End to Las Vegas trip not as planned.

Location, at Home, CA

My trip to Las Vegas didn’t end as I had planned.

On Sunday Jan 13 we had planned to fuel our vehicles and buy groceries for our trek to Quartzsite. However, I woke up Sunday morning feeling light headed and dizzy. This continued throughout the day and I was only able to remain on my feet about 30 sec before I needed to sit or lay down.

In midafternoon I called Jeff to come and disconnect my water hose so it wouldn’t freeze overnight. He saw that I was not doing well and the result was the paramedics came and hauled me off to the nearest hospital which was North Vista in North Las Vegas.

I remained in the emergency room for 12 hours before a bed was available at 2:30 in the morning. A test showed I was bleeding internally. I had a CT scan that night, an Endoscopy the next morning, an electrocardiogram and a colonoscopy on Tuesday. All were normal. Later on Tuesday afternoon my blood count was low so I was given a unit of blood and later the count was again taken and showed normal. I was discharged just before 10 PM.

I actually spent a fairly restful night on Tuesday and the next morning I decided I would drive home with the RV. I filled the truck with fuel and got the rig ready to travel. When I was ready, I walked over to my friend Dick’s RV and he asked me to change my mind about driving. By then I realized I would not be able to drive so wheels had already been put in motion by Dick to have Jack drive up from Bouse, AZ and drive my RV down there on Thursday.

John and Connie drove Jack to Las Vegas and returned to Bouse all on Wednesday, an 8 hour round trip.

On Thursday we made an uneventful trip to Bouse while Clyda drove from home with the car to Bouse.

We decided to wait until Saturday to drive home with the car because of traffic on MLK weekend. It was almost as bad on Saturday. It is a seven and a half hour drive and Clyda did all the driving.

On Monday I had a follow up appointment with my doctor which included lab tests. All of the test came back normal or near normal. My doctor suggested I go back to Arizona and get on with life.

So, on Saturday we will fly to Phoenix and Jack and Judy will pick us up in Goodyear.

We plan to go to Casa Grande and attend the gourd festival on Feb 1-3. After that, we have no plans but will spend some more time in Arizona.

How do you put into words all the thanks to everyone who went out of their way to help me? All the guys who went to CES in Las Vegas and stayed an extra two days while I was in the hospital. They also made the arrangements for Jack to drive my RV to Bouse.

To Dick, Clint, and Jeff for changing their plans and hanging around. To John and Connie for the eight hour round trip to Las Vegas to bring Jack to drive my RV. To Jack and Judy for letting me once again recuperate at their Bouse abode. It’s becoming a habit.

To all of them, thank you.

Location, Las Vegas, NV

The Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas is history for 2013. Today was the final day of what was reputed to be the largest show ever by floor space sold. Was it the largest attendance ever? I don’t know but there were about 150,000 people here.

The show is spread over three main sites. The Las Vegas Convention Center, the Venetian Expo Center, and the Las Vegas Hotel (LVH)

It is a mind boggling experience to attend this show as the vendor booths for the larger companies are something to see. No little 10x10 booths here but huge, spare no expense spaces with multimedia presentations, plus carpeting, and show girls in skimpy dress.

 Sony's very large display with images projected on a circular screen.

 

How about a 110 inch TV screen?

 

Talk about a low-rider. Look at that speaker in the bed.

 

Here is a gyroscope stabilized wheel. It goes 10 MPH.

Of course, not all displays are so ostentatious as many are “mom and pop” entrepreneurs trying to find that venture capital to bring their product to market. They come from all over the world as do many attendees. A large contingent comes from China and other Asian counties, each with their small sample of products to display.

There are auto companies both foreign and domestic, a huge audio section which includes car stereos on steroids. All the major electronic manufactures with such companies as Panasonic, Samsung, LG Electronics, Intel, Toshiba, and Sony who had by far the largest display.

Outside of the show is an army of busses, drivers, caterers, cleaning people, and on and on who make all of this possible. Getting around this part of Las Vegas is a nightmare during the show. Parking near the convention center is $40 a day. Because it is cheaper and far easier for us, we take a bus from Circus-Circus casino to and from the show.

Because we have been doing this for many years we have developed a routine which has served us well. We drive from the RV Park to Circus-Circus at 8:30 AM and catch a bus direct to the show. At 3:30 PM we again catch a bus back to Circus-Circus and take our car back to the RV Park.

From 9:00 AM when the doors open until 3:30 PM when we leave is about all we can stand as our feet, legs and hips have had it for the day. Two Aleve helps us get ready for the next day.


Did I see anything really spectacular at this years show? Not really. This year was all about connectivity in the computing world. Your car connected to your house, to your music, to the TV, to the “Cloud”.

In this respect Ford announced a marketing agreement with Whirlpool. Some wag in the crowd suggested that Ford was going to put a wash machine in every car. Not so! They will however address the connecting of home devices through your car so as to control things like dishwashers and wash machines to turn on in low electric usage part of the day.

It is all about “being green” and saving energy.

Of course there is the collecting of what we call “swag” as in the days of pirates. Another words, what is someone giving away that we can get for free. It becomes a game and each night during “cocktail hour” we display our “swag” and determine who had the best collection for that day. All in great fun of course but with an ulterior motive. By so displaying our “swag” we get to tell where we found it so the rest of the group can check it out the next day if they happened to miss it.

A wonderful Christmas day!

Location, at Home, CA

We had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday!

Our niece Chelsea invited us to her house to spend the day. Clyda and I supply the BBQ'ed turkey and a ham and they supply the remainder of the meal. Her husband Steve does the cooking and a really great job it is.

I cooked the turkey on Christmas eve about mid-day. I keep an old Weber BBQ kettle around just for that. Here are some photos of the process.

 I light the charcoal with an electric starter. No fumes from starter fluid that way.

I put my charcoal in groups of five briquets, ready to add five to a side every 30 minutes.

Aluminum pan ready to put under the bird with 1/2 inch of water in it to add moisture and catch those all important drippings for gravy.

Rosemary ready to be add to the grill when I add charcoal. It adds flavor to the smoke.

I use a rack to hold the turkey up-right. No real need for the chains for a smaller bird. The pan is only used to carry the bird to the grill.

I add a quartered onion to the cavity and some sprigs of rosemary.

I baste the outside with a mixture of chopped rosemary, olive oil, and pepper.

Briquets are ready and I have added 5 new briquets to each side.

Five more will be added to each side every 30 minutes. I do this by sliding the lid sideways and dropping the briquets through the hole provided in the grill. The lid is never removed to retain the heat during cooking.

Turkey is on the rack over the drip pan ready to cook. It will cook for 11-13 minutes per lb.

In this case a 13 lb turkey will cook for 3 hours and reach an internal temperature measured in the thigh with a thermometer of 170 degrees.

Three hours later. Perfectly done! The gravy is to die for!

I am limited to a 12-13 pound turkey by the size of the BBQ. I don't want the turkey to touch the lid. I have been doing turkeys to perfection this way for years.

I also have a lot of rosemary as I have two hedges built from the Tuscan Blue variety. It comes in handy at Thanksgiving or Christmas time.

Baby, its cold!

Location, at Home, CA

Dang! It’s cold outside!

It really was cold when I walked at 7 AM this morning. There was very little frost because of the low humidity but I did notice a pickup truck with some leftover rain water in the bed with a skim of ice on the water.

As I got to the back stretch of my walk I heard the wind machines in the lemon and orange orchards running. It sounds like a squadron of helicopters being warmed up for a flight.

Even with the low temps, we can’t complain too much. We have no snow and the temps do moderate during the day. It is warm in the sun but very cool in the shade. Usually these cold spells dissipate after a few days and we go back to our normal temperatures with lows in the 40’s and highs in the 60’s.

I think the majority of the Christmas shopping is done around here except for last minute things. Clyda is making tamales tomorrow and has the pork filing cooking in a slow cooker, the prepared masa ready, and the corn husks ready to soak. She has a steamer with a basket in it to do the proper cooking which takes an hour.

Along with the good comes some bad as in, the wash machine has issues with the spin cycle, the dryer timer won’t go all the way to off by itself. The buzzer sounds when the cloths are dry but the drum keeps turning. I tried to start the lawn mower this afternoon (a job Craig usually does) but no go. It is just plain wore out I guess. I foresee some cash out lays in the New Year.

We had some legal work done today and one of the requirements was a networth statement. Doing one forces you to take a hard look at what your assets are and what they are worth. It can be a real eye opener.

I have been slowly looking at what needs to go in the RV for my upcoming trip after the New Year. As I think of things I put them in and mark them off on a check sheet I keep. Without that check sheet I would be lost. 

I really need to wash the rig but it is too cold to do an adequate job at this time. Maybe next week. Ha-ha. I looked into having it done while in Las Vegas but the mobile units there want $125 and up to do the job. Besides, I doubt if the RV park will allow it.

 The stockings are hung by the chimney with care!

Updating the blog.

Location, at Home, CA

I am way behind in my blogging as usual lately.

We spent a long weekend in Walnut Creek with Cindy and Gary over Thanksgiving. They invite us every year and we are grateful for that.

The ladies shopped on “Black Friday” while the guys watched football. On Saturday we drove to Oakland and took the ferry to Fisherman’s Wharf where we took a boat tour of the bay which included passing under both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge. The weather was perfect for a boat ride.

Cindy, Gary, Clyda, and I on boat tour of San Francisco Bay.

Under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Crowds on Pier 39

On Sunday we drove to Napa and sampled champagne at Mumm Cellars and walked around St Helena. Again the weather was perfect. We drove home on Monday without all the traffic hassles of a holiday weekend to contend with.

Champagne tasting at Mumm Cellars.

We made a quick trip to Houston over the weekend of December 1^st to celebrate our anniversary with the grandkids. They weren’t able to be here for our actual celebration in October and we felt it was important that they celebrate with us.

We all went to dinner on Saturday evening which turned out to be just great. We were so pleased to have Matthew and Ivy, Tim and Diane, and Bill and Marilyn (Diane’s parents) all enjoy the great meal. We felt it was important for Matthew and Ivy to celebrate with two sets of grandparents who have both celebrated 50 years of marriage.

After dinner with family in Houston.

Both our flights going and coming from Houston were fine. Both were on regional jets but not uncomfortable. We did have a few hours wait in Los Angeles on the way home but spent the time reading and people watching.

We spent a day with our niece Chelsea and the twins. I can’t call them babies anymore as they will be 2 years old in a few days and are perpetual moving bodies. A couple of hours chasing them and we are wore out.

Braedon and his apple.

Stella.

I am starting to get things together for our upcoming trip in January. The trailer badly needs a good washing. Maybe tomorrow I can start on that.

I’m afraid that Christmas this year will be mostly an on-line thing. Easier to do than real shopping anyway.