Category Archives: Arizona

Blue-Green Water

The weather was much improved yesterday. We took advantage of it by hiking along Lake Havasu at Mesquite Bay. There are parking areas on both the north and south sides of the bay off London Bridge Road. We rode the scooter to the paved lot on the north side of the bay.

There are a few different trails beginning at the end of the lot. One is a short dirt trail for non-motorized boat access to the water. Another trail is paved and leads to a fishing pier on the water. We took this path first. Along the way, there are several informational signs describing the flora and fauna. One sign said the name Havasu is from the native America Yuman language spoken by the Havasupai people and means blue-green water. I’ve read conflicting information online about the tribe, language and translation of Havasu.

The water in Lake Havasu actually is blue-green. It’s hard to capture in photos. In yesterday’s post, the photo of London Bridge definitely shows a green cast to the water. At Mesquite Bay, the light refracted in the clear water and had areas of blue and green.

Cove in Mesquite Bay

We left the paved path and hiked around the hilltop that forms a point in the bay. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife – just a few song birds and waterfowl. The trails are short loops and we didn’t hike very far.

We rode the scooter from there into town for lunch at Bad Miguel’s – a Mexican restaurant that was recommended to us. The place is popular but we were able to snag a table. The food was good and the portions generous. There was a poster on the door for an RV Super Show this weekend. I had seen one of these posters when we arrived at Lake Havasu City but forgot about it.

The show was at The Shops at Lake Havasu – a shopping mall on AZ95 north of the Lake Havasu Falls RV resort – about five miles away from Bad Miguel’s. We blasted up AZ95 on the scooter to check out the show. It turned out to be not so super. It was a local dealer displaying everything from utility vehicles to fifth-wheel trailers and boats. No motorhomes and no manufacturer displays.

We walked through a couple of fifth-wheel trailers then we found a Polaris street legal utility vehicle.

Donna looking good in a Polaris Ranger

We wandered over to another area and found Oreion Reeper street legal utility vehicles. These things are pretty cool – lightweight, but capable of cruising at 55mph and can go off-road. We started thinking one of these might be a viable alternative to the scooter. Weather would be less of a factor and I wouldn’t be so hesitant to ride after dark. It would be easy to fit in a trailer at only 64 inches wide and 124 inches long. I might go back for a second look.

While yesterday’s temperature reached the low 70s, today’s forecast calls for upper 70s. It will be just the two of us here watching the Superbowl tonight. Tomorrow we’ll pack up and move to the rodeo grounds where we’ll be dry-camped for a week with the Alpine Coach Association group.

London Bridge

After spending days indoors writing various articles and reviewing one of her books for an upcoming reprint, Donna decided it was time for a break. The weather was much nicer Friday with an afternoon high of about 70 degrees.

We rode the scooter to town. Donna got a tip for a good place to stop for lunch at the Barley Brothers Brewery and Restaurant by the London Bridge. There’s quite a story behind the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. In 1958, Robert McCulloch bought 3,353 acres of land along the east side of Lake Havasu at Pittsburgh Point. This is the same Robert McCulloch that was the CEO of McCulloch chainsaws and also the creator of the community of Fountain Hills, Arizona – I wrote about that in this post.

This area of arid desert land wasn’t very useful at the time. It was a long way from any major cities and didn’t attract visitors. About the only thing here was an old Army Air Corps field and runway. The federal government deeded the 13,000 acres of land around the airfield to the state of Arizona. The state in turn deeded the land – reportedly free – to Robert McCulloch for his promise to develop the area.

McCulloch needed a way to attract attention and bring people out to this desert on the Colorado River bordering Arizona and California. His real estate agent, Robert Plumer, heard about an old bridge in London that was for sale. The bridge originally spanned the River Thames and was built in the 1830s. It could no longer support modern traffic and had to be replaced. Plumer convinced McCulloch to buy the bridge and transport it to Lake Havasu.

What he actually bought was the exterior facing stonework of the original bridge. A new reinforced concrete bridge was built in the same shape as the original. The original stonework was carefully removed and numbered from the old bridge. It was transported via ship to Houston and ground transport to the desert. Reconstruction began in 1968. The granite facing was clad to the exterior of the new bridge in the desert. At the time, the bridge didn’t span a body of water. It was erected over a wash leading out to the Pittsburgh Point peninsula. Once the bridge was competed in 1971, the wash was dredged and filled with water creating an island on one end of the bridge. The bridge was a successful lure and brought people to Lake Havasu where real estate agents started selling property. Today the population is estimated to be over 53,000.

London Bridge under construction in 1971 – file photo

Aerial view of the bridge from 2011 – file photo

Instead of blasting down AZ95 on the scooter, we took a more scenic route down London Bridge Road (map). The thing is, London Bridge Road doesn’t take you directly over the bridge. You have to cross back over AZ95 in town to get to McCulloch Boulevard North which is the road that crosses the bridge.

Once across the bridge, the first building on the right is the Island Mall. It houses a few boutique stores, Shugrue’s Restaurant and Barley Brothers Brewery. We parked and walked down to the waterside at the bridge. It’s beautifully landscaped with nice walking paths. There are boat docks and boat tour tickets can be purchased for a tour of the lake.

London Bridge view from waterside path

Tour boat unloading passengers

The tour boat we saw had an interesting hull. If you click on the picture above to enlarge it, you’ll see what appears to be a flat bottom under the familiar shape of the bow.

After taking a short walk along the waterside, we went up to the Barley Brothers Brewery and Restaurant. Donna and I ordered glasses of oatmeal stout – Donna had a pint and I had the large 23 ounce pour.

Donna at the Barley Brothers Brewery with stout

Donna at the Barley Brothers Brewery with oatmeal stout

The beer was good but I thought it had a lingering bitterness that I don’t expect from oatmeal stout. Donna ordered a plate of mussels in a broth and I went for the pastrami sandwich – it was really tender, thinly sliced pastrami with apple slaw, swiss cheese and thousand island dressing on rye. It was yummy! The portion was big and the sandwich was rich – more than I’m used to eating, but I managed.

The view from the brewery was great.

View from Barley Brothers Brewery

After the big lunch, we went down to the rodeo grounds to scope out the area – we’ll be moving there on Monday. Then we went grocery shopping. Donna had quite a list of things she needed to prepare hors d’oeuvres for tomorrow’s Super Bowl game.

Today the temperature should be well into the 70s. We’ll get out and enjoy the nice weather.

More Number Crunching

I mentioned in my last post how cool the temperature was after a cold front blew across southern California and into Arizona. The thermometer hasn’t touched 60 since we arrived in Lake Havasu City. When we were in Jojoba Hills, we also had a cold spell. I put about 18 hours on the generator running the heat pumps for two days while we were there. I wondered at the time how efficient that was. Would I have been better off running the propane furnace?

Our Onan 7.5kW Quiet Diesel generator consumes an average of a little over half a gallon of diesel fuel per hour. Diesel fuel is currently down to about two bucks per gallon – so let’s assume $1.20/hour fuel cost for the generator. Of course the generator isn’t just supplying electricity for the heat pumps – it’s also powering the hot water heater, charging the batteries through the inverter, allowing the use of the induction cooktop and microwave oven and any other 120-volt AC appliances.

I did some research and found that our Suburban model SF42F propane furnace requires 40,000 BTU/hour input. One gallon of propane supplies about 91,000 BTU, so the furnace will burn about 0.44 gallons per hour. It will also draw about 11.5 amps of electricity from the battery bank. Propane fuel prices seem to vary widely. I haven’t bought propane since January of 2014 and we still have over a quarter tank in our 44-gallon propane tank. I was told that I could find propane for as little as $1.20/gallon if I searched around or I could have propane delivered to my rig for about $2.60/gallon. That’s a pretty wide spread. If I split the difference and call it $2.00/gallon, I would burn about $0.88/hour of propane. But, I would still have to run the generator sooner or later to recharge the battery bank.

The owner’s manual for our Onan generator recommends a minimum of two hours per month of running time with at least a 50% load. Generators like to be run – sitting for long periods without running them can result in corrosion of the electrical windings and components and degradation of the fuel system. Running the heat pumps with the generator provides a sufficient load to get it up to full operating temperature.

When we’re plugged into a full hook-up site, there’s no question about it – use the heat pumps. Electricity is generally included in a full hook-up site, unless we’re on a deeply discounted monthly rate where the electricity is metered.

After crunching these numbers, I think I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing. When we’re off the grid, I’ll use the generator and heat pumps as long as the ambient temperature is above 40 degrees. Below that temperature, the heat pumps become inefficient and we’ll switch to the propane furnace. Hopefully we won’t have to do that because one of our goals is to stay away from cold temperatures!

The lingering cold air mass made the past couple of days somewhat boring for me. I ventured out to pick up groceries at a Walmart Supercenter a few miles away on Monday. It was a cold ride on the scooter. Donna made salmon patties with canned wild Alaskan sockeye and served it topped with parsley mayo over a bed of mixed greens Monday night. It was delicious.

Salmon patties over mixed greens

Donna has mostly been tied up at her computer writing articles for Quill.com. She has one more to complete before close of business on Friday. She takes a break for about an hour each day to go for a walk or run in the area.

I’ve been reading most of the time. The cool temperature combined with 15-20 mph wind is keeping me indoors. I take a walk around the park to stretch out and get some fresh air. On one of my walks, I saw a rare motorhome here in the park. It was a GMC motorhome. These were built by General Motors at the Pontiac truck and bus plant from 1973 to 1978. They’re unique motorhomes that were considered ultra-modern at the time. General Motors is the only US car company that built complete motorhomes. They were designed for comfortable travel as well as camping.

GMC motorhome here in the Havasu Falls RV Resort

The chassis is a front wheel drive configuration. GM used the 455 cubic inch (7.5L) Oldsmobile engine from the Toronado coupled to the Turbo-Hydramatic 425 automatic transmission. They were built in 23-foot and 26-foot configurations. I read that 90% of the production was the 26- foot length.

GMC motorhome chassis – Wikipedia photo

These rigs were low to the ground due to the front wheel drive configuration and aerodynamic by motorhome standards. The example here in the RV park looks to be fully restored to showroom condition.

Today the weather should begin a warming trend. We should see temperatures in the 60s today, followed by the 70s this weekend. The warming trend is expected to continue next week with high temperatures reaching the 80s! We’ll get out and explore around the lake.

Full-Time Costs in 2015

Wow, we’re into February, 2016 already. Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’.

At the end of the year, my bank sends me a summary of purchases made on my Visa credit card. Since I always put campgrounds on the card, I can pull that category and see what we spent. I also put fuel on either my Visa card or Pilot/Flying J card, so I can track that easily. Also, maintenance costs go on my Visa card.

People are often curious about what we spend on this lifestyle. I decided to share a breakdown of maintenance, fuel and campgrounds (which includes utilities). Other expenses like food, clothing and restaurants are no different than when we lived in a stick-and-bricks home. Likewise, health insurance and healthcare haven’t changed – well, health insurance has gone up but it would’ve done that even if we never hit the road.

Maintenance costs for us in 2015 were minimal. We didn’t have any major breakdowns – it was mostly scheduled preventive maintenance. We spent more in the first year owning this coach as I brought everything up to snuff. Hopefully we’ll continue to pay for scheduled maintenance and not have major repair bills. In 2015, we spent $982.15, a monthly average of $85.85. I did most of the work myself keeping the costs low.

We traveled extensively in 2015 – about 10,000 miles in the motorhome. I was surprised to see how low our fuel costs were – thanks in no small part to the low fuel prices. Our fuel costs include diesel for the coach and generator and gasoline for the scooter. In 2015, we spent $3,278.15, a monthly average of $273.18. I expect our fuel costs to be lower this year as prices have fallen even lower and we won’t put on as many miles.

Our largest expenditure last year was on campground fees. We stayed in several parks that are pricier than we normally pay. Campgrounds in the east tend be priced higher than many of the places we find in the southwest. Also, we usually take advantage of monthly rates in San Diego and Arizona. We try to have a few days of free boondocking through dispersed camping on public land or an overnight here and there at Walmart, Cabela’s or casinos as we travel. Our campground cost for 2015 was $7,441.15, a monthly average of $620.10, a daily average of $28.08. I expect this expense to be similar this year.

Adding these three RV expense categories together, we spent $11,701.45 in 2015, a monthly average of $975.12. This is much less than we paid for mortgage, utilities and maintenance in the sticks-and-bricks lifestyle – and we’re seeing the country while we’re at it.

One area of expense is higher than we paid in our sticks and bricks. That’s telephone, internet and satellite TV. In our sticks and bricks we had Comcast for cable TV, highspeed internet and a landline at a cost of about $180/month and Donna had a cell phone at $50/month – my cell phone was provided by my company. Now we have two smartphones, a Verizon Jetpack with a 30GB data plan and Dish Network with over 200 high definition channels. Our monthly expense is about $351 – that’s $4,212 per year. Comcast probably costs more than the $180/month we paid three years ago, but I don’t know what the current rate is.

I didn’t list our full-timers insurance policy costs for the coach and trailer or the scooter insurance. I don’t think it’s helpful to anyone because insurance rates vary based on value of the vehicles, coverage limits and deductibles, driving records, credit scores and the state you’re registered in. Our insurance costs overall are lower than the homeowner policy and motorcycle insurance we had before we hit the road.

We pulled out of our boondocking site at Dome Rock near Quartzsite, Arizona around noon yesterday. It was windy – the wind was coming from the west at about 20mph. It was steady with few gusts so driving wasn’t too stressful.

We drove east through town and then north on AZ95. This route was fairly level and mostly straight to Parker, Arizona. It was cold – the thermometer never reached 60 degrees. Once we passed through Parker, AZ95 hugs the Colorado River. At one of the many resort areas along the river, I saw someone water skiing! Even with a wetsuit it had to be cold.

The road north from Parker to Lake Havasu City has many hills and twists. The road surface was good. It’s mostly two-lane highway with occasional passing lanes. We cruised at 58-60mph. The engine ran very cool – I couldn’t keep it up to temperature in the cool air with the wind blowing across the radiator. The coolant temperature reached 186 degrees on a couple of the longer climbs, but mostly hovered around 178-180 degrees. Running too cool isn’t as worrisome as overheating, but it can lead to incomplete combustion and fuel dilution in the crankcase oil. Diesels run more efficiently at a coolant temperature around 190 degrees.

Lake Havasu City is a town with a population of about 52,000. It sprawls along the man-made lake. We’re located on the north side of town at the Havasu Falls RV Resort (map). This park has tight pull-though sites 50 feet long by 22 feet wide. They are paved and level. I managed to get our 56-foot length into the pull-through without dropping the trailer by pulling in at an angle with the trailer slightly turned.

Site 67 Havasu Falls RV Resort

The RV park is on high ground with a view of the lake/river.

View looking southwest from the RV park

Although we have have clear, sunny skies today, the cold front that blew in yesterday will linger. I doubt if we’ll see a temperature above the low 60s. The weather guessers are calling for a slow warming trend with the temperature reaching the 70s by this weekend. We’ll stay here and explore until next Monday. Then we’ll move to the rodeo grounds on the south side of town for the Alpine Coach rally and the Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics show.

Cradle to Grave in Quartzsite

Friday was our last full day at Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, California. We started with our usual time on the pickleball courts and played until nearly noon. I spent the afternoon organizing the trailer and packing everything away. It was just about 5pm by the time I loaded the Traeger and scooter and locked the trailer. It was time for a shower and happy hour. Our friends Ron and Marilyn Cross invited us for dinner at their place but we took a rain check until next time.

Donna took her backpack and walked to Marshalls where she returned a couple of items, then walked to Stater Brothers to pick up a few groceries. When she returned and emptied her backpack, Ozark thought the backpack was a nice place for her to explore. She crawled into the backpack and made herself comfortable. We were surprised to see her do that – she doesn’t usually like to get under covers but she was happy to hide in the backpack.

Ozark peeking out of her backpack hideout

Our last sunset at Golden Village Palms

We hoped to make an early getaway Saturday morning but we weren’t ready to hitch the trailer until 10am. A few minutes later we were on the road. I wanted to leave early because high winds were in the forecast for the afternoon. We took CA79 north to Beaumont where we hit I-10 east. The wind picked up but it was a tailwind as we headed east. With the tailwind and downgrade from Banning to the desert floor, we were coasting along at 62mph. We made a stop for fuel in Thousand Palms at the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I probably could’ve waited until we crossed into Arizona to fuel up and save a few bucks, but I don’t like running below a quarter tank. I took on 50 gallons for peace of mind.

East of Indio, I-10 climbs to Chiriaco Summit, then drops back down to the desert. The wind shifted and we had a cross wind from the south. In a few areas there were columns of dust blowing – not really a full-on haboob – just a light dust storm.

Dust storm ahead seen through the windshield

Donna sent a text message to Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) when we crossed the border into Arizona. They’ve been here for about three weeks now – they had a booth in the big tent for the Quartzsite RV show. Jeff told us to take the Dome Rock exit and follow the road for about two miles and we would see his GMC Denali pickup truck. The Dome Rock Road exit is about 11 miles into Arizona. We found Jeff and his wife Deb waiting for us on the side of the road. They led us back to the area where they’re boondocking. It turned to be only a few hundred yards from the place we stayed two years ago. I wrote about it in this post.

We set up quickly in a level spot with plenty of open space around us. The road we followed in dead ends at a wash, thus we have very little traffic here (map).

Our piece of desert west of Quartzsite on Dome Rock Road

Donna invited Jeff and Deb to join us for dinner. In her usual fashion, Donna chose a recipe she’d never made before to serve our dinner guests. She prepared a Marseilles-style shrimp stew with fresh shrimp she picked up the night before at Stater Brothers. She also toasted French baguette slices and spread them with rouille (a sauce made with mayo, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, cayenne and paprika). It was delicious. The toasted baguette with rouille was the perfect accompaniment for the stew – that and a bottle of champagne.

Marseilles-style shrimp stew with toasted baguette

Jeff brought firewood and built a fire on the leeward side of our rig. We’re parked facing west and the wind from the south hits the driver’s side, making a nice wind block on the passenger side. While we were eating dinner inside, the wind really picked up.

Long shadows as the sun sets in the desert

I had four camp chairs set up around the fire. While we were eating dinner, we heard one of the chairs blow over. Jeff went outside and found it in the fire! It was one of the chairs we bought here at the Quartzsite big tent two years ago. Jeff joked about its lifespan being cradle to grave in Quartzsite. Oh, well. Donna’s had her eye on some new chairs.

Chair didn’t fare well in the fire

After dinner, I pulled the living room slide in – the wind was causing the slide topper to flap like crazy and make quite a ruckus. We went outside and sat around the fire. Deb cooked up s’mores while we chatted. As usual, the time flies while we’re enjoying good company. It was past 10pm before we knew it.

This morning, Donna and Deb went out for a three-mile power walk. After their walk, we toured their Domani fifth-wheel trailer. They pulled out today. We plan to spend another night here before we head up to Lake Havasu tomorrow. The wind is blowing again and is expected to increase throughout the day. I’ll probably pull the living room slide in again tonight.

This morning, our Verizon reception was weak – a couple of bars of 3G. I almost skipped writing a post because of it. Then I relocated the Jetpack and the signal improved to two bars of 4G LTE. It’s always nice to have an Internet connection.

Yuma Checklist Done

There were a few things we wanted to get done while we were in Yuma, Arizona. Of course pickleball was high on our list – that’s why we booked three nights at Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. They have eight pickleball courts and lots of players.

The next thing I wanted to get done was a wash and wax of our coach. We had a crew come out on Tuesday afternoon. They washed the coach with a high-pressure soft water supply, towel dried it and hand applied Meguiare’s liquid carnauba wax. They did a nice job and they cleaned the windows really well. Two guys spent about three hours on it and it cost $140. This is a deal. In California a wash and wax job like this on a 40-foot coach would be $300.

They came back on Wednesday to clean our carpets. Donna has wanted to have this done for a while now. Most places charge too much to come out to clean a small area like ours. We only have carpeting in the bedroom and in the front seat area. These guys did it for $35.

Before they started on the carpets, I noticed water dripping from the fresh water hook-up. I tightened the hose, but I couldn’t get the drip to stop. I replaced the rubber washer in the hose connection but it continued to drip. The fresh water fitting that our fresh water hose hooks up to has been a little loose for a while. I figured the fitting was worn and creating the leakage.

I disconnected the fresh water hose and disassembled the fresh water connector. This connector has a brass coupler for the hose and a check valve where the water flows into the fresh water system of our coach. I forgot about the check valve and removed the fitting while the fresh water pump was turned on. Without the check valve water came out of the tubing inside the coach and squirted about 10 feet out the side! I called out to Donna, “Shut off the pump!”

I took the fitting with its plastic recessed mount and rode the scooter over to Al’s RV Parts about three miles away from the park. I wanted to match up a new coupler with the same recessed mount dimensions. I lucked out and found a perfect match. When I got back, I installed the new fitting.

Coupler and mounting pate removed - this is the PEX tubing that shot water 10 feet

Coupler and mounting plate removed – this is the PEX tubing that shot water 10 feet

Back side of the recessed mount with check valve

After reattaching the hose, I saw water dripping. It was coming from the hose connection to the new coupler. I messed around with it and tried new rubber seals on the coupler but it still leaked. I finally discovered an invisible fracture on the hose end was causing the leak where it screwed on to the fresh water fill. The hose was the culprit! Our fresh water fill is oriented horizontally, parallel to the ground. The hose comes up through an opening in bottom of the wet bay. The hose has to make a 90-degree turn to attach to the fresh water fill fitting.

Hose attached to the fresh water fill. Hose makes a 90 degree bend to attach.

I rode the scooter back to Al’s RV Parts and bought a new Valterra drinking water hose. When I came back and hooked it up, I was in trouble again. As soon as I turned the water spigot on, water was shooting straight up from a cut in the hose! I disconnected the hose and saw a cut – it looked like someone had cut the hose with razor blade – maybe from a box cutter when it was unpacked.

I got on the scooter and made another trip to Al’s. They exchanged the hose for me. This time I was back in business. No water drips or leaking hose.

Donna and I walked down to the pool area for happy hour. They had a band playing – mostly covers of country hits. They also had a bar with drinks – a donation of two dollars bought a beer. I didn’t stay long. Donna got her hula hoops and went back to hoop to the music – she loaned one of her hoops out to anyone interested and she had fun.

This morning Donna and I played two hours of pickleball, then returned to the coach to shower and pack up. It was time to move on. We pulled out of Fortuna De Oro RV Resort around 11:45am. Our first stop was the Pilot/Flying J travel center. I filled our fuel tank with diesel fuel @ $2.26/gallon. We’re headed to California and I know I won’t find diesel fuel for that price there.

Next we made a stop at Walmart. We ate lunch at the Del Taco there and shopped. I resupplied our beer and bottled water while Donna bought paper products and a few other necessities. From there we headed west on 32nd Street to the Arizona Market Place. This is a flea market with stalls in long canvas covered aisles. It’s like the Arizona Market Place in Mesa, but on a much smaller scale. It’s open Thursday through Sunday. I stopped there to go to the RV Water Filter Store. That’s the company that I bought our two-canister fresh water filtration system from. I picked up two sediment cartridges and an activated carbon fiber block cartridge. When we set up in San Diego, I’ll change out our filter cartridges.

While I was at their booth, I saw something interesting. It was called a Kwik Link. It’s an angled coupler for the fresh water hose. This solves the problem of the hose making a 90-degree bend and putting strain on the fresh water hook-up. I bought the 105-degree Kwik Link to allow clearance from the recessed mount. The Kwik Link points down and comes with a quick coupler that screws on the end of the fresh water hose. This product appears to be very well made and it’ll extend the life of our fresh water hose and fresh water fill coupler.

Kwik Link on our fresh water fill

We drove west on I-8 and entered California – another state for Ozark the cat to add to her list of visited states. At the checkpoint, the border patrol officer asked me what was in the trailer. That was a first. I told him and he asked if we had any plants or fresh produce on board. When I said, “No,” he waved me through.

We came back to our boondocking spot off Ogilby Road. I wrote about the rock garden here in this post and that’s where we are. We noticed the shoulders along the road looked like soft, deep sand. There were berms piled up in places. I told Donna they must have had a flash flood here and the sand was pushed off the road. At the rock garden there’s more evidence of a flash flood. The rock garden is worse for wear – it’ll take a fair bit of work to bring it back. We’re only here for one night, so we won’t attempt to repair it. I think the regular visitors from Washington who winter here will most likely repair it.

The only other coach within sight is an Alpine Coach with Montana plates we passed on the way in. The rock garden is about half a mile away from them. We’ll head out of here in the morning and check in at Mission Bay RV Resort at De Anza Cove in San Diego.

Electrical Gremlins

When we relocate, we don’t always go out and sightsee the area. We’ve spent time in Casa Grande before – we saw the Casa Grande ruins and Donna toured a working cotton farm. I wrote about it in this post. Our week in Casa Grande this time mostly revolved around playing pickleball. We started our days early, had breakfast and coffee and hit the pickleball courts around 8:30am. The park doesn’t allow pickleball before 8:30am due to noise complaints.

Of course the other thing we did most days was cook great dinners. On Saturday, I got the Traeger wood pellet grill out and cooked chicken quarters. Donna created a honey-sriracha glaze that I brushed on 15 minutes before I took the chicken off the grill. It was delicious. Donna served it with steamed asparagus and sweet potato mash.

Honey-sriracha glazed chicken hot off the grill

Honey-sriracha glazed chicken with asparagus and sweet potato mash

On Saturday evening, we planned to watch a couple of episodes of Orphan Black. We have this new-to-us series on a hard drive that our friend, Joel, in Mesa recorded for us. We run the hard drive through my laptop which is connected to our TV with an HDMI cable. The show started to play, then the sound quit working. I was sure it had something to do with the laptop, but I couldn’t get it to work. Eventually I figured out that the sound worked on my laptop, but it wasn’t coming through the surround sound system.

Our coach is equipped with a DHS Mobile Theater System with QSurround 5.1. This system powers a five-speaker surround sound set-up. The amplifier has been running hot since we got the coach. I always open the cabinet that houses the amplifier to allow good air circulation to keep it from overheating.

I couldn’t get it to work, so we hooked up an external speaker to the laptop and used it for sound. On Sunday, I traced the wiring to the amplifier. I pulled the TV out of the cabinet. When the TV was upgraded to an LED flat screen, the installer did a good job of mounting the new TV. However, I found that he wired it incorrectly.

The TV has a mono audio output jack. He ran a connector from the mono output to a splitter, then ran two cables from the splitter to the stereo input on the amplifier. This created an impedance mismatch, hence the reason why the amplifier runs hot. The output from the mono audio output jack should have been run directly to the mono input of the amplifier. The DHS software would create a five-channel output from the mono input. It seems that the impedance mismatch burned out the amplifier.

The DHS amplifier also receives audio from the radio and creates a four-channel sound system. I tried operating that and it didn’t work either, leading me to believe the output stage of the amplifier is blown. The weird thing is, when I had the TV out, I disconnected the audio output jack and set the TV to run audio through the internal TV speakers. I got no sound from the TV. I’m finding it hard to believe that the TV internal sound system and the external DHS amplifier both blew at the same time. I need to investigate further. Meanwhile, I’ve watched four NFL football games without sound. It’s an interesting way to watch the games, but it can be hard to understand some of the penalties that are called without hearing the commentary. Yeah, I know – it’s hard to understand some of calls regardless of sound.

Donna had a new recipe going in the slow cooker all afternoon. She made pork tenderloin with apple, honey and cinnamon. It came out so tasty – kind of a sweet, Asian-flavored pulled pork.

Slow cooked pork with rice and green beans with almond slivers

Slow cooked pork with basmati brown rice and green beans with sliced almonds

We pulled out of Fiesta Grande RV Park on Monday and made the 170-mile drive to Fortuna De Oro RV Resort in east Yuma (map). We stopped for lunch along the way at the Subway sandwich shop in Gila Bend. This Subway is located next to a truck stop with ample room to park a big rig. It even has a few full hook-up RV sites behind it!

When we arrived at Fortuna De Oro, there was a bit of confusion. I pulled into the driveway with a sign for Fortuna De Oro RV Park. There wasn’t any further signage or parking spaces. I continued down the road between park model home sites. I didn’t see any pull-through RV sites. Then I saw another entrance down the frontage road with a sign that read Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. I circled the RV park and got back on the frontage road and entered the drive at Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. There wasn’t anyone at the guard shack and I drove in. There wasn’t an office that we could see and the only signage was for the golf course and restaurant.

As we drove in, I saw the pull-through RV sites. I stopped and Donna walked over to a building marked Activities Office. She asked where we were supposed to check in. Turns out the check-in is at the office in the first place we stopped – the one with the RV Park sign. We were supposed to park alongside the frontage road across from the office to check in. How anyone would know this without any signage is beyond me. Donna phoned the office – they told her to pick out an empty pull-through site, then come to the office to check in.

We picked site 709. Donna walked to the office while I began to set up. The first thing I do is connect our Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (EMS). We had a problem. It didn’t show any power at the pedestal. I phoned Donna – she was at the office by then – and told her we had a problem. The receptionist at the office said we should have power, there wasn’t anything she does to turn it on. I checked a couple other sites and couldn’t get power at any of the pedestals.

About then, a maintenance guy from the park came up on a golf cart. I showed him the blank display on the EMS. A second maintenance guy arrived and said the pedestals were just reworked and should be okay. I went inside and got my Fluke multimeter. I read the AC voltage from the two hot legs to the neutral wire and read 120 volts on each leg. The pedestal was okay. My EMS wasn’t working. This was odd. It worked fine when I disconnected at Fiesta Grande that morning but was DOA when I plugged it in at Fortuna De Oro. This has been a bad week for electrical gremlins. I plugged our 50 amp shore power cable directly to the pedestal and powered up the coach. I don’t like being unprotected against power surges, but all I can do is send the EMS back to Progressive and have it repaired. It comes with a lifetime warranty and they provide excellent customer service.

They’re pretty serious about pickleball here. They have eight courts and some players that play at a high level. Donna and I hit the courts this morning and will do it again tomorrow.

One of the things I wanted to do in Yuma is get the coach washed and waxed. I’ve read on blogs and forums that Yuma is the best place price-wise to have this done. Apparently the competition is fierce and the prices are the best in the country. I made an appointment for a soft water wash, towel dry and hand wax of the entire coach. I’ll also have the wheels shined up.

We plan to pull out of here on Thursday, spend one night boondocking in the desert, then we’ll check in at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego on Friday.

Another One Bites the Dust

Our stay here at Fiesta Grande RV Resort has flown by (map). Tonight will be our sixth night of a seven night stay. The weather has been changeable. We went from temperatures in the 90s on Thursday followed by a heavy thunderstorm Thursday afternoon, then a high of only 73 degrees on Friday with a passing shower or two.

I’ve been a pickleball glutton since we arrived. I’ve been on the court for about three hours a day. Donna played most days except on Friday when she went for a bike ride with an avid cyclist named Terry that she met here in the RV park. The shifter cable for the rear derailleur on her bike broke during their ride. I need to find a bike shop and buy a replacement cable.

I managed to get one project done. When we were in Mesa, I searched hardware stores for tie-down anchors without finding what I wanted. I needed to add more anchor points to keep things from shifting in the trailer. Lately, my ladders have been falling onto the scooter and scuffing it up. I don’t know what changed – I use bungees to secure the ladders and that’s worked just fine for two years. Maybe the bungees are worn.

When we arrived here, I ordered tie-down anchors from Amazon and they arrived in two days with my Prime account. So on Friday, I installed the anchors with #10 one-inch self-drilling screws. From now on I’ll strap the ladders to the wall. I ordered eight tie-down anchors and installed four. I’ll keep the rest on hand in case I need additional anchor points.

New tie down anchor installed

On Wednesday we had another Verizon Jetpack blow-up. The lithium-ion battery pack blew. I wrote about the last blow up in this post. This time the battery bulged and blew the back case cover off the Jetpack like the last one, but the Jetpack continued to work. I’m not sure how that happened. I ordered a new lithium-ion battery from Amazon and it arrived on Friday.

I think the battery issue is caused by overcharging. The thing is, we use the Jetpack all day long. I keep it plugged in because if I don’t have 120-volt AC power to it, the battery will run down in three or four hours. I’m not sure how I can avoid overcharging while running it 24 hours a day. Having the battery charging constantly makes the electrolyte form dendrites which eventually grow to a point of shorting the anode to the cathode. Apparently the Jetpack doesn’t have smart charging capability – it just keeps charging away until the battery fails.

We’ll pull out of Casa Grande on Monday and head down to Yuma for few days before we continue on to San Diego.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, 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!

New York Bar

Back in May, I wrote about my youngest daughter Shauna graduating from California Western School of Law in this post. After graduation, she moved from San Diego to Washington, DC where she had accepted a position with a large international law firm, Mayer Brown. Shauna works on securities litigation and compliance in their Washington, DC and New York City offices.

In July, she took the New York State Bar exam in Albany, New York. It is arguably one of the toughest bar exams in the country. As you can imagine, the exams are tightly monitored and have security requirements. To enter the exam room, you must show your seating ticket and an official government-issued photo identification such as a passport or driver’s license. They have a list of items that applicants are allowed to bring to the test center. All items must be in one clear, resealable plastic bag.

On the first day of the test, they had a half-hour lunch break. They were told to take their seating ticket and photo ID in their plastic bag for re-admittance to the test center.

Shauna sat with a group of attendees and had lunch outside. When she finished her lunch, she walked over to the trash receptacle and threw away the wrappers from her food. Then she realized she had thrown her plastic bag with her seating ticket and photo ID in the trash! Normally, you could reach into the trash receptacle and retrieve your bag, but this was a secure trash can that was built more like a postal mail drop box. Once the trash is dropped inside, there’s no reaching in to retrieve it. It had a locked door on the side to empty the trash when it’s full. Shauna was in full panic mode. With no seating ticket and no photo ID, she wouldn’t be admitted back into the test center to continue her exam. Months of preparation for the bar were about to be wiped out.

She saw a police officer and asked him for help. He didn’t have a key for the trash bin, but he said that he could call for the maintenance crew to come and open it. She only had a few minutes of the lunch break left. One of her new-found friends tracked down an exam proctor and told her about the problem. It turned out this particular proctor was the lead supervisor for the crew. She had seen Shauna in the exam center earlier and recognized her. She told Shauna not to worry and to come with her.

This proctor took Shauna to the security desk and told the security people to let her in to the exam – her seating ticket and photo ID would follow once the trash bin was opened up. Shauna was totally on edge as she returned to her seat. You can imagine how tough it was to get her head back into the exam for the rest of the afternoon. At the end of the day, she was exhausted.

After the second day of the bar exam, she told me it was the toughest mental challenge she had ever faced. New York doesn’t set a target for releasing the exam results. Typically the results are revealed in November.

Yesterday, she was still at work in Washington, DC at 8pm when she sent me a text message. She passed the bar exam! Great news! According to an article in The New York Times, approximately 10,600 people took the exam. Only 61% passed. This percentage is skewed lower by the number of foreign-educated examinees. Exam takers who earned their degrees from an accredited school in the USA passed at a 79% rate.

We celebrated Shauna’s success with a cocktail, then cooked Cornish hens on the Traeger wood pellet grill. Donna prepared the hens by rubbing them with oil and seasoning them with salt and pepper. Then she used 6-ounce cans half full of pineapple juice inserted into the cavity to stand the hens up. This is a variation of the beer can chicken grilling method.

Cornish hens ready for the grill

Donna served the hens with a balsamic tomato conserve, garlic smashed red potatoes and sauteed asparagus with peppers and red onion.

Cornish hen with balsamic tomato conserve

To be honest, I don’t think cooking Cornish hens on the Traeger is worth the effort. A whole chicken or chicken quarters gives much more bang for the buck in my opinion.

Shauna’s not finished with the New York State Bar – she still has to go through a character and fitness review. I don’t see her having any issues with that. She should be sworn in to the bar in January.

We have cooler weather today. I’m posting late because I spent the entire morning on the pickleball courts. Donna played for about two hours before heading back to the coach to take a call. I hung in there for three hours playing doubles with people from Canada staying here for the winter at Fiesta Grande RV Resort.

Moving on to Casa Grande

Sunday was a wacky day for sports – at least it was for me. The Moto GP race from Sepang, Malaysia was marred by controversy over the antics of Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi – unfortunately it will affect the outcome of the championship. The Formula One race in Austin, Texas saw points leader Lewis Hamilton force his teammate off track at turn one in a wildly entertaining race with changing weather and track conditions. In NFL action, the Chargers didn’t bring it against the Raiders. They played poorly through three quarters in every phase of the game, then scored three touchdowns in a span of 13 minutes.

I fired up the Weber Q grill Sunday evening. Although I love cooking with the Traeger wood pellet fired grill, I still use the propane Weber from time to time. Donna had prepared a pork tenderloin with a sesame-chili-ginger marinade. It was excellent! She served it with sweet potato mash and sauteed kale.

Grilled pork tenderloin

Served with sweet potato mash and sauteed kale

Sunday night was our last night in Usery Mountain Regional Park. The sunset was a beauty. I think Ozark enjoyed this park as much as any place we’ve been. She spent a lot of time on the dashboard looking out the windshield. Donna calls it cat TV. She was entertained by an endless display of wildlife. She watched the birds – cactus wrens, LeConte’s thrashers, Gambel’s quail. She saw lizards and rabbits and listened intently as the coyotes wailed.

Another desert sunset

We packed up and left Usery Mountain on Monday morning. On the way out, Donna stopped at the park office to inquire about camp hosting. We may apply to return to the park as camp hosts. The job would require 40 hours of work per week per couple. In return, we would have a free, full hook-up site. It requires a minimum four-month commitment though. We’ll mull it over and maybe send in the application next spring.

Our next stop was Speedco in Casa Grande. I wanted to have the coach serviced. Speedco is a truck lube and tire service center. They have a medium-duty preventive maintenance service that applies to our RV. I had the motor oil changed (28 quarts), oil filter replaced and chassis lubed. They also checked the gear oil and oil level in the front hubs/bearings. I didn’t have the fuel filter replaced since I changed it in June, but they gave me a fuel filter as it’s included in the package price.

I also paid for used oil analysis. Used oil analysis can reveal trends that may indicate abnormal contaminants which can be a sign of wear or impending failure. When I read the results and compared it to the last analysis, I was puzzled. Some of the properties of the oil seemed unusual. Then I remembered that the last analysis was done on Lucas Magnum diesel engine oil. Since then I’ve switched to Chevron Delo 400 LE diesel engine oil. I’ll never use Lucas again. The analysis of the Lucas oil indicated viscosity breakdown and the Petroleum Quality Institute has issued a warning for that oil.

The Chevron Delo oil has different additives than Lucas uses. The base stocks used in most quality motor oils are similar – it’s the additive packages that are different. For instance, Delo uses a silicon anti-foaming agent. This made the silicon content of the used oil seem high to me in comparison to the last oil analysis. Silicon can also mean dirt has been ingested by the engine. If we had a dirt problem from an intake leak or bad air filter, there would be other telltale signs. Our used oil analysis didn’t show any abnormalities.

The oil was last changed in January, about 10,000 miles ago. One of the things you can see in the used oil analysis is the Total Base Number (TBN). The TBN is an indicator of the oil’s useful life. In our case, the TBN was 7.7. Since Chevron Delo starts out with a TBN of around eight and the oil isn’t considered depleted until TBN is below two, we could have gone a lot longer before changing the oil. I wanted it done now though as we won’t be near a Speedco in the coming months.

We pulled into the Fiesta Grande RV Park around noon. This is a Thousand Trails/Encore park. We aren’t Thousand Trails members but we were able to book a week here at the Passport America rate. We have a full hook-up, pull-through site and full amenities for less than the site we had at Usery Mountain with no sewer.

Road trips wear Ozark out

Last night, Donna made caprese for us to snack on with a beer as I watched the Monday Night Football game. She used fresh mozzarella, compari tomatoes and fresh basil from her potted plant and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar reduction.

Caprese plate

Today we’ll start with pickleball and then see what the day brings. I expect sunny skies and warm weather – the forecast calls for upper 80s.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Arizona

Blue-Green Water

London Bridge

More Number Crunching

Full-Time Costs in 2015

Cradle to Grave in Quartzsite

Yuma Checklist Done

Electrical Gremlins

Another One Bites the Dust

New York Bar

Moving on to Casa Grande

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