We’re in Yuma, Arizona

 

January 26, 2014                                                                                                               Lorraine’s report

Howdy folks, glad you stopped by.  Well, we are back in civilization!  Yep, I really did miss being out of civilization and camping in the desert.  Our rig has on it’s side, “Roughing it smoothly”, so when we are out like that, being out in the boon docks, without water, power and the hook up to electricity, I’m very happy to return to our normal way of life.  I know some people really like it, but not me.  I prefer everything you get with the civilized world. 

So Quartzsite, AZ was fun, but I was ill most of the time.  The last few days or so, one of the new people we met, Mary, took pity on me and gave me two sets of boxes of pills that really helped me recover.  Thanks again, Mary,  It was so nice of you to care about how I looked and sounded. 

We didn’t get out that much, but, we’ve been there before, so when I did go, I would come back after a couple of hours and I would take my pills from Mary, and have to take a long nap.  This cold/whatever has been the pits.  So glad I’m starting to feel a bit better. 

Then the dirt from all being in the desert is pretty incredible.  We were there a total of 8 days, and I keep wiping everything down, the corian counters and such turned black the first time I wiped up, pretty incredible..

Chuck has a Mexican coming to wash and wax the rig.  It is SO dirty. And I know everyone there wanted to do the same thing when they leave Q.

It was fun to visit with the groups we went with, but I hated to infect them with my cold. It was an experience!

Happy Birthday to my niece, Ashley, and my nephew, Carl… Hope they enjoy their birthdays

Hugs, to all…

Lorraine

1/26/14                                                                                                                                  Chuck’s report

Ok, we are back to having hookups again, after dry camping in Quartzsite for 8 days.  We’ve been there before and usually don’t have any issues, we arrive with full fresh water tank and empty holding tanks and when we leave they are reversed.  We have 4 batteries for the coach and usually that keeps everything we need running all day and night by starting the generator a couple of times a day to charge them.  This time, however, our batteries wouldn’t hold a charge very long and our generator would start a couple times an hour and run for 5 minutes or so.  I know this wasn’t pleasant for our neighbors, sorry about that but I’m getting our batteries checked and hopefully next time we will only be running the generator during daylight hours next time. 

Lorraine has been fighting a cold the whole time we were in Quartzsite, that limited our visiting and touring of the vendors.  She didn’t want to spend too much time with other folks and give then her cold and really didn’t feel like walking the displays either.  So we spent lots of time in our coach together, we didn’t even go to other folk’s rig to play cards or dice like we normally do.  And we didn’t get to contact two of our friends we knew were in the area, didn’t want to spread her cold to them so Dale, hope to see you two if you come down this way. 

Last Sunday we had the breakfast in a bag, it was as good as advertised.  We put ham, cheese and onions in the bag, they added eggs then we put the bags in boiling water for 13 minutes.  What came out was very similar to an omelet from a frying pan. 

Later there was a talk and display from Mac the Fire Guy.  He talks about safety in and around coaches, fires, emergency egress and other issues.  He also has a display he puts up where he lights fires and has folks put them out using fire extinguishers he provides.  All in all, this is a very good seminar and well worth it if you ever get a chance to see him put it on.  He also sells fire extinguisher and systems, he is well known because he goes to lots of rallies and such where he puts on his seminars and has his vendor booth. 

He finished in time for us to go back to our coach where we watched the AFC and NFC championship games.  We were please to have Seattle win their game over the 49ers so the Super Bowl game next week with be Seattle vs Denver.  We are hoping to see Seattle’s defense stop the Denver offense, at least that’s what I think will be key to the game.  Go Seahawks. 

We had ordered a set of tires for the back of our coach from one of the companies that came out to our camping spot and gave a seminar.  We also wanted to put on new shocks and have them check the alignment.   Our appointment was for Monday morning but when Mark went over on Sunday they told him they didn’t have our size tires but would get them, possibly by the time we got there on Monday.  However, when we checked in, they didn’t have our size and tried to sell us a different tire, we didn’t want that so left there with the understanding they would get our tires shipped in, call us and we would return to have all the work done.  We didn’t have the shocks installed or the alignment checked, figured we would do all the work on our next trip.

So after leaving the shop area, we headed over to our second group we stay with when in Quartzsite.  This is the group we’ve stayed with every year we’ve been there, RV America.  This year there were 11 rigs, I think, and two of them were newbies, all the others had been there before.  It was good to see all the folks we knew and meet the new ones too. 

This group is parked close enough to the big tent that we can walk over and not have to deal with all the traffic hassles.   But we only went to the tent area twice and to Tyson once, Lorraine just didn’t feel like doing more.  That was fine, we’ve been there, done that before.  And this time there were more vendors that had pain relief salves, tee shirts and other “non-RV related” stuff than in prior years.  We knew we were coming to Yuma and a lot of the vendors that are normally in Quartzsite will be at the Yuma swap meet too so we can go there to see what’s available and different this year. 

Tuesday morning I walked over to tour one of the vendor areas but just as I got there, I got a phone call from Rob and Norma letting me know they were in town.  I told them I would meet them at the ranger’s station and direct them to our site.  It was good to see these friends from Canada, we hadn’t seen them since last year down here because we didn’t go “home” last year. 

We did drive over to the “main event” area to see the vendors there.  There are probably 20 rows of tents set up and usually it takes a few hours to “do” the main event.  This time we only went through about 4 or five of the rows and called it a day.  Lots of stuff there but we never did find the jacks you wanted us to get for you, Joe, sorry about that. 

I got a call from the tire dealer and he said they were unable to get our tires for us.  He was very short and to the point, I think he had enough business that he didn’t need to be nice to us, ha.  So we will probably wait until we get back in Oregon to get our tires and shocks, there is no sales tax in Oregon so that should save us a couple bucks too. 

On Wednesday morning I had a service tech scheduled to come by the rig and service our Aqua Hot.  This is a system that we use to keep our rig warm when it’s cold and it also heats our domestic water, it’s unlimited hot water when we have water and sewer hookups.  We are supposed to have it serviced once a year, change the burner tip, clean the plenum and change the fuel filter.  We have also been having an issue where the burner didn’t come on soon enough at times and I wanted him to troubleshoot that for us too.  It ended up being an over temperature sensor/thermometer was bad so he changed that out for us.  It now seems to be working with no issues, yea. 

We were planning on leaving Quartzsite on Thursday but decided to stay one more day so we could visit more with the folks in our group.  We didn’t even leave the area all day, just set around and visited with different groups of folks, a good day. 

This group has a get together every afternoon at 5:00, each coach brings something to share and we all have great time eating, telling jokes, kidding each other and just visiting.  On Wednesday night it was pot luck.  This was a full meal with lots of different entreats, from chili and spaghetti, salads and plenty of deserts too.  We usually call this get together our evening meal, this night is was more like a buffet there were so many different selections, all great. 

Friday morning we got everything ready for travel, met with everyone one more time then headed out.  It is only about 1 1/2 hour drive to get here, we had no problem.  We called TJ and Sharon, our friends who offered us the use of their lot for our stay her and they met us at their lot.  This lot has two RV hookups and we stayed here with them a few years ago for a month and really liked the area.  Since then, they have built a Studio type home on it so there is only one RV hookup available.  They decided to make this area their permanent home so they have bought and moved to a house across the highway so the RV site is open although it is for sale if anyone is interested. 

With TJ’s help we pulling into our parking spot and hooked up the power then we visited a bit with TJ and Sharon.  It was nice to see them again, it’s been a year and we were trying to get up to speed on each other’s activities over the past year.  They do spend the winter here now and their children come down and visit them here too.  They still intend to go to the NW for the summertime, you just can’t beat the weather up there from mid July through early September, usually that is. 

After TJ and Sharon left, we continued with our setup chores, I even unloaded the stuff we carry in our car into the shed here on their lot.  For over the past week, our dinners have been pot luck or finger food so we both wanted to go out to eat.  We asked TJ and Sharon if they wanted to go along so we made a date to go to Mexican later.  They introduced us to this place a couple of years ago and it was just as good this time.

Saturday we sort of took it easy for awhile then decided to head out for some errands and shopping.  Later we went over to visit with Larry and Kathy, the neighbors here.  Larry was raised in Bellingham and graduated from high school there too.  Before we knew it, the sun had set and we were still trying to solve all the political woos of this country, if only they would listen.  

This morning I started the blog then we headed out to the Yuma swap meet, now called the Yuma Market Place.  We found a couple of items we were looking for and checked out some we may get on a later visit.  We then headed over to Quechan casino for dinner.  They closed the buffet and now it’s a nice restaurant.  We ordered the everyday special, prime rib with the fixings for $10 each.  We had to get our player’s club card to get the special price and they gave me $10 and Lorraine $20 free play.  We also had enough comp points built up on our cards to get the meal free, good deal.  But both of us went through the free play money although that was about the extent of our slot play so it wasn’t an expensive trip.  On the way home, we stopped by and I ran into Wal-Mart to get some dog food for Misty, that was the most expensive thing we did today, ha. 

So here we are, back at the coach and finishing the blog. 

Boy the weather has really been great this week, it’s been getting into or just at the 80s most days.  The night time temps drop to the low 50s, a couple of nights it got down to the high 30s but it warms up quickly after the sun comes up.  Speaking of sunrise, that happens a bit after 7 and we’ve had a few colorful ones this week too.  We are used to seeing colorful sunsets here but I was impressed with a couple of the sunrises too. 

Our travel plans are to sit here for awhile, not sure how long just yet.  There is a lot to do and see around here, Mark/Sue and Rob/Norma will be coming down from Quartzsite tomorrow so I’m sure we will be getting together with them some too, along with other friends in the area.  Jag and Bev, I’ll be contacting you two this week to find out your schedule, maybe we can come over and see the park you are staying in too. 

Ok, now to add some pictures here and get this posted. 

 

Sunset over the coaches in Quartzsite. 

 

 

Sunrise in Quartzsite, these pictures were taken with my phone. 

  

  

 

 

Gathering for the nightly 5:00 snacks and BS session. 

  

  

Some of the folks at RV America standing in front of their coach. 

John and Mary on left, Patsy and Richard on right.

  

Sue and Mark on left, Stan and Claire on right.

 

Ken and Cassie with her two sisters Susan and Lisa. 

  

Chuck and Lorraine on left, Sue on right. 

 

Virgil and Sharon on left, Pat and Gerald on right.

 

Linda and Mike on left, Rob and Norma on right. 

 

Driving to Yuma we pass the Yuma proving grounds. 

 

They grow lots of vegetables in the valley. 

 

 

Ok, guess that’s enough, I’ll get this posted now. 

 

Thanks   Chuck

 

 

316

We in Quartzsite, Arizona

 

January 19, 2013                                                                                                                       Lorraine’s report

Okay, so I’ve been ill this past week.  We had a grand time visiting with Joe & Alice at Palo Casino, will see them later this summer.  I just love going with them to Palo, it’s a grand casino.  The food is excellent, and we had some luck there too. 

This cold I got is pretty nasty.  It started out with me being totally dizzy, and progressed from there.  Today I’m finally feeling like I may live.  The cough, the cold, runny nose, etc. are maybe finally starting to abate.  I sure hope so…it’s not been fun being so ill…..Chuck covered everything else…Hope you all have a great day…Hugs,

Lorraine

1/19/13                                                                                                                                         Chuck’s report

We’re back in Quartzsite, for the 6th time in the past 7 years and we are experiencing the best weather in all those years.  I know California could use some much needed rain but here in the desert it’s pretty dry too.  And the long range forecast has no rain in sight for at least the next 10 days.  We’ve been here when the winds were blowing hard and one year when it was raining, I’ll take this over those years!

Last Sunday was football day again, we wanted to watch the San Francisco/Carolina game, the winner will be playing the Seahawks.  San Francisco won so it will be the third time these two teams have played each other this year with the home team winning the first two.  Sure hope that trend continues, the winner of this game will be playing in the Super Bowl.  We would sure like to see Seattle play in that game.

Monday Lorraine started getting cold like symptoms, sure hope it isn’t the flu but she did get her flu shot.  We did head over to the local casino for senior day, $5 off the buffet.  We both won on the slots, Lorraine more than I did.  After we got back to the park, we stopped off to see Mike/Linda at their place for a while. 

Tuesday morning we loaded up the car and headed off to Hemet, about an hour’s drive to the Southeast.  Our friends Joe and Alice spend most of the winter there and we wanted to see them before we left the area.  We got to their place then drove over to Pala casino.  They have taken us there before, it’s one of the nicest we’ve been to and I think it may have the best buffet, for sure in the top 5.  We had a great meal and they have a desert area to die for, they make banana splits, crepe suzettes, cherries jubilee and the like as well as the normal cakes, pies, brownies and such.  I think we all saved some room for desert, I know I went back for seconds, just had to try a chocolate cake, yum. 

We spent a good day with Joe and Alice but all too soon we head to head back, it was dark when we got back as it was.  But at least the traffic wasn’t too bad, the only bad traffic we ran into was after we left the casino and headed back to their place before we headed back to ours later.  We asked them if it would be possible for us to stay at their extra lot back in Blaine when we are back in Washington this spring/summer, they are trying to make arrangements to make that happen.  Thanks for spending the day with us, we had a good visit with you two. 

Wednesday Lorraine was feeling a bit worse, the cold had started to get to her.  I had to run into Verizon to have them check out our new notebook we are using as a Wi-Fi hotspot, it quit working again.  The gal seemed to understand our problem and she reset the device and pulled the Sim card, same things I had tried.  She did show me a different way to reset the device and it started working after that.  I sure hope this works as we won’t be around a Verizon place out here in the desert. 

Later I went by Costco to fill the car with gas, I know it will be more expensive than here but with the 1000s of folks who descend to this small town for part of the winter overload all the services around the area and the traffic can be bad too.  I figured paying a few cents more per gallon was better than fighting the crowds.  I then ran over to Wal-Mart, I had to pick up a few thing for Lorraine. 

We had planned on leaving Palm Springs on Thursday, depending on how Lorraine was feeling.  She got up and said she was ok with us traveling so we got things put away and ready for travel.  The site were were in at 1000 Trails was a back-in site and I had to ask the neighbor across the street if he would move his car so we could back in with less problems.  And when we left, I once again asked him to move his car.  We like this park but it sure isn’t made for big rigs and it has lots of palm trees that can cause some issues in getting satellite TV service.  But once we get set up, it isn’t bad at all plus we usually find some friends we’ve met over the past 7 years somewhere in the park. 

After we left Palm Springs, we headed East, stopping to fuel up the rig just after we crossed the state line into Arizona.  We got to the BLM area, we pay $40 for up to two weeks for the right to boondock in the thousands of acres.  The area we are staying in does have a dump station area but with all the rigs in the area, the wait can sometimes be 4 hours or even longer at the busiest times.  Plus they do have fresh water available to refill our fresh water tank after we dump the holding tanks. 

We arrived here with our fresh water full and our holding tanks empty.  From past experience here we know we can take Navy showers, watch our water usage when washing dishes and make our fresh water last at least a week or longer.  The holding tanks are pretty good size too but the grey water tank seems to fill first, even with us taking Navy showers. 

After we got our pass to enter/park in the BLM area, we found the Tiffin owner’s group where we were staying.  We got parked and with no utilities to hook up, my job when pretty fast.  Lorraine still was feeling under the weather but got the inside set up with a little help from me.  Then we walked over and visited with some of our friends and met some new friends too. 

Later that evening a service center truck came by to give a seminar about the parts and service they supply.  We have been discussing getting 4 new tires on the back and replacing the shocks on the rig.  Most motor home folks find they don’t wear out tires but need to replace them due to age instead.  The experts say it’s best to replace tires somewhere around 6 – 7 years, even if there is good tread, we fit in that category so we made arrangements to have 4 new tires installed and change out the shocks on Monday morning.  After the service, we plan to move over to join with the other group we stay with in Quartzsite, RV America. 

Friday Lorraine work up and was really feeling bad, we decided to just stay around the rig, only going outside to visit a little and enjoy the sunshine.  There was a scheduled meet & greet with this group, everyone was to bring an appetizer to share.  This was to happen at 3:30 and another service center guy came by to give another seminar, this one on hydraulic jacks and slide outs.  I learned a bit from this guy too, even after having/using these items on our rig for the past 6+ years. 

Saturday was the opening day for the big tent, the start of RV week here at Quartzsite.  We have gone to the big tent on opening day before but the crowds are too big so we usually don’t go on opening day anymore, instead we will wait until later next week to tour the vendor area and see if they have something we just have to have.  We usually have some items in mind but this time I don’t know have any one item I’m looking to purchase but we’ll see. 

So Saturday we hung around the rig most of the day, only going out to visit and meet other folks.  It’s amazing, if someone is having issues it seems all the guys show up to “help” and offer suggestions.  And folks like to show off the modifications and improvements they have made to their rigs.  Today was like that for most of us although some folk did brave the crowds and head over to the tent. 

Once again, at 3:30 we had a pot luck dinner with the folks here.  I think there are 35 rigs here, plus a few others that are staying in different areas around the area that walk-in to share some time with us.  There was a raffle planned for after dinner, they use this as a fund raiser to offset the costs of setting up this get together.  There are lots of prizes, some are gag gifts, others something for RVers.  We actually had our number picked three times, got a couple of RV items and even an envelope with cash, good deal.  Everyone seem to have had a good dinner and a good time with the raffle too. 

Today we have a “breakfast in a bag” scheduled for everyone.  You put what you would like to have in an omelet in a quart freezer bag, most folks put ham, sausage, bacon, onions, peppers and the like in the bag.  The hosts then add two or three eggs to the bag and it’s put into a pot of boiling water for 13 minutes.  The result is just like an omelet cooked in a pan on the stove, plus this is lots of fun.  

After breakfast there will be time for more visiting before the football games start at 1:30.  The first game is the AFC championship game between New England and Denver.  The second game will be the NFC championship game between San Francisco and Seattle.  The winners of these two games will meet in the Super Bowl in two weeks.  These championship games are usually better games than the Super Bowl game, the teams are trying to win these but in the Super Bowl it’s more like they are trying to not lose. 

We had our freezer repaired when we were in the Bay area and it’s been running good ever since.  I did unplug it when we traveled and plugged it in as soon as we were stopped for the day.  Not real sure if that is necessary but I don’t think it can hurt so will continue to do that. 

Like I said, the weather has been really nice.  We’ve had temperatures about 10 – 15F above normal, getting to low 80s or high 70s everyday with no clouds and very little wind.  The temperatures do start to drop as soon as the sun sets, it gets down to the 40s at night.  We haven’t been running our air conditioners during the day but open the windows and turn on the vent fans instead.  But we do have the heat on at night, don’t want Lorraine to get cold while she is fighting her cold.  That means our generator does start/stop throughout the night as needed to keep our batteries charged and give power to the heat pumps when needed.  At least we are parked in such a manner that the generator doesn’t face directly at a close by rig. 

Our travel plans are firming up for after here.  Our friends in Yuma, TJ and Sharon, have offered us the use of their extra lot they own in Yuma.  We contacted them today and told them we would take them up on  their kind offer.  TJ called shortly after we sent the email and said to come on down, the lot is open and ready.  Thanks, we’ll see you two next week. 

Lorraine hasn’t taken too many pictures this week, just a few on our travel day and some of the activities here so it shouldn’t take too long to go through them and pick out a few to add to this blog.  Guess I’ll do that now. 

 

On the road heading East, lots of nothing out here but still pretty on its own way. 

  

  

We fueled up at exit #1 in Arizona, about $0.35 cheaper here than in California. 

  

  

That’s the desert where we are going.  All the white spots are campers, motorhomes, trailers and the like. 

 

That’s the big tent on the right, will be full of vendors and RVer starting Saturday morning. 

  

The Tiffin motorhome owners group we are staying with, 35 coaches as of Saturday afternoon. 

  

For those back in Washington who may have forgotten, the dark things on the ground are shadows, caused by the sun being out. 

  

Notice the sun glasses everyone is wearing. 

  

  

That’s our coach on the left and the nightly fire on the right. 

  

Thanks   Chuck

 

 

 

225

We’re in Palm Desert

 

January 12, 2013                                                                                                                Lorraine’s report

Hello again, this time from 1000 trails, Palm Springs.  We are here, having left my daughter and granddaughter in Sunnyvale, CA.  We spent the Christmas holidays with them.  What a joy to see an 8 year old celebrate the Christmas holidays!!!  Thanks again, Susy, we loved being there.

Well if you recall, we had to be with Susy longer than we had planned because the freezer on our 15 month old fridge broke, and it took them 3 weeks to get the warranty worked out.  The  repairman came on Tuesday.  We waited all day. Chuck called the place, around 3pm, and they said he would come later. We finally heard from the repairman about 6:00 pm, when he called and said he would show up 20 minutes later.  He worked on the refrigerator until about 10:15 that evening, a very long day.  We had invited Susy and Kaitlyn to go to eat, but ended up ordering pizza.  But, at least the freezer is working again.

So then my computer was broken, a couple of months out of warranty, and the Geek Squad were forever getting a test on it to see what was wrong with it.  It came from Best Buy, so we took it to the Geek Squad, but after Mark worked on it.  Thanks, Mark.  It was what he thought it was, a bad hard drive.  But, the guy at BB took forever to diagnosis it; we decided that once again I needed a new computer.  We opened up the new computer a short time before we heard what was wrong,  the guys at Fry's would charge a 15 percent charge IF I open it and returned it, unused.   We found a new computer at Fry's. a whole lot cheaper than trying to fix my old one. 

And my whip lash.  One of my friends, Judy J in WA, (I went to school with her, she graduated with me, and we are getting to know each other again) wrote and told me about Arnica Montana.  It took a bit to find it, but we found it.  This tiny, tiny pill-I take 5, 3 times a day, and use the gel that is  for bruises and such, has worked well for me.  Just taking the medicine, over the counter by the way, has worked wonders.  The fist day after I took it felt like I might actually survive the pain. Thank, Judy, I appreciate the heads up!!!

Being back in Palm Springs found Chuck and I enjoying the drier weather.  It is cool, down to the upper 30's at night, but in the upper 60's to 70's during the day, absolutely wonderful for this time of the year. 

We are looking forward to seeing friends in Quartzsite this next week.  And from there, who knows.  Until next time....Hugs to all...

Lorraine

 

1/12/14                                                                                                                                   Chuck’s report

Yea, we are back on the road again, back here in 1000 Trails Palm Springs enjoying the great weather.  Even though we really like being near Susy and Katie, we know they want to get their lives back to normal and not feel the need to spend so much of their time with us.  But when I last asked Katie when we should return, she said Feb. 1 and to stay until her birthday in April, ha.  But I did tell her we would be there for her birthday. 

Last Sunday we went over to Susy’s place and watched the San Francisco/Green Bay game.  I guess I was rooting for Green Bay as I hope Seattle doesn’t have to play San Francisco one more time this season, they are too closely matched.  But San Francisco ended up winning, Lorraine was rooting for them so she was happy with the outcome, me, not so much.  Lorraine and Susy put together a good pork roast dinner for us for after the game, at least everyone enjoyed that. 

While we were watching the game, Mark completed the set-up on Lorraine’s new computer.  Her old one was at Busy Buy since Friday and they were supposed to have set it up to run a diagnosis and let us know what repairs were needed.  When Lorraine and Susy went by on Saturday, they told them the diagnosis wasn’t complete yet but they would call when it was done.  I called them  Sunday morning and the tech checked and reported that no one had started the diagnosis yet but he would get it going and call when it was done later that afternoon.  So we decided to set up the one we had bought at Frys in case the repairs were too expensive.  Mark loaded up an older version of Windows so it needed to run overnight to add all the updates, no problem, we left it there until he finished. 

Morning morning we headed over to Best Buy and picked up Lorraine’s old computer, it can still be used but the hard drive has some bad sectors and they said it probably will just get worse.  I may look into replacing the hard drive but will worry about that at a later date.  Lorraine ran a couple of loads of laundry too, wanted to get caught up before we hit the road. 

Later we headed over to Susy’s place and watched the  college football championship game between Florida State and Auburn.  I think there were 4 lead changes in the final two minutes with Florida State coming up the winner in that one.  Mark fixed up taco makings for dinner for everyone and explained about the changes/updates he had made to Lorraine's computer for her.  Thanks for fixing that for us, it’s a bit over my pay grade.

I have been in correspondence with our insurance company about repairing our car after the accident.  They have a different way of doing things in California than I’m used to dealing with.  They sent an app to Lorraine’s phone and had us enter some information, take some pictures and send it to them.  They would then look things over and make an estimate for repairs.  I’m used to going to three repair shops for estimates and sending that to the insurance company.  So this time I did both, sent the info and pictures to them and went to a local repair shop for their estimate.  Of course, the shop was higher and now I’m working with the insurance company to revise their estimate but so far no luck. 

I went to the repair place on Tuesday morning and was on the phone for a bit in the afternoon.  Later we went by and picked up Katie from school, their Christmas vacation is over.  Then we sort of hung around waiting for the fridge repair guy to show up.  They told me he would show up between 1:00 and 5:00 but I wanted to be ready in case he came by early.  I called at 3:00 to check on his schedule and was told he was going to be late, maybe as late at 5:30.  I said that was fine by us, we wanted it fixed so we could get on the road.  He called about 6 and said he would be there in 20 minutes or so and I told him to come on in.  I figured he would find an excuse to look at it and say he needed to come back the next day. 

But when he showed up, he was ready and willing to work on it until it was done.  He figured it would be about three hours and with my “help” he was done a little after 10.  He had to recover the Freon, flush the system to get all the oil out of the coils, refill the system with Freon and solder the holes he had made in the tubes where he hooked up some temporary fitting for recovering/refilling the system.  He actually was able to do the repairs from the access door behind the fridge, said it was nice that he didn’t have to work on his knees as was usual when the work was done in a house.  He had some specialized tools, gauges and tanks so this type repair isn’t something just anyone could accomplish. 

By the time he was finished, the freezer was starting to cool off but more importantly, the coils that were not getting cold before were now cold.  By the time he was finished with the paperwork, the temperature had already dropped about 25 degrees and he was confident it would work just fine.  And he was correct, during the night, I heard the ice maker dump and refill with water at least twice, proving the temperature was cold enough for that, yea. 

We had to say bye to Susy, Katie and Mark that evening as we planned on leaving on Wednesday morning, if the freezer in fact was cold enough.  When I got up, I put a thermometer in the freezer and it was reading 0F, much better than the 25F it had been showing before the repairs. 

So Wednesday morning we got ready for travel, pulled over to the dump station to empty our gray and black tanks and headed out.  There hadn’t been any rain the whole time were had been there, about three weeks, but sure enough, it was raining when we got up.  But by the time we were on the road, the sun was out and everything had dried out so we had a good travel day. 

Once again we stopped overnight at the Bakersfield Orange Grove RV park.  Compared to the last time we were there, three weeks ago, the trees had been picked over a lot.  The park was offering the use of a picker on a pole if we wanted to pick a bag full.  I did walk over to the tangerine grove to see if there happened to be any of them left on the trees.  I managed to get a bag full of them too, Lorraine really likes these.  While we were there, I transferred the stuff from the basement freezer to the fridge/freezer inside the coach and unplugged the basement one.  We didn’t use it since we had the residential type fridge installed but it did come in handy when we had problems.  We have had it for sale but may just keep it, we haven’t decided yet. 

Thursday morning we got on the road and headed on to here.  It was another good travel day, sunny and warm and we took a route to keep us out of San Bernardino and the traffic around that area.  We got here just a bit after 2, found a good site and got set up.  Later we went over to see some friends of ours, Mike and Linda who are in charge of the group we stay with at Quartzsite.  They will be leaving Quartzsite a bit earlier this year than normal, Linda wants to go to her latest grand daughter’s first birthday but they will be a Q as usual up until then. 

Friday morning we drove over to Indio to attend the FMCA rally, at least for one day as a walk-in vs camping there with our coach.  We walked through the vendor area but didn’t find too much we had to have.  I did get some quotes on changing out the shocks on the coach but will do that at a later date.  Lorraine did find a couple of shirts and had an applique put on them.  We made a quick run to Wal-Mart to drop off her prescriptions then returned to our place for a dinner of left overs. 

Saturday morning we returned to Wal-Mart to pick up her prescriptions and few other items.  I wanted to be sure we were back in time to watch the Seahawk/Saint game, it started at 1:30 so that was no problem.  And the Seahawks won, even though their offensive team didn’t play that well but the defense was sure good, especially in the first half.  We also watched part of the AFC playoff game between New England and Indianapolis but didn’t care as much about the outcome of that game. 

We have been spending some time working on our travel/hotel/car rental plans for our trip to Alaska in July for Lorraine’s high school reunion.  We are planning on flying to Ketchikan for awhile then fly on up to Anchorage where our son will pick us up and we will stay at his place for two weeks.  He needs to find out about his work schedule while we are there so the dates we’ve chosen may have to be modified/changed but at least we have something to start with. 

While we are here, Lorraine is trying to stock up on our needs for when we leave here and go to Quartzsite.  There will be hundreds of thousands of people in and around the area so the two small grocery stores as well as every other place will be packed and pretty well picked over. 

Like I said, the weather has been really nice this past week.  We really feel for those who were caught in the extreme cold in the rest of the country.  It was even freezing in the middle of Florida, they sure aren’t used to that.  Sure glad we have wheels under our home. 

We will be traveling on to Quartzsite, leaving here on Thursday.  We plan on meeting up with a group of Tiffin motorhome owners, we’ve been with them a couple of year previous and had a good time.  Then we’ll move over and join the group we met the first time we stayed at Quartzsite, the RV America group.  We’ve stayed with this group every year we’ve been down here and by now are considered “old timer”, ha.  We have fun with both groups, like to go to all the vendors and displays but usually only hang around for a week as it’s dry camping, i.e., no electric, water or sewer hookups.  It’s not that bad as we head in with full fresh water tank, empty holding tanks and use our generator as needed to keep our batteries charged and run any electrical items we need. 

So with that, I’ll add a few pictures and get this posted. 

A quart freezer bag with the oil that was flushed out of our freezer coils.  It’s hard to tell but there’s a bit over a tablespoon full. 

  

With so little rain in Northern California, the water reservoir is really low.

  

This is the second time we’ve seen this herd of elk just after the reservoir on Pacheco Pass. 

  

 

More of our travel thru California. 

  

  

  

Ok, that’s it for me, hope you had a good week. 

 

Thanks   Chuck

 

 

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Still in Santa Clara, California

 

January 5, 2013                                                                                                                    Lorraine’s report

Hello once more from sunny, nice California, specifically the Elks Lodge in Santa Clara, CA.  It has been nice here, cool, down to freezing a day or so in the nighttime, but otherwise, N I C E.  So this week has been okay.

Forgot to tell Joe of Joe & Alice, “Happy Birthday” and “Happy Anniversary”.  It was their anniversary last week.  May they have many, many more!!! 

So this week we just enjoyed the time we have had with Susy, Kaitlyn, Mark, etc.  It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with Susy and Kaitlyn.  This area is just so busy!  Everyone here is in a hurry.  It was nice just to kick back, and enjoy our time together.  Thank you Susy, I enjoyed our time together. 

Well, I’m still waiting on my computer.  Chuck got me a couple of slot games for Christmas, and after he loaded them on my computer, it crashed.  Mark worked on it, but thinks there is a hard drive issue.  So it is in the shop, Geek squad, and with it being after the holiday, it is taking forever.  Hopefully, they will call today. 

My neck is still giving me a bit of problems, still sore, my doctor said it would take six months for it to heal, and he is right.  Will be glad to have it quit hurting. 

So we are still waiting for the freezer, hopefully this week, and maybe we will continue “On the Road” again.  Looking forward to seeing some friends from all over the USA.  

I guess I can’t think of much else, so, I hope everyone has a great week.  Till next time…

Hugs,

Lorraine

1/5/13                                                                                                                                  Chuck’s report

Hope everyone had a great start to their New Year!  Ours has been good, just had to make some changes to our travel plans but we are used to doing that.  We had a good time this week with Susy and Katie, even got some “down” time too. 

We are still here, waiting for our fridge/freezer repair.  The thought now is the coils for the freezer are plugged, possibly with oil but anyway they want to remove/flush/reinstall the coils the re-fill them with Freon.  Of course the guy who came by on Thursday didn’t have the ability to do this type job so we are now waiting for the next round.  The parts are ordered, to be delivered on Monday afternoon and they will come by on Tuesday to do the repair.  Sure hope it works out right this time, it’s getting old.  At least Samsung has offered to do this repair, both parts and labor, on an extension to our one year warranty. 

Susy took time off from work on Monday and Tuesday so we managed to work in some daylight time with her during weekdays, usually not able to do that when she works. 

Tuesday morning we got up and couldn't get connected to the internet using our new tablet as a hot spot.  Only had it for three days and already it’s acting up, shoot.  Anyway, I boxed it up and we took it back to Verizon for them to look it over.  Seems they had sent out a new release overnight and all it needed was to be reset, I didn’t know that.  I had tried turning it off/on a couple of time, to rest this one, I needed to remove/replace the SIM card too.  Anyway, back in service now and working great. 

The Verizon store is in a strip mall with Costco so we headed over there to get some items for a New Years Eve party at Susy’s place.  After leaving Costco, we headed over to Susy’s where Lorraine and Susy got all the snacks and such set up.  We had also brought some steaks for dinner and they cooked them in broiler along with salads and baked potatoes, a good meal for our last meal of the year. 

We hung around Susy’ place until the ball dropped in New York, 9:00 our time, then headed to our place.  Susy was having some friends over for snacks and games and they were going to see the New Year in.  After we got back, I headed to bed but Lorraine stayed up and saw the New Year in too. 

Wednesday morning we watched the Rose Bowl Parade on TV.  Lorraine commented a couple of time that we could have been there in person, but with the fridge issues we would have had to drive there, then back here anyway.  But she enjoyed the parade. 

Later we headed over to Susy’s place, we were to watch the Rose Bowl game there.  Stanford was playing Wisconsin and everyone here was rooting for Stanford, of course.  But the game didn’t turn out the way we all hoped, Wisconsin won the game.  So all it all, we were glad we didn’t go to the game, we would have had to come right back and Stanford lost too; not counting it would have been pretty expensive to purchase the tickets. 

Thursday we went by Costco to gas up the car, what a zoo that was.  Then we stopped by a Safeway grocery store and Lorraine picked up the makings for a stew.  She put the stew in the slow cooker where the smell made us hungry all afternoon. 

The fridge repair guy called and came by earlier than they thought but like I said, he couldn’t fix it.  He is sure of the repairs needed, he even had lots of parts to repair other issues but couldn’t find any other problem, guess that’s good.  We still have a freezer in the basement and the fridge portion still works so at least we didn’t lose our food like we did with the Norcold fridge died last fall.  So guess it could have been worse and we could have been in an area where there were no repairman around. 

Friday morning I headed over to the VA, I was going to start the process of getting new hearing aids.  I got my hearing checked, it’s gotten a bit worse but still have one more appointment before they will order new ones for me.  We are going to be gone until April so I need to make that appointment in late February as they can’t make appointments that far in advance for some reason. 

Last week I talked about Lorraine’s computer having issues.  Mark has tried to get it to work, it’s lots better but still not working right.  Because of the extra time here due to the fridge repair, we took it to Best Buy  after my appointment at the VA to see what they can do with it. 

They still have it, running some tests to see if they can repair it.  We think it may be the hard drive and if that is the case, maybe we will get the hard drive replaced or maybe get a new laptop, depends on the cost of the repair.  We were supposed to hear something yesterday but no word as yet. 

After we dropped it off, we looked over their new ones, mostly to see what was available and what the price range would be.  Because we had some time, we went by Fry’s Electronics store to check them out too.  They had a small laptop, new, on sale for just about what it would cost to put a new drive in Lorraine’s old one.  So we bought bought one and will not open it until we find out for sure about her old one.  We can always return the new one if the old one is able to be repaired for less than expected. 

The Elks lodge we are staying at has electric power and water at each site and a dump station available.  I can dump our gray water tank using the hose they have here for that purpose.  I usually only have to dump the gray water every other day unless Lorraine wants to do some laundry then I just leave the hose hooked up while she does laundry. 

Saturday morning I hooked up the hose and drained the gray water tank.  I wanted to watch the NFL playoff games, they are starting the Wild Card games this weekend.  So Susy came by and picked up Lorraine and they headed out for a shopping trip.  Later Mark and Katie came by and spent some time here with me until the gals got back from shopping.  They did run by Best But to see if they could find out anything in person about her computer but no luck on that front either.  Later we had BBQ for dinner and they played board and card games with Katie until it was time for them to leave. 

The weather has been just about outstanding this week.  The highs have been in the 60 – 70s with no sign of rain or even many clouds.  We haven’t had any winds either, it’s just been nice.  We did have two nights where the night time temps got right at freezing but as soon as the sun came up, it started warming up.  No complaints about the weather, for sure. 

Our travel plans have been put on hold, as I said earlier.  We had reservations at 1000 Trails in Palm Springs starting on the 2nd, of course I’ve had to change them.  We have reservations there until the 16th so it’s a day-to-day thing now as to when we get there.  Our plans for after that is to make our annual pilgrimage to Quartzsite for a week or so.  We are planning on going with a group of Tiffin owners the first few day then go over to the group we’ve been with every year we’ve gone there.  We are sure looking forward to seeing some of our friends there, in both groups. 

Guess I’ll add a few pictures now and get this posted. 

Lorraine working in Susy’s kitchen. 

  

Katie show off her Littlest pony pieces. 

  

Katie dressed up for New Years Eve.  She really loves to dress up for any occasion. 

  

At Susy’s getting ready for New Years Eve.  Some of her friends who came. 

  

Getting ready for some snacks before playing games.  We left soon afterwards, didn’t stay until midnight. 

Katie and her friend at our place. 

  

Thanks   Chuck

 

 

 

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