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?

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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.