Day 3107

 I woke up at 9 and played games for an hour.  Then it was up for breakfast.  Despite the late start I got a lot accomplished today.

I started out by going outside to the shed with Ellen.  She held the ladder while I climbed up onto the roof to cut the tree branches that were overhanging it.  The walnut tree is completely dead and I didn't want them breaking off and damaging the shed.  I took a while to cut the branches, but it went well.  I even managed to get off the roof without injuring myself.

Ellen helped me carry the branches to the burn pile.  When we were finished I went inside the shed to redo my plan for fixing the floor.  I wasn't happy with the plan I did yesterday.  When I was finished I had a plan I liked and a bill of materials.  I drained the tanks and then we put Abby in the truck and went to Lowe's.

I needed 6 2x4's, two sheets of plywood, some screws, and FlexSeal.  It all cost over $150.  Lowe's doesn't even bother to put prices on their lumber anymore.  I spent another $20 on 2 cu ft of river rock.  Loading up the truck safely was a challenge because of the trailer hitch.

We ate a late lunch at Mickey D's and went home.  Ellen helped me unload.  Then I started cutting up one of the plywood sheets.  I made new shelving for the shelf and a reinforcement base to put under it.  The rest of the sheet is unused.  I also coated one side of the other sheet with FlexSeal.  I'm hoping that will make it more water resistant.

It was after 4 when I was done, so I went back inside and watched videos.  Ellen fixed stir fry for dinner.  After dinner we took Abby for a walk over to the trailers.  She seemed to be rocket powered again.  That was good because she'd had diarrhea twice last night.  Ellen put her on a rice and pumpkin diet today.  It seems to have worked.

Day 3106

 I woke up about 8 and played games for quite a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I went outside to investigate cutting the tree branches over the shed.

I got out the ladder and cut a couple of small branches with the loppers.  Then I cut one 1.5 inch branch with a hand saw.  That convinced me that I wasn't going to cut anything larger without a power saw.  I tried using the jig saw, but it was useless.

 I went inside and started looking for applicable saws.  Harbor Freight was the cheapest, but I decided to go with DeWalt.  Home Depot had one.  That was good because it was on the way to Costco which I wanted to go to today.

We went to Home Depot first and got the saw.  Then it was Sportsman's Warehouse for a dog whistle for the truck.  Abby liked both stops.  She had to stay in the car at Costco (we bought water, tooth brushes, batteries, and Zyrtek).  The next stop was a pet store, Abby liked that one - especially the sandwich cookies.

Lunch was at DQ.  They had a nice meal deal for $7.  On the way home we stopped at the Salem famer's market for strawberries and stirfry stuff.  It was VERY expensive.

When we got home it was too hot to get on the roof.  I decided to clear off the rest of the shelf in the shed instead.  I got it emptied and the stuff neatly packed.  I also measured out the lumber that I'll need to do the repair.  It's quite a list.

When that was done I called it a day and went inside.  I did some surfing and then switched to videos.  

Dinner was pizza followed by more videos until bedtime.

Day 3105

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for about an hour.  Then it was up for breakfast.  It was raining a little, so I surfed.  When the rain stopped I went outside.

I got out the trailer cleaning stuff and started to scrub the front of the trailer.  It wasn't easy.  Some of the bugs seemed to be baked on.  I had to go over everything with the long brush and then scrub additional remains off with the hand brush.  I managed to get most of them off, but there were some near the top that I couldn't reach.

When that was done I moved to the front of the truck.  Cleaning it was all scrubbing with the hand brush.  Because I could reach everything easily I managed to get that all clean.  Ellen wiped down the we parts with towels so that they wouldn't water spot.

While I was cleaning up Terry stopped buy.  He knows someone who might want to buy the flatbed trailer.  I gave him my phone number.  Then I went inside to investigate trailer prices.  It's probably worth about $2,500.  When I was done investigating I just surfed until the sewer guy got here.  I hate wasting a day waiting for him.  He came about 2.  I had Ellen start spraying the inside of the tank as some as I opened the valve.  That seemed to make things got quicker.  After dong a 5 gal refill and drain it was clean.  We were done in less than 15 minutes.

I put everything away and we took the dog over to the club.  We stopped to look at the trailer first.  It's in pretty good shape.  I think $2,500 is a fair price.  

I took Abby into the clubhouse.  Dave's dogs started barking.  Abby was running around and Potter came over and started to get medieval.  I had to zap Abby twice to get her to come back to me.  I took her outside and waited for Ellen to get off the can.  When she did I went in and apologized.  Abby won't be going back.

At least Abby had a lot of fun running around running around both ways on the trip.  When we got back it was videos until pet food time.  We fed the pets and left for Lowe's.  I wanted to see if there was a way to improve the sprayer tip.  I didn't find one.  We also went to REI and I bought another lightweight sweatshirt.  It has the dinosaur on it and cost $150.  We ate dinner at one of the restaurants there and then went home.

When we got home it was videos until bedtime.

Day 3104

We got up at 8, did the pet stuff,and had breakfast.  Then we left for the laundromat.  I dropped Ellen off there and went to DMV.

The DMV wait screen said that I had to wait 15 minutes.  It would probably have been longer, but their camera died.  That meant that half the people there couldn't get their licenses and left.  I got the new tags and went to BiMart.  I bought some water because we think that the water here is too bad to give to the pets.  It fizzes when lit comes out of the tap.

After that I went to Coastal and bought a bunch of stuff - dog food, squirrel poison, a retrieving dummy, and some nails.  I got 10% off on everything.  The final stop was the HW store to see if they had bagged rock.  They do, but it's really expensive.

I went back to the laundromat to pick up Ellen.  We stopped at Dutch Bros. and Baumann's on the way home.  The last stop was the post office.  There were a lot of packages.  They turned out to be the RC stuff from China, my new light sweatshirt, and some attachments for the dog harnesses in the car and truck.

When we got home I unloaded everything and went inside for lunch and a little surfing.  It started raining, so that stopped any work outside.  I did a little messing around with the Grom, but didn't really accomplish anything.

The rain stopped late in the afternoon.  I got out the stuff for dumping the black tank tomorrow, but didn't do anything else.

Ellen fixed sausage and hashbrowns for dinner.  After dinner we took Abby for a walk around the club.  She was a rocket dog, running all over.

When we got back it was videos until time for bed.

Day 3103

 I woke up about 8 and played games for a while. Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I decided to take advantage of the cool weather (50's) and start to work on repairing the shed floor.

The floor under the large shelf has collapsed.  It's going to need a major rebuild.  The first step is to unload the shelf and move it.  The shelf has tools, miscellaneous stuff, and at least 20 cases of ammo.

I started by rearranging a few things and starting to dump the tanks.  There was lots to do while they drained.  Then I rearranged some stuff to make it easier to move the shelf contents.  I ended up stacking 20 cases of 12 ga 4 cases of .410, and 4 cases of 20 ga.  I got down to a case of 20 ga that had been totally waterlogged.  I sat Ellen outside to sort through it while I continued work.

It started to get too warm inside the shed, so I switched to another "todo".  I moved the truck and then reconnected and repositioned the water hose.  That stopped the leaks at the connection and also made a better place to park the truck.  I finished up the tank draining and then got out the other hose reel and strung it out to wash the front of the trailer.  I also got out the ladder.

By that time it was too hot to wash the trailer.  I left everything where it was and we went to Wally World.  We needed groceries and some other things like water filters.  We stopped at Mickey D's for lunch and then went home.

It was a lot warmer and I didn't feel like doing anything when we got home.  There was a nice breeze in the carport.  I set up a chair and disassembled 200 rusted 20 ga shells.  That took quite a while, but I recovered 11 lbs of #8 shot.  Besides, it was more productive than videos or surfing.

After that I sat down for videos and a nap.  I also installed a couple of parts on the Grom.  I should have the rest of them in a few days.

I fed the animals and Ellen fixed orange chicken for dinner.  We watched videos until it cooled down and then we took Abby for a walk around the club.  We did a full circuit today.

When we got back it was more videos followed by an early bedtime.

Day 3102

 I woke up about 8:30 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was outside to get water and pet food.  Then it was out to the shed to fix the toothbrush.

The toothbrush had been making noise for quite a while.  That's because a screw was coming loos inside.  I'd fixed it once before.  I got the first pat of the disassembly done, but I forgot how to do the second part.  I had to go back inside and watch a YouTube video.  Then it was back outside to complete the fix.

With that done we left for Hooch's place.  We stopped at Mud Bay on the way and got canned cat food.  Unfortunately they didn't have the dry stuff.  Then it was off to Hooch's place.

I was really glad to unload the trunk full of stuff that we got for everyone.  Hooch got a bunch of tools, BBQ sauce, and Bourbon.  Martha got DVD's for Sunriver and cider.  Alicia got the Yurman bracelet, and Sophia got a Coach purse.

Unfortunately Rico is at training, so Abby only had Rowdy to play with.  It seemed to go OK.  Hooch and I pu together a couple of deck chairs.  Then we sat and talked on the deck for hours.  They gave us a pink flamingo and two Lego sets for our birthday.

We went to a Greek restaurant for dinner.  It was really busy.  I liked the food, but apparently it wasn't up to par.  Martha complained and they took some of the charges off the bill.

By then it was after 8.  We drove home, watched a little bit of videos, and went to bed.

Day 3101

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I ttok Abby out so she could got to the can.  I put the collar on her.  I had to use it once when she decided not to mind the whistle.  I did a little surfing and then texted Hooch.  He replied tat they had a school play to go to today.  I replied that we'd see him tomorrow.

I went outside and put the tripod on the pin box.  I'd forgotten to do that yesterday.  Then I got out the vacuum cleaner and vacuumed out the truck.  I also used some cleaner on the seats.  It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.  Finally I cleaned up some bird shit on the driver's door.

I decided to got to CVS for my drugs.  We took the dog.  CVS filled the prescription almost immediately.  Then we went to lunch at the teriyaki place.  It was really good.  There was also enough left over for dinner.  From there we went to the Keizer dog park.  Abby had a great time running around, but she didn't do as much as I thought she would.  She got rolled around a couple of times and was very dirty when we were done.

We gave Abby a bath when we got home.  At first she didn't want anything to do with it.  Then she found out that it was a warm bath and tolerated it.

After that it was videos.  Before dinner we took Abby for a walk around the course.  She did well, probably because she was wearing the collar.

Dinner was teriyaki followed by strawberry shortcake.  After that it was videos until time to go to bed.

Day 3100

 The alarm woke us up at 7.  After breakfast it was hook up and leave.  We left about 8.

Overall the trip was nice.  We made 11.5 mpg and beat the par arrival time by 9 minutes (we got to the club at 11).  The only bad parts was a 20 mile stretch following a slow truck and the nasty curves in the road coming down from the summit.  I'd forgotten about them.

It wasn't raining when we got to the club.  Yeah.  Setting up was more work than usual.  I needed to put the tire covers on.  I also had to string the new water hose.  Hooking it up to the hose carrier and unraveling it was a pain.  We also had to clean up the car port a little.  For some reason everything was in disarray.

After the trailer was finished it was time to do the other "arrival" things.  I unloaded the back of the truck and took the cover off the car.  It seemed to be OK and started right up.  I put the cover away  and put the old water hoses in the back of the car.

I drove to the clubhouse and put the hoses in the dumpster.  We spent a few minutes saying hi to everyone and then left to pick up the mail.  There wasn't as much as I expected.  The big disappointment was that a couple of Amazon purchases that should have been there weren't.  That means I won't get them for three days.  We went to Woodburn for fuel and lunch.  Then we stopped at Baumann's on the way back. They had strawberries.  Yeah.

We stopped at the club for a short time and then went back to the trailer.  I sat down to videos.  That quickly turned into a nap.

When we woke up Ellen took Abby outside without a lead.  I had hopped that she would obey us without a lead or collar.  Not so.  She ran to the clubhouse to play with dogs and beg for food.  She walked all the way back on two legs.  When she got back we made her lay in her bed.  There was no treat either.

The rest of the evening was videos and a early bed time.

Day 3099

 This was a slow day.  It was supposed to be.  I woke up about 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was in the low 50's out, but at least there was no wind.  I surfed for quite a while.

Eventually it got warm enough to walk outside without a sweatshirt.  We walked across the street to a park.  The park turned out to be a long one that went along a river.  We walked to the end and back, a total of 1.6 7 miles.  Of course Abby had a great time running around, chasing birds, sniffing, and pissing.

When we got back we did a little more surfing and then went to lunch.  We went to an old burger place on the main street.  The food was really good.  Two hamburgers, fries, and drinks was $26.  I bet when the place was new $26 would have purchased the whole menu.  Fuck Biden.

When we got home I decided to devote the rest of the afternoon and evening to videos.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Dinner was leftover pizza followed by more videos and an early bedtime.

Day 3098

 We woke up at 7, hooked up, and hit the road.  It was one of the weirdest trips ever.

The trip to Baker was normal.  We even made pretty good time.  We filled up at the Sinclair - $4.27/gal.  Fuck Biden.  The first few miles out of Baker were fine also.  Then we hit road construction.  We sat waiting for a pilot car for quite a while.

Just after that it started raining and sleeting.  There was a head wind also.  That lasted for about 15 miles or so.  Then things got back to normal.

We got over the first summit and things were looking good until we came up on a fallen tree that was completely blocking the highway.  There were several cars stopped.  No one had a saw, but I did.  It was a team effort to saw the top of the tree off enough that we could clear one lane.  That got everyone moving again.

A few miles down the road there was another road construction delay.  I was followed by more smooth sailing until we started climbing the second pass.  By that time there was a strong headwind that was with us for the rest of the trip.  It was strong enough that the truck would use 8th gear going down a hill.  We only got 9 mpg for the whole day.

We also passed through two hail storms.  They were strong enough to cover the road with hail.  I had to slow down because it was slick.

We got to Prineville a little after 1.  We averaged 50 mph for the four hour trip from Baker.

We set up and then went into town.  We drove around just to look at it.  I got coffee.  It's cold here, 51 degrees with a strong wind.  We also stopped at a pizza place to get dinner.  Then we went back to the trailer.

There's a couple of good places to run Abby, but it was just too cold.  The wind was strong enough to shake the trailer.  It even rained a little.  We watched videos for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Hopefully it will be warmer tomorrow.

I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow.  My focus is on relaxation.  Today's trip was pretty exhausting.

Day 3097

 I woke up at and and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff.  After that we went to the cafe for breakfast.

The cafe was very crowded.  We got the last table.  Service was really slow, too.  That's because the place was slammed and they didn't have a lot of workers.  We didn't mind.  We just sat and looked at our phones.  Eventually breakfast came and it was very good.

After breakfast came we went home. Ellen did the wash while I drained the tanks.  I also lined up the truck so that hooking up tomorrow will be easy.  We were expecting Dan to call about noon, but he didn't.  I did some surfing and ordered the last two things for the Grom.  If I'm lucky all of the parts will be at the post office on Friday.

I also cleaned out the Bronco a little bit.  There was a lot of old parts in it because of the work that the mechanic did.  I put them all in the storage area.  I also got half a case of 20 ga reloads and put them in the trailer.

Dan called in the late afternoon.  He wanted to meet us at the park to run the dogs.  We met him there.  Abby had a great time again.  After running we took the dogs to the boat ramp.  We had both Sugar and Abby doing retrieves in the water.  Unfortunately Abby still didn't want to swim.

After that we took the dogs home and went to the Shorthorn for dinner.  This time it was coconut shrimp.  We talked for a while after dinner and then went back to Dan's place.  Ellen helped him with connecting his blutooth headphones to the new TV.  Then we said our goodbyes and went back to the trailer.

We made the bed and then watched videos until it was time to go to bed.  It will be an early morning and a 270 mile trip tomorrow.

Day 3096

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We were meeting Dan at 10:45, so I just surfed until then.

We met Dan at is house.  We loaded his old TV into his car and went to the Grange.  We set the TV up in the Grange and tried to get the funeral presentation to work.  We had trouble getting the audio to work.  We finally got it to work by using the a connection through the TV rather than one from the computer.

The next problem was the playback glitching.  It happened at random intervals.  Also, it didn't happen when played back at the church next door.  We tried various fixes,but nothing seemed to work.  We finally decided that it might be fil corruption or a driver problem.  John went back to his place to load drivers and reload a file.  We went to Halfway.

We got bacon and some sandwiches for lunch at the grocery store.  Then we drove back to the trailer to eat them.  After lunch we went back to Dan's place and talked for a while.  We also gave Abby a bath.  She was gray and very stinky.

Dan and Ellen went to John's to help him with loading drivers.  I stayed with Abby at Dan's place.  I surfed for a while and the cleaned up the back of the Bronco.  There's a lot of stuff that needs to be put in the storage area.

Dan and Ellen came back eventually.  After driver and file mods the problem turned out to be the HDMI cable.  I don't really understand this because we'd tried two different cables as well as two different inputs.  Oh well, at least they're happy.

We took the dogs to the park.  Abby had another great time chasing birds.  She covered an amazing amount of ground at an amazing speed.  She wasn't tired when we were done.

When we got home I met a guy from England who is doing a bike tour of the US.  He'd ridden his bike from Baker today.  Tomorrow he's riding past Halfway.  I wasn't sure that was even possible.  We had a really fun conversation.

Dinner was toast and jam followed by popcorn.  After that it was videos and bed.

Day 3095

I woke up about 7:30 and played games for over an hour. Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We had to kill time until noon when Dan got out of church.  We did some surfing and then took Abby to the park.

Abby did great.  She ran all over chasing birds.  She even scared up two quail, but she didn't' see them.  She also made several beautiful points on tweety birds.  We got tired of watching her before she got tired.  We went back home and watched videos until time to see Dan.

We left Abby in the trailer and went to Dan's place.  At first he wanted to use my truck, so I went back to the park and got it.  When I got back he decided to use his truck.  We went to La Grande and picked up a TV at Wally World.  We had to stop at BiMart on the way back for DEF because Wally World was out of it.

When we got back we fed the animals and then went back to Dan's place.  Dan and I installed the new TV while Ellen figured out how to transfer all of the subscriptions.  It wasn't easy and involved two phone calls to Patsy to get passwords.  We didn't get home until almost 10.

We were both tired and just took showers and went to bed.

Day 3094

 I woke up about 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff.  We surfed for a little while and then went to pick up Patsy.  Then we went to the park for the fireman's breakfast.

The breakfast was pretty good and we sat in the sunshine for quite a while talking.  We also did a little shopping at the booths.  I bought a key chain for the Bronco keys and Ellen got a handmade cloth bag.

Patsy had to pack for Atlanta.  Dan's off fishing so we went to halfway.  We went to the storage unit and sorted out a bunch of stuff to take to the used goods place in Halfway.  There's a lot of stuff in boxes and it took us quite a while.  We ended up with a bag full of stuff and there's more to short through.

We had lunch in Halfway at the high-class place.  The food was good, but they were packed.  It made the service very slow.  We didn't mind though.  It was pleasant sitting there and Abby was a hit with a couple of people that were there.  We stopped at the used goods place and dropped off the bag of stuff.  Then we got money at the bank.  The last stop was the grocery store to get bacon.  They have bacon now, but the meat dept was closed.  We'll have to go back.

We were tired when we got back.  We sat down to watch videos and both of us fell asleep.  We woke up at 5:45 and had to hurry to New Bridge to play bingo.

Bingo lasted until 8.  We didn't win anything.  Actually we weren't even close.  Oh well.

Ellen spent a lot of time today looking for TV's for Dan.  The problem is that all of the candidates are in Nampa.

We went home, watched a few videos, and went to bed early again.  We've both been really tired all the time we've been here.

 

Day 3093

 We woke up about 8, had breakfast, hooked up.  We were on the road before 9.

It was only a little more than 130 miles today, but they were hard miles.  The road is up and down almost the whole way.  We also had a 25 mph headwind the whole way.  To top it off the legendary I84 trucks were being a pain in the ass for the whole trip.

Things got a lot better when we got to Richland.  It was still windy, but the temperature wasn't bad.  We set up and I got out the Bronco.  It is MUCH improved.  It starts and runs better.  It rides better.  It even has a little bit of acceleration and torque.  I'm really happy.  The steering is still vague though (it's a Ford), so I probably won't be doing an engine swap.  We're both disappointed that there aren't any side steps available.

After setting up we went too lunch at the cafe.  Then we went back to the trailer to pick up the dog.  Dan came over just as we were planning to leave to see them.  We sat and talked for quite a while catching up.  We're old, so there was a lot of illness and "who died" in the conversation.

Dan went home and a little later we went to their place.  The four of us sat in the sun, talked, and watched Abby.  She ran around, annoyed Sugar, and played with every dog toy that she could find.  Eventually it was time to run the dogs.  Dan also had to sign up for the fishing tournament.  We went to Hewitt and Abby had a great time running all around and chasing birds.

After that we went back to the trailer and fed the animals.  Then it was back to Dan and Patsy's place.  Dan hadn't gotten back from signing up, so we sat on the deck and surfed.  Ellen looked for TV's for Dan.  He wants a new one.

When Dan got back we went to the Shorthorn for dinner.  They only serve food in the bar now.  Dan says there's no one available to work.  It was good food though.

After a lot more talking we went back to Dan and Patsy's place.  I helped Dan take out the bingo sign.  Ellen and I measured for a new TV.  Then we went home.

I was really tired, so t was an immediate shower and bed.

Day 3092

 The alarm woke us up at 7:00.  We got up, had breakfast, and then hooked up.  We left at 8 again.

The trip was pretty smooth.  I did have a couple of minor jousts with trucks, but that's to be expected on I84.  There's a lot of up and down for most of way.  We got 11.2 mpg for the 300 miles.  I thought that was pretty good considering we had a headwind for much of the way as well as a regen.  It also meant that a fuel stop wasn't necessary.

The regen was a little worrisome.  It happened during a hilly section.  The regen software doesn't like short periods of high load followed by short periods of low load.  It went into "WARM" several times during the process.  Eventually it did stop with the soot at 24%.  That dropped to 0 within 6 miles.

We got to the park about 12:55.  That's 5 hours to go 293 miles.  I was happy with that.  Traffic northbound on the road to the park was backed up from the freeway to the club.  Luckily we were going southbound.  The people at the part told of of a way to avoid the backup so that we could go get fuel.  We drove 2 miles to a station that was $3.59, compared to the one across the street that was $3.87.

We set up and then went for fuel.  The truck took 29 gallons, filled to the filler neck.  We also stopped at BiMart and got water (10 cents less per bottle than Oregon), some ammo, and a dog ball.  Then we went home.

I went to the farm store across the street from the park.  Again, sleeping and getting Scooter to the next level had made Ellen too tired to come.  At least she had enough energy to fix tacos for dinner.

After dinner I watched some videos and then switched to surfing.  Bedtime was early again today.

Day 3091

 The alarm woke us up at 7:00.  We got up, had breakfast, and then hooked up.  We left at 8.

The first 200+ miles were pretty uneventful.  There was a lot of up and down, culminating in a 6100 foot summit.  I was happy with the mileage, 10.5.  We filled up at a really convenient place about 20 miles south of Provo.

Traffic up through Provo wasn't all that heavy and a fairly easy drive.  Then unfortunately every asshole drive in Sat Lake decided to join.  I had many occurrences of people diving just in front of me.  I even had a semi force his way over into my lane.  I had to brake or he would have hit me.  The cherry on top was a multi-mile long traffic jam because someone had decided to have a car fire in the right two lanes.  Fortunately no one seemed to want to drive in the HOV lane.  I got into it and passed up the whole traffic jam going 50+ mph.

A little above the traffic jam traffic thinned out and the idiots disappeared.  I was thankful for small favors.

We got to the park and set up.  I was going to get fuel and maybe something to eat.  Ellen was too tired, having sat on her ass for the 7+ hour trip, so I filled up alone and just came home to watch videos.

Dinner was leftovers.  Remember Ellen was exhausted from a day of napping and marathon Scooter games.

After dinner was a little videos and surfing before an early bed time.

I am glad to be over the longest leg of the trip.  However, tomorrow is almost as long.

Day 3090

 I woke up a little after 8 and played games for quite a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside to drain the tanks while Ellen went to do the laundry.

I did some surfing when I was done with the tanks.  There was another person using the laundry, so it took her longer than usual.

When the laundry was done we left for the grocery and HobbyTown.  Hobbytown was just on the way to the grocery.  When we got there I bought the Grom and some pinion gears for it.  Ellen bought a flower shop kit for her sister.  Then we went to the grocery store to buy food for the next 3-4 days.  There was an ACE across the street.  We stopped there just to look inside.

On the way home we stopped at the Bear Creek Diner for a late lunch.  We both ended up with enough left over for dinner.

By the time we got home the temperature was in the 90's.  I put the Grom on the charger and sat down to surf.  That morphed to videos until dinner.

After dinner it was more videos.  About 7:30 it was cool enough (80's) to go outside and run the Grom.  Unfortunately the gravel in the sited jammed up its wheels.  I still had fun with it though.

I went to bed early because we're getting up at 7 tomorrow and it's going to be a long day.

Day 3089

 I didn't wake up until :30.  Then it was game playing followed by pet stuff and breakfast.

Ellen spent sometime applying for the Cabela's card.  It was complicated.  Eventually we think it worked, but we're not sure.  I went over to the office and picked up doggy diapers and a new ceiling light from Amazon.

When Ellen got finished we left for Gunstock Falls.  It was a disappointment.  There was only a bare trickle of water running.  We did take Abby over to the lake.  She had a great time retrieving sticks.  She still won't swim though.

On the way to the falls we found a gas station selling diesel for $3.30.  That's probably the cheapest we'll find it on this trip.  We filled up. We drove up to the falls and back to the freeway.  It's about 28 miles.  Our mileage was 26.5.  I'm sure that we'll never get anything better.

We drove back to the park.  We stopped at Culver's for lunch on the way back.  I sat down for videos and a nap.  When I woke up I watched a few more and got bored.  I got out the new light and installed it.  It works nice.  I hope it holds up.

Dinner was a sandwich.  After dinner I did a little more fine tuning of the Grom plan, nothing huge.  Then it was surfing until time for bed

Day 3088

 I woke up about 8 and played games for quite a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a little surfing and then went looking for parks on the Virgin river.  I found one fairly close with a dog park on the way.

We went to the dog park first. Unfortunately there were people in all of the areas.  We continued on to the park by the river.

That park was mainly soccer fields with no dogs allowed.  There was a walk along the river though.  We started off down the bike/walking path.  We walked a 1.25 miles out.  The path ran above the river, but at times you could see it.  We turned around when we got to a little stream that flowed down to the river.  Abby had fun wading in it.

Of course we were thirsty when we got back.  We never seem to remember to take water.  It was pleasant though, a little over 80.  We stopped by the dog park again on the way back, but it was still crowded.  I decided to take another way home.  We ended up driving by a Sonic.  We stopped there for lunch.  Abby got her first Sonic kid's burger.  She liked it.

By then we were only a couple of blocks from a freeway entrance so we took that back home.  When we got home I did a little surfing.  Then I started working out everything I needed to do for the Grom.  I got it all worked out along with an AliExpress order I want to do.  That took the whole rest of the afternoon.

Ellen fixed steak for dinner.  After dinner it was videos.

Day 3087

 I woke up after 8 and played games for quite a while.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast we decided to go shooting, so I loaded up the truck and we left.  We took Abby with us.

When we got to the club they were having a fun shoot.  We signed up.  Ellen shot really well.  I SUCKED.  I ended up beating her by 1 bird.  I missed easy shot after easy shot.

When we were finished we stopped at Wally World so Ellen could buy ass wipe.  Then we went to ACE so I could get a hitch pin.  I'd lost the one for the sewer hose container somewhere along the way.  The last stop was Arby's for lunch.

When we got home I put everything away.  Then I sat down for videos.  That turned into a short nap.

I decided to switch to surfing.  The touch panel hasn't worked for a while now.  I decided to fix it.  After a lot of work I figured out how to install the ASUS driver.  It seems to work well.  I also installed a couple of other drivers.  The search and installing the drivers took quite a while.

I went back to videos until dinner (leftovers).

It's about time to see about ordering things for the GROM.  I'd been watching a lot of videos, so I sat down at the computer to document them.  I think that I've figured out what I'm going to need.  Unfortunately I won't be able to order the electronics until I have the vehicle in my hands.

Day 3086

 There wasn't any need to get up very early, so I woke up about 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for breakfast.

After that we started to hook up.  Again there was no need to rush.  We left about 10.

The trip up was pretty good.  Of course there was the permanent slowdown across from the strip.  There was also a little bit of jousting with trucks for a while until we got about 30 miles out of town.  After that it was smooth sailing to St. George.  It was REALLY nice not to have to wait in an hour long traffic jam crossing the Virgin river.

We got to the park at 1, which was just at check in time.  We unhooked and set up.  I connected the sewer because we'll need to dump tanks before we leave.  The site is huge and right next door to a dog park with grass.

When we were done we left for Costco.  We needed DEF and water.   We also stopped at Freddies for hamburgers and Albertson's for bananas and soap.  Then it was back home.

I was really tired, so I sat down for videos, which turned into a nap.  When I woke up it was more videos until dinner.  A food truck had shown up at the park.  We went there and ordered teriyaki noodles with chicken.

After dinner was more videos.  It's really nice to have a dog park right next door to the site.

There's a big solar storm going on that is allowing the northern lights to be seen in Utah.  Unfortunately here it's a thick cloud cover.  Crap.

Day 3085

 I woke up a little before 8 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast it was some surfing.

We decided to take Abby to the big dog park outside the park.  Unfortunately there were some people there.  We took Abby for a long walk around the park instead.  We eventually ended up at a smaller park inside that she got to run in.

After that we took her back to the trailer and put her in the kennel.  Then we left for Bass Pro Shop.  I wanted to see the fish.  We spent a lot of time looking at the fish.  We also walked all around the store looking at stuff.  We identified some things that we wanted to buy, but we wanted to wait until we were ready to leave.

We started walking through the casino looking at things.  We ended up at an Asian place for lunch.  It was pretty good, but not amazing.  After lunch we sat down at a new version of "moo".  We put in $20 and played for quite a while.  When we were done we hat $48.60.  I think that's the biggest win we've ever had.  It means we'll leave LasVegas with about a $2 "profit".  That's even after losing $15 at another machine later.

We we disgusted losing $15, so we left the casino and went to buy the stuff at Bass Pro Shops.  I got socks, Ellen got a shirt, and we also bought a case of 1300 fps 20 gauge.

The truck went into regen on the way home, so we drove 20 miles down I15 and back to have it regen.  When it finished the soot level was at 0% again.  Yeah.

Ellen had leftovers for dinner.  I had a salad and some potato skins from the cafe.  Unfortunately the bar was closed again.

The evening was videos and a little surfing.

Day 3084

 I woke up before 8 and played games for a while.  then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we decided to groom the dog.

We put her on the picnic table and used the Dremel to do her nails.  Then I used the dog hair remover that Lee showed us to remove her loose hair.  There was a LOT of it.  Finally we walked over to the big dog area outside the park.  We let her run around there for as long as she wanted.  She didn't run a whole lot, but she clearly had fun.

We took Abby back to the trailer and put her in the kennel.  Then we left for the strip.  We parked at the LINQ again, but this time we went south.  We got t-shirts at Margaritaville and then walked through a few casinos.  We were down for the day, I think about $19.

We stopped at the Belagio to look at the flower exhibit.  It was amazing as usual.  It's theme was "tea party".  There were amazing flowers, tea pots, animals and insects, and even a hot air balloon.  Then we stopped at the chocolate fountain and got cherry pastries there.  They were fantastic.  We also wentl on a bit of a spending spree.  We spent $500 on two pairs of headphones and $200 on a Baby Yoda Swarovski figurine.

From there we went to Paris and walked through it.  We hadn't been there in a while.  Then next stop was the Cosmopolitan.  By then we were getting tired, so we sat in a bar there for a while.  After that we walked back past the Belagio.  We were lucky.  After a 10 minute wait we got to see the fountains.  They were amazing.  It's the first time in years that we've seen them.

By then we were getting really tired.  We made a short stop at Caesar's Palace, but we didn't do more than walk to the beginning of the Forum.  After that it was back to the LINQ and home.

We got home a little before 5.  We'd walked 8.5 miles again today.  We fed the animals and then went to the cafe for dinner.  Unfortunately the bar was closed, so I didn't get a mojito.

When we got back from dinner we were too tired to do anything except watch videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 3083

 I woke up about 7:30 and played games for quite a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I gathered up the laundry and took it to the laundry building.  As usual Ellen washed it.

I surfed while she was washing.  That continued until it was time to got to lunch with Dee and her husband.  We drove most of the way to Bolder and met them at a Mexican restaurant.  We had a great lunch and talked about a lot of things.

We needed a few groceries so we stopped at a grocery store on the way back.  I'd planned on going to Bass Pro Shop, but Ellen's asshole was giving her trouble.  It was videos instead.  Then we took pity on the dog and took her for a walk around the park.

Devon didn't eat much if anything all day.  Also there were three bouts of vomiting in the bedroom.  We're not sure about two of them, but one had to be Cooper.  They both seem to be active though, so hopefully whatever it is is temporary.

Dinner was frozen stuff.  After dinner was more videos and another early bed time.

Day 3082

 I woke up about 8, played games for a while, and then got up for breakfast.  After some plan making we left for the strip.

We decided not to go to the sphere.  The tickets are pretty expensive - $100 to $250 and the show that they have on now isn't very interesting.  It's a 50 minute movie that's part science fiction and part nature documentary.

We parked at the LINQ.  We stopped at the Flamingo to look at the animals.  I also got another small glass flamingo.  This one has a palm tree.  Then we turned north and walked to a casino that we hadn't gone to before.  It was almost 2 miles up the strip and pretty close to the Stratosphere.  We stopped at a couple of casinos along the way.  We ended up $2 today.

We at lunch at the destination casino.  It's an impressive place, but then they all are.  Then we walked back to Treasure Island.  On the way we walked through the shopping mall.  We'd wanted to see the arcade at Treasure Island that they advertise.  It wasn't anything special, just a few video games.  Then we took the tram to the Mirage because we were getting tired.

We got a few views of the outside of the sphere.  It's neat looking in the daylight.  I bet it's really cool at night.  According to both of our watches we walked 8.5 miles.

Ellen needed to pick up some drugs, so we stopped at Walgreen's on the way home.  We also stopped at Wells Cargo to get some cash.

When we got home we fed the animals and then sat down for videos.  Dinner was leftovers.  After that was some surfing followed by and early bed time.

Day 3081

 We woke up at 7, had breakfast, hooked up, and hit the road.  We were on the road by 8.  Things started out smoothly, but it didn't last long.  I reached down to check my pocket.  When I did I heard a metallic sound.  When I brought up my hand my bracelet wasn't' there.  I immediately pulled off at the next exit.  Thankfully the sound was my bracelet falling below the seat.

Unfortunately going off that exit meant I had to drive three miles, turn around, and then go back three miles to get off on the exit I wanted to get off on.  Shortly thereafter I had to stop at another exit to check the trailer brake connection.  It was fine.

After that it was smooth sailing through town and up to 60.  Unfortunately there was construction on 60 that caused us a long delay.  Once past that it was smooth again until we got to Wickenburg.  Construction there caused another delay.  Later on there was another construction delay.  All in all construction cost us more than half an hour.

The constant elevation changes on the whole route caused us to get 9.9 mpg. That meant a fuel stop.  I put in 10 gallons at Wikieup.   That was enough to get us to Las Vegas with a quarter tank left.

The road from Wickenburg all the way to I11 was  riddled with potholes from the trucks.  At some points it seemed like the pavement ended.  I ended up driving with either the left wheels over the center line or the tight wheels on the white line to get out of the ruts.

 As a point of interest we turned 40,000 miles on the truck 60 miles from Las Vegas.

 We got to the park about 2.  We had a little problem unhooking, which matched the problems we had hooking up.  All in all it was kind of a hassle filled day.  We just went inside and watched videos after we finished setting up.

At 6 we went to the cafe for dinner.  I had one of the bar tender's great mojitos.

After that it was more videos for the rest of the evening.  We went to bed early.

Day 3080

 We woke up at 7 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then we loaded up the truck and went to the club. The temperature was already in the mid 80's.

We got to the club in plenty of time.  We even lucked out on our starting station, station 3.  The weather got a little hotter, but there was a breeze that made it fairly comfortable.  The targets were good, perhaps a little easier than the ones at Brownwood.  I shot crappy again.  We were done shortly after 11.  They served hamburgers and chips for lunch.

When we drove back we passed a large shopping area.  We filled up with fuel and stopped at Fry's.  It was a large impressive grocery store.  We picked up a few items and then went home.  By then it was over 90.  I backed up the truck so that it would be quick to hook up in the morning.

We hid out in the trailer for the rest of the day watching videos.  

Ellen fixed BLT's for dinner and I switched to surfing.  That's when I found out that they are fucking up I10 in Phoenix for the whole weekend.  We spent a lot of time figuring out alternate ways of getting through Phoenix.  We have a couple of alternatives.

The rest of the evening was surfing.

Day 3079

 I woke up about 8 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside and drained the tanks.  While I was doing that Ellen turned off the Starlink, so I took that down, too.

It wasn't even 9 by then, but there wasn't anything else to do.  I went back inside and surfed on my tablet.  I'd planned to leave at 10, but Ellen said that we couldn't check in until 1.  That meant waiting until 11 to leave.  I started hooking up at 10:45 and we left about 11.

The trip was uneventful, but a little odd.  I thought that we'd got up to the south end of Phoenix and then turn right.  Instead the GPS had us leave I10 a little before I8.  After that we drove a couple of state highways and a couple of back roads to Mesa.  We got to see some Arizona that we hadn't seen before.  Surprise, it looks like all the rest of southern Arizona.

We got to the park at 1:10.  We set up and had lunch.  After a little surfing I sat down in the recliner to watch videos.  That turned into a long nap.  I think I slept at least 2 hours.  When I woke up it was time to feed the pets.

Ellen fixed chicken for dinner.  After dinner it was more videos until I went to bed early.  I just felt really fatigued today.

Day 3078

 I woke up at 7 and played games for at least an hour.  Then it was time for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I took the CTS-3 back out to the truck and installed it.  It worked again.  However, the display no longer had the engine parameters that I want.

I had to go back inside and look up the manual on the computer.  Setting the desired parameters wasn't hard, but the way it's done isn't intuitive.  Once that was done we left to do errands.  We left Abby in the trailer because it was hot.

A regen warmup started before we left the park even though the soot level was 40% and the mileage was 225 miles.  I decided to get on the freeway and let it do a complete one.  Apparently the updates allow the soot level to count down now.  Weird things happen to the soot level when the regen ends.  The level had gotten down to under 10 when the regen stopped.  Then it jumped up to 14 and stayed there for several miles.  Then it dropped to 0.  I'd never seen zero before.  It stayed at 0 for over 20 miles before starting to increase.

I kept trying to reconstruct the engine parameter display.  Specifying the parameters is easy, but finding them in the parameter lists is hard.  We stopped at a pet store for Cooper treats and a lead to replace the one Abby broke yesterday.  Then we stopped at a Freddies hamburgers for lunch.  The next stop was AutoZone for a windshield sun cover.  We made a stop at Fry's for some groceries.  The final stop was Rudy's for BBQ.

We got home before 1.  I'd spent a lot of time in various parking lots messing with the CTS-3, but I'd finally reconstructed the engine parameter display that I'd had before.

We spent the whole afternoon surfing and watching videos.  I surprised myself and didn't nap.

Dinner was a frozen thing.  After dinner we walked around the park.  I made Abby heal the whole way.  She's been getting a little lax in her heal behavior.

We only have 112 miles to go tomorrow.  I'll have plenty of time to drain the tanks and hook up before we leave.

Day 3077

 I woke up at 8 and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I packed up the truck and we went to the club.  We took Abby with us.

The CTS-3 quit working a little while after we left.  I was pissed because that meant I wouldn't be able to watch the regen.  I tried to get it to work when we were finished shooting, but it refused to.

Shooting itself was fun.  I didn't shoot well.  I'm not holding the gun to my shoulder on some pairs.  On other I hold it so loosely that it moves on the second shot.  I really need to pay attention to that.  We were going to shoot tomorrow, but they are going to be closed.  Abby enjoyed the outing, but was disappointed that she remained tied to the cart.

We ate an early lunch at the club.  Abby chewed through the truck harness.  We stopped at a pet store to get another, but they didn't have any.  I got the CTS-3 to work for a short time, but then it quit again.  I think it may be the heat.  I seem to remember that it doesn't like being really hot.  It was over 90 today and the CTS-3 was almost too ot to touch under the windshield.

When we got home I removed the CTS-3 and took it inside.  I updated the software.  There were 25 updates.  I'll try it tomorrow morning when it's cool.

We spent the afternoon hiding from the heat.  I did some surfing, watched videos, and had a fairly long nap.  About 7 we took a walk around the park.  It was in the low 80's by then.  We stopped at the dog wash and gave Abby a bath.  When we got back we used the hair remover on her.  Now she's clean and fluffy.

After that it was more videos and some surfing.