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Day 12 – and where we’ve been

Day 12 – and where we’ve been

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I go crazy at rallies these days. I can’t stop talking about my GMC. We arrived at the French Camp RV Resort and I immediately had to visit friends – and we are all friends – and see what everyone has been doing. I did three different tech sessions – a computer one that was my idea and two that I was asked to do. I really enjoyed doing them and got good feedback from people. One guy even told me I had a good voice. I know my singing voice is non-existent so knowing that it has some redeeming qualities helps my self esteem in that area. I also ran the karaoke “machine” which is my laptop connected to a sound amplifier and a video projector. We mostly did sing-a-longs with someone leading the singing – Carol did a lot of that and did great. I “sorta-sang” Sinatra’s New York, New York as my public singing debut. It was less than successful.

The rally lasted 5 days and on Saturday our old (I mean long-time) friend Andy came to visit us at the rally and again on our way from the rally to our son Mark’s home in the Sacramento area. We and Andy met another long-time friend, Dianne, in Galt which is about half way between the rally and Mark’s. We had a nice lunch and decided to see if we could get any other Amdahl-ers there at the same time. It is hard to believe that it had been 22 years since we worked and played together.

We spent 3 nights at Mark and Kristin’s and really have to admire them for what they are doing. It is hard to believe how much they get done every day and the kids are really amazing. I know I am biased but they are happy, healthy, smart, and ambitious – involved in scouting, dance, theater and sports. I am a proud grandpa.

Tonight through Sunday morning, we are on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay at a GMC rally. The official host club is the GMC 49ers but the real host is Desmond. He lives and works on the island and somehow got permission for us to stay here for the weekend as a special class of antique vehicles (or something). There are supposed to be 47 GMCs here and the Blue Angels have already been practicing. Here are our photos from today: 

2014 Fall GMCWS Rally and More

Day 3 – Arrived at the rally site in Manteca

Day 3 – Arrived at the rally site in Manteca

IMG_0802We finally arrived at the French Camp RV Park in Manteca and were one of the last to arrive. There are 61 GMCs here along with lots of friendly GMC owners. We had a great dinner and an ice cream social. Tomorrow starts the real activities – seminars on technical topics and some fun projects for non-technical people. Not everyone makes it to every rally and there are good friends here we have not seen in quite a while.

2014 Fall GMCWS Rally and More

Day 2 – Bakersfield with an unscheduled stop in Barstow for a tire

Day 2 – Bakersfield with an unscheduled stop in Barstow for a tire
Surrounded by orange trees

Surrounded by orange trees

Still on the way to GMCWS rally at Manteca. We are in Bakersfield at the Orange Grove RV Park – one of our favorites – and surrounded by orange trees (see the photo) with lots of green oranges. The coach ran great again and the weather cooperated with highs only in the high 80’s – not bad for crossing the desert. We had to stop in Barstow to replace a tire that had developed a bubble. Drove the last 50 miles at under 40 mph to keep it from separating. I couldn’t see the bubble myself but as soon as we got to the tire store the tech saw it and showed it to me. Replaced the one bad tire, checked the others, and we were on our way in about an hour.

We got the tire at the Firestone store in Barstow. Carol called them when we decided a tire was bad and asked if they could help. They were very helpful, said they had 6 of the correct tires if we needed them and they would try to figure out which tire was bad. The correct tires turned out to be Firestone Transforce HT’s and the out-the-door price was just over $200 each – a competitive price. With the advice of the technician and the owner/manager we decided to only replace the one tire that was faulty and bet that the other 5 tires were OK – he checked the other rear tires and I am sure I’d be able to feel a bubble on a front tire. I have learned another lesson and will know more when the next tire problem happens.

Our route on this trip is one we used to use a lot and are pretty familiar with but we still could not remember why we started going the other way – just outside of L.A. After today we can remember again – hills. The coach is very good and strong but those hills between Needles and Bakersfield are big and long. The climb out of Needles is about 15 miles of almost constant climbing – the total climb is about 2500 feet in that distance but it is unrelenting. It is a good thing that the weather is cooperating and the temps are only in the 80’s. The climb from Mohave to Tehachapi is another 1500 feet – the climb going the opposite way – Bakersfield to Tehachapi – is 3500 feet. We may go home via L.A.

2014 Fall GMCWS Rally and More

Day 1 – Lake Havasu State Park for the night

Day 1 – Lake Havasu State Park for the night
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Barbie’s first night with her new look

The coach drove like a dream today, I guess she feels good about her new look. The weather could not have been better for driving – it was mid-70’s to mid-80’s most of the day and only got to low-90’s as we were coming into Lake Havasu City at about 3:00pm. We did use the A/C a little but those floor vents are amazingly efficient, even with the newly installed screens over the ends.

We had a bunch of really small bugs that made it into the coach through the vents (the whole front of the coach is covered with little gray bits that almost coat it completely) but no big ones. If I had used a fine screen – like window screen – the little guys would not have made it in but I used 1/4″ mesh to keep the big ones out and the air flowing. No big deal.

We camped at Lake Havasu State Park for the night and got one of only 4 pull-through sites because it is almost empty. We took a little walk around and shot some photos to show you where we are.

2014 Fall GMCWS Rally and More

After a fun family visit for my birthday we are waiting for the GMCWS rally to start

After a fun family visit for my birthday we are waiting for the GMCWS rally to start

We left home on April 14th on our way to meet my son and two of his three kids to celebrate my 70th birthday near Santa Clarita, CA. We spent the first night at “The Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Resort” in Niland, CA – on the east side of the Salton Sea between Palm Springs and Brawley. This was our second visit to this park. It is quiet, has a great hot tub (2 actually), and there is one site that acts as a pull-thru so it is convenient. There is a view of the Salton Sea across the highway and the railroad tracks – the tracks are far enough away that the sound of the horn is actually pleasant. We saw a great big full moon – that was the night the “blood moon” happened.

On the second day we drove through Palm Springs and Pasadena on our way to our destination – always an exciting trip with high speed, agressive driving by everyone around you. The only good thing about most Southern California drivers is that they know how to enter the freeway – I said “most”.

We spent 4 fun nights with Mark and the kids. They wanted to constantly be either in the pool or riding their bikes. Our little princess mastered the art of balancing a two-wheel bike while she was there and looked forward to showing her Mom when she got back.  My 70th started with a family breakfast of sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs. I got some great presents including a portrait of Carol and me done using over 3000 digital photos that Mark collected from Carol and my other son Brian (look for the photo of it below). Another great gift was from Brian and his family – it is a print of drawing from a patent awarded to my Dad in 1972. The patent was for the machine that made the plastic film used in safety glass. But probably the most emotion came when Carol gave me a pillow she had made that had “70 REASONS WHY WE LOVE ARMAND”. Because we have lost friends during the years we have been in Arizona and because 70 is a big number, I had been thinking about how people have great things to say about their friends at their funerals but never say those things to the person when they there to hear them. This pillow was like that for me. Thanks to everyone who gave Carol input for it.

Mark and the kids left on Saturday morning so that they would be back for Easter with rest of the family. We spent the remainder of Saturday shopping and getting ready to head over to Hemet for the GMC Western States Club Spring rally. Driving on those highways around Los Angeles during the week is not much fun so we decided to do it on Easter Sunday when lots of people stay home. As usual the traffic was heavy but no where near as bad as it would have been today (Monday). The elephant is made of steel and overlooks the highway West of Hemet.

Hemet – just east of Los Angeles seems like it must be a bedroom town but it is far enough away from the city to retain some country feel. The park is mostly empty right now but they have 50 spaces in the “group area” reserved for us – I hope we can fill them. The facilities are very nice. This is even nicer (my opinion so far) than Emerald Desert in Palm Desert where we have had several successful rallies. See the photos below for a look at the pool, shuffleboard and pickleball courts, and the fitness center – and one lonely GMC motorhome waiting for her friends.

2014 Spring GMCWS Rally in Hemet

The 2014 Agri-Country Bluegrass Festival

The 2014 Agri-Country Bluegrass Festival

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This is our 40th trip in our GMC. Yes, it is kind of short but we are staying in it 3 nights so it is a trip. We are basically dry camping because the electricity keeps going out. Something is wrong in the main box or lots of RVs are drawing too much power. Since it has not happened here before for us I am leaning toward the main box.

This festival gets better each year. They bring in about 4 well-known bands and each of them does about 4 performances over a 2-day period. There are performances beginning at 9 or 10 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There are lots of other bands that perform every day and all are great. There is also a car show on Saturday and a tractor pull which we have never seen – just too busy listening to the music.

Here are some photos – forgive the blurry ones. I need a new camera.

 

2014 Casa Grande Bluegrass Festival

A good trip home but something is amiss

A good trip home but something is amiss

After watching lots of balloons take off (ascend) on Sunday morning we decided we saw enough and it was time to head for home. The coach ran great the whole way but for the last hour or hour and a half of the 6-hour trip we had a sort of whistling noise coming from somewhere up front. At first I thought it might be either the power steering pump or the alternator but a little experimenting convinced me that it is probably a vacuum leak somewhere. The noise completely disappeared below 60 mph and, above 60 mph I could make it come and go with the gas pedal. The vacuum gauge did not seem to be any different than normal so I didn’t worry about it.

Once we got home and unpacked – not completely since we will be leaving again in 4 days – I moved the coach to the parking lot (can’t park on the street overnight) and it ran like there was some sort of fuel problem – I had to keep working the gas pedal to keep it running. At first I didn’t connect the whistling noise to this problem but now I am thinking that the hour or so parked in front of the house allowed the engine to cool enough that the theoretical vacuum leak affected the advance or choke mechanisms. I will inspect all of the hoses later this morning to see what I can see.

Well, nothing wrong that I can tell right now. I inspected all of the hoses and nothing is off where it should be and all of the hoses are fresh and solid. The coach started right up and ran great getting back over to the house. The next trip is only about 50 miles each way so not much risk there. More later if there is anything to report.

Update 1/27/2014: The rough running went away for some reason. When I went back to get the coach the next morning I checked all of the vacuum hoses and connections and could find no problem. The hoses are very new and all connected solidly. The whistling noise I now believe to be coming from the power steering pump and maybe it is more of a high-pitched whine than a whistle. Time for a new one I think.

2014 Lake Havasu City Balloon Festival

Ho Hum – more balloons

Ho Hum – more balloons

 When we got up this morning  we had to start the generator to recharge our batteries. Our clock which projects on the ceiling, was so low on power during the night that you couldn’t even read it. We both thought there was something wrong with our eyes. There were other generators running and we felt bad about the noise but we had to do it.

It turned out to be a really beautiful day and there were a bunch of balloons up by 8 am as opposed to yesterday when it took them a while to get stirring. We took a walk down by the marina again trying to get a view of balloons touching the water but no luck. I think the place to go to see them in the water is over where the water goes under the London Bridge.

We made the mistake of leaving the campground in the Tracker for a “quick” trip to the store around noon. That was a mistake. There was a line a mile long of bumper-to-bumper cars heading right past our campground toward the main entrance to the event. It took us about 45 minutes to get back “home” after our “quick” trip.

We made another trip back to the event but this time we walked – on prior trips we drove the Tracker to the free parking lot and then walked the last quarter-mile. It was a pretty comfortable walk along the shoulder of the road and probably made up for that huge sandwich I had for lunch while there.

We spent the afternoon napping and reading. We may or may not go back over there tonight but probably not. Heading for home tomorrow morning.

2014 Lake Havasu City Balloon Festival