Yesterday the sky remained overcast all afternoon. The temperature was in the low 70s. Donna went for a run in the morning while I played around on the Internet. The pollen count is so high now, I’m really suffering from allergies. I’m taking three medications to fight the symptoms. I use a prescription nasal spray, Opcon-A eye drops and an over-the-counter antihistamine tablet. I hope whatever is producing all the pollen quits soon.

After Donna returned from her run and showered, we decided to drive down to Fountain Hills for lunch. We went to a Mexican restaurant called El Encanto that her friend Julia recommended. There are three El Encanto restaurants in the greater Phoenix area. The original opened in 1989 at Cave Creek. About 10 years later, the second opened on Carefree Highway. In 2009, they opened the third in Fountain Hills and called it El Encanto de la Fuente (of the fountain). I had the special, which was a carne asada burro and a taco. Donna ordered a fish taco with black beans. Great food and the service was good too. I recommend this place.

While we were in town, we drove to where Donna used to live to visit her next door neighbors, Dwight and Marianne. Donna last visited them a little over a year ago when she was in Phoenix. Dwight suffered a stroke a couple of years ago and is confined to a wheelchair. We were happy to note that his condition has improved considerably though since the last time Donna visited.

On the way home, we stopped at the Fountain Hills Bicycle Shop. We met the owner, Doug, and chatted with him. Donna picked up a few items while I checked out the mountain bikes. Watching people riding mountain bikes on the trails around here has me thinking about getting one.

When we returned, I put new handlebar tape on Donna’s bike. The tape cushions the rider’s hands and she was due for new tape before her race this weekend. Then I read a book while Donna continued to edit her book. Basically, I had a lazy day with no real projects. I didn’t even muster enough ambition to  practice guitar. Most days, I have a project of some kind. There’s always something I can improve on our coach, scooter or bicycles.

Donna told me that a friend of hers, Paula Switzer, wondered my if blog might make some people leery of hitting the road. She was referring to all of the projects I post about. She thought that maybe people would think they would need to be handy and have the tools and knowledge to work on the various systems that make up a motorhome.

I don’t mean to make it seem scary or beat my chest about my mechanical ability. If you’re handy and have some mechanical inclination, it helps. Some people wouldn’t think of turning a wrench on their RV. They follow the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule and have a dealer or shop do the work. When the recommended maintenance is performed, the RV is inspected. Any shortcomings can be handled by the shop. From what I’ve read on forums and other blogs, most people in this category buy new or nearly new RVs with a warranty.

There are others that defer maintenance and only have work performed when something breaks, leaks or quits working. I saw a lot of this when we were at Mission Bay RV Resort. It seemed like mobile RV technicians were at the park daily to fix someone’s RV. This approach is a little scary to me. Deferring preventive maintenance until something breaks can lead to expensive repairs.

My approach is to perform the maintenance tasks I’m capable of. I don’t do everything at once like a professional workshop would. I try to prioritize the work and spread it out. I try to take care of little issues before they become big issues. This doesn’t guarantee things will never break, but it lowers the odds. On our old coach, I would change my own engine oil and filter. It was powered by a gasoline engine and held about seven quarts of oil. Our present coach has a diesel engine that takes about 25 quarts of oil. I’ll take it to a shop and pay to have the oil changed because I have no way of containing and disposing of more than six gallons of oil!

The other work I perform on our coach are things that I have the ability, tools and time to do. I wouldn’t do this work for pay on someone else’s coach. But I’ll do it on my coach to avoid paying someone else to do it.

Donna is kind of like that in the kitchen. She cooks dinners that are worthy of fine restaurant fare. We go out to eat on occasion, but probably not as often as many people do. Though Donna is a good cook and enjoys serving good food, she wouldn’t want to open a restaurant and do it for a living.

Speaking of food, I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post about the dinner we had Monday night. In the morning, Donna seasoned boneless country-style pork ribs. I browned them on the grill, then Donna put them in our 4-quart Health Craft pot on her slow cooker base with sliced onion and apple with a homemade BBQ sauce. They cooked all day. By dinner time, they were ready and so tender!

Country-style BBQ pork ribs over egg noodles

Today, I’ll readjust the air conditioner compressor belt I replaced last week. As I expected, after running for a while, it’s loosened up a little. The sky is clear and the day is quickly warming. I better get this project going before it gets too hot.