A Forest Gump Move

Yep, I think anyone who saw the movie, remembers this bumper sticker.  Anyone who has a RV, does not want to see these parts of their RV (below) sitting on a table.

We knew ahead of time that going up the slope of my sister’s second driveway leading up to the backyard would be a bit of a problem, it was hard to know just what needed to be done until we got there.  I pulled a portion of the way up, and we knew right away that we would need a ramp to help with the street slope leading to the gutter, and the driveway slope headed to the gutter in the opposite direction.  We went over to the nearest Home Depot and bought a few 10 by 2’s, reinforced the center with some scrapes that my brother-in-law Arny had, and up the driveway we headed…until the back left board snapped….and the motorhome lands right on the grey and black tank plumbing fixtures which are now laying all over the lower driveway and gutter…along with a small portion of the remains which did not drain out when I drained it all out at the Loomis park before we left.  Yes Forrest, “IT” does happen.  About $40 of parts and a lot of hard work from Arny (who is a automotive master body man, master engine man, etc. etc., and now a pretty good RV plumber to boot.  It took awhile to gather up all the parts we needed, and we did stay in a motel last night (Thursday), but it is all back together now.  We are going to work on stronger planks for the future.  Bottom line, neither of noticed the two small knot holes close to each other on the plank that busted, which created a weak spot, which created a pile of ….well, we just won’t go there again.

 

So we are back near the squirrel tree that our dogs love so much…the one they fell in love with last year when we were here with our American Eagle.  One good thing about having a smaller motorhome is that the gate will close with us in the backyard, unlike last year when we had to have a small temporary fence to keep the dogs in.

    

As you can see, we have inches to spare at the gate, and inches to spare at the tree.  I call it a perfect fit, good going Arny.  And there is even 30 amp plug at the end of the gate!

And all you have to do is follow Bubba’s eyes and you can see the Squirrel sitting up in the left upper part of the tree.

Of course, this is what the Squirrels are looking for….and now they get a second treat…they get to tease the dogs, and boy, do they ever tease the dogs.

Now for where Mom and Dad are going to be living….it is that house to the far left with the brown garage door. I am standing on Sandy and Arny’s main driveway, so you can see that it is very close, and it will be nice to have them living so close to my sister.  Today we went out to a Sears Outlet and they bought a refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom…they call them French Door Refrigerators.

It will be real nice for them since bending over to get into a refrigerator is hard on both of them.  Now to hunt down a washer and dryer and they will be able to move in around two weeks from now. 

Saying Goodbye to Loomis RV Park

We are leaving the Loomis RV Park tomorrow after staying here for five of the last six weeks.  Now the park is an old KOA, with Gravel Sites, and a large number of weekly and monthly users.  Is it an ideal place to stay?  Well, we have stayed in areas like Portland where the sites are nicer, but neighbors crammed in on both sides.  At least here we can park the car next to the motorhome, and have some space on the other side too.  And it is what I would call a mature park…all the trees are fully grown, so there is shade in many of the sites.  And there is a pull through area that they try to leave for people only needing a few days at a time, and they all have lots of shade.

An important thing with what I call “full time park users” is what is the clientele like.  The lady manager of the park is a good, hard working, dedicated person.  Her and her son lived in the park for a year before she became the manager.  When she moved in she was in the middle of a divorce, and this was close to the “dad”, which was important to her for the times he had the child.  She had to ask to move to another section of the park due to the loud, rude behavior of the folks using the park near where she was.  Once she became manager, she told me she worked hard for three or four months to route out the bad users, which changed the attitudes of some of the not so bad, not so good users, and now she has everything well under control.  In the six weeks we have been here, we have seen nor heard of no problems.  The park is probably 80% full at the least, and near 100% on Fridays and Saturdays.

We picked this park for a few reasons.  First, about the closest true RV park closest to mom and dad.  There was a few mobile home parks which allow for RVs, but we did not wish to go there.  There is one RV park on Madison Avenue which is a bit closer to mom and dad, but it is also closer to I-80, and Madison and I-80 is a busy, busy area.  The noise level would just be a bit too much to handle.  And they lack large trees, and the sites are way too close together.  There is a KOA in West Sacramento which probably would have worked….and definitely would have cost us twice as much as what we spent here.  There is also an RV park at Cal Expo, but I did not like the reviews, and again, a busy area of town, and the State Fair ran for three of the six weeks we have been in the area.  So the bottom line is this, not a whole lot of true RV parks to choose from, and this one worked out great for us.

Google View of Sister's street, Mom and Dad will be two doors down, end of a cul-de-sac, so within a few weeks, by the end of August at the latest, we will all be within yelling distance, let alone walking distance.

Tomorrow we head over to my sister’s house where they are finished with their remodel project, and this is where we stayed last year with our American Eagle.  And my next blog will include the great news that mom and dad just committed to rent the house two doors down from my sister, so they will be very close to us, and to my sister, and this should work out better for everyone….especially for them.  Pictures in my next blog posting.