King's Highway

El Paso, The Flores’ & Home

2012-02-05T20:33:00.001-05:00

After getting on the road following the ‘fix’ on the rear jack, we made good time and arrived at El Paso, TX at about 3:30pm. We contacted Ed and Patsy Flores as we crossed into Texas at Anthony, and they confirmed our plans for dinner at their house.

Ed Flores is a Mechanical Engineer that I met in the summer of 1969 at ALCOA when both of us hired on as Summer Engineering Interns. I was from The University of Texas at Austin, and he attended The University of Texas at El Paso. We also both accepted offers that summer to return after graduation in the Engineering department. However, Ed and Patsy decided about 1972 that they preferred the dry climate of West Texas over the humid conditions on the Gulf Coast, and he resigned to move back to El Paso. He currently owns his own Engineering and Inspection company. He also contracted and built his own house with some nice amenities.

During the drive, we had talked to our DIL and found out that our grandkids had a basketball game on Saturday morning at 9:45am, so we decided that we wanted to get to Victoria on Friday evening. I decided that we would do some driving after dinner, so we drove the Bus with the car attached to the Flores’ house, which was pretty high up on a hill, rather than disconnect and then have to drive back and reconnect. Ed had assured me that the road into the neighborhood was wide enough for travel. It was, although I had a nasty turnaround on the cul de sac at the end of his dead end street all worked out!!

Here’s a picture of the Bus in front of ( and hiding most of) the Flores’ House…….

Here is a picture of Ed and Patsy…….

Here is a picture of the ‘open’ dining area…………

…….. and some pictures off his back deck:

My Patsy and I were treated to a nice Lasagna dinner, and good reminiscing conversation. We found a lot of common results in our lives…… both at work and in family!

We left about 8:00pm and after filling up with diesel at a Wal-Mart that Patsy Flores told me was “in tha hood” at a price of $3.51 after all discounts, which is a really good price.

We drove to Ozuna, TX which, left about 550 miles to drive on Friday. We got home about 7:30pm after driving to the local park to dump our tanks.

We made it to the basketball game, but pictures were with my iphone camera, which does not ‘stop action’ very well, but here are a couple of Matthew. In the last picture, he made an “all net” shot from the edge of the court! Good shot, Matthew!

This was a good three-week trip.

Leaving Tucson for El Paso, TX

2012-02-02T16:27:00.001-05:00

We had a nice two days at the Lazydays campground in Tucson.

On Wednesday morning, we ventured out into Tucson. Our goal was to see the Old Tucson area (not much), find a post office to mail a package to our granddaughter in Little Rock, stop at a Wal-Mart for supplies, and to go to a Kohl’s to buy a matching bowl to the one that we purchased in Yuma.

All was successful except for the Walmart……….. they did not have all we needed, so we hit a Fry’s supermarket. We did well here, plus they took our Kroger card for a bunch of specials, and to top it off, we got a 10% discount for being over 55!

We got back to the campground, and spent the rest of the day planning our trip home, cleaning up the inside or the Bus (mostly from Quartzsite dust), and relaxing. Patsy cooked a stew in the crockpot, and it turned out to be really good.

We got up this morning to leave, and after dumping the tanks, and putting in the slides, I pressed the button for the levelers to retract. All was good for a short while, then they stopped and I got an error light on the DS rear! I turned off the system and started again, and they retracted a little more…….. then the error light again. After repeating this process a couple more times, the indicator lights showed all was well. I decided to check, and found the DS rear jack still almost all the way down!

Unlike in El Paso earlier in the trip, the air bags stayed inflated, and the jack could not be hoisted by hand., I decided to call the Atwood factory service center. After discussing the situation, they told me that they had had previous problems with the motor amps indicating ‘jack up’, when in fact the motor was just pulling high amps!! They instructed my on how to raise the jack with a portable drill motor, and that worked!

It is a really good thing that we are due in Red Bay to get the whole jack system upgraded to a more dependable system.

We left Tucson about 10:30am and expect to arrive in El Paso about 4:00pm to have dinner at the home of Ed and Pat Flores. Ed and I started at ALCOA the same year, but he quit to come back to El Paso in 1972.

By the way, Patsy is driving the Bus for the first time in almost 2 years on I-10 in New Mexico. That is giving me an opportunity to watch Fox News and do this blog update!

I will do another update after our visit with the Flores’,

Tucson, Arizona

2012-01-31T21:31:00.002-05:00

We arrived in Tucson at about noon today. While we were walking through the big tent in Quartzsite checking out all of the vendors, we picked up a coupon for a free nights stay complete with dinner and breakfast at an upscale campground. It is called Lazydays, and for non-RV readers, it is a large RV dealership in Florida who recently bought out the property of a bankrupt dealer in Tucson named Beaudry RV. Here are some pictures in the park. Here is a look down one of the streets….

An orange tree at one of the sites with fruit……..

The store/restaurant complex and some carvings across the street…

Our site and the Bus………..

The park, RV repair shop, and the overall dealership is first class. However, the overhead is so high that they really can’t complete with a lowball price on a new RV. They said that they are offering the free night to get people familiar with the property. It is a good idea, and it is working. Most of the people in the restaurant tonight had the free dinner coupons.

Here are some pictures in the restaurant, beginning with the free menu….

For my buddy, Mark, who will be stopping here on his way back to Louisiana, here are a few bullets:

When arriving, use the Irvington entrance (same as Camping World)…. not the Country Club address. Locked gate!!
Water pressure is 90—100 psig, so set up your regulator to begin with.
Verizon here has 4G service
Sites are very good, and full hookups including cable.
The restaurant food is also very good. Free menu is an abbreviated one, but food is great.
No sales presentations or pressure. Just check in and go to your site. You’re free to do whatever you want like any other campground
We are staying an extra night….. $45. Averages out at just over $20 a night for great accommodations.

After setting up in the site, we headed off to see Mt. Lemmon, as recommended to Patsy by Jag! It was a very nice drive. Here are some pictures……..

As noted above, this route is one of the America’s Byways roads. The peak was over 9000 ft, but the road did not go that high! It appears that the upper elevations are a good environment for the cactus….. they grow tall and look very healthy. We did find snow, and it was a very pleasant drive. It was about 44 miles one-way from the campground.

As of now, we don’t have a major plan for tomorrow….. may just relax in the campground or drive to Old Tucson.

On to Gila Bend……….

2012-01-31T20:38:00.001-05:00

Monday morning, we left the casino in Yuma and drove on I-8 to Gila Bend. We discovered a small campground behind Holt’s Shell Truck Stop several years ago, and it is a Passport America park, which means we park there with full hookups for 1/2 price.

As we left the casino parking lot, we spotted a couple of interesting sights…. a very small Winnebago motorhome, and a Class A from Canada that must had the level sensor out of kilter, or the driver leveled it manually after drinking too much! You can see the front wheels way off the ground …… while the coach in the forefront is leveled with wheels on the ground….

Along the way, the road was somewhat lonely, but pleasant to look at the tall cactus. Here are a few pictures…….

On the way, we passed by Dateland, AZ, which used to be just a fuel station and a date store that sold all things…. dates! Now, they have combined both into one new building, and the date stuff is disappointing……… it is now just a fuel/convenience store with a token selection of date stuff……

It took about 2 hours to get to Gila Bend, and as soon as we fueled up and got parked in a space, we began to wash the car and the Bus. There was a lot of desert dust on both…. inside and out! Here are the results……

After a good night’s rest, we will head to Tucson for two nights.

Yuma and Mexico

2012-01-29T20:01:00.007-05:00

I forgot to post a picture in yesterday’s blog……. it is a poster that Mark and I saw in a store in Quartzsite, and we liked it. If you are tired of stepping in stuff left by other people’s dogs, you can capture it and print your own poster.

Now, on to what we did today. We woke up this morning, and since we had used up our three nights of ‘resort’ camping, we moved two miles closer to Yuma to the casino. Here are our new “digs”………..

T
After we relocated the Bus, it was on to Mexico, about 3 miles away, and a walk across the border. It costs $5 to park the car in a safe lot, and the crossing was free. Since it was Sunday, and the most of the eyeglass places and all of the dentists were closed, the traffic was light on the sidewalks. The vendors were still aggressive, and we purchased something for our grandson, two bottles of Peach Schnapps for Patsy and her friends, as well as some vanilla extract and other legal drugs at the pharmacy.

Here are a few Mexico shopping pictures……….

Crossing back was very easy with our passports, and there was not a line of people backed up. As soon as we got to the car, Mark called and said that some friends, Dave and Sandy were in town and at the place where they were staying. They were celebrating two ladies birthdays and cooking burgers, so we went over. Here is a picture of Dave (on left) and Sandy (on right), with Sue and Patsy in the middle. They stopped by and are on their way to San Diego.

The event was at the home of Ed and Lavonne, friends of Mark and Sue.

Our friends, Greg and Mandy, also showed up. We had seen them yesterday at the Burger Bash at Jag and Bev's home resort.

Here are more pictures of the party and Ed and Lavonne’s place. They have a nice place with a patio yard. In the second picture, you can see Dave and Sandy's rig out in the street……

Here’s Ed (hiding behind the pole) and grilling the burgers……

Here are the two birthday girls (Betty and Sue) fighting over the cake………… or were they just innocently posing for a picture!!!

A big thank you to Ed and Lavone (and Mark) for inviting us to the party!!

We left the party about 4:30 and headed back to “our” casino. We had registered yesterday for membership, and each received credit for $10 free play money. Before going back to the Bus, we decided to try our luck.

The rules were that you had to put at least one dollar in with the $10 credit to get it going. I put in $2 thinking that on the $$ machine, I would get 4 maximum bet plays. On the fourth spin, I hit $100, so I played one more spin, and Patsy made me quit!!! I cashed out for $102 (my winnings plus my original two dollars), and we tried Patsy’s free play. We hit a $10 win once, but kept playing until we went broke.

Our score for the casino was one night’s free dry-camping plus $100 cash. Not bad for a little fun. Now it Patsy hadn’t be with me, I might be a billionaire by now!!!

Tomorrow, we plan to head East to Gila Bend for one night, and then two nights in Tucson before heading back to Texas.

Yuma, AZ–Day 3

2012-01-28T23:15:00.001-05:00

Last night after I posted the daily blog, Patsy got some good sunset pictures out of the Windshield of the Bus. Here they are……..

This morning, we slept in late, and then drove over to The Palms RV Resort to spend the afternoon with Jag and Bev from Canada.

On the way to the resort, we encountered some of the “political” motivated 99%-ers on a street corner…..

Also invited were Mark and Sue, and Greg and Mandy Faure, whom we have not seen in a couple of years. The resort was having a classic car show, and a burger bash. Here are some pictures of our group:

Mark and Sue with Patsy……..

Bev and Jag…….

Greg and Mandy………

Here are some pictures of the resort and our group……….

For the burger bash, the resort had entertainment….. an Elvis impersonator!

This was one of the best car shows that I have seen…. a lot of really well restored vehicles……….

As with all things, there was one entry that was different and unique……………

A note on the inside of the windshield….

The back side…………

and complete with a ceramic dog peeing on the tire….

As we left, I got a shot of Bev at their RV site…….

On the return trip, we spotted more people working in the fields. Note in the next picture that they use a bus to transport people to the job site, complete with porta-cans on a trailer in the back!

Here’s a couple of pictures of the working setup….

Back at our resort (campground), we had our free meal that came with the sales pitch that we spend 45 minutes listening to. It was pretty good, and here is a picture of Patsy’s plate……

Tomorrow, we will be moving the Bus over to a casino located one exit toward Yuma, and heading to Algodones, MX in the car.

Later.

Yuma, AZ–Day 2

2012-01-27T20:00:00.001-05:00

Today was our second day in Yuma. After spending almost 10 days in the desert at Quartzsite, without hookups, we had a lot of laundry to get done……… and a lot of sand and dust to remove out of the Bus. We cleaned everything from bed sheets to cabinets. This effort kept us busy last night and most of this morning.

We planned the housework at that time because we had an appointment at noon, local time, to pay for our three nights at this campground and did not want to leave and have to hurry back. Our presentation only took about 45 minutes and it is just not a good deal for us. For those who full-time and/or travel a lot more, may see it as an advantage. Since we were a little early for the session, we drove around and took a few more pictures of the ‘resort’!

The park entrance…..

The office and party room……

A view from outside the park……

The only site with grass…..

After the presentation, we took off and went shopping at a Kohl’s because Patsy had a 20% off coupon……. go figure!! We found something for our youngest grandchild, and a dip bowl for the Bus. After that, we stopped at an Inn/Out burger chain for a bite of lunch, and then toured the area. We found the location where our friends, the Didelots are staying, and hit a Walmart for a few more supplies.

On the way back, we checked out what looked like a little chapel on a hill across the interstate highway from the park. It turned out to be The Museum of Granite located in Felicity, CA. Here’s is what we saw from the road……….

and some close-ups………

Check out the hyperlink, it is neat!

We also checked out a casino that is located just down the road from our campground. We registered, and each got our $10 free cash to play slots. We also checked out the parking lot for boon docking on Sunday night.

Tomorrow, we plan to attend a Burger Party at one of the snowbird neighborhoods where our friends Jag and Bev live for the winter. Mark and Sue will also attend. Tomorrow night, we will attend a steak dinner here at the resort.

Sunday, we plan to go to the border and cross into Mexico to Algodones. Keep reading this space to make sure we get back alive!!

Heading for Yuma, AZ

2012-01-26T23:12:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was quiet. First thing in the morning, Patsy and I drove the Bus into Quartzsite to buy propane because we were at a level of “0” on the gauges. Later in the day, Mark and I ended up doing projects in other RV’s. Mark installed an additional electrical receptacle on the PS of Roger and Donna’s coach, while I helped a guy from California, Chris, tie into a propane line under his kitchen cabinet and route it to the cabinet door to allow hooking up a catalytic heater similar to what Mark and I did a couple of years ago.

We each finished our projects just in time to enjoy a shrimp and fish dinner that Sue made in their RV to celebrate our last night together in Quartzsite. Patsy made some baked potatoes with condiments and iced brownies, while Roger and Donna brought the veggies. We all got our fill, and it was very good. Thanks, Sue!

This morning, we cranked up the Bus, and pointed it southward to Yuma, AZ after spending the last 9 days without hookups in the desert at Quartzsite. The first three pictures below show views of the 47 different Tiffin rigs at the rally, and the fourth shows part of the 5 that were still left this morning as we drove away. Two of the 5 were Mark and Roger, who were leaving later in the day……..

It was about an 85 mile drive to Yuma, and below are some of the sights:

Saguaro cacti….

The road to Yuma was a mostly two-lane highway, with a lot of traffic, but not much to see….

As we approached Yuma, it became evident why Yuma is considered a major produce farming area in the USA. Crops and produce stands were plentiful….

Just inside the city, we quickly spotted one of our buddy, Manuel’s favorite restaurants….. Mimi’s!!

A little later, we spotted the artwork on Yuma’s water supply tanks…..

Last weekend, while strolling through the RV tent at the Quartzsite show, we picked a coupon to camp at one of a group of campgrounds in a membership company where you ‘join’ and get to camp at a reduced cost. To “pay” for the three nights, we need to sit through a 60 minute sales pitch! That is scheduled for noon tomorrow. Don’t worry kids, I know how to “just say ‘no’”! The campground that we chose is “Pilot Knob RV Resort” at Winterhaven, CA, which is just inside California from Yuma. Here are some pictures of our site…

The “security” shack!!!

After we got set up, we took the car and searched out the flea markets that we visited during previous visits. We did not find anything that we could not live without, but did get to see some entertainment………..

We left the market and on the way back to the Bus, we stopped at a Wal-Mart for supplies (after 9 days in the desert). On the way back, we saw this hot air balloon in the sky…..

Tonight, we are enjoying the full hookups……… taking long hot showers, washing and drying clothes, watching both TV’s and burning a lot of lights!!

Tomorrow, I will post more pictures of the campground.

The Desert Bar & Our RVA Friends

2012-01-24T17:33:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday, we traveled to a local attraction The Desert Bar with some of the other Tiffin owners at the rally…… Mark and Sue, John (Jag) and Bev from Canada, and Dan from Pittsburgh. The location was about 50 miles from here, and included about 6 miles of very rough and crude desert road.

Here are some pictures when we finally arrived…..

People standing in line for food taken from the foot bridge… we were soon in that line!!

Some of the high dollar decorations……..

The bandstand……….

Our group dining…..l to r: Jag, Dan, Mark, Sue, myself and Bev. Patsy took the picture!

The men’s restroom……….

The church steeple……..no church, just the steeple!!

A look into the women’s restroom from across the way…

Patsy and Sue posing in the “horseshoe” rocker and bench…..

Before we left, we sat and listened to the band. Eventually, some of the ladies got on the dance floor. I have not learned how to post a video………. YET!

When we got back to Quartzsite, we packed up our chairs and some snacks, and headed over the the RVAmerica campsite. Before we had a Tiffin rally here, we always camped with this group, and made some good friends. Here are some pictures…………..

In addition to the meal and conversation, it is a tradition that on one of the nights, all male newcomers are presented with a “Trailer Trash” ball cap to signify membership in this group. The women are given “Quartzsite Divas” headbands.

Until next time……..

On To Quartzsite…………….

2012-01-24T11:25:00.001-05:00

We left the Benson, AZ campground and drove to Tucson, AZ where we parked the motorhomes at a Camping World store, and took our cars to shop at a Trader Joe’s and a Wal-Mart to stock up for the stay in the desert.

We left Tucson, and headed to Gila Bend, AZ, to the Holt Shell Station campground, a Passport America park, where we had full hookups for $12 a night. This has become a normal stop for us when we come to Quartzsite. We use the full hookups to do laundry, dump our dirty tanks, and fill up with fresh water before hitting the desert.

We arrived at Quartzsite, and being the first of the Tiffin rally, we staked out the claim for our part of the desert. The spot that we used last year was taken, so Mark and I found another one nearby……… and it worked out well!

The have a new town sign for Quartzsite………

We paid our $40 to the BLM, and got our stickers for two weeks of glorious “dry” camping in the desert.

Here are some pictures of our camp…….

I spent the first two days of our stay working on my failed front jack, and making phone calls to the jack company, Atwood and to the Tiffin Plant. My neighbor here, Dan, from Pittsburgh, helped me repair the jack. He was daring, and since it was broke, I had nothing to lose, so we took it apart, and found a broken pin. A trip to the hardware store and 26 cents later, we had a pin. However it was a hollow pin, and the broken one was solid………. time will tell how long it will work.

However, after we re-installed the jack, the coach leveled just fine. On Monday, Patsy and I left the camp to go to the dump station and to refill our fresh water. The jacks retracted just fine, and the coach leveled again when we returned to the camp.

The results of my phone calls ended up with Atwood and Tiffin agreeing to install a new upgraded set of jacks, complete with new computer and wiring for free. The cost started out at $2700 and change, so I am pleased!

We have an appointment at the Tiffin factory on March 5 to get this done, along with some other repairs, including some body work where I lost a battle with a shopping cart at a Wal-Mart store in El Paso.

I will close this post with some sunset shots from our camp……

Later……….

Travel to Quartzsite -- 2012

2012-01-24T01:11:00.001-05:00

Our first trip (post retirement!!) is to the deserts of Quartzsite, AZ. We have been doing this for the past 9 years, with the exception of one year when we tried Florida. We have established many friendships in the RV life, and meet many of them here annually.

We left Victoria on Thursday, January 12, and drove to Fort Stockton, Texas. We did see some nice sunset views………….

The next day, Friday the 13th really lived up to its name!! While traveling on Thursday night, I got a “check engine” light on the Bus. I pulled over and checked the oil and water, and did a general inspection. I got back in and started the engine, and all was well for the next 150 miles to Fort Stockton.s The next morning, after driving about 60 miles, the light appeared again! I did the same routine, and it only lasted about 4 miles. Did it again and it lasted a few yards!!

I pulled over and got on the internet, and found a Cummins repair shop in Odessa, Texas. The only problem was that we were west bound on I-10, and while we were at the I-10 & I-12 intersection, Odessa was about 120 miles east!! With no shops until Phoenix, AZ, we took the detour. As soon as I made the U-turn, the remote tire monitor system started yelling about a tire problem on the Honda that we were towing. The pressure reading went from 35 to 9 pounds really fast.

We pulled over and sure enough, the passenger-side front tire was flat! In putting the spare on, we found that the bottle jack that I prefer to use, was low on oil, and I had to play “find the Honda jack” in the car. I ended up looking in the manual, and found it hidden under the rear compartment storage area….. under the container housing. I would have never found it without the manual!

Next, in taking the tire off, one of the lug nuts would not budge. We ended up with me pulling up on one side of the “cross-wrench” that I was using while Patsy stood on the other arm. We finally managed to break the lug off, and get the tire off the car.

In Odessa, after leaving the coach at the Cummins shop, we took the Honda and found a Discount Tire shop. Good news, they condemned the tire (big gash), and I had purchased the replacement guarantee, so we got a new tire. Bad news, first they said they did not have the same Michelin tire that I had on the car, but in checking, they found one in Midland, TX…… about 25miles further east!! However, we drove to Midland, got the correct tire, and then got back to the Cummins shop just in time to see them finish up the Bus right at closing time. Something finally worked out!

Patsy has a cousin that lives in Odessa, so we called them and had dinner at the local ‘Chili’s’ with them. We also got to meet their new daughter-in-law at the dinner. Here is a picture of her and Brent…..

and here is Mom and Dad (Carol and Ron)….

After dinner, we left (about 8:00PM, and drove within 140 miles of El Paso, and spent the night in a Texas Rest Area. On Saturday morning, we got up early and arrived in El Paso before the locals got on the freeways. After fueling up at a Wal-Mart Murphy’s, we settled in at the Anthony, TX Texas State Welcome station. We had planned to stay here until Sunday afternoon when our friends Mark & Sue and Roger & Donna arrived from Boerne, TX. I also planned to watch the NFL playoff games with TV from the El Paso area. We had good reception.

Mark called on Sunday morning, and said that the plan had changed, and we were going to attempt to drive to an area close to Tucson, AZ on Sunday.

They arrived at about 1:00PM, but we had more problems with the Bus………. one of the levelers did not retract when I raised them to allow us to get on the road. After spending about an hour pulling wires and called the roadside service, Mark helped me get the air bags to stay up, and we drove to Benson, AZ. We got there about 7:00PM local time.

More later. For more pictures, and updates, see Mark’s blog.

2011–An Update for the year!

2012-01-23T21:42:00.001-05:00

For us, 2011 was a “back to the future” type of time. I went back to work at ALCOA on February 7 and worked until November 11………… almost ten months. I enjoyed work, but after being retired for over 6 years, the daily routine of ‘having to be somewhere at a specific time’, and waking up each morning at 5:30AM gave me a grim reminder of why I wanted to retire in the first place. Here is a picture of my office and the bookcase, which was the only personalization that I did…………..

It was a good year, with the birth of our daughter’s first child and our third grandchild, and a couple of quick trips with the local grandkids.

In April, since she was not in public school yet, we took our granddaughter, Aubrey, to see her new cousin, Rachel, in Little Rock. That trip did get posted, so no more about it here.

During the July 4 weekend, we took our daughter-in-law and the two grandkids to the beach at Mustang Island in Port Aransas, and our son, Rick, drove down to meet us on the holiday. We included a trip to Sea World in San Antonio in that excursion. Again, that trip was covered in the second of only two blogs during 2011.

In my anal mind, I did not want to start blogging until I summarized 2011………… so that is the purpose of this blog.

In September, the grandkids celebrated their 6th and 7th birthdays. Here is a picture…….

During the fall, our grandkids were active in football and cheerleading at the school where they attend. Matthew is in first grade, and Aubrey is in Kindergarten. Here are a couple of pictures of these really great looking kids……………

Matthew played offensive tackle, and I think he found it a little bit boring………. kinda like playing the outfield in baseball. He likes to be involved!! He seems to like soccer a whole lot more, and is very motivated in it.

Finally, to wrap up the year, some Christmas pictures, beginning with Rachel………..

Then all three grandkids………..

and finally, a family shot with Great Grandma King…..

Immediately after retiring, we planned three consecutive trips to have a Christmas campout with the groups that we camping groups that we belong to…… The Camping Friends, The Texas Boomers, and The Lone Star Allegro Club.

That about wraps up the year 2011. Now on to traveling in the Bus in 2012!!

July 4 – Last Day at the Beach

2011-07-05T22:05:00.001-04:00

We went back to the beach and took a couple of pictures of the kite flying on the beach. There were a bunch, including some ‘interesting’ ones……

While the kids, Mom and Grammy were in the pool, I drove around and took some photos of the resort and individual lots….

The pool and office complex…….

A lot for sale for an “asking price” of $88,000

My favorite lot……….

The walkway to the beach……..

Our site………..

The kids got new “4th of July” shirts……

The kids were happy………. Dad showed up a little after lunch and was able to stay until dark…..

We left Port Aransas this morning at about 10:30AM and arrived in San Antonio about 2:00PM. We got checked into the Admiralty RV park, and just rested. It was hot…. about 104!!

Here is a picture of Laura using her computer on the trip to San Antonio using the Bus WIFI to update some pictures and files. She likes vacationing in the Bus……. or maybe it is just being with her FIL!!

And the kids are having fun, too!

Summer at Port “A”

2011-07-04T11:20:00.001-04:00

Before we left on the trip, my DIL gave me a sign that she found at a local shop. It is completely correct, and I may end up taking it to work….. if I go back!!!

On Sunday afternoon, we drove down the beach here at Port Aransas. Here are some pictures beginning with some vintage trailers that were set up right on the beach and they brought their own artificial palm trees…….

In some places along the beach, cars were parked three deep, and there were flags…. lots of flags…..

Of course, the kids had to get back into the water…. all three of them!

On Monday morning, Matthew and I got up early and went to the local donut shop. There is only one on the island, and it won’t have any stock for very long this morning! The kids enjoyed apple fritters and chocolate covered donut twists….

Summer Vacation - 2011

2011-07-03T16:30:00.001-04:00

With Rick working 7 days a week on a plant startup project, we decided to take our Grandkids and their mother on a short vacation.

We left on Saturday morning with reservations for three (3) days at Gulf Waters Beach Front RV Resort . We will leave here on Tuesday, July 5, to spend another five (5) days at the Admiralty RV Resort in San Antonio, TX where we will visit Sea World with the kids.

Rick is planning to surprise the kids by showing up in Port Aransas on July 4 to spend the day with us, if his job progress will allow. Regardless, he is going to show up in San Antonio on Thursday to spend a four (4) day weekend with his family at Sea World. They have plans to stay at a hotel near the park, and Patsy and I will stay in the Bus. Not sure where the kids will end up each night!!!

Here are some pictures of our site at the Port “A” RV park…….

Right after we got here, we went to town and visited a souvenir store that feathered an entrance shaped like a shark where you entered the mouth and came out the back to go to the store……

We then went back to the RV park, and went swimming in the park pool….

In the afternoon, and again this morning, we went to the beach, which is right behind the campground. The kids are having a lot of fun…..

That’s all the fun that they have had so far…. right now, it is 3:30PM, and everybody is sacked out!!! Back to the beach this afternoon!!

PS: Their mom is having fun too. Last night, she asked if the Bus was in my will to my son, Rick!! I won’t be eating anything that she serves in the near future or until I get a dog to taste it!

More Baby and Travel Pictures

2011-04-10T15:01:00.001-04:00

On Friday, Deanne was not feeling well, so we left her and the baby alone, and took Aubrey out to lunch at the local “Purple Cow” hamburger joint. Aubrey and Patsy shared a strawberry milkshake with their hamburger. It was the best hamburger that I have had in a while. Here is a couple of pictures of Aubrey with her burger and milkshake……

Patsy is trying to get her “Grammy” fill, and Aubrey has been helping…….

I got to hold her for a little while, but for me they are more fun when then are older!!!

We left the http://www.northlittlerockriversidervpark.com/

at about 11:00am on Saturday, and parked the Bus on a Walmart parking lot near Deanne’s house. Before we left, Patsy took some pictures at the campground….

After spending a little time at the house with Deanne, Mike and Rachel, we left for an early dinner at the local Mimi’s Cafe…. a favorite of our buddy, Manual Esparza! Here are some pictures…..

Mom and Dad (Deanne and Mike) with Aubrey……

Mom and Dad with Rachel……..

…… and finally, a last picture of Rachel

We left Little Rock after dinner, about 4:30pm, and spent the night at a Walmart in Marshall, TX. We got home on Sunday afternoon about 4:00pm….. and then washed the Bus so we can store it again, while I work!!!!

We’re Grandparents Again!!

2011-04-02T00:00:00.001-04:00

On March 22, I got a call in my office at work from our daughter, Deanne, that she had delivered a healthy 6lb 10oz baby girl earlier in the morning in Little Rock, Ar. The call was even more happy because the pregnancy had been a difficult one, with her placenta having been dropped.

Yesterday, Patsy and I left Victoria with our other granddaughter, Aubrey to travel to Little Rock to meet Rachel! Our grandson is in public school kindergarten, and he could not go with us. This is Aubrey’s road trip since Matthew had one in December 2009.

Here is one of the early pictures of Rachael on the way home from the hospital…..

Here are some more pictures with Grammy, Poppaw, and cousin Aubrey today……

On the way here, Aubrey had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the ride:

Riding in Grammy’s seat…….

Talking to Mom while traveling…..

Watching videos while in Poppaw’s bed while traveling…

We also saw some Texas wildflowers while enroute………

I am posting this on Friday night because I have been having problems with the power supply on my PC. Hopefully, I will be able to post again before we leave on Saturday night. I have to get back to work.

I have to say, it has been great being on the road in the Bus again. I am considering being AWOL from work!!!

More later.

Un-Retirement – Going Back to Work!!

2011-02-13T19:16:00.001-05:00

Six years ago this past January, I retired from ALCOA after 34 and 1/2 years. I did work for 3 months in the summer of 2006 during a potential strike after the Plant Manager quit, but that was it. I have been perfectly content being ‘unemployed’!

In December, I was contacted by the acting Plant Manager about coming back to work for a short while. He wanted me to fill the Production Manager position while a new Plant Manager and a new Production Manager were hired and got into the jobs. That was a job that I did not want, because it is a tough 24hr/day-7day/wk position. However, after thinking about it for a few days, the challenge got to me, and I caved…… and took it!!

I told them that I could probably do it for 3—5 months. I knew this when we left for Quartzsite, but some of the negotiations continued by cell phone and email while we traveled. On our way back from Quartzsite, I saw this billboard on the side of the freeway going into Tucson……..

I thought it was a little eery!!!

I went in for my one day of required safety on the Friday of the big freeze, and then began full time last Monday. I got up at 5:30am, and left for work at 6:00am. I got home about 7:00pm. It was a long tough day, after not really working for six years. I have worked during retirement, and worked hard, but at my pace!!! I really hate my day being so structured.

The second day was not much better, but by the third day, I seemed to be getting into the groove. By Thursday, I remembered why working people love Fridays!! It’s been a nice weekend, but very short. I even went out to storage to get some things out of the Bus…….and gave it a big hug!!!

The plant has a lot of new people and old problems! It is going to be a lot of work getting things running well again. It will require some really long, hard days, but I expect a lot of satisfaction at the end!!

Except for one or two weekend trips, I don’t expect any long RV trips until December or January of next year.

Stay safe on the road………….. and if you find a job, run for your life!!!

We Got Home!!

2011-02-13T18:53:00.001-05:00

From El Paso, we took a day and a half to finish the trip home. We drove from El Paso to Fredericksburg, TX and spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Here are some of the scenes that we saw on I-10 in West Texas. It is barren, but beautiful……

Sunday morning, we decided to go home via the large outlet mall in San Marcos, TX. I needed some work jeans and Patsy wanted to do some shopping. We did, however, want to get home with time to clean up the Bus and get it put into storage before the ‘big freeze’ hit.

We made in home Sunday afternoon, and washed the Bus, and then on Monday, we spent the day un-packing, and cleaning the inside, On Monday evening, we sadly took the Bus out to the storage garage, and parked it.

The grandkids spent some time with us. In fact, because of the freezing and wet weather, school was let out at noon on Thursday and all day Friday. Here are a few pictures…….

It was good to be home. However, we have just finished our last long trip for a while, because I am going back to work!!!!! More in next post!

Traveling Home

2011-01-29T17:59:00.001-05:00

We left Tucson late on Friday morning, and drove to El Paso, TX. We stopped at the Flying J where I got the new RV card, and then we took showers and I dumped the tanks for a $5 fee. I then filled the fuel tanks, getting the 3 cents per gallon discount, and headed across the street to park in the Texas Welcome station for the night.

In the early ‘70’s, I worked one summer at ALCOA and met a young Engineer from El Paso, Ed Flores, who was also doing a summer intern job. After graduating the next summer, we both accepted jobs with ALCOA at the Point Comfort plant. Ed and his wife, Pat, decided that they really wanted to work and raise their family in El Paso, so after a couple of years, he resigned and moved west.

Since we had time, and were traveling alone on this trip through EL Paso, I attempted to contact him. On Friday, while traveling, I used my WIFI to locate him on a people search, but when I called the number, all I got was an answering machine….. so I left a message, and took my chances. On Saturday morning, while I was hooking up the car, he called. I was surprised…..I knew that I was talking to an old man of 63, but it still sounded like the 24year old from the 70’s!!!! I gave him this blog address, so I know he will read this!!

We left El Paso about 11:00am CST, and drove East on I-10…….. actually, I let Patsy drive, while I worked on the computer.

The following are pictures of the Texas Canyon area of I-10 (either in Arizona or New Mexico)….. a lot of big rocks……

If you look back several posts, you will see that the Didelots and us stopped in Fort Stockton, TX to look at some sculptors. We were told about a big on on the west side of town, but we could not see it. Today, as

she was driving, Patsy spotted it. Here it is…

We expect to get to San Antonio today, and spend the night, and then get home early tomorrow. We will need to hurry and clean up the Bus and put it into storage because a wet cold front is expected next week.

Saguaro National Park, Tucson, AZ

2011-01-28T15:18:00.001-05:00

We got a late start on leaving the campground at Gila Bend. It was after 10:00am when we finally hit the road after getting the Bus ready for 5 days on the road, and filling up with diesel.

We headed to Tucson, AZ, and parked the Bus at the local Camping World store at about 3:00PM, and noticed that they locked the gates to the parking lot at 7:00pm. That gave us 4 hours to tour both the West and East Parks that make up The Saguaro National Park. We also needed to make a stop at a Trander Joes store to pick up some cornbread for our daughter in law!!

We headed to the West park first, and since Patsy left her purse in the Bus, I had to sign up of the $10 Senior card for National Parks. This is a one time fee for a lifetime card that allows us to enter any National Park for free.

The West park turned out to have the most dense population of Saguaro’s. It is also, the most natural, with a “graded dirt” road on the six mile long tour loop. On the way to the park, we passed the “Old Tucson Studios”, but it appeared to be closed.

The remainder of this post will be mostly pictures….. starting with sights on the road to the park:

The following photos are on the paved roads to the visitor center….

After spending some time at the visitor center, we drove the dirt loop road…..

We left the West park, and drove to the other side of Tucson to the East Park……

When we arrived at the East Park, it was getting late, and the sun set while we were driving the 8 mile paved loop road…..

As we entered Tucson earlier in the day, I saw a billboard that seemed like an omen. I wanted to take a picture of it, and late last night, I went back up I-10 to find it. We did find it, but it was not a lighted billboard….. so I drove up on a curb and took the best shot that I could …..

More on this latter picture in a later post!

Leaving Quartzsite

2011-01-26T19:59:00.001-05:00

We made our last trip to the RVAmerica camp last night to visit a lot of our RV’ing friends for the last time. We returned to our Bus at the TRVN campsite, and I stayed up late updating this blog….. most of the previous posts!!

Our last task before heading out this morning was to pick up some “Bus flags” that I had Hilda, the lady who digitized some photos of our Bus on our visit two years ago, and made some ball caps for me. Two years ago, she did not have the garden style flags that I wanted, so I ordered a couple off the internet before coming out here. They turned out nice……

I am planning to get a double flag holder and hang one of these with the Houston Lone Star Allegro flag at rallies.

Today, we only drove 150 miles and returned to the same Shell station campground in Gila Bend, AZ that we stopped at on the way in. We have a lot of clothes to wash after 8 days dry camping in the desert, plus we wanted unlimited use of water and electricity for one night before hitting the road for some serious driving.

Here are some pictures of Quartzsite as we left. There are still a lot of people and RV’s there….

I spent the afternoon “backing up” my laptop computer to a hard disk drive that I keep for that purpose. I had not backed up since 09May2010….. and my laptop is 6 years old.

Tomorrow, our plan is to visit Saguaro National Park in Tucson, AZ for a couple of hours, and then drive a couple of hundred miles toward Texas. We have seen signs for the park every year that we have traveled back and forth to Tucson, but always ran out of time or desire to visit it. We plan to fix that tomorrow.

RVAmerica Visits and AZ Sunsets

2011-01-26T01:25:00.001-05:00

In past annual winter trips to Quartzsite, Patsy and I camped in the desert on BLM land with the RVAmerica group. This year, the Tiffin RV Owners Network (TRVN) had a rally in Quartzsite, so we made the decision to meet with them. However, we wanted to spend some time with our friends in the RVA group. The RVA group is from a forum on the internet, and each year, it is well organized by our friends, Mike Desch and Linda Oddo.

On Monday night and Tuesday night of this week, we went to their campsite for the nightly “happy hour”. On Tuesday night, they also made the presentation of the “Quartzsite Trailer Trash” hats to the new visitors for this year.

Here are some pictures…….

On Tuesday evening, Patsy and I made note of an occurrence at Quartzsite on the BLM land. With self-contained vehicles, it is necessary to dump our dirty water tanks, and fill our clean water tank. On the BLM land, there is one place, with two dump stations for doing the former, and the following shows 27 RV’s in line for the chance to dump their tanks. It takes about 10 minutes each RV to dump their tanks, so with two stations, the last RV will wait about 2 hours at this time to dump. We did not have to wait in that long of a line!

While at the RVA campsite, we got a couple of sunset photos….

And, here are a couple I “stole” from Loraine North…..

This will wrap up our 2011 visit to Quartzsite. In the near future, I will have an announcement about the status of my retirement and our future travels……

Quartzsite TRVN Rally -- Activities

2011-01-26T00:41:00.001-05:00

There were many activities at the rally. Many people did what you come to Quartzsite to do…….. shop at the flea markets and the ‘big tent’ for RV supplies and Travel information. I only got a few ‘shopping’ pictures…..

On Sunday, many of the guys gathered in coaches with the correct satellite channels and watched the playoff games. At the same time, some of the ladies gathered in other coaches, and played cards…….

On Thursday night, many of us who had been in Quartzsite together previously, went to the Grubstake Restaurant for dinner. Here are some pictures……

One of the planned activities at the rally was a fire safety presentation by Mac McCoy, AKA Mac the Fire Guy. He made an impression on many of us, and ended up selling a lot of fire safety equipment. Patsy and I bought four fire extinguishers for the Bus, plus an extinguisher for the Norcold refrigerator compartment, and a large one for the diesel engine compartment. Here are some pictures….

We also had some spontaneous entertainment. Mike and Karen Vaughn arrived at the rally with a rock chip that expanded into a crack in the windshield on their 2007 Phaeton. While at the big tent, they found a booth for COACH GLASS, the company that furnishes the glass windshields for Tiffin. A truck arrived with the windshield, and several us sat around and watched the work…. expecting to see the new windshield crash to the ground or at least be sloppily installed. Neither happened, and in fact, the guys did a great installation…… real clean and professional. I used to think that if I needed a new windshield, the only place that I would go, would be the Tiffin factory in Red Bay. With the job that these guys did in the middle of the desert, I think I would rather go to their shop.

The guy on the right is John Tokatly, the president of the company.

Removal……

Mike Vaugh trying to look ‘relaxed’, while this is happening!!

The Karen and Mike looking through “no windshield”….

Clean-up and preparation for the new glass…..

….. and the new windshield going in.

We had a great time at this rally, and I think everybody else did as well.

Quartzsite TRVN Rally -- Meals & Fun!!

2011-01-25T23:37:00.001-05:00

Eventually, a combination of Tiffin brand and Some Other Brands (SOB’s) totaling 45 RV’s made up the 2011 TRVN rally. We had three planned meals, a “Meet & Greet” on Friday night, a Potluck dinner on Saturday night, and a “’Boil it in a Bag” Omelet breakfast on Sunday morning. Here are some pictures of the meals……

Following the “Meet & Greet”, an ‘event’ was held with all of the “Newbie” (First time at a Quartzsite Rally) women. While around the campfire, they had to wrap a biscuit around the large end of a roasting fork handle and bake it in the fire. However, at first, it looked a little more sinister than that!! Two of the people that I focused on were ‘Sis’ Rose (white long sleeve shirt, black vest and red bandana in her hair) from New Jersey, and Joan Stanger (long sleeve blue sweater wearing sun glasses) from our Texas based Lone Star Allegro Club. Look for yourself……

The intention was to form a hollow biscuit with a bottom, that was filled with vanilla or chocolate pudding

along with some cherry filling. They then tried to get their husbands to eat it. Paul Rose would have nothing to do with it, but Charlie Stanger gave it a try!!!

Quartzsite TRVN Rally – Post #2

2011-01-20T22:37:00.001-05:00

Thursday was our third full day in Quartzsite, and until today, the weather was just short of perfect. Today, it was very windy, and with the temperature being a few degrees cooler, it felt much colder. However, it was still a nice day. When the day started, we had 14 rigs in the main circle, and another one in the back.

Today, ten more rigs showed up, giving us a total of 20 in the main circle, and another five parked out back (by choice).

We also have Sue Didelot at the rally. Sue makes personalized windshield signs (click on her name for a website with examples of her signs) for RV’ers, and she had been busy with this group. Here are two new signs that she painted yesterday….

Here is a picture of Robert and Tiz Ruff (happy customers) with their new sign ( if you look closely, you will see their two dogs in the windshield)…..

And a picture of Mark and Sue taking a picture of the sign for her catalog…….

Our friends Chuck and Lorraine North arrived today. We first met them in Quartzsite three years ago, and they stopped by our house this past spring. Here is a picture of Patsy and Lorraine with Chuck in the background…

Here’s a shot of Chuck with Mark Didelot, Robert Ruff, and Myself on the end…..

Here’s a picture of the twenty rigs beginning to form the circle. I am having to walk a ways to get them all in the photo…..

We also have a couple of what are called SOB’s (Some Other Brand). One of the rigs is a Fleetwood American Tradition, which I am told is a $700K range rig, and it is parked next to our Bus. It comes complete with purple lights underneath that gives us a strange glow of color through our windows at night.

We also had another campfire in the center fo the circle tonight. Here is my best attempts to capture it as a photo……

That’s it for today. There will probably be about 15 more rigs showing up tomorrow.

Quartzsite TRVN Rally

2011-01-19T22:13:00.001-05:00

Picking up from the last post, we spent Sunday resting at the Shell campground, and enjoying our last day of full hookups (unlimited water and electricity) for the next 10 days or so. We got the BBQ pit out and grilled some fajitas that we brought from the HEB store in Texas. They were really good!

On Monday morning, we took off tor Quartzsite, and arrived there about 2PM, and go parked. There were already four rigs there….. the Ruff’s, Van Der Starre’s, Stangers, and the Allgires. The first two are the hosts, the Stangers are friends from our Houston Allegro Lone Star camping club, and the Allgires are an RV couple that we met out here two years ago. The following are some pictures that we took on the way into Quartzsite…….

You can really start to see the density of RV’s here, and the big show is still a week off!!

Here are some pictures of our campsite early on Tuesday morning, including some sunrise shots……..

The last two were taken out of our bedroom window, because it was too cold to stand outside!! On Tuesday morning, we had six coaches…… by the end of Wednesday, there were 13 coaches, with another 50 expected by the weekend. Not sure were we will put them, but that is the responsibility of Robert Ruff, center and sitting in the following photo……

Sitting next to him is Joan Stanger with her husband, Charlie, standing behind her. The are from our Lone Star Allegro club and it is their first trip to Q, and they are having a great time.

Gila Bend, AZ

2011-01-16T14:20:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, we drove from El Paso, TX to Gila Bend, AZ. It was a sunny day with blue skies, in fact, that is the way it has been since we left Fort Stockton, TX.

Here are some photos of the back of Mark and Sue’s motorhome as we traveled the interstate.

You can see that in this wide-open country, the state of Texas allows you to open your vehicle up an go!! However, Mark was wearing his sunglasses, and I think mis-interpreted the black sign (sun glass wearers) as applying to him, so we did 65mph! He said it was to optimize fuel mileage.

After we got into New Mexico, we saw a couple of hot air balloons in the sky. Patsy managed to capture a picture of one…..

The scenery in Arizona was similar but different than Texas. We began to see the big Saguaro cactus!

We ended the day at Gila Bend, AZ at a small campground behind a Shell Truck Stop. We had found this campground on a previous trip, and this is the third time that we have stayed here with Mark and Sue. It is a full hookup campground, and is about 140 miles from our final destination at Quartzsite. We will wash clothes, dump our waste tanks, and fill up with water before dry camping in the desert. Here are some pictures of the campground and gas station……

Our sites that were next to each other…..

The shell station itself is a typical oasis/tourist trap in the desert, but colorful……

Later today, we plan to cook some fajitas on the grill.

Traveling to Quartzsite

2011-01-15T23:43:00.001-05:00

The Didelots and us left the Boerne, TX Wal-Mart at about 8:30AM this morning. The drive to the western Texas border was about 550 miles, and Patsy had decided that if we were driving that long, we might as well use the engine alternator and our 3000 watt inverter to cook a beef stew in the crock pot. She put it together before we left this morning, and set the crock pot in the sink.

At noon, we stopped at a picnic area along Interstate 10 for a soup and sandwich lunch, Here a picture of our rigs parked…….

If you mention food, Mark is in my rig like we had twitched our nose like the lady on Bewitched!!!

After lunch, we stopped in Fort Stockton, TX at the visitor center to see some Brian Norwood art work that I had seen on the “The Texas Country Reporter” show. Here are some pictures.

Patsy needs to get her commercial (class B) driver’s license, so I let her do some of the driving to get practice to pass the test. At the same time, Sue drove their rig, and Mark and I got to spend some time on the internet…….. I even caught up on a couple of blog postings.

We ended up spending the night at the Texas Welcome Station at the rest area in El Paso, TX. That is where we ate the stew, which was really good. We also broke out the chocolate meringue pie that we brought from Halepaska’s bakery in Victoria.

Mark enjoyed the pie!!

Heading to Quartrzsite

2011-01-15T23:21:00.001-05:00

We had been planning to go to Quartzsite, AZ this January with Mark and Sue for the past couple of months. We planned our departure for Thursday, January 13 and expect to arrive early next week. First I wanted to make a couple of minor modifications to the Bus. I built a wooden holder for my Verizon wireless router….. since velcro did not seem to hold it in place on the cabinet wall. Here’s a photo of the finished product:

Original with Velcro…….

Now in wood holder……

I also wanted to design and install a latch on the sliding wire basket that Patsy has under the kitchen sink. Here’s that finished installation:

One other thing to report was my idea to get Patsy to not miss the grandkids as much while we are traveling. The kids had the following picture taken…..

I liked the photo, and since they were on a bench, it gave me an idea. I went on-line and ordered a blanket with the picture on it to throw on one of the couches in the Bus. It looks like thy are traveling with us…….. if only for a glance. Patsy liked the blanket, but I don’t know if it will fool her!!!!

Also, before we left, we needed to get some doctors’ appointments out of the way. I had to go to the dentist for a six-month cleaning. I used to get ‘gas’ for the cleaning (and all other work) because I am afraid of the dental office, but with retirement I decided I could use that money for something else!. Dr. John Swannack, AKA “Pain-Miester”. is my dentist. He is a really nice guy, but he his is a dentist!!

The dental assistant that ‘chisels’ the plaque off of my teeth is Debbie, HKA (Hereafter Known As) “Pain-Mistress”! She used to be a really nice person and gentle or so I thought under the influence of the gas, but she has been around the pain–miester too long! I warned her that if she kept sticking my gums, I would write about her in my blog. Revenge is sweet, Debbie!!!

Here is my depiction of how it went……

Anyway, we got packed and left home at 5:30PM and met up with Mark and Sue at the Wal-Mart in Boerne, TX. We both filled up with diesel at the Murphy station, and then we parked in the parking lot for the night.

So far, a good start!!

Christmas Break with the Grandkids

2011-01-02T22:12:00.001-05:00

Matthew is in public school now, and he was out for the two weeks around the Christmas holidays. Since his mom and dad had to work, Patsy and I had the kids most of the time. During the week before Christmas, we took them for a day trip to Lake Texana State Park. They had fun on the playground equipment, and climbing the trees in the park.

Here are some pictures………..

During the week after Christmas, we made a quick two-day trip to Cabela’s in Buda, TX and the Bass Pro Shop in San Antonio, TX to see the aquariums and stuffed wild animals.

We also went down to the Riverwalk and took a barge ride on the river…..

,,,,,, and of course, we had Christmas. Here they are with my mother…..

Here is a picture of Aubrey with Grammie (Patsy):

and Aubrey & Matthew with Grammie

and here they are with Grammie and Poppaw

Lone Start Allegro RV Christmas Rally

2011-01-02T21:33:00.001-05:00

In early December, we attended the annual Christmas Rally of our Allegro RV club. Attendance was great, and our friends Connie & Manuel and Mark & Sue were also there.

The rally was held at the Country Place RV park in Cut N Shoot, TX. We had a surprise visit from a full-time couple that we met many years ago at Quartzsite, Bob and Linda Klyne. They are originally from California, but are in the process of making Texas their legal residence.

Here are some night pictures of the park decorated for Christmas……

We also decorated our site…….

We had a good time.

Overdue for an Update!!???

2011-01-02T17:07:00.001-05:00

I haven’t updated since we are at Red Bay (Tiffin Service Center) in late October. Several friends have ‘gently’ commented, and then this week, my buddy, Mark, updated his blog with a title “Overdue for an Update!!!”, and that made me feel bad for being so lax!! He also commented in his blog…..’Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I know it’s been a while since I updated! It seems when we get back to our home town we just have so much to do, but not much of it worth writing about. :)’. Boy, that is so true! When we get home from a trip, we usually have a lot of cleaning, repairing, and putting the Bus back into storage, and also, having to catch up on the house and lawn items. First, we are busy….. then I am bored that we are not on the road!!

Additionally, our traveling friends, Connie and Manuel, who are not full-timers like Mark and Sue, do an excellent job of keeping their blog up to date. Manuel seems to keep them on the road, and Connie is meticulous about updating the blog….. in fact she is very prolific!! This year, I am going to try hard to do better!!

Now for the updating………..

We got all of our repairs done to our satisfaction, and headed home in early November.

Here are some pictures of the main project, the replacement of the floor under our wet bay tanks, which had a rotting problem due to poor sealing. Tiffin made the repairs at no costs to us. The first pictures gives an indication of the problem, by showing how low the tanks had dropped….. putting a strain on the piping going to the tanks. The picture shows the expanding foam and a small wood spacer to hold the tank in place. The tanks had dropped a little over 2 inches!

Unlike many repairs, the techs working on my Bus made the repairs by completely removing all of the tanks vs jacking up and securing the tanks while replacing the floor. I challenged this, but they convinced me that it was best. It gave them a chance to visually inspect the piping and other plumbing, and when they cut the PVC piping, they put it back together with flexible rubber hoses to prevent stress on the plumbing systems and the tanks. I was pleased with the finished product.

Here are a few more pictures…..

The bay with tanks removed (note the small section of ‘sealed surface’ on the far end):

Patsy looking at our “floor” that was being removed!!:

The guys cleaning the support steel before installing the new floor section:

The new completely sealed floor ready for installation:

The new floor going in:

The new floor install place from the driver’s side:

….. and from the passenger side:

Tanks back in place on the passenger side:

…. and on the driver’s side, before the white panel is installed:

While we waited for our turn to get the repairs, I watched the fix on other coaches, and documented the process on the Tiffin RV owners Network (TRVN). If you are interested, go here. I hope this link will work for people who are not registered on TRVN!!

We also saw a small modification on another Bus while we were there, so we had it put in on our kitchen counter. It prevents silverware, flashlights, and other things that we found in the space underneath the drawers from accidently getting there!!

This is a picture of the stop on the front of the countertop that is “factory installed”:

This shows the ‘slot’ where stuff falls and a top view of the new rear countertop stop:

This view shows a better view of the height of the new stop:

I have a few more updates, and I will write them up as separate posts!

One more picture that I have to add, to agitate my buddy, Mark, here is a picture of the ladies in the parts store at the Red Bay campground. As I pulled out of my site, and parked in one of the roads to hookup the toad, I heard someone holler “Are you leaving?”. I looked around to see one of the ladies outside the door with her hands over her eyes, crying to show how upset she was that I was leaving!!! As I looked closer, the other lady was at the window doing the same thing. I guess they just hated to see me leave!!!

Eat your heart out, Mark!!

Patsy and I want to wish all that read this blog a very Happy and healthy New Year!!

We’ve Moved But Still at Red Bay!!

2010-10-27T20:36:00.001-04:00

Well, on Monday afternoon, we got our call that a full hookup site was available for us. We moved to site #1, which for those familiar with Red Bay, is right at the front. Here is a picture:

Also, since we have been here, I have made another modification to the Bus. On our last visit to Red Bay, about 8 months ago, I purchased a map light at the campground store, but never got around to installing it. With time on my hands, I finally got around to finding a source of 12v power and got it put up. This will let Patsy look at a map, the Next Exit book, or read while we are driving without lighting up the whole front of the cab, and turning the big windshield into a very large mirror!!

Here are some pictures:

Picture with flash on camera……. Picture with no flash….. mimics real life driving down the road…….

For those that want to know, the source of 12v power was from the awning wind controller panel in the cabinet above the door.

I have used the last couple of days to watch the repair that will be done to the Bus tank bay floor being completed on other motorhomes. We also toured the factory and saw the modifications to this installation on the new units. I posted pictures and opinions on the Tiffin RV Network (TRVN). It can be found by clicking on the red lettering.

Our appointment is for November 1, and we expect to leave here two days after that,,,,,,,,,, at least, that is the plan. Until then, we are having a good time here.

We’re at Red Bay!!

2010-10-24T21:37:00.001-04:00

When we finally stopped on Friday night, we still had 300 miles to get to Red Bay. I woke up early, for me, at 7:00am, and got on the road. Patsy slept another hour, and then joined me up front!

We arrived at Red Bay at around 12:30pm, and the campground was already full, but we did get into one of the Electric & Water sites on the end of the Service Center. We were the third coach parked there, and by the end of the day, all of these overflow sites were filled up. By Sunday night, another 20 rigs were parked on the west side (apparently the new ‘runway’) of the Service Center without hookups of any kind. Nobody left the campground today!! We are glad we got here on Saturday.

Here is our “campsite”:

As soon as we checked in, we went directly to the coach washing area, and dumped the tanks and gave the Bus a much needed bath. After we got parked and set up, we went driving around town. I had read about a new ‘self service’ campground near the Service Center, but was not sure where it was or what it looked like. For other Tiffin readers, here it is….

It only has 5 or 6 spaces, and it is located about half way to Gills Restaurant on the road in front of the Service Center. It is well kept, and looks like a nice place.

On Sunday, we cleaned the inside of the Bus, and then drove over to Tupelo to shop and to have lunch at Chili’s Restaurant.

Since we have a week before our appointment, we plan to go to the factory and the Belmont Paint factory to look at the new 2011 units and see what has changed. If they are building them, I would also like to see the new Breeze motorhome.

I also plan to snoop around to see how the tank bays are being built today, and to view some of the tank bay floor replacements in the Service Center……. a repair that I am here to get!!

More later………..

Bus Fixed & We’re Back on the Road

2010-10-24T21:17:00.001-04:00

We had a good experience with Cummins Atlantic in Charlotte, NC. I called them last Thursday morning, and they said to bring it in, but it would be about 1—3 days until they could get to it. We drove to Charlotte, and got there about 12:30pm. I talked to Heather, the Service Writer, and asked her to try to do better on the time to get around to us, and she said that she would do what she could.

We parked the Bus in an RV spot and got it leveled and hooked up to 50AMP power, and then drove out to see the city. We stopped at a VF Outlet store, and both of us found jeans that we liked. We also stopped at a Wal-Mart to stock up on supplies, and spotted an IKEA store to visit on Friday if we were still in a holding pattern.

After eating dinner at an Outback Steak House, we returned to the Bus, and showered, watched TV and updated the blog. I also found a new route from Charlotte, NC to Red Bay, AL, where we have a Nov 1 appointment, that included visiting Chimney Rock, NC, scenic mountain town, and Asheville, NC. The travel entailed 450 miles of driving. I was not expecting to get back on the road until next Tuesday morning at the best!

At 7:45am on Friday morning, a guy knocked on the door, and gave us a work bay assignment. I hurriedly closed the slides, brought up the levelers and unhooked the power cable, and drove straight over to the bay. When I got there, I found everybody in a morning safety meeting…….. so I had to wait about 30 minutes to talk to the Techs.

When the Techs went to work, they retrieved a code (captured 8 times) that indicated that the problem was a dirty “crankcase breather filter”…….. a job that I had asked the Cummins South Plains shop in Houston to change back in June, but they told me it was OK!!

Regardless, they got it changed in an hour, and by 10:30am, we were on the road again. We decided to follow the new route and planned to visit Chimney Rock and Asheville and drive the first 150 miles before we quit for the night.

The drive to Chimney Rock was on steep and narrow roads, but very scenic. The town itself, was a pleasant surprise. It was about 6 blocks long, and we spent about 2 1/2 hours walking it. Here are some pictures of the main street………..

The entrance to the Chimney Rock State Park is located in the middle of town……

As we walked around town, we saw some signs that we liked…….. Patsy like the first one!!!

We also found some door mats that were similar to ones that Mark Didelot and I found in Quartzsite. I guess that if we knew we would eventually meet Manuel and then join the Houston Allegro Club and meet up with Richard (Matcoman), Reg and Bob Trout, we would have bought a couple of them!!!!!!

As we left town, we saw a couple of “Campers” (one shirtless) on the side of the road….

The drive to Asheville was uneventful, and we got there about 5:00pm. We drove downtown and found the ‘night spots’. We walked around for about 90 minutes and then ‘hit the road’.

We shopped at one of the famous Mast General stores, and bought a few gifts for family. Walking around the area, we saw a guy juggling six balls, but could not really catch all six in the air in the pictures……

Patsy also saw this live cat in a store window!! She said it was ‘dressed up’ for Halloween….. I think the people here are just weird!

We got on the road about 7:00pm, and got to a Wal-Mart on the east side of Knoxville by 9:00pm.

A day that started and ended well!!!

The Blue Ridge Parkway

2010-10-21T21:46:00.001-04:00

We have traveled the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway many times, but, like the Natchez Trace, it is always enjoyable.

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs about 465 miles along the peaks of the Eastern Mountains beginning near Cherokee, NC near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to near Waynesboro, VA. At that point, the Skyline Drive, a part of the Shenandoah National Park, begins and continues the “mountain peak” drive, and runs about 105 miles northward to Font Royal, VA.

When we left Williamsburg on Monday, we decided to drive northward for a while to pick up a part of the Skyline Drive. There is a low clearance bridge at about the halfway point, so we entered just south of it, and traveled southward toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. We entered the parkway on Tuesday about noon, and traveled it until Wednesday night, when the Bus engine began to give me the dreaded “check engine lights and alarm”

Here are some pictures of our ride. The Fall colors were not at their peak, but we saw some great sites. Here are the pictures from the Skyline Drive…….

Along the way, I had to clean the bugs off the windshield from driving the night before on the highway so we could enjoy the views…..

They were selling ‘gas’ on the Skyline Drive, but no ‘diesel’…..

During the afternoon, I was getting sleepy, and we saw a sign about a Blue Ridge Music Display. While Patsy visited the display, I slept for an hour in the Bus……

On the way to Williamsburg, the Bus computer gave me a “check engine” light complete with an alarm. I shut the engine down immediately on the side of I-81 and checked the fluids and the air filter gauge. When all looked good, I started the engine again, and the alarm was off. We drove another 500 miles without incident. In the mountainous Blue Ridge Parkway drive, I was using the Engine Brake a lot, and I got a lot of alarms.

We left the parkway at Lenoir, NC and stayed in a Wal-Mart parking lot. On Thursday morning, I called Cummins and was reminded that I have a 5-year warranty on my engine, and they directed me to a Cummins facility in Charlotte, NC……. about 75 miles away.

Tonight, we are parked on their lot with an electric plug, waiting and hoping to get into a bay tomorrow. If not, we will stay here, and tour the Charlotte area by car on the weekend. We may even drive up to the Raleigh, NC area and attend an FMCA rally there.

Nice setup, huh?? The picture was taken from I-85, and the concrete structure at the bottom of the picture is the median divider!! At least we have electric, and it is free!!

Old Williamsburg, VA

2010-10-19T20:38:00.001-04:00

We left the campground on Sunday and moved the Bus to the local Wal-Mart parking lot.

We then toured Old Williamsburg on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. We walked and took a lot of pictures. I will try to organize them in the following posting.

While walking around some of the stores, I asked the saleslady about a business in disrepair called “Williamsburg Pottery”. It appeared to have been a very large business at one time…… consuming hundreds of acres of land. It had been reduced to a ‘bargain bazaar’ building and a campground. The lady told me about a trademark pottery item called the ‘bird house’ pot. I had not seen one, but we did in Old Williamsburg. It was on display in a gardening area, and we saw one demonstrated in a shop, the last picture below……

For those that are curious, there is a “V” shaped cutout in the bottom of the pot, where the pot sits on a nail on the wall.

There was an old church, which is now an Episcopal church, that was existing when George Washington and his peers were there. They were required by law to attend church, and they had signs noting pews where a lot of these historical figures had sat…… would a church lie!!!

There were a lot of people in “period” costume, either working or just walking around……..

Here are some general pictures of the old town……..

After the Monday tour, which was a self-walking event, we left the area and headed north to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway and it’s cousin, The Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. More on that in the next posting.

TRVN Rally -- Williamsburg

2010-10-19T19:49:00.001-04:00

We spent last week parked at the American Heritage RV Park in Williamsburg, VA while attending the SE TRVN rally. There were about 50 Tiffin coaches in attendance, and we got to meet a lot of nice folks that operate on the TRVN forum. Here are some sights from the RV park……

The latter rig is Marcy’s new home. She said that she got rid of the 43 foot Bus!!

Marcy asked me to coordinate the “Mods and Maintenance” session. Here are two pictures that Patsy took during the two-hour meeting……..

On the tour of coaches, I saw two items that got my attention. Nat showed his ‘tankless’ water heater. He claimed that it uses less propane than a conventional water heater, and that he can have almost ‘endless’ showers. It is manufactured by “Precision Temperature”

The second item was from a guy from Pittsburgh who uses the name “DanF” on the forum. He used some special body shop “nuts” to secure items on his bay doors. He gave me an internet site to purchase the nuts and the tool to insert them, but I will have to see if my buddy, Mark, already has the tool!! These ‘nutter’ nuts work well on thin walled metal.

There were a couple of meals, and a lot of visiting.

During the off times, Patsy and I visited Yorktown and Old Jamestown.

Yorktown pictures……….

While in Yorktown, we visited the old battlefield, and got treated to the firing of a 12 pound cannon (weight of the ball)………

The latter picture shows the three types of shot….. solid ball for destroying buildings, the hollow ball with ‘shot’ in it to inflict pain on troops and with a fuse that causes it to explode before hitting the ground while above the enemy, and the “grenade’ type shot that explodes with fragments when it hits the ground.

At Old Jamestown, we saw the statue of Pocahontas and the monument to Jamestown settlement that was erected on it’s 300th anniversary…..

We left the campground on Sunday at noon and parked on a Wal-Mart parking lot. In the afternoon, we visited Old Williamsburg, and went back again on Monday before we left town. More on that in the next post.

We are “On The Road Again!!!”

2010-10-11T21:40:00.001-04:00

We left Victoria on Friday morning for a trip with two goals…… Attending the TRVN Fally Rally in Williamsburg, VA on 13—16 Oct2010, and to the Tiffin Factory Service Center for an appointment on Nov 1, 2010.

On Friday, we drove to Memphis, with a stopover in Little Rock for dinner with our daughter, Deanne and her husband, Mike at a Japanese steak house.

We spent three nights on the road (two at Wal-Mart and the other at an Arkansas State Rest Area.

We arrived at the American Heritage Campground in Williamsburg, VA this morning. There are already a lot of Tiffin rigs here and the rally does not start until Wednesday.

More information and pictures later…………….

What I Did This Summer…….

2010-10-11T21:27:00.001-04:00

Or, why didn’t we travel and do blog postings???? It has been a little over three months since we posted! In that time period, we only made two ‘three-day’ weekend trips. In late August, we took the grandkids on an ‘end of summer’ vacation before school started, but our camera was broke……….. so no pictures! We have since replaced it.

We took the kids to the Children’s Museum of Houston for a day, and then to the Boardwalk at Kemah and the beaches at Galveston. They had a great time

Our oldest, six year old Matthew, started regular school this year, so traveling with him will become more restricted. We will still be able to travel with five year old Aubrey.

The other trip was to the Labor Day campout of the Texas Boomers RV Group who celebrated their 10th anniversary of the club. I had my new camera, and took a few pictures. The best were of the ladies of the group making a 20 foot long banana split…………..

Of course, when you put RV’ers together with weapons, like a can of whipped cream, things can get out of hand……..

Most of the summer, we stayed around Victoria to help our son and daughter-in-law get moved into their new home in the country. They began building in Dec 09, and it was finished up in mid-June ‘10. Concurrently, my son is working on a project to build and start up a new facility at the Formosa Plastics plant which began around the first of June. That is when he started working 7 days a week from about 6:00AM to around 9:00PM. He is still on that schedule, and expects to be complete around the middle to end of November!!

So, being the good Dad and Mom that we are, we have been helping them get moved, including helping to haul all of their furniture and stuff from various storage areas to the house and unloading. It is important to note that they had a buyer for their old house, but had to move out about six weeks before the new one was finished. Their family of four moved into our home…. which was the driving force for our early June trip documented above!!! Our son, Rick, did manage to get two full days off to help with the move…….. the only days that he has had off in the past 75 days.

I have also been doing the things that Rick would have normally done after moving into a new home. I have made pegboard frames and hung them in the garage, and set up his workbench, shelving, and storage. I also helped his father-in-laws crew lay 20 pallets of grass around the house, set up with a local contractor to finish paving the driveway (after Rick and I laid it out one night), mowing and clearing the property to get the grass growing in places where we did not sod, and deciding what kind of “zero-turn” mower to buy, and then making the purchase.

Here are some pictures:

Pouring the Driveway………

The following picture shows the 10 one inch PVC pipes that we laid under the driveway for future electrical and yard sprinkler piping access……..

The following was my view from inside the garage, the only shade in the hot summer heat……

And the finished project with the grass having some time to grow……….

To get to the last picture from the one before it, a lot of work was involved. In the beginning, I used Rick’s tractor and shredder…………

As the grounds got smoother, and most of the debri was picked up, we purchased a “zero-turn” commercial lawnmower…….

The zero-turn does a great job of cutting the lawn, and it is a lot of fun to operate!! I recently hauled it into town and cut the ditch behind my house with it…. in fact, I mowed mine and both neighbors beside me!!!!

On one of our trips, in the Fall of 2008, we purchased an Amish porch swing for our daughter-in-law. She chose to store it (in my Bus storage garage) until she had her new house. A couple of weeks ago, I put it up on her new porch. Here is a picture of Patsy sitting in it in Pennsylvania, and the install on her porch…..

Now that I have the blog up to date chronologically, I can start to report on our current trip!!!!

Little Rock Visit

2010-06-18T10:44:00.001-04:00

We stopped in Little Rock, AR for a couple of nights to visit our daughter and SIL. We normally stay at Maumelle Park, but they only have 50AMP power near the docks where it is covered in trees that interfere with out satellite TV reception and the other sites are only 30AMP. We checked with the Downtown RV Park in North Little Rock, and they had all full hookup with 50AMP, plus they honored Passport America at $9.90 a night!!! Of course, that is where we stayed this time!

It is a gravel park, with a little grass along the riverfront, but the price and proximity were great. Here is our site and the view out the front window…..

I also thought we had an 18 wheeler parked with us, but then we drove around and found out it was someone’s home……….

We ate out twice. We tried a Cheeburger—Cheeburger, trying to find the great onion rings that we had at that restaurant in Florida, but they weren’t as good! We also tried a Greek restaurant, and it was very good. When I down loaded my pictures from the camera, I found some pictures that Patsy took at the house of the pool and the dog……… Izzy!

We left Wednesday morning, and headed for Texas. We spent the night at the Rusk State Park Campground, home of the Rusk-Palestine train ride. We were the only rig in the park!!! When we checked out, I asked about the occupancy, and the girl said that it was only that way on “weekdays”.

We left on Thursday morning, and headed to the Wolf Creek Park to meet up with one of our camping groups.