Monthly Archives: October 2020

Blowin’ in the Wind

We were joined by Mike and Jodi Hall and their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend Valerie on Friday afternoon. They pulled in to Pleasant Harbor RV Resort around 2pm and took the site directly behind us. When I pull into a site and begin my set-up routine, I generally dislike interruptions or distractions and rarely engage a neighbor in small talk – that often leads to mistakes in my routine.

I broke my own unwritten rule and went over and started talking to Mike as he was setting up their travel trailer. After about 10 minutes, I realized I wasn’t being helpful and let him finish without me distracting him.

On Friday evening, Donna grilled a pile of marinated chicken drumsticks. We all sat around the picnic table at our site and struggled with poor lighting. Donna also made potato salad and a delightful kale salad. After dinner, we had carrot cake Donna baked for dessert – it included a few cut pieces with birthday candles. My birthday was two weeks earlier, Swayzie’s ninth birthday was Saturday, October 24th and Mike’s birthday was Monday, October 26th. It was a good time.

On Saturday, we took the golf cart shuttle to the marina and went to Dillon’s for lunch. The shuttle is the way to go – if you drive over, you have to park above the marina and it’s quite a hike down the ramp and then a long walk on a floating walkway to the restaurant/bar. The shuttle drives all the way across the floating access onto the marina dock right outside of Dillon’s.

They have a huge water slide on the dock that ends with an upturned lip that flings people from the slide into the air over the water. We saw a few guys doing flips and twists in the air, but we also saw a few belly-flops and one guy smacked the water as he hit horizontally on his back and side – it sounded painful. We enjoyed lunch – most of us ordered from their barbeque menu – and enjoyed a couple of cold ones. The food was good, albeit on the pricy side for what it was. But the view and setting command the price. I don’t know why I failed to take any pictures.

Friday’s high temperature reached the low 90s and Saturday and Sunday were in the high 80s. Historically, the average high temperature in this area at this time of year reaches 89 degrees with a low of 60 degrees. On Sunday, Donna and the Halls went to the Lake Pleasant Regional Park and hiked the Wild Burro trail. They didn’t see any wild burros, but they made the trip down to the Scorpion Bay Marina. I stayed home and watched the Formula One race from Portugal and the Moto GP race from Spain.

The temperatures were on the warm side Sunday, but in the afternoon, the wind started to pick up. I pulled our awning in as it was starting to billow a bit. While I was watching TV, I heard a loud bang! I looked outside and saw our neighbor across the street come outside. He looked around, then focused on the fifth-wheel trailer next to his site.

It was a Vilano fifth-wheel trailer with dual awnings and they were deployed. I knew the owner, Mike, was out on the lake in his boat – I’d seen him load up and leave earlier. Just then, his front awning blew up like a balloon and the frame arms scissored in as the air spring gave way. The arms crashed against the coach siding with a loud whack! When it happened again, I figured damage was imminent.

Last week, Donna talked to Mike when she was petting his Basset hound, Otis. Mike told her that she could come and visit the dog anytime – he doesn’t lock the trailer when he’s out on the lake. I took this as permission to enter. I walked over and knocked on the door, knowing no one was home. I opened the unlocked door and called out as Otis came over for a sniff. I let myself in.

I looked around for switches to operate the electric awnings. I didn’t see any, but I saw a touch screen that operated the various room lights. I looked at the screen and saw a small icon at the bottom that looked like an awning. I touched the icon and the screen then displayed an extend/retract button for awning 1 and another button for awning 2. Eureka! I retracted the awnings and left.

Later, when Mike returned with his boat after sunset, I walked over and told him what had happened. I wanted him to know I entered his coach and why. He was grateful and told me he could hardly believe he left his awnings out – he knew better than to do that. He was so grateful that later, when he returned from the store, he gave me a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted.

Monday morning, Mike and Jodi packed up the kids and their stuff and pulled out around 11am. The forecast for Monday’s weather called for a 40% chance of rain a few days ago. It was revised to no rain, but a cold, blustery day ahead. The wind started picking up by noon. The high temperature only reached 69 degrees.

The wind continued to strengthen throughout the afternoon. By 3pm, I decided to take the whip down from my Frankenbuddi Versatee Vertical HF antenna. It extends about 30 feet in the air and was moving quite a bit in the wind. The wind gusts became stronger and isolated dust storms came through the area. By dark, we had gusts of 40mph and blowing debris that made it look like a blizzard was coming through.

The car cover blew off of Midget-San. I went out in the dark and wind to retrieve it. Sand and leaves were blowing everywhere. Donna helped me secure the cover back over the Midget. I hate to think of what the interior must look like – it was exposed to all of the blowing debris.

The gusting winds continued all night, rocking the coach at times. It made for a fitful night’s sleep. This morning, the winds are still blowing, but not nearly as strong as yesterday. I went out to take a look around. Of course our chairs blew down and one of the table cloths disappeared. There are leaves and debris in all of the sites – there weren’t any leaves to be seen on the ground before. Even our door mats blew away.

Leaves and debris in the site around Mike’s Vilano fifth-wheel trailer – it’s the one I pulled the awnings in.

In the site across from where Mike and Jodi were, a canopy cover was destroyed.

Canopy destroyed

Never underestimate the power of wind! This morning, my Comet GP6 UHF/VHF antenna was listing to one side. I re-secured the mount to straighten it. Even with the lower wind strength this morning, the antenna is whipping around.

This morning’s wind pushing the antenna around.

The wind is supposed to abate and be reasonably calm this afternoon. I’ll put the HF antenna back up and do some clean-up. The forecast calls for high 60s again today before we start warming back up to more normal daily highs.

We plan to move out of here on Saturday, so I’ll start reorganizing the trailer in the next few days. We’ll be moving south to Buckeye where we can visit with my middle daughter Jamie and her family.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

I Got a Feeling

Sometimes I’ll overthink a subject before I act on it. Other times, I go with my gut and either jump in or walk away. This week I had a couple of examples of this. When we were in Fredonia, Arizona at the Wheel Inn RV Park, the owner raved about the quality of the tap water. He said it naturally filtered through sandstone and came from a spring.

After tasting it, I had to agree. It was good water. We have a fresh water tank capacity of 100 gallons. I figured I should drain the tank and refill it with this water. The basement compartment on the driver’s side has a handle that you pull/push to open/close the drain valve of the tank.

Pull/push handle and cable to operate tank valve

A couple of days later at the Distant Drums RV Park, I noticed water slowly dripping under the coach. A drop came out every ten seconds or so. It was coming from the fresh water drain. I tried opening and closing the valve quickly a few times, but it continued to drip.

When we arrived here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort, we had lost more than a quarter of the tank of fresh water. I crawled under the coach to investigate and also checked the cable for binds. Usually I’ll do what it takes to make a repair like this, not because I enjoy it – I’ll do it to avoid paying someone else to do the work.

Looking at how the valve was situated, my gut told me, “Not this time.” I could see accessing the valve would mean laying on my back in the basement compartment with my nose inches from the tank and extending my arms in a narrow gap to reach the valve to remove and replace it. Add to that the fact that close quarters meant I would be working inches away from my face – I don’t see as well as I once did. I’m blind in one eye and the other doesn’t see up close very well. So, I walked away from the project and started making phone calls for mobile RV service.

AJ Abner from InsideOut RV Service came out and took a look. He had to order parts and came back yesterday. He said it should only take him a short time to change out the valve. Two hours, later he threw in the towel. He had replaced the valve and tried three sets of seals and it still dripped. He said his arms felt like jello from working in the compartment for so long. He figured the valve and seals used on the tank were a mis-match to the drain hub. He ordered more parts and said he would call me for another appointment. I’m glad I decided against tackling this job!

Over the last couple of weeks, I’d been thinking about adding another ham radio to my kit. I wanted to get a handheld transceiver (HT) for VHF/UHF frequencies. My Yaesu 991A covers VHF/UHF but I mostly use it for High Frequency (HF) shortwave reception and transmission. If I’m on HF and I want to check for activity on local VHF/UHF repeaters, I have to switch away from HF.

If I had a small HT I could monitor the repeaters for activity while working HF on my big radio and switch it over only when I knew there was traffic I was interested in. I did some research and narrowed my choices down to two radios based on internet specs and reviews. Before I pulled the trigger, I wanted to actually try each radio to compare them.

So, on Tuesday, I drove down to Ham Radio Outlet in south Peoria. They had the Yaesu FT60 and the Yaesu FT70 in stock – these were the radios I was interested in. They were priced within $20 of each other. What it boiled down to is this – the FT60 is a no frills workhorse with a track record of reliability, but it only works on analog signals, no digital – it’s been in production since 2004, which is an eternity in this category.

The FT70 has both analog and digital capabilities and would be more useful as more and more repeaters go digital. It would also allow me to access a Yaesu digital service called Fusion which links repeaters worldwide. I was leaning toward this radio as it would allow me to learn Fusion technology and not be obsolete for years to come – and it was only $20 more than the FT60.

Then Ron, the store manager, showed me the FT3D. Oh boy! This is a magical miniature beast of a radio. It’s Yaesu’s flagship handheld and full of features. What really sets it apart is the fact that it’s two receivers in one case. It has an “A” and a “B” receiver. You can listen to two frequencies at once and they can be VHF or UHF, which ham operators can transmit on, plus it can receive aircraft, emergency stations, weather stations and commercial FM. It can be set to automatically switch between analog and digital depending on the signal it’s receiving. It’s like having a FT60 and a FT70 in one package!

The price was commensurate – it costs about the same as buying both the FT60 and the FT70. It changed my view of HT radios – I went for it.

Yaesu FT3D – a miniature beast

I also went for an antenna upgrade, quick charging station, bluetooth ear piece and additional programming software. My wallet was about $500 lighter by the time I left the store.

Most ham operators seem to start with cheap handheld transceivers, then either lose interest or move up to HF when they upgrade their license and equipment. I went about it the other way around. I earned my General license from the start and bought quality equipment. When I decided to go with a HT, I went the quality route again. I figured if I bought the FT60, I would soon wish I had digital capability. Then if I followed it with a FT70, I would have spent just as much or more than what I spent with the FT3D. That’s my rationale.

I’m loving this radio and over the past few days I have learned much about digital radio and System Fusion. This learning applies directly to my other radio as well – I hadn’t learned much about this before because I usually work the HF 20-meter and 40-meter bands on my 991A and things like System Fusion don’t apply there.

With the FT3D, I can access a Fusion repeater located on South Mountain. That’s a direct line-of-sight distance of 37 miles. Most cheap handhelds are lucky to hit a repeater 10 miles away. Through the Fusion linking system, I have talked to people all over the country as well as New Zealand and France. With the digital Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOiP), the clarity is amazing. But, I still find more satisfaction making a long distance contact over the air antenna-to-antenna without relying on anything but electromagnetic waves and no other technology. Enough radio talk.

We made our weekly grocery run on Wednesday. The closest grocery store is Albertson’s near the Junction of I-17 and Carefree Highway (AZ74) – about 10 miles from the RV park. We stocked up for the week ahead. We found a couple of treats. Donna made pan-seared salmon with wild-caught Alaska sockeye on Wednesday evening.

Alaska sockeye topped with sauteed ginger and scallions

It was very tasty with a topping of sauteed chopped ginger and scallions.

Last night, she manned the grill and cooked New York strip steaks. It was delightful. She served it with sauteed mushrooms, baked sweet potato fries and southern fried cabbage with bacon.

Today we are looking forward to new neighbors. Our friends Mike and Jodi Hall are coming to the park for the weekend with their travel trailer. Their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend will be with them.

The weather forecast calls for a cooler weekend with temperatures in the mid-80s. The weather guessers say there’s a 30% chance of rain on Monday and the thermometer won’t reach 70 degrees. This is hard to imagine after weeks of 100+ or temperatures in the high 90s. I’ll believe it when I see it.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Kayak, Wind and Fire

Most afternoons, I set up my ham radio in the shade on a small table and see who’s talking. On Thursday afternoon, I was doing just that when I picked up a mobile transmission from a guy traveling west on AZ74 (Carefree Highway) and heard him talking about a fire near Crown King. I got in on his conversation to ask for more detail as Crown King isn’t too far from Lake Pleasant – it’s about 40 miles north.

I walked to the front of our site and sure enough, the sky to the northwest was full of smoke. Where I was sitting in the shade by the trailer, I couldn’t see it. I thanked the guy for the info and shot a couple of photos

Smoke over the lake coming from the northwest

The smoke was heavy and continued to the southeast toward Glendale and Phoenix.

Smoke to the southeast

Currently, the fire encompasses about 10,000 acres and is burning six miles northwest of Crown King – about 18 miles south of Prescott. The area is sparsely populated and about 100 people had to evacuate Friday morning. The Forest Service says there’s a lot of valuable equipment at the top of Crown King – I’m guessing communication and television transmission gear. They’re calling it the Horse Fire. This has certainly been the summer of fire in west.

High winds kicked up unexpectedly Thursday night and into Friday morning. I’m sure this hampered firefighting efforts. Donna had signed up for a guided kayak tour from the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. It was a ranger-led event called Pleasant Paddlers. Donna wasn’t about to let the wind deter her. I had loaded the Sea Eagle kayak in the Midget the night before and drove Donna to the regional park. The north park entrance is about seven miles from Pleasant Harbor RV Resort.

We set up the kayak in the lot above the Castle Creek boat ramp and lugged it down to the water. There were eight participants including two rangers. They set off a few minutes before 9am.

Heading out from the bottom of the boat ramp

The water near the ramp is in a protected cove and was calm. That wasn’t the case once they hit open water on the lake though.

Choppy water on the lake – smoke from the Horse Fire to the north

They came across a herd of 26 wild burros in a cove.

Desert donkeys

At another cove, they stopped for lunch and saw more burros.

Lunch break – wild burros on the hill in the background

After lunch, the winds died down and they had a nice paddle back. The tour lasted nearly four hours and they covered 5.9 miles! Donna’s feeling it today.

Today I tackled a project on my “to do” list. Our Dometic 320 RV toilet has had an intermittent leak. A few drops of water come out by the foot-operated flush valve from time to time. Earlier, I checked the manual for the toilet to see what parts are involved with the flush valve and found an interesting note in the manual. The note addressed two common complaints.

The first note regarded the toilet bowl not holding water. It said the first thing to do was to shut off the water supply, then hold the toilet bowl drain valve open with your foot. With a gloved hand they recommended using your finger to push the seal and seat it.

We had this problem a few weeks ago, so I did the recommended procedure and found a build up of minerals deposited under the seal. With my finger I was able to push the deposits away from the seal and it worked – the toilet held water again.

The second part of the note addressed water dripping from the water supply valve at the foot-operated lever. It showed how the water valve is a cartridge-type set-up with a piston that opens the valve to allow water to flow into the toilet when you step on the foot lever.

I found a replacement cartridge at Dyersonline.com. Dyers carries many lines of genuine Dometic replacement parts. I’d ordered awning parts from them in the past. They have a warehouse in Anthem – only a few miles away from Pleasant Harbor. I called them and was told no in-person sales at the warehouse were permitted due to covid-19 restrictions. I had to pay for FedEx delivery. Oh well, at least I got the part.

At first I thought I would have to remove the entire toilet to access the cartridge, but after looking it over and seeing how it was fastened, I went for it with the toilet in place.

The cartridge has two plastic springs that catch in slots on the housing. This loosely holds the cartridge in place, then two screws anchor it to the housing. The cartridge kit included new screws and a hose clamp for the hose running from the valve into the toilet.

The first thing I had to do was to release the water supply line from the elbow at the cartridge water inlet. I used pex tubing when I installed the toilet and used Shark Bite fittings. These are clever arrangements. The Shark Bite uses a horseshoe-shaped device that fits over the tubing for disassembly. Pushing the device against the fitting while pulling on the tube releases it. Ingenious! To reassemble, you simply push the pex tubing back into the Shark Bite fitting and it locks in place with a water-tight seal.

While I was removing the old cartridge, I think I uncovered the root of the problem. The toilet had been assembled at the factory with only one screw holding the cartridge in place. With only one corner of the cartridge firmly screwed down, it was relying on the spring clips to hold it. I think this may have allowed the cartridge to cock slightly when pressure was applied to the foot lever as it contacted the piston. This, in turn, put a side thrust force on the piston which may have cocked it in its bore and broke the seal at times.

Dometic toilet valve cartridge

I reassembled it with two screws – one on the upper left and one on the lower right as designed. Job done! It seems Dometic knows the failure modes of their toilets!

Yesterday, Donna whipped up her mojo marinade before we set off for her kayaking adventure. When I returned from dropping her off, I put the now cooled marinade into a sealed bag with a pork tenderloin. Last night, Donna grilled it and served it with sweet potato French fries and asparagus. Another nutritious, delicious meal and we’ll be enjoying leftover mojo pork tacos for lunch!

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with asparagus and sweet potato fries

The hot weather continues with daily highs in the upper 90s. The forecast calls for another week of the same before we cool off to a more normal high in the low to mid 80s.

RV Park Antennas

I ended my last post by briefly mentioning ham radio antennas. Today I’m going to write more on the subject, so if you don’t have any interest in ham radio, just skip down to the dinner plates!

Ham radio operators in the USA currently can be licensed in three levels. First is the Technician License which allows access to the Very High Frequency Band (VHF) and the Ultra High Frequency Band (UHF) with very limited access to High Frequency (HF) on six meters and 10 meters. Frequency and band nomenclature can be confusing for non-ham operators. Frequency is a measure of signal modulation in cycles per second known as Hertz. A band refers to a range of related frequencies and is broadly referred to by its wavelength in approximate meters. Here’s the thing – the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. So, the 2-meter band is a higher frequency band than the 20-meter band.

Then there’s the General License which opens up a lot more opportunities on HF bands that are useful for long-distance contacts. The top level is called Amateur Extra and requires in-depth technical knowledge of radio theory and operation.

When I began assembling my ham gear, I hadn’t taken my exam yet. I was supremely confident of passing the Technician exam and assumed I would be operating with a Technician License. I ordered a Comet GP6 antenna to receive and transmit on VHF/UHF – 2-meter and 70cm bands. This has proven to be a good choice – compact, easy to set up and take down, rugged and efficient. I also bought a dual band Diamond CP610 antenna. This is an enlarged version of a vertical like the Comet and will receive and transmit on the 6-meter and 10-meter bands. This was not the best choice as it wasn’t very stable at 22 feet long.

When I took my exam, I easily passed the Technician exam. Then they offered me a chance to take the General exam at no charge – I did and passed. This meant I needed another antenna for HF bands 10-meter and lower.

As full-time RVers, I have limitations on what antennas I can reasonably use. As I’ve studied and learned, it’s apparent that all antenna designs are compromises in one way or another. I needed an HF antenna that was portable, could easily be stored in the trailer, set up easily and not require a lot of real estate. Stability was important too – it would be bad to have my antenna fall over and hit someone’s RV.

I ended up buying an MFJ-2289 Big Ear antenna. This is a V-shaped dipole antenna with 17-foot long collapsible whips and a coil to tune to 10- through 40-meter bands. This antenna is aptly named – it has big ears and I could hear stations from long distances. On three occasions, when conditions were favorable, I was able to talk to a guy in Spain once and twice to a guy in Slovenia. However, most of time I could hear distant conversations, but they couldn’t hear me or my signal was broken and noisy. I usually operate on 20 meters in the afternoon and switch to 40 meters later in the day.

After doing more research, I found the V-dipole acts like a horizontal dipole. For maximum long distance efficiency, it needs to be mounted high above ground level – for 40 meters it would ideally be mounted at least 60 feet high. I can’t put up a 60-foot tower!

MFJ-2289 Big Ear dipole

I’m also a little skeptical of the quality and durability of the materials MFJ uses. The long whips seem a little flimsy and are really pushed around by wind.

After doing more homework, I came up with a few ideas. One day, I was talking on the radio with a guy in northern California named Budd Drummond (W3FF). It turns out that Budd is the inventor of the Buddipole modular antenna system. He didn’t try to sell me on it – he just threw out a few ideas and suggested I check out the website and maybe contact his son, Chris Drummond who’s the owner and CEO of Buddipole. Budd is retired, although he still consults with Chris.

Buddipole has some standard packages and configurations, but many ham operators consider Buddipole to be the erector set of antennas. You can mix and match parts to make what you desire. I had a conversation with Chris and outlined my limitations and what I would like to be able to do with ham radio. We came up with a design that would meet my criteria – of course, compromises are always made with antennas. The design is based on what Buddipole calls a Versatee Vertical. I call mine a Frankenbuddi.

Buddipole uses high – quality materials. The collapsible shock-cord whip sections are made of anodized 7075 aluminum. They offer a system beginning with a stable, high-quality tripod and a collapsible mast. The Buddipole components screw directly into the end of the mast. This put the base of my vertical antenna about 10 1/2 feet above ground level and I have about 21 feet of vertical whip. It also has a tuning coil, so I can tune the antenna from 10 meters to 40 meters. It utilizes a wire counterpoise ground that I run from the antenna base feedpoint sloping to a point about three feet above the ground.

With all this stuff, I knew I needed instruments to properly set up the antenna. I bought a RigExpert antenna analyzer. With this meter, I’m able to set this up and accurately tune it. The whip does bend a bit in the wind. I’ve added a couple of guy lines to help support it although it never budged with three one-gallon water bottles suspended from the tripod.

Buddipole – white whip in background is the Comet antenna
Versatee antenna base feedpoint
Triple ratio switch balun (TRSB)

I’m happy with the results so far. I’ve talked to people all over the US from the northeast to Florida to the midwest and western states. I listened to a conversation in Japanese that presumably originated in Japan – it was as clear as if they were in the same room with me. I also picked up a weak signal from Germany. Long distance to Europe or Japan or Australia is very much influenced by propagation conditions in the upper atmosphere – a good antenna helps immensely, but if conditions are bad, signals are bad.

Another ham operator here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort really pushes the antenna boundaries. He has at least five antennas up in his site. See if you can spot them in the photo below.

Ham radio antennas

Here they’re identified. The loop antenna is misleading in this photo – it’s much larger than it appears.

The beam antenna is actually an over-the-air HDTV antenna

The whole idea of electro-magnetic waves constantly around us is fascinating to me. In fact, light is created by super-high frequency waves! Any conductor can be tuned to receive specific frequencies – it’s just a matter of amplifying the received signal and processing it to hear what it contains.

I’m the antenna

Catching vibration

You’re the transmitter

Give information

– Kraftwerk

The Buddipole came with a coaxial cable. It was another compromise. Buddipole leans toward highly mobile, lightweight equipment. The cable they supplied was RG58u and although it’s light and easily packed, it also creates high loss. I wanted to use my RG8U which has a much larger conductor – it’s stiff and heavy by comparison, but it’s also low loss. So on Saturday, Donna and I drove to Ham Radio Outlet in Peoria. I had forgotten how much metro Phoenix sprawls – it took us about 50 minutes to reach the store. I bought an adapter for my cable so I could hook up the low loss RG8U to the Buddipole TRSB. Checking both configurations with the RigExpert antenna analyzer, I can honestly say it was worth the trip. The RG8U coaxial cable is far superior in performance to the RG58u.

Time to talk food. Donna manned the Weber Q to cook a simple favorite – sriracha chicken thighs. She used boneless thighs this time and they were great. She says she’ll stick to boneless for this dish.

Sriracha chicken

Last night, she prepared a meal we had both mostly forgotten about. In fact, we think we last had this when we were still living in our sticks-and-bricks home, so it’s been at least seven and half years.

Stuffed bell pepper

It was very good. I don’t know why this dish was forgotten.

Our daily highs have dropped about ten degrees from what we experienced last week. We’re still running air conditioning, but not as early or as long. Donna’s been taking advantage of the swimming pool. You have to reserve a time slot which varies from two to four hours – they only allow 50 people at a time in each time slot and you can only reserve one time slot per day.

The long range forecast calls for low 80s the last week of this month. We’ve made a change to our itinerary. We’ll leave Lake Pleasant on the 30th and move to Buckeye where we’ll be able to more easily visit Jamie and Francisco.

Wild Burros

Donna registered for a guided kayak tour from Lake Pleasant Regional Park – she’ll take her kayak out on the lake next Friday with a park ranger leading a group of up to 10 people. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is operated by Maricopa County Parks and Recreation. The park is an area of about 23,000 acres – 7,500 to 10,000 acres are covered by the lake. Lake Pleasant is a pleasing name, but it may not be what you think. It’s named after the Carl Pleasant dam which was completed in 1927 and formed the lake from inflow of the Agua Fria River.

There are fees associated with entry to the park. Donna decided to purchase an annual Regional Park Pass – she’ll use it here and also when we are in Mesa to enter Usery Regional Park. So we drove the Midget west on Carefree Highway to North Castle Hot Springs Road and the entrance to the park. Once Donna paid for the pass, we drove in and took a look around.

Our first stop was at the Scorpion Bay Marina parking area. From the parking lot, you get a great view of the lake and marina. It’s a bit of a hike to get down to the marina, but they also have two inclined lifts that can hold about four people or a couple of people and gear to get down and up from the marina.

Scorpion Bay Marina – stairs between two inclined lift tracks

I was surprised at the number of large boats in the marina. The building at the end of the dock is Scorpion Bay Grill – Donna and I plan to eat there in the near future.

As we were leaving the parking area, we saw wild burros.

Yep – they’re out there

I pulled off of the pavement and Donna shot a couple of photos.

Wild burros
They didn’t want to hang around while Donna photographed them

Donna wanted to check out some of the hiking trails, so we took a car tour of the park. Between Sunset Ridge and the Bobcat Day Use area, we found a huge boat ramp. The sign says 10-lane boat ramp, but it looks larger than 10 lanes to me. It’s also a long, fairly steep run from the parking area to the water.

Huge boat ramp

We’ve had nocturnal visits from wild burros at least three times this week. Yesterday, I saw one of the park maintenance guys scooping donkey droppings and I figured out why they are coming into the RV park. We have a grassy park with a pavilion between the RV sites and the clubhouse/pool area. The burros are feeding on the green grass at night when no one is around.

Last night, Donna prepared a new dish – it was called melted broccoli pasta and she served it with shrimp grilled on the Weber Q.

Melted broccoli pasta with shrimp

I had a really interesting contact on ham radio Wednesday evening. I could hear a conversation between two people with a strong signals on both ends. I was operating on the 40-meter band, which is useful for long-range contacts of 300 miles up to 5,000+ miles. After listening for a few minutes, I found that one end of the conversation was coming from Henderson, Nevada. The other guy was in Peoria, Arizona – less than 10 miles away from me! This doesn’t usually work on 40 meters – the signal skips over near locations as it reflects off of the ionosphere.

I was able to join the conversation, then the Henderson contact had to break away and we were joined by a guy in Del Mar, California. It was a fun contact and I enjoyed the conversation. Today I’m expecting a delivery – I’m going to replace my MFJ 2289 high frequency antenna with something new. When I bought my radio gear, I really tried to learn about which radio would be the right choice for me and I think I did well. But, I should have paid more attention to antenna theory and design. A lot of the old-timers have advised to spend money on the antenna – that’s where the performance is. Well, live and learn – I should have spent the antenna money once – instead I keep replacing them with the next best thing as I learn.

Today should be the first day we have a high temperature in double digits. It’s been 100+ degrees every afternoon since we arrived. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 91 degrees and we should see low to mid-90s for the next couple of weeks. We joke about dry heat, but really at 10 to 20% humidity, 90 degrees doesn’t feel too bad.

When I’m 64

Unexpected noise woke Donna and me last night. I’m not sure what time it was, but I think it was well after midnight. It wasn’t a party or barking dogs – it was braying and clacking hoofs as a small herd of wild burros came through Lake Pleasant Harbor RV Resort!

Wild burros are fairly abundant and controversial in this area. They aren’t a native animal and are probably more correctly called feral burros – they are descendants of livestock brought here by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. I mentioned controversy – here are links to information on a study of the Lake Pleasant Herd Management Area by the Bureau of Land Management Hassayampa Field Office and an article by the US Small Business Association.

Glassy water at Pleasant Harbor Marina this morning

Donna came across a burro when she was out hiking on Saturday morning. He kept an eye on her as he grazed on a bluff overlooking the lake. We always give wild animals their space anytime we encounter them.

I set up my ham radio Saturday afternoon. I made a few contacts on the 40-meter High Frequency band, but it was a contest weekend. Some ham operators are into contesting. Contesting involves logging your contacts during the contest period and earning points according to how the contest rules are written. Last weekend was the California QSO Party contest. Operators in California earned points of varying amounts depending on the location of the station they contacted. I played along and answered seven calls, but I quickly become bored with contests. The participants just want to know the minimum information – i.e. callsign, name, location – and then move on to the next station.

I switched to UHF/VHF repeaters and found a Winsystem repeater where people held conversations. I heard a lot of talk in central California about the wildfires. Smoke continues to be an issue with poor air quality. I heard the air index near Yosemite was over 600! People on the central coast said an offshore flow brought smoke from fires in the mountains to the coastal communities. It doesn’t sound good.

My middle daughter, Jamie, paid us a visit Saturday night along with Francisco and two of the kids, Trey and Parker. We sat outside and talked for a couple of hours – it was the highlight of the weekend. We haven’t seen Jamie and her family since the start of the covid madness.

Last night, Donna grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignon. These were the last two filets we bought in the northwest – they came from Willamette Valley and were excellent cuts of meat. Donna served them my favorite way – smothered in sauteed mushrooms and onions.

There’s a bacon wrapped filet mignon under those mushrooms and onions.

Today is the last day I can claim to be 63 years old. Tomorrow marks my 64th birthday – it’s somewhat of a milestone for people in my generation due to the Beatles song “When I’m 64.” Paul McCartney wrote this song when he was 16 years old. It wasn’t recorded until late 1966 with George Martin adding three clarinets to the instrumentation and was released in 1967 on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Donna’s been practicing this song on her clarinet for about a year, so I’m sure I’ll get to hear it tomorrow.

Will you still feed me

Will you still need me

When I’m 64?

We haven’t had any issues with smoke from wildfires here in central Arizona, but it’s been hot. The daily highs continue to hover around 105 – 106 degrees and it only drops to the low 70s overnight. Last night it was still 90 degrees outside at 9pm. The long range forecast calls for cooler temperatures by the weekend – we’re ready for that.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Two Short Moves

I checked our route before we left Twin Arrows Casino and found two Walmart stores in Flagstaff. The closer store was a supercenter on Huntington Drive, but looking at the satellite view, the lot looked like it would be tough going in a big rig. The second store wasn’t a supercenter, but it had an easy way in and out. We’re 65 feet long and I like to know what I’m getting into before I commit to it.

The second store had a Basha’s grocery across the lot. We stopped there and I went into Walmart for water and beer while Donna went over to Basha’s for some groceries. I also bought a sandwich from Subway along with a Subway salad for Donna.

It was only about a 75-mile drive to Distant Drums RV Resort, so we had plenty of time. There wasn’t any point at trying to check in before noon. We arrived closer to 1pm and were checked after a short wait while four coaches ahead of us checked in. We had a long, paved pull-through site and didn’t need to drop the trailer. This is a nice RV park with a small swimming pool and hot tub.

Donna took a hike on the trail across the road from the park. We hiked this trail over six years ago when we stayed here. It doesn’t seem possible that six years have gone by since then, but this blog post proves it.

Start of the hike
View of Cliff Castle Casino from 1 1/2 miles up the trail

Wednesday I had a guy from Gary’s Mobile RV Wash come and wash our coach. It needed it and he did a great job – he even polished the wheels to a nice shine.

Thursday morning we pulled out around 10:30am. Again, we were in no hurry as we only had about 70 miles to our next destination – Lake Pleasant Harbor RV Resort on the west side of Phoenix on the Carefree Highway (AZ74). The interstate is close to the Distant Drums entrance and we took I-17 south. Within a few miles, the road climbs out of the Verde Valley. It’s a steep grade for about five miles. At one point, we came up on a slow moving truck. The problem was, there were only two lanes of travel and cars were in the left lane overtaking us at 70-80 mph while we had a truck going 30 mph in front of us.

I had no choice but to slow down. Usually, once you give up the momentum behind a slow truck on a steep grade, there’s no regaining speed. I got lucky this time. I could see clear road behind me and with the transmission in 3rd gear I was able to accelerate and gain speed. I shifted to fourth gear and got up to 50 mph and blew past the truck without holding up traffic or risking a rear-end collision.

We stopped at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center in Cordes Lake and topped up with about 60 gallons of fuel. We’ll be stationary for a month at Lake Pleasant and I like to have the fuel tank as full as possible when we’re parked for extended periods. This minimizes the air space in the tank and minimizes condensation. Of course, in Arizona, it’s not much of a problem as the air is so dry, but it’s my habit and I mostly stick to it.

They had a Subway shop at the center, so Donna bought another salad and a sandwich for me. It was still early, so we waited until we stopped at the rest area at Sunset Point to eat lunch. We took a shortcut on New River Road to Lake Pleasant Harbor. In hindsight, I should’ve stayed on I-17 to the Carefree Highway because New River Road had rough sections and some construction – besides, it wasn’t much of a shortcut.

Due to Covid precautions, the office wasn’t open – well, it was but you couldn’t enter. I had to call the front desk where they put together a packet for me then a woman came out of the office and handed me our paperwork.

We set up in site 207 which is shown as a 61-foot back-in site. It was a little tricky, but by angling the trailer i was able to cheat our 65-foot length into the site.

Site 207

Yesterday, we drove up to Anthem to pick up our mail at the post office. We had to have our mail forwarded to General Delivery because this park won’t accept mail for guests unless you book for a minimum of three months. We can receive UPS or FedEx deliveries, but it has to be left at the office. They don’t want deliveries at the sites. Weird rules.

This morning, one of the park maintenance guys stopped by and told me I couldn’t have our coach past the fence line – the sites are bordered by chain link fences. This was irritating – I wasn’t in the street or blocking anyone’s access. The chain link fence line is only 54 feet long – this is supposed to be a 61-foot site.

A neighbor from across the street – who also happens to be a ham operator – came by to give me a hand. We moved the picnic table from the rear of the site and I positioned the trailer at a more severe angle putting us about seven feet deeper into the site and lining up the front of the coach even with the end of the fence.

Speaking of ham operators, after I set up my radio yesterday, a guy named Doug stopped by. He saw my antennas and told me he was a ham. I looked at his site this morning and he has quite the set-up, including a large loop antenna and a vertical that must be 40-feet high. He also has a dipole stretched across his site. The guy that helped me reposition this morning, Roger, is friends with Doug. So, we have at least three ham operators here in the park.

So far, the Arizona weather has refused to let go of summer. The highs have been 105-106 degrees and triple digits are forecast into the middle of next week before we drop into the mid to low 90s. But it’s a dry heat and there isn’t a cloud in the sky.