Here's an update on what's been going on since my last post:

We had Satellite Advantage come out and set up a tripod and dish next to the fifth wheel and get both TVs hooked up.  We now have TV!

We've visited with friends, Mike & Mary, who live across the street from the house we used to own in Quartzsite...they also usually stay in the Spokane area during the summer. 

We found a new restaurant, Dos Amigos on US-60 as you head east on US-60 toward Salome.  It's owned by the same people who used to own Taco Mio in Quartzsite.  Like Taco Mio, Dos Amigos has good Mexican food...we'll definitely be going there again!  We've also gone to two other favorite places to eat...Taco Mio, of course, as well as Silly Al's that has great pizza as well as other Italian food. 

We still haven't gotten the slide fixed on the camper.  We ordered a new remote hoping that would solve the problem.  It didn't, although we would still have needed a new remote, anyway, since the old one no longer had lights that lit up when buttons were pressed.  The Happy Jack factory is closed until after the first of the year, so we won't be getting a new control board until then.  No telling when we'll finally get the slide fixed!

Diesel is much cheaper here than it was in Washington!  When we left Spokane on the 7th, we filled up at a station in Ritzville for $3.489 per gallon.  Yesterday, we filled up at the Chevron in Quartzsite for $3.199 per gallon!  However, it's much more expensive compared to last December when we filled up on the 14th at $2.699 per gallon!

We drove up to the Wal Mart in Parker this week to get fixin's for Christmas dinner tomorrow:  ham, yams, rice, pie and ice cream. 

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas tomorrow!

We took Gracie (aka "Sprout") into Quartzsite to have her groomed...her first time.  She's as cute as a button now and actually looks like a Brussels Griffon (can you say "awwww"):

Gracie is the one without the glasses ;-)

We got up early, had coffee, and headed to Needles where we had breakfast at Denny's.  Stopped for fuel in Parker, and were home around noon.

The fifth wheel looks none the worse for having sat out in the hot Arizona sun all summer.  We've got most of the camper unloaded, but not everything put away yet.  We still have the TV to try and get set up (remember, we changed from DirecTV to Dish Network, so we have a new system to try and figure out).  That will probably wait until tomorrow as it's after 5:30 PM and starting to get dark.  Fortunately, there's nothing on TV on Sundays!

Gracie has been having fun checking out her new home for the next few months.  I think she's glad not to be stuck in the back seat and to have some room to roam.

The day didn't get off to an auspicious start...when we were getting ready to leave, we couldn't get our slide in!  Tried to crank it in by hand, but it wouldn't budge, so I got the Owner's Manual out and it mentioned to make sure the lock on the slide was in the off position.  Say what?  What slide lock?  So I called our dealer and was told it's *usually* in a compartment near the motor, maybe under the dinette seat.  Earl emptied out both areas under the seat, no compartments.  Called the dealer back and he said *maybe* it's on the ouside accessible only if we take the camper off the truck.  Egads!  Earl played around with the remote and slowly was able to bring the slide in, so at least we could leave!  I'm going to call the factory on Monday to find out exactly where this slide lock is!  We'll probably have to take the camper in to RV Lifestyles in Quartzsite sometime after we get back.

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We're spending the night in the Mojave National Preserve at a spot we've boondocked a couple of times in the past.  Tomorrow we should be home!

We had an uneventful trip today, although long...we didn't arrive at the Fresno Elks Lodge until after 5:00 PM.  Driving during rush hour when it's dark is a nerve racking experience for me...glad I wasn't the one driving!

Gracie has been a great little rider!  She just curls us in the back seat and sleeps (we have her secured with a seat belt harness).  I feel sorry for her, though, because we've been driving such long days.  That will soon change, though, as we should be back at our place near Brenda sometime Sunday.

Before leaving the SKP park, I called 511 to find out what the road conditions were going over Siskiyou Pass.  According to the report, the roads were clear...if they hadn't been, we would have gone over to the Coast and gone down.

Am I the only person left in the world who knew nothing about 511?  I discovered it quite by accident last year when were leaving Ely, NV, and woke up to several inches of snow.  While online to find out what the road conditions were on US-93 north of Ely, a website mentioned 511.  Call it when in any state, and you can find out the road conditions of any road in the state...cool!

We're spending the night in Redding, CA, at the Redding RV Park, a Passport America park (50% off the regular fee).  Not the greatest park or location (right next to I-5 with all the resultant noise, but the price is right!

Another long day.

Took a shower at the RV park using their shower...something I rarely do, but with a wet bath in the camper, I have to remove so much stuff in order to take a shower, that it's easier to just use their shower (and we were parked right next to them).  This is an expensive park...$38...way more than we would normally spend.  And, to add insult to injury, they wanted $.25 for 2.5 minutes to use the shower!

We were able to make an appointment with the installer who installed our Motosat satellite TV dish last year and he was able to fix the problem in about five minutes...the dish just needed to be reset.  So, the next time I encounter a similar problem, I'll reset the dish myself.  Fortunately, he didn't charge us anything.  So tonight we have TV!

We're spending the night at the Escapees RV park in Sutherlin, Oregon.  We arrived just before their closing time of 5:00 PM, much later than our normal "get-off-the-road" time of 2 or 3 o'clock.  We stopped at the grocery store on our way in because I left the dish soap at home...while we were there, we also picked up a couple of TV dinners, and we're waiting for them to get done (I know, real healthy fare).

Long day (for us, anyway).

We stopped for breakfast at Longhorn BBQ and then headed out...we were well on our way by 9:00 AM.  Stopped in Ritzville for diesel.  We were planning on staying at a Passport America park in Hermiston, OR, but by the time we got down there, it wasn't even noon, so we pressed on, traveling west on I-84 along the Columbia River.  Almost every time we travel west on this highway, we are battling strong headwinds, but it was relatively calm today. 

We're spending the night at Bridge RV Park in White Salmon, WA, across the Columbia River from Hood River, OR.  Although we prefer boondocking...and there are several places along the Columbia where you can boondock...we need electric hookups so we can run the space heater (it's still cold here) and we have to fill up the fresh water tank.  Now, if we can just run into some warmer weather!

I set up the satellite receiver and ran though all the testing, but when I went to raise the dish, it was still ice bound, and it appears that we may have blown a fuse (assuming there's a fuse in line some place).  Even after Earl went up and the roof to dislodge the dish from all the snow and ice (something I should have had him check on beforehand), the dish won't raise.  We'll be going through Eugene where we had the dish installed, so I'm hoping that we can stop and have the installer trouble shoot the problem and make repairs. 

On the Road Again

We have some last-minute packing to do and then we're headed down the road.  Destination: Arizona! 

We spent the weekend and yesterday packing up the camper.  Fortunately, although it was cold, it wasn't snowing, so that made moving stuff easier. 

It'll be interesting to see how Gracie takes to riding for long stretches of time.  We have taken her on short jaunts up to Palisades Park to do some walking, but she's never been on a road trip.