More Winchester

Been having a great time this week.  We had dinner with John & Lynn, and Bill & Sharon

Bill, Sharon and I went on a ride John suggested.  We took the lower Smith River road  to Hy 38.  It was a 60+ mile ride up a river canyon and down another.  Went from 60° to over 90°.  From sea level to 1200 feet and back.  I have ridden a lot of "beautiful" places but this beats them all.

Bill looking all mean behind me.

One place on the Smith was called the 'Water Falls'. 

Swimming holes every where and could sit under water falling on you.

Been Awhile

It has been a while sense I last posted here.  Having a lot of fun and very very busy trying to accomplish my goal which is doing Nothing - I am about half way done today.

A few Pictures -

The Coast Guard was right out my window the other day practicing  and burning a lot of Jet A fuel.  If you blow it up you can see the guy jumping out the door.

Then there was a WWI air show at a grass strip called lakeside.  Have never been around so many nice biplanes.  If you asked you could get a ride in any you wanted.  I got there too late.

And the last item I will put up here is a small movie of the Vendor area of Dune Fest for my kids.

Too bad you guys missed it this year.

The 4th at Winchester

One nice thing about Winchester Bay is there 4th of July celebration.

This picture is out of focus but just wanted to show all of you that everyone had coats on. :)

There were fireworks everywhere.  The town puts on a nice show. 

But people are more fun to watch. Some have to spend more on fireworks than the town.  It looked like fun for all.

This guy across the bay had a radio controlled boat towing a barge full of fireworks. It must have lasted 5 minutes.  Notice the tow boat in front of the barge.  He got a big applause.

And, below is a small movie of the fireworks.  The reflection off the water made it twice as good.  To bad I did not get much of it!

Winchester Bay

Finally made it back to Winchester Bay.  Had a good drive - got about 10mpg but still cost over $350.  Might stay here a little longer than planned 

Brad, my son, just came up last night.  He will stay for a week and we will ride the sand duns together. :)

This picture is out my front door.

 Another great camp spot here.

Bill and Sharon, Glen and Maggie, Dave (oldphoneman) and Dennis are here right now.  The camp host is John and Lynn of RR's

Taking Off

Hope to take off this week 16th or 17th for the cooler north.  I am also (for the first time seriously) taking off pounds.  I missed too many good hikes while in AZ and UT a while back.

Have lost 28 lbs in the last two months only &^*^ more to go :)

My friend Bob, told me about 

The Hackers Diet
How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition

Written by John Walker, the founder of AutoDesk Way back in the 80's.

It's working for me because he was honest and said its going to hurt an be hard..

Damm, its lunch time - got a go

Maintenance time for truck and my body

It has been a month now and I am amazed how long it takes to get anything done.

First and foremost I had to take a stress test

to check out some chest tightness I had three months ago. Happy to report all is well, but scared me into a diet and have lost 30 pounds so far.

Next I have this RV tow truck that can carry all kind of weight.

For over a year I have been thinking about how to carry extra water and extra waste. One of my genius sons, Nick, came up with the idea below, and he got it done in less than two days. I can now live off grid very nice for over two months.

There are two 65 Gal tanks, one on each side. I think we could have fitted 85 gal tanks, but this works fine. The really genius part, besides how to mount it, was fitting a air chuck on each tank. The truck as 125 lbs of air, so a small regulator set to 10 lbs - no need for any pumps. Its so simple. Works great. 10 pounds of air has pumped the waste tank over 20 feet high with no problems.

Top is the driver side water tank Have not finish

ed plumbing it yet.

Next is to mount the wind generator on the truck. I have a flag pole shipping this week. Should work fine and easy to set up.

Oh, one more thing. I am now a mac user. After 15 years of unix and loving it. It's far easer and just as powerful.

My goal is to leave this month for Winchester Bay, OR. to see some good friends and do some Sand Dunes ridding on the small KTM. Thrn up to the Columbia river george for some fishing and back to the coast with the Roving Rods to fish and crab.

The Drive back to Auburn

Time to get back to Auburn, CA to take care of business. The first day was a 350 mile drive from Moab to Nevada's Great Basin National Park. The campground ($6 a night) was about 7500' and nice. Very few people, at lot of animals including wild turkeys and a stream down the middle. Oh, it snowed for about 10 minuets.

Day two, Hy 50 from the Utah border to Reno, NV . Billed as 'The Loneliest Road in America'. I really enjoyed driving this road. Something to see almost every mile. Only three towns, Ely, Eureka and Austin. Again had Sun, Wind, Rain, Lightning and Snow.
Small videos of each town is below.