We have tires!!

August was a tough month but we finally have our tires and we are in Indiana now.

FMCA notified us they are quitting the mail forwarding business Sept 30 so that gave us a good excuse to get an OR address. We went to the DMV and are now considered “continuous travelers” and have an Oregon mailing address.

I did a Carl's Jr shop and really like the new Texas BBQ Thickburger, so much so we went back a few days later for more.

Since my stepmother had a stroke July 26 and we wanted to get to IN ASAP to see her before anything else happened, Larry did some investigation and was able to contact an executive at Michelin and Praise God! the exec. responded to Larry's e-mail! Unfortunately she passed away Monday Aug 11 and the Michelin executive told us on Tuesday Aug 12 he was successful in finding tires for us. We went to Klamath Falls Wed night and had our tires Thursday morning Aug 14. While in K Falls we saw our friends, Margaret and David, who have a place there. On Friday Aug 15 we made it to the FMCA Redmond Rally. That night Larry discovered our two new drive tires were very low on air pressure, one side at 60 lbs and the other side at 74 lbs when they should have been 120 lbs! He was pretty upset and spent the next hour airing them back up. Saturday morning he called Klamath Falls and then we talked to the tire exhibitor at the Rally to see if we had ruined the tires. Both dealers said they didn't think so since the most we could have driven on them was 150 miles. We took the MH to the local Redmond tire dealer (about 2 miles away) and had the tires 'tanked' to see where they were leaking. When they took the tires off they noticed a line on the back of the inside duals and further investigation showed they were hitting a bolt head! Larry ground half of the bolt head off so the tires would clear. PTL! If we had not lost so much air pressure we would have never known about the bolt head hitting the tires and that could have been disastrous! We had ordered a larger tire size and Larry had checked to be sure the tires would fit but missed the bolt head at the top but God didn't. The air loss was caused by a bad valve stem on one side and a bad tire monitor sensor on the other side. We left Redmond after the tires were tanked and aired and the bolt heads ground down and spent the night near Dayville, OR by a babbling brook. We stopped at the weigh station near Prineville, OR and Larry adjusted the trailer tongue so we are now level and balanced front to back at nearly perfect.  

The bolt that was hitting the inside duals that Larry ground off

The 'babbling brook' we overnighted by in Dayville,OR

Indians preforming at Rushmore Shadows RV in Rapid City, SD

At Sturgis, SD with an Amsoil sign greeting everyone as they entered the town

We spent a week at Rushmore Shadows in Rapid City, SD. We took out just the bike and went to Mount Rushmore only we didn't go in since they are charging $11 just to park so we went to Custer State Park instead and enjoyed seeing “the boys” thru several tunnels, a really cool sight. We also took a ride to Sturgis, SD and ended up purchasing T shirts that say '2014 Sturgis Rally'. The campground we had reservations for in IN called us on Sunday Aug 24 to tell us they could not accommodate us because of all the rain and flooding they were experiencing so I had to do some scrambling since Labor Day weekend was upcoming. All the campgrounds were full so we ended up staying with my old classmate like we have before since he has pavement and a generous heart.

Mount Rushmore seen from a tunnel on the road to Custer State Park, SD

Where we are staying in IN at my former classmates' place.  The trees are on the south side give us some protection from the winds and also 'hide' us from the house

Where I grew up only the trees were much smaller then

The house I grew up in from the east

The wait continues!

The first came and went and I missed it!  I worked and totally forgot about the date.

We were notified by Basin Tire that we will not be getting our tires as promised.  Now we have to decide what to do.  They offered another brand for about the same price but Larry checked and there is no warranty as they are really truck tires.

New surge tank we purchased in Coburg, finally installed

Larry spent three days working on the "bolt on" replacement surge tank and had to retrofit many items on the coach.  He found several potential problems and fixed them, including finding the battery cable with a hole rubbed in the hydraulic line.  He re-routed the line and cable as well as fixed the hole in the line.  PTL he is so diligent with the coach!

I am working in the restaurant here at the RV park so we can stay without moving.  I work Thurs afternoon, Friday and Sat mornings.  It is hard work but a nice perk is I get tips.  I have also done a mystery shop in Bend.

Grandson, Colby, married his girlfriend, Krista, July 12 and will have a reception in Feb or Mar when the weather is nicer.  He said the temperature was “just a few degrees shy of the surface of the sun”.

We continue to make weekly runs to Bend and now our time is getting short, I have a list of everything we ‘need’ to purchase before we leave OR.  Seems the summer has really slipped away.

I bought a new Vita-MIx since I did something to the old one and fixing it would cost around $140 since it is out of warranty and I could get $100 trade-in on it so decided that was what I needed to do.  The new one is red to add accent to my kitchen area.  The stove cover is red as is my kitchen towel and hot pads.

Awesome Oregon sunset

I found a fun Tweety toilet lid cover on E-Bay so now I will have to look for my blue bath rug when we return to Phoenix in Nov.

New Tweety lid cover

At least the wait is cooler!

Larry has been thinking about going to see his Mom and his brother called to say her social worker thinks she wants closure and would like a visit from him so we went June 9, fourteen months after we last left on not so good terms.  She seemed glad to see us and we spent most of the day with her.  She surprised Larry with a birthday present, a blanket he said he liked the last time we saw her. 

The blanket Larry's Mom gave to him for his birthday, put to good use

It was obvious she needs help or should go to assisted living as her dishes were stacked on the kitchen floor with mold growing on them.  I washed five dishpans full and there were still about that many more to wash.  The refrigerator stunk so badly we gagged whenever we opened the door.  Larry threw out about $100 worth of food that was green and moldy  and cleaned it up the best he could and went to the bank for her to deposit checks from as far back as Nov. 2013!  We called the social worker to report what we found but she didn’t go check on her until Friday (five days later) and by that time she had found someone to come in and remove the dishes and clean up so she is still in her own place.

Larry’s June project was re-doing the cover on the trailer tongue.  Water had gotten in and the board swelled so he had to fix it.  He painted it then put non-skid tape down.

The finished product

We left AZ on June 16 and went to Las Vegas to see our friends, Forrest and Rosie.  We stayed at Duck Creek RV.  It was really windy and when we took the BMW to the dealer in Las Vegas for some repair work, Larry was almost blown over!  We left it on Monday evening and returned Tuesday evening to pick it up.  It was windy both days but we took a different way back on Tues that was easier, with less lights.  We even stopped at Costco which was just three miles from the campground.  We enjoyed two meals with our friends and had some lively discussions.  We all went to the Carroll Shelby Museum but basically only Larry enjoyed it as the ‘tour’ really seemed to be a sales pitch for buying Carroll Shelby packages.  There were some nice cars but it was not what we were expecting.

We left Las Vegas on Wed. June 18 and overnighted west of Gerlach, NV when we discovered the parking lot we had planned on spending the night in, had been re-paved that day and was all blocked off.  We also discovered the Bank of America is Fallon, NV is no longer.  It was sold to Washington Federal along with several other B of A branches in NV and NM.  Bummer!  We met a trucker in Bend who was looking for the Bank of America branch who also used to stop at the B of A branch in Fallon.  Small world!

Where we overnighted on our way to La Pine

We arrived at Cascade Meadows on Thurs June 19 and the first night the temperature dropped to 26º!  Talk about the body going into shock, from 100º in Las Vegas to 24º in La Pine in two days!  The temperature has been better since then, making for nice walking weather.

Still no tires in Klamath Falls for the motorhome but we have new tires on the BMW and we are currently in Coburg, OR sans trailer getting everything ready on the coach for our trip east in another month and a half.

The Wait Continues

Phoenix had its first 100º day on May 3 and May 4 we had our family get-together to celebrate Todd’s birthday, Vince’s birthday and our leaving for the summer.  We had a pizza party along with angel cake and pistachio ice cream.  Two grandsons were unable to attend.  Shane is in Lubbock, TX working and Alex, while he doesn’t have a regular job, had an opportunity to work and making a little cash is something a 19 year old male does not turn down.

Todd, Vince Larry , Cere´t, and Krista at our get together

Checking out the birthday gifts

Getting ready to enjoy birthday cake

Dawn and Vince's family had a family pix taken on May 4 

On Tues May 6 we pulled out ready to head to Cottonwood when we had red lights and alarms going off in the motorhome.  We stopped and checked everything and started out again only to have a red light on the dash.  We stopped again about half a mile away and again Larry checked everything out.  A good Samaritan stopped to see if we needed any help which was nice.  We figured we were delayed 5-10 minutes and when we started again everything checked out OK.  I thanked the Lord for the delay for whatever reason He had.  We had a good trip with a tailwind for most of the way and I had forgotten about our delay until we were about a mile away from the campground entrance when we came upon a terrible crash that had happened about 5-10 minutes before as the ambulance was just arriving behind us and had come from Camp Verde about 10 miles away.  PTL, He delayed us so we were not in the middle of that mess!!

Friends, Ed and Lana were in the park and saw us come in so he stopped to say “hi” while Lana was taking a line dance class in the pool clubhouse.  We last saw them in Capitan, NM last summer while we were volunteering at Bonita Park.  They have a place near there, much like our Merrill place, where they ‘visit’ to exchange items they did and didn’t use the last year while out.

May 16 was the annual Sheep Crossing of the Verde River just below the TTN campground.  I almost missed it as when I went down around noon and the sheep were bedded down one of the herders said they would cross at 3 PM.  I arrived at 2:45 PM and they were just about across the river.  There were 1500 sheep this year.  They will summer in the high country below Flagstaff.  Supposedly the drive helps them ‘lamb’ better.

The sheep bedded down at noon.  They started from Corder Junction,AZ

Our tires that I ordered in February still are not in Klamath Falls.  We are using the FMCA Advantage Program with Michelin and are saving $1000 over Goodyear tires.  When we do finally get them they should be really “fresh”!  Since the tires are delayed we are hanging out in AZ for another three weeks in the hopes the tires will arrive before we go through Klamath Falls.  If not, we will backtrack from La Pine to K Falls to get them.  Saving $1000 makes spending $100+ on fuel  less significant.  As a result of all the changes, I keep making changes to our reservations.  Everyone has been very understanding though.  Over the years I have learned there is a reason for the delay so I am anxious to see just what God has planned instead. 

The nice pull thru site we have at Camp Verde RV in Camp Verde, AZ

While at Verde Valley we met some new full timers from Klamath Falls and seemed to ‘click’ with them.  He does metal work and had two different “Tweety’s” so we decided we had to have them.  Larry has an idea for them which he will work on when we finally get to La Pine.  Our Mexican Tweety which was damaged in our crash in 2008 is again coming apart due to moisture getting into the plaster of paris so he will need to be replaced soon.  

More next month.

Countdown to leaving

I started April out with a new retail shop in Scottsdale and also went to Apple for another personal training class in i-photo.
We had a great community dinner of chicken breasts, real mashed potatoes and gravy, corn garlic bread and chocolate cake on April 5th.  Usually they have the breakfast the first week and dinner the third week but because of Easter, they had dinner the first weekend and breakfast the third weekend.  Todd had business in Scottsdale so he came to see us on April 10.  We had a nice visit.

 Todd visiting us


The community yard sale was April 12 and the weather was really nice.  Although we didn't have a lot of visitors we sold around $100 worth of 'stuff' that we don't have to take with us or store.  The folks I talked to in the community said they had a good sale too.

Dawn, Vince and Bethany joined us for  a Seder Dinner April 13 at the same local church we went to last year.  They had a new Rabbi and he was funny and very interesting.  I always learn something new each time we attend a Seder.  The food was good too.  We had lamb and chicken. (That's lamb on the plate.)

Dawn at the Seder

   Vince at the Seder

Bethany at the Seder with her new hair do

           Us at the Seder with the new Rabbi.  He ran over to get in the picture.


April 17 we had electrical problems with the electric going off, then coming on and going off again.  It did that most of the day and I called APS twice.  Just as we were going to bed around 1 AM the electric was out again so I went outside and the APS repair man was outside at the neighbors.  He came right over and spent nearly an hour checking everything out (transformer, electric box and Larry's junction box so we can run both the MH and the trailer from one 50 amp plug) and finally found the breaker was going bad, getting hot and then shorting out.  I reported it Friday morning to the office and it was fixed by noon.  Hallelujah!

I ended the month with a last shop at a Mexican Restaurant and we came away stuffed and happy.  I don't know if I will be able to do any more shops when we move or not as both Cottonwood and LaPine are small towns and shops are usually in big cities.  It is fun to do shops and get paid to eat or buy something I can use.

Larry has finished re-working the trailer and winch for our departure May 6 and is now busy making sure everything is ready on the coach.  We are looking forward to cooler weather and a return to Oregon.  We did not go to OR last year and missed seeing it.

March has 'blown out' and April has 'blown in'

Colby and Bethany at Outback

Dawn, Ellen and Krista at Outback

Krista and Colby at Outback

Colby and his cake

Skirting around the shed/trailer made from the old awning material

The fold down drill press, still in the testing stage

March 3 we moved the MH by going to Camping World in Mesa.  Since Todd lives about 5 miles away, he met us  there and we had a nice hour visit in the parking lot.

Larry returned his heart monitor after wearing it for two weeks but it showed nothing unusual.  So now he is back to square one.  He has decided to start drinking water instead of pop or Kool-aid and has been surprised just that alone has stopped his nightly bathroom visits.  He doesn’t know if it is the sugar or what is the cause but he is happy since he is getting uninterrupted sleep.

I have been making weekly visits to the chiropractor and am doing much better.  I returned to Sam’s Club for their monthly health check up and had my ears checked.  The gal who tested me was really nice and said she did not recommend hearing aids at this time but to be mindful and check every 6 months or so.

March 16 we met at Outback Steakhouse for Colby’s 25th birthday.  We had a great evening and spent three hours eating and laughing.

Larry has been busy with his ‘projects’ and getting things prepared to leave in May.  He had listed many items on Craig’s List and so far has sold three items for almost $1000  which helps the pocketbook at lot!  He put a skirt (made from our old slide out awnings) around our storage trailer (we use it as a shed), fiberglassed the cracks around the battery door and put a stainless steel reinforcement over them and extended it along the sides of the door and is still working on his drill press stand.  He is trying to make it fold down so we can take it with us but it is a trial and error thing at this point.

The weather has been warm though out March and really nice but a dust storm blew in from the south a few days ago and it has been windy ever since.  I have had to put the awnings in so they  will last as the wind really tears them up.  Fortunately we have not had the 50 mph winds that northern AZ has had.

                 

Larry working on the stainless steel reinforcement around the battery door

                                

The finished product

RAIN!

After 70 days with no rain, March 1 came in like a lion with a heavy downpour off and on all day long, starting in the early morning hours and ending late.  Because of the heavy downpour, we had no internet service since we are on satellite and it even affected our TV signal, causing it to 'stop' mid picture.

The 3rd of February we had an appointment with Mercedes Benz of Scottsdale to get the bluetooth Larry bought from Smart installed at their expense OR they would refund our money.  We had a loaner car and went to the Apple store where I had another lesson.  When we returned the bluetooth was working and has been fine since.  Larry had an appointment at the VA so he wouldn't 'fall through the cracks' and did his labs a few days before.  As a result, he has a heart monitor that he has been wearing for a little over a week now and will finish up Mar 6.  He has had a few "incidents" and hopefully they will be able to figure out what is going on.  I went to Sam's Club for their free health clinic and again found my cholesterol is still extremely high.

Larry took the BMW for its 6,000 miles 'check up' and everything looks fine.  They did mention the tires are five years old and starting to crack so that is something Larry is checking out.  I think he will wait until we get to OR since they have no sales tax and when spending big bucks, saving on the tax is a nice help.  We are planning on buying eight tires for the MH when we get to K Falls under the FMCA Michelin Advantage program which will save around a thousand dollars when you add the tax to the nice savings from FMCA.

I have done two non restaurant shops this month which means I did them alone.  They were easy and fun and I don't mind the little extra dollars.

The Smart in the trailer

The new wheel on the drill press

Larry was able to get the car in the trailer but he still has more adjusting to do before we leave in May.  He also worked on the stress cracks in the fiberglass around the battery door.  He plans to put stainless steel across the top to reinforce it.  He also worked on his drill press some more by putting another wheel on it and making it fold.

We ended February by doing something we have never done before--we went to see a new movie on opening day.  We went to the matinee showing of "Son of God".  We were a little disappointed as it was not completely true to scripture.  It was well done and it was nice seeing it on the "big" screen.  It has been a year since we last went to a movie and the last one before that was "The Passion of the Christ" in 2005 or 6.  We were in San Diego and we have not been to CA in a long, long time.

Larry repairing the fiberglass on the battery door