Category Archives: Beer

Austin Moto GP – Day One

Our last couple of days at Lake Buchanan were low-key. I got up on the roof to check out the air conditioners. The condenser coils were dirty so I cleaned them but I could’t find any faults in the wiring. I’m not sure why we had trouble with erratic operation earlier. Donna took a few hikes in the area and we fished from the park piers. The fishing wasn’t so good – the wind whipped up large swells on the lake and the water was turbid. I landed one catfish.

I should mention that Lake Buchanan was formed when a dam was built on the Colorado River in 1939. That’s right, Colorado River. This name confused me at first. When I think of the Colorado River I think of the river that flows west of the continental divide through Lake Powell and on to the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Lake Havasu and so on down to the Gulf of California. But, there’s another Colorado River (Texas) that flows from Dawson County generally southeast for about 860 miles, then empties into the Gulf of Mexico. I’m always learning something new on the road.

We pulled out Thursday morning around 10:30am. We followed a couple of numbered ranch roads that had light traffic and smooth pavement south to TX71. This highway took us east. Our first stop was at Bee Cave where I had scouted out the Specs Fine Food and Liquor on Google Earth. It looked to have easy access and ample parking. I restocked the beer supply and bought a bottle of Scotch there and we were back on our way.

Our next stop was Walmart for some provisions. In many parts of Texas, a frontage or service road runs parallel to the highway. These roads are generally one way on each side of the highway with numerous ramps to enter or exit the highway. At times this confuses Nally – our RV specific GPS. Civilian GPS units aren’t totally location accurate – they can have a tolerance of several yards. At times Nally would advise me to prepare for a right turn when I actually needed to go left ahead. I figured out that the GPS had me on the highway, not the service road and was advising me to exit the highway right, then go left from the service road. Confusing for sure since I was already on the service road. This made me miss our Walmart stop.

We drove on to the Pilot Travel Center in Mustang Ridge and topped up the fuel tank. We’ll be on generator power for the next few days at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) race track and I wanted a full fuel tank. When we arrived at the track, we had a few issues with the signage. We went the long way around the track but never saw lot N where we had dry camping reservations.

After finding a place to get our rig turned around, we backtracked and saw the entrance. Coming from our original direction, the sign and entrance was hidden behind a large tree. We found a site and dropped our trailer, then set up. The sites are not at all level, but we have easy access to the track.

Donna and I went for a walk to check out the track and find our grandstand seats.

Fast S section

Turn two – workers walking the track to check for debris

It was windy but the temperature was pleasant. We rode the Spyder to a nearby grocery store/Mexican market and picked up a few items.

Friday morning action started with the free practice sessions. We were trackside a little after 9am for the Moto 3 free practice (FP) 1. Moto 3 is the entry into international motorcycle road racing. The bikes are single cylinder 250cc machines. They’re very lightweight, the racing is close and drafting on the straights is key. Riders must move up or leave the class by the age of 28.

Next up was Moto GP FP 1. Moto GP is the pinnacle of the sport. The bikes are 1000cc and make around 250 horsepower. They’re very sophisticated and extremely fast. The most popular Moto GP rider is nine-time World Champion, Valentino Rossi – The Doctor is his nickname.

Marc Marquez – the villain of the Argentina round enters turn 16

The Doctor coming up on a slower rider at 16

The day was overcast and the wind made it feel colder than the mid 60s the thermometer showed. Before lunch, Donna went back to the coach for a warmer jacket and brought one back for me.

We had lunch at the track and walked around between the 45-minute sessions. We left around 3pm during the Moto 2 FP 2. Moto 2 is the second level of international motorcycle road racing and feature 600cc motorcycles with identical engines, but different chassis manufacturers. Honda supplies the engines.

Back at the coach, I read for a bit and took a short nap. We went back to the track for a pit walk open to premium pass holders – we had it and an invitation. The pit walk was very loosely organized. We wandered the pits and took a gander at the bikes and watched some of the teams preparing for Saturday. At the Repsol Honda garage, the mechanics had repaired Marc Marquez’s bike – he took a fall in FP 2. They also serviced his back-up bike and were test running them.

Honda mechanics running bikes to check for leaks and proper function

Here are a few of the bikes.

Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha

Working on Maverick Vinales’ Yamaha

Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati

Jack Miller’s Pramac Ducati

Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda

Scott Redding’s Aprilia

On the pit lane – the hill into turn one in the background is much steeper than it appears

After we left the pit lane, we walked through the MotoAmerica paddock. MotoAmerica is an American National Championship road racing series. I talked to Roger Hayden – a team Yoshimura Suzuki rider and asked about the bumps on the track a lot of the riders were complaining about. He said the back straight was bumpy and a so were a few other spots, but he didn’t think it was as bad as some of the riders were saying. Of course, he’s on a production based 1000cc Superbike, not a Moto GP prototype that’s going a bit faster.

Today we have thunderstorms in the forecast. If it happens, it may create problems for some of the sessions. FP 3 is scheduled this morning then FP 4 in the afternoon followed by the qualifying sessions. If the rain floods the track, Free Practice times will be used to set the grid instead of the usual qualifying.

We’ll dress accordingly and check it out. But if we have hard rain, I’m coming back to the coach to watch it on TV!

Drats – No Bats!

In my last post Friday morning, I said we would make a decision on traveling or waiting out the high wind forecast. Friday the 13th didn’t start out great. I ground coffee beans and filled the coffee maker, but it didn’t turn on. Then I realized the digital clock on it wasn’t displaying. Our new coffee maker was dead.

I think I know what killed it. I’d left it plugged in the whole time we were boondocking. I didn’t give it much thought. I figured it only draws current while brewing and it seemed to be doing that fine until Friday morning. Then I thought about the clock – the coffee maker was drawing a small amount of current whenever it was plugged in. Our inverter is a modified sine wave unit. A pure sine wave has the voltage rising above zero in a smooth curve before it turns down and goes below the zero line. A modified sine is a series of square steps rising above zero then falling below the zero line.

For most applications, this works fine. However, some electronic components don’t get on well with the blocky modified wave. I’m guessing delicate components in the coffee maker controller burned out from the modified sine wave.

By 8:30am, the wind was already blowing out of the northwest. We decided it would be best to stay off the road and spend another day in Alamogordo in our sheltered spot at the abandoned shopping plaza. The wind speed increased throughout the day with several hard gusts shaking the coach. We went over to the Elks Lodge for happy hour in the evening.

On Saturday morning, the wind was much calmer. We headed out of Alamogordo and went north on US54 to Tularosa. We picked up US70 there and headed northeast over the Capitan Mountains. Near the Mescalero Apache Reservation, we topped out on Apache Summit at nearly 7,000 feet above sea level.

US70 merged with US380 and eventually took us to Roswell. We stopped at a Target store there and bought a replacement coffee maker – we have to have our coffee. On Friday morning after I discovered our coffee maker died, we broke out the Keurig – we still had it packed away along with some K-cups. I can hardly believe we were ever happy drinking that stuff – the fresh ground beans brewed in a thermal coffee maker is far superior.

We had lunch at a Subway sandwich shop after parking in a free city parking lot downtown. We were the only vehicle in the lot! Coming into Roswell, Donna saw a sign that proclaimed Roswell, New Mexico as the dairy capital of the southwest. When I think of Roswell, I don’t think about dairy. I think about alien space invaders and a town with a funky artwork and an alien museum.

Mural downtown Roswell – hey, that critter on the left is called Mike!

From Roswell, we took US285 to Carlsbad, New Mexico. We found an Elks Lodge there and dry camped in their RV area. The Elks Lodge is right next to the Pecos River, across the street from a conference center and riverwalk. Donna went for walk along the river – here are a couple of photos she took.

Riverwalk path

A guy fishing from a pavilion on the riverwalk

Later, when we went inside the lodge for a cold one, we met a guy that drove up from Mentone, Texas for dinner. That’s about 88 miles away! He said there isn’t much in Mentone and he’s temporarily based there working as a safety officer in the oil fields.

He asked me where we were heading. I told him I thought we’d go east to Hobbs, New Mexico then turn south to Big Spring as we make our way to Austin, Texas. He said that was a great route and said we’d really like US62/US180. He said it was a divided highway – two lanes in each direction and nice pavement.

We planned to go over to Carlsbad Caverns National Park Sunday. We could stay in a nearby RV park for the night and check out the bats coming out of the cave after sundown. Before we moved, I looked at the Radar Express app and found weather advisories in the area. High wind warning for the area all the way from the Guadalupe Mountains to the west of Carlsbad Caverns to Big Spring, Texas from Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon! Oh no!

We need to be in Austin by Thursday – I’ve paid for tickets and dry camping at the Circuit of the Americas there for the Moto GP race weekend. If we got stuck in Carlsbad because of dangerous wind conditions, we might not make it to Austin. We decided to pass on Carlsbad Caverns this time and hightail it out of the area.

We took US62/US180 east to Hobbs where I topped up our tank with $160 worth of diesel fuel. It was $3.17/gallon – the most we’ve paid in the last year. Our route took us across the Texas border – where we lost another hour as we transitioned to Central Time – through Seminole and Lamesa.

From there we took US87 south and planned to stop in Sterling City and dry camp at a city park there. The park turned out to be a bust – low hanging tree branches prevented us from entering and it didn’t look like a great place for a big rig anyway. We continued south through San Angelo and found a boondocking spot at the Twin Buttes Reservoir. Our plan now is to head down to an RV park at Buchanan Dam, which will bring us within 70 miles of Austin on Monday. We’ll take it easy for a few days with full hook-ups to catch up on laundry, fill the freshwater tank and dump the holding tanks. Then we’re off to the races.

It looks like we’ll have warm weather in Austin – around 80 degrees. I need to figure out why the air conditioners didn’t operate when powered by the generator.

 

 

A Day in Bisbee

After a leisurely breakfast Tuesday morning, we took the Spyder out of the trailer and headed to Bisbee. From the Desert Oasis Campground, it’s about an 11-mile ride although Bisbee is about six or seven miles due west as the crow flies. We headed out on Double Adobe Road then up AZ80 to town.

We hit the historic district exit and followed the main thoroughfare which becomes Tombstone Canyon Road. Historic Bisbee is situated in a narrow canyon – a gulch. On either side of Tombstone Canyon Road, the canyon walls immediately climb. The side roads are narrow switchbacks and the houses are built on terraces – many of which are accessible only by climbing concrete stairs.

House terraced on the canyon wall with stairs for access

The main commercial area occupies about a mile of Tombstone Canyon Road and is geared toward tourism. There are a number of eclectic shops and galleries along with a couple of bars and restaurants. I bought a hat in one of the shops – it’s a western cattlemen style hat with an upturned four-inch brim made of Guatemalan palm.

They hold an event every year in Bisbee called the Bisbee 1000. It’s a 4.5-mile course including more than 1000 steps up the stairs connected by winding roads. Some people enter to run the course competitively while others join in to walk/jog the course and take in the scenic views.

Bisbee 1000

Not for the faint of heart

Another thing they do at the Bisbee 1000 is hold a special competition called Ironman Ice. To compete in this you must carry a ten pound block of ice with old-fashioned tongs up the stairs.

Ironman Ice – look closely, there are three sets of stairs before you reach the top

We figured to get lunch in Bisbee and were told that the best Mexican fare would be found at Santiago’s on Brewery Avenue. When I bought the hat, the gal in the store said Santiago’s was good, but if we wanted the best Sonoran food, we should go to Contessa’s Cantina. It’s been family owned and operated for five generations and she said it’s where the locals go.

We ended up at Contessa’s Cantina and weren’t disappointed. Later, we walked past Santiago’s to go to the Old Bisbee Brewing Company. The bartender there confirmed that Santiago’s was where most tourists were happy to go, but the locals go to Contessa’s. Donna and I split a flight of samplers at the brewery and unfortunately found it lacking. None of the beers were anything special – in fact I found the brewer to be a bit heavy-handed. The IPA had a bitter aftertaste, the Mayan stout had too much chocolate and coffee lending it a bitter aftertaste too and the vanilla porter was so forward with the vanilla, Donna commented that she felt like she just drank vanilla extract.

Stairs between two businesses with beautiful murals

Bisbee is a funky little town – especially in the historic district. It was founded in 1880 and the economy was fueled by mining. The Copper Queen mine was the most successful. In the early 1900s, it was the largest copper producer in Arizona. Small amounts of gold and silver were also recovered from the mine along with a turquoise called Bisbee Blue. The population of the town topped out around 10,000 people and there are 6,000 or so here today.

There are three distinct areas of Bisbee today – the historic district, the San Juan district which is more modern and has shopping centers and the Warren district which was the first planned community in Arizona. It was originally conceived as a suburb for executive and management level people in the mining industry. There’s another area called Lowell that’s now reduced to just a a few streets as the area was dug out by the Lavender pit mine.

The Lavender pit was named after Harrison Lavender – vice president of mining giant Phelps Dodge in 1950. The pit produced 86 million tons of ore and covers 300 acres. The pit has steep walls and is 900 feet deep.

View of Lavender pit from AZ80 looking southwest

Looking east at the Lavender pit

After two nights here in the desert, we’re ready to move on. Our plan is to head into New Mexico on AZ80 which becomes NM80 as we cross the stateline. We’ll lose an hour as we enter the Mountain Time Zone. We have a few options for our destination for the day – we plan to put in 200-250 miles and find a place to boondock for the night.

Our last Sonoran desert sunset – until next time

We should see warm temperatures and clear skies. The wind is forecast to come from the southwest, so we’ll have a tailwind component and hopefully no worries about crosswind gusts.

 

Tombstone and the Copperstate 1000

It’s a rare event for us to leave an RV park when we still have a couple of paid nights on the books. But, that’s what we did in Benson. We paid $50 for a discounted week in a full hook-up site, then we changed our plan and pulled out yesterday after five nights. There wasn’t anything wrong with the SKP Saguaro RV Park – we just felt like we should move on so we could have more options as we make our way to Austin, Texas for the Moto GP race weekend.

We finished packing at a leisurely pace, then I dumped and flushed the holding tanks and packed away our water filtration system. There were dry-camping pull-through sites across from us and they were empty. So I pulled forward into one of the sites and loaded the Spyder in the trailer. We were on our way around 10:30am.

We traveled down AZ80 for about half an hour and entered Tombstone – AZ80 runs right through town a block off of the historic downtown district. We found a great place to park in front of the old school – now closed and the building is up for sale – right on the highway which is called Fremont Street in town.

Tombstone was an old west mining town founded in 1879. When silver was discovered in mines around the town, the population quickly grew from around 100 to 14,000 in less than seven years! Most people know of Tombstone from movies which depict the shootout between the Earp brothers – Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan along with Doc Holliday. They killed murder suspects Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. This took place October 26, 1881 at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. The Earps and Doc Holliday were cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation.

The main thoroughfare in the historic district is Allen Street. Three blocks of Allen Street from the O.K. Corral to the west and the Bird Cage Theatre to the east are closed to vehicular traffic, other than a stage coach which you can ride – for a fee of course.

Allen Street

The Bird Cage Theatre was a theater, saloon, gambling parlour, and brothel in Tombstone. It operated continuously 24 hours a day year ’round from 1881 to 1889. This was the wild west!

Bird Cage Theatre

We walked down the boardwalk along Allen Street and saw something I didn’t remember from previous visits. They had a few placards that described historic action that took place at that particular spot. As always, you can click on the photos to enlarge and read the placards if you wish.

View across the street from the Oriental Saloon

Tombstone stage coach ride – I don’t think the plastic cooler on top is authentic to the period

At the O.K. Corral

We walked over to the courthouse a block to the south on Toughnut Street. We wanted to see about dry camping there – Donna said she saw a sign on the highway that boondocking was available in the courthouse area for $10/night. The girl at the courthouse knew nothing about it. Maybe Donna missed some info on the sign.

While we were at the courthouse, I saw a sign for a new brewery down the street about a block away. We walked in that direction and I could smell boiling wort – they were brewing. They opened last year and have the brewery open to the public from 11am to 7pm daily. We stopped in for a look and had a taster of a couple of their brews. They have a 15-barrel system, so they’re able to brew upwards of 450 gallons per batch. The brews we tasted were unique and very good.

The guy at the bar was only on his second day working there and didn’t have much information. I saw the brew master emptying a mash tun – I wish I would have spoken with him and taken a few pictures. We bought a few brews to take with us. I tried one last night – it’s called Another Exercise in Mediocrity. I think the name is hilarious. It was taken from a troll post on their website when they announced the opening of the new brewery. It’s actually a very good beer made with advanced techniques. The brew master utilizes hop oil and lupulin powder. These concentrated hop extracts allow higher hop utilization without some of the vegetation side effects from extreme use of whole hops. It seems that brewing is moving into a new phase.

Tombstone Brewing Company

We continued south on AZ 80 after spending about an hour in Tombstone. Tombstone sits at an elevation of about 4,500 feet above sea level, so we climbed from Benson to get there. As we rolled south it was mostly uphill to reach Bisbee which is at an elevation of about 5,400 feet above sea level.

It’s about 25 miles from Tombstone to Bisbee. Along this stretch of AZ80, I saw a Jaguar XKE roadster from the mid-’60s. Then I saw a DeTomaso Pantera from the early ’70s. They were both heading north. Then I saw a couple of Ferrari 250GTs from the ’60s, another Jaguar XKE and another Pantera and an Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider. I knew something was up when I saw a Ferrari 512 BB come by. Then it occurred to me – the Copperstate 1000 rally kicked off on Sunday in Tempe.

The Copperstate 1000 rally is an annual event for cars made before 1973. Participants apply for entry and if they’re one of the 80 entrants chosen, they pay $7,000 for a four-day, 1,000-mile rally through Arizona. It’s not a race – it’s a joy ride for car enthusiasts to take with like-minded individuals in a unique caravan. The entry fee includes hotel and food for the driver and co-driver along with mechanical assistance if needed. The route varies every year and is kept secret – they don’t want gawkers lining streets along the route for safety reasons. The route usually takes either a northern swing from Tempe or a southern loop. The drivers get the route information when they sign in. Obviously, this year they took a southern route and that’s why I was seeing all of these cool old cars on the road. By the way, the proceeds benefit the Phoenix Art Museum and the Copperstate 10-90 Foundation.

We drove through Bisbee and continued south a few miles to Double Adobe Road. This took us to the Desert Oasis Campground where we booked two nights. With our Passport America discount, it was only $20/night plus tax for a pull-through full hook-up site. Passport America annual membership already paid for itself!

Desert Oasis site 22

We’re in the middle of nowhere in the desert about 11 miles from Bisbee and about six miles from the US-Mexico border. Today we’ll go to Bisbee and explore. Tomorrow we plan to head into New Mexico. The weather forecast looks good – it’ll be dry and warm. I’m keeping an eye on the wind forecast – it looks like it should be in the mid- to high teens. If it isn’t gusty, it shouldn’t pose a problem.

 

 

 

 

Snowbirds Heading Home

Happy Easter! April first already – we’re a quarter of the way through 2018 and we’ve been in one location the entire time. That’s about to change. I played a lot of pickleball during the last week. I’m trying to play as much as I can before we move to parts unknown. I played two hours a day for six days in a row – and I’m feeling it!

It seemed like everyone had the same thought as the pickleball courts have been full most of the time. A few of the 2.5 level players moved up to play with the 3.0-3.5 group for the last 10 days or so. Donna was one of them. The crowd is quickly thinning out though. The majority of the snowbirds here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort are from Canada.

The Canadians are going home in droves. They have to apportion their time spent in the USA. If they’re in the USA for more than 180 days in a calendar year, they may owe US taxes. Also, if they’re out of their home province for more than 6 months, they may lose their healthcare benefits. I’m guessing we won’t have the pickleball courts full tomorrow. I’ll play Monday and Tuesday, but I also have a number of chores to make us ready for the road.

On Friday evening, Donna and I went to Lucky Lou’s to visit with friends over happy hour. The weather was nice and we enjoyed a couple of cold ones on the patio.

The usual suspects at Lucky Lou’s

We’ll be pulling out of here on Wednesday, so we should have another chance to get together before we say, “See ya next year!”

While we were out, Donna had a pork tenderloin marinating in sesame chili oil with fresh ginger. When we got home, she grilled it on the Weber Q along with baby bok choy and served it with a baked sweet potato.

Grilled pork tenderloin, baby bok choy and sweet potato

Things are heating up here in Mesa, Arizona. The temperature reached 90 degrees yesterday. After six straight days of pickleball, I spent most of Saturday afternoon relaxing with my Kindle. I was feeling a little beat up – my right wrist and shoulder were sore.

Donna went to the pool to relax and read. While she was out, I jumped on the Spyder. I wanted to fill the gas tank and decided to make another pit stop. I picked up a Belgian ale – a bottle of Abt 12 from the Trappist monks at St. Bernardus Abbey in the west Flanders region of Belgium. It’s brewed in the quadruppel style – a nice balance of maltiness and bitterness with some spice flavor. It’s strong at 10% ABV, but not hot at all or excessively heavy.

Abt 12 ale

For dinner, Donna made scallops in a brown butter and lemon sauce with capers. She served it over whole wheat orzo with green beans on the side. We dined outside in the shade of our coach. We ran the air conditioners to cool the coach in the evening.

Scallops in brown butter lemon sauce

The forecast calls for another warm day today with a high of nearly 90 degrees. I plan to cook a chicken on the Traeger for dinner. Tomorrow I’ll clean the Traeger and load it in the trailer. Hopefully I can get most of the trailer things organized and battened down tomorrow. On Tuesday, I’ll put away the wheel covers and windshield cover, then set the tire pressures. Then we’ll be just about ready to go. On Wednesday morning, I’ll dump and flush the holding tanks, hook up the trailer and load the Spyder. We’ll be rolling down the road to Benson, Arizona before noon – I’m shooting for sometime between 10 and 11 am.

Grillin’ and Chillin’

Our time is getting short here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. We’re staying active on the pickleball courts and getting out with friends before we move on. Many of the snowbirds have already left for home and I expect to see a lot more heading out before the weekend. The weather has been mostly pleasant with daily highs in the upper 70s and low 80s.

On Wednesday evening, Donna grilled wild Alaskan salmon on the Weber Q and we dined al fresco at our folding table. It was nice to eat dinner outdoors in shorts and flip-flops.

Grilled salmon with mango salsa, steamed asparagus and baked potato

On Thursday, we had dinner plans with our friends, Dave and Stilla Hobden. Stilla is from Germany and Dave was stationed there for many years. They recommended a German restaurant on Main Street called Zur Kate – they said the cuisine was authentic German fare. They were right!

We all ordered schnitzel – they have seven varieties on the menu. Although the most well-known German schnitzel is wiener schnitzel which is made with veal, these were Vienna style schnitzel made from pork tenderloin. The tenderloin is pounded flat to tenderize it and then it’s breaded and pan fried. Dave, Donna and I ordered the Jager schnitzel (hunter’s schnitzel) which had a brown mushroom gravy and onions. Stilla had the schnitzel cordon bleu which had a thin slice of ham and Swiss cheese on it covered with gravy.

Jager schnitzel with home fried potatoes and red cabbage at Zur Kate

The food was great and it was fun to catch up with Dave and Stilla – it’s been a year since we last saw them.

On Friday morning, our friends Mike and Jodi Hall took us out in the desert by Sycamore Creek to do some target shooting. Mike and Kim Childs joined us along with Jeff and Chrissy Van Deren. It was a fun morning. While we were out in the desert, a military Blackhawk helicopter suddenly appeared as it climbed out of a ravine below us and flew overhead no more 100 feet high. It would have been illegal for a civilian helicopter to fly that close to people, but the military has exemptions.

On Friday afternoon, Donna’s friend Audrey Muehe came by and we loaded the Sea Eagle 370 inflatable kayak in Audrey’s car. They went to the Salt River to kayak – Audrey has a Sea Eagle kayak too.  They took a two-hour cruise on the river from the bridge on Bush Highway down to the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area where they pulled out. They saw wild horses, bald eagles and herons along the way.

Wild horse on the Salt River (Audrey Muehe photo)

Saturday evening Donna got busy on the Weber Q again and grilled boneless chicken thighs with olive oil, minced garlic and fresh herbs. She served them with smashed garlic potatoes and sauteed spinach.

Grilled boneless chicken thigh with smashed potato and spinach

Donna’s getting pretty good with the grill and has taken over a lot of the grilling which used to be my domain. I still run the Traeger though.

Sunday morning I watched the first race of the Formula One season from Melbourne, Australia. It was a very entertaining race with some close racing on a track that’s very hard to overtake on. Lewis Hamilton was leading from Kimi Raikonnen and Sebastian Vettel when Kimi pitted his Ferrari after lap 18. Hamilton pitted on the following lap. Vettel inherited the lead as he stayed out. On lap 22 a disabled Haas car on the track in an unsafe position forced a virtual safety car – this means that everyone must slow down and hold station – no overtaking. Vettel was nearly at the end of the lap and dove into the pits for fresh tires. With the rest of the field lapping slowly he came back out on the track still in first place. The obviously biased British announcer cried foul claiming he somehow took advantage of Hamilton and took first place away. The fact is, he was in first place when the virtual safety car was declared and he remained in first place – he didn’t pass Hamilton or anyone else, he held station as he is required to. Vettel went on to win the race.

Sara Graff picked up Donna Sunday around 10:45am. I loaded the Sea Eagle and they met Audrey at Phon D Sutton. They left Sara’s car there and took Audrey’s car up river where they put in again. They spent a few hours on the river. It had more traffic than it did on Friday, but they still had a great time and saw more horses and wildlife.

While Donna was out, I tackled a chore I had been putting off. Our Delta kitchen faucet had loosened and needed to be re-secured. It’s a high rise single handle pull-down model. The base has a hollow threaded tube that the hose for the pull-down spray head runs through. A nut is threaded on the tube to clamp a rectangular base pad under the kitchen counter, securing the faucet in place.

I had to remove a fitting on the spray hose, then use a special Delta faucet tool to reach the nut. The tool is hollow and has a 15/16″ hex on one end to fit the nut and a couple of wings on the other end for leverage to spin the nut tight. It seems like it should be a simple task, but RV plumbing is never so simple. I had to squeeze into a tight opening under the sink and I couldn’t see the nut I was trying to reach. The hot and cold pex supply lines run right next to the nut, making it difficult to get the tool in place. I saw that I hadn’t oriented the rectangular base plate correctly when I installed the faucet and I think that’s why it loosened. I turned it 90 degrees so it would rest squarely against the underside of the countertop – it was riding on part of the sink before. I got it done and I think it’ll stay tight now.

Delta faucet tool

After Donna returned from kayaking, she started preparing dinner. While she was doing that, I enjoyed a bottle of one of my new favorite beers – Duvel Citra. It’s a Belgian golden ale that’s triple hopped and features citra hops. This gives it a unique flavor – the bitterness borders on sour and I like it.

Duvel Citra

The Duvel is tasty, but it’s dangerous at 9.5% ABV, so I only had one. With dinner, I had another new beer I found. It’s from Lagunitas Brewery in Petaluma, California and it’s called Aunt Sally. They describe it as “A unique dry-hopped sweet tart sour mash ale.” The description fits. I like it and at 5.7% ABV, it won’t make me get cross-eyed.

Lagunitas Aunt Sally

Donna served the flank steak with parmesan-herb potatoes and a side of sauted sweet peppers, red onion and Mexican squash. It was delicious!

Flank steak with parmesan-herb potatoes, sweet peppers, onions, and Mexican squash

The forecast calls for the pleasant weather to continue before it gets up to 90 degrees next weekend. I don’t think we’ll see any rain as we count down our last 10 days here in Mesa. I’m getting the hitch itch and I’m looking forward to hitting the road.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

 

No Green Beer

We had mixed weather here in Mesa over the weekend. Friday was pleasant with the high temperature reaching the low 70s.  Donna had a couple of errands in the afternoon, so she planned to ride with me on the Spyder to handle them. First I took her to the dry cleaners on McDowell and Power Road. I waited in front while she picked up a dress she had altered there.

While I was waiting, I heard the growl of a V-12 engine. An older Ferrari 575 Maranello drove into the lot and came past me. The 575 Maranello was made from 2002 to 2006 and had a 5.75 liter V-12 engine putting out 508 horsepower. A higher performance version called a Super America was also offered with 533 horsepower.

From there, I dropped Donna off at Home Depot where she wanted to return a phone cord she purchased – it wasn’t the one we wanted. I rode on to Lucky Lou’s where I joined the usual suspects and Donna walked over from Home Depot to meet up. When we were leaving Lucky Lou’s, something caught my eye. It was the same Ferrari 575 Maranello parked over by the Walgreen’s Pharmacy. I’m guessing the owner was in Lucky Lou’s and parked the car out of the way in the near empty Walgreen’s lot.

Ferrari 575 Maranello parked near Lucky Lou’s

I always like seeing exotic cars that are driven on the street. This Ferrari looked like a daily driver for someone – there were a few paint chips on the front, but it was a nice looking car in good condition. Originally these cars sold for $250,000 and up – a Super America was closer to half a million dollars.

On Saturday morning, Donna played in a 2.5 level pickleball tournament. I went down to the courts to referee the games on court one – there are five courts. Donna played well and won all five of her five games. She then played in the championship game, but she and her partner were beat and finished the tournament in second place. The weather stayed nice Saturday afternoon with the high in the low 70s, but clouds moved in during the afternoon.

We spent Saint Patrick’s day at home. Donna prepared a traditional Irish meal – she always does on Saint Patrick’s Day. Before I met Donna, I usually went out to a pub for Saint Paddy’s and drank green beer. Donna’s Irish heritage calls for something a little better than green beer in a pub. She made corned beef, of course – and served it with a potato side dish called champ, cabbage and carrots that cooked along with beef in the crockpot and Irish soda bread.

Saint Patrick’s Day dinner

A few rain drops were falling by bedtime. It rained lightly off and on during the night and on Sunday morning, we had a couple more showers before the sun came out. The temperature only reached the mid-60s. Sunday marked the start of the Moto GP season and we were treated to an excellent race from the circuit in Qatar. Valentino Rossi proved he can still ride with the leaders in the highest level of motorcycle road racing at the age of 39.

For Sunday night’s dinner, Donna prepared teriyaki BBQ pork kabobs and grilled them on skewers. The recipe called for the pork to marinate, then a different sauce was used to baste the skewers on the grill making a delightful glaze on them. Yummy!

Pork kabobs over a bed of basmati brown rice

This morning I was back at the pickleball courts playing in the 3.0-3.5 round robin. Tomorrow Donna will join me in the 3.0-3.5 open play – she’s ready to move up. Today we should see a high in the mid-70s with clear skies. The forecast calls for 80s in the next couple of days and 91 on Thursday!

Resistance and Heat

Life is good at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort.  I haven’t posted much lately, but we’ve kept busy. Last weekend, I missed the pickleball tournament – the start time of the event was changed from 10am to 9am. I didn’t get the memo and forfeited. There will be another 3.0-3.5 level tournament in a few weeks and I’ll make sure I make it to that one.

I mentioned in a previous post how a Gila woodpecker visits our hummingbird feeder and drinks the nectar. Ozark the cat gets really animated when the woodpecker is outside the window next to her cat perch.

Gila woodpecker

sweet nectar

Last weekend, I watched the NFL Divisional playoffs – the final game of the weekend was a real barn burner. Minnesota pulled off the winning touchdown with 10 seconds to go and time expired during the play. I enjoyed the game with a bottle of Chimay Belgian ale.

Chimay Belgian ale

I’m continuing to work on my pickleball game and Donna took an advanced lesson last week to sharpen her skills. We went to the court on Friday at noon and worked on drills for her to get more power and pace on the ball. I played five days straight and took this weekend off. My left knee and right foot were sore by Friday.

We’ve made a few new friends here in the park and renewed friendships with people we met here last year. One of our new neighbors are a couple from Alberta, Canada – Geoff and Cynthia. They are in a Winnebago Class C coach called an Aspect. Last week, they mentioned to Donna that they were having electrical problems and needed to find a shop to take it to. The problem was a loss of electrical power to the radios – both the in-dash radio and one mounted in a bay outside. They also smelled a burning odor coming from the fuse panel. Geoff shut off the switch for auxiliary power to the radios.

I went over to their coach to take a look at the problem. I found a loose connection at the fuse panel. A 12-gauge wire was connected to the fuse panel with a screw that clamped the wire to the panel and that screw was loose. I measured the resistance before I did anything with my Fluke multimeter and found over 200 ohms of resistance between the panel connection and wire. This resistance had overheated the connector and left a black burn mark on the fiberglass surface of the panel. It also melted the insulation on another wire that was laying across the connector. Geoff had discovered this and taped over the insulation of the wire and just left the circuit switched off.

After I tightened the screw and firmly clamped the wire in the connector, I measured 0.3 ohms at the connector. I told them that all was well, I didn’t see any real damage, just the cosmetic black mark and the tape over the wire insulation. Geoff was surprised to find that a loose connector could create that much heat. When a connector is loose and poor contact is made between conductors, resistance rises. In this case it was over 200 ohms. Electrical current flowing through resistance creates heat. Here’s a photo of our 12-volt fuse panel to illustrate how the wires are clamped in place with screws.

Our 12-volt fuse panel

It’s a good idea to periodically switch off the 12-volt power and check the connectors. Ours use small torx head screws – Geoff’s had a flat slot screw.

Yesterday Donna attended an introductory performance arts workshop class in Phoenix hosted by Showstoppers Entertainment. Her classes included aerial silks/lyra, hoop dancing, strength and conditioning, dance movement and lines, and hip hop. The program ended with open gym time to practice skills. She was most interested in the hoop dancing lesson, but enjoyed the day.

The weather was great all week here in Mesa – we had highs in the mid to upper – 70s. Yesterday that changed. A cold front moved in and with it came clouds. We had a few rain showers and the temperature only reached 60 degrees. Today we have clear skies but the temperature will remain cool – about 60 degrees today and tomorrow before we warm up again. The overnight low was a chilly 40 degrees. I have the heat pumps running this morning as I peck away at the keyboard.

Snow Birds

We have a variety of birds visiting our site at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona. Snowbirds aren’t just people from the north wintering here – a lot of real birds also come to the southwest for the nice winter weather. We set up a hummingbird feeder with a suction cup on our living room window. It soon attracted a number of hummingbirds that visit throughout the day.

Before long we noticed other birds also came to the feeder. I’m guessing they’re attracted to the smell of the sweet nectar. We had finches perching on the feeder and I even saw a woodpecker – I’m pretty sure it was a gila woodpecker – drinking the nectar from the feeder. This prompted Donna to suggest setting up our finch feeder.

The finch feeder is a wooden tube with a mesh sock hanging from the bottom. I filled it with nyger seed. Nyger is also spelled niger and sometimes it’s called thistle. It doesn’t come from a thistle plant though, it’s the seed of the African yellow daisy. It’s grown in Africa and parts of India and is also used in local cuisine there. The name niger comes from it’s origin in Nigeria. In 1998 the wild bird food industry trademarked the name nyger. It’s a favorite food for finches and other birds feed on it too. Finches can live on it exclusively and the high fat and protein content help them get through cold winter nights.

Finch feeder

Now we have finches and sparrows in the orange tree on our site flitting back and forth from the feeder and tree. Some of nyger seed falls to the ground and in the late afternoon quail come to our site and pick at it. It’s fun to watch the birds.

Wednesday evening our friends Joel and Lana picked us for happy hour and dinner at The Hub Grill and Bar down on Baseline Road at Sossaman – a few miles from here. The food is good and they have a wide variety of beers on tap. We came here once before with our friends, Hans and Lisa. I had the pot roast sandwich – it’s a mid-western take on a French dip. It has sliced pot roast beef on a hoagie roll with mozarella and is served with a bowl of brown gravy for dipping instead of aus jus. It was tasty and I brought half of it home.

We came home early. Donna had already packed for her trip to Florida but had to be up early for her flight. She was heading to Miami to meet up with her brother and his family. He rented a place in Miami to celebrate his birthday and get away from the cold weather in Philadelphia for a month. It turns out Donna had to pack some cool weather clothing – they’re having unseasonably cold weather there, but it should warm up over the weekend. Meanwhile, we’re having great weather here in Mesa.

I didn’t sleep well Wednesday night and Donna was up at 4:30am. I got out of bed to see her off – I’ll be fending for myself for the next six days. I didn’t take much advantage of the nice weather on Thursday – I mostly read and napped, then met the guys for a happy hour beer at Lucky Lou’s. The temperature reached 77 degrees.

This morning I played pickleball for a couple of hours and I’m looking forward to another day of abundant sunshine and mid-70s temperatures.

The Social Side of RVing

We’re down to the last few days of this stay in San Diego. I was reflecting on our time here and thinking about how social the RV lifestyle is for us. Here at Mission Bay RV Resort, we’ve made several friends over the past four years and we enjoy meeting up with them again when our stays here coincide.

This year we made new friends with our neighbor from Louisiana, Larry and his wife Brenda. Last week Brenda made a big pot of shrimp gumbo and rice. Donna made up a loaf of garlic bread. They invited us along with neighbors from Canada, Brad and Karen, for drinks and dinner. Sini and Bill came too. We sat outside by Larry’s propane fire pit and dined. Then we had a few cocktails and told each other stories until 10pm. It was a fun time.

The other social aspect of this lifestyle comes from playing pickleball. We meet the some of the nicest people on the pickleball courts and make friends. Here in San Diego I’ve played for several months every year at the Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach recreation centers. Year after year, I see many of the same people on the courts and they remember us from our last stay.

Since I grew up here, I also have some friends in the area from my school days. It’s always fun to get together with some of the old gang for a few laughs. Then, there are the Bay Park guys that I meet for a happy hour beer or two at Offshore Tavern and Grill or Dan Diego’s a few times a week.

I’m more socially active as a full-timer than ever. When we leave here, our next extended stay will be in Mesa, Arizona. Donna and I used to live there and we have friends in the area. We’ll stay at Viewpoint RV & Golf Resort again and I’m sure we’ll meet up with some the same people that were there last winter. We also play pickleball there – they have five courts in the park.

In Mesa, I also have a group of friends that I often meet up with for a happy hour beer or two at Lucky Lou’s or Red, White and Brew. Although we enjoy exploring new places, it’s sometimes nice to have happy hour where people know your name.

We borrowed Sini’s car on Saturday and drove up to see my stepdad in Menifee. After lunch at his local Chinese restaurant, we headed back. I wanted to be back in plenty of time for the Saturday night football game.

On Sunday, Donna again borrowed Sini’s car to meet our granddaughter, Lainey, at San Diego State University. As much as she’s loved being in school here, she’s decided to change her major and won’t be able to do so at SDSU. She’s planning to take some community college classes this next semester and figure out her next move. She asked Donna if she had any ideas about how to get her stuff home to Washington. Donna found Busfreighter, a service that uses Greyhound to get boxes from point A to B for a lot less than it would cost to ship them. After dropping off Lainey’s boxes, the girls headed out to Coronado Island to have lunch at the Hotel Del Coronado and go ice skating.

Lainey – in the gray sweater – skating at the Hotel Del Coronado

Our plan is to pull out of Mission Bay RV Resort before noon Wednesday. We’ll head east and boondock for a night in the quiet desert near the Arizona border, then reach Mesa on Thursday. We reserved three months there – it’s great place to be in the winter!

Tomorrow I’ll get the trailer ready for travel, pack the tire covers and windshield covers. Then I’ll check and adjust tire pressures on the coach and trailer. The forecast looks good tomorrow – upper 60s. Wednesday is supposed to be cooler with a chance of rain. With any luck, we’ll pull out here ahead of the rain.