Our Excellent Adventures

Politicians and their staffs think we are stupid. And, if we do catch on, we can’t do anything about it anyway.

Four American Indian tribes in California were allowed to expand their gaming operations. As a result they were to pay California a larger share of revenues. Three did but the fourth, the Sucuan band of the Kumeyaay Nation (You know this entire gambling thing for Indian “Nations” is totally out of hand, but that’s for a future post.) was authorized by the Schwarzenegger folks to wait until next year before paying up. I guess they hadn’t heard about California’s budget woes.

Four days prior to this ok, the Sycuan tribe gave $45,000 dollars to a redistricting initiative promoted by Schwarzenegger. Of course, there is no connection. “It is not a donation that the governor solicited,” said a spokesperson.

Of course he didn’t but someone did. A slap on the back, a wink and a nod, you scratch my back and I’ll pony up $45k . . .

Sorry gov’nor, with politics and donations there aren’t any coincidences.

Note: This is a Sportsmobile Sprinter 2500, high roof and 144″ wheelbase with a 3.0L diesel.

Most of the fuel involved comes from the same pump and nozzle. This is with all gear, most food and all water.

17.1; 16.7; 18.8; 18.7; 17.4; 14.3; 16.8; 15.6; 17.9 for an average of 17.03.

Most numbers are a combination of city/California freeway with freeway speeds from 65 to 70 mostly 65. The last 3 were with a Scangauge installed posting MAP and MPG. I only look at the MPG as the MAP numbers seem useless.

The high numbers were 95% freeway miles.

This weekend the bus passed the all important “Kid’s Test” - you know, where they use it as a fort, to play house, raid Grandpa’s snacks, open and explore every drawer and cabinet at least three times. And don’t forget, flush the toilet, drink all the cold water in the refrigerator, turn on the fan and want to spend the night by themselves . . . No way on that one!

So it went. We played monster where I was the monster and 3 little girls were trying to keep out of the bus (Sprinter). Of course, I had the key and lock control - there are 4 doors and only 3 of them which resulted in a lot of high-pitched screams and me trying to hide my laugher.

The most coveted seat when we went somewhere was not, of course, next to Grandpa. It was the marine toilet! I have to have seat belts added for that!

Now I think we are about ready for Alaska. Most system tests have been done. Need to clean up the windows and all the Goldfish crumbs, restock and we are looking good for lift-off in T-37 days.

Wow, sounds exciting. The ocean. Fisherman’s Wharf, the Monterey Aquarium . . . well, here I sit (at cocktail time) in my son’s house helping him move to Arizona, after 20 years and retiring from the Army.

Actually, he is on his way south with a load and I have the grand-kids (hooray!) and we are packing boxes for the next (and last) trip. No A/C - I guess our warriors don’t need it (but what about their families?) and it is HOT! So we got a lot of boxes packed this morning and went to see King Fu Panda which was totally great! It is the first movie I have been to in a long time that the audience applauded at the end and stayed until the credits were run!

The good part is I got to sleep in the Sprinter last night. I used a foam mat over the gaucho and that really made it nice. I also turned of the refrig. That makes a lot of noise/vibration . . . I need to track that down before Alaska. Not sure about the foam . . . I need to find a way to carry it so I am going to REI to look for straps to cinch it down in size.

Did I say it was HOT! I can see towards Santa Cruz two fires burning. The ocean looks great - I miss living next to it (Santa Barbara 15 years).

Alaska, 39 days and a wake-up . . .

PS. The theater here was great. Real popcorn (you could see it poping!), gormet food and coffee. For the most part, self-service!

This is so easy to do. Just order the Mercedes wheel inserts from one of the several vendors out there - waiting for them to come in is probably the hardest part.

Drill a 1/4″ hole in the plastic (yep, it’s plastic) cover.

Use a screw driver and pop out the insert. Don’t pry against the wheel - you may scatch it.

You are left with a very nice hole that needs filling.

Just pop in the new insert and you are good to go!

Of course, if you want to, you can take each wheel off to remove the insert but why would you want to do that?

The finished product.