Monday, April 13, 2009

I was up early this morning but I couldn't get anything done because of the temp outside.  It's still cold in the mornings here.  By time Sharon got ready I had planned on her helping me to check the wiring on the car.  She had planned on going to pick up our mail at the Post Office and pick up an outfit for Stella.

She was back in about an hour or so and we got right to checking the wiring.  Right after we had our lunch from In-N-Out Burger.

We had a problem when the wire from the tow bar slipped under the hitch and got dragged on a low driveway.  Since then I've changed the plug that was affected but now it seems that the two plugs that are supposed to fit together are not compatible.  It's not a good idea to be driving through Tucson, with no right directional on the car, even though the directional on the motorhome is working fine.  It looks like the problem is exactly as I suspected.  The two plugs that fit together are not working very good.  It got a little warm out by the time we figured that out, so I'll change the plug tomorrow morning when it's cooler.  Besides the only other thing I have to do before we leave is wash the front windshield.  Everything else is done right on time.

Jackie (Wes) from the Catalina Store stopped over to see if we were going swimming this afternoon.  They're from Lower Michigan and we see them all the time we're at Catalina for the year.  The pool however, is entirely too cold for our tastes, so I think we'll just stay home.

At 5 we were both fending for ourselves for Supper tonight.  Now that we've cut ourselves down to two meals a day, we don't really get hungry at suppertime if we have anything substantial for lunch like we did today.

I had to make myself available for "24" tonight so we stayed pretty close to the TV when 5 PM rolled around.  I needed at least an hour to get myself comfortable in my recliner.  "24" was a ripper tonight.  Jack's dyin', Tony's a Traitor, and Jack's daughter Kim sees the "Old Man" again.  But now she's back in the picture to save Jack's life. He needs a bone marrow transplant from a next of kin relative.  For the rest of the night we watched just barely mediocre TV.  We needed to stay up late to catch all the programs that we missed by watching 24 early.  It didn't matter because I knew I would be stying up late anyway.  Sharon headed off to the "dark" room at 10 and then I followed shortly afterward.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

We had last minute details to take care of today in preparation for the long trip home.  I still had to change the wiring plug for the tow car and while I was down there, I noticed that the spare tire was dislodged from its carrier.  After I got the plug rewired, I had Sharon help me to crank the spare tire back up to where it was supposed to be.  I had her hold the tire in place while I cranked.

Sharon left shortly afterward to go to Fry's to buy enough groceries to get us a twenty cent discount per gallon on our gas fill-up.  We only needed a few bucks to qualify for the discount, and we intend to eat the food anyway.

We had Scrambled Egg and Ham Sandwiches for lunch today, and after lunch Sharon took off with the laundry to catch up on that before we leave.  I took to washing the windshield.  The wind was blowing so hard that the water dried almost as fast as I could get it on the window.  It's supposed to be still blowing tomorrow when we get on the road.  I'm not looking forward to that.  It took 3 washings before I finally got the window clean.

By the time I got done, Sharon was back with the clean laundry.  We had called Jerry and Mary Milan and told them we wouldn't have time to get over to say good-bye and Mary said they'd try to get over to our "house".  She said they'd try to get over by 7:30 or 8.

We were fending for ourselves for Supper tonight.  Neither of us was hungry after lunch.  We'll just scrape something together to eat later on.

With all our chores done for the day we settled in to watch a little tube tonight.  A couple of our favorites were on tonight but of course they were repeats.  We were pretty much just making time until we went to bed anyway.

Jerry and Mary stopped over about 8 and we sat and talked for a couple of hours.  We generally discussed whether or not we would be able to stop in Lowell when we go to North Carolina later this Summer.  By the time they left it was time for us to hit the hay.  We headed off to bed to get ready for the trip tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

We awoke this morning and were greeted with a very brisk wind that was going to be with us most of the day.

We left Casa Grande this morning and everything was working including all the lights and directionals on the car.  We arrived at the rendezvous point, in north Tucson, right on time but Bill and Jan were still in the parking lot when we went by.  They didn't catch up to us til we almost got to Benson.  It doesn't pay sometimes to make plans to travel together unless everybody abides by the rules.  There were no incidents and the traffic was light thru the City so we met up after I slowed down to allow them to catch up.  No problems resulted.

We stopped at Texas Canyon Rest Area for a potty break and then we were quickly back on the road again.  After the we stopped at Lordsburg just inside New Mexico since they would be the cheapest fuel for awhile.  Sharon and I didn't need gas yet so we decided to wait until we get to Anthony, Texas.  It's a little cheaper there anyway.

Before we arrived at our campground the wind was devastatingly strong.  It almost blew us off the road a couple of times.  The trip today was mostly "White Knuckle" If we had a campground between Benson and Deming we probably would have stopped.

We arrived in Deming, New Mexico about mid-afternoon and checked into the Little Vineyard Campground.  We've been here at least once every trip we've taken to California.  We mostly take the northern route on the way home so on those occasions we only stop here on the way out.  But its certainly averaged at least once every year.  Bill and Jan came over before supper and we sat and talked and had a couple of post-road cocktails.  They left and went home about 6:30 and Sharon got to cooking supper.

We were having Pigs in a Blanket, Beans and Macaroni and Cheese.  It was a nice light supper and afterwards we settled in front of the idiot box to watch this evening's repeats.  We could barely last until 10 tonight and in fact Sharon went to bed early and I napped for some of the night.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

We were up this morning early and the wind that had blown most of the night had ended.

We were on the road early again this morning just heading east with no particular place to stop, which was a good thing since we stopped before we really wanted to today.  We were making bad time on the road today since we had to stop at almost every Rest Area.

Just before lunch our radio went out and I thought that was the extent of the problem.  When we stopped for lunch I realized that our whole electric system in the coach was gone.  We still had power to the chassis so we left with Sharon driving and me with my nose in our manual.  I narrowed it down to two possibilities and I would check both of them when we stopped for the night.  As it turned out later, the first possibility, also the easiest, was the problem.  Our positive terminal on the battery had corroded itself in half.  I temporarily fixed it by putting a jumper in the battery line.  It should hold just fine until we get home, or I can replace the battery clamp.

We stopped in Van Horn, Texas at El Campo RV Park for the night.

We disconnected the car and the four of us took off for Chuy's Restaurant.  This is the restaurant that John Madden made famous.  He mentioned it first on a Monday Night Football Telecast and from there it snowballed.  It's a Mexican Restaurant and their food is very good.

We also crossed over another Time Line today so we lost another hour.  We're now on Central Daylight time and we've made our last time change.

After Dinner we came home and settled in front of the Tube for the night.  There wasn't much on but it didn't matter cause I wasn't much interested in watching anyway.  I was more involved in a little nap I was taking.  But Sharon still headed for the feathers before me.  What a wuss!

Friday, April 17, 2009

We were on the road early this morning but the numerous stops we made negated any time we could make today.  By lunchtime we had decided that we would eliminate San Antonio as a stop on this return trip.  Bill and Jan didn't seem too disappointed and we didn't think they would be.

We stopped at a Wal-Mart In Kerrville, Texas for the night.  Bill and Jan came over and said they weren't staying because they couldn't get level, and they didn't have generator for power.  I suggested we move to the center of the parking lot and I'll run my generator, and they can plug in to me.  Bill didn't think I should have to run my generator all night, but that's what we do in order to keep our batteries from running down.  They decided that they were going to look for a campground after some shopping inside the store.

We also left to shop for a few items including some fish and potato logs for our supper. By the time we came out, Bill and Jan had already left and I had an idea.  We would leave here, since Bill and Jan sounded like they would go their separate way tomorrow, and drive til we got to the other side of San Antonio, and then stop for the night at a Wal-Mart there.  It turned out to be a good idea.  We finally ended up about 30 miles east of San Antonio in a little town called Seguin.

We were in time to catch our shows on TV and still get a good night's rest, almost.  About 4 in the morning the drizzle that was falling most of the night turned into a full scale thunderstorm.  It was a ripper that was crashing and booming and trying to get inside the motorhome.  Or at least it seemed so.  I felt Sharon jump in bed a couple of times.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

By this morning the rain had mostly stopped but the sun wasn't out yet.  According to the Weather Channel we're still in the Thunderstorm area so I guess we'll have some rain again today.  "Have some rain" was the understatement of the day.  When we left Seguin this morning on our way to Houston the rain turned into a full blown thunderstorm.  There was more rain falling than we had ever seen before, and it never stopped.  It kept falling all the way through Houston and beyond.  Where all the water was coming from we'll never know.  The motorhome had never leaked a drop of water in the time we've owned it, but today the entire front cap was leaking.  It was pouring in all over.  There were intersections that were flooded out and streets that were covered up with water and if the Interstate hadn't been elevated, it too, would have been under water in some areas.

We stopped for lunch at a Rest Area and when we got ready to go again our battery was dead.  We had stopped with the lights on and the radio playing.  We figured we could just start up the generator and put the battery charger on the engine battery, and we'd be gone in about 15 minutes.  The generator started but wasn't putting out any power.  So now it became necessary to disconnect the car, and drive it up, so we could jump it's battery onto the motorhome.  We did that and got the motorhome started but not before I was soaking wet from the rain.  Now I had to change my clothes before we got going again.

Boy this was one helluva day.   Besides having to drive through one of the biggest cities in Texas, we also had to fight the weather.  We'll not soon forget this day.  Just before we reached Beaumont, TX the rain eased up and all the leaking stopped.

We arrived at our campground, The Gulf Coast RV Resort in Beaumont, TX about 4 o'clock and went to Dennis and Mary Ceshker's  Trailer and sat and talked for the next 4 hours or so.  We were there so long she made up some burgers so we wouldn't go hungry.  We got back home about 9 or so and then had to monkey with the satellite dish for a half hour or so before we could get anything in.  We left Seguin this morning with the dish up, and something must have bent while we were going down the road.  We're now 6 degrees higher than normal for reception.  So I'll have check on that when I can get up on the roof at home.

By the time we got home tonight there wasn't much left on TV to watch.  Besides it was Saturday night so there wasn't much on to begin with.  We had had a long day however, so we didn't last very long tonight anyway.  We actually couldn't wait to get into bed and rest up for tomorrow.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The rain was gone this morning and the sun finally came out by noon.  It had been a long storm to say the least, but it looked like today would be nice anyway.

We went over to the Clubhouse early this morning for their Continental Breakfast.  We were joined by Dennis and Mary and the Breakfast was very nice.  Sharon and I had Belgian Waffles ut there was just about anything else a person could want including Cereal, Danish and Bagels, Cinnamon and Raisin and Plain.  It was actually a very nice selection for free.

Sharon took off with the laundry this morning after we found out that nothing had been planned for us today.   I cleaned up all my Journal and expense sheets for the day.  I had a bunch of slips that had never been entered over the past couple of days.

We spent most of the day today just drying out.  The campground was pretty wet from all the rain.  It was good that the whole campground is concrete pads because otherwise it would be a heck of a mess with all the water that fell in the last two days.  It doesn't seem to be drying out any too soon so the ground must be over saturated.  We're tip-toeing around and trying not to step in the grass knowing that you'll just sink in the water.  Although it is "grass" soaked with water and not mud.

At Suppertime today we decided to go to Cheddar's for Dinner tonight.  It was a restaurant that Dennis and Mary had eaten at the other night, but one that we had never been to.  The food was fabulous except that Sharon's Tilapia was a little too spicy for her.  I had a half rack of ribs and they tasted almost like ours.  They were actually excellent.  The price was very reasonable since it only cost $27 for our meal.  The place is decorated very tastefully and they advertise it as Casual Dining.  It reminded us a lot of the Elephant Bar in Palm Desert, California.

By the time we got home we were all ready for a little nap to settle our food.  Besides there wasn't a heck of a lot on TV anyway.  60 minutes was about the only thing on that we cared to watch.  We missed the early version so we caught it when it came on again at 9 o'clock.  As soon as that was over I watched Mythbusters for a couple of hours before I finally gave up the ghost and went to bed.  Sharon was smart and went an hour or so before me.