Haste Makes Waste!

My Mom always told me that haste makes waste and she sure was right.  The last time we were camping, I decided to get ahead of packing up to leave on Sunday, by putting up the awning. I had a flight to North Carolina on Sunday afternoon for business, so I was somewhat out of my routine of packing up Sunday morning, which didn't help the situation.

So, I had dinner on the BBQ and knew that I only had a few minutes to put up the awning.  So I went through the process and realized that I had forgotten to drop the upper arms of the awning to the closed position and I had already started the process of retracting the awning.  Needless to say, the arms were stuck in the up position and I couldn't get them down.  That was haste makes waste error number 1.

Haste makes waste error number 2, which I know better than to do, was to grab my hammer and attempt to force the arms down.  Well as many of you already know, that doesn't work.  So at that very moment, I had visions of not being able to get the awning up, having to drive the rig home with the awning partially out and ultimately missing my afternoon flight to North Carolina.

At that high point of frustration, I looked down and realized that I could detach the outside arms of the awning and possibly retract the upper arms once the pressure was off of them.  I enlisted the help of my wife Tracy and my daughter Sarah to help hold the arms as I released them.  Once released, the pressure was off, the upper arms slid right into place (not quite as smoothly now because of my use of the hammer) and I was able to completely retract the awning. All was well once again.  

As I stood back and took a sip from my glass of wine, I felt really stupid and could hear my Mom's voice saying, remember, haste makes waste.  She was always right!

Just then I realized that I had dinner on the BBQ, luckily it was only partially overdone.  

I hope your week doesn't include any haste or waste, thanks for stopping by, get out and vote if you haven't already done so and please join me in keeping those people in the storm affected areas in your thoughts and prayers!

All's Well That Ends Well!

Tough Hike and Iris Passed!

Boy, today was beautiful.  Tracy and I went with a group from her work to hike the Gateway Loop Trail in North Scottsdale.  The trail was described as flat and easy, it was anything but that.

The trail was rocky and very steep in many areas.  Tracy made it about 1.5 miles in and had to head back to the trail head with one of her co-workers.  I didn't want to be shown up by five women, so I held out for the 4.5 miles and was hurting big time by the time we made it back to the trail head.

 

The view from the trail was great and there were lots of hikers, bikers and runners on the trail, I was amazed.

One of the downsides of owning an older RV is that you have to have an emissions test every year to get it registered.  I always get a little concerned when it is time for emissions, because Iris sits all summer long.  Although I use gas stabilizer, I am always concerned that we might not make it through emissions, which could result in expensive repairs and a delay to our camping season.

Well the good news is that Iris passed again this year with flying colors.  All of the emission results were considerably below standards. The inspectors checked Iris over from top to bottom, almost like they couldn't believe the results.  But the results are what they are and I am happy to say that our camping season is off to a great start.

I hope your weekend is going great and please join me in keeping those in the path of Hurricane Sandy in your thoughts and prayers for safety. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

MIM

We work with a law firm here in Phoenix that invited my business partner and I to attend a cocktail party at the Music Instrument Museum (MIM).

Because I have never been to the MIM, I jumped at the invitation and I am glad that I did.  First off, the drinks and appetizers were great and it was followed by a performance by members of the Phoenix Opera which was wonderful.  

After the performance, we were provided with headphones and were able to tour the first floor of the museum.  The neat thing was as we walked, the music changed automatically at each display and you could stay as long or as short of a time as you desired to both look and listen.  For those of you who will winter here, don't miss the opportunity to visit the MIM.

Here are a few pictures from the displays that we visited:

I am excited to welcome four new followers to our little adventure, they are Leeanne and Gary of The BooneDocks, Jim and Rosie Sathe of The Travels of Jim and Rosie, Mike and Terri who did not identify a Blog and Ingrid of Live Laugh RV. We are so pleased to have you all along for the ride and welcome aboard!

I hope that all of you on the east coast are safely out of the path of Hurricane Sandy and we will keep that area and those people in our thoughts and prayers.  Have a safe and enjoyable weekend, we are off to Trunk or Treat at our church tonight, which should be great fun.

Headed Home!

After three days on the road for business, it is always nice to be heading home.

The weather here in the Carolina's has been absolutely beautiful, I tried to capture the Fall colors while driving, but didn't do too great of a job.

We have three new followers this week that I will more appropriately welcome when I am off the road.

I hope your week is going great and thanks for the visit!

In The Carolina's

Well I returned early on Sunday after a great first RV outing to head out to both North and South Carolina on business.

The last night we were at the campground, Tracy said she thought that it was tarantula mating season and it was odd that we hadn't seen any in the last two days.

Our youngest daughter Sarah joined us for dinner and s'mores and as we were visiting, our little friend pictured below walked through our site for a little visit.

I am going to keep this post short as it is time to watch the third and final Presidential debate, so I will wish you a good evening, thanks for stopping by and make sure you vote!

Tiger Escaped!

Well part of this first outing of the season was to test out the new toys that I purchased during the summer and have looking forward to given a run.

The first item was the Jack Antenna, which replaced our old Wingard Antenna. I have to say that I was expecting much more from this antenna based on what I had heard and it doesn't work much better than our old antenna. I think we might have gained one more channel, but it definitely wasn't worth $50.

The second item is our new shower head that worked as advertised. It does seem to be more powerful and it appears to use less water. Well worth the $27.

The third item is our Perfect Harmony bed topper. I think it is very comfortable, but I think the jury is still out for Tracy.

Finally our new O-Grill has been working great. Did hot dogs and hamburgers so far and will do bacon wrapped filets tonight, so far, so good!

On a sad note, I was frying bacon outside this morning and a women came into our campsite to let me know that her cat Tiger had gotten out the window in her rig last night and had not been seen since.

The first thing that went through my mind were the coyotes which were hooping and hollering last night, but I told her that we would keep our eyes peeled for Tiger, but neither she or I gave it much hope unfortunately.

Well that is it for us, it has been a fast but nice weekend. We have already booked our next outing and it is my hope that it will be a little cooler. I hope your weekend has been great and below are a couple more pictures of our great view.

Fun Day Camping!

Well getting ready to camp is always a lot of work, but the reward is worth it. After having to replace the electric plug that had burned from too high of amperage draw, I hope, it was time to hit the road.

The park is almost empty, but it looks like a few more have reservations for tonight. It is still hot here, about 90 right now, but it cools down nicely when the sun goes down.

Tracy will join me tonight after work, I am hoping that she might be able to get out a little early.

I have to head to North and South Carolina on Sunday for business, so I am going to enjoy every minute while we're here.

Here is a shot of our space on the hill and our beautiful view of Fountain Hills. I hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Ready To Blast Off And The Shuttle Has Landed!

Well I am starting to get really excited as we begin to load the rig for our first outing of the camping season.  The refrigerator has been cooling down the last few days so that I can enjoy an ice cold Miller Lite after we have set everything at the campground, can't wait.

As many of you may have seen on the news, the Space Shuttle Endeavor honored former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with a flyover of her hometown, Tucson, on its way from Texas to a California museum where it will be displayed.

My wife's cousin James who is an attorney in Los Angeles took the following pictures of the Space Shuttle as it made its way through the streets of the city to its final resting place at the California Science Center.  I had heard that it was a big job getting the Shuttle through the city and it required the removal of several large pine trees, which is always sad.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures and that is it for now. Hopefully more to follow from the campground and I hope your week is going great! Take care.

Clean But Still Ugly!

Once we were home from Havasu, it was time to continue to get our rig ready for our first outing of the year starting this Thursday at McDowell Mountain Regional Park. Part of getting ready included cleaning our carpet in the rig, that has gotten dusty and dirty from sitting all summer. 

As many of you know, our rig is a vintage 1993 Tioga that has all of the wonderful color schemes that were used during the early 90's.  On the inside, those colors included blue seats and cushions and a wonderful pink carpet.  Pink and blue, what were they thinking, or what were they smoking when they came up with that color combination?

On my list of things to do is to either replace the carpet with a more modern colored carpet or wood flooring.  I have heard pros and cons on both, so rather than taking any immediate action, I have been waiting for a vision to enter my mind that will get my body moving to solve this dilemma.  In the meantime, I will use our newly purchased rug cleaner to at least ensure that our ugly carpet is clean!

I would take some before and after pictures, but frankly there is not that much difference between the two versions, so I won't waste your time with that...ugly is ugly I'm afraid.:(

Shortly after I posted this, Jeannie and Eldy commented that they would like to see what our 90's rig looked like inside, so you can blame them...

The Living Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Spacious Bedroom

The good news is that I did sleep out in the rig on Saturday night to test out our new Perfect Harmony mattress topper and it was very comfortable.  I didn't wake up with my normal hip and lower back pain, so that it always good. We will give it a longer test drive this weekend and may decide to purchase the same topper for our home bed. 

I want to welcome our most recent follower richardr to the group. It does not appear that Richard has his own blog that I can point you to, but it does appear that he has joined several RV blogs lately, so he might be gathering some info on this great way of life.  Anyway, welcome aboard Richard and thanks for joining us.

Thank you all for the visit and enjoy the rest of your week.  Be safe out there!

Enjoying Lake Havasu!

I had a speaking engagement this afternoon in Lake Havasu so I asked Tracy and Sarah if they were interested in riding along.

The weather here yesterday was terrible according to several people who attended the luncheon, but it was beautiful today.

Tracy was off to a 50th Birthday Party of a girlfriend in Thousand Oaks, CA, so Sarah and I drove up to Havasu this morning and had a great time driving and catching up.

After my speech, Sarah and I looked in the shops by the London Bridge and then went to the movies to see Taken 2. Wow, that was an action packed movie, from start to finish. I would recommend it if you like those types of movies and don't mind seeing 20 or so bad guys meeting their demise.

From there it was time for Fajitas at the Javelina Cantina, they were sure good and our view was great.

Well we sure saw a lot of RV's heading to Quartzsite, even though it is still a little hot out there.

Well we will enjoy breakfast in the morning and will then head south and then east to get back home.

I sure hope you are going to enjoy your weekend and thanks for the visit!

Sarah at the London Bridge

View from our meeting room with florescence light relection

View from our table at the Javelina Cantina

Sarah enjoys her virgin margarita!

Things Have Slipped!

Well the heat of Arizona is not a friend to adhesives.  Every year about this time, I find one or both of our blind spot mirrors on the ground because the adhesive has heated up to molten lava, causing the mirror to slip right off. 

This year, the entry door to our rig got so hot that the adhesive that I used to install the new glass into window frame last winter slipped down about an inch at the top.  The prior owners had installed a beautiful stained glass window of an Iris (that's how Tracy came up with the name "Iris" for our rig) below, but it leaked inside and the frame outside had cracked with age. I had visions of having to take the two piece frame apart and start the process over.  The last time, the install was not fun as I found having a third hand was a requirement and unfortunately I was only born with two.  

 Iris's Namesake!

So I was dreading this project and mentioned my predicament to an fellow RV friend at church. He said that he had the same thing happen last year and he used a suction cup and some window adhesive to reposition the glass so that he did not have to take the frame apart.  What a smart guy and what a great idea.  

So I was off to my favorite store Harbor Freight (I will use any excuse to go there and walk the aisles, it is truly an adult toy store) to purchase a suction cup for the job. $4.99 later, (well it was actually more than that because I found a couple of other must have items) I was out the door. 

I found the glass adhesive/sealer that I had purchased a few months ago at Home Depot and I was off to make the repair.  I put a bead of adhesive on both sides of the glass, connected the suction cup and moved the glass back into place, it worked perfectly. To ensure that the glass did not slip while drying, I connected the suction cup to the bottom of the glass as you will see below, while everything was setting up.   

The Suction Cup Worked Perfectly!

With that repair completed, we are one step closer to our first outing of the year in less than two weeks.  We are getting pretty excited and can't wait to try the new toys that we purchased at the end of last summer and haven't been able to use.

I was off to Tucson yesterday where it was sunny and beautiful and I saw many rigs heading south for the winter.  I have not spent much time there, but hope to in the future.

Well I hope your week is off to a great start and don't forget to tune in to the VP Debates tomorrow night.  Stay safe out there and thanks for the visit!

Washed, Waxed and Rarin' to Roll!

Well we are only two weeks away from our first RV outing, so Iris got a wash and wax today as well as the installation of the three vent covers that we purchased at Camping World last weekend.

Because we have two Fantastic Vents, the job was a little more complicated because I could not use the screws that came with the vents to attach the brackets, so I decided to use pop rivets, which worked perfectly.

Brackets in Place.

Pop Rivets Worked Great!

Project Complete!

Once all three vent covers were installed, it was time to wash the dust off the roof from the long summer.

Then it was time to wash and wax Iris for our trips ahead, which I am greatly looking forward to. Although Iris has some years on her, she always looks so nice when she is clean and waxed.

Nice and Clean!

Now its time to relax with some college football on TV and some ice on my back from all of my earlier activities.  I want to wish our Canadian friends a blessed and enjoyable Thanksgiving on Monday and I hope you are all having a great Saturday. Thanks for the visit!

Yogurt Anyone?

Last night I thought Tracy asked me if I wanted to go for yogurt.  I thought it was odd that we were going for dessert before having dinner, but I was game.  

Like all good husbands, I listen to what my wife says, but I may not always listen 100%.  Just when I thought I was going to have my favorite french vanilla and mocha coffee yogurt, we were actually headed to a Yoga class at our church.  

Next thing I knew, instead of eating delicious yogurt, I was doing the plank pose, followed by the downward facing dog and then the cobra pose...I would have much rather had my yogurt.  

I found that Yoga has it's own unique language along with special equipment including mats, bands and bricks.  Unfortunately the mats are only 3MM thick and I think you use the bricks to throw at the instructor when she tells you to hold a pose for longer than you would like. 

The challenge that I had was remembering my left side from my right, stretching enough to get into a pose and remembering to breath, all at the same time. Just about the time that I thought I had it all together, I realized that I had not breathed for a couple of minutes and was about to pass out!

I am looking forward to mastering some of these poses in hopes that it will give me some lower back and muscle pain relief. An added benefit is that I am the only male in the class and I certainly don't mind all of the nice looking ladies encouraging me to continue. :)

So that is the excitement so far this week, I will let you know if I am able to get out of bed in the morning or not!  Have fun, enjoy life and thanks for the read!

Quiet But Enjoyable Weekend!

As you know, we spent Saturday afternoon at Camping World, so it was back home to install the new shower head and Perfect Harmony bed topper.  It is still a little too hot to do much in our rig when it is 110 degrees inside, but the AC does its best to cool it down enough to not die, while trying to complete a few projects.

The new bed topper adds another 4 or so inches to the height of the bed, so Tracy may have to get a running start to make it into the bed at night.:) It does seem to be much more comfortable, but we will give it a real test in a few weeks.

I still have the three vent covers to install, so I am hoping that the prediction of 90 degree weather will happen later this week, so that I won't burn up while doing the installations.  

I was also able to scalp the lawn on Saturday and will put in the winter rye grass as soon as we have some consistently cooler nights.

I was pleased that our ASU Sun Devils won in California and that the Cardinals beat Miami in overtime yesterday.  Unfortunately our US Ryder Cup didn't do so well with a come from behind victory by the European team. Well, there is always next year.  

I was happy to see that we have two more followers this week on our little adventure. The first is Kris Watson who recently purchased a motorhome and took a trip with her mom that she described as a Griswold vacation at qjcp.blog.com.  The second is Sara of rvingsolo who just purchased a 2013 LazyDaze that I know she will enjoy very much.  Congrats Sara on your new purchase and thanks for keeping the economy going!

I hope that your first day of October is off to a great start and that you have a safe and enjoyable week. Thanks for the visit!