Category Archives: Western RV/Alpine Coach

Day Full of Twists

After breakfast on Sunday, I wrote my post and watched the Moto GP race from Mugello, Italy. It looked to be an exciting battle between hometown favorite Valentino Rossi and his team mate Jorge Lorenzo. Unfortunately for Rossi, he suffered a rare engine failure and did not finish the race.

I then got started on preparations for travel. I moved our Sea Eagle kayak to the right rear of the trailer and installed a D-ring to secure it in its canvas duffel bag. This is much better than leaving it on the floor, plus I wanted to redistribute some of the weight in the trailer. I did the usual tire pressure checks and lug nut torque on the trailer.

I made a run to Safeway – the Safeway store in Susanville has a good selection of craft beer. I picked an old favorite – a bottle of Lagunitas Equinox oat pale ale. Then I found something that looked interesting. It was a bottle of beer from Sudwerk Brewing in Davis, California. Sudwerk only brews lagers, not ale. This brew was called Rye of the Lager. The label claimed it was brewed with heirloom rye from Germany and hopped with simcoe and amarillo hops to give it a west coast kick.

Rye of the Tiger

Rye of the Lager

At 7.0% ABV, they call it an Imperial pale lager. It was over-hopped in my opinion. The lager doesn’t have enough malt body to carry 70 IBUs of hoppiness. I was disappointed.

Meanwhile, Donna prepared a stir-fry with flank steak and assorted veggies with a spicy sauce. It was very tasty.

Flank steak stir-fry

Spicy beef stir-fry with sesame seeds

On Monday morning, I loaded the Spyder in the trailer, dumped and flushed our holding tanks and made final road preparations. We left Susanville a little past 10am and headed west on CA36 (map). Our route took us on the same road we took to Westwood on the Spyder. It climbs immediately outside of town and tops out at Fredonyer pass at over 5,700 feet above sea level.

We dropped elevation and hit a few rain showers as we passed through the Lake Almanor basin to Chester. West of Chester it got interesting. The road winds through the Lassen National Forest. It climbs with sharp curves and no shoulder through pine forests. We topped out at 5,750 feet at Morgan Summit, then began to descend. Some of the downhill grades were steep – 7% or more. The road twisted with many speed advisories for turns marked 30mph and a couple at 20mph.

Ozark the cat wasn’t enjoying the twisty ride and ended up losing her breakfast in her crate. Donna cleaned up the mess as best as she could and then placed Ozark in her lap where she stayed for the remainder of the ride. That was a first. In the past, when Ozark was out of her crate, she would become over-stimulated by all of the motion of travel and run around in the coach. That’s why we started putting her in a cat carrier for travel. But she is almost a year and a half old now – maybe she’s settling down.

It was a downhill run all the way to Red Bluff where we hit I-5. We were about 500 feet above sea level at that point. We took I-5 south about 15 miles to Corning. I knew there was a Blue Beacon truck wash off South Boulevard in Corning and I saw it from the Interstate. We pulled off so I could have the coach and trailer washed – it was so dirty from the rain in Susanville and the drive here. I’ve had mixed results at Blue Beacon truck washes, but I have to say the crew in Corning did a great job. The coach and trailer are all shiny again.

We pulled into the Rolling Hills RV park at the Rolling Hills Casino a few miles south of town. I had checked out the entry to the park on Google Earth to find the best way in. Their signage is good, but the entry is a little different. We entered through a truck stop and found the casino’s travelers’ center at the back of the truck stop parking area. I checked in and paid for 10 nights. They told me the sites were 70 feet long and to drive into the park and take my pick.

We drove through the park and could see the sites weren’t all 70 feet long. They were all pull-throughs, but some were longer than others. We thought we would just take a lap or two around the park before we chose a site. The park host caught up with us in a golf cart. I stopped and he told me which sites were the longest. He suggested site 71, right next to where we stopped. Donna liked the view and it’s at the western end of the park – farthest from the road.

The park host advised me to drive out of the park and turn around in the truck stop so I could re-enter and be oriented in the right direction for site 71. This was good advice and we pulled into the site without any difficulty. We were set up in no time.

The weather forecast for Corning showed 0% chance of rain when I checked on Monday morning. By the afternoon, it was showing 15% chance of rain. While I was out putting on the windshield cover, the camp host stopped by and said they were now calling for rain for sure before nightfall. Great, I just had the coach washed.

Windshield view - rain in the hills to the west

Windshield view – rain in the hills to the west

Donna went out for walk to explore the area. Later we sat in chairs outside and read while enjoying a cold one. It’s surprisingly quiet here given the proximity to I-5.

Clean coach and trailer in site 71

Clean coach and trailer in site 71

The rain passed to the west of us and we didn’t get a drop. This morning it’s cloudy. The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature in the mid-70s today with a 15% chance of rain. We’ll see how that works out. Corning is about 300 feet above sea level, located in the northern end of California’s central valley. It’s billed as The Olive Capital. Olive, walnut and almond orchards surround the area. Northern California is also home to many large cattle ranches. Corning has a population of around 7,500 people.

We plan to make a few trips to Corning and also over to Chico. That will be fodder for another post.

The sign says Olive City

The sign says The Olive City

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, 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!

Spyder Wire

It was chilly Saturday morning – 39 degrees. This is the coldest temperature we’ve seen in a long time. Donna found a free boot camp type workout group at a nearby school. She walked to the school while I wrote yesterday’s post. We had cloudy skies and rain showers off and on, broken up by brief periods of sunshine. We see fresh snow on all of the hilltops around us.

Snow on the hills

Snow on the hills

While Donna was at her workout, I watched the Moto GP qualifying for the race in Mugello, Italy. The Italians were cheering as their hero, Valentino Rossi, took pole position for today’s race.

After the qualifying, I walked over to the office to see if my package was delivered. They told me the mail had come, but all they got was junk mail, no packages. This wasn’t what I expected to hear. I e-mailed the shipper and he sent me the tracking number. The USPS tracking site showed the package delivered at 10am. I went back to the office and was told it wasn’t there and I should go to the post office down the street. It was a short walk.

I gave the tracking number to the clerk at the post office and told them the package wasn’t delivered as shown. They looked up the record and said their carrier scanned the package at 10am and left it in the mailbox. They tried to phone the mail carrier, but she was probably driving and didn’t answer. They took my cell number and said they would call me once they talked to her.

I walked back to the RV park office and told them what I was told at the post office. The guy in the office told me he walked out to the mailbox when the mail carrier arrived and she handed him their mail – it never went into the mailbox. He took his key and went out to the mailbox and opened it. The package was in there. Apparently after the mail carrier handed him the junk mail she realized there was another piece of mail. She put the package in the mailbox while he thought he already had all of the mail for the day.

By noon, the sun was shining and it was dry out. I’d had enough of sitting indoors and decided to work on the Spyder. The package I received was a set of custom made MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor spark plug wires for the Spyder along with two NGK iridium spark plugs. The original spark plug wires were causing an intermittent misfire on the front cylinder.

As soon as I had the tupperware removed from the Spyder, it began to rain. I covered the Spyder and went inside. Five minutes later the sun was shining again. The fickle weather continued as I worked – I would have 15 minutes of sunshine then a cloud would pass over dropping rain on everything for a few minutes before it cleared up again. I covered the Spyder and went inside five or six times while trying to do the work.

Spark plug wires – which are sometimes called high tension leads – are more complicated than you might think. Wire is wire, right? Well, not so in this case. Spark plug wires can carry more than 40,000 volts. This voltage is delivered to the spark plug every other revolution of the crankshaft in a four-stroke engine. The rise and drop of voltage can create electromagnetic interference (EMI) through induction or contact with the insulation of the wire.

The insulation on the Spyder’s original wire was breaking down. That’s why it would misfire – the voltage would leak past the insulation and arc to the engine case. Original equipment spark plug wires are usually a carbon conductor over a substrate of fiberglass or kevlar fibers wrapped in rubber insulation. This type of construction has high resistance and prevents EMI. It’s also cheap to manufacture. The down side is that the high resistance causes a voltage drop and can weaken the spark in the spark plug gap.

Low resistance gives a hotter spark but will create EMI. A solid copper core wire would give the hottest spark but the EMI that results would wreak havoc on electronic control modules and sensors. Modern engines have lots of electronic controls and need to be shielded. The answer is a spiral wound cable with a magnetic center core. This creates a choke that prevents the EMI, while high quality alloy in the spiral wound conductor provides lower resistance. Of course this type of ignition wire is much more costly to produce. The MSD 8.5mm wires I ordered are this type.

Spark plug wires with plastic heat shielding

Spark plug wires with plastic heat shielding

The spark plug wires on the Spyder run from an ignition coil for each cylinder to the spark plug at the cylinder head. Some modern engines do away with spark plug wires by mounting ignition coils directly on top of the spark plug. These systems have their faults, but you don’t have to worry about a length of high voltage wire.

This is the spark plug wire that was arcing - shorting to ground and causing a misfire

This is the spark plug wire that was arcing – shorting to ground and causing a misfire

It took some time to get to the plug wires – I had to remove the tupperware and the airbox assembly first. My efforts were broken up by the showers passing through. It took about an hour to get the old wires off. The original wires were housed with a corrugated plastic cover to shield them from heat.

Old wire and new wire - heat shielding removed

Old wire and new wire – heat shielding removed

I removed the heat shielding from the old wires and put it on the new MSD wires. I measured the resistance of the wires – I expected the original carbon core wires to have 1,000 to 3,000 ohms of resistance. The wire to the front cylinder is longer than the one to the rear, so naturally it would have higher resistance. Remember, lower resistance is desirable as long as EMI can be controlled. The original front wire measured 6,000 ohms of resistance! This is not good. The shorter rear wire measured 3,700 ohms. By comparison the new MSD wire for the front cylinder measured 113 ohms. Huge difference!

With the old wires off, I replaced the original copper electrode spark plugs with NGK iridium electrode plugs. These plugs provide a fat, hot spark and will last at least twice as long as the originals.

Spark plugs

Spark plugs

I coated the threads on the spark plugs with a special heat transferring anti-seize compound. This will make them much easier to remove next time without risk of pulling the threads out of the aluminum cylinder heads. I also put a thin coating of dielectric grease in the plug connector on the end of the spark plug wires to seal them and make them easier to remove as well.

New wires with heavy duty insulators at the coil end

New wires with heavy duty insulators at the coil end

I test fired the engine – it started immediately and ran smoothly. So I buttoned everything back up and put all the body work back on and took a little test ride. The difference is unbelievable. The engine runs so much smoother. It has to be felt to be understood, I can’t put into words how big the difference in the character of the engine is. Who would’ve thought something as simple as plug wires could make this much difference? With better combustion, I’m guessing fuel economy will improve as well. Job done.

This morning, Donna and I went out for breakfast. We walked down the road to the Lumberjack Restaurant. It was a treat – I had eggs Benedict and Donna had a veggie omelet with a home-style biscuit.

We may have a few more showers this afternoon. I’ll begin prepping for travel. Tomorrow we’ll pull out of here and head to Corning, California – the olive capital.

Registration Blocked by DMV

The registration for our coach and Spyder expire at the end of June. I wanted to renew early as it takes about 10 days for the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue the license plate tabs which are then mailed to our service (MyDakotaAddress) in Madison, South Dakota. From there, they’ll have to be forwarded to us. I thought if I renewed online now, I could have the tabs in hand while we’re in Portland at the end of June.

I went to the website to renew. I kept getting an error message when I tried to renew the coach registration. I tried to renew the Spyder and it went to the shopping cart with no problem. I tried the coach again for the umpteenth time and got the error message telling me to contact the DMV. When I clicked on the contact link, I got another error telling me the page couldn’t be opened!

I phoned Terri Lund at MyDakotaAddress and asked her to help me. She asked for the title number of the coach and said she would contact the DMV on my behalf. A few minutes later, she called me back. She said the reason I was getting the error is because the DMV had the coach registration blocked! On the South Dakota DMV website, there is a message center which is accessible after you login. I had a message in my inbox dating back from 2014 saying I needed to provide documentation of the gross vehicle weight. The message was more than two years old – I never looked at my inbox on this site and I had no trouble renewing last year.

I asked Terri what I needed to do. She told me to take a photo of the weight label behind one of the kitchen cabinet doors and e-mail it to her. I found the label and sent it – she printed it and took it to the DMV for me. She said I should be able to renew once the system is updated in a few days. She provides such a great service – not only with our mail but anytime we need help with things like this.

Weight label

Weight label

I was hoping to receive the new ignition wires for the Spyder Thursday morning. With rain in the forecast, I wanted to replace them while it was dry out. No such luck – the Priority Mail package didn’t arrive.

Spyder ready for rain

Spyder ready for rain

On Thursday night, we watched a movie on our hard drive – The Revenant. I think my expectations were a little too high – I’d heard so much hype about this movie. I was a little disappointed but Donna really enjoyed it.

Donna made roasted chicken thighs with lemon, tarragon and fennel. She served it with risotto and green beans. Delicious.

Roasted chicken thighs with lemon, terragon and fennel

Roasted chicken thighs with lemon, tarragon and fennel

The rain came earlier than forecast and it was raining shortly after dinner. The outside temperature also dropped considerably. We had the heat pumps running. When it gets cold, Ozark likes nothing better than to snuggle up.

Ozark snuggling with Donna and staying warm

Ozark snuggling with Donna and staying warm

It rained all night with the temperature dropping down to 40 degrees. The rain and cooler temperatures continued on Friday. We had a few breaks in the rain, but more often than not, it was raining. The snow level dropped to about 5,000 feet and we could see fresh snow on the hilltops around us – we’re at about 4,200 feet.

Once again, the mail delivery Friday didn’t include a Priority Mail package for me. This is worrisome. We will pull out of here on Monday. If it doesn’t come today, I can hang around here Monday morning until the mail arrives – which is usually between 9 and 11am. Then we’ll have to move on. I e-mailed the shipper and he said the tracking shows it out for delivery – but he didn’t provide a tracking number for me to use.

We spent the entire day indoors. I read a book while Donna wrote an article. I changed the strings on my guitar and practiced a bit. I watched two motorcycle races that I had on the DVR. Donna had a sausage with white bean and spinach stew in the slow cooker all day. Nothing like the aroma of a stew cooking on a rainy day.

Sausage and white bean with spinach stew covered with fresh grated parmesan cheese

Sausage and white bean with spinach stew covered with fresh grated parmesan cheese

I paired it with a local brew – Fall River Pittville porter. The porter was very good with hints of chocolate and coffee.

Fall River porter

Fall River Pittville porter

Donna received a package from a PR firm she writes for. They sent a device called Force of Nature, a new approach to cleaning that takes salt, vinegar and water and electrolyzes it, turning it into a cleaning solution containing sodium hydroxide (0.2%) – this is a common cleaning compound called lye – and hypochloric acid, a disinfectant. They claim it will kill 99.99% of germs. You put the pre-measured packet of salt and vinegar into the device and add water. Plug it in and turn it on – five minutes later you have the cleaning product. The kit included a heavy-duty sprayer. The solution is good for up to 14 days. Donna will try it out in the coach.

Force of Nature

Force of Nature

Last night, we watched another highly acclaimed movie – The Martian. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I know we’re a little behind the times on movie releases. We rarely go to the theater and don’t see many first runs of movies. A good film is still good later though, right?

I mentioned  that the rain came earlier than forecast and it appears to have stopped earlier too. We have cloudy skies, but it’s cool and dry. The temperature will only reach the low 50s today but the weather guessers say there’s only a 15 to 20% chance of rain.

Lake Almanor

On Wednesday morning after I posted, I got Donna’s bicycle out of the trailer and pumped up the tires. We mapped out a route that would take her on the paved bike path up Skyline Road, then down into town on Paul Bunyan Road to Ash where she could pick up the Susan River Trail. The ride involved some climbing but it wasn’t as long as she anticipated – the total distance was only 11 miles and that included exploring some streets in a development across from Diamond Mountain Casino. Here are a couple of photos from her ride.

Paved path on Skyline

Paved path on Skyline

Waterfall on Susan River

Waterfall on Susan River

After her ride, we had a snack and prepared to head out on the Spyder. We wanted to check out Westwood, an old mill town about 20 miles west of here. We also wanted to get a look at Lake Almanor. We thought we could have a proper lunch near the lake.

We headed west out of Susanville on CA36, which immediately climbs for two miles outside of town. The road surface is great. It becomes a two-lane highway with passing lanes on the inclines. It cuts through the Lassen National Forest. We topped out at Fredonyer Pass over 5,700 feet above sea level, then descended a few hundred feet into Westwood.

We went to the visitor center there and found it’s only open on Friday and Saturday at this time of year. We didn’t find any suitable eateries in the small town – the population is about 1,700.

We rode out of town through pine forest on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. This took us to Lake Almanor – which is actually a reservoir created when Canyon Dam was built on the north fork of the Feather River in 1914. The lake is surrounded by private properties – rustic cabins, huge summer homes and resort cottages. There’s very little public access.

The area reminded me of Big Bear Lake in southern California near San Bernadino with the mountains and pine trees. The difference is the amount of tourism. Big Bear feeds off the huge southern California population and also has a winter ski area, so it’s always bustling with activity. Lake Almanor, not so much. The biggest draw is fishing on the lake for rainbow trout, brown trout and small mouth bass.

We found a couple of RV parks on the lake. One was gated and we couldn’t enter but the second one was open so we rode in and parked. The sites were laid out in such a way that I couldn’t figure out how they even got their rigs in there. Most of the sites had fifth-wheel trailers that looked to be permanent or semi-permanent set-ups.

Cove on Lake Almanor

Cove on Lake Almanor

Another view of the lake from the RV park

Another view of the lake from Big Cove RV park

The little villages on the north shore of the lake were sleepy. I guess the season doesn’t really start here until after Memorial Day. Most of the restaurants were closed. With so little of the lake shore accessible, we decided to head back to Susanville for a late lunch.

We stopped at the Pioneer Cafe – home of Lassen Ale Works where we had the fried mushrooms the day before. I had fish and chips while Donna went for a bowl of chicken noodle florentine soup with a small pub salad. The food at this place is excellent. The batter on the cod I had was perfect – paper thin with a toughness that held the fish together without being crunchy. Donna’s soup was loaded with chunks of chicken, carrots, celery and spinach noodles and she said it was terrific. She asked for blue cheese dressing on her salad – all of the dressings and sauces are made fresh in the kitchen. Her dressing seemed to be laced with fennel while the tartar sauce that came with my fish and chips featured capers.

I had the Lassen Ale Works ESB (Extra Special Bitter) – a British-style ale – that was tapped with nitrogen. The nitrogen gives it a creamy head and it was a delight.

Lassen Ale Works ESB

Lassen Ale Works ESB

Those who read this blog regularly know I try to keep it up to date at least four or five days a week. One blog I follow (What’s Newell) written by Clarke Hochwald is updated every day. It’s rare for Clarke to miss a post. I’ve only met Clarke once briefly in a Walmart parking lot in Yreka, California. But after following his blog for over three years, I feel like I know him. That’s how the RV community is among bloggers – we know what our fellow travelers are up to and enjoy following them.

I noticed Clarke didn’t post yesterday. Last night, I checked his site again and no update. This was odd. I sent him an e-mail asking if he was okay. He responded and said he wrote his post but somehow forgot to post it! I didn’t mean to be nosy or be a blog stalker – RVers tend to watch out for each other and I wanted to make sure he was alright.

We’re expecting another fine day today with the temperature reaching 70 and a slight chance of a shower this afternoon. I’m hoping the new spark plug wires for the Spyder show up. The forecast says rain will come overnight and it’ll be rainy for a couple of days. I’d like to get the work done on the Spyder before the rain hits.

Bizz Johnson Trail

The weather here in Susanville, California was near perfect yesterday. The afternoon temperature reached the low 70s with light winds and a nearly cloudless sky. Susanville is located in a basin between the Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an elevation of about 4,200 feet. It’s the Lassen County seat and has a population of around 17,500 people. Susanville was named after Susan Roop – the daughter of an early settler by the name of Isaac Roop – in 1857.

The town was served by the Southern Pacific Railroad on the Fernley and Lassen line. In 1978, Southern Pacific received permission to abandon the line. Former Congressman Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson was instrumental in transforming the Fernley and Lassen branch into a rails-to-trails conversion. The trail is called the Bizz Johnson Trail and runs 30 miles between Susanville and Westwood.

The trail starts at around 4,200 feet above sea level and climbs to about 5,500 feet at Westwood. Donna and I went out to hike a few miles on the trail yesterday. It was an easy and enjoyable hike in the afternoon sunshine. Over its full length, the trail crosses the Susan River 12 times over bridges and trestles. We crossed it three times. It’s very scenic.

The trail follows the Susan River canyon with steep, rocky cliffs to the north and pine forest hills to the south. The only wildlife we encountered were lizards in the rocks, ground squirrels and a variety of birds – including a bright orange and black Bullock’s Oriole.

Bizz Johnson Trail

Bizz Johnson Trail

Susan River below the trail grade

Susan River below the trail grade

Rocky bluff on the north side

Rocky bluff on the north side

Pine trees and alpine meadow

Pine trees and sub-alpine meadow

After our hike, we rode the Spyder to the old downtown area. We wanted to check out the local brewery – Lassen Ale Works at the old Pioneer Saloon. First we stopped next door at Maggie’s Book Nook. This is a book store selling new and used books. There were books of every genre stacked on shelves along the wall, on tables and even stacked on the floor. It could take hours of searching, but I’m sure there are a few gems to be found. I picked up two fictional thrillers and Chris Kyle’s autobiography – American Sniper. Donna found a couple of books as well. Five books cost a grand total of $21.50!

In the saloon, Donna ordered an Devil’s Corral Imperial stout and I had the Volcanic Double IPA. These are tasty albeit strong beers. Much better than the local brew at Mt. Diamond brewery. We ordered Bizz Johnson beer-battered deep-fried mushrooms which I paired with a Belgian style dubbel while Donna went for the Thompson Peak Pilsner. The mushrooms were outstanding.

We came home and had a quiet evening. Donna made blackedned fish tacos for dinner. Then we watched an episode of The Night Manager. Next week will be the finale of this six-episode mini-series.

Today the forecast calls for warmer weather with the temperature reaching the 80s. We want to take advantage of the nice weather and ride the Spyder up to Westwood and Lake Almanor today. The weather can take sudden turns in the mountains and now the weather guessers are calling for much cooler temperatures and rain over the weekend. We can chase the sun, but there are no guarantees!

Plan A, Plan B, Plan C

Donna was back for our last weekend in Sparks. On Saturday morning, she went for a run around the Marina Park Lake. She said she struggled and afterwards, she felt whipped – no doubt from a full day of air travel on Friday. Traveling on airlines always leaves you a bit dehydrated and jet lag doesn’t help. Of course, with Donna back I was treated to a much better dining experience – not just the company, but the great meals she prepares.

On Saturday night, she made tortilla crusted tilapia with pico de gallo and sauteed veggies on the side. Absolutely delicious. We buy only fresh tilapia farmed in Mexico or Central America, not the Chinese or Indonesian frozen fish as farming practices there are a bit scary based on what we’ve read.

Tortilla crusted tilapia with pico de gallo and sauteed veggies

Tortilla crusted tilapia with pico de gallo and sauteed veggies

I started Sunday by watching the Formula 1 race from Barcelona, Spain. It turned out to be one of the most entertaining F1 races in recent memory. The odds-on favorites from the Mercedes team, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, collided going into turn four and were out of the race. In my opinion, Nico took a defensive line, which is expected, but Hamilton thought he could barge past since he had greater speed on the exit of turn three. He should have backed off. Instead he went into the grass, got sideways and took both cars out. From there it was all about young Max Verstappen. The 18-year-old became the youngest Formula 1 winner – his father Jos Verstappen was a Formula one racer as well.

I also recorded a few motorcycle races  – World Superbike and Moto-America races. I’m loving the coverage of motorcycle racing on BeIn Sports. They show the races without commercial interruption.

I didn’t watch the motorcycle races right away, I had to figure out our next move. I thought I had a plan. We ditched our initial thought of heading to Lake Tahoe due to the wet and cold forecast for the coming week. Then I found what looks to be a great RV park at the Expo grounds in Sacramento, located on the Sacramento River with long pull-through, full hook-up sites and miles of paved bike trails right outside the park. I sent an e-mail inquiry. Unfortunately, due to the dirt track mile motorcycle races next weekend and the county fair over Memorial Day weekend, they only had a couple of nights open.

So, plan A and plan B fell through. After some searching, we decided to head up to Susanville for a week, then on to Corning, California for 10 days. The weather forecast looks favorable and Susanville has an RV park that looked good. In Corning, we thought the RV park at Rolling Hills Casino would work – long pull-through sites and not likely to be booked over Memorial Day. I made phone calls and we’re set. This will position us nicely for our reservation in Bend, Oregon beginning June 4th.

Donna made a spiced pork tenderloin with maple-chipotle sauce. She served it with smashed garlic red potatoes and steamed broccoli. Once again, I’m feasting like a king.

Pork tenderloin with maple-chipolte sauce

Pork tenderloin with maple-chipolte sauce

We finished the day by watching a movie recorded on our hard drive. It was Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks. The pace of the movie was slow and it was less than we expected – Donna said she had all she could do to keep her eyes open as the movie dragged on.

On Monday morning, we prepared to leave Sparks Marina RV Park. We had everything done and were rolling by 9:30am. On the way out, Donna remarked how much she liked the place and how they do things right here. The park has wide lanes making it easy to maneuver. It’s exceptionally clean and well-maintained. The picnic tables are well constructed and set up with a metal plate to have a small barbeque like a Weber Q on one end. We’ll remember this place next time we come through the area.

Our Route took us up US395. US395 starts out sharing the I-580 designation in Reno and is three or four lanes wide through the metro Reno/Sparks area. It climbs out of the valley immediately with fairly steep grades. Traffic quickly thins out and it becomes a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, then merges into a two-lane highway. It rolls up and down hills with passing lanes on the steeper grades. Before long we crossed the state line and we’re back in California.

It was an easy drive – very scenic with the eastern Sierra Nevada range on our left and a wide valley on our right. We stopped at the Honey Lake rest area (map). It’s a relatively small rest area, but has a nice view and several information kiosks describing the geology, flora and fauna of the area.

View of Honey Lake from the rest area

View of Honey Lake from the rest area

After walking around the rest area, we continued on to Susanville, California and the Susanville RV Park. When I made the reservation, I was told we would have a 65′ pull-through site. At check-in, the woman at the counter looked at our rig out the window and said,”You know you have a 65′ site.” I told her as long it was really 65′ we should be fine. She went on to say it was not permissible to overhang the site into the street due to it being a fire lane.

I was wondering if this would be like the “65-foot” site in Sparks that was too short for our 64′ 9″ length. We pulled into site 63 and Donna directed me. After a couple of adjustments back and forth, I had us in – barely.

Mirror technically extends past site boundary - but we're in

Mirror technically extends past site boundary – but we’re in

Back of trailer right on the line

Back of trailer right on the line

Our 65' site

Our 65′ site

After settling in, we took a ride through town to have a look. We stopped at the Lassen Brewery to wet our whistle, but they don’t open until 4pm on Mondays and it was only 2:30pm. We rode around some more and then headed over to the new Mt. Diamond Brew Pub in the Mt. Diamond Casino. I had an IPA and Donna ordered the Kolsch. We were both disappointed in the quality of the brews and being in a casino means cigarette smoke. We won’t bother stopping there again.

We hit the sack around 10pm. It’s very quiet here and I slept soundly – the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a while. The forecast for the next few days looks good – we’re expecting high temperatures in the 70s and 80s. We plan to take advantage of the weather and the area by hiking some of the trails nearby.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, 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!

Sparks in Sparks

After writing yesterday’s post I set to work on the Spyder. I pulled the center side panels and the top body panel off. With the tupperware out of the way, I removed the two-piece airbox assembly. This gave me an unobstructed view of the throttle body and all vacuum hoses, the idle air control valve (IACV) and the spark plug leads.

Airbox assembly removed

Airbox assembly removed

I started the engine and checked the IACV operation. It worked fine and I didn’t find any vacuum leaks. As the engine warmed up to temperature, I realized it wasn’t misfiring. This puzzled me as I hadn’t fixed anything. I let the engine run for several minutes and it was perfect.

I shut the engine off and reinstalled the lower half of the airbox. Then I started the engine again. After a minute or so, it began to misfire. I turned it off and looked things over. What changed when I installed the lower airbox? I saw two things – the fuel line to the injectors was pushed against the cylinder block and likewise, the front spark plug high voltage lead was pushed to the block.

I started the engine again and put my head down near the front cylinder. When it misfired, I could hear the snapping sound of a spark arcing. I shut the engine off and re-positioned the front spark plug lead. I started the engine again it didn’t misfire. Apparently when the high voltage spark plug lead was pushed against the cylinder block, a voltage leak developed and it would jump to ground on the block, thus the spark plug wouldn’t spark when this happened. Positioning the lead away from the block made it too big of a gap for the voltage to jump – it was easier to bridge the gap at the spark plug. Electricity, like water, will follow the path of least resistance.

So the guys on the Spyder Lovers forum who pointed to the high voltage spark plug wires as the issue were correct. I still don’t understand why the lead would short to ground only at idle and initial throttle opening. In theory, the problem should worsen as the throttle is opened. Sometimes hands-on experience with a certain issue beats all the book knowledge and theory. When we get to a place where I can receive packages I’ll order a new set of plug wires.

After I put all of the tupperware back in place, I went for a test ride. The engine ran smooth and never missed a beat. I rode over to Smith’s grocery where I found a beer that I hadn’t tried before last weekend. It’s Innis and Gunn Scottish beer aged in oak barrels.

Innis and Gunn oak aged beer

Innis and Gunn oak aged beer

The label on calls it Scottish beer, not ale. Looking at their website, I found very little information. I don’t know if it’s fermented with ale yeast or lager yeast. I discovered on their website that some of their beers are oak flavored with a process they call an oakerator. This unit forces the beer through a vessel filled with oak chips. The beer I bought says it’s aged in an oak barrel for 77 days.

This beer has a unique flavor and I found subtle differences among bottles with the same label. I really liked it and I wanted to buy a few more bottles. I don’t recall ever seeing this beer before – I’ll probably stock up with a few more bottles before we leave on Monday.

Donna’s flight home from Albany, New York left on time. She had a short layover in Las Vegas before making the final hop to Reno/Tahoe airport. She sent me a text when she was in a cab leaving the airport. I went online and ordered a pizza from Roundtable Pizza right away. The pizza was delivered shortly after she got home.

We sat at the table and talked while we ate. I have to admit I’d ordered a pizza last weekend as well. When Donna is away, pizza is a good option. We watched an episode of The Night Manager, then we had a brief discussion on where we’re going when we leave here. We’re still undecided.

We’ve ruled out Lake Tahoe as the night time temperatures are forecast to be below freezing. We’d rather be somewhere warmer. We aren’t booked anywhere until we reach Bend, Oregon on June 4th, giving us nearly three weeks to fill.

Today we plan to go grocery shopping to restock the larders and look at places to stay when we leave here.

Lean Condition

My week as a bachelor while Donna is visiting family and friends in upstate New York has been relatively boring. I hit the pickleball courts at the Neil Road Recreation Center on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It’s been my only social activity. Other than a couple of trips to the grocery store, I’ve just been catching up on a few chores.

On Wednesday morning, I pulled the body work off the Spyder and looked for an intake leak. It’s been misfiring at idle and stumbles on initial acceleration. It seems to me that it’s a lean fuel mixture condition causing one cylinder to misfire. Some guys on the Spyder Lovers forum are trying to convince me it’s spark plug wires or ignition coils causing the misfire.

I don’t think this is the case. Ignition breakdown usually occurs under load. The Spyder misfires at idle and once underway, it runs fine. At wide open throttle, it produces full power and takes off like a rocket. There’s no misfire once the engine gets to 2,500 rpm or so. I’m still convinced it a lean fuel mixture condition.

Another reason I believe it’s fuel mixture is that the problem only occurs once the engine is up to running temperature. On a cold start, it idles fine and there’s no evidence of a misfire. On a cold start, the engine runs in open loop – meaning the signal from the oxygen sensor in the exhaust pipe is ignored and the fuel mixture is richer than the optimum (stoichiometric) value. A cold engine needs a rich fuel mixture. Once the engine has been running for a few minutes, it goes into closed loop – the oxygen sensor signal tells the engine control module if the fuel mixture is correct and the control module adjusts the fuel mixture accordingly.

When I looked at the throttle body on Wednesday, I concentrated on vacuum hoses. I looked for cracks or loose hoses. With the engine running, I sprayed the vacuum lines and fittings with carb cleaner. If there was an intake leak, the vacuum would have sucked the spray cleaner into the intake and the engine would immediately run differently. I didn’t detect any change in the running of the engine. I gave up and reinstalled the body panels and went to play pickleball.

Vacuum hoses on the throttle body

Vacuum hoses on the throttle body

When I played pickleball Thursday afternoon, I felt a twinge in my left leg. It was high in the hamstring – where the muscle inserts below the gluteus. I continued to play and it didn’t bother me too much. After I came home, I really stiffened up and had pain in the upper hamstring area.

I won’t play pickleball today. I’ll rest my leg and see if I can get to the bottom of the misfire issue on the Spyder. Thinking it over, I’m going to take a look at the idle air control valve (IACV) and the associated hoses. When the throttle plates are closed at idle, the IACV controls the air going into the engine and thus the idle speed. If there’s a leak in the system past the IACV, then it cannot properly control the air and fuel mixture. I still have one item to check off Donna’s honey-do list, but I’m going to make the Spyder issue my priority today.

Donna will return tonight – I can’t wait. I hope her flights are on time. She’ll fly from Albany, New York to Las Vegas then on to Reno. We’re booked here at the Sparks Marina RV Park until Monday. The weather this week has been fabulous. Yesterday and today will be the warmest with the temperature reaching the mid 80s. The rest of the week was mid 70s and that’s what the weekend forecast calls for.

We thought about heading up to Lake Tahoe on Monday, but I think it’s still too cold there. The forecast for next week predicts highs in the 50s and 60s with the temperature dropping to freezing overnight. We’ll figure out our next move this weekend.

Spyder Work

I rode the Spyder to Michael’s Reno Powersports on Monday. I needed to replace the caps on the master cylinder reservoir for the brakes. The diaphragms in the caps were leaking fluid. I’ve heard this is a common problem on Can Am Spyders. The fluid reservoir has sensors in each of the two chambers. If the fluid level drops by as little as a teaspoon, it triggers a warning light and the words “Brake Failure” scroll across the display screen. I looked up the warning light and written warning in the manual – it indicated that both warnings at the same time was triggered by the fluid level sensor. This seems like a dire warning but the brakes work fine.

I added fluid before and the warning stopped. After a while it came back on and then I saw where the fluid was going – it leaked past the caps and ran down the rear shock mount. I added about a teaspoon of fluid to each chamber and installed new caps. Job done!

From Michael’s I took a ride up Geiger Grade Road. This is a two-lane mountain road that twists and turns and climbs over Geiger Summit at 6,700 feet above sea level. Once over the summit, it’s a short ride to Virginia City. Virginia City sprang up in 1859 after the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver deposit discovered in the US. It’s estimated that as many as 25,000 people lived in Virginia City in the 1870s. Today Virginia City is the county seat of Storey County and about 850 people live there. Storey County has a population of about 4,000. Virginia City is another old mining town tourist trap today.

I took a walk along the wooden sidewalks and looked around. One of Virginia City’s claims to fame is it’s where Samuel Clemens – who was a local reporter for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper – first used the pen name Mark Twain.

Virginia City Mercantile

Virginia City Mercantile

Wooden sidewalks

Wooden sidewalks

Bucket of Blood Sallon

Bucket of Blood Saloon

Most of the historic buildings in town date back to 1876. The original town was destroyed by fire in 1875. Many of the buildings are saloons.

Click to enlarge and read the window signs

Click to enlarge and read the window signs

The Red Dog Saloon had interesting signs on a few windows – one third-story window says “Law Offices – Acquittals in Most Cases.” Another says “Bath House $1 with attendant.”

I didn’t stay long and didn’t go inside the saloons. If Donna were along we probably would’ve poked around in some of the shops, but she won’t be back from her trip to visit family in New York until Friday.

The ride back down Geiger Grade had spectacular views. I pulled off at a turn-out and snapped a couple of photos.

Snow covered mountains to the west

Snow covered mountains across the valley to the west

Reno/Sparks to the north

Reno/Sparks to the north

Tuesday morning I rode the Spyder to the Neil Road Recreation Center to play pickleball. To get there I went out McCarran Boulevard. McCarran Boulevard is a loop circling Reno and Sparks. Some of the cross streets intersect it twice. This can make directions a bit confusing. When I left the Sparks Marina RV Park, I went north on McCarran. I saw a couple of cross streets I recognized, but several miles later I realized I went the wrong way.

I turned around and followed the loop south, then west. I passed the intersection of Rock Road, then saw it again a few miles later. That’s when it dawned on me how I got turned around. I eventually found the recreation center in a seedy part of town on the west side of Reno-Tahoe airport. I played for a couple of hours on the indoor courts and had fun. The level of play wasn’t as high as Towerpoint in Mesa, Arizona, but there were some fairly good players.

The Spyder has been acting up lately. Once it’s fully warmed up to operating temperature, it develops a misfire at idle. Initial acceleration is rough until the engine gets to 2,500 – 3,000 rpm, then it smooths out. I haven’t seen a check engine light or any indication of a fault code. I thought maybe it was a tank of bad gasoline. But, I’ve burned through a couple of tanks of gas and the problem is still there.

Today I’ll pull the body work off of it and have a look. I’m thinking there’s a vacuum leak in the intake system somewhere. Hopefully I can find it and fix it.

The weather has been really nice – Monday and Tuesday we had high temperatures around 70 degrees. Today may be a couple of degrees warmer but still very comfortable. I’ll head over to the recreation center this afternoon for pickleball.

Honey-Do List

It rained on and off all weekend here in Sparks, Nevada. Donna had a long travel day on Saturday. Her flight to Albany, New York had two connections. One in Denver and one in Washington, DC. Her flight left Reno on time and her connection in Denver was fine. Shortly after landing in Washington, DC, she learned that her flight was delayed due to a late incoming plane.

She utilized the extra hour by finding food and a glass of wine. Then her departure was delayed a further half hour with no explanation. Then the flight was pushed back again due to a maintenance issue. It seems the airline was buying time in one hour increments – she finally departed Washington, DC after sitting around for four hours. Back in my workaday life, I was in an airport monthly. I don’t miss airline travel at all – I haven’t set foot in an airport since I retired nearly three years ago.

I spent the day staying dry indoors reading and watching TV. Sunday was more of the same. I watched three motorcycle races and two car races – that filled much of my time. Donna left me a honey-do list – something she’s never done before. I am the great procrastinator though and the list will keep me moving on a few things that need doing.

On Saturday, I re-glued the trim around a vanity mirror in the bedroom. The trim came off a while ago, but since the mirror is inside a cabinet door, it was one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things. Donna uses the mirror frequently though, so the missing trim bothered her. Next up, I started to clean and condition the wood cabinets in our kitchen.

I used a product I mentioned before called Kramer’s Best Antique Improver. I don’t have any affiliation with this company, but I mention the product because it is something I really like. You wipe it on the wood with a clean cloth, then rub it dry with a cloth. Couldn’t be easier and the results are great!

Kramer's Best

Kramer’s Best

Looking good

Looking good

Ozark the cat seems to have separation anxiety with Donna gone. She’s very vocal and needy. She rubs against my legs, clings to me and wants to be held and petted all the time. I guess Donna gives her a lot of attention and talks to her a lot. I don’t talk all that much most of time and when I’m alone, I talk even less.

We’ve had cats in our family in the past, but I was never much of a cat person. I always preferred dogs. It’s not that I dislike cats. I love our little Ozark. But when I think about it, it comes down to a basic difference between the two. Dogs aim to please. Cats aim to be pleased. In other words, dogs naturally want to do things that please their humans. Cats want their humans to do things that please them. It’s this attitude of indifference and independence that many people find attractive in cats.

I once had a Weimaraner named AJ. He was the greatest dog that ever lived. I trained him and he competed in North America Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) events. He was a natural hunter and we went bird hunting together regularly. He liked nothing better than to freeze a game bird on point and retrieve the bird after I made the shot. We enjoyed lots of pheasant, quail, chukar and partridge on the dinner table.

AJ was very disciplined and rarely barked – he would only bark when he had good reason to. He could run and hunt all day. In our current lifestyle, we don’t have room for a dog. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog. I wouldn’t want to leave one in the coach while we went out. I know lots of RVers – even full-timers – travel with dogs. It works for them and that’s fine with me. I didn’t intend to have a cat in our coach, but Ozark found her way into our lives and we like having her along.

The weather forecast looks good for the coming week. Daily highs will be in the mid 70s to low 80s with no rain expected. Today I might ride the Spyder to a recreation center in Reno for pickleball. Then I’ll tackle cleaning and conditioning the rest of the kitchen cabinets.