Chaos Leaves Town

…but first, a look at some antiques…

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After spending a month and 3 days in Pahrump, the balmy 80F temperatures had slipped to the low 70’s, the nights were getting rather coolish in the low 40’s, but down in Mexico San Felipe’s weather was getting comfortable. So…it was time to head down to San Felipe. Too far to attempt in one day from Pahrump, so I’ll stop over in El Centro before crossing. There are several RV parks in El Centro and I like to stop there a few nights before I cross the border to take care of last minute details. On this particular trip, I just planned on spending 3 nights, mostly to check out a Passport America park, Rio Bend RV & Golf Resort where I might play some golf. The amenities were interesting, what with the on site golf course, snack bar, event restaurant, pool, library, and an open air bar. Plenty of room to ride my bike. From their web site, looked like my kind of place.

First had to get to El Centro soooo…check out this map. I chose to take the easterly route. It shows it’s a 6 hour trip and I want it to be a leisurely drive so I planned on it taking 8 hours. Did nearly all my pre-trip check list late afternoon the day before travel. Stowed everything except the electric cord, even hooked up the car and stowed my bike. Got up at 6 and was driving out of the RV park at 7. I also needed to stop for diesel and scouted out stations in Pahrump the day before. Decided on the station at the casino just up the street from the RV park. Turned out that was a mistake because there at the pump their card computer system is set so that I ended up having to walk into the store to pay, than go back out to pump, go back in to pay, back out to pump. Three pump and three pay cycles all because the owners are too cheap to upgrade. Stay away from the 76 Station at the Gold Town casino in Pahrump if you’re driving a big RV and need lots of fuel. And NO, I’m not going to leave my card inside, not after having my info stolen at a 76 station in Rosamond and someone charged $8,000 on my card within 3 days. My bank caught it in time and reversed all the charges on it 3 days later…but that is why I only use a credit card to buy fuel and never leave it with the attendant unless I’ve been going there for years and recognize them. Using a debit card, consumers have no recourse if money is stolen. What I didn’t understand about that whole stolen card info situation is that the bad actor tried to pay an $8,000 restaurant bill over on the California coast. What I was told by my bank is that first the card showed up later that same day I’d filled up in Rosamond up in Stockton where someone used the numbers from my card to fill a large SUV’s fuel tank (that’s what tipped off the CC company that it was likely fraudulent, how did I get there so fast?). Two days later the thief was down at the Cali coast and had a very large party with numerous guests at a large restaurant AND somehow tried to order and pay for restaurant equipment?? Wild. Likely the owner or manager of the restaurant paying for many of his or her friends to have a night out at a nice restaurant on him, that charge went through, and then went wild ordering equipment for the restaurant. I had to chuckle at the thought of the bad guy suddenly having ALL those charges reversed, where he worked, or even at a place he owned. Around $8,000 in reversed charges as fraudulent. My thinking was that he’d gotten the VISA card number from a friend up in Stockton, and the guy in Stockton was paying the guy in Rosamond for it. Hopefully they all were arrested.

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It was really enjoyable here in Pahrump. As I said last time, I’ve never been here before, have never driven on highway 160 or 372. Sure, I’ve taken US95 north out of LV, but never bothered to visit Pahrump.

Didn’t take long to find places in Pahrump to shop for groceries, than find a couple golf courses, and a couple thrift stores. Found one really big thrift store that has tons of recycled pre-owned and distressed stuff of all sorts, including large appliances and furniture. I generally shop once a week, and while I’m out I like to visit thrift stores trying to find things that might be fun fixing. I pick something up, take it home, clean it up and/or repair it, than put it on the free recycling tables if the RV park I’m staying at has one. Otherwise, I just take it back to the thrift shop and leave it as a donation. Finding treasures I can fix is fun for me. A form of entertainment that doesn’t cost much. And there really isn’t much entertainment in Pahrump other than all the casinos. No movie theater, no local little theater putting on plays, nothing really. Unless you consider a nice large bookstore to be entertainment. (Now that I think about it, I’d bet there was live entertainment at some of the casinos. I just never noticed).

Pahrump Valley Winery (one of two in the area) is quite nice. Visited there during a self guided tour around town and noticed, along with the wine tasting bar and sales counter, a restaurant with table cloths. My brother and I came back for dinner a week after this look around visit.Fancy this, a winery in the middle of the desert. I’m thinking they import most of their grapes though. The vineyards I saw were rather small. Doesn’t look like they’re big enough to support a huge winery. Continue reading →

It’s my kind of town, Pahrump is…I didn’t expect much from it before I came here, I just planned on staying 3 nights, ship the package I intended to ship, do some shopping and then move on to the area around Brenda, AZ. Shortly after I bought this RV back in ’16, I stayed at 3 Dreamers RV park in Salome next door to Brenda and it was worth the stay. It did tend to be hot. Typical Passport America desert park, and it’s quite a ways from any shopping but has many nice residents there and the sites and amenities are good enough for a visit if you’re in the area. Monthly rent is a very economical in the $250 range though electric at $0.20/KWH isn’t… 🙂

But, what happened on the way to Brenda/Salome, was that I found that I liked Pahrump even better! I did check weather in Salome when I first arrived in Pahrump and it was still in the 90’s there, while Pahrump was very nice in the low 80’s F so made my decision to stay much easier. And then this RV park has amenities that are spectacular for an economical park. And here’s where I stayed, at Preferred RV Resort. The park has many mature trees for shade, and blazing fast WiFi. Than there’s the wood shop, pool, card games, hot tub, etc..

Drove around on a tour of Pahrump and found that there’s a bunch of RV parks, 21, with nearly all of them at or right near casinos. Than there are several big box national brand stores, a large swap meet type thrift indoor/outdoor store, several dollar stores for the frugal, killer views of the desert and surrounding mountain ranges, a vineyard/winery/RV park/restaurant, and on and on. So I definitely didn’t give up anything by staying in Pahrump. I would have if I’d left for Salome. I was also staying current with the weather down in San Felipe, and like Salome, it was still pretty hot there so I wanted to hold up here at 2,600 feet for a while anyway.

Here’s the Pahrump Nugget that’s just a short walk from the RV Resort I’m staying at. I expect to be next door here for at least a month, depending on weather, perhaps longer.

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The next morning in Tonopah was very pleasant…and I was so close to Pahrump with the numerous shipping business there that there was no real hurry. It’s just 2.5 hours away. So I could dally here a while in Tonopah and enjoy the very comfortable weather. Very nice. This is why I head south in the winter.

But around 9 am I got itchy feet so began my break camp routine. Put the satellite dish down, drained, emptied, and stored the water hose, did the dishes, arranged the food in the refer, picked up and put stuff away, and generally prepared for travel. Slowly.

When 10 am rolled around, I was sure that the nearly 70F temp would mean the slides would work. But when I tested them, nope, no movement. No sound. Crap.

Wanted the ambient temp to increase a bit more (the hydraulic system was on the shady side this time) so I kept busy and visited FB online while I waited. Testing the slides every once in a while. Went out and whacked the works with my rubber mallet a time or two. And right around 11 am the slides come back to life. Right after I found the ground stud underneath and forward of the hydraulic control system and whacked it a good one. I can’t really see that stud from where I tend to work on the hydraulic system assembly – have to crawl underneath to see that stud, and the other times I’ve taken to stoop down and try to see it under there were wasted. So finding it was cause for a happy dance. It’s blacktop here instead of the gravel I’ve been staying on over the last several months so easier and more comfortable to scootch under there. Lucky.

So, now I know where that ground stud is. Great. And the slides coming back to life immediately after I whacked it is an indicator of where the intermittent operation problem is. I’ll take care of that after I reach Pahrump, or Mexico. Now with the slides working again, I can get back on the road. So pulled in the slides and was able to get on the road by 11:15 am.

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While parked in Winnemucca, spent a couple hours on Wifi trying to mesh my trip plans with shipping the oscilloscope to the buyer I’d sold to on eBay. I had rejected an offer, actually two offers, for the o’scope previously because they didn’t offer enough and I was happy they didn’t because they lived so far away, back east both of them. The shipping cost would have been brutal. And there’s the worry of such long trips ending up damaging the o’scope and I’d have to take it back. But the offer I accepted ended up being for exactly the money I was asking for (after some negotiating), and the guy lived in a suburb of Las Vegas, just an hour from the route I was already on as I headed south! Lucky coincidence for me.

So my plans had me stopping in Pahrump to ship the o’scope because they had several retail shippers plus those mini shipper facilities for UPS and FedEx…oh, and USPS of course, if I chose that route. The problem with heavy, bulky, or oddly shaped packages is that online calculators for shipping costs are often non-intuitive and I’m never certain if what I find is the lowest shipping price for my package…often it isn’t. So I planned on getting early to Pahrump so I could dance around and maybe go to 2-3 different stores to get the best price…if I needed to. The package was 28 pounds and fairly large. After I got it shipped, the plan was to head on to Brenda, Arizona (west of Phoenix around 120 miles) to spend a month in warm weather while waiting for San Felipe, Baja to cool down from the 90’s to the 80’s.

Sunday morning, I head off towards Brenda with planned stops in Beatty, and Pahrump. I thought I’d arrive in Pahrump early afternoon on Sunday, and be able to do my shipping stuff at a retail shipper there. If that went well, that same day I’d continue on to Brenda, Arizona and to a small RV park there I’ve stayed at before that is fairly nice with nice people. Or if I couldn’t hack that long drive, stop somewhere between Pahrump and Brenda. If that didn’t go well, or if I arrived late at Pahrump there were several RV parks there where I could stay. One is a PPA park and the website showed it to be pretty nice. As an aside, I did have trouble Saturday afternoon getting the slides to work, but when they finally started moving, I pulled them both in so I could leave early Sunday morning.

There’s two routes I could take as I leave Winnemucca, I decided on the easterly route. The first 4 hour leg gets me to Tonopah and starts by heading north east out of Winnemucca on I-80, then turns due south at Battle Mountain. The entire trip is 11 hours all the way to Brenda so I anticipated perhaps stopping for the night in Pahrump when I arrived there late that afternoon. I assumed I’d get there around 4:30. Giving me an hour to get to a shipper. Than off to Brenda if it was still early and I felt like driving more, or settle for the night if I’d been delayed. I was pretty sure I’d have to stop somewhere short of Brenda for the night. Didn’t know where exactly. Nice solid plan. Didn’t work out that way.

Here’s the desert just outside and east of Winnemucca.

And soon I’ve turned off the freeway onto a lonely 2-lane highway. This is called Copper Basin so you know why people ended up being here at all. Mining.

Not much out here. Did see a large volcanic tuft field. Tossed here by a volcano I couldn’t spot, sometime in the far distant past. Continue reading →

I’ve added a new post to the RV repair section of the blog about the Winnebago’s tendency to develop leaks around the front windows. And my DIY attempt at reducing the possibility of having to do a $3300 repair.

If you’re interested in that sort of thing, check it out, and feel free to comment with any tricks you might have tried yourself: Weather Proofing

I’d like to backtrack slightly here and mention that the trip I took on US-395 from Burns, Oregon to Walla Walla, Washington and back, was really very interesting and scenic. An easy drive for my 35 foot RV with attached car, hardly any traffic, numerous changes in elevation and as a result, changes in scenery. Grasslands to forested areas with mountains, rivers and streams, and a few tiny communities to explore or just pass through while gawking. Some areas looked like they hadn’t changed in thousands of years. Areas with little evidence of the hand of man. Probably shouldn’t try to oversell it, but it’s well worth spending a day or two exploring on this road if you are in the area.

My stay at Burns RV Park was nice, gave me another week to explore in and around the town of Burns. After I was pretty much done exploring there, headed back out to Narrows for no other reason than to save money.

It was starting to get cold at night. Down to mid 30’s F. So I planned on getting back on the road soon…after I watched a Seahawk’s game at the parks bar. Which it turned out, they wanted to close at 7 PM!! What?! Luckily, the game went into halftime just as I learned that, so I hightailed it home and got the game on satellite. Which meant I didn’t order dinner there at the bar. I’d originally planned on doing that.

A couple days later, it was time to move on south. And I had a plan, to travel over to Boise and check out the VA hospital there, along with getting a shingles shot for myself. Vaccinations are free to me from the VA system and although my shingles is mild, it seems to be becoming chronic, so I wanted to get the vaccination. The VA Clinic in Burns couldn’t get the vaccine, it’s too expensive or something to take the chance they wouldn’t use it all up and it would spoil.

First I checked and found a Passport America park near Boise, then I used Google maps to check out the streets approaching the hospital. Part of that search had photos and one of them of the hospital grounds showed a sign that said ‘RV Parking’. OK, I felt safe driving my RV right over there to the hospital, parking, going into the clinic getting my shot, and then heading back to the RV park. Sounds like a plan. So here’s the last picture or two of my setup at Narrows. Note the less than ideal weather happening.

One issue I had with the cold was that my slides would not work in the morning until it had warmed up somewhat. I’d stumbled on that fact at the last RV park in Burns when I needed to dump and tried to pull in the bedroom slide. When I figured out that higher ambient temps got it working again, and learned that banging on the works of the system with my rubber mallet wasn’t doing the trick anymore, I had to adapt. I’d wait until 10-11 AM and then pull in the slides the day before travel so the issue wouldn’t put a crimp in my travel. I’d had this problem previously a couple times so I’d already made up a RV Repair thread about it here: Slides not working…

So that’s what I did. Waited until it was warm enough the day before departure, pulled in the slides, and was ready to go the next morning.

On the way out. Had to spend a few minutes scraping off the frost from the car window so I could see well enough to maneuver it around to get it attached to the RV.

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And now it’s mid-September (blog time) and my son contacts me to let me know my daughter and her BF are going to be in Walla Walla where he lives so I should come up to visit. OK, it’s a one day trip from Narrows RV park on some roads on the east side of Oregon north of Narrows I’ve never been on so sounds like fun. Oh, sure, I’ve been to Pendleton (famous for many reasons, one is the Pendleton Woolen Mills – still active) and a few miles south of there, but not much further south than that. I have also done some hiking in the Blue Mountains outside and east of Pendleton in the Tollgate area so I’m not unfamiliar with the area. Still, the route I’ll take will be new to me…so, an adventure. Map shows it’ll take 5-6 hours to get there.

First leg of the trip is due north towards Burns, than cross US-20 onto the US-395. I’ve never been on US-395 before so this should be fun. It’s a 6 hour trip so I left fairly early in the morning. Clouds off in the distance the entire trip promised the occasional rain.

This is my nice 7″ GPS I found on eBay. Sits on top of the drivers cockpit and gauge cluster assembly cover. It’s cool, even has a ‘bus’ setting so I’m routed around low overpasses and away from tight streets. Pretty neat, but, it didn’t come with a sun hood like many of them do these days so I had to make one. But at only $49, I’m not complaining. Lifetime maps too. If I can figure out how to find them and download them from the website. It is not exactly intuitive but for right now the maps that are built in have been great.
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The eclipse was fun, but I wanted to get outta town. Not much in Vale. They do have three or so excellent restaurants but nothing much else. I did find a bar with some microbrews on tap  and good food, but the TVs were too small so watching games on my home TV was more fun. I enjoyed being able to ride my bike around town for the exercise…as long as I did it in the cool of the mornings. By 3 pm it was HOT. I took several jaunts in my car with the AC on but again, didn’t find much of interest in the area. Went over to Ontario for shopping one day. That’s about it. I did stop in at the local auto shop for an oil change. And than at the local Les Schwab tire store to have my tires balanced but eventually, my overpriced visit week at the Vale RV park was over and I wasn’t going to give them any more money. Time to head back to Burns. This time though, I headed straight to the Narrows RV Park. It’s a Passport America park so half price. Since I was unsure where I’d be going afterwards, I paid for 3 nights to start, just to check the place out. It’s 26 miles from Burns, and right on the main road to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.

This is the onsite bar they have. Notice everything looks new. It’s about 10 years since the owners bought the place and refurbished all the buildings. And built some new. 2008 was the year the RV market crashed and many RV parks went out of business. Bad luck on the owners part. Or they were able to get it much reduced price because of that. Who knows. But in any event, there’s a ‘for sale’ sign on the park now. The land around here has a rich history as just a couple miles away right at the narrows was a grocery store and hotel which existed for many decades beginning in 1889. It was a travelers stop over between Burns and French Glen for decades and developed into a small town until a highway was built that bypassed it. Afterwards, the small town of Narrows slowly died. The area is remote so it’s a little strange finding all this new building of the RV park out here in the middle of nowhere. Hunting probably contributed to the Narrows Hotel and Grocery store’s long life, and that still helps this RV park. Also, many bird watchers like to come here to take pictures at the Narrows and then visit the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Yeah, that place where those armed terrorists occupied federal buildings for all those months in early 2016.

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