Finally the weekend update

October 28,2009
Winds go away
We left Havasu with caution. The winds were still blowing pretty hard. It was tolerable however, until we got around Essex out on I-40. The winds really got bad, bad enough that I saw my awning trying to come out. I eventually pulled over to secure the awning a little better. I added about 15 or so tie wraps to it and got back on the road. Fortunately a short time down the road the winds died down a bit. Not all was well though. As I was looking at my speedometer I saw the tachometer drop to zero for a split second and felt an instant loss of power, then everything was good again. That was not good I though. I watched everything for a while and it seemed to be OK. Then as I was approaching my destination it happened again, then again, then again however it didn’t died. Once at our destination I let it idle as I always do when leveling and putting out the slides when it died. After sitting for a while it started and everything seemed OK again. Fortunately our friend where we are parked is a mechanic so I gave him a call at his shop and asked if he could bring home a code reader. Sure enough we found 2 codes in the computer. Looks like I will be here a little longer than planned to get some parts replaced.

October 29 and 30,2009
It’s off to Talladega
We headed for the airport Thursday evening to catch a “Red Eye” out of LAX at 11:00p for Talladega Alabama. After the 10 of us (5 couples) met up at the airport we boarded the plane and took off for Alabama. We landed at the Atlanta airport in Georgia at around 6:00a and rented a 15 passenger van and drove another 2.5 hours to the hotel in Birmingham Alabama stopping on the way for breakfast. It seemed that every exit off the interstate, there was a Waffle House, yeah that’s what it’s called, The Waffle House so we decided we had to give it a try. These places are so small that we didn’t think they could fit the 10 of us in so we headed on down the road and ended up at a Cracker Barrel. Nice Breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Needless to say, we were a bit tired so off the hotel for a little nap. After the nap we were ready to head to the track. At the track the girls did a little shopping at the venders trailers while the guys watched the Truck race qualifying. Then we headed on over to the short track for some dirt track racing. Since it had been raining a bit it was pretty muddy, not only the track but also the walk up to the track. After trudging through the mud and getting mud slung all over us from the cars going around the track we started looking like real rednecks. Back to the Hotel for a cleanup and a good nights sleep.

October 31,2009
Hallow-Daga
That’s what they were calling it, Hallow-Dega since it was Halloween at Talladega. On Friday we headed back to the track for some truck racing. We didn’t know if it was going to run since it started raining Thursday night and was still raining Friday morning. The weather report said it would clear but it takes a long time to dry the track so we weren’t sure. It worked out good though because since practice and cup qualifying were canceled we spent the morning cruising around the infield checking out the crazy setup everyone had. We even got into the drivers compound where the drivers motorhomes are. How you might ask? Well we just drove the van in like we were supposed to be there and no one challenged us. The infield is quite a treat. There were a lot of converted school busses, some done nice and some done “redneck”. After the infield “tour” we checked out the Motor Sports Hall of Fame to kill some time until the truck race. We had Hospitality tent passes for the Miller Light tent, which provided food and drinks including all the Miller Light you wish to drink and special seating for the truck race. Well the rain stopped and they were able to dry the track so the race went off. After the race we went for dinner then back to the track for a concert. The Talladega infield is One Crazy Place! Especially on Halloween. The costumes were a riot. It looked like a cross between a major street party and Woodstock with all the mud. What fun was that?

November 1,2009
Cup Race
This morning we finally got to eat at a Waffle House. What a treat that was. As I said earlier the place is so small that 4 of us got a booth and the rest were at the counter. After breakfast we headed on over to the track for more racing. We had great seats high enough that we could see the whole track. That is if your eyes are good enough. It is a BIG track and the backstretch is far away. You can see the cars but you can’t tell who is who from that far away. The race was great. This is much different that the other races we go to. The difference is the size of the track. It is so big that NASCAR requires them to run restrictor plates on their carburetors to limit their speeds. Even so they are still running around 200 mph. When they have a crash at this track, they call it “the big one” because they run in a pack and at that speed they can’t react fast enough to avoid getting in the crash so the crashes usually involve a lot of cars. This race was no exception. There were two “Big ones” at this race, both with cars ending up on their roofs. After the race we found a BBQ joint and had some good ol’ southern BBQ, including green fried tomatoes and deep fried pickles, some pretty good stuff.

November 2,2009
Back to reality
It was such a good weekend we hated to see it end but it was time to go. So we boarded the plane and headed back to California. I will post pictures to our photo site soon.

November 3,2009
Motorhome fixWell as I said earlier, the motorhome needed some fixing. One of the guys that went with us to Talladega owns the shop where I got it fixed. He ordered the part before we left so it was there waiting when we got back. I took it over to the shop this morning and they ran more diagnostics on it to make sure they weren’t replacing good parts. After installing the new part all the trouble codes went away. We were all happy to see that. The trip back to Havasu tomorrow across the desert will be the real test. I am sure we will make it ok.

Flyin' Hi

Believe it or not I am posting this at 37,000 feet over Dallas Texas. The wonders of Technology huh? We had a great time and are now heading back to the west coast. Went we get back and settled in I plan to update y’all on what’s been going on.

Stay tuned

So much fun

No we didn’t fall off the end of the earth. We have been so busy and are having so much fun that I haven’t had time to get to the computer. I will update you soon.

Frustration

I got so frustrated today. We woke to another beautiful day. Absolutely NO wind. The weather reports said by 11:00a the winds will start and be 30+ sustained and 50 to 60 gusts. Well…11:00a came and went with no wind. Hell we could have been in Barstow by now. I finally got on line and checked the current weather in Barstow. 35mph sustained and 50mph gusts. That made me feel a little better. It wasn’t until about 2:00p that the winds got to Havasu. We are now (at 7:00p) experiencing some pretty good winds. The question now, will they still be here in the morning when we want to leave? The weather report says 12mph but it also said high winds at 11:00 this morning. I know how wrong “The Weather” can be.

Missed opportunity

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, just perfect for a trip to Riverside. But we are still in Havasu. We are still shooting for Wednesday even though they are still predicting wind. Thursday is supposed to be a good day. If when Wednesday gets here and it looks bad we may wait until Thursday. We really want to take the motorhome because…well, it’s nice to be home, no matter where you are.

Not a happy camper

Today was NOT supposed to be windy. Well guess what? The wind is blowing hard and gusting even harder. We are leaving Wednesday for Riverside California. Usually the winds will last about 3 days around here so I was not too concerned at first but since this wind was not predicted I decided to check the weather report. NOAA Weather Service says, “Winds increased this morning as a strong surface pressure gradient developed.” It goes on to say that a strong storm will pass through Tuesday and Wednesday with wind gusts over 60mph. Not good for driving a motorhome. We may have to re-think this. We really don’t have to be there until Thursday since we are taking a “Red-Eye” out of LAX on Thursday night. But NOAA also says the local gusts will continue Thursday into Friday. We might just have to leave the motorhome here and take the car to Riverside.

Starting to get busy

They are rolling into the resort more and more everyday. The cocktail parties have started. Yesterday we had our first owners meeting for the season. It went surprisingly well. You can imagine how these meetings can be when you get a bunch of ol’ farts from different cultures around the country and Canada together with their different ideas.

Last night after the meeting a few of us headed into town for the Relics and Rods car show. There were over 900 pre 1070’s cars involved.

This is another one of those events where practically all of Havasu show up. The streets were packed and there were lots of Really Nice Cars. If you drove it in the past, it was there. One of the hits of the show was this truck.

It is powered by a Detroit Diesel V12. This thing is all hand built by one man and is something to see. There will be a video interview of it on YouTube soon. I will post it as soon as I see it. It’s still a work in progress. Here are more photos.

A shortened Nomad

Converted to a Motorhome

Well already I had a problem with the new furniture. The stitching on one of the cushions is coming apart. I grabbed the cushion and off to Home Depot I went. Of course they sold out all their stock so an exchange was out of the picture. The manager however called the company and arranged for a new cushion to be delivered to us here at the resort. Then he handed me the one I brought in and said, “Here, sew this up and you will have a spare.” Nice!

They’re coming back

People are starting to come back to the resort here in Lake Havasu. They are coming in at the rate of a couple a day. We are taking another trip over the Halloween weekend and I am sure when we get back the park will be pretty much full again.

That means the wildlife will be heading back into hiding. This guy was a little upset that the lizard he was chasing ducked under the pot and he couldn’t flush it out.

Well, the sun has taken its toll again. It was time to replace our patio furniture. I started looking around and checking prices, looking for a good end of the summer sale. We got a pretty nice patio dinning set last year from sears for half price. I set out to pick up a $20 item from Home Depot and came across this set.

Not quite half price but a good price anyway. I went back to get Susan to show her and get her approval. We got lucky and found a buyer for our old set the same day so we didn’t have to find a place to stash it until we could get rid of it. Now if we can just keep the sun from destroying this set for a few years. Now that we have a covered patio and I am going to install some sun shades we should be good to go for a few.

Made it back

We pulled into Lake Havasu about 12:20 this afternoon. It was an uneventful trip, which is a good thing. We did run into a bit of dense fog going over the Cajon Pass on I-15 but it was short and I only lost sight of the truck in front of me for a couple of brief seconds. The rest of the trip I had the cruise set so it was just sit back and steer. I am glad to be back in Arizona where the price of gas is close to a dollar less per gallon. I had to stop about 100 miles from the border for fuel but only put enough in to get me to Arizona where I filled it up. I like to park it with a full tank. As usual we had a really great time at the track. Got to see some friends which I only see a couple of times a year, usually at the track and got to hangout with our daughter and her husband. That’s always a good time. I took a few photos (check the thumbnail link in the sidebar NASCAR Oct 09) but for some reason the camera had a hard time with the focus so I had to trash some.

This is one of our friends spot at the track. Yeah they are a bit of a fanatic but the really know how to have a good time. I guess they got themselves on ESPN with all their NASCAR paraphernalia. Last year a photographer came by and we all got our pictures taken at their spot to be used as advertising. Somewhere my mug is probably plastered on a billboard or in the back of a magazine. Well, a few more folks have arrived here at the resort and I expect more will show up in the next few weeks. Let the parties begin.

Extenze

The NASCAR weekend is over. We are heading back to Havasu first thing in the morning. Susan is a happy race fan as her favorite driver, Jimmie Johnson,

Extenze his lead in the Race for the Championship. Sorry for the pun…

Jimmie's Burnout in the backstretch right in front of us after the race.

It was a pretty good race for California, which usually hosts some of the most boring races during the whole series. There were still plenty of crazies in the infield. That’s one thing California has going for it. It makes quite a show at times.

We arrived

We arrived in Ontario, California yesterday about noon. It was a good drive, nice weather, little traffic, and they are fixing more and more of I-40 along the way so there are only a few spots of rough road. I usually move it on over to the hammer lane where the road is in better condition. There is little traffic so I don’t have to worry about holding up traffic. I just keep an eye out behind me for upcoming traffic and pull over when necessary. This place is pretty much full. We were lucky to get a good spot.

On the move

Tomorrow we will be on the move again. We are heading back over to California for the NASCAR race in Fontana. We usually get there on Tuesday so we won’t have a problem getting a spot for the weekend. Where we stay, they don’t take reservations so by getting there on Tuesday we have never had a problem. This morning I thought I would give them a call since I know some of the people and see if they can save my favorite spot for us. Well it’s a good thing I called since a bunch came in yesterday and there was only one spot open. Even though they don’t take reservations, they will save the spot for me. It’s good to know people.

The last couple of days, it’s been pretty windy here. I was hoping the wind would stop for our travel on Tuesday and it looks like we are in luck. Today is a perfect day and tomorrow is suppose to be the same. The temperatures are dropping here. No more 100+ days. This morning it was 61 when I got up at 7:00a and I hear it was in the high 50s earlier. Our air conditioners are finally getting a break along with our electric bill. It won’t be long before I will be burning the dust out of the furnace.

Speaking of burning, I had to fix our convection oven again yesterday. The fan that circulates the hot air stops working about once a year and I have to partially disassemble the oven to oil it. Susan doesn’t use the gas oven. She cooks everything in the convection so it gets a lot of use and since the fan is basically in the heat the oil gets burned off after a while. I have been oiling it with the same Mobil-1 synthetic oil that I put in the engine. This has worked pretty well. This time however I didn’t have any on hand so I used some regular “Dino” oil I had. That was a mistake. Now when Susan cooks anything in the oven it smells like an old oil burning car. I am hoping it goes away soon or I will have to go in again and clean it out and use the synthetic. From what I can tell, it looks like a major oven removal and disassembly job to go in and replace the fan. And if I did the new one would probably do the same thing.

Well we are pretty much packed up and ready to head out in the morning.

It’s been a while

It has been a while since I posted last. Not much going on right now. We are waiting for next week when we head for California for the NASCAR race. We were going to do our annual river trip…sounds kind of strange since we practically live on the Colorado River, but last year we headed down to Parker Arizona just about 30 minutes away. We took a drive the other day and found all the reserved sites are taken for the next few weeks. We could take our chances and drive down in hopes to get a non-reserved site, which is most likely possible. The catch is, there is no cell service there and our friend’s daughter is about to have a baby. We decided to put the river trip off until further notice.

Tuesday we plan to head for Fontana California, well actually Ontario is where we will be staying, for the California NASCAR race. I say plan because we are in the middle of a windstorm right now and are expecting another one right behind this one. They should be gone by Tuesday but you know how the weather can be. I really don’t want to drive in 25 to 50 mph side winds. We don’t need to be there until the weekend so I can hold of a day or two if needed.

People are starting to trickle in here at the resort. I hear that some of the northern states are already getting a dusting of snow. That means the Snowbirds will be heading on down soon.

Gunner the roadrunner

During the summer when there is not a lot of people or dogs around the wildlife comes out. We sit and watch as the rabbits, quail, dove, and roadrunners roam around the common area. We also have scorpions and rattlesnakes but fortunately we haven’t seen any of the bad guys…yet.

This is Gunner. The Manager named him. Not sure where the name came from but Gunner the Roadrunner has a bit of a ring to it. This guy comes by several times a day to visit and will follow you around if you are walking around. He no doubt is looking for a handout. We threw him a pretzel one evening but he didn’t care much for that. Roadrunners are more meat eaters and he was probably looking for something more like a little hamburger. It won’t be long before everyone starts to arrive and Gunner and his friends will go back into hiding.

100+

We are back in the 100+ temperatures. We arrived in Havasu today about 1:00pm after our usual stopover in Bakersfield last night. It was a good drive but I did see a pretty gnarly semi truck crash. I don’t know when it happened but the wreckers were there trying to figure out how to haul it off. It looked like something out of the TV program Wrecked. The driver had to have gotten hurt (I hope he’s OK) since the cab was pretty messed up.

We had a great time in the Morro Bay area even though we only had 3 sunny days. The rest were foggy and cool. We covered the coast from Pismo Beach to just north of San Simeon. The bad part…I went through about $400 in gas. The California prices are killer. The good part…Stocks have been good to me in the last 10 days.

Ready to go

We are just about all packed up and ready to head back to Havasu tomorrow. Yesterday we headed back up the coast to San Simion and checked out the Elephant seals.


Check out this fat boy.
Today we spent the day in Pismo Beach and Avila Beach. We have had a great week here in Morro Bay. The weather had been mostly fog and overcast but we have had a couple of perfect days with lots of sun and low 70 temps. Last night late we even had a little rain. By morning it was over and things dried up pretty fast. Well tomorrow we will be heading for Bakersfield for a night then over the mountain to Havasu on Wednesday. I hear the weather in Havasu has cooled a bit to the high 90s and low 100s. Maybe it will start cooling down a bit.

Finally got a chance

I finally got a chance to write something. We have been busy here in Morro Bay.

The other day we spent the day cruising shops and walking on the beach. Later that evening we headed up to San Luis Obispo for their street fair.

Of course you can’t visit SLO without seeing Bubblegum Alley.

Sure it’s disgusting but kind of cool to see.

Yesterday we did the night tour at Hearst Castle. On our way we spent the day in Cambria. As many times as I have been through there, I have never stopped. There are a lot of cool shops there. We found a park on the beach for lunch and then hit some more shops.




If you ever get a chance, you need to see the night tour at Hearst Castle. I have done just about all the day tours and always wanted to see the night tour. They combine all the day tours in this one and have volunteers dress in the era so you feel like you stepped back in time.

Today is NASCAR day so it is an R&R day.

Morro Bay

We arrived in Morro Bay about 11:00 this morning. It’s been go go go since we arrived so I haven’t had time to write much. I will post more hopefully tomorrow.

Oranges

We are now in Bakersfield at the Orange Grove RV Park. We are on our way to Morro Bay for a week and this is our favorite stop over. We are only going to be here for one night then it’s off to the coast in the morning. We are…were traveling with our friends from Havasu. It started out good but the kayaks he had tied to the roof of his truck decided they didn’t want to go and tried to abandon ship on the freeway so He decided to take them home. Fortunately we weren’t too far along. So he turned back and we continued on. When he got to Bakersfield about 1 hour behind us he decided to continue on to the coast so we are going to meet up with them tomorrow in Morro Bay. I think it’s crazy to drive 8 to 9 hours a day when you don’t really need to.

Unfortunately it’s too early for the oranges to be ripe. Orange Grove RV Park is literally in an orange grove. They cleared all but 3 trees per site to build the park and they encourage you to pick oranges when they are in season. Of all the times we have been through, I think they have only been ripe once. We did find a time when they were still green on the outside but orange and sweet on the inside. Susan tried one today and said they are sweet but kind of dry still. Anyway the weather here is nice. It is about 90, a little humid but not bad with a light breeze, a lot better than the 105+ in Havasu. The drive was good and being the last day of the holiday weekend I thought the traffic was going to be terrible but it was good. Maybe less people are traveling these days.

On our trip here we traveled over the Tehachapi Mountains. Last time we came through here it was snowy at the top and grassy on the foothills. This time it was dry and brown. Not a pretty site. We traveled about 35 miles as the crow flies from some of the terrible fires in Southern California but didn’t see or smell any smoke.

Well I am able to update the web site today because although our Verizon aircard is struggling here (VERRY SLOOOO) the WiFi here at the park is one of the fastest I have come across. We will see what happens when we get to Morro Bay.

Midnight Monsoons

Summertime in Havasu is also Monsoon time. We have a number of Monsoons roll through this time of year. Usually we can see them coming and prepare for them by putting away all the awnings, rolling up the windows in the car and battening down anything that will blow away. The problem comes when they come through in the middle of the night. Last night was one of those nights. I woke to the sound of the palm frowns rustling from the wind. I laid there for a while to see if it would calm down but it only got worse. Finally I had to get up and go outside to secure everything. Just all part of living in the desert.