Last Wednesday was our 15th wedding anniversary. We married on the fifth day of May back in 2006, here in Arizona – at Watson Lake Park near Prescott to be precise. We usually celebrate our anniversary by treating ourselves to a nice dinner – since it’s Cinco de Mayo, we’ve often chosen Mexican cuisine. This year was no exception. We went to Baja Joe’s Mexican Cantina where Sinaloa-style seafood is their specialty.
Many people in this country misunderstand the Mexican Cinco de Mayo celebration. It’s not Mexico’s independence day like so many people think. Instead of being the equivalent of our Fourth of July celebration, it commemorates a military victory over French forces at Puebla in 1862.
We started our dining experience with margaritas on the outdoor patio – a skinny margarita for Donna and a Cadillac-style margarita for me. We went with Baja Joe’s strength and ordered seafood entrees. Donna went for shrimp in a poblano cream sauce while I ordered sea bass a la Veracruzana. The entrees were delicious.
Sea bass filet a la VeracruzanaShrimp in poblano cream sauce
We don’t dine out often, but when we do, we like to make it a memorable experience. The excellent fare at Baja Joe’s was well worth it.
Earlier in the day, Donna had a visit from an old friend, one she hadn’t seen since high school. Tim Murphy and his wife Mary were in the area for a family wedding, they’re from New Hampshire and it was their first time here. Donna went for a drive with them and showed them the Salt River at the Coons Bluff and Goldfield recreational areas and they also made a stop at Saguaro Lake.
Donna with Tim and Mary Murphy
Saturday evening we met our friends, Howard and Sara Graff at The Monastery – a unique bar and grill next to Falcon Field here in Mesa. The Monastery is a bit quirky. Most of the seating is outdoors in a large, open area. It has a sand volleyball court in the center.
Volleyball at The Monastery
We found a table outside and Howard and Sara joined us shortly after we arrived. They were serving a limited menu – half a dozen appetizers and maybe a dozen entrees. You can order burgers from the kitchen or you can order burger patties with fixings and grill it yourself at one of the outdoor barbeque grills. Their specialty burger from the kitchen is $12, the patty you grill yourself is $7. We ordered food from the kitchen. They had a band playing outside Saturday night.
Outdoor stage and live music
The band was okay, but I didn’t like their sound system. All of the instruments were plugged straight into a board that fed the PA speakers. The sound reminded me of an old portable transistor radio. The guitar tone was so buzzy, it was fatiguing to listen to. It made me think of the time when the guy that replaced me in the band Backtrack and I had a conversation about guitar tone. He said no one in the audience cares what your tone sounds like, they just want to move to the music. I don’t believe I’m the only one listening to a band that cares what the instruments actually sound like, but maybe I’m wrong about that.
We had a fun time although the conversation was somewhat limited by the sound level of the band. I wish we would have gotten together with Howard and Sara more over the winter, but it seems our schedule didn’t line up.
We had more fun on Sunday as we were invited to join a Mother’s Day celebration at Mike and Jodi Hall’s place. Jodi grilled burgers and also made a fruit salad. Donna brought a warm bean dip she made and somebody brought cold shrimp for shrimp cocktail. Mike and I enjoyed a cigar and conversation on the back patio by their koi pond. I neglected to take pictures of Howard and Sara and at the Hall’s also.
Hall’s koi pond – Donna’s photo
Of course we also had home cooked meals last week. Friday night, Donna grilled chicken and served it with roasted baby potatoes and creamed peas on the side.
Grilled chicken with roasted baby potatoes and creamed peas
The weather has remained very warm with daily highs in the mid to upper 90s. Even the nighttime temps are warming up with lows in the mid 60s to 70 degrees. We plan to head out for the summer on Thursday – the forecast calls for 100 degrees on Thursday afternoon.
Our tentative plan is to meet up with Frank and Kelly Burk and Mike and Jodi Hall near Woods Canyon on the Mogollon Rim – six or seven thousand feet above sea level. We’ll dry camp through the weekend and figure out our next move from there.
*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!
We had more good company this week. On Thursday, we met up with Deb and Jeff Spencer at Fat Willy’s for lunch on the patio. The last time we saw Deb and Jeff was in Kanab, Utah in September. We’ve met up with them several times over the years in various places – that’s how it often works with fellow full-timers.
Fat Willy’s is a pub/restaurant and also has the pro shop for the golf courses at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. As I mentioned, we took a table on the back patio overlooking part of the 18-hole course. I shot a photo of the view, but neglected to get a people photo.
View from Fat Willy’s
The photo above illustrates Arizona winter grass. The grassy areas surrounding the course appear to be Bermuda grass, which goes dormant over the winter. Bermuda grass goes dormant and doesn’t produce chlorophyll when the soil temperature drops into the 50s. It will recover in the spring with an application of fertilizer. The fairway is green – presumably it was overseeded for the winter with a rye grass variety. I don’t know what type of grass is used on the greens.
After a couple of hours of pickleball in the morning, I took care of a small project on Friday. Our new-to-us Nissan Frontier had some deterioration of the acrylic headlight covers. This has been a common problem for cars built with this type of headlight over the last 20 years – especially in areas with abundant sunshine. The acrylic covers are coated with a UV inhibitor, but over time, it breaks down – especially here in the desert.
Our Nissan Frontier was originally sold by Peoria Nissan on the west side of Phoenix and has been in the valley of the sun ever since. Our headlights weren’t in really bad shape, but once they start to degrade, it doesn’t get better.
Hazy area on upper right headlight cover Left headlight is in worse shape
When this happened on our Alpine Coach, I polished the lens covers with a product from Meguiar’s. The problem was, the Meguiar’s polished out the haze, but it also removed any remaining UV inhibitor and within a year, the headlight covers were in worse shape than ever.
After looking around a bit, I found a product made by Sylvania that not only polishes out the imperfections, it includes a new clear lens coating with UV inhibitor! I ordered a kit from Amazon – it was only $19.99 – to give it a try.
Sylvania Headlight Restorer kit
The kit included detailed instructions – it’s broken down into three steps. First you clean the cover and spritz it with a liquid etching solution. Then you wet sand progressively with 400 grit, then 1000 grit and finally 2000 grit sand paper. I used a spray bottle to keep plenty of water on the acrylic cover while sanding with fairly light pressure. You sand until the surface is smooth with each grit. At this point, the headlights look really bad – they are completely clouded from sanding. After rinsing and drying, you apply the etch again, rinse and dry again, then apply the clear coat with the UV inhibitor. The results were amazing.
Restored right headlightLeft headlight after restoration
The whole process took about an hour. I’m pleased with the result. Now we’ll have to see how it holds up to exposure to sunlight.
Speaking of sunshine, we have plenty in the forecast. After having daily highs in the mid-60s all week, the forecast calls for 75 degrees today – and we’re well on our way there – and mid to upper 70s for the week ahead with clear skies.
*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!
Totally frustrated. I’ve spent the last hour putting together a post for this blog and poof! It disappeared. The entire content gone. I don’t understand what happened. Usually WordPress auto-saves several times as I write, so I don’t worry much about it.
On Tuesday, after I wrote my last post, we started clean-up from the wind/dust storm. Donna vacuumed the sliding window sills on the coach at least three times and she’s still finding dust. Dust storms with high winds means dust finds it way into every crack and crevice. Donna also vacuumed the interior of Midget-San while I dusted the exterior, blew out the engine compartment with compressed air and wiped everything down. It’ll take a lot more before it’s really clean again.
The weather was agreeable for our last week at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort. The highs were around 70 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday and in the low 80s for the rest of the week.
We had plans for Wednesday. Donna wanted to hike the Beardsley Trail in Lake Pleasant Regional Park to the Maricopa Trail which would lead her back to Pleasant Harbor. It’s a little over seven miles. I had an appointment at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. The plan was for me to drive Donna to the trailhead, then return to our site and load my gear. I had to be at Ben Avery by 10:45am for the 11:00am scheduled range time. I figured if we left around 9:15am, we would have plenty of time.
When I turned the key in the ignition switch of the Midget, nothing happened. Silence. I popped the hood and checked the battery terminals. No issues there. I retrieved my Fluke multimeter and found 10.3 volts at the battery. Oh no! Dead battery. I connected my little Schumacher battery charger and crossed my fingers. Twenty minutes later, I had enough juice to crank the engine and it fired up!
It took about 30 minutes to drop Donna off at the trailhead and return to our site. Another 10 minutes and I had my gear loaded up. It was about a 15-minute drive to the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. I made it with about five minutes to spare.
Maricopa Trail in the Sonoran desert
The Ben Avery Shooting Facility is one of the largest public shooting ranges in the country. It was opened in 1957 and originally was called the Black Canyon Gun Range. It’s on a 1,650-acre property and operated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).
It has ranges for pistols, rifles, shotgun, archery and more. It even has camping with full hook-ups for up to 14 days. The target ranges offer distances from five yards to 1,000 yards. I think it’s the nicest shooting range I’ve visited. When I checked in at the main range, I noticed an array of antennas. The AZGFD headquarters in located on Carefree Highway west of the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. Personnel at the headquarters communicate with rangers and range masters at the eight ranges via radio.
Antennas at the main range
I had a great time shooting there. All range time is allocated by appointment and a 90-minute session costs $7.50. It was well worth it.
I invited a kid that our neighbor, Roger, introduced me to earlier to come over Thursday afternoon. He’s 12 years old and holds a General Class ham license. He’s saving his pennies to get a HF antenna and get on the air. His name is Raymond Anderson (N7KCB). He’s really involved in radio and has several goals. I gave him the microphone and he took over my Yaesu 991A and worked the 20-meter and 40-meter HF bands. I also gifted him a KB9VBR J-pole antenna. He lives with his father and sister four days a week on a boat at Pleasant Harbor – the rest of the time he and his sister are with his mother in Phoenix. He only has handheld radios at this point – given to him by Roger. With the J-pole antenna, his handhelds should hit repeaters in the area and allow him to reach out.
On Friday, we drove back to Lake Pleasant Regional Park for lunch at the Scorpion Bay Grill at the marina. They call themselves purveyors of fresh food and cocktails. We found seating outside on the deck and enjoyed lunch – I had the fish and chips while Donna went for fish tacos. We washed it down with a couple of Four Peaks First Wave amber ales. Excellent!
View from the Scorpion Bay Grill
I had a concern about firing up the Cummins ISL diesel powerplant in the coach when we left on Saturday. Earlier, I’d discovered a problem. There was a slow leak of diesel fuel coming from the passenger side of the engine block. It would form a drop every couple of minutes. It appeared to be near the lift pump. The problem was, I couldn’t get to it without some heavy lifting. I would have to remove the big starter motor and a few other items for access. I set an appointment with Rocky Mountain Cummins in Avondale for 7:30am Monday morning.
The engine fired up without any issues and we were soon on our way. We headed south on Loop 303 to I-10 west. We found the Leaf Verde RV Park in Buckeye around 12:30pm and were directed to a long pull-through site. After we set up, I checked the engine for the leak and found it to be dry – no fresh fuel leaking, just residue.
Later, we drove to the other side of Buckeye to my middle daughter, Jamie’s, house. She and Francisco bought a house out here this past spring. It’s new construction in a nice neighborhood. Her mother – my ex-wife Luann – and her husband Jerry were also visiting. The plan was to dine on tacos and hand out Halloween candy. The number of kids in costumes was surprising – Jamie handed out 20 lbs. of candy in one hour flat, and they still kept coming!
Jack O’Lantern like sunset on Halloween at Jamie’s house
On Monday morning, we were up at dark-thirty. I wanted to have our wheels rolling by 6:30am to head over to Rocky Mountain Cummins in Avondale – about 20 miles away. I had no idea of what the traffic on I-10 would be on a Monday morning. It turned out to be a breeze and we were in their driveway just after 7am.
Three hours later, they confirmed a faulty lift pump and had to order parts. They expect the parts to be there by Wednesday and we set another appointment for Thursday morning. Hopefully they can complete the work in one day.
When we got back to our site, I had another pressing matter. I had to buy a new battery for Midget-San. I dropped Donna off at Walmart then went across the lot to AutoZone. I wanted to order an Optima Yellow Top spiral wound AGM battery – they aren’t cheap but they are very high quality and have long life. The size I needed wasn’t in stock and the distributor showed them as back-ordered. I couldn’t wait indefinitely, so I opted for an off-the-shelf Duralast AGM battery.
I charged the new battery overnight – this isn’t really necessary, it would start the car off the shelf and charge while driving. But, charging it gently and letting it trickle charge overnight is easier on the cells and gets a new battery off to a good start. As always, changing the battery wasn’t as easy as it seemed. On the Midget, the battery is located in the rear center of the engine compartment behind the heater box. This made pulling the old battery out and installing the new one a bit of a wrestling match.
New battery on the left, old one on the right
I thought the old battery might have been damaged when the voltage regulator on the the old alternator went kaput. It was overcharging the battery and probably cooked it. When I removed the old battery, I saw the date stamp was March of 2016 – so it was at the end of its usable life anyway.
Although the old and the new batteries are both Group 51 batteries and dimensionally identical, the poles of the battery posts are reversed. Positive is on the left rear of the new battery while it’s on the right rear of the old one. This just meant I had to flip the battery around so the positive post was by the positive cable and the negative post was by the negative cable.
When you change a car battery or any big battery, you should always disconnect the negative terminal first. This way if you accidently ground your wrench against the car body or chassis while removing the positive terminal, it can’t short circuit. Likewise when you install the new battery, it’s positive terminal first, then negative terminal.
Battery behind heater box – note quick disconnect on negative terminal and red insulator on the positive terminal
I have a quick disconnect fitting on the negative terminal. This allows me to disconnect the battery electrically from the vehicle if it’s going to sit unused for a lengthy period and can also act as an anti-theft device.
It’s been very warm and breezy here in Buckeye. Donna didn’t let the heat and wind stop her from playing pickleball this morning while I changed out the battery. I’ll probably join her on the courts tomorrow. The forecast calls for highs in the 90s until a cooling trend arrives on Saturday. They say we’ll have highs in the upper 60s and low 70s for the next two weeks. I’ll believe when I see it.
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!
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 burrosThey 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.
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 reservoirJackson Flat ReservoirFree 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 CenterOne 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!
After our day on the water last Tuesday, we’ve had a low-key rest of the week. The highlight was meeting up with Dick and Roxy Zarowny on Friday for lunch at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course. I saw on Facebook that our friends Jim and Cindy Birditt had come down from Priest River and golfed with Gary Stemple there the day before.
We met Dick and Roxy at the Floating Green restaurant where they had claimed an table on the patio for us. The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course claims to have the world’s only floating green. We parked at the Events Center after checking in with security at the gated entrance. The short walk to the Floating Green restaurant took us right past the floating green.
The Floating Green seen from the end of the parking area
It was a beautiful day with the temperature around 80 degrees as we dined and talked on the patio. We started out with Bloody Mary’s – actually they were Caesars since they were made with clamato and had garnish of pickled asparagus and bacon!
Great cocktail before lunch – everything is better with bacon
From the patio, we watched golfers try to get on the floating green. Several people really struggled with the shot – there has to be a lot of golf balls in the water around the green! I watched one guy hit four balls into the water – he never made it on the green. I wonder how Jim, Cindy and Gary fared on this hole.
Floating Green from the patio – these guys made it
The food was very good and we enjoyed conversation for nearly two hours. Dick and Roxy were on the fence about going down to Viewpoint in Mesa, Arizona this winter. Roxy sent Donna a message last evening saying they’ve decided to go there in January. We look forward to seeing them there. They will drive their motorhome to Las Vegas in October and stage it there in a storage facility. Driving an RV from eastern Washington to Arizona in the winter is not an appealing idea. With the motorhome waiting in Las Vegas, they can drive there in their car, then take the motorhome through the desert to Mesa without a worry about ice or snow.
Donna took care of a chore this week. Our refrigerator was badly in need of defrosting. The air in Mount Vernon held a lot of moisture and that resulted in ice forming on the cooling fins in the refrigerator. She waited until the refrigerator was low on food, then did the deed. After Friday’s lunch, we stopped at Winco Foods and restocked. Last night Donna prepared a pan-seared flank steak from Winco and served it with riced cauliflower and peas.
Tender, tasty flank steak – it wasn’t as rare as it appears in this photo
The weather stayed on the warm side all week with daily highs in the low to mid 80s. It should be cooler today – in the mid 70s with tomorrow’s forecast calling for a high of 70 degrees. This is just right – it won’t be too hot as I organize and pack the trailer today. I’ll dismantle the ham radio antennas and pack our outdoor table and chairs. I’ll probably get plenty of steps today ferrying our stuff from our site to the trailer at the back of the Elk’s Lodge RV Park.
Tomorrow morning we’ll pick up the trailer, hit the dump station, then head south on US95 – it should be a pleasant drive with the cooler temperature. This will take us south just east of the Idaho/Washington border through Moscow and down to Lewiston. We have a couple of options down in that area. I think our first choice will be the McKay’s Bend BLM campsite on the Clearwater River. They have 14 full hook-up sites there. If we can’t get in there, we’ll go to the Lewiston Elk’s Lodge located right on the Snake River.
*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!
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’AleneDownhill to the lakeKids diving off a rockSuspension 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 outJim 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 aheadJim 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!
Kevin and Alana came by on Thursday afternoon and we went into town to District Brewing on the corner of Main Street and Myrtle Street – across from the park where the farmers’ market is held. The brewery had a variety of good IPAs on tap, but only one amber or red ale and one porter.
We found a table on the upper level overlooking the park and Skagit River. After a round of ales, we moved to an outside table so Alana’s chihuahua, Chico, could join us. I ordered a wood-fired pizza to go and Donna and I enjoyed it back at home.
Friday was mostly uneventful – Donna went out for a bike ride. I went to Lowes and bought supplies to build a new antenna mast. I received an MFJ-2289 Big Ear dipole antenna from Ham Radio Outlet the day before. This monster looks kind of like an old “rabbit ear” TV antenna on steroids. The collapsible whips are 17 feet long! I built a mast and mounted it on a sturdy tripod about 10 feet above the ground. The idea is to get on the 20-meter band and see if I can make some distant single-side-band contacts over the air. I haven’t been successful yet.
As I was messing with the radio yesterday afternoon, I could see clouds thickening and could feel rain coming. I took everything down and put the radio away. Meanwhile, I had a tri-tip on the Traeger wood-fired smoker-grill.
I bought the tri-tip at Winco Foods on Wednesday. It was untrimmed, so I trimmed the fat cap and seasoned it Thursday night. Tri-tip is an interesting cut of beef and has some folklore behind it. The tri-tip cut is the bottom of the sirloin – the tensor fasciae latae muscle in front of a cow’s hip. It’s a curved cut usually about eight or nine inches long and three inches thick in the center, tapering on the ends.
This portion of meat was once used only for ground beef or maybe stew meat. The story goes like this – in the 1950s a butcher named Bob Schutz at Safeway in Santa Maria, California was overstocked on ground beef. So he took a bottom sirloin cut that would normally be ground and spiced it, then put it on a rotisserie. The results were surprising. Everyone found the meat to be flavorful and hearty. With a few tweaks, he perfected the method of grilling over coals and began marketing the “tri-tip” as he called it, as a barbecue cut.
This barbecue meat became quite popular in Santa Maria, which is located in a valley known for growing wine grapes, midway between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Today, a tri-tip that has been barbecued is known as “Santa Maria Tri-Tip.” It’s mostly a west coast thing, but I’ve heard it has grown in popularity throughout the country. The traditional method uses a simple dry rub of equal parts salt, pepper and garlic powder. I used a commercially prepared rub called “Pappy’s Choice” which has a high salt content. After trimming the tri-tip, I rubbed it, wrapped it in cling-wrap and put it in the refrigerator.
Friday afternoon, I pulled the Traeger out of the trailer and set the temperature at about 220 degrees. I did this by setting the controller to 180 degrees, then adjusting the P-setting to P0. This had the pellets feeding for 15 seconds, then idling for 45 seconds and held it at the temperature I desired.
After two hours in the Traeger, I checked the internal temperature and found it at 130 degrees. I fired up the Weber Q and heated it to 400 degrees. I took the tri-tip out of the Traeger and put it in the Weber for three minutes per side. This seared the meat and toughened the bark resulting from the rub and smoking. This is called a reverse sear technique as most searing methods start with the sear first.
The last trick to serving tri-tip is to cut it correctly. It’s a lot like cutting brisket. You must cut across the grain and pay attention as the grain direction changes. For our dinner, I sliced the tri-tip in 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick slices.
Donna made whole wheat spaghetti with pesto, sun dried tomatoes and asparagus on the side and she also had fresh corn on the cob which she bought at the vegetable stand near here on her bike ride. I pulled the tri-tip off the Weber at about 5:20 pm, just as it started raining. Perfect timing. I let it rest on a cutting board for 15 minutes before slicing. You need a cutting board with channel cut in the outer perimeter – this is one juicy hunk of beef.
Tri-tip dinner plate
That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about tri-tip. The one I smoked was rather large – about three pounds before smoking. So, we have leftovers and that’s great. I had some with eggs over-easy for a poor man’s steak and eggs breakfast this morning. Donna sliced the remainder into thin slices that’ll be just right for tri-tip sandwiches or topping for a salad.
The rain fell off and on overnight and it’s raining lightly this morning. It should clear up by early afternoon. The thermometer reached 73 yesterday and should be about the same today. Tomorrow and Monday are predicted to be sunny and warmer. I’ll start organizing the trailer today. Tomorrow we plan to visit with Kevin and Alana and our granddaughter, Gabi, and Kevin’s boys, Nick and Kyle. On Monday, we’ll pull out of here and head over the North Cascades to Winthrop.
*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!
Another week has flown by since I last posted. I wrote that post on a wet and dreary day. It’s been the opposite of that since then. Glorious, sunny days with blue skies and cool evenings. It’s hard to believe the first month of 2020 is coming to a close already. I have a theory about the perception of time accelerating as we grow older.
When we were 12 years old, our lifetime experience could be broken down into 12 increments, each spanning one year (this isn’t exactly true – most of us have little or no recollection of the first few years of our life). So, our internal perception of time revolves around a year being 1/12th of everything we know.
When we reach the age of 60, our lifetime experience can be broken into 60 equal intervals, each spanning one year. These intervals are now 1/5th of the perceived interval when we were 12 years old. A year represents a much smaller portion of our life experience, thus we perceive a year as a much shorter span of time. Therefore, for us old people, time really flies.
After the rain cleared up, Scott started working on our coach on Wednesday. A painter’s work revolves around prep. The quality of the work is a reflection of the preparation. I’ve had car painters tell me that actually shooting the paint is the easy part. Getting the surface prepared and the final cut and buff are what make the job come out great. Scott spent three days preparing the surface for paint. He had to remove the clear coat from the areas where it was failing. To get the new finish to adhere, the old clear coat had to be cut back to provide a good, solid margin. He did this with a razor blade and sand paper. It looked like tedious work.
To match the paint color, he had to remove one of the basement compartment doors that had all four colors on it. He took it to a paint shop where they could color match with a special camera and computer program. He was ready to start applying paint on Friday.
Base coat applied
Saturday afternoon he was ready to start the finish work. He had to block-sand the clear coat, then buff it with a polishing wheel. He ran out of daylight and had to finish up Sunday morning. The finished job looks great.
Looking good again
Meanwhile, we went about our business. Donna started practicing new music on her clarinet. The next Viewpoint Concert Band performance is February 16th and they have a whole new repertoire to learn for that performance.
I learned something new about UPS deliveries. Apparently, they have a new protocol where they only make one attempt to deliver a package in some areas. If you aren’t home, they take the package to a UPS Access Point. I had a package come on Thursday while we were out. There was a note left on our door. After I deciphered the driver’s chicken scratch note, I figured out that I had to wait until the next day to pick up my package at a nearby CVS pharmacy. Seems a little crazy to me, but I suppose the agreement to accept packages at CVS will bring customers into the store to potentially shop while they’re there.
It says CVS 9152 E Brown Rd
On Saturday morning, Donna and I drove Midget-San to Gilbert where we were meeting our friends, Sara and Howard Graff, for the farmers’ market. They actually pulled up next to us at a stoplight on Gilbert Road at Baseline on the way there. What timing!
Gilbert used to be little more than a crossroads in the desert. Urban sprawl has made it part of metro Phoenix today. Everything from Glendale to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler is one big area of development. It’s hard to tell when you cross into another city limit. Gilbert has gone from being a one-horse cowboy town to a trendy place to shop and eat. There are numerous restaurants along the old Main Street.
We strolled and shopped at the farmers’ market. They had a fairly large number of vendors there with plenty of fresh produce.
Gilbert farmers’ market
There was a separate market place on the north side of the old town for arts and crafts. After walking through all of the markets, we checked out a few places to eat and settled on OHSO Brewery and Distillery. We had a short wait, then were seated out on the covered patio. Their food was excellent – we were all very happy with the meals we ordered. On the weekends, brunch from 10am to 2pm includes a 10-ounce beer or a mimosa when specific menu entrees are ordered. My entree included a drink, but Donna commandeered my mimosa when I ordered a Bloody Mary. The Bloody Mary was made with half jalapeno vodka and half horseradish vodka. It was spicy and it included a stick of house-made beef jerky.
Spicy Bloody Mary with jerky
Speaking of beef jerky, on Friday, I trimmed and cut beef top-round steaks across the grain into strips. I had them marinating in the refrigerator overnight. Saturday afternoon I set up the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker-grill and set it to 180 degrees. I started with two pounds of beef. Four and a half hours later, I had one pound of beef jerky after the meat had smoked and dehydrated. It’s pretty good. I’ll make an adjustment or two to the recipe and reduce the smoke time to four hours when I make it again.
On Sunday evening, my middle daughter, Jamie, and her man, Francisco came over from the west side to go to dinner. Francisco’s birthday is today, but we celebrated early with dinner at the Black Angus. I worked at Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus back in the ’70s in San Diego. That’s where I met my first wife – Jamie’s mother. The Black Angus isn’t what it used to be, but we enjoyed the meal and had a good time together.
Here are a few other good meals we enjoyed over the last week courtesy of Donna’s culinary skills. First up is coconut curry wild Alaskan sockeye salmon with bok choy served with forbidden rice. A favorite for sure.
Coconut curry salmon with bok choy and forbidden rice on the side
Another seafood dish was served up Thursday night. Donna grilled shrimp with pesto served with grilled mushrooms, onions, peppers and zucchini with cauliflower risotto on the side.
Grilled shrimp with pesto
Last night, she kept it simple with a chicken stir-fry.
Chicken stir-fry over white rice
Yesterday, I prepped chicken leg quarters. Later today, I’ll put them on the Traeger. I’m trying something new to me – smoked paprika chicken legs with spicy herb chimichurri. I’ll let you how that works out.
Although a cooler day with clouds are in the forecast for tomorrow, we can expect the favorable weather to continue with highs in the 70s through the weekend. We’re getting plenty of exercise – one day last week I had almost 18,00 steps on the pickleball court!
*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!
