Friday, August 31, 2012

ANTS & A Move

Well, after a night of thinking about moving we got up to an ant colony in our rig.  In our 40+ years of camping we have never been invaded like we were this morning in the Beast.  They were those little tiny ants with jet packs on.  Well, after spraying all over the place we went up the hill in TTN to look for a different site.  They have poor electric and only 30 AMP (full  hook up). 

This site wasn’t the best site,DSCN0978 but it was across from a transformer and next to the sewer system.  Smells like farm country.DSCN0975 

No neighbor right in our setting out area. I still had to put our Autoformer (30 AMP) in the electric line to boost the voltage up to 115-119 range.  DSCN0977

One AC in a 43 footer is a little rough but we will live through it.  I also put a curve in the water line to keep any unwanted varmints out of the dump line.  We normally keep the grey tank valve open. DSCN0976 No ant hills outside and no apparent drug dealing go on.  Might be some old folks exchanging meds at the most.  There is dust and cars going by in front and rear of us.  This is the old folks area evidently.

These evening clouds were pretty.DSCN0979

Tonight was a Blue Moon night.  I didn’t know there was really a Blue Moon but tonight was.  When there is two full moons in one month it’s called a Blue Moon.  Here’s the second one this month about 8 PM which make it a Blue Moon. DSCN0983 DSCN0987

During the day it got up to 95 degrees and with one AC we got up to 82 degrees inside the Beast.  Not too bad.  We cooked outside and ate outside about 6:30 PM.  It was really nice.  We are happy.

See ya…………… 

Thursday, August 30, 2012

TRASHED THOUSAND TRAILS CAMPGROUND

DSCN0948 DSCN0949 DSCN0950 DSCN0951    DSCN0955 DSCN0956

I think it might be to trashy for them.DSCN0957 DSCN0958 

Lids not closed after dump truck empties– crows enjoy.DSCN0961 DSCN0962 DSCN0963 DSCN0964 DSCN0965 DSCN0966 DSCN0967

Plus I have 4 years in law enforcement  – I saw a drug deal go down.

We will move Tuesday to another part of the park.  Good sites are scarce right now due to the holiday.

See ya………

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Just Another Day In Paradise - Kinda

Only 115 miles to drive.  What a piece of cake.  Of course we had the real big steep hill to go down right off the bat.  Carol took the pictures because I was a little busy.  It was steep but I just but the Beast in HI Jake brake and never touched the foot brake.  It was awesome. DSC_0006 DSC_0003

A little bit of a drop off.DSC_0014 DSC_0022 DSC_0024

It didn’t look too bad either.  Probably a lot of road noise right next to the interstate.DSC_0050

 

What rain after my many hours of cleaning the Beast and getting her all shiny.DSC_0052  

Yep and it was only 10 minutes and the Beast & the Jeep were dirty….damn.DSC_0061

This little guy was on a mission running next to the road.DSC_0059

 

Ahhh arrival at TTN Soledad.  It looks so pretty.DSC_0071

Here we are in our final sight and position in this site.  The first site we were in we moved all around back and forth trying to get the satellite dish in.  We moved.  Same problem here and we moved forward and back and finally got it.  It took us two hours to get settled.  We do have 50 AMP (no charge) full hook up.DSCN0947

This TTN park we have stayed in over the years past.  It’s gone down hill with blue tarpers which we are away from us here.  Blue tarpers is slang for people who sites look like trash bins.  Crap all around usually in boxes that have been thru rain. Usually they have a blue tarp over their rig.  One RV isn’t even registered.   One is a motorhome hoarder.  It’s starting to look like a trashed old trailer park.  If it wasn’t for the holiday we were thinking about leaving.  We will avoid this park in the future and stick it out for now.  Jon & Sue will be here in a week or so.

I went up and complained to management about the blue tarpers.  They took my name and number and said the manger would be in touch. He had already left for the day.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Newmar/Friends Depart/New Friends Met

I forgot to mention that Jon worked on my computer and then Carol’s.  We both wanted to use Microsoft Outlook as an email getter and sender what ever that is called.  This way we don’t have to read/prepare emails on line.  I had the Outlook with the school (wizwire) but since no school now I didn’t know how to get it to work with Gmail and Carol with AOL.  Jon changed it over plus did a few other things to speed up the process and added a thing or two.  Bottom line – the computers are easier to use with emails.  THANKS JON.

Jon and Sue left today.  DSC_0058That is after Sue went to line dancing with Carol until noon.  Check out is 4 PM.  That’s unusual but really not needed by full timers that much.  It’s more of a local weekender thing.  Here they are getting their rig ready.  It looked funny they were working for the same thing to get ready and both going in different directions. DSC_0056 DSC_0057  

The other day I said we were going to Thousand Trails Idyllwild  from here tomorrow.  My bust.  We are going to Thousand Trails Soledad which is near Palmdale. It’s a big 115 miles.  Back to the heat and only 30 AMP probably.  Such is life.  We will live thru it - miserably.  Something to moan and groan about besides Newmar.  Newmar called me after a week.  They said to take the Beast to ANY dealer to repair the roof and they would cover the cost of it.  Just have the dealer call them.  Any time frame as long as it’s not leaking (DUH).  We can wait till November and Texas if we want.  That’s cool..

We were invited to a pot luck dinner with some new friends.  They are workkampers here at the campground.  They are Sharon, Vicki and JohnDSCN0945

They were vendors years ago and we knew a lot of the same people.  That was petty neat.  We will see them again in Quartzsite.  Right now Vicki is a wannabe and she is really excited.  Sharon & John have been full timing the same about of time as we have, 12 years.  We were there about 5 hours and had a great time every minute.  We all got our share of talking.  Thanks guys.

See ya………………….

Monday, August 27, 2012

One Stop Shopping

We went to Denny’s for breakfast this morning.  I’m starting to like several of their (healthy) breakfast dishes.  While in town we saw this one stop shopping store.DSCN0944

We didn’t have time to go in…dog on it.  We could have got our nails done while getting a massage, eating Thai food, have a donut for snack, pay/cash a check AND buy a gun to shoot myself after all that.  I think it would have been very interesting.  Hey Nick, is this your kind of store or what?

Back at camp we watched the cats today. This is Jon and Sue’s cat Jezebel. DSC_0031

She was very interested in these dirt mounds that would move ever so often.DSC_0008

 

This is why you should clean the water spigots before you hook up.DSC_0046

He was being watched for sure.DSC_0041  

We ate out for dinner because we are CAMPING.  We each cooked our main dish on the grill and shared a salad and veggies.DSC_0025 DSC_0026 DSC_0029

Another quiet day and night in RV land plus cool weather.

See ya…………..

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Full Timing & Buying Stuff/Schedule & Fuel

Where do I buy the RV “stuff” we need when we are out and about enjoying full timing?  We now buy a lot of our “stuff” on line.  Years ago you had to buy at stores.  First I have to have a need for “something”.  I need time to research the item if it cost over $50 or so.  I love Google.  These on line companies like EBay and Amazon sell just about anything and can be shipped anywhere I go or will go, even Alaska.  I just found a new on line company that I got my Roadmaster Tow Defender from.  They had an on line price of $335 delivered that I couldn’t beat.  Most wanted about $450.  Just because they are on line don’t mean it’s always the best price…..research on line like I said.  Anyhow this new to me on line for RV “stuff” is http://makariosrv.com/.  I met the owner (Dennis)and his wife several years.  We were both vendors at a Nick Russell Rally http://gypsyjournalrv.com/rallies/.  I never really searched out his product (on line sales).  I came across his name again via Nick’s Blog http://gypsyjournalrv.com/category/nicksblog/.  I thought I would give them a try.  His prices seemed to be pretty good and thus I bought my RV “stuff”.  So, check them out and see if they can help you.

FUEL…….real quick.  It will now (today) cost us 10 cents a mile more than just a couple of months ago.  Don’t sound like much.  Go 400 hundred miles in one day.  That’s $40 friggin dollars.  It will cost us an additional $300 to get to Texas.  At this rate I won’t have to worry about losing weight and eating out – can’t afford to drive anywhere.  This has to have a major impact on all businesses.  I don’t like the federal government involvement unless it’s something big.  HEY – this is something big!!!!!  OK enough said.

We are getting caught up on our “things to do list” fast.  I even backed up both our computers for the second time this year.  If you know me I’m an expert on not doing a back up for a long time.  I just don’t like doing it for some reason.  A couple of years ago I had a major failure of one computer and lost everything and no back up.  I almost learned then.  I went out and bought all the necessary back up stuff but still have a hard time backing up.  Such is life.

During Carol & my morning 1 hour walk this morning we made some schedule decisions.  We put our jello schedule in the frig to set up.  After our daughter's graduation in mid September we will aim for Thousand Trails (TTN) Lake of the Springs northeast of Yuba City, CA.  There’s a Line Dancing Rally towards the end of October.  Before then we will head for TTN Idyllwild this week for a two week stay before heading north.  Then a week or so around Fresno.  Then to TTN Yosemite for a couple of weeks.  Then northward bound.  We plan to visit friends up in central CA.  Then some more friends over near Sparks, NV, Las Vegas and then to North Ranch for a week or so to see if we can get the electric thing up and working on our lot.  After that we will head for Livingston, TX pretty quick around early November.  That said…it’s in jello but in the frig setting up…..

Enough said………….

See ya…………..

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Friday, August 24, 2012

Kitty Kitty…..

Sue and Carol in the background and Jon experimenting with a camera. If you are good you can see two cats.DSCN0927 Later they got to go on an official sales tour.  They got 5 nights free because they are attending it.

I shot this flower on my early morning walk.DSCN0898

The women just yakked the day away.DSCN0925

Here’s a shot of Jon and Sue’s rig.  Jon says it’s easy to tow behind their 250 Ford 4X4 truck.  It gets about 10 MPG.DSCN0900

It was a quiet day.

See ya….