Category Archives: Grilling

The Road to Copano

I mentioned in my last post that we had a plan to back the coach out of our tight site and hook up the trailer. The plan worked perfectly and Donna had me lined up exactly where I wanted to be to connect the trailer to the coach. Pre-planning maneuvers like this is a good idea. Communication is important. Donna understood what I wanted to do and was able to direct me into position with a handheld Cobra CB radio.

I had programmed our GPS to route us from north Houston to Rockport and avoid tolls. I didn’t want to repeat the situation in Austin where we were on a toll road that didn’t have toll booths. You needed a TxTag pass or know how to pay via mail on that road.

The slog through Houston wasn’t much fun, but at least the rain had stopped. Large urban areas are never fun to drive through in a big rig. Houston is the fourth largest city in the USA and has the traffic to prove it. After about an hour, we we were on US59 and heading out of the city. From there it became rural and we rolled along on Texas highways. The traffic was light. The speed limits are a little over the top on some of these two-lane Texas highways. A 70mph speed limit with gas station and restaurant driveways and no slow down lane to exit the highway or acceleration lane to enter the highway doesn’t seem too good to me.

Unlike west Texas, the highways have few rest areas or roadside tables to stop at in this area. I drove for more than two hours before pulling over in the town of Palacios for a comfort break. That’s the nice thing about motorhome travel – if you need a restroom break, just pull over and walk back to the restroom!

We made our way 200 miles to the Copano Bay RV Resort and pulled in. The entrance is poorly marked without any directional signs telling you which way to go to stop and check-in. There are two roads into the park, one to the right of the entrance and one to the left with a building in the middle. I saw the office to the right and cranked the wheel hard right at the entrance, but there was a stone planter in front of the building in the center that made it too tight to complete the turn. I started to back up but was mindful of the trailer jack-knifing and also needed to know if the road was clear.

A man and a woman came out of the office and signaled us to go to the left. Donna got out of the coach to check if the trailer was in danger of jack-knifing against the right rear corner of the coach. The man told Donna he would direct me, so Donna didn’t signal me. The man also didn’t give me any signal, so I didn’t move. The guy looked irritated by my lack of movement. Donna could see this wasn’t working, so she came back inside and picked up her handheld CB radio. Aha – communication. She told me to back up slowly and stopped me when the trailer was close to touching the corner of the coach. At that point I had enough room to crank a hard left and enter the park on the left side of the building.

We walked to the office to check in and the lady asked if I would like to be moved into a long pull-through site instead of the back-in site that was reserved for us. I said that would be perfect. She set us up in what is essentially two back-to-back sites on a continuous concrete pad. She told us both sites were ours for the next two weeks and no one would move-in behind us. Nice!

Our double pull-through site

It was nearly 90 degrees out with high humidity. I hooked up our power so Donna could start the air conditioners and we were set up in no time. Later we took a walk to the west end of the park where there’s a small (very small) swimming pool and a fishing pier. We saw a number of jellyfish in the Salt Lake, which is really a cove off Copano Bay.

On Tuesday morning, it was time to remove 1,500 miles worth of grime from the coach. Traveling in rainy weather left a real mess on the coach, not to mention all the bugs on the front cap. I went to the office and paid $10 for the privilege of washing my own coach. I can understand RV parks not wanting everyone to pull in and wash their coach – it takes a lot of water. But I don’t think it takes $10 worth of water. I think they charge that much to discourage people from washing in the park. We really needed a wash though. Donna went for a 5-mile walk and then hit the exercise room to do strength training while I worked on the coach.

I spent the next 135 minutes hand washing the coach with car wash soap and water. It looks much better but the hard water left spots. I’ll go over it again in a few days with a waterless product. I use a product from Super Seal called The Solution. It works really well – it will remove the water spots and leave a nice shine. With the coach clean, I installed the front window shades and tire covers.

Donna made a salad for lunch and served it with a soup she made Monday night. The soup is a carrot-ginger soup with dollop of coconut cream. It was delicious – you wouldn’t know it was carrot-based. It tasted like something you would get in a Thai restaurant. She got the recipe from her mother.

Carrot-ginger soup

After a shower and lunch, I rode the scooter into town for a look around. I bought a case of water at Walmart. Later, Donna and I took another scooter ride and checked out the funky downtown area and waterfront in Rockport. We stopped for groceries at HEB and found it to be a nicely stocked, large store. Much nicer than the HEB in Austin. Donna bought New York strip steaks that I grilled for dinner.

New York strips hot off the grill

Donna served it smothered in sauteed mushrooms and onions, a baked potato with crumbled bacon on top and steamed asparagus on the side.

There’s a steak under those mushrooms and onions

We’ve had mostly cloudy skies with 70% humidity and temperatures in the mid 80s. The skies are supposed to clear up this afternoon but there’s always a chance of a thundershower around here. Since I just washed the coach, I’m guessing we’ll see a thundershower soon.

Those Dreaded Struvites

After I posted to the blog on Sunday morning, Donna went outside to complete her exercise challenges and walk laps of the RV park. I was still thinking about the Ironman announcer the day before saying, “Allen Hutchinson from Royal Oak, Michigan, you are an Ironman!” as he crossed the finish line. That was the sixth time Allen heard that announcement. What an amazing accomplishment.

On Saturday evening, after the Ironman event, we stopped at the HEB store (a Texas grocery/pharmacy chain) and picked up a few items. One of the things I bought was a can of white corn. The guy at RV park office told me that white corn was a very effective bait for fishing in the stocked lake. I’d never heard of using corn before. He cautioned that white corn was the choice, not yellow corn.

I broke out my fishing rod Sunday morning and tried fishing the lake right in front of our site. The white corn was extremely effective – but it was also problematic. It comes off the hook easily and smaller fish can steal the bait. I had hits as soon as my rig hit the water, but sometimes it was small fish stealing the bait. The trick was to place the bait in the right spot in the water. The pond had a lot of algae and aquatic vegetation. I found if I could place my bait near deeper water right on the edge of the vegetation, I would find the larger fish.

I caught a few fish at our site – one was a really good sized bluegill. I moved to another part of the lake and caught and released a few more. Later, I caught a couple more bluegill at our site and Donna snapped a photo of a typical bluegill – some of the fish I caught were bigger and some smaller.

Average size bluegill from the stocked pond

I rode the scooter over to the store to get eggs (something we forgot the day before), then stowed it in the trailer. I was just in time. The wind kicked up and rain drops started falling just as I locked the trailer doors.

Yep, more nasty weather

We’re not supposed to spend this much time in bad weather – we’re mobile after all. We’ve had rain 9 out of the last 10 days. This is the most rain we’ve seen since we were in Great Falls, Montana last summer.

While it was storming, I watched the Moto GP race from Le Mans, France that I recorded earlier. By the time the race was over, it had stopped raining. This was timely as it allowed me to grill boneless chicken thighs that Donna had prepared by brushing them with olive oil and fresh herbs. She served the chicken with lemon jasmine brown rice and fresh green beans topped with chopped kalamata olives.

Excellent fare on the picnic table

I felt groggy when I got out of bed Monday morning. The overnight thunderstorms with endless bolts of lightning and cracks of thunder interrupted my sleep. The storm continued through breakfast.

At 10am, I donned a hat and told Donna I needed to go outside and start prepping for travel. As I disconnected our water line, the rain stopped. I had everything put away and fired up the Cummins ISL diesel powerplant before 11am. We had a plan for getting out of our site and hooking up the trailer and it worked perfectly.

I must digress before I continue to chronicle our travels. Our full-time RV living over the last 22 months has provided many learning experiences. One of the things I’m always learning about is something most people don’t want to think about. I’m talking about our holding tanks and dealing with waste water. I’ve tried many tank treatments with mixed results. I reported about it in this post.

Although I thought Happy Camper was the best I’d tried, I always remember the old motorcycle racing mantra – the best you’ve tried is the best you know (meaning there may be something better out there you’ve yet to try). I was still somewhat disappointed in a couple of areas with Happy Camper. One – although all of the treatments claim to lubricate and enhance the seals in the system, I always found that the chemicals used tended to leave deposits on the toilet seal and it would start to leak after a few weeks. Having the water leak out of the toilet meant it was no longer sealed from the sewage system. I would mitigate this by putting a few ounces of vegetable oil in the toilet for a couple of days every two or three weeks.

The other issue was odor. All the treatments claim they eliminate odor. But the truth is, when you are in an area with high ambient temperatures, after five to seven days, the odor is present when you flush the toilet. So you’re left with the option of dumping the tank every five to seven days.

I’m going to tell you about a product that I have no affiliation with. Their success does nothing for me (other than I’d like to see their product become more easily available). When we were in Casa Grande in January, I met a guy in the RV park who had an alternative tank additive that he sold. I was skeptical (people used to call me Skeptical Mike).

This product is marketed by a company called Tank Techs. They specialize in high-pressure flushing of holding tanks. The thing that caught my eye about their approach was the mention of struvites. Their core business is the mechanical removal of struvites from holding tanks.

Then they worked with a probiotic firm to develop a new treatment. The mention of probiotics and other buzz words heightened my skepticism. It’s chemical-free and uses enzymes and bacterial action to treat the tank. This product not only controls odors and breaks down solids – including paper – it can break down struvites.

As always, I wanted proof. Our holding tank sensors have never worked right since we bought the coach. This isn’t uncommon. Conventional wisdom says paper is contaminating the sensors.

The guy who sold me the treatment called Tank Techs RX told me I could see if I had struvites and if the product was working by watching the discharge. If I saw a white or gray sandy discharge from the gray tank, struvites were breaking up. I saw this within two treatments.

Before we left the Northlake RV Resort, I checked the tank levels on our control panels. Shazzam! The gray water and black water sensors were working after four and half months of using Tank Techs RX. Those dreaded struvites had broken down and the sensors were working.

There may be other products that work as well, but I can only say this is an unsolicited testimonial and I’m totally sold on this product. I’m also glad to see our tank sensors working.

I’ll add more about our trip to Rockport, Texas in my next post. Here’s a photo from our new location with the sun setting over water to the west. Not a very dramatic photo, but it’s nice to be parked next to a body of water. The sunset here is over the Salt Lake which isn’t Utah’s Great Salt Lake but an inlet off Copano Bay in southeast Texas.

It’s not raining

Stormy Night

We pulled out of Fort Stockton RV Park shortly before their 11am checkout time yesterday. We drove back east on I-10 five miles to the Flying J travel center and topped up our tank with 44 gallons of diesel fuel at the truck fueling pumps. Our route for the day took us westbound on I-10 to US67 through the towns of McCamey and Big Lake. It’s about 140 miles to San Angelo from Fort Stockton.

We stopped at a roadside picnic table west of Big Lake. Donna made a salad for herself and I had a 6″ Subway sandwich that Donna had bought for me at the Flying J travel center. The weather was nice with the temperature in the morning in the lower 70s and steadily climbing as we traveled. US67 is a two-lane highway without much traffic. We had a tailwind and it was an easy drive to San Angelo State Park.

There are more than 60 RV sites in the park. We’re in a long pull-through site with great separation between us and our neighbors. The site has 50 amp service and fresh water but no sewer hook-up.

San Angelo State Park site 2

Their website advertises the site for $20/night. That seems fair enough but you have add a $4 park entrance fee. When we got here, we were informed the $4 fee is per person, so make that $8 for a total cost of $28/night.

It was getting hot out when we arrived here – over 90 degrees. I connected to the 50 amp pedestal and we had both air conditioners running in no time. The sites are fairly level, so getting set up was quick and painless. I rewarded myself with a Left Coast Brewing VooDoo American Stout.

VooDoo American stout

This is a tasty beer. Dark roasted malt gives hints of coffee and chocolate at 8% alcohol by volume.

Donna was outside and told me she saw bison northeast of our site. I walked out through a field (being mindful of the prickly pear cactus) and shot a photo. Later, Donna went for a walk and got closer – close enough to see they were fake silhouettes. How disappointing. There are supposed to be real bison and longhorn cattle in the park. Hans Kohl (Metamorphosis Road) told me there are also javelina here.

Bison silhouettes in the center

I grilled a rack of lamb for dinner. Donna spiced the lamb with fresh herbs and garlic.

Rack of lamb on the grill

Donna served it with a spinach and sweet potato hash.

Lamb with sweet potato spinach hash

It was so good!

My friend, Dave Glynn offered to have us park on his vacation property at Buchanan Dam. I looked at the property on Google Earth and was confused about how to enter the property and park. I phoned Dave while I was looking at the image. After talking with him again, I have a clear idea of what to do now. We’ll move about 160 miles southeast and stay there for a couple of nights.

We kept an eye on the weather all day yesterday. I saw a few thunderheads around us, but we seemed to be in the right spot. There were reports of severe weather to the northeast of us. All was fine when we went to bed.

I woke up at 2am as rain was pelting the roof and the coach was shaking from the wind. The topper over the living room slide was flapping violently. I got up and pulled the living room slide in. Donna and I sat in the front seats and watched the storm. I don’t remember ever seeing lightning like that. It was continuous, flickering light for half an hour. I looked at my cell phone weather radar app and saw we were in the middle of a storm cell. Twenty-five minutes later, I could see that the storm was moving to the east. Here’s a screen shot of the radar I took at 2:25 a.m.

Screenshot from my weather radar app – we’re the blue dot

The heavy rain turned to hail when we went back to bed. The hail drummed on the roof for several minutes, then it was rain again. I finally dozed off around 3am and slept fitfully.

Our original plan was to hang around, do some hiking and get a good look at the park. They have a 2pm check out time. Looking at the forecast, we’ve changed our plan. More severe weather is supposed to move into the area this afternoon. I want to be hunkered down, not out on the road if that happens. So we’re packing up and moving to Dave’s property this morning.

Hawaiian Festival

I spent most of Saturday recovering from Friday’s beach house graduation party. Donna went out for a bike ride, but it was well past noon before I ventured out.

There’s always something going on at Mission Bay Park on the weekends. Last weekend was no exception. After lunch, we walked to the grassy park at De Anza Cove just outside of the RV park and found the San Diego Hawaiian Festival, a two-day event held every year on the first weekend of May. There’s a fairly large and active Pacific Islander community in San Diego. Although the festival was called Hawaiian, it really catered to Hawaiians, Samoans, Filipinos and other Polynesian islanders.

There were dozens of vendors set up in tents or under canopies. One area was set up as a food court. They also had continuous live entertainment with two stages in the park — one large stage on the north side with musicians and dancers and a smaller stage next to the cove.

Traditional dance in front of the large stage

Island music by the cove

We wandered around looking at the vendor offerings and listening to the music. By the bay, we saw a large outrigger canoe. Polynesian sailors historically used these vessels to navigate between the islands.

Outrigger canoe

Kicking back and enjoying the festival

We had visitors on Sunday – my three daughters and granddaughter Gabi rode beach bikes six miles from the beach house where they were staying to the RV park. Everyone was hungry, so we walked over to the Hawaiian Festival and bought lunch from a vendor and sat at a picnic table by the bay, enjoying Hawaiian fare – chicken and kalbi (beef) teriyaki bowls and several different salads.

Gabi had Hawaiian shaved ice for dessert

We walked through the vendor area again. It seemed like every other vendor was selling T-shirts. I was tempted to buy, but held off. Donna bought a visor for playing pickleball. Mostly we were just looky-loos.

Festival vendor

After we returned to our place, I rode the scooter over to the Liquor Locker on Morena Boulevard to buy a few specialty craft beers. I brought back Stone Chai Spiced Russian Stout, Belching Beaver Horchata Stout, Peanut Butter Stout and Alesmith IPA. I split the 22-ounce bottles four ways and sampled each with my daughters. Tasty stuff, way out of the ordinary.

Belching Beaver Horchata Stout

Donna prepared Italian-herbed boneless chicken thighs and Mediterranean quinoa salad. While she was preparing the dishes, we had appetizers — jicama fresh fries that we dipped in homemade guacamole and also veggies and tortilla chips with Donna’s homemade sun-dried tomato and basil hummus. The girls also brought some Bitchin’ Sauce that they bought at the farmer’s market in Little Italy the day before.

Donna’s sister, Sheila, and her nephew, Connor, joined us for dinner and brought Bandit, their puppy. While I was grilling the chicken, Gabi and Connor put Donna’s hula hoops to good use.

Gabi hooping

Shauna’s roommate, Cat, (also a magna cum laude Cal Western graduate) joined us and we all enjoyed a great meal at the table outside of our coach.

Dining al fresco with family and friends

It was a fine finish to the weekend. Gabi stayed behind after everyone left and spent the night with us in the coach. She really likes staying in the RV. After the last time she stayed with us in Washington, she told her mother (my oldest daughter Alana) that they could live the RV lifestyle once her older sister, Lainey graduates from high school.

The skies are overcast this morning. The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature in the upper 60s and there’s a high surf advisory at the beaches. Waves up to 12 feet tall are predicted. I’ll get a start on organizing the trailer today. I want to have everything buttoned up so I only have to load the scooter tomorrow afternoon. Tuesday is Cinco de Mayo, which happens to be our wedding anniversary. We plan to go out to dinner on Harbor Island, then we’ll head out of San Diego Wednesday morning.

Where Are You From?

Where are you from? It’s a simple question, right? But when you’re a full-timing nomad, it’s not always so easy to answer. We usually say, “Wherever our motorhome is parked.”

The long answer gets confusing. I grew up here in San Diego, so it always feels like home to me. Donna grew up in upstate New York near Albany and then moved to Lake Placid, New York before moving to Arizona in 2002. I lived in Washington, north of Seattle for 15 years. Donna and I met and married in Arizona in 2006. I lived in Michigan twice, for a few years in the late ’80s and again from 2009 until we hit the road in 2013. So Michigan was our last sticks-and-bricks home.

Our current domicile state is South Dakota. When people see our South Dakota license plates, they often ask, “Where in South Dakota are you from?” Other times, like when we check in at RV parks or show ID at a bank, people assume we’re visiting and ask when we will head back to South Dakota. The real answer is that we’ll head back there in a few years to renew our driver’s licenses, but sometimes we just go along with the charade and say, “When the weather warms up.”

There was a knock on our door the other morning. I opened the door and stepped out to find a man and woman at our site. The man shook my hand and introduced himself and his wife. They were Bob and Dovie Koop from Sun City Shadow Hills near Indio, California. They saw our license plate – KOOP42 (Koop for two) and thought that was our last name. Bob’s uncle was C. Everett Koop, the United States Surgeon General during the Reagan administration. He held that post from 1982 to 1989 and was known for his anti-smoking campaign. C. Everett Koop passed away in February 2013 at the age of 96. I don’t think he was ever a smoker.

We’ve had a heat wave over the past few days with the temperature reaching 90 degrees. It should be cooler today and tomorrow with a high around 80 degrees. We’ve been running the air conditioners.

Donna had her last follow-up exam at her doctor’s office yesterday. We should be good to go on health care until we return at the end of the year. I scootered Donna to her appointment in Mission Hills. I took us down Pacific Highway and up Washington Street to Mission Hills. Donna hadn’t been on that route before and didn’t realize how many restaurants and shops were in the area.

Her appointment was finished by 11am. We made a stop at CVS across the street for a few things and then our thoughts turned to lunch. Our ride home would take us past Old Town, so we decided to stop at one of our favorite restaurants – the Old Town Mexican Cafe.

The parking lot attendant directed us to a perfect motorcycle parking spot behind the restaurant. We enjoyed selections from their daily special menu. Donna had chicken molé ( a quarter of a chicken with molé sauce, rice and beans). I had the half chili verde, half chili Colorado plate with rice and beans. As always, the food was delicious and served with fresh, hand-made warm tortillas.

Making tortilla by the front window of the Old Town Mexican Cafe

Making tortillas by the front window of the Old Town Mexican Cafe

The hockey season ended for me last night. The Detroit Red Wings were eliminated from the playoffs with a game seven loss in Tampa Bay. Donna won’t have to sit through anymore hockey games on television until next year.

While I was watching the game, Donna grilled corn on the cob and made wild Alaskan cod with tomatoes and capers for dinner. The fish was cooked to perfection.

Wild Alaskan cod with tomatoes and capers

Today all three of my daughters will be in town as well as my step-dad, Ken. I’m a little concerned about Ken making the 90-mile drive from Menifee, but he insisted that he was fine driving that distance. He got a new car recently and says he needs to put some miles on it.

We’ll try to figure out how to get everyone together later today, after pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center.

Temecula Connections

After I posted yesterday, we grilled chicken for dinner. I used the brick method I described in this post. Donna had two large chicken breasts with bones and skin on. They came out great – the brick method works so well.

Brick-grilled chicken breast

We took our plates and utensils to the gazebo located about 100 feet from our coach. There are tables and comfortable chairs there between the fine arts and pottery studios. The weather was perfect – temperature in the low 70s with a light breeze.

Donna at the dinner table in the gazebo

After dinner, the sunset over the Temecula Valley was nice with just enough clouds to give it color.

Sunset over the Temecula Valley

We waited until 8am to get out of bed this morning because generators aren’t allowed before 8am. We needed to run the generator to brew coffee in our Keurig machine. The Keurig doesn’t like the modified sine wave from the inverter – our generator provides a pure sine wave electrical current.

After coffee and cereal, we rode the scooter up to the pickleball courts. They have four courts here that run from sideline to sideline on the tennis court. It makes for a lot of lines on the courts. For pickleball, we only pay attention to the blue painted lines. There were 17 players at the court when we arrived. There was a mix of abilities with a few very good players on the courts. One of the guys competed in the USAPA National Championship event.

Donna and I played a few games and had fun. They generally play here from 8am to 10am, so we’ll have to get there earlier tomorrow.

After playing pickleball, I rode the scooter to Temecula. It’s about a 14-mile ride northwest on CA79. The traffic moves along at 60 mph on CA79, so it was a brisk ride. I went to an auto parts store and found a new flat-four trailer electrical connector. I also bought butt connectors and a crimping tool. I found a 1-1/16″ deep socket for the water heater repair. While I was in town, I stocked up on beer and found my favorite Blue Ice American Potato vodka.

When I returned, I replaced the electrical connector on the trailer. The old connector had damaged pins. I must have stepped on it or maybe rolled the front trailer jack tire over it. I’ll be more careful of the cord and connector in the future.

Old connector with damaged pins

New connector with nice, round pins

I cut the old connector from the harness and prepared the new connector. First I cut the wires to a shorter length – I didn’t need the 24″ length that came with the new connector. Then I stripped the wire ends and crimped butt connectors onto the new part.

Butt connectors crimped into place

Next I stripped the wire ends on the trailer harness and crimped the open end of the butt connectors to the harness.

All crimped together

The last step was to seal each butt connector individually with tape. Then I wrapped all of the butt connectors and wires together with tape to reinforce it.

Final wrap reinforces the butt connectors

That’s it, job done. I checked the trailer lights and all is good.

I’ve decided to leave the water tank repair until Sunday morning. We’re dry camped and if I start on it now, I will lose a minimum of 10 gallons of water. We should have plenty of fresh water on board but why chance it. There are showers a few hundred feet from our site.

Lizards, Rabbits and Visitors

The time is flying by. A few days got by me without a post to the blog. We passed on the pickleball games on Sunday and rode the scooter to visit my step-dad Ken in Sun City. The traffic was light on the route I’d mapped out to avoid I-215. We sat on Ken’s front patio, which faces north and is shady, enjoying conversation. We had a good visit and amused ourselves by watching the antics of a couple of lizards. They appeared to be fence lizards chasing each other around the patio.

Western fence lizard

These two provided entertainment

On our way back, I took a different route so Donna could buy groceries at Walmart. It was warm but pleasant on the scooter. We had a late lunch at a Chinese diner and stuffed ourselves with the house noodle specialty plate. It had a pile of rice noodles with shrimp, chicken, pork and beef. It was good but very filling – so filling that we skipped dinner!

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Formula One race on TV and downloading the European coverage of the Moto GP season opener while Donna went to the pool to read. Spoiler alert – both races were very entertaining. Sebastian Vettel drove an excellent race with perfect strategy to put his Ferrari on top of the podium. Vettel is a four-time World Champion, but didn’t win a race last year. Neither did Ferrari. In his second race as a Ferrari driver, he broke that drought. In the Moto GP race, everyone figured the Repsol Honda team would run away like they did last year. It was not to be. The race turned into an epic battle between nine-time champion Valentino Rossi on the Yamaha M1 against Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati. In the end, Rossi prevailed over Dovi by a tenth of a second.

A cottontail rabbit came into our site late Sunday afternoon. We put out a few carrot sticks which he munched on before hopping away. There are a lot of rabbits in the park.

While Donna and I were at the pickleball courts on Monday morning, our friend and fellow Alpine Coach owner, Dave Hobden, phoned me. He and his wife Stilla were leaving the FMCA rally in Pomona and were thinking about heading our way. Later, while I was at Sprouts picking up a few more groceries, he texted me saying they would join us at Golden Village Palms RV Resort. They got a good rate on two nights with their Passport America membership.

They pulled in around 2:30pm and set up in the site next to ours. I mentioned before how tight the sites are here. The shrubs in their site were so overgrown, Dave couldn’t get his living room slide out without smashing it into the shrubs. A maintenance guy came by to trim the bushes, but it wasn’t enough – he came back this morning with a power trimmer and cut the bushes back.

Dave Hobden’s Alpine Coach in the site next to us

We sat outside sipping cold beer and talking until about 6:00pm. Stilla had their dinner in the oven so they went home to eat. I grilled a pork tenderloin with a spicy dry rub – a new recipe Donna wanted to try. She served it with roasted, spicy red potatoes and green beans. It was very tasty – the dry rub was really spicy but dipping the pork in a minted cucumber yogurt sauce countered the spices nicely.

Spicy grilled pork loin with minted cucumber yogurt sauce

After dinner, Dave and Stilla joined us for dessert. Donna made carmelized banana pecan ice cream in her Vitamix. It was good, but I prefer the mango ice cream she made before.

Carmelized banana pecan ice cream

Donna said her Vitamix seemed to run slowly and had an electrical odor. This morning it doesn’t run at all. I’ll take it apart and have a look, I hope I don’t have to replace it.

Salton Sea

We rolled out from the rock garden in the desert about 9:30am yesterday. The desert was already heating up. Our route took us west on I-8 to El Centro, where we turned north on CA111. We followed CA111 to Brawley, then continued on CA86 in a northwesterly direction.

This route took us along the west side of the Salton Sea. The current iteration of the Salton Sea was formed by accident in an area of the desert directly over the San Andreas Fault called the Salton Sink. The sea is believed to have formed and drained many times over thousands of years. In 1905, engineers from the California Development Company built irrigation canals from the Colorado River. In an effort to reduce silt built up, a cut was made in the bank of the Colorado River, increasing flow to the canals. The canals flooded out of control and the Salton Sink, which is a basin only five feet higher than the lowest point in Death Valley, began filling with water. Water flowed into the basin for two years, forming the Salton Sea. The surface of the Salton Sea is 234 feet below sea level.

The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. It’s fed by the New, Whitewater and Alamo Rivers. The water in it is saline and the salt content is greater than that of the Pacific Ocean, but not as high as the Great Salt Lake. Due to changes in water rights under the Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003, the water level in the Salton Sea is expected to decrease.

As we drove along the west side of the lake, the wind was coming from the east. The large body of water cooled the air significantly and travel with the front windows open was comfortable.

Salton Sea viewed from Donna’s passenger side window

As we cruised along CA86, traffic was confined to one lane at one point and I saw brake lights ahead. It was a Border Patrol check station. We saw one car pulled aside into the vehicle search area, but we were waved straight through without stopping.

Border Patrol check station

We stopped for lunch in Mecca on the north side of the Salton Sea, then continued on to I-10 near Indio. We could see snow on the San Gabriel mountains in the Big Bear area. The drive west on I-10 is a deceptively steep climb to Banning. It was hot out, but our coolant temperature never exceeded 195 degrees.

We turned south at Beaumont and took CA79 to Hemet where we found the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. The sites here include a paved parking space, a concrete patio pad and a gravel RV lot. It sounds spacious, but in reality it’s quite tight. Donna directed me while I backed the cargo trailer into the paved parking spot. I dropped the trailer, then maneuvered the coach into the gravel area that’s bordered by shrubs. It was barely wide enough to put the slides out.

By the time I cleaned the bugs off the windshield and installed the front window shades, it was 4pm and time to kick back with a cold one. Our site faces north, putting the door and awning side on the east, providing afternoon shade. We grilled salmon for dinner and dined al fresco. It was a pleasant evening to sit outdoors.

Palms in the sunset at the RV park

I’m getting to the blog late today because I spent the morning on the pickleball courts. There are some really good players here. I started with a group that was playing at a higher level than me at first. Then I joined a group of players that were closer to my level of play. It was fun and I spent all morning at it.

I think I’ll go out and explore the area this afternoon on the scooter.

Two for One in Casa Grande

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

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

Spacious site(s) 310/305

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

Rough Draft Eraser IPA

Meatloaf served with steamed Kale and bacon and mashed sweet potato

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

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

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

Grill mat on our Weber grill

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

Sunset reflecting off the clouds in the east

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

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

Central vacuum cleaner

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

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

St. Paddy’s at Orangewood

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

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

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

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

Bagpipes

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

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

Another musical group from the park

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

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

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

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

Fish and chips plate

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

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

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

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

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

Non-traditional St Paddy’s Day fare

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

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Grilling

The Road to Copano

Those Dreaded Struvites

Stormy Night

Hawaiian Festival

Where Are You From?

Temecula Connections

Lizards, Rabbits and Visitors

Salton Sea

Two for One in Casa Grande

St. Paddy’s at Orangewood

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: