My last post was written while we were having the coach serviced. One thing I didn’t mention in that post was the wildlife we’ve seen here in the Tonto National Forest. On Thursday evening, I saw a wild horse walking along the Salt River. On Friday morning, as we were driving out of the recreation area, Donna spotted five wild horses near the road. Our neighbors told us the horses occasionally come right through the parking lot at the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area.
Driving up Usery Pass, we saw a dead javelina on the side of the road. I’ve seen these animals in this area before. Although most people think these are wild pigs, they’re actually members of the peccary family. A peccary is a hoofed mammal originally from South America.
Last evening, just before dark, herons flew into a stand of trees by the river next to our site. This desert is full of wildlife!
Another type of wildlife showed up later last night. Four carloads of what I would guess are college age kids parked near us and walked down to the river. They didn’t disturb us. This morning their cars are still here so they must have brought sleeping bags or maybe even tents. I looked at the passes hung in their cars – they aren’t valid. They haven’t entered the date and time of arrival – they probably use the same six dollar pass over and over until they get caught.
On Thursday, I wrote about dropping the trailer and locking it up while we had the coach serviced. When we returned, we hitched up the trailer and moved to the eastern lot of the recreational area. This lot has a better view and Donna’s T-Mobile service is great here which was not the case just a few hundred yards away where we were parked before. On Friday morning, we dropped and locked the trailer again. This time we had to go back to the dealer and have the toilet seal replaced.
We also had the house batteries replaced. When we bought the coach, the deal was to include new batteries. They installed two new 12-volt chassis batteries before we took delivery. They told us that the four 6-volt house (coach) batteries tested good. This turned out to be wrong. The house batteries wouldn’t hold a charge. They were good to their word though – they replaced them at no charge to us. After their guy, Tim, installed the batteries, I looked them over. I told Tim we had a problem. We had one mismatched battery – one of the batteries in the bank of four was an 8-volt battery!
He pulled the mismatched battery and had a correct one delivered. We charged the battery bank while he removed and repaired the toilet.
There’s always something when you have a house that rolls down the road. Last night, while cleaning the coach, Donna saw water drip in the cabinet under the faucet. I got under there with a flashlight and tightened the fittings. A few minutes later, another drop fell. I looked again and discovered that it’s coming from the copper piping that’s part of the faucet. I think I’ll have to replace the whole thing. The only other option would be to silver solder the pipe, but I think that may be more work than it’s worth.
I rode the scooter over to Ace Hardware and looked at the faucets they had. I also picked up some 3M Command adhesive strips that Donna wanted for hanging some art. The Red, White and Brew restaurant/pub was by the hardware store, so I stopped in for a beer. I sat with my old friends, Mike Hall and John Huff. Mike offered us courtesy parking at his place anytime we want. He has a large workshop behind the house with a large RV gate. He also has a dump station, water and electricity! At some point, we’ll surely take him up on the offer.
Last night we invited our neighbors, Kevin and Barbara, for snacks and cocktails. They’re from Kansas, Kevin works with heavy equipment moving dirt. His work takes him through Kansas and Nebraska. They live in their fifth wheel trailer, going wherever his work takes him in the summer. They spend the winter months in Arizona, mostly dry camping.
Today, I’ll scooter over to Apache Junction and look at more faucets. I need to repair the leak today. Meanwhile, we leaving the water pump turned off unless we need water and we’re catching the drip in a cup.
