Here we are, on the road: We’re in Laughlin, NV

Sunday, November 04, 2012 Lorraine’s report

It’s Sunday and time to write the blog again. Hello from wonderfully warm and sunny Laughlin, NV. We are on the bluff overlooking the Colorado River at the Don Laughlin Riverside RV Park. We arrived here late Friday night, and by late I mean 6:30 pm which meant it was dark out. We don’t like to travel much less set up in the dark.

It has been a week of messing with computers trying to figure out what to do. I bought a new Samsung on the 18th in Oregon. I was finally getting everything up and running well and rebuilding all my lists when Best Buy said I should go in and get the new Microsoft Windows 8 program installed, it was included with the purchase of the new computer. Well, we did that and I have to say it was a bad move. I didn’t know enough about the new program or what it was going to do, and the tech at Best Buy wasn’t enough of a help to tell me about it and they took off Windows 7 forever.

Windows 8 was made for the computer to be used like a smart phone. You know, where you swipe the phone to get to different places, using different applications. Only the computer I bought wasn’t touch screen, I was just using the pad on the bottom, which made it very hard and not user friendly.

The final straw came after we left the bay area to come here. I had asked Chuck to load a game and he started that, but then we lost the cursor and couldn’t get it back; it just disappeared. I didn’t want to call the Geed Squad at 9 in the evening and have them try to help. I was better off using the Windows 7 program originally loaded onto it. It was a pretty nice computer, 8 gigs of memory, really fast and light, 14 inches.

Chuck said we would take the computer back to Best Buy. We were at the Orange Grove in Bakersfield, CA. We were up bright and early and took the computer back and bought this one, another Samsung, sight unseen. That Best Buy was having a clearance sale on a bunch of their computers, none of the boxes were open and no floor models to look at. The only thing I don’t like about this computer is the off-set keyboard. It has 6 gigs, has a 15 inch screen, and is a bit heavier and we got $$ back.

We took my Toshiba the computer that broke, to the Geek squad on Halloween; they did their diagnostic test and found I needed a new hard drive, mine had died. They said we could have it back the next morning; they lied. Chuck went into the store to pick it up and it wasn’t ready by the time they promised. He left it there for when we go back to the bay area in two weeks; we didn’t leave the bay area until after 11:30, a late start for us.

I am really glad to be done with this compute mess. I am still trying to rebuild all my files and such on this computer; I had to use Chuck’s computer for a few days, so I put some of my stuff on his.

On another note, my hair dryer died while I was drying my hair to leave Bakersfield. It just stopped, couldn’t get it to go again. Chuck picked me up one in Best Buy when he went to pick up this computer. It works well. Man, have we had a bunch of stuff give up the ghost on us, hopefully that is all of it!!!

In the meantime, we spent another great week with Susy and Kaitlyn. She was tired from her trip to Seattle for the memorial. She wanted to color and draw and watch Sponge Bob on Monday after school. And of course Nana cooked her favorite foods for dinner most of the week with her. She is just getting ready to grow again, I couldn’t fill her up. We had fun coloring, she is reading to us, and is always going, going, going.

Wednesday, on Halloween we were up early again to go to Kaitlyn’s school for the school-wide Halloween parade. What a fun activity for all the students! Most of the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes; Kaitlyn was Indiana Jones from the movies this year. Chuck and I were surprised by this, no more princesses for her, in fact there were a whole lot less princesses this year than last year in Kaitlyn’s school. What is happening to all the little girls?

Of course we went Trick or Treating, Kaitlyn had a blast, but without her friend from pre-school, Gracie. Gracie had other plans and left with other friends as soon as we got to Gracie’s home. But Kaitlyn had fun none the less. She was one tired little girl. I told her we would be leaving the next morning, I also told her we would be back in two weeks or so and she was okay with that. She still wants Nana and Papa to stay there full time!

Saturday I got up and Chuck said we were moving, we were in a pull through behind the bluff and Chuck was able to get us a place on the bluff, so we moved. I was putting stuff away by the kitchen sink when I got a migraine headache. I took my medicine, and it seemed to be working, but while lying down, the headache started all over again. I decided to take my allergy inhaler, and low and behold the inhaler made the headache disappear, just like that. Of course, Chuck said I had to take it easy all day, which we did. In fact, it was just what we needed. We were both tired. And I have to say, this is the first time since mid-August we were in shorts, sandals and t-shirts, we found the warm weather again.

Thank you Kaitlyn and Susy for sharing your time with us, we enjoyed ourselves and hope you did too.

So that’s it for me…Until next time…

Lorraine

11/4/12 Chuck’s report

Last week we were still trying to decide whether we wanted to go to Santa Barbara or Laughlin. I sort of wanted to try Santa Barbara but Lorraine wanted Laughlin. “Happy wife, happy life” comes to mind in making the final decision so that’s one of the main reasons we are here.

Last week we were able to be with Susy and Kaitlyn until we left on Thursday. That meant picking her up from school and being with her until Susy got off work each day. We really enjoy our time with them but at the same time, it’s nice to get away for awhile by ourselves and rest too.

Wednesday was a particularly busy day for us. We got to Kaitlyn’s school by 10 for their Halloween celebration. They have all the classes come to the playground then parade around in their costumes. This year Kaitlyn wanted to be Indiana Jones, not a princess like she has been. Not sure where that came from but apparently it was her choice. Of course, Lorraine said she was the cutest Indiana Jones ever.

We returned back to pick her up later in the afternoon, they had an afternoon party she wanted to attend. After Susy got off work, we headed over to Kaitlyn’s friend’s house so they could go trick or treating. They do a great job decorating their house each year, this year it was Star Wars theme. They do the whole meal deal, including dressing in costume to go with the house decorations.

Unfortunately, Gracie was getting ready to leave with a different friend so they were only able to be together for a few minutes before she left. So Kaitlyn had to “settle” to go trick or treating with her mom, Nana and Papa. Probably not as much fun but she said she had a good time.

Lorraine has been having a time with her laptop. Her old one died when we were in Oregon at the repair shop that was doing our fridge remove/replace. We were able to buy a new one while we were in Oregon, a Samsung that had Windows 7 but came with a free upgrade to Window 8 when it came out a week or so later.

She had a few issues with the new one but was getting to understand it better. On Monday we dropped it off at Best Buy for the Windows 8 upgrade and told them we would pick it up the next morning. On Tuesday we picked it up and dropped off her old one to see if they could determine why it had died. We got a call from them that the hard drive was bad but they could install a new one for about $70. I told them to go ahead and I would be in on Wednesday afternoon to pick it up.

Well, Wednesday when I got there, it wasn’t ready. We were leaving the next day and they guaranteed it would be ready by 10 am when they opened. I told them I would be there when the doors opened for business and would expect it ready to go. Of course, when I got there, it wasn’t ready but if I would wait a few minutes - - -. After about an hour, I told them to just fix the damn thing and we would pick it up next time we were in town. I expect it should be ready to go in two weeks but also expect I’ll have an issue or two.

When I got back, Lorraine had everything ready to go, I just had to unhook the power, dump the tanks and hook up the car. We got on the road and headed out to our planned destination in Bakersfield. We like this park, especially in December when the oranges are ripe, we can just pick them off the trees in the park. They are not ready to pick yet but the trees look to be loaded this year, maybe we can get some on our next trip through there. We decided not to unhook the car, just be ready to leave the next morning with a minimum of hassle.

Later that evening, I figured how to load a slot machine game on her new computer. Everything when well until after the load was completed. Now it wouldn’t show a curser no matter what I tried. We checked and there is not a Best Buy close to Laughlin, nearest one is in Las Vegas about 80 miles away. However, there is one on Bakersfield and it would be open at 10 the next morning.

After unhooking the car, we were at the door when it opened and first in line at the customer service desk with her new computer. We told them we just wanted to get rid of that one and purchase a different one, one that was built for and used Windows 7. As luck would have it, all of those type machines were on a clearance sale and we found one we thought might work.

We told the clerk at the Geek Squad desk our issues and asked if it would be possible to have the new (est) machine loaded and ready to go that day. Oh no, it takes at least 24 hours to load up a new computer we were told and we could pick it up the next morning. After asking them a few pointed questions, they determined that they might just be able to get it ready in two hours, not 24 like they had said. Sheesh, why couldn’t they just have said that in the first place?

So it was back to the coach to get everything ready for travel, I left Lorraine there to finish up her stuff and returned back to Best Buy to pick up the computer. Guess what, it was ready and all I had to wait for was the paperwork, what a surprise. So I got the new one and returned back to the coach and finished preparing to get on the road. We actually got on the road before 1:00.

We headed out for Laughlin, the GPS said we would be there a little after 6, much later than we like to stop but seeing as how we got a late start we decided to push on. We got to the park a bit after 6:30 and found our site, luckily it was a pull through. This was probably only the third time we’ve set up in the dark in the five years we’ve been on the road so we weren’t very good at it but got it done with no problems.

Later I got Lorraine’s new computer out of the box and lo and behold, it started up and worked, yea. She was able to get some of the sites she goes to every day, banking and such, into her bookmarks. It has a 10 key number keypad on the right side of the keyboard that she isn’t used to, it makes the keyboard seem to not be centered. Other than that, she has had no issues with the new one. She is currently writing her blog report on it now and will send it to me to add to this.

Yesterday morning I was at the main check in desk here at the park to see if we could move to a spot on the bluff overlooking the city like we’ve had each of the last times we were there. They said they didn’t have any openings so I told them about two I had found that were currently empty. Of course, they weren’t available for the two weeks until I asked why we couldn’t make reservations for a particular site and they could. After a short consultation with her boss, one of the sites became available. To make a long story short, after three trips to the office, we were able to get assigned to one of the sites on the bluff just like we had asked for when we made the reservation a few weeks ago. Sheesh, here again it would have been a lot easier to have done that the first time I was at the office.

So here we are with a good view overlooking the city; the casinos are lit up at night and look good too. We haven’t been out of the park yet, just rested yesterday after we moved to this site. We got set up and put out all the stuff as we plan on being here for two weeks. We don’t have any grass at our site, only gravel but with our patio mat out and pegged down, it makes for a nice area to sit out there. We sat outside for a couple of hours yesterday, just enjoying the weather. It was about 80F with a slight breeze, really nice.

Like I said, the weather here is really nice, they say we might break a few records for high temperatures in the next few days. But they also said there is a cold front moving in later this week, highs in the upper 50s or low 60s. Maybe we need to head further South, our lows have been in the lower 60s. We did have good weather in the Bay area too, at least until Halloween evening when it started to rain. Of course, it continued raining until after we got on the road the next morning too so the coach is pretty dirty now and needs a good wash. I don’t know if they allow us to wash our own rigs but I’ve seen a RV Wash crew driving around and have their phone number if we decide to go that route.

As I said, we plan on being here for two weeks then return back to the Bay area. We will be there over Thanksgiving and the weekend following. I know we will be picking Kaitlyn up after school each day we can too, looking forward to that once again.

I have one doctor visit scheduled at the VA and need to make another but guess I’ll have to phone them again, last time they said they would send me some forms to fill out and we haven’t received them yet. Sure would like to get to the bottom of the breathing problem I’m experiencing, it sucks!

So now to add some pictures.

Kaitlyn with one of her Halloween dresses. Susy and Kaitlyn reading, that’s their unicorn horn on their forehead.