Category Archives: Alpine Coach

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dry and Dusty

As I mentioned in my last post, we drove up to Kanab, Utah on Thursday and met Jeff and Deb Spencer at Escobar’s Mexican restaurant for lunch. After a short wait, we were seated at an outdoor table on the front patio. We enjoyed the food, company and conversation for the next two hours. Kanab is only about eight miles from Fredonia where we were staying.

On the way back, we made a side trip to look at the Kane County arena where a rodeo was scheduled on Friday evening. It looked dry and dusty – the parking area was a dust bowl. I decided to pass on the rodeo.

Donna went out for a bike ride on Friday and in her travels, she ran into Deb Spencer. Jeff and Deb are mooch-docking at a friend’s place in Fredonia. Donna stopped and talked to Deb and her friend, Marge.

Dry and dusty has been a theme at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia. On Saturday while Donna took a bike ride, the wind kicked up. I ended up taking down my ham radio antenna and it turned out to be a good precaution as the wind became gustier all afternoon. At times, the amount of dust in the air was astounding. It was a good thing Donna went out early for her ride. She followed a route suggested by Marge and went across the state line to the Jackson Flat Reservoir. Here are some photos from her ride.

I was feeling a little off all weekend – some kind of intestinal bug. So I wasn’t very active.

On Sunday, Donna had an appointment at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab. She drove Midget-San up there before noon. They have a number of tours for a variety of animals – dogs, cats, pigs, goats, birds and rabbits. Donna toured Cat World where rescued cats are housed.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Welcome Center

I hung out and watched the Moto GP race from Spain and the Formula One race from Russia. When Donna returned, I loaded the Midget in the trailer and I was glad I did. Once again the wind kicked up and we had several dust storms – so much dust I couldn’t see across the street.

Monday morning we hit the road. We took US89A south and began climbing. In Fredonia we were about 4,800 feet above sea level. Our route on US89A took us past Jacob Lake where we topped out at 7,920 feet above sea level! The highway is twisty and very narrow. I clenched a few times when oncoming tractor-trailer rigs threatened to knock mirrors with us. There is no shoulder at all and dropping a wheel off the pavement probably would not end well.

We quickly lost elevation as we drove past Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We crossed the Colorado River at Marble Canyon at an elevation of a little over 3,500 feet above sea level and began climbing again. We soon left US89A and hit US89 south. This is a wider road with ample shoulder space and is a divided highway at times. But, it’s a very bumpy road with whoop-de-do sections. After traversing several miles of rough pavement, I groaned when I saw a sign warning of rough pavement for the next 24 miles. If the next 24 miles warranted a sign, things could only be getting worse.

US89 took us up the Mogollon Rim south of Cameron and the road to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon. We entered the Coconino National Forest and were back up to an elevation over 7,000 feet above sea level. Most people think of Arizona as flat desert land. Not so in northern Arizona. We went from arid canyons to thick pine forests with a multitude of landscapes in between.

From Flagstaff, you can see Humphreys Peak – the highest natural point in Arizona at 12,637 feet above sea level. We drove past Flagstaff and made a detour east on I-40 to Winona where we found the Twin Arrows Casino. The casino is closed due to the pandemic, but it has large lots and RVers are welcome to dry camp. We spent last night here and are off to Camp Verde today where we’ll spend the next couple of nights at the Distant Drums RV Resort. We’ve been there before and it’s a nice RV park with amenities.

The temperature is much cooler here, but it’ll be warmer in Camp Verde and warmer still in Lake Pleasant where we’ll check in at the marina on Thursday.

Cedar Breaks

We took another sightseeing excursion from Iron Springs RV Park on Tuesday. We drove into Cedar City on highway 56 and went south on Main Street to UT14. This highway began climbing almost immediately and was mostly uphill for 21 miles. We entered the largest National Forest in Utah – the Dixie National Forest.

As we drove through the forest, Donna commented on the aroma of the evergreens. There were Englemann spruce trees, pines and firs. There were also quaking aspen stands – many of their leaves were starting to turn yellow. The deciduous trees along the creek bottoms were showing vivid fall colors already. We hit the summit of UT14 at 9,910 feet above sea level. The air temperature was much cooler at that elevation.

We turned north on highway 148 and continued to climb another 400-500 feet as we entered the Cedar Breaks National Monument. It occurred to me then – I hadn’t seen a single cedar tree around Cedar City, nor did I see any in the Dixie National Forest and the Cedar Breaks National Monument. What was up with that?

At one of the information kiosks at a scenic overlook, I learned that early settlers in the area mis-identified the ubiquitous juniper trees found here as cedars. So, Cedar City and Cedar Breaks National Monument are named based on mis-identification.

Cedar Breaks is called a natural amphitheater, but it looked like a rugged canyon to me. The drive through Cedar Breaks National Monument is 7.5 miles long and has four scenic overlooks. We entered and my America the Beautiful Senior Pass got us in for free. We drove to the north end of the monument, then turned around and made stops at each of the overlooks. The overlooks have a parking area and a short paved path to the viewing area. I shot a lot of photos – here are some of the sights.

Donna at an overlook – check out the elevation

The colors of the rock are due to layers of shale, sandstone and limestone exposed by erosion. Cedar Breaks is on the west side of the Markagunt Plateau – the same plateau as Zion to the south.

On the way out, we needed a comfort break before making the drive back. We parked at the information center near the entrance and walked to the gift shop thinking we would find restrooms there. We didn’t – they told us we had to go to the other end of the lot and we would find a building with restrooms there. We did. Then we decided to walk back past the gift shop to the Point Supreme Overlook. The time it took us to detour to the restrooms and back to the overlook cost us.

As we got back to Midget-San, a few rain drops fell. There wasn’t any rain in the forecast, but in the mountains, weather can change in an instant. As we drove out of the park, it started to rain harder. I could see blue sky just ahead and figured we should just push on – stopping to put the top up would take just as long as driving out of the rain. I soon regretted this decision as hail started falling. The hail stones mostly bounced off the windshield or flew overhead as we drove, but a few got us. I was hit on the nose and ear and it stung! Donna took a few to her cheek. We were out of it after a few minutes and the car quickly dried. Before we got out of the showers, we saw a few motorcyclists on the side of the road donning rain gear. Little did they know they would be out if it just a few curves down the road.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. In the afternoon, I secured everything in the trailer and loaded the Midget. We hit the road again Wednesday morning but we weren’t in a hurry. We were only going about 100 miles to Fredonia, Arizona. I made a stop at the Sinclair station to top up the fuel tank before we hit I-15 south. We took about 60 gallons of diesel fuel at $2.31/gallon.

Our route left I-15 and headed southeast on UT17 through Toquerville, La Verkin and Hurricane. Out of Hurricane, we made a steep climb on UT59. We followed this road to the state line where we made a stop at Subway for lunch. I hadn’t given any thought to the time change, but since we crossed into Arizona, we gained an hour.

Arizona time is equivalent to Mountain Standard Time year-round – they don’t observe Daylight Saving Time. So, in the summer months, Arizona time is the same as Pacific Daylight Time and in the winter it is Mountain Standard Time. This can be confusing at times.

We took our time eating lunch. There was no sense in arriving at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia before noon. We ended up driving into the park around 12:15pm. The office was closed, so I phoned the number on the door. The park owner told me to pick an open pull-through site and text the site number to him once we were in.

The pull-through sites are long with lots of space to enter and exit – the park is basically a dirt lot. It’s level, but the sites are narrow. It’s laid out in such a way to allow an island between adjoining sites to have a shared water spigot and hook-ups. The sites alternate facing east or west. The downside to this is neighboring doors face each other and the picnic table areas are shared space. We set up and will spend five nights here before moving down around Flagstaff.

Before we left Cedar City, Donna found fresh tilapia from Ecuador at the Smith’s grocery there. She made an old favorite that we haven’t had in a while – tortilla-crusted tilapia.

We’re in for more hot, dry weather. The forecast calls for daily highs around 90 degrees. We’re still at an elevation of about 4,800 feet above sea level, but the elevation isn’t making it any cooler here.

Today we plan to drive up to Kanab, Utah and meet our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) for lunch. We haven’t seen them since spring. Our paths have crossed several times over the years and it’s always fun to meet up with them.

2,000 Flushes

It didn’t take much preparation to hit the road again after boondocking at Fort Deseret. We just pulled in the slides and secured a few things before resuming our journey south on UT257. At Milford we hit UT130 south. The wind steadily increased all morning and by noon it was gusting over 30mph. I don’t enjoy driving a big rig in gusty winds and would’ve pulled off if I could. But there wasn’t any place to stop. UT130 is a narrow, two-lane highway with no shoulder. It made the drive mentally taxing. Lucky for me it was a short drive of about 140 miles.

The route was a gradual climb that steepened south of Minersville. The grade plus the headwinds had me keeping a close eye on the engine coolant temperature, but it wasn’t an issue as I manually downshifted anytime it reached 195 degrees and kept the temperature in check. We topped out at 6,570 feet above sea level, then gradually descended to Cedar City. We’re at an elevation of 5,470 feet above sea level now.

I received a text message from Iron Springs RV Park with directions to the park and it instructed me to pull into site B2 – no need to check in. We found the site and it’s 80 feet long as advertised, but quite narrow. This RV park is new and they’re still working on improvements and amenities like pickleball courts. We’re about 10 miles west of Cedar City and it’s fairly remote.

Donna took a hike Saturday afternoon on a trail that started by the lodge – I wasn’t up for much after the hard driving. At the lodge, she met an employee who told her about an interesting sight in the area. On Sunday, Donna rode her bike past Granite Mountain to the old, abandoned Western Iron Ore pit mine.

The pit holds water that’s a deep blue color and locally it’s known as 2,000 Flushes. I read the name is derived from the color making it look like a toilet bowl full of blue cleaner. The water in the pit is toxic though – the color comes from iron and copper traces and it’s also polluted with arsenic, uranium and mercury.

This morning we took a drive to Kolob Canyons – a section of Zion National Park about 40 miles north of Zion Canyon. The Visitor Center was closed and no shuttlebuses were running. There wasn’t a ranger on duty to check passes or collect fees – I didn’t need my America the Beautiful Senior Parks Pass. We took the driving tour – a five-mile scenic drive past trailhead parking areas and scenic pull-outs. It was near mid-day so the pictures are a bit washed out – it’s much more colorful than the pictures show. Some of pictures have a bit of haze – we’re out of the heavy smoke areas, but there’s still some smoke in the air.

Placard at the turnaround lot at the top of the drive

The five-mile tour climbs all the way in and tops out over 6,000 feet above sea level. It was a pleasant drive in Midget-San with the top down.

Our neighbor here at Iron Springs RV Park has an interesting vehicle that could’ve been a workable alternative to Midget-San for us. He has a 1964 VW Beetle that’s been converted to a Baja Bug.

The engine is highly modified – I’m not sure of the displacement but I’m pretty sure it’s a stroker with larger pistons and cylinders.

Modified engine with dual downdraft Weber carburetors

Back in the 1970s, I had a Baja Bug with a 1959 oval window body. It was lightened and was punched out to 1790cc with dual Solex carburetors. It was a lot of fun.

I almost forgot to mention a milestone for our Alpine Coach. The odometer turned over 100,000 miles on the way here. When we bought this coach in January of 2014, it had just under 55,000 miles on it. We’ve put a little over 45,000 miles on it in nearly seven years. That’s under 7,000 miles per year.

The temperature reached the low 80s Saturday and Sunday and it’s still a little windy. The winds should calm down tomorrow and we’ll be fine to hit the road on Wednesday. It should be a little cooler too. We’ll cross the Arizona border and spend some time in northern Arizona before heading down to Lake Pleasant.

Wild Visitors

After I wrote my last post on Wednesday, Donna and I hiked down a trail to the beach. It was only about half a mile, but the soft, powdery sand made it a tough slog in places. We could see a large spherical object ahead high and dry in the sand, but couldn’t tell what it was. When we got closer, I could see it was an old, damaged mooring buoy.

Although these steel buoys are quite heavy, they’re buoyant when they’re foam filled or sealed airtight. They’re usually anchored to large concrete blocks and boats or ships tie up to them.

The level of the Great Salt Lake is low right now and the beaches are expansive.

Near the water,the sand is full of brine flies. We saw people swimming to the north near the beach access and Island Buffalo Grill and also saw one person on a paddleboard.

Back at our site, we had a visitor.

I saw another large coyote earlier, then this guy came wandering by, presumably looking for mice or any other easy meal.

Later, while I played around with ham radio, Donna brought Ozark the cat outside in her expandable carrier. It’s the safest way for Ozark to enjoy some fresh air and the outdoors – the coyotes would make short work of a cat here.

Ozark the cat enjoying some fresh air outdoors

Later, Donna made a simple dinner by grilling green chile turkey burgers topped with avocado and served it with grilled zucchini, peppers, onions and corn with cotija cheese.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might recall back in 2018 when I had to replace the house battery bank for our coach. At that time, I opened my wallet and stepped up to Lifeline AGM batteries. I haven’t regretted it. These batteries are maintenance-free and really perform. When we’re dry camped, I run the inverter all day and night. The batteries never fall to 50% or lower. I charge them by running the generator for two to three hours in the morning – when we make coffee and have breakfast – and another two or three hours in the evening – when Donna prepares dinner.

I watch the state of charging on the Heart Interface monitor. There are three stages of charging with our smart charger. It starts with a bulk charge and the monitor shows 14.0-14.5-volts and up to 100 amps. This current measurement is showing amperage at the voltage going into the batteries, so 100 amps at 14 volts is about 1400 watts. Our generator can produce up to 7,500 watts (7.5kW). If you remember my post about 30-amp and 50-amp service, you might wonder what 7.5kW equates to. If we apply Ohm’s law and do the math, we see that our Onan Quiet Diesel generator puts out 62 amps@120V on two legs (L1 and L2) – about 30 amps per leg. Anyway, our battery charger goes into the second mode – called absorption – after 15 minutes or so. This mode charges at constant voltage while amperage drops – this mode takes longer, up to three hours. Finally the charger reaches the final stage, float charging. This mode charges at low amperage and about 13.3 volts. The Lifeline AGM battery bank reaches this state anywhere from 90 minutes to 180 minutes of charging time.

When we boondock, it’s easy to think if it as “free” camping, but it isn’t really free. The generator run time has a cost – it consumes fuel and hours on the generator eventually lead to preventive maintenance. We usually average a little over half a gallon of diesel fuel per hour and I change oil and filter at 150 hour intervals. I figure it’s about $9/day. We don’t boondock very often, so going to solar power to charge the battery bank doesn’t pencil out. If we boondock 30 days per year, that’s only about $270/year for the generator. It would take a long time for a solar installation to break even at that rate.

Our neighbor at Antelope Island State Park may have to sharpen his pencil though. He told me they had been there for two weeks. He started his generator at 7am and ran it until well after dark each day!

In addition to the coyote in our site, we had a mouse feeding by the front door (much to Ozark’s delight), then Friday morning, a bison wandered by.

Bison are often referred to as buffalo, but the zoologists tell us they aren’t really buffalo. By this, they mean they aren’t related to the water buffalo of Asia or the cape buffalo of Africa. I still think of them as buffalo though. The same can be said of pronghorn antelope. The zoologists maintain they aren’t true antelope as they have no connection with the antelope species of Africa. They’re antelope to me though.

Friday morning we packed up – I had loaded the Midget in the trailer Thursday afternoon. We stopped at the dump station on Antelope Island. I had pre-scouted the dump station, but it turned out to be tighter than I thought. We came through unscathed though. As we were pulling out of the dump station, three rigs lined up to dump. Our timing was impeccable – waiting for three rigs to dump could have taken up to an hour.

Our route took us southbound on I-15 past Bountiful and into Salt Lake City. The interstate was the usual jungle of cars travelling too fast and too close together. We went west on I-80 and escaped the city along the southern edge of the Great Salt Lake. We turned south at UT36 which took us through Tooele. I last came through here in 2009 when I came to the World Superbike races at Miller Motorsport Park by motorcycle from Mesa, Arizona with my friend, Mason. Tooele has really grown since then.

We made a quick stop at the south end of town for lunch at Subway. Then we were on our way again. Once we left Tooele, the road became very quiet with little traffic. ID36 eventually runs into US6 and we continued south. Our destination was an unusual place. We planned to stay overnight at Fort Deseret State Park. Donna found information on dry camping there.

What we found when we arrived was surprising. Although it’s designated as a state park, there are no offices or buildings of any kind. There are no services – no water, no restrooms or vault toilets – not even a trash can. It’s just a flat, unpaved lot with a couple of old picnic tables and a couple of placards at the ruins of Fort Deseret. The ruins are just what’s left of the adobe walls that surrounded the fort.

Our original plan was to go to the Saint George, Utah area from here. That plan evaporated when we found out all of the RV parks and campgrounds in the area are booked full. This wouldn’t normally be the case after Labor Day, but 2020 is anything but normal. One park manager told Donna that many people changed their plans and extended their stay in Saint George because of the wildfires west of there. Many others that planned to go to Yosemite, for example, halted their trip west there. Also, people from California and parts of Nevada had escaped the smoke and ash by taking their RV to Saint George.

So, we’re on to plan “B”. Today we head down to Cedar City where I booked an 80-foot long pull-through site for the next four nights. This will allow us to catch up on laundry and figure out our next steps. We’ll have a week to get to Lake Pleasant, Arizona west of Phoenix.

The skies are still smoky and we can expect daily highs in the lower 80s in Cedar City. The overnight lows should be in the mid-50s – just right for sleeping with the window open.

Smoke on the Water

My previous post included a photo taken at the swimming area at Legacy Park in McCall. You can see across Payette Lake to the pine-covered ridge at the north side. On Sunday evening, I saw a video clip on the local news taken from the same point where I stood to take the photo, except you couldn’t see more than 200 yards across the lake due to smoke from wildfires. Smoke is everywhere out west; it’s unbelievable.

I wasn’t able to post over the past few days in Mountain Home, Idaho due to spotty Internet access. Spotty is being kind – our current location only has 3G, but it’s far better than Mountain Home which was like a dial-up connection 25 years ago. There was a Verizon LTE cell tower about half a mile away from the Gem State RV Park and that tower had several cells (nodes). Each node was directed to cover a slice of the 200 degree fan of coverage from that tower. However, the node pointed at the park had the largest slice and covered the most densely populated area of coverage. It was overwhelmed by cell phones most of the day.

When I wrote my last post on Saturday morning I was lucky to have a decent connection for an hour. Fortunately, Donna had completed an article for Escapees RV Club before we left Grangeville.

We left Mountain Home on Monday and continued to head in a southerly direction. I didn’t want to blast down I-84 – the speed limit here is 80mph and I don’t drive the coach that fast. After topping up our fuel tank with 67 gallons of diesel, I followed a route that took us down a nice county road that mostly paralleled the interstate. It took us through a lot of farmland with potato fields and some cattle. Idaho is the largest producer of potatoes in the country.

We followed back roads all the way to Rupert, Idaho. These county roads were mostly smooth with speed limits of 55-65mph. It was easy driving with very little traffic. We passed through a small town called Bliss which had a deep valley to the south. The valley was filled with dense smoke and I couldn’t make out any details of the terrain there.

We found the Elk’s Lodge in Rupert. I checked in at the lodge and was told we could dry camp for free. We set up in a level area with a golf course behind us and had happy hour at the lodge. Donna prepared a simple dinner of garlicky tomato and zucchini with parmesan and Italian sausage. She found the best corn of the season at the Mountain Home farmers’ market – the farmer told her it was picked that morning and would be the best we’ve had. He was right.

We left Rupert Tuesday morning and this time I took a route down ID81. This state route was similar to the county roads we took the day before. The speed limit was 65mph, the road surface was decent and traffic non-existent. After crossing the Utah border, I had no option but to get on the interstate at Snowville. I-84 had miles of construction and only had one lane open. It merges with I-15 at Tremonton and we stayed on I-15 through heavy traffic in Ogden.

We left I-15 south of Ogden proper at exit 332 and went west through an area called Syracuse. We were on a wide boulevard lined with shopping centers and businesses. It gave way to a residential area and narrowed to one lane in each direction. The road ended at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park. The entrance to the park is at the start of the Davis County Causeway. We had reserved a 90-foot-long pull-through site at the Bridger Bay Campground. I checked in at the entrance and the girl working there told me to go seven miles across the causeway and take a left when we reach the island, then take the next right. We found our site without any difficulty.

Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. It has an area of 28,022 acres and is roughly 15 miles long north-to-south. It’s home to bison, mule deer, antelope and other wildlife including coyotes and badgers. Just as we entered the island, we saw a bull bison standing behind the entrance sign with a statue of a bison on the other side.

The campground is dry-camping only. We’ll boondock here for three nights. After setting up, we took a drive in Midget-San to have a look around. We started by going up to Buffalo Point. You can see in the photos the amount of smoke over the Great Salt Lake.

View south from Buffalo Point – lots of smoke

Bridger Bay from Buffalo Point – campground is on the edge of the beach to the right of center

We made a loop past the beach access area, the Island Buffalo Grill and visitor center. Then we drove 11 miles down the paved road on the east side of the island to Fielding Garr Ranch. There weren’t very many cars on the road, but there were some day-use tourists that thought nothing of stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of bison.

View east across Farmington Bay to the mainland

The smoke made an interesting sunset last night.

I spoke too soon about internet access here. I’ve been struggling to complete this post as the Verizon signal fades from 3G to 1X with no internet. I’m giving up at this point.

Lunch on the Lake

We took a drive in Midget-San up ID55 backtracking about 14 miles to McCall on Wednesday. We found free parking on the street right in the middle of town, across from the resort. McCall is another trendy, hip town catering to tourism. It has a friendly, lively vibe to it.

It was lunchtime and we found a Mexican restaurant with patio seating overlooking Payette Lake. The restaurant was called Lago Chapala and I recommend it! I had a burrito verde and Donna had a shredded beef taco salad with guacamole. Both meals were excellent – and their chips and salsa were addicting.

Looking north from Lago Chapala’s deck – buoys mark swim area on the right

Marina and Payette Lake west-northwest from the deck

After lunch, Donna and I walked through Legacy Park – a city park along the lake. There were cobblestone sidewalks and well-manicured landscapes. The weather was about perfect – in the low 70s and blue skies.

Swim area at Legacy Park – nice sandy beach

We wandered around and had some entertainment at the boat launch watching people taking boats in and out of the water. We found the Salmon River Brewery where we enjoyed some suds with Mark and Emily Fagan on the rooftop a few years ago, but we didn’t go in. We were too stuffed from lunch to have a cold one.

Before heading back to Donnelly, we drove through Ponderosa State Park to check out the RV sites. They had several sites that looked big-rig friendly, but trees made most of them appear challenging.

Thursday was our last full day at the Donnelly City Park campground. Donna took a mid-day bicycle ride down the west side of the lake while I played with my ham radio. I had a nice chat with a guy in Moline, Illinois. Then I started disassembling my antenna and packed the trailer. By 4pm, I had everything loaded including the Midget.

I looked up information on ID55 road construction – it’s the only way to head south to Boise and points beyond. We knew from signs that we could expect delays at Smith’s Ferry. What I found was alarming at first – daily road closure from 10am to 2pm while rocks are being removed with explosives! Reading further, I found that the scheduled four-hour closures were Monday through Thursday, not on Friday or weekends. We dodged a bullet as we were pulling out on Friday morning. I wanted to get a relatively early start since I anticipated some delay through the area.

There’s a stretch of road a few miles long, north of Smith’s Ferry that has a high number of traffic accidents – I read it’s 35% higher than the rest of ID55. The reason given is the nature of the road. It twists and turns sharply on the edge of the Payette River. In this section, the roadway is only 24 feet wide with no shoulder – the road is on the edge of a 30-foot drop-off to the river on one side with no guard rail and has a wall of rock on the other side.

The construction project is blasting rock to widen the road to 36 feet wide, adding shoulder space and presumably guardrail. When we reached the work area, the road was only one-lane with flagmen. We had a brief wait of no more than five minutes and we were on our way. Traffic in our direction of travel was light, but northbound traffic on ID55 was heavy with lots of RVs and trucks with kayaks or river rafts on trailers. People from the city were heading north for the weekend.

Our route had a couple of tough climbs and a long 7% descent near Horseshoe Bend. We had to cross through Meridian on the west side of Boise. Highway 55 is a wide boulevard through this area with three lanes in each direction. The posted speed limit is 55mph, but there’s a stoplight every quarter mile or so and lots of traffic, so 55mph isn’t really feasible. It goes through miles of shopping malls before you reach I-84.

We took I-84 east which really runs southeast along this portion and drove about 40 miles further to Mountain Home. I-84 posted speed limit through here is 80mph – 70mph for trucks! Our destination was Gem State RV Park where I reserved a 100-foot long pull-through site. When I checked in, the gal at the counter asked me if satellite TV reception was important – I said it would be nice! She changed our site to site 23 – another 100-foot long pull-through where she said we would get Dish Network reception for sure. That’s a good thing for me as there are Formula One racing and Moto GP racing events on TV this weekend.

Donna and I took a drive through town and found Railroad Park where the farmers’ market will be today. We also crossed over to the north side where the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center is. I wanted to check out the entry and exit and I’m glad I did – there’s construction there and now I know how I’ll handle it in the coach. We’re low on fuel and I’ll top us up when we leave.

After the solitude and absolute nighttime silence at our waterfront site in Donnelly, I had a rough night last night back in town. There was minimal road noise, but I heard trains blowing their horns as they came through railroad crossings and they woke me up three times last night. We’ll stay here until Monday then continue our southward migration.

We can expect the daily high temperature to reach the 90s over the next few days. We’re on a 50-amp service so running both roof air conditioners is no problem. Overnight the expected lows will be in the mid-50s.

Rock Slide Delay

We pulled out of Sundown RV Park in Grangeville yesterday. I looked it over and came up with an exit plan. Although we were in a pull-through site, pulling forward to exit had some complications – namely a row of trees across the narrow roadway and a post at the right side of the site at the edge of the road. I decided to reverse out of the site – all l I had to do was get the trailer to turn about 45 degrees. All went as planned and we were out of there in one shot.

We left town heading south on US95. We climbed a bit – we were at an elevation of about 3,440 feet above sea level in Grangeville. Our route took us through the town of Riggins, which is interesting. Riggins has a number of whitewater rafting outfits and jet boat rides to run down the Snake River to Hell’s Canyon. What I really found interesting was the physical size of the town. The sign at the town limits says the population is 419. But almost all of the dwellings are on the main street through town – the river is on one side and a high bluff limits the other side. So, the town of 419 seems to go on for a long way.

Coming out of town, we saw a long line of vehicles heading north into town. I told Donna I had a bad feeling of a road closure or single lane ahead. We were cruising along well below the speed limit due to a slow motorhome about four cars ahead of us. In my mirrors, I saw an empty log truck rapidly gaining on us. He caught up with us just as we saw road work and lower speed limit signs. The speed limit dropped from 65mph to 45mph then 25mph before we were stopped completely.

We saw a guy standing outside his truck smoking a cigarette and figured we would be stopped for a while. I shut off the engine. There wasn’t any traffic moving in either direction. I picked up the CB radio mic and asked if anyone was on channel 19. A trucker answered immediately. I asked if he had any idea how long the delay would be. He said it would be 20 minutes. I thanked him for the info, then he said the delay was 90 minutes a week ago!

When we started moving, traffic was going in both directions through a detour around a rock slide. This morning, I read about it – the rock slide happened on July 3rd and they’re still dealing with it. Unstable slopes had US95 closed for a while and the delays are necessary as they move rocks and earth that may come crashing down the slope.

After we drove through the detour and past the stacked traffic on the other side of the road, I figured the log truck driver would be impatient and want to get by the slow caravan created by the motorhome and another RV ahead of us with a few cars in between all going about 50-55 mph. I thought maybe the log truck driver was the guy that told us of the delay time as he probably drove this road almost daily.

I could see the oncoming lane was clear on a long straight stretch so I picked up the CB mic and said “Hey, log truck, if you make your move now, I’ll slow down and let you get by.” I didn’t have to tell him twice, he immediately pulled out and overtook us. But that just got him ahead of us, he was still trapped behind a few cars and two slow moving RVs. I lived in western Washington for 15 years and I’ve had plenty of experience with log truck drivers. I know they tend to be impatient and aggressive. I was hoping the lead motorhome would take a clue and turn out, but he just plodded along. When we hit another long straight section, the log truck went for it. He passed the cars and two RVs all at once – it looked a bit scary, but he got it done.

At New Meadow, we turned away from US95 and took ID55. This brought us to McCall at Payette Lake. We continued south another 14 miles or so to the town of Donnelly. Donna had found information on a city run campground an the edge of town right on the water at Lake Fork – an offshoot of Lake Cascade. It is a dry camping area with 15 marked sites that have picnic tables and fire rings. We pulled in and walked around to check it out.

The dirt roads to the north end have low hanging tree branches and looked to be very narrow for our size. There’s another entrance to the south of the main area with two sites down by the beach area, but a travel trailer was down there with a noisy generator running. We decided on site 11 and pulled in with our windshield facing the lake. It’s a nice view. Only two of the 15 sites were occupied and we feel like we have the place to ourselves.

The site is long enough to fit our coach and trailer. When we dry camp, there isn’t much to set up. I hit the HWH automatic leveler and put the slides out. Unload Midget-San and we’re set.

When we were in Grangeville, there were two grocery stores in town. Donna bought a rib-eye steak at Cloninger’s Grocery and told me they had a good selection of meat. Later she saw a sign advertising babyback ribs for $1.99/pound.

I grilled the steak and Donna served it with baked potato, green beans and corn from the farmers’ market. The corn was something called 90-day corn and was the second crop of the season. It was a real disappointment as it was starchy and neither of us finished a cob. The steak was excellent though.

We went back to Cloninger’s and I looked the meat over. We found that many small town grocers have their own butchers and they have great cuts of meat. The ribs looked good but they were frozen rock hard. I bought a rack and also picked up a London broil that was trimmed perfectly.

When I prepped the ribs, I found the membrane on the bone side had already been removed and the ribs had almost all of the fat trimmed. It made for an easy prep. I put the ribs on the Traeger Sunday afternoon and did my usual method. We had the ribs for dinner but something was wrong. I have my Memphis style rib routine down and they always come out tender, juicy and flavorful. Not this time. Something was off with these ribs, the meat seemed stringy and chewy, not all tender. Bummer.

I couldn’t figure out what went wrong and chalked it up to a bad cut of meat. Maybe it was too lean? I came up with an idea – Donna cut the rest of the rib meat from the bones and made a vegetable soup and added the rib meat to it. Now that worked. We had the soup for dinner last night and it was great.

I made a batch of beef jerky from the London broil and really outdid myself. I think this is the best I’ve made so far and I’d put it up against any jerky you can find.

A cold front swept over most of the country on Sunday night and Monday. Yesterday, I heard many conversations on ham radio about the abrupt temperature swing. Areas of the Rocky Mountain states went from near record heat to snowfall overnight. When we left Grangeville, it was only about 60 degrees. Last night the temperature here at Donnelly cooled quickly once the sun set over the mountains to the west. We went outside last night and the lack of light pollution here made the stars in night skies unreal. We could see the Milky Way and hundreds of stars we don’t usually see.

This morning, it was 49 degrees in the coach and I had to run the heat pumps with the generator. We’re at an elevation of about 4,900 feet above sea level and we expect it to get warmer over the next couple of days. We’ll move on to Mountain Home, Idaho on Friday.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Wild Burros

When I’m 64

Two Short Moves

Dry and Dusty

Cedar Breaks

2,000 Flushes

Wild Visitors

Smoke on the Water

Lunch on the Lake

Rock Slide Delay

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