretty good at taking the cart apart. As I stated before, in order to remove the gas tank I have to remove the entire rear body. This involves removing 8 bolts to remove the roof, 6 bolts to remove the seat assembly, 2 clamps to remove the motor air intake, 2 bolts to remove the battery, 4 bolts to remove the shifter assembly, and 4 bolts to remove the body. Now I can remove the, 3 bolts securing the gas tank, and now I can finally remove the gas tank. I can actually get all this accomplished in about 20 minutes. I think this tank is hopeless.

Patch #3

2011-07-27T19:45:00.003-07:00

I finally got pictures of the gas tank the guy wanted to sell me. It looks worse than mine. Well I guess it doesn’t leak. Today I had another idea. I called all the golf courses in town to see if they had any parts carts that they could pull a tank out of. Nope! I sealed the crack in mine a while back with a soldering iron but it’s just a surface seal so I decided to get some JB Waterweld and attempt to reinforce it. This time I applied it to the inside and outside of the crack.

Since it is only a reinforcement and not necessarily a patch maybe it will hold. At least until I can find a suitable replacement.

Unbelievable search

2011-07-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

I just can’t believe that my search for a used gas tank for my golf cart is so difficult. I have checked all the local golf shops, golf cart forums, craigslist, and internet search engines. I found one through a golf cart forums but that seems to have turned into a dead end. I recently found one by searching ebay’s completed auctions that didn’t sell. I emailed the seller and he still had it. I made him an offer and made me a counter offer. I called him today to get more details and after agreeing to purchase he raised the price. So I turned him down.

Laughlin

2011-07-23T20:26:00.003-07:00

We took a cruise over to Laughlin Nevada today, just for something to do.

Landen has been bugging us to take him there even though we told him it was a gambling town and there is nothing for him to do there.

Well we were wrong. Every casino has a game room for the kids too.

On the way through Bullhead City AZ I spotted a used golf cart shop and stopped in to see if they might have a gas tank. They did but it had a hole in it. I just can’t believe I can’t find a used gas tank anywhere. The guy in Illinois that said he would sell me one has not gotten back to me in a few days. I’ve just about written him off.

Sprinkler Day

2011-07-23T08:31:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was Sprinkler Day in the park. This is the second time they have done this. At 12:00p they turned the sprinklers on for an hour and let everyone play in the water.

Landen had a ball and after that he jumped in the lake for a while. This was refreshing since the temp today was about 106.

We almost didn’t make it to Sprinkler Day though. I was in the bathroom smearing myself with sunscreen when I heard water spraying. I looked down and the bathroom floor was filling with water. The water valve in the toiled decided to crack right then. Good thing I was standing there because otherwise it would have filled the motorhome before someone noticed it. With both roof airs going, you just don’t hear things like that. Well anyway, someone had given me a valve a few years back so I dug it out. Unfortunately that one was about to crack in the same spot so off to the parts store I went.

When I got back it was about ½ hour before sprinkler time so I plugged the water line to the toilet, turned the water back on and told Susan I will put it all back together when we get back. A few months ago I replaced the flush valve so now I got all new parts in the toilet.

Not as easy as it looks

2011-07-19T18:59:00.001-07:00

The heat gun thing was not as easy as it looked on TV. I decided to go ahead and buy a heat gun and attempt to melt the crack back together. I started with low heat and nothing was happening so I switched it to high. On high the tank started folding in on itself and the crack not only got wider but new cracks started to open up. They gave me no problem taking the heat gun back and giving me a refund. I finally got out my soldering iron. That worked pretty well but smoothing over the cracks only made a surface patch and I really don’t think it is strong enough to hold. I did put some gas in and it held pretty well. I was thinking about reinforcing it with some JB Weld (Waterweld putty). But then I posted another want ad on a golf cart site for a used tank and this time I got a response. Someone in Illinois has one he is offering to sell me for a good price. I inquired as to year and condition before I make the purchase. Hopefully it will work for me and I can get this job done.

Good thing our friends left plenty of carts and cars for us to use while they are gone for the summer. The only problem with that is, their carts are much nicer than ours and Susan is getting spoiled driving them around. She is going to have a hard time going back to our classic.

Getting kind of tired of this

2011-07-17T21:07:00.002-07:00

The second attempt to patch the gas tank has failed. I did an overnight test (like I did the first time) for leaks before putting everything back together. The next morning, it was leaking. I didn’t even get a chance to put it in the cart this time. I have decided that I need to weld it back together. This seems to be the only, and correct way, to fix this thing. I was watching a car show this morning. They were doing a modification on a truck and had to mod the coolant overflow tank. They cut a portion out and welded it back together with a heat gun. Man, they make it look so easy so I decided this is what I will do. Now I found that locating a heat gun is just about as difficult as finding glue that will stick to polypropylene or finding a used gas tank. If I knew for sure I could fix it this way I would spend the $25 for a heat gun. Possibly I will buy the gun and give it a try. If it works, I will keep it and consider it a $25 repair. If it doesn’t work I will take the gun back and get a refund. I would also like to find some filler to add to the joint for added security. I was hoping to use something on hand like a milk jug or plastic water bottle but I found they are made of Polyethylene. It is best to use similar plastics. It’s amazing how much knowledge you can gain on something you will probably never do again.

Second attempt

2011-07-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

I pulled the golf cart apart again today in a second attempt to repair the gas tank. I considered getting out my soldering iron and attempting to weld the crack shut but I am afraid of making it worse. I think I will leave that as a last resort. This time I will try Seal-All. This stuff is good for use with gasoline and they say it will repair gas tanks. The problem is gas tanks are made of different materials and mine is polypropylene. There is not much that will stick to polypropylene. I figured since it dries flexible, it has a better chance than the ridged gorilla glue I used the first time.

Fixed that too

2011-07-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

For as long as I can remember the heater/ac fan in the Saturn has been a bit noisy, especially on high. I just figured that’s the way they are. Well we went out to dinner tonight and after leaving the restaurant, I jumped in the car, started it up, and it sounded like a card in the bicycle spokes. All the way home I was thinking, this is going to be a pain to get to. When we got home, I lifted the hood…No the fan doesn’t go through the firewall…Must be on the inside. I opened the passenger side door and contorted myself to take a peak under the dash. WOW! There it is! Three screws and it will drop right out. So off to the toolbox I went. I grabbed my nut driver handle and a hand full of metric sockets and headed back to the car. WHAT! Not metric! Back to the toolbox I headed. Finally after lying on my back on the floor I had the fan in my hand. One parking ticked and lots of sticks and leaves. After I put it all back together I switched on the key and thought, I must have forgot to hook something back up…wait, it is running. Man that thing is nice and quiet now.

Earlier today we headed over to Bullhead City with the in-laws to do some shopping at Sam’s club. That storm I took pictures of last night went right through there and there was still small lakes all alongside the roads from the standing water. They got a lot of water out of that storm. After returning home I realized I still had the windows up in the Saturn so I rolled…huh, who “roles” a window down now a days…anyway, I “rolled” them down a bit. A few minutes later I was sitting under the awning enjoying this cooler day then past few when I heard a noise. Took me a minute to realize it was raindrops hitting the awning. So up the windows went again. Five minutes later you wouldn’t even know it ever rained. Everything dried up very quickly. You just don’t know around here.

Not again

2011-07-10T21:31:00.002-07:00

I thought it was over. The weather report said we were done with the thunderstorms. So today I spent a couple of hours cleaning up all our patio stuff. I washed and polished the BBQ, cleaned the table and chairs and cleaned the patio set including the cushions. Then this rolled in tonight.

It mostly went around us but we did get some raindrops out of it. Hopefully since I got the dirt and dust off of everything there should be no spotting.

One more time

2011-07-09T20:21:00.003-07:00

This should be the last of the thunderstorms and the humidity for a while.

We are surrounded again buy thunderclouds. It is supposed to move out tonight and start drying tomorrow. I am a bit tired of the humidity. I don’t mind sitting in the heat but when I start to sweat just sitting…that’s not good. It’s actually supposed to be a bit cooler tomorrow than it has been for the last couple of days. It’s only supposed to get a tad over 100.

Well the cart gas tank has started leaking again. The patch is holding somewhat since the leak is only seepage. Not even enough to drip on the ground before drying up but enough that I can smell gas. I am hoping it will hold long enough to run this tank dry, and then I will pull the tank again. I think this time I will do a little plastic welding with my soldering iron and then go over it with either Seal-All or JB Weld to seal it.

Landen and I tried to go into the pool today but after a minute or so we were driven out by the 90 degree water. We ended up going over to the second pool here at the resort. That one was only about 85. What a difference 5 degrees can make. We missed sprinkler day at the park here in Havasu Friday. I didn’t read about it until Friday night. This is where they turn on all the sprinklers in the park for an hour and let everyone run through them. Landen would have had a ball with that. There will be another one in 2 weeks though.

WOW! Not again

2011-07-06T20:41:00.001-07:00

We had another hell of a Monsoon storm last night. It woke me from my sleep around midnight. This one was worse than the one Sunday night. By looking at the clouds all around us last evening I knew we had a good chance of getting something so I secured everything before turning in for the night. The winds were clocked at 70 MPH. Even though I thought I had everything battened down, I didn’t expect that kind of wind. Things started moving around outside so I went out to secure them even more. I could barely get out the door because the wind was blowing it shut. Then the lightning and rain started. Rain hitting me at 70 MPH hurts. It felt like hundreds of needles poking me. I had to make a few trips out to secure stuff because even thought I thought I had it secured I under estimated the wind. Landen was enjoying the show for a while but then started getting a little worried. It was crazy. There were at least 3 trees down in the resort and a few roof shingles missing from some park models. We faired OK this time. There are more to come.

I didn’t want to say anything until I found out for sure but it looks like I may have dodged a bullet for now. About a month ago Susan and I had our blood test done and I had an elevated PSA. An elevated PSA is an indication of the possibility of Prostate Cancer. I made an appointment with a urologist and was thinking the worst. The Dr wanted to rule out all other possibilities before doing a biopsy so he put me on 2 weeks of antibiotics among other things. Then I did what is called a Percent of Free PSA Test. This measures the percent of free PSA (not bound to a protein) in relationship to total PSA. This test indicated I am at a 24% risk of having the cancer. My Dr says he looks at it as a 76% chance I don’t have cancer and feels that this and the fact that my PSA went down that it’s worth waiting and rechecking in another 3 months. He says as long as my PSA doesn’t go back up that I am good. After getting my good news I got an email that a friend lost his battle with cancer on the 4th.

Weather change

2011-07-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

The weather has changed around here. The other day the monsoons showed up. It is a bit early in the season but nothing is normal this year. We were sitting inside the motorhome Sunday evening and around 9:30p the motorhome started shaking. Being a California guy I thought it was an earthquake, then I remembered we are in Arizona. I went outside and could hardly stand up. The wind was gusting about 50 MPH. I started securing everything so it won’t blow away then went around and checked on our neighbor’s lots. Then the lightning came, then the rain about midnight. The next morning, I took the golf cart for a ride around the resort to check for damage. Surprising, things were looking pretty good. I think people have learned from the past and are securing their lots more when they leave. The weather is still very humid and with the heat you can’t do much before you are drenched. This is supposed to last through the week with the temp getting hotter and hotter each day.

Hot and muggy

2011-07-03T20:47:00.002-07:00

Well as you know it has been hot here. Today the humidity came around due to some early thunderstorms in the area. There really is a difference between dry heat and humid heat. One thing that doesn’t change though, no matter what the weather is, it’s always the same when you are in the pool.

Landen went out today with the bug box he recently built. After a while he came back and said he caught something. He reached inside his bug box and pulled out this guy.

That’s right he is as flat as a piece of paper. I asked where he found him and he said under the leg of the rocking chair. HA! That explains why he is so thin.

Still holding

2011-07-01T21:06:00.001-07:00

I went down and got another 2 gallons of gas for the cart today. Seem to be holding so far. While out we picked up a few fireworks. Of course Landen wanted to fire them all off tonight. I let him do a few and we will save the rest for the 4th.

Actually the law in Havasu permits only ground fireworks like fountains, sparklers, and showers of sparks, but nothing that shoot into the air. And the law says they are only to be fired off on the 4th…Oops, we broke the law. We had to take Papa’s Convertible (the half assembled golf cart) and drive outside the resort because they are not allowed here. For cheap fireworks he had a ball. We did saved some for the 4th.

A cool day

2011-06-30T16:31:00.004-07:00

Well if you can call 100 degrees cool. We woke this morning and actually turned off all the air conditioners. It was only about 79 degrees. I figured this was a good opportunity to pull the shrouds off the air conditioners and clean them out.

Since the rear air has been running non stop for a couple of days and we tend to use this one more, it was the worse. Everything went well and cleaned up real good. I used my shop-vac with a brush attachment and my air compressor and got all the dust out of the evaporators and condensers and cleaned the fans and filters too. We are good to go on the airs for about another year now.

I added some gas to the golf cart tank last night to see if it would hold over night. This morning it was nice and dry. Looks like the patch is holding so far although I just don’t have too much confidence in the glue I used. I installed the tank in the cart, mounted the body and took it out for a ride. I call it my convertible right now since I haven’t added the roof or seat backs yet.

Looks pretty cool.

After I got back from the test drive I looked under the cart for a gas drips. OH NO! No gas but battery acid was dripping on my drive. I did a real dumb thing and I should know better. I cleaned up the battery and topped it off while it was out of the cart. Well I added too much water and since the cart has a high output generator the water was boiling out of the battery. What a mess, and one that is not fun to clean up since it is acid. I got out the box of baking soda and made up a mixture with water and started washing everything down with a paintbrush. I dumped quite a bit of water out of the battery and cleaned that up too. I then took the convertible out for another test drive and everything was good. I found out one good thing though, Iron Out does a good job of cleaning battery acid off the concrete. I have used it for rust stains and it works pretty good. Well so far no gas leaks. I tested a piece of cured glue and the gas didn’t melt it but I think it might eventually break the bond with the tank.

Glue inside tank

Since I was able to draw some glue inside the tank with vacuum I might be OK. Time will tell.

Ugly

2011-06-28T19:07:00.002-07:00

I tore into the cart this morning before it got too hot, however it didn’t take long before the temp climbed to 110 degrees. It actually doesn’t take long to pull the body. I think I had it done within 20 minutes. Landen helped me lift the body off once I got all the bolts our.

Before

After

After pulling the tank I cleaned it up and sure enough… there was the leak, a crack on the bottom about 8 inches long. Actually it was only leaking from about 2 inches of the crack. Last night I tested a dab of some Gorilla Glue I had on the tank and this morning it looked pretty good and seemed to stick to the tank well. So today I smeared Gorilla Glue down the whole length of the crack. Then I got the bright idea to stick my Shop-Vac in the filler hole and draw a vacuum on the tank in hopes to suck the glue into the crack. I know, Shop-Vac and gasoline doesn’t sound too safe but the tank was clean and dry. This actually worked out pretty well because when I vacuumed the tank it collapsed a bit and really opened up the crack so I was able to add more glue inside the crack.

It looks pretty ugly but, hey, if it works who cares. It’s not visible when installed anyway. After doing a little more research I wish I had used Seal-All instead of Gorilla Glue. Seal-All is more for sealing where as Gorilla Glue is for gluing parts together. Seal-All says it is impervious to gasoline and is good for sealing gas tanks. I have used Seal-All for plumbing leaks and it worked well. Well if the Gorilla Glue starts to leak I will give Seal-All a try next time. If that don’t do it I will get out my soldering iron and try my luck at plastic welding.

More things to fix

2011-06-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

After going outside this morning I noticed a strong smell of gasoline. What now, I though. Looking under the gold cart I found the source, a puddle of gas. Apparently the gas tank sprung a leak. After finding out a new tank will cost over $200, I started researching a fix. Seems nothing sticks to Polypropylene, which is the material the tank is made of. I did some research online and found a number of people that successfully patched theirs by smearing different types of glues or epoxies on them. I guess you can’t really securely stick anything to polypropylene but maybe a leak can be fixed by adding a layer of glue, at least for a while. I think I will have to give it a try. In order to fix it I have to remove the tank. In order to remove the tank I have to remove the body. Fortunately it really isn’t a major job, but in 100+ degree heat it might be a bit uncomfortable.

And it just gets hotter

2011-06-22T20:36:00.003-07:00

After the cool winter we had, and the month of May being just great, I was hoping for a mild summer. Unfortunately it is above average so far. Next time you are watching the news, pay attention to the weather map when they show the temperatures around the country. Arizona is the hottest. With both air conditioners running we manage to keep it comfortable inside the motorhome, except when Susan starts cooking, then it gets a bit warm. We have been trying to do most of the cooking outside.

Couple of new additions, after 7 years I finally had to have a new patio awning installed.

The original was just worn out. We do use it a lot. Also our front windshield cover finally had enough sun.

Before

After

It used to be bright white. I elected to go with gray this time. Next on the list is new upholstery and carpet.

No he really isn’t a big as he looks. There are a couple of these guys that hang around my patio. They are not afraid of us at all. They come running over to me and I can just reach down and pick them up. I guess they know I won’t do them any harm.

Jimmie sighting

2011-06-20T20:56:00.002-07:00

I saw Jimmie Johnson (Susan’s favorite NASCAR driver) Fly over the resort here today. I didn’t know at the time who it was however but I heard a jet flying over and looked up to see what it was. This is not too uncommon but it always catches our attention when one goes over. Later this afternoon we heard the roar of a jet take off from the airport. A while later Susan was on the computer and found out that Jimmie was at the Lowe’s just around the corner from us. It must of just been a private appearance for the Lowe’s employees because there was no advertisement and a search on Google comes up with nothing. The way she found out is one of her friends saw his post on Facebook and emailed her about it. Susan and Landen were bummed that they missed him.

I know, it’s been a while

2011-06-15T21:24:00.004-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted anything to our Blog. Since we are not traveling this summer, there is not much exciting going on. As you can see in these photos, it is starting to get hot.

Monday

Tuesday

Today

At about 10:00a this morning it was already 100 degrees. I still manage to do my morning walks before the heat climbs but I stopped my evening walks since it doesn’t drop below 100 until about 9:00p. I tried the treadmill in the gym but it aint the same. Last night we had to run the air all through the night, it’s getting to that point.

Landen has been having a good time.

We head for the pool every day to keep cool. Sure is nice having a pool right out our front yard. I bought Landen a project from Lowes the other day. He really enjoyed using Papa’s tools to build his Bug Box, especially the power ones.

Since we really don’t have many bugs here he has been using it for a house for his Legos.

He really has an imagination when playing with his legos.

Just a few million

2011-05-29T20:18:00.004-07:00

Ever wonder what a few million dollars looks like?

Well here ya go.

A shot of the Channel at Lake Havasu.

Let the fun begin

2011-05-28T21:02:00.009-07:00

Memorial weekend is the big summer kickoff here in Havasu. Today Landen and I headed down to the channel to see the craziness and there was no shortage of it. First of all it took me about an hour to find a place to park. It was one of those, keep driving around the parking lots until someone decides to leaving. We finally got lucky and got a spot close to the action, right next to the Zip Line.

Of course Landen wanted to go for the Zip Line but at $15 a shot I wasn’t too excited about it. It was close to 100 degrees and everyone was partying to the fullest.

Even Wilson was having a good time. Here’s a little more eye candy, Welcome to my world!

Don’t forget, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

Fun times

2011-05-21T21:23:00.003-07:00

Landen is having a great time. How could he not? He is hanging out with Nana and Papa in Lake Havasu City when all the other kids are still in school. We have spent just about every day in the pool

Cactus cat

2011-05-14T20:00:00.004-07:00

Our neighbor, on their way back to Idaho for the summer sent us this.

Out in Gold Canyon Ranch, AZ.
Yesterday morning - a friend called and informed me that a Mountain Lion had chased a Bobcat up a tall Saguaro and that it was still there !!
So - with Camera and long lens - I dashed out and this was the result. A once in a life time "Kodak Moment" .......What a beautiful creature. He was quite relaxed, at times napping - just waiting for an opportunity to come back down. That Saguaro was 45- 50' in height, I guess Mr. Mountain Lion didn't feel it was worth being "harpooned" by those long needles!

I hate it when that happens

2011-05-03T20:56:00.002-07:00

Today my computer wasn’t feeling very well. Suddenly it just locked up on me. I couldn’t even shut it down without doing a hard shutdown, you know, hold the power button down for 5 seconds. I tried several things to remedy the problem with no help. It worked OK in Safe mode but after a normal boot it would lockup within 15 seconds. This went on for several hours. Then as sudden as it came on, it went away. I never did find the culprit but all seems fine now. Time will tell.

They should be ashamed

2011-05-02T21:54:00.002-07:00

I am talking about the cookie company that supplies the cookies for the Girl Scout cookie sales. I just read an article in the local paper here in Havasu that states the girl scouts sold a record 41,724 boxes of cookies this year. That came to a total of $166,896.00. Now that is not what the Girl Scouts got. They only got a mear $16,689.60, 10% of all sales. In other words, the Girl Scouts only get 40 cents for every $4.00 box of cookies. The cookie company gets $3.60 for a box of cookies! I can buy a box for less at Walmart and that’s after Walmart gets their profit. They should be ashamed getting these little girls to make the big profits for them! I remember asking my brother how much my nieces Scout Troop gets per box and he said about $0.50 a box. I wrote the scout troop a check for $20 and told them to forget the cookies.

Race canceled

2011-04-30T20:34:00.001-07:00

No not NASCAR. The Desert Storm Boat Race was canceled today and tomorrow because of high winds. The winds started up last night and rose to around 47 MPH today. Tomorrow it is supposed to calm down to around 25 MPH. Usually things get blown around pretty good here at the park during high winds. Car covers get blown away and patio furniture end up in the surrounding desert. I guess people have learned during the years because as I cruised around the resort I found nothing out of place. Anyway, even though the boat didn’t get to play they still plan to party. The airport reports full hangers from all the personal jets that came to town for the race. Yes, they not only have high powered boats and half million dollar trucks to pull them, they also have high dollar jets to fly them in and out. I think the only ones that are out of luck this weekend are the fuel stations that expected to sell lots of expensive high octane gas for the boats.

Unfortunately this is the first year for a while that I missed the Laughlin River Run. I say, “I missed” because Susan made a Laughlin trip with a few ladies the other day. Things just didn’t work out for me.

The boats are in town

2011-04-28T20:29:00.004-07:00

I went down to main street today to check out some of the boats in town for the Desert Storm Shootout. Today they lined them up for show. Some decided to forgo the show and play. You could hear them on the water from just about anywhere in Havasu. Tomorrow is the parade through the channel and Saturday is the shootout. The weather says 47 MPH wind gusts for Saturday. This should be interesting. Here is a few photos for ya.

How about a little bling for your boat?

You need a car to go along with that boat?

Damn, ran out of room for more motors. 1,400 horsepower total.

Your gonna need one of these…

To pull one of these.

No, its not a Corvette.

So much going on

2011-04-25T20:28:00.001-07:00

Some old warplanes are coming into town for the weekend.

For around $3,000 you can even get a chance to fly one of these. No license required. A bit much for me though. It’s still fun watching them fly over our motorhome.

Also this weekend is the Desert Storm Boat Races. So far there are 111 high performance boats signed up. It all starts Wednesday when they close off the main street in town and line then up and down the street for display. Friday morning they will parade through the channel for a look at them in the water the Saturday is the Shootout where they will run 2 miles down the lake for best speed.

Another event is the Laughlin River Run where bikers from all over come to the river for a week of fun and games. Lots of cool bikes and leather.

Bonsai

2011-04-17T20:05:00.001-07:00

After the neighbors left there was no one to take care of their gardenias. I noticed they were dieing off so I brought them over to our place and trimmed off all the dead growth.

Now it looks like a Bonsai Gardenia. Kind of cool looking.

WORK!

2011-04-16T20:43:00.002-07:00

Our park manager came to me the other day and asked if I wanted some work. I laughed. He said there is an owner’s lot that needs some maintenance and he didn’t have time to do it. I contacted the owners and put in a bid and got the job. The job consisted of repairing the irrigation, rebuilding some block walls, removing a couple of overgrown trees, and some general clean up. It was a 1 day job but I stretched it out to 2, didn’t want to work too hard.

Before

After

The weather is warming up. Today it almost got to 100 degrees but was shy a few tenths.

This lizard found some shade under these rocks. Fortunately we get a good breeze between the motorhome and the casita so that is where I sat under the awning and watched the NASCAR race today. Tomorrow I will probably do the same.

New generation

2011-04-07T18:55:00.002-07:00

We found a new generation of humming birds in a tree near us the other day. There are 2 baby humming birds stuffed in this nest about the size if a golf ball.

The amazing thing is the nest is right out in the open along a busy traveled path. They don’t seem to mind all the people that stop by to take a look.

The weather is all over the place right now. We had a 100+ day a few back and last night rain. The wind has been quite strong today and for the next 2 days we are expecting a thunderstorm. Sure makes for great sunsets.

It’s thinning out

2011-04-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

Won’t be long before we are one of the few left here at the resort in Havasu. The Snowbirds are migrating north at a rapid rate. We are planning to stay until we head to California to pick up our Grandson for the summer. Susan has not had to do much cooking this last week because of all the going away parties everyone is having. It’s starting to warm up here but it is still cold up north, especially for those folks heading for Canada. Yesterday it reached a little over 100 but the wind kept it under 100 today.

Bill Williams River Hike

2011-03-27T20:48:00.002-07:00

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

2011-03-24T21:30:00.002-07:00

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

2011-03-19T20:11:00.004-07:00

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

2011-03-18T20:48:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-14T20:52:00.002-07:00

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

2011-03-10T20:47:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-06T20:45:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-04T22:09:00.001-07:00

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.

Weather

2011-02-27T18:56:00.003-07:00

I told you the weather has been unusually cool here. In the last 7 years there has only been snow on the mountains behind us three times and two of them have been this year.

This is what we woke up to this morning. You can see snow on the top of the mountains in the background.

Computer fixed

2011-02-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

I may have fixed my computer without having to restore the whole system. It seems to be giving me the most problems when I was running my virus scanner. So I uninstalled the scanner and my system has not froze up since. Since yesterday was cold windy and just plane miserable I spent the day running down solutions for some other system errors that were showing up. I also uninstalled a few programs no longer used. Today was another miserable day with rain most of the day so I spent the day exercising my computer. It looks like my computer is clean and stable for now. I will give it a few days to make sure everything is stable then I will reinstall my virus scanner and see how that goes. In the mean time I will stick to websites I trust.

Cool windy winter

2011-02-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

The weather here has just been miserable this winter. We have had very few good days. It is getting about time for some snowbirds to start heading back up north and they haven’t had a chance to enjoy the nice Arizona winter weather. The rain is supposed to come back in again this weekend. It seems to be worst on the weekends when most of the events are happening in town. Hopefully next weekend will be a good one because we are heading over to Las Vegas for the NASCAR race. Since this will probably the only one we will attend this year I hope it is a good one.

Lots going on here

2011-02-21T19:51:00.003-07:00

There was a lot going on this weekend here in Havasu and more coming this weekend. Over the weekend we had our annual yard sale here in the resort. The problem is it poured rain the morning of the sale so we didn’t do too well. By noon the sale was over and so was the rain. The sun came out and the rest of the day was good. Also this weekend was the Annual Winter Blast Western Pyrotechnics Convention.

This is where pyrotechnics manufacturers from over the world come to show off their best fireworks. It was a 3 day show and was spectacular as you can imagine. The other event was the 3rd Annual Rockabilly Reunion featuring a car show and rockabilly music. Rockers from all around the country attended the weekend show. Next weekend is going to be the 2nd Annual HAVA BBQ London Bridge Style. There will be more than 80 competitors grilling for a $4,000 prize. This is a Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned event so it should be YUM!

Check this out

2011-02-16T21:40:00.001-07:00

I spotted this setup going through town the other day. You might want to click on the photo to enlarge it to get a better look but this guy is pulling a flatbed caring a boat, car, and an ATV with his sleeper cab. Obviously his toys are more important than his living accommodations. You get to see some interesting setups around here.

As I said before, I have been having computer problems. For the last couple of days I have been doing print screens of all my settings and program options in preparation for a system rebuild. I have scoured the internet to find the answers to my problems and error logs and have pretty much come to the conclusion that I will have to use my restore disk to rebuild the system. I used to do this every once in a while just to clean up things. It will probably take me a week to get everything back the way I like it again.

Today was another windy day. Today however the wind was out of the south so it was not the chilled wind that we usually get out of the north. Even so, I took the opportunity to do my taxes. If you remember the hassle I had with the IRS late last year because I haven’t filed in a couple of years, I decided to be sure and file this time. I have not owed taxes nor have they owed me in the last few years so I didn’t bother to file. They questioned why and it took more to convince them I didn’t need to than it would to just file. So this year I will file.

I thought I was in BIG trouble

2011-02-11T19:32:00.002-07:00

Since we are heading for the Las Vegas NASCAR race the first weekend in March, and we are dry camping, I thought I would do a load test on the batteries to see how they will hold up. My method is to shut off the Charger/Converter and turn everything DC on in the motorhome and monitor the DC voltage. All was going well. After about 15 minutes the voltage had dropped to about 12 VDC and held there. Not bad I thought but then I realized I had one more load I hadn’t put on the system, the heater. The heater fan is quite a bit of a load. So I turned on the heater. After a couple of minutes, suddenly everything went dead. Including the AC power. Now I am in BIG trouble, I thought. What did I do! Loosing the DC made some sense but why the AC? I checked the batteries and they were OK. I was thinking, circuit breaker, but where? Then I remembered the Battery Control Center.

I popped the cover off and sure enough there was 2 30-amp circuit breakers. Both were tripped. After resetting them all was well, including the AC voltage. But why the AC I wondered. I got out the manuals and started looking at schematics. Oh Yeah! My motorhome has a Smart Energy Management System.

This unit monitors AC loads and will automatically switch off things like the microwave, air conditioners and other loads to attempt to keep everything within the current available to the motorhome. The loads are switched in and out by means of 12V relays. When I lost the 12 VDC the relays opened and removed the 120 VAC from all the appliances. Another learning experience.

Computer problems

2011-02-05T18:51:00.003-07:00

I promised some pictures of the in-laws lot and 5th wheel. I have been slow at getting them because of computer problems. Anyway, here are a couple of photos

This one shows the nice yard they have with a big fountain. Unfortunately the owners didn’t disclose that the fountain leaks like a sieve. It’s an easy fix but I have been giving the realtor a hard time about it, just because.

This photo shows the position of the 5th wheel and why we needed the 5th wheel tug to get it in there. There was no way to drive it in with a truck unless you intended on not using the truck anymore. They have a nice big casita that is unfinished inside so they can finish it the way they want. They have decided to split it into 4 areas, a sitting room with TV, a nice bathroom, a utility room for washer, dryer, water softener, and water heater, and a shop. There is plenty of room for all.

Anyway back to the computer. I like to play around with settings and sometimes get myself into a fix. Usually it is no problem because if I screw everything up I simply use system restore to go back to a previous restore point. Well I did just that the other day and the system restore hung. It is very unadvised to shutdown the computer in the middle of a restore but I had no choice. Now I got some problems with missing or corrupt files. It still works but not quite right. I will get it fixed eventually.

Also, I just added photos to our photo site of the Big Boys Toy Show we went to last weekend here in Havasu.

Susan’s parents have moved in

2011-01-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

No, Not with us, they bought a lot here in the resort. Susan has been talking to them for a couple of years now about selling their house and buying a lot here in Lake Havasu City and getting out of California. This would be a better place for them since there is so much for them to do here in the resort and there are people their age to socialize with. They finally realized she was right and made an offer on a lot here and the offer was accepted. A friend of ours was selling their top of the line Elite Suite fifth wheel for a very good price so Susan’s dad bought it and we put it on their lot for them. Escrow closed Friday and they have been here getting all setup for a new life. Already they are dreading going back to California to get all their affairs in order and the house sold.

Putting the fifth wheel on their lot was a challenge. The lot is designed for a motorhome to drive straight in and maneuver around to parallel the back wall. Since there would be no way to get a fifth wheel in that spot with a truck we had to do some planning. We were able to get a fifth wheel tug, which is similar to a small forklift with a fifth wheel hitch in place of the forks. It was a done deal with the tug.

Balloons

2011-01-23T19:05:00.003-07:00

This weekend was the first annual Balloon Festival in Lake Havasu City. Now this is a tricky proposition since the wind seems to blow a lot here at the lake. The balloonists like to fly in 3 to 7 mph winds. Any more and it is too dangerous. Unfortunately this weekend was an unusually windy one. Fridays mass assent was canceled and with 30 mph gusts today they didn’t even think about it.

Saturday morning however was perfect. The balloons took off around 8:00a and after an hour had to call it quits because the winds increased, but at least they got to fly.

One balloon had to be rescued because it drifted over to the California side of the lake. Luckily they were able to bring it down on the California shore and were ably to be towed back to Havasu by boat. They even did a couple of splash and goes on the way back for the fun of it. I heard all in all it was a success and they are looking forward to next year.

Were back

2011-01-16T19:40:00.003-07:00

We made it back to Havasu today. We left around 8:00 this morning California time and pulled into our lot around 12:00 Arizona time. I didn’t have the car attached this trip so I was able to do car speeds instead of the California 55 mph towing speed. Made pretty good time and still got about 8 mpg.

The weather was great and the drive was good too. We should be here until the first weekend in March but that’s what we thought 3 weeks ago. Things just happen.

Show’s over, time to go

2011-01-15T20:10:00.003-07:00

We folded up our display and closed up the booth today and are ready to head back to Havasu tomorrow. I am sure glad we did this with 2 other couples because 4 hours a day is enough to sit there and answer questions. It also gave us time to explore the area.

This is a picture of our display. We didn’t get any pictures of us at the booth. This is one of the other couples we went with.

Some of the coaches left today. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a hassle to get out of here tomorrow.

I met a piece of Havasu history today. Back in 1963 Robert McCulloch, Bought 26 square miles of land at the shores of Lake Havasu. McCulloch had purchased 11 Lockheed Electras, and formed McCulloch International Airlines, to fly in prospective land buyers from all over the country. Well today I met one of the original pilots from McCulloch International Airlines. He flew people in from Chicago. He thought at the time that McCulloch was crazy because all Lake Havasu City was at the time was 26 square miles of sand.

The humming birds are gone

2011-01-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

One of our neighbors at the resort called and told us that since we took off to the rally, the humming birds have gone. Before we left we had a feeder hanging on a hook at the edge of our yard and 2 on the motorhome.

We had at least 6 humming birds fighting over the 3 feeders everyday. When we left I took the 2 off the motorhome and put them away. I guess the birds are unhappy that we left and put their feeder away. We will be back Sunday so hopefully they will be happy and return.

Joshua Tree National Park

2011-01-12T21:26:00.005-07:00

We had most of the day off today since all we had to do was setup the display booth here at the rally. The exhibits don’t open until tomorrow so we took the opportunity to do some sight seeing.

The Joshua Tree National Park is near by, well 30 miles away, so we pack up the car with supplies and headed out with another couple.

We spent the whole day and about 120 miles cruising through the park.

We went in the south entrance and came out the west entrance. What a good time.

Susan and I grew up in this part of the country and have never been inside the park. I am glad we took the opportunity to do so. I will post more photos of the park on our Photo site when I have more time.

On the move again

2011-01-11T21:13:00.001-07:00

Well, we were only in Havasu for 2 weeks and already on the road again. We are in Indio California right now.

We are at the FMCA RV rally to work a boot for the resort. It’s not work when you are pushing something you really like and, what the heck, it’s all paid for. So this morning about 10:00 we uprooted and headed on down the road with 2 other motorhomes from the resort. We are looking forward to having a good time.

Girl’s day out

2011-01-09T19:53:00.002-07:00

The other day the girls went out for a 4 wheeler ride into the desert, yes just the girls. The guys are always heading across the desert for a day trip but this is the first time the women have done this. I think some of the guys were a little worried.

I am not sure if they were concerned about the women or their toys.

I think some of the women were a bit concerned also.

Once they got to their destination they lined up the machines and celebrated their accomplishment with some champagne.

All went well and they all had a great time. Now I am seeing more women cruising the resort on their toys lately. They are already planning their next outing.

Car show

2011-01-08T18:57:00.002-07:00

This morning we ran over to Laughlin with some friends to the car show at Don Laughlin’s casino. It just amazes me how much money some of these people have in these machines.

I used to have a 65 Mustang that I fully restored and was pretty proud of that but some of these people really have something to be proud of. It only takes money I guess.

The weather was pretty good today. The temps were in the 60s but it was sunny and no wind. Felt good for a change.

Craggy Wash

2011-01-06T19:54:00.003-07:00

I went on a 3 hour hike today with a couple of others to a place here in Havasu called Craggy Wash.

This is on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land where a lot of people head for some cheap camping. There is a small fee to dry camp out there in the desert. I think I will stick to the resort. I get a kick out of some of these people that just want to get away from the busy campgrounds and camp in the wide open desert,

yet most of them are all grouped together in a bunch out there. There are a couple that are truly out by them selves though. I got to admit, the solitude and scenery is desirable.

You really don’t want to get too close to this guy.

Looks like we may be getting ready to travel again. I know we have only been back in Havasu for less than 2 weeks but things come up. The resort is going to have a both at the upcoming FMCA rally in Indio CA and they are looking for volunteers to man the booth. 3 of us volunteered but there may be a catch. I surrendered my membership in the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) because there was no real benefit for us. Well I think only FMCA members are allowed to work the booths. We are looking into that. If it happens we will be traveling to Indio on Tuesday.

New stuff

2011-01-03T20:19:00.004-07:00

The new look
You may have noticed along with the new look of out site, there are no more ads. I never wanted to clutter up our site with ads but though, Hey if I can make a little money off this thing, why not. Turns out I did just that, made a “LITTLE” money, not enough to include them in the new look. So no more ads!

New ride
Remember the golf cart Susan decorated for the golf cart Christmas parade? Well it was offered to me for purchase.

The owners didn’t need it anymore and since I am in possession of it, they offered it to me at a fair price, so I bought it. It run good but needs a little work so I now have a project.

New computer
Susan has been wanting her own computer for quite some time now. Seems we both want to cruise the internet at the same time which is not possible with only one computer in the family. I use a MiFi card from Verizon, which is an aircard with a built in wireless router capable of handling 5 devices so we are OK there. I gave some though to buying a new computer for myself and giving her mine or buying her a new one. For what she uses it for we decided she might be happy with one of those 10” Netbooks.

So I did some research and came up with an Acer from Walmart. I missed out on the $198 Christmas special but still got a good deal.

On to a new year

2011-01-01T21:57:00.001-07:00

We hope you all made it through the New Year transition OK. We made it to about 10:30 at the local Eagles Lodge then came back to the Resort and spent the rest of 2010 at a friends 5th wheel. We wish we had gone to the Resort New Years Party. We originally intended to go on down to the big Main Street celebration they have here in town with 6 bands and 2 separate fireworks shows, but it was REALLY COLD (in the 20s). By the time we decided against it the resort party was sold out. That is why we ended up at the Eagles Lodge. We still had a pretty good time though.

2010-12-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

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

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

Snow

2010-12-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

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.