This will be a short one, I’m under orders to keep the voluminous number of granddaughter pictures to a minimum to avoid boring the pants off you readers. Our satellite issues have resolved. Brian (the tech whose name escaped me from the last post) of Coast Satellite swapped out a Winegard Trav’ler for our original Winegard Roadtrip Mission. For Pete’s sake I don’t know why we did not have this done long ago. We have had multiple problems with the Mission since we got the rig. Having to plug and unplug, reboot, restart, and even going as far as popping the SIM card in and out just about every time we moved down the road was most annoying. Since the switch, Trav’ler works like a champ!
On our return stint at Cava Robles RV Resort, we got a nice corner lot near the top of the hill and the office. A quick re-con and we found the second clubhouse, pool, & spa finished, the area they call the Wellness Center. Soon they will be offering massages; now the small gym/fitness center is open for use. There are now some 230 RV/cabin sites open, numerous others still under construction. Little Miss Hailey got to come stay with Oma and Opa quite a few times and spent many hours in the swimming pool learning to swim. The weekend before the 4th Jeanne’s mom came to visit us from Coarsegold (gateway to Yosemite and just east of Fresno). We had Chad’s family come out for the day to enjoy time with “Gigi”.
Our corner lot at Cava Robles. Check out the new Winegard Trav’ler antenna! Lucky this oak tree is not due south…The second pool at the Wellness Center. This one is geared more toward being a lap pool and less kid friendly (no wading area, no water fountains). Work continues on the rest of the sites. Pour them patio slabs, boys! It’s only 110 degrees! A 4-generation photo, Jeanne, Gigi, Chad, Hailey, and Ellie.
Chad’s family returned for the 4th of July holiday and everybody got wet…the temperatures here in El Paso de Robles have been consistently between 100-110 degrees! We spent most of the day in the pool and ended it with a nice BBQ.
Getting ready for the 4th of July decorated golf cart parade at Cava Robles.Chad, Crissy, Hailey, and Ellie in 4th of July spirit!That’s one proud Oma and her granddaughters!
We did find some time to wander for ourselves. We loaded Woodrow Wilson up and took a roadtrip to Santa Barbara. Besides checking out the coast, I wanted to stop off and see the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge RV lot. It supposedly is one where you need reservations and, due to its small size, I can believe that. Unfortunately, the lot is tiny, would be rough maneuvering through in a 40’ bus, and the sites are packed tightly, side to side. I’m afraid I’ll pass on trying to spend any time there. We parked at the Shoreline Park and let Woody take us on a walk along the shore. It was a nice day, temperature-wise, and it would have been nice to be dog-less, so as to walk down by the downtown/pier area. But alas, Woody does not behave well in a crowded pedestrian setting.
Woody taking Jeanne down the path at Shoreline Park in Santa BarbaraOil rigs off in the distance.The beach south of Shoreline Park.Ahhhh, the life of a beach bum!
One work day we decided to meet Chad for lunch near his work at SLO Brew Rock, a local brewery. This brewpub gets it’s namesake from a large rock formation in it’s front yard. Hailey got to play some of the games in the yard and we had a nice lunch. They have an outstanding brisket but I must say I was not impressed with the beer.
Hailey playing a little corn hole at SLO Brew Rock. Waiting on Chad… Here’s the namesake “rock”…Too much fun…
Well, another couple of weeks and we shall be northbound again. We’ll get a recall issue for the bus taken care of at Sacramento Freightliner, then up to the area of Junction City, OR again for our Captain’s chairs on the bus. On to Coburg, OR for our engine service at the Cummins shop there, then onward toward So. Dakota for a change of domicile again.
I’m not much into following orders any more, so I might as well close out with…PICTURES OF GRANDKIDS!!! Until next post…
Hailey Marie Watkins.Ellie Grace Watkins.Maximus Charles Rodriguez.
We started out with a week back at the Atascadero Elks Lodge RV lot. Our daughter-in-law Crissy was still off work due to her foot injury, and with doctor/PT appointments here and there we got plenty of opportunity to warm up with babysitting duty before she actually has to go back to work. One excursion we took Little Miss Hailey on was to Morro Bay. She got to play in Tidelands Park and we walked the main drag, checking out the shops and restaurants and general sights.
Welcome to Tidelands Park.Since 16 week old babies basically eat, sleep, and, well, you know, Little Miss Hailey got the lion’s share of fun time. Here we are at Tidelands Park in Morro Bay, with Morro Rock in the backdrop…Hailey the rock climber. Here’s a fixer-upper for you wannabe squiddies…She is certainly the Captain of her ship!Having snacks with Opa…Hailey and the octopus. Now, we are gonna need kinda a higher tide to get this ship launched… Hailey and her friend the seal… Flipper giving Little Miss Hailey a ride…Such a stern look…Hailey taking Bert and Ernie on a little ride downtown Morro Bay.“I scream, you scream, we all scream, for ice-cream!”“These anchor chains are really FUN!”“Yo, ho, yo, ho, a pirate’s life for me!” Um, Hailey, that song would fit better if you did not have a pink/red bow in your hair…
When our week was up at the Elks Lodge, we had reservations for a 28-day stay at the brand-spankin’-new Cava Robles RV Resort, a member of the Sun RV Resorts family, located in Paso Robles. Upon arrival, the resort was about half open, the other half still under construction. But, wow, what a half it was! Judging by the part open for business now, after having been through all the lower 48 states, staying at all forms of RV parks/resorts/lots, this would be one of the top family “destination parks” in my humble opinion. The interior roads are easy to navigate and paved. Our site was a back-in, crushed rock with concrete patio, FHU’s (+cable), fire pit, picnic table, and clear skies for satellite reception. They have a nice dog run area, dog water bowls and clean up stations scattered around the park, playground for the kids, golf cart and bicycle rentals, and a beautiful clubhouse/pool area. The clubhouse has a beer and wine bar, bistro (open on weekends only for now), game room with billiard table, outdoor BBQ and tiled pizza oven (kinda like a wood fired pizza oven, I did not give it a closer look), outdoor games like oversized chess, corn hole, and oversized Jenga. The pool area had a large 3 1/2’ deep wading pool and water fountain play area, with outdoor showers and ample clean restrooms. The resort sponsors free wine tasting by local wineries on Fridays, and musical entertainment on the patio during the weekends. All in all, a very nice place to stay. They have a 28 day stay limit, so we reserved this stay, we’ll return to the Elks Lodge for a week, then come back here for another 28 day stay. The rate worked out for this first stay at about $34 per night if I am doing my math right, I’m not sure what a normal nightly rate goes for and I never bothered to ask.
Overlooking the clubhouse and pool/BBQ area at Cava Robles. The patio area at the clubhouse. Some of the restrooms scattered around the park.The pool. BBQ or oven fired pizza, anyone?The water fountain play area at the pool, putting green in the background… Our home at Cava Robles.
With Little Miss Ellie Grace being only 16 weeks old, Little Miss Hailey Marie got the brunt of all the fun activities. She got to go “camping at the bus” and enjoy all the resort had to offer. She was disappointed one very hot day, unable to go swimming because one of the other “campers” went dookie in the pool and it got closed for the day while they did their haz-mat clean-up. Oh, joy…
Little Miss Hailey hard at play on the playground. Hailey getting swim lessons from Oma.“I’m on my way to the camp store to pick up my favorite thing to do while camping…”“…which is…BUBBLES!”Hailey riding her glider around the resort.Hailey likes taking Woodrow Wilson for a walk in the park, too.”Little Miss Hailey trying out the fountains.
Hailey got her first bicycle, a glider, and we spent time learning the ins-and-outs of gliding. She also helped her Opa paint rocks. Seems we got involved in a Facebook group, RVers rock!, where folks paint small rocks and hide them all over the country for others to find. A request to post pictures to the FB group is made with each rock, then the finder can either keep the rock or is encouraged to hide it somewhere else. I’ve been scattering rocks from ocean to ocean, however I do avoid hiding them in state or federal parks. The parks folks have complained that leaving painted rocks on park land is akin to vandalism, so they prefer we not do it. Most rocks have a location painted/marked on them so the finder can know how far the rock has traveled. The rocks I find & paint I mark with the city/state where I found them, plus the year. It’s kinda like a new-age treasure hunt. Anyway, Hailey had fun painting rocks with me, I think she got more paint on her than the rocks!
Rocks ready for launch, who knows where… Hailey the rock artist…
It seems the 4 year curse is upon us, regarding “stuff” breaking down in the bus. As we have arrived in California’s central state area for the beginning of summer, temps are already starting to soar. And wouldn’t you know it, one of the first days of AC and we blow out the rear AC unit, it sounded like a pack of bikers revving them up on our roof and we got a smell of burning plastic. We lucked out, the resort recommended Art’s Mobile RV Repair, and we found them to be OUTSTANDING in customer service and repairs. Emily answered our phone calls and is just about the most pleasant person you will encounter this side of the Mississippi. John, our tech, showed up on time and also very pleasant, considering the job was an outdoor job in triple digit temps. He was quick as well, found the broken plastic piece of $h!+ blower fan wheel, and once the part was available he replaced it, AC back in business. If you are ever in the SLO/Paso Robles area and need a mobile RV service, we highly recommend Art’s Mobile RV Repair at (805) 712-2087.
But we can’t stop there. We’ve been having satellite reception issues for the past 3 months with the roof mounted Winegard Roadtrip Mission antenna, the dang thing has not been picking up the normal 3 satellite signals, 110, 119, & 129. In fact, more commonly lately it has been zeroing in on satellite 61.5, which DISH tells me is an eastern satellite. So, the Winegard tech support people found Coast Satellite, (805) 461-1522, out of Atascadero for us to try to resolve our issue. Turns out, the antenna was kaput, sooooooo, let me see, where did I put my wallet? At least our extended warranty will cover part of the replacement. The only thing now, once the insurance people finish with the satellite people, we the people have decided to go with the Winegard Trav’ler antenna which Jeanne said gets good reviews and is definitely an upgrade to the Mission. This whole thing is still in the process, but however it goes, Ryan (the owner) has also been OUTSTANDING as far as customer service, just like our service tech (who I must apologize to as his name has slipped my feeble mind). Upon our initial call out, the tech determined the fault to be the antenna within about a half hour, but we were not charged for anything because, his words, “I didn’t fix anything.” To top it off, Ryan does not normally deal with extended warranty people (I don’t blame him, they can be a pain in the @$$ sometimes). When Jeanne did her “damsel-in-distress” thing requesting Ryan try to contact the warranty people, he agreed to try. As of post time we are pending final outcome of the satellite issue.
Well, that should catch us up for now. Time to get ready for wine tasting by Sculpterra Winery, with some Marin-ite cheese plate snacks by Jeanne, and the “silky smooth sounds” of Andy Scott, all down at the clubhouse with Chad, Crissy, Little Miss Hailey, and Little Miss Ellie. Man, this “not-working-for-a-living” lifestyle is rough. Until next post…
