Survived another race weekend

All the food, fun and racing! What a great weekend. The weather held up for us. We only had rain late Friday night and it was gone by morning. We are now back in Lake Havasu after the weekend in Goodyear for the NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raeway. There were 3 races over the weekend and lots of excitement. Although we were camped about 12 miles away, we spent the days at the track in the infield. We would get up in the morning and head right on over to the track and not leave ‘till around midnight. I got lots of pictures and posted them to our Photo site. You can see them by clicking on the photo thumbnail link in the left hand column. Or click here.

This is a fan friendly track.

You can get close to the action and see many drivers wandering around.

There are places you can stand and see all the action in the garages.

Some of the RV sites in the infield are directly in front of the pits so you can watch all the action of your favorite driver as he comes in for fuel and tires. Susan’s favorite driver came in 4th after struggling with a dead alternator all night and having to run on batteries only. Holding in the top 5 all evening, there is no doubt he would have won if his car was up to it. Ends up his teammate came in first and my daughter’s favorite came in second.

Goodyear

No, not the tire. We are in Goodyear Arizona. We are at a resort about 12 miles from Phoenix International Raceway, or as it’s called around here, PIR. This is about the closest resort other than camping at the track. Cotton Lane RV and Golf Resort is OK but not as nice as Havasu RV Resort. We are parked in dirt and I had to ad an extension to the water hose to make it reach. My front tires are off the ground in order to level and I am at the end of the jacks and still not level. Their WiFi is not free as it is in Havasu. They are pretty specific as to how to park, 8 feet away from the utility box and the back of the coach is to be no further back than the sewer hookup. The sites are rather wide, plenty of room. But the park is nice, and many times better than it could be.

The wind must be plowing about 30 mph with 50 mph gusts. It is a side wind so the coach is shaking side to side quite a bit. I hope it mellows out this evening. The weather is calling for less wind tomorrow.

We took a ride over to the track today to check out the situation. Looks like we will be parking in dirt and either walking a distance or take the trams, if they are running when we arrive and leave.

We’re packed

We’ve packed up the motorhome and tomorrow are heading over to Phoenix Arizona. We are going to the NASCAR race this weekend. This will just be a weekend trip and we will be back in Lake Havasu on Sunday. Susan is looking forward to the race of course. Hopefully she can bring some luck to her driver because he had a bad weekend last weekend.

Frustration

I just spent the last 5 days battling with Direct TV. It all started when I lost my Local channels. They have always worked out here at the resort even though we are right on the edge of their spot beam, but the other day they went away and would only occasionally pop in and out. Being that this weekends NASCAR race was on FOX, one of our locals, I knew I needed to do something or Susan would not be happy. So I decided to switch from the locals to the West Feed out of Los Angeles. Now I have done this several times since we have been fulltiming and every time I have to explain that we LIVE in our RV and DO NOT have a permanent house and was told that because of this we don’t need a waver. After explaining this they have always switched us over. This time however was quite different. I spent over an hour on the phone yesterday and went through 5 different people. None of them could figure out how to do the switch. They all said “The Computer” said I was denied. After over an hour, 7 people and 3 different phone calls I finally got a hold of Danielle. Right away she said, “OK, no problem.” And it was done. Now later that evening I noticed we were missing some channels so I called again and got someone that was able to restore them. I also noticed that we were also receiving channels that we could not get before. Something is amiss I thought. This morning I logged on to my account on the Internet and noticed that during all the fiasco yesterday, somewhere along the line, I got changed over to a different programming package and to add the missing channels they just upgraded to the next higher package. This amounted to much more money of course. So today, it was back on the phone again. This time however, I was able to get it all straightened out with only 3 phone calls. All is well again.

A lot of washing going on

Just the other day I spent a couple of hours washing everything from the top of the motorhome right down to the cement pad it sits on.

The wind was so bad that it blew a lot of dirt from the construction in phase 3 through the rest of the resort. Well, yesterday was another one of those windy days so this morning I did the same thing. It’s almost futile but I just can’t stand it when everything has a layer of grit and looks brown from the dirt.

They are still pulling out of here by the loads. Maybe there is something going on that I don’t know about. I do know that the weather still isn’t the greatest around the country. There was one couple that left and within a few days they were back. I think they were heading for Wisconsin. We will be moving on down the road this coming Wednesday. We are just heading over to Phoenix Arizona to, what else, a NASCAR race. It is just a 4 day trip and we will be coming back to the resort. I might take a detour through Wickenburg though just to check it out.

Good news, the bed is fixed. It has been a few days now and it is holding air. No more waking up in a hole because most of the air has leaked out. Wahoo!

We have run into so many people that just love Susan’s cooking and are amazed that she can prepare such dishes in a motorhome using just the convection/microwave oven. The resort has asked her if she would run a cooking class in the clubhouse when we come back next year. Many people have suggested that she write a cookbook geared toward cooking in the motorhome. She has been wanting to but is not familiar enough with Microsoft Word to want to attempt it. Well, the other day I sat down and created a fill-in form for here in Word so maybe there will be a cookbook in the near future.

It’s getting younger

The days are getting hotter around here and most of the “Snowbirds” are on their was home. The resort is getting real empty lately. I have noticed the population of Lake Havasu is getting younger since the “snowbirds” are heading out and the younger generation is coming in with their boats. Man there sure is a lot of nice boats coming in. Where do these young people get their money?

Today I spent half the day hunting for leaks…in our bed that is. Our airbed has been leaking down on us over night. We wake in the morning lying in a hole. I found the seals in the pumps were deformed and after 4 phone calls to the company I finally convinced them to send me some new seals. This slowed the leaking quite a bit but it was still leaking down over night. Today I went down to Wal Mart and bought a BIG bottle of bubbles, the kind kids use to make bubbles with. I removed the air chambers from the bed and using a paintbrush, went over the whole surface of the chambers. I found a small leak in both chambers. Hopefully this repair will be the last for a while and we can get a good night sleep without waking in a hole.

April Fools

Happy April everyone. No April Fools here. It was an absolute beautiful day here at the resort. I just love sitting every evening at the dinner table and watch the California mountains swallow the sun and spit out sunsets that rival everything I have seen at the beach. This evening we had a double whammy with the sunset over the California mountains and the moon rise over the Arizona mountains. It is in the high 70s with a gentle breeze tonight. Just perfect! I broke out the camera and snapped a few night shots of the moonrise over the clubhouse in front of the motorhome.
Susan was excited to watch her favorite NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson #48 win yet another race today. Yesterday I got my tickets and campground reservations for the Phoenix NASCAR race, can’t wait.

Rebuild time

Well since I upgraded my hard drive partition from FAT32 to NTFS, things slowed down significantly. To remedy this I had to backup everything on the computer, format the hard drive back to FAT32, and reload EVERYTHING back into the computer. This might not sound too difficult, however the tough part is getting all the programs configured back the way I like them. Also I had to remember a few passwords for some online programs. Well it looks like I am up and running again and everything is FAST. Actually this was a good time to do it since it rained one day and was cool and very windy today. But it’s done and working well.

We have been invited to a family reunion in Florida the first of June. This works out well because we were intending to head for the east coast this year anyway. The big problem is TORNADOS! I have been looking at the weather reports and yesterday there were 66 tornados across the USA. This is not good. We do have the option to fly but we would sure like to bring our home. Once we get there we can hangout until the weather gets better before we come back. I will have to see if we can time it right and make a run for it.

They have begun construction on the third phase of the resort and are pushing around a lot of dirt. With the winds, it’s impossible to keep anything clean around here. I gave the motorhome a sponge bath the other day and the next day it was dusted out again. We are constantly wiping down the tables and counters inside as well. Not only that but they are already working on their summer schedule. This means they have been starting at 5:00 am with dump trucks, tractors, and backup alarms. The plus side is, since they start early, they quit early and the rest of the day is quiet and peaceful.

It’s starting to thin out around here. When we arrived in January and again in February almost every site was filled, mostly with “Snowbirds”. Well it’s getting time for those “birds” to fly home and it is starting to empty out. It won’t be long before the temperatures start pushing into the 100s.

Problem found in poll code

OK I found a problem with the latest poll code. I had to re-do the poll. Also I added Mid engine diesel to the poll. What this means is, this is a new poll and all that voted in the last poll titled “What fuel type is your RV?” will have to re-vote. Thanks.

Poll results

Here are the results of the poll, How long do you spend in your RV per year. Looks like we have a lot of Fulltimers out there.

I have also started a new poll so check it out.

Back in Arizona

After a 1 night stop over in Indio, we are now in Lake Havasu City Arizona. I knew the gas prices would be better in Arizona so I let the tank get a little lower than usual to make it to Arizona and fill up. It is about $0.40 cheaper per gallon here in AZ. I will be spending some time here cleaning and catching up on more maintenance on the motorhome. There is a lot I have wanted to get to, but just keep putting it off. I really should do it now. All our friends here at the resort were glad to see us back. All my plants have survived the 100 degree temps here. Looks like the irrigation system is working well. My neighbors tell me that my lot was rented the whole time we were gone. I thought this was a good thing until I saw the oil stains on my slab. I was told a brand new Newell did it. You would thing that a Million Dollar + coach wouldn’t leak oil. Also by the tire marks on the slab, it looks like Jimmie Johnson has been doing burnouts. The new owners of this Newell had a bit of a hard time parking it on our lot and left tire marks all over it. I bet it was an all-electric coach and they had all their air conditioners running full blast too. I am starting to think renting our lot isn’t a good thing. If I can get the oil cleaned up, I will feel better about it though.

What a Fantastic weekend

We, as usual, had a fantastic weekend. We spent the weekend at our friend’s house with the motorhome setup right next to their pool. We were invited to stay at their house to attend a birthday party.

Everyday we sat by the pool, drank champagne, and ate good food. Every evening we gathered around the fire pit and enjoyed the warmth of the fire and swap some great stories. Saturday night we headed for the country club for the birthday party. What a fun evening. The theme was a Murder Mystery. I think our table should have won a prize for the least amount of right answers. Oh well, the food, friends and band were really great. Today we sat around the outdoor kitchen and watched NASCAR. Susan’s driver, Jimmie Johnson won again this weekend after a close battle with Tony Stewart in the final laps.

After the race we gathered around the fire pit for more drinks and conversation



while Susan stayed at the TV for the after race commentaries. We are so fortunate to have such good friends and enjoy the opportunity to meet more good friends.

Tomorrow we are back on the road. We will be heading back to Havasu for a few weeks before our trek east.

Riverside Resort

We are now in Riverside California at a friend’s house. As you can see in the photo we have a choice spot right by their pool. It is like resort living. Last night we had burgers by the pool and sat out by the fire pit for a couple of hours enjoying good conversation. We are here for a Birthday party this weekend. This was a surprise to Terri because she didn’t know we were going to be here. It was hard for Susan to bite her lip and not say anything since we were just with them last weekend in Las Vegas for the NASCAR race. This should be a real fun weekend.

NASCAR photos

I just uploaded some photos of last weekend’s NASCAR race in Las Vegas. See the thumbnail in the column at the left titled “Las Vegas NASCAR”.

What a great NASCAR weekend

We have wrapped up another NASCAR weekend. What a great time. The weather was perfect. Susan had more fun this weekend than in the past. The main reason is because I bought her a “Neon Garage Pass” which gets you into the garages as much as you want to go. We also had front row seats in the stands for the Bush race, thanks to our friends. We were so close you could feel the wind in your hair when the cars went by.

The Blue Man Group even came by one afternoon to tape off our campfire with Caution tape. On Sunday we viewed the race from the rooftop of our friends trailer in the infield. We had a great view of turns 1, 2 and the backstretch.

Susan was excited to see that her favorite driver Jimmie Johnson in the #48 car win at Las Vegas for the 3rd time in a row. After the race she headed back into the Neon Garage where the Winners Circle was to view the post race ceremonies.

Today we headed out of town. We are now in Pahrump Nevada. We wanted to stay here for a couple of nights but they only have 1 night available. I will go back up tomorrow morning to see if we can get another night. I forgot the southern deserts are filled up with “Snowbirds” this time of year. I didn’t realize we were in for a pretty good 15 to 20 mile climb to 5000 feet before dropping into Pahrump. The ol’ Workhorse did well though. I think we are looking at another climb when we head out of here also.

Another great day

It was another great day at the track. Today was practice and qualifying. The new track is so slick that there were a BUNCH of crashes in just the practice and qualifying. The races should be real exciting. Today Susan spent some time in the new “Neon Garage” here at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This is where you can get up and close with the happenings in the garages. They don’t actually let you in the garage but you are only separated from the garage by a window. You get to see the whole process from car prep, through inspection, to the pits.

This is a good shot that Susan got of her favorite drivers garage, Jimmie Johnson. That's Jimmie standing in the middle.

Here is another, as Jimmie is getting ready to head out for practice.

And here is another of his hauler in line with the rest.

Race Prep

Today we went into the infield to meet up with some friends.

Above is a photo of the Bush cars lined up to go through inspection.

Here is all the NASCAR haulers coming through the tunnel into the infield.

It was amazing to watch as over 50 haulers came in and lined up side by side.

Tomorrow the activities on the track begin. There will be practicing and qualifying going on. There are no races until Saturday. The weather has been just great. Sunny skies with temps in the high 70s. Perfect!

We are here in Las Vegas

It was an easy drive today, except for the 5th wheel in front of me on a 2 lane 65 mph road that would only go about 50 mph. I finally got around him and all was well. We arrived shortly before 12:00p and there was already a line of RV a mile long waiting to get in. It all went fairly well and fast though.

We got a good spot on the end of a row so there is no one on one side of us.

I sat today and watched as the jets circled and approached their landing at Nellis Air force Base. They come so close, you can almost wave at the pilot. There is nothing going on at the track today so we will just sit and relax until tomorrow. The weather was a mix of sun, rain, cool and warm today.

The sunset was killer. Tomorrow it is supposed to be clear and sunny.

Packed and ready to go

Our stuff is all packed up and we are ready to hit the road again. Tomorrow we are heading out again. We have been here in Lake Havasu for 1 week and already we are back on the road. We are heading on over the Lass Vegas for the NASCAR race this weekend. It should be an easy 3 hour drive over to Vegas. Susan can’t wait because she has a Neon Pass, which gets her in to the garages and pits. She will get a chance to get up close to all the action. Since I am not as big as a NASCAR fan as she, I decided to save my money for something I will enjoy just as much. I just haven’t figured out what that is yet. I am sure we will have Internet access but we will most likely be so busy that you might not hear from us for a while.

Check out our new addition to our faux lawn. Yes it’s a faux dog. We though the lawn needed a little something so we found this guy at the local Swap Meet. I still walk by and do a double take thinking someone’s dog got loose and is enjoying the shade on our lawn.

Weather

Having wheels under our home gives us the opportunity to go where the weather is nice and stay away from the areas where the weather is bad. The problem is, when the weather is bad where we want to go. I am getting anxious to head east. We want to go to Branson, Nashville, The Natchez Trace Parkway, Daytona, The race shops in North Carolina, Massachusetts, and who knows what else. The weather is looking pretty bad right now with the tornados and blizzards. We will have to see what it looks like in a few weeks or so.

Back in Havasu

Yesterday we got back to Lake Havasu City Arizona. It was a good drive although a bit windy. I am real impressed the way the motorhome handles in the wind. I went down the road nice and straight and steady with little effort. Not so for the guy in front of me. I watched as he used all of the 2 lanes plus shoulders of the road. People were passing with extreme caution as he swayed right they passed on the left. I kept my position behind and did not try to pass. It took us a little over 3 hours, time wise, but since Arizona is an hour ahead of California it was 4 hours according to the clock. The weather is cool and windy, but I hear that the weather in California turned real bad as soon as we got out of town. There is no threat of rain here and in fact it is supposed to get warmer and the wind should die down. It looks good for Las Vegas (NASCAR) next week. This week will give us a chance to get things cleaned up and a little R and R.

Wrapping it up

Well, we pretty much wrapped up our 3 week California Race and Rally Tour tonight. To night was the last race of this NASCAR weekend at the California Speedway.

It turned out to be pretty good since Susan’s driver lead a few laps and finally came in 3rd at the end. It was much better than last weekend when he crashed out.

Our good friends bought us Garage passes for our birthdays, which occurred 2 days apart over the weekend. We were able to go into the garages this morning and see all the hustle and bustle, as they were getting ready for the big race. Man, were they busy!

The infield parties were real interesting, talk about your freak shows. Tomorrow we are back on the road heading back to Lake Havasu for 1 week, and then it’s off to Las Vegas for the NASCAR race there.

We have just had a great 3 weeks. First NHRA Drag races then an RV Rally and wrapping it up at NASCAR. Who could ask for a better time?

Man did I dodge a bullet

We left Santa Barbara early this morning. We wanted to get to the Ontario Elks Lodge before all the spaces were filled up. I did call ahead and they said they would put a reserved sign out on a site for me but I just wanted to get there early just in case. As we were heading down the freeway I just happened to take a glance in my left side mirror. I don’t know what made me look just at that instance but what I saw was a car coming right at me from the left lane. I heard brakes, moved slightly to the right in an attempt to avoid a collision, and watched in my side mirror as this guy over corrected, turned to the left, slammed into the center divider, spun around, and came to a stop in the center medium. It sounded real nasty. I saw a pickup pull up behind it so I kept on going. I didn’t hear any thunk on the side of the motorhome so I figured I wasn’t hit. I checked the side mirror of the motorhome and saw no damage. But what about the car? I could see no harm in the rear view camera and was hoping the car didn’t get hit. We finally arrived safely at the Ontario Lodge and I immediately jumped out and did a walk around. Whew! No damage. Well, remember the reserved sign? As I was backing into a spot, out came the guy with the reserve sign. Thanks I said but I don’t need it now.

Back in Santa Barbara

We arrived back in Santa Barbara this morning. We parked the motorhome and without even setting up we headed out to the local Laundromat. After all was clean we went back to the motorhome and finished setting up. Tomorrow we will be getting another early start and head on down to Ontario to get setup for the NASCAR race this weekend. Susan is getting excited.

Heading back south

We left San Antonio Lake this morning and I decided to explore a different route for future reference. I will make sure NOT to ever take that route again. It is full of hills and slow turns. Although it is shorter mileage wise, it didn’t save us much time. I always wondered about that route, at least now I know.

Tonight’s stop is in Pismo, actually Oceano which is just south of Pismo. About a block from the Elks lodge, where we are, is the “Drive on Beach”. There has been a steady stream of toy haulers coming off the beach since we got here. The town is packed with RVs in every nook and cranny. By this evening, the area will most likely be cleared out. The wind is blowing strong and steady which it does most of the time here and it blows a lot of sand around. About a mile from here is one of the famous Monarch Butterfly Groves where the butterfly migration stops for a beak on their way to and from Mexico. We visited it last time here so we opted out for this time. We went into Pismo to look for the NASCAR shop that was their last time but it was gone. It was for sale last time we were here and we didn’t know if the new owners would keep the NASCAR theme or change it. It is now a beach clothing shop, like they don’t have enough of those around here already.

We are only going to be here for 1 night then it’s off to Santa Barbara. We want to get to Fontana early so we can get a spot for the Motorhome since it is on a first come basis at the Elks Lodge, and it IS NASCAR weekend.

More good times

We are about to wrap up another great weekend. We arrived here at San Antonio Lake in Paso Robles California on Thursday morning. We got here early so I could set up the Satellite dish for Susan’s NASCAR qualifying. I must have struggled for an hour trying to get the satellite signal. Susan was worried and I knew it wouldn’t be good if I couldn’t get ’r done. Finally, after an hour, I decided to check the motorhome input. Sure enough, the cable was screwed into the cable input instead of the satellite input. As soon as I moved it, the signal came right in.
We are having a great time, but when do we not?

Last night was the big dinner and “White elephant bingo” where everyone contributes to the prize table and each winner gets to pick from the table. There is a collection of junk, novelties, and some pretty good stuff. This is always a good time.

Today everyone is in the clubhouse watching NASCAR, thanks to one of the campers satellite system. Susan is in our motorhome watching Hot Pass.

Tomorrow we will be heading out for round 3 of our 3 week tour. We are heading back to Southern California for the NASCAR race in Fontana. We will take a couple of days to get there with stops in Pismo and Santa Barbara.

The weather has just been fabulous. Today is a bit cooler but still nice.

Round Two

We just had a ball at the Drag Race. Monday morning we pulled out and headed up the road. We made a stop over in Santa Barbara last night and are now in Atascadero. We will hang out here until Thursday to get some laundry and shopping done. On Thursday we are heading up to Lake San Antonio in the hills just west of Paso Robles. We are going to attend a Rally over the weekend with some friends from www.rv.net. This will be number 2 of our 3 week journey of weekends of good fun, good food, and good friends.

Drag Racing

We have just about wrapped up the weekend here at Pomona. We have been here since Thursday for the NHRA Winternationals Drag Races.

For a while it was looking a little iffy with the threat of rain but it held off until Saturday night and cleared enough Sunday to get the finals in.

This is a picture of 24 year old Ashley Force’s car with Father John Force on the far left and Mom in the pink top.


We are here with a group of 6 rigs and we just had a ball of course with good racing, good food, and good friends.

It is just unbelievable how fast these cars are getting. Covering a ¼ mile track at speeds of 330+mph in the low 4-second range is just incredible. We are fortunately to be camping with an ex funny car racer that gave us all the low down on what it’s like to be in the drivers seat. He drove until he crashed his jet-powered car at over 300 mph breaking both legs and an arm. That is when he decided to call it quits. He still gets the bug though.

Tomorrow we are heading north for the second part of our 3 week journey before heading back to Havasu. More fun ahead.

Ready for the Drag Race

We made it to Pomona today. On the way we stopped by the shop to get the U joints lubed. While they were under there they found a grease cup that was torn and replaced it for free. Now that’s good business. At first I thought they may have damaged it with too much pressure/grease but Keith showed it to me and the rubber is just plane shot. This coach is only 4 years old and has a bit over 20000 miles on it. I was surprised to see these things in that bad of shape. I am sure the others are ready to go at anytime too. If you are in the area of Redlands California and find you need service go see the guys at Redlands Truck and RV. These guys know their stuff and will take care of you.

Today we will just sit and relax. Tomorrow the others in our group will start to arrive. We are in a KOA right across the street from the Drag Strip and you can sure hear those Top Fuel cars run.

Made it to Indio

We left Lake Havasu this morning and made it over to Indio California. What a boring drive. I think the California desert has got to be the worst. I tried a different course this time which shaved only about 15 minutes off our time but had about 1 hour and 45 minutes more boring desert. I think I will go back to the old route. At least with the old route we pass through farmland along the Colorado River. We are only going to be here for 1 night then down the hill to Pomona California. We will make a quick pit stop to get the Universal joints lubed that they forgot to do when I had it in the shop Jan 2.

I had to order a new AC power adaptor for my notebook computer since the one I have has a broken wire in it. I have to hold it just right to make connection. On the way over here it disconnected and I had to fiddle with it while going down the road. Susan finally made me pull into a rest stop to fix it before we ended up in the ditch, or worse. So if you don’t hear from us for a while it is because the cord broke beyond repair. I have a new one on it’s way to Lake Havasu right now, so it should be there when we get back on Feb 27.

Getting ready to travel

When they installed my turf, they tried to cut corners by piecing together some pieced. It didn’t come out to good so today they came out and replaced the whole thing. It looks real nice now.

Well tomorrow we are on the road again. We are heading for the NHRA Winternationals Drag Race in Pomona California. I packed up our patio furniture and covered it for the time we will be gone. Our lot looks pretty bare right now but the turf sure looks good. I was looking at the covers and they look like they will only handle one more summer out here. It gets around 120 here in the summer and that will take a toll on everything. I guess it’s cheaper to replace the covers every 2 years rather than the furniture.

Poll Results

Here are the results of the poll question “What region of the country do you live in?”. This surprised me somewhat. I thought most would be from the Southwest because the weather is always good for Rving so I just assumed most readers would be from this region. I'm not surprised to see we have readers from “Another Country” but not only are they from Canada but also we have readers from New Zealand, Australia, England, and also Italy.

I started a new poll. Let's see how much time we all spend in our RVs. See left column.

What a fun day

Today Susan and I went over to some friend’s house here in Lake Havasu. They used to own the lot 2 lots down from ours in the resort but decided to buy a house in town and sell the lot. They have a nice house in an exclusive gated country club community where Arnold Palmer designed the golf course. The girls headed into town and us guys headed for the hills in his Polaris Ranger. Man am I impressed with this machine. We headed into the backcountry of Lake Havasu and eventually cam across some dirt bikers. I think they were impressed that we could keep right up with them. We climbed up and down the same hills they were on. I was also impresses at how well the Ranger handled the woop-tee-doos. That thing has a nice suspension on it.

I was able to add a few photos to the “Problems uploading photos again” post. I got 2 uploaded and it quit uploading again. I will try again another time.

What a nice day

It was looking a little iffy this morning. After laying in bed, listening to the rain falling on the roof of the motorhome (which I really like) we thought today was going to be one of those “stay inside and relax” days. Shortly after waking, the rain went away, the sun poked out, the wind stopped and it warmed up real nice. The day was GREAT! I did nothing but sit out on the patio and enjoy the day. It doesn’t take long before someone will come by and sit for a while and chat. Especially since our site is right on the walking path. One of my neighbors came by and said I had the life of a palm tree. I never heard it put that way before. When evening rolled around we saw some pretty nasty clouds off in the distance and it wasn’t long before we were hearing thunder but it past right around us. The weather report says it’s only going to get better from here on out.

Problems uploading photos again

Looks like I am having problems uploading photos again. If they get it fixed I will go back and add photos. I will let you know when that happens.


There has been a lot going on around here. There is construction on the lot next to ours, which I am not too happy about. Their new patio cover is now blocking my view of the mountains from the coach window. There are two remedies though. One is to sit out on our patio in front of the motorhome and the other is to pull the motorhome all the way up past their patio. I would rather leave the motorhome where it is and sit on our patio and enjoy the view since the weather lately has been great.


Over the weekend Susan’s parents came out from Vista California to visit. They were impressed with the resort and what I have done with the lot. Susan’s Dad was looking at some available lots. Not sure if he was serious or just curious.

The resort has been party central. Seems there is always something going on at someone’s place. We have been hopping from lot to lot every evening for cookouts, cocktails, and munchies. Susan is enjoying not having to prepare full on meals and delighting all with her side dishes. We had a cookout the other evening and got to give the new grill a good workout with 10 steaks.

I have got a lot of comments on my cactus garden that I threw up in little time with little money. Since I added grass, palms, and such, I decided I needed to do a little desertscape to keep in theme with the area. I even installed a post for my Satellite dish. I am thinking of adding a big rock or plant to camouflage it a bit without blocking the signal. I am just not sure what it will be yet.

They are selling lots fast around here. This is probably the best time of the year for them since the park is full and the weather is great.

I hate wind

I see no good reason for wind. At least for my benefit. I know it is useful for a lot of things but I have no use for it. That being said, sometimes I wonder why I bought an RV lot in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It is more windy than not around here. And I am not talking about a nice gentle summer breeze, I am talking 10-30 mph a lot of the time with gusts to 40 at times. We still enjoy our place in Havasu though. I have found a spot in front of the motorhome that is blocked from the wind and have set up a sitting area. It is quite comfortable there and it overlooks the “Green Belt” and pool area.

Funny thing, the other day, a neighbor planned a get together for some dogs and burgers. He had arranged to use the clubhouse because of the cool and windy weather we have been having.


Turns out it was the best day since we have been here this time.


It was sunny with breezes below 5 mph. Needless to say, we didn’t use the clubhouse.

The park is really full this time of the year. We are leaving for about 3 weeks soon and I was not going to put our lot back in the rental pool for that time but since I have not seen a lot sit empty for more than a couple of hours I might as well make a little money. I know someone will be on it the whole time we are gone. It will help offset our 3 week travel costs.

I have pretty much finished my lot upgrade project for now. Now if the wind would just slow down so we can enjoy it. As I stated in the previous post, I planted a few plants. I am afraid, with this wind, they are going to grow sideways instead of up. As you can see in the photos, they are quite young right now and have a lot of growing to do.

I think I’m done for a while

I’ve just been working my butt off here. I dug ditches, put in irrigation, planted 3 Lantana, 4 Bottlebrush, 5 Oleander, 3 Palms, and a cactus garden. I also had some artificial turf installed. There is no way to keep real turf alive around here so artificial is the only way to go. Man, they have come a long way with this stuff. It looks so real. Today it is raining, and what a relief. I did absolutely nothing today. I think I am about done… Yeah Right!
I have given up trying to keep the motorhome clean since they are doing construction on the lot next door. They are extending their patio area and building a Casita. Just about every other day they are throwing dirt around and creating a bunch of dust. It doesn’t take much since the wind it always blowing around here. Hopefully today’s rain will clean most of it off.
I used our new grill for the first time the other day. I grilled two burgers. I was thinking something was wrong because it took 30+ minutes to cook two thin burger patties and they were still slightly pink inside. My neighbor says that’s normal when the outside temperature is in the 40s with a good wind blowing. The patties were also frozen when I started.
We were disappointed to find that our friends two lots down had sold their lot. Turns out they bought a house only about 2 miles from the resort and are planning to live here year round so we will most likely be seeing more of them. Also the couple they sold their lot to are real nice people. All worked out good.
In two weeks we are back on the road again. Hopefully I can relax and enjoy my handy work in the mean time.

What the heck

I thought when I sold the house that I was done with moving and yard work. Today I went out in the 34 degree weather and built a cactus garden on my lot. Then later Susan and I went out and picked up a few plants and I did some planting. This afternoon a good friend called and asked if I would help him move some stuff out of his storage into his new house. At least I don’t have to spend all weekend working on the yard like I used to when I owned a house. It’s supposed to be about 27 degrees tonight with wind chills of 22. It is not supposed to be above freezing until 10:00a tomorrow morning. Good thing my new plants are guaranteed.

WOW

What can I say besides WOW. The weather changed day to day around here at this time of year. Today was a bit windy but warm and nice, however this evening the clouds came in and tomorrow it’s supposed to rain. Sure makes a nice sunset though.

What a surprise

I went out this evening to take a little walk and found that 3 lots down were some good friends of ours. They have attended a couple of rallies with us at San Antonio Lake near Paso Robles, California. They were just passing through from Quartzite and will stay for a couple of days. The funny thing is, our neighbors purchased the lot they are on as a rental lot and they were a bit disappointed it hasn’t rented yet. Our friends are their first renters. Also when our friends came in they were assigned a lot at the other end of the resort but had problems with the water and were moved to 3 lots down from us. This is so cool.

Busy Busy

Check out our new addition to our lot here in Lake Havasu. Now we are going to have to have all our friends over to check it out. Since arriving here we have been going and going. It wasn’t more than 2 hours after arrival that we went out for $1 tacos. Last nights cocktail hour lasted so long that no one had time to prepare dinner so we went out to the local steak house for dinner. Finally tonight we had a good home cooked meal. Susan hosted a taco fest for some friends at our place. Tomorrow we are up bright and early to head on over to the swap meet in town. Today I had the landscaper out to discuss installing some artificial turf on the lot. He will start the install later this week. This means I will have to go to work installing irrigation and putting in some plants. I am going to have to plan another trip back here soon to just sit and relax.

All is OK

Well I got to drive the motorhome today with no wind. I was able to drive with one hand at the bottom of the wheel as I did before the alignment. It handles well. I think I do have a slight bit more wander than before the alignment but I can get used to it.

We are now at our RV Lot at Lake Havasu RV Resort. It’s good to see our friends here again. We all went out for $1 tacos at one of the local restaurants and had a great time. We are looking forward to spending more time with our friends.

Almost there

First off, I did find a mistake in the mileage calculations I mentioned in the last post. I must have reset the trip odometer since the last fill up because I was off a little over 100 miles. Actual mileage is more around 8.1 mpg. I feel better about that.

We have moved down the road to Indio for a 1 night stop over. We are now at the Indio Elks Lodge. They have quiet a few sites here, however with the upcoming FMCA rally, almost all sites were taken. It was only about an hour drive, but being we had the motorhome in the shop for half the day we didn’t arrive here until around 2:00p. They made some major adjustments to the front end of the motorhome. It seems the alignment was way off. That explained the tire ware I was getting. I was reluctant to have anything adjusted because the coach handled so well, however I didn’t want to replace front tires every 20,000 miles. I don’t know if it was the high winds coming here, but I noticed a little more wander than I remember. Tomorrow we are back on the road again heading into Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Our work is over

I hope everyone had a good New Years Eve and We wish you all a good New Year.

We left San Elijo State Beach this afternoon. Our Camp Host jobs are over for another year. It was sad saying goodbye to all our new friends. When we return later this year, they will probably have a whole new set of Park Aids. We are now in Redlands, California. It was a fairly easy 2 hour drive north. I say fairly easy because we were bucking some pretty good winds during the last hour. I calculated my mileage and it came to only 5 mpg. I am hoping I didn’t fill it all the way the last time (I don’t remember) and it threw my calculations off. I usually am in the high 8s. We will spend one night here then up early to take the motorhome into the shop for some routine maintenance. They say it will be done tomorrow and we can be on our way. Hopefully it won’t be too late. Susan is happy because it’s dinner out tonight and breakfast out tomorrow morning. It’s been so long since I used the GPS for the car that I had to relearn it all over again so we can find our way to dinner and back. I managed to find a pretty nice park right around the corner from the service center. We made reservations about a month ago and it’s a good thing we did because we got the last spot. This place is clean and neat although a bit tight. Everyone is super friendly. While hooking up, two couples came by and chatted. It just feels comfortable.