bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We drove out of the RV park at 8;20 in the morning, following the Google directions back to I-10. I was driving as I become nervous when we are in a lot of traffic, and we are going towards Los Angeles.

As we started driving towards the turbine wind farm, the wind started picking up. This is the normal wind for this area. The last time we drove through this area Bob was hanging on to the steering wheel with everything he had. Today it was me white knuckling it. I can’t imagine what it is like when the wind is actually blowing!

This lasted for about 30 miles, then we left this pass through the mountains, and into a valley where there was no wind. We continued on to Fontana, and pulled up to Alfateers. Jon, the owner, came out and asked if we were dropping off or full timers. Since we are full timers, he said he would park us.

Bob disconnected the Edge, and John parked us in a site with 30 amp electric. There are 5 sites, and we were the only one there. So I picked the one next to the grass for the dogs and so that our diesel hydro-hot would not asphyxiate anyone.

We set up camp. About 2 blocks away is the California Speedway, so it became extremely noisy, very quickly, with the sound of racing cars. That lasted until about 5 PM, then they shut down.

We watched movies all afternoon, that we had recorded off the free Showtime. The weather is cold, cloudy, and there is a lot of smog. We are hoping that when the winds start, that it will drive the smog away.

During the afternoon, three other Alfa’s arrived. Too bad it was so cold, as we would have had a happy hour.

We decided to go to El Torito for dinner. Linda had said it was very good and to go to the farther one away. The Yelp reviews said the same thing, so Bob called for a reservation. That was the fastest restaurant dinner I think we have ever had. The waiter took our order and the food was back in about seven minutes. Wow! The food was very good and we would go there again. We returned, watched more movies, and went to bed.

Sunday- We ate breakfast then did our usual Sunday morning budget and filling our pill boxes. The rain started, but so far no wind. We decided to go to the movies. We had not yet seen the new Star War. There was a showing at 10:35. We drove over to the Ontario Mills Mall and quickly found the theater, in the parking lot. It was not yet open, and we waited about 3  minutes for an employee to arrive. We went in and the sign said that Star Wars was playing, in 3 D at 11:30. Hmmm. so we left. Too long to wait and we did not want to see the 3D version.

Bob pulled out his smartphone and looked for another theater. There was one, just a short distance away, in the mall. We quickly drove over there, parked and ran to the box office, as this was the movie theater with the 10:35 show. Who knew! Two movie theaters, both AMC, with 30 screens at this one and 15 at the other theater, within 300 yards of each other!

We bought our tickets, $6 each, and went into the theater. It was stadium seating for several hundred people, but only about 20 in this theater. By the previews, it looks like there are some good movies coming this year, but all seemed to be action films.

The movie was very good. We left and went to lunch at Polly’s Pies for their famous tuna fish sandwich.  We returned to the MH, to the sound of the cars racing at the track again. It started to rain hard, so they stopped, then restarted when the rain stopped. The wind picked up and it was a pretty miserable day. The racers stopped at about 4 PM and went home. We ate dinner at home and watched TV.

Monday-  We were told to be ready by 7 AM, so we were. We went in and met with Martin our service advisor. At 8, Martin came out and put a sign on the MH windshield. He told us they would be out to get the coach in a few minutes. No one came.

At 12:30, Bob went in to check on it. They said Martin would let us know. No one ever came or talked to us. We were not happy.

We at lunch and dinner at home and napped in the recliners while waiting.

Tuesday- Again, we were ready by 7 AM. At 7:30, they came and got us. If we had known that they were not going to do us yesterday, we would have gone and done something else. It is hard with the dogs to do anything when we are being serviced.

Taking the dogs with us, we went to run errands. We stopped at both Petsmart and Petco to see if we could get Roxie a new harness. The dogs always enjoy going ‘shopping’ since they get to go into the stores, and the employees usually give them treats!

We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch, as we had a buy one get one free coupon. We returned to Alfateers and sat in the waiting room talking to people. Bob had been told that they diagnosed that the slide has warped and that the rollers were misaligned. One was actually not even connected. So they were fixing that. We had given the okay.

To fix this issue, they would have to take out the slide and rebuild the bottom. Evidently, since the coach is over 10 years old, the metal on the slide has deteriorated. We decided that we could have this done in Indiana by McMillers, since they are less expensive. We had called Megan, and set up a conference call for 7 AM tomorrow morning.

At 4:30, they brought the MH out and parked it back in our parking place. We went looking for Martin to find out the final price. He had called our extended warranty company, but they are located in Denver and were closed for the blizzard. Okay, so we don’t know what the warranty company is going to pay. Jennifer, the receptionist asked if we needed anything. Bob said he was looking for Martin. She said he had left for the day. NO COMMUNICATION!

So we went to the MH , ate dinner, watched TV, and went to bed.

Wednesday– We got up and got ready to leave. We waited to speak with Megan. We confirmed that they can do the repair and that we are on their schedule. They are going to measure and look at the issue at the Alfa National Rally in Yuma in April. Then they plan to order the equipment to do the repair. We were already going to Indiana for other items, so this should all work out.

At 8, Bob went in to talk to Martin and to pay our deductible for the new rollers. Meanwhile. I was finishing up getting the MH ready to leave to return to Arizona. Bob came back livid. Again, Martin did not remember who he was. They did not get the rollers done yesterday. It was too late by the time that Martin told the guys to go ahead and complete the rollers. Grrrr! We are not happy!

So we packed up and went into the waiting room, to wait again. We decided,once it warmed up, to take the dogs to a dog park. We found one in Fontana, and took them there. They enjoyed sniffing everywhere, then got bored and were ready to leave.

We stopped at Subway and picked up subs for lunch. Then I ran into Target to see if they had a harness for Roxie. They had the same ones they had at Petco.

We returned to the waiting room and waited. After lunch I literally put my head on the table and took a nap. I had woken up at 3 AM and I was exhausted.  They took all day to get this done! Fortunately, they could only charge us for the time that the warranty would allow. I had also asked for the tray below the back up camera to be replaced. They had one and replaced it.  It was broken when we bought the MH and I have always wanted if fixed.  Alfateers has them made for them, as they have the pattern. We were lucky they had one in the right color.  The only order them intermittently.

While we were waiting, fellow Roadrunners, Winnie and Steve arrived. At 4, Martin came and  presented the bill. Eddie the tech came and told us what they had done. They adjusted the rollers and did not replace them. We wondered about that, as the rollers were replaced in 2014.

They parked the MH outside, connected the electric and we were back in the MH. We decided to go out to dinner, so we went to a little Italian place, The Original Grazianos, which was very good. Bob had the ziti and I had lasagna. We have left overs for dinner tomorrow evening when we know we are not going to want to cook!

Thursday- We were up and ready to leave. Martin came out an drove the MH out of the parking lot. We hooked up the car, and off we went. I drove through the city, south-east on I-10. Traffic was only bad in one area, because of rubberneckers who were slowing to look at an accident on the other side of the freeway.

The wind picked up at around Oak Canyon. The wind was not as bad as it had been the on the way over, but there was still a wind. Many of the wind turbines were not working when we went through the canyon to Palm Springs.

Traffic was light through the valley and we sailed back up over the  mountains. Our plan was to stop at 2 hours at a rest area just past the valley. It was closed. I wish California would let you know that the rest areas are closed! The next rest area was closed also, but we had stopped near the Patton Museum, again. On the east bound side there was a truck area, so we pulled in and walked the dogs. It is really nice to have your bathroom with you!

Bob started driving and we cruised all the way into Arizona. We stopped at the Flying J, right over the border for diesel. We paid $1.83/gal for diesel! Wahoo! A great price, Gas and diesel are over $1 more per gallon in California, so we were careful to not have to buy fuel while in California.

We went to the Wendy’s in the Flying J for lunch, getting a senior discount. I started driving again. We continued east to Hwy 303, and turned north. This is a new road, and we have not taken it from this direction. Unfortunately, there was still some construction at Grand Ave. The road went from eight lanes to two, and the left turn lane backed up. Once we were able to pass by the cars in the left turn lane, we sailed up to the Happy Valley exit. We left  the 303, and took Happy Valley to 107th street. I turned right and we went down the road. Our original plan was to turn right on the truck route, which would take us to Beardsley road. We would turn left, then right on 111 street. That takes us to Union Hills, where we turn left and then left into the resort. We had checked this was out in the past.

But, we changed our minds, thinking we would just go down to Beardsley and turn right then left. THE ROAD WAS CLOSED! So we turned right at the detour, thinking we would connect with the truck route! NO, IT WAS A DEAD END INTO AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL parking lot! EEEK!!!

School was just letting out. So we were in trouble. We stopped on the side of the road and disconnected the car. We were going to have to do that anyway. So I took the car and ran through the parking lot to make sure there were no overhangs.

Then Bob drove the MH through the kid pick up area. It was okay, because by this time all the kids were gone and the buses were on the other side of the building.

We back tracked to the truck route, and took our original route, arriving at Paradise at 3:45. We had lost an hour due to the time change from California to Arizona.

The ‘oranges’ guy was there, so I ran to pick up the mail and buy oranges. Meanwhile, Bob headed to the site to park. There was a black pick up truck parked across from the site, but the security guard was able to assist Bob with backing the MH into our site. Bob did it in one swing in. The guard congratulated him as that usually does not happen, especially with a vehicle in the way. The guard had tried to find the owner to get him to move it, but there was no answer at the door.

We set up for the evening and I started a load of laundry. We ate leftovers for dinner, watched TV and went to bed.

Friday-  It was 51 degrees at 7:30 AM, but there was a wind, so I did not go to water aerobics. I had started washing the sheets. At 9, I went to the card room for the card class. I did not take a lot with me, so I just picked up a few items.

I stopped at the mail room and picked up our mail from the forwarding service. It has been sitting there for a couple of weeks. I returned home and we opened the mail.

We had a lot of Christmas cards. Since we have gone down to one time a month, we get a lot of mail, all at one time.

At 11:45, I picked MaryAnne up and we went to lunch at Cafe Zupas. Then we stopped for gas at Costco, $ 1.55 /gal. We continued on to Cracker Barrel because I wanted new 3/4 length sleeve shirts. I also purchased a coloring book as I have started Adult coloring. It is fun and inexpensive. It also does not take up a lot of room or add extra weight.

I returned home and Bob and  and I went over to Linda and Mikes to pick up our bikes. I also picked up the information and table cloths for the card class that I run. We all decided to go to dinner at Bucca de Beppo. Mike drove us. We had a wonderful meal, returned home, and watched TV.

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