Feeling the cool chill of Idaho

We made it McCall Idaho on Tuesday April 26th.  It was a beautiful place.  We had the whole resort to ourselves.  It seems the resort was taken over by a larger company and not many people knew it was open during winter / spring.  It felt like winter with more than 3 feet of snow on the ground.   There was an indoor pool, jacuzzi and steam room we had all to ourselves, which was fabulous.  After soaking in the hot tub we ran outside and made snow angels in our bathing suits.  It was quite chilly I must say.

The picture is of the lodge where the pool and jacuzzi were.

We went for a hike and took some pictures  of a river that runs through the area.  I stopped and soaked my foot in the cold water to get the swelling down.  It seems my foot does not like the uneven terrain but I think its good therapy to get it strong.

There were several deer in the area and we had an opportunity to shoot them up close.  Not with a gun, a camera.  In the camping area where we were staying there were some grazing.  Sam and Coffee thought they wanted to chase them.  Sam was not on her lease and got a little far away but after a few calls she came back.  Although she was none too happy about it.  She really wanted to chase them as did Coffee.

As you can see from the photo below there was still a lot of snow.  The coach was parked and the deer were grazing around us.  That's why the dogs wanted to chase them.

Our hike brought us down to the river I mentioned before.  It was very so beautiful.  I don't think these photos quite capture the true beauty.  I could have sat there all day but it was a bit chilly.  It did snow while we were there although not much really stuck.  We both really had a great time and hope to come back during another season to see this place. 

We left McCall and have now made it to Coure D'Alene Idaho near where my brother lives.  The drive in was good, had some snow showers and rain but all in all it was an easy drive.  I guess that's easy for me to say since I wasn't driving Tom was.  There were some good 7% grades which he handled perfectly.

We plan on staying here for a while to go through some of our belongings on our storage truck and visit with my brother and his family.  Our home now is on the Spokane River at a place called Blackwell's.  Not many people here yet but we are told it will fill up in June.  We have this spot for a month and then we'll see if we move around any.  It snowed a bit yesterday which for me was great although I know my family up here is really tired of the snow.  It's spring already and the snow should be finished.

I'll post again soon....Thanks for reading our blog.

Moving North to Boise

We decided to get as far as Boise today.  Leaving this AM even with the rain.

Our motor arrived yesterday afternoon and we were happy to get it in and have the leveling jacks working...But...the new heavy duty motor has no way to mount it.  You read that right the comedy of errors continues.  This new super duper motor is bigger and badder but has no mounting brackets or anything.  The guy in Indiana at the manufacturer said it would work and be just fine since they didn't make the identical motor for replacement anymore.  We paid extra to have it shipped to us quick and when it arrived they were closed for the holiday. So we can't call them and say " what's up with this?"  Gotta wait till Monday.

I am not even too bothered by it because we are on the road and having the time of our life and lucky enough to do this.  It is what it is.  It'll all work out in the end.  If I let these little things get me down it will ruin the trip and that's not going to happen.

Time to start packing up this bad boy and getting it road worthy.


More to come from Boise Idaho....

Thanks for reading our blog.

With Stops in Mammoth and Reno...

We left Bakersfield and headed toward Mammoth in the hopes of having a good weekend.  But Tom's toothache took the wind out of his sales.  He left me drive for the first time on a very straight road from Bakersfield to Arvin CA.  It was good practice and hopefully I will be graduating to turns soon.  It's quite a lot of tonnage to steer down the road.  Learning about the high and low jake brakes and keeping it in the lane took some concentration.   The drive to Mammoth was nice and we saw lots of snow.  Which for a city girl like me seemed to be a big deal.   The drive was good except for the leveling jack alarm which kept going off.  Since we had been in Acton our leveling jacks have not been working properly.  So we had to get another motor for Tom to install.  We couldn't do that till we were settled in Reno with an address to send it to.

We left Mammoth after a night of frustration.  

Upon arrival we had 3 nights reserved at the only RV park open and the only one to accommodate a 45' motorhome.  It turned out to be another parking lot only this time we only had 30 amp service and there was no water.  This was not a good plan.  We told them  on the phone we only wanted one night and would pay for the additional nights upon arrival and had reserved 3, unsure how long we would stay.  When Tom went to check in he was asked for his credit card, which he gave them.  Let me just say I should have gone in because Tom was under the influence of drugs because of a terrible toothache and was not clear in his understanding of all things at that time.

So they charge the credit card for the other 2 nights.  Tom doesn't catch it until about 15 minutes later at which time I return to the office and tell them that we would not be staying because of his tooth problem and needed a refund.  I was told there were not refunds.  Hey it's only been 15 minutes, it's not like we have been here a day and now want to leave.  I get this whole policy speech which sounds stupid to me.  I again explain the situation and they say not but they will give has a credit for the other 2 which we can use at a later date.  BLAH BLAH BLAH....

At this point we don't even know that there is no water hook up.  So I go back to the motorhome and find out then about the water.  This is not a good situation because our pump motor for the water seems to want to take a vacation.  We go out to dinner and do a little looking around then head back to the coach for some sleep.

The next morning which is Sunday (Apr 17) we head to Reno.  We found an okay RV lot right in the middle of town.  On Monday I set out early to find Tom a dentist to take care of that tooth.  I found one and he was fabulous.  Tom's tooth was extracted and found out the crown which was put on in January before we left was done badly.  Safe to say we were not happy.

Anyway we have been here for about 5 days and are currently waiting on a motor for the leveling jacks.  It is supposed to be here today.

While here in Reno we have visited the Automobile museum, which was really cool.  We went to a couple of casinos but gambling is not really our thing.  I used to like it but not so much anymore.  There is a driving range here that is a lake with man made islands which was pretty cool.

Last night we went to the Steak house at Harrah's hotel, a very popular place, for an early birthday celebration for Tom.  We had been there back in 1995 while here on business and had a great server named Bong, who we always remembered.  To our amazement he was still working there and was our server.  We had a great meal and evening.

Hopefully we'll be "on the road again."  Our route is north up the 95 toward Boise then on to Rathdrum where my brother lives.

More to come...

Tom goes to Idaho

Tom's Blog.....

The truck is in Idaho and I am back in Bakersfield.

I left here Monday morning at 9:00 am and drove North on I-5 till 10:30  pm stopping only for fuel till I slept at Super 8 Motel in Bend, OR till 5:30 am.  Willie Nelson woke me up singing On the Road Again, so I started driving again.  Except for the 2 new Delco 12V batteries (under that battery cover) on sale for $110 each at Hermiston, OR where I-84 & I-82 intersect on the Columbia River Gorge before crossing into WA, all went well.  The truck ran well and could cruise at 70 mph as attested to by the WSP Commercial Trooper who stopped me entering Spokane for 70 in a 60 (I skipped the trip from the river to Spokane cause that part of OR deserves to be recycled and used for concrete, I don't see any other good purpose for it).  When he was convinced I wasn't a commercial driver busting regs a warning was issued and I was on my way for the last hour at 60 mph through Spokane into ID.  A good thing I might add as WSP has Troopers on motorcycles too, but they didn't even wave to say hello cause I was only doing 60.

Once there the truck was parked behind the barn where it will stay till we catch up to do whatever comes next.  A return flight on Wed leaving Rathdrum at 6 am arriving in Phoenix at 11 am departed at 1 pm and arrived in Bakersfield at 3pm.  Frequent flier miles and a $100 upgrade to first class made the flight on US Air more comfortable.

Today (Thursday)  I get to crawl under the front of the coach and figure out what is lose on the hydraulic leveling motor.  When it was time to move to Bakersfield and I retracted the levelers, they didn't retract till I physically held the battery wire on the "starter motor?".  I didn't level when we got here cause of the truck so now more stuff to fix.  Ain't life just grand.

Friday April 15th...Tom will be looking for a new motor as it didn't work to take it off and play with it.

Still in the Learning Curve Baby

We are still in California but now in Acton which is just outside of Lancaster.  We finally got out of the parking lot they call a campground at Antelope Valley Fair Grounds.  Which for some is nice and a good place to stop for a night or two and for some to stay a while.  There was a nice man there in a wheelchair with a German Shepherd and it worked just great for him due to the mobility thing.

Sunset 

We moved to Acton last Thursday to a Thousand Trails.  A place that was once nice in it's "heyday" but a little run down now.   It's a wooded area with campsites a little close to one another but the spaces are plentiful. We found the high rent district with 50 amp spaces where we had to be a little close to one another.  We put out the slides and got ourselves set up under a nice shade tree.  Having learned a lot since being in the repair shop about setting up and breaking down day in and day out for the coach to move, it has become a little less daunting to put things away and pull the slides in and put them out.   We are calling it our "learning curve" as we work our way down this road.

So Tom hits the super cool button for the new dish to do it's Ritualistic spin on top of the motorhome and find the God in sky of TV and beam all those lovely programs to us.  I am running around getting other things set up for our stay.  The dish just won't find that illusive God in the sky.  It seems to be playing hiding and seek behind the beautiful pine tree I wanted to park under so that I would have some lovely shade.  This is about an hour or so after parking.

Against some better judgement we decide to pull the coach forward about 3-5 feet with the slides out so that we don't have to put everything away again.  In addition, we have to pull the sewer hose out some to so we don't roll on it, which would be really bad.  We pull forward and try the ritual again.  I stand on the ground and pray a bit and nothing.  We try again and I am ready now to break out the incense and light some candles but to no avail it won't work.  That pine tree is in the way and illusive TV programs refuse to be beamed through them.  We must now give up the 50 amp service and move down to the 30 amp service where we can get a clearer shot of the sky. The lower rent district, although we still paid the same amount, we just don't get as many trees.  

I walked in the motorhome and remember that learning curve again.  Then thinking to myself to check the dish before you push out the slides and get all set up in the future silly girl.

We moved down to another space next to a rather small motorhome and once set up realized we were right on top of them.  So close we could almost touch them.   But alas we pushed the button this time before setting all the housekeeping up and found the lovely programming worked and all was right with the world.   Well in the morning a space came available 2 over and as if we were not crazy enough we moved again.  This time 2 spaced over so that we had some breathing room.   Good thing we did seems the electrical all around us does not work so we have quite a large area.

In the evening  another big rig showed up just 3 spaces down and Tom goes over and says hello and it seems it's the same rig that was in the repair shop we were in, having repairs after us for the same water heater problem.  Can you say small world??  That's crazy.

The area we took our hike in.

We took a nice hike the other day and I found my foot is getting better although still not fully recovered and a long way to go.  There is a creek that runs through this campground and I found myself with my foot in the creek soaking it in the snow melt water.  It was quite chilly but felt very good.

Sam said "You are not going without me so I am laying on your camera to make sure!!!"

Tom striking a pose behind the camera to take a "photograph" not a picture of a mushroom

One more thing the dogs are loving  the gophers.  There are holes every where.  They dig and dig as evidenced by the following pictures of them.  Coffee's nose is covered with dirt and Sam has just taken over the hole Coffee started.  They were in the dog run yesterday and before I knew it Coffee was in a hole up to her hips and turn a corner.  I know she'll never catch one.  It just makes her tired.  A city dog doing country stuff now and it's all new and different.

Until next time....

Finally Finished

Out of the repair shop.  I was honestly feeling like we were in the twilight zone and never able to return to the real world.  Like the motorhome was possessed and had mind of it's own.  When something was fixed another thing broke and we were unable to leave the facility and were stuck in this concrete jungle. Don't get me wrong the people were really nice but we really wanted out of there.  It was a really large storage lot with a mechanics shop and not the beautiful landscape we were looking for on our adventure.

So now we are here in Lancaster getting ourselves ready for the next step which we don't know what that is yet.  Tom had a repair or two on the truck to do.  Seems the oil pan was leaking and the battery cover needed a little TLC.

We thought of going to Death Valley to see the desert in bloom but when checking the weather we saw the temps were climbing so we opted to wait for another time for that.  Hopefully my next post will reveal what our plans will be.

Still sitting in repairs

Well sitting here at the RV center in Sun Valley California still having repairs on the coach.   It has been tough being here.  We have to leave during the day while they are working on it.  There is really only so many places one can go when you have 2 dogs in the car with you.  We have hit as many dog parks as we could.  They are very socialized.  We have been to Griffith Park, visited friends, ran errands, had doctors appointments, hung out in coffee shops, parked in parking lots, stumbled across cool cafe's and driven so much I have gotten a little car sick.  I can honestly say I would make a bad homeless person because I don't like staying in my car all day.

It seems the list keeps growing on the coach with each passing day.  When one thing gets fixed another is found and is added.  Much like when you start a remodel on a house and the work begins, it never seems to end.

There is not much of a view here at the RV lot since we are parked in the storage part of the lot.  We have a neighbor who has lived here for like 15 years in his motorhome.  He's a nice guy but a little creepy at the same time.  He's a hunter and I am a vegetarian so he doesn't tell me what he likes to shoot.  He's knows a lot about motor homes so Tom is picking his brain about solar on the motor home.    He has a pallet outside his coach door which I call shit bridge.  Use your imagination...okay I'll tell you why.  He dumps his black water out of his coach into the parking lot.  Now black water is the water from the toilet.  Yuck...He says he uses a macerating toilet.  This is the equivalent to a garbage disposal.  I don't care crap is crap.  It travels under his coach and puddles under it.  I don't get why they let him do this but whatever.  It rained a lot while we were here so it washed it away from us.  We made sure we kept away from it.  Seems to take all kinds.

Now new tires seem to be the order of the day.  If you have seen our coach we have 8 of them.  They are big ones.  We have one new one so that mean 7 new ones.  We will be getting new tires as of tomorrow (Friday) morning.  Ouch....Kind of like reinforcing your foundation of your house.  It's all gotta be done.  They tell us our home will be finished today.   She will be getting a wash in the morning courtesy of the RV repair shop.  

Right now we are sitting in the car waiting for them to finish up. Keep your fingers crossed.