Location, at Home, CA

Over the last few days I have had a unique experience, at least unique for me.

Last summer I purchased a new Dell PC with a Blu-ray DVD/CD player. I had no reason to use it so much to my surprise when I did try to use it around the holidays last year it didn’t work. It kept rejecting the disc.

A call to Dell support and a new unit was shipped to a local tech group for in-home installation. A few days later the tech brought the new unit and installed in 10 minutes. All seemed to check out ok.

However, a few weeks after that, the new unit again rejected any disc I put in.

I finally called Dell support again and they had me run a diagnostic test which showed the unit had a bad spindle. Another unit would be sent to the tech group. A day or so later I received a call that the unit no longer was in stock but they would offer me a new unit which was like my old one but included a Blu-ray writer. Suweet! What a deal.

Yesterday the tech installed it and after checking read and write functions, all is good. Will I ever use the Blu-ray options? I doubt it. But then again, who knows.

I have a 26 inch Vizio LCD TV in the RV. It started having vertical lines on the left side of the screen. My warranty is due to run out in a few weeks so I put in a call to the “Big Box” store support service where I bought the TV. They called Vizio who wanted photos of the unit and the vertical lines.

Yesterday Vizio called and said the unit would be replaced. Today they called and said that particular unit was out of stock and would I “accept an upgraded LED TV which is just slightly smaller in width” than my original.  Would I? Of course I would. The original unit was 720p and the new unit is 1080p. What more could I ask?

I must say that both Dell and Vizio stepped up to their responsibilites in replacing faulty units. For that I am grateful.

 
A good week except for my cold.

Spring Break in Las Vegas.

Location, at Home, CA

Another busy week completed!

On Sunday we drove to Tehachapi and spent the night with friends Budd and Brenda. Monday morning about 10 AM we left Tehachapi and drove to Las Vegas to meet our son Tim and family. They were driving from Houston while on spring break.

We met late in the evening at the Silverton Casino where we will be staying for 4 days.

The next 3 days were filled with seeing the sights and included lots of walking as we visited Casinos, malls, and other tourist sites. Matthew and Ivy were intrigued by the spray can artists on Fremont Street. They rode the zip line at Fremont Street, and the roller coaster at New York – New York.

Tim and Matthew with a couple of "Show girls" on Fremont Street.

Ivy with her dessert.

Matthew and Ivy waiting at the top of the zip line.

In the air!

Texas family at New York-New York.

Ivy's painting in progress.

While Tim and Family toured Hoover Dam on Wednesday, Clyda and I paid a visit to O’Sheas Casino which will close on March 31^st and be demolished to make way for a project called Linq. It will be a shopping and entertainment area located between Imperial Palace and The Flamingo Casinos. It is always sad to see all the old casinos demolished to make way for something new.

On Thursday night Tim and I attended an Umphrey’s McGee concert at the Silverton.

(From Wikipedia)

Umphrey's McGee or UM is an American progressive rock jam band based in Chicago whose music is often referred to as "progressive improvisation", or "improg" (as per a progressive sampler released by the band in 2009). Although the band is part of the jam band scene, like Phish and the Grateful Dead (with ever-changing setlists, improvisation, two sets per night, open taping policy, etc.), they are much more influenced musically by progressive rock bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Frank Zappa, and early Genesis, as well as heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden. The band also identifies The Police, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin as primary influences.^[1]. UM experiments with many genres including progressive rock, funk, jazz, blues, metal, electronic, bluegrass, and everything in between.

Tim has been following the band for several years. One of the reasons he came to Las Vegas was to see the band perform. Diane decided she would rather not see the band this time so Tim invited me to attend in her place.

The venue was a large semi-permanent tent in the Silverton back lot with standing room only, no chairs except for handicapped people. The band played from 9 PM to Midnight with a 25 minute break. The first song lasted 15 minutes while the second lasted 40 minutes. The music they played was a harder rock beat than what is featured on their released music.

Several people at the concert asked me if the “music was what I expected?” I knew going in what the music was going to be as I have some on my iPod. I think what they were really asking was “how come a white haired old man like me was at the concert”.

I did enjoy it as it was loud but not too bad and really had a beat. Also, the improvisation with each song was intriguing. I listened to Satellite Radio channel 29 called Jam-on on the way home and caught 2 songs by Umphrey’s McGee. The songs were good but not as good as in person.

On Friday, we drove home arriving about 5:15 PM.

 
It rained about an inch Friday night with scattered showers yesterday. This morning the snow on the mountains is about 2000 foot level which makes it cold here.

Some thoughts on Kauai, HI.

Location, at Home, CA

I have had some thoughts on our visit to Kauai last week.

Kauai is called the “Garden Island” because it rains a lot and is lush and green. That certainly was true for this trip which also results in lots of waterfalls. Those were lacking when we first visited several years ago.

It can rain very hard in one area and 100 yards away be very dry. We used that knowledge on Sunday to drive to the west side of the island and visit Wiamea Canyon where the sun was shining.

Parking lots flood. Park on high ground.

Houses are built inside of old volcano vents. I wonder who finances those? Of course, the whole island is the remains of volcanos so where else would you build?

Nobody uses an umbrella. So you get wet. No one cares. If you carry an umbrella, you are from off island.

Chickens are everywhere. Don’t feed them. Remarkably few are killed by cars.

Swimming pools are not heated except by the sun. So go in the summer or fall for the best pool time and less rain.

Bring your own grocery bags as none are supplied by the stores. You just might end up carrying everything in your hands so bring a friend shopping.

Everything is recycled. Help by doing your part.

Don’t even think about bringing home a fancy plant or fruit. Everything is inspected by the Agriculture Department before you check your bags for your flight.

Airport facilities are minimal. Hopefully you are under a roof when it rains or there is no rain while you board your flight as there are no jetways.

 
Have a nice trip!

Kauai, Hawaii

Location, at Home, CA

We are home from our Hawaii trip. Arrived here about 6 PM last night.

On Friday the 25^th we drove to Walnut Creek and spent the night at our friends Cindy and Gary’s house. Saturday morning about 4:30 we all got up and drove to the Oakland airport for a 7:30 AM flight on Alaska Air to Kauai, HI. I drove our car and left it at an off airport lot for the week.

The flight was 5 hours and 30 minutes long which is a long time to sit in those airplane seats. We arrived at 1 PM Hawaii time, picked up the rental car and drove to Costco to stock up on food. The condo has a full kitchen and we prefer to eat in most meals. After getting more food at a local grocery store, we drove to Po’iPu’ which is about 30 minutes driving time in normal weather. It had started to rain and came down quit heavy.

We eventually arrived at the resort which is called “The Point at Po’iPu’ “ and is a Diamond International Resort. The Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck was featured in the season premiere of Undercover Boss (US) on January 15, 2012. We actually saw that episode.

Our condo was on the fourth floor of a four story building with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, separated by a full kitchen, living room, and dining area. It also had a veranda with table and chairs. It also had 3 flat screen TV’s. Very Nice!

The rain continued all Saturday night, very heavy at times and tapered off Sunday afternoon. The airport reported almost 7 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Sunday afternoon we drove west to Wiamea Canyon and actually found some sunshine. The waterfalls were spectacular.

On Tuesday we drove up the east side of the island to Hanalei and again the waterfalls were terrific.

We lay around the pool, drank Mai Tai’s at happy hour, explored the Magnificent Grand Hyatt Resort nearby, drove lots of island roads, and in general had a great time.

The pool at the resort.

Koi ponds above pool.

The point with the resort in the background.

"Spouting Horn at Po"iPu"

Chickens are everywhere after Hurricane Iniki blew them all over the island.

Wailua Falls near Lihue, the islands biggest town.

Shipwreck beach in front of the Grand Hyatt Resort.

Sunset over the point.

On Saturday morning, Gary and Cindy dropped us off at the airport for a 10 AM flight to Honolulu while they had a later flight which took them to Maui for another week in paradise.

We flew from Honolulu to Kona on the big island with a 3 hour plus layover before our Alaska flight lefty at 4 PM. We arrived back in Oakland about 11 PM.

We picked up the car and thanks to Cindy who had printed out coupons from online, we didn’t pay any parking fee for the week. Thanks Cindy!

We drove back to Walnut Creek and stayed overnight at Cindy and Gary’s house and entertained the cat. We drove home on Sunday.

Great trip!

Home and getting ready to go again.

Location, at Home, CA

I had a terrible night Saturday. It felt like something was stuck in my stomach or intestines. The pain was terrible. I walked the floor and tried every remedy I could think of but all to no avail until after 3 AM. I slept fitfully until 7 AM and then got up. I wasn’t hungery but did eat a yogurt.

 
We got the RV ready for travel, dumped the tanks, and hit the road about 8:30 AM. The weather report called for winds all day until 9 PM but they only were light when we started out. By the time we got to Palm Springs it was a struggle to maintain 50 MPH. With the head winds I used ¼ tank of fuel in 60 miles.

The winds died after we went over the pass into Cabazon and we had no further winds all the way home. The remainder of the trip used just over ¼ tank of fuel. A big difference.

We stopped in Fillmore for a late lunch and were home by 2:20 Pm.

Now we need to get our things together in preparation for our trip to Hawaii on Friday. This morning I took the car in for new tires. The old ones are the originals which had 36,000 miles on them and are over 5 years old.

A hundred thousand and counting.

Location, Indio, CA
The odometer on the truck turned over 100,000 miles on our way back from Anza Borrego State Park today while driving north on Hwy 86S just north of Salton City. It had 32,000 miles on it when we bought it in 2005.

I need to recap the last few days.

On Wednesday the jeep club at the RV Park in Benson does a 4-wheel drive trip. It was the one reason we stayed longer than planned so I could do the trip.

The group left at 9:30 AM with 7 jeeps and 13 people. The goal was to go to Chimney Rock, where ever that was. We drove west on I-10 to east Tucson then north on Houghton road to Taque Verde Road. Taque Verde climbs to the east which afforded great views of Tucson.

About mile marker 10 we turned off the road onto a rocky ledge which climbed then descended into a wash. For the next several hours we climbed ridges, dropped down into washes, road over boulders, crossed small steams, passed large water holes, and in general bounced around. At times there was snow on the ground in protected places from Tuesday’s storm. Around noon we stopped in a wash for lunch. Everyone pulled out a chair and sat in a circle while we ate and talked.

After lunch, the trip continued until my driver slid a front passenger wheel off the road which put us in a very precarious position. The jeep was sitting with 3 wheels on rocks which moved and was very close to sliding off the road into the canyon.

You can tell by the slant of our bodies how steep the slope is.

Notice the sign on the bumper. It says " What could possibly go wrong".

It pays to add some weight to the uphill side to prevent the Jeep from sliding down hill.

The jeep following had a winch so the cables was passed through a pulley to the jeep ahead and than back to our front bumper. The winch pulled us back on the road easily. Just another Jeep adventure.

We continued on to Chimney Rock which is a rock monolith sticking up from the surrounding ground. There also are lots of rocks in the area which are great for climbing with the jeeps. I wish I had taken a video of the action.

Shortly after leaving Chimney Rock we again got on the original road at mile marker 12. Our entire off road driving only gained us 2 miles along the original road.

The drive home was on a fairly good dirt road so we maintained a good speed. We got back to the RV Park about 5:30.

On Thursday we left Benson and drove to the Elks Club at Casa Grande where we have stayed for the last several years. For $5 a night, no hookups, it is a bargain. In the afternoon we drove west to Stanfield which is all very large dairy farms then north to Maricopa before returning to Casa Grande.

We visited Clyda’s cousin Rodney and wife Claralyn for a while before going to dinner at Chili’s. After dinner we returned to the RV for a piece of Claralyn’s Red Velvet Cake. While we talked, a thunderstorm moved through the area but was more sound than fury. We only had a few sprinkles.

Friday we drove to Indio, CA and pulled into the Elks Club where we have stayed before. At first glance, it looked like the camp sites were all full with large motor homes but they said there were sites available so we paid for 2 days.

The annual Date Festival is this weekend so the town is full of vehicles and pedestrians. The weather is very nice.

Today we drove south to Anza Borrego State Park. We have never been there so decided to check it out. It is about a 130 mile round trip. We drove down Hwy 86S to Salton City before turning west to the park. Along the road to the park is filled with off roaders camped for the long weekend with all there “toys”.

We stopped at the park visitor center and watched a movie and picked up a map. I decided to drive to Yaqui Wells before we had lunch. Yaqui Wells is a road junction with a campground for tenters. We ate in the truck.

After lunch we drove back on Hwy 78 to Ocotillo Wells and then back to Indio via Hwy 86S.

Before going back to the Elks Club we went to Shields Date farm for a date shake. They are very large for $3.75 but way too sweet for our tastes. I like the ones at China Ranch outside of Tecopa, NV better.

Happy Valentines Day!

Location, Benson, AZ

For the past several days I have been waffling about doing a trip from Benson, around a mountain, and ending up in Tucson. The hesitation on my part had to do with the approximately 60 miles of off road driving. Our truck is just too big and heavy to do this kind of trip. Also, the weather didn’t look like it was going to cooperate with the possibilities of rain and snow.

So, this morning we decided to go to Willcox and visit the Marty Robbins and Rex Allen museums which are near to each other but separated by a wine tasting room.

The Marty Robbins museum charges $1 per person to view the highlights of his life. It takes about a half hour to view everything.

The Rex Allen museum however charges $3 per couple and it takes much longer to see everything. Rex had a long life of music and movies and was friends with all the stars of the 50’s and 60’s. This is well documented in the museum.

There is a life sized bronze statue of him across the street. His horse KoKo is buried at the foot of the statue and Rex’s ashes are scattered near the statue.

The weather had turned cold and windy but we decided to drive south to Chiricahua National Monument while in the neighborhood. It is about a 35 to 40 mile drive from Willcox.

Along the way we passed through brief rain showers, the town of Dos Cabesas (two heads in Spanish) before entering the canyon within the Monument.

We stopped at the headquarters to pick up a map and register our Golden Age pass. Because it was so cold and windy we ate a quick lunch in the truck.

Driving up the canyon reminded us of Bryce Canyon National Park. The rock columns are impressive. As we climbed in altitude it started to snow, more like ice pellets than snow. There was a fire in the monument last summer which burned 220,000 acres. One effect of the fire is that the rock formations are more visible.

We reached the end of the road at Massai point. There are lots of hiking trails but the wind was so strong and still spitting ice pellets that we didn’t spend much time outside the truck.

As we drove down the canyon we stopped at several lookouts and drove through the one campground within the monument. No sites big enough for a rig of our size that’s for sure.

We did stop at the last point of interest which is Faraway Ranch which was a guest ranch from 1917 to 1973. The walk was only a few hundred yards but the wind made it really – really cold. We didn’t stay long. One picture had to suffice.

We came back via a different route through the town of Sunsites to Dragoon Road and I-10. The sky to the west was black on top and brown down low. The brown was dust blowing from farmer’s fields while the black was rain.

We arrived back at the RV after a trip of 175 miles and found a small snow bank on the west side of the RV. Not sure how much it snowed but it is 41 degrees at 6 PM.