It’s been almost 3 weeks since we left Tucson and those weeks
have been….well, character-building is
one description. Or maybe lessons in how
to make lemonade from lemons, or a chance to see how one deals with adversity,
or all of those things.
A short chronology follows…
The first night out of Tucson it was pouring rain and getting dark
when we landed at the RV park. The site
assigned to us was very unlevel (still no jacks) so we tried another and
another and another, finally ending up rolling onto 3” of plastic blocks and
still being too slanty to put out all the slides. No wifi topped the evening and we turned in
early. The next day dawned sunny and
clear and headed to Willow Beach National Recreation Area – a beautiful park
and campground on Lake Mead below Hoover Dam.
It was a steep, curvy, hair-raising 4 mile descent from the highway down
to the park but we made it. Did I
mention that our supplemental brake for the car is out of order? Normally it would activate the brake pedal on
the car when I brake Chuck, but alas, it’s not working. Luckily Chuck is big and powerful enough that
it manages the car just fine, but technically we may be a little illegal at
this point.
Anyway, Willow Beach has a brand-new campground with
beautiful sites overlooking the lake.
This time it only took an hour of driving around to find the levelest
possible site and we settled in as the rain started again. When we had checked into Willow Beach, we asked
the office person what they do when it rains hard, given the steep terrain and
sandy soil. She admitted that during “flash
flood season” they occasionally were stuck by mudslides but assured me that it
wasn’t flash flood season.
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| Sign in the park |
We were only there for one night with a short, 80 mile drive
to Las Vegas scheduled for the next day so when the next day again dawned sunny
and clear we packed up and headed to the office to check out and hit the
highway. Surprise – there had been a
flash flood during the night and the road out was closed. They were working on it and we should sit
tight and check back in an hour. To make
a long story short, it took 3 hours of nervously waiting, wondering if we’d
make our very expensive reservation in Las Vegas before the road opened with
minimal mud and goo on it and we barreled out of there, back up the 4 miles of
twisty, steep road and on the Vegas.
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| Chuck waiting for the road to be cleared |
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| Willow Beach view |
You know what they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in
Vegas so I won’t go into too many details but it was wonderful! A week at a beautiful, glam RV park with good
amenities. Visits with Kenosha friends
and a California friend. A wonderful
Cirque du Soleil show and amazing eating at big-deal and funky local restaurants. Pricey but fabulous.
After Las Vegas we headed to Palm Springs for 2 nights to
scout RV parks for an upcoming longer stay when we were due to meet up
with some of the Navigator’s family. We
had picked out a park based upon the reviews and at first blush is seemed
fine. Older but friendly people, a level
site. Except (long story made shorter
here) the power pedestal was funky and messing with Chuck and making noises
like mice chewing under the Navigator’s bed all night and we ended up
unplugging and working off our batteries.
Not pleasant and possibly damaging.
Next we were due in Temecula, CA at the RV service place to get
a definitive diagnosis on the jacks and a few other little things
repaired. We arrived Saturday and our
appointment was 8 am Monday morning so we camped in their lot Saturday night but
decamped to a LaQuinta hotel for Sunday, figuring it would be easiest to hang
out with the cats in the hotel Monday morning while they started working on
Chuck. Sadly, Beanie was unhappy with
the hotel and yowled and paced the room from midnight to 5 am when we finally
gave up and got up. We still have no
idea what got into him, but it was a long night.
Monday afternoon the diagnosis was complete, and yes we needed
the new jack system. Pricing to
follow. We camped in the service place’s
lot again and took off Tuesday morning…or tried to. Except the jack alarm was sounding because of
their diagnostic work. They disconnected
the jacks panel, but then the air suspension system dumped all the air and we
were riding on the frame, so they panel was reconnected. Two hours later the panel was wrapped in
towels to muffle the alarm and we headed for Palm Springs and a rendezvous with
Robin’s family. Thankfully the alarm stopped just as we pulled into town.
This was an RV park we had scouted and identified level
sites ahead of time so we checked in and were assigned our preferred site. We started to back in and our neighbor came
out to warn us that he was having issues with the park’s power system. Crap! Off
to find a different site, not that many choices and we finally ended up in an
unlevel site, up on 5 blocks this time. The
next day, assured that the park power was checked and repaired, we moved 200
yards back to our preferred area. We
plugged in and all seemed well until we started having power problems a couple
of nights ago, made apparent by weird popcorn popping noise under our feet. Inconvenient but we can deal with it with
some adjustments. Just not fun. And the estimate for the jacks is in and it’s
VERY expensive with a lead time for parts of 6-8 weeks. In 8 weeks we’ll be starting to think about
heading home so we’re still mulling over when/where to get them fixed.
Meantime, we’re having lots of fun with the Navigator’s
family including dinners out and a trip to a very neat zoo here. We’re here a couple more days, then off to
visit more friends and family. Our
character is built to the max and our frig is full of lemonade. We’re building synapses at a rapid rate as we
troubleshoot our various problems. But,
the weather is (mostly) beautiful, the scenery is gorgeous and the time with
family and friends is priceless. Stay
tuned!
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| Mexican Gray Wolf - all but extinct in the wild, being reintroduced via zoo populations |
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| "Don't touch the butterflies" we were instructed. No one told the butterflies to leave the Navigator alone. |
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| Swallowtail in motion |
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