R Sanity RV Adventures

Unexpected Consequences

2012-02-12T21:41:00.001-05:00

You remember your physics class, don't you? You learned one of the laws of physics: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?" I actually learned that not in physics class, but driving a home built wooden go-cart I built down a hill when I was about 10 years old. Yep, I ran into a rock wall at the bottom of the hill (Brakes? I don't need no stinkin' brakes!).

Seems that the momentum I built up kept me going into a patch of weeds when the go-cart came to a sudden stop. :cO As you figured out by now, I survived, none the worse for wear (except maybe my brain got scrambled, producing my warped sense of humor), the go-cart? Well it was back to the drawing board and the next one had brakes. My dad still marvels that I survived childhood.

Looking forward (actually drooling over it) our chance to go fulltime in an RV, my dreams were about traveling to exotic locations across America, seeing the finest sights, the greatest historical places and enjoying exquisite meals at eateries that the average person would never see in their entire lifetime.

Those travel dreams are starting to come true. Since we started fulltiming last December, we've driven across the United States from Virginia to Oregon, down the west coast to San Diego, then eastwards, through Arizona and currently stopping in San Antonio, Texas. We've seen some neat things, met some great folks and yes chowed down on some great (and not so great) food.

The unexpected consequence of living the fulltime life is not having any crushing need to do most anything. We like making list of things we should be doing, but with all the time in the world, there is always tomorrow. Why wash the Journey today when I can do it tomorrow? Laundry? I still have a clean pair of skivvies, so why put a load of dirty clothes in the washer? Food shopping? Tomorrow, we still have peanut butter, jelly and a couple of slices of almost stale bread left.

It seems that nothing has to get done until there is an almost desperate need to do so. Tomorrow is becoming my new mantra. After years of having to get things done on or before impossible deadlines, I'm really enjoying the kicked back life. An unexpected consequence of fulltiming. One I'm really learning to enjoy!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

The Yellow Rose Of Texas

2012-02-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

We've been quite taken with all the different kinds of plants, trees and cacti in Texas. We've had lots of fun photographing and identifying the flora with our Audubon Guide book, well spent money.

At the Saddleback RV Park in Balmora, TX, they have beautiful desert plants all around the park.

Some Beavertail Cactus,

Yucca,

Even wild cotton.

We pulled out and headed for San Antonio. It was going to be a long day's drive, over 350 miles. We decided to do a marathon day and after arriving at our destination, Lackland Air Force Base FamCamp, we'd stay put for four or five days.

While we drove, we enjoyed the scenery of West Texas. They were not kidding when they said everything in bigger in Texas. It is a huge state to drive through. So to make our trip more interesting, we kept our eyes peeled (or shredded, as little Owie says) for the Yellow Rose of Texas. While we were driving, that song came over our XM radio. Too funny.

We never did find a yellow rose anywhere, but we did find a strange tree that we saw all over the place. Searching all the pages in the Audubon guide book didn't give us any idea of what kind of tree is was. We're baffled.

We landed in the FamCamp and we're all hooked up for some rest and fun. Going to do the River Walk and the Alamo, for starters.

It's a tough life we're living, but we're certainly enjoying it. :c)

Marti's Musings: Points to Ponder

2012-02-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I actually participated in this blog (not that Paul doesn't ask me regularly for my perspective) - but he is a humorous writer, and I am....well? Not so much.

So, it's now been just over 2 months since we drove away from my work... literally. December 5th, 2011 will be forever etched in my mind... Paul not-so-patiently waiting while I did the final wrap up, and being cheered and sent off with tears, hugs and waves, as we drove off in our retirement home.

Since then, I have made a few notes, observations, thoughts....still being 'newbies' at this whole full-time bit.... I do have a different perspective than Paul on at least one thing: while we both love this lifestyle, he regularly says "Man, this FT bit makes me feel young!" My response? "Yeah, and it makes me feel like I am back at work!" No offense meant at any of our elder friends, just a quirky little note on perspectives! ;-) Of course, I feel right at home! LOL

So, some of my jotted notes include the following:

This lifestyle is definitely NOT for those folks who don't like change! Contrarily, this lifestyle is ALL about change, flexibility, and you know "Semper Gumby" - Always Flexible!

I will know I have finally converted and become an official full-timer, when I routinely refer to the RV as ''home" (not there yet)
I LOVE the fact that we now have a home (see? getting there) on the beach, in the desert, in the mountains, and near ALL the grandtreasures! Funny, we used to dream about one day having a little place in the mountains, near Disney..... who knew we would have one pretty much anywhere? We daily thank God for the blessing of this lifestyle...
Getting creative with storage is a learning process - and a necessity
Still learning that with the time zone changes, our sleep and eating patterns get waaay messed up, but it is OKAY to stay up late, sleep in late and have dinner at 9pm if we want.... still working on the nagging guilt, though. ;-)
I am starting to realize that my life before retirement and full-timing, I was existing - THIS is living!
We have come to realize that worshiping God is the same among strangers or friends, we are all God's family and 'the church' goes beyond the walls of your local church! (just one more blessing)
It is sooo much easier to throw things out/recycle/give away things - you know the things that annoy, don't work just right, don't fit comfortably, don't get used. There can be no mind-set of: 'I might need that one day' - now it's 'get rid of it, if I need it one day, I will get it then!

There is an instant bond with fellow RVers, that often grow into dear friendships! It is particularly amusing to meet folks that follow the blog, and already know so much about us! We get a real kick out of that.....
I still enjoy manicure/pedicures (Laurie? You're on - when we meet up, the guys can go to the local museum, you and I will go for mani/pedis! ) - and not all manicurists are the same... :-(
I am getting more and more picky about the campgrounds - I am not a huge fan of boon-docking, although, when we must, it is comforting to know we can!
It is easier than I thought it would be, to stay busy. Most days, I run out of time before I get all done that I wanted to.
I am enjoying crafting once again! And as I am an avid video gamer, I am enjoying that immensely, too!
Lastly, I am finding that with the relaxed lifestyle I am ever so conscious of our blessings from God. Family - always important, now we feel so blessed with our families and their support and love. Friends - some friendships both new and old have become treasures! We both feel blessed more than we deserve, so grateful we have each other to share this with. It doesn't get any better than being able to share this life with your best friend, especially if he/she is your spouse. We are humbled, and ever so grateful. Well, that's all for now..... thanks for your support and encouragement during this time of our life. Blessings! That includes you, our readers and followers!

~Marti

Empty West Texas?

2012-02-09T23:42:00.001-05:00

We ate breakfast this morning while listening to the sounds of freedom, fighter jets from Holloman AFB taking off and flying overhead. Even though I've hung up my military career, it's very comforting to know that other brave men and woman have stepped up to the challenge of protecting our country and our freedom.

We did a drive by of White Sands National Monument and then headed south toward El Paso, TX. Entering Texas we started looking for all the emptiness I've heard people talk about. El Paso surely is not an empty place by any means, it's more like a full plate of insane drivers. Or maybe we've been lost in the desert too long.

Getting through El Paso we did finally get to the empty part of Texas. We didn't find empty wastelands, instead we found different kinds of beauty. Mountains in the distance with sunlight and clouds playing over them. Sweeping views of wide open plains, covered with brush and Soap Yucca plants, which look like something out of a Dr Suess book.

We ended the day at Saddleback Mountain RV Park, about mid way between El Paso and San Antonio. Another Passport America Park, we sure do appreciate the savings we've gotten with our membership. We'll be here for two days chillin' and relaxing. I've got a bunch of books loaded on my Kindle and so does Marti on her Kindle. Yep, we had to buy another one to keep from fighting over the first one.

The campground is right off I-10 and even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles (and hot tubs), you can see lots of care and attention have gone into it, it's clean and neat and even had cacti all around for Marti's enjoyment. :c)

We've reached another milestone, tonight's post is our 500th since we started our blog in April 2010, documenting our journey to travel full time and then our new life on the road. I want to reach back to our very first post which tells our story of how we came to fall in love with travel by RV. Hope you enjoy a post from the past.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Arguing Down The Highway

2012-02-08T23:47:00.001-05:00

We departed the Dreamcatcher RV Park this morning to a cool, sunny day. Being that it was 45 degrees (Fahrenheit, not Celsius, I can never think in those terms, it's too hard to unlearn Fahrenheit) I was dressed in my usual shorts. People that know me know I love shorts and T shirts and wear them as much as possible. 40 degrees is my cut off and then the long pants are pulled out. But I digress.

The goal today was Alamogordo, NM and the military campground on Holloman AFB. We had two goals, get a site so we could tour White Sands NP and meet Kevin and Sheryl who are more of our "Old New Friends", friends we have gotten to know well from our respective blogs, but we have never met in person.

After a couple of hours of driving, we arrived at the base and went looking for the campground. That's when the arguing started in earnest. Not between Marti and me, but between our two GPS units we have in the Journey, a 7 inch GPS mounted on the dash where I can see it and a smaller GPS unit stuck on the window next to Marti's right shoulder so she can navigate us on our travels.

Evidently the AFB has competed a major reconstruction of its roads and none of the work was in either GPS's database. They argued with each other, "turn right" when there was no road and the old "make a legal U turn" kept coming out of their little speakers, one in a male voice and the other in a woman's voice. You'd have thought they were married or something. :cO

We have a Military Campground Book, the most recent one out there, printed in 2008, it didn't match anything close to what the GPSs were telling us.

Finally, the manly man that I am, (being in touch with my feminine side), I stopped, got out of the Journey and went over to a bunch of Airmen and asked directions to the campground.

You'd have thought it was a Republican Presidential Candidate debate, none of them agreed with each other and with much finger pointing and turn by turn directions, I left with their "guidance". Carefully following their every word, we ended up at the RV storage lot. Close, but no cigar.

Driving around some more, expecting to be pulled over by security police for our suspicious behavior, we found the base exchange. Marti took a turn and went in with a pen and paper. Several minutes later, she came out with directions to the building that housed the office of Outdoor Recreation. Getting warmer.

Finding the Outdoor Rec building, Marti got the directions to the campground, the real one this time, and away we went.

Alas, there was no room in the inn. Actually all the sites were full, but we were welcome to camp in their overflow lot for a princely sum of $3/night. Cool beans. We set up and shortly afterwards had a visitor, Kevin, our blogging friend we were hoping to meet, who is staying here at the FamCamp.

He's a super guy and we had a terrific visit. It felt like we were talking to an old friend. Unfortunately his wife, Sheryl is under the weather and was home in their trailer in bed. We'll meet her next time we cross paths.

Even though we didn't get a site, the overflow is fine and meeting Kevin was certainly the highlight of the day. Tomorrow, we're going to head out, drive through White Sands NP in the Journey, then turn in the direction of San Antonio, TX. The Riverwalk and the Alamo beckon.

Hopefully we can get off the base with a little less arguing from the GPS units! ;c)

Lastly, a note: Our blog counter just rolled over 100,000 hits. We never thought that there would be that many visits from folks following along as we travel to see what kind of trouble we get ourselves into next. Thanks to all for reading and following our new full time life!

Someday, we may be coming to a campground near you... ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Catching Dreams

2012-02-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

We left Tucson this morning (sniff) and headed East. It was another one of those annoying warm, sunny days, it seems that is all they get in Tucson. ;c)

Nothing interesting done today except travel on down the road to the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming, NM. 219 miles. A good day's drive, we're liking these short jaunts.

Like a good boy, I pulled off the road at one of the touristy (trap) places so Marti could stretch her legs, go inside and look at all the little shiny stuff. I took a nap. It was a perfect shopping experience, Marti didn't have me tagging along, sighing and rolling my eyes and I caught some ZZZs.

The Dreamcatcher park is nothing special, it does have smooth, large and level sites. But for $12.50 a night (plus electric) you can't complain. It is right off the highway and a great overnight stop. If we stopped at Walmart, it would cost me waaay more than that. Our next destination is Alamogordo, NM. We want to see the White Sands NP. We've blown by it a couple of times in the past and didn't have the time to stop, so we're making the time this go around.

We are pretty pleased with the new Verizon MiFi, but my laptop is not working well. I can connect to the Internet, but cannot open any further links. Did a disc cleanup and deleted all the cookies, all to no avail. It has been pretty frustrating and as soon as I can get it in to a repair place, the better. Fortunately, Marti's laptop works well, so I am borrowing it (when she's not looking).

It's nice to have such minor problems to deal with, but that's the retired life. Hope we find more interesting things to do over the next few days. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

2012-02-06T22:27:00.002-05:00

Marti's eyes glazed over. It was one of those things you do for love and she must really love me...because I took her to another museum, this time the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Like the good trooper she is, she came along and made the best of it. I know exactly how she feels, I feel the same way every time we go shopping together, she's a shopper, I'm a buyer.

The museum has a fabulous collection of over 300 military and civilian aircraft, even some from foreign countries like several Russian MIGs. I love looking at the World War II aircraft, some of those are my favorites like this B-29. My dad flew on and maintained these aircraft during the war.

One of the interseting things about this museum is you can get right up to the aircraft and look inside. Here is the view looking up into the bombay of the B-29.

The main reason we went to the museum was to get on the bus tour of the aircraft "Boneyard", where over 4000 aircraft from all the military branches (even the Coast Guard!) are stored.

The planes are kept for a variety of reasons: they are excess, have been superceeded by a newer model, are kept for parts to keep other aircraft flying, (like the B-52 bomber of which the very newest one was built in 1962 and plans are to keep about 50 of them flying for another 50 years!) or are destined for scrapping.

One other reason some of the aircraft are stored. They become flying drones for target practice.

Here is one of several hundred F-4 Phantoms. It will be taken to an area where it will be restored to flying status. It will then have remote controls installed into it so it can be flown without a pilot in the cockpit. It will be used for training new pilots and after about 25 flights where it is a target but not fired upon, it gets fired upon for real and shot down. By the time it is destroyed, another F-4 is readied to become the next target drone.

Aircraft that have no further military use are given the dreaded "D" painted on the nose with an "X" through it, for destruction and scraping.

It is an amazing tour to see all the kinds of aircraft stored here.

Also stored here are the jigs and tooling for aircraft that are currently in use but no longer in production. If a national emergency occured where more aircraft are needed the equipment can be reused and production can be resumed.

A few more random pictures from around the Boneyard.

Unlike most government operations, the Boneyard, officially know as the 309th Aircraft Maintenance And Repair Group (AMARG) makes a profit from the sale of scraped aircraft to make it self sustaining. Now if other government operations could learn from them...

The tour starts at the Pima Air and Space Museum. It is about an hour and a half long on a nice, air conditioned bus, with a tour guide. The cost is $7 and requires a picture ID. Lot of fun to see your tax dollars at work! ;c)

Now I owe Marti an extended shopping trip...

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Running In The Desert

2012-02-05T23:07:00.000-05:00

We're always looking for new experiences in our fulltime travels. We've heard time and again that one of the best burgers a person can get is an In-n-Out burger. There was one nearby so we decided it would be a great place to eat lunch and try out this delicacy.

The place was mobbed, standing in line almost forever, we knew we were in for a special treat. Little did we know what kind of a treat it was going to turn out to be.

After several lifetimes of waiting, our burgers were served. We sat down, hands shaking in anticipation and chomped down. Huh?

The burgers didn't taste very good at all, in fact, they were pretty disappointing. White Castle makes tastier burgers. Since we had already paid for the burgers and had a couple of places we were going to today, we just choked them down and headed out. We thought the burgers were pretty forgettable. How wrong we were.

We drove to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a highly rated "must see" in this area. We've fallen in love with the Arizona desert and want to learn as much about it as possible.

The museum is excellent with fascinating exhibits. Along with the reptiles (there's lots of kinds of snakes in the desert...Marti passed on that exhibit), we visited a prairie dog village,

saw a real live mountain lion (they're pretty big...including their teeth),

even a bat cave!

The Desert Museum's exhibits are spread out along a two mile trail. The facilities are back at the entrance. This is where the day got really interesting. The In-n-Out burgers attacked. As in no longer wanting "In". In fact, the "Out" became an urgent out, as in Turkey Trot out. Of course, the alarm bells went off at the farthest end of the two mile trail. :cO

We try to get exercise every day, some long walks, hikes, bike riding. Today, it was power walking, actually power running. People jumped back off the trail as first I came steaming through, then, a little later, Marti. I bet they thought the mountain lion had gotten loose.

Happily, we both made it in time. For me, because I erroneously ordered a double In-n-Out burger, I made it in time, several times.

Never a dull moment for us, but rest assured we'll never darken the doors of another In-n-Out burger joint.

Once we had regained our composure, we started again our tour of the exhibits, staying much closer to the front of the museum, just in case. There were lots of cactus for Marti to enjoy.

When we finished the museum, we had to drive the roads in Saguaro National Park.

There is a $10 entry fee. With a debit card, I hardly ever carry much cash. The visitor center was unmanned and it has an honor system ticket booth, where you take an envelope, put in your money and deposit it in a lock box, then taking a tear off portion of the envelope as your pass.

Opening my wallet, I had nine dollars. Scrounging around in all my pockets, I came up with enough change to make up that last dollar. Hopefully, they don't mind 15 pennies. If they do, we're already long gone. ;c)

Off in the distance we could see huge groups of solar panels, each group larger than several football fields put together. With the high temps here in the summer and the huge demand for electricity, solar energy is a good renewable resource. After all, it seems like the sun shines here every day, and this is the winter. (Do you think they'd notice if a couple of panels came up missing?)

The cactus were beautiful and many of them were waving hello to us. We even saw one that seemed to have been influenced by Disney.

A coyote walked across the road in front of us, and we were so thrilled to see it, we never thought to take a picture until it was well into the bushes on the other side of the road. Oops!

We really (really) like Tucson, it could be high on our list of a place to settle down again someday, if it wasn't so far away from our kids. Maybe a winter lot...?

Before we make any choices like that, we've got a whole lot of the U. S. to see, so stay with us as we roll along.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Stepping Back In Time

2012-02-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

Oops! We were going to go to the aircraft boneyard today but we were saved at the last minute from a big mistake. Looking over the brochure in the campground office while we were waiting to get our FHU site, I noticed that the tours are given year round...Monday through Friday. Fortunately I remembered that today was Saturday, thank goodness I checked the retirement day clock this morning.

We were able to get the exact site we wanted out of eight that came open. We were third on the pick list and in no time were moved and set up. This is a really nice campground and at $19/night, plus all the jet watching for free, we almost could not ask for anything better (except a hot tub).

So we Semper Gumby'd it and changed to go back in time, to Old Tucson Movie Studios.

The drive out to the studios was amazing, with mountain vistas literally covered with all kinds of cacti, we wished we had brought some folding chairs so we could have stopped and sat in the chairs for hours just trying to soak in all the beauty.

Old Tucson Studios is an old western town where literally hundreds of western movies and TV shows were filmed. Walking the streets, we could just imagine seeing John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Richard Boone, Chuck Conners, and the Cartwrights while the cameras were rolling.

This is the set for the famous western, The Three Amigos, which starred Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short.

Someone could have made a fortune with a building like this in Quartzsite.

We found one building that we could visit to help our budget.

Yes, we're really not liking this full time life. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Agave Gulch FamCamp

2012-02-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

It was a terrible day's drive this morning, from Lazydays RV Campground to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Agave Gulch FamCamp, all 7.6 miles of it. Not quite the record held by Sherry, but nothing short of amazing for us.

The FamCamp is in Tucson, AZ and is one of the top FamCamps in the entire military campground system. It is very popular and remains full almost all the way through the winter season. Retired military snowbirds and fulltimers (that means us!) take advantage of it.

They have a rotational system. When you arrive you are put into the no hook up dry camp area and go on a waiting list.

Our dry camp site is huge, even though it's gravel, it is very nice. We'll almost be sad to leave it for a FHU site. That should be tomorrow. The FamCamp inventories how many FHU sites will be open every day. Dry campers go on a waiting list and most of those on a list will get the next available site in order of who checked in first. We took a look around at tomorrow's sites and they all look great.

We walked around the campground and Marti enjoyed looking at the plant life. She'd love to take this one along with us.

The interesting thing is the campground is right next to the military aircraft storage facility, nicknamed "The Boneyard".

Yesterday's pictures were of the engine of a A-10 Thunderbolt (aka "Warthog") that was being scrapped. The second picture was of one of the recycling plants that recycles scrapped aircraft into reusable materials.

There are different levels of storage. The first level is of excess aircraft that are in flyable condition like the picture above of the wrapped helicopters. Sometimes when military units are downsized, the equipment goes into storage until it is needed and then put back into operation. Sometimes the aircraft have been upgraded with new models so the older ones are stored to be kept in reserve for reuse or sale to other countries. They are wrapped to protect them from the elements, this base is an excellent place to store aircraft because the it is so dry.

Other aircraft fall into the another level where they are stripped for spare parts to keep the operational aircraft flying.

Then there is the category where the aircraft are so obsolete or seriously damaged they are scrapped for recycling like this old B-52.

We are going to take a tour of "The Boneyard" this weekend, should be some interesting pictures. Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Are There Hot Tubs In Heaven?

2012-02-02T22:38:00.001-05:00

There surely must be hot tubs in the other place...maybe a little too hot?

We spent our first night at the Lazydays campground in Tucson, staying up a little too late (we're becoming serious night owls) and sleeping in a little to late to fly with the eagles in the morning.

But hey, we're retired, so we can do these things if we want to, right?

The campground is very nice, the amenities are super, from a large laundromat, to a fitness room (to make you feel guilty), even an on site restaurant and free WiFi (figures now that we have a Verizon MiFi). The sites are immaculate, the roads are paved and smooth, the shrubbery is perfectly cut.

Not only is Camping World here, but a huge RV repair facility and RV showroom/lot. If you don't like the RVs for sale at the Lazydays dealership, you can go across or down the street to several other dealerships carrying other brands. Kind of like an RV Mall.

They do offer club discounts too, we got $5 per night off with our Good Sam membership. The nightly price is reasonably on par with many upscale campgrounds out West or run of the mill campgrounds in the East.

Marti is fascinated with the cactus and other desert plants that grow out here in Arizona. She bought a guide book to help her identify what they are. She and Brenda Brown were using it the other day when we drove along the Apache Trail.

Now she has fallen in love with the greenery and has me stop the car so she can run and take pictures of the plants to post on her Facebook account to show to all her friends back East.

Tomorrow we're pulling out of this campground and heading over to the Famcamp at Davis-Monthan AFB. We're going to stay through Monday night, then hit the road heading into New Mexico.

We ran around today and did a couple of errands, including picking up a big box of mail from the post office and visiting the Sprint store. No, I did not have to grab the salesman's tie to get help (he wasn't wearing one anyway). The salesman was very helpful and even told me the answer to the security question Sprint had on my account: "What was the name of your elementary school". Answer on file: "Elementary School". Believe it or not, I was speechless... :cO

Back at the campground, the hot tub felt heavenly. We soaked and soaked some more. Now if they could just put one in an RV, that would be a floorplan I'd be very interested in. ;c)

We have some plans of things we're going to do over the next few days beside watch the Super Bowl (We have to watch this one, Marti's from Massachusetts and I'm from New Jersey. No matter who wins, one of us isn't going to be very talkative to the other).

A preview of one thing we're going to do:

Here's a little hint:

Any guesses?

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Short Jaunt To Tucson

2012-02-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

It was hard to leave, but we had to pull out of John and Brenda's Dogpound South, but not before we located and circled their Dogpound North Ranch in Canada. Yep, we didn't scare them off, they actually want us to come and visit them up there in the wild and frigid North (but in the summer). ;c)

We topped off at the Flying J in Eloy, AZ, both the diesel and propane tanks. With our stay in the desert of Quartzsite, we ran the generator quite a bit and used propane for heat (it did get a little cool at night). I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't need as much or either item as I thought we would. Happiness is fewer gallons of diesel needed.

Originally, we planned on heading to the Famcamp at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, but...Semper Gumby (Always Flexible). We changed our plans when a phone call to them revealed the only site they had was in their dry camping area, we'd have to wait for someone in the hook up sites to leave.

We couldn't resist the call of full hook ups so we decided to splurge a little and booked two night at the Lazydays Campground instead. Yes, it is more per night than we budgeted, but they have a hot tub (actually two) and you know how much I like hot tubes. These bones were made for soaking... :c)

It is a huge campground and RV dealership. They even have one of these stores here.

What's not to love?

So we're all comfy and relaxed here. Tomorrow we have a couple of errands to run (watch out Mr. Sprint salesman, don't tell me I don't know where I went to elementary school!).

We crunched our budget numbers for January and we're only $400 over. We used a bit more propane than we anticipated (funny how it gets cold at night coming down the coast from the Northwest and into the desert) and we overdid it by eating out a lot. How can you turn down going with your Escapees group of friends to a fine dining establishment like Quartzsite's Grubstake? In retrospect, we should have passed on that meal.

We did spend some extra money on the food category, too, but much of it was to stock up the Journey's pantry and freezer. We're getting the hang of this full time life, and we've got plenty of time to perfect it. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Riding The Apache Trail

2012-02-01T01:09:00.000-05:00

It is embarrassing. John and Brenda Brown at their Dogpound South Ranch have welcomed us with open arms and are happy to have us moochdocking on their property.

We should have been paying big bucks for this opportunity to visit with them and the tour of some of the amazing sights along the Apache Trail that they've taken us on.

Our first stop was the campground located here, just outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

Not only is there a beautiful campground, the surrounding area is packed with stunning scenery. A short hike placed Usery Mountain Regional Park on our "Must Visit" list...for an extended stay.

We headed out along the Apache Trail and were treated to amazing vistas, rugged mountains and incredible views of Mother Nature's handiwork.

Down the road was a little store with genuine Old West items, made in China. One interesting thing they had on display on the wall was a collection of rifles that won the West.

They also had a collection of hats that the white man wore to celebrate winning the West.

Now the Indians are winning back the West from the white man, in their casinos, one nickel at a time. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Visiting More Old Friends For The First Time

2012-01-31T00:42:00.001-05:00

It's a different world, a secret society. It almost requires special knowledge and secret handshakes. Actually, this world is made up of people that have three things in common, an RV, a blog and a desire for travel and meet new "old" friends.

Okay, that's four things, but since we've retired, we're having a hard time keeping track of things, time, days of the week and where we are going next, let alone being able to count...

We started out the day with breakfast and a phone call to Sprint to cancel our aircard with them. With three tries running through the Sprint phone tree to try a get a representative, we finally ended up with Peggy, then to Peggy II and finally Peggy the supervisor.

They required me to answer a security question: "What is the name of your elementary school". Not hard, being that I was the only Paul Dahl that attended the Robert Erskine Elementary School in Ringwood, New Jersey. I got the same answer from all three Peggys, "That is not the correct answer".

I still have my kindergarten picture in my Robert Erskine Elementary School yearbook to prove I was really there. They didn't believe me.

To resolve the situation, I have to report to a Sprint store in Tucson, Arizona with three picture IDs, my birth certificate (original, not a copy), a U.S. passport and my social security card. That probably will be enough to prove I am who I say I am. You'd think I was trying to renew my drivers license or something. :cO

One good thing about going to the Sprint store in person, if they still don't believe that I am the one and only Paul Dahl that attended the Robert Erskine Elementary School, I'll have the satisfaction of reaching across the counter and grabbing the salesman by the tie to convince him that I did, in fact provide the correct answer. ;c)

We got under way and headed out to Maricopa, Arizona to visit John and Brenda Brown. One of the great things about the RV lifestyle is you get to know the nicest people, and John and Brenda are especially nice...they're Canadians! :c)

We had gotten to know each other via our RV blogs and comments on each other's blog. They were a tremendous encouragement to us when we were so frustrated trying to sell our house and were one of the first folks to congratulate us when we finally hit the road full time. They invited us to visit their "Dogpound South" ranch and this afternoon we pulled in to smiles and hugs from them.

We spent a lovely afternoon chatting on their porch and then over a delicious dinner Brenda cooked. We felt like we've known them forever and when we finally retired to the Journey for the night (parked next to their house) we were glad to give our ribs a rest, they were sore from all the laughter.

Tomorrow they are taking us for a tour of some neat things in the area. We're looking forward to more fun with our "old" new friends. This RV life is agreeing with us. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Getting Used To Short Travel Days

2012-01-29T21:29:00.000-05:00

It was really hard leaving the friends we made in Quartzsite. It had been a wonderful time putting voices to the faces of people we had gotten to "know" from their blogs. The evening campfires were especially fun.

Exchanging hugs, smiles, a few tears and promises of "We'll see you down the road", we pulled out of La Posa South, heading East on highway I-10. We could have stayed longer, but the call of a couple of days at a campground with full hook ups, a chance to take longer showers and being able to wash a week's worth of Quartzsite dust from our clothes a was an irresistible draw. Not to mention that we needed to let our wallets time to cool off. Yes, Marti did find some nice shiny, space saving items to adorn herself with. ;c)

I was very concerned on how the newly installed Air Force One toad breaking system was going to work.
Having heard horror stories of burned out brakes on tow cars with other systems, I stopped a couple of times to check if everything was correctly in place, and did two hard braking tests to satisfy all was in order. Everything seemed to be working right, except the LED lights that are attached to the backside of the Element's review mirror. They are supposed to light up every time the Element's brakes are engaged and you view them in the Journey's rear camera.

They do work properly, unfortunately, I can't make them out in the rear camera's screen. I may have to put a different kind of bulb set up there to make them visible. I'll do a post on the system after I put a few miles on it, so far it appears to be working seamlessly. :c)

It was a beautiful day for traveling, a sunny sky and a nice, light tailwind! We lucked out and saw the Journey's fuel mileage up in the mid to high 8 mpg range. Unfortunately, we only drove 37 miles to the Saddleback Mountain RV Park. Why is it on long travel days you get headwinds?

The park is really beautiful, nicely laid and and well maintained. We used out Escapees membership to get a discount on a site for two nights, even though the park is a participant in Passport America, that half off discount is not offered this time of year. No worries, the price we paid is still in our budget range.

We spent a lazy Sunday enjoying our full time life. A nice church service, right at the campground, a couple of loads of laundry done and laying around in the warm Arizona sun, what's not to love? Even a gorgeous sunset to end the day. We feel like we're the luckiest people on earth!

We reached a major milestone yesterday, too. We are now listed on Hitchitch, the premier RV travel blog website! If you've never been there, give them a visit.

I'm still having problems with my laptop, but I've got a temporary work-around so I can keep our posts coming. When we're in a place for several days in the near future, it's going in to a repair shop for a tune-up.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Around The Quartzsite BLM

2012-01-28T21:53:00.001-05:00

For our friends and family back East that have never been to Quartzsite, Arizona, we thought we'd show a snapshot of what it's like to camp in the wilds of the desert.

A family portrait, the R Sanity Team, the Journey, the Element toad and the "Tadpoles", our two Honda scooters (they fit in the Element, get it?).

We stayed at the Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) La Posa South area, just a mile or two south of the main Quartzsite RV show. The first thing you see is the Check In Station, where you purchase your dry camping pass.

La Posa South has the only dump/water station in the whole area.

Sometimes, the lines of RVers waiting to dump can be quite long. It is helpful to arrive with empty waste tanks and a full fresh water tank.

The desert floor is hard packed and you can drive the heaviest RV on it with no problem. There is lots of room. Some RVers come to Quartzsite to meet with other RVers in groups or clubs. Here is a gathering of Blue Bird RVs.

Other RVers choose to go off by themselves and enjoy solitude.

Some RVers bring toys, like ATVs to ride around the vast desert areas.

We enjoy riding the Tadpoles (Honda Scooters). Marti loves riding hers and really tears up the dirt roads and trails...at ten miles per hour.

While we were riding, Marti's phone rang. Unlike the old days before she retired, this phone call was a wonderful chat with our daughter, Heather, who was checking up on her parents to make sure they weren't lost in the desert!

We had a "Meet-n-Great" of fellow bloggers listed on the great "Hitchitch.com" website.

Here is Barbara and Diana, both long time fulltimers and terrific bloggers.

Of course a get together has to have the some good munchies to go along with it.

Riding around the BLM lands, you see all kinds of RVs, from fancy ones,

to small, older trailers.

There is something for everyone at Quartzsite in January, from shopping at the RV show,

to enjoying the quiet solitude and beauty of the desert.

Our favorite was to sit around the campfire at night and enjoy the company of our RV friends. Much great conversation, stories and a few whoppers of lies (who me?) were told there. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Getting Fed Up

2012-01-28T00:41:00.000-05:00

Today we bit the bullet and fired Sprint, we replaced that aircard with a Verizon MiFi. The new unit works perfectly on Marti's laptop, but my laptop is not responding to it and I cannot get online with the new MiFi or the old Sprint aircard.

These computer problems are beyond my abilities, I'm the guy that fixes things with wrenches and hammers...BIG hammers. Marti, however has loved the challenge of computer issues, so she's taking a crack at it. My computer has all the pictures on it of the things we've done while out and about Quartzsite, so those posts will have to wait.

Tonight was the last campfire, tomorrow most of our group will be heading out separate ways. We are going to slowly head towards Phoenix, AZ, we're going to stop for a day or two at a campground along the way that has full hook ups. We've got a pile of laundry loaded with Quartzsite dust that has to be taken care of. Plus we get to try out our newly installed Air Force One toad braking system. I like the simplicity of it, so stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

My Apologies

2012-01-25T23:45:00.000-05:00

Once more I have to say sorry there are no pictures tonight. I took a bunch of Quartzsite's La Posa South Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) to show what the Quartzsite camping experience looks like.

Unfortunately, I have barely one and a half bars of connectivity on the aircard tonight, so those pictures will have to wait.

Last night a group of us went out to another of Quartzsite's "fine dining" establishments, the Grubstake. Some of our group had dined here before and highly recommended the fish fry. Since Marti is allergic to fish and I rarely have it, I took the advice and ordered it. Mistake, big mistake.

I was up most of the night paying the piper for consuming that fish. Talking to some members of the group this morning, several others became ill last night from their meals, and they didn't have fish.

The handwriting on the wall is we're never going to darken the doors of that place again.

Marti and I did get a nice ride in on the scooters today. Even though they are not off road bikes, they do well on the desert roads, even if there are lots (lots) of small rocks. Taking it slow and easy made for a nice ride around enjoying the cactus and the beautiful mountain scenery.

Tomorrow we're hosting a small get together with some blogging friends for an afternoon snack session at our campsite. One thing that is common all around here, half the fun is sharing the love of the outdoors and the RV lifestyle with the people here. The other half is shopping at the RV show.

It's a great place to visit at least once (this is our second time, the first was January 2006) and we're having a ball. Put it on your bucket list if you have not been here yet. Just don't come in August. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Doing Our Share To Support The Economy

2012-01-25T12:38:00.001-05:00

We spent the morning running some errands up in Parker, AZ this morning (about 30 miles North of Quartzsite) and enjoyed a nice sunny, warm day, even if it was a little windy. Once we returned to "Q", we hit the big tent to make some purchases and finalize our choice of toad braking systems.

We bought the Air Force One braking system at a very good price and booked the installation. The installer is coming to our site out in the desert on Friday instead of us having to fight our way through the traffic to the big tent area. That is really nice and easy for us.

We picked up some LED lights for the Journey for about $10 less apiece than we've seen them anywhere else. And Marti picked up some great Yellowbox sandals, her favorite brand. We wandered around some of the vendors outside of the big tent and met blogger friends Kimberly and Jerry, who are working a vendor booth here. We've followed their blog for some time and corresponded back and forth for a while. Kimberly made us a great funnel cake, too. What is it about fried dough and powdered sugar that makes them such a tasty treat?

There is so much to see here and so many interesting vendors you can walk the soles off your shoes. We crossed the street to look at some other ones. Some junk, some trinkets and some "must have" treasures (for somebody). All for sale.

Marti found a great shirt she wanted to buy for me to memorialize my tank dumping experiences (disasters).

RVers find many ways to support their lifestyle. We saw a couple that support their travels by picking through the trash dumpsters to find cans and plastic bottles that they can turn them in and collect the nickle deposit. It's a shame that the BLM doesn't provide any receptacles so people can recycle.

Sorry this post is late, but again we've been having fun getting and staying connected on the Internet.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Fighting For Bandwidth

2012-01-23T23:08:00.005-05:00

With all the RVs (no kidding, thousands are here in Quartzsite and the adjacent BLM lands),

it's getting harder and harder to get online. Everybody is trying to get on line. That makes it really tough to find a little bandwidth to make a post, let alone stick on a picture.

So with apologies if we turn up "missing in action" here and there, a day or two, now you'll know why. Of course tonight, I got a strong signal with my aircard, so it made a liar out of me. :cO

Today we went to the Big Tent with a major mission.

Our Roadmaster tow bar was showing its age and had some wear and tear that needed attention. Roadmaster, as well as other tow bar manufacturers like Blue Ox have service areas where they will repair, rebuild or overhaul your tow bar for minimal costs.

Our tow bar needed an upgraded swivel joint, which cost $125, as well as repair on its sticky release mechanisms. A new tow bar would have cost over $800, so the chance to get it upgraded was well worth it.

A couple of hours later, the tow bar was finished and looked brand new. We gave the tech a good tip for all his hard work. We're pleased.

Next was a walk through the tent and then around the outside, looking at all the vendors selling everything from RV supplies to foot massages (we passed on that). We were looking for an upgraded braking system for our tow car that is permanently installed and we found what we were looking for with the Air Force One system. We're going to book an install tomorrow.

LED light bulbs are next on our agenda and we're going to replace some reading light bulbs with them. The reading light bulbs not only are amp hogs, they get really hot. We've burned our fingers on them a couple of times just trying to turn off the light and touching the bulb while reaching for the switch. There are a half dozen bulb vendors, so we'll shop around inside the tent for the best price.

We're enjoying the chance to shop when we want and chill out afterwards. The Escapees group we're with at La Posa South have been a blast to hang with and we're learning lots of tips and ideas from them about the fulltime lifestyle. We may have been RVing for years, but we're rookies or newbies at this life, so that must make us "newkies" or maybe "rookbies". ;c)

Whatever we are, we're sure loving the lifestyle.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Touchdown In Quartzsite

2012-01-22T22:48:00.000-05:00

Gritting our teeth from all the wind blown sand that resulted from yesterday's dust storm, we did a quick breakfast at the casino and hit the road to clear skies and little wind.

Once again we enjoyed the scenery as we drove along I-10 into Arizona. We made it to Quartzsite with 50,000 of our closest RV friends, not counting the thousands more who were already camped out in the BLM lands surrounding the town.

We signed into La Posa South Long Term Visitors Area (LTVA) and went looking for our Escapees group. We eventually unhooked the Element and drove that around, with no results.

Our group had a white tent and that was what we were keying on, unsuccessfully. We gave up and made a phone call to Jeri, who had invited us, she jumped into her Jeep, tracked us down and led us to the group location.

We found out the white tent we were looking for blew down in yesterday's wind storm, so we felt better about being so lost.

We intend to be here at least 5 or 6 days and we'd love to meet with any of our blogging friends that might be out and about. Feel free to contact us at our email address (located on the very bottom of our blog post) and we'll work out some get together.

Stand by for our adventures here in Quartzsite.

It Never Rains In California???

2012-01-21T23:28:00.000-05:00

That song may have been correct for the last few days, but this morning, when we were going to leave, man it poured. Our site was not cement, not gravel, it was dirt. Was being the important word. This morning, it was shoe sucking mud.

Fortunately I keep an old pair of shoes in the closet, so I was able to schlep around with out doing any damage to nicer footwear.

We got out of the mudhole, er site, and headed on out way. Destination: Quartzsite.

Eventually we came out of the rainstorm and headed on down the road with a stop at a Flying J to fuel, dump the tanks and get propane.

We are thrilled with our fulltime lifestyle and the new adventures it brings. Today we got an adventure that was something we never experience before and was not thrilling.

We ran into extremely high winds and a first for us, a genuine desert dust storm.

The blowing sand was blinding at times and the wind pushed us around quite a bit. I was glad the Journey handled well despite the heavy gusts but we grimaced when hearing the sand hitting the sides. We were expecting to have all the paint sand blasted off the body. :cO

Of course, our important stop at the Flying J was right in the middle of the dust storm. Fortunately the blowing sand lessened, but the winds kept up. As I was fueling the Journey I was watching trash barrels, mats, even fuel pump metal panels blow around. Despite all the debris, we were able to get the fuel and propane tanks filled and the black and gray tanks emptied. Marti even helped me by keeping her foot on the dump hose end where it entered the sewer drain. We didn't need an "accident" with the wind blowing as hard as it was.

A quick stop at a nearby Walmart for some cold cuts and we were back out on the highway fighting the wind and blowing sand.

After a while, the better part of valor became obvious, we had to get off the road. The winds and blowing sand, along with the nutty, speeding drivers made our decision easy. The next good place we could find we'd stop. We were more than a hundred miles from Quartzsite and we'd fight the weather all the way only to find ourselves trying to get into one of the BLM sites at night. Not a good scenario.

We called a nearby campground and it was booked full (surprise) so we looked for an alternative and found one, a casino right off the highway, 29 Spotlight Casino. There were a bunch of RVs in the huge parking lot already, so we joined them. The posted rules allow a 24 hour stay so we were golden and very glad to get off the road.

Safety first, it is a good stop, RVs are still pulling in and the prime rib at the buffet was delicious!

Sorry, no pictures, the aircard signal is weak. :c(

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Space Invaders?

2012-01-21T01:23:00.003-05:00

Today being our last day in the San Diego area, we went on an exploration trip to the Navy Base on Coronado Island. Once again, the sun was shining and the air was warm and inviting. I guess the song is true, it never rains in Southern California (we're NOT complaining!).

The Navy Base is home to a bunch of helicopter squadrons, it was neat to see them buzzing around in their pale grey Seahawk choppers (the Navy's version of the Army's Blackhawk).

On the base, there is a private beach. When we walked out on the sand, we couldn't believe how crowded it was.

We decided to come back another time when there are not so many people about.

Near the base is a FamCamp called Fiddler's Cove RV Park. It is right on the water, there are 40+ sites. No hookups, dry camping only, but at $12/night and with water and a dump station on site, what's not to like? This time of year, you can only stay 45 consecutive nights before you must leave for two weeks. In the summer time, it is reduced to 30 consecutive nights. (A caveat, it is limited to active duty, reserve and retired military folks).

If we had the time, we'd come here and stay at least a week, San Diego has some many things to see and do it will be a priority stop the next time we come out this way.

Late in the afternoon, we returned to the campground and found most all the sites that were empty spaces when we headed out this morning were invaded with strange, silver capsule like things. Were they from outer space? No, upon closer inspection we determined they were part of a large Airstream Rally.

Funny, because as we drove by and headed up to the Journey, the lone motorhome in the campground, the Airstream people looked at us like we were from another planet. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

The Reason We Came To San Diego

2012-01-20T01:30:00.000-05:00

Of course, the sights in the city of San Diego were a plus, neither Marti or I had been here before. The main reason we came to this area, though, was to visit with my two cousins and my aunt whom we had not seen in...well it's been so long we can't remember. And it was a visit on a happy occasion.

My cousins Carol and Marilyn and I were very close to growing up. My aunt Audrey, their mom, was always a fun person to be around. It is funny how our lives became interwoven over the years.

Marti went to college with Carol, and knew her before she ever met me. Marti transferred to another college where she knew Marilyn before she met me, although we met at that college.

Marilyn married a guy she met in college, Willard. He and I became good friends because I helped him keep Marilyn's car running.

Carol married Jeff, who is a cousin to a guy and a girl that were neighbors of mine when I was a little boy.

So we all have common twists in our relationships before we knew each other and after we all married.
Don't worry if I confused you, there is no test at the end of the blog. (Phew!)

Just a good family picture to document the great time we had together.

Marti, Paul, Aunt Audrey, Marilyn, Willard, Jeff and Carol

It was wonderful to reconnect, meet their kids and spouses and grandchildren. It was another goal of our fulltime travels accomplished, to see relatives that live far away. We'll be back again and stay longer next time.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Lost In Time

2012-01-19T00:31:00.001-05:00

We've discovered an new phenomenon in life as full time RVers. We're losing track not only of time, but what day of the week is it. To combat this loss of days of the week, we had to get this remedy:

It actually works pretty well and has prevented us from showing up for a Sunday morning church service on Tuesday...

We took a trip to downtown San Diego and walked along the beautiful waterfront in the warm sun. The sun felt so nice after all the cold weather we've experienced. We were not the only ones enjoying the day, there were lots of people about, even kite flying.

We think they were kite flying, but it was so huge, it might have been a UFO coming in for a landing.

The waterfront has many lovely fountains and other enjoyable sights. One statue is of a girl playing the violin while standing on a naked man. In my efforts to keep this blog G rated, I cropped the photo so you wouldn't be afraid to show it to your mother.

San Diego is a Navy town, no mistaking it. It has a large base and even its own aircraft carrier museum, the USS MIDWAY, its deck covered in various types of aircraft. There is even a statue of the famous picture of the sailor kissing the nurse that was taken on the announcement that Japan had surrendered and World War II was over.

You can't miss this statue.

As a public service, I wanted to make sure this statue is safe for curious little boys to play around.

It is! ;c)

Next to the statue is a lovely tribute to Bob Hope, for all the years he entertained the troops overseas.

He was a wonderful supporter of the American GIs. He put on shows starting in World War II and contiuned on through the many conflicts that followed.

I still miss him, truly a great American.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Back In Civilization

2012-01-17T22:08:00.001-05:00

Edwards AFB FamCamp was a nice stay, with sunny, but cool and windy days. However, it was way (way, way) out in the boonies and our Internet signal was all over the place, one minute it was strong, the next it ran away and hid. Sometimes pages loaded, other times you'd go cross-eyed staring at the blinking hourglass. It is amazing how much we've come to depend on the Internet.

We had a nice open site, with a clear view of the Southern sky, so we were able to lock on to our DirecTV satellite signal.

We awoke to a freezing cold morning. Good thing I filled the water tank and put away the hose last night so we had no problems.

Our goal today was drive a "short" 191 mile distance to Escondido, California. It didn't start out very good.

Edwards AFB is not just big, it's HUGE. So huge it could easily swallow some New England states. Rhode Island, for sure, probably with Vermont and New Hampshire thrown in. Guess what happened to us.

We got lost, trying to get OFF the base. Funny how desert sand, tumbleweed, Cholla cactus and creosote bushes all look exactly the same. Now we understand how people died of thirst in the desert. Our GPS was no help at all, it just showed an arrow pointing forward in a totally blank screen. For once, the annoying voice inside the unit was speechless.

Figuring that if we headed in the direction we believed was South, we were sure we'd come across the major highway we were looking for. We continued on, re-enforcing our bad choice. And on, and on. I swear we passed a few skeletons of unlucky people who made the same bad choices as we did.

If I was a betting man, I'd put money on the fact that there are still Conestoga wagons loaded with pioneers heading West, wandering around out there.

Before we left, I had dumped the tanks (smart move that I'll get to later) and filled the fresh water tank. So we weren't going to die of thirst or the need to use the bathroom anytime soon. Still, getting slightly concerned, we pressed on, wondering aloud if we should turn around. Turning around always sounds like a great idea, a lifeline to get you out of a bad situation, except for one thing: There's never a good place to turn around when you need one.

Eyeballing the desert floor, it didn't look too sturdy. It would be just our luck to try and turn around on the sand and get stuck. Then, our very first use of our emergency road service would be disastrous because...no cell phone signal.

We decided to press on.

Finally, we were rewarded with a victory, the entrance gate to the base. We roared through the exit at the breakneck speed of 5 mph and we were home free. Almost.

A sun bleached sign indicated the highway we were looking for was just down the road...thirty miles.

Finally we merged onto the elusive highway we were looking for and headed on our merry way. Shortly thereafter, to add insult to injury, we passed a sign with an arrow pointing the way to Edwards AFB, 10 miles!

Just goes to prove, if there is a long way around to get somewhere, we'll top even that. Our record is when we're faced with a 50-50 choice, we'll make the wrong decision 90 percent of the time. :cO

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for the !*$%&%^! that whipped his Honda Civic around from behind us, zoomed past us on our left, then cut right in front of us and turned right. A new learning experience, no matter how well you store items, no matter how carefully you tuck things tightly away, in a panic stop, lots of said items will come crashing down and scare the living you-know-what out of you when you are confronted with a tire screeching panic stop.

Good thing we carry extra underwear with us.

We finished our trip at another Passport America campground in Escondido, CA (near San Diego). We booked for four nights, three at the PPA rate of $16/night and one at the regular rate of $33/night. The campground only offers 3 consecutive nights with PPA, but who is complaining? We love the discount, even if you have to go a little bit out of your way to get it.

The campground is an older campground, nestled in the mountains with old growth trees surrounding it. No satellite TV signal here. The only down side is the site is electric and water only. Not a big deal since I had already dumped the tanks this morning. Their dump station, however, looks to be very problematic to get to so we'll just have to be a little more conservative on our water usage, sort of practicing for next week at Quartzsite.

We have a pretty good Internet signal here, but not good enough to download lots of pictures from Picasa, so you'll have to use your imagination. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Quartzsite Shopping List

2012-01-16T14:29:00.000-05:00

With our newly minted life as fulltimers, we're working hard to get in the proper frame of mind. Slow down, drive fewer miles, stay longer in places, see the great sights of our beautiful country, and most of all, learn to live in less than 400 square feet.

Although we've had RV's (the Journey is our fourth), up to this time, they've always been for weekend and the annual vacation use. You don't need a whole lot of specialize "stuff" to equip your RV with.

Now that the Journey is our one and only home (not missing the snow shoveling, the lawn mowing or the evil paintbrush), we want to make it as comfortable and fun to live in as possible. There are many "nice to haves" and "must haves" to make life better and safer.

In the "must have" category, first up is the tow bar. We have a Roadmaster tow bar that is supposed to be a non-binding unit. It has two levers, one on each leg that when you lift them, they release the pressure and make disconnecting the toad very easy. Especially when the toad is not directly behind the Journey. I got this tow bar second hand from my dad when he sold his RV and it worked well for a while. I cleaned and lubricated it regularly. Then it began to bind up on one side, even thought the lever was released, the shaft would not slide into the arm, it was stuck. No amount of pounding with a rubber mallet would get it to release. It was still usable, and for our part time travels didn't matter too much. Now that we're fulltime, it has to be fixed.

Not wanting to buy a new tow bar, in Q the Roadmaster company will rebuild your tow bar. That's going to be our first stop, to get on the list to have it done.

Next is getting an upgraded braking system for the Element. I want to get one that is permanently in place and only has to have a single wire or line to attach to the car instead of one that has to be installed and removed from the brake pedal every time you go.

Then there is our "life line", our Internet connection. We need to get a signal booster and we are pretty sure we're going to pursue one of the Wilson Trucker Antenna systems, so we'll be looking for a vendor who has one with the best price. We love having the ability to use our computers anywhere and it is a little frustrating when the signal is weak. (Yes, Sherry, I have not been able to post any comments on your blog or see your pictures, can only read your text.)

On the "nice to haves" is looking at solar panels. We are mixed in thought on this. We want to research the systems and costs because we are not sure we would benefit from the installation of them.
So far, the vast majority of our RV travels have been to RV campgrounds, the only off the grid stays we've had have been in Walmarts, Flying J's or moochdocking in our kid's driveways. We know about the many wonderful BLM lands where you can get away from people and enjoy the solitude of nature.

We have not been able to do that yet and other than our stay in Q, we won't be able to do this type of camping very often for the foreseeable future. The rare time we will do this, we'll rely on our 8KW Quiet Diesel Onan generator to top off our batteries. In the future if we're able to do more boondocking on BLM lands, then it might be worthwhile for us to install a system, they are not cheap.

We are going to look at in-motion satellite domes. We have one currently on the Journey, but it is an older type. It has a cable attached to the rotating head that picks up the signal. It works okay, but at times loses the picture because the head has tracked the signal to the end of the cable and has to unwind and rewind the cable and then reacquire the signal, usually on an off ramp or a long curve in the road. Sometimes when the signal is lost, it takes quite a while for the dome to reacquire it. We want to see how much it would cost to upgrade to a dome that has a slip ring system, like on a steering wheel, where there is no cable at all. We like having the in-motion system so the grandkids can watch their favorite TV shows when they travel with us.

Then back to the "must haves". Marti is going to look at all the shiny things that a woman needs to adorn her body with, necklaces, bracelets, rings and so forth.

Her reasoning behind purchases of this type is they don't take up much of the under 400 square feet of room in our Journey. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Fighting With A Weak Signal

2012-01-15T21:08:00.001-05:00

We're enjoying our stay here at Edwards AFB FamCamp. The weather has been nice, the price per night very nice and the Internet signal, well, it has been acting weird. :c(

One minute, it works well and quickly, then without warning, it drops off and we can't get back on for hours. Technology is amazing when it works and when it does not, it drives you crazy. It didn't have to drive me too far...

Speaking of driving, we have driven around the base, or should we say we've been driving and driving and driving around this base and we haven't found the ends of it yet. It is huge!

The runways and taxi aprons are all concrete. Somebody made a fortune on that contract.

There are lots of old jets up on display stands that were tested here. It is an amazing, yet very dangerous process. Inside the base chapel, there is a memorial listing all the test pilots that died here since the base opened , a 4'x8' sheet of plywood would just about cover all the columns of names, single spaced. Very eye opening.

Down near the runways are two of the nation's newest unemployed. Two white Boeing 747s, with special brackets on top of their fuselages. They were used to carry the space shuttle back to Florida when it landed here due to bad weather over Cape Canaveral. Now that the shuttle program has been canceled, they are sitting there with no mission.

We have been thrilled to be right near the base exchange and commissary. We've gone through the Journey's cupboards and purged food items that have expired. We kept the Journey stocked with many non-perishable items for our former weekend jaunts, but lots of these items never were used. We tossed them and spent a pretty penny stocking back up, plus getting extra items for our stay at Quartzsite during the big RV Tent show.

The high desert is a nice change for us, its beauty is so enchanting, with the mountain ranges off in the distance gleaming with rays of sunlight and patches of snow. We even saw our first wild coyote, it trotted across the road right in front of us. Pretty cool.

Sorry if this post is a little boring and lacking pictures, but we'll soon be in an area where the Sprint aircard we're using will have better coverage.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Parked For Four Days

2012-01-14T14:11:00.001-05:00

321 miles. Another longish day's drive, but the end is the reward. Tonight we're at Edwards Air Force Base FamCamp. Out in the California high desert, where the Air Force tests new planes and the space shuttles used to land when Cape Canaveral weather was bad. If you ever saw the movie "The Right Stuff", much of the story took place here.

We're looking forward to some rest, some fun and some money saving food shopping here on the base.

We pulled in to the campground and we were met by the host. He told us that the price was $15 a night. Then he saw that we were Coast Guard so he upped the price to $25. He said he was retired Air Force and was trying to keep the "riff-raff" out of the base. I told him that he should be paying me because we added class to the base. It's always fun to trade jokes and poke fun at other services. :c)

Driving down I-5 and across Route 58, we saw many signs put up by farmers protesting a decision by the EPA concerning a potential endangered species of fish that could be harmed by the irrigation waters feeding the farms. So the solution the EPA came up with was to turn off the irrigation waters to the farmland. This ended up having farms shut down or having to reduce the size of their crops due to no water. It has cost the area over 40,000 jobs lost. I don't know what to think, I'm not informed enough of all the issues to have an opinion, but it was sad to see mile after mile of farmland laying unused, and many pieces of farm equipment laid up.

We fueled up at Flying J and were pleasantly surprised in how little fuel we needed to top off the Journey's tank. The previous drive where we got 8.8 mpg sure helped the wallet feel better. Today, driving over some very big mountains did reduce our overall mpg, but that's the way things happen on the road.

The mountains had hundreds of windmills turning, generating electricity. There were 3 sizes, small, medium and large ones spinning away. Glad to see the renewable energy at work. Not happy to feel the headwind they generated...

Once again, we have a very weak Internet signal, so no pictures tonight. We are even having a hard time getting on line, so if we miss a few days posting, we're okay and have not driven the Journey off a cliff somewhere.

If we can find a free WiFi location, we'll have some pictures next time around.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

You Know It's Been A Good Day...

2012-01-13T00:28:00.000-05:00

...when you are sitting on the couch in your RV relaxing after dinner and you haven't a clue if you accomplished anything at all. At least that is for me.

Marti, however, has been having a ball doing all kinds of crafts and working on gifts for an upcoming baby shower. First thing tomorrow, we have to get to the Post Office and get the items in the mail.

We're departing our campground tomorrow and heading further South and then a little East to stop at Edwards Air Force base campground. We'll do a couple of days there, hit the commissary to stock up and get ready to head down to my cousin's house in Escondido, CA. We've already got another Passport America campground picked out.

We originally planned on heading all the way to San Diego, but we've revised our plans not to go there this time, we do want to get to Quartzsite and stay a week or two. Our Roadmaster tow bar is showing its age and I need to get it overhauled. We also have a few upgrade items we want to look for.

Of course, the biggy is to meet up with many of our blogger friends that we've come to know via computer. We'll have to see if they still like us after they meet us in person...

So, even though we've slowed down and are taking our time, the clock is ticking.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

From The Mountains To The Prairies

2012-01-11T22:14:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I have conniption fits with Blogger. There are days when it seems to have a mind of its own, especially when it comes to posting pictures. After several days of no uploads, I finally have been able to get some pictures to jump onto my post, albeit super slow.

This picture is of the Journey in Friendly RV Park, with Mt. Shasta in the background. This was a nice little Passport America Park. It would be a good staging area for exploring the Mt. Shasta area. We're keeping that in our file for our future travels in Northern California. In the summer, next time. It was 22 degrees when we left Tuesday morning. We are exceeding our propane budget line right now because of the cold temps we have had during our stay in Oregon and here in Northern California, but hey, that's what a furnace is for, right?

Coming down to the Sacremento Valley, the temperatures warmed up nicely. The sun felt especially nice since it was such a rare thing to see up in Oregon.

By the time we pulled in to the Sharpe RV Park at the San Joaquin Defense Distribution Depot, we were starting to feel slightly toasted. No complaints here, it felt great!

At $15/night, we booked for two nights.

We are now in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops, it feels great. We've been waiting a long time to don these clothes. It is going to be just a lazy day chillin' and doing a whole lot of nothing. In fact, it feels so good, we're going to add an extra day to our stay.

It's nice to have the windows open again, even if we hear an occasional bit of noise from one of these passing by about a half mile away.

No complaints here, I love trains.

Not to mention how much we're glad we're not having to deal with this any more. :c)

Having lots of time on our hands, we slept in late. I cooked a nice breakfast, corned beef hash and eggs. It tasted great.

In the afternoon, we decided to take a ride in the Element and just see what the neighborhood and surrounding area looked like. Thanks to Jeri from Just Wanderin', we found this little place.

Of course Marti made me stop. She's all woman. ;c)

Along with all the rows of chocolate delights,

Marti "talked" me into something else.

We drove around some more, doing a little sight seeing of the area, enjoying some of the homes and buildings. We came across a gas station with this stuck in its roof.

We figure they were on their way to the Extraterrestrial Highway in Nevada and ran low on gas. Approaching the pumps, they must have misjudged their speed. Hope they have good insurance!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

A Big Thank You...

2012-01-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

...to the dumb realtor that called us at 5 am this morning. Of course it was 8 am in Virginia where he was calling from. He wanted to know if our house was still for sale because he saw it had been removed from the MLS listing in November. November was when we sold our house. I told him it was gone, maybe he picked up from the tone in my voice I wasn't too pleased with his call.

Now Marti and I are both wide awake. Early morning phone calls make you think something bad has happened. When our heartbeats returned to normal, Marti suggested maybe we should head out early. I said it was a good idea, what day did she want to do it?

We did get an early start, we just waited until the sun came up so I could see and be able to navigate out of our little campground safely. Too bad it was so cold, we would have loved to stay in the area longer, the temps were about 22 degrees this morning when we left. Sun and warmth is beckoning us.

We came down out of the beautiful mountains of Northern California and headed towards the Sacramento Valley, passing olive groves and rice fields. It was sunny and calm, no wind at all. Because of the strict speed limits we tooled along at 55 mph and saw some of the highest mpg's we've ever gotten: 8.8!

If only we could get that kind of mileage all the time.

We pushed our day a little bit further than we've been doing lately, we covered 285 miles, but we wanted to get to a military campground in San Joaquin, CA, where we are going to chill for at least two days. Nothing fancy, but at $15/night for FHU's and 50 amp service, we're not going to complain.

We figure we have about two driving days left to get to my cousin's house near San Diego, so we're going to try and make it there in about four (or five). No need to rush anymore. :c)

And if you didn't hear the fantastic news, Nancy and Bill sold their house. Now they'll be out here with us soon, too!

Sorry there's no pictures, we're having slow Internet connections here.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Holy Smoke! Is That A Volcano?

2012-01-10T00:23:00.000-05:00

We're getting really good at this full time lifestyle. Or maybe we're getting really bad. We left last night's campground about 11 am today. We were lucky we got away that early. Why? I had an almost disaster (again) with the sewer hose while dumping the black tank. :cO

No, my shoes did not squish as I walked like the hosing I got last April. This time I deftly danced around the spewing hose and closed the valve before I painted myself with...well you know.

The campground sewer connection was not threaded like most connections are. I had the hose stuck tightly in the opening and even had a handy, nearby rock on top of it holding it down. Pulling the handle gave the usual "whoosh" and then the hose end popped out and the sewage started gushing on the ground. This time, thank goodness and my lighting fast reflexes, okay, my hand was still on the valve handle, I was able to slam it shut with only about a gallon spilling on the ground. Yes, I was very lucky. Very, very lucky.

Even a greater stroke of luck was in my corner. The pad site where we were was gravel. A quick hosing down of the area and it was clean as a whistle, and fortunately for me, there were no "things" to have to pick up.

We headed down the interstate towards California, low clouds still covering the mountains.

Crossing into California, we pulled in to a viewing stop.

Mount Shasta, a real volcano. You don't get to see things like this on the East coast.

We pushed on a bit further and stopped at a campground in Weed, CA. We wondered if the town got its name from that medicinal plant that is sold out here.

175 miles, not a bad days drive and another Passport America campground, $22/night. So far, our PPA membership not only has paid for itself but is now is "making" us money, it is helping us keep to our budget for campsites at $25 or less per night. We're happy campers.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

No Guilt Sunday

2012-01-08T22:55:00.000-05:00

Taking comments from yesterday's post to heart, we were determined to enjoy ourselves and let the chips fall where they may, and not feel guilty about what we did or did not do with our day.

We've been enjoying our stay here at an RV park located in Sutherlin, OR and it has a very special feature:

A giant, outdoor movie screen, where they show movies each week. The campground was built on an old drive-in movie theater, they decided to keep the screen and use it.

The campground?

The campground is very nice and the Passport America discount makes it even more special. We would stay here again, even though they don't have a hot tub.

We found a nice little church in town where we attended the Sunday morning service, then we hopped on I-5 and headed South to the Seven Feathers Casino...can you say buffet?

At the entrance there is this really neat, giant sculpture.

The buffet was reasonably priced at $8.99 each, but even though the food was very good, it was really limited in variety. Actually is was very limited in variety, it resembled a school cafeteria. The good news is we didn't over eat. No guilt here. :c)

Big spending gamblers that we are, we pooled all our quarters together to hit the slot machines. Between the two of us, we came up with four quarters. We went to seek out a one armed bandit and found out they have amputated the arms from slot machines.

Looking further, we found slot machines that take only pennies. Now that is a kind of machine we wanted to play. Marti dug around in her purse, dug around some more, then dug a little more and came up with three, yes three pennies with which we were going to turn into a great fortune.

To our surprise, we found there are no slots in the slot machines. You have to put a bill in the machine now. Shouldn't they call them now bill machines?

Not to be deterred, we went over to the armless quarter slot machines and found, once again, no slots, only ports to insert bills.

As to the other forms of games of chance, well, I can't throw dice very good, as evidenced by my failure to win even one time in my life at the game of Yahtzee. Roulette? No, that wheel makes me dizzy and people would start wondering why I'm lying on the floor. Black Jack? I don't have enough fingers and toes to count to twenty one.

Harrumph! We decided if the casino wouldn't take our quarters, we'd take them with us and leave. There are other slots we can put them to good use in, like washing machines!

You can tell we don't gamble much...

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

When Do You Stop Feeling Guilty?

2012-01-08T00:41:00.000-05:00

After leaving the incredible beauty of the Oregon Coast, we headed inland for the weekend.

We've already paid for our Passport America membership with our second stay at a PPA participating campground. For a really nice, pull through FHU 50 amp site, we paid $19/night. Coming from the East Coast where that money would barely get you a boondocking site, we're more than tickled.

With our plans to kick back and relax for the weekend, I decided I was going to sleep in until noon. That didn't work out, I barely made it until 10, Marti was already up drinking her FAEL (Foul And Evil Liquid - aka coffee). I had to get up, I felt like I was wasting the day.

It was nice to have no rush or any place to be, we enjoyed a nice cooked breakfast. Lounging around after eating, we surfed the Internet, Marti played with her iPad and I read more of a great book I downloaded on Marti's Kindle.

Eventually, we did get dressed and we talked about how bizarre it felt to have this new lifestyle. We wondered why it felt like we were on vacation and we should be "doing" something.

So, feeling like we were wasting the day, we walked around the park, then hopped in the car and drove around town a bit, looking at gas stations that carry diesel fuel and checking for the best price and easiest in/out access for the Journey. We stumbled across a car wash, so the Element got a quick bath, it needed it.

Feeling a little more adventurous, we wandered around the area, just enjoying the scenery. Lots of sheep farms, with some alpacas thrown in. Along the way we came to this cute little covered bridge.

It was in great shape and we drove over it. Another first for us, we never did that before.

After our tour, we returned to the campground and had dinner. Sitting around again, we felt guilty that we should be doing something else, we were wasting the day. Even though we know we're retired and time is our own, it felt, well, really weird!

Marti decided to work on some crafts, we have two new granddaughters on the way, so she started making baby blankets for them, with her new little sewing machine.

We'll get it right, it's going to take some time to get rid of the "guiltys". Good thing time is on our side. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Twists, Turns and Sore Jaws

2012-01-07T00:44:00.002-05:00

A nice night, made even nicer with a Passport America discount gave us a great rest. We awoke to the sun shining through the wispy fog shrouding the mountains.

I did the "blue" outside jobs while Marti took care of the "pink" inside jobs. We pulled out and waved goodbye to our neighbor.

Out to the coast driving South along Oregon Route 101.

The views along the road were amazing, our jaws kept dropping around every turn.

From "haystacks",

to breaking surf,

beautiful rivers,

and scenic pull offs where we stopped to take pictures.

We slipped up today and drove 200 miles, it was a pretty ride, but it was also very tiring. All the twists and turns along narrow roads combined with the up hills and down hills, they just wore me out. We decided to find a campground and hole up for the weekend. A nearby campground had a great Passport America rate, so we've landed to rest up a while.

We'll do a little exploring around the area in the Element, maybe even check out the Seven Feathers Casino about 30 miles down the road. The heck with the gambling, it's all about the buffets!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

A New Mileage Record For Us

2012-01-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

We're in Lincoln City, Oregon tonight with barely any Internet service and no phone service, but we are not complaining. We have our satellite TV and a nice campsite with a Passport America rate, saving us $18 over the regular price. We're driving down Route 101, the coastal highway and it is beautiful.

We set a new mileage record today...114 miles! We've never traveled that few miles before, but we are working hard on getting this full time lifestyle down right, even if it still feels like we're on vacation. ;c)

Can't post any pictures of what we did today because of the weak Internet connection, but we'll make up for that on our next post.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

How'd I Turn Into Such A Wuss?

2012-01-05T01:33:00.001-05:00

The bed felt so good this morning, the electric blanket we use made it so warm and toasty. Outside, it was pouring rain and the wind was blowing hard. We were supposed to pull out if the Astoria KOA and start our trek South.

Or not.

Instead, when I did finally get up, I hopped in the Element and ran up to the KOA office to renew for one more night. For the $20/night special, it was worth it. Best of all, I got to stay dry. Not fun unhooking with rain running down your neck into your socks. I used to go out in weather like this all the time during my career, but now I'm retired and I can pick when and where I want to get my socks soggy.

So, today, being my bonnie bride, Marti's 29th birthday, I took her out sight seeing along the shore in the town of Seaside, OR. We enjoyed looking at the waves crashing in from the ocean (through the windshield of the car), then looked for a nice place for lunch. Not finding a nice place, we then looked for a mediocre place for lunch and succeeded. No surprise, the food was also mediocre. They sure do roll up the sidewalks around here in winter.

But all was not lost. We did find a nail salon where Marti was able to get a manicure. Then on to the old movie theater where we did a "Two-Fer", watched "The Adventures of Tin Tin" which was pretty good but the graphics were amazing, then "Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol" which was excellent.

After the movies, we went in search of a nice place for supper and struck out again. After two movies each with a large bag of popcorn, we decided to head back to the Journey and snack on a left over or two.

Such is the life of full time RVing. Some days are a blast, other days are far from the cutting edge of excitement. But it's all good and we're loving every minute of it.

Tomorrow, we hit the road for sure. I promise. Unless the wind is blowing and it's raining hard. After all, I am a wuss...

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

I've Almost Been Disowned

2012-01-02T22:57:00.000-05:00

After one more great sleep over in the Journey with Taylor and Kierra, it was time to leave Ryan's driveway and re-set up in the campground at Camp Rilea Military Reservation. Before we would get there, I needed to fill the propane tank.

The Astoria KOA is the handiest place to get the propane, they are set up for large RVs, unlike most of the gas stations that sell propane, I couldn't get the Journey in (or out) of them.

Of course it was pouring rain and high winds when I had to get the Journey ready to go. I finally got everything set to go and we headed out, Marti just followed me in the Element instead of towing it.

The wind was really blowing, fortunately the Journey handles well in winds, but I could hear the slide topper on the driver's side blowing open a bit and then pulling shut when the spring tension overcame the wind pressure. I kept a close eye on that because I was afraid that if it blew all the way open it could be really damaged. Thankfully, it didn't.

We pulled in to the KOA and up to the propane tank located out front. That's when we noticed a sign out front of the KOA reading: "RV Site Special $20". That seemed to be to good to be true.

The propane tank took 17.1 gallons, the most I've ever put in that tank. Can't complain, it lasted us almost 17 days. The price was reasonable, $51, compared to the 9 gallons I bought back in Virginia that cost me $65. :cO

I went into the KOA store to pay and asked them about the RV special, expecting it to be no hookups, or electric only. "No", I was told, it was for even the 50 amp FHU site with cable and free WiFi.

Duh, this was a no brainer. For the same price as Camp Rilea with no amenities, we got all the goodies at this KOA. We canceled the Camp Rilea reservation and in no time were hooked up in a nice KOA site. Minutes later, we were in the hot tub in their indoor pool complex.

Marti and I decided things like this are going to make our full time life quite enjoyable.

Tonight we met Ryan, Amber and the girls at a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner. Amber looked me in the eye and told me in no uncertain terms that my last post about her smoked pork shoulders was in serious error. She told me she would never stoop so low as to use mesquite chips for smoking her pork, she uses only hickory chips. She reminded me that I should never say she used mesquite chips and if I ever did it again, well, she is quite handy with that meat cleaver...

So tonight we're kicked back and enjoying the Astoria KOA while we wait for our mail package to arrive. I'm thinking that hot tub is going to get some serious us by us, not a bad way to wait.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

We're Loving The Pacific Time Zone

2012-01-02T00:28:00.000-05:00

We're drawing closer to our departure from Astoria for points South, but that hasn't slowed down our fun with the granddaughters. As I mentioned before, Taylor turned six the day after Christmas, but a couple of days later, we had another party for her and some friends at that iconic palace for birthday parties, Chuck E Cheese's.

Lots of games to play, even Daddy Ryan got in on some of the fun.

Not only did we have a cake for Taylor,

she also got to go into a special booth that was loaded with prize tickets, all blown around by air. She grabbed a bunch of them.

On New Years Eve day, DIL Amber started smoking two pork shoulders on her wood, slow cooker. She started cooking them at 1 am, and every half hour or so tended the fire, put more mesquite chips on the fire and rotated the meat.

When the pork shoulders were done around supper time, she shredded one of them.

Using the shredded pork, she put them over nacho chips with spicy cheese sauce and topped them with barbecue sauce. Another one of her delicious dishes, BBQ Pork Nachos. We stuffed ourselves with them, they were so good.

We tuned in to the Times Square New Years Eve celebrations, bringing out the bubbly stuff,

as well as the party hats and noise poppers.

We watched the Times Square Ball drop and welcomed in 2012 at midnight, Eastern Time, or 9 pm Pacific Time. We put the girls to bed and we followed them shortly after. After all the fun we've been having, the bed is a big attraction. Sleeping in the New Year, we're loving the Pacific Time Zone! :c)

Tomorrow, we're pulling chocks and heading down the road a just couple miles to the Camp Rilea Military Reservation where they have a small campground. We need to dump the tanks and get more propane so we decided we might as well set up there for a couple of days while we wait for our mail. We'll spend a little more time with Ryan, Amber and the girls before we head out, we will just drive over to their house in the car to visit.

Happy New Year to all our blog friends, followers and readers. May 2012 bring you much happiness and good fortune!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

December Recap - Our First Month Fulltiming

2011-12-30T22:26:00.002-05:00

I'm not going to use those cheesy cliches, like "Where did the time go?" or "Time flies when you're having fun!" I'm thinking more along the lines of "Hang on for your life!"

At the beginning of December, we were spending our last night in Virginia at the Bull Run Regional Park Campground. A bittersweet night, knowing that we wouldn't be returning any time soon, after many happy weekends and a few (rare) week long stays. December 2 found me waiting impatiently for Marti to finish her last day of work. After breaking camp, I drove over to the parking lot at her facility and waited for 2 pm, when she was supposed to leave, but the goodbyes to her great staff kept her until after 3 pm.

Finally breaking away, we were off to New Jersey, with an overnight stop at the Harrisburg, PA Flying J. I guess you can call that "Flocking", with a similar meaning like "Boondocking", "Wallydocking", aka Walmart, or "Moochdocking".

The next day we arrived at out son Corey's home in NJ and set up in his driveway, moochdocking.

That weekend was the 90th birthday party for my dad, a great time.

We finished the weekend visiting Corey and DIL Amanda and on Monday, 5 December, we headed West, destination: Astoria, OR.

We didn't get too far, the alternator failed and we detoured back to a Freightliner dealer in Harrisburg, PA for three days getting the offending part replaced and the billing sorted out. 8 December found us on our way once more with a little drizzle that we soon drove out of. Out came the sun, which we enjoyed on almost the entire 3000+ miles trip.

Originally, we intended on heading to Sioux Falls, SD to register the Journey and Element toad, but we blew that off with the loss of time in Harrisburg. Driving across the country, we saw some areas where it had snowed, but by the time we got there, the roads were clear and dry. If we had not had the alternator breakdown, we would have been caught in much of that snowy weather. A problem that turned into a blessing.

We ovenighted at some Walmarts and Flying Js, taking advantage of their generosity towards RVs, which enabled us to make good time and cover big driving distances most every day. We enjoyed some pretty cold weather in some of the states, and were very glad that our furnace was working well.

We enjoyed the scenery, all kinds of variety from flat, farmlands,

to mountains and winding roads.

A couple of days in the Midwest, we fought headwinds (will I ever get a tailwind?) which cut our mpg quite a bit, but didn't affect the Journey too much. Another plus of driving a big diesel pusher motor home. On our previous motor home, a gas engined Winnebago Adventurer, winds were always a struggle.

The night before reaching our destination, we pulled in to a KOA and regrouped, reorganized and rested. The campground was nice and clean, reasonably priced for a KOA and was just what we needed to catch our breath. There were quite a few long term residents there, but all the RVs were late models in nice shape, no trash and junk stacked around the RVs like seen in many long term campgrounds. Many of these RVs had put skirting down to help insulate them.

We arrived at our son, Ryan's house on 14 December and got set up in his driveway for some extended moochdocking.

And the best part, spending time with Taylor and Kierra.

We've had a whirlwind time, with Christmas,

Taylor's sixth birthday the day after Christmas,

and son Ryan's 30th (gasp, we're really getting old!) on 27 December.

Lastly, our DIL, Amber, who has been feeding us incredible meals found out she is going to have another girl this May, which will be our sixth grandchild (Corey and Amanda are expecting a girl in March) and our fourth granddaughter. We're excited for them.

In a couple of days, our latest mail package should get here and then we're crossing over this bridge and heading out on Route 101 down the coast. We're looking forward to our new year on the road and interesting adventures. Quartzsite, here we come. Stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Breath Taking Scenery, When It's Not Raining

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Oregon coast is just loaded with beautiful water, fog shrouded mountains and just plain incredible views. We find ourselves driving around with our mouths hanging open. Good thing there are no flys around. ;c)

Right down the street from our "Moochdocking" site are some incredible vistas.

Even some of the man made sights are amazing. The Astoria bridge across the Columbia River. You can almost get a nose bleed driving over it.

We'd have more great pictures, but for some strange reason, it keeps raining out here. We're not complaining, the temps have been pretty mild and you don't have to shovel rain.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Marti's Musings: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!"

2011-12-29T02:07:00.000-05:00

Wow, the winds here in Astoria are surely rocking the boat - er, RV. Tonight the prediction is 60+ MPH winds. Sooooo, the slides are still in...

Today, we took a trip to Portland, so I could have a follow up eye appointment. All is well, on that front. By the way, I am going to put a shameless plug here. The doc who did my vitrectomy back in November is quite impressive. He is a retina specialist, and my recovery has been remarkable. I highly recommend anyone needing any kind of retina treatment, and if you are in the DC/VA area - he is worth the trip! He has a website for his patients and those interested in learning about eye diseases/disorders. It is www.retinaeyedoctor.com He firmly believes that medicine and docs should be accessible, and that docs shouldn't be afraid to get to know their patients and build relationships. *gasp* *shock* LOL He is an awesome guy, and I can't say enough about him. Ok, enough of the advertising, ha ha.

Anyway, the 2 hour trip from Astoria to Portland, despite the wind and rain, was still a beautiful trip. Going to Portland, we took the more direct route, via route 5 and into Washington state, and back into Portland. We did a quick trip, after the appointment looking for the Voodoo Doughnut shop in Portland. We found it, and I will let Paul post about that. Nope, we didn't get a donut - wind, rain, and long lines... you get the picture.

Our GPS took us a different way home, down route 26 - through mountains and windy roads with HUGE trees - we half expected Big Foot to jump out... but boy, was it amazing scenery. One of our earlier posts was "you can't take a bad picture in Oregon" - well, I have to contest that, as rain certainly puts a damper on great photo taking... I got a few, that we will (hopefully) post later.

So, the wind and rain are supposed to continue for the next couple of days..... we are staying cozy and dry in the RV... close to the grandtreasures for our last days here.... we aren't sure how long the base will allow us to stay here, so we will stay flexible on that... there are lots of choices nearby, if we have to move...

Hard to believe that we have been retired now for 3 weeks, and have been here for 2 already... life is good; God is great.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment. ~Marti

Fun With The Girls

2011-12-27T14:10:00.000-05:00

Our rush to drive from Virginia to Oregon has been worth every second it took to get here. We've been busy making up for all the months that passed since we last saw our granddaughters Taylor and Kierra.

Marti brought all kinds of things to do with them, along with the crafts they worked on, nothing was more important than...baking Christmas cookies!

Decorating the cookies was lots of fun, too.

Even Daddy Ryan had to try his hand at it.

The finished product.

Cookies were done just in time to leave some out for Santa. Taylor has been learning about good nutrition in school. She made sure that only four cookies were left out for Santa because she didn't want him to get sick from too many sweets and not be able to finish delivering toys to other kids.

Taylor was also concerned about Santa's reindeer, so she put out a bowl of water and some celery and carrots for them to snack on.

Christmas morning was enjoyable watching the girls open their presents.

Then it was off to church where we watched the girls sing in their kids choir.

The day after Christmas was also special. It was Taylor's sixth birthday. She got a keyboard. She loves music.

She read all her birthday cards to Mimi.

The one thing the girls have enjoyed the most is sleep overs in Mimi and Pa's camper.

We are so thankful to be fulltimers now. None of this would have been possible in our former working lives. It is nice to have an extended visit with our kids and granddaughters. It was worth every bit of work it took to get us here. We sure are blessed. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

The Giant Christmas Stocking

2011-12-24T14:31:00.001-05:00

I was on the verge of tears, I didn't know what to do. It was the week before Christmas and we were out of money. It was 1983, the country was in a recession and we had no way to put food on the table, let alone buy Christmas presents for our three little children, ages 4, 2 and 1 month.

I was in the Coast Guard Reserve at this time. I had submitted application after application requesting transfer to active duty and all had been turned down, there were no openings. My civilian job was in jeopardy, the company was in serious trouble, facing bankruptcy and as a result, my hours had been cut to just 15 to 20 a week. My last paycheck had bounced. Searching for other employment had been an exercise in futility.

At the fast food restaurant up the street, all decorated for Christmas, was the Giant Christmas Stocking, perched behind the counter. It was eight feet tall and was filled with all kinds of toys and games. A box was placed on the counter to put entries for the contest to win the stocking.

Marti and I looked longingly at that stocking, hoping beyond all hope that we could win it. Then we'd have gifts for our kids for Christmas. We carefully filled out our entry, stuffed it in the box and kept our fingers crossed that we'd get the good news that the stocking was ours.

It was not to be, someone else won the stocking. Our Christmas hopes were dashed.

A few days before Christmas, our doorbell rang. I opened the door to see the pastor of our church. He knew that we were in a bad spot for Christmas. In his arms was the Giant Christmas Stocking! To our amazement, he told us that someone in our church had, on a whim, entered the contest to win the Giant Christmas Stocking and won it. Because they had no children, they called the pastor and asked him if he knew of anyone that could use the stocking. He said he did and brought us the stocking. We had Christmas presents for our kids!

The story doesn't end there. A couple of hours later, Santa Claus rolled up to our house on a firetruck and dropped off more toys for our kids and a bunch of gift coupons for food from the local food market down the street. We didn't know that the fire department collected toys and gift coupons for families in need at Christmas time. Someone told them about us. Later that evening, one of my brothers showed up at my door and gave me a gift of $300, he knew we needed help.

The next day, we went to the market and bought food and the fixings for our Christmas dinner. Using some money from my brother's gift, we put gas in our car and drove to the exchange at nearby West Point, buying wrapping paper, diapers, a few more age appropriate toys and some new clothes for the kids.

Christmas 1983, which appeared to be so hopeless for our family turned out to be the most wonderful Christmas we ever had. The generosity of other people, some known to us, others we didn't know, reached out and helped us when we really needed it. I still have to blink back tears just thinking about it.

I've told this story to our kids over and over again and this experience has turned into a mission for Marti and I. We have been blessed over the years with good fortune, but we've never forgotten what it felt like to be in a seemingly helpless situation. To this day, we keep our eyes and ears pealed for others that have hit a bump in the road of life and work out some way to help them, always anonymously. It's a gift we give ourselves, the joy of helping others.

May this Christmas season bring much joy and happiness to you and your families as you gather together and exchange gifts, love and joy.

Most importantly, never forget the real meaning of Christmas.

May every road you travel

bring you safely home

to the wonder of Christmas,

to the warmth of God's love

FAQs

2011-12-23T16:10:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd do a post and answer some of the questions that have been asked by many of you in our comments section or at our email address.

How long have you been RVing?

We bought our first RV in 1993, it was a 1973 Travel Mate 21 foot RV. You can read about how we started in our very first blog post here.

How do you access Internet and Skype on the road?

We use a Sprint Aircard and we have it set into a Cradlepoint router making our own WiFi hotspot inside the Journey. We have had very good luck with the aircard and have had very good coverage with it all across the US. Once in a while it might be a little slow and on rare occasions, I have trouble posting pictures. It costs us about $60 per month.

How do you get your mail on the road?

We use Alternative Resources mailing service in Sioux Falls, SD. They have given us a mailing address to have our mail sent to. Twice a month, we contact them and have whatever mail that has come in sent to our location, wherever that might be. Sometimes it is a family member's house, or a campground or a nearby post office that will accept general delivery mail.

What do you do for TV?

We subscribe to DirecTV and have an in motion satellite dome on the roof of the Journey. For times when we are parked at a campground that is heavily treed, we have a portable satellite dish that we use to tune in the signal. We also have an over the air antenna but since that system went from analog signals to digital we seldom use it. We have installed the adapter box to change the digital signal so that our non digital TV can accept it, but it works poorly. Seems we can get great coverage from Chinese and Russian TV stations but can't get local stations merely a few miles away to come in, even after doing multiple scans.

What do you use for phone service?

Marti has an i-Phone and I use a standard cell phone with service through AT&T.

What do you do for health insurance?

We have Tricare Standard medical insurance. I am retired from the Coast Guard and this is one benefit I earned for my service. It covers both Marti and me with a small deductible.

What do you do for dental care?

We looked into dental insurance and we don't see that it is cost effective for us. We'll pay out of pocket as needed and we're going to look into dental checkups in Mexico.

How do you earn income on the road?

I have a pension income from my military service that meets our needs. It isn't extravagant but it will allow us to enjoy our full time travels if we follow our budget carefully. We are not opposed to work-kamping if the need arises or we want to try it sometime in a place we'd like to spend some extended time. We have other investments for our future when we someday decide to buy another home.

How did you learn to fix your RV?

I've always been a tinkerer with mechanical things. I went to technical school after high school and studied automotive and diesel technology. I also had many technical courses in the Coast Guard where I served part of my career as a machinery technician working on all kinds of engines and equipment. After a while, mechanical things seem easy to figure out and fix.

How do you find the cheapest price for propane?

I have a Flying J RV Real Value Card, which gives an additional 10 cent discount per gallon to their already reasonable propane price. I like the availability of Flying Js and the ease of getting in and out of most locations. Plus, you can get a 3 cent per gallon discount on diesel fuel, 2 cent per gallon discount on gasoline and half off their dump fee.

Now that you are fulltimers, why don't you change your header picture of your motorhome in front of your house?

The header picture was taken at the Tropical Palms Campground in Kissimee, FL in 2009. It is my favorite picture of our Journey (so far). We were on a trip to Disney World with our grandsons and we left a day early to beat a winter storm. Arriving a day earlier than our reservations at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground, there was no room for us so we stayed at Tropical Palms CG for the one night.

Speaking of campgrounds, what is your favorite?

Hands down, Disney's Fort Wilderness is our favorite. It isn't cheap, but we go during the Value Season (1January to 14 February) when prices are much more reasonable and crowds are much less.

What is your favorite state?

Relaxed in my recliner with a good book and a Diet Coke. Actually, this is hard to answer because we haven't been to all the states yet. So far I (Paul) like Utah the best because of the wide variety of scenery and things to do. This could change as we travel more.

What does your budget look like?

We have a draft budget that we'll hone each month. Some items we pad a bit for unexpected costs, others are pretty fixed. We have money set aside for repairs, upgrades and unplanned costs so we don't have them in our budget. Right now this is what we're thinking for our monthly expenses:

Campgrounds - $750 or $25/night (This is a padded number which we can control using cheaper campgrounds, military Famcamps, Passport America, boondocking, moochdocking, etc.)

Fuel, Motorhome - $750 (This is a padded number which will vary depending on how far we travel. Less travel will reduce this number. If we spend it all, we can travel approximately 1500-1700 miles per month and we don't foresee that kind of travel every month. The leftover money from short travel months will go into our savings account for months when we have to travel further or unexpected fuel price spikes).

Fuel, Car - $100

Propane - $25

Food - $400 (We hope to reduce this using military commissaries).

Entertainment - $100

Vehicle Insurance - $134

Phone - $150

TV - $95

Internet, Sprint aircard - $60

Clothing - $50

Hair care (Marti) - $25

Mail Service - $25

Gifts, donations - $100-200

Misc. - $ 200

Savings - $200

Again, this is a draft and we'll have to adjust it as we go along.

We'll update our FAQ's as we get them. Feel free to keep asking questions, either in the comment section of our blog or at our email address: rsanity.dahl@gmail.com. If you forget our email, it is located at the very bottom of our blog page.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Marti's Musings: Mooch docking

2011-12-23T02:06:00.001-05:00

Soooo - "Moochdocking" sure has it's ups and downs...so I thought I'd give a woman's point of view to this way of life...you've heard about the sewer, the leveling...so, sorry guys, but here's another view.

It goes without saying that being so very close to the grandtreasures outweighs any other inconveniences!

But there have been some other adaptations to consider:

We need to conserve water for the obvious sewer issues - that includes showering, laundering, dish washing and general water usage. We are always aware of water usage, particularly when we travel, but this puts us into hyper-awareness...

Although we typically run 50 amps, being plugged into a 20 amp household current makes us very aware of the electrical usage - ie: I turn off the fridge to run my coffee pot, or the hairdryer - kind of a pain, but we certainly don't want to be popping their house circuit breakers.

Along the same line of the amperage, we have to conserve our propane so we don't have to un-decorate the rig, and go refill the tank. We looked for an extend-a-stay hook up, but were unsuccessful. So we are using a small electric heater to take the chill off in the evening, after we retire to our "home". We also found that an electric blanket is a life saver at night, as it gets so cold, and we keep the Journey's temp rather low at night. Personally, I like sleeping in a cold room - but on very cold nights, putting the blanket on low is heavenly!

Paul also mentioned the leveling issue - the drive way is far from level, and he did a great job with leveling the rig. That just caused one problem, we have a portable step to help with gaps, but even with the portable step this gap is, well...HUGE! The gap is a good 18" - yikes! But, we've even gotten used to that - it's only temporary after all... :c)

Our day typically goes something like this: We get the "Good morning, we are up" text, and so we head inside to have breakfast together. If we have errands, we head out after breakfast, by the way, the scenery here is breathtaking. The mornings are typically foggy, and the fog clouds clear up randomly - often times we are in the clouds, and when we head down the mountain (hill?) it is clear - or sometimes the reverse. Looking across the water, and mountains, it is absolutely stunning!

Lunch is often out, and dinner is usually cooked by DIL Amber, who is a whiz at Southern style cooking. We may not want to step on the scales 'til we are well clear of this visit! ;-) Of course, mingled in this is playing, crafting and hugging the grandtreasures!

After dinner, we enjoy family time (although we are certainly a family of the technical generation- as both the girls are asking if they can play games on my iPhone or iPad - along with their own gaming systems!) We have been enjoying Christmas movies and TV this week. Once the girls head to bed, we retire to our home - giving both couples time to themselves. Amber is 5 months pregnant now, and is a trooper at having company!

I am enjoying the Christmas movies (yup, the ol' soppy ones) - often long into the night. I figure my body clock is totally messed up by now, as I sleep at odd hours! (note the napping pictures from the last several posts). While watching TV, I am diligently working on the hand made Christmas stockings for the two new grandbabies due in 2012. They take me several months each to make, so I am getting a head start.

It is so nice to sit in the rig at night, listening to Christmas music, watching TV - smelling the candles burning, the Christmas lights giving such a nice ambiance. It may take a while to get used to this style of living, but it sure is great learning it!

I admit, I have my moments of panic (the reality of walking away from a well paying job) - compounded by calls offering me jobs! Yup, got another one of those today...but when I hear the spontaneous "I love you Mimi" comments, the screams of "MIMI!!!" when the girls see me in the morning. Yeah, that outweighs any doubts, and confirms that we made the right decision.

In my line of work, I had the unfortunate opportunity to see folks at the end of their lives. Never once did I hear any expressions of disappointment from anyone, saying they wish they had spent more time working, or at the office. On the other hand, there was much regret over time NOT spent with family.

Today, I also learned that another dear friend of mine has been diagnosed with cancer. She is younger than I am. My friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier this year, still is struggling with that disease, and is under rigorous treatment. Time is precious, and being able to spend it with family - whenever we want to? Nothing beats that - and any inconveniences or adaptations we need to make are so worth it. You only get one shot at life. Make it worthwhile.

We are blessed immensely by God, and we are trying to make every day He has given us count.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment. ~ Marti

Constipation

2011-12-22T01:06:00.002-05:00

So here we are, Moochdocking in son Ryan's driveway. Having a ball with the girls, doing all kinds of things. Taylor and Kierra love to hangout with us in the Journey, they make a bed on the floor and watch their favorite TV shows and Disney movies. The shows are much more enjoyable in "Mimi's" camper.

Mimi brought all kinds of crafts and projects and the girls have enjoyed both making things and spending time with Mimi.

It shows on their faces how happy they are to have us here.

Astoria has a great indoor pool complex, we took the girls swimming there. For a little town, the pool is quite impressive.

One wall has painted murals with scenes from life in Astoria.

Looking through the windows on the other side of the building you see this.

It's actually a retired Columbia River Bar Pilot boat, the most recent addition the the excellent Maritime Museum right across the street.

With all the swimming and fun,

even the girls joined Marti for a little down time.

We realized that Moochdocking in a driveway for an extended time has its own benefits (free) and problems (Oops! No sewer hookup).

Normally, we can go almost two weeks if we're very careful of our water usage. Using the bathroom and showers in Ryan's house should have extended our black and grey tank capacity. But with the girls spending so much time with us, the bathroom got a lot of usage and the black tank filled up pretty quickly, the grey tank was nearing full, too.

Option one was to take down all the Christmas decorations, jack down the Journey and go to the free dump station two miles down the road. Dump, they return, re-jack and re-level the Journey and re-apply all the Christmas decorations to their previous locations. Not a good idea.

Option two was get a blue boy portable sewer tote and offload the tanks a little bit at a time, load the blue boy in the back of the Element and run down to the free dump station. Looking at blue boys at the local RV supply store, the biggest they carried was 15 gallons. Doing a little math, 15 gallons, liquid weighing about 8 lbs a gallon and two 50 gallons waste tanks, that would be a lot of weight to lift into the back of the Element and require many, many trips to the dump station. Even worse idea.

Then the light bulb went off. I called a sewer service and they sent over a truck to pump out the tanks.

It took all of two minutes to suck the tanks empty. Then it took 40 minutes of polite "Uh Huhs" and head nods as the driver told me his life's story and every bit of sewer gossip in the whole greater Astoria area. He should have paid me for listening...

The truck drove off but he didn't get far.

I did say the tanks were really full. ;c)

Anyway, the Journey's tanks are empty, we'll be a little more careful monitoring the bathroom usage and hope we can last another ten days. Then the Christmas decorations will only have to come down once. (Phew!)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

A Rant - The U.S. Postal Service

2011-12-19T23:36:00.001-05:00

Sorry, let me apologize in advance. I'm slightly, well, not actually, I'm really ticked off at the "service" I've received from the U. S. Postal Service. Actually, it is a total lack of service that I paid good money for, over and above my tax dollars.

A couple of weeks before we closed on the house, I got my mail forwarding service in South Dakota set up, got my address and my "Box" number. Then I went to my local post office to get my change of address form sent in.

After standing in a crowded line handled by one and only one counter person, it was finally my turn. The postal clerk barely spoke English.

"I need to submit a change of address form, please" I said. The clerk didn't understand me. I repeated myself a couple of times until she understood. She handed me a printed card that said the office no longer accepted change of address requests, it had to be done on line at the listed Internet web address.

I went home, logged in and ended up paying $36 to a contracting company for the USPS to get my mail forwarded to our new address. Where does paying money to a contractor to get your forwarding address taken care of make the USPS remain solvent?

Fast forward to Saturday, our first forwarding of our mail came from our SD mailing company to my son's house. Opening the box, I found all the mail that was forwarded had a mistake in the address, the USPS contractor failed to put my box number on the forwarding labels. Fortunately, the mailing company looked us up by name and hand wrote the box number on each of the several dozen pieces of mail. Something I was glad to see, but felt bad that they had to do that extra step.

All the mail where I had sent in the new address myself (magazines, bank statements, credit card) were correct. One interesting piece of mail was from the Postal Service itself.

I opened the USPS envelope and it was a notice concerning my forwarding address. It listed my old address and my new address, but they didn't have the box number listed. The notice also said if my forwarding address was incorrect to immediately call the 800 number they supplied.

I waited to Monday morning to call, knowing there would be no one there over the weekend.

Of course, my phone call would be answered by the next available customer service representative. After almost 30 minutes of having that sentence imprinted forever in my brain by hearing it every 30 seconds, a real live person, masquerading as a customer service representative, answered.

I explained the notice I had received and I told her the forwarding address was incorrect. The rep said the only way I could fix it was to go to my local post office and submit another forwarding address request. I told her there was no way I could do that because: 1.) I was 3000 miles away from that post office and 2.) they did not accept forwarding address applications, they required it to be done on line. I asked if she could make the correction as it said in the USPS notice.

She said no, she was not allowed to make address changes, and advised me that I should call my post office back in Virginia. I said no thanks, and told her that she was absolutely no help whatsoever. Some customer service.

So, lets see, the USPS no longer accepts change of address forms, you have to do it online and pay a contractor. Then when they get the change of address information from the contractor, they pay someone to generate a letter, which must cost something telling you to check you new forwarding address and if it is incorrect to call a customer service 800 number, which must cost something to speak with a customer service rep to get the error corrected and said customer service rep is not allowed to make a correction.

Is it any wonder the Postal Service is losing money every year? They are paying people who can't help you, generating form letters costing money that are meaningless and contracting out services to companies as a cost saving measure who can't get things right and charge you for that service.

Sort of makes you yearn for the good old days of the Pony Express.

I certainly will go out of my way in the future to not use them every chance I get. I'll do more and more of my business on line.

Fortunately, the forwarded mail will become less and less as I make my new address known to the companies and people I need to continue to correspond with. I feel bad that my South Dakota mailing company has to pick up the slack from the USPS, but they know what good customer service is.

Okay, rant over. There were no four letter words used in the "resolution" of this problem. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Making Things Homey

2011-12-18T19:31:00.000-05:00

We sure are enjoying our time at Amber and Ryan's house.

Now that the Journey is our only home, Marti wanted to decorate it for Christmas. She had her two little helpers, Taylor and Kierra to do the "heavy" lifting.

Taylor put the Santa hats on the mirrors, with a little help from "Pa".

Inside the little Christmas Tree went up on the steering wheel table.

The tree came out nicely.

The dash was decorated, too.

Marti and the girls worked on making wreaths from kits. They were nice, the little decorations were "peel and stick", easy for the girl's little fingers and no glue to mess with.

The finished product. Our Christmas home on the road.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Time, Time, Time

2011-12-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

One aspect of our cross country dash we didn't expect was the jet lag. Okay, we didn't quite travel as fast as a jet, but the trip has left us dragging our you-know-whats and feeling slightly out of sorts.

Call it Time Zone Lag.

We've lived most of our lives in the East Coast and our body clocks are conditioned for that time zone. Now that we're on the West Coast and on Pacific Time, we haven't yet seemed to get a handle on adjusting to that time zone, our body clocks seem to resist changing over. By 8 PM, we're yawning and suffering from droopy eye syndrome, ready for bed. Determined to stick it out and stay up to 10 or 11 PM before hitting the sheets doesn't seem to produce good results. By 3 AM, our eyes are popped open and we're ready to start the day, after all on the East Coast, this was our normal 6 AM wake up time.

Even more fun is trying to remember all our family that is still in the East Coast time zone. Marti just realized she missed a call from her sister in Rhode Island and at 8:30 PM (PT), she just picked up her phone and called her sister and wondered why there was no answer. Maybe it's because her sister is already in bed?

Then we have the fun with our DirecTV Distant Network Service (DNS). It is TV service for full time RVers. You get all the DirecTV channels and the local networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS) are based on the time zone your billing address is in. Our billing address is Sioux Falls, SD, which is in the Central Time zone. When we're planning to watch one of our favorite shows, we find ourselves trying to add or subtract hours to make sure we going to be able to watch the show. I think I need to get a little clock, set it to Central Time and hang it somewhere near the TV so we'll know for sure when our show comes on.

One thing that is for sure, even when we wake up at 3 AM, it's not because of having to go to work. We're retired and have plenty of time to adjust to these time zones. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Basic Housekeeping

2011-12-16T21:40:00.000-05:00

After our marathon trip across the USA in seven days (not a personal record, I did it back in 2008 in 5 1/2 days when I unexpectedly got called back to work), the Journey was somewhat disheveled.

When we pulled into our son's slightly down sloping driveway on Wednesday, I used the front levelers to get us on an even plane. Being too tired to fiddle too much with leveling, I just left it "close" and spent the first night feeling like I was going to roll off the bed.

The next day, I was determined to get the Journey properly leveled, but before doing that, I wanted to fill the propane tank and the diesel fuel tank. Doing a check around Astoria, the best place to get propane was the KOA, so off we went, Ryan, Taylor, Kierra and me. While the worker filled the tank, Ryan and the girls went into the KOA store and got some ice cream.

Then off to the gas station that carried diesel and filled that tank.

Back at the house, I used my "Lego" blocks to level out the Journey correctly. I had to stack some under the levelers to lift it up beyond level, then more blocks under the front wheels, then let the full weight of the Journey back down on the blocks with the levelers used to be stabilizers. It took a few tries to get everything just right.

Today I spent a couple of hours giving the Journey and the Element a good scrubbing. I hate having a dirty vehicle and I swear when they are clean they run much better.

Even the "shoes" were dirty.

Now that's more like it.

Finally, got it all done. I had almost forgotten how good the Journey looks when it's clean.

In the mean time Marti has been having a great time with the girls, helping them do projects, bake cookies and color things.

Marti went with the girls to their school Christmas party, then after school, worked on some Christmas ornaments with them. She's having a great time with the girls but she seems to be a little out of practice.

Fortunately, she'll have almost three more weeks here to get the hang of it. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Marti's Musings: Cross Country Tour

2011-12-16T01:56:00.000-05:00

YEAH! We made it! I know you already know that, but boy is it exciting! Our goal for our FT retirement was to spend more family time. And we have been doing just that...and loving every single second! The long cross country trip was no where near as arduous as it sounds - or perhaps our reward was so sweet it minimized it?

Many of you are asking for insight on how we "lived" coming across. Paul is planning a post, to be done soon, that will have much more technical and detailed information. Me? KISS = keep it simple sweetie.

First, I guess - let me explain that even though we are "newbies" at the whole FT thing, we have owned the Journey for four years. So, we pretty much have a routine for set up/take off...I am sure most of you do, too. We can close up and be ready for departure in 20 minutes or less. What's that got to do with the cross country? Well, the whole trip was basically a semi-setup and take down. Every day. Yeah, we are now r-e-a-l-l-y good at that. :-)

After our 3 day stay at camp Freightliner, our days pretty much went like this:

Get up, get ready, breakfast. While I cooked breakfast, Paul did his walk around the RV and started up the toad (for you non-RVers, that is the towed car) to make sure the battery was fully charged before we pulled out. He checked the temps, and various other technical things he needed to keep an eye on. Meanwhile, I was getting breakfast ready - usually to eat on the run. Also, putting away dishes that were washed, and securing everything inside to prevent any breakages. Our routine nearly always had us finishing simultaneously. Off we'd go...

My routine, as navigator, would be to review the routes we would be taking that day - and we'd tentatively decide on a stopping point, but that was very flexible. Paul, drove and drove and drove. Along the way, he'd ask where the next Flying J was, when he'd anticipate a need for fuel. He also kept an eye on the propane level as well as the diesel. Of course, the propane furnace was how we kept warm at night. :-)

Also, along with tracking our route, I kept tabs on the DOT Interstate Route Website. A really nifty tool while driving interstate, and shows the entire route, for all states. (ie route 80 east to west, or perhaps west to east, can't remember). That alone, was a marvelous tool. It provided us weather, by state and by date. It gave us confidence on our path and plan. We also saw if a weather pattern was heading in our intended direction, and that would spur us to make extra miles.

On those long days, we typically ate on the road for breakfast and lunch - meaning we ate as we traveled. Dinner was always after we had parked at night, and could then decompress and relax from the day's travels. Occasionally, we ate out, more often we had a nice home cooked meal. If we were boon-docking at Walmart, we took advantage and went shopping for fresh fruit/veggies, and various other items. Of course, I often went back solo for another stroll, and often found fun stocking stuffers, or worked on finding items I need for a few projects in the making. It felt good to walk, after a day of sitting. Paul was always pretty tired, and preferred to sit in the rig watching TV and working on the post. :-)

Many have asked about the trip, and were we warm enough? Yes, that really wasn't an issue, even when it got really, really cold. Paul kept the furnace on at night, to keep the "basement" warm, making sure pipes didn't freeze or burst. Other than needing to disconnect the ice maker water line, we had no problems. In the cab, the dash heat was good. I have to say, the driver's side is warmer - and our unspoken rule has always been that the driver controls the heat, for the most part. I typically started in a sweatshirt, and by the time the sun was shining mid-day, had to switch to a T-shirt as it got too hot. We both have warm slippers, we wore inside the rig. Only once did I need a blanket up front, and that was the first day of our trip...after that I never needed it. During the trip, I refilled drinks, and kept him posted on any changes in weather or other pertinent information. Mid-day we narrowed down where the goal for stopping was. Interestingly, the days never seemed to drag (except the last day, for some reason the last 300 miles felt oh-so-long-gee, could it be the anticipation? LOL).

I kept busy, doing my navigator duties on my iPad, iPhone, then when that was done, read my book or played with my Nintendo DS, and of course did Christmas card and note writing. I was typically the photographer, taking dozens of pictures through the windshield (didn't have time to stop), as well reading the comments out loud from the prior days post. The days were very busy and the Christmas music we had playing was fun! So, all in all - the trip was very very easy, albeit 3000+ miles long. And worth every mile, every second, every day spent enjoying our new freedom. It sure was fun, planning what we want to do in the upcoming year, and where we want to stop on our next cross country trip.

I'll say it again: God is good, and we are blessed more than we deserve. Christmas will be a joy this year, as it was last year. It's family time - what's better than that? This year, we will have more time to visit - that will make it extra special. As each upcoming visit with the kids/grandkids will be great... Wow-let the Journey continue!

Thanks for visiting, and feel free to leave a comment. ~Marti

Touchdown

2011-12-14T23:19:00.000-05:00

3150 Miles

14 States

1 Alternator

3 Days awaiting repairs

11 Fuel Stops

24 Gallons of Propane

7 Days driving

3 Overnights at a Flying J

2 Overnights at a Super Walmart

1 Night in a KOA

Hugging your granddaughters that you haven't seen in almost a year...

PRICELESS!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

So Close We Can Taste It

2011-12-13T23:16:00.001-05:00

The finish line is in sight, as long as you can see about three hundred miles...

We started the day off with plans to stop just short of our granddaughter's home, a "short" 300 miles. We decided to spend a night in a campground to do some heavy laundry and in general cleaning up. Since we've been blacktop boondocking, we have not been able to use our Splendide washer/dryer. Ergo, a pile of dirty clothes developed.

Leaving Idaho, the roads were once again clear and dry, and it was sunny, but a little cold. We crossed into Oregon on I-84 and enjoyed the scenery, you don't get to see things like this on the East coast.

The highway climbed up into the hills.

Further along, we began to see pine trees.

The road ran along a beautiful river.

Off in the distance on top of the mountain clouds were moving in.

The road took us up into the clouds and we found a real winter wonder land.

We never saw anything quite like the frosted pine needles before.

Eventually we made our way to Pendelton, Oregon where there is a KOA.

Here is a picture of the Journey at said KOA. Just wanted to prove that we really do stay in campgrounds. ;c)

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we'll finish the trip, and we'll be hugging our granddaughters...and Moochdocking in their driveway.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

I Really Did Pay Attention in Fifth Grade Science Class

2011-12-12T22:17:00.002-05:00

Strange things were happening last night, not only to us but to some things inside the Journey. When we went into the Super Walmart in Laramie, Wyoming last night, I began to get a little worried. I found myself very tired and was having a bit of trouble breathing.

I have to watch my breathing closely because of repeated bouts of pneumonia I've had during my Coast Guard years that left me with some lung damage. The feeling I was getting seemed like I was again coming down with pneumonia. Marti and I went back to the Journey, where I laid down and took it easy.

In the bathroom, several bottles of soap and lotion had leaked all over the place, it was a mess to clean up.
In the kitchen, we had an unopened bag of potato chips that popped open. Marti figured she had crammed one to many items into the microwave to store while we travel and popped the bag.

I was pretty tired so I went to the bedroom and climbed into bed. The Select Comfort Mattress (which I can't stand, but that would take up the whole post) felt like a rock. I looked at the gauge and it read 100, I normally set it to about 55. Looking at the other side gauge and it too read 100. What in the world? I let pressure out of both sides to the level we like and tried to sleep. Sleep took a long time to come because I couldn't get a full breath. In the morning, I woke early and still felt some difficulty in breathing. Even more interesting, Marti said she was having trouble getting a full breath, too.

Being the intrepid travelers that we are, we pressed on anyway and hoped for the best. I turned on my GPS and as I was scrolling through the settings and found that we were at 8500 feet in elevation. Duh!

For us living at or near to sea level and then finding ourselves high up in the mountains, no wonder we felt some shortness of breath. And the bottles of lotion that leaked, the popped chip bag and the mattress over inflation were all related to the increase of elevation and decrease in air pressure. Stuff I learned in the fifth grade science class, and for some reason (Oldtimers?) I didn't remember any of it. I was thinking maybe Murphy had returned and was haunting us.

We did another longish day, 537 miles, which we enjoyed. The scenery in Western Wyoming and Utah were beautiful, the camera doesn't even come close to capturing the beauty. With the snow in some places, it added an additional dimension of beauty.

Tonight we're at another Super Walmart blacktop boondocking. It is in Brumley, Idaho. We missed seeing the scenery in Idaho so far because it was dark when we rolled into the state. We did see an interesting road sign, it said: "Sandstorm Area. Do Not Stop In Road". Wonder what that's all about? I guess we'll find out in the morning.

Tomorrow, we are going to try and contribute to a campground for the evening. We are very close to our goal of Astoria, Oregon and the granddaughters, so we thought a night at a campground to rest a bit, clean up the inside of the Journey and even do some laundry will be a welcome change from all the other nights we've spent "campgroundless". That is, if we can find one that is open this time of year.

Now it's off to bed. I'll probably have to re-inflate that #*%^@&* Select Comfort Mattress...

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Cold, Warm, Cold

2011-12-11T22:22:00.000-05:00

This morning we woke up to warmer cold weather. Or weather that wasn't as cold as yesterday.

First order of business before we departed was to take the Journey to the "potty". After dumping its tanks, it felt much better. I know the feeling. ;c)

Yesterday and again today, we had the fun of battling headwinds. Fortunately, the Journey handles well in the winds, but the fuel mileage sure suffers. Normally, we average between 7.5 to 8 mpg. With the wind, we were down in the 6.4-6.5 range. With diesel running around and average of $3.85 a gallon, seeing those mpg numbers on the Journey's dash computer is not fun ($niff).

So, we're making the best of it, mpg be darned. Marti spent most of the trip through Nebraska writing out our Christmas cards.

One of the ways we are able to make such mileage on our long travel days is we eat on the road. Marti prepared some great chow for us. We have two folding tables that we bought at Walmart for about $8 each that come in so handy.

Today we drove 550 miles, the weather has been sunny, the roads clear so we're trying to make as many miles as we can. We saw temperatures run from 36 this morning up to 52 degrees in Western Nebraska, to back down to 32 degrees where we stopped for the night, the Super Walmart in Laramie, Wyoming.

Unfortunately, because we're making so many miles, we have to pass on interesting sites we'd love to see. I've passed under the famous Nebraska Arch now for the sixth time, never being able to stop, but one of these days, we'll get to see the inside. (Just ignore the Dream Catcher hanging from my defroster fan in the blue tint of the windshield).

I have to marvel at technology, we are a connected society today in ways we couldn't even dream about when I was a mere wisp of a lad.

Marti sat on the couch and had a Skype conversation with our grandsons Andrew and Owie back in South Carolina.

The winds finally died off around sunset, we captured the first sunset of our full time life in Wyoming.

As soon as the mpg started picking up again, it began to drop down. Interstate 80 starts climbing in elevation in Wyoming, up to over 8500 feet. It is so slight, you don't really notice it.

The generator is running, we have had an nice dinner and we're kicking back an enjoying our satellite TV. Life on the road is really rough! ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Almost A Giant Ice Cube

2011-12-10T21:54:00.000-05:00

A Super Walmart in Illinois was a good place to stop, even better was the chance to pick up enough food to stuff the fridge, cabinets, and even the microwave. One item we grabbed was a complete stew kit, the meat, veggies and gravy. We wanted to put the stew in the crock pot and let it cook while driving down the road. Great idea.

One small problem cam to light in the morning. We had a little crock pot, too small to cook the meal. Back into Walmart and shortly we had a new, larger crock pot to put the food in, plug in and place in the sink. It made the trip smell delicious. Now we have a new problem, where to put it.

Last night was very cold, temps dipped below 18 degrees. We had the furnace cranked up and we were warm inside. When we were getting ready to leave this morning, the slides moved slower than slow, the hydraulic fluid was cold, making them very sluggish. With everything stowed, the Journey's engine running (kept the block heater on all night so it fired right up), the last thing was to open the windshield curtains. Surprise, the windshield was frozen over with ice...from the inside!

That was a new one on us, but this cold weather living in the Journey is loaded with new experiences.
I turned on the defrosters and the windshield fans and after about ten minutes, the windshield was de-iced. We had to wipe the glass dry, but it needed cleaning anyway.

Off like a dirty shirt we went and drove the rest of the way through Illinois where everything was dry, snow free and cold,

then through Iowa, where there was lots of snow along the roads,

and in the fields.

Iowa had dozens and dozens of giant wind generators. They must like them because they are all over the place. The way they are spinning, it's no wonder it was so cold in Iowa.

After driving all the way through Iowa, we stopped for the night at another Flying J (see a pattern here?) just west of Omaha, Nebraska. We didn't drive as many miles as yesterday (450), we only drove 445 miles. Have to take it a little easy. ;c) This is not going to be our full time traveling style, we just want to get to Oregon as fast as we can to see the grandkids. We're going to spend about 20 days with them, a new experience for all of us.

We like to overnight at Flying J's because of the availability of the free parking and have the fuel, water and dump station available first thing in the morning as we get ready to hit the road. We won't always stay at Flying J's, but when we're trying to make time, we take advantage of what they offer.

A look down the road with the weather predictions show that we should have snow and ice free roads ahead on the route to Salt Lake City where we will turn North and head up through Idaho into Oregon. The weather should be warmer, too, only in the thirties. Maybe the Journey will finally thaw out.

Marti is making good use of her new iPad checking all the conditions along our route. At least that's what she tells me she's doing. I do hear all kinds of beeps, dings and other noises that I think are games...

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Who Turned Off The Heat?

2011-12-09T22:50:00.001-05:00

Wow, a whole day of travel with no interruptions, problems or breakdowns. We must have kicked Murphy to the curb (knock on wood!).

When we left Harrisburg, PA yesterday, we had to drive up through the mountains of NW PA. We ran into the first snow we've seen this winter.

We started thinking we were going in the wrong direction.

A night at a Flying J in Ohio and then on the road this morning at 9:45. Nice not to be at Camp Freightliner anymore.

Driving along Interstate 80, we saw the remains of a slight snowstorm, only a couple inches, but the roads were clear and dry. Marti used some of the trip to write a bunch of Thank You cards for all the gifts she received at her retirement party.

Even though the weather was mostly clear, the temperature kept dropping. I'm seeing the choice we made not to go to South Dakota was another one of my rare moments of brilliance.

Tonight, after driving 450 miles, we are "Wally Docking" (aka staying at Walmart) in Illinois. We needed to stock up on some food, so it worked out well. Before we went in, we needed to take the precaution of disconnecting the small plastic water line that runs to the refrigerator ice maker. It is exposed to the weather by the vent on the side of the Journey. If that line were to freeze and split, well, it would not be a simple repair.

I disconnected the line on the back of the 'fridge, then crawled under the sink to disconnect the line at the supply end.

With both ends of the line disconnected, I was able to blow all the water out with a couple of breaths. Problem solved. Despite the size of the Journey, it is tight to get at some places, including the line under the sink. Disconnecting the line took three hands, one for the wrench, one for the pliers and one for the flashlight. Not being blessed with three hands, I used another method to hold the light.

Despite the freezing weather, we're warm and toasty inside the Journey. I have the engine block heater on keeping the Cat diesel heating so it'll start up fine in the morning when we leave, or maybe the afternoon, who knows, we're retired!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Shared The Lemonade

2011-12-08T19:20:00.002-05:00

Despite all the drama over the repair bill, we both slept like babies. Even with all the trucks driving in and out of the Camp Freightliner shop (open 6 am to midnight), nothing bothered us. At 8 am we went in to meet with the service manager.

My first thought was to send Marti in to see the service manager (Rob) before she had her FAEL (foul and evil liquid - coffee) but that was not a good idea, I might have had to use my money for bail instead of paying for the repair.

Rob apologized for the mistake his service advisor had made over the Cat warranty and made the call to our extended warranty company (The Choice). Of course, the RV division of the warranty company didn't come in until 9 am. Back to the Journey in the lot for breakfast.

At 9, back to see Rob. Rob called again and the warranty company was receptive to covering the repair within their guidelines. They would research the cost of the alternator and the labor and call Rob back.

10 am, 11 am came and went. At 11:15, they called back and would cover the entire cost of the alternator and most of the labor. Rob discounted his labor rate as a courtesy for the mistake, instead of the RV labor rate of $150/hour, he gave us the truck rate of $112/hour. The warranty company would only pay $96/hour of the labor. We had to pick up the difference, as well as the sales tax and the cost for the overnight shipping that I had authorized. So on our bill, we had to only pay out of pocket about $300 of a nearly $1250 bill. It was a fair compromise, so we shared the lemonade all around with the warranty company, Freightliner and ourselves.

We had already hooked up the Element, so by 1130, we were on our way, doing the where-are-we and where-are-we-going routine until we found the way out of Harrisburg, PA.

Tonight we're staying at another Flying J in Ohio, sorry no pictures tonight, the Internet connection is slow. Despite the late start, we drove almost 300 miles before stopping for the night. Maybe tomorrow we'll get an early start, then again, maybe not. We're retired! :c)

Only 2750 miles to Astoria, Oregon.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Good Thing We Like Lemonade

2011-12-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

We last left our blog blacktop boondocking at "Camp Freightliner" in Harrisburg, PA, awaiting the overnight delivery of a new alternator for the Journey. Making lemonade from the lemons, we took a trip to Hershey, PA to see the Sweet Lights Christmas Show.

It was quite cute, took about 20 minutes to drive through it all and we were one of the very few cars there. At $20 per car, it was a little pricey, but we needed a little fun after the busy day of making lemonade.

Today, I slept in until 9 am, even though the Freightliner service advisor said the alternator should be in sometime after 8 am, I figured it would come later. And, of course, I was right. Later, like 1:30 pm. In all fairness, the alternator did have to come from Memphis, TN and they had a snowstorm last night, so a little slack was warranted. The tech picked up the Journey from our exclusive camping site and said it wasn't a big job, he'd have it done for us by 4:30.

Alrighty then, so Marti and I headed out to do a little store browsing and grabbed a bite to eat. Later, we bopped over to a nearby McDonald's and used their WiFi hotspot to surf the net while drinking some tea and Diet Coke. Marti was enjoying using her new iPad, doing all kinds of things with it and yes, playing some games on it too.

Arriving back at Camp Freightliner at 4:15, the tech was just finishing up, so we went to the lounge to wait for the keys.

Now for the lemonade, a big whole glass full. The service advisor came in and said, "Oh, sorry but Cat declined to warranty the alternator repair. They will not warranty alternators or starters because they are not Cat manufactured items, so you'll have to pay the whole amount."

Hold on a minute. When I first came in, he told me it was a Cat warranty. I said okay, but I had an extended warranty, too. Since Cat was going to pay the bill, I didn't need to use my extended warranty and pay the $100 deductible. Now that the repair was completed I could not use my extended warranty because the plan specifically states that repairs must be authorized by them first before any work can be done, or the claim will be denied.

I asked for the service manager and was told he had gone home. I told the advisor to get him on the phone. The service manager said it wasn't a big deal, he dealt with things like this before and wanted his service advisor to call my warranty company. Of course, by this time, the warranty company was closed for the day. So tonight, we are here at Camp Freightliner for our third night with a repaired Journey and no resolution of who is going to pay the $1000 bill if the warranty company denies the claim. I'm on solid ground, I didn't make a mistake, the service advisor did and Freightliner needs to step up and eat the bill. This should be fun, I'll be waiting for the service manager first thing in the morning. We'll see who gets to drink the large glass of lemonade.

Since we are falling behind in our travel plans, we are going to blow off Sioux Falls, do the vehicle registrations via mail and worry about drivers licenses later, like when it gets warmer (August?). We're planning on I-80 West to Salt Lake City and see what the weather is like going North from there. If it's not looking good, we'll continue West on I-80 to California and catch I-5 North.

Yes we know about Donner Pass, but we'll do a food shopping run before we attempt to cross it. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Making Lemonade

2011-12-06T16:25:00.000-05:00

I didn't sleep too well last night. I guess it was from a repressed fear of alarm clocks. I knew we had to have the Journey ready to go at 6 am, so I set the clock for 5:15. Plenty of time to get up, get ready and move things around to be ready for the Freightliner technician. Plus Marti would have a chance to make some of the foul and evil liquid called coffee. For some reason it always picks her up.

I kept staring at the alarm clock, then my wrist watch. Did I set it right? How much time is left to sleep? What if it doesn't go off and the Freightliner technician wakes me while I'm still wearing my Sponge Bob PJs?

Well, it all worked out okay. The clock went off correctly. I got up. Marti got up, under protest. At least when she got some of the foul and evil liquid (FAEL) in her, she actually smiled. A very small one, but a smile.

At five minutes to 6, I walked in to the Service Department. The door was open and the shop was empty. After a few minutes, the service adviser came in, followed by a gaggle of techs. The adviser checked with the shop foreman and then said they'd come over and knock on our door when they were ready for us, about 7 or 7:30.

No problem, I went back to the Journey and laid down on the couch to grab a couple of those ZZZs I missed from last night. In no time, I was in a deep sleep. At 7:15 there was a knock on the door which jarred me out of my wood sawing. The tech was ready for the Journey. I handed him the keys and Marti and I jumped in the Element, intent on a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

We used the GPS on Marti's I-Phone to find one and guide us there. It said the closest CB was about 5 miles away. 20 miles later, after wandering around DLC (dazed, lost and confused) we found it and had a good meal. Then we decided to look around the Hersey, PA area and find a McDonald's so Marti could try and get her new I-Pad connected. A little more DLC and we finally found one.

I bought Marti a new I-Pad2 for an early Christmas present and figured she'd enjoy using it on our travels instead of her usual position.

However, the I-Pad didn't want to connect to our aircard/router system so she could go on line. At McDonald's she was able to get things set up so now it works fine in the Journey.

While we were out, the Freightliner service adviser called. The tech confirmed the alternator is bad and will need replacing. The fly in the ointment is the nearest one is in Memphis, TN and can be overnighted for $50 if I want to pick up that cost. I told him yes and it should be arriving sometime between 7 and 11 am.

So it is another night at Camp Freightliner. I guess the Good Lord needed to slow us down and let us rest a bit, we've been pushing very hard these last few weeks to get out on the road and we are both pretty worn down. We'll enjoy the rest, take a tour of the Christmas special light show at Hersey tonight and then get a good night's sleep. I know the alarm clock works now.

Making Lemonade from the Lemons.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Finally, Our First Day On the Road, A Great Start...

2011-12-05T17:45:00.001-05:00

A lovely morning, it was, no alarm clock to wake us, we slept in a bit and got out of bed around 8 am. Corey and Amanda had already left for work, (the poor things), but we were still "Moochdocking" in their driveway.

Before we started to close up the Journey and get ready for the road, we hopped in the Element and zipped out to pick up two very important items, Dunkin Doughnuts coffee for Marti, and the famous New Jersey delicacy, buttered hard rolls.

Back at the Journey, we pulled in the slides, backed out of the driveway, hooked up the car and off we went, free as birds. To make it even better, we were able to top off the fuel tank with diesel at $3.68/gallon, a price we haven't seen in a long time. New Jersey is close to the oil refineries so I guess the transportation costs are less and are reflected in the price. No complaints here.

We drove North and were aiming to catch I-80 West, until I noticed a small detail:

The Voltmeter gauge on the dash showed the Cat diesel's alternator was not charging! Seemed that Murphy hitched a ride with us after he got finished with Judy.

I pulled into a nearby rest area and double checked the battery voltage on the Journey's Electrical Management panel. Yep, not charging.

I immediately lit off the generator, on Winnebagos, there is a small trickle charger that feeds a little voltage from the house battery circuit to the chassis batteries, not enough to charge them but at least give a little voltage. Diesels usually don't need to have a battery once you get them started, (unlike a gas engine) but I wasn't sure if there needed to be some voltage for the engine's computer. So I took no chances, and I didn't shut off the engine.

We went on line and called around. We were about 10 miles down the road from a Cat dealer, we called and they said they were so busy they could not look at us until Friday. Umm, no thank you.

A few more calls and we found a Freightliner dealer in Harrisburg, PA that could look at us first thing Tuesday morning, so we drove the 100 plus miles to get there.

We're tucked alongside the building, snug as bugs in a rug, for the night.

The good news is we are staying here for free, the better news is the repair is covered under the Cat warranty. The bad news is we have to be ready to bring the Journey into the service bay at 6 am! And we thought we were done with alarm clocks! ;c)

The generator is running, we are all safe and secure for the night, so we're "enjoying" our first night on the road. A Super Walmart is just down the street, so we got some food shopping done.

We always knew as fulltimers we'd have all kinds of adventures!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Almost Ready For Takeoff

2011-12-05T00:19:00.001-05:00

After an overnight blacktop boondocking at a Flying J, Friday we headed out for our son Corey's home in NJ. Not having a fixed time schedule was nice, we ate a leisurely breakfast and then departed. Even though Marti has turned over the evil telephone to the new administrator, she spent a bit of the trip receiving and answering texts from her old staff, they miss her already...and she misses them.

We arrived at Corey and Amanda's house and commenced the "Moochdocking". The Journey fits nicely in their driveway, complete with free water and electric (20 amp).

Shortly after arriving, we departed for a trip to one of my brother's homes, we were celebrating my dad's 90th birthday. All of my four brothers, my sister and various BILs, SILs and assorted grandchildren and even one great grandkid were there with my dad. He got some presents, even one all the way from California relatives.

We had a chocolate birthday cake, too, which read: "Happy 90th Birthday".

Of course, my dad, ever the jester, said if you looked at the cake upside down, he was only 60!

We had a great time, lots of food, laughter and some tears, too. We all miss my mom, who passed away last April. We've made plans for all the family to get together this summer and rent a house up in the Adirondacks in New York State on Brant Lake for a week. Dad used to have a place there and we all spent many wonderful summers growing up there. What a better place than that for our next get together?

After the party, we returned to Corey and Amanda's house. Today, Saturday, "Amazing Amanda" took charge of getting the Journey ready for living. After a few hours, the inside had been cleaned out a little but still had much work to be accomplished. Taking things from our home, Marti's office, her car and even Christmas presents for our son Ryan's family our in Oregon made for quite a mess. We almost could have qualified for the TV show "Hoarders".

Amanda, using her incredible organizational talents, finished up the job in a couple of hours. To think she did it all, and she's six months pregnant with our newest granddaughter!

Lets just say I'm a very happy camper and the Journey's Cargo Carrying Capacity is back well within the proper limits. I feel sorry for the garbage man, though...

We couldn't have finished the transition from a stix-n-brix to full time RV life without our kid's help. They all pitched in, one way or another to help us get started on living our dream. Tomorrow we pull out for our first full time adventure, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and then on to Oregon, here we come. Looking at the Weather Channel, it should be quite a ride!

We'll miss Corey...

...and Amanda.

We'll be back in March to help them welcome their daughter. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.