Really enjoying my ’03 Saturn. All those power items are fun to have again. Haven’t had a power feature car in 18 years or so. And that’s partly because I retired early and only had the RV for 12 of those years, no car…the RV did have Cruise Control for the first several years. Then in ’16 I bought that ’01 Saturn based more on it’s low weight than anything. See, I’d never really towed anything in my life so I was being cautious and I felt the low weight would help while I learned how to drive with a toad. Plus I wanted something low cost in the event I did something stupid with it.
But I missed having that power stuff in a car. I pretty much had power features in all the cars I bought for 25 or so years prior to retiring. Not a stranger to power features and really missed them. So this last year I signed up with the Carfax website that searches for a car for you. And finally found and purchased the L200 Saturn with all it’s power features. Now that I have them again, I’m a happy camper.
My last posting featured a little tour over to the Amargosa Opera House when we were still having plenty of sunshine. Coolish, but with sun. Temps in the high 60’s. But then a cold storm front moved in…
I just wandered around town with an eye towards the weather as the storm approached.
Here’s a shot of the mountain range between Pahrump in the west, and Las Vegas is directly beyond this mountain, east around 50 miles.
It had gotten cold virtually overnight, so yesterday I was lounging in my chair outside just wearing a long sleeved shirt, and today I needed a coat and hat.
Pretty nasty looking clouds heading our way too. This is looking south westerly towards the LA region where we get our weather. Some ominous black clouds hurried towards us. I headed home.
And after driving around enjoying myself, headed home to get things ready for a winter storm that was predicted. Around an hour later, noticed it had been raining heavily as the streets were adorned with puddles. The rain continued off and on the rest of the day and well into the night.
Next morning…this is what we had. A light dusting of snow.
One of the few times where weather didn’t seem to have any effect on satellite TV.
So that snowy weather hung around a couple days. The cold wasn’t that bad, and since I can call myself a homebody these days, I didn’t miss having anywhere to go. That was on and around Jan. 26th. By now, I had already ordered and received the tow plate and accessories I’d need to tow the Saturn. With the parts on hand, I set out using the internet and the local FB pages, to finding a shop or shade tree mechanic to install it for me.
And now, here’s how things looked on Feb. 2nd. Really. Think your weather jumps around? Huh, try here in Pahrump.
Outside was 72 F while it had gotten up to 80 inside the RV, even with the door open.
Next day, I went into the VA Clinic here in town and had blood drawn for testing. The day after that, drove to LV Vets Hospital for an ultrasound of my bladder, and xrays of my knees and heels which have been giving me trouble lately. First 2 hours of every morning I can barely walk. The ultrasound tech seemed to take an inordinate amount of time scanning my bladder and then my kidneys….and me with a full bladder as ordered for the testing sequence. She called in a doctor, he did some checking, had me urinate, more checking and finally sent me over for the xrays of my knees and heels. Three days later, they call and say they found a lesion on my kidney and they wanted me to come back for an MRI. Now the reason I was in there was to have my prostate checked and they ended up getting sidetracked by my kidney. Dammit. Well, after that call I checked it out on the internet and that type of lesion on a kidney is very common in people my age, like 60% show lesions on one or both kidneys. Usually it’s nothing but a common cyst or other common anomaly so I’m not all that worried about it. Today they called to schedule what she called a routine MRI of the kidney. That will be done March 5th. Still wondering about my prostate but I go into the clinic here in town on the 12th of February for a talk about the xrays, maybe the ultrasound of my prostate will be discussed too, if the tech did one. If she did, she didn’t spend much time on it.
Starting to look like I’ll be here in Pahrump much longer than expected for medical reasons. Might not be able to leave on March 30th as I’d planned. Oh, I did get my 1st dose of vaccine on Superbowl Sunday. Early though so I did have the game on, didn’t watch any of the pregame, halftime, or post game shows. Barely watched much of the game after the half either since it was so lopsided score wise. Get my 2nd dose on the 28th.
As I mentioned, I bought and received a new tow plate for the ’03 Saturn and I’ve spent some time checking various shops in LV and in town for someone to install it. Since each plate is custom designed for the year and model of car it’s not possible to take my old one off of my ’01 Saturn and install it on the ’03. I tried Yahoo’s LV quoting setup for auto shops and got 3 quotes back 2 of which were for $600, and 1 was for between $350-$500, but that was a mobile tech over there without a shop so I thought that would be too much of a hassle. And then here in town, I went to one shop and the guy who said he was their quoter guy, hemmed and hawed around and never really gave me a quote. Plus he looked under the rear of the car instead of the front where it’s installed. And that shop is associated with an auto dealer, carries the same name. Hmm. No thanks.
There is an RV shop in town that I visited and they still have a tRUMP sign up, didn’t like the vibe there from the owner, and he quoted $600 right off the bat before he knew the details, like I would do the electrical myself. The final guy on my list has a history I could check on the internet by drilling down and after investigating I decided he could very well be a flake not to be trusted. Moves around too much. Several bad reviews. So after a month, I hadn’t found anyone to do the work and decided to wait and think about it for a while longer.
One afternoon I was just rambling around south of town playing in my new car, and I stopped into the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and signed up. Paid for a year, $40, and when I checked my bank account the next day, it showed $225. They charged me for a lifetime membership. I’ve been in there for B-fast twice now and yum, is it good cooking. And only costs $4-$8 depending on what you ask for on your plate. But still, I wanted to check it out for one year before I sprung for a lifetime membership. I was supposed to get my credit today. I should check that.
But on my way home from the VFW, I noticed a body shop sign…and they had a big class A RV in their lot. So I stopped in, had a $400 quote within 10 minutes and felt confident from the people and mechanics I met there they could do a fine job. So made an appointment and 2 days ago on Feb. 8th, I got my tow plate installed. I almost drove away when I noticed the tech had forgot to install the safety wire ropes from the car frame to the tow plate so had him do that before I left. Only took another 10 minutes. Work looks really well done so I’m pleased. And no tRump signs anywhere.
The tech looked at it when I arrived for my appointment, and had already read the instructions I’d printed out for him, and thought that it might take 6 hours because the instructions said to remove the radiator so he offered to drive me home. I accepted after reminding him that Blue Ox, the people that invest so much time making the custom tow plate to fit this year and model of Saturn says that it should take a mechanic 3 hours. I didn’t get a bunch of shots of the work in progress since he took me home and then 3 hours 45 minutes after dropping off the car he called me. All done. He figured out a short cut…had the boss stand there holding the radiator up out of the way while he worked so he didn’t have to go to the trouble and time of removing it. Sort of a pride thing with him I felt. So I got my car back in less than 4 hours with a new tow plate installed so I’m now ready to tow it once I get the electrical installed. And they stuck to their $400 quote! YEA!
Of course they got their shop rate of $125/hour so they weren’t hurt any on the deal.
Anyway, that’s it for today. Thanks for reading!
Nice finding a local shop to perform the base plate installation. Will you be adding a breaking system on the Saturn?
Yes, local shops are often very economical. I have developed patience when I need RV work over the years and can’t say how much that has saved me. I once was feeling like I had a good handle on repair for my Winnie and made the mistake of taking it to the factory service way over in Forest City, IA. Bad mistake. Cost me over $1500 and they screwed up almost every job they did, lied to me several times about unimportant facts too. I won’t be back there.
AFA a braking system, I am seriously thinking about it as I own a Blue Ox ‘sit on the floor’ braking device and it is a couple decades old now. It’s all dusty too, time for new!
Hi Jim; V. day this Sunday. The VA is treating your bottomside. I’ll probably have to do the same in the future. Right now I’m focusing on an eye exam and glasses. A new year on Medicare so I switched an advantage plan. Picked a PCP (primary care physician) and he left the local office. Had to pick another who practices there.
V day huh? Well, I guess me and my cat will have a special dinner to celebrate. I was at the LV VA Hospital the other day and happened upon a glasses and eye doctor clinic inside. Pretty handy if you’re already at the hospital. I met a vet once who told me he travels around the US all year and ONLY goes to VA Hospitals for care. Glasses, aids, medical. Had it down to a route and routine. So he never sees the same doctor twice. Just mentioned that his medical records need to be checked for accuracy every once in a while.
Since you were overseas you can join the VFW. I was only stateside. Had been an AL member for a few years. Since there’s nothing much happening with the AL close by I dropped the membership. Did visit some nice AL facilities when traveling though.
I’ve sort of been doing the same thing…when I travel, if I see a Vets club of any kind, I’ll drop by or go visit if it’s convenient. Over in Yuma…a great place to spend a few weeks in winter…there’s an American Veterans of Yuma club that I like going to. They don’t ask for ID and have great food specials. And there’s a nice bar. I like their b-fast the best.
You showed snow dusting. Beginning with February it’s been the Winter from Hell here in SE PA. Snow every few days. 19″ was the worst. Every Winter I hope for snow to keep exercising. Since my GF says if I visit the gym I’ll be quarantined. Well things don’t always go well between us so I’m thinking of contacting the homeless department of the VA and learning what options are available. During the Fall we visited the Perry Point, Md. hospital while on a trip to the seafood restaurant in Northeast, Md. That hospital is located on the bank of the Chesapeake Bay. They have homeless housing there. Deer galore on the grounds. A movie theatre and a small fishing pavillion. Guys were fishing. I was jealous.
It’s a shame you couldn’t have visited here with your Saturn. We’d have gotten it installed. I’d worked at U-Wreck it, er- U-Haul for 3-1/2 years as a “hitch mechanic”.
Stay safe Jim.
To bad if you’re stuck there in PA during winter when you have an RV. You should be here in the desert SW or down in McAllen, TX enjoying the 70 degree weather and all that sunshine. It’s 69 outside right now here in Pahrump and the sun was shining a bit ago but now I see it’s all cloudy. Still, outside shirtsleeve weather. I didn’t even consider UHaul for installing the hitch. Not sure we even have one here in town. Too bad you aren’t here, I’d have put you to work on it. HAH!