I mentioned in my last post our plan to head over to Wickenburg for a family holiday gathering. Saturday afternoon I put the top up on Midget-San. I usually just raise the top without fastening it, then cover the car while it’s parked at our site. We normally drop the top whenever we drive. Donna wanted the top up for warmth on the 100-mile drive.

I put the top up and fastened it in the afternoon when the sun would likely soften the material. Getting the top fastened in place is always a wrestling match. The top material has to stretch slightly over the frame work and clamps to the windshield frame. Driving the Midget with the top up is a different experience. It’s much noisier inside and getting in and out of the small sports car is a little more difficult. With my back troubles, it wasn’t fun to climb out of the driver’s seat.

We hit a red light at Brown Road, about two miles from our site at Viewpoint, then didn’t stop at all over the next 90 miles. Our route took us on the Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway), then Loop 101 to I-17 to AZ74 (Carefree Highway). Midget-San with the Nissan A15 engine and five-speed transmission made the drive at 70mph without strain.

Our destination was my ex-wife’s house that she and her husband Jerry recently moved into. It’s north of Wickenburg about 5 miles in a housing tract called Wickenburg Ranch. It’s new construction in a gated community with a golf course. My middle daughter, Jamie and her man Francisco were there and his son Trey. My oldest daughter, Alana, and her fiance Kevin came down from Arlington, Washington with their kids – Gabi and Lainey, our granddaughters – and Kyle and Nick, Kevin’s sons.

The trip to Arizona was a surprise for the kids – they didn’t know anything about it until they were told to pack on Christmas Day. My youngest daughter, Shauna, couldn’t make it. She and her boyfriend, Gabe, returned from a trip to Bermuda, where Shauna will be working soon. On Saturday, they were at Gabe’s parents’ house in North Carolina.

We arrived at LuAnn and Jerry’s place just before noon. LuAnn was the only one home at first. Kyle and Nick were fishing at a pond with Jerry while Alana and Kevin were on the golf course. I’m not sure where Lainey and Gabi were, but we were all together soon enough and started in on hors d’oeuvres.

We grazed on the appetizers, drank mimosas and talked with football on the TVs. Donna contributed a baba ganoush dish with flatbread and brought the mimosa fixings plus chewy molasses cookies she made.

Meanwhile there was a turkey cooking and Jamie brought a ham. Everything was set out on the kitchen island and it was time to plate up!

LuAnn and Jerry are just starting to settle into their place and it isn’t completely furnished yet. We had a variety of chairs to seat everyone around the tables.

I should mention that everyone in the room except Donna and me and LuAnn and Jerry have had coronavirus. And the four of us who haven’t had it have been taking precautions. So we felt that this particular group setting was fairly low-risk, especially since we kept the doors open the entire time we were there and spent some time outdoors as well.

I didn’t want to make the 100-mile drive back to Viewpoint through the desert at night, so we checked in at the Best Western in town. We had a quiet night and I was surprised to find the complimentary breakfast was a hot meal with scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuit. The trip back was uneventful and we were home before noon on Monday.

I mentioned the knife set Donna got for Christmas in my last post. When Cutlery and More (a retailer and online store of kitchen gear near Chicago) shipped her knife set, I received an e-mail notification. The e-mail also included a $25 gift card for my next purchase. I couldn’t resist. I shopped around and decided I needed a bunka-type knife. A bunka is a versatile Japanese knife that could be considered a kitchen-prep knife suitable for anything from vegetables to trimming beef.

I wanted a knife to trim the cuts of meat I smoke in the Traeger. This could mean trimming anything from babyback ribs to brisket. I found a small bunka – five and a half-inch blade length. Most bunka knives are around seven inches blade length. I felt five and a half inches was adequate for my use and easier to handle in a small kitchen space.

Cutlery and More had just the thing and it was on sale for Christmas. I ordered an Enso knife by Yaxell made in Seki City, Japan. With the sale price and my gift card, I was able to get this knife for just $64. The blade on this knife is Damascus – it has a very thin core made of VG10 steel at a hardness of 61-62 HRC. This thin core is hard, sharp and somewhat brittle. To counter the brittleness, the core is laminated with 18 layers of stainless steel on each side, alternating between relatively hard steel and soft steel making the blade much tougher and less likely to break. There are 37 layers of steel altogether. The knife was delivered shortly after we returned home.

I don’t fool myself into thinking a Japanese blacksmith made this by hammering red-hot steel on an anvil. Most likely, this is made from a laminated Damascus sheet supplied by Takefu Steel (maker of VG10 steel), which is ground and heat-treated. The hammer finish is most likely applied by pneumatic or hydraulic hammer machines. No matter, it’s still a high-quality knife with a beautiful finish – and it’s razor sharp. It’s going to be just right for slicing a fat cap down to <1/4″.

I’m doing a little more studying to increase my knowledge of knives. I’m not studying so I can start designing and making my own knives – I just want to gain a deeper understanding and be able to cut through the marketing hype (pun intended). To that end, I ordered a book from Amazon – Knife Engineering by Dr. Larrin Thomas. I was familiar with Larrin’s work from his website – Knife Steel Nerds. He has the rare ability to take complex engineering topics and explain it in a way that a layperson can understand. It’s hard to grasp from his website as the topics range from basic to highly advanced – without a logical progression. His book organizes his writings in a way that takes the reader from basic ideas up to complex applications, each chapter building off of the last.

We had a high temperature of 68 degrees yesterday, but gusty winds made it feel cooler. After dark, a few rain showers came through. We can expect the cool days with temps in the low 60s for the rest of the week – no rain is forecast though. Though my lower back continues to be problematic, I hope I can return to the pickleball courts soon.

*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!