Our RV Adventures

I got up about 10 this morning to find Jan already up and feeling well. It’s good to have her back to normal.

So the first thing was to get the coffee started, check the email, and talk about the day’s plans.

As it turned out, we had none. Isn’t retirement grand!!

Around 11, Nancy Bertling, a former coworker of Jan’s called to say hi and ask for some suggestions for a laptop for her father. We’ve known Nancy for a long time and it was good to hear from her. Hopefully she’ll keep in touch more often.

About 1 pm Jan fixed a lunch of cheese toast and chips, and of course, Miss Terry’s great homemade bread made it perfect.

After lunch I replaced the foam air filter in the rear A/C after cleaning the one in the front yesterday. But the rear one was starting to shred so I just replaced it instead of trying to clean it.

It’s amazing how much better the A/C’s work without all the Yuma and Tucson dust clogging them.

About 2 pm I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and install the new grey tank valve that I got at Camping World before we left Tucson.

Unlike the black tank valve I installed a week or so ago, the 4 bolts came off with no problems. This of course, warned me that I would more trouble with someelse later. And I was right.

Removing the old valve and seals was no problem, but one soon appeared. The instructions tell you install the seals on the ends of the pipe and then slide the valve into place. And this worked fine on the larger, thicker black tank valve.

But the grey tank valve is thinner, and no matter how I tried I could not slide the valve body between the pipes without pushing the seals off.

So my next idea was to apply silicone grease to the valve seal area and to the seals, and then stick the seals to the valve and slide it in place. But the first time I did it with the valve open, and when I closed the valve to test it, I could tell a seal had come loose and was in the way.

So the second time I closed the valve first and tried it again. This was much better, but after tightening things down, I had a small leak around the valve handle. So back apart it came.

And the third time was the charm. One of the seals had shifted slightly and was pinched, so I slathered on more silicone grease to hold it in place better, and that worked great. No leaks.

About 4 pm Nick called to see if I could come over and help Miss Terry. While I was working on my valve, Nick had said that Terry was installing the new faucet she got had Camping World last week when we were all there.

She had the new one installed. It was the hooking up that was the problem. And it was easy to see why it was a problem.

There was really no room to reach the fittings underneath the countertop. As it was, the only was to take the drawers out and work through the openings. But this didn’t help a lot. You could only get one hand in at a time, and if you had your hand in, then you couldn’t see the fittings, and if you could see the fittings, you couldn’t get your hand in.

And because you couldn’t get you hand in and see what you were doing, it was just about impossible to get the back fitting on correctly.

After looking it over and working on it awhile, I decided the best way was to just replace the fitting with a new PEX one and try it then.

Since it was almost 5 we decided to stop at Home Depot on our way to eat supper at Hog Wild BBQ. But alas, Hog Wild was not to be.

Our friends, Bob Parker and Donna Huffer, were already there and called to say there had been a shooting nearby and the police had the road passing by Hog Wild closed, but they thought we could come in from the other direction.

As it turned out, they had the road closed at both ends and we just couldn’t get there from here. They were letting people out of the area, but not in. So Terry called Bob and Donna and told them to meet us at the Sizzler steakhouse outside the cordoned-off area.

It’s been a long time since we’ve eaten at a Sizzler, but it turned out to be pretty good. I think everyone was happy with what they had. I know my 16 oz. Ribeye was very good, not quite Texas Roadhouse good, but good, nevertheless. And the salad bar, although extra, was excellent.

Oh, yeah, the shooting turned out be a Suicide by Cop.

Then it was back to the faucet problem, and I do mean PROBLEM. We finally got the new fitting on the PEX pipe and started trying to screw it to the connector on the faucet itself. And this is where everything went to hell. There was no way to really get a wrench on the faucet fitting, and in tightening the PEX fitting, it twisted the copper line on the faucet into a knot. Total Bummer!

We did manage to get it tightened enough so they could use their water a little bit without making a big mess, but it’s back to Home Depot bright early tomorrow morning for a new faucet and some PEX pipe and fittings. I think I know how to do it a different way that should work.

I hope!

(Nick and Terry don’t really NEED running water, do they?)

Looking at this faucet, it’s easy to see that it was all pre-installed in the cabinet and mounted in place. It certainly wasn’t hooked the way we have to do it to replace it.

More tomorrow from the battle front.

And here’s a repost of our trip to Warner Bros. Studio in Las Angeles last April.

——————————————————————————————————————–

Thought for the Day:

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila."

——————————————————————————————————————–

Warner Bros. and Baja Fresh Mexican Grill . . . 

Posted on April 15, 2010

We left for Hollywood and our Warner Bros.Studio Tour about 9 am, about 3 hours before our tour was to start. And I’m glad we did.

I figured it would take us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there and that would give us plenty of time to walk around and then eat lunch before our 12:00 noon tour.

But we hit a lot of traffic after we left the freeway, so it took us almost two hours to get there, get parked, and get checked in. That left us an hour to find a place to eat.

One of the problems with the traffic turned out to be the fact that Hollywood Blvd. was shut down on the block in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. At first we thought they were filming a movie due to all the production trucks It turned out to be a promotion for the upcoming Long Beach Grand Prix.

Looking around we decided to try Baja Fresh Mexican Grill right across the street. We’d seen the restaurants around but never tried one, so this seemed like a good chance. According to their ads, everything is fresh. They don’t even have a can opener.

Lunch was very good. Jan had a two taco plate and I had a bowl of chicken tortilla soup and a pork nacho burrito.

Walking back across the street to Grauman’s we looked over the footprints in the courtyard. Here’s one for Roy Rogers and Trigger.

We were supposed to leave on our tour at noon, but didn’t get picked up until about 12:30. The bus drove us over to the Warner Bros. studio to actually begin our tour.

The first thing we saw was the iconic Warner Bros. water tower.

It’s no longer a real water tower. It’s really just a sign now.

The first part of the tour took us thru some of the many backlot sets.

And here is a backlot used in the TV show ER.

It shows the EL train trestle and the ambulance entrance to the hospital.

Unfortunately, for much of the really neat stuff we were not allowed to take pictures.

We visited the set of one our favorite shows, “Two and a Half Men”, which is on hiatus. It was interesting to see how different the sets look when you’re setting in the audience instead of watching on TV.

Next we watched an outdoor shot being filmed for a new TV show called “Pretty Little Liars” This is a pilot show developed from a series of young adult books.

Then we visited a car museum showing cars from movies and TV shows filmed at Warner Bros.

Here the Sunbeam Tiger used in the recent “Get Smart” movie

Here’s one version of the Batmobile.

And here’s another.

And here’s a scene showing the car from “Harry Potter”.

Next we saw the General Lee from the “Dukes of Hazzard” TV show. During the show’s run, they went through 257 of these.

In the General Lee pic above, notice the green screen in the upper right. They used this to show us how they can insert something into a scene that’s not really there.

They photographed us in front of the screen and then put a movie scene in with us.

The last thing we saw was the complete “Central Perk” coffee house set from “Friends”, using all the original furniture and props.

We really enjoyed this behind-the-scenes type of tour. We had done one of the special effects tours at Disney World last year that showed all the stunts and tricks, so it was nice to see something different.

By 4 pm we were on our way home. Heading out this late I was worried about going-home traffic, but it wasn’t too bad. We were home by 5:30 and in from the night.

More tomorrow…

asdfsd

I got up a little before 10 to find Jan was already up and feeling better. Not 100% yet, but definitely on the mend.

I fixed coffee while Jan tried to catch up on several days of email and blogs, but she tired out before she finished. There’s always tomorrow.

Around 1 Jan fixed us a lunch of cheese toast and chips. She’s still eating light while she’s getting back to normal. And of course, since the cheese toast was made with Miss Terry’s great homemade bread, it was all good.

After lunch I went outside to hang up the two side solar screens before the afternoon sun hit the side of the coach.

Although we can run both A/C’s on 30 amps, we can’t run both A/C’s with the TV and the computer on, so I want to cut down the heat load as much as possible.

I also clean the filter on the front A/C, as I noticed that the air flow from the vents didn’t seem to be up to par. Taking the vent cover off I discovered that the filter sheet was completely clogged. I was surprised to find this since I had just cleaned them less than two months ago.

But in looking closer I discovered the problem. The filters were clogged with dust, lots and lots of dust. Apparently the six weeks or so we’ve spent in the dusty climes of Yuma and Tucson had taken its toll.

But a quick rinse in the shower took care of the problem, and the A/C started putting out a lot more nice cold air.

Jan said she kind of had a hankering for Chinese, I remembered Nick had said there was a Chinese buffet around here somewhere, but I didn’t remember which town, Camp Verde or Cottonwood.

So since Nick and Terry were in Show Low visiting relatives, I emailed him to find out where it was. And he called back a little while later to give us directions to the place in Cottonwood.

So a little before 5 Jan and I drove over to Cottonwood to have dinner. And as Nick said, it was really pretty good.

After dinner, we drove around Cottonwood, checking out the town and the surrounding area.

After a nice drive, we got home about 6:30, but first drove around the park some, while also looking for a dumpster.

Nick called a little after 8 to see if Jan was up to a DQ run, but she decided to beg off till another time.

Tomorrow I’m thinking about installing the new grey tank valve I got before we left Tucson.

We’ll see how it goes.

Since this is a short post, here’s a rerun of our visit to Amarillo last June.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Thought for the Day:

“Always observe the first rule of a gunfight: have a gun.”

——————————————————————————————————————–

Another cow bites the dust…

Posted on June 14, 2010

We left Valley View RV Park in Ft. Sumner, NM about 9:30 am after getting 107 gallons of diesel at a Valero. It was $3.09 a gallon, which is better than the $3.69 I paid in Washington State a few weeks ago, but not as good as $2.89 in Salt Lake City about a week ago. And of course it was $2.74 when we got into Texas today. Oh well.

About an hour later we passed thru Clovis, NM, our daughter-in-law Linda’s home town, though we didn’t really get to see a lot of it just passing through.

Then, about 10 miles later we were back in Texas and the Central Time Zone, for the first time since late February.

It’s good to be home, and “back to civilization’” as Jan says. Of course, Jan defines “civilization” as any place that has a nearby WalMart. And today in Clovis was the first sign of a WalMart in 4 days.

Compared to the RV park from Hell in Magdalena night before last, the park in Ft. Sumner was a Rivera resort. And they were both the same price, $20. Here’s a couple of photos of the Ft. Sumner park.

The kind of funny thing about here in Ft. Sumner is that, although I had no usable cell service, just a signal, but with no bars, I had good Internet on my Verizon AirCard, which is supposed to use the same signal band. If I tried to make a phone call, it would try to connect and then just drop out. Funny.

And,although it’s hard to tell from this photo, the Amarillo Ranch RV Park we’re now at here in Amarillo for the next two nights is even nicer, and only $16.50 with Passport America. Whoopee!

After arriving at Amarillo Ranch RV Park about 2 pm we got set up, and then a little while later headed out for some shopping. Our first stop was Sam’s Club, and after that we headed toward Kohl’s so Jan could find some sandals for Brandi’s wedding.

But we discovered that the Kohl’s was way west of town about 12 miles away, and we’d decided we wanted to eat at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, which was the other way, before it got too crowded. So we headed back toward the RV park, and the Big Texan, which is is about a mile on the other side. We’ll do Kohl’s tomorrow.

Let me tell you, the Big Texan is big! It not only has the enormous two-story restaurant and gift shop, but a small casino with slot machines, and a motel next door.

Jan was apparently too hungry to get up close and personal with Big Tex here,

like she did with Babe the Blue Ox in Klamath, CA last month. Maybe next time.

The Big Texan claim to fame is their 72 oz Steak Challenge.

Free Steak! I’m going to have to check this out.

The decor can be described as “Western Chic”, but who cares if the steaks are good.

And here’s where the action takes place. It’s up on a stage, complete with two live steaming Internet WebCams to record all the action.

And here’s the deal.

You have 1 hour to eat a 72 oz Sirloin steak, shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato, and a dinner roll.

If you do it, it’s all free.

If you don’t, it costs you $72.00.

I assume they get their money up front.

Yikes! That’s not a steak, that’s a roast. That’s 4 and a half pounds of meat!

I don’t know if you have to eat the two raw jalapenos or not.

The oldest person to complete the challenge was a 69 year-old grandmother.

The youngest was an 11 year-old boy.

The record time is 8 minutes 52 seconds by Joey Chesnut, the World Champion Hot Dog Eating Contest Winner.

And a Bengal tiger once ate the 72 oz steak in 90 seconds. Don’t know what he did with the baked potato and shrimp cocktail.

We found out later that they have this limo that will come over to the RV park and pick you up and return you.

This is probably a good idea if you plan on trying the Challenge, since you’ll probably be too stuffed to drive, win or lose.

For our part, Jan had the 9 oz Filet, and I did the Quarter Challenge, with the 18 oz. Ribeye.

Unfortunately I was too hungry to take a picture first, but 18 oz. of steak is big!

And, although I finished the 18 oz. steak, salad, baked potato, and a roll, I don’t think i could handle 3 more steaks and a shrimp cocktail.

I told Jan that I’d be willing to starve myself for a couple of days and give it a try if someone else wanted to foot the bill.

We were certainly too full for dessert, but we’d heard they had really good carrot cake so we ask for a slice to go.

And this is what we got.

When they say Big, they mean it. It fills the whole container!

As we staggered out to the truck, almost too stuffed to walk, our daughter Brandi called to check up on things since we had had spotty cell service for the last couple of days

Then it was back to the rig, to just sit around and digest.

More tomorrow…

but we probably won’t eat again ‘til Thursday.

Quote of the day:

For a while we pondered whether to take a vacation or get a divorce. We decided that a trip to Bermuda is over in two weeks, but a divorce is something you always have. — Woody Allen

asdf