Monthly Archives: April 2018

Castles Made of Sand

Wow, our time here at Aransas Pass has flown by. On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the Spyder to Rockport for more pickleball. The games there are loosely organized. There were about 10 of us on the courts by the high school with various skill levels represented. We had fun and got a couple of hours of play time.

Francisco came back from his delivery run to North Carolina Saturday morning. In the afternoon he and my daughter, Jamie, and his son Trey along with Francisco’s sister Ruby came to the RV park to pick us up. We were headed over the Redfish Bay causeway to Port Aransas on Mustang Island. To get there we crossed a couple of bridges on the causeway, then had to take a short ferry ride. We were going to Port Aransas for the Texas Sand Fest – a beach sand sculpture event.

The Sand Fest draws a huge crowd to the beach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We waited in line over 45 minutes to get on the free ferry. They had four or five ferries running to accommodate all of the traffic. The ferry boats are fairly small – the one we took only held about 15 vehicles. They’re nothing like the ferries found on Puget Sound in Washington.

View across Humble Basin toward Roberts Point Park in Port Aransas

Ferry boat departing behind us while another one loads at the dock

Oil rigs and a tanker near the ferry dock

There were three large oil rigs near the dock. We think they were towed there for maintenance work. A large tanker ship passed through the narrow basin where the ferry boats crossed.

We found our way to the Beach Road on the southeast coast of the island. The Beach Road is an unpaved one-way thoroughfare on the sand. The sand on Mustang Island is very fine and seems to have clay – I couldn’t find any information to confirm this. But the sand on the road was packed solidly and had fine particles of dust along with the sand. I think this would make the sand ideal for sand sculptures as it sticks together when moistened.

The area of the beach where the sculptures were being made was fenced off with temporary chain-link fencing. Entry costs $10/person. There was a vendor strip with food and goods and a beer tent. Many of the Master’s Class sculptures were cordoned off with yellow or orange tape and many of them were still being worked on late Saturday afternoon. Here are some of the sculptures I was able to take photos of.

Entrance to the sculpture area with sponsor acknowledgements

Detailed eyes on this dog

Artist still at work

How were they able to do the top of this sculpture?

There was an anatomically detailed heart in the split of this bust

Another tall one

One for all the cat people

We spent a few hours admiring the artwork and browsing the vendors. Between pickleball in the morning and walking the beach in the afternoon, I had well over 12,000 steps for the day. The ferry ride back was just as crowded with quite a traffic tie-up. We were on a larger ferry boat this time, but still nothing like the ferry boats in Washington.

Ruby, Trey, Donna, Jamie and Francisco at Port Aransas beach – that’s a sand tower in the background

On Sunday morning, I watched another crazy Formula 1 race from Azerbaijan where the two Red Bull teammates spent the race racing against each other, eventually taking both cars out!

Then I got busy. I had noticed a few drops of oil under our generator. A quick inspection revealed a loose oil filter – I tightened it. This is the second time it’s happened. When I change the oil, I’ll have to inspect the filter flange. I suspect that the O-ring from an old filter may have stuck to the flange. This creates a double O-ring situation when the new filter is put on. I usually inspect the filter every time I remove it to make sure the O-ring came off with it, but the last time I changed the oil and filter on the generator, we were in Nebraska and I was recovering from a virus. I may have neglected to check it – the only way to know is to pull the filter.

I also checked tire pressures on all 10 tires – six on the coach and four on the trailer. Then I cleaned the Weber Q and Traeger, relined them with foil and packed them in the trailer. I cleaned our battery bay and batteries with baking soda solution and filled the 6-volt lead acid batteries with distilled water. Phew!

By the time I showered and changed clothes at 2pm, Jamie and Francisco had arrived. We went to Redfish Willies Waterfront Grill for a late lunch/early dinner. Donna and I both had the blackened redfish plate – it was delicious. Jamie had the blackened salmon special with pineapple pico de gallo and Francisco went for the bleu fish sandwich. The food was good and we enjoyed a panoramic view of the marina.

Me and Jamie by the marina at Redfish WIllie’s

Tomorrow morning, I only have a few chores to make us ready to roll on toward Louisiana. There’s a 15% chance of showers by noon, but we should be well on our way and heading away from the weather. It looks like we’ll see a high in the upper 70s. Our plan – if you can call it that – is to travel about 200 miles or so and find a place to boondock overnight. Then we’ll head to Abbeville, Louisiana where we have reservations at Betty’s RV Park.

Are You Overweight?

Someone posted a question on an RV Facebook group yesterday asking how to determine the carrying capacity of their RV. Weight ratings can be a bit confusing at first glance. You need to understand a few of the terms first.

You must know the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) – this is the maximum amount of weight the vehicle can support. There should be a placard in the RV that lists the GVWR. Next you need to know the unladen or dry weight. I learned that RVs produced after 2009 have standardized the unladen weight to include fluids and propane except for the fresh water tank. Before 2009, dry weight may or may not include propane or other fluids – refer to the placard.

Weight placard in our Alpine Coach

Our placard shows a GVWR of 31,000 lbs. It also lists the unladen weight plus calculations for water, propane and passengers to find the carrying capacity for our household goods. Another important weight rating is Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR). This rating shows how much total weight the vehicle can handle when towing. The GVWR cannot be exceeded – tongue weight of a trailer, for example, will add to the vehicle weight. Our GCWR is 41,000 lbs – we can tow up to 10,000 lbs as long as we don’t exceed the GVWR of 31,000 lbs. The GVWR can never be safely exceeded.

I weighed our fully loaded rig after we bought it. When we bought the new, larger trailer and the Can Am Spyder, I had the rig weighed again. Another important consideration is maximum axle weight. Our 31,000 lb GVWR breaks down into 12,000 lbs on the front axle and 19,000 lbs on the rear axle. When I had our rig weighed I got the axle weights and the trailer weight. The tongue weight of the trailer is included in the axle weight. We’re near our rear axle limit but under the GVWR and our trailer axle weight is well below the trailer rating of 7,000 lbs. Our total weight is 35,000 lbs – well below the GCWR of 41,000 lbs. When I weighed our rig, I had the fresh water tank full and the fuel tank full to give me the actual weight when we’re fully loaded.

My advice is to locate your rig’s weight placard and get your rig weighed. Lots of bad things can occur if your vehicle is overweight, including poor handling, broken axle and/or suspension, and tire failure. Be safe out there!

The main reason we came to the Gulf Coast of Texas was to visit with my middle daughter Jamie and her family. She has four stepchildren and lives near Corpus Christi. Jamie came by on Wednesday evening to visit and we planned to have dinner together on Thursday. Her man, Francisco, is a trucker and is away this week hauling goods to the East Coast.

Donna bought two whole roaster chickens and I prepared them by cutting out the back bones and cracking the breast plates to cook them spatchcock style. I seasoned them with Sweet Rub O’Mine and roasted them on the Traeger wood pellet smoker/grill. I did it differently this time.

One of the issues I had with spatchcock chicken on the Traeger in the past was not getting the skin crispy enough. It can come out a bit rubbery. This time I started the chickens at a fairly low temperature – the setting was at 300 degrees and the pit temperature was about 270 degrees. After 45 minutes, I raised the setting to 350 degrees. Then, 15 minutes later I raised it to the maximum setting bringing the pit temperature up to about 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

That did the trick. The skin was golden brown and crisp. The meat was tender and moist. I think I’ve got this figured out now.

L to R – Trey, Donna, Jamie, Rayleen, Ariana and Jennalee

Donna made sides of southern fried cabbage with bacon and whipped sweet potato. After dinner, Donna and the kids enjoyed a cup of Rocky Road ice cream while I sipped a dram of scotch and puffed a cigar. I think the last time I lit a cigar was more than 35 years ago when my first daughter, Alana, was born. When we were in San Diego, my friend Tim Witucky gave me a few empty cigar boxes for storing odds and ends – Tim’s a cigar aficionado. It turned out that one the boxes still had a cigar sealed in a wrapper in it. I decided to try it out.

I don’t think I’ll make a habit out of it, but I might like to puff one occasionally.

The weather has been mostly agreeable here in Aransas Pass. We had a passing shower Wednesday night, but not the thunderstorm that was predicted. Yesterday was cooler with the thermometer only reaching the low 70s. Wind is fairly constant coming off of the water to the east, making it feel cooler at times. The forecast calls for the low 80s through the weekend. I can take that!

Rockport Rebuilding

As we approached the Gulf Coast region of Texas on Monday, we saw lingering signs of the damaged caused last August by Hurricane Harvey. We didn’t plan on coming here originally, thinking the area had been devastated and probably wasn’t fully operational. Rockport, Texas suffered a direct hit from Harvey with sustained winds of 130 mph on August 24th – just eight months ago.

We learned online that many of the RV parks were operational here and tourism was returning to normal. Northwest of our current location in Aransas Pass – just 11 miles south of Rockport – we saw many houses in rural areas with the roofs or porches missing. I saw a number of what I presumed to be FEMA trailers set up next to damaged homes.

Once we reached town, things were looking good. Many construction projects are ongoing, but so much has already been repaired. The damage from Harvey was estimated to be 125 billion dollars – the equal of Hurricane Katrina. The recovery here seems much quicker than what happened in New Orleans though.

Apartments being rebuilt outside of Ransom Road RV Park

I puttered around Tuesday. I cleaned the bugs off of the windshield, then washed the windshield cover and installed it. In the late afternoon, Donna and I walked to the marina next to the RV park and had a cold one at Mickey’s Bar and Grill.

I grilled ribeye steaks on the Weber Q for dinner and Donna served it with baked potatoes and steamed green beans.

Level, paved site 124

This morning, we rode the Spyder to Rockport for pickleball at the Rockport-Fulton High School. About a dozen players showed up – just right as we had three courts to play on. Rockport is a little more upscale than Aransas Pass. They’ve done a great job of rebuilding there also. We were told the fences around the tennis/pickleball courts were just finished a month ago. The community center where Donna went swimming when we were here in 2015 doesn’t seem to be worse for wear – I’m sure a lot work went into it though.

One of our favorite grocery stores is the H-E-B chain in Texas. The store in Aransas Pass was a little disappointing though – they didn’t have butchers on site like they do in Rockport. After pickleball, we stopped at the H-E-B in Rockport and were pleased to find the jalapeno salmon burger patties they make there – we really enjoyed them the last time we were here. Donna bought four – I’ll grill a couple in the next day or two and we’ll freeze a couple for later consumption.

The weather forecast deteriorated – now they say a thunderstorm will come in later this evening. The rest of the week still looks good with temperatures reaching the upper 70s. You never know around here – it can change quickly.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to 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!

Hydraulic Miracle

The weekend of racing at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas was pretty much as expected. We watched the bikes scream around the road racing course and walked through the vendor areas in between sessions, shopping and people watching. I’ve been involved in motorcycle road racing both as a racer and crew chief at the club level in the past. I’ve been attending international level races – World Superbike and Moto GP for a few decades.

Donna and I went to our first Moto GP together in 2006. We were newly married and she had a freshly minted motorcycle license when we loaded up our bikes with our gear and rode from our home in Mesa, Arizona to Monterey, California for the Moto GP event at Laguna Seca. We made this an annual exercise and Donna became used to traveling light with two weeks worth of clothing in her saddlebags.

When we moved to Michigan, the USA Moto GP event changed venues and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. Perfect. We rode from Rochester Hills, Michigan to Indianapolis to attend. We made our last trek to watch Moto GP in 2012 – so this is our first event in six years. As always, we had a good time. I’m more into the racing than Donna, but she supports me and I think she likes the people watching as much as the racing.

We had great seats with a view of the back straight where the Moto GP bikes were hitting speeds over 200 mph before braking hard to enter turn 12 in first gear at about 40-50 mph. Then they had a series of 180-degree turns through 13, 14 and 15 – the slowest corner – before accelerating right in front of us to turn 16. We also had a big screen monitor by our grandstand to see the action on the rest of the course.

Part of the view from our grandstand seats – bike on the course at turn 13, big screen monitor at center-right near the pedestrian bridge

Donna and her new friend – even cowgirls are bigger in Texas

After the last race Sunday afternoon, people started packing up and many of the RVs in the dry camping area pulled out. I’m sure many people took a long weekend from their workaday lives and had to head back to reality. We had a quiet night. I grilled chicken thigh quarters that Donna marinated in something called pretty chicken marinade sauce.

This morning we packed up. I talked to the folks at Fleet Maintenance of Texas on the phone about our hydraulic issue. We spent the weekend here with the jacks up – I got as level as I could with pads under the tires – and only one bedroom slide out. I didn’t dare open the living room slide for fear of not being able to retract it if I got it open. The living room slide still wasn’t in the fully closed position – it was nearly an inch open and wouldn’t close any further. After we packed up and were ready to leave, I tried to close the slide again to no avail.

We made the drive across Austin to Fleet Maintenance of Texas. Cameron helped us there. When I described the issue, he came up with the same thought I had three weeks ago. He said he thought it was a fluid level problem or maybe air in the system.

I removed the cover from the compartment housing the HWH hydraulic reservoir and pump system. I was surprised to find the compartment wet with hydraulic fluid and crud. Here’s the thing – I open this compartment every time I get fuel, I store my Biobor JF fuel treatment there. It wasn’t wet when I fueled up on Thursday.  After 15 minutes or so, Cameron came out with one the techs – his name escapes me – to look at it. He checked the fluid level, then told me to run the jacks down so he could look for leaks in the manifold and lines.

I ran the front jacks down. The pump sounded normal – it had a different pitch when the problem started. The jacks hit the pavement and lifted the front of the coach. What? Next I tried closing the living room slide. It popped right in and closed tight.

Have you ever had a toothache that disappeared once you were at the dentist? That’s how I felt. I couldn’t believe it, everything seemed to be working. The tech told me he didn’t see any signs of leakage. He asked me to lower all of the jacks, then operate all of the slides. Everything worked like magic.

I came back outside scratching my head. We talked it over. The tech said he thought I must have had air trapped in the hydraulic fluid – remember when I said that back in Benson? He told me that the air in the fluid is dispersed when the pump cavitates and millions of tiny bubbles are in the fluid making it milky or almost frothy. Of course the air is compressible, so you cannot reach maximum hydraulic pressure. The tiny bubbles slowly coalesce into larger bubbles which then find their way to the high points in the system. The highest point is the reservoir, but to get there the bubbles have to make their way through junctions and valves.

He theorized that the air finally made its way through the valves as we were driving to the shop and burped into the reservoir, causing some fluid to blow through the cap vent, thus the fluid we found in the compartment.

Messy hydraulic compartment after a cursory wipe to check for leaks

I had to agree with him as I can’t think of a better explanation. Cameron voided my repair order and didn’t charge for checking the system. Nice! I’ll need to thoroughly clean the hydraulic compartment.

We drove from the shop to a nearby Walmart to regroup. I hadn’t made any reservations thinking I needed to know what our situation would be once we hit the shop. Donna walked to a pizza place at the other end of the shopping plaza while I looked at options.

We decided to head east to the Gulf Coast. I found a nice RV park in Aransas Pass and booked a week. This will give us a chance to visit with my middle daughter Jamie. We’d like to explore a bit – we stayed near here at Copano Bay outside of Rockport two years ago.

We had a quick lunch – the pizza was very good! Then we made the four-hour drive to Aransas Pass and arrived around 4:40pm. We were escorted to our site where we dropped the trailer and quickly set up in a full hook-up site – jacks down and level, slides out!

The weather forecast for the coming week looks promising – high 70s to low 80s. Not showing much in the way of precipitation, but I know a thunderstorm can kick up around here quickly at this time of year.

 

Austin Moto GP – Day One

Our last couple of days at Lake Buchanan were low-key. I got up on the roof to check out the air conditioners. The condenser coils were dirty so I cleaned them but I could’t find any faults in the wiring. I’m not sure why we had trouble with erratic operation earlier. Donna took a few hikes in the area and we fished from the park piers. The fishing wasn’t so good – the wind whipped up large swells on the lake and the water was turbid. I landed one catfish.

I should mention that Lake Buchanan was formed when a dam was built on the Colorado River in 1939. That’s right, Colorado River. This name confused me at first. When I think of the Colorado River I think of the river that flows west of the continental divide through Lake Powell and on to the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Lake Havasu and so on down to the Gulf of California. But, there’s another Colorado River (Texas) that flows from Dawson County generally southeast for about 860 miles, then empties into the Gulf of Mexico. I’m always learning something new on the road.

We pulled out Thursday morning around 10:30am. We followed a couple of numbered ranch roads that had light traffic and smooth pavement south to TX71. This highway took us east. Our first stop was at Bee Cave where I had scouted out the Specs Fine Food and Liquor on Google Earth. It looked to have easy access and ample parking. I restocked the beer supply and bought a bottle of Scotch there and we were back on our way.

Our next stop was Walmart for some provisions. In many parts of Texas, a frontage or service road runs parallel to the highway. These roads are generally one way on each side of the highway with numerous ramps to enter or exit the highway. At times this confuses Nally – our RV specific GPS. Civilian GPS units aren’t totally location accurate – they can have a tolerance of several yards. At times Nally would advise me to prepare for a right turn when I actually needed to go left ahead. I figured out that the GPS had me on the highway, not the service road and was advising me to exit the highway right, then go left from the service road. Confusing for sure since I was already on the service road. This made me miss our Walmart stop.

We drove on to the Pilot Travel Center in Mustang Ridge and topped up the fuel tank. We’ll be on generator power for the next few days at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) race track and I wanted a full fuel tank. When we arrived at the track, we had a few issues with the signage. We went the long way around the track but never saw lot N where we had dry camping reservations.

After finding a place to get our rig turned around, we backtracked and saw the entrance. Coming from our original direction, the sign and entrance was hidden behind a large tree. We found a site and dropped our trailer, then set up. The sites are not at all level, but we have easy access to the track.

Donna and I went for a walk to check out the track and find our grandstand seats.

Fast S section

Turn two – workers walking the track to check for debris

It was windy but the temperature was pleasant. We rode the Spyder to a nearby grocery store/Mexican market and picked up a few items.

Friday morning action started with the free practice sessions. We were trackside a little after 9am for the Moto 3 free practice (FP) 1. Moto 3 is the entry into international motorcycle road racing. The bikes are single cylinder 250cc machines. They’re very lightweight, the racing is close and drafting on the straights is key. Riders must move up or leave the class by the age of 28.

Next up was Moto GP FP 1. Moto GP is the pinnacle of the sport. The bikes are 1000cc and make around 250 horsepower. They’re very sophisticated and extremely fast. The most popular Moto GP rider is nine-time World Champion, Valentino Rossi – The Doctor is his nickname.

Marc Marquez – the villain of the Argentina round enters turn 16

The Doctor coming up on a slower rider at 16

The day was overcast and the wind made it feel colder than the mid 60s the thermometer showed. Before lunch, Donna went back to the coach for a warmer jacket and brought one back for me.

We had lunch at the track and walked around between the 45-minute sessions. We left around 3pm during the Moto 2 FP 2. Moto 2 is the second level of international motorcycle road racing and feature 600cc motorcycles with identical engines, but different chassis manufacturers. Honda supplies the engines.

Back at the coach, I read for a bit and took a short nap. We went back to the track for a pit walk open to premium pass holders – we had it and an invitation. The pit walk was very loosely organized. We wandered the pits and took a gander at the bikes and watched some of the teams preparing for Saturday. At the Repsol Honda garage, the mechanics had repaired Marc Marquez’s bike – he took a fall in FP 2. They also serviced his back-up bike and were test running them.

Honda mechanics running bikes to check for leaks and proper function

Here are a few of the bikes.

Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha

Working on Maverick Vinales’ Yamaha

Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati

Jack Miller’s Pramac Ducati

Cal Crutchlow’s LCR Honda

Scott Redding’s Aprilia

On the pit lane – the hill into turn one in the background is much steeper than it appears

After we left the pit lane, we walked through the MotoAmerica paddock. MotoAmerica is an American National Championship road racing series. I talked to Roger Hayden – a team Yoshimura Suzuki rider and asked about the bumps on the track a lot of the riders were complaining about. He said the back straight was bumpy and a so were a few other spots, but he didn’t think it was as bad as some of the riders were saying. Of course, he’s on a production based 1000cc Superbike, not a Moto GP prototype that’s going a bit faster.

Today we have thunderstorms in the forecast. If it happens, it may create problems for some of the sessions. FP 3 is scheduled this morning then FP 4 in the afternoon followed by the qualifying sessions. If the rain floods the track, Free Practice times will be used to set the grid instead of the usual qualifying.

We’ll dress accordingly and check it out. But if we have hard rain, I’m coming back to the coach to watch it on TV!

Back at Buchanan Dam

We had a very quiet night Sunday at the Twin Buttes Recreation area. We had the first campground area to ourselves. Calling it a campground is a bit of misnomer – it’s really just a large paved parking lot with a few picnic tables. It was level and worked for us. Apparently the Twin Buttes Reservoir remains at a low level – Texas had a long drought from around 2007 to 2015. The lot we were in had a boat ramp, but the reservoir water was nowhere in sight.

There was a second camping area about a mile down the road. I got Donna’s knock-around bike out of the trailer and she rode down to the campground for a look. She said it was more of a campground with identifiable sites and tables. If we were staying for more than just one night, I might have considered moving, but it didn’t really matter as we were the only ones there for the night.

We pulled out of there Monday around 9:30am. On the way out, we stopped briefly to look at the llamas at the llama and alpaca farm along the recreation area access road.

Llama farm

There was a warning sign on the fence that said “Caution – Llamas will kill dogs.” I didn’t know that.

Our route took us down US87 through the towns of Brady and Llano. We were in the Texas hill country. As we drove along, I thought about the varied terrain we had passed through over the previous few days. When we left Alamogordo, the climb up the western side of the Capitan Mountains was through a heavily forested area with tall pine trees.

After we crossed the summit, the pine trees disappeared on the eastern slope of the mountains. Soon we were in high plains with stunted junipers and mesquite trees and grassland. As we neared Roswell, the number of trees lessened and we passed through oil fields.

When we left Carlsbad and headed east to Hobbs, the oil fields were interspersed with agriculture. Once we hit the Texas border, the oil fields continued, but there was more farmland. Sometimes the farmland and oil field were together – crops planted around working oil pumping operations.

As we got closer to San Angelo, the oil rigs were fewer and farther in between – it was mostly farm land. The road from Twin Buttes into the hill country had very few oil rigs and it was mostly ranch land with cattle or sheep or both and smaller deciduous trees. There were also open meadows with wildflowers.

We traveled about 150 miles on Monday bringing us closer to Austin – we’re at Lake Buchanan about 90 miles away from the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) racetrack. We’re staying in a small RV park called Beachcomber Park. With our Passport America discount, it’s only $20/night with full hookups. We’re in a narrow pull-through site. The owner, Carlton, let us drop the trailer in the site next to us since we’re a little too big for the site. The Passport America membership costs $44/year and we’ve already saved $100 in park fees this year. There’s a link in the sidebar of this post if you’re interested in membership – I recommend it.

Lake Buchanan is a large reservoir with an area of approximately 22,000 acres. Carlton told me that from 2008 to 2015 the water level in the reservoir was so low that his waterfront property was 1/4 mile from the lake. Today the reservoir is full and the piers on the property are over water again. We experienced the low water levels when we came through Texas in 2015 and stayed at my friend, Dave Glynn’s, property here at Buchanan Dam.

Beachcomber Park fishing pier

Lake Buchanan viewed from Beachcomber Park

You can see the flags in the fishing pier photo being blown by the wind. We had winds of about 20mph on the drive here, but we didn’t experience hard gusts and the drive wasn’t too tough. We’ll stay here until Thursday morning. Having a couple of days with full hook-ups will allow us to replenish our fresh water supply and dump the holding tanks and Donna can do the laundry that piled up while we were traveling and boondocking.

When we get to COTA, we’ll be dry camped for four nights – arriving Thursday and leaving on Monday. The weather forecast looks promising – upper 70s to 80 degrees but right now they’re calling for a 90% chance of thundershowers on Saturday. If that holds true, it’ll throw a monkey wrench into the qualifying session for Sunday’s Moto GP race.

Drats – No Bats!

In my last post Friday morning, I said we would make a decision on traveling or waiting out the high wind forecast. Friday the 13th didn’t start out great. I ground coffee beans and filled the coffee maker, but it didn’t turn on. Then I realized the digital clock on it wasn’t displaying. Our new coffee maker was dead.

I think I know what killed it. I’d left it plugged in the whole time we were boondocking. I didn’t give it much thought. I figured it only draws current while brewing and it seemed to be doing that fine until Friday morning. Then I thought about the clock – the coffee maker was drawing a small amount of current whenever it was plugged in. Our inverter is a modified sine wave unit. A pure sine wave has the voltage rising above zero in a smooth curve before it turns down and goes below the zero line. A modified sine is a series of square steps rising above zero then falling below the zero line.

For most applications, this works fine. However, some electronic components don’t get on well with the blocky modified wave. I’m guessing delicate components in the coffee maker controller burned out from the modified sine wave.

By 8:30am, the wind was already blowing out of the northwest. We decided it would be best to stay off the road and spend another day in Alamogordo in our sheltered spot at the abandoned shopping plaza. The wind speed increased throughout the day with several hard gusts shaking the coach. We went over to the Elks Lodge for happy hour in the evening.

On Saturday morning, the wind was much calmer. We headed out of Alamogordo and went north on US54 to Tularosa. We picked up US70 there and headed northeast over the Capitan Mountains. Near the Mescalero Apache Reservation, we topped out on Apache Summit at nearly 7,000 feet above sea level.

US70 merged with US380 and eventually took us to Roswell. We stopped at a Target store there and bought a replacement coffee maker – we have to have our coffee. On Friday morning after I discovered our coffee maker died, we broke out the Keurig – we still had it packed away along with some K-cups. I can hardly believe we were ever happy drinking that stuff – the fresh ground beans brewed in a thermal coffee maker is far superior.

We had lunch at a Subway sandwich shop after parking in a free city parking lot downtown. We were the only vehicle in the lot! Coming into Roswell, Donna saw a sign that proclaimed Roswell, New Mexico as the dairy capital of the southwest. When I think of Roswell, I don’t think about dairy. I think about alien space invaders and a town with a funky artwork and an alien museum.

Mural downtown Roswell – hey, that critter on the left is called Mike!

From Roswell, we took US285 to Carlsbad, New Mexico. We found an Elks Lodge there and dry camped in their RV area. The Elks Lodge is right next to the Pecos River, across the street from a conference center and riverwalk. Donna went for walk along the river – here are a couple of photos she took.

Riverwalk path

A guy fishing from a pavilion on the riverwalk

Later, when we went inside the lodge for a cold one, we met a guy that drove up from Mentone, Texas for dinner. That’s about 88 miles away! He said there isn’t much in Mentone and he’s temporarily based there working as a safety officer in the oil fields.

He asked me where we were heading. I told him I thought we’d go east to Hobbs, New Mexico then turn south to Big Spring as we make our way to Austin, Texas. He said that was a great route and said we’d really like US62/US180. He said it was a divided highway – two lanes in each direction and nice pavement.

We planned to go over to Carlsbad Caverns National Park Sunday. We could stay in a nearby RV park for the night and check out the bats coming out of the cave after sundown. Before we moved, I looked at the Radar Express app and found weather advisories in the area. High wind warning for the area all the way from the Guadalupe Mountains to the west of Carlsbad Caverns to Big Spring, Texas from Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon! Oh no!

We need to be in Austin by Thursday – I’ve paid for tickets and dry camping at the Circuit of the Americas there for the Moto GP race weekend. If we got stuck in Carlsbad because of dangerous wind conditions, we might not make it to Austin. We decided to pass on Carlsbad Caverns this time and hightail it out of the area.

We took US62/US180 east to Hobbs where I topped up our tank with $160 worth of diesel fuel. It was $3.17/gallon – the most we’ve paid in the last year. Our route took us across the Texas border – where we lost another hour as we transitioned to Central Time – through Seminole and Lamesa.

From there we took US87 south and planned to stop in Sterling City and dry camp at a city park there. The park turned out to be a bust – low hanging tree branches prevented us from entering and it didn’t look like a great place for a big rig anyway. We continued south through San Angelo and found a boondocking spot at the Twin Buttes Reservoir. Our plan now is to head down to an RV park at Buchanan Dam, which will bring us within 70 miles of Austin on Monday. We’ll take it easy for a few days with full hook-ups to catch up on laundry, fill the freshwater tank and dump the holding tanks. Then we’re off to the races.

It looks like we’ll have warm weather in Austin – around 80 degrees. I need to figure out why the air conditioners didn’t operate when powered by the generator.

 

 

Gremlins and a Safe Harbor

We planned for an early departure from Desert Oasis Campground near Bisbee, Arizona Wednesday morning. We were on track to achieve that goal when trouble struck. Actually the trouble was brewing since we were in Mesa, but I didn’t realize it until after the fact.

We’ve had a small leak in our HWH hydraulic system that operates the leveling jacks and room slide-outs.  I rigged a plastic catch basin to contain the occasional drip from it. In Mesa, when I replaced the headlights, I had to extend the generator compartment in the front cap – it’s also hydraulically operated by the HWH system. The generator compartment quit moving after it extended only a few inches. I could hear the HWH pump cavitating.

I knew the pump reservoir must have been low on fluid – lower than I expected based on the amount of oil in the catch basin. I went to the auto parts store and bought a quart of Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) to top up the reservoir. I wasn’t sure how much to add because the dipstick for the reservoir is calibrated for checking when all of the rams are retracted – that means slides in, jacks up. I added about half a quart and the generator extended normally, so I thought I was good to go. While I was at it, I inspected the hydraulic leak again and was able to trace it to a compression fitting. I tightened the fitting – it was about a quarter turn loose.

While we were in Mesa, I had to extend the left rear jack to the end of its travel due to a small sink hole right below the jack. In hindsight, the jack must have been leaking fluid past the seal from over-extending. The dirt where the jack had sunk in was wet and dark when we left.

In Benson, our first overnight stop, everything worked fine. When we got to Bisbee, trouble started. The passenger side bedroom slide didn’t extend  normally. I had to push it open after it moved slowly about halfway out. I thought maybe there was air in the hydraulic line from running the pump low on fluid. While we were in town, I bought three more quarts of ATF. I checked the catch basin to see if we still had a leak and it didn’t appear so. I added fluid to the reservoir.

When we were getting ready to leave Bisbee, the bedroom slide wouldn’t retract. I had to push from the outside while Donna worked the switch for the hydraulic pump. The living room slide retracted to within an inch of fully closed and stopped. I retracted the jacks, then checked the reservoir dipstick. No fluid showed. I added a quart of ATF and saw fluid near the minimum mark. I added more fluid and checked the level again – no fluid showed! I figured air was bleeding from the lines and dropping the fluid level. I ended up adding two and half quarts and I still couldn’t get the living room slide to fully seat – it remained about half an inch open.

We hit the road and I hoped the air would work out of the system as we drove. It was mostly an easy drive on AZ80 through Douglas then into New Mexico where the road designation changed to NM80. We had a tailwind most of the time, so I was hardly aware of the wind. At Hachita, we turned north to catch I-10 and then we had a crosswind. It was fairly windy but not too bad.

We stopped and shopped for a few items at a Walmart in Deming, then pressed on. We stopped for fuel at the Pilot Travel Center in Las Cruces. We thought we would boondock for the night at a scenic overlook on US80 before we hit White Sands. The overlook was at the top of a steep grade at San Augustin Pass. It wasn’t level and the wind was whipping through the pass. I got out to look it over and could barely close the door once the wind was blowing against it. We decided against staying there.

We moved on to Alamogordo where we had a few options including an Elks Lodge.  We ended up stopping at an abandoned shopping plaza Donna found in the Escapees Days End directory. There were a couple of tractor-trailer rigs in the lot, but everything was boarded up and no one else was around. I parked us close to one of the boarded up store fronts to get a little shade and shelter from the wind.

Then part two of my tale of woe began. The HWH situation is worse than before. Now I can get enough pressure to lower the jacks, but it won’t generate enough pressure to actually lift and level the coach. I only put out one bedroom slide while I tried to see what I could do to fix the problem. After messing about for an hour, I think air entrained in the system was wishful thinking. I think the cavitation of the pump damaged the pump rotor and it won’t deliver sufficient pressure. To make matters worse, I don’t think I can get just the pump. I think I have to get the complete assembly – reservoir tank, pump and motor. It’s doubtful I’ll be able to get this fixed anytime soon because parts will have to be ordered and we’ll have to figure out where to have the work done.

Next, I couldn’t get the roof air conditioning units to operate on generator power. The generator output was fine – I had 120 volts, 60 hertz and all other 120-volt AC powered appliances worked. I haven’t run the roof air on the generator in months and I don’t know what’s up with it at this point. The air conditioners worked fine in Bisbee on shore power.

On Wednesday evening, we received severe weather warnings for south central New Mexico. The wind on Thursday was forecast to reach speeds in excess of 35 mph in Alamogordo and the mountain passes we were planning to head for had warnings for wind gusts up to 60 mph from late morning Thursday until 9am Friday morning!

On Thursday morning, Donna and I were up early. After sunup, the wind was calm, but the severe warnings were still in effect. We discussed heading out right away to get over the mountains ahead of the wind, but thought better of it. The wind was coming from the west-southwest. We’re currently parked on the east side of a large building complex – we have safe harbor on the leeward side of the closed shopping plaza.

Our sheltered spot

By 9:30am, we knew we made the right decision. The wind kicked up and even here in our sheltered spot, the coach was rocked several times. That kind of wind is not something I would want to drive our rig through on a mountainous highway. And it’s increasing by the hour.

Just before noon, a bunch of FedEx trucks pulled into the lot. Apparently they use this lot as a staging area. Five trucks backed up to a larger truck in a spoke-like pattern and they offloaded boxes from the large truck into the smaller ones. I’ve never seen that before.

FedEx transferring packages in the parking lot

Around 12:30pm, I got the Spyder out of the trailer and we rode into town for green chile cheese burgers. I didn’t want to ride the Spyder on the highway in the gusty wind so we went the slower way through town. We had lunch at BZ Rockin’ Burgers. They had great reviews and a unique method of ordering that consists of a printed sheet of paper with boxes you check to to build your own burger. Next time, I think I’ll stick with Blake’s Lotaburger – their green chili cheeseburger is hard to beat.

We made a stop at McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch before we headed back. Donna posed in the wind for a photo.

Donna in a wind blown photo

We went inside the store and had a look around. They had some interesting flavors of pistachios and nut brittles as well as jams and other gift items. We didn’t find anything we had to have, so we headed home to see if our coach was still where we left it.

The wind blew harder and rocked the coach into the night. It’s a little past 7am now and a cool 55 degrees out. The forecast calls for a high of only 60 degrees today – it was 87 degrees yesterday. The weather service extended the wind advisory through this afternoon. After breakfast we’ll make a decision – sit tight or move on?

A Day in Bisbee

After a leisurely breakfast Tuesday morning, we took the Spyder out of the trailer and headed to Bisbee. From the Desert Oasis Campground, it’s about an 11-mile ride although Bisbee is about six or seven miles due west as the crow flies. We headed out on Double Adobe Road then up AZ80 to town.

We hit the historic district exit and followed the main thoroughfare which becomes Tombstone Canyon Road. Historic Bisbee is situated in a narrow canyon – a gulch. On either side of Tombstone Canyon Road, the canyon walls immediately climb. The side roads are narrow switchbacks and the houses are built on terraces – many of which are accessible only by climbing concrete stairs.

House terraced on the canyon wall with stairs for access

The main commercial area occupies about a mile of Tombstone Canyon Road and is geared toward tourism. There are a number of eclectic shops and galleries along with a couple of bars and restaurants. I bought a hat in one of the shops – it’s a western cattlemen style hat with an upturned four-inch brim made of Guatemalan palm.

They hold an event every year in Bisbee called the Bisbee 1000. It’s a 4.5-mile course including more than 1000 steps up the stairs connected by winding roads. Some people enter to run the course competitively while others join in to walk/jog the course and take in the scenic views.

Bisbee 1000

Not for the faint of heart

Another thing they do at the Bisbee 1000 is hold a special competition called Ironman Ice. To compete in this you must carry a ten pound block of ice with old-fashioned tongs up the stairs.

Ironman Ice – look closely, there are three sets of stairs before you reach the top

We figured to get lunch in Bisbee and were told that the best Mexican fare would be found at Santiago’s on Brewery Avenue. When I bought the hat, the gal in the store said Santiago’s was good, but if we wanted the best Sonoran food, we should go to Contessa’s Cantina. It’s been family owned and operated for five generations and she said it’s where the locals go.

We ended up at Contessa’s Cantina and weren’t disappointed. Later, we walked past Santiago’s to go to the Old Bisbee Brewing Company. The bartender there confirmed that Santiago’s was where most tourists were happy to go, but the locals go to Contessa’s. Donna and I split a flight of samplers at the brewery and unfortunately found it lacking. None of the beers were anything special – in fact I found the brewer to be a bit heavy-handed. The IPA had a bitter aftertaste, the Mayan stout had too much chocolate and coffee lending it a bitter aftertaste too and the vanilla porter was so forward with the vanilla, Donna commented that she felt like she just drank vanilla extract.

Stairs between two businesses with beautiful murals

Bisbee is a funky little town – especially in the historic district. It was founded in 1880 and the economy was fueled by mining. The Copper Queen mine was the most successful. In the early 1900s, it was the largest copper producer in Arizona. Small amounts of gold and silver were also recovered from the mine along with a turquoise called Bisbee Blue. The population of the town topped out around 10,000 people and there are 6,000 or so here today.

There are three distinct areas of Bisbee today – the historic district, the San Juan district which is more modern and has shopping centers and the Warren district which was the first planned community in Arizona. It was originally conceived as a suburb for executive and management level people in the mining industry. There’s another area called Lowell that’s now reduced to just a a few streets as the area was dug out by the Lavender pit mine.

The Lavender pit was named after Harrison Lavender – vice president of mining giant Phelps Dodge in 1950. The pit produced 86 million tons of ore and covers 300 acres. The pit has steep walls and is 900 feet deep.

View of Lavender pit from AZ80 looking southwest

Looking east at the Lavender pit

After two nights here in the desert, we’re ready to move on. Our plan is to head into New Mexico on AZ80 which becomes NM80 as we cross the stateline. We’ll lose an hour as we enter the Mountain Time Zone. We have a few options for our destination for the day – we plan to put in 200-250 miles and find a place to boondock for the night.

Our last Sonoran desert sunset – until next time

We should see warm temperatures and clear skies. The wind is forecast to come from the southwest, so we’ll have a tailwind component and hopefully no worries about crosswind gusts.

 

Tombstone and the Copperstate 1000

It’s a rare event for us to leave an RV park when we still have a couple of paid nights on the books. But, that’s what we did in Benson. We paid $50 for a discounted week in a full hook-up site, then we changed our plan and pulled out yesterday after five nights. There wasn’t anything wrong with the SKP Saguaro RV Park – we just felt like we should move on so we could have more options as we make our way to Austin, Texas for the Moto GP race weekend.

We finished packing at a leisurely pace, then I dumped and flushed the holding tanks and packed away our water filtration system. There were dry-camping pull-through sites across from us and they were empty. So I pulled forward into one of the sites and loaded the Spyder in the trailer. We were on our way around 10:30am.

We traveled down AZ80 for about half an hour and entered Tombstone – AZ80 runs right through town a block off of the historic downtown district. We found a great place to park in front of the old school – now closed and the building is up for sale – right on the highway which is called Fremont Street in town.

Tombstone was an old west mining town founded in 1879. When silver was discovered in mines around the town, the population quickly grew from around 100 to 14,000 in less than seven years! Most people know of Tombstone from movies which depict the shootout between the Earp brothers – Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan along with Doc Holliday. They killed murder suspects Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. This took place October 26, 1881 at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. The Earps and Doc Holliday were cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation.

The main thoroughfare in the historic district is Allen Street. Three blocks of Allen Street from the O.K. Corral to the west and the Bird Cage Theatre to the east are closed to vehicular traffic, other than a stage coach which you can ride – for a fee of course.

Allen Street

The Bird Cage Theatre was a theater, saloon, gambling parlour, and brothel in Tombstone. It operated continuously 24 hours a day year ’round from 1881 to 1889. This was the wild west!

Bird Cage Theatre

We walked down the boardwalk along Allen Street and saw something I didn’t remember from previous visits. They had a few placards that described historic action that took place at that particular spot. As always, you can click on the photos to enlarge and read the placards if you wish.

View across the street from the Oriental Saloon

Tombstone stage coach ride – I don’t think the plastic cooler on top is authentic to the period

At the O.K. Corral

We walked over to the courthouse a block to the south on Toughnut Street. We wanted to see about dry camping there – Donna said she saw a sign on the highway that boondocking was available in the courthouse area for $10/night. The girl at the courthouse knew nothing about it. Maybe Donna missed some info on the sign.

While we were at the courthouse, I saw a sign for a new brewery down the street about a block away. We walked in that direction and I could smell boiling wort – they were brewing. They opened last year and have the brewery open to the public from 11am to 7pm daily. We stopped in for a look and had a taster of a couple of their brews. They have a 15-barrel system, so they’re able to brew upwards of 450 gallons per batch. The brews we tasted were unique and very good.

The guy at the bar was only on his second day working there and didn’t have much information. I saw the brew master emptying a mash tun – I wish I would have spoken with him and taken a few pictures. We bought a few brews to take with us. I tried one last night – it’s called Another Exercise in Mediocrity. I think the name is hilarious. It was taken from a troll post on their website when they announced the opening of the new brewery. It’s actually a very good beer made with advanced techniques. The brew master utilizes hop oil and lupulin powder. These concentrated hop extracts allow higher hop utilization without some of the vegetation side effects from extreme use of whole hops. It seems that brewing is moving into a new phase.

Tombstone Brewing Company

We continued south on AZ 80 after spending about an hour in Tombstone. Tombstone sits at an elevation of about 4,500 feet above sea level, so we climbed from Benson to get there. As we rolled south it was mostly uphill to reach Bisbee which is at an elevation of about 5,400 feet above sea level.

It’s about 25 miles from Tombstone to Bisbee. Along this stretch of AZ80, I saw a Jaguar XKE roadster from the mid-’60s. Then I saw a DeTomaso Pantera from the early ’70s. They were both heading north. Then I saw a couple of Ferrari 250GTs from the ’60s, another Jaguar XKE and another Pantera and an Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider. I knew something was up when I saw a Ferrari 512 BB come by. Then it occurred to me – the Copperstate 1000 rally kicked off on Sunday in Tempe.

The Copperstate 1000 rally is an annual event for cars made before 1973. Participants apply for entry and if they’re one of the 80 entrants chosen, they pay $7,000 for a four-day, 1,000-mile rally through Arizona. It’s not a race – it’s a joy ride for car enthusiasts to take with like-minded individuals in a unique caravan. The entry fee includes hotel and food for the driver and co-driver along with mechanical assistance if needed. The route varies every year and is kept secret – they don’t want gawkers lining streets along the route for safety reasons. The route usually takes either a northern swing from Tempe or a southern loop. The drivers get the route information when they sign in. Obviously, this year they took a southern route and that’s why I was seeing all of these cool old cars on the road. By the way, the proceeds benefit the Phoenix Art Museum and the Copperstate 10-90 Foundation.

We drove through Bisbee and continued south a few miles to Double Adobe Road. This took us to the Desert Oasis Campground where we booked two nights. With our Passport America discount, it was only $20/night plus tax for a pull-through full hook-up site. Passport America annual membership already paid for itself!

Desert Oasis site 22

We’re in the middle of nowhere in the desert about 11 miles from Bisbee and about six miles from the US-Mexico border. Today we’ll go to Bisbee and explore. Tomorrow we plan to head into New Mexico. The weather forecast looks good – it’ll be dry and warm. I’m keeping an eye on the wind forecast – it looks like it should be in the mid- to high teens. If it isn’t gusty, it shouldn’t pose a problem.