In Palm Springs now!

It's been a month since I have last posted because we have not had internet access except on our Android phones. We can tether the laptop but we have been maxing out the data plans just using the phones so I have decided to put the blog on hold until we could get back to some WiFi access.

We are in the Palm Springs Thousand Trails now which has WiFi access so I will do a quick update for the last month.

I last left off in Hemet at the Golden Palms RV park after we were evacuated from Silent Valley because of the fire. After four really nice nights at the Palms we moved to Menifee to the Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes for three weeks. The problems there is two fold.

1. It is only 30 amp so if it too hot the air conditioner will not keep up. We can only run one A/C on 30 amp. It was hot for most of the month.

2. It is right next to a working dairy and the flies can be a problem.

Here is a picture of our camp site.

Wilderness Lakes

There really isn't a lake at Wilderness Lakes, but there are canals that are stocked with fish that run through the park.

Wilderness Lakes Canals

The problem with the canals is that the ducks and geese poop all over the place and also it is closer to the dairy so the flies are everywhere! We parked on the complete other side of the park and although there was no water there was also no flies!

They have two swimming pools, an adult pool and a family pool. We initially went to the adult pool. The problem is that it is right next to the dairy and the files are thick! The flies land on the water and die. You have to keep brushing them out of your way. It is really gross! 

We decided it was better to put up with the misbehaved kids then the flies.Because it was so hot, be went to the pool everyday. During the week there really weren't many kids at the pool, but on the weekend it was crazy!

Temecula is not to far from Menifee. We went to Old Town Temecula. It had some cute little shops like "old towns" tend to have.

Old Town Temecula

 Diamond Lake reservoir is a made made lake is just a few miles from the campground. While they were digging it up they found a lot of dinosaur bones. Everything from Mammoths to Mastodons to Ground Sloths. They are housed in the Western Science Center.

Western Science Center

Here are some Sloth bones.

Sloth bones

Over the weekend we drove up the mountain to the town of Idylwild. After checking out the town we went a few more miles and checked out the Thousand Trails Idylwild campground. As it turns out they were having an early Octoberfest celebration. We ended up having lunch for cheap at Thousand Trails. They had REALLY good huge bratwurst from a German market, German potato salad, Potato pancake, ice tea, and desert for $5.00!

Idylwild

Patty wanted to go to a ballgame. Lake Elsinore has a minor league team called the Storm and they were playing the Merced Nuts while we were in Menifee. We got front row tickets and had a great time. Oh ya, we won! Look at the batters last name! :)

#8 Hunt

We drove to Yorba Linda to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. President Nixon was born on this property in this house. They built the library and museum on the property. With all the bad press and cover-up he did with Watergate which they did deal with at the museum he also really was a pretty amazing president. History is and will be kind to him. Having said that he should have resigned.

Richard Nixon Birth house

After an enjoyable three weeks at Wilderness Lakes we drove out the 15 to Escondido and then up the 78 to Ramona. This is a very windy road and the new torque converter we put in the truck last October was evident, No slipping at all! We like the Campground. We realized because of the heat we haven't really been walking very much, and we have just been floating around in the pools, so we went to the Big 5 in Ramona and got some water goggles. We have started doing laps in the pools now. We have it covered, When it is cool we will walk, and when it is hot we will swim!

Ramona Canyon Campground

After spending a week in Ramona we continued up the hill to Julian. We stayed at K&Q campground in Julian. This is a CRA campground that we stay in with our RPI membership. 

We really liked the campground! Even though they advertise it as a 30 amp campground we had a 50 amp site. Crystal, James, and Gracie came up on Thursday and stayed with us until Monday. That was so nice to see them! We love them so much!

We went into Julian and went to the Eagle Mine tour.

Eagle Mine tour

Gracie is mesmerized by the mine.

Crystal and Gracie in the mine

Julian is known for it's apples. We bought some apple cider and of course an apple pie! The apple pie is from the Apple Alley Bakery. It was Yummy!

Julian Apple Pie

While the kids were here Patty opened the refrigerator door and the door fell of in her hands! The bottom hinge is made of plastic and is designed to fail! If you Google Norcold refrigerator hinge you will find hundreds of people with the same problem. In fact I found out too late that Norcold even sells an aftermarket part that goes over the plastic hinge to strengthen it because they know its a problem. I called Norcold but because its 3 months out of warranty they don't even want to talk to me!

The problem is that the hinge is built into the door, when it breaks you need to buy a new door at about $700! Of course that door will break also!

I called our great friend and RV wizard RV Bill to ask him what I could do. He suggested I get a piece of aluminum flat bar and drill a hole where the hinge pin goes and drill small screw holes in it and attach it to the bottom of the fridge door. He said it will never break again! I asked if a guy like me who is so tool inept could do it, he said absolutely. 

So we temporally duct taped the heck out of the hinge to keep it together until we got to where I could buy some flat bar. It held. Coming to Palm Desert we even drove down the Banner Grade which has a 40' RV limit and most suggested not to do (I thought is was not to bad), and it still held.

Our first day here on Tuesday we went to Lowes and I bought the shortest piece (3') of aluminum 1/8" x 2" flat bar I could find. I cut it to 8" long and visually measured where the hinge pin would hit. I then taped the broken hinge back on and drilled the pin hole. I then lined the two holes up and inserted a drill bit to keep the lined up. I then drilled 4 smaller screw holes while holding it up to the bottom of the fridge door.

After screwing it on and verifying it would work on the fridge I took it back off filed off the sharp edges and painted it with a can of black satin Rustoleum paint I already had.

Here it is from the bottom sitting on the table.

Hinge Fix

Here is another picture on the fridge. It works great and will never break now! Total cost of fix was $12.00! Thanks RV BIll!

$12.00 fix installed on refrigerator

Well that pretty much gets you caught up with where we are now. We will try and update more often now that we have internet and I'll sneak in some Gracie picks in the coming blogs!

God Bless,

Brian and Patty