Another Bonus

Today we were treated to a car show here at the Elks Lodge. What more can you ask for, a nice place to stay and a car show right out your front window all for $12 a night. I’m likening this Elks thing.

Well, while here I got a chance to get a few things done since there is not much going on in Ukiah. I got the oil changed in the motorhome and gave it a good cleaning from the roof all the way down. And it really needed it.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading on down the road again. We were going to head out today, however the Nascar race started early today so we had to stay put so Susan could get here fix.

I sure can’t wait until I get back in Broadband territory. Up here in the redwoods there is no Broadband so my Internet has been real slow. I guess I am just spoiled.

Heading South

We are back in Leggett for the night. We are stuffed in the trees into a campground that only accepts a max vehicle length of 30 feet. Of course we are 36 foot so it is a bit of a squeeze. How did we get past the max vehicle length? Well it pays to know someone. Not only that but we are the only ones in the park that have water and electricity hookups.

We will only be here one night then we will continue our trek south.

Nice place

Eureka and its neighboring towns are a blast from the past. While here we visited Ferndale, an old Victorian town. All the residents of Ferndale take pride in their town and do a good gob of keeping their Victorian houses in good shape. You can see many painters touching up these beauties.

Arcata is just north of Eureka and is home of the Humboldt State University. Being this is a small college town there is a young presents here. There are a lot of casual eating places and book stores. In the town square you will fine a variety of characters. Reminds me of my old Hippy days.

Eureka also has its share of Victorian homes. We did the Old Town walking tour and the driving tour. A lot of the homes are restored, however there are a lot that are in various stages of disrepair. Susan said it would be fun to buy one of them and restore it into a Bad and Breakfast. That’s too much work for me right now.

Tomorrow we will be heading back south. I really liked my stay here. We will be pretty much retracing our steps, however we will be trying some new places to stay along the way. That should make it interesting again.

A step back in time

Today was as if we woke up 100 years ago. We started the day by heading for Ferndale today. This is a Victorian Village that dates back over 100 years. It has survived 2 disasters, one a series of earthquakes that lasted for days and the other a flood when the Eel River overflowed. The town had been restored to what it was over 100 years ago. When you enter the stores you will find items from the past that are still for sale such as toys, rock candy, and lye soap. The inside of the stores look as they did 100 years ago including the old creaky wood floors. The storeowners still live upstairs as they did many years ago. We took our time walking around town checking out the Victorian homes, buildings, and churches. We had no worries wandering about since the crime stats in this town are very near none.

The other thing we did today was go to the Samoa Cookhouse here in Eureka. This is the last cookhouse used by the lumberjacks’ years ago. They seat you at a long table with others and serve you what they are cooking for the day. It is served family style in bowls and platters and is all you care to eat. The meal is one set price and includes soup, salad, bread, 2 meats, potato, vegetable, beverage and desert. The food was so good that we plan to go back for lunch before we leave here.

We woke this morning to a cool overcast drizzly morning. Something we haven’t seen for a while. We even fired up the fireplace. It burned off by noon and was nice the rest of the day. I guess it’s expected since we are only about a mile from the Humboldt Bay right on the northern California coast.

Eureka California

We are in Eureka, California. Our last stop in Garberville we had no cell phone. Here in Eureka we have full cell, however my Internet connection is unbearable slow. There may be no updates this week.

We went from the 80s in Garberville to the 60s here in Eureka. When we pulled up I looked a little out of place when I jumped out of the motorhome with shorts and flip flops when everyone was in jackets. One of the ladies said, “I want to go where you came from.”

We will be going into the old Victorian town of Ferndale one day and check out Old Town Eureka another. We may get into Arcata also. I will update if possible.

Great Britain Visitors

Last night I watched as another Rexhall motorhome pulled into the site next to us. I couldn’t help but notice the woman that was guiding the gentleman in has a British accent. Curious, I looked at the license plate. This motorhome had GB plates on it. I couldn’t resist so when they got settled in I went over and inquired. Sure enough they are from Great Britain. They had the motorhome shipped over in December to spend a year touring the USA. Since Rexhall also makes our motorhome I was interested in the differences. They run on 240 volts in GB as opposed to 120 volts in the USA so their dealer had added a converter to step down their 240 volts to run all the 120 volt appliances and such in the motorhome. He said this made it easy to run in the USA because he simply had to bypass the converter in the USA. Also they had the engine modified to run on either gasoline or propane since propane is ½ the cost of gasoline in GB. It is a simple matter to switch back and forth so they can run on what ever is cheap and available. He also had to get a special license to drive a large vehicle in GB. He said his motorhome is suppose to be different than the ones sold in the USA because they do not allow vehicles over 100 inches wide, although he suspects Rexhall simply stated it was 100 inches when in fact it is 102 as they are in the USA. I asked him about the left hand drive whereas they drive on the left hand side of the road in GB. He says you get used to it, however his wife has more trouble with that then he because she is on the traffic side and not in control. She calls it the suicide seat.

Today we spent the day in the Avenue of the Giants. This is a 31 mile drive through an old section of US-101 that runs right through the redwood forest. Very nice drive. I am glad we did this in the car and not the motorhome because it is narrow and the giant redwoods are right on the roads edge. You can actually see scars in some of them where they have been hit. We did all the touristy things like drive through a tree, walk inside a couple of trees that, even though they are still alive and doing well, their trunk is hollowed out by fire and you can walk inside. We saw a tree that is over 300 feet tall. Although it is not the widest tree in the forest it is really really tall. It’s hard to get a perspective because you can’t see the whole length through the branches even though the first branch doesn’t start until the 190 foot mark. We did all the tourist things on the northward drive then turned around and did it all again, except on the way back we just took our time and enjoyed the drive. On the way back we stopped in Garberville where we actually had Verizon cell service and Susan made all her daily phone calls. It’s like in the old days when you had to go look for a pay phone.

Sorry, Can’t upload photos again.

Sometimes you just can win

We decided since we didn’t have satellite TV and Sewer hookups that we would head up the road to Benbow RV Resort. It was only a 30 minute drive. 3 miles of it was through Richardson’s Grove, which is not advised for large vehicles. Man was that tight, but the only way to get here. The redwood trees are RIGHT on the edge of the road. I just had to pay attention to where I was on the road, especially when other RVs and trucks where coming the other way. Well we got here in one piece and got setup in our site with not much problems. I got the satellite TV setup and all hooked up to sewer and all. The problem is when Susan tried to make a call on our cell phone. The cell reception here is little to nun. My Internet connection is very marginal also. We may be moving again soon.

Sorry no Sat TV

We moved again today…Well actually we moved 4 sites down to the Camp Host site where we can get some hookups. The only problem is the trees are so thick around here that we cannot get Satellite TV. Believe me I tried for close to an hour. Being the Nascar Freak that Susan is she was pretty bummed so we decided to move on down the road to another campground for the weekend. Actually it was my decision also because we will be closer to the Avenue of the Giants and won’t have to drive so far to get there. It is so thick with trees that when Susan got out of bed at 8:00 this morning I thought she was getting up in the wee hours of the morning because it was still dark. The trees sure make nice shade though. I didn’t realize it was 80 degrees until I hiked down to the river and got out from under the trees.

What does this look like to you? It’s poison oak and it’s everywhere. I don’t feel comfortable walking around here. As a kid I was immune to poison oak since I romped the canyons with my cousin who got it but I didn’t, but I am not taking any chances.

California Redwoods

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We are now in Leggett California. Over the weekend they had a Reggae festival here. Most have gone but there are still a few left. I think they are just to stoned to find their way out of here. We are stuffed into a nice State Park in the redwoods. I say stuffed because it is limited to a max 30 foot length and we are 36. I had Susan spotting me with the 2 way radio as I slid into a spot for the night. Tomorrow we will me moving to a Host Camper site where we will have a little more room and electricity and water. We are real close to the Giant Drive through Redwood Tree and the Avenue of the Giants so we will be checking those out, in the car of course. We are visiting our good friend Melissa who was one of the Park Aids when we hosted at San Elijo and now is a Park Here. It sure is nice to see her again.

Last night in Ukiah

We did absolutely nothing while here in Ukiah but had a good time. We did do some grocerie shopping but that was about it.

If you are a Traveling Elk and are in the area, stop by the Ukiah Elks Lodge, stay a while and say hi to Jim, the RV Host and his dog Ms. Dazy.

Jim is a Really Nice guy. Tonight he cooked up a few steaks, Susan and I provided the salad and potato and we grabbed a picnic table in their park and had a nice dinner.

Tomorrow we are back on the road again. We will be heading north and should start seeing some redwoods soon.

Joining the Elks

I tell you what, joining the Elks is one of the best things us Fulltimers can do. We just parked ‘er at the Ukiah Elks Lodge in Ukiah California and what a nice place. Just water and 30 amps electricity with dump station but $36 for 3 nights as opposed to $50 for 1 night is very nice. Not much going on this weekend so we will just relax and watch NASCAR all weekend.

Earthquake

WOW! Just went through a pretty good earthquake. I thought the motorhome was falling off its levelers. We are in earthquake country just about 40 miles north of San Francisco. Not sure where it’s center was.

Problem adding photos

I have tried to add photos to the last couple of posts, however the site seems to be having problems with this. Hopefully they will get it fixed soon.

Wine Country

Today we took the car through Wine Country. We headed over to Napa and from there up to Calistoga. There sure a lot of wineries out there. So many to choose from. Susan and I don’t drink, so wine tasting was out of the question. We just wanted to enjoy the grounds and peruse the gift shops. Too expensive for our budget.

In Calistoga we stopped by the Old Faithful Geyser. Oh yes, there is an Old Faithful Geyser in Calistoga. It is 1 of the 3 in the world that is predictable. Now we can say we have seen 2 of the 3 since last year we visited the one in Yellowstone. This one is not in a national park like Yellowstone. It is on private property and they charge $8 per person to see it. After paying your fee and passing through the door, it’s like stepping out someone’s back door into their back yard, nothing fancy. The geyser was pretty impressive though.

There were also a couple of pens with goats and llamas to view and feed. Some of the goats are Tennessee Fainting Goats. These goats “faint” when frightened. Actually they have a rare malfunction that causes their mussels to freeze up when frightened and sometimes they fall over. The sheepherders used to use them in the flocks. When a wolf or coyote would chase the flock, the goat would “faint” and the predator would take it and leave the rest of the flock alone. These goats almost became extinct, go figure.

Jelly Belly

We toured the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield today. It was a nice drive to Fairfield past several Wineries. The tour of the factory was also pretty cool. There sure were a bunch of kids there. Guess it’s still summer so all the kids are out of school. The tour was about 40 minutes and they took you through the whole process of making the candy. They don’t let you take pictures inside the factory though. There are tons of jellybeans in that place and it sure smells good in there. I wonder how many of the workers snag jellybeans along the way. Some of the process is done by robots, which were interesting to watch. At the end of the process the beans go through screen that sort out the ones that are too large or too small. These are bagged and sold in their gift shop as Belly Flops. Nothing is wasted, the ones that fall on the floor are scooped up and sent off to pig farms as feed. They have so many different flavors and a recipe book on how to mix flavors to create others. They even had flavors such as Rotten Egg, Sardines, Boogers, Vomit, Roasted Garlic, and more. No Kidding! At the end of the tour you can spend some time in their gift shop where you can get clothes items, novelties, and yes, Jelly Bellies. Then you can go over to their café and get a hamburger in the shape of a jellybean. It was a fun day.

Petaluma California

Not much going on the last couple of days. We took a drive into downtown Petaluma. There is a lot of history here. We did the Victorian Home Walking Tour and was a little disappointed. They did have some nice homes but a lot of them were overgrown with weed and in disrepair. After downtown we took a drive out in the country. I found this to be more enjoyable driving past a few wineries, miniature horse farms, and a pasture with some BIG old bulls. The roads were so bad though, that I spent a lot of time dodging the potholes.


Today I took a walk along the Petaluma River and Bird Preserve. Interesting sights along the river.

Curb feelers

I didn’t realize it until today that my motorhome has curb feelers.

Going over the Golden Gate Bridge today, motorhomes, busses, and trucks are restricted to the right lane. These lanes are tight! As I was traveling along I heard a scrape. Looking out my right mirror I noticed I was REAL close to the bridge rail. I figured, now I got a nice racing stripe down the side of the motorhome. After stopping I found nothing. Then I remember a similar incident in Myrtle Beach where I scraped my exhaust pipe on a construction barrel. Cool! Built in curb feelers!

This morning we left Pacifica. I was concerned about the drive through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge but it was a piece of cake.

We left at around 10:30a so traffic was not an issue. Today we are in Petaluma. From here we will visit the Napa Wine Country and the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. We may take a cruise out to the coast. Petaluma is loaded with neat stuff to see also.

San Francisco

We had a good time today in San Francisco. We were going to take a 6 hour tour but decided on the 3 hour tour instead. I am glad we did. 3 hours is enough.

The tour went across the Golden Gate Bridge to the viewpoint then came back into the city and drove through The Golden Gate Park. This is one BIG park. After that we headed up to Twin Peaks.

This is the highest point in The City (600 feet) and what a view. Then it was off through Gay Town, rainbow flags everywhere. 12% of The Cities population is gay, 2/3 of them being men. The tour bus dropped us off at Pier 39, which is probably one of the touristiest parts of San Francisco. We spent about 3 hours there, had lunch and spent some money. On pier 39 you can get a good view of The Bridge and Alcatraz.
Did you know there are no sharks in the bay? They just told the inmates that to keep them from attempting to swim to The City. Also they only had hot showers on the island so the inmates would not take cold showers to get used to the cold water in the bay. We walked from Pier 39 back past Fisherman’s Warf to Ghirardelli Square. The Chocolate Factory is no longer there, just a bunch of shops that sell the chocolate for 3 times more than you can buy it at Wal-Mart. We left at 9:00a this morning and arrived back at the motorhome at 5:00p. Long Day..

On the way to San Francisco

Since it was only an hour to Pacifica, where we are now, we held out as long as we could in San Jose today. We were chomping at the bit to get going so we hit the road a little after 10:30a. This turned out to be too soon. We pulled into the park and they turned us away. They told us to come back after 12:30p. This has only happened to us in California. We ended up in the Safeway store parking lot. Turns out it worked out OK because the laundry needed to be done and there was a Laundromat in the shopping center.

This park is tight. It is pretty much a parking lot with full hookups but it is about the only game in town. The park is clean and the staff is friendly. We are 1 row back from the ocean so it’s not too bad. I don’t like to make reservations but it’s a good thing I did here. When we pulled in I noticed the No Vacancy sign.

It was in the 70s here today, much better than over 100 like it was in San Jose. There has been a light fog all day but the visibility is still good over the ocean.

Winchester Mystery House

I got the car worked on today. I let the Service Advisor talk me out of a Fuel Filter change and into a Throttle Body/Fuel Injector cleaning. He says the Fuel Filter is a 90,000 mile maintenance item and has never seen one need changing sooner but on the other hand the Throttle Body and Fuel Injectors are a 30,000 mile maintenance item. I have 45,000 miles on the Saturn. He seems to think this was the problem after reaching under the hood and manually opening the Throttle Body. He said it felt sticky. I didn’t check it but took his word for it. It has been running fine and hasn’t lost power since that one time. Time will see if this did the trick. I have seen my mileage go steadily from 30 to 21 in the last few months. I need to go fill it up and check the mileage now. If it is back up to 30 I will feel better about the $150 spent. What the heck, it was $25 cheaper than the filter change. While I was there I got a look at their Sky. The Sky is their new 2 seater convertible roadster. Nice car. I asked if I could tow it behind the motorhome and he said not 4 down, has to be on a trailer. That shoots that down.

After the car service we headed over to the Winchester Mystery House. If you have never heard of this, it is a house owned by the widow of the Winchester rifle builder. After his death she went to a psychic that told her to move to California and build a house and never stop. She had carpenters working on the house for 38 years 24 hours a day until her death. All her construction plans came to her during her nightly séances with the spirits so the house is total chaos with stairways leading no were, windows in the floors, and door that open to a blank wall. All this and I left the camera back at the motorhome.

Later today I restrung 2 more of our Day/Night shades. They say these motorhomes are for recreation only and not recommended for fulltime living. Everything seems to be holding up quite well except the shades. I think I have fixed all of them at least once so far. They must have installed the cheapest ones they could find. I am going to have to pick up a bundle of string and eyelets for these things.

The temperature is still over a hundred here and we are looking forward to heading for the coast again. The Elks Lodge that we are at has a nice big swimming pool. I might take advantage of it tomorrow.

I was surprised to find out yesterday that I could still get the Local San Diego Channels on my Direct TV Satellite dish; well we woke this morning to nothing. I had to call Direct TV and have them switch me over to the West Coast feed out of Los Angeles. This I can get all over the country. Every time I do this the people at Direct TV can’t figure out how to do this since I live in an RV. I am always on the phone with them for at least 30 minutes. This time I asked the guy if it is possible to add a note on my account as to how to do this for the next guy, next time. He says he will.

A change of scenery

We moved up the road to San Jose today. Now instead of looking out my front window at a golf course, I am looking at a Highway. Not only that, it’s under construction so it’s not very pretty. We stopped in Gilroy to take advantage of the few Super Wal-Marts in California. Susan loaded up the motorhome with another 2 weeks of supplies. Gilroy is the Garlic capitol of the world and it sure smells that way. I remember while in Hershey Pennsylvania, the town smelled like chocolate. I like chocolate better. Susan, who loves garlic, couldn’t even handle it. It was an easy drive today, ½ hour to Wal-Mart and ½ hour to San Jose. It got over 100 degrees here in San Jose today and in the height of the heat the power went out to most of the city. I plugged our fan into the inverter to keep us a bit cool. I could have fired up the generator but I though it would come back on soon. It was off for near an hour. When the power came back on I turned both airs on full and cooled this place down pretty quick. I did a little search to see what’s around here. If it has anything to do with computers, it’s here.
I just added the Big Sur photos to my photo site. Click on the California Hwy 1 thumbnail in the left column.

Slight change of plans

We were going to hang here until Saturday and take a drive to Santa Cruz but things have changed. Today I set out to get the fuel filter replaced in the Saturn however when I got to the (Chevy) dealer they turned me away because they were too busy. Huh? That’s not what they told me yesterday. They said bring it in and they would fit me in. Well, they said the Midas shop could do it. Sure they can… at $230. No! I just want a fuel filter, not a full fuel system. There is no Saturn dealer here in Salinas but there is in San Jose (our next stop) so we are leaving a day earlier than planned. It looks like the San Jose Elks is very nice so we will stay there a few days and visit the Winchester Mystery House and get the car done. The Mystery house and the Saturn dealer are very close by so that makes it easy.



The golf course right out our front window has been real entertaining. I guess you can’t get away from traffic, even on the course. I though I had seen everything until I saw a golf bag on wheels cruise up all by itself. What? How’s that possible? It steered itself up to the T and stopped all by itself. Seconds later the golfer came walking up with a remote in his hands. OK, I’m out on the golf course getting exercise, but you don’t expect me to push my clubs around too do you?

Monterey-Carmel-Big Sur

Yesterday we spent the day in Monterey. We were going to do the Aquarium but decided that we would put the $44 to use somewhere else, like buying goodies for the grandkids. We did spend a lot of time on Cannery Row and had lunch on the Wharf. We also took the trolley for a round trip to see some of the city. Monterey is a nice town but is mainly a touristy thing. We did have a good time though.


Today we took a drive, using the car, down Highway 1 through Carmel to Big Sur. We stopped at Point Lobos State Reserve. Our Volunteer work for the California State Parks System got us in free. Normally they would charge $9 a car, which is well worth it. The views here were fantastic. You had better watch out for the poison oak though, it’s ALL OVER the place. After Point Lobos we continued our journey down the coast to Big Sur. I was told NOT to do this part of Highway 1 in a motorhome but felt that it is very doable. I don’t know about the stretch south of Big Sur though since that is as far as we went. I think I must have stopped at every turnout along the way. We stopped in Big Sur and had lunch at the Big Sur River Inn Country Dining. Good food and best of all, good atmosphere. It sits right on the Big Sur River and the bird in the trees serenades you the whole time. The drive back was quicker because we didn’t need to stop along the way.

Just as we got close to camp however, the car lost power and started to surge. I am going to take it in for a fuel filter change tomorrow. I sure hope that’s all it is because we still want to drive to Santa Cruz while we are here. The next stop will be San Francisco and we will need the car there too.

Living on a generator

We are spoiled. We found that living on a generator is not fun anymore. Well let me elaborate. Our site at Morro Bay State Beach was a No Hookup site. We had to run a generator for power. Now if Generator hours were more in reason instead of 10:00a to 8:00p it wouldn’t be so bad. And if our onboard generator was mounted properly so it didn’t vibrate the whole coach it wouldn’t be so bad. We ran mostly off our generette (Honda EU200), which only provides about 15 amps of power. Fortunately I asked and was upgraded to a hookup site last night. This made us real happy.

This morning we packed up and headed for the dump station only to encounter a person that was totally oblivious to anything around him. He was there when we got there and still we had to wait about ½ hour for him to finish dumping. After dumping he pulled ahead and parked taking up the spot where I was going to hook up the car. I had to pull up beside him and parallel park behind him to get out of the way of the line that was now backing up behind me. This guy still didn’t have a clue as to the chaos he was causing. Well we finally got out of there and had a pretty good drive up to Salinas, where we are now at the Elks Lodge. There is a lot going on in Monterey this week and most parks are full so we are just outside Monterey. It is an easy drive into town from here. We have a pretty good spot here at the Elks

Our site faces a golf course and it is a pretty view. One of the Ts is directly in front of the motorhome so I get to see (and hear) the frustration when the shot doesn’t go well (Lots of laughs).

Tomorrow we are heading into Monterey to see what kind of touristy things they have to offer.

Fog again today

Well the fog didn’t lift much today either. I wanted to get a good picture of Mono Bay Rock but it was covered in fog every time I tried to get a picture. Maybe tomorrow. We took a drive into town and along the Embarcadero today. It’s a tourist trap of course but the scenery is nice. Tomorrow we will go the other direction to see what we can find. Had a good time talking with Tony (Firedude) today. Got to swap some storied of Camp Hosting and being on the road. He Hosts a lot more than I will ever want to.

Morro Bay

We are now in Morro Bay State Park. I contacted “Firedude” from the RV.net and told him we were passing through and wanted to stop by and say Hi. He was kind enough to find a spot on this busy summer weekend for us. This is the first time in a while that we have had to survive with no hookups at all. I filled the water tank at the last stop and we had to stop at a gas station to get some fuel for our Honda EU2000 portable gererator. This generator is much quieter than the big ol Generac in the motorhome. I am running the biggie though just because it needs the excessive. The problem is, generator hours in the California State Parks is from 10:00a to 8:00p. Now we like to have coffee at around 8:00a and watch TV until 10:00p. Seem just the opposite of what they want us to do.

The weather here is a far cry from what we have experienced in the last few months. It has been cooler here with fog most of the day. This is the closest we have been to the ocean for quite a while though.

Tomorrow we are going to take the car out and do some exploring. We might even get up the coast to San Simion to see if there are any Elephant seals laying on the beach.

A little breathing room

I don’t know if it’s something I said but everyone around us left today. We got a view and a little bit of breathing room. This morning we headed into Solvang to Paula’s Pancake House for breakfast. It was just as good as the last few times we ate there. They have the coolest store in Solvang. It is called As Seen On TV. It contains everything you have ever seen in the TV commercials.


I saw the strangest thing today while in Solvang. A Kindergarten chain gang. They had these kids all tied together. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will see the rope tying them all together. The guy in red is planning an escape. Apparently this was a school outing and this is how they kept them all together. After that we took a drive to Lompoc to find the Wal-Mart and to check out the Elks Lodge’s RV facilities for future reference. If I am going to camp 5 feet from the guys on ether side of me, I would rather pay $15 than the $41 we did here. I didn’t realize Lompoc was that big. I was told it is because of the Vandenberg Air Force Base located nearby. We will be back on the road again tomorrow.

3 hours 25 minutes

I love LA…Traffic! It took us almost 3 and a half hours to get to Buellton today. That is about the longest we have driven in a long time. I go by the 2X2X2 rule. 2 hours of travel, off the road by 2:00p, and stay at least 2 nights. Today I broke that rule. We arrived about 1:30p and was told we could not occupy out site until 2:00p because they were watering. They sent us to overflow to sit for ½ hour. No problem, it gave me time for a sandwich and a Pepsi.


As you can see by the photo, it is quite a squeeze. This is partly my fault because I requested this area so we didn’t have to hike a mile to the laundry. We are only here for 2 nights so it’s not all that bad.


The only down side is I tagged a picnic table pulling in, I can fix it. Tomorrow we will be heading into Solvang to Paula’s Pancake house. We have their Danish pancakes every time we pass through here, So Good!

We had visitors

Last night and again tonight we has some visitors. Susan went to the door to close it and spotted a skunk rummaging around outside. Before we knew, there were four. Needless to say, we let them do as they pleased and after they left, then we closed the door. Didn’t want to startle them you see.

This is one of those places we could have stayed longer because it is real nice but our spot is reserved for tomorrow night so we would have to move. Moving isn’t so bad but if we have to secure things and fire up the motorhome, we might as well move on down the road. All our neighbors here have been nice also. We took a drive around the campground today, yes I did say drive, this place is pretty big. I think we got the best site in the whole park. I don’t know how we lucked out but that happens sometimes.

I case you are wondering why you can’t find South Shore RV Park anywhere, it’s because I messed up. It isn’t South Shore, it’s East Shore RV Park.

San Dimas California

We are now in San Dimas. This is where Bill and Ted lived in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Well now it’s part of Dan and Susan’s Excellent Adventure. We are at South Shore RV Park on the shore of Puddingstone Lake which is just around the corner from the Fairplex in Pomona. We have stayed at the KOA across the street from the Fairplex and also on the grounds of the Fairplex several times but never South Shore. This place is pretty nice. You wouldn’t even know you were in the city. We are sitting up on a hill overlooking the lake and have a spectacular view. If it weren’t for the Smog we would have an even better view. The smog is pretty thick today. I tried a different route instead of battling with the major interstates. We cut off I-15 at the 91 and up the 71. Little to no traffic. We avoided the I-60 interchange and I-10 all together.

It didn’t start out so well here at South Shore. First thing was when we drove to our assigned site and found it occupied. Not only was it occupied but also the family showed no intent of leaving with stuff everywhere. The guy was sitting back watching his outdoor TV. I headed back to the office to see what the deal was. Second thing was there was no place to park back at the office so I centered the Motorhome with toad in a parking lot being careful to leave plenty of room for people to get in and out of the spaces. I wasn’t there 1 minute when this guy spouted out, “Hey buddy! You’re blocking my truck”. Well I went around the motorhome to check and just as I thought, the guy was a JERK! I could have got a motorhome out of that spot. I told him he had plenty of room and he responded with, “If I hit your motorhome it’s not my fault”. Well thinking this guy was enough of a jerk to hit it on purpose; I stood and watch as he pulled out with plenty of room to spare. The gal in the office said she would send security out to chase the people out of out site and I could pull into an empty site and wait. An hour later they were gone and we were in. This spot was worth waiting for.

4th of July

We spent the night of the 4th in a friend’s driveway. We were invited, motorhome and all to their 4th of July party and decided to take them up on their offer. We had a great time with some good friends that we haven’t seen for a while. Although we were paid up through this coming Monday at the Elks Lodge, we left the car at the lodge and took the motorhome to the party. The road from their house is scary enough in a car during the day and even more at night, especially on the 4th of July so having the ability to spend the night was great.

We are back at the Elks Lodge again. We will be spending the next few days with family before hitting the road again.

Our grandson sure likes spending the night at Nana and Papa’s. The weather is finally cooling down a bit and we are happy about that.

Back in Vista

We arrived in Vista California on Wednesday. We came back this way because we were invited to a 4th of July party. Right away Susan took off to pick up our Grandson. He is 5 years old and a real handful. All I have been hearing since is, “Papa, let’s do this. Papa, let’s do that”. Man, he just doesn’t let up. What energy kids have! I have gathered up a pretty good list of things that need attention since it was too hot in Havasu to do anything. Trying to work things in between riding scooters, playing baseball, playing football, and playing with Landen’s Hotwheel cars, has been tough but I have slowly been getting things done. It is still warm (about 95) and humid here but nothing like Havasu. I thought we would be able to turn off the air conditioners but not yet.

You may have noticed the weird news topics scrolling by in the left hand column. It’s just something I though I would add. I may change the topics to RV news or maybe something else.

Movin on down the road

We moved again. This morning we moved on down Interstate 10 toward the coast. Gas went from $2.99 on the Arizona side of the border to $3.49 on the California side. What’s up with that? We are now in Indio California. I have been all around the country and I must say that the California desert has got to be the most boring.

We are in another Passport America park and this one is also nice. Camping in California with full hookups, 50 amp service, and cable for $18 is a pretty good deal.

We still haven’t been able to get out of the heat. It was 111 degrees here today and the closer we get to the coast the more humid it gets. Last night we tried sleeping without the air conditioner on. We woke sometime in the night gasping for air and jumped up to turned on the air. Maybe tomorrow night we will finally be able to turn the air conditioners off.
I found proof that Fulltimers are for real. We’re in the encyclopedia. Check here.

Edit 07/14/07: I guess they took Fulltimers out of their dictionary. I just checked and it’s gone. That’s what happens when I link to other sites.

Finally on the road again

We are back on the road and heading for the coast. We left Havasu this morning and are now in Ehrenberg Arizona. Ehrenberg is at the intersection of the Colorado River and I-10 on the Arizona side. It is one of those hole in the wall cities. There is nothing much here at all. We are in a pretty nice campground that is a Passport America Park so we are here for ½ price. Even after paying an extra $2 for 50 amps and $2 for cable it is still less than most parks.
Our last day at Havasu was real interesting. As if 120 degree temperatures weren’t enough, yesterday we had a 60+ mph wind storm blow through. There was stuff flying through the air everywhere. Awnings were damaged. Table and chairs were overturned and damaged. Anything that wasn’t of substantial weight or tied down was gone. I had just secured our patio furniture since we won’t be back until January 2007. I bunched them all together and covered them. I bungeed covers down over it all because it does get windy in Havasu but I never expected what we experienced. We were sitting comfortably inside, out of the heat, when Susan looked out the window and said, “That looks BAD”. You could see it coming and it didn’t look good. I jumped out and got the awnings in just as the winds hit. I even had to put the living room slide in to save the slide top awning. We watched as the wind got under the furniture covers and just lifted the furniture right off the ground. Fortunately no damage was done. Even with the jacks down, the motorhome was rocking as if I were driving down the road. It wasn’t just a gust, it was sustained winds for 2 hours. I found out my satellite mount is good for about 50 mph when the wind flipped it right over. Our satellite mount consists of our rigid A frame tow bar that weighs about 75 lbs. I set the satellite tripod inside the A frame and bungee it to the tow bar. The wind picked up the satellite dish, tripod, and TOW BAR and flipped it right over. They are predicting more of the same through out the week. I just hope my furniture is still there when we get back in January. So why did we buy an Rv lot in Lake Havasu City Arizona? I’ll let you know in January.
It is still hot here in Ehrenberg. We won’t see cooler weather until we get over the hills toward the coast.

An ocean in the desert

It is blazing hot here in the desert. We are heading for the coast on Monday, however it looks as if the ocean has come to us. This motorhome pulled in next to us today.

It is so hot outside that I haven’t been outside much so I haven’t had a chance to talk to them yet. I bet they have a story just as interesting as their motorhome. Funny how having the ocean next door didn’t do much for the temperature around here though. It is still 120 degrees outside. After sitting inside the motorhome with both airs blasting, then stepping outside, the heat hits you like a blast furnace.

Desert frog

Found this guy last night sitting out on the concrete slab. Didn’t think we would find toads in the middle of the desert.

Things happen slowly around here and they are on a different schedule than most. There is a lot of construction going on in the park, being there are a lot of new owners such as ourselves. The thing is the workers like to start work at 3:00am. I can understand why since it is over 100 degrees by 10:00am. There are many projects that look as if they have been abandoned, however they are just waiting to be completed. I suspect this will be an ongoing thing for a few years since they haven’t even broke ground on phase three yet. We are going to wait until we return in January to start work on our lot since I am going to some of the work myself and it is just too hot right now.

As if it’s not hot enough right now, they are saying we are going to have a heat wave this weekend. Whew! It’s pretty bad when the water coming out of the cold water tap is about 120 degrees. People around here have turned off their water heater and since it is insulated the water from the hot tap is usually cooler than the cold tap. We are leaving Monday for the coast and this will most likely be the last time we spend a summer here. We will return in the winter for a couple of months.

8 and 105

8:00pm and its still 105 degrees. I am about done. In another a week we are heading for the coast for some cooler weather. Not that we don’t like it here. This place is great! We have been here long enough and need to get back on the road again. There are places to go and things to see. We don’t plan to be back here until January 2007, after our Camp Host duties in Southern California this November and December.

Landscaping?

I thought I was through with landscaping when I sold my house. I just spent most of the day planning out our lot at Lake Havasu. I need to make it as maintenance free as possible since we aren’t going to spend a lot of time here. I also want to make it as simple as possible because I don’t want to spend my time digging, planting, and moving things around. I think I am going to add mostly concrete and artificial turf and leave a lot of the existing gravel. I will just lay out a irrigation system and plug in a few plants here and there.

Every evening we sit out and watch the sunset over the mountains. Sometimes it is pretty spectacular and others it is just a simple sunset but it is always one of the best times of the day. Everything quiets down, the air gets still and the temperature is a nice 90 degrees, a big relief from the 100+ days we have been having.

Hot!

Ok it’s 10:30am and it’s already 102 degrees here. They are saying it is going to be the hottest day so far this year and could be a record breaker. We just may be hanging out in the clubhouse watching the Nascar race on their big screen TV with surround sound.

Houseboat

Check out the houseboat we bought to go along with our RV Lot here in Lake Havasu.

Joking of course.

You Know You’re In Arizona When ….

You think Taco Bell is the local phone company.
You notice your car overheating before you drive it.
You no longer associate bridges or rivers with water.
You can hear the weather forecast of 115 degrees without flinching.
You can be in the snow, then drive for an hour...and it will be over 100 degrees.
You discover, in July it only takes two fingers to drive your car, because your steering wheel is so hot.
You run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so you can use your fireplace.
The best parking is determined by shade.....not distance.
You realize that "Valley Fever" isn't a disco dance.
You can make sun tea instantly.
Hotter water comes from the cold water tap than the hot one.
It's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation and yet all the streets are totally empty of both cars and people.
You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
Sunscreen is sold year round and kept right at the checkout counter.
You put on fresh sunscreen just to go check the mail box.
Some fools will market mini-misters for joggers and some other fools will actually buy them. Worse.....some fools actually try to jog.
You can pronounce Saguaro, Tempe, San Xavier, Canyon de Chelly, Mogollon Rim, and Cholla.
You can understand the reason for a town named "Why"
You can fry an egg on the hood of a car in the morning.
You know hot air balloons can't rise because the air temperature is hotter than the air inside the balloon.
No one would dream of putting vinyl inside a car.
You see two trees fighting over a dog.
You can say "Hohokam" and people don't think you're laughing funny.
You see more irrigation water on the street than there is in the Salt River
You have to go to a fake beach for some fake waves
You hear people say "but it's a dry heat!"
You buy salsa by the gallon.
You think a red light is merely a suggestion.
All of your out-of-state friends start to visit after October but clear out come the end of April.
You think someone driving wearing oven mitts is clever.
You think 60 tons of crushed red rock makes a beautiful yard.
Your house is made of stucco and has a red clay tile roof.
Vehicles with open windows have the right-of-way in the summer.
Most homes have more firearms than people.
Kids ask, "What's a mosquito?"
People who have black cars or black upholstery in their car are automatically assumed to be from out of-state or nuts.
You know better than to get into a car with leather seats if you're wearing shorts.
If you haven't worked for Motorola at some time, you must be a newcomer.
You can finish a Big Gulp in 10 minutes and go back for seconds.
You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink.
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Arizona.
You take rain dances seriously.
You've signed so many petitions to recall governors you can't remember the name of the incumbent.
When a rainy day puts you in a good mood.
When you drive two miles around a parking lot looking for a shady place - even in the dead of winter.
You feed your chickens ice cubes to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.
You "hug" a cactus only once in your lifetime.
When you have to look up "mass transit" in the dictionary.
A hundred ten in the shade is sorta hot, but you don't have to shovel it off your driveway.
You wear a bola tie.
You take a stroll on Ho Hum Way.
The beer is chilled and filled with chili.
A haboob happens.
Petrified doesn't mean scared.
Standin' on the corner sounds good.
The temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly.
You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
You would give anything to be able to splash cold water on your face.
You can attend any function wearing shorts and a tank top.
You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

Memorial Day

Well, Memorial Day has come and gone. We are still at Havasu RV Resort and for the most part it was nice and quiet here. Not so in town though. It was wall-to-wall people and shore-to-shore boats on the lake. Sunday they closed off the launch ramps because there were too many boats on the water already. Lake Havasu is taking back their city from the crazies that show up every year. They are not allowing alcohol on their park beaches anymore, however everyone got by that by drinking on their boats. They are cracking down on the women going topless by enforcing a no nipple showing rule, however they got by that by wearing pasties over their nipples. They closed off Copper Canyon so everyone just moved up to the sandbar. I guess the police started early though with a few arrests to let everyone know they meant business this year. Mean while here at the park, all was quiet.

New furniture’s on sale

Well 4 days after I buy my patio furniture, I pick up the paper and guess what? They knocked $100 off the price. Well I marched right down and said, “Hey! What’s up?” and they handed me $100 back. Cool!

The weather sure changes around here. We have had hot days over 100 degrees which they say isn’t normal for this time of year. It is not supposed to reach 100 until next month. Two days ago however, it was a comfortable 87 and yesterday was 98 but today it’s back up to over 100. Heck we even got a little rain the other day. The wind can’t seem to decide what it wants to do. It has been blowing around 10 to 15 mph, sometimes from the southwest sometimes from the northwest. The other day we had gusts of 30 to 40 mph all day. The last couple of days the wind has been tolerable and we can even leave our awning out and umbrella open. It won’t be long before it starts to peak at around 120 degrees. That’s when we are out of here, heading for the coast.

The sunsets are incredible every night. We sit out every evening and watch as just before sunset the jets with their vapor trails head for the coast and the bats come out of the hills and head for the lake. Just after the sun drops below the mountains, the doves, quail and roadrunner head for the common area to bed down for the night. The place gets quiet and the only sounds you hear are the waterfall in the common area and an occasional air conditioner kicking on.

New Furniture

Looks like we are going to have to stay put for a month or so. The reason why is we just spent a bunch of money on patio furniture for our site here at Havasu RV Resort. Since we don’t have to pay campground fees or buy gas for the motorhome we can spend the money on other things. The temperatures are in the 100s everyday and only drops to the high 70s at night so we have been running 1 and sometimes both air conditioners all the time. I don’t know how long I will be able to hang out here before I get the itch to travel again. Hopefully long enough to recoup the cost of our purchases. Our next stay will be to do some landscaping but that won’t happen until it cools down a bit around here.

I just added some photos of our site to our photo site.

What the heck is it

While in Laughlin we stopped by the Colorado Belle Casino to take this photo of the Koi. They are used to being fed by the on lookers so when they see someone up above they swarm. Believe it or not, this is just a small group of them. This is actually a where’s Waldo photo. Can you spot the duck named Waldo? It takes a little while to spot him.

Today in Havasu it got to 106 and later this afternoon it rained. What strange weather.

Back in Havasu

We have arrived back in Lake Havasu City. It is about 103 degrees here today and is only going to get hotter. We will be finalizing the purchase of our RV Lot here at Havasu RV Resort tomorrow and then it’s all ours. We will be spending about a month here while we personalize the place with patio furniture and yard decorations. We are having a hard time deciding which furniture to buy. I am sure glad we don’t have to furnish a whole house. Whew!

While here we have a few friends from California that will be visiting us and then I think we will be heading for the coast where it is a bit cooler.

The Movie RV

It started out a bit breezy today then around noon the wind stopped and the temperature soared to 104.5. We just sat under the awning sipping on iced tea and talking about what we might do for the rest of the day. We took a walk over to the Casino to check the movie times and prices of the Movie “RV”.






On the way back I took this photo of our Motorhome in the Avi/KOA RV Park.


This afternoon we went back for the movie. What a funny movie. As Fulltimers we can relate. There were several times Susan turned around to me and said, “Reminds me of you”. If you want a laugh, go see “RV”.

Then to top it all off, tonight we were treated to a great desert sunset. I must have millions of beach sunset photos but not many desert sunsets. They can be just as pretty.

Oatman

It sure has been hot out here in Laughlin. This is the first time I can remember that we have had to run both air conditioners at the same time. We also are running one all night.


Today we visited Oatman. This is a Ghost Town located east of Bullhead City Arizona along the Original Historic Route 66. This town started in 1902 when a man riding along a trail spotted gold on the ground below him. There was more gold taken from these hills than any other place in California. There is still much more gold to be had but the price right now doesn’t warrant going for it. A good part of Oatman’s population today is the descendants from the original burrows used in the gold mines. This was one of the stops on the Route 66 Fun Run, however the road is not RV friendly so we bypassed it during the run.

Oatman Photos added to photo site

Laughlin Nevada

It’s pretty warm out here. It got to 101 today out here in Laughlin Nevada today and it’s supposed to get hotter. We are in the Avi Casino RV Park, which is now a KOA. We have become real PIA RVers lately. I hope it’s not becoming a trend, it’s not my nature. First when we had to wait for 2 hours for them to move a trailer out of our site in Moabi, we figured we would just move on to Laughlin so I asked for my money back. They would only give back one of the two nights so we stayed one and left this morning. Here in Laughlin, our site had a big hole right where I wanted to put the rear tire so I went back to the office to request a different site. I asked which side the sun sets on so we could get afternoon shade on our patio and they gave me a site where we get full afternoon sun. Another trip to the office to request another site. Fortunately these people are a lot friendlier than the folks at Moabi. It really was their mess-up anyway. So tomorrow we are changing sites again. We actually visited 3 states today. We started our trip in California, where gas was $3.99 by the way, and crossed over the Colorado river at needles into Arizona then back over the river into Nevada, where gas is $3.09. During the next week we will be bouncing between Nevada and Arizona several times.

Kingman to Topock Arizona

Yesterday we were in Kingman for the second leg of the Route 66 Fun Run. There is no Verizon coverage in Kingman so I was unable to connect to the Internet. Go Figure, Seligman has Verizon but Kingman doesn’t. Today we are in Needles California. We are right across the Colorado River from Topock. Topock is where the Route 66 Fun Run ended today. They all took the old original Route 66 over the mountains to Oatman then back down to Topock. It isn’t advisable to take a motorhome such as ours over that route so we elected to take I-40 instead. I made reservations at the Moabi Regional Park for 2 nights, which is about the closest park to Topock. We pulled into the park at about 11:00a and checked in. They said there might be someone in our site still and they have until 1:00p to leave. Sure enough the site was occupied so we grabbed a parking spot, fired up the generator and kicked the air on since it was pushing 100 outside. Come around 1:00p the site was still occupied and there was no one around so I inquired in the office. Oh, that trailer was supposed to be moved to storage. So we waited 2 hours for nothing. By the time they got the site cleared and we got setup the Fun Run happenings in Topock were over. A little upset, and the fact that we are getting VERY marginal cell phone including Internet (1 bar), we decided to head out in the morning to Laughlin Nevada instead of staying here another night as planned.

Oh good a Pool

The sign out front advertises a pool.


What it doesn’t say is what condition it’s in.

We are right next to a major east/west freight train track. They run 24 hours although a little less a night. There are only about 300 trains a day, which equates to about 1 every 5 minutes. Since there are 2 tracks sometimes there are 2 trains going by at a time. The good thing, there are no intersections nearby so they are not on their horns while going by.

This Campground is located right in between Historic Route 66 and a new stretch of road so all day today we saw classics and hotrods running up and down the roads on both sides of us. Tonight at 8:00p they are having a parade of cars so I should be getting some good photos.

What’s to do in Seligman

You wouldn’t think there is anything to do in Seligman Arizona. That’s what we thought, today however we had a real good time. We first traveled down the Historic Route 66 to see the Grand Canyon Caverns. A woodcutter discovered the caverns in 1927 when he stumbled upon a hole in the ground. Later he lowered people into the hole 150 feet down by rope for 25 cents each. Today you travel in an elevator for $12 each.

Then on the way back from the caverns we passed miles of NOTHING. At least that’s what we thought until a little creature scurried across the road in front of us. It was a prairie dog. As I looked out on the desolate prairie I could see mounds of fresh dirt. Upon some mounds you could see prairie dogs perched as lookouts.

After returning back to Seligman from the Caverns, We stopped at the Snow Cap Drive-in which I had read about on the Internet. A gentleman named Juan Delgadillo in 1953 opened the Snow Cap. Juan was a real jokester. Some of the items on the menu are, Hamburgers without Ham, Cheeseburgers with Cheese, and Dead Chicken Sandwich. He would squirt mustard at you from a mustard bottle that was actually just yellow string. Juan died at the age of 90 in 2004 but his kids are keeping up with the antics. We weren’t impressed with the food but the entertainment was worth stopping in for.

Where are you taking me

Sometimes I wonder what Susan is thinking of me. Especially when we pull into a place like this.

We are in Seligman Arizona to join up with the Route 66 Fun Run. This is a big event where hotroders from all over come for car shows, good eats, music, and a rod run to the Colorado River. The event doesn’t start until Friday but we are early because we are going to visit the Grand Canyon Caverns near here tomorrow. We are at the only RV Park in Seligman. It is a KOA and as most KOAs we have seen, it ain’t pretty. They say they do have a lot of reservations for the event so we should be getting some neighbors by tomorrow. When I mad reservations, they told me to call the day of arrival for a site number. I thought this was rather strange. I called and they gave me a site and said they will be out from noon until about 3:00p. We pulled in, setup and at 3:00p I moseyed into the office. The old guy in the office asked me to come back about an hour or two because he didn’t know how to work the computer. We had a short conversation and I told him I would be back in an hour or two. He said, “No hurry, whenever you want”.