Category Archives: Midget

Blowin’ in the Wind

We were joined by Mike and Jodi Hall and their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend Valerie on Friday afternoon. They pulled in to Pleasant Harbor RV Resort around 2pm and took the site directly behind us. When I pull into a site and begin my set-up routine, I generally dislike interruptions or distractions and rarely engage a neighbor in small talk – that often leads to mistakes in my routine.

I broke my own unwritten rule and went over and started talking to Mike as he was setting up their travel trailer. After about 10 minutes, I realized I wasn’t being helpful and let him finish without me distracting him.

On Friday evening, Donna grilled a pile of marinated chicken drumsticks. We all sat around the picnic table at our site and struggled with poor lighting. Donna also made potato salad and a delightful kale salad. After dinner, we had carrot cake Donna baked for dessert – it included a few cut pieces with birthday candles. My birthday was two weeks earlier, Swayzie’s ninth birthday was Saturday, October 24th and Mike’s birthday was Monday, October 26th. It was a good time.

On Saturday, we took the golf cart shuttle to the marina and went to Dillon’s for lunch. The shuttle is the way to go – if you drive over, you have to park above the marina and it’s quite a hike down the ramp and then a long walk on a floating walkway to the restaurant/bar. The shuttle drives all the way across the floating access onto the marina dock right outside of Dillon’s.

They have a huge water slide on the dock that ends with an upturned lip that flings people from the slide into the air over the water. We saw a few guys doing flips and twists in the air, but we also saw a few belly-flops and one guy smacked the water as he hit horizontally on his back and side – it sounded painful. We enjoyed lunch – most of us ordered from their barbeque menu – and enjoyed a couple of cold ones. The food was good, albeit on the pricy side for what it was. But the view and setting command the price. I don’t know why I failed to take any pictures.

Friday’s high temperature reached the low 90s and Saturday and Sunday were in the high 80s. Historically, the average high temperature in this area at this time of year reaches 89 degrees with a low of 60 degrees. On Sunday, Donna and the Halls went to the Lake Pleasant Regional Park and hiked the Wild Burro trail. They didn’t see any wild burros, but they made the trip down to the Scorpion Bay Marina. I stayed home and watched the Formula One race from Portugal and the Moto GP race from Spain.

The temperatures were on the warm side Sunday, but in the afternoon, the wind started to pick up. I pulled our awning in as it was starting to billow a bit. While I was watching TV, I heard a loud bang! I looked outside and saw our neighbor across the street come outside. He looked around, then focused on the fifth-wheel trailer next to his site.

It was a Vilano fifth-wheel trailer with dual awnings and they were deployed. I knew the owner, Mike, was out on the lake in his boat – I’d seen him load up and leave earlier. Just then, his front awning blew up like a balloon and the frame arms scissored in as the air spring gave way. The arms crashed against the coach siding with a loud whack! When it happened again, I figured damage was imminent.

Last week, Donna talked to Mike when she was petting his Basset hound, Otis. Mike told her that she could come and visit the dog anytime – he doesn’t lock the trailer when he’s out on the lake. I took this as permission to enter. I walked over and knocked on the door, knowing no one was home. I opened the unlocked door and called out as Otis came over for a sniff. I let myself in.

I looked around for switches to operate the electric awnings. I didn’t see any, but I saw a touch screen that operated the various room lights. I looked at the screen and saw a small icon at the bottom that looked like an awning. I touched the icon and the screen then displayed an extend/retract button for awning 1 and another button for awning 2. Eureka! I retracted the awnings and left.

Later, when Mike returned with his boat after sunset, I walked over and told him what had happened. I wanted him to know I entered his coach and why. He was grateful and told me he could hardly believe he left his awnings out – he knew better than to do that. He was so grateful that later, when he returned from the store, he gave me a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted.

Monday morning, Mike and Jodi packed up the kids and their stuff and pulled out around 11am. The forecast for Monday’s weather called for a 40% chance of rain a few days ago. It was revised to no rain, but a cold, blustery day ahead. The wind started picking up by noon. The high temperature only reached 69 degrees.

The wind continued to strengthen throughout the afternoon. By 3pm, I decided to take the whip down from my Frankenbuddi Versatee Vertical HF antenna. It extends about 30 feet in the air and was moving quite a bit in the wind. The wind gusts became stronger and isolated dust storms came through the area. By dark, we had gusts of 40mph and blowing debris that made it look like a blizzard was coming through.

The car cover blew off of Midget-San. I went out in the dark and wind to retrieve it. Sand and leaves were blowing everywhere. Donna helped me secure the cover back over the Midget. I hate to think of what the interior must look like – it was exposed to all of the blowing debris.

The gusting winds continued all night, rocking the coach at times. It made for a fitful night’s sleep. This morning, the winds are still blowing, but not nearly as strong as yesterday. I went out to take a look around. Of course our chairs blew down and one of the table cloths disappeared. There are leaves and debris in all of the sites – there weren’t any leaves to be seen on the ground before. Even our door mats blew away.

Leaves and debris in the site around Mike’s Vilano fifth-wheel trailer – it’s the one I pulled the awnings in.

In the site across from where Mike and Jodi were, a canopy cover was destroyed.

Canopy destroyed

Never underestimate the power of wind! This morning, my Comet GP6 UHF/VHF antenna was listing to one side. I re-secured the mount to straighten it. Even with the lower wind strength this morning, the antenna is whipping around.

This morning’s wind pushing the antenna around.

The wind is supposed to abate and be reasonably calm this afternoon. I’ll put the HF antenna back up and do some clean-up. The forecast calls for high 60s again today before we start warming back up to more normal daily highs.

We plan to move out of here on Saturday, so I’ll start reorganizing the trailer in the next few days. We’ll be moving south to Buckeye where we can visit with my middle daughter Jamie and her family.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on 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!

RV Park Antennas

I ended my last post by briefly mentioning ham radio antennas. Today I’m going to write more on the subject, so if you don’t have any interest in ham radio, just skip down to the dinner plates!

Ham radio operators in the USA currently can be licensed in three levels. First is the Technician License which allows access to the Very High Frequency Band (VHF) and the Ultra High Frequency Band (UHF) with very limited access to High Frequency (HF) on six meters and 10 meters. Frequency and band nomenclature can be confusing for non-ham operators. Frequency is a measure of signal modulation in cycles per second known as Hertz. A band refers to a range of related frequencies and is broadly referred to by its wavelength in approximate meters. Here’s the thing – the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. So, the 2-meter band is a higher frequency band than the 20-meter band.

Then there’s the General License which opens up a lot more opportunities on HF bands that are useful for long-distance contacts. The top level is called Amateur Extra and requires in-depth technical knowledge of radio theory and operation.

When I began assembling my ham gear, I hadn’t taken my exam yet. I was supremely confident of passing the Technician exam and assumed I would be operating with a Technician License. I ordered a Comet GP6 antenna to receive and transmit on VHF/UHF – 2-meter and 70cm bands. This has proven to be a good choice – compact, easy to set up and take down, rugged and efficient. I also bought a dual band Diamond CP610 antenna. This is an enlarged version of a vertical like the Comet and will receive and transmit on the 6-meter and 10-meter bands. This was not the best choice as it wasn’t very stable at 22 feet long.

When I took my exam, I easily passed the Technician exam. Then they offered me a chance to take the General exam at no charge – I did and passed. This meant I needed another antenna for HF bands 10-meter and lower.

As full-time RVers, I have limitations on what antennas I can reasonably use. As I’ve studied and learned, it’s apparent that all antenna designs are compromises in one way or another. I needed an HF antenna that was portable, could easily be stored in the trailer, set up easily and not require a lot of real estate. Stability was important too – it would be bad to have my antenna fall over and hit someone’s RV.

I ended up buying an MFJ-2289 Big Ear antenna. This is a V-shaped dipole antenna with 17-foot long collapsible whips and a coil to tune to 10- through 40-meter bands. This antenna is aptly named – it has big ears and I could hear stations from long distances. On three occasions, when conditions were favorable, I was able to talk to a guy in Spain once and twice to a guy in Slovenia. However, most of time I could hear distant conversations, but they couldn’t hear me or my signal was broken and noisy. I usually operate on 20 meters in the afternoon and switch to 40 meters later in the day.

After doing more research, I found the V-dipole acts like a horizontal dipole. For maximum long distance efficiency, it needs to be mounted high above ground level – for 40 meters it would ideally be mounted at least 60 feet high. I can’t put up a 60-foot tower!

MFJ-2289 Big Ear dipole

I’m also a little skeptical of the quality and durability of the materials MFJ uses. The long whips seem a little flimsy and are really pushed around by wind.

After doing more homework, I came up with a few ideas. One day, I was talking on the radio with a guy in northern California named Budd Drummond (W3FF). It turns out that Budd is the inventor of the Buddipole modular antenna system. He didn’t try to sell me on it – he just threw out a few ideas and suggested I check out the website and maybe contact his son, Chris Drummond who’s the owner and CEO of Buddipole. Budd is retired, although he still consults with Chris.

Buddipole has some standard packages and configurations, but many ham operators consider Buddipole to be the erector set of antennas. You can mix and match parts to make what you desire. I had a conversation with Chris and outlined my limitations and what I would like to be able to do with ham radio. We came up with a design that would meet my criteria – of course, compromises are always made with antennas. The design is based on what Buddipole calls a Versatee Vertical. I call mine a Frankenbuddi.

Buddipole uses high – quality materials. The collapsible shock-cord whip sections are made of anodized 7075 aluminum. They offer a system beginning with a stable, high-quality tripod and a collapsible mast. The Buddipole components screw directly into the end of the mast. This put the base of my vertical antenna about 10 1/2 feet above ground level and I have about 21 feet of vertical whip. It also has a tuning coil, so I can tune the antenna from 10 meters to 40 meters. It utilizes a wire counterpoise ground that I run from the antenna base feedpoint sloping to a point about three feet above the ground.

With all this stuff, I knew I needed instruments to properly set up the antenna. I bought a RigExpert antenna analyzer. With this meter, I’m able to set this up and accurately tune it. The whip does bend a bit in the wind. I’ve added a couple of guy lines to help support it although it never budged with three one-gallon water bottles suspended from the tripod.

Buddipole – white whip in background is the Comet antenna
Versatee antenna base feedpoint
Triple ratio switch balun (TRSB)

I’m happy with the results so far. I’ve talked to people all over the US from the northeast to Florida to the midwest and western states. I listened to a conversation in Japanese that presumably originated in Japan – it was as clear as if they were in the same room with me. I also picked up a weak signal from Germany. Long distance to Europe or Japan or Australia is very much influenced by propagation conditions in the upper atmosphere – a good antenna helps immensely, but if conditions are bad, signals are bad.

Another ham operator here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort really pushes the antenna boundaries. He has at least five antennas up in his site. See if you can spot them in the photo below.

Ham radio antennas

Here they’re identified. The loop antenna is misleading in this photo – it’s much larger than it appears.

The beam antenna is actually an over-the-air HDTV antenna

The whole idea of electro-magnetic waves constantly around us is fascinating to me. In fact, light is created by super-high frequency waves! Any conductor can be tuned to receive specific frequencies – it’s just a matter of amplifying the received signal and processing it to hear what it contains.

I’m the antenna

Catching vibration

You’re the transmitter

Give information

– Kraftwerk

The Buddipole came with a coaxial cable. It was another compromise. Buddipole leans toward highly mobile, lightweight equipment. The cable they supplied was RG58u and although it’s light and easily packed, it also creates high loss. I wanted to use my RG8U which has a much larger conductor – it’s stiff and heavy by comparison, but it’s also low loss. So on Saturday, Donna and I drove to Ham Radio Outlet in Peoria. I had forgotten how much metro Phoenix sprawls – it took us about 50 minutes to reach the store. I bought an adapter for my cable so I could hook up the low loss RG8U to the Buddipole TRSB. Checking both configurations with the RigExpert antenna analyzer, I can honestly say it was worth the trip. The RG8U coaxial cable is far superior in performance to the RG58u.

Time to talk food. Donna manned the Weber Q to cook a simple favorite – sriracha chicken thighs. She used boneless thighs this time and they were great. She says she’ll stick to boneless for this dish.

Sriracha chicken

Last night, she prepared a meal we had both mostly forgotten about. In fact, we think we last had this when we were still living in our sticks-and-bricks home, so it’s been at least seven and half years.

Stuffed bell pepper

It was very good. I don’t know why this dish was forgotten.

Our daily highs have dropped about ten degrees from what we experienced last week. We’re still running air conditioning, but not as early or as long. Donna’s been taking advantage of the swimming pool. You have to reserve a time slot which varies from two to four hours – they only allow 50 people at a time in each time slot and you can only reserve one time slot per day.

The long range forecast calls for low 80s the last week of this month. We’ve made a change to our itinerary. We’ll leave Lake Pleasant on the 30th and move to Buckeye where we’ll be able to more easily visit Jamie and Francisco.

Wild Burros

Donna registered for a guided kayak tour from Lake Pleasant Regional Park – she’ll take her kayak out on the lake next Friday with a park ranger leading a group of up to 10 people. Lake Pleasant Regional Park is operated by Maricopa County Parks and Recreation. The park is an area of about 23,000 acres – 7,500 to 10,000 acres are covered by the lake. Lake Pleasant is a pleasing name, but it may not be what you think. It’s named after the Carl Pleasant dam which was completed in 1927 and formed the lake from inflow of the Agua Fria River.

There are fees associated with entry to the park. Donna decided to purchase an annual Regional Park Pass – she’ll use it here and also when we are in Mesa to enter Usery Regional Park. So we drove the Midget west on Carefree Highway to North Castle Hot Springs Road and the entrance to the park. Once Donna paid for the pass, we drove in and took a look around.

Our first stop was at the Scorpion Bay Marina parking area. From the parking lot, you get a great view of the lake and marina. It’s a bit of a hike to get down to the marina, but they also have two inclined lifts that can hold about four people or a couple of people and gear to get down and up from the marina.

Scorpion Bay Marina – stairs between two inclined lift tracks

I was surprised at the number of large boats in the marina. The building at the end of the dock is Scorpion Bay Grill – Donna and I plan to eat there in the near future.

As we were leaving the parking area, we saw wild burros.

Yep – they’re out there

I pulled off of the pavement and Donna shot a couple of photos.

Wild burros
They didn’t want to hang around while Donna photographed them

Donna wanted to check out some of the hiking trails, so we took a car tour of the park. Between Sunset Ridge and the Bobcat Day Use area, we found a huge boat ramp. The sign says 10-lane boat ramp, but it looks larger than 10 lanes to me. It’s also a long, fairly steep run from the parking area to the water.

Huge boat ramp

We’ve had nocturnal visits from wild burros at least three times this week. Yesterday, I saw one of the park maintenance guys scooping donkey droppings and I figured out why they are coming into the RV park. We have a grassy park with a pavilion between the RV sites and the clubhouse/pool area. The burros are feeding on the green grass at night when no one is around.

Last night, Donna prepared a new dish – it was called melted broccoli pasta and she served it with shrimp grilled on the Weber Q.

Melted broccoli pasta with shrimp

I had a really interesting contact on ham radio Wednesday evening. I could hear a conversation between two people with a strong signals on both ends. I was operating on the 40-meter band, which is useful for long-range contacts of 300 miles up to 5,000+ miles. After listening for a few minutes, I found that one end of the conversation was coming from Henderson, Nevada. The other guy was in Peoria, Arizona – less than 10 miles away from me! This doesn’t usually work on 40 meters – the signal skips over near locations as it reflects off of the ionosphere.

I was able to join the conversation, then the Henderson contact had to break away and we were joined by a guy in Del Mar, California. It was a fun contact and I enjoyed the conversation. Today I’m expecting a delivery – I’m going to replace my MFJ 2289 high frequency antenna with something new. When I bought my radio gear, I really tried to learn about which radio would be the right choice for me and I think I did well. But, I should have paid more attention to antenna theory and design. A lot of the old-timers have advised to spend money on the antenna – that’s where the performance is. Well, live and learn – I should have spent the antenna money once – instead I keep replacing them with the next best thing as I learn.

Today should be the first day we have a high temperature in double digits. It’s been 100+ degrees every afternoon since we arrived. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 91 degrees and we should see low to mid-90s for the next couple of weeks. We joke about dry heat, but really at 10 to 20% humidity, 90 degrees doesn’t feel too bad.

Dry and Dusty

As I mentioned in my last post, we drove up to Kanab, Utah on Thursday and met Jeff and Deb Spencer at Escobar’s Mexican restaurant for lunch. After a short wait, we were seated at an outdoor table on the front patio. We enjoyed the food, company and conversation for the next two hours. Kanab is only about eight miles from Fredonia where we were staying.

On the way back, we made a side trip to look at the Kane County arena where a rodeo was scheduled on Friday evening. It looked dry and dusty – the parking area was a dust bowl. I decided to pass on the rodeo.

Donna went out for a bike ride on Friday and in her travels, she ran into Deb Spencer. Jeff and Deb are mooch-docking at a friend’s place in Fredonia. Donna stopped and talked to Deb and her friend, Marge.

Dry and dusty has been a theme at Wheel Inn RV Park in Fredonia. On Saturday while Donna took a bike ride, the wind kicked up. I ended up taking down my ham radio antenna and it turned out to be a good precaution as the wind became gustier all afternoon. At times, the amount of dust in the air was astounding. It was a good thing Donna went out early for her ride. She followed a route suggested by Marge and went across the state line to the Jackson Flat Reservoir. Here are some photos from her ride.

Paved path at the reservoir
Jackson Flat Reservoir
Free range goats at the reservoir

I was feeling a little off all weekend – some kind of intestinal bug. So I wasn’t very active.

On Sunday, Donna had an appointment at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab. She drove Midget-San up there before noon. They have a number of tours for a variety of animals – dogs, cats, pigs, goats, birds and rabbits. Donna toured Cat World where rescued cats are housed.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Welcome Center
One of many cat enclosures

I hung out and watched the Moto GP race from Spain and the Formula One race from Russia. When Donna returned, I loaded the Midget in the trailer and I was glad I did. Once again the wind kicked up and we had several dust storms – so much dust I couldn’t see across the street.

Monday morning we hit the road. We took US89A south and began climbing. In Fredonia we were about 4,800 feet above sea level. Our route on US89A took us past Jacob Lake where we topped out at 7,920 feet above sea level! The highway is twisty and very narrow. I clenched a few times when oncoming tractor-trailer rigs threatened to knock mirrors with us. There is no shoulder at all and dropping a wheel off the pavement probably would not end well.

We quickly lost elevation as we drove past Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. We crossed the Colorado River at Marble Canyon at an elevation of a little over 3,500 feet above sea level and began climbing again. We soon left US89A and hit US89 south. This is a wider road with ample shoulder space and is a divided highway at times. But, it’s a very bumpy road with whoop-de-do sections. After traversing several miles of rough pavement, I groaned when I saw a sign warning of rough pavement for the next 24 miles. If the next 24 miles warranted a sign, things could only be getting worse.

US89 took us up the Mogollon Rim south of Cameron and the road to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon. We entered the Coconino National Forest and were back up to an elevation over 7,000 feet above sea level. Most people think of Arizona as flat desert land. Not so in northern Arizona. We went from arid canyons to thick pine forests with a multitude of landscapes in between.

From Flagstaff, you can see Humphreys Peak – the highest natural point in Arizona at 12,637 feet above sea level. We drove past Flagstaff and made a detour east on I-40 to Winona where we found the Twin Arrows Casino. The casino is closed due to the pandemic, but it has large lots and RVers are welcome to dry camp. We spent last night here and are off to Camp Verde today where we’ll spend the next couple of nights at the Distant Drums RV Resort. We’ve been there before and it’s a nice RV park with amenities.

The temperature is much cooler here, but it’ll be warmer in Camp Verde and warmer still in Lake Pleasant where we’ll check in at the marina on Thursday.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on 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!

2,000 Flushes

It didn’t take much preparation to hit the road again after boondocking at Fort Deseret. We just pulled in the slides and secured a few things before resuming our journey south on UT257. At Milford we hit UT130 south. The wind steadily increased all morning and by noon it was gusting over 30mph. I don’t enjoy driving a big rig in gusty winds and would’ve pulled off if I could. But there wasn’t any place to stop. UT130 is a narrow, two-lane highway with no shoulder. It made the drive mentally taxing. Lucky for me it was a short drive of about 140 miles.

The route was a gradual climb that steepened south of Minersville. The grade plus the headwinds had me keeping a close eye on the engine coolant temperature, but it wasn’t an issue as I manually downshifted anytime it reached 195 degrees and kept the temperature in check. We topped out at 6,570 feet above sea level, then gradually descended to Cedar City. We’re at an elevation of 5,470 feet above sea level now.

I received a text message from Iron Springs RV Park with directions to the park and it instructed me to pull into site B2 – no need to check in. We found the site and it’s 80 feet long as advertised, but quite narrow. This RV park is new and they’re still working on improvements and amenities like pickleball courts. We’re about 10 miles west of Cedar City and it’s fairly remote.

Donna took a hike Saturday afternoon on a trail that started by the lodge – I wasn’t up for much after the hard driving. At the lodge, she met an employee who told her about an interesting sight in the area. On Sunday, Donna rode her bike past Granite Mountain to the old, abandoned Western Iron Ore pit mine.

2,000 Flushes

The pit holds water that’s a deep blue color and locally it’s known as 2,000 Flushes. I read the name is derived from the color making it look like a toilet bowl full of blue cleaner. The water in the pit is toxic though – the color comes from iron and copper traces and it’s also polluted with arsenic, uranium and mercury.

This morning we took a drive to Kolob Canyons – a section of Zion National Park about 40 miles north of Zion Canyon. The Visitor Center was closed and no shuttlebuses were running. There wasn’t a ranger on duty to check passes or collect fees – I didn’t need my America the Beautiful Senior Parks Pass. We took the driving tour – a five-mile scenic drive past trailhead parking areas and scenic pull-outs. It was near mid-day so the pictures are a bit washed out – it’s much more colorful than the pictures show. Some of pictures have a bit of haze – we’re out of the heavy smoke areas, but there’s still some smoke in the air.

Start of the scenic driving tour
Placard at the turnaround lot at the top of the drive

The five-mile tour climbs all the way in and tops out over 6,000 feet above sea level. It was a pleasant drive in Midget-San with the top down.

Our neighbor here at Iron Springs RV Park has an interesting vehicle that could’ve been a workable alternative to Midget-San for us. He has a 1964 VW Beetle that’s been converted to a Baja Bug.

1964 Baja Bug

The engine is highly modified – I’m not sure of the displacement but I’m pretty sure it’s a stroker with larger pistons and cylinders.

Modified engine with dual downdraft Weber carburetors

Back in the 1970s, I had a Baja Bug with a 1959 oval window body. It was lightened and was punched out to 1790cc with dual Solex carburetors. It was a lot of fun.

I almost forgot to mention a milestone for our Alpine Coach. The odometer turned over 100,000 miles on the way here. When we bought this coach in January of 2014, it had just under 55,000 miles on it. We’ve put a little over 45,000 miles on it in nearly seven years. That’s under 7,000 miles per year.

Six figures

The temperature reached the low 80s Saturday and Sunday and it’s still a little windy. The winds should calm down tomorrow and we’ll be fine to hit the road on Wednesday. It should be a little cooler too. We’ll cross the Arizona border and spend some time in northern Arizona before heading down to Lake Pleasant.

Smoke on the Water

My previous post included a photo taken at the swimming area at Legacy Park in McCall. You can see across Payette Lake to the pine-covered ridge at the north side. On Sunday evening, I saw a video clip on the local news taken from the same point where I stood to take the photo, except you couldn’t see more than 200 yards across the lake due to smoke from wildfires. Smoke is everywhere out west; it’s unbelievable.

I wasn’t able to post over the past few days in Mountain Home, Idaho due to spotty Internet access. Spotty is being kind – our current location only has 3G, but it’s far better than Mountain Home which was like a dial-up connection 25 years ago. There was a Verizon LTE cell tower about half a mile away from the Gem State RV Park and that tower had several cells (nodes). Each node was directed to cover a slice of the 200 degree fan of coverage from that tower. However, the node pointed at the park had the largest slice and covered the most densely populated area of coverage. It was overwhelmed by cell phones most of the day.

When I wrote my last post on Saturday morning I was lucky to have a decent connection for an hour. Fortunately, Donna had completed an article for Escapees RV Club before we left Grangeville.

We left Mountain Home on Monday and continued to head in a southerly direction. I didn’t want to blast down I-84 – the speed limit here is 80mph and I don’t drive the coach that fast. After topping up our fuel tank with 67 gallons of diesel, I followed a route that took us down a nice county road that mostly paralleled the interstate. It took us through a lot of farmland with potato fields and some cattle. Idaho is the largest producer of potatoes in the country.

We followed back roads all the way to Rupert, Idaho. These county roads were mostly smooth with speed limits of 55-65mph. It was easy driving with very little traffic. We passed through a small town called Bliss which had a deep valley to the south. The valley was filled with dense smoke and I couldn’t make out any details of the terrain there.

We found the Elk’s Lodge in Rupert. I checked in at the lodge and was told we could dry camp for free. We set up in a level area with a golf course behind us and had happy hour at the lodge. Donna prepared a simple dinner of garlicky tomato and zucchini with parmesan and Italian sausage. She found the best corn of the season at the Mountain Home farmers’ market – the farmer told her it was picked that morning and would be the best we’ve had. He was right.

Simple dinner with great corn

We left Rupert Tuesday morning and this time I took a route down ID81. This state route was similar to the county roads we took the day before. The speed limit was 65mph, the road surface was decent and traffic non-existent. After crossing the Utah border, I had no option but to get on the interstate at Snowville. I-84 had miles of construction and only had one lane open. It merges with I-15 at Tremonton and we stayed on I-15 through heavy traffic in Ogden.

We left I-15 south of Ogden proper at exit 332 and went west through an area called Syracuse. We were on a wide boulevard lined with shopping centers and businesses. It gave way to a residential area and narrowed to one lane in each direction. The road ended at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park. The entrance to the park is at the start of the Davis County Causeway. We had reserved a 90-foot-long pull-through site at the Bridger Bay Campground. I checked in at the entrance and the girl working there told me to go seven miles across the causeway and take a left when we reach the island, then take the next right. We found our site without any difficulty.

Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. It has an area of 28,022 acres and is roughly 15 miles long north-to-south. It’s home to bison, mule deer, antelope and other wildlife including coyotes and badgers. Just as we entered the island, we saw a bull bison standing behind the entrance sign with a statue of a bison on the other side.

Bison on the island
Our site at Bridger Bay Campground

The campground is dry-camping only. We’ll boondock here for three nights. After setting up, we took a drive in Midget-San to have a look around. We started by going up to Buffalo Point. You can see in the photos the amount of smoke over the Great Salt Lake.

Midget-San at Buffalo Point
View south from Buffalo Point – lots of smoke
Bridger Bay from Buffalo Point – campground is on the edge of the beach to the right of center

We made a loop past the beach access area, the Island Buffalo Grill and visitor center. Then we drove 11 miles down the paved road on the east side of the island to Fielding Garr Ranch. There weren’t very many cars on the road, but there were some day-use tourists that thought nothing of stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of bison.

View east across Farmington Bay to the mainland

The smoke made an interesting sunset last night.

Smoky sunset

I spoke too soon about internet access here. I’ve been struggling to complete this post as the Verizon signal fades from 3G to 1X with no internet. I’m giving up at this point.

Amber Waves of Grain

I dismantled my antennas and organized the trailer Sunday afternoon. I only had a few things left to do Monday morning before we hooked up the trailer and loaded the MG Midget in the parking lot. We weren’t in a hurry, but it was nice to have things 80% road-ready when we got up in the morning. We hit the dump station again before heading out of town on US95 south.

This route had a series of short climbs and descents as we drove through forest land at first, then farmland. We only planned to travel about 135 miles to the McKay’s Bend Recreation Area at Myrtle, Idaho. When we were going through Moscow, Donna called the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office at McKay’s Bend to inquire about site availability – they don’t take reservations. They didn’t have anything available for rig of our size.

So, we switched to plan “B”, which was the Elk’s Lodge in Lewiston. The descent into Lewiston on US95 is a six-mile 7% grade! I’m always thankful for the Jacobs Engineering two-stage compression brake in these situations. The Elk’s Lodge in Lewiston boasts of 10 RV sites with electricity and water. What we encountered was indeed 10 hook-ups, but the layout was goofy. They had the power pedestals and water spigots for each site spaced about 15 feet apart. Apparently whoever laid out the plan thought RVs could back in to the pedestals. The problem is, the lot is too small for anything larger than a pickup truck to back into the site in that fashion. We found four RVs – three fifth-wheels and one motorhome all set up parallel to the hookups – each occupying about three sites. There wasn’t any room for us to park near a hook-up.

The lodge was closed on Sunday and Monday, so the large paved lot in front of the lodge was empty. We found a fairly level spot and decided to just dry-camp overnight.

Lewiston Elk’s Lodge – our coach is in the distant background above the “K” in the sign

The lodge is beautifully located above the Snake River. We wished we could’ve entered the lodge – the backside of the lodge is all glass and I’m sure the view is stunning.

Snake River from the lodge parking lot – that’s Clarkston, WA across the river.

Explorers Lewis and Clark had a great influence in the Northwest. The Snake River separates Washington from Idaho here and the two towns at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers are Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. Two bridges span the river to join the two towns. The Southway bridge is visible from the lodge.

After we set up, Donna needed to stretch her legs, so she went for a walk. She went downhill on Country Club Drive from the lodge and found a tunnel under Snake River Avenue that brought her to a bike/hiking riverwalk. Here are some pictures from her walk.

Donna’s selfie at the tunnel
Looking west across the river – Clarkston
Southway bridge
Heading upriver on the path

Without electricity and water, we didn’t see any point in hanging around the Elk’s Lodge. We looked online for something down the road on US95. The problem was planning around the upcoming holiday weekend. Most of the campgrounds on our route are state parks and they were all booked. There were some RV resorts, but even the most expensive places were booked over the Labor Day weekend.

We thought about booking a couple of nights, then finding a place to boondock over the three-day weekend, but we needed to get caught up on laundry. We found a place in Grangeville that could accommodate us through the weekend with full hook-ups, albeit just 30-amp electric service. The owner took credit card information and told us to take site 25 when we arrived. He said it was a long back-in and we would be fine without dropping the trailer.

It was only about an 80-mile run to Grangeville. Most of the drive was through wheat fields with some forest land in between. From Coulee City near the center of Washington to western Idaho, we have seen an unbelievable amount of wheat. In some areas, the golden wheat fields stretched as far as we could see. Harvest time is now and we saw a lot of wheat farmers working the fields.

This was a fresh cut “small” wheat field
Train trestle spanning a deep gulch along US95

We arrived in Grangeville around 11am. We were in for another unpleasant surprise. Site 25 wasn’t a long back-in – it was cramped site with a low tree blocking the rear of the site that was so low we wouldn’t be able to get the cargo trailer under it. If we parked there, half of our coach would be in the roadway and the power pedestal at the rear of the site would be 50 feet from us. Donna made a call to the owner, Greg. He wasn’t onsite and she had to leave a message. While we waited for a call back, I looked over the place and found four or five sites that would work.

When Greg called back, Donna told him what the problem was. She told him which sites I thought would work. Donna turned the phone over to me and Greg told me to use either pull-through site 7 or site 8 – preferably 8 and to pull in facing north. Site 8 looked like the best choice, but we had another issue. The tree on the west side of the site needed to be trimmed. I ended up getting a ladder and saw out of the trailer and removed several branches. This place could use some maintenance.

We got settled in and for $130/week, I’m not complaining. The thing is, Grangeville isn’t near any recreation areas so it’s not a tourist destination. Both RV parks – Sundown RV Park where we’re at and Bear Den RV Park had availability through the weekend. There’s a ski area nearby, so I imagine that brings some tourism in the winter.

We took a drive to have a look around in Midget-San. We saw large plumes of smoke past the airport. It turned out to be controlled fires where farmers were burning the wheat stubble before plowing.

This morning, Donna took a walk through town up Main Street. She saw a few interesting things. Grangeville is the largest town in Idaho County with a population of about 3,100 people – it’s also the county seat. It also boasts the county’s only stoplight! Here are a few pictures Donna took this morning. She found a series of murals depicting some of the history here.

Farm themed mural
Logging is also part of the economy here

At the sheriff’s office, she found an old steam tractor on display.

Advanced Straw Burner

I set up my ham radio gear while Donna was out. I’m not sure about getting good reception here as we’re in a bit of a hole.

The temperature reached the mid-80s yesterday afternoon and it looks like we’ll see the same today and tomorrow. The weekend is forecast to hit the low 90s but it should cool off to the 70s for Monday and Tuesday. No rain in the forecast – we’ve seen rain when the weather guessers told us “zero percent chance of precipitation” before, so we’ll see how that works out.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on 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!

Upriver With a Paddle

In my last post, I mentioned the weather forecast called for cooler weather by the end of the week. Maybe that was wishful thinking. Okay, it was “only” 84 degrees on Thursday, but the rest of the week was 90 degrees or higher.

I also mentioned interference I was experiencing on High Frequency (HF) ham radio bands. I figured it out – it was mostly operator error. I partly blame it on the weird nomenclature Yaesu uses. My radio, a Yaesu 991a, has a feature they call IPO – intercept point optimization. After reading the manual again, I finally figured out this was a confusing term for preamplfiers.

Preampliers boost the signal before it’s decoded and amplified by the rest of the circuits. The thing is, if you boost the raw signal, you also boost any noise or interference. I had this circuit set to Amp1 which boosts the signal 10dB – raising the noise floor. Then I was trying to use Digital Noise Reduction to suppress the noise. I was fighting myself. By turning IPO off, the noise was greatly reduced.

I’ll mention one more thing regarding ham radio before your eyes glaze over. I was on the radio with two guys in Las Vegas – one of them was actually in Henderson. These guys, Scotty and Andrew, had elaborate radio set-ups and were talking to each other and inviting others to join in the conversation. I conversed with them briefly and I should quit complaining about the hot weather. They told me it hit 115 degrees on Thursday and was 113 at 6pm when we talked. They also said the hot weather was compounded by smoke and ash from the California wildfires.

There are several wildfires burning in California right now. The central coast has several large fires as does the northern part of the state. There are also fires in southern California, but I don’t think they’re as large as the northern and central coast fires.

On Thursday, Donna rode her bicycle down to Lake Couer d’Alene. There are many good, paved bike paths in the area. She locked her bike at the marina where the trailhead for Tubbs Hill Trail is. She hiked the trail in a counter-clockwise loop. She read it is a two-mile hike and rated as easy. But she found it had hills and seemed longer than two miles! Here are some of her pictures from the hike.

Lake Coeur d’Alene
Downhill to the lake
Kids diving off a rock
Suspension bridge on the trail

Thursday evening, Donna prepared southwest chicken breasts. They were spicy! They were good, but next time she decided she should add a dollop of sour cream to the serving.

Southwest chicken and sauteed zucchini with cotija cheese

On Friday, we met up with Jim and Cindy Birditt. We made plans the night before to meet at “The Mudhole” in the Priest River Recreation Area. We loaded the Sea Eagle SE370 inflatable kayak in Midget-San and headed out around 9:45am and drove up to Priest River. It’s a nice drive through farmland and pine forest.

Jim and Cindy had just arrived before we got there around 10:45am. Jim unloaded his hard-shell kayaks while we inflated and assembled the Sea Eagle. It looked to be a near perfect day for kayaking. The boat ramp is at the mouth of Priest River right where it drains into the Pend Oreille River. Priest River was flowing slowly – just right for an upriver jaunt.

The back of Donna’s head as we started out
Jim and Cindy Birditt

The riverfront properties have some beautiful homes. But it also has some waterfront property with minimal development – we saw several places where the only dwellings were RVs. There were a couple of apparently abandoned or unoccupied dwellings too. As we paddled upriver, eventually, the waterfront homes dwindled then disappeared altogether once the river became too shallow to be navigable by powerboats.

No more visible homes – our turn-around point was the bend straight ahead
Jim and Cindy near the turnaround

We saw an osprey – it landed in a tree top near us and began calling. As we came downstream, we saw a bald eagle overhead, then we saw two more. I snapped a couple of photos of nice riverfront homes – I wonder if these are summer homes.

What a place on the river

I was too far away to get a good shot of the second home – a cabin-like structure with a water feature with two waterfalls. It looks more like a resort lodge than a home.

We cruised easily back downriver aided by the slow current. The current was somewhat offset by a headwind, but it was a great day to be paddling on the river. By the time we got back to the boat ramp, it was past noon and really heating up.

We loaded our gear and followed Jim and Cindy to the west side of town where the Ranch Club restaurant is located at the golf course. We had lunch outside on the patio and sat and talked for a couple of hours.

Jim and Cindy had burgers – they had several variations of burgers on the menu. Donna had a cobb salad and I opted for the daily special. The daily special was fish and chips made with steelhead trout. This was something I’d never had before and I wanted to try it. We’ve grilled steelhead several times, but I hadn’t tried it battered and fried.

Steelhead fish and chips

Steelhead trout are native to the west coast of North America, although they have been introduced elsewhere. A steelhead trout is a fresh water rainbow trout that migrates to the ocean and grows to a large size in the salt water. It then returns to fresh water streams to spawn. Steelhead can live up to 11 years and spawn multiple times. A rainbow trout that remains in fresh water for its lifetime is just that – a rainbow trout. Rainbow trout that migrate and become steelhead are generally larger – they can weigh up to 55 lbs – and less colorful than their freshwater brethren.

Awhile back, a guy from Michigan insisted that they had steelhead in streams “back home.” I have to differ – if a rainbow trout never enters a salt water ocean, it isn’t a steelhead. I don’t believe a rainbow trout from a Michigan stream will go to the ocean and return.

I was a little disappointed in the fish plate – it was battered heavier than I prefer. The chips were outstanding though.

We’ve extended our stay here at the Coeur d’Alene Elk’s Lodge until the end of the month. That means I’ll have to pack up and hit the dump station soon – I don’t want to risk overloading the gray water tank before we leave. The weather guessers now say we’ll see 80 degrees today before we’re back in the mid to upper 80s for the rest of the weekend. Long range they say we’ll be in the 70s by the end of the month.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on 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!

Some Like It Hot

I mentioned the hot weather in Coeur d’Alene in my last post and I wasn’t kidding. The almanac shows we hit 100 degrees on Sunday, 97 on Monday and 95 is today’s forecast. Our usual MO is to leave Arizona by the end of March or mid-April at the latest and usually we’ll start moving north to cooler temperatures.

This year, we stayed at Viewpoint in Mesa, Arizona until the end of April. We moved to Springerville, Arizona hoping the higher elevation would bring cooler temperatures. It was cooler there than the metro Phoenix area, but still quite warm. Then we moved to Cortez, Colorado and once again were hit with warmer than usual temperatures.

We found relief from the heat most of the time in Mount Vernon in western Washington and the climate there has much more humidity than we’re used to. But, since leaving western Washington we’ve been in hot, dry weather. Last evening, some high clouds moved in the area – it made a great sunset. I haven’t posted a sunset picture in a while, so here it is.

Monday evening sunset

I was surprised to be woken at 4am by the sound of raindrops on the roof. It did’t rain hard and only lasted for about half an hour.

With the heat, I haven’t been very active – just mostly practicing social distance conversation via ham radio. Donna’s braved the heat with a couple of bicycle rides, but nothing too ambitious.

On Sunday, I had a great time on the 20-meter band. I made a couple of contacts that were unbelievable. I talked to a guy named Joan (he pronounced it John) in Catalonia, Spain – about 60 miles north of Barcelona. He lives out in the country near the border with France. He’s been a ham radio operator since he was 10 years old – I think he’s in his 40s now. He has an elaborate radio set up with an unbelievable array of antennas. He likes to make contact with operators in North America and Russia. He speaks excellent English and I assume he speaks Russian as well.

The other really interesting contact was with a guy in Slovenia. His name is Janez and he lives in Vhrnika, Slovenia. Slovenia is in Europe – it’s bordered to the south by Croatia, Italy is on the western border and Austria is north. He makes contacts all over the world and entering contests for the number of countries contacted is his hobby. He speaks good English. Here’s a link to his webpage.

I think I was able to make these long distance contacts for a couple of reasons. First, conditions for propagation of High Frequency (HF) signals were very good on Sunday. My signal bounced from the upper atmosphere back to earth at least twice to reach Vhrinka – over 5,300 miles away from Coeur d’Alene. More importantly, these guys had powerful systems with excellent antennas. They could blast out a strong signal for me to receive and their systems were sensitive enough to lock in my weaker signal and hear me fine. Ham radio contacts are a lot of fun and perfectly safe in this pandemic environment.

Yesterday, I tried two HF bands – 20 meters and 40 meters. I had a lot of noise on 20. Although I did pick up a signal from Hawaii, mostly the reception had interference. On 40 meters, I had no luck at all. I’m not sure how much of it was due to atmospheric conditions or if it was interference from some electronic device here at the Elk’s Lodge.

Saturday morning we hit the farmers’ market again. It was a little more crowded than last time and Donna found some good buys on fresh produce. She found leeks and fennel for dishes she wanted to make and also found some of the freshest celery she’s ever seen. After we came home, she decided that she needed to go back to get some mushrooms. We saw a vendor with fresh mushrooms – picked the night before. Donna walked back to the market – it’s about half a mile from here – and bought a pint of pearl oyster mushrooms.

Pearl oyster mushrooms

She made a chicken dish with leeks and mushrooms in a cream sauce. It was excellent!

Chicken with black rice and broccoli on the side

She prepared another very tasty meal on Sunday – shrimp with feta and fennel over riced cauliflower. She used a package of shelf-stable riced cauliflower from Costco and honestly I couldn’t find much difference from the cauliflower rice she prepares with fresh cauliflower.

Shrimp with feta and fennel

Yesterday, I gave Midget-San the spa treatment. I cleaned the exterior with Meguiar’s waterless spray cleaner, then applied Mother’s CMX ceramic coating. I also cleaned the interior with a vinyl and leather cleaner and treated it with Armorall.

This afternoon I plan to sit in the shade and play on the radio – it’ll be too hot to do much else. I know 95 degrees doesn’t get much sympathy from my friends in the Phoenix area, but it’s still hot! Donna’s out for a bike ride as I type this – I expect to see her soon. The temperature should drop to a more reasonable 80 degrees or so by the end of the week. We’ll extend our stay here for another week.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on 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!

Shack in a Box

We had a nice visit with family Tuesday afternoon. Donna and I sat out in the back of Kevin and Alana’s place with our granddaughters, Lainey and Gabi and Kevin’s two boys, Nick and Kyle. Kevin and Alana are in the middle of a house painting project and had to run to the store. They arrived shortly after we got there.

Kevin put chicken legs on his Traeger while Alana made loaded baked potatoes, green salad and corn on the cob. We dined on the back patio. It was a good time – I sampled a few of the IPAs they had on hand and all of them were good. We got home just before dark – the sun doesn’t set until around 9pm at this latitude at this time of year.

We drove down again on Wednesday morning and traded Midget-San for Alana’s VW Atlas to drive to Everett for dental appointments. Donna and I had teeth cleaning and check-ups scheduled together at 11am. On the way back, we stopped at Home Depot where I bought a length of PVC pipe and then at Winco Foods where I stocked up on dark roasted Sumatra whole-bean coffee.

We gave Alana her car back and I had a 6-foot length of 1-1/4″ PVC pipe sticking out of the passenger compartment of Midget-San when we drove home. I had all of my new ham radio gear and I only needed to make a couple of cables with PowerPole connectors and assemble an antenna to test out the rig. The PVC pipe would be part of the antenna. I got everything assembled Wednesday afternoon.

While we were at Alana’s, she pointed out her neighbor’s antenna. He has a tower with a ham radio antenna that must be close to 100 feet high. It’s next to a shop building where he parks his boat. I told Alana that the shop must have a “ham shack” inside – that’s what hams call their radio room with all of their equipment. She thought it was pretty funny and said she would have to tell Kevin about ham shacks. I then told her the radio I bought is a multi-band, multi-mode unit that covers frequencies that would usually take two or more radios. They call this type of transceiver a “shack in a box.”

Yaesu FT991A Multi-Band, Multi-Mode transceiver and Samlex SEC-1235M power supply
Dual band J-pole antenna

I wanted to mount the antenna high enough to be taller than the motorhome and trailer. I wish I had made the PVC section longer now – higher is better when it comes to antennas.

After I had everything set up, Alana and Lainey came over for a visit. While they sat inside with Donna, I played with my radio. Since I’m not licensed yet, I could only receive and listen – I can’t transmit until my license is granted. I’ll take the exam Sunday morning.

The Puget Sound area has a radio repeater network called a wide area network. It’s fantastic. By tuning into this network, I was able to listen to a guy in Alaska talk about the major earthquake that hit off the coast up there. A guy in Kentucky was asking him for more information – it was interesting. Yesterday, I listened to a guy at the Grand Canyon and another guy south of Portland, Oregon. This was in addition to local traffic. We found out the reason for the North Cascades Highway closure was due to a rock slide. A guy on the network gave an update – it looks like it’ll remain closed for a few more weeks.

Alana said she Googled “what do ham radio operators talk about?” The answer was “They talk about their ham radios!” I thought that was hilarious, but it’s only partly true.

Yesterday, I drove Donna to La Conner for her hair appointment. The salon is taking great precautions against the spread of coronavirus. They only had two hairstylists and only two customers in the salon at a time. This was her first haircut in about seven months. It took two hours for a cut and highlights.

Later today, we’re planning a run to Costco, then I want to check out a car show a few miles from here – weather permitting. The weather has been cooler than we’re used to. That coupled with the high humidity levels has us feeling a little cold and damp. Tuesday wasn’t bad as the thermometer hit 79 degrees. But on Wednesday it only reached 70 and yesterday was overcast and the high was only 66 degrees.

It’s only 66 degrees now with 62% humidity as I type this. The expected high is only 68 and we have cloud cover again. The forecast looks better – 75 degrees and sunny tomorrow with more sun and 80 degree temperatures as we head into next week.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on 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!