Post Graduation Slow Down

It's been quite the dull "day after."  All the excitement has diminished, everyone but us left for home this morning, and the kids (Steph and Pierce) are exhausted.  Apparently they partied at the beach until 10 when it closed, so it was late getting to bed for everyone.   We don't envy the ones who had to get up and get on the road back to Reno today.  (See, we have learned something with age and that's why we aren't leaving for a few days!)     

Steph and Pierce did come see us this morning for a short visit. They stayed for lunch but then had to leave - both of them back to work. Neither were looking forward to it - what they were looking forward to was tomorrow morning when they had no commitments and could sleep in before going to work.  We won't see them again this trip.

So, no more family news from here.  We are considering going to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach tomorrow.  Shall see what we feel like doing in the morning. 

Maggie is being driven to distraction by all the ground squirrels and rabbits.  This, in turn, is making us nuts.  She is usually good about being let in or out without the leash and going to and from her pen or the truck, but, nooo, not when there are squirrels to chase.  We open the door and she takes off running  - her ears and posture on high alert looking for them. She bounces like the little terrier dog in the cartoons.  She won't come when called as her focus is not on us but the critters she thinks she can find.  She sits for hours on the back of the couch watching out the window.  If one gets near the RV she high tails it to the door and dances around but doesn't bark or whine.  She just wants out.  We have to coax her back to her perch.

I brought a book with me but didn't expect to finish it and did. Now I have a quandary. I have my regular book club book and my mystery book club book at home.  I now have received notices from the library that two books I had on reserve are in. (One I put on hold back in January and was 38 on the list and the other I was 7 on the list when I reserved it last month.)  So, now I have four books to read - with deadlines.  In the meantime I am out of reading here. I'm not sure I want to start one that I have on the Kindle app as I don't know if I could finish before we get home.  Hmmm.   What to do?  Not sure I can go four days without even though I'm going to be reading non-stop for a while when I return.  Genealogy research, yard work, and chores - oh, well, I've got books to read!!!! 

Weather today - 68 was the high with a 15mph "breeze."  I don't think there is much variation in the weather here except for rainy days.  

Graduation Day

It was a very nice day - the weather cooperated - and a good time was had by all.  The crowd was big.  The College of Liberal Arts had three ceremonies yesterday to accommodate all the graduates, but I'll let the photos tell the story.  

In the processional.  

Roger, Erica and Mike

Tony and Jaycee, his girlfriend

The mortarboard was acting like a sail!

It's all over!!

Steph and her Dad

Steph and her brother

Steph and her grandparents

Pierce left the graduation once Steph was called and he and friends set up a nice barbecue on a local beach.  Steph's family, Pierce, and several of their friends joined in the celebration of Steph's achievement.  

Pierce and Steph

Enjoying the beach

Hugs from Erica

Erica is always smiling!

Friends and Family

Watching the sunset wondering when he could leave!
It was getting COLD!!!

Steph and Tony stopped by today

We had a surprise visit from Steph, Tony and Tony's girlfriend, Jaycee, this afternoon.   They were out kayaking nearby and stopped in for about an hour.   They couldn't get on base - Rog had to go to the main gate and then bring them back to the RV in our truck.  It was nice seeing them, though, and meeting Jaycee. 
  
We had a quiet day today before the chaos of tomorrow - went out and found a Camping World and got a few things this morning, but we hung out here this afternoon with the Maggs. (I had a nice long nap!)  Tomorrow she will be left most of the day, unfortunately.  We know that dogs don’t remember things, but it still is hard to believe they don’t. An old dude who was working at the Camping World saw her today (we took her with us as they are a pet friendly store) and asked if she was a “recycled” dog.   Hadn’t heard that expression for a dog before.  Gave me a chuckle. 

I was asked today if we used a checklist when we traveled that might have prevented some of the things that have happened so far.   Nope - we rely on memory on those small things for the most part.   We do have a preflight (as in before we leave home) and post flight checklist that we do follow, but having a list to look at every time we move just doesn’t seem feasible —although, if our brains keep this up, we may have to have it tattooed onto our arms like a cheat sheet!   Rog bought a gizmo today that will keep him from repeating the event of the other day!!  

Nothing else new.   Hope to have photos and an update after the big doings tomorrow~~

Now We Know Why They Call This Place "Seabreeze RV Park"

Yes, indeed!  According to our weather app the wind has been at a constant 15-20 mph all day today.  The temperature has hovered around 70.  The wind chill makes it just uncomfortable enough that sitting outside is not an option - at least for me.  Roger found a spot on the leeward side of the RV, put on a sweater and a hat and got his cup of tea so he could be outside listening to his audio book!   We had previously thought  that if this turned out to be a nice place that perhaps we might spend some of our wintering time here, but now we are thinking NOT!!  

The RV park itself is one of the nicer Navy ones we have visited in our travels.   It's clean, has lots of grass, has nice landscaping, and the laundry facilities are free!!  The park, though, is the nicest thing about this base.  ( Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach )  There isn't much here.  No commissary and exchange, we didn't see housing, but lots of military looking buildings along one road or two.  The park is situated next to an estuary that has signs that it is part of the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge and is a heron habitat.  We've seen egrets and tri-color herons, so the preserve is doing it's job, I guess. 

Maggie and I did see this sign along the walking trail.  We were surprised that we didn't hear any last night and we haven't seen any during the day.  They should be abundant as there has to be hundreds of ground squirrels for "dinner."  

As I mentioned yesterday, we got a nice spot at the end of the park on the outside corner.  The laundry and bathing facilities are in that building behind the tail of that RV on the right.  Nice and convenient.

These trees with the interesting and colorful bark are along the perimeter of the park along the walking path. Anyone know what kind it is?  The bark is really fascinating. 

We went out for lunch and to "make groceries" this morning, but the rest of the day we have been resting after yesterday's drive.  We didn't have to go far to find a shopping area with the basics - Target, Ralph's (grocery) and a Rubio's for lunch.  I washed a load of dark clothes - to make sure that Roger's jeans from yesterday's sewer event got clean and did some crochet while Roger sat outside. 

So, I fibbed (unintentionally) about the sewer issue not being a rookie mistake.  After sitting here most of the evening trying to figure it out, Roger went back out and checked all the valves again. It seems he had left the kitchen gray tank valve open
(it's located apart from the other valves and he missed it) and a day's worth of gray water had dropped down into the drain line and sloshed around all day, cleaning off all the stuff that had accumulated on the sides of the pipes over the years that apparently never really came totally clean.  So, when he opened the valve to hook up the sewer hose, it all came pouring out!  That's why there was so much there.  He'll remember next time to close that valve, you can be sure of that!

Then it was my turn to not be on top of things.  We have a indoor/outdoor thermometer set that we use with the RV.  We set the transmitter up somewhere outside so that it is in the shade and we get a fairly accurate reading.  I asked Roger this morning if he picked up the transmitter in Las Vegas before we left.  He said he hadn't see it, so no.  I told him I had placed it back between the tires in the shade on the passenger side so if he didn't pick it up, then we must have run over it when we left Las Vegas.  (This would not be a first time for doing that - We have gone through a lot of transmitters over the ten years of RVing!) We figured we would need to get a new one while we were out today.  Then we noticed that the thermometer inside was telling us that we were receiving an outdoor reading. Hmmm.   How can that be? They certainly aren't powerful enough to send signals from LV to LA - even if they survived being run over!   Well, as it turns out, I had put the transmitter out yesterday - only it was here and not Las Vegas - and it was working just fine.  We seriously think I'm losing my mind! 

Tomorrow we will do some exploring while on a quest to find somewhere that sells the toilet chemicals we use!!  (You know it all revolves around the sewer!)  We will connect with Stephanie tonight to get our instructions for Wednesday and graduation.  She is busy today and tomorrow with work and her Mom and brother.   Her dad arrives tomorrow.  Wednesday is graduation and then everyone else goes home on Thursday.  We are staying until Sunday so we have a couple of days that we hope to hang out with Steph and Pierce - working around their work schedules.  

A Rookie Mistake and a Sewer Issue......

....but they aren't related!

We have been doing this RVing business for over ten years now. When we hook up to go we both do a walk around and check everything to make sure the RV is ready to go.  Roger starts on one side and I on the other so that we have two sets of eyes and each set is looking from a different angle. Rog refers to it as our pre-flight check. It's saved us big trouble in the past and is good practice.  When we stop for a pit stop and for lunch Roger does a walk around, checks the tires, etc. - just like the big rig drivers do - while Maggie and I are off taking care of business. Today we stopped for lunch just off the interstate in a big dirt lot with plenty of room to get in and out. Roger did his walk around while the truck cooled down.  Maggie piddled.  We then opened the RV and put the main slider out about 12 inches so we could access the dining room table.  We had our lunch, closed the door, put up the steps, got in the truck and drove off. I bet you can guess what we forgot to do. A few miles down the road we still hadn't noticed anything in the side view mirror.   A pickup truck pulled up alongside Roger and the woman passenger was waving frantically and pointing at the RV. She looked panicked!!  Sure enough, we are driving along with the slider hanging out about a foot!  Fortunately it was on the shoulder side of the road and not the traffic side.  We have a remote for operating the sliders so we were able to pull it in from the cab of the truck and not have to worry about getting out alongside the road.   VERY rookie mistake.  Can't believe we did it.  

We were on the interstate in North Las Vegas at 8am.  We had moderate traffic all the way to California where the road turns into two lanes each way and the traffic became a bit heavier. No major issues, just constant, heavy traffic all day.  Are Sundays no longer a good bet to miss the mess?  We still aren't sure we want to chance a week day if the highways are so congested on Sunday!   We got here at Seal Beach around two o'clock.  Roger said it wasn't awful but it sure wasn't a pleasant drive.  The roads were rough in spots and the inside of the RV certainly showed it at the end of the day.  Things were pretty discombobulated and a few things broken. 

We got to the RV park, found a spot (no camp host on Sunday to assign one so we picked the best of the open ones) and started the business of setting up. Roger opened the sewer connection to hook up the sewer hose and many gallons of "stuff" came pouring out onto him and onto the concrete at his feet.  (So glad we are at the back of the park with no one next to us to see it happen.)   It was awful.  He got it cleaned up and we tested the line. It didn't leak, but we still can't figure out why it happened. All the valves were closed - or appeared to be.  All the bouncing around today on the rough roads maybe loosened one?  Then there's the question:  Where did it all come from? We've only been using it for one day.  Did it not get totally empty when he cleaned it before we parked it?  So many confusing things.  The scene wasn't quite as bad as the one of Robin Williams in that RV movie he made, but it was close.  Sitting here at the open window I still get an occasional odor wafting up.  Roger is in the shower trying to get to where he feels clean again.

Roger's sister gave us a tip yesterday about an app called WAZE and I downloaded it for today's drive.  It's a traffic app and seems to have thousands of users.  The point is that as someone sees an accident or stopped traffic or a cop, or whatever that might effect driving conditions, they enter it into the app and you get an alert.  It was great.  We could see heaviest traffic and how long any back up was, we knew when there was someone on the side of the road, and when there was a policeman spotted.  It's supposed to recommend alternate routes as well but luckily we didn't need to do that today.  I recommend it.  It was fun, too, because you are asked to update as you come to the alerted issue.  If the car is no longer at the side of the road you just push that button that says "no longer there." This keeps the information current. It obviously needs a passenger to do this while the driver is busy, but it was helpful!  Warning, though, it sucks the life out of your phone battery so have a car charger handy! 

More tomorrow as we explore the RV park and Seal Beach.

A Beautiful Day in Las Vegas

M

After a fitful night's sleep in a strange bed, we managed to get ourselves going around ten this morning.   It was a nice day weather-wise with sun and clouds and reaching about 77 degrees. The air was clear - no dust blowing or smog - with a steady breeze.  It's a pleasant change from home the last few days.  

The cactus garden here is starting to bloom and helps makes the place nice. 

We had to go back through the main gate to the Nellis Inn to check out of the lodging facility this morning.   The line to get on the base was at least 25 cars.  It seems the base is in Threat Condition Bravo (normally it's Alpha).  Lots of extra security checks and the APs were wearing  body armor and carrying automatic assault rifles as well as their side arms.  They were being extra careful this morning.  It was a little unsettling.  

We hooked up to the RV and put it in a site for tonight.   All systems were working, thank goodness. The brake controller acted properly but we need to get on the road to make some adjustments.  So far our only issue today is we seem to have misplaced our primary set of keys.  Fortunately we have a spare set but it's driving us crazy as to where the main set is.  They will pop up when we are looking for something else, and hopefully soon.  Not sure where we would get another set made as they are a weird size and shape. 

We have three steps from the main area to the bedroom/bathroom area.  Roger was playing ball with Maggie this afternoon- tossing the ball from the living room couch and bouncing it so it goes up those stairs into the bedroom.   Maggie came running back down them with the ball in her mouth , missed a step and did a face plant. She shook herself and brought Roger the ball. The next retrieval she stopped at the top step, looked around, went into the bathroom and came back to the step.  She wasn't sure she wanted to go down them again.  With some coaxing she walked slowly down them one at a time. Of course, four or five tosses later she was flying down them at her typical speed. 

All three of us got short naps this afternoon after we got things put away. It feels good to be back in our little house on wheels and rested up for tomorrow's journey.   

Back on the Road for a Short Trip

We are settled in tonight at the Nellis Air Force Base Pet Friendly Temporary Lodging Facility after an eight or so hour drive from home.   This adventure will be a short trip - eleven days start to finish.  We are headed to Long Beach, CA for our granddaughter Stephanie's graduation from Cal State Long Beach. The reason we are going to take that much time is that Roger wants to enter and leave the LA basin on a Sunday while hauling the RV behind him.  He is hoping that it will be easier for him traffic-wise.  We will be staying at a Navy RV Park on Seal Beach Naval Weapons Center in Seal Beach, CA.  It happens to be the next town over from Long Beach and close to the university, so, hopefully we will be ideally situated for the graduation festivities and family visits.  

Where we are staying tonight is a part of the Nellis Inn lodging facility, in a segregated area near the RV park.  Little one bedroom apartment style rooms in a 4-plex building.  There are about 10 buildings.   They are not posh by any means, but comfy with a living room, dining table, kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom.

 No carpet - my guess is that is because it is a pet friendly room and it makes it easier to clean.  Once Maggie's ball came in from the truck and she got her dinner she was fine. In fact, she is spread out on the couch next to me and the ball, sound asleep.  

She didn't sleep much today. She kept wanting to see what was going on.  
 

Her pill wore off about the time we hit Las Vegas so the last half hour or so she was a bit antsy, shaking, and shedding like we needed the fur to make a nest or something.  The rest of the day she did quite well. She even sat patiently in the truck while we got some dinner. We could see her sitting on the console staring at the restaurant door we went through - but not barking or crying - just waiting! Good dog!!

We are here for one night, then tomorrow we go pick up the RV where it has been stored since the first of April and check into the RV park for one night.  This gives us, a) a break from driving after an eight hour day; and, 2) time to get all the systems set up and running before we take off again.  One of the things that Roger needs to check out is to make sure the new brake controller he installed in the truck works the brakes on the RV.   If you remember, when we left Santee the first of March, the brake controller wasn't working and Roger had to brake the RV manually. This is definitely not a good way to do things!  He's since bought and installed a new one,  and, with any luck it works and we won't have to come up with a Plan B.   Then, bright and early Sunday morning we leave Las Vegas for Seal Beach, CA.  

Today we started out early.  We were on the road at just a few minutes before 8, which is usually my getting up time. 

Walker Lake with Mt. Grant in background

The weather wasn't so great - low hanging storm clouds and intermittent rain.  We could see the bottom part of the mountains but not the top.  The snow last night had dropped pretty far down - it looked like about 6,000 feet in elevation. Fortunately the valley only got rain and it wasn't raining when we loaded the truck.  It was in the low 40s this morning when we got up and stayed that way most of the morning as we drove south.  We had some light rain, some heavy rain and then some sleet at we climbed up to about 6,000 feet at Tonopah.   We switched drivers there at around noon and as soon as we started dropping in elevation, the sun came out and we had patches of blue sky with lots of puffy cotton ball clouds. By the time we got to Las Vegas it was in the high 60s. Basically Roger drove in all the crummy weather this morning, and I got the nice weather and dry roads this afternoon.   Worked out great!!! 

Traffic was light but we did get stuck behind this guy for a while and when you're on two lane roads "a while" can seem like forever!! In case you can't tell what that vehicle is, it's a flatbed trailer loaded with a pre-fab building that was very heavy, very large (read very wide), and very slow.