Getting Caught Up

Quick review of activities since early Spring.  Lots of deaccessional activity.  For example, 45+ years of conference badges.  No room for them in the wheel-people life!

Giant RV delivered my Milan trailer to my site at Jojoba Hills.  My house sold for more than the asking price within a week of listing!  And I made three U-Haul runs to move various things to my lot: patio furniture, pet cactuses, garden tools, barbeque and many more boxes than I had hoped.  My 8X12 storage shed filled up fast! 

Karin drove my Elantra ("the Opel", she calls it) while I shuttled the Phoenix Cruiser down to Jojoba.  But I still had the Porsche to move.  I called on Lisa Berry, an Esri friend, to drive the Porsche from Redlands to Aguanga. The last ten miles are nice hilly and curvy roads.  Did Lisa have trouble handling the 911 Carrera?  No way. She was the Ladies SCCA Autocross champion in 2009:

The Milan trailer is right behind Lisa and the Cruiser is on the left.  This was a rather small and barren lot; a nicer one came available just a few days later, so another U-Haul rental was in order for all my belongings and SKP friends Randy and Claude moved the Milan up to the new site

....and some news....

A week ago Jojoba Hills offered me a lot, which I accepted.  It's pretty bare, which will give me a chance to try out my landscaping and gardening chops.

Also, Giant RV called and I got a briefing on my Eclipse Milan travel trailer -- which will stay on my site in Aguanga -- and went through the paperwork ceremonies.  Though it's also 25 feet, it looks huge compared to the motorhome.  No engine and cab makes the difference

Tomorrow (March 30) I'll go through more paperwork at Jojoba, then arrange for Giant to deliver the trailer.

Solo NorCal Trip

I've been photographing car races since 1958, so as a retirement present I signed up for a two-day photo course at Laguna Seca by http://www.f8photoworkshops.com

Charity begins at home, after all. It was great to see signs of Spring on the way up:

I picked the Wine Country RV park in Paso Robles for an overnight stop, and discovered to my delight that they had arranged to have the Estrella warbird and racecar museum just 2 miles away for my entertainment.  Recommended!  If you like such things.

F-104

I had my first "dry camping" or "boondocking" experience parked in the paddock at the raceway. I'm thankful that the vintage #75 Nascar didn't snore at night.

Here are the three pictures I chose to submit for the Sunday lunch critique:

Last one for Denis Demers:

After the course, I drove up to Davis to take my son Dylan and granddaughter Julia on an overnight RV adventure in the Sierra.  We inspected '49er miner diggings in Dutch Flat but spent more time checking out a recent (2011) hydroelectric installation, dormant because of the California drought:

Upper Lake, Dutch Flat

Julia inspects some olivine

Dylan explains hydro infrastructure to Julia -- a good listener

Julia works on her PlayMobile RV

I stayed at the Park Sierra in Coarsegold (near Fresno), the "other" Escapee's RV park in California. Very nice; not the desert.  I may move my pneu-a-terre there some day.

And Edwards Air Force Base provided entertainment along route 58 north of the base:

B-52 at ~1000' AGL

New Coach Part II: back to Redlands

Picking up the drive from Elkhart to Redlands, we stayed with my sister Charlotte in Santa Fe for a couple of days. But first, the Route 66 car museum:

Karin and Charlotte at La Fonda on the Plaza (hotel):

Beautiful petroglyphs on private land:

Surprise snow the morning we left. Santa Fe is at 7000 feet, after all:

Excellent science museum in Los Alamos:

And a spectacular view of one of the two supervolcano calderas in the USA:

We stayed overnight at "Mom & Pop's" RV Park in Farmington NM.
Pop still makes tiny dioramas at age 84, painting without a magnifier:

Next, a quick stop at Monument Valley. The drive from Kayenta to the Valley is a treat for amateur geologists:

We drove to Sedona via the Grand Canyon and a quick stop at the "other" Planes of Fame museum. Not sure I've ever seen a P38 without it's wings and engines:

We went on Kim Carlsberg's UFO tour in Sedona, recommended!  http://www.sedonaufoskytours.com/ After the tour she pointed us to the Red Planet Diner; good food and fun decor:

Overnight in Las Vegas, then home through the Mojave National Preserve. More great geology and interesting WWII boom-town history:

Home again to lawn mowing and pool chemistry.

P.S:  We lucked out on timing. For example, it was 55 and sunny when we were at Mammoth Caves. 10 days later there was a foot of snow on the ground.

We pick up the new Coach

We met in Chicago Jan 31 and stayed over again with Tex and Susan Hull.  The next day we watched the great Superbowl game with some of Tex's friends from SPSS:

Before the game, we braved the weather to walk over for another visit to the Field Museum:

Groundhog Day. Tex drove us to Elkhart for quick tour of the Phoenix Cruiser Factory and an orientation on my new coach. (not this one!)

We had lots of provisioning and outfitting to do in Elkhart.  Think: new 

apartment.  Maria carded us for our wine.

We stayed the first night right at the Phoenix factory, using their visitor shore line for 

electricity. They assured us we wouldn't freeze anything even at 5 degrees. 

We left Elkhart and drove south. We left the snow behind around Indianapolis.

First stop: Mammoth Caves, in Kentucky; we took the "Domes and Dripstones" tour. Sand-

hill cranes overhead as we entered the cave.

Next stop, Nashville for more provisioning and supper at Cracker Barrel. 

Excellent gas prices!

You can't drive through Memphis without paying homage to the king. 

Karin at Graceland:

Elvis' pool room:

Next stop: Little Rock,  Clinton library. 

I had been there for a conference social the year it opened.  Lot of saxophones and good 

vibes.

Oval office replica at Clinton Library

To extend the Clinton theme, we drove beyond Oklahoma City and stayed in Clinton OK. Main St is the old Route 66.

We got the coach washed at a truck-wash in Clinton, skipping the special "Carrots and Sweet-Potato Cleansing". I just wanted to get rid of the Indiana road salt.

Amarillo Attraction:  the Big Texan Restaurant.The 72 ounce steak is free if you eat in within one hour.

The restaurant has wonderful hokey decor:

In Amarillo we visited the Museum of Art which had a wonderful exhibit of late Andy Warhols:

Amarillo also features the Cadillac Ranch.  All the cars are coated with at least an inch of spray-paint graffiti. 

Russell's Truck Stop just into New Mexico has an excellent free car museum:

A Second RV!

The visit to Jojoba Hills was a multifaceted revelation:  if I rented a lot at the RV Resort, I wouldn't have to get an RV big enough to carry everything I owned wherever I went.  In fact, I would have a small storage shed on the lot!  Karin and I quickly cut out graph paper to represent shelves for banker's boxes, my Elliptical machine, my Meade telescope, and a lot more, and shifted the cutouts around to show that it might be possible to keep my exercise machine in the shed along with plenty of stuff  I really didn't want to get rid of. Even hang my windsurfer from the ceiling,

The notion of keeping a travel trailer on the site and storing a small RV while I was not on the road meant I could get one of Phoenix Cruiser's smaller rigs, which I really wanted, but I would need to learn about travel trailers in a hurry.  So back to Giant RV in Colton -- two towns away from Redlands -- for a crash course.

At Giant, we heard about the Eclipse factory in nearby Riverside. They make rugged "toy-haulers" and have a sideline of travel trailers.  So another factory tour was in order:

Travel trailers are simpler than my Phoenix Cruiser -- they don't have a motor and driver's cab.  They come in a bewildering variety of floor plans, most of which I could quickly eliminate: no need for a kids' bedroom or "bunkhouse", also forget about any plan that involved walking the length of the unit to get to the bathroom. Here's the one I zeroed in on:



The nomenclature is strange.  You might think the "25" means 25 feet long.  In fact it's almost 29 feet.  Oh, that may include the trailer hitch...  "RK" stands for "Rear Kitchen".  The "S" might have something to do with the "slide" that contains the 'fridge, sofa, and a wardrobe. Anyway, our requirements echoed those for the the road unit: fixed bed, real dinette for eating and laptops, bedroom and bathroom adjacent.  Here's what it looks like:

I put in a special order through Giant, and one of my specifications was to have the graphics lady not put "swooshes" over any window:

My Milan will be ready around mid-to-late winter, good timing.  Giant RV agreed to store it on their site if I didn't have my lot at Jojoba Hills ready, also to tow it down to Aguanga and set it up on my lot.  

I'll probably never move the Milan; I didn't buy a spare tire for it.  Legally, Jojoba Hills is an "RV Resort" and not a "Trailer Park".  All units in the resort have to be movable on 72 hours notice, and must have current motor vehicle registrations. We're road-people after all, and can choose any state as a domicile. Most choose Florida, Texas or South Dakota; more on this soon.

Shortly after placing the order, I emailed Earl at Phoenix Cruiser and found that my RV was coming off the assembly line in Elkhart and was about to go into the paint shop.  My last work day is January 9th; Karin's is January 15th.  We have reservations to meet in Chicago again at the end of January and stay with Tex and Susan on Superbowl weekend.  They've promised to drive us to Elkhart February 2nd to pick up the RV.  More about our return trip plans soon.