Monthly Archives: February 2014

Swap Meet Shopping

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Donna and I aren’t too big on Hallmark holidays, but we celebrated. Donna’s Valentine’s gift to me was a full body therapeutic massage. I was badly in need. My gift to her was dinner at Got Sushi.

When we lived in Mesa, Got Sushi on the corner of Power and McDowell was a place where we frequently dined. Being half Japanese, I’m very particular about sushi. We found consistently good sushi at Got Sushi when we lived here. Yesterday, not so much. I guess things change. The maki (rolls) left something to be desired. The spider roll was too heavily battered. It also had too much sauce. It should have just a light drizzle, but it was covered in sauce. The volcano roll also was too heavy on the sauce.

Sushi maki plate

The nigiri and sashimi were quite good though. So, it wasn’t not all bad. All in all, we enjoyed our meal even though the maki was a little disappointing.

Sushi nigiri plate

When we returned home, I fixed myself a cocktail. Last weekend, when we went out to dinner with Howard and Sara Graff, the topic of vodka came up. Sara and I are fans of vodka martinis. We both are also fans of Tito’s vodka, made in Texas. Sara brought up a new vodka she likes. It’s Polish vodka called Sobieski. I asked if it was potato vodka (it’s not). This led to discussion of Russian vodka versus Polish vodka and grain vodka versus potato vodka.

Vodka originated in Poland during the middle ages. In Poland they make vodka from potatoes or grains. Russia started producing vodka late in the 14th century and typically Russian vodka is made from grains.

It’s more difficult to make vodka from potatoes than grains. Grains are easier to handle and store. Potatoes can be bruised and spoil. But, when good vodka is made from potatoes, it’s superior to my palate.

I’ve tried Sobieski vodka before. It’s not high on my list of favorite vodkas. My all-time favorite is Chopin, made from potatoes. Too bad Chopin is so expensive. Yesterday, while I was at Basha’s grocery, I saw Luksusowa (pronounced Look-soo-so-vah), a Polish potato vodka. I hadn’t tried it before, so I bought it.

Back to last night’s cocktail. I made a vodka martini with the Luksusowa. What a find! This is very smooth vodka, it makes a great martini and it’s very affordable. I would rate it 4.5 stars on a scale of five.

I’m very late writing today’s post – for one thing I had to wait while my computer installed updates that the good folks at Microsoft thought I urgently needed. While I was working on my laptop, a pop-up announced that my computer will restart in 14 minutes to complete an important software update! No option to restart later or cancel the restart. I guess the folks at Microsoft know what my priorities should be. End of rant.

This morning, Donna went for a 35-mile bike ride with her friend, Dara. While she was out riding, I rode the scooter over to the Mesa Marketplace Swap Meet. I remembered this large flea market from when I lived near nearby in 2005. I rode down Ellsworth to Baseline and turned east. I thought I knew where it was, but I began to have my doubts.

The old neighborhood has changed. Where open land was, now there were housing developments and condos. Shopping centers that I didn’t remember seeing before were on the corners. The swap meet used to be easy to find – it stood out on a barren landscape. I crossed Crismon Road. This used to be wide open, but now it is filled with housing. I thought this was where the swap meet was.

I rode another mile east and found it, just west of Signal Butte. It’s almost hidden by the housing developments there. I couldn’t miss it though. There was a long line of cars trying to get into the parking lot. The parking lot is huge. The marketplace has structures with permanent metal roofs and tent-like walls.

One of the hallways in the Mesa Marketplace

It’s similar to the big tent in Quartzsite, but I would say it’s five times as big. There is a mile and a quarter of covered shopping halls with about 1,600 shops. It’s open Friday through Sunday from 7am to 4pm. I was looking for a couple of inexpensive tools. They have everything you can imagine for sale there, and some things you probably never thought of.

Clothing for sale

Fresh vegetables

I roamed through a couple of hallways before I found what I was looking for. Tables covered with tools! I bought a mechanic’s mirror (a small mirror on an expandable wand), a mechanic’s magnet and some hemostats.

The table of tools I was looking for

These aren’t the type of tools I would use frequently and I didn’t want to spend much money on them.

While I was roaming around, I found a digital clock that not only displays the time, it also displays the date and day of the week. It also has an ambient temperature display. We’ve been wanting a clock/thermometer, so I bought it for $10. I also got a good deal on socks and a couple of T-shirts.

Today the temperature might reach 90. I think a trip to the pool will be on the agenda.

Fruitful Day

Happy Valentine’s Day first of all!

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned my dental issues brought on by head and neck radiation. Some readers that aren’t aware of my history may wonder what that’s all about. Around Christmas 2001, I was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. It had spread into my lymph system. In January of 2002, I started an aggressive course of treatment that included surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. I kept a journal of that experience, but for now, suffice to say I survived. Maybe I’ll tell more of that story another time.

Yesterday, I saw our neighbor perched precariously on a step ladder. He was trying do something to the slide topper over his living room slide-out. I casually stepped outside and said, “Good morning.” After we exchanged pleasantries, I asked him what he was doing. He told me there was a window shade that’s supposed to extend from his slide topper. In case you don’t know, a slide topper is a canvas top that unfurls as the slide-out extends. It keeps leaves, rain or other debris from the top of the slide-out. You wouldn’t want that stuff on top of the slide-out when you retract it. The motorhome is new to him and he hadnot tried the window shade before.

I asked him if he wanted to use a taller ladder. I got my Werner MT-17* Multi-ladder out of the trailer. Once we had that set up, he could easily reach the slide topper. I watched him try to get the roller to extend further and release the shade. The roller looked like it would spin, but the arms that need to extend the shade wouldn’t budge. He kept pulling at it. When something like this happens, I usually stop and look things over instead of trying to force the issue. I looked at the arms that were supposed to extend and support the window shade. I asked him if he thought the plastic sleeves on the arms were locks, maybe they need to be slid into a position that unlocks the arm. He tried moving the plastic sleeve and voila! The arm unlocked and he pulled the window shade into position. Neither of us had seen this style of topper/shade before.

Topper extends into a window shade

It’s always nice to learn something new. After we got his window shade in place, I thought I should extend our shades as well. The weather guessers said that the day would be clear and sunny with the temperature rising into the 80s. They had it right!

Our shades are separate from the topper. This is the more usual configuration.

Window shade separate from topper

Donna knocked off work around 3:30pm. We put on our bathing suits, I filled a small cooler with cold beer and we walked to the community pool. It felt good to take a swim. The last time I was in a pool was last September when we swam with the grandkids in Washington. We lounged beside the pool and read in the sun. The sun felt good after swimming. My swimming trunks dried quickly.

After an hour or so, we headed back home. We made a stop at the fruit stand on the way. The fruit stand here in Apache Wells RV Resort consists of several tables covered with bags of citrus fruit free for the taking. Right now, the trees in the park are producing so much citrus that the bags are overflowing the tables onto the sidewalk. We grabbed a bag of white grapefruit to take home with us.

Bags of citrus fruit

Last night, I grilled chicken sausage stuffed with feta and spinach. Donna served it with green beans and smashed garlic potatoes. Delicious!

Chicken sausage with feta and spinach served with green beans and smashed garlic potatoes

By the way, our friends, Emily and Mark Fagan posted more great photos of the Salt River and Tonto National Forest in their blog, Roads Less Traveled. They even included the shot Mark gave me for our blog banner and a link to our blog!

Today will be another warm one. I think another trip to the pool will be in order.

Mystery Panel

Tuesday was a lazy day. The weather was beautiful – the temperature hit 76 without a cloud in the sky. I went for a walk, then I set up a chair under the awning and read. I’m reading City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. It was published in 2005. It’s a non-fiction description of the fire that destroyed the Fenice Opera House in Venice, Italy in 1996. It’s really well-written and the story grabbed me.

Yesterday, I started my day early. I had an alarm set for 7am. I haven’t used an alarm for a while. I slept fitfully all night. The pollen counts here are high. I have severe pollen allergies. When the pollen count is high I often sleep poorly. Anyway, the reason for my early wake-up was a dental appointment. I had a 7:50am appointment for a check-up and cleaning.

My original appointment was at 8:40am. The dental office called on Monday and asked to move my appointment earlier. I don’t know why I agreed – I’m retired and have no need for an early morning apointment! The check-up revealed a small cavity under a gold onlay. The fix for that is to remove the onlay and replace it with a crown. Cavities were a rare issue for me until I had head and neck radiation treatment in 2002. The radiation damages the tooth enamel and that’s when problems start. The radiation also affects saliva production, which also promotes tooth decay. I try to be diligent in my tooth and mouth care, but it seems like it’s a losing battle. I’ve had a lot of work done over the past six or seven years.

After a poor night’s rest and early dental appointment, I decided another lazy day was in order. I didn’t post to the blog. The afternoon was warm with the temperature rising to 80 degrees. I put the awning out and sat outside to read.

Later, I pulled my Gibson ES-339 out of the basement and set up my amp-stand. I haven’t played guitar in weeks. I played for about 40 minutes. I need to put new strings on the guitar. Maybe that’s a task for today.

There was another thing on my mind. In our bedroom, between the side of the bed and the wardrobe, I found a strange seam in the carpet.

Seam in carpet

I thought this was curious. When I looked closely, I found a tag next to the bed. Pulling on the tag, a 20″ by 14″ panel came up. It was heat shielded on the bottom. Below the panel was a metal plate.

Heat shielding and plate under carpet panel

Now I wanted to know what this mystery panel was for. The metal plate was held in place by four screws with #2 square drive heads. I put a #2SD driver in my electric screw driver and removed the panel. It revealed the rear of the engine and transmission bell housing. I don’t think you would ever need this access unless something catastrophic occurred. It would be most helpful if you had to remove the exhaust manifold, the turbocharger or the complete engine. My curiosity was satisfied. Good-to-know information, but I hope I never need to use this access.

Access to rear of engine

Andy King, my friend going all the way back to junior high school days, stopped by at 4:30pm. I haven’t seen Andy in a long time. I think we figured it to be 36 years. The funny thing is, he was living in Gold Canyon, just a dozen miles or so from our old house in Mesa when Donna and I lived in Arizona. Neither of us used Facebook back then and we were out of touch with each other. We only connected recently with Facebook.

I gave him the nickel tour of our place, then he drove us to the Handlebar Grill and Pub in Apache Junction. This place is very unassuming. It’s on Apache Trail (Main Street) near Ironwood. From the street it looks like a dusty dive bar. It isn’t. There’s a nice outdoor patio and inside, the tables are covered with table cloths. The service is great and they cook a lot of their food over a wood-fired grill. They also have a great selection of beer on tap.

Andy’s wife, coincidentally also named Donna, joined us there. We had a great time enjoying the company, burgers and beer. The two Donnas split a bottle of wine. Entertainment was provided by The String ‘Em Up Band – a local bluegrass band. Andy was a regular member of this band, but now he sits in occasionally. He broke out his Fishook Dobro and joined the band for their second and third set.

Andy and I flanked by our Donnas

Andy takes center stage

It was a fun-filled night. Andy drove us back to Apache Wells a little after 9pm. We plan to get together again soon.

Today, the weather is forecast to continue the warming trend. We should see a high of over 80 degrees today and near 90 by Saturday. Maybe it’s time for me to hit the pool. But hey, it’s a dry heat. It’s not hot here until the thermometer hits 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Nick of Time

We had beautiful weather yesterday. The sky was clear with a gentle breeze and the temperature reached 75 degrees. I went out for a walk, then got to work on the belt replacement project.

When I inspected our coach, I noticed some small cracks in the serpentine belt on the engine. I knew I would have to replace the belt sooner or later. The serpentine belt is flat, a little over an inch wide and has eight ribs. It’s driven by the crankshaft pulley, which has grooves to match the ribs. The belt drives the coolant pump, the alternator and an accessory drive on the engine (I’m not 100% sure, but I think that drive runs the compressor for the air suspension). A spring-loaded tensioner maintains the proper belt tension. If this belt breaks, you must stop immediately or the engine will quickly overheat and destroy itself.

The other day, I was looking things over in the engine compartment. I saw a crack in the serpentine belt that was alarming. When I last shut down the engine, the belt stopped in a position that revealed this crack where the belt wraps around the coolant pump pulley. I had to replace the belt sooner, rather than later.

Crack in belt

I spent a lot of time on the Internet trying to find the correct replacement part number. There was conflicting information. I found a part number for a Dayco belt in the Alpine Coach Owner’s Manual. Cross-referencing this part number, I found it was interchangeable with two other part numbers I found posted on the Alpine Coach forum. This is what was confusing me, but then it started to make sense.

I removed the belt. To get the serpentine belt off, I needed to remove the A/C compressor V-belt first. This entailed loosening the compressor bracket to create slack in the belt to remove it. This was easier said than done. Getting to the bolts on the bracket wasn’t easy.

A/C compressor

Once I had the A/C belt off, removing the serpentine belt was easy. The tensioner mount has a 1/2″ square hole in it. I used a 1/2″ drive ratchet with a short extension inserted into the hole to twist against the spring and release the belt tension. Once I did that, I popped the belt off the alternator pulley.

Serpentine belt tensioner

With the old belt in hand, I found the Cummins part number on the belt. This number was different from the part number in the owner’s manual and the online search. I went online and pulled up replacement cross-reference numbers again. The Cummins part number corresponded with the same replacement part number I had before.

I took the old belts with me and rode the scooter a few miles to NAPA Auto Parts. My online search showed the NAPA on Main Street had both belts in stock. The NAPA-branded belts are made by Gates, right here in the USA. I bought both belts and returned to install them.

The new serpentine belt was rather stiff. I threaded it through the pulleys, starting at the crankshaft. I placed the belt against the alternator pulley. Now, all I had to do was twist against the spring on the tensioner and place the belt over the alternator pulley. Easy, right?

With no belt, the tensioner was resting against the stop. I had to work against the spring and move the tensioner through its full travel to get enough slack to place the belt over the pulley. I reached down into the engine compartment and pulled on the ratchet. This was like doing an extended arm bicep curl. As I placed the belt over the alternator pulley, it came off of the coolant pump pulley. The belt wasn’t cooperating due to being new and stiff. I repeated the process over and over with the same result. My right bicep was getting sore. Finally, on about the tenth try, it went into place. In hindsight, I should have replaced the short ratchet with the long 1/2″ torque wrench in my tool box for added leverage. If I had my old tool box that was stolen by those Dirty, Rotten Thieves, I would have used a long breaker bar.

I took a short breather before installing the V-belt on the A/C drive. The belt I bought for the A/C compressor is a heavy-duty NAPA Fleetrunner Green Line model. This is top of the line, designed to withstand hot environments. These belts are used in commercial applications. I felt that spending a few extra bucks for a heavy-duty belt was worth it. I didn’t want to have to do this job again any time soon.

A/C compressor belt

Getting the A/C belt over the pulleys turned out to be a tough assignment. The old belt had enough wear to have the compressor mounted halfway up the adjuster travel. Belts can stretch a little, but what really causes the need for belt adjustment is wear along the sides of the belt. The pulley groove is a V profile. The side of the belt tapers from the outside to the inner circumference at a 38 degree angle. As the sides wear, the belt rides deeper in the pulley. To get the new belt on, I had to move the compressor all the way to end of its adjustment.

I had to loosen the bolts further. The compressor was stuck against the mount. I couldn’t see the bolts on the back side of the mount – it was all tactile work. I had to reach up and work with my arms outstretched. I’m glad I don’t do this sort of thing for a living. The A/C belt took me longer to install and adjust than the serpentine belt. I’m guessing I’ll need to re-adjust it after a short time as it seats in. The serpentine belt is self-adjusting.

Later, after I cleaned up, Donna and I rode over to the Red, White and Brew. We were meeting Mike Hall and his wife, Jodie at 4pm. We sat at the bar with them and talked. John Huff was there also. Donna ordered mussels vin blanc – it was her favorite dish when we used to come here. I had a chicken quesadilla with chipotle mayo dipping sauce. I washed it down with a Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Oregon.

Last night, we watched two more episodes of Breaking Bad. I don’t see this ending well for Walter, but I don’t want it to end at all.

Falcon Field

Here at Apache Wells RV Resort, we’re located about a mile away from Falcon Field Municipal Airport. Falcon Field is owned by the City of Mesa. In 2011, it was ranked the fifth busiest general aviation airport in the USA. Falcon Field is located on roughly a square mile of land. It’s bordered on the east by Higley Road and on the west by Greenfield Road. The northern boundary is McDowell Road and McKellips Road is to the south.

Falcon Field is mostly utilized by private, propeller-driven airplanes. Sitting here in the RV park, we hear them taking off and landing or just flying around the area. I don’t mind – I like small aircraft. It’s not like hearing large commercial jets overhead. Occasionally, a private business jet will take off or land, but it’s not a daily occurrence. Sometimes I see old warbirds fly by.

Yesterday I scootered over to the southwest side of Falcon Field to visit the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) museum. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historical aircraft. Admission to the museum costs $12. They also offer flights (for a hefty fee) in old warbirds.

CAF Museum entrance

I took a self-guided tour, starting with a hanger displaying aircraft. There were two P-51s in the hanger along with several other planes. The P-51 Mustang is one of my favorite old warbirds.

P-51 Mustang

In the maintenance hanger, they were putting the finishing touches on an overhaul of their first airplane. It’s a B-17 that was donated to the Arizona chapter of CAF in 1978. The plane is called “Sentimental Journey.”

B-17 in maintenance hangar

Back in 2008, when we were living here in Mesa, Donna gave me a birthday present. It was flight in a B-25 Mitchell bomber at Falcon Field. I sat in a gunner’s enclosure as we flew up to Canyon Lake and back.

B-25 Mitchell bomber

Yesterday, a guy was going up in an old navy trainer called an SNJ. The army used these planes as well. The army version was called an AT-6. About 15 years ago, my friend, Tom Stapleton gifted me with a flight in an AT-6 at Chehalis, Washington. After take-off, the pilot turned control of the plane over to me. I did a few maneuvers, loops and barrel rolls. That was a mistake. I started feeling sick to my stomach. It took a full day to recover.

SNJ preparing for flight

SNJ belches smoke upon start-up

SNJ flying by

There must have been residual oil in the lower cylinders of the SNJ’s radial engine. It put out a large smoke screen upon start-up.

Stearman military trainer – circa 1938

Donna sent me a message asking me to pick up a few groceries on the way home. I also picked up a cleanser called Barkeepers Friend. This cleanser was recommended for use on our Health Craft cookware. I washed our pans with it last night. It works really well.

Donna made chicken cordon bleu for dinner with with herb chicken tortellini. She’s loving the induction cooktop and new cookware. I’m loving the results!

Chicken cordon bleau with cherb chicken tortellini

Chicken cordon bleu with herb chicken tortellini

Today, I have another project. I noticed cracks in the serpentine belt on our Cummins ISL diesel engine. If this belt breaks, we would be dead in the water. It drives the coolant pump, the alternator and other accessories. I’ll see if i can pick up a new one locally and install it today.

All Trendy

Yesterday I posted about replacing the door check assembly. I couldn’t get the door to release from the locked open position unless the door latch was locked. It didn’t seem right. I was concerned about locking the door latch to activate the release mechanism, then closing the door and locking myself out. I posted a question about this on the Alpine Coach Owners Forum. Before long I had a reply with a link to instructions for properly setting the cable and door stop adjustments.

RV forums can be an excellent way to learn all about RVs. Of course, there’s the usual mix of people posting. Sometimes you have the know-it-all that doesn’t really know all and only posts his opinions. Then there are certain topics that aren’t so black or white and you find many diverging thoughts on the topic. That’s okay – there’s more than one way to do things. But I find a couple of forums to be really helpful. My favorite is IRV2.com. There are many sub-forums there, including owner groups for most of the major RV manufacturers. The Alpine Owner’s forum has been super helpful for me.

Another RV forum I frequently visit is RV.net. Again, there are many sub-forums there and lots of good information. I’ve also learned a ton of information by following a few blogs. Some of my favorites are Roadslesstraveled, Technomadia, Wheelingit, Our Odyssey and Whatsnewell. There are others I read, but these are the ones I find most helpful and read frequently.

Back to the Alpine Coach owners forum. The link that was provided to me there had great instructions and illustrations for adjustment from the manufacturer of the Pos-A-Loc door check assembly (PTL Engineering, Rochester, MI).

Our entry door opens 90 degrees. The door check locks open in this position. The photo looks like the door is open less than 90 degrees, but it’s an illusion. The door is fully opened.

Entry door locked in open position

I took off the door panel to access the operating cable and adjust the free play.

Door panel removed exposing latch assembly and cable

Making the adjustment was easy once I knew how much free play was correct. Then I got my ladder out and adjusted the stop set screw on top of the door. The stop set screw adjusts the amount of play in the door when it’s locked open. If there’s too much free play there, the door can wiggle back and forth if there’s wind or any other force on it. If there’s not enough free play, it won’t lock into position.

Door check

Once I made the adjustments, the door check operated perfectly. There was no need to put the latch into the locked position, the door check released as it should. Job done with a little help from the forum.

Donna went out for a 5-mile run while I was working on the door. She has about three more weeks to train before she competes in the duathlon at McDowell Mountain Regional Park.

Later, Donna prepared a spinach dip made with jalapeno, Monterrey jack cheese, green chiles and tomatoes. This dip is served hot. We were expecting guests later and wanted to have hors d’oeuvres.

Our guests were our friends, Howard and Sara Graff. We haven’t seen them since we moved away from Arizona in 2009. They arrived around 5pm. We sat inside and chatted for about an hour while enjoying a nice bottle of Argentine malbec they brought with them. They drove us to downtown Gilbert, stopping to give us a tour of their new house along the way.

We went to Liberty Market for dinner. They have an interesting service concept there. You take a menu and get in line, somewhat like a cafeteria line. The line moves fairly slowly. As you are in line, a server will take drink orders. Before you reach the register, where you order and pay, a hostess hands you a number and tells you the area where she will place a matching number on your table. After you order and pay, you find your table – we chose outdoor seating. We ordered another drink and shortly after, our food arrived. It’s an interesting way to handle the wait for tables in a busy restaurant. Traditional restaurants would have probably told us the wait was 15 – 20 minutes. Instead we whiled away the time in line looking over the menu.

Donna ordered the special, braised short ribs with cauliflower sauce. Sara ordered salmon cakes with curry sauce – they smelled heavenly. Howard had green chile pork and I ordered sweet and savory baby back ribs. Our meals were excellent.

Donna, Sara and Howard at Liberty Cafe

As we made a pit stop on the way out, a guy said something to Howard and me that really struck me funny. He said, “I remember when this place was a real market. Now it’s all trendy and sh!t.”

We walked across the street to another place that was all trendy and sh!t – Postino. We shared a bottle of excellent French malbec and talked for another hour. It was so much fun catching up with Sara and Howard. They’re headed off to a Hawaiian cruise next week. We made plans to get together again in a few weeks.

The weather improved yesterday. We had a high temperature just over 70 degrees. Today will be in the 70s again and in the coming week we’ll see a warming trend.

Is It Camping?

Yesterday I set to work on the door check assembly. Our coach has a mid-entry door. When the door is opened, the door check should lock the door in position once the door reaches 90 degrees. When we took delivery, ours was broken and wouldn’t hold the door open. The dealer had a replacement assembly on order. The part was back ordered and just arrived on Thursday.

I set up my Werner* multi-ladder as a tall step ladder by the door. Removing the old assembly was easy. Five screws attached it to the upper door frame and six screws attached it to the top of the door. Removing the cable bracket was little tricky, but it didn’t take too long. I installed the new assembly in reverse order of removal. I wish I had taken time to shoot a few pictures along the way. Most of the time, when I start rolling on a project like this, I’m on a mission to get it done. I was focused on the task at hand and didn’t think about photos for the blog.

Once I had everything put back together, the door locked open as it should. When I pulled the door handle to unlock it, it didn’t unlock. I thought something might be wrong with the cable that releases the latching mechanism.

I removed the inner door handle cover, dead bolt cover and door panel. When I pulled the handle, the cable didn’t move. I pushed the locking lever to the locked position. Now the cable would move when I pulled the handle and the latch on the door check released.

I put everything back together. It seemed strange to me that you would have to engage the door lock before the door could be closed. This seemed like a recipe for an inadvertent lock-out.

I posted a question about the door check operation on the Alpine Coach owner’s forum. A short time later, I had a reply with links to instructions on how to adjust the cable. I still don’t understand how locking the door affects the cable. I’m going to take the door panel off again and figure it out today.

Later, I rode the scooter over to our former neighbor’s house and picked up two NetFlix discs. More Breaking Bad. Some people have asked why we order Blu-Ray discs instead of just streaming the NetFlix. The answer is data usage. This month we’ve used 12 GB of data and the costs add up. I can only imagine what our usage would be if we streamed hours of video.

On the way back, I stopped at Lucky Lou’s and sat with Mike Hall, his wife Jodie, John Huff and a few others. We had a couple of beers and swapped stories. The subject of this alternate lifestyle being an endless camping trip came up. This is a misconception.

We’re not on an endless vacation or camping trip. We may boondock at times or stay at a place with limited facilities, like Usery Mountain Regional Park, which is more or less camping. But we also stay in RV parks where we lead a more “normal” lifestyle. I like mixing it up. Changing scenery and accommodations every few weeks suits me.

When we boondock, we have to conserve water. We take Navy showers, which means we turn on the shower and get wet. Then we turn the shower off and soap up. Then we turn the shower back on and rinse.

One of the first things I bought for our coach was an Oxygenics* shower head. I put one in our old coach as well after reading so many testimonials on RV forums and blogs. It’s a great upgrade. It uses less water while providing an accelerated spray. We really like it. The only thing I didn’t like was the shut-off button. This button stops the flow so you don’t have to constantly re-adjust the water temperature. Our last one leaked when shut off and I hear that’s a common complaint. When I installed this one, I added a separate shut-off valve on the shower head. No leaks.

Navy showers aren’t all that satisfying. After a few weeks of boondocking, it’s nice to pull into an RV park with full hook-ups and amenities. Full hook-ups mean unlimited water and sewer capacity. Long, hot showers are no problem. We can use our clothes washer/dryer. In most parks, we can have UPS or FedEx deliveries right to our site. We can also receive our mail.

Site 56, Apache Wells RV Resort

That’s why we enjoy moving and changing things up every few weeks. We alternate between awesome scenery with wide-open spaces and RV parks with tight spaces. We are still evolving in this lifestyle, but for now, that’s how we roll.

Chicken and peppers on the grill

Last night I grilled boneless chicken breasts and mini sweet peppers. Donna prepared salsa verde to serve over the chicken. Another delicious recipe.

Served with salsa verde

Time for me to get started on the door project. These things always end up taking longer than they should.

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Near Miss

Wednesday I did a little preparation for our departure from Usery Mountain Regional Park. We would have liked to stay, but the park is booked up. In the afternoon, Donna and I rode the scooter to the Wind Cave trailhead, about a mile and a quarter from our site.

The Wind Cave trail winds its way from the southeast up Pass Mountain. The trail takes you out of Usery Mountain Regional Park into the Tonto National Forest. The trail starts with a gradual climb but quickly steepens. It’s rocky and footing can be precarious in places.

Sign at Wind Cave trailhead

I was suffering from pollen allergies. A little past the halfway point, I told Donna I wasn’t going to climb the rest of the trail. She wanted to continue, so we agreed to meet back at the trailhead. I took my time coming down and shot a few photos. Donna trekked up at a fast pace, then ran back down the trail. She made the round trip in about an hour.

The vista from the trail is awesome. The atmosphere was hazy so I couldn’t get a good photo of the valley and downtown Phoenix, but I did get a shot of Buckhorn Campground.

Buckhorn Campground

On the way back to our site, I stopped and took a picture of the Superstition Mountains off to the east.

Superstition Mountains in the background

Wednesday night, Donna put her new Health Craft induction cookware to good use.

Induction cookware

She made baked shrimp with fennel and feta with brown basmati rice. It was delicious. The induction cooktop brought a cup of rice in two cups of water to a boil in no time at all and cooked to perfection.

Baked shrimp with fennel and feta

Served with brown basmati rice and broccoli

Yesterday we packed up and hit the road before 11am. In aviation they use the term “near miss” to describe a close encounter such as two airplanes passing close to each other in flight. Seems like an odd term to me, it’s more like a near hit than a miss.

We had three near misses after we left the park. We drove down Ellsworth to fuel up at the Chevron station at Brown Road. Our timing was bad – the station was extremely busy. There was a Newmar Essex motorhome at the pump I wanted to pull up to. There was a delivery truck in the lot and a couple of other trucks at the pumps. I waited for about five minutes. The motorhome at the pumps didn’t look like it was going anywhere soon. Pumping 100 gallons at a low-volume pump (opposed to a high-volume truck stop pump) can take 15 minutes or more.

I decided to pull out and go to the Shell station at Main Street. I knew it had an easy entrance and exit. As we pulled onto Main Street, there was a loud crashing sound in the coach. I asked Donna what happened. She said our new induction cooktop just slid off of the counter! Oh no!

It turned out to be a near miss – the cooktop landed on top of our shoes by the entry door, cushioning the fall. It was undamaged.

After we fueled up, we drove to Apache Wells RV Resort where we’ve booked a 15-day stay. On the way, Donna realized her water bottle had tipped over on the tray in front of her and was leaking and her laptop was getting wet. As I turned onto 56th Street, the tray her open laptop was sitting on slid into the dashboard and the screen went dark. We would have to deal with it later.

We found our site in the RV park and dropped the trailer. Donna did an excellent job of guiding me with our handheld Cobra CB Radio*. It was tight, but we managed. Our 40-foot length is the maximum this park can accommodate. She had me perfectly positioned next to a concrete pad that will be our porch.

We started setting up. Donna asked me if she should have the door steps out and I said yes. Then I dumped the air from the suspension. As the coach lowered, we heard a loud metallic clang. What now? As I stepped out of the coach, I saw what happened. The concrete pad is slightly higher than the gravel lot we’re parked in. When I dumped the air and the coach lowered, the steps hit the concrete. The weight of the coach was resting on our door steps!

I put blocks under our jack pads and raised the coach. I tried to retract the door step. No go. I got out and looked. I hadn’t raised the coach enough, the steps were still contacting the concrete. I raised the coach another inch or two and leveled it. I tried to retract the steps again and they worked fine. No damage – another near miss.

After I finished hooking up, I dumped our holding tanks. We had gone 15 days without dumping! I think they were nearly full. I now know the sensors aren’t working, as they showed less than half full. The black tank took three minutes to drain through three inch pipe. The two inch drain on the gray tank took five minutes! That’s a lot of liquid.

After I finished, Donna told me some bad news. Her laptop was dead. It wouldn’t boot up and clearly was not charging. She was pretty unhappy as she had a lot of work saved on her new laptop that had yet to be backed up. She was talking about going to Best Buy and getting the Geek Squad to look at it and see if they could save her hard drive.

I suggested waiting. I thought the water that spilled on it may have caused a temporary short circuit. I once fell into our swimming pool with a cell phone in my pocket. The cell phone quit working. A day later, it dried out and worked fine. Donna put her open laptop on a rack to allow air to circulate around it.

We walked to the park office and asked them to deliver a trash can for our site. We looked around at the pool and exercise room. We both found books to read in the park recreation room. While we were out, we ran into Mark and Emily Fagan! They stopped by to see our new digs.

There are many orange trees in the park. They pick the fruit and bag it near the office. The bags of oranges are free! We brought some oranges back to our site.

In the late afternoon hummingbirds gave us a show. They were feeding and perching in the orange tree next to our windshield. We enjoyed watching them.

Late last night, Donna tried her laptop and it fired up! Near miss number three!

Today, I’ll explore the park. I also need to install a new door check assembly on our entry door. The new part finally arrived yesterday. The old one was broken when we took delivery and the dealer had a new one on order. Meanwhile, we’ve had to prop the door if we wanted it to stay open.

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

A Walk in the Desert

I started the day yesterday with a trip to my favorite Laundromat in Mesa, the Fluff N Clean. We haven’t used our washing machine for about three weeks now. We only use our combination washer/dryer when we have full hook-ups. I did two loads of laundry, one with whites and one with colors. Then I combined the loads in a large dryer and put six quarters in the machine. This would give me 42 minutes of drying time. I walked next door to have a sandwich at Arby’s. I came back to the Laundromat half an hour later to check on the clothes dryer. It wasn’t running! Doh! I didn’t push the start button after I set the temperature. It was a minor setback. I got it done.

Meanwhile, our friend from our old neighborhood, Lana, picked Donna up to go shopping. Donna wanted to buy new trail running shoes. Then they went out to lunch at a Dim-Sum restaurant and actually tried chicken feet. After lunch, they shopped at Lei Lei, an Asian food market and picked up a few items, and then did some more food shopping at Sprouts and made a final stop at Staples to purchase a 2TB external hard drive. Lana’s friend, Joel, has offered to hook it up to our Dish satellite system so we can record programs to it.

I went for a walk on the half-mile nature trail at the south end of the Buckhorn Campground. I took photos with my Samsung Galaxy S4 of the various cacti in the area. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

First up was the campground namesake, a buckhorn cholla (pronounced choy-ah).

Buckhorn cholla

Typically, buckhorns are three to seven feet tall, but sometimes taller specimens are found. They grow in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts and can live for up to 30 years.

The next photo is a jumping cholla. These are found in the Sonoran desert in Arizona and northern Mexico. They grow up to 15 feet tall. If you brush against one, you’ll understand why they’re called jumping cholla. They’re covered with spines on pads that easily separate from the main stem and seem to jump and attach themselves to skin or clothing. The spines are hollow and are very difficult to remove. I keep my distance when I’m around cholla.

Jumping cholla

I found a large ocotillo next to a majestic saguaro. Ocotillo cactus can grow up to 20 feet tall and live 60 to 100 years. They’re found in well-drained desert soil from west Texas to southern California and have red tubular flowers that bloom March through June.

The saguaro next to the ocotillo is the cactus that defines the Sonoran desert. This is the only place in the world where it can be found. It’s such an iconic symbol of the southwest that movie sets often show saguaros when the location is supposed to be Texas or Utah where there are no native saguaros. The saguaro cactus grows very slowly. A 10-year-old saguaro may only be 1.5 inches tall. They can grow up to 40 feet tall and weigh more than three tons.

At the Saguaro National Park, records indicate that saguaros start flowering when they’re about 35 years old. They grow branches, commonly referred to as arms, when they’re 50 to 75 years old. The average lifespan is somewhere around 175 years. Saguaros have a pleated skin. When it rains and they fill with water, the pleats unfold. In dry spells, the pleats pull in, resulting in deeper pleats and a smaller diameter stem.

Saguaros have one tap root that may extend two feet deep, the rest of the root system radiates out from the cactus only four to six inches underneath the surface. The diameter of this root system is roughly equal to the height of the plant. The saguaro flower is Arizona’s state flower.

Ocotillo next to a giant saguaro

In the photo above, you can see holes in the saguaro. Flickers and Gila woodpeckers hollow out openings in saguaro cactus. They use the opening as a nest. The cactus forms scar tissue, lining the opening. Later, other bird species will take over the nesting place.

Varieties of barrel cactus are found throughout the hot deserts of north America. Native Americans would pick the flowers from the tops of barrel cactus and cook them like cabbage for food.

Barrel cactus

Another cactus that was utilized as food is the prickly pear cactus. There are 15 different types of prickly pear cactus found in the deserts of the southwest. The prickly pear is the official plant symbol of Texas.

Prickly pear

The Sonoran desert is green at this time of year. We tend to think of the desert as desolate and barren, but it’s full of interesting plants and animals. On my half-mile hike, I found many interesting plants. I flushed two coveys of quail, dozens of doves and saw finches, woodpeckers and other birds. At one point, a lizard crossed the trail in front of me.

Green desert – Superstition Mountains in the background

We’re loving our location, but we have to move tomorrow. We now know that if we want to spend any length of time in Usery Mountain Regional Park at this time of year, we need to reserve space early. This place is booked up until April. I don’t know where we’ll go next. We’ll come up with a plan today.

Thin clouds and a fiery sunset

Exit Strategy

Yesterday we had a wintry blast (by desert standards). The thermometer never reached 60 degrees! It was cloudy and cool all day. Donna went out to run and I took a hike around the campground.

When I returned, there was a silver Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck parked next to our coach. It was Mark and Emily Fagan’s rig, but they weren’t here. Donna had returned from her run and told me she didn’t know where they were. A few minutes later, Emily appeared at our site. They had read my blog and decided to come over and use the showers. They’re dry camping at Phon D Sutton and their gray water tank is getting full.

Mark walked up a few minutes later. He said he had hot water for his shower! That’s not what I experienced the day before. Emily said her shower water was tepid. I guess it’s hit or miss on the hot water here at Usery Mountain Regional Park.

Mark offered to take me to the grocery store in his truck. Mark, Emily and I went to Basha’s on Brown Road while Donna stayed home to get some work done. I was able to shop freely without regard to how much stuff I would have to haul home since I wasn’t on the scooter. I stocked up on drinking water and a list of items Donna gave me.

While we were there, I showed Mark the dump station at the Chevron station on the corner of Ellsworth and Brown Road. This station is spacious and easily accessed. It only costs five bucks to use. Mark was thinking about coming to Usery Mountain Regional Park to dump, but he would have to pay $10. And accessing the dump station here isn’t easy unless you drive all the way around the park to access it as you exit. I mentioned this before. I didn’t stop to dump our holding tanks on the way in because of the difficult access. The last time we dumped was 9 days before we entered the park, but I’m not worried about it. We have large capacity holding tanks in the Alpine Coach, 100 gallons of gray water and 89 gallons of black. I’ll hit the dump station on the way out on Thursday.

I took some photos of the Usery Mountain Regional Park (UMRP) dump station to illustrate my concerns. As you drive into the Buckhorn Family Campground, the dump station is on the right side of the road. RVs generally have the waste water drains and valves on the driver’s side. This means you want to have the dump station on the driver’s side. The UMRP dump station is situated on an island with two hook-ups. Coming into the park, you need to position your RV on the right side of the island.

Sharp, tight right turn to position the RV on the right side of the dump station

Once you make the sharp right to enter, you need to follow the curved pavement to the left.

Not much room for an overall length of 56 feet

I would have to start the turn to the left to exit before I could align my coach with the dump station.

The sewer access is at the concrete pad

The exit is tight. It would require a hard left turn. I would have to drive the coach to the edge of the pavement before I started the left turn to avoid hitting the curbing with my left rear wheel or trailer wheel. Then I would have to turn full lock to the left. The distance from my rear axle to the rear cap of the coach is 11 feet. When turning, the coach pivots around the inside rear wheel. This makes the rear end of the coach swing out in the opposite direction of the turn. Our coach will swing out almost three feet at the rear on a sharp turn. The tree on the right side of the pavement is a concern – the rear of the coach might swing into the tree.

Tight exit

When we leave the UMRP, the dump station will be on our left. All I need to do is cross over to the left and pull up parallel to the island. No drama at all.

Easy access from this direction

I can leave adequate space from the pole on the island so I don’t have any worries about swing out.

After I shot these photos, I took a stroll around the park. I saw a nicely restored GMC motorhome. These coaches were built by General Motors from 1973 to 1978. They were a radical departure from motorhomes of the day (or even today). They were low profile, aerodynamic designs and featured front-wheel drive. They were built in lengths of 23′ and 26′ and used 455 cubic inch Oldsmobile gasoline engines. There are several owner groups and clubs for GMC owners and enthusiasts. Maybe I can chat with the owner of this one sometime.

Beautifully restored GMC motorhome from the 70s

Later, I rode over to the Red, White and Brew to have a cold one and drop off our NetFlix discs in the mailbox next to the Brew. When I rode back home, I was cold. I was happy to see that Donna had the heat pumps running. She’s still learning the systems on this coach. I wasn’t sure if she knew how to fire up the heat pumps.

Today, I need to make another run to the Fluff N Clean Laundromat. I also want to take a hike on the nature trail here in the park and photograph some of the native flora. Donna is going out to lunch and to shop with her friend, Lana.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Monthly Archives: February 2014

Swap Meet Shopping

Fruitful Day

Mystery Panel

Nick of Time

Falcon Field

All Trendy

Is It Camping?

Near Miss

A Walk in the Desert

Exit Strategy

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