A Start Back To “Normalcy” (Perhaps…)

Posted on May 9, 2021 by rvrrat520

It has been a while since the last post, but not a whole lot of interesting shenanigans has occurred so this will be a really really really short update. We have spent the better part of the last 3+ months in the socialist state of Kalifornia, tending to some routine medical issues and helping take care of Jeanne’s mom. We finally decided to up-anchor and flee the state again. Not all of our stay in Kalifornia was consumed by healthcare tedium. While in Redding we happened upon a small car show at the Elk’s Lodge, “Runnin’ On Empty” and got the opportunity to check out some fine rides all gussied up by their owners (it actually shamed me into giving Rosie a good wash & wax while parked at Jeanne’s brother David’s house.)

In our runs back to Santa Rosa (our hub of medical care providers), we also managed to attend our grandson Max’s little league game. I’m about fed up with watching the youth of our country be forced to wear face diapers while participating OUTDOORS in youth sports! Our daughter Jenn told us that it is so bad, neighbors have actually taken photos of the game days where players and attendees were not wearing masks, then sent the photos into the league with complaints. A definite sad state of affairs…

This past week was our grand finale this time around with all three grandkids. We grabbed 5 days at the Jellystone RV Resort (Tower Park) in the Terminous area of Lodi, CA and the first two days Max & his mom came over from Santa Rosa and stayed with us. It was the Mayday weekend and the place was absolutely packed! But Max (9 years old) had fun anyways. The park has a very large pool and water park type area as well as other typical activities for the kids like the bounce pillow, basketball court, monkey bar play areas, lazer tag, mini-golf and gem mining to name a few. After we tried (unsuccessfully) to wear Max out, we met our son Chad and picked up our granddaughters Hailey (5 years old) and Ellie (3 years old) to try to do the same to them. They got the experience of being there midweek, offseason, and nearly deserted. Alas, we failed to wear the two girls out also. The only downfall during our stay is that every day but one we felt like we were in a huge wind/dust storm.

Jellystone Park in our rear-view, we returned Hailey & Ellie to Chad & Crissy, then began our trek out of state. We are aiming for South Dakota for now, but nothing is ever set in stone, which is exactly the way we like it. So that has us caught up for now, hoping to start making memories by the truckload so I can begin boring you out of your minds, er, uh, I mean keep you updated more frequently. Until next post…

C’mon, Man, Give Me a Brake/Break!

Posted on March 4, 2021 by rvrrat520

Yeah, it’s been a while, but not a lot to catch up to. A lot of family stuff keeping us on the left coast, but we did manage to sneak over to southern Nevada for some alone time. First stop was bee-you-tee-full Pahrump, Nevada where we spent a couple weeks hangin’ at the Pair-A-Dice SKP park. With the insane China-virus-hysteria still in full force, going places and trying to live life normally is still nigh on impossible. The really nice thing about Pahrump is it is surrounded by open desert, with scads of areas to head out to in the Jeep and cap a few rounds off to relieve some of the daily pressures (OK, so the only limit on the number of rounds I capped was the severe pain-in-the-ass shortage of ammunition available in any of the gun & shooting supply stores).

Heading, yet again back into “unfriendly territory” that is, Kalifornia, we wanted to do a few days of boondocking on the west side of Death Valley, a place known as the Panamint Valley dispersed camping area. This would turn out to be more of an adventure than we bargained for. Taking Hwy. 190 west through Death Valley, between Stovepipe Wells & Panamint Springs, we encountered a “glitch”. Now having been full-timing on the road for over 8 years, ocean to ocean and passing through all of the lower 48, I have traversed some of the steepest grades this country has to offer. But on this particular trip, I have found one of the worst. The above mentioned section of Hwy. 190 happens to contain a 9 mile stretch of 9% downhill grade. Thus far I have been able to manage all grades utilizing my lower gears coupled with my engine brake. Any brake use has been infrequent pumping just to take the edge off my RPM’s. But 6 miles into this downhill we got nailed with “that odor”. I immediately found a skinny piece of shoulder to pull off and stop. As I opened the door, the tell-tale “wisps” of smoke were emanating from my front wheels. Ouch. So there we sat, staring off at the flat valley floor 3 miles ahead. After a 30 minute “brake” break, I fired ol’ Rosie up and continued downhill. Not wishing to even touch my brake pedal, I made it down the remaining 3 miles using only first & second gears with the engine brake and absolutely no brake pedal use. Whheeeeeewwwwww! We made it to the dispersed camping area just west of the road to Ballarat and gleefully set up for a big “brake” break, 3 night’s worth, to be exact.

Being this close to the ghost town of Ballarat, we just HAD to see it. It was a mere few miles drive down the dirt road (don’t worry, all you “pavement Princesses” out there, no high clearance or 4×4 necessary) to get to the “center of town”. This was about as disappointing as a “ghost town” could be. There were a couple of mud walls here and there, old metal parts and pieces scattered about, and one whole building with a sign designating it the “Ballarat Jail-Morgue 1898”. I have my suspicions as to the authenticity of the sign.

Just walls left on all but one building in “town”

Seeing we had been to Death Valley on a few prior trips, there was not much to try and see. But we were close to the Windrose Charcoal Kilns so we took the slow drive up into the hills. The kilns were used by the early miners to create the fuels (charcoal, I presume) used for smelting. We found them to be pretty well preserved.

The really big downer about this time around in Death Valley, it happened to be nearly full moons all 3 nights. If you are not aware of it, Death Valley is an international Dark Sky Park. Needless to say, skies aren’t much dark if there is a big ol’ lit up cheese ball right in the middle of them. We missed out, big time.

OK, so that kinda catches us up for now. Until next post…

Christmas in Kalifornia, 2020

Posted on January 4, 2021 by rvrrat520

In Slidell, LA, home was the Slidell Elk’s Lodge. The lodge is settled in among the spanish moss covered oaks along the Liberty Bayou on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. We stayed a couple of days and toured the areas we did not see when we were here years ago in the French Quarter. Jeanne found the Lafayette Cemeteries to be big in the tourism stream, so we ventured in. Cemetery #1 was closed for repairs, but we found #2 open and walked among some very old burial sites. Walking through the nearby neighborhood I was facinated with many of the old victorian homes with what appeared to be real gas porch lamps.

Jeanne also found the Audubon Park, home to the Tree of Life. There is an area of the park containing two meditation labyrinths and while we were there they were occupied by several folks meditating (it looked more like a yoga class to me, probably was). The Tree of Life is one gi-normous oak tree that draws a steady stream of visitors.

And of course, we just HAD to peek in on the Urban South (NOLA) brewery and pick up a few slushies for our son Chad to sample. As you may recall, we had just visited the Urban South HTX Brewery (Houston).

The travel from Slidell, LA was “pretty much” uneventful, with a series of overniters at various Elk’s Lodges and the Rover’s Roost SKP park in Casa Grande, AZ. Very few travel distances are complete without Murphy sticking his nose into everything and this one was no exception. We have always had bad luck with road quality along I-10 along the southern edge of the US. Somewhere in there we suffered a very large chipped floor tile in the bedroom, thank you Louisiana DOT. Oh well…

Woodrow Wilson enjoying some desert time in Casa Grande, AZ

On a much happier note, we made it back to Kalifornia for the family XMAS with our kids/grandkids. Home was again the Atascadero Elk’s Lodge, and Chad & Crissy hosted us all at their house in Atascadero and a fun time was had by all. We spent one morning taking a family walk over to Atascadero Lake and walking around the lake. There we found someone has started a painted rock “snake”, trying to encircle the lake with painted rocks. Since I paint a few myself for our FB group “RVersRock!”, I just had to leave a couple for the “snake”. A few days later we took a short hike up Pine Mountain at Stadium Park in Atascadero, looking for one of the nine worldwide mysterious metallic monoliths scattered from Romania to Australia to Atascadero. We found it at the top, overlooking Atascadero’s downtown/city hall area. And wouldn’t you know it, we happened upon a few painted rocks along the trail, these from a FB group called “HiYaRockProject”. We decided to relocate them to the rock snake at Atascadero Lake.

Oma & Opa with 3 grandkids growing on a tree.

One fine sunny day we relieved Chad & Crissy of their parental duties and took Hailey & Ellie out to Morro Bay. We wanted to check on the RV park there for availability (sorry, China-virus-hysteria in full effect, park closed), so we walked the surf line instead.

That catches us up for now, counting down until we can escape Kalifornia yet again. Until next post…

Does Anybody Want to Save a Boatload of Money?

Posted on October 21, 2020 by rvrrat520

This post will be a short mish-mash of disorganization since we have not exactly settled back into our “routine”, but the main point will be about a great money-saving tip, provided to us by our RV friends Bud & Meredith Bradley. That will come at the end. But for now, since the great year of 2020 has been such a disaster and none of our plans have panned out (or so it would seem), we contemplated our future travels. We came up with plan #7,892. That would be a run back into the great state of Texas, after, of course, a short visit with the kids & grandkids. Texas has not fallen off our radar screen as a potential landing target when we decide to “retire” from the full-time RVing lifestyle, the eastern half of the state in particular. We also anticipate this year to be the first for us where we will not return to Kalifornia for family holiday times.

We hit Kalifornia, still suffering smoke filled skies albeit not as thick as before, returned Jeanne’s mom to her normal life, then made a beeline south for some children & grandchildren time, first stop Santa Rosa, with our home parked at the Petaluma Elk’s Lodge. Jenn, Gus, & grandson Max “The Gladiator” have been poised, seemingly forever, to get evacuated due to the wildfires in their area, but now the danger was diminishing, enough so that we actually drove into the danger zone to visit them. Max will be having his 9th birthday at the end of November, so we celebrated a little early. Max is into Nerf guns & Pokemon cards, and he made bank on Nerf gear and Pokemon. I was trying to figure out the Pokemon “game”, but I swear, the people who come up with this stuff must be on a continual acid trip! We then chased each other around, blasting away, Nerf darts everywhere! We wanted to go check out a local brewery, Cooperage, but thanks to China, they were not open on the day we were there. So we ended up at 3rd St. Aleworks in downtown Santa Rosa. Unremarkable beers, not the best nachos we’ve had, but we still had fun with Jenn & Max. While at Jenn’s, I took the opportunity to make use of her kitchen and cook up a whole bunch of my father’s famous Chile Verde burritos which we promptly chowed down on. I rolled up a bunch for Gus to take in his lunches, as well as a bunch for us to freeze in the bus for easy dinner nights. Jenn & Gus had chef’s duty one night and they made some outstanding street tacos for us. It was a very nice visit, as usual, and sad to see it end.

Atascadero Elk’s Lodge (my home lodge) was our next run. As is the case with most of the Elk’s Lodges, the lodges & lounges are still closed because of the China virus bull$hit but thankfully the RV lots are open. We had fun with Chad, Crissy, Little Miss Hailey & Little Miss Ellie, even a couple of granddaughter sleep-overs in the “camping bus” as they call it. We had arts-n-crafts time, Jeanne found a new hairdresser (see photo), and mommy & daddy got a childless date night. With Jeanne’s birthday just passed, Chad & Crissy also treated us to a birthday dinner followed by some ice-cream cake. One day Chad & Crissy took us to their club winery, Rava, where they did their product pick-up and we got to sample some of the winery’s offerings. Hailey & Ellie had fun running around the small pond and playing on the swings. During our time here Chad took Jeanne & I to check out Manrock Brewing Co., Santa Maria Brewing Co., and Liquid Gravity Brewing Co. One standout quaff was Liquid Gravity’s “Twist & Stout”, an imperial double stout. We took everyone out to dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall called “Don Q’s Restaurant”. The service was not great (mostly due to the China virus hysteria, no doubt), but the food was unique and very tasty.

Miss Hailey Hairstyles, by appointment only.

After saying our good-bye’s it was eastbound & down. It would seem the motorhome gremlins had recently hitched a ride with us. We started with my DEF system. We had just fueled up, DEF included, when out of nowhere my “DEF Low” emergency warning light and dinger came on while driving down the road. Scratching my head, I got out and checked the DEF tank. No obvious leakage, the little red light on the gauge lit up but the gauge showed full, so I popped the cap and re-seated it thinking it could be similar to when your “check engine” light comes on in your car & they always start with checking your gas cap. As we continued down the road, the “DEF Low” warning continued, but stopped after a short distance, so I repeated the “scratch head” motion and kept going. Probably a couple hundred miles down the road the Gremlins were thinking I had it too easy, so my “jacks down” warning light and siren goes off. Repeating the “scratch head” motion, I got out and checked the guilty jack. Sure as $hit, it had rattled down about an inch from it’s normal seated position. I checked the bay containing my hydraulics system, found no obvious leakage, then hit the auto-store button again. The errant jack pulled back to it’s normal storage position and my hand returned to it’s now-normal “scratch head” position. So, our escape from Kalifornia went like this. Keep in mind, I personally do not like long travel days, and if I drive more than about 4 hours I am not having fun. We did a long run from Atascadero to the Needles Elk’s Lodge. Their RV lot is just a flat dirt/gravel lot with FHU’s, but you can’t complain about the $20/night rate. Since it was just an overnighter, we left the Jeep hooked up to Rosie the bus. The next day it was off to Gallup, NM and the USA RV Park. There, we needed to disconnect and use the Jeep but in unhooking it, BAM! the gremlins struck the Jeep and killed the battery. Now, when the supplemental air brake system was installed the tech told me they put in a trickle charger for the Jeep battery, so I did not need to disconnect the battery when towing any more (as I had been up to then). So much for trusting the “trickle charge”. I got a jump from the clerk at the park and ran the Jeep for a while to get it back up to speed. In the morning I ran the Jeep into town for a little more charging, then we hooked up, disconnected the battery, and off to the races we were. Another long day brought us to Clovis, NM and the Wagon Wheel RV Park. We left the Jeep hooked up overnight, then continued eastbound into Texas. We landed in Waco after yet another long day’s drive, just barely beating the sunset. Jeanne found an RV park called Flat Creek Farms RV Park and we pulled in just as the sun disappeared. Those dang gremlins hit me again! Dead battery, again! Bottom line – there were no spaces available at the park, so we had to overnight at a nearby Flying J, with another jump start to start the next day. And just to pile on my already $hitty disposition, driving through the nightmare of a residential area just to get to the RV park I had to maneuver through skinny streets and low hanging trees. In doing so, my satellite antenna took some serious damage from one of the branches. Hey, Jeanne, have you had enough lessons in 4-letter word vocabulary yet?

A sign spotted at the local grocery store (Indian reservation country). Is that all you need to ward off Mr. Repo Man?

Well, we found space the next day at the North Crest RV Park in Waco. There, we got set up and promptly drove the Jeep to Autozone where they checked the battery and charging system, no issues. Head scratched. I also found a mobil satellite repair outfit, SATS2GO, out of the Willis area, so after a few days of rest and decompression, we moved the short distance over to the Conroe Lake/Houston No. KOA. So here we sit, waiting for the satellite repair, then it will be on to some good ol’ Texas ‘splorin’.

North Crest RV Park is buried in large trees.

I guess it wasn’t as short as I thought it would be. I mentioned saving some greenbacks. Our road warrior buddies & fellow Texans, Bud & Meredith, recently turned us on to an RV Fuel Program by TSD Logistics, Inc. It is a credit card system you use at truck stops. They have a $20 sign up fee and easy-to-use phone app (that’s “easy” according to Jeanne), you just need to use the trucker lanes at the truck stops when you fuel up. It does not include discounts for DEF, but the diesel savings is substantial! There are various participating gas stations and each has some minor (cents, not dollars) fees they add to the transactions. Examples of the savings we have enjoyed are: 32.97 gallons purchased, saved $19.03; 40.29 gallons purchased, saved $12.97; 55.73 gallons purchased, saved $34.94; 63.75 gallons purchased, saved $36.15; and 63.94 gallons purchased, saved $48.09. I’ll leave it to you do do your own math re: price per gallon savings. Pilot stations (and presumably Flying J) do not participate in the TSD program for RV’s, they already do the Good Sam program.

That sort of catches us up for now. Until next post…

Circle the Wagons, Squaring the Circle, Circular Logic…

Posted on September 23, 2020 by rvrrat520

You get the picture, right? Circle? We basically left Idaho, “circled” back down to Kalifornia then back to Idaho (with Jeanne’s mom Yvonne in tow) to give Yvonne a little break/vacation from Anderson, CA. The “circling” went like this…

Our first stop after leaving the Cd’A Casino was the Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick, WA for a few days. This is a very nice RV resort in the tri-cities area. We managed to make time for some drive around exploring as well as a bike ride along the Columbia River on the Sacagawea Heritage Trail and the Columbia Park Trail. During our bike ride we rode through a section along the river where workers were setting up for an upcoming event. In a unique response to the current bull$hit China virus hysteria, the workers were setting up assigned spaces right on the river for the upcoming annual air show that was about to be held over the river. The assigned spaces were for spectators to park their cars on (in good ol’ American “drive-in” fashion). We got some nice river views, including highway bridges and the Gateway Arch, Tower Beacon lighthouse. On our local drive we found the Bombing Range Brewing Co. which we just HAD to check out. The beers were OK, as was the rather large taco salad, and it is definitely a pro L.E. outfit.

From Kennewick we returned to Caldwell, ID to offload our bicycles, then continued south toward Anderson, CA. We overnighted at a brand new (in fact, still in progress) RV park in Burns, OR, called Quail Ridge RV Park. Quail Ridge is not much of what I would call a “vacation destination park”, but it does have FHU’s on a large open gravel lot. Since we had left Caldwell, we were plagued with smoky skies from all the left coast wildfires. We sucked it up and drove straight on through to Anderson, taking Hwy. 395 down to Alturas, then Hwy. 299 into Redding, smoky skies all the way. A couple of nights at the Win-River Casino and then it was back toward Idaho, trying to escape the ever-increasing burnt skies, with Yvonne riding shotgun. We initially wanted to drive up through Klamath Falls, OR into Bend, then over back to Caldwell. Those plans, like most well-laid plans, changed on the fly due to wildfires and road closures. We were forced to backtrack the way we came into Kalifornia. “$%#&*@!”

We were unable to find much relief from the intense smoke. Here is a bit of a montage of what we encountered all the way back into Idaho.

We overnighted at the Desert Rose Casino in Alturas, CA. This is a small, hole-in-the-wall casino but they do have a large flat back lot area on which they allow free overnight RV parking. Then it was on back to Quail Ridge RV Park for a 2 day rest, and finally back to Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell.

Our home at Desert Rose Casino. Not a lot of neighbors…

Our whole time, so far, here in Caldwell has been cursed with smoke filled skies. With just a few days left, we will be making the return trip into Kalifornia. And right now, as it stands, our plans are in perpetual change mode. You’ll just have to wait…until next post.

4/20/2020 Family Medical Issues Put the Stall On Our Travels

Posted on April 20, 2020 by rvrrat520

With Big Bend Nat’l Park in our rearview mirror it was “California here we come.” First stop was for a few days at the Las Cruces Elk’s Lodge for some big city shopping for supplies and stuff. This Elk’s Lodge just finished putting in several nice FHU RV sites.

Not a lot of neighbors at the Las Cruces Elk’s lodge.

From there it was on to the Bernalillo (Albuquerque) KOA for another couple of days. Now, I thought I have learned from my mistakes over the years. After many instances of being misled by locals, I STILL tend to give them the benefit of the doubt when they give me information. Many times we ask “locals” about the area, how to get anywhere, etc., we either get incorrect directions or the ever popular “I don’t know…” I have learned over the past 8 years to ask the clerks at the RV parks if the interior roads were easily navigable for my 40’ bus with Jeep in tow or do I need to disconnect prior to driving to our site. More than I care to admit I have been told “No problem, no need to disconnect…” only to find out the hard way and having to try to disconnect the toad at a difficult angle. Well, the Bernalillo KOA female clerk just laughed at me when I asked if I should disconnect at the office, and told me I would see her humor as I navigated the spacious interior roads of their park. Well, I did not see her humor as I promptly got stuck on a very tight turn in the half-lane wide road and needed a sledge hammer to get the toad disconnected. Shame on me…We did get a chance to sample some of the local fare by way of a couple of breweries, Basque Brewing Co. and Kaktus Brewing Co., neither of which were real memorable.

Our home at Bernalillo KOA. Gotta love having to fight them trees…

Moving on we overnighted at the Holbrook (AZ) KOA, then a couple more days at the Prescott Valley Elk’s Lodge. From there we returned to the Jawbone Canyon OHV area outside of Mojave, CA for an overnight boondock, then into Atascadero for a pre-birthday visit with our granddaughters Hailey & Ellie, both soon to be 4 & 2, respectively. A couple of days entertaining the girls at a couple of local play areas, then we needed to head over to Madera and assist Jeanne’s mom (Yvonne). Her health issues became a priority and required the family to team up and relocate her to brother David’s home in Anderson, CA so she could be closer to medical assistance. Her previous residence in Coarsegold, CA was just too far away from her frequent doctor’s appointments in Fresno and Madera. So we got her moved out, with Jeanne’s brothers Dwayne’s and David’s help. With Yvonne loaded up in Rosie with us, we set up short camp at the Madera District Fairgrounds for a couple of last minute doctor appointments in Madera. Unfortunately, Yvonne began a bout with A-Fib and a racing heart and we got her into the ER. Less than a week later, heart settled down and stable, Yvonne was released and we made our way to Anderson and her new digs at David’s house. The task was then to get her settled in with all new medical personnel.

Well, with everything else in life, it seems timing is everything. We mooch-docked at Dwayne’s house for our time there which we surely appreciated. But soon all hell broke loose. With all the headaches involved in trying to establish medical care (for Jeanne’s mom) after a move, we got hit with off-and-on sloppy weather, rain, hail, wind, etc. And since that is not enough to contend with, China decided to let loose on the rest of the planet with the China virus (China virus China virus China virus China virus China virus China virus China virus, there, I said it!) and with it came the ensuing stock market crash. We stayed very busy tending to Yvonne’s medical needs, appointments, etc. and the issues related to the China virus China virus China virus were not conducive to much heading out on the town, visiting friends, or in other words having much FUN! But hey, you know the saying about life, lemons, & lemonade. Dave & I found a fairly clear day to hit Lake Shasta in his fishin’ boat for some good quality self-quarantine time. He caught the lone, scrawny little trout of the day, but you know the saying, “Your worst day fishin’ is better than your best day workin’!” On another day we decided to commit an act of civil disobedience, Jeanne & I hiked the Flanagan Rd. Trail to Chemise Peak overlooking Lake Shasta Dam. It was a fairly easy 5+ mile hike and as it was, we discovered a whole lotta other folks committing the same act of civil disobedience. Go figger…Time for society to re-engage I guess…

Well, this was not much of a blog post. We are kinda in limbo still because of China and our governmental response. We will continue lollygagging indefinitely in the Redding area until Yvonne’s health care regimen gets established & stabilized. Until next post…

(Editor’s note: Don’t ask. I am in the process of recovering my previous posts from my Blogpost days and backdating them into this blog. If this all works, I will have amazed myself.)

1/5/2020 Headed Back To Prescott AZ

Posted on January 5, 2020 by rvrrat520

Since Jeanne and I were not going to be here for the end of the holidays, we had a nice family get-together for Thanksgiving/XMAS/Max’s birthday in Atascadero. Jenn, Gus, & Max drove down for the T-Giving weekend to spend the time with family at Chad’s house. It was great to spend the time with the grand-chitlin’s all at the same time. So here are a few (OK, more than a few!) parting shots of our time spent together.

After being on the road as full-time RVers for over (7) years now, hitting all of the lower 48, Jeanne & I are starting to think about settling down again, just not decided on a location. The Prescott, AZ area is on our short list, so we decided to head over there and spend a little more time exploring the area for that purpose. A couple of mishaps (OK, brain-farts on my part) happened along the way. The first was our stop at the Palmdale Elk’s Lodge for an two-night stay. On the morning that we pulled out, as I neared the driveway, I could see the dip was pretty intense with evidence of previous RVers failures to clear the pavement (where they bottomed out/scraped the asphalt). But hey, I am the most intelligent person on the planet (a legend in my own mind) and I KNOW how to navigate such hazards. I crept along at a speed where you could clock me with a calendar, achieved an extreme angle to avoid bottoming out, and nevertheless scraped the $hit out of that asphalt anyway, only with one corner of my rear cap. “%&$*#@!” That was enough to wreck one’s day, but travel on we must. (The second mishap soon to follow.) We next two-nighted at the Needles Elk’s Lodge, this time without incident. We completed our escape from The Evil Empire and landed in the Prescott/Prescott Valley area. There we split our time between the Prescott Elk’s Lodge, the Prescott fairgrounds, and Point of Rocks RV Park. My second brain-fart happened when we were moving from the fairgrounds to Point of Rocks. Due to the park’s prohibition from early check-in, we had to kill a couple of hours. On the way in we found the Constellation Trails, a small park, where we took Woodrow Wilson out for a short walk. This park is off of one of Prescott’s INNUMERABLE traffic “roundy-rounds” (complete with skinny lanes) and as I pulled out to head for our new destination, somebody put one of those $%&@*^# low guardrails alongside the road. I promptly scraped against said guardrail and caused yet more minor body damage. “%&$*#@!” (We’ll be hunting down an RV body shop in our travels soon). Jeanne’s brother Dave wanted to take his son Alex on a vacation, so he booked a flight to Vegas where he rented a small Class-C motorhome and drove out to meet up with us. Dave & Alex joined us at Point of Rocks RV Park. The weather was a little harsh, most nights the temps were teens to twenties and we had to disconnect water hoses. But the days warmed up into the blazing 30’s to 40’s…

Our home at Palmdale Elk’s Lodge. Not real scenic…

Playing tourguides for Dave & Alex, we first ventured out on a small hike around Watson Lake (OK, small is a relative term. This “small” was about 8 miles, plus or minus). Alex got a kick out of the weird ice formations we ran into.

Alex, Dave, Jeanne, and Woody standing lakeside at Watson Lake.

On a fairly clear day we drove up to the old mining town of Jerome and walked the streets taking in the views and reading some of the history of what is now considered a ghost town.

Jeanne wanted to shake off the dust bunnies from her 4-wheelin’ skills, so what better way than to try to jar Alex’s eye teeth on the dirt road to Crown King, AZ. S. Senator Hwy leaves downtown Prescott and 7 miles out loses the asphalt. The road/trail is not particularly difficult as far as 4-wheelin’ goes, but there were a couple of fairly deep water crossings. We came upon Palace Station, touted to be one of the oldest structures in Arizona. What was once a stage station on the Senator Trail from Phoenix to Prescott is now used residentially by the U.S. Forest Service. Crown King is but a “wide spot in the road” where a couple of folks have set up businesses and call it a town. We stopped in to the local saloon and had a beer before we headed on back to civilization.

Just one of the many views from the “road” to Crown King.

The “big kahuna”, the “piece de resistance”, the “BMOC”, has to be Grand Canyon N.P. We dragged Dave & Alex up to the South Rim where they were awed by the spectacular views of the canyon, even on a semi-overcast day like it was. There was just a touch of snow added to the scenery and the short couple mile walk along the rim was envigorating.

Welcome to the Grand Canyon, Dave & Alex!

What visit to the Prescott area would be complete without a trek into Sedona? First stop on the way was the Nat’l Park site called Montezuma’s Castle. We got to give Alex exposure to some early Indian cliff dwellings that, even though named after Montezuma, Montezuma never actually had anything to do with and never visited. Then it was on to Sedona and the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Views were extraordinary from the small hill this church was built into. It also overlooks “The House”, a good sized mansion built by the inventor of Lasik eye surgery. From there we ventured into downtown Sedona for a stroll and lunch at Oaxaca Restaurant.

Dave & Alex stayed with us through XMAS and up to the end of December. We had a nice XMAS dinner, fun times touring the area, and many cold nights of UNO, Phase 10, and Wits & Wagers. I hate it when Alex gloats over his victories…But, alas, all good things must end and it was time for Dave & Alex to return to the real world. We said our good-byes and headed out to our respective destinations. Ours just happened to be about a week’s stay in the Mesquite, NV area, another prospective choice for settlement.

In Mesquite, our home of choice was the Casa Blanca Resort & Casino RV Park. Scouting the area, including another run into St. George, UT, we looked at some properties, shopped locally and actually got pretty good exposure to the area in just the short week we stayed. Enough to decide a very small “retirement community” such as Mesquite was not for us, at least for now.

Welcome to Casa Blanca Resort & Casino in Mesquite, NV!

That about catches us up for now. Next destination…? Until next post…

11/19/2019 More Family Time in Kalifornia

Posted on November 19, 2019 by rvrrat520

I know, it’s been a while since my last post. So, for all of you non-family member readers, this is about to be one of the all-time boring-est blog posts you could imagine (hint/warning: many photos of grandkids to follow). We had the last of our big appointments in Redding, CA for some minor repairs on Rosie the Bus. We made the reservations with Martin Hveem Restoration & Coaches after seeing a recommendation by Bob Tiffin himself. So into Redding we went, splitting time between Win-River Casino RV lot and Jeanne’s brothers Dwayne & David (another big thanks to both for their hospitality and patience). As far as the repair work getting done, they did an OK job on most tasks. The only problem – we needed two of four of our slide toppers to be replaced and they completed that, except they replaced the wrong side, rear topper. But I have to say, Hveem made good on the error by refunding the cost of the back topper, basically giving us an unneeded slide topper replacement for free. I’m still smh… We had a good visit with Dave and Dwayne and their families and we actually got a little sightseeing in with Dave. We took him up to Castle Lake near Lake Siskiyou, then stopped off at Dunsmuir Brewery Works for lunch in the big megalopolis of Dunsmuir. The MH repairs, a few good BBQ’s, a night at the local FFA fundraising auction, a little cash donation action at the casino, and in no time almost 4 weeks gone in a flash.

Life is way too hectic at Dwayne’s place!

We then continued southbound to the land of grandkids and our first stop, the Sonoma County Fairgrounds RV lot in Santa Rosa, stomping grounds for 7 y.o. grandson Maximus. School interferes a bit with quality grandchild time, we were pretty much limited to weekend time only. So we made the best of it, hitting the local batting cages for some batting practice. Max got to do a little rock painting & hiding at the RV lot, then we hit the fairgrounds for a traveling event called “Pumpkin Nights”. Max got to dress up in his Halloween garb and join the rest of the little ones attending the event. We got a very limited visit with Max this time, but we will see him & his family again at the end of November for T-Giving & his 8th B-Day celebrations when they meet us at Cousin Hailey & Ellie’s house in Atascadero.

Speaking of Atascadero (segue…), there we went. Next stop we landed back at the Atascadero Elk’s Lodge. We were ecstatic to find they increased their stay limits at the RV lot to 2-weeks per month. With our plans to include staying in the area until the end of the month, we jumped between 3 facilities – the Elk’s, a short stint at Cava Robles RV Resort, and the Paso Robles RV Ranch, all places we have stayed many times before.

Our stay here included a whole lotta playground time for 3 y.o. granddaughter Haily and 1 y.o. granddaughter Ellie. We hit a neighborhood park, the playground at Cava Robles, including some pool time, and a couple of private playground businesses, Hop’s Bounce House and Mighty Munchkins Play Zone. The girls did their level best to try and wear out Oma & Opa…

Little Miss Ellie racing to the monkey bars.

Since we were here during Halloween, Hailey helped me carve up a Jack-o’-Lantern for their porch. The town of Atascadero does a nice Halloween night event by closing off Entrada Av. to traffic and the local businesses set up trick-or-treat venues (their actual shop or a booth) for the kids to do trick-or-treating. We accompanied Hailey & Ellie (oh yeah, mommy & daddy too) as they did the deed and scored buckets full of treats.

So a while back Chad got us hooked into a beer app called “Untappd” (sic). It keeps track of your favorite beers, lets you rate beers, compare your ratings to a global average, in other words all things beer. Chad informed us of a possible gold mine for craft beers called “The Backroom” in Solvang, CA. On one of our “non-grandchild” days we loaded Woodrow Wilson up and did a roadtrip to Solvang to find The Backroom. It is just a little hole-in-the-wall, small beer store up front, a home brewers equipment store downstairs, and the taproom in the back, behind a painted fake bookcase used as the door. We scored a couple of craft brews to take home and sample with Chad, had a nice pizza lunch from Solvang Brewery Co., and tasted a couple of offerings from The Backroom. A visit to Solvang would be incomplete without a short walk around the scenic Danish themed town.

A look at some of the downtown theme in Solvang, CA.

Chad has a particular favorite brewery in Monterey, “Alvarado St. Brewing”, that he had been meaning to check out. We made it happen in a mini-adventure for Hailey and her dad. We loaded both of them up and drove Rosie down to stay at the Moss Landing KOA. While there we visited several of the local craft breweries, including Alvarado St., and spent some top-quality time at the beach chasing waves and seal-watching for Hailey. Included in this fun package was a couple of hours at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Hailey was in hog-heaven.

Inside Alvarado St. Brewing, a happening place.

So that catches you up to date. Time to start getting ready for Thanksgiving, hope you all have some good quality family time and pleasant gastric experiences! Until next post…

6/10/2019 St. George, Utah

Posted on June 10, 2019 by rvrrat520

We made one more trip back to Atascadero, CA, to visit Chad, Crissy, and the 2 granddaughters Hailey & Ellie. Another week at the Elks Lodge there, we managed to donate some blood at the Elks blood drive, babysit Hailey & Ellie while mom and dad had a date day at the day spa, and loaded up all to go see the Strawberry Festival in nearby Arroyo Grande. And, of course, Hailey got a little more fun time staying with Oma and Opa in “the camping bus”.

Hailey says, “Fun times with Oma and Opa!”

But when it came time to flee Kalifornia once again, it was “pedal to the metal”, “east bound and down”, or any other famous quote you care to apply to it. Hwy. 58 through the Tehachapi Pass was our chosen pathway of escape. Our destination was St. George, UT, but we did not wish to do the long distance dance, so Jeanne found a nice OHV recreation area in the Mojave desert, the Jawbone Canyon OHV Area just north of California City and right off of Hwy. 58, just a short jaunt up Hwy. 14. It was easy access paved road into the area, with large open areas and plenty of room to keep the toad hooked up while maneuvering around into our chosen site for the night. We overnighted all by our lonesome in a large canyon, then headed out bright and early the next morning.

Our one-night home at Jawbone Canyon OHV.

We chose to do one more overnighter enroute to St. George, so we picked Buffalo Bill’s Casino in Primm, NV. They allow overnight RV’s and truckers out in the back lot (no charge). From Primm, we finished the drive into St. George, where we stayed at the Temple View RV Resort. The mountain views were very nice, as well as the Temple’s tower (this would be the Church of Jesus Christ & Latter Day Saints, St. George Temple).

Our overnight home in back of Buffalo Bill’s Casino.

St. George is a very nice city in Utah just over the border from Nevada. Only 90 minutes or so from Vegas, they are very outdoor oriented here. We took Woody on a walkabout around historic old town and the Temple. St. George has a lot of art scattered about old town as part of a program called, “Art Around The Corner”. Brigham Young’s winter home is here as well, which they give tours through but we passed on the tour. There are bicycle trails all over the place whether you like city trails or trails along the Virgin River. We made use of about 14 miles of this trail, stretched from St. George to Bloomington, just enough for my butt to regret it…

Jeanne found a slot canyon trail to torture me on, the Kanarra Falls slot canyon trail just outside of Kanarraville. We loaded up our mini backpacks and headed out. I don’t know how far you can go on this hike, the common hike takes one to the second set of falls in the canyon, some say it is a 3-4 mile hike. The “fun” part is the trail zig-zags across the Kanarra Creek and then the creek becomes the trail through the canyon. Currently, the flow of the creek is pretty strong with snowmelt, gets to about knee-high depth, and just to make it interesting, the water is about 48 degrees! We waded our way to the first waterfall in about 2 1/2 hours. At that point my feet and shins were fully numb and I found myself stumbling too much. That made our decision for us…time to turn around. It made it easier to accept the decision in that Woody had to be left behind at the bus (no dogs on trail) and because of that our non-Woody excursions are usually limited to about 5 hours. Even though we were forced to cut it short, this was a very scenic and well-worth-it hike. The hike requires a purchased permit ($12 person/ 150 permits per day only) which is easy to do on-line and then the kid at the kiosk just scans it off your phone.

Our time in St. George gave us an opportunity to further evaluate the area as a possible “landing zone” for when we make that decision. There are quite a few small suburbs to St. George, we really liked a few of them, and you never know, St. George might just beat out the Boise, Idaho area in our search for a “final resting place”. And, for those of you “literal vocabularians”, no, we are not searching for our gravesites.

This has been a true test, trying to plan out and get RV spots along our path to Glacier N.P., especially since the time encompasses the 4th of July holiday period and since many of the RV parks in this area of Montana are booked already. It seems here they have short seasons just as the northeast has. For those of us who try not to operate on the reservation system, it can be nerve-racking in certain parts of the country at particular times. But, hey, we persevere and plug along…That about catches us up for now. Until next post…

5/14/2019 Hit The Road, Jack! Oops, Not So Fast!

Posted on May 14, 2019 by rvrrat520

We made the best of things while enjoying our week’s stay at the Boulder City Elks Lodge. Woody enjoyed a walk down through historic downtown, in and amongst all the street art. They also had an annual happening there called the Boulder City Spring Jamboree which included a number of hot rods on display.

The following are just a few examples of the street art found in historic downtown Boulder City.

This next guy certainly had a shitty job.

Jeanne’s sister Cindy joined us for a stroll at Hoover Dam and the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. I half expected Lake Mead to be closer to full than it was, but it wasn’t much different than the last time we were here.

Jeanne and her big sis Cindy strolling across the bridge.

Jeanne located Bootleg Canyon Park on the north side of town. We took Woodrow Wilson on a stroll along a trail filled with various statues of desert critters and a little descriptive plaque for each. Not a long walk, but there happens to be a nice paved bicycle path which is a 30-something miles stretch; I’m told you can ride it all the way back into Vegas. Unfortunately we ran out of time before we could give the bike trail a go.

We got our house back, rebuilt engine, all parts working and ready to rock. The only snag, while we were still waiting for the SCR catalyst to be replaced, Jeanne got the phone call, her mom (who lives in Coarsegold, CA) was taken to the hospital due to severe reaction to her current round of chemotherapy. Needless to say, Jeanne was chomping at the bit to get finished at Cummins. Then, it was back to Coarsegold, CA for us. About 8 hours on the road, heavy rain and pea soup fog, not one warning light or siren, and we were settling in to our new temporary home at Park Sierra, the Escapees RV Park in that area. It really is a nice park just outside Yosemite NP, and you can’t beat the weekly rate of $16/night for FHU’s and all the squirrels and rabbits you can stand.

One of our favorite things, driving 36,000 lbs. of steel, plywood, and fiberglass through pea soup fog!

So for now, that pretty much catches us up. We planned on a return jaunt through Yosemite NP, but the weather gods are angry with us and steady rain is upon us, with our departure from the area due this week. So, no updated photos of El Capitan, Half Dome, etc.

Still no update on our “barely there” battle with Cummins corporate. We did garner the attention of one of the higher-ups, who is currently still looking into our situation. But I hold my breath NOT for a positive outcome on our behalf.

Until next post… As usual, my lack of computer tech skills leads me to apologize if any of the photos are sideways. My displeasure with WordPress as a blog platform continues to grow as it continues to prove to me its user-unfriendliness.

Road Trippin', Watkins Style

Prowled county roads for a living, prowling country roads in retirement!

Category Archives: California