Monday, March 23, through Tuesday, March 31, 2015: Finishing Up In Pahrump:

Monday was a return to routine---walking the dogs, shopping for food, reading mail, doing crossword puzzles, playing free cell, watching Fox News, etc.  Nothing spectacular.

This park has a nice little cactus garden.  One of the plants is in bloom.  Monday night several of its flowers opened up.  Very nice.

Becky went for a hike in the nearby Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on Tuesday.  She went with Amy Kellerman, who was a co-worker at Zion National Park in 2004 and now lives in Las Vegas. 

While they were hiking and lunching, I baby sat the dogs.  It's exhausting to be alone with them; it seems they (at least Ramsey) want to go out every 15 minutes.

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at Mom's Diner, which, according to Trip Advisor, is the second best restaurant in Pahrump.  (Symphony's is number one.)  It was very good. 

After breakfast, we stopped at a drive-through car wash to get the truck clean.  On the way through the wash, we noticed two small holes in our windshield that appeared to have been made by some sort of pellet gun.  They were in an obvious area that suggested that they were brand new since we hadn't noticed them previously. 

I have no idea how they got there.  I spent some time on the phone in the afternoon talking to our insurance company and a local glass installer, to set up an appointment for a new windshield Friday morning. 

We used the breakfast leftovers in making quesadillas for dinner Wednesday night.

Thursday was a routine day again, but the redbox movie, Beyond the Lights, was anything but routine.  It was terrific.

Right on time Friday morning, Danny Hycz showed up to replace our windshield.  According to him, it turned out to be quite a project because the last time we had the windshield replaced the installer did a crappy job, making replacing it difficult.  In any event, we have a nice new windshield now.

Since Danny didn't want us to drive the truck until Saturday so the windshield-installation mastic could cure, we bicycled over to Becky's hairdresser, Cuts & Dos, for my periodic haircut in early afternoon.

Becky made me eat some eggplant with our chicken dinner.  She knows I normally hate eggplant, but she promised I would like this version.  She was right.  It was delicious.

Saturday involved a trip to Las Vegas to have lunch with Paula Browne.  We ate at Frank & Fina's Cocina for the third year in a row.  I had Tilapia Vera Cruz, which was delicious.  For the first time in history I did not have a Margarita while eating at a Mexican restaurant.  I don't know what came over me.  Of course, it was fun catching up with Paula.  She's a delight.

On the way back, we drove the 13-mile scenic drive through Red Rock Canyon, where Becky had gone hiking on Tuesday.  It's a truly beautiful area.  We stopped at the faux ghost town of Bonnie Springs Ranch just outside the official wilderness area and had an adult beverage in their funky old bar/restaurant.

 

Sunday morning I woke up with the beginnings of what I thought was a bronchial infection, with which I am very familiar---having had several of them over the years.  I located an urgent care facility nearby, and spent the next hour cooling my heels waiting for a doctor's attention.  Mike (actually a PA) poked and prodded and came up with the diagnosis and prescription I expected.  I'm on the road to recovery. 

Sunday night we rented Kill The Messenger again, and this time we actually watched it.  It's only a so-so movie, I think.  Jeremy Renner is not one of my favorite actors.    

 

 

Monday, we started preparing to leave Pahrump.  It's easier if all the tiny steps are spread out.  We finished the day by taking the dogs to the All Creatures Animal Hospital to get their annual rattlesnake booster shots.  Since Ramsey hates shots (Kelsey couldn't care less) Becky attempted to soften him up by giving him a sedative two hours before taking him to the doctor.  Apparently, it should have been three hours because he didn't get woozy until after we got back home.  With strength and perseverance, however, the doctor was able to give Ramsey the shot.  Watching him flop around later was quite funny.

 

Tuesday, we recognized two anniversaries:  The 4th anniversary (Sunday) of our having bought our current rig, and the 33rd anniversary (Monday) of my having quit smoking.  We celebrated by having lunch at Symphony's, the restaurant at The Pahrump Valley Winery.  According to Trip Advisor, Symphony's is the best restaurant in Pahrump.  Based on our experience, the rating is well-earned.  I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich, washed down with a delightful glass (OK, two glasses) of Viognier.

 

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting ready to leave for Hurricane, Utah, Wednesday morning.      

 
     

Sunday, March 15, through Sunday, March 22, 2015: The Week Of The Trailer:

This week we will rent a trailer to carry to our house in Arizona some of the extraneous stuff we carry in the rig, plus the stuff from Bill Shelton's house that we are taking.  That will involve leaving Pahrump on Wednesday, spending two nights in Pasadena while loading the trailer, then taking a two-day trip to Williams (spending Friday night in Needles), emptying the trailer, spending Saturday night in Williams, and returning to Pahrump on Sunday.  We prepared a little on Sunday, taking the hitch out of the truck, reorganizing the bed, and otherwise starting to get ready to leave for several days. 

Becky took Ramsey and Kelsey on a walk in the desert outside our RV park on Sunday---letting both of them off-leash for a while.  She started that with Ramsey just recently.  Kelsey has always been very good off-leash and Ramsey is beginning to understand---and cooperate. 

Sunday night we splurged on Filets Mignon and a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for dinner.  I sautéed onions to add to the mix.  Quite tasty.  Becky continued her pickleball playing on Monday while, as usual, I tended to the dogs and read.    

The Monday night redbox movie was The Theory of Everything, an absolutely terrific film with an astonishing performance by Edward Redmayne.

Tuesday morning, we started off with a breakfast of very nice French Toast in the lodge after which I finished The Fourth K, which was too long and not that interesting.  We then proceeded to get ready in earnest for our trailer adventure---sorting stuff and packing what we could in the truck bed, and setting up the rest in our living room to put in the trailer Wednesday morning.
 
Wednesday morning at 8:00 I was at the U-Haul place to pick up the trailer.  It might have been the oldest trailer in the world, but it was just fine.

We loaded the trailer and headed out about 10:30, arriving in at Becky's dad's house in Pasadena, 254 miles away, in mid-afternoon after an uneventful trip.  We loaded the trailer with the stuff we're taking from the house, but left the trailer parked in the driveway. 

We then headed for Le Reve, the hotel in Pasadena where we were to spend the next two nights.  We were tired from the trip so we ordered a pizza from the nearest Papa John's.  It was very good.  Wednesday morning, I dropped Becky off in downtown LA for a facial at her favorite salon, then spent the next 1 1/2 hours killing time.  I first stopped by Becky's grandparents' former home at 340 N. Beachwood Drive in the Hancock Park area to take pictures for the family's enjoyment,

then drove by my old house on Las Palmas Avenue which looked the same as it did when I sold it to the current owner in 1984, then did a drive-by look at a house that had been rehabbed by my friend Mark Brown and his inamorata, Pat Thomas, that is across the street from Mark's house (about two miles from Becky's grandparents' house).  I then picked up Becky and we returned to Bill Shelton's house to finish looking through the hundreds of books for anything stuck in there that might be interesting. 

We found a few items, including Becky's sister Carrie's first bible, but nothing that was earth-shaking.  We then used our truck to help Becky's sister Wendy move some stuff from the house to her house---only 1/2-mile away.  On the second of three trips, we got a call from Becky to the effect that Ramsey had escaped from the yard heading for who-knows-where.  We joined in the search.  Becky finally located him in the yard of the house just below Bill's house, but had quite a time getting him out because the gates were locked.  But all was well.

We then went to Becky's brother Peter's home in San Gabriel for a meeting of the trustees of the family trust created by Bill and Nancy Shelton several years ago.  The current trustees---Becky, Peter, and Wendy---held their meeting while Kai Kuwata, Terry Shelton, and I watched, and tossed in a few words of course. 

After the meeting, Wendy, Becky, and I went to Nikki C's restaurant in Pasadena for dinner.  I had Cioppino, while Becky and Wendy shared Fish Tacos and a Kale salad.  The food was pretty good, but otherwise we weren't terribly impressed with the place.

We packed up Friday morning and headed to Bill's house to hook up the trailer and start out on the first leg of our trip to Williams.  On the way to the house, we stopped at a nearby park to give the dogs one last chance to "prepare" for the trip.  At one point, Becky looked up at a couple passing on the sidewalk just outside the park and recognized Al Nicol, a long-time co-worker from her Union Bank days.  We had a nice chat with Al and his wife. 

Our first overnight stop was Needles, California, 250 easy miles away.  We stayed at the Best Western Colorado River Inn. 



We were too tired to go out for dinner so we ordered take-out from the restaurant next door---Juicy's Famous River Café.  It was a "party platter" of deep-fried stuff that was actually pretty good though terrible for our diets.  The next morning we had a free breakfast of scrambled eggs at Juicy's (as part of the stay at the Best Western) and headed out for the 175-mile leg to Williams.  Again, the trip was easy.  We arrived in the early afternoon, deposited the trailer's contents at the house, mostly in the garage,

and said hello to Danielle Worthington, our broker and new friend, who stopped by.  We walked around the house and congratulated ourselves on having bought such a nice place.  Then, while Becky walked Ramsey and Kelsey around the nearby Cataract Lake County Park, I dropped off the trailer at one of the local U-Haul establishments.  We then checked in at the Travelodge for the night.  We were exhausted so I went to the Safeway to pick up cheese and crackers for dinner.  After stuffing ourselves, we crashed for the night.

Williams had an anonymous donor who gave the town a large number of solar lampposts to adorn both Route 66 streets, the eastbound one-way Main street and the westbound one-way Railroad Street.  It turned out that many of them don't work so their solar panels have been removed for repair.

After waffles for breakfast at the Travelodge on Sunday morning we left early for the 265-mile trip back to Pahrump.  Without the trailer we were able to make better time.  We stopped at a Lenscrafters in Las Vegas so Becky could see whether it was worthwhile getting her glasses fixed (she suffered a slight chip while rescuing Ramsey from his great escape on Thursday) which turned out to be not worthwhile, then proceeded on to Pahrump.  It was nice getting back.  For dinner, we finished up the cheese and crackers from Saturday night, then I watched a couple of Red Eye episodes on the DVR, and we hit the sack.  It was the end of a nearly 1,000-mile roundtrip, and we were tired but had a good feeling of accomplishment.     

 

 

 

Sunday, March 8, through Saturday, March 14, 2015: Week Two in Pahrump:

Since Becky did not play pickleball on Sunday, the focus of the day was washing our rig.  Becky, of course, was the primary worker; I was mostly a hose connector and ladder mover.  The rig looks really good when it's clean.

Our movie watching binge continued.  The Sunday redbox movie was Love Is Strange, with John Lithgow and Alfred Molina.  It's a nice portrayal of the tribulations of an aging gay couple, but doesn't seem to have a point.

Monday was the second day in a row Becky did not play pickleball, so she went on a 13-mile bike ride instead.

The Monday night redbox movie was The Guest, a cheapo indie that turned out to be pretty good.

Becky returned to pickleball on Tuesday, while I started Sail, another James Patterson novel.  Ramsey was a pain in the butt all morning.  When we went out for a walk, he didn't want to go where I wanted to go, and several times refused to move in the direction I indicated.  Within minutes after returning from a walk, he would start signaling that he wanted to go out again.  As soon as Becky returned at noon, Ramsey hopped up on the bed and slept for a couple of hours.  I spent most of the afternoon engrossed in my book.  We took the night off from our movie binge.

We went on a 65-mile field trip to the Furnace Creek area of Death Valley on Wednesday.  Ramsey and Kelsey went with us.  We saw Jerry Smith at the Inn.  He and Becky worked together at the El Tovar Hotel at the South Rim some years ago.  We had a nice chat with him. 

We had sandwiches from the general store for lunch, then headed back.  We had a little drizzle off and on, but it was a nice trip.

Immediately after returning, I finished Sail. 

The Wednesday redbox movie was Nightcrawler, with Jake Guyllenhaal and Rene Russo.  He was his usual creepy self (typecasting?) and the movie was very entertaining,

Becky played pickleball again on Thursday while I started reading The Fourth K by Mario Puzo (and shepherded the dogs).  The Thursday night redbox movie was Kill The Messenger, with Jeremy Renner.  It was so uninteresting that we had it on but didn't really watch it.  I don't remember what it was about.  I took Friday off from reading and watched (in addition to the dogs) a bunch of old Frasier reruns on the Hallmark Channel.  That was a terrific show.  It's still funny 20 years later, the sign of great writing.  The Friday night redbox movie was John Wick, with Keanu Reeves.  It was a way-over-the-top shoot-'em-up, but quite entertaining nonetheless.          

Saturday was a pickleball day off for Becky, so she wore out the dogs with extensive walks, while I read and did some chores.  Pretty normal.  The redbox movie was Rosewater, the film written and directed by Jon Stewart.  Becky liked it more than I did; I thought it was too slow. 

     

Sunday, March 1, through Saturday, March 7, 2015: Basking in Peaceful Pahrump:

We left just before 8:00 in the morning, and had a wet but otherwise uneventful 6 1/2 hour, 337 mile trip to Pahrump, Nevada.  The rain was never more than a drizzle, but it made our start kind of messy.  (We tracked wet sand all over the rig just before we left.) 

This was probably the farthest in distance and the longest in time move we have ever made, having chosen to be on an Interstate all the way to Las Vegas to avoid being in the boonies for many miles on such a bleak day, but it was not difficult.  Our only fuel stop was in Primm, Nevada, at Whiskey Pete's.  It's right on the California/Nevada border.  It was interesting to see how much traffic there was on I-15 leaving Nevada (at the border, three lanes became two) bumper to bumper, stop and go, until it finally spread out several miles into California.

We arrived at our RV park---the Preferred RV Resort, at which we are members and at which we plan to stay for the entire month---at 2:30 and slid right into a nice spot very near where we stayed last year. 

Setting up in the rain was easy but cold (43 degrees) and damp, and we quickly decided that Chili would be a great thing to have for dinner.  Fortunately, we had the fixings in house and Becky whipped it up in time for an early dinner. 

Ramsey and Kelsey are familiar with this place and enjoyed exploring it for all the wonderful new smells that exist here.  It was altogether a nice way to start our Pahrump adventure.

Monday, we had an almost free lunch at the China Wok buffet. Technically, it was free because we were willing to sit through a pitch for a medevac service that caters to oldsters.  Actually, it was not free because we signed up for the service.  But the food was good.

I finally started reading a book on Monday.  I've been out of practice lately.  This one ("The Quickie") is a James Patterson thriller I got from Bev Newhouse.  We'll see how long it takes me to finish it.

Our Monday night redbox movie was Whiplash, the film for which J. K .Simmons just won a best supporting actor Oscar.  It's a terrific movie, with great music, and Simmons did a masterful job---as really a lead actor, not a supporting actor.  If he had not previously appeared primarily on TV, he probably would have been a best actor nominee, in which case he probably would not have won.

We woke on Tuesday to a 37 degree temperature.  I had not expected it to be so cold, but we have the right clothes anyway.  I think we'll survive the last three weeks of winter.  The snow-capped mountains between Pahrump and Las Vegas were gorgeous! 

I was assigned shopping duty for a change, and I mastered Wal-Mart and Albertson's after a while.  At one point on the way to Pahrump, we received a dashboard warning that our coolant level was low.  On Tuesday, I bought some coolant to add and when I opened the hood I discovered that the radiator cap was missing.  The most obvious possible reason was that the last time I had the truck Jiffy-Lubed the mechanic forgot to put the cap back on after checking the fluid level.  I bought a new one at the nearby O'Reilly Auto Parts and the problem was solved. 

We had a brief heavy wind and light rain experience in the afternoon, which caused me to hop in the truck and rescue Becky and the dogs who were out on a walk when it came up. 

The Tuesday redbox movie was Foxcatcher.  It was eerie and not as good as I had expected.  But Steve Carell did an excellent job as the creepy John DuPont.

Wednesday was back to normal---a few chores and a little dog walking.  And some reading.  We are planning a run with a U-Haul trailer to Pasadena (and then on to Williams) in a couple of weeks to pick up some stuff from Bill's house and to empty our rig of extraneous things. 

We went to the local U-Haul franchisee to discuss things and Becky had a who-do-you-know session with the owner, who had spent a lot of time in the San Gabriel Valley area.

The Wednesday redbox movie was St. Vincent with Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy.  It was a very sweet film.  Murray is a better actor than most people give him credit for.

I had a busy Thursday, dropping Becky off at a pickleball venue,

making the reservation for a U-Haul trailer, having one of our propane tanks refilled, having blood drawn at a nearly-impossible-to-find Labcorp facility, stopping at a Humana office to ask a question about my Part D insurance, picking Becky up, visiting an RV show at a local casino parking lot, fixing the wheel assembly that had ripped out of our bed, walking Ramsey and Kelsey a few times, and watching the Thursday night redbox movie, The Drop, with James Gandolfini (which was pretty good).

Friday was a lot simpler:  Mostly reading and dog-walking while Becky played pickleball.  The Friday night redbox movie was The Judge.  Not bad, well-produced, good courtroom stuff.

Saturday morning, while Becky played pickleball, I finished The Quickie.  Typical James Patterson; very complicated.  We had sushi for lunch at Ohjah Japanese Steak House.  It was delicious.  The Saturday redbox movie was Calvary, a fascinating Irish film.

Thus ended our first week in Pahrump.