To describe Las Vegas as hot is basically an understatement. The past week has basically been unbearable. Monday the 3rd we hit 117 degrees. The cement is so hot, walking the dogs is basically impossible as there is little grass here at 1000 Trails. Thankfully we have a tree across the back of the rig which provides shade in the afternoon, but it is still too hot! Will be glad to get back on the road Thursday.
Got to share another wonderful encounter with the boys at the Pinball Museum here in Vegas. The best use of laundry change one can think of. It definitely brings out the competitiveness in the boys as they tried time and again to beat the claw! We had a wonderful pizza at Giodorno’s on the edge of the strip. Only issue was getting from the car to the restaurant. We ended up in a parking garage and then got lost going through the Paris Casino. After walking the mouse psychology maze we finally made it to the restaurant. Enjoyed great pizza and a recap of the kids afternoon.
By the by, am writing this episode on America’s birthday. Happy Independence Day! Down with Tyranny and may the red, white and blue always be part of the United States. Not going to be a good night for Roxie as she is deathly afraid of loud noises. But on the subject of dogs, Annie pulled through her surgery to clean up the abscess on her rear leg. The first night she was really gorked on medication and its taken to today for her to really clear her head. We have to take her to the vet’s this afternoon to have them remove a drain from her wound and then in 10 more days remove the stitches. Vicki and I will probably do that rather than try to find another Banfield enroute to Florida. For now she has to wear the cone of shame and looks pathetic for all who see her.
Fixed an issue with the bed. A couple of the bolts had come out rendering the lifting mechanism inoperable. With the help of my lovely bride we got it fixed and we’re back in business. Amazing how many problems you learn to troubleshoot and repair. I have a slight issue with the plumbing as the check valve on our fresh water tank is acting wonkie. Water fills the tank instead of flowing only to the plumbing causing the tank overflow to pour water out after the fresh water tank is filled. Looks like we have a ginormous leak under the rig when its really the tank relief valve doing what its supposed to do.
Will try to do a bit of grocery shopping as we prepare for the drive ahead of us. Looking forward to seeing Emmett in Florida and also a stay in West Memphis on the Mississippi. Also hopefully running into Vicki’s Aunt Teresa in OKC. Not too much else noteworthy, still loving this retirement gig.
Tuesday was a bit of a day as we had to take Annie back to see the Vet at PetSmart. Nice young Vet, although she couldn’t have been out of high school more than a year. Must be one of the prodigy type folks. Anywho, she removed the drain from her leg and adjusted her meds so she is not quite so zombie like during the day. She still has to wear the cone of shame for at least 5 more nights. The challenge is to keep her from licking her stitches. Hopefully they won’t become too uncomfortable for her and we can remove them with no problem.
Also went to a Walmart Supercenter to restock the cabinets with groceries. Definitely interesting her in Las Vegas as a homeless man wandered in and began shouting at the top of his lungs. Most of it was nonsense, but at least it wasn’t threatening. Sad how we as a society treat mental illness. He did calm down and was safely moved to another area of the store without incident. We then headed to Sam’s Club where Vicki picked up our bulk items and some seasoned pork for street tacos. Fixed those around 6 on the outside flat-top and almost didn’t need to turn on the gas. It was cooling to 104 degrees so almost had to break out the long sleeves! The serious booms began around 8:30 and didn’t let up until around 2 am. While I get that fireworks are fun and very spectacular, I wish people would understand the ill effects of them on some people and especially pets. I fear for the number of terrified dogs and cats that may have escaped their owners confines and are now lost. Will be spending most of the day prepping for the 300 mile drive tomorrow as we head to Verde Valley Arizona for 3 days as we work our way to Florida. Need I say it…still loving retirement.
Blog post day, so guess I’ll update ya’ll on the skinny as we make our way to Florida. We are camping on the cheap in Verde Wally Thousand trails for three days. The drive from Vegas to here was a bit exciting, albeit frustrating due to the fact that Las Vegas obviously wanted to get more money out of our pockets. We got up early to beat the heat at 5 am and had the rig loaded and ready to go almost. The final step of our transition to road travel is to slide in the slide outs. Bedroom first, no problem. Living room, again, no problem. But getting the master slide in, problem. It didn’t want to cooperate in the least. So after some trouble shooting a remembering watching the technicians working on it before, Vicki saved the day as we hit the reset switch and after resincing the motors, we got slid in a down the road we went. We were down to 130 miles to empty so decided to head out of Vegas and get gas at the Boulder City/Railroad Casino. Only one problem, I took the wrong exit. So down Business 93 we went until we were able to make a U turn and retrace our steps. Got the gas station and low and behold, their computer was down and no one could get gas. Seriously!?!? Turn the system off, and restart! So after waiting around for a half hour, we decided to drive into Boulder City. The only gas station that could accommodate us was out of regular and mid range gas, so took a bath purchasing high octane at $4.599 a gallon. Who the hell runs out of gas on a Thursday??? Just another reason not to like Nevada.
Finally got on the road and I’ll say it again to both the Governors of Nevada and Arizona. Fix you F***ing roads! Dodged pot holes for almost the entire 300 miles of the trip. Also, the generator decided it was too hot to run, so we had to go without AC for the entire day. When we arrived in Valley Verde, the inside temp of the Coach was 102. The dogs were not pleased and Vicki and I were certainly grouchy. We did get an awesome site as we can see miles of the Verde Valley out our passenger side windows. The pictures don’t do it justice.
We have come to the conclusion that my hip is much worse than expected so therefore, after Florida, we’ll head to Brownsville and look to get my entire right leg replaced. I’ll be Steve Austin with a new hip and knee. (You younger kids won’t get the reference, just look it up on the Google Machine. LOL) It does break my heart to have to have this done because it means missing out on a visit with our wonderful friends Ron and Char Monk, her sister Kathy and Husband John, and Ron’s brother Mike and wonderful wife Lynne. Were so looking forward to seeing them and sorry just isn’t a strong enough sentiment to express my profound regret.
We did get a bit of housekeeping done as I worked with my Medicare guy Marcus and now have a supplemental and medicare. WooHoo!!! Also canceled my Obama care and Vicki was able to get a refill of a prescription PDQ as the rough roads cause her medicine bottle to commit suicide in the toilet after the medicine cabinet popped open. Also gave Roxie a bit of a spa day and took off a pillows-worth of hair off of her. She seemed to enjoy it although some of the pictures indicate otherwise.
Annie is doing much better, but still has to wear the cone of shame at night and is not thrilled. She does however pick up local FM radio so that’s a good thing. The three days of rest have okay, except last night our CO detector decided to go off. After venting the rig completely, checking all the sources, and shutting everything down it still persisted. That meant getting dressed, getting tools and disabling the damn thing! Looked at the date on it and its 4 years old with a 5 year max life expectancy. My guess is the dust etc over the years caused its untimely death. When we get to OKC will find a replacement.
We are heading for Gallup NM tomorrow and will enter the mountain time zone. The rig is not a big fan of the altitude here near Flagstaff AZ and the climb really killed our gas mileage. Averaged only 3.49 mpg. Glad to be getting into the midwest where it’s basically flat as a pancake. Not much to look at, but sure saves on gas.
Other than that, not much else to report, still loving retirement.
That damned generator!!!