Paso Robles, Ca. Wine Country RV Resort

Rain, Rain Go Away!!

We didn't have internet available at Cachumla Lake park, which is OK because there is not a lot to report. Its been rainy and cold here for the past couple of days. Tuesday was a complete washout. It rained hard and the area received around 2" of rain for the day. We haven't done much but visit some wineries and read books.

We did get to meet up with some fellow 2005 full-timer graduation classmates! Bill and Helen follow our blog, knew we were in Santa Ynez; They pulled into nearby Solvang on Tuesday. We headed out on Wednesday morning, with a box of danishes in hand, to catch up on each others travels since the graduation rally in Quartzite, in January. It looks like we might be able to meet up with them, along with some other 2005 full-timers, Gary and Jenny, up in the Seattle area later this summer!

Later in the day on Wednesday, it did stop raining long enough for me to complete a few installation projects around our home. I installed a protect-a-tow, which a cover that goes between the motorhome and the Suzuki, keeps debris and rocks from ruining the paint.

I also got around to installing the EZ-step add-on step. The thing I really liked about this system were the adjustable legs on each side that stabilize the whole platform. In the pic here, we really don't need the extended step, but we really like the stability the legs provide. So, far I give the product 2 thumbs up.




Today, Thursday, we packed up and made the 100 mile drive up highway 101 to Paso Robles. We drove through some really spectacular countryside. So, we're here, in the Wine Country RV Resort, for the week; Mostly for the wine tasting in the area.

The weather report for this week is continued cold and rainy. Sounds like perfect weather for drinking wine! Hopefully we'll get a couple of days to get the road bikes out; There is some nice rolling hills and the roads have nice wide shoulders for riding.

The content of the journal entries for the next week will be weather dependent. If it's nice, there will be plenty to write about; If it's raining, I'll try not to bore you with the details of us sitting around watching TV, reading books and drinking wine!

Gotta love Spring in Central California!!

-Rich-

Cachuma Lake: Santa Ynez, CA. Road Trip!

Saleen Autosport Factory Tour

Thanks to Laura's dads connections in the automotive business, we had the opportunity to tour the Saleen Autosport facility. For those not familiar with them, they are most famous for their 'zooped up' Mustang conversions. They also have a new 'super car', the S7. It was cool and rainy up in SB, so we thought it would be fun to check them out. We got an early start for the 2 hour trip from SB down to Irvine where they are located.


Here is the entrance into the shop. The 'Speed Lab', how cool is that? The amazing thing was, the place was so clean, you could eat off the floors. Let's take a look at what's behind the door.







Here is the 'tear down' area. Complete, fresh from the factory Mustang GT's are stripped of their engines, drivetrains, suspension, seats and lower body panels.







Now the cars get Saleen 750 hp supercharged engines, new transmission, custom wheels and rubber, Saleen suspension, new lower body panels, racing seats and other customizations!

Finally, the cars are cleaned up, numbered and gone over with a fine tooth comb by a geeky engineer (no offense to engineers, but this guy in the photo fits the stereotype!) They are road tested, checked again then delivered to the customer. Look at the shine on that floor!

Now, lets move on the S7 Supercar. They only build 2 of these things per month. Here is what the finished product looks like. The car is built completely by hand from the frame up. You can get it in a 750hp street legal model; or if that's not enough you can get an 850hp or 1,000 hp (how in hell do you push 1,000 hp out of an 8 cyl engine?) twin turbo, supercharged beast.










The engine, frame and body are all fabricated in seperate rooms. Here is the frame in the jig. It's made from 4130 chrome moly. The body, thats pure carbon fiber folks, sweet! The engine is just a beast. They didn't want me taking any pics in the engine room where they were doing the assembly, some propietary things going on in there!















Here are a couple of s7's in process. A very cool metallic yellow one, just finished, awaits its turn on the test track for its shakedown run (I'll volunteer for that!)

Ah, fits like a glove!

me: So, this is how much?

Marketing guy: (totally straight face) $600,000 plus options.

me: Sounds good, I think we'll make it his and hers, write em' up!

OK, so that's not really how the dialogue went. I think when the marketing guy saw the look on my face, he knew he wasn't selling an S7 today. I guess that made a test drive out of the question?!?!?!



They also do most of the Ford GT in Troy, MI; Then they ship them over to the Wixom Ford plant for engines and drivetrains. They also have this new sooper dooper f-150 they just started doing.

Overall, not a bad way the spend the day.

-Rich-

Location: Cachuma Lake, Santa Ynez, CA.

Welcome RV-DREAMS.COM Reader's
Only 2 States Left to Fill.

Today's post gets a dual title. Thanks to Howard from Rv-Dreams posting a link to our blog (BTW, you're welcome, Howard, for the Streets and Trip recommendation for building maps! Isn't it great?) our readership took a really big jump this week. We only need to get a hit from North Dakota and Delaware to have readers in all 50 states! We only need Newfoundland, Northwest Territories and Yukon to complete the Canadian Provinces (but, does anybody really live up there anyway? )

Here is what our readership map looks like now. California took the top spot with 25 readers; Just edging out our home state of Michigan with 22. It only took 1 month to get here! I'm still amazed and fascinated at way it has grown.

Now for the other part of today's title. Welcome readers of Howard and Linda's journal. We're glad you stopped by to check us out.

First, a little history. Like Howard and Linda I tired of the corporate world and Laura was just flat out burned out on her job. So we gave up the rat race in October 2005 and hit the road. Unlike Howard and Linda, we consider ourselves 'part-time' full-timers. We plan on being on the road for 3 years to 5 years to find a new and exciting place to settle down and seek out new careers.

Some things that are different about our site from rv-dreams. Our site is just a web journal of our travels. We don't have info to get you started, links or other valuable information. My view on this is there are a lot of different places for potential and future full-timers to seek out the information they need (rv-dreams being one of the better ones!) Plus, I've read about how much time Howard spends working on his website and I just can't bring myself to do it ;) Plus I'm still working on the road as an independent food broker, and we have some side businesses we are starting, but that's for a future post.

Similar to Rv-dreams, we enjoy sharing our journey with others. We hope we can provide people with an honest idea of what life on the road is like. The good, the bad, the ugly, the unkown and the exciting; We present it to you and let you decide for yourself if full-timing is right for you.

We hope we have intrigued some you, the curious and potential full-timers both. We Thank-you for stopping by and hope you will stay with us as we journey around the country. We always encourage e-mails with questions, your suggestions and comments.

Oh, and if you know anyone from either North Dakota or Delaware, please have them give us a click through, so I can fill in the map!

-Rich-

Location: Cachuma Lake County Park; Santa Ynez, CA.

Great Drive from Pomona to Santa Barbara!

We pulled out of the Pomona Fairplex at exactly noon. Our exit was much easier then I thought it would be considering there was 3,000 + coaches still parked there. The plan was I-210 to 101 through the Northern reaches of LA, up through Santa Barbara, reaching the County park in Santa Ynez. The trip was about 150 miles.

The weather was perfect for driving up the coast. The only thing that worried me was 101 through the LA area. We reached it about 1pm or so. While we did run into some traffic, we never came to a complete stop and passed through pretty easily. The ride up the coast from Oxnard to SB was just gorgeous with very light traffic!

My first real mountain pass with the diesel came as we hit the San Ysidro pass to get up to Santa Ynez. It would be 17 miles of mostly 6 to 7% grades. Both up and down. I thought for a moment about disconnecting the Suzuki; Then I remembered, I've got turbo diesel power(arrr, arrr, arrr, in my best Tim Allen grunt!) Everything went fine and we pulled into the park with no issues. We set-up camp and pretty much relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Saturday turned out to be pretty much a washout, rain and cold all day. Laura's dad met up with us at the campground. We headed out to lunch at Cold Springs Tavern.

The tavern is tucked in the hills in SB. It was a stage coach stop in the late 1800's. Rachel Ray featured it in a $40 Dollars a Day segment. None of us had ever been, so we decided to give it a try. They had great burgers, awesome tortilla soup and Laura had a great pasta dish with shrimp. I would highly recommend it; Not on weekends though as its small and can be very busy.



After lunch we headed over to Los Olivos to do pick up some groceries and taste some wine. By late afternoon, the skies had cleared but it was too chilly to sit outside, even with my new 'Fire in a can'! We had a 'grazing' dinner of cheese and wine and wound up the night with a movie.

We are here for the week, so I hope the weather improves to get some hiking and riding in.

-Rich-

Pomona, CA. FMCA Rally: The Finale!

So, here we are Thursday, last day of the rally! The weather was beautiful and plenty of snow on the mountain (from the past couple of crappy days) I have one last seminar on windshield repair (will have more to post on this at another time). But mostly packing up and heading out. Next stop, Cachuma State Park. A nice little park wedged in the mountains between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez. Not sure if it has internet, so you might not see a post for a few days!





On our last pass through the vendor area Laura let me buy 'campfire in a can'. For thoset not familar with out west, there are not a lot of places you can have a real campfire. I don't think we have had one since Georgia! We've visited with a few folks who had different portable rings, and I always thought they were pretty cool. Now I have my own!






My Rally wrap-up.

What a great experience! Even though I thought some of the seminars were lacking for information, the rest of the Rally was first class. If you're an FMCA member that's never been, definitely take advantage of these rallies. This one was the big annual convention, but they have these in different regions, and individual chapters have their own rallies as well. How can you beat free service, daily coffee and donuts, all the major manufacturers their to answer you questions, tons of vendors to sell you stuff, nightly entertainment (well, if you're over 50 ;) ) the chance to walk through nearly 1,000 new coaches and finally a chance to meet and talk with other FMCA members, from all over the country!

Special thanks to all of the FMCA volunteers that make the rally run. There were people everywhere to help you if you needed it.

I talked to a few people who run the rally 'circuit'. They have the pins to prove it. After this one, I think I'll be set for big rallies for the year. But, I would make the stop again next year, just to catch up on my service!

-Rich-

Pomona, CA. FMCA Rally: Day 3

More Seminars; The Weather Finally Breaks!

It's been cold, cloudy and rainy here for the past few days. On Wednesday, the sun came out and the temp got into the 70's.

At the nightly entertainment(we didn't spend much time at any of the entertainment, mostly geared to a MUCH older demographic) on Tuesday night, they had a little event for first time attendees, so we headed over to check out the buzz! They were handing out 'Convention Cash' for various categories. This 'cash' is a certificate you can use at the vendors to buy things. Laura and Susan each won some 'cash'. Laura for being one of the youngest first timers' at the rally (dam, she beat me by a year;)). Susan won for traveling the farthest distance to be here.(they originate from Ontario, Canada) So, they were off to spend their 'cash'. They also had a seminar planned titled 'Velcro', that should be interesting!

Rick and I were off to the Spartan chassis seminar. Now, I don't have a Spartan chassis, but a few rally veterans suggested I attend a chassis seminar, it would be very helpful. Monaco uses the Roadmaster chassis, and didn't have a specific seminar planned. The chassis seminar was, without question, the most informative seminar of the whole week! I learned more about my engines maintenance schedule then at the Cummins seminar; I learned more about my Allison trans then at their own seminar! I learned about lube and grease points, intervals, tire pressure etc... They gave out a great handout with schedules, filter part numbers, type of grease suggestions, fluid types etc... Thanks Spartan chassis, THIS was what I was expecting from the seminars!

From there, Rick and I headed over to a battery charging/inverter seminar. They gave some very good points on care and maintenance of the battery system and helped us both understand the charge points and what happening with power distribution when you are at the different points. After this week, I really feel like I have a much better understanding of the 'life blood' of our coach, our electrical and battery system!

Laura and I met back up at the coach around lunch time. She put her 'convention cash' toward one of those maps that you put on your coach and show the states you traveled too! We plan to put it on one of the slides, so it will only show when we are parked.


One the things everyone has to take advantage of at these seminars is the manufactures service. All the major companies have their service teams providing free or low cost maintenance to the attendees. They have a service tent where you can go talk to the reps on problems, get advice, and schedule service. I scheduled Blue Ox to come out and clean, lube and inspect my tow bar and base plate. Kwikee Step to come out and check out why my entry steps intermittently extend while driving! Both companies showed up at appointed times and did their work, FREE, can't beat that! I probably should of had Onan do the generator oil service but were not quite to the hours yet, I'll catch them at another rally!

Another day of all things motorhome. This is the most scheduled our lives have been since we hit the road! I think I need a vacation ;)

-Rich-

Pomona, CA. FMCA Rally: Day 2

A Full Day of Seminars and Vendors!

Tuesday started off at the coffee tent at 7:30! Had a big day of information seminars scheduled!

By 8am I was in Cummins engine seminar. I was hoping for a talk on maintenance schedules, tips and technical data. What I got was a talk on fuel economy. Some good information, especially on the new low sulfur fuel coming in '07. Learned it is NOT going to help MPG and actually could lower it. In addition, will have to change to a different oil to accommodate the new fuel. Still, I was looking for more information directly related to the Cummins engine and didn't get it.

From there went over to the Allison Transmission Seminar. Here I was hoping for some help using 'mode' driving and changing gears. For those that don't know, this transmission is all electronic and push button usage. You have a 'd', 'n', 'r' button, then an led that shows the gears you are in. There is also an 'economy' mode and up and down arrows to change gears. The rep did a pretty good job of explaining the 'economy' mode and its usage and some manual use of gearing. I was hoping for some info on maintenance, but again left disappointed there.

After some lunch back at the coach, I headed over to the Vendor area to check out all of the things they want to sell me that Laura doesn't think we need :) I talked with reps from both Cummins and Allison on questions I thought would be answered in their seminars. The reps were very helpful and made sure I was satisfied with the information. I did find a really cool addition to our door steps, which most of the time the last step out is a big one. The base to the step mounts on the bottom of the lowest step. The portable step slides in, locks in place and has adjustable 'feet' that stabilize the entire platform. Now I just have to get it installed.




Later in the afternoon, I headed over to the 'inverter' seminar. I have one of those complicated control panels where you can set a ton of different things.
The seminar was put on by Xantrex, the maker of the unit I have, surely I'm going to learn something here! A good part of the presentation was spent showing pictures of what different units and control panels look like. No, talk of use, set-up, tips, anything. There was a lengthy q&a session but the number of questions would not fit in the allotted time. Based on my experience with the reps at the Cummins and Allison booths, I decided to bug out and hit the Xantrex booth. The guy over at Xantrex was not very busy, and he was just waiting for some to discuss inverters, loads, power sharing and set-up with. With his display matching the equipment in my rig, he had me good to go in about 5 minutes. Heck, I feel like I could tech the seminar now!

While I was 'tech'n out, Laura and Susan checked out new rigs and spent some time in the vendor area.

So, I guess you see the pattern here. I've been pretty disappointed with the seminars. They all seem below the basic level. I'm not sure I understand how people can attend rally after rally and get any use out of some of the seminars. The factory reps on the other hand, top notch! Still, a fun and educational day! Too tired to fix dinner; Laura and myself headed out with Rick and Susan to Fukaya Sushi (we had a ton of fun with this pronunciation!) for an early dinner!

More tomorrow!

-Rich-

FMCA Rally, Pomona, CA: Day 1

A full day of Motor Coach Excitment!

We started out the day moving sites. Rick and Sue decided they needed an electric site, not surprising since they have an all electric coach! We moved next to them(mostly for their sat. internet connection ;) ) We all hopped in our car and headed over to Starbucks for a caffeine boost.

We were off to our first seminar; boring! It was a seminar for first time attendees. We were expecting to get the inside scoop on the show. But, what we got was an overview of the show book they give in the welcome packet. Since we pulled in on Saturday, we had two days to read the book, figure out what companies we wanted to visit and get service from, our seminar schedule and times to visit the vendor booths and coaches. If anyone had taken the time to peruse the book, they would not need this 'intro' seminar. We left hoping the other seminars are more informative then this one!

After grabbing some lunch, I headed over to the diesl 101 seminar. Laura headed over for seminar on Sharp convection ovens and usage. I found the diesel seminar to be almost too basic. I did learn a few things about turbo chargers, warm up and cool down times. The differences in RPMs of gas vs. diesel was also interesting. I think I will probably get more useful information out of the Cummin's specific seminar on Tuesday. Laura learned a few useful tricks on the Sharp convection oven. Especially related to pre-heat times on different power levels ( 20 v. 30 v. 50 amp service) We were begininng to think we may have a defective oven as we were having trouble with pre-heating; Not so after the seminar!

Both of our seminars ended at 3pm. time to head over to the coach preview area! There are over 1,000 new coaches from every major manufacturer to check out. We were mostly interested in seeing the over top ones we could never afford!



Here is what you are greated with as you enter the area. Row after row of coaches to wander through. This is the Country Coach area. The foreground coach is around $600,000 as you go along they dropped down to about $350,000. Most of the difference is in length and how much 'bling' you want!





So, you've got a million dollars you're looking to spend?

This Newell London Aire will allow you to live pretty good on the road! This coach was classy without looking too gaudy, which seems to be an epidemic in the RV industry when you get around the million mark! (not that we have to worry about this, but god do I HATE mirrored ceilings. Hey RV reps, tons of mirrored walls and ceilings do NOT make 400 sq ft look any bigger!)

Location: Pomona, Ca. FMCA Rally.

Waiting for the Big Show!

So here we are, waiting for the rally to officially start. What to do? Ride bikes around the 4,000+ RV's parked here in the campground. We noticed some of the creativity that some people have put into their license plates. So, we spent some time riding around the area photographing some of the plates. Thanks to Susan for wrapping up all of the photos' and putting them into this collage! Some of people that frequent the RV.NET boards put together a little meet and greet / pot luck to chat, drink, exchange RV stories, and basically shoot the shit. Thanks to Brent and his wife for allowing people to gather at his coach. Many thanks to those that gave me some very helpful advice as to what seminars to attend while we are here!

We also laid out our schedule of what seminars we want to attend. To the non-rv'ers out there this will seem pretty boring. However, if you have an RV, this type of information is priceless. Some of the seminars we will be attending:

• Diesel 101
• Cummins engine seminar
• Allison Transmission seminar
• Inverter, charger and battery seminar
• Windshield repair (new business I'm starting, to be covered in a later post!).
• Full-timers' seminar
  

You can't forget the free coffee and donuts each morning, ice cream social on Wednesday, vendor and commercial area. Most of all, the outdoor exhibit area, our chance to walk through and explore rigs from every major manufacturer, some costing over a million bucks!!

Stay tuned!

-Rich-

Location: Pomona, CA. FMCA Rally

A Sea of Motor Coaches!

Karen M, a regular reader, had a great suggestion of putting our current location on our post. I been thinking of doing that, so here it is. It serves a dual purpose. Besides keeping our faithful readers from trying to decipher where we are; If something were to happen to us, it would provide some clue as to where we could be found! So, thanks Karen for pushing me over the edge to do this! Now the main title will be our current location with campground or park we are in. Then there will be some fun title in the text body.

On to today!


We made the short and easy 80 mile drive from Desert Hot Springs over to Pomona. We pulled in to the Fairplex, not knowing what to expect. Here is the view from the top of Rick and Susan's motorcoach of the 'sea' of motorhomes (we don't have a ladder on ours, to access our roof...yet!). This only half of the 4,000 or so coaches expected for the rally. The rest will arrive on Sunday.

This is our first rally, we were not sure what we were going to run into. However, we were really impressed with the guidance, speed and ease in which we were parked. Since we are parked nose to nose with other coaches, so you get to be pretty cozy with your neighbors! Snuggy really enjoyed the 'spy' potential that the close proximity of the other coaches provided.

Stay tuned for more exciting news from the rally!

-Rich-

I got a tattoo in Palm Springs!

Last night we went to the street art fair in Palm Springs with Rick & Sue. This steet fair is held every Thursday from 5-10pm. I don't have any tattoos, but when I saw the opportunity to get a henna tattoo, I jumped on it. It was definately painless. A woman drew on me and told me to let it dry, then peel it off. Apparently the longer you wait to peel it, the darker it gets. I waited until just before we went to bed, and voila!

Today we ran some errends and started packing up to move tomorrow. Tomorrow the 4 of us are going to the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) rally in Pomona, California. It's going to be HUGE. It'll be a short (81 miles) drive there. Hopefully we'll still have internet access to update you on all the activities there.

-Laura

Pickle Ball! ( in Desert Hot Springs, CA)

I love this sport! OK, I'm not really sure if it qualifies as a 'sport' but it sure is fun!

Pickle ball (check out the link) is basically a combination of badmiton and tennis, racquetball skills also come in quite handy. It is played with a 'wiffle ball', you remember them, they usually came with a plastic bat back when we were kids. The wiffle ball slows the game down, a lot. So, strategy and ball placement play a key role in the game. Since the court is small so there's not much running involved (meaning you can play for hours with little effort!).

I've never heard of this sport until getting out west and hanging out with the seniors! That means a lot of the players I'm playing against are close to double my age(most commented they had kids my age!), but man, are they competitive. As the youngest guy out there, they like to try to itimidate me too, like when I'm at the net hitting the ball right into my body to see if I could react! I think I earned their respect :)



Today, Rick and I headed down at 7:30am, there are usually quite a few people playing so you fit in a round robin type format which gives you different partners and opponents every go around. The system works out well, you end up playing with and against just about everyone. Rick only played till about 8:30, prior commitment. I hung around till about 9:45 and left with a winning record, 5 wins, 2 losses! By the time I left, I think there was about 35 people in the round robin!


I'm looking forward to hitting the courts at least a couple more time before we head out on Saturday for the Pamona FMCA rally!

-Rich-

Lobster!

Yeserday was a relaxed day for us. I did some computer work (for myself), took Snuggy for a bike ride around the park while Rich was doing a boy-ride on his road bike. Just as I was getting ready to set out by myself, Rich had come home, had lunch and was ready to join me. We rode to the RV parts store, 3 miles up the road. And when I say, "up the road", that was literally....3 miles of uphill. We broke it up by popping into 2 RV parks along the way to check them out. By the time we got to the top, I was bushed. It was a nice ride back though. I maintained 22-25mph. without even pedaling until we got to the road to our park.

Last night we had a very early dinner. Rick & Sue took us to the Spa casino in Palm Springs for their weekly lobster buffet. For $19.95 you get all the lobster (and other stuff, but why eat anything else when you have lobster?) you can eat. In order to get to the buffet in a timely manner, another couple from the park, Vern & Caroline got to the casino at 3:15 and took turns waiting in line (the buffet opens at 4pm) and gambling. Apparently Rick & Sue got to the buffet at "normal" dinner time last week and found a 1.5 hr. wait! Since we got there a little after 4, Vern had already secured us a table and had bought our buffet tickets, so we just waltzed in and started eating. The lobsters were the spiney ones, so a bit smaller but the were split down the middle, lengthwise, so you just dug out the tail.

After dinner the 4 of us did a little gambling. Rich and I each played $2 and lost. At one point Rich was up $38, but lost it all on one machine. Susan was the big winner of the night, winning $151 on the penny slots, starting with $20. She said they have not left a casino in the Coachella valley with a loss all season.

Once we got back to the park, Rich, Rick, and I went to the hot mineral tub hot tub for a relaxing end to a wonderful day.

Another trip to Mexico

Today the sun returned and the weather warmed up enough that I was brave enough to put on shorts & a short-sleeved shirt (w/a sweatshirt for the chilly morning). Rick & Sue were going down to Algodones to get their glasses adjusted, so we decided to join them. It was a long (3 hr.) drive down there, but we got to see another border town. Algodones is much smaller than Tijuana, so we hoped we could avoid the long line of pedestrians going back to the USA. Wrong, but more on that later.

Our first stop was the optical store so Rick & Sue could get their glasses adjusted. Seems their prescription was wrong, so they were trying to get it adjusted. While they were waiting, I decided to get more birth control, since you can never have too much, right? Here they are even cheaper at $6 for box of 3 mos. instead of the $10 in Tijuana, still much cheaper than the $75 I'd pay at Wal-Mart for 3 mos. I was excited!

After they decided to leave their glasses, we went to lunch, another dirt cheap event. The 4 of us had 2 fish tacos each, plus 3 bottled drinks for a total of $8.40! Then we went back to the optical store, & finished up there. We realized the line to get back was getting longer and longer, so we decided to pick up the rest of our things we wanted to get and get into line. We got a bottle of vanilla, Rick & Sue, who don't drink, got a couple of bottles of some orange liquor for Walter, the park sign maker, and we jumped into line. Although it looked long, the line moved quickly and we got through in 20 minutes. On the way home we were getting hungry, so Rick & Sue suggested a local Thai restaurant that they said was the best of the 4-5 they'd tried in the valley. It turned out to be an excellent choice. We didn't share entries because they don't eat meat (except seafood) and Rich doesn't like coconut milk or sweet-n-sour, of which they had both. Too many differnt tastes, but all were able to be accommodated.

It was a long and exhausting day but a lot of fun at the same time.

-Laura

Our Winter: 1 Weekend!

(Readers from Michigan and other snowy, cold parts may want to skip this post! ;)


The inevitable happened this weekend, we finally experienced winter on the road! It lasted Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday. Now, can we can continue with the nice weather?

Being from the Midwest, we've never seen anything like this. Everything 2,000 Ft and above received snow most of the day on Saturday. We are down in the Coachella Valley, around 150-200ft, we got rain. By, this morning, on the mountains that surround us, it looks like someone drew a line all the way along the mountain range. Everything above the line, snow (30+ inches above 7,000 ft), everything below, rain, clouds and mid forties! I thought the desert in the foreground made and interesting contrast! For people from the area, no big deal. For a lifetime Midwesterner, strange sight!

So, we used the washed out weekend to get some clean up done inside the motorhome. I also organized all the tax stuff to send off to the accountant ( I HATE doing the tax stuff!)

The good news is, it's supposed to be back in the 80's by mid-week! Whew, winter was tough :)

-Rich-

A post for Susan

Today we moved back to the Catalina spa and got our spot back next to Rick & Sue. They installed wi-fi in the park, but it was down today, so we're mooching off Rick & Sue's satellite dish. Rich & I went to Old Navy this afternoon so I could buy more of their t-shirts. When we were in San Diego I found out through my friend Marty's blog that Old Navy had cute t-shirts on sale, 2 for $15. Now normally I wouldn't shop there because most of their stuff is geared toward tiny teenagers, which I'm not (tiny or a teen). But I learned that they had cute t's in my size so I checked them out. They are cute! I liked them so much that I'm going to purge some of my mountain bike t's to make room. Today I also picked up some long-sleeved t's that were on clearance for $3! I'm a new fan of Old Navy. The pic above is an example of the cute t's at Old Navy.

That evening we took Rick & Sue out for their first korean dinner ever. Since they are vegetarians that eat fish, we figured they'd be able to find something to eat. Sue seemed to really like her dinner. Over the course of dinner Sue was getting on us for not updating our blog more regularly, so this post is for Sue. We would update more regularly if we had access to the internet on a daily basis, instead of every once in awhile. Hopefully that will be rectified soon.

Also for Sue is a statement about how freakin cold it was here today. The high today was 11.1 celsius (52F). When we got back from dinner it was a whopping 4.4C (40F). It was actually warmer in Michigan 13.3C (56F) than it was here! Fortunately by Tuesday it's going to be back to normal (70's) and even up to 80 by next weekend. That's more like it!

-Laura

New Signs!

A lot of RVer's have signs either on or placed around their rigs. They usually have their names, kids names, pets names, where their from etc... The signs are usually a great way to break the ice with new campers, in a new campground as it gives you something quick to talk about!

Most of the signs we have seen are usually of the routed 'burned' wood style. Those just have not appealed to us. While we were at Catalina Spa in Desert Hot Springs, we noticed the beautiful painted signs our friends Susan and Rick have. We also noticed their signs matched all of the signs around the park. Turns out the guy that does this work was right across the street from us!

Our neighbor, Walter is an old school sign maker. Before the days of laser cut vinyl, computers and plastics. He does all of work by hand, with paint. Of course, he's long since retired. He and his wife are traveling around the country enjoying life. He travels with supplies and does work to keep himself busy. Looking around the campground, he's been a busy guy!

Perfect opportunity to get a sign made, just the way we want it!

Now, you can have something completely custom designed, more expensive of course. Or, you can select a template he has prepped ahead of time.

We found this really cool light house design that we thought was appropriate, being from Michigan. Here is a close-up of our new sign!

(Click on the pick to enlarge)

Our friends Susan and Rick have signs made for some of the business' they have. Rick does RV detailing and window chip repair. Susan does Reiki Treatments and computer tutoring. This gave Laura an idea! We have noticed in some of the parks we stay at, the older residents have a lot of trouble with computers, getting on-line and e-mail.

Laura is going to provide basic computer tutoring and helping others set up blogs and journals so family can keep track of them as they travel around! So, while Walter was making our sign, we had him make up a sign for Laura's side 'job'!


I didn't want to attach our signs directly to our rig. I found these plant trellises for 5 bucks each at Lowes. A couple of wood screws and we were all set!

South of the Border

Today we did a road trip to Mexico, Tijuana to be exact. It was about a 1/2 hr. drive to a large parking lot where we parked so we could walk across the border. Getting into Mexico was a breeze, but it took a bit longer to get back. More on that later. Our main reason for going was for me to get my prescription birth control pills...cheap. In the US, the least expensive that I've found was the $25 I paid for a month's supply at Wal-Mart. In Mexico I got a 3 months supply for $10.80! How cheap! Now...as long as I don't get pregnant this will be a bonus. Rich picked up some alcohol at the duty-free store. We got liters of rum & gin for $8 & $10 each. After we were done shopping, we had a very nice...and cheap lunch before heading back. Getting back turned out to take a little longer than we thought. There was a loonngg line just to get into the customs building, but it went a lot faster than expected. I think it took us about 35 minutes to get across. So now we're back home and having a chilling evening until The Apprentice comes on tonight.

Laura

Guided Tour of Sycamore Canyon

For the past couple of days, I've noticed groups of mountain bikers in hills around our campground. Yesterday, I decided to go check the trails out!

There were no cheater trails through the fence of the campground out to trails, so I had to go the long way around. By the time I hit the trails I had almost 8 miles in, a nice warm up.

The trails follow the fence line of the campground for a while, so I was just kind of puttering around looking for the elusive hole in the gate to make trail access easier.

A few small groups of riders passed me. Then, along came John. He stopped to make sure I wasn't lost or needed help. I Explained to him I was just wandering around. John offered to give me 5 cent tour of the trail. It is pretty darn hilly around these parts, I was sure to let him know I was a flatlander from Michigan! 'No worries' was his response, 'this loop is a must do'.

So, off we went!



You can see here the area is pretty much all rolling hills. John took it easy on me, I able to keep up with him OK, that is, until we hit the "Triple Bitch". He beat me to the top, but, I never stopped pedaling!

There were only a couple of places where the trail got too technical for me and I had to walk, John of course, having rode these trails for the last 12 years and having 6" of travel on his Ellsworth, cruised over everything. Too bad I didn't bring the camera along, they would have made great pics!



For the most part, the pic above represents most of the terrain we traveled. Mostly smooth, some loose, lots of babyhead sized rocks, a couple of creek crossings.

I mentioned earlier I did not have the camera. These pics were borrowed from www.mountainbikebill.com a site John suggested I check out for other trails in the area to ride!

By the time all was done, I had 25 miles on the odometer. So, thanks to John for the tour. I would have never ventured that far on my own. You were right, the trail was a blast!

When I got back, Laura had found on-line this all you can eat Sushi place. After a 25 mile, hilly bike ride, I couldn't think of anything better!

-Rich-

Taking care of biznizz

Today was a TCB day. Started out with me doing laundry (with help) while Rich washed the car with his new "Dry Wash & Guard" system. It's a pretty nifty setup where you don't have to use water & your car or RV gets clean. We first heard about this from our fellow full-timer, Smokey Ridgely in Quartzite, while we mooched off of his internet system. We ran into him again in Tucson, where we picked up some supplies. It does a wonderful job. Why use a waterless system? Because out west, where water is scarce, many parks forbid you using water to wash your car or RV.

Once the laundry & car were finished, it was about 2:30 and I was itching to go somewhere. To our horrors, we discovered we were down to only 1-2 bottles of wine and very little food. So, it was off to buy wine & groceries. We also wanted to scope out some Passport America RV parks since we're thinking we'll stay in San Diego until the 11th. One park turned out to be sandwiched between I-5 and an active train track. The other park was pretty trashy looking for the price. We think we'll probably stay where we are, at Santee Lakes Recreation area. Once we got wine and groceries, we headed home to a wonderful paremesian trout dinner (next best thing to great lakes whitefish (which is 4 times the price it is in Mich.) & a bottle of chardonnay. Yum!

San Diego Zoo

Neither of us can remember how long its been since we've been to the zoo! The San Diego zoo has long been on our list of places to visit. Finally, here we are!

Once we got hold of a park map, Laura figures out our plan of attack!

The Giraffes' were eating the palms over the fence, right near us. Another couple of feet and we could have petted their noses.

We had to stare at the Rhino for a while. He held this pose and we weren't sure if he was real!

Here is Su Lin. This Panda was born here 7 month's ago. She was by far the biggest attraction in the zoo! What a cutie!

Merkats can always be counted on to strike a pose!



Here is a Russian Sea Eagle. It is the closest relative to our American Bald Eagle. This one tops the scales at 20#'s. For comparison, Snuggles, our cockatoo, weighs 10oz!! Quit a magnificent bird!

By the time we arrived at the Koala exhibit, it was nap time!

Since we're on bears, here is a Japanese Sun Bear. Quite an animated little dude. Apparently one of the most aggressive bears as well. He was standing up on his hinds, until I got the camera ready. So, all I got was this weird looking stance as he dropped down.

It was really chilly the day we there. Somewhere in the upper 50's / low 60's. All of the primates, that were out, were huddled up together!

Here's the Polar Bear exhibit. Its not quite the same as seeing them in the wild as we did on a family trip up to Churchill, Manitoba.

While in the polar zone, we had one question. How come the biggest, best zoo in the country doesn't have a penguin exhibit? We love penguins!

This was just a few of the animals we saw and pics we took. These are just some of the better ones! (NOT a professional photog) Despite the lack of penguins, it was still a great way to spend the day!

-Rich-