Category Archives: Trailer

Pine Trees and Petrified Forest

Packing the motorhome for a four-month road trip was harder than either of us imagined. I’m sure there will be situations where we say, “I wish I had brought XX along.” It’s a learning experience. Before, we traveled with all of our belongings. Now with the cargo trailer gone, we have to be more selective and there’s no reason to try to bring everything we own.

On Wednesday morning, Donna dropped me off at the 202 RV Valet storage facility, then she went grocery shopping. I moved our coach to the end of the row where there was a water spigot and hooked up our filtration and filled the fresh water tank. We planned to boondock for a few nights and I wanted a full fresh water tank. I didn’t take it back to our place at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort because the only water spigot there is located behind the house at the rear of the property – I would have needed about 75′ of hose.

By the time I filled the 100-gallon tank and drove the coach back to Viewpoint, it was 11am. I had to obtain a 48-hour parking pass to park the coach on the street by our park model home. We began the process of loading the coach right after lunch and worked until dark.

On Thursday morning, we continued the process. Just packing all of the pantry supplies, spice cabinet, refrigerated and frozen foods was a big chore. I also put the Midget up on jack stands and removed the front wheels – I put the wheels in the double-locked storage shed to make it very difficult for anyone to steal the car while we’re away. I loaded Donna’s bicycle in the bed of our Nissan Frontier – I had made a cable locking system for it. I also loaded the Sea Eagle inflatable kayak in the truck, then I assembled the tow bar.

It was nearly 2pm before we were ready to hook the truck up to the coach. Our neighbor came out to help. Honestly, although I appreciated him, I didn’t really want the help. It was the first time hooking up the truck and I wanted to do it methodically and check each step of the process. We got it done and headed out.

Our plans went awry within half a mile. I had driven down the 200 lane and had to make a right turn onto the main street of the park. The person living on the corner to my right had placed a large rock cairn on the corner of their property. Due to a large palm tree in the center median on the street, my ability to drive deep into the street before turning was limited. The truck right front wheel struck the rock cairn. I was stuck. I had to disconnect the truck and move it, then reposition the coach on the main street and reconnect the truck. Not a great start.

By then it was 100 degrees out and 98 degrees in the coach. I fired up the generator to run the roof air conditioner as we drove down the road. Our route took us over Usery Pass to Bush Highway and AZ87 (Beeline Highway). Did I mention it was very hot out?The climb to Payson had me watching the engine coolant temperature closely. Any time it went over 195 degrees, I slowed and geared down to keep the engine rpms up and the load lower. Payson is 5,000 feet above sea level.

From Payson, we took AZ260 east. A little more than halfway between Payson and Heber, we found the Mogollon Rim Visitor Center. By the way, Mogollon is often mispronounced. People say “Moh-geh-yon” but the Arizona State Historian says it should be pronounced “Muggy-yawn.” We parked at the visitor center briefly. Donna texted our friends, Mike and Jodi Hall. They preceded us to the area and were meeting up with Frank and Kelly Burk at a camping area about 15 miles into the Sitgreaves National Forest.

I unhooked the Nissan and Donna drove it across the highway to Rim Road, I followed in the coach as we entered the national forest. The road was wide and paved for the first few miles, then it was graveled dirt – the dirt was fine powder, almost talcum like. It was dusty!

We made it 12 miles into the forest and found the cutoff for the spur road where we were told they were planning to set up. I left the coach on the main road and we drove about a mile down the spur road before we decided it was no go for the coach. The road had sharp rocks and potholes that would be hard on the tires and cause the coach to sway excessively – I could imagine everything falling out of cabinets.

We found a nice camp site just off of the main road – I think it was Forest Service 300 road (FS300) at the FS76 spur. Unfortunately, there was no cell service so we couldn’t let the rest of the crew know where we were. We had a peaceful, quiet and very dark night in the woods. Most people don’t envision pine forests when they think of Arizona, but northern Arizona has them, especially on the rim. We were 7,880 feet above sea level. Donna heard a cow elk calling near our site.

We decided against hanging around and trying to find our friends – we weren’t sure we had the right cutoff road or if we did, how far down they might be. We moved out of there at 9am Friday morning. Donna had spent a full day cleaning the interior of the coach last weekend, but now everything had a layer of fine dust, Same for the Nissan. Once we neared the highway, we regained cell service and I had a voicemail from Frank. We were on the right spur road to find them, but they were 3 miles down – too far to go back and forth every day on a rutted, rocky road, even in the truck.

We found another boondocking spot about 90 miles east at the entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park. There are free dry-camping sites at the Crystal Forest Museum and Gift Shop. We were set up there before noon and took the truck for drive into the national park. I have a lifetime America the Beautiful multi-agency senior pass. This got us into the park without paying fees – it’s usually $25 per car. The elevation there is 5,420 above sea level.

The petrified forest and painted desert are both part of the park. We stopped about a mile and a half into the park at the visitor center. There’s a hiking trail behind the center with lots of petrified tree trunk sections. Petrified wood is formed when trees are buried under silt for long periods of time – about 216 million years, give or take a few. The wood absorbs silica and other minerals as rain water percolates through the silt and quartz crystals bond with the cells of the tree – eventually making a replica of the organic tree material details in quartz form.

We drove through the park 26 miles to the north end, taking note of stops we wanted to make on the way back. The north end of the park has the Painted Desert Inn – a National Historic Landmark – and panoramic views of the Painted Desert. We stopped at Chinde Point where we we had a picnic lunch of the sandwiches Donna made.

Painted Desert view – the colors are somewhat washed out in the photo from the mid-day sun

Our next stop was at a place called teepees. The name comes from the shape of the hills formed from layers of sandstone there.

We made the driving loop at Blue Mesa. We didn’t hike much as I have a sore right knee. The last two times I played pickleball, I was rewarded with knee pain all afternoon. The pain persists now when I walk more than a few hundred yards – I’m not sure what’s up with that.

Blue Mesa is named for the layers of blue, purple and gray badlands that make up the area. Badlands aren’t just a place in the Dakotas – badlands describes an area void of vegetation with rock formations.

We made another stop and short walk to see Agate Bridge. This is a natural bridge formed from a petrified tree trunk. It was reinforced with concrete and people used to walk across it. Walking on it is forbidden now though.

We had another quiet night. The owner of the museum and gift shop doesn’t allow generators after 7pm or before 7:30am. Our Lifeline AGM house battery bank is holding up well – it hasn’t dropped below 12.5 volts at anytime on this trip.

We were on the road by 9am once again. We decided to head back to Cortez, Colorado. Donna talked to Shiree, the owner of La Mesa RV Park there and she could have a site for us on Sunday and we booked a month-long stay. The best route took us back through the national park, we exited at the north park entrance which loops back to I-40. We took I-40 about 20 miles east and hit US191 north. This took us through the west side of the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. It was much like the New Mexico route up US491, but with what appeared to be sparser population – not saying the New Mexico side is highly populated!

The road surface was great all the way to Chinde, where we had a little incident. I turned off the highway to get fuel at the Speedway station. Once I made the turn, I saw it was a trap. Getting to the pumps and back out of the station looked problematic. I looked at the GPS map and it showed the road I was on circling the station through a small neighborhood back to the highway.

I went down the block and turned right, then I saw the pavement ended a few hundred feet down the road where the road became a heavily rutted dirt road. If we had the cargo trailer behind us I would have just reversed back past the intersection we just came through and drove back to the highway. Towing a vehicle with four wheels down means no reversing. The castor angle of the front suspension would make the front wheel turn to full lock when you reverse and would result in a disaster. I had two choices – unhook the truck and get turned around – or continue slowly down the rutted lane. I opted for the latter and we made it out of there after a few choice words. Phew!

North of Chinle, the road surface deteriorated. It had whoops and rollers so bad that I had to slow to 45 mph on a road with a posted 65 mph speed limit. We eventually hit US160 and passed through Four Corners where we briefly drove through New Mexico and into Colorado. (The Four Corners Monument is currently closed due to COVID-19.) Our destination was the Ute Mountain Casino about 11 miles from Cortez. After about 250 miles of travel, we were ready to call it a day. We lost an hour as we’re now in Mountain Daylight Time. We dry camped for free once again in the casino truck lot – a large paved lot adjacent to the casino travel center. The Ute Mountain Casino sits at 5,880 feet above sea level.

This morning, we had cool temperatures – my phone app showed 40 degrees at 7am. The sun came over the mountain to the east of us and it warmed up quickly. We expect a high of 80 degrees today with the chance of a passing thundershower. We’ll gain a few hundred feet heading into Cortez and we’ll be about 6,200 feet above sea level.

I’ll close this post with a food picture. Last week I had to make my signature Memphis-style babyback ribs. I won’t be able make them again this summer – we’re traveling with just the Weber Q, no Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker-grill.

Memphis-style babyback ribs with green beans and sweet potato mash

*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!

Trailer For Sale – Sold

I mentioned another project that needed attention in my last post. Our 10-gallon Suburban water heater isn’t working right. This unit operates on 120-volts AC or propane. When we’re on a 50-amp electrical service, we keep the water heater on electric power.

Apparently, the electric heating element is going bad. It won’t heat the water adequately – we only get lukewarm water – I doubt if it’s much over 100 degrees. We have to turn on the propane gas burner to get hot enough water to shower or wash dishes.

I found a tune-up kit for the Suburban SW10DE water heater that included the heating element online at PDX RV. It also had a replacement thermostat set at 130 degrees. The kit was only $33, but shipping was $15!

I found a heating element wrench at Ace Hardware for $10. This is a thin wall, stamped sheet socket, 1-1/2 inches in diameter. The heating element has a thin 1-1/2 inch hex on top of the threaded portion of the element.

With the proper tool and parts in hand, I got to work. I made a “curtain” out of a plastic grocery bag to keep any sediment that might come out of the tank off of the coach. The heating element had a plastic cover over it and it was behind the gas tube, so I had to remove the gas tube and cover for access.

I had turned the circuit breaker for the water heater off, then I removed the two wires from the element. I used the socket tool, but I found the element threads were stuck in place. I worked on it for about 45 minutes before I decided I needed to try something different. I found a 1-1/2″ standard socket at the auto parts store. I figured I could use my 1/2-inch drive electric impact driver to break the element loose.

The thin hex on the element didn’t allow the socket to fully engage the hex and the impact driver just rounded the tops of the hex corners. Next I soaked it in penetrating oil and let it stand overnight. I found a bar about two feet long that I could use as a breaker bar on the heating element tool for leverage.

I huffed and puffed and gave a mighty pull on the cheater bar and promptly bent the heating element tool without budging the element. The threads remained frozen in place. At that point, I threw in the towel and put it all back together. I’ll have to hire an RV service that either has a better tool or a better idea to get the old element out. I hate to give up, but sometimes you have to admit defeat.

Donna has been busy getting the park model home ready for us to move in. Last Saturday Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort had a community patio sale. Many of the homes here in the park put out items for sale. Donna had a lot of stuff she wanted to get out of the house before we move in. She sold quite a few items. The things that didn’t sell we took to Goodwill.

She’s been working on replacing window coverings with help from our friends, Roxy and Dick Zarowny. They also did some paint touch up. Roxy repainted a cabinet, changing the white finish to gray.

The RV park is slowly emptying out as snowbirds return home. Our friends Chuck and Sue Lines left last week to head back to Illinois. We have about a dozen empty sites in front of our coach and only three RVs in sight.

I ordered set of coarse (400 grit) and medium (1000 grit) diamond sharpening stones and had another go at Roxy’s LC Germain kitchen knives. These stones were aggressive and worked better on this steel than the fine synthetic Japanese water stones I used before. They left a toothy finish that I refined a bit on a medium Spyderco Sharpmaker stick. The result was an acceptable level of sharpness that remained on the toothy side. A toothy edge is good for cutting most proteins or things like thick-skinned tomatoes. A more refined edge is needed to make clean cuts of fish. I think her knives will work better now.

By Wednesday, I had almost everything out of the trailer and needed to advertise it for sale. I was a little worried as I had to have it out of here on the 30th of March – only six days away. Donna wrote up an ad and posted it on Facebook Marketplace Wednesday evening. She had immediate responses! I had searched online to find comparable trailers to set a price and had a hard time finding anything. The closest I could find were either beat-up and selling for cheap or they were really high-end models – I only found a few examples and nothing really matched our trailer.

I told Donna what I expected to get for the trailer and soon found out I under-priced it. We had people lining up to buy it and a bidding war broke out. I sold it for $700 over my asking price and the guy came Thursday morning from Casa Grande to buy it. He paid cash and left with a smile on his face. I thought the lack of trailers this size online indicated a lack of interest – most of the trailers were around the 12-foot length. It turns out there’s low supply and much demand for larger trailers. I probably could have sold for a higher price, but I’m satisfied with how things turned out.

We’ll be moving into our new place over the weekend. On Tuesday, I’ll take the motorhome to a new storage facility that opened on Main Street near the Loop 202. I’ll have it under a covered space there. I think we’ll hang around here until mid-May unless it gets too hot earlier. We don’t have a real plan for the summer yet – we just know we want to leave before the temperatures are in triple digits.

The weather for the past week had been fickle. We’ve had warm, sunny days with the high temperature ranging from the mid-70s to mid-80s broken up by a few cooler days with wind and rain showers in the 60s. It’s cool today with a predicted high of 62 degrees, but we’ll warm up to the 80s over the weekend and may hit the 90s by the end of the week.

Pre-Move Activities

Things are progressing slowly with the new-to-us park model home here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. So far, the process has been a matter of removal rather than move-in. Donna has been sorting through the things she plans to sell in the park-wide garage sale scheduled for Saturday, March 20th. Whatever doesn’t sell will be donated.

Donna also took down all of the window hangings – curtains, rods and whatnot. They were all dated and in need of replacement. I hauled it to the community dump here at the park. There was also a small knick-knack shelf that ran around the perimeter of the living room that she didn’t want. She hired a guy from the park to rip it out and dispose of it along with a cabinet above the bed.

We’ve had some great help from our friends and neighbors, Dick and Roxy Zarowny. Roxy has been helping Donna with some paint prep and color ideas. Dick took down a few light fixtures we’ll be replacing and he also filled in trim where the living room shelf was. Another neighbor, Sue Lines, has also been consulted about paint colors. We can’t thank them enough for their time and help.

I’ve moved a few items into the small shed/shop. I’ll need to get cracking on moving everything out of the trailer so we can sell it. That’ll be this weekend’s project. Yesterday, I went over to the house to spackle some holes left from curtain hardware and other wall hangings.

We had a change of plan on painting the interior. We got a quote from a painter here at the park and decided to hire the job out. In years past, I always tackled these jobs to avoid the expense of hiring someone, but I’m at a point in my life where I’d rather hire someone and be done with it. They will start masking everything and apply coverings tomorrow and should complete the job by the middle of next week – they won’t work on the weekend. Once that’s complete, we can start moving in.

I’ve mentioned a bit of an evolution in my kitchen duties – I’m learning kitchen knife skills and applying them to different recipes. Meanwhile, Donna has been utilizing the Weber grill more. One of my specialties is Japanese fried rice. I’ve been making it in a large skillet, but it wasn’t ideal. The skillet isn’t quite large enough and stirring while the rice fries results some of the ingredients escaping from the pan.

I decided I needed a wok. I looked around online and settled on a Yosukata carbon steel wok from Amazon. It has a flat spot on the bottom making it stable on the induction cooktop and carbon steel is ferrous and works great with induction. The name “carbon steel” is a misnomer. All steel contains iron and carbon.

After ordering this pan, I’ve been inundated with ads and click-bait for carbon steel kitchenware. Against my better judgement, I clicked on one that led to blog post about cookware – it was just a shill for certain products. The author was either horribly mis-informed or didn’t do any research at all. He started by saying carbon steel is great in the kitchen because it is a blend of “normal steel” and stainless steel. This is preposterous. First of all, what is “normal steel?”

As I said, all steel contains iron and carbon. From there, different alloying elements can be added. Most metallurgists agree that the addition of chromium in amounts exceeding 11% of the total weight constitute a stainless steel alloy. So-called carbon steel can be anything from very pure iron and carbon like that found in Hitachi Shirogami steel or can have additions like manganese, tungsten, vanadium and a host of other ingredients – but it wouldn’t be called carbon steel if it had more than 11% chromium – it would be called stainless. This is why I say the statement in the kitchen blog is preposterous.

Anyway, the wok is carbon steel and when properly seasoned – like cast iron – it’s nearly non-stick in use. The pan is made from thin material that heats up and cools down quickly and is much lighter than cast iron. It’s sizable – nearly 14 inches in diameter and four inches deep. Just right for fried rice.

Speaking of steel, Roxy mentioned to Donna that her old set of kitchen knives she keeps in their motorhome were in need of sharpening. So Donna asked me if I could sharpen them for her. It was a set of LC Germain knives. These knives were made in Japan in the 1970s and ’80s. They are stamped from a sheet of stainless steel and achieve their sharpness through the use of very thin blade material. To make the thin blades wear-resistant, they were heat-treated in a way that forms large, very hard carbides. I think the manufacturer wanted these knives to hold up in home kitchens where the user wouldn’t sharpen them or would maybe send them out to be sharpened by someone with a grinder once a year or so.

I don’t have a grinder and my Japanese knives are carbon steel with very fine grain structure, making them easy to sharpen. Therefore, my Japanese water stones are finer grades. These LC Germain knives should have been sharpened with a coarse stone to reset the edge, then refined on harder stones. I couldn’t find my Lansky coarse stone, so I had to use the Spyderco Sharpmaker which I only have medium and fine grit stones for. It took a lot of elbow grease to reach a useable edge on the knives. Hopefully, I’ll find the Lansky sharpener when I empty the trailer and can have another go at the LC Germain knives.

We drove out to Buckeye on Sunday to visit with my middle daughter, Jamie. Jamie is starting a home baking business specializing in cookies – it’s called OMG Cookies. Donna ordered two dozen cookies from her that she wanted for gifts to her tennis girlfriends here at Viewpoint. I gifted Jamie with the Yaxell Enso Japanese ko-bunka knife that got me started on the Japanese knife kick. We visited for a while, then made the drive back – it’s about 75 miles each way. In the air-conditioned Nissan Frontier, the trip was breeze.

The Frontier airbag saga continued. I was up early and off to the Nissan dealer in west Mesa to have the airbag module replaced and programmed on Monday. I waited there for four hours – good thing I brought a book to read. It didn’t solve the problem. They said the wiring harness needed to be replaced and said Sullivan Motors would be calling me to make arrangements.

Chris at Sullivan called me on Tuesday and said he was working on a solution. Then he called on Wednesday and asked if I could bring the truck to their shop at 8am on Thursday (today). He said the wiring harness was on backorder, but he thought they could repair it. I was skeptical , but I got up early and went there this morning. He had a different guy look at it this time. I sat and read for a while, then took a walk. When I got back, the truck was parked outside the shop. The guy located the break in the harness and repaired it! Hopefully, that’s the last time I’ll have to deal with it.

Time for some food talk. The fried rice in the wok photo went with a wild Alaskan salmon filet that Donna grilled perfectly.

Wild Alaskan salmon with mayo-based seasoning and grilled shishito peppers

I’ll add a couple more dinner plates from the last week. Donna made balsamic chicken and peppers served with home fries.

Balsamic chicken with peppers and home fries

She also made a meal with leftover tri-tip from the weekend. She had me slice the tri-tip into thin slices along with mushrooms, onion and garlic. Then she cooked chickpea rotini pasta and made a version of classic beef stroganoff.

It was a delicious meal.

We’re looking forward to visit from my oldest daughter, Alana and her fiancé, Kevin this afternoon. We’ve had warm weather over the weekend and start of this week – it was in the 80s. Yesterday it cooled down and only reached 70 and today should be slightly cooler. It should be comfortable to sit outside in the sun while we catch up with them.

Mesa Move-in

I let another week go by without writing a post, so I have to catch up. We had our final days last week at Leaf Verde RV Park in Buckeye. On Thursday, I made a trip over to my daughter, Jamie’s, house to pick up a package for Donna. Jamie told me she wasn’t feeling well, so she would leave the package in the front courtyard.

When I picked up the package, Jamie stood at the dining room window to talk to me at a safe distance. She told me she had sanitized the package – it was on a chair in the courtyard. I think she was planning for a nap or at least a bit of rest after I left.

On Friday, Jamie went to an urgent care center for a COVID-19 test. On Monday, the results came back positive – so she has the virus from China. I don’t think we should forget where this virus originated – Wuhan, China. I hope Jamie’s case is mild. She’s 35 years old and generally in good health, so I expect her to make a full recovery.

We packed up Saturday morning. I had to hook the trailer back up, because I’d disconnected when I took the coach in for service. The drive from Buckeye, west of Phoenix to Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in east Mesa was about 60 miles. I didn’t anticipate much traffic on a Saturday, but crossing a big city like Phoenix is always a crap shoot.

As usual, the major junctions on I-10 had slow downs. Some of these are predictable as the freeway design is sure to create a tie-up – such as where I-17 intersects I-10 and the left HOV lane ends right where traffic is merging into the lanes. At the junction of AZ51, L-202 and I-10 an accident on the AZ51 ramp had traffic stopped as everyone had to look at the crash site. So, the 60-mile drive took us over an hour and a half.

The office at Viewpoint is closed on the weekends, but the security guys were expecting us. We entered the park from Hawes Road and found our usual site at 5245. Our end of the 5200 row was (and still is) empty. Many Canadians are unable to come here at this point. They can’t cross the border in their car or RV. They can only fly into the US. For most of them, that would mean they would have to rent or buy a car once they got here or they wouldn’t have transportation.

All of the empty spaces made it easier to maneuver the trailer into our site. I dropped it, then put the coach in place. We were hooked up and back in business by 3pm and I was ready to relax with a cold one.

On Sunday, our friends Mike and Jodi Hall visited us along with their granddaughter, Swayzie. We watched football on our outdoor TV – Viewpoint has free cable TV – while Mike and I enjoyed a stogie. We both chose Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva for our afternoon smoke. Mike is recovering from major surgery, so we just sat and took it easy.

On Monday morning, Donna and I walked down to the pickleball courts. We played for a couple of hours and it felt good to be back on the familiar courts. Last month, Donna ordered a canopy for my birthday – I planned to use it for my ham shack. Lake Pleasant didn’t allow pop-up type canopies and Leaf Verde was a little cramped so I hadn’t used it yet.

On Monday afternoon, I unpacked the canopy and set about putting it up. The instructions were less than useful – it basically said to spread the framework slightly, lay the covering over it and put it up. There was a little more to it than that! With Donna’s help, I had it together in about an hour – it won’t take that long next time now that I know the process.

It has four removeable fabric walls with a zip open door on the front. I assembled it with only two walls – on the rear and the west side – to provide afternoon shade while allowing the breeze to circulate.

I set up my ham radio antennas next and put a folding table under the canopy to complete my ham shack. I was pretty excited about being just five miles away from the repeater towers on Usery Mountain. The repeater there would get me into the Yaesu WIRES-X system. What I didn’t count on was the fact that Spook Hill blocks the line-of-sight to the top of Usery Mountain. The repeaters are VHF/UHF which relies on line-of-sight to link the antennas! I’ll play around with it some more, but right now, I do better with repeaters on South Mountain – 26 miles away – and one in west Mesa.

Last week, our Sharp microwave/convection oven broke. The mechanism to open the door broke and the door can’t be opened. I looked at the linkage involved and it’s beyond repair. I ordered a replacement unit from Amazon and it arrived here Monday morning. Now I need to get someone out here to remove the old unit and install the new. It looks like I have a two-week wait to get a mobile RV tech to handle it.

So, we’re relegated to induction cooktop, crock pot or grill cooking, Reheating is a little harder but doable on the induction cooktop. I’ll set up the Weber Q and the Traeger now that we’ll be settled in for the winter. Last night, Donna made pan seared salmon with a ginger and scallion topping with forbidden (black) rice and broccoli.

Wild Alaskan salmon with forbidden rice and broccoli

We’ve had clear skies and warm temperatures. It was in the mid 70s when we arrived on Saturday. Sunday was warmer in the mid-80s. Yesterday we hit 90 and will see mid-80s again today. The forecast says we’ll be in the low 80s to high 70s for the next week.

Blowin’ in the Wind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

RV Park Antennas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buddipole – white whip in background is the Comet antenna

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

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

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

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

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

I’m the antenna

Catching vibration

You’re the transmitter

Give information

– Kraftwerk

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two Short Moves

I checked our route before we left Twin Arrows Casino and found two Walmart stores in Flagstaff. The closer store was a supercenter on Huntington Drive, but looking at the satellite view, the lot looked like it would be tough going in a big rig. The second store wasn’t a supercenter, but it had an easy way in and out. We’re 65 feet long and I like to know what I’m getting into before I commit to it.

The second store had a Basha’s grocery across the lot. We stopped there and I went into Walmart for water and beer while Donna went over to Basha’s for some groceries. I also bought a sandwich from Subway along with a Subway salad for Donna.

It was only about a 75-mile drive to Distant Drums RV Resort, so we had plenty of time. There wasn’t any point at trying to check in before noon. We arrived closer to 1pm and were checked after a short wait while four coaches ahead of us checked in. We had a long, paved pull-through site and didn’t need to drop the trailer. This is a nice RV park with a small swimming pool and hot tub.

Donna took a hike on the trail across the road from the park. We hiked this trail over six years ago when we stayed here. It doesn’t seem possible that six years have gone by since then, but this blog post proves it.

View of Cliff Castle Casino from 1 1/2 miles up the trail

Wednesday I had a guy from Gary’s Mobile RV Wash come and wash our coach. It needed it and he did a great job – he even polished the wheels to a nice shine.

Thursday morning we pulled out around 10:30am. Again, we were in no hurry as we only had about 70 miles to our next destination – Lake Pleasant Harbor RV Resort on the west side of Phoenix on the Carefree Highway (AZ74). The interstate is close to the Distant Drums entrance and we took I-17 south. Within a few miles, the road climbs out of the Verde Valley. It’s a steep grade for about five miles. At one point, we came up on a slow moving truck. The problem was, there were only two lanes of travel and cars were in the left lane overtaking us at 70-80 mph while we had a truck going 30 mph in front of us.

I had no choice but to slow down. Usually, once you give up the momentum behind a slow truck on a steep grade, there’s no regaining speed. I got lucky this time. I could see clear road behind me and with the transmission in 3rd gear I was able to accelerate and gain speed. I shifted to fourth gear and got up to 50 mph and blew past the truck without holding up traffic or risking a rear-end collision.

We stopped at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center in Cordes Lake and topped up with about 60 gallons of fuel. We’ll be stationary for a month at Lake Pleasant and I like to have the fuel tank as full as possible when we’re parked for extended periods. This minimizes the air space in the tank and minimizes condensation. Of course, in Arizona, it’s not much of a problem as the air is so dry, but it’s my habit and I mostly stick to it.

They had a Subway shop at the center, so Donna bought another salad and a sandwich for me. It was still early, so we waited until we stopped at the rest area at Sunset Point to eat lunch. We took a shortcut on New River Road to Lake Pleasant Harbor. In hindsight, I should’ve stayed on I-17 to the Carefree Highway because New River Road had rough sections and some construction – besides, it wasn’t much of a shortcut.

Due to Covid precautions, the office wasn’t open – well, it was but you couldn’t enter. I had to call the front desk where they put together a packet for me then a woman came out of the office and handed me our paperwork.

We set up in site 207 which is shown as a 61-foot back-in site. It was a little tricky, but by angling the trailer i was able to cheat our 65-foot length into the site.

Yesterday, we drove up to Anthem to pick up our mail at the post office. We had to have our mail forwarded to General Delivery because this park won’t accept mail for guests unless you book for a minimum of three months. We can receive UPS or FedEx deliveries, but it has to be left at the office. They don’t want deliveries at the sites. Weird rules.

This morning, one of the park maintenance guys stopped by and told me I couldn’t have our coach past the fence line – the sites are bordered by chain link fences. This was irritating – I wasn’t in the street or blocking anyone’s access. The chain link fence line is only 54 feet long – this is supposed to be a 61-foot site.

A neighbor from across the street – who also happens to be a ham operator – came by to give me a hand. We moved the picnic table from the rear of the site and I positioned the trailer at a more severe angle putting us about seven feet deeper into the site and lining up the front of the coach even with the end of the fence.

Speaking of ham operators, after I set up my radio yesterday, a guy named Doug stopped by. He saw my antennas and told me he was a ham. I looked at his site this morning and he has quite the set-up, including a large loop antenna and a vertical that must be 40-feet high. He also has a dipole stretched across his site. The guy that helped me reposition this morning, Roger, is friends with Doug. So, we have at least three ham operators here in the park.

So far, the Arizona weather has refused to let go of summer. The highs have been 105-106 degrees and triple digits are forecast into the middle of next week before we drop into the mid to low 90s. But it’s a dry heat and there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

Floating Green

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.

Tri-tip Delight

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.

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.

Sending and Receiving

Donna and I met up with Alana, Kevin and our granddaughter Lainey Monday afternoon at North Sound Brewing Company for a couple of cold ones. It’s a little strange getting used to the idea of having an adult beverage with my granddaughter! The brewery is only about a mile from the Mount Vernon RV Park on Memorial Highway. They had plenty of outdoor seating.

Tuesday I had a project to take care of. A few weeks ago, I noticed some strange wear patterns on the cargo trailer tires. One of them looked bad. On Monday, I walked down the street from the RV park to the Les Schwab Tire Center. I ordered four new ST type trailer tires. They said they would have the tires first thing Tuesday morning.

It was a bit of a chore putting the trailer up on jack stands. I used my floor jack and placed two jack stands per side and pulled all of the wheels off. Alana and the grandkids, Lainey and Gabi, came by to go for a walk with Donna. I used Alana’s VW Atlas to transport the wheels to Les Schwab. They had the new tires and got on the job right away.

This was the worst tire – note the shoulder wear and wear bars in the outer treads

This tire had much less wear, but still had excessive wear on the shoulders

Examining the four old tires, I saw they wore very inconsistently. These were Chinese made Rainier brand tires. I always kept the tires inflated to 50psi – the maximum load pressure indicated on the sidewall. The excessive shoulder wear looked like they had been underinflated, but I know that wasn’t the case. The tire guy at Les Schwab asked about inflation of these tires and I told him I always maintained them at 50psi.

The new tires were mounted quickly and while I paid the bill, the tire guy loaded the wheels in the Atlas. Before I left, I asked him what the tire pressure was – he said he set them to 50psi, just like the old ones. Here’s the thing – the old tires had a 6-ply rating – an antiquated rating system. They were more accurately called load range “C” tires. Load range “C” tires are rated for maximum load at 50psi.

The new tires I bought were 8-ply rated or load range “D”. These tires were rated for higher maximum loads. Load range “D” trailer tires are rated for maximum load at 65psi. These tires can carry 300 lbs more load per tire than the old tires, but they have to be inflated to 65psi. I let it go – I figured I could deal with it later before we hit the road.

Before I re-installed the wheels, I checked the wheel bearings for excessive play. I thought maybe if there was too much clearance in the wheel bearings, the hubs might walk back and forth making a slight wobble in the tire, causing the shoulder wear. The wheel bearings were fine. I think the tires were just cheaply manufactured and had inconsistent wear. I had put about 28,000 miles on the old tires.

Later, Donna and I went to Alana’s place. Kevin was working – he’s an paramedic with the fire department and works 24-hour shifts. He does two 24-hour stints with 12 hours off in between, then has five days off. I cooked a salmon filet on Kevin’s Traeger and Alana added boneless chicken thighs. She also made home fried potatoes, asparagus and broccoli.

We visited on the back patio over dinner and had a black-tail doe come through the yard. Lainey had to go back to Pullman where she’s a student at Washington State University. She had to move out of her apartment by Thursday night. So, Alana, Kevin and the rest of the family went to Pullman on Wednesday to help her move. They’ll be back Saturday afternoon. It was getting a bit late by the time we left and we didn’t get back to Mount Vernon until 9pm.

I’ve been playing with my ham radio and I’m getting more comfortable with the program settings and being on the air. I found a repeater located on Mount Seymour which is north of Vancouver, British Columbia. This powerful repeater reaches well into Washington as well as covering western British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada.

Without getting too technical, I need to explain something about repeaters. A repeater is a remote station that receives a radio signal and re-transmits that signal at a higher output power. The thing is, it has to receive the signal on a certain frequency, then re-transmit on a different frequency. If it tried to receive and transmit on the same frequency simultaneously, garbled noise would result. The difference between the receive or input frequency and the transmit or output frequency of the reperater is called the offset.

Well, when I found the signal being transmitted by the Canadian repeater, it was transmitting a net or network of users called the Rainbow Country Net. They log in with the net operator at 9am every morning for group discussion. I listened for an hour or so, then the net operator called for anyone that hadn’t checked in to give their call sign, location and name. I keyed the microphone and called in. I was welcomed and told I had a clear, strong signal.

Later, I realized that I had just stumbled upon what I thought was the repeater transmission while I was scanning frequencies. I didn’t have the repeater information, so I hadn’t programmed an offset frequency to transmit into the repeater, I thought I was just monitoring the output. So, what happened was although I thought I was listening to the net from the repeater, I was really capturing the signal going into the repeater and when I transmitted, my signal didn’t go through the repeater – it went directly from station-to-station.

Later, I looked up the repeater online and found the offset. This morning, I joined the net again and told them of my error the day before. The net operator told me he was unaware that I transmitted a simplex station-to-station the day before, my signal was that good.

I had to come up with a way to store the new radio gear. Storage when you’re a full-time RVer is always an issue. I ordered a couple of foam-lined hard shell cases intended for camera equipment to use with my ham radio gear.

I added the Yaesu radio sticker to the large case

The protective cases will make it much easier to store the gear. My radio is made by a Japanese company called Yaesu. I’ve been in a quandry over how I should pronounce the name. Most native English speakers say “YAY-sue.” But that’s not how a native Japanese speaker would pronounce it. They say it with more of a three syllable sound although the second and third syllable are often slurred together. They say “YAH-eh-zu.” YAY-sue sounds kind of country bumpkin to me. Maybe I’ll say a hybrid YAY-eh-zu.

My ham shack-in-a-box on the picnic table in our site

The weather forecast around here seems to change on a daily basis. We were expecting some cooler temperatures, but yesterday we hit 81 degrees and now they’re calling for 85 today. For what it’s worth, the forecast says we’ll see around 80 degrees each day through the weekend.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Trailer

Pine Trees and Petrified Forest

Trailer For Sale – Sold

Pre-Move Activities

Mesa Move-in

Blowin’ in the Wind

RV Park Antennas

Two Short Moves

Floating Green

Tri-tip Delight

Sending and Receiving

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