Monday, May 4, 2015

Redlands Truck called this morning at 9:15 and told us they were still on schedule to deliver the coach at noon.  At the time Sharon was already working like an indentured servant to get all our stuff packed into the car from the Park Model.  I wasn’t any help at all, since I’m still not walking without crutches.

We drove to Redlands and got there about 11 and found a Jack in the Box to have lunch at.  By the time we made it to the truck repair it was about 12.  They made us wait until 1 before we got back on the road again.The cost of repair was $6,240.00.

It only took an hour to get back to Catalina and a campsite.  But we still had several hours of work to put away all the items that were packed in the car.  I actually helped in the transfer of our stuff this time.  I sat in my chair and moved all the stuff away from the door as she carried it in.  At least it was something.

Incidentally the Butter Burgers we got at Jack in the Box were delicious.

I’ve found that, back in the motorhome, I can walk better, maybe even without the crutches.  We’ll see over the next couple of days.  I’ll still definitely need them for outside.

We discovered tonight that Redlands put our satellite antenna back on the roof backwards.  We still tried to get TV tonight but the wind was preventing us from acquiring the satellite.  That also will be a test over the next couple of days.  The receiver still worked fine, so we watched a couple of things we had taped before the MH went to Redlands.

The rest of the night was uneventful except for a lousy “first night’s” sleep back in the motorhome.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

We got ready this morning and we’re on the road by 9AM.  It was amazing since I took my first shower in 24 days.  Sharon made sure I was clean but I couldn’t shower because of my foot.  We got as far as Coachella at the end of the valley before we stopped for gas and Breakfast.

We got to Quartzsite by noon and stopped at Subway for lunch and then started looking for LP.  Most of the places are closed now but we finally found it for a reasonable price.  Then our search started for gas.  We only took twelve gallons in Coachella so that we could gas up in Quartzsite.  Gas in California is 75 cents more a gallon so you just get enough to get out of there.

We ended up for the night in Tonopah, AZ in a lovely campground we never knew was here.  Saddleback RV Resort is about 50 miles from Phoenix and a great starting point for where we want to go tomorrow.  We’ll take it one day at a time depending how far I can drive each day.  Today was 3 hours before I had to give up the wheel in Quartzsite.

We ended the night with a couple of celebratory drinks and leftovers for Supper.  All in all, it was a very good day.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

We got an early start today about 8:30 and headed toward Phoenix.  We turned north before we got there and headed up toward Flagstaff.  We spent most of the morning climbing up the mountain to 7000 feet before we hit the top.

We stopped in Flagstaff at Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries.  After we got back on the highway  We turned the corner and headed to Holbrook for the night.  We made one additional stop on the way for gas in Winslow at a Flying J.  The price was not good at about $2.85.

We got to OK RV Resort in Holbrook, AZ about 3:30 and quickly settled in.  We tried our satellite dish again tonight and no luck again.  I suspect that Redlands Truck somehow screwed it up when they put the antenna back on.

We have cable here at OK Resort so we did finally get to watch some TV tonight.  We only lasted until about 10 tonight anyway.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

I wasn’t really feeling good all day yesterday and this morning I found out why.  I woke up with a kidney stone.  I took my Toradol and Vicadin as soon as I was sure, and the pain subsided.  What else is going to go wrong on this trip.

We stopped at McDonald’s for Breakfast this morning and I couldn’t finish the pancakes I had on the Big Breakfast.  I still don’t have much of an appetite.  I saved the pancakes to have tomorrow.

We got back on the road and only made one other stop today.  Just West of Albuquerque we stopped for lunch.  After that it was only about 40 miles to Tijeras, NM, which is just east of Albuquerque, where we stopped at Hidden Valley RV Resort.  It’s a Coast to Coast Park and we’ve been here a couple of other times.  We may have to stay a couple of more days waiting for the weather to clear in Amarillo.  They’re supposed to have severe thunderstorms with large hailstones.  I don’t want any part of that.

We tried the dish again when we got here to no avail.  So I got on the phone to a couple of RV places but neither could come out until next week.  So I called DirecTV and convinced them to send out a technician.  It was like pulling teeth, but after talking to two people they finally agreed.  “He’ll” be out tomorrow.

We watched a couple of movies that I had pre-recorded but even those are starting to run out now.  We’ll have to get a signal pretty soon or cancel our service.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful except for me passing the stone I had been nursing all day.  After that I went to bed and I was exhausted.  Sharon stayed up for awhile and came to bed later.

Friday, May 8, 2015

We were anxious to get our satellite up and running today so we patiently waited for the technician to arrive this morning as promised.  By 1:30 I called DirecTV and found out we weren’t even on the schedule for today.  I gave her a piece of my mind, which at this point, I don’t have much left, but she wasn’t budging.  We were scheduled for Sunday and that was that.  That means we’ll have to stay here another extra day.

We were already staying an extra day here in Tijeras to avoid the storms in Amarillo and Oklahoma City over the next couple of days.  We’re watching the weather hoping to sneak through and past the tornadoes on a couple of clear days.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon moaning and groaning about having to stay when we’ve got a couple of clear days ahead of us.  I’m always a little uncomfortable about having to cross tornado alley at this time of this year.  Especially smack dab in the middle of the season since we’re a little late coming through this year.

Sharon wrote an email to the kids explaining our situation even though we’re unsure of when we’ll be going through.  This year we haven’t planned on a weekend like we usually do, so we really don’t know when we’ll be there.  This year we’re just planning on missing the tornadoes, thunderstorms and hail.

Sharon went to the clubhouse this afternoon and picked up a bunch of movies on tape and DVDs.  She ended up with 9 of them for us to watch.  We had already seen a couple of them that she forgot, but we managed to watch a couple of them tonight.

We finished up the movies at 10 so we squeezed in a couple of episodes of Seinfeld on DVD before we went to bed about 10:45.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

This was the first decent night’s sleep I’ve gotten since the cellulitis incident.  I was up by 6:30 but that’s pretty normal for me.

Our day started out nice and sunshiny with only a couple of bouts of snow.  Actually the snow was negligible cause it looked like pollen it was so small.  There was no accumulation and it didn’t even get the windshield wet.  But the radio told us we were getting snow.  We are relegated to the radio of late because of the lack of TV reception.  It’s either that or watch movies, and that gets old after awhile.

Sharon went out and dumped our gray water today, but I think our black water will need dumping tomorrow or Monday at the latest.  She’s been a real trooper again this year.  I think I’m more of a pain this year than I was 2 years ago.  But she just silently trudges on.

She also made another trip to the office to pay for another day and to pick up a couple more movies.

I had leftover Shrimp Creole for Supper tonight and Sharon had a fresh meatloaf that she just made, along with a salad and Broccoli.  The Creole was still very good, even from a week ago.

We settled in front of the TV for movies again tonight and saw a really good one called “Medicine Man” with Sean Connery and Lorraine Bracco.  Again our movies took us up to 10 so we watched another couple of episodes of Seinfeld on DVD before hitting the hay about 10:30.

Sunday, May 10, 2015HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

I got an e-mail from DirecTV this morning that says our appointment is scheduled for between 12 noon and 4 o’clock.  On Friday they told me from 8-4.  They can’t make up their mind what the hell they’re doing.   Our “technician,” and I use that term loosely, was as useless as a boat without oars.  The first thing he said when he got here was, “I’m not trained on Rvs.”  And he certainly wasn’t.  I had to tell him everything to do.  Unfortunately it wasn’t enough and he didn’t take my last suggestion.  Right now we’ll have no TV all the way home unless we find campgrounds with cable.  We stayed an extra day here in Albuquerque just the get the TV fixed and now we lost 2  days in our schedule.

Numbnuts finished up about 1:30 so we decided we’d hit the road for a hundred miles.  We knew we could make it to Santa Rosa, NM and find a campground there.  We rolled into Santa Rosa Campground about 3:30 and quickly settled into our site.  They have a Restaurant here that serves Western BBQ and they deliver it to your site.  I got Baby Back Ribs and Sharon got a Ribeye Steak.  She’ll have a Mother’s Day Dinner even if it kills us.

Trying to get miles under our belt is because we’re dodging the weather in Amarillo and Oklahoma City.  Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be good days to squeeze through.  We’re crossing our fingers and watching the weather very closely.

We just got done with Supper and it was fabulous.  The ribs tasted just like mine and the Ribeye was delicious.

We were content tonight to just sit and watch our own tapes with a full stomach and waiting to share the Peach Cobbler we got from the restaurant.

We stayed up tonight until about 10:30 finishing off the night with a couple of episodes of Seinfeld’s 7th season.