Sidewinder road

Everyone asks what do you do with your time….I don’t know but it sure seems to go by fast. We have been spending most of the time with Jim and Bobbie Chapman, who we met in Parker when we were there for the race….it’s one of those things, ya know, you meet someone and you hit if off right away…

Thursday we spent all day looking for a ‘new to them” 5th wheel. No luck, but we had a good time doing it. we will continue the search next week.

Yesterday we went over into Algodones, Mexico. The plan was for Jim Chapman and I to get new glasses. My eyes tested ok and the exam was $20. Jim had to get new tri-focals and with new frames and the exam it was $49. That’s cheap!!!

Linda go her teeth cleaned while we were waiting for $35 and the dentist told her he could fix everything in her mouth which included 13 crowns, 2 bridges and a deep cleaning for $2680….now that is really cheap!! I think my last crown was around $800.

We bought a stained glass window for the trailer and here is a picture of it before installing. It is the Indian god kokopelli (sp)

and here it is installed

I also took a couple of pictures of the blown tire, notice all of the tread is gone, and it has a biiiiigggg hole in it.

We are spending the weekend resting up for next week.We are going to sit around and drink beer and bloody marys and eat….

How about you?

Jim and Linda

p,s

here are some sunset pictures we took the other night…kind of nice to sit out in your shorts, drinking a beer and see this.

broken jack repair

When the tire blew it took off the motor to run the rear jacks. It left most of the gearbox. When we found out it would be $500 plus shipping for a new motor, the light went on in my little brain.

I cut off what was left of the shaft coming out of the motor and went to Lowes and bought a 1/2 bolt whos head fit the handle I use for the other jacks. I found a place in town to weld it..actually the Harley dealer. I called and talked to the owner and he said bring in and he would look at it.  He did a great job tig welding the two pieces and only charged me $15, which I thought was great as he was busy as all get out, it being Saturday.

 

Now I can crank the jacks up and down manually.

Jim

Laughlin to Sidewinder road

Hi
We left Laughlin Thursday morning heading back to the Yuma area. Its only about a 220 mile drive over mostly non descript desert, but on a road that is not the greatest. It is in poor repair with many rough spots and typical of secondary desert roads has lots of dips which makes driving on it like riding a small roller coaster.

A quite uneventful trip until we got about 8 miles from our destination which is out in the desert in California west of Yuma. We heard a big bang which we both knew was a blown tire. I looked in the mirror and sure enough, lots of smoke, the front trailer tire on the driver side went.....the trailer handled very well and luckly for us there was lots of shoulder at this point and I was able to pull over with no problems. There were many spots earlier with no shoulder, so we were lucky in that respect.

The blown tire damaged the sheet metal skirting in front of the tire, the plastic trim piece around the wheel wells, and tore off the motor for my rear stabilizer jacks anong with a gate valve that was on the sewer outlet. We were lucky that more damage was not done. the sheet metal and plastic part are easily fixed, the motor is another story.

Linda got on the phone to call the road service and found out we do not have road service anymore.....the damn agent removed it from the truck and trailer sometime and did not tell us.
Luckily our friends Tom and Nancy Doyle were at sidewinder and Linda called and Tom came out with his 10 ton bottle jack and 4 way lug wrench and we changed the tire. Thank you so much Tom.

Yesterday we found the B.F.Goodrich store and ordered 4 new tires that will be in on Monday. $1196 later. I called about a new motor for the jacks and they want $497 for this special gear motor. I think I can make an adaptor the will allow me to use my electric drill to raise and lower them...I will check with some welding shops in the area today or Monday.
We will be out on sidewinder road, off the grid, until the 7th of March when we go back into Yuma fairgrounds for the Western Gypsy Journal RV rally which last until the 12th. Than on to Tucson area to visit with dear old friends from Knoxville, TN, Sam and Eula who have a son who will be working out with the Colorado Rockys at spring trailing hoping to make the team.

Wow, thats the most I have written in a long time...
see ya
Love to all of you
Jim and Linda

Parker AZ to Laughlin, NV

Yesterday we drove from Parker to Laughlin. We had been in the dessert, off the grid since December 28th. We did have to go into town every two weeks or so to dump our waste tanks and refill the water tank.

We both enjoy staying out in the dessert and that was even more apparent when we got to our campsite here in Laughlin…..boy are we packed in!!!!

 

Here we are out in the dessert…..

we were the last ones to leave our area in Parker after the race.

and….here we are in Laughlin

Now that is close!!!!!! and there are 740 rv sites here.

I did go into the casino last night…dropped $25 in penny slots, and won $135 at roulette……oh happy night!!!

 

see ya

 

Jim