July 15, 2021 Oshkosh Of Bust The Blog Upgrades and Vegas

July 15, 2021 Oshkosh 2021 Or Bust The Blog - Upgrades and Vegas

Well I’m a little behind on writing this blog, I know I promised to have something on Tuesday, but I’ve been tired and yesterday (Wednesday) was just a long day with work and needing to be around my wife who had a bad day.

So ANYWAY!!!

After returning from our successful test trip to Santa Barbara, it was time to make some decisions about whether we should up-grade the Camper by adding the Solar Panel Systems.

But before making this decision, we began looking at the potential route to go back to Wisconsin and we were also looking at the various campgrounds along the route and availability. Yeah, it was not looking promising at all.

I went back to Barber RV to discuss what it would take to install a Solar System on our new Camper and the associated cost involved with it. The discussion went pretty well at Barber RV and they recommended that we go with the installation of two panels, two new batteries and an inverter. Once I got the estimated cost ($$$$) and made an appointment for that Friday, I proceeded home to let my wife know and see what we wanted to do.

So my wife (god bless this woman) began to do some research and insisted that we call our close friend Cliff and get his input about whether or not we should put the money into buying the Solar System. And she also reached out through several websites to get other peoples opinions and input. A number of people would tell us that we should get a generator that’s big enough and just use that to power the systems on the camper. My biggest draw back to that was having to haul around extra cans of fuel to power the generator and then of course the issue at some camp grounds of not being allowed to run them due to them being too loud.

Most people said we would have to make the decision for ourselves, but the biggest comment being made was that if were to go off grid camping that having the panels would be more than ideal.

Off Grid did you say? Yes, why yes, that’s what people were saying.. My wife began to do more research and noticed how much more the world was opening up if we went off grid and that we would be able to bring our German Shepard (Sargent) with us.

So at this point the decision was pretty much made and we both agreed that we would go ahead and get the Solar Panels installed. So on Friday (July 2nd) we picked up the camper from the wife’s work and took it Barber RV where they were going to proceed to install the Solar Panels. With us getting ready to head to Vegas for a family trip, I asked the guys at the RV to take their time with the install and that we’d pick it up once we got home. They said okay.

Prior to leaving for the Vegas Trip, I began to make arrangements for places to stay when I started to head for Wisconsin. So as of the 4th of July weekend, I have plans to stay at Hill AFB, Utah/ Shoshoni, Wyoming/ Hermosa, South Dakota.

Vegas:

Thanks to our close friends Cliff and Laurie, we were able to obtain a really nice Air BnB in Las Vegas, this was going to be our temporary Headquarters for the weekend while we were attending a family wedding and give us the opportunity to hang out with our family and friends.

The trip started out pretty good, my wife and I left early in the morning on Wednesday (July 7th) and proceed up to North Las Vegas. We drove through Lancaster and Mojave, which then lead us to Barstow and then headed north on Interstate 15, we left home about 0330 in the morning and made it to the Air BnB about 0900 or so.

After a little bit of visiting with our friends Cliff and Laurie and meeting the owner of the house we were going to be staying in, my wife and I were able to settle in a little bit and then proceeded to telework.

After several hours of work, I decided that it was time to head out to the Las Vegas Speedway and to get some pictures of the planes taking off and landing at Nellis AFB.

Getting out to the Vegas Speedway and Nellis AFB from North Las Vegas is so much easier now, and that has a lot to do with the fact that Route 215 is nearly complete and that there now no stop lights on this route helped too.

Upon arriving at the Speedway I found a spot and set-up my cameras, lit a cigar and proceeded to wait very patiently for the planes to take off or land at Nellis AFB. Now keep in mind that this is July and the sky is clear as a bell and it was HOT as hell out there. I believe that on this first day out there, the temperature got to about 113. After about 4 ½ to 5 hours of being out at Nellis, it was time to head back to the Air BnB and get cleaned up for dinner with our friends and wait for our oldest daughter to fly in.

We had a great dinner with Cliff and Laurie that night, and it was just nice to be away and around normal people and we talk about many different things, but eventually my eyes began to get heavy and it was time to go to bed!!!

Our cousin (Alaina) thankfully went out to the Vegas Airport to pick-up our oldest daughter and brought her back to the Air BnB. So thanks Alaina!

Thursday was just another day of Telework for myself, my wife and now our oldest daughter. Our daughter was the first one up in the morning as she had to be on line by 7am her time (South Dakota), I followed suit right behind her and then my wife did too. Kinda funny seeing all three of us working and being on the phone, but I was proud of my girls.

Thursday was also the day that my wife’s best friend and her mom were due to fly in and spend the weekend with us and celebrate a birthday. So I knew that I would at some point have to make a break for it and get out to Nellis and shoot some pictures and then escort my wife to the airport to pick her friend up. Right around lunch time it was time to call it quits and head out into the desert heat for Nellis AFB and to get some more pictures of the local planes.

Once out at the Speedway, I set myself up and proceeded to take some pictures and the head was once again about 115, so with the windows rolled down in my truck and the engine running, I spent about 4 hours shooting pictures and was able to get some A-10’s, F-35’s, F-16’s, F-22’s and F-15’s and some aggressors from Draken too.

After a while it got a little too warm and I needed to get back to my family and prepare for the evening drive out to the airport to pick up my wife’s best friend and her mom.

At around 430pm we took off for the airport and picked up my wife’s best friend and her mom and then proceeded back to North Vegas where we just hung out had dinner with everyone.

Friday was another Telework day for us all and it was also a POOL Day too, we crashed Cliff and Laurie’s home and went swimming and had dinner and just basically hung around..

Saturday morning was an early morning for myself and the wife’s best friend as we decided the night before that we would venture out to the Valley Of Fire State Park to try and capture the sunrise and take some pictures of the area. My plan was to take a sunrise picture and to present it to my wife’s cousin that was getting married later in the afternoon as a wedding gift. I did manage to get that sunrise picture and a few more photo’s.

After returning back to the Air BnB, it was now time to work on the wedding gift and to order the print and have it shipped out.. With the help of my wife, daughter and our cousin, I was able to get the picture figured out and even put a really nice quote on to it for the young couple that was getting married.

Alex and Nicole we are all so very happy for you both, congratulations on your marriage may if last forever…
Sunday was a day of just going around the Vegas area, we drove out to Hoover Dam (didn’t get any dam bait or dam fish!!!) and we were all just amazed out how low the water level was at Lake Mead and how low it was in and around the dam. The color on the rocks that surround the Hoover Dam are so different and you can easily figure out what the water level used to be.

We then proceeded to the Green Valley Ranch Casino/ Resort where we took a few minutes to walk around and gamble (I won $50 bucks) and then headed over to a local winery for some wine tasting and prior to going back to the Air BnB we stopped at the local Bass Pro Shop.

Once back at the Air BnB, we decided to head out to get some stuff for the pizza/ pool party, but after talking with our cousin (Alaina) we proceed to meet up with her and her folks for a couple of drinks, which was really awesome. Once back at the Air BnB it was time for beer, pizza and pool time!!! THEN the storm came!!

No I mean a real storm, a nice thunder storm rolled in and pretty much killed the night for us all. But it was really cool to see some lightning and hear the thunder. I tried to get out and get some pictures, but of course I waited way to long and once I did get to a spot I liked, the winds were just killing me and I couldn’t get safely set up. So back to the house I went.

Monday was Departure day from the Air BnB and check-in at the Golden Nugget in old Downtown Vegas. Thanks to my wife’s best friend, we got some great rooms with some pretty decent views of “The Strip”. We all ended up down at the Golden Nugget pool, tried out the waterslide and walked around the big fish tank that had the sharks in it. It was pretty cool, I wanted to feed my wife to the sharks but to no avail…

Monday evening another storm was brewing to the north of us and I proceeded down to the top floor of the parking garage to attempt to get some pictures. Yeah it still didn’t work out that great again, but did get some pretty cool shots of the mountains getting rain and some of the lights coming on around the other casinos in the area. After a few hours of this it was time to call it a night and get some rest for the drive home and for work on Tuesday..

Tuesday morning at around 0300am I headed out by myself from Vegas for home. The drive was pretty uneventful except that the storm that had come through Vegas the night before was still out there and was able to see some really beautiful lightning flashes across the sky. I arrived home (in the onion fields) at around 0830am and just unloaded a few items and to the disappointment to all of the animals in our house headed into work, where I was already on the hook for a bunch of meetings!!!

Wednesday was another workday, but it was also a Veterans Resource Group Breakfast Meeting too. It was also the day that I decided to go and pick-up the camper from Barber RV. Yeah well that didn’t workout the way I had planned. Now the camper was ready to go, but due to a few technical glitches with the bank it would have to wait about 18 hours for me to pick it up… Just another wrench in the works!!!!

Thursday another workday and another day closer to going on leave and heading out for Oshkosh. BUT the kicker was that I was able to get to the bank and back to Barber RV and pick-up the camper, the folks at the RV dealer explained everything to me about what they installed for us, and I proceeded to hook up my truck to the camper and head back to work and finish out the day.

Alright I have now rambled on for 5 pages of my life over the past few weeks, I didn’t include a number of events and such as well, I just didn’t want junk put out there.

Tomorrow is Friday and my last official day of work for about three weeks, now we just have to pack-up and take care of a few minor details with the truck and get on the road on Monday morning.

To my Co-workers that are going to fill in for me while I’m gone. Thank You!!! I know you ladies will take care of business.

Well I think that’s it for tonight and maybe until I head out on Monday Morning and make it to my first stop of the trip. Keep an eye out on all of my Social Media sites for pictures and just me being me.

Until then later.

Semper Fi,
Frank
1/9 Everywhere