Another project done

Friday the patio tile was laid and yesterday it was grouted.

Today I cleaned everything up and moved the furniture back in place. It sure looks nice. That is another project done. I still have more projects so we aren’t done yet. Since we still don’t have a car some of the projects will have to wait until I can pick up some supplies. Hopefully the car will be done this week. I am not expecting it until toward the end of the week though.

Last night our neighbor had a Milk Can dinner. This is where you take a Milk Can, the type you find on the farm, and layer it with potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, corn on the cob, and sausage. Then you boil it for about an hour and dump it out on the table. There were about 20 of us and everyone enjoyed.

The market was good to us last week. It would be nice if it continues this upward trend but I know better. If I could just get back the money I lost, I would be a happy camper.

Passed

We passed final inspection today on our Casita. We were kind of sweating a few things but the inspector spent a total of probably 5 minutes and over looked most things. Heck, the only thing he did was check the outlets and took a quick look at the water heater. Anyway, it’s done and we are clear to finish it up. Tomorrow the washer and dryer gets delivered and the tile guy is coming by to see what is needed to tile the patio. He plans to get started on that Friday. This place is looking good.

Good day

Today was a good day. We had a bit of a problem with the Casita. Turns out the plumber didn’t provide plumbing for the T&P valve from the water heater. Also the water heater needed a drip pan under it. This held up the final inspection. Today the plumber showed up and took care of it all. Next, our neighbor came down and asked if I needed any brown landscaping rock. Seems he ordered 3 ton and they delivered 5 ton. Just so happens I was going to buy some but since I have an unexpected expense (the car repair) I decided to hold off on that purchase. So when my neighbor offered the rock for free I jumped on it. I even got his landscaper to bring it down to my lot with his Bobcat for a 12 pack of beer. Since I haven’t heard from the body shop that I delivered our car to Monday I decided to give them a call. They weren’t sure if they wanted to fix the car because of the damage to the cowling. He informed me today that they not only will fix it but are just about done fixing the cowling. The other parts are on order and the car should be done next week. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, our stocks took a big jump in the right direction today. So other than sore muscles from shoveling and spreading landscaping rock most of the day, it was a Good Day. Tomorrow is final inspection on the casita and if it passes I will take a walk (no car remember) over to Lowes and buy Susan’s Washer/Dryer and get it delivered. That will make her real happy.

Over an hour to hang a toilet paper holder

I have been busy doing all the little things on our Casita since most of the major stuff is done. We are about ready to call for final inspection except the plumber messed up and forgot to plumb the water heater pressure relief valve to the outside. Also it needs a pan under the water heater. The electrical got done yesterday and it all works well.




I spent over an hour today just to hang a toilet paper holder. The reason why is because I kept getting interrupted by friends coming by. Not really a problem though.

Before we returned from Las Vegas, I ran the car in to the Saturn dealer to get an estimate on the bodywork. It came to around $3500. When we got back to Havasu I got a local estimate. That one comes to $2900. I gave then the go ahead and they will be picking up the car on Monday. Hopefully it won’t take long since that is our only car.

I posted our photos from the last 2 NASCAR races. Check down the left column and click on the thumbnail titled 2009 NASCAR.

Back in Havasu

We have arrived back in Lake Havasu this afternoon. NASCAR was great. We really had a good time in Las Vegas at the track. Susan was unhappy that Jimmie Johnson crashed late in the race but it is still early in the season and I am sure he will do well. I will be posting pictures soon.

On the way back I stopped by the Saturn dealer in Henderson Nevada to get an estimate on repairing the car. They don’t do body work and called in an appraiser from the local body shop. He said he would get back to me this afternoon with the estimate. That didn’t happen. I will be giving him a call tomorrow. I would like to see what price he gives me before I take it to a body shop here in Havasu. The good news is it can be fixed. The bad news is it could get expensive depending on the part for the cowling.
I have had at least 3 people so far that have offered their car for our use here at the resort, another reason why I love this lifestyle. I may take them up on it since I need to pick up more stuff to get this Casita completed.

I sure was nice to be able to pull onto our own lot this time. The motorhome fits well with the Casita on the lot.

Las Vegas NASCAR

We moved over to the track today where we will be through the NASCAR weekend. I made an appointment with the Saturn Dealer here in Las Vegas to get an estimate on the Saturn Monday. If it is reasonable I might leave it hear and come back to pick it up when their done. I’m getting kind of tired answering questions every time someone sees it.

I guess I didn’t mention it but the night Susan ran into the gate, she was going over to spend the evening with her favorite NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson.

Even though she was pretty upset she still had a good time.

The race weekend was fun and it sure was good to see some old friends again. Some of which we only see at the track. While we were there we got photographed for a promo and might be selected to have the photo appear on TV and in some magazines. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

Sam’s Town Las Vegas

We have arrived at Sam’s Town RV Park in Las Vegas today. After dropping off the rental car this morning we got on the road by 8:30a. Not bad. We had a good drive and made it to Las Vegas in about 4 hours. We will hang out here at Sam’s Town until Wednesday when we head on over to the Race Track where we will spend the rest of the week. Tomorrow I am going to call the Saturn dealer here to see if they do collision repairs. If so we will swing by on our way back to Havasu since it is on the way to see if it can be repaired and get an estimate. We have sure been getting a lot of attention with a busted up car parked by the motorhome. It is amazing what stress can do to you. I never stress over anything until this car incident. The stress must have lowered my resistance because I have come down with a cold. It has been so long since I had a cold (probably 10 years) that I forgot what one felt like and didn’t understand why I was feeling so funky. Hopefully it will be short lived.

Oh CRAP

Well sometimes your luck just runs out. Susan and I have been driving for MANY years with out an incident. But last night that all changed. Susan was blinded by the sun for a split second and had a collision with a gate. No one was hurt physically but Susan was pretty upset and I lost a night sleep trying to decide what to do next. Turns out since we had such a good driving record that I figured we didn’t need collision coverage on our insurance. WRONG! This one is on my dime.
Otherwise we are having a good time here at the NASCAR race in Fontana. I ended up renting a car to get us from the Elks Lodge in Ontario where we like to stay to the track and back everyday.

Upsetting service experience

It came time for an oil change on our Saturn and since there is no Saturn dealer in Havasu and we are traveling I scoped one out in route. I found one in Ontario where we are right now and since we had a day to kill before NASCAR I zipped it over to Saturn of Ontario. Now I usually spend about $50 for a synthetic oil change at the Saturn dealers. This is not really a bad price since the price of Synthetic oil has reached $5 a quart. It would cost me around $35 to do it myself so for an extra $15 I will let them do it. They also give everything a good check over and top off fluids, which I probably wouldn’t do. Anyway, the upsetting part is they handed me a quote before the job for $82. I questioned the amount and they said that is what they charge for Synthetic. I was ready to decline but it needed doing. However after the job was done the bill came to $53. What was the $82 estimate for anyway? You would think they should know what it cost to do an oil change on their own brand. There should be no estimate and just a set price. In fact the other dealers I have gone to have a set price posted and that is what you pay. They almost lost my business over this.

PITA

What a pain in the…Well you know what. We made our way to the Ontario Elks Lodge where we will be for the rest of the week. From here we driver over to Fontana for the NASCAR race. I hate driving through LA. The traffic was a mess and the roads are the worst. The motorhome got a good shakedown driving these roads. We are settled in for the week so it’s all good now. Even the refrigerator and Water Heater are working.

Not the best day

Today was a challenge for us. It all started sometime early this morning while we were sleeping. The wind started to blow, REAL HARD. Then the rain started to fall REAL HARD. Then the power went out. No big deal I thought. I got up and shut off the main breaker inside the motorhome just in case there is a glitch with the power coming back on. Don’t want to blow anything like the refrigerator circuit board. I woke this morning and the wind had subsided but it was still raining pretty good. I switched the breaker back on and the motorhome came to life…except the refrigerator. When the rain died down enough I went outside to investigate. The gas valve would kick in but the igniter was silent. I could smell plenty of LP so I stuck a match to the burner and it lit. OK I thought, as long as it is running we can travel and not worry about our food getting warm. We packed up and hit the road. Susan went back a couple of times and the refrigerator was still on. After driving through some pretty nasty weather, we arrived at the Santa Barbara Elk’s lodge where we had made reservations. First thing I noticed was there was a motorhome in the spot we had reserved. I headed for the office to see what the deal was and found they are closed for President’s day. OK I guess I will just take another site, hope it’s not reserved. Susan switched on the water heater and it lit but the igniter kept sparking and it shut right off. Now what, I thought. Our water heater is gas only, a power glitch should not effect it. I pulled the board thinking water must have gotten in from the drive in the rain. Nope, Dry. I reset all the connectors with no change. Finally I did the last step in troubleshooting. Beat on it. I thumped on it several times and the igniter shut off and it stayed lit. I will deal with that later. Now it’s time to move on to the refrigerator. I took the cover off the board and checked the fuses. Darn, they are good. I traced wires and found the igniter and checked the connectors. AH HA, a loose connector. I reset the connector and switched on the refrigerator and it lit immediately. Wow, I had thought last nights power glitch took out the board. Well it seems everything is working again. The rain has stoped and the sun is shining. Now as long as someone doesn’t come by and try to kick us out of this site, we are good.

Wish us luck

Our time is up here at San Antonio Lake. We are heading out tomorrow. Tomorrow the weather is not favorable at all. Normally we would stay and let the weather pass by. I have checked the weather reports and there is not going to be a good time to travel for a few days and I need to get Susan down to Fontana for the next NASCAR race. Actually we are not driving to Fontana tomorrow. We will make a stop over in Santa Barbara for the night and do the second half on Tuesday. Since I have been breaking my rules lately (2X2X2) I figured I could break my travel in bad weather rule. We have a 3 hour drive tomorrow and if it takes us 5 hours, that’s OK. I will just take my time and drive very careful and defensive.

Mixed weather

We have had some mixed weather up here at San Antonio Lakes near Paso Robles. When we got here on Wednesday it was sunny with 60° temps. It quickly turned to rain then hale. Through the night it rained pretty hard. Since then it has been alternating between rain, fog, and sun. It gets into the 30s at night (good thing I fill the propane tank) and 60 during the day. We have use of the group room, which is heated though so all is well. Last night we had a crock-pot dinner since yesterday was the official arrival date and some didn’t arrive until later. This morning was omelet in a bag. This is where you dump all your omelet goodies in a baggie and boil it for about 10 to 15 minutes. They come out pretty well. We got a video feed going this morning with a former rally attendant who is now in Tennessee. Pretty Cool. We have enjoyed the company of Wild turkey, deer, and there was even a mountain lion spotting.

RV Rally

We are now at San Antonio Lake up in the hills just west of Paso Robles, CA for an RV Rally. We left Bakersfield this morning in good weather and it went down hill from their.

We traveled a couple of hours in rain. Most of the time it was just a drizzle but came down hard at times. As we were approaching Paso Robles the skies cleared up again and it was a good drive up to the lake. The motorhome and car were a real mess but as you can see by this photo,

I had a chance to clean everything up. We will be here until Monday morning. Hopefully we will have some good weather.

Truck jam

We thought we were getting an early start this morning until we got to the AZ-95 and I-40 junction. There must have been 500 trucks parked everywhere, and I am not exaggerating. We pulled in for gas and people were even parked in the gas isles. I had to ask one to move so I could get in to fuel up. What was going on was they had eastbound I-40 closed off because of snow. Fortunately we were heading Westbound so we got through OK with little delay. The weather today was so much better than yesterday but we did run into a good bit of wind between Needles and Ludlow. Enough that I thought I might have to pull off if it got any worse. Once we got closer to Barstow the wind let up and the rest of the trip was OK. I probably got pretty lousy mileage though because I was bucking a head wind the whole trip.

As expected we found snow in the Tehachapi’s but the roads were clear and dry.

Once we got over the mountain it turned from white to green. That area is pretty cool with miles of rolling green pastures. We are at one of our favorite places, Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield. Unfortunately there are no more oranges left on the trees. We never seem to come through here anymore during the peak orange season. Tomorrow we will be heading for the hills west of Paso Robles where we will be until Monday, unless the weather says different.

Hold on a minute

Or more like a day… We were planning to take off tomorrow for an RV rally in California. After checking with a couple of weather websites we have decided to hold off until Tuesday. The weather for tomorrow isn’t going to be as bad as expected but they are still saying rain and winds. Tuesday will be a lull between the storms since another is coming later this week. We should be at the rally location before the next hits. We have access to a clubhouse at the rally so rain will not hamper our fun at all. Hopefully it will clear before we leave the rally.

No work today

I has been raining all day. Well, It actually started about 10:00a and has not stopped yet. I got such a good deal on some door casing the other day that I decided to use the same for baseboard so off to Home Depot today to pick up some more. Yes I did say Home Depot. Susan is a BIG NASCAR fan and a fan of Jimmy Johnson in the number 48 car, which is sponsored by Lowes. Normally she won’t let me shop at Home Depot but if they have what I need at a better deal Home Depot it is. The door casing I bought is priced at $0.72 a foot but they had 5 seven foot lengths packaged together for about $9.00. That’s about $0.27 a foot for the same stuff. I also had time to clean my leveling jack before the rain came. The jacks have been a little lazy retracting lately and a good wipe down usually fixes that. I need to get up to the Casita tomorrow and check for leaks. I doubt it leaks but you never know and the rain will be a good test.

I sure hope the rain lets up before we need to take off for California. The plan is to head out Monday but like I said before if the wind comes up or it is still raining a lot we will wait until Tuesday. The weather reports still say Tuesday is a good day.

Susan is a happy camper now since NASCAR has start up again. As I sit here writing this post we are watching the Budweiser Shootout.

Just about done

We were supposed to get a roof yesterday but no one showed up.

Well as you can see they did show up today. It didn’t take them too long to install the complete roof. Now Our Casita doesn’t look like the oddball in the neighborhood. It looks pretty much complete. It still needs the final plumbing and electrical done inside along with a few minor things but it is pretty much done. All in all, it went together pretty quick and I am happy with the results.

We had planned to take off Monday to head for an RV rally in California but the last weather report I saw said 65 MPH winds. I don’t think so. We might wait until Tuesday and break our 2X2X2 rule and drive 5 hours to the first stop.

We got brown

Yesterday they applied the final brown coat of stucco on our casita. It sure looks good. The roof was supposed to go on today but no one showed up. The contractor called and said they will be here tomorrow morning. The bathroom door was also installed today. The casita is really coming together.

Our Verizon cell phone coverage is terrible here in Lake Havasu. There is Verizon across the lake on the California side but here on the Arizona side we are on extended service. Usually the Extended service works well however here in Havasu we get dropped calls, calls that don’t go through, and just plain weird stuff happening. I was told that if enough people call Verizon they will eventually setup service here in Havasu. So I called. Ironically, right in the middle of my conversation with customer service, the call was dropped. What really bothers me is they didn’t have the decency to call back.

Paint and tile is in

I spent 3 days painting the inside of our Casita. Not that it is big, it’s just that I am not an experienced painter, I hate painting, and am too critical of my own work. But it came out great.

The first day I spent cleaning and prepping for the paint. The next I put 3 gallons of primer on the walls. The 3rd day I applied 2 gallons of paint. I got lucky on the paint since my neighbor came over to help. It made the job go a lot faster.

The tile went in today.

There are still a couple of pieces that need to be installed arount the tub but we are waiting for the bathroom door to be installed to get the measurements. Tomorrow they are supposed to apply the color coat on the outside. It’s getting close!

Brown White Gray

Our Casita has going from Brown (wood) to white (Styrofoam) to Gray (scratch coat) on the outside. As far as the inside, the drywaller has come and gone. He did the final sanding of the texture coat this morning. I was expecting to get right in and do a primer coat today but the stucco guys showed up.

After they were done with the scratch coat I just had enough time to get in and clean up all the sanding and drywall dust and do a little masking. Tomorrow I will be doing the primer coat. I will give the primer a day to dry then do the final paint. I have the tile guy scheduled for Monday so I need to get the painting done before then. The scratch coat stucco needs about a week to dry before they do the final brown coat. I still have switches, light fixtures, vanity, and toilet to install but it’s getting close.

Friends

We had company today. Some friends from a rally we go to stopped by to visit. They are staying in the park for one night then they are back on the road. We gave them a tour of Lake Havasu and the resort then we had a nice dinner.

Note the heater at the back of the table. It’s still a bit cool here this time of year.

The drywallers did a texture coat on the inside of our Casita today. This means it is ready for me to paint. I hate painting but this shouldn’t be too bad since I don’t have to worry about getting paint on places I shouldn’t. Susan and I went out the other day and picked out the tile for the floor and tub backsplash, lamp fixtures, ceiling fans, and picked up a few other accessories.

We have arrived

We have arrived back in Lake Havasu. We had a great week traveling with our friends. I like these getaways…Heck I just like to travel. We will be here for about 3 weeks then off again.

They have come a long way with our casita. The drywall is installed, the stucco wrap is in place, and the tiles set on the roof to load it. They load the roof a few days before applying the stucco so it won’t crack from the load. They were going to apply the scratch coat but it rained here the other day. I am sure they will be back tomorrow. If they keep up this progress, I will be able to get a few things done before we take off again.

Back in Quartzsite

We are back in Quartzsite again. We just weren’t ready to head back to Havasu yet. Besides it is about 5.5 hours from Tucson to Havasu and only 4 to Quartzsite so Quartzsite it was. Of course we had to spend more money while here. I picked up a really cool pot from Indonesia for our Casita. Tomorrow we will head back to Havasu.

Wildlife Museum

Today was a rainy drizzly wet day. We weren’t sure what to do because of the rain so we jumped in the truck and consulted the GPS’s POIs. That’s Points Of Interest for those of you with no GPS experience. The GPS suggested the Wildlife Museum so off we headed.

This place was pretty cool, full of bugs, critters, and wildlife. I guess GPS is good for other things than just getting you there. On the way up we stopped at a couple of viewpoints.

Can you imagine someone would graffiti a cactus?

I spotted my first cactus wild flower for the year.

We are checked out and tomorrow we are out of here. We haven’t really decided if we are heading back to Quartzsite or back to Havasu. I guess we will know when we get close.

Saguaro National Park

Today we first headed down to Tubac. This is a town that is full of artsy type shops that have Very Expensive stuff. Some of the stuff was pretty cool like turquoise inlayed wood tables but not on my budget.

After lunch we headed over to the Saguaro National Park. Now this is more our speed. This is a 9 mile drive through park with more cactus than you can imagine.

Since it was rainy most of the day, a drive through was perfect. This is a really cool place.

People that say the desert is dry and barren have not seen anything like this.

Benson / Tombstone

Today we took the drive down to Benson. Benson is about 40 miles south of Tucson and the home of the Kartchner Caverns. We have been there about 4 years ago and liked it so much we just wanted to show our friends.

Since these caverns are living caverns, that’s to say they are still wet, dripping and developing, the scientists use it for research so they are constantly discovering new things about it. We learned things that were unknown 4 years ago when we were there last.

From the Caverns in Benson we traveled another 30 miles down to Tombstone.

You may have heard of Tombstone from some of the western movies. This is where legendary men like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Bat Masterson, and Johnny Ringo walked the streets back in he 1800s.

Much of the town has been rebuilt but a lot of it is original right down to the buildings paint and boardwalks.
Not sure what is in store for tomorrow since rain is in the forcast.

Moved on to Tucson

Yesterday we left Quartzsite and arrived in Tucson shortly after noon.

We are now at the Beaudry RV Park. We got settled in and went over to the Beaudry RV dealer to check out some of the motorhomes. Being that they are in chapter 11 they are willing to take just about any offer to move inventory. Some of their last year models are going for close to ½ price. To bad we aren’t in the market for a new motorhome.
Today we headed over to the Pima Air & Space Museum. The Museum was quite impressive. They have Docents that were pilots that actual flew some of the aircraft during the wars so they had some interesting bits of fact.

There have President Kennedy’s Air Force One, an SR-71, several B-52 bombers, and many others. From there we caught a tour bus over to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

This is where they store thousands of military aircraft. Some are there for future use, some are used for parts, and others are being disassembled for scrap. One of the interesting things is that this is where they are cutting up B-52s in agreement with the arms treaty. They have a giant guillotine that chops them up, and then they paint a big number on top and the Russian satellite flies over to take inventory. Then they do the same with their planes and our satellites take inventory of theirs.
We have 3 more days here and plan to do more touring of the area.

Quartzsite

We are now in Quartzsite Arizona with some friends.

If you don’t know about Quartzsite, this is a small town that swells from a few thousand to a couple of hundred thousand this time of year.

There are RVs as far as the eye can see out into the desert. One of the reasons they are here is because this time of year Quartzsite host a big RV show with tents full of vendors and all kinds of gadgets. Quartzsite is also known as the largest swap meet. We did nothing but Walk and Eat all day long. We are just stopping by for a night on our way to Tucson. We will spend a week using Tucson as a base camp while we tour the area. Just a little getaway from the Casita for a while.

We got doors

Not too much has been happening on the Casita lately.

The doors arrived so we got them mounted today. We got the doors but the door windows haven’t arrived yet. Those dark areas in the doors are just holes right now. There was a leak in the plumbing so it didn’t pass inspection. The leaks are repaired so they will be calling for another inspection soon.

Yesterday we headed over to Laughlin with some friends. We went to check out the Sam’s Club in Bullhead City since that is the closes to us here in Havasu. Didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without so we left and headed over the river to the casino’s to look for a good Buffet for dinner. If you are looking for a good buffet in Laughlin head on over to the Harrah’s. While in Laughlin we checked on some camping for the River Bike Run in March. Man! They really jack up the priced for something like that.

Electric is in

The rough electric was installed today.

The contractor said he is calling for an inspection Monday and then the drywall is going in next. This thing is coming together pretty quick. I just hope the progress keeps up this pace.

I went to Lowes today to check out light fixtures, cabinets, countertops, bathroom fixtures and other items. Good thing I allowed for these things in my budget. These things can really add up fast.

Ghost town

I took the day off from the casita yesterday and went on a 4 wheel drive with 14 other vehicles from the resort to a ghost town east of Parker called Swansea.

Swansea was a gold and copper mining community back in the 1907 to 1924 time frame.

There isn’t much left due to neglect and the weather but it was still interesting. To think that someone discovered gold and copper 27 miles out in the middle of the desert and a town was started is hard to imagine.

When I got back, not much was done on the casita. The tub got installed and they moved the shelf in the water heater cabinet to make room for the water softener. They found a commercial 30 gallon water heater that is much shouter than the one I was going to buy. This is the only way it would fit but they made it work.

Today the plumber finished up the rough plumbing

and even though it looks like chaos it’s pretty straightforward.

More changes

Some rough plumbing went in today but now I want to make some changes.

Not too serious and this is the time to make them since the walls are still exposed. The original plan was to have the water heater in a cabinet so we don’t have to look at it.

The plumbing for the water softener, since I don’t intend to install one was going on the outside of the water heater cabinet. I wasn’t too concerned about the plumbing location of the softener since I wasn’t going to install one. Well I found out that I may be able to stack them both in the Water heater cabinet, which makes more sense, and if I ever do want to install the softener it will be out of the way. Tomorrow I will break the news to the plumber so he can make the changes. Hopefully it will be acceptable.

The framers have left

The framing is done and it all passed inspection.

They added my arches to the patio today. It looks kind of rough but will look real nice after the stucco.
I talked to the plumber today and he will start tomorrow morning. It should only take a day to rough in the plumbing.

It’s coming along

Tomorrow is inspection day. The framing is pretty much done and they are getting an inspection tomorrow.

The plumbing is going in next so the plumber came by to see what needs to be done. I bought the tub today so they can set the locations for drain and faucets. It’s kind of exciting to see my plans coming to life. It’s looking good so far.

Moved again

We have moved again today.

This should be our last move until we head out for NASCAR in February. It is so nice to have friends here that let us use their lots for free.

Our Casita is getting closer everyday. I went up today and took more pictures and measurements so I will know where all the studs are in the walls before they cover them up. I plan to take pictures of the plumbing and electrical too.

Lots of activity

Things are happening fast right now.

Today there was lots of activity on the Casita.

It went from a cement slab to a big brown box. They may take a day off tomorrow off since it is New Years Day but it won’t be long before it has a roof.

In the mean time we moved to a different lot yesterday. It’s just across the street from the lot we were in when we first arrived last Sunday. We will be here until Friday when we move again. That should be our final move until we take off for NASCAR.