We made it past the bomb house

I was worried that we were going to get stuck in traffic because they decided to burn the bomb house today.

Once we were getting close to the section of highway they were closing I had a brainstorm. I have a link in my favorites for a website that shows the speed sensors on the freeways. So I pulled up the closed section and it indicated everything was up to speed. How can that be I thought. It is only an hour after the predicted opening time and the traffic is sure to be messed up for a couple of hours after. I decided to take a chance and push on. To my surprise the freeway was free and clear.

One of the things we are going to do while here in California is get the brake recall done on the motorhome. There is a problem with brake calipers sticking on these Workhorse chassis and when they do the brakes drag and over heat. What make them stick is hard braking. The caliper piston gets hot and swells in the caliper, not letting the brake release. Well the last part of our journey was a 50 mph stretch with signal lights at every intersection. Of course everyone turned red just as we were approaching so it was accelerate up to 50 mph then brake to a quick stop over and over again. Then we smelled the brakes getting hot. They never did seize but they did get hot. We are now at our daughter’s house for a couple of days.

They are going on a trip and we will be dog sitting.

Not so favorable weather

Ever wish for not so favorable weather on a travel day? Well this is exactly what we are doing. I’m not talking about travel weather. I am talking about house burning weather. They have been putting off and putting off burning the Bomb House because the weather conditions weren’t what they were hoping for. Now the burning is scheduled for tomorrow, which will screw up our travels. Even if they get it done and open the freeway before we get there, I am sure the traffic will still be a mess for hours. We had a chance because the lawyers wanted to delay the burn to gather more evidence but a judge turned them down. We are packed and ready to head out of here in the morning.

Correction

Susan informed me that we didn’t win second place in the golf cart parade. We won first place in the day parade. There were two parades, one in the daytime so everyone could see the carts, and one after dark with all the carts light up.

The bomb house is screwing us up

We are heading for California on Thursday. Some of you probably don’t know but there is a house along our route that was used as a bomb factory. They are planning to burn the house down. The problem is they have put it off until Thursday and they will be closing off a portion of the freeway I planned to go through. This only means we will have to take a slightly different route. Not too much of a big deal except it will extend our travel a bit and the traffic will probably be a mess.

Tonight was the golf cart parade here in the resort. There were 14 carts involved. We had a great time.

Who won the best of the parade? We didn’t. We got 2nd place this year.

A lot to haul

Our neighbors had a friend come visit today. This is the rig he showed up with.

Not only does he pull a 40 foot fifth wheel but the truck also has a sleeper behind the cab. Oh, and not to mention the car. The fifth wheel hitch on the truck is special made to retract into the truck bed so he can drive the car off the back.

Today Susan spent the day decorating the golf cart for the Christmas parade we are having.

She took first place last year so she has to try extra hard to keep the honor this year. The twice pipes (dual exhaust) was my idea.

I just saw some empty wrapping paper tubes lying around, and with a little Mexican chrome (aluminum foil) whala! It’s still a work in progress.

Bypass the bypass

Last night I was doing plumbing all night in my sleep. This morning as soon as it warmed up a bit I tackled the leaky bypass valve. As you can see in this photo

I cut the input and output to the valve and connected them together, bypassing the valve. To my surprise my fix didn’t leak. I hate plumbing jobs. They always seem to leak. I had to lie there on my back shinning my flashlight into the access hole looking for the leak because I couldn’t believe it. After I was convinced there was no leak, I got out my shop vac and dried everything out. I waited and no more drips so I cleaned up and put everything away. After patting myself on the back and a few hours later I went around to verify no more drips. DAMN! WATER! It dripped in three places. Fine, I thought, I fixed one leak and created more. After cleaning up the water and checking everything I found the problem. The bypass valve has one input and two outputs, so you can divert the water either to the hot water tank or the cold water side. I didn’t do anything with the cold water side because the valve is set to the hot water tank side. The cold water side should be turned off. Seems it leaks through the valve and out the open tubes I cut, so now I need to decide what to do about that.

What a fricking nightmare

I have had an annoying drip from my water heater bypass valve since we arrived back from our summer trip. Seems in order to get the elbow coming out of the valve to face the right direction, they couldn’t tighten it completely so they gooped silicone around it. Surprisingly it lasted 7 years. My problem is I have a four inch access hole to get to it and as you can see it is a fricking nightmare

of fittings and plumbing. In my feeble attempt to fix it I just added more patch in the form of Plumbers Epoxy. The gray substance is my patch. This is a two-part putty that hardens when combined. It hardened but apparently didn’t stick to the fittings and still leaks. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to just bypass the bypass valve and go straight to the water heater, eliminating a lot of the mess and hopefully the leaks.

Maintenance day

I spent the day doing more maintenance on the motorhome. I was able to scratch a few more things off my list. Seems like I end up adding items faster than I scratch them off. Today I flushed the water heater and checked the anode. It was surprisingly clean and

the anode did not need replacing. Also today I had to replace another string in one of our day/night shades. I have replaced all the strings at least once in all the shades and some twice. They get a lot of use.

I have enough string to replace all the strings for as long as I own this RV. The other day I did the oil change that came due while on our trip last summer. Since I run synthetic I wasn’t worried that I went a little over my normal 3000 miles. The next item on the list is to fix the water leak at the water heater bypass valve. It is not bad, just a slow drip but is annoying. I wanted to get all this stuff done before we head over to California in a little over a week.

Cold no good day

Today was cold and blustery. The wind blew all day and the chill cut right through your clothes. I stood outside in the sun for a while but it was still cold. I spent most of the day inside doing computer maintenance. I had to bring in all my flowers this evening so they won’t freeze. The wind is supposed to subside tomorrow so it should be a better day. I hope tomorrow will be a better day because I have a water leak I need to tend to. It is actually suppose to be in the 70s by Friday.

Friends for Thanksgiving

This week we had some friends come visit for Thanksgiving. They arrived Wednesday and just left this morning. This is the first time they have been here in the resort and of course they fell in love with the place…

how could you not. They are looking forward to coming back.

Thanksgiving was great. We had about 13 people in our party and the food was great.


Susan was smart and signed up for the clubhouse early because we anticipated the cold and windy weather. We allowed another group to use a part of the clubhouse because of the weather and didn’t want to leave them out in the cold.

It’s over

For this year at least. I am talking NASCAR. Today was the last race of the season and Susan is a happy race fan.

Her favorite driver took the championship for the 5th consecutive year in a row. This is a record that no other NASCAR driver has accomplished. It didn’t come easy. It was close for the last couple of races.

Susan’s parents have gone back home. They are real interested in buying a lot here in the resort. They are going to hash over some figures and make an offer on a lot they liked.

Sorry no prorate

After pulling the bad battery, I had a chance to check the warranty. Damn, only 2 years. How do they do that? How do they make a 2 year warranty battery last a few months over 2 years. I paid the full price for a replacement and now wonder how long it is going to be before the second one goes. At least that problem is past me, for a while at least.

Battery wows

It was time to check the batteries so yesterday I set out for some battery maintenance. I found one of the two chassis batteries wet on the top. Right a way I figured I had a problem. I popped the caps and found no water showing so I grabbed my bottle of distilled water. After cleaning the batteries with baking soda I started adding water. Oh No, about a quart of water needed in one battery. Not good, I thought. Today I decided to check to see if all was well. No joy, I heard the battery boiling and it was hot to the touch. So I disconnected it and just left the other one hooked up. I checked the voltage on the suspected bad battery and it was around 9 volts. Huh, shorted cell. Well tomorrow I will be taking it back to Walmart for a new one. Since it is just a few months over 2 years old I think I will be getting a free exchange. I kind of wish the other one was bad also since I would like to replace both at the same time.

Today Susan’s parents came out from California to visit for a while. Our neighbors are so cool they said her parents could stay in their motorhome since they will be gone for a few days. While here they are going to look at some lots here in the resort and give some thought to relocating. They think we have a pretty good thing going here and I can’t disagree.

Went to Chloride today

Where is Chloride you might say? It is about 20 miles north of Kingman Arizona. What is in Chloride you might say? Not much! The big attraction in Chloride is the murals painted on the rocks, and

yard art.

Chloride is, as most towns around here, an old mining town. Most of the town has burned down in the past and there are very few original buildings left. It used to boast a population of around 2000 in its days. Now the population is more like 250. Roy Purcell was a miner in Chloride in 1966,

while there he painted murals on some boulders about a mile and a half outside of town.

The road to the murals is a bit rough. His work led to worldwide recognition, which launch him on a professional career that continues today. He returned to Chloride in 2006 to restore the murals after the desert sun took its toll.

To view more photos of Chloride click on the thumbnail in the left column.

Ok Ok

I have been getting a little flack from some of our readers because It has been some time since I have updated our website. Well here is the update.
We have, well, I have been busy, busy polishing the motorhome. I noticed I have let it go too long and was beginning to pick up some oxidation on the drivers side so I got out the polish and gave it a go on a spot. Huh, Not bad, so I continued on. I don’t want to burn myself out so I have been at it for about 10 days now doing a little each day. It still is tough going though. It is getting easier because I am now over to the passenger side, which is not as bad as the driver side. Still a lot of work though! In the mean time I have been fixing and painting a few things around our lot here in the resort.
Most of our neighbors have shown up for the winter and we have been doing dinners hear and there along with going out to dinner in town. Our friends next door brought some friends with them when they came back and we have all been showing them the sights in the area. Susan went on a 5 mile hike the other day that just about kicked her butt. The 5 miles wasn’t a problem but it was up and down hills and through streams.

Here are a few photos I have taken in the last few weeks.

Stormy Skies

A trip to Oatman

Grave sites in the hills near Oatman

Note the crosses at the top of the rocks

And yet another

Well here we are, not 30 minutes after posting the last message, we just caught another mouse.

Still fighting mice

Last night we were awaken to the sound of another mouse in the walls. I have not figured out where they are getting in. I have placed traps at all the places I think they would enter and none have caught a mouse. The ones inside the motorhome however have seen a lot of action. After banging on the wall last night to chase the mouse out, I checked the traps inside the motorhome. One was occupied. I dumped the mouse and reset the trap and went back to bed. Later in the night I heard another trap go off. Sure enough we got another. That makes 5 total in the 2 months we have been back. So far they haven’t got into anything and have caused no damage. We still don’t want them around. I guess the good thing, we have had mice where others here have seen scorpions and rattle snakes.

Another day on the lake

We spent the day on the lake again today. I know…but someone has to do it while everyone else is at work.

Actually it was a well deserved day of rest. I have been spending the last week polishing and waxing the motorhome. I have only got one slide out and half of one side done so far. Doing it all by hand, it’s time consuming and a lot of work. Actually I am only working on it for about 1 to 2 hours each day.

Bear on the loose in Havasu

No Really. Check it out, Click Here. What next?

That was close

You know it was close when you see the flash and hear the crash a split second later. I am talking about lightning. We had a heck of a storm last night. I didn’t expect that. I guess I should look at the weather reports a little closer since things can change quickly around here. It all started out as a few raindrops on the roof of the motorhome but in a short time it turned into a full blown thunderstorm. Even though the thunder rumbled into the morning and the skies were iffy all day, it still managed to get up over 100 degrees today.

Lee wrote in a comment on my last post, “I broke your rule 4 days in a row.” For thoes of you that don’t know, a fulltimer’s rule about traveling is known as the 2X2X2 rule. That is, travel no more than 200 miles (or 2 hours), be off the road by 2:00pm, and stay for at least 2 days. Well lee, all I got to say is, I know you passed within 15 minutes of us and you could have broke that drive up a bit.