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.

Some more repairs

Well it's been another week or so since I posted.  We left Lancaster on March 16th to come to Sun Valley California to a repair facility for our hot water system.  They have been very nice here and we are staying in our coach at night near where they work on it during the day.  The problem is we have to leave in the morning and stay away all day until they are finished for the day.  We take the dogs and have a secure place for the cats to stay while we are away.  During the coarse of this we have also asked them look at some other things for preventative maintenance later on. So as of today Saturday, we will be here until about Wednesday.  Then we may go to Death Valley for a bit and on to Las Vegas for a couple of weeks in April.  Not sure after that though.

We did however go and see Steve (my nephew) and his family for a bit while in Lancaster.  Johnny his middle son had a music program one evening and we were able to attend.  Johnny sang and rang bells.  It was a lot of fun watching 2nd graders up there on stage performing.  Nick and Chloe were there supporting their brother in the audience.

Our adventure is starting off a little slow right now but I still have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so we couldn't leave town even if we wanted to.

New Ding in our Ding a Ling

Today is Sunday and we have been parked in Lancaster California since Wednesday.  I had my foot surgery to take out the screws which held my foot together last Wednesday morning. Don't worry my foot didn't even come apart.   I came out of it well, no nausea and minimal pain.  It only feels like glass when I stepped on it.  So needless to say I didn't step on it.  Tom took me back to the coach and packed up to hit the road to Lancaster.  Our goal was to get to the truck where all of our belongings are and do some switching around of things we needed and didn't need.   Our truck is currently parked at a friend's house until we get it to Idaho.  Which we hope will be soon but with the weather up there it's all uncertain.

So here we are parked at the Antelope Valley RV park (the photo above), which consists of a parking lot with holes in the ground for sewer, 50 amp service and a hose bib.  Not the quite what I was expecting but really what was I expecting I don't really know.  There are only a handful of people here...I am shocked (NOT).   It's kind of quiet and it works for now.  There is a Motoplex motocross place next to us which we can hear the motorcycles all day.  Sounds likes bees buzzing around.  I know my brother Verlin would love it and be over there all day watching and riding. We plan on being here till Wednesday....oh wait maybe not....Here's the most recent ding in our ding a ling....

So it seems Tom was going to do dishes after dinner on Thursday when he ran the hot water and shazam we didn't have any.  What the heck is going on?   So he goes and looks at all the usual suspects, switches and lights on the control panel.  He finds the Hydro Hot, which is the hot water heater essentially is not lit up with the diesel light.  So he goes outside and finds a puddle of fluid under it.  Well it's never good to find a puddle of anything under a machine.  So as not to bore you with a thousand details.  He tried for 2 days to work on it while doing other things.   We both did searches on the internet which found PDF's for the Hydro Hot and how to trouble shoot.  I found the cell phone number of a tech who was trained at the factory.  After Tom spoke with him the news was not so good.  He was stumped as to why we didn't have light on the panel but tried to help with the machine and why we had fluid dripping out of it.  So here it is Sunday morning and we still don't have hot water except from heating it on the cook top.  Monday morning we will see if we can get someone out here or if we have to take the coach in someplace to be repaired.  Possible we might have to purchase a new Hydro Hot and have it installed.  We found that if it is not maintained yearly this particular machine gets very testy and does not like to be ignored and will do an auto shut down.  I guess that means it will simply die from lack of human contact.  Since this coach was probably ignored for at least a year we are up a creek.   The maintenance goes on and we look at the bright side, which is, we are glad we are not in the Canadian rockies with no hope for help or service.  We are calling this our shake down cruise to get all the bugs out now.  Then the fun won't be spoiled later with these issues.

By the way as of today I can kind of walk on my foot and don't have to crawl around the coach to get around.  When we downsized we got rid of the 3 sets of crutches we had not thinking I would need them again.  I am using his cane to get around and it seems to be okay.

Onwards and upwards from here I say.

One more issue that just arose, there are 2 light switches that worked in the morning yesterday but have decided not to work last evening and we have not begun to deal with that yet.  More on that later....

The Planets have not quite been aligned

It's been a bit since our last post.  We left Arizona on Sunday Feb 27th.  On the way out of town we thought we had a tire down because the coach was shaking almost uncontrollably when driving over 30 miles per hour.  We went to a truck stop which took 2 hours to get to because we couldn't take the freeway and had to drive so slow.  When we arrived I was outside the coach and noticed the back wheel was not turning when Tom backed up.  So we took it to the repair shop and realized on a Sunday evening there was an hour wait.  While there I sat in the driver's seat and realized we had not turned off the leveling jack system.  Although the levelers were up the air was in staying in the system and that was making us shake.  We also realized the dogs had stepped on the tag axel button and let all the air out.  Lesson learned, we moved on to drive out of town on our way back to California.   We stopped at a rest stop and the auto step motor stopped so we had to push the step back manually.  Geez...all the little things that break when you purchase a used vehicle.  At least they are small and it's like an engine blowing up....knock on wood.

Once we were back in Redondo Beach we stayed in a parking lot by the mall.  We decided to get a hot spot so we could get connected to the internet when not in a wifi spot.  We purchased a hot spot and found it would not connect our toshiba laptops but it would connect our desk tops.  Seems there is a conflict with Toshiba.  Honestly how does that happen??? Whatever, we had to return it and get another one, but only from customer service so we had to wait.

Then we are ready to leave on Wednesday to go stay at our friend's house so we pull the coach together and pull in the slides.  The bedroom slide won't go in properly.  We try and try but no go.  So we get it in the best we can and head over to the RV service center in Torrance.  They tell us the best they can do is fix it the next day but they have 2 mechanic on jury duty.  I am thinking really 2guys the same week.  What are the chances of that.  So we stay the night in the parking lot at the RV center.  The next day they can fix it.  Turns out metal fatigue made the bar break so they welded it and put in a new pin, which was snapped.  Finally we are hooking up to leave and head down to ours friends house in Huntington Beach at 5:00 pm on Thursday.  We hook up the car and start to roll when I notice in the camera the car is fish tailing.  So Tom stops and I go back there and see that the tow bar has come off the front of the car and with the momentum of the car moving the bar punctured the AC radiator.  After some further investigation we found someone had stolen one of our pins which holds the tow bar on.  Luckily we were able to unhook the car and drive it without the AC on.  We made it to Huntington Beach, parked and had a giant margarita.  It was a BOAT week....

B-Bust
O-Out
A-Another
T-Thousand

We were able to get the car fixed by Saturday and got the bar which was bent fixed.   The silver lining was a great time at our friend's Richard and Leslie.  They were gracious to let us stay at their home for 5 days.  Even letting our dogs come in, sleep and visit.  Our Sam only chased their Sam ( the cat ) once.  We had a great time.

We came back to Redondo Beach on Mar 8th and I had surgery on March 9th to take the screws out of my foot.  The surgery went well and now I am sitting around again waiting for the healing process.  Scooting on my bottom to move around.  Glad we have marble floors.  I just need a cloth on my butt and I can polish the floor at the same time.  Now we just need get this rodeo going and get on to our adventure.

We are currently at the Antelope Valley Fair Grounds in Lancaster.  Going to visit family and see friends while here.  Hopefully we will be heading up to Idaho soon.

Thanks for reading our blog....