November 28 to December 4, 2010

November 28 to December 4, 2010


Sunday ; Today we remember Toby the cat, who died 6 years ago, while we were WorkCamping at Trout Lodge up in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri.

Today was sunny but cold. We are determined to remain here for another eight days to take advantage of their attractive monthly rate, but we’re also eager to move further south, to warmer climes. The weather here is now about the same as it was back home in Keremeos when we left four weeks ago. BRRRRR !

I was a bit ill with a colitis flare up today. I probably ate some “prohibited” food at yesterday’s Thanksgiving Leftovers Dinner. This morning I did an obedience session with Bo. Good dog, Bo, well done ! I measured the width of the fridge and the trailer’s exterior doorway to see if the fridge can be taken out through the door or will a window have to be removed to get the fridge out. The fridge will fit through the door … just barely ! I went to the clubhouse with the computer and posted my weekly journal to my blog. In mid-afternoon we went to the weekly ice cream social. I didn’t feel like eating ice cream. In the evening we watched Amazing Race and a new reality show based on California Fish & Game Wardens. HA … and you thought Border Patrol was a waste of tax dollars ? ! ?

Monday ; This morning Sully woke me at about 6 AM. I think he was cold. The furnace was blowing cold air. Another empty propane tank ! We have been consuming propane at a rapid clip. The problem this morning was … we didn’t have a full tank to switch to. The last empty tank I took for refilling wasn’t refilled yet. The park’s propane refill station only refills “small” tanks on Mondays and Wednesdays. I reluctantly removed the empty tank from the tank storage compartment, loaded it into the truck, and drove it over to the refill station, figuring it made sense to get it there in time to be refilled today, along with our other empty tank. BRRRRR … frost on the truck’s windshield at that time of the morning.

When I returned home I switched the water heater from propane to electricity, then went back to sleep. We have been running the water heater on propane because of the expensive electricity here in Central California. Later in the morning we went to the clubhouse with the computer to make a phone call. I wanted to get information on the Oakhurst Community Band’s Christmas Concert next Sunday. Then we went and picked up both refilled propane tanks.

After lunch we went to Oakhurst to run some errands. We found the high school where the concert will be next Sunday. We refilled a five gallon water jug. We shopped at CVS Pharmacy for some advertised specials. And we shopped at Vons for a small amount of groceries. By the time we returned to SKP Park of the Sierras it was dog party time. But … alas … once again Bo was alone. It seems as if it has become too cold for the “locals” to have the daily dog party. After spending some time in the dog park with Bo, Joanne returned with him to the trailer and I went to the library to do some online work. I was hoping that maybe I could find a Cyber Monday online sale price for the RV fridge we want that would be lower than the Camping World sale price. I didn’t !

There is a man in the park walking around with a forehead full of stitches. Evidently I wasn’t the only one who took a tumble on that night of freezing rain a week ago.

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and cool. I think there are no more warm days left up here in the Sierra Nevadas until next spring. I spent the morning disassembling / cannibalizing / scavenging the fridge. I want to keep as a spare the $60 burner igniter control module I replaced just a few months ago. And there are a lot of parts in the fridge that routinely need to be replaced, and are either quite expensive or extremely difficult to find. Especially things like the door shelves. I scavenged as many parts as was reasonable, including the decorative oak wood door panels. RV fridges come without exterior door panels. We’ll buy new black Plexiglas panels for the new fridge, but I’ll put the old wood panels and all the scavenged parts that don’t fit our new fridge on the bargain table at Kofa Ko-op SKP RV Park in Yuma, Arizona when we arrive there. I’m certain that most of them will find a new home quickly. That kind of “recycling” instead of simply disposing is a common and attractive feature of the Escapee family.

After lunch I read … and napped … and read some more. It’s tough work, but somebody’s got to do it. HA HA HA ! Joanne took Bo to the dog park. I took the computer to the library and did some online work. Back at home I read some more. And I browsed through a Harbor Freight Tools catalogue. HMMMMM … what a lot of neat “guy stuff”. I want to go shop at Harbor Freight Tools when we get to Yuma.

Wednesday ; Today was a gorgeous, sunny, mild day. And probably the last really nice day before we leave here next Monday. I decided that on such a nice day I wanted to go on an outing. First I went to the clubhouse with the computer to make a phone call and do some online work. Then, by special request, I prepared a batch of my apparently wonderful pancakes. I must admit, they’re second only to my Aunt Lena’s pancakes. She was my pancake mentor when I was a teenager working on her farm during the summers.

After pancake brunch we headed out for some back roads exploring. We drove north on Hwy. 41 to Coarsegold, then turned west on Road 415 to the little village of Raymond. From Raymond we took Road 600 north to Awhanee, then Hwy. 49 east to Oakhurst where we stopped at Vons for some groceries. The back roads we drove, winding up and down and around in the Sierra Nevadas, were extremely scenic. This area was the southern edge of the Gold Rush of 1849. “There’s gold in them thar hills !” We stopped to read one of the few memorial plaques that were alongside the road. It marked where the Gold Rush town of Grub Gulch had existed. It’s just a pasture now. There was a beautiful golf course on rock laden hills near the town of Awhanee. I don’t play golf, but it certainly looked like a tough course.

After buying groceries at Vons we headed home for a very late lunch. I read and napped. We went to the dog park with Bo. We did some trip planning. We’re having a new fridge installed at Camping World in Bakersfield next Tuesday, and consequently don’t know what time we’ll be leaving Bakersfield and how far we will drive that day.

In the evening I printed the bank statements and investment updates I had downloaded this morning. I reconciled the bank statements. I updated our investment files. We watched Survivor.

Thursday ; Today was cloudy but mild. We had such an enjoyable “back roads exploring” outing yesterday we decided to do it again today ! We followed Road 416 from the entrance of SKP Park of the Sierras east to Road 415, then Road 415 south to Road 400 / River Road, then along River Road to Yosemite Lakes Park, a large suburban development with large, estate type homes on large properties. We drove through Yosemite Lakes Park all the way back to Hwy. 41 a bit south of SKP Park of the Sierras. Yosemite Lakes Park was a surprisingly large suburban development. Must have been done by a developer with a lot of money and a lot of vision. Very well done ! What a nice neighbourhood ! It reminded us of the last “bricks and sticks” home we owned just outside of Ottawa.

Back at “home” I worked on dismantling / removing the fridge. I didn’t want to actually remove it out if its location in the wall, but I did want to reduce the amount of effort and time that Camping World will have to put into removing it … at about eighty bucks an hour ! And … I thought it would be a good learning exercise. If I was going to screw anything up, much better to do it on a dead fridge that’s about to be removed and discarded, than on a good fridge that I’m trying to repair at some point in the future. I removed the fridge and freezer doors, most of the trim pieces, most of the mounting screws, disconnected the 120V AC wiring and the 12V DC wiring. I did not disconnect the propane. I don’t have a plug to install in a disconnected propane line.

I also dismantled and cleaned the fan / cooling unit on our little 12V DC fridge which has been running continuously for about the last ten days. I don’t think it was designed to run continuously ! There was a build up inside of dirt and dust and … cat hair ( ? ) causing the fan to be noisy. After a late lunch I laid down on the bed with Sully cuddled into my armpit ( his favourite afternoon nap position ), read, and iced my shoulder. A few days ago I had a flare up of a bursitis / rotator cuff tendonitis problem in my left shoulder. Icing it helps. Icing it about three times a day for 20 or 30 minutes each time helps it a lot ! And since there is an ice machine in the clubhouse … !

We took Bo to the dog park. I went to the library to do some online work. In the evening we watched “Somersby”, a “chick flick” that Joanne found in this park’s library inventory of movies on VCR. I didn’t think it was a good movie.

Friday ; Today was cloudy and mild. This morning I did my regular monthly computer maintenance work ; defragmenting, virus and malware scanning, backups, that sort of stuff. Since I had the portable hard drive out I found an old, archived photo I took back home at Riverside RV Park Resort a few years ago of a Black Widow Spider. Well, that photo was still not enough to convince either Joanne or Star, a woman that we meet almost daily in the dog park, that the red hourglass mark on a Black Widow Spider is on the topside of the spider’s abdomen. I had been arguing with Star who maintains that the red hourglass mark is underneath the spider. I had previously downloaded photos from the Internet proving my point. She had downloaded research that proved hers ! After she and Joanne both found my photo inconclusive < fume > I worked myself into a fit of infuriation then stomped over to the clubhouse to find more conclusive photos on the Internet. I downloaded seven photos. Three photos show the red hourglass mark to be on the topside of the abdomen. One shows it to be on the underside. One shows it to be on the side ! One shows the marks to be red dots on the topside of the abdomen. One shows the marks to be white dots on the topside of the abdomen. I gave up ! ! !

Joanne took Bo to the dog park while I iced my shoulder and Sully napped in my armpit. Joanne prepared her contribution to today’s social hour / hearty appetizers potluck. She made a perogies and sausage dish. Our last bag of perogies had thawed long ago and needed to be used. The dish was not a big hit here. I don’t think anybody here knew what perogies were. At the end of each week’s social hour, most of the attendees move to the other side of the clubhouse to play a table game called Bunco. We always remain at the social hour / potluck side of the clubhouse and chat. Tonight we chatted with our friend Diane, the 82 year old “mommy” of Molly the Pomeranian. One other table mate had left a partial bottle of wine on the table when he went to play Bunco. Diane slowly sipped wine … and got a bit drunk … as we chatted. HA HA HA ! It was sort of amusing. I hope she doesn’t have a hangover in the morning. We learned that Diane is originally from Pasadena, making her … wait for it … the little old lady from Pasadena. HA HA HA
< SNORT > HA HA !

Saturday ; Today was a rainy day. I don’t like rainy days ! Until
mid-afternoon when the rain stopped I had a very lazy day, doing not much of anything except laying around reading. I took Bo to the dog park for his last dog party, while Joanne baked cookies for today’s Tree Trimming Party & Dinner.

At 4 PM we headed to the clubhouse for the very well attended Tree Trimming Party. There were two trees, one very large, set up in the clubhouse waiting to be decorated. There were boxes of special ornaments donated by park residents over many years. There was eggnog, both “leaded” and “unleaded”. Everybody participated in trimming the trees, drinking eggnog, and socializing. Santa arrived. Christmas carols were sung. Dinner was served and eaten. There were some Christmas poetry recitations ( rolling eyes ). And then … dessert ! ! ! The park’s social committee had provided supper. All the attendees brought Christmas desserts to be shared potluck style. Is it any wonder that I have gained a pound a week for the four weeks we’ve been here ? ! ?

This was the first time we participated in a communal tree trimming party. It was great !

DSK