Dennis & Carol's RV Adventures

Start Time 0730

2012-02-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

At 0730 I was eating breakfast here with some fine gentlemen.

All grandpa’s should be this cool!

These pork loins marinated overnight and went into the Bradley Smoker when I returned.

Then it was time to work on installing the two extra 6 volt batteries and moving the chassis batteries.

These two batteries along with wiring are…

going to be moved to here…… after a shelf is made and installed.

I got my tools out..

I removed the chassis batteries and installed the 2 new 6 volt batteries on the left where the chassis batteries were. The wiring will come later.

The batteries fit real nice, all 6 six volts. Not wired yet. That area to the far left is where the chassis batteries (two 12 volts) will go.

I had to call in the Seabee, Ed Kruty..

Then we got both batteries in the compartment with not too much room to play. They are on a steel platform that Ed built and then installed. He then said the wiring was up to me…I can do that!

That is with the help from Denny and a trip to get some cables made.

We wired up the house batteries then the chassis batteries. Tomorrow I will make the wiring neat and safe. No sparks or shocks and everything works.

Now it’s time to look at the smoker….wow…

While others went to the local restaurant we had diner with a few close old friends and all enjoyed the pork…it was juicy.

We watched some TV and the day was over. Damn I missed by power nap time.

See ya….

Mayor Of Talkeetna, Alaska

2012-02-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

When we were in Talkeetna, AK back in 2009 I was taking pictures as usual. I took a picture and posted it to our blog. Now, an associate editor of the Alaska Magazine has requested my permission to use a photo I took of the mayor of Talkeetna from back then. You know that associate is reading my blog because she had my current email address. The mayor is a cat. Yes, that is right a cat called Stubb’s. That’s cool…..

Back to reality….today was a little of this and that. I got 12 lbs of pork loin ready to smoke.

Smoker is ready for an early start tomorrow morning.

Then I started working on little things that are overdue for fixing.

The screen door handle was real loose. I fixed it but installed one hnadle upside down. It’s good for now. The cloth cover was on it so the clamp wouldn’t hit the paint.

Next was replacing Carol’s light with a LED. She can’t find the LED light. It don’t get back together until the LED is found.

Next was the outside LED that stopped working. A couple of hits and turning the LED and it started working again.

Later in the day there was a social in front of Mark’s rig. It was great….had some new faces there but the camera must have broke when I tried to take their pic. Stay tuned….

see ya……

Happy Birthday Baby Buddy

2012-01-31T00:41:00.000-08:00

Today Carol, my buddy, turned %$#&! years old. Her choice of breakfast this morning was Denny’s Restaurant. Denny & Susie came along with us. Carol like’s her Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. After showing the waitress her ID her breakfast was free ($6.49 credit). Now that was something. When we returned we visited Mark. It was the meeting of the minds or at least a meeting.

Here’s Denny & Susie’s place. The Beast is along side in the second pic. Denny’s rig is in the background.

Later that day Denny & Susie had a Birthday Party for Carol. It was a lot of fun. Whenever someone would show up everybody sung Happy Birthday to her – again and again. Susie cooked pizza for everyone and then we had cake & ice cream. Carol was in her glory.

When the sun went down everybody moved inside to the warm house. During the evening we got entertained by Mark’s famous Scottish song. He had to be asked only once.

The evening was over by 7 PM (Walt’s bed time).

Patches our cat has been staying at the local vet due not eating/drinking/lost of weight. The vet said she was doing better and we could pick her up tomorrow. She was looking/acting pretty bad beforehand and hopefully she has recovered fully. We had our doubts there for awhile.

Denny & Susie leave their MiFi on overnight so I can get this blog out. They know I have a tendency to do it in the middle of the night. Thank you…

I’m in the middle of fighting a losing battle with Verizon about their bait & switch offers. This concerns their plan for a 2 GB MiFi for $30 a month. They have advertising at their stores that says it’s available during the 2011/2012 winter. When you call them they say they only have the 5 GB for $50. That my friends is called bait and switch by anyone’s definition except theirs. Hey, I’m letting them know what I think. I’m suppose to get a call tomorrow from some Verizon muck a muck person. Let’s see how concerned they are really about keeping to their advertising.

See ya………..

Enough Boone Docking

2012-01-30T01:28:00.000-08:00

We’ve spent 21 days in the desert with no hook ups. It’s time for us to go. We got 117 miles to the Escapees park North Ranch. We will be staying at Denny & Susie’s lot there. First we have to stop at the Wickenburg vet because our cat Patches is pretty sick.

We stopped at the ZIP and got fuel at $3.79 a gallon and LP was $2.95.

We took some pics but they really are rough. Plus here’s a couple from a few days ago.

We arrived at the vet around noon and they took Patches right in. Later that day we got a call and they didn’t find anything so far but will observe her over night.

We arrived at Denny & Susie’s. Denny arrived earlier and got situated. We pulled right in and got all situated. Carol started doing the wash right away. Today was a try and recoup day after a short drive.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Carol’s birthday…..

See ya…………

See Ya’s Abound

2012-01-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

We don’t say good bye, we say See Ya because we will. At least we better….

The day started with the gathering of the guys at the fire pit at 8 AM. Then it was off to the Subway at the Pilot truck stop for breakfast. Subway has a pretty decent breakfast for a fast food place.

Then we went to the big tent. I talked with Verizon about getting the internet. They now want $50 a month for the basic WiFi. I can see $35 but not $50. I just don’t see it right now. So, I will become one of THOSE people who are always looking to sponge off people or find hotspots. If you don’t see a daily blog entry that is why. I will do a blog for each day but they might not get entered for 3-4 days and all at one time.

Back at the Beast and a few people have left. Tomorrow it’s going to be like a big suction when we all leave.

Silly Al’s for diner we thought. This was usually a time when we celebrated Carol’s and Walt’s birthday with friends. Due to a lack of communication and last minute changes that we were not informed of, we skipped Silly Al’s. We decided it was better to have a quiet diner by ourselves at a small restaurant.

Later that night we had a real big fire and burned the rest of the firewood.

See ya……

Friends, Chili & Prizes

2012-01-28T03:42:00.000-08:00

I started my chili at 6:30 AM this morning. I think I will have some strong competition. Great…

We ended up with 24 RVs here for our last hosted RV Driving School Get Together. George & Valerie got us going away cakes. That was very nice….

The sky was blue all day and set the standard for a nice day.

We had more than enough food to include chili.

Then the rest of the food was coming out.

And the people…..

The sun was setting….I gave a farewell and thank you oh rah. George then gave a welcome to all and I think he said porterhouse steaks next year.

It was then time for the fun give away prizes. We also gave gold coins out to RV Driving School students and the wives of the instructors. Wow, I didn’t notice but just about everything was orange. Now ain’t that something.

And the fire is started.

It was time to say good by to the “Dick” Reed work shirt for many reasons. A lot of good memories and only one bad one. That’s pretty dog on good record for 5 years. The one bad memory was a down fall of a legacy of a once great person. Too Bad…..

And the night burned on…..

Oh what a friggin GREAT DAY!

See ya…

First Day of Get Together

2012-01-27T05:32:00.000-08:00

Today officially starts the RV Driving School Get Together. Carol & I have been doing this for 6 great years. I think this has been the best weather we have ever had over all. One year we almost got washed away because of the real bad thunder/rain/wind storms here. It’s something to see a monsoon rain and water running across a desert in an RV in the middle of no where. It got a little scary that year and we still managed to have fun. It’s the attitude that wasn’t discouraged.

We pass the torch on to George & Valerie and wish them well. Oh, we’ve told everybody next year they would be preparing steaks, porterhouse of course! Tell your friends.

Carol & I went into town before 9 AM today. I wanted to get some solar lights at K & B Tools. K & B has a lot of good “Stuff”. After Mickey D’s we parked right in front of K & B before 9 AM. I got the lights and then we went to the laundry mat. I dropped Carol off and I went to the big tent. Here’s Denny & Susie working it. It wasn’t crowed so I got to walk around and meet some fellow vendor friends. About 10 AM I decided it was time to go to the Post Office and start to wait. They hand out General Delivery starting at 11 AM. I got there about 10:15 and was mentally prepared to wait. They are so s - - - l - - - - o - - - - w - - - - ! After 10:30 or so it becomes an 1 1/2 hour wait. I was 4th in line. I walked out about 11:10 with mail in hand. I went and got Carol and we went back to the Beast.

I think I counted 23 rigs before the end of the day.

We had a pretty big social hour and then a pit fire later that night. We went out to diner with Gary and Mary, fellow Loosey Gosey Gang members from our Alaska trip this past summer. We went to a Mexican restaurant. I can’t talk Spanish or read their menu’s even though they are in English. It just don’t click in the brain housing for me when it comes to Mexican food. I need a child’s menu that is descriptive. I ordered a mini samboro (?) with ground beef and crossed my fingers. It came and they must have thought I was a rabbit. There was a lot of lettuce and I never did find the ground beef. It reminded me of a taco salad with no sidewalls or beef. It was outstanding if you are a vegetarian.

Another good day. Damn wind picked up again. The weatherman changes his report as the weather changes so he’s never wrong. Just a little off on the timing. Tomorrow is predicted to be in the 70’s with no wind or clouds….hope so.

The pot luck/chili cook off will start about 3:30. Hope I don’t see those mega food trays. Come on folks let’s don’t go down that road. I’m expecting about 75 or so people again this year. We will see…. I got to go start my chili – it’s now 6:30 AM.

See ya……

Datastorm Dish Gone

2012-01-26T04:09:00.000-08:00

Well good ole old Steve came over this morning to give me a second opinion on our datastorm being broke. He has a little puller that is really neat and set up for long distance traveling and boone docking. His diagnosis was “Yep, it’s broke!” We unbolted it and tossed it off the roof. Surprisingly the dish didn’t brake. No pics because I was working and I don’t need to spread those kind of pics around. People might think I actually can work. Steve wanted it for parts and so be it. He owes us a big fat hamburger due some day. And he and Nancy are off…..

Now Don needed supervising. He was cleaning his base plate for his datastorm to go on their NEW RV. Yes they are getting a new 40 foot farton. Congrats. Tommie Sue and & Harrell are getting a a new Tiffin also. Victor and Tarri are getting a new RV too. Thank goodness it’s not a Tiffin. We might have to go look again. The bug didn’t bite us this year. Again thank you all for buying those new RV’s so we didn’t have to. It’s more fun watching you all spending your money and MOVING and RESTTING UP everything….

A few more rigs came in today and I can no longer keep track of everybody's name. We had a real nice 4 o’clock get together and had some great laughs.

That evening Frank Hinman started the fire and we had a nice group outing. Mark brought the stuff that was need for smores and we put a hurting on them. Buy this time it was joke time. Wow, these people hurt my Marine Corps ears – NOT.

Today was perfect Quartzsite weather in that it was in the 70’s, not one cloud in the sky and no friggin wind. Damn it don’t get no better out here. The next few days is suppose to be the same. Life is good…………

Now you ask how am I getting this blog out if I don’t have no datastorm. Denny dropped off his MiFi thing for me to use early this AM (4 AM). It’s a pretty neat little device. I don't have to turn on the inverter for the datastorm equipment. I just turn on this little gizmo and log on. It’s faster than datastorm at least right now it is. In crowded areas I’ve been told it slows down. The computer I just run on battery. How sweet it is……

My blogs might be a little slow getting on line but I will have one for each day but they just might not be published for one or two days. In other words go back until you come up on a repeat….

See ya………………….

Nice Day – Pot Luck And All

2012-01-25T02:44:00.000-08:00

Today……I’ writing this at 3 AM and it’s a little hard to remember the do nothing day I had.

We started of by having breakfast with George & Valerie at the Q town Cafe across the street from the Qsite Yacht Club. Their regular cook was off. I noticed a difference in the omelet and commented to the waitress. She said their regular cook was off today. My omelet was still good but not as good as the other day. Denny stopped by and we had a good time.

Then we…then we…. I don’t remember.

A few more people arrived during the day.

Later Denny and I went over to Victor’s new rig. We helped him with reinstalling his solar stuff. Well, Denny did. I was like a federal supervisor. I didn’t know what they were doing but I was telling them how to it. As long as they kept moving I was doing my job. He installed an extra two batteries for a total of 6 house batteries. That’s nice.

Here’s some other RV’s he was near on BLM north of Qsite out Pomosa Road.

On the way back I thought it would be nice to have one of those last minute pot lucks. These throw the girls into a frenzy because they don’t know what to bring. I remembered we had a couple packages of smoked pulled pork in the freezer so that took care of that. We called the girls who immediately went into the panic mode. It all worked out very well thanks to the girls…brownie points……… We ended the day with a nice little campfire plus no wind. I think we got 7 rigs here now with more due to arrive tomorrow. Five of us parked like a circle of the wagons as possible wind barriers.

Tomorrow as all days will be an interesting one. Carol has it all figured what we have to do and I’m just going along for the ride. Not to much thought for this boy..

I published yesterday’s blog a day late(same time as this one) so you might want to go back one day. It has some funny pictures.

See ya….

Last Official Responsibility As Owner

2012-01-24T02:06:00.000-08:00

This morning I completed the 1099’s for the instructors. Turn on the lights the party is beginning what ever that means. People have been asking why did you sell the school and what are you going to do now. Why sell? The timing was right for us to sell and no real special reason. We just knew it was time. Now what are we going to do? Nutin. How’s that? We’ve agreed to help the new owners the next few months at different venues and Carol wants to attend a couple of line dancing rallies in California. We will leave the west coat about mid March and head for FL with a stop in Livingston, TX. After visiting some real good friends in FL we head for an Escapees rally in the Carolinas. Then a slow pace to the Newmar factory in IN to get the roof replaced on the Beast under warranty. It’s sagging like we are all doing. Then……..?

Anyhow back to the hear and now. Today it’s suppose to be windy and near 70 degrees. Then the rest of the week in the mid 70’s and sunny…….hopefully.

The day was a normal busy due nothing day. Then it was time for Silly Al’s with a bunch of friends. It was……it was…….it was….it was…well you figure it out…

Then the day ended I think……

See ya…………….

Out Of Food ?

2012-01-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

No not really. We got milk the other day. We do need some regular “stuff” that we might have to go to Blythe. Carol wants to make some corn bread for the chili this weekend. I need some stuff for my chili.

Today it got to near 70 degrees , clouds and wind later and even a quick rain shower.

I dropped Carol and Marline Hinman off at line dancing and headed for Blythe, CA about 25 miles away.

AT……

Killer donuts…

Downtown Blythe…

I washed the car for $1.25

In Az Milepost 5 this is the place to get fuel . 10 cents cheaper than Flying J, not as crowded and it’s even larger.

Northbound on route 95 about 2 miles out going into town about 12:30 ……no thank you!

Later we connected up with Denny & Susie and went to the Families Three (?) Restaurant. Not too shabby. It was our third restaurant where we didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes. The others looked longer. We fixed some world problems and spoke about our future plans. When we finished and went outside we noticed it had rained. There went my clean car.

Lesson learned probably – don’t go into town between 9:30 AM and 4 PM. It’s a friggin zoo. Bumper to bumper traffic with parking spaces few and far apart. You know, Quartzsite just ain’t the same for us anymore.

See ya……

Spreadsheet

2012-01-22T05:28:00.000-08:00

Now that we don’t have the RV Driving School anymore our expenses have changed. I have set up a very detailed spreadsheet to watch our money go out of our pockets. We did this back in 2000 and 2001 to ensure we could live out here full timing. Yes we could and have. Since then we started working doing something we enjoyed and even getting paid sometimes. I will try and give a little report on our full timing lifestyle expenses each month. Hopefully this will helps some wannabees with their planning. Others to compare theirs with ours…I know I have. So far this month our biggest expense has been fuel (over $1,100). Second is food (groceries/dining out) at about $450. And third is RV Repair/Replacement parts at over $500 (batteries). All of these figures are high. Fuel because we moved from Texas to Arizona. Food is high because we have been eating out more than often like a lot more. Then we needed house batteries. All are controllable and could have been reduced/not purchased one way or another.

Sunday, NFL playoffs, Ravens, 49’ers, big TV, food, see ya………….

The Big Tent

2012-01-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

We were there for the opening of the first day of the Big Tent Event here at Quartzsite. Wow, it hasn’t been this crowded in many years.

We had to park in a special parking space. It had a bunch of white lines in our space and we fit fine. Only three rows away. It was belly button to *&! hole. Why in the hell people bring dogs to these events have always made me wonder why. I was almost at the point of asking a few but the traffic was too much. It’s cruel to the dog and other people. You want to carry your mutt in a bag across your chest – fine. But why a medium/large dog on a leash in a high traffic area beats the hell out of me. Who’s gonna clean up if the dog takes a dump? I know who will probably step in it. You just can’t fix stupidity and down right lack of concerns for others and the dog.

Anyhow we did a trip up and down all three isles then around the outside one time. I got two special water disconnects and a Spartan hubcap. If you order a hubcap from Spartan it cost $35. I got one here from Spartan and it was $22. Same hubcap. Carol got a do hickey that hangs on a chair for $6 . It looks like a $15-20 device. We left then immediately. It was getting more crowded in the tent along with more animals.

We went back to the Beast. It was very very very very very very very windy. Sun didn’t come out until after 1 or so then I wasn’t sure if it was the sun. OK, one not real good day but a OK inside day. It did hit 70 degrees.

Gary & Mary Olson stopped by to visit. Damn I thought they couldn’t find us. They followed us all over Alaska and we couldn’t shake them. They’re staying with the Moan & Groan Club (Tiffin) nearby. Fun couple… they will come over early next week after the Tiffin group throws them out. While they were here we had our first official arrival, Tom & Pat Wither. They have been coming here for several years via new Tiffins but they keep buying them so they can make it here. They now have a 42’ Farton. They too are planning to go to Red Bay and are hoping it makes it – just funning – kinda. Nice Tiffin. I like teasing people who have any type of RV. Oh Gary & Mary have a Tiffin Allegro Bay or is it a Tiffin Allegro Bus. Great guys all of them……

Steve O’Bosky sent me an email saying that he would stop by and take a look at our Motosat sat dish. He’s the man when it comes to these things.

See ya……………………

Peace & Quiet

2012-01-20T02:28:00.000-08:00

Well, we started off about 8:30 AM. We hung a left out of our spot at the SKP get together and headed for the dump/water station down the road a couple of miles.

Water & a dump was $20. Plenty of water fill and dump stations which are separated. Water fill in one area and dump stations in another. Very convenient for when it gets crowded.

If you wanted to flush your black water tank it would cost you an additional $3. Quartzsite has become a money hungry tourist city. The vendor said it was the city as he put the $20 in his pocket – no receipt.

Next we headed for Satellite Advantage which is located across the street from La Mesa RV. We arrived and I confirmed that he would buy our MotoSat sat dish for $400. An hour later I had it ready to lower off the roof. Paul, the owner, got on the roof and took a look at the sat dish. He said that a $60 part was broke and didn’t wanted to mess with fixing it. I reinstalled the dish/cables and it took another hour. He gave me some Dicor caulk to reseal some holes. We then left for OUR AREA down at MM 99.5 which is about 5 miles south of Qsite.

Wow…..peace & quiet in the open desert. We will just wait for you all to come. Follow the signs that say WHEELS N KEELS and you will run into us. Hope they keep the signs up. We will put up our small orange survey steaks about Tue or Wed.

It’s now 3:30 AM and it’s damn quiet. It got into the 70’s yesterday and night in the low 50s. This just might be the best weather in a long time. I got my shorts out…yea……

See ya……

Another Action Day

2012-01-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

We started off with going to the Q Town Cafe with Ed & Sandy for breakfast. They know how to make big omelets. Then we returned to the SKP area where we are parked. Shortly after that the gathering started again.

Santos was the entertainment today. Here he is getting his do wop singers.

During all this Steve O’bosky came over and found a boo boo in my datastorm. It’s all fixed. Tomorrow will tell.

Before all this and after breakfast Carol had her Line Dancing at Desert Gardens.

Victor and Tarre Schrubs bought a new rig but first had to remove a few things off the road.

Quartzsite even got a visit from MetLife.

See ya……

A Wow Day

2012-01-18T03:48:00.000-08:00

At 4:30 AM the cats will set around the heater with me while I do this blog. The heater goes out and they are gone back to bed with Carol.

We decided to go to the Escapees Quartzsite breakfast. We arrived about 7:30 AM for the 8 AM breakfast. We know when it’s food and Escapees you have to arrive early or you don’t get a good seat. We were right. It ended up to be 34 people of which most stay here for the winter. The food itself was good and the friendships were even better.

We went back to the Beast and got ready for the Escapees Quartzsite (1-3 PM) gathering which was at our front door. I broke the big camera out and took about 175 pictures. Here are a select few.

Entertainment..

Joe being a bad boy…..

It’s a long dog day….

Here’s Tommie Sue trying to get away from the birds..

Afterwards a few of us went into town and had $1 tacos down at Rice Ranch.

That was it for this fun packed day. Another big get together tomorrow.

See ya………….

Days Are Becoming a Blur

2012-01-17T03:02:00.000-08:00

I missed a day as some of you know. I will try to recap but these days are starting to become a blur. I’m glad I haven’t been drinking.

I think we went to La Mesa RV for a free pancake breakfast with Denny & Susie. Don’t remember if Ed & Sandy came. Afterwards Carol & I went to Paul Evert RV. We wanted to go tease the salesman. Hey, for years they would harass us when ever we were just looking. Now I harass them. The tables have turned. We looked at several rigs with two salesman following us around like lost puppies. The one we liked the most was a 2006 Executive 44 footer. They’re bringing a coach down from Fresno Friday they said we might be interested in. So, Friday we wonder over there again and disappointment them again. They just haven’t made the perfect coach with that real big bedroom yet. At least we haven’t found it yet.

Then came the social hour for us early arrivals at the Escapees get together area here on BLM land. Maybe about 30 or so people so far.

Then it was Silly Al’s time.

This is a place where a group of us visit every year several times and we have a blast. We do everything from karaoke (not all) to oink, oink to the new weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. We also eat fantastic pizza and some even have a beer or two or three or four plus. I just had water. I wasn’t in the mood to drink. It was fun as you can see. We will return and even have more fun as usual.

It’s 11 o’clock. Do you know where your parents are?

See ya………..

Cook Out

2012-01-16T04:07:00.000-08:00

I started off the day with a trip to Mickey D’s with Denny/Susie and Ed/Sandy. After that we stopped at several campgrounds to check their rates. Rates were $30-32 and were full this up coming weekend. It happens to be the first weekend of the Big RV Tent Show. The next two weeks is the biggest drawl of RVers to Quartzsite and the numbers soar.

We all went back to our area. Carol was departing for her line dancing. We sat around and greeted the newcomers. The sun was out and the wind was blowing which made the 65 degrees seem cooler.

The Girls were pow wowing

And the guys were BSing each other.

Next was lunch. You know what that means – La Mesa RV. We had hotdogs. After that we went back to the Beast. We loaded up the car with soiled clothes and Carol was off to the laundry.

The new comers continued to arrive one at a time. the 4 o’clock circle was big, almost not doable. At the end of the social it was time to have a cook out. We had 4 dozen beef dogs/buns ready to grill. Four guys came up with their cookers and we were one – fire them up. About half way thru Mark arrived with 20 chicken lip dogs/buns to polish off those that wanted seconds.

People pitched in and fixed chili for the dogs, sauerkraut, onions. Then we had special dips for the chips and so on. It was pretty dog on good for just about the spur of the moment thing.

Tomorrow is Taco Tuesday. Poor little restaurant is going to be hit by a tidal wave of frugal Escapees.

See ya………

Yuma Flea Market

2012-01-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

We got up this morning and decided to go to Yuma’s big Flea Market. It’s open Thur-Sun. We first went to Mickey D’s for our 2 egg muffins ($3) and free coffee. I think they are giving their coffee away until the 26th. After a 1 1/2 hour drive we arrived at the flea market. First thing that caught my eye was this. Hey, what’s wrong with this picture. If you can’t figure it out, then you are one of them!

I’ve been classified as 40% permanently disabled for almost 20 years by the Veterans Administration and I would never think of doing what this guy did.

Anyhow, they have a cute petting zoo at the flea market if you can’t find any thing better to pet.

I guess one could say that it was not crowed at all.

It was noticeable smaller than last year also due to less vendors. We got a few things then we were off to Sam’s.

I needed to get two more 6 volt batteries since ED said that he would rearrange my chassis batteries. We also took back 4 old batteries for the deposit on the ones I got last week. While there we figured why not get some dogs/buns. We can have a cook out back at the SKP get together place one night. Why not.

On the way back from Yuma Carol was bored so she got hold of the little camera and took some pics.

When we got back to the Beast more people had arrived at the campsite. To many to list. Most of them were going out for dinner and we decided to stay back and guard the fortress.

When they returned a few stopped by.

After that visit we went and visited Sharon & Don then Walt & Kellie. We went back to the Beast for a restful night – NOT!

About 11 PM we were awoke by a sound of a portable generator which happened to be about 20 feet from our bedroom window. Honda’s are quiet but not that close at 11 o’clock at night. I decided to go over and see what the emergency was. Someone evidently needed help. Names will not be used to protect the guilty. I knocked on the door and a lady answered. I asked what the medical emergency was. She acted a little surprised that I asked and she said why. I said that their generator was being ran an hour past BLM hours (6AM-10PM). She said that they just returned back to the rig and were out of LP and that it was 62 degrees in their rig. I was tempted to explain boone docking in cool weather but didn't. I didn’t even get into the how to take care/use of LP bottles. Every morning when I get up our rig is in the 50’s. She further said that her husband had left to go fill BOTH of their LP bottles. She asked if their generator had woke us which I immediately said yes. I wanted to say a few other things but didn’t. She said if it was that bad I could turn it off. I just said no thank you and walked away. The husband returned a little before 11:30 PM and turned off the generator. I guess their emergency was over and they didn’t need any other assistance. Hopefully they have learned a lesson and I’m glad it wasn’t really a serious emergency. I guess an emergency is in the eye of the beholder. Sort of like handicap parking. I was up by 6 AM. I didn’t even turn on the Beast’s 400 HP Cummins, 7500 KW generator or even our diesel Hydro Hot. It was 55 degree’s in our coach. I turned on our Mr Buddy on low and did this blog. I feel like Andy Rooney from the 60 Minutes show.

See ya…………….

Mo People

2012-01-14T03:23:00.000-08:00

What do you get when the guys get together so early in the morning…..nutin honey.

Carols is getting into the off road mood.

This ATV place had free hot dogs and entertainment. The entertainment was pretty good when she wasn’t cleaning her nose out.

Here’s Carol trying to pick up these youngins.

Another lunch at La Mesa. It was beef stew. Where’s the beef was a favorite question.

People came from all over. Some even had RVs. It was over cast and cool but the friendships were warm. Ahhh ain’t that nice?

Maybe you can recognize a few of these SKP’s. Click on the picture for a blow up.

Another day of doing nothing and then trying to remember what we did do to put in the blog. Oh yea, football. One very exciting game and one blow out game. Each team that one had a good day. Tomorrow I predict winners. How’s that for sports reporting? Sounds like a weatherman – yes there will be weather tomorrow when the sun comes up and then some when it goes down.

See ya……

Friday The 13th – So What!

2012-01-13T04:59:00.000-08:00

I have nothing to do but will be busy all day – again.

Somebody asked about the weather. How about near 70 this week and sunny. The nights get down to near 40. As long as the wind don’t kick up too bad, it’s pretty dog on good.

Anybody want to buy a Datastorm cheap. Ours is for sale cheap. Did I mention cheap.

There’s about 8 rigs out here now.

The only guys up this AM was me & Denny. So we decided to go to Mickey D’s for breakfast.

After that we went back to the rigs. It was time to put out and up signs for the Escapees get together for next week.

I had some orange tape and ribbon on hand to brighten things up.

Then we all looked for loose change on the round.

We had supervisors….

Now all this hard work made us hungry. So you know what that meant – La Mesa RV for free lunch. They have the free lunch from 12 –2PM. Today we learned not to go at 12 because everybody goes then.

Inside was crowded too….we had taco pie, beans, salad and pie. Everything was good because it was free. Afterwards we went into a Eclipse 42 footer. We saw this shelf/drawers behind the sink. We will have one similar to it made down the road.

It was back to the ranch after getting a gallon of milk ($3.79). It was time for me to get the antifreeze off the Beast. It was on the passenger side and rear. I first dusted the dust off. Then used a damp cotton cloth and wiped the coach as far as I could from bottoms to high as I can reach. I know that isn't high..ha ha. Then I went over it again with a damp chamois. It needs a cleaner/wax now but that will have to wait. Next where the wheels and tires. First a dusting then a damp rag then a chamois. They need a buffing to really make them shine. Now you have to remember this is all only on one side of the Beast.

Now later on everybody left to go see the New Christie Minstrels something or another. Yes it’s that group from the 60/70 era. No thanks. I stayed back and cooked some ham for dinner. They all returned about 9 or so and spoke highly of the $12 show.

Tomorrow I don’t know what I’m going to do. Probably another busy day do nothing day.

Oh someone said that I needed to use better grammar. I told them that this is me and they needed to change channels. No I didn’t. My grammar makes the mind work in figuring out what I’m saying. What do you want for a 7th grade gentle education. I skipped the 8th and quit the 9th two weeks before graduation. Yes, there is more smart schooling but it was years later and even made the Dean’s List for something. Seems like I’m always on somebody’s list for something.

See ya.

Nothing Again Today

2012-01-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

7:45 AM ED & Denny are anxious to go and eat.

We headed out for breakfast about 8 AM. After about 10 minutes driving we realized we had not said where were going. After a few minutes of “You decide”, “No you decide”, we agreed to go to Subway. Then that presented another problem – which one since there are two here in Quartzsite. We couldn’t decide that either. We all did decide that’s why we have wives. They have no problem telling us where and when to go without hesitation…..

After breakfast we went to a place called “RV Lifestyles”. It’s a dealer with a parts department and Ed needed something. They had these UTV’s setting outside. They’re golf carts on steroids and you set in them rather than on them. The salesman got all excited when I was crawling under one and asking a bunch of questions.

We left and went back to the rigs. Ed & Denny came over to look at the Beast’s battery box area. Ed the Seabee decided he could move the starting batteries and I could get another two six volt batteries in the compartment for a total of six. When we go to Congress next month he said he could get it done in a day or two. When I return to Yuma to return the old batteries (4 X $9) I will pick up another two. When? As soon as I get time from doing nothing.

Now it’s lunch time. Yep, back to La Mesa for lunch. Everybody went. They had hot dogs (1), chips and a drink free. It was good (free). Coming out we all went into a 38 foot toy hauler 5th wheel. It was pretty neat. At this point the salesman were circling us so we left. Prior to departure we all decided to go loosey goosey which each of us to our own direction. Carol & I decided to go to Rice Ranch and both sides of the road there. This took several hours to hit all the flea market booths. Carol got some books and I got a back ache. We went back to the Beast. The rest of the crowd arrived shortly there after. A few more SKP’s arrived and we parked them. It was then 4 o’clock and time for social hour. We sat around in a large circle and talked small talk to the right and left of where we were setting. The circle was to big to talk/listen to everyone.

Then it was time to go to dinner. We all returned to Rice Ranch and had $1 tacos at a little stand. They even had a sit down area for us to eat and chat. After eating tacos Ed & I walked down the street and had $1 hamburgers. Pretty good little things. Everyone else was having ice cream. To cold for me to have ice cream.

Hey the women were smiling because they were ready to tell me where to go.

Got back to the rig about 6 and it was getting dark. We had moved the rig earlier to this spot. We are at the starting point of making a large rectangle at this point.

A few of us fired up a paper log and sat around for awhile. Next think you know I was the only one setting there. I poured two beers on the fire to put it out. I know that’s a waste of beer but water is more valuable out here. I could have used some yellow water but the smoke smell might have been a little much for some.

Tomorrow I hope I really don’t do nothing because I have some things I need to get done. I still got antifreeze on the side of the Beast that I should be getting off real soon. Then I need to shine my wheels of course.

See ya……..

Yuma Luncheon

2012-01-11T01:37:00.000-08:00

We all decided to go to Yuma today and go loosey goosey – each of us doing our own thing. We arrived at the Foothill’s Restaurant about 10:10 AM and it was already crowded for the 11 o’clock luncheon. Why it’s called a luncheon I don’t know. Most people order the breakfast special. A lot of good friends were reconnected. It was great seeing familiar faces again. Ed and Elaine Brandt have been doing these luncheons for 15 years. He got bald and she got red hair. Wow.. no grey hair…it must be the shampoo.

They worked the crowd and ensured to meet everybody. I wonder if they are running for office. Ed wouldn’t let go of Elaine's hand.

This is the M Po Tent people table…

This is Denny with his mouth in it’s normal position. His foot isn’t even in it at least at the moment.

Carol’s birthday is at the end of the month so the restaurant brought her a treat. It’s a Twinkie with strawberries and cream. Hey..it’s free….

And Carol liked it…..

From here we ran to Sam’s. I got four golf cart batteries for $80 bucks a piece. I figured I could replace these batteries 3 times and still save money over AGM batteries. We also had lunch again at Sam’s. It’s hard to beat their prices for lunch. Then it was time to go back to Qsite.

We got back and we decided to move the Beast from this spot. The Beast was getting lonely. Actually we were the corner stone site for the SKIP get together. We decided to move up to the present day crowd. Another day or so I will show our new site.

Well, I was gonna wait till the guys got back to reinstall the four house batteries. I decided to go ahead and do it now with a little sun light left. Now this is the third time I have worked on taking these friggin batteries out so I just about had it down pretty good. I took some extra back pain pills and went for it. No problems. I think I even hooked everything up right. I had to run the generator about 1 1/2 hours to charge them up all the way. All instruments/gauges looked good thru the evening. It’s now 3 AM and I’m at 12.3 volts with the inverter on and things running.

The Orr’s and Crusty’s got back from their Mexico adventure early evening and they came over. We talked about Mexico and we have decided to go back with them later this month. They did say it was over an hour to get thru customs. That means it has returned to normal. Last year was hardly a wait at all when we went.

Tomorrow I will monitor the batteries and see how they take to a solar charge. The guys are going to Mickey D’s for breakfast probably. then..?..?

See ya……….

Quartzsite – Full Day

2012-01-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

Will we were off and running before 8 AM. That is early for some. We went to La Mesa RV for a free pancake breakfast with Denny/Susie, Ed/Sandy & Ray/Jan. The guys were in one car and the ladies in another. The pancakes were really good. We sat there for awhile afterwards and talked and talked. Then we all walked around the new RVs with a salesman tagging around. I actually met a salesman who knew the difference between an exhaust brake, VGT brake and compression brakes. I was impressed so he got to stick around longer while we went in a half dozen rigs or so. After breakfast us guys went to two solar shops to see what was cooking in that area of expertise. I was really was preshopping for batteries. I think the Beast’s are tired. After that us guys ended back at our rigs. Carol went line Dancing in town for two hours. She’s a happy camper.

Us guys started to check the Beast’s batteries. We discussed where the water should be filled to in a battery. I said about halfway to the bottom of the fill ring. They all said to the bottom of the fill ring. I lost and I watched them fill my batteries to their requirements. I felt like Tom Sawyer watching them do my work. I was out numbered.

Then it was time to go and check out Ed’s solar panels to make sure they were working. Denny got on the roof with a rug. I stood next to the RV and Ed was inside watching his solar controller numbers. Denny would cover a solar panel and Ed would shout out the numbers. We did this for each panel and it turned out they were are working just fine.

OK…now it’s lunch time. Back to La Mesa RV for a free lunch. It was meat loaf, mashed potatoes/gravy, biscuit and corn with a drink of your choice. We all agreed it was worth the money. It was pretty good and I don’t normally care for meat loaf unless it’s Mark’s smoked meat loaf.

Now what….. We all had brought are own vehicles because we were going to be loosey goosey and do our own things. We went to one of the flea markets near the Big Tent area. The Big tent is closed for another week plus. We walked for hours and bought nothing. No real good deals jumped out at us until we got near an ice cream shop near the Two Crazy Ladies wagon. They make ID badges, etc. Whoa – for three bucks we got a beast of a cone with a lot of ice cream. We then had to walk some more.

By now it was time to head back to the rig for the 4 o'clock social. Social is a old person’s name for a sit down party. I think we had about 12 people and I ain’t even gonna and try to remember their names now at 4 AM in the morning.

You know what is next – right. It’s dinner time. La Mesa RV doesn't do dinner. Someone mentioned Taco Tuesday ($1) at a Mexican Restaurant in town. I think they only have Mexican Restaurants in Arizona. We found the joint and it was quaint as they usually are. We had to wait. I don’t know if it was because there were that many people or that small of place. Maybe both. During our wait I felt obligated to entertain everyone waiting. The audience was about 15 or so. I know…that’s a small group but what the hell. I had everyone laughing in time. One couple had finished and were exiting when the lady came by to see me. She said that I better hurry up and due today’s blog because she knew I didn’t do yesterdays' and she missed it. With that she walked out. I sat their baffled for a moment and then continued my joking around. Then we got in a line and followed the waitress to a room. Service was good and I was still on a roll. I was having a great time kidding with others in the same room. I think they figured it was better to join in the fun than to make faces. We ALL had a blast and could not even plan this – it just happened and yes I had one beer at the social.

Back at the rig (7 PM) the batteries were fully charged. We turned on the TV, a light and the computer stuff. One hour later we were down to 12.1 volts. What does that mean? It means we do need batteries. Now do we go with AGM or water filled? Haven’t decide yet. That will probably will be decided tomorrow (Wed).

We will have another action packed day tomorrow. We are doing the loosey goosey thing again tomorrow. Most of us will go to Yuma for a monthly SKP luncheon. From there some will go down to Mexico while others shop around for batteries.

I will try to take some pics tomorrow….

See ya…………..

Now That’s Service

2012-01-09T02:33:00.000-08:00

Blog is late due to trouble with the datastorm. It’s up and running.

It got down to 28 degrees last night (Sun). The cat loves when we put on the heat and she has her spot.

Here’s our campsite at the Red Barn.

Don recommended this little local place for breakfast. It was sufficient in quantity and quality. The price was pretty good too.

We got back to the Beast and I added a gallon of antifreeze. I made calls to Newmar and Spartan about the possible heater core leak. I was directed to Freedom RV in Tucson. When we arrived they took us in immediately. I guess they didn’t like the antifreeze leaking all over the place. The problem was a loose heater hose connection at the heater core in the heater core box out of sight. After adding antifreeze they let it run for a half hour making sure it didn’t leak. They gave me a bottle of antifreeze and sent us on our way. NO COST! That’s service and we will be back. I have never been treated that nice by any dealer under any and all conditions.

We’re off and running.

That’s Quartzsite off in the distance. About 30 miles before here we stopped at the ZIP and got fuel. It was $3.79 a gallon. I took on 54 gallons and ended up getting 7.1 MPG. Considering today the engine idled for along time and at times my cruise control was set on 77 MPH – 7.1 was great! Yes the Beast likes to cruise that fast. I was losing antifreeze by time and not mileage so I needed to make time to Tucson.

We arrived and the crew was awaiting our arrival. Denny & Susie the Crusty’s (Ed & Sandy) and Newbies Ray & Jan. We all went to Silly Al’s for pizza & beer. It was great as usual. We did our OINK OINKS so everybody knew we were back. Of course nobody really cared or knew who we were and we didn’t care after a few beers nor did they….

See ya…………..

Snow Showers – No Way!

2012-01-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

Looked up the weather for El Paso today and it’s calling for rain/snow showers/windy in PM and high of 60 degrees. Not my type of shower for sure. PM to me means anytime after high noon. Time to leave…………..so we did. That is after a stop at Denny’s on base. We also filled the “Beast” up on base. It took 127 gallons. That meant I had approximately 23 gallons of fuel left. So all those bells and whistles about low fuel was correct but not gospel. On the Beast’s worst day I should get about 850 miles out of a tank before it gets really low. Fuel was 6 MPG this time and mainly due to the wind I hit the day before last.

This a man made road runner at a rest area near Las Cruces, NM on I-10. It’s made of junk metal. It’s pretty neat.

Carol wouldn’t let me….

When was the last time you picked up a hitch hiker?

Seeing the Beast in the back of this truck was like one of those mirrors at a circus.

Not today. It was pretty good.

Everybody should see the “THING”. I see one everyday!

The bad weather was coming.

Once we got to AZ it was behind us.

This is something new that I saw on several trucks the last few days. It’s like a wind tunnel on the rear of truck to help fuel mileage I guess.

I had a little problem earlier today on one of my walk a rounds at a rest area. I had a liquid coming out from underneath in the front. It appears to be a heater core leak. Thanks Nick! Our warranty expires Tuesday. Plenty of time. I guess I will call Newmar first thing tomorrow and see if it’s their warranty or Spartan’s.

We arrived at Passport America Red Barn Campground in Benson. FHU 30 AMP for $12. It’s an OK overnight or so park. Hey $12 it’s real nice. I couldn’t see paying an additional $4 for 50 AMP. The Beast does very well on 30 AMP just like most RVs can. It’s the people that can’t live on 30 AMP!

We went over to Sharon’s and Don’s for dinner. Don had fixed some ribs and they were good. I think Don need’s to tweak his smoking a little bit more and I volunteered to be the testee of course. After we fixed the world problems we went to Wally World. I needed to pick up some antifreeze. I figure if I don’t get it the leak will get worse. If I get it, it will stop. Let’s see if my guy reasoning will work. We’re headed for Quartzsite/Silly Al’s and to meet Denny & Susie.

El Paso – Not For Us

2012-01-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

Can’t put our fingers on it but El Paso isn’t our type of city. Of course we don’t like any big city and El Paso is big by our definition. It’s just too busy…..busy.

Anyhow here is a picture of our sight here at Ft Bliss.

Damn – Lost another hub cap. Lost the other side up in Alaska. That can be expected. I didn’t even hit any rough roads today. Oh well…… $35…

Alaska – Carol & I just recently actually talked about going to Alaska this up coming summer. Then we switched to 2013 maybe. We want to spend more time on our next Alaska adventure than we have in the previous 4 times. We are thinking about leaving Milepost 0 around mid May again. Then let the snow chase us out in late September or early October. We want to do more dry camping and stay a little longer in certain areas. Just a thought on the back burner.

Went to the Ft Bliss commissary today. I needed ground beef for my chili that I’m cooking for our little get together in Quartzsite the tall end of this month. If you would like to attend send me an email, dennisrving@gmail.com and say so. I will send you an information letter. It’s ALL free. Just 20-40 RVs and RVers sharing stories and having fun.

When the sun went down the wind kicked up something terrible. It’s 4 AM now and it’s been howling all night long. If it continues I’m not sure if we will leave in the morning (Sunday). Sure would hate to miss the rib dinner that Sharon & Don have planned for us in Benson. Here’s the difference of being on vacation and being a full timer. We don’t have to leave hell or high water like a vacationer would. Even though if might be dangerous a vacationer would STILL leave. Been there done that!

See ya……………

See ya.

Nippy

2012-01-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

AT 6 AM when I got up it was 39 degrees outside and 51 inside. I fired up our little Mr Heater Buddy for front room heat.

Carol got up about 6:45 and said let’s go. Of course she wanted to make coffee first and then dog had to be walked. We fired up the generator because our voltage was down to 12.1. Coffee made, dog walked and now down the road to look for a breakfast stop.

About 150 or so miles down the road we got to Ft Stockton and stopped at Mickey D’s. Hey, 2 big breakfasts with pancakes and senior coffee for under $11, it was deal. It was 9:30 AM. We couldn’t eat the pan cakes so that will be tomorrow’s breakfast. The temps dropped down to 32 degrees while on the road getting here. We left and a short while later we came up on Balmorhea. Our jello planned to stop went to the wind we and decided to go on to El Paso.

Now on the interstate.

No way!

Not real blue sky due to the very very very strong wind.

Immigration. Most us don’t have to worry.

Immigration station checking vehicles the other way.

We pulled into Ft Bliss military campground (380 miles today) about 1:30 local with no problem. One spot left and of course we got it. Sometimes we are lucky and sometimes we’re not. $16 for 50 AMP full hook with cement slabs with a patch of gravel. We’re staying two nights. Pictures tomorrow.

Lost a front hub cap ($35) and the house batteries are acting up again. It’s beyond my experience…help….Denny…..see you Monday.

Before getting here to El Paso I had a red dot come on below my fuel gauge. Next I had a sign in my dash display panel that said LOW FUEL. Then later I had a little fuel pump light up on my dash. This means you better have emergency road service which we do. I think I have a bell alarm that comes on next but it didn’t. The fuel gauge is to give a thinking person a reference. There’s a military gas station across the street and they sell diesel for $3.67. The Flying J down the road in Anthony is $3.79. I wonder where I will get fuel. I’ve gone just under 800 miles and have a 150 gallon fuel tank. That means I have an easy 800 miles before fueling and should have 900. It was very windy today. It’s pretty normal going west across I-8 or I-10. I know my fuel mileage dropped like a lead balloon. Can you say 5 miles per gallon without stuttering….? When it drops like that I goose the speed up to 65+. What the hell?

See ya………..

On The Road Again

2012-01-05T17:17:00.001-08:00

We said our goodbyes and we are off and running. Our first stop will be Ft Hood. En route…My co-pilot resting….

All oil pumps were pumping………..

It’s even has AC

We got close to Ft Hood RV Park (military) so I gave them a call to see what gate I should come in with a large RV. They didn’t know. Then I was informed I would have to go to the Visitor’s center first. I asked if it was big enough for a large RV. They didn’t know again. I said a few appropriate words and hung up. We drove on to ???? We got to Eldorado and parked next to their Court House and Police station. It was a nice quiet spot. This city is dying. They do have three new buildings. Two banks and a police station. What’s up with that? We walked around town and 15 minutes later we were back at the RV.

We went 380 miles and that’s more than we planned which was 250. Oh well…………… It was all back roads and only a couple of bigger towns. Sun was out got to 70 degrees and traffic was very light. We traveled most of our route on route 190……staying north of Austin.

The Beast is running fine. Saw fuel as low as $3.49 in a couple of places. We paid $3.57 in Next fuel up for will be in El Paso. Plus we saw 11 Armadillos today and the were alive. That is very rare. they were all within about a 10 mile stretch. I guess it was a family outing.

See ya…….

Batteries Again!

2012-01-04T19:52:00.000-08:00

Yep……but not as much info as yesterday. Well, overnight ever thing seemed normal. This morning I unplugged the 50 AMP and went to solar power. Everything appears normal after a few hours except the solar charger numbers. It was still reading 7 volts. I traced the wires from it down to the batteries. It looked normal but I don’t know what normal looks like so I don’t have a reference. I decided to change the positive cable of the solar cables to another battery (+). I did. The solar charger is now reading 13 volts (normal). I called Mark and he agreed that was the problem probably and that the solar panels were probably charging just that one battery thus the over charge/heated battery. Four six volt batteries are hooked up in series and parallel. I had them right but the solar cable was hooked up ?????? wrong. My dumb luck fixed it but my dumb luck hooked it up wrong several weeks ago when I was “checking/cleaning” the batteries. Bottom line – I got some old batteries that are OK and they are working just like me – old but still working some.

Later that day/night I put the batteries thru several tests and they performed “OK” and didn’t get hot.

We are leaving tomorrow (Thur) a week ahead of time which is really one week later than we normally leave. I won’t explain. Carol & I are running around like two chicken with our heads cut off. It will all come together tonight. If not, we leave Friday it’s just that simple….. When full timers set for awhile they get the “itch”, which is really not that long usually. Things move pretty quick and even naps are sacrificed. Well, let’s don’t get too carried away. I need my power naps.

I’m not sure if my back is hurting or not from moving/lifting all those batteries all around. I’ve taken so much Ibuprofen I think I could play a couple rounds of golf……NOT!

I got a call from Molly & Bob Pinner the other day. They are the Escapade National directors for the Escapees RV Club. Molly asked me if I would do a special seminar during the September rally. I said, “sure” then I asked on what? She told me the subject and I was really surprised that no one had ever done a seminar on this subject. It’s a well deserved subject that needs to be done. I promised that I would NOT tell anyone the topic. So, with that in mind, I guess you all will have to wait.

So I got to go and finish preping the lot for our departure.

See ya…….

House Batteries

2012-01-03T20:39:00.001-08:00

Carol walked by the rear of the Beast yesterday (Monday) and got a rotten egg smell and then told me. I told her I was not back there at all and the smell wasn’t me. Maybe she got a up draft! Anyhow, I went out to check it out and whew was it a good one. The Beast was letting loose. I pulled out the battery tray and yepper the batteries were cooking. I felt each one of the four house batteries and all were cool to touch except one and it was pretty warm. Took off the battery caps. It was like an entire football team ate beans for a week then came over and drank beer and ate boiled eggs. It was that bad. I believe it was some type of sulfur acid cooking in the battery. So now what. I called the local stores and the cheapest I could find a 6 volt deep cycle battery was $109 – no thank you. Now what…oh yea I got a golf cart with six 6 volt batteries. I borrowed one. After some grunting I installed it in the beast. Then I found another battery that had a broken post. I remembered when I checked the batteries about a month ago that this one terminal post was almost broke but holding. Well, it was broke now for sure. This might have caused the first battery to over charge (cook). I went back to the golf cart and got another battery and installed it. Now I got two batteries that are one year old (Beast) and two batteries that are least 4 years old (golf cart). I know you should not mix good batteries with old batteries but hey, I was out of options at the time. Plus I’m cheap - - I mean frugal… Next test is to unhook from the shore power (lot pedestal) and see how they do. If they don’t hold “OK” we will get new batteries (4) when we are in Yuma from Sam’s.

Today (Tue) I looked at all my gauges. One is my Xantrex and it was reading about 14.8 volts and batteries are charged doing a float charge. I disconnected from the 50 AMP shore power and went on coach batteries and solar. Xantrex was reading 13.8 – looking good. The solar charge gauge was reading 8.4 volts and sending 30 AMPS to the batteries. Something isn’t right with the volts. I checked the wiring of the house batteries and they are correct. I ran the microwave and ran the batteries down to 12 volts. Then I turned off the microwave and the batteries recovered to 12.6 and then to 12.9 pretty quick with the solar cranking them up. Appears to be normal. Later the battery in the same location over heated. I called Newmar, they said do a hydro test of the batteries. I went to the Auto store and bought the little hydro tester. They all tested alright. Called Denny Orr. He thinks it’s the wiring. I called Mark Nemeth, we talked and decided he will stop over tomorrow AM. Carol’s doc called and said we can leave Livingston. I took out the last two batteries and installed two more golf cart batteries. The cart is looking sad. Especially after I took two more batteries out.

Now I got 4 golf cart batteries in the Beast. Check tomorrow and see if everything is back to normal tomorrow. Maybe it’s the solar charger going hay wire?!…..

Did you catch where I snuck in about we can leave Livingston?

Too much talk…I got to go get ready to leave Thursday? We still got one more check $ in bound that we will wait for. Gotta make sure that we don’t cook batteries while en route also…

See ya…..

We Are Ready To Go

2012-01-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all of the “Welcome Back” emails. I was surprised by the people that were waiting in the wings for my blog. It helps my ego……I still haven’t brought out the big camera yet, just using the tiny one. I would like to have a blog that is bigger so the pictures appear bigger. Maybe somebody can help me down the road to rearrange the blog….anyhow..

Oh… New Year resolutions. I only made one and that was not to make more than one. I think I can keep this one…..

Another week or so to go before we depart Livingston, TX. We’re taking 5 days to get to Quartzsite with planned stops every night. We usually make the 1370 miles in 3 days and have even made it in 2 days with Donna Clifton riding along. We have made plans until about mid May. The reason for the plans vary but all are what we have decided on and have made obligations to others. All are fun and with friends. This is full timing for us. Now for the summer we have no plans not even jello plans. We might do the Maritime Provinces. Maybe we can get some loosey goosey RVers to go up.

Early May we have to be in Nappanee, IN home of the Beast (43’ RV) – Newmar. The Beast is going to get a new roof at no cost. They will put us up in a hotel while they work on it. The roof is not leaking but sagging in a couple of areas beyond what Newmar (& me) wants it to. Hard to see in this picture but will give you a rough idea. These are the little sags. I have to take down the datastorm and the 4 large solar panels. Newmar said they don’t do that. I will try and sell the datastorm ($500-$600)in Quartzsite. If not I will take it down along with the solar panels when we return to Livingston in March. Then no solar or datastorm the rest of the summer. That will be a little strange without these. Back to the basics. Hey, that’s how we started full timing in June 2000 and didn’t even have sat TV. Wow, how did we live! The big difference between now and then – real good full timer friends. We can do fine without all the electronics but not the friends.

See ya…………………..

New Year’s Day – No Big Deal For Us.

2012-01-01T05:09:00.000-08:00

Here was our New Year’s dinner I cooked. 5 lbs of crawfish and corn on the cob……It was good……………

I can’t remember when I last stayed up to midnight to welcome the New Year. While in AZ in years past we would watch east coast TV stations and that wasn’t a guarantee for me to stay awake. We are not in AZ as planned due to medical reasons. We are still in Livingston, TX. The actual reasons are unimportant other than saying old age stuff. We have to return to Livingston, TX in March for some more testing (me) and then the doc’s will decide if they need to sharpen their knives or not. Welcome to full time RVing and getting older. If you are young and can come out now and play (full time), do it.

As most of you know we are no longer owners of the RV Driving School. One of my instructors and wife, George & Valerie Mayleben, purchased the entire business and all rights to it just not part of it. I think it’s the only ethical way to do business unless both parties agree to do something else and put it writing. I know I don’t like to be blind sided thus won’t do it to someone else. Get it in writing - At least that’s what Judge Judy would say! I thought we did 5 years ago! Damn still learning who are friends are……anyhow life goes on for us with real friends in tack.

Yes, I don’t have a job. I need a job to make some fun money. We can survive without a job but I would like some pork for my new Bradley Smoker. Thus need fun money. We work for food then I will cook it for everybody. I burnt my last Lowe’s Masterbuilt smoker up. I’m taking this smoker with us. I took out the underneath freezer and put in the smoker.

I do have my Weber grill with us also.

Diesel fuel is coming down a little bit. I usually use the fuel prices in CA as an overall guide to see if prices are coming down. Right now all diesel prices at Flying J in CA are under $4 a gallon. That’s OK considering what prices have been. Here in Livingston fuel is $3.57 and gas was $2.95 but just shot up to $3.05 a couple of days ago. Diesel stayed steady. The “Beast’s” tummy is 150 gallons and right now it’s pretty hungry.

The other day (bored) I figured out what it cost to move the Beast down the road. Figuring only fuel, maintenance, tires (pro rated), insurance, miles per gallon, it cost right around 70 cents a mile. Damn that’s expensive. I better stop doing that kind of figuring before I realize how expensive RVing can be. We might have to set for 3 years before we can move again.

This year I have an Excel spreadsheet that I’m gonna keep track of all of our camping costs plus others. Then next year we will start dropping memberships. The ones we know we will keep are Thousand Trails, Passport America & Coast To Coast. These we use pretty often. We have a few others like RPI, AOR, ROD that I can think of off the top of my head. The business paid for their yearly dues but we probably won’t down the road.

The first 18 months of full timing we kept track of every penny. Yep we could afford it but no meat in the spaghetti sauce. Then we started doing work camping jobs so we could add meat to the sauce. We’ve been working ever since at our leisure and liking. We like to work and meet people. Out here in the RV world of Full timing it’s neat to meet other people. If you meet them once, you will meet them again. I normally don’t remember people’s names that’s Carol’s job. I remember their RV. That’s the way my brain is wired…so be it.

Carol is gonna try and speed up her 10 Jan appointment with the Doc but it depends if they get the results back on her special tests. One time we left and halfway to AZ the doc called and said to return to TX. That was a big scare. We did and we think it’s the same ole same ole thing that has been dormant for years. New doc….

These bees attacked our bird feeder…

Then our cat, Patches, wanted to make love with this bird.

Well, that’s it for my first blog in months. Don’t forget my email is dennisrving@gmail.com….

OK…..

2011-11-30T16:21:00.001-08:00

This blog will start up again 1 January….

Thank You & Now The Blog Is Retired

2011-10-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

Thank You for all the kind words. It really means a lot.

I’ve decided to retire this Blog.

If you would like to keep up with our movements via Datastorm notification, send me your email.

Again, thank you for being a reader…

See Ya……………..

RV Driving School Sold

2011-10-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

The RV Driving School Changes Ownership

Livingston Texas — October 19, 2011 — Today Dennis Hill, owner of the RV Driving School announced the sale of his company to George and Valerie Mayleben. George Mayleben announced the school will continue intact and will maintain the high standards set by Dick Reed and Dennis Hill. The web site www.rvschool.com will continue, and the telephone number for the school will remain 530.878.0111. The actual date for the transfer of ownership is January 1, 2012.

The school was originally created by Dick Reed in 1991 to help people who were acquiring RV’s get acquainted with their vehicle and to aid them in gaining the skills necessary to operate their vehicles safely. Dick conducted seminars at rallies across the country discussing various aspects of the RV life-style and technical matters.

Dennis Hill’s acquisition of the school in 2006 assured the continuation of the school meeting the needs of people who own RV’s. Dennis is well known for his emphasis in driving “SLOW”, and his exaggerated insistence that we are driving “recreational vehicles”. His humor and friendly style has endeared him to many seminar attendees.

George Mayleben has been teaching and instructing people on the safe operation of vehicles for over twenty years. He brings his knowledge and skills to the school and expects that the tradition of quality instruction and behind the wheel teaching will continue.

George and Valerie have been full timers for five years and George has been a respected instructor for Dennis Hill for four years.

The 2012 seminar schedule will be be maintained, and new seminars will be announced during the year. All information will be posted on the web site.

See ya………………

Catching Up

2011-10-20T04:28:00.000-07:00

Our outside frig vent got broke. I say it was at Newmar and they say basically prove it. They did give me a white replacement and wouldn’t paint it to match the paint job. I painted it it with Hi Temp flat black paint. It will blend in with the dark brown. I will install it in a few days or so.

Then our outside table needed help. It was starting to rust. I sanded it down a little and found some paint by chance. Wow, orange too!

OK the Barn is a little more organized. The pile on the left is going back in the Beast in the future.

Carol got me this “cool” ice chest last year for Christmas.

Here’s my cooking area.

See ya………………

Oktoberfest Last Day

2011-10-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

Well folks, all things must come to the an end and thus it has. Seminars, cake/pie auction, fire truck display and then the grand prize give away.

But before all of that I went to

and made an appointment for the Beast and the car. The Beast has a bad front A/C since leaving Newmar. It has three AC and we run the front the most. I’ve been told it’s a $20 capacitor. It’s still under the manufacture one year warranty and we will see what happens. Also, the U.S Gear Unified Brake on the car hasn’t worked in months. It’s not under warranty. Get this. Their first available date was next Monday at 8 AM. Let’s see. This is Wednesday and they can’t see me until Monday. Wow, three days to get seen. I like this. I hope they don’t try and make their weekly profit on me. They’ve been real good in the past when times were good.

Friggin diesel went up 11 cents here in Livingston since last week. I need over a 100 gallons (150 tank). I think I will wait until mid December now. That’s when it has dropped the last couple of years. We’re not going to a FMCA rally hat we normally go to in November. We’re not going to a Chapter 10 rally next week. We’re still not got things under control here on the lot and in the Beast plus we are expecting some friends in two weeks.

Back to Oktoberfest…The Fire equipment display.

The Escapees had a bake sale and collected over $6 thousand dollars for the volunteer fire company. The fire boys were very happy.

The Oktoberfest sheriffs collected over $100 for the SPCA. They also removed the warrant out for my capture. They had to return their badges and authority to harass people.

Then it was time for the Grand Prize drawing. A $500 certificate from Adventure Caravans. Everybody was there and waiting. It was so quiet you could here a walking cane fall. Who was going to win…

AND Cathie Carr announced the winner……

What can we say….thank you…..

See ya….

Oktoberfest Continues

2011-10-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, what’s this?

RB says “Hope you don’t get sick but if you do come and see me at CARE.”

Carol got this free massage and wasn’t any good the rest of the day.

Market Day appears to been a big hit….

Angie is showing me how she appreciates me taking her picture!

This lady was from the Chamber of Commerce.

The audience seemed to be really interested for the most part.

They are waiting in line to yodel in a contest. Mark was rated the worst ever in the history of Oktoberfest.

Just as the dinner started the lights went out and stayed out during the meal. Hey, his was a candlelight dinner without the candles. Flashlights were a hit.

Looks like Diane just woke up. She’s tearing into that yard bird!

They played some old movie called The Sound Of Music. It was more like the sound of people leaving. Maybe show the movie RV next time. I know Oktoberfest…..but it was attended by RVers…

See ya……………

Doing “Stuff”

2011-10-17T01:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to lift the RV up and put boards under the rear tires (3). The boards are 2X10 each. They are wide enough for the tire footprint to set on. If the tire is not setting under the tire completely, it will damage the tire in time. Setting for a long period I wanted the Beast to be more stable so that’s the reasoning for the boards. Two of the three tires were off the ground.

We got that rolled up linoleum for Carol’s line dancing room. It’s 12X20. Just the right length. We got it from Lowe’s and carried it home in the Mariner car. So it stuck out a few feet.

My room downstairs is now officially trashed and I don’t care. I know where everything is – kinda. The Beast is almost empty underneath and looking good.

I gotta clean my batteries and all. This will take a few hours to do it right so I’m not in any hurry.

The car is looking good at least on the outside. I still had Top Of The World Highway dust around the inside of the rear window. We very seldom open it but did today to carry the linoleum. A lot of caked dust but now cleaned.

Oktoberfest is still going on.

I took a quick pic of this bi plane.

The food is coming in for the pot luck.

“Oh no – same ole same ole”.

Hey, they ate it all almost….

Night entertainment was good and is very popular.

Tomorrow I have no idea what I’m doing – that’s good!

See ya.

Oktoberfest In Livingston & Mom Hill

2011-10-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

We went and visited my Mom today. We knew she wanted to see her dog Brandy so we took her too.

The first Oktoberfest at Rainbow’s End here in Livingston I believe was in 1984. A few of the attendees were here for that like Bill & Dee Holt. Here are some pics…

I know this is really not readable but it shows how busy the next few days will be. Plus it’s free!

At the door prize give away Carol & I were the runners. I got to wear my orange hairy hat. Maybe a pic tomorrow.

See ya…………

My Clutter - Projects or Toys?

2011-10-15T03:06:00.000-07:00

I think I’m in denial that I’m a pack rat. That’s not good for a full timer unless you have a barn. Hey, I got a barn – problem resolved.

I think Carol is one too. Her room is up stairs. Yes, the barn is that big. This is her line dancing room too!

Here Carol is cleaning the porch after being away 10 months.

I got projects at different stages of completion and even a few completed. One was about 1 1/2 years ago. It’s a large portable movie screen (PVC pipe)with real movie screen material. I used it when I gave about 20 seminars out on the west coast during a RV show.

Another project was to find the perfect grill. Result – there is none and I have about 8+ grills. I have tried charcoal, electric, LP, big, small, heavy, light, aluminum, stainless steel, cheap and expensive. I think I have this project as still active. Right now I’m trying a LP Weber. It’s pretty popular so that’s good enough for me.

I have one smoker and have really used it. It’s just about burnt out but will continue to use it tell it stops working or burns thru a door or wall. I will then replace it with a Bradley (?).

I also have a 3,000 PSI Troy Built commercial pressure washer. It’s not recommended for doing vehicles. You know what that means – it’s good! I use it to clean the slide out covers on the Beast and the engine, radiator and such. Plus what ever Carol wants cleaned like outside “stuff”.

It takes me a few days to get orientated to what I was working on and where everything was when we left 10 months ago. Here’s my towing stuff.

I’m organized only in that it’s in the barn or the RV somewhere. I still haven’t learned where everything is in the RV and I’m getting ready to rearrange everything again. Why? I will have the time and need to remove items that I don’t use anymore. This is the first trip here to Livingston with the Beast.

We also moved the Beast around and installed the Magne Shade AGAIN!

So, that’s the number of that.

See ya…………..

Woke Up, Played, To Bed

2011-10-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

Don’t we all...

See ya…….

Alligators, Kayaks, ABS Brakes & The Barn

2011-10-13T03:09:00.000-07:00

What do they have in common? Hopefully by the time you finish reading this we will all know.

We started off little after 8 AM this morning. We drove smack through the middle of Branson with the Beast and the car in tow. Normally we didn’t even drive the main drag because it was so clogged up for the shows and tourists. We traveled the “other” routes to get around Branson and not the main drag. But early in the morning it’s dead. Highway 65 south for ever. It started off real nice then changed to a two land highway with a lot of turns. The road itself was pretty good. We got around Little Rock and the I-30 was worse than up in Alaska. Then it happened. I hit a friggin big alligator while changing lanes. This was another one down the road. Tire pieces are called alligators because they will bite you like the one I hit did.

It was nosey. The trouble with hitting these things that they flip and turn like an alligator hitting the underneath of your RV. There is all sorts of “things” under there. I watched my gauges for any immediate damage. We stopped as soon as we can to inspect. Nothing I could see under the RV but when it came out the rear it became more noticeable. This is where it hit under the frame of the mud flap and bent the lettering Newmar on the other side.

Then it came up and hit the car. Just some hard rub marks with no physical damage. I would say no real damage over all. When we get to Livingston I will crawl underneath and check out the “Beast” better.

When we got ready to leave the rest area I saw this sign. Never ever saw a rest area that had designated sites for OVERNIGHT campers. This was just south of Little Rock on I-30.

We had decided to spend the night near Texarkana, AR at a city campground(Hope is the city). We got to the Flying J at exit 7 to go over our options. We got a call from Wayne who wanted to buy our Kayaks. He was another 200 miles. It turned out he had to work the next day and we couldn’t meet up with him. He’s one of those people who still work but plays on weekends sometimes. We told him we would try to make it today but no promises. It was 3 PM and we had already gone 300 miles. I was fine but Carol was getting in one of “those” moods from traveling so long. We headed for Jasper, Texas.

Here’s an interesting picture. The school bus is actually a converted cut down school bus made into a tow truck. Hey, these southern boys “get er done”.

Need I say more…..

We hung a left on to highway 59 south. We got to Jasper a little after 6 PM. Wayne met us at the Walmart near his house. I followed him in our car to his nearby place. He has a lot toys to include a Wanderlodge motorhome under a carport next to his Snap On tool truck. He’s a Snap On guy. He gave me a tour of his RV and truck. Both are in great shape. The RV is in outstanding condition and has 90K on it but you would never guess. I forgot the year – maybe a 1998. It’s For Sale for the right price. If he sold it he would get another one. Him and his wife hope to full time in the future. Needless to say I told him everything I knew about kayaks – get in and paddle. He got a great deal on our kayaks and will even use them more than we did.

I forgot to mention that we had some earlier engine problems. I lost power twice and regained it about 20 MPH later. Then as we were making a turn in Jasper we lost all power and I had to make an emergency pull over downtown. The engine lost all power and we were slowing down quickly. It died when I stopped and on the dash console display appeared ABS DEFAULT. Now’s that strange. Maybe that alligator bit into a wire underneath near the ABS brake wiring. I turned off the ignition and waited about two minutes. When I checked the display for fault codes it now showed no defaults. I turned the Beast on and it came back on and we drove on to Walmart to meet Wayne.

OK, it’s now 8 PM, dark, and we are into this adventure 500 miles and 75 miles from Livingston with this new problem of the engine dying. I don’t think or at least remember driving the Beast at night either. Oh what the hell, life is an adventure and we went for it. It was a nice quiet drive with no further problems. We arrived at the Barn about 9 PM. We had this barn built two years ago for our storage. We out grew the one next to it. We can drive the car into this one and have a lot room left over. Carol uses the second floor for her line dancing room.

I drove the Beast straight in rather than backing in. We can turn around tomorrow.

This is the mobile with a big covered porch on it. We call it the laundry room. We stay in the rig. This lot belongs to my Mom but we take care of all of it. She’s in a nearby assisted living home.

The lot is a 1/2 acre with trees and has two 50 AMP full hook ups and one W/E (30 AMP). The driveway wraps around. Sometimes I drive in from the other side behind the mobile. Carol’s brother rewired the RV sites when he wired the barn. Outstanding job.

We plan (jello) to be here until after Christmas. We will probably take some little trips from here. The blog might get a little boring at times so……

See ya……….

Hard Luck

2011-10-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

The local news said we got two inches of rain last night. I think most of it occurred between 5-7 AM. It poured. The Beast is already dirty so it only helped. The windshield didn’t leak. That was a relief. It’s always a fear when a windshield is replaced.

Being at the bottom of a hill all the road rocks come to the bottom of the road in front of us of course.

Carol went Line Dancing at the clubhouse and had two hours of fun. She liked that. In the mean time I washed the last of the bugs off the front end of the Beast. There was still a light rain. The rain didn’t get them all off until I rubbed them a little.

Our cat Patches sometimes goes and lays up against a wall. That’s pretty different.

We decided to go over to the Escapees Park called Turkey Creek. We wanted to see if we knew anybody there. Nope.

As we were leaving these ghosts aught our eye.

Now it was time for lunch. We thought we would give Mel’s Hard Luck Diner a try. We’ve ate there in the past and liked it. Some of the losers from America Got Talent TV show work and perform there. It’s pretty cool.

When we got there we saw 5 tour buses. There’s a red flag for sure. Then there was the line starting just outside the door.

Time to leave…… So we went to Denny’s what the hell. I ordered a Swiss Mushroom burger and Carol got her Belgian Waffle. My burger patty tasted burnt, looked burnt and was burnt. One bite was enough. Their grill was dirty because you could taste it along with the burnt. Of course the waiter took it away, no charge. Then the monotone manger came over and asked what was wrong…duh..not very pleasant and appeared to be burnt out and not really caring. Upon checking out got the friendly “How was everything?” and I told the person. At first they thought I was joking because I was in a good mood. Then the person behind me started to complain about the food. It was like a chain reaction. The ball was rolling and we left. Hey people, if the food ain’t no good be honest and tell them. SOME really care!

So I was having some “Hard Luck” getting lunch. McDonald’s two double hamburgers with just mustard for $2.20 out the door it was.

Then it was back to the Beast. We started to move things around for our move tomorrow.

I found a white steak in the freezer. A white steak is one that has been in the freezer a little too long. I think it was a steak. It passed for one. I grilled it outside and all was fine.

Arlene Chandler and her husband Lee came over. She wanted to do an interview on us and take pictures. She does articles for a variety of magazines and thought we would be a good subject. I don’t why she thought that. She said she would try and get the interview in WorkKamper News in the future. She did one on us about 7 or so years ago and it ended up in the Coast To Coast Magazine. We talked and got caught up and all of our adventures since last seeing each other. We know some of the same people they know and worked in some of the same places like Life On Wheels. She does seminars on writing. I know I could use just a little help here..huh..maybe a lot! Her husband Lee took some outside photos and then it started to rain again. Oh well….

We had a good time and they departed with hugs, memories and a possible story on us.

I checked my emails looking for an email from Wayne from Jasper, TX. I’ve sent him two emails with no reply. He wanted to take a serious look at our kayaks to purchase. Give us a call again – quick…

Tomorrow we continue going south towards Livingston. Not real sure where we will spend the night. We have options as always. We will go about 250 or 300 miles since we are about 575 miles away from Livingston.

Outlet and Show Day Day

2011-10-12T06:32:00.001-07:00

We went to the RV park ticket office and made reservations for two shows today. One was for 3 PM and the other for 8 PM. We’ve been here several times over the years so we only picked two. Then we had to go and pick up the tickets at the shows themselves. Plus we learned the locations of the shows.

Next we went to two factory warehouse places. We got two outside chairs that were on clearance at Coleman Outlet. Carol picked up a couple of bowls at Corelle.

Then it was time for the 3 PM show. It’s called “Rockit”. It was a band that sung songs from the 60’s mostly. It was good and would recommend it if you like or can remember the 60’s.

Then we went back to the Beast and Carol fixed Shrimp Stir Fry for dinner. It too was good.

Then it was time to go back in time again with the Tribute To The Eagles. Show time was 8 PM. We got there in plenty of time. We watched the fellow show goers arrive. They’re were a bunch of old farts coming to watch this show. Then I realized “I am one too”. If you just kinda like the Eagles this show is still a must see show. If you are a fan, you will have flashbacks. It’s a great show!

Coming back to the Beast about 10:30 PM we realized we haven’t driven the car that much at night. The interior is like an airplane with it all lit up. Pretty neat.

See ya…

En route To Branson

2011-10-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

I got up about 5:30 AM local time. We are now in Central Time and will be until after Christmas. Our voltage was down to 12.1V. That’s low but workable. We had fantastic fans going, two TVs, datastorm, and all the other “stuff” until about 11 PM. It was 12.3V then. We ran one fan plus our underneath freezer all night. It was warm but not hot.

We got about 190 miles to get to Branson. We are staying at Treasure Lake Park. It’s a Coast To Coast Park (C2C) and Resort Parks International (RPI). They charge an extra $5 bucks on top of the normal rates which are $10 for C2C and $8 for RPI plus any fees. We are going to drive up with no reservations and see if we can get in with RPI for 3 nights. It’s the end of the season so it shouldn’t be a problem being such a big park too.

We stopped at Cuba, MO at the Midwest Petro BP and filled the Beast up. It took 95 gallons.

We went a few miles and pulled into a truck rest area. We got an hour or so to kill before Carol’s puzzle store opens up so we put the datastorm up along with the TV.

These truck rest areas are usually pretty empty in the AM and it was. It might have has something to do with this cop at the entrance.

I played with the computer. I figured up the mileage for Beast. I went back and did a 2,600 mile fuel mileage check. It got 6.99 MPG average for the 2,600 miles. That’s a lot better than the high 5s and low 6s it was getting. I really want it to average about mid 7s and I think I can get it latter on. I’ve read that new tires will cut fuel mileage down. The Beast just turned 18K miles. It had 4K when we got it in January. This year we will put about 17K when we are all done. Next year we will probably stay around 10K. That’s in jello of course.

So we take off again. The hills are getting bigger as we head for Branson.

A few miles down the road was Carol’s puzzle place (Exit 135 I-44).

We parked the Beast in a nearby church lot and Carol unhooked the car and was gone before I got the Beast level. We’ve been driving by this place for 10 plus years. It’s hard to find and you can’t take a RV there. Carol was determined this time and found them on the internet too. We couldn’t stay too long because the church’s rafters were getting weak.

Where’s Mom!

Look what she got us to play with – tiny things…

I told Carol I found a new place for overnight parking.

This must be an adult bowling alley right?

Only in America!

Billboard ads up and down the highway before Branson.

We arrived at Treasure Lake RV Resort and it started to rain during check in. During check in we met Arline Chandler a friend from the past. After a few minutes of sharing a synopsis of 5 years we agreed to get together tomorrow or the next day.

We picked our site which is a FHU 50 AMP and it ran about $14 a day after their funny fees/taxes. A good deal for Branson plus we can buy any ticket for shows at their office here. Of course the rain stopped after we got all backed in and hooked up.

See ya………….

Passport America ?

2011-10-09T03:28:00.000-07:00

Passport America (PA) is another RV park membership. I use to not like PA because it didn’t fit our style/needs of RVing. For the last few years it has. It’s for more the traveling person that is going from point A to point B with miles in between with no place to stay. PA parks are usually the overnight/traveling parks close to popular and well traveled routes. You usually can stay only a night or two and get in for half the raised price. Each park has it own rules about costs and when and how long you can stay. You get a big book that informs you of all this ahead of time . I then call the park the day of travel and check in and make sure everything is cool, etc. We’ve had PA for about 2 plus years now and plan on keeping it. I think it’s $39 or $59 a year.

I forgot this was a holiday weekend. Some of these memberships parks don’t let out siders in on holidays and just reserve their sites for their own members. Can’t blame them but for a full timer it can be a hassle. It’s probably one of those hassles that many full timers don’t even discuss that much but all experience it especially on the big holidays.

So anyhow we got on the road about 9 AM with 125 miles to go.

No cell phone usage in a construction zone. The speed limit can hardly be enforced how is this gonna be.

When you get around Effingham you will see this cross for sure. There several of them across the country like this. We stopped at the Flying J and filled our LP tank at $3.09. We had about a 1/4 left. The last time we filled it up was in Anchorage, Alaska. We didn’t get fuel – a little high for the area at $3.61.

You will also hit construction around there and it was backed for miles the other way.

We decided not to stay at the PA Park and keep going with no place in mind. Construction again around St Louis.

We ended up here at the Cracker Barrel in Sullivan which was 360 miles. We spent the money that we would have had to pay for the park on dinner. It all works out.

Tomorrow we fill the Beast up. It’s a little hungry and should take about 100 gallons. I found a place down the road where the fuel is $3.49.

See ya………….

What’s ROD?

2011-10-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

It’s a RV park membership that is similar to Coast To Coast(C2C) . With C2C you pay your yearly maintenance fee to your home park, your yearly fee to C2C and then your camping fee where ever you stay in their 500 or so parks which is $10 a night. Basically the same with ROD (Resorts of Distinction) except your camping fee is free. Yes, free. I don’t know how they do it and we have know about them for 9 years and have had them for over 3 years.

We drove the 100 miles or so with a stop at Newmar since it was on the way. We dumped and got a half of tank of water that would hold us over till Branson. This way we don’t have to hook up water or dump while en route. People say oh that’s extra weight you have to carry, etc. Hog wash.. When you get up to 41K pounds (with a car) the few extra hundred pounds don’t make any difference when you get right down to it. Travel trailers, fifth wheels and smaller motor homes it would make a difference. Not with the Beast. While there we met some students from the Boot Camp that was just held in Gillette a couple of months ago. That was neat.

We hit the road…back roads only and they are narrow.

We got to the park about 1 PM. Checked in and had a 30 AMP FHU back in site – free. We couldn’t get out with the datastorm or TV – too many trees. We moved to this spot and our back side was open – no trees. It was a 50 AMP FHU so we had to pay $3 for the site. We can handle that. Carol backed it in and had an audience. She backed it in with no pull forwards. Our datstorm kinda came up and the TV no problem.

This was interesting watching this guy. Normal newbie backing mistake and that is waiting to long to straighten it out.

This park is a “camper” campground on the water. Fires lit up the night and the smoke made be think of what the battle was like at Gettysburg…

See ya…

We Are Doing What?

2011-10-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

Staying overnight in a building………

We left Howe, IN and drove the 28 miles to Elkhart. We arrived at Master Tech RV repair shop about 15 minutes before our 9 AM appointment. We are getting our windshield replaced. I went over a few things with them to make sure we didn’t get any surprises after the installation ($) other than our $50 deductible. We drove around Elkhart and made the usual stops at the RV surplus stores, Walmart, etc. We got back about 3 PM and they were just finishing up with the Beast. They told us that they really didn’t want to move the RV until the windshield glue dried. OK but that’s our home, I said. No problem they said, you can stay in it overnight in the shop. OoooooKay…… We can’t use the jacks but everything else was OK to use. They hooked us up to 30 AMP and we were good to go. They had WiFi and we could get a few TV channels even inside the building. Later Diane & David Sears came in to visit. We talked for about 2 hours and it was really great. Watched a little TV, worked on our new route to Livingston then went to bed.

So far this repair shop has been great. We’ve had them to body work two other times over the years. Diane & David swear by them and are getting their carpet replaced in their bedroom. This facility does major upgrades/repairs. Look them up if you are out this way.

Here’s our front view at 5 AM…………

See ya…………….

Amish Country

2011-10-06T02:57:00.000-07:00

See ya….

Here We Go Again

2011-10-05T01:17:00.000-07:00

Load up the animals and move them and us to the car for the day while Spartan checks out the Beast. We did this for Newmar now Spartan. We got it down. At 7:15 AM we got the knock knock – Good Morning!

I called Master Tech in Elkhart yesterday. I wanted to check and make sure everything was on track for Friday. That’s our appointment date that we made a couple of weeks ago for our windshield. I was now told that they would TRY to work me in. I didn’t care for that at all! I just said that I would just go on down the road and get it installed somewhere else if they couldn’t “work me in”. They set the date and time a couple of weeks ago that I have already adjusted to. Hey, they evidently got better things to do than to keep their appointments. Maybe they don’t need a $2,700 job either. Give me a break. Sounds like somebody might have forgotten to order a windshield or over booked! I called GEICO who said we are not obligated to have them do the work – so we shall see…

Our jello schedule is changing. Carol’s bro might not be able to meet up with us this month. Something called work. So we might head for Branson, MO next week. We haven’t been there in awhile and there’s a Coast To Coast park we like there called Treasure Lake. We will know more by this weekend (windshield replacement).

While waiting for the Beast we drove around to see the local sights. Some of these were taken on our return trip also. This was a tree trunk!!!!!!!

Please excuse the quality…It’s a Drive In still doing business.

About 2 PM we were called to talk to the tech and service writer. My thought is, “Now what?”. It was a summary of what they found and have done. In part they replaced the turbo exhaust pipe, checked and readjusted the road height, changed the rear end fluid, cleaned the exterior of the radiator, did a 44 point chassis check, checked the bearings & brakes especially on the tag axle, found a steering box leak (clamp), and a loose AC belt. They suggested a front end alignment ($390) which I declined. They noted what they called river edge wear on the front tires. I’ve been actively watching it. It’s minor according to tire experts to include Neil LeKander. The Beast has 17K miles and the wear is very minor. It drives straight and stops straight. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! Everything was not under warranty and the bill was $375. I also picked the brains of two service writers and one tech. These people were very nice, helpful and were experts on their product, Spartan. They were very proud of their product and wanted me to know about their product. They also told me of the history of the Beast’s 400 Cummins engine. It was originally introduced in 2002. They also DIDN”T tell me that some people have removed the catalytic muffler (new for 2006 model) and the engine did better.

We were on the road by 2:30 PM. Yep we decided not to stay there at Spartan since Indiana was only down the road. We left heading for Newmar and free camping there.

We opened the frig and the jello was not set yet so we changed our plans. We decided to go to Howe, IN to a Coast To Coast park called Grand View Bend. We have been visiting there for about 10 years off and on.

W/E 50 AMP for $10 bucks a night. We will stay for 2 nights. The TV dish found the sat immediately. The datastorm is being it’s normal of not booting up all the way. I had to reregister to get on line. It’s become the norm to do it this way.

It’s 4:30 PM and it was time to drive to Goshen to the South Side Diner so Carol could get her crab cakes. We did and she did. I got steamed shrimp with Old Bay. For desert I got their curly fries and Carol got a piece of rueben/strawberry pie. Then we drove the small back roads of Amish and Mennonite country in our trip back home. Opps – forgot the camera.

See ya…….

Move To Spartan

2011-10-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

The cats are ready.

We had 125 miles to get to Charlotte, MI. Fuel was running about $3.89 - $3.99. I found a place that was $3.65 a gallon and took on 101 gallons. I figured I saved over $25 bucks.

Yep a fire and it was a big one. We had fire trucks coming from the opposite direction for miles.

No idea but I could make a story or two.

Carol wanted me to put these photos on the web to reflect the changing of the seasons. I need the brownie points. Spartan parking 50 AMP

Kitties are getting ready for their ride in the car tomorrow.

Tomorrow the Beast goes into the shop for a lookie lou.

See ya…………

HD TV/Technology/Membership Parks

2011-10-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

We installed the new 32” LED LCD TV a couple of weeks ago in the Beast while in Maryland. Here we get NBC, ABC, CBS & Fox as local channels and in HD. We found ourselves watching regular digital HD TV. It is really sharp. People look normal on it. We don’t have a HD Direct TV dish. We won’t change until our regular dish goes bad. Too much money to change over. We’re not big in electronics. My phone has an antennae so that says a lot. I don’t even know all the features it has. I got it used from Walt Gunn. I don’t know if it’s the fear of new technology or being lazy. I think it’s the learning curve I don’t care for. There is no curve for me – the road is straight and I don’t care to turn. Plus it saves money not trying to be current in technology for sure.

Today I wiped down the lower portion of the Beast. That means I took a wet wash mitt and wiped from the bottom to as far as I could reach without getting on the ladder. Then I took a damp micro fiber cloth and wiped over where I just had used the wet mitt. Then I used a cleaner/shiner spray on the tires and then washed/wiped the wheels so they would be shiny. The Beast is looking pretty good! Carol says the same thing about the inside.

We had Diane & hubby David Sears stop by and say Hi. The Glicks told them we where here at the Newmar campground. They been full timing for 18 years. We also had a lady (JoAnn ?) stop by to say Hi also. They’re getting their new Newmar worked on. She said she was in line behind me stuffing bags prior to the Goshen Escapade in 2004. Wow, what a memory. She said I was a lot of fun and just wanted to thank me for being so much fun. Now that there was nice and humbling.

Earlier today I got my haircut in Nappanee. That was a pleasant experience and a pretty good haircut especially at $10. This might do me until around Christmas.

We are already planning our regular pilgrimage to the west coast in late December. We plan now so we can make reservations in the camping membership club parks. We like to make reservations about 80-90 days out so we are assured of getting into the parks. The last two years with RVing down it’s been pretty easy. Why do we use membership parks? One is that we are already members of most of them, about 8 or more. All were purchased used and down right cheap. Now we pay (school) the yearly dues and camp from anywhere from FREE to $10 bucks a night. Most of the parks we can only stay for 7 days and two we can stay 14 days then out of that particular system. No we can’t stay in the same park using different systems. The parks caught on to that years ago. If we can’t get into a particular park under one system we will try another system. Usually by the third system we can get in. Now that was years ago and now usually the first try we get in.

We usually travel about 20K miles a year. Next year we are putting the brakes on and will probably do about 10K. Why? Because we can and want to. Plus, the money will be a little tighter – that’s a bigee.

We are considering getting an extended warranty on the Beast. If you have one that is treating you right, let me know.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, we got about 125 miles to Charlotte, Michigan to the Spartan plant. We will leave about 9-10 AM. We will arrive before 3 PM and check in for our 7 AM Wednesday appointment. No major issues just want a good “go over” since the coach sat for almost 4 years.

Way too much writing……

See ya…………….

Record Breaking Happening

2011-10-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

I stayed in bed until 8:30 AM. That’s a record for me!Oh no…..half the day shot…

When hooking up yesterday my Rhino sewer hose spurted out two new openings. Oh what a relief it is….

Now I was already in the middle of switching over to the blue slip on connectors. I got a few of them at the Camping World in Winchester, VA last week. This will speed up the transfer for sure. I want the blue slip on connectors so I can store the sewer hose in a built in storage area in the Beast. It can only take smooth connectors. Anything else and the hose won’t go into the pipe. I’ve had the blue connectors in years past and they just take a little extra handling when they have junk (poo) in them so they don’t come apart.

It was time to get a cheap hose. We HAD to go to Walmart to get a hose and connectors. The nearest Walmart was in Elkhart so we are off to the races. We get there and they didn’t have all the connectors. Oh well, will try some other place later this week.

Now what. Hey we can go thru Goshen and stop at the South Side Diner so Carol can get her loved crab cakes. The place has been on Diners, Dives and Drive Ins. Carol had already looked it up on the internet before we left. It’s open on Sunday. We get there and the place is closed. Carol tried all the doors and then the windows. So much for updated web pages.

We get back to the Beast and saw this white carriage across the street.

Then we saw this. Hey, everyone has a spare vehicle with them.

Oh, Good Luck to Andy Rooney. 92 years old and is retiring – kinda……..I like his comments….their his for sure.

NASCAR time…….

See ya…………

Day Of Departure.

2011-10-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here’s our view out our front windshield. This was full of RV’s yesterday. Last night it got into the 30’s and will only be in the low 50s today with high wind. Time to leave…..

We have horses doing their training.

Nope - not us. It’s a 2006 Dutch Star, same floor plan and all. The paint is more of a light tan and we kinda like that. Their windshield is a two piece and ours is a single.

Here we are. Nick and Greg are within sight in the distance.

We left about 10 AM or so with about 125 miles to go. We passed the Van Wert Fairgrounds.

They had a bunch of RVs in there for a Blue Grass Festival.

The trees are starting to turn their autumn colors.

The wind was blowing hard all day. Glad we were on back roads all the way and that tag axle kept us straight.

I don’t know but she my get that thing wound up to do 45 MPH.

Patches the cat was guiding us thru the parking area. We drove thru the drive thru site and picked a site facing the woods straight ahead.

We got 50 AMP full hook up. There are still at least six FHU sites available plus a bunch of water/electric sites.

Here’s our new sight out the front window.

Being here will give us time to catch up with cleaning inside and outside the Beast. Outside if it gets into the 60’s with no wind. We will stay here free until Tuesday and move up to Spartan chassis up north about 125 miles for our Wednesday appointment.

See ya…..

Heavy Rain & Fairgrounds

2011-09-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Get you this…

Nick wants to know if they have all left yet……

The rally was over after the donuts and coffee this morning. Some people just had to leave. A few paid $200 to get pulled out because they couldn’t with for the fairgrounds. They probably weren’t full timers and had to get somewhere now! So be it. I suggest everyone should get a tow service like Coach Net full timing or just traveling around for awhile. It’s well worth it. What do I know from over 40 years of RVing and including over 11 years of full timing.

Anyhow…..See ya….

On the Road Again!

2011-09-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, it’s been a week since the last blog. We have doing some “stuff” and other things that had higher priority. My mind can only hold so much anymore. We are firming up plans for the retooling the RV Driving School for 2012. It needs a facelift and that’s one of the things we have been working on pretty hard the last two weeks or so.

Continuing the arranging for the Beast to get updated has been another. That will start next week with a trip to Spartan chassis and getting the windshield replaced. We also had our “camping” trip last weekend with the relatives which turned out real nice and a lot of fun.

We just ended our time here at the Gypsy Journal Rally. in Celina, Ohio. It was a little tiring but well worth the laughs with friends. I did one panel discussion, three driving seminars, and two seminars on Alaska in four days. Carol did Line Dancing everyday and helped out with most of the seminars. We also ate dinner out at Chinese buffets two nights in a row. That was the hardest – whew, won’t do that again. Last night at the last drawing we won a Epson printer. That was great.

When we got back to the Beast the Magna Shade had blown off again. The rain didn’t knock over Carol’s potted plant. It didn’t blow over the little green man who gets blown over a lot. But that friggin Magna Shade was hanging down on the wipers – not good. I had to get on a ladder to put it back up for the second time. $450 and so far I’ve been very disappointed in how the thing is supposed to go on the windshield and stay on. Even after it was returned from the manufacture and I reinstalled the magnets it still doesn’t work the way they said it would. So far, I still do not recommend getting this product.

So here we sit, rally over and nothing to do except to enjoy the rainy weather and a little of doing nothing special. Saturday we plan to move back to Nappanee to pick up a microwave vent part from Newmar. We plan to stay at their RV park until Tuesday. Tuesday we move to Charlotte, MI to the Spartan factory for a Wednesday appointment. Then Thursday we move to Elkhart to have our windshield replaced Friday. Then Saturday (8 Oct) we don’t know where the hell we will go and really don’t care, we’re full timing on the road. I think we will be heading south towards Mississippi then Texas.

Time To Start Packing Up

2011-09-22T01:41:00.000-07:00

It’s the day before we hit the road. Like most full timers we have to get ready to move. Stuff like laundry, grocery shopping at our favorite store like Food Lion and the Ft Mead Base. We don’t think we will have full hook up for about 2 weeks. Doing the Gypsy Journal, then the repair shop for the windshield and then to Spartan for a chassis update, then to Howe, IN to a little campground we like, then to a Thousand Trails and full hook hopefully. That’s about 2 weeks.

Carol will go out with some long time friends for lunch.

The Beast was cleaned but it has rained several times this week so it has lost it’s luster. But the wheels are shiny!

We will be moving a lot for the next 4 weeks or so. We will end up in MS about the 3rd week. Carol’s bro, Steven, will meet us down there for his vacation from Baltimore. Then we head for the Barn in Livingston and to arrive just before Halloween and the Escapees Boot Camp.

Carol went to Applebee’s with her long lost friends of several decades ago. It was one of those three hour lunches. She evidently had fun because when she returned she talked for another three hours. We will have to have a cook out with her friends next time we come this way.

We then decided to make a run to base to pick up some last minute stuff – booze. It’s now approaching 4 o’clock – what the hell. We went for it. Traffic was getting heavy even on the back roads. We got there and got our “stuff” and then went for the food. It was not crowded at the (I can’t spell commissary) grocery store on base. The barber shop was crowded so that was a no. Now it’s approaching 5 PM, time to leave. Yep, right in the middle of traffic of course. It wasn’t stop and go so I was OK with that – just heavy. We had left overs for dinner and watched some TV. Carol got the inside of the Beast a little more ready.

Earlier I called GEICO and found out instead of $500 deductible I had $50 on the windshield. then I called to reconfirm our installation in Elkhart. They changed the date I had already confirmed with them. Oh well, now instead of Monday it goes in on the following Friday the 7th. We are OK with that – no major changes.

This weekend we will be “camping” with relatives in Front Royal, VA. We had no problems with getting into a Coast to Coast park because it’s suppose to rain all weekend. So be it.

See ya…..

MD, VA, MD Which Way Do We Go

2011-09-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

We are in Columbia near Baltimore, MD. Our son lives in Fredericksburg, VA which is a 100 miles from here. We were going to take the Beast and stay at a local Coast to Coast Park but we are out of time. So we will pack up the dog and drive down. Mind you this is thru DC during the afternoon to arrive about 3 –4 PM. Just before the major traffic hour. All hours are just about major anymore. We will take him our flat screen TV out of the RV. He’s got the old type TV that he watches rented movies on. This one will be real good for that. We will probably go bowling and then to Golden Corral for dinner. After that we go back thru DC again just after the rush hour. Well this is what we got planned. Let’s see what happens.

Thank you for the suggestions on cooking and getting off the water spots on windows. Now I will just have to try the suggestions.

We left in the car about 1:30 PM. Traffic was heavy but moved fast and no traffic jams. About a 100 miles and we were there about 3:15. Yes we cruised. We got to see our 5 year old grandson and mother for about a half hour. We stopped at Toys R Us and got him some Match Box cars.

He got to meet Brandy and was very gentle . Father/Mother breakup right after his birth and lives with his mother very close to Dad. So far we get to see him and his Mom every year. He’s starting to remember us at 5 years old. We send him post cards and he remembers us and the RV.

Then we met up with our 33 year old son. We went to our normal Golden Corral there and pigged out. They’re steak was really good.

Then our son wanted to go bowling which we did. Not saying who won all three games but he was the oldest bowler in our group.

Then it was back to Baltimore and it had started to rain. Traffic was moving and we got back about 9 PM. I lasted to about 10 PM and I went to bed.

See ya……………….

Tight Schedule

2011-09-20T03:07:00.000-07:00

I have already made tentative appointments after the Gypsy Journal Rally. One is for 8 AM Monday 3 October with Master Tech RV in Elkhart, IN. They will be replacing our windshield. I say tentative because I have to call GEICO and put a claim in. Then call Master Tech and tell them to order the glass about a week ahead of time. I already gave Master Tech the paperwork. Then that following Wednesday (5 Oct) I made an appointment with the Spartan chassis manufacture. I want them to go over the chassis while it is under warranty which will include a ride height check. Also, they got some tech bulletins to update the coach. Two are tag axle brakes and bearings which I’ve had/have some problems with. Also, replace the Turbo exhaust pipe. Then we will probably meet Carol’s bro, Steven, somewhere during his 10 day vacation the week of the 9th (Oct) or the following week, maybe in Mississippi. We have a Boot Camp to do in Livingston, TX starting 4 November. We will have some business to catch up on during October also. We just don’t know where it will take place.

This schedule is of our doing just like it is for a lot of full time RVers. Some of it is out of necessity (windshield) and some out of “let’s do it now.” That would be the Spartan chassis. Some of it’s let’s have some fun like being with Carol’s bro on his vacation. We call that “speed RVing”. He has just so little time to do a lot in. Then we take a vacation after his vacation and rest. It’s fun or we wouldn’t do it.

See ya……

Baltimore Freightliner

2011-09-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today was get the Beast in for service at Baltimore Freightliner with Carol’s bro, David.

The Beast fit with no problem. We had to wiggle and waggle and turn to get it aligned up to get it in.

David really is on top of things, literally. He’s laying on top of the engine while I’m taking the pic inside the coach. He found two antifreeze leaks which he fixed. He also found one turbo exhaust leak caused by a rotting pipe. He said he couldn’t fix that because it was not a Cummins part but a Spartan Chassis part. Being that it was under warranty that Spartan would have to replace this 4’ by 4’ tube/pipe so as not to void the warranty It’s similar to the pipe that he has his hands on. It’s the second pipe down.

He changed the two fuel filters, oil filter, the air dryer filter and the hydraulic filter, lube, etc. He also serviced the generator. David said that he liked this chassis and that it was very well built like a bus – heavy duty. The Cummins engine he said was just ‘OK” being that it was an 2006 and not newer. He’s a Cat man. The “Beast” has been fed. By the Cummins book it said 20K between oil changes. I will stick with once a year.

So the Beast still has to go to Spartan in Michigan to get a full chassis check out next month.

See ya………………

Cooking A Roast

2011-09-18T04:13:00.000-07:00

I went to Walmart and got the Rotella oil for the Beast and a filter for the generator. I like Rotella and have always used in all of our diesels.

Later we got a call from David, Carol’s other bro, who said that he couldn’t get any Maryland Blue Crabs for today. Damn…..

So, how do you cook a 5 lb roast and it’s late in the afternoon? I called Brenda Neil to find out. She said to wrap it up real good and put in the oven for 2 hours at 400 degrees. It came out medium – medium rare and it was a little on the tuff side. Any other ideas out there to cook something like this on short notice?

We had relatives over and all was well. We’re trying to get the RV serviced and see all of our friends and relatives between now and Thursday. Friday we leave. It’s tight……

See ya…………………….

New TV

2011-09-17T01:35:00.000-07:00

It was time to change the TV out. My brother in law Steven just love’s to tear other people’s “stuff” apart. The difference is that he can put it back together better than it was. Plus he likes spending other people’s money – mine. So, we took the measurements and went to Sam’s. We picked out a Phillips 32’ LED (not LCD). Got it back and went to work, mostly him. I was the gopher. Carol was gone so we weren’t neat as you can see.

Plus we installed the WII. We were able to use the old mounting bracket which saved a lot of Steven’s energy and me heart burn. We even hooked up the TV HDMI with a cable to the computer. That is so cool to plug the computer into a 32’ screen. The photo slideshow is outstanding. The color with the LED screen is really great. Carol loves it. Happy woman is a happy man!!!!!!!! We (me) even cleaned up the place. It took several hours for that. Work 10 minutes and rest for 50. It’s a Husband’s Union thing!

It’s tight and the screen is 100% visible. This TV is in for the long haul…

The rest of the day I had to watch NASCAR racing to make sure it was OK.

See ya…….

Here Comes Da Cold

2011-09-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

Today I got up at 4 AM. I don’t know why!?. Because I just do! Why lay in bed when I wake up. I get up for an hour or two and then go back to bed.

The predicted cold wave is coming in. The handy dandy weatherman says it will be in the low 60s this week and night temps getting around 40 or so. It’s almost time to leave. This expected weather is on our edge of “time to move.” The Hydra Hot is already on and running for our heat.

Carol & I went shopping today. No big deal. the rest of the day I vegetated. Tried to look up tech bulletins on the internet on the Beast’s engine with not much luck. Other than that – nothing really.

See ya……

So Much To Do In So Little Time

2011-09-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

I was up at 5 AM doing the blog, tweaking our schedule on Microsoft Streets & Trips, & etc. when the sun came out I went out and washed the front end. A lot of bugs. Then I cleaned some lower panels on the the Beast to get the major dirt off. I 'ill wash it another day. I put the magnets back on the windshield for the Magna Shield. The Beast faces the afternoon sun so what the hell. I took the magnets off because I thought the windshield would be replaced by now. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. Anyhow, I just put it all back together quickly and it was better than originally installed but appears to be cut incorrectly still. I will take my time to install the shade once the new windshield is installed early next month.

Here are our neighbors. They’re dead…it’s a cemetery.

Carol’s bro Steven’s stumpy behind us.

Our front yard.

“I don’t care what you do, just don’t take me out of my soft bed.”

About 11 AM and I had to go inside. The humidity was to much for me and Carol. The temps and the humidity is expected to be low starting this weekend. The Beast should be going into the shop early next week for some expert eyes to look at the underneath stuff.

For dinner we went to the Texas Roadhouse with a bunch of relatives. On the way there we got into traffic and a mean looking sky.

The old guys (40s) are Carol’s bros. The rest are their kids/boyfriends.

The comedian on their side of the family.

See ya………………

Happy Birthday

2011-09-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel of course. It costs us $11.10 and a $2 tip to eat breakfast. Plus we got two coffees to go included. We thanked the manger for the night stay. We like Cracker Barrel. I think it was 8 AM when we pulled out. Nice scenery going into West Virgina and Western Maryland. Our windshield was real buggy so pictures just weren’t happening that much. The Beast did very well in the mountains. It climbed all of them except one at 50 MPH at 2,200 RPM for those that are interested. This 400 Cummins seems to have a higher need of RPMs than our previous engines. The others would run the best up hills about 2,000 RPMs. Some day I will look up the torque and all that kind of stuff.

Welcome to Maryland. Our first real big traffic jam that we have seen this year.

We did another 315 or so miles and arrived at Carol’s bro home about 2-3 PM. We pulled into our 50 AMP FHU next to his garage and we were home. The temps were in the high 80s and the humidity was terrible for us. We cooked steaks for Carol’s bro birthday. Her other brother came over too. He’s the diesel mechanic. We talked hours about engines, transmissions and the like.

Carol and I recorded America’s Got Talent grand finale and watched late last night. It was great. Well deserved winner. He was a black guy who was a car washer but sang and sounded like Frank Sinatra. He was good!.

See ya.

On The Road Again

2011-09-13T03:48:00.000-07:00

Despite Newmar’s attempt to keep us longer. Here I am at 6AM waiting for Newmar. they came out about 6:15 Am and took our RV. they said would hae it back by noon.

Well, noon came and gone. In the mean time I thought it would be time to have a pow wow with the head mucca mucca guy of their service department. I asked for him and got his right hand man. Anyhow, all is resolved to both of our likings – kinda. It was a give and take for future possible repairs to the roof.. Anyhow, we got about $11K worth of warranty work done on our 2007 Beast and it didn’t cost anything. The Beast came out about 2 PM and we left. We got 7 miles and had to turn around and go back. Nothing on our steering wheel (cruise, wipers, etc) worked. I told them last week after they had worked on some dash gauges that the wheel stuff wasn’t working. They said they would check it out. It seemed OK. Anyhow, everybody was gone. I got into the fuses and pushed and pulled on them all. It started working again. It must if have a loose wire or fuse. We got back on the road about 3 PM. We went 320 miles and ended up in Georgetown, OH at a Cracker Barrel. Carol’s bro birthday is tomorrow (Wed) and we want to be there in Columbia, Md near Baltimore.

There are a lot of wind mills around Van Wert now.

And they are still building them.

Got fuel at the Murphy station at Walmart in Van Wert. It was $3.74 and thus worth the extra effort to get into the station. It was pretty tight and not for the faint.

The Beast likes running at night on cool roads.

See ya…..

Thank You All

2011-09-12T02:10:00.000-07:00

It seems my little story about our empty nest neighbor at the hotel was an exciting read to a lot of you. Man, you should have been there. It was even more exciting in person. Those underwear are long gone! Thank you all for the nice words……

People said that the flags weren’t flown at half mast the other day on nine eleven in the pictures I took. Those pictures were taken across the country. I enjoy taking pictures of Old Glory while traveling.

We drove the Beast up to Hopkins, MI Saturday. We had dinner with one our instructors and and his wife, George & Valarie. We try to have dinners with our instructors because we like to eat out and that gives us a reason. It was a pleasant trip up and back.

We got back to Camp Newmar and our little Green Man was still holding our spot along with five million of the school’s cones. We talked Larry & Marilyn to come down and camp in the S.O.B. (some other brand) campground here. It’s one block from us and it’s free. They got water & electric on concrete. Some are on gravel. Anyhow they arrived about 3 or so. We went over for four o’clock then to dinner. Dinner – the regular restaurants were closed due to Sunday and nine eleven. We ended up at the KFC/Taco Bell for dinner.

Before all that we had A LOT of motorcycles go by us at the Newmar Campground. I mean a lot. That reminded me of the time Carol & I got to lead a Toys For Tot Run to Baltimore from Ellicott City in December on our Full Dresser Red Harley (Rudolph the Reindeer). There was thunder going thru Baltimore that day. Now that was cool. That was several hundred Harleys going thru Baltimore with a police escort and with us leading. Now that was exciting. Anyhow this very very large motorcycle run was in conjunction with a nine eleven event down town here and other towns and this heard of motorcycles rode thru.

Here’s some favorite pics.

Mama was riding too!

Some people like yellow….like Denny Orr

And a few like Orange more…….

I started this blog early today (4 AM) and my goal is not to get into any trouble today. We’re going into public later today and it will be tempting and a challenge.

Today (Tuesday) which is really yesterday (Monday) is when I wrote part of this. You think that is confusing to read this try to write it. Anyhow, we went to the RV Hall Of Fame later. It’s really an outstanding must see in Elkhart. We got a special tour by Al Hesselbart who is the historian for it.

Then we went to a local Chinese buffet for dinner. That’s Al on the left. Carol & I met Nick & Terry (Gypsy Journal) , Greg & Jan, Marilyn & Larry (Larry out of pic). We talked before we ate and afterwards. We told old and new stories. It was a great time. This is one of the great things about RVing. That is we won’t see these people for awhile now….YEA!!!! just joking of course.

Tomorrow should be our last day and we were told only a half day. I say that would be rare for them. I’m suppose to see “the boss” about the roof.

See ya……….

September 11, 2001

2011-09-11T18:00:00.001-07:00

A Day Of Remembrance

We will never forget….

The Bang!

2011-09-10T02:39:00.000-07:00

The bang was the door slamming shut behind me. The carpet then had a new wet spot from me . OK, now I’m in the neighbor’s room with dim lights. I feel like a burglar about to get shot and no I did not have my camera! I SLOWLY moved more into the room inch by inch with my eyeballs about to pop out of my head. I was very wide awake needless to say. I probably won’t sleep for days after this. One bed was neat and tidy. The other was ruffled with no bodies dead or alive. The room key was laying on the table. Nobody is in the friggin room. I turned off the TV and exited quickly. I did not look under the beds nor move the shower curtains. I’ve seen too many movies for that I my heart wouldn’t have taken it anymore. Besides my underwear was full.

I went back to the front desk and told them what I did. They had that you did what look. We figured that it was a rendezvous meeting of lust. I went back to room and bed. It took another hour for my blood pressure to drop to it’s normal “high.” The rest of the night was quiet.

We get a phone call about 7:20 AM saying our rig will be out at noon. We checked out of the room at 11 AM and go to Newmar just down the street. Noon comes and goes. I call the tech about 1:30. Where’s our rig? It’s blocked in and we will get it out soon. About 2:15 it comes rolling out. The tech leaves very quickly after telling me the paperwork is on the dash. I read it and hit the roof just about literally. It said that my sat and solar panels caused a roof water leak which was completely false. I called the tech and burnt his ear off. The repair order will be rewritten Tuesday correctly and I requested to see the high muckku muckka guy then also. I’m doing this now because down the road if the roof leaks they will repair it free – period. I’m laying the foundation for repair work to be done down the road if it’s not repaired properly now under warranty. Nothing less, nothing more. I hold all manufactures responsible for their workmanship – nothing more nothing less. WE as RVers have too! The total bill now appears to be about $11K and covered under warranty. I wonder if Newmar will call Spartan/Cummins and tell them to watch out for me….I hope so…smile…smile…

OK that shot Friday. What about today Saturday. We decided to go up to Michigan on business. It gets us away from Newmar and do a little business at the same time.

Hopkins, Michigan is a nice little town with a great RV park, Hidden RV Resort. Resort means it starts at $40 bucks and goes up. Good Sam is $35 and that’s what we got the $35.10 pull into sight with cement pad and lots of nice green grass on a big site. We had a business dinner which was nice.

This blog was posted on the morning of nine eleven. I know we all have thought about that day. Keep thinking about it especially today. We need not to forget the day that changed the way we think about terrorism.

See ya…..

Hotel Room & A Bang!

2011-09-09T02:16:00.000-07:00

OK, we’re in a hotel room and you can just about expect disturbances. Our neighbor in the room next to us must be just about deaf. Their TV was loud. If we had ours on then theirs wasn’t hardly heard. Come about 12:30 AM I couldn’t sleep because of their TV. I complained to management. They called them no answer. They knocked on their door with no answer. I banged on the wall no results. Now it’s about 2 AM and it’s still turned up all the way. I pleaded with the front office in person to do something and they said they couldn’t. They did offer us another room but I declined. Why the hell should we move when we weren’t doing anything. I went back to our room. Then I went to the neighbor’s door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. What should I do? I opened the door very slow. No one could here me because of the loud TV. I peeked in around the door. It was dark. I saw the TV setting on the dresser. I couldn’t really see much more. The dim light in the room hallway was on. the only other light was from the TV. The bathroom was dim and appeared to be empty. I figured I would just go in and turn down the TV. The entrance door was an automatic type that would close behind you. No thanks! I held the door open and stretched as far as I could with my arm extended. I still could only see about half the room. I was really stretching out to see more when it happened. BANG!

To be continued………

Did Nothing

2011-09-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

We’re at the hotel paid by Newmar. To bad they don’t have room service here. I slept in until about 6 AM. What can I say. We did the “What If” game. What if the Beast isn’t ready tomorrow then what? Do we go to Baltimore mid week when they would probably finish or do we stick around here until the Gypsy Journal Rally. If we stick around here we can get the windshield replaced and even go up to Michigan to Spartan to have the chassis checked out/adjusted. If the Beast is ready by COB (close of business) tomorrow (Friday) we will head for Baltimore and stay just shy of two weeks. Then we go to the Gypsy Journal Rally back in Ohio. Then take care of the windshield & Spartan afterwards. That means about early October we will be ready to roll where ever.

These are the types of situations that full timers get into and not by choice necessary. Sometimes we want to get “stuff” taken care of so we can go where we want when we want fully. We are still bringing the Beast up to par so that does play a part of our “should do now” schedule. When we go to Baltimore we will get the Beast serviced by Carol’s bro. He’s a diesel mechanic at Freightliner Baltimore. He’s an outstanding mechanic and an RVer.

Anyhow, we just pigged out today. Went to a Chinese all you can eat buffet for $5 bucks. Then a take out pizza from Pizza Hut for $10 bucks for dinner. We also stopped at the Dollar Store and got some cheap snacks for tonight. Of course we ate most of them between lunch and dinner.

Oh and the rain came today off and on.

Not much of anything today just vegging..

See ya……

6 AM Hello

2011-09-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

“Hello, I’m here to pick up your RV.” That’s how we were greeted at 6AM. I asked this person why nothing on my steering wheel worked (wipers, cruise, etc). He said he didn’t know, “I’m just the driver.” He got the tech who in turn would check it out. I think they blew a fuse yesterday when checking on one of the air gauges that quite working. The tech also said he would ensure that we would get a room for two nights and for us to check in with service office when they open at 8 AM. Ok, we can do that.

8 AM we are at the service office. We were told that they got us a room for two nights and that we would have to pay the $25 for pets. Grumble, grumble…. then we were told that we couldn’t check in until 3 PM. I was pissed and they knew it. How dumb! OH well – we have limited choices about now and it’s kinda free.

We have two cats and a dog in our car. Thank goodness it was cool (60s) outside. First we went to Menards to look around. Then we went to Dollar Tree and picked up some ORANGE items for our January get together in Quartzsite. Of course Walmart was next. I needed some shoes because I think I wore out my shoes at Gillette. My shoes weren’t made for walking and I found that out. Now I got some Old Fart Shoes. You know, Dr Scholls, solid black and very plain looking. During this delicate process I got a call from our Newmar Tech. He said it would cost $2,700 to replace our cracked windshield and couldn’t get the windshield in until next week. I tried to explain to him it would be an insurance claim but it just didn’t click. I told him not to order it and I would be back next month. I said just go ahead and fix the listed items. He said probably Friday. I’m thinking at close of business they bring the coach out and immediately take off for the weekend. That’s what Tiffin did to us one time and it was a mistake. We had a major problem that they didn’t do an operational check on and it failed when I did. I called Bob Tiffin at home and told him what I thought of his workers. Too bad it was on his voice mail. Monday 1st thing we had them waiting in line to fix our couch.

Anyhow…….back to today.

OK, now what. Hey lets go see Nick & Terry. It’s after 12 o’clock and they should be up & awake and they were. Our dog had to take a poo anyhow. I visited Greg & Jan while Carol visited Nick & Terry. Then I went over with Carol. Barbara and Tye Dye husband Tom came over. We swapped stories until we couldn’t make them up anymore. It was great – thanks guys.

We found a church with a big lot and let the animals out on leash. Then we headed back to Nappanee to our motel. We checked in. They gave us a room very far from their main lobby. If we were any further from it we would have to set up a tent. Now get this. The room came with ear plugs because the motel is across the street from an active train tracks. “Now that there is funny I don’t care what you say.” I’m not sure, but our TV might be a tube type.

The animals really enjoy running around the large room, Carol too! Good thing they had twin doubles. One for me and one for Carol and the animals?!

Tomorrow we will…….sleep in…

See ya….

6:15 AM Knock Knock

2011-09-06T19:20:00.001-07:00

Yep, that’s what time a Newmar tech knocked on our door. We were ready. Nothing new about the early bird tech at Newmar. They prepare you ahead of time by sending you paperwork stating just that. So we went over our warranty list. About 15 minutes later we packed up the animals and left.

We headed for Shipshewana Market about 35 miles away after stopping at Mickey D’s for breakfast. We got to the Market just as they were opening. No problem getting in or parking. We walked every isle of that flea market. If you have ever been there you know exactly what I’m talking about. My feet ended up hurting along with my ankles, my hips and my wallet. We collected a lot of orange things for our January Quartzsite gathering. These are fun gifts (cheap). Then we found a nice community park on our way to Elkhart. We got the cats and dog out on leashes. They had some walking and investigation time, even Carol. We left there and ended up at the Taco Bell in Elkhart fro lunch.

We then headed for the RV Surplus store. Nothing there for us. Then we went down the road a couple of blocks to the other surplus store. Nothing there but they did give me a big bag of popcorn. About now I get a call from the Newmar tech. He said they took care of the ceiling light outages, touch up some outside paint and checked the roof. He said the roof wrap needs to be replaced and then painted. I said go for it. He said they would need the coach for two days and would put all of us up in a hotel.

We went on to where we thought Camping World was which was at Hart RVs. Ooops..both were not only closed but gone gone.

We got back to Newmar and they had already moved our Beast backed to it’s sight. They left a note saying to have the coach ready at 6 AM again.

I just don’t think they will have us out of here by close of business Thursday as they originally planned. I did hear we will try by Friday close of business. Not sure if we want to wait the weekend for a windshield on Monday.

See ya….

Hydro Hot & Repacking

2011-09-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

Love that Hydro Hot. Last night it got down to 52 degrees. I was up at 4 AM local time which is east coast time here in Indiana. I’m still use to the west coast time which is 6 AM. So, I’m not sure if I’m an early bird or what. Anyhow, I put the electric side of the hydro hot system on and turned on the furnace (Hydro Hot). About a half hour later the front part of the rig was at 70 degrees. Love that 50 AMP. If it gets down into the mid/low 40s the electric side of the hydro hot can’t keep up. Then I just turn on the diesel side and it works very fine in any temp so far.

Thanks to those that told me about NASCAR. Tuesday AM?

Today I washed the car at the local car wash. Then I unloaded our show stuff from it. We put it in the car after we tore down our booth at the Escapade Rally. Now I had to find space underneath for that stuff plus the new PA system we got at Sam’s the other day. Hopefully it will do everything that Carol wants it to do for line dancing. If not then it goes back to Sam’s. The guy at Sam’s we got 90 days to check it out and if we don’t like it we can return it to any Sam’s in any state. Well, I got it all underneath. I can get to the grill real easy, the stand for it real easy and our two chairs real easy. Everything else stuff has to be moved for now. Doing this type of packing is not unusual for a full timer. Sometimes we get jammed up but we eventually work it out. Pun intended

Monaco is returning here to Nappanee . Here is their main Hq building. That they closed down several years ago. They expect to be moved from Oregon and up and running within 90 days I was told.

Here is the transport company that I worked for several years. They are just down the street from Monaco. They will be glad that Monaco is returning.

Tomorrow we see a tech at 6 AM then they take our rig inside the building and we don’t see it until 3 PM. Now you know why I emptied the car out. Carol, me, one dog and two cats are stuck together for 9 hours.

See ya……

Camp Newmar

2011-09-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

We went 330 miles today because I wanted to watch NASCAR. It was rained out. Oh well.

We stopped to get fuel twice but I just refused to pay $3.99 to BP. Finally found one In Madison, WI at $3.87 a gallon. We took on 125 gallons so that’s a savings of $15 bucks. That paid for our Cracker Barrel breakfast. And I had at least 15 gallons of useable fuel left. Went 900 miles which I like the ability to go that far. Didn’t like the almost $500 to fill it up.

No rain and the sun was out. I stopped at Blue Beacon and got the Beast washed for $35. I also got the RainX spray for $12 more. They do an OK job for $47 especially since I’m out of time to wash it. I asked for a second rinse using the excuse that in the past I get heavy soap streaking. Almost none this time.

Here’s where we spent last night. Cracker Barrel at WI Dells. It’s the best overnight parking at Cracker Barrel we ever have had. Plenty of space and nobody there. Plus we had breakfast there in the morning.

OK, how did they do that?

Not as big as Tiffin’s campground but I guess Newmar doesn’t need a big campground for repairs…slam dunk! Plus these are free and Tiffin aren’t anymore. Newmar scheduled us for three days. I don’t think we need three. I will add a few more little things on the list to keep them busy.

I think we are the oldest rig here.

Does anybody know what channel/time the NASCAR is Monday?

See ya………….

Corn Palace

2011-09-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

We left about 8:30 today. Our first stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.

They were still doing some repair work on it.

Carol took all the pics below….

This is for all of you Spam lovers……

Rainy must of the day if the wind wasn’t blowing side ways.

525 miles today..gotto go..

See ya……..