Noisy bikers depart, and a Shooooort haircut.

I'm grateful for the kind words about the blog and its contents, but really my sister in laws comment that it is like the morning news is a bit over rated!  Things are even slower in this laid back RV park out here in Apache Junction.  And we even had another person sign on and become 101!!!

I was out walking Biscuit the dog this morning when the park bikers all assembled out in front of my neighbor's rig across the street.  Seems that his rig is the kick off point for the park bike ride when it goes.  The bike ride is mostly word of mouth, mostly the folks that have park models and are fairly close friends.

I asked if strangers could join, and got kind of a half hearted sure.......  But then when he saw the fact that my bike was a scooter............  well lets just say the enthusiasm wasn't too high.  This is typical of the Harley folks.  And when I do go along and the bike can keep up with their noisy bangers, they get all amazed.  Of course they still don't like it!

But upon learning that they wanted to go up to Roosevelt Lake thru Globe and then on up to Payson. Only to return late in the afternoon after riding this 250 mile ride, I just bowed out and said have a good time.  I don't trust that my recent surgery can make that distance without becoming quite tender.  And there isn't any good reason to do that.

But with the wind gone from yesterday, and the temps in the 60s, I went on a ride of my own.  Riding over to the new neighborhood and exploring the country side South of the housing development.  Almost all of the roads are dead ends, and the area to the East about 3 miles away contains a land fill.  So there are no roads in or out of that area.  The big garbage trucks have to enter about 5 miles away, so it should be of no concern.  There are a lot of houses in this neighborhood that cost more than double what we are spending, so I trust that if the land fill was a problem, they wouldn't be there.

Then I came back home for a rest.  This is the beauty of riding solo, you can go rest up if you want.  Read blogs and talk to Loyce for a while.  I was out sitting under the dining canopy enjoying the afternoon.  

As I was relaxing, I noticed that I had become a shaggy dog.........  The last haircut was back in KC right after Christmas.  It was one of the test rides in the car after surgery.  Testing to see if I really could go back to Arizona......  Shaggy Dog needs a cut!

I had noticed a small shop up in the middle of old Apache Junction, and thought I'd go check it out.  So back on the bike and up town.  The place was quaint and had been there since 1959 the head barber explained......  There were three barbers and every chair was filled.  But it turned over fairly fast, and the next thing I knew it was my turn.

I asked for a taper up the back and some off the top.......... but after not too very long I was handed the mirror to see that I had a buzz cut!  Dang near a butch with only a little longer left on top.  Well........... I was looking for a new cooler do....!  And it will be really easy to wash......

After that I rode over to the VDO resort to see about their absolutely full up status. And yes the folks had arrived that took over our spot.  But our neighbor also left and no one was on his spot, and no one was on the spot that the folks from Missouri vacated before we left and there were several empty spots down on the row we were on last year...............  What the heck gives?????? 

I was perplexed to say the least.  The fellow at the camp office specifically told me that there wasn't a spot in the entire park for March 1st and beyond, even if I moved more than once.  Did they just want rid of us, or was this fellow too lazy to look for somewhere to put us?

I think Loyce likes the quiet of this older park we are in now anyway so perhaps all is well.  And no one has argued with her about walking the dog on their street......

Retired Rod

Finally,,, 100 followers...... And impressions of the park.

After 4 years and 1500 posts, I have finally reached 100 followers.....  Most folks get 100 followers in their first 6 months.    So it is fairly obvious that I am not too interesting, and folks that find the blog loose interest before they ever become a follower.

Perhaps that is because I don't use a lot of pictures, but I do have almost as many pictures as I do have posts, but they tend to be all at once and days until I get motivated to take more.  I do enjoy taking photos, but somewhere in the downloading and editing and cropping I tend to loose interest.

But what I started as a way to keep the family up on what we were up to when we were away from home, is well over the top.  I see that the counter at the bottom of the page is over 162,000.  And that is quite a few for my poor writing skills.

Any way, I would like to thank all of you folks that take your time each day to read my humble words.   There are a lot of blogs out there and I follow a bunch myself, but you run out of time to read them all so I understand that spending time reading is a conscious choice.  Again thanks for being on board.

I promised that we would be out and about learning more about this RV park, but when we woke up this morning the wind was a torrent.  Our automatic awning did not retract in the wind, so it was shaking the entire RV.  The temperatures were in the early 50s even though the sun was shining brightly.  We stayed inside, and so did everyone else around here.

In the middle of the afternoon, I went out and began working on the utility trailer.  The tip over boat jack on the tongue does not retract far enough to tilt it when its on the car.  Works fine on the Motor home because it is so high off of the ground.  So I have to get a second jack out and raise the trailer to tilt the jack down.   A jack to use the jack...........  Something needs to change here......

After removing the bolts out of the clamp on the tilt jack, and changing the holes that the bolts used, I thought I had it.  But that's when I learned the bolts were cross threaded...  This added a couple of hours to the project. It wouldn't go back together......

Finally I was up at Ace Hardware looking for new bolts and nuts to put the thing back together.  It should work, as I planned but I ran out of daylight to test the new adjustments.  But the wind did die down when the sun went down, so everything isn't lost for the day...

Also I really can't explain much more about this park than I knew last night, other than it is almost totally quiet here.  We are now almost 2 miles North of Highway 60 the superstition freeway.  This makes so much difference.  Also we are not in a park with 1,800 sites which reduces the traffic in and out since we have always been close to the entrance over at VDO.  I could put my lawn chair out in the middle of the street here, and not be bothered for half an hour with a car coming along.

Also the character of this park is quite a bit older, as there are a bunch of older park models in here.  Many are the old rounded trailers from the 50s, but mostly it is not junky around these older units.  There must be some rules that are not provided to transients about being permanent guests.

Anyway Loyce declared that she likes this place.  I think because it is so laid back, without the starched and pressed rules and self appointed enforcers.  Also no dog streets, here every street is a dog street......and she likes being free to go anywhere with Biscuit.

But these are only first impressions..........Time will tell......

Retired Rod

Storms back home, and moving in the midst of a home decor meeting day.

To our knowledge, the damaging weather last night was in the Southern part of Missouri.  We have a home in the Southern suburbs of Kansas City on the Kansas side.  So no we were not effected by the bad weather as it was also in the St Louis area on the East side of the state of Missouri.

Of course I was awake this morning at first light, or even before first light.  By about 7 AM I was outside  packing and stowing.  I did a final drain and wash out of the tanks and all hoses were packed.  The utility trailer was hitched to the CRV and staged in the street in front of our lot.

And then once Loyce was ready inside, the slides were brought in and the jacks raised.  Its a bit tricky backing the coach up to the utility trailer and making things line up.  The only way it can be seen is in the TV camera screen on the dash, but by going slow and methodical, before you know it we were out of there.

Four of our neighbors wished us off during the course of our packing and hitch up.  Our three direct neighbors on each side and across the street, and a third fellow from down the street that is from Clear Lake, Iowa.  Loyce and I were married in Mason City, about 10 miles from the lake, and we all had common friends from 40 years ago.

It wasn't more than 6 miles over here to the new RV park, which I am sure qualifies as our shortest travel day ever.  About 15 minutes in all, and we were parked outside the office here in Golden Sun RV.  The lady in the office had our reservation and deposit and it was only about 9:30.  She indicated that the folks on the site we were going to had just been in and paid their electric bill and were departing.  So after paying for the rest of the time we will be here, we had to wait a while.

We decided to head up to the local McDonalds for a breakfast biscuit and a soda to stall around.  And when we got back after 10 AM our site was now empty.  That sprang us back into action. Dropping the utility trailer in the parking lot and driving the rig to the site.

Over in VDO they send someone to park you within an inch or so of what they deem proper.  Contrasted to here, where we didn't even have any park personnel around.  We backed on the site assisted by the local neighbors, whom I had met several days ago on the motorscooter.

It was tricky because the sewer hookup is on the passenger side and right in line with the back dual wheels.  If I had backed up another 6 inches it would have been smashed.  And the sewer hose stretches from under the sewer locker underneath the coach back to the passenger side.  I tied a drop cord onto the hose and used it like a rope to extend it undreneath.

Next it was back over with the CRV to retrieve the utility trailer out of the parking lot.  After removing the scooter out in the street, the trailer was stowed in the far corner of the lot in front of the parking for the car.

By then it was noon, and we were off to Scottsdale to meet with the house builder's interior designer.  We made it barely in time.  So the afternoon was spent mixing and matching colors, carpets and cabinets.

We are both very tired tonight, to say the least.  Perhaps tomorrow, we will be able to get out and about in this park and learn what makes the place tick.  With only 380 sites, I know already that it is a much more close knit group.

Retired Rod

Getting ready to leave and more construction stuff.

Today was that last day at the campsite day.  If its is out, it needs to be packed.  If it is dirty, it needed cleaned.  If it belongs to the campground it needs to go back............

So the remaining stuff that is outside had to be folded and packed up.  Mostly that was the new camp rug that I purchased over at Camping World.  Biscuit was outside with me as I began folding and then rolling up the 6 x 15 carpet.  Inexplicably she began to whine as I rolled the carpet up.  I had to stow the piece in the far side bins before she stopped.   We could not decide why she thought putting it away was a bad thing.  But perhaps it signals to her that we are going to leave, and she worries that we will leave her behind.  Of course we would leave the motor home behind before we would leave her.

Mid morning, the scooter needed to be washed as it was a mess with dust and the rain from a couple of nights ago.  There are a million corners on a motorcycle to wash and chamois dry.  I could have washed the car twice in that amount of time.

Next the name tags and the key to the mail box needed to go to the office.  I also picked up the final bill for electricity and the sewer and trash charges.  That added another $129 to our check out price.

I needed to check out the folks at the house building office, and also take a picture of the cabinets in one of the houses for tomorrow.  But when I arrived, the sales lady was skeptical of the sub that I had met with yesterday.  Seems that they have more than one sub for low voltage wiring and perhaps I should use a different one.  I reminded her that I had to sign a contract with this first guy, and if it was to be rescinded it needed to be done immediately.  She had a bunch of calls to make!

Back home Loyce and I had a lot to talk about, but eventually got back on the project of packing.  Biscuit was grungy from all her walks here in the RV park.  The black top comes off on her coat, and it was decided to wash her.  Loyce did most of that, but I was also helping dry and comb her.

That's when the sales lady called and told us that we should stay with the fellow and contract we had signed yesterday as the new folks weren't ready for prime time yet.  What it boiled down to was that we would get the installation of the security system for free if we signed the three year contract for their service.  The monthly wasn't all that bad, when you remember that the install was $1K.  The new folks would be charging for the installation and be higher monthly as well.

She wanted me to come and sign the matching contract with the home builders.  Their is no additional price, but it is mostly just an agreement to repay the builder for them purchasing the system and installing it for you.  The 1K will still be free, but we had also ordered more data and cable tv drops in a bunch of locations and those aren't free......

So back over to the build site, where I learned that the construction company had just raised the price on the home we signed for by $3 K.  That is a total of $4 K since the first of the month, but we had to pay the first one.  As they acquire more homes to build than they have capacity, they raise the price and increase the number of weeks before final closing.  Its a good thing we made the decision as quickly as we did... 

But like all these projects it will remain to be seen if it is good or bad.  You just know one of these subs will turn out not to be reliable, especially if they take on more work than the core group of folks can do in the reasonable amount of time.

This is interesting because last year we didn't have much of any work for construction folks here in the Mesa area.

Tonight we are all packed in the trailer including the motor scooter.  We only need to move about 5 miles, but you have to be ready to drive, and you may as well be moving 500 miles.

Retired Rod