In search of warmer weather!

 

It has been a couple of weeks so lets get caught up.  When I last left you we were in West Memphis, Arkansas trying to organize our new trailer.  I think we have finally succeeded in getting that done.  We are still opening cabinets to find things but slowly we are getting into a routine.  While in West Memphis we identified a couple of issues with the rig that we needed to get resolved.  The first involved one of the window shades.  I went to pull down one of the shades and it came down but would not retract.  It sounded like a spring had snapped inside.  I took the shade down to see if there was a way to roll it back up and get tension back but was unsuccessful.  I called the company that makes them and they decided the shade needed to be replaced (under warranty) and would send us one within a week. 

The second issue was with the slide that the TV is in.  The slide was crooked when it was out causing a gap of over an inch and not allowing the slide to seal properly.  This concerned me if it rained.  I contacted our dealer to get their thoughts and how to handle it.  Fortunately there was a Jayco dealer just 20 miles away outside of Memphis in Mississippi.  Our dealer made arrangements with the Mississippi dealer to look at our slide.  This past Monday we packed up and drove to the dealership where they adjusted two of our slides so that they seated properly.  I had already made reservations at an RV park across from the dealership for us to stay a couple of nights in case the repair took longer than anticipated.  We were in Southaven, Mississippi.  The weather warmed up slightly, into the 60’s, but was still close to freezing each night.  Our plan was to continue south to find warmer weather.

On Thursday we left Southaven to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Just before we got to Vicksburg I stopped off the highway to use the restroom in our trailer and noticed that the TV in the living room was sticking out of the cabinet.  This is a 60 inch TV that is on a motorized mount that goes down into a cabinet.  I went back and checked and saw that one side had come off the mount.  Oh boy, this did not look good!  We were only 30 miles from the RV park in Vicksburg and the TV seemed secure so we moved on.  We arrived at the park and set up then I took a look at the TV issue.  We were able to get the TV off the mount and figured out what happened.  It appears the mount was not properly seated when it was installed causing one side to jump off when we hit a bump.  Fortunately it did not cause any damage to the TV but it was a chore to get the TV off and then properly seat it back on the mount as the cabinet is high and the TV is large.

The replacement blind arrived and we got it installed.  Now that leaves one last issue, a gremlin in our microwave/convection oven.  Back when we were in West Memphis the microwave began to act up in that the touchpad would freeze at times and not allow you to input anything.  To reset you had to unplug the unit and plug it back in.  This is a little hard as the plug is high up.  We did this a few times a day and it was annoying.  I went online to Samsung to ask them if there was a setting or something else that I could do to resolve the issue.  They mentioned to do the unplug thing and to check some settings but other than that they gave me information on how to submit a service request.  I changed some of the settings and this resolved the issue for a couple of days and then it came back but now the light and fan under the microwave would come on without us doing anything to the unit.  I have let our dealer know of the issue and how they, or Jayco, want to proceed on resolving the issue.

Meanwhile we have found some warmer weather.  We arrived in Vicksburg and it was around 70 degrees and will be in the high 70’s for the weekend.

From here we plan on doing some sightseeing of the Vicksburg area then move to Natchez, Mississippi to check out that town.  From there we will go to Lafayette, Louisiana and then to New Orleans before we head to Nashville and then Knoxville for a month.

Route: From West Memphis, Arkansas we took Interstate 55 to Southaven, Mississippi.  From there we continued on Interstate 55 to Jackson, Mississippi where we took Interstate 20 to Vicksburg.  In Vicksburg we picked up US 61 south to our RV park.

We made it …… and left!!

 

When I last left you we were almost to Joliet, Illinois to pick up our new rig.  We sped up our trip to avoid a winter storm that was going to hit our route.  We made it to Indianapolis last Friday and spent the night (cold, but no snow).  On Saturday we drove into Joliet with no weather issues and dropped off our old rig at Rick’s RV and then checked into a hotel right next to the dealership.  We got to see our new rig for the first time and we were really excited with how it looked.  This new model is 6 inches wider with a bowed ceiling so the interior feels very roomy.  The plan was to complete the sales paperwork on Monday while they prep our new rig, move the satellite dish from old to new on Tuesday and for us to move all our stuff on Wednesday. 

The storm did come and dumped over 5 inches of snow in the Chicago area.  The route we had taken was hit hard by ice, so we most likely would not have been able to make the drive if we kept to the original plan.

Our plan went off without a problem and the staff at Rick’s did a great job on the satellite install (to my specifications) and were able to make a spot under the sink so we could hide our trashcan (Fran was very happy).  It snowed another 2 inches on Tuesday and the temps were in the teens everyday.

We moved all our stuff on Wednesday.  Amazing how much stuff we still have with such limited space.  Since we had limited time (another snow storm approaching) we did not organize any of our stuff.  We just put it wherever it would fit.  Wednesday night we had a great reunion with our wine group at a local restaurant in Naperville.  We had a great time catching up with everyone.

On Thursday we picked up our rig when Rick’s opened and went in seek of warmer weather.  We did not like the cold!  We made it to Benton, Illinois.  The first RV park we stopped at only had two spaces available as their park was saturated with snow and ice from the storm.  The two available spaces would be a problem in the morning when we went to leave as the roadway would be ice.  We left that park and went to the KOA park down the road.  This is the same park where we first stopped when we started our “Life on the Road:.  This park was in a little better shape and was able to accommodate us.  We set up easily and I was very happy with the automatic leveling system.  Just push a button and watch the rig level itself. 

Our first night we identified a couple of issues, nothing major, but they will have to be addressed by the dealer.  It was still cold in this area and the park was very sloppy from the ice storm so we continued our journey south and made it West Memphis, Arkansas to our favorite park, Tom Sawyer’s.  The park is a little muddy but our site is a concrete pad so not so much an issue.  We plan to stay here for at least a week to organize our new rig.  The weather is in the 60’s with highs in the 70’s next week.  The Mississippi River is high so I don’t know how much longer the park will be open.  As the river rises with the snow melt the park will flood as it does every year around this time.

 

Route:  From Joliet, Illinois we took Interstate 55 south to Interstate 80 east.  From I-80 we picked up Interstate 57 south to Benton, Illinois.  From Benton we continued on I-57 south to I-55 south into West Memphis, Arkansas.

Almost There

It has been more than two weeks since my last post so let me get you caught up.  When I last posted we were in Las Vegas to attend the wedding of our friends daughter.  What a beautiful outdoor ceremony and we decided to go the formal route with me wearing a tux and Fran wearing a beautiful black dress.  Here are the “trailer people” all cleaned up.

The big item, literally, that I wrote on in my last post was that we had purchased a new fifth wheel, a 2015 Jayco Pinnacle, and that we had to drive to Joliet, Illinois to pick it up. So, beginning on January 18th our journey began to Joliet with the plan to arrive on March 4th. 

First stop was Winslow, Arizona.  You know, “Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”  from the Eagles (70’s reference).  Actually we stayed outside of town at an RV park near the Meteor Crater park.  For those of you not familiar with this area there is big hole in the ground near Winslow where a meteor crashed into earth thousands of years ago.  Just off the interstate on the road to the crater is a very nice RV park, so we stopped for the night.  290 miles driven.

Next stop was Albuquerque.  We stayed for two nights here as we had not previously done any sightseeing in this area and we had to do our laundry.  The problem was it was really cold and really, really windy.  The first night there was a wind warning with gusts up to 70 mph.  Fortunately we had no issues.  We did go see the Balloon Museum and walked around Old Town where we had a nice lunch.  Being outside was not fun with the cold wind.  290 miles driven.

Next stop was Amarillo.  This stop was for the entire weekend so I could watch all the NASCAR Daytona races.  The weather was a little nicer during the day, but still only in the 40’s with it getting below freezing at night.  298 miles driven.

As I looked at the weather on our route I decided we needed to speed up as the potential for getting caught in snow and/or ice was a strong possibility.  Our next stop was Checotah, Oklahoma.  We had stayed here back in October on our way west.  This was just an overnight stop and we are now officially into very cold weather.  The days barely are getting to 40 and the nights are always below freezing.  At every stop I have to make sure to keep our water tanks full as we cannot connect up to the park water.  370 Miles driven.

Side note.  The normal route would have been to go north at Oklahoma City to get into the Chicago area but we were taking a little longer route so we could stop in Nashville to visit with our friends, pick up the other two dining table chairs for our trailer that are stored at their house and put some items into storage.

Next stop was our old favorite, West Memphis, Arkansas, Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River Park.  With the weather so cold nobody was here.  We have never seen the park so deserted.  The river level was up but the barge traffic was minimal and it was so cold you really did not want to venture outside.  We stayed for two nights so we (Fran) could do laundry.  350 miles driven.

Next was Nashville, Tennessee.  We made it in on Thursday afternoon and had planned to stay until Saturday morning.  In fact we paid for the two nights but I continued to monitor the weather and a storm, called Titan, was making its way east and would be hitting our route through Indiana into Illinois just as we were hitting the road on Monday morning.  The potential for ice and accumulated snow was high.  As a result we decided to leave on Friday morning.  We had dinner with our friends and took care of our storage needs and moved on.  232 miles driven. 

The storm was projected to hit Sunday evening into Monday morning and the distance from Nashville to Joliet is about 450 miles so I found a nice park in Indianapolis for us to spend Friday night and then we would go into Joliet on Saturday, two days earlier than our revised plan.  270 miles driven.

As I write this we are in Indianapolis and have spent the last night in our current rig.  The weather looks OK for the drive into Joliet although they are getting some snow there today.  If everything goes as planned we will be in Joliet until Thursday, staying in a hotel, and then will head south in seek of warmer weather.

Here is a picture of our new rig.

Route taken:  From Las Vegas we picked up US 93 which took us to Interstate 40 east.  We followed Interstate 40 all the way into Nashville where we picked up Interstate 65.  From Interstate 65 we will pick up Interstate 80 into Joliet.

New Rig!

 

It has now been three years since we started our “Life on the Road” and with the anniversary we have treated ourselves to a new rig.  Since we started this adventure in this Jayco Eagle we have realized there were some things we did not not like with the floorplan and some features we were missing.  Mainly we wanted a floorplan that had the recliners opposite the entertainment center so that you did not have to turn to watch TV.  We also wanted the larger refrigerator models that are now being offered as the size we have could be problematic at times when using it full time.  We began looking at rigs a few months back and came close a couple of times but the same financing issue came up as when we bought our current unit.  Banks do not want to lend to full timers.  We were lucky on this rig in that we still owned our home so a lender was found and the loan was not based on us being full time.  It did cause us to pay more in sales tax as we had to register it first in Illinois before it could be transferred to South Dakota, our state of residence. 

This past week I was in contact with our dealer in Illinois regarding an issue with our current rig and that began a discussion on a new rig.  We had not been looking at Jayco’s because they did not offer a floorplan that we wanted.  He told me that Jayco had just redesigned many of their Pinnacle floorplans and were coming out early with some 2015 models.  After some more phone calls and emails we saw they had a model we liked that was just off the factory line and had all the features we were looking for.  Over the next three days we worked the financing issue and our dealer was able to find a lender and a deal was made.  The downside is that we have to pick it up in Joliet, Illinois.  We were headed in that direction anyway but not for another few months.  So next week we leave Las Vegas and head to Illinois.  Hopefully it will begin warming up or it will be an interesting drive.

Pinnacle is the luxury fifth wheel line for Jayco so it is an upgrade from our current model.  It has some very nice features including a six point leveling system that automatically levels the trailer at a push of a button.  A residential refrigerator with icemaker.  A 60 inch LED TV in the living room that retracts into the cabinet, fireplace (actually just an electric heater with fake flames), leather recliners and sofa and a king bed. 

Here is the floorplan

Here are some pictures of a model similar to the one we are buying.  We do not have pictures of ours yet.

If everything goes as planned we should be in our new rig the first week of March.  I will post pictures then. 

Las Vegas

 

We left Quartzite on Monday and drove to Las Vegas where we will be for a couple of weeks.  There are many RV parks in the Las Vegas area with reviews that were mixed so we decided on the Las Vegas RV Resort as it had a great rate special going on and seemed to get the higher reviews.  It is off the strip near Sam’s Town and is in a very busy area so driving around with the trailer is a little dicey (more on that to come).  The park is very nice with large sites and nice spacing between them.  The intimidating part is the narrow interior roadways.  They can barely fit a truck towing a trailer, then you have to swing into the space and then swing out to leave.  They do escort you to the site and guide you in so that helped.  I copied a picture from Google Maps so you can see an overhead view of our space and get an idea of how narrow the roadways are.

As we needed some service work done on the trailer I had set up an appointment in advance with the local Jayco dealer.  When we got here I checked the address of the dealership to get directions from our RV park.  Come to find out I could probably throw a rock from our park and hit the dealership, but not so easy to get there with the trailer attached.  First getting out of the space.  I was sure it was going to very difficult to make the right turn onto the narrow roadway but it all worked fine.  The day before I had walked a route in the park the allowed me to exit via the larger interior roads.  Now the most direct route to the dealership would have been to make a left out of the park then a right another right then a left into the dealership.  Problem #1 – get out of the park.  The park is on S. Nellis Blvd.,  which is 6 busy lanes with a center median.  No way was a left turn feasible at 8am as I faced the possibility of getting hung up in the center with the rig blocking lanes.  So, it has to be a right turn.  Problem #2 – from Nellis, making a right, how do I now get to Boulder Highway where the dealership is.  There are no direct routes joining the two.  I had to go down about a mile and make a left onto a street, then another left and finally another left to get on Boulder Highway, then drive a mile and a half to the dealership, which was on the right.  End result I drove over 3 miles to go probably 1/2 mile.  We did make it and the repairs were done but it did take all day.

We are here for the wedding of a friend’s daughter on Valentines Day weekend.  Following that we leave for a two day stop over in Death Valley then onto Bakersfield.

Route:  From Brenda, AZ  I took US 60 towards Interstate 10, then Interstate 10 west to US 95 north which brought us into Las Vegas.

Quartzite, Arizona Experience

 

We left Southern California a week ago and drove to Brenda, Arizona, which is located about 10 miles east of Quartzite.  For those of you who may not know about Quartzite let me give you some information from what I have learned.  It is in the desert out in the middle of nowhere.  During the hot months, spring and summer, the town has a population of about 5,000.  Years back the population would increase to over a million during the fall and winter months due to the influx of snowbirds who would winter here.  The numbers and length of stay have been decreasing over the past few years but the population still increases into the hundreds of thousands for a couple of months during the winter. 

The big attraction is the climate but also the rocks and gems that are found in the area.  So a big rock and gem show was started here many years ago and then an RV show was added since so many of the snowbirds use RV’s to live in while in the area.  At one time it was billed as the largest RV show in the states.  Following the RV show is a large craft show. 

To really experience Quartzite you need to come during the RV/Rock and Gem show as this is when everything is going on, so that is what we did.  We met up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin.  They have been coming to Quartzite for many years so they have been very helpful it directing us around and telling us what to see.  Here is our two rigs at the park in Brenda.

Ours is in front of our red truck.  Their rig is to the right.

Needless to say it is very busy here during this show time.  Traffic is very busy getting to the show and parking is difficult as there are no real parking lots.  You just find some dirt spot out in the desert.  Fortunately we have 4 wheel drive on our truck as some of the areas are like quicksand.  The RV show was a disappointment as only one RV dealer was used for the main site so the brands of trailers were limited.  Around town other dealers were set up but still it was not what I had expected.  The vendor tent was pretty good for RV related items.  Outside the main tent was a huge vendor area selling just about anything you wanted.  Then around the rest of the town (one main street) was probably the largest garage sale going on. 

What is fascinating about all this is the town has a few gas stations, no major supermarket (just a couple of small grocery stores) and no bank.  The nearest Wal-Mart is 50 miles away!  I don’t understand why this is the case with so many RV’ers here. 

A popular thing for RV’ers to do here is boondock.  This where you drive out into the desert and park your RV and have no hookups.  As most of the land in the area is public land it can be done for free or for a small fee to the Bureau of Land Management.   There are businesses set up so that you bring your rig in to fill up the water tanks and dump your holding tanks, or you can pay a little more and they will come to you.  As you drive around the area on Interstate 10 you will see RV’s all over the place in the desert.

One place my Aunt/Uncle told us to stop at was a place called the Reader’s Oasis.  It is a used bookstore where the owner, an elderly gentleman, runs the shop in the nude except for a small cover over his “junk”. We stopped but it was a little cold in the morning so he was wearing a coat.  I was able to find a picture of him on the internet so you can see what it is all about.

We are here for another week then onto Las Vegas.

A new section:  While in Southern California I bought an atlas and highlighted all the roads we have driven and places we have stayed and gave it to my step-father so he can follow our travels.  With each blog post I will now add at the end the roads that we traveled to get there.  We left Anaheim on the 91 freeway going east to Interstate 215 south to Interstate 10 east.  Interstate 10 took us to highway 60 just east of Quartzite and we are staying in a little town called Brenda (probably not on the map) which is about 3 miles north of Interstate 10 on highway 60.

I’m Back!

 

Howdy folks.  It has been awhile.  As we get ready to leave Southern California I thought I would get you caught up on what we have been doing over the past couple of months. 

We arrived in Southern California (Anaheim) on Veterans Day in November.  We picked this area as my parents live here as well as some others relatives for the both of us.  In addition you cannot beat the weather this time of year in this area.  It has generally been in the high 60’s or 70’s most days.  The nights do a little cold but the sunshine makes up for it.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my one of my aunt’s.  She has been having a large Thanksgiving  gathering for years and I believe this is the first one we have made.  It was great to catch up with a lot of my relatives.  A real treat was seeing an uncle and cousin I had not seen in over 30 years.  We had a great time.

Next up was to celebrate Christmas a little early with our three daughters and son-in-law.  As flights are much cheaper before the holiday we celebrated in the middle of December.  Our two daughters from Knoxville flew in for 4 days and our daughter and her husband drove down for Portland.  We had a great weekend and it allowed them to visit with their grandparents. 

Christmas in the RV

Family picture

Since then we have been enjoying the great weather with daily walks and/or bike rides and visiting with my parents.  We have not done much sightseeing as we both grew up in the area and do not have much interest in revisiting places we have been.  We did end up going to Venice, California as neither one of us had ever seen the canals or the beach. The beach walk was pretty rundown but did have some interesting people.  It appears many people take up residence on the grassy area between the beach and the shops.  We walked the canals and it was interesting to see the nice homes all crammed together around these tiny canals.  I am sure you have all seen these as it is a popular filming location for TV shows. 

Venice Beach

Venice canals

We left Venice and drove up the coast highway a couple of miles to the Santa Monica pier.  You all should be familiar with this icon as the carousel and entrance sign has been in many TV shows and movies.  This is the ending point (or starting point) for Route 66 so it sort of means we have made the whole journey on the Old Route 66.  Technically we did not drive every portion where it still exists but we have hit all the major cities on the route, so I bought the T-shirt!  We had lunch on the pier and then walked the coast highway and their shopping district.  You could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

Santa Monica pier

Carousel building (it was closed for the day)

Entrance sign for the pier

On Saturday we head out for Salome, Arizona.  This is near Quartzite, Arizona where the annual RV show is held along with a crafts show and rock and gem show.  Due to the large number of snowbirds in the area these shows are very popular and supposed to be the largest ones around.  We are meeting up with my Aunt and her husband along with their daughter.  Following that we move onto Las Vegas to attend the wedding of a friends daughter then we begin a trip up the west coast to visit our daughter in Portland.