Granddaughters Birthday.

Today is granddaughter Ivy’s 18^th birthday. We were in Houston 18 years ago for her birth. Happy Birthday Ivy.

We have left Yuma after a week of site seeing, shopping at Arizona Marketplace, (a mostly covered swap meet) several times, a movie when it rained one day, shopping at Wall-Mart next door to the RV Park, and seeing several local sites.

We spent one windy afternoon at The Museum of History in Granite at Felicity, California, West of Yuma. This is a really neat place developed by a Frenchman Jacques-Andre Istel who served in the U.S, Marine Corp. He liked the area so much he bought land, LOTS of land and created a place where information could be etched in large granite panels. He is also the Mayer of Felicity. We met him when we entered the visitor center. It was his 90^th birthday.

We viewed some of the panels but it was so windy we left the remainder for another time.

We had lunch at Lutes Casino in Old Town Yuma which really isn’t a casino but has an eclectic collection of old memorabilia and serves food. It is a must see if in Yuma.

We left enough unseen sites that we need to go back next year,

On Monday the 18^th we left Yuma a drove back to Quartzsite but this time camped in La Posa South with our neighbors Paul and Kathy who had arrived the day before. We had a nice visit and left the next morning to take the trailer to Blythe, California to have it registered. In California the DMV has to check the VIN number when they register a trailer. So to Blythe we went. We really can’t do this at home as there is no room for a trailer at the DMV and we would be there all day. Much easier in Blythe but it still took us 2 hours to get it done.

On the way back from Blythe we stopped at a public scales just inside the Arizona border to weigh both the truck and trailer. I know how much the truck weighs but wanted to make sure I don’t overload this trailer as it has lite weight springs and wheels. With that being done, I think we are ok in the weight department if we watch what we put in the trailer.

Right now we are over weight as we had left some stuff at Jack and Judy’s which we loaded up to take home.

Speaking of Jack and Judy, we are back at their place to pick up said stuff and head for home via Lake Havasu City where we will join our Oregon friends Dick and Barbara for a few days before heading West.

Yesterday I got the necessary fittings, etc to hookup the propane heater. It really is nice to have that working again. We had been using a small electric heater supplemented by the RV furnace when needed. And lately we did need it as the weather has been cold and rainy. 

Heater in its place of honor in the RV.

Yesterday after the rain we saw lots of snow on local mountains, not something usually seen here. Today was nice with sunshine.

Ode to a camper.

In 2005, Clyda and I purchased a 2003, 32 foot Mirage 5^th wheel built by Thor Industries. This was the perfect RV for us and our life style. When we first looked at it on the RV Lifestyles lot in Quartzsite, AZ, Clyda made the comment that “I can do these steps.” Because of her knee problems, that sold me.

The unit was clean and little used, in fact it had originally been sold by Lifestyles to a customer in Scottsdale, AZ who brought it back after a year and said “sell it.” They just didn’t use it.

We, however did use it. In all we pulled it over 70,000 miles with multiple trips to Lynden, Washington, trips to Wisconsin, and many trips to Houston. So many to Houston in fact that Clyda said “Never again across West Texas.” We also did a trip cross country to the Florida East coast and Savannah, GA in 2014 with our good friends Budd and Brenda.

A year or so after we purchased it a small crack appeared at one corner of the front bedroom slide. I was told that it was a “design fault” whatever that meant.

Later, a crack appeared at the other corner of the bedroom slide. I tried to determine if the frame was giving out but that effort proved fruitless. So we continued to use the trailer. This past month, as I was starting to get ready for our annual trip to Quartzsite, AZ, I found the carpet between the bed and front closet was wet. Not only wet, but soaked. So after soaking up as much water as I could with towels, I put in a small electric heater and a fan. It still took the better part of a week to dry the carpet completely.

Son Craig discovered another crack at the top corner of the slide this time. We caulked it as best we could and hoped for the best.

So on to Quartzsite where it rained for a night and all the next day. Again, a wet carpet. Now all I had was the small electric heater and a generator for power to do the drying.

It was obvious we needed to do something. My friend Jim and I saw a small 5^th wheel trailer at a consignment lot in Quartzsite so stopped to look at it. It did look promising so the next day Clyda and I looked at it and eventually made an offer.

Long story short, we bought a 2012, 29 foot Cougar 5^th wheel built by Keystone. Our friends Jack and Judy who own property near Bouse told us to park our old trailer there, empty it out and bring the newer trailer to transfer all of our substantial belonging’s into it. It took 4 days to remove everything which filled Judy’s sewing room and left a truck load of stuff for Goodwill.

We swapped the trailers, bought new 6 volt batteries for the new trailer which already had solar installed, thank goodness, and proceeded to move as much into it as would fit. When we were done there remained much that we need to take home so we left that at Jack and Judy’s and it will be picked up on our way home.

We are getting used to the new RV but lament not having the old one as it was set up the way we wanted it to be. Will we get to like the new RV? Maybe. It does have a lot of electrical advantages, for instance, a small remote device controls both slides, the front and rear jacks and the awning. That is pretty cool. The lights are not to my liking as the old rig had all LED lights which were easy on the battery. I need to do some work on drawer slides and also to install a propane line for our propane heater. I need a new awning cover which I hope to get when I get back to Quartzsite. All in good time.

We have left Jack and Judy’s, camped with Jim and Michelle at Usery Mountain East of Mesa AZ, traveled with them to the gourd festival in Casa Grande, and moved on to Yuma, AZ for a week.

*The header photo is the new camper.

Lake Tahoe and Christmas 2018

Thursday, 22 November, 2018

This is more of the make up blog from 2018, the final installment.

We were invited to Walnut Creek for Thanksgiving again this year. The feast was to be at Cindy and Gary’s son Doug’s house. Doug and Michelle have always been kind enough to include us in there festivities for which we are most appreciative.

We drove up Thanksgiving morning with only moderate traffic and one slow down. We had a nice visit and a great meal with contributions by all who were there.

That evening we drove to Cindy and Gary’s house and spent the next few days with them. Cindy had just had a knee replacement so physical activities were not on her list. We did see a couple of movies however.

On Monday morning after Thanksgiving, we drove to Lake Tahoe where Cindy had arranged a 3 day stay at one of their Time Share’s located just below the Heavenly ski area. It was a nice 2 bedroom unit with a shared living room and kitchen.

The next morning we drove around Lake Tahoe, something Clyda and I have never done. We have been around the Western side but not the Eastern. It was very cold and windy. We did get out of the car, once, to look at the view but quickly returned to the warmth of the heater in the car.

Once around the lake we stopped at a small casino for lunch.

Clyda trying to earn money for lunch.

We did more driving around the area, saw a few more movies, and spent one day inside the unit playing Sequence and card games because we were snowed in. We were supposed to leave on Thursday but it snowed overnight and the roads were closed. Gary managed to get us an extension to our stay so we didn’t leave until Friday.

Gourmet street tacos.

The snow was beautiful. All the trees were covered like you see on Christmas cards. Unfortunately, the only photos we have were taken from the windows of the time share but you get the idea.

We drove back to Walnut Creek and then home on Saturday.

Since then we were busy with Christmas stuff like putting up the outside lights and decorations on Sunday, decorating the tree a few days later and putting all the other decorations up in the house.

Christmas day we opened presents in the morning with Craig then drove to Newberry Park to our Niece Chelsea’s house. 

Christmas morning at our house.

Her twins are now 8 years old so of course they got Hover Boards for Christmas. They did really well on them even in the house, that is until late in the day when Braedon fell and hurt his elbow. He now has a cast on his arm. He didn’t break it. I told him he needed a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads to ride a Hover board.

Later in the day we had a ginger bread house building contest. I think Clyda’s and my house was the best. 

Chelsea’s husband Steve cooked the turkey and most of the remaining part of the meal. Steve is a good cook.

That pretty much closes out 2018, except that I had a follow up Urology appointment after the holidays and Hallelujah, no kidney stones. I guess a small glass of cranberry juice in the morning and eating mostly a Whole Foods Plant Based diet is working.

*My apologies for the text size differences. I have no control over what Blogger does.