Death Valley Nat'l Park

So we made a quick one day run into part of Death Valley National Park. We only saw a small part of it seeing it is a 5,000 square mile swatch of the Mojave Desert. It is the hottest and driest point on our continent.  We checked out Zabriskie Point first.  Very scenic with a few short trails to walk into the hills (up to 3 miles, one way, I think).  Some points of the trails looked pretty steep, but we had the puppies with us which were not allowed on the point or trails, so they stayed in the truck and we made it to the overlook only.  It was a pretty cool sight, looking at the mountain formations and the valley.

Zabriskie Point

These are the types of trails at Zabriskie Point

Jeanne says, "It's ALL mine!"

Next stop was Mosaic Canyon. It was a short walk, a mile or so, but again we had to leave the furry ones in the truck.  The canyon was basically more scenic rock formations, not really colorful as its name may imply.  But it was still a cool sight.

"You coming, or what?!" Mosaic Canyon

An easy walk/climb through the canyon.

The beginning of Mosaic Canyon, catching a small piece of Death Valley in the background.

We headed just out of the park to check out the local ghost town, Rhyolite.  It was a gold mining boomtown sometime around 1908, around 6,000 population jammed into a small mountain area.  Not a lot of buildings/ruins left, but an interesting walk through time nevertheless.

The Bottle House at Rhyolite.

Looking down the "main drag" of what's left in Rhyolite.

I think this is the one train depot left in Rhyolite.

We are going to try to get back to Death Valley at least one more time, there is still a lot to see.  But now it was time to head back to camp.  I had to deal with a toilet seal that was allowing the water to leak out.  I found out the easy fix...silicone lubricant spray on the two pivot points of the flusher-thing-a-ma-jigger (a highly technical term) inside the pipe and below the bowl and, voila, no more leaking toilet (it appeared the flusher was sticking).  It was a bit comforting to hear from numerous fellow full timers about their similar experiences with all the little things that need to be fixed now and then on the RV. I think I am caught up on repairs at the moment.  The only thing that drives us crazy is the coooooold temps causing us to rip through the propane like there is no tomorrow.  We are always amused at the stories of the elderly RVers here at this Escapees park.  A group of the ladies have repeatedly urged Jeanne and I to go to the local brothel, Sherry's, for lunch and maybe a tour.  Their faces actually light up when they talk about Sherry's.  I think we'll have to pass...It is nice to hear some of the road stories others have experienced, and there is A LOT of experience here, several folks have been full timers for double digit years and one gal has been full timing for 30 years!  I don't think I could do that long on the road.  Time to sign off for now.  Onward and upward!

Bye-bye, California

Well, it's been a while since my last blog.  Saying good-bye to family and friends was hard, until we realized that, hey, we are headed out on a long vacation and we will be back to visit, probably very loooooong visits.  The holidays were fun, especially Christmas with the Gladiator (Maximus, our 1 year old grandson).  I got to teach Max some annoying habits that his mom and dad get to un-teach.

Max at his 1 year photo shoot

We went south to visit our son and daughter-in-law Chad and Chrissy in the lovely, sun-filled San Luis Obispo, CA.  FINALLY, we get out of the cold and wet of Sonoma County.  I've been fed up with being cold and wet, so we headed to SLO with smiles on our faces.  Wouldn't you know it, we get there and the cold and rain followed us there.  30 something degree temps were not fun!  We stayed at the El Chorro County Park in a site with full hookups.  This was a nice park and had a lot of stuff there, such as 2 separate dog run parks, several large group BBQ areas, a couple of large play areas for kids, and some hiking trails into the mountains.  We made good use of the dog runs and hiked up to Eagle Rock.  The only issue was on 2 of the nights we were there, the coyotes got very loud and close at zero dark thirty.  All in all we had a good visit with Chad and Chrissy and then another emotional good-bye as we headed out on our vacation.

The dog run at El Chorro Park

Yes, this was a large group BBQ area WITHIN the dog run!

We decided to head straight across through the desert on Hwy. 58.  After sweating whether or not there would be snow conditions or, God forbid, chain requirements, we were relieved going through the Tehachapi Mountains unscathed by such requirements.  I guess I can sometimes trust the automated phone tree systems of CalTrans for their road condition alerts.  Whewwwww! So we drove straight through to the lovely, sweltering township of Pahrump, Nevada.  Our destination was an Escapees co-op RV park called Pair-a-Dice in Pahrump, fully expecting warm toasty conditions seeing we were still in the desert.  YEAH, RIGHT! Cold and rain continued to follow over our heads.  Pahrump is a valley surrounded by scenic mountains, some had snow on them.  The morning temps started around 20 degrees with daytimes getting 40-50+ degrees.  We found our park and got in after hours, so we had to boondock in the front lot until the morning. We had already eaten, were pretty tired from the 9 hour drive, and decided not to fire up the generators for heat, not knowing the night would get so low in temps.  HOLY MOSES, it got cold!  We woke with icicles on our eyebrows, the poor puppies were shaking like vibrators, and to top it off we could not fire up the coffee pot without the generators.  Oh well, hot tea it was.  The manager got us hooked up with our site for the month and we quickly got powered up and coffee'd up.

"Honey, I thought you said a stay in the dessert was going to require only shorts and flip-flops?!?"

Well, our first overnight stay in our space got me a frozen solid garden hose and water filter between the 5th wheel and the water faucet. Luckily, I kept about a third of the fresh water tank full, so we had to revert to on-board water for a short time while I thawed the water hose.  We then went directly to Home Depot and picked up some styrofoam pipe insulation tubes for the hose.  The next night temps continued around 20 degrees and we woke to another frozen water hose, insulated and all.   We went directly to Home Depot again and got some bigger sized styrofoam pipe insulating tubes and put those over the first set of insulators. That should do it, I would expect to be able to get hot water out of the faucet without using my water heater, that's how much insulation I had on that hose!  The next night, similar temps, and in the morning, %#$@&%$#@!*& same frozen hose but now also the park's water faucet!!! Well, my last ditch plan will have to do.  Time to disconnect the park water hook-up and drain the water hose for overnight, using only on-board water until the morning.

Oh well, when one is tired of cold and wet, one can only think warm thoughts...Catch you later with more...

Hey, Opa, how, exactly am I s'posed to put these lights on that tree?

Super Why!

THIS is how I roll!

Plans change for the Holidays...

Well, instead of being mobile by December 1, we have decided to stick it out here in California 'til XMAS, despite the ongoing high cost of everything.  We were kinda surprised when we returned to the Petaluma KOA for an additional 2 week stay and found their price for 2 weeks was basically the same as for an entire month, no breaks! Like I said before, it IS a nice RV park, especially family oriented, but it definitely fits into the California Lifestyle with its high prices. We came back just in time for the nice weather, too (sarcasm inserted here)!  I learned another lesson in a long list of ongoing lessons learned as well. For instance, patience is one of the most important virtues.  On our prior trip through the northern states, I lost all semblance of sanity at a stop in Idaho. Normally, it does not take more than 30-60 seconds to bleed the gas lines for the kitchen range.  At this particular stop, for some reason it took what seemed to be an eternity.  I was jumping in and out of the trailer, checking valves and gas lines, switching back and forth between tanks, and in general going crazy since the 5th wheel is only a year old.  It eventually got the lines bled, but took a bit longer than usual, a nice stress inducer...So, being as sharp as a marble that I am, this trip the weather was so cold we had to run the heater. I have 2 gas tanks with a manual valve to switch between the two.  Well, we eventually ran the current tank out of gas while the heater was in use. After switching tanks, no light bulb went on over my head to tell me, "Don't forget, stupid, you gotta bleed the gas lines for the heater now!" So, patience being one of my top virtues, NOT, I again went goofy trying to get heat going.  Cold air kept blasting through the vents, fans turned off for unknown reasons, and I just plopped and scratched my head.  The "Smart One" (don't tell her that, it will only incite incessant bragging) then sat down and read through the installation/user manual for the heater and suggested I follow the 8-step start up instructions.  As a side note, gotta love the manuals that come with these trailers. They are difficult to comprehend for technologically and mechanically challenged folks such as myself, and this particular one had no mention of having to or how to bleed the gas lines for the heater.  Nevertheless, following the advice of the "Smart One"(aka: Jeanne, my lovely and wise wife) I got heat up and running in no time.

But the bright spots of our stay here...

Maximus the Fire Chief!

"Get out of my way, I'm goin' to a fire here!"

"C'mon, you want a piece of this?!"

"I think I'll like this following in my Uncle Chad's footsteps!"

"Heck, I can drive better than some of these crazy Californians!"

"Where's the beach, dude? I'm looking for some beach babes!"

"You can never be too young to read!"

"Eat dirt", in its literal sense! "Yummmm"

"I can dig it, Man! Bring back the 60's!"

Blast Off Getting Nigh...

Well, we're getting closer to our escape from California. This past month at the Petaluma KOA has been hectic to say the least. This park has been PACKED every weekend, Halloween activities on all of them. The Gladiator came out and had some Halloween fun himself...

Yeah, Giants! Sweep, Baby!

We have been busy during the weekdays as well.  Madison the Wonder Cocker has been battling an ear infection for the last 6 months and we have made several trips into her Vet's office I think for the sole purpose of draining my wallet.  It is getting REAL frustrating with all the meds and treatments she has been put on, getting no results from any of it.  But we still plug away, the Princess demands it.

And the big kicker was finding out I blew another disc, this time C6/C7 in my neck.  Spent many days running back to Santa Rosa Kaiser trying to "beat the clock" as it were (Kaiser insurance ceases at the first of next month). Got an MRI which showed only a herniated disc, not ruptured.  Got a couple of rounds of oral prednisone trying to reduce the inflammation (not a lot of luck, but some), then got an epidural cortisone injection.  Not an earth shattering experience, not even close to my previous foray into the darkest realm of exquisite pain for which I got fused. So far it has been a week since the injection and the pain is way less now, but not altogether absent.  I'm hoping I don't have to visit the knife again...

Thursday we are heading up to Redding to visit Jeanne's mom and brothers for a couple of weeks.  We'll then return here for the Gladiator's First Birthday at the end of November before we really load up to head out of California.  The prices for everything here are just wayyyyyyy out of control high.  I'll be ecstatic to see California shrinking out of view in my rearview mirrors...

Fun Times in Petaluma!

So here we are, livin' the dream, full timing at the Petaluma KOA for a month. Our first weekend just happened to coincide with a TCT rally (Tin Can Tourists) at the park.  It was packed with vintage trailers with lots of folks talking trailer talk and selling odds and ends a lot of which were old antiquish knick knacks.  There were some pretty cool trailers from years gone past and one stretch limo cruised through (I heard someone mention it was a '56 Chevy) piloted by a fellow co-worker of mine, Ken Williamson, who has a talent for restoring old cars.

Nice ride, Ken!

Bring back the 60's?

These are just a very few of what was on display, there were probably 100 +/- vintage trailers showing off their stuff, many were rescued from dump sites and trailer graveyards.  These folks are definitely talented restorers.  All in all it was a fun weekend.

Next up was a visit to the local pumpkin patch, Adobe Pumpkin Farm on E. Washington St. @ Adobe Rd. in Petaluma.  Jenn and Gustavo brought our grandbaby,  Maximus the Gladiator, for a visit and we all went to the farm.  Max is 10 months old and on the brink of walking, so he had a blast with his "assisted-walking" around the hay stacks, pumpkins, and animals at the petting zoo area.

Maximus on the move with Mom and O-Ma.

I know Max is thinking, "Just how am I going to get this pumpkin into my mouth, it sure looks tasty!?"

Riding in style!

O-Pa, O-Ma, and the little eating machine.

A family Jack-O-Lantern!

And now, for the latest installment of fun. We decided to go ahead and get a satellite dish system for those out-in-no-man's-land places we may encounter.  And I preface this with I am THE MOST incompetent fix-it person to walk the face of the earth (wiring: is that connection a 110 V or 111 V?)  The install is for a 2012 Cougar 5th Wheel.  We chose the Dish network service, a Dish  receiver, and the Winegard Carryout satellite antenna.  We purchased all through the Camping World dealer over in Vacaville.  We then embarked on a nightmare of a journey trying to get the whole system set up and operable.  Once we got back and opened the receiver box, we found it was a re-stock from a prior purchase (plastic bags opened, batteries other than the stock batteries were set in the remote). We chose to continue with the attempt at setting the system up.  In our research on-line, reading comments from numerous other RVers regarding satellite systems, and reading the enclosed manuals that came with the equipment, I did not know if connecting thru the trailer cable system was going to work.  So priority #1 was to see if we could set it up and receive signals.  I direct cabled the antenna to the receiver to the TV and HDMI'd the receiver to the TV.  We followed the instructions for set up but when we fired up the receiver, it was in the middle of a six step set-up, stuck on step 5 some sort of check for ethernet connection. Oh boy.  2 FULL days of burning minutes on our cell phones with tech support for both the receiver and Winegard, transfers from one level of tech support to second and third levels of tech support, we got NOTHING.  We took the receiver back to Camping World and swapped it with one that we confirmed was NEW-in-the-box.  We then returned and started over. Once we fired up the receiver, again we had issues with acquiring signal, after following the instructions and going through the 38 tests.  Jeanne, the brains of this outfit, got frustrated and followed the instructions to re-set the factory settings on the receiver.  Once done, after a couple of phone calls to Dish to get the box activated, we finally were able to get signal.  Our next chore was to try to figure out how to wire the system through the trailer's existing wiring.  Jeanne contacted Keystone (manufacturer of the Cougar) and got the satellite wiring diagram e-mailed to her.  This illustrated the method of hooking the satellite antenna to the exterior cable connection (which is actually labelled "satellite prep") and then removing the short "jumper" coax cable from the wall behind the TV and connecting coax cable from the top of the jump to the "satellite in" jack of the receiver and another cable from the bottom of the jump to the "out to TV" jack of the receiver.  Holy Smokes! Success!  We have Satellite TV!  HD no less!  There were a couple of related minor issues in this 3-day fiasco.  We were telling the salesman at Camping World about our issues with the first receiver and he told us that being able to set up the receiver on our own was not possible, that "a lot of people" have had the same issues as us.  He said the receiver "HAD" to be set up to one's home satellite system to get programmed properly, or brought into the store and programmed there.  How wrong he was.  And we had an issue with the HDMI cable jack in the back of the TV.  The TV is mounted on a steel bracket inside the entertainment cabinet at the back of the trailer.  There is a small, about 5" circular hole in the center of the bracket through which all the cables pass through from the TV to the DVD/stereo/power plugs.  Unfortunately, the 2 HDMI jacks are about 1" wider than the circular opening and there is less than 1" of space between the bracket and the HDMI jacks on the back of the TV.  The HDMI cord that came with the receiver has standard fittings that are in-line with the cable which is fairly thick.  These fittings do not fit between the TV and the bracket.  We went to Best Buy and picked up a "Rocketfish" HDMI cable which had a thinner cord, one standard sized fitting and the other end a shorter fitting that would fit where the standard one would not.  the standard fitting was labelled "TV" and the short one labelled "Source".  The salesman at Best Buy assured us that we could use that cable reversed, the short fitting for the TV.  How wrong he was.
So, back to Best Buy to swap out that cable for one we found that had both fittings in the small version. So much for trusting sales people, EVER AGAIN!  I think they are all conspiring to mess with my head! Now where'd I put my Thorazine?

Now that we were successful with the satellite, it is a big "thumb's up" for satellite vs. park cable service.  The picture is incomparable and being able to choose your own entertainment package is the only way to go.  Too bad a tech challenged person such as myself had to suffer that torture, reminded me of rooting for the Giants in this past NLDS.  Life goes on, and GO GIANTS!

Let the Good Times Roll !

Whhhhhhhhewwwwwwwww! It's a done deal. We threw the dice, we are now all in, high stakes, no limit fun seekers.  The stick house is SOLD, check in hand, and we are officially full time RVers.  It was an interesting transition, about a year's process, with all the included intrigue, nervous apprehension, headaches, and fun in preparation.  We've been staying at the Petaluma KOA for about a week now, and will remain here for the rest of the month, then head up to Redding to visit Jeanne's mom and brothers before we head back here for the big First Birthday for the Gladiator.

Max, aka: The Gladiator

We are officially South Dakota residents, thanks to the assistance of Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls.  We already find it mind boggling as to how we survived paying high prices for everything in California.  We had to adjust our health care because the county wanted some $800 extra per month out of us to keep Jeanne covered by their PPO plan.  We found a Coventry policy (the old Mutual of Omaha) out of the SD area to cover her for a bit over $200 per month.  And my coverage dropped since it was just on me, so we now pay less than what we were before.  Don't even talk about car and trailer registrations, California is certainly sticking it to their residents.  And truck/trailer insurance? Holy smokes, doubled the coverage for less than what we were paying to Allstate in CA.  Jeanne has gone all out, reading NUMEROUS blogs by other full time RVers, comparing living styles and posted information regarding budgets, and she has devised our tentative budget.  We are excited to see what the budget has in store for us with regards to how far the money will go and how much we will be able to save now that the stick house bills are gone.

As far as KOA's go, Petaluma KOA is one of the nicest KOA's we have stayed at, coast to coast.  Yes, it is on the high end $$$ wise, but they have a lot of activities for young and old alike.  They run tour buses down to The City (San Francisco) where folks can check out the bridge (Golden Gate, that is), Pier 39, Chinatown, ride a cable car, and other points of interest there.  The kids can check out the KOA petting zoo, climb the rock wall, swim, ride the banana bikes, and the park tends to have many special weekends throughout the year.  We are here in October, and they have trick-or-treating every weekend and two potlucks later in the month.  Never a dull moment here.  But we are looking forward to heading down to the Gulf coast this December for the winter.  Gee, I hope it does not snow there...So long for now...

Winding down...

OK. So we've decided we are not real fond of the northern I-90 states. We did manage to take some of the back roads on our way back and discovered they can be a better way to go than the main highways.  The only drawback to these is that signs of civilization (i.e. GAS STATIONS!) are few and far between.  And not being familiar with the smaller roads, I found myself feeling like Steve Martin's character in "The Jerk"(the scene where he goes crazy because "The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!") every time I passed a big rig going the opposite way. I'd get so excited knowing the road ahead was suitable for big rigs. What a dweeb I am...  The other thing we had issues with was the AT&T phone service and wi-fi at various parks/locations.  Now we know why a lot of the full timers go with Verizon for phones.

From Arco, ID, we headed into a tiny town called Vale, OR. We stayed at the Vale Trails RV Park for one night.  It was OK for a one-nighter, there is not much to do or see in Vale, OR.  From the signs everywhere it appeared that hunting season was about to begin in the area. Uh-oh, a bunch of yahoos with high powered rifles, we better continue westward-ho in a hurry!

Goose Lake State Park became our next stop.  It is an Oregon state park on the border with California.  Only had 20A service, but hey, at least we could make coffee without having to fire up a generator.  There were TONS of deer wandering around and through the park and lots of random gunshots in the distance.  Oops, hunting season here as well.

On the road to Goose Lake...



Goose Lake State Park. Not real green...


We found another Passport America RV park in Redding, appropriately named Redding RV Park.  The sites were a bit smothery but it was a clean, well kept park with easy freeway access.  For $18 you can't go wrong...We had a nice visit with family here. 

No wonder we're leaving California.  It is terrible to have to look out one's backyard and see this peeking over your fence...

Well, next stop Santa Rosa to wrap things up.  Looking forward to a continuing roadtrip with a very much slower pace.  There are sooooooo many places to visit and see, ocean to ocean.  So long for now...