California Dreaming

 

 

 

Before leaving for Bishop, CA, our final days in Lake Havasu City were relaxing.

 

CALIFORNIA HEAT

While our relatives back in the Midwest brave the seasonal Spring storms, we’re suffering through an unseasonal heat wave. When we arrived mid-April, temperature high/lows were in the 60s/40s. Then a switch was flipped, and temps climbed to 80s/60s.

 

CALIFORNIA COVID

Bishop is in Inyo County which currently has a low COVID-19 infection rate, especially when compared to the surrounding counties.

That’s good because in Inyo County’s 10,000 square miles there are only two hospitals with under a dozen intensive care beds. We think about this things now.

 

CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE

At 5:10 am today we woke up suddenly as our over 31,000 pound motorhome swayed as if it had been hit by a violent wind gust.

It was a magnitude 3.9 earthquake located about a mile away (USGS Data).

 

WHAT’S THAT IN THE SKY?

Besides that, Mrs Lincoln . . .

A few weeks ago I was going to do a write up of our experience putting two new tires on our RV, but, Geez Louise, a “few things” have popped up in the interim. THE PLAGUE!!!

I was waiting for things to “settle down”, but that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon, so . . .

February 1

Imagine, this was a newsworthy event here two months ago.

 

February 8

They’ve nuked Havasu! Turns out it was a “controlled burn”.

 

February 12

During our Jeep ride to Kingman to pick up our RV with its newly installed two front tires, we ran over this . . .

It took out our rear passenger tire in short order. I was able to replace the tire pretty quickly, but I had an incredibly stupid thought while doing it . . . I thought the flat tire would be much lighter because all the air was out of it. Wow!

 

 

March 16

And then it started . . .

 

 

 

 

March 24

The campground Honey Wagon collapses. These things work by suction so what sort of turd plugged its straw?

 

March 29

Autoformer installation. Basically, I just moved our RV autoformer inside the electrical compartment. I also added a couple of plugs so that I could reroute incoming power in case of component failure. (By the way, autoformers are used to “boost” low campground voltage. Typically, this happens in summer when everyone is using their air conditioners.)

 

 

March 31

Under-the-sink reverse osmosis unit updated in the RV.

 

And now this . . .

Like many of you, we’re watching a boatload of television. Here’s one of our favorites coming to Netflix this Tuesday (April 7th) . . .

 

Who can forget the Episode 9 Risaka – Hiruka girl fight . . .

We Finished Our Park Model Addition

One Year Ago . . .

 

A Few Weeks & Days Ago . . .

 

 

Today  . . .

 

 

 

Cost of Living vs Cost of Camping

Out of curiosity and since I keep pretty good records and since I have a lot of time on my hands, I looked up what we spent on camping during our first year of full timing in 2013 and then compared those prices to what it would now cost in 2020.

Short answer: More.

On average about 13% more: $35.84/day in 2013 vs $40.51/day in 2020. By the way, according to Social Security the Cost of Living went up 8.4% from 2013 to 2019.

From April through October 2013 we stayed at 37 campgrounds. All but 6 of these campgrounds have increased their prices. One of the six stayed the same and the other 5 campgrounds actually lowered their prices. These 5 were mostly state or county campgrounds.

However, the other 32 campgrounds raised their prices. While the median increase is between 25% – 29%, the highest increase was over 200%.

On Another Note . . .

People keep telling me online that they never or seldom make campground reservations. I wish them luck. Each year we find it increasingly difficult to get into campgrounds without reserving in advance.

So this announcement really didn’t surprise me . . .

I Turned 70 Today

To me, turning 50 was saying goodbye to youth (bummer), turning 60 was retirement (yahoo!), and 70 is YIKES!

Three quarters of a century didn’t seem that bad until I downloaded Sailing by Christopher Cross tonight on the way home from dining out. I really like the song so I looked up when I first heard it . . . 1980. Forty years ago!

Those of us in this age bracket all have similar experiences . . . When did I see that movie? I think it was just a few years ago. Well, maybe 5 or 10. And then you discover it was more like 30 years ago.

C’est la vie.

Anyway, Jan & I are still planning future travels . . . 2021 East Coast RV Trip, Tom’s Amtrak Adventure, Jan’s Ireland Visit, . . .

Finally, dined at Cha Bones earlier and had two fine desserts . . .