By Dale Edwards

Sept. 1, 2010

To view or download the Club Newsletter in PDF format, click the link below:

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The Nomads had two campouts that concluded in August. The one for July in Oceanside was scheduled to end on August 1, so it missed the El Bekalan editorial cutoff date for last month’s issue. That campout was held at the Oceanside Elk’s Lodge, which we have used for several campouts in years past. But this time it was especially memorable for Bert and Audrey Ekstrom.

There were 12 Nomad rigs in attendance in Oceanside, but somehow the reservations got screwed up and there were not enough spaces in the park for all of us. So two of our rigs had to stay in the overflow area on the parking lot. Well, the electric pedestals in the overflow area are pretty crude, and the first one Bert Ekstrom plugged into didn’t work very well. So the Elks Lodge RV host tried to help and messed around with pedestals and wiring and whatever else he could. But in the process he eventually messed with some wires and plugged Bert’s coach into 240VAC instead of 115VAC and blew out the electrical system. It could have been worse but it did blow out the microwave oven and the AC side of the electrical inverter/converter. That meant he could not charge his coach batteries and soon the batteries went dead. So Bert had to abandon the campout to get repairs started as they were leaving on a two month long motorhome trip to the East Coast that Sunday. I hear that repairs went well, insurance claims were filed, and they are now on their way about one week later than planned.

Otherwise, the Oceanside campout went well. Those who went a day early had sunshine, but clouds cooled things off quite a bit for the scheduled weekend. That made the warmth of an evening campfire appreciated all the more. On Friday several of the Nomads went off and had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant near Carlsbad while others feasted on the selections at the Elks Club. Saturday night was the usual pot luck dinner, which was excellent as usual.

For the Pechanga campout we ended up with seven rigs attending after three had to drop out at the last minute. It was warm but with very low humidity, and actually the afternoon breeze made it pretty nice under the large oak trees shading the grass just outside the wagon master’s coach. Several members took the shuttle over to the casino and donated some cash to the Indians, while others went over to Old Towne Temecula and shopped. But the heat must have gotten to a few of our group as we sat under the oak trees during cocktail hour and carried on a lively and lengthy discussion as to the gender of a TV coaxial cable connector. Even a web search on a couple of smart phones didn’t settle the matter. But it ended peacefully during our great potluck dinner, which was concluded, with a special desert of Kalua injected and chocolate enhanced Twinkies. No campfires are allowed at Pechanga so many of our group finished off the evening by gathering their chairs around guest attendee Len Sabatini’s motorhome patio TV set and watching a pre-season football game.

The bottom line is that we have a lot of fun at these campouts, so long as you don’t get plugged into a defective power pedestal. Just give a call to our President, Bob Lash at (949) 498-5013 or our Vice President, Bob Martin at (714) 964-8503 and they’ll be glad to answer any questions or make reservations for one of our 2nd Tuesday of the month dinner meetings.