I'm an Elk

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

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

Getting back on the road

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

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

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

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

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

OH NO! The market crashed!

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

Back in Temecula

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

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

Last night at the Rally

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

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

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

$30 Tie Wrap

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

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

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

Indio RV Rally

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

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

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

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

Comments anyone?

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

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

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

Organizations

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

It just doesn’t add up

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

Rain Makers

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

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

We are back in Temecula.

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

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

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

We’ve still got it

Yes we still have the ability to make it rain wherever we go. This is our last day at San Elijo State Beach and up until today, the weather has been fabulous. Well, it’s not so bad today either except it IS raining. At least we waited until the last day before we made it rain. I just feel sorry for all the nice folks that came down to spend New Years here and got rained on. Tomorrow we will be moving of back to Temecula for a few days until we head for the Southwestern FMCA rally. If you are heading for the rally, we will be your tram drivers. We volunteered to drive trams last year and are doing it again this year.

Below is another list of interesting characters we have come across as Camp Hosts.

See you next Year!

More interesting characters

Here is another list of interesting characters we have come across as Camp Hosts.

We had a woman that insisted on a hookup site to run her heater because she came from Florida and didn’t bring enough blankets to keep her warm at night.

There was the woman that insisted our sister park has hookups even though we say they don’t. She must know something we don’t know.

When reminding him of our generator hours, a guy said he had to run his generator all night because he has a medical device that needs power. He reserved a non-hookup site.

A woman told me she was running her generator in the early morning because she left her lights on all night and the battery was dead. She must know some exceptions to the rules that I don’t know.

A gentleman asked if I would let him run his generator at 6:00 am because his coach only has 1 battery and his heater ran the battery dead over night.

When asked why he hasn’t left his site after checkout time, this guy went down a list of personal problems that had nothing to do with leaving but would have made a great country western song.

The reason one guy wouldn’t put his dog on a leash is because he says his dog is a country dog.

One guy said after checking in, his wife won’t stay because they are from the country and his wife refuses to listen to the road noise all night. He wanted a refund.

There are the numerous people that say they couldn’t register last night because the office was closed when they pulled in, even though there are instructions for self-registration. A lot of them leave without paying the $20 registration. Since we have their license plate number the Rangers send them a $65 ticket.

One person was upset at us because he couldn’t register his vehicle until he paid the $600 fines for not paying the $65 ticket he got for not paying the $20 campground fee. They just can’t figure it out…

We get a few that claim they reserved one of the hookup sites, but their site doesn’t have hookups. Even after pointing out that their reservation conformation says non-hookup they insist they reserved a hookup site. Same thing with the oceanfront sites.

There were the young adults that pulled into a reserved site later one evening. When the person with the reservation showed up that evening the young adults made up their own rules that reservations are forfeited after 9:00 pm.

One guy insisted that they should have been warned about the train noise when they made reservations.

When told we were full, one woman asked, Are you sure you are full.

Some people try to hide an extra car in the back of their site because they don’t want to pay the extra vehicle fee.

Work Done

Our work is done here. We did our last shift yesterday morning. We will be hanging out until the first of the year and be available to assist campers.




Although the weather report keeps threatening rain, there is none in site. As you can see in these photos, the sun was shining bright. Our grandson came to spend a few nights with us. He just loved walking around the tide pools. He even helped a few sea creatures back into the water that got left behind with the tide.


The tide pools were teaming with life today, human life that is.

Santa Claus came

I don’t get it. Even though our fireplace has no chimney, somehow Santa Clause still got in to bring us all these presents.

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas Everyone

Morning Sunrise

I have taken plenty of sunset photos but until now I have never caught a sunrise. The last couple of mornings have been spectacular with the sunrise breaking through the morning clouds and mist.

Lots happening

There has been a lot going on around here lately. I told you about all the wackos in the park, well we have had a few more since then. Also the other Camp Hosts had things come up where they have had to leave the park to take care off. This has left Susan and I pulling double (all day) shifts. It’s no big deal since you could hardly call this work. Our granddaughter had her 1st birthday and we headed on out to attend her party. Also the Camp Hosts at South Carlsbad State Beach (our sister park) had a host party that we attended. We had a great time meeting all the hosts from Carlsbad and swapping interesting stories. But the big event has been the storm surge along the coast. The northwest has been hit with a big storm that brought us humongous waves and higher than normal tides. We were afraid some of the lower campsites would get flooded out but they survived.

The beach we used to walk is gone, covered by high surf that is licking the already eroding cliffs.
The surfers were going crazy with the 15 to 20 foot waves. The rangers and Lifeguards had their hands full rescuing surfers from the raging ocean. There were over 100 rescues in one day. They were hanging out just past the surf on Jet Skis ready to rush in and pluck a surfer in trouble out of the water. They also had ambulances and a helicopter standing by just in case. Although there were many rescues there was no deaths until today. Unfortunately a surfer floated ashore unconscious and was unable to be resuscitated. They still do not know his identity. They only know he appears to be in his 30s. Many surfers went home with broken boards and some bumps and bruises. Traffic was also a mess. Everyone came down to either ride the waves or just observe the waves. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and stop-and-go. There was just no place for all of them to park. The local police were on foot going down the line of cars asking illegal parkers to move on. As soon as they chased one out another would pull in. Finally they started ticketing them and had to call for more ticket books. Tow trucks were also busy removing cars. The surf subsided a bit today but was still huge today. The problem today was the fog that came in. Surfers were going out not knowing what they were getting into. The lifeguards could not keep an eye out for them since visibility was very limited. Next week is supposed to be a repeat of yesterday and today.

These guys decided to pull out of this wave.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

This time of year brings out all the wackos, degenerates and misfits. The park is just about empty during the weekdays except for a collection of degenerates. There is an interesting collection of tents, campers and motorhomes.
There is the guy that asks for an ambulance because he thinks he is suffering from sleep deprivation.
There was the motley grew that looked like they just crawled out from under a bridge somewhere. They all took off one day, however they forgot the guy that was passed out in the bushes next to their site. I left that one for the Ranger to handle.
There is the POW that complains about everything even though he is getting his site for free. He figures since he doesn’t have to pay that he can come and go as he pleases, whenever he pleases.
There was the guy that took off in his truck the day he was supposed to check out, leaving his trailer and Harley behind. When he arrived at 11:30P the Ranger was there to meet him. Turns out his truck, trailer, and wife’s car had expired registrations and their driver’s licenses were expired. He was given an hour to leave.
There was the guy that claims he raises race horses and has lots of money even though he is sleeping in a 4’X4’ purple tent that looks like a little kids Barbie tent. He ended up missing for 2 nights even though all his stuff was still setup in the site. He came back and paid up then disappeared again for another 4 nights, then one night all his stuff disappeared.
There is the one that says he just bought a million dollar house, however he is staying in the park in his hundred dollar motorhome.
There are the ones that have a vivid imagination. One says he witnessed a rape in one of the showers. One wanted to file an assault with deadly weapon charge stating a man with a cane attacked him.
Then there are the leaches that think they can pull in when the office is closed and slip out before they open without paying. Little do they know that we get their plate numbers and send them a citation that costs A LOT more than the night’s fee.
There is the guy that chooses a non-hookup site, then plugged into the hookup site next to him. His excuse was he was charging a dead battery and didn’t want to disturb anyone with his generator. Yeah, he was also kicked back watching TV.
There was the woman that knocked on my door at 8:00pm looking for a warm place to sleep. When I sent her on her way, she was so wasted she couldn’t find her way out of my site. Called the ranger on that one.
There are also a number of oddballs that are quiet, keep to themselves and completely harmless.
So, how exciting is your job?