Category Archives: Maintenance and Repair

Gremlins and a Safe Harbor

We planned for an early departure from Desert Oasis Campground near Bisbee, Arizona Wednesday morning. We were on track to achieve that goal when trouble struck. Actually the trouble was brewing since we were in Mesa, but I didn’t realize it until after the fact.

We’ve had a small leak in our HWH hydraulic system that operates the leveling jacks and room slide-outs.  I rigged a plastic catch basin to contain the occasional drip from it. In Mesa, when I replaced the headlights, I had to extend the generator compartment in the front cap – it’s also hydraulically operated by the HWH system. The generator compartment quit moving after it extended only a few inches. I could hear the HWH pump cavitating.

I knew the pump reservoir must have been low on fluid – lower than I expected based on the amount of oil in the catch basin. I went to the auto parts store and bought a quart of Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) to top up the reservoir. I wasn’t sure how much to add because the dipstick for the reservoir is calibrated for checking when all of the rams are retracted – that means slides in, jacks up. I added about half a quart and the generator extended normally, so I thought I was good to go. While I was at it, I inspected the hydraulic leak again and was able to trace it to a compression fitting. I tightened the fitting – it was about a quarter turn loose.

While we were in Mesa, I had to extend the left rear jack to the end of its travel due to a small sink hole right below the jack. In hindsight, the jack must have been leaking fluid past the seal from over-extending. The dirt where the jack had sunk in was wet and dark when we left.

In Benson, our first overnight stop, everything worked fine. When we got to Bisbee, trouble started. The passenger side bedroom slide didn’t extend  normally. I had to push it open after it moved slowly about halfway out. I thought maybe there was air in the hydraulic line from running the pump low on fluid. While we were in town, I bought three more quarts of ATF. I checked the catch basin to see if we still had a leak and it didn’t appear so. I added fluid to the reservoir.

When we were getting ready to leave Bisbee, the bedroom slide wouldn’t retract. I had to push from the outside while Donna worked the switch for the hydraulic pump. The living room slide retracted to within an inch of fully closed and stopped. I retracted the jacks, then checked the reservoir dipstick. No fluid showed. I added a quart of ATF and saw fluid near the minimum mark. I added more fluid and checked the level again – no fluid showed! I figured air was bleeding from the lines and dropping the fluid level. I ended up adding two and half quarts and I still couldn’t get the living room slide to fully seat – it remained about half an inch open.

We hit the road and I hoped the air would work out of the system as we drove. It was mostly an easy drive on AZ80 through Douglas then into New Mexico where the road designation changed to NM80. We had a tailwind most of the time, so I was hardly aware of the wind. At Hachita, we turned north to catch I-10 and then we had a crosswind. It was fairly windy but not too bad.

We stopped and shopped for a few items at a Walmart in Deming, then pressed on. We stopped for fuel at the Pilot Travel Center in Las Cruces. We thought we would boondock for the night at a scenic overlook on US80 before we hit White Sands. The overlook was at the top of a steep grade at San Augustin Pass. It wasn’t level and the wind was whipping through the pass. I got out to look it over and could barely close the door once the wind was blowing against it. We decided against staying there.

We moved on to Alamogordo where we had a few options including an Elks Lodge.  We ended up stopping at an abandoned shopping plaza Donna found in the Escapees Days End directory. There were a couple of tractor-trailer rigs in the lot, but everything was boarded up and no one else was around. I parked us close to one of the boarded up store fronts to get a little shade and shelter from the wind.

Then part two of my tale of woe began. The HWH situation is worse than before. Now I can get enough pressure to lower the jacks, but it won’t generate enough pressure to actually lift and level the coach. I only put out one bedroom slide while I tried to see what I could do to fix the problem. After messing about for an hour, I think air entrained in the system was wishful thinking. I think the cavitation of the pump damaged the pump rotor and it won’t deliver sufficient pressure. To make matters worse, I don’t think I can get just the pump. I think I have to get the complete assembly – reservoir tank, pump and motor. It’s doubtful I’ll be able to get this fixed anytime soon because parts will have to be ordered and we’ll have to figure out where to have the work done.

Next, I couldn’t get the roof air conditioning units to operate on generator power. The generator output was fine – I had 120 volts, 60 hertz and all other 120-volt AC powered appliances worked. I haven’t run the roof air on the generator in months and I don’t know what’s up with it at this point. The air conditioners worked fine in Bisbee on shore power.

On Wednesday evening, we received severe weather warnings for south central New Mexico. The wind on Thursday was forecast to reach speeds in excess of 35 mph in Alamogordo and the mountain passes we were planning to head for had warnings for wind gusts up to 60 mph from late morning Thursday until 9am Friday morning!

On Thursday morning, Donna and I were up early. After sunup, the wind was calm, but the severe warnings were still in effect. We discussed heading out right away to get over the mountains ahead of the wind, but thought better of it. The wind was coming from the west-southwest. We’re currently parked on the east side of a large building complex – we have safe harbor on the leeward side of the closed shopping plaza.

Our sheltered spot

By 9:30am, we knew we made the right decision. The wind kicked up and even here in our sheltered spot, the coach was rocked several times. That kind of wind is not something I would want to drive our rig through on a mountainous highway. And it’s increasing by the hour.

Just before noon, a bunch of FedEx trucks pulled into the lot. Apparently they use this lot as a staging area. Five trucks backed up to a larger truck in a spoke-like pattern and they offloaded boxes from the large truck into the smaller ones. I’ve never seen that before.

FedEx transferring packages in the parking lot

Around 12:30pm, I got the Spyder out of the trailer and we rode into town for green chile cheese burgers. I didn’t want to ride the Spyder on the highway in the gusty wind so we went the slower way through town. We had lunch at BZ Rockin’ Burgers. They had great reviews and a unique method of ordering that consists of a printed sheet of paper with boxes you check to to build your own burger. Next time, I think I’ll stick with Blake’s Lotaburger – their green chili cheeseburger is hard to beat.

We made a stop at McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch before we headed back. Donna posed in the wind for a photo.

Donna in a wind blown photo

We went inside the store and had a look around. They had some interesting flavors of pistachios and nut brittles as well as jams and other gift items. We didn’t find anything we had to have, so we headed home to see if our coach was still where we left it.

The wind blew harder and rocked the coach into the night. It’s a little past 7am now and a cool 55 degrees out. The forecast calls for a high of only 60 degrees today – it was 87 degrees yesterday. The weather service extended the wind advisory through this afternoon. After breakfast we’ll make a decision – sit tight or move on?

Grillin’ and Chillin’

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

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

Grilled salmon with mango salsa, steamed asparagus and baked potato

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wild horse on the Salt River (Audrey Muehe photo)

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

Grilled boneless chicken thigh with smashed potato and spinach

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

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

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

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

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

Delta faucet tool

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

Duvel Citra

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

Lagunitas Aunt Sally

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

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

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

 

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

 

A Sight to See

We’ve always said that flexibility is the key to happiness with our nomadic lifestyle. Our original plan was to stay here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona for three months. We planned to hit the road on March 21st. It looks like Donna will be flying to New York City on April 2nd, for a television spokesperson job. So, we may extend out stay here for a couple of weeks because it’ll be more convenient to fly out of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport rather than Tucson or any other place we might end up in.

Meanwhile, we’re staying busy on the pickleball courts while I try to finish a few items on my to-do list. Donna has been chipping away at her project list as well. Yesterday she did a deep cleaning of all the wood cabinets. First she cleaned them with Murphy’s Oil Soap, then she conditioned them with Old English.

I received a part I’d ordered from McMaster-Carr the other day and installed it. Our Alpine Coach has a surge tank for the cooling system on our Cummins ISL 400 engine. The surge tank has a sight glass so you can see if the coolant level is correct. The problem I had was that our sight glass didn’t give a good look at the coolant – it looked dark regardless of the coolant level.  In the McMaster-Carr online catalog, I found a high-pressure sight for dark liquid, nickel-plated steel with a 1/2″ NPT threads. The part number is 1079K42 if you have an Alpine Coach and need one.

McMaster-Carr high-pressure sight

I wrapped the threads with Teflon tape to seal them.

Threads wrapped with Teflon tape

The old sight glass was useless.

Old sight glass on surge tank

The new one is much better. In the photo, you can see the pink coolant – it’s Fleetguard  ES Complete OAT long-life diesel coolant.

New sight glass – much better!

Large diesel engines with wet liner cylinders are prone to coolant cavitation. This phenomenon occurs when the fuel ignites and the liner vibrates and coolant moves away from the liner, creating a small vacuum. The coolant then rushes back to fill the vacuum. Over time, this can cause erosion and pitting of the cylinder liner. I’ve read that Ford 7.3 Powerstroke engines are especially prone to this as are the larger diesel engines. Special diesel coolant and supplemental additives are used to prevent this type of damage.

Donna likes her new Spyderco Santoku kitchen knife. Last night she used it to dice onions, mince garlic and chiffonade basil for a spicy shrimp pasta dinner made with yellow lentil penne. The dinner was superb!

Spicy shrimp pasta

We’ve had 80 degree weather this week and it looks like it will continue to be warm for at least another week. We’ll figure out our plan by the weekend and decide if we stay here at Viewpoint or move on.

 

Valentine’s Dinner Delayed

As we expected, the weather dashed our Valentine’s Day dinner plans. We planned to go to Roma Cafe Ristorante a few miles from Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort – our current home. The rain started falling around noon and persisted into the night. It wasn’t the typical rain we often get around here, which are thunderstorms with heavy rain in short periods. This was more reminiscent of Seattle – light to moderate rain under a heavy overcast. It would occasionally lighten up to a drizzle or a few scattered drops, then fall steadily again with small raindrops – just enough to keep everything wet.

The Phoenix area averages eight inches of rain annually. A quarter of that amount falls in July and August during the monsoon season. The monsoon happens when the prevailing winds come up from the southwest carrying moisture from the Sea of Cortez through central Arizona. That’s when you’ll see heavy thundershowers here. Anyway, we weren’t about to head out on the Spyder and didn’t want to hassle with an Uber ride of only a few miles.

I spent most of the day lazing about and reading a book. I was waiting for parts to be delivered before I could work on my next project. It seemed a simple project, but I’d already had a false start on it – more on that in a minute. Donna replaced our dinner plans with a dish of creamy champagne chicken served over veggie pasta and zucchini spirals with sauteed peppers. It was a good excuse for Donna to open the bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne she had on hand!

Creamy champagne chicken

In our galley area, we were having trouble with one of the wall outlets. One day last week, a breaker tripped and we lost power to all of the kitchen outlets. When I investigated, I discovered that one of the outlets was worn and the induction cooktop plug was barely making contact. At one point, it must have lost contact and a spark arced from the outlet to the plug causing a current spike, thus tripping the breaker. I could wiggle the plug at the outlet and make or break contact with the wall outlet.

The wall outlets are 1-1/4″ X 2-1/2″ rectangular duplex type with a surrounding wall plate.

Old outlet and wall plate

Last weekend I rode the Spyder over to the Ace Hardware on Main Street and bought three new standard household Leviton brand duplex receptacle rectangular wall outlets – I figured I should replace all three outlets in the galley area.

When I came home and removed the trim plate, I discovered that ours weren’t standard household type receptacles. The mounting screws were offset and the wall plate snapped into a square hole centered above and below the receptacles.

Pass and Seymour self-contained wall receptacle – note offset screws and holes for plate

These outlets were made by a company called Pass and Seymour. A little digging online and I found they are self-contained wall outlets made specifically for mobile homes and RVs. They don’t use a metal or plastic junction box like you would find in a standard home installation. The power supply wires and ground lug do not use any screws. Instead, the Romex power cables are stripped of the outer sheath and the individual wires are forced into slots cut into the brass conductors of the outlets. Similarly, the copper ground wire is also captured in a slot. Once it’s wired, a plastic cover snaps over the back of the assembly, completely enclosing it.

I found the replacement Pass and Seymour self-contained receptacles online from an outfit called Mobile Home Parts Store and ordered half a dozen. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have enough on hand to replace the rest of our wall outlets and the shipping cost was the same whether I ordered three or six.

The parts came on Friday and after lunch, I set to work. The first step was to trip the breaker and make sure no current was flowing through the circuit. I tested the circuit with my multimeter to be sure. Once I had the outlet out of the wall, I removed the rear plastic cover by pushing the tabs in with a small punch. Then I used a flat blade screwdriver to pry the wires out of the receptacles. The brass slots are undersized so they bite into the wire, creating a secure connection with good conductivity.

Circuit breakers – second to the bottom below the one marked Refrigerator is the circuit I worked on

Old receptacle on the right has corroded conductors

The self-contained outlets are held to wall with clever locking levers that rotate 90 degrees when you tighten the screws. Tightening the screw rotates them to a vertical position to clamp against the backside of the wall. Loosening the screw rotates the lever against the housing and releases it from the wall.

Romex sheath stripped and wires forced into undersized slots

Pushing the wire into the slots on the outlet wasn’t easy. It has to be pushed with great force. There is a tool available to do this. It’s a plastic handle that has a “U” shaped end to fit over the wire. It costs $38, so I passed on it. It didn’t look very durable and I’d only be using it a few times if I bought one.

I used a metal punch with a flat tip about 5mm in diameter. It was difficult to force the wire into place, but with a few choice words, I got it done. The advantage I see in using this type of receptacle in this application is this – it takes less wall depth and fits thin wall construction. It also doesn’t have any screws that can loosen while traveling – the wires are secure in the slots and not likely to ever work free. It took some pressure to lever the wire out of the old receptacles.

The second outlet I replaced was similar to the first one, but the main difference was the Romex cable. In this one, they stripped a small portion of the outer PVC Romex sheathing and passed the cable through the receptacle and continued on to the next outlet. The job was the same though – pry the wires from the old outlet and force them into place in the new one. Then assemble in reverse order.

The only Pass and Seymour self-contained outlets I could find were white. Our originals were more of a bone color. Since I replaced all three in the galley area, they match with a two-tone look.

New two-tone look

I flipped the circuit breaker to the closed position (on) and tested the outlets. Job done!

Friday’s weather was cool – the high was in the mid-60s – but it was dry. We rode the Spyder to Roma Cafe Ristorante and had our Valentine’s Day dinner a couple of nights late. Donna had the eggplant parmigiana with pasta and a meatball with marinara on the side. I had the cannelloni ripieni, which is rolled sheets of pasta filled with crumbled sausage and covered in marinara and melted mozzarella. I also had a meatball on the side. Roma Cafe serves reasonable portions – not oversized. It’s similar to how Donna typically plates a meal. But I was stuffed. It was a good meal.

Today we have clear skies with only a few high, thin clouds. The temperature should reach the 70s. I have a few errands to run, but other than that, no plans. I’m still getting over the sinusitis although I’m feeling much better than I did earlier in the week.

Update – I’ve read on a few RV forums where the poster advises using a regular household type duplex receptacle as a replacement. They claim it’s easier to install and somehow “safer.” While I’ll agree it may be easier to install, I can’t advise their use or understand how it could enhance safety. Standard household receptacles are designed to be installed in an existing junction box, not freestanding in the wall. If the hot leads secured by screws to the conductors were to vibrate loose, you’d have hot wires floating free inside the wall of your coach without an insulating surround.

On the other hand, a Pass and Seymour self-contained receptacle is fully enclosed once the plastic back cover is snapped into place. It also has no screws securing the wiring – the wires are tightly held in the brass slots. These are designed for this application, standard household receptacles are not!

Stringing Day and Night Shades

I took it easy last weekend. My allergies have escalated to the severe category and I developed a bit of a sinus infection. On Saturday, Donna played in a pickleball tournament. I went to watch and ended up being a line judge. Donna had a good time playing.

On Sunday, Donna rode the Spyder to the park-and-ride lot at Gilbert and McDowell Road. She met up there with her friend, Julia, and they went to a movie theater in Tempe. Meanwhile I laid low, taking benadryl allergy tabs and rinsing my sinuses with a neti pot.

I stayed off the pickleball court Monday and took it easy again. I mostly relaxed and read a book. Donna got her exercise by running to Red Mountain Park and back – a distance of four miles. Then she hit the gym here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. She made a new recipe for dinner – a Korean beef bowl with noodles. It was spicy and yummy.

Korean beef bowl

On Tuesday morning, we had a rain shower. It was okay with me, I wasn’t up for pickleball. I had a delivery though and a project to complete. Our coach, like many RVs, has day and night window shades on our bedroom windows. Day and night shades have two panels, one that’s opaque for privacy but allows sunlight to illuminate the room. It also blocks some of the radiant heat. The second panel is a night shade that blocks light from entering the room.

Night shade half-way down

The night panel is attached to the top plate and center plate. It can be pulled all the way down, left all the way up or set to any point in-between.

Night panel half -way down, day panel covering the rest of the window

The day panel attaches to the center plate and the lower plate. Like the night panel, it can be left all the way up, pulled all the way down or set at any point in between. The day and night shades work through friction on cords that are strung through the plates and panels. One of the cords on our shade was frayed and the night panel wouldn’t go all the way up – in the photos, it’s up as far as we could get it. I ordered a kit to re-string the cords in the shade.

Kit

I removed the shade from the window frame and popped the end caps from all three plates. Then I cut the old cords at the top plate and pulled them off of the panels. The cord is constructed similarly to paracord, but much thinner. The cord in the kit was 1.4mm in diameter – slightly thicker than the cross section of 16-gauge wire. The kit also included new plastic bushings and a nifty tool for pulling the cord. The interesting thing was, the instructions never mention the cord pulling tool. In fact, the instructions were a little sketchy, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out how to do it.

I measured and cut two lengths of cord – in this case, I needed about 93 inches for each side. This allowed some fudge factor for tying the cord ends. I pulled both panels out of the end plates and center plate. The cords criss-cross through the center plate and pass through plastic bushings. Wear on these bushings is what ultimately causes the cords to fray. I replaced the plastic bushings by inserting a small punch through the opening and pushing them out of the plate and panel. I used the same punch to snap the new bushings in place.

Old worn bushings

I started at the top panel by the tying the end of each cord to the springs mounted there. Then I collapsed the night shade pleats flat against the upper plate and used the cord tool to pull the cord through the plate and panel pleats.

The instructions warned about stringing the center plate as being a tricky operation. The cords must cross – the left cord comes out of the center panel on the right side and right cord goes to the left side through the bushings. I found an easy way to do this. I slid the lower day shade into the center panel taking care to keep the strings centered in the plate. Again with pleats collapsed I inserted the tool before I had the panel all the way into the plate. This allowed me to easily capture the cord and pull it through the panel pleats and bushings.

This made stringing through the center panel easy

The instructions didn’t offer any advice on doing this step. Next I slid the panel through the plate until the bushing on the other end was exposed and did the same trick to pull the cord through the panel. Then I was able to center the panel with cords strung through.

After I pulled the cord through the bottom plate, I tied large knots in the end of the cords so I wouldn’t accidentally pull them back up. Then I snapped the end caps in place and I was ready to install the shade.

With the top panel secured to the window frame, the last step is to secure the ends of the cords at the bottom of the window. This is the trickiest part of the whole operation. There are plastic tabs screwed to the bottom of the window frame to secure the cords. Proper tensioning of the cords is critical. Too loose and the shades don’t have sufficient friction to stay in place – the shades fall from gravity. Too tight and the shade is difficult to operate and the plastic bushings will wear prematurely. The other thing is the cords need to pull against the springs in the top plate with fairly equal tension or the center plate and bottom plate won’t stay horizontal. I played around with it for a while before taking a break. I left plenty of extra cord where it ties to the tabs so I can make further adjustments to get it right. That was my project for the day.

Donna’s project for the day was a green curry shrimp dinner. Tasty!

Green curry shrimp

Earlier in the day, she rode her bike to Orangewood Shadows RV Park to visit Debi and Lowell Hartvikson, who we met when we stayed there several years ago. Afterward, she continued on to Trader Joe’s at Baseline and Gilbert to pick up the brown rice she needed for dinner plus bananas and lemons which she carried home in a small backpack. Altogether, she got in a 25-mile ride.

This morning is cool and cloudy and rain is imminent. I played in the 3.0-3.5 pickleball round robin and it was a mistake. I felt a little lightheaded at times and played poorly. I’ll take it easy for the rest of the day. We planned to go to Roma Cafe for Valentine’s dinner, but we’ll see how that works out. Riding the Spyder to dinner in the rain is not an option.

Pickleball and Projects

Another week of pickleball and projects has flown by here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. The weather has been fantastic, other than the high winds we experienced on Monday. The overnight low temperature has been around 50 degrees, while the daytime highs have been around 80 degrees.

On Monday afternoon, Donna took an Uber ride to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Phoenix. She stayed the night there to speak at the American National Cattlewomen meeting on Tuesday morning. After speaking, she was dropped off here by an Uber driver by noon. Her topic was “What Your Clutter Would Say If It Could Talk – and How to Give It the Boot!”

On Tuesday, I took care of a project I’ve been putting off for a while. A few of the rubber weatherstrip seals on the basement compartment doors were loose. They were originally installed with a double-sided adhesive tape. Time and temperature had taken a toll and some areas of adhesive were no longer holding.

I pulled what was left of the tape off on three loose seals and cleaned the rubber and corresponding area of the doors with rubbing alcohol. I like to use the 91% stuff, the 70% alcohol doesn’t work as well. I re-secured the seals with 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive.

3M Weatherstrip Adhesive

This is a type of contact cement that will stick to just about anything and creates a strong bond. I smeared a thin bead on the rubber seal and on the metal door. I let it dry and get tacky for about two minutes, then pressed the seal in place. The adhesive bonded immediately and the weather strips won’t be coming loose anytime soon!

On Tuesday evening, Donna made a new recipe. It was shrimp in a tomato cream sauce with brown rice and quinoa fusilli pasta and it was so tasty.

Shrimp in tomato cream sauce with pasta

I put off my projects on Wednesday and played the 3.0-3.5 round robin games on the pickleball court. I stayed off the courts on Thursday to tackle a couple more projects. The first was pulling the anode rod out of our 10-gallon Suburban water heater. Anode rods are sacrificial devices and need to be changed periodically. I wrote about it in this post.

The first time I changed the anode rod, I didn’t know how long it had been in water heater. It was totally corroded and I replaced it with a magnesium rod.  I changed the magnesium rod after 18 months, but it looked like I could have left it for another six months. I replaced it with an aluminum rod. The aluminum rods don’t corrode as fast as the magnesium rods, so I left it in for 22 months before I pulled it.

Aluminum Suburban water heater anode rod

I shut off the breaker for the water heater so the electric heating element wouldn’t burn out when I drained the tank. Then I shut off the fresh water supply to the coach.

Our water heater lives behind this vented panel

I cut a plastic grocery bag and taped it in place to create a “curtain” for the water to drain over. I knew the water coming out of the tank would likely have some heavy mineral deposits.

Water heater – anode rod in lower center

Hot water draining over “curtain”

As I expected, several chunks of calcium deposits and sandy mineral deposits came out with the hot water. To my surprise the anode rod was still in good shape. After I cleaned the tank out, I reinstalled the old anode rod and I’ll give it another 12 months before I change it.

Old anode rod still in good shape

After I reinstalled the anode rod with teflon tape sealing the threads, I opened the hot water in the bathroom and kitchen faucets. With the hot water faucets open, when I turned the fresh water supply back on air could escape from the tank while it filled with water. Once I had water flowing out of the faucets, I shut them and flipped the breaker back on for the heating element. Even though I didn’t need to change the anode rod, it’s a good idea to drain the hot water tank every year or two to clean out the mineral deposits.

After I finished the water heater project, I saw a mobile RV tech installing a new pressure relief valve on our neighbor’s hot water tank. I mentioned how our anode rod looked good after 22 months. He told me that aluminum rods are usually good for three to four years. Good to know.

After taking a break for lunch, Donna and I went to the pickleball court. I set up the ball machine so Donna could work on some drills. She’s getting more power into her shots and we worked on shot placement as well. After an hour of drills, I had one more project for the day.

I wanted to grease the wheel bearings in our cargo trailer. Our Interstate trailer is equipped with Dexter axles. The Dexter axles have what’s called E-Z Lube bearings. This system had the axle spindle drilled creating a passage that extends to the rear of the hub where it intersects with another drilling at 90 degrees. This passage opens just behind the rear wheel bearing in front of the rear bearing seal.

This makes greasing the bearings easy. You don’t have to remove the drums and pull the bearings. You just put a grease gun on the zerk fitting in the center of the spindle. With the wheel spinning you start pumping grease into the fitting. Spinning the wheel allows the grease to exit the passage behind the rear bearing all the way around instead just pumping through a small portion of the bearing.

The grease is forced through the rear bearing, then through a small clearance to the front wheel bearing. The old grease is pushed out of the bearings and comes out the front of the hub. When clean, new grease starts coming out, the bearing is repacked!

E-Z Lube wheel bearings

Of course I had a couple of issues to contend with, so it didn’t go quite as smoothly as it could have. First, my jack wouldn’t extend beyond a couple of inches. Apparently some of the hydraulic fluid had leaked at some point and the level was low. I had some automatic transmission fluid on hand, so I was able to remove the stopper and top up the fluid level.

The grease gun I had was a cheap unit I bought at Harbor Freight. It’s poorly constructed and there’s too much clearance between the plunger that pushes the grease out and the walls of the grease cartridge. This allowed grease to flow back behind the plunger instead of coming out the way it should. I had to play around with it to get enough grease to pack all four wheel bearing sets. Eventually I got the job done. Last night I ordered a new grease gun from Amazon – hopefully it’s a better quality tool than the one I used. I also found two of the rubber dust caps on the hubs were cracked so I ordered replacements.

The great weather is forecast to continue through the weekend and into next week. I’m playing in a pickleball tournament tomorrow morning, then Donna and I might join Howard and Sara Graff for an afternoon at the PGA Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament.

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

Headlight Eyesore

Another week has flown by here in Mesa, Arizona. The week started with cool weather – the high was only 64 degrees on Monday. Our friends and fellow full-time nomads, Brett and Cheri were in town for a few days. We met for dinner Monday night at Baja Joe’s – a Mexican restaurant on the corner of McKellips and Gilbert Road.

Brett, Cheri, Donna and me

I’m not much of a dessert eater, but I dug in when we split a dish of fried ice cream after our entrees. Fried ice cream is a Mexican treat. A ball of ice cream is breaded – usually with crushed corn flakes and a dash of cinnamon – then quickly deep fried in hot oil. This forms a delightful crust over the ball of cold ice cream which is then drizzled with chocolate syrup and honey and served in a cinnamon fried tortilla bowl. A dollop of whipped cream topped with maraschino cherries completes the dish. Yummy!

Fried ice cream served in a crisp fried tortilla bowl

A warming trend began on Tuesday and we had high temperatures in the 70s for the rest of the week. As you can see in the restaurant photo, I’ve let my goatee grow long over the past few months. On Wednesday I decided it was time to clean up my act. I trimmed my beard – we’ll see how I like it.

The new look

Did I mention how the time is flying by? We’ve been here in Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort for over a month now. Donna reminded me I had a few projects that I should get going on before we head out of here. One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is replace the lens covers on our headlights. The covers discolor and pit from exposure over time. They’re made of a lexan type polycarbonate material. A couple of years ago I polished the headlight covers to remove the crazed surface and restore the luster (posted here). The thing is, there’s an exterior coating on the polycarbonate surface to inhibit damage from exposure to the sun. When you polish the surface, this coating is removed and the lens will deteriorate fairly quickly.

The headlight assemblies Western RV used when they made Alpine Coaches were made in Germany by Hella. They were the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for BMW and these headlights were used in the BMW E39 models – E39 is the code for BMW’s fourth generation 5 series models made from 1995 to 2004. I searched for headlight covers for this model and only found one supplier with an expensive replacement. I wasn’t even sure if I could remove the old cover from the assembly without damage to the headlight.

I could get OEM headlight assemblies from BMW or buy used ones. The problem with OEM parts from BMW is cost. The OEM headlight assemblies run about $600 each – $1,200 for a pair is out of the question. Used headlight assemblies may have had enough exposure to already begin deteriorating, so that didn’t seem like a good way to go either.

I searched on Ebay and found several suppliers with knock-off E39 headlight assemblies made in China. One supplier had sold nearly 600 pairs with a seller rating of 99.7% positive. The headlight assemblies sourced in China looked good – they copied the Hella design. The price for a new pair of headlights was $135! I went for it.

The headlight assemblies were delivered on Friday afternoon. They were well-packaged and looked good to go. I got to work on the project Saturday morning. First I made a trip to the NAPA auto parts store. I needed automatic transmission fluid for the HWH hydraulic system. We have a small leak at the equalizer ram and the fluid in the reservoir was low. With the slides out and jacks down, the fluid was low enough that I couldn’t fully extend the front generator compartment to access the headlight assemblies. Once I topped up the fluid I was set.

The old headlights looked bad, really bad. Donna said the headlights were an eyesore.

Old headlights

It was mainly a cosmetic issue – the headlights still functioned and we’ve only driven the coach after sundown once in the last four years. Before I disassembled the old unit, I put tape on the wiring and numbered the connectors. I took a photo to make sure I connected everything correctly on the new light. I put the connectors on the new assembly temporarily to check function. With the wiring harness connected, I could just reach the top of the generator housing to set the assembly down while I went in the coach and turned on the headlights. I checked the low beams, high beams and turn indicators – all was good.

When I exited the coach and walked to the front, I found the headlight assembly on the ground. It had fallen off the generator housing. The high beam bulb holder had popped out and the H7 bulb was broken. The bulb holder looked okay. I took the bulb holder with me and went back to NAPA. I pried the H7 bulb base out of the bulb holder and it was fine – this was a good thing because NAPA didn’t have the bulb holder, only the replacement H7 bulb.

Old assembly with connectors marked

The new headlight assembly had a plate on the bottom that wasn’t on our headlights. I’m guessing this plate is an adapter used on some E39 model BMWs. It was held on with two screws so I removed it. Without the plate, the mounting tabs on the new assembly aligned with mounts on the front bodywork. It didn’t take long to complete the job.

Before photo of the front end

After photo with new headlights

On Saturday afternoon, Donna presented a free decluttering seminar at the Mesa Public Library. She spoke for about an hour there. On Saturday evening, we were invited to join with friends at Kim and Mike Childs’ house for a potluck dinner and drinks – and a bonfire in the backyard. They live a couple of miles from us off Brown Road.

Backyard bonfire

The wind picked up here overnight and it’s quite gusty this morning. The forecast calls for a high of 80 degrees today with similar high temps for the rest of the week. Donna is working on another presentation today – she’s the keynote speaker at the American Cattlewomen’s Association Convention in Phoenix on Tuesday. She’ll spend the night in a hotel in downtown Phoenix Monday, then speak at 9am on Tuesday. I’m planning to head out to the Rio Salado gun club with Howard Graff and do some target shooting this afternoon.

 

Resistance and Heat

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

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

Gila woodpecker

sweet nectar

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

Chimay Belgian ale

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

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

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

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

Our 12-volt fuse panel

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

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

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

Mystery Achievement

The US Postal Service came through and delivered my new pickleball paddle Monday afternoon. I used it on Tuesday and Wednesday and I’m happy with it. The grip is very comfortable. The performance difference between this paddle and my old one is subtle – I expected a greater change. It gives good power and I feel like I have a little more control, but it’s not a night-and-day difference.

New Head pickleball paddle

I crossed a couple more chores off my “to do” list this week. The first thing was addressing our vent fans. After studying the wiring schematic, I saw the power source ran from the fuse box behind the kick panel in front of the passenger seat all the way to the switch on the bathroom wall. It’s a 14-gauge wire with yellow insulation.

Vent fan switch on the right

At one pole of the switch, another yellow wire is crimped to the connector with the power wire and runs back through the wall into the ceiling and goes to the kitchen vent fan switch. The other pole of the switch completes the circuit to the vent fan motor. This explains why both fans quit working at the same time. If current doesn’t reach the bathroom wall switch, then there’s no current going to the kitchen fan switch either.

Looking at the wall switch plate, I couldn’t see any fasteners. I carefully pried the plastic surround cover with a plastic wedge tool and popped the surround off. The surround cover was held to the actual switch plate with four tabs snapped into square holes on the switch plate.

Switch plate screws revealed

With the surround cover off, I saw the screws holding the switch plate to the wall. With these screws removed, I accessed the wiring. I checked the yellow wires on the vent fan switch and found some interesting readings with my multimeter. At first I found about six to eight volts at the switch – meaning I had a large voltage drop from the 13.4 volts at the battery bank. I wiggled the wires and then read zero volts. I pulled the connector off the switch and checked the crimp and wire ends. I followed the wiring and found it coming out of the wall behind the clothes washer in the utility closet. I looked for breaks or abrasions in the wire and found none. I wiggled the wire where it enters the utility closet and pushed it into the wall opening to provide more slack. When I checked with the meter again, I read 13.4 volts.

Yellow vent fan wires on the right

Aha! Something was amiss with the wiring – there must be a break in the strands of wire and I had pushed them back together. The bad news is – the break must be in the section of wire inside the wall. I can’t just pull the wire out of the wall in the utility closet because the bundle of wires runs through plastic support loops every foot or so – including the portion inside the wall. They must have run the wires and secured the loops before the wall panel inside the closet was closed out.

Wiring coming out of the wall in the back of the utility closet

I was stumped. I gave the wires another wiggle test and lost voltage. My thought was to splice into the wires for the bathroom lighting. I could make a short jumper wire and have a power source for the vent fans without running wires the length of the coach. To do this, I needed some 14-gauge wire and piggyback connectors. I put this project on hold to think it over before I bought the supplies and started splicing. I left it with the switch plate off and reconnected the wiring. Later, the fans came on – I had left the switches in the “on” position. I wiggled the wires again. The fans kept running. I left the fans on all day and they worked fine.

Before pickleball on Wednesday, I stopped at the auto parts store in Pacific Beach. I picked up some yellow 14-gauge wire and splice connectors. I also bought brake fluid for the Spyder. When I came home, I wiggled the wires again and the fans still worked. I decided to hold off on splicing into the other power supply wire and I put the switchplate and surround back together. I don’t like mystery fixes – I’m thinking some time down the road the wire will open again and the fans will lose power. I’ll wait until this happens before I splice the wires – I have what need to do it when the time comes.

Next on my list was the brake fluid level on the Spyder. Can-Am did some weird things when they designed the Spyder. The brake fluid is contained in a two-chamber reservoir with tubing supplying fluid to the master cylinder and hydraulic system. Vehicle master cylinders are dual acting mechanisms. There are separate circuits – in this case one circuit operates the rear brake and a second circuit operates the front brakes. Separating the hydraulics into two circuits adds a margin of safety. This is common practice on cars. Some cars – mostly European – take this approach to the next level by separating the circuits into a right front – left rear and left front – right rear  to give greater braking control in the event of failure of one of the circuits.

Having separate front and rear circuits is all well and good on the Spyder design. The Spyder also has a fluid level sensor in the brake fluid reservoir. But the thing is, the sensor is way too sensitive. The slightest drop in fluid level triggers a brake warning light and the message “Brake Failure” flashes on the dash panel. It’s normal for the fluid level to drop slightly as the brake pads wear. The wear of the pads is taken up by the pistons in the caliper extending further in their bores. This creates more fluid volume in the caliper and it’s drawn out of the reservoir. On the Spyder, the brake fluid reservoir must be periodically topped up to avoid the dire “Brake Failure” warnings.

To make matters worse, they put the brake fluid reservoirs under the seat. The seat can be raised to access the reservoirs and battery, but it only raises a short distance – maybe a 30 degree angle – before it hits the stop.

This is the fully raised seat angle

The geniuses that designed the Spyder put the reservoirs at the back of the seat near the pivot point. There’s no way to get even the smallest brake fluid container in there to fill the reservoir. I poured a small amount of fluid into the bottle cap and added fluid one capfull at a time.

Nice place to put the reservoir

Last time I did this, I used a small syringe, but I didn’t have a clean syringe to use this time. Anyway, it’s job done. No more warning messages.

It’s time to head out and use my new paddle at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Earlier this week the forecast called for rain on Friday. Now the weather guessers say there’s only a 10 percent chance of rain through the weekend. Maybe we’ll play pickleball in Ocean Beach tomorrow.

 

Not So Prime Time

We had visitors Friday morning. Tom and Kris Downey came by. They live in Indio now, near Palm Springs. They were on the road for about three years, but sold their rig and bought a small house. We visited for a while and took a walk around the point to see the bay and De Anza Cove. Kris was happy to see the water and seemed to miss their time spent here.

We piled into their car and drove to Ocean Beach for fish tacos at South Beach Bar and Grill on Newport Avenue near the pier. They have some of the best fish tacos around. We forgot about the long weekend due to Veteran’s Day – the beach area was crowded, traffic moved slowly, and we were lucky to find a parking spot. We all ordered the mahi-mahi tacos and had an enjoyable lunch before they had to head for home.

I crossed off another item on my “to do” list on Friday afternoon. The rear brake on the Spyder was noisy and the parking brake release was hanging up – making it difficult to release the parking brake. It’s hard to see the inner brake pad, but it appeared to be worn thin. I ordered replacement pads and picked them up on Thursday. On Friday afternoon, I got started on the job. The new pads came with new caliper mounting bolts and circlips – a nice touch. The caliper mounting bolts double as pins holding the brake pads in place and need to be secured on the back side with the circlips.

Brake pad kit

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again. I really dislike working on the Spyder. It was designed for ease of manufacturing without much regard for serviceability. I’d really like to get my hands on the engineer that came up with the rear brake caliper set up. To replace the pads without completely removing the caliper and putting it on a bench requires a lot of patience. In hindsight, I should have removed the rear wheel first, but I wanted to avoid doing that because that would entail setting up the belt drive adjustment when I put it back on. I got it done, but it wasn’t as easy as it could have been and involved a few choice words along the way.

After that job, I was ready for a cold one so I hit the Offshore Tavern and Grill. At this time of year, we often have overcast mornings which clear up before thin clouds return in the late afternoon. The thin clouds make fiery sunsets.

Sunset from the Offshore Tavern and Grill

Friday night Donna prepared fennel-crusted porterhouse pork loin chop, acorn squash and roasted brussel sprouts for dinner. She’s sticking to her plan of high protein, low fat and low carb diet. My weight seems to be pretty steady – I might be slowly losing a few pounds. She feeds me larger portions than she’s eating. She actually skipped the squash.

Fennel-crusted pork chop with roasted brussel sprouts and acorn squash

On Saturday evening, we had another visitor. Our friend Mona came by and she brought goodies. She brought along ceviche from the Blue Water Seafood Grill and Market which we snacked on with tortilla chips. It was delicious. She also brought a steelhead filet which I grilled. Mona is allergic to cats, so she and Donna spent the evening outside chatting, huddled under blankets. We met Mona here at Mission Bay RV Park the first year we were here and have been fast friends ever since.

Steelhead filet

Over the weekend, I tried to trace the electrical fault in our vent fans. The Fantastic Fans quit working. It seems like I have a poor connection at the toilet fan switch. The circuit runs power to that switch and from there goes to the kitchen fan switch. I need to remove the switch plate and look at the wiring. The problem is, the switch plate appears to be glued to the wall. There aren’t any visible fasteners. I’ll have to carefully separate the plate from the wallpaper to avoid unsightly damage. I’ll try to get to that today.

I’m heading to Ocean Beach for pickleball this morning. I’m a little irritated with Amazon. Last Wednesday, November 8th, I ordered a new pickleball paddle. With my Prime account it was supposed to arrive in two days. I received the order confirmation and tracking info. The tracking info has been erratic. First it showed the item due to arrive on Saturday. Then on Saturday it said it was delayed. Then it said it would arrive on Sunday – it showed it shipped on Saturday. Now it says it will arrive today – Monday, November 13th. What happened to Prime two-day shipping? I’ll chalk it up to Amazon relying on the US Postal Service for delivering the paddle.

The weather has been holding steady and it looks like we can expect more of the same in the coming week. Daily highs are around 70 degrees with night time lows around 60. That’s winter in San Diego.

 

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