How Early - Again!!!

We were up before 6 AM and was rolling down the road by 6:45.  We had 300 miles to cover to Carol’s Line Dancing Rally. The truck/razor will stay at North Ranch until our return.

FUEL – WE WERE A LITTLE LOW.. First the odometer panel read LOW FUEL.  Then a bright red dot came on in the fuel gauge. Then last a yellow fuel pump came on the dash.  I guess somebody was trying to tell me something.  I went on another 40 or so miles to where I wanted to get fuel.  The Beast was thirsty.  It has a 150 gallon fuel tank. It took 136 gallons at $4.11.  Hey, I had an easy 10 gallons left the way I figured. 

On the way we saw two coyotes crossing the road.  That was pretty neat.  On Interstate 10 we saw AZ finest actually changing a motorist’s tire.  That was pretty neat.  Here are some pictures.

 

Ehrenberg

 

Did they really need the yellow sign?

 

Airplane in the middle of the desert…..?  

After 300 miles we arrived at Thousand Trails Wilderness in Menifee, CA around lunch time.  We drove around 1/2 the park (545 sites) and found a nice site that was 30 AMP FHU pull thru with some shade.  Hey, it’s a full timer thing.  Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you’re not. We were lucky this time.  Oh, you can wash your rig at your site here. Where’s Carol?………She went line dancing already…duh.  Guess I will watch NASCAR.

See ya……

How Early!!!!!

We got up a little before 5 AM. We pulled out of Denny & Susie’s lot about 5:45 AM.  We arrived in Peoria (Phoenix) about 7 AM.  That was an hour before our scheduled appointment at Charlie Echols RV Repair.

It’s not a new place and it looks like a lot of old RVs have been thru here.   I think some are still here.  

At 8:10 he pulled the truck in a bay. It had the most work to be done on. 

I sat across the street in the Beast watching TV.  Carol  and the kitty slept most of the morning.

During all of the this I got an email from the escrow company which included some documents that need signing and returned.  OK I did.  First try too! Of course I assume she will call me if she didn’t get them.

About 4 PM everything was done and checked out.  Their mechanic Bill who did the install was really great.  Very particular and neat about his work.  The boss, Steve, even had to help due to time.

Drove back to North Ranch.  The Beast with its 400 HP Cummins had no problem pulling the 6200 lbs or so truck/Razor.  It did know the difference on take offs from red lights.  It just asked for more fuel.  The trip back was uneventful.

We settled in and spent a short time with Denny & Susie.  Carol wanted to get an early start to get to her line Dancing near Hemet.

See ya……………..

This & That

Attended the men’s breakfast this AM (Thurs).  We shared stories about cars to RV lots.  As always it was fun and educated.

Denny & I returned to North Ranch and we went to our new lot.  We talked while we walked the lot.  Jim Kimmins came over as did Roger across the street.  All  were a help with suggestions as to water, electric and sewer, etc.

At 2 PM I took the Mercury Mariner to Jones Ford the local dealer for a scheduled 20K maintenance.  An hour later I got it back with all the service completed and a wash/dry job.  Talk about being nice, this dealer’s service was great. PS..no money due for the first 5 or 6 years (?) ownership..bumper to bumper…nice…Yes it was a additional cost when we purchased the car.

Now it was time to go over Ed & Sandy’s for Kellie and Sandy’s birthday. I think there were about a dozen or so friends for the “kids” birthday.  Why did I say kids?  the pictures speak for themselves. 

Somebody has seen a lot of these birthdays so this was just another one .. ho ..  hum….

Then all was quiet……….again….

See ya…………….

Full Timer’s Jello

What is Full Timer’s jello?  For us it’s our tentative schedule.  It’s called jello plans because it could and likely changes.  In the last several weeks are plans have probably changed more than ever in the last 12 years of full timing.  Why – because we can is the best overall answer we can give without going into a lot of details. Our schedule starting this Friday and thru the end of this month is pretty tight.  I won’t bother you with it now.

April we will set in Livingston, TX for a month taking care of medical, vehicles, and the lot. Then early May we will head for Newmar in Indiana to replace (warranty) the roof.  It starts getting to be like new jello from there.

Back to today (Wednesday).  I got to watch Denny change his oil/filter in his Razor. Now I know how to do mine.  Then I wanted to take my Razor out of the truck and practice putting it back in. Plus redo the tie downs and so forth.  Well, first ding in the new truck happened. Nothing major.  The truck was setting in Denny’s driveway and the ramps were on the road.  Thus the truck was setting up higher than before.  When I backed in the Razor it bottomed out and scraped the inside of the tailgate.  It also tore about 6 inches of plastic covering off the inside of the tailgate.  Hey, it went in and lesson learned.  The truck/ramps needs to set level or be higher in the front. The Razor is in it’s final destination for awhile.  I would like to get it out when we visit the Yuma area here in about 8 days.  Of course that is after Carol’s Line Dancing Rally near Hemet next week.

We are hoping are install guy is able to make the truck towable ( brakes/tow brackets) Friday.  He called and said that he is hoping to get the tow brackets in Thursday for a Friday install.  If not, the truck will set at Denny & Susie’s place until our return around the 20th.  Then the truck can be made towable.  If we do take the truck (towing) the car will sit here.  It even gets more complicated when you throw in a settlement for the lot on the 21st.  We would also like to see the Good Sam Rally in Phoenix 22-25 March. They got some outstanding entertainment lined up.

We finished the day by going to the Tastee Freez with Denny & Susie for pizza.  Yes, pizza at Tastee Freez and pretty dog on good pizza at that.

Tomorrow (Thursday) will be an easy day.  Men’s Thursday breakfast downtown.  Car gets serviced. Carol goes to the Jam Session.  We wait to see if the last parts for truck comes in for a Friday install in Phoenix.  And then we go to Kellie & Sandy’s birthday party. Hey, what could go wrong!

See ya….

Getting Done

Still got work to do to make it right. 

The wind really kicked up today.  Tomorrow it may not get into the 60’s.  What’s up with this?

See ya………..

New Lot Owners

We made “another” final offer on an empty lot here at North Ranch, Congress, AZ.  The seller refused the offer and increased their counter offer.  We offered the same amount and informed them (agent) they had to 10 AM tomorrow.  Three hours later they excepted our offer.  Tomorrow we go see the real estate agent and start the paperwork.

Full timers like us need a place to land and rest up during the year.  We’ve using my Mom’s lot in Livingston for the past several years.  We usually spend Nov-Dec there.  Then we would go to Quartzsite and spend about a month there.  Mother bought the lot when she was full timing years ago.  It’s not unusual to buy a lot and usually it’s in a RV community.  We will probably spend January thru April in AZ next year.  Yes we will have a few trips during that time.  Some full timers will also use a friend or relatives place to reorganize.  We have used Denny & Susie’s RV space on their lot here at North Ranch.  We have been here for the most part since February.  It’s a loosey goosey affair. They do their thing and we do ours.  Sometimes we do things together.

Earlier today us guys, Ed, Denny, Walt and myself, left North Ranch and headed for the desert.  We even did some mountain climbing with these little motor vehicles on steroids.  These things were challenged today.  Everybody volunteered me to do the most dangerous climb.  I tighten up my 4 point racing harness and went over the big rock and up the hill – SLOWLY!  The rest followed. No pictures of the hard climb because everybody was pretty dog on busy.  Here are some other pics.

 

We don’t travel no where close to this.  We were stopped enjoying the views and are now getting ready to leave. That’s a huge drop to our left.

The trail disappeared but we kept going.

 

Walt is trying to figure where we are.  We didn’t care as long as we didn’t have to go down the big hill.

We did 29 miles of trails and one real big hill/rock climb.  We got back in time for social hour at Ed’s and Sandy’s place.  A little later my ATV ramps for the truck came in.  Denny & I first tried driving the Razor straight in.  That left the rear tires on the tail gate. Not acceptable.  I then back it up the ramps into the truck.  What a trip.  Now it’s in the bed but can’t close the tailgate.  I knew that already from measuring.  No big deal.  It was getting near dark but still was able to strap it in.  Tomorrow will be the test drive.  I think I will put the stock tires/wheels back on it for traveling. It should be a lot easier to back in. At present I got about an inch on each side getting it in.  Stock wheels will give me about 4-5 inches on each side.  Pictures tomorrow.

See ya………….

Sunday Sunday

Several of us were going to go out today for a 1/2 day run in the desert.  About 2 PM nothing was happening for various reasons so I  decided to go out by myself.  Some people won’t go out by themselves because they are afraid they would get lost. I say hogwash.  I went out for about an hour with no problem what so ever.  I don’t know what the big deal is.  These ATV’s can go over 75 miles on a tank of gas. Who could get lost out here.

Later that day I called the realtor again.  We made another offer on a lot here at North Ranch.  No call back today.

I watched NASCAR racing and it didn’t seem like it was a good race to me.  Even the kitty got tired of watching.

Later that evening we had diner with Denny & Susie.  We talked about our summer plans a little bit.  They will be in Utah for part of the summer doing some 4X4 in their jeep. Denny is trying to figure out how he can get his Razor there.

I’m starting to watch Celebrity Apprentice.   It’s a little drawn out towards the end of the show.  It’s interesting watching these stars trying to work together on projects. Then the knives come out at the end when they are trying to save their butts.

Tomorrow us guys are goanna try and go out again for an all day adventure.

My ATV loading ramps for the razor/truck should be here tomorrow.

See ya…………..

La Fiesta Day

Today was La Fiesta Day.  I will let the pictures do the talking.

Then there was a pulled pork lunch ($5).

During the day they had games.  Then the evening ended with a big fire with a jam session at the fire.

Also during the day we made an offer on a lot here at North Ranch that was for sale.  It was not accepted. We will do one last offer on it tomorrow.

See ya……………

And Away We Go

NOT!.  It was in the 40’s all day and the wind was howling about 20 MPH.  That makes for a very unpleasant day even just to go outside much less to ride 4 wheelers in the desert.

Carol & I went grocery shopping to get the items that were on sale.  Some food items on sale aren’t really that great of deal always.  We did asparagus for 99 cents a pound – that’s real good.  We also got ground beef 90% for $2.50 lb.  These were the highlights of our day today.

That evening they had line dancing here in the park.  I can’t line dance and don’t like trying to talk over music so it was a no win for me.  Carol really enjoyed herself.

Tomorrow is La Fiesta Day here in the park.  I will go see what that is all about if the winds go away.

Busy Doing Nothing Again

We made arrangements to get the truck tow brackets  and a supplement braking installed here locally (Phoenix).  Joe Tenpenny recommended a company for us and we are going with them. I forgot their name off hand.  They ordered the parts and hopefully will be in next week.  We had to cancel our trip to the Gypsy Journal Rally.  We are just out of time and really wanted to attend.  We have to get the truck tow ready and in AZ is a pretty good place to have those type of RV things done for us.

Denny & I worked on his NEW Razor.  It had a bad rattle and was getting worse.  It turned out to be a heat shield that was touching the engine that was causing the noise.  Problem resolved.  We then took a quick run in the Razors the back way to the Post Office/gas station.  While at the Post Office I got a call from the Dodge dealer.  They have are our side steps for the pick up.  We got back from the Post Office/gas station and I was off to Phoenix.  I got to the dealer and pulled into the service department.  A half hour later the steps were on and I was gone.  That is service.  I got back to North Ranch and Carol & I went thru our mail.

We are trying to figure out our schedule for the month of March.  We have to go to Carol’s Line Dancing Rally in Hemet, CA of course.  We have to get to Mexico near Yuma to get our dental done.  We have to get the truck ready to tow. Plus there is some entertainment happening in Phoenix we want to see near the end of the month.  Plus I want to get some more ATVing in here at North Ranch. April should be a lot calmer.  Only have to to the medical thing. 

Back to now.  Tomorrow us “guys” are planning an all day trip on the Razors/ATV.  We’re going out where none of us have been before.  It should be pretty neat and I will have my little camera.

See ya…….