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...

Ever-so-closer to THE DREAM!

So, one thing I have noticed in our trek across the north states, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, there seems to be a lot of "NO" spread out.  Signs everywhere, rest stops, RV parks, freeway exits, all with an abundance of "NO" information (no pets, no services, no overnight parking, no excessive drinking, etc.).  It seems there were more attempts at over-regulation than we get in California.  There was even a placemat in a restaurant in Montana that had "Little known facts about Montana" that stated it was illegal for a married woman to fish alone on Sundays.  I find that one really hard to believe...One other thing I found a little strange. I know my diesel truck does not get the best of mileage, but because of the massive expanses here in the northern parts, I found diesel gas stations few and faaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr between.  So much so that it is really weird to start worrying about the next fuel station when you are at 3/4 of a tank, FULL!  But, push on, we must.

We did an overnighter in Miles City, MT, at a place called Meadow RV Park.  It looked to be a new upstart park in the middle of town, some of the sites did not appear to be finished. It was OK for an overnight stop, albeit a little pricey for the bare bones that it was ($31/night).

The next stop was Lewis and Clark Caverns Nat'l Park, near Trident MT.  This was a secluded park with limited electrical hookups and no water hookups. We never made it to the Caverns hike/tour and only stayed overnight here.  It was also a bit pricey for the bare bones that it was ($28/night).

The next two days we stayed in bustling Arco, ID (insert sarcasm here).  We found a nice RV park, Mountain View RV Park which had full drive thru hookups, clean showers/bathrooms, and free real breakfast for RVers.  They also ran a cafe for dinner out of the park as well.  Sites had some shading and fair spacing between them.  While here we visited the Craters of the Moon Nat'l Monument.  It was a nice park with great walking paths and lots to see. Lots to learn about volcanic activity.

Inside Indian Cave, one of the large lava tubes in the park.

Some of the local terrain...eerie!

Our front yard at Mountain View RV Park.

Peace and quiet!

Unfortunately, we have stumbled back into fire zones.  Local fires created a thick smoky haze that just didn't go away.  Oh well...

The final frontier...

Well, it's time to head back to California.  Gotta get the house packed up, looks like escrow will be done October 2nd.  South Dakota is OK scenery-wise, as long as you stay at the west end (Mt. Rushmore area) or east end (Sioux Falls area).  There is a WHOLE LOTTA nothin' in between.  Our whole run thru Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, saw a lot of dirt and sky, not much civilization.  Sioux Falls was kinda cool, 160K people scattered over a large patch of dirt.  It looked a lot larger than Santa Rosa which has 200K+.

Sioux Falls Park

A bird's eye view...

We stayed at a place called Tower RV Park. Convenient off and on the freeway and they give discount to customers of Alternative Resources.  It was an OK basic park, no pool or store, but the spaces were not crammed together and they had a new shower/restroom facility that was spacious and clean.  And their squirrels are of the red variety, not like the gray squirrels in CA.

On our way out of town, I had to stop and get our rear bumper repaired, one of the welds had broken and the bumper seemed to have gotten mangled somewhere along our travels, for the life of me I cannot figure out where I might have done it.  I know I bottomed out on a driveway during last year's trip south, which I guess could have weakened the weld enough to postpone its eventual breakage.  Nevertheless, I found a place in Worthing, SD, called Great Plains RV's.  They sell used RV's and trailers and service/repair them.  They also "rescue" RV'ers who need repairs while travelling away from home.  Scott at Great Plains RV's treated us very well, got us in promptly, they worked on the bumper for 3 1/2 hours but only charged me for 2 hours labor, and I would strongly recommend them if you are on the road and find yourself "in need".

Ouch!

I still can't figure out how the hole got punched in there?!

So we moved onward.  Tried out our first State Park campground.  Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is in the Bismarck/Mandan area of North Dakota.  This was a very nice area right on the Missouri River where the Heart River joins it.  The campground was more like a real campground, lots of trees and grass, nice "comfort stations", with water & electric sites and a central dump station.  Our first night there we got treated to an 85 degree thunderstorm accompanied by elephant tears for rain.  Jeanne made good use of her new toy, an emergency weather radio, and I got to hear a ringing phone ALL NIGHT LONG!  Gotta love it...

Camping, Fort Lincoln style...

View of Big Muddy, aka: the Missouri River, from the walking trail.

Well, time to inch back toward the left coast again. Onward ho!

Bye-bye, Montana...

Well, now we can say we stayed at the very first KOA, in Billings, MT. It's a nice RV park, but wayyyyyy overpriced at its normal nitely rate of 60-some dollars.  It was nice to get out of the smoky haze.  While in Billings, they had their Montana Fair going (I don't think it was THE state fair, but Billings version of our county fair).  We went to the fair, expecting some monstrously huge rural extravaganza, since of course we ARE in Montana. Sad to say, our little city slicker version of a fair, the Sonoma County Fair, puts this one to shame! Instead of horse races, this fair had a rodeo, which we also attended.  Now, in the future, Jeanne can actually use the phrase, "This ain't my 1st rodeo!". And prices at fairs don't seem to vary much, state by state, overpriced food and such.  Sonoma County Fair food is MUCH better!

The drive across Montana was pretty unremarkable.  But you could definitely tell the difference once we got into northeastern Wyoming and then South Dakota.  South Dakota in the summertime is very scenic and pleasant.  We stayed in Sturgis a week after the Rally finished. Extremely small town, we could only imagine what Main St. looked like a week ago.

Where's all the bikers?!?!

Main St., Sturgis, SD after the bikes have gone...

A biker ghost town...

Well, whilst we were in Sturgis, we accepted an offer on the house, so it looks like the clock may start on us here shortly.  Whoooooooopppppyyyyyy.

Took a day trip to Mt. Rushmore.  Awe inspiring to say the least.  I was surprised at how close you can get to the actual carved mountain, we walked the trail right up to the bottom of the carvings. We also walked around downtown Keystone as well, had a nice lunch.  All in all a very relaxing day.

Hello, Mr. Presidents!

The Boardwalk along downtown Keystone, SD.

We should find out tomorrow if the clock starts ticking on the house escrow. Time to hit the big city of Sioux Falls and probably establish a residency there.  Hopefully South Dakota remains scenic for the final leg of the trip...



Yep, 'dems some big skies...

Well, big sky MEANS big sky I guess.  Heading up I-15 thru Idaho to Montana the scenery gets increasingly better and bigger, meaning one had better pay attention to the gas gauge because gas stops are very few and faaaaaarrrrrrrr between.  This is the literal definition of "no man's land" up here. Luckily we found a little pit stop in Lima, Montana. Ever since we entered Nevada and up to now the smoke and haze from all the fires has been pretty thick, not a lot of clear blue sky.

We stayed at the Butte KOA for a couple of days.  Not one of the better KOA's I'd have to say.  Spaces were too crowded and not much shade over the gravel spaces.  We did take the Trolley Tour of the area.  It was an interesting historical adventure sightseeing this area that was initially a gold mining establishment, then silver, then copper which ended up being it's big draw in the early 20th century. The dogs enjoyed the lengthy paved nature trail that ran along the creek here at the KOA.  From camp we could see the large statue, Our Lady of the Rockies, standing on the Continental Divide 8,510 feet above sea level.  It is a 90 foot statue similar in nature to the Christ of the Ozarks we saw in Arkansas.  The historical nature of this town aside, I don't think I could live in a town built around a very large pit of toxic, contaminated mining water which has an acidic level similar to battery acid.  Yuk...

The lovely Berkley Pit in Butte, MT. Anybody for skinny dipping?

You know an area is in sad shape when all the locals you talk to tell you there is nothing to do and that you do not want to visit or be here during the winter.  Oh well, live and learn.  We already got 3 offers on the house, so our full time trekking ways are getting closer. And we are slowly carving up the country into parts we want to see, parts we want to see again, and parts we never want to return to or through. Our journey continued E/B I-90 across Montana and following the Yellowstone River.  We finally got rid of the smoky haze but traded it for some clouds and rain.  Still, a pleasant change for a while.  Next stop, Billings MT and the very first KOA campground, established 50 years ago.