Category Archives: Trailer

Friends and Fun Times

The days have flown by here at the Coeur d’Alene Elk’s Lodge. We’ve been active and the days have gotten past me without writing a post. I’ve been studying for the ham radio exam and I’m confident I can pass the technician exam. I’m now thinking I should also take the General exam as I think I know enough to have a chance of earning that license. The General license will give me more frequencies to work with and possibly longer range. We’ll see.

On Thursday, Donna and I took a drive up to Priest River. We wanted to visit with our friends, Jim and Cindy Birditt. Jim has been my best friend for nearly 50 years. It was a nice drive in Midget-San. We avoided the traffic on US95 and took Meyer Road up to Rathdrum where we found ID41. This took us up through Spirit Lake where we then took the Spirit Lake Cutoff Road through the woods to the Pend Oreille River. A few miles west along the river brought us to the bridge at Wisconsin Street where we crossed into the town of Priest River.

After a little communication snafu, we met up with Jim at Mi Pueblo – a Mexican restaurant in town. We’ve eaten there before and knew they had excellent fare. We sat outside at a table and talked over lunch. We left Midget-San in the Ace Hardware parking lot and rode in Jim’s truck to his place a few miles east of town. Jim built a log home here back in the ’90s – it’s somewhat remote and I didn’t want to drive Midget-San on the unpaved roads. We sat on his deck with Cindy and talked and laughed for a couple of hours. The time really flies when it’s spent with good friends. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in conversation that I never took a photo.

On the way back to Couer d’Alene, we saw two moose alongside the Spirit Lake Cutoff Road. It was a beautiful drive.

On Friday, we had plans to meet up with Dick and Roxy Zarowny who drove over from Spokane, Washington. They’re friends and fellow RVers that we met at Viewpoint RV & Golf Resort in Mesa, Arizona. Roxy had been in touch with Donna and they invited us to join them for a boat ride on Lake Coeur d’Alene. They recently sold their boat, but they had reserved a rental pontoon boat to cruise around.

We drove down and parked in a public lot east of the Coeur d’Alene Resort. Parking was a bit of an adventure. You pay for parking at a kiosk that only accepts credit or debit cards – no cash. For some reason, it declined my card twice. Then I tried Donna’s card and that was declined as well. The people waiting behind us then tried to pay for their space and their card was also declined! We found another kiosk on the other side of the lot and my card worked fine.

The weather when we left the dock around 10am wasn’t as expected. The day dawned with quite an overcast and the clouds were still present. It was quite breezy out on the water, but it was good to be out there nonetheless. The Coeur d’Alene Resort is on the northern shore of the lake. We cruised south toward Mica Bay. There are a number of lake houses and cabins along the shore. Some are more like mansions or resorts! Dick knew a lot about many of the more outlandish homes – who owned or built them and so on. Some are difficult to reach by car and are mostly accessed via boat from town. We saw an interesting sight at one place. It was Ford pickup truck that wasn’t where it should be.

The truck was wrecked, but it didn’t appear to have rolled over. It looked to me like it came down the hillside nose first. The front end was heavily damaged as if it crashed into the rock at the water’s edge and the rear end swung around to its final resting position. It’ll be a tough job to get it out of there.

We were cruising right into the wind, so we crossed over the east side of the lake across from Twin Beaches and came around Arrow Point to get out of the wind. There was an interesting house at Arrow Point – it’s built on top of a large square rock! Dick said it’s owned by an architect.

By noon, the clouds had mostly dissipated. We stopped and drifted and had lunch on the water. I think we were near Moscow Bay. Roxy made some excellent Mediterranean wraps. She also had tortilla chips and homemade mango salsa. Donna brought some grapes and also made molasses cookies for dessert.

We came back along the north side of the lake where we saw people hiking on the Tubbs Hill trail or splashing in the water. We came past the Coeur d’Alene Golf Course. They have a floating green on one of the holes! To reach the green to putt or retrieve your ball, there’s a small boat ferry.

The floating green in the center of the photo

We came back to the dock at 2pm after a lovely day on the lake. It was very generous of Dick and Roxy to invite us out and treat us to a tour of the lake.

This morning, Donna and I hit the Kootenai County Farmers’ Market. It’s only about half a mile from the Elk’s Lodge on the southeast corner of US95 and Prairie Avenue. We’ve been to this market once before on our first visit here in 2014. It’s one of the nicest settings for a farmers’ market, being in the shade of tall pine trees. We found a few things there although we didn’t go with an intention of buying anything.

I bought locally made jalapeno-chedder sausage. They’re pre-cooked so you can just slice them for a snack or grill them if you wish. Donna found really good looking fresh green beans. We also bought some labneh – we haven’t had any since the last time we were at this market. Labneh is sort of a cheese made by straining Greek yogurt.

On the way back from the lake yesterday, we stopped and checked out the dump station at the fairgrounds. I wanted to see if I could get in and out with the trailer or if I would have to dump first, then come back and pick up the trailer. It’s plenty roomy so no worries about the trailer. We’ll have to dump our tanks before we hit the road tomorrow. We’ll stop in Winthrop, Washington for the night, then continue on to Mount Vernon where we’re booked for two weeks. Time to visit the grandkids!

The weather has been fine with daily highs around 80-85 degrees dropping into the 50s overnight. Yesterday was the only cloudy day all week. The long range forecast for western Washington looks favorable, so hopefully, we’ll continue to enjoy sunshine and warm temperatures.

*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!

One Night in Montana

Sunday was our last full day in Salmon, Idaho. When I wrote my last post Sunday morning, I mentioned I had a pork Boston butt in the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker-grill. I wouldn’t set up the Traeger and then have to re-pack it the day before we traveled normally, but I wanted to smoke the pork and not have to freeze it.

I set up the grill at 8am and had the pork on it 8:20am. I wrote about temperature settings on the smoker/grill in this post. The thing is, traveling around with different climates, full sun versus shade and varying wind conditions makes getting the temperature right difficult at times. For pulled pork I wanted to smoke it low and slow. I wanted to keep the pit temperature around 210 degrees. I started out with the 225-degree setting on the Traeger, but it kept over-shooting and getting too hot.

I tried P-settings that would run at a lower duty cycle to allow the temperature to cool. The problem with that was, with the duty cycle too low, the temperature would drop below the 225-degree setting. Once that happened, the controller would turn on continuous pellet feed until the temperature reached or exceeded 225 degrees. This resulted in too many pellets in the fire box and and the temperature sensor for the controller would shoot up to 260 degrees or more. This made the pit temperature hover around 240 degrees. That was hotter than I wanted it to be.

So, I tried something different. I set the controller to 180 degrees, then set the P setting at 0. This setting will have the auger feed pellets for 15 seconds, then shut off for 45 seconds as long as the temperature stays above 180 degrees. This worked great. The temperature sensor for the controller read 220 to 240 degrees while the pit temperature ran at 210 to 220 degrees. Perfect!

It was a good thing that I put the pork on early. I thought it would take about seven hours to cook the 3.5-lb. Boston butt to reach an internal temperature of about 200 degrees. It turned out I need more than eight and a half hours! Then I wrapped it in a double layer of foil, put that into a thick bath towel and stuffed it into a small cooler. I left it in there for an hour. When I unwrapped it, it was still too hot to touch. The meat was tender and pulled apart easily and it was juicy – not at all dry. Excellent!

Donna made garlic smashed potatoes and sauteed a medley of corn, zucchini, red onion and jalapeno pepper for sides. We had Stubbs hickory-bourbon barbeque sauce on the side.

After dinner, I packed the Traeger and loaded the Midget in the trailer. Clouds had moved in and the sun on the mountains across the valley made a lovely contrast of light and shadow. The picture below doesn’t do it justice.

Later, as the sun was setting, the clouds reflected nice colors.

Monday morning we left the Elk’s lodge and hit the road around 10:30am. We had overslept a bit and got a little later start than I wanted, but it was no big deal. Our route took us north on US93. We had to climb to Lost Trail Pass at the Montana border, right next to the Lost Trail ski area. This was a steep climb with several switchbacks, but the road was good and the lanes were wide. The pass is over 7,000 feet above sea level and quickly drops back down to about 5,000 feet. From there, it was a gradual descent into the Bitterroot Valley around 4,000 feet above sea level.

We drove alongside the Bitterroot River through several very small towns and the larger town of Hamilton. The last time I came through Hamilton was nearly 30 years ago and I could hardly believe how much it has grown. We made a stop at the Pilot Travel Center in Lolo and that turned out to be a bit of an ordeal.

It was okay for Donna as she was on a phone interview with a freelance writer and the break worked out for her. What happened was, we entered the travel center to find the pumps open and only a few trucks in the lot. I pulled up to a pump and got out. I couldn’t find a card reader to swipe my Pilot/Flying J RV Plus card. I saw a guy by a pump a couple of stalls to our left. I asked him about using a card at the pump. He said only the first two lanes had card readers. Okay, I figured I would pull through, circle around and go into the second lane, next to the stall he was standing in.

When I got out to start the pump, the guy told me I would have to wait a few minutes as he was reprogramming the pumps. Ten minutes later, he told me to go ahead. I swiped the RV Plus card and got an error message. I swiped it again and it said “See cashier.” I told the guy what was happening. He said I should wait a couple more minutes while he re-booted the master pump. Five minutes later, he said try again. I got the same result. He tried his Visa card and it worked. He canceled his card transaction and told me my card was the problem and to see the cashier.

I went inside (with the required face mask) and the cashier turned on the pump. He told me to come back after I filled up and he would run my card. I put 50 gallons of the lowest priced diesel fuel we’ve seen since we hit the road in 2013. It was $1.98/gallon! When I went back to the cashier, I swiped my card at the counter and it worked, no problem. It turned out the card readers at the pump were Exxon Corporation card readers and they would only accept MasterCard, Visa or Exxon cards. Even though I was at a Pilot Travel Center, I couldn’t use the Pilot/Flying J card at the pump, but it was okay in the travel center. It turned out to be a 30-minute fuel stop.

We continued on US93 which I expected to bypass Missoula. Missoula has so much sprawl these days that the last few miles before US93 hits I-90 was totally built up with businesses, traffic and stop lights every quarter of a mile! We took I-90 west and expected to stop for the day at St. Regis where Donna found a dry camping spot. When we got there we saw the boondocking spot was next to the interstate in a busy area. It had a few tractor-trailer rigs in it and the marked parking stalls were closely spaced and too narrow for slide-outs.

We decided to move on. We knew we could stay at a tourist attraction called 50,000 Silver Coins at exit 16 – only another 17 miles down the road. We had stayed overnight there before – they advertise a free RV “Park.” It’s not really a park, just some dirt sites in the trees behind their restaurant-casino. When we stayed there a few years ago, they had a couple of sites with 30-amp power, but I’m not sure if that’s still true.

We found a nice pull-through spot and set up to boondock for the night.

Our boondocking spot behind 50,000 Silver Coins

It was 78 degrees out, but felt cooler in the shade. Donna walked to a historic nursery next door. It was founded in 1908, but was wiped out by a wild fire that swept through the area in 1910. It was rebuilt in 1912 and operated until 1969. It’s called Savenac Historic Tree Nursery and it’s owned by the USDA Forest Service. She took a few photos.

We had a hearty take-out breakfast from the restaurant this morning and made a relatively early start. We were only 16 miles from the Idaho border and when we crossed it, we gained an hour as we are now in Pacific Daylight Time Zone. We had to climb two passes – Lookout Pass and Fourth of July Pass – but these were easy with no switchbacks!

Coming down the west side of Fourth of July Pass brought us to Lake Couer D’Alene. I-90 follows the Couer D’Alene River westward from Wallace, Idaho to Couer D’Alene. We found the Couer D’Alene Elk’s Lodge – it’s been three years since we were last here. We checked in, unloaded Midget-San and dropped the trailer before setting up. This is the first time we’ve dropped the trailer since we left Mesa, Arizona in April.

We have 50-amp electric service and fresh water, but no sewer here. We’ll have to watch our waste water. We plan to stay here until Sunday – I paid for five nights at $20/night. We’re at an elevation of about 2,300 feet above sea level.

The weather looks delightful We can expect highs of 80-85 degrees and overnight lows of 55 degrees with no rain in the forecast. The relative humidity is 25-35%.

Not Running Against the Wind

The Fourth of July at the Sweetwater Events Complex in Rock Springs, Wyoming was a real treat. At dusk, several of the neighborhoods around the complex started their own shows. I was amazed at the amount and quality of fireworks people bought and set off. By the time they slowed down, it was time for the sponsored fireworks display over the golf course adjacent to the events complex. This was a first-class show and went on for about half an hour.

Once again, the racers partied on after the races and were noisy well past midnight. On Sunday morning, they all hit the road and we were on our way by 9:45am. Our route took us west on I-80. A couple of miles past Little America, we hit US30 north. This is a nice highway that initially had two lanes in each direction, but eventually turned into a two-lane highway.

US30 took us into Idaho in a stair-step fashion alternating between northbound and westbound. We made our way to I-15 north, then Pocatello where we had reservations on the west side at Batise Springs RV park. This is a small RV park with 12 pull-through sites located next to the creek that becomes the Portneuf River. There’s also a large, covered RV and boat storage lot.

The check-in time was 2pm and we arrived at 2:15pm. Our reservation put us in site #5. After looking at the park map, I could see site #5 was occupied! The office was closed, so Donna phoned the contact number on the office door. She found the attendant – he was cleaning the restrooms. He looked up our reservation, then paid the people in site #5 a visit. It turned out the people in site #5 were scheduled to stay for two more nights, but their reservation had them moving to another site. They decided they didn’t want to move and figured we could set up in the other site.

Luckily we only needed two nights, so it would work out. But what if we had reserved three or more nights? How would they know we could get a site for that long – we wouldn’t want to have to switch sites. I think they should have talked to the camp host and made arrangements to ensure everyone was happy. It turned out fine – we set up in site #12 which is a creek side site.

After we set up Donna, took a hike along the creek trail. I was a little concerned because I saw a “No Trespassing” sign but Donna had read reviews of the RV park that mentioned dog walking and hiking on the creek trail.

The creek trail disappears on a northwest heading through the trees

Eventually Donna came to a gate and had to exit between barbed wire. On the other side of the gate was a sign that read “Absolutely No Trespassing.” She walked back along a road. Later she found out that hiking on the trail is allowed up to a point. There’s a private trout hatchery on property that doesn’t allow visitors, thus the “No Trespassing” sign on the gate.

Monday afternoon, we drove Midget-San back into Pocatello – I took a route that oddly enough is designated as US30. Apparently a short stretch of I-15 is also US30. This road called US30 connects between I-15 and I-86 which also shares the US30 designation all the way to I-84 before US30 branches off again.

Our destination was a nice little brew pub called Jim Dandy Brewing in Old Town. They had good ale and a nice concrete patio for outdoor seating. Tables and chairs were appropriately spaced and we enjoyed a couple of cold ones in the shade outside. The temperature was near 90 degrees, but in the shade it felt cool. There’s very little humidity – we’ve been in eight to 15% humidity since we left Mesa.

I should mention we’re at an elevation of 4,480 feet above sea level here. That’s the lowest elevation we’ve been at since we left Mesa. Fruita, Colorado was close at 4,520 – other than that we’ve been above 6,000 feet everywhere else.

This morning, we planned to head up to Salmon, Idaho. I had the Midget loaded in the trailer last night. But when we got up this morning, the wind was fierce. I looked up the detailed forecast and it showed sustained winds of 20mph+ and gusts well over 30mph all day. Not fun in a big rig – especially one pulling a cargo trailer with nine-foot tall side walls.

We didn’t have to be anywhere, so I made arrangements to stay another night here. No need to fight the wind. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for 10-15 mph wind – much better!

Today’s high should be around 80 degrees and tomorrow also looks good for travel with a high of 80 degrees. Salmon, Idaho should have similar temperatures.

Steep Grades and Flaming Gorge

The trailer was packed and ready to go Wednesday evening, so we were able to get a relatively early start on Thursday. We pulled out of the James M. Robb Colorado River State Park around 9:30am. We headed back west on I-70 about five miles before exiting onto CO139 north. The road surface quality and condition was variable on this road – downright bumpy at times. This highway took us over Douglas Pass, more than 8,200 feet above sea level – not especially high by Colorado standards. But, we climbed through some very steep grades along the way.

At the little town of Rangely, we hit CO64 and headed northwest. At the town of Dinosaur, we hit US40 and entered Utah shortly after that. This took us to Vernal where we found US191 north again. North of Vernal US191 has some of the steepest grades we’ve encountered. The road sign stated 8% grade and 10 switchbacks over four miles. I think they understated the grades. I had to keep a close eye on road speed and engine coolant temperatures as we climbed up through steep switchbacks on a narrow roadway. Donna snapped a few pictures from the passenger seat trying to capture the rugged terrain.

The highway below us after we climbed up a series of switchbacks

We made a steep ascent from the road below

We were traveling through the Ashley National Forest in the Uintah mountain range. We made a rapid descent into the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

Closer look at the reservoir with the bridge we would cross on the east end by the dam

The Flaming Gorge Reservoir was created when a dam and hydroelectric power station was completed on the Green River in 1964. The reservoir straddles the Utah-Wyoming border and covers over 42,000 acres. It’s at an elevation of 6,040 feet above sea level. Traveling over the mountains, we saw several mule deer along the roadway around here.

View of Green River as we crossed the Flaming Gorge Reservoir bridge

The road surface on US191 improved dramatically once we crossed the Wyoming border. Once we were in Wyoming, we saw antelope in the fields by the highway. I can honestly say I’ve never traveled in Wyoming without seeing antelope. The highway brought us to I-80 about five miles west of Rock Springs. We found the Sweetwater Events Complex. The RV campground was nearly empty. I paid for three nights with full hook-ups and 50 amp service. With my Escapees membership, the discounted rate was $27.80/night.

Car races were scheduled at the small dirt oval on the far side of the complex on Friday night and Saturday night. The grounds are large enough that the race track is too far away for us to hear the cars. That’s a good thing – the races were scheduled to run from 7pm to 11pm. On Friday, several rigs came in with race car trailers and set up near us.

Donna took a 15-mile bike ride Friday morning. Her Strava app, which tracks her rides and provides statistics, showed her as Queen of the Hill. She made a climb on one portion of her ride faster than any other female Strava rider recorded there. After her ride, we took a drive in Midget-San to the town of Green River. It’s about 17 miles west of Rock Springs. It was warm – the temperature reached the low 80s. Green River has a population of about 12,000 – making it half the size of Rock Springs. Green River is located on the north bank of – you guessed it – the Green River.

We stopped at Taco Time and got lunch to go – a chicken fiesta salad for Donna and a chicken soft taco for me. We took our lunch to the Expedition Island Park in town. This park is on a small island in the Green River. It was clean, well-kept and a lovely place to sit at a covered table and eat lunch. To drive onto the island, we crossed a one-lane bridge into the parking area. As we approached the bridge, we saw a deer standing at the far end. As we drove across, the deer hopped down to the river and splashed its way downstream.

South side of the island looking down stream at the pedestrian bridge

North side of the island looking downstream at the one-lane bridge

Looking upriver from the one-lane bridge

Remember what I said about not hearing the car races? What we did hear was the aftermath. The racers with RVs near us came back to their rigs after the races ended at 11pm and the party was on. They were very noisy well past 3am!

Speaking of racing, the Formula One season is finally underway. The pandemic had it shut down. This is the latest start to the season ever for Formula One. I watched the qualifying from Austria this morning and I’ll record the race tomorrow morning.

Donna made chicken with peppers and tomatoes over quinoa pasta for Thursday night’s dinner. It was simple dish and very tasty.

Chicken with peppers and tomatoes over pasta served with broccoli

Last night, we had cheeseburgers made from the ground beef/bacon patties we bought from the Ower’s farm. Excellent burgers!

The weather here is abundant sunshine with the temperature forecast to hit the mid-80s. I’ll start packing the trailer later this afternoon and load Midget-San. Tomorrow we’ll head out to Pocatello, Idaho where we’ll continue to have warm weather.

Cortez to Fruita

We had our last games of pickleball in Cortez Monday morning. The wind really kicked up and we were off the courts by 10:30am. We had fun playing there and met some great people. I got the trailer cleaned up and organized in the afternoon, but I left the grill out which meant I didn’t secure Donna’s bike because it would block me from stowing the grill.

The Weber Q was needed to grill steaks Monday evening. I grilled the New York strip angus steaks we bought from the Ower’s farm. They were great!

Tuesday morning I had to finish packing the trailer and do all of the usual disconnecting. I also took the filter elements out of our two-stage water filter canisters – it was time for replacement. I pulled out of our site before loading the Midget – the slope at the rear of the site would make the rear ramp open at too steep of an angle. It was almost 11am by the time we hit the road.

Our route took us northwest on US491 into Utah. At Monticello, we turned north on US191. We went away from the high mountain pines and drove through sagebrush and sandstone country. About 40 miles south of Moab, Donna snapped a couple of photos of an interesting sandstone feature as we drove by.

Traffic was very light until we reached Moab. We were there back in 2014, but it’s really grown since then. There were plenty of new businesses and condominium or apartment buildings. There was also a lot of construction going on. People were on all of the sidewalks. I’m afraid the tourism success will eventually kill the charm of Moab if it hasn’t already done so.

We continued north from Moab on US191 and hit I-70 a couple of miles west of Thompson Springs. From Thompson Springs to Fruita, Colorado, there are no services. That’s a 62-mile stretch of interstate without a gas station or convenience store. There are a few exits from the interstate presumably for ranch or utility access, but they are all marked “No Services.” It seems strange to have such a large area with no businesses.

We checked in to the James M. Robb – Colorado River State Park. I made a reservation here a couple of weeks ago. The thing is, with the pandemic, we didn’t plan too far ahead for summer travel. We didn’t know what would be open or when. That meant I hadn’t planned for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. We got two nights here at James M. Robb then we’ll have to move on – the park is booked for the holiday weekend starting on Thursday night.

The park is right on the Colorado River. South of the park, across the river is the Colorado National Monument. We took a trip through the monument in 2014 and I posted pictures of some of the views in this post.

Site 6 at James M Robb Colorado River State Park

Our doorstep view of the Colorado National Monument

The sites here are equipped with nice metal picnic tables with steel roofs over them. I noticed the picnic tables were secured to metal rings in the ground. I think it’s a sad commentary when a state park has to secure picnic tables to deter thieves.

This morning Donna went out on her bike. She ended up making a 15-mile ride along the Colorado River. Here are a few photos she took on her ride.

Prairie dogs are common almost everywhere in Colorado

We would have liked to stay here longer – it’s a beautiful area and the state park is very nice. We’ll leave here tomorrow and head up to Rock Springs, Wyoming. I think it will be about a five-hour drive. We’ll stay at the fairgrounds – the Sweetwater Events Complex. They have 1,200 sites there and assured me we would have no problem getting a site.

It’s hot here today – lower 90s. Mid-90s are predicted here tomorrow, but Rock Springs will be 10 or 15 degrees cooler.

Ham and Eggs

Back on June 2nd, Donna and I made a trip over US160 to Durango, Colorado – about 50 miles from Cortez. The purpose of the trip was a stop at the Wells Fargo bank branch there – the only one within 150 miles of Cortez. Why make such a long drive to the bank? The purpose was to draw a couple of cashier’s checks to make the final distribution of the trust funds left by my step-dad, Ken Keller.

I had already taken care of all of his bills and filed his personal income taxes and a trust tax return. There wasn’t anything else left to do but make the distribution, close the trust account and dissolve the trust. Sounds simple enough, right?

I sent cashier’s checks via USPS Priority Mail to my sister in Florida and brother in California that afternoon. My brother sent me a text saying he received the check on the 5th. On the following Tuesday, the 9th, I tracked the mail to my sister. Tracking showed an exception alert on June 5th – the mail had to be forwarded. I didn’t know when I sent the check that my sister had moved from her apartment.

I kept trying to track the envelope, but no new information was showing. Finally, on the 17th, I opened a ticket online with USPS and spoke to a customer service representative. This person told me mot to worry, it takes time for forwarding and it was “in process.” I asked her where in the process it was. She couldn’t answer – she said it would have to go to Tallahassee, be tagged and re-sorted to its final destination in Jacksonville. I told her more than 10 business days had passed with no update. She again said it was “in process.”

I started getting e-mail tracking info on the 21st due to my online service request. It said the envelope was at the sorting facility at Gainesville, Florida. What? Then on the 22nd it said it was “in transit.” The next update said it left Jacksonville. Then it was “in transit” on the 23rd, 24th and 25th. Next it was shown as at the facility in Ybor City, Florida. What! That’s across the state from Jacksonville. I made a second online complaint and call with no satisfactory answer of what happened to the check. On the 27th, tracking said it arrived in Jacksonville, then on the same day, it said it departed Jacksonville today and than again arrived in Jacksonville.

Anyway, by Friday, the 26th I gave up on the USPS finding and delivering the check. I made an appointment and drove back to Durango. I needed to stop payment on the original cashier’s check and draw a new check. This was complicated by the fact I had closed the Wells Fargo account. After an hour of filling out forms, I had to pay a fee of $199.34 to issue the new check. This was for fraud insurance. The only way to avoid this was to wait for 90 days and the check would be voided and I could get a new one for $31.00. I paid the fee and got a new check, then stopped at FedEx to send it. No Priority Mail this time!

On Saturday morning, Donna and I drove up US491 north to County Road 15 – our destination was the Dolores Canyon Overlook. A gal we met at pickleball, Jan, told us about the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) field day. This is an event where ham radio operators set up portable equipment in the field to communicate. It’s the most popular annual ham radio event in the US and Canada – more than 35,000 ham radio enthusiasts participate.

Members of the local club, which includes Jan’s husband, Mike, set up at the Dolores Canyon Overlook. This is a remote location – more remote than I anticipated. Little did I know that when we left US491 and hit CR15, we would drive 15 miles of dirt and gravel road to reach the overlook. At one point, a few miles from the overlook we rounded a corner and saw two bears – a momma and a large cub. They ran away from us. There was a small pond nearby and I think they were there for water when we startled them.

I wanted to make the trip so I could learn more about ham radio operation. It’s a hobby I’ve had an interest in. Mike and another club member, Cap, filled me in with a lot of information about equipment and how I could set up in the motorhome. Mike told me about a trip he and his wife took with their teardrop trailer into remote northwest Canada. They were more than 100 miles from the nearest cell tower but were able to stay in touch with their family via ham radio.

Donna and Jan outside of the ham radio campers – check out the antennas

The Dolores Canyon is a deep gorge with the Dolores River running through it. From the campground area there’s a trail about a quarter of mile long to the overlook. The views are spectacular.

The overlook is on a narrow ridge. We walked a few yards away from the canyon and faced the flatland to the west. We could see the small town of Dove Creek.

Looking west – you can make out Dove Creek in the center

I’ve decided I want to join the ranks of amateur radio operators. I’m studying to take the exam for a technician license. I can take the exam in Everett, Washington on July 25th when we are there. A man needs a hobby and I haven’t taken up anything new in a while.

Saturday afternoon we had another interesting visit. We went to the Owers’ farm. We met Bob and Carolyn Ower at the Cortez Farmers’ Market where we bought beef from them. Bob told us about his hydroponic cattle feed system and invited us to check it out.

Bob and Carolyn raise angus cattle on their farm. They used to breed and raise the cattle themselves. They started with good stock from Montrose, Colorado. Raising your own stock is a lot of work. You constantly have logistical challenges of separating bulls from cows and tending pregnant cows and dealing with calves. They’ve changed their operation now to buying young steers from Montrose and raising them for 18 months. They start with genetically sound cattle and by providing proper nutrition they produce quality beef.

The cows eat grass in the field and their diet is supplemented with hay for roughage and barley for dense nutrition. They sprout the barley in a hydroponic system that’s capable of producing 250 lbs. of barley per day. It takes six days to go from seed to feed with this system.

Seeds in front bins germinating – barley sprouts in the rear

Trays on the bottom left will be ready for feed the next day

My photo of the nearly finished product is a bit off – I think I had an issue with the UV lights. The hydroponic trays do not contain any dirt or mulch. The nutrients for the seedlings is in the water and the barley roots mat together making the tray of barley into a single unit much like sod (without any dirt). The cattle happily munch the entire mat of barley.

We went out to the back field where the cattle were. Bob brought some treats – actually they were horse treats that I think were made from apples – and the cows moved out the shade of a tree across the field to come to us for treats.

They have seven steers currently and some are about ready for processing. The largest of them is about 1,100 lbs and Bob said they gain about three pounds per day. They have five more young steers coming on Tuesday.

We also toured Carolyn’s garden and greenhouse. She grows vegetables which they sell at the farmers’ market.

Bob told me the greenhouse grows vegetables year ’round – even in the cold of winter. Carolyn also raises chickens for eggs as well as a few fryers. Different breeds of chicken produce different colored eggs. The color of the egg doesn’t affect the flavor – they all taste like eggs. Farm fresh eggs do seem a little creamier and richer though.

Looks like Easter, but these are naturally colored eggs

We really enjoyed our tour of a working farm. Bob and Carolyn also happen to be licensed ham radio operators and are members of the same club with Mike and Cap. Bob is thinking about writing a book about his approach to raising cattle and sustainable small-farm operations. Donna gave him a few tips and ideas.

After our dusty road trip, I went over Midget-San with a California duster last night. This morning I got serious and gave it a good cleaning with Meguiar’s Ultimate Waterless Wash and Wax. Looking good now.

After I had a couple of lunches of pulled pork sandwiches, Donna came up with a dish for the remaining leftover pulled pork. She made piggy mac which is baked macaroni and cheese with pulled pork! It was tasty and Donna thought it tasted like comfort food from a good food truck!

I’ll start organizing the trailer this afternoon. Tomorrow, after pickleball in the morning, I’ll get us 80% ready to roll. Tuesday we’ll head out and go up US491 into Utah where we’ll take US191 north to I-70 and head back east to Fruita, Colorado for a couple of days. We don’t expect any weather issues and by Tuesday it’s supposed to be cooler than the 90 degree heat we’ve been having – Tuesday’s high is forecast as 78 degrees.

It Could Have Been Worse

We were a little behind schedule Saturday morning – not that we have a real schedule to adhere to. But we wanted a reasonably early start to our travel day. We set 9am as a departure goal, but as I said, I got a little behind and we left Springerville RV Park at 9:20am. We wanted to get on the road as we had about five hours of driving time ahead, plus we would lose an hour when we entered Mountain Daylight Time at the New Mexico border.

We headed back west through town and hit the junction with US191 after a few miles. This took us north past Lyman Lake to the town of St. Johns. Continuing north past St. Johns, the road surface suddenly deteriorated. We hit a 10-mile stretch of whoop-de-dos that were spaced at an interval that had the suspension of the coach porpoising violently at times. I slowed to 50mph but it didn’t seem to matter. Maybe 35 would have been better – the posted speed limit was 65mph! And poor Ozark the cat – despite withholding food and giving her medication for car sickness, she got sick in her carrier.

We hit I-40 at Sanders, Arizona and headed east. I made a stop at the last Arizona exit – Greer Road. We went to Speedy’s Truck Stop to top up our tank. This is the first time I’ve bought fuel since December. Speedy’s is on Navajo Nation land and therefore the fuel is taxed at a different rate. Normally, the state of Arizona taxes diesel fuel at a rate of 51.4 cents per gallon. The Navajo Nation taxes diesel fuel at 25 cents per gallon with no state taxes paid. We paid $2.09/gallon and filled our tank – that’s the lowest price we’ve paid in the seven years we’ve been on the road.

At Gallup, we left I-40 at exit 20 and took US491 north through the Navajo Nation. New Mexico requires everyone to wear a face mask in public right now. Other than that, we didn’t encounter any restrictions or checkpoints. US491 was previously designated US666. It became known as the Devil’s Highway, so they changed the designation in 2003.

The terrain was interesting. There were sandstone cliffs near the Arizona-New Mexico border. As we traveled through the Navajo Nation, we found sage brush covered plains. Then, as we got closer to Shiprock, sandstone formations and spires rose out of the surrounding plains, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

The road surface was fairly good through the Navajo Nation. The Colorado border marked the end of Navajo land and the road surface improved dramatically.

With the time change, we arrived in Cortez at 3:30pm local time. The owners of La Mesa RV Park in Cortez are also the owners of Springerville RV Park – Ames and Cherie. Cherie sent Donna a text with a photo of the park sign and entrance. It wasn’t hard to find. She told us to take either site 34 – a long pull-through – or we could drop the trailer in site 24 at the back of the park, which is wide and a little quieter. The office wasn’t open when we pulled in.

I didn’t like the trees at site 24 so we opted for 34. The pull-through made it easy and I didn’t have to drop the trailer. It turned out the trees by the office – about 40 or 50 feet away from us are interfering with satellite reception. Darn! We’re at an elevation of about 6,200 feet above sea level here.

We were set up and settled in by 4:30pm. I found a horror story in the trailer though. Remember the violent porpoising north of St. Johns? Well, the trailer must have been really bouncing around. The bins stacked in the frame toward the front of trailer were thrown about. Donna’s bike rack was tossed out of place, but the bike was still upright and the rear wheels of the Midget were bounced out of the wheel chocks and moved about eight inches to the left! We were lucky though, nothing was damaged, it was just scary looking.

I straightened out the trailer, then took a break and puffed a cigar. There were thunderstorms in the area with wind gusts at times, so I sat inside the trailer and read a book as I puffed away. Very relaxing. Donna had her weekly virtual happy hour with her family.

On Sunday morning, Donna and I did a little exploring. We drove Midget-San through town and found pickleball courts at Centennial Park. The outdoor courts are open for singles play only, no doubles. From there, we drove north on Dolores Road – CO145 – to the Canyon of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum. It was closed. We continued on to McPhee Reservoir. This reservoir is the largest lake in the San Juan National Forest and the fifth largest in Colorado. It’s surrounded by mostly public land and offers camping, boating, fishing and many hiking trails. Donna snapped a couple of photos as we toured the area in the Midget.

The reservoir sits at an elevation of 6,930 feet above sea level. We also took a drive through the town of Dolores and found a scenic road that rises through the forest above town to some trailheads. There’s also a riverwalk trail along the Dolores River on the south side of town.

Later, Donna rode her bicycle to City Market – a grocery store affiliated with Kroger – a couple of miles from the park. There’s also a Safeway store and a Walmart supercenter in town. Plenty of grocery shopping options. Sunday afternoon I met Cherie and paid for a one-month stay here. The monthly rate is $550 plus electricity at 15 cents/kWh – so it’s about $20/day. Springerville was only $400/month but electricity there is higher at 25 cents/kWh. Our total cost there was $501 – or about $17/day.

We had a couple of brief thundershowers yesterday and last night. It looks like we should remain dry today and tomorrow, but the temperatures will be warmer than usual with upper 80s to 90 degrees in the forecast for the next few days. I’m not complaining though.

Virtual Birthday

Our month-long stay in Springerville, Arizona is coming to an end. There’s so much to see around here, we’ll surely return as we didn’t get a chance to do and see all that we would like. The biggest attraction is all of the hiking trails and abundance of wildlife. I mentioned seeing bighorn sheep when we drove up to Lyman Lake State Park and antelope when we went to Show Low. I forgot to mention seeing elk on our trip back from Show Low in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

It was an unusual sighting as it was mid-day and a group of half-a-dozen or so cow elk were running through a large meadow. The thing is, elk don’t run for pleasure or exercise. If they’re running, it’s because they’re spooked and they’re running from something. I couldn’t see anything chasing and I don’t know what spooked them.

On one of her bicycle rides, Donna came across five bull elk feeding in an enclosed horse pasture and snapped a photo.

On Tuesday morning, we drove to Eagar for groceries. Before we went to the store, we made a side trip to the Springerville Municipal Airport. This is a small town-owned airport located on 500 acres about a mile outside of downtown. It’s at an elevation of 7,055 feet above sea level and has a fairly long main runway. The main runway is runway 03/21 and it’s 8,422 feet long. Airplanes need to reach higher speeds to achieve lift in the thin atmosphere found at high elevations. With the temperature in the 70s, the density altitude on Tuesday was over 10,000 feet above sea level.

There weren’t many aircraft at the airport. We saw the only helicopter I’ve seen all month parked there.

I looked up the tail number of the helicopter – it’s registered to a corporation in Red Bluff, California. I have no idea what it’s doing here.

The airport facilities are modern and clean. The airport opened in 2013.

The main terminal building has a lobby, restrooms, meeting rooms and also houses the FBO offering fuel and maintenance services. We went in and looked around. We found an open conference room upstairs with a great view of the airport. Unfortunately, not much was going on except for a couple of private planes fueling up.

Cessna 172 and Cessna 150 fueling at the FBO

Lobby chandelier made from shed elk antlers

They had a plaque commemorating the responders to the Wallow fire. The Wallow fire originated in the White Mountains near Alpine on May 29, 2011. Over 538,000 acres burned before it was put out on July 8, 2011.

Wednesday was Donna’s birthday. We planned to take the kayak out to Lyman Lake, but I wasn’t feeling well Wednesday morning. I think something I ate didn’t agree with me. I had a rumbling stomach and low-grade fever. Donna decided on a hike instead. I drove her to a trailhead in Eagar. She hiked the Murray Basin Trail heading on a easterly course. She sent me a text from the trail saying she thought she would hit the US191 trail access point around 1pm. I picked her up there and we drove to the Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area.

The Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area covers 1,362 acres and is administered by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Wildlife found in the area include eagles, osprey, turkey, deer, elk, antelope, waterfowl, etc. We drove down the gravel access road but turned back after three miles because the road surface was rutted washboard and too rough for the MG Midget. It was also getting hot driving slowly in the sun.

Donna had a Zoom call with her sisters and other family members for her birthday. She asked for people to perform random acts of kindness in lieu of presents. I had a random act to report. On one of the Facebook groups, a soldier recently returned from deployment to Afghanistan asked for people to donate and send cigars to his friends still in Afghanistan. They enjoyed puffing a cigar whenever they could, but cigars are hard to come by there.

I needed to pare down the inventory in my humidor anyway. Over the past two years, my taste in cigars has evolved – this is not unusual. For the first year, I mostly puffed cigars with Connecticut shade-grown wrappers. These tend to be fairly mild and I enjoyed them. Nowadays, I rarely smoke a Connecticut shade-grown wrapper as I prefer a dark maduro or a Sumatra seed wrapper leaf on my cigars.

I donated cigars once before through a cigar shop to the Cigars for Warriors project. This time was different. I sent a package of 38 cigars directly to a soldier stationed in Forward Operating Base Dahlke in the Logar Province in eastern Afghanistan for him to share with his buddies.

As we expected, the number of RVs here in the Springerville RV Park thinned out after the Memorial Day weekend. Many left on Monday with the rest pulling out on Tuesday. We have an unobstructed view to the west now – and no wind break!

Last week, Donna grilled honey-sriracha chicken thighs and told me that was the only way she was going to grill chicken from then on. I said, “Right.” I knew she wouldn’t do that – she would have to try something new, it’s inevitable. She started this week with chicken piccata made from breast filets. To be fair, this isn’t a grill recipe.

Chicken piccata with Jasmine rice and grilled veggies

But, when she manned the grill on Thursday, what did she do? A new grill recipe with chicken thighs that had pesto inserted underneath the skin. It was very tasty.

Pesto-grilled chicken with grilled veggies and steamed green beans and cotija cheese crumbles

I started organizing the trailer Thursday. Today I did pre-flight checks on the coach – tire pressures, oil and coolant level. I also packed the Traeger and WeberQ and will secure Donna’s bike and load Midget-San. I won’t have much left to do before we pull out of here tomorrow morning. Our exit will be the easiest ever – our windshield view in front of the coach is the park exit to US60!

The daytime temperature peaked on Wednesday and Thursday at 80 degrees, but late Thursday afternoon, we could see thunderstorms to the north and west of us. An hour before sundown, it was raining in the mountains to the west while the sun rays shined through a hole in the cloud cover.

Rain in the mountains on the left, sunshine on the grasslands in the center

We had a few rain drops after sundown. Today it’s near 80 degrees and once again, there are thundershowers to the north and west of us. I’d like to get an early start tomorrow for our trip up to Cortez, Colorado. We plan to take US491 through the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation is on lockdown, but Ames, the park owner here, told me he has crossed it several times in the past few weeks. Once he was stopped at a check point, but when he told them he wasn’t going to stop until he reached Cortez, they let him through. That’s what I’m counting on, but I want an early start in case we have to find an alternate route.

Size Matters

It’s been a quiet week here at Springerville RV Park. I mentioned the lack of highway traffic in my last post, but there’s another thing here in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona – the lack of air traffic. After spending three months in San Diego, followed by four months in Mesa, Arizona, air traffic became a normal daily occurrence.

In San Diego, helicopters often flew right over Mission Bay RV Resort – we had news ‘copters, Coast Guard, law enforcement and private aircraft overhead several times a day. In Mesa, we had the familiar flight training aircraft from Falcon Field – CAE Flight School had their blue and white trainers in the air several times a day as well as other general aviation out of Falcon Field. We also had military helicopters – Apaches, Cobras and Blackhawks taking test flights in the area, and we had the usual air ambulance, news and law enforcement flights daily.

Here, In the last two weeks I’ve seen one private aircraft – a ubiquitous Cessna 172 and one unidentified helicopter. That’s it. Quiet here!

After grocery shopping on Tuesday, we decided to take a drive in Midget-San. We drove in a northwesterly direction on US191 toward the town of St. Johns. We wanted to take a look at Lyman Lake State Park – it’s about a 20 mile drive from here. I should mention that on the drive there, we saw about half a dozen big horn sheep walking down a fence line on the side of the road.

Lyman Lake is another reservoir on the Little Colorado River. It’s the largest body of water in the area with a surface area of about 1,400 acres. It’s the only reservoir in the area that allows motorboats. The recreational area is administered by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. This is a little confusing for me as Lyman Lake State Park is just that – a state park – but the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest is a federal agency.

They have a campground. We took a drive through the campground and spied several sites that would accommodate our length. There was also a general store. Fishing is popular on the lake and we thought it looked like the kayak would be doable there. It’s big water, but there are a lot of inlets and coves to get out of the wind and explore. We might head back.

Speaking of the length of our rig, for many RVers – especially full-timers – size matters. Sure, there are full-timers who are doing just fine with smaller rigs, such as Becky at Interstellar Orchard. But most of us need some space for our accessories. I use our 20’x8.5′ cargo trailer as our rolling garage. It has all of my tools, the kayak, Donna’s bicycle and storage cabinets for a number of things.

I was thinking about that the other day when I saw a couple of rigs enter the RV park. There was a couple that came into the park in a 40-foot Tiffin Phaeton motorhome. What caught my eye was the trailer he pulled behind it. It was easily 30+ feet long. Our overall length is a hair under 65 feet – I think I measured it at 64′-9″. That keeps us just under the maximum combo length in some states. This guy’s rig has to be over 75 feet long.

After they set up, they pulled his and hers Can-Am Spyders out of the trailer. The funny thing was, we saw this same couple on their Spyders checking out Lyman Lake State Park. After we came back from the lake, we saw them roll through Springerville RV Park checking out the sites. Later, he took a Polaris RZR side-by-side four-wheeler ATV out of the trailer. This morning, out came a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for her and a Kawasaki sportbike for him. Lots of toys in that long trailer. I don’t think I would enjoy driving that rig though.

The other rig I wanted mention was a fifth-wheel trailer. Here’s the thing – the guy drove into the park with the fifth-wheel behind his Chevy crew cab pickup truck and a flat-bed trailer hooked up to the fifth-wheel. He was double towing. We’ve seen this several times before with cargo trailers or boats behind a fifth-wheel trailer. It seems a little scary to me, plus you can’t back up – reversing isn’t possible.

The owners of this park also own a sister park In Cortez, Colorado – about 250 miles away from here. The owners spend most of their time there. This week, one of the owners came down in a dually Dodge Ram with a large Lincoln welder in the back and a Cat front-loader on a flat bed trailer. He’s been working on the building that will eventually be the park office. Yesterday, a dump truck came in with three loads of gravel and they started working on improving two more sites.

They have enough land to double the size of the RV park and they have the infrastructure in place. The power pedestals are in as well as water and sewer for about 50 more sites. The question is, if they build it, will they come?

Room for expansion with utilities in place

This morning, Donna got out for another bicycle ride. She saw a couple of interesting sights. She saw mule deer sharing a pasture with a horse.

She saw a tiny home on a side road just half a mile from here.

It was a good morning for a bike ride. The wind was relatively calm and the temperature was around 68-70 degrees. That’s what we’ve been seeing for daily high temperatures this week. We’ve also come to realize the afternoon winds with sudden gusts are a daily occurrence.

While I was writing this post, we had a visitor. Leigh Wilcox and his wife Barbara were on their way home to their summer home Iowa from their winter home in Florence, AZ. When Donna rode in the annual RAGBRAI cycling event a few years, Leigh friended her on Facebook after noticing that we have mutual friends – Andy and Donna King. He knew we were in Springerville and spotted our rig as they were driving by today.

The week ahead calls for warmer temperature with highs reaching 80 degrees and Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be windy. Since we’ve had 30+mph gusts daily, I wonder what we can expect when they say Monday and Tuesday will be windy. The overnight lows have been in the low to mid 40s.

Triple Digit Heat

Today is our last full day at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona. Last week, the weather guessers predicted hot weather ahead and they got it right. Thursday we hit 96 degrees, Friday reached 99 degrees and every day since then we have topped 100 degrees. Our rooftop air conditioners are running non-stop for about 12 hours a day. The nighttime temperature drops down to about 70 degrees. Soon enough, that will end and overnight lows of 85-90 degrees can happen. It’s time to move on.

We’ve continued our precautions against the novel coronavirus. We’ve pretty much avoided contact with others and have only gone out for groceries. Donna has taken several bicycle rides out through the neighborhoods, but doesn’t come into contact with anyone on her rides.

Donna confirmed our reservation in Springerville – I was a little concerned about it. Some RV parks aren’t allowing new visitors to enter. We’re good to go. I’ve been extra careful about wearing a face mask when I shop and washing my hands thoroughly. The last thing I want to do is carry the virus down the road. Springerville is a small town of about 2,000 people. It’s adjacent to Eager, another small town with a population of about 5,000 people. There has only been one confirmed case of COVID-19 in the area.

We’ve been watching more TV than usual. Over the last few weeks, we binge watched Narcos, then the first two seasons of Narcos Mexico and now we’re watching the Netflix series called Ozark.

That reminds me – I haven’t mentioned Ozark the cat in a while. When Ozark the cat moved in with us, I bought cat food at Petco. There was a particular brand I favored. The thing about pet food is the marketing is meant to appeal to the pet owner and I wonder how much difference it all makes to the pet. Having said that, I’ll admit to buying premium brand cat food just like I always did when I had dogs. I don’t want to get into a brand discussion, so I’ll leave it at that.

When we were in San Diego, we were told Petco was discontinuing this line of cat food. We found it at PetSmart and started buying it there. Then I found out it wasn’t just Petco not carrying this particular cat food. The manufacturer was phasing it out and replacing it with a re-branded label. The new cat food has a similar nutritional profile but some ingredients are changed and the shape of the food nuggets is different.

Dogs and cats don’t need to have a wide variety of food. In fact, they become accustomed to eating the same foods and often have a bit of a rough adjustment when new foods are introduced. We bought the new brand of cat food for Ozark last week while we still had some of the food she’s been eating for the last five years. Donna slowly introduced the new product by mixing it with her usual food. Ozark seemed a bit off the first day or two, but she’s doing fine now.

Yesterday, I had a phone call from my old friend, Jim Birditt. Jimbo and I go way back – we met in eighth or ninth grade, I’m not sure which it was. He told me he was drawn for an out-of-state Big Game Combination hunting license for Montana. I’m envious. We used to hunt in Montana every fall back in the ’90s. I wrote a post about it here. The funny thing was this – he was telling his wife, Cindy, about hunting and staying at Mumbro Park. Cindy Googled Mumbro Park and found my old post about the place.

I started prepping for our move this morning. After four months here in Mesa, the trailer needed to be re-organized. I straightened the trailer out and packed the Weber Q and Traeger. By late morning, it was already 92 degrees and the trailer was hot. Later, I’ll put Donna’s bike away and pack the folding table. The chairs can wait until tomorrow when I do the final packing. I’ll dump the holding tanks in the morning. I always like to have empty holding tanks and plenty of fresh water on board when we travel. You never know what might come up and it’s always good to be ready.

With that in mind, I had the propane tank filled on Tuesday. I paid a premium to have it filled by the Arizona Propane delivery truck. The tank was just about empty after having the regulator replaced. Once I disconnect from the power pedestal here, we’ll need the propane to run the refrigerator.

With our limited refrigerator and freezer space, I’m hoping the food supply chain stays intact. Talk of food shortages looming are a bit worrisome. We shop for groceries once or twice a week to keep fresh food on hand. We also eat well. Here are a couple of examples from the last week.

First is a pork tenderloin Donna marinated in her mojo marinade and I grilled it on the Weber Q. Donna made a new side for it – cauliflower Spanish rice. It was delicious.

Mojo marinated pork with cauliflower Spanish rice and corn topped with cotija cheese

On Monday, Donna grilled Caribbean jerk marinade shrimp topped with a fruit salsa over jasmine rice with corn and broccoli on the side.

Tomorrow morning I’ll finish loading up and hook up the trailer. Once I get the trailer out of our site and onto the street, I can load Midget-San and hit the road. We have a few options for the route to Springerville. I think we’ll head out past Saguaro Lake then go up the Beeline Highway to Payson. From there, we’ll head east through Show Low and on to Springerville. It’ll be warm there, but with an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level, it’ll be at least 20 degrees cooler than Mesa. Tomorrow’s forecast for Springerville calls for clear skies and a high temperature of 83 degrees – better than the 105 degrees forecast for Mesa!

It’s too bad we have to leave without saying our goodbyes to friends and my daughter Jamie who just bought a house on the west side near Goodyear, but we’re taking the pandemic seriously.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Trailer

Friends and Fun Times

One Night in Montana

Not Running Against the Wind

Steep Grades and Flaming Gorge

Cortez to Fruita

Ham and Eggs

It Could Have Been Worse

Virtual Birthday

Size Matters

Triple Digit Heat

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