We had a whirlwind few days here in Albuquerque. Got our errands run, Costco, groceries, REI, wine, all the necessities. Even had the coach washed and hand waxed! Looks great, at least for a few days.
But most importantly we had a very nice visit with Viv, Jan's mom who is 92 years young. She ran us into the ground:-) She is truly amazing, still active, still bright, and still has a sense of humor. We also had a very nice time with Nancy, Jan's oldest sister, and missed her husband CT as he is still traveling across America. Next time CT.
Now we enter our next segment, as we head ever eastward, eventually to Louisville. We will get a oil change and service done at Speedco, our go to oil change place, in Amarillo, and will be obligated to eat at The Big Texan, I'll try to keep Jan from attempting the 72 ouncer:-) Then we go to Weatherford, TX to have our engineered wood floors installed. Remember we have been living on plywood since our huge leak fiasco in Florida this winter, so finally we are getting our finished floors. The gentleman who is doing the install allows you to help so I plan to help as much as I can to expedite the process, and even hopefully save a few bucks. We are anxious to bring our "remodel" to its conclusion.
I hope to be able to show you our progress on the install over the next week. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we are only ripped apart for a week!
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Success!
We are very happy to report we have accomplished our Unlimited Data quest. We found a plan and a seller we felt we could trust on eBay and ended up buying an unlimited data plan for $99, about the middle of what we were finding. We had a quick uneventful buy and the AOL, Assumption of Liability went okay after a bit of a delay with Verizon, in fact it seemed for awhile that the agent wasn't familiar with the procedure at all. But after a hold of about 7-8 minutes with our heart rate increasing, he came back on the phone, said our credit was fine, and that he would send an email for us to accept the AOL. So poof, it was done, but........ we couldn't sign on to Verizon without our new phone that was arriving later in the day!
We did get his name and employee number and his absolute assurance we had an UDP, unlimited data plan. The next little burp came when the new phone arrived, we opened it up and where is the SIM card? What! No SIM card! So off to a nearby Verizon store, we are now in Albuquerque, so that was easy and close, and they ended up giving me a new SIM card for free. Then back to turn on the new phone and call Verizon. It's kind of funny, we have had iPhones forever so it actually took me a few minutes to even figure out how to turn the new phone on! But after about 10 minutes on the phone with a very nice Verizon agent, we had a working phone with an UDP. Then this morning I was able to fully sign on to Verizon, change the phone number, and double check and verify we indeed have a UDP.
So we feel pretty set now, at least until Verizon dumps the unlimited or whatever else may come down the pike. We have 2 iPhones on AT&T with 40GB/month of hotspottable data, and a Verizon plan with unlimited data we will use with our MiFi. So let the streaming begin:-)
We did get his name and employee number and his absolute assurance we had an UDP, unlimited data plan. The next little burp came when the new phone arrived, we opened it up and where is the SIM card? What! No SIM card! So off to a nearby Verizon store, we are now in Albuquerque, so that was easy and close, and they ended up giving me a new SIM card for free. Then back to turn on the new phone and call Verizon. It's kind of funny, we have had iPhones forever so it actually took me a few minutes to even figure out how to turn the new phone on! But after about 10 minutes on the phone with a very nice Verizon agent, we had a working phone with an UDP. Then this morning I was able to fully sign on to Verizon, change the phone number, and double check and verify we indeed have a UDP.
So we feel pretty set now, at least until Verizon dumps the unlimited or whatever else may come down the pike. We have 2 iPhones on AT&T with 40GB/month of hotspottable data, and a Verizon plan with unlimited data we will use with our MiFi. So let the streaming begin:-)
Friday, October 24, 2014
Quick catch up
We left you in Durango where we had a fabulous time. Managed to do the Spud Lake Trail which is one of our favorites. We have never been in Durango this late in the year, and found the lack of leaves combined with the last dregs of color made for awesome views. Also very few people around, so it was like our personal path.
We had some wonderful food at Rice Monkeys in Durango, in fact it was almost funny, we ended up eating there 3 times!! Excellent fresh vibrant asian fusion. And it's a kick to go, it is bustling, crowded, and tiny, in fact they can only seat maybe 20 people in a room that is only about 10 feet wide.
Then we headed south to Taos, a spot we hadn't been to for many years. We had a nice visit with our nephew, Walker, who lives there, enjoyed the views and countryside, had a good mexican meal in town at La Cueva, a tiny hole in the wall, walked around downtown, enjoying the fact it was between seasons, felt like we were the only people in town. There is an enclave of "Earthships" north of Taos, that kind of fascinated us. These are passive solar heated homes made of recyclables for the most part, that aim to be autonomous off the grid homes. Turned out the headquarters for the company that has done most of the research and built many of these homes is right there in Taos, and they have a visitor center that we were able to tour, unfortunately we got there right at their closing time so it was a quick tour:-) We found it very interesting.
Now we are in Santa Fe, another one of our favorite spots, and again we are able to take advantage of the "tween" seasons, although Santa Fe isn't as affected, but the downtown was slightly less busy than normal. We were able to walk around, visit several galleries we enjoy, have some great food, including our go to here, Santa Fe Bite, for the absolutely BEST green chile cheeseburger on the planet!
Did some grocery shopping, had some excitement when we had to evacuate Whole Foods for a fire in the store, and just enjoyed the weather and the views, and the sunrises and sunsets. So now later this morning we will head down to Albuquerque to see Nancy and CT, and of course Jan's mom, Viv, who just turned 92!
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| The very rough road to the trailhead |
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| Gorgeous view, you might be able to make out the ski area across the valley |
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| Just awesome! |
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| Spud Lake reflections |
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| Spud Lake |
We had some wonderful food at Rice Monkeys in Durango, in fact it was almost funny, we ended up eating there 3 times!! Excellent fresh vibrant asian fusion. And it's a kick to go, it is bustling, crowded, and tiny, in fact they can only seat maybe 20 people in a room that is only about 10 feet wide.
Then we headed south to Taos, a spot we hadn't been to for many years. We had a nice visit with our nephew, Walker, who lives there, enjoyed the views and countryside, had a good mexican meal in town at La Cueva, a tiny hole in the wall, walked around downtown, enjoying the fact it was between seasons, felt like we were the only people in town. There is an enclave of "Earthships" north of Taos, that kind of fascinated us. These are passive solar heated homes made of recyclables for the most part, that aim to be autonomous off the grid homes. Turned out the headquarters for the company that has done most of the research and built many of these homes is right there in Taos, and they have a visitor center that we were able to tour, unfortunately we got there right at their closing time so it was a quick tour:-) We found it very interesting.
Now we are in Santa Fe, another one of our favorite spots, and again we are able to take advantage of the "tween" seasons, although Santa Fe isn't as affected, but the downtown was slightly less busy than normal. We were able to walk around, visit several galleries we enjoy, have some great food, including our go to here, Santa Fe Bite, for the absolutely BEST green chile cheeseburger on the planet!
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| Now that's deliciousness! |
Did some grocery shopping, had some excitement when we had to evacuate Whole Foods for a fire in the store, and just enjoyed the weather and the views, and the sunrises and sunsets. So now later this morning we will head down to Albuquerque to see Nancy and CT, and of course Jan's mom, Viv, who just turned 92!
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Huge Changes to our Internet!
Those of you on the road like we are have probably heard of the big happenings in the world of mobile internet access. The big two, AT&T and Verizon have put their data on sale, aimed at big users like us. Effectively, for plans over 15GB/month they are offering double data for the same price, so for example our 20GB plan with AT&T was about $150/month, that includes unlimited talk and text, and now we have upgraded to 40GB/month for the same $150! That's huge. We have bumped our data usage caps for a bunch of months now and I talked previously about how we were reevaluating our internet access going forward.
Another massive surprise in this puzzle occurred this month as well. We have been using a company called Millenicom for 20GB/month for $89.99 as have many of us on the move RVers. Well, they just announced that Verizon has taken over their accounts! Now Millenicom bought data from Verizon, sold us a MiFi to act as a hotspot, sweetened the deal with no contract and the ability to turn it on and off for $89.99/month. This had the advantage for us of having data available on both huge nationwide networks. Now, no one knows exactly why or what is happening going forward. Sounds incredible but true, and we are all wondering what will occur on Nov 1, the next billing cycle as Verizon hasn't contacted anyone yet who had a Millenicom account, nor presently offers data at a comparable price, so a lot of us are dancing around trying to figure out what to do going forward, and with the special data deals only available till the end of the month, the pressure is on!
There are catches to the data doubling plans, you must have a talk, read phone, plan to take advantage of the doubling offer. It worked for us as we already have 2 iPhones on AT&T that can be used as hotspots, so we are covered on the AT&T side. We have been running numbers on how we can still split our usage between AT&T and Verizon to give us the largest footprint without needing to go get a loan:-) We have determined that we can use our MiFi on Verizon's network as we actually have been doing, and have been assured by Verizon that we can "bring" our MiFi to a new plan, but as I said, the catch is to take advantage of the aggressive pricing, we have to have a calling or phone plan, and by doing that and staying with our present 20GB/month, it would cost $185/month as compared to our present $89.99! Not good.
I recently have been reading another blog, Technomadia, that I have found extremely informative. They are a couple of geeks, I mean that in a good way, that are traveling full time on the road like us, that are really into all the technical, electronic, internet stuff. In fact I joined their pay area, I have been so impressed. They thrive on this stuff, and have built a reputation that allows them to test all sorts of equipment, have contact with people in the know, etc. Well, they have been all over this present turmoil for internet access. And one of the things they have been talking about and actually did is purchase a grandfathered unlimited data plan from Verizon for very attractive dollars!
Jan and I have been studying this and have decided to give it a whirl. Some background, years ago both AT&T and Verizon offered unlimited data plans, in fact Jan and I each had one on our phones. But by 2010 and 2011, each company realized they were giving away too much and canceled the plans, but grandfathered those who had them. The catch was for any change away from the plan, the unlimited would go away and you could not get it back. We opted to leave unlimited because of two things, one, you could only use it on the phone, you were not able to tether or turn the phone into a hotspot so all that data was kind of useless, and two, they changed their plans enough that we were paying way, way too much for talk and text by keeping our unlimited plans. Another thing both companies were doing to shift customers away from their grandfathered plans was to throttle down their data speed to the point of almost being useless for their big users. I'm sure that moved a lot away from the unlimited plans as well.
To the present, in the midst of this big upheaval this month with the double data deals, Verizon announced that they would no longer be throttling their unlimited plans!!!! So with the guidance of Technomadia, we are going to follow in their footsteps and see if we can get an unlimited data plan that we can use with our MiFi on Verizon's network for about $70/month! Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it?
I would recommend if this is something that interests you, go to their site to read through their very detailed info, but I will give you a quick overview, oh, and remember this needs to be done asap, as we are all sure Verizon is going to close this loophole at some point.
First, you have to have a compatible Verizon 4G LTE smartphone that is your own, not on contract. We just ordered a LG Lucid Android phone for $70 on Amazon. We will have it Friday. Now we are on eBay looking for an "Unlimited Verizon Data Plan, that is available for AOL, Assumption of Liability, that we can transfer into our names. They are selling from as low as $13, we think it's a scam, to $500 or more. But most can be had for about $75-$150. Once you buy that, the seller contacts Verizon with your name and address, and the phone number/account they are transferring, then you contact Verizon's department that takes care of this, and transfer the account to yourself, after a credit check and info on you and your existing phone, and then you have unlimited data!
It is complicated, and a little scary, but lots of folks have been doing this recently and we are going to join them. Oh, I didn't mention, they allow you to pull the SIM card out of the phone we won't be using, the one we will set the account up with, and put it into our MiFi, so we will have unlimited data we can use without tethering the new phone. This is pretty heady stuff for us full-timers that have to scrap through marginal campground wifi's and worry about our data caps constantly. This way we should be able to get rid of the Millenicom MiFi for $89.99/month and replace it with an unlimited data plan for between $70/month and $100/month depending on which talk plan we can find on eBay connected with the unlimited data. We are determined to find a 450 minute plan, since we don't plan to use the phone that would yield the $70/month from a reputable seller on eBay. We hope to have this done by early next week, and will report back.
Another massive surprise in this puzzle occurred this month as well. We have been using a company called Millenicom for 20GB/month for $89.99 as have many of us on the move RVers. Well, they just announced that Verizon has taken over their accounts! Now Millenicom bought data from Verizon, sold us a MiFi to act as a hotspot, sweetened the deal with no contract and the ability to turn it on and off for $89.99/month. This had the advantage for us of having data available on both huge nationwide networks. Now, no one knows exactly why or what is happening going forward. Sounds incredible but true, and we are all wondering what will occur on Nov 1, the next billing cycle as Verizon hasn't contacted anyone yet who had a Millenicom account, nor presently offers data at a comparable price, so a lot of us are dancing around trying to figure out what to do going forward, and with the special data deals only available till the end of the month, the pressure is on!
There are catches to the data doubling plans, you must have a talk, read phone, plan to take advantage of the doubling offer. It worked for us as we already have 2 iPhones on AT&T that can be used as hotspots, so we are covered on the AT&T side. We have been running numbers on how we can still split our usage between AT&T and Verizon to give us the largest footprint without needing to go get a loan:-) We have determined that we can use our MiFi on Verizon's network as we actually have been doing, and have been assured by Verizon that we can "bring" our MiFi to a new plan, but as I said, the catch is to take advantage of the aggressive pricing, we have to have a calling or phone plan, and by doing that and staying with our present 20GB/month, it would cost $185/month as compared to our present $89.99! Not good.
I recently have been reading another blog, Technomadia, that I have found extremely informative. They are a couple of geeks, I mean that in a good way, that are traveling full time on the road like us, that are really into all the technical, electronic, internet stuff. In fact I joined their pay area, I have been so impressed. They thrive on this stuff, and have built a reputation that allows them to test all sorts of equipment, have contact with people in the know, etc. Well, they have been all over this present turmoil for internet access. And one of the things they have been talking about and actually did is purchase a grandfathered unlimited data plan from Verizon for very attractive dollars!
Jan and I have been studying this and have decided to give it a whirl. Some background, years ago both AT&T and Verizon offered unlimited data plans, in fact Jan and I each had one on our phones. But by 2010 and 2011, each company realized they were giving away too much and canceled the plans, but grandfathered those who had them. The catch was for any change away from the plan, the unlimited would go away and you could not get it back. We opted to leave unlimited because of two things, one, you could only use it on the phone, you were not able to tether or turn the phone into a hotspot so all that data was kind of useless, and two, they changed their plans enough that we were paying way, way too much for talk and text by keeping our unlimited plans. Another thing both companies were doing to shift customers away from their grandfathered plans was to throttle down their data speed to the point of almost being useless for their big users. I'm sure that moved a lot away from the unlimited plans as well.
To the present, in the midst of this big upheaval this month with the double data deals, Verizon announced that they would no longer be throttling their unlimited plans!!!! So with the guidance of Technomadia, we are going to follow in their footsteps and see if we can get an unlimited data plan that we can use with our MiFi on Verizon's network for about $70/month! Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it?
I would recommend if this is something that interests you, go to their site to read through their very detailed info, but I will give you a quick overview, oh, and remember this needs to be done asap, as we are all sure Verizon is going to close this loophole at some point.
First, you have to have a compatible Verizon 4G LTE smartphone that is your own, not on contract. We just ordered a LG Lucid Android phone for $70 on Amazon. We will have it Friday. Now we are on eBay looking for an "Unlimited Verizon Data Plan, that is available for AOL, Assumption of Liability, that we can transfer into our names. They are selling from as low as $13, we think it's a scam, to $500 or more. But most can be had for about $75-$150. Once you buy that, the seller contacts Verizon with your name and address, and the phone number/account they are transferring, then you contact Verizon's department that takes care of this, and transfer the account to yourself, after a credit check and info on you and your existing phone, and then you have unlimited data!
It is complicated, and a little scary, but lots of folks have been doing this recently and we are going to join them. Oh, I didn't mention, they allow you to pull the SIM card out of the phone we won't be using, the one we will set the account up with, and put it into our MiFi, so we will have unlimited data we can use without tethering the new phone. This is pretty heady stuff for us full-timers that have to scrap through marginal campground wifi's and worry about our data caps constantly. This way we should be able to get rid of the Millenicom MiFi for $89.99/month and replace it with an unlimited data plan for between $70/month and $100/month depending on which talk plan we can find on eBay connected with the unlimited data. We are determined to find a 450 minute plan, since we don't plan to use the phone that would yield the $70/month from a reputable seller on eBay. We hope to have this done by early next week, and will report back.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Back to Colorado!
Since Jan and I have been traveling for so many years, it is getting harder and harder to find roads we haven't been on. Sounds ridiculous, but we have been using several Rand McNally Atlases, and the individual state atlases from either Delorme or Benchmark to mark all the roads we've traveled on. Jan marks the motorhome routing with one color and the toad routing with another. So we have a lot of marked up maps! As we were making our way from the California coast to Durango, CO, we noticed we could go across a new road to us, The Loneliest Road in America, route 50 across Nevada. How we missed that I don't know. So off we went, and it was a long way and it was lonely, mostly through desert although we crossed 15 mountain passes in about 400 miles. We started counting cars, but lost track, but I'll bet we only passed 50 cars and trucks, so pretty lonely.
That got us into Utah and with our delay for the leak only afforded us one night in Moab. Then we decided to take the long way, and much more scenic way over to Durango. We first went south out of Moab then turned east on a tiny winding highway, 46 in Utah turning to 90 in Colorado to Naturita, then picking up 141, and 145 towards Telluride, part of the San Juan Parkway, and since I will not take the motorhome on the Million Dollar Highway, we continued down 145 through Dolores finally picking up 160 to Durango. This route has quite the windy steep descent just as you enter CO. It is 9% and really tight, and it goes on for a couple miles, a bit of a challenge in other words.
Now I don't know, but regardless and to the fact we must be living right, the weather is magnificent! Absolutely clear, no humidity, highs in the 60-70's, and down in the 30-40's at night. We could not have planned it any better. This is the latest in the year we have ever been to Durango and we wondered if all the color would be past?
But even as we noticed many of the aspens had lost their leaves, there were still patches of brilliant color!
We are now in Durango for 5 days really enjoying ourselves. This is one of our absolute favorite places. The campground is almost empty, something we've never seen here before and will close in a few days, many of the shops are closed up in Silverton, and everyone we talk to and comment about the glorious weather reminds us that we could be having a blizzard just as easily! Another day or so, then south we go, cause there is no way we want to push our luck and find one of those blizzards:-)
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| A representative section of the highway |
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| Pretty straight, huh? |
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| The entrance to the descent |
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| Pretty tight! |
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| A little snow on them thar hills |
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| Just below Telluride |
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| Yay!! Color!!! |
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| Yeah, it really is gorgeous here |
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Murphy strikes again!
We have a routine we use when we get ready to leave. We start the coach to let the air suspension build up and as it is I go outside and unhook the sewer, water, and electric. Usually about the time I finish that the coach is fully up on its air and I give Jan a signal and she brings in each slide while I watch, then with all slides in I do a final walk around, get in the driver's seat while Jan goes back to the tow bar. I ease forward while she watches to make sure all looks right, that we aren't skidding tires, the tow bar is fully locked, and for anything else unusual. So yesterday morning in the midst of this she signals all is not well. Turns out we have a leak from under the motorhome. Some background, when we were pulling out of Amazing Creations in Oregon, we noticed a leak that seemed a bit substantial, we stopped and luckily were still in their parking lot, even more fortuitous the shop next door is a truck repair place. We went into Amazing Creation and asked Bobbie about them, he assured us they were good guys and took me over to see what they could do. Almost immediately we had a mechanic crawled under the rear of our motorhome, announced we had a loose fitting, tightened it, the owner said no charge and we were off! Boy it's nice when it works like that.
Well, fast forward 8 days and 740 miles, and our leak is back! We shut down, raise the rear of the coach, I crawl under and sure enough it is quite wet and leaking from what looks like a PTO on the side of the transmission. Don't ask me what it does, I do know PTO stands for Power Take Off, but what it specifically does in this application escapes me, but it sure isn't supposed to leak. And since Murphy is involved it is also Saturday morning and we have 400+ miles planned. AHHHHH, life on the road, but we are pretty much fancy free right now.
I look closer after I clean it up and it appears that a bolt is missing, and it is leaking from a gasket which is between a pump?? and the PTO. Made us wonder about our mechanic a few days previously. Okay, I call a truck service place that is open on the weekend, but they are too busy to take us, I call another place and talk to the mobile tech and he says it would be a lot better and cheaper to try to replace the bolt myself as they have a 2 hr minimum on the weekend. Cool, I can do that. So the "diesel mechanic", Jan crawls under, and we determine the bolt size to be somewhere between a 3/8" and a 1/2" and maybe an inch long. Look through my "stuff", no luck and off I go to Lowes and buy everything in all those sizes. Come back, crawl under, and find out the bolt only goes in a little bit?!?, NO YOU CAN'T SEE IN THE HOLE. So we wiggle the phone up there and take a bunch of pictures, and it appears that the bolt BROKE off. No good!
So I manage to get an appointment on Monday at a shop, but this will now impact our trip, so I call the mobile tech back and we discuss what I think it is. He says he can come to me, but it might be better if I could meet him at the shop, which he will open up in 15 minutes or so! Man o Man are we living right, huh? So off we go and true to his word he is there waiting for us, opens a door and we back in. He crawls under and thinks I am right until he probes around a bit more and finds there never was a bolt in there at all. And it is not leaking at the moment, of course right? So we fire it up, shift gears a bit, turn the wheel a bit and get it to leak. Good in this case, hard to fix something that doesn't appear broken:-)
Bottom line. He found out the gasket was bad, they called in the parts man, and they had the gasket, all fixed under the 2 hour minimum, and off we went. A very good result from a messed up day. Turned out the PTO must be fairly generic and probably numerous engines and transmissions use the same one, so there are bolt holes that are used or not used determined by the application. So now we are leak free and making our way across Nevada eastbound and down.
Oh and we went back to another section of the redwood forest before we left California and will leave you with 3 more pictures.
Well, fast forward 8 days and 740 miles, and our leak is back! We shut down, raise the rear of the coach, I crawl under and sure enough it is quite wet and leaking from what looks like a PTO on the side of the transmission. Don't ask me what it does, I do know PTO stands for Power Take Off, but what it specifically does in this application escapes me, but it sure isn't supposed to leak. And since Murphy is involved it is also Saturday morning and we have 400+ miles planned. AHHHHH, life on the road, but we are pretty much fancy free right now.
I look closer after I clean it up and it appears that a bolt is missing, and it is leaking from a gasket which is between a pump?? and the PTO. Made us wonder about our mechanic a few days previously. Okay, I call a truck service place that is open on the weekend, but they are too busy to take us, I call another place and talk to the mobile tech and he says it would be a lot better and cheaper to try to replace the bolt myself as they have a 2 hr minimum on the weekend. Cool, I can do that. So the "diesel mechanic", Jan crawls under, and we determine the bolt size to be somewhere between a 3/8" and a 1/2" and maybe an inch long. Look through my "stuff", no luck and off I go to Lowes and buy everything in all those sizes. Come back, crawl under, and find out the bolt only goes in a little bit?!?, NO YOU CAN'T SEE IN THE HOLE. So we wiggle the phone up there and take a bunch of pictures, and it appears that the bolt BROKE off. No good!
So I manage to get an appointment on Monday at a shop, but this will now impact our trip, so I call the mobile tech back and we discuss what I think it is. He says he can come to me, but it might be better if I could meet him at the shop, which he will open up in 15 minutes or so! Man o Man are we living right, huh? So off we go and true to his word he is there waiting for us, opens a door and we back in. He crawls under and thinks I am right until he probes around a bit more and finds there never was a bolt in there at all. And it is not leaking at the moment, of course right? So we fire it up, shift gears a bit, turn the wheel a bit and get it to leak. Good in this case, hard to fix something that doesn't appear broken:-)
Bottom line. He found out the gasket was bad, they called in the parts man, and they had the gasket, all fixed under the 2 hour minimum, and off we went. A very good result from a messed up day. Turned out the PTO must be fairly generic and probably numerous engines and transmissions use the same one, so there are bolt holes that are used or not used determined by the application. So now we are leak free and making our way across Nevada eastbound and down.
Oh and we went back to another section of the redwood forest before we left California and will leave you with 3 more pictures.
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| Another perspective on how big these trees are |
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| Pretty huge root area on this fallen giant |
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| Towering way, way above us! |
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Holy crap, they're huge!
We worked our way down the coast into California, after we had the "pleasure" of fueling up in Oregon. Funny, in Oregon you are not allowed to pump your own gas, you pull into the same exact type of pumps you encounter everywhere else, hand an attendant your credit card, they run it just like you would, pump your gas, and hand you your receipt and credit card back. Nice in a way but it sure feels weird just sitting there watching someone do exactly what you would do, and it ends up taking a lot more time especially if the station is busy. With diesel it's just a bit different you can't touch the pump or use your credit card yourself, but you can handle the pumping, and no one seems to know why?!?
The Oregon Coast Highway is awesome! It is beautiful, right along the shore or cliff face, and we were lucky enough to experience it with good weather which the locals say comes few and far between. It is usually obscured with fog and mist, hence the favorable growing conditions for the massive redwoods. Most of the road is challenging in a vehicle the size of the motorhome, so it was nice to be able to drive parts of it in the truck and take advantage of the viewpoints. We got a kick out of some of the signs along the way.
We knew it would be an impressive coastline, but we didn't expect the miles and miles of perfect beach with essentially no one on it.
It is a rugged coastline, we saw very few boats, as it isn't very boat friendly. You should see the rough inlets across the bars to the few ports along the coast. And we saw them in smooth pleasant weather, I can't imagine what they look like in a storm! But it sure is pretty!
So now we are in Crescent City, CA, where you can pump your own gas:-), our jumping off place to see the giant redwoods. We've never seen them before, and let me tell you there is a big difference in reading dimensions like 8-20' in diameter and as tall as 350', as old as 2000 years, and seeing it! Wow, these are big trees. We tried in the pics to give some reference to their size but as you will see it is tough to do. We drove south in the misty morning and caught this spot as the sun was streaming down between the trees in the fog.
We started with a picnic on a perfect day high in the redwood forest near a meadow the indians created by burning off some of the forest to bring in the deer and elk. Oh my!
Then we went into the forest on a gorgeous 1 1/2 mile hike through Lady Bird Johnson Grove amongst the ancient trees.
It was a great experience. It is absolutely dead quiet back in the groves, with these magnificent giants towering hundreds of feet above you knowing that many of them have been there for more than a 1000 years! Another day here exploring and then we are headed towards Nevada. What a change of scenery that will be!
The Oregon Coast Highway is awesome! It is beautiful, right along the shore or cliff face, and we were lucky enough to experience it with good weather which the locals say comes few and far between. It is usually obscured with fog and mist, hence the favorable growing conditions for the massive redwoods. Most of the road is challenging in a vehicle the size of the motorhome, so it was nice to be able to drive parts of it in the truck and take advantage of the viewpoints. We got a kick out of some of the signs along the way.
We knew it would be an impressive coastline, but we didn't expect the miles and miles of perfect beach with essentially no one on it.
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| Perfect and all yours! |
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| You can see some of the "crowds" in this picture, of course this is right in the town of Bandon, OR |
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| They even have their own version of palm trees:-) |
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| Awesome! Even here you can see the ever present mist rolling in. |
We started with a picnic on a perfect day high in the redwood forest near a meadow the indians created by burning off some of the forest to bring in the deer and elk. Oh my!
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| Up, up, up |
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| A feel for its size |
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| Look closely, I'm standing there in front of it |
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| The spot where President Nixon dedicated the grove to Lady Bird |
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| You can see scars from a previous fire on this tree |
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| Another glimpse at its size |
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| Compared to the truck |
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| Yes, that is one huge tree! |
Friday, October 3, 2014
Success! And an absolutely fantastic experience.
Those of us with RV's, motorhomes or whatever look toward service with trepidation and dread. It's tough because most times you really need to get something fixed, but in the back of your mind you wonder if the fix is better than the problem. Many of the large facilities seem to lose you in their haste and number of customers, and then you come out and notice, oh man, that mark wasn't there before or why is that doing that now? This is one of the main reasons we prefer to do the vast majority of the work ourselves. But now and then something happens that is outside of your comfort zone or knowledge base.
We had heard that the Coburg, OR area is repair, remodel, service heaven for the west coast. This is where Monaco and Country Coach were based in the heyday therefore there were tons of suppliers and services available to them and related to their business. When they went under many of the talented people that worked for them went out on their own, started their own shops and have been building their customer bases. I'm going to talk about 2 of those businesses, Elite Repair and Remodel in Harrisburg, OR and Amazing Creations in Junction City, OR.
I'll start with Amazing Creations and their principals, Scott and Bobby. As you know we tore out our driver's side couch and replaced it with a stressless chair and needed to have a desk/cabinet unit built to fit the space and do the things we wanted it to do. We heard Scott and Bobby were our guys as they were very open to ideas and would build essentially anything you wanted. We had called ahead, talked to them in generalities about what we wanted and explained we were on a tight time frame. They welcomed us to come right to their shop, park there for the night and they would see what they could do. We arrived about 4pm on Tuesday for our 6am appointment on Wednesday, but when Bobbie met us he said he'd be out in a couple minutes to see what we had in mind, sure beat the 6am deal! We discussed our goals, he asked several questions, suggested a few things and he and Jan worked it out for the cabinet, then we moved on to another little spot that was nothing but wasted space, basically inaccessible, and asked if we could do anything about that? Bobbie said sure. So we talked price, very fair, and the main thing, time. He said he could start on us immediately, and would have us out on Friday! Wow, super, lets do it!
Meanwhile since we had our slide topper awnings replaced last winter, the Carefrees replaced by Girards, we have been having a bit of a problem with our 2 driver side slide outs. They were sticking, and were very reluctant to go out without some help in the form of a nudge inside, then with a bang out they would go, in fact the bedroom slide out would lean precariously as this was happening. We were very concerned, and we had heard that Elite were slide experts, so we had called them to see if they could fit us in later that morning after we talked to Amazing Creations, and we were able to get a 10am appointment with them. We left Amazing Creations, pulled into Elite, were met by Erik, Mark, and Marty, and directed straight into the shop precisely at 10am, explained what was going on, showed them, they analyzed it immediately and set to work! Wow again, this, folks, never happens. Turned out the issue was that the Girard slide topper awnings were installed incorrectly and had to be remounted, they were catching on themselves and impeding the movement of the slide out. Then on further investigation on the leaning bedroom slide they discovered that the bed pedestal which also keeps the slide out rigid and attached to the mechanism was broken. So by 2:30pm we were leaving with the slide out awnings remounted, the bed pedestal completely rebuilt, better than new I might add, a main patio awning adjusted, and our intermittent cruise control fixed! Wow, wow, wow! All 3 of these gentlemen were knowledgable, professional, and dedicated to customer service, no wonder they have a superlative reputation. We went to spend Wednesday night at a nearby campground with the understanding Amazing Creation would call us when they needed us.
We had a pleasant quiet evening in a nice park, then at about 9 the next morning, Scott called to see if we could come over about 11am? Fantastic, we were amazed they needed us on Thursday. Over we went, grabbed some lunch, then Scott and Bobby installed our desk/cabinet and then Bobby cleverly put in a drawer in our "lost" spot which blew us away.
So by about 4:30pm, we had our new furniture installed, electric plug run in, and the spot taken care of, remember this is on Thursday, a whole day earlier than promised! We took advantage of their hospitality and electric cord and spent the night in their lot.
We are now parked in an absolutely fantastic luxury campground in Newport, OR, right on the coast with a view of the ocean and waves right outside the front window. Pacific Shores Motorcoach Resort, a condo campground where each lot is owned and can be available to rent. It is manicured, landscaped, with a nice clubhouse, pool, etc.
So we can't say enough good about these 2 businesses. We felt at each place we were treated like their only customers and that we were all they cared about at the moment, how's that compare to your last service.....anywhere??? If your travels take you out this way and you need absolutely quality work done you cannot go wrong with Elite Repair and Remodel and Amazing Creations!
We had heard that the Coburg, OR area is repair, remodel, service heaven for the west coast. This is where Monaco and Country Coach were based in the heyday therefore there were tons of suppliers and services available to them and related to their business. When they went under many of the talented people that worked for them went out on their own, started their own shops and have been building their customer bases. I'm going to talk about 2 of those businesses, Elite Repair and Remodel in Harrisburg, OR and Amazing Creations in Junction City, OR.
I'll start with Amazing Creations and their principals, Scott and Bobby. As you know we tore out our driver's side couch and replaced it with a stressless chair and needed to have a desk/cabinet unit built to fit the space and do the things we wanted it to do. We heard Scott and Bobby were our guys as they were very open to ideas and would build essentially anything you wanted. We had called ahead, talked to them in generalities about what we wanted and explained we were on a tight time frame. They welcomed us to come right to their shop, park there for the night and they would see what they could do. We arrived about 4pm on Tuesday for our 6am appointment on Wednesday, but when Bobbie met us he said he'd be out in a couple minutes to see what we had in mind, sure beat the 6am deal! We discussed our goals, he asked several questions, suggested a few things and he and Jan worked it out for the cabinet, then we moved on to another little spot that was nothing but wasted space, basically inaccessible, and asked if we could do anything about that? Bobbie said sure. So we talked price, very fair, and the main thing, time. He said he could start on us immediately, and would have us out on Friday! Wow, super, lets do it!
Meanwhile since we had our slide topper awnings replaced last winter, the Carefrees replaced by Girards, we have been having a bit of a problem with our 2 driver side slide outs. They were sticking, and were very reluctant to go out without some help in the form of a nudge inside, then with a bang out they would go, in fact the bedroom slide out would lean precariously as this was happening. We were very concerned, and we had heard that Elite were slide experts, so we had called them to see if they could fit us in later that morning after we talked to Amazing Creations, and we were able to get a 10am appointment with them. We left Amazing Creations, pulled into Elite, were met by Erik, Mark, and Marty, and directed straight into the shop precisely at 10am, explained what was going on, showed them, they analyzed it immediately and set to work! Wow again, this, folks, never happens. Turned out the issue was that the Girard slide topper awnings were installed incorrectly and had to be remounted, they were catching on themselves and impeding the movement of the slide out. Then on further investigation on the leaning bedroom slide they discovered that the bed pedestal which also keeps the slide out rigid and attached to the mechanism was broken. So by 2:30pm we were leaving with the slide out awnings remounted, the bed pedestal completely rebuilt, better than new I might add, a main patio awning adjusted, and our intermittent cruise control fixed! Wow, wow, wow! All 3 of these gentlemen were knowledgable, professional, and dedicated to customer service, no wonder they have a superlative reputation. We went to spend Wednesday night at a nearby campground with the understanding Amazing Creation would call us when they needed us.
We had a pleasant quiet evening in a nice park, then at about 9 the next morning, Scott called to see if we could come over about 11am? Fantastic, we were amazed they needed us on Thursday. Over we went, grabbed some lunch, then Scott and Bobby installed our desk/cabinet and then Bobby cleverly put in a drawer in our "lost" spot which blew us away.
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| Bobby running the new electric |
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| Scott and Bobbie installing our new cabinet! |
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| Voila! |
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| This our "lost space" behind this panel. |
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| Bobbie's fantastic solution! |
So by about 4:30pm, we had our new furniture installed, electric plug run in, and the spot taken care of, remember this is on Thursday, a whole day earlier than promised! We took advantage of their hospitality and electric cord and spent the night in their lot.
We are now parked in an absolutely fantastic luxury campground in Newport, OR, right on the coast with a view of the ocean and waves right outside the front window. Pacific Shores Motorcoach Resort, a condo campground where each lot is owned and can be available to rent. It is manicured, landscaped, with a nice clubhouse, pool, etc.
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| The view out our front window! |
So we can't say enough good about these 2 businesses. We felt at each place we were treated like their only customers and that we were all they cared about at the moment, how's that compare to your last service.....anywhere??? If your travels take you out this way and you need absolutely quality work done you cannot go wrong with Elite Repair and Remodel and Amazing Creations!
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Aloha, and we're back.
We have now traveled to all 50 states! And I am no longer a cruise virgin. I know I surprised a lot of you when I announced our intention to fly to Hawaii and take a cruise, both things I pretty much said I wouldn't ever do, guess I'm getting soft, soft in the head, in my old age:-)
When I came up with the idea, I thought we had an opportunity that would not come up again, a perfect storm if you will, we and the motorhome were going to be in a place where we had the wonderful hospitality and the perfect place to park the coach with the added, oh so big benefit, of babysitters for Bert, with Kris and Sandy in Boise. And our 41st anniversary wasn't far off, and it was about time I relented and did something Jan had her heart set on for a long time.
Our friends, John and Diane, who joined us, convinced us to go all the way and book a suite for the cruise. That was fantastic, but I can assure you it ruins the thought of going cruising without a suite in the future. I should mention that Jan and I have never ever taken a vacation like this before. We have never been to a resort that pampers you and we certainly never experienced anything like this cruise. We splurged first off by flying first class to and from Hawaii, which certainly spoiled us, but we had experienced that service many times in the past in my airline career, but the cruise experience was like no other. It started by being whisked by the hordes of people trying to board, to our own VIP room with snacks and drinks while we checked in, then being escorted by a butler by all the throngs of people right to our private lounge for a champagne welcome and a special lunch in our special dining room. Heady deal, let me tell you! Then they let us know our suites were ready and our bags would arrive shortly. We opened our door to a magnificent room with a huge balcony on the 12th deck far, far above the water to see our iced champagne and fruit waiting for us. We then met our personal steward, butler, and concierge that would take excellent care of us during our cruise. We were absolutely pampered for 7 days, ate breakfast and lunch in our private restaurant, and had gourmet dinners each night in specialty restaurants. It was awesome and kind of obscene, but we got through it:-)
I have a bunch of photos to highlight our adventure. We are now back to reality having some work done on the coach in Oregon. We are having a desk/cabinet built for the corner of the slide where we removed the couch for storage and our printer as well as room for books and maps at Amazing Creations, and as of this very moment we are having some work done on our slide outs at Elite Repair and Remodel. They discovered that part of our jamming problem was our slide topper awnings were mounted incorrectly and were interfering with the movement of the slides, and we found out the pedestal the bed sits on had broken and was causing the slide to wobble back and forth. This wonderful facility is taking care of the problems. They met us right at our appointment time and jumped right on us! We had the awnings fixed in moments and now they are dealing with the broken pedestal with professional and friendly service. I highly recommend them for all your motorhome repairs!
Now for the pics. Oh, just a couple more comments. No, I will probably never go on a cruise again, just not for me, although if you do, try to get a suite, you won't regret it. We liked Hawaii, especially the fact that it is still the good old USA, no language barriers, same money, and same stuff for the most part. Also everyone we ran into could not have been more friendly or accommodating. It is beautiful and has lots of vegetation that was awesome and unlike anywhere else we have been, but we both feel the water in the Caribbean is superior, not the waves necessarily, but the beautiful blue and green water and sensational beaches. So with our further ado.
When I came up with the idea, I thought we had an opportunity that would not come up again, a perfect storm if you will, we and the motorhome were going to be in a place where we had the wonderful hospitality and the perfect place to park the coach with the added, oh so big benefit, of babysitters for Bert, with Kris and Sandy in Boise. And our 41st anniversary wasn't far off, and it was about time I relented and did something Jan had her heart set on for a long time.
Our friends, John and Diane, who joined us, convinced us to go all the way and book a suite for the cruise. That was fantastic, but I can assure you it ruins the thought of going cruising without a suite in the future. I should mention that Jan and I have never ever taken a vacation like this before. We have never been to a resort that pampers you and we certainly never experienced anything like this cruise. We splurged first off by flying first class to and from Hawaii, which certainly spoiled us, but we had experienced that service many times in the past in my airline career, but the cruise experience was like no other. It started by being whisked by the hordes of people trying to board, to our own VIP room with snacks and drinks while we checked in, then being escorted by a butler by all the throngs of people right to our private lounge for a champagne welcome and a special lunch in our special dining room. Heady deal, let me tell you! Then they let us know our suites were ready and our bags would arrive shortly. We opened our door to a magnificent room with a huge balcony on the 12th deck far, far above the water to see our iced champagne and fruit waiting for us. We then met our personal steward, butler, and concierge that would take excellent care of us during our cruise. We were absolutely pampered for 7 days, ate breakfast and lunch in our private restaurant, and had gourmet dinners each night in specialty restaurants. It was awesome and kind of obscene, but we got through it:-)
I have a bunch of photos to highlight our adventure. We are now back to reality having some work done on the coach in Oregon. We are having a desk/cabinet built for the corner of the slide where we removed the couch for storage and our printer as well as room for books and maps at Amazing Creations, and as of this very moment we are having some work done on our slide outs at Elite Repair and Remodel. They discovered that part of our jamming problem was our slide topper awnings were mounted incorrectly and were interfering with the movement of the slides, and we found out the pedestal the bed sits on had broken and was causing the slide to wobble back and forth. This wonderful facility is taking care of the problems. They met us right at our appointment time and jumped right on us! We had the awnings fixed in moments and now they are dealing with the broken pedestal with professional and friendly service. I highly recommend them for all your motorhome repairs!
Now for the pics. Oh, just a couple more comments. No, I will probably never go on a cruise again, just not for me, although if you do, try to get a suite, you won't regret it. We liked Hawaii, especially the fact that it is still the good old USA, no language barriers, same money, and same stuff for the most part. Also everyone we ran into could not have been more friendly or accommodating. It is beautiful and has lots of vegetation that was awesome and unlike anywhere else we have been, but we both feel the water in the Caribbean is superior, not the waves necessarily, but the beautiful blue and green water and sensational beaches. So with our further ado.
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| Our view of Diamond Head from our hotel room in Waikiki |
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| Dinner at an awesome local spot, South Shore Grill |
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| Our suite on the ship |
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| Our huge balcony! |
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| Oh yeah! |
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| Home away from home |
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| Solving the world's problems even while on vacation! |
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| Ready for our bike ride down Haleakala on Maui |
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| A Silversword, a gorgeous plant that only grows on the volcano, Haleakala |
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| Looking down into the volcano |
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| At the summit, Jan, I, Diane, and John |
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| Down the mountain we go! |
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| Our lunch stop |
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| View from lunch, look close you can see the boat |
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| A few windsurfers |
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| A tug helping us park |
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| The pot of gold is right below our cabin |
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| Harbor in Maui |
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| Active volcano |
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| The caldera |
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| Chickens run wild on all the islands and are everywhere |
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| The tender working in Kona |
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| On the inside of a tender, 97 passengers, are you claustrophobic?? |
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| The "Pride of America" from shore in Kona |
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| A wonderful lunch in Kona, our first taste of "Poke", an Hawaii raw fish concoction. |
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| This is "Poke Pie", chips on the bottom, then guacamole, then poke, and finally seaweed salad. Delish! |
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| Sun going down as we head to sea |
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| Sun coming up as we head into port |
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| Coming into Kauai |
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| Pretty narrow to say the least |
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| An old sugar mill |
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| Poke bowl with tuna |
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| Another Hawaii meal, bottom left is Lau Lau, chicken cooked in banana leaves for 5 hours, above it is rice, then to the right is Tako poke, poke made of octopus, and finally below that is cucumber kimchee. It was Great! |
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| Lighthouse on Kauai |
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| Surfs up |
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| A huge lava tube near the beach |
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| Looking sternward on the ship leaving port in Kauai |
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| Really tight! |
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| Cliffs on the north shore of Kauai, they are 4000' tall |
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| Another shot |
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| North shore of Oahu |
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| Lunch truck visited by Guy Fieri and Jan and I on Oahu |
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| Looks good, doesn't it? It was. |
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| Oahu |
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| Jan went in here. |
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| A secluded beach on the back side of Diamond Head |
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| Heading home |
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| One of the many banyan trees |
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| One of our nightly creatures left by our imaginative steward |
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