Friends, Family, Fireworks, & Flat Tires

That’s about all I can say about the month of February.  I finished the last blog with the tire damage sustained on Hwy 95 traveling from Quartzsite to Yuma.  We did a lot of caching (for us) in Yuma very near the border and went to our first Mega Geocaching Event, S*W*A*G.  We had a wonderful time with our SKP Geocaching friends and even ran into a geocacher, Ron Smith, that we met several years ago at Cattail Cove SP at an event and helped introduce to the hobby of Geocaching.

We stayed in Yuma for about 5 days then traveled back up Hwy 95 stopping in ‘Q’ for propane and Parker for diesel and checked into Cattail Cove SP for the 4th year in a row to see the 24th Annual Winterblast 3 nights of shows.

Family and Fireworks

Our daughter, Jennifer, is a member of the Western Pyrotechnical Assoc, WPA, that puts on the shows.  Not only do we love having Jennifer and my Mom drive from Fresno to join us, but those who know me know I LOVE FIREWORKS!  I will share a couple of my favorite pictures; I took close to 500 pictures, but I’m not going to include them all .

Winterblast 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Friends:

We went to “Ed’s Birthday Party again at “The Steps”, part of the BLM land south of Cattail Cove S.P.. It was a delicious potluck with 2 big birthday cakes.  This celebration started a number of years ago when Betty Anderson wanted to buy a birthday cake for Duane and the only cake available was one that was inscribed Happy Birthday Ed. Ed’s wife did not want to pick it up as Ed had passed to the Great Beyond. Betty got it half price and the tradition of celebrating Ed’s Birthday began. This year the cake was inscribed, “Here’s to our favorite Mr Ed. Even though you are quite dead, we celebrate your special day. Sorry that in the ground you lay. But Thanks for the Cake!”  We sang the theme song from the old TV series, Mr Ed, took the picture with the whole group, and sat and talked to friends.  Even our very old friends, Dennis and Jill Curtin (Dennis was one of Tom’s groomsmen in our wedding 50 years ago), came by as they were staying at the Fairgrounds to see the fireworks.

More Friends

The Cool RV’ers, Judy and Luke, moved into Cattail Cove and we were once again neighbors. .  There must be some kind of vortex or something at Cattail because we once again ran into Ron Smith and who should we spot walking by but 2 of my high school buddies, Larry Meacham and Ron Schreiner and their lovely wives.  Ron and Teri Schreiner and Larry have a singing group and were performing at the Park Amphitheater two evenings that week.

We did have a little problem, well it was a big problem, with our King Dome Satellite Dish. It would not find the signal. We got on Amazon and found a Winegard at a good price and had a terrific local installer, John Pacifico, to the installation. It was the most careful, neat, and thorough installation I have seen.  We would highly recommend John for any electronic installation work. We now have a two feed satellite DVR so we can watch one station and record on another.

Friends and Family

We traveled to Boulder City thinking we would continue to Carson City, drive over I-80 or I-50 into Sacramento for a meeting for Tom. We stayed at the very nice Boulder City Elks Lodge. We wanted to take a disc with the Golden Spike Newsletter, Telegraph, to Anne Slavicek. She is the new Editor and we see her first edition is gorgeous.  We then met my cousin, Pam and hubby, Ed, for dinner. We talked, talked, talked all about our families (I think that might be called gossip in other circles) and it was super. We really need to see our extended families more often.

While in Boulder City we rode the Nevada Southern RR as guests of CEO, Peg, because our Golden Spike Chapter donated a Sustaining Membership a couple of years ago. We did continue our support by purchasing a couple of shirts and a pin.

 

We also did the Zappos,com tour in Henderson. What an amazing business philosophy. Customers first, Open communication, Embrace change.

Zappos.com VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We had to shake the “travel Jell-O” and change our direction to Sacramento from I-80 or 50 to I-15. There was a blizzard forecast for Donner, CA, and our home does not travel in a blizzard.

Flat Tires

We were just passing Cactus Jack’s Casino at the Nevada/California border when we AGAIN heard a very loud bang, flap flap flap, and the tire monitor started screaming.  Tom pulled over and inspected the damage and determined we needed to pull way off the road into a gully next to the road.  The Big Rigs were whizzing by at 70+ MPH only a couple of feet from DA PAD. I thought DA PAD may just go over as he pulled down the slope to the gully. I prayed, God answered and he made it down safely. Pictures say it all.

Tire Blows VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Family

After a couple of hours waiting for the tire service to bring out another tire and change it we were on our way to Bakersfield. We parked at Wal-Mart after a very long day. The next day we met cousins, Ellen, her boyfriend, Dennis, and cousin Susan for another long lunch. Were we gossiping? I’ll deny it if you ask.  Boy did we have fun though.

Family & Friends

Finishing this long blog… Fresno – Sushi with Jennifer, Greg and Julie, Sacramento – EPT dinner with Dept. of Education colleagues, Ceres – lunch with neighbors who lived near us 30 years ago Gale and Phyllis, and finally back to Fresno where we sit now waiting to get DA PAD in for needed repairs at Central Valley RV next Monday.

EPT Dinner VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

While we wait we took Tom’s sister, NanCy, on the Blossom Trail ending up at Exeter to see the Murals.

 

Blossom Trail VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Exeter Murals VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Saw Logan play baseball this evening. He is a good catcher (and also a good cacher).

 

We will be caching (5 yesterday) while we wait to be On the Road Again, caching places that we’ve never been.

If we didn’t have bad luck we would have no luck at all

I think it started in Tucumcari when we blew the head gasket in the motorhome.  We had a few things that needed to be checked at Central Valley RV before we left Fresno, but nothing that we couldn’t live with.  CV fixed the hot water heater which for me was very important for washing dishes and showers.

Our last Blog was about the good time we had at the Western Family Motorhome Association.  We stayed over 2 days with our friends, Cool Judy and Luke Rinehimer, at the Fairgrounds.  That’s when we noticed a couple of problems with the RV.  The first was a water leak around the area where the Hot Water Heater had been worked on.  We managed to stop the leak, we thought.  We also noticed the ER-13 code on the refrigerator was still a problem.  We thought we could either drive back to Fresno and have it fixed to drive over to Quartzsite where upon calling Lifestyles RV Repair we were told they had the part we needed and they could fix it. So we drove to Quartzsite and checked in to Lifestyles RV. They thought the heater for the refrigerator we needed was one they had in stock.  It wasn’t. We needed one that had to be ordered and sent from Denver.  We left, filled up with propane, and parked out on Plomosa Road for one night. We later moved closer to Lifestyles RV in the Dome Rock area.  We pulled into the dirt road and heard a scraping sound then the alarms started going off.  We had dragged the air bleeding connector at the hitch and we had no air or airbrakes.  We slowly got to level ground and stopped.  After careful investigation and evaluation Tom and I drove DA TOAD to the hardware store for an easyout and a brass plug.  Back to DA PAD… easyout would not work.  Tom got it disconnected from the back side.  Back to the Hardware store for a brass cap.  After driving back to DA PAD it was an easy fix.  We leveled up and retired for the the evening. 

While watching TV we heard a loud clatter coming from the heater.  As we have a front and back heater, we turned off the front which was the culprit.  The next day we pulled the heater apart and saw the blower had splines missing. We went to Lifestyles RV and lo and behold they had the part in stock.  The shock was half of the blower assembly was missing from our blower (on the left).

This was my project and I got it all put together with no missing screws.

The next problem we discovered was the leak from the hot water heater had not been completely fixed .This time Tom attacked the leak and found another source of water.  He managed to get several more turns on the joint and we think it is fixed. 

The part was to arrive and we were to have the refrigerator repaired on Friday.  Oops, someone forgot to schedule us in on Friday.  So we picked up the the part, a defrost heater, and decided we would research how to disassemble a Dometic 4200 refrigerator.  The next day we started, carefully removing each part according to the assembly diagram.  We were told this job would be a 3-4 job… it took us 5 1/2 hours.  Boy was it a tight fit. 

There was lots of stuff to remove, but we carefully labeled everything.  Not too bad considering we completely removed everything from the ice maker to the side of the freezer compartment. 

WE installed the small heater and put everything back together.  It worked!!!!  This was the part that we replaced.  The broken part is the small piece in the middle.

With everything fixed we moved over to Boomerville on the south east side of Quartzsite.  We spent about a week with our Escapee friends, competing in a Chili Cook Off contest, helping with the CARE auction where most of us brought our very best ‘stuff’ to auction off.  The Boomers bid and donated over $3,000 that day to the Escapee charity that cares for retired RV’ers in Livingston, TX.  After the Boomer rally we moved back to the Dome Rock area for the SKP Geocaching Rally. 

I started coming down with the ‘desert crud’ with horrendous coughing and fever. Though I did do a presentation on Geocaching Swiss Army Knife program and helped with a couple of other geocaching sessions, for the most part I stayed away from everyone and inside the RV.  Three days into the rally the ‘crud’ hit Tom.  He was miserable and didn’t leave the RV at all.

When the rally was over all but 3 rigs left for other camping sites.  We stayed in, ate soup, drank lots of liquids, slept and didn’t get any caches.  Our friends, Pat & Bob DeSpains and Sharie & Jack Armand (Sp?) checked on us each day.  We planned on driving to Blythe to get some supplies, but DA TOAD would not start.  We tried several  things including trying to jump from DA
PAD to get DA TOAD started, but we were feeling so weak, we gave up and went back to the RV.  The next morning Bob & Pat DeSpain came by and tried jumping DA TOAD. It started right up.  This was Sunday, Super Bowl Game day.  We drove into Blythe, bought our food and came back to watch the game and commercials.  This was the first game we watched since the last Super Bowl, I think.  We enjoyed it.

 

Monday we pulled out of our spot.  We didn’t realize how deep we had sunk in the damp ground.  But after a week the ground had dried out and we just backed right out. 

We got on Hwy 95 about 1 o’clock.  Traffic was light, we were listening to Sirius Radio, 50’s on 5.  I had checked the tire pressure as I always do and all was perfect.  When we heard the loud bang and the Pressure Pro alarm went off we were both surprised.  Tom eased the RV to the side of the road and we were able to pull off to a flat area just past MM50.  We called CoachNet and they sent a tire repair truck with another new tire.  We called Good Sam Warranty and were told to have the repair people call them when they arrived. We called Foremost Insurance because of the damage to the side of the rig.  This could have been a lot worse so maybe our bad luck is changing. 

		Tire Damage VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So now we are in Yuma at the Southern Mesa RV park for a week.  We are planning to attend the Geocaching Mega Event next weekend.  We may even get a few caches around town too.  We should have a good week.

WMHA Rally is History

We finished the rally by cleaning up the large lot on the south side of Dr Carron Road with Anita Price and Luke Rinehimer.  There was no scrap of paper, cigarette butt or dead battery left after we finished.  Cool Judy had checked out the extended parking options while we tootled around in our golf cart filling our garbage bags, and then we moved to our new spaces.

While we were parked during the rally we noticed some water that was leaking into our bay.  There was no time to take care of it while the rally was going on so after the move we attacked the problem.  Tom pulled out the drawer in the bay and I crawled inside.  I was able to twist around, over the rail and into the ‘bowels’ of the rig where the water heater, and inverter are stored. (Why would Monaco put water sources that could leak right next to all the electrical equipment?)  I discovered the source of the leak, the gray ‘T’ fitting where it was screwed into the brass ‘T’ fitting. 

Now where can we get a replacement for the gray ‘T’?  Nope, Luke did not have a single ‘T’ that we can use.  So we all jumped into the Jeep and picked up a ‘T’ and a couple of nipples and went to the Fisherman’s restaurant for dinner.  Boy was that a good choice. The Chivichi was outstanding as was my fish tacos.  Everyone else was very happy with their choices too.

Later that evening I revisited the cave under the motorhome and installed the new ‘T’ with new nipples all wrapped with Teflon tape.  No leaks. Big bruise though.

We left Indio for Quartzsite on Tuesday morning, and though a little windy, the trip was an easy one.

We are having some repairs made at Lifestyles RV in Q so we did not want to make the long drive on a rough dirt road over to Boomerville since we will be having the work done on the rig Friday. Things are starting to look pretty busy near the big tent.

We drove up Hwy 95 for Propane at the Pit Stop then drove on to Plomosa Road and parked at a nice open area.  The view was nice as we watched RV’s move onto the BLM land.  We did notice another small leak in the bay and then during the cold night suddenly our heater sounded like a rock was spinning around inside of it.  It was VERY loud and we shut the heater off immediately.

We had decided to move closer to Lifestyles RV for the repair and because it was closer to the Escapee Happy Hour and the Local Geocacher’s Event.

We drove west on Dome Rock then south on Cholla Road.  We entered the parking area and  Tom avoided the deep rut as we entered, but then things started to go south when we heard a scraping sound and the warning beepers started going off.  We pulled around to a flat spot and turned off the engine.  The warning lights indicated Low Air.  Tom walked out to the road and saw the deep groove in the pavement.  Back at the rig he checked the air bags – no damage.  He checked the tow bar.  The problem he found was a broken air connection at the tow bar.

OK, problem 1, AOTHER leak in the bay.  Problem 2 heater not working.  Problem 3 no air pressure, no brakes, no leveling.

Yup, I was back in the bay cave– this time the leak was from the pipe leading to to the water pump. I unscrewed the pipe, but the water kept flowing even though the pump was turned off.  It filled a pan 3 times! I had my finger in the pipe and felt like the little boy with his finger in the dike.  Tom discovered there was a siphon out of the fresh water tank and disconnected from there and we finally got the water stopped. 

We left to drop off the flyers for the SKP Geocacher’s rally at the Escapee Happy Hour and then drove to Boomerville to drop off some there too. We were happy to see friends from last year even though we follow most on Facebook or Blogs, there is nothing like hugs in person.  Then to Hanks Hardware for an o-ring for the pipe and an easy-out and plug for the broken air pipe.  O-ring was installed and the water leak was fixed.  However the easy-out would not ease the broken piece of the brass pipe out of the housing, but Tom was able to unscrew the air hose from the back side of the tow housing.  We went back to Hanks and exchanged the plug for a cap. Back to the RV and the air leak was temporarily fixed.  We leveled up and pulled out the slides. 

Next chore was to investigate the heater problem.  We had checked out how to remove the motor from the heater on the internet.  The internet is invaluable to finding out how to fix things that go wrong on the road.

The Heater Repair VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We pulled the blower squirrel cage and found 1/3 of the blades were GONE!  We took it over to Lifestyles RV and low and behold they had them in stock.  The SHOCK was not only were almost half of the blades were gone… HALF of the squirrel cage was missing. The old one is on the left and the new one is on the right. 

I got it all installed and even got a kiss for my pay from Mr. Westerfield!  So all in all it was a very productive day.  Tomorrow we will be manning Table G at the geocaching event and dinner with friends, Anne and Leroy Willis.  AHHHH, life is again good.

I know, I know

When my friends and regular bloggers, Dan Change and Nancy Kissack reminded me this morning that it has been over a month since I checked in to the blogging world, I was ‘guilted’ into getting back in the groove; after all I did promise I would do better.  I just don’t know how the time flies by; it seems like just last week or so that I did a blog. 

Well, it has been a busy end of the year and this will be a catch-up blog. 

We got back to Fresno and were treated to a wonderful play, Wagons West, put on by our local elementary school. This was another outstanding theater production that is put each year. Our daughter, Jennifer, has for many years made the costumes for the kids. Even though Granddaughter, Julie graduates from college, Jenny made her costume when Julie was in 6th grade. That’s Julie on the left and this years ‘school marm’ on the right.

The kids do an outstanding job and we expect to see one of them on Broadway on day just like Audra McDonald, a Fresno girl.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Fresno at Mom’s house.  Boy was it good. This is  left to right, SIL-Greg, GD-Jamie, Julie’s BF-Claudio, GD-Julie, SIL-NanCy, D-Julie, Mom, and Niece, Denise.

The day after Thanksgiving we drove to the Coast and stayed in Lompoc at the Elks Lodge and drove to Ventura for Cousin Bob’s Son, Greg’s and Anna’s wedding. It was a wonderful time with all our Westerfield relatives.

Wedding Pictures VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I did have one very embarrassing wardrobe malfunction occur on the way to the wedding.  I put on my Clark shoes when leaving Lompoc, but when we arrived in Ventura they had split wide open… totally unwearable. So this is what I had to wear, Tom’s shoes.

We loved the Pismo Beach area for the rest of the week especially the extreme high and low tides we saw.

We enjoyed the very friendly pelicans on the pier, too.

Shore Birds VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then before you know it it was time to get ready for Christmas.  We spent time with the family, shopped, took family Santa pictures and had a fabulous Christmas morning breakfast.

For Christmas this year I decided to knit some hats.

		Christmas hats VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I even knit a couple for me… I know it will be cold in Q this year.

We’ve had a couple of challenges with the RV and most are getting fixed.  Tom and Jason pulled the awning off and we had it restitched. Then Tom and I put it back up. When they pulled it down it was so cold they had to use the hair dryer to melt the ice that wouldn’t let the fabric unroll.

We left for the WMHA Rally in Indio on Jan 5, stopping in Boron for the night, and continuing to LaQuinta and the Sam;’s Club parking lot the next day. Jenny and Greg, Scruffy and Sampson gave us a big sendoff as we left.

Tom has been the Conductor (president) of the Golden Spike Chapter for the last 2 years in spite of being promised that he would never have to hold an office again. So turning over the Conductor Hat and President’s plaque to Kurt Simon was a very happy event. 

We gathered for our annual group chapter picture and also served ice cream only one day due to a mess up with ordering the ice cream.  Fortunately it was so cold missing ice cream for one day wasn’t too bad.

The rally entertainment this year was very good: Doo Wop, Blue Grass / Jazz and the final night, a tribute to Billy Joel and Elton John.