Coachella Valley, California - Travelogue Week 014

A travelogue from

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The Full Time Motorhome Guide

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was a big week for GameTracker!  We visited eight high schools in the Palm Springs area.  Only one did not want to take the time to listen.  The rest were delighted with the visits.  Indio High School requested a quotation so that they could issue a PO.  We also sent a quotation to La Quinta High School as both coaches showed great interest.  We'll contact all of them this week and see if we get orders.  We have many more schools to see in this area. We will stop by again in January or February.

From there we traveled to Sultana High School in Hesperia.  Pete put on at three hour training session with five people from Sultana High School and Apple Valley High School.  Both will be using GameTracker for the first time in the next week.  Then we visited Jan Rice from Redlands Adventist Academy.  Jan is the charter customer, purchasing three copies of GameTracker on the first day it was for sale!  Pete spent a couple of hours showing Jan some great tips about the program.

On September 22nd, we had passed through Garden City, Kansas.  Coach Jeff Tanner had asked if we could stop by.  We did, but he was not able to meet with us.  Well, Jeff called on Friday morning and ordered GameTracker.  We shipped it Next Day UPS and began training John Ford, the softball coach and his stat person, on the phone.

This might be boring to y'all.  But many of you have emailed us and asked when does the work begin.  This trip was billed as GameTracker USA Tour 2006.  The work has began.  Many thanks to nephew Eric for telling us not to make appointments but to make cold call visits.  It has worked very well and it is fun to meet the coaches.

We stopped by in Yucaipa to see Paul and Elvis Horn.  We could only stay for a short time, but it is always nice to see them.  We met two of their children, Larry and Eileen. After this busy week we settled into the Chula Vista RV park to visit with Melissa, Emily (and roommates) and Chad.

The BBQ is hot; gotta go; see you next week.

Love, Pete and Ellen

Sunrise in Palm Springs


New friends visiting in our motorhome. We are reuniting with them next week in Aguanga.


Still happy living inside the box.


Our campground in Rancho Mirage, CA. $0.00 per night.


Sunset, our first night at Chula Vista (San Diego)


Emily and Pete racing us to In-N-Out Burger.


Melissa, Emily, Chad, Salsa, Beka waiting for lunch.


Chad wins this hand.


Our campsite at Chula Vista RV park.  $53.00 per night.


A seagull on San Diego Bay


Motorhome Q&A:  Why buy a diesel instead of a gas motorhome?  Considering that a diesel motorhome costs about $40,000.00 more that a gas motorhome, that is a very good question.

A diesel motorhome is heavier. It has air bag suspension in place of metal springs.  The engine is in the back of the home.  The wheels at 22.5" where most gas motorhomes have 19" wheels.  There is no engine hump between the driver and passenger.  All of this combines to give a better ride.  It will also get better mpg and have more power going uphill.

Heavier: It is not affected much by side winds.
Air Suspension: Rides smoother and is lowered to the ground when parked.
Engine in rear: Very quiet up front while traveling.
Larger wheels give smoother ride.
No engine hump allow for front entry and no loss of wall space for side door.
About 8 mpg.  Some larger gas homes will only get 4-6 mpg.
Diesel engines break in about 50,000 to 100,000 miles and can last into the high 100,000's.
Oil changes cost $300.00 but only occur every 15,000 miles.

That said, don't buy a diesel unless you will use it a lot.  It is very expensive if you are just going to take weekend or 2-week vacation trips.By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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Lake Havasu, AZ and MotorCoach Country Club - Travelogue Week 013

A travelogue from

BigRigBible.com

The Full Time Motorhome Guide

Dear Friends and Family,

Normally we drive 150 or less miles per day.  We really enjoy the sights as we travel along and stop whenever either one of us wants to.  However,  after the basketball clinic in Utah at 58 degrees, Pete drove 567 miles in two days to get out of Utah!  We looked forward to Lake Havasu City.  Ellen had made a few trips there with her family and we spent a few days of our honeymoon camped on the beach.  Well, golly, things change.  It has changed so much, we could not find the beach we camped on.  Was it paved over or what?  And the London Bridge has so many buildings around it, it took a while to find it.  There was limited cell service and no Verizon internet.  After staying the night at Walmart we were just heading out of town and stopped to see one last RV park.  It was very nice and we stayed for two nights.  Then we moved a few miles down the road to Riverside RV park right on the Colorado River near Parker AZ.  Nothing fancy, but the park staff and others were very nice.  Our final destination for the week was Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Country Club.  This is probably the top of the line park in the USA.  You can stay at a water site for only $82.00/night.  Or you can purchase a site for $189,000.00 to $567,000.00.  Then you pay hundreds of dollars per month for Home Owner's Association dues, the electricity bill and annual property taxes.  Must be nice!  We got two free nights after taking a one hour sales tour from a very nice and non-pushy salesman.  Many of the coaches in this park are the Newell brand.  The Newell family themselves have two lots here.  Newell coaches are custom built, starting at $1,000,000.00 before customization.

We met three "normal" families while we stayed here and enjoyed our visits with them.  The rest are probably very nice but we never found out.  Well that was fun! Now back to real world of gravel sites and Walmarts.

Here is Pete working on a new software program at Lake Havasu.


The view from our site on the Colorado River.


The road to Indio.  Traffic was reasonable on this day.


The rest of the pictures are of the Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Country Club.

The 5-star dinner house.


Our site with water in front and the mountains in the backdrop.  This is a new site with no custom changes.


This customized site has it own private pool overlooking the waterways.


One of the many fountains.


One of several bridges for the golf carts.




The pool below the dinner house.


Until next week, God bless.

Pete and Ellen

Motorhome Q&A:  How do you get your mail?  There are many Mail Forwarding services for RVers. You pay a fee and let them know what mail you want forwarded: first class only, magazines, catalogs, etc.  You just let them know where you are each week and they bundle up your mail and ship it to you, usually overnight.  We are more fortunate.  Ellen's sister Janice has been willing to handle our mail for us.  We submitted a change of address so our mail goes to her.  She takes care of everything and even faxes items to us if we need quick delivery.  How wonderful is that?  Love you Janice.By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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Laughlin, Nevada - Travelogue Week 012

A travelogue from

BigRigBible.com

The Full Time Motorhome Guide

Hello Friends and Family,

After a week in Laughlin, we couldn't get enough.  We left our paid-for Riverside RV Park and went about one mile.  We parked on a bluff overlooking The Palms Hotel and Casino.  Pete had terrific Verizon signal and wasn't willing to move on.  We stayed until late in the evening and then drove to North Las Vegas to spend the night at, guess where?, Walmart.


The next day we drove almost 400 miles to Springville UT.  The RV Park was nice, but is was very cold with no where for Ellen to walk to.  We stayed two days while Pete organized his PowerPoint presentation for the upcoming basketball clinic.  We moved on to Taylorsville UT (suburb of Salt Lake City) and stayed for two days, again preparing for the clinic.  With the promise of presenting USA GameTracker to 300 basketball coaches, this might be the best stop of the trip.

The day of the clinic it started raining and the turnout for the clinic was dismal. It turns out that the best part of the week was the awesome clouds and weather.  Normally Pete likes to drive only 150 miles per day.  But as soon as this clinic was over, Pete drove 577 miles in two days to get to Lake Havasu AZ.  We did stop on Sunday to go the church at Southland Bible Church in Washington UT (north of St. George). The message was terrific.  Pastor Tim Miles talked about how as a Christian you may get hurt but God will not let you get harmed.  The ultimate message is that you may die (actually we all will), but you are not harmed by going to heaven.  We applied the thought to the basketball clinic.  While a puny turnout hurt us (we did not sell any GameTrackers), it did not harm us.  We areheathly, having a great time and know that it IS the best program available.  We just need to wait on the Lord.

This is I-15 between St. George and the Nevada border.






Salt Lake Community College, site of the basketball clinic


Here are a few of the dozens of great pictures that Ellen took of Utah's fun-to-look-at and great-to-leave weather.










Parasailors along the I-15 freeway






An accident slowed our Escape!




So long Utah, hello Lake Havasu! And so long till next week,

Love Pete and Ellen

Motorhome Q&A:  Isn't the diesel terribly expensive?  Answer: Isn't everything terribly expensive?  Once in California we had to pay $3.39 a gallon.  Yesterday we paid $2.45.  Our budget projection was $4.00/gallon at 7 mpg.  We are getting over 8 mpg and our average per gallon is well below $3.00.  So we are very pleased.  In addition, while asking about fuel costs is the first question most ask, it pales compared to campground, rv parks, food, activities, insurance, DMV license and buying the MH. And when you compare traveling in a MH versus hotels, gas and FOOD, it is always cheaper unless you drive hundreds of miles everyday.

To unsubscribe, please send a blank email with the subject, "I can't stand it anymore, you Diesel Hog!"By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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Zion National Park, Utah - Travelogue Week 011

A travelogue from

BigRigBible.com

The Full Time Motorhome Guide

Dear Family and Friends,

This was a week of change. We went from Zion River RV Resort (one of the nicest, a 5 on our scale of 1 to 5), to Riverside RV Resort in Laughlin, NV (rates 3 out of 5).  But what a contrast!

Zion park is concrete, beautiful rock and grass. Lot of new friends in the park, no cell service, WiFi that lasted only two days and no cable TV.  Miles from anywhere with thousands of nature hikes close by.  The highs were in the 60's.

Laughlin's Riverside RV park has concrete pads, no grass and mostly dirt.  We met no one in the park.  But the Verizon cell service and AirCard Internet service was tops.  Pete got lots of work done and visited high schools to show off USA GameTracker.  Ellen got 54 cable channels and hiked to the local mall many times.  We are just a few hundred feet from the casino (we don't gamble), the river (we took an 1 1/2 hour boat ride) and the $9.99 buffet!  Plenty of hiking trails to nowhere with nothing worth seeing!  Highs in the 70s and 80s.

Quite a difference for one day's travel!

Monday we took our last hike in Zion. We hiked Angels Landing to enjoy spectacular views of Zion Canyon. It was a strenuous 5 mile hike with a climb of 1,488 feet. Described as "not for anyone with a fear of heights". Well, we conquered that fear.  We spent the evening in the hot tub with our friends Jerry and Judi, hoping for relief from our aching muscles.

Pictures from Zion National Park, climbing to the top of Angel's Landing








Pete finally got some cell reception!






Tuesday we went through St. George, then on to Valley of Fire at Lake Mead in Nevada. We intended to camp. But we had no cell service, so we continued on to Riverside RV Resort in Laughlin, NV. We are up on a hill overlooking the city.  We have great Verizon coverage and Pete is getting a lot of work done.

Saturday Pete worked. Ellen took a 35 mile bicycle ride leaving Nevada by going over the Laughlin bridge through Bullhead City, Riviera City, and Mojave City, Arizona, crossing the bridge back into Nevada at Aztec Road, taking the Aha Macav Parkway to Needles Highway and back into Laughlin. It took about five hours. She found a great little Mexican restaurant on Aztec Road (behind Burger King). A must stop for anyone going through the area. It is called Humberto's.

Saturday afternoon we went for a cruise up and down the river, dined in the casino, and soaked in the spa.

The view from our RV site at Laughlin Nevada



On a cruise on the Colorado River


See ya next week. Love, Pete and Ellen

Motorhome Q&A:  What does it cost to camp each day?  Boon docking at Walmarts and friend's homes is free. Parks range from $15.00 to $48.00 so far.  We rate all parks on a scale from 1 to 5. We rated Lake Hugo, OK ($15.00)  a four!  Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs CO ($48.00) a two.  We have stayed 81 days since our Bon Voyage party.  Total camping costs: $1,415.00 or $17.47 per night (yeah for friends and Walmarts).

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To unsubscribe, please send a blank email with the subject, "I've had enough, no more WWM!"By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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