Tag Archives: Western RV

Thanksgiving (Casa Grande, AZ)

2014/12/03 davidhobden@mac.com

Our work on getting the house ready to sell has been progressing fairly well, albeit slowly. We (Stilla and I), often find ourselves asking things like; “Why didn’t we replace those outdated exterior lamps earlier? Or why did we wait until now to change out that brass dining room chandelier?” We’re drawing the line on putting in granite countertops and stainless appliances though ($$). 🙁 Early on in this house-selling escapade, we decided to not upgrade our white appliances and formica (or whatever they are) countertops as suggested by the realtor. We’ve been just fine with them, and they still look and function great. Hopefully, a potential buyer feels the same way.

The interior repaint is almost done. Just a few touchups here and there. We hired a guy to paint most of the upstairs because of the extremely high vaulted ceilings… the last thing I need is to have another hip replacement because I fell off a ladder:) The baseboards and trim have been the most tedious of tasks even though I’m only touching up the scrapes and dents for the most part. By the way – I will never, ever, have another house with high-gloss white paint on doors and trim! Er yeah… no problem there, the Urban Escape Vehicle doesn’t have any painted trim – just real wood.

On Monday the 24th of November, the carpet guy that was scheduled to start replacement didn’t come through. His associate ordered the wrong carpet! The result is another week delay. So I used the opportunity to get an early start on my promise to be in Casa Grande for Thanksgiving.

I left in the Silverado around 3 in the afternoon and got to my Mom and Brother Steve’s “dirt farm” by 8AM or so on Tuesday. Stilla stayed behind in the Coach in order to help oldest daughter Jennifer watch the grandson while she was at work.

Here’s a front-view of my brother’s triple-wide. My Mom and stepdad Jim have a super-long, single-wide at the front of the property.

I got put to work right away with some fence projects. Although, I did more supervision than actual physical labor as i’m sure brother Steve would validate. In the pic below, we are using my stepdad’s Jeep to stretch the fencing. My brother’s Steven and Ronald look on.

Ron and Steve tacking the fencing to the post. Ron is visiting from California and plans to stay and help around the “dirt farm” for a couple weeks.

Stepdad Jimmy inspecting the mirror that brother Steve broke. Just like my Mom always told us kids when we were growing up – “We can’t have anything nice.”

We had quite a gathering of relatives on Thanksgiving day. It was great seeing everyone. Only my brother Donald from Florida was missing, however, his two kids Matthew and Christopher were there to represent him 🙂

A good time was had by all. Great food and great people! It was also my brother Steven’s long-time girlfriend, Cheryl’s birthday! That’s her holding the golden goose. We ate and played games into the night… and then ate again.

Here’s my wonderful Ma and her sister Kathy. We affectionately call Aunt Kathy “Aunt Squirrely”

On Black Friday, I decided to go trailer shopping. So with my ever-helpful stepdad Jimmy in tow, we drove North to Phoenix and visited a few trailer businesses. I did research on line and had determined that trailers seem to be cheaper in Arizona as opposed to Colorado. We need a trailer to move all our “stuff” from Colorado and mitigate the costs of storage units. I already have a storage unit in Colorado Springs and hope to be able to start moving stuff to the “dirt farm” as soon as we get the house on the market. We’re also considering buying a “Conex” with the help of Mom and Jimmy to place on the “dirt farm” towards that end.

So here’s the result of Black Friday shopping: A 7′ X 16′ dual axle cargo trailer from TrailersPlus.com. It’s the “LoadRunner” model. They had one model that was better, called the “ProSeries”, but it also came with a hefty price. This one was a “Red Tag” special that ended up costing me ~$6,200 after taxes and permanent AZ plate.

After sad early morning goodbye’s… I hit the road by 7:30 AM on Saturday in order to get back for the carpet install which was rescheduled for Monday the 1st of December.

I decided on an alternate scenic route out of Phoenix that saved me about 100 miles off the 900 mile route. I took 87 East to Florence, then 79 North to connect with 60 East. However, instead of taking 60 all the way to I-25, I turned north on 117 at Quemado which dropped me off on I-40 just West of Grants. After that, it was a short interstate drive to Albequerque where I got on I-25.

It turned out to be a beautiful shortcut as the following pictures can attest:

I drove straight through and made it back to Stilla at the Urban Escape Vehicle parked at the Elks Lodge in Colorado Springs by 10:30 PM on Saturday night. 15 hours total travel time.

Of course, on Monday the carpet guy calls and tells me that his associate(s) put in the wrong order AGAIN! He will give me a $500 refund off the $2800 I already paid and I don’t have to pay the $500 upon completion. He contacted another carpet company to do the work and they came by in the afternoon to measure everything once again. So here we go again… I’m scheduled to finally get the carpet replaced next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I used the time to put Thompson’s Water-Seal all over the wood on the inside of the new trailer. I also ordered a load-leveling kit from Amazon.com and some E Track components for load management.

Stay tuned for more house selling adventures… hopefully, we can put all this behind us soon and get to warmer climes. We definitely need to be in Quartzsite for the annual Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally” in January. But I’ll probably be making some trips with the Silverado and trailer to put stuff in storage at the “dirt farm” before then.

Colorado

Selling the House (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/11/27 davidhobden@mac.com 4 Comments

I have to apologize for not posting in quite a while. My time has been totally consumed with all things related to selling a house. It’s almost as if I have a “job” again 🙂

Every day we find ourselves painting, staining, cleaning, etc., and if we’re not doing that, it’s another trip to Home Depot for something or dealing with a contractor for drywall texture repairs, painters, gutter repair/replacement, or concrete driveway repairs…

I just haven’t had the time or desire to update the blog… besides, I figured who wants to hear about the mundane stuff related to selling a house. I appreciate the folks that inquired about our status when I didn’t post for a while. At least I know some people are reading the blog:)

In other news – We are still living in the Urban Escape Vehicle. We were parked in the driveway hooked up to my 50amp outlet when someone complained to the local code enforcement “police”. I have to assume it was a realtor that complained because there are currently a couple other houses on our street that are for sale. We are at the end of a cul-de-sac and the Coach had been parked there for a couple years before we took off on our full-time adventure(s) in May of this year. Oh well… we just moved over to the local Elks Lodge for a reasonable $350 per month and have been commuting to the house each day to get it ready to sell.

Hopefully we can get the house on the market by the beginning of December.

Meanwhile, I took a quick Thanksgiving break and drove the Silverado down to my brother and Mom’s in Casa Grande, AZ on Monday. Stilla stayed at the Coach and the house to help Jennifer (my oldest daughter) with baby-sitting the grandson while she is at work. I intend to get back by next Monday, in time for the new carpet to get installed.

Maybe I can find a reasonably-priced cargo trailer while I’m down here to help us with our “stuff”.

Please stay tuned… I’ll keep posting as time allows. Time to go mingle with the relatives that are showing up now for Thanksgiving at the “dirt farm” in Casa Grande.

Colorado

Got Oxygen? (Pikes Peak – Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/10/19 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

One of the many “must-see” attractions in the Colorado Springs area is Pikes Peak. Therefore, on Wednesday, we took our visitors from Germany up the Pikes Peak Highway. There are a few ways to tackle the summit of this 14,115 ft peak. You can take the aforementioned 19 mile long Pikes Peak Highway which is famous for the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, aka “The Race to the Clouds“ and is touted as the highest….or you can take the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Of course, if you are so inclined, there is always the 12.6 mile hike up the Barr Trail.

Pikes_Peak_from_Garden_of_the_Gods — Pikes Peak from Garden of the Gods (photo credit: Wikipedia)

We chose Wednesday for a couple reasons. First – the weather report was favorable and the sky was free of clouds, and Second – it fit into the busy schedule of things that Will and Jasmin still have planned for the short time they have left on their vacation. Their flight back to Germany is this coming Monday.

We paid the toll at the entrance station/tollgate. The fee was $40 per carload (up to 5 passengers). I showed my retired military ID and got a couple dollar discount. The attendant cautioned us that blowing snow near the peak may cause a road closure and stated that we should go directly to the top without delay because the weather was expected to get worse as the day progressed. When we left the house the skies were free of clouds, however, by the time we arrived at the tollgate the clouds were quickly coming over the mountains from the West. This is a common problem in the COS area… you never know what’s right over the mountains until it’s on you.

It was just below “tree line“, which is the point where the trees no longer grow due to altitude and climate, that we hit snow from last week’s cooler weather.

Here’s some pics I took through the windshield on the way up.

Clouds coming in fast on way up Pikes Peak Highway.

Pikes Peak Highway (view of Colorado Springs)

After driving almost 19 miles, we finally neared the top. On the way up, I monitored the transmission temperature on the Silverado which went from ~140 degrees at the bottom to almost 215 degrees at the top. I have a “Tow” option on the Silverado, which allows me to press a button on the end of the shift lever to limit the upshifting. It keeps the transmission in a lower gear and therefore the engine runs at a higher RPM. This is better for the vehicle because it’s not shifting between gears all the time which is the leading cause of premature wear and overheating. Higher engine RPMs equal better cooling for two reasons; 1) The cooling fan is pulling a higher volume of air through the radiator and transmission cooler while also blowing more air over the engine, and 2) The water pump is operating faster, therefore circulating more coolant through the system.

Sorry if that’s too much technical talk, I guess it’s the old Warrant Officer “Maintenance Tech” coming out again. But, I believe a lot of blog readers appreciate this type of info.

The wind was blowing pretty hard at the top of the peak, so we didn’t take too many outside pictures… just too cold 🙁

I made a bee-line for the world-famous donuts and hot chocolate. The donuts are touted as the only donuts in the world made above 14,000 feet. I like them… they’re not too sweet or covered in glaze or other stuff.

Here’s Will and Jasmin enjoying their snacks in the concession area.

We braved the elements for a picture in front of the Summit sign.

Summit of Pikes Peak (L to R) Stilla, Joleen, Jasmin & William.

The Cog Train arrived at the top while we were there. They left the doors open after all the passengers disembarked so we could step inside out of the cold wind and blowing snow.

I took a picture of Colorado Springs below from the window of the cog train. We were lucky that the clouds that had came in so fast from the West were up high making for unobstructed views.

We braved the cold and wind (briefly) for another picture at the observation deck area.

After only an hour or so at the top, we headed back down.

Here’s a couple views looking South and West towards Cripple Creek.

The wind continued to blow hard on the way down. The rangers had put up cones at one point to prevent cars from coming up. I guess they couldn’t keep up with the snow and ice that was forming across parts of the road.

It’s important to use low gear going down the mountain. I kept my automatic transmission in Low 1 and sometimes 2. I only used the brakes a couple times at the hair-pin curves. A technique I’ve always used when going down long grades is to only hit the brakes just before a curve… and when I must, I use them briefly and firmly. It still surprises me how many people ignore this and ride their brakes all the way down which effectively takes a couple years off the expected brake pad life in just one trip. Several tourists passed me on the way down – and when they did, you could smell their overheated brakes.

The further we went back down the highway, the better the weather. The winds died down and the temperature went back up to a comfortable 75 degrees versus the 34 degrees at the top.

After an uneventful trip to the bottom, we went back to the house. Will and Jasmin had plans to borrow Joleen’s car to go up to Denver and see the sights there.

Until next time… hope you enjoyed Pikes Peak.

Colorado

Overnight Trip (Royal Gorge, CO)

2014/10/17 davidhobden@mac.com

It’s been rather uneventful here at the homestead for the last several days. Stilla has mostly been playing tour-guide for son William and his girlfriend Jasmin who are visiting from Germany. I usually stay home and putter around while Stilla is out showing them the local sites or doing more shopping. I guess our visitors want to stock up on such things as brand-name clothes, shoes, handbags, etc., which can be found cheaper here in the States.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like shopping as much as the next guy… but I’d rather be shopping at places like Cabela’s, Bass-Pro Shop’s, or Western Outfitter’s. So I find things to do here at the house while they’re out and about.

Although, I did go with on a few excursions. For instance, we went to the grand opening (late in the day) to the first Trader Joe’s that opened here in Colorado Springs. We also visited Fort Carson and wandered through the PX. One evening, we did drinks and appetizers at my youngest daughter, Joleen’s workplace, The Famous Steak House, and then went out for an evening at SouthSide Johnny’s. (Click on the green-font names for more information)

We also hosted a small get-together (pizza party) at the house one evening complete with fireworks that someone had brought.

(L to R) Stepmom Elaine, Dad, Stilla, Jasmin, William

William and his girlfriend Jasmin wanted to experience camping in the RV so we pulled in the slides and lifted the jacks on the Urban Escape Vehicle to go visit the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park near Canon City, CO. We left on Monday and came back on Tuesday. There are several RV parks near the Royal Gorge but most are already closed for the season. We found the Prospectors RV Resort which is open year-round.

It was a little more expensive than we like.. it was a little over $40 for 50 amp full hook-ups. We met the nice owner’s who had just purchased the CG at the beginning of the season. We wish them all the best in the future… nice campground.

It was pretty empty in the CG. But it looked like they had some seasonal workers and a few others that were preparing for a cold Winter stay with skirting and insulation.

William & Jasmin walking little Coach around the Prospectors RV Resort near Royal Gorge, CO

Since it was later in the day on Monday after we settled in at the campground, we decided to drive back into Canon City for sight-seeing and dinner. We’d save the Royal Gorge Bridge for tomorrow.

Before going into Canon City, we took Skyline Drive, which is a ~3-mile one-way paved road with drop-offs on both sides. Go to the link for more images of this cool, scenic and somewhat scary (for some) side trip.

Stilla, William & Jasmin at the top of Skyline Drive, Canon City, CO

Checkout time was noon at the CG but the kind owner’s of the Prospectors RV Resort allowed us to leave the Coach as long as we needed for the day while we visited the Royal Gorge Bridge.

Along the drive from the main highway to the bridge we saw evidence of the fire that almost destroyed the bridge last year. If you missed that in the news: I linked more info on that here, and here, with some images here.

Royal Gorge area, single tree damaged by fire.

Here’s the view driving into the parking lot.

You can see the fire damage on the back of the coal car. Good thing the locomotive survived.

And here’s the new Visitor Center/Entrance to the bridge.

Newly renovated Visitors Center at Royal Gorge Bridge. (front view)

Newly renovated Visitors Center at Royal Gorge Bridge. (souvenir shop)

Newly renovated Visitors Center at Royal Gorge Bridge. (guest services window)

They were charging $16 a person to walk onto the bridge. It’s usually more expensive but they’re charging less since everything else burned down. The gondola across and the cable car down into the gorge are gone.

View of Royal Gorge Bridge after exiting the Visitor Center/Entrance building.

Newly renovated Visitors Center at Royal Gorge Bridge. (rear view)

William and Jasmin in front of the Royal Gorge Bridge

The old cable cars that used to take people down to the bottom of the gorge is out-of-service. I overheard a park representative telling another tourist that it requires $9 million in repairs and may not be fixed. Here’s a picture of the track.

We walked across the bridge.

William & Jasmin on the Royal Gorge Bridge (holding the Colorado flag)

Here’s Stilla and I on the bridge. I’m wearing the doggie front-pack I blogged about in an earlier post. We bought it in Florence, OR back in September.

View from the Royal Gorge Bridge (cables at top of photo)

Will and Jasmin took some photos of the gorge below through gaps in the planks.

Have to include this pic… one of my favorites.

A shuttle service takes people back and forth across the bridge all day. How do you get that job?

Stilla walking on the Royal Gorge Bridge.

The gondola is gone but we could see evidence of reconstruction.

There’s a lot of rebuilding going on. This is the South side of the gorge.

We walked on up to the Sky Coaster.

We chickened out and didn’t do it. There was a moment when Jasmin and I were ready to go 😉

Stilla, William & Jasmin on the south side of Royal Gorge at overlook near the Sky Coaster

View of Royal Gorge Bridge from the South side.

View of the Royal Gorge from the South side overlook

We walked back to the Visitor Center building and had lunch on the newly renovated deck.

They even put a fire place and heat lamps on the new deck. Pretty nice!

Many folks probably don’t know that you can stop at the parking lot and take a trail down to an overlook for good views of the bridge and visitor center. This is good if you can’t afford the entrance fee.

View of the Visitor Center deck from the North looking SouthWest

We returned to the CG and hooked up the Silverado for the return trip home. Will and Jasmin have plans for the evening.

Tomorrow we plan on driving up Pikes Peak, so stay tuned…

Colorado

Uncle Alan’s (Floride, CO)

2014/10/08 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

On Tuesday I rode the Harley over to my Dad’s house to help him load a log-splitter into his trailer. My Uncle Alan (Dad’s youngest brother) needed it at his house for some logs that are too big to do by hand.

Stilla chauffeured our visitors from Germany around town in the Silverado to do their own thing.

Meanwhile, I chauffered Dad and Stepmom Elaine in their Jeep with trailer attached up the pass (I-24 West from COS) to my Uncle Alan and Aunt Beverly’s house. They live on approximately 10 acres that borders the Florissant Fossil beds. It is halfway between Florissant and Divide, CO so my Uncle calls his homestead “Floride”. Get it?

Here we are after unloading the heavy log-splitter from the trailer.

My Uncle Alan (Dad’s brother) got a quick block of instruction on how to operate the splitter from Dad.

Here’s the wood he wants to split.

And here’s some of the wood he already split (by hand!).

And here’s more piles of wood he already split!… Unk – I think you got enough to last awhile…

Here’s a picture of the Hobden homestead in “Floride”, CO.

We then had a picnic, complete with campfire, at a spot near the house that Alan keeps on the ready with picnic table, chairs and fire pit. Here’s Uncle Alan burning some hot dogs.

Stepmom Elaine and Aunt Beverly set the picnic table.

Dad & Elaine tried out the comfortable swing while waiting for the dogs and beans to finish cooking.

After our fine picnic, Uncle Alan loaded the extra picnic accessories into his little trailer to take back to the house.

We had a little fun touring around the property in Alan’s older model ATV. Here’s Dad going for a spin.

Off into the horizon…

For the afternoon, Uncle Alan suggested we go on a hike to take a look at a house that sits on over 300 acres located on the West side of Pikes Peak. Us folks from COS would call it the “back-side” of Pikes Peak but my Uncle says it’s the “front-side” for him. I guess it’s a matter of perspective.

Interesting story – a gentleman by the name of Harvey Carter owned the land and house until his passing in 2012. He was a pioneer rock-climber and entrepreneur that envisioned a ski area being developed on his land, but alas, it wasn’t to be. Here’s a couple links for more information on the guy: Link here for obit and here for a short video. It seems that the Broadmoor Hotel bought the land and house after Harvey’s passing and worked some sort of trade deal with the National Forest Service. It is now NFS land. The Colorado Springs newspaper, “The Gazette” did an article on this here.

My Uncle is a real-estate agent by trade and met this guy a couple years ago. He got an exclusive personal tour of his land and first- hand account of Harvey Carter’s vision.

We had to park about a half-mile away from the house and hike in. The spot where we parked at is at the end of the dirt road past the Crags campground. It was good to walk off the hot dogs we had for lunch, but it was slow going due to the high altitude.

Here’s a view of the trail we hiked on the backside of Pikes Peak.

Many of the Aspens still have their leaves, but not for long…

And here you can see one of the peaks just coming into view as we hiked the road on the back-side of Pikes Peak.

We came upon a tree that had fallen across the road. Unsure what could have caused it – maybe high winds.

Pikes Peak as viewed from the West side.

Once the trail we walked joined the main road. We could see that the road had been clearly widened and graded recently… not a good sign. Alan speculated that the forest service may have already demolished the house and had widened the road to get the dump trucks and bulldozers in.

We hiked and hiked… Alan kept telling us that it’s “just around the next bend”. And he’d say the same thing after the next bend…

View of Pikes Peak from the West side (you can see the “Crags” on the left)

Uncle Alan at the end of the road ahead of us where the house used to sit.

When we finally got to the end of the road, we found that the house had been demolished. All that’s left is dirt and boulders. Hardly any evidence that a house was ever there.

Sure must have been a nice view from the house back in the day.

We tromped around on the dirt that had been brought in to cover the old homesite. There was still some glass and electrical wiring mixed in with the dirt. Whoever did the demolition for the Forest Service must have been the low bidder as usual.

We enjoyed the scenic views… and then headed back down to the Jeep.

We said our goodbyes to Uncle Alan and Aunt Beverly when we got back to his house. Thanks for another memorable day Unk! See you soon.

We hooked the empty trailer back up to the Jeep and headed back down the pass. Dad treated at Wendy’s in Woodland Park where we stopped for supper on the way down.

It was already dark by the time we got back to Dad’s house. So after storing the trailer, I jumped on the Harley and went straight home to see what Stilla and the Germans did for the day. I think they spent some time at Helen Hunt Falls and did some more shopping.

In other news – I heard about the eclipse of the moon tonight, so I set the alarm for 4:15 AM and got this picture.

Hopefully you can see the moon almost eclipsed. I took the pic with my iPhone and probably should have pulled out the Canon S100 but didn’t. As usual, if you click on any of the photos in this blog, it should enlarge for easier viewing.

Until next time… stay tuned…

Colorado

Yay! Willi’s Here (Colorado Springs, CO)

2014/10/06 davidhobden@mac.com

I spent most of Sunday detailing the Silverado after I downloaded the Harley and everything else we’ve been carrying around in the truck for the last several months. I put the bikes, the motorcycle, the inflatable Sea-Eagle boat, the trolling motor, metal detector, firewood, etc., into the garage because we needed the room to pick up son William and his new girlfriend Jasmin from the airport in Denver.

They came in on Iceland-Air from Frankfurt, Germany to DIA. I was supposed to drive to Denver to pick them up with Stilla and youngest daughter Joleen, but I got bumped at the last moment when oldest daughter Jennifer and grandson Kaan wanted to go too. So I stayed home and waited while Stilla took the rest of the family to meet the flight’s expected 7 PM arrival time.

They came in on time and Stilla got everyone back home by 9 PM. They were pretty jet-lagged, so we didn’t stay up too late.

The next morning (Monday), Stilla made us all a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast. Then we all piled into the Silverado again for a fun-filled day of sightseeing and shopping.

We started off by driving through the Garden of the Gods park after a quick stop at Wells Fargo bank to exchange Euros for Dollars.

Here’s William and Jasmin in front of the Balanced Rock.

William and Jasmin in front of the Balanced Rock in Garden of the Gods park.

Rock formations near the Balanced Rock in Garden of the Gods park.

After checking out the Balanced Rocks, we stopped at the Trading Post in the Garden of the Gods to look at souvenirs and then we went on over to the Kissing Camels to walk around a bit.

Kissing Camels rock formation in the Garden of the Gods

L to R: Joleen, Jasmin, William, Stilla and little Coach in Garden of the Gods park.

I almost forgot what the Silverado looked like without the Harley sitting in the back.

After our tour of the Garden of the Gods, we stopped by my Dad and Stepmom Elaine’s house. They live just down the street from the Trading Post and were glad to see William again. It’s been over 2 years since he was last here. We didn’t stay long because everyone was getting hungry and it was almost time to pick up Kaan from school.

The rest of the day was spent shopping at the various stores in the Broadmoor Towne Center aka Southgate. William and Jasmin were interested in stocking up on some new clothes to take back to Germany. We also ate at the Panda Express located there.

I think I’ll take a break from the sight-seeing and shopping tomorrow. I’ll let Stilla be the chauffeur for the day. I think my Dad could use some help getting a log-splitter up to my Uncle Alan’s house near Florissant, CO.

So, til next time.. stay tuned.

Colorado

FCRV Rolling Springs (Colorado City KOA)

2014/10/06 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

Friday was another wash & wax day since I was so rudely interrupted by the exploding expandable hose that I talked about in my previous post. I decided to get another pocket hose from WalMart on Friday after doing some research on-line. It seems that no matter which version of expandable hose you choose – there are many negative reviews on each. The pocket hose is cheaper than the x-hose and this time I saved the receipt. Anyway, I finally got the whole coach washed… it’ll take awhile for the waxing though – one section at a time is the best approach 🙂

On Saturday, we decided to go see the folks in the camping group we belong to – the Rolling Springs Chapter (FCRV). So we jumped into the Silverado and drove down to the KOA in Colorado City where the group is having their weekend campout. We “crashed” the party and got caught-up with folks… especially my Dad and Stepmom. This KOA is about 65 miles South of Colorado Springs. We stayed here with the group once last year. Nice campground, but of course at KOA prices…

When we arrived around noon-time, most folks were out enjoying the local sites so we hung out with Biff & Linda Anderson outside their Monaco Coach (we still had our folding chairs in the back of the Silverado) until my Dad and Stepmom Elaine got back. It was great catching up with them… Biff & Linda were especially helpful to us before we started our trip up to the Pacific NorthWest back a couple/few months ago… they provided us invaluable tips on routes and best places to stay because they had been before. Thanks Biff & Linda! It was great seeing you again.

Finally, my Dad & Stepmom Elaine arrived back at the CG. It was really good to see them again too! We haven’t seen each other since late July when we convoyed together to Lake Tahoe and spent an awesome week together at the Sugar Pine Point CG with some cousins that live in California.

This is the first opportunity we had to see Dad’s new Jeep! He hasn’t gotten the baseplate installed yet to tow it behind his “FRED”. That’s short for Front Engine Diesel. It is made by Gulfstream and the model is the Crescendo. Elaine drove the Jeep down from COS, following Dad in the Coach. Next time, I’m sure he’ll have it set up to tow.

Nice Jeep Dad!

Of course as soon as a hood goes up, others come by to check it out too 🙂

I got to test drive it. We all piled in and went over to Graneros Gorge which is just minutes South of the CG. Although we didn’t need 4-wheel drive – it was still fun hitting the dirt road to get there. Here we parked near the edge of the gorge.

There are the remnants of a gazebo on the edge. At least that’s what my research determined this was.

View down into the gorge.

And here we are looking down into the gorge. You can see Dad’s new jeep in the background.

I posed for a picture near the edge… Stilla kept telling me to take one step back…

We got back to the CG in time for happy hour with the group.

It wasn’t long after happy hour was over and we all gathered together again inside the community room for our traditional Saturday evening potluck. Tonight’s potluck theme was chili. We had every sort of chili known to man and as usual there was more than enough to go around.

Again, it was fun seeing all the great folks again in the Rolling Springs Chapter of FCRV. C U all next time!

I started this post yesterday morning (Sunday) but just now (Monday) got it posted due to interruptions. We picked up our son William and his girlfriend from the airport in Denver (DIA) on Sunday evening and have been running around all day today doing some sight-seeing and shopping… but I’ll do a separate post on that shortly… I need to post this one first.

Nevada, Utah

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

2014/09/29 davidhobden@mac.com

It’s been a busy few days since my last post. I’ll try to get caught up here.

We found a (somewhat) quiet corner of the truck stop in Barstow for Thursday evening as I mentioned in my last blog post. Here’s a picture I took Friday morning before we headed on up I-15 to Las Vegas.

About 150 miles later we passed the Welcome to Nevada sign:

We found a RV park by using the “Points of Interest” option on the Rand McNally GPS. Of course, I researched it quickly on the internet to validate it’s authenticity. It was a very reasonable $20 per night.

We ended up at the Main Street Station Casino, Brewery, Hotel & RV Park near the famous (or infamous) Fremont Street. That’s on the North side of Las Vegas. I called ahead to confirm a spot and they assigned me to site 200… and what are the odds – we were parked right next to another Alpine Coach! With only ~1,400 Coaches ever built between the years 1999 and 2009, that’s a somewhat rare occurrence. Unfortunately, we never got to meet the owners in the two days we were there. They were always seemed to be out and about at the times we were in the park.

It wasn’t long after we arrived that we were met by my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl along with my Mom and Stepdad in their chauffeured Escalade. They have a time-share of sorts with Wyndham Resorts which is where they were staying. The limousine service is courtesy of the resort.

They took us to Caesars Palace to enjoy the Bacchanal Buffet.

The food was excellent albeit rather expensive. All the dishes are prepared by Chef’s. Here’s a link to learn more if interested: http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html#.VCorPUtGGQc

And then we supported the local economy by playing the slots.

Here’s an indication of how our evening went… notice that the “7’s” aren’t on the payline 🙁

Here’s my beautiful Ma and wonderful stepdad! Love ya mom & Jimmy.

Obligatory picture of one of the Las Vegas signs.

We spent the rest of the evening touring the Fremont Street Experience. For those of you that have never been, here’s a link: http://vegasexperience.com

The light show is pretty cool.

And there were lots of characters walking the street… many of whom I couldn’t post to this blog in order to maintain something less than an “R” rating.

This is the zip-line that runs above the street. You can see some people getting ready to go in the second picture below.

These folks got stuck and had to be rescued.

We ended up at the Heart Attack Grill, http://www.heartattackgrill.com for a late night “light” snack 🙂

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to my Mom, Stepdad, Steve & Cheryl after a hearty breakfast at the Plaza Hotel’s Hash-a-go-go http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/dining/hash_house_a_go_go They have to get back home to Las Cruces to go on diets 🙂

After breakfast and goodbye hugs… Stilla and I then spent the rest of our Saturday checking out a few local tourist attractions… the first was one of my favorite’s, the site of American Restoration.

The free guided tour through the shop was really neat, but they don’t allow photos inside because customers haven’t seen their finished restoration projects yet.

I pulled the truck up front for a photo-op. Rick didn’t come out to offer to restore the Harley for me 🙁

I did get the T-Shirt at the gift shop though.

Next, we went by the site of Pawn Stars. I honestly have only seen a few episodes… not one of my favorites, but it was cool to see.

This Elvis painting was for sale at some outrageous price.

We must have arrived at just the right time… there was quite a long line forming as we exited. Must be a popular site, or a tour bus might have shown up.

Then I tracked down where Counting Cars is filmed at Counts Kustoms http://www.countskustoms.com was located and we headed over there. I bought the T-Shirt.

Stilla and I visited Fremont Street again to close out the evening and took in some of the street band music that plays in a few different spots along the covered street.

On Sunday, we hit the road again for Saint George Utah.

We continued on I-15 and went through the corner of Arizona after leaving Nevada.

It had clearly rained the day prior as evidenced by the very soggy desert.

Interstate 15 passes through a pretty cool canyon at one point.

And here’s the Saint George, UT Elk’s Lodge 1473. Now this has to be the most scenic Lodge we’ve stayed at to date. Travel distance for the day was around 120 miles.

We pretty much had the RV Park portion of the parking lot to ourselves. Only two or three other rigs there. We heard that we just missed a busy weekend, the lot was full this morning.

Here’s a couple pics of the lodge.

The view from their deck.

And this was our spot below the cliffs. It’s only $15. Electric hook-up only. Wish we could stay here longer, but son William is due in from Germany on the 5th of October, so we have to be back in Colorado Springs. Also, we have a small problem with the rent – we haven’t gotten any for the last month or so…

Til next time… stay tuned.

California

Bro Time (Westley, CA)

2014/09/25 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

It’s been a couple days since my last post. We’ve been busy hanging out at my brother Ron’s house in Westley, CA. Let me bring you up to date:

We arrived early Tuesday evening after our long day’s drive down I-5 and through Sacramento. After hugs and a tour of the house and adjoining machine shop, we made a trip to the local WalMart to replenish the fridge and more importantly – get some steaks for the BBQ grill. We spent time grilling and catching up. It was great seeing them again, it’s been a long time… years in fact.

We parked on the street beside their house during our stay. Ron graciously provided a power outlet so we could run one of the air conditioners or the microwave without having to start our generator.

Wednesday ended up being a full work day in the fully-appointed machine shop next to the house. I conned (I mean, talked) Ron into doing some modifications to the Silverado’s bed-rails and motorcycle ramp. Nephew James stayed home from work and helped out as well. Ron figured out how to slice a long piece of aluminum off the bed rails so I can better secure my tonneau cover when I’m not carrying the Harley. He also invented a quick-release mount for the motorcycle ramp to secure it on top of the rack. Now I don’t have to struggle with a bunch of bungee-cords every time I transport the ramp.

Here we put everything back on the Silverado after having to disassemble the truck rack to make the modifications.

The tonneau cover now rolls shut and and fits tightly between the bed rails. Thanks Bro!

Ron even took the time to modify the pivot bar that holds the three-piece motorcycle ramp together… the bar was too long and the hole for the pin allowed for too much movement between the individual pieces, so he cut it shorter and re-drilled a new hole for the pin. Now it’s much safer to use, and there’s no chance for a foot or even worse – a motorcycle tire to accidentally slip between the pieces.

I forgot to take a picture of the quick-release mount that Ron invented to secure the ramp on top of the rack during transport. But here’s some pics of Ron in action:

We closed out the evening with another great BBQ meal in the back yard.

It rained Thursday morning… just enough to make us not want to get packed up and move. But, we need to move on down the road and get back to Colorado Springs before our son William comes to visit us in October. So we slowly got packed up by noon, said our goodbyes’s and thanked Ron & Terry for everything. It was about 1 PM by the time we hit I-5 headed South.

Hopefully, I get to see my brother again on Thanksgiving… he’s planning on being in Arizona, as do we.

The roads between the many orchards in the area were muddy from the rain. Lots of vehicles coming onto the roadway from the orchards had made a mess of the pavement. Looks like I get to give the Urban Escape Vehicle and pickup a serious washing now.

The sun came out and it dried up quickly. It wasn’t long before we had to turn on the dash AC again.

We started going through our routine of finding a campground or RV park while traveling down the road since we had good cell signal on I-5. It looked like the Elks Lodge in Barstow would be a good destination for the day. The website said it had 77 RV spots in the Lodge parking lot. So I plugged it into the GPS and we decided to make it a long travel day. Also, we still needed to decide what route to take back to Colorado, and Barstow happens to be located at the point where we can either choose to go North on I-15 through Las Vegas and then on to I-70, then I-25 at Denver to get to COS; or – we can catch I-40 East at Barstow which will take us through Flagstaff and Albuquerque to get on I-25 to COS.

It so happens that my Mom, Stepdad, and other brother Steven along with his better-half Cheryl, are currently in Las Vegas on vacation. So I contacted them to be sure they are still there (they will be until Saturday) so that cinches it – we now have our next destination… Las Vegas, here we come!

Typical highway scenery after we got close to Bakersfield.

It was 7 PM when we finally rolled into Barstow looking for the Elks Lodge. We found it, but it was closed! We wondered why the Elks.org website didn’t show info on the Lodge but we did find all kinds of info and reviews on google. The place looked like it was being sold. Anyway, we chalked that up to another lesson learned… don’t trust google without verifying!

So we did a quick search for other overnight options and found a Flying J truck stop 4 miles further down on I-15. Good enough for the night since it’s late anyway. And besides, we now want to hurry up and get to Las Vegas tomorrow so we can get as much time as possible in with my Mom/Stepdad & other brother Steven and his better-half Cheryl before they go back to Phoenix and/or Las Cruces on Saturday!

We did 335 miles today… whew! I don’t want to do that too often.

Signing out from the truck stop… C U tomorrow!

California

Avenue of Giants & Moving Day (Westley, CA)

2014/09/24 davidhobden@mac.com

We did it! We completed the entire Hwy 101 “Pacific Coast Highway” although as I type this, I remembered that the signs started calling it the “Redwood Highway” once we dipped into California.

Our Hwy 101 adventure started in Olympia WA, where we went North to Port Angeles, and then headed South along the entire Washington/Oregon coastline – all the way to Leggett CA where you have to either choose to turn on Hwy 1 (which continues along the CA coast) or stay on 101 which starts inland. We chose to continue on 101 inland so we could jump over to I-5 via State Highway 20.

We had decided to head down to Westley, CA to visit my brother Ronald. Westley is located about 80 miles South of Sacramento.

So to catch you up on our continuing adventure – we left the Chinook RV Resort in Klamath CA on Monday at a leisurely 11 AM. Our goal for the day was to take the “Avenue of Giants” because you just can’t get enough of these magnificent redwoods.

But first, we caught our last few views of the Pacific Ocean.

After driving through the town of Eureka we finally got to the turnoff for the Avenue of the Giants which is a 31 mile scenic byway that parallels Hwy 101. It was awesome – but again, pictures just don’t do it justice. Here’s a link to my friend Wikipedia for more information on the route: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_of_the_Giants

We pulled off to the side at the first opportunity to view some of the trees first-hand.

Here you can see that the leaves are already changing colors… more evidence that it’s time to keep heading South 🙂

After our scenic (but somewhat slow-paced) excursion through the Avenue of Giants, we got back on Hwy 101 proper and noticed that the scenery was changing dramatically… it was definitely drier here.

We turned East on 20 to get over to 1-5 but it was getting late (about 5 PM) so we started consulting our resources to find a spot to spend the night. Our Passport America app turned us on to Kelly’s Family Kampground near the town of Upper Lake which is on the North side of Clear Lake.

After turning off the highway for about 2 miles to get to the campground, our Rand McNally GPS guided us in. What a beautiful campground… and we had it all to ourselves with the exception of the owner who bicycled from her house at the entrance road to greet us. We decided to boondock for the night because the sites were heavily wooded with no line-of-site for the satellite. Also, it just looked so peaceful by the pond – so that’s where we decided to lower the jacks.

This is the road into the campground. The owner – I think she said her name was Patti Kelly, only charged us $12 for the night. Our travel distance for the day was about 230 miles. The only bad thing about the campground was no signal on the iPhones with AT&T and only one bar on the MiFi JetPack with Verizon which also equated to no signal because we couldn’t get any emails or websites to upload. But we had satellite, which was nice after sitting by the pond in our folding chairs to watch the evening local wildlife and stars.

The camp store and office – all but closed for the season.

Our boondock spot next to the pond.

That’s the Urban Escape Vehicle on the other side of the pond.

Our view out the front window.

There were wild turkeys everywhere.

Little Coach didn’t know what to make of the turkeys… he didn’t know whether to chase them or be scared.

In the morning (Tuesday) I did a PMCS, that’s Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services for you non-Army types, and found that one of the baseplate connections on the truck seemed loose. It moved up and down and it shouldn’t do that! This is the towbar connection point on the truck that is permanently mounted to the frame on each side. I inspected further, and found that the bolts were slightly loose, the bolt head was gouging into the frame as you can see from the picture below. There should be a flat washer there. I didn’t have any large flat washers on hand in my stash, just smaller diameter ones, so I tightened the bolts (on both sides) as best I could and made a commitment to stop at the earliest opportunity and get new washers.

So after just a few miles, we found a NAPA store in the town of Upper Lake with a big parking lot. I broke out the tools and took the bolt out to go inside for the right sized flat washers and also new split-washers for the “nut” side of the bolt.

Good thing I had everything needed. It pays to be prepared. I had to use the cordless drill driver to grind down the edges where the bolt head had gouged the frame and then I used my red loc-tite to put everything back together.

I only did the one bolt because it was so difficult to get the lock-nut off in the limited space available, and the other bolt looked fine at this time. I figured that once I get to my brother Ronald’s house, I could tackle the other one. I purchased extra washers to keep on hand.

Here’s a picture of the “wallowed out” hole in the frame caused by the bolt head not having a flat-washer underneath it to spread out the clamping force. There’s a lot of weight and pressure put on these two bolts when we are pulling the truck around corners and over some of the “fine” roads we have traveled recently.

With my confidence at a much higher level about the safety and security of the truck and Harley behind us, we continued our travel along State Highway 20.

Very dry with evidence of recent forest fire here.

Once we got to I-5 and started heading South, we stopped at a Pilot/Flying J to fuel up. 80 gallons at $4 per gallon 🙁

We continued through Sacramento – man do they ever need to fix these roads! And the traffic was terrible… Lots of folks passing and weaving – in a hurry to get to who knows where – and lots of trucks too. There were uncovered gravel trucks, open loads of tomato trucks, and even an uncovered hay truck, which reminds me – I need to check the intake to the air filter to clean some of that out!

After 196 miles today (Tuesday) we ended up at our current destination: Westley CA, home of my brother Ronald and his wife Terry. Here’s a few pics of the route into their little town – don’t blink, you’ll miss it if you go too fast 🙂

Preview of the evening’s agenda.

Stay tuned…

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: Western RV

Thanksgiving (Casa Grande, AZ)

Selling the House (Colorado Springs, CO)

Got Oxygen? (Pikes Peak – Colorado Springs, CO)

Overnight Trip (Royal Gorge, CO)

Uncle Alan’s (Floride, CO)

Yay! Willi’s Here (Colorado Springs, CO)

FCRV Rolling Springs (Colorado City KOA)

Ma Time (Las Vegas, NV)

Bro Time (Westley, CA)

Avenue of Giants & Moving Day (Westley, CA)

Follow along on our adventures…

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Follow along on our adventures…