Moonlight Classic June 24th, 2012

For any of you who know me very well, ol' Eric cut his teeth on drum corps back in the 1960's when my sister Karen and my Brother-in-law Mike were marching in the Anaheim Kingsmen. I've had Drum Corps in my blood ever since those faithful days when I would hang out on the track of the foot ball stadium as Karen and Mike practiced with the corps. It really was a great up bringing!

Even 45 years later, I'm still going to Drum Corps shows, frequently with Karen and Mike and of course with the love of my life Carol, who now enjoys drum corps in her own right! :-) Because the stadium at UOP in Stockton is now closed, they have moved the Moonlight classic to Sac State, a very nice venue. This years event had all the makings of a great show. We had on the agenda, roughly in this order. Blue Devils 'C', Sacramento Freelancers Alumni corps, The Mandarines, Pacific Crest, Blue Devils B, The Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets, The Boston Crusaders, The Blue Knights from Colorado, the Phantom Regiment from Rockford Illinois, The Blue Devils and the Santa Clara Vanguard.

There was a large crowed at the event and there were even a number of old Kingsmen members that Karen and Mike ran into at the show this evening. It was weird, Karen and Mike were closer to Anaheim two nights earlier at a show in Clovis, and they ran into only one old Kingsmen alumni. But, Sacramento, with the history of the Freelancers, is more of a Drum Corps town, so I guess it was to be expected.

The evening started off with a 'Park and Blow' performance by the Freelancers Alumni corps. Their respectable performance, was enjoyed by everyone.
Everyone of the corps that we got to see this evening were vastly improved over previous years. Somehow, they get better every year. We really, really enjoyed the 'Boston Crusaders' as they were the most like 'Old style drum corps' which is what we all really enjoy, even my wife Carol who is relatively new to the activity. This evening held up to it's name litterally. It truely was a Moonlight Classic. You see, Sac state couldn't seem to get the stadium lights turned on. As a result, the last corps to perform was the Boston Crusaders. And they were 'ON'. Even the color guard stuck the catches on all of their rifle tosses, despite the dusky lighting.

The competition director had to call and end to the evening so as to ensure everyone could get out of the stadium safely.

After the Boston corps finished and we left the stadium. We went with Karen and Mike to get some desert. Wouldn't you know it, as we drove passed sac state about 2 hours after the competition was cancelled, the lights were on, but not a corps to be found.

Thats ok, we still had a wonderful evening!

Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

Brandon's 28th birthday

Last weekend, on the 23rd of June, we were very fortunate to join Brandon and many of his family members for his 28th birthday. Brandon, and his dad Bill and mom Loretta, moved up permanently to their summer home in the Pioneer area of Amador county just a month ago.

Much of Brandon's family lives in Amador county where we once hailed from. The event was a wonderful one with lots of family including Brandons grandmother Shirley and uncle Calvin, Aunt Joyce and his cousine Katie as well as several other close family members.

Every birthday like this is such a wonderful milestone for Brandon, which we always enjoy celebrating with everyone. The weather was wonderful on his birthday and we got to enjoy a lot of time relaxing out doors. Brandon scored with many wonderful birthday gifts such as CD's and clothes.

 

We look forward to many more birthdays with 'Brando' in the years to come! We love you Brando!

Placer County Fair 2012

Carol and I went with a bunch of friends of Carol's friends from work to the Placer county fair Friday the 22nd of June. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Tiffany, Mary, Danielle, and her daughter Audrey. For the majority of the evening, we just checked out vendors, people watched and ate fair food. Audrey had the chance to see all sorts of farm animals and even got a balloon dog from an 'Animal Maker'. We all had a chance to just enjoy the evening! One of the exhibits at the fair was a memorial to the event that transpired on September 11th, 2001. The shocking thing to us was the fact that it had been displayed at the state capital until Governor Schwarzenegger decided that it should no longer be on display, with no reason given. If you get a chance, go to your local county fair. It may be simple, but you will un-doubtedly have a wonderful time.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol

A little not so 'field' repair

One of the things we tried to learn before we started full timing was just what things, we really did need in the rig. Eric figured out just what tools he needed. Carol figured out just what things she needed in the kitchen. Well, so far, our evaluation and selection has worked out pretty well. Eric picked all the tools he needed for doing just about every repair we have needed. Although he didn't plan on needing a lawn mower or a rake while full timing, we were lucky enough to move into a spot where the previous tenants had left their lawn mower. All we needed to buy was a rake. However the lawn mower has since given up the ghost. :-(

Eric did have the tools needed however to do an occasional brake job on the old keystone Cougar trailer when we had that as well as what he needed to install the tow bar on the front of the Honda when we moved up to a motor home.

Carol has everything she needs in order to cook a full holiday dinner. On more than one occasion, we've had a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings prepared completely by Eric's honey! :-)

Our most recent exploration into, 'Does Eric have what it takes', has consisted of what was needed to replace a blower motor in the dash area of the motorhome. Though we love our motorhome and wouldn't trade it for anything, one of the 'things of character' (as the dealership called problems with a  used coach) that came with the moho when we bought it, was a loud blower to run the air conditioner. It was really bad on the slower speeds. So, Eric sent an e-mail to Tiffin asking them for suggestions. They suggested that Eric call Tiffin to get some instructions. They provided all the information we needed to get into the Dash and to the blower motor so that we could diagnose the true problem. It turned out that the motor had lost a bearing and the fan, which was plastic had warped. We a couple more phone calls to the fan manufacture, we found out that a replacement fan could be found at our local AutoZone, who would have thought it. And, for the reasonable price of $25.00! So, in short order, we had a new fan installed.

Normally, this sort of thing might have been considered a 'Field repair' but since it was done in the comfort of our home RV space, we guess this doesn't qualify a s field repair.

The following weekend, since Fuel prices were relatively cheap, we took the moho out to get some Diesel. We tried the Air conditioner, and guess what, it was so quiet, we could actually hold a conversation!!!!

We think we are pretty well set on tools. We have found, that there was one tool that would come in really handy, that is a step ladder. So, for fathers day, Carol bought Eric one of those folder step ladders at Camping World. Eric absolutely loves the ladder. When we were out getting fuel the other day, Eric it out... the ladder that is, and was cleaning the windshield in no time while Carol fueled the rig. We really are living the good life!



Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

Red Bluff weekend

We were very lucky to be able to hook up with Karen and Mike at Durango RV resort in Red Bluff is about 3 and a half hours north of Sacramento, and about the same distance south of Ashland Oregon. As such, it makes for a perfect meeting spot for our two families. Durango is a wonderful facility with large Buddy sites where we can park across from one another and share a nice large lawn area! On Friday afternoon we didn't do much, but sit around Camp and do some catching up.

Saturday, I helped Mike install the Quik Fill battery filling systems on their motorhome. This is a slick little system that allows you to easily fill all the cells of the batteries with the pump of a bulb and a bottle of distilled water. After that quick install, Mike helped me to fix a couple of chewed up sections of vinyl that Rosie had gotten to when she was new to our household. That repair project took significantly longer than the installation of the battery filler. :-(

Also on this trip, we made it to Turtle Bay near the sun-dial bridge where we got to check out not only their Chocolate exhibit, but also their Butterfly one as well. After going to Turtle Bay, we went into Redding and found a restaurant called View 202. This is a restaurant that looks pretty fancy, but they serve those casually dressed without batting an eye lash! The food was great and the view off the patio was fantastic. We will definitely come back to this restaurant again! Maybe next time for dinner so that we can enjoy the evening sunset!

Karen and Mike brought their newest addition to their family Corona. Corona is from the Jackson County animal shelter. He is five years old, and still trying to figure out the pecking order, but he is coming along quite well. Addie, the English Springer Spaniel that Karen and Mike adopted from a friend of theirs that was moving to Australia, is doing great after the surgery a couple months ago to remove the tumor off of her. So, Karen and Mike are a three dog family just like we are.

Well, that is it for this latest trip. We probably won't hit the road again until July, because the rest of June is looking so busy, but stay tuned, we've got lots of other things coming up where we will probably update the blog.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol

A solar elipse - May 20th, 2012

Hi there everyone,
We were fortunate enough to be able to experience a solar eclipse, not only in North America, but also on a weekend so that we could enjoy it without having to take time off work. :-)

This is the first time in Eric's adult life, that he has been able to take time to see this unique phenomenon. We learned how to view this event by watching Mark Finan, the local weather person on the NBC affiliate here in Sacramento. He explained that by using a pair of binoculars, you could project the image of the sun on a piece of paper. WARNING, don't try looking at the sun through binoculars! You have to guess when trying to point the binoculars at the sun.

At any rate, over the course of about an hour, we were able to watch the eclipse take place. This wasn't a complete solar eclipse. It was is called an annular eclipse where you see a 'Ring of fire' around the Moon, during the eclipse, because the moon is so far away from the earth, that it doesn't block out the entire sun.

We found the event very fascinating. And as you can see, we had our whole little 'Observatory' set up so that we could watch the event unfold before our eyes. The event started about 5:30 PM, and the sun was obscured to the maximum at about 6:30 PM. Because we were south of the prime viewing spot, we didn't see the entire 'Ring of fire'. If we had been in Redding, we would have seen a perfect ring of fire around the moon.

Even though we live full time in our rig, we are still able to partake in just about anything we want too! :-)

Happy camping! Eric and Carol

A video about our lives full timing

Hi there everyone,

Sorry I haven' t posted to our blog in a while, but I got this crazy idea to do a video about our lives full timing. Please check out our YouTube video. It covers from the time Carol and I got together, living in various stick and Brick homes all the way up through our current home, a 2003 Allegro Bus Motor home!

Happy camping!