Our work is done here

Susan and I just finished our last shift as Volunteer Tram Workers here in Pomona for the FMCA RV Rally. We both had the last shift, which runs an hour before the entertainment and an hour after the entertainment so we were busy with full trams. We have had a great time here. The Entertainment was good, there were lots of vendors and over 800 new coaches to look over with a price range from the $100,000s to the 2 million dollar range. We met up with a few really good friends and met a few new friends while here. While here I got my generator tuned up by the good folks from Generac Generators, no charge. These guys were just super. I also got a leaking leveling jack looked at and since they didn’t bring a replacement of my kind they are going to expedite one to me, no charge, and I will replace it myself. We have been here for 6 days and now it’s time to travel on. We will probably take our time leaving tomorrow to let the traffic subside a bit. Even though a lot of people left today, there will still be a lot of coaches trying to leave tomorrow. We only have about an 1 ½ hour drive so we will not be in any hurry to leave.

Pomona Fairplex California

We have arrived at the Pomona Fairplex for the FMCA RV Rally. We left at 7 this morning, yes I was up before 7am, and arrived at the Fairplex at 9:30 which was our scheduled arrival time. However, we sat in staging for about an hour and a half. Seems they sold all the electrical sites to people just driving in instead of holding them for us that reserved them. It did work out for the better though since they placed us inside the fairgrounds, with electricity, right in the hart of everything. We couldn’t be closer. Susan and I are not scheduled for our volunteer work until Wednesday so we have a few days off to enjoy the rally. I just wish the weather would cooperate and get a little warmer.

Palmdale California

Well we left Yermo this morning and headed for Palmdale. It was an easy and uneventful drive. The weather was great for the drive. While in Palmdale, we are attending a pre-rally to the Big FMCA rally in Pomona. The Palmdale rally is made up of all Rexhall motorhomes and we are all Tram volunteers for the Pomona rally. While here we are all going to take a tour of the Rexhall motorhome factory in Lancaster. We are looking forward to a good time here. I posted some photos of the Nascar race on the photo site. See photo links in the column to the left.

Fun in Las Vegas

We had fun in Las Vegas this weekend but not the kind of fun you would expect. Have you ever gone to Las Vegas and NOT set foot inside a casino. We did. The closest we came to a casino was to drive by on I-15. We spent the whole weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Nascar UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. We had good food, good racing and with great friends. The weather however wasn’t so great. After the strong winds, rain, snow (yes I did say snow) and cold, the weather cleared enough for both races on Saturday and Sunday. And after all that, the driver I was rooting for, Jimmie Johnson, won the race. We left the race track today and along with everyone else that decided to stay until today, it took us a hour just to get out of Las Vegas. Once out of town it was smooth sailing with perfect weather all the way. We are back in Yermo, California but this time we decided to stay at the KOA instead of Peggy Sue’s parking lot. After all the wind, dust, and rain we wanted full hookups to get everything, including ourselves, cleaned up and catch up on a little laundry. Tomorrow we are on our way to another Rally in Palmdale California.

Motorhome Hill

This is what’s known as Motorhome Hill here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is one row of RVs lined up on top of the back stretch. From these full hookup sites, you get a view of the whole track. If you want to join the folks on Motorhome Hill you better be prepared to fork over more than $3000 for the weekend. We are having a ball as usual, although the weather could be a bit better. It has been very windy with a threat of rain all weekend. We did actually get a bit of snow this evening but it wasn’t cold enough yet to stick. I won’t be surprised if we wake to a light dusting of snow tomorrow morning. Today was practice runs and qualifying. Tomorrow is the Bush race and Sunday is the Nascar race. Weather permitting that is.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Here we are at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was a lot of work getting here and now the race might not happen because of weather. As mentioned in our previous post, we were heading for Las Vegas over a week ago. We had to make a detour back to Vista California for family matters. We finally got started again on Tuesday and landed last night in Yermo near Barstow California at Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner. The trip was good except for the last 40 miles when the wind started blowing pretty hard. Last night we got dusted out pretty good until I moved to the downwind side of the building. We had dinner at Peggy Sues since they were nice enough to let us spend the night in their parking lot.

Above is a sample of the décor inside the restaurant. Pretty cool place. They have a gift shop also with a lot of nifty fifty stuff. Back on the road this morning it was pretty good traveling until we got to the California Nevada Stateline. The wind was so bad I considered pulling off for a while. I heard things thumping and banging outside the RV. Not sure what it was but I did adjust the passenger’s side mirror so I can keep an eye on the patio awning. I was smart enough to secure it at Peggy Sues as best I could and it held up. After Stateline the winds mellowed a bit. We planed to dump and fill with water at the Flying J’s Truck stop near the racetrack since we will be boondocking through the weekend. When we got there I drove around the place a couple of times before finally going inside and asking where the dump was. It was in the worst location possible and there were 5 other rigs waiting to use it holding up traffic trying to get to the gas pumps. I dropped the toad in the truck lot and got in line. To my disappointment the only water they offered was at the dump station. They say it is good water even though there is a sign saying it is not safe (being at the dump station). While waiting, I happened to look around and found a faucet between a couple of gas pumps. Got to be better than the dump station I thought so I got out my 2 hoses and hooked them together to reach. So while waiting in line to dump I was able to fill the water tank. Finally back on the road, we got to the track. Now being we don’t get mail regularly I elected to be on Will Call. I also had no idea where the RV lot we were in was. I pulled into the nearest lot and of course it was not the right one but they did direct me to the correct one. After waiting in line for about 30 minutes I was informed I have to go back out and drive over to the other side of the track to get my tickets from Will Call before I can enter. Fortunately that was relative painless. Back to the RV lot we went. Wow, No line this time however they could not find our site on their map. Of course not, we are in 639, NOT 693. There is no 693. Another 30 minutes and we were finally able to park it for the weekend. Now we will sit and wait for the wind to stop and the rain and snow, yes they are calling for snow also, begins. Should be an interesting weekend.

Rockin’ and Rollin’

We are rockin’ and rollin’. We are in Yermo just outside of Barstow. We are at the half way point to Las Vegas. We are parked at the Peggy Sue’s 50s diner but that’s not why we are rockin’ and rollin’, we are rockin’ and rollin’ because the wind is blowing about 50 mph outside and the motorhome was rocking quite a bit. I had to put the jacks down to stabilize it, which we usually don’t do for just an overnighter. The motorhome was getting sand blasted parked on one side of the diner so we moved around the other side. It is still windy here but at least we are not getting sand blasted by the sand coming across the parking lot. Tomorrow we head out for Las Vegas.

Happy camper again

Well I am happy to say that my pressure relief valve finally stopped leaking. I guess it needed some time for all the air to be purges from the system before the accumulator would work. Now I don’t need to be constantly cleaning the hard water deposits off the side of the motorhome.

I am also happy that we are getting back on the road this Tuesday. We are heading for Las Vegas again. We will be spending Tuesday night in Barstow again in the parking lot of the Peggy Sue’s restaurant, then off to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR race next weekend. From there we head for 2 back to back RV Rallies. WAHOO! Lots of fun ahead!

We came in $50 under budget for the month of February but that doesn’t make up for the $460 over budget in January…How Did That Happen! Don’t know, not paying attention. We got some make up to do in the next few months.

Waist of time and money

Today was one of those days. A waist of time and money day. I decided I needed an accumulator for our water system. An accumulator is supposed to reduce the pulsation of the water pump and reduce the time the pump runs. Also it is supposed to absorb the added pressure of the water as it expands when heated by the water heater. Since my water heater pressure relief valve has always weeped (especially after the water heater has just run) I thought the accumulator would help. I made the trip to Camping World and purchased the accumulator. Of course it does not come with any fittings and there were none in the isle along with the accumulator. I went to Home Depot, No luck. I went to Lowes, no luck. I went to a plumbing store, no luck. I went to a RV supply store, no luck. I went back to Camping World and said since you guys install these things sell me the fittings, no luck..Huh? How do you install these things if you have no fittings? They sent me to the RV dealer across the street. They had them! Well happy at last I headed home to install it. I removed the access panel where the pump is located and found I only had 12”X12” access to the spot where I wanted to install it. After struggling for 1 hour to accomplish a 15 minute job, it was done. But…The accumulator did not solve my problems. The pump doesn’t pulsate but it runs just as much. The Pressure relief valve is still leaking. I’m not a very happy camper right now.

Interesting Spottings

Are we there yet?

24 VOLT?

Isn’t it obvious?

To old for bicycles?

Back Peddling

While we were in Calico Susan got a phone call that her father was in the hospital. He had a valve replaced in his hart a while back and it seems to be acting up. Since we didn’t really need to be in Las Vegas until March 9, I decided to make a U turn and head back to Vista so Susan can be with her family. We are now staying at the Elks near her parent’s home for a while. By the way, her father is doing well and will be released tomorrow. It is just another detour in our travels.

Calico Ghost Town

We are in Yermo at the Calico Ghost Town. They have a campground right at the Ghost Town. This is a stop over point on the way to Las Vegas (about half way). We intended on staying for 2 nights (2X2X2) but after setting up I noticed we were setup in a site that is reserved for tomorrow. Instead of moving we decided to visit the Ghost town today and move on down the road tomorrow. The campground is very rugged and it took me a while to find a site that was fairly level. As it is, I had to run one side of the motorhome up on blocks so the wheels wouldn’t be off the ground when I lower the levelers. We do have full hookups though. As I said, we visited the Ghost town today, which was created by Walter Knott, the creator of Knott’s Berry Farm. He donated it to the county many years ago. It is nowhere near as big a Knott’s Berry Farm. This is the setting of an old silver mine. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here but it was on the way so here we are. If it weren’t for the bus loads of Japanese there wouldn’t be too many people here. Funny thing is, Our Verizon cell phone signal in marginal out here but my Verizon Aircard for the Internet has a good signal.

James Dean

I just realized that yesterday, on the way here from Paso Robles to Bakersfield that we drove through the intersection where James Dean had his fatal car crash 51 years ago.

Bakersfield CA

San Antonio Lake was great. The rally was really fun with some old friends and some new ones. Susan and I gave a Seminar on Fulltiming and it seemed to go well. It was a lot longer (almost 3 hours) than I had planned but everyone stuck it out. There were a few future-fulltimers there that were eager to hear what we had to say. It rained most off the weekend but we had the clubroom and kept nice and warm and dry. The food was great and we played Bingo with White elephant gifts. The park is full of deer, squirrels, and a variety of birds. No one wanted to go home.

Last night we spent the night at Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles. We left the San Antonio Lake Rally and in about an hour we were at the Wine Country Resort. As you know we don’t travel very fast, or far. The Wine Country Resort is nice but we just used it as a stopover on the way to Bakersfield, which is where we are now.

We are at a favorite RV park called Orange Grove RV Park. It is appropriately named because it is in the middle of what used to be an orange grove. They cleared enough trees to put in some paved roads and gravel sites. They let you pick all the oranges you need which is what we did today. They are real juicy and sweet. We will stay here for a couple of nights to get some laundry done. I will hit the Camping World store here too. The weather finally cleared up and today was sunny. It is still cool but at least it is not raining. As we were heading here we drove past a few almond groves. The trees are in bloom so they brought in some boxes of bees for pollination. Some of the bees must have been Kamikaze bees because they are all over the front of the motorhome.

San Antonio Lake

We woke this morning to rain. I was hopping it wouldn’t rain until we got here at San Antonio Lake. I don’t like to drive in the rain unless I have to. Well turns out that the rain stopped as soon as we hit the road and held off until we got here. It’s raining pretty good now. The drive was good. I took the long way up around the north side of the lake and back down to the south shore. This was a much better route than the last time we came up here with less twisties and steep hills. It took a bit longer but we are never in a hurry. There are already quite a few people here and there is more coming in tonight. Looks like in spite of the rain it is going to be a good rally. We at least have the clubroom to our disposal the whole weekend so we can keep warm and out of the rain. This place is loaded with deer. They just sit on the side of the roads and watch you go by. They are lying under the trees in the vacant sites around us. Tomorrow we will be giving our first Fulltime Seminar. This should be interesting.

Monarch Butterfly Grove

Today we visited the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach. This is where thousands of Monarch Butterflies come each year to mate before moving on to the local milkweed plants to lay their eggs. It is close to the end of their season (they say they will be gone in a week or two) so there were only about 5,000 in the grove. Usually there are tens of thousands and in the past there were hundreds of thousands. All the orange in the photo above is butterflies. During the peak season the leaves in this eucalyptus grove look like they are covered with dead leaves. In reality it is all the butterflies.

It was cold here today. It never got out of the 50s today and the wind was blowing pretty good so there was a wind chill factor to boot. The Host here says it is not usually this cold. Tomorrow we are heading further north and will be at about 1000 feet so I am sure it will be pretty cold. It is supposed to rain so it might be a little warmer or we may have a pretty cold rain. The group we are meeting up with have the club room at the park so I suspect we will be hanging inside most of the weekend.

Elks Stop

For the next 2 nights we are taking advantage of our Elks membership. We are at the Elks Lodge in Oceano, CA. The Camp area is pretty nice with water and electric hookups. The driveway is gravel and the sites are grass. It is very nice and clean and Dave, the camp host, is a great guy. Turns out Dave put us right next to a friend we made at the Bus Nuts rally in Yuma last year. Brian recognized us right away and jumped out of his Prevost to greet us, and Shirley wasn’t far behind. The Oceano Elks is about a block from Pismo State Beach and Pismo Dunes State Vehicular Recreation area. We can look out our front windshield and get a good view of the dunes. Tonight is all you can eat spaghetti at the lodge, darn Susan just fixed spaghetti last night.

Happy Valentines Day

Since we had a lot of laundry to do, Susan wanted a site near the laundry so she didn’t have to lug everything so far. I guess you can’t get much closer than this.

As I mentioned, we headed into Solvang this morning to Paula’s Pancake House for breakfast. We always enjoy our stay here at Flying Flags RV Park. The place is nice and the staff is very friendly. We are not near a major city so I am not getting Broadband Internet access but I am getting National Access, which is 50K, still is better than dialup. Tomorrow we are back on the road again.

Oh Yeah, I added some photos of the Drag Races to the photo site. Click on the photo link at the left to see them.

Buellton, CA

We are presently in Buellton, CA. Once we got out of the LA area and along the coast the drive was great. It was a 3 hour drive which, as some of you know, is about our limit. We like to keep it under 3 hours as much as possible. We will be here for 2 nights then off to the Pismo area. Right down the road from Buellton is Solvang, which is a little Danish town. We are heading in tomorrow for breakfast at our favorite little pancake house, Paula’s Pancake House. I go for the Danish pancake, which is a very thin, light and tasty pancake, YUM! So far the weather has been absolutely fantastic. They are talking about rain this weekend, especially a bit further north where we are heading. Just a minor annoyance.

What a great weekend

We spent the weekend with good weather, good friends, and some good racing. It’s always sad when it ends but it’s off to the next get together tomorrow, well actually it’s not till the weekend. We will make 2 more stops before the weekend. When I get a chance I will post some photos of the races. Until then above is a couple of photos.

NHRA Winter Nationals

Yesterday we traveled another 26 miles down the road to Pomona where they hold the NHRA Winter National Drag Races. We met up with some friends and are having a great time. These are a fun bunch of people that get together often and know how to have fun. We went over to the races today and spent about a half day watching the cars do about 325 miles per hour down the ¼ mile in 4.5 seconds. They don’t know for sure how much horsepower these things are generating because there is nothing that will measure them but they are estimating around 5 to 7 thousand…Yes I said thousand horsepower. These are not jet cars. They are good old piston engine cars. Not your usual piston engines however because these burn nitro methane fuel. Now you just can’t imagine how loud 5 –7 thousand horsepower sounds. You just have to be there. The sound waves just pound your whole body as they go by. It is just one of those thing you can’t describe. You just have to be there. Yesterday and today was qualifying. Tomorrow we are heading over for the final race of the weekend.

Today we got an exclusive

We got an exclusive private tour of a new motorhome plant. I was reading on one of the Internet forums about this motorhome called a Flounder…yes I did say Flounder. Everyone on the forum thought it was a hoax. When I found out the factory was in Rubidoux, CA I thought, wait a minute, that’s were we are. Since everyone on the forum was thinking this motorhome was a hoax I thought it my duty to prove or dispel this hoax. I found the address and punched it into my GPS and there it was. I rang the bell at the security gate and asked if they were giving tours and was asked it we were “The Fulltimers”. Apparently they read my post about finding the factory. They were happy to see us since they also wanted to set the record straight. We got a personal tour guided by Susan Thomas the co-founders wife. John Crean who was the founder of Fleetwood Trailer Company in 1950 and Steve Thomas, his son-in law, founded Flounder Motorhomes. John was the designer of the famous Fleetwood Bounder, perhaps where the name Flounder comes from. The Flounder is a 40-foot (actually 39’10”) gas motorhome built on a stretched 258” wheelbase Workhorse chassis. This motorhome is designed more for fulltime use since it sports large holding tanks and residential appliances. I said residential, not residential style. There is a real stove, dishwasher, trash compactor, garbage disposal and stackable washer and dryer as you would find in a stick house. Interesting fact; I found out that Flounder bought it’s chassis from Rexhall, the manufacturer of our motorhome, because Rexhall sales are down and they needed to get rid of some inventory. If you are interested their web site is at www.floundermotorhomes.com. You can download a brochure and read all the facts.

Do they need blood too

We moved on to a Riverside county park today. When we pulled in and asked for a site they asked for our driver’s license, vehicle registration for both the motorhome and car, proof on insurance for both motorhome and car, and our Passport America card (50% off camping club). NO KIDDING! I was waiting for them to ask for proof of US citizenship and a pint of blood. Then they put us back in the ghetto section which, needless to say, Susan was not happy with. I unhooked the car, backed the motorhome into the site, jumped into the car and went back up to the office to ask for a better site. Seem that all the good sites are under the reservation system and the junk is for drive-ins. They did however call the reservation system and get us a better site. I appreciate that and we are happy now.
Man is it hot and dry. We are experiencing, what they call here in Southern California, a Santa Ana. This is where the winds come out of the desert instead of the ocean. It makes the weather hot and dry, which is not good for fire season.

Cough Cough Sniff Sniff

When we pulled in here at Lake Elsinore Marina and RV Resort one of the first things I noticed is our site was raked up. Nice touch, I thought. Later that day the grounds crew (a couple of kids in a golf cart) came through and started raking up some of the other sites. They kicked up quite a bit of dust but I thought, Nice touch. Today they were out there again, this time with a blower. They kicked up so much dust that I had to run inside and close all the windows, vents and door. Now there is a fine layer of dust on everything inside and the outside of the motorhome is a mess. I now have a cough and Susan is all stuffed up from the dust. Good thing we are moving on tomorrow. I did however, get a kick out of watching a good ol’ boy taking apart of an old junk trailer. He would knock off a piece or two then stand there and stare at it for a while then knock off a couple of more. Not the sharpest took in his toolbox. I over heard one of the residents say, “He might have that trailer taken apart sometime this year”.

Their Photo

My Photo

The above is a photo of their picnic area as they show it on the web and as I found it in real life.

Passport America

Passport America is the Original 50% off camping club. It is a one time per year signup fee of just $44 and that’s it. There is NO long-term commitment. If you don’t like it you simply do not renew. That’s It! Our Passport America membership paid for itself in the first use. I saved $40 just today for our 2 night stay here at Lake Elsinore RV Resort and will save additional money at our next stay. Passport America has saved us hundreds in the year we used it. At only $44 a year you can see it will pay for itself in only one camping trip.


There are thousands of participating campgrounds around the US, Canada, and Mexico. You simply present your membership card and your stay is Half Price. I highly recommend Passport America. If you would like to sign up, Please mention my name and member number [Daniel Fleming #R-0171525]. The easiest way to sign up is to Click Here.

To find more information, visit their Web Site.

Lake Elsinore

We made the big move today. We moved 24 miles down the road to Lake Elsinore. Why? Because we can. We need to kill a few days between now and the NHRD Drag Race so we will make a couple of short jumps and enjoy the change of scenery. This place is not a Resort such as Pechanga even though they call it a resort but it isn’t all that bad. It is right on the lake and we get a pretty good view of the lake from our site. It is a Passport America park so we got 50% off the normal rate, which in my opinion, brings it into right about the right price.

Costco is great

I finally bought a GPS unit for the car. The laptop with Microsoft Streets and Trips works great in the motorhome but the laptop is just too big to use in the car. After looking long and hard at reviews and trying to find the units I was interested in at the local stores, I decided to but the Magellan Roadmate 360 from Costco. It was a bit more money than I wanted to spend but it was available. I played with it for quite a while, while sitting in my recliner in the motorhome and was not totally happy with it. It just didn’t seem to be worth the $530 (inc tax) I paid. I then took it out to the car to locate a suitable mounting location. No matter how hard I tried I could not find a place to mount it that I was happy with. Once I found an OK place to mount it, I realized that I could not plug it in because of the tightly coiled power cord they give you. If it wasn’t a coil cord I could have made it work. I thought about picking up some parts and making my own cord (What A Hassle!). Finally after playing with it more I found, although it does have a touch screen, the keys are not too responsive, specifically the scroll keys. I then went online to Amazon.com and read reviews on this unit. Not So Good! Should have done this before I bought it. I then read reviews on the one I really wanted (Garmin i3) and found No negative reviews. Oh sure there were things that some reviewers wanted that the Garmin didn’t have but I think I can live with this being the Garmin is nearly half the price as the Magellan. The Garmin is smaller so I should be able to find a suitable location to mount it. One reviewer says he sets in his cup holder. Also I noted that the power cord is Not a tightly coiled cord. The Garmin even runs on batteries if I don’t want to use the power cord (the Magellan didn’t). I finally decided to return the Magellan to Costco. Here is where the kudos for Costco comes in. I looked up Costco’s return policy and found it has a 6 month return policy. I decided to order the Garmin and pick it up in the next 6 weeks when we return to our home base. In the meantime since I have 6 months to return the Magellan I will give it a good test run. If I decide the Magellan is in fact the better unit I will return the Garmin. Otherwise the Magellan goes back.

We’ll be back

We just can’t seem to get out of this place. I thought that once we leave Temecula for our 3 Rally trip that we could finally start heading east. Then I woke the other morning with a horrible though. The Service Center that couldn’t seem to replace the muffler properly has to finish the job. I got so frustrated by them after replacing the wrong muffler then later ordering the wrong one the second time that I told them to forget it and I will have the job done elsewhere. Not so because, they screwed it up, they have to fix it according to the warranty. So after our 3 Rally trip, it’s back here to see if they can get it right the third time.

The 3 Rally Tour

Finally we are back on the road. Tomorrow we will be leaving here for a 3 Rally Tour. We will be heading up to Pomona first for the NHRA Winter National Drag Races. After that we are heading up to San Antonio Lake for an RV.net Rally. We will be presenting a seminar on Fulltiming at this rally. After that we work our way up to San Francisco Via Monterey. On the return trip we will be touring the Winchester Mystery House. We will be working our way down to Palmdale for a Rexhall Pre Rally. This is a Pre Rally to the Big FMCA Rally in Pomona where we volunteered again to work the trams. It should be a busy and interesting next 6 weeks.

No Taxes

Since my only income is the interest and dividends from my investments, I decided to take the test on the Fed and California website to see if I even need to file. The result? I do NOT need to even file. My investments have done a pretty good job of offsetting my spending but that’s all on paper. I am only taxed on interest and dividends received. They do not want you to file if not necessary because it waist their time and money.

Is it just me

Or has everyone gotten incompetent.
One of my goals while sitting stationary for a while was to get things done on the motorhome and car that needed to be done. The RV service center ended up replacing the wrong muffler, ordering the wrong muffler the second time so that never got done. They charged me $20 to tell me my leveling jack had a leaking seal, which is what I told them when I brought it in. That never got done due to parts on order. They did however replace a slide topper that needed to be done. As for the car, I needed the valve stems replaced with shorter ones to accommodate my tire pressure monitors. The ones they installed weren’t much shorter than the stock ones and were unacceptable. I bought a set and returned them to the dealer for installation. They managed to get 3 on OK but the 4th was not tight and leaking. When asked about it their reply was, “That’s as tight as I can get it.” So they delivered it to me with a leaking valve stem and said nothing until I found it. Then the guy got mad when I brought it to his attention. They got it tight on the second try but I am still concerned. We are leaving here on Monday and I didn’t get much done. I’m not a very happy camper right now.

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?

What's happening

Since we are presently right next to a major rail road track, the commuter train from LA and Oceanside to San Diego, we have become aware of the individual engineers by the way they blow the whistle. They all seem to have their own signature toot (or BLAST!) as they enter the crossroad near by. There is one however that recently stands out. This person has mastered “Jingle Bells” on the train’s whistle. Just cracks me up every time he passes by.

I made a major blunder. My computer was getting pretty slow lately so I decided to clear it out by formatting the Hard Drive and reinstalling just the programs I need. I thought by copying every file from my hard drive to my external drive, I wouldn’t have the problem of lost files or data. There were a few files that wouldn’t copy because they were “in use” at the time. Well, it turns out that all my Outlook data was in those files including all my contacts. Yes I lost all my contacts. If anyone reading this thinks they may have been in my contact list, I would appreciate it if you could email me with your info, Thanks.

It was looking like we weren’t going to be offered our Host jobs next year. They said they had already filled the months of November and December for next year. However, the other day we got a call letting us know they put us down for November and December of 2006 and asked us if we would do October and January also. We declined the extra months since we have Rallies we attend those months. Also, we have been here for a little over a month and I am ready itching to get back on the road again. 4 months would drive me crazy.

Waiting for that wave

Here in Southern California, the surfers are serious about their sport. Even when there are no waves. This morning was so nice. The air was still, the sea was calm, and there was not a cloud in the sky. The park is empty again. Things are real slow around here. We just drive around in our cart looking for something amiss but all is well.


Evenings are so nice. Everyone just lines up along the bluffs and watches the sun set. I just can’t get enough of the sunsets.