Things change, again...

Well, Spring Training was a bust for us this time around. Charlie's mom called and advised his 81 year old father's health was declining. We cancelled our Spring Training gig and returned to Sonoma County.  As it turned out, this hospitalization earned his father a pace maker and it appears he will be OK. We took the opportunity to get some business taken care of...Jeanne needed to get her yearly medical exam done, dog needed grooming (got to see her original lifelong groomer), and we needed some minor repairs done on the truck and the fiver. Oh, and I guess while we were here we just HAD to visit with the grandbaby. We had another round of fun with him, playing at the Petaluma KOA campground, taking him to the discovery museum in Sausalito, and generally spoiling him as much as possible.

Climbing on playground at KOA with O-Ma.

Now I'm climbing on playground at KOA with O-Pa.

We are Kings of the mountain!

Catchin' some air with O-Ma on the jump pillow...

"What, ME cause mischief? No way, huh-uh, wasn't me and you can't prove it!"

Being back in Sonoma County in February still not the kind of weather we've been looking for.  We are about fed up with cold and wet.  Our new tentative plan is to head back to Lake Mead and stay a few days dry camping at the federal (or was it state?) park there on the lake, maybe tour the Hoover Dam.  Then we are thinking about Lake Havasu for a few days and maybe on to Yuma while still working our way to the Texas gulf coast, at least until summer when we will try heading north to Wyoming and over toward Tennessee late summer, fall-ish. But, as we have quickly found out, plans can change in an instant when you live the "free spirit" lifestyle. No time constraints, no schedules to keep, wake up each morning and ponder, "Hmmm, what state do we want to live in today?" And the beauty of it all now is that as we drive on down the highway, we don't have to miss out on any sightseeing.  If we happen to pass "The world's biggest ball of mud" and want to go see it, by golly we are gonna go see it! Move over, Clark Griswold, get out of my way!

On Toward Spring Training

We found a workamper opportunity to work the concessions for Spring Training at the Surprise, AZ stadium, home to the Royals and Rangers.  So it looks like we will be headed that way at the end of this month.  In the meantime, we made a Costco run into Vegas and cruised through Red Rock Canyon Nat'l Park area.  All these unique rock formations have been really spectacular to look at and Red Rock Canyon is no different.

This is the stuff Western movies are made of...

There's s'posed to be some wild horses running around here somewhere...

Yeah, 'dems some red rocks...

And now, for our latest "adventure"...So, we ran out of propane in one tank last Saturday. It continues to be temps in the teens at night.  We switched to tank 2 (another 7 gal. tank) and decided to wait and gas up the following Wednesday here at the park.  C'mon, now, 7 gallons should last us 4 days, don't you think? With daytime temps in the 30's and 40's and the thermostat set at 60 when we are in the trailer, I guess 4 days just don't cut it.  Tank 2 ran out Tuesday night at bedtime. OK, so we can tough it out until 10:00 the next morning when they open for propane business. Well, in the morning we woke up with icicles on our eyebrows again.  Jeanne got up to make coffee and the water faucet in the kitchen was frozen, that was how cold it got inside the trailer. I'm sick and tired of cold, we are supposed to be snow birding, you know, follow the sun and 80 degree temps, shorts and flip flops, tank tops, ice cold beer, etc.  SO, I run into town to fill one tank and get back to thaw the interior of the trailer just in time to fill the other tank at the park. You know me, sharp as a marble, lesson #847 learned: propane tank runs empty, FILL 'ER UP immediately!!!! There is light at the end of this tunnel, looks like temps are on the rise (slowly) and in a couple of weeks we should be onward and upward, first stop at the Lake Mead Nat'l Park recreation area for a few days of dry camping.  That should be another adventure, it will be the 1st time we will be using our two inverters to try to keep the batteries charged.  With my level of trailering skills, it might be a short stay...

Cold in the Desert

If anyone would like some extreme weather, get a hold of us and let us know, we can be there real soon.  Yikes, it seems the weather is following us, this desert area in Pahrump NV is experiencing lower than normal temps while we are here.  Nights are slated to get down in the teens for the next few days.  Brrrrrrrrr! I should'a packed a couple of pairs of long johns with my shorts and tank tops...We did a second day trip into Death Valley, more of the southeastern area. Stopped off at the Badwater Basin, a large salt flat 282 feet below sea level. The valley floor stretches out and is flat as flat can be.

"How far below sea level are we?"

My beautiful and always photogenic wife, Jeanne, taking one of her more serious poses at Badwater Basin...

Take note of the sea level marker high up on the hill.

Natural Bridge is another scenic canyon to hike up into, an easy hike less than 1 mile and fairly flat. It leads to its namesake, a rock overpass. Just around the corner from the "bridge" is a waterfall carved out of the mountain and looks like something of a cathedral, very interesting.  Of course, we are in the desert, so the many "waterfalls" are actually dry rock formations.

This is "Natural Bridge" in beautiful downtown Death Valley.

Jeanne stands on the path below the Natural Bridge.

This was one of the "waterfalls" that looks something like a cathedral just past Natural Bridge.

On down the road we stopped to see the Devil's Golf Course.  I have no idea why it got named a golf course, they claim "only the Devil could golf on such rough links".  Well, I am still as sharp as a marble, so I still don't get it, but the terrain and scenery is very unique and eerie.

Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley.

Our final stop in Death Valley was the Artist's Drive, a 9 mile one-way road through the hills and past the Artist's Pallette.  Very colorful mountains.  Definitely don't want to be driving anything over 25' long, it is a narrow and windy paved road through some wild west looking canyons and passes.

Artist's Pallette, from a distance.

Some rather unique rock formations along Artist's Drive.

Everyone here at the Pair-a-Dice SKP co-op repeatedly urged us to check out the China Ranch Date Farm because we absolutely had to try their date shakes. So, off we go into the desert, looking for this date farm. It was kind of eerie finding this working date farm oasis in the middle of the desert.  Once we got to the main driveway/turnoff, it was a short 2 mile scenic road through some crazy canyons, rock formations, and abandoned gypsum mines.  The shakes were good, but not really anything I would rave about.  We took the doggies on a little walk around the date palm orchards and some of the historic buildings on the property. This place is privately owned and operated.

Strange rock formations on driveway to China Ranch Date Farm.

At the China Ranch.

On our way back to camp, we stopped off at the Dublin Caves in Shoshone.  These were used as dwellings for miners and bums up until 1960-ish.  There was also a funky little graveyard on the hillside, some very old-fashioned graves with but a wooden cross as a headstone, the names long since succumbed to the weather patterns of the desert.

The Dublin Caves at Shoshone.

Inside the "presidential suite" of the Dublin Caves.

So it looks like the only place left to see around Pahrump is Sherry's, one of the local brothels. The ladies at Pair-a-Dice keep on about how we JUST GOTTA go eat lunch there and maybe get a tour of the place.  I'm still not sure that will make our extensive itinerary, but you just never know...TTFN (as the younger, social media savvy crowd would type...)

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...