New tires for our rig

We bought our Allegro bus motorhome in September of 2010. At the time, the tires that came on the rig has a lot of life left on them. They were made in 2006. However, now 7 years later, those tires are now 11 years old. We have always kept the tires covered, so the tires have held up well over the 11 years of their lives. Discussing the life of our tires with various tire shops have agreed that the tires will hold up very well when covered and that we should not be surprised to get 10 or more years out of the tires.

So, we went to our nearby Les Schwab for tires for our 2003 Allegro bus. We paid just south of $2,900 for the 6 tires. When they installed the tires, we asked them to save a tire that we could put in the bay for a spare. We don't expect a tire problem at any point, but if we have a problem, we can call for a service truck to change our failed tire with the spare that we have.

We live full time in our rig. We weren't 100% sure that we would be able to find room in the bay without removing some stuff. Like everyone, we probably have stuff in the bays that we don't need to keep hauling around, but it is always hard to make the decision to toss stuff out.

However, with just a little moving of stuff around, having a space for the tire was easy to come up with, actually, we had a gap that we had lost sight of. So, with putting just a few items such as our Jack stands, the hydraulic jack, and a ceramic heater inside the tire, we were able to re-organize and get everything including the spare tire in the bay.

Safe travels all!

Getting ready for a power upgrade

So, we are getting ready to upgrade the power set up of our 2003 Allegro Bus from a 2000 watt modified sign wave inverter/charger to a pure sign wave inverter/charger. We will also be adding 300 watt solar with an MPPT charge controller. We've received some great insight from a friend of ours, but looking to see what others might suggest.

Quite frankly, we are not quite sure why they sold this RV with a Modified Sign Wave Inverter. The microwave has never worked right on it. I'm wondering if we should replace the current Inverter/Charger with just an inverter and then leave it up to the 'Solar' to charge the batteries, or if we should indeed do a one-for-one change out. Currently. we live full time in our rig and have it parked at an RV park in Sacramento. The rig is under trees, but the end I plan to put the panels on is pointed south and has a fairly clear exposure to the sky.

If we go with the Inverter/Charger route, is there going to be any problem with there being effectively 'Two chargers' on the battery bank.

Lastly, we currently only have about three outlets on the 'Inverter'. Should we keep the wiring the same and again only energize the three outlets, or should we make the process a little more manual where I plug the RV 50 amp plug into an interior plug, which is powered off the inverter when we unplug from Shore power. If we take that approach, how do we keep the inverter from trying to charge the batteries (Because it is getting 120 volts from it's power source) and draw from them at the same time.

I'd really welcome any and all input. Thanks!

Our second trip to see the poppies

A few years back, Eric tried to give Carol a surprise trip to see the California State Poppy preserve to see poppies in bloom. That year turned out to be not such a great year for the bloom and as a result, the surprise ended up to be kind of bust because it was such a poor water year. Also, the place where we choose to stay, in 'Lancaster' was a bit disappointing because of the unending wind.

This year however, with the weather being a much wetter winter, we thought we might have more success at seeing some poppies in bloom. Also, we thought we might change our accommodations and hopefully stay in a place that might be a little less windy. So, this year, instead of traveling straight to Lancaster, we thought we would stay in Bakersfield.

Though we have stayed in Bakersfield in the past, we thought we would try an RV park that we had never stayed at before. We stayed at the 'River run RV park' in Bakersfield. This RV Park is right next to the Kern river and was a wonderful place to stay. The park is about 10 years old, and has all of the modern immunities such as well equipped Laundry Facilities, a club house, store and swimming pool. The park is run by a husband and wife team and they are doing an amazing job with the park.

On our first full day on the trip, we made a run out to the Antelope valley, home of Lancaster and the poppy fields to check out the reserve. On our drive out there, we drove over the 'Grapevine' an arterial road from Bakersfield to Los Angeles. And for these veteran 'Grapevine' drivers, we were admittedly a little surprised as to how green the hills were leading up to the Grapevine.

Once we got to the reserve, the day was a little cold and windy, but we had a much better opportunity this time to check out the flowers. Though, the cool wind kept the flowers still somewhat retracted, there were a lot of sheltered areas that gave us an chance to check out these beautiful flowers.

Reports were that the eastern part of the park, had the best blooms, and that report was correct.

Though our first full day was full of driving from Camp to the Antelope valley, we took a little slower pace on our second day and included some time sitting and relaxing outside and enjoying the warm sunshine and cool breeze. This really is a beautiful park with a great location, especially if your sight is one to back up to the river.

On this second day, we did run into Bakersfield to check out the old part of town and to grab a bite to eat at a 'Woolworths' Luncheonette. This particular dining establishment was part of an old 'Woolworths' store back in the mid-1900's but was closed when the chain closed down. However, someone reopened the Woolworth's luncheonette as a unique dining experience. It was great, because we got to sit at the counter and enjoy a 'Burger and Fries' together. It was the first time Carol got to sit at the 'Counter' of the luncheonette.

The rest of the old Woolworths, was converted into a massive 'Antique Mall'. Even to be found in the 'Antique Mall' was some great treasures to be found. We had a great time on our trip to see the Poppy's and Bakersfield. We will definitely return here again.

Safe travels everyone!

Eric and Carol Anderson

Flag down!

So the other day, the furnace kicked on but sounded like the blower motor fan was taking a dive. So, when we got home from work the following afternoon Eric started to take the furnace apart to see what the part number was so he could order a new fan. His wife Carol was holding the cabinet door open and Eric was taking a picture of the model number on the furnace. Carol spotted the American flag that had been sucked over a bay wall and into the blower motor. We are both so glad Carol had seen the flag. She sure saved us a lot of money and work!

Eric will not be putting up some screen material to keep similar items from being sucked into the furnace in the future.

Safe Travels

Eric and Carol Anderson

A dogs life in our motorhome

We started our Full timing adventure in 2010. We had lost our home due to the financial downturn in 2007 and 2008. The veterinary practice that Carol had worked at for 25 years as a veterinary technician, had closed it's doors because the owner had decided to hang up his stethoscope. We put our house on the market, but we couldn't drop the price fast enough to keep up with the falling value of the collapsing real-estate market. We cashed in some of our 401k to try to keep the boat afloat, but ultimately decided that we had to just walk away from our home.

We rented a home for a while, until our daughter Katie moved out on her own. We kept the Fifth wheel trailer that we had bought when we both still had jobs, and decided that the time had come to start our full timing adventure. It was something that we had known that we wanted to ultimately do, but we figured we would be closer to retirement and in a much better financial situation than we were at the time. We had taken numerous trips in our various RV's with our pets, and they always seemed to handle the traveling fairly well. So, when the decision was made to start full timing, we figured the dogs would go along with the program. Fortunately we were correct in our assumption.

Here is a little video to give you just a sense of what the lives are like for our four-footed friends!


Safe Travels!

Eric and Carol Anderson

More motorhome updates

So, in the fall of 2016, we went to an RV show to see what was out there in the way of more up to date rigs. We love our 2003 Allegro bus, but we were trying to figure out if we should look at buying something newer while we were both still working. We came to the conclusion that our rig, while still not paid for, is worth less than we owe on it, which is typical with just about any motorized vehicle.

So, the decision came pretty easy to us that we knew what we had and we probably should just stay with what we got. None the less, there were some things that we still wanted to up-date. Since that time, we have updated the back splash around the kitchen stove area as well as in the bathroom area. We have also started to replace the bi-fold blinds with roll up blinds. Well, in the last week, Eric has finished the updating of the window treatments as well as replacing the light fixtures in the bath room areas. Check out the end results of our efforts!

So, below is how the old window treatments looked.

 This is how the new windows treatments look in the bedroom. The work is finished, but we do have to put some sort of valance up.

Also, this is how the vanity lights in the bathrooms use to look.

This is how they look now!

All in all, we are very happy with how things are turning out!

Eric turning 'Double Nickles'

For Eric's birthday weekend, we hooked up with his sister Karen and her husband Mike to celebrate Eric's 55th birthday. We met up at Durango RV Resort in Red Bluff California. Both families like this location because it is centrally located for us to gather up there.

When we traveled at Durango, it was during a week where there had been a lot of rain. So much rain, that there were problems at a dam to the south of Red Bluff named the 'Lake Oroville' dam. When we arrived at Durango, it was a grey overcast day!

This has been one of the wettest winters on record for California. As you can see from the picture below, the path we are walking on, has the Sacramento river running right up over the path. In the past, we have been able to walk this path to the other side of the over pass and let the dogs off leash. The water that you see here is running at least 15 feet higher than normal, but it could easily be 40 feet higher than we have seen in the past.

This birthday weekend was really special for Eric because he turned 55. His sister Karen was kind enough to make an angel food birthday cake for Eric that was covered with a strawberry frosting just like their mother had made, back in the day when she was alive.

The weather cleared up nicely as the four day weekend progressed. It lead to some eventually picture perfect days. Here is a picture of our two rigs at a 'Buddy site' where the green belt between our two rigs serves as a central location for us.

During our four days in Red Bluff, we got to enjoy a hobby that Karen and Mike introduced to us years ago, the hobby of Geocaching! We got to enjoy it with new Smart phone app's that make the hobby much more enjoyable. We also had some great food. We ate at a locally owned Mexican restaurant called Los Mariachis. For dinner one night, at the Palomino room, we had some great prime rib and the service was wonderful as well. Below is a picture of Mike and Karen just before the get ready to board their motorhome to head back to Ashland. Here is a video as they start their trip home in their trusty Safari motorhome.


Of course as ol' Grandpa Anton Anderson use to say, "Everything is Relative". Karen and Mikes motorhome is only as trusty as the starter batteries in it. They had a little trouble getting the Motorhome started when they headed from Ashland to Red Bluff initially, because the starter batteries had died, but with a couple of trips to Les Schwab, the starting problem was resolved.

As they made their way home, the weather had cleared and they were able to get a couple of great pictures of Mount Shasta and Lake Shasta.

As the author in the third person, I'd like to thank Mike, Karen and my lovely wife Carol for a wonderful birthday!

Safe travels!