Update of past week.

Location, at Home, CA

After spending more than a week away from home over Thanksgiving, we returned today. This is a shortened version of our week away from home.

We spent 6 days with our friends Cindy and Gary in Walnut Creek over Thanksgiving with side trips to the Napa Valley and Nevada City. We had a really nice Thanksgiving with Cindy and Gary and got in some shopping on Friday.

The fall colors were spectacular in Walnut Creek and Napa. We visited Mumm Champagne Cellars and sampled some really nice champagne. Here are some pictures.

The grape orchards had really vivid colors.

On Monday we drove to Tehachapi and visited Budd and Brenda. It was good to spend time with them. We managed to get in a few card games, some Pegs and Jokers, and a round of Checkit. The weather was really nice yesterday.

We drove home through the wind on Hwy 138 but it was nice and 75 degrees after that.

Water every where.

Location, at Home, CA

We woke up to rain this morning. Actually it was quite a downpour when I left for church at 7:10 AM. The gutters were running full but the streets were not too bad. I checked the rain gauge a little while ago and it showed almost 1 ¾ inch so far.

There has been a bad odor in the car when I drove it Friday so last evening I started to investigate. I pulled everything out of the back compartment and then removed the spare tire cover. There was water in the bottom of the well the spare lies in. The cushion the spare lays on is made of old rags and it was soaked. That is where the smell was coming from. I pulled everything out and dried out about a quart of water. I hung the cushion over a bar to drip. It needs to lie in the sun, whenever that comes out, to dry completely.

With all the rain we had this morning I thought there would be water in the spare tire well but so far there isn’t any. Tomorrow we will run a hose over the back and see if it gets wet.

I also had water in one of the side compartments in the RV again. I had replaced the seal but I guess I need to take another look at that. Bummer.

We will be gone over Thanksgiving so I doubt if I will blog.

Synopsis of my annual Fall Trip.

Location, at Home, CA

After a nice long trip it is hard to get back in the routine, especially updating the blog.

I think a synopsis will have to do for this trip as there wasn’t any internet available so no daily updates were possible.

I left home about 7:15 AM on Oct 18^th headed for the Boron rest stop on Hwy 58 East of Mohave. Traffic was light and I arrived about noon after a short stop in Mohave for food and fuel.

Dick arrived about 12:30 and we decided to go on to Baker and spend the night behind the Mad Greek Restaurant in their big parking lot.

We used the 19^th to go over our schedule for the trip and to make sure all was ready when the remainder of the crew arrived.

Everyone else arrived before dark so we had a meal together at the Mad Greek.

On the 20^th we moved to Las Vegas where we will spend the next four days.

Saturday we drove to a petroglyph site South of Boulder City which is situated in a canyon. This was an easy drive with some very good rock art. On Sunday we drove South of Las Vegas to Sloan Canyon, another petroglyph site which is located in a canyon and requires a 1.1 mile hike and some rock scrambling to view the extensive rock art. Here the petroglyphs are located on individual rocks with only a few on panels. Lots of real nice rock art here.

Keyhole Canyon.

Rock Art in Sloan Canyon.

On Monday we left Las Vegas and drove to Pahrump, NV where we topped off our fuel and proceeded to the Tecopa BLM camping area. Our site of the last few years was unoccupied so we circled all the rigs. This site has spectacular views but can be nasty if the wind blows and blow it did but only for a day. No one got much sleep while the wind blew as the RV rocks so much that you wake up with every large gust.

We had four 4x4 trips scheduled here and we managed to do all of them. A new map showed us all the allowed 4x4 corridors through the wilderness and the National Park.

 Saratoga Springs.

Picking our way down China Ranch Wash.

Railroad cut through China Ranch Wash.

A well earned date shake at China Ranch.

On Friday Oct 28^th we moved to Sunset Campground at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park. We kicked back on Saturday and moved to the Furnace Creek Campground where we had reservations for two weeks.

While in Death Valley we took several 4x4 trips. The most spectacular was a long trip to Panamint Valley and up Pleasant Canyon with a return down South Park Canyon. We saw lots of mining areas, cable ways to remove ore from high on the mountains, wild burros, mines, old cars, and cabins which are available for anyone’s use. Just hoist the flag while you are there to let others know the place is occupied.

Cable in Pleasant Canyon.

A very rough road in South Park Canyon.

We explored an area where we had found early man evidence last year. This area has many sites which coincide with the areas in other parts of Death Valley.

Rock Alignment in Death Valley.

We visited the old town sites of Furnace, Kunze, and Greenwater which are within Death Valley.

The last 4 days in the valley were spent partaking of the events that are part of the Death Valley 49er days. The finale is the playoffs for the fiddle contest winner on Saturday night.

We left Sunday morning Nov 13 and again drove to Baker and a spot behind the Mad Greek where we watched all the southbound traffic on I-15 which was stop and go. The heavy weekend traffic from Las Vegas slows in this area and creates a 60 mile backup because of the Agricultural Inspection Station north of Barstow, CA. Even though no actual inspection takes place, all vehicles must slow to pass through the station.

I drove home on Monday Nov 14. I had a little wind but still made it hear by 1:30 PM.

Last minute items before I leave.

Location, at Home, CA

Well, time is slipping away. I have been working diligently this past week on the to-do list for the fall trip.

I leave Tuesday morning so that only leaves one day to finish up. I have several major items on my list for tomorrow that remain to be done.

The most vexing is the one tire on the RV which is not holding air. I set the air pressure at 80 PSI for each tire and expect a small amount of leakage over a few weeks. This tire however was at 45 lbs which is not good. I inflated it to 80 PSI yesterday and it was down to 77.5 this morning. I will check it tomorrow morning but suspect I need to remove it and have it checked at Big O in town. I really don’t want to leave with a bad tire and need to inflate it every day. That is a pain.

The other 2 major items are grocery shopping and a physical tomorrow afternoon. The physical is my annual so I need to get it done. The health carrier I have has been after me to get it.

I don’t know how much time I will have for the next week and a half to update this blog but I will try.

Moving forward.

Location, at Home, CA

 
I did buy a 1.5 TB hard drive as a backup for all my files. Actually, it is a backup to the backup as I have another drive I also use. Can’t have too many backups!
 
I am still working on plans for our annual fall trip. I think I now have all the facts together. We have had two drop out from our original bunch. It tends to happen every year. It is very hard to plan 6 or more months in advance with a large group of people.

We do have enough 4x4 vehicles this year so that is one less worry. We have three vehicles and only 7 people which makes it comfortable especially as most of the driving is off highway. A crowded vehicle is uncomfortable.
 
I washed the front and back of the RV today. The bugs really were stuck tight to the front. They were an accumulation from 6000 miles of driving. I also waxed the front but it is hard to tell I did anything. The gel-coat has lost its shine and wax doesn’t seem to bring it back. It just makes the surface smoother.

Cleanup and prepairing next trip.

Location, at Home, CA

This week was taken up by clean up duties after being on the road for two months. Actually, one day short of two months.

We stayed at Morro Bay until Monday morning and of course the weather was nicer by Monday. We played lots of Mexican Train and Tony won 9 out of 13 hands in one game. The game lasted until 11 PM on Sunday.

The trailer is just about ready for the next trip. I need to wash the bugs off the front and look at a problem in the cabinet under the TV. The wall next to the refrigerator cabinet seems to be collapsing at the bottom. Without pulling the refrigerator from its cabinet I would guess there is not enough bracing in the wall to take the bouncing of the refer weight. For now I think I will put a brace on the TV side of the wall but eventually, the refer has to come out to do a proper job. Ooooh… Budd! Looks like a job for us!

Thanks to Budd both at the start of our trip this summer and at the end when he helped me with several blinds. The cords eventually give out so the solution is to remove the day part of the shade and only use the night portion. This puts less stress on the cords.

My days are filled with plans for our fall trip. I think I have the actual 4x4 trips well in hand but other logistics need to be done ASAP. We need reservations in Las Vegas for 4 days, food assignments need to be done (my job). Menus need to be planned (we all take turns cooking), groceries need to be bought, etc. It is always a busy time.

I had a real scare yesterday. I bought a new Dell desktop computer just before we went on our summer trip so I am spending a lot of time trying to figure out how Windows 7 works. Yesterday I turned it on in the morning, read my email then went off to do errands for a few hours. When I came back I went to bring the computer out of hibernation which I always do during the day. I pushed the power button and nothing happened. Well, something did happen as in the power light blinked but the hard drive didn’t spin up. Uh.. Oh..

Early in their life, 1TB hard drives were known to fail frequently and I thought that is what happened. I called Dell support (India?) and after a few minutes the tech asked me to unplug the unit. As I reached behind the CPU the power cord fell into my hand. Problem solved! I plugged the CPU in when I first started it up back in July so I don’t know how the cord got loose.

Anyway, disaster averted.

However, I do plan to buy a 1 or 2 TB external hard drive to back everything up on as an insurance policy.

Back at home after 2 months on the road.

Location, At Home, CA

The problem with having multiple computers is not remembering what you did on one vs the other. I have been using the Acer Netbook while on the road to write the blog each day.  Now that I am home I use the Dell desktop to update the blog. I don’t remember what I wrote about last so I had better check the blog on-line I guess.

Oh! I see that I last posted on Friday. So to bring you up to date from then.

We spent the weekend with great friends at the beach in Morro Bay, CA. We played lots of Mexican Train, and a new game Tony had made. Tony loaned Budd the game board as a pattern so Budd can make more. Budd will be under the gun to get them done before Tony and Joanne go through Tehachapi on their way to Death Valley in late October.

We played a long game of Mexican Train Sunday night with Tony and Joanne. Of the 13 hands in a double twelve game, Tony won 9! I know he cheats! Maybe he is just lucky.

Budd and Brenda, Kori, and Jessica left for home after cooking us a nice breakfast of waffles and sausage on Sunday.

We decided the weekend was so much fun that we made reservations for next year in April and added Paul and Kathy to the group.

We drove home Monday morning and have been on the go ever since. I don’t think the wash machine has quit running since we got home. Of course, unpacking all the stuff that gets put in nooks and crannies takes time. The refer was unpacked right away so we had food for Monday night, but it still needs to be cleaned tomorrow. All will be done in a day or so.