Yesterday, Donna biked the loop over Usery Pass, across McDowell and back to the Lower Salt River on Power Road with Emily and Mark Fagan. Emily and Mark are former bicycle racers and just as she expected, they pulled away from her on the 3-mile climb up Usery Pass. After four years of cycling on the flats in Michigan, she’s hoping to improve her climbing abilities.

While they were out bicycling, I loaded up our bed sheets and towels and scootered to the Fluff N Clean Laundromat. While I was out, I filled the gas tank on the scooter. I mentioned getting 67 miles per gallon the last time I filled our Kymco Downtown 300i gas tank. This time I got 74 miles per gallon! I don’t know if it’s a matter of the scooter breaking in or the fact that around here, I ride about 50 miles per hour and don’t sit at many stop lights, but I’m liking the mileage. In San Diego we averaged 60 miles per gallon.

Last evening, Emily and Mark joined us outside our rig to talk and view the sunset. Lana Jansen and her boyfriend, Joel, joined us. Lana was our neighbor when we lived in Mesa. She delivered our mail which had been forwarded to her house. She also allowed us to have some packages sent to her place. We’re waiting to receive the induction cookware we ordered in Quartzsite (the order is delayed), a water filter I ordered for the water purifier in our kitchen and a runner rug that Donna ordered for our living area.

We all sat together outside and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages. It was a good time. I took a photo of the group with my Samsung S4, but unfortunately it came out too grainy to post. I also shot a picture of the sunset.

Another sunset over Red Mountain

Mark brought a gag that he picked up at a bike show. It kept my bald pate warm! Looks great too!

Who knew hair really keeps the head warm?

Today, I need to figure out what is drawing our chassis batteries down. Our motorhome is equipped with two 12-volt batteries to supply the starter motor and engine functions with electricity. With the vehicle parked, there should only be a small parasitic load on these batteries. However, I’m finding that these batteries draw down below 12.3 volts daily. This isn’t right. There’s a separate bank of four 6-volt golf cart batteries that power the interior functions of the coach. This bank is wired to supply twelve volts to some of the lights, the water pump and a few other things that operate on 12-volt DC power. It also supplies the inverter which inverts the 12-volt DC into 120 volt AC current. This supplies various outlets, the microwave oven and our TV.

I also want to hike down the Lower Salt River today. Below is a photo Mark Fagan took of last evening’s sunset.

Sunset last evening by Mark Fagan. His exposure shows our little gathering outside our coach.