We went to Home Depot and bought a new toilette. But when we were trying to get it into the back of Patti’s I tweaked my shoulder.
That is as good an excuse as I could find to put off changing the toilette and taking a trip to the cabin.
We are leaving this morning and will be back home on Wednesday so there there won’t be any posts until we get back.
Talk to you next week.
I’m all finished with the tire carrier. Got the tires rotated and the spare mounted.
The weather man has been forecasting rain for the last couple of days. It drizzled last night and the streets are wet. It is drizzling at this time.
We took the RV to storage yesterday. It will be there until late June when we will get it out to get ready for our planned trip to Canada.
I think today we are going to go to Home Depot to buy a new toilette.
The one we have has been a problem since it was new. I’m tired of fixing it.
I went to the doctor yesterday to get a referral to a hand surgeon. I now have an appointment for May first to get my right hand looked at. The doctor told me that they would probably just inject the hand with a steroid. If it works, that would be better than surgery.
After the dr. visit I had to go buy some paint for the tire carrier.
When I got home I primed the carrier and after waiting a couple hours for the primer to dry I painted the carrier with black epoxy appliance paint.
The next thing to do Is put the carrier back on the jeep.
Now I can go get the spare tire mounted on the rim and have the tires rotated.
Maybe I’ll get that done today.
The first thing I did was to get the short piece of tubing off the mounting plate for the gas can mount. I was able to use my power hacksaw to cut the piece free rather than grinding the welds off.
Next, I cut another piece of tubing to what I thought was the correct length and tack welded it to the plate. Next I checked it with a wheel on the tire carrier.
It was too short by the amount that I had cut off.
I spent a lot of time looking through my scrap metal trying to find another piece of tubing to replace the one I cut short. Unfortunately it was the only piece that I had.
Okay, so I decided to go see if I could buy a piece of the same kind of tubing. I went to Home Depot and True Value hardware, but neither one had the heavy wall tubing.
One good thing about working with metal; if you cut it too short you can always just add a piece to make up the difference so that is what I did.
I clamped the two pieces to the welding table
and did a couple of tack welds to hold the two pieces in place while I did the final welding.
After it was welded up all the way around, I ground off just enough weld so the tube would fit in the socket on the tire carrier.
I checked the length again.
Okay that’s better. Next I drilled new holes for the pin that holds the mount on.
Next I finished welding the tube to the plate.
After that I assembled the mount and tried it on the carrier.
Next I tried the the gas can and it fit.
The next thing I wanted to do to the carrier was to put a rubber bumper on it between the carrier and the door. It was pretty simple.
All I had to was drill and tap a hole for the 1/4-20 screw to hold the bumper in place.
There was just one more thing to do. That was to weld a small lip on the mount for the carrier to put the magnetic tow lights.
All there is to do now is paint the the whole thing and put it back on the jeep. Maybe I’ll get that done this afternoon.
I have a doctors appointment this morning to see if they can fix the trigger finger on my right hand.
In the morning I unloaded some more stuff from the motor home but after a while I got bored with that and decided to modify the tire carrier.
When I built the carrier, I made it to fit the wheels that were on the jeep at the time. When we were in Quartzsite I bought new offset wheels. Now the mount for the spare tire sticks out farther than I like so I had to shorten the mount by 2”.
Fortunately the tire carrier is easy to remove so I pulled it off and clamped it to the welding table in my shop.
The first thing to do was to remove the tire mount from the carrier so it could be cut down. I don’t have a torch so I had to grind the welds off to remove the mount.
Next I had to cut 2” off the end of the mount. Of course all the saw blades for my band saw were dull so I had to take a ride to Harbor Freight to buy a couple of blades. I put on the new blade and cut the end off the mount.
After that I only had to weld the mount back on the carrier.
Ok, that part is done so the next thing to do is to modify the gas can mount; it has to be 3” long.
I will have to grind off the square tubing that is on the mount and weld on a 3 inch long piece.
I also plan to add a rubber bumper between the carrier and the door.
More about this project tomorrow.
When I walked into my backyard I found a bamboo forest in the making. There were nine giant lumber bamboo trees sprouting and several smaller types growing.
There are two neighbors adjacent to the north east corner of my yard. Both neighbors have bamboo growing in that corner. I have been fighting this bamboo for several years but every year there are more and more.
I cut the big ones down before I decided to take pictures. The big ones are about 3 to 4 inches in diameter at the base.
I will use Round Up on the smaller ones.
I don’t know any way to stop the bamboo from coming back every year. They have established themselves and have a well developed root system. I have been digging up the roots but it doesn’t seem to help.
We almost have the RV unloaded and will put it in storage by the end of the week.
We left Bakersfield around 8:30 and arrived in Santa Rosa around 4:30. We only stopped once for gas and had lunch on the road.
My allergies are better since we left the Palo Verde trees behind in Arizona but now Patti is starting to have similar problems here.
Although I enjoy the desert, it is nice to get back to the beautiful spring green hills of Sonoma county.
With the golden poppies
And the oaks hanging over the highway.
By the end of May the poppies and the grass on the hill sides will dry out and turn brown but the trees and the vineyards will still be green.
We are in Bakersfield at the River Run RV park and are all hooked up.
There was a small hiccup this morning when we were connecting the jeep. The left break and signal light on the tow lights weren’t working. It only took about 15 minutes to find and fix the problem. It was a broken wire in the rear plug.
About 7:25 we got underway. The drive was uneventful except for crazy drivers doing stupid things. Fortunately we managed to avoid getting run over by the idiots.
We stopped for about an hour at a rest stop just east of Barstow where we had lunch and I took a small nap.
We made another stop for gas at Kramer’s Junction. The tank took 47 gallons at a cost of $200.00.
We pulled into the River Run RV park at around 4:00 and are now resting up before we go to dinner.
It is now 6:30 am. we will be leaving Q by 7:00 am and should be in Bakersfield around 2:00 pm.
While we were driving around yesterday we noticed that the Saguaro cactus are blooming. Usually the don’t bloom until May but this year they are early. We usually leave here by the first of May so we don’t normally get to see them in bloom.
Generally we see them with the buds just starting.
Now some of the buds are opening up.
Last evening Jeff of Windshield Magic replaced the broken windshield in the motor home.
That is one more thing off the list of things to do before we head for home.
Patti might go with Debbie to the casino either this afternoon or tomorrow.
We will likely leave on Friday morning.
On Friday we went to Wellton and visited with Wayne for a couple of hours. He’s doing fine and making plans to head up to Washington state for the summer.
When we left Wayne we drove to Yuma and had lunch at the big Chinese buffet. It was okay. From there we stopped at Harbor Freight where I bought an assorted bunch of bungees. Some how all my bungees have disappeared.
I have been having one hell of a time with hay fever the last couple of weeks. The Palo Verde’s
and Cactus
and everything else is blooming. All that pollen is making my life miserable.
You know the drill; itchy runny eyes, sneezing, stuffed up nose some times and runny nose at other times, sleepless nights.
I can’t wait to leave here.
This is the second year that I have had this problem. We are talking about leaving here around the first of April next year. Before the Palo Verde’s bloom.
At the moment we are waiting for a new windshield to arrive so it can be replaced before we go home.
Patti is waiting for Debbie to get her car fixed so they can go to Lake Havasu to the Lake Side Casino.
If everything works out we should be ready to leave here for home by next Monday. I am slowly getting things together so when the time comes I will be ready to just pull the plug and leave.
It has been pretty hot here, temps in the high 90’s.
As a result we haven’t been doing much.
We did go to Cheryl and Dennis’ to play cards Tuesday evening.
The dentist that Patti was going to see on Monday was still sick on Tuesday. She hasn’t decided whether to make another appointment or just wait until we get home and see her dentist there.
We are planning to go down to Welton to visit Patti’s brother-in-law soon. It has been over 100 down there but it is supposed to start cooling down maybe into the low 90’s
The way it looks we may be heading for home next week some time.
My nephew John left after breakfast on Sunday around 8:00. We got a call from him around 8:00 that evening. He had made it back to Reno in one 12 hour day.
Yesterday morning we drove to Blythe CA. Patti had a dentist appointment for 10:00. When we got there the girl in the office said that the doctor was out sick and would not be back until today. They told us that they called to let us know about the Dr but we didn’t get the call. As it turned out Patti must have given them our house phone in Santa Rosa. oops!
Now they have Patti’s cell phone number.
Patti got another appointment for 1:30 today.
While we were in Blythe we did some shopping and stopped at the bakery and bought one of their awesome cherry crisps.
Before we left to go to Blythe, Debby came by and told us about a beautiful Argentine Cactus that was blooming in one of the yards in the Park.
Here is a picture of the cactus.
I decided to take John on a ride in the Kofa game refuge.
We left the RV park around 9:00 and headed east on I-10.
We turned south at Vicksburg Rd and stopped there to top off the gas tank and aired down.
From there we continued south on the dirt road and stopped at the Kiosk to show John where we were going on the map.
We continued south to the pipeline road where we turned west and continued to intersection 16 where we turned south.
We stopped to check out the Kofa cabin.
From there we continued across the desert. The trail drops into a wash and follows for a couple miles. At one point there is a trail that goes to the right to a monument that commemorates the dedicating of the Kofa game refuge. 
We drove back to the main trail and continued toward Big Horne Pass. Along the way we stopped to check out some petroglyphs.
Eventually we got to the top of the pass.
We drove down the south side of the pass and turned west in Hoodoo wash and drove to the Willbanks Cabin.
We were planning to have lunch there but there were several people there so we headed east in the wash and eventually arrived at the Hoodoo Hilton where we stopped for lunch.
After lunch we drove south and went over Red Rock Pass. Eventually got back to the Pipeline road where we turned east. In a couple of miles we got back to Vicksburg Rd. We traveled north on Vicksburg Road until we came back to the pavement. We stopped there to air up the tires. We got back on I-10 and headed west back to Quartzsite arriving at the RV around 5:00.
We went to the Mountain Quail for the Prime Rib special.
This morning we had breakfast at the Times 3 restaurant with John and then he left to go back to Sparks, NV.
We left Cameron, AZ around 8:00 and drove non stop to Quartzsite.
At 1:35 we arrived at the RV park in Quartzsite.
My nephew, John, was already in Q, at the Super 8 Motel so when we got parked, Patti called him and he met us at the Carl’s Jr. After a quick lunch, he followed us back to the RV park.
My vinegar fix for the shower didn’t work, so after John parked his truck. We went to RV Lifestyles (an RV repair and parts house) and purchased a new shower faucet. This time they had one that had the right length connections. I brought it home and installed it. It works just fine; no leaks.
The rest of the day we just sat around visiting with John. We went to dinner at The Grubstake.
Today I am taking John on a ride into the KOFA preserve.
We left Moab around 9:30. the weather was cold and partly cloudy.
There was no snow on the ground although it looked like it was snowing on the La Sal Mountains.
We didn’t encounter any snow on the ground until we were approaching the turn off to Canyonlands NP at Highway 211.
That was the last appreciable accumulation of snow for the rest of the trip.
Monticello was clear of snow even though it was at a higher elevation than Moab.
The Abajo mountains to the west of Monticello looked like they may have gotten a light dusting last night.
We went through Blanding then dropped down the canyon into Bluff.
After going through Bluff we crossed the San Juan River.
We continued west on 191 through more red rock country.
At Keyenta we stopped for lunch at the Sonic Burger place.
We arrived at the Cameron Trading Post around 3:00 Moab time.
We had diner at the restaurant in the Trading Post. It was reasonably priced for a tourist trap and the food was good.
If all goes well we will be back in Quartzsite tomorrow afternoon.
It started raining some time in the middle of the night and stopped around 5:00am. I got up around 7:00 and it was very quiet out side except for a steady dripping sound.
We planned to leave Moab this morning and I was eating my breakfast when Patti lifted the shade on the rear window.
“Oh my, it’s snowing” she cried.
I looked out the window alongside the dinette and sure enough it was snowing fat fluffy flakes.
Our route would take us through Monticello which is around 2000 feet higher. We decided not to take any chances and stay here for another night. This would give us a chance to get some nice pictures of the red rock country with a layer of snow.
Also the diversion valve on our shower wasn’t working. When we pull up on the button to divert water from the faucet to the shower head most of the water still comes out of the faucet. I decided I would take this opportunity to change the faucet.
Before we left the RV to go to town I took some pictures of the cliffs to the west of where we are staying.
Very pretty, no?
Eventually we got in the jeep which was also covered with snow
and headed for town.
The further north we went the less snow we saw.
By the time we got to the RV supply store there was no snow at all and the snow that was on the jeep was gone.
It was kind of strange.
While I was in the RV store talking the lady she said that her grandfather who lives in Monticello told her that there was no snow at all up there.
Oh well we already paid for another night at the RV park.
I bought a new shower faucet and we headed back to the RV to install it.
We took a couple more pictures on the way home.
When we got home I installed the shower faucet but the connections weren’t long enough to make a water tight connection.
Back to town we go.
By now it was time for lunch so we stopped at Milts for a hot dog.
We went to the RV store and returned the faucet. They didn’t have anything that would work so we went to the City Market and I bought a bottle of white vinegar.
Back at the RV I soaked the old faucet in the vinegar for a couple of hours while Patti did laundry.
In preparation for getting under way for leaving tomorrow, I dumped and flushed the black tank and swept the floor. When that was done I reinstalled the shower faucet. I tried it and it seemed to work fine. I guess that it was just clogged up with lime. We will see what happens when I am all soaped up tomorrow morning. I sure hope it works then.
We had a good Mexican dinner at La Hacienda.
