Friends, Family, & Projects - Fort Mohave, AZ - October 26, 2014

Not much change in our Sister-in-law's condition. God works in His own time. His will be done. Donna visits most everyday. Gene is doing as well as is to be expected. Her brother Mitch is still here. Her daughter Summer had to return to Washington.

Meanwhile....

I found a new addition to the valley the other day. In Bullhead City, just outside of the Chamber of Commerce, a BIG turtle had appeared. Had to shoot a couple of pictures.

Fergizmo, the gnome, had to ride the beast!

Don't look up!  :)

Is this pretty cool, or what? There was a sign that said - 'Do Not Climb On Turtle'. If that sign wasn't there... it might have gotten pretty crazy!

We did drive across the Colorado River one day and found our first geocache in Nevada.

This makes 18 states that we have found geocaches in.

We did miss a few states while we were travelling east, but we'll get them next time through.

While Donna was visiting with Gene & Cyndi, I have been working on a few projects.

A few months back, while turning out of a pretty tight parking spot, the back end of our house smashed up against a big shrub. It pushed in the rear quarter panel. And now I have time to work on it

I removed the jack controls and was able to get inside of the panel. This area in aluminum and I was able to get it all worked out, painted and caulked. Almost back to normal now.

There had been a bad 'sulpher' smell when using our hot water. I replaced the anode last week, but the smell was still there. Thanks to Google, I put together a plan.

I had to fill the hot water tank with vinegar, kind of like cleaning a coffee pot. Three feet of hose into the anode hole.

  
My handy-dandy washer gizmo.

Empty, rinse, fill, heat, rinse, repeat....

After all was done, I filled our fresh water tank plus 1 1/4 cup of bleach, and flushed everything out. All is good now. No smelly hot water!

I also made a clothes line to attach to our rear ladder. Our washer/dryer doesn't make the clothes as soft as a fresh air dry. They sure dry fast out here.

Here is another little gadget I made.

This broom is kept just inside our door.

The 4 marks on it represent the distance each of our slides stick out.

Now when we pull into a spot, I grab the broom and insure the slides won't hit anything.

Cool huh?
Now everyone knows that the water down here pretty well sucks. We refill gallon water containers from the water machines here (1 quarter per gallon). And always keep a case of bottled water on hand too.

But here is my next project......

We saw this at Walmart for $175.00 and picked it up. I will post pics and let you know how it goes.

This last weekend, we had visitors.

My sister and her husband Cliff showed up and parked right next to us.

They have a Sydney 5th wheel and Karen has just retired. They are on the road now. They left Wenatchee, WA and are heading for southern Arizona for the winter. They stopped here in Fort Mohave to visit for a week.

We all headed to Oatman to see Route 66 and the burros. A fun day.

Then the same weekend, my good friend from high school, Stan and his wife Marilyn showed up too. They live in Sun City West by Phoenix and were in Laughlin for the weekend. We went over there and caught up on old times.

Then they came to our 'house'. I had a great high school graduating class and love these type of get-togethers. There are more of my classmates here in Arizona and we plan on seeing them at some time while we are here.

And also the same weekend, our RV Dreams friends, Ruth & Dale, were passing through and stopped for a night. We all went out to the C-Belle (Colorado Bell Casino) and had diner at the Pint's Brew Pub.

Then came back to our place. We have met up with them in Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, and Arizona. This is such a small world. Especially for RVer's.

What social butterflies we are!!!

The Waiting Game - Fort Mohave, AZ - October 18, 2014

It has been almost 10 days since I have posted on our blog. Opps!  But we really aren't doing too much at the moment. We go over to Gene & Cyndi's house everyday. Cyndi is still with us, and some days she even recognizes us too. Hospice comes almost everyday. They sure do provide a great service. Cyndi is so weak. But they are keeping her as comfortable as can be. It is hard some days.....on all of us.  Gene is doing as well as can be expected. With us and Cyndi's daughter Summer, and her brother Mitch, we are making it through it all together. We are sure glad we are here for him.

While we have been here, the weather has been pretty nice. The days have been in the high 80s and low 90s. It almost rained one day. I have been doing a few maintenance items on our rigs too. I haven't changed the anode in our hot water heater for just over a year, so I went and bought one. It was a good thing I did. It really needed to be changed.

And for the last 5 days or so, I have been cleaning our Bighorn. Starting with the bugs on the front cap, then the road crap that gets kicked up under the overhang while towing. Then I worked around the rig. There is no washing of rigs here in the park, so I had to just use a bucket, sponge, and 409 spray cleaner. Up and down the ladder, rinsing out the sponge in the bucket, I finally finished. It was quite a job... but looks great!

Then I started cleaning the truck. The bugs came off a lot more easily than the road tar spots. Another big job, but they look great. I now have a California Duster to keep them looking pretty!

And then I made sure our door map of the states was up to date.  We now have traveled and spent the night in our RV in 23 states!

I have also been playing bug-catcher. While we were at Master Tech in Elkhart, IN, we picked up some hitch-hikers. They are called the Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs.

And they like to hide - between window shades, heater and AC vents, beside our bed, and any nook & cranny they can find. 2000 miles and 17 days later, I still kill a couple a day. Rumble Bunny helps too. She goes nuts and  I grab the fly swatter. What a team!

Next month we are flying to Seattle to visit family for a week, then we are going to rent a car and make a quick trip to Livingston, TX and get our vehicles registered and get our drivers licenses. We are going to be Texans! South Dakota dosen't offer any health insurance options anymore to pre-medicare RVers who use the Healthcare Marketplace. Yee Haw!

That's about it.....

There is a Safeway and Smith's grocery stores right outside of our park. We go there quite a bit. And we have been to Sam's Club, Walmart, and Walgreen's. That is about all we have been doing since we have been down here. My sister Karen and her husband Cliff are taking off full time from Washington on the 21st and we are looking forward to seeing them here in Fort Mohave as they head on south. And RV Dreams friends Ruth & Dale are heading this way also and we are looking forward to our upcoming visit as well.

Meanwhile...... the sunrise and sunsets here are... WOW!

Riverside Adventure Trails - Fort Mohave, AZ - October 9, 2014

We are now moved from the overflow section to a more permanent spot. We paid the $370.00 for a month. There are not very many snow birds here as of yet. But it won't be long and this place will be filling up.

Our spot.

We have no neighbors yet.

We went over to Donna's brother's house yesterday and today. Gene is doing as well as is expected. Cyndi is bed ridden and is barely coherent. The hospice folks are keeping her comfortable with morphine and other drugs.

Cyndi's brother, Mitch, and her daughter Summer are here with her. Today we had a BBQ and friends J.P. & Nell came over.

Donna & Nell

Gene

Mitch

Donna, Nell, & Gene

Mitch & J.P.

Gene, Mitch, & J.P.

We will be spending a lot of time over at Gene's house for the next few days. These times are kind of sad, but we are glad we are here. We really enjoy this desert climate. It was in the 90s today.

Here are some stats of the fast trip we took from Elkhart, Indiana to Fort Mohave, AZ.

2,041 miles

6 days of driving, 5 night on the road

Cost of camping for the 5 nights - $50.51

Miles driven each day  - 414, 295, 330, 192, 315, and 495

Cost of diesel fuel  -  $615.78 - and arrived with a half a tank

From IN, we drove through and spent the night in MO, KS, OK, TX, NM and into AZ

Way too fast of a pace. Must slow down.... and smell the roses...

We will be back that direction soon enough.

A Fast Trip Completed - October 5 - 7, 2014

Sunday

We headed out from Elk City Lake Park around 8:15 AM. There was a gas station just a couple of miles down the road that we stopped at. The big overhang above the pumps didn't have the height labeled, but it looked ok to go under. I slowly pulled in and when I got out, I looked up to see just how much clearance I had. And I saw our batwing antenna not 2 inches from the top! Opps! I quickly lowered it. It could have been bad. Just a foot farther, and it would have hit a light fixture. The good Lord is watching out for us, for sure!

We took exit 11 and headed down old Route 66. And stopped to find our Oklahoma geocache. Then entered Texas.

Just past Abilene, we saw the Cadillac Ranch. Cool!

Just 41 miles short of the New Mexico border, we stopped at Vega, TX, after 192 miles, and spent the night at the Walnut RV Park. A nice little Mom & Pop park with just a few RVs there.

Monday

After we left the Walnut RV Park, we again pulled off the Interstate and onto old Route 66. This stop was at the Midpoint of the 'Mother Road'. 1139 miles to Los Angeles, and 1139 miles to Chicago.

There was a neat little roadside attraction and café there. And a geocache too!

And then we entered New Mexico.

It heated up to 81 degrees as we passed through Albuquerque. The balloon fiesta was going on, but we saw no balloons. Rats!

We stopped at a big souvenir place, the Flying C Ranch, and looked around, got a fruit smoothie,..... and a geocache.

Todays stop, after 315 miles, was at the Sky City Casino RV Park in Acoma, NM. We got full hookups and paid $25.00.

We are now all set up for the Seahawks game tonight.


Tuesday

On the road by 7:30AM. After 102 miles, we entered Arizona.

We stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park.

Would have liked to have spent more time there, but at least we got our passport stamped and watched the movie.

The amount of petrified wood there is amazing.

We were going to stop at Winslow, but kept going. Then maybe the Camping World just past Flagstaff. Nope.

We were getting so close to finishing this 'speedy' trip, we just kept going.

On into California via Needles for just a bit.

And across the Colorado River and back into Arizona.

Getting close now.

We pulled into the Riverside Adventure Trails just after 4:PM, and the office was already closed. The guard shack dude collected our information and directed us into the overflow area. That's ok, glad to be stopped after 495 miles.

Tomorrow morning we will go to the office and pay for a month and get moved into our 'more permanent' site. Then we will go see Gene & Cyndi.