Category Archives: Arizona

Two for One in Casa Grande

We’ve settled in at the Casa Grande RV Resort. It’s relatively quiet. We’re near a busy road but it’s nowhere as noisy as our location in Mesa.

When we visited the Casa Grande ruins and arrived here on Wednesday, we dodged a few rain showers. The rain continued Thursday through most of the day with a few breaks here and there. I left the scooter and grill in the trailer until Thursday afternoon when the skies started to clear a bit. I mentioned in my last post how accommodating the management was here at Casa Grande RV Resort. They gave us two back-to-back sites for the price of one so we wouldn’t have to drop our trailer!

Spacious site(s) 310/305

Donna made meatloaf for dinner. Her meatloaf is always sensational – I think it’s mainly due to the way she manages to get the meat really fine by “whisking” it with a fork. I enjoyed a bottle of Rough Draft Eraser IPA with dinner.

Rough Draft Eraser IPA

Meatloaf served with steamed Kale and bacon and mashed sweet potato

Meatloaf served with steamed kale and carmelized bacon and mashed sweet potato

The skies were partly cloudy with cooler weather on Friday. I think the high was in the lower 70s. I went to the pickleball courts in the morning. They have four courts here. When I arrived, all four courts had games in progress and 11 people were waiting to play. They have a good system here to rotate players in. There’s a rack for paddles. Placing your paddle in the rack serves as a placeholder. When a game is finished, all four players leave the court. The next four paddles in line are retrieved by their owners and that makes up the next foursome. I played several games and I’m beginning to move better now. I still have some tightness in my right leg, but it’s definitely improving.

On Friday evening, Donna prepared green chili turkey burgers. They’re really good, but these have been bothersome to grill in the past. The turkey burgers tend to fall apart because of the wetness of the diced green chilis in them. So I tried something different this time. I used a grill mat on our Weber grill and it worked perfectly. Now I just have to figure out how to clean the grill mat.

Grill mat on our Weber grill

The clouds had moved to the east while I was grilling. I shot a photo of the sunset reflecting off the clouds looking east from our site.

Sunset reflecting off the clouds in the east

Donna has been taking walks for exercise while her road rash heals. She pulled a groin muscle when she crashed and that’s preventing her from jumping back into pickleball. But her injuries are getting better every day.

We had warmer weather on Saturday. I started the day with pickleball again. Donna continued formatting one of her books which she recently updated and will re-release shortly. I had a lazy day. I spent most of the afternoon reading another Vince Flynn thriller – Protect and Defend. I managed to break away from relaxation time long enough to replace the filter bag in the central vacuum cleaner system and try it out. We haven’t been using the central vacuum cleaner, just our Dyson DC44 cordless vacuum. Donna wanted to try the central vacuum cleaner so I got it up and running. It seems to work really well.

Central vacuum cleaner

In the afternoon, we joined our neighbors, Bill and Cris Filby for happy hour. They are snowbirds from Michigan planning to go full-time soon. Right now they have a fifth-wheel RV, but they’re planning to move to a 40′ motor home when they hit the road full-time. They are also avid pickleball players and provide lessons for new players.

This morning I went to the pickleball courts early. I was there by 8:30 and played for three hours! I’m whipped. We expect the temperature to reach the mid-80s today. It looks like another good day for rest and relaxation.

The Great House

We moved yesterday. We took a little longer than usual to hit the road. I had to finish packing the trailer, clean up a few things outside, then dump and flush our holding tanks. Donna worked inside, getting the coach ready to ramble down the road. She moved a little slower than she usually does, but she managed to get everything put away. Lowell and Debi, Donna’s hiking friends, and Vern and Sylvia, our neighbors, stopped by to wish us safe travels. By the time we had the trailer hooked up and pulled out of Orangewood Shadows, it was 11:30am.

Our route took us east on US60 past Gold Canyon. The drive to Gold Canyon, which took over an hour by car through last weekend’s traffic, was covered in 30 minutes in the coach. As we continued east, I realized I had forgotten to lock the basement storage doors. I like to have the doors locked when we roll down the road as extra insurance against one accidentally opening. The traffic was light, so when we turned on to AZ79, I pulled to the shoulder and stopped to lock the basement doors.

AZ79 took us to the town of Florence. Established in 1866, Florence is the county seat of Pinal County and one of the oldest towns in Arizona. It’s also home to the largest prison complex in the state. We made a stop at the Mt. Athos restaurant in Florence, a Greek restaurant that Donna and I stopped at a couple of times before when we traveled through on motorcycles. I found parking on the street a half block away and we went in for lunch. I opted for the grilled cheese and bacon sandwich special. It was okay. Donna liked her Greek salad with gyro meat. They have moussaka, pastitio, spanokopita and other traditional Greek entrees on the menu. I probably should have ordered something Greek.

Mt Athos restaurant

After lunch, I drove west to the historic old downtown district where we picked up AZ287 and headed west toward Coolidge. Our next stop was at the Casa Grande Ruins. The focal point of this National Monument is the Great House (Casa Grande in Spanish) built in 1300AD. We found RV parking spaces in the lot in front of the park building.

Entry was $5 each as our America the Beautiful pass has expired (it would have gotten us in for free). The $5 entry included a guided tour which we took advantage of. The park ranger, Larry, was full of information and gave an interesting presentation as we walked around the Great House.

Historically, the people that once inhabited this compound were called Hohokam. There is a movement in the National Parks administration to discontinue this term (which loosely translates to vanished people) and replace it with Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert. Apparently Hohokam can also be translated to mean “all used up” and is thought to be offensive. Another frequently used term for ancient tribes in the Sonoran desert is Anasazi. That term is also thought to be misused. The story is that early archeologists asked local Navajo people what the name of the tribe that once lived in the desert south of their land was. They answered Anasazi – which means ancestors of our enemy. The preferred term today Ancestral Puebloans.

The monument covers one square mile. I mentioned touring the compound. Although the Great House is the focal point, there are many ruins of smaller structures in the park. Our guide referred to it as an ancient gated community as it had a wall surrounding the dwellings. His theory was that this was a community of artisans, people that learned to spin and weave cotton, make jewelry and other items for trade. They stayed in a walled community to safely store their goods and keep the riff-raff out.

Wooden beams in the Great House have been scientifically dated to have originated in the early 1300s. This ancient civilization brought timber from the mountains up to 60 miles away and built dwellings from caliche – a sort of concrete made from sand, clay and calcium carbonate. They used tons of this material, shored up with the timbers to build the four-story Great House.

Great House viewed from the east

View inside the Great House through an opening in the wall

Donna in front of a smaller ruin in the compound

This civilization also practiced agriculture. They built canals to divert water from the Gila River to their fields of corn and cotton. Seven hundred years ago, the Gila River was a mighty watershed, not the dry riverbed it is today. Something happened by 1400AD and these people vanished.

In the 1800s, the stage coach from Florence to Tucson ran right next to the Great House. The stage would stop to rest their horses here. For a small fee, passengers were allowed to dig artifacts and take them. The site was abused for decades. Even after it was a protected archaeological site, many mistakes were made in recovering and documenting artifacts. Much of the history is lost forever. In 1932, a cover was built over the Great House to preserve and protect it from heavy rain and constant exposure to the sun.

This National Monument is an interesting stop and well worth the price of admission.

From the ruins, we drove west on AZ87, then followed AZ187 southwest to AZ387 south to the town of Casa Grande. By the way, the Casa Grande National Monument isn’t in the town of Casa Grande – it’s in Coolidge, Arizona. We checked in at the Casa Grande RV Resort where we stayed in early January. The park management was very accommodating. I asked for a pull-through site and told them I preferred not to drop the trailer. The issue here with the long pull-throughs is the location of the sewer and utilities. They’re located at the rear of the site. With the length of the trailer and our rig, it’s a long run for sewer, water and electrical power. They offered me a great solution. The had back-to-back sites intended for back-in use. They told me I could utilize both sites combined as a pull-through for the same price as a regular pull-through. Can’t beat that!

We’ll be here for a week while we decide on our next move.

St. Paddy’s at Orangewood

Donna was feeling sore and moving slowly on Monday. She had a dentist appointment at 9:40am and drove herself to the dentist office in Lana’s Toyota Highlander. Thankfully we still have Lana’s car and didn’t have to scooter over to the dentist office. That would have been a bit uncomfortable. After her dental appointment, Donna took pain medication. Unfortunately, the medication made her nauseous. So she took it easy for the rest of the day.

I resealed the seams on the left bedroom slide-out after a few games of pickleball. On Monday evening, we walked down to the grassy common area by the pickleball courts for the Orangewood Shadows memorial pizza dinner. Residents decorated luminaria bags memorializing those who have passed on. Since we’re newcomers to this park, we didn’t know the proper etiquette. We found a spot on the grass, set up our chairs and got in line for pizza. Then we figured out that we were set up in an area reserved for VIPs. I’m still not clear what constitutes an Orangewood Shadows VIP. We ate our pizza slices and decided to re-locate. The folks around us told us not to worry about it and stay where we were. We didn’t feel right, so we moved. Then we figured out that the grass had been divided into zones. They were calling people up to get in line for pizza by zone. Oh well, we didn’t mean to jump the line.

We sat with Jim, one of the guys we often play pickleball with, and met his wife Kay. We enjoyed their company and chatted for a while. We learned that they came to Orangewood for the first three years in a motorhome, then rented a park model for two years before deciding to buy one this year. All in all, 90 pizzas were served that night! Donna and I had two slices each, not a bad deal for a two-dollar ticket.

On Tuesday morning, I hit the pickleball court for the last time before we pull out of here. We quit early as the Orangewood Shadows St. Patrick’s Day parade was scheduled to begin at 10am. Some of the residents went all out for the parade. Donna and I sat in chairs in front of our site as the parade came by. It was fun.

Bagpipes

Our neighbor Al driving a golf cart converted to a fire engine

Orangewood Shadows band – our neighbor Brian in front with the saxophone

Another musical group from the park

After the parade, I started working on organizing the trailer. The longer we sit in one place, the more work it takes to get the trailer ready for travel. I removed the tire covers from the coach and checked the tire pressure. I also tackled another chore on my to-do list. I wanted to sanitize our fresh water tank and lines. It’s been more than a year since I’ve done this and I think it’s a good idea to make this an annual maintenance item.

The last time I sanitized the fresh water tank, I used household bleach. Two ounces per 15 gallons is the proper mixture. Household bleach has about 3% available chlorine. It also has other components that make it smell and taste awful. When I sanitized with bleach, I had to flush the stuff out of the system a couple of times and it still took a while before the odor was gone.

This time I used a chlorine concentrate called sodium dichlor. It’s available at pool supply stores. I bought a pound of granulated sodium dichlor at Leslie’s Pool for five bucks. It contains 62% available chlorine, so a little bit goes a long way. It only takes a teaspoon of sodium dichlor to treat 100 gallons of water. I put a teaspoon of sodium dichlor into the fresh water supply line and filled our fresh water tank with 100 gallons of water. The solution needs to be in the tanks for three hours or longer to ensure all bacteria are eliminated. I also opened all of the taps and shower head to distribute chlorinated water throughout the fresh water system. With the tank filled, Donna and I went to the recreation hall for the fish fry lunch.

The park was having its annual fish fry with Alaskan halibut, French fries and cole slaw. Our ticket also included our choice of beer or soda. They served a large plate of fish and chips. I managed to eat all of the halibut, but couldn’t eat all of the fries. The halibut was good!

Fish and chips plate

The fish fry lunch was running a little behind schedule. Apparently only two of the three fryers they rented were working. We had to scoot out of there so Donna could make it back to the dentist at 2pm. She had an appointment to have her retainer adjusted to fit the new crown that was put in on Monday.

After the dentist, I drove Donna to her friend’s house. Dara lives in Las Sendas a couple of miles from the dentist office. Dara is into essential oils and she had several she wanted to give to Donna to help her road rash heal. Dara and Donna sometimes ride together and she’s had her share of road rash. Some years back, she was hit by a car and seriously injured. She founded Not One More, a non-profit foundation committed to making roads safer for cyclists and helping those who have been injured to meet their medial and personal bills.

From Dara’s house, we drove to Lana’s to return her car. Lana dropped us back at the RV park. Lana also had my old laptop, which her fiance Joel had repaired. He took the laptop completely apart and replaced the cooling fan. It works like new. He said it was a difficult unit to disassemble. When I looked for someone to fix it, I was told the labor would be over $200. I paid Joel for the part – he fixed it gratis. Now I have a back-up laptop. Thanks, Lana and Joel, for your generosity.

I made one last trip to Lucky Lou’s to say my goodbyes to the gang. When I returned, I dumped the chlorinated water from the fresh water tank – it had been in there for nearly six hours. I had turned off the water heater earlier in the day. I dumped the water from the water heater and flushed it out. I refilled our fresh water tank and ran water through all of the taps. I can barely smell the chlorine. Sodium dichlor will be my method of choice from now on.

I made a few more preparations for our departure. I removed and stored our front window covers before I fired up the grill. I grilled Trader Joe’s chicken jalapeno sausages while Donna prepared creamy avocado cauliflower – steamed cauliflower blended with avocado, olive oil, garlic, lemon and parsley in the food processor. It paired perfectly with the sausage and the color was in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day.

Non-traditional St Paddy’s Day fare

I have a few more things to load into the trailer before we kick the tires and light the fires. We’re heading back to Casa Grande.

Donna Gets Her Bell Rung!

While I was writing my post yesterday, Donna went out for a bicycle ride. She wanted to get some miles in early before it got too hot out. I dumped the gray water tank and was thinking about getting the ladder out of the trailer to reseal the trim on the bedroom slide-out. My cell phone started ringing, I saw that it was Donna on the caller ID. I thought she must be having bike trouble – a flat tire or something.

I was surprised to hear a male voice asking if I was Mike Kuper. The caller identified himself as a paramedic with the City of Mesa Fire Department. My first thought was, “Oh no, Donna’s been hit by a car.” I flashed back to 2005 when I was hit by a car while bicycling here in Mesa, Arizona. I was heading west on Guadalupe Road approaching the intersection for the Loop 202 on-ramp. This is a controlled intersection with stop lights. Cars coming from the west only enter the on-ramp on a green arrow. My light was green. I was cruising in the bike lane at 22 mph (I had just looked a my speed on my bike computer). Suddenly a car was in the intersection. The young male driver was coming from the west and had blown through the red light and turned left for the on-ramp right in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and went into a skid. There was no way I could avoid contact. I flew over the hood of the car and my left shoulder crushed into the roof pillar next to the windshield. I felt and heard my collar bone break. I fell to the ground. The driver got out of his car, still talking on his cell phone. He was shouting, “Oh my God, I just hit this dude on a bike.” The City of Mesa Fire Department responded.

I was jolted back into the present when the paramedic told me Donna was okay. She had crashed on Power Road and had her bell rung. A good Samaritan witnessed the crash and stopped to help her. He loaded her bike in his SUV and drove Donna to the fire station. The paramedic said her helmet was trashed and she was dazed. Other than that, he didn’t think she had any serious injuries. He told me that she would be transported by ambulance to the ER at Banner Baywood Hospital to have her head injury evaluated.

We still had Lana Jansen’s Toyota Highlander here, so I drove over to the hospital. I had to wait for a few minutes before they took me back to Donna’s room. I saw road rash on her legs and left arm, but she was in good spirits and didn’t seem to be in too much pain. She told me that when the guy stopped to help her, she thought she might be able to ride her bike home, but she couldn’t remember where home was! When the paramedics asked her what year it was, she said, “Can we circle back to that one?” She obviously had a concussion.

Donna in good spirits at the ER

They took X-rays of her chest and left knee. Then she was wheeled away for a CT scan of her head. About an hour later, the doctor came in and said she would be fine. They gave her a prescription for pain medication, cleaned up the road rash and sent us on our way.

She didn’t remember much about the crash. She said the handlebars seem to be wrenched from her hands or her hands flew off the bars like she had hit something. We drove past the crash site on our way to pick up her bicycle at the fire station. The bike lane looked good. We didn’t see any pot holes or obstacles.

The firemen were very helpful. They showed me her helmet and said it really saved her. The left side of the helmet was scraped and the high density foam liner was crushed and cracked in multiple places. It absorbed the impact and saved her from serious injury.

The left side of her helmet hit the pavement

Cracked liner

More cracks

Another broken part of the liner

The fire captain told me that the good Samaritan had witnessed the crash. He said there weren’t any cars ahead as he was approaching Donna from behind. He said she suddenly flew from the bike and he thought she may have caught the curb with her right pedal. They helped me load the bike into the back of the Toyota. Donna had told me her bike was damaged. She said the handlebars were askew and the wheel wouldn’t turn. I didn’t see much damage on the bike. The left brake lever and hood had some scrapes. The handle bar was straight and the wheels turned fine. A bang on the head can really play havoc with your mind. Donna insisted the bike had been damaged.

As we were driving home, I told Donna what the fire captain had told me. She didn’t believe she caught the curb with her pedal. When we got back to our coach, I examined her bike closely. She obviously went down on the left side. I also found fresh scrape marks on the right pedal. She told me that right before the crash, she had looked down at her speed readout and saw 17 mph, then bang! I think she must have drifted to the right of the bike lane, caught her pedal against the curb and lost control.

She’s sore this morning and has some road rash, but it could have been much worse.

Ouch!

Road rash and bruises on her arm

Donna here: About 20-25 minutes before my crash, I witnessed what could have been a fatal wreck involving a motor home and a Jeep. I was cycling east on McDowell. A motor home came up from behind me and it was moving right along. As it approached the intersection, which is a four-way stop, I realized that it was not slowing down. The driver was going to blow right through! I was screaming, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” because just then, a red Jeep entered the intersection. I saw the motor home swerve at the last minute and then straighten up as it barreled through. Miraculously, the Jeep made it across. I stopped to talk to the driver, a young man, who had pulled over just beyond the intersection. I told him that he was one lucky guy. He said he saw the motor home coming and floored it. And then his engine died – probably blew a radiator hose. As I pedaled away, he said, “Have a safe ride!”

Patio’ Kings

Our time is winding down here in Mesa. I’m a little behind on some of the tasks I wanted to complete before we move. Thursday I rested my leg, I never got around to sealing the bedroom slide-out trim. Donna rode her bike with her friend, Dara in the afternoon. She rode to Lana Jansen’s house at the end of her ride and picked up Lana’s car – she had generously offered to lend it to us for the weekend. While Donna went out shopping on Friday, I hit the pickleball court. Afterwards I put my leg up and iced it for a while. It was very warm in the afternoon, near 90 degrees. Other than dumping the gray water tank, I didn’t accomplish anything.

Yesterday Donna and I played pickleball again in the morning. I can’t move at full speed yet and playing two days in a row left me with a sore leg again. We quit playing around 11am, then we got ready to head over to Andy and Donna King’s house in Gold Canyon. They were having a St. Patrick’s Day party (a few days early). People still living in the workaday world schedule parties on the weekend. Donna made Irish soda bread the night before to take to the party.

I thought the drive to Gold Canyon would take about 25 minutes. I didn’t realize the 27th annual Arizona Renaissance Festival was happening in Gold Canyon on the weekends through March 29th. The traffic on eastbound US 60 was stop and go from Apache Junction to Gold Canyon. The drive took over an hour, it was 1:30pm by the time we arrived.

We weren’t the only ones running late due to the traffic. The party didn’t start rolling until about 2pm. Andy was expecting guests to arrive shortly after noon. Many of the people attending the party were musicians – mostly bluegrass players. The party started when Andy and a few of his friends sang Seven Bridges Road. Andy picked the guitar while three others harmonized with him. They sounded great!

Getting started

Donna at the bar with her St. Patrick’s Day bling

I took a seat at the bar and sipped Guinness and enjoyed the music. Donna fixed plates of corned beef, cabbage and soda bread for us.

Our bartender, Seth and Kylie

There were a lot of talented people rotating in and out of the band. It was lively but low key and fun.

The band changed personnel often

Some members of the new bluegrass band Andy is in showed up.

Mavis really ripped on the fiddle

At one point, Andy set me up with his Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitar. It’s a beautiful instrument. I stayed in the outer circle and and followed the chord changes and improvised on a couple of songs.

Strummig along on Andy's Alvarez Yairie guitar

Strumming along on Andy’s Alvarez Yairi guitar

People were spread out all over the backyard. Most people stayed under cover on the patio. A few took to the pool to cool off.

Cooling off

I didn’t stray too far from the bar – I claimed a sore leg required me to sit on a barstool.

Plenty of activity at the bar

The shots of Jaegermeister washed down with Guinness were catching up with me. We called it a day and Donna drove us home around 5pm. My right leg was sore from pickleball and standing around all afternoon. I iced it when we returned home.

The forecast calls for temperatures in the 90s for the next few days. I’ll need to start organizing the trailer and prepare to depart on Wednesday. We’re still not sure of our next destination.

Orange Blossoms

We tend to follow nice weather. We try to avoid cold, wet climates and opt for warm, sunny weather. This means we are mostly in areas where flowers are blooming. I have severe pollen allergies – most tree and grass pollen really sets me off.

This year, I tried a form of immunotherapy that involves taking daily doses of local, minimally processed honey. The theory behind this is that the honey contains small amounts of local pollen. Taken daily, an immunity is built up in the body. I started doing this last fall in San Diego and continued here in Arizona.

Here in Arizona, I bought local honey that was labeled mesquite. It’s from bee colonies that are in the open desert and contains a mix of pollen. It seems to have helped. I’m not free of allergy symptoms, but they haven’t been as severe as last year. Recently I switched to orange blossom honey in anticipation of all the orange trees around here flowering.

Orange tree blossoming next to our site

But the honey treatment is no match for the current profusion of orange tree blossoms. I now have full-blown allergy symptoms – sinus congestion, runny nose, and puffy, watery eyes. I’m taking Flonase, but mornings are misery.

I mentioned meeting up with Dave Hobden at Tekris Power Electronics in yesterday’s post. While I was there, I made an impulse purchase of a device that seems somewhat controversial. It’s a battery desulfator that I installed on our bank of 6-volt house batteries. Sulfation is where the lead, lead oxide and sulfuric acid in the batteries combine and form crystals of lead sulfate. These crystals cling to the lead plates, diminishing capacity. Charging the battery removes these crystals, but it doesn’t remove them completely. Over time, they accumulate. Some crystals may fall to bottom of the battery where they can collect and eventually short the plates.

The device I bought is called Battery Life Saver BLS-12N. It’s connected to the battery bank and draws a small amount of current – I took measurements and averaged 23ma. It generates a high-frequency signal through the battery. The frequency it generates shatters the lead sulfate crystals so they can recombine into the lead, lead oxide and sulfuric acid components.

I say it’s controversial because an online search reveals two camps. One camp says it’s nothing more than snake oil or voodoo and does nothing. The other camp says they use it and it absolutely works. I haven’t found any evidence of valid testing by the nay-sayers to prove it doesn’t work. On the other hand, there are test results that show battery capacity can be restored with this device. I don’t know for sure and I don’t know how I can make a valid test on our batteries while they’re in use. I guess if our batteries need to be replaced in the next year or two, I’ll join the nay-sayer camp. If our batteries last for several years, who’s to say the BLS-12N helped or not? Like I said, it was an impulse buy.

Battery Life Saver mounted in the battery compartment

We played pickleball yesterday morning. It’s such an addicting game and Donna and I love playing it. I took it easy and played four or five games. My calf was a little tight, but it feels fine today.

We had warm weather with low clouds yesterday. The temperature was in the upper 80s. If we didn’t have the cloud cover, it would have been a real cooker. As it was, we ran the air conditioners in the afternoon. I took a photo of the sky before sunset while I was outside grilling. We have the same low ceiling again today.

Low clouds near sunset

Donna and I enjoy Thai food. We don’t have to eat out to enjoy this type of food though. A week or so ago, Donna made a variation of Thai satay called Malaysian chicken sate. She marinates the chicken and I grill it on skewers. It’s served with a delightful peanut sauce. We liked it so much, Donna prepared it again last night.

Malaysian chicken sate skewers on the grill

Malaysian chicken sate with peanut sauce and sauteed veggies

I have a project to attend to today. I want to reseal the seams on the driver’s side bedroom slide-out with silicone sealant. When it rains, water is collecting behind the trim and leaves a stain as it runs down the side of the coach.

Meet Me at the Shop

I saw on Facebook that our friend and fellow Alpine Coach Owner Dave Hobden (Urbanescapevehicle.com) was in our area yesterday. The Xantrex inverter/charger in his coach blew and none of the 120-volt systems would power up. He was at Tekris Power Electronics, an authorized Xantrex dealer in Gilbert (about 8 miles away from us) having it replaced.

I rode the scooter over to Tekris on McQueen Avenue in Gilbert and met up with Dave. He introduced me to Robert, who was in the process of installing a new Xantrex Freedom SW 3012 inverter/charger to replace the Xantrex 2000 in Dave’s coach. The old inverter/charger circuit board was blown and internal repairs on that unit aren’t supported. The SW 3012 that Dave was getting is an upgrade. It’s a pure sine wave 3,000-watt inverter. Nice!

We chatted with Robert while he was working. He was full of information and knows just about everything about inverters and RV electrical systems. He told me that the Xantrex Freedom 458 that’s in our Alpine Coach was one of the more robust units made. It’s also rebuildable. It’s a modified sine wave 2,000-watt inverter. I’d love to have the SW 3012 that Dave now has though (minus the bill!).

Dave was planning to hang around the shop while the four-hour replacement job was being done. His wife Stilla was out shopping with Dave’s mom. Around 11:30am, we walked down the street to a taco shop and the two of us each ordered a two-fish taco plate with beans and rice.

Dave Hobden and me at the Tekris shop.

It was fun catching up a bit. We follow each other’s blogs, so we had a pretty good idea of what’s been going on. We last saw Dave and Stilla in August when we were in Oregon for the FMCA Rally in Redmond and the Alpine Coach Owners pre-rally in Portland. That’s the beauty of this nomadic lifestyle – making new friends and meeting up again down the road.

The Pantech battery I ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday. I installed it in the Verizon Jetpack and it’s back online – yaay! We won’t have to access the Internet through Donna’s phone anymore.

The temperature here reached the mid-80s yesterday. Today the forecast calls for 90 degrees. I guess it’s time to fire up the air conditioning units.

Back in the Game

After three weeks of rest and recovery, my leg was feeling much better on Sunday. I walked down to the pickleball courts and practiced serving. I wanted to see if hitting serves would put too much stress on my calf. It was fine. After about half an hour, Donna came down and joined me. We practiced dinking the ball back and forth. No hard shots and no running after the ball. My leg was fine.

On Sunday evening, our friends Lana and Joel picked us up around 5pm. We drove over to Baja Joe’s for margaritas and dinner. The place was packed with a 35-minute wait for a table. There were tables available in the bar though, so we opted to sit and order dinner in the bar. Conversation flowed as we enjoyed our dinner and two pitchers of margaritas over the next two hours. When we returned to our place, we sat outside and talked for another two hours. Joel took my old laptop – he thinks he can fix the cooling fan issue. He also took our entertainment hard drive to add more movies and TV series to it. Thanks, Joel!

My leg felt good Monday morning. Donna and I went to the pickleball courts to play a game or two. I planned to limit my effort to about 80% – no lunges for the ball or jumping. Donna left after five games, I ended up hanging around and played eight games.

Action on the Orangewood Shadows pickleball courts

When I walked back home, I could feel tightness in my right calf. I put my leg up and read for a while. Then I noticed I had bruising on my ankle and foot. Apparently there are still micro-tears in the calf and the activity caused some bleeding in the muscle. Gravity forced the blood down to my ankle and foot.

Blood pooling in my foot after pickleball

I spent most of the afternoon with my foot elevated, periodically icing my calf. I don’t think it’s a big deal. My leg feels fine this morning, but I think I will give it another day of rest before playing pickleball again.

I rode the scooter over to Red, White and Brew to join Mike Hall, John Huff and Pat Fitzpatrick for a cold one. Tom Brennan joined us at the bar. Tom is patriotic and has an interesting hobby. He has replicas of various cartridges made with one troy ounce of silver. When he meets a veteran, he presents him with a silver bullet. Each cartridge is engraved. He chooses the cartridge type and engraving to give the veterans based on their service history. He has Navy SEAL friends who helped him come up with the mottos engraved on the silver cartridges.

Silver bullets – 5.56mm, 45ACP and 9mm

We have eight more days here at Orangewood Shadows RV Resort before we hit the road. I’m getting the hitch itch and I have to take care of a few projects over the next week before we leave.

Jetpack Blow Up

Something strange happened on Friday afternoon. Donna and I were inside – she was working at her laptop and I was surfing the Internet. We heard a loud “pop,” but didn’t know where it came from. The next thing I knew, I lost my wifi connection to our Verizon Jetpack. Donna said she was kicked off as well. I went to re-connect and found the Verizon Jetpack was offline, it didn’t appear among the devices available.

I got up and looked at the Jetpack. The pop we heard was the back of the Jetpack being blown off as the lithium-ion battery exploded! I don’t know if the battery overcharged or overheated, but for some reason, it blew apart and wouldn’t fit in the Jetpack anymore.

Back cover blown off our Jetpack

Battery expanded and cover split

Profile of distorted battery – it’s normally a rectangle

I don’t know if this is a function of an internal disconnect for an overheated battery or some kind of defect. Lithium-ion batteries have a safety disconnect feature to prevent fire. A burning lithium-ion battery is not a good thing – it’s impossible to extinguish a lithium-ion fire. Donna set her Samsung Galaxy S5 as a hotspot and we had Internet access.

With the sink project still underway, we decided to head out to Red, White and Brew for happy hour and dinner. Donna had her usual mussels vin blanc and I had the Meet the Meat stuffed pizza roll which is basically a meaty calzone.

RWB Meet the Meat stuffed pizza roll

Around 9am Saturday morning, we heard techno dance music blasting outside. We weren’t sure where it was coming from. I went outside for a look. There was a lane closure on the north side of University Drive with a blow-up arch in the lane and lots of orange cones. At the arch, there was a big speaker on a stand pointed at the back of our coach which is on the south side of University Drive. The music was so loud, it completely drowned out the sound of traffic on the road. There was a 5K run coming down University Drive – the two-mile mark was across the street from us. Apparently the organizers thought blasting dance music at 9am was necessary at the two-mile mark.

I rode the scooter south on Val Vista to the Verizon store with my Jetpack and blown-up battery. The guy there wasn’t very helpful. He took the Jetpack and battery disappeared into the back of the store. Fifteen minutes later he came back and said he could order a new battery for $60 and have it next week. I asked what caused the battery to blow up. He said I probably overcharged it. He said not to leave it on the charger, to run it on the battery and recharge as needed. Are you serious? The battery will last three to four hours. We have the Jetpack on all day. If I cycled the battery four times day, it wouldn’t last a year. Also, after 21 months of use plugged in, why did the battery blow up now? He had no answers. I declined the $60 battery.

I stopped at Batteries Plus to see if they had a replacement. No luck, but I bought some fluorescent light tubes I needed while I was there. I also rode over to the farmers’ market on Power Road and picked up more local honey.

When I returned home, I searched online for a Pantech BTR291B lithium-ion battery. I found it on Amazon for $22.99. With my Prime account, two-day delivery was free. At checkout, my Prime account is linked to my Chase Freedom Visa card. I had more than enough cashback points to cover the cost of the battery. It’s like getting it for free and it’ll deliver here on Tuesday.

With that done, I set into my next project. I used a sharp plastic scraper to remove the old caulking from the kitchen sink. Once I had all of the old caulking out, I cleaned the sink and the counter top area that joins the sink with rubbing alcohol. I laid a new bead of caulking and it’s looking good. The caulk needs to cure for 36 hours before contact with water. With that in mind, we didn’t want to create a lot of dirty dishes, so we went out for dinner again.

New caulk on the sink

This time we decided to try a Thai restaurant called 5 R Cha Thai Bistro (we learned that 5 R Cha means five horses in Thai). Donna had a green curry with shrimp. She said it was excellent, it would rival Lanna Thai in San Diego.

Green curry with shrimp

I went with my old standby, Pad Thai chicken. It was good, but the chicken was overcooked. The sauce on the noodles makes Pad Thai, and this had great flavor. I enjoyed a Singh Ha Thai beer with my meal while Donna went for a Japanese Sapporo beer.

Pad Thai chicken

I think I mentioned Donna’s trip to the dentist on Wednesday. She broke a molar and had a temporary crown put on. Last night, Donna woke up with a toothache. Her temporary crown came off. This was probably due to her retainer – she didn’t think about the temporary crown when she put her retainer on. Hopefully she can have the temp reset today.

We’re planning to go out to Baja Joe’s for dinner tonight with Lana and Joel. That will make three nights in a row eating out! That’s unusual for us. By tonight, our kitchen sink will be fully functional again and we can get back to our usual meal schedule.

The rest of the country sprang forward as of 2am this morning. Here in Arizona, daylight savings time isn’t observed. The clocks neither spring forward nor fall back. That makes Arizona time equivalent to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) now.

Sinking No More

Before I posted everything you ever wanted to know about batteries yesterday, I started my day with a hearty breakfast. Donna made an omelette with mushrooms, onions, red peppers and feta cheese. She also cooked up sweet potato home fries. Add a cup of coffee and it was a great way to kick off the day.

Breakfast of champions

I had a project for the day. Donna noticed the caulking around the kitchen sink was cracking again. When I looked it over, I could see the sink was loose, it was sinking! It’s mounted from below the counter top and held in place with aluminum extrusions screwed to a small wood beam under the counter top. I tried to tighten the screws, but it seemed like the aluminum extrusions had sagged.

I rode the scooter to Home Depot and looked at sink mounting clips. The only clips they had were for sinks that are mounted on top of the counter, not from underneath. The guy at Home Depot told me I should go to Central Arizona Supply as they would have what I was looking for. Central Arizona Supply is on Country Club – to get there I came past Orangewood Shadows RV Resort. I decided to stop and take another look under the sink to make sure I knew what I wanted to do to support the sink.

This time, I wriggled around on the floor and got my head into the cabinet under the sink. With a flashlight I saw what the problem was. It wasn’t anything wrong with the aluminum extrusions, it was the wood they’re mounted to. The wood was glued to the counter top and the adhesive was failing, allowing the wood to pull away from bottom of the counter top.

Adhesive failure

I didn’t need mounting clips – I needed glue and a way to brace the wood up against the counter top while the glue set. I went back to Home Depot and poked around. I found a 3/4″ square section of wood 48″ long. I had it cut into two 19″ lengths and two 5″ pieces. Then I looked for a suitable adhesive that would adhere to the Karadon counter top material and wood. I settled on Gorilla Glue expanding glue. It sticks to anything and the expansion allows it to penetrate wood and fill gaps. It’s also waterproof.

Gorilla Glue

I tried to brace the sagging wood up against the counter top material with the 19″ section of wood I got at Home Depot. Unfortunately, 19″ turned out to be about 1/2″ too long. Although I’ve replaced many of the tools I lost when those Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole my trailer, I still don’t have a saw. I walked down the way from our coach and found a neighbor Vern working on a room addition. I asked if I could use his saw. He lopped off 1/2″ from my two braces.

I did another trial fit and the braces fit perfectly. I needed to re-glue the beams on both sides of the sink. The Gorilla Glue is activated by moisture. I used a wet paper towel to moisten the surface of the wood beams and the bottom of the counter top where the beams made contact. Then I applied the glue and braced the beam up against the bottom of the counter top.

Glue applied and brace in place

I placed a basin of warm water on the shelf under the sink and closed the cabinet doors. I was hoping to add humidity under the counter to help set the Gorilla Glue. With that done, I headed off to Red, White and Brew for a cold one.

Meanwhile, Donna was out on her bicycle training with her friend Dara and Dara’s friend Jenn. They did hill repeats on Hawes Hill off McDowell Road and put in a total of about 22 miles, getting home just before dark.

Last night I removed the temporary braces and the sink held fine. The glue is supposed to be at 80% strength after two hours and fully cured within 24 hours. I glued and braced the front center section of the sink overnight.

Gorilla Glue fully expanded and set

This morning, the sink is tight against the counter top and it’s secure again. Next, I’ll have to remove the old caulking and re-caulk the joint where the sink and counter top meet. That will likely be tomorrow’s project of the day.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Arizona

Two for One in Casa Grande

The Great House

St. Paddy’s at Orangewood

Donna Gets Her Bell Rung!

Patio’ Kings

Orange Blossoms

Meet Me at the Shop

Back in the Game

Jetpack Blow Up

Sinking No More

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: