We Had It Right In Our Hands and Let It Slip Away!

Boulder City, NV

Many members of our volunteer campground gang
L-R Bill, Barb, me Liz. Ginny, Joan, Liz
Bob, Don, Leslie and Chris

Joan and I have been devastated by not collecting on our winnings in the $1 Billion Powerball lottery. Because Nevada does not support the lottery (they want your pocket change spent in the casinos) we made 2 special trips into Arizona to purchase tickets for ourselves and some of our co-workers. 1 trip on Saturday when the lottery was a measly $400 million and another on Wednesday for the Big One! Collecting our winnings you ask?...Yes that's right, we actually had a winning ticket. We hit the Powerball on one of our tickets, which we later determined would have been worth $4 if we hadn't thrown it away! Alas, looks as though we'll have to continue to live the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed.

So after the heart-wrenching lottery loss, 2 weeks of grueling volunteer work and knowing that we would need to have the motorhome serviced for us to continue to full time, we scheduled some work on the MH and planned a trip to Quartzite and points south. Woohoo! We dropped off the MH on Monday and headed to Quartzite; about 4 hours away. We arrived a little after lunch and went straight into the big tent to see Rudy & Phil (Workin' RVers).  Last year Rudy & Phil both took full time positions at Crazy Horse Memorial just outside of Custer, SD. They were at Quartzite recruiting workampers and promoting Crazy Horse as a vacation destination. After chatting awhile, we meandered in and around the big tent checking out all the other vendors and products. We stopped to purchase a couple of new outdoor folding chairs before heading to our hotel.


Tuesday we met up with Jim & Barb (JimandBarbsRVAdventure) to check out some new & used RVs before heading out to their boondocking site just outside of Quartzite.







Later that afternoon we joined Jim & Barb attending a social/cocktail hour/fish fry with several other RV Dreamer boondockers.







Wednesday we headed about 90 miles west for an Agricultural Tour sponsored by University of California. Our friends from Lake Mead, Don & Ginny joined us as did Jim & Barb. The tour took place at a 255-acre research farm in Holtville, CA.

Ginny picked from the crowd for a demonstration

The cost was $20 each; and for our donation we got 1) a 9:30am-2:30pm interactive tour of the farm; 2) lunch made with farm fresh veggies; 3) informative narrated video about the facility;









4) 'hayride' in and around the farm;

Those are folks from the tour picking in the u-pick feilds

5) a U-Pick opportunity to take home fresh vegetables such as radishes, beets, broccoli, turnips, and lettuce; 6) door prizes; 7) Ice Cream! The experience was informative and fun. And we scoped out the farm as a potential volunteer opportunity sometime in the future.

Thursday we were in Yuma to spend some time with our friends Don & Donna. We met Don & Donna while we were in Oregon on our 1st workamping job. They were experienced workampers and taught us some of the ropes that season. Not only did we get to catch up with them, but we got to play lots of cards and board games!


And before we left Yuma we met up with Kevin and Evelyn (RV Kronicles of Kevelyn). Joan & I have followed their blog for some time now and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet them in person. Based on their plans for the future, it's very likely we'll get to see them again during our travels.

While we were in Quartzite we had received a call from the repair shop where the motorhome is being serviced. They identified 2 important issues that needed to be addressed; 1) a cracked and leaking exhaust manifold and 2) a bad injector in cylinder #1, both of which we approved to be repaired. Friday morning we left Yuma planning to be in Vegas by 2pm to pick up the MH and get set up back in the volunteer campground before dark. We arrived at the repair shop on time only to find out that a replacement injector had to be ordered out of Reno and would not arrive until Monday. Now we were homeless for the weekend. A quick call to Joan's cousin Theresa and we were invited to spend the weekend with them in North Las Vegas. It was a fun weekend with a movie (Dirty Grandpa) Friday night; a trip into 'Chinatown' for massages Saturday; and a short road trip to MT Charleston and Red Rock Canyon Sunday. Monday we picked up the MH and returned to our campground in Lake Mead.

Original layout

One of the things that we did accomplish this week was the finalization of our living room remodel. When we bought our MH in 2010 it came with a small 'futon' style couch in the driver's side slide facing the TV/entertainment center wall. The remaining space in the driver's side slide was taken up with a 10" deep 'buffet' style cabinet, barely deep enough to store anything other than small packages of kitchen utensils; and it held a fixed dining room table top that projected into the room 24"-36" inches.


Before we went full-time in 2012 we removed the table top in favor of a portable double-wing folding table from IKEA and replaced the uncomfortable couch with IKEA pong chairs. 1 year later we upgraded our chairs with Lazy Boy recliners.


This year we were thinking it was time for something new so we got rid of the recliners and buffet style cabinet to install a couch and larger cabinet (not quite as wide as the original, but much deeper). Boy! What a difference that made. The new power reclining couch is a 'wall-hugger' model with a footprint that fits entirely within the depth of the slide. Neither of the recliners would fit within the slide as they had to sit off the wall so they could recline; and when reclined they extended 1'-2' into the room.

Tadaa! New couch, new cabinet and the
wing-table against the mirrored wall

With the new couch, the entire width of the living room floor is open; many of our neighbors have described it as a dance hall! And the new 24"deep x 36" wide cabinet has 3 slide out drawers with tons of room for whatever Joan desires.

Out with old; In with the new!

If you remember our last blog we mentioned the oven removal and cabinet redesign in its place. Like the oven/cabinet project I removed the old buffet cabinet and installed the new cabinet using a few hand tools. The estimate to have both of these projects done by an RV remodeling company was $4700.00. I was able to do both myself for just under $1500.00. Yahoo!

Yesterday our gang got together and we all went bowling. Many of the large casinos in Vegas have bowling centers. The Sunset Casino has 72 lanes; it is very well decorated, clean and comfortable within. And on Friday mornings we can bowl for $1 a game...hard to beat that.

Well, that's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come!

Ringing in the New Year

Boulder City, NV

Ethel M's Chocolate Factory & Cactus Garden
with Joan, Ginny, myself & Don

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! Joan and I have had a great start to the new year; enjoying time with friends and family; completing some mods and repairs on the RV; and planning for 2016.

One of the things we like to do each Christmas season is visit the Botanical Cactus Gardens in Henderson. Ethel M's is the largest in Nevada and one of the largest collections of its kind in the world; it covers 4 acres and contains over 300 varieties of cacti and succulents from around the world. If you want to see the cactus, you need to visit during daylight hours. But if you're interested in Christmas lights, it's best to visit at night. For the last 22 years, workers have decorated the cactus garden with over half a million Christmas lights. I'm not sure how much the decorators get paid, but it's not a job I would want as the lights are placed directly on the cactus. I hope they're wearing some sort of chain mesh gloves because there are lots of spikes and thorns.


We had a visit from Jim & Barb of JimandBarbsRVAdventure. They were exiting cold weather in Salt Lake headed for Quartzite. They had never visited The Strip so we took them down to Freemont St. What a hoot! It was only Wednesday, but many of the characters were out in full form.




Joan's long time girlfriend from Seattle, Terry came into town over Christmas and stayed a few night with us. I'm telling you she's a bad influence on Joan! The first night in town she and Joan cruised Las Vegas Blvd and the Strip until 3am! And then Terry introduced Joan to Pai Gow poker. Joan's been suggesting we stop in one of the casinos and play almost every other day! And this from my wife who had bragged that we did not drop a quarter into a slot the first 2 years we were in Vegas.






The weekend after Christmas Joan & Terry drove north into Utah to visit Zion and Bryce National Parks. The temps got as low as -9 overnight while they were there. BBBRRRRRRR!

Oven before........

While they were gone off to play, it was all work for me. Our MH came equipped with both a gas oven and convection/microwave oven. After several attempts to use the gas oven, neither of us was impressed as it was awkward to light and poor to cook with. In fact we stopped using it altogether in favor of the convection oven. For the last 3 years it was a storage bin for a couple of frying pans. After looking at how the gas oven and gas burners were designed, I was fairly confident I could remove the oven and keep the stove top burners. So I turned off the gas into the MH before completely removing the oven and attached stove top. 

Oven gone
stove top remounted

I separated the stove top burners from the oven, then built a platform to support the burners in their original position. I remounted the stove top burners, sealed off the oven pilot light, gas and thermo-coupling lines before reconnecting the gas line to the burners. I tested the burners and everything worked as it should. 

Sliding racks installed

This left us with a 2' wide x 20" tall opening in our kitchen cabinets. A quick visit to Lowes and we picked up a 2-tier sliding drawer rack that would fit into the opening. 

Finished Product

I retrieved a cabinet door left over from a previous cabinet mod we had done and determined we could modify it to fit the cabinet opening. I trimmed the opening in the cabinet and mounted the trimmed cabinet door with left over hinges and hardware.

Joan was thrilled with the additional storage space and I was happy with the finished look and cost savings. When we originally considered this change, we had an estimate done to remove the oven and replace the cabinet. That estimate came in at $1700.00. I managed to do this work for less than $125.00, sliding rack included. And I did it with an electric drill, jig saw and hand tools. I don't consider this a difficult mod to do. Even if I couldn't have reused the original burners, a new stove top can be purchased for less than $200.  We're working on another major mod in the MH and I hope to be able and share that one with you in the next blog update.

Shout Out to Jim & Deb back in Florida. Both of them have retired and moved into their MH full-time. Their plan is to be on the road by the end of January and joining us for the summer. Wahoo!

Well, that's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come.

.

We Can Go Home Toto....At Least for a Visit

Boulder City, NV

No, this is not Boulder City. Rather this is the view from my mom's living room in Florida. Joan and I have just returned from our Thanksgiving tour of the southeastern United States. Technically we were gone 3 weeks and 3 days leaving Vegas at 12:20am on 11/3 and returning at 11:30pm on Black Friday 11/27.During our trip we flew across 9 states; drove through 3 states; stayed at 5 different locations; attended 1 wedding; visited a new house (my step daughter's); found out I'm going to be a grandpa again (my son & his wife, a boy this time); installed 2 jeep bumpers, 1 winch and 2 slide toppers; saw numerous family members and friends; and ate out about a gazillion times (yes that's a real number!). We had so much fun and as much fun as it was, we are so glad to be back at home sleeping in our own bed.

Logan, Cody, Sydney, Mary, Katie, Katie & Jacob,
Matt, Shelby, Carson & Staci (might as well be a niece)

Jacob and Katie; In year's past Joan & I have been planning trips back to Florida around Christmas. This year Joan's nephew Jacob was getting married the first week of November so we decided to travel back for Thanksgiving. Jacob is only the 2nd of Joan's parent's grandchildren to get married (Joan's son Sean is the other). But there are a slew of grandchildren (Joan is the oldest of 7 siblings) ranging from mid teens to early 30's. I suspect we'll start to see more wedding announcements soon.
All but 2 of Joan's nieces and nephews were in attendance and Joan had a great time catching up with them.


Originally we flew into Atlanta and stayed a day or 2 visiting with my sister and oldest son. We borrowed my son's truck and headed out to Alabama for the wedding. From the wedding we headed south to Florida to spend time with my mom and dad. Over the next 2 weeks we visited numerous family and friends.........

My youngest son Chris and his family
Landen, Lindsey, Chris, Jaelyn & Tiana

Joan's dad Tommy
Grandsons Ryan & Bradley

Joan, my dad Jim, me & my mom Sue

April, Sean & Joan

Judy, Lisa, Joan, Judy's husband RV & Susan

Joan got the chance to take several of her girlfriends to lunch. They laughed and had so much fun they missed their exit off the expressway to drop off one of the girls. When they did exit, they got back on the expressway going the wrong direction ending up 20 miles further down the road. So they made the best of a bad situation and drove around visiting other friends near the exit where they finally got off the expressway.


Our friends Jim & Deb are just weeks away from retiring and starting their full time RV adventure. Since we saw them last Christmas they have sold their house; bought and moved into their 40' 2007 Country Coach motorhome, traded their pickup for a 2015 Jeep Rubicon and started prepping their families for their departure. If all goes to plan, they will leave Florida in February headed west to join us for a quick vacation in March. We plan on giving their new jeep a baptism of rock & trail climbing, while at the same time getting both of them used to some of the things they may encounter if they're able to work with us inventorying BLM roads during the summer. We helped them with some of that prep by adding bumbers and a winch to their jeep.

4 Generations
me, my mom, oldest son Doug &
grand daughter Trstyn

After 2 weeks in Florida it was time to head back towards Atlanta for Thanksgiving. Joan, my mom and I left on Monday and avoided most of the 'crazy' holiday traffic. We stayed a couple of nights with my sister before celebrating at my sister's house on Thursday.









Thursday night we stayed with my son and his wife; enjoyed an early hike Friday morning and spent the rest of the day just enjoying our time with Tristyn.




Friday evening Doug dropped us at the airport and we arrived home at Lake Mead around 3 am Saturday morning.



Joan and I return to work tomorrow and I got picked up to play in a softball tournament this coming weekend in Mesquite. We'll be spending Christmas at Lake Mead this year. Several friends have stated they plan to visit Vegas around Christmas so we'll see how it goes; This will be our first Christmas away from family, but we've got lots of friends here with us at Lake Mead, so I'm sure it will be great.

That's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come.

Jeep.....Just Empty Every Pocket!

Lake Mead NRA, Boulder City, NV

So we've been in Lake Mead for 2 weeks, and finished our 1st week of volunteering. We've returned to the same job we've had the last 2 years as Road Monitors. We're only required to work a total of 32 hours a week combined, and for that we're provided a FHU site in a small volunteer campground near Boulder Beach. We use one of the parks 4x4 trucks to drive the 500+ miles of back country roads throughout the park.

We record road conditions such as washouts or hazards, disturbances such as missing or damaged signs; signs of travel off the designated approved roads into or across the desert; we perform light maintenance of signs, roads and removal of disturbance tracks and some litter. And though we don't have to, we enjoy the work so much we usually work at least 3 days a week.

A couple of weeks ago Joan's cousin Theresa called us and told us about a trail ride through Death Valley being held by a local jeep club. Their jeep was unavailable so they decided to ride with us. We left early Saturday morning and drove about 90 miles to Indian Springs just northwest of Vegas to meet up with the club. There were 35 jeeps in all divided into 2 groups.

And even though it was raining (and I mean the heaviest rain we've seen in the Vegas area in the last 3 years) everyone was still eager to go. We drove a 160 mile loop into and out of Death Valley where the rain relented, leaving the temps very comfortable and the dust level very low. The route was mainly desert trail but there were a couple of cool spots; including this one requiring some technical driving as we descended an 8'-10' dry waterfall.










And we rounded one corner to see this unusual sight.





The route home after the trail ride was about 90 miles, and Joan's cousin suggested we take a short cut across country. About 5 miles into the short cut we realized the rain had left more of an impression along this road and ended up slogging our way through numerous gigantic mud puddles. I think it looks as though we had too much fun!

L-R  Theresa, Brian, Joan & I
Recuperating from our long day off-raoding

Driving around Boulder City we see lots of neat sights, including this one......

Wow! Just look at that style.
It's got to be a strike!

And Joan & I got in a little bowling practice before the remainder of our fellow volunteers show up....





Over the last 2 weeks we've made some modifications to the jeep; including adding front and rear bumpers, a winch, CB radio and relocating the license tag and 3rd brake light.

I've done these mods myself, and I must say I've really enjoyed being able to do that. Besides the monetary savings, it gives me a real sense of accomplishment while I'm getting an education about the jeep itself. 

So forgive me if I brag a little with these pictures.....

Well that's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come!

Swinging For the Fence

Boulder City, NV

Lake Mead

Joan and I arrived at Lake Mead Friday, a couple days ahead of schedule. September seemed to fly by so fast as we were wrapping up our summer job driving and inventorying BLM roads in Nephi, UT, about 50 miles south of where we started in Tooele, UT. Between April 13 when we started and October 9 when we returned to Lake Mead we drove almost 21,000 miles; worked in 4 states including Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana; and saw some spectacular scenery that 95% of the population has never seen.



This summer we were a little warmer than usual as we have been working summers at elevations between 5K'-8K'. This year we were working in the lower deserts. In Montana during August we had a couple of 100 degree days. And while we thoroughly enjoyed our summer job, there were days when we didn't see eye to eye on how to get it done. We got upset with one another as co-workers often do; but those disagreements and conflicts were soon forgotten as we enjoyed the scenery around us and the camaraderie of our other co-workers.











We had a final game night with our other teams before we left. L-R...Joan, Jessica, Daniel, Maxine, Dave, Chuck, Claudia and me!










We headed to Moab to meet up with Gay & Joe (Good Times Rollin') and do a little 4 wheeling.

Joe & Gay in Pearl showing us the way

We drove Onion Creek-Thompson Valley  our first day there.....

Driving down Dragon's Tail

and followed up a day later on Hell's Revenge.

The wheel wells look a little fuller with the 35" tires

After a few days in Moab we headed towards St George where I would be meeting my old Florida softball team to play in the Huntsman Games and where our jeep would be getting a little work done...if you know what I mean. Joan and I decided we would like a little more clearance for rocks and things while we're off-roading so we had a Tereflex 2.5" lift and BFG 35" KO2 tires installed. This netted us a total lift of 3.5" measured at the bottom of the drivers door (from 18" to 21.5" of clearance). We're also planning to add different bumpers and a winch while we're staying in Lake Mead this winter.

The Cardiac Kids - 2015 Mesquite

Last Saturday I met up with my old team, The Cardiac Kids just before the first game of a weekend warm up tournament in Mesquite. One of the first things my coach ask was when was the last time I'd played. My answer was "March". Yeppers, a 6 month layoff. I guess he and I were neither one sure what to expect once we were playing. But I think I impressed him during my first at bat when I hit a 3 run home run on my first swing. Yes, it was truly an ESPN moment. We played 7 games in 2 days and won the 2015 Mesquite Can-Am Tournament.

Some times we play...and some times we play!
L-R Gary, Buster, Gary, Frank, Kenny, Stan,
Tommy, me, Steve, Ray, Kooch, Dave & Bobby

On Monday were started the Huntsman seeding games. We went 3-0 in seeding, and were quickly 'bumped' from A to Top Seed in the AAA bracket. Wednesday we started bracket play and came out cold. We lost 2 games and that was the end of our Huntsman Games. All in all we played 12 games in 5 days. And my 6 month layoff is reminding me how out of shape I was every chance it gets. Everything hurts....even typing!





Well, that's about it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come!