Saturday February 15, 2014, Las Vegas, NV

I had my coffee and started getting ready to travel.  I decided to go home today instead of Sunday.

I took my time getting ready.  I hooked up the Jeep and dumped the holding tanks.  Unhooked from water and power.  There wasn't much to put away inside.  I got my coffee and water in place where I could reach them and pulled out of Vito's a little after 10 AM.

For the return trip I choose to take I-40 west to Blyth and then go north on US-95.  No work has been done on the section of US-95 between Blyth and Vidal Junction since the first time I ever traveled that route, probably 50 years ago.  The road improves north of Vidal Junction, at least until getting on I-40 near Needles.  There is work being done on this stretch of I-40, but it's been going on for years. Although it doesn't avoid all of US-95 or I-40, AZ-95 through Parker, AZ is the best choice when going to or leaving Quartzsite.

I got home about 3:15.  I did take the Jeep and get it washed before settling in at home.  I like traveling but it's usually good to get home.  Even more so from a trip without Gerri.

Friday Febuary 14, 2014, Quartzsite, AZ

I got up and fixed coffee.  I caught up on computer stuff.

Dave pulled out at about 9 AM, headed home to Phoenix.  Kevin was packing up for his trip to Indio to do a few jobs there.  I went caching before he left.  I managed to find 21 today.  It got hot and I came back to Vito's.  I paid the rent for the night.  After I cooled off and entered the caches I had found, I went out and found 5 more before going to dinner.  I went to the Taco Mio on Main Street.  The food was ok but, the service slow but the waitress was friendly.  Dinner at Taco Mio wasn't nearly the event that the Yacht Club and Silly Al's was.  Of course being a party of one is a drag.

I listened to a Dragnet Radio show and some TV before going to bed.

Thursday February 13, 2014. Quartzsite, AZ

I was a little confused this morning by the time change.  Was it 6:45 when I got up or was it 7:45. All the clocks were different.

 Kevin was working by 9 AM, Mountain Time.  He replaced the batteries and checked out the electrical systems.

To get out of his way I went to breakfast at Bad Boys Restaurant with another of his customers, Dave Wardell from Phoenix.

After breakfast I went out caching.  I found 16.  I also met a couple of cachers from Canada, the Slowpokers.  I saw them at several caches.  They found one I couldn't find and I found one that they overlooked, so none of us came up with DNFs.

In the afternoon when I returned to the coach it was 100 inside, so I had to run the AC for awhile

After Kevin finished the work on Dave's coach we sat and visited until dinner time.  We went to Silly Al's and had pizza.  We had all the toppings in their largest size.  It must have been 30 inches.  Very good and I took home 4 or 5 slices.

Some TV and computer time finished the evening for me.  I think I will stay here tomorrow and do some more of the caches.  I had planned to go to Searchlight and do a couple of trails there, but I can pick them up in a day trip from home.

Wednesday February 12, 2014, Quartzsite, AZ

I got e-mail from Kevin Mallory that my batteries were in and asking if I could come to Quartzsite on Thursday or Friday.  When he was in Las Vegas the first of the month he had checked out the house batteries and two were bad.  There was also some other work to finish up.

I decided to drive to the "Q" today so that I would be there all day Thursday and part of Friday to complete the work.  Kevin plans to head for the Palm Springs area Friday afternoon.

When I picked up the coach at Bill Cavagnaro's the house batteries were dead so had to let the engine charge them up before I could raise the windshield blinds.  I left the coach running while I hooked up the Jeep.  When I got ready to leave the 12 volt power in the coach was off and a fault light lit on the EMS control panel.  I had no radio or rear view camera.  Later the fault went away but no camera except left turn and no sound on the radio.  The new Silverleaf system worked fine.  When going down hill I get an instant mpg reading of 150 mpg.  Conversely I get as low as 2 mpg going uphill.  The unit gives readouts of a lot of engine functions plus tire pressure and temperature.

My route for the day was to Boulder City and then south on US-95.  I stopped at Vidal Junction to get some things out of the Jeep and put them in the fridge.  I was surprised how warm it was.  I opted to forgo US-95 to Blyth and turned east on CA-162 into Arizona.  I then picked up AZ-95 on into Quartzsite.  That route crosses I-10 and then its a short distance to Vito's RV Park on Kuehn.  I had forgot to write down the starting milage so the trip included nearly 30 miles that had been traveled since our last trip.  I drove 246 miles and average 7.64 mpg, according to the Silverleaf unit.

I got there at about 3:30, 4:30 Mountain Time.  Kevin met me at the entrance while I was paying Vito for the space.  I parked next to his coach and got the utilities hooked up.  Kevin went right to work on the problems with the camera and radio.  He had those problems solved pretty quickly.  The plan is he will replace the batteries tomorrow and check out the electrical system and leveling system.

We went for dinner at the Yacht Club in downtown Quartzsite.  There must be story there somewhere, we are over 20 miles from the Colorado River.

I watched some recordings on TV and called it a night.

Sunday February 2, 2014, Las Vegas, NV

We were up earlier this morning than usual. Check out time was 10 AM.  We had our coffee and caught up on the computers.  After that it was packing and getting ready to go. I had to walk all the way around the underground garage to get a luggage cart.  This resort has too few carts for the number of people checking in on Saturdays and Sundays.  Access to the elevators was slowed because the housekeeping people needed to go up and down and the resort is replacing furniture in the rooms and the movers were also competing for elevator space.

When we checked in we were given coupons for appetizers at the nearby Karl Strauss restaurant because of the delay. We didn't have a chance to use them.  The desk manager gave me new ones good until the end of the year.  We will be back here in November.

Traffic was light on the way home. We stopped for gas at the Costco in Victorville. A few miles later we stopped to eat at a Dennys at the outlet mall in Barstow.  Denny's now has a new and improved hamburger and french fries.  I ordered breakfast, but Neva and Gerri ordered hamburgers.  I did get some of their leftovers, really good.

We arrived home and were unpacked by early evening.

Gerri watched the last of the Superbowl and was in her pj's early in the evening.   I caught up on the mail and read the newspaper.  I also caught up on e-mail and we watched a couple of Judge Judy episodes before Gerri went to bed.  I watched an old Gunsmoke show and called it an evening.

Saturday February 1, 2014 Carlsbad, CA

The last morning of February and our last full day in Carlsbad was sunny and bright. 

By the time we had our coffee and caught up on computer and reading the newspaper it was a little hazy over the ocean but still sunny.  On Face book we have enjoyed pictures of our nephew, Roger, and  daughter Jamie.  First  they were at the San Diego Zoo and then at Sea World.  That is Gerri’s nephew and Neva’s grandson.

Wyatt, Todd and Neva

The morning and early afternoon were pretty lazy.  Our plan for the afternoon was to meet Todd and his family at an El Torito restaurant in Laguna Hills.  Todd called at 3 after they finished a roller skating session and were on I-5 headed our way.  We started north on I-5 in heavy traffic.  We were just north of San Clemente when Todd called back to tell us they were at the restaurant.  The hitch was they had missed the El Torito where we had planned to meet.  They were at the one in Dana Point.  Fortunately we hadn’t passed the PCH turnoff to Dana Point  and were able to exit and meet them without driving further to Laguna Hills.

Gerri, Jeannette, Emma

This El Torito was better in that we sat by windows overlooking the harbor and all of the boats.  We had a good meal and visit.  Visiting was made a little difficult because of all the noise in the restaurant.  But it was good to see Todd, Jeannette, Emma and Wyatt again.  Our last visit with them was when they came to Las Vegas after Christmas.  We said our goodbyes in the parking lot just as it was getting dark.

Back at the timeshare we played our final game of dominoes for this trip.  Neva got in the win column. 

We finished the evening in our usual fashion. Computer and reading but no TV.  Check out time is 10 AM so we have to get moving a little faster in the morning.  John called; he is at the house and will be working Super Bowl Sunday at the Bellagio.  The house will be warm when we get there.

Friday January 31, 2014 Carlsbad, CA

More grey skies this morning with high dark clouds.  We had our coffee and computer time. 

I went geocaching in the afternoon.  I cached mostly in the area between the resort and the ocean.  I found  six.  I went to the area of two others but on one I couldn’t find a path into the brushy area and at the other there was a crowd of soccer moms.  Gerri and Neva spent the afternoon reading and on the computer.

For supper we had the leftovers from Sonny’s plus a salad.

In spite of the clouds, Neva got a couple of good shots from the balcony.  One of the sunset and a few minutes later one of the moon set

Moon set

As has been our habit we played a game of dominoes after supper.  I won again.

After the ladies went to bed I watched a couple of Sienfeld reruns.  Another exciting day in the life of the Barkers.