Our fun-filled family time here in Westley, CA has almost come to an end. 🙁 We’re still parked at my brother Ronald’s house – my Mom, stepdad, brother Steve & Cheryl, and my Aunt Kathy left yesterday (Thursday) to head back to Casa Grande, AZ. I just got a message this morning that they’re still on the road after spending an overnight in Quartzsite. They should be back home by the time we leave here today (Friday).
We will head over to San Francisco from here (about 90 miles). Our destination is the Elks Lodge in San Jose where I have a couple cousins from my Dad’s side of the family that we have to visit since we’re in the area. We’ll also check out some of the sites in San Francisco, like Alcatraz… always wanted to take that tour. 🙂
The last several days have been great spending time with family! 🙂 And since my brother Ronald has a Welding & Machine Shop onsite, I took advantage of his skills and hospitality to ‘beef up’ my hitch extension.
I need the hitch extension for a couple reasons. Whenever I haul the Harley or the ATV in the bed of the pickup, the tailgate has to be down, so I need the extension to be able to use the bike rack. And yes, I know… why do I need a bike rack since our bikes were stolen in Las Vegas?!? 🙁 I wrote about that HERE. But, it also doubles as a tie-down for the ATV because it has an adjustable ball-hitch on the upper part that secures the ATV when it’s in the bed. It basically clamps down on the ATV’s tow ball to secure it while traveling. I keep the ATV stored at Steven & Cheryl’s in Casa Grande, AZ and swap out the Harley with the ATV whenever we’re in the area as the situation warrants (for example; if we’re headed to Quartzsite).
My brother Steven used to work here in years past. He used the lathe to machine and thread some new ‘beefed-up’ adjustment bolt points for the ATV hold-down portion.
Brother Ronald worked the welder.
The almost finished product (below), the tall upper portion is removable and has a trailer hitch portion that slides up and down as needed for securing the ATV.
Grandpa John checked progress…
And then we put it all back together after a fresh coat of paint.
Thanks for all the help Ronald! The last time we were here, he helped me ‘beef-up’ the mount for my motorcycle ramps on the truck rack. (link HERE). It’s good to have brothers 🙂
Ronald also had other work going on… here he is unloading a commercial sander/blaster for some welding repairs.
Otherwise, when we weren’t playing in the machine shop, we hung around the fire barrel because evenings have been getting pretty cool.
And here’s Steven & Cheryl’s Class-C pulling out yesterday (Thursday) to make the trip back to Casa Grande…
We all said our sad farewells and ‘see-ya-laters’…
BTW – With regard to the bikes being stolen in Las Vegas (link HERE), I highly recommend Miller Insurance for all your full-timing insurance needs. They came through on our claim and we’ll be getting a check to help us replace the bikes. They covered the bikes up to $1000, but we’ll only get a $750 check since our deductible is $250. I just hope our rates don’t go up as a result of the claim, we’ll have to wait and see… the agent I talked to didn’t think so, but you never know.
Stay tuned… our next post will be from the San Francisco area where we’ll visit with some more family…