Susan's a happy race fan

Need I say more?

Oh No

Susan is not a very happy race fan right now. The spot we are parked at is right by where the emergency vehicles enter the track. They usually park a little forward or back but not right in front of the motorhome. This guy decided to park right in front. I even went over and asked if he could move forward or back a little and he refused. Hopefully they will move a bit for the race.

Fan Fest

This photo gives you an idea of just how close we are to the track. Last night we attended the Fan Fest here at the track. There were a bunch of drivers signing autographs and I think Susan got them all.

Our friend won a contest to play in a Guitar Hero band with Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 car. That’s Rodney at the microphone. We even saw him on TV today.

After the Guitar Hero band, Jeff Gordon gave him a signed Guitar Hero Guitar. It is in the mid 90s today and lots of humidity. We are hanging out inside the motorhome with the airs going. Not much going on on the track today except practice and qualifying.

We get a good view out the front window so there is not much need to go outside right now.

We have arrived

We are now at the Auto Club Speedway (formally California Speedway) for the NASCAR race. It was an easy 1.5 hour drive from the Vista Elks Lodge. Although we left temps in the 70s and are now in the 90s we will still have a great time. I will post some pictures later to show you how close we are from the track. Let’s just say we couldn’t get any closer.

Ready to go

You know you have stayed too long when your campground registration tag has faded. Ours has and we are ready to go. Tomorrow morning we will be pulling out and heading for the track in Fontana Ca. When we arrived the first part of June, I thought I should fill the gas tank because with the price of gas going up it will probably cost over $5 a gallon by the time we leave. Well it turns out it’s a good thing we didn’t. I think gas is lower now than when we arrived.

Sad story, happy ending

Last Thursday a woman pulled in with her new Class C. First trip out. She was in her 60 to 70s and traveled only with her companion cat that she has had since it was a kitten. Upon arrival as she was setting up her cat escaped out the driver’s window and was nowhere to be found. She spent the weekend walking the neighborhoods asking anyone in sight if they had seen her cat. Each night we could hear the coyotes yelping and barking and each morning the woman would walk around the campground hoping not to find her cat in a bad way. We all feared her cat had fell prey to the coyotes. Interesting enough, she was fine with this. She stated that she would rather a coyote abruptly ended her cats life rather than a slow starvation death. The woman was planning to stay an extra day until Monday to see if her cat would return after everyone had gone home and the campground was quiet even though she only brought enough medication to get her to Sunday night. Well, now the good part of the story. Sunday morning about 4:00a her cat found her way back to the motorhome after being missing for 3 days in a strange location. She and her cat happily returned home on Sunday as planned.

Quiet again

For the last couple of weeks this place has been busy. There have been big groups here, one right after another. Today everyone left, with the exception of us 5 regulars. It sure is nice to have the peace and quiet back. I am not sure how long it will last but we are only here until Thursday anyway. I spent the day cleaning up the motorhome. It sure is a mess with all the dirt around here. Hopefully it will stay relatively clean for a few days. I need to take the car to the car wash tomorrow. It needs a bath REAL bad too. When we get back to Lake Havasu, I plan to get the motorhome buffed out and detailed and the carpets shampooed. Susan was a bit unhappy about the big spider sitting in it’s web in the corner of the bedroom the other morning so the inside will get a real good cleaning too.

Anxious

I am real anxious to get out of here. We have been in the same location since June 26th. This place is very dirty and dusty and I can’t wait to get everything cleaned up again. We are leaving this Thursday Aug 28. It is going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone but we will be back in November. Susan is really looking forward to Thursday because we are heading for the NASCAR track in Fontana. We have an infield spot for the weekend’s race. The spot is front row in turn 2. So close we could sit in the motorhome and watch the race out our windshield. I however will be on the roof to gain a better view. I will be spending the next few days cleaning everything up and putting things away for travel. I need to make sure the batteries are up to snuff and the generators are in good order and water tank filled since we will be dry camping, something we don’t do often.

Totaled

Well the trailer is totaled. The guy with the peeled back air conditioner said his insurance company totaled his trailer. I guess the insurance company decided it is more cost effective to pay him off rather than repair the trailer. I looked at it and it doesn’t look like much to repair. The trailer is only a couple of years old and is otherwise in good shape. The guy next to me is going to see if he can buy it from the salvage company and repair it. The guy is REAL bummed. He is an elderly gent and says he figures his RV days are over. He told us to go through it and take anything we wanted, and then he said he needed to get out of here before they take his trailer away. Kind of sad.

What is that

That’s what I was wondering when this guy pulled in. What does he have on his roof? After a closer look I realized it was his air conditioner…or at least what was left of it. He claims a tree fell in the wind. I’m not believing that for a second. This thing obviously was peeled back by a low hanging object while he was driving. It not only peeled back but punched a good hole in his roof also. That’s going to take a lot to fix.

Boy am I getting antsy. It’s only 3 more weeks before we head out of here but I am READY NOW. As you can tell I haven’t been writing about much lately. That’s because there has been nothing to write about. Susan has been busy however, running back and forth between her Mother’s house and here and tending to our Grandson. He has spent most of his summer with us. It’s going to be tough for him and us when we have to leave. The good thing is he will be back in school before we leave so he will have something to take his mind off of us being gone. We were hoping school didn’t start until after the NASCAR race in Fontana so we could take him with us. He would have had a ball.

The Elks Lodge RV Park has been the busiest I have ever seen it. I think more Elks are taking advantage of the Elks Lodge lower cost for RV Parking and meals to offset the fuel cost of traveling. So far this year we haven’t been displaced to the overflow to make room for a large group as we did last year.

Re-reading our past

I just went back and read some of the earlier times in our blog. Man, if it wasn’t me that enjoyed these ventures, I would be jealous. I am just so glad we had…have the opportunity to do this. It makes me want to get out there and see more of this big beautiful country. If you check our site and there are no new updates, venture back into the archives (Scroll down the left column to Archives) and re-read some past posts. Just be forewarned, you may be reading for hours. Just remember, the latest posts will be at the top of the page so you have to read from bottom to top.

Older Rvers

I have to admire the older people that are not just sitting home feeling sorry for themselves. I see a lot of older folks enjoying the good life of Rving. Some amaze me that they can hardly get out of their motorhome, some with canes, even some with walkers. Today I even saw one with not one but two artificial legs from the knees down, however they are out enjoying life. But the ones I saw today were real scary. I watched as a gentleman and his wife pulled in today and stopped at the entrance to the park. We were all wondering why he chose the entrance to park, blocking the road for everyone else. After a few minutes he drove over to the narrow road that goes behind the lodge and took his passengers mirror off on a post. After realizing he couldn’t fit down the road he attempted to back out and backed into a parked car. After leaving the parked car he drover over to the exit to the park and parked there for a while blocking the exit. Finally he left. Then in came another that, while attempting to back into his site, backed into his neighbor’s awning while his wife stood outside screaming at him to stop. He totally ignored his wife that apparently was supposed to be his spotter. Where do you draw the line?

Veranda

OK, I’m saving my money. This is for real! The new Country Coach with a veranda. What will they think of next? I think they need to give me one to demo. Check it out at http://veranda.countrycoach.com/. Don't miss the video on there site.

Trailer Trash?

No, not really. It’s just our neighbor reading the instructions before installing his new toilet. Just grabbed a convenient place to sit.

The park has thinned out a bit but we are supposed to have a big group coming in next week that will take up every space. There is room for us however so we don’t have to vacate.

What’s happening

The RV Park here at the Elks lodge is full. This is unusual unless there is a big group here. I think the biggest group here now in 4 RVs. The rest are just passer throughs. It has been this way since the 4th weekend. It seems as when one pulls out there is another coming in to take their place. It doesn’t look like the price of fuel has stopped these people. They are out in their RVs having fun.

Wanda

Sometimes you find the strangest things at your door. Last night while eating dinner we were hearing a snorting sound coming from our door. It was Wanda, the Pug from next door. She belongs to the couple that is camped next to us and has pretty much become the campground dog. Everyone knows her. If you leave your door open you just might find her inside with you. Our Grandson has a blast playing with her.

Car’s fixed

I crawled under the car and took a look at the starter. As usual it looked like I would have to disassemble half the engine to get it out. I called around and found the lowest price for a new starter was around $150. What ever happened to the $30 starters I used to buy? Well since I have had all service done at the Saturn dealer and have had very good luck with them I decided to let them take care of it for me. This way I will get a full system diagnostic and a warranty. Half a day later and $388 lighter the car is working well. I was a bit disappointed with the Saturn dealer’s service this time however. They called and tried to sell me a new battery at $170 claiming mine tested bad. Now this is the original battery and after 7 years maybe it dropped below the spec in their test but there is no problem with the battery at this time so I declined. After being in Lake Havasu in 115° heat running the air and lights there has never been a sign that the battery has a problem. Even looking at the indicator in the top of the battery, it is green indicating a good battery. I know a lot of service centers will try to sell you something you may not need but I have never seen this at any of the Saturn dealers I have visited. It will be interesting to see just how long this battery lasts. Also, all Saturn dealers have a car wash and after service they always wash the car before you pick it up. I have had the car washed after taking it in for a $40 oil change but didn’t get it washed after a $388 starter change. Now I am not really complaining since I asked for and got a 15% discount, just because, so for the $60 I saved I guess I can wash it myself.

Car's busted

When we got here yesterday, I unhooked the car as usual and Susan jumped in, fired it up and parked it as usual. After getting everything setup Susan jumped in the car to go see the Grandkids, turned the key and…nothing. Everything worked find but the starter didn’t make a sound. I poked around, pulled a few fuses to check them and a after determining they were all good plugged them back in and turned the key. It started right up like a brand new car. Hum, maybe a loose fuse. Susan got in the car this morning to head for the store and the car fired right up. Good I thought must be OK. No such luck. She called me from the store…No start. I got one of the guys here to give me a ride there and Susan a ride back while I stayed with the car. I tried the fuses again, No good. I checked cables, Plugs, Relays, Fuses, Nothing. Finally I got out a screwdriver and rapped on the started. Fired right up. Looks like its time for a new starter. After 5 years of driving and dragging it all over the country, this is the first time we have had a problem. I can’t complain too much.

Cooler weather

We are now in Vista California. It is much cooler here. Right now in Havasu it would still be over 100°. Here in Vista its 70°. Susan wasn’t here long before she was off to pickup the Grandson. It will sure be nice to hang outside again.

You got to be kidding

It got down to a cool 90° last night, and a high today of 114°. Now that is in the shade mind you. The motorhome’s outside temperature sensor is tucked behind the front cap, out of the sun. We have had enough. Tomorrow we are getting ready and come Tuesday morning we are out of here. They are saying this may be a record breaking summer for Lake Havasu City. Lake Havasu City already has the honor of having the highest temperature ever for a populated area of 128°. We are not hanging around for the new record. Here it is 9:00p and it is still 103° outside. We are able to keep the inside of the motorhome comfortable but what good is it to sit here inside the motorhome all summer. Susan is anxious to see the Grandkids and her parents anyway.

Not happy

112° at 7:00p. We are surviving OK but I can’t say much for my Geraniums. Even though I flood them everyday they are still not happy. Come to think of it, I am getting pretty tired of it myself. I am an outdoor person but can only spend a couple of hours outside before it’s just too hot. One of our air conditioners has not been turned off for about 4 days straight. The other runs about 10 hours a day. We are looking forward to Wednesday when we head for the coast.

I was just looking at this picture today.

Hummm

By the way, the guy got our upholstery done the same day. He did a great job and only charged me $175. I wrote him a check for $200 for doing a good job.

Trying to keep cool

With the temperatures reaching 115° here our friends invited us out on their boat to cool down. We had a blast all day on the boat running down river, then up river. It is interesting how running along the river, we hit hot spots and cool spots. The water temperature also changes quite a lot along the river. In the lake it was very comfortable but up river a bit it was rather cold. Either way, it sure felt good. We have decided enough is enough. Next Thursday we are heading for the coast. They are having a heat wave there but 80°+ is better than 115°.

What happened here

You might ask. This morning I disassembled the couch. We are getting it re-upholstered. After 5 years of use it was getting a little tired. I contacted the factory to see if I could just get the skins and recover it myself but they discontinued that design and didn’t have any available. They did manage to find some left over material to send me. They sent me enough to do the whole motorhome probably twice, FREE. They also refer me to the company that makes their covers. I asked if they had the pattern and if I sent them the fabric if they could make me one. Nope, couldn’t help me there either. So we found someone here in Lake Havasu City that will pull the original cover and use it as a template. The guy said he will probably have it ready tomorrow.

New Wireless-N

The manager of the resort came by today and handed me the new technology IEEE 802.11n wireless card. You might be familiar with the Wireless-B or Wireless-G technology but the Wireless-N is new. In fact it says on the box Draft, which tells me it is so new, that is probably isn’t a standard yet. Anyway the reason she gave it to me is because she just installed a Wireless-N router in the office and wanted me to see if it will reach to our lot. It not only reaches, where my Wireless-B did not, but also it is 3 times faster than the Wireless-G router they have along side the new one in the office. The signal strength is weak, about 15%, but it hangs in there and is FAST. I am getting about 1755 kb/s download and 487 kb/s upload. This might not mean anything to you but it is fast. My old card picked up one wireless networks in range from my motorhome and this one picks up 10. Linksys says it is has a Rangemark of 4X and a Speedmark of 12X. Perhaps if I was closer to the router and had a 100% signal instead of the 15% I would get the 12X speed. If you are thinking of buying a new wireless card or upgrading your existing one I would recommend the new Wireless-N technology. It is downward compatible which mean it will also connect to the old technology. The card I am using is the Linksys WUSB300N. Oh by the way, the card she gave me is on loan. I will be buying one when the time comes.

The heat is on

The temperatures have reached the 100+ mark here. It really isn’t too bad yet though. I guess I have gotten to where I can tolerate it more. When it gets up to the 120s that might be a different story. We can maintain a nice cool temperature inside the motorhome with the air conditioners running. I still spend most of my time outside, however I have spent more time inside than usual these days. They had a Pizza party for the people still here on Saturday. On Sunday the last of the people that we hang around with in our area of the resort have left. There are still a handful of people left but we are spread about all over the resort and most stay inside where it is cool so you don’t see many. If it weren’t for all the Casitas that everyone built here we would have a hell of a view since there are no RV left around us. We plan to stay until after the 4th of July then we will head for the coast to visit the grandkids and cooler weather.

The hard drive crash

We are back in Lake Havasu now. We came back Sunday after enjoying 5 nights at the Parker Strip. We have no trips planned until after July 4th although this doesn’t mean we won’t do any.
Just before we left for Parker I had a major computer hard drive melt down. The computer locked up and after doing a hard shut down it would not come back up. I did everything I could think of to recover it but to no avail. I installed a second copy of Windows XP and was able to get into the drives and backup all my files to my external hard drive. I tried wiping out the drive and reinstalling Windows but it would not let me finish the install before it failed. Apparently the spot where it initially wants to install Windows is bad because installing a second copy was successful. I spent 2 days loading back in all my programs and configuring the system to my liking. I now have a dual boot system. One works and one locks up. It looks like its time for a new hard drive.

2 more nights please

We are pretty much winding down our week here at Parker Arizona. We have been on the river everyday jet skiing. We have enjoyed ourselves so much that we signed up for 2 more nights. It’s been a while since I have had the chance to have this much fun on a jet ski. Susan is just having a ball on the back of the ski too. We are glad we found this place and plan to come back here more often. I would post more photos but I am lucky I have any Internet service at all. We have 1 bar on our cell phone here and our Internet aircard is running REAL SLOW.

The Parker Strip

We have moved down the road to what is known as The Parker Strip. This is a stretch of the Colorado River along Parker Arizona from the Parker Dam to the bridge. We decided to just get away for the week. This is only about 30 minutes from the Resort but a whole different atmosphere. So far we really like this place and plan to do this more in the future. Our friends brought their jet skis so we will be having a lot of fun.

Rain

It rained really good today. The weather called for rain but I thought…Naw, Not here. I was out replacing the coach batteries in the motorhome when I heard the thunder, then the wind started blowing, and then the rain came. The battery compartment is under the slide so I was able to complete the job and stay relatively dry. I had to wait until the rain stopped to put everything away though. I chuckled thinking about all the kids coming into town for the holiday with their boats and tents only to find rain. We were going to hang out on a friends boat in the channel tomorrow and watch the circus of crazies but we decided to hold off. Maybe Monday.
On our way back from Williams last week, I had about ½ tank of fuel. I thought it would be wise to fill the motorhome then instead of when we travel again thinking the fuel prices would be higher later. I paid about $3.65/gal then. I filled the car today at $3.98/gal. And it’s only going to get worse.

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING

Ya Think?! The weather is calling for an excessive heat warning this weekend. It got to about 113 today here in Lake Havasu. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter. Then it will cool down, if you want to call high 80s to 90s cool. After finally getting to park on our lot here at the resort this morning, we went to Parker to scope out some campgrounds. After Memorial Day we are planning to hang out at the Colorado River on the Parker Strip for a few days. We found a couple of sites on the river under some shade trees. We will have a couple of jet skis and plenty of water so we should be able to keep cool.

Still stuck in Phase 3

We have not moved onto our lot yet here at Havasu RV Resort. When we showed up Thursday they had just laid down a coat of road seal and said 24 hours. Then the next morning they applied another coat of road seal and said 24 hours. Today it was still soft, they say because it is so hot. Today it was 108º here. They said how about tomorrow morning before it gets too hot. So hopefully tomorrow we will finally be on out lot. If I had known I would have stayed in Williams or somewhere else for a few days.

Back in Havasu

We left Williams this morning and bucked the winds all the way back to Havasu. The good thing is it was pretty much a downhill drive the hole trip. When we got back to the Resort we couldn’t get to our lot. They are resealing the roads and they were all blocked off. I went into the office and they said we can’t drive on it for 2 days so they put us out in phase 3. It’s not really any big deal except since we didn’t take our car on this trip, it is sitting on our lot and we can’t get to it. Interesting, without the car in tow I only got .5 mpg better millage.

Deer Park

Today we took the ladies to the Deer Farm here in Williams. They have more than just deer but as you walk through the gate a herd of about 50 deer start heading for you. They think you have food for them. After they find out you don’t they disperse with the exception of a couple that will follow you around hoping you will put a quarter in one of these machines full of corn. If you do insert a quarter and turn the crank,

you have to fight for the corn because they will eat it right out of the shoot. We had fun just walking around looking at all the animals they have such as Llamas, Bison, Reindeer, peacocks, a camel and more. They also have a nice gift shop.
After the deer farm we to a cruise over to the Grand Canyon Harley Davidson dealer where

I found this tree made of motorcycle mufflers. Next door is the Roadhouse Grill where you grill your own food. It was pretty cool. Then we took a drive down the road to Ash Fork for something to do. There is NOT MUCH in Ash Fork except Flagstone.

Lots and lots of Flagstone. We found out that Ash Fork is the Flagstone Capitol of the World. They mine it here.

Snow pictures posted

I just posted some of today’s snow pictures to our photo site. Click on the thumbnail in the left column

Yesterday

Today

What the!

The weather report said No Accumulation.
The good thing, No Wind. The temperature is only 36º

This isn’t just a light dusting. There is at least 6” on the ground and it is still coming down in Big flakes.

I had to go out and sweep the snow off the dish so we could watch TV. I guess they won’t be renting any sites today because you can’t find them.

Windy Windy

The wind has just not stopped. It blew all night last night and all day today.

We spent the day at the Grand Canyon. The temperature was great but we damn near got blown off the edge of the canyon several times.

Here is a photo of me holding my shirt over my head. This shows how hard the wind was blowing. It is supposed to snow some tonight but they say it won’t stick, not cold enough. Then rain all day tomorrow. This is OK. We will just stay inside and watch videos. It is only supposed to last one day then be OK from them on.

Meteor Crater

About 30 miles east of Flagstaff Arizona is a huge meteor crater. Around 50,000 years ago a meteor 150 feet across hit the earth. It hit with such force that it vaporized and left a crater 700 feet deep and over 4000 feet across.

The land out there is barren. You can see nothing for miles and miles.
When I heard that they wanted $15 to look at a hole in the ground I almost passed this up. I’m glad I didn’t. I am still not sure it’s worth $15 each but it was defiantly interesting to see. I wasn’t aware that meteors were metal. This meteor was iron-nickel. Another interesting fact I found out was that the shooting stars we see are no larger than the tip of a ballpoint pen. It’s the gasses we see in the night.

After the crater we stopped in Flagstaff to take the wives out for Mother’s day dinner. Flagstaff is a college town and an interesting place. There is quite a collection of unique shops.

Sedona

When we left Williams this morning the temp was in the 50s. I decided to leave the shorts and put on a pair of pants. Also the flip-flops stayed behind and on went the shoes. My feet were freaking out since they haven’t seen shoes for about 5 months now. When I jumped out of the truck in Sedona I was sorry. It was a nice warm 70 something. We spent the day cruising the downtown shops then headed for the chapel.

There are some of the best views from the chapel.

Can you see the bird in this one?


How would you like to own this house? There is even an observatory on the roof. This house was being built a couple of years ago when we were here the last time. It is still under construction today.

Tomorrow is NASCAR day so we won’t be going anywhere. We decided since it is the weekend we will just hang around and maybe take a walk into town. Monday should be a good day to head on into the Grand Canyon. We are talking about heading over to see the Meteor Crater near Flagstaff sometime while we are here too.

Made it to Williams

We made it to Williams Arizona today. Man! It’s up hill all the way here. We started out in Havasu at about 600ft and are now at 6700ft. We will be visiting The Grand Canyon and the Sedona area while here. The weather was in the 70s when we got here today. They told us to disconnect our water hose overnight because it will drop to the 20s. All the weather reports say 35º so I am going to throw caution to the wind and leave it hooked up. It’s only supposed to get to about 65º tomorrow. A far cry from the 90s in Havasu. We are in a new park right next to the Grand Canyon Railroad. It is part of the Hotel and we have full privileges of the Hotel as well.

Getting lonely around here

Well just about everyone has gone home around here. There are a few that live here year around. Us on the other hand, we are just hanging out to recoup the refrigerator money. The refrigerator is working fine, thank you. We have decided to just limit our travel to short local trips this year. Tomorrow we are off to The Grand Canyon, Williams actually, for a week. From there we will do day trips to The Grand Canyon and Sedona. When we get back we will head down to Parker to spend a few days on the river where is will be a bit cooler.

Owning our own RV lot here at the resort has become a good thing because it doesn’t cost us campground fees or fuel to hang out here, we can hang out as long as we like, we can rent out the lot when we are not here, and property is still a good investment.

The Desert Bar

I have been hearing about a bar out in the middle of the desert. Sunday we decided to check it out. This place has no power or water to it. It’s in the MIDDLE OF THE DESERT! It is built on an old copper mine property. You can still see the mine in the side of the hill.

The road to the bar is a dirt road that I would not want to take our car down. We did it with our friends in their 4 wheel drive truck.

There are a few 4 wheel trails leading to the bar and I hear this is a popular place for the 4 wheelers in the area. Kind of like an oases in the desert. I hear the bar is standing room only at times and they even have bands most weekends. I believe the bands run on generator power.

Finally after about 5 miles there it was. This place is pretty cool. They run off solar panels, batteries and inverters. Their water comes from a well. The towers you see are the cooling towers. Water is pumped up the tower and trickles over cotton pads. Air passing through the cotton is cooled and falls down the towers into the building. It really works. You wouldn’t even know there is no power connected to the place. Yes it is a bit rugged but I was impressed for being in the middle of the desert.

There is even a church build on the property. There are no services held in this church because it is only about 6X6 in the middle and those sidewalls are just that, walls.

Their website is www.thedesertbar.com

Boats Bongs and Babes

This picture says it all. The girls on this boat are pole dancing and you can see the Beer Bongs hanging off to the right. Today we spent the day on the lake with friends on their boat. What a riot! Weekends around here get pretty crazy but since these big fast boats are in town, this weekend was really crazy. I added some pictures to our photo site. Just click on the thumbnail in the left hand column titles “Havasu Boat Shootout”. The Shootout was a race to see who can reach top speeds.

This “Bud Light” boat blew them all away. Of course…how much money do you think Bud put into this thing? It even sounded completely different than the rest. During the race the wind came up so much that all the spectating boats pulled anchor and headed for the channel. What a fiasco. They had to stop the race because boats were all over the course. Police and race officials were trying there best to keep boats off the course but to no avail. It got pretty torturous out there. We sure had a great time though.

Big boats in town

There is a lot going on right now. Over in Laughlin they are hosting the Laughlin River Motorcycle Run. Here in town they are hosting a big boat show, poker run, and shootout.

Last night was the boat show. This is similar to a car show where they closed off the main street and lined it with boats. Now these aren’t just boats, these are BOATS!

We are talking BIG BUCKS here. These boats are pushing close to a million dollars and running thousands of horsepower. They get about 4 mpg and run race fuel at about $4.50 a gallon. They will easily burn $1,000 in fuel this weekend.

I think last night all of Lake Havasu was down town checking out the boats. Today there are about 200 boats in the poker run and tomorrow about 50 in the shootout to see who can reach top speed.

No these are not six packs of Bud Light, these are the two batteries for the boat.

Cold Fridge

I woke this morning, checked the temperature inside the fridge and it read 32.4º. YES!
Looks like we have a working fridge finally. The icemaker is even making ice. Later today I went back to the shop to take some photos of the bad cooling unit for insurance purposes and had a talk with the guys that did the job. I did a lot of research as to what it takes to change out one of these things and the guys certainly sounded like they knew what they were talking about. They were happy to hear everything worked well and I was happy.

Fridge is in

Today I took the motorhome into the shop bright and early to get the refrigerator repaired. I wanted to make sure they had all day to work on it so hopefully they would have it done by tonight. When I dropped it off I told the guy he really should take a look at it to make sure he wants to tackle it. He said no problem they do this all the time. As I mentioned before, to repair the refrigerator it has to come out and turn 90º and then go over the kitchen counter, all 280 lbs of it. Well I no sooner got home and the shop called. The guy said he took some measurements and it is impossible to get it out and over the counter. There is just not enough room. He did say they will still do the job but they will have to do it in the kitchen standing up and it will be difficult. I figured this has now turned into a two day job. I was surprised when I got the call at 3:00p that it was done. Not only that but the guy said once they got it out of the hole it went over the counter with no problems. Well so far it seems to be cooling down. We will see in the morning.

No Home

Tomorrow we will be without a home. The motorhome goes into the shop to get the refrigerator repaired, Finally! I am hoping we will have it back by the same evening but I am not counting on it. We have made arrangements to stay in the park model we rented for Susan’s parents. Her parents showed up today to visit for the week. Her father said he would sell his house in Southern California and buy a place here in a hart beat except for the value of property these days. It’s just not a good time to sell a house right now if you don’t have to. They are looking forward to spending the week with us.

Our grandson called the other day to tell us he was in the emergency room. He says he was helping his father do some yard work and stepped on a rake. It went right through his foot. He called today to tell us he got 3 stitches and spent 5 hours in the emergency room. The poor little guy is only 7 years old. He sure was brave through the whole thing though.

Visitors

Tomorrow Susan’s parents will be here for the week. We rented them one of the Park Models here in the park.

Susan is looking forward to spending some time with them. On Tuesday I will be taking the motorhome into the shop so they can start on the refrigerator. We could have rescheduled it until Susan’s parents leave but the way things are here in Havasu, you got to take advantage of the situation when it’s there. We will just hang out at the Park Model until the motorhome is done. They say it’s a 3 hour job but they haven’t seen it yet. I’m not planning on getting the motorhome back until the next day, that’s if they do it at all after seeing it.

Oh, and Rexhall called me and canceled the appointment I made with them to replace the refrigerator. Why am I not surprised? “Par for the course” as they say. I wasn’t going to cancel the Rexhall appointment until it was repaired and working.

The appointment is made

Yesterday I got a call from the RV Service Center that our refrigerator cooling unit is in. She said she will let the shop know and they will call me to make an appointment. Well, today around 3:00p I got tired of waiting and gave them a call. We made an appointment for next Tuesday. We decided tomorrow (Friday) would not be good incase they didn’t get the job done because I would be without the motorhome for the weekend. They say Monday is too hectic so we made it for Tuesday. Susan and I are both worried that they will mess up something trying to get it out to work on it. I took plenty of pictures of the cabinets, wood floors and ceiling. I made note of all the existing dings, yeah we do have a few dings. Hopefully they will surprise us and do the job right the first time and with no damage. This doesn’t come at a very good time because Susan’s parents are coming to visit us next week. We thought about putting it off but we really don’t want to wait any longer.
The wind has slowed down a bit here. It was still too gusty to put the awnings out today. Maybe tomorrow it will be nice.

A blustery day

Didn’t do much today. We were having gusts of wind in the high 40s today. It all started last night or I should say early this morning. I heard a commotion outside and peaked out to see my neighbor wrestling with his torn awning. I was going to head out and help but it looked like he and his wife had it under control. The wind didn’t let up until around 6:00p or so today. My big excitement was watching the neighbor a few sites down have his awning replaced. His was damaged in the last big wind we had. I made a comment about watching and the installer told me about the time he replaced 3 awnings in Quartsite. He said there were about 60 guys that brought their chairs over to watch. After he was done with that one they all followed him over to the next one to watch and to the next one. Reminds me of the sewer scene in the movie RV. Life is good when that’s all you got to do.

Phoenix NASCAR photos added

I just added the Phoenix NASCAR photos. Click on the thumbnail in the left hand column.

Susan’s a happy NASCAR fan

We are back from the race in Phoenix. Susan’s Favorite driver Jimmie Johnson won so she is happy. He has been struggling all season so far but this weekend he was back. It was close though because he almost ran out of gas on the last lap. Fortunately he was a half lap in front of the 2nd place car so he could back off the throttle and save fuel. After the win he came around the backstretch where we were to do a burnout and ran out of gas half way through his burnout. He had to be pushed back to Victory Lane. The weather was fantastic and we all had a great time.

As usual there was plenty of good food and drink. It was good to see our daughter and friends again. I will post pictures to out photo site tomorrow.

Another NASCAR race

We arrived today in Goodyear Arizona. This is about 20 minutes from Phoenix International Raceway where we will be spending most of our waking hours for the Phoenix NASCAR race this weekend. We will be meeting our daughter and friends in the infield for the race activities. Susan is excited as usual. We also came with some friends on their madden voyage in their new fifth wheel trailer and first time at a NASCAR event. We got settled in and puttered around the trailer checking out the systems and making sure everything works. They didn’t have a chance to do much because the trailer arrived just before the trip.
We are still without a refrigerator but luckily I bought the little one to use until ours gets fixed. It traveled in its little corner of the motorhome real well and even stayed cold with no power for the 3 hour ride here. I called the repair place just before we left and they called Dometic. Dometic says they got the part Monday and shipped it out. They say it should arrive by this Friday or Monday. Maybe next week we will have refrigeration again.

Refer Madness

No it’s not what you think. It’s the refrigerator. Yes we still are without our refrigerator. We thought we were making progress. I found a place that will do the repair job and Dometic agreed to sell us the part for ½ price. That’s all well and good however apparently Dometic doesn’t even have the part to sell at any price. They are expecting to get the part from their vendor by April 7th and said it probably wouldn’t get to us until the 18th.

So today I went out and bought a small refrigerator that will fit in a corner of the motorhome until ours is fixed. We will just sell the little one once we are satisfied ours is fixed and working.

The resort is clearing out. The Snowbirds are heading back home. This is the time of year we get people coming and going as they use the resort as a stopover on their way home.
I heard on the radio yesterday the Britney Spears is going to work here in Lake Havasu as a cocktail waitress. They say her Dad said she needs to live a normal live for a while and told her to get a job. She will be starting this Friday for minimum wage. Since yesterday was April Fools day, this could just be a joke.
There is a new feature on our web site. As you may know we run a small banner of ads by Google. They run down the left column and consist of 4 or 5 ads. Actually they are websites that contain more information on things I post about. Now they have added scroll buttons at the top of the ads that allow you to scroll through many ads. Try it out. Maybe you’ll find something of interest.