Finally an update

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We have been having such a great time, I have completely forgotten to update our site. We are still at the Bus Nuts Rally at the Yuma County Fairgrounds. These are a great bunch of people. It is kind of cool how they parked us around here. It was first come first serve and you just pick a place anywhere in the fairgrounds that you can find a place to plug into. If you are lucky you will have water near by too. We are right at the end and right under the flight path of the jets as they take off from the Marine Corps Air Station. Kind of cool but REAL LOUD. They calm down every evening but there is always 2 at 10:00p and 3 at 11:00p, then they are done for the night.

Post Cards

We just added a new feature to our site. It is titles ‘Where have we been’ and features post cards and a short message from the places we have visited. You can see them by clicking on the link to the left titles ‘See our Post Cards’.

We are still in Yuma

Are our motorhomes getting bigger or are the sites getting smaller. We thought the Indio Rally was tight. We at least had room to put the patio awning out. We are so tight here we can reach out our window and shake hands with our neighbor. The sites are gravel, the power is only 30 amps, there is no cable TV, and the end of the US Marine Corps Air Station runway is right across the street with jets taking off and landing all day. Other than that, the park is very clean, well taken care of, and everyone is very friendly. We are having a good time. And besides, we just noticed on the news that it is raining back home and it is sunny and beautiful here and the sunsets are killer.



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I mentioned in the previous writing that we might not get to do what we came here for, well all is back on. The Bus Nuts have room for us at their rally so we will be sticking around for that and the Rexhall picnic after.



We are on Arizona time here. It is similar to Day Light Savings Time which should not be a problem. The problem is, during Day Light Savings Time everything and everyone change. Here we have to be aware that we are 1 hour ahead of our friends and family in California and our Satellite TV is 1 hour behind. We plan to change Sat TV feed when we get closer to the east.



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Welcome to Yuma

I think we are going in circles. We are closer to our original departure site than we have been for a while. I figured we have traveled 1056 miles and we are only 196 miles away from home. We left Quartzsite and made our way to Yuma this morning. Last night we had some pretty good showers in Quartzsite. I thought we were going to have to travel in the rain again but when we woke this morning the sun was shinning bright. The drive was easy and the weather was great. Good thing I fixed the air conditioner in the Aerbus because we used it today.



We found out today that we may have come to Yuma for no reason at all. We were suppose to hook up with the “Bus Nuts” for a rally next week and then head over to the Rexhall Picnic. Well looks like the Bus Nuts rally may be maxed out and there is no room for us. This means we will have to hang out for two weeks for the picnic. As much as we enjoy the Rexhall people, we really don’t want to hang out here for two weeks just to attend a half day picnic. If we can’t get in to the rally we will probably just head on down the road.



The park we are in is a 55+ park. I guess they bend the rules a bit because they didn’t turn us away at our young age of 52. The park is really nice. It is a Snow Bird Park. There are quite a few permanent trailers that have out of state cars parked beside them. We have noticed a lot from Canada.



I found out why this park has spaces available when all the other parks are full. This park is right across the road from the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station and International Airport. We need to pause our conversations often because we can’t be heard over the jet noise. I hope they take a break at night so we can get some sleep. Let’s see, the last place was generators running all night and the place before that was Interstate truck traffic. What’s next?

Just some photos

Did I tell you the cactus around here is tall?

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Nothing but top notch entertainment around here.

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I caught this vendors dog just hanging out watching all the people going by.



We visited the Big RV Show here in Quartzsite today. They say they expect over 100,000 people to attend the show. I think they all were there today. The phone cells are so overloaded around here, you have to keep trying to get a call through. We have big plans for tomorrow. We plan to do absolutely NOTHING.



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Swap Meets Galore

I spent the day checking out some of the MANY swap meets today. Susan was not feeling well (Bad Cold) so she stayed back at the motorhome. I thought it was a sales pitch when I read, "If you can't find it here, it doesn't exist." I am beginning to believe it now. The top photo is a collage of some antiques I found and the photo below is from a booth that was selling animal parts. Why? I had to ask. Apparently people use them for many reasons such as decorations, taxidermists that are in need of some parts and who knows what. This place is filling up. We have about 10 other RVs around us now.



The desert is green. It is unbelievable how much color there is after all the rains. Some of the wild flowers are in bloom but it is still too early for the big showing. The evening skies are just awesome. The hills light up with the setting sun and the skies fill with pinks, reds, and orange color with contrasting giant cactus in the foreground. My little digital camera just does not do it Justus.



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Good Bye California

Today is a monumental day for us. We left California today and will not see it for another 9 months. But what really makes it monumental is that when we do arrive back in California we will no longer be California residents. You see, when we arrive in South Dakota we will be changing our residents for a number of reasons such as taxes, vehicle registration, and insurance.



We are in Quartzsite Arizona for a few days. There are way more RVs here than at the Indio rally. The difference is, they are not crowded in because there are hundreds of thousands of acres to park in. There are only 3 other RVs around us but I figure there will be a bit more when the weekend gets here. We are situated where we can see the Highway off ramp and there has been a steady stream of RVs all day. We have seen anything from Million Dollar Prevost Motorcoaches to Old converted school busses and everything in between.



Who says living in an RV is challenging? Here we are in the middle of the desert with no hoses, pipes, wires, or cords, yet I have over 200 channels on my TV, Telephone, Electricity, Running water, and internet. I love modern technology.



There is so much going on here that it could take days to see it all. The whole town has turned into one big giant swap meet. There are bands playing, Antique car and tractor shows, Vender booths all over the place and this weekend will be one of the biggest RV shows around. We plan to stay until Monday but who knows…



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Same house different scenery

Our work is done at the Indio Rally so we moved on down the road. We are in Blythe CA now, right on the Colorado River that separates California from Arizona. I thought we would have a nice river front site with a beautiful view of the river. Well we did get a river front site but our view is of the bridge crossing the river. It is kind of fun watching all the motorhomes crossing over the bridge though. We do have full hookups and have a chance to get everything cleaned up and relax for a few days before heading out in the desert.





This is the view from our front window.

I found them!

Have you ever wondered where all those motorhomes are going that you see on the road. I think I found them. There are over 2,000 motorhomes here. The photo shows only a slice of what is here. There are just as many on the other side. If you look carefully behind the row of palm trees you will see them in the overflow area. They even had them parked along the streets around here.

Tomorrow is another travel day. Susan and I were going to head on out to Quartzsite Arizona but decided that since Quartzsite will be "Dry Camping" (That's no water, electric, and sewer) we will be stopping at Blythe, CA for 4 nights of full hookups to get cleaned up, then off to Quartzsite. The Aerbus and Saturn are still a mess from the rains. I just can't stand it any longer. I need to clean them up.

We got a call from some friends we met while at Pechanga today. They wanted to let us know where they were and have us stop by to see them. They say some other friends from Pechanga have come out to stay a while. They are in Paso Robles, AZ right now. We also got an invite to join a rally put on by the Bus Nuts in Yuma in a few weeks. What a life huh? So our plans are to hang out in Quartzsite for a while then head on down to Yuma then out to Paso Robles. We had planed to meet up with some other friends in Yuma anyway so it works out good.













Our work is done here. We had such a great time driving the trams here at the rally that we signed up for next year. Who says we don’t work. I just never thought I would be working for free and enjoying it so much.

Swamp Buggies

Although it looks like we are living in the swamps, it really isn't too terribly bad. Sure it is wet and sloppy in places but mostly on the paths coming in and out because of all the motorhomes and vehicles traveling them. The only bad thing about where the motorhome is parked is that they mowed the grass before we showed up so all the wet grass clipping stick to our shoes and like to follow us inside the coach. The sun was out most of the day today and it is already starting to dry out. I think by the time we are ready to leave it will be dry enough so we won't have to go mud bogging.



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They parked us nose to nose which is backward from what we are used to. This means that when you wake in the morning and throw open your front window curtains, you are staring right into the front window of your neighbors coach. As you can see in the above photo, there are some pretty old coaches near us. They are actually members of a club called the Bus Nuts. These are old converted greyhound and city busses. Some are done real nice and some look like they had a real hard time getting here.



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As you can see, there is no shortage of coaches here. And this is only the volunteers. The show doesn't start until tomorrow. There is a very large parking lot across from the fair grounds that will fill up fast. At least the weather has cleared up and it should be warm and dry for the show.



Susan and I attended our tram drivers training today. As you may know, we have volunteered to drive trams for the show. I will be the driver and Susan will be sitting on the back as my spotter. After driving 36 feet of motorhome with another 20 feet of car behind it, the tram was fairly easy. However tomorrow with about 5000 people wandering the streets it could be quite a challenge. We have the 4:30 to 6:30 shift everyday of the show. They say we should be able to do a round trip every 15 minutes so that's about 8 trips a day.



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Western Area RV Rally

The drive to Indio was good. After all it was only 20 miles so how bad can it be. There was slight drizzle on and off all the way. The fairgrounds are pretty much saturated with rain. We are parked on the grass and portions are a bit slushy. They haven’t got the power to our area turned on yet, they say tomorrow morning, so it’s generator power for this evening. I dug out our portable Honda EU2000i generator so we would not disturb the neighbors with the sound and air pollution of the coach generator. To bad the guy next to us didn’t do the same. Tomorrow we will be taking a drivers training course for our tram driving jobs then we will find out what our schedule is. I hope I don’t get the 6:00a shift.

Rain Rain go away

OK, enough is enough. As I sit here writing this, it is just pouring outside. I am ready for some sunshine. Tomorrow is travel day. Luckily I have packed up everything outside. We are only going about 20 miles down the road to Indio but it still may be a challenge. The roads around here have had it. They have more water on them then cars. It actually looks like the rally is going to be good and dry though. The rally actually starts on Wednesday and they are saying sun from Wednesday through the weekend. I hope all of you are weathering these storms well.

We had a very nice visit with some friends from our home town of Oceanside, CA today. They relocated to Palm Springs about a year ago and love it here. You can see there picture on our Friends Along The Way page using the link to the left.

Just not enough time

I told you things were a little tight around here. Good thing for the empty site across from us or it would have been a trick getting in here. So far the site has remained open so I can get out the same way I got in. You can tell by the photo that things are a little wet around here. It has really not been to bad. Just a off and on drizzle for a few days.

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This is a photo of how it was when we got here. We had about 2 days of nice weather. The scenery of the snow on the mountains with the palms in the desert is awesome.

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There is lots to see around here. This is a general store from the past. All this stuff is authentic from it's time and most containers still have it's original contents. Too bad we don't have more time. We have to be in Indio Monday to take a drivers training course for our volunteer tram driving jobs at the FMCA rally next week. I am sure we will be passing through here sometime in the future. Hopefully the weather will be better and we will have more time for sight seeing.



Tomorrow we will visit with some friends from back home that have relocated here in Palm Springs. We are looking forward to seeing them again. Then Monday morning it will be traveling day once again.

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Palm Springs

Well we made it to Palm Springs. To be honest, yesterday, about noon, would have been a better day to travel. Instead I paid a visit to the local Urgent Care Center in Temecula. I had enough of this finger and decided I needed to know if it was broken. After a Doctors exam and 3 X-Rays, turns out there are no fractures so I am just going to have to grin and bare it until it heals. Anyway, the drive here was good. A little drizzle on the way and a detour around a flood, but we made it. Had to drive through a small river across the road and got a nice layer of mud on the Saturn. After hooking up I cleaned the mud off the Saturn and the Motorhome so we're all clean again.

I wish I did a little research on the parks around here. We are at Happy Traveler RV Park, on a recommendation, and are happy but it is a little tight and pricey. Also there is no internet hookup so I will be limited to my free nights and weekends for internet through the cell phone. The good thing is, it is within walking distance to down town Palm Springs. Yeah, Like we're really going to walk.

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It’s raining, It’s pouring, the old man is snoring

Today was supposed to be travel day but when I woke this morning it was pouring, so this old man just turned over and continued snoring. We have the luxury to travel on good days and stay put on days like today. I can't even get to the office to pay for today because of the 10 foot wide river in front of the motorhome. I called and let them know I would be in to pay when the river subsides.

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Up and Down Up and Down

Yesterday was one of those days. It all started out that it was our 29th day at Pechanga RV Resort. They have a 29 day limit and we had to evacuate for 24 hours before we could come back in. It also turned out that we had to run the Aerbus back into the shop to get a few more things done so we coordinated the two. We really never have that feeling of being homeless until the house is in the shop and we don’t have access to it. It rained like heck so we used the time to spend some of the gift certificates we got for Christmas. They were done with the Motorhome by 2:00p and they did a good job with the repairs. We setup the motorhome in the overflow parking lot adjacent the RV Resort and settled in for the night. Since we didn’t have to pay Campground fees we decided to splurge and hit the buffet at the casino. After dinner I handed Susan $10.00 and told her to hit the slots while I wander and pull a few slots myself. Well I lost my money in no time and went to check on Susan. She was holding her own so I wandered a little more. Two hours later Susan was down to pennies when the wheels on the slot lined up 3 cherries. 2,600 credits! The bad thing, she was playing a penny slot. The good thing, she started with $10.00 and walked away with $26.00. We headed back to the Aerbus to get a good nights sleep while listing to the rain fall. RAIN!? Heck it was a torrential down poor with what felt like hurricane force winds. The motorhome was shaking all night. I think I got about 3 hours sleep.

Well we are back in the park safe and sound again. We will be keeping a close eye on the storms because we are leaving on Monday if the weather allows.

Notice:

Our last batch of business cards contained the wrong email address. The cards were distributed in the month of December. If you received a card from us in the month of December check the email address. The correct address should be dsfleming@access4free.com.

Christmas was good to us

We have enough gift cards to last us a while. You see, living in a motorhome, there is not a lot of room for “stuff” so we asked that everyone get us gift cards to nationwide retail stores and restaurants. That way when we are in need of something we can pick it up without a major deviation in our budget, and living space.



All is going well except I did a dumb thing and don’t know if I broke my finger or just sprained it extremely good. I thought I would give it some time to see if it gets better. Well, it’s been a week now and it is not improving as fast as I hoped. I will probably see a doctor sometime this week. We are leaving next week so if they have to cast it I will have to get instructions on how and when to de-cast it myself.



Wednesday we are packing up and heading for the Service Center. We have a few more repairs that need to be done before we leave here. We have to be out of here that night anyway since we have reached our 29 day limit here at The Pechanga RV Resort. After the repairs, we will spend the night in the parking lot adjacent to this PV park for the night and come back in the next morning for a few days until January 3rd when we head out. We have decided to spend a week in Palm Springs before we head over to the Indio Rally. There are a few friends we want to say hi to around the Palm Springs area.

Nana and Papa

We are new Grandparents for the second time. On December 13th our daughter gave birth to a healthy 8lb girl.





Mom and Alexa 1 hour old

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Nana, Big Brother Landen and Alexa 10 days old.

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Papa, Big Brother Landen and Alexa 10 days old.

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It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas

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It’s fun to see how people decorate their motorhomes and trailers. Here are some photos of ours.





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What a great weekend. The weather was the best. I told Susan we have to follow this weather all over the country. We did nothing but sit and enjoy. Well, we did have to run into Vista to take care of some bank needs. On the way back we stopped in the little town of Rainbow. This place consists of a small store with a couple of gas pumps and a restaurant/bar. We bought a couple of apples from the store and had a hamburger in the restaurant. The food was good but I was more impressed by the waitress. She did not stop the whole time we were there. She must have taken 25 orders, served 50 meals in the short time we were there, and seemed to really enjoy her job.



Surprisingly the RV Park was not very full this weekend. Jerry Seinfeld flow in in his helicopter for his show Saturday evening. He flew back out at 12:00 midnight, I know because he woke me while leaving. The shuttle driver said Jerry was rather snooty wanting a limo to pick him up at the helicopter and bring him to the hotel (It’s only across the parking lot). Where the helicopter was parked, they couldn’t get a limo down in there so they sent there limo shuttle bus. This did not please him. He also demanded security escort him everywhere so the public did not bother him.

We made it in Motorhome Magazine

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I was thumbing through the latest Motorhome Magazine and came across this ad. It was rather surprising because I took the same photo from the same location.

Party in the parking lot

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I completely forgot about the holiday weekend and failed to make reservations in time so we got ousted from the RV Park for tonight. We are not alone though, as you can see. There are over 15 rigs in this parking lot and probably just as many in the other, and it's still early. This is not the first and I am sure not the last.



We had Thanksgiving dinner at Susan's parents house with our Daughters and Grandson. It's nice to have the whole family together before we head out on the road. Hopefully we will be getting together one more time for Christmas also and this time we should have a new addition to the family, Our new Granddaughter Alexa.

Sometimes you have to be forced

The Aerbus went into the shop yesterday. We had nothing to do but go exploring. We ended up heading east to Hemet. I have been hearing about a new lake called Diamond Valley Lake somewhere around here but didn’t know exactly where is was. Now we do. We stumbled upon it on our way to Hemet. It was started back in the mid 1990s by damming up a valley between a couple of mountains. It took about 5 years to fill completely and is 265 feet at the deepest end. There were about 8 types of fish introduced and about 4 types that came in with the water. They have a visitor’s center, marina and a view point, what a nice view. I wish I brought my camera. We will have to take another cruise out there with the camera sometime.



Well, turns out that not much got done on the motorhome, Go Figure! They had to order parts so we have to go back. Since we have to find a place to hang out on December 28th we made an appointment for then. Since they got it done in a day we didn’t have to live at the service center. We brought the Aerbus back over to Pechanga and decided to just hang out in the parking lot for a night. Bright and early this morning I got us back in the RV Resort. They still have no spaces available for Friday so it looks like it’s going to be back out in the parking lot again. Some of you might say, “What a hassle”. Nah, It breaks up the routine. The Aerbus and Generator needed to be run anyway.

What the…?

I woke about 7:00 this morning, rolled over and took a peek out the window. Hey! Guess what? It’s snowing! I mean it was really coming down. The locals said they can’t remember it ever snowing here. The weather forecasted showers. I guess they didn’t count on it dropping to the low 30s over night. It barely got into the 60s today then dipped back down to the 40s. It is supposed to get warm for the rest of the week.



Tomorrow we are moving. We will be living at the repair center here in Temecula. It is so close by that I doubt the motorhome will even warm up by the time we get there. We are planning 2 nights but I suspect it will only be for 1 night. We were going to get the brake recall done but they have a parts shortage. They wanted to cancel the appointment but I reminded them that the original appointment was for the Ram Air Kit Workhorse wants to put on my motorhome in an attempt to cure the sparkplug burning issue. I also need the Emergency Flasher Switch replaced again and the horn fixed from a botched repair by Beaudry RV about a year ago. After that we will try to get back here at Pechange. If not then it’s Camp Wal-Mart.



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Lesson learned

OK,

Question…

How many of you have to put away all your knick-knacks, secure everything and move your home when your utilities run out???

Didn’t think so. I did. Suddenly I noticed my water heater was having troubles staying lit. First thing I checked was the propane tank. EMPTY!

We had to pack up our house and drive it over less than ¼ mile to fill the propane tank. I guess this was bad planning on my part. I knew we were going to be here for a month but I thought I could make it on around ½ tank. What I didn’t count on is the temperatures dipping into the low 40s to high 30s at night. The heater gets a good workout every morning to take the chill off.

Stuck in Phone Purgatory

One of the things a Fulltimer has to do is reduce the amount of junk mail they get. This is easier said then done. It all sound simple. Just call the number on the junk mail or magazine…Awe there is the first catch…if you can find the number. Some hide it in the fine print and some don’t even offer a phone number to call. If you are lucky, Ha!, very unlikely, you will get directly to a human that will assist you. On the other hand you get stuck in Phone Purgatory. You know the routine. Press 1 for this and 2 for that and worst of all para la prensa 1 del español. What country did I call?! If you are unfortunately enough to press the wrong number…Well, I’m sorry, You have to go back and start all over. All I want is to talk to a human! Most, after a bunch of number pressing, you finally get to talk to a human. Whether they can help you is another thing. Oh sure, they Say they will take you off their mail list. Some don’t even have the human option, or maybe I didn’t press the right number combination to get there. If you can’t get the job done by phone, your only recourse is to write “Take Me Off Your Mail List” on the mailer and send it back. Sometimes you even have to pay the postage for this. I am totally convinced that removing your name off one list causes it to pop up on several others. There seems to be no end. It’s also a shame that I have to be careful who I give my information to or the flood will start all over again.

Holidays, OH NO!

Holidays mean something different to a Fulltimer. It means we better get reservations or we will be spending the Holidays in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The campgrounds book up fast. We got lucky and there were a couple of cancellations here at Pechanga RV Resort or we would be out on the streets looking for a place to stay. It probably isn’t as bad as it seems but we didn’t want to wait until the last minute and find the only thing available is the spot in Sleazy Hollow Trailer Park next to Bubba and his howling hound dog. Well we are now set until the Indio Rally on the 12th of January. I am not too happy about staying here for 2 ½ months but at least it is a nice place to stay. We were going to break it up with a few days in the desert but we had the Grandson that we had to get back home. We were also talking about a couple of weeks at the Colorado River but we have a new Grand Daughter coming soon. Then there is the sparkplug wire repair coming up and Thanksgiving then Christmas and New Years. And somewhere in there I need to schedule a day at the Alison Transmission Shop for a transmission program update then over to the Workhorse Shop for an engine program update. There is good reason why they say you should never buy a first years production run, or even the second as in my case.

We’re back

25 days, 9 stops, and 770 miles later we are back in Temecula. We just arrived at Pechanga RV Resort about an hour ago. It was a nice driver over the hill from Lancaster where we just left the Rexhall International Homecoming Rally.



We had a blast. The food, entertainment and people were great. We now have more people to hookup with when we start to travel.



The weather is a lot nicer here than Lancaster. We are back in short and flip flops. We will be here until about the second week in January with a brief stay at the Temecula RV Service Center. I don’t know if I am going to be able to handle over 2 months in the same location. I may just have to move on the another location here close to family if I get antsy.



We are still running on the $5.00 spark plug wire with no problems. I talked to several others at the rally and it seem the guys that own RexAir’s don’t have the problem where us that own Aerbus’s do. The difference is the amount of grill space. Some had the Workhorse Ram Air Kit installed but said it is too soon to tell if it has fixed their problem yet. After what I found out about the grill space I’m betting it will fix the problem. I am also going to call Rexhall and give them my findings and ask them what they are going to do about it.



We both just can’t wait to see our Grandson Landen. It has been about a month since we have seen him although we have talked to him on the phone. I can’t imagine how it will be after January when we really start to travel. We got invited to a couple of post homecoming rallies but wanted to get back to see Landen.

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Another Travel Day

Today is the last day of the Rexhall International Homecoming Rally. We will be heading back to Temecula where we will be for 29 days then into the shop.

The rally has really been a blast. Lots of good people, food and seminars. I learned a couple of things at the rallies but learned even more from just sitting and talking to the other Rexhall owners.

Rexhall brought a number of new coaches out for us to tour. The general opinion was that they were total junk and no one would give up what they own now for one. Apparently Rexhall knows this and hired a new Engineer that came to the rally to gather input. Hopefully he will go back and start cleaning up there act.

The weather has been interesting. When we pulled in 5 days ago it was overcast, cold and windy. That night it rained, and it rained good. The next morning I got up and checked for leaks. NO LEAKS! The rest of the days were nice and today I was finally able to take off my jacket.



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They call us Wavers

We made it over the hill from Bakersfield to Lancaster to the Rexhall Rally this morning. The Aerbus is still running great on the $5.00 plug wire. Of course it was only about 55 degrees outside so things were running pretty cool. As soon as we checked in they were on us to go to work. We were not scheduled to do any volunteer work until tomorrow but they had some no shows and were short handed. We didn’t even have a chance to setup our house before we were on the street corner with signs in hand waving to the Rexhalls coming in. It was pretty cold and windy but at least it wasn’t raining. We only had to do 2 hours before we were relieved then it was back to the Aerbus to setup. Tomorrow at 9:30am we will be back on the street. Hope the rain gives us a break.

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Who’d-a-thunk

Out here in Bakersfield, in the middle of farm country, they are having an International Wake Board Championship. There are a series of about 7 man made lakes they call Ski West Village. It Looked like I was at Lake Havasu on the Colorado River or something. There were Vendor Booths, lots of nice ski boats and WATER. I mean this is a place that if your car sits for more than a couple of days, there is so much dust on it, you can’t tell what color it is. There are people from all over the US at the lakes. They have a row of Easy-Ups with a state labeled on each for the spectators. You just find the craziest things in the craziest places.

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They come and they go

where did they all go?



We have seen more Rvers in the 4 days here at the Orange Grove RV Park than we have seen in the last 3 months. Seem this is a transient park. They start coming in around 2 o’clock and don’t stop until about 6. There is everything from van conversions to Prevosts. And every motorhome has a car behind it. They are coming from every direction and going in every direction. I told Susan there is one good thing about it. If you don’t like your neighbor, they will be gone in the morning. We kind of feel like the oddballs since we are here for a week.



I got a kick out of one guy. He pulled in with a new trailer and had a heck of a time with it. The only tool I saw him with was a hammer, and he used it a lot. I think he had a new trailer because he beat the hell out of his last one.



We have met fulltimers that are loving it and fulltimers that can’t wait to get home and put the rig up for sale.



The only one we have seen with kids is a family from Kentucky that is out here for their son’s wake board competition. It’s Mom, Dad, Grandma and 3 kids in a 35 foot class A, and there having a ball. They came here the long way, zigging and zagging their way up and down the country on their way here.



It’s been getting hotter everyday. Today it got to 95. At least the evenings are cool. They say it should be cooling off by the weekend. I hope it cools down before we go to Lancaster.

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Are we there yet?

150 miles of nothing. We just moved from San Antonio Lake near Paso Robles, CA to Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield. It was about 150 miles of brown barren land across Highway 46. It took us a little over 3 hours with 1 lunch/gas stop to break it up. Since the dash air is not working right now it got pretty toasty inside the motorhome while traveling. I ended up firing up the generator and had Susan go back and switch on the front roof air.



I added to my bug collection, however I can’t tell what kind they are because they are splattered all over the front of the Aerbus. Well I got a week to clean them off since we don’t need to be anywhere until the 20th.



I have over 550 miles on the $5.00 spark wire and it hasn’t fried yet. I don’t think the $20 factory wire lasted me that long. Of course not that I said something it will fry on the next leg of our journey.



When we got here I was looking at the Campground map that they give you with all the local adds on it and there was a Oil Change Special from The RV Peddler. It stated $0.15 a quart for oil and $0.85 an hour for labor with a filter at regular price. It sure got me curious so I gave then a call. They didn’t have a clue what I was talking about but said they would honor it if I brought them the add. I asked how much the filter cost and was quoted $44.00 (for an oil filter for a Chevy gas engine). I chuckled and said No Thanks.

San Antonio Lake

We made it to the lake. It was a good easy drive until we turned onto G14. This is road had some pretty taxing hills on it. I thought if I was going to burn up another sparkplug wire that it will happen here. Well, we made it on all 8 plug wires. No burnt ones. We missed the turn going to the lake and I had to turn the rig around on a narrow 2 lane road. Of course this was impossible with the car in tow so we pulled over and unhooked the toad and turned everything in the other direction and hooked back up again. This was really no problem. We were heading in the other direction in minutes. As you can see this post is kind of late this evening. We were having such a good time with everyone we lost track on the time. This is a fun group of people, but what Rvers aren’t.

Travel Day

We are heading for San Antonio Lake today. It is in the foot hills near Paso Robles, ca. I am going to miss this Wireless Internet access we have here at Pismo. It will be back to using the Verizon phone only after 9:00a and on weekends. I will post an update about the lake later.

Pismo Beach

We made it to Pismo Coast Village RV Resort. We decided to take Highway 1 instead of 101 just for a change of pace. It was a good drive but a bit hilly. Nothing too interesting just a lot of farm land. They have free wireless internet here at Pismo so I can roam the internet as much as I want. The weather is great and we are a few steps from the beach. We will be here for 2 nights then we will continue on our trek north to San Antonio Lake. We plan to stay at the lake for a week it looks good..

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Danish Pancakes

We arrived at Flying Flags Campground in Buellton, CA today about noon. We did nothing but sit and relax. Tomorrow morning we are heading into Solvang for breakfast. For those that don't know about Solvang it is a small Danish town near the coast in California. After breakfast we are heading for Highway 1 for the trip to Pismo Beach where we will be spending 2 nights.

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Campingworld Overnight

Well, it was a really fun weekend. The Indy cars ran yesterday and we stayed one more night, leaving this morning. Tonight we are overnighting at Campingworld in Valencia, Ca. We are right next to the interstate and the traffic going by sounds like we are still at the California Speedway. We have stayed here before and remember it being crowded. This time it is very crowded also however it is because the RV dealer next door has taken up most of the parking spaces with there inventory. We will be pulling out first thing in the morning heading to Buellton, Ca.

NASCAR Truck Night Racing

These guys were moving. As you can see in the picture they are just a blur. We had the best seats in the race. We were perched above my Daughters Motorhome on a deck custom built by her husband just for the races. We all had our scanner radios tuned into the race frequencies to get the inside scoop. Susan was reluctant to get on top of the motorhome but her seat was no slouch. She was sitting in the driver seat of the Aerbus and had a excellent view out our front picture window. She also had the TV on so she could keep up on the commentaries and watch the replays of the wrecks.



Today is the Indy Cars. Should be fun!

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Good thing we have plenty of time.

We made it to California Speedway in Fontana today. We were wondering if we were going to make it though. I had mapped out a route that would get us here without taking any interstates but we didn’t even get out of town and we ran into a dead end road. The map said the road went through but I guess the road builders didn’t read the map. We ended up back on I-15 for the trip. Being it was 10:30 am on a Thursday, the traffic was not bad at all though. W couldn’t have got better spots. We are right on the front row coming out of turn 2.

Did we say something wrong?

No not really. It is Sunday so most people packed up to go home and back to their jobs. This leaves the park pretty much empty, and quiet. I suspect the rest of the week will be the same, then back to being full for the weekend. It was packed this weekend with only a few sites open. I would suspect that most of the empties were no shows because this is a popular place. We will be heading over to the casino a little later to see how much it slows down during the weekdays also.



It has been about 100 degrees here during the day and a good 35+ mph wind comes up about 1:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon. So far I have left the awnings out but keep a close eye on them. I may have to pull them in today since there are no motorhomes around us to slow the wind.



Evenings are so nice here. After dinner we take our walk around the park then light up our oil lanterns and our 'Halloween Light' and sit by the motorhome and enjoy the calm comfortable temperatures. I always wanted a set of those rope lights to attach to the underside of my awning but didn't want to spend the 20 something bucks that Campingworld wanted. So the other day while doing some shopping at Wal-Mart I took a cruise through the Halloween section and found an 18' 'Halloween Orange' rope light for $7.00. I thought orange might be kind of weird but it turned out to be nice, and doesn't attract the bugs.



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Sad then Happy

It was a sad day today. We left All Seasons after being there for 2 months. It's hard to stay in one place 2 months without making good friends. Last night we took our final walk around the lake to say goodbye to all the good people we have met.



Today is also a Happy day. We have moved to Pechanga RV Resort just 18 miles down the road. The Resort is adjacent to a nice Indian Casino. We have stayed here before and it is just as nice as before. We will be here for only about a week this time then we are off again. Some friends from All Seasons will be coming up on Monday to join us for the Buffet at the Casino.





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Looking forward to moving on

We have been here for about 8 weeks now and as far as I am concerned it is about 4 weeks too long. Don’t get me wrong, We have enjoyed out stay very much but it is time to move on. This Friday we will be moving just 18 miles down the road, but it is a change of scenery. We are ready for a change.

It’s All Ours

We paid off the Aerbus yesterday. We are now totally debt free. It just gets better and better everyday.

We must stay flexible

One important thing about fulltiming is you must be flexible. We made plans to house sit Susan’s parent’s house for a week while the Aerbus was in the shop. Well, the parts for the motorhome will not be available until the end of October so plans have changed. This is not a big problem for us. We can be flexible but it does pose a problem for Susan’s parents. I said right from the beginning we will not make plans. This is a good reason why. Fortunately we have no plans for the end of October…well, I guess now we do.

The owner stopped by to say hi

So I was sitting in the Aerbus minding my own business when I heard what sounded like a helicopter about to land on the roof. I leaped out in time to catch this chopper landing on the bridge over the lake. Turns out it was the owner just flying in to see how things are going. A really nice guy. He hung around for about an hour and off he went. He invited me up to check out one of his other parks on the Sacramento river. We will have to hunt it out someday

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Check out the hawk

This guy has been circling the lake for about a week now. I guess the term 'hawk eye' has some truth to it. This guy can spot a fish from high up and with one swift dive come up with a snack. He has learned that the fish hang out below our deck waiting for food and has made a meal of at least one that I saw.



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What happened

Our lake turned into Pea Soup today. It never was the clearest lake but today I sat and watched as a green cloud came over the entire lake in a matter of minutes. It was the strangest thing. I think it has something to do with the weather. It has been quite hot and humid here and I was told that a lake will 'turn over' with changes in temperature.



As you can see in the next photo, Susan's fish are barely visible in the muck. I hope we don't see them floating belly up tomorrow.





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Well, It’s over

The last long weekend of the summer has come and gone. I got admit, it's a good feeling to just sit back and watch everyone else packing to go home. It's really nice to already be home. I look at all the long faces from what were happy faces just yesterday and remember back when I was one of them. We will never travel during the weekends if we can help it. We will do our travels during the mid week when most are at work.



The site we have is a really nice site during most of the time but being right next to the tent sites it gets pretty wild during the holiday weekends. I thought it would be fun watching the crazies come and go but it gets pretty trying at times. Well it's all over now and we cane once again mellow out.



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My Mechanic

It's always a good feeling to have a good mechanic if things go wrong. My grandson can probably do as good as some of the guys I've used.



Labor day, the last big camping weekend. This place is PACKED. I have to keep going out and reminding people not to double park and block me in. They are 3 deep here. The tent area is a mess with trash and the lake is equally as bad. Can't wait until Tuesday so we can clean up this place and get back to normal.

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Retired!

Today’s the day! After 4:00p today, I am officially RETIRED.

It’s a done deal

I finally got the check for the house. Closing of escrow was 28 days late. But…Not only did I get the check, I got $100 a day for everyday it was late. It was in the contract that the buyers would pay me $100 for everyday Escrow was late. I was anxious to close but didn’t mind making $100 a day for nothing. Now I need to find another way to make $100 a day for nothing.