April 6 to May 4...It was a Long April!

April 6 to May 3, 2015

The good news is that we are “on the road” and most of our repairs have been completed.  Hmmm, I don’t really think I have any bad news.  Yippee!  I’ll catch you up on what we’ve been doing the month of April.

You may recall that Abe went to Paul Evert RV in Fresno for quite a list of repairs on March 4.  Even though the repair list was a long one, it took basically a month to get everything done.  What was the hold up?  It seems that it’s quite a lengthy process to get approval for repairs under warranty, especially at a service center where the motor home wasn’t purchased.  Once the approvals were in hand, the repairs moved along well.

On Monday, April 6, we drove to Paul Evert RV, to review the repairs and determine what was left to be done.  We also drove Abe with Phillip Hollingsworth, the NW area Tiffin representative.  Jerry had concerns about the transmission’s shifting pattern and the engine brakes.  We found some hilly country NE of Fresno and demonstrated that the tachometer showed over speeding when going downhill and the problem increased as the engine warmed up.  We took Abe to an Allison transmission shop in Fresno for an evaluation before we returned to Paul Evert RV.  Ten minutes of computer time and they found that the tachometer was reading 400 RPM too fast!  Needless to say, we added a new tachometer to the repair list.  Through their magic computer to bus hook-up, the transmission folks were also able to re-program second gear for us.  We deposited Abe back at Paul Evert’s and left with the optimistic notion that Abe would be done the end of the week.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we had a delightful rain on Tuesday, April 7.  The gauge showed a total of 0.63”, which may not seem like a lot to you, but here in the central valley of California it was amazing!  The annual rainfall is around 12 inches and the last four years of drought it’s rained 7 inches or less!  We had a beautiful rainbow on the ridge to the east.

While we were at Chuck’s every afternoon found us sitting on the deck having “cocktails” and relaxing after a busy day.  The cattle on the hillside above the house migrated from the west pastures to the east ridge about this time.  It happened every day, and we’d come to expect their movement.  The dogs didn’t remember from day to day that the cattle would appear behind the house and every day we had quite a ruckus.  From Chuck’s border collie, Mia, to Bobbie’s little rescue dog, Elfie, they all went running up the hill after the cattle.  Bark!  Bark!  Bark!  Good thing these dogs were cute because they could be really noisy!  You can see in the photo that the cows were used to their antics and didn’t get too worked up.

Bobbie was very savvy about keeping the dogs happy and many afternoons would fill a marrow bone with a little peanut butter.  The dogs loved it!  Chuck’s old Jack Russell terrier, Bella, didn’t let the others come close.

Thursday, April 9, we received the magic phone call from Rod, the Paul Evert RV technician who had been working on Abe.  Everything was done!!  Friday morning, April 10, we were off to Fresno and ready to get underway.  We did a walk-around with Rod and reviewed the 20 items he had completed.  We began inside and finished up outside with the front driver’s side slide where the forward guide block was replaced.  Rod said it took him 12 hours to complete this really difficult job.  It looked great, but…the rear guide block under that same slide was broken.  OH NO!!!  We all wanted to cry!  How much longer would it take to get that part and get it replaced?  We were sooooo disappointed. 

The service department scheduler said it would be a week or two before they could re-schedule us into the shop so we decided to take Abe back to Visalia.  We loaded all of our things from Chuck’s and drove to Guy and Jeanne Evans home on the NW side of Visalia.  They had invited us to come and stay and make use of their 50-amp service, their spacious lot, and their warm hospitality.  Even better…they were 35 minutes closer to Fresno.  It was a little tricky getting Abe through the tight gate and settled in, but Jerry made it look easy!

Guy is a retired shop teacher and an avid car restorer.  He had everything we could possibly need to settle in.  We were able to housesit for them a couple of weekends and enjoyed some great dinners together many evening.  Once again, even though Abe was not ready, our Visalia friends made the wait an easy one.

Jerry had many conversations with Phillip Hollingsworth, the NW Tiffin representative and the slide manufacturer (HWH in Iowa) representative about what Jerry saw as faulty engineering and production of the slide guide block.  We actually sent both parts of the broken slide guide block to HWH for them to review.  Eventually they decided their design and production were A-OK and they couldn’t explain why we had two fail in an almost new motor home.  In the photo you see one of the two halves that were shipped off.

One Saturday we went to the Antique Tractor Show in Tulare.  We’ve been to this many times and it never disappoints.  Maybe in our third iteration of retirement we’ll decide to restore an old tractor???  This one particularly caught Jerry’s eye.  The sign on the front says, “1950 Ford 8N Tractor, 1950 Ford Flathead, 1950 Dearborn Road Maintainer.”  If only the owner had painted it yellow and green, it would have been perfect!

While we waited for our final repair to be scheduled, we drove to Pismo Sands RV Park in Oceano on Tuesday, April 22 with Mike and Sandy Albaugh and Roy and Joan Bremmer.  Our plans were to stay until Sunday, enjoy the cooler weather and learn a bit more about Rv-ing from these veterans.  The Albaugh’s have a fifth wheel and have done lots of travelling in it.  Sandy’s children and grandchildren are in Michigan and Mike loves Colorado.  We parked our two rigs at the RV Park and Roy and Joan parked their trailer at the Elks a few blocks away.

We caravanned to the coast with Mike and Sandy and stopped at Cholame for lunch.  Under the tree in the parking lot behind Abe stands a memorial to James Dean who died near here in a car crash in 1955. 

One evening (following standard “RV protocol”) Sandy cooked spaghetti for everyone.  We had a delicious dinner with good friends.  What more could one ask for?  In the photo Joan, on the right is touting the tricks of her cell phone.  Sandy, on the left, wanted some info about getting a “smart” phone.

Roy and Joan left for Visalia on Thursday, April 23, and Mike and Sandy were gone most of the day as well.  Jerry and I drove to Pismo Beach for lunch and then on to Port San Luis Harbor and Avila Beach.  Years ago we liked to come here for the day to play on the beach and walk the pier with the kids. Harford Pier was built in 1878 by John Harford and is one of the last piers that the public can still drive a car on. The pier is 1,320-foot-long and is well protected by the breakwater.  We saw many sailboats tied to mooring buoys in the harbor and a few harbor seals enjoying the sun on some of those boats.

Friday, April 24, Mike, Sandy, Jerry and I headed for Edna Valley and wine tasting.  There are several areas along the central California coast known for their great wines and Edna Valley is one of them.  From this gatepost sign, you can see all of the wineries in the area, but we made it to only 5.

We visited Edna Valley winery, the biggest in the valley.  We were here in 2005 for the wedding of Justin and Hali Bream, son and daughter-in-law of our good friends Dan and Beth Bream.  It hadn’t changed much…a lovely location and great wines. 

Visiting a winery means conversations with people who are REALLY into wine and know a whole lot more than we do.  We were curious to learn about the impact of the drought on the area and, of course, all the winery folks were quite concerned.  We did learn that grape vines are good for about 40 years and older stock have roots that are quite deep.

Our favorite winery was Wolff winery, located off the road on the top of a knoll.  We found lots of purchases to make there!  From the looks of the photo, the wine tasting there must have been pretty good. 

Saturday, April 25, had two scheduled events:  beer-tasting a local microbrewery and attending the Great American Melodrama’s performance of “Leading Ladies”. 

After our afternoon of wine tasting, the beer exploration didn’t get really rave reviews.  Mike and Sandy aren’t really avid beer drinkers but they were good sports, though.  In this shot you can see Sandy reflected in the menu board…trying to figure out what to order.

The performance at the melodrama was excellent!  For the little town of Oceano, it was surprisingly well done and very entertaining.  “Leading Ladies” isn’t a play with which we were familiar, but it was great fun.  We were glad we went.

Sunday, April 26, it was time to pack up and depart.  Mike and Sandy returned to Visalia, but Jerry and I drove to Morro Strand RV Park, a short 30 miles north up the coast.  Visalia friends Doug and Judee Berg have a weekend cottage there, and invited us to come have Sunday lunch with them.  As luck would have it there was a kite festival happening at the beach.  Wow!  Obviously, it was windy enough to fly some really big kites.

Monday, April 27, we drove Abe back to Paul Evert and spent the night there so that Abe would be first in line on Tuesday morning for that last slide repair.  Of course, in the mean time we had found other problems, so gave our repair buddy Rod the list.  We had quite a night, trying to sleep.  Paul Evert is located between I-99 and the railroad track.  If the traffic wasn’t roaring the trains were tooting all night.  We left Abe Tuesday, April 28, and, given how repairs had gone previously, assumed that the bus would not be ready until Wednesday.  We made plans to stay with Guy and Jeanne Evans once again, but this time in the house.  

Smokey loved this plan.  Apparently she has missed wall-to-wall carpeting and brick fireplaces!

Wednesday, April 29, we talked to Rod at Paul Evert and he said he had fixed the slide but would not get to the other minor problems on our list for days!  Yikes!  Since we had already decided to take Abe to Red Bay, Alabama, where Abe was built, we chose to wait to have these other repairs done there as well.  We simply could not stand to wait any longer to get on the road.  We were cued up for baby-sitting duty on the weekend, but did not want to arrive at Jill and Bob’s until Friday afternoon.  We used our “Good Sam’s RV Park Guide” to find a likely spot to park for two nights and found Coyote Valley RV Resort.  Good Sam’s gave this RV park a 10/10/10 rating and it was only about 20 miles from Jill and Bob’s home in San Jose. 

It was a great park in every regard except that the sites were small.  There was no room to park the truck on site, but we had a parking lot close by.  Wednesday afternoon we took a long walk on the Coyote Creek Trail, accessible about 0.5 miles from the RV Park.  The trail was an asphalt bike path running about 18 miles from San Jose to Morgan Hill.  We followed the creek and were just west of Hwy 101 through old Sycamores, California poppies, and a few bikers.  What a great way to stretch our legs.

We had many enjoyable conversations with other RVers in the park and a delightful evening with Kathy and Larry, full time   RVers on an Allegro Bus 45 LP…like our motor home only 8 feet longer.  They travel with their German shepherd, Dakota, a very well-mannered pooch.  We were amazed at what a difference that 8 feet of living space made.  Their Allegro Bus was spacious indeed!

Friday, May 1, we pulled up in front of Jill and Bob’s house, ready to do our duty as baby-sitting grandparents.  Jill and Bob’s 4^th anniversary was the day before, so they had dinner reservations to celebrate.  Our first duty was dinner with Lauren.  No problem!  She liked our hamburgers and beans.

Jill and Bob’s friends Mike and Jennifer had a garage sale Saturday morning so the three of them went to help, allowing us time to gear up for the rest of Saturday and Sunday.  Lauren came home from the garage sale with an old hat of Jennifer’s and the game “Banana-grams.”  She loved both!  I think the hat is a good look for her, don’t you?  She wore the hat the rest of the weekend, which is unusual for a kid that doesn’t really like hats.

Lauren has a new swing in her backyard, which Grandpa Jerry seemed to operate quite adequately.  They spent a lot of time out there.  Grandpa showed Lauren how to spin and swing at the same time…absolutely heart-stopping!  She loved it.

Lauren is on the cusp of potty training so Mommy bought some big girl underwear, which Lauren was absolutely fascinated with.  She sort of gets the idea and likes to talk about the whole process, but getting the “performance” done accurately every time just has not happened yet.  Even so, she kept herself busy sorting through all the beautiful new underwear she has acquired.

Lauren was fascinated with the bus, so we spent a fair amount of time visiting Smokey and jumping on the bed. 

She even wanted to have lunch on the bus.  Can you tell that she’s asking Grandpa if he wants some?

I tried a “selfie” of the three of us, but I’m not very good!

Jill and Bob had made plans to spend Saturday Night in San Francisco, so we had Lauren overnight and into Sunday afternoon.  She went to bed easily and slept well.  Cheerios were on her breakfast menu, while she watched “Bob the Train” on my iPad.  She even sang along to some of the songs.  It was enough to melt this Grandma’s heart!  After breakfast we were off to the park.  This child has no fear!  The taller the slide the better.  Yikes!

Jill got home in the early afternoon and Bob was home after dinner, having stayed in San Francisco to help a friend with some house repairs.  Jerry, Lauren, and I had a great weekend but, as you can see from this photo, Jill and Bob looked a little worn out!  Of course, Lauren was thrilled to see them, so Grandma and Grandpa immediately became second-class citizens!

We had a wonderful weekend with this little family!  Today, Monday morning, May 4, we officially began our trek eastward.  We drove about 140 miles to Jackson Rancheria RV Park and Casino.  This lovely RV Park is up in the gold country outside Jackson, and, obviously associated with a casino.  We’ll spend the night here and then see if we can make it to Nevada tomorrow.

Yep, we’re on our way to new adventures.  Stay tuned!