It’s been so long since I had a chance to sit down and write something I have completely forgotten where I left off…I do remember making comments about the “egging”, so I guess I’ll start there!

Our trip took us to a family party on Sunday afternoon and our “ship” was moved to the party palace that day.  Cathy and Darell have a mansion that sits on about 3 acres of ground in Petaluma, California.  In order to own property of that magnitude you have to spend a ton of money.  Darell races cars on rally tracks…the kind that go up and down mountains, through valley cuts and end up somewhere near where they started.  His cars are all souped up with Corvette engines and the cars are all Ford Mustangs.  He likes the looks and feel of the Mustang, but the power of the Chev motors.  A look into the cars makes you scratch your head and wonder just how on earth they got all that engine crammed into that frame.  He says they will go over 200 mph!  As for me, I say, Not with me in it it won’t!  He loves his speed!  And he told me several of his stories about how guys have “bumped” him to try and get him out of the way.  The rims on his favorite race car has all the marks of a “bump” alright…worn down to almost where the bead of the tire makes contact with the rim.

So, race cars require a garage where they can be pulled apart and put back together.  He has that!  A huge garage where he has 6 race cars and a really cool old 30’s something pickup truck.  The kind of pickup truck you see in the “Rat Fink” books of the past..you remember…the guy with the big head and all the freckles.

There is also a place to park the cars they drive…A Mustang GT and a Mazarati…Oh and then there is the lowly Beamer that sits outside (poor thing).

So, here they have this giant place and the house is as big as the yard with the court room as you walk into it and that extends into the kitchen, dining and sitting areas…total square footage of the entrance and all you can see before you, I’d guess to be in the neighborhood of 50,000…then two doors lead you out into the swimming and patio area.  A short swim takes you to a wall you can dive under and on the other side are two cabana type bars…his and hers if you will.

I’ve made it sound like Cathy and Darell are swimming in cash.  I don’t hardly think they are, however they do have some expensive tastes.  Darell said he got the place as a bank owned deal and it was run down as crazy.  The yard was full of tall dry weeds, the sprinkling system all broken from two winters of freezing.  The roof tiles (clay) were broken and allowed water to get into the walls and the ground had no drainage so water came down off the eves and ended up in the basement.  They poured a ton of money into it to get it into the shape we saw it.  He thinks in 5 or 6 years he will sell it and they will move into something more modest.  Someone also said, the home was built by the first woman to win the California lottery…I don’t know if that is real or not.

The party was a total success and I got to meet cousins that were only names before…now we are all Facebook friends and will be able to keep in touch!  For those of you affiliated with this family, I must say we have a great bunch in our tree.

Well the party ended and the next morning Sherry and I headed over to Mike and Ilenes to spend the last night of our stay in beautiful California.  On a down note, Sunday night, our lovely Aunt LeOra ened up in the hospital with pneumonia, water around the heart and a bunch of other things that made her have a tough time breathing and feeling human.  We had planned to visit extensively with her and talk about family and the farm, but that didn’t happen and we are very sorry about that.  She is getting some very necessary care at this point and will be in better hands once she gets out of the hospital.  They are changing her primary care provider as what put her into the hospital should have been prevented had her doctor been on top of things.  Yes, she is 99 years old, but she still thinks, breathes and is full of life, why take that away from her by not giving her the care she deserves?  I’m very glad they caught up with her problems and are giving her the care she deserves!  We love her very much.

We did get to visit with her on Friday evening and she was full of her normal spirit!  That is why we decided to stay over Monday night, to continue our conversations and laughter.  Oh well!

So now, it was off toward home.  In the past we would have stayed in an RV campground at Fernley Nevada, a nice little “half way” place with nice campgrounds.  Driving the coach is fun for me, but after several hours of driving it begins to cause a stress in the neck muscles.  We reached Fernley and the time was only a bit after 3 p.m.  I decided to make the additional drive to Winnemucka, Nevada.  Construction plagued us about half the way there which added time to the otherwise 2 hour drive…oh well, we made it and put up in a nice little campground…little campground?  It holds over 150 units and was packed!  The people must have been as tired as we were because the night was as quiet as could be and the sleeping wonderful, with a cool breeze and light rain!

We awoke to birds chirping and the sounds of people pulling out of their spots.  When I finally took MaPa’s for a walk, the place was half empty and it was only 7:30 in the morning!  The folks must have had some long hauls to make that day and had to get early starts.  Or else they just like to get to their next spot in time to do some swimming in the parks pool…who knows.  We pulled out about 10 ish after a great breakfast of bacon, eggs and hashbrowns!

Our minds were made up to head for home…I had about 7 hours of drive time ahead of me which is about 2 more than I like, but the thought of sleeping in my own bed at home was appealing enough that I didn’t notice the strain on the neck.  We arrived home about 6 p.m. and MaPa’s was so happy to see his “turf” when I opened up the door to the coach and he jumped out onto his own lawn!

OK, so now I’ll tell you about the gas station guys.  Remember when we first started this trip and the guy came past with the golf cart and pointed out my bad front tires…well that was a “for real” problem that we fixed just down the road from where the guy was on the golf cart.  So, here we are in Battle Mountain and I pull into a Shell station…Three grizzley looking guys sitting on a bench outside the “we can fix anything” bays and as I’m pulling up to the pump (it takes me a bit to pull up to a pump, because first off it has to be on the right side of the coach, and secondly I have to pull up so the back end of the coach is even with the pump handle.  In order to do that I have to stretch out and look carefully through the rear view mirror on that side) one of the grizzley guys is walking alongside the coach looking at the rear tires.  He is obviously in my line of site.  When I stop and get out to see if I’m close enough to pump gas, he is all over me with “This tire is about to lose it’s cap!  You need to replace it!  You need these guys to put your spare tire on!  See here, the cap if about to come off!”  And he points to the weather checking near the rim.  I look at him and say “I’ll be just fine”!  He shrugged and went back to his seat.

I started to pump the gas and then realized the cost of their fuel was $4.56!!!!  I stopped the pump and ended up only putting in 10 gallons of gas.  That was the highest priced fuel of our entire trip!  The next highest was $4.01.

So, when you are out on your vacation, watch out for those “helpful” guys at the freeway off ramp gas stations.  They aren’t all watching out for your well being!

Bears Butt, glad to be home

July 25, 2013

Sitting here at Cathy and Darels house after a wonderful party yesterday and a great nights sleep we have enjoyed an aroma filled cup of coffee while watching wild turkeys on the other side of the fence. We don’t have the internet so I’m writing this via my phone. Have you ever tried to do that?    I can tell already this will be short. It was such a pleasure to be able to put faces to names yesterday, people who have been in our lives for many years and now they have become”real”!! The party was sooo much fun!! And I have gained a new bunch of respect for my family, we laughed so much yesterday I think my face is cracked. Maybe we are all just crazy! I say that because how many people can laugh at anothers poor arthritic inflicted hands? I love my cousin Sharron! What’s not to love about her? Cathy and Darel have this big mansion sitting on top of a hill on 3 acres over looking the beautiful Petaluma hills. We are so blessed to have been aforded the opportunity to spend the night. This part of the country is amazing! And for all of you who have traveled you already know that each area has its own beauty.

Bears Butt July 22, 2013

Sunday!  Weather looks to be overcast, however I’m not accustomed to being here and it might be a high fog in the air.  Whatever it is the temp is 65 degrees right now, 6:45 a.m.

Today is “moving day”, not far, but a new place to sleep tonight..Pentaloma (sp), roughly meaning “back side of the hill”…We have had a wonderful time here at Helen and Manards, they have been such lovely hosts.  Helen allowed me to cook breakfast yesterday morning, but in her normal manner did not leave the backside of the kitchen all the time I cooked.  I wanted her to go sit with Manard and Sherry while I did my thing, but she insisted she stay back and “get ready for tomorrows luncheon”.  Most of what I saw her doing was dishes and shuffling things from one place to another.  That is her domain in this house and I was across the line (I guess).  Anyway, I managed to get it done and we had a great meal.

Before the adults ate, I knew that Kathy (Helen and Manards daughter) was going to come and pick up Zach and Elish (I spelled her name wrong yesterday) and so I fixed their eggs and they went ahead and ate.  Meanwhile here came Ilene to pick up her cell phone which she left at the house the night before.  Again and as usual we had a great conversation and I know she just wanted to pop in and grab the phone and head out, she couldn’t.  It was sit down, have a cup of coffee and converse.  Another wonderful conversation ensued.

When we ate, I boldly asked if we could modify the plan for the day…Helen and Manard were both very receptive to our request to stay home and “kick back”.  However as the day unfolded it wasn’t much of a kick back day.  As you recall I had a broken window in the coach to fix, plus the egg splatter on the side to get off. 

Look at the placement of that egg!  A perfectly placed drive by and obvious to me that vehicle was travelling from the rear of the coach to the front when it happened.  The egg toss was perfectly executed for a completly disabling shot had it been with large caliber bullets.  This “Egg Chucker” should know that Bears Butt recommends him/her for aerial combat missions in their future.

Dried egg is usually a nasty thing to try and get to come off and takes a lot of water.  I was prepared to grab my deep pan and scrub away for hours.  Guess what?  Manard had some wonderful stuff called “Krud Kutter”!  I don’t know what’s in it, but that egg came right off!  And I mean it came off without hardly having to scrub at all!  You would think that something that good would cause cancer in people from California, but apparently not because he bought it locally here at the Home Depot.  Have you heard of it at home?  I never have.  Manard gave me a bottle of it and I’ll be testing it regularly to see what it’s limitations are.

It also removed a lot of the oxydation from the side of the coach make it a necessity for me to scrub the entire coach soon.

Once the egg was removed, we moved down the line to the disconnected window.  That baby was completely out of its track and hanging there like a clear shingle.  Its little hinging points hanging on like troopers.  Manard had some snap ring tools and they worked great to get the window off the hinges so we could clean off the residual glue.  Again Manard had the acetone needed for that job.

Then it was a trip to town to pick up some glue for the window, groceries, adult beverages and some items Manard was needing for his next project.  He took me first to a very large store that specializes in adult beverages and party supplies.  They had everything!  Even a 12 pack of Oly!!!!!  Only one, but they had it!  There was a guy putting his stuff in his car when we went out who commented on us buying that Oly and he was going to get it, but we beat him to it first, he had to settle on the only 12 pack of Schlitz they had, but he was happy and wished us well on drinking our “cheap beer”!  I had to laugh!  What is it about me that attracts people like that?

The trip to the “store” took over an hour, but we made it safely and Manard showed me some of the back streets and the open spaces around thier home.  For such a crowded place there is a remarkable amount of open space which is dedicated to stay open and allow people to hike, bike and just plain look at.  It’s these large expanses of space and natural foliage that houses the wild critters around here.  I still question the uncontrolling of the critters, but that’s not my concern.  I just hope all will enjoy it when the raccoons are hanging on their back screen doors and the coyotes are curled sleeping under the rododendrums some day soon, with Fidos leash and a fur ball very close by.

The window glue I bought seemed awefully runny when we applied it, but it is still in place this morning, but then I have not removed the three strips of tape we put on it to keep it held in place while it dried.  Maybe the strips of tape will still be in place when we get home…time will tell.

And so for todays activities…We move from here over to Kathy and Darrells place.  We have been told it’s about a 3 acre secluded place and that we will love it.  They have a couple of Jack Russell Terriers and I have a bit of a concern with them welcoming MaPa’s into thier domain.  Kathy assures me that their dogs (or ours) can be kept apart by kennels that they have but she doesn’t see any problem with them getting along.  I sure hope so, as I have lost a couple of ours sleep thinking about what could happen and of course my concerns is with our little guy…he isn’t that aggressive and has never been in any sort of real dog fight.  We will see in a few short hours.

So, relocation is one step and then preparation for “another party”!!!  I love parties!  This is one in which ALL of California has been offered an invitation, but we all know that if you get an invitation to a party and you don’t know anyone who is going to be their that usually you don’t take them up on it.  That is the expected guest list here today…just friends but mostly relatives and the reluctant spouses (insert smiley face here).  Of course had the invitations been let out with “Bears Butt and Winemaker” as the honored ones, the guest list would have probably doubled.  That might not have been such a good thing and so to have it the way it is designed is probably better.  Afterall, who would want us competing with Arnold Swarznegger just down the road by pulling a lot of his guests away from his bar-bee-que?

And after the party cleanup (midnight I’m sure), we will try and get some sleep among the sirens and police activity and in the morning move again.  This time half way between there (where we are going today) and here (where we are currently parked) and will spend tomorrow night visiting with Ilene, Mike and LeOra.

We are not expecting to have any internet hookup at our next stop and so I must bid adieu (sp) until we get connected once again.  For you military types who are protecting me and my country, keep your heads down and come home safe.  For the rest of you reading this…well, you are just going to have to find something else to do with your time rather than sitting there waiting for your computer to sound off the reciept of another Bears Butt publication.  Maybe it’s time you went out and pulled those weeds you were going to do last week!  Just sayin!

By the way:  All mis-spelled words are brought to you by Toshiba and Windows…I can’t figure out how to enable it on this computer and so, what you see is what you git and if you don’t like it, that’s tough sh…..I forgot the rest of the saying, but you get the drift.

Bears Butt

July 21, 2013

Saturday, July 20, already!  Last night we had a wonderful dinner with several of the cousins AND Aunt LeOra.  Again one heck of a meal put on by Helen…All the fixins…potato salad, fresh steamed veggies, Salt rubbed roast, deviled eggs, and some delicious dessert treats.  And of course all the laughter that comes when this gang gets together.

Aunt LeOra isn’t in the best of health right now, but she hung in there until the end.  At one point she said we were going to have to stop with all the funny stuff…but how do you do that?  It’s impossible with a gang like this one.  One comment leads to another to another and the laughter just build and keeps building.

Aunt LeOra is looking good, but she has to use a walking cane and she shakes pretty badly.  You can tell she is having problems with her eyes as well, as when she looks at you she keeps closing one or the other of her eyes.  But for a 99 (almost 100) year old person she is in pretty good shape if you ask me.

We sure had a great time and the food was wonderful!  Thank you big time Helen and Manard.

So, what is in store for today?  They want to take us to some site around here, but we just want to have a day to kick back.  That will be a hard sell for us as Helen and Manard are pretty determined people.  With tomorrow being a day that we are to pack up and move to Kathies for our next Sunday party and sleep over, I have a couple of things to fix on the coach.  Something that I discovered yesterday.

I’m not a coach or travel trailer “put togetherer” so I don’t know what they use to get the glass to stick to the hinges of the windows, but during our hot travel through the desert areas, we had the windows partially open to give us some air and during one of those runs, the rear window came out of the hinge and is now impeading its opening and closing.  I have it parially open right now and when a car goes past quickly it flops.  I need to get it fixed today.  Also, we have been tagged by the local Marin, drive by egg patrol…Mike pointed that out to me as they were leaving last night…little A-holes!  Manard said they got him a couple of nights ago. That has to be cleaned off today.

Also, we had a visit by the local police last night.  I don’t know if someone turned in the egging or if they were just up in this area patrolling, but they turned around so that the lights would shine on the side of the coach.  They stopped as if looking at the egg splatter…perhaps one of the neighbors has told them we have stayed past our 72 hour window for parking on the street…who knows!

People are funny out here or at least not like people back home…They all drive Caddy’s, Mercedies (sp) or very new looking other brands.  The least expensive vehicle we have seen is our own.  But I must say, at least in this neighborhood, they look out for each other (and the rules of the home owners association).  We were sprucing up the back yard yesterday, an area outside the fence and on city property, and when we were putting it in the truck a guy pulled up to snoop to find out if we were picking up trash or dumping it…that’s ok I guess.  Concerned for sure.

Speaking of trash, we heard a bunch of coyotes the night before up on an “open space” hill very close by. They howled and carried on for several minutes, and to be in the city like this I was quite in awe that they would be living here.  I asked Manard about them and his explaination was that the local “animal rights people” have them protected and even if they come into your yard and snatch your cat or dog off his leash, you can not do anything about it…they were here first!

I told him that if MaPa’s was to be a victim of a coyote, I’d sure be trying to find a way to take that coyote and every other one I could find out!  He said that in this area alone, they have seen coyotes, bobcats, cougars, turkeys, deer and every other concievable wild animal around here and every one has been seen during the day.  That tells me first off there are too many of them roaming around, and secondly they have become too accustomed to being around humans.  It’s no wonder we read about joggers being taken out by cougars in California, my hopes on that is that the one getting taken out just got out of a “do gooder” meeting.

So, this morning I, me, myself, get to cook our breakfast. Helen has done nothing but stand in the kitchen the whole time we have been here, either cooking or cleaning up the dishes.  This morning it’s my turn.  Eblskeivers, eggs to order, hash browns and bacon.  None of this “kieshie” sort of stuff, although I must admit yesterdays breakfast was very, very good, today we are going down home with the meal.  Meat and potatoes and pretty much all you can eat.  Kathies two kids, Zach(16) and Alish(12) are here to help clean up whatever I put together and neither one (I think) have had eblskeivers.

Gotta go!  Vacation times flies when you’re having fun!

Bears Butt

July 20, 2013

Hello again!  It’s been several days since I have had a chance to get on here and visit!  I hope all is well with you.

My last story was while we were in Tonopah Nevada, home of the “next big deal” for speculators.  I talked with the owner of the RV place we were staying at and he/they are speculating on that area to become the next largest mining operation area in all of the U.S.  It seems that several companies have discovered gold in the surrounding mountains and are ripping and tearing things apart big time.  Hundreds of miners have come into town on temporary basis to do this work.  Office workers, heavy equipment operators, laborers of every kind and of course the money guys with the backing dollars.

What this means to the local economy is a boom.  This RV operator has expanded to what he has, which is 9, 2 family dwellings (mobile homes separated by a petition, each with their own 2 bedrooms, a small kitchen, living room and bathroom).  They are mounted on their own bases and a skirt put around them making them look permanent.  And several full hookup pull through units for larger RV’s.  Their plans are to expand to include another area and eventually will have up to 90 of the mobile home units and up to 200 RV pull throughs.

If you think about that, those units would accomodate a ton of people and at a pretty minimum investment.  He said they would rather cater to the full time residence than to us mobile campers.  But, as long as he had an opening he would gladly take our $24 for one night.  We were glad too as our next choice was another two plus hour drive to find a place for the night.

Additional economy boosts will come in the service industries surrounding the areas, including the gambling, drinking and of course “massage parlors”.

So, we left Tonopah the next morning and ventured toward South Lake Tahoe.  Our route took us toward the big burg of Bishop, California.  Our plan was then to travel north on that highway up to a town near South Lake Tahoe (Gardnerville, I think) and then try and find another over night spot.  Maybe even going as far West as Pollack Pines.  When we left Tonopaw I would have bet a six pack we would not make it to Pollack Pines.

During the route and as we were approaching our South Lake Tahoe destination, my navigator (Sherry) announced that coming up soon was a “short cut” road that would cut several miles off our trek should we employee the idea…of course I was open to most anything especially if it cut time off our ride to our next Point B.  We took the short cut.

A very narrow paved road with signs saying speed limit 25 and 15 and 10 and 5 on the beginning side and 5 and 10 and 15 and 25 and even one that said 35 on the other side.  We climbed up a very steep grade for about 6 miles and without a GPS to know exactly how many feet we climbed, I’d have to guess we climbed over 6,000 feet. The coach somehow made it without too much trouble.  Once on top we had to descend the other side down to our “common road” out of South Lake Tahoe and on to Pollock Pines.  I dropped the coach into “grundy” (automatic number 1) and tried to stay off the brakes coming off that steep grade…try that some of you truckers!  In grundy, the coach will max out at about 15 mph and the tach will be over 3,000…I had to apply brakes often to keep the rpm’s under 3,000 and once we were off the mountain I was pleased to still feel brakes when I pushed on the peddle.

For you up and coming vacationers, I suggest that unless you are driving a motorcycle, do not take Nevada State Scenic highway 89…if you see it on the map..ignore it. Yes it’s very pretty going up and down the road, IF you have a chance to take you eyes off the road, otherwise hold on tight!

Safely on highway 50 headed toward Sacramento, California, we soon found ourselves in Pollock Pines…it was about 6 p.m.  I went into a Safeway store for ice and to ask about overnight camping.  One place was all they could help us with and it was about 4 or so miles out of town…a place called “Sly Park”.

For you gamblers, doesn’t “sly park” sound like a slippery little place?  Our hands were tide, we had to go there and hope they had a slippery place for us to camp overnight.  As it turned out it is a State campground that surrounds a nice little lake.  The pines and oak trees are mixed together and both species grow REALLY tall. Every camp spot has a table, fire ring and BBQ stand.  Each camp spot is marked off with large rocks designating “your space” from the adjacent camp spot.  It was actually a very nice place and we settled into what they called Hill top, camp space 119.

Nestled in the pines/oaks with only three other campers in the whole area, it was quiet, dark and very peaceful.  I highly recommend that place to anyone traveling in this area.  It must get a lot of use as there is nothing that resembles grass on the ground anywhere.  Squirrels must be accustomed to being down near the waters edge camp spaces as there were none up where we were staying, but it was ok, we had “doodle bugs” up where we were and I made sure the kids in the camp next to us became aware of them and how to get them to come out of their holes before we left.

Leaving Pollack Pines and Sly Park, we headed for our final destination….San Rafael, California Via Sacramento.

Coming out of the higher country East of Sacramento you could feel the temperature change dramatically from cool to HOT to HOTTER and then Humid Hot…as that was taking place around us, so was the traffic.  We went from two lanes of “freeway”, into towns with signs that said “freeway ends” with no apparent reason for those signs, as the speed limit was the same and the lanes continued just like they were 10 miles before that sign and 10 miles after that sign, then to three lanes, all going the same direction and then four.  Suddenly a three lane freeway joined into ours from Reno, suddely it dawned on me that I was on a freeway with eight lanes going one direction.  65 mph, and the lanes were just as wide as the coach.  Every lane had a car, truck, big rig, camper, Uhaul, motorcycle…something in it, bumper to bumper for as far as you could see ahead.  I didn’t dare look into either mirror for fear of drifting into the lane next to me and crashing into another car or truck.  Straight ahead stare was my poise and I couldn’t help it.  What does the surrounding country side look like through that stretch of road? Don’t ask me, I was on top of California plate “givemeabreak”…..and hoping like heck that if I have to brake hard, the guy behind me has insurance, because all I could see of his rig in my back window was the luggage on top of his car.  I would hope he had a sign on the back of his rig that read “car in tow”.

I kept looking up at the signs over the freeway, San Franscisco, left 4 lanes, and I stayed in those left lanes…soon the sign read San Franscisco left 3 lanes, I knew we were starting to leave Sacramento behind.  Another sign read Right lanes exit only to some other “San city” and then I knew Sacramento was behind me…my gaze outside the window suddenly changed and I could feel freedom around me, I started to look at the country side again…fields, hay bales, space between vehicles, even though it was still crowded it wasn’t like “back there”.  The tension began to become less and less on my shoulders and neck.  My eyes began to wander again to the vitals of the coach and suddenly I realized we needed fuel!  $4.08 a gallon!  Try that in your 60 gallon tank!

I missed the freeway entrance from that stop and ended up on a frontage road that was taking us toward some farmers fields where they were loading large dump trucks with cherry tomatoes, I turned around in a dirt driveway and headed back toward the gas station and to the freeway entrance. Driving down the road I was thinking it would be about 4 more hours to our destination when suddenly Fairfield came on one of the signs!  Fairfield!  That’s where Marlin lives!  She only lives a few miles from Manard and Helen!  We are almost there!  But we haven’t had lunch!  I have to pull over so we can eat that great sandwichs Sherry made us two days ago and we split them, just for this occation.  I took a “go nowhere” exit and went to a wide spot in the road.  It had a sign saying $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people found guilty of animal abuse etc. A place that I thought nobody would use for the next three weeks.  The little paved road that we got there on was used quite a lot, but the dirt road we were facing couldn’t possibly have any traffic on it, especially today, Thursday at 1:30 in the afternoon.  Boy was I fooled.  Before we could get the sandwiches out of the fridge, a car drove down the dirt road and cautiously went past us as the driver looked to see what we were doing.  About half way through the sandwich another car went by with its driver looking and gawking at us and then as I was gulping down my last bite, “the old lady” went by and she nearly broke her neck making sure we saw her looking at us as she went past at 2 mph trying to memorize our license plate (I’m sure…WynSher)….

Back on the freeway headed toward San Rafael, Sherry’s GPS calling to us to turn here and turn there and when we were at the bottom of the hill below Manard and Helens it tells us to turn right…Turning right would have gotten us the distance of the length of the coach and up against a guard rail overlooking the stream that flows near their place.   I went forward and then turned around in the street and went back and then turned right…there we are…home away from home at Helen and Manards place.  A very beautiful home tucked away in a secluded sanctuary called “Upland Oak” and here I sit typing this and seeing a sign that says I am camped at the corner of “Oak Tree Circle and Upper Oak Drive”. 

The neighbor across the street right now has just taken his garbage cans out and is separating his stuff into the various containers, paper only, plastic only, cans and etc in the third.  I suppose it will come to that in Willard some day, but I think our backwards ways just might not have it come very soon.

What’s on tap for the next few days?  A dinner expected with additonal cousins Mike and Ilene and our loved Aunt LeOra tonight.  I’m not sure about tomorrow (Saturday, I think) and Sunday we move our operation over to second cousin Darrel and Kathy (she is the cousin) Anderson’s place north of here.  Darrel is a race car driver and doer of many things made of money and they bought a 3 acre place up on a hill in Pentaloma.  Our coach will be camped there on Sunday night.  A large family gathering is planned in our honor that afternoon and then our venture will begin to take us home on either Monday or Tuesday…I’ll try to write daily, but if something keeps me from doing it…be aware…we seem to be safe at the moment and the authorities have not even given us a warning ticket yet. 

My only concern at this point is that we are now being blanketed by all those warnings that are on so many of the things we enjoy back home…”has been known to cause cancer in people from Calfornia”…wish us luck!

Bears Butt

July 19, 2013

Hey!  It’s me again!

This mornings findings that the hotel wanted to charge us for 10 days stay at their “?wonderful?” RV park was quite a shock.  I ended up going to the office and talking with the boss…she called the bank where our credit card is and they said they would immediately re-instate the extra charge so it was available to us, even though the on line banking still shows it pending.  I was not a happy guy, but happier than if that had not been done.  One more in a series of ugly things happening on the beginning of this trip.

Anyway, that’s behind us.

Today was a decision day…go home…go on?  We parked along the highway in the shade of a tree and talked about our options.  We finally decided to go as far as Tonapah (whereever that is).  If we don’t have any more issues we will continue toward California…if issues arise, we have a shortcut toward Ely and then up to Wendover and home.

It has been hotter than a well diggers butt down here.  I saw two lizards cross the road today and I understand why they are so fast…their little feet must be burning up as they cross the road.  On a sorrier note a little bird was among several playing “chicken” with the coach this afternoon and he caught a wrong up draft….splat! 

The road between Mesquite and Tonapah (option 1) is a long and very hot sucker.  The highlight of it were two things…one…Since part of the road is called the “Extraterrestrial road” because of its close proximity to Area 51 and all the Alien sightings…about half way down the road is a place called “A le Inn”…we stopped, took some pics and I had a beer.  Sorry about not having pictures to show you right now, but with things the way they are I figured you reading what is going on is better than a thousand pictures…NOT!

The next best thing was not having any problems!

But there was a third good thing…Big Horn Sheep!!!  I just happened to look over when we made a turn at Warm Springs and saw some deer laying next to a small creek…I thought they were deer at first and then I thought I saw a big horn sticking out from ones head…I pulled over and sure enough the binocs showed some HUGE horns on a couple of them…and more were coming off the rocky mountain behind those!  My first time seeing those critters!

So, here we are in Tonapah, at a newly established RV park that is growing as we type.  It will be a great place some day, but as for now it’s a park in the gravel off the side of the road sort of thing with cabins being erected behind where the rv’s park.  No trees, no grass, but it’s quiet and nobody is yelling and screeming or anything.  We will be fine with this spot tonight.

Since we didn’t have any issues today, we will probably cross over the Nevada/Calif. line tomorrow and continue toward San Fran. Maybe I should have Sherry go drop a few dollars in a slot to try and recover some of our losses so far on this trip.

Tonapah was established when a camper lost his mule and when he found it several hundred yards from his camp, he picked up a rock to chuck it at the mule…the rock was sort of heavy and when he looked at it it was solid silver!

Bears Butt

July 16, 2013 P.M.

Not so fun a ride thus far on the vacaction. Yesterday while stopped for a roadside lunch we were informed by a guy who was riding a golf cart and looking like he was picking up garage, that the drivers front tire looked like it had a problem. Looking at it you could see it worn very badly on the inside of the tread. He immediately noticed a spot where the cord of the tire was showing. Not good!

Further investigation and an estimated $1000 we could be the proud owners of 2 new tires and new front shocks.

Feeling like we were being fished, we chose to drive the additional 50 miles to the next and larger town. That 50 miles was long and a sweaty palm trip, knowing that at any moment the tire could blow and send us into the world of the unknown.

We made it and were given the name of a store that could help us from our roadside insurance folks, $800 later we are the proud owners of two new front tires and two new shocks!

We got to St. George later than we wanted had a short but good visit with one of Sherrys sisters and then on to Mesquite to eat supper and visit another sis. It was a good but short visit, we were very tired after such a long day and it was almost 10 pm, we got checked in to the RV park had a drink and hit the rack.

This morning Sherry looks at our credit info and finds where the gal at the desk last night had signed me up for 10 nights at this site.

Folks this vacation is not shaping up so well!

July 16, 2013 Bears Butt