Castle Air Museum

Or, a funny thing happened on the way to our new house . . .

October 31
We closed on our Lake Havasu City park model L34 and the new owners took possession.

While awaiting our move to Mariposa, CA, we rented our next door neighbor’s park model L33.

November 5
New rear tires installed on our RV. We replaced the front two tires last year. The tires we replaced were about eight years old, so it was time.

November 9
New AC installed on our RV.

November 18
Rent and pack Haul trailer.

November 19
Barstow KOA campground, Barstow, CA.

November 20
Orange Grove Campground, Bakersfield, CA

November 21 (through the 27th)
Merced River RV Resort, Merced, CA

We were supposed to close and take possession of our Mariposa house on Tuesday, November 24th, but our seller failed to sign & send some important paperwork.

So we ended up at Castle Air Museum RV Park (https://www.castleairmuseum.org/rv-park-info).

November 28
Castle Air Museum RV Park, Atwater, CA.

While we await our house closing, we’re staying at this pretty cool air museum. We took the nickel tour (actually $15) and it was a long walk around a number of American, British, and one Russian vintage aircraft.

I like the nose art . . . some artists are clearly better than others . . .

Happy Thanksgiving!

From Tom & Jan & the Drunk Squirrel . . .

We’re Moving to California!

Just when everyone is leaving.

Seriously, since 2015 CA has lost about 100,000 more people each year than it has gained, but not everyone is happy to have the emigrants.

Anyway, we’re moving to Idle Wheels Senior Mobile Home Park in Mariposa, CA.

Idle Wheels is a 111-unit 55+ mobile home park just north of Mariposa. Our home is a 1440 square foot double-wide manufactured home. While we own the home, the park owns the land. This is the same as our Crazy Horse park model. With one major difference . . .

Idle Wheels is a resident-owned community. The park residents elect a 5-member board who manage the park and set the monthly HOA fees (currently at $90/month compared to $719/month for Crazy Horse). Idle Wheels is a domestic stock corporation with the residents as the stockholders. The park was incorporated in 1990 so it has a 30-year track record of success.

What really impressed us was the large solar array the park recently installed.

The park manager told us that the solar array has lowered PG&E electric rates of 25 cents per KWh to 19 cents per KWh.

 

Besides all that, there is free on-site RV storage and a fire station is within walking distance of the park.

CALIFORNIA HOUSE CLOSING

CA does escrow closings which were not used to and the whole process seems a lot slower than other homes we’ve purchased. C’est la vie.

However, the amount of cover-your-ass paperwork is truly epic. For example, here are some of the hazards on the Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement:

• Special Flood Hazard Area
• Potential Flooding Shown on a Dam Failure Map
• Very High Fire Zone (I thought that was the whole state?)
• Earthquake Fault
• Seismic Hazard
• Landslide Hazard
• Liquefaction Hazard
• FEMA Floodway
• Tree Mortality Fire Threat
• Shallow Groundwater
• Mine Sites
• Volcanic Hazards
• . . .

We Sold Our Park Model

After 62 days on the market (which seemed like an eternity), we sold our Park Model to a California couple.

After 6 years we have some great memories here, but it was time to move on . . . almost all of the friends we knew at the park have left, and it ain’t getting any cheaper to stay at Crazy Horse.

Our next door neighbor is letting us stay in their place (L-33) for a few weeks.

By the way, those long cardboard boxes are a Thuma bed (https://www.thuma.co/).

Anyway, moving our stuff right next door was ideal and easy. Park model L-33 where we’re staying has a great porch setup . . .

. . . and it has an upstairs loft which — because of the height — is like a bedroom for five-year-olds.

And the sunsets are as good as ever . . .

COMING SOON: Where are we headed next?

The XXth Annual Something-Something Festival

Today the XXth Annual Something-Something Festival comes to an end.

In LHC there are typically three types of fests: water, sand, auto. This festival was water. Muffler-castrated jet skis raced in the early morning hours so that their owners might claim a victory that would last until the next XXth Annual Something-Something Festival.

I believe the YYth Annual Sand-Something Festival is fast approaching. Though it’s nearby and therefore really loud, I like this sand fest. The vehicles raise clouds of choking sand that piss off the new residents in the center of the island — people who have spent fortunes on densely-packed huge houses. Love it.

By the way . . .

Our park model is for sale.