Category Archives: Restaurants

A Beautiful Day

Donna sent me a text message at 12:49pm yesterday, telling me she boarded the light rail at the airport. I walked out to the rail stop on the corner of Redwood and North Temple to meet her. She had a great trip to the NAPO conference in Phoenix, but she was exhausted by the long days and short nights while she was there.

We talked for awhile and caught up on each other’s activities. I told Donna that playing guitar every day while she was away really helped. I even remembered how to play a few songs I haven’t played in over a year.

I watched the Moto GP race while Donna unpacked. It was an epic race. I won’t spoil the outcome. We decided to have take-out for dinner. Donna phoned in an order to a Chinese restaurant called East Sea. It’s about five blocks away from here. I rode the scooter and picked up our dinner, which we enjoyed outside at the picnic table.

After dinner, we took a walk through the RV park. I noticed a guy with a travel trailer at the dump station. His trailer tires looked low. I don’t like to interrupt anyone’s routine when they are setting up or dumping tanks, but I felt like I should mention the low tires. The guy said he would make a stop when he left the park to fill the tires.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll repeat it again. Low tire pressure is the number one cause of tire failure. When tires are under-inflated, the sidewalls are subject to excess flexing which causes heat to build up. The overheated tire can lead to tread separation or sidewall failure – this means a blowout.

When it looked like the guy was finishing up at the dump station, I walked over and told him he could stop at my site on the way out. I offered to fill his tires with our Porter-Cable portable compressor.

He stopped by. I checked his trailer tires and found them inflated to 30 psi. This is very low, they should have been inflated to 50 psi. Driving down the highway at 30 psi surely would have caused a tire failure. We’ve seen numerous trailers on the side of the highway with blow-outs during our travels. I can’t help but think that many of these were avoidable, with proper tire maintenance.

Today is Monday and I have work to do. Sometimes it’s hard for me to keep track of the days. Clarke Hockwald (What’sNewell) calls Monday first Saturday. Tuesday is second Saturday and so on until Friday become fifth Saturday. Saturday is just Saturday and Sunday is Sunday to mark the week. This is too complicated for me to keep up with. I have enough trouble without numbering the days.

I’ll begin preparation for travel today. I need to go up on the roof and check our plumbing vents. The gray water tank drained a little slowly when I dumped it yesterday. There might be an obstruction in the vent. Then I’ll check the tire pressures and adjust if necessary. The windshield and mirrors need to be cleaned. We had a few raindrops the other day, just enough to mess up the mirrors. Then I’ll start loading the trailer.

The weather yesterday was near perfect with the temperature in the mid 70s, light wind and clear skies. I think it was the best weather day we’ve had in Salt Lake City. Today, the heat will return as the forecast calls for a high temperature of 89 degrees.

Tomorrow, we’ll pull out of here. First stop will be the Pilot/Flying J fuel station I checked out on Saturday. Then we’ll head north on I-15. There are three Super WalMarts between Pocatello and Idaho Falls, Idaho. We’ll probably choose one them for an overnight stay and restock our food supplies while we’re there. On Wednesday, we’ll check in at the Buffalo Crossing RV Park in West Yellowstone, Montana. This park is a few hundred yards from the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We plan to stay there for three nights and make a couple of day trips into the park.

Jordan River Trail

Salt Lake City is a bicycle-friendly place. In addition to designated bike lanes on many of the roads, the city also has a series of paved paths. Some of these paths are multi-use, meaning that some sections are shared with pedestrians or inline skaters.

To the east and north of the city, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail provides a hiking and mountain biking path, currently over 100 miles long. It’s too far from here for me to take the mountain bike on it.

Yesterday, I rolled out of the park on my mountain bike. I rode up the street to a small park, called Cottonwood Park. I found the Jordan River Trail there. This is the multi-use path that Donna rode on Tuesday. Once I was on the path, I came to the narrow, wooden bridge that Donna told me about. It’s just wide enough for a single rider to cross.

Bridge on the Jordan River Trail

As the name implies, the Jordan River Trail runs alongside the Jordan River. As I traveled north, the path mostly stayed on the levee on the east side of the river. It crossed over wooden bridges to the west side in a few sections.

The banks of the river have trees and lush vegetation. It was pleasant riding in the shade of the trees. There were a lot of birds on the trail and in the trees – robins, doves, magpies, finches and mallards in the river. I saw a large turtle sunning himself on a log in the river.

Jordan River Trail on the east bank

The trail crossed the river as it ran through the Rose Park Golf Course, then it crossed back again on a wide, wooden bridge.

Along the way, the path crosses a few city streets. Most of the crosswalks are controlled. You stop and push a button on a post and within seconds, the traffic is stopped by stop lights. The traffic is held for about 15 seconds, allowing you to cross safely.

North of the golf course, I came up to a boardwalk over a wetland area. The boardwalk had a sign restricting its use to vehicles under 10,000 pounds and no horses. The boardwalk was well-maintained and easy to cross on my mountain bike. I imagine it would be a little bumpy on a road bike. The boardwalk curved to the right after a quarter of a mile and rejoined pavement.

Boardwalk section on the Jordan River Trail

Another mile or so up the trail, I saw a sign indicating that I was entering the Chevron Section. I’m not sure what the significance of this is. As I rode along, I heard what sounded like off-road machinery. I continued onward and came upon a moto-cross track.

The Jordan River Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area was on the west side of the river. There were several riders circulating on the motocross track. I stopped briefly to watch them fly over the jumps and slide through the turns. The track could’ve used a visit from a water truck – they were kicking up a lot of dust.

Moto-cross by the river

Flying Moto-crosser

I rode on until the trail became the Legacy Parkway Trail and turned around. The ride back was easier as the wind was in my favor. It seemed like the ride north was on a slight incline, but it must have been the wind. The Jordan River flows to the north along here, so an incline doesn’t make sense. The round trip ride took me about an hour and twenty minutes.

I had visitors last evening. Brett Miller and his wife, Cheri Alguire, came to the park. I last saw them when they visited us at Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego (see this post). We’ve kept in touch as they prepared to hit the road as full-time RVers. They actually completed the move into their 5th-wheel RV on Monday, but had to leave it at the RV park in southern California on Tuesday to attend a conference here at the Salt Palace.

We drove downtown in their new Ford crew cab to a restaurant called Sala Thai. I love Thai cuisine. We ate family style and ordered pad tai with chicken, drunken noodles with pork and pad phed with seafood. Served with a bottle of Singha beer, it was delicious. Brett and Cheri unexpectedly picked up the tab! Thanks again!

Brett, Cheri and me at Sala Thai

The warm weather returns today. The weather guessers are calling for a high of 88 degrees. I think I’ll leave the mountain bike in the trailer today. Maybe I’ll take the scooter downtown and kick around.

Happy Birthdays

Yesterday was a day of birthdays. It was the birthday for two girls that are near and dear to my heart and I love them both. It was Donna’s birthday and also the birthday of my youngest daughter, Shauna. It also happens to be the birthday of my friend in Germany, Stefan Hermann.

I don’t think Shauna was able to celebrate her birthday too much. She arrived in Washington, D. C. on Sunday and had her first day as an intern at the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. She’s currently a law student at Cal Western School of Law. She finished the school year number 4 in her class of 220 students. The internship will be a feather in her cap when she graduates next year.

Donna started her birthday with a bicycle ride. She rode the bike path along the Jordan River north on the Legacy Trail. She turned around at Bountiful Pond. The ride covered about 27 miles. She spent most of the afternoon packing and preparing for her trip to Phoenix. She’s going to a conference for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), where she will present a session on book promotion, called Do’s and Don’ts of Successful Book Promotion. She will return on Sunday.

To celebrate Donna’s birthday, we went out to eat at a restaurant that her sister, Sheila, told her about. It’s an Italian restaurant downtown, near Temple Square, called Cucina Toscana. We walked out to North Temple and caught the light rail at the corner across from the KOA RV park. The light rail cost five dollars for a round trip ticket. The rail cars were clean and comfortable. The ride downtown took eight minutes.

Toast to Donna

Cucina Toscana is an upscale restaurant with traditional Italian food. Donna ordered the linguini nere con frutti di mare, which is squid ink pasta, shrimp, calamari, mussels and lobster in wine reduction sauce.

Linguini nere con frutti di mare

I had the vitello in saltimbocca, which is veal scallopine topped with aged prosciutto and fresh mozzarella.

Vitello in Saltimbocca

We both enjoyed our choices. The meals were cooked to perfection and the service was top-notch. In honor of Donna’s birthday, our server brought us a plate of tiramisu for dessert.

Happy birthday to Donna

After dinner, we strolled back to the rail stop in front of the Energy Solutions Arena, which is home to the Utah Jazz NBA team. We had a few minutes before our train would arrive. I saw what appeared to be an historic building across the street. I walked over for a closer look. It was the Devereaux House.

Devereaux House

Rather than rehash the history behind this place, I’ll just add photos of the placards that were placed in front of the house. Click on the photo to enlarge and read the placard if you’re interested.

This morning, I’ll walk Donna to the light rail. I’ll be on my own for the next four nights. The temperature is forecast to reach 93 degrees today, it’s already 80 degrees at 10am. I’ll have both air conditioners running all day.

Salt Lake City

On Sunday, I enjoyed the Monaco Grand Prix on Dish Network while Donna went out for a bike ride. She battled windy conditions, but enjoyed her ride. In the afternoon, I cleaned the windows, checked tire pressures and packed the trailer in anticipation of Monday’s 50-mile drive.

Monday morning, Donna did her usual job of securing things inside the coach, while I dumped and flushed the holding tanks. While I was disconnecting hoses and power, Donna drove the rental car back to the Heber City airport. I saw a pair of airplanes, flying in formation overhead. They had smoke generators on, I was expecting to see some kind of show, but they only made a couple of passes before landing. It was hard to tell what they were, but the radial engines and long silhouettes seemed like Yak 52s. I forgot to mention the plane that flew above us on Saturday. It was a Pitts biplane practicing aerobatics. Fun to watch!

I learned something about the HWH hydraulic system that operates our jacks and slide-out mechanisms. A guy posted an old service bulletin on the IRV2 forum regarding complaints of false “Jacks Down” alarms while driving. I’ve had this happen a couple of times. It’s operator error. The bulletin advises not to turn off the HWH control panel when the lights indicate jacks are stored. If you turn off the panel, the solenoids close the hydraulic valves. Fluid may still be trapped in the jack rams. The fluid can heat up and expand while driving, moving the ram and triggering the alarm. You’re supposed to leave the panel turned on. It will shut down automatically three to six minutes after the “Jacks Stored” light comes on, allowing all of the fluid to drain from the ram. Good information! I thanked the person posting the service bulletin as it applied to my coach.

Once I had the jacks up and slides in, I did my walk-around inspection while the engine warmed up. I drove over by the airport where Donna was waiting to be picked up. We drove through a residential area. When we reached US40, I was disoriented. I turned right on US40 and quickly realized we were heading southeast, the wrong direction. I glanced at the seven-inch screen on our Rand-McNally RVND7720 GPS and saw an easy way to correct our heading. A couple of 90-degree turns later, we were on our way.

Once we were out of Heber City, US40 begins a long climb. We pulled the grade at 50 – 55mph in the right lane, but had to swing into the center lane of the three-lane highway to maintain momentum past slow-moving trucks. Some heavily loaded tractor trailer rigs could only manage 30 – 35 mph up the grade. We drove past the Jordanelle Reservoir near Park City, then descended to the Junction of I-80 at Silver Creek.

It was another long grade up I-80, finally topping out at 7,025 feet above sea level before we began the descent into Salt Lake City, which is at an elevation 4,226 feet. Nally (our GPS) directed us to the Salt Lake City KOA, near the airport. It seems a little strange to have a large KOA campground in the heart of the city. It’s a matter of convenience for us. We’re right by the airport, with light rail service stopping next to the KOA. Donna has a flight to Phoenix tomorrow morning for a conference. She can take the rail to the airport. The KOA is nicely laid out and well-maintained, as most KOA parks are. We’re packed in tight though.

Site 1012

Salt Lake City is laid out on a grid. Temple Square is the center of the grid. The street numbers indicate the four quadrants from the grid – northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast. We’re located at 1400 West North Temple Street, 14 blocks west of Temple Square. The first street to the north of Temple Square is North Temple. The first to the west is West Temple. The first to the south is South Temple. A pattern is emerging, but the first street to east is Main Street. From there, each street is numbered with the numbers increasing by 100 for each block. Street blocks in Salt Lake City are larger than in most metropolitan areas. Here, there are seven blocks to the mile instead of the usual 10 blocks per mile.

Salt Lake City is bicycle-friendly, with many bike paths. From here, we can ride on a path along the Jordan River north to Farmington, Utah. There are paths to the west going to the Great Salt Lake. Donna studied the bike path map this morning and took off on her bike. She’s getting more confident in her orienteering skills. Traveling to new places and learning new routes has helped her sense of direction.

Last night, we grilled bacon wrapped tenderloins and veggies. Donna baked a potato to serve with it. The grilled zucchini, mushrooms and onions were so tasty.

Bacon wrapped tenderloin, grilled veggies and baked potato

Sadly, my supply of good beer ran out with the last bottle of Dubhe Imperial Black IPA. Ironically, I bought this beer at Cost Plus in Arizona, but it’s brewed by Uinta Brewery right here in Salt Lake City.

Dubhe Imperial Black IPA

There are 10 state-run stores in the greater Salt Lake City area that sell full strength beer, wine and liquor. Grocery stores and markets can only sell watered down beer. I’m in luck though – there’s a state store within walking distance of the KOA.

Today is Donna’s birthday. We’ll celebrate this evening with dinner at her choice of restaurant. We’ll take the light rail, so no need to worry about being within stumbling distance of the park.

Fairground to Fairground

Yesterday was a moving day. We took our time and had a leisurely morning. Since we were dry camped, I didn’t have to prepare much for travel.

We knew there was a fish fry scheduled at a grassy park in the fairgrounds where we stayed overnight. At 11am, we walked over there to see what it was all about. It turned out to be a private affair for employees of Conoco-Phillips. The guys preparing the fish gave us a sample of catfish, deep-fried with a corn meal coating. It was delicious.

We pulled out of the fairgrounds around 11:30am. Our first stop was only 10 miles up US6 at Helper, Utah. Helper is a small, authentic old west town, about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Helper is located at the mouth of Price Canyon, alongside the Price River. This is the east side of the Wasatch Plateau. Back in the day, trains traveling westward toward Salt Lake City had to climb the grade up the plateau. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) stationed “helper” engines at the train terminal here to help the trains climb the grade. That’s how the town got its name.

On April 21, 1897, Butch Cassidy robbed the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in nearby Castle Gate. It’s said that Butch spent time in Helper before and after his famous string of robberies. Today, Amtrak provides service to the train depot in Helper. The California Zephyr stops here daily, in both directions between Chicago, Illinois and Emeryville, California.

We walked through the three or four blocks of downtown and stopped at the Rock Eatery for lunch. If you ever get to Helper, you must try the rock chips. They are thinly sliced, fresh potato chips with an amazing seasoned salt. Light, crispy and delightful. Nothing in a bag comes close.

Rock Eatery in the two-story building

We left Helper around 12:45 and drove a few miles up US6. At the junction of US6 and US191, we entered Indian Canyon on US191. This route is off the beaten path, but we wanted to check out a few things along the way. I was sure it would be a scenic drive. The highway climbs up the steep canyon with grades up to 8%. At times we were in third gear, cruising up the grade under 40 mph, holding easily at 1900 rpm. I didn’t push the engine too hard, so the coolant temperature never reached 200 degrees on the guage.

US191

We topped out at the Indian Canyon summit at 9,114 feet above sea level. Helper was well below us at 5,800 feet. Donna shot a few photos of the windshield view. There were several tractor/trailer rigs pulling double tanker trailers. This steep, twisty grade had to be a handful with that load. As we climbed, we soon found out why the trucks were here. Oil is being pumped out of the ground in the area. They don’t have any pipelines – the crude oil is pumped into storage tanks, then transferred to tanker trucks for transport to refineries.

Crude oil pump and storage tank alongside US191

We saw a couple of ranches at the head of the canyon. I imagine it’s a tough way to raise cattle with the high elevation and steep canyon walls.

Cattle ranch at Indian Canyon

We passed through the Ashley National Forest and descended toward Duchesne. There was a long 8% downgrade. I had the Jake brake on stage 2 (high) and still had to use the brake pedal for a couple of curves. This is the longest downhill run of that steepness that I’ve ever driven.

Duchesne is situated at an elevation of 5,500 feet above sea level. We turned west on US40 there and proceeded to climb and descend a series of ridges that took us back up around 7,500 feet above sea level and back down to 5,500 feet.

We pulled off at a scenic overlook on the north side of the highway, about four miles west of Duchesne at Starvation Reservoir. The parking lot is a large loop, ideal for big rigs. We stretched our legs and looked around. I took a photo of a placard detailing some of the history of the area. It’s hard to imagine exploration of this rugged land at the time of the American Revolution in the east.

History from 1776 – click to enlarge

Starvation Reservoir view

US40 continued to climb and fall, finally topping out at 8,020 feet above sea level at Daniels Canyon. Along the way we passed Strawberry Reservoir and saw a few areas that looked promising for an overnight dry camp. That was one of the reasons for taking this route – to scope out spots for overnight stops in the future.

Here are some shots Donna took through the windshield.

Dropping down to Strawberry Reservoir – Snow on the peaks ahead

US40 at Strawberry Reservoir

We made our way to Heber City and found the Wasatch County Fairgrounds RV lot. There was a moment of confusion though. The lot has 150 full hook-up sites in what is basically a dirt parking lot surrounded by a chain link fence. I couldn’t see where to enter the lot and the road we were told to take was an obvious dead end.

I held station at the intersection, trying to figure out the best way in. Donna got on her cell phone and called the caretaker of the lot. He told us to proceed down the dead end road and we would see the entrance. I pulled forward across the intersection and saw an open gate immediately on my right. No way could I make that turn into the park. I continued down the road thinking I was really in a bad spot with no way to turn around. At the far end of the fence, we found another open gate. I backed up about 50 feet, swung wide to the left and made the turn into the gate. Whew! Disaster avoided.

We’re currently hooked up with 30 amp service, water and sewer. Like I said, it’s basically a dirt parking lot with hook-ups near an industrial park surrounded by housing. The longer range view of the mountains in the Uinta National Forest is spectacular though. Donna is looking forward to biking in the area and will head out this morning.

I plan to walk to the shopping center in town, about a mile from here. I’ll take care of some banking and pick up a few items we need. The weather guessers are calling for thunder showers this afternoon.

Here are a few photos of an old train displayed across the street from our site.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Yesterday, while I was writing my blog post in the morning, Donna got ready to head out. She scheduled a taxi pick-up at 9:30am. The taxi took her to the Hertz rental car agency a few miles from here. From there, she drove to downtown Flagstaff for a hair appointment.

Our Moen single handle faucet for the bathroom sink has been troublesome lately. The problem started when we were at the North Ranch RV park in Congress. We had to pull the handle to the off position very carefully or it would drip. Sometimes we had to move the handle to different positions before the dripping stopped. I hadn’t done anything about it because we hadn’t been near a hardware store. I was pretty sure if I started taking the faucet apart, I would need to have parts available.

While Donna was getting ready to go out, she couldn’t get the faucet to turn off. It wasn’t just dripping. The water was running out of the faucet. I played around with the handle, but couldn’t get it to stop. I went outside and shut off our water supply. It was time to do something about the faucet.

I’m not much of a plumber and I’ve never disassembled a Moen single handle faucet. It was like peeling an onion. You work your way through the layers. I started by removing the handle. Then I saw a snap ring that held a trim piece in place. After that, I removed a plastic housing. Then I was at the heart of the matter. I could see the shut-off valve. I turned on our water pump to supply water from the fresh water tank. By manually moving the valve, I turned the faucet on and off. There were hard water deposits and some rust on most of the parts. I couldn’t figure out how to remove the actual valve. I cleaned all of the parts and put it back together. No good. It still wouldn’t shut off.

Our Moen single handle bathroom faucet

I disassembled everything again. This time I knew I had to remove the valve. I used a mirror and could see what looked like a set screw holding it in place on the back side. I couldn’t get a screwdriver on it. I finally went online and found instructions for disassembling a Moen single handle faucet. What I thought was a set screw was actually the top of a “U” shaped clip. I pried the clip out and voila! I pulled the valve cartridge out.

Old cartridge

I compared the cartridge to parts I found online. It was a #1225 Moen cartridge. I searched for hardware stores online and found an Ace hardware near the downtown district. When Donna returned, I took the rental car and headed into town. As I drove down Route 66 past the big shopping mall at East Marketplace Drive, I saw a sign for Home Depot. I stopped there and found the part I needed.

New cartridge

I told Donna when I put it back together that I had a 50/50 chance of having the cartridge oriented correctly so the hot water would be on the left. Of course, it was wrong. I partially disassembled it again and spun the cartridge 180 degrees. Now it’s perfect!

While I was working on the faucet, Donna went hiking. There are a series of hiking/mountain biking trails on the west side of US89 near our location. On her hike, she found an unusual lizard blending into some rocks. It was a greater short horned lizard. It’s one of the few lizards that tolerate cold weather. It can be found at elevations as high as 11,000 feet!

Greater short horned lizard Donna encountered

When we arrived here at J & H RV Park on May 1st, it was their opening day. There were only two other rigs in the park. Yesterday, the park filled up. It’s still very quiet here. They delivered a picnic table to our site and had another dumpster delivered for trash disposal. Someone running the place certainly has a sense of humor. There are a few corny signs in the park.

Sign next to the trash dumpster

There’s a mural painted on the exterior wall of the office depicting points of interest.

Mural of points of interest

We drove into town around 4:30pm and went to the Beaver Street Brewery. This brew house and restaurant was recommended by our friend, Peter Swingle. I sampled a few of their brews – an IPA, an amber and a pale ale. They were all quite good. We also ordered two 10″ pizzas at the bar. We had the three sausage pizza and the pepperoni pizzazz. Their thin crust pizza was great.

We chatted with another couple at the bar. They were from Seattle and had been hiking and camping in Utah. They were a little older than us, but obviously fit and hardy. Their style of dry camping is to hike in with everything they needed on their backs to camp for a few days. They told us of a few interesting places we should check out in Utah.

We stopped at the Cost Plus World Market on the way home. I bought a few bottles of interesting beers and Donna found some snacks for us. We watched the season one final episode of The Americans last night.

Today, we plan to make the 90-mile drive to the Grand Canyon National Park. We’ll hike and have a look around. I’ve been there several times. I wrote about the time I hiked to the river at the bottom and camped overnight with my friend, Jim Birditt in this post.

Yesterday’s weather was near perfect – 70 degrees, clear skies and light wind. Today we’ll have more of the same with the thermometer hitting 75. A perfect day to go sightseeing.

Never a Dull Moment

Yesterday, I continued my wash and wax project. I forgot to mention yesterday that when my neighbor told me his Jeep wouldn’t be in the driveway, he also said a park worker stopped him from washing his Jeep and told him it wasn’t allowed. He thought I might get in trouble for washing my rig in the RV park.

I thought that was strange. This park (Apache Wells RV Resort) is owned by Cal-Am Resorts. They also own the Sun Life RV Resort where we stayed in January. I saw people washing their RVs at Sun Life. I didn’t think Cal-Am would have different rules at another resort a few miles away in the same city. I looked up their policy. The policy states that “washing of automobiles is prohibited within the resort.” It goes on to say that there are many establishments in the area for car washing.

My take on the policy is this: if you have a passenger car or pick-up truck that you can drive to a car wash, you can’t wash it here. I don’t see that as prohibiting anyone from washing a motorhome or trailer.

I got an early start. I was washing the driver’s side of the coach by 8:30am. After I cleaned the windows and dried the surface, I polished the entire left side of the coach. This is a large area to apply polish to and then buff. I finished right at noon. The results look to be worth it.

Rear cap – you can see a neighbor’s trailer reflected in the shine

Another reflection on the shiny driver’s side

The polymer polish/protectant product I’m using is easy to apply and also buffs out easily. I’ll wait to see how well it holds up before I make a recommendation for this stuff.

In yesterday’s post, I laid out a general plan for our travels in the year ahead. My friend and former colleague, Allen Hutchinson commented that he would be competing in the Ironman Triathlon in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho at the end of June. We’ll be in Great Falls, Montana the week before for Donna’s bicycle race. Coeur d’Alene is only a little more than three hundred miles away.

We’ll book a site in Coeur d’Alene and hook up with Allen and his family. Maybe this time I can see him finish the race! I wrote about missing him at the finish of the Lake Placid Ironman here. That’s the beauty of this nomadic lifestyle. We get to catch up with friends when our time and space coincides!

Yesterday, Donna called and said she received a message from the bike shop. They said they’d found cracks in the rim of her rear wheel. I scootered over to the shop and looked at the wheel. In three places, where the spoke nipple passes through the rim, there were cracks. The wheel will have to be replaced. Donna’s figuring out her best option for a new wheel.

I had already arranged to borrow Mike Hall’s Jeep to pick up Donna’s bike. I went ahead and got the Jeep from Mike. I wanted to go to the Handlebar Pub and Grill in Apache Junction to watch the String ‘Em Up Band perform bluegrass music. I met Andy King there.

Andy is my friend from our high school days. He was a member of the String ‘Em Up Band, but now he just sits in for a set or two from time to time. I ordered a mushroom burger and ate while the band set up.

The second set was really interesting and fun. It was like an open mic session. First, a harmonica player from the audience joined the band. He was good. He fit right in with fills and solos on the harmonica. Then a young man (I want to say a kid, but he was at least 21 years old) stepped in. He sang an original composition and played guitar. That’s the thing with bluegrass – as long as everyone knows what key to play in, it’s not too hard to jam together. Finally a young lady stepped up to the mic and sang a song. She had a modern, almost falsetto style. I really liked the song she sang. Lots of talent at the Handlebar!

Today, I’m hoping Donna has her wheel dilemma solved and I can pick up her bike while I have the Jeep. Around 11am, I’ll start washing and waxing the rest of the coach. I’m waiting until late morning when the sun won’t be shining directly on the right side of the coach.

The RV park has a farewell dinner scheduled for 5pm tonight. Most of the snowbirds leave here by April 1st. The dinner and drinks are free! Never a dull moment!

Link

I didn’t post to the blog yesterday. Tuesday was just another day. Nothing too exciting to report. Yesterday, on the other hand, was full of activity.

While I was reading through the blogs I follow, I saw that our friends at Technomadia announced the roll-out of a new social media site for RVers. It’s called RVillage.

“It’s not only about the places we go, it’s also about the people we meet along the way”

Once you join RVillage, you enter your location. Other members of the site can see where you are and view your profile. You can see if other members are nearby. This will facilitate meet-ups with fellow RVers who share common interests. This morning, I saw that 1,109 people have already signed up. There are groups you can join on the site to follow forums on topics that are of interest.

I think it’s a great concept. If we had this a few weeks ago, we probably would have had the chance to meet Tim and Amanda Watson. They’re fellow full-timers and blog at WatsonsWander. As it was, I found out too late that we were at Usery Pass Regional Park at the same time. We didn’t get together.

Later, around noon, Mark and Emily Fagan stopped by (their blog is Roadslesstraveled). We sat and chatted together. We don’t know when we’ll get together again. They’re heading down to Tucson. By the time they come back to this area, we’ll probably be on our way north.

I had to cut our visit short. My friend, Mike Hall, works at ATK in Mesa, near Falcon Field. ATK is Alliant Techsystems Incorporated. ATK has many divisions. They are involved in military defense systems, aerospace, sporting arms and ammunition among other things.

The facility in Mesa builds Bushmaster medium caliber cannons, such as the M230 chain gun used on the AH64 Apache helicopter. This cannon fires linkless 30mm ammunition at a cyclic rate of 625 rounds per minute. It’s accurate out to 4,000 meters – that’s more than two miles! In operation Desert Storm and in Afghanistan, it demonstrated armor piercing capability at ranges of up to 2,000 meters.

Bushmaster M230 chain gun

Mike had arranged for me to meet him at 1pm to tour the facility. I was given a security pass and clearance to enter. I saw how they take four-inch diameter billits of steel, about 100 inches long and turn them in gun barrels. This is a very long process. It takes many machining steps, polishing and hardening processes, straightening and stress relieving and so on before they have a finished, accurate barrel.

The way they cut the rifling inside the barrel is fascinating. They have a mandrel that fits tightly inside the barrel. The mandrel has the rifling pattern cut into it. They pump a salt water solution charged with electricity through the cuts in the mandrel. This process is precisely controlled and erodes the rifling grooves in the barrel. I had the opportunity to inspect the finished rifling with a high-magnification boroscope.

A real treat came next. We watched as a newly finished M230 30mm chain gun was test fired. It was bolted to a test stand and carefully hand cycled with dummy rounds to ensure everything functioned correctly. The test stand was in a concrete walled room about 20′ x 20′. The room had a large, heavy steel door. The gun was pointed down range through a tunnel. The cardboard target was down the tunnel, followed by a large sand trap for the projectile.

We exited the room as the final preparations to fire were made. The operator checked everything over, looked around the room and called out, “Clear!” Then he walked out of the room and closed the heavy steel door. I was off to his side, looking at the gun through a thick plexiglass window. The operator pressed the fire control button. Brrrrp. Twenty rounds were fired in about 2 seconds. The shock waves created by the 30mm rounds blasting out of the barrel through the muzzle brake could be felt in my chest even though I was standing outside of the concrete chamber where the gun was mounted.

The operator opened the door, checked the room and again called out, “Clear!” Then we were allowed to enter the room. I picked up one of the spent, lightweight casings. He told me I could keep it if I wanted it. I brought it home to take a picture of it to give some sense of scale of this ammo. I wasn’t allowed to take any photos inside the facility. I also brought a heavier casing from an M242 Bushmaster 25mm cannon. The 30mm casing is a special lightweight material to reduce the weight of ammo payload on the Apache helicopter.

Spent 30mm casing from an ATK M230 chain gun

ATK M242 25mm casing

It was an interesting tour. The people working in the plant were all very pleasant and willing to take time to explain things to me. I’m grateful for the opportunity and the effort Mike made to allow this to happen.

Afterwards, I met Mike and John Huff for a beer at Lucky Lou’s. I couldn’t stay long though, because we had more visitors on the schedule. At 5pm, Lana and Joel came over from our old neighborhood. We drove in their Toyota Highlander to Tia Rosa’s, our favorite Mexican restaurant, a few miles from here.

We planned an early dinner to avoid a long wait for a table. When we pulled into the parking lot, I was amazed to see only a handful of cars there. As we were walking across the parking lot, I saw why. There was a sign in front of the restaurant that said “Closed due to fire.” The cars in the lot were from people going to the smaller taqueria across the lot from the restaurant.

We changed our plan and drove over to Red, White and Brew and enjoyed a great meal there. After dinner we stopped at Gus’ and sat on the patio for an after-dinner drink. It was a great finish to a fine day.

Today, Donna is preparing for her trip to Chicago tomorrow. She’s attending the International Home & Housewares Association show there, where she’ll be the cleaning expert in Reliable Corporation’s booth. Reliable makes, among other things, a great steam mop that we use to clean our hardwood floors. For the show, she created a 1-Minute Spring Cleaner Notebook on Springpad (an app she uses to organize her recipes, book ideas and other things). Her Spring Cleaner Notebooks includes 10 quick and easy spring cleaning tips plus her top 10 favorite cleaning tools, including the Reliable Steam Mop.

Eat at Joe’s

Yesterday was yet another day with clear skies, abundant sunshine and warm temperatures. We drove the rental car to the Old Town district in Gilbert. We met Tom and Diane Rowe at Joe’s Real BBQ. This is a cafeteria-style restaurant housed in a brick building that dates back to 1929. It’s a popular place – the line to order stretched all the way out the front door.

We all ordered the half slab of pork ribs. All of the barbeque is cooked over a pecan wood fire. It was delicious. I had cut sweet corn and BBQ pit beans on the side. The beans were outstanding. If you have the opportunity, you should eat at Joe’s.

Half slab of Joe’s BBQ pork ribs

We sat outside and enjoyed our meal while we talked. I think we were there for about an hour and a half. The time always flies by when we’re catching up with our friends.

On the way home, we took advantage of the Enterprise rental car. First we stopped and shopped at Trader Joe’s. Then we made a Costco run.

Last night I was reading about mishaps of some fellow RVers on the IRV2.com forum. This got me thinking about the things we do to ensure that everything is properly stowed and road ready before we leave. It’s important to have a system or checklist; otherwise it’s too easy to overlook something.

One mistake we’ve seen other people make a couple of times is driving off with the TV antenna still up. I have a method to ensure that won’t happen to us. The antenna has a handle in the ceiling of the coach. I crank the handle clockwise to raise the antenna, counter-clockwise to lower it.

Whenever I raise the antenna, I immediately hang the ignition key for the motorhome on the crank handle. That way, when we’re getting ready to leave, I find my keys on the handle and crank the antenna down.

Ignition key hanging from antenna handle

Donna has a checklist. She goes over it and asks me if everything has been done.That’s our method of hitting the road with everything safely stowed as it should be.

Today, we’ll return the rental car. Nothing too exciting on the agenda.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Restaurants

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Eat at Joe’s

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