March 14, 2014

02/16/2014

Can anyone tell me what is worse than having "new truck" fever?  Well, I can tell you and that is "new phone" fever and I have had it for some time now.

Since I needed some relief for that affliction, we went to Best Buy and got me a new Apple iPhone 5S.  I did consider replacing my old Samsung Stratosphere with another one of Samsung's products but since Joyce and I both have Mac's, the iPhone just made sense.  And, I can tell you I am glad I did too.

I selected the 16g version but they didn't have one of those in stock so they gave me the 32g one for the same price.  Then, Best Buy had a promotion going on, so I got $50 off the price of the phone and then $20 off any accessories.  To go along with the phone, I also scored me a Mophie Juice Pack which is a really cool device that gives me about 80% more battery life.

Is there a learning curve to using the iPhone over an Android OS phone?  Yep, there is but not near as steep as I thought it would be.  The phone operates much like my Apple iPad so I was able to get up and running in no time.

One of the best features of this phone is my personal assistant, Seri.  I can ask her to make a call for me, help with writing an email or text message and a host of other things.  I can say, "Tell Jim that the beer is cold." and Seri will text him for me.  Since the iPhone doesn't have a speed dial feature, I now make calls using Miss Serri with, "Call Mom" and boom, she is off and running doing that for me.  Yes, a lot of other phones have something like Seri but…, well, it's cooler on the iPhone.

The Blue Angels have been flying twice a day for the past week, practicing there new show routine.  Everyday they add a new maneuver or two and it is getting very exciting to see.  Y'all may have seen the thing where they all go vertical and peal off into what is called a fountain.  Well, you should see the new variation to that where they do the same thing but from horizontal flight!  Amazing to say the least.

The Blues will put on their first show of the season here in El Centro on March 15th so if your anywhere close to this area, come on out!

03/11/2014

On March 1 we drove over to Navy North Island to spend the night before catching an airplane to North Carolina for our visit with Justin and Adrian.  One of the advantages to staying there is that it's close to the San Diego airport and we can leave the truck parked there for free.

After a good nights rest, we were up early and caught a cab to the airport.  I am not going to go into details about our experience with the gate attendants for United Airlines right now, but suffice it to say the ones we dealt with need to go back to school and learn some customer service skills.  More on United Airlines later.

After a rushed stop in Houston we flew on to Raleigh, NC where Justin and Adrian met us at the airport.  We had not seen Justin in about two years which is way too long for us.

The first day there we just relaxed and enjoyed being with them again.

As you probably know, Justin is a company commander in the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airbone) at Fort Bragg, NC.  On day two of our visit, we had an opportunity to meet two of his soldiers, both his outgoing and incoming First Sergeant's.  The outgoing one is leaving soon to attend graduate school in Monterey, CA.  Justin told me that only a few enlisted folks get selected for that and it's pretty much restricted to Special Forces soldiers.

After a great lunch in downtown Fayetteville, we headed over to visit the Airborne and Special Operations Museum.  Joyce and I had toured the museum before but they have a temporary exhibit now, "The Battle of Mogadishu" that we wanted to see.

The next day we drove over to Pinehurst, NC, the "Cradle of American Golf".  There are several nice little shops in the village so we spent some time walking around and popping into a few of them.   One that we stopped in is the Green Gate Olive Oils store where we sampled several of their delicious oils.  Then we found the Old Sport & Gallery, which is all about golf.  I could have spent hours in this great little place.

All of that shopping made us thirsty so we stopped in Dugan's Pub for a pint or two.  After an hour or so of strolling around, we went to the Too Blonde Tavern for dinner.  Outstanding!

On Saturday morning, we had to say goodbye and catch an airplane to Houston for our planned cruise.  We got a very restful nights sleep at the Westin Oaks at the Galleria Hotel.

The next morning we decided to have breakfast at The Cheesecake Factory in the Galleria Mall.  While waiting for the doors to open, we met "Big" Sam and Dori-Marie Adams, who thanked Joyce and I for our service in the Air Force.  After a wonderful breakfast, and to our surprise, the waiter told us that Big Sam and had paid our bill.  Fortunately, they had not left the restaurant so we were able to thank them personally for their generosity.  You can rest assured that Joyce and I will pass that wonderful gesture on to a deserving military person soon.

We were supposed to meet Chuck and Sue Svendsen who had booked this cruise but when they got to Eugene for their flight to Houston, United Express (United Airlines) cancelled the flight for a mechanical problem.  The airline offered to fly them down to Grand Cayman three days later, making several stops on the way down.  They opted to cancel their trip all together so as you can imagine, Joyce and I were pretty sad about that.

Our cruise on Royal Caribbean's beautiful Navigator of the Seas, to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel was great.  The weather was beautiful during the whole cruise and the seas were almost flat most of the way.  We had an inside stateroom with a virtual balcony which we liked.  Read about that on the ship's web page.

After cruising for two days, we made our first stop in Falmouth, Jamaica.  Since we didn't have an excursion planned here, we just walked around the port area for a while and got back on the ship spending the rest of the day relaxing by the Solarium pool.

Our next stop was in Grand Cayman.  After finding the library and checking our emails, we took an excursion to go swim with the Stingrays.  We have been on a number of excursion's in the past but we have to say that this one is right up at the top of the list.  We were allowed to pet these wonderful creatures and both of us even got a kiss.

Anther night of cruising brought us to Cozumel, Mexico, a beautiful resort island off the coast off Mexico's eastern Yucatán Peninsula.  Joyce and I have been here a few times so we just found an internet café, had a cold drink and did the email thing.  On the way back to the ship we got a few t-shirts and Joyce got a new silver chain.

Another night and day of sailing got us back to Houston and our flight back to San Diego.

Before going to the airport, we took a short tour of the Houston NASA facility.

Getting out of Houston proved to be a hassle with United Airlines...again.  A maintenance delay caused us to have an airplane change so we were almost four hours late getting back to San Diego.

Without going into too much detail and taking the risk of boring the heck out of you, I want to tell you about our experience flying with United and United Express Airlines, who we will avoid at all costs in the future.

Back in January we had to change our flight reservations due to my leg problem.  United (or so we thought at the time) charged us a $400 fee to do that.  During the telephone conversation, the agent told us that we would be able to get that fee refunded if we took a letter from my doctor to San Diego and see any gate agent.  We did that but the person we spoke with was very rude and told us she didn't have the time to deal with our problem.  Joyce tried to explain that we were told to bring the letter to the airport but she didn't care about that.

We then came back to El Centro and I wrote a letter to United and enclosed the letter from my doctor.

In San Diego we were treated like criminals by one of the gate attendants when we wanted to take one of our bags on board.  The attendant very rudely told us that it was too large and it had to be checked.  Yes, it was less than one inch too large but there were several folks in line ahead of us that had bags much bigger than ours who were allowed to board the plane.  When we pointed that out to the attendant he just told us that "that is the way it is".  What an ass!

During our stop in Houston, we only had about fifteen minutes to make our connection due to being late pushing back and taking off in San Diego.  We asked the flight  attendant to please get our gate number for us but she just pushed us off.  Southwest always has helped us out with connections and does so gladly.  It appeared to us that United could have cared less and just wanted to get us off their airplane.

When we returned to El Centro from the cruise, we had a letter from United telling us that they couldn't process our request for a change fee refund until we had completed our travels.  There was a phone number provided to call.

When Joyce called the next day, the agent said that we needed to resubmit all the paperwork again.  Joyce then asked to speak to a supervisor but after being on hold for several minutes, the same agent came back and to her that United never charged a change fee in the first place.  It was in fact charged by our travel agency, military MWR.

After calling the travel agency, who in turn talked to United, we were told that United miraculously found our paperwork and was going to process our claim for a "possible" refund.

We then called American Express and they opened a fraud investigation.  They also told us to sit back, relax and they would take care of all this for us.  Now that is what we call great customer service.

"And the story never ends."

Barry & Joyce

February 11, 2014

02/01/2014

Yesterday we drove over to the Barnes & Noble store in Yuma.  I have a Nook Color e-reader and it has finally died.  I've dropped the darned thing a few times, cracking the case in a couple of places and now the battery won't hold a charge for more than a few hours.  So, I got me a new Nook Glowlight to replace it.

After that, we drove over the hills to Wellton, AZ to check out the RV parks there.  We're looking at places to spend part of next winter and at first glance on the map, this place looked like it might work for us.  Not!  The town is about 30 miles from Yuma, very small with not much to do in the area.  The park's there are cheap enough but we didn't see much in the area that attracts us.  We'll look closer to Yuma, possibly in the foothills just east of Yuma.

I had a followup with Dr. Goodman, the doctor that referred me to Dr. Ansari today.  He did a doppler test on my legs and everything is good to go.  He wants to do another sonogram just to establish a baseline.  Believe me, I was happy to hear that news.

02/02/2014

The following is for all of our RV'ing friends who have their vehicles registered in Texas (from the Escapee's Forums):

For those of us who are fulltimers registered in Texas, plan on being in Texas at some point in a 90 day window before your registration needs to be renewed. There is a new law that goes into effect on 3/1/15. This law eliminates the two stickers on your windshield and replaces them with a single sticker. Within 90 days of your registration expiration, you'll need to get your vehicles inspected, but will only receive a report if you pass it. The inspection station will collect their cut of the inspection fee and update a database that your vehicle has pass. When you submit a registration renewal, the DMV/county will check the database. If there is a record of the vehicle passing an inspection in the previous 3 months, your registration will be renewed. If there is no record, you don't get registered.



This development seemed pretty alarming to me. It could potentially remove Texas from my list of fulltime RV-friendly states. I was also rather surprised there wasn’t more discussion about this on the forum.



Because of my concern, I contacted the elected members of the state legislature that represent Livingston, TX, the home of the Escapees. I received a call from a member of Senator Nichols staff. I explained the issue to her. I then called her back the following day to more fully explain the issue. She got in touch the Texas DPS, who called me back yesterday.



He was familiar with the law and confirmed my description above. He said that the DPS only deals with inspections, not registrations so I would really need to speak with the DMV. He said that, based on his reading of the law, there wasn’t a lot of ‘wiggle room’ for the DMV to grant any sort of exemption.



This is a problem for full timers and military who may not be able to return to the state before their registrations expire. If you have two vehicles, you would have to do it twice a year. If you have 3, you get another trip.

The staffer said that this is an unintended consequence of the new law. The legislature in Texas only meets every two years. They will be in session in January 2015 so they’ll only have 3 months to fix this. I am not going to hold my breath.



When I learn more, I’ll report back.

For any of you full timers reading this, contacting your elected representatives would be a good idea. The more people they hear from, the bigger sense of urgency they’ll get. Here are links to Rep. James White and Senator Robert Nichols.

http://www.senate.st...dist3/dist3.htm

http://www.house.sta...ge/?district=19

This could potentially cause some serious problems for folks who are registered in Texas.

Joyce scored us tickets to see Dwight Yoakum at the Quechan Casino & Resort in Winterhaven, AZ on 28 March.  That should be a great show!

We're planning on leaving El Centro and head north on March 30th.  We need to be at Tumalo State Park in Bend, OR on 1 May so we have the whole month of April for traveling.  We'll be making stops at Edwards AFB, Fresno, Travis AFB, Calistoga, Redding, Oakridge, OR. and LaPine, OR.  Joyce and I both are looking forward to getting back on the road.

02/06/2014

Had my last doctor appointment yesterday and another sonogram done to use as a baseline, just in case the problem with my legs returns.  I am sure glad all of this is behind us!

I have had new phone fever (worse than new truck fever) for a while now so I got me a new iPhone 5S at Best Buy.  They didn't have a 16 gig model in stock so they let me have a 32 gig'er for the same price as the 16g and $50 off.  I also got a Mophie Juice Pack which extends the battery life.

So far I really like the phone.  It's much faster than my old Samsung and the interface is a lot like my iPad, making the learning curve not quite as steep.

 02/09/2014

On Friday we did the Farm Smart tour at the University of California's Desert Research & Extension Center.  According to one of the handouts we received the DREC is a large and complex research center that provides professional management, land, labor and facilities for agricultural and environmental studies and educational outreach activities.

After being welcomed by our host we were presented a talk about the DREC and the agriculture here in the Imperial Valley. We learned about the vegetables grown here in the "Nation's Salad Bowl", the cattle industry and the grasses that are grown.  Here are come of the interesting facts:

    -Ninety-five percent of the cattle raised here is Holstein and not used just in dairies.  We didn't know that a lot of the meat you see in the local grocery stores is Holstein.
    -Due to the high cost of water a agriculture in mid Arizona will cease to exist by 2050.
    -Every acre-foot of water arriving here in the Imperial Valley from the Colorado River brings one ton of salt.  All of that salt must be leached through the root zones into subsurface tile drainage systems.
    -Farmers and ranchers receive only 19 cents of every retail dollar spent on food that is eaten at home and away from home.  In 1980, the received 31 cents.

After that we were taken out into the fields to see the work being done there and we given the opportunity to pick some veggies.  We brought home a huge bag of cabbage, beets, radishes and other stuff.

Goin' A Pickin'!

 Learning to start a siphon.  Nuff said!

 Young olive trees.

On Friday we drove up to Palm Springs to visit Del & Lee Ann Dolph who we met a few years ago when we were volunteering at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA.  They own a time-share and invited us to spend some time with them.

After meeting them at their condo, we went out looking for somewhere to eat and discovered El Gallito Mexican Restaurant in Cathedral City.  Although the place lacks in atmosphere, the food was outstanding.

On Saturday morning we drove over to the College of the Desert Street Fair in Palm Desert.  This "flea market" is huge but as we found out, not your daddy's market.  There are none of the vendors selling stuff that get your hands dirty when routing around for "treasures".  Most of the vendors were selling high dollar stuff and there wasn't a lot of haggling going on.  Lee Ann did score a great pair of shoes for a decent price.

Thanks Del & Lee Ann for showing us a great time!

Have a good one!

Barry & Joyce

January 30, 2014

01/17/2014

As most of y'all know, I've been having pain problems with my legs since September.  In December I had a sonogram done and then got an appointment with a vascular surgeon .  He had to cancel the appointment but called and made me an appointment with Dr. Athar Ansari at the California Heart & Vascular Clinic here in El Centro.

After visiting with Dr. Ansari yesterday, Joyce and I are very pleased.  Dr. Ansari first explained what is going on in my arteries and what caused it in the first place.  He then gave us an in-depth explanation of what he does to fix the problem and then took us on a personal tour of his facility.

Dr. Ansari is basically going to "roter-router" both of my legs, starting with the left one next Tuesday.  He will go in through my groin with a tool that he co-developed and clean the arteries out, removing all of the "stuff".  After the procedure, I will stay in the clinic for up to four hours and then go home, returning the next day to make sure I am not having any problems.  A week later, he will do my right leg.

After another week, I will need to have another sonogram on my legs to make sure I am still getting good blood flow and then in six months another one will be done.  Dr. Ansari is going to call my doctor at Bend Memorial Clinic and get that set up for me.  He will also be sending Dr. Russell all my charts with the test results and his intervention information.

During our interview, Dr. Ansari reviewed his background with us as well.  One of my questions was why he chose to have his practice in El Centro.  he told us that when he completed his training here in the United States, he wanted to stay an practice medicine here.  In order to get a work permit, he had to choose a place where his services were needed so, "here I am".

01/22/2014

Finally, some good things happening in the Crocker household.

Yesterday, I had my left leg "rotter-routed" and all went very well.  I now have good blood flow when before, as you can see in the pictures, very little blood movement in the main artery.  Dr. Ansari did an outstanding job and Joyce and I are very grateful.  I won't go into the details of how he did the procedure but suffice it to say, I felt like I was in good hands during the whole thing.

Left Leg Before & After

Some advice for everyone.  If you feel any unexplained tiredness or pain in your legs, see your doctor right away.  I should have gone and had my legs checked a long time ago but waited until I was actually getting bad pain in my calves.  That could have proved to be disastrous.  Don't wait!

I had a wound check today and they scheduled me for my right leg to be done on 3 Feb.  Dr. Ansari said he gives his chances about 85% for a complete cleaning of that artery.  It is full occluded so it is going to be harder to do the necessary work.  Joyce and I are optimistic and hopeful that everything will go well and we can get on with our lives.

01/30/2012

Dr. Ansari was able to fit me in earlier than scheduled and I had the right leg rodded-out this past Monday.  I am very happy to report that the procedure went very well, even better than the left leg.  I'm not ready to run a marathon or anything close to it but I can say I feel much better.

Right Leg Before & After

I have an appointment on Saturday to have another ultrasound done and a followup on that in a couple of weeks.  If everything looks good the doctors should cut me loose!

More later.

Barry & Joyce

January 11, 2014

01/05/2014

Happy New Year everyone!  Joyce and I hope 2014 brings you happiness, prosperity and good health.

Joyce and I spent New Years Eve at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Palmdale, CA on our way back from northern California.  If I remember correctly, we were both in bed well before 12 AM.

01/06/2014

Yesterday, we went up into the mountains west of El Centro to Jacumba, CA to do some geocaching.

Back in the day, Jacumba Hot Springs was a major destination along U.S. Highway 80 where folks enjoyed the natural hot springs.  Since Interstate 8 was built, not so much.  The Jacumba Hot Springs Spa and Resort is still there and a couple of restaurants but that's about it.

We visited one cache called Talula's Place (you must be a member to view the cache's page), named for Tallulah Bankhead who owned the property, Bankhead Springs, little wide spot in the road.  The whole "town" is for sale for $1.3M.

 Jacumba's Mascot

As most of you know, my main hobby is doing genealogy research, or a Joyce says, "looking up old dead folks".  I have been a member of Ancestry.com for many moons and grandfathered in at $99 a year.  Well, surprise, surprise.  I got an email the other day saying they were going to charge me $189 when I renew.  I can understand a modest increase but $99 more a year?  I don't think so!

So, I called them.  Got it for $149 a year, a more reasonable rate but still expensive.  But, they are expanding Ancestry.com more everyday now.  Not only do I get all the census records, there are the World War I & II draft records, birth & death records for many states and now they are linked to Find A Grave.com.  So, I guess a $50 raise in my rate isn't too much.

01/09/2014

Yesterday was a sight-seeing day here in the desert of southern California.

We left the RV park around 10 AM and headed up to visit Anza-Borrego State Park near  Borrego Springs.  The drive up there has very little scenery that we would call pretty but once in Borrego Springs, that all changed.

This little "bump at the end of the road" is completely surrounded by the state park and is a haven for snow-birds, retired folks and "free-thinker's".  Here in this desert oasis, you will find golf courses, RV parks and several resorts that offer very high-end amenities.

The town has been designated International Dark Sky Community by the International Dark Sky Association and as such, you don't see very may street lights around town.  We had no idea there was such an organization.

Another really cool feature in Borrego Springs is the sculptures of Ricardo Breceda.  Most of the pieces are on the Galleta Meadows Estates, property once owned by Dennis Avery of the Avery Labels family.  The sculptures are gifts from Avery to Borrego Springs.

 I didn't take this one.  Couldn't get it all in the frame as this one did.

There are several more that we didn't get to see so we may have to go back up there sometime.  Might even apply to be a camp host at the state park.

More later.

Barry & Joyce

December 31, 2013

12/21/2013

I have been having some pains in my legs for a while now which has progressively gotten worse the past month or so.  Just before we left on our cruise, I saw a doctor in Brawley to get his opinion.

After a pretty through examination, he thought that I might have some blockage in my legs so he scheduled me for an ultrasound on the 16th.  He did clear me to travel on the cruise.

I had that test done and visited the doctor again on the 9th.  The results are not good.  i do have some blockage in both legs, including two areas of total occlusion.  I now have an appointment on January 11 with a vascular doctor to find out what the course of treatment will be.  There are several options but Joyce and I are hopping for the best and that it will be a quick fix.

So, that problem has caused us to change our travel plans for the rest of the winter.  We did cancel going to Aransas Pass, TX in January but we are hopefully optimistic that we'll make it to San Antonio in February.

12/31/2013

For several months we have been planning on spending time with Harold, Michelle, Abigail and Skyer who are flying out to California for Christmas.  My ex-wife Susanna's parents live in Fairfield so we're all going to meet there.  So, on the 23rd, we rented a car here in El Centro and drove up to Clovis, CA to pick up my mother.  We spent the night there and then drove up to Travis AFB where we had rented a suite on the base.

It was great to spend so time with the grand kids again, even though it was only for a couple of days.

Joyce made this Strata for Christmas morning.  Ummmm...good!

One the 26th, we dropped my mother off to catch a train back to Fresno and then we drove up to Lake Tahoe to spend a couple of days with Harold, Michelle and her step sister, Kelly and her boyfriend Brian.

The 27th turned out to be a very bad day in our lives and one we won't forget anytime soon.  I can't go into all the details right now but suffice it to say, we are devastated.  Joyce and I are coping but it is very hard.  More on this later.

Because of the news we got, we decided to cut our Tahoe stay by one day and head to St. Helena to visit Joyce's family.  We always have a great time visiting with Judy, Frank and Joanne and this visit was especially needed.  We also spent some time with our friends Bob and Chris who so graciously provided a place for us to stay for one night.

The 31st found us back on the rode back to El Centro.  We spent New Years Eve at the Embassy Suites in Palmdale and then drove the rest of the way down New Years Day.

Joyce and I wish all our family and friends a very happy 2014.

Barry & Joyce