And The Fun Begins

Remember last year about this time when we were having all those problems. Since then it has been such smooth sailing with just little, easy to fix, problems. Well we hit Nevada and bam, here we go again. First off the dryer stops working right in the middle of laundry day. So I finish washing the clothes and take them over to the RV park laundry to dry. I call a mobile repair guy and he can’t come out for over a week. So Kean and I pull out the dryer which you can imagine is not easy in a motorhome. The dryer is tucked nicely in the bathroom in a closet. Well the closet is too small to get the dryer out so some of the closet, along with the closet door and the bathroom door had to be removed. Once we got the dryer out we could not determine what the problem was, so we have to wait for the repairman. Instead of putting everything back together, we just move the dryer back and forth from the bedroom during the day to the living room at night. And the next week on laundry day I got creative and made my own indoor clothesline. With humidity in Nevada around 10%, clothes dry fast. Not something I would try back on the east coast. Here is the adventure in photos: It’s called going with the flow. So the repairman comes and determines what part is needed. It will take three days to get it and we will have already left so we order it ourselves and have it ship to Kean’s parents house. Of course we can’t travel with the dryer out so back inside the cabinet it goes. When we got to the desert, we pull the dryer back out, install the part, and put it all back together. And I have a working dryer again. Yeah!

The other thing is the back up camera and GPS were acting wonky again. So Kean takes that apart and gets it working again. The big problem we now have is the driver side slide out is acting weird. That we have to wait until we get into a repair shop. So on stops that are just overnighters, we don’t put that slide out hoping that it will keep working until we can get it fixed. We have also had an issue with the blown fuse on the leveling system that we had last year. This time we knew what the problem was, had a spare fuse on hand, and fixed it right up. It feels so good to not be in our rookie season anymore. At least for some of the issues.

Oh, and we did have fun while in Nevada and not just do repair work. We decided to stay for a while just outside Carson City because it is a quick trip up the mountain to Lake Tahoe and much cooler weather. We decided to spend our 27th Anniversary up on Heavenly Mountain on their Adventure Course. We zip lined and then spent the rest of the day playing in the trees. It was a fun day! Check us out. And in case you ever wondered what a ski slope looks like in the summer — here you go: Lake Tahoe is beautiful anytime of the year. If you have never been, I highly recommend the trip. We even took another trip up the mountain for our Anniversary dinner. We got a table overlooking the lake and watched the sunset over the mountains. Does it get any better than this?

Another trip we took while staying in Nevada was a big 10.5 mile hike up Mt. Rose. Great hike with lots to see but strenuous with an almost 2000 ft ascent. Gorgeous scenery but I have to tell you — it was a tough one. The last photo is a tree growing out of a rock. How is that possible? And look at this one, Kean saying goodbye to the mountains (knowing is he is heading east soon).

After Nevada we drive back to Indo CA to visit with Kean’s parents again before the big trip. And man I have to tell you that it was HOT! The first day we drove in the temperature reading on the RV was showing 119 degrees. Even with all three AC’s on high this big ole box we live in just would not cool down. It’s no wonder we had the RV park to ourselves. All the other people know not to go to the desert in the summer. Like I said, I left the Pacific Northwest about a month too soon. Anyway, we survived and got in lots of family time. Thanks Mom & Dad for taking us out, thanks Karyn for driving out to see us, and thanks Patty & Jackie for the great Labor Day feast. We sure are going to miss you all! And yes, if you haven’t already figured it out from previous photos, that last one with our niece Jackie is showing me with more of my natural hair color. I decided back in April to actually see what color my hair is now. I have been coloring for the last 25 years so I had no clue. So no cracks from any of you out there. It is just me taking some more of the stress out of my life by not having to find someone competent enough to color my hair. Plus I am retired so I should look the part, right?

So our trip has begun and we are on our way back east. We had overnight stops near Phoenix, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City and now we sit for a few days in Little Rock on the Arkansas River. To all our East Coast friends and family, here we come. See you soon.