Bob to the rescue!

So much for the Gap!

This morning at 10:00 we were up and at it, had the RV all set to travel, and we headed over to the parking lot of the local Ace Hardware Store here at Apache Junction. 

The Mission:  Fix the Gap that was created between our RV and the Cab.  Bob and I had put a lot of thought, and discussion into the problem, and decided we should try to correct the problem ourselves.  We did not have much to lose. 

We spent about 5 hours of work on it yesterday, and at least another 5 hours today, and I am pleased to say the Gap is gone and it looks like we have resolved the problem.  We took the motor home for a test run this afternoon and all went well.  We still have some work left that will get done in the next few days and is all finishing work.  Thanks for your help Bob!  It is appreciated. 

Bob came over and we enjoyed the hockey game this evening… (not to mention a great diner prepared by Judy)

Thanks to a comment from Angela, I learned I had a picture of a “Horned Toad” in last night’s blog that we came across out route 88.  It did appear to be frog like to us… just had never seen one like it!

I had to laugh tonight while reading Rick’s blog from B.C.  He had trouble with a football game reception due to SNOW on his Shaw Direct Dish!   He mentioned it was the first time this happened to him… huh… when I lived in Gravenhurst this was a daily occurrence at times… I had a special broom with an extended handle to take snow off the dish!  By the way Rick, in Ontario we have a “Driver’s Licence”… not a Driver Licence!

Poor Al and Kelly of the Bayfield Bunch are going through a bit of cold weather in the Elfrida area of Arizona and his temp. gauge was reading 10 Degrees F. early this morning!  Hope that gets better soon Al…

Not a single pic today as we were way too busy working on the motorhome problem!  Sure happy with the results though…

Hiking is on the agenda for tomorrow!

Till tomorrow…

 

Happy “Thanksgiving” Everyone!

Today is American Thanksgiving… yes, we celebrated with a big Turkey Dinner that Judy put together for Bob and myself.  It was good…

Today we went out on a tour…   we headed out with Bob in the lead on his Kawasaki and Judy and I pulling up the rear on the Burgman.  Bob took us out Route 88, which is also known as the “Apache Trail”…   what a ride!

There are lots of sites to see along this route, among them being Superstition Mountain, Canyon Lake, Tortilla Flats, and Fish Creek.  There is also an old Gold Mine that tourist flock to… we did it all!

Here is Bob heading out 88…

Canyon Lake is real neat, but I thought the mountains were on a bit of a slant…

You get a nice scenic view of Canyon Lake.

Next on the list was Tortilla Flat’s… It is a neat little spot, but was all closed up today, as it was Thanksgiving!

There is lots that goes on here…

Bob and Judy were searching for something to eat, but we got denied!

 

This was originally a school house, and is now a museum at the flats…

Judy wanted to go and dig for gold in the mine, but we convinced her other wise…

Lots of photo opps with the bikes…

Real nice place… no room in the blog for 1/2 of the pictures we took today.  It was a nice clear sunny day, but a bit cool, you wanted your leather coat on while driving on the bikes!

This is a terrible picture that I took through the window at Tortilla Flat’s Restaurant, but if you look close at the walls, they are covered with $1.00 bills by the patrons, there are thousands of them!

Bob was trying to figure out if it was easier to find some gold, or go back and peel a few $1.00 bills off the walls of the restaurant!

We made it out to Fish Creek, but could not make it all the way out to the Roosevelt Dam as they had the road closed for repairs.  Judy is standing at Fish Creek.

You can see the rugged landscape and the road as it winds out to Roosevelt Dam.

This is the first time we have been in this area, and I am sure this is a very Iconic Picture that many people would recognize as Superstition Mountain.

Across from the mountains is an old deserted Gold Mine that is a bit of a tourist trap.   It was all closed up today so we got to see it and save our money!  Check out the cactus behind the steamer!

There was lots for the tourist to do at the old Town.  The owner was there and Bob got a little of the history of the site, kind of cool!

I did not want to tell Bob, but this is what they did to you for picking up any loose gold nuggets…

This old stage coach seemed to be frozen in time… it was at the Flat’s…

This was the view looking across the road from the stage coach…

Up at Fish Creek, I found this little guy by the side of the trail, and I don’t have a clue as to what it is?  Anybody know???

In answer to Rick’s question from last night blog, yes the cab separated on both side of the RV.  Bob and I spent some time looking at the situation today, and trying to decide if we can complete the work ourselves… still need more time to work on this one. 

Yikes, this turned into a marathon blog… better wrap it up for the night…

Till tomorrow…

 

Life of the RV’er… sometimes not so good…

It is nice to take a few days off from driving… we short of had a shut down day today after 3 straight days on the road.   It was nice to enjoy the Arizona sunshine today for sure!

Since be have been full timing for over a year and a bit now, there has been lots of fun going on!  Today was a little bit not so fun, as we learned this morning we have a problem with our mobile home.  It seems sometime over the past couple of days of travel, we ran into a problem with the coach part of our motorhome, actually separating away from the cab of our GM Truck.  Not good!  Here is a bit of a picture I took today…

This picture is the area between the cab of our truck and the actual RV.  If you look in the very centre of the picture you see a bit of a white line running down that eventually peters out… this is a crack between the cab and the RV unit that has formed from stress between the RV and the cab of the Truck.  We were able to go to a repair shop today, and the Owner came to our Park and looked at the problem.  

The good news is he feels it can be fixed.  Bad news is that it involves about 14 hours of repair work.

(… at over $100 per hour… )

He has seen this type of problem before in these particular units, and he says the good news is we did not do a lot MORE damage and that this can be fixed.  Note:  trim pieces have been removed in this photo that normally would hide a lot of what you are looking at…

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So as you can imagine, we have had to change our plans, as we do not want to travel with the rig at this point in time, in fear of causing more damage until it can be repaired!  

We will now be staying here at Apache Junction until about Dec. 8th.  The folks at Caliente Springs in California were very understanding and changed our reservation at the Resort with no problem.  We were scheduled to be there Dec. 1st. We also made arrangements to stay here at Sunrise RV Resort until the 8th or so.  The repair will require the RV going to the Shop for 2 full days, so we will be displaced!  Bob has offered the use of his “Guest Room” in his 5th wheel for us to use…  Thanks Bob!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. and we will celebrate again!

Made a quick stop today at “NAPA Auto Parts” and they sold me a nice new gas cap to fit our Rig for all of $8.99  ,  PERFECT!   Problem solved!

Had a nice Skype conference call tonight with Shawn and Jenn, and Emmie and Paige!  Lots of fun!

Well, at least we did not have a million pictures taken through the dash windows today!

Till tomorrow…