Category Archives: Beer

Kramer’s Best

Donna met a new friend, Johanna, playing pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center (PBRC). They’re planning to ride their bicycles up to Torrey Pines on Friday. So fixing her bicycle became a priority – the shifter cable for the rear derailleur broke on her last ride.

Donna had an appointment for her annual check up Wednesday morning so I scootered her up to Washington Street. After her appointment, we went to Lanna Thai on Mission Bay Drive (map) for lunch. Pad Thai is a favorite for both Donna and me – they make a good Pad Thai there.

After lunch, I got to work on Donna’s bike. I set up my Cycle Pro bike stand outside the cargo trailer and mounted Donna’s bike on it. Her bike is equipped with Shimano Ultegra brakes and derailleurs. The brake lever applies the brakes when you pull the lever toward the handlebar. If you push the lever toward the center of the bike, it works as a shifter. It does this by applying tension or releasing tension on cable through a ratcheting drum mechanism inside the brake lever hood.

New shift cable

I removed the old cable and threaded the new cable in place. I cut the cable to size, allowing a few spare inches. Then I tried the shifter. Oops! It didn’t work. I looked at the drum again and realized the cable wasn’t connected to the drum properly. In fact, the drum was stuck and wouldn’t return to the spring-loaded rest position so I could thread the cable through the drum properly.

I had to remove the new cable and start over. After poking and prodding around, I finally saw a few strands of wire. Part of the old cable was stuck in the drum, wedging it in place. This was why the drum wouldn’t return to the spring-loaded rest position. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get the piece of stuck cable out. I was eventually able to grip the barely visible wire strands with a small hemostat and work it free. Once the old cable end was out, the drum rotated from the internal spring pressure to the stop. Now I could thread the cable through the drum and route it back to the derailleur.

I was glad I left a few extra inches of cable when I cut it so I had something to work with as I tensioned the cable and adjusted the shifter. Donna’s bike is back in business. The 15 to 20 minute job took me over an hour!

With that job done, we scootered over to the new Trader Joe’s location on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, one block west of Vons. The new store is brighter and airier than the old location was.

After shopping at Trader Joe’s, I was ready for a cold one and went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill. I was hoping to run into Butch there. Butch won the football pool last week. Traditionally, the winner of the pool buys a round for the other pool entrants – usually on Tuesday night. Butch didn’t show up Tuesday and he wasn’t there Wednesday either. I hope he’s okay.

Around 6pm, UPS delivered a package. It was something I needed for another project. Somewhere on the web I read about a wood refinishing product – I don’t remember where I heard about it or the exact story I read. The gist of it was this – a couple had a motorhome and the cabinets were in need of refinishing. They had a friend who was a cabinet maker. They invited him over to look at their cabinets. The proposed a trade. They would give him stereo equipment worth several hundred dollars if he would repair the finish on their cabinets. He agreed to the barter.

Later, he came over and went to work. He spent all of half an hour wiping the cabinets with a special product, then rubbing them dry with a cloth. The people were amazed – the cabinets looked like new. The magic product is called Kramer’s Best Antique Improver.

Kramer’s Best Antique Improver

We have a cabinet that had something spilled on it and I thought the finish was ruined. I don’t remember how it happened, but I wanted to repair it. The Kramer’s product isn’t cheap, but I thought it was worth a try so I ordered it online. This morning, I wiped the damaged wood on the cabinet door with Kramer’s on a square of cotton cloth from an old T-shirt Donna’s been after me to quit wearing. After I applied the Kramer’s, I used a fresh, clean cotton cloth and rubbed it dry. I didn’t spend more than five minutes on it. Here are the results:

Damaged finish on wood cabinet door

Rub on, rub off with Kramer’s and it’s job done

I don’t have any affiliation with Kramer’s in any way. But this stuff is amazing and I wanted to share the results. I’ll tackle our dining table and chairs next and touch up a few other cabinets.

The weather continues to be agreeable. We should see mid to upper 70s today and through the weekend. Overnight lows have been in the 50s – perfect sleeping weather. I need to scooter over to Costco this morning, then Donna and I will go to the PBRC for more pickleball action this afternoon.

*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!

30 Degrees West

Donna came home from her trip to LA for the 5K run at Universal Studios earlier than I expected. She arrived here at Mission Bay RV Resort by 1pm Sunday. I had football on TV – I was able to get local broadcast channels but I still couldn’t access ESPN and a few other channels.

In my last post, I mentioned rain Sunday morning. It remained cloudy all day with a few light showers. In the afternoon, the wind started picking up as an area of low pressure developed over the desert. The onshore flow of wind from the Pacific was blowing east at about 20 mph. I saw a weather alert for high winds – gusts up to 40mph – from 6pm through 10am Monday morning.

I was surprised to see a couple of RVs pulling out of the park around 4pm. The normal checkout time is noon. I mentioned it to Donna and she thought maybe they arranged a late checkout to watch NFL football. I was hoping they had a short drive – I wouldn’t want to be on the road with wind gusts of 40 mph in a high-profile vehicle.

Around that time, a technician from DISH network came to check out our reception problem. He asked me what kind of antenna I had. When I told him it was a Winegard, he wondered aloud why he was sent. They only work on their (DISH) antennas, not private-branded equipment. He had a sophisticated compass device that could locate the various DISH satellites. When I told him I was only receiving 110 – not 119 or 129 – he used his equipment to locate the satellites.

The problem turned out to be simple. I thought we were oriented facing north with the back of our coach at 180 degrees – due south. His equipment showed us facing 330 degrees north-northwest with the rear of the coach at 150 degrees south-southeast. Satellite 110 is directly behind our coach with a clear line of sight, but 119 and 129 are west of there. We have a tree on the west side of the coach and tree branches were blocking the satellite signal. He also showed me that the satellites were much higher in the sky than I thought – about 53 degrees up from the horizon.

I knew a clear line of sight to the satellites was required. I just didn’t realize our orientation put two of the satellites off to our left rear. There wasn’t much I could do about it by then. Our Winegard antenna is permanently mounted on the roof and automatically locates the satellites – it’s not like I could move the antenna or point it manually to try to find a signal.

On Sunday night, we had pizza delivered from Mountain Mike’s. They are known for their outstanding pepperoni made in-house. This was the most expensive pizza I’ve ever had delivered at $30 for a 14″ pie. Although it was good pizza, I don’t think it was worth $30 plus tip for the driver.

Expensive pizza

The wind blew hard overnight. I woke up several times when the coach was rocked by gusts. The wind continued to blow throughout Monday morning. Tree branches and leaves littered the park. The cover for the Traeger grill blew off and was under the picnic table but we didn’t lose anything.

I talked to the security supervisor, Thomas, and asked him if he thought the park would trim the tree branches blocking our satellite antenna. He put in a call to have a groundskeeper come over and take a look. While I was talking to him, a guy came and asked if anyone found a 10′ x 15′ awning mat. His had blown away in the night and he couldn’t find it.

A couple of guys came over to look at the tree next to our coach. After a bit of discussion, they decided to get management approval before they tried to do anything about the branches. When they came back, they said they could remove the branches but I would have to move to coach first. They apologized and said they knew it was a pain to disconnect everything and make the coach road ready just so I could move it 50 feet away and back again. I moved the coach and they had the branches cut in about five minutes.

I backed the coach into our site – this time I positioned it about a foot further to the right of the tree to allow more clearance. Once I had everything set up, I reset the DISH receiver. Now I have satellites 110 and 119, but not 129. This is okay – I can tune in Monday Night Football on ESPN with the two satellites I’m receiving now. In the future, I’ll avoid site 135 when we’re at Mission Bay RV Resort.

Who knew the tree to the left of our coach was partially blocking the signal

Who knew the tree next to our coach was partially blocking the signal?

The wind died down Monday afternoon. Donna and I rode the scooter to Pacific Beach. I dropped Donna off at Vons supermarket to grocery shop while I went to the UPS store to ship the old receiver back to DISH. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I’ve already installed, programmed and activated the replacement so all I can do is return the old one.

When I went back to Vons to meet up with Donna I found a beer I hadn’t seen before – Stone Ruination 2.0. I’ve always liked Ruination, but what is 2.0 all about? I bought a bottle to find out. It seems Stone thought Ruination needed to be updated. It was originally released in 2002 – before the real boom in craft beer and the India Pale Ale (IPA) style became so popular.

Ruination 2.0

I drank the Ruination 2.0 while watching Monday Night Football. In my opinion, it isn’t an improvement over the original. I’m thinking maybe Stone hasn’t been able to get the same type of hops used in the original Ruination, so they developed 2.0 and are calling it an update. Marketing – who knows for sure?

I want to give a shout-out to our friend and fellow nomadic RVer, Jeff Spencer (RollingRecess). Jeff competed in the Ironman event in Tempe, Arizona on Sunday in the men’s 55-59 age group. He finished with a personal best overall time of 11:46:06 – 12th in his division. He was first in his division in the swim and won $100 for that. His time for the 2.4 mile swim was 57:11. He completed the 112-mile bicycle portion with a time of 5:59:30 and ran the 26.2-mile marathon in 4:34:34 – he picked up the pace over the last two miles to set his personal overall best time. Jeff Spencer – you are an Ironman!

Today we have fine weather – wind at five to 10 miles per hour. The temperature should reach 70 degrees after a blustery and cool high of 61 degrees yesterday. The extended forecast calls for temperatures reaching the mid to high 70s over the next several days. We’ll be off to play pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center this afternoon.

Raccoons at the Park

Happy Veterans Day – first of all I want to express my gratitude and give thanks to all those who have served our nation, including my step-dad.

I closed my last post with a description of the accident our friend Deb Spencer (RollingRecess) suffered while hiking the Flat Iron Trail in the Arizona Superstition Mountains. This is a steep and difficult trail. Deb will undergo orthopedic surgery today to facilitate the healing of her shattered wrist. Our thoughts go out to her and we wish for the best results. I know she’ll have a long road of rehabilitation ahead to regain functionality and range of motion.

On Monday, I noticed the channel guide on my DISH receiver didn’t show all of the channels I pay for. One of the missing channels was ESPN. I went through the set-up menu and ran diagnostics, but it wouldn’t pick up the correct programming. I went online with DISH customer service and we ran through all of the steps together. It still didn’t work. I could see that the receiver was only locking in on one satellite (110) but the customer service guy didn’t focus on that. After going through all of the steps I had already performed, he threw his hands up and said, “I can’t fix it. I’ll have to send out a new receiver – it’ll arrive in a few days.”

Wouldn’t you know it, the San Diego Chargers were playing on Monday Night Football which is broadcast on ESPN. So at 4:45pm, I rode the scooter with Donna over to the old visitor center at the foot of Clairemont Drive. Donna rode back home from there as I walked to Dan Diego’s on Morena Boulevard to catch the game. After a disappointing loss, I walked about two miles back home.

I walked past the mobile home section of the park – this area is finally coming to the end of a long-fought battle. The residents of the trailer park have to move out by January 13, 2016 – just a couple of months from now. A lot of the trailers are empty now but a surprising number are still occupied. As I walked by one unit, I saw three raccoons come out from under a trailer house.

Raccoon coming out from under a trailer house

Raccoon scampering up a tree

A lot of people think raccoons are cute and harmless. But you don’t want raccoons in proximity with your home. Raccoons develop latrines – places where they habitually urinate and defecate. Raccoon feces commonly are infected with roundworms – a parasite that can be harmful to humans. I was surprised to see this particular trailer house was still occupied.

We had rain overnight and it was windy and cool on Tuesday. The high temperature for the day was only in the mid-60s. I rode the scooter over to Von’s grocery store and picked up two racks of baby back ribs. I prepared the ribs by removing the membrane from the bone side of the rack and dry rubbing them with Stubb’s seasoning and put them in the refrigerator.

Donna and I rode the scooter to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center (PBRC) at noon. The PBRC has open pickleball on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 4:30pm. We joined a few other people there and set up the portable nets on the indoor courts. We had a crowd of players shortly after we got started. We were able to get five games in before we had to leave at 2pm. I wanted to get back so I could start the baby back ribs on the Traeger wood pellet smoker/grill.

Indoor pickleball at PBRC

I emptied the last of the hickory wood pellets I bought at Cabela’s into the hopper and fired up the grill a little before 3pm. I cooked the ribs for about three hours. The thing with ribs is you have develop a feel for how done they are – you can’t get a reliable reading with a meat thermometer because there are too many bones. I figured with the windy conditions and cool temperature, it would take three hours.

Meanwhile Donna prepared roasted smashed potatoes, cornbread and sauteed veggies. Our friends Bob and Sini Schmidt came over at 5:30 pm for a little happy hour conversation before dinner. They gifted me with a book – Complete Guide to San Diego Breweries 2014/2015 Edition. With more than 130 brewing company owned pubs in San Diego, a guide with ratings and information will be useful! Thanks, Bob and Sini.

Brewery guide

We pulled the table extension out and brought in two extra chairs from the basement compartment and ate inside – it was cool and dark outside. Bob brought a few beers for us to sample – we split bomber bottles (22 ounces) of New English Brewing Pure and Simple IPA, Alesmith Horny Devil Belgian Style Ale, New English Bourbon Barrel Aged Brown Ale and I contributed a bomber of Lagunitas Maximus IPA.

We enjoyed the meal and the beers and talked for a few hours. We don’t have company for dinner in the coach very often, but it was comfortable and we had a fun evening.

Dry rubbed babyback ribs with roasted smashed potatoes and sauteed veggies

Dry rubbed baby back ribs with roasted smashed potatoes, sauteed veggies and cornbread

Today is not only Veterans Day, it’s also Free National Parks Day! Donna and I plan to ride out to the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma (map) and take advantage of the free admission.

Back to the Bay

In my last post I mentioned evidence of flash flooding in the area. Ogilby Road had apparently been flooded leaving sand, dirt and debris which was removed and piled into berms on the shoulder area. When we found the rock garden, it obviously had been flooded as well. The rock garden is on the edge of an arroyo. Fast moving water must have filled the arroyo and rearranged the rocks.

Here’s a view of the rock garden from December 2014

This is what’s left of it

Donna went for a walk before sunset. She met the owners of the Alpine Coach parked about half a mile away from us – they were the only other people within sight. They were Alpine Coach Association members Rick and Sue Niemeyer from Hemet, California. She visited with them for about 20-30 minutes. I was getting a little worried that she might get caught out after dark. Once the sun sets out here in the desert, it gets very dark quickly.

Sunset in the desert

Donna made it back just as it was getting dark. She made a pan-seared steelhead trout filet topped with sauteed fresh ginger and scallions for dinner. Just because we’re boondocking, we don’t have to eat hot dogs and marshmallows!

Pan cooked salmon with rice and steamed spinach

Pan-cooked steelhead trout with basmati brown rice and steamed spinach

We had a mostly quiet night. When we went to bed, the lack of noise was almost eerie. In the early morning hours before sunrise, the wind kicked up and made a lot of noise. I was up in time to catch the sunrise which was a mirror image of the sunset the night before.

Desert sunrise

We hit the road at 9:40am and headed west on I-8. We made our usual stop on this stretch of road at the Buckman Springs rest area in the Laguna Mountains (map). We took a short break and Donna heated up leftovers for lunch in the microwave oven.

We crested the three 4,000+ foot summits – Tecate Divide, Crestwood Summit and Laguna Summit – then began the rapid descent to El Cajon. Our coach performed beautifully. The coolant temperature never exceeded 195 degrees on the climb over the summits and the Jake brake easily controlled our descent – I never touched the brake pedal all the way down.

The traffic thickened quickly near El Cajon and the drive over La Mesa into Mission Valley wasn’t exactly fun. It never ceases to amaze me when I see some of the bonehead moves car drivers make to try and gain an advantage of a few seconds or to overtake someone so they can take the off-ramp ahead of them.

We checked in at Mission Bay RV Resort around 1:30pm. We have site 135 for the next 31 days. After checking with the security supervisor, Thomas, I drove to our site with the trailer still attached. We unloaded the grills, scooter, chairs and a few other items from the trailer before we went to the storage lot and dropped the trailer. They don’t allow cargo trailers in the sites here. Trailers have to be left in the storage lot. It was handy to be able to unload most of what we’ll need before dropping the trailer. When it’s time to leave, I’ll have to deal with getting everything back to the trailer.

While I was setting up, I stood up and turned while attaching the fresh water hose. I smacked my head against the bottom corner of the bedroom slideout – again. It was a hard whack – I knocked myself down on my backside. My scalp is cut and my head still hurts.

Donna walked over to Enterprise Rental on Garnet Avenue to pick up a car. We rented a car for the weekend so we can visit my step-dad in Menifee today. He is having health issues and I want to see how he’s doing. While Donna went for the car, I scootered over to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for a quick cold one and to enter in this weekend’s football pool.

After we returned home, our friends Bob and Sini Schmitt from Edmonds, Washington picked us up. They are here at the park until next weekend. They took us to their son’s new bar/restaurant. Their son Beau had a partnership with a place called 57 Degrees where he ran The Brew Project. He just opened a new place on Fifth Avenue south of University last Monday. The new Brew Project has been a real project. Bob and Sini have been helping Beau remodel the two-story building and getting the place ready for business. It’s a cool old building in a hip part of town called Hillcrest. We sampled local craft beers – they had 24 beers on tap – and ordered dinner. I had the Havana torta which is carnitas, applewood smoked bacon, swiss cheese, sliced pickles and whole grain honey mustard on telera bread. It was outstanding.

Donna went out for a 3-mile run this morning. She’s planning to run a 5k with her sister Sheila and nephew Connor next weekend at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

The weather here is just about perfect. The forecast high today is 74 degrees with clear blue skies. Overnight lows are around 60 degrees. The weather guessers are predicting more of the same for the next five days.

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.

Happy Birthday Sara

Although the afternoons have been quite warm, the dew point is low and the dry air is agreeable. Even without clouds, the desert sunsets can be spectacular.

Beautiful sunset from our site at Usery Mountain

The evenings cool quickly. On Friday evening, after enjoying happy hour at the Red, White and Brew, Donna and I dined al fresco on grilled boneless chicken thighs at our site at the Usery Mountain Regional Park. It was so nice out, we sat outside until well after 10pm.

Dinner in the open air

In the morning, Donna asked me to scooter her to the Pass Mountain Trailhead. This seven-and-a-half mile trail has an accumulated elevation gain of nearly 1,200 feet. Most people report taking up to three and a half hours to complete the loop – Donna did it in two hours and fifteen minutes.

While Donna was hiking, I scootered over to the Ace Hardware on Power Road. I was looking for a way to add tie-down points along the walls of the trailer. I didn’t find what I was looking for there, so I went down the road to Home Depot. No luck there either. So I scootered over to the Ace Hardware on Higley, which is a well-stocked store. Strike three. I guess I’ll have to wait until we reach San Diego and order what I want from Amazon.

We wanted to rent a car to go to a celebration at the Beer Research Institute (BRI) on Stapley in south Mesa. Our friend Sara Graff’s birthday is this Tuesday and her husband Howard arranged a get-together on the back patio of BRI. We waited too long to book a rental car. Most of the places had closed at noon on Saturday – the ones that were open didn’t have availability.

Making the 18-mile ride (each way) after dark on the scooter didn’t seem like a good idea, especially since I intended to sample a couple of brews. But Howard and Sara offered to come all the way out to the park to pick us up – Sara said she wanted to meet Ozark. Still, that was really nice. Thanks, Howard and Sara!

Donna was feeling adventurous and had a sample flight with a saison, vanilla porter and coffee porter. I had a West Coast style IPA and a black IPA. The beer was good. We had a plate of appetizers that included pretzel balls with dips, southwest poutine and meat candy – yum. The meat candy is sriracha-coated candied bacon.

Sara's party enjoying the back patio at BRI

Howard and Sara’s party on the back patio at BRI

We ordered entrees as well – Howard generously picked up the tab from the open menu to celebrate his wife’s birthday. I like your style, Howard! Donna had a mac and cheese bowl with green chilies and machaca. (She figured she earned it after her hike!)

Mac and cheese with green chilies and machaca

I went for the New Mexico stacked enchiladas plate, which is layers of corn tortilla and shredded chicken with green chilies, cheese and sour cream with a sunnyside up egg on top. We were told we had to try this when we in Albuquerque, but never got around to it.

Stacked enchiladas

After dinner, it was time to break out the cake and sing happy birthday to Sara.

Happy birthday to you

Make a wish

We had a great time. Donna used the Lyft app on her phone to call for a ride home. The Lyft driver showed up within minutes and took us right into the park and dropped us off outside our coach. (If you ever want to try Lyft – or Uber – we have free ride codes we can share with you. Just ask.)

I’ve been dealing with a sore lower back for the past few days. I plan to take it easy, watch the Moto GP race from Sepang and some NFL action. Donna has plans to meet up with her friend, Julia, from Fountain Hills.

Power Outage

I haven’t posted for a couple of days as things have been fairly quiet around here. On Monday morning, we expected a scheduled power outage as the park is upgrading transformers. The power was supposed to be out at 6am and remain out for four to six hours. To compensate, a free breakfast was scheduled at the sister resort, Towerpoint, next door (map). Donna and I walked over to Towerpoint at 7:30am. The breakfast was great – I had a full plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes and a biscuit with sausage gravy! That’s way more than I usually eat, but you know how breakfast buffets are.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Towerpoint Sports Complex. We brought our pickleball gear and met a few players on the court. We played five or six games and had a good time. When we came home, we found the power was on at 9:30am. Later, a park employee came by and delivered a flyer saying the transformer work was delayed and the scheduled outage would occur Tuesday morning, followed by another outage Wednesday afternoon.

Donna serving on the Towerpoint pickleball court

On Tuesday morning, we went back to Towerpoint and played pickleball again. We love this game. I also went to their office to see if they had any availability for us to return here in mid-February. They couldn’t find a site for us – January, February and March are the busiest months for RV parks in the Phoenix area. Later, the woman at the Towerpoint office phoned me and said she found two sites that should be suitable for us and advised me to come back and look at the sites. I reserved site J27 from February 15th through April 15th. This should work out fine for us – our tax accountant is here in Mesa and we can get that handled while we’re here.

When we were in Albuquerque, Donna noticed the left reverse light was out on our coach. I didn’t bother with it while we were there due to all of the balloon activity filling my days. I also didn’t bother with any diagnostic work. Since the right reverse light worked, I ruled out any possibility of a problem with the signal reaching the lights. The tail light and turn signal worked so I didn’t think I had a ground problem either. I went to NAPA Auto Parts and bought new bulbs. The 3156 bulbs came in packages of two. Since the reverse lights and the turn signal lights use the same bulb, I bought two packs so I would have bulbs on hand for all four positions.

I removed the left rear light assembly and took the bulb socket out of the bulb holder by twisting it 90 degrees. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the bulb and the filament appeared to be intact. I broke out my Fluke multimeter and checked continuity through the bulb. I read 50 mega ohms of resistance (50,000,000 ohms)! The new bulb showed 0.9 ohms of resistance. Apparently there was an internal problem with the bulb that wasn’t visible to the naked eye and that’s why it wasn’t working.

Looks can be deceiving

Later that afternoon, I stopped in at Lucky Lou’s and met up with the usual crowd – Leendert Hartoog, John Huff, Mike and Jodi Hall and Pat Fitzpatrick – for a cold one. I came home and our friends and former neighbors, Joel Myaer and Lana Jansen, picked us up and drove us to Alessia’s Ristorante Italiano on the corner of Higley and Brown for dinner. The food was outstanding. I had the strangola over capellini and Donna had pesce puttanesca. Donna and Lana split a bottle of Sangiovese while Joel and I enjoyed Birra Moretti (Italian lager). It was a beautiful evening and we had the entire outdoor patio to ourselves!

Joel, Lana and Donna at Alessia’s

We’ve had some wet weather since we arrived here in Mesa. Thunderstorms have passed through daily with sudden wind gusts and rain. Most of the severe weather has passed by to the west and north of our location. The forecast calls for drier weather ahead.

Donna had an early dental appointment at 7am this morning. I’ll go to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning this afternoon. The power will be out again this afternoon and the park has a free early dinner scheduled. I’ll start packing the trailer this afternoon. We’ll pull out of here tomorrow and head up to Usery Regional Park where we have a site reserved through Monday. We love that place – the hiking, biking and views are so nice there.

Arizona Pine Forests

After the hustle and bustle of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, a couple of dark, quiet, secluded nights in a national forest campground were just what we needed. Late Wednesday afternoon, we walked about three quarters of a mile to the Porter Mountain Steakhouse across the street from the entrance to Scott Reservoir for happy hour. We had a couple of craft beers and Donna had a yummy top sirloin steak salad while I had cup of enchilada soup and Asian chicken wings.

Scott Reservoir

We changed our plans and decided against staying in Payson after finding that there was nothing really suitable. We booked a site at Sun Life RV Resort in Mesa instead. They accepted Passport America and we booked a week at half price. It’s still hot in the Phoenix area but the forecast calls for cooler weather by the weekend. We pulled out of our free campsite at Scott Reservoir in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest around 9:30am. Donna enjoyed the drive through Show Low – it’s a clean, western town that looks like it has everything. Good shopping, lots of restaurants and it’s surrounded by pine forest.

When most people think of Arizona, images of desert landscape or colorful rocky mesas come to mind. But the northern portion of the state at higher elevations is heavily forested.

We drove across AZ260 westbound. This kept us on the Mogollon Rim most of the way. I rode this route on my BMW motorcycle back in the fall of 2008 – here are a couple of photos I took at that time.

Forest south of AZ260

AZ260

We climbed and gained about 1,000 feet in elevation, topping out at 7,700 feet. Some of the grades were long and steep at 6%. The outside air temperature was 90 and my engine coolant temperature rose to 200 degrees on most grades – on one long, steep pull it went up to 210 degrees – the highest I’ve ever seen it. But it cooled quickly to the high 180s after we crested the grades.

Payson sits at an elevation of 5,000 feet so we had a number of long descents before we reached the town. The two-stage Jake brake on our Cummins ISL made the downhills easy. I know I’ve mentioned it many times, but the Jacobs Engineering engine brake is a marvel that I wouldn’t want to live without.

In Payson we hit AZ87 (Beeline Highway). The Beeline Highway has a number of climbs and descents before it intersects with the Bush Highway. We took the Bush Highway past Saguaro Lake then climbed over Usery Pass into Mesa. We found something unusual in the Valley of the Sun – humidity! Humidity is a rare thing here at this time of year.

My first stop was at the Chevron fuel station on the corner of Brown and Ellsworth. This is a couple of blocks away from our old house and I knew they had the cheapest diesel fuel around. I filled our tank with 60 gallons at $2.15/gallon.

While I was fueling, I saw a sticker on the diesel pump with fine print. It said it was illegal to fuel vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 26,001 lbs or more. I saw a guy fueling a medium-duty truck conversion for hauling a fifth-wheel at one of the pumps. I asked him about it and he said we were fueling illegally. Later I went online and found this:

The Arizona tax on gasoline (motor vehicle fuel) is 18¢ per gallon. Use fuel (diesel) is taxed at two rates in Arizona.

If the use fuel is used in the propulsion of a use class motor vehicle on a highway in this state, the tax rate is 26¢ for each gallon.
- A “use class motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle that uses use fuel on a highway in this state and that is a road tractor, truck tractor, truck or passenger carrying vehicle having a declared gross vehicle weight of more than 26,000 pounds or having more than two axles.
If the use fuel is used in the propulsion of a light class motor vehicle (such as a pickup truck) or an exempt vehicle (certain school buses, government and non-profit vehicles, see 28-5432.C) on a highway in this state, the use fuel is taxed at the same rate per gallon as the motor vehicle fuel tax (18¢ per gallon). (See28-5601, 5605, 5606.)

Our GVWR is 31,000 lbs, so I was fueling illegally. I’m supposed to get fuel at a truck stop and pay the additional eight cents per gallon tax. I could have been fined up to $1,000 for fueling at a diesel pump that applies the light class tax. Yikes!

I saw another diesel pusher motorhome pull up to the pump as we were leaving. I wonder how stringent the enforcement is? I think I’ll stick to truck stops in Arizona in the future.

We settled into site G15 at the Sun Life RV Resort by 2pm. I had to drop the trailer in our site before I could back the coach in. We stayed here back in January 2014 – we checked in with our Gulfstream Sun Voyager coach and by the time we left we had our Alpine Coach.

After my usual set-up routine, I washed the front cap and windshield before installing the sun shades. We collected an incredible amount of bugs crossing New Mexico. Sometime during the next week I’ll wash the coach and try to polish out the scratches left by the tree at Scott Reservoir.

Last night I watched the NFL game as the New Orleans Saints knocked off the previously unbeaten Atlanta Falcons. By the time I went to bed, Ozark was cuddled up the back of Donna’s knees and they were both sleeping soundly.

Ozark cuddling with Donna

I slept fairly well – it’s quieter here than Orangewood Shadows where we last stayed in Mesa. We’ll head over to the pickleball courts this morning and see if we can find someone to play.

Sour Ale

Thursday was a pretty quiet day around here. My big deal for the day was servicing the scooter. I changed the engine oil and filter and also the gearbox lube. This is required every 3,000 miles. Donna went out for about an hour on her bicycle. Later she walked to the natural foods store half a mile from here. She was disappointed in the quality of their produce though. As usual, Ozark hung out and watched the birds outside.

Ozark keeping an eye on things

I went to the office and extended our stay here at Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV park through Monday. It’s a good thing I did it when I did – the place is sold out next week! The Thursday night NFL game was entertaining. It looked like it was heading to overtime when the Broncos stunned the Chiefs in the waning seconds to win 31-24.

On Friday morning, I rode the scooter over to the community center to play pickleball. Donna walked over about a half hour after I arrived. I played for nearly three hours. I was whipped by the time we were done! We were told about a new outdoor pickleball court that will open Saturday afternoon. I don’t know if my legs can take another day of pickleball at this point though.

On Friday afternoon, I repaired the windshield washer nozzle on the passenger side. I’ve been putting it off since we arrived here. The plastic housing where the hose attaches cracked and separated from the nozzle. After thinking about it, I decided to try gluing it back together with a contact adhesive called Goop. This stuff will adhere to almost anything. The trick is to pre-fit the parts so you know exactly how you want them positioned. I applied a thin bead on both parts and allowed it set for two minutes. Then I pressed the housing into place and held it for a few minutes. That’s all there was to it. By allowing the contact adhesive to set up first, when you press the parts together, they bond immediately. It looks like it will be a good repair – time will tell.

For happy hour, Donna and I went to Duel Brewing – a Belgian-style brewery and tap room (map). Duel isn’t your run-of-the-mill micro-brewery. They specialize in Belgian-style beers that are complex to brew and unique in taste and character. I had a Belgian pale sour ale. Sour ales are so different and can be very tasty. They are made sour by intentionally allowing wild yeasts or certain bacteria to enter the wort. Usually brewmasters do everything possible to keep a sterile environment and only allow specific brewers yeasts into the fermentation. Brewing sour beer is risky – if the wild yeast or bacteria get out of control, the brew is ruined. The sour ale I tried was out of this world! Donna had a Belgian witbier called Marcel – it’s brewed with coriander and bitter orange peel. She really liked it. We shared sardines and olive tapenade and cornichons with sliced baguette.

Belgian pale sour ale

We only had one beer each as we were on the scooter. When we returned to the RV park, it was filling up fast. I saw an unusual outfit in one of the sites. It was a tiny trailer that transforms into an elevated tent with a canvas room trailing behind. I wish I could have watched them put it up.

Small trailer transformed into this

Another unique RV pulled into the site next to us. It’s a medium-duty Freightliner truck with a long wheelbase and living quarters. It also has a gooseneck trailer hitch. I talked to the owners – a friendly couple from Minnesota. They use their RV to haul a horse trailer. They spend the summer in Minnesota, then haul their horses to Georgia in the winter. The truck is fairly new to them and they’re out for a few weeks of travel without the horse trailer.

Freightliner medium-duty truck – RV

Gooseneck hitch in back

On the other side of our site, we have two identical Newmar Dutch Stars. They’re traveling together – I don’t know if they’re related to each other. One has a Mississippi plate, the other Louisiana. Other than that, they are the same with a 4018 floorplan and exactly the same paint scheme. They even have similar name signs on the dashboard.

Today we’ll buy bus passes and head downtown. We’ll decide later if we want to play pickleball this afternoon.

Stay and Play in Santa Fe

Donna and I rode the scooter over to the community center yesterday. The Genoveva Chavez Community Center in Santa Fe houses swimming pools, an ice skating rink, workout rooms and a large gymnasium. They have a ton of scheduled activities, including pickleball on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Non-member visitors pay a $6 fee to use the facility.

I haven’t played pickleball since we were in Branson, Missouri at the end of June. I expected to be rusty but I actually played a decent first game. I thought I would improve after a few games, but I was wrong again. I slumped through games three and four but picked up my level of play again in my fifth and last game. Donna played well and we had a lot of fun. It’s a nice group of people there and we’ll probably go again tomorrow. Overall, the level of competition is somewhat lower than we found in Arizona and San Diego which was good for us getting back into the game.

We’ve worked out our travel schedule for the next few weeks. We’ll extend our stay here in Santa Fe and depart next Monday. Our next destination is Albuquerque. We plan to spend two nights dry-camped at a casino before checking into the High Desert RV Park there. We’ll stay in the RV park for a week before we meet up with Ruth and Larry for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We met Ruth and Larry when we were in Mesa, Arizona earlier this year. They coordinate volunteers to crew for balloon teams. We’ll be dry-camped at their place while we crew at the balloon fiesta.

After the balloon fiesta, we plan to head to Arizona. We need to figure out where we’ll stay there and for how long. We’re thinking about boondocking at the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area in Mesa. We want to stop in Casa Grande and Yuma as well. From there, we’ll probably spend a night or two at our favorite boondock in the desert before heading back to San Diego. I’ve booked two months at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego beginning November 6th.

Last night, I enjoyed a bottle of Stone IPA while we watched the republican presidential debate. As always, the Stone was excellent. I won’t editorialize on the debate as I don’t want this blog to get mired in politics.

The good stuff

Nothing too exciting on the agenda today. I’ll service the scooter – change the engine oil and filter and change the gear box oil. Donna is going out for a bike ride. Tomorrow we’ll hit the pickleball courts again.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Beer

Kramer’s Best

30 Degrees West

Raccoons at the Park

Back to the Bay

Yuma Checklist Done

Happy Birthday Sara

Power Outage

Arizona Pine Forests

Sour Ale

Stay and Play in Santa Fe

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