3 hours 25 minutes

I love LA…Traffic! It took us almost 3 and a half hours to get to Buellton today. That is about the longest we have driven in a long time. I go by the 2X2X2 rule. 2 hours of travel, off the road by 2:00p, and stay at least 2 nights. Today I broke that rule. We arrived about 1:30p and was told we could not occupy out site until 2:00p because they were watering. They sent us to overflow to sit for ½ hour. No problem, it gave me time for a sandwich and a Pepsi.


As you can see by the photo, it is quite a squeeze. This is partly my fault because I requested this area so we didn’t have to hike a mile to the laundry. We are only here for 2 nights so it’s not all that bad.


The only down side is I tagged a picnic table pulling in, I can fix it. Tomorrow we will be heading into Solvang to Paula’s Pancake house. We have their Danish pancakes every time we pass through here, So Good!

We had visitors

Last night and again tonight we has some visitors. Susan went to the door to close it and spotted a skunk rummaging around outside. Before we knew, there were four. Needless to say, we let them do as they pleased and after they left, then we closed the door. Didn’t want to startle them you see.

This is one of those places we could have stayed longer because it is real nice but our spot is reserved for tomorrow night so we would have to move. Moving isn’t so bad but if we have to secure things and fire up the motorhome, we might as well move on down the road. All our neighbors here have been nice also. We took a drive around the campground today, yes I did say drive, this place is pretty big. I think we got the best site in the whole park. I don’t know how we lucked out but that happens sometimes.

I case you are wondering why you can’t find South Shore RV Park anywhere, it’s because I messed up. It isn’t South Shore, it’s East Shore RV Park.

San Dimas California

We are now in San Dimas. This is where Bill and Ted lived in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Well now it’s part of Dan and Susan’s Excellent Adventure. We are at South Shore RV Park on the shore of Puddingstone Lake which is just around the corner from the Fairplex in Pomona. We have stayed at the KOA across the street from the Fairplex and also on the grounds of the Fairplex several times but never South Shore. This place is pretty nice. You wouldn’t even know you were in the city. We are sitting up on a hill overlooking the lake and have a spectacular view. If it weren’t for the Smog we would have an even better view. The smog is pretty thick today. I tried a different route instead of battling with the major interstates. We cut off I-15 at the 91 and up the 71. Little to no traffic. We avoided the I-60 interchange and I-10 all together.

It didn’t start out so well here at South Shore. First thing was when we drove to our assigned site and found it occupied. Not only was it occupied but also the family showed no intent of leaving with stuff everywhere. The guy was sitting back watching his outdoor TV. I headed back to the office to see what the deal was. Second thing was there was no place to park back at the office so I centered the Motorhome with toad in a parking lot being careful to leave plenty of room for people to get in and out of the spaces. I wasn’t there 1 minute when this guy spouted out, “Hey buddy! You’re blocking my truck”. Well I went around the motorhome to check and just as I thought, the guy was a JERK! I could have got a motorhome out of that spot. I told him he had plenty of room and he responded with, “If I hit your motorhome it’s not my fault”. Well thinking this guy was enough of a jerk to hit it on purpose; I stood and watch as he pulled out with plenty of room to spare. The gal in the office said she would send security out to chase the people out of out site and I could pull into an empty site and wait. An hour later they were gone and we were in. This spot was worth waiting for.

4th of July

We spent the night of the 4th in a friend’s driveway. We were invited, motorhome and all to their 4th of July party and decided to take them up on their offer. We had a great time with some good friends that we haven’t seen for a while. Although we were paid up through this coming Monday at the Elks Lodge, we left the car at the lodge and took the motorhome to the party. The road from their house is scary enough in a car during the day and even more at night, especially on the 4th of July so having the ability to spend the night was great.

We are back at the Elks Lodge again. We will be spending the next few days with family before hitting the road again.

Our grandson sure likes spending the night at Nana and Papa’s. The weather is finally cooling down a bit and we are happy about that.

Back in Vista

We arrived in Vista California on Wednesday. We came back this way because we were invited to a 4th of July party. Right away Susan took off to pick up our Grandson. He is 5 years old and a real handful. All I have been hearing since is, “Papa, let’s do this. Papa, let’s do that”. Man, he just doesn’t let up. What energy kids have! I have gathered up a pretty good list of things that need attention since it was too hot in Havasu to do anything. Trying to work things in between riding scooters, playing baseball, playing football, and playing with Landen’s Hotwheel cars, has been tough but I have slowly been getting things done. It is still warm (about 95) and humid here but nothing like Havasu. I thought we would be able to turn off the air conditioners but not yet.

You may have noticed the weird news topics scrolling by in the left hand column. It’s just something I though I would add. I may change the topics to RV news or maybe something else.

Movin on down the road

We moved again. This morning we moved on down Interstate 10 toward the coast. Gas went from $2.99 on the Arizona side of the border to $3.49 on the California side. What’s up with that? We are now in Indio California. I have been all around the country and I must say that the California desert has got to be the most boring.

We are in another Passport America park and this one is also nice. Camping in California with full hookups, 50 amp service, and cable for $18 is a pretty good deal.

We still haven’t been able to get out of the heat. It was 111 degrees here today and the closer we get to the coast the more humid it gets. Last night we tried sleeping without the air conditioner on. We woke sometime in the night gasping for air and jumped up to turned on the air. Maybe tomorrow night we will finally be able to turn the air conditioners off.
I found proof that Fulltimers are for real. We’re in the encyclopedia. Check here.

Edit 07/14/07: I guess they took Fulltimers out of their dictionary. I just checked and it’s gone. That’s what happens when I link to other sites.

Finally on the road again

We are back on the road and heading for the coast. We left Havasu this morning and are now in Ehrenberg Arizona. Ehrenberg is at the intersection of the Colorado River and I-10 on the Arizona side. It is one of those hole in the wall cities. There is nothing much here at all. We are in a pretty nice campground that is a Passport America Park so we are here for ½ price. Even after paying an extra $2 for 50 amps and $2 for cable it is still less than most parks.
Our last day at Havasu was real interesting. As if 120 degree temperatures weren’t enough, yesterday we had a 60+ mph wind storm blow through. There was stuff flying through the air everywhere. Awnings were damaged. Table and chairs were overturned and damaged. Anything that wasn’t of substantial weight or tied down was gone. I had just secured our patio furniture since we won’t be back until January 2007. I bunched them all together and covered them. I bungeed covers down over it all because it does get windy in Havasu but I never expected what we experienced. We were sitting comfortably inside, out of the heat, when Susan looked out the window and said, “That looks BAD”. You could see it coming and it didn’t look good. I jumped out and got the awnings in just as the winds hit. I even had to put the living room slide in to save the slide top awning. We watched as the wind got under the furniture covers and just lifted the furniture right off the ground. Fortunately no damage was done. Even with the jacks down, the motorhome was rocking as if I were driving down the road. It wasn’t just a gust, it was sustained winds for 2 hours. I found out my satellite mount is good for about 50 mph when the wind flipped it right over. Our satellite mount consists of our rigid A frame tow bar that weighs about 75 lbs. I set the satellite tripod inside the A frame and bungee it to the tow bar. The wind picked up the satellite dish, tripod, and TOW BAR and flipped it right over. They are predicting more of the same through out the week. I just hope my furniture is still there when we get back in January. So why did we buy an Rv lot in Lake Havasu City Arizona? I’ll let you know in January.
It is still hot here in Ehrenberg. We won’t see cooler weather until we get over the hills toward the coast.

An ocean in the desert

It is blazing hot here in the desert. We are heading for the coast on Monday, however it looks as if the ocean has come to us. This motorhome pulled in next to us today.

It is so hot outside that I haven’t been outside much so I haven’t had a chance to talk to them yet. I bet they have a story just as interesting as their motorhome. Funny how having the ocean next door didn’t do much for the temperature around here though. It is still 120 degrees outside. After sitting inside the motorhome with both airs blasting, then stepping outside, the heat hits you like a blast furnace.

Desert frog

Found this guy last night sitting out on the concrete slab. Didn’t think we would find toads in the middle of the desert.

Things happen slowly around here and they are on a different schedule than most. There is a lot of construction going on in the park, being there are a lot of new owners such as ourselves. The thing is the workers like to start work at 3:00am. I can understand why since it is over 100 degrees by 10:00am. There are many projects that look as if they have been abandoned, however they are just waiting to be completed. I suspect this will be an ongoing thing for a few years since they haven’t even broke ground on phase three yet. We are going to wait until we return in January to start work on our lot since I am going to some of the work myself and it is just too hot right now.

As if it’s not hot enough right now, they are saying we are going to have a heat wave this weekend. Whew! It’s pretty bad when the water coming out of the cold water tap is about 120 degrees. People around here have turned off their water heater and since it is insulated the water from the hot tap is usually cooler than the cold tap. We are leaving Monday for the coast and this will most likely be the last time we spend a summer here. We will return in the winter for a couple of months.

8 and 105

8:00pm and its still 105 degrees. I am about done. In another a week we are heading for the coast for some cooler weather. Not that we don’t like it here. This place is great! We have been here long enough and need to get back on the road again. There are places to go and things to see. We don’t plan to be back here until January 2007, after our Camp Host duties in Southern California this November and December.

Landscaping?

I thought I was through with landscaping when I sold my house. I just spent most of the day planning out our lot at Lake Havasu. I need to make it as maintenance free as possible since we aren’t going to spend a lot of time here. I also want to make it as simple as possible because I don’t want to spend my time digging, planting, and moving things around. I think I am going to add mostly concrete and artificial turf and leave a lot of the existing gravel. I will just lay out a irrigation system and plug in a few plants here and there.

Every evening we sit out and watch the sunset over the mountains. Sometimes it is pretty spectacular and others it is just a simple sunset but it is always one of the best times of the day. Everything quiets down, the air gets still and the temperature is a nice 90 degrees, a big relief from the 100+ days we have been having.

Hot!

Ok it’s 10:30am and it’s already 102 degrees here. They are saying it is going to be the hottest day so far this year and could be a record breaker. We just may be hanging out in the clubhouse watching the Nascar race on their big screen TV with surround sound.

Houseboat

Check out the houseboat we bought to go along with our RV Lot here in Lake Havasu.

Joking of course.

You Know You’re In Arizona When ….

You think Taco Bell is the local phone company.
You notice your car overheating before you drive it.
You no longer associate bridges or rivers with water.
You can hear the weather forecast of 115 degrees without flinching.
You can be in the snow, then drive for an hour...and it will be over 100 degrees.
You discover, in July it only takes two fingers to drive your car, because your steering wheel is so hot.
You run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so you can use your fireplace.
The best parking is determined by shade.....not distance.
You realize that "Valley Fever" isn't a disco dance.
You can make sun tea instantly.
Hotter water comes from the cold water tap than the hot one.
It's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation and yet all the streets are totally empty of both cars and people.
You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
Sunscreen is sold year round and kept right at the checkout counter.
You put on fresh sunscreen just to go check the mail box.
Some fools will market mini-misters for joggers and some other fools will actually buy them. Worse.....some fools actually try to jog.
You can pronounce Saguaro, Tempe, San Xavier, Canyon de Chelly, Mogollon Rim, and Cholla.
You can understand the reason for a town named "Why"
You can fry an egg on the hood of a car in the morning.
You know hot air balloons can't rise because the air temperature is hotter than the air inside the balloon.
No one would dream of putting vinyl inside a car.
You see two trees fighting over a dog.
You can say "Hohokam" and people don't think you're laughing funny.
You see more irrigation water on the street than there is in the Salt River
You have to go to a fake beach for some fake waves
You hear people say "but it's a dry heat!"
You buy salsa by the gallon.
You think a red light is merely a suggestion.
All of your out-of-state friends start to visit after October but clear out come the end of April.
You think someone driving wearing oven mitts is clever.
You think 60 tons of crushed red rock makes a beautiful yard.
Your house is made of stucco and has a red clay tile roof.
Vehicles with open windows have the right-of-way in the summer.
Most homes have more firearms than people.
Kids ask, "What's a mosquito?"
People who have black cars or black upholstery in their car are automatically assumed to be from out of-state or nuts.
You know better than to get into a car with leather seats if you're wearing shorts.
If you haven't worked for Motorola at some time, you must be a newcomer.
You can finish a Big Gulp in 10 minutes and go back for seconds.
You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink.
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Arizona.
You take rain dances seriously.
You've signed so many petitions to recall governors you can't remember the name of the incumbent.
When a rainy day puts you in a good mood.
When you drive two miles around a parking lot looking for a shady place - even in the dead of winter.
You feed your chickens ice cubes to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.
You "hug" a cactus only once in your lifetime.
When you have to look up "mass transit" in the dictionary.
A hundred ten in the shade is sorta hot, but you don't have to shovel it off your driveway.
You wear a bola tie.
You take a stroll on Ho Hum Way.
The beer is chilled and filled with chili.
A haboob happens.
Petrified doesn't mean scared.
Standin' on the corner sounds good.
The temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly.
You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
You would give anything to be able to splash cold water on your face.
You can attend any function wearing shorts and a tank top.
You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

Memorial Day

Well, Memorial Day has come and gone. We are still at Havasu RV Resort and for the most part it was nice and quiet here. Not so in town though. It was wall-to-wall people and shore-to-shore boats on the lake. Sunday they closed off the launch ramps because there were too many boats on the water already. Lake Havasu is taking back their city from the crazies that show up every year. They are not allowing alcohol on their park beaches anymore, however everyone got by that by drinking on their boats. They are cracking down on the women going topless by enforcing a no nipple showing rule, however they got by that by wearing pasties over their nipples. They closed off Copper Canyon so everyone just moved up to the sandbar. I guess the police started early though with a few arrests to let everyone know they meant business this year. Mean while here at the park, all was quiet.

New furniture’s on sale

Well 4 days after I buy my patio furniture, I pick up the paper and guess what? They knocked $100 off the price. Well I marched right down and said, “Hey! What’s up?” and they handed me $100 back. Cool!

The weather sure changes around here. We have had hot days over 100 degrees which they say isn’t normal for this time of year. It is not supposed to reach 100 until next month. Two days ago however, it was a comfortable 87 and yesterday was 98 but today it’s back up to over 100. Heck we even got a little rain the other day. The wind can’t seem to decide what it wants to do. It has been blowing around 10 to 15 mph, sometimes from the southwest sometimes from the northwest. The other day we had gusts of 30 to 40 mph all day. The last couple of days the wind has been tolerable and we can even leave our awning out and umbrella open. It won’t be long before it starts to peak at around 120 degrees. That’s when we are out of here, heading for the coast.

The sunsets are incredible every night. We sit out every evening and watch as just before sunset the jets with their vapor trails head for the coast and the bats come out of the hills and head for the lake. Just after the sun drops below the mountains, the doves, quail and roadrunner head for the common area to bed down for the night. The place gets quiet and the only sounds you hear are the waterfall in the common area and an occasional air conditioner kicking on.

New Furniture

Looks like we are going to have to stay put for a month or so. The reason why is we just spent a bunch of money on patio furniture for our site here at Havasu RV Resort. Since we don’t have to pay campground fees or buy gas for the motorhome we can spend the money on other things. The temperatures are in the 100s everyday and only drops to the high 70s at night so we have been running 1 and sometimes both air conditioners all the time. I don’t know how long I will be able to hang out here before I get the itch to travel again. Hopefully long enough to recoup the cost of our purchases. Our next stay will be to do some landscaping but that won’t happen until it cools down a bit around here.

I just added some photos of our site to our photo site.

What the heck is it

While in Laughlin we stopped by the Colorado Belle Casino to take this photo of the Koi. They are used to being fed by the on lookers so when they see someone up above they swarm. Believe it or not, this is just a small group of them. This is actually a where’s Waldo photo. Can you spot the duck named Waldo? It takes a little while to spot him.

Today in Havasu it got to 106 and later this afternoon it rained. What strange weather.

Back in Havasu

We have arrived back in Lake Havasu City. It is about 103 degrees here today and is only going to get hotter. We will be finalizing the purchase of our RV Lot here at Havasu RV Resort tomorrow and then it’s all ours. We will be spending about a month here while we personalize the place with patio furniture and yard decorations. We are having a hard time deciding which furniture to buy. I am sure glad we don’t have to furnish a whole house. Whew!

While here we have a few friends from California that will be visiting us and then I think we will be heading for the coast where it is a bit cooler.

The Movie RV

It started out a bit breezy today then around noon the wind stopped and the temperature soared to 104.5. We just sat under the awning sipping on iced tea and talking about what we might do for the rest of the day. We took a walk over to the Casino to check the movie times and prices of the Movie “RV”.






On the way back I took this photo of our Motorhome in the Avi/KOA RV Park.


This afternoon we went back for the movie. What a funny movie. As Fulltimers we can relate. There were several times Susan turned around to me and said, “Reminds me of you”. If you want a laugh, go see “RV”.

Then to top it all off, tonight we were treated to a great desert sunset. I must have millions of beach sunset photos but not many desert sunsets. They can be just as pretty.

Oatman

It sure has been hot out here in Laughlin. This is the first time I can remember that we have had to run both air conditioners at the same time. We also are running one all night.


Today we visited Oatman. This is a Ghost Town located east of Bullhead City Arizona along the Original Historic Route 66. This town started in 1902 when a man riding along a trail spotted gold on the ground below him. There was more gold taken from these hills than any other place in California. There is still much more gold to be had but the price right now doesn’t warrant going for it. A good part of Oatman’s population today is the descendants from the original burrows used in the gold mines. This was one of the stops on the Route 66 Fun Run, however the road is not RV friendly so we bypassed it during the run.

Oatman Photos added to photo site

Laughlin Nevada

It’s pretty warm out here. It got to 101 today out here in Laughlin Nevada today and it’s supposed to get hotter. We are in the Avi Casino RV Park, which is now a KOA. We have become real PIA RVers lately. I hope it’s not becoming a trend, it’s not my nature. First when we had to wait for 2 hours for them to move a trailer out of our site in Moabi, we figured we would just move on to Laughlin so I asked for my money back. They would only give back one of the two nights so we stayed one and left this morning. Here in Laughlin, our site had a big hole right where I wanted to put the rear tire so I went back to the office to request a different site. I asked which side the sun sets on so we could get afternoon shade on our patio and they gave me a site where we get full afternoon sun. Another trip to the office to request another site. Fortunately these people are a lot friendlier than the folks at Moabi. It really was their mess-up anyway. So tomorrow we are changing sites again. We actually visited 3 states today. We started our trip in California, where gas was $3.99 by the way, and crossed over the Colorado river at needles into Arizona then back over the river into Nevada, where gas is $3.09. During the next week we will be bouncing between Nevada and Arizona several times.

Kingman to Topock Arizona

Yesterday we were in Kingman for the second leg of the Route 66 Fun Run. There is no Verizon coverage in Kingman so I was unable to connect to the Internet. Go Figure, Seligman has Verizon but Kingman doesn’t. Today we are in Needles California. We are right across the Colorado River from Topock. Topock is where the Route 66 Fun Run ended today. They all took the old original Route 66 over the mountains to Oatman then back down to Topock. It isn’t advisable to take a motorhome such as ours over that route so we elected to take I-40 instead. I made reservations at the Moabi Regional Park for 2 nights, which is about the closest park to Topock. We pulled into the park at about 11:00a and checked in. They said there might be someone in our site still and they have until 1:00p to leave. Sure enough the site was occupied so we grabbed a parking spot, fired up the generator and kicked the air on since it was pushing 100 outside. Come around 1:00p the site was still occupied and there was no one around so I inquired in the office. Oh, that trailer was supposed to be moved to storage. So we waited 2 hours for nothing. By the time they got the site cleared and we got setup the Fun Run happenings in Topock were over. A little upset, and the fact that we are getting VERY marginal cell phone including Internet (1 bar), we decided to head out in the morning to Laughlin Nevada instead of staying here another night as planned.

Oh good a Pool

The sign out front advertises a pool.


What it doesn’t say is what condition it’s in.

We are right next to a major east/west freight train track. They run 24 hours although a little less a night. There are only about 300 trains a day, which equates to about 1 every 5 minutes. Since there are 2 tracks sometimes there are 2 trains going by at a time. The good thing, there are no intersections nearby so they are not on their horns while going by.

This Campground is located right in between Historic Route 66 and a new stretch of road so all day today we saw classics and hotrods running up and down the roads on both sides of us. Tonight at 8:00p they are having a parade of cars so I should be getting some good photos.

What’s to do in Seligman

You wouldn’t think there is anything to do in Seligman Arizona. That’s what we thought, today however we had a real good time. We first traveled down the Historic Route 66 to see the Grand Canyon Caverns. A woodcutter discovered the caverns in 1927 when he stumbled upon a hole in the ground. Later he lowered people into the hole 150 feet down by rope for 25 cents each. Today you travel in an elevator for $12 each.

Then on the way back from the caverns we passed miles of NOTHING. At least that’s what we thought until a little creature scurried across the road in front of us. It was a prairie dog. As I looked out on the desolate prairie I could see mounds of fresh dirt. Upon some mounds you could see prairie dogs perched as lookouts.

After returning back to Seligman from the Caverns, We stopped at the Snow Cap Drive-in which I had read about on the Internet. A gentleman named Juan Delgadillo in 1953 opened the Snow Cap. Juan was a real jokester. Some of the items on the menu are, Hamburgers without Ham, Cheeseburgers with Cheese, and Dead Chicken Sandwich. He would squirt mustard at you from a mustard bottle that was actually just yellow string. Juan died at the age of 90 in 2004 but his kids are keeping up with the antics. We weren’t impressed with the food but the entertainment was worth stopping in for.

Where are you taking me

Sometimes I wonder what Susan is thinking of me. Especially when we pull into a place like this.

We are in Seligman Arizona to join up with the Route 66 Fun Run. This is a big event where hotroders from all over come for car shows, good eats, music, and a rod run to the Colorado River. The event doesn’t start until Friday but we are early because we are going to visit the Grand Canyon Caverns near here tomorrow. We are at the only RV Park in Seligman. It is a KOA and as most KOAs we have seen, it ain’t pretty. They say they do have a lot of reservations for the event so we should be getting some neighbors by tomorrow. When I mad reservations, they told me to call the day of arrival for a site number. I thought this was rather strange. I called and they gave me a site and said they will be out from noon until about 3:00p. We pulled in, setup and at 3:00p I moseyed into the office. The old guy in the office asked me to come back about an hour or two because he didn’t know how to work the computer. We had a short conversation and I told him I would be back in an hour or two. He said, “No hurry, whenever you want”.

A Piano?

Last night we went to dinner and met this couple who are new Fulltimers. How did we know? I saw the tow hitch on the front of their car and asked if they were RVers. They said they just went Fulltime in January and after telling them we have been at it for 2 years they wanted to pick our minds. We had dinner together then stopped by their place for a visit. They are both musicians and have a full size 88 key (electric) piano in their 36 foot motorhome. We spent the evening with good conversation and good entertainment also.

Flagstaff Arizona

We are presently in Flagstaff Arizona. After 3 nights in Sedona with no sewer or dump, we decide we have seen enough. I got on the Internet to see where else we can go. Turns out I found a campground in Flagstaff that was getting good reviews so I decided to check it out. We are at J&H RV Park and it is every bit as nice as the reviews. We will only spend one night here then it’s back on the road again. The drive here was only 66 miles and only took us about an hour and a half but it was one of the toughest we have done. Actually it wasn’t tough on us but tough on the motorhome. It is up hill all the way from right out of Sedona and really steep in places for miles. This is the first time I have had to manually drop this Alison 5 speed down to 2nd gear. I never did drop below 45 mph and only for a short time. But the Motorhome handles it like a champ. It never complained a bit. Stayed nice and cool and responded admirably to my shift and accelerator commands without hesitation. So today I just sat and talked with the owner while Susan did some laundry. The owner is a very witty person and is real fun to talk to.

Sedona Mc Donald’s

Sedona is real big on esthetics. They want their town to have that desert look. Right down to the colors.


This photo is of the only Mc Donald’s in the world that does NOT have golden arches. Sedona made them change their arches to “Desert turquoise”. Notice the color of the building itself is Sedona red. I got to admit, it looks good.

We have contact

As I mentioned in the last post, I was not sure we would have contact to the outside world while in Sedona. We are now in Sedona and have contact. We have cell coverage and Internet. We arrived this morning after a short 1-½ drive and are staying at the Sedona Elks Lodge.

This photo is a view from our front window

We have a view of all the named formations in Sedona. This photo is one called Coffeepot. If you look at the right side you can see the spout of the coffeepot. I have got to say, Sedona is NOT RV friendly . There is only 1 real RV Park in Sedona and NO; I mean absolutely NO sewer dumpsites in all of Sedona. The only RV Park has full hookups but no dump station and will not let anyone dump at one of their sites. The closest dump is 20 miles away in Cottonwood, the opposite direction we are going. We may not stay the 4 nights as planned because of this. There is quite a grade for 12 miles out of here and I don’t like the idea of hauling 1000lbs of waist up that hill.

Grand Canyon Railroad

We took the train to the Grand Canyon today. It was a pleasant 2 hour ride up to the canyon. We met a very nice couple from Colorado on the train and had good conversation during the trip. Goes to show, they don’t have to be RVers to be fun people. They even invited us to stay with them on their property when we travel through Colorado. It’s always nice to have good friends to visit during our journeys. Anyway, although the train was fun, I would suggest driving your own car from Williams to the canyon. There really wasn’t much to see on the train and you are on their schedule. The train takes 2 hours up and 2 hours back, arrives at the canyon at 12:00 and departs at 4:00. This really doesn’t give you enough time.

The Canyon was awesome of course. When you look over the edge, the first words out of your mouth are WOW. At first glance it just looks like one huge mural. You really have to just stand there for a while and take it all in before you realize it is REAL. I added a few photos to our photo site. You can view them by clicking on the photo link at the left. Unfortunately this is one of those things that photos don’t do justice, but they are still worth taking a look at. There are free shuttle busses running throughout the park and you can get on and off as much as you like. The shuttles are great because there is a lot to see and you will wear yourself out trying to walk it all. They also offer a number of bus tours along with hiking and mule rides down the canyon walls. We had a great time and are worn out for now.

We may loose contact with the world tomorrow since we are heading into Sedona. Cell phone coverage may be impossible, which includes Internet. If you don’t hear from us, we should be back in 4 days.

We are out of range

We are a little over 300 miles from San Diego, as the crow flies. This means I am just at the edge of the Direct TV local San Diego channels spot beam. We have lost out local channels. We can switch over to the West coast feed which comes out of Los Angeles but we will be within range in few days so we will leave it as is for now.

Williams Arizona

We are on the road again. We are now in Williams Arizona. It was up hill all the way. I am not kidding. Most was just a gradual climb that wasn’t even noticeable. We left about 400 ft elevation in Lake Havasu City and are now at 6770 ft. Williams is one of the famous towns on the Historic Route 66. Today we drove down a portion of Route 66 through Williams and checked out the motels, shops, and restaurants that were in full swing back in the days travelers traveled Route 66. Of course there is plenty of memorabilia to be bought. Why are we in Williams? Tomorrow we are going to take a 2 hour ride on a historic 1923 steam train to the Grand Canyon (more on that tomorrow) and the train departs from Williams.

Clyde guessed it

We have always had a home, even though we live in our motorhome. Now our motorhome has a home. We purchased an RV lot in Lake Havasu City at the Havasu RV Resort. It isn’t officially ours until the paperwork is done but there should be no problem with that.

The Havasu RV Resort has just added a really nice Virtual Tour of the park to their web site. You can click on THIS link to see it or go to www.havasurvresort.com, click on Photo Gallery, and click on the Virtual Tour panorama photo at the top.

The Main Arial (first view) was shot from the site just to the right of ours. Our site is the first empty slab you see, in fact our site is in the lower left corner of the photo before you start the tour. As it pans all the way around you get a better view of our site. As you will see, a little landscaping is in order but that will happen soon. We enjoy the same views as this tour. Be sure to check out the inside views of the Clubhouse as well as the other views.

We’ve got a secret

As you know from our previous post, we are in Lake Havasu City Arizona. There is a reason why we came here besides the fact that it is on our way to the Route 66 Fun Run, which we are going to join up with. Can you guess what our secret is? Comment to this post by clicking on the comment link below this post if you think you know.

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.