The Adventures of Me & My Shadow#43
2/16/00
567 miles this trip, odometer now 55,559 total miles this year
3031.
From , Lake Havasu City, AZ Hi Everyone!
Me & my Shadow arrived at the Melody Ranch in early afternoon
on the 22nd of Jan, it was a nice day, next morning the temperature
dropped to 28 degrees and my Neice Mary Lou blamed it on me. Some
times bad weather does seem to follow me around. Had a nice visit
and took a picture to prove to you that
this is a real ranch and Mary Lou’s husband Tom Chambers,
not only trains horses, he is a singing cowboy (my kind of music)
and has a recording studio and CD disk production lab on the ranch.
It is a good place to raise children, the two smaller children
were visitors from a neighboring ranch.
After finishing adventure #42, I got on Mary Lou’s computer
and sent it via e-mail, bid everyone good by and headed to Phoenix.
It was getting late when I arrived so checked into an RV Park
and prepared the letters to go via snail mail. Something is wrong
with the phone system here in AZ, when I try to use my calling
card the phone starts beeping before I get done dialing. It happened
to me at Mary Lou’s and again here in the RV Park. The guy
on the other phone here in the park had the same problem. I tried
to make a local call and the phone took my $0.35 when the call
didn’t go through, I told the gal in the office about it
and she told me to dial 211 and ask for a refund. I did and was
informed that a check for $0. 35 would be sent to me. Looks like
a hell of a way to run a phone system.
My second stop was in Sun City to visit my cousin Blair Van Slyke,
hadn’t seen him in a long time. Had a nice visit and watched
him and some other old folks bowl, one gal at age 94 was one of
the better bowlers. She had good ball control even though she
was lofting the ball. I never have mastered the game, it looks
like a good way to get exercise and have fun.
My third stop was to visit my nephew Mike Sterling, two years
ago I spent about a month here. He had told me some time ago that
they had passed a city ordinance that prohibited parking RVs or
boats next to the house without screening them from view so I
figured I would have to find an RV Park. He informed me that he
had done some research and the ordinance, as written,
did not comply with the state or national constitutions and he
wanted to go to court to prove his point. So I parked it next
to his house, plugged in to AC power and phone line and hoped
his life would not get too complicated. He must have some lawyer
blood in him, he showed me were the ordinance had some words in
it that made it unconstitutional and I had to agree with him.
Home lots that were larger than his were excluded form the ordinance,
in other words, rich people could park their boats & RVs any
where they wanted to, it was apparent to me that whoever wrote
the ordinance had boats and RVs and didn’t want the law to
apply to them. If they come after Mike and the judge sees it differently
than Mike does, I wonder if I can park next to his cell next year
when I come to visit him. While I was here, I bought a 12”
X 12” mirror and a glass cutter and repaired the mirror
that was broken in Texas. One afternoon we went over to Ron
& Connie’s for dinner.
I didn’t want to push my luck too far so on 2/3/00 I cranked
up to head west to Yuma, AZ, it was then that I found that I was
once again lucky. I started the engine, let it warm up a little
and started to back out onto the street and I see I had a bad
leak of some liquid, I stopped to check it out and found it to
be fuel. A hose connection to the fuel flow sensor that I had
installed about 10 years ago was leaking. This could be a real
fire hazard after the engine was warmed up and I was in traffic
on the interstate I moved the hose clamp a little and tightened
it to stop the leak and will replace the hose when I get to Yuma.
The trip to Yuma was unevential and I pulled into a big backyard
in early afternoon at Duane & Marian
Dreesen’s nice home.
Duane is an antique car and antique motorcycle nut and recently
added a GMC Motorhome to his collection. I had talked to him last
summer in Nebraska and told him I would stop in down here this
winter to give him a hand as I have the tools needed to service
the front wheel bearings on the GMC.
This is the place to spend a winter, I have met a lot of people
here and none of them were from Arizona. They are from Canada
and all the northern states west of and including Minnesota. A
lot of them are from Cedar Co. Nebraska.(my old stomping ground).
Not only do they not have to scoop snow, they also don’t
have to mow grass, Most of the lawns are covered with crushed
rock.
Spent the first Saturday afternoon here in Yuma at the VFW club
listening to some real good music and watching them dance, also
watched some long trains go by from west coast ports headed east.
They all appeared to be over a mile long with six big engines
so they must have a steep climb to get over the mountains. Saw
six or eight of them headed east and not one going west, they
must go west at a different time as there was only one track.
We found the front wheel bearings on Duane’s GMC in need
of service, we cleaned and packed them with grease, put new seals
on them so they should be OK for many more miles. The lower ball
joints were worn and in need of replacement. The right hand outer
CV joint had been leaking grease, we caught it in time, put all
four new boots on them and switched the left & right-hand
axles to opposite sides to even the wear on them. The front and
rear brakes were OK. Duane still has a lot of work to do and he
has all the tools he will need to continue restoring the old GMC.
I would like to stay and help him but I still have a lot more
places to go to before the International Rally in Rayne, LA next
month. We took time out on Friday to go to a very good rodeo and
as soon as the mail that Jenny forwarded to me gets here I’ll
be headed north to Lake Havasu City, AZ to visit my sister before
heading to California.
About two weeks ago I ate the last of the delicious Florida oranges
and have been enjoying the grapefruit, thinking I would finish
them off before going into California where they would be confiscated.
Now Duane has picked a big bag of grapefruit and put them in my
coach. I hope Bob & Norma up in Lake Havasu like grapefruit,
and I hope the oranges in West Covina, CA will be ready for picking
when I get there.
Norma has told me she will peal the grapefruit, cut it up and
put it in plastic containers in the refrigerator so I’ll
be legal when I go into CA. Was able to get my computer on Bob’s
phone line so will get this letter sent before I leave here. I
have a few things I want Bob to help me check on the Coach before
I head into CA
Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits.
