It's late, so this will be short and sweet - just to let everyone know we made it safe and sound after a totally uneventful drive today. We got parked about 3pm. We did have discussions, though, about finding a different route back and forth - but we've a few months to figure it out :-)
We have most everything set up tonight and are starting to feel at home already. We've met our neighbors on our right side (as we face the street) and they seem like super nice people. A couple we met last year that are directly across the street pulled in a few hours after we did. Our friends at the end of the street (two sites to the left) are here but we haven't had a chance to say hello yet. We noticed a few new rigs on our street that weren't here in March. Our understanding is that 95% of all lots are now sold in the Co-op with Dec 31 set as the anticipated date for complete ownership.
We will now start meeting contractors and getting estimates. We have to get our improvement plans approved by the oversight committee and then get things scheduled. It's now going to be a matter of becoming a member of the community and getting settled for the winter.
We were lucky today with the weather - it was overcast all day and only about 80 degrees. We were dreading having to set up in the hot sun, but it was very nice today not having it beating down on us as we worked.
Not sure what day routines will start - hopefully soon. Tomorrow is Wednesday already. We need a day for grocery shopping and getting a few things we need for the RV. I will be flying to the Bay Area on Friday afternoon for a Celebration of Life/Memorial Service for my sister on Saturday but will be returning home on Sunday. Maybe Monday will have to be the real start of routines.
I will work on getting photos downloaded tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Monday, October 30, 2017
Risk Takers
Not sure what happened, but as I was closing computer, the wifi signal popped on.... just going to drop in what I wrote - no fancy stuff - before it goes away again!
Well, today was better. We seemed to have our heads on a bit straighter this morning :-) We got more sleep last night and that might have had something to do with it.
I don’t know what this posting is going to look like tonight. We are in a state park on the Colorado River with high cliffs all around us. We are at the back and there’s no wifi signal. If I go up to the office area I supposedly can get one. The phone is switching between “no service” and one bar. So the plan is to write the entry as word processing doc, walk up to the office area and cut and paste it into the blog. There won’t be any photos again - just not going to work. In the next day or so I will do an entry with the photos you’ve missed!
We got on the road about 8:30 this morning and we were through Las Vegas by 10:45. No real traffic to speak of except at one interchange where everyone was going in a different direction and there was construction. Once we got through the city and diverged from US93/US95 we turned on US95 south at Boulder City. We dropped into the El Dorado Valley. It is filled with solar farms on the west side. We found a pull out and parked for lunch and to let Roger destress from driving through Vegas! We sat facing the mountains, two solar farms, and lots of power towers. It wasn’t bad - we sat in the shade and enjoyed the view. Temperature was about 75 and there was no wind! (I think we are pushing our luck here - two days of no wind.) Hopefully photos will be forthcoming.
As we pulled into this long pull out just south of the turn off, two brand new Mercedes came screeching to a halt in front of us. One black, one white. Four guys in each vehicle. They all hopped out, changed seats and/or cars and got back on the road heading back the way they had come - towards Las Vegas. About half way through our lunch, they came flying back into the same spot and the same thing happened. It was weird. Roger and I discussed what could possibly be going on. We came up with a story to write about tonight that they were guys at a convention in Las Vegas (they were all wearing lanyards around their necks with name tags hanging on them) and had rented the vehicles and each one of them wanted to drive a Mercedes because they never had before. Sounded plausible to us. Then, just as we were putting the chairs away and Maggie was having her last pee walk, here they came again. Too bizarre. I couldn’t help myself - Maggie and I walked over and I told them we were trying to figure out what they were doing and asked if they would tell me. Two gentlemen came over and told me that they were testing tires. One little Japanese guy had on a shirt with Kenda Tires logo on it and he told me that one car had his tires and the other had another brand and that each driver was to test drive them and make a report as to how they handled. So, we weren’t far off in our guess. Then he said, “So sorry, must go I have clients waiting.” They all hopped back in and off they went. No telling how many times today they did that test run. It really was quite amusing.
We stopped in Searchlight, NV to top off the tank. The terrain this morning was up and down and we used a lot of fuel. Not knowing where we were going and the roads we would encounter nor where we would be tonight and how far a gas station would be, we decided to be prudent and fill up. This is not a task Roger does often - pulling the whole rig into the gas station. Fortunately, at the south end of town is a large one that accommodates trucks and RVs.
Roger and I are not risk takers but today we defied the odds of probability and got on the road without reservations for the night! We always have to know every night we are on the road where we will be staying - that we have a place to stay. I had left a voice mail on the main Arizona State Parks number last night explaining how I had tried to reserve a site and would someone please call me. Well, 8:00 sharp Zeb called me and let me know that none of my attempts at paying/reserving a site had worked. Whew - no huge bill to fight for a refund. He indicated that the park we were interested in had plenty of open sites and we should have no problem getting in. Of course, Roger was a bit nervous about it all day, but we did get a site. In fact, there are quite a few open. Not only was it cheaper because we didn’t pay a processing fee, we ended up in a water/electric only site sitting at the end of the park with our back to a beautiful cliff and no one on either side of us. We watched the moon rise over the cliffs across the highway! The site we had tried to get would have been in the sun, and as it was getting later in the day, this site was already shaded. Since it was 85 degrees when we pulled in, that worked out perfectly! The park is beautiful, well maintained, about 35 very large sites, no lights, restroom/showers, laundry room and with a small beach on the Colorado River. The name is River Island State Park. I would recommend it if you don’t care about wifi or phone service. OK for an overnight for us, but not sure about longer stays.
We are south of Lake Havasu City and north of Parker on AZ95 which runs along the river. I saw (Rog was driving) the London Bridge as we drove through Havasu. The city has become a huge, sprawling, metropolis of Snow Birds. The main drag is very congested and it was slow driving through town as we caught all the lights on red! Reminded us of the place we stayed in Florida only with desert plants!
I just looked outside - can’t see a thing. I’ll wait til the light of day to walk up to the office to post this!
Tomorrow, night we should be “home.”
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Discombobulation is the word of the day.
The on-line dictionary defines discombobulation as "to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate." Well, the day started out that way, got better, but then this evening, we are back into the classic definition.
This morning when I was putting together lunch for the road, I couldn't find anything I needed. It was as if I'd never been in this kitchen before. Where were the lunch sacks? What drawer are the sandwich bags in? (None of them - we are out of sandwich bags.) Dang, I left the frozen things for the lunch sacks at home so how am I going to keep the food cool? I was just going crazy. Of course, it all worked out, but for criminy sakes, that's not the way to start the day.
We realized we left Roger's slippers, my sun hat, and my hairbrushes at home, as well. Nice. I did find a small brush we bought to use on Maggie, so that'll have to work - we hadn't used it on her yet. Rog will just have to put on his shoes when he goes out with Maggs in the mornings, and I do have a back up sun hat with me - just not the one I wanted. I'm told they do have stores in Arizona, but in the meantime....
Once we were on the road it was Roger's turn. He drove right by our exit in Fernley and as he passed it he commented that we were passing the Walmart - which we shouldn't have been. Of course, I hadn't been paying attention either and realized it at the same time he did. Geez. Luckily there is now a third exit in Fernley and we were able to get off, cross the interstate and get back on - only lost about 5 miles, fortunately.
As always, the first night's sleep in the RV was not optimal for any of us and Maggie had to go out at 6:30. Think maybe that may have something to do with our state of mind this morning?
After that we were OK. Minds on our business. We stopped at one of the picnic areas at Walker Lake for lunch and enjoyed a relaxing repast. For the first time we could remember, there was no wind when we stopped for lunch in Hawthorne. The sun was shining, it was about 60 degrees and with no wind it was most pleasant sitting looking out over the lake and enjoying our lunch. We were surprised to see lots of water fowl. We didn't think that the lake supported any animal or bird life these days.
As it happens, the place where we pulled off was, in the 1950s when Hawthorne Army Depot was the Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot, the Officer's beach and I spent many hours there with my mother and sister when my father was stationed there . Now, of course, there really is no beach and what little bit of one there is, is far from the picnic area because of the drop in lake level. It did bring back memories - one in particular where I remember eating so many hot dogs I got very sick. It took many years before I could face one again.
The long drive through the desert was, indeed, long today. It took us 6 hours with lunch and pit stops pulling the RV. We thought it would never end. We both spent a lot of time with earbuds inserted listening to our audio books. Road construction for 10 miles or so had traffic backed up as it was one lane at a time. We sat waiting for the "follow me" car for about 20 minutes. We did see a large herd of pronghorn antelope just south of Hawthorne and then as we were just north of Luning there was a HUGE cow on the side of the road - belly up like a dead bug and bloated to twice it's size. Gross. Not until we got just north of Beatty did we see some wild burros. No wild horses today and that is unusual along this route.
We pulled into the Beatty RV Park about 4:30 p.m. We were fortunate to get a long pull thru site "because you made reservations and have stayed here before." It's next to the highway and is a bit noisy, but was easy in and will be easy out in the morning. The computer in the office was frustratingly slow because "everyone is on the internet streaming movies." So we parked and I went back to finish up with business. I asked about the internet and that I needed to get on Google Maps because we weren't sure how far we were going tomorrow. In the discussion, the guy in the office told us about a shorter route, so we decided to check it out.
Here's where the discombobulation and confusion starts again. First, the internet is too slow to even query the maps program, so we turned on a hotspot on Roger's phone. About that time both our phones decide to drain their batteries at an alarming rate. I looked at mine and saw 26% and two minutes later it was shutting down because it was at 1%. Roger's dropped to 26% in a matter of minutes. The computer was also running outta steam at a pretty good clip. We plugged every device in, and in all our confusion were finally able to get a map and started looking at routes again. We changed our minds about our planned route for tomorrow (saving about 50 miles and an hour) and tried to make reservations on line at a state park near Parker, AZ. We tried 5 times. Now, we either have no reservations for tomorrow, or we have one, or we have 5 and the credit card has been charged not at all or up to five times. I left a message (it is Sunday night) and hope to hear from someone in the morning. In the meantime, the place we have reservations for, but are not going to, I have already called and changed the dates once. Now I've got to call and cancel. I feel bad about that but fortunately they did not take a deposit. What a crazy mess.
Because of the internet issues here, we won't be able to post pictures tonight. I'll try tomorrow as we got some nice ones of the yellow cottonwoods along the Truckee River between home and Fernley, of Walker Lake from our advantage of our picnic spot, and a lovely sunset here in Beatty. It has been a most wonderful day weather-wise which helped make the journey more enjoyable.
Maggie is being a good girl but is very subdued and unsure. She's not (nor are we) liking being leashed just to go out to pee. At least, though, she knows what she's going out there for and is pretty good about doing her business in a reasonable amount of time.
Tomorrow - we think we are going to continue south on US 95 to Parker, AZ and stay at a state park just south of town. That's the plan tonight.
No internet to stream our shows and no TV tonight. Reading, Suduko, and Words with Friends will be the entertainment for what's left of the evening.
This morning when I was putting together lunch for the road, I couldn't find anything I needed. It was as if I'd never been in this kitchen before. Where were the lunch sacks? What drawer are the sandwich bags in? (None of them - we are out of sandwich bags.) Dang, I left the frozen things for the lunch sacks at home so how am I going to keep the food cool? I was just going crazy. Of course, it all worked out, but for criminy sakes, that's not the way to start the day.
We realized we left Roger's slippers, my sun hat, and my hairbrushes at home, as well. Nice. I did find a small brush we bought to use on Maggie, so that'll have to work - we hadn't used it on her yet. Rog will just have to put on his shoes when he goes out with Maggs in the mornings, and I do have a back up sun hat with me - just not the one I wanted. I'm told they do have stores in Arizona, but in the meantime....
Once we were on the road it was Roger's turn. He drove right by our exit in Fernley and as he passed it he commented that we were passing the Walmart - which we shouldn't have been. Of course, I hadn't been paying attention either and realized it at the same time he did. Geez. Luckily there is now a third exit in Fernley and we were able to get off, cross the interstate and get back on - only lost about 5 miles, fortunately.
As always, the first night's sleep in the RV was not optimal for any of us and Maggie had to go out at 6:30. Think maybe that may have something to do with our state of mind this morning?
After that we were OK. Minds on our business. We stopped at one of the picnic areas at Walker Lake for lunch and enjoyed a relaxing repast. For the first time we could remember, there was no wind when we stopped for lunch in Hawthorne. The sun was shining, it was about 60 degrees and with no wind it was most pleasant sitting looking out over the lake and enjoying our lunch. We were surprised to see lots of water fowl. We didn't think that the lake supported any animal or bird life these days.
As it happens, the place where we pulled off was, in the 1950s when Hawthorne Army Depot was the Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot, the Officer's beach and I spent many hours there with my mother and sister when my father was stationed there . Now, of course, there really is no beach and what little bit of one there is, is far from the picnic area because of the drop in lake level. It did bring back memories - one in particular where I remember eating so many hot dogs I got very sick. It took many years before I could face one again.
The long drive through the desert was, indeed, long today. It took us 6 hours with lunch and pit stops pulling the RV. We thought it would never end. We both spent a lot of time with earbuds inserted listening to our audio books. Road construction for 10 miles or so had traffic backed up as it was one lane at a time. We sat waiting for the "follow me" car for about 20 minutes. We did see a large herd of pronghorn antelope just south of Hawthorne and then as we were just north of Luning there was a HUGE cow on the side of the road - belly up like a dead bug and bloated to twice it's size. Gross. Not until we got just north of Beatty did we see some wild burros. No wild horses today and that is unusual along this route.
We pulled into the Beatty RV Park about 4:30 p.m. We were fortunate to get a long pull thru site "because you made reservations and have stayed here before." It's next to the highway and is a bit noisy, but was easy in and will be easy out in the morning. The computer in the office was frustratingly slow because "everyone is on the internet streaming movies." So we parked and I went back to finish up with business. I asked about the internet and that I needed to get on Google Maps because we weren't sure how far we were going tomorrow. In the discussion, the guy in the office told us about a shorter route, so we decided to check it out.
Here's where the discombobulation and confusion starts again. First, the internet is too slow to even query the maps program, so we turned on a hotspot on Roger's phone. About that time both our phones decide to drain their batteries at an alarming rate. I looked at mine and saw 26% and two minutes later it was shutting down because it was at 1%. Roger's dropped to 26% in a matter of minutes. The computer was also running outta steam at a pretty good clip. We plugged every device in, and in all our confusion were finally able to get a map and started looking at routes again. We changed our minds about our planned route for tomorrow (saving about 50 miles and an hour) and tried to make reservations on line at a state park near Parker, AZ. We tried 5 times. Now, we either have no reservations for tomorrow, or we have one, or we have 5 and the credit card has been charged not at all or up to five times. I left a message (it is Sunday night) and hope to hear from someone in the morning. In the meantime, the place we have reservations for, but are not going to, I have already called and changed the dates once. Now I've got to call and cancel. I feel bad about that but fortunately they did not take a deposit. What a crazy mess.
Because of the internet issues here, we won't be able to post pictures tonight. I'll try tomorrow as we got some nice ones of the yellow cottonwoods along the Truckee River between home and Fernley, of Walker Lake from our advantage of our picnic spot, and a lovely sunset here in Beatty. It has been a most wonderful day weather-wise which helped make the journey more enjoyable.
Maggie is being a good girl but is very subdued and unsure. She's not (nor are we) liking being leashed just to go out to pee. At least, though, she knows what she's going out there for and is pretty good about doing her business in a reasonable amount of time.
Tomorrow - we think we are going to continue south on US 95 to Parker, AZ and stay at a state park just south of town. That's the plan tonight.
No internet to stream our shows and no TV tonight. Reading, Suduko, and Words with Friends will be the entertainment for what's left of the evening.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
The Blog is Back!!
Here we are again - in our little house on wheels ready for the next adventure. Tomorrow morning we head south to join the other snowbirds in Arizona for the winter. It'll take us three driving days to get there and then we will spend the winter getting our Arizona RV site set up to enjoy for many winters to come.
We've been working for about a week getting prepared for leaving but the last three days were the tough ones. We packed up our clothes and other essentials on Thursday and loaded everything in the car. Yesterday we retrieved the RV from the storage facility and parked it in the Sparks Marina RV park for last night and tonight. We couldn't park until after noon, so we did chores around the house. Once we got here, we unloaded the car and put everything away as we brought it inside. It was quite tiring. It really is a lot of work. We are talking about not putting stuff back in the house when we return and just buying duplicates of everything to save the work. Hmmm. Sure sounds like a good idea to us today!
We slept at home last night and packed up more stuff this morning as we now had empty bags. We got to the RV early, put things away, had lunch, and went home again for the refrigerator/freezer stuff, close the house up, and put the car in the garage on a trickle charger. We were all done by four o'clock and sat down for a rest. Miss Maggie was not getting far from us today.
We had a nice visit from Mike and Erica and Erica's parents, Chuck and Tica late this afternoon. They all came over for about an hour to see us off. It was very nice to see everyone and get hugs before we depart in the morning.
The weather has been wonderful - it's been in the mid-70s in the afternoon. Granted it's 40 degrees when we get up, but it warms up in the afternoon. Lots of sunshine and no wind. It's so different from our past departures that have been later in the year when we would fight the cold and wind. Taking two days to get set up in nice weather relieved a lot of stress.
Two weeks ago Roger spotted an ad in Trailer Life magazine for a new product for the RV - some steps with a handrail that are much more stable than the ones that are standard on the RV. Since I often fall up or down stairs, we thought this new addition might prevent me from injuring myself. We had them installed right away. Maggie likes them, too, as they are not as steep, the stairs are closer to each other, and we added an optional hand rail. It was much easier going in and out with our loads. I have a feeling it's going to be worth every penny.
Tomorrow - I-80 to Fallon, NV, then US95 south to Beatty, NV and we will officially be "on the road again."
We've been working for about a week getting prepared for leaving but the last three days were the tough ones. We packed up our clothes and other essentials on Thursday and loaded everything in the car. Yesterday we retrieved the RV from the storage facility and parked it in the Sparks Marina RV park for last night and tonight. We couldn't park until after noon, so we did chores around the house. Once we got here, we unloaded the car and put everything away as we brought it inside. It was quite tiring. It really is a lot of work. We are talking about not putting stuff back in the house when we return and just buying duplicates of everything to save the work. Hmmm. Sure sounds like a good idea to us today! 
We slept at home last night and packed up more stuff this morning as we now had empty bags. We got to the RV early, put things away, had lunch, and went home again for the refrigerator/freezer stuff, close the house up, and put the car in the garage on a trickle charger. We were all done by four o'clock and sat down for a rest. Miss Maggie was not getting far from us today. We had a nice visit from Mike and Erica and Erica's parents, Chuck and Tica late this afternoon. They all came over for about an hour to see us off. It was very nice to see everyone and get hugs before we depart in the morning.
The weather has been wonderful - it's been in the mid-70s in the afternoon. Granted it's 40 degrees when we get up, but it warms up in the afternoon. Lots of sunshine and no wind. It's so different from our past departures that have been later in the year when we would fight the cold and wind. Taking two days to get set up in nice weather relieved a lot of stress.
Two weeks ago Roger spotted an ad in Trailer Life magazine for a new product for the RV - some steps with a handrail that are much more stable than the ones that are standard on the RV. Since I often fall up or down stairs, we thought this new addition might prevent me from injuring myself. We had them installed right away. Maggie likes them, too, as they are not as steep, the stairs are closer to each other, and we added an optional hand rail. It was much easier going in and out with our loads. I have a feeling it's going to be worth every penny.Tomorrow - I-80 to Fallon, NV, then US95 south to Beatty, NV and we will officially be "on the road again."
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