Young Snowbirds » Utah

Day 5 – 20% Fuel Efficiency Improvement

Darlene — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:52:34 +0000

After being up so late dealing with cat pee the night earlier, we slept in a bit and then went to Walmart first thing in the morning to get cat supplies. The cats have been great in that they could have been scratching a lot more then they have been but have been controlling themselves. Knowing cats very well, Rob could sense the tension building and wanted to give them an outlet. 3 scratching devices were purchased, filled with catnip and laid out in the motorhome. They went at them immediately!

The car was loaded back onto the dolly, tightened down, power unhooked from it’s supply and the RV legs stored away for travel.

For the second time of our journey so far, we left at 11:11.

It’s been a blessing that we travel with our toilet facilities and do not have to stop every few minutes for Dar to relieve herself, but as convenient as it has been, Rob still has to find a place to pull out of the way before he can do HIS business.

Today was to be a 5 and a half hour drive from SLC to Mesquite Nevada according to google maps and traveling the speed limit of 75 mph. However, for the motorhome to achieve a speed of 75 mph, it would have to be a BIG downhill grade and even at that, would not be safe. With our reasonable 55 to 60 mph, we are more fuel efficient but a bunch slower. The 5.5 hour trip will take closer to 7.5 hours.

On one of Rob’s pee breaks, Scipio Utah was chosen, as it was recommended by a photographer friend, Adrienne. She told us at our going away party that there was a set of unique antique gas pumps in front of a gas station there. Scipio is a VERY small town and the pumps referenced were easy to find.

As Rob stretched his legs, Dar took photos.

After a short 3 minute jaunt, Rob discovered a very interesting antique shop down the road. His attention was immediately drawn to a compound bow and arrow displayed outside on the front steps.

Rob once owned a compound bow when he was growing up and for the past few weeks had been imagining owning one again. He visualized the bow and the razor tipped arrows he wanted. Alas, his powers of manifestation were working quite well and the Universe provided. Tagged at an already fair price of $35, a talk with the owner provided a 20% discount for a new low price of $28. Rob asked the gentlemen, “Do you take Visa?” to which he replied, “No, but I’ll take a cheque check!”.

Rob got his bow for $25 cash and stored it away in the RV basement.

Mexican Food In Beaver Utah

We got back on the road heading south trying to make up as much mileage as possible before stopping for lunch.

After seeing all the Mexican restaurant signs in SLC, we wanted some. Signs on the highway indicated Kan Kun Mexican Restaurant in Beaver Utah, so we slowed down and exited the freeway.

After a wonderful vegetarian Mexican meal, Rob got in 20 minutes of walking while Dar took more photos.

Quantum Energy Magnets

We decided to gas up before leaving.

This was our first tank of gas after putting the quantum magnets into play. After testing the quantum energy patches on his Jeep over the past few years and the magnets on the Topaz, we were expecting great results on the RV.

We were right.

20% Increase In Fuel Efficiency on Our Motorhome

Calculations showed that the RV had a 20% increase in fuel efficiency. We were able to travel farther and use less gas.

We got back onto the freeway and headed for Nevada.

As we left Utah, we had to cut through the corner of Arizona before entering Utah. The signs indicated over 12 miles of downhill grade sporting a healthy 5 to 6% grade.

Rob’s short 5 day experience with hills has shown him that the RV is basically made out of lead and proven Galileos theory that an object in motion tends to stay in motion quite dramatically. The best way to tackle a steep grade is to slow down to 80 Kph, disengage the overdrive and let the engine do most of the work slowing down.

We pulled into the Oasis RV park in Mesquite at about 7 pm Nevada time. After putting the legs down and plugging into power, Dar’s initial scouting trip discovered that there were no services here. What do you expect for $16? She was keen to spend the evening washing cat pee items, but there were no laundry facilities working at this park. No key to the bathrooms either, so we packed up to head a little further down the road.

After checking in at the Casablanca Resort and RV park for $21, we found our pull through location around back of the casino. There was NO way in hell that our motorhome, tow dolly and car would fit in that space, let alone make the corner needed to pull in. We would have been 10 feet over the length of the slot.

We talked it over and decided that the hour it would take to unhook the toad and tow dolly, then rehook in the am would not be worth the convenience of the laundry. We drove out and headed back to the lobby. Dar went back to get a refund while Rob drove back to the original RV park a block down the road, and Dar walked back to meet him there.

That single block turned into 15 blocks as there was no left turn and no place to turn around until he found a school with bus access. It’s not easy turning a 34 foot rig towing a 20 foot trailer and car.

All leveled and hooked to power with the car attached, Dar arrived after her 9 minute walk from Casablanca. We settled in and watched the Thursday night episode of Survivor Rob saved 2 days ago.

***Things we saw: llamas, old gas pumps, fog.***

Lessons learned:

get a Trailer Light directory (put out by Good Sam Club) that lists and rates all RV parks.
call ahead to find out about spots, sizes, and parking for the dolly and car

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.

Day 4 – Mormon Temple Square

Darlene — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:47:54 +0000

Got up fairly early and paid for our night at the camp. Actually pulled out of the park just after 10am, got gas and were on our way. Getting gas can take up to 20 minutes just to fill the tank of over 280 liters (75 gallons). Getting into and out of gas stations can be tricky too with the car attached to the back end – we are a long unit with a large turning radius.

After running a couple of tanks of gas through the RV, we had a good benchmark for our initial mileage. We decided that now would be a good time to move the quantum energy magnets from the toad to the actual RV and test the improvement. Rob placed the magnets on various parts of the RV engine and drive train under the “hood” and looked forward to the results.

Back onto Interstate 15 (I-15) which pretty much runs from the border all the way to Vegas and on to Los Angeles.

***Things we’ve seen: outside Idaho Falls was the potato museum. Saw potato cookbooks in the RV office too, they grow a lot of them in Idaho apparently.***

Short drive today, we decided to take a break from driving and stop overnight in Salt Lake City (SLC), Utah. We wanted to get scratching posts for the cats who are starting to claw at the furniture, go to Camping World, and see the Temple. We found a KOA opened in the middle of the city and got there by about 1:30pm. Was a little more expensive at $37 a night but had really nice facilities and a big bay car wash so Rob hosed off both vehicles while Dar registered.

Turns out that the KOA campground was a short mile from the temple square, so very easy access to the sights we wanted to see.

After parking and getting anchored we headed off for lunch at a nearby Whole Foods. We hadn’t had much in the way of veggies in 3 days and were craving some good food. Dar had salmon sushi with brown rice and a spiced pumpkin soup, Rob had a big-ass salad that ended up being $14 (pay by weight). Dar also had quinoa juice which apparently has the same energy boost abilities as caffeine. $45 later, and after filling up our big water jug we popped in to Verizon.

We will likely pick up a wireless internet hug in Phoenix once we get there, will cost us about $60 a month, but at many of the RV parks the wifi connection is sketchy at best. But we got the info and moved on to Camping World.

It wasn’t as big as we thought it would be actually. But they sure have a lot of camping stuff and do dads. We spent $199 on a BBQ that hooks onto the outside of the RV or sits on a table and taps directly into the onboard liquid propane (LP) gas. We also purchased outdoor carpet for the step, towel hangers, RV TP, wheel chocks, and a little step ladder for Dar so she can reach the top shelves. The GPS unit said it would take us over 45 minutes to get there, and they guy that sold it to us said he’s never beaten it. We got there in 25 or less – maybe it was taking into account rush hour traffic at 4:30pm when we headed there?

Driving back into the city center, we got to Temple Square and searched for parking. There were people everywhere – apparently this was the place to be at this time of year. It was gorgeous with all the xmas lights. Two missionaries greeted us in the North visitor’s center and gave us the low down on events of the evening. It was a bit disappointing that we couldn’t actually go inside the Temple itself (which was built in 1853 and took 40 years to complete) but we did get to go inside the Tabernacle and take some photos there.

mormon tabernacle

Around the square were horse buggy rides and inside the south visitor center and assembly halls there were high school choirs singing holiday tunes. Dar met two more missionaries, one from France and one from Uganda. She recognized the little flags on their name tags and the Ugandan girl was very surprised and impressed. She talked a little French with the other girl and wished them Joyeux Noel.

***Things we’ve seen/noticed – there is a LOT of Mexican restaurants in SLC! Like one on every block, just like sushi places in Vancouver.***

Back to the RV about 8pm, Rob went in search of a bottle of wine and dropped Dar off to have a shower. It was only 42f (about 5c) inside as we hadn’t left the furnace on when we went out – note to selves to leave it on low. Dar cranked it up to 73f and waited for Rob and heat. After almost an hour and he wasn’t back, she was panicking. He didn’t answer his phone, or text or Facebook. Luckily Melanie was on skype to talk and distract her until he showed up. Seems there is only one liquor store open in the whole city after 8pm and it was the busiest one he’d ever seen with bottles flying off the shelves faster than staff could put them back.

Crawling into bed and putting on her pajama bottoms, Dar found that yet again they were wet. Yup, you guessed it –cat pee! At 1am in the morning, after a long day, one really does NOT want to deal with cat pee in their bed! You cats, seriously, we need to talk! They are likely just marking their territory in a new environment – but does it have to be in the bed?!

Lessons learned:

put the furnace on, even on low, before you leave for the day so that when you get back it’s not almost freezing in the rig
put the stairs up when you leave so people don’t have to flag you down on the interstate to tell you
get something for cats to mark as their own so they aren’t doing it on the bed

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.