Day 3821

 I woke up about 7:30, played games for a little while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then it was off to do the wash.

It was a standard wash activity.  I sat and surfed while Ellen did the wash.  We went home when it was done.

I decided that I would price out building another scx30 out of spare parts.  I priced out what buying another car and dressing it up would cost.  Then I priced out building one from parts acquired from Amazon and Aliexpress.  The result was a little surprising.  

The "mod a purchased car" came out to be $173.  The "build it from scratch" came out to be $203.  The mod car would have a weaker motor and the scratch car would have much improved axles.  I decided to order the parts for a scratch car.  The whole effort took from the time I got home from the laundry until it was time to go to bed.  I'm sure that the scratch car will come out costing a little more since I probably forgot something.  I don't care.

Day 3820

 I forgot to do an entry yesterday.  This is going to be a short one.

It rained hard most of the day.  The wind blew very hard all day and into the night.  It blew hard enough to shake the trailer.  Abby was not happy.  On top of that it was cold also.

The high point of the day was going to Dutch Brothers (Abby got a pup cup) and doing some grocery shopping.  Other than that it was just hiding out in the trailer surfing and watching videos.

Day 3819

 I woke up a little after 6.  That was OK, I was asleep by 11 last night.  I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast it was surfing.  I had to kill time until CVS opened.

I decided to stop at Jones Farm and Safeway first, so we left about 9:30.  We stopped at Jones Farm long enough to buy some strawberries.  Then we went to Safeway.  It was time for milk, bananas, cereal, etc.  The last two stops were CVS for drugs and the pet store for some kitty food.

It wasn't quite noon.  Ellen had noticed that a new restaurant in Keizer had la Sunday happy hour.  We took the groceries home, surfed a little bit, and then went back.  The new place had prickly pear margaritas.  I had one.  I had shrimp appetizers and Ellen had a quesadilla.  They were both really good and on special.  We had fried ice cream for dessert.  The meal was expensive even with discounts, but we left with another meal's worth of food.

When we got home I sat down for videos.  The margarita was big and I ended up taking an hours long nap.  I felt rocky when I woke up, so I just went back to watching videos.  I was also very full from lunch.  I didn't have any dinner.

After dinner I took Abby for another 1 mile walk.  It was all I was up to.  Then it was videos before an early bed time.

I texted Hooch.  We're going to see him on Wednesday. 

Day 3818

 I woke up at 6 and gave up going back to sleep at 6:30.  I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was in the low 50's and the wind was blowing hard, so a walk was out of the question.

I surfed for a while and then decided that I needed to do something.  I decided to start by going through all of the RC stuff that was scattered through out the trailer.  I moved it all to the shed and organized some of it.  That didn't seem like much of an accomplishment, so I decided to work on the Hyper-Go.

I took it to the garage.  I'm going to keep the ESC and motor, at least for now.  The first step was putting XT60 connectors on the ESC and battery.  The battery was a little bit of a pain, but the ESC was pretty easy.  The I removed the receiver.  It was smaller than a Flysky one, so I had to remove some plastic from the inside of the battery box.  Then the receiver fit, but it was too tall.

It was lunch time so I went back inside, ate, and sat down to videos.  That turned into a fairly long nap.  When I woke up I had an idea for the battery box.  I used some Plexiglas that I had to make a spacer  that fits under the lid.  The result looks and fits well, let's hear it for the Dremel.  I quit when that was done because I need some parts.

I have stuff that I could do to the NASCAR, I just didn't feel like tearing into it.

It rained hard for a couple of hours around noon.  The wind blew constantly all day and the temperature never got above 62.  I watched videos until dinner time.  After dinner I took Abby for a short walk.  She had a good time.  She chased both a rabbit and a bunny.  She also got to play with a couple of dogs.  I got in a mile walk before I was too cold to continue.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner was videos and surfing. 

Day 3817

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Ellen took Abby for a walk at the same time.  I checked my phone and the Audi place said that the car was ready.

When Ellen got back we went to pick up the car.  On the way back we stopped at the factory stores.  I wanted to get new shoes.  We walked all around the stores spending money.  Ellen got a couple of shirts.  I got a high class sweatshirt and a Alice in Wonderland crystal caterpillar.  The bill was probably over $500.  Everything that we bought was on sale.  I didn't get shoes though because they didn't have the right size.

The last stop was the Thai place for lunch.  Ellen ordered me shoes on Amazon while we ate.  They were cheaper than the store. 

The last stop was See's candy.  We chose a 1 lb box of candies and then went home.

When we got home I sat down for videos.  It turned into a nap.  This is becoming a common occurrence.  If I spend the morning doing things I run out of gas about 1 or 2.  I don't know if it's because I'm old or because I'm starving.

When I woke up it was more videos.

Ellen fixed BLT's for dinner.  After dinner was videos and surfing. 

Day 3816

 I woke up at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep.  I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I went out to the shed to finish the floor patch. 

It didn't take long to place the patch in the hole and screw it down.  It took longer to sweep all of the debris out the door.  I put a couple of things away and declared the job finished.

I went back to the trailer and surfed until it was time to go to Audi.  We took Abby and Cooper.  The trip was really good.  There wasn't a lot of traffic and we made good time.  In fact we were early.  They took us immediately, so we were out before the official appointment time.

We drove up to the vet.  That went well, too.  Again we were really early.  Ellen waited while I walked to the Japanese store.  I bought a few items and then walked back.  They were just getting done when I got back.  Cooper has a cone, two shaved spots on his back, and some cream to put on them.

We stopped at Freddies because I wanted to look for yogurt.  They don't carry what I want.  They did have the fiber bars on sale for less than half price.  I bought 5 boxes, the limit.  On the way home I stopped at the Wilsonville Freddies and bought another 5 boxes.  That gives me enough to get all the way back to Austin.

I had lunch when we got home.  I sat down for videos and fell asleep during the first one.  Eventually I woke up and actually watched some.  I contacted Castle and they said that they would send me a programmer.  Then I played Frisbee with Abby.

Audi contacted me.  They said that fixing the AC would cost $500.  I said do it.  Apparently the 30K service was done last fall, so we don't have to pay for that. 

I started to do some Aliexpress shopping.  That lasted through a frozen dinner.  I spent the rest of the evening shopping, too. 

Day 3815

 I woke up at 6:30.  I decided to get up and roll out the hose for flushing the tank.  Then I went back to bed and played games for a while.  Eventually I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went out with Ellen to wash the car.

The car was filthy because the cover had blown off.  I rinsed it off with the hose.  Then both of it wiped it down with towels.  That way there wouldn't be any water spots.  Ellen went back inside and I aired up the car tires. 

With that done I went to the shed to work on the floor patch.  I measured out the patch and started cutting the floor out.  I used the mini saws-all in the shed.  I don't remember buying it, but it worked great.  I was almost done when the sewer guy showed up.  It was about 10.

It didn't take long to dump the tank because it was only half full.  The sewer guy said that he would be coming before noon.  That's great.  It means we will have the afternoons free from now on.

I went back to the patch.  I finished cutting out the hole in the floor.  Then I cut two sections of 2x4 to edge the hole.  Placing them was a real pain in the ass because I had to dig out the dirt below them.  I got them placed.  I was getting tired of bending on the floor.  I decided to clean everything up and leave screwing the patch down for tomorrow.

I was really tired by the time I was done cleaning up.  I went back to the trailer and sat in the recliner.  I napped for a while and then had lunch.  Then it was back to videos until I felt some more energy.  I drove the post office and picked up 4 packages from Amazon.  One was the new CO2 detector.  I installed it when I got back.

The install required cutting a bigger hole in the cabinet side.  I had to use a hand saw, so it took some time and effort.  The result looks and works well.  I finished up by tightening the shower head holder.  It was loose and the head kept drooping.  

Gerry came by to say hi.  Hopefully we'll get to shoot next week.

I went back to videos until dinner.  Ellen fixed BBQ hamburgers.  They were great.  Afterwards it was more videos until I got bored and took up surfing.

Ellen called the vet in the morning.  Cooper is going to the vet after we drop off the Audi. 

Day 3814

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I took Abby for a walk while Ellen went to do the wash.  I walked all the way around the club plus a little more, so that I covered 2 miles.

When I got back I started the list of chores that I'd planned to do while Ellen was gone.  I drained the tanks, cleaned the trailer windows, straightened out the shed, measured the patch I needed for the shed floor and cut the patch, filled up the garbage sack, and drilled out the SCW30 hole so I could install the last suspension link (nice to have that completed).

Ellen got home just as I finished.  I helped her unload the stuff from the car and then waited while she ate.  Then I put the garbage bag in the car along with the shed garbage and we drove to the dumpster.  The dumpster was filled and there were garbage barrels filled with stuffed bags all around it.  Fortunately there was a little space in one corner of the dumpster.  I had to tear open our bag and spread the contents around to make it fit.

When we got back I had lunch and Ellen gave me a much needed haircut.  Then I watched videos.  I texted Hooch to see if we could see him on Thursday.  He's working.  Later I texted Pat.  She says they're busy until next week.  

 I tried to watch a movie.  I got about an hour in before I got bored and quit.  I decided to finish putting parts on the SCX 30.  Putting the flex links on took quite a while and a little frustration.  It was difficult to handle the small parts.  I also put on the brass wheel nuts.  That completes what I can do on it until I get the parts at Hooch's.

I was going to order the Castle ESC programmer.  There was supposed to be a coupon in the box w/the motor and ESC.  I didn't find one.  I emailed asking them "what's up".

 I forgot to eat dinner, so I had a bagel and two fiber bars.  After that it was videos until bed time.

Cooper's mange is getting bad quickly.  He now has two sores and on of them is open.  Ellen is going to call the vet tomorrow.

Day 3813

 I woke up about 8, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I didn't feel 10%, but I felt better than yesterday.  With breakfast done we got in the car and went to Costco.  We wanted to get there around 9 to avoid the rush.

I dropped off the hearing aids and then did a little shopping.  We ended up buying new lighted flamingos to replace the ones Texas killed.  We also got a new lighted house number sign because Texas killed that also. 

I was going to stop at the RC store, but it hadn't opened yet.  We did stop at the pet store for cat food.  The last stop was the post office.  There was almost a dozen packages there. We got an inflator and lots of car parts from Amazon, a Chinese package, and the CPAP stuff.  I spent a lot of time unpacking everything.  The pile of empty boxes was impressive.

On the way home we discovered that the AC in the car has died.  I made an appointment for Thursday to get it fixed.  I bet it will be expensive. 

By then I was feeling run down, so I had lunch and watched videos.  That turned into a nap, who'd of thought.  When I woke up I decided to continue work on the SCX30.  I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on it.  It was a tough fight at times, but I managed to get the rest of the links installed, the motor changed out, and the baseplate replaced.  I would have finished except one of the holes in the baseplate need drilling out and it was too late to do that. 

Ellen fixed pancakes and bacon for dinner.  She used waffle mix for them.  I think that's better than pancake mix. 

Day 3812

 I woke up today and played games for a while.  I'm not well, but I feel a lot better.  I can get out of bed without a major effort.

I shit my diaper a little last night, so I took a shower.  Ellen had filled up the tank so I had to take a short one.  I also shaved and brushed my teeth for the first time in 2 days. 

When I was dressed I went outside and dumped the tanks.  Ellen claims that she can't pull the handles.  Bullshit. 

I went back inside, had breakfast, and did some shopping on Amazon.  I ordered a tire pump.  I also spect'd some shades, but didn't order them. 

The rest of the day was surfing, videos, and napping.  I even had some chicken and rice for dinner.  Surprisingly I kept everything down and there wasn't any stomach upset.

I did miss Sophia's graduation.  I'm not sure I would have survived the trip, much less the ceremony.

Maybe I'll start feeling human tomorrow. 

Day 3811

I woke up this morning with a dirty diaper.  Luckily the bed wasn't damaged.  I felt better, but not by much.  There were a couple of bouts of diarrhea, but I made it to the toilet.  Just like yesterday every time I wiped my ass shit dripped out my ass and onto the floor.  Something else to clean up.

I did take a shower to clean off my ass.  It needed it badly.

Just like yesterday I spent the day mostly in bed eating  nothing and drinking little.  At least the diapers keep me from making any big messes.  

Day 3810

 Overnight I got VERY sick.  Severe vomiting and diarrhea.  The diarrhea was especially bad.  It was leaking out my ass and I couldn't stop.  I must have gotten up four or five times to vomit, shit, or both.  I was exhausted and weak by morning.  I couldn't get out of bed without dragging myself up holding on to things.

Ellen had to take the sheets to the laundromat along with the towels and clothes I'd shit on.  Later on she went back for diapers and bed protectors.  The bed has a couple of indelible stains on it now.

I spent the whole day in bed.  Occasionally I would get up to shit.  I didn't eat anything and drank little.  It was a miserable day.

Day 3809

 I woke up at 6:30 and decided to get up instead of waiting for the 7:00 alarm.  The first thing I did was take a shit.  The result was messy, so I took a quick shower.  Then it was breakfast and hooking up.  We were still on the road a little before 8.

 The trip was 150 miles.  The first half was nice.  There were few cars and I was able to do 65 whenever the road allowed.  A regen started 50 miles after we left.  It wasn't a problem until we reached the summit.  The low EGT's from going downhill caused the regen to shut off 2 or 3 times.  Each time there was a long warmup period before it restarted.  Eventually it did finish with 0% soot.

The last third of the trip wasn't as enjoyable.  There were more cars.  There were podunk towns.  The road was still curvy and going downhill.  I needed to shit again.  I finally had to stop on the side of the road and shit.  Ellen figured out why.  The shrimp taco I had yesterday had lots of red and green peppers in it that I hadn't noticed.  They were really doing a number on my gut.  At least it wasn't as messy as the first one.

We got to the club a little before 11.  Of course it took hours to get set up.  The cover had blown most of the way off the car.  Also some asshole had cut the power cord.  Fortunately the battery wasn't dead, but I didn't want to run it until I'd charged it up.

We got everything but the car done and went to pick up the mail, have lunch, and buy a new power cord.  The last stop was Bauman's for strawberries.

I was tired when we got home so I put off doing things and watched videos instead.  Eventually I went out to the shed and connected up the battery charger.  It said the battery was at 90%.  A little later it read full.  Apparently the cord had been cut recently.  The car will need a bath before we use it though.  It's covered with dust and cobwebs.

I went back inside and watched a few videos.  Then I shredded all of the personal information that the finance and Medicare people had sent us over the last month.  I also opened a letter that said I'd won Senior Vet 3rd in the 20ga in San Antonio.  I get a $30 gift card.

After that it was bedtime. 

Day 3808

 I woke up before 5 to piss.  Ellen's asshole was giving her problems, so she was up and down continuously.  That meant that I couldn't get back to sleep.  I decided to give up and get up.  I had breakfast and then went out to hook up.

Hooking up went fine.  The drive to Baker City was OK except for the tire alarm going off.  I think that the reason was that the temperature was 50.  That was cold enough to drop the pressure below the alarm's threshold.  The tires worked fine the whole trip. 

We spent some time in Baker looking for a tire station that would do 120 PSI.  Maverick, Lowe's, and Shell all didn't have one.  We fueled up and then headed to Redmond.  We left Baker at 6:44.

The trip was great.  There wasn't a lot of people on the road.  That was probably a function of the time and the fuel costs.  I was only passed twice and I only passed people twice.  Best of all - NO TRUCKS.  In spite of being careful to always avoid pushing the trailer in corners I managed to beat the GPS par time by 10 minutes.  That was because I drove 65 whenever the road allowed.

We got to Redmond at noon.  We set up and fed the pets.  I tried to to pump up the lowest trailer tire with the highly recommended pump I'd bought.  It got to 114 PSI before it died.  I'll be getting something else. After that we went to the RC store in town.  

The store was nice.  I had a good talk with him.  He had one of the huge Losi trucks there.  I could have bought it, but I would have no way to get it to Texas.  He didn't really have anything else that I was interested in.  I did find a part for the Slash that I bought.

After that we went back to the trailer.  Grant called and we set dinner at 4.  We had a great time at dinner.  Grant is a cool guy.  We talked about what he was doing, what we were doing, and a little about Hooch.  Grant had to get up at 3 for a flight so we said good bye about 5:30.

When we got home Ellen crashed.  I fed the pets, walked Abby, and started to watch videos which turned into a nap.  When I woke up I did a little surfing and then went to bed.  Tomorrow is get up at 7 and drive to Gervais.

Day 3807

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast Ellen went to do the wash and I surfed a little.  Then I went out to dump the tanks.

I had to delay part of the tank dumping process so that Steve could mow the lawn.  That meant that I finished about the same time as the wash.  With that done I needed to go to a HW store to get Stabil.  We decided to go to Halfway.

We got the Stabil and dinner at Halfway.  Dinner was frozen lasagna, garlic bread, and rolls along with bagged salad.  I got coffee on the way out of town.  When we got back we stopped at Holcomb to run the dog.  It was a good walk until the very end.  Abby decided to roll in dead fish.  We rinsed her off at the fish cleaning place, but she still reeked.  We took her home and gave her another bath using shampoo.  That's two cold baths in 20 minutes.  In the end she still has a faint odor.

With Abby "clean" we went to Dan's.  We sat and talked for a while and them Patsy drove me to the grange to pick up the maple bars.  There were a huge number.  I paid $40 for all of them.  I left some for the grange people and we took the rest back to Dan's.  When we left some of them stayed with Dan.  I think we ended up with 8.

When we got back I went to the park to put away the Bronco and feed the cats.  When I got back we talked some more and then had dinner.  It was surprisingly good for frozen stuff.  Then important part was Patsy didn't have to work hard.  We left a little after dinner loaded with maple bars and meat.

When we got home Ellen washed the stinky towels from the dog wash incident while I made the bed.  Then I watched videos while Ellen sat on the can.  I also set up a place to eat tomorrow with Grant.

I went to bed a little early because we're getting up at 7:00 tomorrow to drive 250 miles to Redmond. 

Day 3806

 I woke up at 8, played games for a little while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I took Abby to the barn on Sullivan Rd to run.

I walked 2.7 miles around the fields.  Abby went several times that amount.  I was proud of her.  She got up a rooster and two hens.  She also flushed a couple of quail, but that wasn't here fault.  They just flew before she could locate them.  She discovered that a good way to cool off was to jump in the irrigation ditches.  Luckily it also cleaned off most of the mud that she acquired. 

When I was done I went home to surf for a while.  I also watched a few videos.  At noon I called Dan to ask if he wanted hot dogs at the ice cream place.  He said yes, so the four of us met there.  The hot dogs were made locally and were very good.  I had a milkshake and Ellen and Patsy had ice cream.  Then we went to Dan's place.

We spent the rest of the afternoon there, talking and surfing.  About 4 we took the dogs to Holcomb.  Abby ran like she hadn't had any exercise at all today.  We walked for about 45 minutes.  Then we went to the trailer to feed the cats and get dog food.

We returned to Dan's for dinner.  It was leftovers, but still really good.  We also met the beef guy and bought some more from him.

We talked until 8 and then went home.  I surfed until bed time. 

Day 3805

 I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.  I played games for quite a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I pretty much dedicated the morning to getting together an order of the RC stuff for the DeWalt.

Yesterday I'd made up a list of stuff to order from Tower Hobby.  It was about 10 items. I went through the order process, but it wouldn't take my coupon code.  After some confusion I found out that Tower doesn't mark things as out of stock.  They simply wouldn't count them as contributing to the discount requirements.  Screw Tower.

About then it was time to take Ellen to Dan's for church.  When I got back I switched to making up an Amain order that would take advantage of their Memorial Day sale.  Most of the items from Tower could be transferred.  A couple went to Amazon.  I decided to wait on 3 or 4.

As part of the order I was trying to decide between a $100 car from Amazon and one from Amain.  Then Amazon car had a couple of features that the Amain on did not.  The Amain on had the look I wanted.  I ended up even looking at Banggood for the Amain body.  After a lot of looking at part, etc I decided on the Amain car.

Unfortunately the Amain car wasn't eligible for the Memorial day sale because it was already on sale.  I ended up splitting the order.  Some of it went in on the Memorial day sale and the rest went in on a $15 off $150 sale.  I ended up making almost a net 10% off on everything.

I had lunch and took the dog to the park for Frisbee.  She was really happy.  Then I made up a bracket for the sliding door.  That involved cutting up one of the existing brackets, drilling holes, and screwing it to the existing bracket.  The result seems like it will work well.

Ellen called to say church was over, so I went to Dan's.  We talked the whole afternoon.  Patsy fixed BBQ for dinner.  A few of their friend came over also.  The food was great.

After dinner we talked for a while and then went home about 8.  I think that we were party poopers, but I was tired after the early wakeup. 

 

Day 3804

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff.  Then we went to Halfway.

The first stop was the bank to get some cash.  Then we ate breakfast at the pizza place.  Following that we went to the grocery store and picked up some meat for a BBQ tomorrow.  We also stopped at the two HW stores to look for Dremel attachments.  I found some that might work at the second.  The last stop was the coffee shop. 

I wanted to go to the car show in town.  Ellen wanted to sing with Dan.  We went back to Richland.  I dropped off Ellen at Dan's and went to the yard sale in New Bridge.  The only thing I bought was a maple bar.  I stopped at another sale in Richland and bought a sewer hose support.  Then I went across the street to the ice cream place.

I bought a prickly pear drink and sat outside surfing on my tablet.  I spent a lot of time there deciding on what to buy and talking to people who stopped to see Abby.  Eventually I got hungry and went to the trailer for lunch.  I continued to surf/shop until Ellen called.  Then I went back to Dan's place.

We talked for quite a while.  Mainly Ellen and Dan talked and it listened and surfed.  Patsy came home and asked me to look at her RC.  After getting my chargers from the trailer and doing some debugging I determined that the battery was toast.  Then Ellen and I sat down to find her a cheap replacement.  We ended up with a battery, charger, and battery bag.  I gave Patsy money for the bag. 

Patsy fixed taco salad for dinner.  I helped Dan find the remote he'd misplaced.  We went home a little before 8.  I continued shopping until bed time. 

Day 3803

We woke up at 7:30, played games for a little while, and then got up.  I had breakfast and then went out to hook up.

The hook up went OK.  So did the trip.  It was only 145 miles.  The road has a lot of elevation changes so we only did 10 mpg.

We got to Richland about 11 because we gained an hour on a timezone change.  We unhooked and Ellen fed the animals while I went to put a battery charger on the Bronco.  Then we went to pick up Dan and take him to the Shorthorn for lunch.

We spent the lunch talking.  Most of it was Dan and Ellen talking about people that I didn't know because I'm not on Facebook.  When we got done we went across the street to a yard sale.  I picked up an old screw jack.  We also got prickly pear drinks next door.

There was a lot more talk when we got back to Dan's place.  The subjects were more "catching up", so I got to participate.  Eventually it was time to run the dogs.  I went home and got the Bronco.  I put boat gas in it and a can of sea foam.  Then Dan and I took the dogs to the old barn.  Ellen didn't go.

Abby was amazing.  She ran all over the fields at light speed.  Curt showed up with his dog and all the dogs had a great time running.  Abby never seemed to tire out.  We ended up walking about 4 miles.  I was happy to get the steps in.

When we were done I took the long way home past the parks.  I wanted to get the Bronco completely warm and all of the old fuel out of the fuel lines.  I don't know if it's the gas or the sea foam, but the car sure runs well now. 

I stopped at the trailer and fed the cats on the way back.  Abby had rolled in something stinky and ran through a muddy creek.  We gave her a bath.  Unfortunately it was a cold one.  t least I'd bought her food, so she got dinner.

Patsy fixed pizza for dinner.  We watched Fox with them for a while and then went home.

Amain is having a Memorial day sale.  I spent some time looking at stuff, but I'm going to need to do some more later. 

Day 3802

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I went for a 2 mile walk.  I didn't take Abby because I can walk faster without her.

When I got back we loaded up the truck and went to the club.  It was a great day - sunny with a little wind.  Unfortunately for Abby there were several other squads on the course.  That meant that she couldn't run.  It made her nuts.  We had a great time though.  I'm still trying to adapt to my brain switching eye dominance occasionally.

All the squads were done by the time we were finished.  I let Abby run around half the course as we drove back to the clubhouse.  Then Ellen took her to run in the adjacent field while I put everything away. 

The next stop was Albertson's.  We picked up things that we'd need for Richland like orange juice, cereal, and bananas.  Then we ate lunch at a different burger place.  On the way home I filled up the truck.

When we got home I positioned the truck and put everything away.  Then I sat down for a few videos and a longish nap.  When I woke up it was more videos.  I also tried to install the door guide I'd bought.  I'm going to need some tools that I don't have to do it.

Ellen fixed hamburgers for dinner.  After dinner I bought some parts for the DeWalt on Aliexpress.  We'll get to Oregon before they do. 

 

Day 3801

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I took Abby for a walk.  We didn't get all that far before the AC installers called to say that they would be here in 15 minutes.

It actually took them much longer.  Part of the problem was that they had been given the wrong trailer make.  After a little prep they got right to work.  The install took maybe an hour.  There was a lot of banging on the roof.  The AC has worked great the rest of the day.  In fact we had to turn the thermostats up on both ACs.  I even managed to reinstall the air diverter on the bedroom AC without any problem.

While the install was going on I used the remaining plastic boxes from yesterday to reorganize the drawer under the TV and the junk drawer in the corner.  The transformation was great.  It will be much easier to find and access things.  There's even some spare space in the under-TV drawer now.  The effort was so successful that I even put a small box in the medicine cabinet. 

With the install done we decided to take Abby to the dog park.  We stopped at Home Depot on the way to get guides for the pocket door.  Abby had a great time at the park chasing birds and catching the Frisbee.  I got in the rest of the two mile walk that I'd started this morning.  When we were finished we went to a hamburger place across from Albertson's.  We'd been there before.

When we got home I sat down for a video session which turned into a nap.  I watched a video of a guy trying to make the DeWalt car I bought go 100 mph.  He got it up to 70 before aerodynamics defeated him.  I decided to try it, so I started pricing out parts.  I just love doing that.

The effort took the rest of the afternoon and evening and I'm not done.  A full bullet proof build would cost between $300 and $400.  I'm going to start with the minimum and fix things if they break.  That will be about $225.  I'm spending $100 extra just to get a better motor/esc.  We can afford it.  Intel is back to $118 today.

Day 3800

 I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I played games and finally got up about 7.  I took the clothes to the laundry.  Ellen did the washing while I fed the pets and had breakfast.  Then I took Abby for a 2+ mile walk.

Ellen called me while I was walking to say the shirts were done and some Amazon packages had arrived.  I went back to the trailer, dropped the dog, and then went to pick them both up.  After that I surfed until the wash was finished.

We left the dog and went to Scheel's.  It's a huge store.  It has al sorts of sporting goods and sports oriented clothing.  It also had a huge inventory of Legos.  We looked at everything.  We paid special attention to ebikes and ammo.  We didn't buy ebikes, but we did buy a case of ammo.  We also bought a pellet rifle for Hooch.  He had texted me saying he needed something to kill rats with.

The next stop was a RC store.  They had a whole bunch of stuff, but nothing that I was interested in.  They did have a little Team Associated car that Ellen liked, so she bought it.  After that it was Hobby Town.  Ellen got some paint and a metal stegosaurus.  I bought a stock car with DeWalt colors. 

There was a really nice cafe next to the store.  We had lunch there (ordered breakfast).  It was a huge amount of food.  I ate half and took the rest home. 

We intended to stop at the grocery store on the way home.  Unfortunately Ellen's asshole intervened.  When we got home Ellen cleaned up and we went to the office.  We extended the stay one day and picked up more Amazon packages.  I just verified the packages and then sat down for videos, which rapidly turned into a nap.

When I woke up I tackled the packages.  I put the leveling pads in the trailer.  Then I distributed the plastic trays.  Some went into the desk.  I emptied the junk drawer and redid it with trays.  The result is a huge improvement.  I also charged up Ellen's car for her.  Then it was back to videos. 

I stopped videos to eat dinner.  The leftovers were really more than I should have eaten.  I didn't feel good when I was done.  After eating I had to drive 5 miles to Albertson's to get milk.  When I got back I unboxed the car I bought.  It's pretty cool, but I'm already planning upgrades.

That was it for the day.  After a little more surfing I went to bed.

The AC guy called us when we were out.  They plan on doing the install tomorrow. 

 

 

Day 3799

I woke up at 6:30, played games, and got up when the alarm went off at 7.  Then it was breakfast and out to hook up.  We were on the road at 7:55.

The trip was much like yesterday's.  It was long and mainly boring.  The beginning was another climb in altitude accompanied by a head wind and low fuel mileage.  An asshole trucker who kept passing me on downhills and getting passed on up hills entertained me for 20 - 30 miles.  After that it was just boring.  

We had to stop for fuel because of the headwind.  Even with that we made it to the park a little before 1.  After setting up I fed the pets and then we made an Amazon order for food and leveling blocks.  The ones we have are getting broken up.  Ellen had called an A/C vendor while we were on the road.  They called back and said they could install and AC on Wednesday.  YEAH.  It's going to cost $2,400, but who cares?

After that we went to the hardware store across the street.  I bought a DeWalt battery to replace the one that died.  It was $100 off.

When we got back I sat down for videos.  It ended up being a nap.  I woke up for a few more videos.  Ellen fixed stir fry for dinner and then we fed the pets a late dinner. 

After dinner I took Abby for a 2+ mile walk.  There's along path outside the park that she can run free on.  It ends at a school where she can run on the grass.  She's tired tonight. 

When I got back I did a lot of Aliexpress shipping, but didn't buy anything. 

Day 3798

 We woke up at 7.  I got up, ate breakfast, and we started to hook up.  Everything went normally and we were on the road by 7:50.

The first 40 miles were brutal.  It's a long climb out of Grant's Pass and there was a really strong headwind.  We got 6.7 mpg.  After that the climb lessened and the wind died down.  Eventually we were averaging 10.5.  That went down when we did a regen.

We fueled up about 40 miles south of Provo.  We might have been able to make it all the way, but it would have been really close.

The whole drive was just long and boring.  I like boring drives.  Of course there had to be a short meeting with an asshole trucker.  He passed me going less than 1 mph.  Shortly after he couldn't hold speed on a hill and I passed him.  The road climbed for a while and I never saw him again.

Traffic through SLC wasn't bad.  There were quite a few cars, but there was also a lot of traffic lanes.  We got to the park a little after two.  That's an average of almost 62 mph.  That's not bad considering we made a stop.

 When we got to the park it was 52 degrees and windy.  We're not used to that.  We unhooked and went to fuel up.  When we got back I sat down in the chair and watched videos for the rest of the day.

Ellen fixed hamburgers for dinner.  We had leftover french fries to go with them. 

We've got 300 miles tomorrow.  I'm going to have Ellen call around Boise to see if someone has an A/C. 

Day 3797

 I woke up at 7:45, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I took a two mile walk with Abby.  Then we left Abby at the trailer and went to ACE.

We bought a case of practice ammo and some caramel corn.  I also got a couple of plastic trays to put in the desk cubby holes.  Then we went across the street to a grocery store.  It was upscale from Wally World.  We bought a whole lot of food because it will be a while before we have a chance to shop again.  The last stop was for fuel - $5.86.

When we got home I connected up the sewer hose.  I planned to dump the tanks after dinner.  Then I staged a videos/nap session.  Eventually I got bored and started to mod the scx30.

I started at the front.  I needed to replace the axles, diff gears, steering links, and the suspension links.  That basically required completely disassembling the front end.  It took hours.  The tiny screws used are really hard to manipulate.  Again I had to use the special tools I'd purchased.  I had to break to dump the tanks and have dinner, but I did get it all accomplished.  Then I put everything away. 

That pretty much took up all of the evening.  We took a short walk with Abby.  The weather is changing.  The wind is blowing and the temp is down to 79.  Wonderful.  It's cooling off just as we leave.

Tomorrow's leg is 373 miles - the longest one of the trip.  Hopefully doing it on Sunday will make getting through Salt Lake easier.

Day 3796

 I didn't get to sleep until 2:00 and woke up at 5:30.  I don't know why I couldn't sleep.  I played games for a long time and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that lit was load up the truck and go to Purgatory.

We both shot fairly well.  I'm beginning to adapt to having the left lens somewhat diffuse.  They were really good targets left over from a tournament.  Unfortunately there wasn't any water on the course and it was 90+.  When we were finished I drove to the Hobby Town.

I bought some additional colors of the great paint we bought earlier.  Then I carefully went through the parts they have left.  I bought a few items, but nothing expensive.  The final stop was the hamburger place down the street.  I made the mistake of ordering a "combo" with a milkshake.  The milkshake was huge.  The drug made me pay for it later. 

From there we went home.  I sat down to watch videos and went to sleep.  When I woke up I felt lousy so I laid down on the bed.  I'm still depressed that we could have had the AC repaired.  Eventually I got up to feed the animals.  I felt a little better so it was back to the videos.  I didn't feel good enough to work on the scx30.

Dinner was a sandwich.  After dinner was more videos.

One AC doesn't really cool the trailer than the temp is in the high 90's. 

Day 3795

 I woke up about 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I took Abby for a two mile walk around the park.

There were 8 school busses at the registration,  They were all unloading rug rats.  Soon the whole water park was filled with them. 

When I got back to the trailer I did a little surfing.  Then the mobile repair guy called.  He was there shortly afterwards.  It didn't take him long to determine that the AC was history.  He said he couldn't get a replacement until next week.  Crap.

After we left we did some video watching and had lunch.  Ellen called around, but couldn't find an AC.  We decided to go look at the rug rats.  I didn't take my phone.  That was a big mistake.  When we got back there was a message from the repair guy.  He'd found someone who would ship an AC tomorrow.  He needed an OK by 3.  I didn't get the message until 3:30. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP.

I went back to watching videos and a nap.  The Amazon package came, so I went to pick it up.  It was three upgrades for the scx30.  When I got back I decided to work on them.  The first was the shocks.  I put the oil in and assembled the mounts.  That required stretching 2 very little rubber rings on each mount.  Luckily I had the tools for the 1/32 car with me.  I wouldn't have been able to do it without them.

The second upgrade was the links That required 32 more little rubber rings.  The last was the skid.  I looked over the car and realized that I'll have to take the whole car apart to install the skid.  I decided that would be another day.  I fed the animals and went back to videos.

Ellen fixed eggs and sausage for dinner.  After dinner it was a little surfing and then videos. 

Day 3794

 I woke up at 8.  That's the first time I've slept for 8 hours at night and a while.  Then I played games before getting up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cooler this morning (85) and I was tired from two travel days.  We we decided to make it a doggy day.

We took Abby to a park we've been at before.  There were 6 or so dogs there.  They all wanted to chase Abby.  She was happy to oblige.  She tired them all out, but it took a fairly long time.  I walked my two miles going around and around the dog park.  Eventually all of the dogs left and so did me.

From there we took Abby to a dog wash.  It wasn't a really good one, but it got the job done.  We stopped at a shaved ice place on the way.  It's the first one I've ever seen in a brick and mortar building.  The shaved ice was really good, especially since by then the temp was in the high 90's. 

 We took a long way home between St. George and Hurricane.  Everywhere we went there was massive amounts of new houses being built.  It's just amazing.

Last night the bedroom AC crapped out.  It was blowing warm air in the morning and also through the time we were gone.  We called a repair guy who will come out tomorrow.  I tried the AC just before bed time and it seemed to be blowing cold again.  Of course the outside temp is 15 degrees less now.

The accountant got back to us about selling stock.  He said we could sell $150,000 without going above the limit.  We called Grant and he's going to do the trade. 

It was getting hot, so we hid out in the trailer.  I did a lot of online shopping for RC stuff, but didn't find anything to order.

Ellen fixed chicken mixed with the leftovers from the Italian place.  It was really good.

After dinner it was videos. 

Day 3793

 I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I played games until the alarm went off at 7.  Then it was up for breakfast, hooking up, and getting on the road.  We left the park about 8.

The drive up included a traffic slowdown in Las Vegas.  We never really stopped, but we had 4 or 5 miles of under 20 mph travel.  That was the only glitch, at least until we got to the park.  We got there a little before noon.  They wouldn't let us check in until 1.  There was no point in it.  The park wasn't more than15% full.

We went to wait in the Walmart parking lot.  That wasn't all bad.  I got a chance to buy some more bananas and some DEF.  I also walked across the parking lot to  Jersey Mikes for some sandwiches.  Ellen stayed in the truck with the animals.  We were back at the park at exactly 1:00.

After unhooking and feeding the animals we left for CVS.  We got there just at 2 when they reopened.  They got my drugs transferred, and the prescriptions filled in less than half an hour.  That included the Mounjaro.  I was a happy man. 

From there were went to the Hobby Town.  They look like they are going out of business.  They have only a small collection of parts left.  The parts are all reduced 35 and 45 percent.  I bought a few things.  I might be back to buy some more.

We also went to the place in the guy's house.  It has an amazing amount of stuff.  Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that I wanted to buy. 

On the way home we stopped at Culver's.  I had a "concrete" and Ellen had a drink.  We also got a couple of pints of ice cream.  They were half price. 

When we got back to the park Ellen went to do the wash.  I ordered some SCX30 stuff from Amazon.  It's supposed to be here tomorrow.  Then I did some surfing until the wash was done.  When I picked up the wash we went to the Italian restaurant at the park.  It was really good, but somewhat expensive.  

After dinner we made the bed and put the washing away.  Then I took Abby for a short walk while Ellen sat on the can.  When I got back I spent the rest of the evening watching videos.

 

Day 3792

 We woke up at 7.  I had breakfast and then went outside to hook up.  That process went well and we were on the road before 8.

This was the best Tucson to Boulder (or similar) trip that we've ever had.  We had a tailwind for the first half of the trip and got 13 mpg.  We got 11.3 for the whole trip.  The trip up to Phoenix was smooth sailing.  We did run into traffic once I10 turned west, but it wasn't too bad.  303 had more traffic than I'd seen before, but again it wasn't too bad.

Of course as soon as we got on 60 things got a little painful.  There was a box truck that kept passing me and slowing down.  I'd pass him and he'd speed up to pass me again.  At one point he sped up so he could box me in behind a semi.  I managed to get in front of him and cut him off in the process.  I got back in the right lane and he pulled up next to me.  I flopped him off and drove his speed (70) until we got to Wickenburg.  He turned off there.

Wickenburg is a real pain in the ass and always will be.  It has 7 traffic circles on the highway.  Once we were back them everything became a lot more pleasant.  A lot of the road was resurfaced and there were no traffic problems.  The construction on I10 in Kingman is ongoing.  The road down the hill to the turnoff is a war zone.

The road to the dam is a crappy section, followed by and OK section, followed by a less crappy section.  There wasn't much traffic, so I drove down the middle of the road in the crappy section.  We made good time over all and were in Boulder before 2.

It was 104 in Boulder.  This is becoming a standard.  We set up with no problems.  Then I went to the hardware store for a couple of small items.  After that we stopped for a root beer float at A&W followed by filling up the truck.  Then it was back to the trailer to hide out from the heat.

Ellen fixed chicken and noodles for dinner.

I spent the afternoon and evening on videos and surfing.

Intel keeps going up.  Our stock is now worth $4.5.  Ellen looked into taxes if we sell some.  We can only sell about $50K before we're in the next tax bracket. 

Day 3791

  I woke up about 6:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.  Our spot is 100 yards from I10 with a busy rail line on the other side of the freeway.  The noise never stops.  I played games and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We wanted to go see the ostriches before it got hot, so we left for there as soon as we finished eating.  The temperature was already in the mid 80's.

We had a great time at the ostrich ranch.  We fed all of the animals and bought extra food for the birds and the stingrays.  The ostriches were just as aggressive at snatching food as ever.  It was just as much fun as I  had hoped it would be.

 After we left we went to fill up the truck.  Fuel was $6.19/gal.  Fortunately we needed less than 4 gallons.  We also walked through the tourist trinket areas.  The only things we bought were a couple of 32 oz drinks.  We were really thirsty.  Then we went home.  I lined up the truck pretty carefully.  I don't want any hassles hooking up tomorrow.

We spent the afternoon and evening hiding out from the heat just like yesterday.  It got up to 104 again today.  The AC is keeping us comfortable, but the refrigerator is barely keeping up.

I took Abby for a walk to the garbage in mid afternoon.  It was about 2 blocks there and back.  I walked on the side of the road so she could walk on the cooler dirt rather than the black pavement.  She insisted on walking on the pavement.

I've been mildly worried about tomorrow's drive.  It will be the most work of the entire trip.  There's no helping it.  It has to be done. 

Day 3790

 I woke up about 7:30 and got up.  I expected the water to be off, but it wasn't.  I decided to go out and dump the tanks before I had breakfast.

As near as I can tell, the water never went off.  Dumping the tanks went as usual.  When I was finished I went back inside and had breakfast.  After that I killed time surfing.  We only had 54 miles to go, so I didn't start hooking up until 10:45.  That went really smoothly.

So did the trip up.  All of the construction on I10 through the north of Tucson is complete.  It's 4 lanes of really good pavement.  The traffic was light.  We got to the park a little after noon.

The only pain in the ass for the day was unhooking.  The spot was slanted side to side.  We tried to compensate, but when we unhooked the trailer wouldn't level.  We hooked up again and tried more leveling blocks.  Again the trailer wouldn't level.  We gave up because we were out of blocks.  Things seem to be OK.

The temperature kept getting hotter and hotter through the afternoon.  It eventually reached 104 degrees.  Needless to say we just hid out in the trailer.  The whole afternoon and evening was a mixture of surfing and videos.  

We went to bed at the usual time. 

Day 3789

 I woke up at 7:45, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we loaded up the truck and went to the club.

It was a little hotter than a couple of days ago, but still comfortable.  We shot some FITASC targets first, only the singles and a few report pairs.  I did OK, but I still need to close the left eye occasionally.  Then we went over and shot the white course.  About halfway through Ellen said she did't want to shoot anymore.

I shot the rest of white and a little of blue.  Between the sun and the shooting my gun got really hot  I put it away before the barrels came apart.  I shot a few stations with Ellen's gun.  It was really awkward, but I did OK.  We quit at 200 rounds and they refunded the other 50.

The cafe was closed so we just went back into town.  We stopped at a grocery store for milk, bananas, OJ, and a couple of other things.  We'll be away from civilization for a couple of days.  We also stopped at Rudy's to get the last BBQ we'll have for months.  We got 2 lbs of brisket, 1 lb of turkey, and half a sausage.  The last stop was to fill up the truck.

When we got back it was videos and a nap.  I woke up in time to feed the animals.  Then we went over to the restaurant for dinner. 

After dinner it was a few videos and then I watched a movie.  It was a movie I'd seen before, but it was fun.

The water is supposed to be off from 7 to 9 in the morning tomorrow.  I hope they keep to the schedule.  I haven't dumped the tanks yet because we only have 56 miles to go tomorrow.

Intel went up a whole lot today.  The total now is almost $4.4M. 

Day 3788

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I didn't have anything important scheduled, but I decided to accomplish some small tasks.

Devon had pissed on the bathroom rug last night.  Ellen went over to get it washed.  I took Abby and we went to the laundromat a little later.  Then we all three went to the dog park while the rug was washing.  There was a puppy there and it wanted to chase Abby.  She was fine with the.  There were a lot of birds there, too.  Abby was playing chase with the dog and chasing birds at the same time.  She got in a pretty good run.  She even got in some Frisbee too.

When the wash was done we went home.  I picked up a package from Amazon on the way.  I opened it up and put everything away.  That was the first of three deliveries today.  Each time I would get the delivery, unpack it, and put it away.

I also installed the bungee cord I bought in Tombstone in the pantry.  Now the large bottles are secured against the wall rather than bouncing all over when we move.  Then I painted the hands of the figure I'd purchased as a RC driver.  I'm going to leave the face for Ellen because it's pretty tricky.

That was pretty much all I accomplished for the day.  The rest of the day was videos and surfing.  Ellen got in a chick flick when I was surfing.

Ellen fixed pork chops for dinner along with the leftover sides we brought back from last night's dinner.

After dinner I put in two miles walking around the park.  After that it was surfing until bedtime. 

Day 3787

 I woke up at 7:45, played games, and then up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did a little surfing.

I went out to the truck and got out case that had practice ammo in it.  The I loaded up the truck and we went to the club.  It was a nice day, upper 70's with a slight wind.  Because everything is screwed up by the I10 work I drove all the way there on Benson Hwy and Ajo Hwy.

I ran the first station which wasn't an easy one.  Then the next two stations were just like San Antonio.  I'd miss shots that looked perfect to me.  Then a light bulb came on.  I closed my left eye.  I immediately started shooting like I should.  Of course I did miss shots from the left that I should have hit.  I'm going to start messing up the left lens in my reading glasses to try to get my brain back to right eye dominant.

We had lunch at the club and then drove back.  We stopped and got some money at Wells Cargo.  When we got home we put everything away.  Then we went to a RC store w/o the dog.  They didn't have any RC things that I wanted, but we did get some paint for the figure I ordered from Amazon.  Then we went home.

We both got on Amazon to make another order.  We got water filters, a vacuum for the truck (the other broke) and a lot of groceries.  They should all be here tomorrow.  We got today's order.  I think the figure will look good after it's repainted.

I didn't feel like doing anything else, so I started watching videos.  There may have been some dozing done also. 

We went to dinner at the restaurant.  We both had salmon.  It was really good.   When we got back it was more videos for the rest of the evening.

I checked the stock price while we were at dinner.  It's up to a little less than $4M.  The price dropped in after hours, so I expect tomorrow will be a down day.  I don't have any complaints though.

I don't plan on doing much tomorrow.  I'll rest and then we'll shoot again on Friday and I'll drop the tanks.

Day 3786

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was surfing.  We only had 64 miles to go today and checkin time was 1:00.

About 10:30 we started to hook up.  Everything went smoothly except connecting the trailer.  For some reason I'm having trouble with doing it this year.  My first attempt failed because the hitch didn't fully latch.  Fortunately I could pull the release and drive forward.  I changed the height of the trailer and connected the second time.

We got on the road a little after 11.  The trip was uneventful until the last 3 miles.  They are totally rebuilding the stretch of I10 that parallels the park.  The exits we use don't exist.  We had to drive further towards town and the double back.  We had to drive farther east than necessary because some of the cross streets were blocked.  Eventually we got to the park.  Event the road leading to the park is messed up by construction.

Everything went pretty well after that.  We unhooked.  Then I fed the animals while Ellen got the wash ready.  I drove everything over to the laundromat.  I ordered a gun case and a tire inflater from Amazon.  The one I have won't inflate to 120 psi.

That was the end of anything useful today.  I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on-line shopping, watching videos, and napping.

I found a RC store in town.  I'm sure that we'll get there.  I think that we'll probably go shoot tomorrow. 

Day 3785

 I'm not sure when I got up because the bedroom clock had the wrong time zone.  It was very early though.  I played games for a long time and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We didn't have anything scheduled today.  I did want to go to Tombstone for lunch.

We took Abby to the back of the park and let her off lead.  She ran around the  whole back area.  We stopped when she started sniffing the ground rather than running.  After that we ended up surfing and watching videos for the whole morning.  We figured that the stores wouldn't be open until 11.  We got going about noon.  The first stop was the hardware store.  I wanted to get a bungee cord to secure the bottles in the pantry.  Then we went to the cemetery.

 Ellen wanted to see Val Kilmer's fake grave.  Apparently his costar in Tombstone bought it for him.  It's actually a nice headstone.  People have left flowers and mementos.  The best ones are cartridges. 

From there we started walking the town.  Most stores were open and there weren't a whole lot of people.  We ended up eating lunch at a place that had a second floor balcony overlooking the street.  It was great.  The weather was just the right temperature and there was a slight breeze.  The food was good and I had a great prickly pear margarita.

We ended up buying a few things.  Ellen got a money clip.  I got a t-shirt and a key chain with a spinner.  We also got 4 bottles of different pop - root beer and prickly pear.  After walking the whole street we went home. 

I sat down for videos and quickly went to sleep.  I didn't wake up until 5.  Like I said, I got up early this morning.

Dinner was leftovers from lunch.  After dinner was videos until I got bored.  I ran across a video with suggestions on how to improve my scale spreadsheet.  I made them.

I did a little more surfing and then went to bed.  Tomorrow's drive is under 100 miles, so there won't be any hurry. 

I forgot that yesterday I ran across the price of Intel stock.  It's $99/share.  That means that our holdings have increased by almost $3M in the last 12 months.  Wow.  Of course today it dropped by $4, but that's still a huge amount of money.  There's no more worrying about fuel prices.

Day 3784

 I woke up about 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we decided to go to Sierra Vista for a Doggy day.

There's a road that goes directly from Tombstone to Sierra Vista.  It's about 20 miles long and goes over a range of hills.  It was a nice drive.  Our first stop was the dog park.  It was inside a much larger park.  The dog park was still pretty large.  Ellen sat in the dog park while I walked around the larger park.  I walked a little over 2 miles while Abby ran all over the dog park with some other dogs.

Abby had rolled in the dirt yesterday and rolled in more dirt today so the next stop was the Tractor Supply dog wash.  She came out much whiter and cleaner smelling.  After that we went to Wally World for a few groceries and ass wipe.  The last stop was Culver's so Ellen could have lunch.

The truck went into regen on the way home.  It was still doing it when we got back to Tombstone so I just started back on the road to Benson.  About halfway there I turned around.  The truck finished its regen about a mile from the RV park.

I had lunch and then did a little surfing.  I switched to videos and that turned into a very long nap.  When I woke up I watched videos until dinner.

Ellen fixed ham and eggs for dinner.  After dinner I went back to videos until I got bored and did a little more surfing until bed time. 

Day 3783

 I woke up at 7 and played games until 7:30.  Then it was up for breakfast.  After that we started to get ready to leave.  Everything went smoothly until I tried to hook up.  The hitch wasn't perfectly aligned and I hadn't raised the trailer enough.  These combined to getting the hitch hung up on the guard.  It was only half closed and wouldn't close the rest of the way.

I tried backing up, going forward, raising the hitch, and lowering it nothing worked.  I finally managed to raise one side of the trailer enough to pull the hitch open.  That allowed me to unhitch.  From there I managed to hook up fairly easily.  It took a long time to do this, but we were still on the road before 9.

The drive to Tombstone was uneventful.  One great thing was that once we got to I10 we had a tail wind all of the way.  We ended up doing 12.1 mpg for the whole trip.  That was offset a little by paying $5.89 for 10 gallons near the Arizona border.  I probably didn't need the fuel, but I wanted to buy peace of mind.

Thanks to gaining an hour we made it to Tombstone before 2.  Ellen has us at a park a mile outside of Tombstone.  It's OK, but I'm disappointed that we aren't staying where we did before.  As soon as we were done setting up we went into town.  The tourist part hasn't changed much, but there's a lot more development in the rest of the town.  There are new hotels, RV parks, and restaurants.

I got my two miles in walking the town.  The only thing we bought was a t-shirt at a Trump store for John.  Eventually we made it back to the park.  I took Abby on a walk around the park while Ellen sat on the can.

After leftovers for dinner I watched videos, had a nap, and watched more videos.  Eventually I got bored and surfed for the rest of the evening. 

Day 3782

 I woke up at 5 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I tried for half an hour and then started playing games.  Eventually I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It rained hard for a lot of the night and was still raining when I got up.  It was also 50 degrees.  We weren't going anywhere.

I spent the whole morning in the trailer.  Most of the time I was shopping on Aliexpress.  They are having a beginning of May sale and there's lots of stuff I'm interested in on sale.  About 11 the rain stopped.  Abby was going crazy so I took her for a walk down the dead end street in front of the park.  We went the standard 2 miles.

When the walk was done we left to do errands.  We stopped at Albertson's because Ellen has started eating cereal which made the milk supply low.  Then we stopped an old drive in and had lunch.  There was a Dutch Bros a block down the road so we stopped for coffee and a pup cup.  The lady gave me the coffee for free.  We fueled up on the way home.

The rain had stopped, but it was still cold and windy.  I was really getting into shopping so I went back to it.  I ended up ordering a variety of stuff including scx30 stuff, scales for my weigh in project, and some more small receivers.  The whole thing cost a little over $50 and included a lot of discounts.

Elle fixed chicken and rice for dinner.  After dinner I finished up the order and then did some surfing.  That got old and I switched for videos.  I started to fall asleep so I decided to go to bed early.  Maybe I can make up for the early wake up.  Tomorrow is a 350 mile day, so we're getting up at 7:30. 

Day 3781

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for breakfast.  We only had to do 130 miles today, so there was no hurry to leave.  We took our time getting hooked up and was still out of the park by 8:50.

 The first 70 miles or so of the drive was pretty "flat" ground and good pavement.  We only saw a couple of cars.  I say "flat" because it was all a gentle rise.  We actually climbed a couple of thousand feet.  After that we really started to climb.  The road went to a narrow canyon stretch like Richland, but with a much steeper slope.  Then it opened up to straighter sections but still kept climbing.

At the top of the pass (8640 ft) there was a sizeable town.  It looked like a cool tourist town.  There was no way I was going to stop with the trailer though.  Right after the town we started to go down.  The drop in elevation was 4,300 feet in about 19 miles.  The road wasn't bad though and with the exhaust brake I really didn't have to use the brake pedal much at all.  The scenery was fantastic though.  We got a great view of White Sands thousands of feet below us. 

The park was only a couple of miles from the bottom of the pass.  Unfortunately the truck had started a regen before the top.  It did the same thing it did last regen.  There was the usual stedy increase in soot until a little over 60%.  Then it rocketed up to 100% in a few miles and started a regen.  It was at about 40% when we started down.  Of course that made the regen stop.  At the bottom of the hill it started a warmup.  I drove about 10 miles on the highway by the park until it finished.

The park is kind of a dingy place, but it's OK.  The place they had us in was hard to get out of.  I'd parked in it when the manager suggested that I move to another space.  That required me to back the trailer out and make a 45 degree turn while I was doing it.  I did it perfectly.  All that fucking around parking the trailer at home has made a difference.  

We had lunch once we set up.  Then we went into town.  I drove from one end to the other just to see the place.  I stopped at a grocery store to look for protein drinks.  They had them, but not the right flavor.  The prices there were sky high for everything. 

We took Abby to the dog park in town.  She had a good time chasing birds and being chased by other dogs.  I walked 2 miles around the perimeter of the park.  On the way home we stopped at a tourist trap just because I like to go through them.

When we got back to the trailer it was videos.  Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I watched a movie.  It was fun for a while, but I quit about 3/4 through.  I did a little surfing and then took an early shower.  It's going to get down to 48 tonight.

I think that this was a great day.  The drive was nice and we had fun going through the town.  Tomorrow we're just going to chill out here.  With the cold tomorrow that might be literal. 

Day 3780

 I woke up a little after 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Today was a free day - nothing scheduled.  After breakfast I took Abby for a 2 mile walk.  Ellen came along, but stopped after a while because I was walking too fast.  I guess that she didn't realize that I was exercising.

When I got back we decided to go into Carlsbad to get fuel.  Ellen found a dog park there so we added that to the itinerary.  The drive there was nice with no wind.  The EGT's were higher than normal and so was the soot generation.

We got fuel for 4.99/gal, probably the cheapest in Carlsbad.  It took 22 gallons to fill the truck for a grand total of just over 9 mpg.  The dog park was great.  It was large and by the river.  Abby had it to herself at first.  She had fun chasing birds and running from one end of the park to the other.  I walked around the park to get in more steps.  I got in 2,000 while we were there.

After a while two more dogs owners showed up.  Abby tired out both dogs chasing her.  They didn't stand a chance.  There was also a faucet with a large dog bowl.  I refilled it several times while Abby splashed in it.  One of the dog owners told us of a dog wash on the way back to the park.  It got put on the itinerary along with a pet store and an Albertson's that we'd passed. 

I got bananas and OJ at the Albertson's and dog food and a dog treat at the pet store.  Abby got a bath at the dog wash.  The last stop was Arby's for lunch.

I'd planned on running an RC car when we got home.  That didn't happen.  I spent the afternoon watching videos and napping.  We ordered dinner from the park again.

After dinner I took Abby for another walk.  I added another 1,600 steps so that my total for the day was 4 miles.  When I got back I watched videos for a little while and then went shopping.  I looked for SCX30 upgrade parts.  There's a sale on Aliexpress starting 5/1 with some good prices.  I'll probably make an order and send it to Hooch.

 

Day 3779

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we decided to do the wash.

There wasn't any point in hurrying to leave.  The Carlsbad park's check-in time was 2.  Because of the timezone change that was 3 our time.  We had plenty of time to do the wash and put all the clean clothes away when it was done.

After that we hooked up and left.  There was a little delay because Ellen didn't shut the bedroom slide and only partially shut the kitchen slide.  Also I forgot to tighten the wheel nuts.

The trip itself was about 150 miles.  The first half was in Texas.  It was good road and little traffic.  I did the same 65 mph average speed that I would on an interstate.  Things got crappy when we crossed into New Mexico.   The road was OK at first, but they declared it a "safety corridor" and lowered the speed to 55.  I was afraid of a speed trap so I went 55 until a rabbit doing 65 passed me.  Then I followed him.

After 20 miles or so the road started getting crowded with oil trucks and vehicles.  There's a lot of drilling going on in the area.  The road also started going through small towns.  That slowed progress considerably.  We had to drive through beautiful downtown Carlsbad.  The speed limit was 30 and every intersection was an untimed light.  When we got through town it was 15 more miles to the park.

I didn't mention the hellacious head wind that we had throughout the New Mexico part of the drive.  We ended up making 8.5 mpg overall even though the Texas leg was 10 mpg.  There were parts where I had to slow don to keep the ECG's below 1300.  They were above 1250 for much of the time.  We'll have to drive 15 miles back to town to get fuel tomorrow.

The park is really nice, at least for New Mexico.  It's large and even has some trees.  There's also a field (dirt and scrub brush) for Abby to run in.  There isn't much to do around here and the cavern is 40 miles away, back through town.  I plan on running an RC car tomorrow.  There's a good place to do it not far from the trailer.  I need a day of total rest anyway.

The park has a restaurant that delivers to the trailer.  We ordered from it and the food is really good.  We'll probably do it again tomorrow. 

The wind blew all afternoon and until about 8 at night.  Hopefully it won't blow tomorrow. 

Day 3778

 I woke up at 7:30, played games until 8, and then got up for breakfast.  After that it was outside to hook up.  We didn't have any issues and were on the road at 8.

The 1604 improvement is done and it's great.  Getting onto I10 involves a 2+ mile flyover.  TEXAS! The drive itself was uneventful and the traffic was very light.  We even got 10.5 MPG.  We got to Fort Stockton at 2.  We even had all 4 wheels.

We unhitched and fed the pets.  Then we drove into town to fuel up.  31 gallons and $160 later we went back to the park.  It was 93 degrees and eventually got to 95.  We hid out in the trailer and watched videos.  I learned that the Starlink antenna position for south Texas is flat, just like it was searching for satellites.  It works fine that way.

Dinner was leftover brisket.  After dinner it was more videos until 8.  It was down to 90 so I took Abby to the dog park and threw the Frisbee for her.  She had some great catches.  Then I took her back to the trailer and walked 2 miles around the park.

When I got back I took a shower and went to bed. 

Day 3777

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  There was a bunch of stuff to do to get ready to leave so I went outside to work on it.

 I started with draining the tanks.  That went like it always does.  While I was doing it I noticed that the Starlink antenna was in the "looking for satellites" position.  The guy next to us had left, so I put it back where it was before.  I didn't move.  I unplugged the cable and put it back in.  Still nothing.  Ellen tried to reset it.  Still nothing.  Finally I decided to just get the other chores done.

The next task was to rinse off the truck.  It was splashed with mud all the way up to the rear view mirrors.  I got out the collapsible hose.  It has a neat spray attachment on the end that works really well.  I would spray a section of the body, scrub it down with the scrubber, rinse it, and then Ellen would dry it with a dog towel.  When we were finished the truck wasn't perfect, but it looked pretty good.

The third task was lubricating the trailer hitch.  I used PB Blaster on it.  I was going to put on lithium grease, but the PB Blaster seemed to make it a lot better.  We'll see tomorrow when we hitch up.

That was all of the things to do this morning so I went back into the trailer, surfed a little while, and had lunch.  We didn't shoot until 3:30, so we had a lot of time to kill.

I decided on a new project.  There's a company that makes a set of scales that tells the weight distribution of a RC car.  The kit costs $130.  It's really 4 small scales connected to a phone app by Bluetooth.  I found cheap scales on Amazon to use and made a spreadsheet that does the same calculations as the phone app.  I'll probably buy the scales when we get to Oregon.  The whole thing should cost about $35 - $40.

I finished the spreadsheet, did a little surfing, and then it was time to go to the club.  Ellen couldn't read the map and sent us to the wrong parking lot.  Fortunately someone gave us a ride.  The course was one long row and we started at station 10.  That meant we had to walk from 10 to 1.  Fortunately we got another ride.

The course was the easiest of the three.  I shot a little better.  I'd eaten more last night and ate some on the course.  I'm going to have to get used to shooting while starving.  We got lucky again at the end and got another ride back to the truck.

I "won" the auction for a Browning tool set.  I might even be able to use it.  We picked it up and ate at the club.  The menu was 6 different kinds of processed meat.  I ate some of it.  We ate with the English guy we met the other day.

We stopped at HEB on the way home for fuel and potato chips.  When we got home I backed up the truck for hooking up.  Then I put everything away.  After some videos and a nap I went to bed. 

Day 3776

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We didn't shoot until 1, so I went outside to get some pressing chores done.

I opened up the truck bed and rearranged the ammunition.  I ended up filling up all of the waterproof cases and still having 4 20 ga left over.  So much for reducing the load on the truck.

With that done I switched to fixing the trailer tail light.  I opened up the junction box in the pin box.  The broken wire was still there.  I connected the two ends with a crimp junction.  Then I put everything back together.  The whole process was a little harder than it sounds.  I needed a light to see the pin box interior.  One of the wire ends was only an inch long.  Finally I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes.  I feel a lot better with a working turn signal.  Going through the rest of the trip without one didn't sound like a good idea.

After that I went back inside.  I decided to try to get the online notary thing to work.  An hour plus of frustration, two computers, a phone, an AI help desk, and a system reboot later I think I succeeded.  I won't know until Monday.

After that I had a quick lunch, loaded up the truck, and went to the club.  We got there in time and managed to park right at our first station.

I didn't shoot well, but I did shoot better than yesterday.  I have a guess at what's wrong.  I'm starving myself and maybe that impacts my shooting.

We went back to the clubhouse when we finished shooting.  I took Abby for some Frisbee while Ellen turned in the practice card.  Abby didn't do a lot because it was so hot.  She went and laid down under a trailer.  We had drinks at the shaved ice truck and then started home.  We stopped at HEB fo salads and Costco for water on the way.

I was tired when we got home.  I sat down for videos and a nap.

Dinner was frozen something.  After dinner was videos and surfing.

We shoot at 3 tomorrow.  The morning will be getting things ready to leave. 

Day 3775

 The goddamn phone woke me up at 7.  It was droiding continuously.  It took me a while to figure out that the stupid hearing aid had been sending notifications all night while the phone was set to quite.  I turned the notifications off.  The hearing aids are useless anyway.  The left one is dead and the right one has barely any volume.

I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We shot at 10:30, so I had just enough time to assemble an install the shampoo holder for the shower.  It looks good.  I hope it works.  Then I loaded up the truck.  We got to the club a little early and waited around for about half an hour.

The target were a little difficult, but nothing over the top.  I shot like shit.  I had several stations where I only hit one.  I just couldn't connect my eyes and my trigger finger.  Usually I just lock on the bird, swing the gun, and the trigger goes off.  Today I had to think about pulling the trigger.  Also I just couldn't read the speed of the birds.  I was not happy. 

When we were done we went to the club.  We walked through all of the vendors.  Ellen got a cleaning kit and a choke for her new gun.  I got a brass wad in case a shell jammed in the gun.  Then we went to the roach coaches and got brisket sandwiches.  They were really good.  I was tired of cold sandwiches.

We went home after lunch.  I rearranged all of the ammo that we'll need and packed the rest away.  I was going to work on the trailer light but it was hot and humid, and I was tired and disgusted.  I went inside to watch videos and fell asleep.

I had a slightly out of date HEB salad for dinner.  It tasted OK.  Then I took Abby to play Frisbee at the dog park.  She had fun and it was the only exercise she got today.  Ellen was watching Chinese chick flicks when I got back, so I spent the evening surfing.

Hopefully I'll shoot better tomorrow. 

Day 3774

 I woke up about7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We didn't shoot until1, so I decided to take the time to set up the sewer hose.

The single hose length just barely fit.  If the truck had been 2 inches farther away it wouldn't have fit.  I got it all put together without a big hassle though. 

  That pretty much satisfied my need to accomplish something.  We did need to go to the grocery store and Lowe's/Home Depot.  I made up a list for both places.  Then I loaded up the truck and we took off for Home Depot.  I got the things that I needed to complete the shampoo holder for the shower.  I got plastic parts and screws for the feet and strong sticky tape to mount it.  I also needed PB Blaster and lithium grease for the trailer hitch.  I got the Blaster, but they didn't have the grease.  Fortunately there was an Autozone in the same center and they had it.

From there we drove to the club.  There was a Dutch Bros on the way so we stopped for coffee and a pup cup.

We ran Abby for a little while when we got to the club.  Then we ate the lunch that we'd brought with us.  With that done we went to the FITASC course.  We were a little early but that just meant that we didn't have to rush.

The course was pretty challenging.  I shot OK on the first parcour.  It was a little harder than the second.  Unfortunately I shot worse on the second.  Go figure. 

After that we went back to the clubhouse and waited the 2+ hours for the food.  The lawyer buying the farm called.  The notary public screwed up my paperwork.  I have to do some sort of online thing.  I told her I'd do it after the shoot.  We got into a long conversation with a guy from England that was there refereeing.  He was fun to talk to and loved Abby.

The food tonight was pizza.  Yech.  I ate a few pieces of topping but mainly ate the vegetables and fruit.  Abby got some crusts.

We went home then.  I unloaded the truck and switched the guns.  Then I watched videos for a while before I got bored and switched to surfing for the rest of the night.  I miss doing online shopping, but there's no point. 

Day 3773

 I woke up at 7 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  We didn't shoot until 1, but we went to the club because we wanted to shoot some practice.  We took Abby along because otherwise she would be in the trailer all day.

Before we shot practice we went to a Pilla dealer and bought Ellen a couple of lenses.  They cost $400 a piece.  So what.  The next item on the agenda was running Abby.  She cruised around for a while and then really got into chasing swallows and dove.  It did take the edge off.

After that we got around to shooting practice.  Ellen shot a box through her new A400.  She did pretty well.  Then we both shot a box of 20 ga.  It was a nice warmup.

Ellen fixed sandwiches for lunch and we ate at the clubhouse.  Then it was time to shoot.  By then the weather was partly cloudy, humid, and getting hot.  It was somewhere in the high 80's when we got to the course.  We shot on station 1 and parked at station 13.

I shot OK, not great, but OK.  Ellen said I shot a 90.  She shot really poorly.  I think part of it was gun mount and part of it was she needs to shoot faster.  The setter had a lot of targets that dropped speed pretty quickly.  She would have the right line but shot so late that the target was dropping.

We finished in 1.5 hours which was great.  We went back to the club and sat on the patio until 5.  They served Chik-fi-la chicken.  It was really good.  Abby had a full meal of chicken.  Then we went home.

A huge motor home was parked in the space next to us.  It blocked the Starlink.  After unloading everything I had to move the antenna. Then I started watching videos.  That turned into a nap.  When I woke up i watched some more videos before going to bed.  I was tired.  I did almost 12,000 steps today.

Day 3772

 I woke up at 6 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I gave up and played games instead.  I got up about 7:30 for pet stuff and breakfast.

It was raining steadily so I surfed for an hour or so.  Ellen said that traffic looked slow, but moving, so we left for Austin.  We took Abby with us.  The drive up was almost as stressful as the drive yesterday.  The rain and spray from vehicles cut visibility.  Of course the same idiots were driving.   We got stuck in a jam at the 410/I35 merge.  We also got stuck again farther North because of a truck wreck in the right hand lane.  Fortunately we were in the left hand lane and just had to drive 10 - 15 mph for a couple of miles.  Once we got about 10 miles south of Kyle the rain and traffic eased and we got up to the speed limit.

We almost batted 1,000.  We had to stop at the light at the Kyle exit.  We also had to stop at every light on 1626 except 1.  Two or three times it was for the longest delay possible.  We also had to stop for the two lights on 45.  Crap.

We got to the house and I realized I'd left the keys in San Antonio.  Fortunately Ellen had her's.  We only spent a few minutes there - just enough time to get my mouthpiece and reset a modem.  I really needed that mouth piece.  I woke up 2 or 3 times last night because I bit my tongue.  

The drive back was easier.  The rain had eased, but not stopped.  The traffic was lighter, too.  I even managed to got 80 for stretches.  The truck got 21.5 mpg.  Cool.  We got home about 12:30. 

We ate lunch.  After that I tried to check out the trailer tail light.   Then bulb is OK.  It appears that no voltage is getting to the socket.  I wonder if I killed the wire when I was drilling holes in the wall.  Oh well.  After that we went to the club.  It was still raining, but we had Gortex and waterproof footwear.  Most places weren't open.  We went to Coles and Ellen bought a hopped up A400.  It's a nice gun.  Then we ran the dog in the field.  She put in some miles and it took the edge off.

When we got home I surfed and watched videos.  Three dollar bill called.  He was worried about whether or not he still owned the condo.  I told him to look it up.  He sounds like Yo is taking care of him.  He complains about having a bad memory though.  I told him he should look up the county records on the condo.

I texted Dan about the call.  He called and I gave him a recap of the call.  By then it was time to go to bed. 

Day 3771

 I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for breakfast.  After that it was moving the last minute stuff to the trailer.  That took several trips.

It rained all day and everywhere.  The rain was constant and varied from light to medium.  It's the first day of continuous rain since we got here last fall.  Crap.

When all of the stuff was moved into the trailer we took the crock pot Ellen ordered to the FedEx place in Sunset Valley.  Traffic was fairly light and all we had to do was hand the box to them.  We went right back home.  That's when things got bad.

Remember that it never stopped raining.  I had trouble backing the trailer in line, but eventually got it lined up perfectly.  Then it wouldn't hitch up.  The jaws wouldn't close.  I had to reopen the garage, get some PB Blaster, and clean the mechanism.  It still wouldn't close.  Eventually I decided to carefully center the hitch before I backed up.  That did it.  Of course this whole thing took an hour and a half in the rain.  This has never happened before.

The cats were the next problem.  They were locked in the cat room.  When I opened the door I grabbed for Devon.  I got him, but he scratched his way free.  Ellen got Cooper and took him out.  Then we l spent 20 minutes or so chasing Devon around.  We had to capture him in a towel in order not to end up bleeding. 

When I started up the truck it said the right tail lights were out.  They were.  I wasn't about to do any more work in the rain so we just left. 

By then the rain was heavier.  It rained hard all the way to San Antonio.  Lots of people were driving 40 miles an hour with their flashers on.  Some of them were in the left lane.  I saw lots of stupidity the whole trip.  I think that the fastest I drove was 67.  Most of the time it was mid 50's or lower.  A lot of it was in the left lane because the other lanes were full of people that shouldn't have been on the road at all.

When we got to the RV park they told me that they didn't accept Amazon packages.  Assholes.  It was still poring rain while we set up.  The Starlink works, but the data rate is unusable.  Ellen says that it will be better tomorrow. 

We went to the club and checked in.  It's going to be a muddy mess.  Then I went to Target to get a shampoo holder for the shower.  They didn't have any.  We stopped at the Cajun place for dinner.  We made a Wally World stop on the way home, but they didn't have shampoo holders either.  Crap.

It's 8 at night and it's still raining hard. 

Day 3770

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went out with Abby for the morning walk.  When that was finished I partially unwrapped the Ranger, disconnected its battery, and wrapped it up again.

 After that activity changed to hauling stuff out to the trailer.  I took the guns, valuables, and a bunch of other stuff.  I also replaced the batteries in the overhead bins.  Finally I swept out all of the dirt that had accumulated in the kitchen and living room.

While I was doing that Ellen cleaned the bathrooms, did the wash, and brought out some stuff also.  I suggested that she buy a small rice cooker to replace hauling the large pressure cooker.  She ordered one to come today.

I finished a little before noon.  I walked around the house and couldn't find anything else to do.  I had lunch and surfed most of the afternoon away.  Lee texted and said he'd be OK with a dog play date about 6:30.  I had dinner and then went over when he said he was home.

We had a good time talking while the dogs had a good time playing.  Eventually it was time to say goodbys for the summer.

The "rice cooker" was there when we got back.  It was the same one we already had.  That's a pain in the ass.  I'll have to drive to Sunset Valley tomorrow morning to return it before we leave.  Crap.

The rest of the evening was spent looking for a replacement rice cooker (what Ellen said she wanted).  It turns out she wants a multi cooker.  They don't come small.  I pointed out that she only cooks rice with the one she has.  That didn't go over well, but she couldn't argue because it's true. 

Day 3769

 I woke up at 8, played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I went outside and put fuel and Stabil in the Ranger.

The Ranger started up right away.  It ran pretty well, but I think it could do with a tune it up trip to the dealer.  I ran it around the neighborhood.  When I got back I moved the truck and put the Ranger in the car port.  Ellen helped me cover it.  I'm going to have to unwrap it tomorrow because I forgot to disconnect the battery.

 I'd planned to walk after that, but it had started raining.  I started moving more stuff into the trailer instead.  I made several trips moving plants, clothes, drugs, RC stuff, and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff.  Ellen did the same.

When that ran down we put Abby in the car and went to pick up drugs.  We had to stop at both Walgreen's and CVS.  It was still raining and getting into the mid 50's so no circle C.

When we got home it was lunch followed by cleaning.  Ellen cleaned up the kitchen while I put the guns in their cases.  I also got out everything else from the safe that we take with us.  I took the shooting bags to the trailer but left the rest of the stuff in the house.

I joined Ellen in cleaning.  I cleaned off the kitchen table and wiped it down with wood polish. I also dusted the living room and bedroom furniture.

By then it was after 3 and both of us were tired.  We called it a day.  The only things tomorrow are cleaning the bathrooms and moving a few "last" items to the trailer.  I'll also put the car away and back up the truck to the trailer.

The forecast cold front arrived.  It's 48 degrees at 9.  There was a thunderstorm for a little while after dinner.  It didn't rain very much. 

Ellen fixed chicken and rice for dinner.  After dinner I watched videos until I got bored and then switched to surfing.  Neither Abby or I did any walking today.  I hope to get some in tomorrow.