It’s been a while

Well, I guess it’s been a while since I last updated our site. We have been busy. We took our grandson to Knott’s Berry Farm the other day and he wore me out.

At 8 years old, that guy is not afraid of anything. He went on all the roller coasters except the ones that were down for maintenance. There were some that I only went on because of him (didn’t want to look like a chicken in front of the Grandson).

This is a photo of a few coasters entwined with each other.

He got burned out by the end of the day even though he didn’t want to admit it. We just got out of the parking lot when he was out for the night. What a great day.

Well after tearing into the old computer again, I decided it’s time.

So the hunt was on. For what I do I don’t need a super computer so I scouted out a couple of good $300 computers. I ended up with a Toshiba. It’s pretty nice computer although I am having a hard time getting used to the mouse, there is always something. The real pain it the ass is the operating system. Windows Vista is a real piece of crap. I keep loosing icons on my desktop, the scroll feature in iexplore just keeps scrolling and can’t be stopped until it reaches the end of the page, and half the folders are gone or renamed. I haven’t even tried to load my software yet. I am sure I will run into compatibility issues and am not about to buy all new software. If I could I would format the hard drive and put XP on it but I know that will surely give me fits. I let my Grandson loose on the new computer for testing.

I figured if there was a problem he would surely find it. He did find some comparability issues where iexploer had to shut down.

Well I will let you know how it goes.

Back in Vista, CA

It was just too hot and humid. Yes humid. This is monsoon season in Havasu and the afternoon thunderstorms were rolling through. 122° and 35% humidity is not good. Landen was missing his mom and dad so it was time to bring him back. We will hang out here until he goes back to school then…Well, I don’t know.

I am having major computer problems. As you probably know I have pulled apart my computer several times to repair the power connector. Well now sometimes it won’t boot. It’s time for a new one. I am going out tomorrow to start looking. In the mean time, I am backing up immediately after doing anything important.

Trust

I always hate it when I need to trust someone else with my vehicles. That is why I try to do everything I can myself. If I don’t do it right, at least I know what to do to correct it since I have been in there. Tomorrow we take the motorhome in for some brake work. The shop is an authorized Workhorse shop and has good reviews. I check these things out, but there is still that doubt. We are having the work done tomorrow and the next day we will be heading for the coast of California. I would sure hate for them to miss something and have it show up on the road. I am sure they will do a great job.

Dodged another

Not only are we experiencing 100++ temperatures here in Havasu, but there has been thunderstorms all around us. None had hit us yet but we get the humidity and winds from them and an occasional sprinkle. The other day I got all the awnings in and things secured just before the 35+ mph winds hit. I watched as some poor sole was trying to land his small plane at the nearby airport. He made about 7 or 8 passes before getting up the nerve to put it down. It was strange watching a plane fly over sideways as the wind blew him across the sky. Today we dodged another one.

You can see the rain falling out from the bottom of this cloud. We have been wanting to head on over to Las Vegas but that’s where all the storms are.

The air conditioners have run so much that they are getting pretty dusty inside. I need to shut them down and cleaned them so they will not have to work so hard and probably cool better. I am a little reluctant to shut down the front one since it has been running for over a month straight now. I’m kind of afraid it might not want to come back on and we really need it right now.

It’s done and I’m back

Our computer got struck with a virus. Not only that but the power connector broke again on the computer too. That meant that I first had to disassemble the computer and re-solder the power connector again. After that I spent a lot of time trying to get rid of the virus. All I did was get deeper and deeper into trouble. Finally after I got rid off the virus, the damage was done. I ended up reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything back on the computer. Now I got a clean, lean machine. Hopefully it will hold up for a while now.

It sure has been hot around here. Yesterday it was 102° at 8:00am and again at 9:30pm, and even hotter in between. It’s running about 117° outside right now. It does drop to around 88° at night though. We are managing to keep it reasonable inside the motorhome. Boy are our air conditioners getting a workout. We haven’t turned one of them off in…well I don’t know how long. The other we are able to turn off at night. We are heading for Las Vegas in a couple of days. Yes it will be hot there too but at least we will have things to do that can be done inside where it’s cool.

2 in one night

Seems every time we come here we pick up a mouse. This time was no different. You would think I would learn by now and set traps as soon as we arrive. But Noooo. The other night we were awaken to munching in the walls. I got up and thumped on the walls but he just went to another location and started munching again. I got up again and thumped some more and finally he left for the night. But not before snacking on our bread. So I set some traps in hopes to get the little bugger the next night. We didn’t hear any munching last night so I figured I must have got him in the trap at where I thought he was getting in. This morning I checked the trap where the bread was and there he was. Huh, I thought. Somehow he got past the entrance trap. Just for the heck of it I checked the trap I placed in route from the entrance to the bread. Wow, another one! Then I went outside to check the entrance trap expecting to see another explaining why

these 2 guys didn’t get stopped at the entrance point. Trap still set and baited. They must have come in another way. Anyway I re-baited the traps and we will see if we got all the intruders for now.
Also the rabbits have found our Hibiscus plants. At first I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

I though maybe they had some kind of disease since I would find leaves and pieces of the branches lying on the ground each morning. Otherwise the plant seemed to be healthy. They would sprout new leaves with no problem but soon they were lying on the ground again. Then one morning the manager said while she was doing her walk in the early morning she spotted a rabbit sitting in one of the pots munching on my plant.
I guess these critters were here before us. At least I haven’t found any scorpions or rattle snakes, Yet.

Dry heat?

I thought the desert was supposed to be a dry heat. The humidity was around 55% this morning. With 100+° That can get a bit uncomfortable. Good thing Landen has discovered the computer in the clubhouse because that gives us an excuse to escape from the heat for a while. He spends about an hour on the computer while I grab a book out of the library in the clubhouse. Shortly after lunch the humidity dropped to about 10% and the temp climbed to around 110°. But it’s a dry heat. An oven at 110° is a dry heat too but it’s still HOT. It’s amazing though how much more tolerable 10% humidity is over 55%, no matter what the temperature is. If I can sit outside without dripping and with a nice breeze I can handle 110°. Our weather radio has been going crazy today with

Sever Thunderstorm warnings and Flash Flood warnings. I even had to get up sometime in the middle of the night to shut the radio off after I was awakened to a warning. Fortunately it has been all around us and we got nothing today other than the humidity. For some reason everything seems to go around Lake Havasu City instead of through it. Fine with me. You sure can smell the ozone in the air around here though. That’s not too good for my new tires. Both air conditioners are getting quite a workout. One runs 24 hours and the other about 10-14 hours a day. They do a pretty good job keeping it comfortable inside the motorhome.

Another boat ride

We got invited to go on another boat ride yesterday. We found a spot along the shore of the lake to setup for the day, grill a few hamburgers, and play.

In spite of the stinky dead fish, we all had a lot of fun and got real burned out. I gave Susan the night off and we headed for the Red Robin Restaurant for dinner. If it weren’t for the thunderstorm that came through this morning we would have slept in. The good thing is it came thought about the same time I get up every morning anyway.

Concentration

pays off.

Taking time out to catch up on a few computer games in the clubhouse.

One Hundred +

We are back into the 100+ temperatures here in Arizona. Looks like the sub 100s are gone for the summer. I get out and do a few things on the motorhome in the morning hours then call it quits until evening. After lunch Landen and I head on over to the pool for an hour or so. It starts to cool down around 6:00p so I can do a few more things before the sun goes down. Good thing is it doesn’t get to dark until around 8:00p so with the time I have in the morning and evening I have plenty of time to get thing done.

I have been wanting to take Landen down to the lake to play but there is a problem with KHV, Koi Herpes Virus. I know it sounds bad but actually it’s harmless to Humans. The problem is it is killing off hundreds of Carp in the lake and they are washing up to shore, hundreds of them, so you can imagine what it smells like. They are doing their best to keep the shores cleaned up but with thousands of Carp in lake it is a monumental task. The good news is they are finding less and less washing up to shore every day. They are hoping to get things pretty much cleaned up for the up coming 4th of July holiday.

Retired

I retired the motorhome yesterday. No, it’s not what you think. I got 6 new tires on the motorhome.

They came right out to the resort and in less than 2 hours the job was done. Mounted and balanced. Even with a $25 service call (that’s right only $25) the price was about the same as if I had taken it somewhere to have the job done. Not a bad deal. I ordered them on Monday and after the tire guy called in the order he said they would be in next week. I was surprised when he called and wanted come by to install them yesterday.

We took off yesterday morning with the grandson to Oatman. Oatman is a small town on Route 66 in Arizona that was at one time a copper mining town and now is basically a tourist attraction.

Probably the biggest attraction of the town is the ancestors of the original minors burrows. They now come into town everyday to get handouts from the tourists.

They have even been knows to walk right into the shops at times.

Landen got a kick out of the gunfight at high noon. He got be a part by helping to block the road for the show. He had a really great time.

Plenty going on

We sure have been busy here in Havasu since we got back.

Landen insists on going in the pool everyday and I can’t blame him. The weather hasn’t been bad at all. It has been in the low 90s and little wind. Today though we skipped the pool because our friends took us out for a boat ride.

We went up river all the way across I-40 and had lunch then headed back down. We stopped once on the way up to play along the shore and once on the way back. What a nice ride.

The other day we headed down to the London bridge to show Landen. Turns out they are filming a movie called Piranha 3D in the channel.

We headed over to check out some of the action and walked right into the scene. One of the workers said we are welcome to stay as long as we react to the action. So it looks like we may be in the movie, if they don’t cut the scene.

I have been trying for the last couple of weeks to get new tires for the motorhome. Seems like Michelin has dropped the ball and their tires that fits the motorhome are on back order for 6 to 8 months. How can a company let one of their most popular RV tires get that far behind? I am sure I am not the only one that needs tires in the next 6 to 8 months and will have to go with a competitor. That’s a lot of lost business.

Well we got friend coming to town tomorrow so we have plenty to do while we are here.

Made it back to Havasu

We traveled 6 hours to Havasu today. It was quite a trip for our Grandson. He is going to spend the summer with us and hopefully we can do some traveling. The weather here in Havasu is a lot better than where we were in California. We left overcast and drizzle in California and are now in sunny 89 to 90s here in Havasu. Landen has already spent some time in the pool

and played some golf this afternoon. It’s nice to be back in Havasu.

Hopefully while here I can finally retire the tires on the motorhome. Or Re-Tire the motorhome, pun intended. No one could come up with the tires I want while we were in California so I got one more trip out of the old ones. They are common Michelins but I guess they laid off to many people and can’t keep up with the demand.

Sunshine

Today there actually was sun. The sun came out in the late morning and stayed out all day. I took the opportunity to suck up a little vitamin D.
We found out we got some bum scoop. Our Grandson doesn’t get out of school until Friday the 12th. We are all set to pull out of here this Sunday the 7th. We will be pulling him out of school a week early and stick to our plan. He is a good student and there is probably not much school work during the last week.

Can’t move on

One good thing about being a Fulltimer is if we don’t like where we are we can move on. The weather has been crappy here on the coast of California. We have woken up to drizzle for the last 2 mornings and everything is a muddy mess. It should get better as far as the drizzle but the weather is still supposed to be overcast, damp and cold. Also other than family we have no reason or desire to visit southern California. It is too crowded with obnoxious people, too expensive, and I have probably mentioned the Hispanic population before. The problem is we can’t move right now. We have to fulfill our commitment to dog sit our daughter’s dog.

This is not something that is difficult since she is a really cool dog and she is happy to be with us.

Man am I sore

While here near the coast in California I have been shining up the motorhome. It is too hot and dry in Havasu right now to do it so I waited until we got here where it is cooler. So far I have spent 4 days and still am not done. I probably got another 4 days to go. Of course I am only spending a couple of hours a day on it. If I had all the fancy power equipment the professionals do I would probably be done by now but I’m doing it all by hand. It’s pretty hard work by hand.

Huh, Good thing I checked

Today, since I am in town, I took a drive by to see my parent’s grave. While there I checked mine, since the last time I saw it they hadn’t placed the headstone yet. Yes Susan and I do have a gravesite. We took care of all our arrangements so our kids don’t have to worry about it during their grieving. It’s a good thing I checked…they got my birth date wrong.

It should read Feb 24, 1953. I went in to let them know they messed up and they pulled out my records. Turns out I signed off on that date so it looks like I will have to pay for the new one. The guy said he will see what he can do and if not free maybe we will split the cost. He also asked me if I wanted the wrong one or have them destroy it. I gave it some thought but couldn’t come up with a good use for the wrong one. Susan said since I am so good at fixing things that maybe I can fix it myself. I don’t think duct tape and felt pen will last very long though.

Also today I finally found the Virus on my computer. For quite some time now, when I opened Internet Explore, then closed it, it was still showed as running in my task manager. And if I opened it again, there were now 2 running in task manager. Sometimes my computer would not turn off because of the running process. I tried several virus scanners and registry cleaners with no change. I combed the Internet for others that had the same problem and a possible solution with no success. Finally I heard of “Windows Live OneCare” at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm and gave it a run. It identified a Trojan virus and removed it. Problem solved! Although it didn’t seem to cause any problems other than the ones I mentioned, I am glad to be rid of it.

Huh… Recall

Got a “Pre” Recall Notice on the motorhome today. What is a “Pre” Recall Notice, you say? It is a notice that workhorse recognizes there is a problem and will issue a recall as soon as they figure out what to do about it. Seems a lot of people have been having problem with the brakes dragging. There have been enough complaints that Workhorse is issuing a recall. The causes of the brake failure are lack of use, driving in damp conditions, and riding the brakes going down hill. Since I do neither of these and have had absolutely no problems I guess I am ok until the recall is issued. I need to get tires first.

WHAT THE…

Well since Arnie decided to just about double the vehicle registration in California and I now own property, and have an address in Arizona I decided it’s time to register our vehicles in Arizona. Along with the registration I knew I would have to insure them in Arizona also. So I called the insurance company to see how much the insurance will be in Arizona. DOUBLE! WHAT THE… Yes it is double and it turns out the increase in insurance will cost me more than the increase in registration fees. Damn, I thought I was going to be able to rid myself of California but I guess not.

I set out today to line up some tires for the motorhome. The place I called a couple of weeks ago is gone, yes gone. I called the other day and the phone has been disconnected so today I did a drive by. It looks like an old abandoned warehouse. WHAT THE… No sign of there ever being a business there. Now this is no fly-by-night business. It is one of many and even Michelin recommended them as an authorized dealer. So I headed on down the road to the next authorized dealer. Well this place is still in business but none in stock. They called Michelin and none available there either. Seems they are building them as fast as they can, and are backordered by about 500, they are not taking any new orders. Before I left Havasu I talked to a place that said they could get me some so I will have to trust the old tires to get us back to Havasu and have the new ones installed there. This is more convenient anyway because they will come right out to the resort and install them.

Dog sitting

We left the party last Sunday and made our way down to Encinitas California. We are now setup in our daughters yard for the next 3 weeks. They are heading for Italy and we are going to dog sit their dog.

We did this last year around Christmas time also.

They are still in the process of rebuilding their house

so they are also living in their Motorhome at the house.

Wine and Balloon Festival

We just spent the weekend in Riverside at a friend’s house for their 3rd annual Wine and Balloon Festival. They call this the Home Wine and Balloon Festival because it is a private affair at their home. Each year they have hosted the party at a different house.

There were 10 motorhomes and trailers here this weekend. They managed to fit them all in on their property.

We each setup a booth with a theme and offered wine and appetizers to go along with the wine. We first did one round of white wine and later a round of red with a break in between.

Later in the evening we had a band to entertain us.

And a fine band it was. As usual we had a great time and look forward to next year. You can see more photos by clicking the thumbnail in the left hand column.

Getting ready to hit the road

We are preparing to get back on the road. This Friday morning we are heading on over to California for a weekend of Wine Tasting. Some of you may know I don’t drink and think this may be a bit unusual for me. We have been invited by some good friends to participate in a fun weekend. A friend is having a private wine tasting festival at their house. We will be setting up booths with a theme and provide wines to match the theme along with munchies. Our theme? A Surf Shack.
After the weekend we will be heading toward our daughter’s house for 2 weeks of dog sitting.

They are heading for Italy and we get to take care of their dog while they are gone.

Computer repair again

Yesterday morning I pulled the laptop apart again to repair the power jack. This was about the 3rd time I have repaired the computer for the same thing.

This is not an easy job since EVERYTHING has to come out before the motherboard.

If I were still working my electronics job I would take into work and repair it right the first time. I needed to take it apart anyway to clean the dust out of the CPU cooling unit because it has been running a little hotter lately. It’s up and running again. I’m thinking I need to find a donor computer or at least pickup another motherboard. If anyone has a Dell Inspiron 1100 they would like to donate let me know.

Nice boat ride

It sure is nice to know some that has connections with a boat shop. Yesterday a friend called and asked if we wanted to go for a boat ride. The weather was perfect and the lake was glass so he hooked onto a boat in the showroom and away we went.

It was evening and no one was on the lake but us. As I said, the lake was glass so he opened it up and reached about 60 mph before backing down.

The boat ran so smooth and quiet you wouldn’t even know we were going that fast. He said next week we will take out a faster boat.

Today the temperature pushed over 105°. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same then it will cool a bit for the weekend.

The century mark

Today we went over the century mark. Temperature wise that is (104°). The casita has come in handy since I have a covered patio to sit under for shade now. If there is a breeze blowing it is very tolerable.

If there is no breeze I turn on the ceiling fans in the patio and it is also tolerable. We can still get by with running only one roof air in the motorhome. It stays pretty cool inside. We will see what happens when the temps reach 120° as they have been known to do here.

Nice Place

Just thought I would share this photo of the London Bridge here in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Can you tell why we like it here so much.

Getting lonely around here

It’s that time of year again. Most owners have left the resort and gone home.

We are just about the only ones left at our end of the park. Susan and I took a walk this evening and noticed even the rabbits have come back. We noticed an absence of them and figured it was due to the amount of dogs in the resort. Seems most RVers have dogs these days.

We will be heading back over to California in a couple of weeks. We have a wine party to go to and then we are going to dog sit our daughters dog again for a couple of weeks. After that we plan to pick up our grandson and come back here. He wants to see our place here in Havasu. We have no real plans for the summer. We are just going to wing it.

My Aircard Internet has been giving me fits here the last couple of days. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the heat since it’s been pushing 100 lately or if Verizon is doing something with the towers around here. It has slowed considerably and sometimes it just cuts in and out. I sure hope it gets better soon.

A wild week

What a wild week. It all started out with the NASCAR race in Phoenix. We traveled 3 hours over to Phoenix for NASCAR weekend PHOTOS HERE. We had a great time and a great site for viewing all the action.

The day after we got back Susan’s parents came into town. They stayed for a week and enjoyed Havasu enough to look at a couple of houses. Her father said he plans to list his house for sale when he gets back home.

On Thursday some good friends from Tennessee came by for a few days to visit. They also liked Havasu enough to pick up a brochure and price list of lots here in the resort. They are originally from California and are heading back to visit friends and family. While here he got the trailer a little to close to the truck while backing and blew out the back window. Good thing I know a good glass guy in town. He had it fixed the next day for a very reasonable price.

On Friday everyone left so I took a ride down to the channel where they were getting ready for the big off shore boat race on the weekend.

Saturday Susan and I took a 1 hour drive over to Laughlin Nevada to check out the Laughlin River Bike Run PHOTOS HERE. This is somewhat of a mini Sturgis Bike Run. Lots of motorcycles, mostly Harley Davidson’s, Bikers, and vendors selling every kind of bike accessory you can imagine.

Today I headed back down to the channel to see some of the boat races PHOTOS HERE. Lots of big boats and big trucks to tow them.

Busy Week

We returned to Lake Havasu on Sunday after a weekend of racing. The weather here in Havasu has pushed over the century mark the last couple of days and the wind has stopped. Last night however the wind returned and it is in the 80s today. We have visitors that we met at a rally a couple of years ago. They moved to Tennessee and are on their way back to California on a vacation. I told them if they come down I-40 and don’t stop by I would be upset since we are only about 15 miles off I-40. Also Susan’s parents are here from California visiting for the week. It has been a busy week so far.

Good Spot

Our daughter is in a different infield spot than the previous years. At first we thought it might not be a better spot than the last but were opened minded about it. Turns out it is a great spot. It is right at the exit of Pit Road and in the middle of turns 1 and 2. We get to watch some of the action in the pits and the race off Pit Road.

Seems this part of the track has some tricky turns because there were about 8 or so crashes into the wall right in front of us. This part of the wall is hammered from all the cars crashing into it.

This guy was trying to put his car back together so he can get back out there.

Turns out it was not possible.

Even though last nights race was just a Camping World West Series race, which is mostly western US locals, it was a pretty fun race.

The weather was a mix of sun and clouds with little wind. It stayed cool and was for the most part comfortable. Today is supposed to be warmer and it will only get better from here.

The wind at our backs

We made our way over to Goodyear Arizona this morning. We are about 13 miles from the track. This is the closest full hookup park to the track. As expected it was a windy drive however most of the drive was with the wind at our back so we didn’t even notice it. The weather is supposed to get better. The wind should die down and the temps should get higher. Today we are just chilling and tomorrow morning we are heading over to the track. As usual our daughter has an infield site and we have a car pass that gets us right up to their motorhome.

Ready to go

Were off tomorrow for Susan’s NASCAR fix. We are heading for Phoenix International Raceway or better known as PIR. Wouldn’t you know it, the wind has come up again. It is supposed to blow all night and into the morning. I am not happy about driving in the wind. Hopefully it will be mostly at my back. Anywho, I will just slow down and take my time. It is a 3 hour drive and we have all day.

Short list

The to do list for the Casita is getting short. I finally got the baseboards painted, installed, and touched up. Did I ever tell you how much I hate painting? I put it off long enough and decided it needed to get done. Today I sealed all the tile grout so about the only thing I got left to do now is hang shades in the patio.
The wind around here just won’t let up. We usually get 3 days of wind then quite a few days of nice weather. Lately we have been getting a bunch of days of wind with maybe 1 day of calm between. The temperature is all over the place too. We can’t rely on the weather reports, seems no one knows what it’s going to be like in Havasu. We will be heading over to Phoenix in a week. The exact day depends on the weather. I really don’t want to drive in the winds we have been having.
The population around here is getting slim with all the “Snowbirds” heading home. Soon will be time for a major age change here. The older head home and the younger show up for their summer fun.

Number 4

The Saturn now has windshield number 4 in it, the original one, one about a month after we bought it, the distorted one, and this new one. At least it’s 4 since I have owned it. I don’t know about the 3 previous years before I bought it.

The glass guy came out today and installed the windshield right here at our spot in the resort. He did an excellent job being very neat and meticulous. This guy is not the Havasu norm. He did the job when he said he would and was prompt and on time. We both inspected the windshield for distortions before he installed it. After he installed it he called me over to check it out. We both sat inside the car with our heads bobbing up and down looking from top to bottom for any distortion. He says he sees some but I had a hard time finding it. He says if I don’t like it he will order one right from Saturn and try that. I think he was being too critical, all windshields seem to have some distortion. I will be able to tell more when I drive it.

I got a chance to look at the cowling when he removed the plastic grill to install the windshield. If I hadn’t seen it before they fixed it, I wouldn’t believe how damaged it was. Even the glass guy (who saw the before and after) said they did a really good job.

I body shop didn’t seem to want to do anything about the over spray on the car so I spent the last 3 days rubbing it out myself. Fortunately I was given a good car finish restorer from one of the mobile detailers here that did the trick very well. Then I gave it a good coat of wax, except for the freshly painted surfaces, which I will wait for at least 60 days until the paint cures. I got to admit the car looks real good. Even my neighbor came over and asked what kind of wax I use because it looks so good. I even had to go over the windows with a wet razor blade to clean them up.

You can sure tell spring is in the desert. The flowers are in bloom, the quail are squawking for mates and I found a snake sunning on our lot yesterday. I don’t know what kind it was but it didn’t have rattles. It was brown, about 3 feet long, thin, and fast. I tried to pick it up to relocate it but as soon as I touched it, off it went as fast as it could, which was pretty fast.

I have been neglecting the casita the last few days. I still need to paint and install the baseboards and paint the door trim. I did get some shelves installed in the bathroom for Susan to put her knick-knacks. I still also have a shelf to install in the laundry, cover the water heater cabinet and seal the grout. After that it’s pretty much done. Then it’s time to turn my attention to the motorhome. That should keep me busy for another month or so.

New items should work

What happened to Quality Control? Our “New” water heater was defective right out of the box. I got a 30 gallon water heater for our casita because of the bathtub. When filling the tub for the first time the water went cold after about a couple of gallons. Not even enough for a good bath. This is why I bought a 30 gallon. After a bit of troubleshooting I found the lower thermostat to be defective. Rather than returning the water heater I called the service number on the side of the unit. Sure enough I called India. The guy called himself Rocky although he sounded more like Rogish. Anyway I told him I believed the lower thermostat was defective. After a few questions he told me to head over to Lowes and pick up a new thermostat and Whirlpool will reimburse me. Huh…I have to fix it myself? Rocky said it’s either that or he will send me the part and I can call someone to install it. Let’s see…Wait weeks for the part and hope he sends the right one or head for Lowes and get the right part and have it up and running in less than an hour. No brainer, off to lowes. Water heater fixed.

This morning I called the body shop to let them know they installed a defective windshield. They were very nice about it and referred me to the glass shop that did the work. The glass shop sent a guy out and confirmed the defect and said he will order a new windshield and should be able to install it Thursday. He also said he is going to order it from a different company. Good enough for me.

After cleaning up the car a bit today I noticed what I thought was dirt but turned out to be paint over spray. What used to be a smooth surface is now more like fine sandpaper. I tried waxing it out and also tried using a cleaner/wax. The over spray didn’t budge. Looks like I will be giving the body shop another visit.

The wind came up again last night and has not stopped. It was a little after 10:00p when suddenly it went from a gentle breeze to a full on blast. I jumped up and started rolling in awnings and securing everything. Hopefully it will mellow out a bit but is supposed to blow all week.

Car’s back

We finally got the car back today. I got to admit it looks pretty good. In fact it looks better than good since the old hood and fender had a few rock dings. Now they are brand new.

Wish I could say the same for the aftermarket windshield they put in. The whole lower portion of the windshield (about 6 inches) has a bad distortion. Looks like we will have to give it up for another day so they can put another windshield in. Also the windshield washers don’t work. I think that is probably a minor thing and I will most likely fix that myself. I don’t know how they did it but the cowling looks really good. At least the part I can see. The part under the plastic grill is probably ugly. They failed to replace the antenna that was sheered off but I think I can replace that myself. I am hoping it’s just a matter of unscrewing the stub and screwing in a new antenna shaft. I will be making a visit to the auto salvage yard when we get back to California because the dash top has quite a few scratches from the windshield being shoved across it in the crash. I will also pick up the antenna shaft while there. In the mean time I will just listen to CDs.

Today was another one of those famous Lake Havasu windy days. The wind has been plowing about 20 mph with 40 to 50 mph gusts. It didn’t come up until about 1:00p so we at least got half a day of really nice weather. It is supposed to drop a bit tomorrow and be back to nice by Saturday.

Down to the final touches

We are getting down to the final touches on our Casita. I got all the cabinets in and just installed and calked the countertop this afternoon.

I am pretty anal when it comes to these things. It takes me forever since I have to stop and analyze it and decide the better way and the future impact if I need to get to something or change something in the future. What the heck, it’s not like I need to be in any hurry.

We even found time to squeeze in a St. Patties day party here at the resort.

Susan has already made use of her washer and dryer and saved us a lot of money not having to feed the machines in the laundry here at the resort. I figured with the money she is saving we will have the casita paid for in about 13 years.

We are still without transportation. Last I heard they were still waiting on a part for our car. This has put a bit of a hurt on getting supplies for the Casita. Good thing Lowe’s is within walking distance for the little things. We have great neighbors all around us here that have offered their cars and trucks to help us out. I made use of a neighbor’s truck to get the cabinets and countertop. I will be giving the shop a call Monday morning to get another status report on the car and remind them we are without transportation and see if the repairs can be expedited at all.

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.