Track day Friday

We hit the track about 9:00 this morning.  Being only Friday the traffic was no issue.  We have some pretty good seats that overlook just about the whole track.

 

 

The rest of the stands are limited including the Grandstands.  For the final practice we sat in the Grandstands since there were not a lot of people there today and no one was checking tickets.

 

  

 

The only good thing about the grandstand is the upper seats are in the shade and they are right in front of the start/finish line and some of the pits.  Before they went out for practice we stood near the haulers and Landen got to see some drivers heading for the garages.  Landen had a great day and even after everything was over he didn’t want to leave.  We had to remind him that we got 2 more days.

Disappointment

This morning we took off for the Jelly Belly factory.  The factory is in Fairfield about an hour away but we took a detour through Napa for breakfast.  Susan and I have been to the factory 2 times prior to this.  A couple of years ago we came through here with Landen and toured the factory.  Unfortunately it was a weekend and the workers were off for the weekend so the factory was quiet.  It’s what they call a “Quiet Tour”.  I planned this time during the week so the factory would be active.  Wrong!  This is the time of year they stop production and do repairs and cleaning.  Not only was the tour a “Quiet Tour” but all the equipment was covered so there was even less to see this time.  I give up.

 

Every time we come to this Elks I have noticed a shop next door that appeared to be a race shop where they build and work on Porsche and Aston Martin Race cars.  I decided to check it out this time so Landen and I went over.  It turns out I was right.  This is the TRG shop, which stands for “The Racers Group”.  They race at Laguna Seca, Long Beach, 12 Hours of Sebring and others.  The team has posted the most wins of any in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 28, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championships; three wins in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and a single victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.  After asking if they gave shop tours they said, The shops through those doors.  Make yourself at home.  If you have and questions feel free to ask someone.  So Landen and I entered the shop. 

 

 

He spotted this NASCAR and asked about it.

 

They tried NASCAR for one season and decided to stick with the Aston Martins and Porsches.  We even got to checkout the inside of a race hauler.  This was a pretty cool experience for Landen.

Long busy day

This morning we drove into San Francisco.  Traffic not to bad.  We spent some time at Fisherman’s Warf than jumped on the boat to Alcatraz Island.

 

 

 

 

 

Landen especially enjoyed his time on Alcatraz because he has a Zombie game that takes place on the Island.  He said everything on the Island was just like in the game.  He was showing us around because he was already familiar with the place.  After a whole day in SF we fought the traffic out of town back to Petaluma.  Then after a short rest we jumped back in the can and headed to Rohnert Park (just north of Petaluma) for dinner.  We are now back in the Motorhome and ready for a good night rest.

Do nothing day

We had no plans today except laundry.  When we have to use a Laundromat, Susan will use about 5 washers and get the job done in a hurry.  While she was in doing laundry Landen and I were in the car listening to Metalica and Ozzy Ozborn.  After lunch Landen and I did a trial run to the NASCAR track.  It only took 10 minutes to get to the track and is literally down the street from us.  We played it cool and just drove past security into the track.
 

We checked out our seats and where we need to be for the garage tour then checked out the rest of the track.
 

It is smaller than I though and we got a good view of the whole track from our seats.

We got a pretty nice site here at the Petaluma Elks Lodge.

What a PIA

Today we are in Petaluma California.  We are now on the north side of San Francisco.  I didn’t want to deal with traffic so I decided to head for the coast and take California 1 up and over the Golden Gate Bridge.  What a dumb move.  Of course the coast route was closed when I got there so here I am with 55 feet total length trying to find my way around the narrow streets of SF not knowing where to go.  We made it with no real big problems but as I said, What a PIA.  Landen got a kick out of going over the Golden Gate Bridge and seeing Alcatraz Island. 

 

 

He took the pictures, I was too busy watching the road and traffic.  After I arrived I sat down and mapped out a route around San Francisco for the return trip.  I am willing to sit in a little slow bumper-to-bumper traffic rather than deal with narrow crowded streets.

 

I feel like we are back in Havasu with the wind.  It is blowing about 22 MPH with 26 MPH gusts, but it is only 70 degrees instead of 105.  The wind is supposed to blow for one more day then is should be good.

 

We are here for a week so we can settle in for a change.  Tomorrow we need to find a Laundromat and I need to wash the car.  Landen is happy that he can sleep in tomorrow and I am glad I don’t have to drive for 2+ hours.

 

We finally lost our local channels on our Satellite TV.  I was pretty amazed we had them all the way up to Gilroy.  There is cable here at the Elks Lodge in Petaluma but I used the cable input to rewire the motorhome for 2 satellite inputs for our DVR.

No blown fuses today!

We are now in Gilroy California, The Garlic Capitol of the World.  No really, that’s what they call it.  Next month is their big garlic festival.  Glad we won’t be here.

 

The drive was great.  No problems on this leg of the trip.  Came close to a problem though.  I never worry about driving under the canopy at the gas stations since most are plenty high.  As I was pulling into the station in Templeton the attendant came running out and pointing up.  I opened the window and he asked if I would fit.  I then noticed the 12’ sign and told him I would fit.  He watched as I slowly pulled in.

 

No problem, except the gas was $4.25 a gallon.  I had to laugh because the attendant asked if it I was going to pump over $10.  After I said it was going to be over $100 he said he would turn the pump on from inside.  This was good because I didn’t have to swipe my credit card several times to fill it.

 

This Elks Lodge is very nice.  It sits on top of a hill surrounded by a golf course. 

 

I am surprised that even though the lodge is on a hill and the parking lot is pretty steep, the RV sites are level.  In fact this is the first level site we have had since we started this journey.  I thought Susan was going to be out of luck with her NASCAR race today because we are in trees and it took me a while to finally find the signal.  I thought I read that where this lodge is supposed to have WIFI.  Wrong.  This is too bad because I found out that Landed has been playing his games online and has used half our allotted monthly usage in just 3 days.  Of course I put a stop on online game playing unless we are on another WIFI.

 

No wonder my body was tingling.  See the big tree behind our motorhome. 

 

 

It is of the Cellularus Towerus variety.  In other words…A Cell Tower.

 

 

 

This is the sign placed near it.  If I didn’t have cancer I will now after spending 20 hours under it.  Or maybe I will get lucky and the radiation will kill the cancer.

 

It’s nice to sit for a day and not have to chase down problems.  I am pleased though that even though the problems have affected the motorhome none of the problems have been with the motorhome.  Oh I forgot to mention that our Satellite receiver would not come on yesterday when we arrived.  Found out the plug fell out of the socket as we were traveling.

Another fuse

I found another blown fuse today.  After getting on the road today and getting up to speed I hit the Cruise Control and… Nothing.  I tried several times during the trip with a no go.  After arriving in Atascadero, CA I checked out a few things with no luck so I figured I will have to do the rest of the trip with no cruise.  I went about cleaning the motorhome, what a mess it was, all the time thinking about the cruise problem.  After getting the motorhome sparkly clean again I decided to check the brake light switch.  I depressed the brake pedal and it would not budge.  I mean it wouldn’t move an inch.  This is not good at all, I thought.  I started the engine and at least had brakes with the engine running.  Well at least I can still drive it.  See, my motorhome has an electric assist that operates the power brakes even if the engine is shut off (for safety).  With the engine off I can depress the brake pedal and hear a motor run which electrically gives me power brakes.  So I though, another blown fuse.  Sure enough I found it and all was well again.  But Why?  After looking through the schematics and giving it some though I realized both the brake problem and hydraulic leveler/slides problem had something to do with lights.  The hydraulic levelers/slides shares the same circuit as the turn signals, in case you were wondering (don't understand why).  Must be the car I am towing.  Before tearing the car apart I decided to check out the electric cable between the motorhome and the car.  Well that was it.  I found all the wires loose in the connectors and some of the clamping screws even fell out and were rattling around inside the connector (shorting wires as they did).  I even found a burnt spot on one of the wires as evidence.  The problems could have been a lot worse.  Glad that’s over!

 

The trip here was otherwise a good one.  I got a good idea of what towing an additional 800 lbs can do.  I climbed a 7% grade and was down to 40 mph in 3^rd gear.  I have never been reduced to less that 55 mph with my other car.  I still had acceleration but didn’t want to rev the engine too far.  The motorhome didn’t seem to mind the pull though.

 

We have full hookups at this Elks Lodge.  Tonight we are going to enjoy nice long showers since we have sewer hookups and don’t have to conserve.  We will have full hookups again in 2 days when we reach Petaluma, Ca.

Another travel day

Today we left Ontario, CA and made our way up the coast to Santa Barbara.  It was a better drive than I expected.  The traffic was not bad at all.  There was only a short time I was down to 35 and the rest was 50 to 65.  After backing in to our site here at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge I looked down to lower the jacks and saw no life in the panel.  It was completely dead.  That also means the slides will not work.  Not Good!  After not finding the correct fuse I called the Motorhome manufacturer to ask where the fuse was and they couldn’t tell me.  There only comment was just check all the fuses until you find a bad one.   It took me about 15 minutes to find the blow fuse and all was well again.  The only question now is Why did the fuse blow?  I have been through all the schematics and am more puzzled that before.  Things that were not supposed to be working with that fuse blown were.  I guess I will deal with it if it happens again.

Anyway, we are only here for one night again then our trek north continues.  I called ahead to see if there was a space available for tomorrow and they said there were about 4 spots open right now.  Hopefully there will be one for us tomorrow.  There are alternatives if not.

Movin on

Today we left Vista California and traveled a whole 75 miles up to Ontario.  I know it’s now very far but why be in a hurry.  We don’t have to be in Sonoma until the 21^st.  We are only going to be here for one night then we are on the road again.  Tomorrows drive will be about 2.5 hours, most of it in LA traffic.  I am not looking forward to that.

 

 

Today we went to the Bass Pro Shop in Rancho Cucamonga.  I thought we were at Disneyland when we pulled into the parking lot.  They have a very large parking lot and there was no place to park. 

 

 

While there Landen got a chance to do a little target practice.  He hit the target every time and even got a Bulls Eye.  The Motorhomes on both sides of us here at Ontario are from Arizona.  One is from Havasu and the other is from about 30 minutes north of Havasu.

We are back at it

We left Havasu at 8:00 this morning.  It was already 90 degrees and we anticipated getting out of the heat.  I took about 250 miles of driving to get out of the 100s.  It wasn’t until we left Beaumont, CA that we hit cooler temps.  Turns out it got to about 110 today in Havasu and supposed to be about 118 this weekend.  We are now in Vista, CA where it got to about 70.  We are on a 3 week trip.  We will be picking up our Grandson, as we do every summer, and heading up the coast to Sonoma for a NASCAR race.  Landen is so excited.  So far the trip has been a fixit trip.  We lost a hub cap somewhere along the way, the battery went dead in the car, our portable fan quit working, and Susan’s iron stopped working.  However the motorhome ran great and the dash air that I just recharged blew cold air the whole 100+ degree trip.

 

More later.

Last Hike

We went for our last hike of the season today.  The reason it is our last hike is because the Snakes Are Out.  Actually we quit hiking a couple of weeks ago but some of the hikers wanted to see if they could see a real live rattlesnake.  We really didn’t want to have any confrontation with snakes so we decided to hike the higher altitude in hopes it would be cooler and the snaked wouldn’t be out.

Well we didn’t get very far into the hike when I (not knowingly) stepped over this guy.

 

Yep a real live Diamond Back Rattlesnake.  I didn’t even know I stepped over him until the guy following me said snake!  He was about to place his walking stick when he realized he was about to place it right in the middle of this guy.  I turned and spotted him right away and noticed he was looking right at the guy behind me.  I said, “You might want to step back”.  It didn’t take long before the rest of the hikers were surrounding the snakes to get a look.  He was pretty lethargic since it is early in the season and they are just warming up.  Even after tossing a few rocks at him he barely lifted his head to see where they were coming from.  Never did rattle.  I didn’t really want to excite him too much in fear that he would try to retreat and since we had him surrounded there was no were to go besides through one of us.  At this point the hikers decided they saw what they came for and were ready to get out of there.

What a great time

As you know we just spent a week in Vegas mainly for this weekends NASCAR race.  We found it was cheaper to get a weekly rate at the campground rather than the 4 nights for the race.  We could always find something to do.  Turns out we did none of the Vegas stuff.  Instead we spent one day seeing the Red Rock Canyon, another seeing the Hover Dam and bypass bridge, and went to the strip to see the NASCAR hauler parade.  The rest of the time we spent in the infield with our daughter and their friends for the NASCAR weekend.  What a great time we had.  Everything went extremely well from the trip there and back to the touring and the race.  I remember before we went fulltime we didn’t want to go home after a great weekend on camping, I got the same feeling this time.

Now we are back in the resort here in Havasu and there is plenty to do here as usual.  It won’t be long before everyone heads home and Susan and I will be one of the few left here for the summer.

 

Here are a few more photos.

 

The first Shelby made

1100 Horse Power Shelby

 

Observation Deck

 

Dam Bridge

This morning we headed out to the Hover Dam.  Actually we have seen the Dam before but since then they built a bypass bridge that I wanted to see.  This bridge is a bit down stream from the Dam and spans 1900 feet from Arizona to Nevada.  At 900 feet above the river it stands way above the Dam.

We walked down the bridge walkway where we got views of the Dam.

Then we went to the Dan and got a view of the bridge.

The Arizona Nevada state line in the middle of the bridge

The lake is really low on the other side of the Dam.

 

After coming back from the Dam and Bridge we found out that the hauler parade was tonight instead of tomorrow night as it usually is.  The hauler parade is where about 50 NASCAR car haulers (semi trucks) parade down the Las Vegas Strip all lit up and their horns blasting.  Pretty cool sight to see.

Red Rock Canyon

We decided not to do the Vegas thing this trip so today we went to the Red Rock Canyon.  This is a site west of down town with…well…red rock canyons.  As with the Grand Canyon, pictures don’t do it justice.  You just have to be there but here are a few.  I will have to come back some time with my hiking buddies.  There are about 19 hiking trails to do.  Since some of them are 3 to 4 hours long we will not be doing them in one day.

 The weather so far has been great but it is supposed to turn ugly in the next few days.  Hopefully it won’t be too bad for the race this weekend.

Las Vegas Nevada

We left Havasu about 9:30 this morning and arrived in Las Vegas at about 11:00. 

This is about a 2.5 hour drive and no we didn’t make it in 1.5 hours.  We went through a time change that gained us an hour.  The trip was good and the motorhome ran great for sitting still for a year.  This is the first time I towed the Saturn Vue and I did notice the difference.  The Vue weighs about 800 lbs more than the SC2 did and it shows going up the hills…or maybe it was the year old gas I had in the tank.  Anyway it towed great and easily.  We don’t need to be at the NASCAR track until Thursday so we have a few days to play.

Waxed again

Got the motorhome waxed again.  It came out much better this time but still not perfect.  I got to admit though they gave it a valiant effort.  This time they used a different wax especially designed for fiberglass.  I will probably go over it in a month or so by hand with a good cleaner wax designed for fiberglass gel coat.

Tomorrow we will be getting things ready to head on over to Las Vegas.  We will be heading out Monday morning.  Not to early though since we will be traveling from Arizona time to Vegas time and pick up an hour.  Can’t get there too early.

Getting ready to go

We are getting ready to head on over to Las Vegas for the NASCAR race next weekend.  I checked on reservations for 4 nights and found it was cheaper to get the weekly rate than the 4 nights so we leave on Monday for a week.  Since I haven’t driven the motorhome for a year it will be good for it and me.

The guys are coming back tomorrow to add another layer of wax on the motorhome.  Hopefully this time it will come out better.

 

The last couple of days it has been real windy here.  I hate the wind.  The temps would be in the high 70s if it weren’t for the wind chill.  It did calm down enough this morning to take a hike to the Bill Williams River.  It is amazing how green the desert is right now.  Won’t be long before the flowers start popping out.

No wax today

Well the guys were supposed to come by today and talk about what we can do for my wax job on the motorhome.  As you can see in this photo, it is a lot whiter and brighter but most of the shine is gone. 

 

Anyway, we didn’t get together today because a friend came by with his Razor and asked if I wanted go for a ride.  Now I am not going to miss out on a ride so I called the wax guys and postponed it until tomorrow.

 

Who says the desert is hot and miserable?  This is what we woke to Wednesday morning.

 

Yeah that’s snow on the hills behind the resort.  It wasn’t too cold here in the resort at 600 ft above sea level but it must have been pretty cold up there at 2200 feet.  In the 6 years we have been here I have never seen it so low.

I made the call

Today, after the rain, I got out my can of wax and did a test wax on a spot.  It came out much nicer than the machine job I just got.  Most of the “highs and lows” came out and it shined much more than the Professional job I got.  So I gave the owner of the detail shop a call.  He said he would send his detailers out tomorrow and possibly stop by himself to see what they can do about it, if anything.  At the least I would like to get some of my $310 back so I won’t feel so bad going over what they already did.  I don’t mind buffing it out by hand myself.  I just though they would do a better job.

Not happy

Today I got the motorhome washed and waxed.  Usually I do it myself.  I figured I would have it professionally done because… well I thought they would do a better job with their electric buffers than my hand wax job.  I was wrong.  In fact I think I did a better job by hand than they did and I paid them $310 for this.  It does not shine and there are a lot of swirl marks.  Their excuse was that the fiberglass is oxidizing and it will take more waxing to bring the shine out.  OK maybe so but I wish they had let me know this before they completed the job and given me the option to pay for a bad job or do it myself.  I may have to give the owner a call and see what he suggests.