Squirrel!

Let me tell you my theory…

Back in February of 2017 we purchased a new to us motor home. We noticed a few things slightly out of the ordinary after living in it for a few weeks. One day while lying on the bed awaiting my turn in the shower I noticed something inside one of the A/C vents. I removed the vent to expose the shell of an acorn nut. Upon checking the other A/C vents throughout the RV I found other nut shells and assumed since the coach had low miles and one area of slight water damage that the coach had been kept outside in a wet region of the country before we purchased it. My suspicions were more viable after we found out the coach was from Utah when we were tracking down the original title to the coach. Shortly after that I went to dim the overhead lights one evening and found that the dimmer switch also controlled the overhead exhaust fan which I thought odd. I surmised that a squirrel had somehow made this coach home and was eating the wiring for dessert after having stored his acorns for winter and whomever rewired the bad wiring had just chosen a hot wire for the fan and it happened to be the dimmer switch. RV dealer shops are not known for being the most thorough or having the brightest employees so I figured my suspicions were right on the money. This, in the tradition of my daughter, Mallory, we named our coach Squirrel!

Now, on with the blog…

Draft of our intended route

Sunday, June 11, 2017

We left Yucaipa headed for Meadview, AZ by way of Primm, NV. We always stop at Primm the first night and boondocked in the Buffalo Bill Casino parking lot. This gives us a chance to have a dinner out and shopping. That night after leaving Yucaipa our local friends there in the park who always walk their dog, Molly, past our coach stopped on their usual rounds because I always met Molly out front with a dog treat. Thus the picture of Molly looking at our deserted spot wondering where her dog treat was.

Molly wondering where her treat is!

Monday, June 12, 2017

After a restful night outside the casino we rose and were told by our traveling companions (Michael & Sara) we had made a mistake. We thought we would be able to go across the new road at the Hoover Dam but were told by Sara she had heard we would have to sit thru an extensive vehicle inspection and because time was a bit of a factor we opted to back up and go across Nipton Rd which made our trip much further than expected. We actually had to go over thru Serachlight, NV and down to Laughlin, NV before heading across to Needles, AZ and back North again to Meadview. Meadview is situated about 10 minutes from Lake Mead and about 20 minutes from the Grand Canyon Skywalk. It has a population of only a few hundred by looking at the amount of dwellings in the area and is mostly vacation homes for those who want to be close to Lake Mead. We were invited to spend a few nights in Meadview by a friend who had property in the area and we could take the boat and other water toys out to play. We found our way to our friends house, got backed in and even had hookups. Good thing because we certainly needed the A/C. The last time Kathy and I were at the Skywalk was with my daughter, Mallory and we had to traverse a lot of dirt roads to get there. Now it is all beautifully paved.

Lake Mead

Lake Mead in the distance

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

I just realized by typing the date for today why our day went the way it did. Our friend John thought we should take his boat out on Lake Mead for the day. We got our ice chests and day bags all ready to go, hooked up to the boat and headed for the lake. The surrounding area around the lake is gorgeous rock strewn hills and spires. I am always amazed after having grown up and spent most of my adult life in the desert how beautiful it always looks to me every time I see a different part of it than I have before. I think that’s the biggest reason I got into the off-roading so I could explore all those areas I could see. John, Michael, Sara and Kathy jumped in the boat and launched while I took the trailer and truck up to the parking lot. Then I proceeded out to the end of the dock where I was picked up. No sooner did we make our way out past the 5mph zone John went to open up and go when the engine sputtered and tried to die. We found out later we could have putted all over the lake at 5-10mph but nothing faster. The boat had 2 fuel pumps and the one that supplied fuel at speeds was non-functional. A costly fix for John and the end to our boat ride so back to the dock where I retrieved the truck and trailer, we loaded up the boat and home we went.

Getting the boat ready to go in the water

Kathy, Sara & Michael on Lake Mead

Returning to the dock after our failed attempt

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Wednesday was a travel day. We left Meadview and headed towards Williams, AZ where we planned to stay for about 10 days exploring the area and holding our summer camping event. On our way we stopped just outside Kingman, AZ to top off fuel to hold us over until we were ready to leave for the next stage of our trip. As we get back on the freeway after getting fuel I notice my transmission temperature is very high. I slow down and downshift to bring the temp back down and notice my coolant temp for the engine is also high. At first, I attributed the high temps to traveling in the middle of the day and the steep mountains so I kept my transmission down in 5^th and 4^th gear to keep the temps around 210 but it soon became apparent we had other issues. We pulled to the side of the road and I went to the rear to check things out. There are 4 half-inch hoses going from various places within the engine compartment to the overflow canister and one of them was routed in such a manner it was lying on top of the A/C compressor which had melted a very small pinhole in the hose which over the miles had puked out all our antifreeze. Thank the heavenly stars we were in a motor home. We had 3 gallons of antifreeze and a full tank of water onboard. I also carry Rescue Tape. That stuff is gold! I’ve used it on many repairs and the only time it didn’t work was on one of my high pressure hydraulic hoses on my jeep. I wrapped the hose with the tape and Michael and I proceeded to add the 3 gallons of antifreeze as well as 10 more gallons of water from the outside shower to the radiator overflow until it was full. That got us all the way to Williams where we found an auto repair that had everything we needed to make our repairs.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day. We spent the day exploring the various campsites in our area looking to find something better than where we were located and a trip to the local Safeway market for supplies.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Friday was spent working around camp. We cleared tall grass from under the trees so we have a shady place to hang out and moving large rocks so others can get in and park their RV’s without too much trouble. One of our camping friends from Phoenix direction arrived early to hang out with us. She had a bad motor on her stabilizer under her trailer that needed work and we spent a few hours working on that. In the evening Michael BBQ’d chicken and bratwurst (for me because I really hate chicken) and we had a picnic outside with sides of salad and sweet potatoes. We ended up sitting around under the tree until it was almost too dark to see our RV’s before retiring to the coach to watch a little TV and go to bed.

Michael pulling weeds and grass around camp

Saturday, June 17, 2017

A sad awakening. Awoke to a voicemail from a past co-worker his wife had passed away that morning. I spent some time on the phone trying to console him long-distance and helping him cope with the ordeal. It was very apparent he was in quite a bit of shock. We talked off and on throughout the day. The afternoon was spent by Kathy trying to spend some time on a web site trying to make sure our insurance was correct for our vehicles. For those of you who don’t travel like we do it isn’t easy having decent Internet service. Since we have no stationary home we travel with a Verizon Mi-Fi and our phones. The Mi-Fi works but not nearly as well as your home Internet provider. We can have 4 bars and 4g service and still wait for pages to load. Sometimes and often more than not, the browser times out before the pages can get loaded. For the life of me I can’t figure out how we can be sitting with 2 and sometimes more cell towers all around us and still not have decent service.

Sunday, June 18, 2017 (Father’s Day!)

Today was a pretty darn good day. My daughters called me to wish me a Happy Father’s Day, my dad was home so I got to chat with him awhile and Kathy and Sara took Michael and I out to a very nice dinner at the Red Raven restaurant in Williams, AZ. The food was upscale and delicious however our waiter was a young man who was very inattentive and seemed more infatuated with himself rather than his job but we made it through dinner anyway. Michael was so incensed with the waiters indifference to us he wrote a bad review on his bill and on Yelp for whatever good it might do…lol!

 

Pics of my daughter Mallory with me on our Lake Powell trip years ago. Pics were included in her Father's Day message to me this year! I'll never forget how she fished her behind off to catch the most fish out of everybody. She never got to go swimming with that giant cast on her leg. I owe her a trip!

Monday, June 19, 2017

As I sit here writing this blog it is raining outside. We have a forest fire burning about 17 miles away over towards the Grand Canyon and the monsoon weather is making things cool right now but watch out for the humidity in another hour after it quits. We spend our time watching some TV or reading books. At 6800 feet in elevation it quite nice, very quiet, cool and relaxing.

Until next week!

Headed To New Orleans

Here it is November 2^nd already. Our travels keep us pretty busy. When we are driving we normally try to keep our miles around 200 per day give or take 50 or so. A lot depends on our next location having a place to stay either in an RV park or boondocking but we haven’t boondocked much on this trip. Sara has done a fantastic job of getting us to our next location and finding cheap places to stay with hookups so we haven’t needed to boondock and we’ve still been able to keep our costs down.

When we are parked we are, on most days, heading off to explore the area and sites around us. Another thing Sara does is finds nearby attractions we all might want to go see. Come to think of it, if not for Sara we might all be wandering around the southwest lost and confused! LOL!

So we left a really great RV park just outside Tombstone, AZ called “Tombstone Territories RV Park” on Friday, October 21^th and headed to Deming, NM. While in Deming we drove over to Las Cruces, NM on Saturday morning to go explore their Downtown Farmer’s Market. We really enjoyed checking out all the booths and people walking their dogs. The only requirement for having a booth is whatever your selling has to be home-grown or homemade. There were some very unique and different items for sale.

Las Cruces Farmer's Market

After leaving the market we drove out to the White Sands Missile Range and the museum. The museum has a lot of information on the Cold War era but the best part for me was seeing and reading about all the different types of missiles from the first prototypes in the 50’s up to and including the latest ones used during the Iraqi War.

Kathy standing next to a nuclear bomb

Sara & Kathy posers!

Not a UFO... Actually a flying target

After strolling around the museum we decided to try the local cuisine. We found a little restaurant in the area serving Mexican and went to try it out. Mexican food in New Mexico is a bit different but still very tasty. Also a lot spicier overall in my opinion.

Since I am such an avid NASCAR fan it was decided that we would not travel on Sundays unless necessary so I can record the races while we are out exploring or stay home and watch so Sunday was a day of relaxation. That afternoon we went over to the St. Claire Winery to do a sample tasting. There were a few we liked and they gave us a deal so we ended up bringing home 4 bottles between all of us. Ours is still waiting for happy hour to be opened.

Sampling wine at St. Claire Winery

Monday morning it was time to get back on the road as we pointed the rigs towards Van Horn, TX. We found the “Oasis RV Park” across the street from Chuy’s Mexican Restaurant. The restaurants claim to fame is it now houses all the memorabilia belonging to John Madden, the NFL Football star. It seems Mr. Madden does not enjoy flying so he has an RV he and his associates take to get to engagements.  The story goes while passing through the area one time he saw this little restaurant and stopped to see what he thought. He loved the location and became a fan so he started leaving personal items there for the restaurant to display.

As for the RV Park all I can say is I can’t rate it very highly. All the buildings are painted pink, the spaces were just that. Tight spaces with hookups but very little in the way of extras. The proprietor told the girls she had homemade ice cream for sale but after checking the place out we were a bit wary of buying the ice cream as great as it sounded and as warm as the temperature was outside. Needless to say we decided to move on the next day.

Tuesday dawned bright as we started out for Iraan (pronounced Ira-an), TX. We drove off the freeway and passed quite a few oil rigs with the heavy odor of crude oil in the air. Kathy and I were both hoping this was not what we would be smelling the entire rest of the day but the odor soon dissipated as we pulled into a very nice RV park where they had quite a few unused spots. The place looked like it had only recently been opened. It had full hookups but nothing else. The spaces were very wide and all pull-through. We only spent one night but at $15 a night it was a great bargain.

Wednesday morning we awoke to bright sunshine and got back on the road to our next destination, Ingram, TX.  Sara found a beautiful RV Park called “Johnson Creek RV Resort”. Full hookups, pull-thru’s loads of beautiful full trees, grasslands, next to the river and for Michael it was love at first sight! They had Shetland ponies and for years Michael has been telling us how he wants a Shetland pony and a big dog as pets. We only got to stay there one night but I think all 4 of us are ready to go spend more time in the area. It was a lot of green close to the river and just gave you the feeling you didn’t want to leave.

Thursday we were on our way to San Antonio, TX. This was one of the destinations we had all been looking forward to. In his military days Michael had been stationed in the area and spent some time in San Antonio. One of his goals this trip was to take Sara down to the Gulf of Mexico so she could step foot into the water. Michael had taken Sara to the East Coast and Sara was able to step into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. He also wanted to show us the sights of downtown San Antonio as well as the Alamo.

The Alamo Church

Friday we got up early and headed to town. First was the Alamo. We were impressed with the church and the history but disappointed when I stepped into the building marked “museum”. We never found the museum but did find a decent size gift shop in its place. Not really what we would have liked to find. Michael is very knowledgeable in history and he was able to help fill in the gaps for us to understand the history of the Alamo and what transpired to bring it to where it is today. After the Alamo we walked a few blocks to find the “River Walk”.

“Southerleigh Fried Snapper Throats”

The beginning of our water taxi ride

Michael & the girls waiting for a taxi

Looking down the canal

Hanging fish art under the freeway bridge

End of the line at the brewery

Proceeding thru the locks

Cute couple! Julia... I'm smiling!

Even saw Captain Jack Sparrow

The River Walk for those of you who have never been is an amazing collection of stores, eateries, bars and outdoor activities located on both sides of the river which has been created like the canals of Venice, Italy. Instead of canal boats they have motorized water taxi’s that take you up and down the river and around town all day long picking you up or dropping you off most anywhere you like. We headed up river to see what was along the shore on both sides with our final destination being what we thought to be a brewery. Our “brewery” turned out to be the name of the entire area but we did manage to find a brewery in the area to taste the local cuisine and drink a beer or two. Now I’m not one for eating a lot of fish but the “Southerleigh Fried Snapper Throats” served with Sweet Pepper and Celery Root Remoulade was calling me. The dish arrived and I started wondering what I’d gotten myself into. I don’t see myself ordering that same dish again but the flavor was light and savory. We left the brewery and made our way back down the river via water taxi again. The ride is very relaxing as you go through area of residential and business before proceeding through the locks that allow for differences in elevation. Then you are back in the heart of downtown. It is a beautiful ride! We didn’t get to take it at night but from all the overhanging trees strewn with lights and the electric atmosphere of all the night spots I’m sure it is even better.

The next day Michael drove us all down to Chorpus Christi, TX to see the Gulf of Mexico, get our feet wet and spend some time at the beach.

Michael & Sara wading in the Gulf of Mexico

The water was very warm compared to the Pacific. We spent some time catching hermit crabs and had a drink at the bar on the beach before heading home to enjoy pizza from the take out place across from where we were camped.

Sunday, the 30^th, was spent relaxing, watching NASCAR and Kathy doing the laundry. We left on Monday and made our way to the “Safari Mobile Home Park” in League City, TX just outside Houston, TX but more importantly just 4 miles from the “Johnson Space Center”.

Tuesday morning we rose to humid warm weather with the hint of a thunderstorm looming and drove over to the space center to check it out. We were there just after opening and it was really never too crowded all day long. We took the tram tour of the center built like a college campus when it was first created. It was originally a huge ranch with pastures for the Longhorn Steers that still exist today before being donated to the college that eventually donated land to be used as the space center. We saw the first ever Tracking and Control room, the Space Station training room, the Saturn V rocket and a Boing 737 with the Space Shuttle Atlantis attached. There are many movies explaining the past, present and future of different missions along with many of the past spaceships that took astronauts to space from the Mercury to the Gemini to the Apollo capsules. We spent the entire day but did not see all we wanted to see. Next time is the behind-the-scenes tour which we tried to get on this time but they were already booked full. Just one more reason to return this way some day.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 3^rd, we head for Lafayette, LA and swamp tours! Looking forward to seafood and alligators!

Space Shuttle attached to Boeing 737

Kathy in front of the Mercury capsule

Back On The Road Again!

On The Road Again!

For those of you who thought we fell off the face of the earth... We're baaaack!

Looking out our door at Catalina State Park

For those of you wondering about Kathy and her knee issue... We got it looked at immediately upon returning to Yucaipa. It was determined Kathy had arthritis around her knee joint and somehow managed to make it flare up in pain while we were traveling. She has since had a few Cortisone shots which helps but she still suffers some discomfort and weakness so we've had to curtail the long walks and standing for long periods of time.

Our rig at Catalina State Park

Sunrise

We spent the months of July and August in Yucaipa visiting with family and friends while we repaired rigs and discussed our next trip. We were all set to head north towards Glacier National Park and then over towards Washington state before heading back down south as it got colder up north. After reassessing the weather and talking to friends we know who live in those areas we decided north was not the way to go and chose New Orleans instead.

We left California on Monday, the 10th and left all the traffic of SoCal in our dust! We spent a few nights in Quartzsite just being lazy and left on Thursday for Catalina State Park in Tucson, AZ. This place is beautiful. We watch the sun come up over the Catalina Mountains every morning as we take our walk and listen to the coyotes howl at night. We are just on the edge of town but it seems as if we're miles away. Tucson is a "black" town at night meaning there are no or very few street lights and no bright lights or tall neon signs in order to keep everything as dark as possible for the Kitt Peak National Observatory nearby. It is home to the largest array of optical and radio telescopes in the world.

Today is a down day for us. We are paying bills and getting things in order before heading on down the road on Monday. We will go see "The Accountant" movie in an hour before visiting our fave department store, Wal-Mart, (Just kidding) for traveling supplies. We leave on Monday, the 17th to drive to an RV park just outside Tombstone called "Tombstone Territories RV Park". This is a great location. Spent one day exploring Kartchner Caverns State Park and another exploring Tombstone. Had dinner one evening with friends we a few years ago and caught up just a bit with an old friend whose daughter went to school with Mallory, my daughter.

Downtown Tombstone

Tombstone Taxi

Bought a new hat!

The plan is to leave here tomorrow on the 21st and go as far as Deming, NM to spend a day or two. Stay tuned!

Whatta Week!

06/13/2016

Sorry for the formatting issues! Seems Google doesn't quite have it yet!

Monday we left Guthrie, OK for Wellington, TX and the Pioneer Park campground. The park is beautifully kept and at $15 for a 50 amp service was well worth it. The park is next to the Red River, has a lot of things for kids to play on and lays claim to being directly next to the bridge where Bonnie & Clyde drove off into the Red River in 1933 where Mr. and Mrs. Sam Pritchard saw them plunge. They lived in a home adjacent to the river and rescued Bonnie & Clyde along with Buck Barrow before taking them to their home.

 On Tuesday we left Wellington and proceeded to go to Tucumcari, NM. This is where the week went to hell. On our way our TPMS system went off around Groom, TX so I immediately pulled off and went back to see our right tire on the tow dolly missing all its tread and slowly deflating. I never considered replacing the tires after we purchased the dolly because the tires were all produced in 2011. They were not that old and had no cracking on the sidewalls so I thought they were OK. We got the tire changed out and proceeded on down the road. Just 2 miles from Tucumcari and our final destination that day the spare tire we placed on the same side blows out. I hear a loud pop, the TPMS system goes off, Sara comes on the radio to tell us the tire blew and I headed for the shoulder. By the time I get over and stopped Michael asks if I have a fire extinguisher. We put out the small fire and assess the damage. The tire is obliterated and the spring plate along with all the nuts holding the plate to the axle are almost completely gone. We call AAA who sends out someone to take the tire to his shop and replace it before returning to mount it back on the dolly. We remove the car and Kathy follows Michael & Sara down the road to the campsite while I tiptoe into town to the business that brought out our new tire without losing the axle on the dolly. Two new tires and U-bolt assembly later I am able to leave and head for camp. To top it all off I split out a 3 day old pair of shorts and going through Amarillo the speedometer goes to zero. Some sort of computer error that fixed itself after we restarted. This was a long and trying day!

Tire #1 lost tread

Tire #2 blown

Wednesday was spent exploring the Route 66 museum and other sites around Tucumcari. Ate lunch at a place called “Joe’s Back In The Day 50’s Diner”. I had the “Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf” and it certainly wasn’t. I realized about an hour later it really wasn’t when I had to use the facilities at the second museum. Whew! Thank God they had a place!

Very large cross in Grove, TX

Didn't know I had it in me!

Michael & I playing Army

Any young people know what this is?

Thursday, with trepidation and concern about the tow dolly, we left Tucumcari and gingerly made our way to the “High Desert RV Park” in Albuquerque, NM. I kept a vigilant eye on the TPMS system all the way noticing the right tire on the dolly was always hotter than the left even tho the pressures were very close. We stopped a few times to check on tires but had no problems. We even got to the park early enough for Kathy to do a few loads of laundry. I made a phone call to the guy who was supposed to be coming out to fix our dash a/c unit and found out he only did the coach a/c. Apparently he never heard it was in the dash and not on top of the roof so the rest of the day was spent making phone calls to find another person to repair the a/c. I contacted every mobile RV tech I could find online or was referred to me and had to leave messages at almost every one. Don’t go to Albuquerque and ask someone to look at your dash a/c. Camping World doesn’t do the chassis items so we stopped at Freightliner. We were told they could not get the schematics so they couldn’t do it. Not even after I volunteered that I had all the schematics. I guess they only work on the new stuff.

Friday was to be a down day. Michael & I each had a few things to take care of.  We took off for Walmart where we picked up a few things including some Freon for the a/c. Then over to Harbor Freight for a laser thermometer to measure the tires, wheels and axle bearings as we travel. Back to the coach to install the Freon and see what happens. The dash a/c never worked since we bought the coach so we assumed it had a leak and was out of Freon. I couldn’t see putting Freon in if it was going to leak out so we also put in some dye to see if we get lucky and spot the leak if there is one.

 

 

We awoke early Saturday to go check out the Petroglyph National Monument and the Nuclear Science & History Museum. The petroglyphs (over 25,000 of them) are amazing and pretty much everywhere. We parked and got out to walk among them on the marked trails as we tried to figure out what they all meant. On the second trail we took 2 young men passed us as we took pictures and were about 20 yards in front of us as we heard them yell and the hiss of a rattlesnake. Their hearts were racing. They had been walking along the trail and apparently did not see the diamondback snake. The first guy jumped up and over it as the second guy walked back past us to go around and back the way they had come. We all took a closer look but gave the snake a wide berth as we passed on the opposite side of the trail. By this time he seemed to be getting pretty upset with us.

Our trail partner

Where the guy ended up

License plate after Japan bombing 

First bomb dropped on Japan

Nuclear Science Museum

After that we decided we had enough of the petroglyphs and headed over to the Nuclear Museum. I really enjoyed reading about and seeing all the nuclear related paraphernalia and items on display. The museum is laid out very well and explains everything from the discovery and inception of nuclear energy to the days during World War II that both the bombs were dropped on Japan. They also had a very large display of all the rockets and bombs using nuclear energy as well as the submarines and planes that carry them. Fascinating!

Sunday we were planning on spending the day writing a blog and watching the Nascar race but about noon I looked up from the computer to see Kathy in a lot of pain. It seems she overdid it and had exacerbated her sciatic nerve. She asked if we could go to urgent care. She had already found the one closest to us online and called them so we headed there. For those of you in California let it be known that urgent care facilities in your state are far superior to those in New Mexico. After finding our way to the facility, filling out all the paperwork, paying our co-pay and entering the initial exam room they pretty much told us they couldn’t do anything for us and we should head up the street to the emergency room. So here we go again. Got my co-pay back and away we went.

I got Kathy in the ER, filled out the paperwork once again and in the room we go. She was in so much pain! I’ve never seen Kathy like this. They took x-rays and gave her some Hydrocodone but the pain persisted. Next was a shot of Morphine. When that didn’t seem to help they gave her some Diazepam to help relax the muscles and that seemed to help a bit. They sent us home with 3 pain med prescriptions and a hearty “hope you feel better soon”! The one registered nurse on duty seemed more interested in our travels and how we live. The greatest part of this whole urgent care and ER experience was there were no lines at either facility and no real waiting. Not at all like Southern California.

Welcome to Colorado

The pic my navigator would have gotten

Monday was a travel day from Albuquerque to Cortez, CO to spend a few days and mostly so Kathy can go see Four Corners. The last time past here we were running behind to meet Mallory in Kingman, AZ to go see the Skywalk so we didn’t stop. After getting everything broken down and loaded and with Kathy riding prone on the sofa we traveled to Cortez over some of the bumpiest roads we’ve been on in a while. When I stopped for fuel Kathy even asked if we had been on dirt roads at some point. As it is, she is laid out on the sofa all doped up and on the heating pad trying to get relaxed and recovered so we can go see some sites. It’s been Hell Week for us this past week! I am however, happy to report that the dash a/c performed so well while traveling that I had to turn it off a few times because I was actually getting cold. Amazing!

What’s in store for us next?