Category Archives: Cat

Registration Blocked by DMV

The registration for our coach and Spyder expire at the end of June. I wanted to renew early as it takes about 10 days for the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue the license plate tabs which are then mailed to our service (MyDakotaAddress) in Madison, South Dakota. From there, they’ll have to be forwarded to us. I thought if I renewed online now, I could have the tabs in hand while we’re in Portland at the end of June.

I went to the website to renew. I kept getting an error message when I tried to renew the coach registration. I tried to renew the Spyder and it went to the shopping cart with no problem. I tried the coach again for the umpteenth time and got the error message telling me to contact the DMV. When I clicked on the contact link, I got another error telling me the page couldn’t be opened!

I phoned Terri Lund at MyDakotaAddress and asked her to help me. She asked for the title number of the coach and said she would contact the DMV on my behalf. A few minutes later, she called me back. She said the reason I was getting the error is because the DMV had the coach registration blocked! On the South Dakota DMV website, there is a message center which is accessible after you login. I had a message in my inbox dating back from 2014 saying I needed to provide documentation of the gross vehicle weight. The message was more than two years old – I never looked at my inbox on this site and I had no trouble renewing last year.

I asked Terri what I needed to do. She told me to take a photo of the weight label behind one of the kitchen cabinet doors and e-mail it to her. I found the label and sent it – she printed it and took it to the DMV for me. She said I should be able to renew once the system is updated in a few days. She provides such a great service – not only with our mail but anytime we need help with things like this.

Weight label

I was hoping to receive the new ignition wires for the Spyder Thursday morning. With rain in the forecast, I wanted to replace them while it was dry out. No such luck – the Priority Mail package didn’t arrive.

Spyder ready for rain

On Thursday night, we watched a movie on our hard drive – The Revenant. I think my expectations were a little too high – I’d heard so much hype about this movie. I was a little disappointed but Donna really enjoyed it.

Donna made roasted chicken thighs with lemon, tarragon and fennel. She served it with risotto and green beans. Delicious.

Roasted chicken thighs with lemon, terragon and fennel

Roasted chicken thighs with lemon, tarragon and fennel

The rain came earlier than forecast and it was raining shortly after dinner. The outside temperature also dropped considerably. We had the heat pumps running. When it gets cold, Ozark likes nothing better than to snuggle up.

Ozark snuggling with Donna and staying warm

It rained all night with the temperature dropping down to 40 degrees. The rain and cooler temperatures continued on Friday. We had a few breaks in the rain, but more often than not, it was raining. The snow level dropped to about 5,000 feet and we could see fresh snow on the hilltops around us – we’re at about 4,200 feet.

Once again, the mail delivery Friday didn’t include a Priority Mail package for me. This is worrisome. We will pull out of here on Monday. If it doesn’t come today, I can hang around here Monday morning until the mail arrives – which is usually between 9 and 11am. Then we’ll have to move on. I e-mailed the shipper and he said the tracking shows it out for delivery – but he didn’t provide a tracking number for me to use.

We spent the entire day indoors. I read a book while Donna wrote an article. I changed the strings on my guitar and practiced a bit. I watched two motorcycle races that I had on the DVR. Donna had a sausage with white bean and spinach stew in the slow cooker all day. Nothing like the aroma of a stew cooking on a rainy day.

Sausage and white bean with spinach stew covered with fresh grated parmesan cheese

I paired it with a local brew – Fall River Pittville porter. The porter was very good with hints of chocolate and coffee.

Fall River Pittville porter

Donna received a package from a PR firm she writes for. They sent a device called Force of Nature, a new approach to cleaning that takes salt, vinegar and water and electrolyzes it, turning it into a cleaning solution containing sodium hydroxide (0.2%) – this is a common cleaning compound called lye – and hypochloric acid, a disinfectant. They claim it will kill 99.99% of germs. You put the pre-measured packet of salt and vinegar into the device and add water. Plug it in and turn it on – five minutes later you have the cleaning product. The kit included a heavy-duty sprayer. The solution is good for up to 14 days. Donna will try it out in the coach.

Force of Nature

Last night, we watched another highly acclaimed movie – The Martian. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I know we’re a little behind the times on movie releases. We rarely go to the theater and don’t see many first runs of movies. A good film is still good later though, right?

I mentioned that the rain came earlier than forecast and it appears to have stopped earlier too. We have cloudy skies, but it’s cool and dry. The temperature will only reach the low 50s today but the weather guessers say there’s only a 15 to 20% chance of rain.

Honey-Do List

It rained on and off all weekend here in Sparks, Nevada. Donna had a long travel day on Saturday. Her flight to Albany, New York had two connections. One in Denver and one in Washington, DC. Her flight left Reno on time and her connection in Denver was fine. Shortly after landing in Washington, DC, she learned that her flight was delayed due to a late incoming plane.

She utilized the extra hour by finding food and a glass of wine. Then her departure was delayed a further half hour with no explanation. Then the flight was pushed back again due to a maintenance issue. It seems the airline was buying time in one hour increments – she finally departed Washington, DC after sitting around for four hours. Back in my workaday life, I was in an airport monthly. I don’t miss airline travel at all – I haven’t set foot in an airport since I retired nearly three years ago.

I spent the day staying dry indoors reading and watching TV. Sunday was more of the same. I watched three motorcycle races and two car races – that filled much of my time. Donna left me a honey-do list – something she’s never done before. I am the great procrastinator though and the list will keep me moving on a few things that need doing.

On Saturday, I re-glued the trim around a vanity mirror in the bedroom. The trim came off a while ago, but since the mirror is inside a cabinet door, it was one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things. Donna uses the mirror frequently though, so the missing trim bothered her. Next up, I started to clean and condition the wood cabinets in our kitchen.

I used a product I mentioned before called Kramer’s Best Antique Improver. I don’t have any affiliation with this company, but I mention the product because it is something I really like. You wipe it on the wood with a clean cloth, then rub it dry with a cloth. Couldn’t be easier and the results are great!

Kramer’s Best

Looking good

Ozark the cat seems to have separation anxiety with Donna gone. She’s very vocal and needy. She rubs against my legs, clings to me and wants to be held and petted all the time. I guess Donna gives her a lot of attention and talks to her a lot. I don’t talk all that much most of time and when I’m alone, I talk even less.

We’ve had cats in our family in the past, but I was never much of a cat person. I always preferred dogs. It’s not that I dislike cats. I love our little Ozark. But when I think about it, it comes down to a basic difference between the two. Dogs aim to please. Cats aim to be pleased. In other words, dogs naturally want to do things that please their humans. Cats want their humans to do things that please them. It’s this attitude of indifference and independence that many people find attractive in cats.

I once had a Weimaraner named AJ. He was the greatest dog that ever lived. I trained him and he competed in North America Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) events. He was a natural hunter and we went bird hunting together regularly. He liked nothing better than to freeze a game bird on point and retrieve the bird after I made the shot. We enjoyed lots of pheasant, quail, chukar and partridge on the dinner table.

AJ was very disciplined and rarely barked – he would only bark when he had good reason to. He could run and hunt all day. In our current lifestyle, we don’t have room for a dog. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog. I wouldn’t want to leave one in the coach while we went out. I know lots of RVers – even full-timers – travel with dogs. It works for them and that’s fine with me. I didn’t intend to have a cat in our coach, but Ozark found her way into our lives and we like having her along.

The weather forecast looks good for the coming week. Daily highs will be in the mid 70s to low 80s with no rain expected. Today I might ride the Spyder to a recreation center in Reno for pickleball. Then I’ll tackle cleaning and conditioning the rest of the kitchen cabinets.

56 is the new 65

A few truckers had joined us in our boondocking area in Mina, Nevada, but they were back on the road early and were gone before we departed. As I mentioned in my previous post, a storm came through and the outside temperature got down to 45 degrees. We had a little water come past the driver’s side bedroom slide seal. I’ll have to check it out, but it’s not too surprising considering the high winds and heavy rains overnight.

Ozark the cat kept warm by snuggling into the crook of Donna’s knees.

Ozark staying warm

We were on our way continuing up US95 a little before 9am. Traffic was light and the wind was from the south – tailwinds make for easy driving! The storm dropped fresh snow on the mountains around us. It was scenic and the terrain changed as we went north. There was more vegetation and it was a lot greener.

Snowy peak in the distance

A closer view showing snow and low clouds

A closer view showing snow and foggy peak

We traveled about 400 miles on US95 – it was mostly good, smooth pavement and, in fact, it’s one of the best stretches of highway we’ve been on with regard to road condition.

Our route took us through Hawthorne, Nevada. Before we reached town I saw numerous dirt covered concrete bunkers. It was the Hawthorne Army Depot – the world’s largest ammunition storage facility. It covers about 226 square miles and has 2,427 storage bunkers – about 600,000 square feet of storage.

We followed the truck route which bypassed the main drag through town and continued on past Walker Lake. This is a very scenic area and we saw several places along the lake that were open for camping. One or two areas looked like you could get a big rig in and out – I saw one large motorhome and several smaller RVs. We’ll file that information away for future reference.

View of Walker Lake out Donna’s window

By the time we reached Fallon, Nevada, (map) we were in farmland. There were hay fields and horse farms. The area receives irrigation from the Truckee River. Fallon used to be the home of a Marine Air Station. When the Navy moved their air station here from Miramar, California, I think there was a trade made. The Marines now occupy Miramar and the Navy is in Fallon.

In Fallon, we turned west at the junction of US50. This took us to I-80 where I stopped at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center. I topped off our tank with 60 gallons of diesel fuel at $2.42/gallon. Not the lowest we’ve paid, but still not bad! While we were at the travel center I weighed our rig on the CAT scale. I wondered why they called them CAT scales and found out it means Certified Automated Truck Scale. I wanted to check our weight and weight distribution with the larger trailer – I weighed our coach before with the old trailer.

I’ve read questions from RVers on forums about using a scale at a truck stop. Some guys are intimidated by it. There’s a protocol to follow, but it’s easy. Follow the signage to make sure you enter the scale platform in the proper direction. Pull up to the speaker box and press the call button. The attendant will ask if it’s the first weigh – say yes. Then they’ll ask for a truck number. Don’t try to explain you’re in an RV, give them a number. I always use 42 since those digits are on my license plate. They will tell you when the weighing is complete and tell you to pull through and go to the cashier and give your number to get your certified weight receipt. Make sure you have your license plate and trailer plate numbers also – you’ll need them. When the cashier asks what company you’re from, say it’s a private vehicle. At that point, I give them the plate numbers and they print out my weight ticket. The price varies – it was $10.50 at this center.

The weight ticket gives a gross weight – this is the certified weight using the full length platform scale. Then it breaks down the weight by axles. In my case I had a steer axle weight, drive axle weight, trailer axle(s) weight and gross weight. As expected, the larger trailer and the Spyder in it increased our gross weight over what it was with the 12-foot trailer and scooter.

Our coach weighs 30,700 lbs (combined weight of steer and drive axles) with full fuel and fresh water tanks. This is approaching our gross vehicle weight rating of 31,000 lbs. Our trailer axle weight is 4,400 lbs – well under the 7,000-lbs rating. Our combined weight is 35,100 lbs – again well under the coach’s combined weight rating of 41,000 lbs. Our weight is biased more to the rear than before due to the higher trailer tongue weight at the rear of the coach. I think I’ll move a few things toward the back of the trailer to put more weight on the trailer axles and relieve some tongue weight.

It was a short drive west on I-80 to Sparks, Nevada. We pulled in to the Sparks Marina RV Resort where I had reserved a 65′ pull-through site. The check-in process was efficient and the office was clean and tidy and staffed by pleasant people. They had an escort in a golf cart lead us to the site.

I don’t know how they figured it was a 65′ long site. Out total length is a few inches under 65′ and we don’t fit. They had me pull forward so the front of the coach extends past the site boundary a couple of feet. The rear of the trailer extends past the rear boundary and is a few feet into the street. The attendant that led us to site said not to worry and he placed orange plastic posts on either end of our rig to warn other drivers. I’m thinking it’s a 56′ site that the person read as 65′.

Front of coach overhangs site

Rear of trailer extends into street

The park is very clean and nice. The sites are paved and level. There’s fake turf between the sites over dirt with trees and picnic tables. It’s a nice place. The downside to the way we’re parked is the distance to the sewer hook-up. We’re about 25 feet from the hook-up and I have about 21 feet of sewer hose. I had to make a trip to Walmart for another hose extension.

The reason we came to Sparks was so Donna could fly from the Reno airport to Albany, New York. She wanted to spend Mother’s Day with her parents and spend time with friends and family there. Donna packed her bag and prepared for her trip while I made the run to Walmart. Then we watched TV and sacked out early. She had a cab pick her up at 4:30am to drive to the airport for her 5:45am departure. After she left, Ozark kept me up for a while, then I drifted off to sleep a bit. I was up by 6:30 am.

It’s raining as I type this and it’s expected to rain on and off through the weekend. I’ll be a bachelor for the coming week. I’m so spoiled by Donna, I can hardly stand it, but I’ll get by until she returns Friday night.

Spyder on the Loose

I made good on my intention to clean the coach yesterday. The dust and rain over the past week had it looking pretty shabby. I used a California Duster first to remove the abrasive dust, then I cleaned the coach with a waterless product called The Solution. I love this stuff, you just spray a small amount with a fine mist from a pump bottle and wipe. I work on small areas at a time and the results are great.

I didn’t think a mobile RV wash company would work out here in Thousand Trails Las Vegas RV Resort because the sites are so cramped. I was wrong. A mobile RV washer came to the site next to us and managed to wash their trailer without spraying our coach. The lack of wind helped.

After I cleaned the coach, I had another project to work on. I used the same aluminum tie-down anchors for the rear wheel of the Spyder that were originally used for the scooter in our old trailer. The aluminum plates hold adjustable tie-down rings and are mounted with countersunk head screws. On the trip from Kingman to Las Vegas, the countersunk holes in the aluminum plates pulled through and the anchors came loose. Good thing I had a wheel chock along with the tie-downs or the Spyder could have rolled into the rear door.

I don’t remember what the maximum load for these plates was, but I must have exceeded it. I installed new stainless steel anchors rated for 1,200 lbs.

New anchors rated for 1,200 lbs

When I load the Spyder on Thursday, I’ll attach the rear wheel tie-downs to these plates and run a second tie-down to anchors in the side walls and use a wheel chock. I won’t have any worries of the Spyder breaking loose with this belt-and-suspenders approach.

While I was working, Donna had Mongolian beef cooking in the slow cooker. Crock pot meals are so handy. I neglected to take a photo of my dinner plate – it was a scrumptious meal. After dinner, we watched two more episodes of Homeland that our friend, Joel Myaer, recorded on our hard drive for us.

We went to bed around 10pm and I was out like a light. Ozark the cat usually sleeps with us through the night, but occasionally she’ll get wild in the night. Around 4:30am, she woke us up running around the coach and scratching the bed pedestal. Cats are supposed to sleep up to 17 hours a day. She gets plenty of sleep in the afternoons. Maybe I should interrupt her afternoon naps so she sleeps at night.

Ozark always finds a comfy spot to nap

One of the reasons we booked a full week in Las Vegas is to attend the National Hardware Show that starts Wednesday. The show isn’t open to the public, but Donna managed to get us press credentials to attend. The credential is legitimate for her, maybe not so much for me – although I’ll be sure to include information on products I find useful there in this blog. It also gives us the opportunity to meet up with our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess). They’re here for the show as Jeff is a rep for Dometic and has a booth. Dometic makes many RV products – we have a Dometic refrigerator and our A&E power awning is a Dometic product.

Our plan for today is to do some shopping to restock the refrigerator and pantry. Tomorrow we’ll hit the National Hardware Show, then we’ll pull out of here on Thursday. Our next destination is Sparks/Reno. We have two days to get there and will probably boondock for one night on the way to break up the 400-mile trip. We expect warm to hot temperatures here in Las Vegas over the next couple of days – into the 90s tomorrow. Reno will be cooler with highs in the upper 60s and low 70s.

*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!

String ‘Em Up at the Handlebar

Yesterday’s temperature didn’t reach the predicted high 90s – the thermometer stopped climbing at 95 degrees! I spent most of the afternoon indoors reading a book.

Sometimes when I’m lying on the sofa reading, Ozark the cat flops on the floor next to the sofa. I mean she really flops noisily on her side and stretches out. She wants me to rub her belly when she does this. If I start rubbing her belly, she’ll roll from side to side and take it all in. What a funny cat – she seems more like a dog at times.

Ozark stretched out waiting for a belly rub

At 4pm, Donna and I headed out on the Spyder. I wore jeans in spite of the heat. The burn on my right calf is nearly healed and I’m trying to limit the amount of direct sun on the tender skin.

We rode east to Apache Junction. Our destination was the Handlebar Pub and Grill. We planned to meet Andy and Donna King at 4:30pm. Andy wanted to eat early before he took the stage at 6pm with the String ‘Em Up bluegrass band. We joined them for a drink and waited for our friends Brett and Cheri Miller to arrive before we ordered food.

Bluegrass music is fun and we had a great time. The String ‘Em Up band played a lot of standards and even threw in a nice version of The Weight – a song originally recorded by The Band.

Donna, Donna and Andy with mandolin player and singer Frank Hamilton sneaking into the photo

Cheri and Brett Miller

Brett’s selfie with all of us in the background

The String ‘Em Up band – Andy is hidden with his Dobro behind Frank

We had dinner at the pub. Donna had wild Alaskan salmon and I had a green chili hamburger. Their burgers are excellent and came with a side of blue cheese potato salad that Donna plans to recreate at home.

Today we have overcast skies and a change in the weather is coming. It’s actually humid here today in Mesa, Arizona. There’s a chance of showers this evening and cooler temperatures with scattered thunderstorms in tomorrow’s forecast. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Unusual Easter Dinner

Ozark the cat has been enjoying her time here at Towerpoint RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona (map). She spends most of her day sitting by a window or on the door steps watching birds outside. Sometimes she even sounds like a bird – she’ll make a trilling sound deep in her throat that sounds like a bird I hear in the palm trees at times. I haven’t been able to identify the bird. Ozark also craves attention. She’ll walk up to our feet and flop down, wanting to have her belly rubbed. She rolls from side to side as I rub her belly and pet her.

Ozark the cat sitting in the galley

It was a warm day on Sunday. Although the temperature only reached the mid 80s, it warmed up quickly in the morning and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Without much of breeze, it felt hotter. I stayed inside most of the day and read with the air conditioners on. I wanted to stay out of the sun as the burn on my right calf is still healing and it’s sensitive.

Burn on my hairy calf

Donna decided to make her usual St. Patrick’s day meal on Easter Sunday since we didn’t have it on St. Patrick’s Day. She saw a recipe that claimed corned beef was a traditional Irish Easter meal. I did some research and found this wasn’t true. In fact, beef wasn’t readily available a century ago in Ireland. Corned beef is an Irish-American tradition. The corned beef in America was a cheap meat and substituted for the salt pork that was more common in Ireland. It’s origin is attributed to Jewish communities in the early twentieth century.

Donna prepared traditional Irish-American boiled corned beef with cabbage and carrots. She served mashed potatoes on the side and homemade Irish soda bread – my favorite.

Our Easter corned beef and cabbage plate

I saw on Facebook that our RV friends, Brett and Cheri Miller, had the same idea – Cheri prepared corned beef for them on Sunday as well. We’re making our own traditions out here on the road!

As we left the coach to play pickleball this morning, our neighbors were preparing to leave. I saw two coaches pull out from our street. Almost all of the Canadian visitors and many of the snowbirds will leave by the end of the week. I hope enough people are still in the park to get some pickleball action next week!

Our route to the pickleball courts takes us past a second-generation type 2 VW camper (T2 from 1967 to 1979). I remember back in the early ’70s thinking these were large vehicles. Today it looks small compared to all of the large SUVs we’re used to seeing. A VW T2 camper had a wheelbase of 94.5 inches and an overall length of of 177 inches. By comparison, a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee has a wheelbase of 114.8 inches and an overall length of 190 inches.

Early ’70s VW type 2 camper

We have another warm day ahead but it’s also windy today. That might make it seem cooler. Tonight a cold front will move in. We should be down to the mid 40s overnight and tomorrow’s high is expected to be 70 degrees. Last night the temperature never dropped below 55. Our new Leesa mattress is surprisingly comfortable in warm weather. That was one of the things I wondered about foam mattresses.

Today I’ll head out to Ace Hardware to pick up a few supplies so I can get some projects done. Other than that, I’ll probably just read another book.

Leap Day Hijinks

Sunday was a rest and relaxation day for me. I finished a book I was reading and watched the coverage of NHRA eliminations from Wild Horse Pass on TV. In the evening, Donna rode the Can Am Spyder over to Sara Graff’s house to watch the Academy Awards program.

Nice sunset after a relaxing day

We hit the pickleball courts around 8:15 on Monday morning. We had short breaks between games and played steadily until 10am. Pickleball players are rated by ability through a system that numbers players between one and five. One is a beginner while five is expert level play. As you progress in skill, you go through stages. At 10am, they had a class for 3.0 level players. Donna attended and went through drills. The class used two courts. The other two courts were reserved for 3.0 players. I played there although I’m at about a 3.5 level. The guys I played with were all 3.0 to 4.0 players and we had very competitive games. I ended up playing for about three hours total and got a lot of steps in – measured by the Samsung Galaxy S Health app.

Look at the activity between 8 and 11am

Our neighbors were preparing to pull out with their fifth-wheel trailer but they had a problem. The right rear jack wouldn’t retract. They have a Lippert electric jack system on their Durango trailer. I took a look at it but without a wiring diagram, I couldn’t do much. I looked for a simple solution like a blown fuse or loose connector at the jack motor but didn’t come up with anything. They had to stay another day and wait for a mobile RV technician to come out.

I had a repair to make on our new car carrier trailer. When I picked up the trailer, I had the guys at TrailersPlus install a handle on the side door. I noticed right away that the upper mount of the handle was only screwed through the door skin into the plywood. The guy missed the steel beam inside the door. I had him redo it by moving the handle 1/4″ to the right and reinstall the screw. It seemed secure.

The heat sometimes makes the door seals on the trailer stick. This happened yesterday. When I pulled on the handle the lower mount pulled loose – he had missed the steel beam on the lower mount as well! I measured the correct distance and saw I had to move the lower mounting screw 1/4″ to the right. When I removed the existing screw to move the handle, I found bad news. It was amateur hour at TrailersPlus. Not only had the guy missed the beam, he missed twice! I found two holes in the door skin – one had the screw into the plywood and the other was hidden by the edge of the handle. Moving the handle to the right to screw it into the beam exposed the first hole. I wasn’t too happy about it.

Poor workmanship

I phoned TrailersPlus when they opened this morning – they’re closed on Mondays. I e-mailed the photo of the hole in the door skin and I’m waiting to hear what the solution will be.

Donna ordered a new trash receptacle for our coach. It’s larger than what we were using and has two compartments – one for garbage and one for recyclables. It has a foot-operated lid that closes slowly and silently when you remove your foot from the pedal. She found it online at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It’s made by a company called Simple Human.

New trash can

Lid slowly closing over two compartments

Last night, Donna made turkey burgers with a special sauce recipe she got from our friend Karin Von Kay. I grilled them on the Weber Q.

Turkey burger with green chilies and special sauce

Turkey burger with special sauce

Last night, Ozark went crazy with catnip. I gave her a small amount and she kept begging for more. After awhile I think she was a little loopy.

Ozark feeling the catnip

This morning I took it easy on the pickleball courts. I played for about an hour and half while Donna went to the gym and worked out. This afternoon I have some errands to run. We need kitty litter and water from Costco. I need to shop for court shoes and I’m thinking of buying a new motorcycle helmet I saw at Steve’s Cycles.

Who Let the Cat Out

Readers of this blog know I pay close attention to tire pressures. I check the tire pressure before each trip to ensure proper inflation. The other thing I pay attention to is lug nut torque on the trailer. Trailers have a way of loosening lug nuts – this can cause the loss of a wheel. That wouldn’t be good. I’ve read a few theories about why the lug nuts loosen. Some say it’s the lack of damping in the trailer suspension. Most trailers aren’t equipped with shock absorbers – they just have stiff springs or torsion bars designed for the maximum load.

When we picked up the new trailer on Saturday, I watched the service guy tighten the lug nuts with a torque wrench set to 100 ft-lbs. The owner’s manual called for the lug nuts to be checked after the first 10 miles, then at 25 miles and again at 50 miles. We pulled the trailer 38 miles back to our site at Towerpoint RV Resort, so I missed the first two check points. After I painted the floor, I set my torque wrench to 100 ft-lbs and checked the lug nuts. Every lug nut needed to be tightened. A couple of them were so loose that it took half a turn to reach 100 ft-lbs. Checking the lug nuts on trailers is no joke – it needs to be done periodically. Once past the initial seating process, I usually check them every 500 miles or so.

The trailer floor paint was cured and hardened by Sunday. I was sore from bending over and painting the day before. I loaded our things in the trailer. I’ll work on finding the right place for everything over the next few weeks before I install additional D-rings to tie everything down. I hung my Busted Knuckle Garage shingle on the side door.

The Busted Knuckle Garage

On Sunday night, I put an ad on Craigslist for our old trailer. I had two inquiries almost immediately and arranged to show the trailer on Monday morning. By Monday morning, I had about a dozen e-mails from people interested in the trailer. I decided to wait until the first two people looked at it before responding to any of the others. One guy sent me three e-mails. He was from Quartzsite and wanted me to hold the trailer for him due to the long-distance drive. Another guy was all the way up in Flagstaff and wanted me to hold the trailer. The guy in Quartzsite said he would pay $100 over my asking price if I would hold it for him. I didn’t respond – it was a first-come first-served situation. I didn’t want to hold the trailer not knowing if an out-of-town buyer would actually come through.

The first guy came with his wife at 8am. He had a specific need for a trailer with a tall roof and door. He liked my trailer – his wife said it was the nicest one they’ve looked at – but it wasn’t tall enough for his needs. I haven’t seen many 6×12 trailers with extra tall roof lines. The next guy came a little before 9am. After five minutes, he said he wanted the trailer. He gave me $500 cash to hold the trailer while he went to buy an adapter to hook up to the trailer wiring. Just as we shook hands on the deal, another guy showed up. It was the guy from Quartzsite. He said he got up at 4am to make the drive to Mesa so he could buy the trailer. I told him I was sorry, but I had just sold it. He told the buyer he would give him $100 to walk away from the deal so he could buy it. I felt bad for the guy, but I didn’t tell him I would hold it for him. Once I made the deal, there was no way I would back out of it to get an extra $100 from the guy from Quartzsite – it wouldn’t be right.

I set up the hitch mount for the buyer and told him what type of adapter he needed. He drove off to Walmart. Then he phoned me from the store to describe the adapter he found to be sure he had the right thing. After I made several trips back and forth from our site to the lot the trailer was in, we got it hooked up and he paid me the rest of the cash. Done deal.

I spent the afternoon relaxing with a book. My hamstrings were still sore. Donna prepared wild Alaskan cod poached in tomatoes and saffron for dinner. This is a great recipe that she found on epicurious.com.

Wild Alaskan cod poached in tomatoes and saffron with roasted broccolini

This morning, we hit the pickleball courts early – thus the reason why I’m posting at mid-day. As I was getting the pickleball gear out of the basement compartment, I left the front door open for Donna. I generally don’t worry about Ozark the cat getting out. In the eight months she’s been with us, she’s only been out of the coach twice. Both times she was in her carrier for a trip to the vet. She likes to sit by the door and watch the world through the screen door, but she’s never been inclined to leave the coach even when we walk in and out. In fact, we usually have to step over her.

This morning, she was running around in a bit of a wild mood and bolted out the door! She went under the trailer. When I walked around the trailer she ran under the coach. Donna enticed her with some canned food and we put her back inside. I’ll have to be more careful about the door. I wouldn’t want her to run off and get hit by a car or become lost.

Towerpoint pickleball courts – Donna’s in the far court

There are four pickleball courts here. Most mornings, the courts are crowded and there’s a long wait between games. This morning wasn’t so crowded – I don’t know why. We didn’t have to wait long between games and got several games in.

The weather continues to be nice – sunny skies with a high in the mid 70s today. The forecast calls for 80 degrees tomorrow and warmer weather by the weekend.

Barrio Queen

My last post described shopping for a new trailer and getting ready to sell the old one. There were a few comments about moving up in trailer size and how that dovetails with a more minimalist lifestyle. Well, here’s my reasoning – we aren’t getting a larger trailer so we can collect and haul more stuff.

Our 6 x 12 Loadrunner trailer has been packed to the gills for some time. It is, after all, my rolling garage. Things were packed so tightly that our scooter suffered cosmetic damage from things moving and rubbing against it. I don’t want that to happen to our Spyder – which has a larger footprint than the scooter. I also don’t want to damage the Spyder loading and unloading with so little clearance for the front wheels.

With the trailer packed, I had tools and spare parts in plastic bins stacked on top of each other. This made accessing parts a chore. I would have to partially unload the trailer and move bins to find what I needed. Even getting my tool chest open could be difficult at times as I had supplies stacked on it.

The new trailer is large. It’s nominally 8.5 x 20 feet. The interior length actually measures 20′ 5″ and the overall length is 24′ 8″. Hooked up to our motorhome we’ll be at the maximum length of 65 feet in many states including California, where we spend a lot of time.

On Friday afternoon, I unloaded our old trailer and cleaned the interior. I piled everything at the rear of our site. I locked the bikes back inside the trailer overnight. With the Traeger out of the trailer, I put it to good use and grilled bone-in chicken thighs dry rubbed with Sweet Rub O’mine. Donna served it with a baked potato and lemony green beans.

Dry rubbed chicken thighs, baked potato and lemony green beans

On Saturday morning, our friend Howard Graff showed up with his Ford F150 truck. We hooked up the old trailer and moved it to a lot on the north side of the RV park where I had secured permission to temporarily store it. Then we headed out to TrailersPlus to pick up the new trailer. We had a few different mounts for the receiver and a larger ball. The old trailer used a 2″ ball, the new one requires a 2-5/16″ ball. It took us over an hour to get through the paperwork and get the mount set up with the right amount of drop, and then we were on our way.

Howard drove the trailer back to Towerpoint RV Resort and we had no issues. I backed the trailer into our site – it was a tight turn and a bit of a squeeze to get the 8.5 foot wide trailer in place. Thanks for the help, Howard!

As always with a new trailer, my first order of business is to sweep the floor and put a coat of paint on it. The 3/4″ plywood floor is undercoated on the bottom side but bare on top. I like to seal the wood with good paint to prevent any liquids that may be spilled on the floor from penetrating and damaging the floor.

I thought the task would take me two hours – one hour of prep and about an hour to paint. I had the floor clean and masked with painter’s tape in about 45 minutes. I get better at the masking job every time I do this.

Trailer prepped for paint

Entry step masked and ready for paint

I opened a gallon of Glidden Porch and Floor paint and found a problem. When I bought the paint at Walmart a couple of days ago, I pulled a can off the shelf. It had a smear of gray paint on the side of the can – just what I was looking for. But there was also some paint around the lid making me think someone had returned this can and it might not be full. Their paint counter wasn’t manned by a store employee, so I grabbed the next can behind the one that had been opened. I paid for it and took it home without another thought.

When I opened the can of paint, it was a vile-looking yellowish liquid. I read the label closely and saw that it was a base coat that needed to have pigments added for color. I took the paint back to Walmart and after waiting for half an hour to get someone who could help me, I had the paint mixed to a color called granite gray. Using a base coat without pigment doesn’t work – it covers with a mostly clear, streak-filled finish.

By the time I got back at it, I’d lost about an hour. I set to work painting with a brush first to cover all of the corners and around the tie-downs and other metal work. Then I took a roller to cover the rest of the floor. It took me about 75 minutes and I was whipped by the time I was done. I should have bought a long handled roller – the short roller I had meant I was bending over to reach the floor the whole time. The job came out nice though and I finished cleaning up around 5pm.

Floor covered with Glidden Porch and Floor paint

You can clearly see the slope of the rear floor beaver tail section

The rear floor section of the car carrier trailer is what they call a beaver tail. It slopes down at the rear making it match the angle of the ramp and lowering the loading height. I’ll add a couple of tie-downs and this is where the Spyder will ride. I’ll have several weeks to plan and organize the front section to store my tools, spare parts and whatnot.

At 6:30pm, Howard and his wife Sara came by and picked us up. We went to Old Town Gilbert to the Barrio Queen restaurant. This is a popular and acclaimed Mexican restaurant that’s been featured in national media. They also have a huge selection of tequila (tequila menu here) and make a variety of margaritas.

We enjoyed the Skinny Chola margaritas at the bar while we waited for a table. Then we were seated outside on the patio. First up, we had fresh guacamole made at our table. The waiter blends the ingredients which, in this case, included pomegranate seeds.

Our waiter, Carlos, making guacamole

A tasty guacamole with pomegranate

The food was outstanding and the service great. It’s well worth the wait for a table. We enjoyed the ambience and conversation and before we knew it, it was 9pm. Howard and Sara dropped us off at home – of course, they had to stop in to say hi to Ozark the cat. It was a lovely way to spend the evening as I lamented my sore back from painting.

Today I’ll begin to loosely arrange some of our stuff in the trailer. The weather is nice but likely to be on the hot side this afternoon. The forecast calls for a high of 87 with sunny skies and more of the same tomorrow. I think I’ll relax and read a book.

Ozark Takes a Walk

Some mornings I wake up well before sunrise. Maybe I need to use the restroom. Maybe it’s a loud car or other noise. Sometimes it’s Ozark the cat moving about on our bed or scratching in her litter box. Some of the time I fall back into a slumber filled with dreams and I’m not really sure if I was ever awake or not. Does this ever happen to you?

Yesterday morning, I heard Ozark in her litter box. I drifted back to sleep only to wake up to the sound of Ozark in her litter box. This repeated countless times. Donna was out of bed before me. When I finally rose, she said Ozark needs to go to the vet. She said Ozark was climbing into her Clever Cat litter box every five minutes but didn’t seem like she was able to urinate. Something was clearly wrong.

We looked online for veterinarians nearby. At 8am, Donna started calling for an appointment. She was able to obtain an appointment at the Hemet Animal Hospital at 10:15am. We worried that Ozark might have a urinary tract blockage. I looked at Google maps and it appeared that the hospital on Girard Street was between 11,000 and 12,000 feet away – a little over two miles. Donna thought the best thing to do was to carry Ozark in her crate and walk there. Rather than carry the crate like a briefcase, she used our laundry basket – which has a shoulder strap – to carry the crate.

This turned out not to be the best idea. The basket was awkward and kept hitting Donna’s leg, so Ozark was getting bounced around. And the distance was badly underestimated. The scale of the Google map or the key to the map weren’t correct. It turned out to be 3.7 miles – a long walk. They were late, but they made it and the vet was still able to see them.

The vet diagnosed a urinary tract infection. Ozark didn’t have a blockage. In fact her bladder was nearly empty. She was just feeling an urge due to the inflammation of the infection. She was given medication and sub-cutaneous hydration – $162 later they were on their way home. Donna called a taxi for the ride home. Ozark came home with prescription medications – one was a sedative to keep her stress level down. She seemed to respond to it well at first, then she acted a little hyper. After a while she settled back down.

Ozark resting on the sofa

One thought about the cause of her condition may be stress due to a change in diet. Before we left San Diego I went to Petsmart to buy cat food. They didn’t have what she usually eats so I bought the next closest thing (same brand, different formula). We’ve been blending the last of her usual food with the new formula. Cats don’t like to switch foods. So yesterday, I went to Petco and bought her usual stuff. The vet also recommended hydrating as much as possible with canned foods and broth in her usual food as she recovers.

Later I accomplished a task that needed to be done. I cleaned our battery banks with baking soda solution. Our house batteries are flooded wet cell 6-volt golf cart batteries. Flooded lead acid batteries are well-developed and proven technology. However, they can gas and produce acidic corrosion while charging. The corrosion can be a real pain as it attacks connectors and the battery tray. Baking soda neutralizes the acid, but over time the acid builds up again. I’d like to get away from this cycle and replace our house batteries with absorbent glass mat (AGM) batteries. They don’t vent acidic vapors and corrosion isn’t an issue. The problem is cost – I would have to spend north of $1500 to replace our house battery bank with AGM batteries. Our friends Mark and Emily Fagan wrote all you want to know about batteries in these posts.

Donna defrosted a tri-tip steak she bought at Trader Joe’s in San Diego. I looked around online to figure how to prepare it. We were introduced to tri-tip steak about a year ago on New Year’s Eve when Debbie Bednarski had one for our New Year’s Eve dinner on December 31, 2014. See this post.

I lucked out when I cooked the tri-tip back then as I had no idea what I was working with. Tri-tip is associated with Santa Maria, California – the barbeque capital of California in Santa Barbara County. I read that tri-tip is a west coast thing although it seems to be gaining acceptance in other parts of the country. After looking at a few recipes, I had a plan to cook the tri-tip on the Traeger wood pellet grill.

I dry rubbed it with Brooks Brown Sugar Bourbon Rub and let it rest in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. The Traeger made the rest of the cook easy. I think it came out fine – juicy with a pronounced beef flavor. Donna thought it could’ve been a little more tender. I cooked it to about 130 degrees internal temperature and let it rest for about 20 minutes in a loose foil tent. Maybe I could’ve taken it off the grill five minutes earlier.

Tri-tip ready to rest in a foil tent

Sliced tri-tip

Tri-tip plated with baked potato and zucchini saute

I know I go over the top at times about our dinners. I want readers to understand we’re not out on a camping trip – this is our lifestyle and that includes eating well.

I paired the dinner with an IPA ale from Bootlegger’s Brewery in Fullerton, Calfiornia. It’s an IPA style beer brewed with rye – maybe we should call it a Rye-P-A. It’s a very good ale with a creamy-frothy mouth feel.

Rye-P-A

This morning I plan to hit the pickleball courts for some fun and exercise, then become a couch potato as I watch the NFL Conference Championship games.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Cat

Registration Blocked by DMV

Honey-Do List

56 is the new 65

Spyder on the Loose

String ‘Em Up at the Handlebar

Unusual Easter Dinner

Leap Day Hijinks

Who Let the Cat Out

Barrio Queen

Ozark Takes a Walk

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