Day 205

We made it home a little before noon today. You can make some really good time if you only have to travel on the interstate and don't have to stop for fuel.

Getting home was just the start. We spent hours moving from one trailer to the other. Just filling the tanks with water took 2 hours. I finally quit about 5:00. The rest of the stuff can wait until tomorrow.

We ate lunch in the club. Of course everyone who came in stopped by to say hi. We need to get the mail and start going through stuff.

I'm not going to continue this on a daily basis now that we are home. I'll probably do an entry whenever I feel that there's something notable to write about.

Day 204

We started out the day doing cleanup. I drained the grey tank and tried to flush it. Ellen cleaned up the kitchen. The flushing didn't work, so we went to the store and bought some vinegar. I filled the tank half way and added the vinegar. Hopefully that will do the trick. If not, I suppose we'll never have sensors that work.

The rest of the day was spent just chilling out. We had lunch at a little hamburger joint in Canyonville. It was really quite good. Then I read the paper and surfed. Ellen just surfed.

In the evening we went over to the casino. We spent a couple of hours playing our favorite machine, Alien. It was nice that they had one in the non-smoking section. At one point we were up $16. In the end we lost $5. Probability theory really works.

I plan on getting up early tomorrow for the trip home. I'll need to spend some time setting up the big trailer before we can stay in it.

Day 203

The day started out bad. I wanted to get an early start on the trip up to Canyonville, but the world wouldn't cooperate. It was cold, 41 degrees, when I started to hook up. The tires were all low, so that took extra time to inflate them. Then the hitch refused to engage. I spent half an hour getting it to engage.

The trip went as expected, long and boring. Some of the scenery around Mt. Shasta is spectacular. We went through a large area that must have had a big forest fire last year. There were burnt trees in all directions for a far as you could see. The scenery doesn't make up for the fact that you're on the road for almost 8 hours. The reason for the long time is that we stopped several times at info centers to try to find a coupon for the camp ground. Apparently they don't have that promotion any more.

When we got to the campground we set up and then just chilled out. Ellen fixed dinner and we spent most of the evening watching TV and surfing.

Day 202

We went to a sporting clays place called Walker River today. It's about 55 miles south of where we are staying. We went with Dave Fiedler, who is someone we know from the Western. The course is nice with some great terrain. Some of the targets were a little boring, but most were quite entertaining. Of course I didn't shoot well, but I steadily improved while we were there. A little practice and I'll probably be shooting OK again.

The traps they had were home built by some guy who rents the machines out. They were made out of car parts. They really look like Rube Goldberg creations. Dave says that they aren't very reliable. The welding was really bad, so the welds break frequently. All of the actuating mechanisms are really fragile. The springs look like they come from cars. All of the target are thrown very slowly. To compensate a lot of the stations had machines set on hills high above the stands.

Dave was going to shoot at Sage Hill this evening. We could have gone, but I just didn't feel like shooting at two places today. Instead we're going to a casino. We have a two for one coupon for the buffet. Also, this casino has a couple of slot machines that we really like to play.

Day 201

After yesterday's drive, I didn't want to do anything very strenuous. So after doing the wash, we went looking at pawn shops. We went to three, and a Goodwill store. I didn't find much that I was interested in. One store had some Blu-ray discs and X-box games that we liked, so we bought several.

Then we stopped at the grocery store. When we get to Canyonville there won't be any services, so we need to be able to go a couple of days without a grocery or restaurant stop.

After lunch we went to Costco. We went just because it's next door to the trailer park. Ellen bought a pair of socks.

We went home, got the dog, and then went to the dog park. We spent hours there. We were a little disappointed with Lucy. She was so focused on fetching the bumper that she didn't play much with the other dogs. Most of the dogs were run of the mill. However, there were a wonderful GSP and a Llewellyn pointer. As we left a really nice, and well trained, pointer showed up.

Lucy's a tired dog again tonight. I spent some time trying to find a new iTouch game to buy. The iTunes user interface is making this very difficult.

Day 200

What can I say about a 9 hour drive through some of the most desolate areas of the country. The road goes northwest past Creech AFB, where they hunt ragheads. Then there's nothing except increasingly bare desert for hundreds of miles until you get to Yerington. Then you go over a low pass and into a valley that has enough water for farming. That lasts for about 40 miles and then it's back to desert until you get to Carson City.

I was tired after 9 hours on the road. It didn't help that we had some trouble unhitching. That hitch works nice, but it is very touchy. It won't hook up unless the truck and trailer are perfectly aligned. It won't unlatch unless the trailer has been raised just a little bit. Then you have to raise the trailer more to get it to unhook.

Then we went to the dog park. There was a boxer there that Lucy played with for awhile. I also let her do a few retrieves. When we got home she curled up on the couch and didn't move until it was time to go to bed.

Ellen didn't bother to get a key to the men's room. I'll have to walk over to the casino across the street to go to the can. I miss taking a shower the most.

Day 199

We spent the morning at Hoover Dam. It is an incredible piece of engineering. We took the deluxe tour which takes you inside the dam. One of the fun parts was going through one of the ventilation shafts (6' in diameter) that open out onto the face of the dam. The view looking out of the grate was very cool.

One of the notable things about the dam is all of the artwork that was incorporated. The floors of the power houses, elevators, and upper levels are 3 inch thick terrazzo with amazing designs set into them. There are interesting bas reliefs on some of the exterior walls. There's even an entry plaza with a star chart set in the floor and a couple of amazing bronze sculptures of winged men.

Everywhere you look there are cool designs. The overflow basins (used only once in the dam's history) are huge. You could literally float a battleship in each one. They left one of the 9 original cableways standing. It's an incredible work of engineering in it's own right.

All in all it was well worth the $30 and I'll probably do it again some time.

After the tour we went over to Camping World to get a replacement for the bathroom light. When we go home I installed it. Then we took the dog for a swim. As usual she didn't want to quit. She's still a very tired doggy tonight.

For dinner we went back to the casino for the buffet. It was half price for seniors (over 55) again. It's a good meal for $4.50 a piece.

Then off to bed early. It will be a long day tomorrow.

Day 198

I had been sort of planning to go shooting today. However, when I woke up this morning I felt lousy. I was groggy and didn't feel like doing anything. Going shooting would have been a waste of time. I would have spent the whole time wishing I was at home.

So we went to the Boulder City celebration instead. It was one of those typical street fair things with people selling overpriced junk food and stuff you don't need. What set it apart was the car show. They had some amazing hot rods, custom cars, and restored older cars. Things like a 1911 Cadillac, one of 3 in existence. They even had 2 original Shelby Cobras. No early '70's Challengers though.

After that we went home for lunch. I still felt lousy so I spent most of the afternoon on the couch asleep. In the early evening we went over to Lake Mead so that the dog could swim. The wind was blowing and the waves were 1.5 to 2 feet high. She loved it. She would crash through the waves on the way out and surf them back in. Ellen took the video camera and got some good pictures.

The light in the bathroom died last night. I'm going to try to get another one tomorrow. That takes second priority to touring the dam.

Day 197

We made the drive from Kingman to Boiulder City in the morning. It's a bitch drive if you're hauling a trailer. There are several places where you climb 1,000 feet or more just to go back down the same amount. The worst part is going into Laughlin. You go down an 8 mile grade that drops 2,300 feet. Then you cross the river and immediately go up another grade that climbs 2,300 feet. The climb up was steep enough that I could only go 45 mph.

When we got to Boulder City we had lunch and then took the dog to Lake Mead. It's her favorite place. She did 20 to 30 water retrieves and then about 20 land retrieves to dry off.

After that we decided to visit Hoover Dam. It's as spectacular as ever. We were disappointed that we couldn't walk over the dam because they don't allow dogs. We're going to stay Monday so that we can go back without the dog. While we were ther we struck up a conversation with a guy that just hung out there for cheap entertainment. It was fun talking about our various interests.

On the way home we stopped at a scenic overlook. Lucy was allowed there. She got a lot of attention from people who stopped to look and ended up petting the dog.

In the evening we went to a casino for their buffet. It was very good. What was better was that we got it for half price. Saturday was half price for seniors and the cashier gave us the discount without even asking us our ages. I'm not sure how I should feel about that.

We may go shooting tomorrow, or we may go to this festival thing that they are having in Boulder City. It depends on how we feel in the morning.