11-22-08 Saturday (Baked Potatoes)

Yesterday, I said the trip was 5 hours. Jim was thinking Boise when he told me that. Idaho Falls is 3 1/2 plus this, that and the other.

I owe it to Jim to post my Cookie Catastrophe in response to his Muffin Massacre. Before I go on, I must tell you that I bought butter the other day. I think the package said it was "quarters". At the time of purchase, I thought how cute they were. Yeah, I said cute. Not being a baker, as apparent by my boxed cookie mix usage, I didn't realize that the small "looking" stick of this butter is shorter but wider than the normal sticks. The directions called for a stick of butter, so I put in, what I thought was 2 halves. The end result is shown below. Jim says they taste OK, I think not. After eating a few, I felt my arteries harden. My throat feels like I licked a jar of vaseline. They'll be no hairball hurling for me for the next 6 months.

We've arrived at "Snake River RV Park" in Idaho Falls. It's cold here which usually results in a somewhat empty park. For some reason, they seem to put everyone together instead of spreading out. It's kinda annoying! The patio side of the RV has a fair amount of space but the connection side is close. Our slide and the neighbor's slide create a mere 5 foot space. Crazy.

The best part about arriving here is the leaving Utah. Not that we don't like it but we had enough.

Some photos from the drive here:

Jag is antagonizing Clea.

This billboard was too fun to resist. Is this brought to us by the Hashbrown Farmers of America? I know Idaho is famous for potatoes and I guess they thought to be creative. I actually went to the website. They have recipes and such, for potatoes, of course. I guess their advertising worked on me.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM IDAHO WHEN...

- The wind is faster than your truck.
- Every other vehicle is a 4x4.
- When the sun goes down you start looking for your coat.
- In March, your vehicle is 43% mud.
- You leave your keys in the car and the next morning it's still there.
- You installed your new computer using a Leatherman tool.
- You hear the words "stream" or "brook" pronounced "crick."
- The elevation exceeds the population.
- You've broken down on the highway and somebody stops to help you.
- You can see the stars at night.
- People drive 200 miles to shop in a real mall.
- Your great grandmother is older than the courthouse.
- You got a set of snow tires for Valentines Day.
- The bumper jack in your pickup will lift a house.
- Your back yard smells like sagebrush or various animals.
- A girls' basketball game fills the gym.
- You slept through the night unawakened by a siren.
- A rodeo is more popular than a rock concert.
- You can fish, golf, and go skiing all in the same day if you try hard enough.
- Yellow light means "follow the car in front of you no matter what."
- Democrats are like salmon, they are on the endangered species list.
- You wave to someone on the freeway because you recognize the truck.
- You talk about a combine and people don't wonder what you are putting together.
- In the spring, every tenth car you pass is a tractor.
- When the car in front of you is weaving you suspect a farmer instead of a drunk.
- Maps and gloves are kept in your vehicle's "jocky box."
- You can choose plastic bags or paper sacks for your groceries.
- You have to wait for a flock of sheep to pass you on the road.
- You know why people pay money to watch "pig wrestling.

According to that list, it's a good thing we're not from Idaho

11-21-08 Friday (The Bottom of my Shoe)

Our itinerary has been updated. If you are playing "Where's Waldo", please click on the Calendar/Itinerary link on the left sidebar. Once again, we'll be braving freezing temperatures. This should be interesting. Why not go where it's warm? We want to finish the Northwestern states so that we can go through California, and hang out in the Southwest for the bulk of the cold months. Sometime in March, we'll make our way to Florida, visit family and friends and then climb the East coast toward Niagara Falls (if we have money). Here's a map for you geographically impaired people. (I have to look at it all the time. I take after my mother.)

I now remember why I don't like this RV park. It's not just the reserving a tent site instead of an RV site error, it's about the poop. The first time we stayed here, Jim stepped in shit twice and me once. As I walk Dasher, there are piles everywhere. Sure, there's signs about picking up after your dog and there's even a giant litter box area for dogs. It just doesn't help. This morning as I walked the dog on our campsite, there sits a fresh looking pile. While it's not within our sitting area, it is on the path to our Cherokee which is parked behind the RV.

Dasher hides in embarrassment for his fellow canines.

If you hadn't already noticed, I tend to type the blog in throughout the day. Many times, the blog is typed in real time as things have happened. I do that because:

1- I can. (Temporary retirement perk),

2- I have a terrible memory, and will forget,

3- sometimes the entries are so long, it would take me forever to type it all at once.



I have a designated memo pad in the Cherokee I use to jot down thoughts for the blog. As Jim and I are on a day trip and we think of something "blogable", I'll say, "Oooo, I gotta write that down". Yeah, I say it just like that. Sometimes the "Oooo" is 3 o's longer, it just depends on my mood. I like to mix it up from time to time. I'm so wild (see).

We had some shopping to do for our projects. While out and about we saw Linen 'N Things (LNT) at 25-50% off for their "Going out of Business Sale". I hate to think we'll be stuck with Bed, Bath and Beyond. LNT was our favorite. Being in the RV, there's not much we'd need to buy anyway. I did need to use the restroom while there and spotted an outlet next to the urinal. As I peed, I pondered life, well, OK, there wasn't enough time for that, so I pondered why an outlet is next to the urinal. Can I shave and pee at the same time? Perhaps blowing drying my hair as I urinate? Oh, and yes, I took a picture of the urinal!




After some shopping we came home to Jim's crockpot chili, which I love. It's the perfect weather for it, being 34 degrees right now. Jim's not into spicy so I add hot sauce to mine. Oh and cheese too. Yummy.
Speaking of cheese, for those that don't know me, I have a food motto. Everything tastes better with cheese or chocolate. Some things like pretzels can take either. What does this have to do with RVing? Nothing, but you're my captive audience, prisoners of sorts. -evil laugh- Besides, if you won't listen to me rant about nothing, who will?
Most of the offbeat stuff I come up while I'm around Jim, gets me a "Where do you come up with this stuff?" reply.
Tomorrow is a long driving day. It's a 5 hour drive which add doggy pee-pee breaks plus cigarette breaks plus a lunch stop plus any uphill 20mph driving will extend that to about 8 hours.
We're looking forward to seeing how the RV performs since Bountiful RV replaced the fuel filter. They say it has more power and Jim noticed it. Maybe that will be enough to go faster than a marathon runner.
One of the items for Bountiful to fix was the shower drip. They made adjustments to the faucet ($57.00) and said it was fixed. It still drips. Jim is going to replace the guts himself and Bountiful has agreed to reimburse for the parts which will probably be at about $45.00.
Another thing that Bountiful did was allow us to supply our own parts. The rebuild kit for the jacks and then getting a brand new jack off the Internet for much less than they could get it for. In the automotive business, we'd never allow that. Number 1, that's why we were there and number 2, it can open a can of worms. Years ago, as Mitsubishi service manager, unknowingly one of my employees allowed a customer to supply their own junkyard transmission. The transmission didn't fix the problem (misdiagnosis) and the customer couldn't return it (final sale). The customer went above my head and spoke with the Director of Parts & Service (Jim Weems). Myself and the service advisor got our asses chewed. I'll never forget the analogy Jim Weems gave: "What do you think would happen if you walked into Longhorn steak house with your own steak, and ask them to cook it up for you?" So REALLY long story short, I was thankful and surprised Bountiful let us do that.
I bring up Bountiful a lot with mixed opinions. What can I say... I'm an emotional, indecisive roller coaster.
This entry has proven to be long enough. AND please, by all means, rate the entries after you read them. I hope the blog hasn't become boring or too long. Feel free to privately comment on my writing skills or lack off.

11-20-08 Thursday (Getting a Handle on it)

Some of you have mentioned the Wal-Mart bingo card I posted the other day was too hard to read. I redid the whole thing from scratch, so you can take a look at that post again and you'll see it's much clearer. Click Here.

Today was project day. We'd like to update the interior of the coach with silver. There's 22 gold handles just in the living area. I thought I'd try Rub 'N Buff on one handle and see how it stands up to day to day usage. I'll let you know. New handles can be real expensive. We saw some in Ikea a few weeks ago and while the price was right, the size wasn't. Anyone have any suggestions for an alternative to Rub 'N Buff that can take the wear and tear? Maybe some of you craft store workers know of something?

I gave Dasher a bath, did some laundry and some others small projects I won't bore you with. Jim went for a haircut and to pickup some project supplies for other upcoming things. Our slide out room has been sliding out an inch during travel so we've been using tether straps made for this to prevent any disasters. We should have had Bountiful RV look at it but we forgot it on our list. One of the things Jim bought today was a humongous wrench to adjust the slide mechanisms with. It didn't go very well. He adjusted, readjusted, and readjusted again. He finally got it back to about the way it was. We've called a mobile RV repair guy to see if he can do it. Hopefully, he can do it tomorrow because on Saturday, we're on our way to Idaho Falls.

No, that's not really the wrench he bought.

OK, I did some Internet research on panting door handles. Several sites and forums suggested Rust-Oleum:

Brilliant metal finish
Indoor/Outdoor durability
Weather-resistant metallic finish contains metallic flakes
Durable metallic flakes won’t tarnish or rub off even on the most heavily handled objects
Perfect for autos, bikes, fixtures, door hardware and more


I'm going to let the Rub 'N Buff dry overnight but I think it's going to come off on our hands since it's a wax base. After 4 hours it still rubs off a little.

I still can't wait to get to a new state. I'm tired of not having fun photos of odd crap to post. Today, in this RV park, I saw 2 people driving handicap mobility scooters side-by-side. It would have made a good picture but the caption would have ended up being something insensitive. I guess it's just as well I didn't have the camera handy. People who personally know me, will tell you that I'm all for making fun of everything. Several years back, friends Laurie and Pearl were talking about Halloween costumes. They wanted to go as dead celebrities. No, not just the celebrity, but also the way they died (if possible). I won't tell you what Jim and I dressed as or what the girls were going to do. Use your imagination. Think tragic celebrity deaths. Sick, I know.

It never fails. During last night's Wal-Mart trip we couldn't find a few items AND we forgot a few things. This shopping trip, we chose Harmons. This grocery store was amazing. It had a cheese counter, a Chinese buffet, salad bar, olive bar, prepared foods bar, huge deli, coffee shop, and all of the other typical grocery store departments. The store was huge and actually pretty. Anyway, after that we went to Wal-Mart where I struck out on all my project materials. They didn't have the spray paint color I wanted (Matte Nickel Metallic).

11-19-08 Wednesday (Licensed to Breed)

What a night! At some point, the rooms to either side of us became occupied with adults and tiny, annoying, little ones. Between screaming and doors slamming, I was sure I was in a slum. Aside from having difficulty falling asleep, I awoke at 7:45am before the 8am wake up call. I was not amused as I heard the little ones slamming doors and running past the window. The parents were useless in curtailing (a muzzle and rope would have made me happy) their beasts. Some day, people will need to get a license to have children. Marriage license, fishing license, hunting license... why not?

As all personal belongings have been removed, Dasher looks nervously on, hoping to be included.



We made it to Mountain Shadows RV park. The balance of the nights here are 3. As much as I was ready to depart Salt Lake City, it worked out well to stay another 3 days. It gave me some time to do some cleaning, and reorganizing. It does feel great to be back in the RV though. The new foam in the dinette cushions seem to agree with our asses.

It's going to be wonderful to have an oven once again. I'm tired of those skillet meal things. Tonight, working with what's on hand, we're having some sort of boxed oven bake meal. It still sounds better than skillet stuff.

I think we're going to skip St. George. The state park we wanted to stay in closes its gates 10pm to 6am. At that point, we're either prisoners or locked out. A tentative route has been planned and will probably be tweaked along the way.

Here's the before and after repair photos:

Above: The repair is shiny, the old is faded. The colors look pretty close though. The color of the pinstripe is a little different, again, faded versus new.

Above: You can barely notice the slice in the rubber coated roof (circled in red). The first repair looked like frosting. This time they put a foot long patch that looks like overkill to me. (circled in blue)

Above: The new awning O' awesomeness.

Above: The tub drain repair. Ick.

I must admit, Bountiful did save us hundreds of dollars. The freezer door hinge has been broken and duck taped since Florida. The hinge wasn't sold seperately; a new freezer door purchase would have been necessary. They were able to make a replacement hinge with epoxy.

Wal-Mart Neighborhood Grocery Store got over $100 of our money this evening. We had planned our menu and bought what we needed. While I'm making dinner, Jim is busy changing the itinerary again so the map pictured above will probably be obsolete. I think we're going to Idaho Falls and will stay there until after Thanksgiving. Speaking of which, we picked up our little turkey breast and the appropriate fixin's.

Almost time for dinner.....................

11-18-08 Tuesday (Almost Home)

I called Bountiful RV yesterday. The 2 items left were the drip rails/gutters that had come in that day and getting a guy in to get the graphics done. I told the owner, Darren, that if need be, we could wait on the graphics and come back through for them after St. George. I asked that he call as soon as it's done. We never got a call, so I guess it's not done.

I hate to be a pain in the ass and call them so often. Being in the automotive industry, I dealt with the annoying "status check" phone calls. I can see why people do it. It's places like these that force me to stay on top. Tomorrow will be 3 weeks! Yeah, yeah, I know some of the holdup was getting parts. Some of the hold up was them not getting the right parts. From wrong colored awning arms to gutters no longer being made, a lot of this should have been hashed out 2 weeks ago. If we hadn't stopped by and noticed the wrong arms or the piss-poor gutter rail repair, this would have been even longer of a fiasco. I'm still not happy with some of the other "repairs", but I'm DONE. I want to move on.

I'll take photos of the repairs and post them. There was a "slice" in the rubber roof. They patched it with a glob as if they were frosting a cake. Maybe they thought to treat the patch like meringue? The other repair was the shower drain. They globbed white sealer onto the almond tub, obviously forgetting coloring basics - stay in the lines! Argh! You'll see it. You'll hear me bitch about it again, too. Trust me.

In a big city such as Salt Lake is, Progressive didn't have a preferred partner to make the repairs. This kind of leaves us to deal with the mess ourselves. We can't pass the blame onto Progressive. Besides, even if I could, I probably wouldn't. At times, we Americans are all about passing blame. "I'm late because of traffic, it's not my fault." "They should have salted the ice, now I've fallen and I'm going to sue." "They wouldn't have stolen the GPS if Studio 6 had security." Maybe WE were dumbasses for dangling the GPS-carrot out for the world to see. There's so many other blame placing quotes I could come up with, but you get the idea and probably have something better to do. So to sum it up, do I blame Progressive for not having a preferred partner? Nah.

While I'm up on the soap box, let me take a step up a little higher. Now, I'm just ranting. I can see how my mom raised me and how Jim's mom raised him. They weren't perfect, but they did a damn good job! I'm not leaving fathers out. Dads are there for us, but moms were around more often and did more of the wrong-right molding. I remember my mom having a conniption if I threw gum on the ground. She always gave me a piece of gum, and saved the wrapper in her purse. If no trash can was around for the now flavorless glob, she'd get that wrapper, wrap the old gum and put it back into her purse until a trash can was in sight. Jim and I do that with cigarettes. If you are the type that throws it out of the car window, you're an idiot. We've always taken our butts and put them in our pocket. Gross? Isn't smoking gross to begin with?

I won't even get started about pet owner's who don't pickup after their dogs.

Maybe I need to change this blog title to "Random Rants" or "Ramblings on Soap Box"?

We're EXPECTING the RV to be done today. In preparation, I'm doing laundry. That would be Preparation L, not H. It would take way too long to do all of this in the RV. I don't have to remind you of prior laundry blog posts.

Jim called Bountiful, they say it will be ready at 4pm. I have a bad feeling. I hope I'm wrong.

I've picked up on several other blogs in the past few days. I told you already that I've subscribe to some but now it's many. I'm almost addicted in ways. For blogs that have been around a long time, it does take a bit of reading to catchup, but once that's over, it's easy reading 1 entry per blog a day. Besides, we're temporarily retired, so what else do we HAVE to do? I take to reading the blogs much more than Jim. Jim reads maybe 2 out of the 9. Hell, he doesn't even read ours stating "I've lived it, why do I need to read it?" He does read our blog maybe once a week, probably out of boredom. I read the comments posted to keep him in the loop. Sometimes, I'll give him the general gist of the comment. To me, blogs are good reading.

Last night I chatted with Char (Charlene), a neighbor upstairs from us. She and her dog Ruby have been here for months. Messy divorce. Char, not Ruby, silly. We liked Char. She said something about if we had met sooner should would have invited us out with the girls. Sure, we're leaving tomorrow and now we finally meet someone. Dasher met Ruby, but it didn't go very well. They fought. Good thing they both were on leashes. Char, good luck to you and fry that bastard!

Laundry is now complete. Next task for us is to get the salt washed off the Cherokee and to pickup our hotel reimbursement check from Progressive. Exciting.

I'm so bummed. It's hard to find a gay RV park in California. One would think that even San Francisco would have one. We can't find one with full hookups. That's a lie, we found 1 but they aren't very close to the major cities. We prefer the gay parks. We can be ourselves. A lot of those parks have meet and greets and potluck dinners to attend. It's so awesome making new friends throughout the country. We haven't been at one since Georgia. Sigh.

OK, 6 hours later, we're back. We picked up our Progressive insurance check, had the Cherokee washed and then had its oil changed at Jiffy Lube. After that, we picked up the RV. It cost us $1300 for our deductible plus the non-covered repairs. We ate dinner at Applebees. Yeah, we had desert too. As I ate the lava cake, smothered in hot fudge with yet more hot fudge in the center and accompanied by icecream, I asked myself "Why am I getting fat?", but then I forgot what the question was so I finished my desert.

With the RV in the hotel parking lot, most of our stuff is back in the RV. We'll let the fridge/freezer cool and load the food tomorrow. We have some more to take to the RV but I called a coffee break (literally). I was feeling so tired, I needed the caffeine boost.

It's 10:30pm, we've finished loading what we can into the RV and now we can relax. One of us will sleep in the RV tonight to ensure its safety. We're just a little skittish since "The Great Cherokee GPS Heist of 2008 at Studio 6 in Salt Lake City Utah."

We've decided to stay in Salt Lake City a little longer. Yeah, I know but we have 3-4 days left on our prepaid RV park stay at Mountain Shadows. Another sigh........

11-17-08 Monday (Go Pound Salt)

Maybe, in some sort of parallel universe, our RV will be ready today. This Wednesday will be the 3 week mark. I knew in the back of my mind it was going to take longer than what would seem like only a 1 week job. I made so many comments to Jim that I suspected it was going to take longer. I guess I didn't really want to believe my own suspicions.

Off to the Bonneville Salt Flats we go. As we drove on a desolate road, there was nothing but salty sand on either side. It was very smooth looking which must be tempting to travelers to write their names in it. They didn't merely scratch their name into the dirt but rather used rocks to spell out their message. It ranged from peace signs to names to hearts. It went on for miles.

We were a mile away from the salt flats and decided to stop off for lunch at the Salt Flat Cafe, a small Mexican restaurant. The portions were huge and it was $12 for both of us. What a bah-gan!

All in all it was a 2 hour drive. Now mind you, a lot of times I don't know much about the destination, I just go with it. So we arrive at the welcoming sign and it's a flat, vast land of salty nothingness. I asked Jim, "So we drove 2 hours for this?" I don't know what I was expecting. Yeah, I know SALT and FLATS. Duh. After we drove over the salt, it turned out to be an OK experience. The salt glistened in the sun. It was kinda pretty.



There was only one other vehicle on the flats so we let Dasher loose. He sniffed around a little and then jumped back into the Cherokee. It seemed strange of him.

Here's todays photos:

11-16-08 Sunday (Another One Bites the Dust)

Jim is in bed with a headache. We think it's his contact lenses because the doctor changed the brand and the prescription. They're the same brand I wear, meant to sleep in and no hassles for 30 days a pair. Advil will be his friend for today. Well, OK, Wal-Mart's Equate (store brand) will be.

Depending on how his headache is, I may very well be gracing you with my famous day of nothing blog entry. Oh goody.

Just a thought; perhaps the Mormon videos with probable subliminal messages in conjunction with his new contacts, have created this headache? Nah, he had a headache a day or two before we went there. Quit blaming everything on those people.

I forget what we were going to do today. Jim had some of the day planned out already. I think it was a state park or something. It's been cold here so we typically have to dress in layers when we take these day trips. I track the weather on my Google homepage for cities we're planning to visit. St. George, UT in the Southwestern corner, runs about 9 degrees warmer. I'll be loving that. It seems like since we've been in Salt Lake, St. George has had the picture perfect weather.

We've been here so long, I don't even care about the mountains. I look at them and think "They look like they're in the way." When I see something for a while, I no longer appreciate its beauty. I can't help it. It probably happens to all of us. When is the last time you appreciated natural beauty in your own area? Be it a stream, lake, flowers, mountains, beach, etc. This is a once in a life time trip for us; one that many may dream about and all I do is bitch, right?

I spent an hour reading someone's gay fulltimer RV blog I stumbled on. Their blog seems to be more about the destination than the getting there for now. Our blog is about the destination but also the day to day silly stuff and definitely the getting there. Right now, theirs is focused on California which is great for us as that will be another destination in the near future as the cold approaches. They include reviews about various tourist spots (to some I've been to back in 1985) and RV parks. I'll be referring to his blog often as a guide for things to see.

We've not done anything today. It's 5pm and it's getting dark so sightseeing is not an option. We did however, talk to our parents today. It's so sad to talk to them weekly and learn of yet another business in their town that has met with a financial demise. Nevermind sad, it's downright scary.

Allegedly, these, per a website, are dumb Utah laws in existence.


Dumb Utah Laws

It is against the law to fish from horseback.
When a person reaches the age of 50, he/she can then marry their cousin.
It is illegal not to drink milk.
It is illegal to detonate any nuclear weapon. You can have them, but you just can't detonate them.
Birds have the right of way on all highways.
A husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife while she is in his presence.
You're not allowed to sell beverages containing more than 3.2% alcohol.
It's legal for restaurants to serve wine with meals, but only if you ask for the wine list.
It is considered an offense to hunt whales.

Kaysville
You must have identification to enter a convenience store after dark.

Logan
Women may not swear.

Monroe
Daylight must be visible between partners on a dance floor.

Provo
Throwing snowballs will result in a $50 fine.

Salt Lake City
No one may walk down the street carrying a paper bag containing a violin.

Trout Creek
Pharmacists may not sell gunpowder to cure headaches.

11-15-08 Saturday (Mormisney)

Today we drove to Saltair. Saltair was closed for the season. I've included some history (listed in blue) about Saltair. Skip it if you'd like. We wish we did.

The Saltair Resort is considered an important culture symbol of the Salt Lake Valley. In 1893 the Mormon Church built Saltair on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, located about sixteen miles from downtown Salt Lake City. Architect Richard K.A. Kletting, a renowned architect famous for his work with the Utah State Capitol Building, chose a moorish style design for the resort. The church owned the building until 1906 when it was sold to a group of private Mormon businessmen.

Over the next century the resort suffered through its first devastating fire in 1925. After Saltair burned to the ground Raymond J. Ashton and Raymond L. Evans designed a new pavilion similar to the old with hopes of restoring the popular Utah attraction. Due to the financial stress of the Great Depression and another costly fire in 1931 the resort closed during World War II only to be reopened after the war.

In 1970 the resort once more burned to the ground and was forgotten until 1981 when a new pavilion was built around the original site. Throughout the 80's Saltair experienced trouble with flooding and the lake's shifting water levels. Finally in 1992 the resort was purchased by the local Great Salt Lake Land Company. Restoration headed by the Salt Lake attorney and real estate developer Walter Plumb was finished shortly thereafter and the resort complete with a new concert stage for local and national artists was dedicated in 1993 during the resort's one hundredth anniversary. The remodeled resort also hosts a private club with liquor license.

It was ugly. An ugly building, no landscaping, just ugly. The surrounding area, yep, ugly too. We drove up a bit further to a State run marina and wasted $2.00 on a half hour of our life we'll never get back. The only aquatic life that survives the high salt content is brine shrimp. The brine die this time of year and are washed ashore. The odor in some spots made us gag. Anymore and I think we would have puked. We left after that.

We thought we'd try to offset the icky trip by visiting the Mormon Temple. It was very pretty.....in a brain washing type way. We took a tour. Tours were every 15 minutes and were headed by 2 "Sisters" as they are referred to. They spoke about their beliefs and their history. It was all very creepy to me. Some of the displays around made me feel as though I was at the Mormon Disney. I couldn't wait to leave. I could hear It's a Small World in my head. Get it out! Make it stop! I'll be OK.

All the tourguides carried The Book of Mormon and wore name badges prefaced with "Sister" before their last names. I felt like I was on the backlot of The Stepford Wives.

I did find out something I didn't know. It is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Their "bible" is The Book of Mormon which was written by someone with the last name of Mormon. They're really not "Mormons", that's more of a nickname for their religion. I also found out it took 40 years to build the Temple.

Here's a video recap of our day.

The trees outside on their property had Christmas lights on all branches. It looks like it would be beautiful to see at night. Jim asked if I wanted to come back at night. I rather stay away.

On a different note, I wanted to share with you, a Wal-Mart bingo card that Nancypants shared with us. I edited it a little bit due to 1 spelling error and a very racial spot. It's funny.

11-14-08 Friday (Get Bent)

Omigod, I'm so tired of Salt Lake City! I miss the RV. Jim called Bountiful RV and spoke with Darren. We were hoping to have it for the weekend. Darren said the gutter/drip rail came in bent and another was due in today. We never heard back from him. Tomorrow they're open until noon, so I guess we'll be spending the weekend here again.

I know there's still so many things to see here. I guess we've just become lazy with the absence of the RV. I'm not quite sure what our problem is. Jim had a headache all day, and napped a lot to try and get rid of it. I did the laundry and played video games. By 7pm he still didn't feel that great so I went onto Wal-Mart by myself. I had to get some more meals and other supplies. I think we've been to Wal-Mart so much because we forget things. In the RV we have a wipe erase board that we add things to as we need them. Also we hold back on what we buy, expecting to be out of the hotel in time. I've gotten a few comments (email) about us loving Wal-Mart. I used to hate Wal-Mart when we lived in Florida. Most of that was because the store was dirty, messy and the lines were excessive. Since we left Florida, those 3 problems don't exist. Most of the time, cashiers are waiting for a customer. Strange. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer Publix, Smith's, Kroger, and a lot of other stores we've been to. Wal-Mart's bakery and deli is weak and untasty. As I've said before, it's mostly about the expenses. Keep them low, extend the trip.

11-13-08 Thursday (Can't You See?)

Jim recovered the RV door header that is at the bathroom to living area entryway. We did that in the brown that is on the booth trims. We'll probably go to the RV tomorrow to check on the status as well as install the doorway header.

Fabrics from left to right: Possible fabric for window frames, dinette cushions, dinette side trims.

Opinions?

We stopped into Eye Masters to find out about getting exams and what our insurance would cover. All of them there were so nice. (Brittany, Fawn and Alissa) I'm probably spelling their names wrong. They were able to take us in fairly quickly without an appointment. While we waited, we picked out new frames. During Jim's exam, the doctor discovered that Sam's did not make his glasses the correct prescription about a year ago. This is assuming his glasses prescription is the same as his contacts. Jim held off on glasses until he seeks resolution with Sams. Our insurance pays for either contacts or glasses. I used my allowance on contacts and we'll decide the rest later. During my exam, I found out my prescription was too strong. With a sample pair of contacts, I was able to get 20/10 vision!

Me goofing off with the largest lenses I could find.

With getting a late start, and being at Eye Masters a long time, we came back to the hotel afterwards. Tomorrow and this weekend we plan to see some of the sights that JD was kind enough to tell us about via email. Thanks JD, you put a lot of time into that email.

11-12-08 Wednesday (Wake Me up)

Sorry, not an exciting day. That's what happens when we're "trapped" in this city for too long. I'm hoping the RV will be ready before the weekend and then we can move on to a new city.

We did manage to get to Joann's today to get a fabric sample for the window trims. Our staple supply had run low so a trip to Home Depot was also in order. I guess all of that shopping made us hungry and unable to wait 30 minutes to get home, so we stopped at Chili's. We ate so much, but needed desert so we walked over to Smith's Supermarket for brownies and icecream. (Did I just hear a pig squeal?).

Turnovers. See the pan. The irony.

See, I told you it wasn't exciting.

11-11-08 Tuesday (It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This)

We extended the hotel stay another week. I foresee out of pocket expenses in our near future. The insurance max is $750 and it's running us $380 a week. Tomorrow will be the 2 week mark. One of the Bountiful RV owners wants us to come and take a roadtest with him. I think it's pretty useless. If you can't drive at 65mph and feel the vibration and the constant steering play, then you need to go into a different line of business. In my automotive experience, a roadtest was very useful for intermittent concerns. We've called him, and we're going to meet him now. It's about a half hour away.

We roadtested with Darren who feels that the steering is a little loose but not excessive. He thinks a new gear box would only make a slight improvement. The vibration felt in the steering wheel is also normal for that Ford chassis. It's not the first time, we've been told our RV is fine. We'll just deal with it I guess.

After dealing with Bountiful RV, we went to Antelope Island. This island is one of several in the Great Salt Lake. A 7 mile drive on the causeway lead to this nice little island. It was pretty empty, probably due to the time of the year. They have a marina, campground, cafe, and lots of bison. Actually they keep around 500 bison and sell the remainder each year. Strangely, bison aren't native to the island and were brought in years ago. The weather was cloudy and cold today. Even if the weather was nice, I'm not sure we would have seen anything more than we did today. The video below is a large file so it will probably say "buffering" for a few minutes before you can start it.

Jim and I have noticed that State and National parks thrive on their natural beauty but forgo safety precautions. A so many parks we've been to, wild life is all around and often dangerous, yet no cages or barriers exist. It's awesome. If it was Disney, we, or the wildlife would be behind glass. Aside from wildlife, sometimes there are cliffs with pretty far drops below. A lot of times, there's no guard rails. I'm glad though, it would certainly detract from the natural beauty.

I've had so many people ask me how the oil pressure sending unit worked out. OK, so no one asked... hey I'm just trying to keep the conversation rolling. It's not like you're helping it any. Where was I? Oh, it seems to be working fine.

For dinner, we are at Marie Callenders. It's much like a Perkins. We both had chicken dishes and they were very good. We found a buy 1 get 1 free printable coupon on line.

The next 3 days here are supposed to be rainy. Argh.

11-10-08 Monday (Where's Waldo?)

It's been a cold and rainy day here. We're been having oil pressure problems (per the gauge) in the Cherokee. We took a chance on replacing the oil sending unit since that seemed to have been the most popular explanation via Google. Jim replaced it; I did laundry. Sadly, that's about all we did today thus far.

Jim worked with Progressive and Bountiful RV through phone calls. The gutter can't be found to match, we'll have to get white ones. Progressive has agreed to replace both sides so they'll match. Jim overnighted the jack for $120 freight so we can get this done and move on.

If you had problems viewing the videos from yesterday's post, all 3 are finally working. With some research last night, I found out a lot of people were having the same issue.

Let's talk about Velvetta. We like Velvetta Cheese and Shells but tonight we went a different direction. We picked up some items at Wal-Mart (YES, AGAIN) for dinner. The whole meal was comical, really. Anyway, we selected Velvetta Rotini with Broccoli.

It's a visual.

You too can buy this at a Wal-Mart near you.

I thought it was oregano. Turns out, it's the broccoli in freeze dried form. Per the instructions, add to the boiling water with the pasta. I was hoping it would magically expand once water was added. Note the wasteful amount of packaging for a pinch of broccoli.

Who knows how much of it went through the colander.

Not much broccoli. It's like Kraft bought whatever Wal-Mart swept off the broccoli bin in produce.

The finished product. Can you find the broccoli? Did we pay extra for this crap?

The other part of the meal was sausage filled with mozzarella cheese and artichoke. I bit into it and the white cheese shot out onto Jim's arm, the wall, and 12 feet away, a mirrored closet door. Save the crude comments for email; they won't get published. Trust me, we've come up with many just by ourselves. As our parents read the blog we have to maintain the angel-like demeanor they've grown accustomed to from us.

11-9-08 Sunday (Dive On In)

Shortly after posting yesterday's blog entry, I ended up eating 2 bowls of cereal. They were small bowls with fat free milk so perhaps it wasn't too bad. I think I've mentioned this before but I've put back on most of the weight that I once lost. Jim is doing well at maintaining his weight and most often eats more than I do. I'm a child cereal type of guy. My favorite is Count Chocula. I've always loved sweetened marshmallow cereals. During my healthier eating days of not-too-long-ago, I switched to Special K Red Berry. I liked it and still do but crave that chocolate. Meanwhile, Jim picks out cardboard with fiber, fruit, oats, wheat, yogurt, granola, and a splash of soy. It's possible I might like the cardboard but my appetite prevents me from even trying it.

Late night snacking is going to be my downfall. Be it pretzels, cookies, cake or cereal, it's obvious it doesn't work for me. I'm at least getting fatter for cheaper. We both try to buy our cereals in the Malt-O-Meal variety. That's a huge price difference. My requirement was chocolate and marshmallows. One time Jim shopped on his own and picked me up some cereal without marshmallows. He took a bag of marshmallows and dumped some in. I had to explain the difference between fresh mini marshmallows and hard cereal marshmallows. Some people just don't understand.


Finally, we left the hotel to do some sightseeing. We took a drive to Brighton and Alta, located in Big Cottonwood Canyon and Little Cottonwood Canyon, respectively. Both cities seem to be ski resort communities with many ski lifts. There were quite a few people snowboarding and skiing. Large, beautiful homes speckle the mountain sides. I can only imagine how much those go for. I didn't snap a single photo. It was all nice but not camera worthy.

For dinner this evening, we're going to attempt The Mayan Adventure. I'm hoping Sundays, later evening will be ideal.

OK, we're back from the Mayan. Allow me to become critical of the place. We pulled up to the restaurant and were happy that the parking lot appeared somewhat empty. In front of the building stood a nice looking fountain. It would have been nicer if it actually had water in it. We entered the front doors and were promptly greeted. I gave my name, the wait was to be 5-15 minutes. The waiting area had lots of Mayan decor/artifacts. I spotted 3 animatronic parrots and the like and all were lifeless. 2 minutes from when I gave my name, we were called to be seated. We were seated to the side of the water fall stage area which was OK. The place was decorated very well and was similar to "The Rain Forest Cafe". The menu choices were sparse and disappointing. The chips at the table were warm but overly salted with chunks of sea salt. The salsa was lame. I had a shredded pork chimichanga which was dry and only contained pork inside. Accompanied by refried beans (I've had better out of a can), and yellow rice. Jim had a pork enchilada with the same dry stuff. The service was great. The show is done approximately every 10 minutes. Reviews for the restaurant say the show rotates so you won't keep seeing the same one. A male and female cliff dived several times each, while a "goddess" in costume banged a drum and pranced. We couldn't understand what was piped through the speakers because it was too low, or perhaps distorted. The prices were fair. That's my review.

Oh, and we went to Wal-Mart again...... oye vey.

11-8-08 Saturday (Wants - Money = Sad)

We just came back from Camping World. Jim had found they had the exact same RV as us for sale. Same year, same colors, same layout. This one had a little rougher looking wear and tear on it than ours. The exterior had a new paint job and looked good. We went there to test drive it and compare against our own. We told the salesman, Dale, most of the truth. We tweaked it a little stating that we were interested in the same coach we had with this better paint and hopefully a better interior. We figured we wouldn't be able to just walk in there without an intention to buy just to roadtest. After taking some time to appear like serious buyers, we asked for a roadtest. The battery was dead so we looked around while they were dealing with that.

We looked at a 98 diesel 40' Beaver (no jokes) coach. The interior was spectacular. The salesman figured the lowest he could take would be around $70,000. Of course we weren't there to buy anything but we were hooked. Jim and I thought of so many ways to try to come up with the money for it. Sell the Beamer? Use some of our savings? So many possibilities but they all left us broke. We finally had the smarts to walk away.

As we roadtested the twin to ours, I suggested maybe we trade the RV in on a 5th wheel. Trade the Cherokee on a 3500 pickup. We found that we'd get more bang for the buck with this method. We started looking at 5th wheels. I have to have one with a washer/dryer hookup or it's a deal breaker. We saw an immaculate 2004 5th wheel with all of our needs in it. This thing was spectacular and well cared for. The interior was modern, with silver accents, just stunning! If you want to see the slideshow of the RV, click here. The kitchen was HUGE. I love it. It has surround sound, high ceilings, ceiling fan, etc. A strange thing about a lot of 5th wheels is that the bathrooms are integrated with the bedrooms. The toilet is in a different room, but the rest is open. I guess it's not a big deal. There is a privacy accordion door to separate the 2 as needed.

The problem with this whole deal is the damn thing is $45,000. Sure they'd probably take less for it, with room to negotiate being it's used, but we'd have to buy a pickup truck to haul it for $15,000 or so. It's all depressing and I wish we hadn't looked......

Dinner out this evening was tasty. Dave mailed us 2 for 1 dinner coupons for TGI Fridays. Jim had French Onion soup and I had a very tasty Chicken Tortilla soup. My main entree was a pork chop while Jim enjoyed a Flat Iron Steak. All very good, and of course, thanks to Dave, the price was right. For desert, we were to stop at Smith's Supermarket and hit their bakery. As soon as we unlocked the hotel room door, Jim exclaimed with a rather whiny tone, "We forgot to stop at Smith's!" We didn't need the desert anyway. Sure, we could have went out again for it.

Prior to dinner we filled the Cherokee at Costco at $2.15 a gallon. I'm not sure what gas prices are where you live but this is the lowest thus far. After that, we went to a going-out-of-business sale at Mervyns. Mervyns is a Macy's type store. The store had 30-50% off. There's 2 things Jim can't resist, a sale and name brand clothing. Browsing lead to disappointment, naturally, everything was full suggested retail less 30%. The only 50% items were costume jewelry and the like. What a joke. We'll probably be stuck in Salt Lake long enough for 80% off..... let's hope not.

I had to go back and edit this entry. I forgot to tell you the outcome of the roadtest. The RV twin of ours did vibrate but not as bad. The steering was slightly loose compared to ours.

I'd like to get a little Sally Struther-ish with all of you. We need sponsors for our roadtrip. Did you know that for just the cost of a cup of coffee, you can help Jim and Garret explore our great country? Buy a cup, at only $1,000 a cup. It's good Folgers instant with FLAVOR CRYSTALS!