I've been gone; sorry!

Well, I've been quiet for a long while haven't I. There are a variety of reasons but today I want to blog.... First of all, for those in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! For the rest of the world, Happy Thursday! Second, it's been raining in the desert! Las Vegas got between a quarter and a half inch (1 cm maybe) yesterday and are getting more today. Of course the drivers forget that water on the oily film on the road equals danger. There were lots of people slipping off the roads. Then when I got up this morning there was a beautiful fog. It was just lovely; I'm crazy about fog as long as I'm not driving in it. Finally, we did find a house, put in an offer and it was accepted yesterday. So our lives are about to change again.

This will be very different from any place I've lived before for a lot of reasons. The house has it's own well and a septic system. Pahrump is built on top of a large aquifer but I get the idea that the water is of variable quality. Lots of people have reverse osmosis systems to purify their water. Hope we don't need that! The septic system is also going to be interesting. I take it there isn't a lot of maintenance but you need a professional cleaning every few years.

The whole idea of living in the desert is new as well. Anyone know anything about decorating the yard with rocks? LOL Happily there are nurseries in the area that can help us with plants that won't need much water. The houses in this area are almost all built of wood with a cement stucco exterior. It seems odd to me; I was expecting cement block. There are a few homes built from adobe brick but not many! Adobe is probably too labor intensive; not to mention the difficulty of finding people who know about it. Of course a wood house can burn down and there isn't much water out here; I'm told that the volunteer fire department brings a truck full of water with them!

Internet should be interesting too. There aren't enough poeple for cable companies to run cable so everyone uses a satellite television connection. Unfortunately they don't do a real good job with the net. One company does offer it; that is one possibility. The phone companies MAY have DSL in our neighborhood; we'll have to check that out as well. I may be driving around town looking for hotspots for a while!

When we sold the house in Florida, we sold and donated almost all our furniture, clothes, kitchen stuff, etc. We are certainly going to be helping the local economy! My wife is already talking about measuring spaces and what we want to buy first. We've not bought furniture for a specific house since 1982; I think our dishes were from then as well. The house has built-in ovens, a dishwasher and a microwave but no refrigerator; no washer or dryer. Hmmm, this could get expensive!

(This post was to have been made yesterday but the internet connection in our park is always questionable. Yesterday it was dead. Today it is fine so Happy Belated Thanksgiving or, internationally, Happy Friday. Have a good one!)

Pahrump Nights

One of the things I'm enjoying about Pahrump is that there is relatively little light pollution. I was raised out in the country miles from the nearest town so there were lots of stars to be seen. I've lived my entire adult life in cities except for the odd vacation week. Coming here, the stars are back!

It isn't like it was when I was a kid, there is pollution and, of course, my eyes aren't what they were! But it's a tremendous improvement on, say, Seattle where there was both light pollution and lots of clouds. In Florida the Tampa Bay area is totally populated so it is never really dark. I feel sorry for people who haven't had the experience of star watching. (No, Brittany Spears doesn't count.)

My point and shoot camera probably isn't up to recording stars, this is the best I can do. When we land somewhere, maybe I'll get the old Nikon and the telescope out and see what I can get. Do they still sell film? Have a good one.

Whew!

Well, we have a new President elected. Let's hope he can make at least some of his promises come true. I was worried that there might be a silent majority who would not vote for a black man. Thankfully, that did not happen.

Unfortunately, in at least two states (California and Florida) there were votes outlawing gay marriage. I think that violates the separation of church and state. Marriage is a religious ceremony; having a partner is a civil matter; I think it's that simple.

We are still hanging around in Pahrump; in fact we'll be staying here until the middle of December. We are looking at homes in the area as well as in the Las Vegas metro area. The problem in Vegas is that the homes are built on tiny lots: a 2,500 sq ft house on a 3,500 sq ft lot!!!

Gotta go. Have a good one.

Rain!

We arrived here on 13 October. Today is the first day that was other than warm and sunny. It rained; here's proof. Any questions?



I posted this and didn't do a good job of explaining what all is going on. First of all, when it rains in the desert like this, you really smell the dust. It's weird but that's mostly what you smell. In Florida it was humid and when it rained you smell the rain. Here our humidity has been in the single digits; today it is in the twentys. That's a giant change.

This is a reasonably close representation of the amount of rain we received. It's a photo of the concrete pad next to our trailer. There were a couple of other photo opportunities that I missed where there were more droplets but; well; let's just say you wouldn't have gotten wet!

Also last night was the first night when we could not see the stars. We have moved from a heavily populated area (Tampa Bay) to this lightly populated place and there was a huge increase in the number of stars visible to the naked eye. Last night they were gone; tonight they are returning so I can tell the front has past us. My wife looks at the mountains and says she has been mountain deprived. I think I've been star deprived. (And, yes, I'm depraved as well but that's another blog!)

Oh, and I've got something screwed up in blogger - it's only about 22:30 on 31 October here but I notice that this is postmarked 1 November. Gotta be something simple but I'm simpler. LOL

Have a good and safe one!

Visit to Vegas

Went over to Vegas the other day. We've been carrying a bunch of stuff in the back of the truck and wanted some air conditioned storage for it. Couldn't find any in Pahrump so over the hill we went.

Stopped and checked out the storage and went to get back into the truck when I discovered I didn't have my keys. Went all over the storage place and couldn't find them. My wife looked in the ignition; no keys. Finally I looked into the truck and something clicked: when we parked we'd been charging the cell phone and I put the cord in the back seat and there were my keys. Bah!

The guy at the storage place just happened to have this wire hanger... and I had happened to leave the window down about a quarter of an inch... so after five minutes work we managed to hit the unlock button. It set off the car alarm but that was easily fixed once I had the keys back! Dumb! And it should be only about fifteen years before my wife stops laughing about it. Jeez!

We are wandering around Pahrump trying to learn about the place; deciding if we'd like to live here. Need to meet with some people in the city planning office to learn about development plans. And I found this place: need to learn about it too!



Have a good and safe day, y'all.

More Pahrump

Ok, I thought it would be a good idea to pass on a few photos of the town and county around here. We are hanging around just relaxing. Later in the week we'll get really ambitious and get over the hill to Vegas.

Here is another shot of the mountains from the valley floor. They are at least 20 miles away.



Our park is a mile or so from Homestead Road. Here is where Homestead kind of changes character.



At the very end of the road is this place. It is one of the legal brothels here in Pahrump.

http://www.chickenranchbrothel.com/
http://www.sherisranch.net/




This is the "real" Pahrump. This is about as close to a downtown as Pahrump owns. Of course, the Walmart is down the road out of sight!



Talk about life in the fast lane! BTW, I forgot to list the Escapees website: http://www.escapees.com/ - it's a great organization for rv people. Have a good one!

Pahrump???

Yep, there is a place called Pahrump, Nevada. And we are there!

We've belonged to a camping club called Escapees. They cater mostly to people who live in their rvs full time. We are staying in one of their parks called Pair-A-Dice. Nevada humor, I think! Anyway, it's a nice spacious place in this little town. There are 4 or 5 casinos; 2 grocery stores & 2 hardware stores. Not a lot more.

It is out in the desert between two mountain ranges but is only about 60 miles from Las Vegas. We went to a casino for dinner last night; they all have a cafe and have almost driven everyone else out of business. That's sad.

Driving down here we came up over a rise and saw the road snaking out in front of us. I measured it as best as I could and the next time we were on a rise was 15 miles later. It's a big country. Not many people either. The photo is from our park looking at the mountain between us and Las Vegas.

Have fun but be careful!

Tonopah???

Yep, this is coming from Tonopah, Nevada. It is a town that needs to be here so people can buy gas and have a place to stay between Reno and Las Vegas. There used to be mining here; not sure if it is gone or not but the tourist is the big deal here. We haven't seen a single police officer is 200 miles; in Tonopah I've seen four. Traffic citation revenue must be a large part of the city budget.

We are parked behind a motel-casino-restaurant-rv-park. Had a drink in the bar; dinner in the restaurant and won about $3 in the casino. Obviously it's best to leave soon!

Camping in this weather is new for us. It is only a couple degrees below freezing but I seem to have to learn these things one by one.

The first night I shut off the water and unhooked one end of the hose. Unfortunately, it didn't drain so in the morning I needed 2 teapots of water and about two hours trying to thaw it.

The second night I shut off the water and unhooked both ends of the hose being careful to drain it. Something happened to the tap however and it broke leaving us without water in the morning.

The third night I shut off the water and unhooked both ends of the hose being careful to drain it. I also drained both our waste tanks so they would be in no danger of freezing. Unfortunately I forgot to carefully drain the drain hose so it froze & it took a teapot of water in the morning to thaw it.

This is the fourth night; scary isn't it! Being me is SO interesting. Have a good one.

Catchup....

Well, lots of shit has happened. For various reasons, I've fallen behind. Let's try to get it all in order. The 5th, we drove from Woodburn, Oregon to Weed, California. Went to Starbucks in Woodburn for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Sandwich made me ill shortly after we got on the road. I wanted to stop driving but my wife didn't really want to drive in the mountains. SO I got to drive. Stopped once to see if I throw up but couldn't however, the attempt did seem to make me feel better. Found some mints and ate them all day. Did the Siskiyou mountain range - not much going on since it was a lovely fall day but you can see where lots of ice and snow would make it more interesting. Went to some park from the Escapees book - it was a hole next to the freeway but about 60 feet lower. No tv, cable, wifi, etc. I went to bed as soon as we landed.


The 6th was quite a day. Left Weed earlyish. Felt better; at least. Drove across one of the most lonely roads in California. The towns were population 200 size and there were only two of them in a 120 mile segment. Nice day though. We were uncertain about where to stop in the Reno, Nevada area. We were actually driving along looking at this rv park when someone flagged us down; we had smoke coming off the left rear wheel. One look told me 'wheelbearing' so we pulled into this park. Decided to stay a week. Anyway, it was only about 15:00 so I called around; made an appointment with a guy to fix it Tuesday a.m. Had dinner at the Boardertown casino; not awful but not memorable either.

Today I went over to the casino for breakie - finest piece of ham I've seen in quite a while. Only $8 too. Then I spent the morning watching a guy fix the trailer - $500 later things are cool, I think! Had to replace both bearings on the one wheel and another on the right side of the rig. Then he did grease all the rest of the bearings.

Wandered around Reno quite a bit yesterday. Got home 17:00 after lots of grocery shopping, etc. Went out to dinner. Looked for a place that the GPS knew about - it was some house out in Lemmon Valley; not a restaurant, for sure. So we tried another one; turned out to be another casino but at least they had a restaurant. Got home and watched 'In the Heat of the Night' on tv.

Now to see what kind of trouble we can get into today! I'll try to add some photos later. Have a good one.

OJ Simpson

The news is full of the fact that OJ Simpson, one of the finest football (American) players ever has been convicted of trying to steal some of his own memorabilia. Simpson is over sixty so he is of my generation. When I was younger I watched some football (not a lot, never a real fan) and really enjoyed watching his performance. Now he has been convicted of trying to steal this stuff. Here is a quote from the Yahoo! news article:

The case was set in motion by Thomas Riccio, a collectibles broker who tried to bring in the FBI when he heard that two memorabilia dealers were planning to sell a trove of Simpson artifacts. Failing to get their attention, he helped set up a "sting" by promoting an anonymous buyer who turned out to be Simpson.

Riccio, who has peddled goods including video of Anna Nicole Smith's breast implant surgery, saw a chance to profit by recording the confrontation between Simpson and collectibles dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.

He rented a cramped hotel room away from the Las Vegas Strip for the meeting and planted a digital recorder atop an armoire. Riccio then sold the recordings of the six-minute confrontation for $210,000 before turning them over to police eight days later. Although they couldn't be authenticated, the recordings became the heart of the prosecution's case, along with audio recorded by gunman Michael McClinton at two wedding parties.

What gets me is that this sleaze bag who sold video of a surgery (!) got over $200K for a video of what was basically an argument. What a wonderful world this is. What wonderful people there are taking video's of others for their own profit. What crap. And who the hell would buy photos of some bimbo's operation; even if it was breast implant surgery. Oh jeez, there I go again.

Have a good one!

Unusually nice!

We are having fantastic weather for this time of year and this place. It is in the 70's during the day; 50's in the night. It hasn't rained in at least five days. I've lived here; this is unusual!

A few photos seem to be in order. First, we traveled up US-101 highway to get here. Homes are situated along the edge of the road where there is space between it and the shore. These are typical; the water is the Hood Canal.



Our park is on the Olympic Peninsula. You can see across Puget Sound to Mount Baker northeast of Bellingham, WA. A reasonable guess is that it's about 75 miles away.



These characters are having an afternoon nap in a playground that the camp provides for kids. At this time of year, the kids are in school so guess who gets the playground.



In the midst of all this beauty, the stock market dumped almost 800 points today as the Congress expressed it's displeasure with the financial bailout plan proposed by the President and his advisors. I imagine that the plan will ultimately be passed but it is tough going through all this. We have substantial investments in the stock market so we are taking some large losses. Happily, we don't need the money 'today'. Every time I hear the idiots reporting the news talking about 'investors on Wall Street did such-and-so' I cringe. Most of those people on Wall Street are traders, not investors. Warren Buffett is an investor; in my own small way, I am an investor. We look carefully at a company before we buy into it and we keep it for a long time. Many, many of the mutual funds run by those Wall Street guys and gals have turnovers of 200% a year. That means they might buy a stock in January, sell it in May and buy it again in November. That just isn't investing; it's trading.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. Take care.

Western Washington

Good Morning! We are currently parked on the Olympic Peninsula in Western Washington. It is unseasonably beautiful here right now. High temps should be in the 70's and lows in the 40's - AND - it's sunny! Very unusual.

We had a great trip up here. Driving along I-84 you are next to the Columbia River. It is a great river. It divides Washington and Oregon. The eastern part of each state is dry; the western parts of each is very wet. Parts of the Olympic Peninsula is actually a rainforest! I had to take photos of the river.

This is in the eastern part of the state:


This is the western part:


You go from desert dry and sunny to rainy, forested and overcast just by crossing a few low mountains.

I'll have more to say later. Have a good day!

Hello from Eastern Oregon

Hello!

We were camped in western Wyoming and were talking about this trailer we like: the Arctic Fox 29V. We have never even seen one but like the layout. We have also heard that you should visit the factory before buying something. SO, rather than continue on southwest to Reno, Nevada we came northwest to Le Grande, Oregon where the Arctic Fox rvs are made.

We went through the factory with one of their reps the other day. Typically factory tours are given once or twice a day; in our experience there will be six to twenty visitors. In this tour, it was me, my wife, the tour guy and a company salesman. Hmmm. Part of that is because it is late September and normal visitors aren't going to be here - it's cold. Unfortunately, the other reason is the economy/cost of fuel/lack of credit/etc. Want to know who's going to have a rough few years in the White House? Whoever wins! At this point they are both facing a lose-lose couple of years.

We liked the build quality so went to the local dealer. We don't know how closely connected they are to the factory but..... Anyway, they had 2 examples of the model we like - the 29V. So we checked them out pretty carefully. The first had a door that was sticking and a broken window. It also had a color scheme that we don't care about. The second had a color scheme that we actually like but had several options that we wouldn't ordinarily buy. Finally we discover that the factory is making some changes in the layout that we like for 2009. So we are faced with a trailer that we wouldn't buy; one we would buy if the price was right and some new ones that we like better.

In the end, we decided to ask about pricing on the 2008 that we thought was ok. Turns out that they liked it more than we did - couldn't come to an agreement on price! So I called them late this afternoon and said we were leaving town and thanked them for their time. Maybe they will figure out that they've pissed off a cash customer or maybe they won't. We are ok with either decision.

We would also have to purchase a truck to pull the trailer since our current truck is too small. We checked with the GM dealer (Chevy and GMC) - they don't have a truck available that meets our specs. The trailer dealer checked with the Ford dealer; there is one truck between here and Springfield, MO (1000 miles or so east) that is a good match though it is four wheel drive and we don't want that. Hmmm. We smell a rat or eight! Again, thanks for your time.

We are happy to leave with our current set up. We will go up into Washington to visit our family. They are out on the Olympic Peninsula so we don't have to worry about freezing. We should leave there in about a week and head south. When we are down there, we can order the truck we want. Dealers order an almost endless series of $300 options that inflate the price of a $35K truck to $45K. Ordering from the factory you order and pay for only what you want. THEN we can order the trailer we want - again, not something stuffed with options that inflate the price and give the user nothing. This could be good!

Hope you are having fun out there. It's sunny and warm but not hot here. I'm not saying anything about the drivers; no one's hit me yet! Take care.

Trucking West

We finally got out of Colorado Springs. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice town but we need to head west. So, of course, we went North. Wanted to catch I-80 for the trip west so.....

Denver was a breeze; went through mid-morning and didn't really slow down the entire way. Then Cheyenne, WY; there we just touched the city; saw the gleam of the capital. Now we are in Evanston, WY. Small town near the Utah border. Had some really LOUSY Mexican food for dinner; will not post the name of the resturant to protect the innocent but I will say it was a guy's name.

It occurred to me that you might not know about trucks & trailers. Here is a photo of our truck & trailer parked in Rawlings, WY. The truck is a 2000 GMC Sierra; what we call a half-ton pickup. The trailer is a 26 foot Cameo by Carriage; also manufactured in 2000.



The doors are open because it's time for the big fuzzy dog to get into her seat. Here she is looking somewhat odd. She is a mixed breed dog that we got from the Humane Society when she was about four months old. I always tell people she has a little of everything in her breeding. She is seven years old. The back seat of the truck is covered with an old blanket in an attempt to keep some of the dog hair off the actual seat.



So now you have an idea of the size of our trailer; truck & dog. Hope it all makes sense to you. Be careful out there; it's crazy!

Greetings from Colorado Springs

Sorry, I've been bad about updating the blog. It isn't as though we haven't had wifi. I'm actually surprised but we have had it almost the entire trip.

Went from Nashville up towards St. Louis then turned west. We prefer to travel on smaller roads but don't have a lot of time to spare so we opted for the Interstate. I-70 has been our friend. Stopped in Independence, Missouri to check out the Truman Museum. It sounds like Old Harry had a tough Presidency. The next day, we stopped in Abilene, Kansas to check out the Eisenhower Museum. Possibly a little easier but maybe it was just that Ike had more charisma. Anyway, we really enjoyed both experiences. Then we continued west on I-70 again until it was time to turn off for Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs is a fairly military town: the Air Force Acadamy; two air bases; one army fort. At the same time it's kind of a tree-huggy place. Lots of natural food stores, cute little shops, etc. There is a modern downtown area, of course, but we are managing to avoid it!

The rv park we use here is a real parking lot. Our front door opens onto our neighbor's water and sewer connections. There is no place to park our truck except on the street if all the places are rented. Fortunately, we are here to visit friends so spend our days at their home. This works fine for sleeping.

We'll be leaving here on Tuesday or Wednesday headed for Reno. We'll go north to pick up I-80 (new road!) and turn west to go through Salt Lake City for our destination on the western side of Nevada. Who knows if we will find a place we like or not. It seems like we are having an early fall this year so if it starts snowing on our parade we'll have to head for warmer climes.

My wife is talking about remaining in the rv rather than immediately buying a house. I'm kind of ok with that but there are a few kinks that we'd have to work out. This trailer is eight years old and needs to be replaced if we are going to be living in it. We have read about one we like on the internet but that isn't the same as seeing and touching one. If we can find what we want, we may be vagabonds for a while. I'll keep in touch.

Just a few more things.....

I was looking at some of my posts and figured out that I haven't mentioned a few things that might make our weird journey more understandable.

We have wanted to leave Florida for some time. This isn't the best of times to sell the house but because we bought before the big increase in prices we could sell and still make a little. We want to spend some time visiting some of the natural wonders found in the Western part of the US. Driving 1,500 miles from Florida for every trip got boring not to mention expensive. So we sold the house and are planning on buying another, simpler home, in the Southwest. We'll start checking out Nevada but Arizona and New Mexico aren't out of bounds.

We've been on I-10 many times but now with Gustav around, going North would seem reasonable. We also have relatives in Northern Missouri and friends in Colorado Springs we want to visit. So it's I-70 for us; life on the big slab. It's not fun but how much fun is Kansas anyway?

Anyway, that's why we are in Nashville; our intermediate stops and our eventual destination - so far as we know. We are good at changing direction in the middle of things so don't hold me to any of that stuff! The only thing I'm sure of is that we are in Nashville.

Take it easy!

Nashville Cats

Hello from Nashville, Country Music capital of the world. Got here this afternoon after another tiring drive. Atlanta was a giant pain even on the weekend. We are planning on spending a few days here to regroup. It's a nice enough park; even has a dog run.

Didn't see any cops on our trip Friday up to Perry, GA. Today we saw 6 or 8 including several who were busy writing tickets. Don't know if it is the holiday or what. Of course, pulling the trailer on the open road; we don't have to worry much about speeding. We might speed in town but 60 is a comfortable speed on the highway. It also gets us mileage that is marginally acceptable (9 or 10 miles to the gallon). Gas has been from $3.49 to $3.69 a gallon; diesel is a bit over $4. The parks we have used so far have been in the $15-20 range. Mastercard will love us this month!

Take it easy out there; them people are plum crazy!

WOW!!

Now I've got a problem: we are leaving Tampa Bay, probably for ever, so what's with the title of the blog? Hmmmm. Guess I'll have to move on.

Today we left Florida soil; we've no idea if or when we might return. We moved to Florida in 2000 because our mother's both lived near St. Pete. They have both passed away so now there is no reason for us to live here. We have friends and an aunt/uncle in Florida; otherwise, there are no familial obligations here.

Perhaps I'll start a new blog and leave a link here. I just haven't a clue about it's name! LOL Isn't life fun. John Lennon is supposed to have said 'life is what happens while you are busy making other plans'. Well, it's sure working for me. Maybe that should be the title of the new one: 'While I'm making other plans'. Sounds ok, any thoughts?

I'm tired; it's been a long day and I'm tired. Have a good day & take it easy.

Still having fun

We have decided that we are leaving this park in Dunedin on Thursday morning and heading north on I-75. It will take a couple days to get out of Florida since we need to stop and see family. I'm glad I'm not being chased by a hurricane!

Went down to Englewood yesterday to drop off some family memorabilia with a cousin. Funny how some people are really into that kind of thing. It doesn't mean a lot to me but, of course, I don't have any children to "build a dynasty". And I learned something interesting! I am a second generation Irish immigrant for I am eligible for Irish citizenship. Hmmm. Interesting! Maybe I'll try for it.

Hope things are going ok. Have a good one.

Haven't I been bad!

No posts in three weeks. Well, sorry but I'm in never-never land. Or somewhere close to it. Actually, I'm in Dunedin, FL about 10 miles from our old house. We parked the rig here because it would make it easy to load it with stuff from the house. As you saw in my last post, that plan worked almost too well. We had to treble the size of our storage overflow area. Now I have to figure out how to dump all that STUFF!

We hoped that we might find a new rig to replace this one. The newer trailers have slideouts that add perhaps 30 square feet of living space. That doesn't sound like much until you think about our trailer having 200 square feet TOTAL. That even includes the area taken up by the stove, sink, bed, etc. 30 square feet; something around 3 sq. m. would be a lot.

We've looked at most of the trailers in the area, and because this is a vacation destination there are plenty. We haven't found anything that has both good construction and nice usage of space. Even the Airstreams, the all aluminium ones, that cost about $80-90,000 and have beautiful wood work, aren't acceptable; the shower in them is too small for me to use! Honestly, I'm not THAT big! We want to buy the trailer before buying the truck because it is easy to buy a trailer that is too big to be towed by a given truck. If we buy the trailer first, we can use it's size to help with the truck purchase. Generally, buying a truck larger than needed is more expensive to buy, more expensive to run and less comfortable while you are riding in it.

Anyway, we've pretty much decided to take this trailer and this truck and drive out west to where we might want to buy a house. Then, if we can find anything, we'll buy house, truck, trailer & whatever else in whatever order! At least we will have the dealer's who sold us the stuff near by so we can beat on them as necessary. If we can't find the stuff we want, who the hell knows! We may emigrate!

Hope you are having fun but do be careful out there!

Oops, two more things: Tropical Storm Fay was headed our way but missed us entirely. Rained a bunch on Eastern Florida though. The other thing is that I'm back in the Microsoft fold - this is being done on my new Toshiba laptop. I just couldn't take that awful Apple hardware. Threw it in the trash and enjoyed the experience. Sure wish I had that operating system though. (Sigh!)