Thursday, February 28, 2013, San Clemente, CA

Thursday, February 28, 2013, San Clemente, CA
It was a switch today, I was up before Gerri and had the coffee ready when she got up.  I guess I had in the back of my mind that I might have to run an errand this morning to help Bill.  On the way here yesterday he had a blowout on his truck.  On the 241 toll road, his right rear tire blew separating the tread from the casing.  There was also some body damage.  He planned to go into Oceanside to a Discount Tires store and get a replacement..  If there is a long delay he plans to call me and I will pick him up.  He was gone when I got up and looked around.
When I got up the first thing I noticed was that our neighbor to the east had left.  The park is less than a quarter full, I expect that to change tomorrow.
Bill had to order the tire so I didn't have to pick him up in Oceanside.
We sat around enjoying the southern California sun in the afternoon.
Supper tonight was with the Cavagnaro's,  Elaine's sister and husband came over and Bill grilled steaks.  Due to a misunderstanding some of the steaks were New York ct and others were t-bone.  All were good.  We also had mushrooms, smashed potatoes and cauliflower.  Marsha thought it was weird to post pictures of dinner on a blog, but here are some of our steaks grilling.

That's mine in the middle

After supper the ladies played a card game and the guys told tall stories.
We loaded up our grill and chairs and headed home at about 8  PM.
Tomorrow Marsha is going to fix shrimp scampi, something to look forward to.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013, San Clemente, CA

Gerri got up very early and started her admin duties for the Facebook groups she works with.  I slept in until after eight.  My first duty is to turn on the coffee.  I got my mail read and my Face Book reading done while the coffee was brewing.  I posted yesterday's blog and did at least the heading for today's.
I forgot to post yesterday that I talked to Curtis.  He is flying to Las Vegas on Wednesday and driving Gerri's car to Riverside for his Grandmother's memorial.  
The last couple of motorhome trips we have stopped our mail and had it held at the post office.  This can be done on line but only for 30 days at a time.  In the past we have always had someone around to mail the monthly package to us.  Even though it hasn't been 30 days we are having the mail delivered on March 6th.  Curtis will bring it to us on the 8th and we will put another stop on until we return home.  This will give me a week to go through the mail and make sure nothing important is overlooked.  I think Gerri has arranged to have a friend come by the house and send us our mail during the 5 months we plan to travel starting the end of June.  Most people that live and travel full time in their motorhomes subscribe to a mail forwarding service.
If you haven't figured it out, all our time isn't spent at play.  We still have bills to pay, washing and cleaning goes on too, as does grocery shopping and meal preparation.  Traveling in the motorhome puts us closer to the things we enjoy while doing these mundane chores.
Bill , Elaine and John pulled in about 1pm and I watched them set up.  I usually try not to get involved while someone is either setting up or getting ready to leave.  I don't want to interrupt their routine and cause them to forget something.  It has happened to me, causing me not to get the Jeep hooked up properly for towing.  
We finalized plans for supper at Sonny's and shopping for tomorrows steak grilling.
We sat outside our coach until the sun got down far enough that we are in the shadow of our own coach.  Before we leave here we plan to walk around and list the sites we like best and that we will fit into. That will give us a guide for making future reservations.  Gerri likes the sites with partial ocean view with the door of the RV on the west or ocean side.  I like the handicap spots because they have concrete pads under the tables, there is only one handicap spot that puts the RV door facing west.  That is my favorite because it is an end site with a large grassy area.  It is also in high demand.
At 5pm we headed to Sonny's.  We took two cars so that Gerri and Elaine could stop at Von's to pick up items needed for tomorrows supper.  There should be seven of us, Elaine's sister and her husband will join us for supper.

A sunset from two years ago at San Clemente

As usual Sonny's was up to expectations.  Gerri and I both tried something new.  Gerri had stuffed shells, a Sonny's specialty and I had spicy calamari.  great food, great company.
Back at the park we visited for awhile and retired to our coach for the evening.  No dishes to wash so it was just Judge Judy and a couple of Gunsmoke episodes and then to bed.

Today would have been my mom's 92nd birthday.  Happy birthday Mom.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013, San Clemente, CA

Tuesday, February 26, 2013, San Clemente, CA

Another cool but sunny day.  Coffee, and computer time started the day.  We are really taking it easy, no one around.  Bill and Elaine arrive tomorrow afternoon.  In the meantime we are just vegging out.
I did go out and looked for a cache down by the beach.  I didn't find it so I went to one across the freeway and a short walk up a trail.

End of the show

I got the grill out and set it up on our picnic table.  This will be the first time I have used the hose that was installed a couple of years ago to use the coach's propane tank for the grill.

Before grilling the burgers we went down to the cliffs at the edge of the campground for pictures of the sunset.

A lone jogger south of Califia State Beach

I grilled hamburger patties and we had sandwiches using the sandwich thins.We also had salad, onions, cilantro  and tomatoes on the side.

Does it surprise you that after putting away the grill and washing the dishes that we had a little TV and computer time before bed?

Monday, February 25, 2013, San Clemente, CA

We woke up to a clear day, sunny and only a little breeze.  While catching up on computer stuff and having our coffee, Vanessa called on Skype.  She was on for quite awhile.  I drew a Unicorn, Fairy Princess and a big wheel tricycle for her

I did my work out and took a couple of turns around the park.  I miss the semi-recumbent bike at the activity center at Havasu RV Resort.  On my second time around I stopped and talked to some other campers who I have seen here before.  Larry and Marilyn come here often and usually on the first row with an ocean view.  Larry is a disabled veteran.  Disabled vets get to camp here with no fee by reason of their service. While I was gone Gerri sat out in the sun for awhile.

Back at the coach Gerri had figured out how to load some apps on her phone.  I downloaded some nearby geocaches and loaded them on both the Jeep GPS and my handheld.  The app on Gerri’s phone showed a cache at the entrance to the campground, the detail was down to street level pictures of the cache area.  I used Gerri’s phone as a GPS and found the cache.  Her phone makes it easy to log the find than when using my handheld unit in conjunction with my SPOT. The screen on this phone is much easier to view in the sun than her last phone.

After the sun went down it got quite cool out.  Supper was leftovers from a couple of last week’s meals. 

As usual the day wound down with TV and computer time.

Sunday, February 24, 2013, San Clemente, CA

Sunday, February 24, 2013, San Clemente, CA

Oddly enough I got up before Gerri.  I fixed coffee.  When I set the coffee maker up last night I forgot to empty the left over from yesterday and had a mess to clean up.  On top of that we had lukewarm coffee the rest of the day.

Gerri hadn't slept very well and I was all finished getting the outside pretty much ready to travel  I had to get her up to roll up the inside for travel.  We left the park at about 9 AM and stopped for fuel at the Chevron station north of the park on AZ-95.  Wow, $4.15 a gallon.  I think this is the most I ever paid for diesel, I suspect we will pay more in California before heading home next month..  After hooking up the Jeep we headed out north toward I-40.

The wind had howled all during the night and we were heading straight into it.  We got to I-40 and headed west with a side wind.  At times the gusts were pretty strong.  Add to the wind the fact that I-40 once we were in California is very rough.  The rough road cleared up a little after we passed the intersection with US-95 north, but the wind was with us for the rest of the trip to San Clemente.  The direction and gusting varied but was always there.

We traveled on I-40 to Barstow where we turned south on I-15.  We were on I-15 until we turned on CA-91, the Riverside Freeway.  After that it was CA-55 to I-5 and then on to San Clemente.

We arrived at the San Clemente State beach at about 4 PM.  We parked in site #54 , a handicapped site.  The site is long and wide with a concrete pad under the picnic table.

The sunset was beautiful, but we didn't walk down to where we could see it clearly.  Hopefully we will have a chance to get a good picture later during the week.

We attended the services at Oakey Blvd. via the internet.  A good message by Randy Mabe.

After church we tried to go to a nearby In N Out to indulge in a hamburger..  There was nothing at the address Gerri found.  We then went to the Beach Flame Restaurant in downtown San Clemente and had hamburgers with blue cheese and all the trimmings.

TV and computer rounded out the evening as usual.

Saturday, February 23, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Saturday, February 23, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ
We had our coffee between 8 and 9.  The plan for the day was to go to brunch with Keith and Alice at Juicy's Restaurant.
Before Keith and Alice picked us up I started to roll up out outdoor gear.  Before they came I got the table, the outdoor carpet and two of the chairs put away.

Brunch at Juicy's

At Juicy's we had a great brunch.  Our waitress was new and we had a good time with her.
On the way back to the park we stopped at Grampa's Antiques and bought a couple of things to hang on our back wall.
Back at the park, Gerri took a nap.  I dumped the sewer and grey water and disconnected the city water in preparation of leaving at about 9 AM PST in the morning.  We have about 320 miles to drive to San Clemente.  All I have to do in the morning is close the slides and take the jacks up.  Of course Gerri has to put away a lot of things inside before we travel.
I went out for awhile and found four caches.  I gassed up the Jeep at a Chevron Station near the Walmart just north of us on AZ-95.  I checked out the station and is should be easy in and out in the morning.  I plan to have Gerri follow me there in the morning in the Jeep and fuel up the motorhome.  Diesel is $4.15 a gallon and I expect to pay more in California before we head home.
We went to Keith and Alice's at about 4:30 for a meet and greet.  I really need to become better with names for these occasions.  The ladies spotted a hummingbird nest in a tree behind Keith and Alice's  lot.  There was a bird in the nest but they couldn't tell if there were eggs or little ones yet.

After the meet and great we went back to our coach.  We had some cheese and tortillas for supper.
TV and computer time finished up the evening.

Friday, February 22, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Friday, February 22, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ
While drinking coffee and doing the morning's computer chore, I noticed items for sale across the street and people stopping to look.  I had read a sign in the office about a Craft and Yard sale, but thought it was on Saturday.  I thought wrong.  Too bad I didn't know about the yard sale before leaving Las Vegas.  I have several useful RV items that I have never used lying around the garage.  Oh well, maybe another time.

Ocotillo in full bloom

Around noon I went out to find a few caches.  I went north to I-40 with plans to do several caches on the way back to Lake Havasu City on AZ-95.  Turns out the caches that far north weren't on the pocket query that I had run earlier in the week.  I did find four on the way back.  The first one I found was a DNF from last year.  At the second cache I saw a Ocotillo in full bloom.  The picture doesn't do the scene justice.
After a quick stop at Walmart I got back to the park a little after 4 and had time to clean up before supper.  We went to Keith and Alice's for supper.  Alice had prepared lasagna and garlic bread, Gerri fixed a Caesar's Salad with tomatoes on the side.


Before supper we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

After supper it was back to the coach.  Some TV and computer time and then to bed.

Thursday, February 21, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Thursday, February 21, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ
The temperature and humidity met just right this morning to leave the Jeep windows and top covered with water.  That means that later the Jeep will catch any dust in the air and water from the coach roof will streak the sides.  I have been told that a coat of Mop and Glow will slow down the streaks from the roof.  I will have to find someone to go up there and do the job, I don't trust my balance enough to go up there.
A group of about ten or more four wheelers and dirt bikes gathered across the street and later left in a group.  There are a lot of trails in the area and access doesn't seem to be controlled or prohibited in any way.
Since we had fish last night, I got dressed and put the bag by the curb for trash pickup.  I then noticed that no one else had trash out, I had missed the pickup.  So later I took the bag over to the dumpster.
Gerri gave me a list of things needed for tacos tonight at Alice and Keith's.  I went to Safeway and did the shopping.  I did one geocache while out.
The sky had clouded up and the temperature dropped.
I got my work out done during the late afternoon.  As I walked back to the coach, at about 4 PM, the four wheelers were returning.  I got cleaned up before going to Keith and Alice's for supper.  Alice had prepared taco shells and meat.  Gerri fixed the salad items to go on the tacos.  Another great meal with good friends.
We got home about 8 and finished off the night with computer and TV time.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Wednesday, February 20, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Snow to the east

We were up by 7:30.  I don't know when the rain started last night but it was still raining when we got up.  The rain lasted until about 9:30 and by 10 the sun was peeking through, it may turn out to be a nice day.  Looking east from my seat at the desk I can see the dusting of snow on the mountains about two miles away.
I turned on the new coffee maker.  When it was finished the first taste told us it was better.  Since the new one worked, I put the box and the old coffee maker out for the trash pickup.
After the rain stopped and the sun was peeking through I wiped the water spots off the Jeep and as high on the coach as I could reach.  I hope I was overly optimistic about the rain having stopped.

I did part of my exercises at the coach and then walked up to the activity center for the part on the equipment there.  I hope to have my left leg in better shape for that operation than my right one was.  My balance is still poor.  I have made 10 seconds on my right leg only twice.  I have been told that if I can't balance on one foot for 30 seconds, I am a high fall risk.  Of course taking Coumadin I don't want to risk a fall.
In the late afternoon it was off to the Walmart for items needed for tonight's supper, we are having Keith and Alice over for salmon.
By 4:30 the sun was fully out and the sky clearing with no wind, I guess I made the right choice in wiping the water off the coach and Jeep.
At 5 PM Alice and Keith came over.  We visited for awhile and the had supper. Gerri prepared salmon, green beans and quinoa. We also had grape tomatoes and mushrooms on the side.  Alice brought a lemon meringue pie for dessert.
Every dinner with Keith and Alice seems to be better than the last.
Plans were made for the rest of the week and Keith and Alice went home about 8 PM.
After I washed the dishes I decided to have a go at replacing the light bulb under the microwave.  The bulb burned out last year and I tried replacing it then.  That try at replacing the bulb didn't work out.  The bulb is a small one with two prongs that go into holes that you have to be close to and upside down to see and the package has a warning not to touch the bulb with bare hands.  I bought two bulbs at Lowe's day before yesterday.  Tonight I got the bulb in just like I knew what I was doing.  It wasn't over, I dropped the screw that hold the cover over the bulb three or four times.  Once the screw fell on the floor and it took a lot of searching to find the tiny thing.  I finally got the job done, now Gerri has her favorite night light again plus it makes it nicer when using the stove.
As usual our night wound up with TV and computers.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Tuesday, February 19, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Gerri got up at o'dark 30, 5:30 AM.  I stayed in bed until the decent hour of 8.  While drinking coffee the wind started blowing, it isn't awful but the forecast is for more wind and possibly rain by tomorrow.  The coffee hasn't been as good as at home.  I think the coffee maker in the coach isn't working very well, not getting hot enough.  We will shop for a new one today.
I downloaded some caches in the area and may get around to hunting a few later today.
It started getting breezy at about 10 AM.  I walked down to the activity center and used some of the equipment there to get in part of my prescribed exercises.  I rode the semi recumbent stationary bicycle for 15 minutes then moved to a leg press machine.  I did some wall slides using an exercise ball and finished the gym part of the work out on a leg extension/flex machine.  At the therapy place I had been going to these were two different machines, but the work out was about the same.
After getting back to the coach, I got my GPSRs loaded with nearby caches.  I use one on the dash of the Jeep to get me near the caches by road and then the handheld to close in on foot.  The Nuvi I use in the Jeep has a pedestrian mode.  I may try it out, The DeLorme hand held has the advantage of being able to read all the cache information and the logs of five previous hunters.  I also want to tryout Gerri's new phone, but she hasn't downloaded the geocaching app yet.

The new coffee maker, in place ready to go

I found two caches, one was a DNF from last year when we were visiting Lake Havasu City.  I also bought a new coffee maker at Walmart.  It is a ten cup with a thermal carafe, Mr. Coffee brand.  We will see in the morning if it makes better coffee.  I don't think the old was was getting the water hot enough.  I also stopped at Lowe's and bought a new bulb for the light under the microwave.  I'm hoping for better success than I had the last time.
By late afternoon the wind was blowing and had a cold edge to it and the prediction for rained looked like it was true.
Before supper we visited with Keith and Alice for awhile.  Keith had bought some new outside chairs and a table and was busy doing the "some assembly required."  Because of the wind we didn't have a fire in their fireplace tonight.  They have a covered area with table and chairs,  it also has heat lamps and screens that drop down.  So we were pretty comfortable around the table with cheese and cracker snacks.
Back at the coach, Gerri fixed ham, cheese and egg burritos,  I checked out the new coffee maker, cleaning it up and testing the carafe with hot water. The water was still hot several hours later when I emptied the pot.  I have high hopes that it will make for better coffee in the morning.
I re-installed the printer which for some reason had lost contact with the computer since I last used it.  I think I was successful  at least it printed a couple of sheets I sent to it.  Tomorrow I will try to connect Gerri's laptop with the computer, something I never was able to do at home.
As usual TV and computer time rounded out the evening.  Sometime during the night the rain started.  So much for the newly washed coach and Jeep.
All in all another good day.

Monday, February 18, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Monday, February 18, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ
This was a lazy day, even for us.  I did make a phone calls to clear up a confusion over an appointment to have our taxes done.  I thought I had made the appointment for March 18 and the company had us down for Feb. 18.  The appointment is now set for certain for March 18.
I also sent e-mail reserving our Mexico timeshares.  We don't plan to go to Mexico next year but want the dates to deposit for a trip to Hawaii.

Horse shoe pits at the RV park

Boccie ball courts

Looking east up the wash in the park.

In the afternoon I walked around the park and picked up a list of lots for sale.  Later Gerri and I both walked around the park looking at the lots for sale.  There are lots of various sizes , some with improvements such as Casitas and some that have no improvements.







I talked to a couple of neighbors and we later went to Keith and Alice's to visit.















We returned to our coach for supper.  We rounded out the evening with TV and computer time.

Sunday, February 17, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Sunday, February 17, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

We are in the site marked in red

It was quite cool during the night, a big contrast with the daytime temperatures.
It's amazing how an one hour time radiance can cause so much confusion.  We were up and having coffee by 9 AM according to either Nevada or Arizona time.
We did manage to log on and get the net cast from the Oakey Blvd. Church of Christ.  The connection worked fine until near the end of Bible Study.  The connection broke intermittently.  We don't know if the problem was with equipment at the Church or the internet service at the RV Park.  We got most of the net cast and enjoyed the message and the singing.
By the time Church service were over I think I had the time thing figured out,  It was about 1:15.  We had nothing planned until dinner with Keith and Alice.  Gerri spent a lot of the day trying to get use to her new phone.  She did prepare a dish to go with the Sausage Ragu that Alice was preparing.  I don't think she made much progress with the phone.  She did manage to get temporarily blocked from FaceBook.
I went to a Safeway store downtown to pickup some items we needed.
The supper was great.  Good friends and good food are an unbeatable combination.

Attention, attention, Capt Janet coming aboard

When we left Las Vegas I forgot my cell phone.  Gerri  sent e-mail to our neighbor, Capt. Janet, and asked her to get the phone and send it to us.  When Janet went into the house I got an e-mail with a snapshot of her entering the front door.  In December I installed a surveillance camera system that can be remotely monitored.  This is the first time I have turned on the alert feature.  During the time of our trips since installing the system someone has been at the house, so it wasn't needed.
After supper we spent some time on the computer, the Verizon connection is maddeningly slow and we haven't been able to log on to the park's wifi.
Warm days and cool night make a great combination for sleeping.

The put-put course near our site.

Saturday, February 16, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

Saturday, February 16, 2013, Lake Havasu City, AZ

It has been about a month since we traveled.  That trip was to Palm Springs, CA by car.  This trip is in the motor home which we last were in the end of November.  We brought the motor home from Bill's house on Wednesday and started getting ready for departure on Saturday morning.  When we came home from our last trip, I was unable to level the coach and later discovered that the right rear leveling jack had punched a hole in the pavement.  I checked the jack and the pad was still on it.  I later checked the leveling system on the hard ground near Bill's house and it seemed to work fine.  I leveled the coach in front of the house, it seemed fine.  An hour or so later it wasn't level.  As I raised the jack I saw that the pad slide up and down on the shaft, allowing the shaft to push into the pavement.  I put two 1 1/2 plywood pads under the jack and re-leveled the coach.  All was fine until the next morning, when I went out for the newspaper the jack had punched through the plywood.  There was now time to take the coach in for repairs. I decided to get a piece of steel to put under the jack to act as a new foot.  By the time I made the calls the companies I called were closing before I could get there. I got up early Friday and went to B&B Coach and Gary cut me a piece of 1/2 inch thick steel about 8 inches square.  The piece of steel worked fine.  I did find that I had trouble getting the piece in place directly under the jack.  After a couple of tries I had it and it worked fine.  By late Friday evening we were all loaded.  We planned to leave at about 9 AM.
Before leaving I was shutting down systems in the house.  During our trip to Palm Springs we weren't able to log on to the security cameras, I checked and plugged the cable modem into an outlet that stays hot when others are turned off..  By then I had shut down the home computers.  Gerri tried to log onto the cameras from her lapop in the motorhome.  By the time we had checked the cameras it was 10 AM.  We pulled away from the house at 10:10 AM.
We decided not to stop for fuel since fuel level was 3/4 tank and the trip for today is only about 150 miles.  Our route was I-215 to I-515 and onto US 95.  There was very little traffic and we went through Searchlight and on into California to I-40.  We were only on I-40 for 50-60 miles.  This stretch of I-40 is as rough as the stretch through Oklahoma.  As soon as we crossed into Arizona the highway improved and was quite smooth. after nine miles in Arizona we turned south on AX SR-95 on into Lake Havasu City.

Park Entrance

We arrived at the Havasu RV Resort a little after 2 PM, Arizona time and were parked in site 4 by 2:30.  Our friend Alice Kerslake came by on her way home from the store and said hello.  She and Gerri set a time for dinner at their place, they own site 166.  Our site was level without the jacks.  I decided to put them down for stability.  The site is concrete but I put my piece of steel plate under the jack so as not to make a permanent mark.  My aim placing the plate hadn't improved from yesterday.  Gerri helped me by turning off the leveling system as the jack came down.

Our small view of the lake

Our Patio area

Our coach from outside the park

Keith Kerslake came by and said hello on his way to the dog park with Chaz.  I put out our carpet, all the chairs and even the table beside the coach.  We are parked next to a silver sided Prevost, so we have to keep up appearances.
We went to the Kerslake site at 5:00 and visited before supper, we hadn't seen them since September in Melissa  TX.  From their site we could see most of the sunset.  It was beautiful, first gold and then red.  We didn't have our camera with us.  The day had been warm but cooled quickly to the point that heaters were needed during supper.  We had a great meal of grilled steak served with an onion Salad and mushrooms.
As I said before Alice and Keith are buying the site they occupy.  That site has a large patio type cover, an outside kitchen and a casita with a laundry area, storage and a washroom.
The lot next door on their west is for sale by the same person that they bought from.  It has no casita but has a large concrete parking area.  Both lots back onto a small wash that separates the sites and those behind them to the north.
We went back to our site at about 10 PM.  We retired after catching up on e-mail and Facebook messages.
It was enjoyable day and should be the start of a great week here in Lake Havasu City.  So far we have had no problems with the DirecTV system, or the city water inlet filling and overflowing the fresh water tank.  The new solar light I got for the flagpole is working out well.  I don't know how long the batteries last during the night but at midnight the flags were still lit up.