April 4th

April 4 – We stopped off the night of the 3^rd over at Ft Stockton, TX at Hilltop RV Park. The price when we stopped was $25 for the night. The sites were big and long enough to handle our rather long rig. The sites were very clean and well maintained. The wi-fi was free when we stopped and worked fairly decently. Some parks charge for using the wi-fi so if they do or don't while we are on the road I will post it so that if any stop by you know what you might expect.

Oh FYI to anyone traveling thru Texas - Most if not all their rest stops have FREE wi-fi. Yes I said FREE. Depending on how many are trying to connect it's not bad for speed.

The morning started nice enough. We got on the road at about 10:30 am on our way to Austin to see some friends. About 25 miles from Ft Stockton on I-10E Thom was on the phone with his sister when the call got lost and he looked in the mirror and noticed one of the trailer tires start to come apart. Immediately we pulled over and changed out to the spare, which was the wrong size by the way. So on the phone we got to see where we might get a replacement. Someone happened along to let us know that the closest was back the way we came and not forward. Appearently if we had been on I-20 we would have had lots of truck stops to choose from but not the section of I-10 that we were on. Thats the way it goes sometimes, lol. So we called several places and found that most places did not carry tires like the Walmart there. Which I spent 10 mins on ignore before they told me that they don't carry tires. We finally did find a place that had them thou. So we got not only that one tire but the other 3 replaced on it just in case. Because if one goes then who knows when the others may go. At the same time we also replaced the 2 outside on the rear of the RV. Trust me they were needing to be replaced we just had to wait for a few days. Now we are back on the road and it is after 4 pm.

Ok we filled up yesterday and the miles on the RV were 97,321. We just filled up in Ozona, TX at $3.99 a gallon for diesel. The tank is supposed to be a 200 gallon tank and it only needed 64.01 gal to fill it up. The miles then were 97,969. That means that with a fully loaded RV and pulling a trailer with a 4Runner and fully dressed bike we are getting 10.123418 mpg. Wow is all we both can say. We did not think it was going to be that, we thought maybe 6 or 8 mpg but we will take 10. For those that want to know how fast we are going with this rig set up well we are going an avg speed of 62 or so.

We have stopped for the night at about 8 pm. We hooked up at Junction North Llano River RV Park. They used to be a KOA and are now a Good Sam park. They do have a rather large, clean area for a playground for kids with some stuff. There is a pool and a net for things like volleyball too. There is a liquor store right next door that is open Monday - Saturday until 9 pm. Sites are wide and long for even a rig like ours that is about 65 ft total.
So far we have been in and/or thru:
California
Arizona
New Mexico (which we went thru a border stop section that had everyone stopping)
Texas
Still to hit (might change depending on things):
Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virgina, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan
After Michigan we will be headed back to California. Thom has taken a new job out there. Not sure when we might be out to the east coast again so we will see as many family and friends as we can in the time we have before we have to be back in Cali.

Our first few days of the LONG trip

Well, we started our trip a little later than what we wanted but thats what happens sometimes, lol.

We spent the night of March 31 at the storage lot. We had to clean the apartment finish packing and loading up and it took a little longer than we had anticipated. Then April 1^st we finished loading the 4Runner and the bike on the 20ft Big Tex trailer. We had to leave the smaller trailer that we had towed the bike on when we had gone out to California months ago, storing it at the same lot. Drove about 300 miles the first day. We stopped at Desert Gold RV Resort in Salome, AZ. It is about $33 a night with no discounts but we did use the AAA discount for about $28 total. This place is a definate resort. It has a spa that is open 24 hrs a day along with game rooms, crafts, bingo nights, etc. If we had more time to spend we would have spent a few days there but alas nope the road and trip is calling.

April 2 – We fried eggs on our stove (thanks Thom for fixing it!!) for the first time. Then we got started back on the road about 11:30 am and stopped a few places along the way like Cycle Gear in Touson, AZ for something for the bike. Not a good idea to take a 40 ft MH and a 20 ft trailer into downtown Touson, lol. We made it back out and on the road without too many problems thou so thats a good thing. We then stopped at about 9 pm at the border of AZ and NM at the visitors center. Logged onto their free wi-fi and took care of our plants in the Wizard101 game, lol, then hit the hay by 9:30 pm.

April 3 - At some point there was a refidgerator truck that stopped in and of course had the cooling units going so at about 6 am we got up and started our generator and made coffee. Did some waking up then drove over to the Love's truck stop and got breakfast and added air to the tires. Just passed into TX and stopped at that visitor center at about 11 am. Got on their free wi-fi and took care of the plants again, lol. Did a geocache while there. We are going to try to find at least one in every state that we pass thru. Www.geocaching.com is the site for that. Something to do just about anywhere, they have caches all over the world. There is even a cache on the space station :).

The connections have not been that strong most places, going in and out so have not had time to write this up and upload so I am writing it on the way and will upload when I get the chance. I have taken pics and video and will upload all that when I can.

PS - for those that are wondering about our list of places to visit. We are planning on seeing everyone that we can in lots of states LOL - Jeff P we should see you in about 3 or 4 days.

3 days till we take off

Well it is now just 3 days till we take off. Lots done and of course still lots to do. Lets see if I can put what we have done in just a short list, lol.
1 - Replaced just one air bellows ($100)
2 - Replaced backup camara and monitor (about $220)
3 - Added a brake controler (about $130)
4 - Got a 20ft Big Tex trailer to tow the 4Runner, bike and smaller trailer (yes used but still alot of money but since it has double brakes and lots of features you really should have if you are doing cross country towing it was worth it)
5 - Packing up the apartment and unpacking and putting things away in the MH
Doing the camara, monitor and the brake controler wiring took about 7 hours total. The longest was figuring out where to run the wires from the front to the back. You don't want them just hanging down under the MH and then you also don't want them too near the hottest part of the engine so better to spend a few hrs figuring that out BEFORE you start running the wires. Thom had to go under the MH several times to get it right. No we did not take pictures as we were running around trying to get it done, and done as right as possible, before the rain came in the next morning.
Last week when we were doing some little stuff and started the MH. The drivers side air bellows decided to really let us know it was leaking - ALOT. So ..... it was either deal with the leak and alarm which is not good to do or replace. Luckily we found not only a direct replacement for it but it was on sale and no shipping cost. Some of the air bellows things are anywhere from $30 to you name it so you need to make sure you get the correct one for your MH. That job took Thom about 1 1/2 hrs and part of that was to make sure that things were tightened and reattached correctly. We are taking off on a long trip and want to make sure we don't have to refix what should have been done right the first time.
Now there are those that are asking where we are going on the trip and while family does have an idea I will let you know that we are going from California to Michigan by way of Florida in about 3 weeks. We are stopping off at a few places to see family and friends along the way and as soon as we figure out the timing of things we will let the next set know when we will be there :)
Lots of packing still left to do but it will get done since we will be leaving here either Friday night or Saturday morning. It depends all on how long they keep Thom at work on Friday. There will be more posts coming up when we start on the trip in a few days. I will also be posting more pictures and videos of where and what we do on this venture. Thom will also work on doing more of the lights and we will do a video of it and I will post that. We do have a few more to do so that will taken care of in the next few weeks. We will also keep track of the money things for various reasons in case someone else can use the info.

3 weeks till we leave here and getting ready

Well it is now just 3 weeks till we leave here. We will be taking a massive 4500 mile trip to get back home. We will be picking up his mom and dad and getting them back home at the same time. We will also see lots of family and friends on the way. I will post more when we are on the way since while we know we are leaving in about 3 weeks we still don't have a definative date for leaving and our route yet.Thom's dad is now out of the nursing home and has a home health care nurse that comes every so often. It seems the drug interaction that happened right after the surgery causing him to see things is going away. The doc says he still can't travel for a few more weeks so we will pick them up and his dad will travel with Thom in the MH while his mom and I drive their truck back.
We were going to do lots of little things on the MH Saturday but he got called into work and by the time he got done with that we only had about 2 hrs to work on it. Thom did get the stove top working thou!! We had already replaced the propane regulator and a few other things. If you don't know anything about working with electricity and/or propane then you would NOT want to do what he did. He took apart the stove top and replaced some little things and cleaned and blew out the other things on the inside of the stove top. It is original to the MH so it is 18 yrs old and no longer under warenty so it was either spend some time on it or just replace it. We did not relish spending several hundred on something if it could be fixed.
We also had one piece of trim come off the bedroom door so we sanded it to get the old glue off and to make it a little rough so the wood glue would put it back together. We are currently in the desert so it is very dry and not a surprise that it came off, lol.
We do have the heater fixed and now we just need to get it back installed but since we are headed into spring and summer it is not a priority right now. More of a priority is getting a new back-up camara and monitor. Thom could fix the one that is there but the amount of parts it needs would be about the same amount money as a new one so a new one it is.

Thom went looking for something online and stumbled on an online game - Wizard101. He played for a few hours and then I started an account and started playing. Then told Justin and Joshua (ages 24 & 26) about it. They both started accounts. We have always played games in the house (ie computer, dice, board, card). Joshua's wife, Erin, has never really been a gamer but has been trying to find at least one game that she could play with Joshua. Since she's never really gamed most of them have too many keys to push. But Wizard101 we have come to realize that even thou it set up for kids with parental controls and stuff we could all 5 play together. There is a free part to the game that does take 4 to 6 hrs to get thru before you would have to pay to go any further. We all have now ended up getting a membership so that we have access to pretty much everything, lol.

Wanted to list a song that I really like and I am surprised it's not played more often - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gTV1iDukhs

Hospitals, Rehab, 4Runner and MH

Well still been a busy time around here. Not only is Thoms dad still in the hospital but now they are moving him to a rehab center. It seems that something in the anesthesia and some (or one) of the other meds he was on. It was making him hallucinate very badly. So they had to figure out which one was the problem. Takes awhile to do that since you cannot just take the person off of everything all at once, you have to do them one at a time to get the one that is the problem. So for pain all he's left with at the moment is just Tylenol and anyone who's had major surgery and back pain knows just taking that does very little for pain. On top of that since he's in pain he does not want to do his rehab and well with all that he needs the services of a rehab center so he's off to that right now. Thats where he will stay for a few weeks for now.
We finished doing what we can to fix the heater, started to install it and figured out we had left the info for it back at the apartment so Thom got what he could done and we will finish it later. If he had taken it out he would remember how it goes back together but since we just got handed a box with the parts and a manual I think he's done great so far.
Changed out the regulator for the propane tank and went to check to see if it was now going to the stove and it's not so we may need a different part for the tank. To change that one out we need to have the tank emptied hmmm where to go to move the propane to one tank to another and then back again when changed out.....
Checked the front and back AC's and found that they are working. Opened up the ice maker and found we need to change out some parts. Those will be about $70 or so. A new ice maker would be over $500. We installed the wig head holders.
Took out the camara so that he could look it over. With all the caps that are bad on the monitor board and stuff we are just going to replace both the monitor and the camara. Not sure with which one yet thou, still researching and deciding.

Don't read further if you don't want to read any more political talk.

For those that want to legislate their version of religion into government just need to remember that not everyone is into the same version of religion. Case in point - My version says that who ever wants to marry can (male to male, female to male, female to female) while others that believe a different version think something else. My version says that females can take birth control if they want or have an abortion. Their version does not. Honestly if you don't want to take BC than don't do it but don't stop someone else from taking it. With all the doctor visit costs and the pills themselves it would take someone about $500 to $1,000 a year. If you don't like my version then DO NOT try to legislate your version either. Do not interject church into the government, it was never meant to be there. If you don't believe me all you have to do is research what the founding fathers themselves wrote about it. Read the transcripts of when they were debating while writing the constitution. Read what they themselves wrote about religion, you will be surprized. Don't just take anyone else's word for what is there, read it for yourself!!

4Runner, Bike and hospitals

Yes I know it's been a week or so since the last post but there have have been a few things going on.

First thing is Thom's dad and mom are at an RV park in Florida. While there the telephone company and/or the park had the telephone lines just laying on the ground. Thoms dad tripped over the wire, fell and hit his head on the telephone box. Of course tried to not go to the hospital but after a few days he went and yes he has a concussion. They tried to send him home but on the way back he passed out three times so back to the hospital and more testing. It seems that he had some problems in his neck now that he had to have surgery to do part fusion and have some spacers put in to take pressure off the nerves in his neck. That's done but he's now had a bad reaction to the anthesia and is seeing things that aren't there. Needless to say things are touch and go with that for a few till they get it straightened out.

Second thing is while we were supposed to leave where we are at to go back to the other coast by the end of Feb, we got the call and email last week that we are extended – again – till the end of March. So we took this past weekend and relaxed and played as much as possible. We know we are going to have to now settle down to get things done on the 4Runner, bike and the MH.

Talking about the Harley, Thom finally changed out the battery and some cables. Took about 3 hrs or so to do it all but it is now done.

We did stop off and picked up some stuff for towing like a braking system. Thom also got some more advice on stuff. Manuels and things only cover so much so there were a few things he was not clear on and was just making sure we were doing them correctly and yep we were. Things like do you dump the air bags before doing the leveling. Makes sense that yes you do dump but it's not written anywhere so it's nice to know that you are right, lol.

We did go and measure the levelers so that when we cut the stall mats up that they will acutally fit. We found out that they measure 10 inches round. The barn stall mat is 4 x 6 so we will cut up the mat into 16 x 18 so that we get an even number of squares out and we don't have to be that particular about making sure they are under the feet with the squares only being 12 x 12. This way we can also have the larger size to use for several other things.

We do have some trim that is coming off of the door to the bedroom so Saturday we will fix that along with several other little things and make note of anything else. We will pick up the propane regulator this week and get that replaced so that we can test the stove to make sure that is all the way fixed. We also have the heater to put back together to test that. We will see about moving the MH somewhat so that we can get to the electric they have for some MH's to use and then we will use that to vaccum the MH and the 4Runner out. The person who had the 4Runner before appearently like to go to very sandy areas. Those vaccums that you can use at the self-service car wash places do not have beaters on them like a home vaccum and with all the sand thats in them we either need to beat the sand out or just replace all the carpet. So we will try a home vaccum first to get at least most of the sand out, lol.

Outlets, karaoke and horses

Friday we got new tires for the 4Runner. We got Hankooks if anyone was wondering. When we had the Z71 we had gotten them on there and Thom really like the feel and lack of sound and just the beefiness of them better than almost any other tire (must be a guy thing). So when we got the 4Runner and it needed tires he started to look around and decided that since Hankooks were great for the Z71 that he wanted them for the 4Runner. Trust me when I say he did ALOT of research into those and other tires thou. But we did end up with the Hankooks.
Then Friday night we went to dinner and we were goning to stay there for the karaoke but even thou when we called earlier to verify the time to start and they said 7 pm we found out it didn't start till 9 pm. So we left there and went to Lowes to see about some thing so that we could carry the foam heads and wigs with us easily without the wigs getting tangled. Since we had somehow overpaid the card we had "extra" money we could spend, lol. (I will take a picture of what we got in a little while with and without the wig head and post it.) We will mount them in the overhead cabinets in the bedroom area. After Lowes we went to a bar that we know also has karaoke and they start on the time they advertise. Thom sings quite well, he understands his voice and the range he can hit and he, usually, keeps to that. He has thousands in his list for singing. When he used to run it, he ran it off disc and not a hard drive. When it was not busy he would sometimes just tell people to pick a disc and whatever disc's they picked he would only sing number X. He's expanded his list that way.
Thom's worked 12 to 18 hrs day almost all week long this week so Saturday morning we just putzed around and did not get out of the house till around 1 pm. We went to several stores including a hay and feed store. We got a thick barn stall mat to make some MH levelers with. Check out http://www.rv-boondocking-the-good-life.com/rvlevelingblocks.html to see what I am talking about. He describes it and has better pictures to show than I could do right now. We also picked up a big container of horse treats. Where we have the MH stored is also an auction site for livestock and a used car lot and well you get the idea. They have lots of things there. Some horses are boarded there and we had been bringing carrots but figured with the container we would always have some with us and they would not go bad and even when we leave here we would still have some for the next ones we see.
We finally go to the MH around 3:30 pm, went in and paid off till we leave at the end of the month. This place they do not have hook ups nor is it covered but it is only $45 a month AND they allow us to come out 7 days a week to work on it if we need/want to. Alot of places we checked out around here cost alot more, we did not have access 7 days a week and we could not work on it so of course we chose to park it here.
We fed some of the horses some treats, I say some because there were some new ones and with any new animal you take it easy and if they don't want to do anything with you or they are aggressive acting just leave them alone. Better for you and better for the animal. While at the MH we also took out the monitor for the back up camara. Thom will take it apart to see if the soldier joints are ok and to see if the caps are going bad. He knows how to fix computers down to the compenent level so he can spend a little time and then go to an electrical store and the parts are not expensive. Saves money that way. He also changed out the 2 outlets that are on either side of the bed. When we had plugged in the heating pad over New Years we found out that they were very loose and rather than messing up the plugs on things to keep them plugged in it is safer to just change out the outlet. About $10 or so for the both and about 15 minutes total to do. We also tried out the wig head contraption we had rigged up and found it would work so after the MH we went back to Lowes to get the rest to do all the wig heads we have.
That's about all for now, oh yea in Guild Wars (the MMO that we play) it is the Canthan New Year so we are on it for the next 24 hrs, lol. One of the prizes in the festival we use sometimes while doing the harder missions and this is the only way, besides buying them from other players, to get them so we will be here aquiring the stones that we sometimes use.