Bad AC/Rain/Site

Today was move day.  We had 8 miles which is a record for us I think.  We moved to the Thousand Trails (TTN) Verde Valley.  One thing that is new that TTN is now charging anywhere from $3 to $5 for 50 AMP.  Some of the sites a 35 footer can’t get in.  Why they put 50 AMP in these small & tight sites beats me.  That tells me that management don’t know RV’s.  Well even though the temps are in the high 90’s plus we went for this 30 AMP FHU.

Not to shabby!  We lucked into this site.  I had to go buy an additional 10 footer sewer connection for a total of 25 feet.  I had to pull forward to get the sat away from the trees thus a long stretch to the sewer. 

As I said before we got one bad AC and it leaves us with two.  That’s good news.  I called Dometic to make sure they were still in business and the AC was covered.  Yes it has a two year full warranty (parts/labor).  I also verified that a local mobile repair guy was an authorized dealer (no cost).  They said I would have to pay for any mobile charges.  Seems fair so far at this point.  I called the repair guy and he said to call him back when we go over to the other park and he would take a look at it.  He agreed that it sounded like a start up capacitor.  He said it would only take a few days to get the part after he verified what it was. OK…..

The repair guy stopped by and took my info and said it was a start up capacitor and even didn’t go on the roof.  We had the same problem on one of the other AC’s last year.

I dusted down the Beast and she was looking good.  You know what that means……clouds then…..

Fifth day in a row.  It rained for about in hour but the winds stayed around until dark.

Before all that a rabbit came by.  He dug a hole and flopped down and spread eagle in it to cool down.  It was funny.

We had a couple stop by earlier and invited us to go out with them ATVing tomorrow.  They each had a Razor.

See ya…………

Gadgets & Things

People have asked how we like our Verizon MiFi Card (3G) now that we’ve had it for 6 months.  Too bad we had to junk the 6 year old Datastorm/Hughes System.

Well, no problems what so ever, no complaints.  It was used when we got it.  The Gunn’s updated their internet service and they gave us their old MiFi.  Like I said, no problems.  Carol uses it for emails, read blogs and downloads I-Tunes.  I use it for reading blogs, doing this blog, emails and some searches.  By today’s standards we are minimum users.

At Camping World we got some vent stuffers.  We’ve had them in the past.  These things work great for keeping heat out (summer 90+) and heat in (winter 30 - ).  Cost $8 bucks on sale.

 

Next was cloth step covers ($9 ea/sale).  We messed up and got the small ones but they will work.  They help keep down the dirt tracked into the Beast.  I use to get outdoor carpet (Lowe’s) and used springs to hold them in place.  It’s cheaper and now you can get it in brown vice the green. Oh Well.  We also have an additional fold up step for years.  That I put outdoor turf on with tie straps and it works great.  We always put it out next to the first step of the Beast even if not needed for stepping up to the steps if high.  Again, it grabs “stuff”.

 

Now these chairs I’ve been keeping my eye on for about 2 years when I first saw them.  They list for $50 and I just couldn’t justify that.  Camping World puts them on sale ever so often for $35.  Seems like I’ve been missing these sales until now.  At $35 it was time to get them.  They fold down real small and are very sturdy.  they even have little pockets on the arm for “stuff”.

These fold up chairs are heavy (good) and would be a hassle for hand carrying long distances.  We will carry them in the Jeep full time.

During the day I wiped down the Beast (43’ Dutch Star) again.  I think AZ should pay me for bringing all this rain in during there drought.  It didn’t rain today so it was time to cook the NY strip steaks I got at Fry’s for $6 bucks a pound.  I also cooked some corn on the grill in the husk.  I cook them about 25-30 minutes.  The steaks were tender and the corn was delicious.  Carol even said that I cooked her steak just right – medium well done.

I hooked up the trailer/Razor to the Jeep and parked it a sight across from us.  This place is empty so no problems parking in a sight.  Besides it was an extra small site.  Tomorrow we move over to the Thousand Trails park (Verde Valley) 8 miles up the road from us.  We will be there for two weeks.  We hopefully can get our roof repaired and AC fixed.  Details later on.

See ya……………

Getting Ready To Store/Shiny Wheels

That is to store the Razor in a large shed at our lot at North Ranch, Congress, AZ.

The shed door is only a few inches or so not being wide enough to drive the Razor in.  Denny had the same problem when he got his Razor.  We (he) cut the wood next to the door latch and made it like a double door.  I will attempt to do the same by about 6 inches (woman’s measurement).  Denny’s made his extension about two feet plus some I think. The reason I mention this is I plan to do this in about 2 1/2 weeks.  I don’t have any tools that cut.  So when I was in Home Depot I started checking on saws.  I won’t have electricity number one.  So that means cordless.  I found a deal so I got it.  It was $100 bucks for a package deal which included a saw, drill, charger, 2 batteries plus a canvass bag plus on sale for $80. Plus another $25 bucks off for signing up for a Home Depot charge card.  Hey, $55 bucks what the hell!

Later I  decided to wash the Beast by the bucket method.  The rain had splashed up on the body/wheels/tires and it was in need.  I wiped it down with a wet cloth then a dry cloth immediately. I cleaned the tires and the wheels too.  She was looking like a beauty queen ready for the show.  No not you kitty.

Then it happened.  I heard a lawn mower cutting grass two sites up from me.  I figured I would just beg for him not to cut this site.  Then something else happened and the lawn mower guy went away.  I looked up in the sky and saw why he left.  Rain was coming…in all directions.

 

We’ve been hit with bad thunderstorms the previous three days.  I don’t know why I thought today was any different.  I think this is how character is built.  Just what I need – to be more of a character.  People say I’m that enough already probably especially my friends.

Since it was raining it was a no for grilling outside.  I had some real nice NY strip that I got today at Fry’s (on sale). We decided to go to a nearby restaurant that we have been before.  It was with Nick, Greg and their loved ones.  I believe this is one of Nick’s favorites.  It is for sure our number one Mexican eatery and we don’t really care for Mexican food all that much.  Hands down this is number one for us.  

I cleaned my plate completely and even enjoyed the beans and rice which is very rare.  It’s must be the old lard!

The family owns three restaurants;  Flagstaff, Camp Verde and Prescott and have been doing business since 1975 I think.

See ya….

Road Trip

We figured we would go for a little road trip up on route 89 north.  It looked scenic on the map so why not.

Now we are headed into Sedona.  This city smells of money instead of pine trees. 

Got a few extra few dollars….

 

You know there are some building codes here when the fast foods can’t do their normal buildings including Burger King & McDonalds.  We drove right by a McDonalds before we realized it was a McDonalds.

The views were nice and I guess the town don’t won’t anything to interfere with them.  We continued on towards Flagstaff.

We stopped at a rest area in the mountains and these Indians were here (legally) selling their goods.  A lot of really good craftsmanship.

Can you find the road in the middle (lower)? Maybe blow it up to see it.

Since we were so close we stopped here.  That’s a nice looking 56 hardtop Chevy.

We got hit with two different thunderstorms while there.

This is the campground for Luke Air force Base near Flagstaff.  We could get our big Beast in there.  They had electric and water. We went back to Camp Verde via I-17 south. Later on we got another thunderstorm at our campsite. We’ve have had a thunderstorm every evening for that past three days. That really cools things down about 20 degrees. Then last night we got more rain and the temps actually got down into the 70s.

We got neat things at Camping world that I will show you tomorrow.

See ya…..

Blogs

I read other blogs too.  These are blogs of people that Carol and I personally know.

Nick’s Blog.  I depend on knowing that everyday he will have a blog.  I like that. He writes about where he’s at, how he got there and what’s to eat.  That’s a full timer doing his (their) thing.  Nick, I would like just a few more pictures.

Greg’s Blog.  I click on this blog second. He almost always does a daily blog.  He has trouble sometimes due to his equipment, location or job. Sometimes all three at once.  I laugh quietly hoping it don’t happen to me.  When he is with Nick it’s interesting how they see the same thing but write about it in a different way.  He almost always has pictures it seems.  When he talks computers it above my pay grade but it don’t matter.

Then their are the Tilton’s Blog.  This is usually a daily blog I enjoy.  It seems like they are always visiting relatives as they travel.  It appears they like the Elks Lodge’s for camping also.  They usually have pictures of something.  Can you tell I’m a picture kind of guy. We met them years ago and we met them up in Alaska last year.

Then their are the Forbes.  They do a blog every few days to a week maybe which is nice.  They travel to places that we haven’t been sometimes, mainly on the East Coast.  They meet friends along the way that we sometimes know.  They went to Alaska with us last year.

Last but not least is Sharon & Don’s Blog.  They do a blog about every 1-2 weeks usually.  Her pictures are great.  Again, they meet people some times that we know which makes it interesting.  Sharon takes pictures of food like a lot of us do.  They too went to Alaska with us last year.

I read a lot of other blogs but not on a regular basis like I do the above blogs.  If you have a favorite that’s worth bragging about send it to me.  My email is dennisrving@gmail.com and it’s on the right there somewhere.  Feel free of course to share our blog with anybody that might like it.

What’s neat is someone will come up to me in a park and say “Are you Dennis?”. I will say yes and that’s when they say, “I read your blog.”.  That just floors me every time.  They usually recognize the RV.  As you know there aren’t that many pictures of me out there.  Not planned, it just happens that way.  With The orange Jeep we kinda stick out now, especially in non 4X4 areas.

This blog is an escape.  I try not to make comments on non RV related subjects like U.S. or world news good and of course bad usually.  There’s enough of that going on without me.

Do Not!

We decided to go to Jerome today.  First we went to eat breakfast at a local place.  Breakfast out the the door was $11.42 plus tip.  It was good, big and cheap.  A lot of locals were here in Cottonwood.

I out grew this stage and joined the Marine Corps and went to Viet Nam.

 

I suggest things to RVers, I advise, I hint and very seldom tell people “Do Not”.  Here is a seldom, “Do Not” take any RV, not even a friend’s, through or to Jerome.  Taking a class C over 24 feet is dangerous. Any 5th wheel or class A over 24 would be dangerous.  this is based on over 40 years of RVing to include 12 years of full timing.  The road is narrow, blind curves, switchbacks and no place to turn around.  I think you get my point.

We then decided to go to Congress.  Along the way..

Near Prescott Valley we found a dirt road so we took it. After ten miles…

We went through a very heavy thunderstorm in the mountains.  It cleaned The Jeep. 

We got to North Ranch.  George gave me his big shed and moved it to our lot.  He’s getting a very large shop and couldn’t use his shed anymore.  Thanks George.  Now the Razor and our back seat out of The Jeep will have a home when we arrive in a few weeks.  I have to figure out to get the Razor in it.  I think I will need a saw and a hammer.

We got back to Camp Verde about 5 PM.  Then we got hit by another thunderstorm. I left a Jeep window down.  Also our windproof magnetic windshield shade blew off.  There’s a product that has been disappointing especially for the $450.

I forgot the soap.

See ya…………….