Category Archives: Scooter

Cheeseburger in Paradise

It was a fun-filled weekend. Saturday morning kicked off with a delivery from FedEx while I was posting to the blog. The Sea Eagle 370 Pro inflatable kayak that Donna ordered arrived! After breakfast, I opened the package, read the manual and assembled the kayak.

Sea Eagle 370 Pro inflatable kayak

It was fairly easy to assemble although the instruction manual wasn’t very clear. It’s much heavier than I expected. The package showed a shipping weight of 60 pounds.

Donna and I each took an end and hauled it down to the beach. We set out for a maiden voyage across De Anza Cove. We started out a little shaky. I think I was digging too deep with the paddles to start. It’s better to start with shallow strokes. Once we got our speed up, the kayak was stabilized and we paddled easily in unison. We made a short run, maybe half an hour, because my back was still sore.

We loaded the kayak in the trailer, which is parked in the security lot, close to the beach. We left it inflated so we can continue to use it with having to pump it up. The foot pump that came with it is efficient – it’s not that hard to inflate – but it does take a some time and effort.

Around 3pm, I walked over to Campland while Donna stayed back in the coach. She was preparing appetizers and waiting for her sister, Linda, to arrive. Linda was delayed as she had to wait for a package to be delivered at her place. On Friday, Linda’s Chevy Equinox broke down. It has some kind of drivetrain fault and had to be towed to the dealer. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious (expensive) and she can get it back today. Linda got a ride to Mission Bay with Über taxi.

The walk to Campland took about 20 minutes. To get there, you have to make a loop to get over the Rose Creek pedestrian bridge. Due to the Parrot Head event, Campland was charging $20 per car to enter. Foot traffic was charged $5 per person.

Mission Bay RV Resort seen from Campland beach across Rose inlet

I found Bud and Mona’s site and they were there in their RV. Bud was loading his truck with chairs and coolers. They had set up a canopy on the grass near the bandstand. I followed Bud to the stage area on his bicycle. When I pulled up at the grass park, I saw Erin Kerfoot standing by the curb. Erin is a friend from my high school days. Her site was next to the band area, a stone’s throw from the beach. She is a member of the San Diego Parrot Heads and was involved in organizing this event. It was great to see her again.

Donna sent me a text telling me she and Linda were on their way. I sent her directions to our location. Once they arrived, the party quickly ramped up. We had a table full of snacks under the canopy and the margaritas were flowing. Various bands played all afternoon and into the night. Bud grilled a pile of burgers and we enjoyed our cheeseburgers in paradise.

We always enjoy live music

The event was a fund raiser for the Wounded Warrior House organization. They had silent auctions, clothing sales and a beer garden. Everyone was having a good time.

Parrot Head tiki bar

We had all the fun we could stand and headed home around 8pm. It was a long afternoon of music, food and libation with friends. Before we left, Bud adjusted my back by lifting me and giving it a good crack. It really helped.

Linda was staying the night with us. I thought I should put the cover over the entry stair well. I didn’t want Linda to stumble down the steps if she got up in the unfamiliar coach in the night. The stairwell cover is a two-piece hinged wooden slab. It locks into place next to the stair well when it’s not used to cover the steps. As I was extending it, it slipped from my grip and slammed down on my big toe. The flesh on the left side of my toe was torn away from my toe nail. Ouch!

You don’t want see what’s under the band-aid

On Sunday morning we hauled the kayak down to the boat launch. Donna and Linda went out to cruise the bay. They paddled across the cove and around the point all the way to the beach at Campland. Mona has a stand-up paddle board and she and Donna talked the night before about enjoying time on the water together. Mona was moving a little slow on Sunday morning and didn’t make it though.

Donna and Linda paddling out the cove

I kicked back and watched NFL football. Just before halftime of the first game, Donna sent a text telling me they were back at the boat launch. I rode the scooter to the trailer, instead of hobbling on my wounded toe. We loaded the boat in the trailer, then I scootered back.

When I arrived at our site, my daughter, Shauna was there. She joined me inside the coach and we talked while we watched the Chicago Bears collapse in the second half and lose to the Green Bay Packers.

Shauna gave her car keys to Donna so Donna could drive Linda home and pick up a few groceries while she was out. By the time Donna returned, I was into the Chargers game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars started this year’s third pick in the draft, Blake Bortles, at quarterback. I think this guy is the real deal. Jacksonville started strong, but faded as the Chargers put up 23 unanswered points to win, 33-14.

Donna manned the grill last evening and cooked shrimp which she served over steamed bok choy with fresh ginger. It was delicious.

Grilled shrimp over bok choy with ginger

My activities will be limited for a few days. Smashing your toe is no fun.

Margaritaville

After sitting at the table and writing Thursday morning’s post, my back felt stiff when I stood up. It loosened up as I prepared for a bike ride. I pulled my mountain bike from the trailer, put the front wheel back on and pumped up the tires.

I rode past Campland through Crown Point. I made this ride several times when we were here last year. At that time, I didn’t have the mountain bike – I always rode my road bike. The mountain bike is more comfortable for me, but it’s a lot slower. As I got closer to Mission Boulevard, going slow was fine. I had to share the path with skaters, runners and walkers.

View south across Mission Bay from Crown Point Shores – downtown skyline in the center, Sea World needle on the right

Going slow was also good on the boardwalk in Pacific Beach. I rode to Crystal Pier. I wanted to ride out on the pier, but bicycles are prohibited on this pier. Last year I rode out on the Ocean Beach Pier and I thought I could do the same on Crystal Pier. Oh, well. I turned around and rode south to Belmont Park at Mission Beach.

I made a stop there for rolled tacos with guacamole. I love being in a place where there are good taco stands just about everywhere. I felt my back tightening up again as I resumed my ride home. After I dropped my bike off at the trailer, my lower back was sore. I was out on the bike for nearly two hours.

The humidity has been unusually high in San Diego. The hurricane and tropical storms off Baja, California have affected the climate here. I was sweating profusely and looked forward to a long shower. After I showered and sat for a few minutes, my lower back was so tight, I could barely stand up straight.

Donna spent the afternoon out and about with her sister, Linda. Linda took a job in San Diego and moved here from Vermont in August. They went to lunch, then Linda took Donna to T’s Hair of San Diego to have her hair cut. Donna got the tour of Linda’s place on Shelter Island before they returned to Mission Bay RV Resort.

Donna fixed her favorite burger recipe – green chile turkey burgers with extra-sharp cheddar cheese. She served them with French-cut jicama on the side with guacamole and fresh baby greens. I think it was a little out of the ordinary for Linda, but it was delicious.

Green chile turkey burger with jicama

I tried to make myself comfortable in the Euro recliner and watched the NFL Thursday night game.

Yesterday, my back was still sore and very stiff. The day was humid again. Donna and I went for a walk along Mission Bay. Walking seems to loosen up my back, but it remains sore. Later, we rode the scooter up Clairemont Drive to Keil’s grocery store to pick up a few things. After I dropped Donna off at our coach, I went to Pacific Beach to gas up the scooter.

I also stopped at Campland, an RV park across Rose Creek next to Mission Bay RV Resort. We have friends staying there this weekend. Bud and Mona, our friends we met here last year are there. Erin Kerfoot, a friend from my high school days is also there. They’re all there for a Parrot Head of San Diego event this weekend.

Parrot Heads are fans of Jimmy Buffet. The first club formed in 1989 and today there are more than 200 chapters. The organization provides a social network for fans of Jimmy Buffet and also contributes to charitable organizations. The Saturday event at Campland will benefit the Wounded Warrior Homes organization.

I couldn’t find Bud and Mona’s site or Erin’s. Campland is packed and it’s a zoo over there. When I returned to our park, I saw a large group on the west end of the park. Parrot Heads had overflowed into the Mission Bay RV Resort. Later, I took a walk near the Parrot Head gathering and shot a fiery sunset photo. A few clouds and the high humidity made quite a display.

Fiery sunset Friday evening

The weather is cooler with less humidity today. The high should top out in the low 70s. Donna and I will walk to Margaritaville, I mean Campland this afternoon to meet up with our Parrot Head friends. Maybe an afternoon of Jimmy Buffet and margaritas will loosen up my back.

Going Home

My last post ended with a phone call Tuesday morning from Giant RV in Murrieta telling me they had found a motor for our HWH pump and would have it that afternoon. Tom, from Giant RV, told me he would have it around 3pm. Kathy, from West Wind RV, juggled their schedule and would send Mike over Wednesday morning to install the new motor.

I mapped out a route to Giant RV, avoiding I-15. Although our scooter is capable of 75mph, I don’t like riding it that fast. I also don’t like having cars blow by me on the interstate. The route I mapped out had 50-55 mph speed limits which meant most cars were going 60-65 mph. It was 25 miles from Jojoba Hills to Giant RV.

I left Jojoba Hills around 2:30pm. I estimated 45 minutes for the 25-mile ride with traffic. I wanted to get the part and be on my way home before rush hour. My ETA was good, I arrived at Giant RV at 3:15pm.

I told the girl at the parts counter that I was there to pick up an HWH motor they had for me. She said, “Oh, Tom was just talking about that. I think he went on lunch break. Let me see if I can find him.” This didn’t sound good.

She came back with Tom. He told me he didn’t have the part. The manager of their store in Colton neglected to put it on the transfer list, so their driver didn’t pick it up. He said he would get it tomorrow.

I stayed calm as I explained my situation to him. Without the part, we couldn’t move and West Wind had re-arranged their schedule based on me having the part. He said, “Give me a minute and I’ll see what we can do.”

A few minutes later, he told me he was going to Colton to get the part. I would have to sit tight until he returned. It was 3:30pm. I wasn’t familiar with Colton, so I asked how far away it was. He said it was 45 miles!

The parts manager from Murrieta happened to be in a meeting at the Colton store. Tom phoned ahead and apprised him of the situation. The manager was not planning to return to the Murrieta store, but he took the part and met Tom halfway. I had the part in hand a little before 5pm. Tom really went out of his way to correct their mistake and I was very grateful.

Kathy called me later that evening to confirm our appointment and to make sure I had the part. We were all set.

On Wednesday morning, Mike installed the new motor. He showed me a couple of tricks to get the old motor out and the new one in. There aren’t any manuals for removing and replacing parts of an HWH hydraulic unit. Now I know how to do it correctly and will tackle the job myself if I ever have to. I plan to have the old motor rebuilt so I’ll have a spare on hand if needed.

With the new motor, the HWH unit seems quieter and the slides seem to move a little faster. I had nothing to compare to before, so I didn’t know the old unit was noisy. That would’ve been my only indication that something was going wrong with the motor. Other than that, it failed without warning.

We pulled out of Jojoba Hills just past noon. As we drove down highway 79, Donna snapped a photo of a roadside sculpture. There’s an artist community in that area and we suspect they are responsible for the beautiful metal sculptures on this section of highway. She took a photo through the windshield of wild horses jumping across the highway.

Wild horses jumping across highway 79 near Temecula

Less than two hours later, we checked in at Mission Bay RV Resort. I dropped our trailer across from the security shack and we set up in site 114. The security supervisor recognized us and welcomed us back. Donna said to me, “I wonder if he’ll notice we have a new coach.” I said, “He sees so many rigs come in and out of here, I doubt if he’ll notice we have a different coach.” Later, the security supervisor asked me if we had a new rig. He remembered our old coach! I feel like I’ve come home again.

We like to mix it up and stay in a variety of locations. Sometimes it’s nice to be boondocking in a secluded area without noise and starry skies at night. And sometimes we like staying in an RV park in a quiet, rural area or in an urban setting where we can explore and go bicycling.

For me, San Diego is home base. I have many connections here. My youngest daughter is at Cal Western School of Law, my step-dad lives in Menifee, and Donna has two sisters here. I have many good friends here. And there are many places that bring back memories. Plus we love being able to ride our bikes right out of the park on trails that take us to the beaches.

After I set up, I showered and rode the scooter over to my favorite watering hole, Offshore Grill and Tavern. Meanwhile, Donna’s sister, Linda, came over to visit. I had a couple of IPAs and a poke (po-key) plate at Offshore and caught up with some of the old crowd there. I picked up a football pool sheet and plan to donate to the pool.

Poke plate

On the way back, I was struck by all of the activity in Mission Bay Park. There were various exercise groups on the grass. There were families picnicking. Volleyball games were going on. And of course, people were out on the water.

Family picnic and volleyball in the park

When I returned, Donna and Linda had gone out to eat at the Pacific Beach Fish Shop. Later, my daughter, Shauna, stopped by to visit. Life is good. It was a great day.

I’m looking forward to getting on my bicycle and taking a ride to Pacific Beach today. Although the temperature is a little higher than usual, it’s much more comfortable than the heat we’ve been in for the past few weeks. Today we should see abundant sunshine and a high of 81 degrees.

Bad Motor for Sure

Coach – Net served me well yesterday. They contacted a mobile RV service, West Wind, located nearby in Murrieta. Kathy from West Wind called me and said she would send Mike out to our site between 3pm and 4pm.

Mike arrived at a quarter past three. I told him what happened and the tests I performed. He re-checked some of the diagnostic steps and said he thought I had a bad motor on the HWH pump. Then he connected an external battery directly to the motor, bypassing the motorhome circuitry. The motor didn’t run. This doesn’t ensure that we don’t have any other issues, but it confirms the diagnosis of a faulty motor. From the tests I performed earlier, I don’t see any other problems in the system.

The next step was to locate a replacement part. Mike found the part number for the assembly and told me of a couple of possible sources for the motor from nearby RV dealers. I called around, but no one had the motor in stock. I looked online at the HWH site and found the correct part number for the motor to fit my assembly. I did more online searches, but didn’t come up with anything.

I called Paul Maddox, the HWH technician who helped me with the jack solenoid. He’s in Arizona. He said he knew someone who had the motor I needed, but he would have to drive 10 miles to pick it up, then drive another 30 miles to get to a FedEx outlet to ship it. He said I should try to get it from HWH as they could ship overnight. It wouldn’t take any longer to get it from them. He told me the retail price of the motor was $284, and I shouldn’t pay any more than that – he said he’d heard of unscrupulous outfits charging as much as $500 for the part.

I looked on eBay and saw couple of replacement motors priced from $298 to $399. No deals – and I don’t know who the actual manufacturer was. The HWH part is made by Monarch.

eBay photo of the replacement motor

I called Mike at West Wind and told him I couldn’t get the motor. He said he would get it from HWH and call me in the morning to confirm.

Mike called me this morning at 9:15 and said the motor was on its way and would be at his shop tomorrow. He told me the cost of the part was $284 plus shipping. We made an appointment for Thursday morning to have it installed.

Newsflash! I just got a callback from Giant RV in Murrieta. They were one of the dealers I spoke to yesterday. They located a motor and can have it by 3pm today! I called Mike and he was able to cancel the order from HWH. Giant RV will sell me the motor for $276 plus $22 tax. This is surely less expensive than overnight shipping from HWH. I’ll ride the scooter over to Murrieta this afternoon and pick up the part. Mike juggled his schedule and will try to be here by noon tomorrow to install it.

I made one final test. I powered up the HWH system and had Donna hold the generator retract switch. With voltage delivered to the motor, I tapped on the motor housing with a hammer. It ran for a few seconds every time I whacked it and we got the generator slide in. This is the old Chevy starter motor trick. It confirmed the circuit is good, the motor is bad.

Today I want to tidy up some of the wiring I inspected and repair the hook-and-loop fasteners on the front panels, a project I’ve been meaning to get to. I’ll arrange a late checkout from Jojoba Hills. We may not be a day late after all, but I’ll be several hundred dollars short!

Simple Maintenance – Right!

We had some relief from the heat on Friday. The early morning cloud cover burned off, but it didn’t get too hot until late afternoon when the temperature hit the mid-80s.

I wanted to perform scheduled maintenance on the scooter and generator while I have the opportunity here at Jojoba Hills RV Resort. When we get to Mission Bay, they won’t allow me to do mechanical work there.

On Friday morning, I changed the engine oil and filter on the scooter. I also drained and refilled the gearbox with 75-90 gear oil. The Kymco maintenance schedule calls for these lubricants to be changed every 3,000 miles. We just turned over 6,000 miles, so it was due. Next week, when we’re in San Diego, I’ll have to find an air filter element for it – it’s time to change that too.

After I cleaned up, I took the scooter out for a test run, then I rode it to Temecula. I stopped at Best Buy and picked up another ink cartridge for the printer. The one we bought on Wednesday didn’t work. I forgot to bring the bad cartridge to see if they would exchange it, so I paid for another cartridge.

After Best Buy, I had a quick lunch at Subway. They had the six-inch sweet onion-teriyaki chicken sub on sale for three bucks. From there I rode to WalMart where I bought a few grocery items that Donna needed and three quarts of oil for the generator. I already had new filters for the generator on hand, but I didn’t have any oil for it. We have 544 hours on the generator now. The last oil change was at 400 hours. Onan calls for oil and filter changes every 150 hours. At 500 hours, I should have changed the fuel filter and air filter. This would be Saturday’s task.

After I returned, I kicked back and read while Donna was working at her laptop. We planned to go to a happy hour get-together at the pool around 4:30pm. Donna whipped up a plate of hors d’oeuvres and I put a few cans of beer in a small cooler and we walked down to the pool. There was a small gathering around a few tables that were pushed together. We were invited to take a seat and join them.

We met John Macon, a Jojoba member since 2010. He filled us in on some of the history of the place. He also scheduled a tour of the park for us to take with him on Saturday afternoon. Taking visitors on tours of the park is one of John’s specialties.

View across the pool at happy hour

We finished the night off watching a movie – Rudy, the story of a kid who dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame. He didn’t have the size or talent, but he never gave up.

This morning, servicing the Onan Quiet Diesel generator was my main task for the day. Our generator is mounted on sliding rails that are hydraulically operated. I switched on the HWH hydraulics and opened the generator compartment, expecting a fairly easy job ahead.

7.5kW Onan Quiet Diesel generator

Underneath the generator, there’s a door on the bottom panel to access the oil filter and fuel filter. I ran into a problem right from the start. The latches to open the door were jammed. I couldn’t get them to budge. I figured there was debris caught in the sliding latches behind the door. I decided to unbolt the hinge and see if I could get the door free. That was my next problem. The hinges were fastened with T30 torx head fasteners. I used to have every size of torx bit imaginable, but those Dirty Rotten Thieves took them when they stole my trailer. The biggest torx bit I had was a T20.

I jumped on the scooter and made the 15-mile ride to Temecula where I found torx bits at O’Reilly Auto Parts. I also bought a new strap wrench there. This time I remembered to bring the bad printer cartridge and receipt. I stopped at Best Buy to return it. I told the customer service girl that I bought the cartridge a couple of days ago and it didn’t work. I also said I bought another cartridge yesterday that works fine, confirming the first cartridge is defective.

She told me that printer cartridges are generally not a returnable item. They have no way of knowing if I used up all of the ink in it or not and had no way to test it. I showed her the test page from our printer with no black ink. She asked if I had the receipt from the second cartridge. I didn’t bring it with me. She asked how I paid. I paid with a Visa card. She looked up the transaction and said since I came back and bought another cartridge, she would make an exception and refund the cost of the first one. She said I should call the store immediately if I get another bad cartridge in the future or I wouldn’t be able to return it. Good to know. This is the second time we’ve had a bad ink cartridge.

I stopped at Ralph’s grocery store and bought a case of bottled water. I strapped it on the back of the scooter and headed back.

I crawled back underneath the generator and removed the access door. Then I loosened the oil filter. The filter is tucked up in a cramped space. I wanted to be sure I could get it off before I drained the oil. Then I decided to tackle the fuel filter.

I started by loosening the fuel supply fitting on the old fuel filter. Fuel began dripping from the line into a catch pan I had placed underneath. I expected a few ounces of fuel to drip. Once the dripping started, I saw my error. I should have removed the other filter fitting for the fuel line going to the engine first. I had to reach past a dripping line to access the other fitting. I started to remove the other fitting. It was very difficult because I couldn’t see it. With diesel fuel dripping down, I couldn’t get my head into position to see what I was doing.

When I started to loosen the second fitting, more fuel started dripping. It was running down my arm. I took a break and thought the fuel would stop dripping soon. After a few minutes, more than a pint of fuel was in the catch pan and it didn’t show any sign of slowing down. I came to the conclusion that changing the fuel filter was not a task for me. I’ll wait and have it done the next time we have the coach in for service.

I crawled back underneath to re-secure the fittings. I still had the same problem with fuel dripping and running down my arm while I tried to tighten the fittings by feel. I had fuel running down my arm for 15 minutes before I could get the unions tightened. That’s when I realized the fuel wasn’t running down to my elbow and dripping into the pan like I thought. It was running all the way to my shoulder and my shirt was soaked with fuel. Ugh!

I cleaned up a bit, then got on with the oil and filter change. I hadn’t paid much attention to the oil drain plug until now. That’s when I saw the drain plug looked like a pipe fitting with a square lug. There’s no room to get an open-ended wrench in there. I don’t have any square sockets.

I thought about it and came up with an idea. The square lug was 3/8″ across. I put a 1/4″ socket on my ratchet wrench, then put a 1/4″ hex driver into the socket. This left the square 3/8″ drive opening on the back of the driver. The 3/8″ drive opening fit perfectly on the drain plug and I removed it easily. The picture below is labelled – click on it to enlarge and you can see how I did it.

Driver set up to remove square drive plug

Tool assembled

While the oil drained, I replaced the air filter. This was the only part of the job that went exactly as planned without a glitch.

I cleaned the latches on the access door. I couldn’t see any reason for them to jam. They seemed to work once I had the door off. After I screwed it back onto the hinges, it worked fine.

After I filled the engine with oil and did a test run for leaks, I poured the waste oil from the pan into the empty oil containers. I’ll recycle the oil later. I dumped my tools onto a rag in the trailer and cleaned myself. I’ll clean up the tools and put them away later. I took off the fuel-soaked shirt before I entered the coach and took a long, hot shower. This was supposed to be a fairly easy job!

I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Donna cancelled our tour of the park since the generator job took so long. I wasn’t up for a tour after I finished.

Tomorrow the Chargers play in Buffalo, so they will be the early game at 10am. My plan is to kick back and enjoy some football!

Jojoba Hills Co-op

The days here in Jojoba Hills have blended together. Each day has been much like the last. The hot afternoons keep us inside our air-conditioned coach. On Wednesday morning, Donna and I rode the scooter 15 miles to the Ralph’s grocery store in Temecula.

While Donna shopped for groceries, I walked over to Best Buy and picked up a black ink cartridge for the printer. Then I took the scooter to the gas station and filled up. By the time I came back, Donna was in the checkout line. Once again, we managed to fit half a dozen bags of groceries under the seat, in the tote bag and in a backpack.

Yesterday, I explored the Jojoba Hills RV Resort. This is an Escapees Co-op. As Escapees members, we can stay here a maximum of 28 days in a calendar year as visitors. Most of the people here have bought a “share” in Jojoba Hills. Owning a share entitles you to have a site assigned to you. You don’t own any real property, but you have your own site. Judging by license plates, it appears that most of the shareholders are not permanent California residents. They’re domiciled in tax- and RV-friendly states. That means they cannot be here year ’round. By the way, the park requires all RVs here to have valid, current license plates even though many of the rigs look like they haven’t been on the road for a long time.

The price of a share is set by the board of directors every year. We heard it was around $30,000. There’s a waiting list for shares. If you’re on the waiting list and a share becomes available, you pay the owner of that share the share price plus any improvements or assessments. Now you have your own site. Electricity and propane are not included, but the monthly maintenance fee of around $250 includes water, maintenance of common areas and access to all of the amenities (pool, clubhouse, tennis courts, workshops, etc). If you are going to be away from the park, you can make your site available for visitors. The money from the rental of the site goes to the co-op, not the shareholder. The incentive for doing this is free maintenance of your site while you’re away. The co-op maintains all of the sites available for rental.

It’s an interesting concept. We don’t have any intention of settling in one place at this time, but who knows what the future may hold.

The weather was cooler yesterday, but still quite warm with a high of 86. Last night felt humid and this morning we have a low ceiling and high humidity. Today is supposed to clear up and the temperature will reach the mid 80s again. This morning, I’ll change the oil and filter in the scooter. I want to take care of a few maintenance items while we’re here because the resort does not have any restrictions against working on vehicles. I also plan to wash the coach before we leave next Wednesday.

Low overcast this morning

All Jacked Up

Wednesday turned out to be a tough afternoon for me. My back was still jacked up, but I needed to get some things done. The right rear HWH leveling jack started acting up again while we were at Row River. It slowly retracts itself after I extend it. This shouldn’t happen. While we were at the FMCA convention in Redmond, Oregon, I had the solenoid replaced (twice) to correct the problem. All was good until we set up at Row River.

I made a big mistake when we set up there. Our site wasn’t level – the front of the coach was low. Since we were parked on dirt, I put down 12″ x 12″ wooden pads under the jacks to increase the area supporting the coach. This helps to keep the round metal foot on the bottom of the jack from sinking into the dirt. Since the front was quite low, I stacked two wooden pads under each front jack to reduce the amount of extension of the jack.

I’ve done this many times before. I’ve always leveled the coach manually when I stack the pads. Without thinking about it, this time I started the auto-level sequence. The HWH computerized auto-level system has a sensor that detects the pitch-and-roll degree of the coach. Then it commands the jack extension to correct the attitude and level the coach. It works fairly quickly. The front jacks extended automatically. When they hit the doubled-up pads, the front of the coach was lifted too high. The HWH system didn’t retract the front jacks, it extended the rear jacks to correct the pitch of the coach. When the weight was taken off the rear wheels, there wasn’t any braking effect. Due to the slope, the coach moved forward – the jacks slid off the pads and dug into the ground. Not a good thing.

HWH leveling jacks on wooden pads in normal use

After rectifying that situation, I lowered the coach and leveled it manually. Everything seemed fine. A few days later, the right rear jack started its slow retract again. I don’t know if it’s related to the sliding-off-the-pads incident. I don’t see how it could be. The only way for the hydraulic jack to retract is to bleed off the fluid pressure. When I want to retract the jacks, a solenoid is activated to allow the fluid to return to the reservoir as the springs pull the ram up. I don’t have any external leaks and all of the other jacks and room slides (which are hydraulically activated by the same system) work fine. Something is allowing the fluid from the right rear jack assembly to slowly flow back into the reservoir. The first suspect is the solenoid.

I phoned Paul Maddox, the HWH technician who replaced the solenoid in Redmond. Since he replaced the solenoid twice, he didn’t think replacing it again was the way to go. He thought I should look at the check valves. The fluid for each jack passes through two check valves. These valves allow fluid to flow in one direction, but block the fluid from reverse flow. The check valves are opened by differential pressure. If the pressure is lower on the downstream side of the valve than on the upstream side, the valve opens and fluid will flow. If the pressure is higher on the downstream side, the check valve is forced against its seat and blocks reverse flow.

Paul suggested removing the upper (sometimes referred to as outer) check valve and replacing the O-ring that seals the valve. I removed the check valve and went to Ace hardware and found the right size replacement O-ring. I reinstalled the check valve and the jack still retracted itself.

HWH hydraulic assembly

Upper check valve and O-ring

I talked to Paul again. He said there was another check valve, the inner check valve. This one is harder to access, but he said he would send me parts and instructions.

The parts arrived Wednesday afternoon. Since we would leave the following day, I thought I should try to fix the jack right away. In order to access the inner check valve, I needed to remove the solenoid. I rode the scooter to Pep Boys and bought a small-diameter strap wrench. It was a cheap Chinese-made tool, but I thought, “How can you screw up a strap wrench?” Well, the Chinese have found a way. This wrench is so poorly manufactured, it takes three hands to operate it. I futzed around for 20 minutes before I could make it turn the solenoid.

After I had the upper check valve and solenoid out, getting to the inner check valve was tricky. It sits in a machined passage directly under the upper check valve, below the solenoid. I tried to see it with a mirror, but couldn’t tell what I was looking at. I tried reaching through the upper passage with hemostats, but I couldn’t grasp it. I fished a magnet through the solenoid opening and a strange, tightly wound spring with a straight tail came out. I hadn’t seen this spring in any of the diagrams I studied and there was no mention of this spring in the manual. I fished around with the magnet again and the check valve came out.

Check valves, solenoid and strange spring

I called Paul again. I told him about the strange looking spring. He had no idea what it was doing in there. He thought it may be the cause of the problem, as it didn’t belong in there. He thought I should reassemble everything with original parts, but without the spring. I reassembled everything. I lowered the jack and then watched it slowly retract again. Grrr.

While I was watching the jack retract, I noticed the tab that the retraction spring mounts to, was bent from the Row River incident. I decided to grab a large channel lock plier and straighten the tab. That’s when the real trouble started. As I cranked on the tab, the foot of the jack pivoted on the end of the ram and one of the springs came flying off! I’m lucky I didn’t lose a finger from the powerful spring. With no springs, the ram stopped retracting. I was in trouble now. I had to find a way to reinstall the foot and spring on the ram or we wouldn’t be going anywhere.

I used a piece of wood and a little ingenuity to force the ram into the fully retracted position. In this position, I would only have to stretch the springs a few inches to connect them to the foot. While I had the foot off, I used a hammer to ‘smith the tab straight before I attached the springs. Lying on my aching back under the coach, I pulled on the end of the spring with pliers. I used all my might and only managed to extend the spring about half an inch. Oh dear! These are powerful springs.

I tried different tactics for the next hour or so to try and lever the springs into place. I was beginning to think I needed a mobile RV tech. I saw one of our neighbors outside of his trailer. I borrowed a hydraulic bottle jack and a pry bar from him. The next half hour was spent trying to use hydraulic pressure from the bottle jack to lever the foot, with springs attached, over the end of the ram. Total frustration!

Then I just grabbed the pry bar, found a hard point to pry against and pulled the foot down, extending the springs as far as I could. The foot slipped off the pry bar, right onto the end of the ram! After two and a half hours of sweating and swearing, it was job done! By then it was beer-thirty and I was done in. You couldn’t pay me to do this type of work, but I’ll do it to avoid paying someone else.

On Thursday morning, I loaded the trailer and we made ready to travel. I usually load up the day before we leave, so it took extra time and work before we could hit the road. We still managed to depart by 10:30am. The drive to Tehachapi was a little over 40 miles. Highway CA58 has some steep climbs. We reached Tehachapi summit, a little over 4,000 feet above sea level, and exited the highway.

Currently we’re set up at the Mountain View RV Park. This is a small park with electric and water hook-ups, no sewer. There is a dump station we’ll hit when we leave. Originally we planned to dry camp in Tehachapi. The forecast calls for warm weather with highs near 90 degrees. We would have to run our generator all day for air conditioning if we dry camped, so we opted to pay for a site with 50-amp electric service. This RV park is unusual. It’s part of a private airport. The runway is in an open field 100 yards behind our coach.

View across the end of the runway from our door step

We’re only a few miles from town. Donna and I rode the scooter to town yesterday and had a look around. It’s a quaint little town. The downtown area is clean and well-kept. Later, we grilled bacon-wrapped filets that Donna served with quinoa salad and green beans.

Grilled bacon-wrapped filet

Today, I plan to replace the rear tire on Donna’s bike. Her race is tomorrow, with a 7am start time. Then I’ll pull the check valves for the right rear jack again and replace them with new ones that Paul sent me.

At noon, Donna is picking up a rental car for the weekend so we have a way to get her bike to the race start and back. We plan to take advantage of the extra set of wheels and do a little sight-seeing this afternoon.

Our site at Mountain View RV Park

In Search of Potato Vodka

I woke up with a stiff back yesterday. I’ve had lower back pain for a couple of days. I think it’s due to inactivity rather than something I did to strain it. I sat in front of the TV all day Sunday and that’s when it started bothering me.

Yesterday was one of those days that flew by without anything really interesting going on. We received our mail which was forwarded from our service in South Dakota. That’s always a highlight. Donna was happy to find a royalty check and I was happy to receive the business cards I ordered from Vistaprint.

Card looks grainy in this photo - actual cards are glossy and smooth

Card looks grainy in this photo – actual cards are semi-glossy and smooth

Donna and I rode the scooter to do some banking at the Chase Bank in town. The route we took had us riding on Edison Highway which had been freshly oiled in preparation for repaving. Not a good surface to scooter over.

We found the bank on Mount Vernon Avenue. Once we were finished there, we rode north about a mile to a Mexican restaurant Donna scoped out online. The Loma Linda restaurant had good reviews, so we decided to have lunch there. I had the chili verde burrito which was huge and served with rice and beans on the side. Donna ordered the camarones (shrimp) soup. She wasn’t too pleased with her choice. She said the shrimp had been way overcooked and the zucchini and carrots in the soup were large chunks that needed to be cut into smaller pieces before they could be spooned up. My lunch was very good, though I’m not used to eating such a large portion. Of course, no one forced me to eat the whole burrito, but I did. I was uncomfortable for most of the afternoon.

From the restaurant, we rode back down to the Albertson’s grocery store near the bank. Donna shopped while I sat on a bench outside in the shade. My back was so stiff that walking was a chore. We managed to pack several bags of groceries on the scooter. We filled the underseat compartment, a tote bag between my knees and a large backpack.

After we returned home, I thought a martini would be in order – for medicinal purposes. Before I could make a martini, I needed to replenish my vodka supply. I remembered passing a liquor store near here. I went back out on the scooter to the store. It was a poor example of a liquor store. They only had a few brands of vodka, mostly pints and half-pints and no potato vodka.

I went to two grocery stores and found poor selections again. I rode west on Niles Street and stopped at stores displaying liquor signs. In California, it’s usually easy to find liquor retailers. I found plenty of retailers – they just didn’t have what I was looking for. I phoned Donna and told her I may be out for longer than I thought. Then I used my smartphone to map liquor stores in the area.

The 10th(!) store I stopped at had an ancient guy behind the counter. I told him I was looking for potato vodka, preferably in a 1.75 liter bottle. He said I should go to Rite Aid. I asked him if there was a Rite Aid in the area. He said “Yes, they’re everywhere.” Then he just stood there looking at me. Apparently that was all the direction I was going to get. I thanked him and walked back to the scooter.

I started to loop back towards the RV park. I saw a CVS store, right next to the bank where we were this morning. I went in and found Blue Ice American Potato Vodka (made from Idaho russet potatoes). This became my new favorite when I found it in Grand Junction, Colorado. It’s hard to find. I’ve only found it in one or two stores since then. I bought two bottles.

I came home and watched the Formula 1 race from Monza, Italy on the DVR. The martini hit the spot. My back didn’t bother me so much. Donna made a quinoa salad with feta and mint for dinner. After the huge lunch, a light dinner was perfect. Afterwards, we walked a lap of the park.

I still have a sore back this morning. We started the day with a delicious, nutritious breakfast featuring crustless zucchini quiche with bacon and tomato wedges on the side.

Crustless zucchini quiche

Backache notwithstanding, I need to start to prepare for travel today. We’ll head down to Tehachapi tomorrow.

Hot Week Ahead

Why are we in Bakersfield? We can be almost anywhere, so why are we here?

Donna set a goal to compete in the bicycle road race at the Senior Olympics in Minneapolis next summer. To compete, she has to qualify. Our first shot at qualifying came at the Montana State Championship race in Great Falls. Due to a mechanical issue, she didn’t finish the race – details are in this post. She needed to find another race that would qualify her entry in Minneapolis.

She found a race in Tehachapi, California that takes place on September 13th. She contacted the race director, who is also a city official, and was told we could dry camp at the high school on the race weekend.

I searched for a campground in the area, hoping we could go there and Donna could do training rides in the area before the race. I couldn’t find anything suitable for us.

We kicked around a few ideas and decided we should start heading south from Oregon and get close to Tehachapi. We thought about taking US395 along the Sierra Nevada range, but that would require us to be on the move most days to arrive in time for the race. A more direct route seemed like a better option.

Staying in northern California for a few days of training, then making a dash south was an option. But, northern California has wildfires and smoke until you get south of Mount Shasta. The climate south of Mount Shasta isn’t much different than in the central valley. So I thought we should keep moving south.

Coming to Bakersfield and having eight days to prepare for the race seemed to make sense. We’re only 30 miles from Tehachapi. We’ll move over there at the end of the week and Donna can compete in the race.

Yesterday, we studied maps, then we rode the scooter to reconnoiter a bicycling route. We found a reasonably safe route to the Kern River Parkway Trail. It requires about eight miles of riding through town to get to the paved trail. We came back home by backtracking the same route. Donna called out the turns as we rode the scooter back. This helped her memorize the route.

We spent the afternoon indoors as the thermometer hit 99 degrees. Our air conditioners are running non-stop. Later in the evening, I fired up the grill. I grilled lemon garlic chicken thighs.

Chicken thighs and lemon slices on a smoky grill

Donna served the chicken over brown rice pilaf with sauteed zucchini, peppers, onions and tomatoes on the side.

Delicious dinner plate

The temperature overnight was in the 60s, but it didn’t cool down until well after midnight. We went to bed with the air conditioners running. It’s too warm to sleep with the windows open.

This morning, I prepped Donna’s bike and she went out a little after 8am. She’s planning to ride about 40 miles today. The temperature is rising, but it’s only in the mid 70s now. The forecast calls for a high of 91 degrees in the late afternoon with abundant sunshine. I think we’ll hit the swimming pool later.

Big Rigs and Bad Roads

After enjoying an extended Labor Day weekend on the Row River, courtesy of Scott and Marcia Hicks, we prepared to leave Tuesday morning. We had everything packed, secured the property and rolled out at 10:45am with empty holding tanks and the fresh water tank full.

Our route took us south from Cottage Grove on I-5. We stopped in Medford for fuel and ate a salad Donna made for lunch, then continued south. The terrain became mountainous as we climbed through the Klamath Range in southern Oregon. I spotted elk in a meadow, including a couple of nice bulls. I always like to spot wildlife.

We crossed the California border and continued another 20 miles or so to the town of Yreka (wy-REE-kuh). After we crossed the border, we started seeing smoke from wildfires in the distance. As we came closer to Yreka, the smoke became heavier. Our destination for the day was the WalMart in Yreka. Donna needed to buy groceries – she’d made a list of things she needed for the 21-day sugar detox program she just started. She phoned ahead to be sure we had permission to stay overnight in the parking lot.

As we exited the interstate and stopped at the traffic light, I could hardly believe my eyes. A vintage Newell pulling a long, enclosed trailer came past. I recognized it immediately and said to Donna, “That’s Clarke and Elaine.” I’ve followed Clarke’s blog for two years! We followed them into the WalMart lot. Clarke scooped me on the parking spot I wanted, but we were able to maneuver around and park 100 feet behind them in a level spot.

About 20 minutes later, I reluctantly knocked on Clarke’s door. I say reluctantly, because I knew they were probably road-weary and needed to unwind. I wanted to say “hi” and introduce myself, but I didn’t want to come off as a blog stalker. The usual RV etiquette allows for visitors when your door is open. Knocking on a closed door is generally not the thing to do. Of course, with all the smoke in the air, no one would have their door open.

So I gave a knock and Elaine opened the door. I apologized for disturbing them and introduced myself. They invited me in and we chatted for 15 or 20 minutes.

Clarke and Elaine Hockwald's 1984 Newell

Clarke and Elaine Hockwald’s 1982 Newell at the Yreka WalMart

When I returned to our coach, I started the generator and the air conditioners. It was hot and too smoky to open the windows. Donna returned with a pile of groceries. Once they were put away, she said she was going to walk down the block to Raley’s to get a few things she couldn’t find at WalMart. Raley’s is a supermarket chain found only in northern California and Nevada. Back in the day, they were a supermarket that carried just about everything – kind of like a small WalMart. Today, they are more of an upscale market with a good selection of organic and healthy gourmet food at good prices, according to Donna.

When I was in third or fourth grade, I lived in Sacramento. There was a Raley’s Supermarket about a mile away from our house. I’d heard about a pie-eating contest for kids at Raley’s on a Saturday morning. I entered the contest, thinking at the very least I would get a free cream pie! On that Saturday, I rode my Huffy bicycle to Raley’s for the contest. They had a couple of different age groups for the contest. My age group had 10 or 12 contestants. We were seated around a long, rectangular table. We were given a choice of cream pies – I remember coconut and chocolate cream pie among the choices. I went for the coconut cream pie. We had to keep our hands behind our backs and devour the pie, face down. On the start signal, I pushed my face into the pie and started swallowing it. I thought I was done and pulled my head up. The judge shook his head and pointed to some remaining filling. I lost a couple of seconds in the exchange before I finished the pie, but it didn’t matter. I won! The prize was a Raley’s gift certificate that I used to buy a pair of cowboy boots I’d had my eye on.

On Wednesday morning, we were up by 7am. The Hockwalds had already left. They were pushing to make it to Cape Blanco where they will be lighthouse hosts for the next two months. We visited Cape Blanco last fall – I posted about it here.

Our plan for the day was a longer drive than we usually do. We wanted to reach Ripon, California in the central valley about 330 miles away. My overall plan was to dry camp again, then continue south and check into an RV park in Bakersfield. This would position us close to Tehachapi, where Donna has a bicycle race on September 13th. There aren’t any RV parks in Tehachapi close enough to the race and with sites big enough for our rig. We’ve been told that we can dry camp for the weekend in the school parking lot when we get there.

We did make a stop in Corning, California – the olive capital. In northern California, walnuts, pecans, olives and almonds are big cash crops. Corning has a few olive shops. We stopped at The Olive Pit, which has RV parking in the back. They have every olive and olive combination you can think of. I bought blue cheese – stuffed olives and Tomolives (which are really pickled olive size green tomatoes) for martinis. Donna bought Mediterranean-style olives, Cuban-style olives and anchovy-stuffed olives. She also bought walnut oil and balsamic vinegar, both locally produced.

Spoils from The Olive Pit

South of Sacramento, we hit CA99. This road is in a sad state through many sections. I don’t understand how our elected politicians have allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate to this degree. Transportation, first with railroads, then with an interstate highway system, is what opened this country up and led to prosperity. Some of the roads we’ve traveled have been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair, they need to be completely torn out and rebuilt. Much of CA99 needs to be replaced.

South of Stockton, we saw an overturned tractor-trailer rig blocking the northbound lanes. The northbound traffic was at a standstill for miles. I hope no one was seriously injured.

After a long day on the road, we pulled into the Pilot/Flying J travel center in Ripon. I found this place on the Internet. They advertised overnight truck and RV parking. We found a long, level parking place and backed the coach and trailer in. I asked the woman in the travel center if RVs were okay to park overnight. She said, “Absolutely, as long as you’re in a marked parking stall.”

By evening, the lot was full. I saw only one other RV, a fifth-wheel trailer. The rest were big tractor-trailer rigs. I had our coach inside the marked stall, but I had us slightly angled so I could put a bedroom slide out. If both bedroom slides are in, it’s too cramped with the full-length queen size bed. Donna would have to climb over me if she needed to get up in the night.

Running with the big dogs

Parked at slight angle to allow the driver’s side bedroom slide to open

I think we stuck out like a sore thumb

On Thursday morning, we were up early again. I didn’t sleep well. Truck stops are noisy places. Everyone, including us, had generators or engines running. Donna injured her eye somehow. It seems that she scratched her cornea – a painful and irritating injury. There’s not much to be done about it other than to let it heal. So she didn’t sleep well either.

We continued south on CA99, taking a real pounding at times on the rough road. We stopped at the only rest area we found on our route and had lunch outdoors at a picnic table. We finally pulled into our destination at the Bakersfield Palms RV Park where we’ll reside for the coming week. Bakersfield is a hot and dusty place. I’m wondering if I made the right choice by coming here.

Today, Donna and I will explore on the scooter and look for possible bike routes. The temperature is forecast to reach 90-plus degrees every day for the next week.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Scooter

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Margaritaville

Going Home

Bad Motor for Sure

Simple Maintenance – Right!

Jojoba Hills Co-op

All Jacked Up

In Search of Potato Vodka

Hot Week Ahead

Big Rigs and Bad Roads

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