Wrong Way Feldman

We made it to our snowbird paradise. It's the  Outdoor Resort in Indio . This place is amazing. A private gated community in the desert, with a golf course, three swimming pools, pickle ball courts (it's an RV community thing - I call it whiffle ball for old folks), restaurant on site, community activities and a grass dog walk that goes on for about a mile. The fee for the site we rented is about as much as our mortgage was, but not quite. We choose a site that was setup for privacy. It backs up against a large wall with hedges creating privacy between the sites. Our particular site has an outdoor area with a TV, a fire feature and a full kitchen: The resort is an RV park where the sites are owned by individuals and can be customized provided they meet the guidelines of the home owners association. Compare this to the site we had in Malibu - which was almost as much money: You can see why I considered it paradise, I'm sure. Not only that, but I'm a desert g...

Well, Rusty and I have been to a lot of RV parks in the last few months (we're back in Malibu as of this afternoon - we don't have as good as a spot as we got last time, but it's okay). Most of parks we've stayed at have been KOA. These typically all have the same things and you kind of know what to expect. The other parks we've stayed at have been Good Sam. Same thing with these, they have their "signature" amenities as well. Then there have been some total one offs - like Pecan Valley RV Park that I loved. Last night we stayed in a Thousand Trails campground in Indio. We've been in one of these before when we went with Sharon and Peter up to Yosemite. I can tell you that the one near Yosemite was about 1,000 times nicer than the one in Indio that we stayed in last night. It was definitely an older park. Mostly sand spots, with a cement or asphalt pad to park your car and a picnic table. The campground was right off the I10 so all Rusty and I wanted...

send your camel to bed ... Miss us? We kind of disappeared once we hit Pecan Valley, didn't we? We left Pecan Valley and headed for Fort Stockton, Texas. It was a nice RV park but the best part was the weather. It was so cool we were so happy and relaxed. We were just there for an evening though before we headed out for the El Paso KOA. The campground wasn't actually in El Paso, it was outside of the city in Anthony, Texas just on the New Mexican border located behind a Camping World. The campground was just an asphalt parking lot with full hookups. We ended up staying there for two days because it was nice and cool and the place we were to go next we started reading some reviews about it online and it sounded kind of creepy. Instead we opted to spend a long day driving all the way to Tucson, Arizona. Our drive has been pretty uneventful, except I kind of freaked out seeing these signs along the I10 in New Mexico: Luckily there were no dust storms and we now know what ...

We left Waco for San Antonio. We were going to be there five days but left after three. It wasn't a bad campground for being in the middle of an industrial area within the city but it was just too hot to enjoy doing anything outdoors. We spent one afternoon at Riverwalk, but didn't have the energy or desire to do anything else. We drove by the Alamo and just as quickly forgot it (see what I did there?). I stumbled upon this RV park about 140 miles west of San Antonio by using the Park Advisor app so we decided to leave San Antonio early and continue west. Our destination - Pecan Valley RV Park in Junction, Texas. It was absolutely amazing. An RV park next to the Llano River in a pecan grove. In the evening and early morning huge herds of deer make their way through the park. The night sky was so dark and clear the milky way was visible. And the best part, sketchy at best, network and cell service. Rusty and I had two full relaxing days doing nothing but shelling and eating pe...

Well, I didn't know much about Waco - other than the Branch Dividians until we stayed there on Tuesday night at the Flat Creek Farm RV Park. Mt Pleasant wasn't bad either, but I loved Flat Creek Farm. We were lucky that we got the last space there. I absolutely loved this park. It was a few miles off the I35. Rusty kept arguing with the GPS about the route and it turned out that the GPS was trying to keep us off a small bridge with an axle weight limit. I was driving and there was no where to turn around so I asked Rusty if I should punch it going across and he said yes, then started going, "punch it...punch it" (I have a hard time punching it in the RV). After we were over Rusty realized it was a per axle weight limit and we were okay, but we both held our breath driving over it. The park was on a working farm with a catch and release pond and lots of room to wander. The weather had finally cooled off so we were happy just hanging out enjoying the view Rusty an...

We left Red Bay on Wednesday. We didn't get our appointment Monday like we were told, but Tuesday whoever had an appointment in the express bay at 7am didn't show up so they called us and we got in then. They fixed the AC issue by replacing the controller and the sensor. Rusty had to go with the mechanic though to tell the parts guy we wanted both things switched out. It turns out the low voltage issue is a known problem and we're not the only one with it. It only happens on the Freightliner chassis. They've tried everything to fix it but nothing has stopped it; including changing out the batteries like we wanted them to do. The mechanic said he thinks it some weird glitch that will take them a few months to work out. The good news is that they haven't discovered any problems with RV's getting this error. This time in Red Bay was easier because we knew what to expect and we took full advantage of having access to the mechanics.  I'm sure we were driving th...

We're back in Red Bay to see if we can get the low voltage issue fixed once and for all. The guy that worked on it last time was 99.8% sure that it was the connections that were bad but we're still getting the warning. He said the only other thing he could think of would be to replace the batteries so that's what we want them to do. We've also had a new issue come up with the AC in the front of the RV so we'll get that taken care of as well and hopefully a couple of other issues. We're scheduled to go in the express bay on Monday. In the express bay you get two mechanics for three hours. After that you're back to the waiting list. Right now that's a week or two so we're hoping the express bay works. We left the Carolinas to a view that I haven't seen since the LA riots - a guy running down the freeway at 8am smoking a cigarette and carrying a rifle. He was running with traffic looking back over his shoulder. We did a quick stop in Knoxville and...

lots of wind, bits of trees everywhere and a nasty stomach bug for Julie. We decided to ride out the storm at Rusty's sister's house.  We had the whole family together and a great night doing a jigsaw puzzle. Except for the brief power outage in the middle of the night we wouldn't even have known it was storming. We headed back in the morning through country roads avoiding larger downed branches but we didn't see any evidence of Irma other than pieces of foliage. Waiting for Irma (photo credit: Cynthia Hair) It wasn't too long after we were back on the RV that the bug started it's attack. It took me two days before I moved from the bedroom, four days before I attempted to eat, and five days before I tried leaving the RV. This was one of my fears about moving into an RV. I hate being sick while on vacation so I was worried it would be the same, but it turned out there was nothing to worry about. The best thing was how close the bathroom was. The wors...

People, in general, are nice. They want the same things as I do, financial stability, a roof over their head, food in their stomach and a general sense of security. However, that's only the case if you stay away from conversations involving politics, race, religion and sex. This morning, I left in Puff to go to Rusty's mom's house and was having a nice conversation with the people camped next door to us. We were discussing RVing and how grateful we are to be able to travel like this. The man asked me where we were from in California and I told him Los Angeles, explained that I had just retired from UCLA. He was so excited to hear that as they were from California too and proceeded to tell me they had to leave because of "Governor Moonbeam." Not sure who exactly he was referring to, but just wanted to point out who he said it to: Just sayin... xoxo Traveling Moonbeam

Well, we're here on the border in the Carolinas hanging out with family. We were originally going to stay at the KOA in Fort Mill, but Rusty wasn't comfortable staying there since were going to be away from the RV a lot so we moved to Crown Cove RV Park three and a half miles away. We love the park there - really quiet and we've got privacy on one side of the RV (something we haven't had in a while). Here's the picture Rusty took after we setup camp: This park doesn't have any of the amenities of a KOA and is geared more towards long-term stays, but it's perfect for us and is quite a bit cheaper than the KOA. The park looks empty now, but they expect it to be full by the end of the day today as Floridians fleeing Hurricane Irma are on their way. Since there's not a lot going on for us right now, I thought I would take this opportunity to explain about Wrong Way Feldman. Wrong Way Feldman was a character on the TV show, Gilligan's Island. He ap...

Well, sorry to disappoint but we didn't do the tourist thing I had planned. We had so much fun with family on Sunday that Monday we just did some stuff around the RV. Here's some pictures of us exploring the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum : Then back to the "Nun Bun" house in Knoxville, right across from the garden to break in the new smoker. Let's just say the dogs were looking forward to testing the results from the smoker: Sunday was pretty calm. We did hit the grocery store in Sweetwater. On the way home we saw the weirdest bird. There was a whole flock of them. While I didn't get a picture of them, I found one on the web: It's called a Muscovy Duck. It turns out they are not native to the area. In fact, they are considered an exotic that occasionally breeds in Tennessee.  The  Tennessee Watchable Wildlife  website talks about them. They were probably the weirdest bird I've ever seen. So much so that I had Rus...

We left Red Bay, Alabama this morning. We know one minor thing isn't fixed on the RV and we still may have the low voltage issue but they did find loose connections to the battery. They told us it would take a couple of days of driving it to charge it up again. We ended up in three different repair bays and one "house" call to the RV over the course of five days. Not too bad, but there really wasn't much to do since we had to be with the RV and ready to move at a moment's notice. On Friday we thought we were done but we saw the upper seal on one of the slides was coming apart. Luckily, we hadn't checked out and we were able to get back in the bay to have it fixed. Of the six full days we were there we only ate out once, which makes sense since there is not many choices for dining. We did hit the grocery store in town for milk and eggs. Thank goodness I got fruits and vegetables in Nashville... Avocados were $3.39/ea at the Piggly Wiggly in Red Bay and about ...

Skeeter bites. I am a feast to things I cannot see...

Well here we are in Red Bay Alabama, we are at the Tiffin Factory Service Center getting some warranty work done and also taking the Tiffin Factory tour, I'd just as soon not be here in the Deep South but the low voltage reading has not gone away and it's a critical fix, and since Nashville is only 180 miles from here we figured we'd go ahead and do it here. They have a campground (well really a BIG ASS parking lot) with full hookups so you can stay in the RV while waiting for the service...and at least the weather hasn't been too bad, it's been cloudy and cool (well at least cool at night, we've been able to shut off the AC while sleeping). Entering Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey took over for the other guy when he got caught diddling his secretary who was not his wife...he's a Republican so he really didn't need to quit over that but he also got caught  bribing the Chief of the Alabama State Troopers to not tell his wife... The BIG ASS p...

We LOVE Nashville. There is so much to do here, the people are wonderful and the food delicious!   The KOA campground here is by far the nicest we've been in. The site is huge. Not only did we not have to unhook the dolly from the RV, but we were able to park the Fiat and another car in our site. The weirdest thing was that for some reason neither Rusty or I took a picture of the RV while it was parked. I did get a picture from the front door of the RV but it's hard to get the perspective: Each site has a fire pit, a table and chairs and a rocking bench. We didn't spend a lot of time here because there was so much to do, but we loved it all the same. Rusty and I couldn't leave Nashville without doing a couple of tourist stops. We decided to do two completely polar opposites while we were there. Our first tourist stop was the  Haunted Hearse Tour . They drive you around in a hearse that's had the top chopped off and benches added for seats. For some strange re...