The Other Side Of The Family

Hey, I married into this…what can I say…………..

Read about Monday tomorrow AM. It was a hoot

See ya…………….

Might As Well Do It

I was thinking about getting the engine checked out at a RV dealer in Prescott that was a Cummins authorized service center. This would save some time down the road. So I figured I would drive the 55 miles to check it out first. Plus, I enjoy driving the roads around AZ.  Since I was close to Cottonwood I figured I would drive route 89 to Prescott in the car first. As I got close to Jerome there was a sign no vehicles over 50 feet.  Wow, I could take the RV this way.  On the other end of route 89 starting in Congress and heading towards Prescott there is another sign.  It says no trucks over 40 feet.  I drove that in a car and decided I could take a 43 footer it would be a lot of turns, etc but doable.  From this end I figured it would be a piece of cake since the sign said nothing over 50 feet.  Wrong dragon breath.  It isn’t safe for anything over 25 feet maybe 30 feet.  Over that it’s just down right extremely dangerous.  Over a dozen blind spot turns, very narrow spots and spots in Jerome where a turn might not even have been possible without backing up several times.  It reminded me of the Long Long Long Trailer movie. The drive itself was nice past Jerome.  Jerome looks very interesting and maybe Carol & I – no me and & Carol will check it out. Proper English just doesn’t sound right sometimes.

  

I got to Prescott and found Affinity RV. Nice looking place and I did a self tour of the shop area.  Looks good.  Then I went in and talked to the people.  I got an appointment for Monday at 9 AM under warranty.

Coming back I took route 169 which seemed mostly flat with slow rolling hills. It was about the same distance too.

I got our mail that was forwarded to us by the Escapees.  It had the Alaska Tour Saver coupon book in it. I done gone thru it and marked the places and things to do.  If you are going to do the tourist thing in Alaska like sight seeing in planes, ATVs, museums, boat tours, jet boat tours, water floats or fishing, this book is a must have (www.toursaver.com). One outing and your cost of buying it pays for itself.  Two activities and you are really saving money. Then it pays for itself.  We’ve used it each time on our trips up north.

Oh I was asked by several people about RV Renovators and getting cabinets made there.  I evidently wasn’t clear enough.  NO! I would never ever have them do base cabinets for me nor would I recommend them to anybody for base cabinets.  Other work like TV conversions seem to be good. These boys need experience with working with constructing cabinets for RVs not houses.  Plus doing what the customer ask for and gives plans/drawings for - they failed to follow submitted written wants. Over priced at this point also.  Real nice people except FAST Eddy the service writer.

See ya………

Fuel mileage and then gone to the birds

I always want to know what I can get in mileage out of a tank of fuel if I had to. I think it’s a guy thing. We want to know what our limits are so we can push them if we have to.  Which we seem to do sometimes. This Beast has a 150 gallon fuel tank – that’s nice.  I would like to count on at least 7 mpg when this Beast is fixed. Then say 135 gallons of very usable fuel and still be reasonably safe. That comes to 945 miles of cruising miles. That’s what I’m talking about. That will help on the trip to Alaska. There will be times that fuel will be 50 cents difference in different areas. I rather get fuel when I want rather than when I have to.  Picking my own fuel stops anywhere in the USA can save breakfast money real quick.

I heard Obama is declaring war on fuel prices.  Duh, who woke him up. Well, here’s another war we will never win!

Wow, this time three weeks we should be at Mile Post O.  For those few that don’t know what Mile Post 0 is, it’s the start of the Alaska Highway.  This the not so famous one – it’s the original one in downtown Dawson Creek, BC.

Time is starting to speed up a little.  Don & Sharon are going to meet us in Salt Lake City in about 10 days.  Larry & Marilyn might try to meet us there too. Can you say chew chew like a train…… smile. We had another couple drop out of our “gang” to Alaska.  Things happen for sure and plans are always in jello I say. We have to be flexible and usually like that ability in this life style and life in general for that matter.

Here we are half way up Denali (Mt McKinley) in 2009 and we just did a glacier landing. That was one off my bucket list. Might do it again.

These pictures I just pulled off our old blog so it lost some clarity.  This shot I really liked with the wing tips touching the water and a very young eagle with the look.

This is just another good one. 

As some of you might remember I lost all my pictures, over 5 thousand,  from our 2009 trip to Alaska.  That’s why we are going back. Plus I’ve learned to back up – kinda. Plus Larry Forbes hopefully will be helping me when I get stuck in the backing up.

I keep telling myself more pictures less talk in the blog.

Tomorrow it will be a trip to Prescott the scenic way ?Jermone (en route) is like a little Bisbee.

See ya….

Early Bird Gets A Neighbor

We got up at 2:30 AM and departed by 3 AM. Drove 100 miles to Phoenix and let Carol out at the airport. No more waiting with your love ones to see them off.  I got back to the Beast by 7 AM with 200 miles under my belt.  About 8 AM I was moving down the road to TTN Verde Valley.  I got all settle in by about 10 AM and had a real nice site.

I forgot to take the magnets off the side of the Beast.  Got a neighbor right next to me and we now share the green grass between us – door to door.  Friggin 30 sites around and he picks this one next to me.  Those damn magnets. Oh well…….guess I will make a friend.

I walked down to the nearby river and took these pictures.

These ducks must be RVers enjoying just being by themselves for now.

I think my Pressure Pro tire monitoring system is working A OK now.  I got a antennae repeater because I was having trouble monitoring some of my rear tires. The repeater is suppose to do away with that trouble.  Bob Pinner and Denny Orr basically installed it and I was the gaffer.  Well, it didn’t work when I was moving.  I moved the repeater around and finally this short trip it read fine.

It was so windy today, it blew the sun to the other side of the rig.

It was so windy today, I didn’t see anybody walking that weighed less than 200 lbs. Since people over 200 lbs don’t walk a lot – I didn’t see anybody outside.

It was so windy today, when I walked the dog I had to put weights on her.

Yes, it was windy today.

Carol’s Mom update:  Carol was with here most of the evening. Yes, she had a heat attack but no apparent damage. The cause was unknown only conjecture according to John Hopkins of Baltimore. She goes home tomorrow, Friday.  Carol will return 1 May and we will continue on our journey – North To Alaska.

See Ya…….

The Calm Before The ?????

Carol wanted to go to Walmart.  So being a future geographical bachelor I stocked up on a lot of good “stuff”. I mean the really good STUFF!

We returned to the rig to get more situated with our cabinets and storage bins below. I would bring one bin up. Then Carol would unload it.  Then later it seems like I would have take two bins back down.

When we return we will go this place.  We’ve heard it’s outstanding and we like these type of animal parks. 

We went to one of Nick’s and Terry’s favorite Chinese Buffets in the area.  It was pretty good but not as good as the one in Celina, OH across from Wal-mart.  We might have to have a Buffet taste off there.  Nick has his favorite there and we have our favorite there. I don’t think we have eaten at the other’s recommendation.

That night we watched American Idol and went to bed by 9:30 PM. We have to get up about 2:30 AM tomorrow and get Carol to the Phoenix airport. She will be flying out to Baltimore Thursday. Plus I got to move the Beast down the road to Thousand Trails Verde Valley.  The hospital where Carol’s Mom is at decided to transfer her to John Hopkins Thursday and have them do what they need to do. Carol should be there by then.

See Ya….

Just Another Nice Day

Here’s the view out of my computer area.  We were assigned to the only space available in the rear of the park for this size of RV.  That means the staff doesn’t know what sites will take big rigs. Almost all empty sites would have taken the Beast but we were very content as it turns out.  The views were great.

We walked down to the river.  To me it appeared to be a creek but I’m from Texas.  It would have been a blast to Kayak. Time and situations did not permit us and Nick and Terry to do it this time. They were squeezed for time just like we were but still came over for a visit. It was nice to be able to share and not worry about outside things going on like a rally.  Hopefully down the road we can spend more time with them during both of our down times.

We were backed up to the property line and it was a very short walk to the river.

We went out to dinner with Nick and Terry and Greg and Jan to one of their favorite restaurants, the La Fonda . It was a very short distance from the park.   

This is one of those rare pictures you can say  the picture did not do it justice.  This looks like the results after a rough night of drinking.  Ughhhhhh.  It was really great. It’s a chili relleno, enchilada & taco at least it was at the beginning.

Tomorrow we got to do our Super Wal-Mart fix.  Then get ready for Carol’s fly out to Baltimore.  Today we found out that her Mom will have some exploratory surgery done Wednesday. Results will determine what they do next.  I will drive Carol to Phoenix tomorrow night about 2-3 AM (Thur). It’s a 100 miles plus and it’s an early flight. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Carol’s working on her “Honey Do” list for me already.Then I get back to the park and pack up the Beast and move down the road to the Thousand Trails park.

See ya……….

What’s Next?

This cabinet work was all of Carol & my design. RV Renovators knows how to build cabinets for houses and are learning for RVs. We had some very rough times but they adjusted to us more than us to them.  Since we were the customer that’s the way a professional should work. I taught them a lot like how to build slide out drawers for computers and printers.  The fact that space is very valuable as are items have to be lightweight and durable. RVers love cubby holes. They did have trouble matching the tone of our cherry wood that we aren’t overly happy with.  I will refinish Carol’s area down the road with a tone that has more red vice darker tone of cherry. Overall, we would return with very blunt “I want this” attitude and “I want it done this way or you tell me why not.”

So here we go…my area. That’s a cabinet for behind the couch you see on the right..plus that’s the couch we ordered on the internet and had delivered to
RV Renovators.

This is about how we lived on their lot and why we had to leave after two weeks then return.

Carol’s area in the working

Her little kingdom.  I designed and she redesigned. I installed the carpet at Denny’s.

This is my new area.  We stopped at Office Max and got this chair.  It’s leather and has a dark red tone to it and was listed for $179 on sale for $159 and none in stock. Carol offered a $100 bucks for the floor sample and they accepted it. Go girl!

This cabinet sets next to the driver’s chair when it’s turned around.  Also, it can be used by couch potatoes.

See the narrow strip of wood next to the window shade near the center of the picture?  We had them made for each shade (2) in the driving area. It holds the shade in for night privacy. 

 

This is the cabinet behind the couch.  Also know as the cat’s viewing & runway area.

The cabinet on the left is what we had them made.  It also has a tiny drawer.  This is Carol’s side and I have one also. We got this space by cutting the king size platform to a queen size and putting in a queen bed. Carol & I did that at Denny’s too!

Well folks, it’s all done…kinda.  Now comes the putting our “stuff” in place.  That will just take a little time for the big stuff and a long time to fine tune.  We as RVers are always fine tuning it seems like.

We arrived at Western Horizon Camp Verde Campground about 7 PM.  It was a nice 135 mile drive. The Beast was just getting warmed up.

Late yesterday we got one of “those” phone calls you don’t want from Carol’s brother in Baltimore.  Their Mom had a heart attack and is the hospital. She’s doing OK and will remain for 48-72 hours for tests/observation. We are in the stand by mode. She is still going thru her chemo and had just finished another phase of it last Thursday.  Mentally she’s presently going thru “I don’t want to live anymore phase” which some of you know personally isn’t a good stage for relatives also.

See ya……..

Here We Go Back

First a word about Blog comments…I can receive and read them and I  thank you for them but can’t publish them all the time. I don’t know why.  I click on the button that says “publish” but they don’t get there 100%. If you need to get an answer then include your email in your comment. I will respond within a few months…….smile.

Sad to say we left our good friends at Congress, AZ and headed for Mesa, AZ and RV Renovators. We left about 4:30 PM so as not to arrive at the repair shop at dark.  Good thing too.  It was a very enjoyable 100 miles from Congress.  We arrived and determined the best place to park was as close as we could get to the cabinet shop.  They probably don’t want us parking in the actual repair area but that’s just too bad.  If they ask us to move – no problem.  We will just keep on movin down the road.  We are tired of telling these people how to build cabinets for RVs – duh….. Hopefully everything will be done and they can get it all installed (Monday) like they said they would last Friday.

We will leave here and go to Western Horizon Verde Valley for several days. Maybe we can get these Kayaks wet with Nick & Terry.  I think we all deserve it.  We’ve had reservations there for over a month and have had to change them due to unforeseen things like doing a job right.  From there we will go to the Thousand Trails Verde Valley until around the 3rd of May I think it is. We then head for Salt Lake City so Cummins can do a diagnostic on the “Beast’s” heart.  It’s sucking up to much fuel (5.6) which they agreed when I talked to them. I hope it’s not the turbo unless they got one handy.  For that matter I hope it’s one those computer adjustments…..it’s all warranty!

See ya…………..

An RVers Day

A pic of when we were at Massey’s Repair in Avondale Monday past getting the tag axle worked on.

We weren’t doing anything special so we decided to take a scenic drive to Prescott about 40 miles away.

They were having a car show and closed down the road on Whiskey Row to park the cars on.

Free lance singing. They were pretty good.

Pretty nice….

   

Orange….my color

We need not forget…

Sharon & Don are leaving tomorrow morning. We are leaving tomorrow late afternoon. So we had an outing.

See ya……….