Dec. 26, 2009

From the KOA Fairplex RV Park, Pamona, CA, N34º5.306’ W117º45.824’
This trip is a rally with Adventure Caravans to see the Rose Parade. We left Las Vegas at about 10AM and got to the RV park at about 3PM. This is a typical older KOA park with very narrow streets and not much space between sites. We are in the space right next to where the staff has set up registration. We met a few of the staff and registered, even though the activities don’t start until Monday afternoon.
After getting set up and registered we went to visit Todd and family in Long Beach. We last saw Todd, Jeannette, Emma and Wyatt when we started or long trip in June. Emma hasn’t changed but Wyatt is taller and slimmer and talks a lot more now.
After supper we exchange gifts. Emma loves swirly dresses so she got a princess dress. Wyatt seemed to enjoy a truck and car set that we bought for him in Hershey, PA. Emma and Wyatt gave us ornaments they had made from sea shells picked up in Mexico.
This was the last of Christmas for us since we had already been with the families in Las Vegas and Reno

Dec. 25, 2009

From Las Vegas, NV.
On the evening of the 21st we got to visit with Kayla our oldest G-person. She didn't get to Reno until after 9PM. Another early exchange of gifts. We will see her again in June when she graduates from college.
During the early morning hours we noticed it was getting cold in the RV. By 6:30 AM it was down to 48 degrees. We got up and ran into the house to get warm. Turns out one propane tank had run out. I didn’t know anything about switching tanks. Our RV has a 32 gallon propane tank and the furnaces run on diesel fuel. We got to visit again before leaving for Las Vegas.
The trip home was uneventful except places where snow drifted across the highway and formed ice. There were a lot of plows out so we had no problem. It was snowing off and on between Indian Springs and the Mount Charleston turnoff, but the road was dry.
Between Beatty and Las Vegas I realized I was catching a cold.
I went to bed not long after getting home and for all intents and purposes didn't venture far from bed until Christmas morning.
A planned dinner and gift exchange with Curtis' family and Gerri's mom had to be cancelled. It's on again for tonight.
Tomorrow we leave for Pomona and a RV rally including the Rose Parade.
We hope to complete Christmas with the kids and grandkids with visiting Todd and his family before our activities start.

Dec.20, 2009

From N399⁰44.11' W119⁰45.56’
We are really roughing it. Kathleen didn't have a coffee maker in the RV. The girls brought us some and saved the morning. I was really cold during the night and we had no water. I the tank gauge read empty. When I talked to Scott, he told me had just filled the tank Saturday afternoon. We did some checking and found a tghat the casing for the water filter had cracked. Probably from a hard freeze a week or so ago. Scott had drained the tanks but not the entire system. Nothing to do about it on Sunday, so we will keep roughing it. Gerri and Kathleen went into Reno to finish last minute shopping. The borught home pizza to bake for supper. After supper we had an early gift exchange since we leave to go back to Las Vegas on Tuesday. The girls gave a piano recital before opening gifts, each one playing three Christmas songs. After gifts hot chocolate was served.
I was much warmer during the night, when we retire dto the RV there was a cold wind blowing north but it was warm enough tht the snow was still melting.
Kayla comes in from Seattle tomorrow evening, so we will have another Christmas party then.

Dec. 19, 2009

From the corner of Argonaut and Matterhorn. Near Reno, NV
Well the Barker's are on the move again. We aren't in the motorhome this time. We drove the new Lincoln to Scott and Kathleen's. Their guest bedrooms are a fifth wheel. Very nice quarters.
This was the first trip with the new car. We bought a 2010 Lincoln MKT last week. It's a new crossover from Lincoln. I know I swore off Ford ownership after we had a 1988 Lincoln Continental. But with Chrysler or GM I have to pay with taxes for the bailout and the purchase price. At least this way I only pay once. The Lincoln is a little larger than the Cadillac SRX we had for five years. It has a third row of seats which will come in handy when we have the G-people with us.
The drive from Reno was mostly unremarkable. We got up at about 5:30AM and left the house at 7. This after the family Christmas party and cleanup which lasted until about 12:30AM. I went to sleep after trying to learn something about the audio and navigation systems. I woke up at Beatty to the sight of snow all around and it was with us the rest of the way. We gassed up in Hawthorne and I took over driving. North of Schurz and south of Fallon we ran into what looked like fog. Visibility was reduced to less than a quarter mile and only white could be seen looking out the side windows. It wasn't really fog, but water crystals suspended in the air. It is a fairly common phenomenon called Pogonip. The bushes and trees we could see from the road were covered with ice, it looked like a scene from Dr. Zhivago.
The drive from Reno was mostly unremarkable. We got up at about 5:30AM and left the house at 7. This after the family Christmas party and cleanup which lasted until about 12:30AM. I went to sleep after trying to learn something about the audio and navigation systems. I woke up at Beatty to the sight of snow all around and it was with us the rest of the way. We gassed up in Hawthorne and I took over driving. North of Schurz and south of Fallon we ran into what looked like fog. Visibility was reduced to less than a quarter mile and only white could be seen looking out the side windows. It wasn't really fog, but water crystals suspended in the air. It is a fairly common phenomenon called Pogonip. The bushes and trees we could see from the road were covered with ice, it looked like a scene from Dr. Zhivago. The temperature had dropped from 44 in Hawthorne to 26.
When we got to Scott and Kathleen’s there was still a couple of inches of snow on the ground and piles everywhere where roads had been plowed. We will be here until Tuesday. I have to be back in Las Vegas for doctor appointments on the 23rd and 24th.
We had a great evening catching up, we hadn't seen this part of the family since last Thanksgiving.

Nov. 30, 2009

From Las Vegas, Nevada.
It's been awhile since I posted. We have been at the house in Las Vegas for a little over a week. Not much happening of note. I did have good news from my doctor's visits. My eyes are doing well no shots needed to hold off the macular degeneration. There was no change in my kidney function so the doctor reduced my prednisone dosage. I see my urologist tomorrow.
there are good things about being at the house; Grandkids, Grandkids and our Church Family.
I have noticed it's a lot further from the bed to the bathroom, an important trip for us old guys. The house being larger gathers more dust faster than the motorhome.
The frenzy starts soon. Decorating for Christmas. We ordered a new tree and it should be here later this week.
Before we left this summer we sold Gerri's Cadillac. Now we are car shopping, she has her eye on a Lincoln MKT. I swore off Fords in 1988 due to problems with a Lincoln Continental we had for two years. It wasn't the car so much as the dealer's service. I won't consider a foreign brand, even ones built in this country. GM and Chrysler are out of the question. Buying one of those brands means I pay twice and would validate both their bad business practices and the government bailout.
I still have the power reel problem to resolve with the coach. Other than that no problems, life is good.

I don't know what newspaper this was in, but it's clever:
From today's letters to the editor:
I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night. Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family? I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests." Just because they weren't officially invited doesn't mean they should be treated like criminals. Maybe they should get free health care, free housing, free legal services and free White House green cards so next time they can enter legally. And they should be able to bring all of their relatives and family members, too. How can Mr. Obama be mad at them just because they crossed over some arbitrary man-made border? They were there only to do the things that regularly invited guests didn't want to do. (Like hang out with Joe Biden.) How can the White House punish these poor oppressed undocumented visitors?
Brian K. Shoemake

Nov. 20, 2009

From Las Vegas, Nevada.
Day 153, the last.
The weather in Tucson was perfect for sleeping. But since we had about 430 miles to go, we got underway at about nine.
Headed toward Phoenix, the road was good and like I said yesterday this coach runs effortlessly at 75 mph. This was the easiest drive I have ever had through Phoenix to pick up US-93 to Las Vegas. It has always amazed me that no Interstate connecting these two cities. Actually there has been a lot of work on 93 north of Phoenix, it may be four lane divided in 10 or 20 years.
We stopped for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Kingman, Az. This is the closest one to Las Vegas so we indulged ourselves.
A short jaunt on I-40 brought us back to US-93. The road is now under construction from the Lake Mead Recreation Area boundary to the dam. It looks like it will be four lane divided all the way to Kingman about the same time the bridge downstream from the dam is completed. The check point has moved from the old rest stop to about where the road to Kingman Wash is. The stop and inspection didn’t take five minutes and sure beats going through Laughlin to get to Las Vegas.
By the time we got across the dam it was dark. We got to Henderson just in time for rush hour traffic. The coach may be a dream to drive on the highway but I don’t like the stop and go especially in the dark. It was slow all the way to the house
We got to the house at about 6 PM. A little while later Curt and Dana brought the kids over. We really missed them and enjoyed a couple of hours of them tearing through the house.
We didn’t do much in the way of unloading. We will leave that for other days.
I doon’t know if I will keep up the Blog daily now that we are off the road. The next week or two will be just doctor appointments and getting squared away.
Our next planned trip is to the Rose Parade.
I love to travel, but Home Is Nevada.

Nov. 19, 2009

From the Voyager RV Resort, Tucson, AZ. N32° 5.633 W 110º 50.332.
What a noisy night at the rest stop. I must have slept some but not much. The trucks on the Interstate were very loud. The ones driving through the rest stop were even noisier. Then tere are the ones in the rest stp that don't buy thier own fuel, and leave the engine running.
We were up and out of there before 8:30 AM. One thing about Texas, the speed limit was 75 mph until we got to El Paso County where it dropped to 65. I don’t know about fuel consumption but this machine we call home will run effortlessly at 75 and without wind is a dream to drive. Engine load seldom reaches 60% except on steep hills. Passing into New Mexico and then Arizona the desert landscape I love flowed by in an unending panorama. For as little sleep I had last night, I wasn’t as tired as I expected.
By five we were in the Tucson area, Gerri spotted a billboard for Voyager RV Resort at exit 270. The bill board claimed it has top rating in the country. Funny I never heard of it. When we turned in a gate guard greeted us and directed us to the check in area. The registration area looked like a hotel lobby. I could hear the couple ahead of us give information and be charge $55 for the night. They were driving a Class C motorhome with no towed car. They also took a back in spot. I don’t know what I said that was different, I got a pull though site and they charged me $39. Another guard escorted us to our site and guided me in. The park is extensive. There are RV sites, Park Models and what looked like apartments, there is also a grocery store and a restuarant.
Anyway we were set up and relaxing by 5:45. The rest of the evening was relaxing and watching TV.