Smoke and fire

Because we spent a full week at the south rim of the Grand Canyon last spring, we decided to continue on our journey to the Petrified Forest National park.  

As we drove east on I-40 we could see a cloud bank looming ahead.  At first we wondered if it was a natural cloud or smoke, but quickly realized it was from a fire to the south.

We stopped at the Flagstaff Camping World for some downloading to our new DISH receivers, and at that time got the information that what we were seeing was the smoke from a fire in the Sedona area. There were several people at the Camping World who had evacuated. Everyone was concerned. 

From Web: RV fire that may have caused Sedona blaze

Someone said they heard the fire had beens started by a propane fire in an RV.  I found this picture on one of the news sites.

Scary!





We have now decided that we will be getting the automatic fire extinguisher package installed in our refrigerator compartment when we get to Albritton's in Lousianna next month. We have heard about too many fires of this type to ignore this safety measure any longer. 

However, from looking at this picture it seems the fire went from front to back, and unless the rig had a front kitchen floor plan, which some do, it may have started in the propane tank bay and not at the back of the refrigerator.  

I just heard that arson is suspected as the cause of the fire. This does not change our decision about the fire extinguisher installation.

Do you turn your propane off at the tank when you travel? 

Let the Adventure Begin!

We have finally left California!

Craig did the following calculation as I drove. We arrived in the Golden State on Jan 3, 1984. We lived there for 11095 days, or 30 years, 4 months, and 17 days.

It is a wonderful state, and I know we will return from time to time. But after a long wait to get our house on the market, sell it, and wait our turn at the RV service center for some upgrades we wanted, we are finally heading east.

Our next destination is the Petrified Forest National Park in northern Arizona. We hope that because it is at a higher elevation it won't be extremely hot yet. The weather forecast is for cold nights with temperatures in the low 80s during the day. It shouldn't be too bad. We stopped there for a few hours on our drive from Dallas to our new home in California 30 years ago. We hope to be able to see a lot more of it and the surrounding terrain this time around.

Craig sold most of his high-end audio system to a guy that lives in the Dallas area, and we have been invited to stop for a visit. That should be interesting.

Our Monday drive was very enjoyable. Although we now notice a few small squeaks from the back of the coach that we did not hear before, the obnoxious rattles from around the old TV are no more. 

The new tires seemed to make our ride smoother, and our gas mileage a bit better.

[From Craig] For those of you who asked about the Michelin Advantage program through FMCA, four 255/70R22.5 XZE* LRH tires were 469.55 each. Plus county and California taxes and Federal Excise Tax, the Michelin invoice total was $2117.49. Also we had to pay the dealer for his services, which in our case was $327 for dismounting, mounting, disposal, and balancing with traditional weights (not bags). Grand total was then $2444.49. Your cost will differ unless you buy at the same dealer this week. :-)

Someone else mentioned finding a dealer who participates in the program. I have no direct knowledge, but since many people seem to buy tires this way, I think it's not uncommon for Michelin dealers to participate.

A PREVOST Rally

As we pulled into our spot at the Grand Canyon Railway RV park in Williams Arizona, I commented that there sure were a lot of big class A's there. On second look, we realized they were all Prevosts! 

They are amazing. Not quite our style, or price range, but amazing. I understand the base price is well over a million and goes much much higher. Each one has a unique full body paint and a name. 

We have not been inside one, but here are a couple of images from the web:

Image from Web 

This one looks like it could belong to a drug lord or a Rap Star.

Also from the Web

A little less party bus, but still very elegant.

At Sunset, we went for a walk around the park and admired them.

This was Craig's favorite paint job. He said he hasn't see so much chrome in one place since the 60's.

But as I said. They just are not our style, I don't think we will be trading up soon. 

The week at Alfateer's and new tires

We pulled into Alfateers repair center in the afternoon of Sunday, May 11. Once the work was started on Tuesday, they took the rig to the shop by 7:30 am and returned it to us by 4:00 pm everyday. During the day we spent much of our time hanging out in the waiting room or sitting out in the picnic area with other Alfa owners who were also having work done on their rigs.  It's a small shop, and all of their five hookups were in use most nights during the week. 

I've been asked to post before and after pictures of the work we've had done.

OLD:

The old carpet was hard and stained. 

We cleaned it repeatedly, but it was just plain UGLY. 

There was  a stain next to the bed from the rollers. They have been cleaned and adjusted, so hopefully they won't do the same to the new carpeting. 

I don't think the stain looks nearly as bad in the pictures as it did in person! Before, I tried to clean it a few times and it was much blacker.




















NEW:

The new carpet is soft to the step and a bit warmer in color. It goes very well with the light browns in the tile and the darker browns in the Pendleton blanket we have on the couch. I hope it will wear very well.

Several people have asked me why we didn't either extend the tile (Alfateers does still have a stock that matches the tile we have in our coach) or a wood laminate.  Both of those would be good choices.

But the way our coach is laid out, we have a tile walkway from the coach door to the bedroom. The carpet area is reasonably narrow and is easy to maintain as a no-shoe path.   Since we do not have any helpful little dogs that might clean up any fallen crumbs, I  have a heavy clear plastic runner under the table.

I think the biggest reason for not replacing the ugly carpeting with a hard surface flooring is that I am a "night walker." I get up several times at night and need to stretch my legs. The carpet feels wonderful under bare feet. Hard tile would not be as relaxing. 

The new carpet gets five stars. I am very happy to have finally gotten rid of the only thing I did not like about our Alfa!

Craig is very happy with the new TV installation.

Before

After

After, with TV up

The 32" Sony LED flat screen flips up for storage and access to the back of the set. The side cabinets still open as well.  Craig wanted an open space below the TV because on this set the speakers fire downward. The opening will enable him to add a sound bar in the future if he wants. 

The other work we have had done are not things that can really be photographed. Installation of a satellite system, repair of a door hinge, repair of a leaky window, and replacement parts in the sewer bays, but they are all things that bring the coach up to snuff for our cross-country adventure.

We also got four new rear tires.  We may have been able to get a few more miles out of the tires we had, but we feel safer with new ones.  They were seven years old. We used the FMCA Advantage program to buy new Michelins  We replaced the front tires with the same type two years ago, and the tire guy says they still look as good as the day they were put on. Now we don't have to worry about a blow out from an old tire.  A blow out of a new tire is always a possibility, but less likely.

Because of the extreme heat this week, we haven't done many daytime activities. We've gone on a couple of shopping runs looking for some little things we want, and on Wednesday went to a movie theatre and saw Noah. I have mixed feelings about it.  It was not terrible, but not good enough for me to say it was a "must see."  The best thing was that the theatre was very very cool.

picture from web

On Thursday we played tourist and went to the Kimberly Crest 
Mansion.  You may have guessed by now, that I really enjoy touring interesting houses.

This was the winter retirement home of the Kimberly family, as in Kimberly-Clark paper mills, inventors of Kleenex and creators of disposable diapers.

picture from web

It was far too hot for a garden tour but I did enjoy the house. 

We had hoped that the work on our Alfa would be finished by Friday, but it wasn't possible. They had to order a cable at the last minute and it won't be delivered until Monday.  For me it was no big deal to have to stay there for the weekend.  

picture from web

One of our fellow Alfa owners told us about another interesting site to visit, the Sam Maloof house and museum in Rancho Cucamonga.

His work and the house he built are amazing. So beautiful! What a gift to the people his family has made in creating a foundation to preserve and share it with us all. 





There was a beautiful sculpture and botanical garden on the grounds, but my back has been quite painful lately and I needed to get back to the Alfa ASAP for some Aleve, so we didn't stay to see it. If it had been cooler we might have. It looked very interesting.

I am writing this post on Sunday. The weather is fine. Craig is working on a few things around the coach and I have cleaned up the bays and the house a bit. My back is OK today. Not 100%, but OK.

If the cable arrives in the morning, and if they get a few other little odds and ends taken care of, we hope to be out of here by noon.  If not, departure might be delayed till Tuesday.

Several people have asked where we will be heading next. 

East!

Jojoba Hills SKP RV Resort, Aguanga CA

Because we have to wait until mid-May to get into Alfateers for the improvements we want done, I choose to come to the Jojoba Hills SKP RV Resort which is in the high desert hills east of LA.  I picked it because we have enjoyed other SKP parks, it is relatively close to both Alfateers and San Diego, where our daughter lives, and because of the reasonable cost for SKP members: $24 per night, 50 amp and full hook ups.  California State parks cost $45-$50 with no hook ups, and private non-membership parks can cost much more.

What a lucky choice!  Everyone we have met has been very nice. 

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I am a pool person.  If a park has a pool, I will try it out unless is absolutely too cold! 

The pool here at Jojoba is the best I have been in!  It is very large, has a deep part, (some are only 4' deep and hard to float feet down, a recommended position to relax and decompress the spine), is heated to 86°, has a beautiful western view of the mountains, has warm pre-swim showers, and has two hot tubs nearby.

Hot tub with a view of the mountains

 

Second hot tub in a more enclosed space, good for windy or cold days. Note the large covered area with BBQ and tables for group gatherings. This overlooks the pool and is steps away from the large kitchen and Friendship hall.

I have totally enjoyed the water aerobics class three times a week. It's at 9:30 in the morning, which suits me just fine. The other participants have been very welcoming and enjoyable people.

On the first morning we were here we took a short walk around the park. We met one of the early members who offered to loan us a DVD of a "burn barrel" program they had recently created, at which several of the founding members talked about building the place. 

If you are not an RVer, or are not familiar with what the Escapee Club is about you might want to check out this link. The History tab tells the story, and the Parking tab give you more information about their parks.  Jojoba is an SKP co-op park.

In addition to the pool, and the proximity to San Diego, these are some of the other things I like about the park:

• The city of Temecula is about 15 minutes away. It has everything a large city has. All the stores you could want, a hospital, and access to I-15 which can get you to LA or San Diego in no time.
• The local weather is cooler in summer than Arizona, and warmer in winter than the North. Dry and sunny. Perfect much of the year. August and September can get quite hot.
• It is small, only 283 spaces, and everybody seems to know everybody.
• Although there is a general manager, an office staff, and a few employees that do things like clean the restrooms and take care of the heavy landscaping jobs, everyone who owns a lot here is expected to volunteer to do something.  It is my impression that there are more volunteers than there are jobs to do, so there's not a small group of overwhelmed people. 
• There are many activity rooms that are large, well kept, and used. Included are a huge wood shop, a metal shop, a craft room, a sewing room, an art trailer, a soon-to-be-opened pottery trailer, a living room with a large kitchen that can be used for family dinners or other small gatherings, a billiards room, a library, a sauna, and I'm sure there are more that I've overlooked.
• Outdoor activities include one or two pickleball/tennis court(s), a miniature golf course, a horseshoe pit, and an air-gun-only shooting range. No golf course, but I don't golf.
• At least three laundry rooms, maybe more, and at least one of them has outdoor wash lines   I intend on washing our sheets and blankets and hang them out in the high-desert wind before we pull out.
• From the looks of the notices on the bulletin boards, the number of activities and events is very large and inviting. 
• The very best part is the people I have met. 

The park layout and sites were very well planed. Unlike many places where the sites are all on the same flat area, the streets are each terraced with green space between so almost every one has a mountain view. Of course you are going to see your neighbors, but since every space is 50' deep by 70' wide, there is breathing space between.

Most sites have more improvements than this one, but this picture shows how big the sites are. There also is room for a car to park on the other side of the RV.

All of the sites are gravel with a cement patio and a storage shed. 

These sites overlook one of the ponds, but also have a view of the mountain sunsets.

Most of the sites have been improved with tasteful plantings, paving bricks,  permanent awnings and windbreaks to create large outdoor rooms. 

There are a few unimproved sites, but they are neat and clean. 

There is plenty of parking for vehicles and golf carts, but only one RV is allowed to be parked permanently on a site.  There is a large storage lot, free to lot owners, for storage of additional RVs.  It seems many people have a fifthwheel on their lot and a smaller travel RV for getaways. If an owner is getting ready for or returning from a trip, they can bring their second RV to their site for a few days. Some keep boats there. Our neighbor keeps a large box trailer there that they use for storage. 

At this point in our travels we know very little about other long term parks. What the costs are, or how they are run. This will be one of the things we will be looking at. 

Here at Jojoba Hills there is a waiting list of prospective SKP members interested in buying in. The time varies from months to years depending on availability. There is a $100 fee, plus a $1000 deposit to get on the list. If you choose to get off the list the deposit is refunded.

The present buy-in price is $31,000. Once you buy in there is a $250 per month space fee, plus electricity. If you are not here, you still pay the space fee, and your lot goes into a rental pool adminstered by the office. All rents go to the park, not to the individual owners. This helps pay for maintenece and improvements. 

When the time comes that you want to sell your site, you cannot sell it on your own, but you can sell your improvements to the next owner,  have them removed, or abandon them. The site is sold by the SKP park without realtor fees, and you get your buy-in price back.  All of this is without property tax, a water bill, sewer bill, or property insurance other than what you choose to carry on your RV.

You do not get interest on your buy-in price.

Considering the high cost of real estate in California, it really is a good deal.

Are we signing up for the waiting list?

No, not at this time anyway.  We have a couple of years of traveling to do and a lot of other places to check out.

But, I'm not tossing their buy-in information out, and at least to me it looks like the sort of place to consider as a possible exit plan.  

I don't want another house!

A great Hike

I guess if you stay in a place long enough, and refuse to give up, you will eventually find the great hike you have been looking for.  That's what happened on Monday.

We've had some nice walks during our stay here, but none have really been great.  Some were just too short, some had boring views,  and some have been too hot or too hard and we turned back.

The weather forecast for Monday promised cooler temperatures than the weekend before it, with highs in the mid 70's. So we checked AllTrails National Geographic and found a hike that had good reviews and sounded like one we would enjoy.

The Santa Margarita River Trail is about 45 minutes away.  Although I skipped water aerobics so we could get an earlier start, it was still almost ten before we left the Alfa. Craig had printed the trail map, but not the address or directions to get there. His phone navigator did not recognize the trail name, but we were able to get pointed in the right direction by telling it the name of the road we were aiming for.  We ended up taking a longer route, but the drive was very pretty.  Not much traffic, and no appointment time to meet! The important thing is we got there.

I don't mind rough trails, or trails that have sections with significant uphills, but I don't do well in the heat or on trails that are completely shadeless. 

This trail turned out to be a good mix of shaded forest trail overlooking the river, with some challenging rock scrambles, a few places where we had to climb uphill through the chaparral, 

and some shadeless traverses across the rock strewn hillside high above the river.  

Although the sun felt hot at times when we were out of the trees, the air never really did because there was a cool breeze. 

Walking the high trail gave us a close look at Southern California hills that are burned over by wildfires every few years.  This area probably burned sometime in the last ten years. There were many small bare, blackened trees among the new growth of manzanita and chamise.

 Speaking of plants, does anyone know what this stuff is?

We have seen it on weeds along the roads. It is very thin and covers the host plant. 




On the tops of the hills there were very large homes, and you could see the generous green lawns defensible space around them. The views were amazing.

As usual we stopped for a little lunch about half way thru our hike.

As we sat on a boulder high above the river valley, I asked Craig if in his younger years he had imagined himself eating sandwiches with his old wife in the foothills of a Southern California mountain range.  I know, when I was in my twenties, I thought that 67 was far too old to be doing much more than sitting in front of a TV watching soap operas like my mother did.

In addition to the usual lizards running everywhere, we saw a few other critters on this hike.

We came upon this guy on the soft sandy trail near the river. He must have heard us coming because he was all tucked in and going nowhere. We could see his track running quite a few yards down the path to a place were he had come up from the river's edge.  We of course left him alone, other than getting down to his level to get this picture. I looked for him on the way back. He was long gone on turtle business.

We also saw a bobcat on the trail ahead of us in the chaparral, but he vanished before we could get a picture.  We also noted a wonderful abundance of bird song in the wooded areas.  I always find it a bit disturbing when we walk in forests and don't hear a peep or a chirp from the birds.  Maybe it was because it is springtime and all the birds are looking for love!

On the way down we noticed something we had missed going up. This wrecked car shell was behind a tree on the side of the river. We had noticed other debris caught in the trees four to six feet above the water line. We realized this was from past high waters. Since there was no road anywhere near this car, we have to assume it had been carried here by a flood.

Craig has the Map My Hike app on his phone. 

We have been using it to see where we are. The reviews of this hike mentioned the trail was not well marked. Although we did not have any problems, it was interesting to compare our route as shown on the phone with the trail map we had printed before we left home. The app shows the red line as you go. The above image is a screen shot of our completed route.

We went 6.3 miles, with a 200 foot elevation change, averaging about two miles per hour.  

We were both quite happy to see the parking lot where we started, and enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, even if we were both very tired.  

One of the nice things about RVing is that after a hike like this we could go back to our own home, shower, drink margaritas in our jammies and not have to find a restaurant for dinner.

Life is good!

Dripping Springs and Old Town Temecula

We got a text from Craig's sister Elaine today, that asked if it had sunk in yet that we will never go back to our house and this trip will never end.  Craig replied "No."

In a way, to me it feels like this new way of living has not yet really begun. Everything up to the actual closing was still a trip.  Mentally, I was prepared for having the sale fall apart and our having to go back to our house and start the process over again.  Glad it did not happen that way.

But, the month of April was still a waiting period.  The Alfa rally, although enjoyable, was a repeat of last year, same place, same people. Then we drove BACK to California to wait for our May 12 appointment at Alfateers.  The redeeming factor has been the fact that we have been able to stay at the Jojoba SKP Resort.  I will be writing a post about it before we leave next week Sunday.

Our days have been peaceful, with Craig working on a few small projects. Fortunately Temecula  has both a Lowes and a Home Depot. It is well known that even the smallest project requires a half dozen trips to the hardware store.   :)

On Friday we tried for a hike at Dripping Springs in the Cleavland National Forest. But we got a rather late start, I went to my water areobics class first, and the day proved to be quite hot.

There were many wildflowers along parts of the trail, but most of it was rough and in full sun.

Had we made it to the summit, the view was probably better than this, but the heat started to get to me and we turned back after only a mile or so.

Notice my shadow on this picture.  It was high noon when we got back down to the picnic area.  We both agreed that this might have been a good hike at 6:00 in the morning, but we just are not morning people!

Craig decided our little lunch deserved a picture.  This was his portion; two ham and cream cheese rolls, red pepper slices, a cutie orange, some dates and water.







Today (Sunday) we went into Temecula and walked around the Old Town area.  Temecula is really a very new place, and the Old Town area is mostly gift shops, restraunts, and small businesses in buildings that have been built to look old. There are a few historical locations, but I was not impressed.

We did go to the Temecula Valley History Museum, which was worth the price of entry ($2.00 donation). It was a well done, one room exhibit of the town and valley's story.



So Elaine, we are getting started a bit slowly, but we know we have a lot of time.  

We also know that this trip will end one day.

Palomar Observatory

Craig has always been a bit of a star-watcher.  His first semester in college he thought he might want to major in astronomy, but then   he encountered his first computer!  Over the years we have enjoyed(?) getting up at odd hours to see meteor showers or other celestial events many times. So, when we realized our present location was fairly close to the Palomar Observatory, we knew we had to go up for a tour.

I checked Mapquest for the location of the observatory, and it showed a route that was only 17 miles from our location.  However when I checked the observatory's website for tour details, I was warned that some GPS systems gave false information. 

Good thing I checked! The 17 mile route may have worked for a crow or a Jeep, but we needed to go around the mountain to get there, not up it! Following the driving directions on their web site took us there in a little over an hour.

The day was cool and sunny. The scenery on the way up was wonderful.

The Hale telescope at Palomar was the largest  in the world for many years.  It is now 19th largest. We have also toured Mt. Hamilton Observatory above San Jose. That was interesting, but we really felt the essence of history here. 

Many significant cosmic discoveries have been made using this telescope.

We could have taken a nice hike around the area, but felt a bit lazy.
We settled for a pleasant stroll around the grounds.

 This huge tree next to the visitors center caught our eye.

It had a very large base.

We decided to go back to Jojoba Hills around the west end of the mountains, since we were almost half way around and the distance would be about the same as if we had retraced our drive up.  Different, but just as spetacular scenic views.

All in all it was a very relaxing day and it reminded me of summer Sundays when I was a child. We would occasionally just go for a drive.  I was the youngest of five, and the drives I remember liking the most were when I was the only child along. This was because there were no fights over who got to sit where, or who was crowding who. When it was just me I felt very special.  Dad would drive around the back roads of Wisconsin farmland, stopping at farmer stands for the best fresh produce, and there was always an ice cream stop before we got home. 

The older kids had their own things to do, or prefered to just stay home.

Sometimes the simple things we did were the best, and still are.

I wonder if families just go for drives anymore.  If they do, the kids are probably watching DVDs in the back seat or playing video games on their tablets.  Little ones are strapped into their car seats instead of snuggled between Mom and Dad in the front seat.  Much safer I know, and that is better. Different times.