Mar 23, 2020
Update for yesterday and today
I am doing two posts tonight in one, so that my next nightly post will be for that particular day. I think that as we head home it is a good idea to be in real time. So this post is for yesterday, Sunday, and today, Monday.
We did not drive down the Las Vegas strip but Sam’s Town is just down the road from us. Their sign says ” WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS & LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU SOON!”
The words in the black part read ” We continue to be #Vegas Stronger”. The words below in the white area read ” DOORS CLOSED, HEARTS OPEN, STAY SAFE. WE’LL BE BACK. WE LOOK FORWARD TO SERVING YOU AGAIN”.
The entrance to the Boulder Casino as in all other casinos have been blocked off so that no one can drive into the property.
We have some fresh produce, no idea how long it will last but we will enjoy every bite as long as we have it. My Everfresh green bags help keep it last longer.
The guard at the Las Vegas RV Resort gatehouse made up this sign to give folks a chuckle. Very creative.
In a nutshell we did a few errands yesterday ( Sunday ) and then started to pack up for the trek north. Our freezer and fridge are almost as full as when we left in October to travel south to the Isla. You may recall that we had three floods due to the toilet over flowing ( clean water ) shortly before we left Mexico last week. Erik diagnosed it as a valve issue and he replaced that valve just a few days before we left. Guess what? You guessed correctly. We have a slow leak from the foot pedal for the toilet. Seems like we got a faulty valve. It will have to be replaced yet again. Meanwhile we just deal with it.
We had rain showers last night and yet again this morning. Good thing Colin was ready to travel except for storing the electrical cable. This has been a very cool stay ( as in cold ) here in Vegas. It might have gotten up to 60 – 62 F at one point. We were hooked up and driving by 10:15AM. A late start as we were not going too far today.
Just got onto I15 from I515 when this toy hauler came up beside us. He came right up to that white car in front of him. Colin was concerned that he was too close which he was. We simply moved ahead to get out of the way.
As we drove past the exit to the Nellis Air Force base I caught these two coming in for a landing. They were moving as we were and I only had a a few seconds to react. Not a perfect photo but a fun one.
We stopped at Loves just off of I15 and HWY 93 where they are charging 3.089 cash per gallon for diesel. We did not stop for fuel but to have the Love’s tire shop check our front tires. Colin has been hearing a different sound, something abnormal since we left Mexico. Sort of like a bump, bump , bump. The Love’s guy checked and said that there were very very slight bulges on the tire treads ( not the sidewalls ), which were creating the sound, but added that they were just fine to drive with. He said that truckers normally drive until their tires are almost bald before replacing them and that this is a very common problem. We do need our tires replaced and have normally done so in the US but right now tires are significantly less in Canada. We will get all the RV tires replaced once we are out of isolation. Colin is not exceeding 55 mph for our safety.
While fuelling up Colin noticed that the hydraulic fluid reservoir box was covered with oil and that the screw lid was loose. He could not tighten it nor remove it, it just went in circles. Hmm, so are we short of hydraulic fluid? He thought that the slides and jacks had been making an unusual sound of late. So yet another issue to resolve.
Not too far out of Las Vegas. Some snow up there.
Approximately 25 minutes down the road we stopped in Alamo to fuel up at the Sinclair. For the third year in a row we saw diesel prices so much lower than anywhere else. We fueled up for $2.699 per gallon, either credit or cash. This was .39 cents per gallon less that Love’s. We saved $17.78USD/$25.63CAD on this fill. Last year we saved around $12.00. Excellent fuel stop with lots of room for RV’s to manoeuvre.
Ely, Nevada is just beyond those nasty looking clouds.
We were getting some snow showers as we drove closer to Ely. Ely is at 6435′ elevation.
Our view outside our front window. The mountains are so majestic. The Valley View RV Park in Ely also has longterm residents. Good for them, how else could they stay in business? Most of us are just stopping for the night. They have great pull thrus for a reasonable price. However this time their wifi is down. Fortunately we have our own ATT hot spot device which for $50.00 we get 10 GBs of data for one month. I only activate our account twice per year, once heading south and once heading north through the US.
We got here about 4:00PM and set up. Colin decided to not put our jacks down nor put out the slides due to a potential hydraulic issue. The sun was shining through our windows and it was lovely and warm. That lasted about forty minutes and then the wind came along with heavy low clouds and some icy rain showers. It certainly was snowing up on the mountain tops. It is supposed to go down to 30F/-2C tonight but we are toasty warm with our new HearthRite propane heater, which according to Rick, from It’s About Time, only sips propane. I really like that thought, about sipping!! Yes we could use our electric heater here but are really enjoying the warmth and quiet of our new propane heater. It was a short 256 mile day today. Tomorrow will be a much longer day. Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and to comment when you can. So looking forward to getting home.
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Well shoot you need a comment…..
The jets fly right over my home when they fly from Whidbey Island NAS..When they flew A-6’s I could sometimes get a good picture…The new F-16-18’s, not so much..I hear them and POW!..There they go, sometimes at rooftop….Ya-Hoo!…
You did a great job with catching those two..
Ride Safe, the weather is looking pretty good for you from Wednesday on…HWY #97…
Always nice to hear from you my friend. Good to know about the weather. Please keep it that way for us. Plan to be in Omak tomorrow night.
Just an update, we returned to Canada on Sunday, crossed over at the Ambassador bridge in Detroit. A 10 minute line up (very short time for a Sunday!) and one minute stop at the kiosk getting the virus page and the question if we had symptoms. There was not one US plated vehicle crossing or on the highway back to our home. Amazing!
Thanks for this Al. Always nice to read how a border crossing goes in times like this. The times we are in are rather amazing as well as bizarre.
good to hear you are getting closer to home. Sorry to hear about yet another RV problem. But it is cheaper in the long run to fix them then to buy a new RV. My opinion anyway.
Take it easy when you get home. We always say we will but never do. Both of us are exhausted from the drive and the unloading. Going to leave the cleaning till it warms up some here.
No one told us to self isolate, but that is what we are doing. Sure hope this clears up sooner rather than later.
Take care.
I think almost half of the USA is in self isolation now. Actually it is the wisest thing once can do. Like you we have to unload fairly quickly re having to store the RV after a few days on the street. However I plan to take doing laundry and putting things away until I have the energy.
Safe travels on your last leg home. We flew back on Sunday night just before flights were cancelled. Both airports were pretty much empty so no problems. Now just in self quarantine for 14 days which is pretty much the norm for most people anyway. Friends got us groceries so we are set. You sure have a lot of veggies to eat before you cross the border. Stay safe.
I was wondering what you were going to do. Silly girl, all that food is coming back to Kelowna with us. You really can bring a lot back over the border with you, legally.
I am surprised you can bring veggies into Canada when you are not allowed to bring them from Canada into the states. I know you are allowed to bring in citrus fruit to Canada as we don’t grow them but I thought you were not allowed to bring in fruit and veggies that we grow in our country,
I was not aware that we could bring citrus fruits into Canada. I know that you can’t bring in apples partly because of the seeds and party because of the fact that Canada grows its own apples. Every year I ask and most years it is the same but is changes from time to time. I have always been able to bring in romaine, onions, bananas etc but sometimes yes or no on tomatoes. There is little logic to what can come in or not.
No one that I am aware of has been asked specifically about food during the past few weeks. One RV was asked if they had 14 days worth of food with them because of the 14 day isolation thing. So we are bringing in what we need. Some fresh but a lot of frozen and canned.
We know all about hydraulic issues.
$3,000. worth
Wanted to ask you what Caesar salad dressing you use ?
Yikes to the 3K!!! I use the Costco Caesar salad dressing by La Maison.
Glad you are well on your way. I did an online order with Superstore and they were booking 5 days out. Put in my order then realized I missed some items and was able to add to the order (just letting you know in case you want to order that way). I did find out some pharmacy type items (distilled water, ASA 81 mg for Mom) can’t be added to the online order so I had to go out to the pharmacy yesterday. Safe travels, you’ll be home soon.
We will likely put an order in when we get home. I need to check what I still have there. We do have enough for at least a full week of meals with us. Really appreciate all your suggestions.
Hopefully your RV and tire issues don’t raise an ugly head and you make it home okay. Our worst weather on the way home, and it really wasn’t that bad, was from Ely to just north of Jackpot, other than that the roads were great so I hope you get the same.
So far so good re the tires. As long as we keep itto 55mph we should be okay. Strangely we were not supposed to have any rain on the way home but we had our fair share of rain showers and one snow shower today.