The owl flew the coop

You may remember in the last post that we are sharing a spot with a baby owl. We have been watching for the last 2 days as the baby moved around the top of the tree spreading it’s wings. We knew any day now that it would take off. Well last night must have been the time. When we woke this morning, the owl was gone.
Today we moved again. We are now in Lake Havasu City Arizona. I decided to take AZ-1 up the Arizona side of the Colorado River instead of US-95 up the California side. I think it was a good choice since we traveled past farmland and through small towns. The California side is just boring desert.

We are at a very nice resort here in Lake Havasu City. Yes I did say Resort. This is a REAL top-notch resort. I was disappointed for a while when I found we were on the Verizon Extended Network. This means NO INTERNET from my Aircard. Then I found the park has free WiFi, and it is fast…Real fast. We will be spending 6 nights here in Havasu checking out the area. This resort makes you feel like you want to stay a while.

We are movin on

We have moved to Blythe California. We used to come here many years ago when the kids were young and we had the boat.
It is right on the Colorado River as you can see in the photo. The weather is perfect here right now. It can get over 100’ during the summer and I have seen 120’ here. Today it was in the high 70s to low 80s with a nice breeze.
They put us in a site right next to a tree with a baby owl in it. Actually this owl is getting ready to take flight so it is the size of a full grown cat. Mom is out all day getting food and Dad sits in the Palm tree across the street. We will be here for 2 nights then we will be on the move again. We chose this park because it is a Passport America park and we can get it for ½ price. Actually, here, they just remove some amenities and give you the basic site for ½ price. I had to pay extra for electricity, they have WiFi for extra, and Sewer hookup sites are extra. For non Passport America members these are included. Once you add all the extras, it comes close to full price. This is not the case with other Passport America parks. There is another PA park just around the corner for ½ the price of this one but their sites are not right on the river as this one is. I wanted to be on the water. They call this place Hidden Beaches which is a good name. I looked and looked and could not find the beach. Finally I looked at the campground map and found it. It is the little mound of dirt between the boat ramp and the dock.

We are finally off

We left Vista California today and don’t plan to return to Southern California until November. We are now in Indio California and it is warm. The temperature has been around 80 all day and it’s supposed to be hotter tomorrow. The wind was up earlier but has subsided. I used my Passport America membership and got us into a pretty nice resort for ½ price. This is one of those places that will not allow coaches over 10 years old.
This is a photo of their pond that is loaded with huge fish and lily pads. We will be here for 2 nights and then we head east. On the way here I nearly took off the door of a California Highway Patrol vehicle. He had someone pulled over that blew by us earlier. Just as we got close he swung his door open right into my lane and I had to hit the brakes and swerve a little to avoid him. I guess he was just wrapped up in giving the guy heck and not thinking. Glad I dodged that one.

The Easter bunny came

Since we are finally getting back on the road tomorrow, we had the family over for Easter dinner. Of course the Easter bunny came to hide goodies for the Grandkids.
Alexa shows Papa some of her loot.
Later Alexa helps her brother Landen with his goods. We were so fortunate to have everyone over before we leave again since we don’t plan to come back this way until the end of the year.

Spending time with the Grandson

Since we are leaving soon and will most likely not return to this area until November, we are spending as much time with our grandson as possible. He has spent the last few days with us and will be over for Easter to hunt for Easter eggs. While here he got to help Nana bake and decorate cookies.

Today we spent some time on the scooters (and some time on the ground). Don’t worry he was fine.

In preparation for the Easter bunny he also got to color and decorate Easter eggs.

We sure are going to miss having him around but will also look forward to seeing him again in November.

Visitors

While doing a little maintenance today, I had a visitor. After removing the engine cover I heard a jingle and when I turned around this little kitty
was making his way up the engine and into the motorhome. After escorting him outside, I no longer turned around and there he was again. It wasn’t until I turned on the vacuum that he finally got the hint.

Why do I believe them?

While at the FMCA rally this past March I had the opportunity to have 3 problems remedied. I have a leveling jack that leaks, my generator was in need of a tune-up, and my water heater needed a part.
The jack company couldn’t replace the jack on site but they talked about how great the company was and how responsive they are to the customers needs. They promised me they would expedite a jack to me right away.
The generator company did tune my generator however they didn’t have some needed parts. They also spent an hour boasting how great the company is with customers and also said they would expedite the parts.
As I passed by the water heater booth I mentioned a needed part. The guy handed me a piece of scrap paper and said here right your address and I will send you one as he seemed to otherwise not even notice I existed. Yeah right I thought.
Of all 3, can you guess which was the ONLY one that came through? That’s right I got the part for…the water heater. I never did hear a thing from the other 2.

Because we can

We woke this morning fully intending to move on out of here at Santee Lakes and going back to Vista. Our friends that we are visiting came down to our site and invited us to take a ride with them up to Traveland In Irvine to check out some new RVs. We reminded them we were going to head out today and they said, so stay another day. I said we would if we don’t need to vacate the site today. Well here we are for another night. We spent the whole day looking at so many RVs that I don’t care to see another RV for a long time…Oh Yeah; I live in one, well new ones then. Tomorrow we are heading back to Vista, maybe.

They asked us to leave

Actually, there is a rally coming in to the Vista Elks Lodge this weekend and they are going to cram 25 rvs into the 19 spaces they have so they need all the room they can get. We took this opportunity to move down to Santee Lakes in, where else, Santee to visit some friends we met almost 2 years ago when we first started fulltiming. They moved to Arizona, Kentucky, and are now back in California. This photo is a view from our front window. We have stayed here before and really like this place. It is situated on 7 man made lakes and is real nice and peaceful. It was only about an hour drive but the weather was lousy. I generally don’t like to travel in such weather but we needed to vacate the lodge. We would be heading for the unknown but Susan still needs to finish up on some dental work. Hopefully we will be back on the road in another week.

A day at the Zoo

Today Susan and I took our grandson, Landen, to the San Diego Zoo. It was a belated birthday present plus we wanted to do something special with him before we hit the road again. It was a long day for all of us but we had a great time.
I think Landen’s favorite thing was the Skifari ride. This is a cable car ride from one side of the park to the other. We all got a kick out of the Primates and Big Cats too. By the end of the day we were pretty worn out. I don’t think Landen even made it out of the parking lot before he was fast asleep in the back seat of the car.
We got stuck in the infamous San Diego traffic and crawled about 10 mph for 20 miles. I took us an extra hour to get home. Once we pulled up to the motorhome, Landen woke and said, you took a shortcut. Yeah, he was asleep the whole trip so it went pretty fast for him.

Stuck in Lodi again

Wasn’t there a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival called stuck in Lodi again? Well we are singing stuck in Vista again. We were planning to start heading east this Friday. Susan and I visited the dentist today and found out that Susan needs some work done that will keep us here for at least another 2 weeks. It’s looking more and more like we are running out of time to make it to Massachusetts this year. I will have to decide if we want to go ahead and get as far east as we can before we need to turn around and head back or just stay along the west this year. There is plenty to see along the west so it won’t bother us much if we put Massachusetts off until next year. At any rate, I need to get back on the road no matter what direction we travel. We have friend in Santee that just moved out from Kentucky that we want to visit and there is some property in Lake Havasu City Arizona that I want to take a look at. So it’s looking like we still have plenty to do around here.

It’s always something

We have moved back to the Vista Elks Lodge where we will spend the rest of the month. We got up early this morning to bring our home into the shop at 8:00 for a new muffler. They told me it would take about an hour and a half to do the job so Susan and I took off for breakfast. After breakfast and a little shopping we finally headed back to the shop at 11:00 to check on the progress. It was done except for the paperwork. Another ½ hour and we were on the road. After arriving in Vista we got a strong odor of plastic burning. So much so that I immediately jumped out and opened the hood for investigation. Nothing there so I went inside to remove the “doghouse” (engine cover). Nothing there. I decided to back it into our spot, set it up, and search for the odor later. After parking I went to the back to hook it up and noticed the odor was stronger so I took a peek under the coach. Awe Ha! I spotted the plastic label still stuck to the side of the muffler, all burnt up of course. Now why didn’t they remove it so the customer doesn’t get alarmed when they smell it burning? It’s always something.

Pechanga again

We are spending one night here at Pechanga Casino RV Resort tonight. We left the Vista Elks Lodge to spend a night in the casino parking lot so we can get up early and head over to the service center just down the street to get the “other” muffler replaced. Turns out we remembered the last time we spent the night in a parking lot and decided to get an RV site at the resort and have dinner at home. Better accommodations and better food. This will be the first time with full hookups since the first of the month. Susan is looking forward to a loooong hot shower.

It will be nice if the service center can get a 2 hour job done in less than 8 hours tomorrow but we are not expecting much. Heck, it took them 4 hours to find out they had the wrong part last time. This will be the third time in the shop for the muffler replacement and I am going to remind them of that.

Back to Vista

We are back in Vista California. Seems like we just can’t get away. The reason we came back is to get the correct muffler replaced. You may remember back when I took the coach in for a muffler replacement and they replaced the wrong one. The trip was great, the weather was great and I only had one idiot cut me off on the freeway, not bad.

The month of March has been a real blast even though we couldn’t get away from Southern California. We spent a weekend at the Nascar race in Las Vegas. We spent a week at the FMCA pre-rally with some members of our Rexhall International club in Palmdale, then a week at the FMCA International Rally in Pomona. The best part of the whole month is we spent it with a bunch of really good friends.

We plan to be in Vista until the first of April, and then we will start our trek east. We will be trying to get to Massachusetts. I don’t know if we will make it however because we need to be back in Southern California by November for our Camp Host jobs. We will at least make it to Branson Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky. At that point we will do a time check to see if we have enough time to get up into Massachusetts. We want to allow enough time for Massachusetts because we are going to visit all the New England States while there.

Our work is done here

Susan and I just finished our last shift as Volunteer Tram Workers here in Pomona for the FMCA RV Rally. We both had the last shift, which runs an hour before the entertainment and an hour after the entertainment so we were busy with full trams. We have had a great time here. The Entertainment was good, there were lots of vendors and over 800 new coaches to look over with a price range from the $100,000s to the 2 million dollar range. We met up with a few really good friends and met a few new friends while here. While here I got my generator tuned up by the good folks from Generac Generators, no charge. These guys were just super. I also got a leaking leveling jack looked at and since they didn’t bring a replacement of my kind they are going to expedite one to me, no charge, and I will replace it myself. We have been here for 6 days and now it’s time to travel on. We will probably take our time leaving tomorrow to let the traffic subside a bit. Even though a lot of people left today, there will still be a lot of coaches trying to leave tomorrow. We only have about an 1 ½ hour drive so we will not be in any hurry to leave.

Pomona Fairplex California

We have arrived at the Pomona Fairplex for the FMCA RV Rally. We left at 7 this morning, yes I was up before 7am, and arrived at the Fairplex at 9:30 which was our scheduled arrival time. However, we sat in staging for about an hour and a half. Seems they sold all the electrical sites to people just driving in instead of holding them for us that reserved them. It did work out for the better though since they placed us inside the fairgrounds, with electricity, right in the hart of everything. We couldn’t be closer. Susan and I are not scheduled for our volunteer work until Wednesday so we have a few days off to enjoy the rally. I just wish the weather would cooperate and get a little warmer.

Palmdale California

Well we left Yermo this morning and headed for Palmdale. It was an easy and uneventful drive. The weather was great for the drive. While in Palmdale, we are attending a pre-rally to the Big FMCA rally in Pomona. The Palmdale rally is made up of all Rexhall motorhomes and we are all Tram volunteers for the Pomona rally. While here we are all going to take a tour of the Rexhall motorhome factory in Lancaster. We are looking forward to a good time here. I posted some photos of the Nascar race on the photo site. See photo links in the column to the left.

Fun in Las Vegas

We had fun in Las Vegas this weekend but not the kind of fun you would expect. Have you ever gone to Las Vegas and NOT set foot inside a casino. We did. The closest we came to a casino was to drive by on I-15. We spent the whole weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Nascar UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. We had good food, good racing and with great friends. The weather however wasn’t so great. After the strong winds, rain, snow (yes I did say snow) and cold, the weather cleared enough for both races on Saturday and Sunday. And after all that, the driver I was rooting for, Jimmie Johnson, won the race. We left the race track today and along with everyone else that decided to stay until today, it took us a hour just to get out of Las Vegas. Once out of town it was smooth sailing with perfect weather all the way. We are back in Yermo, California but this time we decided to stay at the KOA instead of Peggy Sue’s parking lot. After all the wind, dust, and rain we wanted full hookups to get everything, including ourselves, cleaned up and catch up on a little laundry. Tomorrow we are on our way to another Rally in Palmdale California.

Motorhome Hill

This is what’s known as Motorhome Hill here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is one row of RVs lined up on top of the back stretch. From these full hookup sites, you get a view of the whole track. If you want to join the folks on Motorhome Hill you better be prepared to fork over more than $3000 for the weekend. We are having a ball as usual, although the weather could be a bit better. It has been very windy with a threat of rain all weekend. We did actually get a bit of snow this evening but it wasn’t cold enough yet to stick. I won’t be surprised if we wake to a light dusting of snow tomorrow morning. Today was practice runs and qualifying. Tomorrow is the Bush race and Sunday is the Nascar race. Weather permitting that is.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Here we are at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was a lot of work getting here and now the race might not happen because of weather. As mentioned in our previous post, we were heading for Las Vegas over a week ago. We had to make a detour back to Vista California for family matters. We finally got started again on Tuesday and landed last night in Yermo near Barstow California at Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner. The trip was good except for the last 40 miles when the wind started blowing pretty hard. Last night we got dusted out pretty good until I moved to the downwind side of the building. We had dinner at Peggy Sues since they were nice enough to let us spend the night in their parking lot.

Above is a sample of the décor inside the restaurant. Pretty cool place. They have a gift shop also with a lot of nifty fifty stuff. Back on the road this morning it was pretty good traveling until we got to the California Nevada Stateline. The wind was so bad I considered pulling off for a while. I heard things thumping and banging outside the RV. Not sure what it was but I did adjust the passenger’s side mirror so I can keep an eye on the patio awning. I was smart enough to secure it at Peggy Sues as best I could and it held up. After Stateline the winds mellowed a bit. We planed to dump and fill with water at the Flying J’s Truck stop near the racetrack since we will be boondocking through the weekend. When we got there I drove around the place a couple of times before finally going inside and asking where the dump was. It was in the worst location possible and there were 5 other rigs waiting to use it holding up traffic trying to get to the gas pumps. I dropped the toad in the truck lot and got in line. To my disappointment the only water they offered was at the dump station. They say it is good water even though there is a sign saying it is not safe (being at the dump station). While waiting, I happened to look around and found a faucet between a couple of gas pumps. Got to be better than the dump station I thought so I got out my 2 hoses and hooked them together to reach. So while waiting in line to dump I was able to fill the water tank. Finally back on the road, we got to the track. Now being we don’t get mail regularly I elected to be on Will Call. I also had no idea where the RV lot we were in was. I pulled into the nearest lot and of course it was not the right one but they did direct me to the correct one. After waiting in line for about 30 minutes I was informed I have to go back out and drive over to the other side of the track to get my tickets from Will Call before I can enter. Fortunately that was relative painless. Back to the RV lot we went. Wow, No line this time however they could not find our site on their map. Of course not, we are in 639, NOT 693. There is no 693. Another 30 minutes and we were finally able to park it for the weekend. Now we will sit and wait for the wind to stop and the rain and snow, yes they are calling for snow also, begins. Should be an interesting weekend.

Rockin’ and Rollin’

We are rockin’ and rollin’. We are in Yermo just outside of Barstow. We are at the half way point to Las Vegas. We are parked at the Peggy Sue’s 50s diner but that’s not why we are rockin’ and rollin’, we are rockin’ and rollin’ because the wind is blowing about 50 mph outside and the motorhome was rocking quite a bit. I had to put the jacks down to stabilize it, which we usually don’t do for just an overnighter. The motorhome was getting sand blasted parked on one side of the diner so we moved around the other side. It is still windy here but at least we are not getting sand blasted by the sand coming across the parking lot. Tomorrow we head out for Las Vegas.

Happy camper again

Well I am happy to say that my pressure relief valve finally stopped leaking. I guess it needed some time for all the air to be purges from the system before the accumulator would work. Now I don’t need to be constantly cleaning the hard water deposits off the side of the motorhome.

I am also happy that we are getting back on the road this Tuesday. We are heading for Las Vegas again. We will be spending Tuesday night in Barstow again in the parking lot of the Peggy Sue’s restaurant, then off to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR race next weekend. From there we head for 2 back to back RV Rallies. WAHOO! Lots of fun ahead!

We came in $50 under budget for the month of February but that doesn’t make up for the $460 over budget in January…How Did That Happen! Don’t know, not paying attention. We got some make up to do in the next few months.

Waist of time and money

Today was one of those days. A waist of time and money day. I decided I needed an accumulator for our water system. An accumulator is supposed to reduce the pulsation of the water pump and reduce the time the pump runs. Also it is supposed to absorb the added pressure of the water as it expands when heated by the water heater. Since my water heater pressure relief valve has always weeped (especially after the water heater has just run) I thought the accumulator would help. I made the trip to Camping World and purchased the accumulator. Of course it does not come with any fittings and there were none in the isle along with the accumulator. I went to Home Depot, No luck. I went to Lowes, no luck. I went to a plumbing store, no luck. I went to a RV supply store, no luck. I went back to Camping World and said since you guys install these things sell me the fittings, no luck..Huh? How do you install these things if you have no fittings? They sent me to the RV dealer across the street. They had them! Well happy at last I headed home to install it. I removed the access panel where the pump is located and found I only had 12”X12” access to the spot where I wanted to install it. After struggling for 1 hour to accomplish a 15 minute job, it was done. But…The accumulator did not solve my problems. The pump doesn’t pulsate but it runs just as much. The Pressure relief valve is still leaking. I’m not a very happy camper right now.

Interesting Spottings

Are we there yet?

24 VOLT?

Isn’t it obvious?

To old for bicycles?

Back Peddling

While we were in Calico Susan got a phone call that her father was in the hospital. He had a valve replaced in his hart a while back and it seems to be acting up. Since we didn’t really need to be in Las Vegas until March 9, I decided to make a U turn and head back to Vista so Susan can be with her family. We are now staying at the Elks near her parent’s home for a while. By the way, her father is doing well and will be released tomorrow. It is just another detour in our travels.

Calico Ghost Town

We are in Yermo at the Calico Ghost Town. They have a campground right at the Ghost Town. This is a stop over point on the way to Las Vegas (about half way). We intended on staying for 2 nights (2X2X2) but after setting up I noticed we were setup in a site that is reserved for tomorrow. Instead of moving we decided to visit the Ghost town today and move on down the road tomorrow. The campground is very rugged and it took me a while to find a site that was fairly level. As it is, I had to run one side of the motorhome up on blocks so the wheels wouldn’t be off the ground when I lower the levelers. We do have full hookups though. As I said, we visited the Ghost town today, which was created by Walter Knott, the creator of Knott’s Berry Farm. He donated it to the county many years ago. It is nowhere near as big a Knott’s Berry Farm. This is the setting of an old silver mine. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here but it was on the way so here we are. If it weren’t for the bus loads of Japanese there wouldn’t be too many people here. Funny thing is, Our Verizon cell phone signal in marginal out here but my Verizon Aircard for the Internet has a good signal.

James Dean

I just realized that yesterday, on the way here from Paso Robles to Bakersfield that we drove through the intersection where James Dean had his fatal car crash 51 years ago.

Bakersfield CA

San Antonio Lake was great. The rally was really fun with some old friends and some new ones. Susan and I gave a Seminar on Fulltiming and it seemed to go well. It was a lot longer (almost 3 hours) than I had planned but everyone stuck it out. There were a few future-fulltimers there that were eager to hear what we had to say. It rained most off the weekend but we had the clubroom and kept nice and warm and dry. The food was great and we played Bingo with White elephant gifts. The park is full of deer, squirrels, and a variety of birds. No one wanted to go home.

Last night we spent the night at Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles. We left the San Antonio Lake Rally and in about an hour we were at the Wine Country Resort. As you know we don’t travel very fast, or far. The Wine Country Resort is nice but we just used it as a stopover on the way to Bakersfield, which is where we are now.

We are at a favorite RV park called Orange Grove RV Park. It is appropriately named because it is in the middle of what used to be an orange grove. They cleared enough trees to put in some paved roads and gravel sites. They let you pick all the oranges you need which is what we did today. They are real juicy and sweet. We will stay here for a couple of nights to get some laundry done. I will hit the Camping World store here too. The weather finally cleared up and today was sunny. It is still cool but at least it is not raining. As we were heading here we drove past a few almond groves. The trees are in bloom so they brought in some boxes of bees for pollination. Some of the bees must have been Kamikaze bees because they are all over the front of the motorhome.

San Antonio Lake

We woke this morning to rain. I was hopping it wouldn’t rain until we got here at San Antonio Lake. I don’t like to drive in the rain unless I have to. Well turns out that the rain stopped as soon as we hit the road and held off until we got here. It’s raining pretty good now. The drive was good. I took the long way up around the north side of the lake and back down to the south shore. This was a much better route than the last time we came up here with less twisties and steep hills. It took a bit longer but we are never in a hurry. There are already quite a few people here and there is more coming in tonight. Looks like in spite of the rain it is going to be a good rally. We at least have the clubroom to our disposal the whole weekend so we can keep warm and out of the rain. This place is loaded with deer. They just sit on the side of the roads and watch you go by. They are lying under the trees in the vacant sites around us. Tomorrow we will be giving our first Fulltime Seminar. This should be interesting.

Monarch Butterfly Grove

Today we visited the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach. This is where thousands of Monarch Butterflies come each year to mate before moving on to the local milkweed plants to lay their eggs. It is close to the end of their season (they say they will be gone in a week or two) so there were only about 5,000 in the grove. Usually there are tens of thousands and in the past there were hundreds of thousands. All the orange in the photo above is butterflies. During the peak season the leaves in this eucalyptus grove look like they are covered with dead leaves. In reality it is all the butterflies.

It was cold here today. It never got out of the 50s today and the wind was blowing pretty good so there was a wind chill factor to boot. The Host here says it is not usually this cold. Tomorrow we are heading further north and will be at about 1000 feet so I am sure it will be pretty cold. It is supposed to rain so it might be a little warmer or we may have a pretty cold rain. The group we are meeting up with have the club room at the park so I suspect we will be hanging inside most of the weekend.

Elks Stop

For the next 2 nights we are taking advantage of our Elks membership. We are at the Elks Lodge in Oceano, CA. The Camp area is pretty nice with water and electric hookups. The driveway is gravel and the sites are grass. It is very nice and clean and Dave, the camp host, is a great guy. Turns out Dave put us right next to a friend we made at the Bus Nuts rally in Yuma last year. Brian recognized us right away and jumped out of his Prevost to greet us, and Shirley wasn’t far behind. The Oceano Elks is about a block from Pismo State Beach and Pismo Dunes State Vehicular Recreation area. We can look out our front windshield and get a good view of the dunes. Tonight is all you can eat spaghetti at the lodge, darn Susan just fixed spaghetti last night.

Happy Valentines Day

Since we had a lot of laundry to do, Susan wanted a site near the laundry so she didn’t have to lug everything so far. I guess you can’t get much closer than this.

As I mentioned, we headed into Solvang this morning to Paula’s Pancake House for breakfast. We always enjoy our stay here at Flying Flags RV Park. The place is nice and the staff is very friendly. We are not near a major city so I am not getting Broadband Internet access but I am getting National Access, which is 50K, still is better than dialup. Tomorrow we are back on the road again.

Oh Yeah, I added some photos of the Drag Races to the photo site. Click on the photo link at the left to see them.

Buellton, CA

We are presently in Buellton, CA. Once we got out of the LA area and along the coast the drive was great. It was a 3 hour drive which, as some of you know, is about our limit. We like to keep it under 3 hours as much as possible. We will be here for 2 nights then off to the Pismo area. Right down the road from Buellton is Solvang, which is a little Danish town. We are heading in tomorrow for breakfast at our favorite little pancake house, Paula’s Pancake House. I go for the Danish pancake, which is a very thin, light and tasty pancake, YUM! So far the weather has been absolutely fantastic. They are talking about rain this weekend, especially a bit further north where we are heading. Just a minor annoyance.

What a great weekend

We spent the weekend with good weather, good friends, and some good racing. It’s always sad when it ends but it’s off to the next get together tomorrow, well actually it’s not till the weekend. We will make 2 more stops before the weekend. When I get a chance I will post some photos of the races. Until then above is a couple of photos.

NHRA Winter Nationals

Yesterday we traveled another 26 miles down the road to Pomona where they hold the NHRA Winter National Drag Races. We met up with some friends and are having a great time. These are a fun bunch of people that get together often and know how to have fun. We went over to the races today and spent about a half day watching the cars do about 325 miles per hour down the ¼ mile in 4.5 seconds. They don’t know for sure how much horsepower these things are generating because there is nothing that will measure them but they are estimating around 5 to 7 thousand…Yes I said thousand horsepower. These are not jet cars. They are good old piston engine cars. Not your usual piston engines however because these burn nitro methane fuel. Now you just can’t imagine how loud 5 –7 thousand horsepower sounds. You just have to be there. The sound waves just pound your whole body as they go by. It is just one of those thing you can’t describe. You just have to be there. Yesterday and today was qualifying. Tomorrow we are heading over for the final race of the weekend.

Today we got an exclusive

We got an exclusive private tour of a new motorhome plant. I was reading on one of the Internet forums about this motorhome called a Flounder…yes I did say Flounder. Everyone on the forum thought it was a hoax. When I found out the factory was in Rubidoux, CA I thought, wait a minute, that’s were we are. Since everyone on the forum was thinking this motorhome was a hoax I thought it my duty to prove or dispel this hoax. I found the address and punched it into my GPS and there it was. I rang the bell at the security gate and asked if they were giving tours and was asked it we were “The Fulltimers”. Apparently they read my post about finding the factory. They were happy to see us since they also wanted to set the record straight. We got a personal tour guided by Susan Thomas the co-founders wife. John Crean who was the founder of Fleetwood Trailer Company in 1950 and Steve Thomas, his son-in law, founded Flounder Motorhomes. John was the designer of the famous Fleetwood Bounder, perhaps where the name Flounder comes from. The Flounder is a 40-foot (actually 39’10”) gas motorhome built on a stretched 258” wheelbase Workhorse chassis. This motorhome is designed more for fulltime use since it sports large holding tanks and residential appliances. I said residential, not residential style. There is a real stove, dishwasher, trash compactor, garbage disposal and stackable washer and dryer as you would find in a stick house. Interesting fact; I found out that Flounder bought it’s chassis from Rexhall, the manufacturer of our motorhome, because Rexhall sales are down and they needed to get rid of some inventory. If you are interested their web site is at www.floundermotorhomes.com. You can download a brochure and read all the facts.

Do they need blood too

We moved on to a Riverside county park today. When we pulled in and asked for a site they asked for our driver’s license, vehicle registration for both the motorhome and car, proof on insurance for both motorhome and car, and our Passport America card (50% off camping club). NO KIDDING! I was waiting for them to ask for proof of US citizenship and a pint of blood. Then they put us back in the ghetto section which, needless to say, Susan was not happy with. I unhooked the car, backed the motorhome into the site, jumped into the car and went back up to the office to ask for a better site. Seem that all the good sites are under the reservation system and the junk is for drive-ins. They did however call the reservation system and get us a better site. I appreciate that and we are happy now.
Man is it hot and dry. We are experiencing, what they call here in Southern California, a Santa Ana. This is where the winds come out of the desert instead of the ocean. It makes the weather hot and dry, which is not good for fire season.

Cough Cough Sniff Sniff

When we pulled in here at Lake Elsinore Marina and RV Resort one of the first things I noticed is our site was raked up. Nice touch, I thought. Later that day the grounds crew (a couple of kids in a golf cart) came through and started raking up some of the other sites. They kicked up quite a bit of dust but I thought, Nice touch. Today they were out there again, this time with a blower. They kicked up so much dust that I had to run inside and close all the windows, vents and door. Now there is a fine layer of dust on everything inside and the outside of the motorhome is a mess. I now have a cough and Susan is all stuffed up from the dust. Good thing we are moving on tomorrow. I did however, get a kick out of watching a good ol’ boy taking apart of an old junk trailer. He would knock off a piece or two then stand there and stare at it for a while then knock off a couple of more. Not the sharpest took in his toolbox. I over heard one of the residents say, “He might have that trailer taken apart sometime this year”.

Their Photo

My Photo

The above is a photo of their picnic area as they show it on the web and as I found it in real life.

Passport America

Passport America is the Original 50% off camping club. It is a one time per year signup fee of just $44 and that’s it. There is NO long-term commitment. If you don’t like it you simply do not renew. That’s It! Our Passport America membership paid for itself in the first use. I saved $40 just today for our 2 night stay here at Lake Elsinore RV Resort and will save additional money at our next stay. Passport America has saved us hundreds in the year we used it. At only $44 a year you can see it will pay for itself in only one camping trip.


There are thousands of participating campgrounds around the US, Canada, and Mexico. You simply present your membership card and your stay is Half Price. I highly recommend Passport America. If you would like to sign up, Please mention my name and member number [Daniel Fleming #R-0171525]. The easiest way to sign up is to Click Here.

To find more information, visit their Web Site.

Lake Elsinore

We made the big move today. We moved 24 miles down the road to Lake Elsinore. Why? Because we can. We need to kill a few days between now and the NHRD Drag Race so we will make a couple of short jumps and enjoy the change of scenery. This place is not a Resort such as Pechanga even though they call it a resort but it isn’t all that bad. It is right on the lake and we get a pretty good view of the lake from our site. It is a Passport America park so we got 50% off the normal rate, which in my opinion, brings it into right about the right price.

Costco is great

I finally bought a GPS unit for the car. The laptop with Microsoft Streets and Trips works great in the motorhome but the laptop is just too big to use in the car. After looking long and hard at reviews and trying to find the units I was interested in at the local stores, I decided to but the Magellan Roadmate 360 from Costco. It was a bit more money than I wanted to spend but it was available. I played with it for quite a while, while sitting in my recliner in the motorhome and was not totally happy with it. It just didn’t seem to be worth the $530 (inc tax) I paid. I then took it out to the car to locate a suitable mounting location. No matter how hard I tried I could not find a place to mount it that I was happy with. Once I found an OK place to mount it, I realized that I could not plug it in because of the tightly coiled power cord they give you. If it wasn’t a coil cord I could have made it work. I thought about picking up some parts and making my own cord (What A Hassle!). Finally after playing with it more I found, although it does have a touch screen, the keys are not too responsive, specifically the scroll keys. I then went online to Amazon.com and read reviews on this unit. Not So Good! Should have done this before I bought it. I then read reviews on the one I really wanted (Garmin i3) and found No negative reviews. Oh sure there were things that some reviewers wanted that the Garmin didn’t have but I think I can live with this being the Garmin is nearly half the price as the Magellan. The Garmin is smaller so I should be able to find a suitable location to mount it. One reviewer says he sets in his cup holder. Also I noted that the power cord is Not a tightly coiled cord. The Garmin even runs on batteries if I don’t want to use the power cord (the Magellan didn’t). I finally decided to return the Magellan to Costco. Here is where the kudos for Costco comes in. I looked up Costco’s return policy and found it has a 6 month return policy. I decided to order the Garmin and pick it up in the next 6 weeks when we return to our home base. In the meantime since I have 6 months to return the Magellan I will give it a good test run. If I decide the Magellan is in fact the better unit I will return the Garmin. Otherwise the Magellan goes back.

We’ll be back

We just can’t seem to get out of this place. I thought that once we leave Temecula for our 3 Rally trip that we could finally start heading east. Then I woke the other morning with a horrible though. The Service Center that couldn’t seem to replace the muffler properly has to finish the job. I got so frustrated by them after replacing the wrong muffler then later ordering the wrong one the second time that I told them to forget it and I will have the job done elsewhere. Not so because, they screwed it up, they have to fix it according to the warranty. So after our 3 Rally trip, it’s back here to see if they can get it right the third time.

The 3 Rally Tour

Finally we are back on the road. Tomorrow we will be leaving here for a 3 Rally Tour. We will be heading up to Pomona first for the NHRA Winter National Drag Races. After that we are heading up to San Antonio Lake for an RV.net Rally. We will be presenting a seminar on Fulltiming at this rally. After that we work our way up to San Francisco Via Monterey. On the return trip we will be touring the Winchester Mystery House. We will be working our way down to Palmdale for a Rexhall Pre Rally. This is a Pre Rally to the Big FMCA Rally in Pomona where we volunteered again to work the trams. It should be a busy and interesting next 6 weeks.

No Taxes

Since my only income is the interest and dividends from my investments, I decided to take the test on the Fed and California website to see if I even need to file. The result? I do NOT need to even file. My investments have done a pretty good job of offsetting my spending but that’s all on paper. I am only taxed on interest and dividends received. They do not want you to file if not necessary because it waist their time and money.

Is it just me

Or has everyone gotten incompetent.
One of my goals while sitting stationary for a while was to get things done on the motorhome and car that needed to be done. The RV service center ended up replacing the wrong muffler, ordering the wrong muffler the second time so that never got done. They charged me $20 to tell me my leveling jack had a leaking seal, which is what I told them when I brought it in. That never got done due to parts on order. They did however replace a slide topper that needed to be done. As for the car, I needed the valve stems replaced with shorter ones to accommodate my tire pressure monitors. The ones they installed weren’t much shorter than the stock ones and were unacceptable. I bought a set and returned them to the dealer for installation. They managed to get 3 on OK but the 4th was not tight and leaking. When asked about it their reply was, “That’s as tight as I can get it.” So they delivered it to me with a leaking valve stem and said nothing until I found it. Then the guy got mad when I brought it to his attention. They got it tight on the second try but I am still concerned. We are leaving here on Monday and I didn’t get much done. I’m not a very happy camper right now.

I'm an Elk

Last night I officially became an Elk. I joined the local Elks Lodge in my town of residency and after 3 meetings, the last being the initiation, I was accepted into the Elks.

Today was not so good of a day however. We took the motorhome in to have the muffler replaced that they were supposed to replace last time. You might remember they replaced the wrong one last time. This time they ordered the wrong muffler. You would think since they replaced one that they could order the correct one again. You would also think they would make sure it is the right part before having us up root our home and bring it into their shop. NO! It was in the shop by 8:00a and they didn’t inform me of the screw up until 11:00a. They said they would order the correct one and call me when it arrives. I said, “No, you’re done.” We will just get it done somewhere else. Also I took the Saturn in to get shorter valve stems installed. The Tire Pressure Monitor system I bought has sensors that screw on, replacing the valve stem cap. My valve stems were so long that these things stuck out like a sore thumb. I was afraid that either they would get knocked off or stolen since they were real noticeable. Also, I didn’t want them to bend the valve stem from the centrifugal force and possible damage the stems. I explained all this to the shop so they would get the concept of what I wanted the final install to look like. Well the new ones are about ½ inch shorter than the old ones and don’t look much different after the sensors are installed. I let them know that I was unhappy since this cost me $60 and the end product is the same. Of course they didn’t offer any help. No body cares anymore!

Getting back on the road

I need to get back into the grove of planning our journeys. I always tell everyone the best thing about fulltiming is having the ability to go wherever you want whenever you want. This sounds like it would take little planning. Most of the time it does, however when it involves rallies, one has to plan their spontaneity around dates. This can be difficult for someone with a go-here go-there lifestyle.

I just spent the day with my computer in my lap planning a trip to the Drag Races in Pomona, a rally at San Antonio Lake, San Francisco, a rally in Palmdale, and a rally in Pomona. The events are no problem, it’s the in-betweens.

By the way, looks like we will be volunteering for trams again at the Pomona Rally.

With so much going on around California, We decided to put off heading for Massachusetts until March. This could be a good thing since the weather will have time to get better.

We also decided to extend our stay here at Pechanga another week because with all that has been going on we haven’t had a chance to have our Grandson out for a stay. This also gives me time to get the other muffler replaced (let’s see if they can do the right one this time).

OH NO! The market crashed!

The stock market killed me Friday. Things were looking pretty good this year as far as my stocks were going until Friday. The market took the biggest dump in 1-½ years and I lost all my gains for the year. The good thing is we are only 3 weeks into the year so far.

Back in Temecula

We headed back to Temecula today. It wasn’t an easy drive but it was enjoyable. The reason it wasn’t easy is because we were bucking a headwind that must have been around 50 mph. The motorhome however, handles very well in such a wind. The enjoyable part is that since I knew there was going to be quite a wind, I decided to take Highway 111 through the desert cities until it merged with I-10 just north of Palm Springs. It made the journey twice as long but was rather relaxing.

Just before leaving the Rally today, we got our home weighed. To my surprise, we are under weight. Not only that but perfectly balanced. This makes me feel real good. I thought for sure we would be over weight on at least 1 wheel. Susan asked, “Does this mean I can buy more clothes?” I still have a few things to unload since we haven’t used them for over a year and since coming from dry camping, we had full holding tanks which is about 8 hundred pounds of extra weight. We were weighted by the RV Safety Education Foundation. This is an organization that travels the country weighing Motorhomes and trucks. This is the only way of knowing exactly how much tire pressure to run in your tires for proper ware and safety.

Last night at the Rally

Well tonight is our last night here at the rally. We had a great time as usual. We viewed the new coaches and confirmed that the Travel Supreme is the one we want. We also liked the Holiday Rambler but have heard so much bad about the manufacturer Monaco that I think we should stay away from that one. Country Coach is supposed to be a top of the line coach however we weren’t impressed. We just think Travel Supreme has them all beat. There is an unhappy Country Coach customer out in the parking lot that has lemon shaped signs all over his coach. Each sign lists all the things that have gone wrong. I think every manufacturer has one of those. The good manufacturers will buy them back though. There were lots of vendors with lots of nifty things for sale. I didn’t buy a thing though. I did sign up to have the coach weighed tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how we are on weight. These things can only hold so much before they become unsafe. This will also tell me how much air pressure to run in my tires. Tire pressure is based on the amount of weight the tire is carrying on these things.

Above is a panorama picture of only some of the coaches that were here this week. There were a lot more out in the outer parking lots. I think the attendance was down a little from last year but there were still a lot here.

Some of our friends are heading on to Quartzite after the rally. Sure wish we could go but we have other commitments. We will catch up with them again sometime. We sure got a kick out of driving the trams for the rally again this year and signed up to do it again next year.

$30 Tie Wrap

I just paid $30 for a Tie Wrap. No I am not crazy! It’s really cool because it’s a really bright hot pink. Still think I am crazy? OK, here’s the deal. You pay $30 for electrical hookups for the 5 days at the Rally and they give you this Tie Wrap to attach to your power cord. That’s how they know you paid.

Not much going on today. Nothing really happens until tomorrow. The new motorcoaches opened today for viewing today. I am happy to see that we couldn’t find anything we liked better than what we have now, except one. We really like the Travel Supreme Motorhomes. The problem is to get the one we want we will have to come up with about $500,000. I told Susan the only way I could do that is if I went back to work. Her reply was, “That’s not going to happen”. We started our Tram Driving today. Kind of slow since the rally really doesn’t open until tomorrow. Tomorrow all the vendors will be opening and the seminars will start. I have already picked a few seminars I want to attend to see if I can learns anything new. Also I will be checking out the vendor’s booths to see what kind of new toys I want.

We have met a few old friends here that want us to join up with them after the Rally at various locations. We have commitments so we will not be able to do so.

Indio RV Rally

We took a drive up over the hill today. We are in Indio at the FMCA Western Area Rally. We volunteered to drive trams for them again this year as we did last year. We pick people up from their coach and take them into the rally.

We got up and got an early start this morning however, when we got here they held us in staging for about an hour.

We did get a good spot though and got settled in so we are happy. We just got back from drivers training and tonight we will be attending a dinner for all volunteers. Tomorrow we start driving. We only drive for 2 hours a day so it is very easy and fun. We look forward to meeting a lot of new friends as well as getting to see a lot of friends from last year.

Susan just can’t wait to take a look at the new coaches that the dealers and manufactures bring out on display. Who knows, we just might take off with a brand new coach…

Comments anyone?

I have just added a new feature to our site. You now have the opportunity to add your own comments to our site. Below each posting, next to the time posted, you will see a link labels X comments, where X is the number of comments added. If you click on this link it will show all comments added to this post and give you an opportunity to add your own comment by clicking on the “Post a Comment” link. Another window will open where you can type your comment. Simply type your comment, choose how you wish to be identified, Type the characters you see in the Word Verification, then click Login and Publish.

You comment has to be approved by me before it will be added to the site and this may take a few days depending on if I have internet access where we are, so please be patient.

Thank you in advance for participating in our site. We are looking forward to your comments.

Organizations

I just added some new links in the column to the left titled Organizations. This is a list of the organizations we are members of.

It just doesn’t add up

We took the motorhome into the shop the other day to get a few things done. One was the Slide topper (awning) that was coming apart. One was a new muffler, one of the two was rattling like it was coming apart inside. One was a seal in one of the levelers that has been leaking slowly. And the other was to replace one of my center wheel caps that they scratched the last time I took it into their shop. Well after 7 hours I went to check on their progress. They had done the slide topper and just started the muffler. Now they wanted to keep it over night and put us up in their parking lot. NOT! I told them I will be back to drive it off at closing. At closing time they only had the Topper and Muffler done, gave me an invoice for 4 hours labor, which was covered under warranty, and sent me on my way. HUM… 9 hours later and only 4 hours charged and they didn’t have enough time to complete the other tasks. Something doesn’t add up. And to top it off, being the skeptic that I am, the next day I checked their work. Slide topper…Looks good. Muffler…Wait a minute, it still rattles?? No wonder! They changed out the good one and left me with the bad one, replaced the wrong one. 9 hours to do 4 hours work and they still can’t get it right! Oh yeah, they wanted to charge me $20 labor to tell me that it was a seal leaking on the jack. I asked them to replace the seal when I brought it in because it was leaking. I said, since I told you the seal was leaking then you owed me $20 and since you’re trying to charge me $20 to tell me the seal is leaking then we are even. The payback is, they are going to have to pay for another muffler and eat the labor cost to replace it.

Rain Makers

Hopefully we are getting our “rain making” over with early. As you know, if you have been following our travels, we seem to make it rain everywhere we go. It is downright pouring today. The rest of the week is supposed to be really nice though. In fact it is supposed to get into the high 70s, pushing 80 by the end of the week. Good thing because next Tuesday we are heading for the RV rally. Last year it rained for days just before the rally and the grounds were so wet that after running a few motorhomes and cars over it there were some pretty good ruts. In fact a few motorhomes got stuck. Looks like we will be alright this year though.

I just posted our second half year report in the Random Thoughts section. Check it out.

We are back in Temecula.

It sure was hard saying goodbye to all our newfound friends at San Elijo State Beach. We all exchanged email address and cell numbers so I am sure we will be hooking up again somewhere down the road.

It is a good thing we made reservations because this place is packed. It should be clearing out tomorrow. It is so quiet here. No sound of kids on skateboards, no sound of generators, no sound of trains and no sound of the ocean, not even the smell of campfires. We went from tents and campers to Big Rigs. The thing that hurts the most though is the bill. We had to pay to stay instead of work to stay like we have been doing for the last 2 months. I forgot how much it could cost. Good thing it is in the budget.

We just setup a few things right now because Tuesday our home goes into the shop again. We are just getting a few minor things done this time.