Here we are, on the road: We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada

October 5, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Hello there and thanks for stopping by. So it has been a nice couple of weeks for us. On the 22nd of September, we had our 42nd anniversary. Susy & Kaitlyn took us to dinner at the Black Angus Restaurant there in the bay area. What a nice time we had with K and Susy.

I had to dig out our “only one” picture of our wedding for Kaitlyn to see, we have more at home, but carry only one. She was amazed with our little wedding, having been a flower girl at several other friends of theirs. She asked why her Mommy wasn’t in the picture. I told her that her Mommy wasn’t even a thought then, that it took a while before she even became a thought. She seemed satisfied with that answer for now. Anyway many thanks to Susy for such a wonderful dinner and time together with you and K. We loved it!

After saying “Bye” to Susy & K, we headed over to Watsonville, CA. We got in, set up the rig, then Chuck took us on a tour to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a nice “touristy” town with lots of fun things to do. The next day we got up and went to tour Monterey Bay. What a beautiful area! I liked the area a whole lot, but I know the prices are a bit high.

The 25th of September, it rained there in Watsonville. They sure needed the rain, and tons more than it rained there. I was trying to think of when we had rain, and it must have been in WA, when we were back home. Not too sure though. And I think that was when the hydro hot heater and the air conditioning started making that awful noise. Anyhow, Chuck was up on top of the rig, trying to make it work, as well as the Hydro Hot.

So he called one person who had worked on the rig and set up an appointment for the guy to work on the Hydro Hot heater. It was for Monday, September 29 in Las Vegas. So we made plans to head over to LV, NV. That way why we left CA, to be here in Vegas, to have the guy fix our Hydro Hot Heater.

It is a two day trip for us to come to Vegas. We stop at the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA. The oranges there are still green, way to early to pick. But by the end of this year, they should be ready for picking. And are they ever good. That is one of the things I love about this life style. If you don’t like what ever, you just move on.

So Vegas is pretty amazing, overwhelming, and kind of hard to comprehend. And it’s all about making the big bucks. I think there is kind of a fever that comes over people as they arrive here. And “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” looks to be it’s motto.

So one day we left the rig and went to the Strip to find some tickets for shows. We found it, and it so far have liked the shows we have seen. “Human Nature” is a show, promoted by Smokey Robinson, is about 4 Australians that came over and put on a show for Smokey. He liked the enough to backed them to be at the Venetian. They do Motown, most of the big hits of the hits from that decade. And the show was wonderful. By the end of the time, the 4 guys had everyone on their feet, all singing the songs and dancing to the tunes; 500 people just enjoying their music. The place was just charged, full of so much energy. We were center, about 2/3 from the top row, and it was amazing to watch all the people just enjoying the music. I loved it!

The second show was about acrobats and such. It was good, but I love music, so the music was one I liked of the two.

So we have been to 2 different buffets. One was at Treasure Island. It was good, but so was the one at Sam’s Town. In fact, Chuck wanted to go back to Sam’s Town for the $9.99 buffet for prime rib.

This week we will go and check out “Vegas, the Show” at Planet Hollywood. Oh, forgot to say we saw Evelyn on the way back from seeing about tickets. It was nice to see her and her friends from Bellingham. Imagine, running into a former student, on vacation in Vegas. It was nice..

So that is it for me. Happy Birthday to Kerri on the 6th of October. Bet you are having your party today. Enjoy, time goes so fast!!!

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

10/5/14 Chuck’s report

Once again it’s been two weeks since our last blog, we were traveling last Sunday and didn’t get back to it later in the week. Like it says, we are in Vegas and we usually keep busy when we are here.

We were near Susy two weeks ago and had our normal good time with Katie after school most days. Our 42nd anniversary on Monday, the 22nd of September. We had a nice day together, Lorraine had her hair done, we picked up Katie and after Susy got off work we had a nice dinner at Black Angus, thanks for that. All in all, a very good day.

Tuesday we left the area, we had planned on staying at the Santa Cruz Elks lodge but I forgot to call first and when we got there we found they had closed the RV parking and were planning on moving it next year to a different area. No big problem, we usually have a plan B and this one was to continue around the bay to Watsonville Elks. I called them from the Santa Cruz and they said they had plenty of room, come on down.

Once we got to the Elks and found their RV parking area we walked inside to check in. We were going to stay here for three nights just to check out the area some before moving on but found they had a BBQ Rib dinner on Friday so we signed up for four nights instead of three, its nice to be able to change our plans that easy.

After getting set up with 50 amp and water (sewer dump available) we took off in the car to see some of the area. Watsonville is not on the coast but close enough so we checked Santa Cruz too.

Next morning we took off to tour Monterey and the coast around there. We’ve drove our car through here once before but we had more time to explore this time. We stopped at a few overlooks and Lorraine once again walked into the Pacific ocean, she said it was cold as usual.

Thursday we decided to have an “off” day and just stick close to the rig. We watched a couple of movies and just chilled out. By the way, we had the first day of rain we’ve seen since leaving Blaine, of course we were parked under a tree and the rig got lots of dirt from the tree and such but the area is so dry they were sure glad to see this rain.

While sitting around on the rig and being on the computer, I saw that the guy that services our Hydro Hot was going to be in Las Vegas at a rally. We had been having issues with ours, it has an electric heater and a diesel burner that heats the anti-freeze that is used to heat our domestic water and/or inside heat. Our diesel burner had just stopped working and I couldn’t figure out why so I contacted John and he said he could look at it on Monday if we could get to Vegas by then. Seeing as how we only staying here until the dinner on Friday evening, that worked just fine for our schedule. So I told John we would see him in Vegas on Monday at 1000 Trails park.

Friday we toured more of Watsonville. I don’t think it fits our criteria for a place to land when we decide to get off the road. But nearby Seaside and Pacific Grove are sure nice, not sure of home prices but seeing as how it is close to Monterey, my guess is they would be on the high side.

Later we had dinner at the Elks, their BBQ. We were surprised to find only about 15 people there for dinner, the Elks lodge in Santa Maria had about 300 for their BBQ. The dinner was good but not as good as the one at Santa Maria but still, only 15 people.

Saturday we got ready for travel then moved over to dump our holding tanks at their dump area. I did have to get on the roof to sweep the pine cones off the slides before we brought them in, didn’t want them to get caught in the slide awnings. And like I said, the roof was sure dirty from the rain on Thursday.

We don’t like to travel too far/long so we decided to stay in Bakersfield then move on to Vegas on Sunday. So that’s what happened, no issues. Unfortunately, the oranges don’t ripen until Dec/Jan time so we were unable to get fresh from the tree oranges. On Sunday we continued our trip into Las Vegas and boy what a traffic issue there was leaving town on Sunday, I assume lots of folks heading for Los Angles. It looked to be full traffic lanes with about 4 stop and go areas, sure glad we didn’t have to deal with that.

We got here to 1000 Trails in Las Vegas by 3:00, got set up the decided to head to Sam’s Town for their prime rib buffet for dinner. We were standing in line waiting to get in when we met a couple from BC and invited them to sit with us at the buffet. We had a good visit with Al and Lorraine, sure glad we met them.

Monday morning I got a call from John, the Hydro Hot repair guy wanting to know if he could come over earlier then 1:00 as scheduled. That worked fine for us as we were only hanging around waiting for him anyway. He got here about 11:00, asked a few questions then got out his troubleshooting gear. He quickly found the main controller was not sending a signal to the diesel burner and it needed replaced, no repair on these things. And it wasn’t cheap either but we needed it and he had a new one with him. And good news, after he replaced the box, everything has worked just fine since, guess he got the right part replaced.

After he finished up and we put everything back in our basement storage (where the Hydro Hot is located) we had some extra time so we went to Boulder Station casino for a couple of hours to try out luck, we had luck but it wasn’t good, Lorraine was down and I was up a few bucks, not a good way to recoup the money we spent on our repairs. Just kidding, we don’t head to a casino with the idea we HAVE to win, it’s just nice when that happens.

Tuesday morning we decided to head to the Strip, hoping it wouldn’t be too crowded. We found a place to park and walked through a couple of the big casinos, WOW. If you’ve never been to Vegas, it’s hard to describe how these places are set up and decorated, something you have to see. One word of caution, it can be a long walk from one casino to the other and taxicabs are expensive. We’ve found that we park in an area and check out the casinos on both sides of the Strip instead of trying to see all of them in one trip.

While we were walking in front of Treasure Island Casino, we got stopped by some folks who offered us a free show if would sit through a 90 minute presentation. Now we’ve sat though lots of time share presentations before, even here in Vegas and knew the drill. I told them we would go but need more shows to compensate us for our time. The guy offered two free tickets to Mystere Cirque Du Soleil and two free buffets. I asked him to sweeten the pot a bit more and he gave us two tickets to Vegas, the Show. I tried for more and he offered to sell us two tickets to Human Nature at a good discount. After going back and forth with him, I realized that was about all we could get so decided to go with it. Our presentation was scheduled for the next morning so we spent some time walking around, playing tourist before heading back to our place. Later we headed back to Sam’s Town for their Prime Rib buffet, it was good the first night so we decided to give it another chance. Once again we had a very good dinner, even met a couple from Oregon and had a good visit with them.

Wednesday our front air conditioner quit but I didn’t have time to check it out before we headed out to attend the presentation as scheduled at Treasure Island. We got there a bit early and walked around some to check things out. For anyone who’s ever seen the pirate ships battle at TI, that is a thing of the past. The ships are still there but they are in separate pools and stationary, no more battle. We found a couple other attractions that have changed since we were here last, Vegas just keeps growing and growing.

Our salesman at the presentation was retired from the Air Force and had been doing this salesman thing for 4 years or so. He said we were the first full timers he has dealt with and understood why we wouldn’t buy into this program as it was low prices for hotel rooms around the world. We still had to sit there for the whole thing but we were released as soon as it was over, no attempt to hard sell. And we got all our promised tickets too, not bad, three Las Vegas shows and two buffets.

After getting our vouchers, we headed over to the theater ticket office to schedule our schedule and check things out. We decided to attend the show on Saturday night so set that up then walked over to check out the buffet in the same casino.

We then walked over to the Venetian to do the same for our tickets to Human Nature. This is a group of 4, white Australian guys who sing Motown They were discovered and backed by Smoky Roberson and have been playing in Vegas for over two years. We exchanged our vouchers for tickets for Thursday night at 7:00.

Next we got the car and drove over to Planet Hollywood to schedule us for the Vegas, the Show. Once we finally found the place they told us we could only schedule for the night we got our tickets so we put off getting them until sometime later this week.

By now the traffic on the strip was getting pretty heavy so we decided to head back to our place. Once we got back I got out a few tools and got on the roof to check out the air conditioner. Does anyone know why I have to have almost the whole tool box out whenever I work on something, why can’t it just be a straight slot and Phillips screwdriver and a couple of pliers. And why do I always have to make a trip to the store, this time it was to get some metal foil type duct tape. But I did find the squirrel cage fan had dropped a bit off the shaft and the repair was fairly easy, loosen the clamp, move the fan back up the shaft and tighten the clamp. The hardest part was taking the ductwork apart to get to the fan and then putting everything back together then taping all the seams with the new foil tape. But now we have both air conditioners working once again, really a nice thing to have here in the desert.

Thursday we just hung around the rig until it was time to head back out for our show, Human Nature. We didn’t have the best seats in the house of course, seeing as how they were free, but not bad. We were in the second section, just behind the sound booth with isle seats, not bad. And the show was really nice, like I said, it was 4 Australian white guys singing Motown songs. And they did a great job of it too, even with their accents. This was a good show and would recommend it if you are looking for something to do when you are here.

Friday we headed out to find a Costco. When we got there, it was so busy that we just turned around and walked out. There is a casino nearby, imagine that, Sunset Station Casino so we headed there for awhile. We did go to their lunch buffet while we were there, not bad for $6 apiece.

We made a stop at Wal-Mart on our way back and found it to be overcrowded as well. The checkout gal also commented on how busy it was, she suggested it must be payday for welfare recipients or something as she was getting lots of EBT cards. But whatever, it was too crowded for us so we just got what we needed then got out.

Saturday morning I checked the water level in our batteries, same thing I do the first of every month. I needed to add some water to one cell and found I didn’t have any distilled water so I needed to get some. While Lorraine was making some toast in the morning, she found every time she plugged the toaster in, it tripped the circuit breaker. I looked it over and found the wire had chafed enough to wear the insulation off and the bare wires were touching. So we headed back out to Wal-Mart to pick up these two items.

After finishing with the battery maintenance, we just waited around until it was time to head back to the Strip for our buffet and to see Mystere. We figured a couple hours for the buffet before the show started so planned on plenty of time. They had snow crab at the buffet so Lorraine really enjoyed it, I enjoyed the prime rib and such too. We didn’t want to overeat knowing we would be at the theater for two hours right after and didn’t want to be too full.

Once we got to the theater and seated we once again started talking to the folks next to us and found them to be from Canada. We had isle seats in the top section, front row but on the wall side, not the best seats. But as soon as they turned down the lights, we moved to better seats in the section right in front of us, good seats and close to the action. The usher actually came by and sat down near us on the steps and didn’t seem to mind.

This show is a bunch of tumblers, acrobats and such. It is very much a Vegas show, having been here for 30 years, I think. There were two strong men who preformed a very good act where one supported the other while they did handstands and such, the best part of the show I thought. They picked a couple of folks out of the audience and had them on stage and at one point the guy came over and talked with us, I was hoping he would pick Lorraine for a part but he didn’t. I think I liked this show better than Human Nature but Lorraine said she liked HN better, different strokes.

Today is once again going to be a quite day for us, we want to finish this blog then we might go out to watch some afternoon football at one of the casinos. I’m sure Lorraine will watch a few minutes of TV then find a slot machine to entertain her until the game is over.

The weather has been really nice the past two weeks, higher than normal we hear. We did have one night/morning of rain but other than that it’s been clear skies with lots of sun. We were seeing highs in the low 80s in California and more like the mid 90s here in Nevada but it does cool off at night enough to sit outside and enjoy the evening.

Our travel plans, as usual, aren’t set yet for when we leave here. We are scheduled to leave here on next Sunday but after seeing the traffic last Sunday, we will leave on either Friday or Saturday. I found there is a large RV show in Los Angles, actually in Pomona, not too far from a nice Elks Lodge we’ve stayed at before. We are considering heading there for a week and going to the RV show.

And now to go through the pictures Lorraine has taken this week and pick some to add here.

Lots of vegetables growing around Watsonville, that’s boxes of lettuce on the left and fields of raspberries on the right.